Horatio

Name ; Horatio Wittenberg

Role : Accountant

Starting Age ; 22

Brief history of your character’s life at Sibyl City: 

Born to a Sibyl-approved creative and a researcher, Horatio grew up as an only child in the steady, sheltered echelons of an affluent A-rank. Her comfortable childhood made her certain in the rightness of the Sibyl – in its safety, structure and fairness. However, the easy lives of her parents also led her to take achievement for granted, and indifference towards her schoolwork undermined any advantage her upbringing may have brought her. The low B shocked and disappointed her parents, and in turn caused Horatio to cling to the meagre prospects she had. Her work (as an accountant) is important to her, not only as a source of (meagre) financial independence, but as the first step in a potential career.

Yet, stumbling into District X at night is not good for one’s psych pass or one’s employability, and a history of occasional criminal latency has left her career crippled and her job on the line. The expectations of her parents make unemployment or rank C work a horrifying prospect, and she is, for the first time, feeling the full weight – the brutal cause and effect – of the Sibyl system. She needs to stay in line and keep her job, even though she finds it hard to suppress her curiosity and knack for trouble. This, however, is something she doesn’t speak of – and neither her parents nor her friends know how close she is to the brink.

Personality: 

Strongly influenced by her childhood and parents, Horatio’s personality is characterised by the privilege she has grown up with. She can tend to take things for granted and be (at times) flippant or insensitive towards others - even though she was raised to be polite, outgoing and very adept at smalltalk, she prefers directness and dry humour (often at the expense of others).

She thinks of herself as a very loyal person, though in practice she is more so to friends than to laws and regulations. Her belief is still that intention means everything: mind over matter. So long as no harm is intended, no crime contemplated, why should she or others not explore the city? It’s a self-confident, almost aggressively arrogant, naivety.

Though she knows that her rank is not high – and will never be – the opportunities she could have had, and was expected to have, are a chip on her shoulder. Despite (or perhaps because) of this, she remains average as as an accountant. Tasks are completed in a satisfactory fashion, reports handed in on time. Of course, she finds it to be pleasant enough, as she has both a head for numbers and friendly colleagues. Yet, the strict regulations and structure of Sibyl make her long for something more – something not restricted by rank.

History ( detailed; before Sibyl City ); Perhaps it could be said to resemble a time 100 years before Sibyl. Outside the small town, rye stretched its nodding heads in diffuse fields towards the sea; in the summer, poppies grew in the ditches along the road. Horatio had a career (archivist), a family (parents, sister, spouse, children), in a world of supermarkets and blocks of flats and quotidian 9-to-5 existences.

There was war – in other parts of the world – and starvation – on other continents – but those were things seen in newspapers on on the television, not near or experienced first hand. So when it happens, it’s a surprise. Winter, evening, laughing up at the sky falling snow with their tongues stretched out to catch the flakes. In Sibyl, the last moment is the first to return: a bitter taste of snow melting as the sky dissolves above.

Abilities/Powers ; - quite a good runner, better over longer distances than at sprinting

- occasionally perceptive