Dawn ran a few blocks with the pack, not looking behind her. She passed nobody as she turned through the buildings, speeding through openings and entranceways a person larger than her would have a hard time squeezing through. Finally, she ducked into what looked like the ruins of a small school or community center, spotting a corner under some crumbled stairs to hide in. She dropped the backpack beside her and opened it up. She had struck gold. An unopened loaf of grocery store bread was squished under a club-shaped piece of rubble, along with an empty plastic water bottle and some nails at the bottom of the bag. She opened the bread and gobbled up the first slice before stopping to catch her breath, remembering her tiredness from her recent getaway. Maybe she could sleep here instead of at home, with the backpack as a pillow and some bread in her stomach.
Face habitually propped into a contented expression, Sebastian Redgrave sat on a bench across the path from the lemur cage. He enjoyed watching the little primates leap and climb, stopping at nothing to get where they wanted to go, even if that was a nook in the ceiling. Their energy never ceased to amaze him. He didn't mind the people standing right by the glass, blocking his view of the cage floor. A couple of small children had managed to get one lemur's attention, pointing and waving as if the lemur would do what they wanted. He took pleasure in seeing their young, fascinated faces as they excitedly ran back to their mom. Maybe these children would become scientists one day, perhaps even animal biologists, sharing his love of animals.
His bottom was starting to hurt from how long he had been sitting on the hard wooden bench. He got up to stretch his legs and go observe another exhibit. Everything seemed so normal, as it had seemed ever since he was a child. But the rumours persisted, occasionally cropping up in the depths of newspapers or by word of mouth, threatening to damage the zoo's reputation as a child-friendly educational attraction. Personification and communication were among the least ridiculous. Magic? Transformations? He was a scientist, possessing a rational mind and not a superstitious one. He had to see it, maybe even run experiments on it, to believe it.
He found himself looking at the grizzly bears. A brawl seemed to be taking place in their shallow pond, with two bears trying to push each other out and even pushing each other and knocking each other over. He overheard a young boy standing in front of him asking, "Why are they fighting?" Sebastian responded, rapidly converting his biological thinking into layman language. "They're not really fighting, they're just trying to see who's stronger. The stronger one will be able to get what he wants and the weaker one won't." The boy turned around to look up at him, and he smiled. "I'm Bass. I work here. I guess you could say I run the place." The boy grinned. "Aw, cool! So like, do you know everything about animals?" Bass chuckled. "I don't know everything, but I know quite a bit." The boy's interest turned back to the battling bears. Sebastian's did, too. He briefly wondered if there might be some fantastical reason behind the bear's seemingly instinctive, ecologically sensible behaviour. He internally shook his head. He couldn't think of one here.
Name: Sebastian Redgrave Alias/Nickname (if any): Bass (as in the fish, not the musical range) Age: 34 Gender: Male Appearance:
Bass is always seen in casual summer clothes. His blue baseball cap is actually a wig with the hair attached to the underside of it. The curly tufts are enough to hide his real hair.
Lurking in at 5'10", Dr. Redgrave likes wearing coats: a white lab coat in the lab and a dark coat outside the lab. His hair is short and greying, and he may put on fake facial hair to decrease the chance of being recognized as Bass.
Personality: Under his public alias "Bass", he acts talkative, enthusiastic, and interested, which isn't hard given his actual knowledge and curiosity. He also pretends to be welcoming and friendly so as to improve his and the zoo's reputation with guests. Behind the persona, he is strategic and scheming in favour of the reputation of the zoo and the lab, putting them before personal desires or concern for others. He tends to lurk and be somewhat quiet about things besides the zoo and the lab.
Backstory: Sebastian's entire life has predisposed him to serve the zoo and the lab. He heard stories about his grandfather's lab, which he was finally allowed into when he started graduate studies. He also grew up in the shadow of his father's stress and desperation to keep the zoo going. He went to the zoo frequently as a child, but lost interest as a teenager, preferring to go out and be rebellious with friends. Feeling a preemptive responsibility for the management of the zoo, he decided to major in zoology before gaining back an interest in animals. A large part of the reason he began graduate studies was his curiosity of what went on in his late grandfather's lab. During this time, his father Marvin retired, and the role of Zoo Director was passed onto him. Marvin taught Sebastian the tricks of the trade and helped Sebastian start while he finished his PhD in Zoology.
Relationships:
TBA
TBA
Other: TBA
Name: Enkoodabaoo Alias/Nickname (if any): Mooin Bearson (stage name & bear name); Kooda (nickname) Age: 17 Gender: Male
Personality: Kooda has trouble being himself. He can appear visibly shy and quiet to people he isn't close to, and is even a person of few words to those he is close to. Left to his subconscious, his face is quite emotionless, and other people can see him as stand-offish. He can be unpredictable especially in times of conflict, but only because he tries to diffuse uncomfortable situations. As shy as he is, he doesn't fear people or socializing; in fact, he likes people and is drawn to those he finds interesting. His speech ranges from stilted and haphazard to fluid and eloquent depending on how comfortable he is. He has a penchant for dry humour and amusing anecdotes. Give him a script and he automatically knows what to do in terms of expression and emotion, being able to identify with a worryingly broad range of characters considering his age.
Backstory:
Kooda's family is part of the indigenious peoples of Hyder. Kooda's father, Nootau, died when he was a baby, and his mother, Alsoomse, fell in love with and married another man named Kilden Crypt. Little did she know this man was quite the actor, hiding his jealous streak and his contempt for his stepson. Kooda saw the pattern of his stepfather pretending to care about him in front of his mother but completely ignoring him once she was gone, which confused him. One day when Kooda was six, Kilden brought Kooda to the Hyder forest and left him in a cave blocked by a boulder, intending to feign tears to Alsoomse about how Kooda had gotten lost. Kooda sat terrified in the dark all night, crying for his parents.
The next morning at dawn, the boulder moved aside, and Kooda saw a large bear. The bear was much bigger than him, and he was scared. But he was hungry, and when the large bear held out a cake made of blueberries, he ate it eagerly. He began to live with the bear in the forest, the female bear raising him as her own even after she had her own cubs two years later. He learned to speak, walk, and even hunt like a bear, and learned that the mother's name was Mooinskw. Over the four years he spent with them, he almost forgot where he had come from, even what his parents looked like. He renamed himself Mooin, after his bear mother. He played and grew up with Mooinskw's children. He spent winters indoors with them inside the trunk of a large tree.
The winter when Mooin was 10, hunters found the tree in which they were staying. Mooinskw had heard many bear tales like this, and knew what she had to do. She went out and distracted the hunters while the two boy cubs escaped. The hunters shot her dead before Mooin and the girl cub could get out, and Mooin went out on two legs and begged the hunters not to kill his sister. The hunters stopped hunting in their confusion and went to work "rescuing" Mooin, asking him what his name was and where he lived. Mooin, of course, answered as if he was a bear living in the forest.
The hunters brought Mooin to the local police department, where after an investigation, Alsoomse was contacted to reclaim her son. Alsoomse couldn't believe Kooda was still alive, and took him home in shock and tears. Mooin felt confused. He was old enough to understand and remember that this was his biological mother, and he loved her as such, but he wasn't entirely happy to be home with her again. His home was with the bears. Alsoomse was confused when he got home and started growling and walking on all fours. She asked him why he was acting like an animal, and he told her he was a bear, he had lived with bears for years. Being a indigenious woman with superstitions and respect for animals, she believed him, and allowed him to visit the bears whenever he wanted.
After two years of re-adjusting to civilian life and catching up on education, Kooda started middle school at age 12. He didn't quite get on with the other children, many of whom had gone to primary school together, or at least spent their childhood with other human children. He joined the school's drama club to make friends. His socializing attempts were in vain, but he realized he enjoyed acting. He liked being someone or something else, especially animals, and being handed a script meant he didn't have to come up with his own things to say. The drama teacher told him about the Hyder Youth Theatre Company, which had productions every half-year and held auditions right after. As they accepted children ages 12-19 and allowed people to stay until age 22, Kooda was just old enough to join. Upon his drama teacher's recommendation, he used the stage name Mooin Bearson rather than the ridiculous Enkoodabaoo, and auditioned with his own piece and a given excerpt from the coming production. He didn't make the cut, but upon asking he was accepted into stage crew. Not very discouraged, he tried again two more times. Finally, after his third audition, he landed a few-line part. At age 13, he was among the youngest people in the group.
Now 17, he is learning a supporting role for his 7th production in the group. He is in his final year of high school, in which he's doing well enough and has enough friends to get along. But his main focus is acting. He has personal goals of starring in a play just to see if he can, and also maybe getting into a real actual movie one day. He still goes to the forest where his real best friends are, the three bear children, and has not forgotten how to be a bear.
Relationships:
Alsoomse: Mother. 48. Nootau: Father. Died at 32. Kilden Crypt: Stepfather. Died at 43.
Stephen Colbear: Bear brother. 17. TBA
Other: TBA
Inactive
TBA
Animals
Active
Name: Stephen Colbear Age: 11 human years (22 bear years) Gender: Male Species: Grizzly bear Appearance:
Personality: It is fairly apparent that Stephen's sense of humour masks deeper problems. When Stephen is serious, his demeanor is that of a wise man who has been through a lot in life, despite the fact that he's only 11 (22 to him). But he isn't often serious, because he fears he will be drowned by the traumas of his past and the general injustice in the world. He would much rather keep himself afloat by seeing the humour in everything. He will do almost anything for a laugh, barring things that will harm others. He has the type of humour that is senseless and random in a twisted way that only those who are smart and well-informed can manage. Stephen likes others, but doesn't know what to do with them. Despite feeling a little uncomfortable around others, he isn't shy and can converse with relative ease. Powers/Skills: Moderately skillful at reading humans (comprehension of a human child). Acting. Humour. Goals: Stephen is determined to find and kill the poachers as revenge for the way they treated him, and free the other captives. Backstory:
Stephen was born in a litter of three cubs to mother Mooinskw in the Hyder Forest. Stephen never questioned Mooin's legitimacy as a bear even though he didn't look like one, since Mooin had been in the family since he was born. Stephen never had a father, and never heard what happened to him if he did. Like other bear cubs, Stephen and his siblings were homeschooled by his mother, but on hunting trips he did get to know the other families in the community.
The winter when Stephen was two years old, hunters found the large tree in which they were staying. He obeyed Mooinskw's command of running away when she went out to distract them, escaping a little ways into the forest with Peta. They returned a day later to find the body of their dead mother sprawled on the floor, with Lulu sleeping inside their home. They woke Lulu up, and she told them that the hunters had killed their mother and taken away Mooin, but spared her upon his plea. The children mourned the death of their mother and their brother (who had not actually died, but in the bear community, disappearance generally meant death). They moved Mooinskw's body into an opening in the trees where the falling snow would cover her, and then resumed a melancholic hibernation in their tree. It wasn't long before Mooin came to visit, and Mooin used bear language to tell them about his strange life as a human named Kooda.
After that winter, the cubs reached maturity and separated to live on their own. They had occasional family gatherings when Mooin came to visit, and sometimes Mooin just visited hem individually. Inspired by Mooin's strange life away from the bears, Stephen enroled in the Basics of Human Civilization program at the Animal Technical College. He took the Practical Acting program next, after he heard of Mooin's stories of these "plays" where performers pretended to be things and an audience watched them. Plays were never put on at the college, but the students did do pretending and role playing to practice ecological interactions. He would often mess around while role playing even if it was a serious matter, joking and trying to make his partner break character.
In Stephen's 9th year, he was hunted by bear poachers, who tranquilized him down and took him into captivity. He was kept in what seemed like a bear storage, with about a dozen weak and malnourished bears lined up in tiny cages inside a farm. He was fed steroids in what little food the poachers gave him to prevent him from looking as frail as he felt. His cage was so small that he could barely walk around, and he had to live in his own waste that was infrequently cleaned. The cages were separated by tall stone walls, and he had no contact with other bears aside from responding to their wails. Stephen kept himself from going crazy by trying to make depreciating jokes about the situation, occasionally yelling one out when the poachers weren't around in an attempt to humour the other captives. After 15 months there, Stephen was sold to the Hyder College to be used as a research subject, and he was housed at the Hyder Zoo. He has lived with one male and two female grizzly bears at the Hyder Zoo for 4 months.
Relationships:
Enkoodabaoo: Adopted brother. 17.
Mooinskw Colbear: Mother. Died at 12. Peta Colbear: Brother. 11. Lulu Colbear: Sister. 11. Jon Stewbear: Male den mate. 10. Female den mate Female den mate
Just outside the populated city of Hyder, built into the hills of the suburban plains, is a fairly large city-side zoo. On warm, sunny days, the ticket booths and entrance gates are jammed by long lines of parents with their children, groups of friends, animal lovers, and everyone else, some even lining up before the zoo's opening at 9 am. Pushing through the three-pronged gate in the red plasterboard entrance way, guests will find themselves in a crowded splitting-off sidewalk and come face-to-face with a large map of the entire zoo. Smaller maps in the form of pamphlets are shoved upright into multiple holders beside the large map, free for the public to take. From here, guests are free to observe the range of exotic animals along with the typical selection of household names from all around the world, organized into neat sections by continent of origin, until the zoo closes at 7 pm.
The zoo was started 57 years ago by a biologist named Theodore Redgrave. Theodore worked in a zoology laboratory in the city, and realized that several projects in the lab would be made cheaper and easier if they housed some of the species nearby rather than having to travel to them far away. With funding from the lab, he initiated projects to build habitats in the suburbs near the city. Several species were brought in, and studies proceeded within this new convenience. It was only a few years before the government passed new laws that caused lab funding to dwindle. Realizing more money would be needed to keep these animals alive, Theodore proposed some slight renovations to convert the study area into a small zoo for the city. Construction immediately went underway, and after about six months, the location opened up to the public as the Hyder Zoo. Theodore, now the principal investigator of the lab, was named Zoo Director.
Over the next generation, the zoo expanded from several animals to dozens, growing further into the hills. The zoo attracted more visitors, but the cost of maintenance grew exponentially, and the zoo struggled to meet demands. Through obvious but tolerated nepotism, the role of Zoo Director was passed on to Theodore's son, Marvin Redgrave, a businessman. With little knowledge about the care and study of animals, he relied on the scientists from his father's lab to take care of the species in the zoo. He did, however, have inside information about doing business and making money, and thus tasked himself with managing the continued expansion of the zoo in a cost-efficient way. He began finding animals in the sketchiest of places, fooled by sellers claiming they were fit for a zoo. Strange things began happening in the zoo, and rumours had started to circulate about what the animals could be up to. The rumours were never confirmed, and Marvin assumed the scientists were taking care of the biotic factors of the zoo.
Once again through nepotism, though this time justified, the role of Zoo Director was passed on to Marvin's son, Sebastian Redgrave, who was studying to be an animal researcher. Sebastian Redgrave now works in his grandfather's lab, spending his time off from doing research managing the zoo.
Rumour has it that "the animals in the zoo act normal by day, but at night their true motives come out to play." Sebastian, having inherited his father's strategic wit and his grandfather's scientific curiosity, wants to find the truth behind these rumours. He fears they pose a danger to the zoo's reputation, and also indulges in the unlikely idea that strange behaviours of animals could benefit the lab's research and reputation. He pops in unannounced every once in a while to observe, usually as his public persona, Bass.
Once in a blue moon, the evening guards will do their final checks and close the zoo gates at 7 pm, oblivious to the fact that not every single person has made it out. It isn't hard to wait out the night since there are many tables, benches, and patches of grass to sleep on, and no one has been harmed as a result of being locked in. In fact, these instances usually go unreported. Little does anyone know what these temporary prisoners might see in the wee hours of the night...
You are your own god, and also one of the two demigods of this world. So do whatever.
Please indicate whether it's day or night at the beginning of your IC posts.
Please indicate in the character sheet for that character whether he/she/it is active or on hiatus.
I think we should keep all our characters in one post that we keep updated in the Characters tab, rather than posting a bunch of times.
Sorry if I forget to do any of these. Poke me about it or something.
Name: Alias/Nickname (if any): Age: Gender:
(optional text description)
Personality: Backstory: (Can be added later, after hello post of character. How did they get stuck in the zoo? If you want to put additional backstory you can but I probably won't :P)
(Current relationships, interactions, goals, etc. with humans, can be added as we go)
(Current relationships, interactions, goals, etc. with animals, can be added as we go)
Other:
Name (if any): Species:
(optional text description)
Powers (if any): (If this animal isn't a typical animal, why?) Goals (if any): Backstory (optional): (How did they end up in the zoo? Why do they have whatever goals they have?)
(Current relationships, interactions, goals, etc. with humans, can be added as we go)
(Current relationships, interactions, goals, etc. with animals, can be added as we go)
Carver heard the bar maiden say she didn't know where Dorian and Clay were. That was unfortunate. There was a lull in the conversation, and Carver looked up in surprise as the bar maiden suddenly put a drink in front of him. From the detective? Why? Oh, it doesn't matter, the more the better. He took the drink. "I don't know him, but tell him I said thanks." He drank a few sips, enjoying the sourness. This detective guy had good taste.
A smell of uncleanliness finally pierced Mina's senses, reminding her that she still existed. She had shut down since the event, a haze still clouding her mind where a thick fog had once settled, a subconscious defense against the chaos and destruction that tried to tunnel in through her pupils and rupture her mind. She didn't think about it much and didn't want to, but the recent memories always threatened to blast through the fog, making themselves loud and clear when her mental defenses were lowered in her attempts to sleep. But at the moment she was awake, wandering through the haze without anywhere to go. The smell of grubbiness brought her back, reminding her that she hadn't changed her clothes or washed anything since the incident.
She went to the small, dimly-lit washroom that came with her hotel room and looked into the mirror. The beige wall, punctured by a vague three-dimensional outline of a robed human, faced her back. She wasn't sure when she last saw the colour of her skin and the subtle wrinkles developing on her still-youthful face, but she guessed it was the morning of the summit. She wondered how she looked now. Haggard, she supposed. Probably with bags under drooping eyes and more pronounced lines in her face. Her appearance felt vulnerable to distress and melancholy; it wasn't all invincible and resilient like Cypress' face.
Oh, perfect Cypress. The young, gorgeous superhero with a perfect face and a body fit for a Victoria's Secret catalogue. Mina's jealousy blossomed as quickly as their friendship had when they worked together on missions in Canada. Fueled by an obsessive frustration from learning that Cypress still supported that embarrassment of an organization, the Champions, Mina had watched every one of her press conferences and talk show appearances with gritted teeth and clenched fists. Cypress probably thought she was all high and mighty, thinking she knew everything about Nagoya and speaking for the Champions even though she wasn't even there. Of course she didn't fear the abuse probably directed at her, with her beauty and strength and powers and all that.
Mina recoiled from the mirror as if she could see her comparatively ordinary face. She stripped off her uniform and tossed it into her laundry basket, seeing it revert to its green colour out of the corner of her eye. She didn't bother avoiding sight of the mirror as she walked past it into the bathtub, her skin still wearing beige camouflage. She closed the shower curtain out of habit and turned on the water, a mild lightness taking over her body, as if the dirt and sweat the warm water flushed away had been weighing her down. She squeezed an excessive amount of shampoo into her hand and lathered up her hair, undoing the braid she had forgotten to let free before the shower. She didn't put any effort into flushing the product out, simply standing under the shower with her eyes closed, focused on the feeling of the soothing droplets rolling down her skin.
By the time Mina opened the shower curtain, the mirror was completely fogged up and the air felt as damp as her skin. She dried her hair with the hairdryer on the wall and then, still without putting on clothes, she went and lay on her stomach on the bed, her head turned to the side so she could breathe. The light was flashing on the earpiece she had taken off and laid on the beside table within arm's reach. Choosing not to ignore it this time, she took it and shoved it into her ear. Red Jack's voice sounded in mid-speech. "-On the loose. And I'm sure we're all itching for some action. The Cochran family jet is at the airport. If you want in on this, meet me there. We leave within the hour."
Mina didn't even care what the situation was anymore. She was itching for some action, and maybe her new superhero group could do some good, negate some of the damage the Champions had done. She rolled off the bed, put on some clean clothes, and shoved extra clothes and some toiletries into a duffle bag. She made sure she remembered where the airport was, and then remembered her soiled uniform. Hopefully, wherever she was going, she would get the chance to wash it.
@RumikoOhara I was wondering if our characters could have some sort of broken friendship between them, since both are from Canada (close to each other too). Maybe they could have initially bonded from doing some missions there together, and now my character feels betrayed. I think my character would have some sort of jealous obsession with yours for being pretty, young, smart, athletic, just seeming like an all-round perfect being in general, and as a result might want to use her camouflaging powers to be a slight stalker.
Carver overheard the detective asking the bar maiden some questions about the place, and he slinked over, as much as he could slink in his drunk and hungover state, to listen. He didn't notice the chair his knee suddenly knocked out of the way. He saw a man supporting a blue pixie who seemed very drunk, talking to the girl who had finished reading over food. He sat down in the table closest to where the detective and the bar maiden were talking, and pretended to be minding his own business while eavesdropping. She's only been working for a day? Wow, she seems to know the place well. He strained to listen over the racket from the hammered pixie. From the bar maiden's minimalist description of "a rich looking guy in a fancy suit," Carver pictured the owner, Dorian, as a clean-shaven man with sharp features and slicked-back salt-and-pepper hair, standing tall in a shiny purple suit. He imagined the bar maiden's boss, Clay, as a large man donning a buzz cut, with broad shoulders supporting large muscles under a black T-shirt. How does she know all this stuff? He curiously listened for more information.
