Saturday, October 10, 2009

Celes' Characters

Username:
Name: Desmond Abrams
Affliction: Immortality- this is caused by his body constantly "overwriting" any sort of damage back to a repaired state. This does not affect any damage/age caused before this began to occur, nor does it seem to affect memory.
Gender: Male
Age: 182 (ceased aging at 39)
Appearance: His body is large and well-toned from working in construction. He has dark brown, cropped hair that runs down into stubble. His eyes have turned orange at some point (he never really noticed). His skin is tanned and thick, with leathery hands and feet, hardened by work. He dresses himself in whatever clothes he can get a hold of, usually prepared to do some work.
Personality: Desmond is fairly cautious and blunt, and comes off as a rather imposing man. However, despite his occasional raids of travelling stable zone caravans, he has not shown heavy aggression, taking only what he needs and allowing the caravan to leave safely. Much like his body, his mind has become hardened over time. He has put his long life to use by constantly working and learning. He is a fairly friendly man, but does not exactly display it.
History: Desmond used to have a wife and children, who have since died. In his old life, he was a construction worker and had experience in gunsmithing. Since then, he has put those skills and others to work, building shelters and stocking up on weaponry for defense (not that he really needs it). He has spent most of his life in western America.
Advantages: Construction, gunsmithing, car repair, sewing, cooking. Has spent much of his time learning new skills. He does not need to eat or drink.
Weaknesses: He isn't very good at interacting with other people. His immortality makes this even more difficult, since he will always outlive loved ones. He is still capable of feeling pain (although he's quite used to it after almost 200 years). [[Capable of dying through certain complex methods.]]
Other facts: He is fond of music.


Username:
Name: Olivia Page
Gender: Female
Age: 18
Appearance: Olivia is thin, short, and fairly weak, leaving her prone to injury and illness if she's not careful. She has long, curly, light brown hair which she usually wears up. Her eyes are large and brown, with a sleepy sort of look. She tends to dress so that most of her body is covered, and is fond of simple, pretty clothing.
Personality: Olivia is quiet and subdued, outwardly. However, she longs to break free of her sterile, yet panicked environment in the stable zones. She would rather accept the real world for all of its problems than live in a safe little cage. She would like to be bolder about things, but her parents have trained her to be obedient.
History: She was born in a stable zone to weary parents wrought with paranoia. She spent her whole life smothered in their guidance and restrained from free will. Her parents left before her to relocate to a new stable zone. Now that she has gathered her money together, she intends to leave as well, but not to another stable zone.
Advantages: Sewing, cooking, and cleaning as trained by her mother. Determined to escape the stable zones.
Weaknesses: Does not stand up for herself, tends to be afraid of change. Not very strong.
Other facts: She is a lesbian.


Username:
Name: Sage Bell
Affliction: Can ignore logic in favor of her own preferences (Example: can walk on the ceiling). Sometimes doesn't work. Simpler things are easier than others (Example: cannot ignore death). Not entirely under her control. Works best from noon to 6 PM.
Gender: Female
Age: 19
Appearance: Sage is tall and lean with pale skin. Her appearance is also affected by the unstable zone. Her hair is black and messy, going in all directions. However, she has purple-colored fringe in front. Her eyes are dark, also of a purple color. She has pointed ears and fangs, and a fluffy tail. She attributes this and her black hair to a strange incident in which a dog merged with her body following a world break. She likes to loot old malls for ridiculous goth clothing.
Personality: Sage is fairly simple-minded and easily amused. She completely accepts the unstable world, and at times really enjoys it. She is friendly and annoying like a dog (a trait likely developed after the incident) and is kind of stupid. Sage has a tendency to force herself upon people, regardless of their opinion. She runs into problems headfirst. She has a tendency to follow people around for no reason.
History: Sage has lived her entire life in unstable zones. She became merged with a dog when she was twelve, and has shown more mental symptoms of it than physical.
Advantages: Excitable and friendly, and her affliction provides some advantages. She has a heightened sense of smell, hearing, and sight.
Weaknesses: She is dumb, fairly gullible, and has deuteranopia (red-green colorblindness) like a dog. [[Example: http://yfrog.com/5ndeuteranopesimulationp ]]
Other facts: She is bisexual and she has a tendency to bark at things.
145 years, two months, and twelve days since world crash



(I hung on that windy tree for nine nights wounded by my own spear.)

On some days a formidable crack appears in the sky, like what one would see in old plaster walls, whitewashed in false purity. I never liked that crack. I know no one who likes it. On other days the glass shards next to the oak tree that I never bother to pick up and clean away turn into clear birds, some leaving to perch on my window, tapping crystal to crystal, small noise waking me from my slumber. Those little miracles I don't mind so much, though it is annoying to find my bed having moved from the position it had been in the night before.

(I hung to that tree, and no one knows where it is rooted.)

They called it the world crash. I wasn't alive. None of us were. Something about reality caving in on itself, something about the world fraying like an old rug. There are only a few stable zones left, and they're walled in, no freaks allowed. That includes me, of course. Post-crash, some kids ended up being born with blue skin, or horns, or leaves on their bodies. Me? I'm lucky. Some find my freakishness beautiful. But enough about that.

(None gave me food. None gave me drink. Into the abyss I stared.)

Some of us are getting antsy. Not that anything's gotten any more unstable- it's doubtful that anyone will turn into a tree anytime soon. But there's a few people wanting to go into the walled zones. Break things, scare those smug little "normals" and their pretty little organized unchaotic mess. Calling us fractured. Calling us less than human. They go out sometimes, in funny suits and ridiculous cars, to trade with the other walled people. That's when we ambush them. Hella fun.

(Until I spied the ruins.)

Peace treaties are for people who don't know any better.

(I seized them up, and, howling, fell. )




SMALL STORY

Premise: The world "crashed" 145 years ago. Most don't know the cause, but it is speculated that scientists who attempted to alter reality itself had their isolated, boxed experiments grow like vines that created fractures in in the reality of the world. And as one knows, Fractures become larger fractures, which become cracks, which become chasms.

The first thing one would notice in this brave new world is that the sky often has a literal crack above it, one of the more obvious signs of human tampering. There are also smaller blessings and curses, such as trees that grow from the sides of buildings, unaware of gravity, their fruits otherwise unharmed. Sometimes reality shifts, and one's shoes will move from its previous location the night before.

But then there are also the people. Many on the outside "unstable zones" have various oddities, from the minor to the debilitating to the actually useful. Most "powers" one can get are directly related to your infliction; example- a girl who has vines growing out of her skin can similarly grow vines elsewhere, and perhaps even have minor control of how they twist and turn.

There are "stable zones" left, and they were built in a hurry, walled bubbled cities that shield themselves from the outside, where the "afflicted" reside. They are normal- well, as normal as one can get in a world where the sky sometimes has a crack in it.

As of late there as been some discontent. The walled stable zones have difficulty contacting each other, and use heavily armored cars to transport people to other zones. Some do not come back, either due to the unstable world doing its work, or the people of the barren lands terrorizing them.

And a few of the walled zones themselves are slowly decaying into wildness, so to speak, though the mutations happening inside said cities are far worse...

Side A:

You are an afflicted in the unstable zone. You have lived here for all of life, accustomed to the stark, frightening crack in the sky. It does not disconcert you; in fact it is one thing that is "stable" in your life.

Side B:

You are from a stable zone, a terrible "affliction" occurring like a plague- people are slowly turning a marble white, and at the end of three months disintegrate into a fine dust. You have enough money to abandon the place, and are among the few to leave via armored car in hopes of entering another unaffected stable zone.

Your armored car has crashed. You are stranded with a few others, at the mercy of the elements.

Side A:

You're not exactly welcoming. Hate or disinterest or mercy? You decide.