WARNING: This game is the ancestor of the Clerical Error game written more recently by Kathleen De Smet. The newer game has undergone heavy revision. If you read this game you will both spoil some secrets and end up with some wrong information.
The original character concept for Evan was a jealous lover. We didn't have much beyond that to start with. He grew into a deeply dissatisfied man who felt like his life had never given him the things that he deserved. Writing his story was a bit weird. We all sat around and made up the most bitter and pissed off dialog we could think of. Our rule was that Evan would never take the blame for anything that he saw as having gone wrong. The amusing part was when we got to make him sound like a super creepy stalker.
Evan's important item was a lock of Lucia's hair that he had carried around for a disturbingly long time. We had to work the lock of hair into his story after it was almost completely written, so it was a bit difficult to make it sound, well reasonable, that he had kept something so damn creepy. Amusingly, Lucia didn't get a note about it, since at this point her character didn't remember the incident in high school at all.
The actual lock of hair was some of mine that I had from a long time ago when I cut a sizable amount off of my hair myself. I selected a very small amount, tied it up with a ribbon and ironed it to get it to curl a little at the ends. The little container that Evan carried it around in was a $1 pill box I picked up from the supermarket. I pulled out the plastic pill divider and glued some green velvet into the bottom. It was super stalker creepy and conveniently pocket sized.
Note: Evan had a second version for the runs where Rae was played by a male. The only change was the gender he attributed to Professor Angsten and the nasty name he called the Professor.
Friday's Evan.Evan's original concept paragraph:
Evan / Eve Jellison
Evan has never had good luck. He often feels like the world is against him and that is why he can never get ahead. He spent his whole childhood in the same mid-size Midwestern town and has been best friends with Lucia Horn since grade school. He has harbored an enduring crush on her for years and was thrilled that they ended up going to the same university. He went into Pre-Med while she pursued a degree in Music. He hoped that he could become a doctor and impress Lucia enough so that she could consider marrying him. But as usual his luck was rotten. He introduced his new roommate Prem, who had just immigrated from India, to Lucia and other friends, and instantly there were sparks. Prem and Lucia hooked up at about the same time that he completely failed one of the prerequisite classes for Pre-Med. He will remember Professor Angsten's name forever with angry resentment. He is almost positive that she failed him entirely because he talked back to her once in front of the class. She had seemed pretty mad about that. Things went from bad to worse as Evan watched miserably as his roommate and best friend fell in love and eventually got married. He gave up on Pre-Med and only just managed to graduate with a Business degree. He got a job that he hates in middle management for a soulless corporation. He lives alone in a run-down apartment and tries not to compare his life to Prem and Lucia's idyllic world. Prem is a doctor, Lucia a successful lounge singer, and they are happily married with lots of friends, fun times, and money. By this time he had entirely given up hope that Lucia would notice his affection for her, but one day she showed up at his office and invited him out for coffee. They started meeting several times a week, at first for lunch, then sometimes for dinner and drinks. One night after a few martinis, Lucia answered Evan's years of prayer and kissed him. The next thing he knew they were in his apartment ripping off each others' clothes and he discovered that his friend was a wild animal in bed. The whirlwind affair has been going on for several months, but Evan still isn't entirely happy. He wants to be married to her, to be able to walk down the street with her, hand-in-hand in broad daylight. He hopes that Lucia will realize that she loves him and divorce Prem so they can be together forever. Late 1970's.
Evan's final character story (as given to players):
Evan Jellison, age 26. 1979
No matter how hard I try, I've never gotten what I want. I was supposed to get into medical school, but I flunked out of college. I should have married the love of my life -- instead, she married my best friend.
I'm not doing anything different than anyone else. I mean, I grew up in a normal house, I had a normal family, but in high school, I saw the jerks, who weren't any better looking than me, get the girl. Kids that never put any effort into it got perfect A's and scholarships, while I had to work hard. I watched jocks who couldn't count to 21 without getting naked get into Ivy League schools.
I got picked on a lot growing up, but Lucia defended me. Lucia's been my best friend since I was a kid, and she always stood by me. Once we got into high school, everyone noticed what I had known all along -- Lucia was a beautiful woman inside and out. When other people ditched their friends to become more popular, she still was my close friend.
The greatest symbol of this relationship is a lock of hair that she gave to me. When we were both in 11th grade, the school put on a production of Man of La Mancha. I was the prop-master and Lucia was the lead singer. We needed a lock of hair for the first act, so naturally I asked her. Naturally she gave me a lock of her hair. After closing night I knew that the next prop-master would only throw it away, so I kept it. I keep it in a small gidt box and carry it with me to remind me of how special she is.
After we graduated from high school, we went to the same college. The first year was a lot of fun -- Lucia and I met all sorts of people. I got on track to graduate with a pre-med degree and Lucia joined the college choir. We spent a lot of time together, complaining about professors and bitching about our classmates.
At the beginning of my sophomore year I got a new roommate, Prem. He was from India and he didn't know his way around this country yet, so I showed him the ropes. I introduced him to some of my friends, showed him where his classes were and gave him the inside scoop on the professors.
Saturday's Evan.Prem and I became good friends. He was really smart, but he had no idea how to be an American. He had weird quirks that never made any sense. For one thing, Prem wouldn't take the damn turban off for anything. It was like he just didn't get it. I took him to his first football game and he just didn't understand it. I tried explaining it to him, but he kept asking all these stupid questions.
In class every teacher loved him. I don't know what it was. He seemed to do everything but blatantly suck up and they ate up every bit of it. I, on the other hand, always had trouble with professors. They never seemed to like me. They didn't like it when I questioned inconsistencies in what they said and gave me lower grades as a result.
There was one in particular, Professor Angsten, who had it out for me. She was really just a bitch. I took her Intro Biology class with Prem. She would give these statistics without any basis and then talk about them like what she saw in them was self-evident. It's college, we're supposed to question things to learn about them, but when I asked she always got mad at me. On the mid-term she gave us an essay question. First of all, who the hell asks for essays on Intro Bio level tests? Anyway, I wrote a good essay with supporting evidence. The problem was the my thesis didn't agree with what Professor Angston taught. So she gave me an F on it. What the hell? I didn't deserve that F! And then when I asked her about it in class she freaked out on me! Like it was my fault that she has issues.
And that was it. Without at least a B in that damn class I couldn't finish with a pre-med degree and then couldn't get into med school. So, because of one bitch professor I can't ever be a doctor. Oh, but she loved Prem. He went along with whatever she said and she thought he shit gold. He aced that class. I'm not saying he should have failed, but I don't think he should have gotten that much higher grades than I did.
It wasn't too long after that that Lucia started dating Prem. I really don't know why, but she seemed crazy about him. I hated watching them. This was the girl who was supposed to end up with me. She was always supposed to end up with me. We both knew that. And here she was dating Prem. I could see he just didn't treat her the way she should have been treated. She deserved better.
It tore me up when they got married, but I smiled and stood there for them. For her. It's a good thing no one thinks twice when the best man keeps getting refills.
After college the job market sucked. It took me over a year to find a real job. I sent out hundreds of resumes and did a ton of interviews. They were all looking for something that didn't really exist. If I didn't already know their system of doing things, they didn't want to hire me. If no one ever hired me, how the hell would I learn the system? Eventually I got a crap job in an office building crunching numbers that no one really cared about to begin with.
I had a pointless job, but at least I did it. I watched coworkers spend all their time gossiping and killing time doing shit in the office and then get promoted over me. I guess maybe it was just because I didn't kiss up enough, but it still sucked. I hate the rat race.
I kept in touch with Lucia and Prem. Lucia started singing in local night clubs and I always went to see her. Every time I was there with a gin and tonic listening to her sing and every time I was there with a hug after the show. Prem was in med school and only came to her shows when it was convenient, but I was there every time.
After a while it was like she figured out that Prem wasn't what she wanted. One night she called me and asked me out for drinks. We had a few drinks and talked for a while. We ended up back at my place to watch a movie, since Prem was spending another late night at the hospital and she didn't want to go home and be alone again.
Sunday's Evan.We had a few more drinks and she got cold during the movie. I got us a blanket and she snuggled against me. I really couldn't help it. She was so soft and smelled so good, I just had to kiss her. To my delight and surprise, she responded to my kiss and it ended up being one of the best nights I ever had.
Lucia still calls me once or twice a week. It's great, but she's still with Prem. She's thinking about leaving him. He pretty much ignores her, so I don't know why she has to think about it so much. She'll figure it out and everything will be fine. It's just taking some time.
Why You're Here:
Your boss sent you on a pointless team building weekend. It was rather ironic that he booked all the team members on different flights. Maybe he's the one who needs the communication exercise. You are checking into the Holiday Inn and you plan to soak the travel policy for an expensive dinner, since you're pretty sure that's the best thing that will happen to you this weekend.
Tips:
Evan is a businessman who is on the bottom of the hierarchy of his company in 1979. Since he is not planning on meeting anyone he knows tonight he will probably be dressed a bit more casually. We will supply you with your lock of Lucia's hair and all other props that your character would carry. We are going to ask everyone to empty their pockets at the beginning of the evening, so you might not want to bring stuff you don't trust us to hold for you.
