a beautiful new day

[domgalton]

Age: 42 Gender: man Sexuality: bisexual Birthplace: Terre Haute, IN Location pre-outbreak: Nashville, TN Town job: farmer Previous job: director of marketing Personality traits: charming, attentive, secretive, methodical, philosophical

Dominic is a midwestern boy, brought up in the heartland of America by loving, if not strict parents. As an only child, he got no shortage of attention, but it did mean he had trouble interacting with his peers. He learned how to manage, over time, even if socializing never came very naturally to him. Once he got the hang of it, he became an expert at giving people exactly what they wanted so that they would give him something in return.

He went to college in California to study political science and made friends with a group of ambitious guys who wanted to take Silicon Valley by storm. He was the face of the operation and a talented salesman. He might not have known the tech side of things, but he was unmatched in his ability to spin a story. By the time the outbreak hit, he had millions in the bank and a lucrative future ahead of himself.

He was in Nashville on business when shit hit the fan. Not being very familiar with roughing it, he relied on ingratiating himself into other groups in hopes that they'd take care of him. He used this method, just skating by, until he found a settlement in Knoxville--New Origins. At first it was just a place to survive in, but over time, he realized that the folks there had real vision. They saw the outbreak for the opportunity it was--a chance for mankind to start over and make something better of themselves.

What's more, they saw his potential--with his uncanny good looks and incredible charm--to spread their metaphorical gospel. Dominic is in Redwood under slightly fictitious circumstances to scout for any folks who might make a good addition to New Origins. In the meantime, he's happy to help them with their town. Who knows, maybe the whole place has potential.

Headcanons:

Talks often about the group he came from that was destroyed, but has only ever explained what happened explicitly to the council

Loves gardening and keeping an eye on the crops but doesn't have much interest in the animals

An excellent storyteller

Tends to turn conversations toward philosophical questions

Has a tendency to mimic the accents and speech patterns of whoever he's talking to.

[domgalton]

📏 RULER - is your oc well educated? where did they get their learning from?

"Private school in Terre Haute, then on to Pepperdine in California for a degree in marketing. I was supposed to start an MBA program when my buddies' start-up took off."

[domgalton]

When you’re stripped clean, what’s at your core?

behind the mask

you aren’t slick about whatever you think you’re hiding. glass shatters in your midst, blood spills, children scream. like some of your friends, your personality of choice is entirely artificial. the difference between you and them is that you can get away with it. you’re unknown, perhaps even to yourself, and your goals are complex and unknown. anyone stupid enough to fall for you is setting themselves up to be frustrated and confused, owing to your being ultimately unknowable. i hope you can find an identity that makes you comfortable.

[mxyacho]

“No apology needed,” she said, closing the book so she could give him her undivided attention. After all, he wanted to chat and “get to know” people around town. Maybe she should take a page out of his book on that considering she was having a hard time making connections with people here in town. She turned in her seat a bit more, letting him sit down and she couldn’t help but notice how his face seemed to fall just a bit before he forced a smile. A face she knew all too well - bad memories. Normally those were not ones people wanted to talk about so she figured to avoid asking anything about the last group he had been with.

“Um, yeah….yeah, I was,” she replied to his question, “It was a lot of fun. Skin can be an intimidating medium, considering how fragile and permanent it is. But I enjoyed it - both the challenge and the opportunity. Not many people can do it, y’know?” Her face was drawn to the sketchbook that was sitting basically full in her bag hanging off the back of her chair for a moment, thinking about all the little drawing she had stored away. Tattoo designs that would never have a chance to be imprinted on someone. Not without a fucking miracle.

“Before that, I did a lot of drawings. Nature, people….a lot of flowers. They’re complex. Now, I’m working on a visual manifest for the Council of everyone in town. Like a census thing. Which means I’ll have to have you sit at some point.” She paused as she finally picked up her drink and took a sip. “What about you? What did you do before everything?”

[domgalton]

He listened intently, plucking out the most insightful bits to add to his chronicle of her. He was so focused, in fact, that he didn’t have an answer prepared for her right away.

“Oh goodness,” he said, stalling by taking a sip of cider. Mild, hardly alcohol, just fermented enough to be a bit fizzy. “Nothing quite so interesting as what you did. I worked for one of those very trendy Silicon Valley upstarts. But the sales side of it, mostly. A bit of marketing. My job was to translate the nerdy tech of it into something regular folks could understand. I liked it, but it’s not very useful these days.”

She looked sympathetic, which heartened him—receptive to his concerns.

“Perhaps that’s one of the silver linings of all this though,” he proposed, leaning in a bit. “That we’re getting back to basics, so to speak. And we’ll have a chance to do things the right way. I mean, did we ever really need cryptocurrency?” Criticize the past, spotlight progress. “But food? Getting to help with that is just…that’s fulfilling.”

He waited, bright-eyed, for her to respond but worried he’d been a little heavy-handed.

“I don’t know, maybe I’m over-romanticizing? What do you think?”

[domgalton]

what do you look like when you laugh?

It’s a subtle thing.

[mxyacho]

Maya wasn't really sure why she was at the bar. She had a barely touched drink sitting in front of her, which she knew was very uncommon of her. Normally when she was bored and alone, back before the world fell to shit, she would go to a bar, drink and make new friends. So maybe it was just out of habit that she was here, but it led to the bigger question of why. This bar wasn't exactly like most bars. It was normally pretty empty, what with everyone doing their jobs around the town and those who did have their friends were often elsewhere. Not here.

So she sat at the bar, a book open in front of her and she was reading. Just reading. Sure, she could have gone anywhere else to go read, but the idea of enjoying a drink while she was reading seemed like a good idea at the time. Except the drink was the least appetizing thing and now she felt trapped until it was gone - no way she was going to let anything go to waste.

Maya figured she would just read her book in peace but then someone was speaking to her. She looked up as her name was spoke and she gave the handsome stranger a smile and a nod. "Yeah, I'm Maya," she said, giving him a wave. Her eyes moved to the chair and she shook her head. "I don't mind." It wasn't like she was meeting anyone there any time soon.

[domgalton]

"I appreciate it." And he meant that. Some people could be so unnecessarily closed off. "I know it's impolite to interrupt someone reading, I hope you can forgive me. But I'm trying to make an honest effort to get to know folks around here. I took far too long to do that in the last community I was part of." Downcast look, followed by sad smile.

That wasn't remotely true--he always ingratiated himself immediately, it was a survival technique. But the white lie put the topic of New Origins on the table for them to pick at whenever it was most opportune.

"I heard somewhere that you were a tattoo artist in the before times. That must have been fascinating work. Does that mean you were an artist in other capacities, too?"

He was genuinely interested in this part--not so much the tattooing, but the artistic talent. Greg and Beth-Ann made a good case for creativity being a genetically inherited trait. And while art for art's sake wasn't all that useful, it belied ingenuity. There was a reason artists were so often at the cutting edge of progress.

And progress was the name of the game.

[domgalton]

If your character was in a biopic about somebody famous, who would that be? (images strongly encouraged!!)

Young Howard Hughes

[domgalton]

Starter for: @mxyacho Location: Bar in Community Center

Dominic didn't drink.

To be perfectly accurate, Dominic drank once, in high school. Told the head cheerleader that her serial breakups were mostly likely a recreation of her parents' failed marriage, then puked in her best friend's lap.

So now Dominic doesn't drink.

It's a pity, because nothing seems quite so reliable for softening people up like alcohol. He frequented bars back in the day when the need to get laid overwhelmed his ability to get work done. But he stuck to club soda. He preferred to keep his wits about him.

There was less onus on drinking at the bar here in Redwood and more on sincere socializing. Maybe it was because everyone already knew each other, but even when folks wanted a drink, it seemed more like it was just something to keep their hands busy.

Still, he thought there was something sad about having a bar. Anyone who had friends here in town didn't need to go to a bar, they could just hang out at each other's houses. The people at the bar were lonely, somehow. Lonely was almost always of interest to him. But alcoholism was not.

Fortunately, there was one face in the room that he'd been hoping to see, so he got up and headed towards her. Pretty Maya Cho, looking wistfully across the room for something she probably wasn't going to find.

That was alright. He could be her pleasant surprise.

"Hey, it's Maya, right? I'm Dominic. Are you meeting someone, or would you mind if I...?" He gestured at the seat across from her--he didn't need to finish the question.

[domgalton]

. . . the signs as negative qualities

Scorpio: easily set off, will give anyone the cold shoulder at any time even without reason, keeps a lot in, so observant that they often times find out things that hurt them, too many “what ifs” swirling in their heads, has trouble showing their true selves.

[domgalton]

Field Notes #1

The crop fields here are truly lovely. It feels a bit like being back in Terre Haute, with all the corn sprouting up right now. They do a fine job of feeding their people, but I am surprised they're not milling grain yet. At any rate, they seemed glad to have a farmer that's dedicated to the crops exclusively. There is one woman, Mayra, who tends more to pet projects--fruit trees and herbs and the like. Useful, of course, but my services were much needed.

Possible candidate--Orion. Supremely tall, taller than me by a few inches at least. A bit socially awkward, but I suspect a sheltered or strict upbringing. Very physically strong by all accounts, well built and disciplined enough to work out. Works with the raiders--I've learned that raiders here are chosen for their minimal family connections since the job is so risky. All raiders will be taken into careful consideration as a result. Appears to have no physical or obvious psychological defects--eccentricities learned, not inherited? Odd brow, eyes set very low. Perfect teeth.