Character Sketch: Ezra Knight

      Below you will find a verbose “character sketch” I wrote for an upcoming role-playing game our group is putting together. If the game goes anywhere, there may well be updates and recaps and short stories about their adventures. And, since I’ve got to make up back-up characters for this brutal Zombie campaign… there are more to come…
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Name: Ezra Ruth Knight
Age: 33
DoB: September 11, 1980
Zodiac Sign: Virgo
Height: 5’0″
Weight: 125 lbs.
Hair: Tapered, twisted bob. Natural, dark color. Slightly lighter at the ends.
Eyes: Dark brown.
Features: Pleasant, symmetrical. Not overly attractive.
Build: Rock-hard muscles. Very square, very fit. 32a – 31 – 32
Clothes: Thick black work pants with reflective patches at knee pockets. Pale blue work shirt with Paramedic patches. Radio on belt. Heavy boots. Plain flat topped posts in each of four holes on each side (not decorative earrings, just the posts to keep the holes from closing).
Pocket Contents: Wallet. Cash, Cards, ID. Keys.
Other Belongings: Duffle bag containing off-duty clothes, neon pink ballet flats, violet feather earrings, various make-up (mostly bright hues, neons, vivid colors for eyes. Lips are nudes, sheers. Nails are plain french-style natural tips, but she carries clear top coats and metal or glass files).
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ezra_ambulanceezra_portrait
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      Ezra Knight lived a primarily beige life in a beige city.
      The only thing interesting about her was her name: Ezra being primarily a man’s name and Knight being a man’s job in days of yore.
      She was the middle child in a middle class family living in a middle class neighborhood. She received decent but unremarkable grades, played several sports with mediocre skill, dated a series of bland boys, attended a State School, and intended to become a Science teacher at a suburban Middle School.
      To many who looked on, she had a great life ahead of her. Nevermind that it was entirely average, at least it was routine and secure. There was money in the bank and she never had to worry that she would be unable to pay her rent. She saved not out of necessity or planning, but because she had no passions or hobbies; she had nothing to spend it on.
      Ezra Knight was fundamentally unhappy.
      Still, she put on a brave face and went about her life.
      For her twenty-first birthday, Ezra’s best friend, an equally beige-type girl named Karen Korloff whose birthday was two days after Ezra’s, convinced her that they should take a risk for once. Let’s do it, Ezra, just be crazy! Classes don’t begin until the 20th – let’s buy tickets and just go somewhere! Ezra had been skeptical, but some long buried part of her soul longed for adventure and she asked – go where? Hawaii or the Bahamas or Disneyland. Oh! No, I know. Let’s go to New York!
      When Ezra opened her eyes on her birthday, she felt no different. As she crept to the bathroom, Ezra did her best to remain quiet so that Karen could sleep. It was a gorgeous suite on the thirtieth floor of the Affinia Dumont. The cost per night was exorbitant, but Ezra had hardly blinked when signing the check at the Travel Agent’s office. This was going to be an adventure, a real one, and a trip she would never forget.
      And so it was.
      At 8:45 am, Ezra was padding barefoot, fresh from the amazing jetted shower, to the bureau to retrieve her clothing. Their room faced south, and though she had not paid attention before, it was a really beautiful view. She paused, wrapped in a big, fluffy white towel with a second upon her head turban-style, to take in the sight of Manhattan as it lay bustling with ceaseless activity hundreds of feet below.
      From the corner of her eye, she saw the plane moving across the sky. When it hit the North Tower, she was puzzled. Fire and smoke belched forth like a scene from some movie, yet it was not a film and she was not dreaming. Minutes later, a second plane exploded into the South Tower. By then, the streets were flooded with first responders, sirens blaring, and people fleeing the chaos.
      Stranded in the city, Ezra and Karen saw much of the turmoil first hand; both gave blood twice in the days that followed and when at last they returned home, both girls were forever changed. Beige, no more.
      For Karen, the undeniable brush with mortality and the horrors of the world sent her into a spiral of depression and desperate hopelessness. She sought comfort in the arms of any man who was willing, drank herself into oblivion, and in the end, found a reason to live in an unplanned pregnancy. Her son, Patriot, was born in December of 2002 and was later joined by sisters, Liberty, Independence, and Justice.
      Ezra’s journey was similar, but different. She too was affected by the reality of death, but where Karen saw bleakness, Ezra found beauty, hope, honor. When details about the brave sacrifices the first responders made emerged, Ezra knew that she had at least found her calling. Life was too short to spend it in a haze of beige, selfish and closed off from the world.
      She returned to university the following Spring with a new goal. Ezra spent nearly two thousand hours in training, and when at last she graduated, she was a highly skilled paramedic, dedicating her days to helping people and her nights to living. Really living.
      No longer a beige girl, Ezra surrounds herself with colorful things, colorful people, and colorful feelings. She laughs, she loves, she dances, she sings. And though she still has very few ‘hobbies’, such as they are, Ezra likes to sample a little bit of everything, searching for her passion and living, really living, all the while.
      When all that happened on Maple Lane, happened, Ezra had just made a patient transfer at the Hershey Medical Center and was on I-83 South, headed back to her home in Baltimore…
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Signed, Josie
Note: Images are “Accident 3” by kkiser from SXC.hu and “Untitled” from PointAndClickPhotography via Essence Magazine Online.

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