Post by ideaofglam on May 7, 2010 17:30:45 GMT -6
[/color]VALKYRIE,
CALIFORNIA
the ocean breathes salty, won't you carry it in?
Mother Comfort, Father Time,
And I can only see the screen behind my eyes.
I plead your presence, and I need to feel you near.
Are these struggles an answer to my prayers?[/font][/center]
WHEN THE OCEAN MET THE SKY ,[/color]
CHARACTER BASICS ,
you missed when time and life shook hands and said goodbye[/color]
FULL NAME: Gracen Laurel Harlowe[/font]
NICKNAMES: Gracie
GENDER: female
AGE: 19
UNIVERSITY YEAR: sophomore
MAJOR: Music Composition
MINOR: Voice
JOB: none
PLAYBY: Emmy Rossum
YOUR BODY MAY BE GONE ,[/color]
CHARACTER APPEARANCE ,
i'm gonna carry you in my head, in my heart, in my soul[/color]
ETHNICITY: Caucasian (mishmash that equals American)[/font]
HAIR COLOR: Auburn
EYE COLOR: brown
HEIGHT: 5'6"
WEIGHT: 120 lbs
BODY TYPE: Thin, but not skinny
DISTINGUISHED FEATURES: two holes in each ear, right ear's cartilage pierced
PERSONAL STYLE:
Gracen's style isn't reflective of her personality, because she always has help picking out her clothes. She tends to wear pastel colors, because she was told that they are what happiness looks like. She likes pink, because it's a girly color, and yellow, because yellow is what the sun feels like. Gracen often wears clothes that look a little bit immature for her age: dresses, skirts with floral patterns, shirts scalloped in lace. She wears them because she feels elegant and graceful when she wears them, as if she could just float away in the breeze. She never wears heels because she doesn't feel steady in them, and she likes to feel the ground beneath her feet.
OTHER: -
IN YOUR MOUTH, IN YOUR SOUL ,[/color]
CHARACTER PERSONALITY ,
the more we move ahead the more we're stuck in rewind[/color]
STRENGTHS: music, listening, singing, compassion, perfect pitch, ability to play instruments[/font]
WEAKNESSES: eyesight, anything requiring vision, wasting time, listening to good songs on repeat, guys who can sing
LIKES: music, operas, musicals, piano, violin, lambs, cotton candy, books, taking walks, feeling the sunshine on her face, dresses, going barefoot, late-night conversations, Italian and Opera
DISLIKES: heavy metal, silent movies, roller coasters, meat, crossing streets, loud noises, hide-and-seek, cold air, crime shows, high heels, getting dizzy, the evening news
FLAWS: jealousy, bitterness, biting sarcasm when pushed too far
HABITS: singing under her breath constantly, reaching in front of her even when she knows where she's going, twisting the earrings in her ears around and around, double checks that doors are closed and lights are off, even if she just shut the door or turned the light off, calling out names to see who is in the room, kneeling by her bed and praying before she gets in it, even for a nap
SECRETS: She is a Christian, but she struggles with her faith sometimes because she doesn't know how a loving God could make her a cripple; she let the boy she had a crush on in high school touch her breasts in the bathroom during her free period in her sophomore year.
BEST MEMORY:
Gracen wrote a series of connected songs in her senior year in high school as a capstone project and sent them to her favorite acoustic band, and when they came to her hometown to play, they played her song and let her go backstage. Even though they aren't signed on a major label, it was still amazing for Gracen to get to hear her favorite acoustic band perform her song, and it was even better to hear everyone else's applause at the end. Even if they were applauding because they liked the band, Gracen pretended that they applauded so loudly because they loved the song.
WORST MEMORY:
Gracen performed in a music festival in LA for young singer/songwriters, and although somebody helped her to the piano, they did not come back to get her when the song was over, and she attempted to make her way back to the stairs and fell off the stage instead in front of a crowd of about 400 people. Not only did she break her arm and not get to play the piano for two months, but her brother also put the video on Youtube.
OVERALL PERSONALITY:
Gracen is a fairly quiet person, not because she doesn't like to talk, but because it is imperative that she listen. She can hear everything, from the scuttle of an insect's legs on the window sill to the hitch in breathing before a person tells a lie. People think that they can hide things from Gracen just because she is blind, but they're wrong. Her other senses are so keen, and she spends so much time simply listening to her surroundings, that she often notices more about her world than people with perfect vision.
Gracen is not as patient and serene as she attempts to look. She is deeply bitter about the fact that she is blind, because it has prohibited her from having as many opportunities as most people her age. It has also restricted her independence, and she's sick of her parents assuming that she is helpless without them.
Aside from her bitterness, which really only comes out when people are talking about something sight-exclusive and leaving her out, Gracen is a fairly understanding person. She likes to listen to people, because that's one thing that she can do well, and she hates being alone, because being caught in a strange place with nobody to help her is one of her fears. Gracen is always kind to strangers, since she depends on their kindness in return.
Music has been Gracen's life since she was a small child. It was an area that she could excel in, despite her disability, and when her parents discovered that she had perfect pitch, they enrolled her in voice lessons in addition to piano lessons. Gracen listens to music constantly, though she only listen with headphones when she's in an area where she knows that people won't try to talk to her, or where she won't miss something by not being able to hear what's going on around her. She tries to find something to love in every genre, and her iPod is an eclectic mix of folk music, rock, rap, classical, opera, popular music, and a little R&B. The one genre Gracen has never been able to get into is heavy metal. The intense throbbing in her head that she gets after listening to metal is not worth the attempt at appreciating it.
Gracen is not overly nice, nor is she mean. She is kind to strangers and her friends, but she ignores people she doesn't like. She won't go out of her way to be nice to people who are rude to her, and she isn't particularly skilled in forgiveness. However, she rarely does anything that borders on malice, and she isn't known for getting back at people she dislikes.
Being blind is a disability that has restricted a lot of Gracen's goals and dreams. She hates the fact that she is discriminated against by people just because she can't see. Sure, she can't flip hamburgers or wait tables for a living, but being blind doesn't make her helpless. Having a disability has made Gracen determined, and when she wants something, she will do whatever she has to to get that thing. She strives for excellence and does not give up easily, because in her mind, if she has to work hard for something, that makes it more worth having.
Gracen's absolute pet peeve is when people come up to her and try to guide her in public when they don't know her, they haven't asked her if she needs help, and she knew where she was going, anyway.
AND WE'LL BOTH GROW OLD ,[/color]
CHARACTER HISTORY ,
well i don't know, i don't know, i don't know, i hope so[/color]
HOMETOWN: Santa Ana, California[/size][/font]
PARENTS:
Christopher Harlowe - 50
Julianne Harlowe - 49
SIBLINGS:
Charity Harlowe - 21
Talia Harlowe - 17
Tad Harlowe - 15
OTHER: none
LIVING SITUATION: apartment-style dorm on campus
HISTORY:
The Harlowe's second child was not a highly anticipated event. Her sister had been the blessing. She came after two years of trying to get pregnant, and she had been her parents ' pride and joy. When Julianne Harlowe got pregnant again, she was surprised, but not ecstatic. However, she figured that having two children was as easy as having one, and she set up the crib again in the nursery and told Charity that she was going to have a baby sister.
Julianne was severely mistaken when she thought that her second daughter would be an easy addition to the family. While Gracen seemed perfectly normal at first, she had an optical condition that caused her eyesight to deteriorate rapidly, leaving her legally blind only weeks after her birth. Eye surgery was attempted and failed, and the Harlowes had to face the fact that their second child would be a burden to them.
The eye surgery was attempted again when Gracen was three, and for a short while things looked good. And then they discovered that what they had labeled as the ability to distinguish between objects was simply Gracen's ability to see differences in light. After much refining, Gracen got to the point where she could point out where objects and people were in the room, and while her world isn't utter blackness, the only changes that she can actually see are a slight brightening from light and darkening when the light goes away. She relies on her other senses to detect other things, such as listening to the rustle of clothing to determine how close people are to her and where they are in relation to her body.
The Harlowes decided not to stop at their mistake, and they had two more children after Gracen. That did not stop them from suffocating Gracen with attention, though, and they rarely let her go anywhere without them. Although Gracen functioned beautifully with the aid of her cane and the Braille signs found in most public buildings, Julianne Harlowe still sat outside of the elementary school every day until Gracen was in second grade, at which point she was pulled out of regular public school and placed in a special school for the deaf and blind. Her change in schools eased her mother's nerves, and eventually Gracen accepted the fact that her disability meant that she would forever be segregated from everybody else.
Gracen's siblings always protected her, hovering around her until she came to resent them for their ability to do things she couldn't and their desire to keep her in a bubble. She began taking piano lessons when she was five, because Charity got them and Gracen was determined to play the piano at least as well as Charity. Her piano teacher struggled to teach her due to the difficulty of finding music written in Braille, but through teaching Gracen in the Suzuki method, she discovered that Gracen had perfect pitch. This meant that when a note was played, Gracen could tell her what the note was. She could also sing whatever pitch she was told to sing just by hearing its name.
Convinced that Gracen was some kind of prodigy, her parents immediately enrolled her in voice and violin lessons and sent her to the best piano teacher in the area. Although Gracen wasn't a natural-born musical genius, she did pick up music easily, and it quickly became her obsession. She kept Charity, with whom she shared a room, up late many nights due to her refusal to put on headphones when she listened to her music.
Gracen pleaded with her parents to be allowed to attend the arts high school instead of the school for the deaf and blind, but they weren't comfortable with the idea of having Gracen in a school where she would be at a disadvantage from the other students. Gracen started high school off at the School for the Deaf and Blind, but when she started having to miss school to go to music lessons, her parents finally relented and sent her to the arts high school, where her music lessons were built into her curriculum.
Gracen discovered music composition at her new high school, and she knew right away that she wanted to be a composer when she grew up. She went on a music-writing frenzy, doing little else for the next two years, and when she produced her series of works as her capstone project, her parents finally acknowledged that she was talented enough to pursue a career as a composer.
Gracen desperately wanted to go to Oberlin Conservatory in Ohio for college, but her parents refused to let her go so far away. Despite the fact that she had better mobility and survival skills than any of her blind friends, they still worried about her ability to exist in a world where she was in control of herself. Finally they allowed her to go to Valkyrie, since it was the closest school with a music composition program, and agreed to pay her tuition since she was staying in-state.
Gracen is doing fairly well at Valkyrie, and now that she's in her second year, her parents have finally stopped coming to visit (or sending her siblings to visit) every weekend. Gracen loves the independence and has fallen in love with the city. She still gets lost sometimes, and she is occasionally afraid of being left in a place without anybody she knows, but she's happy to be away from her stifling family. She's finally in a place where she's not discriminated against for being different.
COLLECTED MY BELONGINGS ,[/color]
ABOUT YOU AND FOR THE ADMINS ,
and i left the jail, well thanks for the time[/color]
YOUR NAME: Blythe[/size][/font][/blockquote]
GENDER: female
AGE: 18
RP EXPERIENCE: four years (took the last year off due to college demands)
OTHER CHARACTERS: none
ROLEPLAY EXAMPLE:The sun had already slid behind the buildings, leaving the city in a blanket of semi-darkness, and the queue at Starbucks was seven deep. Ava played with her earring and chewed on her lip, unconsciously swaying from side to side. It was a double show day, and stupidly, Ava had decided to go home for a nap. Now she felt groggy, and she knew that she wouldn't wake up fully before she had to go back to the theatre.
It had been over three weeks since Ava had gotten a full night's sleep. Three weeks and two days ago - that was when Lexie, Ava's roommate, had first brought her new boyfriend home. The apartment had been filled with awkward noises ever since.
"Sexiled," Ava muttered to herself, frowning. She was being sexiled. Now she was staying late at the theatre just so she wouldn't have to go home and hear Lexie's moans. She had even spent the night with Maria, little Meg Giry, last weekend to avoid finding the living room strewn with lingerie and boxer briefs.
"I should do something about it!" Ava said to herself. Yet, even as she said it, she knew that she wouldn't. She was too passive for her own good sometimes. Her mother had always warned her that one day she would have to grow a backbone and tell people how it was, but Ava was trying to avoid letting it come to that. She and Lexie had managed to coexist for the past year, and Lexie had gone through four boyfriends in that time. However, if things didn't change soon, Ava was going to have to either invest in sound proofing or move in with Maria permanently. Maria's two roomies probably wouldn't appreciate that.
Ava's heels clicked on the floor as she moved up in line. The delicate pink mugs stared back at her, tantalizing her. She fingered one, brushing the smooth porcelain gently, and a barista glanced up from the counter to glare at her. Ava guiltily pulled her hand back and tucked it in the folds of her skirt. She seemed forever destined to feel like a child playing at adulthood in the city. Here she was, impossibly young, vulnerable, and without a home. Or rather, with a home, but not a pleasant one.
"Something's gotta give!"
Maybe Mom was right. Maybe she should give up and return home to the South to teach theatre to preteens. Maybe their mouthy remarks and raging hormones would be preferable to this.
But could Ava really give up on her dream?credit: format by lainey, lyrics by modest mouse
