Zoe Fact Sheet/Brainstorming

Preface- I'm still doing my reread but felt like getting something done today, so here's some precursor work to vol 2. I already wrote a mini biography for Zoe when I was first developing the concept for the characters pre-vol 1, but I want to establish more and make it fresher in my mind now that the story is further along and I have a better idea of what I want her to be. Don't read this if you don't want potential spoilers on her development/my plans for her overall.

Keep in mind this is very loose and that just because I say something here doesn't mean it'll be included. I'm essentially just saying as much shit as I can think up about her so that I have plenty of material to work with.

• Zoe is 23, bday Dec. 29th. 5'8ft.
• Born to a power couple. Her mother is a successful doctor named Tamara, father is a wealthy lawyer named Daniel. He runs a law firm with several partners and there are ads for it all over town which Oliver would recognize if pointed out. She's half Russian on her mother's side while her father is generically white. Not really plot relevant but there's potentially a joke there about that being why she's so hot along with her occasional affinity for heavy drinking.
• Neither of her parents wanted to have her and she was an accident. Zoe knows this for a fact as she's overheard it during some of their many arguments. They didn't take it out on her, at least, just each other. Her childhood was a relatable nightmare. Having a child destroyed whatever love her parents had for each other and both of them put almost no effort into raising Zoe. Their idea of love and affection was to buy her anything she wanted and give her free reign, and any time both of her parents were at home together at the same time there was a ninety percent chance they were fighting over petty shit is was not so petty shit like both of them having affairs.
• They're among the many misguided parents who believed that they needed to stay together for the child's sake despite how much emotional harm inflicted on their daughter. Currently they are still technically married but functionally separated.
  • Could be a potentially good future plot line or (4th probably) heart event for them to text her like they're getting back together, which Zoe would take extremely poorly. Like, they want her to be happy for them when in reality it would make her feel like shit because it further reinforces psychologically how all it took for them to have a better life was for her to not be in it. This plot line would end in reconciliation, as her parents are complete deadbeats and she hates them. It would be framed as towing them off once and for all.
• Because of how shitty everything was for her growing up, Zoe has a deep psychological need for love, affection, and especially attention. It makes her incredibly loyal to the few people who she actually gives a shit about and it serves as something that Oliver can relate to. She doesn't see why anyone would love her because she genuinely doesn't know what it's like to be loved, and growing close to someone scares her which will be something Oliver needs to be careful with. It's not a lack of self-confidence like Mia and Rebecca have, more self-worth.
• Her shut-in behavior and gaming addiction stems from her parents constantly arguing with each other. She is uncomfortable with the real world, dislikes going without her headphones or one of her handheld gaming devices. This is somewhat because of her upbringing and also because she generally just has severe ADHD.
• Getting on her case is difficult because Zoe is uncomfortable being yelled at for obvious reasons. Not sure if that will actually make it in or not since I can't imagine a situation where Oliver or Mia would yell at her, but perhaps on an occasion where they actually get her to leave the apartment.
• She became friends with Mia in kindergarten. Mia, who was much meeker then we know her in the current day, was accepting of Zoe's eccentricities and in return Zoe stood up for her from time to time, even though confrontation made her uncomfortable. Mia's house was practically her second home. Her parents didn't care where she went so long as she told them where she'd be so a lot of time was spent over there. She could've done so every day if she wanted to, as Mia's parents knew something was going on with her home life, but Zoe was self-conscious
• Juan and Julio regard her as another sister almost. Would make for a good joke if Juan is into her despite this and is outed as a watcher of her streams- which he would claim he's just doing to support her and boost her numbers. They won't fight Oliver over it once he's more public about being with Zoe as well as Mia, so long as everyone is happy.
• Because of her upbringing, Zoe is used to putting in the bare minimum to get by. She barely passed high school and wouldn't have if Mia didn't buckle down and force her to. She was very depressed her senior year as she didn't see any hope for her future. Parents wanted her to go to college, but she knew how that would've went.
• It was Mia's idea for Zoe to begin streaming. Zoe had no interest in this initially but was convinced over time as she really couldn't imagine any other path for herself. Mia was fundamental to her early success. I'd go so far as to say that Mia essentially worked as Zoe's manager for their first two years after high school. I don't think I mentioned Mia having a job before Payless Foods, so here's what things were like for them.
• They lied to Zoe's parents about her getting a job and they were supportive, offering to pay for a small apartment until she was able to stand on her own two feet. Because of Zoe's ADHD and lack of drive, Mia had to learn how streaming and social media management shit worked and teach Zoe in ways she could understand. She created all of Zoe's stream assets, her personal logo, etc. Additionally, she was also in charge of making sure she kept a schedule.
• The first year was rocky but things picked up a lot in the second. As Zoe got more comfortable with this lifestyle, she became more unguarded, dressing skimpier, talking more crass and unfiltered, slowly earning her a loyal fan base. Though on a surface level she appears to be a titty streamer it's not the sole focus of her content. Plenty of people watch her just because she is an extremely talented player of any videogame she touches and has insightful commentary to add. She's not like posting e-thot pics to her socials as advertising or anything.
• At the start of her third year streaming the two officially moved in together at the apartment they share now. Mia's wrist was getting a lot worse during this time and it's what led her to get a job along with feeling bad about the financial imbalance between her and Zoe.
• Zoe is a selfish person by nature but I want to make it absolutely clear that she knows that she owes Mia her entire world. The current friction between them is not because she doesn't appreciate Mia. We've seen that she doesn't appreciate her enough and takes it for granted that Mia will run errands for her and make her breakfast and so on, but she loves her friend more than anything else.
  • I mentioned this in Rebecca's document since I came up with Rebecca later than the others, but as the third member of their friend group, Zoe is decently close with Rebecca, too. Just not as close as with Mia, who had been there for her since they were kids. There's potential for them to get closer and in fact I plan on them doing so once Zoe is more emotionally stable. Rebecca has always felt like something of a third wheel because of this, though, despite how hard Mia worked to make her feel included.
• These things wouldn't be as big of a deal for Mia if Zoe if Zoe hadn't become even more reclusive in the last two years.
• Zoe's problem is that she's let her job become her life, and I want to try and make sure it's painted very clearly as to why it ended up like this. She is adored by her fanbase. People like her and pay attention to her online. They buy her stupid shit from her wishlist, go crazy when she acknowledges them, and it hasn't gone to her head- it's gone to her heart.
• She feels the artificial love they give her and it somewhat fills the hole her parents gouged out in her, thus making her addicted to her work. This is all new material, this wasn't in the original bio I wrote but I think it makes the most amount of sense for how she is the way that she is during her debut as well as gives her a clearer path forward to becoming a better person.
• Zoe needs the constant validation of her chat and it's pushed her away from the only two meaningful irl connections she has, Mia and Rebecca. She doesn't understand that they miss her, and any attempts to point it out have fallen on deaf ears. Granted, Mia hates confrontation and has only been able to bring it up in subtle ways like 'you know, you've been working really hard lately...' only for Zoe to misinterpret this as praise or move on so fast that the topic doesn't really have an impact on her.
• Let's talk about Zoe and Oliver's relationship.
• It's going to start off tense as we've seen from Oliver's perspective, but it's one-sided tension. Zoe is chill and reasonably friendly with him and seems to egg Mia on about her fantasies. There might be some early messing around with her but nothing that far. We'd find out pretty quick that Zoe is just doing this because she knows it'd make Mia happy and Oliver gets on her case a little about it. Like, making out with him to make Mia happy isn't actually solving the problem between them.
• This sternness would result in an affection boost which clues him in to the best way to deal with Zoe- standing up to her and calling her out. Mia was right, on some level Zoe wants someone who won't take her shit. Got some daddy issues going on, not sure if she will commit and 'Daddy' will be her thing yet though. No one has ever been tough on her and she craves it.
• Additionally, Oliver doesn't like that Zoe doesn't seem to enjoy any of the early lewd things they might do together. She has a very low sex drive that will be an obstacle to overcome, on top of not being very sensitive. The erogenous zones he sees through weakness exploit pleasure would be very small and she only mildly feels them. Oliver will probably have to invest in a skill to increase this but it won't be done in a creepy way, he'll make sure he has full permission if that's the route I take. Like, 'hey do you mind if I try something out while touching you this time' or something while actually using the skill on her.
  • Possible skill ideas include the ability for Oliver's hands to secrete massage oil with different aphrodisiac properties or the ability to manually control sensitivity by via a dial. Probably the massage one, that sounds like it might be more fun and I could come up with several different types. To make things even and stop it from being an all the time thing, Oliver would be susceptible to them, too if he uses them. Zoe would generally grow more sensitive the more he works on her, as well.
• I don't want to make her totally seem asexual, though, so she will dismiss it if he asks. She does feel attraction and minor sexual impulses, it's just not really important to her before her switch has been flipped. On the off chance she somehow ends up horny Zoe has never felt the urge to take care of it and would rather play her game until it goes away.
  • Officially, she's loosely bisexual. Feeling good is more important to her than what her partner looks like. Hasn't ever really looked at Mia in the way that Mia has looked at her but is more or less down for whatever after she's into sex. Maybe biromantic is a better way to put it as she doesn't care much about a female partner's body but will almost certainly reciprocate Mia's affections in addition to Oliver being their main thing. She will still enjoy making Mia and whatever other girl ends up in their bed feel good, however, it's just not about attraction.
• In the start she'll be casual about sex stuff since she doesn't really feel it but once she does sex becomes a very different thing for Zoe and she's very uncomfortable and awkward with it, often lashing out and being bratty which inadvertently gets her more of the stern attention she craves.
• I should mention they're not going to go super far before her first heart event. I'm talking like he'll probably make out with her and complete that quest he got at the end of vol 1, feel her up, maybe get a handjob, and most of it would be with Mia present.
• As things progress, her competitive nature will be a feature of many of her lewd scenes. It plays into her need for attention and Oliver's growing dominant side. He'd taunt her, ask if that's all she can do, it would fire her up, and then if she loses it would be on her mind frustrating her for who knows how long. She's pettier than Mia and we might see some extremely mild soft femdom from her via attempts to get even with Oliver. Like in her frustration she orders an expensive fleshlight and tries to edge him with it in revenge but most of these attempts would end in reversals/domination loss and would be Oliver primarily playing along.
• Another thing Zoe is really into will be exhibitionism, unsurprisingly. The first time Zoe feels something might be during a make out session between her and Oliver where Mia asks if she can record it with her cell phone for reference purposes for her drawing. Zoe will respond heavily to allusions of everyone seeing her, of the fake threats to record what they're doing and uploaded online for all her fans to see. Maybe in the far future they could really experiment with this by having her wear a mask/wig in a low lighting set up and actually doing some stream junk. I'm talking like post 5th heart event.
• As Oliver starts to get to know her, he will be clued in to more of her issues and slowly understand why she's like this. The endgame is obviously to slowly dial back her career so that she actually has a work/life balance. Zoe is always going to be tense and standoffish, but she will grow and place more importance on irl connections as well as make attempts to be more mature.
• Getting to this point will involve a lot of busy work. She's currently on her weeklong suspension at the start of the next volume but I don't mean to imply the entire next volume is focused around Zoe. A lot of it will be but still mostly about Mia. After her suspension is up Oliver will see how easily she snaps back into her constantly streaming routine and that will be what makes him realize he needs to put an effort to help her change.

That's about all I'm thinking for right now. I think this is a much more well-rounded character for me to work with and what was originally planned, even if a lot of the skeleton carries over from my first draft. Let me know what you think!