Rated M: Violence, gore, and language. This is a 18 plus game that doesn't focuses on romance or sex, in fact this game likely will be entirely sterile considering the nature of this game. This game is mostly 18+ due to it's evocative nature, a lot of gore, body horror elements, etc.
Holloway, Virginia 9:10 am, February 25th, 2014 - 2 Weeks Ago
The sterile scent of the hospital building. The glowing white tiles that reflect the white fluorescent lights above. They buzz. Looking down long halls. Though no one has informed him of anything. His heart is beginning to race, his palms are sweaty, his leg is restlessly shaking. How long should it be taking? When will this be over? His worst fears becoming closer and closer to a reality. He stands up and just as he’s doing so, his chest tight, his breathing difficult, his heart racing, sweat running down his skin Cameron sees the doctor. There is nervous relief.
“Dr. Harrison, tell me you have good news,” Cameron’s voice is shaking, it feels like he’s talking through a gag.
Dr. Harrison ushers him to follow him with a hand gesture.
“Let’s talk in private,” Dr. Harrison says.
That’s good news? Or is that bad news? His heart sinks. There is a pit developing in his stomach. He follows Dr. Harrison his head spinning with the number things that have gone wrong with Jennifer. He can’t stop his hand from shaking, he can’t stop his body from trembling from the truth. He looks at Dr. Harrison in a small private room, it’s a glass box, he can still see the waiting room and they can still see him.
“Jennifer, is she okay?” he ask swallowing his spit hard, as he tries to form words through a mouth that feels like it’s moving on its own.
“Mr. Kent, there were some complications during surgery,” Dr. Harrison begins.
He wants to deny this train of thought steam rolling through.
“But, she’s okay, right? You...you did all you could,” Cameron’s mouth is more and more feeling like it is made out of playdough. Someone holding up his jaw and helping him speak.
“I am sorry Mr. Kent, but your wife did not make it,” Dr. Harrison tells him, putting a hand on his shoulder in a comforting matter.
No.
No.
No.
This couldn’t be true. This. They promised him the surgery would be a success. They guaranteed it was a relatively safe surgery. They told him that the likelihood of death wasn’t nearly likely. So, why? This. This can’t be. This is a sick joke. A sick fucking joke. He flings the doctors hand off angrily. His eyes stinging.
“Fuck you!” he shouts at the Dr. Harrison, but it’s last ditch attempt to take back control as he collapses to his knees. This was her hope. This was her last hope that she would get the future she deserved with him. They had dreams about starting a family.
“I’m sorry Mr. Kent,” Dr. Harrison says, he sounds sincere, but he doesn’t give a fuck. He doesn’t care about that.
“Ca...can I see her?” he manages to say.
“I think you should call whoever you need to call and deliver the news, and come back when you’re more at ease,” Dr. Harrison suggest.
Cameron shakes his head at first. He can’t. He can’t make that call. Jennifer’s sister, Maxine, what is Maxine going to say. They were told it was a relatively safe surgery. That’s why the family isn’t here. Now. Now he’s been given the burden, the burden to utter the words Dr. Harrison has spoken. Like uttering a secret truth. Cameron manages to walk out of the glass room. The people around him are watching him. Or at least that’s how he perceives it. Strangers eyes, strangers looks as he walks out the hospital.
Hands shaking he takes out his phone. Trying to dial Maxine’s number. He can’t do it. Fuck! Fuck! Damn it!
Heading to his car, he sits in the driver seat. He doesn’t start the ignition, he just stares out the window. Day turns to night. Opening his eyes, fuck. How long has he been out? Better call Maxine before she starts to worry about him too. His hands shaking. He can’t do it? Is he a coward? He’s not so sure. Maybe they’ll allow him to see Jennifer in the morgue now. He opens the center console and takes out a pack of cigarettes. He stopped for Jennifer, but now it only seemed the only way to calm his nerves before heading back in. Finding a lighter, he never told Jennifer that he still smoked to relieve stress like this. Now it feels like an utter betrayal to his promise to her. Now that she was. He can’t say it. He can’t even bring himself up to believe it’s truth.
Stepping out the car he lights a cigarette just to ease his nerves. He’s walking through the parking lot, the hospital lights are still on. The only twenty-four hour place you don’t really want to be at. Blowing smoke up towards the sky. Jennifer. I am so sorry. I am so sorry we had that argument. I am so sorry I didn’t tell you I still smoked from time to time. I am sorry that I didn’t give you enough support in your career. How do I make it up to you?
Flicking ash onto the tarmac. He looks towards the trees hugging the hospital. The woods. Jennifer use to say there were mystical things that lived in the woods. He should never have called her work silly. Should have never told her that her children’s books weren’t going to go far. But they were working on things. Their communication. He was here, at the hospital after all to support her. He feels utterly disconnected from reality.
Shadows in the woodlands. He must be crazy. The back door of the hospital opens. Bathing the woodlands briefly in light. Is that a gurney?
A hand slips out from underneath the blankets. Isn’t the morgue inside the hospital? He’s just being paranoid though because of what has happened. He wants to find some kind of conspiracy or some kind of answer as to why what has happened. They’re probably going to meet the coroner. It is after all a clear night out and cool one at that.
Flicking ash onto the cement, before putting it out on an ashtray outside sitting atop the trash can he walks back in. Standing behind a woman with a crying child. Blood is oxidized on his pants. He doesn’t have the patience to hear the kid crying, “Mommy it hurts! Mommy! Mommy!”
You know what we all hurt you fucking piece of shit. Shut the fuck up.
--
The lights flicker. There is a metallic scent in the air. It feels much colder in the morgue as Dr. Harrison watches Dr. Felix Moore moves around quickly to greet him.
“Dr. Harrison,” Felix smiles. He’s a nerdy looking man with thick glasses, and curly unkempt hair. He looks like the type who would work in a morgue. He also looked like the type that would take a bribe, probably why they have had such a strong affiliation.
“Felix,” he says coldly, “Is she ready?”
“We have her out back, but Harrison - Chief Director been talking about investigations,” Felix whispers and looks around.
Harrison laughs at first. The Chief Director is what going to have the Virginia police investigate the hospital? What are they going to find, nothing. Because he made sure there was nothing to find.
“We can handle the police,” Harrison replies.
Felix makes a noise, “It’s different this time. The Hospital Director been talking to the B.C.I.T. Director.”
Felix actually believes the B.C.I.T. exist? If that were the case then why would the government hide it. Why would they bury something meant to scare them? Harrison rolls his eyes.
“You just get her ready for transportation,” Harrison remarks.
--
Standing in line he’s beginning to grow impatient. Beside the sobbing in the background, there are two other people in front of him. He can’t seem to stop this sense of antsy impatience. He wants this kid to stop crying, he’s only crying less than he was earlier, but it’s driving him insane. As he watches the hospital floor, he sees Dr. Harrison walking down the hallway. Rushing out of the line Cameron’s done waiting in line just to see Jennifer one last time.
“Dr. Harrison,” Cameron calls out.
Harrison swiftly turns to face him. Harrison looks mildly surprised to see him.
“Mr. Kent, I thought you had gone home,” Harrison remarks.
“I uh,” his flesh goes flush, “Fell asleep in the car crying.” he clears his throat, “But my head is much clearer now. May I see Jennifer.”
Harrison rubs his temples, “I think you’ve had a long day Cameron. I would rather you spend the rest of the night with your living family. Or at least bring them here so you have some support.”
For most of the day he had felt exhausted and disassociated from the trauma. His shock beginning to fade and he only feels frustration now as he lunges forward and grabs the collar of Harrison jacket.
“I want to see my fucking wife!” he practically shouts, now everybody is looking at them. He already sees the security beginning to edge forward. Harrison sighs and gestures the security away.
“Very well Mr. Kent,”Harrison tells him. He nods his head towards the security, “It’s all right. He just lost his wife and Mr. Kent is very upset about that.”
Harrison turns his attention to him, “and this is why I would have preferred you to calm down before seeing her.”
He fixes the collar of his coat and gestures for him to follow him. He does so. The sterile scent of the hospital. The conversations between the patience amongst themselves, intermingled with conversations between nurses. There’s a woman hysterically sobbing on a chair, he wonders if what has happened to him as happened to her. There’s a bit of a connection with her briefly before he continues to follow Dr. Harrison out towards the back.
Wait the back? What the fuck is going on here? Remembering the gurney. Cameron’s heard of missing bodies, is that what the hospital is doing, dumping them in the woods? But why? Some man has removed the blanket, he’s holding onto. He looks a bit like a flake. Unkempt hair and thick glasses. Jennifer’s got scars running down her body from the surgery. And an autopsy? Why would they perform an autopsy on - wait his mind is. What is going on? He looks to Harrison who steps aside and gestures towards Jennifer.
Jennifer looks around perplexed and confused.
“Jennifer,” Cameron calls her name. She sharply looks up at him. The way she is looking at him is uncanny.
“Ca...Cameron,” she says reaching for his hands, “Pl...ease..please...there...is this...noise...in my head.”
Cameron grabs onto her hands and looks at Harrison angrily.
“You said she was dead!” Cameron shouts at Harrison, “I want answers now!” he demands. Harrison stands in front of the doors back to the hospital, but says nothing, “WELL!”
“Aaaaa,” Jennifer holds onto her head briefly.
Cameron looks towards Jennifer, “What’s wrong?” he says more quietly.
“You’re too loud,” she tells him.
“Sorry,” he tells her stroking her knuckle. He snaps his attention back to Harrison. Harrison continues to simply watch without making a move. It’s like he has frozen himself somehow. He doesn’t blink. Doesn’t say anything. Just keeps his eyes firmly on the two of them.
“Wait till the director hears about this,” Cameron threatens. There’s still not a response. Cameron looks back at Jennifer, “Let’s get you back inside we’ll explain everything this croney has done to you…”
Still holding onto her hand she grasp his even tighter than she ordinarily would. So tight in fact he’s worried she’s going to break bones in his hand.
“Hey you’re hurting…”
The scars from her head are beginning to pull back. Bits of skin are beginning to fold at the corners like paper. As they begin to separate from face. Bits of sagging muscle and sinewy veins are beginning to expose a gaping maw of flesh. Her skull has been so misshapen the skeletal structure of the skull have become jagged edges of bone giving the impression of fangs.
He tries to pull away. What the fuck is this. He looks at Harrison. What the fuck. He feels his heart racing. He struggles to pull away from whatever this creature is, but he can’t. How is she so strong?
“Please...Jenni...Jennifer,” he calls out in hopes to appeal to her humanity.
People are going missing in Virginia. Well people might not be the right word. There have been complaints of deceased family members going missing. The B.C.I.T have been invited by the Head of the Police Department in Holloway and the current Medical Director at the hospital to perform an investigation. There is something odd as well, people have been reporting seeing monsters in the forest, one man Edgar Allyn has said to have had an encounter with a creature pretending to be his diseased brother. B.C.I.T. should look into these claims, due to the nature and description of these creatures we will be dispatching Professor Foster with the team.
I need 5 very dedicated members to play a member of the B.C.I.T. The B.C.I.T is a government run defense agency who goes out and investigates biological sumthins. It usually involves, aliens, mutants, zombies. The current RP year, March 10th, 2014 - you have been assigned an operation in the small town of Holloway in Virginia. Strange deaths and strange disappearances have been happening and it is up to the team to figure this out. While also fighting horrific monstrosities.
This RP will lean heavily on thriller horror action. But it does have mystery and intrigue. Each member of the RP supports the team through their role and those roles provide your characters special abilities that only that role can perform.
Government issue federally funded branch of defense called the B.C.I.T. [Biological Containment and Investigation Team] after a string of mysterious mutations plagued the U.S. Borders in Puerto Rico. Official documents state an illegal pharmaceutical company was experimented on the population of people in Puerto Rico turning them into mutated cannibals. Records state they "consumed the flesh of their fellow man with ravenous hunger"
The goal of the B.C.I.T. to defend and prepare U.S. for biological terrorism. What the B.C.I.T actually do is really unknown to the public and even if anyone would read official records and archives they likely roll their eyes. Zombies in Columbia. Cannibal Mutants in Puerto Rico. Virus contagions turning people into gross monstrosities. Sounds like government conspiracy to most.
Important documents are leaked to the public. B.C.I.T information is leaked. Easily dismissed as a hoax. B.C.I.T location buried deep within the Nevada desert.
A breakthrough has been made. Link to several of the drugs in the subsequent cases in the past have been linked to a single drug company. Virtue Medics. They are shutdown. Government buries link to B.C.I.T
Now I know roles aren't always popular. Though in this case it helps keep the team focused and helps narrow the RP down so we don't have all 5 beefy soldier dudes barking at each other. The characters themselves will be created by you, but your role you will take and each role is assigned a unique ability that helps them in the scenario of this RP.
Team Leader - I'm already seeing a collective groan right now. It's difficult for members to play the role of team leader often because they don't know where they are overstepping their bounds. Team Leader in this RP tells the team where to go, and how to get there.
Special Ability: Quality navigation skills. You are born, for whatever reason with an exceptional gift at remembering maps. You can visualize a map in your head and be able to graph it onto the streets and roads you see in a town. Slot - Open
Biological Specimen Analyst - The BSA of the B.C.I.T is a highly trained and specialized individual with a degree in biology and the knowledge of cryptids. Nearly become a pseudo biological sciencist. They are the ones who tell you what it is, what's it weakness is, and how to kill it.
Special Ability: Able to assess and identify specimens biology in order to asses morphology and other useful information to help the team eradicate said specimen. Slot - Angel of October
Officer 1 - How do you expect to kill said specimens? The Team Leader, you and another officer provide the firepower the team needs to melt biological specimens with enough bullets it might as well be raining.
Special Ability: For some reason you were born with more keen senses. You have a heightened sense of reality and because of that you have a heightened sense of awareness. Your body tingles when danger is near and you often can call out and spot danger before the rest of the team does. Slot - Reserved - Lasersquid112
Officer 2 - Having each other's back is the more important feature, when operations like this are surprising and unexpected. Making sure you have your fellow gunsman and teammates watch is important. Each other's safety and protection is important.
Special Ability: While has more heightened awareness, the other has more heightened reflexes. For whatever reason you were born with the gift of being able to react quickly to situations faster than others around you. Slot- Reserved - Hokagae
Field Medic - You shoot. You heal. Being a field medic is like being a much more survivable soldier, but with more running involved from the thing that wants to eat your face off. All jokes aside you provide suppressive fire for the team and aid them in any basic medical care they may need.
Special Ability: You have a knack of healing wounds with whatever you can find. If you don't have it in your bag or your bag has gone missing, but you found a piece of cloth - you'll find a way to sanitize it and use it as a wrap. Slot - @DJAtomika - Christina Ibanez
Communications and Operations Management - Not everyone gets to be a cool soldier. You still have to have someone maintaining the gadgets like the computers the team uses. Someone's got to get into locked doors electronically and someone's got to make sure the communications are still going. You relay the operations and the current goal of the team.
Special Ability: You have a way of weaseling your way into things you shouldn't with just your computer alone. Able to force security locks with the keystrokes of a computer. Slot - Open
Name: [Full Name] Age: [make this believable, I'll recommend it's going to be 25 and up] Role: Look at list Appearance: [no anime, but drawn is fine] Personality: [make them feel human, that's all I ask] Skills: [what are the skills they possess] Weaponry: [Team Leader, Officers 1 and 2 - get two weapons a primary weapon like a handgun or a rifle or a pistol and a secondary weapon like a knife or a baton. Field Medic, B.S.A., and Operations Manager get a handgun.] Bio: [a bit different, but what other operations was your agent a part of in the B.C.I.T. what's their track record like, etc.]
Professor James Morgan Foster - PHD Biology, Associates in Experimental Sciences Nickname: Some in the B.C.I.T. have referred to James as Professor Weird, due to his unorthodox mannerisms and interest Age: 32
Role: The Biological Specimen Analyst in the B.C.I.T. is headed by lead Professor Mendel Mercer, but what the B.C.I.T. had always struggled with is someone who could truly understand the morphology of the weird and the strange that they worked with. Many of the B.S.A in the organizations were only familiar with the practical applications of biology and understanding biological components. Many of them are unfamiliar with the more er supernatural at times concepts they work with. A former member of Virtue Medics, who was the whistleblower on their Chimera Project, James was scoped out by Mendel due to the fact that he could understand things outside the realms of science his current team cannot.
"The experiments were cruel and violated human rights, they broke a lot of laws working on the Chimera project, a lot of laws that cost a lot of people's lives. Not just those that they took, but the employees who worked there. Anyone who saw the value in our work quickly begun to realize it was the kind of work you had to bury your ethics and morality away to survive the horror that it eventually implanted inside of you."
Even if you tried to avoid it, you couldn’t. No matter how many times you tried to look him in the eyes, your would immediately begin to examine the other side of his face. It wasn’t like any kind of burn you ever seen before. The skin underneath the horrifyingly disfigured flesh that had scarred over is unusually smooth and black. Blackish veins seem to extend from the blackened skin like lighting strikes reaching out from the clouds. The top of his scalp on the left side is a clump of flesh and hair growing out of it. Lumpy keloid scarring sits on ninety percent of the left side of his face.
At the roots of his hair is chunks of black hair, going silver and white. His skin is pallid giving the impression of a corpse or someone frail, with bruised eyes. Even if the right side of his face is somewhat normal, there is something uncanny about the way his skin divides from blacken, vein tentacles on one side, to smooth white caucasian on the other. With only the corner of his right lips being burned with similar results. You’re not sure where to look, his brown irises are wide, with a double lid, giving him a more youthful appearance than his tired, sickening, and graying hair says. He could have been a quite beautiful and handsome man, with his thin, arched brow, and his soft facial features that give him a masculine prettiness. But it is fractured by the horrific gore on his face that you can’t seem to stop drifting to looking at.
If he has noticed, he hasn’t said anything he continues to smile. Being a rather thin framed man in a leather bomber jacket, and some kind of button down shirt underneath with no tie underneath. Often wearing black slacks and a pair of black loafers. He’s very sophisticated as well. Nothing about his demeanor doesn’t say professional. He stands tall, despite being, what 5’4”? Shoulders straight, spine straight, a generally friendly, but formal demeanor. Yet, you find yourself rudely staring at his disfigurement.
“Sorry,” you’re the one bringing attention to the fact you’re staring at him.
James just smiles, “That’s just fine. We all have something funny people can’t stop staring at.”
Is that how he copes with it? You don’t get the impression it actually bothers him. His voice is light in tone. It’s a bit somber, but there is a slight chipperness to it’s melancholy. It’s very comforting and lulling in fact, he is clear with the way he speaks, making sure each syllable is pronounced properly. Which gives off the further impression of someone with a lot of formality to them despite the light airiness to his voice.
“Would you um like to get started?” you ask trying to distract yourself from someone with so much mystique to them.
“I am ready whenever you are,” he smiles again, his left side of the face seems to move less than the other. Which you assume some form of paralyzed muscle.
“Thank you again for allowing me to interview you,” you clear your throat.
He sits back, and places his legs casually across each other and continues to smile. Studying you. If everyone has something funny people can’t stop staring at, what is your funny thing he’s studying?
Personality:
“A lot of people assume that I never redeemed myself because I didn’t face consequences for my actions. I think a few of them would preferred if I faced the death penalty. And while I was fully prepared for those consequences, they never came. Now I have to make the best of living with the nightmares. Most would run from it, and never face it. Others would bury it and hide their pain. I chose to face it, to live with it. Because it’s already become a part of who I am seen on my face.”
An enigma to some, they have adopted to calling him Professor Weird mainly due to the way he thinks. Unlike most of the team of B,S,A’s James has a way of understanding the specimens they study with not only a grave bit of empathy, but also with the sincerity to understand it’s world. How it sees the world. This makes others in the B,S,A department cautious of him. Many argue with Mendel Mercer that James is too far gone due to his work in Virtue Medics. They say that he’s been corrupted or twisted by that corporation. Though James doesn’t quell their arguments by denying it, he simply states - maybe that’s true, but it can be used for the better now.
Even if James won’t argue against his critics the Director of the B.S.A. Department Mendel Mercer argues against those claims as well as the current Director of the B.C.I.T. Marshall Armstrong. Marshall sees James ability to see when Virtue Medic had gone too far and not to cover it up as honorable and someone looking for redemption. He admired and respected that James was willing to put everything on the line to do the right thing. While Mendel Mercer respected that James doesn’t look at the specimens they study as merely monsters, but consider them life, he admired James creativity and ability to think outside the box and that is why he was asked to joined the B.C.I.T.
That is where everyone who knows or that develops a relationship with James will agree with, that James is an extremely respectable individual. James works extremely well with others, he doesn’t start arguments or debates with others, he respects others work. He has a strong sense of morality and ethics, considering what he was doing for Virtue Medics some people would assume he doesn’t. Though James originally aided in the project because he believed Virtue Medics did want to improve medicine for people. It quickly began to turn out to be a lie. As he descended into a rabbit hole, that pushed that bounds of how much someone could break their moral code.
It is true James doesn’t see the specimens, often experiments of some kind as monsters. Considering his history, he knows that somewhere deep in the mind of the specimens they study and exterminate was a person. And it brings great pain to James that human suffering or any species suffering just to further push the boundaries of science is cruel. James always felt this, even during his time in Virtue Medics, he always had that sense of this isn’t something that should be done. He greatly empathized with the tormented and tried his best during that time to soothe them as best as he could. James tries to understand the specimens life not as some monster who brutally murders other people, he understands they are dangerous and have often lost a piece of their humanity, but he wants people to understand they were once people so he puts great time and effort into understanding that these are corrupted lives the true monsters is reckless and cold hearted science.
As for people James is a very friendly individual, albeit an oddly formal individual. He stands up straight, talks very clear. Some say he actually awkward, and what people read as his rigidness is actually just uncomfortableness though there is no way to confirm this. James is a passionate individual, who is quite calm and collective. He seems to have a handle over his appearance very well, it doesn’t bother him when people spend more time looking at his face than looking at him in the eye. James does have a sense of humor, though it is often dark in nature and his usual excited smile makes him come off a bit - well psychotic to others.
It isn’t that James is psychotic. It’s that James finds amusement in odd things. While someone might not find, “and then he clamped his jaws on his head and made it explode like a ripe melon,” funny or amusing. The idea fascinates James. And then his mind does the rest, where the man’s head is replaced with a melon and the melon is being squeezed by the specimen in question. Meanwhile everyone else is just horrified he’d say something like that with just relative ease.
And while James does seem to have a hold on his life, he does suffer from guilt for the things he was done. He sees that anything he ever told himself as to why he couldn’t stop doing the experiments in Virtue Medics as an excuse or some sort of justification. He had a chance and opportunity to say, but he was young and naive and went along with it to please his superior authorities at the time. He tries not to let the nightmares eat away at him, but they are still there. They just live beside him or as a reminder. A feeling of deja vu of something horrible. He does suffer from the torment he caused others and his dreams are often filled with the memories of the horrific things that has happened in the B.C.I.T. Often his work in the B.C.I.T. spurs on memories of the things that have happened in Virtue Medics. Things he has done.
He does what he can, a day at a time, trying to do good work, better work, to make the most out of the second chance he was given. Though he is deeply apologetic for the things in his past. With those things in mind James is a fan of jazz and classical music, though he will be heard listening more to a smooth jazz when working than classical. He likes to spend his downtime designing bits of genetic code, which some have criticized is the weirdest hobby someone could have. How can I randomize human DNA as a hobby. He’s got several of those ideas plastered in his cubicle. Likes to go outdoors when he needs time to relax, spend time in the woods, or to go on trails and see how far he can go until he finds civilization again.
He dislikes horror movies, especially body horror movies probably because they bring flashbacks of the Virtue Medic labs. He is advocate speaker of the precautions of scientific advances in medicine and changes to the body. And wrote a book on the subject with his newfound freedom called; The Danger of Designer Science. Apparently a best seller.
Skills:
Experimental Medicines -
The distinction between James and someone in the medical field is that James deals with theoretical medicine. While he might understand the basics of what he was taught in schools, his area of study was actually experimental sciences. In lame man’s terms is, James is not a doctor taking care of a patient in a hospital. His field and focus is in testing, experimenting, and funding new research of already available information and changing that available information into new found discoveries.
Pattern Recognition -
You could attribute James brilliant work on the Chimera Virus or really anything with a genetic sequence to his highly observant ability to recognize patterns in the genetic code. Though it isn’t just genetic patterns he understands, he understands the patterns of the world around him. The things that connect other things together in the world. He’s able to piece these things together and make relevant connections that others could not.
Perceptive -
James is also highly perceptive as well as being able to recognize patterns and connections others cannot. Some would say that he has the look of someone studying or observing the world around him in a way that others do not. Peeling back layers of subtext, linguistic patterns, and trying to figure out the deeper meaning of things around him. He applies this more into his work in the way functions connect with functions, the ability to perceive and understand the morphology of a creature merely by perceiving how it works.
Animal Tracks -
Considering James interest in the outdoors, he for a while became interested in animal footprints. He can identify the type of creatures that have passed through. If they are digitigrade or not. Yes his hobby has bled a bit into his work, but James has always been fascinated with the way things have worked, to break them down, and to him he’s always enjoyed speculating what something was doing at the time of where it has been.
It would be disingenuous to say that James life didn’t start off pretty easy. Unlike many people he gained a foothold above the rest of his classmates due to his family’s income. His father Orwell Foster was a small clinic doctor in Washington in Tacoma, and his mother an attorney in a small firm in Seattle. It wasn’t too above the masses, but their income was enough to make life comfortable. Summer vacations. No worry of starving. Then Emilia was born four years later. Emilia, Emily, was born with a genetic defect as a baby. Though his father’s connections and influences allowed him the opportunity to participate in a study of regenerative medicines. Emilia was implanted by her own stem cells in order to cure her disorder. It was this relationship between Emilia and this idea of an experimental science that could save someone that fascinated James. He didn’t want to get into science to save people, but he wanted to get into science to further future advancements.
James schooling and early life was marked with very little, to no challenge. His parents were able to afford a good charter school. Even with Emilia’s surgery and operations of the past, they didn’t have to squeeze much when it came to income. And while his interest didn’t always align with kids his age, James managed to escape most early childhood bullying. It wasn’t to say that he wasn’t a target of it, or that he had a lot of friends. Neither were true, it was merely never much of a concern in his early days.
To say much had changed by the time he became a teenager isn’t entirely accurate. James continued a pretty easy streak up to the age of fourteen where the family may have faced it’s first or more or less a setback. With Alexandria, his mother, facing the closing of a firm she had worked at for several years. It seemed money might be tightened and the family vacations they went onto every summer break might become less frequent. Though to call that a setback in terms of other families it seems a bit like an over exaggeration. Because even at that time Orwell was making enough money to continue to support the family.
That and James relationship with his sister began to become strained. Being four years apart, she begun to become the spotlight child. It very likely the operation she had in her earliest years of life had guaranteed her a clean bill of health, but due to it she became a bit of a miracle child in the family. Born deadly ill, to be miraculously cleared. She made sure everyone in the family knew it, and knew how to take advantage of that fact by the age of ten. As children they played a bit more because she still needed his support, but newfound freedom, going to school, and finding power in friendship made her difficult to deal with.
James never had many friends, just a close few. But they found his fascination with breaking apart the world and reconstructing how the mechanics worked weirded them out a bit. While they just wanted to see the latest movie, James dismantled the movies structure for them after the fact. When they just wanted to talk about interest, James fascination was how those interest were built or made. When the topic was video games, he discussed how the latest video game was created, what engine was used to create it, and how many retierations it went through. Despite being - annoying according to his friends, they still spent time with him.
James never struggled in school much. A straight A student who strived for excellence in every way. He was extremely hardworking, asking for extra credit assignments even when he didn’t need them. Asking for summer homework, even when he didn’t need it. It too was kind of an annoying habit to his teachers and to his friends. Some kids even thought James was simply showboating or showing off that he was smarter than them. Which did gain him enemies in his later years of school at sixteen. Though James was never placed in honors or any gifted program due to his parents influence, they rejected the decision to do so several times. Though the answer as to why was never clear.
By seventeen James was finishing up high school and joined a program offered by his school to complete his associated in college before graduating high school. One of those early programs offered up to students to give them the opportunity to leap into their major once they graduated high school. It’s only then the friction between his family began to really develop.
His father, while never directly stating anything to him, sort of assumed or expected he would be following him in his footsteps. In short term medical services, as James called it. His mother slightly encouraged the idea as well. Though James had his mind set on studying experimental sciences. Which both parents were obviously cautious about. One argument in particular left his father to give him the silent treatment for a week, after he told him his work was short term prevention. What he meant to convey was that focusing on the future of medicine would lend to better healthcare in the future. His father took it as an affront to his work.
James graduated high school at eighteen. And due to his own eagerness and parental pushing went straight into college afterward.
Pushing back black hair out of brown irises, James is looking around for his family. His father was quite annoyed to coming to his graduation. Probably because he has stood firm on his stance of where he would like to be in the future. Emilia flirting with some guy in his class, so he makes his way there. Her hair has grown long enough it’s reaching her tailbone. Her makeup makes her look much older than her actual age. She turns her attention to him, a pink midriff, pants that hug her legs and expose her hips. She was given so much opportunity in life and she’s not taken advantage of it.
“Watt’up loser,” she tells him. Gyle laughs.
“Good one,” Gyle tells her.
James turns to Gyle, “She’s nineteen and my sister. If you know what’s best, please leave us.” Gyle rolls his eyes.
“Who does this guy think he is, the King of England,” Gyle points to him. Emily just laughs. She fixes her hair and looks flirtatiously at Gyle, “So you comin’ tonight.”
“Yeah, if His Highness let’s me go,” Emily scowls at him. Gyle laughs. He slinks off and James looks at Emily with a softer expression.
“I wish you would consider the future more Emi,” he tells her.
“And stand on a stage in that square gown, I’ll pass,” Emily tells him, “Family only needs one try hard.”
“Where is mother and father?” James ask her.
Emily shrugs her shoulders, “Pfft beats me. Maybe dad drove off because he couldn’t stomach the fact that you’re betraying him like that.”
“That’s just his pride talking,” James replies to her.
Once again she shrugs her shoulders dismissively, “Congrats on your nerd paper. Now goodluck getting into your niche field in this economic situation. I am not going to waste my life on a fifty percent chance. Now I am going to find another older guy to flirt with and don’t stop me. Nineteen means I am legal.”
There’s more to life than that. If he had been put into her situation and given the chance of a second life he would have taken the opportunity to build a career for himself. Why is she wasting her life away?
“Emi,” she turns to face him one more time and raises a brow. Crossing her arms across her chest.
“Yes?” she ask him.
“Please be more thoughtful,” James tells her, instead of arguing with him she just flips him the middle finger before fading off into the crowd of families. As a child his life seemed the happiest and the easiest, he wonders how they began to drift this far apart. Instead of being greeted with smiling faces he’s searching for them in the crowd.
“James Foster,” an unknown man’s voice calls him from behind. James turns to face who is addressing him. An older man, in his late forties, a crown of hair, but he’s lost most of it. With thick circular glasses. He doesn’t look like a Professor of the school, he’s wearing a sweater over a polo, with tan khakis.
“Um hello,” James greets him, sticking out his hand, though not sure how this man knows him or his name. The man accepts his hand and smiles at him.
“My grandson William’s in your graduating class,” he tells him, “Where are my manners, I am Theodore Muris. I am also friends with your Professor Clarkson.”
“Well it’s a pleasure to meet you, I was actually looking for my family,” James tells him. Theodore smiles.
“They should be very proud,” Theodore tells him. If only they really were.
“Thank you, you must be proud of William,” James replies with a smile.
“James, I have an offer for you,” Theodore tells him, “I know this doesn’t seem the type and place, but I really want to meet you. The man who impresses Clarkson and your project Benefits of Future Medicine. I was impressed myself.”
“You read my paper?” James ask, isn’t that a violation of his privacy. Is Mr. Clarkson even allowed to distribute his paper out in that way?
“Please don’t blame Neil, I was curious when I saw the paper on his table,” Theodore tells him, “I am currently for a few talented people to process at my business. You have heard of Virtue Medics, haven’t you?”
He’s an idiot. Theodore Muris, the leading CEO of Virtue Medics. Who has lead future funding and research on regenerative medicines and long term pharmaceuticals. He had been so caught up in his family drama that it flew over his head who he was.
“Yes, I am sorry, I am - I didn’t mean to treat you like an ordinary person, I did a paper on Virtue Medics and why I saw faith in your work,” James replies gobsmacked the CEO of a business of such caliber would talk to him.
Theodore chuckles, “No need for the ass kissing right now. I am trying to ask you James if you’d like to come take an apprenticeship in Virtue Medics. I want to process a few young people straight out of college to see if they would be a good fit for our newest facility. Would you accept this deal? Of course we’d setup a better time for an appointment all the paperwork. But, I think you’d make a brilliant key to our team.”
And his father told him it would be a dead end. Here he was being asked by a man he admired, by a company he admired to be a part of their team. Well actually he was being asked for a trial run at their company, but why wouldn’t he accept it?
“Of course, we could set up a time and appointment,” James replies.
“Very good, very good, I could use minds like yours,” Theodore tells him, tapping him on the shoulder, “When you do find your family tell them the good news.”
James nods. This has to be a dream. The CEO of Virtue Medics, spoke to him. Spoke to him in public, and offered him a position. He had to find his father and tell him.
Sitting in the passenger seat of his father’s black sedan, he looks over at the aging man, his hair going graying, behind the wheel. He offered to take him for some reason, what twenty-three year old man gets dropped at his first day at work by his father? Though he was taught in his life to never shame others, nor to judge them. He tried to give everyone the benefit of the doubt. Like he tried to give Emi the benefit of the doubt when she didn’t go to college straight after high school. Of course they couldn’t be the same person, and of course some people want to explore and experience the world wasn’t that education in itself? But when a year became two, became, three he questioned her decision to continue to live a flightless life. Questioned. He wasn’t ashamed of her, just wanted more for her. He hoped whatever she was learning now was worth her not spending the time as he did in school as he did. But he’s also worried with her being seen with Gyle a month after he graduated as a sign of that not being quite the case. His father was in shock naturally when he told him he was giving a temporary position. Virtue Medics calls it Apprenticeship. Theodore Muris explained it as a kind of temporary phase where young graduates were processed by the team and taught, while being inspected, to see if they would fit the companies ideals. More shocking to him was his father calling him last night and asking him to take him. Staring now outside the window towards a sleek building, with a blue font Virtue Medics, a swirling line underneath the blue font. Glossy windows. Shiny. Shimmering. Reflecting the shiny shimmering city it lie in the center of. Reflecting his father’s car.
“Thank you,” James mutters quietly.
“James,” his father uses his name in a serious tone, so James is naturally conditioned to look back at his father to hear what he has to say.
“Yes,” James replies.
His father looks at the building and then at him. He looks sadly at him. Places a hand on his shoulder.
“If it doesn’t workout there is a spot in my clinic always,” he tells him, but there’s more, “I’m worried about you leaping into this so suddenly. You’ve always been the child who went for what he wanted and that I admire for. Just as I admire Emilia’s free spirit, both children couldn’t have been so eager to learn or grab at opportunities in their life. I just.” his father pauses, “Worry about you. Especially you the most.”
He’s got a job, at a company that provides future funding and research for medicine. What’s with this haunting speech that fills James with a sense of dread? Why does it sound like his father is going to drive off and commit suicide right now? James looks at his father with a bit of worry.
“Is this like a final goodbye?” James ask him.
His father looks perplexed at first, and shakes his head, “James. You are smart. You have always been smarter than the kids in your classes and your mother and I did everything we could to slow down your progress because we didn’t want you to believe you superior. We never wanted you to get an ego in those gate programs or programs for geniuses. We - all we ever wanted was to keep you grounded. You are the child who sees the sky and begins to climb towards it without ever considering you might need a tether to keep you to the ground.”
Now he’s a bit angry.
“So, what you’re saying is that if I take this apprenticeship with this company instead of working at your firm, I am going to become too big for you?” James huffs and unbuckles his seatbelt. Grabbing the handle of the car. Why does he have to, what does he mean by the things he has to say them and why does he have to say them now? There is no guarantee that this apprenticeship will go through. Six months down the line he could be asked to leave those doors.
“James,” his father grab his wrist, “That’s not, please listen to me. That’s not how it was to come off. I am trying to explain to you-”
He pulls his arm away from his father, opening the car door, “Thank you for the car ride.” he says mildly closing the door. Fighting the lump in his throat or the sting of his eyes. His father looks at him sadly through the window. James turns away to look at the glossy building. Heading toward the revolving door, he looks back the black sedan is still sitting. Perhaps waiting for him to come back. He steps through the door and it slowly begins to peel away from the curb. As he enters a building that reminds him a bit of an office lobby at first. The tiles are white, and the ceiling is decorated with lavishly hipster square light casings around hanging lights. There’s a woman sitting behind a crescent shape desk, looking professional in a red suit, and a headset on her left ear. She’s wearing subtle lipstick. A group of people are going down an elevator. One man looks particularly nervous, he looks at him. They actually catch each other’s gaze from this distance. His pupils are dilated and he swears for a second the man shakes his head No. The elevator doors shut and they presumably descend down. While someone placing their hands around his shoulder. He seizes up and turns his attention to a taller gentleman.
Unkempt ginger hair, a groomed beard, closely shaven, with a chiseled chin. He wouldn’t give the look someone would say of a scientist. Sky blue sweater over a button down shirt and white khakis, with glossy shoes. He’s wearing a nametag; Richard Gierson.
“James right,” Richard greets him, shaking his hand.
“How do you know my name?” James ask.
Richard laughs.
“We were given portfolios of all the applicants for the apprenticeship alongside a picture,” Richard tells him.
“Sorry to have made you wait on me,” James says.
Richard looks at his watch.
“You weren’t late, no harm, no foul,” Richard tells him, “Things look serious and dire back there with the car. Get into a fight with your girlfriend?”
“No, my um...father,” James says more quietly.
“Ah been there,” Richard says leading him up some stylish, stainless steel stairs, “Lot of the parents of the graduates think this is a waste of time. Why spend your career, researching new medicines and new techniques, when you could get a more stable job. But that’s short term thinking and you know all about that, don’t you? We need to research now. We need to get the data out now, so we could better improve the future of medicine. Right?”
James is passing steel railings, peering down white glossy tiles that reflect the lights from above. Upstairs is a short gray carpet, and stylish gray doors with vertical stainless steel handles. Each room is labeled with a number, Conf 1-10. An open hallway extends towards another set of stairs. He catches a glimpse of a presentation happening in another room, through the small rectangular windows. Men in suits, are talking, Richard steers him to Conf 4.
At a rectangular table, five seats are already occupied. Two of the individuals he recognizes taking classes with. William Heidi, grandson of Theodore Muris, but he knew his science. A blonde, with blue eyes, and pale skin. He’s tall and lanky, with messy hair. He looks surprised to see him here and looks away, pink to his cheeks. His cheekbones are high, and his eyes are double lidded. Sidney Cooper. An auburn haired female of their class. He quite frankly remembers her for being remarkably good at pointing out repeating sequences. She was bronze skin, and lightly tan. She smiles at him, her almond shaped eyes giving the impression of someone mixed race. Though he never asked. A black man around their age, though he doesn’t recognize him from their school. A kid with ginger hair, though quite curly, like an afro, with very thick retro glasses, in fact he’s wearing a striped sweater over a blue dress shirt that looks quite 70s. And another young woman. She’s of an Eastern Asian descent, and once again he doesn’t recognize her from their school.
Richard takes the seat the end of the table and James sits down next to William, who has been tapping a pen since he got here.
“Let’s start with introductions, a name, your field of study and what you hope to accomplish with working in Virtue Medics,” Richard smiles and gestures towards William.
“I’m William Heidi, my main field of study is in biology, though my umbrella studies was under experiment sciences, more specifically experimental medicines and alternative medicines,” William clears his throat, “Not alternative medicines in that way. More like, what the polio vaccine was back then to now.”
“Sidney Cooper, my main field of study is in biology, though I did research into less controversial studies,” her eyes flicker to William and himself with a competitive edge as she sits back and smiles, “My umbrella study is with genetics.” she tilts her head to the side and looks at James.
James stares at the desk briefly.
“I too worked in experimental science, though more like fringe science and relative medicine, theoretical medicines, and theoretical biology, my thesis and several papers have been about pseudo evolution, designer science, designer genetism, and so on. I’m James Foster,” he says nervously.
“Wendy Hughes,” the other woman says, “And I also am a Geneticist.” she looks at Sidney with her own competitive glance, “I did work into stem cell research and in utero surgeries less harmful to the mother and child.” next she flashes a look at James, with a raised brow. He hadn’t considered this was going to be so competitive that they from the same fields would be trying to one up one another.
“Thomas Fields,” the other man says, “I worked strictly in the fields of social behavior and social sciences. But I have done research on race and race relations.”
Richard smiles, “Well doesn’t this seem like an impressive group.” he pauses, “I am Professor Richard Gierson and well to be frank, I was a lot like you. Choosing a niche field of study, I was painfully mocked, even laughed at. That my ideas would get me nowhere.” Richard raises his hands as he’s picked up a remote, pressing a button, “But now look at where we are today. The smart. Outside of the box elite. Are manufacturing the world’s leading future medicines. This is our second facility and we have been looking for people like you. The Apprentice program I told Theodore must be filled with the next, bright stars of the future. So we scoured through the colleges, till we came upon you six. You are our future and I want you to feel like Theodore’s children and view me like an older brother in this unique field of study.”
He pauses as a video is beginning to play on a screen that’s descended down.
“Welcome to Virtue Medics,” a robotic, almost autotune simulated woman’s voice begins to play, “The leading facility in research in new medicines that could save the world tomorrow. Before you begin your journey as an outstanding member of our research team, let’s go on a virtual tour to see what working in a Virtue Medics facility is like.”
Hello! Interested peaked! Since there only seems to be one spot left open currently, the Communications and Operations Manager, I'd like to apply for that position possibly?