nice guy

subplot #21 ;

muse 2q and their band – achilles antinous andō, muse 2t, alexei rakov and muse 2v have been making waves in the music industry since moving to new york city three years ago. they’ve got a good thing going with appearances in vanity fair’s time capsule series and a featured spread in rolling stone magazine. but when their manager brings in muse 2r, a singer-songwriter with budding talent, tensions start to rise. muse 2r’s free-spirited and impulsive quickly makes them a fan favorite. muse 2q can’t stand them. the constant clashes have led to writer’s block, plummeting ticket sales and canceled shows –– putting the band’s success at risk. and to make matters worse? drama is brewing with the rest of the band. achilles antinous andō and muse 2t are secretly hooking up, worried about the band’s reaction if they find out. alexei rakov is hiding a secret that could potentially ruin their career if it gets out. and muse 2v? they’re jealous of muse 2q’s success and wants what they have. tensions continue to mount and the band’s future hangs in the balance. can they learn to work together and put their differences aside? or will personal drama and clashing egos seal the band’s fate?

muse 2q  –  open. muse 2r  –  open. muse 2s  –   achilles antinous andō. muse 2t  –  open. muse 2u  –   alexei rakov. muse 2v  –  open.

basic stats ;

⟶ full name: alexei antonis nikos rakov ( first name pronounced ah-lek-say, or click here for pronunciation ) ⟶ nicknames: likes alexei, but doesn’t mind being called alex considering over 90% of the people he meets don’t know how to pronounce his name ⟶ three things he likes: instruments of any kind, summers in greece, olives ⟶ three things he dislikes: people who just want sex, slow wifi, the instability he’s felt his whole life ⟶ gender: cis male   ⟶ height: 6 ‘ 0 ⟶ age: 26 ⟶ birthday: february 19, 1997 ⟶ zodiac: pisces sun ( aquarius - pisces cusp, known as the ‘cusp of sensitivity’ ), cancer moon, virgo ascendant   ⟶ right handed or left handed: left handed   ⟶ eye color: hazel, shooting more towards green, shifts depending on the lighting ⟶ hair color: naturally blonde, constantly dyes it from blonde to black and back and forth ⟶ piercings and tattoos: left ear pierced, little music symbol on his right wrist ⟶ languages spoken: russian ( father’s native tongue ), greek ( mother’s native tongue ), decent spanish and english   ⟶ sexuality / romantic orientation: demisexual / homoromantic  ⟶ place of birth: manchester, england ⟶ last five songs listened to: time by pink floyd, vitamin c by can, für elise by beethoven, méditation from thaïs by massenet, happiness is a warm gun by the beatles ⟶ five aesthetics: the intense feeling of feeling unworthy of being loved by anyone, shirts stained with black hair dye, a soft british accent, peach flavored tea and fat free biscuits, crying over things you have no control over ⟶ character inspo: prince willhelm from young royals, charlie spring from heartstopper, adam groff from sex education ( season 3 adam )

background story ;

alexei was born on a cold night in manchester to nikola ganos and sergei rakov, two twenty year olds who fell in love through music. his mother was a famous piano player ( think maybe like yiruma or ludovico einaudi ) while his father was getting more of a name for himself as a cello player. both classical musicians who fell in love and had alexei, very unexpectedly 

his parents are both really well off. his mother’s side owns one of the biggest olives and olive oil companies in europe while his father’s side owns plenty of vodka brands originated in russia but sold all across the world. they were young, but they knew their son would be coming into the world very well off financially, planned to give him the perfect childhood, even got married when he was merely five months old

and for the first six years of alexei’s life, that’s what it was. two parents who were devoted to him and wanted to give him the best life possible in england, even though neither one of them were british. but as he went from six to seven, all that love his parents had for each other seemed to dissolve more and more each day. his beautiful early childhood turned into him listening to his parents fighting constantly, and even though he was so young, he couldn’t help but ask himself – where did my parents’ love for each other go?

and if you guessed it, they ended up getting a divorce when he was barely seven, but the thing is… his parents weren’t like normal parents. it wasn’t the typical case of custody with one parent while the other has visiting rights, or even shared custody of 3 days a week here, and four days a week there, or even complete custody of him to just one parent, no, his parents were determined to fight for hm until the bitter end

it turned into a game of who alexei liked more, they couldn’t even stand to be in the same room together, and it was really difficult to tell a little kid ‘who do you love more?’ or ‘who do you want to live with more?’ or ‘you have to pick’ or even just his father trying to put him against his mother while his mother did the same thing to him with his father. sometimes, alexei felt like they didn’t even really love him, but just wanted to prove to the other that he could love one or the other more

eventually, they settled for custody in the worst way possible. alexei would live with his mother for six months, then he would live with his father for six months, and maybe this wouldn’t be so awful if they both decided to stay in england, live maybe a city or two away from each other, but no, definitely not. they immediately left his birth place, his mother going back and forth between greece and spain, while his father traveled from canada to russia repeatedly, and well… this is what alexei’s life became

maybe to some people, it might sound ideal. not staying in one place for too long, constantly moving from one city, knowing you wouldn’t be staying there for longer than six months, perhaps to any traveler, this is the dream life, but that certainly wasn’t the case for alexei

this going back and forth put a serious strain in every aspect of his life. he would enroll in a school, make a friend or two, only to be ripped away from that scene for the following six months to go to another school, halfway across the world, for the same thing to happen to him, over and over again

and the worst part was that his parents didn’t seem to understand that it didn’t make him happy, all the going back and forth. he was unstable, he didn’t even know how to really talk to people at one point, because he knew deep down, that there was no use in trying to make any friends if it would just be taken away from him sooner or later

basically, a loner. he spent most of his childhood to early teenage years dodging conversations, definitely ate his lunch in the bathroom vibes. the only consistency his parents had was their love for music, which, is the one thing that did make alexei happy. he was a virtuoso. from the piano, to the cello, to the bass, even the drums, saxophone and viola, he loved it all, though his true love was in the guitar, and more especially, the violin. he grew a real love for this, had multiple instruments at his mother’s and multiple instruments at his father’s, again, the one consistency in his life

while he wasn’t big on singing, he basically had the voice of an angel. could switch from a soft tone to a rather loud one, a male soprano range… truly a gift, tried to break glass to see if it was true and it in fact, wasn’t a myth ( at least in his case ). pretty much any orchestra teacher’s wet dream, a typical band nerd

anyways, when he was sixteen, he convinced his parents to enroll him in a boarding school in los angeles, very pca from zoey 101 vibes, and they surprisingly agreed since it was neither with his mother nor his father, but a spot in between. for the last two years of high school, he had some type of stability

though, during his senior year, he became the talk of everyone through the most unfortunate event. simply put, alexei met a guy. at this time, he wasn’t even really sure of his sexuality. he figured he wasn’t straight, but he didn’t think it was just that. he felt like there was more depth to what he liked and didn’t like, but this guy was charming. gave him attention, treated him kindly, and he was incredibly good looking. this was his first relationship ever. prior to this, he shared his first kiss when he was fifteen with a random girl near his mother’s house in athens, and simply put, he didn’t like it

this was different though. he enjoyed kissing him, but he didn’t feel like doing anything else but that, and the more the guy insisted they take it further, the less inclined he felt to give him what he wanted

alexei, however, is a people pleaser. he didn’t want to have sex with him even though at this point, they had been dating for well over two months. he didn’t know why he didn’t want to, he couldn’t pinpoint why having sex was such a weird and touchy subject for him, but basically, he felt, in a way, guilt tripped by this guy. it was the constant questioning of ‘why don’t you like me?’ or ‘what’s wrong with you?’ or even ‘i promise i’ll make it worth your while’ and one day, they both get drunk and even though alexei has been drunk plenty of times before, well, he caves, instantly lives to regret it

the following day, as he’s walking towards his first class, people are whispering about him, not so discreetly pointing, giving him looks, and it takes him a matter of fifteen minutes from getting to his first period before one of his friends sends him a text message with a link attached, much to his horror. the message reads ‘is this you?’ with a link to a video. the video is them having sex the night prior

he had filmed it all and posted without his consent. they were both of age, but it literally made alexei sick to his stomach. for one, he felt really used, and two, he hated the attention this was getting him. he’s always been one to fly under the radar, and now this was all anyone was talking about, lost count over how many times he’s cried over this

the following months reaching towards graduation are literal hell for him. the video gets to his parents which is quite literally his worst nightmare become a reality. legal action is taken and they thankfully manage to remove the video from the web completely, but the damage has already been done, he’s miserable. worst graduation ever, doesn’t even walk the stage because he’s just so humiliated, and for once in his damn life, he wishes he would have been in that constant moving back and forth life. maybe then, he could’ve ran away from the problem the second it started, sad boy hours, really

after graduation, he immediately moves out of california. for about two years, he just travels. ironic considering it’s something he didn’t like to do when he was younger, but at that point, he just wanted to get away from everything

anyways, he’s twenty three when he finally moves to new york, settling there for good. models on and off, plays the violin at the subway for fun, lives off his mother and father’s money until eventually, he starts making it on his own, with his talent and with the band he’s a part of ( aka the subplot ), things are looking okay, but then you know, they’re not

moral of the story is once again, he meets a guy ( notice how nothing good comes from him meeting a guy ever ), when he’s twenty four and the guy is thirty one. this guy is none other than stevie swan, who would basically come to be the equivalent of a young anthony kiedis, pretty much a rock legend, everything he touches musically turns into gold, you get the gist. his band happens to be huge competition for alexei’s band, they’re pretty much meant to not like each other but things take a swift turn

only this time around, despite being a rockstar, well, this guy isn’t a total jerk. everything is kept a huge secret, but stevie never once pressured him into anything. everything went at a pace alexei was comfortable with, he basically ends up falling in love with him, really got to know him, literally became the only person he’s felt comfortable enough to be vulnerable with in every aspect of the word. everything would be great, but like most rockstars, alexei came to know that stevie had a drug problem

the only thing alexei has ever done in his damn life was drink and smoke on occasion. however, as nice as stevie is, he easily influences alexei. at one point, they’re both doing drugs together, every minute of the day

it seems like they have everything under control, until one horrible morning of partying too hard later and when alexei wakes up beside him, stevie is gone. died in his sleep from an overdose, and alexei was so out of it himself, he didn’t even realize, not until it was too late

this is where the secret from his subplot comes in. he got so nervous from seeing the scene before him, not only did he have a major panic attack, but he left without saying anything. not a phone call, nothing, just panicked big time and left in a fountain of tears, wasn’t spotted by anyone. this happened when he was twenty five, about a year into their secret romance

the headlines were big, all over the place, rock legend stevie swan dies of an overdose, all of which he was around for, but didn’t do anything about it. this is his secret, that he woke up to this scene and just left. he’s kept this a secret for a while now, as he knows it could potentially ruin his bands career and that’s the last thing he wants, but truthfully, he doesn’t know how to say it. that moment was so traumatizing, it’s difficult for him to even think about it without getting teary eyed, let alone talk about what happened. now the question is, will this come back to bite him in the ass, or can it somehow stay concealed for the rest of time?

headcanons ;

natural blonde, but constantly dyes his hair black, then switches. dying his hair is almost therapeutic for him, has even gotten buzzcuts during times where he was really depressed, but he prefers longer hair

regarding the gossip in his app, it’s totally true. he went to go visit stevie’s grave and didn’t know he was photographed, played it off as him paying his respect but little do people know, that was basically the love of his life

the guitarist of the band from the subplot, back up vocals here and there, first time he feels like he actually belongs somewhere, even though he’s hiding a big secret from all his bandmates

he has a british accent, literally nicholas galitzine’s voiceclaim. not too strong, but it’s there

speaks russian with his father in absolute shame, my guy is definitely free ukraine all the way, just wants peace and love

because of his past relationships, he has a very difficult time trusting people, loving people, or even allowing people to love him. the whole idea with love really confuses him. it’s something he wants, but it isn’t something he’s sure he understands, and he hates not understanding things

has been confused with his sexuality his entire life! he’s always felt like an outcast around other guys his age because they all typically wanted sex, meaningful, meaningless, just a typical guy thing, and that definitely didn’t apply for him. for ages, he thought there was something wrong with him, but it wasn’t until he learned about demisexuality that he finally understood… kind of. he just wants it to be meaningful, wants to have a connection with the person, the idea of meaningless sex and hookups literally makes him super uncomfortable, but it’s what most people seem to want these days

his drug phase with stevie was short lived. after the incident, he stopped completely. literally even smoking weed gives him anxiety, but he can drink. call him a typical russian or whatever, but it’s crazy how much he can drink, can practically outdrink anyone, no one believes it but it’s very true, tolerance through the roof, doesn’t even get sick and rarely ever even gets hungover, but he doesn’t make this an everyday thing

his dirty habit, one that he’s definitely ashamed of, is every now and then, he’ll smoke a cigarette. definitely not those pack a day smokers and really not even a regular smoker? he kind of just does this when he’s really stressed, depressed or angry. think like amy santiago from brooklyn 99, not a heavy habit but when he’s going through some bullshit, he’ll have one, definitely trying to outgrow that habit though

he’s a pescatarian! probably will never become a vegetarian because he loves salmon way too much, loves salmon in every form possible. meat and chicken gross him out and he doesn’t like eggs either, just fish, heavy seafood lover

close friends of his roast him for this, but he’s an olive fanatic as well. greek olives, peruvian olives, spanish olives, any type of olives, he’s obsessed. when he was younger, there was always olives at his house, because of his mother’s company, and he would dead ass eat them out the jar, finish the entire jar in like five minutes, still does that to this day. at his house, you’ll likely find two large jars of olives, minimum, a snack he will never get tired of

he likes to write music too, aside from playing instruments. has written a few things for his band, and definitely has unpublished songs he’s written that he’s never shared with anyone

what you would call a typical pisces – very sensitive! he doesn’t show this publicly, but if it hurts his feelings, he’ll cry when he gets home. literally the type to cry over sad videos, movies or tv shows, very emotional. pisces sun and cancer moon combo, he’s a literal mess, he feels things a lot, feels things on a whole different level than most people which makes him a very compassionate and understanding person, definitely a shoulder to cry on, a very loyal friend to have by your side

he forgives a lot. he’ll forgive you time after time after time, but when alexei genuinely gets tired of your shit, you will never hear from him again. he’s very forgiving, but once he says ‘i’m done’ there is no changing his mind. it takes a lot for him to get to this level, but he can only be taken advantage of for so long before he gets sick of it. once you lose him, you lose him for good

he has a bearded dragon named jake long and a beagle named pawl mccartney. he named the bearded after one of his favorite shows as a kid and his pet beagle was named after iconic paul mccartney, of course. jake long is one and pawl is two, alexei adores both of them, pretty much his emotional support animals

loves his parents, but still somewhat holds a grudge over them for his childhood, even though he isn’t one to hold grudges. they definitely messed him up one way or another. even if it wasn’t their intention, being so unstable for so long has kind of permanently scarred him. he has a very hard time getting genuinely close to people, whether it be friendships or romantic relationships, it’s hard for him

super nice guy, but quite literally remembers every bad thing that has happened to him ever. his energy is crying over something that happened when he was a literal child that he had no control of at three in the morning, might as well have the memory of an elephant. he’ll forgive, but he won’t forget, like ‘you remember what you did august 15th, 2016 at 4:57 pm? i do too’ like… isn’t one to hold grudges, but if you thought he forgot, you thought wrong

wanted connections ;

you don’t know that i know: i’d die for this connection, but someone who saw or heard of his sex tape, whether they never tell anyone or act like a little shit about it is utp, but alexei doesn’t know that they know, you know?

you think you can outdrink me?: a muse who thinks they can outdrink him, but they never can, could turn into a whole little competition, could be really funny

classical music lovers: title says it all, two nerds passionate about classical music, bonus if this muse is a fan of his parents or has heard of them

slow love: a poor, unfortunate muse that likes him. they could like how nice and down to earth he is, alexei could even know that they like him, but considering how iffy he is about relationships, well… yeah

all my friends are fake: someone who doesn’t like him because they think his whole nice guy act is fake, or maybe doesn’t like him for whatever other reason

cry baby: another muse who is sensitive like he is, they’re just soft besties and want peace and love, very wholesome friendship

or we can brainstorm!

birthchart ;