BRIGHT, Lucifer Journey

[lucifer journey bright]

LUCIFER JOURNEY BRIGHT

FULL NAME: Lucifer Journey Bright.
NICKNAMES: LJ, Luci.
AGE: Thirty-Six.
GENDER: Male
SEXUALITY: Straight.
STATUS: Single.
GROUP: Citizen.
GRADE: N/A.
MAJOR: N/A.
JOB OCCUPATION: Social Worker, but also runs the Odyssey youth centre.

HAIR: Brown, on the longer side with a wave in it. He’s had an undercut, so it’s shorter underneath, but this is often missed when he’s not tied it back.
EYES: Steely blue.
SCARS/BIRTHMARKS: He has one across his nose from a fight when he was younger. He was hit a fell into a glass table, hitting his nose against the edge.
TATTOOS: He’s been planning a huge piece with an artist, but he doesn’t have it yet.
PIERCINGS: None.
PLAY-BY: Travis Fimmel!

LIKES: Laughter, knives, Dr Pepper and Rum, iced coffee, antique coin collecting, bars on the weekends, girls in dark skinny jeans, Bon Jovi, old rock music, driving his car, walking at night, working out in the morning, showers, thunderstorms, caramel waffles, working with kids, a good undercut, spring, the smell of gasoline, being on the beach.
DISLIKES: Bad homes, failures in the foster system, clingy women, disrespect, Pepsi, feeling tense, sleeping in a shirt, repeated adverts, peppermint tea, making personal phone calls, boxes, bug bites (he reacts badly to them), bad flirting, golf, wearing a tie, sitting around all day, cheap coffee, being tickled, chicken soup.
FEARS: Letting a kid in his care down, funerals, being trapped in tiny spaces.
SECRETS: Although they were clever enough never to leave marks, Lucifer spent time in some terrible homes growing up. He’s experienced forms of abuse people might not automatically think of. He won’t talk about them, but there are little reminders in the world that draw him into himself, make him uncharacteristically on edge, or more protective seemingly inexplicably. He knows he’s not alone in this treatment in the system, and he’s aware people are still out there getting away with it.
PERSONALITY: Despite what his name might suggest, Lucifer is a kind man. He goes out of his way to help people and to make them laugh and smile. He enjoys his weekends with friends, in bars and clubs, but when he’s at work he goes above and beyond to help the children in the care system, or those who just come to the Odyssey. Lucifer likes to be active, and staying in shape is his own way of keeping disciplined and out of trouble – most of the time. He’s the protective kind though, and is very intuitive as to what’s going on around him. He thinks it’s because he grew up through a lot of different spaces and situations, so he’s good at reading between the lines and understanding what’s not said. In those situations he’s brave and not scared to do what has to be done to keep someone safe; be it throw a punch himself, or put his body in the way of one. He’s a sociable guy, who enjoys spending time with other people and out in the city, but he’s also independent and as such there are certain times when he needs to be on his own, just to unwind and let his mind relax. He’s constantly on the go, and planning things way in advance, so sometimes just shutting off and being his own company is the best medicine for him. Lucifer is a wicked flirt, and he knows he’s terrible for it. He enjoys being in the company of an attractive woman and he doesn’t see any harm in it if both parties are single and willing. Lucifer can be somewhat possessive when he’s in a relationship, but he’s quick to distinguish between possessive and clingy; one is not like the other. He can give someone their space, but he’ll also make it clear that he has strong feelings for them, and that he sees them as his lover, partner….whatever they want to call themselves. He might be inclined to jealousy, but again, it’s only if he thinks it’s warranted; a girl he cares for goes out with him in a tiny dress and other men stare, he’s going to make it clear who she’s going home with that night. In the long run he’d like something serious, but as he’s gotten older it’s strangely become more difficult to settle down as work as always been his priority. He’s yet to meet that special someone who can understand why he’s so passionate about what he does.

MOTHER: Nancy Grace Littlewood, 59.
FATHER: Anders Powell Bright, 68 .
SIBLINGS: None.
OTHERS: N/A.
PETS: Liberty, Bernese Mountain Dog, 4!
HOMETOWN: Bridgewater, New Jersey.
HISTORY: Nancy wasn’t well when she met Anders. He wasn’t too bothered by it though. Both of them were hooked on drugs of all kinds and lived a daredevil kind of lifestyle. What Anders didn’t know was that Nancy had left her small town in Idaho and left behind the prescription medication that controlled her schizophrenia. He just thought his “smoking hot” girlfriend had some bad highs every now and then. Eventually he left her when she attacked him with a knife, screaming that he had the devil in him and that she had to kill him. He diched her and left town, so she never saw him again. Neither of them new that Nancy was pregnant at the time of this. The only reason she made it to the hospital when she was in labour was thanks to the kindness of strangers who called for help when they found her in the hallway of the almost condemned apartment building she called home. Nancy was convinced that it wasn’t an innocent baby she was giving birth to, but rather a demon, spawn of the devil himself. She could remember a trip out to the Devil Tree in the county and the night there she spent with Anders. She was convinced that was the night the baby had been conceived even though the trip had been over a year before. Despite people asking her not to, she called her son Lucifer. Concern for her mental health had doctors try to keep her in hospital while social services were called, but Nancy ran with her baby.

For three years no one found mother or son. Nancy’s moods fluctuated. At times she loved her son, thought he was a gift to fix the world, but mostly she thought he was a monster, the devil himself. Her health deteriorated, and it was only when a concerned passer-by heard Lucifer crying for a long while that they called the police and they descended on an abandoned apartment to find a neglected toddler and Nancy squatting there, completely in the middle of a psychotic break. Nancy was taken for the professional help she so badly needed, and Lucifer was taken into care. He was thrown into the foster system, passed from care home to family and then back again.

Some of his placements were nice, loving couples who treated him as good as the other kids in their homes. Others fostered for their own benefit, and couldn’t care less about the children in their care. They could be cruel and abusive, but they knew not to leave marks on those they looked after. They locked kids in dark closets, exploited their fears against them, and found ways to have pleasure in their torment. Luci hated the system so much, but he saw people who tried to make it better. That was why he fought so much not to let them get under his skin when they singled him out in a bad household. It wasn’t always possible, but when he got older he put himself in front of the little kids, taking the abuse that might have been thrown at them. He could endure it, and it was easier to take it than to sit back and watch another kid go through it. He had learnt the hard way that trying to stand up against adults didn’t work. It landed him in new places, treated like a troubled kid, a problem that needed to be fixed. It was simpler to keep silent, to push on and hope that the next household was better than the bad ones.

He was definitely an outcast in school. He opted to go by LJ for reasons he thought obvious, but even so, it was odd to fit in when he moved around between homes so much. He had three friends who he felt like he could rely on who remained good friends with him as he grew older, but Lucifer was always the black sheep of his peers. He found keeping active gave him something to focus on, to keep him out of trouble when he felt like he was going to lose his cool, or when he was frustrated with the things in his life, or lack thereof. He knew all along that he wanted to help correct the world he came from. He wanted to go into the care system as an adult and right the wrongs he had experienced growing up. He knew it wouldn’t be so easy, but he knew that every life he changed would be something that mattered. He had seen kids around him lose their way in a bad home, give up completely because a family wasn’t a family. When a good couple came along they weren’t trusted because of how many bad experiences there had been in the past. It was a shame, and he wanted to make it better.

So, that was what he did. He went to New York for college, and studied hard. It was during his college years that he chose to find out where he came from. He tracked down Nancy and found her in an accommodation for those who weren’t capable of being completely independent. She had very little memory of being a mother, but seeing him upset her, and he was asked to leave after half an hour. He chose not to go back, but Nancy called him once after that, asking if it was true that he was her son. He also found Anders, but he had no clue that there had been a son in his life at all. He was a regular at a small bar in a New Jersey town, and made his way with odd jobs and courier jobs when they came up. He was in a rough place, better than he had been in his youth, but he had a drink every day, and moved from couch to couch. Again, Lucifer made the choice to cut those ties when it became clear that Anders was viewing him as a way to fund his bar tab and nothing more. He hadn’t grown up with parents and he didn’t need them now. Having the question answered of who they were filled some holes though.

He became a social worker, and helped kids in tough spots. His intuition for the system helped him get kids out of bad homes and stop those awful people from fostering more kids. It was unconventional at times, but he had an insight so many in the profession didn’t. Eventually though, city life showed him that there was more out there to worry about than the kids in the system. That was why, when he was thirty, he worked on opening The Odyssey. It was a youth centre in a rougher neighbourhood. He worked with colleagues, friends and other people to bring the centre to life, giving kids in the city a place to go even if they weren’t trapped in the system, but just looking for an escape. They had sports, hobbies and crafts, and offered people to talk to, food and trips out. It was hard to balance it alongside his career, but Lucifer found a way to make it work when he rearranged things with his bosses. Plus, it was good to work from there sometimes; a friendlier environment helped some of the children talk and open up.

Now, he’s thirty-six, and still trying to save all the kids he can from the broken parts of the system. The Odyssey is still popular, and he has a good team helping him run it so he can focus on his case work, too. He says he’ll try to focus on his personal life more, but the truth is that Lucifer will always dive back into his work whenever a child in need comes his way. He wants to save all of them.

YOUR ALIAS: Kim.
RULE WORDS: kimnapped.
WHERE YOU FOUND US: In Crestwood’s lake, with the corpses of those killed/drowned in the blight.
SAMPLE:

Insert chantry nonsense here.

[kim]