fire & gold in our eyes

[graspingcitylights]

Not everyone can say they’ve been to the Big Apple, but  [ ELOISE JIMENEZ ], a [ 31 ] year-old [ CISWOMAN ] has lived in [ BROOKLYN ] for [ THREE WEEKS ]. This is the city of dreams and [ SHE ] knows it, because they came to NYC to be a [ MUSICIAN OR BROADWAY (or off-Broadway…or off-of-off Broadway…) ACTRESS, CURRENTLY WORKING AS A BARTENDER ]. Well, that and as the [ THE NEWCOMER]. Living in the city means they meet all kinds of people, but everyone always seems to think they look like [ ANA DE ARMAS ]. They even got away with free cab fare once because of it!

BASICS +

full name: eloise jimenez

any nicknames: she doesn’t mind ella. her family calls her wheezy, but she doesn’t want to talk about that ever

gender: cis female

pronouns: she/her

age (d.o.b.): december 24, 1990 - 31 - capricorn

cultural background: cuban & spanish hometown: madison, georgia current location: new york, which is still very new and exciting!

occupation: bartender / aspiring musician face claim:  ana de armas

sexual orientation: heterosexual / heteroromantic 

relationship status: single

PSYCHOLOGY +

zodiac: capricorn

temperament: sanguine

moral alignment: neutral good

myers briggs: esfp

deadly sin: envy

heavenly virtue: patience

+kind down to her bones, optimistic, warm and outgoing, patient

-naive, overly emotional, scatterbrained, stubborn

A BRIEF HISTORY + tw: mentions of religion, implications of religious upbringing, church (does not specifically mention crucifixes, i saw that on the triggers list!). only VERY BRIEF but just in case! death mentions, grandparent death (no details given, just mentioned, very brief) eloise was born and raised in madison, georgia and had never stepped outside of georgia once in her life. she was born into a larger-than-life family with five sisters, of which she fell into the middle. she was a good girl, listened to her momma and did what was asked of her, spent lots of time with her grandmother out of choice rather than obligation. despite living the picture of a small town dream, eloise always wanted more - she’d had big city dreams for as long as she could remember, since she’d been delighted to find the children’s book series with her name in big bold letters and her family began to jokingly call her eloise at the plaza (which was far better than the other, ever-dreaded childhood nickname of wheezy). no, eloise wanted more than the small town life, wanted more than madison had to offer and wanted more than georgia, more than the pageants her mother put her through and the debutantes when she came of age. it was just a question of how it was going to happen. the only other sure and steady thing in her life had been music. eloise had always been very musical, singing everywhere she went and putting a melodic twist to conversations when she was a child. she got her first taste of her love for performance in [ TW RELIGIOUS MENTION ] church choir on sundays and then in school choir and musicals when she got older. she began to tinker at the piano with her grandmother when she was hardly tall enough to reach the keys, but eloise took to it like a fish to water and excelled. her childhood home was filled with light and love thanks to her family, and music thanks to eloise. college had not been in the cards and that was fine for eloise. she helped out at the local elementary school and community center after graduation, playing accompaniment for musicals and concerts, though it still wasn’t enough. eloise had worked hard to hone her craft, wanted to sing on a bigger stage than madison had to offer and she still hadn’t forgotten her big city dreams. it took longer than eloise had hoped to get her ducks in a row and her bags packed, but she’d wanted to make sure that she’d be able to survive for a few months at least once she got to the city of dreams just in case she couldn’t find a job right away. she’d carefully set aside her waitressing tips for years, biding her time until it was time despite her family’s wishes for her to stay. her grandmother was the only one who had always supported eloise and her dreams, insisted her grandbaby was meant for so much more than madison and supported eloise’s dreams of being able to sing for crowds bigger than their whole town combined. [ TW DEATH MENTION ] with her grandmother’s passing, eloise decided it was time and off to new york she went. she hadn’t expected finding employment to be as easy as it was, and eloise managed to find a job and a place to live all in one at the dive bar on 9th. she’d be working as a bartender and performing every other night….the latter of which was unpaid, but it was a start and that was all she needed.

[graspingcitylights]

riverashford​:

WHERE: A BROOKLYN COFFEE SHOP WHO: OPEN STARTER ! 

It was something River did occasionally, drew people around him or various scenery. Painting had been his main medium since he was a teenager, but he tried to either work on his tablet to make sure his digital art wasn’t too horrendous or with a simple pencil or pen in his sketchbook. It was a good way to get his creativity flowing when it felt like he was at a wall with a current piece or was merely in the mood to create something, anything. 

Sitting in the coffee shop in Brooklyn had River in a creative mood, sketching absently as he sat with his coffee. Finishing the last few strokes of his pencil, he carefully tore out the page of the sketch and approached the table. “I hope this doesn’t come off as weird, but uh, I sketched you?” He grinned a bit as he presented the sketch to them, “pinky promise I’m not a weirdo, just an artist with an urge to sketch. Usually I paint, but I try to actually use a pen and paper here and there. I wanted to offer it to you though. You make a great model, thank you for the inspiration.” River winked with a soft laugh escaping him. 

....

The coffee shop down the street from her apartment had become one of her favorite haunts when she wasn’t working at the bar - the coffee was good, the staff were friendly and the windows were just lovely for people-watching with the hustle and bustle of Brooklyn foot traffic outside. Iced latte in place at the table, Eloise had idly been picking at her muffin while scrolling through her phone when he approached. Eloise hadn’t looked up right away when he’d approached, though looked up in surprise as he did. A slow starting smile curved one side of her lips as she tilted her head ever so slightly to the side.

“Me?” She repeated, once she’d finished chewing the bit of muffin, pointing an index finger towards herself as that smile continued to grow, reaching out to carefully take the paper for herself. “Didn’t even notice,” she said as she looked over her likeness on the paper. “Glad to have inspired, but I think you definitely took some liberties that worked in my favor that I should thank you for.”

[graspingcitylights]

azaleainnyc​:

Who: Azalea & ___ [OPEN]

Where: A bar, restaurant, club, anywhere where there would be a line to get in!

Azalea huffed, pulling her phone out again. She had been in line for nearly thirty minutes, twenty-nine minutes too long, if you asked her. And to put it simply, Azalea was a very impatient person. Surely the wait to get in wasn’t that long, was it? The petite brunette stretched up onto her toes to see if there was any progress on people moving ahead of them, but towering heads in front of her made it slightly more difficult to see what was happening at the front of the line. She turned to the person behind her, tucking a curl behind her ear and offering up a smile. “Can you see what’s going on up there? It’s like we’ve been standing here forever.”

...

“Incompetence.” The reply came from slightly pursed up lips, a taptaptap of the toe of her boot repeatedly tapping against the ground below them. “Incompetence is what’s going on up there.” A roll of the eyes was offered, and Robin huffed out a sigh and slouched one hip as she continued tapping her foot. All she wanted was her coffee, she’d been up and out until ungodly early o’clock and had some errands to run that had required her to roll out of bed before noon. “Something about an espresso machine, from what I can hear. I’d already be halfway to the next Starbucks if I didn’t pre-order on the app on my way over.”

[graspingcitylights]

Not everyone can say they’ve been to the Big Apple, but  [ ROBIN NGUYEN ], a [ THIRTY ] year-old [ CISWOMAN ] has lived in [ MANHATTAN ] for [ SIX YEARS ]. This is the city of dreams and [ SHE ] knows it, because they came to NYC to be a [ STUDENT AT COLUMBIA, TURNED STRIPPER TO PAY OFF HER STUDENT LOANS POST-GRADUATION ]. Well, that and as an [ STRIP CLUB ELMPLOYEE ] to [ LUKAS “LUCIFER” VALE ]. Living in the city means they meet all kinds of people, but everyone always seems to think they look like [ KARRUECHE TRAN ]. They even got away with free cab fare once because of it!

BASICS + full name: robin nguyen nicknames:  she tends to go by “moxie” when working, a name earned with the big personality and all the nerve she brings to the table gender: cis female pronouns: she/her age (d.o.b.): march 25, 1991 - aries cultural background: african american & vietnamese hometown: kiind of a loaded question. her father was a marine, so she was never in one place for longer than a few years before his retirement. once her father retired, her family settled in north carolina. current location: robin has been in manhattan since 2016.occupation: stripper / adult entertainer face claim:  karrueche tran sexual orientation: bisexual / panromantic relationship status: single PSYCHOLOGY + zodiac: aries temperament: choleric moral alignment: chaotic neutral myers briggs: entp deadly sin: lust & pride heavenly virtue: diligence +charismatic, sociable, diligent, & adaptable -quick-tempered, impulsive, arrogant & vain A BRIEF HISTORY + the oldest child of the nguyen family, robin was raised bouncing around the states in the typical fashion of a military brat. the longest she spent anywhere growing up was two years, and then they were up and moving again. It made it hard to put down roots, starting over every time she finally started feeling settled. she helped her mother out a lot, considering her father was often busy or deployed, and found herself mothering her younger siblings more often than not. expectations were set high in her family: good grades, extra curriculars, good behavior, all of which were demanded.  with high expectations came high ambitions and a desire to get to the top by whatever means necessary, and robin was raised to accept nothing less than the best for and from herself and from everyone else. she attended duke university for undergrad with pre-law as her major, staying relatively close to home to still visit on weekends and help out with her younger siblings still at home. when applications for law school came around, she shot for the moon and put all her eggs in one basket with columbia. hard work and pure moxie won out in the end, and robin was packing her bags for the big city before long. new york had always been a dream of hers and she had decided within her first week of school that she would be staying. however, big city distractions served to get in the way of her long-term-goals and her ambitions slipped: robin’s ranking continued to decline in law school, and she ended up taking what she declared to be a brief hiatus before she took her bar exam. needed time to study, time to get her ducks in a row. at least that as the story that she swung for her parents, considering she wouldn’t dare tell them the truth. robin wasn’t sure that law was for her after all, and wasn’t about to spend more time and money on a profession she wasn’t sold on. she was hell-bent on remaining in the city she’d grown to love, but waitressing wasn’t paying the bills…especially when those law school student loans came a-knockin’. one job turned into three, and robin hated the idea of working to live instead of living to work and so she put that big brain of hers to use to find a solution out of the mess she’d made. stripping was meant to be a short-term solution, but it ended up turning into something more of a preferred occupation. robin had never been shy about her body, had a personality that could lure people in, and the cash flow was better than she ever could imagine. the bar exam was tabled, potentially permanently, with tips from a week paying her bills for the entire month and then some.