Prodigies

Introduction wrote:A storm gathered in the clear afternoon on the 8th of March, 2008.

This was no storm of ordinary scope or scale, though. It was not a tangible storm, with thunder and lightning and rain. The tempest was more powerful, still.

For it was a conglomeration: not of clouds, but of clouded minds. Not of water, but of drowned hopes. Not of distant lights and sounds, but of profound darkness and silent apprehension. It was worse than any violent storm, for it gave no indication to when, why, and how it would pass.

It gathered, it lingered, it stayed. And they gathered with it.

Background/Story:
The few intelligent students at Lawson High School in Canberra, Australia band together, like they are the only truth in some eternal, torturous solipsism. They're outcasts, ignored more than persecuted. The Teachers know they will simply do their work to their own satisfaction, so the teachers rarely bother to focus on facilitating these gifted childrens' potential. After all, they're already better off than the other kids. The Students around them may interact with them, make acquaintances with them, even be a friend to one of these Prodigies- but rarely is there a maintained emotional connection to a member of this society. At least not one that's mutual.

Superficially, they are like any other teenagers. They mingle in different cliques in school, maintaining a Masquerade so their reach is broader, and more difficult to pinpoint on one group.

They meet secretly and manipulate aspects of the school and community that would seem almost fantastical if ever revealed in their entirety.

They were the Prodigies of a generation.

Character Sheet:

Name:

Age:
*
Gender:
Male/Female
Appearance:
**
History:

* = Australian Highschool goes from Years 7 to 10. So your characters should be around 12-16.

** = No anime pictures if we have to be told to 'ignore the wings'. But seriously. Try to describe your character, not slap a URL for a picture up.

(I really would prefer you to be one of the Prodigies, but if you have an idea for a Teacher or other Student - PM me.)

Notes On This Storybook:
There is no need, nor any desire from me for you to make your characters any more complicated than this in their sheet form. Expand on the History as much as you want. Or leave it with nothing if you want it to remain enigmatic until revealed later in the Storybook.

Do not write out a personality. While that might be suitable for other Storybooks, it isn't for this. A character's illimitably complex personality can't be summed up well enough in a few lines like: "He's nice and happy, but he has a bad temper when angered." It just doesn't work, and it's annoying. Please, please refrain from doing that. Keep your character's personality for where it matters.

- If you can't maintain a decent standard of spelling and grammar, please don't join.

- If you can't present a character with some form of personality other than being irritatingly pleasant and perfect, please don't join.

- Don't touch other characters if you don't know what you're doing with them. It's just painful. If you can write with enough insight and clarity for us to know what happened in your post and why, please feel free to control the characters of other users.

- Read the posts of others.

- You may introduce specific NPCs, but don't do this if you don't need to. I say specific, like named, personified and usable NPCs that can potentially help along the current plots or begin them, etc. It's always acceptable for you to make generalised reactions from passers by or nearby 'randoms'. Just don't define them any more than necessary, or we'll have needlessly intricate NPCs on our hands.

- Character deaths in this will be few if any, I suspect. But if there are deaths, I don't ask that you: "don't kill other people's characters!!!!!!!!!!!!!111one" I ask that you make it an awesome, well deserved and recognised death for everyone involved.

- It's PG-13 for a reason. Swear a bit, you're playing a teenager.

That's pretty much it.

I'll make my character tomorrow. Cheers.

Name- John Rivers

Age- 15

Gender- Male

Appearance- Average height and build. Around 5ft 7ins tall. He weighs ruffly 150 pounds. He has brown, thick, and shaggy hair. He has dark blue eyes. He usually wears a pair of blue jeans with a plain black t-shirt.

History- His father abandoned him and his mother and his sister died due to a random shooting. Since then his mom started drinking and he has developed a form of depression.He could make more friends, but simply wishes not to. All he wants is a better life.

Name: Audra
Age: 15
Gender: Female
Appearance: 5'7", athletic build, blonde hair, blue eyes, wears dark clothing
History: ...need time to think on this one...will edit later...

This sounds incredibly challenging, and I'm up for it.

Name: Sol Olsen

Age: 14

Gender: Male

Appearance; Short, stubby and has rich blonde hair. Soft green eyes make up for his piercing features. He was born prematurely and stands at 4 feet and eleven inches.

History: Will be explained in posts

Um... by Prodigies do you mean someone that is unusually talented at something, right. Well... are we going to tell you what we are really good at...?

-Jared

Um... by Prodigies do you mean someone that is unusually talented at something, right. Well... are we going to tell you what we are really good at...?

-Jared

That is what I mean, but I leave it up to you as to how you want to interpret and use the word Prodigy in relation to your characters. I don't really want the 'My parents taught me algebra when I was three' kind of thing, it's more inclined towards Intellectual Elitism, where they're naturally talented, though not focussed and perhaps use their intellects for not-so-benevolent purposes. But it's up to you how you interpret it. Your character might spend all his time trying to thwart the more chaotic members of the society.

Name:
Samuel Hilly

Age:
15

Gender:
Male

Appearance:
A short, thin, rather scrawny boy with medium length, dark brown hair the shade of milk chocolate and burnt orange contact lenses over his eyes. His face seems between thin and rounded, with a spatter of freckles over his nose and cheeks.

History:
I'll update this as the Storybook progresses and it's revealed, so look back on it if you're interested.

I - Introductions

Samuel

Samuel slinked into the room, cutting a cautious glance behind him. Nodding once to himself, he turned his gaze on the room. The typically bland, unforgiving flourescent lights shone over a large, hardwood desk, over an office chair and a filing cabinet. It was a windowless room, beige as if stained with vomit, urine, or a combination thereof; undecorated and empty save the mass produced furniture they made for schools.

He made his way around the desk, stealing half-nervous, half-daring glances to the door. His heart was pounding, but he was more angry and adventurous, aware and acutely perceptive than anxious or fearful. He jerked open the drawers, shuffled through, orange contacts flitting over the mundane stationery content. Finally, jerking open the lowest drawer, he smiled devilishly. A ramshackle, wooden gun with an array of rubber bands lay within.

"Found you." he whispered.

He snatched up the rubber band gun. The room outside was just as he left it, a boy sat in a chair in the little waiting room, his eyes downcast and his bag tucked under quivering arms. The student looked up as Samuel walked out of the office, twirling the rubber band gun on a finger while sporting the devilish smile. Samuel felt pride and amusement bubbling up from his stomach, he wanted to dance and squeal with glee.

"You got it?" The kid queried, a breathy disbelief in his voice.

Samuel just nodded and tossed the gun and rubber bands to the kid. He couldn't help but ponder as he left Student Welfare, what else happens, what else doesn't happen because of some intangible, social barrier?

Name: Harry Solomon

Age: 15

Gender: Male

Appearance: 5'9", skinny with a hawk-like face and piercing blue eyes, with longish black hair. He is quite pale and lanky, having an almost skeletal look to him.

History: Will edit later

Name- Senna Ryder

Age- 14

Gender- Female

Appearance- She is only 5'4, she has long black hair and sharp blue eyes, a tan too. She is part Native American, her mom moved to Australia and met her dad there so ya. She normally wears jeans and a baby tee. Her dad own a ranch so she rides alot.

History- (Prodigies) Her mom died when she when she was 13 and her dad ignores her so she is left to her own devices. She was taught how to work with horses, but never with people. Her mom had homeschooled her and sheltered her beyond belief. When her mom died she was sent to public school for the first time. She's never really interacted with people other then the workers and her parents.

*I'm not quite sure where this is going. I really don't. I want to post and be active, but I'm not sure how to start Sol just yet... maybe it would be easier - for all of us - if we were to have a big group meeting? I don't know.*

Name: Bella Maria

Gender: Female

Age: 15

Appearance: 5'7" Black hair that ends about halfway down her thights. She has a few purple streaks through her hair. Her eyes are naturally a bright violet, and get darker depending on her mood. Her figure is slim, and her skin is an average shade of tan. She has quite a few bruises on her arms and legs for multiple reasons, including her clumsiness.

History: To be revealed.

**Out of curiousity, do you have any rules against romance? They aren't written above, but it's good to make sure ahead of time.**

-Isabella-

I perched myself onto the counter that ran across the length of the bathroom wall, separated only momentarily by three porcelin sinks. A damp papertowel was in my left hand, my hardcover copy of Twilight in the other. I scrubbed at the cover, desperately trying to remove all evidence of the attack.

"I only left for a moment," I muttered angrily while flipping the book over to work on the back. "I left my shit right where I was supposed to, on my fucking desk. Half the class told me they watched. No one stopped it."

It wasn't a new event. The boys had tossed my belongings to the floor and stomped on them while I was away. Normally this happened only if the teacher was not present, but this time was different. This time we had a freaking substitute that did nothing but sit at the back texting someone. So the boys attacked and pumbled my books, ripping papers from my notebook and hurrying to get back to their seats before I returned.

"Fuckers," I growled, realizing that the spot I was scrubbing at was not dirt. It was a scratch. Someone had etched into the back cover of my favorite book with their shoe. He was going to die.

Angrilly I stomped out of the bathroom. I walked back into the classroom, which was no teacherless, and walked straight up to the guy.

"Hey sexy, why don't you come over here?" he crooned, trying to act like he was all that. I abliged, stopping when I was only about a foot in front of him. I pulled my fist back and slammed it into his jaw as he went to say something else. He stumbled backwards into the wall.

"Don't speak to me. Don't speak to me and don't touch my belongings -- ever." I ordered, kneeing him once in the groin. Once was all it took to send him to his knees. A few girls cheered as I turned and left the classroom. Having nothing better to do, and still being rather angry, I sat down agaist a nearby wall. Someone was walking down the hall, about to turn the corner to where I was sitting. I watched curiously.


***I hope this is okay. If not just let me know***

John sighed as he looked at his test. Another 100. In a way he cared in another he didn't. He knew all this would help him in the end, but at this point what was it doing for him. He leaned back in his chair and looked out the window, dreaming of what could be, but his thoughts soon ended as the bell rang.

He got up and walked around a corner to see a girl sitting against the wall watching people walk on by. Three boys walked out of a near by classroom and surrounded her. He got to her feet and looked ready to fight, John intervened, "Fighting is pointless without a cause, I think you three should leave."

They gave me an evil stare, but left. "Those who react to that they don't understand are always irrational." He looked at her, "You did something to them right, but they did something first. Such actions cause a cycle."

"I didn't need your help." she said looking away.

"Maybe not, but still, I wanted to and no one can influence a choice. My names John, I'll walk you to your next class."

"Isabella, nice to meet you."

-- Sol Olsen --

Gregory thumped him on his head, making Sol whimper. "Freaking idiot," Gregory sneered and snatched Sol's English paper out of his hand.

"Pl - ple - please... I'll do your homework next time. Just let me have it back," Sol muttered, his small rectangular glasses sliding off of his nose.

"You should have thought about that earlier. C'mon, Andy. We'll jump him after class," Gregory turned to leave with his buddy but decided to smash his fist into Sol's unusually small head instead.

Sol uttered a small cry, almost unadible. Gregory and Andy, who had been watching the entire time with a surprised look upon his face, left to leave Sol alone, smashed on the ground.

Sol has been - rather forcefully - reminded that Gregory had an English report due that day. Sol had been so busy in completing all of Gregory's other assignments, that he lost track of the English paper.

The bell rang, loud and clear, and Sol whimpered. He was left, lying on the hallway, deserted. His jaw was brutally bruised and a small trickle of blood fell out of his mouth.

"I hate him," Sol whispered. "I hate him. I hate him, I hate him, I hate him!" Each time he repeated the phrase, his tiny, weak voice became stronger, until it filled the halls.

_

*phew* that was fun!

*~Senna~*

Senna slowly walked through the hall way clutching her messenger bag to her side as she moved through the crowds. One more day was almost over. She had survived until now, but she didn't know how much more she coudl take. She bumped into a big guy and he glared at her shoving her back. She managed to slip through a cluster of people before he could do anything else.

You'll like public school, you've always wanted to go. Her dad had told her, the only thing he had said to her in several months. She wanted to cry at the thought, if she knew it was this hard to jump back into school she would've never wished such a thing.

"Well well well, if it isn't the little indian girl." She heard a high pitched voice sneer. She winced inwardly and picked up her pace. She turned a corner quickly hearing footsteps behind her of the girl that had spoken. She wasn't looking and ran smack into someone.

- Sol Olsen -

"Ah," Sol cried as he turned a corner. He had collied with someone, and his small body collapsed to the ground. His many books scattered around the floor.

"Oh! I'm so sorry!"

Sol grimaced and looked up. There stood an Indian girl. She quickly bent down and helped Sol to his feet. Then she swept Sol's books into her arms and handed them back to him.

Sol was a very small boy; he had been born prematurely and had grown about three feet since then. At fourteen years old, he stood at a stunning 4 feet and eleven inches.

"No, it's my fault," Sol replied in a small voice and looked down at the floor. The Indian girl nodded her head.

"I'm sorry... do I know you? I seem like I have seen you around before," she asked. Sol didn't look up.

"I'm Sol. And I have to go." Quickly, he walked past the girl and didn't look back. Someone that tall could have stepped on him!