Inda

The Cannibal

Hazel's plane ride had been uneventful. She browsed through a book she brought. She had listened to some music. She had regretted not buying chewing gum, and bought some as soon as she found a convenience store inside the airport, along with an Earl Grey tea a drink she could never resist. It was longer than she expected to get her luggage. She was afraid it had been lost after 25 minutes of standing and watching, but there it was, gently spinning around on the conveyor belt. Feeling a little ridiculous for having stood there so long without grabbing it- how many times must it have spun past her?- Hazel heaved the suitcase to her side, adjusted her gloves, hat and scarf, and picked up her warm, steaming cup for the taxi ride.

It was a while to get a taxi, as well. People were unloading, yes, and the weather was clear, but it was cold and those unaccustomed to the temperatures of Alaska were moving slowly. All of the other people hailing taxis seemed to have been hauling far more luggage than she was, and some with children, so Hazel stepped back and allowed them taxis first.

When she finally got into a taxi for herself, her tea had been thoroughly cooled, as had her hands. She was shivering as she hefted the suitcase into the trunk before climbing in and rubbing her hands together for warmth. She handed over the map to the driver, too cold to speak, and settled back into her seat. The drive was calm and quiet, the driver just as happy not to speak as she was. When they got within sight of the house, the driver pointed.

"We're nearly there." Hazel sat forward, looking out the window to see the place. It was beautiful. Covered in snow with trees glistening around it, she couldn't help smiling. She couldn't believe she got to stay here! She looked carefully on the drive, hoping to see someone else.

The Cannibal

•Character Name: Hazel Oneida Locklear

•Gender: Female

•Age: 22

•Height: 5'6"

•Weight: 135 lbs.

•Race/Ethnicity: Native American (Iroquois)

•Appearance: Hazel has very straight, black hair that falls to just below her shoulder blades. Her eyes are only slightly lighter than her hair, and her skin is a deep, nutty brown. She is perhaps a little stockier than she would like, with a body type that reflects her hobbies. She is almost always smiling, and wears a line of earrings that cuff her right ear, each one a different colored stud.

•College Major: Culinary Arts/Hospitality Management

•Personality: Hazel is a cheerful woman, with a laid back confidence and focus to get things done. She enjoys being around people, tends to get overwhelmed when there is too much noise, and can be stubborn when it comes to accepting help.

•Short Bio/Character Description: Hazel is the second oldest child in a family with four children. Everyone in her family is a teacher, with her younger sister and brother a year away from starting college for an education degree. Her older brother teaches chemistry and her mother and father both teach history. Hazel began cooking with her mother when she was very young and when her parents felt comfortable with it, allowed her main chore in the household to be cooking meals. She took jobs in restaurants and cafes, loving working in the kitchen, and decided at 16 she would not be pursuing teaching as she originally thought, and would instead open up her own restaurant. In her free time, Hazel goes camping and rock climbs.

•Strengths: Hazel is strong from all of her time rock climbing and considers herself very open minded.

•Weaknesses: Hazel is not particularly fast or good at strategy. She can be a little sensitive about her size.

1x1 Supernatural-Horror RP (CLOSED)

PM sent!

-=Circus of the Dawn=-

Cailey sat on her bed, staring at the sheet music spread out on the grey and burgundy quilt she had bought at a garage sale the week before. She was making notations on photocopies she had made, not wanting to mark on the originals. It had been difficult to find the libretto for The Dolls of New Albion, and she did not want to mar it.

She was having trouble focusing, finding herself gritting her teeth at the racket Alex was making outside of her door. It was so long since she had examined the wounds left on her by that day. The looks of admiration for Alex on Jimmy and Kyle's faces as he insulted her, humiliated her in front of everyone in the hallways. Even the teachers.

She wondered what he would think if he found out that Kyle had tried to go out with her all through high school.

Cailey shook her head and stared hard at the sheet music. Auditions were coming up for the university choir and the musicals in the drama department. The department here lost no time in getting started and if she was going to make a good first impression she had to focus. She had to forget about the petty irritation outside. That's all he was. An irritation. Nothing more than a sore spot on history that had happened years ago. She didn't need to think about him. She needed to practice.

She was nearly done transposing the song Elysian Night to the correct key, the original having been written for a tenor. She was a mezzo, so it was close to where she needed it to be already. Finally able to shut out her annoyances, she finished making the notes she needed to, and sang. She sang the song over and over. Perhaps she focused a little too hard on perfecting the part about the childhood friend, but that didn't matter. Who cared if he heard?

It was late by the time she went to sleep. It had been a long couple of days with the move and then the shock. She suddenly stopped singing, realizing she had been doing so for a little longer than she intended. Not wanting to tire out her voice, Cailey changed into her pajamas. She did not want to leave her room right now. She did not want to talk to him. Instead, she brushed her teeth in her room and spit the toothpaste into an empty water bottle. When she crawled into bed and allowed her mind to start wandering, the good times she had spent with Alex as a child played through her mind, unwanted as they were. She fantasized about telling him off, about telling him everything she had written out in letter after letter that she never sent, about slapping him... about getting one of those hugs he gave when he was so happy he couldn't keep it in. Like the first time she had caught a fish after his thorough instruction. She fantasized about getting one of those smiles that he gave when he was amused by a person, like when she tossed that same fish back because she had liked how pretty its scales were and wanted it to have beautiful babies.

She frowned into her pillow. He probably didn't even do those things anymore. He was a different person now, and so was she. Especially her. She wouldn't let him treat her like that ever again. Cailey finally drifted off, dreaming dreams of singing waves and mechanical fish.

She woke in the morning to a soft knock on the door of her room, and for a second she was confused about where she was. It was tough sleeping in a new room. She had lived in the same house her whole life. The transition to this apartment would take time.

“Cailey?” Cailey sat up, yawning and clearing her throat. Remembering who it was that was trying to talk to her, she heaved a sigh and let out a grunt of frustration into her hands.

“I’m sorry to bother you, I just thought that we should catch up. I’ve got to work today, till noon, but I thought it’d be nice if we could meet up afterwards." Cailey grimaced at the door. They were roommates. What else could they do after he got out of work but meet up? "I know it’s a bit of a drive, but how about that place back home on main, Mary’s Diner. If it’s still there I mean. If not, we can find something else.”

Oh no. He remembered her weakness for strawberry waffles. Mary's Diner had the best strawberry waffles in the state.

“Cailey?”

Slowly, Cailey crossed her room and opened the door wide enough for one dark eye to peer out at Alex. It was the first time she had looked at him once she had stopped staring at him in shock on move in day. "Mary's Diner is still around." She opened her mouth to keep talking but suddenly couldn't think of what else to say. Instead, she just looked up at him suspiciously with one eye, hoping she wasn't making a complete fool of herself.

Abandoned Souls - Enter The Benefactor

@Ezekial Wolffe @Kobayashi @Astarael42

Here is the link to the RP thread! Please let me know if you have any suggestions/critiques on how I have organized it.
http://www.roleplayerguild.com/topics/140292-abandoned-souls-1-slot-left/ic

Abandoned Souls (Full for now)

This post is what is posted in the Advanced Interest Check thread. This is for easy reference if anyone needs this during game play.

A mysterious benefactor has sent out letters to a group of people- the homeless, the abandoned, the lonely, and the hopeless. The letters have each been delivered with a different item- a meal, a bouquet of flowers, a promise of scholarship, perhaps a gift needed to achieve some personal goal- from a nondescript delivery person who has already received payment. The letters all read:

The Letter

Greetings,

You have been selected to participate in an interview with Silent Wheel, Inc. Please arrive tomorrow at 9:00 PM promptly, at the address listed below. Ring the bell three times. Dress code is casual. Duties and compensation will be discussed over cocktails and dessert.

6200 Belladonna Drive
Leyden City, PA

Warmest Regards,

Silent Wheel, Founder and CEO

Upon further research, or for anyone knowing the dying city in which they dwell very well, Belladonna Drive proves to be a private road leading to an estate about 20 minutes outside of the city limits. The house has been featured in a local project meant to highlight historic locations. The photo used in the newspaper and resulting book of local history can easily be found with a brief search in the local library archives.

6200 Belladonna Drive

Leyden City

Our city is called Leyden City and is located in Pennsylvania, near the border of New York and only a 2 hour drive away from Lake Eerie (that was not intentional, just a happy accident! lol).

Leyden City was doing very well during the industrial period of America. The slow death began in the mid-1960s, and sped up considerably by the mid-70s. Now the city struggles with empty and abandoned buildings, low economic growth, homelessness, and crime. There are attempts within the city itself to revive it, but nothing has taken off.

Despite this, there are still some amenities in the city that have managed to hold on and continue working, even if at a lower capacity than before. Maple Grove College is still in operation, and there is a local newspaper (The Leyden City Chronicle), a collection of public schools, a handful of local restaurants, the usually expected kinds of chain businesses, and quite a collection of local bars. There are old stage theatres, some of which are still running, and a single large, historic movie theatre. A handful of museums of various sorts are also in operation, but are constantly on the brink of shutting down. There is a public transit system that is also barely hanging on.

Reference Photos:










(Reference for landscapes in Pennsylvania, not specific to Leyden City)

Abandoned Souls (Full for now)

Player Characters

arockysmith; Ryker Johnson

Player Name: arockysmith
Character Name: Ryker Johnson
Age: 21
Gender: Male
Occupation: Drifter
Brief history: Ryker was abandoned in the middle of nowhere on his 7th birthday. He vaguely remembers his mothers face. All he knows is she had long brown hair that was usually kept in braids and that her eyes green as emeralds. His father had blonde hair that hung down to his shoulders and eyes blue like the sky. He remembers them telling him they were going to the zoo to celebrate how big he was getting, but then they dropped him off here with nothing but a small book bag filled with coloring books. He was found by an older women who had been walking back from town. He was sitting there trying to cry. Praying that his parents would come back, but after a couple hours waiting with the lady it was clear they had no intention of bringing him back home. The women took him in and cared for him like he was her own. She had recently lost her husband to a battle with cancer, so having him around to look after was just what she needed. Ryker got his education from old textbooks she had lying around that belonged to her husband who was a college professor before he got sick.

Ryker spent most of his childhood and some of his teenage years helping the Hannah Johnson around her house. When he was 17 he went out to pick up a few items they needed, and when he came back a couple hours later he found her lying in the kitchen. It looked like she just collapsed. Ryker felt for her pulse but came up with nothing. The love between the two had been that of mother and son, so the lose hit him hard. He had to create a make shift burial in the background, since she had no family he had no reason to report it. He stayed in the house a couple months after the lady died and collected the government money, until people started showing up looking for the women. It was too late now for him to say what happened so he packed up a bag and on his 18th birthday he headed out.

Ryker traveled from city to city doing odd jobs and even selling himself a couple times just to a hot meal. Eventually he found his way to Leyden City, PA where he spent his nights sleeping in alleys trying not to get mugged. He picked up a job as a bus boy, but it didn't pay nearly enough. He would often have to choose between eating or sleeping somewhere that wasn't the streets. He usually alternated depending on his work schedule. Every now and then he would wonder about his biological parents and why they had chosen to just leave him, but he never received any answers.

How did your letter arrive and with what item: Ryker was getting ready to leave for work when a messenger appeared with an orange envelope. He signed for the contents and opened it up. The envelope held details about his parents and where they had been and what happened to them. Everything was detailed from the days before was born until now. Ryker couldn't believe someone had done this for him. He was about to find out the answers as to why they left him and with shaky hands he called out of work. He would do whatever the sender wanted since they had finally given him the answers they needed.

Portrait/Character description:

Additional Notes: Ryker hates his birthday. His birth name is actually Ryker Mason, but since Hannah raised him he legally changed his last name to hers. Sometimes people call him RJ. He's got abandonment issues since everyone he's ever really allowed himself to care for has either left him or died.

Astarael42; Sara Mackenzie

Name: Sara Mackenzie

Age: 16

Gender: Female

Occupation: Panhandling. Along with whatever honest work comes her way.

Brief history: Up until eight months ago Sara's life was pretty average, except that she loved to read which was rare among teenagers these days. She woke up, went to school, did all the usual teenager things, came home, went to bed. Repeat ad nauseam. If she had known what her future held she wouldn't have detested the boring routine days so much. As it was she was the typical teenage girl fed up with life and school and everything that was constantly the end of the world. Unfortunately at that eight months ago mark her world, at least as she knew it, truly did end. Her mother was killed in a hit-and-run accident and Sara was suddenly very much alone in the world. She never knew her father and had no relatives left alive, that she knew of, and she would soon be a ward of the state if she didn't do something.

She started selling off all their possessions to make money for rent and food, took a part time job at Walmart, and struggled to keep herself in school hoping that she would go unnoticed by well meaning social service agents. She soon learned that she needed a nearly full time job to keep up expenses like their apartment and started missing school. That brought about what she had feared; social services found out she was living on her own, not attending school as she should, and planned to take her into custody and send her to a foster home.

Sara was desperate, she had no desire to go to foster care, she had known too many at school who were in such and she feared what she would find there. Instead she packed up what few things she had left, took all the money she had, and slipped away. She took a 12 hour bus ride with no idea where she was going, just away. She ended up in Leyden City. Of course she had little money, nothing of value, no job, and no place to stay. She quickly learned that living on the streets was much harder than her books and imagination had made it seem.

She stayed in shelters occasionally, but shelters were harsh unfriendly places. She felt safer crashing under bridges, in abandoned buildings, and in the homeless camps with the rest of folk like her. She made money any way she could, short of selling her body. That was a line she wasn't willing to cross. It was a harsh life, but she usually made enough begging to eat something each day and the plethora of abandoned buildings gave her shelter. She was surviving but not living.

How did your letter arrive and with what item: Sara was slumped against a wall down a mostly abandoned street. Her body was sore, she was tired, and caked with dirt. It had been a long time since she had slept in a bed or had a proper shower and that night it was looking like it was going to be one of those chilled ones that made it so hard to sleep. She was working up the energy to climb a nearby fire escape and check out the warehouse like building she was slumped against when the messenger found her and along with the letter he delivered there was also a key to a motel room. The motel wasn't far off, and while it wasn't some great fancy hotel it was serviceable, with a shower, bed, clean water to drink and a heater. One night of comfort and a chance to get clean was worth a lot to the worn out girl.

Portrait/Character description:
image

Sara is tall for her age, just a couple inches shy of 6'. It was a feature that earned her much mocking at school as well as the ubiquitous “you should play basketball” comments. She usually ignored it and tried to blend in as best she could, excelling at making herself as plain and unnoticeable as she could manage. Her dirty blond hair was long and wavy and she rarely did anything fancy with it. She dressed as drably as she could as well, preferring jeans and solid color t-shirts that never advertised anything, announced where she had been, or told anything about her. All in all she was quite unremarkable except for her height. Of late she has lost a bit of weight becoming a bit bonier than is really healthy and her ablutions generally consist of spit-baths in public washrooms or fountains. She tries to remain clean, but its hard and her clothing, body, and hair all show the signs of her current harsh lifestyle.

Kote; James Edward Miller III

Player Name: Kote
Character Name: James Edward Miller III
Age: 29
Gender: Male
Occupation: Nurse – Mental Health (Hopeless)

Brief History:
It’s a little thing called wanting and having it all… or he did, up until five years ago, when his wife and infant son were killed in a motor vehicle collision with a drunk driver. After that, things never corrected themselves. His life has been stream of inpatient stays, followed by periods of stability, always landing him in another period of decompensation. Most immediately, he’s been thriving, as much as one can under such circumstances. He’s been working under probationary terms at the local mental health clinic for a few months now. Things are going well. He shows up to work, handles his superiors well. They believe he’s fine. They see hope for him. But they don’t know he doesn’t take his medication. They don’t know he spends his free time alone, in his home, watching old home movies, going through pictures on his computer. They don’t see that for him, there is no light at the end of this tunnel.

How did your letter arrive and with what item:
He was at work. He was cleaning out a room, changing a bed sheet when the delivery man came in behind him. He called his name, and gave no introduction of own, but just handed him a plain manila envelope, clasped and taped shut. He told James not to open it until he got home that night. Compliant, James did as instructed. He sat himself down to a dinner of ramen noodles, and orange juice, and cut the tape holding the envelope closed with a steak knife. Inside was the invitation, all official looking on thick, white paper, and a Hallmark card. He began to shake as he read it, hot tears fell down his face. “Happy 5th Birthday.”

Portrait:

iHxzardx; Lance Ransom

PENDING

Inda; Cedar Collins

Player Name: Inda
Character Name: Cedar Collins
Age: 26
Gender: Female
Occupation: Photography Student at Maple Grove College
Brief history: Cedar was the child of two music festival loving hippies (thus the name). She had two younger twin brothers, River and Rainy. The family was very affectionate and loving. When she was 13 and River and Rainy were 6, her parents left her in charge while they went to Burning Man, intending to come back in one week. They never made it there and no trace of them was ever found. Her brothers got to stay together, living with an uncle in Nevada who could only take on two of the children. Cedar got sent across the country to Pennsylvania in a foster home where things were... ok. The foster parents barely did anything fun and never showed any real interest in Cedar, though they were never mean and provided for everything she needed. Everything except affection.

When she was 18, she moved out on her own and invited her uncle and brothers to come stay with her in her new apartment in Leyden City. She hadn't seen them since she went into foster care, and she was so excited to have family back. They were driving on a cross country trip, planning to stop at historic landmarks on the way as part of a project the boys wanted to do for when the school year began. Somewhere after getting deep dish pizza in Chicago, they went missing. No trace of them was ever found.

Cedar fell into a deep depression and tried to kill herself with pills and razors. Her wrists still show the scars. At 20 she was admitted to a psychiatric ward. Very soon after starting the medications she developed delusions that her family was alive somewhere. Perhaps in some hippie commune her mother and father had nostalgically talk about in her youth. Perhaps aliens took them and she was soon to be next. When she was finally released at 23, Cedar tried to restart her life. She took on a job at a grocery store and lived in a halfway house for a year. After that, she managed to get scholarships and loans to attend Maple Grove College to study photography, something she had enjoyed in high school. After transitioning out of the halfway house, Cedar was able to get an apartment- the same apartment that had been the destination of her uncle and little brothers. Even after all these years, she hopes to make contact, thinking maybe they'll still show up.

How did your letter arrive and with what item: Her letter arrived on a night threatening storms. Her apartment was about to see another suicide attempt after the only lens to the camera she needed for her degree fell and cracked after she slipped in the wet grass of her college campus the day before. The depression had been nagging at her ever since her student loans had run out and she had been unable to find a job, and though she had been fighting it valiantly, the cracked lens leaving her a useless camera was pushing her over the edge. A knock on the door proved to be a UPS delivery woman, and she handed Cedar the box. Curiously, inside she found two brand new lens for her camera, and the letter inviting her to interview with Silent Wheels, Inc.

Portrait/Character description:
Additional Notes: Due to being starved for affection and contact, Cedar can sometimes reach out and touch people at random times. The contact, while not necessarily sexual every time, did lead her to develop a reputation in high school. She is not ashamed of it, though, having been raised by hippies that tried to educate her about healthy sexual development. This behavior of reaching out to make contact to random people she still has and she was reprimanded for any kind of physical contact in the ward.

Xeron; Chronus Klefkin

Player Name: Xeron

Character Name: Chronus Klefkin

Age: 19

Gender: Male

Occupation: A piano and violin teacher

Brief history: Distance. It is a unit of measurement. That is all it is. But it is a broad term, distance of what to be exact? Chronus was taught from a young age that distance is nothing more than a measurement. Chronus was taught a lot of things from a young age. Yes he was a privileged boy from the start, being born into wealth. It was a set routine from day one; wake up, go to school, come home, piano for two hours, homework, food, violin for an hour, bed, rinse and repeat. As time passed he became much sneakier, got better at lying, saw himself as a king. But soon things began to get boring for him. Being the best at everything was a lonely prospect, especially if it was not of your own volition but it was to be expected and anything else would cause punishment to be ensued. Not physical but passive aggressive, meals would be served cold. Violin would be a bit longer. Father would stay out later at work and mother would be very curt.

This caused him to be cold and shut out everyone around him. As getting close to people would mean setting up expectations and he was tired of meeting expectations. Distancing himself to the exact measurement that speaking wasn’t hard but so that connections couldn’t form and expectations couldn’t be set. This caused him to have a sort of a snarky and condescending personality, looking down upon others. It is all sugar coated with pretty words and a charming smile, a facade.

Chronus found himself in Leyden City when an opportunity arose to be a piano teacher. Moving from his home in Florida, his father bought him an apartment to stay in. Before his departure, both his father and mother gave him one more lesson in distance. That no matter how far he may stray that it was only matter of measurement that they were to find him. The invisible chains to be constantly perfect keep Chronus shackled. Nothing felt fun for him anymore, he did things because it was all he knew how to do. Trophies glittering in his face reflecting the face of a bored, hopeless boy. Within Leyden he hoped to find some new passion to rekindle the fires of passion that once had sat in his stomach but are now burnt up by his stomach acid.

Though, this was mere wishful thinking as no fire was ignited and he went on living his life in the new city with only added stress from idiotic people who had no interest in the one thing he enjoyed doing. He had played plenty of times to sold out concert halls and with professional orchestras and yet he was here trying to share his knowledge with other people to no avail. The constant droning of how being at the top was a truly lonely place. Chronus saw no change, he grows more tired as the days pass and has even begun thinking death would be more of an event to get his blood rushing once more than this everyday life. But, that would make the distance between him and his parents much too far, and they wouldn’t like that, hence why Chronus suffers with the distance of time ever slowly ticking away in an uneventful life where he sits at the top of the throne alone.

How did your letter arrive and with what item: The letter was a monochrome in colour, reflecting how Chronus views the world with a scarlet stamp. There was no real drop off, no person to give it to him, it was something that was slipped into his mail slot. Inside was the letter itself and a simple piece of music titled “Blood at the Moonlit Ball”, a score he had written himself and was lost in the move. It was his pride and joy, so curiosity hit him causing him to follow the instructions enclosed.
Portrait/Character description: Standing at 5’11, Chronus is at an average height for his age and build. He has long slender legs and skinny fingers, the build of a guy who should be a swimmer than a pianist. He weighs in at a light 145lbs, making him slightly underweight for his height. His hair is black and shaggy, touching below his ears but not down his neck, and in the back runs down the nape of his neck. His eyes are a stormy grey that show almost no emotion, looking straight through you. His face is on the girly side with long eyelashes and high cheekbone and porcelain white with only a beauty mark on the right side of his upper lip. His voice is silky and smooth ranging in at a medium tone, with a constant sarcastic or perpetually bored sound to it. He typically wears a black hoodie with piano keys on the pockets, or a navy blue t-shirt with a treble clef printed on the bottom right of it. Most of his wardrobe has some sort of music symbolism on it. His pants are a typically black in colour and held up by a piano key belt with some sort of boot ranging from white to brown in colour. He has his ear pierced with a stud of red as a sole rebellion from his parents who are very pristine people. Not only that, he wishes to get notes from his music tattooed on him so he will never forget it again wrapped up his arm. A smirk is usually on his face or a look of disinterest of everything around him, there’s not much between the two faces, albeit he does smile. Only when needed though.

Additional Notes: “Blood at the Moonlit Ball” is the first piece in a trilogy of music composed by Chronus. The next in line is “Broken Clocks at the Moonlit Ball” or alt “Eternity at the Moonlit Ball” followed by the final song, “Euphoric Slumber at the Moonlit Ball”. He wrote both a piano and violin score for them. Though Chronus has written many other pieces of music, this trilogy was the first time any type of music he had written evoked emotions from him going so far as to cry when all three songs are played in succession. He pours his heart into his written music, which is why it connects with people. He is notorious for making whole stadiums flow with emotions.

Character Sheet

Player Name:
Character Name:
Age:
Gender:
Occupation (Drifter? Student? Journalist? Recently laid off?):
Brief history (i.e. what qualifies you as one of the "homeless, abandoned, lonely, and hopeless):
How did your letter arrive and with what item (do not let the item be ridiculous- no weapons, nothing too expensive, etc. Acceptable items can be a meal for a homeless man, a bouquet of flowers for a woman spending her birthday alone, a replacement part to fix a broken camera, a refill of a necessary prescription, etc. Be creative and make it personal!):
Portrait/Character description (Portraits are optional. I do prefer something more realistic, i.e. no anime characters, if you please. Paintings, photos, watercolors, are all good mediums to my mind for this. If you would rather type the description, that is perfectly fine.):
Additional Notes:

Abandoned Souls (Full for now)

Abandoned Souls - Enter the Benefactor

Cedar sat staring through the half full bottle of clearance shelf convenience store wine at the distorted view of the blades she had wrenched out of the the razor in her bathroom. A bottle of assorted pills sat next to the wine, pills from nearly empty bottles from her medicine cabinet, pills stolen from purses and first aid kits she could slip her fingers into, even pills she had found lying on sidewalks and floors. Some of them might even be tic tacs. She wasn't sure what the contents of the old pill bottle were, exactly.

She heaved a sigh. The shattered camera lens was in the trash can. Her negative account balance didn't even leave her enough money to keep her electricity turned on, much less replace the lens. Her student loans had run out and her efforts to find a job willing to work with her class schedule and her "history of instability", as employers tended to put it, had proven unsuccessful for nearly three months. She had even tried finding work that would take her on full time, her class scheduled be damned, but that still hadn't proven to be useful. She had struggled with going to classes due to the depression and impending homelessness, and hadn't been in three weeks. She was sure to fail this semester.

She couldn't help it. The tears were coming.

Angrily, Cedar snatched the bottle of wine up and yanked the cork out. The pill bottle was next. The lid flew across the room as tears started pouring down her face. She tipped the bottle of mixed pills back as if she were taking a shot of hard liquor.

Oh yeah, there were definitely mints in there. The sweet taste of peppermint combined with the bitter take of medicinals and dirt, coming together into a complete cocktail as Cedar took a deep gulp of the foul, astringent tasting strawberry wine. At last, after several deep quaffs, all of the pills were down.

Trembling hands picked up the razors and the last ounces of desperate determination fought the waves of intense nausea that had begun. She examined her wrist. It would be harder to cut through the scar tissue. She had to pick just the right spot, the spot that would give way easily. Ah, yes, there it was. Along the left side of her right forearm, right beneath where the scar tissue from the jagged glass she used previously had healed. With a deep breath, Cedar lowered the razor to her skin where it bit in. She could barely feel it. She could barely feel anything.

The next wave of nausea hit just as a knock sounded at the door. For a moment, Cedar sat perfectly still, the blade still resting inside her bleeding flesh. No one ever knocked on her door. Unless...

Flashes of her little brothers faces as she had last seen them came into her head. Clumsily, she pulled the razor out of the small cut it had made and rose.

Dizziness welled up inside her, and she steadied herself on the table. After a moment and another knock, she lurched her way to the door, glad for once that she couldn't afford furniture and thus there was nothing in her way to trip her. She didn't realized just how desperately excited she was at the thought it might be her long missing brothers and uncle. You could almost hear her heart shatter when instead she saw a dark skinned UPS delivery woman holding a box.

"Delivery for Cedar Collins." Her voice came out a little muffled. She must not have been speaking very loudly. Cedar nodded and took the clipboard to sign for the package.

Her knees were shaking now, the corners of her mouth set firmly down as she resisted the increasingly violent contractions of her stomach. Finally she got her signature down- it had taken so long to write it!- and handed it back. When she took the box, Cedar noticed just how deep brown and lovely the skin of the other woman was. She wished she could photograph it.

Damn her broken camera! It was useless! Fighting back tears, Cedar nodded and muttered a 'thank you'. The woman nodded back with a raised eyebrow. "Have a good night." After contemplating for a moment, the woman turned and walked away.

Cedar shut the door and turned around. How odd... when had she gotten to her knees? Her stomach gave a final, tremendous assault and suddenly all of the work she had done that night was splattered across her floor. As if in a dream, Cedar realized what had happened. The tears came again.

"Dammit! Dammit!Dammit!DAMMIT!" She shrieked, tears pouring down her face and dripping down her throat. Those were all of the pills she had. There were no more. Sobbing, Cedar knelt over the puddle and tried to see if any of the pills were salvageable. Some of them might have been, but another set of heaves attacked her, and anything that might have been left to achieve Cedar's ends was deposited with the rest of it.

Dizzy and shaking, Cedar sat back, leaning against the door. Through her sobs and tears, she saw the box. Funny. She had nearly forgotten about it.

Curiosity taking over, she gently pulled it to her lap, ripping through the tape. She didn't know she had the strength left to do that.

On top of the two lumps covered in bubble wrap was an envelope decorated with an intricate circular symbol. On the envelope in a delicate font typed into the rich paper was her name, her full name, along with her address. It wasn't sealed. Inside was a letter on the same rich paper with the same fine, printed font.

Greetings Miss Cedar Collins,

You have been selected to participate in an interview with Silent Wheel, Inc. Please arrive tomorrow at 9:00 PM promptly, at the address listed below. Ring the bell three times. Dress code is casual. Duties and compensation will be discussed over cocktails and dessert.

6200 Belladonna Drive
Leyden City, PA

Warmest Regards,

Silent Wheel, Founder and CEO

Cedar wiped her mouth. She read it over several times before she was certain she understood. Had she applied to Silent Wheels, Inc.? What were they? She didn't remember. Setting the letter aside, Cedar found one of the two lumps in the box and unwrapped it. She gasped, nearly choking herself.

It was a camera lens. The exact type she had broken the day before. Hardly able to believe it, she fished out the second lump and found it to be a complimentary lens, one that could handle further shots. She could hardly believe it.

Cedar got herself to her feet. Then she got herself to the bathroom. Cupping water in her hands from the faucet, she drank some and brushed her teeth. Holding the lenses as if they were the source of life itself, she resolved to deal with the mess tomorrow. She was tired. The lenses and the letter sat on the suitcase she used as a bedside table for the mattress on the floor she used as a bed. She drifted off to sleep, and for once hoped to wake up in the morning.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________

The house was so beautiful. The drive had been a little further than she thought it would be, but her car had made it and she was happy it did. Her car did not like long drives. But this house... it was so beautiful.

Cedar pulled her camera out and snapped a few photos of the building and the grounds. Her fresh lenses were perfect and she had been snapping photos all day long of nothing in particular. She was too excited not to. This house, and she could only assume the person who had supplied her with the lenses, was the exact right subject for the day, especially in the dark.

Slowly, she walked up to the house. She was just a little bit early, and the letter had stated "9:00PM promptly". She was nervous to be standing on the porch, but the threatening storms from last night had held off on any real rain. Tonight, it seemed the clouds would make good on their threats.

Cedar stood admiring the grounds. The drive was a long, well kept dirt road lined with tall trees that were losing their leaves. Autumn was well under way. It was mid-October, and the trees were obligingly exploding in the signature colors of the season. The scent of the fallen and rotting leaves on the ground added to the excitement and mystery of the evening for Cedar. Still standing on the porch, nervous to knock, she decided to wait until exactly 9:00. According to her watch, it was 8:53. She had left early in order to be on time, thinking her slow movements brought on from the incident the previous night would threaten to make her late. She was glad she left early and moved slowly. If she had assumed she could move as normal, she would certainly have been late.

Being early allowed her time to look out at the grounds, well kept in the style of an English garden, with shrubs and bushes growing along the drive and deeper into the grounds. Walking paths were lined with soft muted colors, hard to make out in the darkness of the night. The only light this far from the main road came from the sliver of moon overhead and the lights gently glowing from inside the house. The trees were growing in elegant draping shapes, casting shadows that looked sad and beautiful among the flowers that were still blooming.

Bushes of white blooms grew further into the grounds, almost too far to see in the darkness. The fluttering movement around the white flowers drew Cedar's attention to them. Bats. Cedar smiled and checked her watch again. The watch face flashed 8:55. With a nervous sigh, Cedar stood to wait the last five minutes before 9:00PM.

Abandoned Souls - Enter The Benefactor

I've been waiting on the character sheets to get started but I can get that all set up before they come in. If that's the preference, I'll have it posted very soon.

Abandoned Souls - Enter The Benefactor

Preliminary character submitted for approval. History and appearance will be much elaborated upon if approved.

Name: Sara Mackenzie

Age: 16

Occupation: whatever, anything but prostitution. She scrimps to make money wherever she can, supplementing with panhandling, fishing food from the trash, scooping coins off the street, and squatting in whatever abandoned building she doesn't get kicked out of. Occasionally she manages a bed or meal at a shelter but the competition is fierce. She flaunts her age and gender as an advantage whenever she can to push to the head of shelter lines but that doesn't win her any friends.

Brief history : Sara's mother died about 8 months ago. She tried to hold onto their apartment by quitting school and getting a job as a cashier at the Walmart. But she could only manage that for so long before social services learned she was living on her own and decided to intervene. Sara, fearing she would get shuttled into foster care, pawned whatever had value in the house, packed up a few things, and took off.

How did your letter arrive and with what item: Sara was slumped against a wall down a mostly abandoned street. Her body was sore, she was tired, and caked with dirt. It had been a long time since she had slept in a bed or had a proper shower and that night it was looking like it was going to be one of those chilled ones that made it so hard to sleep. She was working up the energy to climb a nearby fire escape and check out the warehouse like building she was slumped against when the messenger found her and along with the letter he delivered there was also a key to a motel room. The motel wasn't far off, and while it wasn't some great fancy hotel it was serviceable, with a shower and a bed and a heater. One night of comfort and a chance to get clean was worth a lot to the worn out girl.

Portrait/Character description: TBD

@Astarael42

I added Sara to the character player tab. Just let me know about any edits so I can edit it.