This story is set in Cassy Duprey's Beforetime (our future). When the story begins, Cassy is a young adult, and has lost her Tiban lover (he went to Chinon to find out what was happening, despite her concern, and didn't make it back). Cassy is currently a guest in the Government Complex where her father is the Director, and has managed to find the people that the Agyllians/flamebirds told her about, the paranormals who were kidnapped by the Government and taken to their secret complex for experimentation. The complex is also the home of the remaining flamebirds, and the site for a number of scientific projects and experiments. Foremost among these is the Sentinel project, the system that will be used to control the BOT (Balance of Terror). Representatives from all five powers (Uropa, Mericanda, Tipoda, Gadfia and the Chinon Empire) are involved in developing this project. The story you will be writing is a series of letters from Cassy Duprey about the discoveries she and her captive friends have been able to make about the Government Complex and the Sentinel project, and the various experiences they have in the complex. (You may also write about conversations between the Beforetime Misfits that Cassy has witnessed through farseeking to them, or that she has been told about.) The letters are a precaution in case they fail, so that somebody may know what went on there. They are also attempting to find a way for the paranormals and the flamebirds to escape the complex, hopefully with no one knowing of Cassy's involvement.
To give you some help with establishing the characters of the Beforetime Misfits, here is where they are introduced in Elspeth's memory-dream in
The Stone Key. (The first girl is established as a farseeker and coercer.)
For all the cynical feel of her mindvoice, she was no older than Cassy, and she was extraordinary looking. Her skin was as pale as if it had been powdered with flour, her lips were black and she had smeared something glittering and purple around her eyes. Her hair was short like the older woman in the hall, but it had been oiled and pressed into quills that stuck up stiffly as if they had been lacquered. Finally, there was a silver bead of metal gleaming in the tuck of her chin and a little silver arrow piercing the exaggerated arch of one black brow.
'Well?' she said aloud in an insolent, rasping voice.
The people around the chair had been standing still. I looked at them and realised with some astonishment that each of them wore the same sort of heavy blue trews with pockets and soft short-sleeved white shirts as I had worn in the ruins complex. I studied each in turn, realising with awe that these must be the Beforetime Misfits stolen from the original Reichler clinic. There was a frail-looking woman with wispy blonde hair and anxious eyes; a handsome man with a belligerent expression; a worried-looking older man whose face seemed familiar; and a heavy older woman with grey streaks in her hair. All of them save the girl in the chair had skin like Cassy's: Twentyfamilies dark. The only other person in the room was a younger boy with yellowish hair and a wheezing way of breathing. He was fair-skinned too, but I was struck by his dual-coloured eyes, for they were like Iriny's. He was the only one other than the pale girl with the porcupine-quill hair who appeared calm. The rest wore expressions ranging from frightened to apprehensive.
(The full passage is from pages 827-32 in the original large format edition)
PLEASE NOTE: How you choose to use the above information to develop the characters is up to you, but please be aware of what other people before you have written. As the paranormals and any other new characters are given names in the story, we'll add the names and descriptions to this first post.
Possible Characters:Cassy Duprey
Cassy's father, Director Duprey
Ruth Everhart, a scientist working on a new form of cryogenics (a secret project, because cryogenics had been discredited after earlier "dark ages" experiments had failed)
Petr Masterton
Hannah Seraphim (not likely to be present, but if you can think of a plausible way to work her in, go for it! ;))
Jacob Obernewtyn (again, not likely to be physically present, but see how you go ;D)
The Beforetime Misfits (names will be added as these characters are given names):