[ The Freak ]
“Most people go through life dreading they'll have a traumatic experience. Freaks were born with their trauma.
They've already passed their test in life. They're aristocrats.”
-- Diane Arbus
~~~
Character Name:
Zachary Ogden
Title:
The Draconic Beastman
Appearance:
STAGE 1: In most respects, Zach appears human – he’s got the correct number of limbs, and so forth. His messy, medium-length brown hair and brown eyes are nothing unusual. He’s about 6’0”, and his build is stocky. His skin is entirely scaly, similar in texture and appearance to an alligator’s hide, but skin-colored. This scaly skin is shed yearly, much like a reptile. He lacks sweat glands entirely, using his tear ducts instead. His eyelids are extremely thin, looking semitransparent even when closed. There are scars on his arms and legs from work as a chimney sweep, though he takes to wearing the most covering clothes he can to keep people from looking at his deformities.
STAGE 2: In addition to these natural deformities, he will take to filing his teeth and nails to points, and have had his tongue split into a fork. Some nights he’ll use washable dyes, either regular or some sort of glow-in-the-dark sort, to enhance the visibility of his “scales” and add to the act.
STAGE 3: ???
Personality:
Uneducated, crude, but has the sense not to be too frank with people. He’s still grappling with insecurities and fears. Free of his parents' beatings and having lived on the streets long enough, he revels in belittling others behind their backs and even spreading rumors to cure his own self-consciousness. Unable to actually confront people on issues, he tries to maintain a two-faced facade. He has a very strong superstition of magic and other forces he deems as 'unholy'. His temper is on the short side. He hates violence (at least, being on the receiving end), and can be easily managed with a couple of well-worded threats of such when he gets out of hand.
World and History:
World A
The Industrial Revolution in England was a time of fast technological progress. A need for plenty of hands in factories drove half of England's population to London. It was there, amidst the cholera and crowding, that an unlucky married couple gave birth to a child who at first seemed normal, but after several years it became apparent that he had a skin condition, which made him look more like an animal than a child at first glance. The boy had an extremely serious case of Ichthyosis vulgaris, a skin condition that caused excesss skin to build up in a scale pattern. It was particularly serious for him, causing him to be forever itchy and an eyesore to any who looked at him. There were no medical breakthroughs to help him, and he was stuck as he was without hope.
For years his parents raised them as best they could, stuck in the dingy one room they called home. There was no room for disagreement with his parents' strict ways, or there was a beating involved. It made him quiet about dissent, unwilling to voice his issues straight to peoples' faces. As for reading and writing, he didn't learn much of either, and only got as far as being able to read and write his own name the whole time. The education his parents gave him was more along the lines of being a god-fearing citizen of the nation, and how to work the same job that his dad worked at for when he turned 11.
Going outside? Nonsense! It wasn't until his father suffered an accident that prevented him from working for a while and their weak trickle of money grew even weaker that they decided that, freak or no, their 9-year-old child would have to contribute to the family or survive on the streets. The parents had grown used to his strange appearance, but the rest of the world had not yet had a glimpse.
He chose the streets.
If he'd thought he was poorly off in that dingy room, this was far worse. Many orphaned children roamed the streets, and he was just one of many, though an unsightly one. Sleeping on doorsteps, eating whatever a couple of pence could buy. Most of the time he was out on his own, trying to seek work as a chimney sweep thanks to his small size. Chimney sweeps didn't have to be looked at much, either, he'd learned quickly enough. Being covered in soot kept his disturbing features hidden as best he could manage, though it only served to make his condition painfully worse.
He survived for about two years seeking the painful work, but the pay was so scarce and the work so unsteady that he had to turn his attention back to the siren song of the factories. It was marginally better, but he didn't have to go crawling from house to house caked with soot and pleading for work. He still lived on the streets despite its effects on his health, but he had work, though he still got his share of strange looks from his fellow workers. As was expected, he developed a permanent cold that sent him into a coughing fit every so often. But life went on uneventfully and free, and for every day that he was alive he couldn't help but wonder how many he had left.
At the age of 15, he was tall but somewhat emaciated and with plenty of scars on his hands and legs. His condition had grown even worse, leaving him looking like a leathery skin-colored lizard in the shape of a human. He spotted a colorful flyer on his way out of the factory and snatched it. Unable to read, he asked a man on the street to read it to him. A circus, looking for work! He'd always wanted to see a circus after hearing a story that an old man in the factory used to tell about the lion-tamers and magicians he'd once seen. It sounded fascinating just to be in the audience. Perhaps, if the circus planned to travel far away, it would take him with, to someplace better. There had to be a place where no one would look at him as though he were a creature more than a person. Maybe this was his ticket to better things...
“Most people go through life dreading they'll have a traumatic experience. Freaks were born with their trauma.
They've already passed their test in life. They're aristocrats.”
-- Diane Arbus
~~~
Character Name:
Zachary Ogden
Title:
The Draconic Beastman
Appearance:
STAGE 1: In most respects, Zach appears human – he’s got the correct number of limbs, and so forth. His messy, medium-length brown hair and brown eyes are nothing unusual. He’s about 6’0”, and his build is stocky. His skin is entirely scaly, similar in texture and appearance to an alligator’s hide, but skin-colored. This scaly skin is shed yearly, much like a reptile. He lacks sweat glands entirely, using his tear ducts instead. His eyelids are extremely thin, looking semitransparent even when closed. There are scars on his arms and legs from work as a chimney sweep, though he takes to wearing the most covering clothes he can to keep people from looking at his deformities.
STAGE 2: In addition to these natural deformities, he will take to filing his teeth and nails to points, and have had his tongue split into a fork. Some nights he’ll use washable dyes, either regular or some sort of glow-in-the-dark sort, to enhance the visibility of his “scales” and add to the act.
STAGE 3: ???
Personality:
Uneducated, crude, but has the sense not to be too frank with people. He’s still grappling with insecurities and fears. Free of his parents' beatings and having lived on the streets long enough, he revels in belittling others behind their backs and even spreading rumors to cure his own self-consciousness. Unable to actually confront people on issues, he tries to maintain a two-faced facade. He has a very strong superstition of magic and other forces he deems as 'unholy'. His temper is on the short side. He hates violence (at least, being on the receiving end), and can be easily managed with a couple of well-worded threats of such when he gets out of hand.
World and History:
World A
The Industrial Revolution in England was a time of fast technological progress. A need for plenty of hands in factories drove half of England's population to London. It was there, amidst the cholera and crowding, that an unlucky married couple gave birth to a child who at first seemed normal, but after several years it became apparent that he had a skin condition, which made him look more like an animal than a child at first glance. The boy had an extremely serious case of Ichthyosis vulgaris, a skin condition that caused excesss skin to build up in a scale pattern. It was particularly serious for him, causing him to be forever itchy and an eyesore to any who looked at him. There were no medical breakthroughs to help him, and he was stuck as he was without hope.
For years his parents raised them as best they could, stuck in the dingy one room they called home. There was no room for disagreement with his parents' strict ways, or there was a beating involved. It made him quiet about dissent, unwilling to voice his issues straight to peoples' faces. As for reading and writing, he didn't learn much of either, and only got as far as being able to read and write his own name the whole time. The education his parents gave him was more along the lines of being a god-fearing citizen of the nation, and how to work the same job that his dad worked at for when he turned 11.
Going outside? Nonsense! It wasn't until his father suffered an accident that prevented him from working for a while and their weak trickle of money grew even weaker that they decided that, freak or no, their 9-year-old child would have to contribute to the family or survive on the streets. The parents had grown used to his strange appearance, but the rest of the world had not yet had a glimpse.
He chose the streets.
If he'd thought he was poorly off in that dingy room, this was far worse. Many orphaned children roamed the streets, and he was just one of many, though an unsightly one. Sleeping on doorsteps, eating whatever a couple of pence could buy. Most of the time he was out on his own, trying to seek work as a chimney sweep thanks to his small size. Chimney sweeps didn't have to be looked at much, either, he'd learned quickly enough. Being covered in soot kept his disturbing features hidden as best he could manage, though it only served to make his condition painfully worse.
He survived for about two years seeking the painful work, but the pay was so scarce and the work so unsteady that he had to turn his attention back to the siren song of the factories. It was marginally better, but he didn't have to go crawling from house to house caked with soot and pleading for work. He still lived on the streets despite its effects on his health, but he had work, though he still got his share of strange looks from his fellow workers. As was expected, he developed a permanent cold that sent him into a coughing fit every so often. But life went on uneventfully and free, and for every day that he was alive he couldn't help but wonder how many he had left.
At the age of 15, he was tall but somewhat emaciated and with plenty of scars on his hands and legs. His condition had grown even worse, leaving him looking like a leathery skin-colored lizard in the shape of a human. He spotted a colorful flyer on his way out of the factory and snatched it. Unable to read, he asked a man on the street to read it to him. A circus, looking for work! He'd always wanted to see a circus after hearing a story that an old man in the factory used to tell about the lion-tamers and magicians he'd once seen. It sounded fascinating just to be in the audience. Perhaps, if the circus planned to travel far away, it would take him with, to someplace better. There had to be a place where no one would look at him as though he were a creature more than a person. Maybe this was his ticket to better things...
