Mayfield Application!
Character Name: Raquel Beliago
Character Age: 23
Background:
In the mid twenty-first century, the United States looks a little differently than it does today-the Southwest in particular. Years of drought followed by the rapid spread of a pandemic that actually proved to be fatal and problematic threw the country into political and social chaos. Millions died.
That was thirty-five years ago. Much-needed rainfall and rapid, panic-driven medical advances eventually managed to stem the devastation. The disease that killed so many Americans during the spread of the plague (and, by accidental extension, many other diseases) is no longer a concern. Now, in the year 2055, the birth-to-death ratio has finally evened out; the U.S. is no longer a country of the dying.
However, the U.S. has been left in shambles, comprised of states that often have little-or nothing-to do with one another. With the near-collapse of the federal government under pressures both internal and external, the vast majority of governing authority has fallen to the states (or, in some cases, regional clusters of states that have decided to cooperate). Laws and ordinances vary wildly from region to region; on the East coast, the focus has been to return to life as normal before the pandemic struck. In the Southwest, many localities have resorted to the code of the Old West or, in some cases, martial law.
The Valley of the Sun-which is comprised of Phoenix, AZ and its surrounding cities and suburbs-has fallen into the latter. There was a great deal of resistance when local militias (which had been formed in the collapse of local order) first organized and began seizing power, but the protests eventually ebbed off when stability began to return to the region. Water was procured through trade. Medical care was provided through cooperation both from without and within. Social services became available again, everything from law enforcement to social work. Slowly, the Valley moved from anarchy to order and from panic to promise. Stability, which during the worst of the pandemic was a luxury that none could dream of, was theirs again.
This stability has come with a cost, however. The militia still controls-and mircomanages-the Valley’s remaining resources and its people. In order to repopulate, people are compelled to marry. In order to repopulate the right kind of people, people with genetic disease are given exception to the marriage requirement and recreational sexual activity has been expressly banned. Failing to comply to sexual mores or other socially ‘acceptable’ (read: socially conservative) behavior leads to a session of re-education-no one talks about it as such, but it essentially amounts to torture.
This is the world in which Raquel lives. Really, it’s the only world she knows.
Raquel Beliago was born of parents she’s never met. She was left outside of a hospital when she was barely three months old and has since survived within the Valley’s social ever since, spending most of her life within the Scottsdale area. She spent her childhood moving between a few foster families, none of whom were especially abusive to her... but they weren’t especially warm or loving, either. She was a guest in every home in which she lived; treated well, sometimes even exceptionally so, but never fully integrated. And, for the most part, Raquel herself was fine with it. She quickly learned not to attach too closely to anyone around her, since circumstances always changed without much notice.
As Raquel aged, she proved to be rebellious; much of her high school years consisted of her being taken to task over indiscretions that would earn her a full-on re-education if she were older. She was smart, but didn’t care enough to actually apply herself. She had no qualms about petty larceny, minor vandalism, truancy, or sexual misconduct. She did, however, learn to be smart enough to keep it quiet; for every act she was caught for, she committed several that went unspoken except among student populations. During this time of her life, living in the system did her well; by the time she was infamous in her school, she was usually transferred to another.
When Raquel graduated and was released from foster care at the age of eighteen, she packed up her things and set out on her own. She was quickly (and fortunately) absorbed into one of the underground brothels that operate just beyond the militia’s reach; the Biltmore, which operates out of the remains of the old Biltmore Hotel in downtown Phoenix. The Biltmore makes its profits by promoting a classy atmosphere and an escape from an increasingly harsh outside world, survives and remains protected thanks to bribes and key governmental allies, and hides behind a veneer of cultural preservation due to the hotel’s history and architecture. The manager of the Biltmore saw something in Raquel when she first arrived at the hotel demanding a job; she was quickly hired and absorbed into the hotel’s team of ‘cultural ambassadors’ (read: prostitute who occasionally has to give historical tours to make the organization seem legitimate).
Raquel was assigned a mentor, May, a woman who had been in the Biltmore’s employ for a few years before Raquel’s arrival. May proved to be patient, which was fortunate because Raquel proved to be stubborn. After a lifetime of being separated from the people with whom she lived, the idea of becoming a part of the Biltmore “Family” seemed too alien for her to consider. She was too used to doing her own thing and not having to answer to anyone; at first, Raquel was capable but uncooperative. Over time, however, she began slowly warming up to her mentor, both professionally and personally. Raquel would never have said so herself (not out loud, at least), but she fell in love with May, feelings that May herself both encouraged and returned. The two women began spending nights off together, sometimes being intimate and sometimes just talking (at May’s insistence; Raquel was all for sex every night).
Two years into Raquel’s tenure at the Biltmore, however, May was called out as a prostitute by a government official and was captured for re-education; no amount of bribes was enough to get her back, since the government had decided to use her as a public example of the punishment brought on by loose morals and sexual deviancy. May was not only re-educated; she was put through the emotional wringer both before and afterward as she was paraded across the media as an example not to be followed. When they finally released May, she returned to the Biltmore. She spent one last night curled up with Raquel, doing her best to simply talk about nothing and enjoy the company like they used to. The next morning, she went into the bathroom and killed herself.
Raquel took May’s death hard. Not only had she lost her first (and only) actual lover, but it also served as a chilling reminder of what her own fate could end up being. She withdrew for quite awhile, taking some time to mourn and think things over. She knew she could walk away from the Biltmore no questions asked-that was made clear to her from the start-and she briefly considered doing exactly that. However, two different emotional reactions to that idea prevented her from doing so. The first was the idea that, if she were to return to a life fully integrated into society and without the benefits that the Biltmore provided for her, she would pretty much end up living a lie. She’s never been a person who enjoys following the rules. The idea of losing the one place where breaking the rules is actively encouraged was (and is) enough to make her skin crawl.
The other was a sudden to the hotel that she had called her home for the past three years. It was May’s final gift to her, in a sense; slowly forcing Raquel to build bonds with various prostitutes and staff at the hotel. Without even consciously realizing it, Raquel had finally integrated into the Biltmore family. And, strangely enough, she was okay with it. She decided to stay.
It’s been three years since May’s death. Raquel doesn’t really talk about it these days, instead making it a point to enjoy herself while she’s still alive and still well (which, on the surface, is largely indistinguishable from the cheerful-if-not-always cooperative demeanor she carried before May’s death). She’s grown platonically closer to several people at the hotel, often ‘with benefits,’ but she refuses to give the romance thing another go. Losing May was hard enough. She’s not sure she can do it again.
Personality:
Generally, Raquel is affable not terribly difficult to get along with (provided you have a thick skin-she likes to tease). She’s quick to laughter and has a certain lackadaisical charm about her, a quality that makes her fairly popular among the Biltmore’s ‘guests’. More often than not, she takes a fairly laid back, free-spirit approach to life, acting as she pleases and not really caring what others have to say about her. She spent her adolescence being That Girl-she’s used to rumors and slander. And, more often than not, she simply invites the accusations instead of trying to combat them.
Of course, this is all contained within the Biltmore itself; she’s very worried of rumors and slander that manage to get out into society at large, these days. However, she’ll never admit as much, instead brushing off concerns with a dismissive “Fuck them.” In some ways, then, her cavalier, laid-back attitude is a defense mechanism to help her cope with the fact that she doesn’t fit in, that she’s doing something incredibly dangerous with her life. It’s easier to shrug it all off and pretend it’s a nonissue rather than actually admit that she’s not as invulnerable as she would like to believe.
When faced with her own sense of vulnerability-physical, emotional, or otherwise-Raquel does her best to disengage altogether. It’s better to turn the situation around against the person making her uncomfortable, if possible, or simply putting space between herself and the perceived threat. When forced to face up to inner turmoil and unpleasant feelings, Raquel becomes halting and hesitant. She does not talk about her feelings well and would much rather poke fun at yours (something that you should not do to her in return-she’ll lash out). She would much rather have her feelings remain close to the vest, partly out of habit (having grown up in an environment in which she didn’t have anyone to share feelings with) and partly out of defense (can’t hurt her if you don’t know).
Unsurprisingly given her history, Raquel is also incredibly rebellious, although the tendency to rebel openly has diminished over time as she’s maturing into her twenties and after she’s seen what rebelling too far can do. If she’s told to do something she doesn’t want to do but deems vital, she’ll roll her eyes while performing the task. If she sees it as a waste of her time, she’ll try to pass the task along to someone else or ignore the request entirely (which has brought her employers a few headaches during her tenure in the Biltmore). While in and around the hotel (up to and including entertaining clients), Raquel sports wildly-colored dyed hair and two different piercings: one on her lip and another in a much more... sensitive area. When she first joined the Biltmore she would also go out in public in such attire, but since May’s death she now goes out wearing a dark wig and a spacer in her lip so as to not draw too much attention to herself; dyed hair and piercings aren’t illegal, but they are heavily frowned-upon in the socially conservative world in which she lives. She doesn’t want the kind of scorn that can lead to identification and capture.
As mentioned before, Raquel’s sense of humor usually involves teasing a target who gives the best reaction. Sometimes, she’s meanspirited with it because she honestly doesn’t know where the line is supposed to be drawn; she’s not stupid by any means, but she’s not always terribly emotionally intelligent. She’s often reckless and haphazard in interactions with others, doing what amuses her first and what is best for her second. With few exceptions, one of whom being three years dead now, Raquel really doesn’t consider other people when she acts. As a result of her upbringing and because it’s easier to look out for number one, she can be incredibly selfish.
Considering her line of work, a paragraph on Raquel and sex is practically required. Despite social messages to the contrary, Raquel honestly doesn’t see sexual behavior as being that big of a deal. She enjoys sex (and, by extension, her job) and has no problems experimenting or trying something new. Sexually speaking, she’s honestly bisexual; she is just as attracted to men as she is to women. As a prostitute and as a figure of life beyond the constraints of the world she lives in, Raquel takes immense pride in what she does. She’s good at sex (practice makes perfect!) and she internalizes her so-rebellious persona, as described above.
Finally, Raquel is more intelligent than one would expect your average prostitute to be. Sometimes, when she’s willing to put forth the effort, this comes across as cunning and manipulation, particularly in situations in which she can use her own body to her advantage. Other times (less often), it comes across as fairly solid reasoning skills. Raquel is a prostitute mostly by choice and is not a victim of being unable to do something else with her life; if she had been willing to apply herself to a different career, she probably could have done it. However, she’s happy where she is and can’t imagine why she’d ever want to do anything else.
Abilities: Nothing magical or supernatural. Just talent. ;)
PB: MariMoon (she's a Brazilian MTV VJ!)
Character Age: 23
Background:
In the mid twenty-first century, the United States looks a little differently than it does today-the Southwest in particular. Years of drought followed by the rapid spread of a pandemic that actually proved to be fatal and problematic threw the country into political and social chaos. Millions died.
That was thirty-five years ago. Much-needed rainfall and rapid, panic-driven medical advances eventually managed to stem the devastation. The disease that killed so many Americans during the spread of the plague (and, by accidental extension, many other diseases) is no longer a concern. Now, in the year 2055, the birth-to-death ratio has finally evened out; the U.S. is no longer a country of the dying.
However, the U.S. has been left in shambles, comprised of states that often have little-or nothing-to do with one another. With the near-collapse of the federal government under pressures both internal and external, the vast majority of governing authority has fallen to the states (or, in some cases, regional clusters of states that have decided to cooperate). Laws and ordinances vary wildly from region to region; on the East coast, the focus has been to return to life as normal before the pandemic struck. In the Southwest, many localities have resorted to the code of the Old West or, in some cases, martial law.
The Valley of the Sun-which is comprised of Phoenix, AZ and its surrounding cities and suburbs-has fallen into the latter. There was a great deal of resistance when local militias (which had been formed in the collapse of local order) first organized and began seizing power, but the protests eventually ebbed off when stability began to return to the region. Water was procured through trade. Medical care was provided through cooperation both from without and within. Social services became available again, everything from law enforcement to social work. Slowly, the Valley moved from anarchy to order and from panic to promise. Stability, which during the worst of the pandemic was a luxury that none could dream of, was theirs again.
This stability has come with a cost, however. The militia still controls-and mircomanages-the Valley’s remaining resources and its people. In order to repopulate, people are compelled to marry. In order to repopulate the right kind of people, people with genetic disease are given exception to the marriage requirement and recreational sexual activity has been expressly banned. Failing to comply to sexual mores or other socially ‘acceptable’ (read: socially conservative) behavior leads to a session of re-education-no one talks about it as such, but it essentially amounts to torture.
This is the world in which Raquel lives. Really, it’s the only world she knows.
Raquel Beliago was born of parents she’s never met. She was left outside of a hospital when she was barely three months old and has since survived within the Valley’s social ever since, spending most of her life within the Scottsdale area. She spent her childhood moving between a few foster families, none of whom were especially abusive to her... but they weren’t especially warm or loving, either. She was a guest in every home in which she lived; treated well, sometimes even exceptionally so, but never fully integrated. And, for the most part, Raquel herself was fine with it. She quickly learned not to attach too closely to anyone around her, since circumstances always changed without much notice.
As Raquel aged, she proved to be rebellious; much of her high school years consisted of her being taken to task over indiscretions that would earn her a full-on re-education if she were older. She was smart, but didn’t care enough to actually apply herself. She had no qualms about petty larceny, minor vandalism, truancy, or sexual misconduct. She did, however, learn to be smart enough to keep it quiet; for every act she was caught for, she committed several that went unspoken except among student populations. During this time of her life, living in the system did her well; by the time she was infamous in her school, she was usually transferred to another.
When Raquel graduated and was released from foster care at the age of eighteen, she packed up her things and set out on her own. She was quickly (and fortunately) absorbed into one of the underground brothels that operate just beyond the militia’s reach; the Biltmore, which operates out of the remains of the old Biltmore Hotel in downtown Phoenix. The Biltmore makes its profits by promoting a classy atmosphere and an escape from an increasingly harsh outside world, survives and remains protected thanks to bribes and key governmental allies, and hides behind a veneer of cultural preservation due to the hotel’s history and architecture. The manager of the Biltmore saw something in Raquel when she first arrived at the hotel demanding a job; she was quickly hired and absorbed into the hotel’s team of ‘cultural ambassadors’ (read: prostitute who occasionally has to give historical tours to make the organization seem legitimate).
Raquel was assigned a mentor, May, a woman who had been in the Biltmore’s employ for a few years before Raquel’s arrival. May proved to be patient, which was fortunate because Raquel proved to be stubborn. After a lifetime of being separated from the people with whom she lived, the idea of becoming a part of the Biltmore “Family” seemed too alien for her to consider. She was too used to doing her own thing and not having to answer to anyone; at first, Raquel was capable but uncooperative. Over time, however, she began slowly warming up to her mentor, both professionally and personally. Raquel would never have said so herself (not out loud, at least), but she fell in love with May, feelings that May herself both encouraged and returned. The two women began spending nights off together, sometimes being intimate and sometimes just talking (at May’s insistence; Raquel was all for sex every night).
Two years into Raquel’s tenure at the Biltmore, however, May was called out as a prostitute by a government official and was captured for re-education; no amount of bribes was enough to get her back, since the government had decided to use her as a public example of the punishment brought on by loose morals and sexual deviancy. May was not only re-educated; she was put through the emotional wringer both before and afterward as she was paraded across the media as an example not to be followed. When they finally released May, she returned to the Biltmore. She spent one last night curled up with Raquel, doing her best to simply talk about nothing and enjoy the company like they used to. The next morning, she went into the bathroom and killed herself.
Raquel took May’s death hard. Not only had she lost her first (and only) actual lover, but it also served as a chilling reminder of what her own fate could end up being. She withdrew for quite awhile, taking some time to mourn and think things over. She knew she could walk away from the Biltmore no questions asked-that was made clear to her from the start-and she briefly considered doing exactly that. However, two different emotional reactions to that idea prevented her from doing so. The first was the idea that, if she were to return to a life fully integrated into society and without the benefits that the Biltmore provided for her, she would pretty much end up living a lie. She’s never been a person who enjoys following the rules. The idea of losing the one place where breaking the rules is actively encouraged was (and is) enough to make her skin crawl.
The other was a sudden to the hotel that she had called her home for the past three years. It was May’s final gift to her, in a sense; slowly forcing Raquel to build bonds with various prostitutes and staff at the hotel. Without even consciously realizing it, Raquel had finally integrated into the Biltmore family. And, strangely enough, she was okay with it. She decided to stay.
It’s been three years since May’s death. Raquel doesn’t really talk about it these days, instead making it a point to enjoy herself while she’s still alive and still well (which, on the surface, is largely indistinguishable from the cheerful-if-not-always cooperative demeanor she carried before May’s death). She’s grown platonically closer to several people at the hotel, often ‘with benefits,’ but she refuses to give the romance thing another go. Losing May was hard enough. She’s not sure she can do it again.
Personality:
Generally, Raquel is affable not terribly difficult to get along with (provided you have a thick skin-she likes to tease). She’s quick to laughter and has a certain lackadaisical charm about her, a quality that makes her fairly popular among the Biltmore’s ‘guests’. More often than not, she takes a fairly laid back, free-spirit approach to life, acting as she pleases and not really caring what others have to say about her. She spent her adolescence being That Girl-she’s used to rumors and slander. And, more often than not, she simply invites the accusations instead of trying to combat them.
Of course, this is all contained within the Biltmore itself; she’s very worried of rumors and slander that manage to get out into society at large, these days. However, she’ll never admit as much, instead brushing off concerns with a dismissive “Fuck them.” In some ways, then, her cavalier, laid-back attitude is a defense mechanism to help her cope with the fact that she doesn’t fit in, that she’s doing something incredibly dangerous with her life. It’s easier to shrug it all off and pretend it’s a nonissue rather than actually admit that she’s not as invulnerable as she would like to believe.
When faced with her own sense of vulnerability-physical, emotional, or otherwise-Raquel does her best to disengage altogether. It’s better to turn the situation around against the person making her uncomfortable, if possible, or simply putting space between herself and the perceived threat. When forced to face up to inner turmoil and unpleasant feelings, Raquel becomes halting and hesitant. She does not talk about her feelings well and would much rather poke fun at yours (something that you should not do to her in return-she’ll lash out). She would much rather have her feelings remain close to the vest, partly out of habit (having grown up in an environment in which she didn’t have anyone to share feelings with) and partly out of defense (can’t hurt her if you don’t know).
Unsurprisingly given her history, Raquel is also incredibly rebellious, although the tendency to rebel openly has diminished over time as she’s maturing into her twenties and after she’s seen what rebelling too far can do. If she’s told to do something she doesn’t want to do but deems vital, she’ll roll her eyes while performing the task. If she sees it as a waste of her time, she’ll try to pass the task along to someone else or ignore the request entirely (which has brought her employers a few headaches during her tenure in the Biltmore). While in and around the hotel (up to and including entertaining clients), Raquel sports wildly-colored dyed hair and two different piercings: one on her lip and another in a much more... sensitive area. When she first joined the Biltmore she would also go out in public in such attire, but since May’s death she now goes out wearing a dark wig and a spacer in her lip so as to not draw too much attention to herself; dyed hair and piercings aren’t illegal, but they are heavily frowned-upon in the socially conservative world in which she lives. She doesn’t want the kind of scorn that can lead to identification and capture.
As mentioned before, Raquel’s sense of humor usually involves teasing a target who gives the best reaction. Sometimes, she’s meanspirited with it because she honestly doesn’t know where the line is supposed to be drawn; she’s not stupid by any means, but she’s not always terribly emotionally intelligent. She’s often reckless and haphazard in interactions with others, doing what amuses her first and what is best for her second. With few exceptions, one of whom being three years dead now, Raquel really doesn’t consider other people when she acts. As a result of her upbringing and because it’s easier to look out for number one, she can be incredibly selfish.
Considering her line of work, a paragraph on Raquel and sex is practically required. Despite social messages to the contrary, Raquel honestly doesn’t see sexual behavior as being that big of a deal. She enjoys sex (and, by extension, her job) and has no problems experimenting or trying something new. Sexually speaking, she’s honestly bisexual; she is just as attracted to men as she is to women. As a prostitute and as a figure of life beyond the constraints of the world she lives in, Raquel takes immense pride in what she does. She’s good at sex (practice makes perfect!) and she internalizes her so-rebellious persona, as described above.
Finally, Raquel is more intelligent than one would expect your average prostitute to be. Sometimes, when she’s willing to put forth the effort, this comes across as cunning and manipulation, particularly in situations in which she can use her own body to her advantage. Other times (less often), it comes across as fairly solid reasoning skills. Raquel is a prostitute mostly by choice and is not a victim of being unable to do something else with her life; if she had been willing to apply herself to a different career, she probably could have done it. However, she’s happy where she is and can’t imagine why she’d ever want to do anything else.
Abilities: Nothing magical or supernatural. Just talent. ;)
PB: MariMoon (she's a Brazilian MTV VJ!)