- "Girl. So I was looking at schematics for this place, and I found the perfect practice space! The acoustics in this place! Seriously bonkers. Like, echoing-through-the-entire-valley kinds of bonkers. Legit, you're going to soil yourself when you see it."
- ―Laura Vogel to Shelly Guerrera-McKenzie about the Overflow Basin
Laura Vogel is a character in Horizon Zero Dawn: The Frozen Wilds. In 2046, while working as two of the last employees at a dam near Yellowstone National Park, she and her coworker Shelly Guerrera-McKenzie formed a band called Concrete Beach Party and decided to leave recordings of themselves around the facility as a way to preserve a sliver of humanity in a place staffed entirely by robots. She inadvertently caused the death of Dod Blevins by playing a prank that switched the trail signs for Fairy Falls and Purple Mountain.
History[]
Vogel grew up in Indianapolis, Indiana with her mother. Later, she claimed that she hated growing up there.[1] After leaving Indiana, she worked at a dam near Yellowstone National Park as part of a team that once contained at least six people, and ended up being one of the last two workers, forced to train the servitors that would replace her.[2]
As the two last humans, Vogel and Shelly Guerrera-McKenzie had "theme days" as a way to stave off boredom, such as pretending parts of the intake tower were a beach and laying out beach towels and playing with a beach ball. Vogel dubbed this their "concrete beach party".[3] They also formed a garage band using Vogel's guitar and amp, and used the Overflow Basin as a practice space because of the excellent acoustics.[4] Guerrera-McKenzie decided they should name the band Concrete Beach Party.[3]
The two decided that in an effort to push back against the automation of the facility and to leave a record that humans had once worked there, with all the emotions and friendship and extracurricular activity that involved, they would leave recordings around the facility. The datapoints contained an audio element and a text element, all related to their band.[4] These would later be found by Aloy a thousand years later.[5]
Despite their official positions as "on-site advisors" who were supposed to perform their normal duties so the servitors could learn by shadowing them, Vogel and Guerrera-McKenzie were often ignored or reprimanded. To vent their frustration at this, Vogel suggested they should make band merchandise for Concrete Beach Party and deface government property with stickers displaying the band's logo. Due to the limitations of their budget, they ended up just defacing the servitor attempting to learn from them with sticky notes, on which they had doodled prospective band logos by drawing on existing band logos for inspiration. Vogel also attempted to teach the servitor that greeting Dod Blevins, who they both dislike, with a rude gesture was a sign of respect. Guerrera-McKenzie doubted the servitor would actually do it, but considered it worth the attempt.[2]
Some time before the two girls record their song "Last Girls on Earth", Vogel received a message informing her that Metallurgic International had bought her childhood home where her mother still lived. Vogel had been concerned that when she had to leave her job at the dam, she would be forced to move back home, but bitterly told Guerrera-McKenzie that now that would not even be an option.[1]
Approximately two weeks before they were laid off, Vogel saw Blevins driving a snowmobile outside the window of where she was working. Vogel dislike Blevins, so she switched the trail signs between Fairy Falls and Purple Mountain with the intention of forcing him to walk back after failing to get the snowmobile up the steep incline of Purple Mountain.[6] Instead, unbeknownst to her, the prank caused his death, and his body was not discovered for another fifteen years.[7]
Soon before the end of their jobs, Vogel and Guerrera-McKenzie fought in a Robar while drunk, both afraid they would not stay in touch and feeling abandoned. On the way home, Guerrera-McKenzie insisted that she would stay in touch with Vogel regardless of her wishes, which comforted Vogel.[8]
On the last day of her job at the dam, she wore an unusually fancy outfit in an effort to cheer up her mother, who had bought it for her. All her possessions fit in two small suitcases, which she took with her when she caught a vert[9] back to Indianapolis to help her mother pack up her family home and move into the tiny apartment they could afford with Metallurgic's "displacement grant".[1]
Personality and appearance[]
Vogel had faded tattoos and what Guerrera-McKenzie described as "perpetually arched" eyebrows.[3] She did not believe in God.[1]
Datapoints[]
- Secret Show
- Dam Family
- Limited-Edition Merch
- Compensatory Damages
- Farewell Tour
- Final Performance
- Last Girls on Earth
- Emissions Joyride