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Genni Mistress's Lil Plaything
Member
Seen
5 yrs ago
Name: Marjorie Joan "MJ" Tackett
Age: 19
Appearance:
Personality:
History:
Speech Color: FF6666 = "Y'all better not be eying up what I think y'all are, otherwise Papi's gonna have to have words."
Traits:
Inventory: Pocket Knife, Riding Crop, Journal, Pencil, Locket (containing a lock of her first lover's hair), Bobby Pins
Age: 19
Appearance:
MJ is the quintessential farmer's daughter, with many years working on the farm with her pappy and the farm hands giving her a well-defined and toned body with perhaps just a little too much muscle to be as ladylike as Hnery Tackett would have preferred to see on his daughter. Over the last few years a healthy diet and plenty of regular exercise have helped shape her into a comely wench, who turns many an eye as she works alongside the menfolk in the fields or tends to the horses in the stable. With fiery red hair and tanned skin, MJ is easily recognisable around the farm, while her deep brown eyes hide a playful nature which frequently has her father reaching for his shotgun.
Personality:
A bubbly and free-spirited young woman, MJ is proud of the work she's done on the farm through some of its most difficult times, and now that things seem to be changing for the better she's eager to spread her wings and experience some more freedom than she has for years. MJ is an obvious tomboy, far preferring to dress and act in a similar fashion to the young men on the farm, an obvious effect of her upbringing as just another farm hand, and actively rebels against any attempts to feminise her in any way. Having said that, the young woman is fully aware of her sexuality and isn't shy in flirting with those around her when she needs to win them over to her way of thinking. In her spare time, when not tending to duties around the farm or caring for the horses, MJ loves to read, although many of her books (including Fanny Hill, The Perfumed Garden and Aphrodite) would be considered by most to be a little too racy for such a young girl.
An avid fan of Amelia Earhart, MJ often uses the pioneering woman as an argument in her own fights for equal status on the farm, as well as having been inspired by her heroine's rejection of several marriage proposals until she felt the time was right. Even though she yearns for freedom though, MJ is staunchly supportive of her family and their business, and rather than looking for a way to leave she's far more interested in maintaining the property in the hopes of one day inheriting it for herself.
Having been raised amongst the itinerant farmhands who've come and gone over the years, MJ has managed to pick up on the languages and dialects of many foreign nations, speaking at least a few words in Spanish, French, French Creole, German, Russian, Italian and Polish, being able to at least make herself understood in these languages, if not carry out entire simple conversations in them. However, her upbringing in the Deep South during this period has also given her a deep rooted disrespect for people of colour, who she has been taught are inferior to other races and don't deserve the same level of respect when being dealt with. As such, she's far more willing to sacrifice a colour person's life to save another's, or her own.
An avid fan of Amelia Earhart, MJ often uses the pioneering woman as an argument in her own fights for equal status on the farm, as well as having been inspired by her heroine's rejection of several marriage proposals until she felt the time was right. Even though she yearns for freedom though, MJ is staunchly supportive of her family and their business, and rather than looking for a way to leave she's far more interested in maintaining the property in the hopes of one day inheriting it for herself.
Having been raised amongst the itinerant farmhands who've come and gone over the years, MJ has managed to pick up on the languages and dialects of many foreign nations, speaking at least a few words in Spanish, French, French Creole, German, Russian, Italian and Polish, being able to at least make herself understood in these languages, if not carry out entire simple conversations in them. However, her upbringing in the Deep South during this period has also given her a deep rooted disrespect for people of colour, who she has been taught are inferior to other races and don't deserve the same level of respect when being dealt with. As such, she's far more willing to sacrifice a colour person's life to save another's, or her own.
History:
MJ is the elder of the Tacketts' two daughters and was born in the farmhouse with the help of a local midwife in 1915. Since then she's barely ever travelled more than a short distance from her home, with trips into the 'big city' of Flemington rare and far between occurrences. However despite her lack of travel even from a young age MJ has always been curious about the world, and after completing her schooling took to learning on her own about cultures and traditions in other countries.
Around the time other kids were playing ball and climbing trees, MJ spent most of her time reading any books she could find and talking with the travellers who found themselves working on the Tackett Farmstead as a way to continue to fund their journeys. From these experiences MJ learnt to view the world as full of opportunities, even as her family fought their way through the Great Depression and Prohibition.
Despite what her parents believe MJ is no stranger to the "marital arts", having first been introduced to them several years earlier by a handsome young man who worked on the plantation for a couple of seasons. Shortly after rumours of their trysts began to circulate around the farm MJ convinced her lover to move on, to save him from her father's retribution should word of their relations spread to his ears. Since then MJ has taken several young men to her bed, although she has always been careful to ensure that her father never finds out about them.
Around the time other kids were playing ball and climbing trees, MJ spent most of her time reading any books she could find and talking with the travellers who found themselves working on the Tackett Farmstead as a way to continue to fund their journeys. From these experiences MJ learnt to view the world as full of opportunities, even as her family fought their way through the Great Depression and Prohibition.
Despite what her parents believe MJ is no stranger to the "marital arts", having first been introduced to them several years earlier by a handsome young man who worked on the plantation for a couple of seasons. Shortly after rumours of their trysts began to circulate around the farm MJ convinced her lover to move on, to save him from her father's retribution should word of their relations spread to his ears. Since then MJ has taken several young men to her bed, although she has always been careful to ensure that her father never finds out about them.
Speech Color: FF6666 = "Y'all better not be eying up what I think y'all are, otherwise Papi's gonna have to have words."
Traits:
Clean-Cut (+2), Local (+1), Rider (+1), Animal Whisperer (+2), Learned (+3), Bilingual:Spanish, French Creole (+3),
Racist:"Negros" (-2), Hot-Headed (-2), Reckless (-3), Disreputable (-1)
Racist:"Negros" (-2), Hot-Headed (-2), Reckless (-3), Disreputable (-1)
Inventory: Pocket Knife, Riding Crop, Journal, Pencil, Locket (containing a lock of her first lover's hair), Bobby Pins
Carlyle off-beat lucio
Member
Seen
0-24 hrs ago
Deleted
mickilennial The Elder Fae
Member
Seen
1 day ago
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“But still, like dust, I'll rise.”
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Abigail
“But still, like dust, I'll rise.”
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Name
Abigail Jane Tackett
Age
17
Appearance
The most oft expressed phrase at Abigail's expense is "When'cha gon' tie the knot?" and that isn't just because Abigail is an independent seventeen year old girl with a significant lack of a significant other. The youthful Tackett girl is not homely in the slightest. She also has inherited her father's blue eyes and her mother's dirty blonde hair. Abigail was bred on the farm and worked on the farm. As a result to being a farmhand, Abigail is well-conditioned and suited to the work of tending, laboring, and hunting; though her shorter, more femine build is still weak by comparison of the burly workers her father hired following the war. While Abigail isn't privy to admit she's weaker than a man, it is hard for her to make the argument that she could pull the same weight.
Personality
Abigail is her father's daughter, through and through. Much like her father, Abigail is a hard-working southerner who keeps busy with what the farm needs and what is expected of her. Also like her father, Abigail isn't particularly keen on tolerating snide comments, hollow excuses, or particular ignorance; if you're going to work on the farm you better know how to do your job and if you don't you better know how to listen to instructions. If Abigail can pull her own weight without complaints there is no excuse worth uttering when a "strong, independent, and earnest man" simply can't. In fact, if Abigail hears such excuses it tends to force her to be curt and blunt in her responses, sometimes antagonistically so. This is not a surprise given that Abigail has inherited her father's renowned temperament and runs just as hot as the old cantankerous patriarch of the family.
However, one redeeming aspect of Abigail's personality is that she is not exactly like her father. Abigail doesn't see the "colored races" as subhuman nor does she think they deserve to be treated unkind. The reason being for this, of course, is partially due to being raised alongside transient negros and hispanics and her own fears of being treated subhuman due to the fact she is secretly a queer woman living in rural Florida. With that said it is clear that Abigail isn't curious or interested in the customs of other cultures and will not go out of her way to learn their language, manners, or interests. They are the farm's employed laborers, not her friends.
However, one redeeming aspect of Abigail's personality is that she is not exactly like her father. Abigail doesn't see the "colored races" as subhuman nor does she think they deserve to be treated unkind. The reason being for this, of course, is partially due to being raised alongside transient negros and hispanics and her own fears of being treated subhuman due to the fact she is secretly a queer woman living in rural Florida. With that said it is clear that Abigail isn't curious or interested in the customs of other cultures and will not go out of her way to learn their language, manners, or interests. They are the farm's employed laborers, not her friends.
History
Abigail Tackett was born in Cypress Hollow in 1917, the youngest of two daughters in a successful family of laborers, farmers, and scavengers. Unlike her elder sister, Abigail has never had an interest in the "outside world" nor was particularly interested in furthering her education. In fact, Abigail was plenty proud of where she came from and the people around her. For Abigail, the only things that have mattered to her throughout her life was the Tackett Farmstead and the people of Cypress Hollow. Though it would be a bond that would serve to be a double-edged sword when she came of age many years later when she discovered that something wasn't quite right.
For as rough around the edges and proud of her family as Abigail was as a child, there was always a weirdness with her growing up. She gravitated towards the usual hobbies farmer's sons had a interest in yet she didn't particularly have girlish crushes. Her father often secluded her from such encounters, though when she did eventually meet boys her own age she didn't really care for them beyond her competetive, hot-tempered ways. She liked working with her hands and oftentimes found her father mumbling in one of his drunken fits that she was more son than daughter - a fact that Abigail was already realizing as she made a romantic connection with her childhood friend, Dorothy Pickford.
Abigail wasn't sure what to think of herself or the consequences of it coming out that she was a queer in rural Florida during the Great Depression. Perhaps it was the childhood curiosity, the desperation of the times, or something else. Whichever it was, Abigail knew she was as queer as a two dollar bill; and as scared as she was about herself and Dorothy's safety she wasn't old enough or brave enough to do anything about it but continue to hide it. Dorothy's family seemed to be ignorant to what was happening behind the scenes as the two grew older and much much closer. Perhaps it was the fear that made Abigail seek to be more clever and more quiet when it came to her escapades; after all, she saw how her sister's promiscuous behavior had earned the paddle. She couldn't imagine what he would've done if it turned out that his younger and more responsible daughter was a damned fairy under his nose.
She wouldn't. It would never get out. But she would not stop being herself.
At home Abigail aspired to continue working on the farm at one hundred percent capacity; an ambition that molded her into the ideal Tackett by the time she was a full-bodied adult of seventeen years old. Her sharpshooting, hunting, and various laborer skills were [in her mind] equal to that of any transient that her father took on and she was privy to keep working on the Tackett Farmstead. After all, the depression was going to end eventually and she wasn't fixing to leave Florida just because of her particular sexuality. Abigail truly believes she can keep her true nature secret to everyone around her and at the same time be the best person she can be in service to the farm's needs.
For as rough around the edges and proud of her family as Abigail was as a child, there was always a weirdness with her growing up. She gravitated towards the usual hobbies farmer's sons had a interest in yet she didn't particularly have girlish crushes. Her father often secluded her from such encounters, though when she did eventually meet boys her own age she didn't really care for them beyond her competetive, hot-tempered ways. She liked working with her hands and oftentimes found her father mumbling in one of his drunken fits that she was more son than daughter - a fact that Abigail was already realizing as she made a romantic connection with her childhood friend, Dorothy Pickford.
Abigail wasn't sure what to think of herself or the consequences of it coming out that she was a queer in rural Florida during the Great Depression. Perhaps it was the childhood curiosity, the desperation of the times, or something else. Whichever it was, Abigail knew she was as queer as a two dollar bill; and as scared as she was about herself and Dorothy's safety she wasn't old enough or brave enough to do anything about it but continue to hide it. Dorothy's family seemed to be ignorant to what was happening behind the scenes as the two grew older and much much closer. Perhaps it was the fear that made Abigail seek to be more clever and more quiet when it came to her escapades; after all, she saw how her sister's promiscuous behavior had earned the paddle. She couldn't imagine what he would've done if it turned out that his younger and more responsible daughter was a damned fairy under his nose.
She wouldn't. It would never get out. But she would not stop being herself.
At home Abigail aspired to continue working on the farm at one hundred percent capacity; an ambition that molded her into the ideal Tackett by the time she was a full-bodied adult of seventeen years old. Her sharpshooting, hunting, and various laborer skills were [in her mind] equal to that of any transient that her father took on and she was privy to keep working on the Tackett Farmstead. After all, the depression was going to end eventually and she wasn't fixing to leave Florida just because of her particular sexuality. Abigail truly believes she can keep her true nature secret to everyone around her and at the same time be the best person she can be in service to the farm's needs.
Speech Color
Goldenrod | #daa520
Traits
Clean-Cut: You are attractive. (+2)
Hardy: You have high endurance. (+1)
Hot-Headed: It is sometimes difficult for you to think clearly. (-2)
Hunter: You are skilled at hunting, cleaning, and cooking wild animals of all kinds. (+1)
Local: You are knowledgeable of Florida's landscape, including towns and local shortcuts. (+1)
Queer: You are homosexual, which is likely kept a secret. (-1)
Quiet: You make little noise, and are adept at sneaking around. (+2)
Reckless: You take unnecessary risks. (-3)
Sharp-Shooter: You have experience with at least one type of firearm. (+2)
Hardy: You have high endurance. (+1)
Hot-Headed: It is sometimes difficult for you to think clearly. (-2)
Hunter: You are skilled at hunting, cleaning, and cooking wild animals of all kinds. (+1)
Local: You are knowledgeable of Florida's landscape, including towns and local shortcuts. (+1)
Queer: You are homosexual, which is likely kept a secret. (-1)
Quiet: You make little noise, and are adept at sneaking around. (+2)
Reckless: You take unnecessary risks. (-3)
Sharp-Shooter: You have experience with at least one type of firearm. (+2)
Inventory
Basic Items:
1929 Zippo Lighter
Bobby Pins
Elgin Wristwatch
Pack of Cigarettes
Personal Locket
Weapons:
Hunting Knife
Smith & Wesson Model 3
1929 Zippo Lighter
Bobby Pins
Elgin Wristwatch
Pack of Cigarettes
Personal Locket
Weapons:
Hunting Knife
Smith & Wesson Model 3
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“It's a mighty big fall from teaching to diggin' shit. I guess it teaches you something. No idea what, yet.”
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Daniel
“It's a mighty big fall from teaching to diggin' shit. I guess it teaches you something. No idea what, yet.”
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Name
Daniel Marlowe
Age
23
Appearance
Slim to an extent that is worrisome. His clothes don't seem to completely fit him, and while it isn't obvious in a slight glance, further inspection shows that he was once much more rotund. When he's not wearing his work clothes, he tends to still dress in a now-ill fitting tweed jacket and slacks. It almost makes him look professorial. Almost. He wears thick, round glasses over his face, and if times had not been so harsh on him, he would almost look handsome. His beard, thin and wiry, covers most of his face. At times, he appears as a man who has been lost at sea for many years. His hair is tar-black and straight, combed and treated with pomade; the one luxury he allows himself. His eyes are stark gray, and are magnified by his glasses.
Personality
Daniel Marlowe is a smart man. A very intelligent man. A young man who-if he had applied himself at another time-could be teaching the brightest minds in the world before he turned 30. Obsessed with reading books and learning over hard work and turning a profit; his personality has always trended towards the introvert over the extrovert. He is a man who if given the chance, however, can fall into a loquacious diatribe about the importance of classical literature, the idiocy of the popularity of phrenology, the dangers of European politics and the sort. Needless to say, this has not earned him many friends among the fieldhands.
But beyond his obsession with learning, he is a sad and tortured man. Denied his dreams, he has become bitter and angry over the fact that he has to work under an old racist bastard who probably wouldn't know Goethe if the man came back from the dead and bit him on his ass.
Still, he is a man who, if the olive branch is extended, will make friends with anyone. A student of progressive education, Daniel rebukes social norms and is willing to break bread with anyone, regardless of their history.
But beyond his obsession with learning, he is a sad and tortured man. Denied his dreams, he has become bitter and angry over the fact that he has to work under an old racist bastard who probably wouldn't know Goethe if the man came back from the dead and bit him on his ass.
Still, he is a man who, if the olive branch is extended, will make friends with anyone. A student of progressive education, Daniel rebukes social norms and is willing to break bread with anyone, regardless of their history.
History
Born to an upper middle class family in Atlanta Georgia in 1910, Daniel was just a child when his eldest brother Charlie left to fight in the great war. Charlie returned in 1920, barely able to speak due to damage of mustard gas. The vision of his childhood hero broken spurred Daniel on into more liberal and progressive ideals, and he became an early student of progressive education, reading the works of Dewey, Steiner and Monstressori. His time in higher education introduced him to some of the finer points in a civilized society, such as polo and horse riding, fine dining, riding in cars and other such things. But sadly these things were not meant to last. Beyond just the reading of progressive education, he fell into groups of students who believed that education should belong to all people, regardless of race, gender, religion, etc. This led to a falling out with his family, and his first job teaching at a public school in Atlanta in 1929.
By mid-1931 his school had closed. Over 1300 schools had closed across Georgia by the end of that year, and Daniel was forced to look elsewhere for work. He was unable to find it, finally settling in Cypress Hollow, working for the Tackett Farmstead. This work has not suited him mentally, and he had little love for his employer as well. Still, his position as the most literate man on a farm did come with its perks. Being able to read for some of the least literate farm hands did well enough to make him a few friends around the barns.
By mid-1931 his school had closed. Over 1300 schools had closed across Georgia by the end of that year, and Daniel was forced to look elsewhere for work. He was unable to find it, finally settling in Cypress Hollow, working for the Tackett Farmstead. This work has not suited him mentally, and he had little love for his employer as well. Still, his position as the most literate man on a farm did come with its perks. Being able to read for some of the least literate farm hands did well enough to make him a few friends around the barns.
Speech Color
Silver| #C0C0C0
Traits
Positive:
Learned +3
Intelligent +2
Light Sleeper +1
Quick-Thinking: +3
Rider: +1
Negative:
Clumsy -1
Proud: -2
Hot-headed: -2
Myopic: -1
Total: +4
Learned +3
Intelligent +2
Light Sleeper +1
Quick-Thinking: +3
Rider: +1
Negative:
Clumsy -1
Proud: -2
Hot-headed: -2
Myopic: -1
Total: +4
Inventory
Beyond his simple clothes provided by the farm, Daniel also has a second set of clothes that look slightly more respectable: a tweed jacket, slacks, and scuffed boots that make him seem as if he is from a better station than he is truly from. Daniel also keeps several books of differing disciplines, from education to chemistry and architecture. Daniel also keeps a leatherbound journal and pen on his person at all times, and while his eyesight is poor (and forces him to wear his glasses) he is still keen at observing important things: all of which go into his journal.
Bork Lazer Chomping Time
Member
Seen
13 hrs ago
Name: Joseph Nicholas Chester
Nickname: Stumps
“Whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also.”
Age: 23
Appearance
Every scar on Stumps can be traced back to the handiwork of a lynch-mob. Raw-red imprints of flaxen ropes and chains around his neck during a stay in Missouri. Burns on his hands and feet from Georgia. Healed cuts from Louisiana. He sometimes jibes that he’s the only Negro alive to have gotten scarred in all 50 states in America, which is heavily subjective to claim.
Perhaps the most defining physical characteristic of Stumps isn’t the heavy amount of bruises and past scars that appear to be on his black skin nor is it his small frame that belies his stout strength, it’s his left arm or rather, what remains of his left arm. Stumps left arm has been completely amputated from the elbow up, leaving only a bare grotesque stump as a grim reminder of the incident that crippled him. His former background as an amateur boxer have conditioned his body for the many trials and tribulations of working as a stablebuck in the Tackett Farmstead. His paunchy face remains solemn and stoic as always, only cracking up with a crinkled smile in the presence of the farm’s horses. His soft brown eyes conceal a maelstrom of anger and fury that he has resolved to keep locked inside him, until he gets back to the stable to practice boxing as the blistered knuckles on his fist can testify.
Personality
Like everyone in the farm, Stumps works hard without complaint in order to maintain his usefulness and position of stable-hand to the Tackett Family, no matter how unfair the conditions are or how low his pay is. Due to his position as one of the only Negroes working in the farm, he is perpetually stuck in a quagmire of loneliness and solitude, only having the horses to converse with. His desperation for social interaction is buried underneath the fear of being kicked out of the Tackett Farmstead or attracting too much attention to himself. Stumps wants nothing more than a relatively safe and somewhat secure life in order to avoid the possibility of being lynched. Thus, he acts completely subservient to the demands of farmhands, no matter how absurd their requests are.
However, Stumps is an ardent pacifist at heart who is sometimes too kind for people who are prejudiced to Negroes to bear conversing with, sometimes frustratingly so. Despite his frustrations with the current status of Negroes in the USA, he remains indifferent and stoic towards the disparaging and demeaning comments of the other farmhands, only replying back with tacit comments. He never bites back. He never retorts. He never punches back. Above all, he never kills another person, no matter the race or background of the individual. This pacifism has stemmed from observing the horrors of lynching on fellow African-Americans such as him along with bearing the grief of being responsible for the lynching and death of his entire family in the first place. Furthermore, Stumps privately believes that the recurrent periods of agonising pain within his amputated arm are a punishment from God himself for his own sins and that working in Cypress Hollow is atonement for his supposed sin.
Stumps has been willing to bend the rules of his pacifism though, as observed with his love of boxing, admiring both white and black fighters alike such as Jack Dempsey and John Johnson. Stumps mainly uses his passion for boxing as a means of releasing his anger and stress from the world that he lives in and as the only aspect of his life in which he has some tangible sense of control and choice in.
History
Stumps, before he was granted his present nickname by farmers of the Tackett Farmstead, was born as Joseph Nicholas Chester in 1911,March 16th, in the urban environment of Houston, Texas in a family of former slaves who formerly worked as cotton pickers in Mississippi. His father was an amateur heavyweight boxer who regularly fought matches to feed the hungry crowd of boxing spectators and his mother, a worker in a dairy factory. Their family struggled to live a comfortable life in a hostile neighbourhood that seemed to outright reject their presence with young Stumps constantly wondering why he had to use a different bathroom compared to all the other kids in school.
Beginning at the age of 16, Stumps grew up in an African-American segregated boxing ring, aspiring to become an amateur boxer just like his father and was his only source of pride in a neighbourhood where black kids like him were picked on every day in the playground by other white kids. Stumps eventually rose to the ranks of one of a proper boxer for the African American crowd in Houston. Stumps eventually earned the nickname ‘The Rifle’ for his ability to deliver lightning quick jabs in the blink of an eye.
In 1932, after critically injuring a white boxer, Billy Barnes, in response to a racist jibe, Stumps and his entire family were lynched by supporters of Barnes as a means of revenge for beating the boxer, breaking his left arm in the process and the entirety of his family including him being hanged under the shade of an oak tree. By some miraculous chance, Stumps managed to escape from the noose, running and hopping onto a train that was leaving Houston by the skin of his teeth, adopting a stalwart pacifism in order to never repeat the same order of events again. Stumps eventually amputated his mangled left arm with the help of a black physician in Louisiana before being ran out of the state as well. No boxing ring accepted his offers of fighting in their ring, a Negro, much less a crippled Negro, and Stumps continued his country wide trek of searching for viable employment.
After travelling from state to state in search of a job that would offer employment for a Negro, Stumps eventually found himself in the town of Cypress Hollow, securing a job as a stable-hand in the Tackett Farmstead amongst the dozens of Negroes that had been employed in the barn. He eventually grew into the role of being a stablebuck, being tutored by the one of the eldest Negro stable-bucks, Lewis Barrett, before his untimely passing. Nowadays, Joseph endures the conditions of working as a Negro on the Tackett Farmhouse whilst hoping for a better future.
Traits
Positive
Pugilist (+2) " Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee."
Prize-Fighter (+3) " Only last week, I murdered a rock, injured a stone and hospitalized a brick"
Hardy (+1) " It's about hard you can get hit and keep moving forward"
Agile (+1) " You can't touch what you can't see."
Rider (+1) " Ride the horse in the direction it's going"
Negative
Church-Going (-2) "I have decided to stick to love...Hate is too great a burden to bear."
Maimed (-4) "Disability is a matter of perception. If you can do just one thing well, you're needed by someone."
Unlucky (-2) " I'm the luckiest unluckiest person in the world"
Sickly (-2) " It is far harder to kill a phantom than a reality"
Skill Value: -2
Speech Color:Maroon
Inventory
- Roll of Boxing Tape
- Horse-Brush
- Personal Comb
- Lucky Horseshoe Necklace
- Bag of Sugar-Cubes
Nickname: Stumps
“Whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also.”
Age: 23
Appearance
Every scar on Stumps can be traced back to the handiwork of a lynch-mob. Raw-red imprints of flaxen ropes and chains around his neck during a stay in Missouri. Burns on his hands and feet from Georgia. Healed cuts from Louisiana. He sometimes jibes that he’s the only Negro alive to have gotten scarred in all 50 states in America, which is heavily subjective to claim.
Perhaps the most defining physical characteristic of Stumps isn’t the heavy amount of bruises and past scars that appear to be on his black skin nor is it his small frame that belies his stout strength, it’s his left arm or rather, what remains of his left arm. Stumps left arm has been completely amputated from the elbow up, leaving only a bare grotesque stump as a grim reminder of the incident that crippled him. His former background as an amateur boxer have conditioned his body for the many trials and tribulations of working as a stablebuck in the Tackett Farmstead. His paunchy face remains solemn and stoic as always, only cracking up with a crinkled smile in the presence of the farm’s horses. His soft brown eyes conceal a maelstrom of anger and fury that he has resolved to keep locked inside him, until he gets back to the stable to practice boxing as the blistered knuckles on his fist can testify.
Personality
Like everyone in the farm, Stumps works hard without complaint in order to maintain his usefulness and position of stable-hand to the Tackett Family, no matter how unfair the conditions are or how low his pay is. Due to his position as one of the only Negroes working in the farm, he is perpetually stuck in a quagmire of loneliness and solitude, only having the horses to converse with. His desperation for social interaction is buried underneath the fear of being kicked out of the Tackett Farmstead or attracting too much attention to himself. Stumps wants nothing more than a relatively safe and somewhat secure life in order to avoid the possibility of being lynched. Thus, he acts completely subservient to the demands of farmhands, no matter how absurd their requests are.
However, Stumps is an ardent pacifist at heart who is sometimes too kind for people who are prejudiced to Negroes to bear conversing with, sometimes frustratingly so. Despite his frustrations with the current status of Negroes in the USA, he remains indifferent and stoic towards the disparaging and demeaning comments of the other farmhands, only replying back with tacit comments. He never bites back. He never retorts. He never punches back. Above all, he never kills another person, no matter the race or background of the individual. This pacifism has stemmed from observing the horrors of lynching on fellow African-Americans such as him along with bearing the grief of being responsible for the lynching and death of his entire family in the first place. Furthermore, Stumps privately believes that the recurrent periods of agonising pain within his amputated arm are a punishment from God himself for his own sins and that working in Cypress Hollow is atonement for his supposed sin.
Stumps has been willing to bend the rules of his pacifism though, as observed with his love of boxing, admiring both white and black fighters alike such as Jack Dempsey and John Johnson. Stumps mainly uses his passion for boxing as a means of releasing his anger and stress from the world that he lives in and as the only aspect of his life in which he has some tangible sense of control and choice in.
History
Stumps, before he was granted his present nickname by farmers of the Tackett Farmstead, was born as Joseph Nicholas Chester in 1911,March 16th, in the urban environment of Houston, Texas in a family of former slaves who formerly worked as cotton pickers in Mississippi. His father was an amateur heavyweight boxer who regularly fought matches to feed the hungry crowd of boxing spectators and his mother, a worker in a dairy factory. Their family struggled to live a comfortable life in a hostile neighbourhood that seemed to outright reject their presence with young Stumps constantly wondering why he had to use a different bathroom compared to all the other kids in school.
Beginning at the age of 16, Stumps grew up in an African-American segregated boxing ring, aspiring to become an amateur boxer just like his father and was his only source of pride in a neighbourhood where black kids like him were picked on every day in the playground by other white kids. Stumps eventually rose to the ranks of one of a proper boxer for the African American crowd in Houston. Stumps eventually earned the nickname ‘The Rifle’ for his ability to deliver lightning quick jabs in the blink of an eye.
In 1932, after critically injuring a white boxer, Billy Barnes, in response to a racist jibe, Stumps and his entire family were lynched by supporters of Barnes as a means of revenge for beating the boxer, breaking his left arm in the process and the entirety of his family including him being hanged under the shade of an oak tree. By some miraculous chance, Stumps managed to escape from the noose, running and hopping onto a train that was leaving Houston by the skin of his teeth, adopting a stalwart pacifism in order to never repeat the same order of events again. Stumps eventually amputated his mangled left arm with the help of a black physician in Louisiana before being ran out of the state as well. No boxing ring accepted his offers of fighting in their ring, a Negro, much less a crippled Negro, and Stumps continued his country wide trek of searching for viable employment.
After travelling from state to state in search of a job that would offer employment for a Negro, Stumps eventually found himself in the town of Cypress Hollow, securing a job as a stable-hand in the Tackett Farmstead amongst the dozens of Negroes that had been employed in the barn. He eventually grew into the role of being a stablebuck, being tutored by the one of the eldest Negro stable-bucks, Lewis Barrett, before his untimely passing. Nowadays, Joseph endures the conditions of working as a Negro on the Tackett Farmhouse whilst hoping for a better future.
Traits
Positive
Pugilist (+2) " Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee."
Prize-Fighter (+3) " Only last week, I murdered a rock, injured a stone and hospitalized a brick"
Hardy (+1) " It's about hard you can get hit and keep moving forward"
Agile (+1) " You can't touch what you can't see."
Rider (+1) " Ride the horse in the direction it's going"
Negative
Church-Going (-2) "I have decided to stick to love...Hate is too great a burden to bear."
Maimed (-4) "Disability is a matter of perception. If you can do just one thing well, you're needed by someone."
Unlucky (-2) " I'm the luckiest unluckiest person in the world"
Sickly (-2) " It is far harder to kill a phantom than a reality"
Skill Value: -2
Speech Color:Maroon
Inventory
- Roll of Boxing Tape
- Horse-Brush
- Personal Comb
- Lucky Horseshoe Necklace
- Bag of Sugar-Cubes
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“We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.”
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Alice
“We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.”
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Name
Alice Elizabeth Hallark
Age
27
Appearance
Alice fits the mould for American-Irish to an almost satirical degree. Her genetics from across the pond basically dominate her appearance, from the tightly curled carrot-orange hair cut so short on the sides that it's unruliness spills out over the top to the very composition of her physique; wide, childbearing hips are the final remnants of a curviness that struggles valiantly against the hollowing skinniness that gripped most of the populace during the 30s. Her breasts have shrunken under famine whilst the pooch in her belly tightened, as if her body was flattening itself under the strain. Her skin is speckled with many freckles all over, particularly on the face and shoulders. She is perpetually sunburnt. Her hands are still soft from the city life she left behind but beware the lumps of muscle on her arms and legs, for she wears them as marks of a different nature of toil.
In terms of attire, Alice’s old life is scandalously reflected in the way she dresses herself. Her skirts are hemmed just a little higher than they ought to be and she covets makeup whenever she has the cash to spare. This reflects on the way she paints her face; starting with the pencil thin brows and working her way through green eyeshadow, powder, blush, and raspberry red lipstick. Of course, as the laborious effects of her new occupation take hold, Alice shall swap this for simply focusing on lining her eyes and brows to avoid looking like she is melting in the heat - but the lipstick never budges. It remains a symbol of what she has been.
In terms of attire, Alice’s old life is scandalously reflected in the way she dresses herself. Her skirts are hemmed just a little higher than they ought to be and she covets makeup whenever she has the cash to spare. This reflects on the way she paints her face; starting with the pencil thin brows and working her way through green eyeshadow, powder, blush, and raspberry red lipstick. Of course, as the laborious effects of her new occupation take hold, Alice shall swap this for simply focusing on lining her eyes and brows to avoid looking like she is melting in the heat - but the lipstick never budges. It remains a symbol of what she has been.
Personality
All first impressions that Alice gives off through her appearance scream ‘Hollywood Has-Been’, but you couldn’t be further from the truth. When it comes down to it, Alice is a seeker of experiences; a pioneer, she yearns for the new and the exciting in this world. She’s a thrillseeker first and a bar-singer second. Her sharp tongue and witty comments are more than enough to get her in trouble; it doesn’t help matters that she’s as stubborn as a mule and doesn’t hold back when she gets mad. Often restless and always fidgety, Alice has a boundless amount of energy that spills into her everyday life and fuels her moments of irrationality, those famous “fuck-it-let’s-give-this-a-shot” ideas that every young adult has been guilty of before.
Alice has a very dramatised way of living. She tries to include as many people as possible into the show, regardless of colour or sexuality - in the greasy underbelly of a cosmopolitan wonderland, anything goes so long as you look pretty. She gesticulates, jokes around, twirls, dances and skips her way through life. She is a very empathetic and perceptive individual but this reflects on the severity of her moods - when she is happy, she is elated. When she is sad, she can be flat-out despondent. Fear is paralysing and rage is all-encompassing. Her irrationality is in constant conflict with steady undercurrents of common sense and quiet wariness that a sharp mind and a solid upbringing has given her, which she owes primarily to her uncle. She has developed a ruthless survival instinct during her years alone in the big city that, when provoked, will spur her into doing whatever it takes to live - even if she must deal with the consequences later.
Alice has a very dramatised way of living. She tries to include as many people as possible into the show, regardless of colour or sexuality - in the greasy underbelly of a cosmopolitan wonderland, anything goes so long as you look pretty. She gesticulates, jokes around, twirls, dances and skips her way through life. She is a very empathetic and perceptive individual but this reflects on the severity of her moods - when she is happy, she is elated. When she is sad, she can be flat-out despondent. Fear is paralysing and rage is all-encompassing. Her irrationality is in constant conflict with steady undercurrents of common sense and quiet wariness that a sharp mind and a solid upbringing has given her, which she owes primarily to her uncle. She has developed a ruthless survival instinct during her years alone in the big city that, when provoked, will spur her into doing whatever it takes to live - even if she must deal with the consequences later.
History
Alice cannot remember a time when she wasn’t on the road. Her earliest memories were brief and indistinct. Her mother was estranged from the family for (briefly) dating a negro; she hastily married Alice’s father, who was a white middle class automobile salesman, and gave birth en route to their new home in Alabama. Mr. Hallark was conscripted into the war when Alice was 4 and died when she was 6. Her mother couldn’t afford childcare so after school Alice wandered to the small hotel where Ms. Hallark-Graham worked each day. She remembered doing her homework and sleeping in the lobby until it got dark, or singing along to the gramophone by the reception desk. When Alice reached 10 years old, the inheritance that her father left had started to run dry. Her mother became desperate. She helped her daughter pack her belongings into a suitcase and they took a very long train ride to Florida.
Once they arrived, it was an even longer walk to an isolated country house in the plains to meet a man that Alice had never met before. According to her mother, the man was her uncle; a travelling doctor who worked in the surrounding area. His name was Elijah Graham. Unbenownst to the little Alice, her mother had made arrangements for her to remain with Elijah until their living conditions could stabilise enough to start living as a proper family again. She departed shortly after leaving Alice in her uncle’s care, and Alice has never seen nor heard from her since.
Naturally, the first month or so of living with her uncle left Alice distraught for days, almost weeks on end. She wanted to go home - even though Elijah had worn himself out by repeatedly telling her that her old home had to be sold off and that this new and unfamiliar land was where she would be living for the foreseeable future. She had to make new friends at school and adjust to living in the countryside. She climbed many trees - and fell out of them. She watched, curiously, from the living room as her uncle brought the sick and the wounded into his office for treatment. As she grew older, Alice was in charge with cleaning and maintenance of equipment - she learned very basic first aid by watching her uncle perform. He taught her after school. With his salary, Alice was able to go to the shops and visit the funfair; she was granted a semi-normal childhood for a couple of years as she started to settle in.
During school holidays, they did not take vacations to different parts of the country; Elijah took Alice out on long-distance calls where his skills were needed as a sort of road trip. During these travels, particularly to large cities where doctors are always in short supply for minority groups, Alice was introduced to the sleazy American middle class - flapper girls, speakeasies, automobiles and movie stars as far as the eye can see. She was perhaps a few years too young to truly understand its dangers, but was enraptured by the glamour. It became something akin to an obsession; she idolised Josephine Baker, Bessie Smith, and Louis Armstrong. For Alice, it did not matter that they were ‘coloured’. She adored the way they carried themselves on stage and the allure of their voices. She also had the opportunity to see many smaller performances live, as being a doctor for the oppressed gave Elijah many favours that he liked to cash in when he had the chance.
This all backfired when, at the meagre age of 17, Alice absolutely insisted on following their salacious footsteps. She was still too naive to understand what it all truly meant but she was relentless in her protests until Elijah, furious and exasperated, got into contact with a man called Fred Olson to sort out a short, 3-week trial period in Jacksonville. Olson was a small-time agent for performers, specialising in singers and actors, and he owed Eli a fair amount for helping his wife with a series of birth complications after her first baby was a stillborn. Elijah forked out a significant sum of money, made Alice swear on the bible that she will follow Olson’s every word (with the exception of using her common sense) and sent the girl on her merry way to learn about life the hard way. What he was not expecting was a telegram from Olson that simply said “I wasn’t expecting that,” and several days later a flyer posted through his letter box with Alice’s name and face plastered all over it. He had never heard of the establishment but he had his utmost faith in Olson’s ability to protect the girl whilst she was in the big city.
The reality was decidedly less glamorous than Alice had anticipated. She was, by Hollywood’s standards, a decidedly ugly character against the blonde pristine beauties on the silver screen. Her mass of freckles and unruly hair brought in the customers in the same way a dwarf brought in spectators at a freak show. It was her voice that kept them; a little rough on the edges but it gave Alice the charm and favour that she needed to survive in this ruthless business. As her ‘career’ started to pick up she became distinctly aware of the cat-calling and general harassment that was much more prominent in the city. There were no laws in place for these sorts of situations; were it not for her backup singers, Molly and Pip, it is likely that Alice would have found herself in a much worse situation than the minor slip-ups that she fell into during her first few weeks. These two women were much older than she was, decidedly past their prime and vehemently jealous of her opportunities. They mistreated Alice and toyed with her gullibleness but ultimately protected the kid as she made her first wobbling steps into show business.
Alice lasted in Jacksonville for around two years. She lost out on some vital education but brought in a steady (albeit pitiful) income, which was more than her classmates back home could boast about. Whilst she was there she witnessed the highs and lows of city life, tasted prohibited alcohol, lost her virginity and got into an embarrassing number of dive-bar brawls by being an unfortunate passer-by. The experience wrenched Alice from her fairly clueless country life into the gritty reality of the world and whilst it sobered her and gave her an indispensable gut instinct, it couldn’t penetrate the bubble of optimism that Alice had steadfastly grew up with. The moment the stock market crashed, Olson laid off almost a third of his clients - Alice included - as he buckled down to weather out the storm. Despondent at the sudden interruption of her ‘big break’, Alice scurried back home to Elijah. Her uncle had visited regularly during those two years but it did not make Alice’s return any less emotional for the young lady. She put her dress and heels away, kept the makeup on her vanity desk and tried to settle back into the routine - but the routine was once again turned on its head as the initial waves of the Great Depression hit with horrifying accuracy. With Elijah’s wallet starting to tighten, the duo decided that their discounted rates and commission fees could not sustain them alone and the stress was overbearing; they made haste to the Tackett farm nearby to offer their services, Elijah as a doctor and Alice as a ‘nurse’ - though the latter was primarily grouped in with all the other cleaning staff in the farmhouse. In this isolated ranch, it was their intention to avoid the worst of the stock market scare and return in the aftershocks to profit from them.
Once they arrived, it was an even longer walk to an isolated country house in the plains to meet a man that Alice had never met before. According to her mother, the man was her uncle; a travelling doctor who worked in the surrounding area. His name was Elijah Graham. Unbenownst to the little Alice, her mother had made arrangements for her to remain with Elijah until their living conditions could stabilise enough to start living as a proper family again. She departed shortly after leaving Alice in her uncle’s care, and Alice has never seen nor heard from her since.
Naturally, the first month or so of living with her uncle left Alice distraught for days, almost weeks on end. She wanted to go home - even though Elijah had worn himself out by repeatedly telling her that her old home had to be sold off and that this new and unfamiliar land was where she would be living for the foreseeable future. She had to make new friends at school and adjust to living in the countryside. She climbed many trees - and fell out of them. She watched, curiously, from the living room as her uncle brought the sick and the wounded into his office for treatment. As she grew older, Alice was in charge with cleaning and maintenance of equipment - she learned very basic first aid by watching her uncle perform. He taught her after school. With his salary, Alice was able to go to the shops and visit the funfair; she was granted a semi-normal childhood for a couple of years as she started to settle in.
During school holidays, they did not take vacations to different parts of the country; Elijah took Alice out on long-distance calls where his skills were needed as a sort of road trip. During these travels, particularly to large cities where doctors are always in short supply for minority groups, Alice was introduced to the sleazy American middle class - flapper girls, speakeasies, automobiles and movie stars as far as the eye can see. She was perhaps a few years too young to truly understand its dangers, but was enraptured by the glamour. It became something akin to an obsession; she idolised Josephine Baker, Bessie Smith, and Louis Armstrong. For Alice, it did not matter that they were ‘coloured’. She adored the way they carried themselves on stage and the allure of their voices. She also had the opportunity to see many smaller performances live, as being a doctor for the oppressed gave Elijah many favours that he liked to cash in when he had the chance.
This all backfired when, at the meagre age of 17, Alice absolutely insisted on following their salacious footsteps. She was still too naive to understand what it all truly meant but she was relentless in her protests until Elijah, furious and exasperated, got into contact with a man called Fred Olson to sort out a short, 3-week trial period in Jacksonville. Olson was a small-time agent for performers, specialising in singers and actors, and he owed Eli a fair amount for helping his wife with a series of birth complications after her first baby was a stillborn. Elijah forked out a significant sum of money, made Alice swear on the bible that she will follow Olson’s every word (with the exception of using her common sense) and sent the girl on her merry way to learn about life the hard way. What he was not expecting was a telegram from Olson that simply said “I wasn’t expecting that,” and several days later a flyer posted through his letter box with Alice’s name and face plastered all over it. He had never heard of the establishment but he had his utmost faith in Olson’s ability to protect the girl whilst she was in the big city.
The reality was decidedly less glamorous than Alice had anticipated. She was, by Hollywood’s standards, a decidedly ugly character against the blonde pristine beauties on the silver screen. Her mass of freckles and unruly hair brought in the customers in the same way a dwarf brought in spectators at a freak show. It was her voice that kept them; a little rough on the edges but it gave Alice the charm and favour that she needed to survive in this ruthless business. As her ‘career’ started to pick up she became distinctly aware of the cat-calling and general harassment that was much more prominent in the city. There were no laws in place for these sorts of situations; were it not for her backup singers, Molly and Pip, it is likely that Alice would have found herself in a much worse situation than the minor slip-ups that she fell into during her first few weeks. These two women were much older than she was, decidedly past their prime and vehemently jealous of her opportunities. They mistreated Alice and toyed with her gullibleness but ultimately protected the kid as she made her first wobbling steps into show business.
Alice lasted in Jacksonville for around two years. She lost out on some vital education but brought in a steady (albeit pitiful) income, which was more than her classmates back home could boast about. Whilst she was there she witnessed the highs and lows of city life, tasted prohibited alcohol, lost her virginity and got into an embarrassing number of dive-bar brawls by being an unfortunate passer-by. The experience wrenched Alice from her fairly clueless country life into the gritty reality of the world and whilst it sobered her and gave her an indispensable gut instinct, it couldn’t penetrate the bubble of optimism that Alice had steadfastly grew up with. The moment the stock market crashed, Olson laid off almost a third of his clients - Alice included - as he buckled down to weather out the storm. Despondent at the sudden interruption of her ‘big break’, Alice scurried back home to Elijah. Her uncle had visited regularly during those two years but it did not make Alice’s return any less emotional for the young lady. She put her dress and heels away, kept the makeup on her vanity desk and tried to settle back into the routine - but the routine was once again turned on its head as the initial waves of the Great Depression hit with horrifying accuracy. With Elijah’s wallet starting to tighten, the duo decided that their discounted rates and commission fees could not sustain them alone and the stress was overbearing; they made haste to the Tackett farm nearby to offer their services, Elijah as a doctor and Alice as a ‘nurse’ - though the latter was primarily grouped in with all the other cleaning staff in the farmhouse. In this isolated ranch, it was their intention to avoid the worst of the stock market scare and return in the aftershocks to profit from them.
Speech Color
Mint | #93f9cf
Traits
Medic - You can perform basic first-aid to a certain degree of skill. +2
Agile - You are quick and light on your feet. +1
Quick-Thinking - You can make use of improvised weapons, such as bottles, broomsticks, and fire. +3
Observant - You are better at noticing traps, as well as your enemies' weaknesses. +1
Showman - You are a performer, skilled with impressions and disguises. +1
Quiet - You make little noise, and are adept at sneaking around. +2
Weak - You are not physically strong. -1
Frail - You have little stamina. -2
Skittish - You frighten easily, and have trouble keeping your cool in stressful situations. -2
Proud - You are unused to harsh living conditions or menial labor, and unwilling to perform degrading tasks. -2
10 - 7 = 3
Agile - You are quick and light on your feet. +1
Quick-Thinking - You can make use of improvised weapons, such as bottles, broomsticks, and fire. +3
Observant - You are better at noticing traps, as well as your enemies' weaknesses. +1
Showman - You are a performer, skilled with impressions and disguises. +1
Quiet - You make little noise, and are adept at sneaking around. +2
Weak - You are not physically strong. -1
Frail - You have little stamina. -2
Skittish - You frighten easily, and have trouble keeping your cool in stressful situations. -2
Proud - You are unused to harsh living conditions or menial labor, and unwilling to perform degrading tasks. -2
10 - 7 = 3
Inventory
Alice owns a fairly large lockbox, to which she wears the key around her waist every day (because who in their right mind would shove their wandering hands into her blouse?) and keeps hidden away in the back of her suitcase under her bed. Within are mementos - photographs, drawings, letters, flyers from everything good that has happened to her so far. When she is having a bad day, she takes the lockbox out from its hiding spot and rifles through its contents.
Make-up kits - in plentiful amounts, with varying degrees of quality.
Formalwear - flapper girl dresses and all their accessories, alongside two somber gowns. Quite dusty.
A pocket knife - You never know!
A diary - This is kept separate from her lockbox and under her pillow.
Hip flask of moonshine - You never know!
Make-up kits - in plentiful amounts, with varying degrees of quality.
Formalwear - flapper girl dresses and all their accessories, alongside two somber gowns. Quite dusty.
A pocket knife - You never know!
A diary - This is kept separate from her lockbox and under her pillow.
Hip flask of moonshine - You never know!
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10 mos ago
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Elijah
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Name
Elijah Graham
Age
56
Appearance
Elijah is a tall, stocky, hairy man with the physique of someone who gained muscle without trying to show off, or perhaps from a lifetime of labour. He has thick dark hair which he combs back, bushy eyebrows, dark eyes and a prominent mustache. More often than not, Elijah has faint stubble around his jawline, perhaps even the beginnings of a beard if he cannot find a razor. His nose is ever-so-slightly crooked and the lines on his face appear to be from decades of frowning. His hands are calloused but their movements are delicate. His nails are kept short for surgery - he wears no wedding ring and there are no indications that he had ever worn one in the past. He has no piercings and no tattoos, but he does have a few scars on his left shoulder, abdomen and knuckles.
Personality
Elijah is world-weary. He has seen most of what he needed to see in order to mature, has suffered enough, and consequently has very little time for people who want to make his life harder than it has to be. He has learned how to fight and fight well, but his aggression is held back by his level-headedness and common sense. He knows how to pick his battles and is very aware of his limits. He carries himself with stoicism but there’s a faint warmth to his personality that makes him a little more welcoming than the other farmhands. For Elijah, law and virtue are less of a necessity - you could do anything you like if you could get away with it without being caught. He still operates under his own strict set of morals though, quick to be disapproving or to congratulate people for doing what he saw as ‘the right thing’.
Elijah does not strike the average onlooker as an intellectual and he certainly doesn’t boast about his book smarts, but they exist nonetheless. When he has some free time, he can often be found reading or studying in his chambers. He appears to be used to multitasking and doesn’t sleep as much as your typical farmhand. Waking up early and working hard from the get-go seems to be ingrained into his psyche. He isn’t the most friendly man you’ll get to meet but once you gain his respect he’s loyal, honest and has a ‘tough love’ approach - he tries to be as amiable as possible with his patients from the very start, however, as it is his duty to look after them.
Elijah does not strike the average onlooker as an intellectual and he certainly doesn’t boast about his book smarts, but they exist nonetheless. When he has some free time, he can often be found reading or studying in his chambers. He appears to be used to multitasking and doesn’t sleep as much as your typical farmhand. Waking up early and working hard from the get-go seems to be ingrained into his psyche. He isn’t the most friendly man you’ll get to meet but once you gain his respect he’s loyal, honest and has a ‘tough love’ approach - he tries to be as amiable as possible with his patients from the very start, however, as it is his duty to look after them.
History
Elijah grew up on the Graham family ranch all the way out in Kansas. He was the eldest, followed closely by his two sisters - Mary and Jacklyn - and then finally a little brother called Joseph. As the soon-to-be head of the household, Elijah was raised on the farm with the intention of inheriting it. Unfortunately for his parents, his aspirations went beyond the borders of his father’s property. He wanted to follow his own American Dream and take on a high-salary job as a surgeon in one of the big cities, like New York or Chicago.
In order to get his diploma, Elijah had to balance his work on the farm and his revision for his exams at school. This meant long days and short rests, sometimes willing his trembling and blistered hands to write that last paragraph. This life suited him well; he was not so much of a family man but he barely had any friends due to his obligations to the farm, so it wasn’t as if he was wasting his free time mucking around with other boys his age. When he had the chance, Elijah went to the park or the library with the few friends he had left; a bookish irishman, like himself, called Eric and a gangly dark-haired youth named Colton. Time seemed to slip by too quickly for the three of them. Before they knew it, Colton had signed up for military service just a few years before the war and Elijah had his qualifications to study in Jacksonville, Florida.
Whilst he was in the city, he noticed the distinct poverty of marginalised people in the streets. His parents were conservative xenophobes who worsened with the war; Elijah had no reason to concern himself over the jews, queers and negroes who struggled to make a living in and out of the underbelly. Nevertheless, Elijah was an opportunist; he saw a gap in the market. He knew that it was immensely difficult to find a doctor who would be willing to treat homosexuals and people of colour; he knew it was even more difficult for any of these people to become a doctor in the first place. Instead of moving out to one of the bigger cities for work, he decided to start a small practitioner's office in one of the seedier parts of town and, using a small loan from the local bank, bought the cheapest equipment money could buy to set up shop there in Jacksonville. His prices were cheaper than most but his market was narrow; white people could not even tolerate stepping into his GP office for a check-up, meaning he worked almost exclusively on low-income families.
The turnout was surprising. Instead of struggling to make a living, his target customers shilled out a decent amount to finally have a qualified doctor look at their wounds, bumps, rashes and infections that they had previously left to heal or fester. Whilst it did mean that Elijah was overworked and had some pretty nauseating patients to tackle, he found his cool shell of prejudice was beginning to slowly crack and falter. He began to see his patients not as exploitable profit, but as people - people who were immensely grateful for what he has done. Before Eli knew it he had a full address book of friends and found himself frequenting many bars and theatres reserved for coloured people. He similarly got his knuckles bloody a fair few times, both defending himself from those who felt he did not belong and giving a couple of shiners to anybody stupid enough to try and torment his patients. As the years passed he acquired enough money to buy proper gear - then another course for becoming a surgeon - then a house in the countryside.
It was around this time, after Elijah had settled into his new home and fell back into his old country roots of agriculture, that he received a telegram from one of his sisters. It was Jacklyn; she said it was an emergency and that she was travelling to Florida to ask for an irredeemable favour. When she did arrive, it was with a little girl in tow. According to Jacklyn, her husband had died during World War One and she was unable to feed both herself and her little girl, Alice, whilst simultaneously keeping a roof over their heads. She promised Elijah that as soon as she was able she would return to pick up the child. Elijah unquestionably agreed to look after his niece.
Elijah had never given romance much thought; the concept was foreign and unrealistic for him. Marriage, and even children, were practically inconceivable - and yet here he was, suddenly burdened with a ten year old girl and next to no prior experience. The first few months were exceedingly tough. Luckily he was able to get in touch with a few of the families he treated in the past for some life-saving tips. However, since Alice needed a stable education he could not afford to return to Jacksonville so he sold his old office, setting up a makeshift GP office out of his shed and taking commission requests in the surrounding villages.
From then on Elijah did his best to be a father figure for the little girl. He attended all of her pantomimes and talent shows, helped her with her homework and even taught her a thing or two about medicine as she grew up. When she decided that she wanted to try her hand at singing and acting, Elijah begrudgingly paid the fees and called in a few favours from his friends in the city. Whilst she was off learning some valuable life lessons, Elijah had the free time to work on his house a little - he started a proper vegetable garden and made himself a patio. Appointments were slow and often had him out on the trains every week but he usually took bookings for patients to visit his house as well to pad out his income. When the Great Depression hit, money was getting harder and harder to come by. He needed a steady and reliable source of income and somewhere to stay with his niece so he could save more money by avoiding all of the supplementary costs of living in his own property. He found a nearby farm, fairly isolated from the rest of the town, and offered his services as a doctor for bed, board, and a bit of cash.
In order to get his diploma, Elijah had to balance his work on the farm and his revision for his exams at school. This meant long days and short rests, sometimes willing his trembling and blistered hands to write that last paragraph. This life suited him well; he was not so much of a family man but he barely had any friends due to his obligations to the farm, so it wasn’t as if he was wasting his free time mucking around with other boys his age. When he had the chance, Elijah went to the park or the library with the few friends he had left; a bookish irishman, like himself, called Eric and a gangly dark-haired youth named Colton. Time seemed to slip by too quickly for the three of them. Before they knew it, Colton had signed up for military service just a few years before the war and Elijah had his qualifications to study in Jacksonville, Florida.
Whilst he was in the city, he noticed the distinct poverty of marginalised people in the streets. His parents were conservative xenophobes who worsened with the war; Elijah had no reason to concern himself over the jews, queers and negroes who struggled to make a living in and out of the underbelly. Nevertheless, Elijah was an opportunist; he saw a gap in the market. He knew that it was immensely difficult to find a doctor who would be willing to treat homosexuals and people of colour; he knew it was even more difficult for any of these people to become a doctor in the first place. Instead of moving out to one of the bigger cities for work, he decided to start a small practitioner's office in one of the seedier parts of town and, using a small loan from the local bank, bought the cheapest equipment money could buy to set up shop there in Jacksonville. His prices were cheaper than most but his market was narrow; white people could not even tolerate stepping into his GP office for a check-up, meaning he worked almost exclusively on low-income families.
The turnout was surprising. Instead of struggling to make a living, his target customers shilled out a decent amount to finally have a qualified doctor look at their wounds, bumps, rashes and infections that they had previously left to heal or fester. Whilst it did mean that Elijah was overworked and had some pretty nauseating patients to tackle, he found his cool shell of prejudice was beginning to slowly crack and falter. He began to see his patients not as exploitable profit, but as people - people who were immensely grateful for what he has done. Before Eli knew it he had a full address book of friends and found himself frequenting many bars and theatres reserved for coloured people. He similarly got his knuckles bloody a fair few times, both defending himself from those who felt he did not belong and giving a couple of shiners to anybody stupid enough to try and torment his patients. As the years passed he acquired enough money to buy proper gear - then another course for becoming a surgeon - then a house in the countryside.
It was around this time, after Elijah had settled into his new home and fell back into his old country roots of agriculture, that he received a telegram from one of his sisters. It was Jacklyn; she said it was an emergency and that she was travelling to Florida to ask for an irredeemable favour. When she did arrive, it was with a little girl in tow. According to Jacklyn, her husband had died during World War One and she was unable to feed both herself and her little girl, Alice, whilst simultaneously keeping a roof over their heads. She promised Elijah that as soon as she was able she would return to pick up the child. Elijah unquestionably agreed to look after his niece.
Elijah had never given romance much thought; the concept was foreign and unrealistic for him. Marriage, and even children, were practically inconceivable - and yet here he was, suddenly burdened with a ten year old girl and next to no prior experience. The first few months were exceedingly tough. Luckily he was able to get in touch with a few of the families he treated in the past for some life-saving tips. However, since Alice needed a stable education he could not afford to return to Jacksonville so he sold his old office, setting up a makeshift GP office out of his shed and taking commission requests in the surrounding villages.
From then on Elijah did his best to be a father figure for the little girl. He attended all of her pantomimes and talent shows, helped her with her homework and even taught her a thing or two about medicine as she grew up. When she decided that she wanted to try her hand at singing and acting, Elijah begrudgingly paid the fees and called in a few favours from his friends in the city. Whilst she was off learning some valuable life lessons, Elijah had the free time to work on his house a little - he started a proper vegetable garden and made himself a patio. Appointments were slow and often had him out on the trains every week but he usually took bookings for patients to visit his house as well to pad out his income. When the Great Depression hit, money was getting harder and harder to come by. He needed a steady and reliable source of income and somewhere to stay with his niece so he could save more money by avoiding all of the supplementary costs of living in his own property. He found a nearby farm, fairly isolated from the rest of the town, and offered his services as a doctor for bed, board, and a bit of cash.
Speech Color
Teal/Gray | #6096a4
Traits
Doctor - You have extensive experience in more advanced medical operations. +3
Craftsman - You can build appliances, furniture, and small walls. +1
Quick-Thinking - You can make use of improvised weapons, such as bottles, broomsticks, and fire. +3
Imposing - You are good at intimidating others, due to size or some other factor. +2
Learned - You are literate and have a relatively advanced education, in comparison to the common man. +3
Hot-Headed - It is sometimes difficult for you to think clearly.-2
Abrasive - You are rude, and generally disliked for it. -1
Slow - You cannot move quickly. -2
Loud - Your movements are particularly noticeable. -1
Heavy Eater - You need more food than most. -1
Queer - You are homosexual, which is likely kept a secret. -1
11 - 7 = 4
Craftsman - You can build appliances, furniture, and small walls. +1
Quick-Thinking - You can make use of improvised weapons, such as bottles, broomsticks, and fire. +3
Imposing - You are good at intimidating others, due to size or some other factor. +2
Learned - You are literate and have a relatively advanced education, in comparison to the common man. +3
Hot-Headed - It is sometimes difficult for you to think clearly.-2
Abrasive - You are rude, and generally disliked for it. -1
Slow - You cannot move quickly. -2
Loud - Your movements are particularly noticeable. -1
Heavy Eater - You need more food than most. -1
Queer - You are homosexual, which is likely kept a secret. -1
11 - 7 = 4
Inventory
Medical Gear
Journal
Money
Snub-nosed revolver
Journal
Money
Snub-nosed revolver
Sloth The Potato Salad of People
Member
Seen
3 mos ago
Name: Benjamin Robert "Benji" Hayes
Age: 16 (B. 1918)
Appearance: It is clearly evident to anyone who lays eyes upon Benji that he has been a man, or rather boy, of the tracks for some time. His clothes are weathered, his face unshaven and his brown hair grows unkempt down to his shoulders. Though it cannot be denied that he carries a sense of weariness thanks to his newfound position of fending for himself, his gray eyes and sheepish grin still lend a somewhat boyish quality about him. Benji's most noticeable piece of clothing is an armed forces jacket inherited from his father that hangs loose on his 5'3" frame. The only other apparel Benji seems to own (other than his farmhand's uniform) are a plain white shirt, a faded pair of blue jeans, and a set of work boots.
Personality: As one might expect given the past year or so of his life, Benjamin Hayes is a reserved and generally quiet boy of sixteen years. He's done what he's been told and proven to be well mannered and a hard worker. He didn't have the luxury of a long mourning period upon his mother's passing, and as such he learned very quickly the turmoil of being an orphan on the road.
Oddly, this has not seemed to affect Benji's demeanor. Even as a child Benji had been a gentle soul, and his mother ensured he knew the value of kindness, even to those less advantaged to themselves. Some would say Benji is kind to a fault, letting himself go hungry so a younger child could eat, and so on. He believes that, eventually, the Lord will reward him for his kindness during such trying times as these. He has to. Such belief is one of the few things keeping Benji going on his journey through transience, and so far, his faith has typically been rewarded.
Hopefully the universe won't see fit to destroy such innocence.
History: Born in the town of Rockport to an English teacher, Benji never had the opportunity to know his father, conceived on the eve of one Charlie Hayes' deployment to France in the Great War. Aside from this, Benji's youth was practically mundane. He took regular trips to Flemington to visit his grandparents, caused only a little bit more trouble at school than your usual student, and went to confession once a month at his local place of worship. Like everyone else however, this changed once the Great Depression began in earnest.
Upon the stock market crash in 1929, Benjamin's mother, Mary, was forced to take up any odd job she could find around town in order to support herself and her son, and while Benji was still young and naive enough to enjoy the almost daily trips to the local soup kitchen, Mary worked herself to the point of exhaustion, and only a few years into the Depression came down with what prove to be a lethal case of tuberculosis. While she had attempted to find an orphanage to take Benjamin in during her final days, it seemed all such establishments were full, and upon her death in the summer of 1933, Benji was left to fend for himself.
Without his mother's guidance, Benji has drifted from town to town along the railway in Georgia, relying on whatever kindness he could find from strangers and working whatever jobs he could find available. Recently, he heard of a farmstead taking on hands in Cypress Hollow, and traveled their with a group of his fellow homeless. He found himself one of the lucky few to be taken on by the Tackett Family, and believes he has now found the ideal spot to ride out the rest of the Depression and, potentially, a career.
Speech Color: Forest Green
Traits:
Agile - You are quick and light on your feet. +1
Local - You are knowledgeable of Florida's landscape, including towns and local shortcuts. +1
Observant - You are better at noticing traps, as well as your enemies' weaknesses. +1
Quick-Thinking - You can make use of improvised weapons, such as bottles, broomsticks, and fire. +3
Weak - You are not physically strong. -1
Churchgoing - You are of the righteous sort who might hesitate to kill. -2
Skittish - You frighten easily, and have trouble keeping your cool in stressful situations. -2
Total: +1
Inventory:
A single dog tag reading "Charles Hayes"
A simple Swiss army knife
Age: 16 (B. 1918)
Appearance: It is clearly evident to anyone who lays eyes upon Benji that he has been a man, or rather boy, of the tracks for some time. His clothes are weathered, his face unshaven and his brown hair grows unkempt down to his shoulders. Though it cannot be denied that he carries a sense of weariness thanks to his newfound position of fending for himself, his gray eyes and sheepish grin still lend a somewhat boyish quality about him. Benji's most noticeable piece of clothing is an armed forces jacket inherited from his father that hangs loose on his 5'3" frame. The only other apparel Benji seems to own (other than his farmhand's uniform) are a plain white shirt, a faded pair of blue jeans, and a set of work boots.
Personality: As one might expect given the past year or so of his life, Benjamin Hayes is a reserved and generally quiet boy of sixteen years. He's done what he's been told and proven to be well mannered and a hard worker. He didn't have the luxury of a long mourning period upon his mother's passing, and as such he learned very quickly the turmoil of being an orphan on the road.
Oddly, this has not seemed to affect Benji's demeanor. Even as a child Benji had been a gentle soul, and his mother ensured he knew the value of kindness, even to those less advantaged to themselves. Some would say Benji is kind to a fault, letting himself go hungry so a younger child could eat, and so on. He believes that, eventually, the Lord will reward him for his kindness during such trying times as these. He has to. Such belief is one of the few things keeping Benji going on his journey through transience, and so far, his faith has typically been rewarded.
Hopefully the universe won't see fit to destroy such innocence.
History: Born in the town of Rockport to an English teacher, Benji never had the opportunity to know his father, conceived on the eve of one Charlie Hayes' deployment to France in the Great War. Aside from this, Benji's youth was practically mundane. He took regular trips to Flemington to visit his grandparents, caused only a little bit more trouble at school than your usual student, and went to confession once a month at his local place of worship. Like everyone else however, this changed once the Great Depression began in earnest.
Upon the stock market crash in 1929, Benjamin's mother, Mary, was forced to take up any odd job she could find around town in order to support herself and her son, and while Benji was still young and naive enough to enjoy the almost daily trips to the local soup kitchen, Mary worked herself to the point of exhaustion, and only a few years into the Depression came down with what prove to be a lethal case of tuberculosis. While she had attempted to find an orphanage to take Benjamin in during her final days, it seemed all such establishments were full, and upon her death in the summer of 1933, Benji was left to fend for himself.
Without his mother's guidance, Benji has drifted from town to town along the railway in Georgia, relying on whatever kindness he could find from strangers and working whatever jobs he could find available. Recently, he heard of a farmstead taking on hands in Cypress Hollow, and traveled their with a group of his fellow homeless. He found himself one of the lucky few to be taken on by the Tackett Family, and believes he has now found the ideal spot to ride out the rest of the Depression and, potentially, a career.
Speech Color: Forest Green
Traits:
Agile - You are quick and light on your feet. +1
Local - You are knowledgeable of Florida's landscape, including towns and local shortcuts. +1
Observant - You are better at noticing traps, as well as your enemies' weaknesses. +1
Quick-Thinking - You can make use of improvised weapons, such as bottles, broomsticks, and fire. +3
Weak - You are not physically strong. -1
Churchgoing - You are of the righteous sort who might hesitate to kill. -2
Skittish - You frighten easily, and have trouble keeping your cool in stressful situations. -2
Total: +1
Inventory:
A single dog tag reading "Charles Hayes"
A simple Swiss army knife
spicykvnt Sponsored by Yorkshire Gold
Member
Seen
21 days ago
Name: Lawrence Miller
Age: 27
Appearance
5'11" with a set of baby blues and an intensely imposing stare. He is not overbuilt in his physique, but years of working as a farmhand have left him toned and strong. The ends of his hair lighten to a sandy blonde under the heat of the Florida sun, with a darker brown growing in at the root. He is typically handsome and keeps himself clean cut and neat - trimming his facial hair short and his hair combed just so. He doesn't mind getting dirty during work, because of this, most of his clothing is stained with splashes and mixtures of oils, dirt, and paint. He is not a man who smiles often, or shows much expression on his face, but when he does smile he has a good set of straight teeth - a constant surprise to him that even after so many brawls he has yet to lose a tooth.
Personality
A private man who fiercely guards the details of his life before he left the family home, he appears to have a somewhat unpleasant personality at first, and is a man of very few words. He can be contemplative and meditative, and those that he works closest to know very little about him. They would describe him as being introspective but likely with a past riddled with more filth than a Louisiana Bayou.
He can come across as rude and blunt, and is the first to throw a punch when a punch needs to be thrown. When given space from others, he very much just gets on with it and will soften around those that are less demanding on him and give him the space to be his quiet and contemplative self. Despite what may be viewed as some shortcomings in personality - he has been able to build up a solid reputation for himself as being an honest and skilled craftsman. People trust that when Lawrence does a job, that job will be done the best it can be.
History
Born one of five in 1907 to a Preacher and his wife in Shreveport, Louisiana, Lawrence spent his early years under the iron fist of his religious father. He had only one brother, and three sisters. As the middle child he would often feel excluded and overshadowed by his siblings. Still, he tried his hardest to catch the attention and earn the respect of his father. The only time he would seem to get that attention was when his father delighted in beating him, it was an honor that seemed to only be bestowed upon his first born son - as his youngest sibling, James, was the apple of his father's eye.
Lawrence could do nothing right, no matter how well he read out scripture in Church, how he could retell the biblical stories, and no matter how much he prayed and worshiped... It was never enough. The actions of his father eventually broke his faith in God and religion, not to mention that God had never answered his prayers either... By his mid teens he was already a truly rebellious, reckless and troubled young man. He would get into fist fights, go out and vandalise buildings in the town, and would be a general nuisance - conducting disorderly behaviour on a frequent basis. It was never anything too serious, but it was serious enough to get repeated punishments from his father, and still, he never fought back.
By far, the worst beating he ever received came when his father discovered that Lawrence had torn the inside pages out of a bible and replaced it with a stolen copy of Wuthering Heights. How was Lawrence to know that that very night his father would reach for that old dog-eared Bible to read his scripture - only to be confronted with passages of a novel instead. Such novels were forbidden in the Miller household, what was Lawrence to do? It hadn't been the first time he'd done such a thing. Reading was one of the few things that he actually, truly, enjoyed. It provided him a quiet space away from his home. He got to visit better places by thumbing through the pages of forbidden novels.
When he was 19, he walked in on his father fiddling his youngest sister, Dorothy. It was to be the first and only time he found the courage within himself to take a swing at his father - he reached for an empty bottle and landed the blow to the back of his fathers neck. The first and only time he would strike back at his father would just wind up being another instance in which the the Preacher overpowered and humiliated his son. His sister scolded him for coming to her defense - protecting their father. Unable to understand why she wanted to protect him, and shamed from losing to his father again, he took off that very same afternoon and never looked back. He stole a few pieces of jewellery, some dining silver, what little cash he could find - pawning everything but his mother's crucifix necklace in order to pay his way out of Shreveport.
For a good 5 years he traveled around - jumping from job to job. He discovered on his travels that putting his hands to work properly helped to drown out the noise and make him feel less anger and guilt. He eventually reached Cypress Hollow when he was 24. By then, he had built up some decent skills in craftsmanship and mending things. He wound up taking on some continuous work as a farmhand and handyman on the Tackett farm.
A truly strange place for him to wind up, but for some reason he stuck around. There always seemed to be a fence that needed a new coat of paint, an engine that needed to be fixed, or furniture to be built. He kept to himself mostly, putting himself to good use by Henry Tackett, who unlike so many others he had worked for - really didn't seem to mind how rough around the edges he could be.
Speech Color
Teal - 00746b
Traits
Imposing - +2
Craftsman - +3
Pugilist - +2
Reputable - +2
Hardy - +1
Abrasive - -1
Reckless - -3
Loud - -1
Hot Headed - -2
Skill Value - 3
Inventory
Crucifix chain necklace.
Several farm tools kept on a belt
Age: 27
Appearance
5'11" with a set of baby blues and an intensely imposing stare. He is not overbuilt in his physique, but years of working as a farmhand have left him toned and strong. The ends of his hair lighten to a sandy blonde under the heat of the Florida sun, with a darker brown growing in at the root. He is typically handsome and keeps himself clean cut and neat - trimming his facial hair short and his hair combed just so. He doesn't mind getting dirty during work, because of this, most of his clothing is stained with splashes and mixtures of oils, dirt, and paint. He is not a man who smiles often, or shows much expression on his face, but when he does smile he has a good set of straight teeth - a constant surprise to him that even after so many brawls he has yet to lose a tooth.
Personality
A private man who fiercely guards the details of his life before he left the family home, he appears to have a somewhat unpleasant personality at first, and is a man of very few words. He can be contemplative and meditative, and those that he works closest to know very little about him. They would describe him as being introspective but likely with a past riddled with more filth than a Louisiana Bayou.
He can come across as rude and blunt, and is the first to throw a punch when a punch needs to be thrown. When given space from others, he very much just gets on with it and will soften around those that are less demanding on him and give him the space to be his quiet and contemplative self. Despite what may be viewed as some shortcomings in personality - he has been able to build up a solid reputation for himself as being an honest and skilled craftsman. People trust that when Lawrence does a job, that job will be done the best it can be.
History
Born one of five in 1907 to a Preacher and his wife in Shreveport, Louisiana, Lawrence spent his early years under the iron fist of his religious father. He had only one brother, and three sisters. As the middle child he would often feel excluded and overshadowed by his siblings. Still, he tried his hardest to catch the attention and earn the respect of his father. The only time he would seem to get that attention was when his father delighted in beating him, it was an honor that seemed to only be bestowed upon his first born son - as his youngest sibling, James, was the apple of his father's eye.
Lawrence could do nothing right, no matter how well he read out scripture in Church, how he could retell the biblical stories, and no matter how much he prayed and worshiped... It was never enough. The actions of his father eventually broke his faith in God and religion, not to mention that God had never answered his prayers either... By his mid teens he was already a truly rebellious, reckless and troubled young man. He would get into fist fights, go out and vandalise buildings in the town, and would be a general nuisance - conducting disorderly behaviour on a frequent basis. It was never anything too serious, but it was serious enough to get repeated punishments from his father, and still, he never fought back.
By far, the worst beating he ever received came when his father discovered that Lawrence had torn the inside pages out of a bible and replaced it with a stolen copy of Wuthering Heights. How was Lawrence to know that that very night his father would reach for that old dog-eared Bible to read his scripture - only to be confronted with passages of a novel instead. Such novels were forbidden in the Miller household, what was Lawrence to do? It hadn't been the first time he'd done such a thing. Reading was one of the few things that he actually, truly, enjoyed. It provided him a quiet space away from his home. He got to visit better places by thumbing through the pages of forbidden novels.
When he was 19, he walked in on his father fiddling his youngest sister, Dorothy. It was to be the first and only time he found the courage within himself to take a swing at his father - he reached for an empty bottle and landed the blow to the back of his fathers neck. The first and only time he would strike back at his father would just wind up being another instance in which the the Preacher overpowered and humiliated his son. His sister scolded him for coming to her defense - protecting their father. Unable to understand why she wanted to protect him, and shamed from losing to his father again, he took off that very same afternoon and never looked back. He stole a few pieces of jewellery, some dining silver, what little cash he could find - pawning everything but his mother's crucifix necklace in order to pay his way out of Shreveport.
For a good 5 years he traveled around - jumping from job to job. He discovered on his travels that putting his hands to work properly helped to drown out the noise and make him feel less anger and guilt. He eventually reached Cypress Hollow when he was 24. By then, he had built up some decent skills in craftsmanship and mending things. He wound up taking on some continuous work as a farmhand and handyman on the Tackett farm.
A truly strange place for him to wind up, but for some reason he stuck around. There always seemed to be a fence that needed a new coat of paint, an engine that needed to be fixed, or furniture to be built. He kept to himself mostly, putting himself to good use by Henry Tackett, who unlike so many others he had worked for - really didn't seem to mind how rough around the edges he could be.
Speech Color
Teal - 00746b
Traits
Imposing - +2
Craftsman - +3
Pugilist - +2
Reputable - +2
Hardy - +1
Abrasive - -1
Reckless - -3
Loud - -1
Hot Headed - -2
Skill Value - 3
Inventory
Crucifix chain necklace.
Several farm tools kept on a belt
Name
Kenneth "Kenny" Blankenship
Age
27
Appearance
Short and wiry, Kenny might be described as something akin to a weasel if it wasn't for his crippled right leg rendering him unable to move any more graceful than a drunkard with a limp. Many are the comments made by the fellow man that Kenny has had to hear about his knock-kneed gait - especially considering how he received it - and even more plentiful are the amused glances women give him. Unfortunately, Kenneth never was a looker to begin with. His nose, crooked from being broken more than a few times, is too large for his small face and his bleak grey eyes convey little else than despondency and disinterest. Kenny's chestnut hair is short but naturally thick and impossible to groom, something Kenny never bothered with anyway. By contrast his facial hair is nonexistent. Yet, for all his faults, plenty are those who would readily admit Kenneth has one of the most infectious smiles and accompanying laughter one could imagine. A strange juxtaposition which is endearing enough for some.
Personality
Kenny is something of a shell. Superficially, he's commonly perceived as being callous, withdrawn, unlikable and dishonest - none of which is wrong, yet none of which is entirely accurate either. Kenny is something of a lost soul, someone so dissident yet lethargic that even the slightly-above-averagely perceptive person can pick up on the fact that Kenny is not necessarily as much of a dickhead as he comes across, but more-so a result of unfortunate circumstance and - perhaps - not truly a lost cause. Kenny can be witty and gregarious when he wants to, though he usually relegates himself to making snide remarks and hurtful comments; a way to keep people at bay.
Kenny is someone who desperately needs attention in the form of confirmation and affirmation. After living a life largely met with neglect and/or contempt, Kenny wants to be liked, yet is unyielding when it comes to letting people inside of his abrasive shell. Kenny is the kind of guy more likely to respond to affection or empathy with a biting "go fuck yourself" than acceptance, despite thoroughly wanting such attention. Moreover, Kenny harbors deep feelings regarding Negroes in specific. He was taught they were worth less as a young child, a belief cemented by a profound betrayal that left him scarred for life.
Speaking of the devil, the consequences of said betrayal has left Kenny severely emotionally distressed. He'll wake up in the middle of the night screaming or crying, usually unable to remember his dreams yet always able to tell what they were about regardless. His past has left him utterly unwilling to commit violent acts, and he detests the thought of killing (though he wouldn't admit it). The murders he has committed has haunted him for years, and he has so far been unable to find remedy. Somewhere deep down inside, Kenny has a fiery need for making amends and doing something with his life, but he has yet to find a catalyst.
History
Born in 1907 to Robert Blankenship and his wife Margaret, Kenneth is the youngest of the couple's six sons and a local of Cypress Hollow. Robert was as the owner of Head On Inn a well-known and respected member of Cypress Hollow's community. Offering food, beverages and lodging, the Head On Inn was one of the more popular establishments in town. With their older brothers already helping out with running the inn, there was little reason for young Kenny and his youngest brother, Raymond, to do the same. Instead the two would from a very young age be allowed to follow their uncle Harold into the surrounding forests and swamps. Harold was a hunter and trapper and would often sell his game to his brother Robert for a discount. When Kenny was ten things would change dramatically, however. The four eldest sons of the family where all drafted into the War. Less than a year later three of them were gone. Edward died fighting, David died from pneumonia and Henry simply went MIA, presumably killed. Meanwhile Kenny's father suffered a heart attack and followed his sons into the afterlife, and when Thomas, the only surviving brother, came back from Europe he was not the brother that had left.
According to Robert's wishes, before he past, the eldest son Thomas assumed ownership when he returned. Left embittered and despondent from the horrors of war, Thomas did little good to Head On Inn. Kenny and Ray were hounded hard, having to help out with washing, serving, cooking and cleaning around the inn as well as receiving regular beatings from the older sibling while their hapless mother mainly spent her time softly weeping. Eventually uncle Harold had enough of Thomas misgivings. Although he could do little about the inn, Harold managed to talk enough sense (after beating him and putting a rifle to his temple, according to some) into Thomas to be able to take Kenny and Ray away. With Harold as their new guardian, the two kids entered adolescence somewhat hopeful.
Kenny spent the better part of his early teens following his uncle around, learning how to navigate the surroundings of Cypress Hollow by heart as well as how to live weeks-on-end in wilderness, using the local flora and fauna to your advantage. School suffered, but Kenny could care less. The runty little kid had, unlike Ray, never been a popular figure amongst the other kids anyway. Unfortunately the death's in the Blankenship family was not over yet, and in 1923 Harold was killed by a Negro. He had assaulted Harold in a botched robbery, ending up stabbing the man to death (years later, Kenny would hear that Harold was the one attacking the Negro, though whether Kenny could allow himself to believe this is another story). At the time, Ray was of legal age and worked at the local saw mill. He managed to take over custody of Kenny after Harold's death - a task no doubt made easier by the fact that Thomas had been sent to prison for extortion while their mother Margaret was an emotional wreck. Together with Kenny, Ray took over Harold's business. While Ray was the true talent at hunting, Kenny proved to be more than apt at trapping animals as well as constructing various shelters and watch towers throughout the country side, to the extent that he would get hired by other locals to build or fix whatever they needed. They had a good couple of years until the summer of 1926, when Kenny managed to fall for a Negro.
Following the events of 27-28, Kenny fell into a depression. He left Cypress Hollow for a few years, working on various construction crews in the south. Although Kenny was a thankful victim due to his short stature, comical gait and repressed demeanor, his talents did not go unnoticed. He was even hired to lead comparably large construction projects, the height of his career being the architect as well as principal foreman of the Cedar Springs town hall (another small town some 60 miles west of Cypress Hollow). Yet for all his success in his career, Kenny was never destined to go anywhere beyond that. He drank away his money, spending his days either alone and self-loathing or with prostitutes, constantly trying to keep his mind off the guilt he felt for what he'd done to Norma. It wasn't until 1932 he decided to return to Cypress Hollow. His brother had written, asking him to come home and help out with the business as Ray himself was suffering from a head injury sustained in a fight, causing him migraines and short term memory loss.
Kenny decided to return to his hometown, at least temporarily, and help Ray. Although Kenny managed to quit drinking, the two brothers didn't exactly make for a productive partnership any longer, and business declined for a few months after Kenny's arrival until Ray one morning never woke up. The medical examiner later explained that Ray suffered from a blood clot in his brain, and that this was likely the cause of his previous symptoms as well as his death. Kenny was devastated by the loss of his brother. Unwilling to continue their business venture, Kenny closed it down. He spent the next six months doing some transient work for the surrounding community, becoming something of a local original and spectacle with his silly walk, quiet demeanor and absurdly efficient handiwork. In 1933, after providing some repairs to property owned by Henry Tackett, the farmer decided to offer Kenny employment indefinitely.
Accordingly, Kenny moved out to the Tackett farm. In the past year, Kenny has been a jack-of-all-trades handyman at the Tackett farm, used for construction, repairs and sourcing food as well as teaching willing (or ordered) farmhands how to do said things.
Speech Color F4A460
Traits
Positive
Expert Craftsman (+5) *
Local (+2) **
Trapper (+2)
Woodsman (+1)
* Kenny is a handyman's handyman. He's well-known for his uncanny ability when it comes to construction, whether he's waterproofing a shed, creating a garden or doing plumbing.
** Kenny is very familiar with the creeks, swamps, caves etcetera of the area as well as the flora and, more so, fauna in them. I figured it'd probably cost an extra point.
Negative
Racist (-2)
Crippled (-5)
Ugly (-1)
Shell-Shocked (-2) *
Skittish (-2)
Untrustworthy (-3)
* Kevin never fought in the war, but he suffers from similar PTSD-related symptoms described above.
In total: 10 - 15 = -5 points
Inventory
Various tools and materials corresponding to his trade and task at the Tackett farm. Everything from hammers, nails, screwdrivers and pliers to mechanist squares, spirit levels and building materials are to be found in Kenny's shed on the Tackett property. As for what Kenny's carrying on his person, it's usually a standard tool belt with assorted tools along with suspenders and a sturdy shirt.
Kenneth "Kenny" Blankenship
Age
27
Appearance
Short and wiry, Kenny might be described as something akin to a weasel if it wasn't for his crippled right leg rendering him unable to move any more graceful than a drunkard with a limp. Many are the comments made by the fellow man that Kenny has had to hear about his knock-kneed gait - especially considering how he received it - and even more plentiful are the amused glances women give him. Unfortunately, Kenneth never was a looker to begin with. His nose, crooked from being broken more than a few times, is too large for his small face and his bleak grey eyes convey little else than despondency and disinterest. Kenny's chestnut hair is short but naturally thick and impossible to groom, something Kenny never bothered with anyway. By contrast his facial hair is nonexistent. Yet, for all his faults, plenty are those who would readily admit Kenneth has one of the most infectious smiles and accompanying laughter one could imagine. A strange juxtaposition which is endearing enough for some.
Personality
Kenny is something of a shell. Superficially, he's commonly perceived as being callous, withdrawn, unlikable and dishonest - none of which is wrong, yet none of which is entirely accurate either. Kenny is something of a lost soul, someone so dissident yet lethargic that even the slightly-above-averagely perceptive person can pick up on the fact that Kenny is not necessarily as much of a dickhead as he comes across, but more-so a result of unfortunate circumstance and - perhaps - not truly a lost cause. Kenny can be witty and gregarious when he wants to, though he usually relegates himself to making snide remarks and hurtful comments; a way to keep people at bay.
Kenny is someone who desperately needs attention in the form of confirmation and affirmation. After living a life largely met with neglect and/or contempt, Kenny wants to be liked, yet is unyielding when it comes to letting people inside of his abrasive shell. Kenny is the kind of guy more likely to respond to affection or empathy with a biting "go fuck yourself" than acceptance, despite thoroughly wanting such attention. Moreover, Kenny harbors deep feelings regarding Negroes in specific. He was taught they were worth less as a young child, a belief cemented by a profound betrayal that left him scarred for life.
Speaking of the devil, the consequences of said betrayal has left Kenny severely emotionally distressed. He'll wake up in the middle of the night screaming or crying, usually unable to remember his dreams yet always able to tell what they were about regardless. His past has left him utterly unwilling to commit violent acts, and he detests the thought of killing (though he wouldn't admit it). The murders he has committed has haunted him for years, and he has so far been unable to find remedy. Somewhere deep down inside, Kenny has a fiery need for making amends and doing something with his life, but he has yet to find a catalyst.
History
Born in 1907 to Robert Blankenship and his wife Margaret, Kenneth is the youngest of the couple's six sons and a local of Cypress Hollow. Robert was as the owner of Head On Inn a well-known and respected member of Cypress Hollow's community. Offering food, beverages and lodging, the Head On Inn was one of the more popular establishments in town. With their older brothers already helping out with running the inn, there was little reason for young Kenny and his youngest brother, Raymond, to do the same. Instead the two would from a very young age be allowed to follow their uncle Harold into the surrounding forests and swamps. Harold was a hunter and trapper and would often sell his game to his brother Robert for a discount. When Kenny was ten things would change dramatically, however. The four eldest sons of the family where all drafted into the War. Less than a year later three of them were gone. Edward died fighting, David died from pneumonia and Henry simply went MIA, presumably killed. Meanwhile Kenny's father suffered a heart attack and followed his sons into the afterlife, and when Thomas, the only surviving brother, came back from Europe he was not the brother that had left.
According to Robert's wishes, before he past, the eldest son Thomas assumed ownership when he returned. Left embittered and despondent from the horrors of war, Thomas did little good to Head On Inn. Kenny and Ray were hounded hard, having to help out with washing, serving, cooking and cleaning around the inn as well as receiving regular beatings from the older sibling while their hapless mother mainly spent her time softly weeping. Eventually uncle Harold had enough of Thomas misgivings. Although he could do little about the inn, Harold managed to talk enough sense (after beating him and putting a rifle to his temple, according to some) into Thomas to be able to take Kenny and Ray away. With Harold as their new guardian, the two kids entered adolescence somewhat hopeful.
Kenny spent the better part of his early teens following his uncle around, learning how to navigate the surroundings of Cypress Hollow by heart as well as how to live weeks-on-end in wilderness, using the local flora and fauna to your advantage. School suffered, but Kenny could care less. The runty little kid had, unlike Ray, never been a popular figure amongst the other kids anyway. Unfortunately the death's in the Blankenship family was not over yet, and in 1923 Harold was killed by a Negro. He had assaulted Harold in a botched robbery, ending up stabbing the man to death (years later, Kenny would hear that Harold was the one attacking the Negro, though whether Kenny could allow himself to believe this is another story). At the time, Ray was of legal age and worked at the local saw mill. He managed to take over custody of Kenny after Harold's death - a task no doubt made easier by the fact that Thomas had been sent to prison for extortion while their mother Margaret was an emotional wreck. Together with Kenny, Ray took over Harold's business. While Ray was the true talent at hunting, Kenny proved to be more than apt at trapping animals as well as constructing various shelters and watch towers throughout the country side, to the extent that he would get hired by other locals to build or fix whatever they needed. They had a good couple of years until the summer of 1926, when Kenny managed to fall for a Negro.
Norma Hines was a waitress at the Oiled Spleen, a weirdly named pub on the outskirts of Cypress Hollow which ever so slightly managed to make a turnover, mainly due to the demise of Head On Inn. The place was sparsely visited and with a crumbling interior, yet the prices were cheap and it was one of few places where a black female could gain employment. And so it was here that Kenny met Norma. She was hardly the first Negress that Kenny had met, but she was the first woman - black or white - that treated Kenny with respect. Not respect in the sense that a black woman would treat a white male, but because she didn't act that way. Whether black or white, Norma didn't seem to care. She was hardly a looker, but she was genuinely nice to those she felt deserved it, and Kenny was one of them. Granted, this got her beat up more than once by unhappy patrons, and Kenny respected her all the more for it. Hell, he knew he would never dare stand up to the guys she did, and yet there she was. Norma clearly wasn't the most intelligent girl, but she had heart. Judge then how elated Kenny was when Norma, though surprised, accepted to go out with Kenny in secrecy for a while.
Peace never lasts however, as many as said, and before long people found out about the affair. Unfortunately for Kenny, it was Norma's people who found out. One night as he was making his way home to his and Ray's hunting lodge outside of town, Norma's father and two of her uncles as well as Norma herself cornered him on the roadside. The three men asked Kenny whether he "was the whitey who raped Norma". Stunned by accusation, Kenny vehemently denied yet Norma herself persisted that he'd done it. At the time Kenny was dumbfounded, though he would later figure that she said what she did so as to not get targeted herself. Either way, Kenny tried to run away. One of Norma's uncle aimed his shotgun at Kenny and fired, blasting him in the knee. After falling headfirst into the silent creek on his left, the man with the shotgun closed in on Kenny and fired at his head. The shot merely grazed Kenny, but he flung his head into the water and played dead. The three men and Norma thought they had killed him and left.
Somehow, Kenny successfully dragged himself to the hunting lodge where Ray was sleeping, and his brother managed to take him to a doctor. Months went by, and although Kenny's leg healed well enough that he could stand on it, he would never be able to run (or walk swiftly for that matter) again. Ashamed of the reason he'd been attacked, as well as almost being killed by blacks, Kenny refused to give up the identities of his assailants, even though half the town knew the truth. Instead, Kenny decided to take matters into his own hands. The Hines family had hastily skipped town after the attack, and Kenny and Ray spent the better part of three months tracking them down.
A cold winter morning in 1928, the Blankenship brothers kicked down the door to the dorm house in Tulsa where the Hines stayed. Rifles in hand, they entered the place looking for Norma. Kenny had intended to let her live and ask questions, but someone - Kenny never figured out exactly who - managed to get hold of a gun and a bloody gun battle ensued. When the smoke cleared, four people were dead; Norma's parents, one of her uncles, and her little sister. Norma herself had been hiding beneath a bed but came out screaming, howling curses in-between tears at Kenny as he levelled his rifle at her and pulled the trigger. In total, six people where killed that day as Norma turned out to be pregnant at the time, Kenny possibly being the father. Local authorities protected the Blankenship brothers and no one was ever tried for the murders, the official statement being that the one surviving uncle (the same who had previously shot Kenny) was the culprit. He ran away and is yet to be found.
Peace never lasts however, as many as said, and before long people found out about the affair. Unfortunately for Kenny, it was Norma's people who found out. One night as he was making his way home to his and Ray's hunting lodge outside of town, Norma's father and two of her uncles as well as Norma herself cornered him on the roadside. The three men asked Kenny whether he "was the whitey who raped Norma". Stunned by accusation, Kenny vehemently denied yet Norma herself persisted that he'd done it. At the time Kenny was dumbfounded, though he would later figure that she said what she did so as to not get targeted herself. Either way, Kenny tried to run away. One of Norma's uncle aimed his shotgun at Kenny and fired, blasting him in the knee. After falling headfirst into the silent creek on his left, the man with the shotgun closed in on Kenny and fired at his head. The shot merely grazed Kenny, but he flung his head into the water and played dead. The three men and Norma thought they had killed him and left.
Somehow, Kenny successfully dragged himself to the hunting lodge where Ray was sleeping, and his brother managed to take him to a doctor. Months went by, and although Kenny's leg healed well enough that he could stand on it, he would never be able to run (or walk swiftly for that matter) again. Ashamed of the reason he'd been attacked, as well as almost being killed by blacks, Kenny refused to give up the identities of his assailants, even though half the town knew the truth. Instead, Kenny decided to take matters into his own hands. The Hines family had hastily skipped town after the attack, and Kenny and Ray spent the better part of three months tracking them down.
A cold winter morning in 1928, the Blankenship brothers kicked down the door to the dorm house in Tulsa where the Hines stayed. Rifles in hand, they entered the place looking for Norma. Kenny had intended to let her live and ask questions, but someone - Kenny never figured out exactly who - managed to get hold of a gun and a bloody gun battle ensued. When the smoke cleared, four people were dead; Norma's parents, one of her uncles, and her little sister. Norma herself had been hiding beneath a bed but came out screaming, howling curses in-between tears at Kenny as he levelled his rifle at her and pulled the trigger. In total, six people where killed that day as Norma turned out to be pregnant at the time, Kenny possibly being the father. Local authorities protected the Blankenship brothers and no one was ever tried for the murders, the official statement being that the one surviving uncle (the same who had previously shot Kenny) was the culprit. He ran away and is yet to be found.
Following the events of 27-28, Kenny fell into a depression. He left Cypress Hollow for a few years, working on various construction crews in the south. Although Kenny was a thankful victim due to his short stature, comical gait and repressed demeanor, his talents did not go unnoticed. He was even hired to lead comparably large construction projects, the height of his career being the architect as well as principal foreman of the Cedar Springs town hall (another small town some 60 miles west of Cypress Hollow). Yet for all his success in his career, Kenny was never destined to go anywhere beyond that. He drank away his money, spending his days either alone and self-loathing or with prostitutes, constantly trying to keep his mind off the guilt he felt for what he'd done to Norma. It wasn't until 1932 he decided to return to Cypress Hollow. His brother had written, asking him to come home and help out with the business as Ray himself was suffering from a head injury sustained in a fight, causing him migraines and short term memory loss.
Kenny decided to return to his hometown, at least temporarily, and help Ray. Although Kenny managed to quit drinking, the two brothers didn't exactly make for a productive partnership any longer, and business declined for a few months after Kenny's arrival until Ray one morning never woke up. The medical examiner later explained that Ray suffered from a blood clot in his brain, and that this was likely the cause of his previous symptoms as well as his death. Kenny was devastated by the loss of his brother. Unwilling to continue their business venture, Kenny closed it down. He spent the next six months doing some transient work for the surrounding community, becoming something of a local original and spectacle with his silly walk, quiet demeanor and absurdly efficient handiwork. In 1933, after providing some repairs to property owned by Henry Tackett, the farmer decided to offer Kenny employment indefinitely.
Accordingly, Kenny moved out to the Tackett farm. In the past year, Kenny has been a jack-of-all-trades handyman at the Tackett farm, used for construction, repairs and sourcing food as well as teaching willing (or ordered) farmhands how to do said things.
Speech Color F4A460
Traits
Positive
Expert Craftsman (+5) *
Local (+2) **
Trapper (+2)
Woodsman (+1)
* Kenny is a handyman's handyman. He's well-known for his uncanny ability when it comes to construction, whether he's waterproofing a shed, creating a garden or doing plumbing.
** Kenny is very familiar with the creeks, swamps, caves etcetera of the area as well as the flora and, more so, fauna in them. I figured it'd probably cost an extra point.
Negative
Racist (-2)
Crippled (-5)
Ugly (-1)
Shell-Shocked (-2) *
Skittish (-2)
Untrustworthy (-3)
* Kevin never fought in the war, but he suffers from similar PTSD-related symptoms described above.
In total: 10 - 15 = -5 points
Inventory
Various tools and materials corresponding to his trade and task at the Tackett farm. Everything from hammers, nails, screwdrivers and pliers to mechanist squares, spirit levels and building materials are to be found in Kenny's shed on the Tackett property. As for what Kenny's carrying on his person, it's usually a standard tool belt with assorted tools along with suspenders and a sturdy shirt.
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