Recruiting: "Secondary"

inkdragon

inkdragon

Understandably Confused
So @BrookeDi and I came up with a premise for a modern fantasy world we were planning on using in a 1x1, but we've decided the premise is big enough for more players to jump on board. Currently only looking for 2-3 other people, after that we may take more later depending on how things go. Here's a link to our IC thread.

http://www.storytellerscircle.com/threads/secondary.4076/#post-61062

The story is set in the modern-day United States, in a world where fantasy exists alongside the mundane. Elves and dwarves and half-bloods mingle with full-blood humans, and a good portion of the population possesses spellcasting ability. These people, known as "Secondaries," or "Secs" in short, are feared by the general population, even hated. Used as a scapegoat throughout history, Secondaries have long campaigned for equal rights to no avail. A number of laws exist to control them and keep them in line, such as a nightly curfew, mandatory registration with the Department of Secondary Affairs, and most recently, the Secondary Relocation Act. All Secondaries are to be relocated to designated living communities, isolated from the general population. The people are starting to talk. Change may be on the horizon.

Our current characters, Olivia Moore and Dominic Kingston, are both relatively influential players in the Secondary Rights Movement. However, the two have very different ideas on how to proceed after the approval of the Relocation Bill. Some members of the resistance (such as Dominic) have begun to push for open revolution. Tired of living under the thumb of the government, they are ready to take the rights they deserve, by force, if necessary. Others (such as Olivia) still believe in the power of peaceful protests and resistance. Both face the same problem, though- many Secs are too afraid to associate with the resistance movement at all. But time may be running out as the Sec population dwindles and the government continues to make laws restricting their power.

We haven't been playing in this world for too long, and there are a lot of directions this story could go. We've sort of intentionally left it open for new players to join, not really committing to any solid plot yet. We want everyone to be involved in moving the story forward. Things will develop as we see who's interested, what the character concepts pitched are, and how all our characters interact with each other. Probably will be some political drama, maybe some modern combat, definitely some revolution. The CS we want interested players to fill out is pretty light, as we want to give people room to develop their characters during play, but if you feel compelled to add more info, go ahead.

Name:
Age:
Gender:
Secondary Status (Is your character Secondary? If so, why? I.e., half-elf, dwarf, spellcaster):
Appearance or faceclaim:
History/Background:

Let us know if you have any questions! We look forward to writing with you!
 
Name: Dominic Kingston
Gender: Male
Age: 26
Secondary Status: Half-dwarf

Appearance: While not as short as a full-dwarf, Dominic is a shorter man, standing barely over 1.5 meters tall. Despite his height, Dominic is broad-shouldered and well muscled, giving him an intimidating presence in any room. He has fair skin, dark eyes, and thick, dark hair which he wears long and pulled back into a low ponytail. His face is perpetually covered in the beginning scruff of a beard, though he can't grow it long at all.

History: Domenic was born of a dwarf mother, Thovna Hukkazar and a human father, Gregory Kingston. Thovna was reluctant to have children, not wanting to see them go through life as Secondaries, but Gregory convinced her, telling her he would go public with their love, stay by her side and help raise the child. Only months after Domenic was born, however, Gregory left in the night, unable to deal with the ostracization of starting a family with a Sec. Thovna had to raise her son alone in a world stacked against her, without the legal right to even change his last name in the Sec registry.

Domenic was taught as he grew up to never let others make him question his own worth. While the laws might be stacked against them, the dwarves were always a proud people, and Thovna made sure he knew that the human perception of their race was not who they really were. In high school, Domenic became involved with a Sec activist group, writing articles for the school paper despite being denied over and over again, staging a sit-in at the cafeteria, and helping to organize a local rally for Sec labor rights. After high school, he continued his activist work while he took a job as a janitor at a local office building.

Thovna was proud of his ability to make his voice heard, but she worried. Domenic was always towing the line of the law, and she feared it would get him into serious trouble one day. She never lived to see it. A year after Domenic's graduation, Thovna was diagnosed with cancer. Unable to afford treatment with her poor Sec insurance plan, she passed away a few months later. Spurred on by her loss, Domenic worked even harder to make a name for himself in the Sec rights movement. He holds little love for humans and the world they have designed to keep his people down.
 
Very interested in this! I'm wondering, what is the quality of the neighbourhoods the Secondaries are being made to live in? Are they pretty big or are they kept more standard size? And does the Secondary Rights Movement have access to guns and other more deadly weapons? Also, are there any humans that work with the Secondary Rights Movement? Are the species for Secs limited to dwarves, elves, half-bloods and spellcasters or are there others, like fairies, vampires, werewolves etc.?
Sorry about so many questions ^^;.
 
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I'm interested! I'd ask questions but romamaro p much covered everything I wanted to ask (and more) haha
 
No problem about the questions! I'll start at the beginning, ha.

So the neighborhoods the Secondaries are being made to relocate to are going to be these big, lower quality places. They'll have their own school systems, their own stores and churches, basically it's a step towards full segregation, although the government is trying to sugarcoat it and make it seem like this'll be a step up. Thing is, right now, most Secs don't have any access to higher education, and there's discrimination in the workforce, so the jobs they work are dead-end, and the places they have wouldn't be in the better part of town. In theory, this COULD be a step up for some people, since Secs would be allowed to run their own little communities- even though the control would all be an illusion, the government would have all the power. One thing we wanted to really play around with was dissent in the Sec movement, and it's totally possible someone would actually be in favor of the move, though meta-knowledge wise, the government definitely does not have good intentions. And most Secs have been burned by them enough to realize this.

Secs in theory have "access" to guns, although in practice, actually obtaining a permit legally would be nigh impossible. Another step the government may decide to take in the near future is forcing all Secs who do own weapons to give them up. Either way, it'll be a big barrier to their physical resistance, and a plot point if the story does make that turn eventually (which I personally hope it does). Magic can in theory be weaponized, although it isn't instinctual and would take practice, like any other skill.

Humans do work with the movement, there are sympathizers, but this isn't as simple as a straight person supporting LGBT rights or something like that. A human sympathizer would face a lot of ridicule and mistrust from other humans. There is a good deal of stigma against the Secondaries, and by openly siding with them, you would alienate yourself from much of our community. Also no guarantee you'll be met with love in the Sec circles either. Dominic for one is wary of allies, though he understands their necessity. And yeah, for now we just have those classes, with full-blood elves and dwarves dwindling fast. We discussed maybe adding more but decided to keep things simple at the onset. In any case, those are he big ones, anything else would be pretty rare.

Obviously two human parents couldn't give birth to a half-elf, but they could give birth to a caster. Magic works similarly to Harry Potter, where two casters usually would have a caster child, although there can be a "squib," so to speak, and a child from a normal family can be a caster. Powers can develop at any time, the science behind them is still under review, although it's often they manifest at a young age. So a child wouldn't necessarily share their parents' status, although like I mentioned before, discrimination based on public perception is still a big deal. There's no guarantee the parents would treat the child well or keep it at all.
 
Awesome! I gotta go to work soon, at which point I'll be on and off depending on the day, but feel free to shoot me or Brooke a message if you have any questions. :)
 
Name: Olivia Moore

Age: 24

Gender: Female

Secondary Status: 73% elf, 2% dwarf, 22% human, and 2% unknown.

Appearance or faceclaim: Light brown skin, long curly hair (usually up in a ponytail), bright hazel eyes, standing at about 5’2’’. Average build, slightly in shape (like, she could probably lift some decent sized weights but don’t expect her to run a 10 minute mile), and not particularly memorable for her appearance, with a rounded face shape. Her cheeks still look like they have a bit of baby fat to them.

History/Background: Olivia’s parents (both a majority elf) divorced when she was three. It was a messy divorce in the beginning but the pair are fairly amicable now. When she reached middle school age, her mother remarried another elf. As a Secondary she didn’t have the greatest start in life, but she tried to remain positive. She wasn’t the most politically aware as a child/student, but she could see what was on the news, heard the whispers from those around her, and overheard many conversations from her parents. In high school Olivia took a Secondary Studies course as an elective.. It was led by a teacher who was not fond of the subject or the students (usually Secondaries themselves) and it was led through a bias lens. She was enthralled by the subject, however, and found herself studying everything regarding her history. As she learned how her kind had been unfairly treated and how the list of injustices grew Olivia became angry. She started paying more attention to the news, the whispers, and the overheard conversations. Toward the end of her high school career, Olivia joined a protest movement formed by people who wanted change for secondaries. When she finished high school, she began acting as a lobbyist, hoping to improve their rights. Two years later she moved to Boston and joined the local chapter to continue the fight. She now works as a waitress at an IHOP and leads the rebellion for Secondary Rights through Peaceful Protests and Discourse. She’s taken a few community college classes, but mostly self-teaches. She shares an almost-modest apartment with her roommate (and fellow political activist), Sandra O’Hara.

----------------------------------------------

My CS, still working a bit on the history. :)

Also: All Secs will be receiving a welcome packet in the next couple of weeks to outline exactly how they will be moving: I have examples of these that will be shared later. Currently our characters are in Boston, but you can set yours up anywhere. :)
 
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Name: Lloyd Johansen
Age: 28
Gender: Male
Secondary Status: Spellcaster

Appearance or face claim: Lloyd stands at six feet tall and weighs 138lbs. He's very lanky, with big hands and feet. He's half Norwegian and half American. He's very pale, with such a cold skin tone that he might look a little blue in just the right light. He has naturally platinum blond hair which he styles in a modern pompadour. He has big pale blue eyes that look bigger behind his square glasses. He has a square and sharp jaw and high cheekbones. His clothing style is very casual, and the things he wears are usually too big for him, due to shopping in thrift stores.

History/Background: Lloyd was born into a very rich and high class non-Sec family, who prided themselves in not having a single drop of secondary blood in their veins, and that no matter how far back you went in their family tree, you would not find a single secondary in the Norwegian side or the American. All of that came to an end with Lloyd. Obviously, this went unnoticed for a while. In his time as a non-Sec, Lloyd was dignified and smug, his parents' pride rubbing off on him. He would bully his secondary peers and was quite a popular boy. He was also book smart, and was often at the top of his classes.

One day, when he had only been in high school a month or two, he was studying in his room for an upcoming test. He had a habit of spinning his pen between his fingers. Not even noticing he was doing it, the pen ended up floating a few inches above his fingers, still spinning. He didn't notice until his mother came into his room to call him down for dinner. The pen dropped to the desk, as if to hide what had happened, but his mother had already seen enough. Lloyd was locked in his room for the rest of the night while his parents decided what to do with him. They quickly formed a cover story; Lloyd had gone to Norway to study and take care of his ailing grandmother. What really happened was he was dumped on the street, and warned not to go to school or get in contact with anyone they knew, or he would be handed over to the police for some made up crime.

With only the clothes on his back and no one to help him, the spoiled child was left to fend for himself. He was ashamed of his secondary status, and still is a little. He has survived by taking odd jobs wherever he can find them, and for the long time he slept in alleys and under bridges, and even stole from Secondary owned convenience stores, knowing that any crimes committed there likely wouldn't be taken seriously by the police. He would often meet other Secondaries while doing the weakly paid jobs, or while sleeping rough, and he made three good friends. The four of them, all Spellcasters, began to save up. Soon enough, they all chipped in and bought a (very low-quality) apartment. There was only one bedroom in the flat, so they would swap between sleeping on the bed, on the couch, and on the floor. They all ended up getting permanent jobs - Lloyd is now working in a dry cleaners - but have never been able to upgrade.

Lloyd was introduced into the Secondary Rights Movement by one of his roommates, who was a long time member, though not high-ranking. Lloyd and his friends would go to all the peaceful rallies, but didn't have any big roles. With the introduction of the Secondary Relocation Act, Lloyd's friends are getting more anxious; they have no intentions of leaving. Lloyd feels the same way, but he's not as willing to put up a fight for fear of repercussions.

Roommates: Liam Hamilton - Spellcaster, 30
Alex Walker - Spellcaster, 28
Robert Washington - Spellcaster, 23

Hope this is alright :)
 
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romamaro said:
Name: Lloyd Johansen
Age: 28
Gender: Male
Secondary Status: Spellcaster

Appearance or face claim: Lloyd stands at six feet tall and weighs 138lbs. He's very lanky, with big hands and feet. He's half Norwegian and half American. He's very pale, with such a cold skin tone that he might look a little blue in just the right light. He has naturally platinum blond hair which he styles in a modern pompadour. He has big pale blue eyes that look bigger behind his square glasses. He has a square and sharp jaw and high cheekbones. His clothing style is very casual, and the things he wears are usually too big for him, due to shopping in thrift stores.

History/Background: Lloyd was born into a very rich and high class non-Sec family, who prided themselves in not having a single drop of secondary blood in their veins, and that no matter how far back you went in their family tree, you would not find a single secondary in the Norwegian side or the American. All of that came to an end with Lloyd. Obviously, this went unnoticed for a while. In his time as a non-Sec, Lloyd was dignified and smug, his parents' pride rubbing off on him. He would bully his secondary peers and was quite a popular boy. He was also book smart, and was often at the top of his classes.

One day, when he had only been in high school a month or two, he was studying in his room for an upcoming test. He had a habit of spinning his pen between his fingers. Not even noticing he was doing it, the pen ended up floating a few inches above his fingers, still spinning. He didn't notice until his mother came into his room to call him down for dinner. The pen dropped to the desk, as if to hide what had happened, but his mother had already seen enough. Lloyd was locked in his room for the rest of the night while his parents decided what to do with him. They quickly formed a cover story; Lloyd had gone to Norway to study and take care of his ailing grandmother. What really happened was he was dumped on the street, and warned not to go to school or get in contact with anyone they knew, or he would be handed over to the police for some made up crime.

With only the clothes on his back and no one to help him, the spoiled child was left to fend for himself. He was ashamed of his secondary status, and still is a little. He has survived by taking odd jobs wherever he can find them, and for the long time he slept in alleys and under bridges, and even stole from Secondary owned convenience stores, knowing that any crimes committed there likely wouldn't be taken seriously by the police. He would often meet other Secondaries while doing the weakly paid jobs, or while sleeping rough, and he made three good friends. The four of them, all Spellcasters, began to save up. Soon enough, they all chipped in and bought a (very low-quality) apartment. There was only one bedroom in the flat, so they would swap between sleeping on the bed, on the couch, and on the floor. They all ended up getting permanent jobs - Lloyd is now working in a dry cleaners - but have never been able to upgrade.

Lloyd was introduced into the Secondary Rights Movement by one of his roommates, who was a long time member, though not high-ranking. Lloyd and his friends would go to all the peaceful rallies, but didn't have any big roles. With the introduction of the Secondary Relocation Act, Lloyd's friends are getting more anxious; they have no intentions of leaving. Lloyd feels the same way, but he's not as willing to put up a fight for fear of repercussions.

Hope this is alright :)
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It looks great!! I love the history, too. And our first Caster, yay!
 
I agree! Approved. I'm going to make an OOC chat for the group, and we'll add people once they post a CS here. We wanted to wait for a couple new players and get everyone's input before making any big plans for the story, but we have some thoughts about what the coming weeks in-game could bring. Let's see about getting you in this thing. :)
 
Hey, mind if I join? Looks pretty interesting! Although I do have some questions.

Are there all kinds of races? Such as lizard people or winged people or is it just dwarves, elves and spellcasters?

Can the dwarves/elves/whatever also cast magic? If not, what makes them different aside from height/ears?
 
To answer your first question, I'll just borrow from inkdragon: And yeah, for now we just have those classes, with full-blood elves and dwarves dwindling fast. We discussed maybe adding more but decided to keep things simple at the onset. In any case, those are he big ones, anything else would be pretty rare. Essentially, if you're desiring to be lizard people or winged people, it's open for discussion.

Elves and dwarfs are based on DnD/tolkien, more or less, so among the differences in appearances (which, for most people is enough to discriminate) they can do some magic (although we haven't really discussed to what extent--we are taking suggestions from players as we want them to help make the world as well), they live longer, typically they are going to be physically stronger and be more agile than humans, as a general rule.
 
Name: Harrison Young
Age: 23
Gender: Male
Secondary Status: N/A, full human citizen. Police officer.
Appearance: 5' 12", 71kg
View attachment 1350
Background:
Harrison was born to a poor family. With only his mother to depend on, he was the type of poor where people would think he was homeless and whether he would have dinner was a real concern. It was due to this that he had a front row seat to the darkest, worst side of humanity. The angry, scared side that only reared its head when confronted with those of lesser stature.

Growing up side by side with a lot of Secondary's allowed Harrison to realise that they were no different from him as people and it was this realisation that would end up bringing a lot of confusion to Harrison's life, as he witnessed countless acts of racism and hatred towards those of his community, both Sec and human alike. One such act cost him the life of his mother when he was at the mere age of 10, the woman expiring from wounds delivered to her after a vicious beating. This tragedy had a deep, prolonged effect on Harrison. It filled him with a rage that he had trouble containing, a rage that would continue to give the now homeless child trouble as it let itself be known.

This rage would accompany him for two years until one day, as he lay upon the side side of the street, huddled up as snow began to fall from the sky, a woman called out to him. Picking him up off the street, the kid was carefully placed within a car and brought back to the woman's house. Her name was Sarah Young and, as he was told when he first woke up in her bed, she would be taking care of him from then on. He didn't really have much of a say.

This was the first of many new experiences for Harrison. He went to school for the first time, met new people and made friends. He participated in parties, dated, hung out with his group and messed around. And he would always come home to give a smiling Sarah a hug, then sit down and talk about their day.

Slowly, ever so slowly, the rage ebbed and waned. It was because, as much as Harrison clung to the memory of what he had suffered at the hands of other humans, he had also seen their bright side. He had learnt that not all humans were bad. That the ones that had long tormented him were not like the others, that there were those that were kind and loving.

It was this realisation that drove him to become an officer of the law. With the ever increasing divide between the secondary and the humans, he needed to be able to show others what he could see. He needed to show the Secondaries that the humans are not the monsters they appear to be and to the humans that the Secondary are simply struggling to find their place in the world. But in order to do that, he needed to lead by example.
 
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