Name: Blue Contact Info: yoohoohoo @ plurk Other Characters Played: None Preferred Apartment: 4.007
Character Name: Fog (Real name: Heather) Background/History: World History The world of Winston is a small one, made up of only a few cities with farmland spanning between them. The whole world is only the size of the United Kingdom in our world, and where the edges of the country would lead into the ocean, on Winston they simply drop away to nothingness. This world really is flat, and because it's so small there is only one time zone and the seasons are the same the world over. No-body knows how humankind first came to exist on Winston, records were all lost and burned in one of the many wars (of which I'll come to later), but from the first memory they had always co-existed in the same way. A central government ruled, once elected staying in the position for life, and the world worked on a bartering system. Nothing came for free - clothing, food, even the right to walk across another's land - it all had to be bartered and traded for. Because of the way the schooling system worked and made sure each adult was well placed in their career (explained below), technological advances progressed to a high level in all areas. Medicine, transportation, communication, weaponry, and even such things as mechanical prosthetics and implants (such as eye implants to aid sight) are all common.
Children are all separated from their parents from the age of three and raised together in specialized facilities to make sure that all children, regardless of family status, received the same education and start in life. They live in the Schooling Facilities until they turn eighteen, training in all manner of work, so that when they became adults they were already assessed for what jobs they were most suited for. They didn't have a choice and, often, children had to give up dreams of being one thing if they were told they were more suited for another - because job assignments were for life. Every resident was registered when they turned eighteen, where their names, assets, and job assignments were written in a centralized log. As well as being registered when they turned eighteen, adults would also be given one set of tools for the job they were assigned to, and given a room in a mass living accommodation. The only way out of these rather nasty living quarters was to raise enough to barter for a better place, and as a consequence some times the world can seem quite cut-throat.
On paper it seemed like a perfect world - ordered, peaceful, and consistent. But paper rarely translates to the real world well, and frequently teenagers about to graduate into adulthood will rebel against having their lives chosen for them. Several times this has graduated into all out war, with it becoming about the young versus the old. Unfortunately, the technology and weapons were mostly in the hands of the adults, so these uprisings usually ended with the ringleaders being executed and the rest imprisoned for several years. Then, scarred and in need of rebuilding, the world would go back to operating as it always had done. Or... mostly how it always had done. There were always a few rebels who slipped through the cracks, and a few teenagers who managed to escape being registered each year. These people formed themselves into an underground society (literally, living in the sewers and tunnels beneath the cities), calling themselves the Unregistered. They stood for a better world where every person could choose their own destiny, and families could be raised together instead of each child being brought up with nothing to cling to except the government doctrine. Because of their risky lifestyle and the frequent attacks on the government, as well as the government's desire to wipe them out as a threat to their peaceful world, fatalities were high in the Unregistered and there were few members who managed to live past the age of forty. This, as well as how many Unregistered began, means that the feeling of old versus young has never really gone away - and one of the primary insults amongst the Unregistered is to be a F.O.P. (or a Fucking Old Person).
By this point in history, the Unregistered have existed in one form or another for nearly five hundred years. They continue to fight, but any progress they make is slow and easily undone while, above them, the rest of the world continues bartering and living in their ordered temporary peace.
Personal History Heather was named as such because her mother hoped that the name, much like the superstition around the plant, would give her luck as she went through life. Not that she knew this, as she was taken from her mother at the age of three like all other children and placed into a Schooling Facility. She grew up nondescript and obedient to the government doctrines, trusting them to have her (and the world's) best interests at heart. She fostered a secret desire to go into nursing, but the career chosen for her was a munitions technician. Although she was disappointed, she had no thought of rebellion or joining the Unregistered, and went into her new career to try her hardest.
She worked on the munitions floor for ten years, slowly gaining seniority and eventually managing to move into her own accommodation. During this time she became an expert at assembling many different types of weapon, as well as met her husband Paul, also a weapon technician. They married when she was 29, and had a son the following year - Nicholas. They had worked hard together over the last eleven years, but they had earned all they wanted to - a comfortable house, enough possessions to barter for a good way of life, and each other. But then things started to go wrong, when an accident occurred at the factory where she worked. It was never clear where the blame should rest, though a fault in the explosives lab was the official explanation, but an explosion destroyed half the factory she worked in and left her upper left body severely burned. She had to have skin grafts and a mastectomy of her left breast as the burns were so extensive.
Although she recovered well and chose to wear a false breast instead of opting for the reconstruction surgery, the amount of bartering it cost to have the treatment left her completely destitute and cost her the home she had striven to earn for the last decade. In addition to this, she separated from her husband. Although neither ever said the accident or the physical changes to her body were to blame, things became strained between them and they eventually mutually decided to divorce. Having lost her marriage, her home, her possessions, and gone through a great deal of pain, Heather felt the only thing she could now cling to was her infant son. Unfortunately, he was soon to turn three and thus leave her forever to go into the Schooling Facilities.
This was the first time she genuinely considered rebellion, as she felt the system had let her down. It had stripped her of all she had earned and now it was about to take the only thing she had left. Although it was nearly unheard of for people to change careers, Heather was no longer considered suitable for munitions after her accident and was reassessed, it was now that she performed her first illegal act. She used her knowledge of electrics and wiring from munitions to tamper with the machine which decided her fate, and had herself transferred to be a nurse in the Schooling Facilities so that she could still be close to Nicholas as he grew up.
She never revealed herself to him as his mother, but she made sure to watch him every day and she was there to care for him when he was sick. In the same way she loved Nicholas, she learned to love all the other children who were under her care and found that nurturing children was a passion that had hidden dormant inside her for years. Occasionally she almost outed her past with choice phrases and coarse language that would more befit a munitions floor than a school, but she always managed to pass it off. It was from this side of the Schooling Facilities that she truly became aware of the flaws that the Unregistered fought against. When she had been young it had only been her own dreams crushed, but now she had to see hundreds of young people given their entire futures without any choice and it made her deeply angry. But still she did nothing, as obedience was well ingrained by now.
It was only in her 58th year, when she received news that her son (long gone from the Schooling Facility by now), had been killed by soldiers as a suspected Unregistered that she finally snapped. She walked out of the Schooling Facility and, at great risk to herself, she stormed into the sewers and started shouting to be seen by the Unregistered of this city. She was captured in short order and brought before a young man, Dirk, who claimed leadership. He scornfully called her a F.O.P spy, at which point she told him in no uncertain terms that she was a Fantastic Old Gal, not a Fucking Old Person, and he should watch his damn language. It took a while for the Unregistered to trust an older person, but eventually she was accepted into their ranks and left 'Heather' behind for good. Calling herself a Fantastic Old Gal had caught on and people started to refer to her as a F.O.G instead of a F.O.P, and in the end that got shortened to Fog. It's been so long now that no-body other than her even remembers she had a name other than Fog.
At first she got strongly into the violent resistance side of the Unregistered, using her weapons expertise to their advantage. It was in one of the frequent attacks on government buildings in her 65th year, while skirmishing with government soldiers, that she lost her right hand. This time she chose to have a robotic prosthetic made (with an inbuilt gun attachment) and, at the same time, had them construct a specially designed robotic breast to replace the one she lost over thirty years ago. Although having a gun built inside a robotic breast became the subject of quite a lot of jokes and was thought of as an embarrassing idea for an older lady, she persuaded them to fit it using the reasoning that "no-body would ever see it coming". She continued fighting resistance using her two modified robotic limbs to gain significant advantage, but in the end old age caught up on her. She was 78 and no longer as fast or as agile as she had been, and so she contented herself with remaining in the Unregistered hideouts and caring for the injured and sick members just as she had for the school children decades before. And, just as then, she came to care for them all as a mother figure and find peace in her life.
Fog has been a member of the Unregistered for 35 years now, and has just celebrated her 93rd birthday. She might no longer shoot any soldiers with her robotic hand or breast, but she still keeps them in good working order because "you never know".
Fog / Original Character / Not reserved / 1-2
Contact Info: yoohoohoo @ plurk
Other Characters Played: None
Preferred Apartment: 4.007
Character Name: Fog (Real name: Heather)
Background/History:
World History
The world of Winston is a small one, made up of only a few cities with farmland spanning between them. The whole world is only the size of the United Kingdom in our world, and where the edges of the country would lead into the ocean, on Winston they simply drop away to nothingness. This world really is flat, and because it's so small there is only one time zone and the seasons are the same the world over. No-body knows how humankind first came to exist on Winston, records were all lost and burned in one of the many wars (of which I'll come to later), but from the first memory they had always co-existed in the same way. A central government ruled, once elected staying in the position for life, and the world worked on a bartering system. Nothing came for free - clothing, food, even the right to walk across another's land - it all had to be bartered and traded for. Because of the way the schooling system worked and made sure each adult was well placed in their career (explained below), technological advances progressed to a high level in all areas. Medicine, transportation, communication, weaponry, and even such things as mechanical prosthetics and implants (such as eye implants to aid sight) are all common.
Children are all separated from their parents from the age of three and raised together in specialized facilities to make sure that all children, regardless of family status, received the same education and start in life. They live in the Schooling Facilities until they turn eighteen, training in all manner of work, so that when they became adults they were already assessed for what jobs they were most suited for. They didn't have a choice and, often, children had to give up dreams of being one thing if they were told they were more suited for another - because job assignments were for life. Every resident was registered when they turned eighteen, where their names, assets, and job assignments were written in a centralized log. As well as being registered when they turned eighteen, adults would also be given one set of tools for the job they were assigned to, and given a room in a mass living accommodation. The only way out of these rather nasty living quarters was to raise enough to barter for a better place, and as a consequence some times the world can seem quite cut-throat.
On paper it seemed like a perfect world - ordered, peaceful, and consistent. But paper rarely translates to the real world well, and frequently teenagers about to graduate into adulthood will rebel against having their lives chosen for them. Several times this has graduated into all out war, with it becoming about the young versus the old. Unfortunately, the technology and weapons were mostly in the hands of the adults, so these uprisings usually ended with the ringleaders being executed and the rest imprisoned for several years. Then, scarred and in need of rebuilding, the world would go back to operating as it always had done. Or... mostly how it always had done. There were always a few rebels who slipped through the cracks, and a few teenagers who managed to escape being registered each year. These people formed themselves into an underground society (literally, living in the sewers and tunnels beneath the cities), calling themselves the Unregistered. They stood for a better world where every person could choose their own destiny, and families could be raised together instead of each child being brought up with nothing to cling to except the government doctrine. Because of their risky lifestyle and the frequent attacks on the government, as well as the government's desire to wipe them out as a threat to their peaceful world, fatalities were high in the Unregistered and there were few members who managed to live past the age of forty. This, as well as how many Unregistered began, means that the feeling of old versus young has never really gone away - and one of the primary insults amongst the Unregistered is to be a F.O.P. (or a Fucking Old Person).
By this point in history, the Unregistered have existed in one form or another for nearly five hundred years. They continue to fight, but any progress they make is slow and easily undone while, above them, the rest of the world continues bartering and living in their ordered temporary peace.
Personal History
Heather was named as such because her mother hoped that the name, much like the superstition around the plant, would give her luck as she went through life. Not that she knew this, as she was taken from her mother at the age of three like all other children and placed into a Schooling Facility. She grew up nondescript and obedient to the government doctrines, trusting them to have her (and the world's) best interests at heart. She fostered a secret desire to go into nursing, but the career chosen for her was a munitions technician. Although she was disappointed, she had no thought of rebellion or joining the Unregistered, and went into her new career to try her hardest.
She worked on the munitions floor for ten years, slowly gaining seniority and eventually managing to move into her own accommodation. During this time she became an expert at assembling many different types of weapon, as well as met her husband Paul, also a weapon technician. They married when she was 29, and had a son the following year - Nicholas. They had worked hard together over the last eleven years, but they had earned all they wanted to - a comfortable house, enough possessions to barter for a good way of life, and each other. But then things started to go wrong, when an accident occurred at the factory where she worked. It was never clear where the blame should rest, though a fault in the explosives lab was the official explanation, but an explosion destroyed half the factory she worked in and left her upper left body severely burned. She had to have skin grafts and a mastectomy of her left breast as the burns were so extensive.
Although she recovered well and chose to wear a false breast instead of opting for the reconstruction surgery, the amount of bartering it cost to have the treatment left her completely destitute and cost her the home she had striven to earn for the last decade. In addition to this, she separated from her husband. Although neither ever said the accident or the physical changes to her body were to blame, things became strained between them and they eventually mutually decided to divorce. Having lost her marriage, her home, her possessions, and gone through a great deal of pain, Heather felt the only thing she could now cling to was her infant son. Unfortunately, he was soon to turn three and thus leave her forever to go into the Schooling Facilities.
This was the first time she genuinely considered rebellion, as she felt the system had let her down. It had stripped her of all she had earned and now it was about to take the only thing she had left. Although it was nearly unheard of for people to change careers, Heather was no longer considered suitable for munitions after her accident and was reassessed, it was now that she performed her first illegal act. She used her knowledge of electrics and wiring from munitions to tamper with the machine which decided her fate, and had herself transferred to be a nurse in the Schooling Facilities so that she could still be close to Nicholas as he grew up.
She never revealed herself to him as his mother, but she made sure to watch him every day and she was there to care for him when he was sick. In the same way she loved Nicholas, she learned to love all the other children who were under her care and found that nurturing children was a passion that had hidden dormant inside her for years. Occasionally she almost outed her past with choice phrases and coarse language that would more befit a munitions floor than a school, but she always managed to pass it off. It was from this side of the Schooling Facilities that she truly became aware of the flaws that the Unregistered fought against. When she had been young it had only been her own dreams crushed, but now she had to see hundreds of young people given their entire futures without any choice and it made her deeply angry. But still she did nothing, as obedience was well ingrained by now.
It was only in her 58th year, when she received news that her son (long gone from the Schooling Facility by now), had been killed by soldiers as a suspected Unregistered that she finally snapped. She walked out of the Schooling Facility and, at great risk to herself, she stormed into the sewers and started shouting to be seen by the Unregistered of this city. She was captured in short order and brought before a young man, Dirk, who claimed leadership. He scornfully called her a F.O.P spy, at which point she told him in no uncertain terms that she was a Fantastic Old Gal, not a Fucking Old Person, and he should watch his damn language. It took a while for the Unregistered to trust an older person, but eventually she was accepted into their ranks and left 'Heather' behind for good. Calling herself a Fantastic Old Gal had caught on and people started to refer to her as a F.O.G instead of a F.O.P, and in the end that got shortened to Fog. It's been so long now that no-body other than her even remembers she had a name other than Fog.
At first she got strongly into the violent resistance side of the Unregistered, using her weapons expertise to their advantage. It was in one of the frequent attacks on government buildings in her 65th year, while skirmishing with government soldiers, that she lost her right hand. This time she chose to have a robotic prosthetic made (with an inbuilt gun attachment) and, at the same time, had them construct a specially designed robotic breast to replace the one she lost over thirty years ago. Although having a gun built inside a robotic breast became the subject of quite a lot of jokes and was thought of as an embarrassing idea for an older lady, she persuaded them to fit it using the reasoning that "no-body would ever see it coming". She continued fighting resistance using her two modified robotic limbs to gain significant advantage, but in the end old age caught up on her. She was 78 and no longer as fast or as agile as she had been, and so she contented herself with remaining in the Unregistered hideouts and caring for the injured and sick members just as she had for the school children decades before. And, just as then, she came to care for them all as a mother figure and find peace in her life.
Fog has been a member of the Unregistered for 35 years now, and has just celebrated her 93rd birthday. She might no longer shoot any soldiers with her robotic hand or breast, but she still keeps them in good working order because "you never know".