DING ! goes the bell to the front door of 'GROOVES' , alerting the store that someone is entering — entering, and probably going 'what the hell?' at the fact that there's nobody there to attend them since the cashier is sitting on the floor, all huddled up next to the JUKEBOX. she's got a backstage pass around her neck from the previous night, DARK circles, and a glitter-covered face from her smeared makeup. she thought nobody would come in, not this early, and that she'd have time to compose herself before the first customer. she was wrong. she groans, holds her hands up in 'surrender', and then talks: “ okay, okay, you caught me — ” she stated, trying to keep her voice at a playful state, since she knew she'd messed up. “ y' gonna let me walk to the back of the desk, introduce myself, and pretend it didn't happen… or tattle to the manager about me? ball's on your court! ”
( ellie bamber, 23, cis female, she/her ) RHIANNON 'RHIA' ANDREWS has been living in Point Place for TWENTY THREE YEARS. Their favorite song is KILLER QUEEN BY QUEEN. They’re currently up to WORKING AT THE RECORD STORE, but they’d rather be ATTENDING CONCERTS. First impressions usually stick around here, and others describe them as EASY GOING, CHARISMATIC AND 'WILD'. Stick around to get to know the real them. ( sky, 21, GMT-3, she/her )
☆ born to carefree, and self-proclaimed hippies during the 60s, parents -- rhiannon was given a childhood that would set her up for what the rest of her life would be like. david & johanna instilled the basical morals & values that you'd teach your child if you wanted them to grow up into a decent person, but apart from that? they didn't believe or rules. or limitations. there was absolutely no pressure from either of them to go into a specific path. she didn't even have a curfew. they wanted her to have fun. enjoy life. and discover herself.
☆ this sounds cool, right? the other kids sure thought so! they always complained about how jealouss they were of her. and it is, in a way. it's something rhia talks about fondly, says how it made such an independent person out of her. how it made her 'free'. but, in the back of her mind, it's always nagged her. she wishes they'd given her some structure, and acted like parents instead of friends -- it bordered on neglect, at times, and made her feel like they didn't really care about her.
☆ in the end, it didn't really matter. because, whatever she didn't get at home, she got outside of it. she was the type of girl to have a lot of friends, back at school. popular, but kind. kind, but not boring. that sort of thing. she got along with all sorts of groups of people, not sticking to one -- mostly because she changed her personality around to suit whoever she was around with. that way, they'd find her cool. and, that way, she'd have attention on her. after all, why be yourself when you could play along with people's dreams and ensure their love?
☆ this is a behaviour she carried into adulthood. old habits die hard. she doesn't even know who 'herself' is, anymore.
☆ a little bit before her senior year of high school, she picked up at job at grooves, the record store. she was starting to think long term, so she figured she'd start saving up money /now/. it was easy enough. cashier. say hi, learn to work the register, wrap up the product -- and just hang out by herself, when no one was around. a good experience, to set her up.
☆ in fact, it was so good she grew to love it! she offered to close the store more often than not, and work late shifts. she liked to sit on the floor, and go through the records. use the jukebox to listen to them for free, because employee's benefit (not really, her manager wasn't aware, but she reckons he didn't care). she discovered a bunch of bands that way, and had a rerun of a few that her parents used to play in the living room when she was a kid.
☆ suffice to say, the money she'd been saving up ended up going to concert tickets. if she liked it enough, she just HAD to go and see them live! whenever they showed up in town, anyways. she wasn't invested enough to travel yet. but, when she was, she took rides with other in vans with people who were going to the same location as her.
☆ she graduated, and decided she was happy enough with her job -- happy enough to stay in it, and not pursue further education. she'd been there long enough for the manager to be fond of her, and allow her to get away with some stuff. that, and she wanted to devote herself to music. not participate in it, per se, but support those who did. live it. dance to it all night. if that were a career, she'd be employee of the month!
☆ her parents helped her with enough money to buy herself a tiny apartment, and bid her goodbye (it didn't feel like she was living there anymore, anyways, so not much changed). not too expensive, but not completely cheap. she was able to keep up with rent, and support her 2 cats (who started off hiding, but then were just accepted by the landlord because it'd been too long by the time he found them).
☆ she's known around the world of music just by how often you can find her in the audience, and backstage (she almost always has a pass around her neck). it's reached a point where she gets tickets for free, sometimes, and she's been seen numerous times in magazines just standing in the background chatting with band members. her flashy, glittery makeup, COLORFUL clothes (feather boas, mini skirts, platform boots, flowy dresses) & red hair don't allow her to go unnoticed -- but no one really knows who she is. she's been mentioned, at most, as 'a mystery groupie'.
