History and Personality

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Character Name: Zoë Caterina Melissande Kattalakis
Age: 20 [October 1, 1991]
Suit/Rank: Four of Spades

History: Zoë was born in Heart Castle the presumed only child of Georgios Kattalakis and Charlotte Huntly Kattalakis. Georgios was an Outside-born Greek mercenary and assassin who had come to the Deck a year earlier, fleeing from a job gone bad, and Charlotte was the youngest daughter in an old and immensely talented Heart family. Zoë's arrival was unplanned and unwished for by both parents, but they made the best of things and got married. And Georgios, at least, did his best to be a good, loving father, teaching his young daughter Greek and archery and giving her as many things that she wanted and he could provide. In contrast, Charlotte wanted little to do with Zoë from the beginning, and considered the baby to be the reason she couldn't rise as fast or as high as she wanted - though Charlotte would eventually attain Nine of Hearts and hold the rank against all comers. Still, despite her mother, Zoë had a happy childhood with her father, and with Maggie St. John filling in as a substitute mother.

That ended just after her fourteenth birthday, when Georgios succumbed to pancreatic cancer. Zoë was grief-stricken and her mother just glad to be out of a marriage that she'd never wanted, but the event gave Charlotte the opportunity to look at her now teenaged daughter with fresh eyes: Zoë was pretty, highly intelligent, fluent in several languages, and with a little more work, could be the Ace of Hearts in the future - like Charlotte should have been. And thus began the molding and the prodding and the pushing, with Charlotte using every manipulative weapon in her arsenal to turn Zoë into a darker-haired clone of herself. It seemed to work, too; Zoeë Kattalakis was a Six of Hearts by the time she was eighteen, the youngest in the long Huntly family history, and on the path to aim even higher when she suddenly rebelled and moved out of Charlotte's apartments, refusing to challenge further for two years. When she took Seven two years later at twenty for her own reasons, Charlotte took that as evidence that her daughter was ready to stop being ridiculous and challenge higher again.

That wasn't her intention at all, though. Zoë had started associating more with other Suits, particularly the Spades where her boyfriend Victor was a Nine and where she'd formed friendships with Sieben Dietrich and Athena, the Queen of Spades, and she'd already begun to wonder if she was really meant to be a Heart - or if she would fit in more with the Spades or even the Diamonds. She likely would have stewed over it longer if it hadn't been for a couple of factors. Anastasia Hudson, the Ace of Hearts left the Deck with Athena, the Queen of Spades, and John LeHire, the longtime Jack of Hearts, resigned his position to live Outside full-time. And Charlotte knew this was an opportunity, she knew that Zoë was well liked enough to get one of those positions - think of the prestige she would have as the mother of a young Face. It didn't matter how much Zoë protested that she didn't want it, Charlotte would see she was under consideration, and it was after dinner one night in early January 2012, when Charlotte announced she was going to meet with the royals to talk about it that Zoë made her decision. She would become a Spade.

In late January, she challenged a Four of Spades in archery and did just that.

Personality: Zoë is generally sweet and personable. She's very charming in a genuine way, and cares deeply about the people she's close to. At the same time, she can be very manipulative - learned from experiencing so much at the hands of her emotionally abusive mother - and is more than willing to use the tools at her disposal to get what she wants, whether that's charm, a little emotional blackmail, or simply using the fact that people like her to her advantage.

Due to her upbringing, Zoë has abandonment issues and a persistent lack of self-esteem in relationships - romantic and otherwise. She remains unsure that people really want to be with her unless she's giving them something in return, and as a result, she is always that girl who will do an insane amount for her friends, whether that's listen and advise, or help them train for challenges, or pick out the perfect presents. She's the same in her professional life as an accountant; Zoë will take on any project assigned to her and make sure it's done perfectly, even at the cost of her own personal time. As a result, she's become something of a workaholic, juggling her accounting duties with her envoy duties without complaint.

While she's generally calm, Zoë does have a temper, and sometimes an irrational one. When she's upset, things break - she's destroyed crystal and glass during tantrums - and when really upset, she'll rant in rapid-fire speech, sometimes in Greek, before stalking off. She can and has held grudges for months at a time, and forgiveness has to be earned.

Appearance: Zoë is tall and slim, standing at 5'6 and just under 120 pounds. Her hair is dark and curly, a legacy from her Greek father, and generally falls down to her shoulder blades - long enough to be worn up if she wants, but not be in the way if she wants to wear it loose. Her stand-out feature are her blue eyes, which are almost laser-bright, and she has pale skin with a tendency to freckle. Her chin is squared and cleft.

Zoë's personal style could best be described as ladylike in the Audrey Hepburn vein. She almost exclusively wears dresses and skirts, usually with fuller skirts that fall to the knee. She pairs them with flat shoes for everyday, though she loves heels and has a substantive collection of them.
Character PB: Alexis Bledel
Why this Suit? While Zoë is sweet and caring, she's also highly analytical and has a developing ruthless streak and a gift for intrigue and diplomacy that makes her a good fit for the Spades.

Challenges:

Age 15: Zoë enters the Hearts as a Two. Five months later, she challenges Dominik Wortham (3♥) to Go and wins with a score of 213. Dominik counter-challenges in mancala, and Zoe wins handily. Three months later, Zoë challenges Yasmine Sevčik (4♥) in darts and wins with a ton 80 (180). Yasmine does not counter.

Age 16: Zoë challenges Konstantin Skora (5♥) to steeplechase and wins by two lengths. Konstantin counters in tennis and loses to Zoë by two matches. Final score is 7-5.

Age 17: Zoë challenges Tatiana Warszawski (6♥) to chess and wins. Tatiana counters in Trivial Pursuit, which Zoë also wins. After this challenge ends successfully, Zoë informs her mother she will not be challenging to Seven this year and moves out of the family home.

Age 19: Zoë challenges Michael Berardi (7♥) to flatracing and wins by a length. Michael does not counter.

Age 20: Zoë decides to switch Suits to Spades and challenges Emerson Hunter (4♠) to archery and wins with a near perfect score of 29. Emerson does not counter.

Age 20: Zoë challenges Lily Antonov (5♠) to swords and wins in a close match. A counter in chess occurs two hours later, and Zoë wins Five of Spades in a decisive match.

Age 21: Zoë challenges Edison O'Brien (6♠) to a demonstration of advanced mathematical skill, and wins with a score of 93%. Edison counters her in piano recital during the annual chamber music series; Zoë performs Mendelssohn's Piano Concerto op. 25, and is judged the more skilled pianist.