Post by JB on Mar 27, 2011 17:01:41 GMT -5
“The more there are riots, the more repressive action will take place, and the more we face the danger of a right-wing takeover and eventually a fascist society . . . and in the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”
- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
----
Unlike the words of a notable spoken word performer, the revolution would indeed be televised. Which, in the opinion of many a few, would lead to its continuous undoing on both sides.
The city of New Eden's only folly was the chronic self-neglection of its own inner workings, instead focusing its eyes on the more superficial aspects of being a sprawling western-urbanite civilization. It had always been beautiful; since its inception, it was the self-proclaimed center of everything (not that any other urban hub would dare attempt to usurp its throne). Cultural center of the world, commercial center of the world, financial center of the world. If some highly-paid citizens could have their way, the city would also be considered the epicenter of everything in the known universe and beyond. It was a strange state of gleaming self-righteousness and overinflated egotism, thrown into the great melting pot of artificially-sweetened rhetoric and charismatic filling to form the world's most populous fondue of healthy citizenry and smarmy bureaucrats.
It was all too inevitable that the all-seeing eye of government supremacy would blink; ages to late, however. The people of New Eden, the few and proud dissenters and nay-sayers, cried out treachery on the part of their leaders and called their fellow residents to protest. The events that would unfold would be known as "The November Riots", and the final line in the sand drawn between the oppressors and the oppressed would be crossed.
Early demonstrations were non-violent, as their organizers has strived for them to be; and the enforcers stood still, waiting for the first false movement to close in and end it all before it began.
Some time soon after, it happened; like all first shots, no one knew who pulled the trigger first. But it happened. And New Eden in its entire was swallowed up in a great tidal wave of rebellion.
Government forces, with the muscle aid of many a law enforcement unit and private contracting company, waged an all-out war upon their own people, beating down protesters, peaceful or not. Yet, as death counts rose, all was silent. And, in the advent of the tumultuous riots, the dissenters and nay-sayers hid in their dark places, nursing their wounds while their leaders and protectors hunted them down.
And arisen from the ashes of the November Riots came the Runners. And the fleeting, flickering chance at newfound hope began to glimmer dully.
With most, if not all methods of communication being relentlessly monitored by the city government, the revolutionary fronts-in-exile assembled their own, their fastest, in an act of desperation. Operating above the cameras and below the radar, independent couriers known as Runners took to streets, alleys, and rooftops on foot, utilizing their honed skills of urban navigation and the art of Parkour free-running to carry physical communiqués across New Eden between revolutionary factions, in direct defiance of the government's will.
While the Runners operated through the utmost clandestine secrecy, the totalitarian regime caught on, and mobilized their own in a program known as Project Icarus. This program, a joint venture between the City Protection Force (CPF) and the Pirandello-Kruger (PK) PMC group, was made specifically to combat, suppress, and control the Runners after their unsuccessful attempts to bring them to justice conventionally. Fighting fire with fire, these agile and deadly pursuit cops have become one of the greatest threats to the plight of the Runners (along with the laws of gravity, that is).
Earlier in the year, New Eden's prospective race for the seat of city mayor had heated up into quite the tumult. The incumbent executive, Elaine Callaghan, has ruled the city with an iron fist, allegedly using her connections within her father's city construction company to house several secret facilities, including training grounds for the anti-Runner pursuit cops, illicit information caches, and even torture chambers. For the first time in years, however, Callaghan's rule now lies in question, particularly to the up-and-coming underdog candidate, Robert Pope. Pope, rumored to have been an organizer of the protests that would eventually lead to the November Riots, was an ardent critic of New Eden's political system, and ran on the taglines of change and making a difference, which easily took the Runners under his wing.
However, in a stunning turn of events that nearly tore the city into pieces, Robert Pope was assassinated, murdered in his own office by what appeared to have been a Runner known as Faith Connors.
The conspiracy was soon revealed, however, putting a massive dent in the government's control over New Eden and launching the fugitive Faith Connors into folk hero stardom amongst the Runner community.
Now, months after Robert Pope's murder and Elaine Callaghan's resignation, the city lies in absolute quiet - in anticipation of what it will become. While a new oppressive regime establishes their authority, the Runners test their limits and continue their cause one step at a time.
Now, it's your turn. You are a Runner in the city of New Eden, a stealthy and fast messenger to the revolutionaries at large, civil disobedience the name of your game. With the cops, mercenaries, and the government itself at your neck, you will use your skills in parkour, free-running, and genuine street wisdom to make through the day without a bullet to the head. The fate of the revolution, and as such the city itself, lies in your hands.
----
CHARACTER SHEETS
USERNAME:
CHARACTER NAME:
AGE:
APPEARANCE: (Note that most, if not all Runners have some form of red on their person; it's their symbol.)
BIO:
ACCEPTED CHARACTERS
USERNAME: JB
CHARACTER NAME: Omar Tutuola
AGE: 25
APPEARANCE: Omar, a first generation citizen of New Eden of Sub-Saharan African descent (both of his parents had immigrated from Ethiopia), is most noticeably of a much darker skin tone than most, which has stemmed much prejudice put upon him in his life. His eyes, in stark contrast, are a pair of bright viridian greens, possibly a defect in his genes. Omar's dreadlocks (dyed rather clumsily with a bleached blonde streak running a serpentine path from front to back) are, for reasons of practicality as well as style, kept in an updo, often tied into a ponytail to keep from hindering his vision or other senses, especially while running.
Omar's clothing, like all Runners, is light and pliable, allowing him to utilize his speed and flexibility to its full potential. A carmine red hoodie with raglan sleeves, covering a white T-shirt with black stripes running across diagonally, a pair of white track pants, and a pair of vibrant red running shoes, a signature within the Runner community.
BIO: Omar Tutuola was born to two Ethiopian immigrants, raised in New Eden all of his life. At a young age, his parents instilled upon him the importance of exceeding in his education and earning a high-paying job - it didn't exactly matter to them what it was he did, but that he did it to the fullest degree. Omar, however, didn't take to his parents wishes until it was far too late. During what is now known as the November Riots, Omar's mother was grievously injured by a flash-bang grenade launched directly into her abdomen by riot control officers, placed into a coma before dying soon after, and his father was apprehended by police forces for allegedly murdering a lieutenant - though the actual murder remains unsolved, his father still serves out his prison sentence today.
To honor the will of his parents, Omar dedicated his life to his studies and education, all the while harboring a burning hatred for the ways of New Eden. As his opportunities in life grew wider, his contempt grew louder, and eventually, it cost him his scholarship at New Eden Tech, after less than three months of study.
It was then, throughout his written complaints to the papers and public officers and rude graffiti designs and tire-slashing bouts, that Omar discovered the Runners . . . rather, the Runners discovered him, playing a game of keep-away with another Runner and his messenger bag while on a mission. Eventually, he was drafted into their ranks, as it were, and after a year or two of rigorous endurance and martial arts training, Omar was a full-fledged Runner.
USERNAME: JW%
CHARACTER NAME: Kevin Windlark
AGE: 27
APPEARANCE: Thin and long limbed, with a wiry athletic build, like you would see on a marathon runner or soccer player. Dark haired, dark brown eyed and deep tanned skin, showing his native american heritage only slightly covered by the generations of mixing with other races. His hair is cut down in a bowl cut, leaving him nearly shaven around the ears and on his neck, but with thick hair under his customary helmet.
Kevin is a bicycle messanger at heart, and dresses accordingly. Tight drag reducing bicycle suit, thermal jacket, high flexibility and traction shoes, helmet, polarized goggles. His preferances on color range towards navy blue and gold trim, avoiding the stereotype of Runner Red, though the jacket he currently wears does have a thick red stripe along the outer arms and ribs.
BIO: Kevin was born and mostly raised in the rural area just outside of New Eden. However, during his school days, his parents got a job in the inner city and they moved. Kevin hated the city, hated the people in it, and found his new life repressive and stifling. Frequently he would explore or wander the city, flaunting the restricted access areas such as emergency stairwells, rooftops, and maintenence tunnels. Blending his new urban setting with the rural skills he'd picked up playing out in the wilderness, Kevin developed an instinctual sense of direction and location, making it possible for him to plot a fast and easy course from one point to another without even knowing what lay in his path.
Kevin's first job was delievering legal documents for his father across the court houses, and sometimes even across town. Kevin signed on with a bike messanger service and continued his work, earning enough for his schooling to become a paralegal. By age 21 his parents moved to another city, leaving him to his job and schooling. However, with more and more regulations and restrictions on legal transport jobs, his courier service was starting to fold, and taking drastic measures. Not everything Kevin transported was entirely sanctioned anymore.
While the November Riots did not directly touch Kevin's life, at least not any more than anyone else in the city, they did mark the collapse of the business he was working for. Kevin switched employers, becomming one of the Runners.
Kevin is not one of the more prominate members of the Runners, and he rather likes it that way. He doesn't see himself as a revolutionary, just a citizen trying to get by in the world. He has no notable record with the law enforcment agencies, and only insubstantial connections with the Runners or the revolutionaries in hiding. In fact, officially Kevin works(part time internship as part of his schooling) for the courts, being a cog in the corrupt legal machine. It's a good cover, and leaves him out of the action for the most part.
As a cyclist he's not one of the fastest on foot, though he's given up on using his bike all that often. In order to avoid detection, and particularly pursuit cops, his climbing and leaping skills have been honed in preferance to cycling. He is surprisingly strong, considering how slim he is, and while he doesn't appear to move quickly, he has mastered deft hand motions as well as maintaining a conservation of effort for the rest of his body. His martial arts skills, while present(his mother insisted he learn some when she found out he was going to be alone on the streets rather than safe inside an office), are sorely lacking by comparison with other Runners, mostly from lack of practice. He is unpleasantly aware of this vunerability, and does what he can to make up for it in other ways.
USERNAME: Mr. Metallica (SOAD)
CHARACTER NAME: Charles "Chuck" Grayson
AGE: 29
APPEARANCE:
BIO: Chuck was a somewhat violent kid, ready to get in a fight when he needed to protect his friends. Sadly, his father (and sole parent), Miles Grayson, was arrested by the CPF for conspiracy and slander against the mayor-elect, Elaine Callaghan, through his anti-regime underground newsletter published and distributed among the Runners and finding their way to the public eye. Chuck was 9 years old at the time.
Relocating to a halfway house for troubled youth in the suburbs, Paradise Hills, Chuck grew up lonely and angry, and blamed CPF for his troubles. He regularly cut class at school, sneaked narcotics and alcohol to the younger teens in the home, and frequently explored the hilly and urban town he lived in, gradually becoming adept at the art of parkour, or free-running. At age 26, Chuck departed the sleepy town of Paradise Hills and made his way to the city, to his childhood home. However, Chuck found numerous files and journal entries depicting meetings and encounters with people called 'Runners', covert messengers who delivered goods across the city. Images and newsprint depicted the Runners as nimble, agile men and women, all adorned with a unique article of clothing colored bright red. In a surge of excitement, he tried finding information on the CPF that could help him break out his father and restore justice to the city of New Eden. Unfortunately, the prison was of a higher security than predicted, and Chuck's chance of breaking in was about as good as gone.
Feeling dejected and remorseful at the fact that he would never see his father again, Chuck had set up a noose in his shabby apartment and was prepared to hang himself, when out of nowhere a fledgling Runner had tripped on the adjacent roof and crashed headfirst into Chuck's window. Chuck recognized the skinny frame, the bright red sneakers, and the jet-black bag slung from the man's shoulders as a Runner, remembering the images from his father's records.
In a sudden change of heart, and after a quick demonstration of skill, Chuck successfully coaxed the Runner into letting him follow him to their HQ.
- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
----
Unlike the words of a notable spoken word performer, the revolution would indeed be televised. Which, in the opinion of many a few, would lead to its continuous undoing on both sides.
The city of New Eden's only folly was the chronic self-neglection of its own inner workings, instead focusing its eyes on the more superficial aspects of being a sprawling western-urbanite civilization. It had always been beautiful; since its inception, it was the self-proclaimed center of everything (not that any other urban hub would dare attempt to usurp its throne). Cultural center of the world, commercial center of the world, financial center of the world. If some highly-paid citizens could have their way, the city would also be considered the epicenter of everything in the known universe and beyond. It was a strange state of gleaming self-righteousness and overinflated egotism, thrown into the great melting pot of artificially-sweetened rhetoric and charismatic filling to form the world's most populous fondue of healthy citizenry and smarmy bureaucrats.
It was all too inevitable that the all-seeing eye of government supremacy would blink; ages to late, however. The people of New Eden, the few and proud dissenters and nay-sayers, cried out treachery on the part of their leaders and called their fellow residents to protest. The events that would unfold would be known as "The November Riots", and the final line in the sand drawn between the oppressors and the oppressed would be crossed.
Early demonstrations were non-violent, as their organizers has strived for them to be; and the enforcers stood still, waiting for the first false movement to close in and end it all before it began.
Some time soon after, it happened; like all first shots, no one knew who pulled the trigger first. But it happened. And New Eden in its entire was swallowed up in a great tidal wave of rebellion.
Government forces, with the muscle aid of many a law enforcement unit and private contracting company, waged an all-out war upon their own people, beating down protesters, peaceful or not. Yet, as death counts rose, all was silent. And, in the advent of the tumultuous riots, the dissenters and nay-sayers hid in their dark places, nursing their wounds while their leaders and protectors hunted them down.
And arisen from the ashes of the November Riots came the Runners. And the fleeting, flickering chance at newfound hope began to glimmer dully.
With most, if not all methods of communication being relentlessly monitored by the city government, the revolutionary fronts-in-exile assembled their own, their fastest, in an act of desperation. Operating above the cameras and below the radar, independent couriers known as Runners took to streets, alleys, and rooftops on foot, utilizing their honed skills of urban navigation and the art of Parkour free-running to carry physical communiqués across New Eden between revolutionary factions, in direct defiance of the government's will.
While the Runners operated through the utmost clandestine secrecy, the totalitarian regime caught on, and mobilized their own in a program known as Project Icarus. This program, a joint venture between the City Protection Force (CPF) and the Pirandello-Kruger (PK) PMC group, was made specifically to combat, suppress, and control the Runners after their unsuccessful attempts to bring them to justice conventionally. Fighting fire with fire, these agile and deadly pursuit cops have become one of the greatest threats to the plight of the Runners (along with the laws of gravity, that is).
Earlier in the year, New Eden's prospective race for the seat of city mayor had heated up into quite the tumult. The incumbent executive, Elaine Callaghan, has ruled the city with an iron fist, allegedly using her connections within her father's city construction company to house several secret facilities, including training grounds for the anti-Runner pursuit cops, illicit information caches, and even torture chambers. For the first time in years, however, Callaghan's rule now lies in question, particularly to the up-and-coming underdog candidate, Robert Pope. Pope, rumored to have been an organizer of the protests that would eventually lead to the November Riots, was an ardent critic of New Eden's political system, and ran on the taglines of change and making a difference, which easily took the Runners under his wing.
However, in a stunning turn of events that nearly tore the city into pieces, Robert Pope was assassinated, murdered in his own office by what appeared to have been a Runner known as Faith Connors.
The conspiracy was soon revealed, however, putting a massive dent in the government's control over New Eden and launching the fugitive Faith Connors into folk hero stardom amongst the Runner community.
Now, months after Robert Pope's murder and Elaine Callaghan's resignation, the city lies in absolute quiet - in anticipation of what it will become. While a new oppressive regime establishes their authority, the Runners test their limits and continue their cause one step at a time.
Now, it's your turn. You are a Runner in the city of New Eden, a stealthy and fast messenger to the revolutionaries at large, civil disobedience the name of your game. With the cops, mercenaries, and the government itself at your neck, you will use your skills in parkour, free-running, and genuine street wisdom to make through the day without a bullet to the head. The fate of the revolution, and as such the city itself, lies in your hands.
----
CHARACTER SHEETS
USERNAME:
CHARACTER NAME:
AGE:
APPEARANCE: (Note that most, if not all Runners have some form of red on their person; it's their symbol.)
BIO:
ACCEPTED CHARACTERS
USERNAME: JB
CHARACTER NAME: Omar Tutuola
AGE: 25
APPEARANCE: Omar, a first generation citizen of New Eden of Sub-Saharan African descent (both of his parents had immigrated from Ethiopia), is most noticeably of a much darker skin tone than most, which has stemmed much prejudice put upon him in his life. His eyes, in stark contrast, are a pair of bright viridian greens, possibly a defect in his genes. Omar's dreadlocks (dyed rather clumsily with a bleached blonde streak running a serpentine path from front to back) are, for reasons of practicality as well as style, kept in an updo, often tied into a ponytail to keep from hindering his vision or other senses, especially while running.
Omar's clothing, like all Runners, is light and pliable, allowing him to utilize his speed and flexibility to its full potential. A carmine red hoodie with raglan sleeves, covering a white T-shirt with black stripes running across diagonally, a pair of white track pants, and a pair of vibrant red running shoes, a signature within the Runner community.
BIO: Omar Tutuola was born to two Ethiopian immigrants, raised in New Eden all of his life. At a young age, his parents instilled upon him the importance of exceeding in his education and earning a high-paying job - it didn't exactly matter to them what it was he did, but that he did it to the fullest degree. Omar, however, didn't take to his parents wishes until it was far too late. During what is now known as the November Riots, Omar's mother was grievously injured by a flash-bang grenade launched directly into her abdomen by riot control officers, placed into a coma before dying soon after, and his father was apprehended by police forces for allegedly murdering a lieutenant - though the actual murder remains unsolved, his father still serves out his prison sentence today.
To honor the will of his parents, Omar dedicated his life to his studies and education, all the while harboring a burning hatred for the ways of New Eden. As his opportunities in life grew wider, his contempt grew louder, and eventually, it cost him his scholarship at New Eden Tech, after less than three months of study.
It was then, throughout his written complaints to the papers and public officers and rude graffiti designs and tire-slashing bouts, that Omar discovered the Runners . . . rather, the Runners discovered him, playing a game of keep-away with another Runner and his messenger bag while on a mission. Eventually, he was drafted into their ranks, as it were, and after a year or two of rigorous endurance and martial arts training, Omar was a full-fledged Runner.
USERNAME: JW%
CHARACTER NAME: Kevin Windlark
AGE: 27
APPEARANCE: Thin and long limbed, with a wiry athletic build, like you would see on a marathon runner or soccer player. Dark haired, dark brown eyed and deep tanned skin, showing his native american heritage only slightly covered by the generations of mixing with other races. His hair is cut down in a bowl cut, leaving him nearly shaven around the ears and on his neck, but with thick hair under his customary helmet.
Kevin is a bicycle messanger at heart, and dresses accordingly. Tight drag reducing bicycle suit, thermal jacket, high flexibility and traction shoes, helmet, polarized goggles. His preferances on color range towards navy blue and gold trim, avoiding the stereotype of Runner Red, though the jacket he currently wears does have a thick red stripe along the outer arms and ribs.
BIO: Kevin was born and mostly raised in the rural area just outside of New Eden. However, during his school days, his parents got a job in the inner city and they moved. Kevin hated the city, hated the people in it, and found his new life repressive and stifling. Frequently he would explore or wander the city, flaunting the restricted access areas such as emergency stairwells, rooftops, and maintenence tunnels. Blending his new urban setting with the rural skills he'd picked up playing out in the wilderness, Kevin developed an instinctual sense of direction and location, making it possible for him to plot a fast and easy course from one point to another without even knowing what lay in his path.
Kevin's first job was delievering legal documents for his father across the court houses, and sometimes even across town. Kevin signed on with a bike messanger service and continued his work, earning enough for his schooling to become a paralegal. By age 21 his parents moved to another city, leaving him to his job and schooling. However, with more and more regulations and restrictions on legal transport jobs, his courier service was starting to fold, and taking drastic measures. Not everything Kevin transported was entirely sanctioned anymore.
While the November Riots did not directly touch Kevin's life, at least not any more than anyone else in the city, they did mark the collapse of the business he was working for. Kevin switched employers, becomming one of the Runners.
Kevin is not one of the more prominate members of the Runners, and he rather likes it that way. He doesn't see himself as a revolutionary, just a citizen trying to get by in the world. He has no notable record with the law enforcment agencies, and only insubstantial connections with the Runners or the revolutionaries in hiding. In fact, officially Kevin works(part time internship as part of his schooling) for the courts, being a cog in the corrupt legal machine. It's a good cover, and leaves him out of the action for the most part.
As a cyclist he's not one of the fastest on foot, though he's given up on using his bike all that often. In order to avoid detection, and particularly pursuit cops, his climbing and leaping skills have been honed in preferance to cycling. He is surprisingly strong, considering how slim he is, and while he doesn't appear to move quickly, he has mastered deft hand motions as well as maintaining a conservation of effort for the rest of his body. His martial arts skills, while present(his mother insisted he learn some when she found out he was going to be alone on the streets rather than safe inside an office), are sorely lacking by comparison with other Runners, mostly from lack of practice. He is unpleasantly aware of this vunerability, and does what he can to make up for it in other ways.
USERNAME: Mr. Metallica (SOAD)
CHARACTER NAME: Charles "Chuck" Grayson
AGE: 29
APPEARANCE:
BIO: Chuck was a somewhat violent kid, ready to get in a fight when he needed to protect his friends. Sadly, his father (and sole parent), Miles Grayson, was arrested by the CPF for conspiracy and slander against the mayor-elect, Elaine Callaghan, through his anti-regime underground newsletter published and distributed among the Runners and finding their way to the public eye. Chuck was 9 years old at the time.
Relocating to a halfway house for troubled youth in the suburbs, Paradise Hills, Chuck grew up lonely and angry, and blamed CPF for his troubles. He regularly cut class at school, sneaked narcotics and alcohol to the younger teens in the home, and frequently explored the hilly and urban town he lived in, gradually becoming adept at the art of parkour, or free-running. At age 26, Chuck departed the sleepy town of Paradise Hills and made his way to the city, to his childhood home. However, Chuck found numerous files and journal entries depicting meetings and encounters with people called 'Runners', covert messengers who delivered goods across the city. Images and newsprint depicted the Runners as nimble, agile men and women, all adorned with a unique article of clothing colored bright red. In a surge of excitement, he tried finding information on the CPF that could help him break out his father and restore justice to the city of New Eden. Unfortunately, the prison was of a higher security than predicted, and Chuck's chance of breaking in was about as good as gone.
Feeling dejected and remorseful at the fact that he would never see his father again, Chuck had set up a noose in his shabby apartment and was prepared to hang himself, when out of nowhere a fledgling Runner had tripped on the adjacent roof and crashed headfirst into Chuck's window. Chuck recognized the skinny frame, the bright red sneakers, and the jet-black bag slung from the man's shoulders as a Runner, remembering the images from his father's records.
In a sudden change of heart, and after a quick demonstration of skill, Chuck successfully coaxed the Runner into letting him follow him to their HQ.
