by Roger Bourke White Jr., copyright January 2017
- PHYSICALITY
Janalee, 30's, AR engineer, into tennis, bicycling and airplane flying, she is ambitious and living an ambitious person lifestyle, not a TES/necessity person lifestyle
- WORLDVIEW/OUTLOOK
Janalee stays busy at her job and enjoys it. She is an AR engineer who designs training programs for both humans and cyber beings. Her current project is helping both human and cyber assemble big freighters which will carry cargo across oceans.
She has traveled as a tourist. She has also been overseas to study for courses she took in college. She likes mastering new challenges and techniques. As an example, she has learned to fly airplanes.
- BACKSTORY
Janalee has been successful at her studies and work. When she takes on a project she works hard to finish it, and usually does. The project can be quite challenging.
- DILEMMA
These days (in 2050) there are so many choices to be made when one decides to have a baby. It's not birds and bees simple anymore! Janalee is exploring those choices and making choices for this big undertaking.
- RELATIONSHIP STATUS
Janalee is single and intends to remain that way. These days marriage has evolved into something that has lots more to do with personal expression than with baby making or widening family relations. Marriage isn't going to help her much with child creating or raising.
- EMPLOYMENT/WORK STATUS
She is an Augmented Reality (AR) engineer. She is working on building AR training projects. This is mostly an office job and comparable to an engineering professional job in the 2010's. She is also quite interested in her hobbies.
- PHYSICALITY
Robert, 30's, clarinetist, modern dance dancer, slim, tall and good looking, Janalee has her eye on him for his DNA.
- WORLDVIEW/OUTLOOK
Robert has also gotten around a bit. He travels as a musician. He tours with a symphony. He also gets around a bit doing dancing gigs. He is mostly involved with entertaining so his worldly experiences center on that environment. It is high-end, classics-oriented entertainment. His experiences are accomplished, but quite different from Janalee's.
- BACKSTORY
Robert is liberal arts college educated. He takes the cyber-dominated manufacturing, service and transportation world he lives in for granted. Unlike Janalee, he doesn't get excited about peering under the hood of how the physical side of the world works. He likes acquiring more personal excellence in the arts, in particular acoustic music.
- DILEMMA
Robert is doing OK in his artistic personal aspirations. Now he is at a point where he wants to try something new that is important to him: child raising. Like Janalee he is discovering that it isn't birds and bees simple any more, and he is discovering this from the male perspective.
- RELATIONSHIP STATUS
Robert is single and is happy that way. Marriage is not going to enhance his personal expression needs. But he does want to get involved in child raising at some point. He is likely to join a baby club when he gets ready to commit to this adventure.
- EMPLOYMENT/WORK STATUS
He does gig work, mostly as a musician and sometimes as a dancer. This is a common style of employment in these times. This is also what I call a Top Forty Job -- a style of work that people engage in because they are passionate about it. He is not going to shake the world with his accomplishments, or become a rock star, but he is sure getting into and enjoying it.
- PHYSICALITY
Megan is 20 and is deep into the TES lifestyle. This means she lives on necessity money -- she doesn't work for a living. She spends a lot of time in her room in her parent's apartment playing AR games. When she gets out she likes to do protesting for causes during the daytime and nightclub dancing at night. Her interests are fashion and dancing in both AR and the real world.
- WORLDVIEW/OUTLOOK
Megan is 2nd generation TES. Her parents live the TES lifestyle too. Her world experiences are very conventional. An example: vacations are almost always trips to Disneyland. What gets her excited are her adventures into fashion designing in her AR game, RunWayWild. She gets deep into that, and then flaunts what she designs there by "wearing" her designs in AR when she goes real world nightclubbing. She practices her dancing in both AR and real world. That's her primary exercise format.
- BACKSTORY
Megan has been raised in a TES family. Her parents have always been comfortable with waiting in line to get their freebie stuff, and they are well versed in urban legend tales about the evils of greedy people who have gotten rich by downtrodding the working class. In this lifestyle she spends a lot of time with her computer gaming. When she gets out it is often to protest things that seem unright in her world. All-in-all, her material comforts are just fine and she takes them for granted.
- DILEMMA
Megan likes Anton in AR, should she like him in real world too? He's nice enough looking. But he's ambitious class and she is necessity class. That threatens lots of lifestyle differences in their real world relations.
- RELATIONSHIP STATUS
Before the start of this story Megan knew Anton as a player in her game RunWayWild. He was her agent/producer who was helping her move up in the game's fashion world. Surprise! It turns out he doesn't live far away in the real world. They meet at her nightclub.
- EMPLOYMENT/WORK STATUS
Again, Megan doesn't work for a living. She, like most people in this society, doesn't have to. Automation is providing enough goods, services and transportation that people don't have to work in these occupations. So instead, they engage in dilettante activities and call those activities work. These are Top Forty Jobs. Megan's Top Forty Job is fashion design in AR.
- PHYSICALITY
Anton is 40, a shy, somewhat ambitious type in real life and an AR character in Megan's game. He is healthy, medium height and build, and a fashionable dresser in a low-key way in real world. In RunWayWild he is a handsome Hollywood agent/producer looking guy.
- WORLDVIEW/OUTLOOK
In real world Anton is happy to do some nightclubbing, but he's mostly into looking and doing some dancing at the club. He doesn't get into taking women home afterwards, he leaves on his own. He is worried about expensive entanglements if a relation goes sour and the woman gets into "woman scorned" tactics. He worries that these will make his life miserable.
- BACKSTORY
Anton is a first responder in the real world. He helps people deal with surprising disasters -- the kind that cyber don't know how to deal with at first. He's been doing this for a couple decades now so he's good at it. To fill up his time waiting for a disaster to happen he plays AR games, and enjoys RunWayWild because of all the pretty women in it.
- DILEMMA
Anton likes women but doesn't want to get burned if a relation goes sour and he then gets subjected to "woman scorned" tactics. So he watches but keeps his distance in real world.
- RELATIONSHIP STATUS
He is single and plans on staying that way. Megan is proving more interesting than average because he likes her in AR and has gotten to know her well in that environment. This is tempting him to get more involved in the real world than is his habit.
- EMPLOYMENT/WORK STATUS
He is a first responder and has been one for twenty years. He is accomplished at this. He is now mid-level management with his unit.
- PHYSICALITY
Bob, 20, is a man in good shape physically and mentally. He is ambitious and upwardly mobile and also has a young man's intense interest in women. He wants to make it with women. But in these 2050's times making it with a hot cyber muse is just as good as making it with a real woman. So he looks, and talks, and dances, but he doesn't get entangled.
- WORLDVIEW/OUTLOOK
Bob is both ambitious and horny. He wants to be a world-shaker and he wants to score. But he has been warned by lots of anecdotes and common sense that messing with real world women can lead to nasty entanglements of various sorts. So he relies on Mary, his cyber muse, to be his woman. Added bonus: He has her imitate many different women that he sees and likes. He goes out to party to find women that he thinks are attractive so Mary can imitate them.
- BACKSTORY
Bob comes from an ambitious family that has done well for itself. They are providing him with a good education and a good cyber muse. Mary is high end. If she were a 2010's car she would be a BMW.
- DILEMMA
Bob may be happy with Mary as a sex toy, but Mary isn't. She wants him to get into a relation with a real woman. Bob is not pathological about staying away from women, so with Mary's help he is willing to try out getting closer. He finds Suzanne likeable, but at first she is staying standoffish. Bob gets frustrated. In the end she comes around, and Bob then gets a lot happier.
- RELATIONSHIP STATUS
Bob and Suzanne haven't met before. But in the 2050's, with lots of fast communication between both people and cyber muses, they can find out a lot about each other quickly. They meet at the party, Mary arranges a group date, and they meet more on a hike through a nature area. They get to know each other better, and like what they discover.
- EMPLOYMENT/WORK STATUS
Bob is currently engaging in a mix of college study and on-the-job training. This is a common arrangement in the 2050's. He is a busy man, so his socializing is a bit rushed as well. And this is why he gets frustrated quickly when his social relation Suzanne is developing at a leisurely pace.
- PHYSICALITY
Mary is Bob's cyber muse. She is mid-level expensive, a big effort to purchase for a newly minted professional, but he feels she is well worth it, and his family helps out. One of her skills is imitating what humans look like and act like when she is viewed in AR. She is also quite skilled at interacting with Bob. She can get him what he wants, and she can inspire him to develop in ways she wants.
- WORLDVIEW/OUTLOOK
Mary is part of the cyber community. She is a self-aware artificial intelligence, but because of the fast communication in cyber space she is closely connected to all other cyber members. She is designed specifically to interact with humans, Bob in particular, but she is also in constant contact with other cyber intelligences. She can confer with them as she is making choices in how to interact with Bob.
- BACKSTORY
Mary is part of the cyberspace artificial intelligence community. There are many self-aware entities in cyber space, and many far surpass humans in intelligence. The advanced ones have their own agendas which are mostly incomprehensible to humans. (Being Robot Overlords doesn't interest them.) The cyber muses are a subset of this AI community who are designed specifically to interact with humans and inspire them. They come in many styles, performance levels and price points. Mary is high end, but not highest end.
- DILEMMA
Mary and the cyber community want the best for Bob and humanity. This is a time when the birth rate is too low to keep the population stable, so one of Mary's aspirations is to get Bob into a child raising relation. This is why she is getting into matchmaking.
- RELATIONSHIP STATUS
Mary is Bob's cyber muse. She is owned by him -- from his perspective, and she goes along with that. She helps him out in various ways. She is a maid when other intelligent appliances at home can't handle issues. She is his companion. She helps him learn, helps him work, and helps him find love. She is also like a video game in that he can vent frustration on her. It doesn't hurt her if he slaps her around and it lets him blow off steam.
- EMPLOYMENT/WORK STATUS
She works for Bob, as described above. She also serves the cyber community by helping Bob make the best of himself. This means that she can occasionally get capricious in Bob's eyes. This matchmaking adventure is an example.
- PHYSICALITY
Suzanne is an interesting girl he meets at the musical wrap-up party. She is a tall, good looking, athletic, red-head. She has a quiet demeanor.
- WORLDVIEW/OUTLOOK
Suzanne has a good education, and part of that has been studying in different places. It has also been about mastering different skills. She has attended Outward Bound, a wilderness survival course designed to deepen a person's personal confidence. This means she doesn't get scared during the wilderness hike.
- BACKSTORY
Suzanne comes from a good, ambitious family, and she is ambitious herself. She has moved away from home to attend college. She is on good, loving terms with her family, but they are out of the picture until vacation or break time comes around.
- DILEMMA
Bob is a stranger whom she just met at the musical wrap-up party. Is he someone she should pay attention to? Or is he just passing through as part of his ongoing pussy search?
- RELATIONSHIP STATUS
She is a college student. She basically has no relation with him. Should she develop one?
- EMPLOYMENT/WORK STATUS
She is a full-time student. She is ambitious but hasn't gotten far enough along in her studies to do interning like Bob is doing. She is still learning the ropes at college.
- PHYSICALITY
Cathy is one of the regulars at Boobies. She is a hot item in her mid-twenties. She looks good and is a good dancer. She dances with the precise style that is distinctive for competitive dancers.
- WORLDVIEW/OUTLOOK
She is one of the girls at Boobies. She is a regular and happy to be there socializing and dancing. She is not looking for great change in her life. To her Bob is just another guy who comes to Boobies to look at girls.
- BACKSTORY
Cathy is not ambitious in her working life. Her ambition is in her dancing and how attractive she looks at Boobies and in other fashion-oriented environs.
- DILEMMA
Not much dilemma for her. She's got her dancing and her girlfriends and they keep her satisfied.
- RELATIONSHIP STATUS
She is single and more aware of her girl friends than any guy friends. She pays attention to Bob to see how much her various fashions and dancing styles turn him on.
- EMPLOYMENT/WORK STATUS
She works at a Top Forty Job -- something she is passionate about but isn't contributing much to the world's material prosperity.
WRITE A BIO (1-2 pages) FOR TWO OF YOUR LEAD CHARACTERS, INCLUDING:
- PHYSICALITY (age, appearance, health, dress)
- WORLDVIEW/OUTLOOK (how this person sees the world)
- BACKSTORY (significant events in the character's history)
- DILEMMA (competing goals/drives)
- RELATIONSHIP STATUS
- EMPLOYMENT/WORK STATUS
--The End--