Unplugged! - "Bray & Amber Award"

AWARDS UNPLUGGED: Where we take the Summer 2008 awards & break 'em down to "Tribe" references so you can see what each award refers to, then the defining moment that resulted in a character receiving this award.

Bray & Amber "Happy Families" Award

"Happy Families" is a card game whose idea is to collect whole families. There was also a short-lived UK tv-series by the same name. It was a familiar bit, hearing Ebony sneer at Bray or Amber & ask if they were just gonna sit around playing "happy families." But in a way that's what they were doing - trying to take the odds 'n ends of a shattered world & build a family from it. In the early days they were pretty good at the "mom" and "dad" roles. But as it turned out, the early days were the easier ones. By the time Bray & Amber were playing the role for real, with the impending birth of baby Bray, everything else had pretty much fallen apart.

For this award, we had a 3-way tie.

TRISTAN & CECILY are the unlikeliest of all but they're also the only quasi-traditionally married couple we have, building a life in the city with a home & a respectable business. It's just...behind closed doors..."happy families" isn't exactly what they're playing here.

VALENTINE & VINCENT are Fort River's "it" couple. Wildly successful in New World terms, they recently declared their love for each other & decided to partner in all of Val's city businesses (which are considerable). They've settled into a nest in the Mirage, and life is good.

PRINCE & EVE have been our surprise couple this season. Old high-school friends who lost touch after the Virus, they spent the spring re-discovering each other. They live together & seem content with the life they're building.

What's truly surprising is the relationship-building going on throughout our game. The focus has definitely shifted from survival/fighting/competition to survival/building/finding someone to build a life with.

-Chyna

Photo source: copyright Cloud-9 "The Tribe