CliffRose BaCC: Meet the Settlers
This is hella long, and I’m sorry for that but I wanted to tell you all of their stories and there are 13 of them soo.... yeah. Subsequent chapters will not be so wordy :P
The deserts of Mars can be unforgiving but humans are a determined (if stupidly so) race. It is in our nature to inhabit that which is inhabitable and so here we are, the first 13 settlers in the new Mars colony CliffRose (named after an Earth flower that was the first to accept the new Martian soil). There will be many trying times ahead of us but we were each trained and briefed on our goals; to establish and maintain CliffRose in order to one day form the first Martian city. With time new people will join us from Earth and as our population swells we will receive funding and aid.
As it is we have only the small temporary lodgings built by engineers from Project CliffRose (who have all since gone back to Earth), filters to allow us to drink the water extracted from deep under the surface, and whatever belongings we could each afford to bring with us.
As the chosen leader it is my job to manage community funds to allow for shipment of building material, personal items, and laborers (if needed) from Earth. I have also been tasked with keeping a detailed registrar of community funds (determined by the value of our objects, and anything extracted from the planet) and population. each household will also be required to keep a weekly journal for prosperity. We are making history, after all.
When The CliffRose Project contacted us we each had our own choices to make; leave our lives, our families, our planet, in order to begin again on a new planet all our own. Would our personalities fit each other? Would our prep work be enough to keep us all alive? The fear, and the excitement were all mingled together and eventually, out of thousands we were narrowed down to 13. These are our stories.
Founder Household:
Tasia Hanger
Life on Earth was good for Tasia Hanger, good but bland. She was single, with no family to speak of and even fewer possessions. She put her all into her education and career. At almost 30 years old she was only just beginning her politics career but was already so disgusted by the corruption she saw that she was re-thinking the career choice. Tasia wanted to make a difference for her community and for her country but money speaks louder than morality in politics. Having heard of the Project CliffRose through a friend Tasia decided to submit an application on a whim, never dreaming she would get past the initial screening, and after that never hoping she'd make it through training but somehow she did. She was chosen, out of thousands, to be the lead on the Project and to govern the new settlement. Her reports, essays, and data sheets would be history and tell the story of human life on Mars. Ever serious, Tasia accepted the position with pride and never looked back.
Girls Dorm:
Paola Ruddy, Alberta Mugge, Bunny Trawick
Paola Ruddy was raised in a large Mexican and black family. Cousins and siblings, tias and uncles, granddads and abuelas filled her life every second of every day. Her entire family was so proud of her when she decided to go to school for journalism knowing it was her dream above anything else. One day she was given a project to write a report on something she was passionate about, it didn't take long for her to know she’d report on a science related topic. Next to writing biology is her passion. That was how she discovered Project CliffRose. The Project said it was looking for applicants to found and colonize a Martian settlement; the job would be for life. Those chosen would live and die on Mars, raise families on Mars, and would probably never return to Earth. The application seemed just like something to do in her spare time; and essay about her life, her dreams, what she would contribute to society. She thought it would look good in her assignment to say she herself had applied and to talk about the process. When she was chosen her family was devastated but also proud, their little girl had the opportunity to make history. With any tears, arguments, and a few broken glasses, her family agreed. At 18 years old Paola will be the youngest of the Martian settlers.
Alberta Mugge grew up as an only child in a 'normal' middle class family; she went to good public schools and eventually on to study culinary arts. She had friends but no 'best friends', she never had a boyfriend, and her only real skill is cooking. in short Alberta is ordinary. Her life was never anything special, though she was never unhappy her only real joy came from cooking. Nothing exciting ever happened to her so when her application to Project CliffRose was approved she couldn't believe it. According to the coordinators on the project her skill in gardening and cooking were invaluable assets to the budding colony and she would make a great addition. it didn't take long to make the decision to leave Earth and start this huge adventure.
Bunny Trawicks parents both played sports as youths so it was only natural that she take up basketball. She began playing with a tiny toy hoop and ball as a toddler and developed her skill over the years until she was eventually given a full ride to the college of her choice due to her skill. Sports weren't her only love, Bunny loved to paint in her spare time; sports are always about the team, she traveled, showered, lived with her teammates. Their success was communal and so were their failures. Painting though was something she could do alone, she didn't need to rely on someone else or to share her pride in a job well done. She did not apply for Project CliffRose, the Project contacted her. They wanted athletes to help build sports teams when the day came, and who could add variety to the skill set. She was chosen because not only was she good but she was intelligent and dreamed a good fit for a job like this. Bunny had never been int he habit of turning down an amazing opportunity and jumped at the chance!
Dominion Household
Angelina and Elwood Dominion
Angelina (aka Lina) Dao met Elwood Dominion in private school and she did not fall in love at first sight. In fact they hated each other. Lina was the 'it' girl, the one who made the modest uniforms seem too sexy and had every boy at her beck and call. She was wealthy and flaunted it, especially to the scholarship kids whom she tormented endlessly. Studious, popular Elwood simply annoyed the hell out of her. He came from a prosperous family but no where near the fortunes her parents owned, they had mutual friends (which killed her inside), and he was quite handsome. He had one fatal flaw; he didn't fall all over himself to be next to her. It was as if no one had given him the memo.
For his part Elwood thought Lina was annoying, always talking about someone, always buying 'friends' who really hated her just as much as everyone else. Karma caught up to the girl in university, her parents refused to buy her grades and when she was put on academic probation they did what any self-respecting 1%-ers would do; they disowned her. When she and Elwood met again years later she was living in a beautiful home, driving a new model car, but without a friend to her name. She was depressed and alone and Elwood couldn't leave her like that so he asked her out. He never imagined that she would turn out to be just who he needed in life, and she never dreamed that she would find someone who loved her no matter what her grades were, or how much money she could spend. Four months later they were engaged and a year after that they were married in a huge ceremony that only his family attended.
That didn't mean everything had changed, when the opportunity to become one of the first couples on Mars arose Lina threw money at it until they received an acceptance letter. She wants her name to go down in history, he just wants to enjoy this new life and his wife. At 32 and 35 they are the oldest colonist in CliffRose.
Shingler Household:
Jerald Terman, Cherrie Agpaoa, Josephine Shingler, Matthew Shingler
Jarald Terman has always been a bit of a slacker, he would say it wasn't really his fault since he basically raised himself but it's the truth. His parents weren't the best of influences and he spent most of his youth bouncing around between their separate homes as they each got bored with him in turn. He never tried in school, partially because each year was a different school, and partially because he’s just lazy. At 16 he dropped out and went to stay with his fathers brother and work in his car garage. That’s where he found the only two things he's ever been passionate about; being a mechanic and being with women. His uncle was the one who filled out his application to Project CliffRose, he thought if anything it'd be a funny story about how slacker Casanova Jerry was rejected from Mars. When Jerry received the letter accepting him into the final stages of training and selection they were stunned, but didn't think it would go farther than that. It wouldn't have, the researchers didn't like Jerrys work ethic and were about to send him home until one of the researchers was having trouble with his office computer and Jerry stepped up. In 2 hours he'd completely disassembled and reassembled the machine and it ran like new. They all knew they needed those types of skills on Mars. If only he'd apply them to something.
Cherrie Agpaoa has always been running. Running from her family, running from herself. Just running. She wants greatness for herself but feels she must separate herself from the image of the poor islander girl who lived in a hut beside the ocean. The girls whose earliest memory is learning to dive under the waves spear in hand to catch fish for dinner. That girl who smelled of salt, and spoke a tongue few people still know, whose people held onto ancient traditions and ways of life even in the 22 century. Chimala Agpaoa died when Cherrie was born and she plans to keep it that way. While studying to become a politician in a country far from the tiny island where she was born, Cherrie came across the chance to apply for Project CliffRose. They wanted politically minded young people after all, and how much farther from her past can she get than another planet? Without the haunting smell of salt and fish to hold her back Cherrie hopes to one day become Mayor of the small settlement, no matter who they named as founder.
The Shingler twins, Josephine and Matthew, have never been apart. Matthew always felt he had to protect his sister, who was awkward and nerdy and all around bad with people. So he would charm his way into having classes with her even if she was taking advanced physics in 10th grade and he was still struggling with chemistry. In exchange she would do all his homework to keep him around. He really was her only friend. So when they turned 20 and Josephine was contacted by Project CliffRose to study on Mars and help settle the colony she insisted he come along. The researchers didn't like that idea. They didn't want what they considered dead weight (someone who would cost thousands in fuel to transport but have little to offer the community) but they knew they wanted Josephine so in the end they caved. They even caved again when the twins insisted they create a co-ed house so they could live together (the original plan being that Cherrie and Josephine would live in the girls dorm while Jerry and Matt would live in the boys dorm). Matthew promised to make himself useful though and at the very least, at least to the researchers, he would make an nice breeder.
Boys Dorm:
Eli Mandel, Antwan Smalarz, Rueben Gerstenberger
Eli Mandel grew up a middle child in a poor city family. He never had much but he had what he needed though he took all of that for granted. He failed in school, failed in relationships, and lost every job he ever tried for. All he wanted in life was sex and that's pretty much all he ever got, that and a high. Halfway to homeless Eli won a trip to the training sessions of Project CliffRose via a sweepstakes and due to a computer error a man named Eli Monroe will never know he was cheated a chance to live on Mars. Eli doesn't know what he wants to do in the colony, but he knows there will be plenty of single people for him to meet.
Life was good for Antwan Smalarz, he graduated top of his class and was taking two years off to travel before going back to school to study business. He didn't quite know what he wanted to do with his life besides start a family and travel but he figured a business degree would help him out regardless. After starting university at 23 Antwan found that he had more trouble finding 'the love of his life' than he imagined he would. He wanted to get married and have children that could travel with him have fun fulfilled lives. He felt that the women at school just weren't the sorts who would like to live that sort of life. His family could see how upset that made him and it was his brother who eventually told him about Project CliffRose; "The adventure of a life time!" he said and Antwan jumped at the chance. The Projects chose him because of his desire to start a family, they needed to make sure that not only did they have enough people with needed skills but enough people willing to procreate and populate the town. If that couldn't happened there would be little incentive to spend the money transporting out new people each year.
Rueben Gerstenberger has always loved music and the arts. He studied piano as a child and learned to paint in high school. By 25 he was a substitute music teacher with dreams of opening a music school for children. When he was contacted by Project CliffRose he was stunned; they said they needed artistic people as well as educators to help build the skill set of their colony. He almost refused. Rueben loved his students and his job, he loved his house and his friends, all of which he'd have to leave behind. Forever. He wasn't the type of guy to want a particularly exciting life, he didn't need adventure or want people to know his name. all he wanted was a music school for youth to learn and grow their talents and passions. Then a friend told him "Rue, there are plenty of music teacher son Earth to teach these children and love them, but none on Mars. Who would teach the little Martians about Earth music and show them how to play guitar?" That sealed it for him and he accepted the offer hoping to become a great educator on the little Martian colony.
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DAMN that was long! If you can't tell I got a bit lazy towards the end and their stories got more generic lol sorry. Also i haven’t played the boys dorm yet so i don't know much about them.
I'm following these rules but have tweaked them just slightly. I don't hinder my founders promotions at all simply because I can't find the mod :P
Everything in this BaCC is randomized. I rolled for everything including how many people per house, gender, name, and for Eli even his entire appearance is rolled. I will continue to do this for names and aspirations and as i add new people.
If you're still reading, way to be a trouper! I almost didn't make it through this myself lol Let me know if you guys like this, keep in mind the actual chapters will not be nearly as wordy! I'm thinking mostly commentary with some story thrown in. I might write it like journal entries? Idk suggestions are always welcome :)
PEACE