ROLEPLAY HQ - ungifted

: Dystopian tendencies, Potential Violence, Abuse

09:52

There used to be a phrase: Normal is boring. Esme had seen it once in a history book depicting the past. The book explained that those who were different used to be mistreated. Bullied. Outcasted. Perhaps the phrase was wrong, then. After all, how could normal be boring if normal kept you safe. That was what her parents would like her to think as well. Life is easier if you blend in. Esme would consider her parents to be the ideal citizens of this utopia they called home. Ever since the time keepers had handled uniformity, children no longer were bullied for being "weird", whatever that meant. No one was weird anymore afterall. Everyone was simply the same. Everyone played the same games, wore the same clothes, and ate the same food. Once Esme had seen that children used to be bullied for eating foreign food, it was in the history books. What a bizarre concept. She scoffed at it at the time, how juvenile would it be to tease someone for the food they ate. She couldn't even imagine such a thing. That was... until she was different. Since her 21st birthday, Esme had found fitting in to be unusually hard. The first problem: she was gifted. The second problem: she couldn't tell anyone that she was gifted. Third problem: she didn't know how to control her gift. Did anyone know how to control their gift? It wasn't like there was some sort of manual. Esme had no other choice to find a way to control this gift before the time keepers found out, after all, if they were to find out all would be for naught. She would end up in jail or worse dead and she certainly wasn't ready for death. She thought living was absolutely average and she didn't think death sounded all that enjoyable. Yet learning to control a gift also made you a fugitive. There was no winning. No escape. No options. Stepping outside, Esme's gaze shifted around. Everyone was readying for work. Another day. Everyone wore the same outfits. Men wore white dress pants and button up shirts, women wore

09:52

white dresses. Most looked bleak, their skin sallow and their hair unshined. Esme had always felt strange, her own skin covered in freckles and her hair the color of a burning flame. She glanced behind her, "I'll be off then. I told Elder Christopher that I would go to the forest today to gather some firewood for the winter. He thinks it ought to be a downright cold one." The forest. Esme had covered up her trips to the forest as charity for Elder Christopher. It wasn't a complete lie, she had asked Elder Christopher if he had any community service for her. He had asked her to gather firewood in the forest. Yet the forest provided the safest place to train. The forest where she could be alone without worry. Charity had never been more enjoyable. Her foot slid back into the dirt as she took a deep breath, her green eyes seeming to glow as she attempted to hone the energy. Esme didn't fully understand her gift yet, but what she did know is that it had the power to speed everything up. Or perhaps, it was slowing everything else down. She wasn't quite sure yet. Pushing off her foot, she ran forwards, trying to propel the energy into her legs. She was...somewhat successful. Somewhat because she had no aim and ran face first into a tree. She crashed to the ground with a thud, gasping for air as she stared up at the crisp autumn sky.

09:54

@bluehound180 when you are ready, here we are)

Every front door in the neighborhood of Grey East Drive opened simultaneously at 8 o’clock sharp. Everyone who had a job from 9 to 5 exited their identical homes to walk to the bus stop to board the buses that arrived to drop off the people who worked 12 to 8. Callum was one of those third-shift workers. Despite having worked as a sewer maintenance employee for nearly five years, he could never get over the stench it left him reeking in after a shift. As he exited the bus, he noticed the day workers create a slight girth of room around him. He visibly scoffed at that. Any person who was new to the neighborhood or didn't live in it would have simply chalked it up for him smelling like shit. Smelling like shit was half of the reason why folk gave him space. The other half was for a personal reason. His father accidentally dropped him as a baby one time people, one time! He shook himself out of his thoughts as he caught sight of his older brother waiting in line to board. “Ya stink like the back end of a cow.” The latter teased, flashing a smile as the 23-year-old flicked him off. “Well, I’m sorry I couldn’t get a nice smelling job like ya, ya asshat.” Callum flashed back, ignoring the judgmental looks from the folk waiting around as he started to make his way back home. Once safely inside the house, he made his way to a bookshelf that stood next to the wall near the entrance. On the top shelf rested a family photo showing an Asian man, a Caucasian woman, and two young boys. In the youngest’s arms, who appeared to be around five, was holding on to what appeared to be a coyote pup. Everyone wore the typical white clothing, which looked out of place among the forest that lay behind them. Everyone was smiling. They looked pretty happy. .

21:14

“Morning Ma, Pa. Work was a drag like always. I hope Ari kept yall entertained in this dump. Who am I kidding? He’s too lazy to do that. I doubt he even let Coop out to take a leak.” Not even a moment later from his rambling, the sound of nails clipping across the hard, off-white flooring. A large coyote-like dog sauntered over to the lad, demanding pets. “Speak of the devil. Hi buddy, do ya need to go out?” Cooper’s honey-colored eyes seemed to light up in glee as he heard the word ‘go out’. He immediately started to hop around and made low huffs of excitement. “Alright alright, let me get changed, and then we can leave!” Callum slowed his bike to a stop right outside a local forest one of his coworkers mentioned during last night's shift. Due to not being allowed to have a car, the bike was the next best thing. Even though he worked an 8-hour shift and biked the nearly hour-long route to the forest, he was still wide-eyed and bushy tailed. “Don’t travel too far away!” He called out to his dog, who was eagerly walking and sniffing around. Once he found a ditch to hide his bike, the pair began their exploration. As they walked, he couldn’t help but marvel at how gorgeous the leaves were. It reminded him of his previous home. @꒰ sunset shae ꒱ ༉‧₊˚.

The sky was particularly pretty in autumn. Or at least that was what Esme thought. Her gaze fell up as she wondered whether anyone thought it was strange how she always found a way to return to the forest like this. She liked the forest. Always had. Even before she knew she was gifted. As a child, Esme had always felt different from the others. And it wasn't just because of the red hair that seemed to make her stand out. She was surprised that red hair was even allowed in such a neighborhood. When she was a child the other children used to say that she had been sent to the wrong neighborhood. Said she belonged elsewhere and that she would never truly be the same as them. Comments like that had always gotten the teachers to keep their eyes on her. They told her that her braids weren't tight enough or that her skirt was an inch too short. That she would have to work harder than the others to fit in. She had to, after all. Perhaps that was why she felt safe in the forest. Esme currently worked at the library. It was a job that was nice and peaceful but also had different hours than nearly everyone else. While everyone seemed to work 9-5, she worked 11-7. It meant that she had ample time in the morning to spend doing other things and the thing she did most often was go into the forest for a walk. Of course, she needed an alibi, as anything did in this town. This was her quiet place. Very few travelled out to the forest at these hours. Mainly due to the fact that it was within normal working hours and people were getting on with their days. It was what made it the safest place for her training to take place. Who was going to find her in the middle of a forest? Don't answer that. Not important. Hopefully no one. She paused and forced her body up, blinking several times as she felt a wave of dizziness overwhelm her head. "Ech..." She muttered, stretching her arms over her head. She had two hours to spend in the forest. She would dedicate one of those hours to

04:19

training and the other would be to actually gathering wood for the winter. After all, they claimed that this winter would be worse than normal. She wasn't sure what brought them to say that but she believed them for the most part. If they were going to lie about anything, she highly doubted it would be about the weather. Instead they would much rather lie about something like history. And that she was aware of. After all, all of the librarians had access to the archives and while she hadn't found much down there, she knew there were bits and pieces missing. Pushing herself up, Esme let out a soft grunt as she ignored her head and began to brush the leaves out of her hair, walking back several steps before directing her body in a different direction. Preferably not in the direction of a tree this time. Trees hurt. Note to self: Don't run into trees. Of course, that didn't make it easy when you were surrounded by them. She took a deep breath and slid her foot back into the dirt one more time. "Come on..." She muttered. In. A slow deep breath pushed into her lungs as if she believed it were storing up her power. She didn't know if that was how it worked but it was worth a shot. Her eyes fell closed and she pushed forward on her foot. She propelled forwards off of her foot, forcing the energy into her legs before she opened her eyes and had travelled nearly 20 ft away and was... crashing into some weird boy?! Her body slammed into the boy as if she had appeared from thin air. And... indeed that was what it would have looked like to him. After all, she kind of had. Well. She didn't have the ability to teleport but she certainly had the power to do... that . Whatever that was. She gasped as she fell to the ground with him, her eyes widening as she realized that she indeed was screwed. As she looked at him her green glowing eyes widened in surprise and her hand quickly clasped over his mouth before she glared at him. "Don't make a single sound. You saw nothing.

04:20

@bluehound180

As Callum watched his tamaskan roaming about, he couldn’t help but feel grateful for the advantage of having a third-shift job. With most of the neighborhood out to tend to their 9-5’s, he didn’t have to worry about many people spotting Cooper whenever he got home and took him out to burn some energy. Due to his persistent routine of bike riding after his shifts, no one batted an eye at where he went once he left the neighborhood. That was the only reason why no one stopped him from heading toward the forest. If anyone stopped him, all he had to do was pull out his ID, show his work hours, and then say he was doing his routine bike ride during his hour or two ‘outside free period’ that everyone received after their work shift. The sudden sound of Cooper growling broke him out of his train of thought. His body automatically tensed, ready to move if needed. Callum blinked in surprise once finding the source of his dog’s sudden alarm. There was an abandoned oval mirror resting between the roots of a fallen tree. A smile played across his features as he watched Cooper settle down once he realized the other dog wasn’t a threat. He casually strode over and bent over to look at himself in the cracked mirror. Without a thought, he silently criticized his appearance with a frown. His reddish brown hair was unruly as ever. No matter how hard he tried to comb it down or gel it, the end product was always a porcupine. It made him stick out like a sore thumb whenever he was around other folks, who all had neatly trimmed and tamed locks. Even though he cleaned himself up before leaving the house, faint black streaks of dirt and grime could be seen in places across his face and neck. Why couldn’t work stay at work? The seemingly permanent stains made it seem as if he never knew what a washcloth was, which wasn’t true… most of the time. His physical build wasn’t out of the ordinary for someone of his stature and age, though he wished he had the muscle like his brother. .