Name: Jennifer Victore Age: 23 Gender: Female Sexuality: Bisexual (Hetero Leaning) Occupation: Amateur Musician, works at a video store Apartment Description: A relatively small two bedroom, one bathroom apartment with a kitchenette and small living room space. Jen's space is mostly filled with memorabilia of the Riot Grrrl scene, some random instruments scattered around her room as well as just a bit of an utter disaster area in terms of cleanliness, with clothes, books and tapes just kind of thrown around without any kind of rhyme or reason to their placement. Personality: A bit hot-headed and very strong in her beliefs. Not one to back down from a fight and what some might call a bit brutish. There's friendliness below it all of course but the tough outer shell can be a bit to get through, especially if she thinks of you as being against her own deeply held convictions. History: Hailing from Montréal, Jennifer grew up with a very strong passion for music. Mostly that manifested in her love of punk music. The raw energy that filled it's tracks was something that was just mesmerizing to her. She craved it and in her teen years felt herself always drifting towards the music of Hüsker Dü, Black Flag, Minor Threat and Minutemen. Her parents pushed her into other aspects of music as well, so she learned a lot of theory and classical composition. In this time frame she learned how to play both the guitar and the piano
She always kind of knew that she wanted to get into music as a profession, and it was a stroke of luck that she got a scholarship to NYU's music program. It was a dream for her, a young french girl living in New York City to study music at one of the most prestigious schools in the country. She packed up and moved right when she had the chance, saying goodbye to her old life in order to really make way for the one she was getting into.
Jen found herself working closely with NYU's film department, which is where she met Zach. Zach was looking for someone to help score his freshman film and Jen seemed like just the girl for the job. Drawing influences from early electronic and ambient recordings Jen created something that fit very well with Zach's film, earning a lot of acclaim around the school.
It was around this time that Jen began to get heavily involved in the local Riot Grrrl scene, and even wrote for a few zines around the local area. She began to grow her own feminist ideals and beliefs and before long they were deeply held within her, she would lash out at anyone who opposed them. Kathleen Hanna was her idol.
After graduation, Jen wanted to stay in stay in New York, so she found a decent paying job at a Greenwich Village video store specializing in art and foreign films. Then, her and Zach found an apartment that was within walking distance to both of their jobs and have been living there ever since.
Name: Zach Mathews Age: 23 Gender: Male Sexuality: Gay Occupation: Filmmaker, record store clerk Apartment Description: See Jen's apartment for the broad outline. Zach likes to keep his space more manageable. His floors are spotless and he keeps all his film equipment in safe storage. Zach's walls are adorned with quite a few posters from various films he's seen over the years, with the most prominent being the films of Richard Linklater and Spike Lee Personality: Open and free thinking, what some might call a broke socialite. Prone to throwing parties for no real reason other than to just hang out with people he knows. Really friendly and kind to anyone he meets and doesn't take too many things personally. History: Born and raised in Brooklyn, Zach had always been a city boy. He always liked the hustle of everything that happens in a metropolis, especially one as busy as New York City. He loved hearing the stories everyone had to tell and he really just loved seeing everyone live their lives. It was really a big part of why he wanted to become a filmmaker, he wanted to let the public know the incredible stories that others had to tell, he just wanted to capture life as it was lived and show it to the world.
Zach enrolled in NYU and quickly got a job at the local record store to help pay for tuition, which is where he met Jen. Though there was a bit of friction between the two at the beginning of their professional relationship, things smoothed out as they both realized that they had a lot in common besides the obvious differences that first impressions show. This led to the two being great collaborators with a lot of the films they worked on getting quite a bit of buzz around campus and it ultimately led to them becoming great friends afterwards.
After graduation, Zach was happy to share an apartment with Jen, though he was a little surprised at how unclean she seemed to be. He didn't mind it too much, as long as he could keep his room, the kitchen and the living room clean, she could do whatever she wanted with her own room. The two have lived in relative peace since then, with many a party taking place in their admittedly cramped apartment.
The East Village of New York was a place where artists of all genders, races, and sexualities could gather and live to make art together or alone. Painters, musicians, writers, filmmakers, photographers, and many more could work in a place with low rent and on the cheap. However, in recent years there have been more developments causing rent to go up. Many artists have had to leave to Brooklyn or the Bronx because of the threat of gentrification. Those still living there may not have much more time left.
The Location
The East Village is located in Manhattan and was pretty much the birthplace of Bohemia. In the early 1900s many people seen to be “strange” lived there because rent was low and it allowed them to make a living doing things that could usually not sustain a person. Later it became a large part of the 1960s folk music scene, with artists like Bob Dylan and Dave Van Ronk coming from this area. As the years went on it was still very much known for it's artistic folk and cultural development, but it was beginning to become a much wealthier area. This roleplay is set in the early 1995 which is before the full gentrification that it is known for now but the threat of it is very looming.
Also, it must be noted that the East Village is very well known for it's Queer scene, with lots of gay bars and such, it was also the location of the Stonewall Riots.
The Plot
The plot for this RP is not very existent, I was thinking of it being more meandering focusing more on characters and character relations than some arbitrary macguffin that needs to be found or solved. If people want though I could maybe add a plot about a land owner buying up a historic landmark to put up condos. But I just think it would be better if we could just have our own characters interact with each other and then we could have our own tiny plots as it goes along.
Apartments
Apartments in the East Village were usually pretty nice and pretty affordable. However, with many people living in the Village they had to share apartments to make the rent more affordable. If two users want their characters to be roommates, it's fine by me, just remember to confirm with the other user that it's fine.
Rules
No Fantasy Stuff: Try to keep a degree of realism to the RP, no crazy stuff like dragons and orcs or whatever, it's a simple RP based in reality so having something like that just wouldn't work with the tone of the RP itself.
Swearing: I'm usually pretty relaxed about swearing, especially in something like this where it's just people talking that are driving the story. Just don't overdo it to the point of ridiculousness, and try not to use racial, sexist, or queerphobic slurs unless you absolutely feel you need to.
No Explicit Content: I shouldn't need to explain this, though the roleplay is about relationships and there is the possibility that a romantic relationship will escalate to something more, but if it gets to that point just take it to personal messages.
Proper Spelling and Grammar: I could care less about what you use in the OOC but the IC has to have proper spelling and grammar in every post, simply for readability. Again, not really something I should have to explain, but important nonetheless.
Character Limit: I'm fine with someone wanting to have as many characters as they want, but you need to feel comfortable with it. Don't take on more than you can handle.
Character Sheet
Appearance (Picture preferred, but description is allowed) Name: Age: Gender: Sexuality: Occupation: Apartment Description (If Applicable): Personality: History (Preferred, not required):
The East Village of New York was a place where artists of all genders, races, and sexualities could gather and live to make art together or alone. Painters, musicians, writers, filmmakers, photographers, and many more could work in a place with low rent and on the cheap. However, in recent years there have been more developments causing rent to go up. Many artists have had to leave to Brooklyn or the Bronx because of the threat of gentrification. Those still living there may not have much more time left.
(Also, before anyone asks, yes, of course I was inspired by Rent to make this)
The Location
The East Village is located in Manhattan and was pretty much the birthplace of Bohemia. In the early 1900s many people seen to be “strange” lived there because rent was low and it allowed them to make a living doing things that could usually not sustain a person. Later it became a large part of the 1960s folk music scene, with artists like Bob Dylan and Dave Van Ronk coming from this area. As the years went on it was still very much known for it's artistic folk and cultural development, but it was beginning to become a much wealthier area. This roleplay is set in the early 1995 which is before the full gentrification that it is known for now but the threat of it is very looming.
Also, it must be noted that the East Village is very well known for it's Queer scene, with lots of gay bars and such, it was also the location of the Stonewall Riots.
The Plot
The plot for this RP is not very existent, I was thinking of it being more meandering focusing more on characters and character relations than some arbitrary macguffin that needs to be found or solved. If people want though I could maybe add a plot about a land owner buying up a historic landmark to put up condos. But I just think it would be better if we could just have our own characters interact with each other and then we could have our own tiny plots as it goes along.
So I tried this one like four months ago and it was really interesting but people just kinda stopped posting, so I'm just going to try it again and hope for a better turnout and some RPers who are up for a slice of life type RP.
It's okay, I totally understand. I've been drowning in school work myself so I can see your predicament. I'm a little disappointed but I won't take it to heart and I hope I'll be able to see you all in other RPs.