Profile

It's 2032 and the world hasn't turned out quite as expected...

A military coup in the UK in the early 2000s was only prevented by the advent of an equally unsavoury group of radical right-wing leaders. Now known as The Establishment, they have reverted Britain to the 'moral' society they claim it once was - a parody of Victorian egomania - and set about restoring her Empire. As the world falls into war, governments tumble and now only Asia remains a last bastion of democracy... But there's always a resistance.

Welcome to the London Underground. Good luck.



Location
The disused spider's web of London Underground tunnels have provided a fitting - and surprisingly safe - haven to the wide-ranging resistance group that bears its name. The tunnels are populated by a large group of misfits, frequently those people too opinionated, too outspoken or too nonconformist to be allowed in the suppressive new Britain Above. Once dank and draughty, their intelligent and well-organised new residents have transformed the tunnels into an unexpectedly comfortable, well-equipped and multi-levelled lair that's probably more impregnable than Fort Knox. The network's symbol is a phoenix spray-painted onto the old London Underground logo and the slogan 'HOW DO THEY RISE?'.



Prominent Characters
Chalcedony Harper: 6'1" and still well-muscled in her early fifties, Chalcedony is the boss-lady. Clad in a well-cut business suit, bespectacled, and with her salt-and-pepper hair in braids, Chalcedony is a striking figure and unquestionably in command. She still wears a silver wedding band on her left hand: Challie's husband was arrested (and presumably later killed) as the leader of a protest march just after her youngest daughter was born. Aware that she was next on the list, Challie took her children and went underground.

Dr Martha Owens: 5'4" and a little older than Chalcedony, the Northern-born, ex-military head of the medics is slim, grey-haired and walks with a cane. Abrupt and sharp-tongued but essentially kind, she wears glasses, a long scarf and a labcoat, and is joint overall second-in-command. She may or may not be her boss-lady's lover: if she is, none of Chalcedony's children will be complaining.

Toby Harper: At twenty-six Chalcedony's eldest child and with Doctor Owens her joint second-in-command, Toby is an even more imposing figure than his mother: he's 6'7" and built like a tank. For all that, though, Toby is a quiet guy, more at home behind his beloved computers than in the middle of an argument. A computer whizzkid and the head of the Underground's Communications division, there are few places he can't go in the information age, and few things he can't fix. Unfortunately, one of them is his strained relationship with his oldest sister since her return from the Establishment's holding pens.

Nix Gordon: Chalcedony's nineteen-year-old adopted daughter is her second oldest child. Left scarred and volatile after spending two years held prisoner by the Establishment, 5'11" Nix is head of the Outsiders - the members of the Underground who routinely leave the tunnels on missions - and is generally accepted as the Underground's best fighter. Her head is shaven, like her brother's, and she's rarely seen without her top hat. Her birth parents were arrested at the same march as Challie's husband when Nix was three, and as a consequence she has little memories either of them or of a life not spent running.

Threnody Harper: Chalcedony's youngest is an engineering prodigy and the head of Weaponry. Quieter than Nix but louder than Toby, at sixteen years old Threnody is already 6 feet tall, pretty and sweet-natured, with a dangerous affinity for fire. She made Nix's skybike and is dangerous with a wrench, but she has more tricks than those up her sleeves.

Gryffith Jones: With most of his wiry 5'7" body covered in swirling black tattoos, Gryff still only looks half as dangerous as he is. Halfway between his best friend Nix and his boyfriend Toby in age, he joined the Underground after escaping with Nix from the Establishment's holding pens and now runs the Outside Division with her.

Romilly Bright: A gifted medic, the twenty-one-year-old Romilly is Doc Owens' most talented protégée. A slim 5'6", with intelligent dark eyes and unorthodox purple hair, Romilly is a tough young woman who escaped with her younger sister when the Establishment arrested the rest of their family. Best friends with Nix before the younger girl spent two years incarcerated and experimented-on, today they remain friendly but with an awkwardness between them that neither really understands how to deal with.

Eden Bright: Romilly's eighteen-year-old sister is a blonde, 5'2" pixie of a girl with a talent for violence and an explosive temper under an easy-going exterior. A member of Security, Eden is less academic than her older sister but shares her generous allowance of common sense - provided she can control her emotions. Just eleven when the rest of her family was arrested and presumably killed by the Establishment on charges of having been complicit in the Irish Resistance, Eden is passionately determined to have her revenge.

Dominique Ali: Tall, elegant and commanding, the 5'9" Dominique doesn't exactly look the obvious choice for head of Security, but the twenty-eight-year-old one-time TV star is extremely good at her job. Born in France, she was working in London when news of her parents' arrests in Paris reached her; faced with being deported herself for the joint crimes of being non-white, non-British and gay, she instead chose to head underground, where the initially vain, self-centred young woman discovered an unexpected courage and array of other useful talents.

Jenny Chen: Just sixteen when her Chinese-born parents were deported, Jenny managed to escape and fight for the country she was born in. Though a talented linguist, the now-twenty-two-year-old 'Sparks' prefers to work in Threnody's Weaponry Division, dividing her time between that and Communications. A plump, birdlike 5'1", she's quiet but even-tempered and iron-willed -- and is unexpectedly handy with her favourite weapon, which she likes to refer to as the Baseball Bat of +5 Feminism.

Kaidy Hawkins: At thirty-six, the well-muscled, stoic Head of Transport is leader of the Underground's most elite getaway drivers. Tough, untalkative and a veteran of more disasters than she's happy about, with eyes older than her years, the 5'11'' Kaidy is who you want to have coming to get you when everything else has gone wrong.

Ariel Mohammed: Second in command of Security, the half-Moroccan Ariel is an old East End boy at heart. A calm-eyed twenty-four-year-old, Ariel is as tough as his strapping, scarred 6'2'' frame suggests, but at heart he's essentially a sweet - and devoutly religious - guy. He's a crack shot with a rifle, but more naturally inclined toward diplomacy as a means of solving problems.

Vikram Singh: Head nurse and de facto second-in-command of Medicine, twenty-seven-year-old Vikram Singh is often mistaken for younger than he really is. Nicknamed 'Suicide' because of his talent as an anaesthetist (suicide is, after all, painless), this pacifist is an old hand at patching up the latest casualties in the war Topside. Clever, wryly humorous and with a good bedside manner, the 5'12'' Vikram was one of the Underground's first members.

Aeronwy Whitefell: Though outwardly an unlikely rebel and even more unlikely survivor, Aeronwy Whitefell is much tougher than she looks. She's had to be: few other members of the Underground have reached the age of forty-five, and Aeronwy is fiercely determined to go a few better than that. As head of the Creche - in other words, in charge of anyone younger than sixteen - the ex-teacher is stern but fiercely devoted to her charges and more than capable of protecting them.

Celia Arden: Second-in-command of Communications and good friends with her superior, Toby, twenty-three-year-old Celia Arden is a brilliant hacker. She's also polylingual, speaking at least six languages with fluency and several others with varying degrees of competency. Plump and friendly, but noticeably reticent about her past, the 5'4'' Celia is rarely seen far away from her spiritual home: the Communications Room.

Meda Bennett: One of the senior members of Security, the thirty-three-year-old Meda Bennett learned her combat skills as a self-defence instructor when she lived 'above'. Moody and battle-hardened, she tends to prefer violence over diplomacy, particularly in defence of her seven-year-old daughter Elodie. Like many in the Underground, Meda is a Londoner by birth, and lived in North London for most of her life before the Takeover: her knowledge of the streets aboveground mean that she's often co-opted for the Outside division when necessary.

Jack Warwick was a farmer's daughter who joined the Cornish police as a dog handler and thus met Jude Clarke, the rescue pilot who quickly became her girlfriend. Together, the two fled the Purge of undesirables from the British forces, making their way to the Underground in London as a way of staying together and continuing the occupations they both loved. Now thirty, the 5'10" Jack's talents with a shotgun, her immaculately-trained three dogs and her ability to keep a cool head have led to her quick rise to becoming a respected member of the Underground despite her police background, and she now acts as unofficial second-in-command to Nix and Gryff as a member of the Outside Division.


Disclaimer
NPC account for an original canon created by bethan_b_bad.