Wayward Pines app

[ask_alexa]

PLAYER

NAME: Karin
CONTACT: PM or finalprogramme
OTHER CHARACTERS IN THE PINES: Nope.

CHARACTER

NAME: Dominique DiPierro
CANON: Mr Robot
CANON-POINT: Some nebulous point after the end of S2.

DOSSIER

HISTORY: Mr Robot wiki entry for Dom

WHAT ARE YOUR CHARACTER'S STRENGTHS?: She's a very good detective, stubborn and persistent and not afraid to stand up to her superiors when she thinks they're being stupid. She's smart and quick with her deductions, observant, and thorough. As a member of the FBI cyber crimes unit, she's also fairly tech-savvy. And she is also very, very patient—a trait that has been critical in the investigation of what's become known as the Five-Nine hack. She has a finely-tuned sense of how to present herself, and almost always appears impeccably groomed in a low-key, professional manner.

WHAT ARE YOUR CHARACTER'S WEAKNESSES?: Outside of work, Dom is completely unmoored, and so she tries to minimize that part of her existence as much as possible. When she was younger, she ran away from a marriage proposal by literally sneaking out the back of a restaurant, and doesn't seem to have had any relationships since. She's afraid of intimacy with other people, while at the same time terribly lonely. Sometimes she blows off steam (not very effectively) by engaging in cybersex with strangers. She doesn't seem to have any friends outside of work, although it seems there might be enough friendly acquaintances in her life that she can "find a Fourth of July barbecue to be miserable at" if she tries hard enough. (It's also possible that she doesn't, and that statement was just the best way to describe her frustration and unhappiness at that moment.) Her dedication to her work sometimes leads her to overtax herself physically, mentally, and emotionally. And without a job to focus on, she can find herself at serious loose ends.

WHAT EVENTS OR CIRCUMSTANCES IN YOUR CHARACTER'S PAST HAVE IMPACTED THEM THE MOST?: The marriage proposal—before that, she was on track to a career practicing law, and after running away from the proposal, she joined the FBI instead. She has been wrestling with why she did that for years, but at least one answer is that it crystallized how unprepared she was for the life she thought she'd laid out for herself - committed relationship, career as a lawyer, eventual house, maybe kids, etc - and how conflicted she felt about such a life. The FBI, instead, offered a vocation that she felt she could lose herself in, on top of answering her innate need for justice.

WHAT MOTIVATES YOUR CHARACTER?: At one point, she says that she's "disgusted by the selfish brutality of the world, but at the same time, I'm utterly fascinated by it". She jokes that the FBI is the perfect place for someone with those kinds of contradictory impulses, and there's really probably some truth to that joke. She is one of nature's own detectives, with a strong sense of justice, and for all her awkwardness and trouble with people, she actually has a kind heart. When she plays good cop, it's not really an act.

WHAT IMPRESSION DO OTHERS TEND TO HAVE OF YOUR CHARACTER?: Generally she seems competent, cool, and in charge, maybe a little bitchy to people who don't like her. She is always very well-groomed in the sort of faux-effortless way that actually takes a solid hour in the morning of hair and makeup. She's a bit of an awkward turtle socially; she aims for "friendly and outgoing" and frequently overshoots into "a little bit weird"—she may be overly presumptuous, or oversharing, or otherwise ever so slightly inappropriate. Not enough to be rude, but enough to be not quite right.

IN WHAT WAYS DOES THAT IMPRESSION DIFFER FROM WHO YOUR CHARACTER REALLY IS?: The truth is that she's quietly, desperately lonely, and really kind of terrible at dealing with it—the only time she ever seems to manage anything like a real human rapport with anyone is when she's interrogating them, and the only time we see her truly emotionally vulnerable in any way is with Alexa, the computer voice of her Amazon Echo. Dom in private is exhausted, blank, and miserable, and she is always trying to keep people from seeing the true extent of her unhappiness.

HOW DOES YOUR CHARACTER HANDLE CRISIS OR ADVERSITY?: By tackling it head-on, for the most part. If it's a problem that she has any hope in hell of solving, she'll do everything she can. And not just by steamrolling through it—she can sit back and wait if that's what it takes. This competence, though, doesn't quite carry over into her personal life—where her chief inclination is simply to run away as fast as she can.

WHICH 5 THINGS WILL YOUR CHARACTER REMEMBER UPON ARRIVAL, AND WHY DID YOU CHOOSE THEM?:
1. She has a friend named Alexa - although she will not remember that Alexa is the Amazon Echo AI. The memory, when it returns, will be deeply disconcerting to her.
2. She had a job that involved research and investigation of some kind - this will give her motivation and also help her continue to make sense of her cop instincts.
3. She's originally from New Jersey and lives in New York - "where are you from" is always a good conversation starter, and in this case it might get her into some trouble early on.
4. She remembers seeing Cisco killed in S2.08, but not the context around the incident. It's a traumatic memory that underlines, in her mind, the fact that she has Seen Some Shit, the extent of which will become clear as her memories return.
5. She has a good working knowledge of 2015 computers - which should throw her off-balance at the 1990s tech of the town.

IS THERE ANYTHING ELSE YOU FEEL WE NEED TO KNOW ABOUT YOUR CHARACTER?: Not particularly relevant to anything in particular, but it's pretty strongly hinted that Dom is gay (though the writers of the show clearly see no reason to make a giant character issue out of it; it's just who she is). When she tells the marriage proposal story, she is careful to use "they" instead of a gendered pronoun, and later she talks about a having a nightmare involved being attacked by a "sexy" woman. She's not in the closet, but she's not advertising it either.


SKILLS, ABILITIES, & PHYSICAL WEAKNESSES: Good detective skills. Computer skills. Can shoot a gun. Speaks multiple languages, including Farsi but not, apparently, Chinese. No notable physical weaknesses to speak of.

INVENTORY: A bag containing her wallet, pen, notepad, accessories, etc. Her smartphone. A pair of chunky-framed glasses. Her official FBI sidearm and holster (to be delivered later per rules).

SAMPLES

PROSE-HEAVY: Test drive thread with Curtis Everett
DIALOGUE-HEAVY: Test drive thread with Poe Dameron