folklore

This is...so weird!! We’ll take a look at it, thank you so much!!

✧ I HAD A MARVELOUS TIME RUINING EVERYTHING…

Name: Cristina Mendez (she/her) Birthday: May 22nd, 1964 (24 years old) Faceclaim: Alexa Demie

✧ BEFORE SUMMER 1989

Growing up to a single father with a temper, as a child all they ever thought about was how they planned to run away with their best friend. Escapism was their daydream, and after the reality sunk in that they couldn’t outrun their life, they spent their teenage years rebelling and throwing caution to the wind. Getting hitched on a drunken whim in the summer of 1989, they left The Lakes for good, but not permanently. An unplanned marriage made way for a spiraling divorce that came easy considering they’re an opportunist, on to the next better thing, and had found someone richer and better known to superficially spend their days. Buying a vacation home in The Lakes with their second marriage, their spouse eventually died of a heart attack, leaving them with the house in Nowhere to carry out their days.

✧ AFTER SUMMER 1989

Cristina Mendez was born to be rich. Even before she had enough cents to rub together, she held herself as if she were draped in diamonds and sipping on Dom Perignon. Of course back in the summer of 1989, it was probably a cup of warm beer. The point is, she’s always been destined to live to the fullest. More, more, more and then some! Life is short and you shouldn’t waste one damn second apologising for being alive. She followed her fickle heart, bounced from passion to passion and with her, it was always all or nothing. Cristina was always bold, daring and she could never pass up an opportunity to cause trouble. She’s a bright, sparkling light to be around - for a while. After marrying for the second time to a very rich husband, she got the hell out of Nowhere. She danced, she sang, she acted, she sculpted. Cristina did everything, anything but most of all she threw lavish parties and ruined lives (she has a flare for the dramatic). She looked out for herself above all else which made it hard to ever let anyone all the way in.

She loved, she loved fiercely but when push came to shove, she tended to take the selfish way out. She loved her second husband, even if it wasn’t a fierce, passionate love, but she stayed with him for the security above all else. Her life, his money, it gave her freedom and it made sure her choices would always be her own. She’s not tied down to anyone or anything now which is just how she likes it. Over the years though, Cristina started to feel lonely even in a room full of people, even with a glass full of champagne. She looked over the high walls of her holiday house and felt a little empty. Regretful. Words that shouldn’t be in her vocabulary, ones that never were when she was young. Living in Nowhere kept her close to those memories, it kept her close to her unbreakable bonds with her real Bitch Pack, Mad Woman and Cardigan, and even the bridges she didn’t mean to burn with Seven who always has her heart. Maybe it was regret, maybe it was a longing to have been a better friend, to have just been better, that made her show up at My Tears Ricochet’s funeral. Maybe she just wanted to wear an outrageous hat. Cristina never said which.

✧ PERSONALITY

+ charming, magnetic, passionate  - reckless, fickle, selfish

✧ CONNECTIONS

SEVEN: Their childhood friend with shared secrets and wishing on stars, they were inseparable as kids playing in the grass promising to run away. As they got older Seven stayed soft and childlike and The Last Great American Dynasty made new friends and went wild. Despite an unspoken unbreakable loyalty between the two, they stopped talking not long into high school.

EXILE: A chaotic, stupid, fiery romance that spanned no more than a few months before they got hitched in summer ‘89, Exile was their spouse for five years before their messy and untimely divorce.

Welcome to Nowhere! Time, mystical time, turned the clocks back to the summer of 1989. Stuck in the bodies of your younger selves, there’s one question circling your heads: if one thing had been different, would everything be different today? Here’s the chance to find out. {You have 24 hours to send your blog to the main. Take a look at our welcome page here!} 

001. REWIND

Salt air, and the rust on their door, seeing the town they grew up in rewind back to the colors of their youth. It happens like lightning, fast and bright so that in the mere blink of an eye the people they come to know for decades suddenly look...younger? Soaked in pouring rain from the tropical storm at the funeral, they’re distracted and overwhelmed by the masses of bodies running in every which direction. Ducking to the outsides of storefronts and nearby homes, vintage coats held over their heads for cover, the locals of Nowhere fall into a cacophony of calling out the names of their friends and shrieking at the hard, cold downpour. For a moment, things seem almost normal, but through the crowd their eyes lock with someone from their past, and they squint at the realization that the person looks thirty years younger, and the person squints back in duplicate bewilderment. Pulled from the moment by someone else, it’s just enough to feel less alone. 

It’s been three days since the storm that brought them back to Nowhere 1989. More details below. 

JAMIE LEVINE

INES THOMPSON

IRIS ZHAO

✧ I CAN CHANGE EVERYTHING ABOUT ME TO FIT IN...

Name: Eden Levine (she/her) Birthday: July 15, 1965 (24)  Faceclaim: Natasha Liu Bordizzo

✧ BEFORE SUMMER 1989

Always regular, they grew up in a regular house with regular happy-go-lucky parents and a regular family dog with a regular drama feel childhood. Their parents never asked much from them, their best friend guided them into popularity by association, and they spent their high school years well into their twenties dating the person everyone in town assumed they would marry. Uncomplicated, they laughed at jokes they didn’t find funny, loved parties and bright lights and having fun, were a natural optimist and believer, and scarcely shared their personal thoughts with anyone. If asked who they thought they were, they would hesitate, and it’s a surprise they didn’t break down at any part of their life and unravel into a million pieces. 

✧ AFTER SUMMER 1989

Daughter of Stephen, owner of Nowhere’s only movie theater and resident town uncle, Eden was used to her family being picture perfect and quite popular among other locals at The Lakes. Forever a good girl, she rarely stepped out of line or did anything on a whim, and most if any of her bad decisions were at the influence of their long term best friend My Tears Ricochet. Eden left town long after her younger sister did, and she only did so upon secretly wanting to be a dancer her whole life and getting a letter about an audition in the mail. After weeks of hiding the letter from her family and friends, unsure if she would take the opportunity and unwilling to hear her mother complain about how her favorite daughter should focus on finding a husband and not a silly hobby. After an argument where her younger, and much braver, sister called her out for being a pushover, it was actually the little Levine that was Eden’s final shove out of Nowhere. 

Flying to California for the audition, her lack of technical training and overall nerves led to not getting a call back. Too embarrassed to go home, and slightly liberated by the feel of a new city compared to the quiet customs of The Lakes, Eden stayed a little longer. In an attempt to get on her feet, she started working at a local nightclub as a dancer, though she didn’t ooze sex appeal and appeared consistently uncomfortable. Through her time stripping, fragile glass acting as a reflection for the men that looked at her every night for answers to their boring overpaying business jobs and failing marriages, Eden did make a few solid friends. In a very hustler-esque fashion, she found herself involved in a few money schemes before of course, her elitism and being raised to look for a ‘savior’ in others led her to marrying one of her corporate suit and tie clients and becoming his trophy wife. Pushing out five of his kids and living in a big home with a white picket fence, Eden spent the rest of her life doing exactly what was expected of her, and it’s a mystery if she has any clue who she actually is or if she was ever happy. She moved back to Nowhere in her forties and raised her family there, never telling anyone how her and her husband met, and falling back into the comfort of being My Tear’s Ricochet’s pawn. With a life long friendship under their belt, Eden was devastated at their best friend’s funeral, and there was no question of their attendance. 

✧ PERSONALITY

+ compassionate, gregarious, intuitive  - private, pushover, desperate, chameleon 

✧ CONNECTIONS

INVISIBLE STRING: Their long standing partner, high school sweethearts into their twenties it was expected that these two would eventually marry. Both part of the socialite crowd in Nowhere, it was easy to have a perfect relationship when you have a perfect life. They dated well past the summer of ‘89 and ended things in their late twenties, even if Invisible Strings was cheating on them that summer and Mirrorball to this day doesn’t know. Now that they’re back in time, in order to not appear out of place to the people around them, they’ll have to act up their romance as if they’re in their early 20s again.

MY TEARS RICOCHET: Their best friend, they often find that they bend to the will of this ring master, and act almost as their background singer in life. There is love there and they are close, but at what cost? They remain friends until their old age, but Mirrorball sometimes wonders if their lives would have been different had they stood up to My Tears Ricochet sooner. 

✧ THE WORST THING THAT I EVER DID WAS WHAT I DID TO YOU...

Name: Jamie Levine (she/her) Birthday: November 29, 1967 (22) Faceclaim: Lauren Tsai

✧ BEFORE SUMMER 1989

All about their aesthetic, they were Instagram influencer before Instagram was a concept, with a well loved family in town and a father who founded Stephen’s Movie Theater. They spent their Sundays at Holy Grounds Coffee drinking hot tea in the summer and were known for always having a camera slung around their neck. Living in the moment was their specialty and they rarely thought about the future, including pushing off any questions about what they planned to do with their life. Why did it matter, when they had right now? Their lack of taking things seriously and having a plan left them one of the last people from their youth to get out of Nowhere, trying their hand in New York as a photographer and aspiring filmmaker before returning home to help their father run the theater. They always wondered what their life would have been like if they’d done things differently, but why did it matter, they were happy right? {This role must be played by a female presenting fc}

✧ AFTER SUMMER 1989

To this day in 2020, Jamie Levine can still be found wearing her Levi’s and hanging out at Stephen’s Movie Theater, as she inherited and took over her father’s business. Surely, Jamie did do the whole small town goodbye, college try after the summer events of 1989, taking a leap into her obsessive quality over film, music, and photography and moving to the city that never sleeps in order to completely immerse herself in that world. It was a fun, fancy free life she had there, where she did most of her growing up and finding out who she was and what she was passionate about it. However, after a couple years, she quickly learned that her devoted special interests were just that - and in fact, she actually despised living in New York City. Nothing against the city, one of those ‘it’s not you, it’s me’ situations. She just missed living in her ol’ hometown of Nowhere, USA, and even if that might bring some judgement from her family or friends, Jamie didn’t care and followed her gut anyway.

Throughout the years, Jamie’s dating life was always on and off, jokingly blaming it on poor timing and chemistry. She never ended up getting married. Not that she’s against it. She just never found the right person - or maybe she’d already lost them. As by this point she’s been in town for years, Jamie didn’t think twice on accompanying her older sister to My Tears Ricochet’s funeral, as they were best friends since childhood. Though, she didn’t realize the amount of familiar faces she’d be running into again. This began to bring back past regrets, asking herself questions of ‘what if’ and thinking about all the opportunities she possibly missed out on. And now - Jamie’s back in 1989 all over again. But this time, things are different. Jamie has herself convinced that she truly doesn’t know anything - even when she does - but this time she knows she’s going to take her chances and not things end up like they did before.

✧ PERSONALITY

+ cheeky, amiable, passionate - impulsive, tactlessness, inability to commit

✧ CONNECTIONS

CARDIGAN: A long term secret romance bloomed between these two unlikely friends but when Cardigan went to college and they stayed in town, despite the whispered promises they made, it never felt concrete. After having a summer fling with August only for Cardigan to return for summer break, Betty planned to apologize at Cardigan’s house party before they left for school again, but the moment never came.

AUGUST: August visited The Lakes only one summer and they both felt a connection instantly. Their short lived entanglement was filled with laughter, long drives, bottles of wine, and talking under the stars. August having lived a sheltered life led to Betty being their first everything, and though Betty was never theirs to lose, August was much more in love with the relationship than the other. 

✧ IF YOU NEVER BLEED YOU’RE NEVER GONNA GROW…

Name:  Amity Moradi (she/her) Birthday: October 16th, 1966 (23) Faceclaim: Medalion Rahimi

✧ BEFORE SUMMER 1989

One of many dreams, they always knew they were going to be somebody. Not one to dwell, they live by the motto of taking life as it comes and accepting that nothing is permanent, and love comes second to life. Growing up fairly privileged in a stable home with parents that pushed them, the expectations followed them everywhere. Summer of ‘89 was their last summer at The Lakes before leaving the small town with big city dreams, eventually becoming a famous movie star and a shining face in Hollywood. They’re known in the media as the only good thing to come out of the quiet town Nowhere, USA, which is a lot to live up to. Even though they’re glamorous, loved, and constantly surrounded by people, the influential life can turn out lonely.

✧ AFTER SUMMER 1989

On paper, Amity Moradi is another individual who grew up in a small town with big dreams that she put the work into to come true. She becomes a household name in Hollywood by the time she’s thirty and with each eager interviewer she says each performance is an homage to Nowhere. Nevermind that she seldom visited there despite the mostly happy memories. Life in Hollywood was just so busy, she tells her parents over the phone, knowing they still wished their only child picked a different career path.

Amity walks out of her car after a long ride from the airport, a bit disoriented as it’d be years since she had been home. If asked about why she was back in town for the funeral, she’d tell people it was important to come together during a time of grief or some other perfect, general answer. Although, maybe, after recent events back in California the chance to escape was a saving grace even if it was for a brief amount of time. A break out of the public eye was very much needed, and you know she’ll be there for her friends as well.

✧ PERSONALITY

+ charming, cheeky, expressive - selfish, passive aggressive, dramatic

✧ CONNECTIONS

HOAX: Spending ‘89 in this tell tale romance full of laughter, cocktails, and tossing pennies in the pool, they never did reach the ugly part in relationships, considering theirs ended prematurely when The 1 left Nowhere to pursue their dreams, leaving Hoax in the dust. As far as The 1 is concerned, they had a clean break up and there’s no hard feelings. The pair even kept in touch throughout the years, checking in on each other from time to time, but never rekindling what could have been.

THIS IS ME TRYING: There’s not a local in Nowhere that doesn’t know another local, what with a tiny population size and only one elementary, middle, and high school. However, not everyone is close, and that’s the case for these two opposite sides of the spectrum. They barely exchanged words, but one night that summer, while the two found themselves both looking for privacy at Lover’s Lake, This Is Me Trying breaks down and the only person around is The 1. Moving to comfort them, the other shares a deep secret that The 1 promises to keep. What they do with that information, whether they feel obligated to help, or likely to spread it, is entirely up to them.

✧ WOULD IT BE ENOUGH IF I COULD NEVER GIVE YOU PEACE…

Name: Henriette “Henri" Chestnut (she/her) Birthday: February 24, 1965 (24) Faceclaim: Zazie Beetz

✧ BEFORE SUMMER 1989

As long as danger was near, they never had the courage of their convictions, which meant stability and the craftiness to get what they wanted or needed was at the forefront of their decisions. There wasn’t much integrity to what they would do for their means, but they’ve always been afraid of the unknown. So they breezed through the majority of their lives, bending the rules and thriving off the reputation of their family and friends, in order to get by unscathed. Yet even so, beyond the flaws and complexities that make them an imperfect person, they always sought to be the fire that keeps another brittle heart warm. This became more apparent when they learned they were pregnant with the baby of a casual hookup of three months at the time. All their plans were to give this child all their sunshine, all their best, but as their fear predicted, the rain always comes when you’re standing with them. The sudden loss of their child after an early miscarriage brought the sudden sense of loss for who they were. The first risk they’d ever faced was taken from them, but not without leaving a little room for clarity. The summer of 1989 brought a lot of change and maturity in the details of their life, as they no longer desired to feel small. {This role has to be played by someone who is capable of getting pregnant.}

✧ AFTER SUMMER 1989

After her miscarriage, Henriette was feeling an impossible loss and grieving for this child that she had never met. It was hard to emotionally grapple with, she’d spent her whole life floating on other’s coat tails until that moment, and it was when she needed people most that she truly felt alone. She felt she couldn’t confide in the baby’s other parent, she felt she couldn’t confide in her own parents, she hadn’t even told them that they were going to be grandparents. Instead, she pushed all the pent up emotion down until it spilled out during one day at town hall when she went to contest a parking fine. The Mayor of Nowhere was there that day, he ushered the lost girl into his office and made her tea and let her cry. They talked until she calmed down and when he asked her what she was going to do next, Henri was met with a loss of words and a loss of direction. Feeling sorry for her, he offered her a temporary office job. The temporary job turned into a permanent role when Henri realised that she had a passion for civil service, she wanted to make the world a better place. She wanted to make things better for people like her who were discriminated against by the system.

Eventually, Henriette departed for law school and dropped off of the map for a few years, though she returned to the town when she was offered a job at the only firm the town has. Part of her wanted to stay away, but the city pulled her back. Attending the funeral of The Mayor’s child was a no brainer, they had worked closely and he was the person to give her a chance, to spark the fire in her, she owed him. Though it still felt that part of her was missing, the part that she ignored and pushed down and filled with paperwork and litigation. The unresolved feelings and niggling sense of trauma that didn’t let her get close enough to spark a fire that she so desperately attempted to seek when she was younger.

✧ PERSONALITY

+ headstrong, confident, caring - flighty, indecisive, guarded

✧ CONNECTIONS

EXILE: Being that Exile is Epiphany’s best friend, it was common practice for Peace, Exile, and Epiphany to all smoke together. However, as Exile and Peace grew closer, their friendship grew beyond their common mutual and they’d gravitate to one another more and more whenever they had the itch to talk shit with a friend without judgement.

EPIPHANY: Casual hook ups, Epiphany and Peace discovered a rare closeness within the silent moments in bed that only comes when two people understand each other. However, when Peace discovered being pregnant with Epiphany’s child, the pair were terrified of the prospect of being new parents. Once they finally warmed up to the idea they lost their child, leaving too many unanswered questions in their relationship, and so it was easier to let things fade out.

✧ BACK WHEN I WAS LIVING FOR THE HOPE OF IT ALL…

Name: Ines Thompson (she/they) Birthday: August 31, 1967 (21) Faceclaim: Amandla Stenberg

✧ BEFORE SUMMER 1989

Everyone remembers the magic behind the memories of their first great loves. Salt air, the rust on the door, twisted in bed sheets… for the summer of 1989, a trip planned to visit their cousin in the small town of Nowhere became so much more. A connection as instant as when they met, they were passionately thrust into the middle of summer love full of first times. Or at least, that’s how they saw it, as they are the kind of person to give 100% of their heart, mind, and soul into whatever they do. Meeting new friends, spending days at Lake Always, afternoons walking down Cornelia Street, and nights in long car rides with no destination in particular - this new lease in life made them a huge romantic and optimist. Love had made them live for the hope of it all. However, by the end of the summer, they eventually had to learn one thing and that was the most important lesson, as the other half of what they called ‘us’ had truly never been theirs to lose in the first place.

✧ AFTER SUMMER 1989

Ines knows when they’re not welcome, and it was easy for them to feel a bit ousted the longer they stayed in Nowhere. So they moved out and onward, pursuing a career as an artist on the east coast. Ines made somewhat of a name for themselves in Brooklyn; they cultivated a niche social media following that went out of its way to purchase their unique and often abstract art. Some of Ines’s earliest pieces, though, were inspired by the short time she spent in Nowhere with the connections she created. Art had been their passion at a young age, so it makes sense that the summer of 1989, during their formative years in young adulthood, left an impression on their work. Work and family are their priority; Ines hasn’t properly dated since they were in their thirties, save for awkward first dates with other Williamsburg progressives.

Ines returns for the funeral mostly out of concern for Invisible String. They remained close with their cousin and seeks to continue that support and connection as they embark on their middle-age. Family is a priority to Ines; in 2020 they are a single parent to a twenty year-old daughter. Ines didn’t anticipate they’d be raising a child solo, but since her father left shortly after the pregnancy was announced all those years ago, Ines closed themselves off to all romantic prospects. Raising their child became top priority.

✧ PERSONALITY

+ open-minded, romantic, generous - self-absorbed, stubborn, competitive

✧ CONNECTIONS

BETTY: They met at a summer bonfire by Lake Always, during a daylight outdoor party filled with as much barbecue and booze imaginable. Betty and August hit it off fast, though that can be due to August’s forward nature. They were everything you imagine a summer romance to be, long laughter filled car rides, long wine-flowing sleepovers, and more. Wanting was enough for August. However, one day things ended abruptly between them and as soon as summer love came, it went.

INVISIBLE STRING: The plan for this summer was to come and visit their cousin Invisible String. Even though August got so much more out of the trip, without Invisible String showing them around town and introducing them to other locals in town, who knows if it will have gone as well as it had.

✧ I KNEW YOU TRIED TO CHANGE THE ENDING, PETER LOSING WENDY…

Name: Iris Zhao (she/her) Birthday: February 2, 1967 (22) Faceclaim: Chelsea Zhang

✧ BEFORE SUMMER 1989

Goth, punk, basement music extraordinaire, they built a tough exterior after feeling consistently left behind. It started at seven when their father left their now single mother and never returned to Nowhere, not even for them. Feeling independent from a young age, they drowned themselves in literature and politics, promising they would find a way out of Nowhere, if it was the last thing they did. Finding comfort in the chaos of their messy but lively friend group, they eventually applied to colleges around the US before securing their exit plan. They were visiting on college break that hot summer of ‘89, excited to reconvene with the secret romance of a year and a half, only to find their person had been spending that summer with someone else. {This role must be played by a female presenting fc}

✧ AFTER SUMMER 1989

[TW: Death}

After the summer when Iris found out about BETTY and AUGUST, they took the last train to New York City and returned to college determined to move on. Iris loved college, finally finding a place where being political and being queer was not a point of small-town gossip. She went to protests, drank under streetlights, kissed strangers in downtown bars, and did whatever she needed to move on. Iris graduated with a fine arts degree and split her time between working in a gallery and selling art of her own. People being drawn to her sensual and political commentary on being a queer, Chinese-American woman in the 90′s, and eventually Iris carved out a space for herself in the art and music scene where people took her seriously.

Iris continued her life in the city and eventually moved in with a woman who was proud to be seen with Iris. Despite the stain BETTY left on her heart, Iris finally knew what it felt like to be in deep love with someone who didn’t treat her like a last resort. They were together for the best of two decades until her partner got sick, and Iris had to watch her deteriorate beside her hospital bed. When Gia passed away Iris spent years walking through New York like a zombie, chasing the shadows of her lost love. Concerned for her daughter’s mental health, Iris’ mother insisted she come stay with her. Surprisingly, Iris agreed. For the first time in 30 years Iris returned to Nowhere and used MY TEARS RICOCHET’s funeral as an excuse for her sudden reappearance, afraid that she needed the town more than she cared to admit.

✧ PERSONALITY

+ creative, independent, opinionated - moody, cynical, guarded

✧ CONNECTIONS

BETTY: Their aesthetic and personality foil - that didn’t stop them from drowning in a secret romance, hands under sweaters, woodsy adventures, and playing hide and seek around Nowhere in their separate circles. Betty was the first person to make Cardigan feel like someone’s favorite. They always picked up their little romance, though Betty insisted they keep it private, but the summer of ‘89 had things over before they began.

AUGUST: They didn’t know each other well, outside of knowing August was the cousin of a local visiting for the summer. An unspoken rivalry between the two fell into place when August and Betty started fooling around that summer Cardigan came home. August doesn’t know that Betty and Cardigan were ever a thing, assuming their summer fling with Betty ended over them having to go back home, and is confused as to why Cardigan acted so cold to them.

Welcome to Nowhere! Time, mystical time, turned the clocks back to the summer of 1989. Stuck in the bodies of your younger selves, there’s one question circling your heads: if one thing had been different, would everything be different today? Here’s the chance to find out. {You have 24 hours to send your blogs to the main. Take a look at our welcome page here!}