Who Laughs Last?

Dependent roleplaying blog for cascadecarp

[cloudbtw]

CLOUD KEITH BLACKWELL. 28. CIS MAN. HE/HIM is here! They’ve lived in Cascade for 10 YEARS and currently reside in OLD CASCADE. CLOUD is the LEAD SINGER, GUITAR PLAYER & PRIMARY SONGWRITER OF HIS BAND COSMIC ATTRACTION and frequently hears that they look a lot like JOE KEERY. Funny, huh? If ever caught by Letterboxd, they’d say DEAD POETS SOCIETY is in their Top 4 and the theme song to their life’s soundtrack would be LINK by DJO. / jack, 31, he/him, est, animal abuse/harm/death.

STATS.

FULL NAME: Keith Blackwell Cloud NICKNAME(S): None/tbd BIRTHDAY: May 11th AGE: Twenty-Eight BIRTHPLACE: Chicago, Illinois STAR SIGN: Taurus GENDER: Cis Man. PRONOUNS: He/him SEXUALITY: Heterosexual OCCUPATION: Lead singer, guitar player, and primary songwriter for the band Cosmic Attraction (Lord Huron Sound claim) THEME SONG: Link by Djo

PHYSICAL.

FACE CLAIM: Joe Keery. HAIR COLOR: Brown. EYE COLOR: Green. HEIGHT:  5 foot 11″ TATTOOS: various. PIERCINGS: None

PERSONALITY.

POSITIVES (+): passionate, creative, adventurous NEGATIVES (-): impulsive, stubborn, resentful MORAL ALIGNMENT: chaotic good. FEARS: failure, living an ordinary life ELEMENT: Earth. HOGWARTS HOUSE: gryffindor. DRUGS/ ALCOHOL/ SMOKING: yes / yes / no AESTHETICS: the crackle of an old neon light, inspiration found in the sounds of the world, bars crowded to capacity with people singing the words to your songs, laying on your back and staring up at the vast expanse of the universe

BACKSTORY.

Trigger warnings: emotional abuse, misogyny, drug use, religious extremism

Culture Rock Fan Magazine Interview

June 2026 Edition of The Spotlight Column by Frankie Demarco

Hey rock'n'rollers! Welcome to another edition of The Spotlight: the monthly column where I sit down with local musicians on the scene and pick their brains like guitar strings! My subject this month is one that so many of you readers have written in to request over the past several years, and a guy that I myself have wanted to sit down and have a chat with ever since he and his band first took over the scene here in Cascade after winning The We Will Rock You Battle of the Bands over in NYC way back in the summer of 2016. And wouldn't you know it, now that their latest single “Who Laughs Last” is out and being listened to and talked about by seemingly everyone I know, he's finally said yes to sitting down for an interview with me! So without further ado, here's my exclusive interview with Cloud: guitar player, vocalist and primary song writer for Cascade's hottest band, Cosmic Attraction!

I: So glad to finally have you here, Cloud. Thanks so much for doing this!

C: No problem at all, man. I’m glad to be here. I figured, if nothing else, this would stop you from emailing me every other day!

I: Don't count on it! No, but seriously, you have been a highly requested interview by our readers for quite a long time now, so I'm really glad we were finally able to make it happen.

C: Me too, man. It's definitely long overdue.

I: So, I wanna start by asking you about the name Cloud. I've always wondered: Is it just a stage name, or did your parents actually name you Cloud!?

C: Ha no. It’s not the name I was given at birth, but it’s not really a stage name either. It's the only name that I go by.

I: Would it be pushing it too much to ask what your real name is?

C: Cloud is my real name, man. Like I said, is it the name I was given at birth? No. But it’s the only name I acknowledge. It's the only name I've gone by for over ten years. The guy I used to be is dead, and nobody is gonna miss him.

I: Oh damn. Okay. Why do you say that? What makes you think nobody would miss the old you?

C: There really wasn’t much to that guy to even miss.

I: What do you mean by that?

C: I just mean that the life I had as that guy wasn’t really much of a life, and I wasn’t really much of a person. See, I grew up a part of this real illustrious, but also really conservative and extremely religious family, and yeah that meant that my life growing up was a life full of wealth and privilege, sure. But it also meant growing up with the strictest of expectations and standards weighing down on me constantly.

I: What kind of expectations are you talking about? I gotta say, it's hard for me to imagine you growing up in a conservative family!

C: Ha! I'll take that as a compliment man, thank you. But yeah, the family that I grew up in? I don't know man, it was fucked up. Boys are expected to grow into “great men” and leaders, and bullshit like that. That’s just how it’s been for generations. A lot of politicians in the family. My father is a State Governor. So it was drilled into my head over and over and over again that the boys in that family don’t fool around with trivial pursuits like art, or music; they leave that stuff to the girls, and they study law, and politics, and math, and most importantly, The Bible, and they prove their dominance and inborn right to lead through excelling in athletics. Real textbook misogyny and patriarchal bullshit. Men in that family are expected to be alpha males, in the truest and most fucking toxic definition of the term. If you’re not drawing crowds of admirers and followers with natural charisma and social dominance, and ensuring that everyone knows you’re at the top of the food chain, then you’re a fucking disappointment to them.

I: And you weren’t like that?

C: It’s not that I wasn’t like that; I played the part just fine. It’s just that I was never really comfortable with it. . I mean c'mon, no kid wants to be a disappointment to their family, right? So I gave it my best shot and tried to be exactly what they wanted. But looking back it's obvious to me that I always kind of resented the fact that I wasn’t allowed to choose my own path or figure out who I was on my own. But I buried those feelings for a long time. Too fucking long.

I: I think I understand what you mean. So when you say there wasn’t really anything to who you were before, you’re saying that you didn’t really have your own identity outside of who your family wanted you to be.

C: Exactly man. I didn’t come by any aspect of who I was honestly. I was molded in the image of what my family wanted me to be.

I: So how did you come to find yourself and become the person you are now?

C: The answer is every bit as cliche and cringe-worthy as you might expect, but it’s the truth: The genesis for who I am today was finding music. Let me take you back alright? Boarding school, little fourteen year old me was told that I had to take a mandatory art class, and so I reluctantly signed up for Freshman guitar with Mrs. Elliot. I’ll never forget walking into that room on the first day of the semester; probably the most nervous I’ve ever been in my life. Mrs. Elliot had a reputation for being hard on her students; something I’d only learned after I’d already signed up to take the damn class and it was too late to pull out of it. I remember, I sat down, and some of the other students around me already had their guitars out, and were playing something that, at the time, to me, sounded really good, but then Mrs. Elliot walked into the room and scolded them for their poor and sloppy technique, and I remember wishing right then that I’d signed up for Freshman Art instead. I thought I’d made a huge mistake.

I: Really?!

C: Oh yeah absolutely. I thought I had absolutely no business at all being there. But then I took the guitar I’d been assigned out of its case, and I can’t explain it, but it just felt right in my hands immediately. Then I started playing what Mrs. Elliot taught us in that lesson, and liked the way it felt and sounded, and even though I was still nervous, there was some excitement in there too; something I was not too accustomed to feeling at that point. I’d never really felt all that excited or passionate about anything before that. Not like that anyway. Even sports. I was a great athlete, but I really only played the sports I played because my dad expected me to. I think I thought I liked them at the time, but like I said before, I buried a lot of what I really felt just to make my family happy. Anyway, playing the guitar made me feel excited like nothing ever had. But I said to myself right then “Boys in my family don’t waste time with useless pastimes like music” and I promised myself that once the class was all done and over with, I’d put the guitar down and try to focus on what was “really important.” And even when it turned out that I was actually good at the guitar, like naturally had a gift for it, I kept telling myself the same thing. But let me tell you something: I was fucking lying. And you know what? I knew it from the minute I picked up that guitar. I knew I wasn’t putting it back down again if I could help it.

I: And of course, you didn’t.

C: Nope, sure didn’t. When the semester ended, I didn’t return the school guitar. I hid it in the back of my dorm room closet and claimed I’d lost it. My father, furious as he was, ranting about the stupidity required to lose an instrument, still ended up paying the school to replace it. It was the first time in my entire life that I had ever done something in direct defiance of my parents; the first time that Cloud peeked out from behind that obedient kid that I’d always been. With guitar in hand, I really began to feel like myself for the first time. This was something that was strictly mine. I loved the way that playing and making music made me feel, and guilty as I felt for enjoying it, I can’t deny that there was a thrill that came with knowing that I was doing something that my family wouldn’t approve of. It made me feel empowered in a way that I had never experienced before, and my confidence started to grow as a result. I figured as long as I continued doing the things they wanted me to do, I could have it both ways.

I: So what happened after that?

C: Freshman year after that is a bit of a blur in more ways than one. Probably a mix of the constant thrill of having this secret and the fact that around that same time was when I first got introduced to the wonders of sweet leaf and started indulging pretty heavily. Good timing, because I don’t know if I could have handled the nerves of trying to hide everything I was doing from my dad without it. I do know that I binged hard on any and all music I could get my hands on. My stack of vinyls got taller by the week, and by the time the summer came, I realized there was no way I was going to be able to hide them all in my suitcase, so I stashed them in a hollowed out log in the woods near the school. They were, unsurprisingly, gone by the time school started up again.

I: Aw no way!

C: Yeah way. (laughs) The idea came to my when I was high as a kite and in a bit of a panic about what I was gonna do to keep my dad from finding them when I got home. Some of them he might not have cared about but most of them he absolutely would have. Like I said, my family are ultra conservative Christians, and they take that to the extreme, so any rock and roll music is considered the devil’s work to them. If I’d brought home my Sabbath or Stones or Beatles records and they found them? It would have been bad. But it was still stupid of me to think I could hide them in a log for the entire summer and they would still be there when I went back for them.

I: What about the guitar? What did you do with that?

C: That was harder to try and hide. And honestly, I didn’t want to be without it for the entire summer. So I sent it to a family friend through the mail and asked her to hold onto it, and went over to her house any time I wanted to play. Probably should have just done the same thing with the vinyls.

I: This is fascinating! Your old man sounds like a real Thomas Oregon, if you catch the reference.

C: (laughs because he did in fact understand my truly amazing reference) That’s exactly what he was, yeah. My life really was like a rock opera. Or at least it felt like one to me. I unfortunately didn’t have a spaceship shaped like a treble clef though.

I: So what happened next? I’m on the edge of my seat listening to this!

C: Well, Sophomore year of high school is where things really started to change, because sophomore year is when me and some other dorks who loved music just as much as I did decided to start a band. Well, okay, to consider us a band at that point, you need to have a very loose definition of the word, but we were playing and writing music together and that’s what matters. We did, eventually, get to be pretty alright too. We were good enough that when we found out that a local pub near the school was hosting a band night, we lied about our ages and snuck out of the school to go and play there. I won’t name the pub in question just so that they don’t run into legal trouble.

I: That sounds a lot more like the Cloud that we know! Were you scared of getting caught?

C: Oh fuck yeah. But I also desperately wanted to do it. I’d never had the chance to play music in front a crowd before, and I wanted to see what it was like. I was definitely afraid of getting caught though. So much so that I told everyone to call me Cloud. (laughs) Yeah, that’s where the Cloud name comes from. I was smoking a joint at the time and had just exhaled a cloud of smoke when someone asked me what my name was, and I panicked and said Cloud. But yeah, that first time playing in front of a live crowd really awakened something in me. It was really a transformative experience. It was totally worth the risk as far as I was concerned, and I was dead set on doing it again and was a lot less worried about getting caught after that. Of course, we eventually did get caught

I: Oh shit. What happened?

C: I don’t really know. I figure someone ratted us out. How we didn’t get caught until senior year, I have no fucking clue. But when we did, the consequences were swift and severe. I was only spared from being expelled because my parents pulled me out of school and made a huge donation. They were planning on sending me to an even more rigid school where students are kept under constant supervision. I also had to watch as my father burned all the music I’d written and frantically muttered some prayer about redemption for my soul.

I: Damn. That sounds pretty extreme.

C: It was. But it was also exactly what needed to happen for it to become clear to me that I needed to get out of there. I think I'd always hoped that if my parents found out about what I was doing, I would be able to talk to them and make them understand, but that night I realized that was never going to happen, and the best thing I could do for myself was to get the fuck out of there. I realized that I was going to have to make a choice between my family and myself, and I chose myself.

I: How did your family take that?

C: I know it’s not what you want to hear, but I don’t actually have all that much to say about it. What you’re imagining is probably spot on, honestly. It was fucking terrible. There was a lot of yelling and crying. But it needed to be done. I've never had more clarity on anything in my life than I had that night in making the decision to walk away from my family

I: So that was the moment when you really became Cloud then?

C: Yeah I guess in a sense it kind of was. I had already been Cloud for awhile by that point, but in walking away from my family, that's when I fully embraced it. I signed a paper and changed my name legally not long after.

I: That’s an insane story! So what did you do after that?

C: Well I got as far away from Chicago as fast as fucking possible, which is how I ended up here in Cascade. I'd always heard that this city was a haven for artists, and if I was going to try and make a go of it as a musician, it seemed like the perfect place for me. It turned out to be exactly that, and the rest is pretty much history. Started Cosmic Attraction, entered the big Battle of the Bands in New York in 2016 and won that. Over the years, have built a pretty good national following. Toured the whole country a few times, and the West Coast a lot more times than that. Cascade is home for us, and I don't think we'll ever leave this wild and wacky place.

I: Well, this has already been a pretty long interview, and I didn’t even ask half of the questions I wrote down before hand! This definitely took a turn I did not expect, but I’m sure our readers will be fascinated to hear your story! But I guess my last question for you today is: what can readers expect from you in the future?

C: They can expect more music. People reading this mag have probably already heard a good chunk of what will become the next album from seeing our live shows, but trust me when I say there’s still a lot that nobody has heard yet, and once we get it all recorded it’s going to be mind-blowing.

I: I for one cannot wait to hear what you’ve got cooking. Readers! if you haven’t already, go listen to Who Laughs Last, the latest single by Cosmic Attraction, available wherever you get your music! Anything you’d like to add, Cloud?

C: Yeah! If you haven’t had the chance to come see Cosmic Attraction, we play pretty much every Thursday, Friday, and Saturday night!

Tldr Version: Cloud comes from a highly conservative Christian extremist family who are highly respected and are known to produce “great men.” Cloud grew up doing his best to be the person that his parents wanted him to be, always being dutiful and obedient to their wishes, the perfect “golden boy” of a prestigious family. This continued until he went off to boarding school and discovered music. Through music Cloud found his confidence, his identity, and the courage to break free of his family's control, putting his birth name of Keith Blackwell firmly to rest, and pursuing his dream of being a musician. His band, Cosmic Attraction, have been a staple of the local music scene in Cascade for the past ten years, and the city is their home hub. Their sound claim is the band Lord Huron, and they've released all of the LH albums that have come out to date (though the order of release was different, but that's only relevant if you happen to care about those details lol) except the most recent album The Cosmic Selector Volume 1, which is the album that, in game, Cosmic Attraction are currently working on and have released one single for. That single is the song Who Laughs Last, which can be found here. 

[kylejdobbs]

"So you're saying all Eldritch forces are real? I dunno, if we're going back to the originator, Lovecraft himself, I'd say he was...gifted, sure, but that a number of his creations were projections of a turn of the century, New Englander's fragile mind and projections of fear to do with racial minorities. It often, if not always, goes back to that with him. So, I dunno. I'm more partial to his predecessor, Robert Chambers' The King In Yellow. Have you heard of it? Lovecraft was inspired and borrowed quite a few elements off of him. If we go even further back, the city of Carcosa is Ambrose Bierce's invention, but I'm digressing. I think they can be clever creations. Channelled interdimensional beams? I'd sooner believe in Vogons or grey alien presence."

[cloudbtw]

"Oh no, definitely not all of them. Some of them are clearly just fabrications of twisted minds, or imitations of the real thing, as best can be achieved by mortal minds. Don't even get me started on Lovecraft though. That guy was a piece of shit." Cloud replied shaking his head with distaste. "He might have popularized Eldritch Horror, but if he did commune with any of the Great Old Ones, it was only because his mind was pathetic and narrow and easy to bend to their will. And the racist shit? That was definitely all him. King in Yellow though? That's my shit. Though that, I don't think has anything to do with messages sent from the Eldritch gods, I just think that's genuinely good writing." Cloud shrugged his shoulders. "But hey you can believe whatever you want man. I won't judge you for what you do or don't believe in. I'm just telling you what I believe. Well, a small part of what I believe. But we all gotta navigate our own journeys through the transcendental waves of reality and decide on our own truths and falsehoods in that."

[nessagates]

Open to: anyone @cascadestarters Where: Venus OR Communion OR Log Lady Lounge (you pick!) When: 10:48 pm, 7th July

"You have to do a shot with me. It's my birthday!"

[cloudbtw]

"You're right. That is, in fact, the rule. And sure, I could break it, but I only break the rules that I don't want to follow. Which, you know, is a lot of them. But hey, there's an exception to every rule, even when you take exception to every rule." Cloud replied with a playful grin and a nod, quickly signaling for the bartender, before turning his gaze back to the pretty blonde. "So, birthday girl, what'll it be? One shot of anything you want. Or, you know, I've heard that they still have barrels of communion wine in the basement of this place and will give it to you if you ask." He shrugged. "Just saying, that could also be fun."

[marlowemanifests]

" and yet, you still aren't doing enough, cloud. " half - tease, half - real scold. indeed true she's talked about it quite a lot, though apparently not enough. better keep up, cloud, or she'll start being really unbearable. " oh, kinky. " a playful wink. " but i don't care. they're all vegan. " a shrug as she settles a plate in front of him and slides into the booth opposite her friend. friend? friend. takes a huge bite out of her burger, chewing it for a minute until she can talk again. " start eating, we have a long day ahead of us. "

[cloudbtw]

Cloud scoffs and playfully rolls his eyes at her scolding "Hey, I'll have you know that I'm doing my part by writing music which expands the minds of people who listen, thus making them more prepared for the inevitable day when our interdimensional neighbors decide to reveal themselves to us. Just you wait, Marlowe; history will remember the role that Cosmic Attraction played in ushering in the Age of Cosmic Cooperation." he retorts with a grin. That grin only widens at her playful wink and the comment that accompanies it, and he shrugs his shoulders, nodding his head. "You're right. I'd probably be a little too into that." he retorts with playful flirtation, before nodding his head frantically at her continued urging to eat, and reaching across to take of of the burgers off the plate, taking a giant bite as he lifts it to his mouth. "So," he says in a brief moment between bites "you say we have a long day ahead of us. You wanna tell me what exactly that long day entails?" he asks with a note of playful exasperation, though the reality is, there is no where he wouldn't allow the woman sitting across the booth from him to drag him to, and no one he would rather spend a day being dragged around town by.

[cloudbtw]

Open Starter ( @cascadestarters )

Where: Audrey Horne Park

When: Evening

"Man, the people who write this shit are fucking nuts." Cloud said abruptly, looking up from his copy of The Eldritch Horror Anthology to the person sitting on the bench beside him. "Nuts. Bonkers. Off their damn rockers. To write this kind of shit? They have to be! Have. To. Be. But then again, the eldritch forces, and the cosmic horrors, and all that kind of shit are definitely real, and they definitely use these people, these writers, as conduits to spread their message. I 100% believe that. Not every writer of eldritch fiction, but definitely some of them. I'd say a solid 66... no, 69%. Yeah, 69% of them, easy. So, keeping that in mind, I guess them being crazy kinda makes sense. Having an interdimensional being beam messages directly into your brain will do that to ya."

[corkyroberts]

for: anyone! / @cascadestarters

when and where: National Free Slurpee Day at Cas Gas

"Ooh, nah. I don't know about this one." He says after a visible grimace that coincided with the first taste of the Oreo slurpee he had chosen in an attempt to be adventurous rather than going with his tried and true Dr. Pepper.

( At least it was free. )

"What did you get?"

[cloudbtw]

Cloud grimaces right as the other does, nodding his head in agreement with the assessment of the Oreo slurpee. "I got the same as you and, yeah, it's pretty-" he coughed, his face sour from the lingering after taste, which was somehow even worse than the initial flavor. "-sorry. No, it's uh, it's bad. Bad bad. Choices were made and regrets are had."

[marlowemanifests]

where: july 2nd, world ufo day @ abducted cow. ( @cascadestarters ) who: open ( 4 / 5 )

marlowe balances four plates of vegan burgers as she approaches their booth. their table already decorated by another three plates of yet-to-be-eaten vegan burger variations. " oh my god, eat up ! " she exclaims, eyes wide, manic. manages to slide two plates off her forearms without spilling the content on the floor. two plates remain in her hands. " did you know a dollar for every burger goes to to the stars, inc? they're dedicated to investigating unidentified flying objects and they're a non-profit, so eat to support them. "

[cloudbtw]

"Yeah you might have mentioned that once, or twice, or mmm, nope, actually it was five times, Marlowe. Five." Cloud teasingly replies to her words with a chuckle and a playful roll of his eyes. Nevertheless, he reaches forward to take one of the plates on the table, but then stops himself as a thought occurs to him, his brows furrowing thoughtfully. "Wait...which of these do you want?" He asks, pulling back his hand. "I wouldn't put it past you to eat right out of my hand if I happened to take one of the ones that you wanted, so it's probably in my best interest to check."

[m1nnies]

open  to  anyone !  (  @cascadestarters  ) where:  six  rivers  flea  market. when:  a  hot  sunday  afternoon.

she  was  walking  around  the  flea  market,  with  a  melting  frozen  coffee  in  one  hand  and  a  portable  fan  in  the  other.  sweat  dripped  down  her  temple  as  she  looked  at  all  the  pretty  beads  and  jewels  a  vendor  was  selling  —  perfect  for  handmade necklaces or bracelets.  she  suddenly stumbled,  as  clumsy  as  ever,  and  bumped  into  someone  who  was  walking  in  the  opposite  direction.  “shit,  i’m  so  sorry  !“  her  cheeks  burned  bright  red  as  she  righted  herself. "are you alright ?"

[cloudbtw]

Jake loved walking around the market. It always felt something like a treasure hunt, in a place where you never knew what crazy find you might stumble upon. But even beyond the thrill of the search for that diamond in the rough, Jake enjoyed the atmosphere; the bustle of the crowd, the distinctive smells, and the interesting interactions that could be witnessed and sometimes experienced. Even in the sweltering heat, there was no place he would rather spend a Sunday afternoon. He had just found two vintage film reels sitting in a bin at one of the vendors and was feeling quite excited about the thought of testing them out when he got back to the theater, when he turned the corner and found himself bumping into someone. "Shit I'm so sorry!" He said at the same time the person he had bumped into said the exact same thing. He shook his head dismissively at her apology, feeling the fault was entirely on himself, only to once again speak the same words that she did, as she said them: "Are you alright?" At this, he couldn't help but laugh, running a hand through his hair. "You gotta stop this, okay? You can't just keep saying exactly what I'm saying, as I'm saying it. It's kinda freaking me out." He teased, grinning.

[cloudbtw]

JACOB MORGAN. 29. CIS MAN. HE/HIM is here! They’ve lived in Cascade for 2 MONTHS and currently reside in OLD CASCADE. JAKE is the OWNER of THE CALIFORNIA and frequently hears that they look a lot like JOE KEERY. Funny, huh? If ever caught by Letterboxd, they’d say MR. DEEDS is in their Top 4 and the theme song to their life’s soundtrack would be MONEY, MONEY, MONEY by ABBA.

STATS.

FULL NAME: Jacob Morgan "Jake Sheppard" NICKNAME(S): Jake BIRTHDAY: May 7th AGE: Twenty-Two BIRTHPLACE: Chicago, Illinois STAR SIGN: Taurus GENDER: Cis Man. PRONOUNS: He/him SEXUALITY: Heterosexual OCCUPATION: Secret Owner and operator of The California Movie Theater (Also secretly a millionaire; see backstory) THEME SONG: Money, Money, Money by ABBA

PHYSICAL.

FACE CLAIM: Joe Keery. HAIR COLOR: Brown. EYE COLOR: Green. HEIGHT:  6 foot″ TATTOOS: None. PIERCINGS: None

PERSONALITY.

POSITIVES (+): passionate, compassionate, adventurous NEGATIVES (-): stubborn, guarded, impulsive MORAL ALIGNMENT: Neutral good. FEARS: relationships that are built on false pretenses, people discovering his big secret, sharks ELEMENT: Earth. HOGWARTS HOUSE: gryffindor. DRUGS/ ALCOHOL/ SMOKING: no / yes / no AESTHETICS: the sound of an old film projector, a camera poised to capture that perfect image, a drawer full of letters that are themselves full of lies, eyes that watch every person you meet with the strange mix of apprehension and the desire to connect on a personal level

BACKSTORY.

Death, Injury TW

I found this group in the tags, and I really said to myself "What wacky and fun things could I do with my muses to really make the most of this amazing concept of a city full of weird?" For my other character, Billy, I settled on a crazy marriage plot/connection that I'm excited to share and submit to the main soon enough. But for my man Jake here? I went really crazy with him and decided that I was going to make him a secret millionaire.

So the backstory: Jake was always that guy who made friends easily throughout his life. He was naturally likeable, had a lot of compassion for people no matter what walk of life they came from, and he knew how to have a good time. He graduated high school, not with the best grades or any spectacular accomplishments, but with a lot of people who he could call friends. And really, that's all he wanted at the end of the day.

He went to college on a football scholarship, but ended up getting injured halfway through his sophomore year and losing that scholarship, forcing him to drop out. Still, in his time in college, he'd made even more friends, and so, thanks to his many connections, he was able to find work pretty easily. He worked a bunch of different jobs throughout the better part of his twenties, always ending his employment on good terms and with a new reference, before he moved onto something else. He was really just trying to find something that felt like his calling, and while there were some jobs he did that he liked, none of them ever felt like that to him. Sure, he had things he was passionate about, like music, and old movies, and photography, and being outdoors, but he couldn't see a way that he could realistically make a living with any of those things.

And then, one day, his entire life changed in the blink of an eye.

Jake had never really known his Dad's side of the family, since his Dad had passed when he was pretty young and had been estranged from his Mother prior to his birth. So, he had never known that he had a Great Uncle who was extremely wealthy, until he was contacted and informed that his Great Uncle Albert had passed away, and as his closest living relative, he was now the heir to a fortune of right around 80 million dollars.

This really should have been the end of all of Jake's worries, but, unfortunately, it was more like where they began. People he had known for years started acting differently towards him now that he was rich, and new people that came into his life were only interested in the money, not the person. And then there was the heartbreak; he met the woman of his dreams, started dating her, and proposed, only to discover a few short days before they were going to be married that everything she'd told him about herself was a lie, and that she was only marrying him to take his money. Devastated by how this fortune he'd inherited had revealed the absolute worst in people, Jake decided he needed to make some big changes, and he needed to make them immediately.

The first change that Jake knew he needed to make was to move away from everyone who had ever known him and start over. So, he moved across the country to a kooky little city called Cascade, chosen because he fell in love with the old movie theater The California that happened to be for sale, and started going by the name Jake Sheppard. He also knew that unless he wanted the same thing to happen to him again, he needed to live his life as though he was a normal guy, and not let anyone know that he was rich. So, even though he owns the movie theater, he works in it as though he doesn't, and is just an employee there. He lives above the theatre in a small apartment, and from the outside looking in, it would be almost impossible to tell that he was actually extremely rich.

Since starting his new life here in Cascade, Jake has been coming to terms with what happened back home in Chicago. He's still as friendly and kind as he ever was, but he's, understandably, a bit wary of letting people get close to him again. He wants to believe that maybe he'll meet people that he will one day feel like he can trust enough to open up to and allow to know the real him, but right now he isn't sure if he really does believe that will happen or not. But despite his jadedness, he's still got a very good heart, and so he's still willing to put his wealth towards helping people, so long as no one ever discovers that he's the one doing it.

Message me if you would like to plot things! Sorry this intro is kinda bleh but I don't wanna waste too much time on it. I'm sure you get the gist: genuinely kind and likeable boy inherits fortune, learns people suck, decides to move across country and pretend to not be rich. It's Mr. Deeds with a twist basically.

[andrew-garfielld]

Joe Keery as Steve Harrington STRANGER THINGS Season 5 | Vol. 1