The Circus Freaks (Idea, Family, Drama, Adoption)

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PunkPrince

...bees.
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  1. Speed of Light
  2. Multiple posts per day
  3. 1-3 posts per day
  4. One post per day
Writing Levels
  1. Adept
  2. Advanced
  3. Prestige
Preferred Character Gender
  1. Female
  2. Transgender
Genres
Real life
My characters are a group of circus performers. You would play a pair of twins aged 12-14–gender doesn't matter–who have wound up on the street after running from an abusive foster care family–where they've spent their entire lives–and have had a pretty bad past in general. They end up being found by Mara, who takes them back to the circus to get cleaned up. One of the twins is nervous, but fairly trusting, and the other is a bit uncomfortable being around my characters because of their various oddities. The more open of the pair ends up becoming attached to my characters and decides that they want to stay, and your character reluctantly agrees. I don't really have much of a plot aside from that. Any takers?

My requirements:
-Please don't join the RP, and then drop it right in the middle. It bugs me when people only post once, or post a few times and then just leave.
-Please be literate. At least four paragraphs per post with good spelling and grammar. I can make exceptions at times. This is a big thing for me. I get annoyed when people can't do this. I don't mind a few screw ups, but if you 'typ LIek diss' and don't use decent capitalization and punctuation I'll most likely drop the thread. If you can't think of what to reply with, PM me and I can add a bit more.
-Be active PLEASE. I'm online most every day. I haven't RPed in a while due to real life issues, and I understand you might need to drop. If you do please PM me first. I've RPed with people who have completely just disappeared.

Mara Severina
Age: 40
Hair: Brown
Eyes: Gray
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Mara grew up completely ordinary–well, almost. She grew up with both her parents present, and was loved by both of them–even if they all sometimes fought. It became apparent fairly quickly that she was always going to be tall. This worried her parents, who were of average height. She was always several inches taller than every other kid her age, and after growth spurts, sometimes towered over them by nearly a foot. Her parents took her to several doctors to find out why she was so tall, and none of them could really find an answer. They did find that Mara had no life threatening condition, and though her size was unusual it was not linked to anything that would cause her harm. Mara's large size–a final height of 6'8–also meant that she ended up being a good amount stronger than the people she dwarfed. Her father died of lung cancer when she was eighteen, and following a fight with her mother, Mara, in the stereotypical fashion, ran away and joined the circus. She and her mother are on better terms now, and made up a few months after the fight, though Mara remained with the circus and grew extremely close with everyone there, particularly Ryan's mother, and became Ryan's motherly figure after Caitlyn died. Despite her large, slightly threatening size, Mara is the "mother hen" of the group, and is very caring and gentle, only really utilizing her strength for a show or to lift something.

Ryan Cirelli
Age: 18

Hair: Red
Eyes: Brown
Gender: Nonbinary, intersex (no pronoun preference)
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Ryan was born to Caitlyn Cirelli, a single mother, who had nothing physically different about her, but worked as the circus cook for years, as well as being a talented fire eater. When Ryan was born, she panicked. Ryan was born with both sets of genitals with only a single testicle. Their mother, not wanting to do something that could hurt them later, chose not to subject them to corrective surgery, and though she raised them as a boy, was very liberal with the things she allowed Ryan to do in terms of gender expression. Ryan never fully accepted their assignment as male, and is much happier to live between the binary genders. At puberty, Ryan's features became fairly androgynous, with small breasts budding on their chest. In terms of a menstrual cycle, they only bleed a few times a year at seemingly random intervals, but experience extremely painful cramps-to the point where they can hardly move-every month or so. Originally, Ryan's mother didn't want them in the show, not wanting her child to be anymore of an oddity than he already was. But Ryan, desperate to entertain people and be seen by the world, continued to beg until their mother caved. Like their mother, Ryan is a fire eater, but is also a talented singer and acrobat. In terms of personality, Ryan is very sweet and outgoing, traits helpful in their love of performance. Ryan's closest friends are Ivy and Lacey, a pair of twins who are conjoined at the hip and were orphaned at a young age and raised by Ryan's mother. Ryan is also very close to Mara Severina, the circus strongwoman, who was their mother's closest friend. It is rare to see Ryan upset, as they try to hide their feelings until they are alone. Their mother died a few years back in an accident that led to her accidentally setting herself on fire, and Ryan is still not fully over her death. At times, Ryan is hard on themself. Ryan knows they are considered a freak of nature, and though they try hard to own that, there really are times that they absolutely hate it, wanting so much to be normal.

Vivienne "Viv" Markstone
Age: 27
Hair: Blonde
Eyes: Blue
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Vivienne has no memory of her family. She just knows she was left at the hospital by her mother for an unknown reason and was tossed into foster care fairly quickly. As she grew up, Viv maintained high grades and was in all ways except physically–a normal little girl. By the time she was three it became apparent to her foster parents that she was not like other children. She didn't gain much weight, and what she did gain was distributed oddly throughout her body. It was also found that her skeleton was strangely developing, resulting in her odd proportions and missing kidney–she only has the room for one. Her strange, almost doll-like appearance caused her to be ostracized by her peers, and left her with few friends. After being placed with a new foster family at age ten, Viv was taken to the circus as a sort of "welcome to the family" gesture, and she was excited up until the end, when the family booked it out of there and left her alone. She was shortly after taken in by the group, and has been with them ever since. Due to her appearance, Viv is often wary of unfamiliar faces, afraid of their reactions to her, but is usually kind unless provoked. When Ryan was born she–like everyone else–became protective, even at the age of eleven, and became an older sister figure to them. At around sixteen she began to work with the big cats of the circus, and is praised for her skill with the large animals.

Ivy and Lacey Summers
Age: 19
Hair: Blonde, though Lacey's is cut shorter
Eyes: Gray
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Ivy and Lacey are twins conjoined at the hip. It is unknown why the pair were not separated at birth, as it was certainly feasible. They were found by Ryan's mother Caitlyn, stumbling through the rain one night when they were four years old. Both twins had very obviously been given at least one blow to the head, and neither seemed to be able to remember much of what had happened to put them where they were. What little the pair could manage to articulate made it obvious that wherever they had come from, they did not want to be sent back. They were adopted by Caitlyn, and she raised them as her own until her death. They were asked a few times by her if they wanted to be separated, but each time they turned her down. The pair had been together for so long that they simply didn't want to go through the foreign experience of being separate. When they were around fourteen, Caitlyn began to teach them her sword swallowing techniques, after much begging, of course, and they began performing in the show. Ivy is the quieter and more distrusting of the sisters, and often lets her sister do the speaking. Lacey, despite the stares she and Ivy receive, is more outgoing and generally cheerful. While they do argue at times, they always manage to work around the issue in some way. They are the closest with Ryan, often found following them around when the three were still very young, even though the twins were the older ones.

Parker Millings
Age: 41
Hair: Dark blonde, graying
Eyes: Gray
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Parker was born in Britain, though left the country with his parents to stay with American relatives when he was sixteen. Despite having spent more time in America than England, he still speaks with an obvious accent, which he never did manage to drop. His parents encouraged him when he was growing up, and told him that he was just like everyone else and could do whatever he set his mind to. He began to practice juggling, and much to the surprise of his parents, became good at it fairly quickly, even with his malformed hands. Parker's arms are covered in tattoos, something he had done in an attempt to draw attention from his fingers, which are fused together into "lobster claws." He worked a crappy maintenance job for a while before joining the circus group when he was twenty one. He is a talented knife thrower and juggler, and often mixes those skills together. He is Ryan's primary father figure, given that their real father was not around. He also has a crush on Mara, but has never admitted this to her or anyone else, though Ryan and the twins all picked up on it. When things go wrong Parker is usually the one to take charge and come up with creative solutions. He is welcoming toward most, rather unlike his friends, who are often wary of those outside the circus.

Stephen Ricci
Age: 32
Hair: Dark blonde
Eyes: brown
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At first glance, Stephen is completely normal–until he sticks out his tongue, which is forked like a snake's would be, something he had done to himself rather unlike his friends, all of whom were born with their oddities. He was raised primarily by his alcoholic uncle, who was often abusive to him. He fled the home on his fifteenth birthday and got by by performing his extreme feats of flexibility in bars and working for tips. It was Parker who saw him first and offered him a place with the circus, a place he gladly accepted. He performs as a contortionist, nicknamed "snake boy" by his fellow performers because of his tongue and a running joke that he lacks the majority of his bones. He is a bit of a prankster and often teases the rest of the group, Parker in particular. He is blunt and often speaks without thinking first, and often an indication of his concern for someone comes in the form of insults.
 
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