Sixteen Tons, Open

[TheIronRuler]

A haze of a dream is all you can remember from your past. Your rude awakening from the sweet strand of memory - the only reminder of who you truly are - echoes through your ears. A strong burning sensation in your throat forces you to cough violently in your bed. You had just experienced one of the last two reminders of your past, the second being your number tattoos across your right forearm. Underneath that number lies a small chip able keeping track of your body and check balance - along with your sentence, if you had any.

The place where you wake up in is a bunkhouse, a small and stuff gray wooden house filled to the brim with beds and other men of various size, age and color. They too had been awakened by the bells outside and you notice that more than a few of these beds are already empty. As the others wake up around you they hop off their beds and pull themselves outside of the bunk, their blank expressions signal to you that they might know what's to come. You leave the large room following the others and leave out to find yourself standing in a large courtyard.

Congratulations, you have just set foot in the center of the Henderson Medium security prison camp where you have spent the last few months in... a time you don't remember clearly. In fact, you don't remember anything past that snippet of a dream you had, a peculiar effect of an unknown event. However what drives you forward is the flow of inmates forward towards the mess hall for their breakfast and morning briefing. You look to your left and to your right and you see dozens of similar bunkhouses set up, to your right a concrete wall and to your left an entrance to the mines... the mines? What mines?

Deep inside the Kentucky earth is precious coal, and your job is to mine it. The more you mine, the more you earn, and the less time you spend in this prison. You have ended up in this prison either by committing a crime or failing to pay your debts. You can leave whenever you serve your punishment and/or repay your debts. You can buy back some of the time you may serve, but at the end of the day when you walk out you need to have a positive balance. Something tells you that you're deeply in the red. Call it a hunch.

You will be playing as a prisoner in debt servitude. You can always pay your way out, but you also have to pay for your food, tools and bed - things that usually keep your balance steadily in the red. Being kept in debt to the prison is something almost all of the inmates experience, though not all work in the mines like you do. You woke up with no recollection of your past or why you came here. The morning briefing gives you all of the information you have, though you do get to discover more about yourself through conversation with your neighbors in your bunkhouse and work-buddies. You're all from different bunkhouses and you didn't have much contact with each other before tonight, not that you remember it. You somehow feel reinvigorated - your feet are lighter that you would expect and your vision is perfect, even if you woke up next to a pair of glasses. Something feels off about your body and some of your fellow inmates might have already commented on it.

The world had gone to shit. With prisons privatized in the USA, it had a steadily growing population serving as practically slave labor. Debt servitude was a controversial law passed first by some states in the USA and became much popular when it seemed like it was fixing the economic problems of the country.

With new technology we can now dig deeper and wider into the earth, using up everything we can find in the earth to remain energy independent. Along with dwindling resources on earth more and more space probes and mining stations are being set up in space with the stations turning a very hefty profit in recent years after decades of losses to the state.

Spoiler: Character Sheets

Name:
Age:
Gender:
Appearance:
Last Piece of memory (Dream Sequence):
(*This is the information you won't have access to in character till a certain point in the plot*)

Crimes (if any):
Bio: (Before the prison, Inside the Prison.)

 

[TheIronRuler]

I would like to mention that the RP will go through quite a few turns and twists. I always find it hard to balance between informing the players of what they're getting into and managing to convince people into playing my games. I hate spoiling surprises but sometimes the way I would word this premise makes it sound different than it really is.

In its core, this is a "slice of life", one in which you will face yourselves, your guilt... your captors and a force to be reckoned with, one you can decide to face against and stop before it's being unleashed to the wild - or one you can leave behind in favor of driving as fast as you can to the life you left behind when you got behind bars. Within this plot you will face science fiction, justice gone wrong and try to avoid being eaten alive.

I hope this helps better define the story and would you should expect when signing in.

I didn't write a "personality" bit because I think it will restrain people too much. Your past actions define who you are and your first few posts will set the tone for your character, though change can always come in the future.

 

[DragonofDecay86]

This actually looks interesting, I'll try and throw up a sheet tomorrow.

 

[lacktheknack]

This looks bloody fantastic.

<spoiler=Richard Bronson>Name: Richard Bronson

Age: 27

Gender: Male

Appearance: Very tall and broad, about six-foot-eight with a sixty-inch chest circumference and forty-two inch waist, with angular features, somewhat muscular but nothing really spectacular. He maintains a buzz cut. He is of Jewish descent. His head and limbs are of smaller-than-average proportion to his torso, but not by much. He has a large forehead, large facial bone structure, wide jaw, and generally looks uncannily like half a Neanderthal. His face is constantly etched with a vaguely worried and spaced-out expression, as if he's in a boring meeting and remembering that he left his oven on. He's wearing standard prison-miner garb, which is too tight for him. He has two reddened spots on his nose where glasses normally sit - he doesn't seem to need them now.

Last Memory (Dream Sequence): Richard stands in a geode, unable to see a way out. He panics and smashes at the beautiful crystals, they break easily. He carves a path to the wall of the geode, and starts examining it to see if he can break it. As he taps the wall of the geode, he hears ringing voices that speak gibberish and some creepy laughter, but no hollow areas to break. Suddenly, he realizes that the crystals are growing back, engulfing him. He stands helplessly as the crystal fills the area around him like water, covering his neck, his mouth, his nose, his eyes -

Crimes: Convicted of aggravated assault (pleaded innocent), embezzling funds (pleaded guilty) and uttering threats (pleaded guilty). Acquitted of two counts of stalking (pleaded innocent), two counts of attempted murder (pleaded innocent) and one count of robbery (pleaded guilty at recommendation of lawyer, was found innocent anyways).

Before prison bio: After graduating college at age twenty-one (more through hard work than smarts), Richard worked as a banker until age twenty-three, to the great confusion of everyone who saw him. Despite his intimidating size and general appearance, he never was interested in fights, and would rather solve disputes through games of cards or coin tosses. He maintained a successful and eventless career... until a series of run-ins with a paranoid conspiracy theorist who threatened to destroy his bank. The man filed dozens of suits against Richard, who had told him to shove off. In the stress of the looming lawsuits, he had clobbered one of his more annoying co-workers who tried to tweak him about the whole mess. It was his first fight, and it landed him an assault charge. The lawyer fees of the aftermath drove him deeply into debt, so his debts were added to his normal sentencing.

His family life is quiet. He didn't have a girlfriend upon arrest, nor did he maintain close ties with his parents - he didn't talk to them for a year before his arrest. He's very fond of his only sibling - a younger sister - and swore to always be there for her. He's kept in contact with her as best as he can while he's been in prison, but her latest expected letter hasn't arrived yet, two weeks late.

His childhood was fairly bland, with one black spot, grade six. Being nearly six feet in sixth grade doesn't do you many favors, especially if you're at a new school and don't leverage your height and build in a bullying way. Kids made his life hell for a couple weeks before Richard nearly snapped and smashed one against a wall. He reared back to punch... and never swung. He hated the lack of control he felt when angry, and vowed to never respond with violence to any issue he had. A promise he broke with the irritating co-worker.

As a teen, he had the usual hangups of "What do people think of me?" and "Why can't I get any girls to date me?", but these melted away as he tried to accept his stature and size. His main fears nowadays are coming across too aggressively and accidentally hurting people, side effects of his aversion to violence.

He doesn't have many friends, as most people regard him as threatening and scary, as well as his mildly workaholic nature leaving little time for people. The few friends he does make he remains fiercely loyal to, as if he subconciously realizes how precious the few friends he makes are.

Inside prison bio: Richard has spent the last four years working off his debts and sentences. He's finally paid off the last of his sentences, and now just has to pay off his debts. He hopes to finish soon. He mostly survived the last four years through a combination of physical intimidation and maintaining diplomatic ties with everyone important in the prison, and works hard in the mines to pay off his debts as quickly as possible.

His initial arrival was noted by absolutely everyone - typical - and many inmates took his appearance to be an assertion of dominance - also typical. Many prisoners floated off after his lack of interest in prison politics, power or even his fellow cell-mates became apparent, but a few have lingered. Richard has had his wardrobe shredded, knives left in his food, and hand-held mining equipment left stuck in his mattress, among other threatening gestures, but people rarely try to confront him.

He's been involved in four prison fights - two one-on-one fights, one three-on-one attack, and one minor riot. He won the personal fights, and successfully escaped the riot. He doesn't enjoy the fights, despises that fact that he's really rather good at it and feels anxious and guilty when he thinks of them.

He has made a couple friends in prison, mostly on mutualistic principles - they do things for Richard, such as find him extra rations, warn him of areas his enemies are hanging out in, find him yet another goddamned pair of shoes or cover his cleaning shifts, and Richard hangs around them, making them significantly safer. Richard's surprisingly docile nature and insignificant crime sheet has also somewhat endeared him to the guards, most of whom will stand around and chat with Richard a little bit if he's so inclined. They keep one hand on their bear spray at all times, though.

Additional Traits:
Poker Face: When he wants to be, Richard can be very hard to read. It's not perfect, but it comes in handy when trying to intimidate someone.
Top Heavy: Richard can do tons of damage to anything he walks briskly into. However, if he falls down, he falls HARD.
Empathetic: Although he's not good at communicating it, Richard is excellent at reading and sympathizing with people in pain. He wants to help downtrodden stand up for themselves, but doesn't know how to do it without looking overbearing and creepy.

Character V4

 

[TheIronRuler]

This looks bloody fantastic.

<spoiler=Richard Bronson>Name: Richard Bronson

Age: 27

Gender: Male

Appearance: Very tall and broad, about six-foot-eight with a sixty-five-inch chest circumference and forty-two inch waist, with angular features, somewhat muscular but nothing really spectacular. He is of Jewish descent. His head and limbs are of smaller-than-average proportion to his torso, but not by much. His face is constantly etched with a vaguely worried and spaced-out expression, as if he's in a boring meeting and remembering that he left his oven on. He's wearing standard prison-miner garb. He has two reddened spots on his nose where glasses normally sit - he doesn't seem to need them now.

Last Memory (Dream Sequence): Richard stands in a geode, unable to see a way out. He panics and smashes at the crystals, they break easily. He carves a path to the wall of the geode, and starts examining it to see if he can break it, but suddenly realizes that the crystals are growing back, engulfing him. He stands helplessly as the crystal fills the area around him like water, covering his neck, his mouth, his nose, his eyes -

Crimes: Convicted of assault (pleaded innocent), embezzling funds (pleaded guilty) and uttering threats (pleaded guilty). Acquitted of two counts of stalking (pleaded innocent), two counts of attempted murder (pleaded innocent) and one count of robbery (pleaded guilty at recommendation of lawyer, was found innocent anyways).

Before prison bio: After graduating college at age twenty-one (more through hard work than smarts), Richard worked as a banker until age twenty-three, to the great confusion of everyone who saw him. He maintained a successful career until a series of run-ins with a paranoid conspiracy theorist who threatened to destroy his bank. The lawyer fees of the aftermath drove him deeply into debt, so his debts were added to his normal sentencing.

Inside prison bio: He has spent the last four years working off his debts and sentences. He's finally paid off the last of his sentences, and now just has to pay off his debts. He hopes to finish soon. He mostly survived the last four years through maintaining diplomatic ties with everyone important in the prison, and works hard in the mines to pay off his debts as quickly as possible.

Is the dream sequence too outlandish? I don't know if it's supposed to be an actual memory or if it's just supposed to be a crazy symbolic dream.

.
Dream sequence is a dream. It can be whatever you want it to be.

About the character - more fleshing out is needed. I need information in order to torment Richard. I know it's hard to write because I've left very much room for guessing, but I'm certain you're more than capable to find a way around that. I try to avoid information dumps and flesh out the story as we go along.

 

[Evilpigeon]

About the character - more fleshing out is needed. I need information in order to torment Richard. I know it's hard to write because I've left very much room for guessing, but I'm certain you're more than capable to find a way around that. I try to avoid information dumps and flesh out the story as we go along.

Heya I'm also interested in this, looks really cool

Do you mind giving me some more specific hints on the kinds of information you're looking for in the sheets?

 

[TheIronRuler]

About the character - more fleshing out is needed. I need information in order to torment Richard. I know it's hard to write because I've left very much room for guessing, but I'm certain you're more than capable to find a way around that. I try to avoid information dumps and flesh out the story as we go along.

Heya I'm also interested in this, looks really cool

Do you mind giving me some more specific hints on the kinds of information you're looking for in the sheets?

.
Most basic information is their life and how they became prisoners. Whether the person was a violent criminal outside or he was just caught doing some scams. Maybe the person got into a debt he couldn't pay and lost his business and his house, forcing him to leave him family to fend for himself as he paid off his debt. This is important to how you're going to react in this situation. If you've already shot a gun before when you were a soldier for the mafia or if you've already pick-pocketed someone while act as a thief. Perhaps you were a big-shot executive with your hand too dip in the cookie-jar? This is what I want to see.
More details would be the state of your family and relatives, friends outside of prison and within the prison.

 

[Evilpigeon]

Okay thanks, writing it up now. The memory loss is to do with whatever has just happened to us, rather than coming to prison correct? Just want to make sure.

 

[TheIronRuler]

Okay thanks, writing it up now. The memory loss is to do with whatever has just happened to us, rather than coming to prison correct? Just want to make sure.

.
Yes. You spent whatever time in prison till this morning when you woke up with no memory besides your dream sequence.

 

[Evilpigeon]

<spoiler=Peter Mullan>
Name: Peter Mullan
Age: 32
Gender: Male

Appearance:
The best word to use to describe Peter is wiry. Just shy of 6ft tall, Peter has a body built up thanks to the prison's gruelling combination of hard, manual labour and malnourishment. Peter once maintained neat and close cropped hair though depression and his time in prison shows itself here too in the form of a scraggy beard and wild, dirty unkempt hair. His eyes still stand out however, ruthlessly blue even though the rest of his expression makes it seem as though he's dead to the world.

Peter is dressed in standard prison garb and normally a long sleeved shirt which shielded various cuts, bruises and the occasional scar from the coal-dust.

Last Piece of memory (Dream Sequence):
The stone legs towered above Peter, craning up and shielding his eyes from the sun, he could just make out the tops of the stumps which leaned in worryingly above his head. Around him the landscape was featureless, save for a large rock, half buried in the sand to his left.

A faint roaring began as Peter moved to investigate. The rock was nearly spherical, covered with indents and protrusions that began to appear more and more like a giant and crudely carved head, probably off the statue. He wondered what had happened to the torso. The roaring sound began to get louder, a rich, persistant, rolling noise that shuddered somewhere deep inside him. Peter had at first dismissed it as the wind but now it sounded... heavy, mechanical, more like a car? Looking round, there was no sign of any vehicle or dust trail yet the engine noises kept on growing, louder and louder until it was right ontop of him.

A shriek.
Then a squeal of brakes ending in the audible crunch of bones. A minute's silence followed before the voice rang out.

`I am Peter, King of Kings:
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!'

The bitterness in its tone was tangible.


Crimes:
Manslaughter, pleading guilty. Peter was drunk, his girlfriend, Lucy, was trying to drag him back to their flat, he shoved her away into oncoming traffic. She was crushed beneath a blue Ford saloon.

Bio:
Born in the North of England, Peter never struggled with school. He wasn't excellent student but he was good enough and more importantly he'd always been good at persuading people to see things his way. So he worked hard and made sure he always had a reasonable excuse to stay late on the nights when his father was most likely to take out his troubles in a physical manner, in addition to his customary ethanol based solutions. For some reason, Peter never did have friends round.

It was perhaps because of his father that Peter became so good at reading people, the possible threat of being hit is an excellent motivator to learn how to guess what people are thinking. He was never sure whether or not to thank his Dad for that 'training' it certainly helped to make Peter a wealthy man as soon as he graduated from University. Working in the City, Peter made a name for himself in advertising; reading and understanding demographics was, if anything, easier than reading individuals.

Over time, as Peter was handed more and more responsibility within the agency he worked for, it became necessary for him to spend more and more time in the US until, eventually, he simply obtained a visa and moved.

At first, things continued to go well. Peter's position in the company kept on rising and he was living very comfortably in New York, he met a girl, Lucy Tanner. She was sharp and had a poker face so good that even he couldn't read her. If his life had stayed on track, Peter would probably have ended up on the company board with enough money saved to retire early and spend the rest of his time in comfort. Instead, he peaked.

Peter's job had been getting more and more difficult, many of the western economies that his company had been doing buisiness with had begun to fail, including the UK. Declining profits put him under pressure, the stress increased when, out of the blue his Father contacted him for the first time since he'd left home nearly 10 years ago, asking for money. Peter didn't know how to handle this and what made it worse was that he kept his troubles hidden from everyone as he always had. He was beginning to understand what his father had seen at the bottom of all those bottles so many years ago.

It all came to a head one night after a fight with Lucy; he'd started going for a drink every night after work and he was always drunk by the time he came home. She didn't like it. He'd left to go find some more to drink to try to forget the argument. According to the courts, Lucy found him hours later, propped again the bar of a local pub and tried to drag him home. As they left the bar, he tried to shove her away and she stumbled out into traffic.

In prison, Peter has found it increasingly difficult to avoid his past and frequently flits between anger and depression, leading him to become a surprising regular in prison fights and a stand-out trouble maker amongst the guards. Amongst many of the other prisoners, Peter is known as "the Mad Limey who attacked a guard with a mining drill." People tend to leave him alone.


How's this?

 

[BeerTent]

I'd like to give this a shot.

Spoiler

Name: Gray Langdale
Age: 21
Gender: Male
Appearance: Short brown hair, seemed to be recently cut. He's Caucasian of English descent with green eyes and a somewhat stronger build. He has a tribal tattoo along his left arm, extending as far as his shoulder, along with the prison issued number-tat on his right arm.

Last Piece of memory: Gray had a friend. "Co!" He shouted as he ran away through the dark alleyways. Sirens could be heard. Nobody was surprised. "Don't you talk to them!" Gray shouted as he ran after the figure, his friend. "I don't kill people! I'm not an Accessory! I didn't know this was gonna happen!" As Gray's best friend ran into the street, Gray looked down to see the blood on his hands. He didn't know how it got there, but he was already suspicious enough that he couldn't follow his friend. "I didn't have any part of this! Co, I wasn't here!"

He was begging. Gray would never hurt anyone... But if his friend had betrayed him, after Gray tried so hard to keep him safe, it would be everything the police would ever want. The petty criminal would be locked away for finally committing murder of his best friend's girl. He had to run back into the darkness. Go up a floor or two and go into another building. He jumped up to grab onto a fire escape to climb the ladder to get into the building, but the blood on his hands would cause him to slip and fall.]

Crimes: Suspected of gang related crimes. 2 counts of theft, 1 counts of vandalism, and 1 count of breaking and entering. One additional count of murder thanks to a bad lawyer. Mind you, this is what they caught him for...

BioBefore) From the very beginning, Gray's father left the family when he was only two. The mother fell for an abusive man, who never treated anyone fairly nice. As a result Gray would never call him "dad" or "Stepdad" Despite him actually (and successfully) taking the role of a father figure, teaching him hunting, the girl talk, etc.

Gray was very much a loner. He kept everyone at a distance, and his very few circle of friends extremely close. His small circle of friends never committed any crime, and Gray would never ask them to, Except when it came to offloading things he had pick-pocketed or stolen. Co was very good at "Formatting" computers and reselling them, and Janet would always accept the pretty trinkets and Jewelry that Gray would give her.

Gray tried numerous times to hold a job, working at McDonalds, Wal-mart, a call center, and the Grocery Superstore, but he hated every job, every time. He often got fired within the month, or he just stopped going altogether, never bothering to pick up his last paycheque.

Gray was very much a petty thief. A pick-pocket, and someone who wasn't shy of breaking and entering. He learned tumbler locks[footnote]Which is pretty unlikely to be used in a Sci-fi prison...[/footnote], which is still widely used in homes today, very quickly, and can probably pick a more complicated lock is mere seconds. Easy locks could be broken into with just one "rake."

Eventually, as Gray partied, and exhibited his breaking and entering talents, a member of the 7th Street Blades contacted him with a simple task. Break in, open a lockbox, steal the contents, and return. Unsurprisingly, he succeeded with flying colors. As time went on, the rewards remained small, but so did the tasks, as Gray assured that Although he may know of people who needed to die, he would never harm or kill anyone, including members of the Blades. Thankfully, he was only ever backup. Make something disappear, go through with a deal, be a wallflower to keep people honest for a while... He would never associate himself with members of the gang, keeping his independence, and never learning of their awful secrets. He could hold his own.

Naturally, Gray would get caught. Someone would shout "Hey! Where's my wallet?!" Or "Oh fuck! My camera!!" The ability to keep cool on some iffy situations, as well as the ability to bolt into unknown places, expecting to jump at any time, slide under things, or grab onto a horizontal pole to swing from window to window made people wonder if he was a thief or ninja. He had never met someone who rivaled his ability to parkour along the streets of the city in the dark and evade capture. He was so good that police could never tie a face to his crimes.

It all went to hell when he warned his friends of "Something sketchy going down in a certain area." He didn't expect to see his friends, Co and Janet together in a relationship, let alone in that area when an execution was going on. She was caught, but Gray saved his friend by tackling him out of sight. Janet died to prevent any witnesses in the area, and Co presumably never forgave Gray for not letting him save his girlfriend. After looking over the body he heard the sirens and decided to make a break for it.

But blood-soaked hands would be his downfall. He was later picked up for suspected gang related activities resulting in the death of a Janet Ross. Although he was tried for other crimes, new evidence suggested he was also at the scene of Janet's death before the trial. His lawyer could not help keep the story straight, he paid for her death.

BioIncarcerated)In prison, Gray's more of a "Try and escape" person, and not much of a digging person.Although Gray mostly kept to his own, (Also a terrible idea in any prison) everyone knew he was trying to escape, and thought he was crazy for it. However, not once was he caught in his attempts. No guard caught him in a place where he didn't belong, and he seemed fairly well behaved, if it weren't for the fact that he did little to no work. Gray is a very sneaky person, and could probably live, hidden away in those mines for three or so days before resurfacing. It may be his only hope for ever crawling out of the red.

Just like outside of prison, Gray didn't associate himself with criminals. Murders, thieves... He kept his guard up as if he were better than them, despite the fact he knew he could never be. He didn't want to get anyone involved in his escape plans because he knew that if they were caught, the hell that would be put in them would be too much, and they were simply incapable of what he was. Even though he lost his memory, he still retained his personality, his desire to move and flow, which again, is a strong detriment against him.

He's only been in the prison for a week or two. Gray is still fairly new to the area. He hasn't seen any familiar faces, but if he did, would he remember them?

Additional Perks:
Canadian Descent: Gray's got that funny accent, and knows a little French.
Parkour: Gray wins fights by running away, not by fighting back unless cornered.
Smoker: Gray doesn't smoke much, but when afraid, he might want one. (A pack can last him a few months)
Lockpicking: Gray knows tumbler locks, but these computer things with cards...? Fuck. fuhrgedaboutit.

Bio V2 complete.

 

[lacktheknack]

This looks bloody fantastic.

<spoiler=Richard Bronson>Name: Richard Bronson

Age: 27

Gender: Male

Appearance: Very tall and broad, about six-foot-eight with a sixty-five-inch chest circumference and forty-two inch waist, with angular features, somewhat muscular but nothing really spectacular. He is of Jewish descent. His head and limbs are of smaller-than-average proportion to his torso, but not by much. His face is constantly etched with a vaguely worried and spaced-out expression, as if he's in a boring meeting and remembering that he left his oven on. He's wearing standard prison-miner garb. He has two reddened spots on his nose where glasses normally sit - he doesn't seem to need them now.

Last Memory (Dream Sequence): Richard stands in a geode, unable to see a way out. He panics and smashes at the crystals, they break easily. He carves a path to the wall of the geode, and starts examining it to see if he can break it, but suddenly realizes that the crystals are growing back, engulfing him. He stands helplessly as the crystal fills the area around him like water, covering his neck, his mouth, his nose, his eyes -

Crimes: Convicted of assault (pleaded innocent), embezzling funds (pleaded guilty) and uttering threats (pleaded guilty). Acquitted of two counts of stalking (pleaded innocent), two counts of attempted murder (pleaded innocent) and one count of robbery (pleaded guilty at recommendation of lawyer, was found innocent anyways).

Before prison bio: After graduating college at age twenty-one (more through hard work than smarts), Richard worked as a banker until age twenty-three, to the great confusion of everyone who saw him. He maintained a successful career until a series of run-ins with a paranoid conspiracy theorist who threatened to destroy his bank. The lawyer fees of the aftermath drove him deeply into debt, so his debts were added to his normal sentencing.

Inside prison bio: He has spent the last four years working off his debts and sentences. He's finally paid off the last of his sentences, and now just has to pay off his debts. He hopes to finish soon. He mostly survived the last four years through maintaining diplomatic ties with everyone important in the prison, and works hard in the mines to pay off his debts as quickly as possible.

Is the dream sequence too outlandish? I don't know if it's supposed to be an actual memory or if it's just supposed to be a crazy symbolic dream.

.
Dream sequence is a dream. It can be whatever you want it to be.

About the character - more fleshing out is needed. I need information in order to torment Richard. I know it's hard to write because I've left very much room for guessing, but I'm certain you're more than capable to find a way around that. I try to avoid information dumps and flesh out the story as we go along.

I've edit'd my first post with more details about his life. Need more?

 

[TheIronRuler]

<spoiler=Peter Mullan>
Name: Peter Mullan
Age: 32
Gender: Male

Appearance:
The best word to use to describe Peter is wiry. Just shy of 6ft tall, Peter has a body built up thanks to the prison's gruelling combination of hard, manual labour and malnourishment. Peter once maintained neat and close cropped hair though depression and his time in prison shows itself here too in the form of a scraggy beard and wild, dirty unkempt hair. His eyes still stand out however, ruthlessly blue even though the rest of his expression makes it seem as though he's dead to the world.

Peter is dressed in standard prison garb and normally a long sleeved shirt which shielded various cuts, bruises and the occasional scar from the coal-dust.

Last Piece of memory (Dream Sequence):
The stone legs towered above Peter, craning up and shielding his eyes from the sun, he could just make out the tops of the stumps which leaned in worryingly above his head. Around him the landscape was featureless, save for a large rock, half buried in the sand to his left.

A faint roaring began as Peter moved to investigate. The rock was nearly spherical, covered with indents and protrusions that began to appear more and more like a giant and crudely carved head, probably off the statue. He wondered what had happened to the torso. The roaring sound began to get louder, a rich, persistant, rolling noise that shuddered somewhere deep inside him. Peter had at first dismissed it as the wind but now it sounded... heavy, mechanical, more like a car? Looking round, there was no sign of any vehicle or dust trail yet the engine noises kept on growing, louder and louder until it was right ontop of him.

A shriek.
Then a squeal of brakes ending in the audible crunch of bones. A minute's silence followed before the voice rang out.

`I am Peter, King of Kings:
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!'

The bitterness in its tone was tangible.


Crimes:
Manslaughter, pleading guilty. Peter was drunk, his girlfriend, Lucy, was trying to drag him back to their flat, he shoved her away into oncoming traffic. She was crushed beneath a blue Ford saloon.

Bio:
Born in the North of England, Peter never struggled with school. He wasn't excellent student but he was good enough and more importantly he'd always been good at persuading people to see things his way. So he worked hard and made sure he always had a reasonable excuse to stay late on the nights when his father was most likely to take out his troubles in a physical manner, in addition to his customary ethanol based solutions. For some reason, Peter never did have friends round.

It was perhaps because of his father that Peter became so good at reading people, the possible threat of being hit is an excellent motivator to learn how to guess what people are thinking. He was never sure whether or not to thank his Dad for that 'training' it certainly helped to make Peter a wealthy man as soon as he graduated from University. Working in the City, Peter made a name for himself in advertising; reading and understanding demographics was, if anything, easier than reading individuals.

Over time, as Peter was handed more and more responsibility within the agency he worked for, it became necessary for him to spend more and more time in the US until, eventually, he simply obtained a visa and moved.

At first, things continued to go well. Peter's position in the company kept on rising and he was living very comfortably in New York, he met a girl, Lucy Tanner. She was sharp and had a poker face so good that even he couldn't read her. If his life had stayed on track, Peter would probably have ended up on the company board with enough money saved to retire early and spend the rest of his time in comfort. Instead, he peaked.

Peter's job had been getting more and more difficult, many of the western economies that his company had been doing buisiness with had begun to fail, including the UK. Declining profits put him under pressure, the stress increased when, out of the blue his Father contacted him for the first time since he'd left home nearly 10 years ago, asking for money. Peter didn't know how to handle this and what made it worse was that he kept his troubles hidden from everyone as he always had. He was beginning to understand what his father had seen at the bottom of all those bottles so many years ago.

It all came to a head one night after a fight with Lucy; he'd started going for a drink every night after work and he was always drunk by the time he came home. She didn't like it. He'd left to go find some more to drink to try to forget the argument. According to the courts, Lucy found him hours later, propped again the bar of a local pub and tried to drag him home. As they left the bar, he tried to shove her away and she stumbled out into traffic.

In prison, Peter has found it increasingly difficult to avoid his past and frequently flits between anger and depression, leading him to become a surprising regular in prison fights and a stand-out trouble maker amongst the guards. Amongst many of the other prisoners, Peter is known as "the Mad Limey who attacked a guard with a mining drill." People tend to leave him alone.


How's this?

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Looks good, have nice hooks I can use and some personality traits thrown in. I'll contact you when I'm done with character sheets and start the game.
In the meanwhile get me on Skype, it's in my profile.
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I'd like to give this a shot.

Spoiler

Name: Gray Langdale
Age: 21
Gender: Male
Appearance: Short brown hair, seemed to be recently cut. He's Caucasian with green eyes and a somewhat stronger tone. He never needed glasses, but he was never much of a clean person here. It might seem strange that he looks a hell of a lot healthier as of recently.

Last Piece of memory: Gray had a friend. "Co!" He shouted as he ran away through the dark alleyways. Sirens could be heard. Nobody was surprised. "Don't you talk to them!" Gray shouted as he ran after the figure, his friend. "I don't kill people! I'm not an Accessory! I didn't know this was gonna happen!" As Gray's best friend ran into the street, Gray looked down to see the blood on his hands. He didn't know how it got there, but he was already suspicious enough that he couldn't follow his friend. "I didn't have any part of this! Co, I wasn't here!"

He was begging. Gray would never hurt anyone... But if his friend had betrayed him, after Gray tried so hard to keep him safe, it would be everything the police would ever want. The petty criminal would be locked away for finally committing murder of his best friend's girl. He had to run back into the darkness. Go up a floor or two and go into another building. He jumped up to grab onto a fire escape to climb the ladder to get into the building, but the blood on his hands would cause him to slip and fall.

Crimes (if any): Suspected of gang related crimes. 2 counts of theft, 1 counts of vandalism, and 1 count of breaking and entering. One additional count of murder thanks to a bad lawyer. Mind you, this is what they caught him for...

Bio: Gray was a petty thief. He'd scrounge enough money to get by by pick-pocketing, stealing whatever wasn't bolted down, and then getting away with such a display of acrobatics it left people wondering if he was actually a ninja. Occasionally, Gray would work for the local gang. Make something disappear, go through with a deal, be a wallflower to keep people honest for a while, but he was never a violent person. You tell him that someone has to die, he'd say "No. They don't."

He was picked up for suspected gang related activities resulting in the death of a Janet Sarty . Although he was tried for other crimes, new evidence suggested he was also at the scene of Janet's death before the trial. His lawyer could not help keep the story straight, he paid for her death.

In the prison, Gray was more of a "Try and escape" person, and not much of a digging person. Everyone seemed to know he was trying to get out, but nobody caught him, so nothing could be said. Gray is a very sneaky person, and could probably live, hidden away in those mines for three or so days before resurfacing. It may be his only hope for ever crawling out of the red.

Still a little WIP-ish... But if it's good, lemme know? :3
I gotta run to work, or I'll be late! D:

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Did you have any connections in Jail? A gang member himself, perhaps? He does seem like a loner, always thinking of escaping.
Looks good, has nice hooks and I see some traits here. Nicely done. I'll contact you when I finish collecting players. In the meanwhile add me on Skype.
May I ask you to try and enlarge your bio prior to being arrested? Just so we would have more to work with.

 

[TheIronRuler]

This looks bloody fantastic.

<spoiler=Richard Bronson>Name: Richard Bronson

Age: 27

Gender: Male

Appearance: Very tall and broad, about six-foot-eight with a sixty-five-inch chest circumference and forty-two inch waist, with angular features, somewhat muscular but nothing really spectacular. He is of Jewish descent. His head and limbs are of smaller-than-average proportion to his torso, but not by much. His face is constantly etched with a vaguely worried and spaced-out expression, as if he's in a boring meeting and remembering that he left his oven on. He's wearing standard prison-miner garb. He has two reddened spots on his nose where glasses normally sit - he doesn't seem to need them now.

Last Memory (Dream Sequence): Richard stands in a geode, unable to see a way out. He panics and smashes at the beautiful crystals, they break easily. He carves a path to the wall of the geode, and starts examining it to see if he can break it. As he taps the wall of the geode, he hears ringing voices that speak gibberish and some creepy laughter, but no hollow areas to break. Suddenly, he realizes that the crystals are growing back, engulfing him. He stands helplessly as the crystal fills the area around him like water, covering his neck, his mouth, his nose, his eyes -

Crimes: Convicted of aggravated assault (pleaded innocent), embezzling funds (pleaded guilty) and uttering threats (pleaded guilty). Acquitted of two counts of stalking (pleaded innocent), two counts of attempted murder (pleaded innocent) and one count of robbery (pleaded guilty at recommendation of lawyer, was found innocent anyways).

Before prison bio: After graduating college at age twenty-one (more through hard work than smarts), Richard worked as a banker until age twenty-three, to the great confusion of everyone who saw him. Despite his intimidating size and general appearance, he never was interested in fights, and would rather solve disputes through games of cards or coin tosses. He maintained a successful and eventless career... until a series of run-ins with a paranoid conspiracy theorist who threatened to destroy his bank. The man filed dozens of suits against Richard, who had told him to shove off. In the stress of the looming lawsuits, he had clobbered one of his more annoying co-workers who tried to tweak him about the whole mess. It was his first fight, and it landed him an assault charge. The lawyer fees of the aftermath drove him deeply into debt, so his debts were added to his normal sentencing.

His family life is quiet. He didn't have a girlfriend upon arrest, nor did he maintain close ties with his parents - he didn't talk to them for a year before his arrest. He's very fond of his only sibling - a younger sister - and swore to always be there for him.

He doesn't have many friends, as most people regard him as threatening and scary, as well as his mildly workaholic nature leaving little time for people.

Inside prison bio: He has spent the last four years working off his debts and sentences. He's finally paid off the last of his sentences, and now just has to pay off his debts. He hopes to finish soon. He mostly survived the last four years through a combination of physical intimidation and maintaining diplomatic ties with everyone important in the prison, and works hard in the mines to pay off his debts as quickly as possible.

He's been involved in four prison fights - two one-on-one fights, one three-on-one attack, and one minor riot. He won the personal fights, and successfully escaped the riot. He doesn't enjoy the fights and feels anxious and guilty when he thinks of them.

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Was the sister a he? that's new. I guess anything goes in my future. *wink*
Sp far a LOT of the people here are freakishly tall and well-built. looks ok, what did he do before he was 21? Any childhood phobias or did he live a an ordinary middle class white boy?

 

[lacktheknack]

This looks bloody fantastic.

<spoiler=Richard Bronson>Name: Richard Bronson

Age: 27

Gender: Male

Appearance: Very tall and broad, about six-foot-eight with a sixty-five-inch chest circumference and forty-two inch waist, with angular features, somewhat muscular but nothing really spectacular. He is of Jewish descent. His head and limbs are of smaller-than-average proportion to his torso, but not by much. His face is constantly etched with a vaguely worried and spaced-out expression, as if he's in a boring meeting and remembering that he left his oven on. He's wearing standard prison-miner garb. He has two reddened spots on his nose where glasses normally sit - he doesn't seem to need them now.

Last Memory (Dream Sequence): Richard stands in a geode, unable to see a way out. He panics and smashes at the beautiful crystals, they break easily. He carves a path to the wall of the geode, and starts examining it to see if he can break it. As he taps the wall of the geode, he hears ringing voices that speak gibberish and some creepy laughter, but no hollow areas to break. Suddenly, he realizes that the crystals are growing back, engulfing him. He stands helplessly as the crystal fills the area around him like water, covering his neck, his mouth, his nose, his eyes -

Crimes: Convicted of aggravated assault (pleaded innocent), embezzling funds (pleaded guilty) and uttering threats (pleaded guilty). Acquitted of two counts of stalking (pleaded innocent), two counts of attempted murder (pleaded innocent) and one count of robbery (pleaded guilty at recommendation of lawyer, was found innocent anyways).

Before prison bio: After graduating college at age twenty-one (more through hard work than smarts), Richard worked as a banker until age twenty-three, to the great confusion of everyone who saw him. Despite his intimidating size and general appearance, he never was interested in fights, and would rather solve disputes through games of cards or coin tosses. He maintained a successful and eventless career... until a series of run-ins with a paranoid conspiracy theorist who threatened to destroy his bank. The man filed dozens of suits against Richard, who had told him to shove off. In the stress of the looming lawsuits, he had clobbered one of his more annoying co-workers who tried to tweak him about the whole mess. It was his first fight, and it landed him an assault charge. The lawyer fees of the aftermath drove him deeply into debt, so his debts were added to his normal sentencing.

His family life is quiet. He didn't have a girlfriend upon arrest, nor did he maintain close ties with his parents - he didn't talk to them for a year before his arrest. He's very fond of his only sibling - a younger sister - and swore to always be there for him.

He doesn't have many friends, as most people regard him as threatening and scary, as well as his mildly workaholic nature leaving little time for people.

Inside prison bio: He has spent the last four years working off his debts and sentences. He's finally paid off the last of his sentences, and now just has to pay off his debts. He hopes to finish soon. He mostly survived the last four years through a combination of physical intimidation and maintaining diplomatic ties with everyone important in the prison, and works hard in the mines to pay off his debts as quickly as possible.

He's been involved in four prison fights - two one-on-one fights, one three-on-one attack, and one minor riot. He won the personal fights, and successfully escaped the riot. He doesn't enjoy the fights and feels anxious and guilty when he thinks of them.

.
Was the sister a he? that's new. I guess anything goes in my future. *wink*
Sp far a LOT of the people here are freakishly tall and well-built. looks ok, what did he do before he was 21? Any childhood phobias or did he live a an ordinary middle class white boy?

Whoooooops.

It's starting to really percolate now, I'll have much more stuff up next edit. I'm holding onto the freakish build, though, because I was here FIRST, dangit!

 

[lacktheknack]

snip

There, further updated the character.

 

[2HF]

Name: Micheal (Mickey) Chance

Age: 23

Gender: Male

Appearance: 5'9", might be good looking if only he could put on a few pounds. Medium length blond hair. Green eyes that would melt the ladies, if not for the scrawniness.

Last Piece of memory (Dream Sequence): Running out of a card room and diving into his car, driving too fast down a wet street. It's raining and someone is pursuing. A couple sharing an umbrella walks into the road as he comes around a corner. He sees them too late and has to swerve hard. The rest is a blank.

Crimes (if any): Running up poker debts and petty thieving to help pay for the habit.

Bio: (Before the prison, Inside the Prison.) Compulsive gambler from the day he discovered online poker. When it became illegal, and therefore impossible, to play online he took to playing in illegal back room games, stealing from friends and family to cover his losses. He lost his job, his car, and his girl.

Inside he is quiet and quick to agree with others as he would not do well in any kind of physical confrontation. His food is often stolen from him without objection for this very reason. He dreams of escape but hasn't the courage or smarts to attempt it.

 

[BeerTent]

I'd like to give this a shot.

[Shit, I thought of something new... aah, fuckit, look at the post.]

Bio V2 complete.

I'd like to give this a shot.[...]

Did you have any connections in Jail? A gang member himself, perhaps? He does seem like a loner, always thinking of escaping.
Looks good, has nice hooks and I see some traits here. Nicely done. I'll contact you when I finish collecting players. In the meanwhile add me on Skype.
May I ask you to try and enlarge your bio prior to being arrested? Just so we would have more to work with.

I added just about everything I could think of, really. You might have an easy time with him, as he may relish in the dark, he's also not the sharpest tool in the shed, and is totally unprepared for normal prison life, let alone a coal-miner's prison life. Also, I don't go by my internet name on Skype. You might find a totally random name coming out of nowhere.

 

[lacktheknack]

I'd like to give this a shot.

[Shit, I thought of something new... aah, fuckit, look at the post.]

Bio V2 complete.

I'd like to give this a shot.[...]

Did you have any connections in Jail? A gang member himself, perhaps? He does seem like a loner, always thinking of escaping.
Looks good, has nice hooks and I see some traits here. Nicely done. I'll contact you when I finish collecting players. In the meanwhile add me on Skype.
May I ask you to try and enlarge your bio prior to being arrested? Just so we would have more to work with.

I added just about everything I could think of, really. You might have an easy time with him, as he may relish in the dark, he's also not the sharpest tool in the shed, and is totally unprepared for normal prison life, let alone a coal-miner's prison life. Also, I don't go by my internet name on Skype. You might find a totally random name coming out of nowhere.

How do you think interactions would go with our characters? I'm not sure what to make of yours yet.

 

[Litlep]

This looks fun. I've never done this before and have been wondering about whether or not to do it. if I could possibly commit to so many words but what the hell?

I'll get on with designing Melvin Flint right now.

I must warn you my imagination is messed up so the sheet's probably not gonna be very pretty especially bio. So just a word of warning.