Here I go again, ignoring my fiction-in-process for shiny new characters to damage from scratch (there’s something incredible about taking a brand new character and breaking it down into what you need it to be, but I’m not going to worry about the implications of my enjoyment of that). I will also absolutely give more prompts, if you want! I have two more of these in the works from college roommate Rosaline (Ally McBeal meets X-Men!) and Cloverdew (Sherlock Holmes meets Dexter!).

Confession: I have not seen all of BSG, but I started watching it after working on this and I was like “aw, damn, I feel a little bit bad for putting Grace Park in all these situations after BSG.” But she is the only Jules in my mind, so I stuck with her. Any similarities are totally unintentional!

1. Comment to this post with “I surrender!”. I’ll assign you a TV show idea.
2. Create a cast of characters: include the actors who’d play them.
3. Add in actor photos, character bios, & show synopsis.

Title: Details
Prompt: Genetic engineering is possible. Because of it, by your genes, everything is predetermined for you. Who you’ll marry, how you’ll die, what you’ll do, everything. However, (there’s GOT to be a however!) our heroes are fighting to control their destiny. How are they doing it? Is your life really a matter of your genes? What happens when you rebel?
Type: Action/drama – 13 episode seasons – 1 hr each.
Setting: Future – Everywhere
Opening Credits Song: Muse “Uprising”
Closing Credits Song: Muse “Feeling Good”
Tagline: The devil’s in the details.
Opening Art Credit:damien6160 @ deviantart
Musical Score By: Matthew Bellamy

Synopsis: The center of the financial and political world has moved from NYC to Washington DC & the Eastern coast of Virginia, home to the largest military complex in the history of the US. It is here, in sleepy Hampton Roads, that Kaylyn Adams does her terrible work — well, to the normal, establishment citizens of the world it isn’t terrible at all, it’s freeing and personalized — it’s Detailing, their way of life. To the rebels of the East Coast and beyond, it’s imprisonment, and Julie and her family will do anything to stay out of the President’s agenda for perfection in humanity.

Detailing is as engrained in everyday life as breathing, eating, and fighting. It is the practice of pre-natal genetic engineering that determines all Fate – your companions, your job, your family role, your spouse. Homosexuality, dissent, and religion are strictly outlawed. When President Columnar came to power from the disbanded US Senate in 2082, the public rejoiced in a leader who was strong enough to continue the program that had been running their lives since 2021, when the first Detailed child was born. Columnar certainly did what the public felt was necessary, creating bands of roving Bounty Hunters to end the small resistance once and for all.

In the War, NYC has been left in ruins, Miami stands as little more than a burnt out plain on the ocean, and Boston has been deserted thanks to the cold winters. The population of Detailed citizens have settled on the West Coast and throughout the Midwest, essentially abandoning the East Coast to the work of the military. As the rebels search for any place to call home, the Bounty Hunters close in…

Grace Park as Julie
“I don’t know anything about that other life – they tell me I have a match, that I should have had a fate, but I make every day my own. It’s what my mother wanted for me. That’s my destiny, not what they want to give me.”
Rebel, 27, matched to Cole Hunter

Julie was raised completely outside of the system of government under President Columnar. Her mother escaped the system when she learned she’d been impregnated by the ‘Detailers’ and, unfortunately, died giving birth in a rebel camp in southern Florida. She’d only been at the camp for a week, and so the ‘family’ of Joanna and Jimmy took the baby in despite the extra hardship of being on the run with a newborn. The first season chronicles their travels outside the system as they encounter Road Walkers, Bounty Hunters, and the personal Body Guard of the President in their attempts to keep their free will.

Faced with meeting her match for the first time – in battle at the end of the first season – Julie must decide which fate to pursue. After her “father’s” death in the second season, she gives herself up to a rebel-lead birthing project, which she previously had been against. The project works to inpregnate purposefully outside of the genetic code. She is matched with Seba for reproduction, though both of their hearts lie with their genetic matches. She eventually has his daughter, proving you can break the Detailing “Fate” (in her Detailing she was meant to bore sons of Cole who would have Cole’s intelligience, people skills, and battle skills mixed with Julie’s compassion, adaptability, & strength).

Nicholas Hoult as Cole Hunter
“The gun is my way of life. I’ve never once shaken – never wavered or hesitated – in a shot, until that day. I am cold steel. I must not care, cannot feel for this woman. And I won’t.”
Bounty Hunter, 26, matched to Julie Han

Cole is best simply described as a violent sociopath. He’s cold, calculated, easily the brains of his bounty hunting operation against the rebels. He began training young under the goal of some day being a Senate bodyguard, his parents were both military. When the Senate disbanded he went into the service of the President and was handpicked by Columnar to run the Bounty Hunter Operation, in part because of his connection to Julie, widely considered by the establishment to be the heart of the rebels by this point. He has never failed a mission when we meet him.

Cole meets the band of rebels in question during the first season finale, in a shoot out. The battle ends with Cole & Jimmy, guns drawn on one another. Cole falters, for the first time, at hearing Julie shoutnig for the others to run, shouting for Jimmy to get out alive, screaming at them both with tears in her eyes. She’s a ways away, ready to run, but can’t leave at the thought of Jim dying. Cole does not actually kill Jimmy until half way through the second season, failing to pull the trigger the first time around.

There is no redemption in Cole, and while we do see him change intellectually as a man as he watches Julie from afar, the recurring question of the series is whether or not he can move past his Detailing to be the man she needs as her match.

Arielle Kebbel as Joanna Larson
“Jules, what’s the point of fighting for our free will if we don’t use it to fuck, drink, run wild, and make a mess of it?”
Rebel from Miami, 30, matched to George Faust

Joanna, or Jo as she prefers, is the fun loving wild cat of the bunch. She’s essentially Julie’s older sister, having been with her since Julie was born and having been the one to convince Jimmy to take the newborn along as they traveled and fought. The whole point of the resistance for Jo, who learned all about the other society from Jimmy but was taken from it at 2 years old, is that you can’t have any fun if you’re being told what to do. In modern times she’d be a total Paris Hilton with brains and brawn, and she knows how to shoot a gun but prefers knives and fists in combat.

Leonardo Dicaprio as Jimmy Connolly
“You keep fighting. Everyday. Against anyone who tells you you’re only as good as they say you are. If you ever have to choose between my way and your way, think long and hard, because you’re the one who has to live with the decision.”
Rebel from Boston, 42, match unknown

Jimmy was only 12 when he took part in a raid on a military kitchen outside of Fort Lauderdale and stumbled upon the crying two year old Joanna. Her mother had been killed, though Jimmy to this day isn’t sure of the details. Taking the toddler away from the body, he took her under his wing despite the camp turning their back on him because of the trouble a young child could make on the run. A year later, at 3, she convinced him to do the same for the newborn Julie and their family was complete. The older boy became their father, their brother, their best friend. He taught them survival, combat, weaponry, how to read, and most importantly, the old histories. He told of a time when people were truly free, when the kind of music you listened to and your favorite color weren’t determined by your blood but by your heart’s whims.

Jimmy gives us the scare of a lifetime when he almost dies in the first season finale, when he’s brought face to face with Cole, the cold-blooded killer who also happens to be Julie’s genetic match. However, during the second season, his actual death pushes Julie to make a decision she never thought she’d have the courage or strength to make.

Allan Hyde as George Faust
“Have you ever read ‘Slaughter-House Five’? It’s not nearly as whimsical as the title sounds.”
Road walker, 28, matched to Joanna Larson

Faust – which is the name he goes by – is a little bit of a Dalai Lama type character. He’s darkly whimsical, at times disturbing, and has a genius-level intelligence. He worships the written word and cannot understand why the rebels live like they do – wouldn’t they just rather camp out in the old libraries and read until oblivion comes? He finds meeting his match (Joanna) very curious but little else, which suits her fine because genetic pairing or not the thought of spending forever holed up with books sounds worse than torture to her. The rebels run in to him more than once throughout the first and second season, and by the beginning of the third he’s shadowing their travels a bit out of curiosity and convenience.

He teaches the Sanders twins to read despite their whining and protesting, on Julie’s suggestion (Julie and Jo can read, but honestly as the leaders of their group have little time for education. They do what they can to delegate to others, though). He loves reading old science fiction and chuckling absently to himself at how silly everyone in the past was. He is, in way, the exact opposite of Seba. Quiet, thoughtful, romantic without being sensual, Faust acts as a center for the rebels, a calming force, and anti-violence (unless it’s in fiction!).

Sebastian Stan as Seba Kushansky
“I’m God’s gift from New York, like the Yankees o’ the 21st Century. Yeah, those were the days. What do’ya mean I can’t say that? Just because I wasn’t born doesn’t mean nothin’.”
Rebel from NYC, 25, matched to Anna Laing

Seba is a total piece of work. His journey as a rebel runs paralell to the girls’ throughout the first season and the groups come together when Julie joins the procreation program in the second half of the second season. He’s loud, egotistical, and became a rebel at 17 because he’d heard there was a program out there that let guys have sex with as many women as they could. He was right, but Julie will be the first time he successully impregnates anyone. He’s obsessed with old pop culture and sports, going so far as to teach his rebels basic stickball to keep themselves busy in camp while on the run.

He picked up the twins when they were 8, having met them in NYCs ruins – what used to be Brooklyn – and deciding it’s never a bad idea to have children around as bargaining chips and reminders of home. He taught them to shoot, fight, forage, and run. He’s not fatherly toward them, but does see them as a little bit of little sisters, he might say. When they leave it’s an honest blow to his confidence, but he continues on as confidently as ever, the twins are the only ones who know how he really feels about their defaction.

Evan Rachel Wood as Anna Laing
“Cole, I’m better than you are in four inch stilettos with both hands tied behind my back, can we move on?”
Bounty Hunter from NYC, 26, matched to Seba Kushansky

Anna is bitchy, brutal, and a commanding leader. She and Cole clash a lot though when it comes down to it she does realize he’s her boss and his word is the word of the President. She is completely, 100%, without question or hesitation loyal to President Columnar, which is one of the reasons she’s chosen for the Team. She meets Seba once during the first season before he joins the project, and wants him as a conquest. When she finds he’s gotten Julie pregnant, Julie becomes her target out of single minded jealousy. She is a true villain – unable to be reasoned with, emotional, lethal.

More than once, Anna tries to use Cole’s fascination with Julie against him, and every time it backfires. The President and the Adams’ feel that Cole and Julie are the ultimate in proof of Detailings success – people who live for opposing causes, who have different philosophies, upbringings, ethnicities are nonetheless drawn to each other inexplicably and inevitably thanks to the genetics meddlings of Columnar’s govnerment. Anna is jealous of this, seeing clearly everytime she runs into Seba’s group that they do not have the same magnetism, and she feels it’s her fault, only fueling her hatred and revenge schemes.

Dakota Fanning as Stella & Maria Sanders

“We’re 14, not idiots.”
Rebels from NYC, 14, match unknown

The twins Stella and Maria know nothing about their origin. They grew up in the rebel crew lead by Seba, idolizing him and his brash ways a bit in their youth (which they now emmulate without realizing), but when the two rebel bands meet, they leave him to join Julie and Jo in a more community-oriented goal. All they really want in this world is a family and they’re not completely opposed to the idea of going back to the establishment if it means chocolate for dessert, a comfortable bed, and the ability to someday be a part of something bigger. They – happily – find this in Julie and Jo. (For reference: Stella has pink strings tied through her messy hair, Maria has straight blonde hair kept a little shorter)

The twins find the Bone Collector highly entertaining in their own sarcastic way at first. He ignores them and feels bad for them, considering them too brash and loud to understand the journey they’re on. Eventually there is an understanding and whenever he crosses paths with Jo & Julie’s rebel group, he spends time with the twins teaching them quiet, reflection, mathematics, science, religion – really anything he happens to be interested in at the time. The twins are the only one he speaks to at any real length, being nearly silent nearly all the time with everyone else, even Julie.

Jackie Earle Haley as Bone Collector
“What are you looking for Ms. Han?”
Road walker, 58, match unknown

The Bone Collector is a wisened old road walker who’s been on his own since his father was imprisoned thirty years before. He has always lived alone, being raised by his parents outside the system in the original resistance. He knows secrets, collects them as such, and rarely speaks, but he is the one who reveals Julie’s last name to her.

The only people he does speak to are the Sanders Twins, feeling they have a lot to learn from him and he is the only one who can teach him. At first they follow him around whenever they see him – annoying him, making fun of his strangeness and silence, even his looks as young girls are wont to do – but they eventually respect him and consider him an integral part of their road family.

Alexander Skarsgard as President Columnar
“We will be perfect, don’t you see?”
President, Age unknown, Match unknown

There isn’t much known about President Columnar, how he came to power in the Senate and then orchestrated its downfall before being overwhelmingly swept in as President. He is subversive, manipulative, and most of the time very calm. His temper, however, is swift and explosive. He can be violent, has no problem ‘pushing the red button’, and almost seems to enjoy the more dangerous parts of his job. Despite his bisexuality and the relationship he carries on with Quentin Adams, he seems to be a ‘true believer’ in the order of things and the genetic search for perfection. His motives are always in the background however very rarely have any light shed of them.

Jason Momoa as Quentin Adams
“Things are as they will be.”
President’s bodyguard, 32, matched to Kaylyn Adams

Quentin is a very complex man, one who exudes a natural confidence and seemingly spirituality that is – we eventually find out – a load of bull. He is the best friend & personal body guard of the President and has been his lover for the past 4 years at the start of the series. Quentin doesn’t say much and would give his own life or the life of anyone else to protect Columnar. It is unknown what their history is that inspires such loyalty in him.

Jewel Staite as Kaylyn Adams
“Don’t you understand, Quin? IT NEVER WORKED. NOTHING EVER MEANT ANYTHING! All of this! It was bullshit! My work, our MARRIAGE! It was all a FUCKING SHOW!”
Detailer, 29, matched to Quentin Adams

Kaylyn is the key that eventually undoes the dam. For most of the series she’s a stark character, a bit of a stepford wife in her devotion to her husband, her love for him, her loyalty to their best friend (the President) and her work. We don’t see her develop until the second half of the last season of the series (whenever that is). It is when she finds out that her husband and the president are lovers that we see this facade crumble. She feels her entire life has been a sham – her work AND her marriage, because clearly if the men are together the genetics that say she and her husband are each other’s only match got botched somewhere along the way. She cracks and begins feeding information & resources to the united rebels to bring down Columnar and the military.

Recurring Characters
Gal Gadot as Ariel Gadot
Rebel from Israel, 33, matched with Jon Robinson

Chiwetel Ejiofor as Jon Robinson
Rebel from Virginia Beach, former Military, 35, matched with Ariel Gadot

Daniel Dae Kim as Hsin Bae
Rebel from South Korea, 44, match unknown

Show Notes:

-| Technology | The tech of detailing is actually rooted in modern science! Pre-natal genetics is a field that advances every day and there has been a ton of debate in the industry and among policy makers as to the goals, purposes, research, and slippery slope of the process.

-| Sexuality | Homosexuality is expressed at times by characters (as well as bisexuality, transgendered-ness, etc) however only ever in private. It is strictly forbidden by the law of the land and enforced as such by the military, which is one of the big debates the rebels have on a normal basis. The rebel communities are more open, though, the debates/discussions certainly don’t stop anyone from living openly among them. There are rumors of full settled camps of exiled homosexuals and religious refugees.

-| Shipping | This one is hard for me! I’d say mostly my opinion is that of Kaylyn at the end of the series – who’s the say what creates love and compatability? Science, fate, chemisty, circumstance? It ruins her world to question this but leaves fans with an anything-goes chance! Obviously, I ship Jules/Cole LIKE WOAH. She’s good with Seba, but only in a ‘going through the motions’ way, they respect and appreciate each other but it’s not love. I also ship Jo/random sex with hot men & women. Seriously, she could try getting a traffic light drunk and taking it home and I’d probably be okay with that, mostly because Arielle Kebbel is one of the hottest/coolest people alive and I love Jo. Anna & Seba are awesome. Anna is like the most kick ass scorned girlfriend ever, or something. I would love to see her kick his ass into loving her 🙂 Friendship-wise I wanna see Twins/Road Walkers fic!! I want to see Faust teaching the girls and Bone Collector being childlike while they roll their teenage eyes at how silly the socially-awkward old man is!!