Half Life 2: Dominion

Irena’s frame is wiry, her movements quick and measured, like a cornered animal anticipating a trap. Her skin is sallow from poor nutrition, and her hands bear the roughness of manual labor. She carries a threadbare satchel everywhere—always gripped tight, never opened in public. Her apartment door has no personal markings, only the faded outline of a removed loyalty emblem.

Paranoid to the core, Irena trusts no one—not even those offering help. She speaks in hushed, clipped tones and always positions herself near exits. She’s observant, memorizing faces and routines, but her constant fear of betrayal makes collaboration with the resistance difficult. Though she has the knowledge to help undermine Combine systems, she fears exposure more than oppression. Still, there's a flicker of guilt beneath her guarded exterior—a memory of someone she failed to save in City 09, and the silent vow to never let herself care again.

Originally from City 09, Irena was transferred to City 23 following a factory fire later blamed on "citizen negligence." Her reassignment came with heavy scrutiny, and her refusal to speak during loyalty interrogations flagged her as "non-compliant." Since arriving, she’s lived alone in Block 3, surviving by rigidly adhering to Combine mandates while quietly hoarding information: patrol routes, CP habits, ration patterns. She once worked maintaining filtration systems and knows exactly how the water supply is tampered with.