the kids aren't alright

[Jess Incognito]

Began this as a one x one search, but changed my mind. I am only looking for three others - so four of us total. I'd like to keep this small in terms of players. Characters can be many.

If you didn't guess by the title, the Kids Aren't Alright by the Offspring inspired me. Years ago. So I hope I can finally get this going.

I'd very much like to sort out details with the group based on characters. I'm looking for equal partners, not to be a lord of the story. So here goes:

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Small town, used to be a nice suburban neighborhood. There were a lot of kids from good families and they ran around like the kings and queens of Suburbia. There were dramas and loves and hates, nothing unusual. Today, the streets of the old neighborhood look much different. New people have moved in, but most of those kids remained. The kids who had everything to gain from their dreams and yet didn't quite make it.
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If you know the song, what I have in mind is similar. Most of the kids grew up and just didn't go anywhere. Had a kid or two, have died, are addicted to something, got stuck in bad relations. Whatever you want.

I would like there to be one character who was successful and has just come back. He/she hasn't been in contact with old friends, so everything will be different than they remember, most importantly the people. I think it would be good for all of us to talk about past and present relationships with each other. This will very much be about how people change.



Notes ::

1. I'd like for all first characters to be mid twenties at least. If we decide to add a teen or some older people later, that's fine. But our first characters should be from this main group that grew up together.​
2. This will be character driven, which means we need to talk about what we want and foresee. Please be active in discussion, even if the posts grow far between. (hopefully not!) I mean, come in and complain about your day in real life nothing-to-do-with-the-story, just be present.​
3. I feel like this story will be a magnet for solid-through sob-stories. Don't do that to me. Don't be generic. Be 3-dimensional. Be cloudy with a chance for sunshine.​

Write here if you're interested and then we'll talk details and preferences. If you want, let me know anything you're thinking about potential characters or goings-on. Or questions, I can do answers.

 

[caligari]

Yeah, I'm interested. As far as ideas for characters go, I have one in mind: A dude who on the surface seems to be doing fine, even going so far as him having his own business (a bar), his own house and even not that lacking in the looks department. Yet behind the scenes he's the loneliest motherfucker around due to the fact that he never managed to properly tangle with the concept of his own sexuality due to him being pressured into being straight by the society around him, but at the same time it were always women that betrayed and hurt him and men with whom he had fun with and enjoyed hanging around.

I think it's pretty clear that I'd make him a bachelor, this would reinforce the fact that he is unable to properly connect to either men or women on a romantic level. This also allows for a secondary problem he would tangle with namely the idea of him feeling unworthy stemming from the fact that while the average joe never stays single for long, getting a partner in mere months, he on the other hand has been single for years.

The reason for him having a bar is simply so he can surround himself with other people, tricking himself into believing he's less lonely than he actually is. Not to mentioning giving him ample opportunities to aid people drowning their sorrows in booze, which in turn makes him feel better about himself. All the while doing this, refusing to talk about himself due to the previously mentioned fact that he feels unworthy, believing that he shouldn't waste people's time with his problems. Not only that, but because he's been single for so long, he's gotten used to fixing his problems without aid or support, thus also creating an issue in the inability to let other people into his personal life.

 

[Jess Incognito]

I'm glad you're interested, and a very thorough idea for a character already, I can appreciate that. (:

I haven't thought too far into my own character yet, but what I do have:
Girl, naive and bookish in school who was the victim of bullies sometimes. For a long time she figured at least her perfect grades would get her out, but around the end of high school found her way into a group that led her down a bad road. Just so proud to finally feel like she fit in with a 'cool' crowd, she'd do anything for them and with them. Vandals and thieves, alley punks. She got pregnant near the end of her senior year. She finished, still with good grades, but not as good as they would have been if she'd tried more. She decided to keep it and decided to defer college. Unfortunately it ended with a miscarriage and she took quite an emotional hit and never went to college at all. She stayed right at home, with these new people who had gotten her into trouble in the first place.

Still have to decide what she's doing now, but that's the road I'm going down.