#cb.intro

dezzie was a wild child from birth. her mother said that from the time she could talk she could argue, and when she started walking is when the real trouble began. the girl had a mind of her own from the very beginning and nothing was going to change that about her. 

when she was 4, her dad left. her mother says he just couldn’t handle responsibility, but when she was 6, he got remarried and had another child, forgetting all about her, so there’s always been apart of her that feels as if though it had to do with her. 

from a young age, the girl loved longboarding, surfing, and just having fun. she started smoking weed in high school to help cope with the anger she felt towards herself and her father, and she mellowed out a lot. she still got into fights and was still her usual self, she just didn’t feel as sad all the time. 

when she was seventeen the girl went to a party where she got drunk, and one of the older boys took advantage of her, and posted pics of her online, labeling her as a slut, and easy. it was torment, but the girl knew she only had a little while left of school and she’d come out of it. she never told her mother in fear that it would just make the situation worse. 

she graduated high school and got a job at one of the restaurants around town because she’s afraid to leave her mother alone. she currently still works there, and doesn’t plan on leaving. at this point she’s happy with her life and she doesn’t want to change it. 

introduction

born in portland, oregon, she was raised in an upper class suburban neighborhood. an only child, spoiled and a little bratty, who never heard the word ‘no’ before.

gigi has a passion for music, and she used to be the vocalist in a band she joined during her gap year before college. eventually, the band split up due to relationship drama with her and another band member.

she has a bachelor’s degree in communication, and she is currently working as a radio host at cornell fm. she’s very well liked by her audience and loves her job, though she does miss performing sometimes.

stats.

full name.  jaebeum  “ jovi ”  kuk age.  twenty five birthday.  march 14th gender identity.  cis man  (  he/him  ) element.  water aspirations.  own a hundred house plants, keep a fresh and fertile herb garden.  go vegetarian.  own a art studio.  make his parents proud.  find love.  see the whole world.  collect a postcard from every city he visits.  write a lifestyle blog.   fears.  darkness.  cramped spaces.  credit card statements.  loneliness.  becoming stagnant, giving up on all of his hopes and dreams.  letting his parents down.  never leaving his hometown again.  never finding true love.  losing all of his friends.  

background.

     adopted at a young age, jovi’s spent most of his early years in the united states.  doted and beloved, he did everything he could to please his parent as he chased his own dreams.  theater kid, swim team, and community outreach programs kept him busy through high school, and in college he double-majored in art and business management.  worked shifts at his parents’ yoga studios for extra cash  (  though let’s be real, he has and is riding his parents’ wallets happily ).  around his junior year of college, jovi opted to study abroad and fucked off to anywhere.  first to seoul and tokyo, then europe and southeast asia for a gap year(s).  hopped around the globe on unpaid internships, underpaid “jobs” and parents’ money, barely made time to update his family that he was alive, let alone thriving in the twisted streets of somewhere.  after returning to cornell beach a few months ago, jovi’s slipped comfortably back into his groove  -  or so he thinks.  his parents recently dropped the bomb that his worldly adventures have inspired them and they’re anticipating an earlier retirement than planned.  and guess who they want at the helm of their family business?  

-  moved with his family to cornell at thirteen -  did a year of community college and transferred to a state school.  then, international -  incredibly privileged.  sees nothing wrong with his dependency on his parents, or how he’s used it to his advantage -  not as Woke as you’d think in terms of economic issues -  did a couple of amateur surfing competitions as a teenager.  thought about going pro, but he’s not nearly talented enough at it 

personality.

sun sign.  pisces.  compassionate and artistic, gentle and wise.  overly trusting and escapist, tending to get lost in daydreams and imagination.  likes being alone and soft music.  a little sad, doesn’t know why.  feels at peace by the ocean and, on the outside, is fairly calm.  an incorrigible romantic who’s driven by passion.  surprisingly adventurous, but devoted to his friends.  incredibly expressive and doesn’t shy away from conflict.

moon sign.  leo.  a sunny optimist with a noble air.  generous, proud and loyal.  craves stability but runs from it.  holds onto grudges and is deeply resentful of people who seem to capture the light better than he does.  melodramatic and a risk-taker.  incredibly self-confident, but tender at the heart.  has a lot of bravado and is cheery, but sensitive and can be easily hurt by people he trusts.

chinese zodiac.  pig. simple, honest, and lovely.  sympathetic and understand of others’ problems when they’re open to hearing about them.  quick tempered and a perfectionist. far from frugal, a bit quick to give away or spend the cash in their pocket.  carries a good heart, with a honest and sincere personality.

hobbies.  yoga.  making pottery.  sewing, sketching, and tailoring old clothes.  thirfting.  watching his pet snails.  long walks on the boardwalk and tipping buskers.  boating.  gardening and tending to houseplants.  dying his hair.  catnaps in the middle of the day.  making candles.  going to poetry readings to #feel the vibe and drink expensive whiskey cocktails.  eyeing cheap flights.  planttok.  collecting receipts from nights he wants to remember.

wanted.

rikkie doesn’t really like to remember just how she got here. she doesn’t like to remember the blowout fights with her parents, the stress and support of therapy programs, or the way her shaking hands once did up her school uniform, only to find stability behind the camera. but for the sake of reminding herself that she's not a cloud of smoke who doesn’t exist on this plane sometimes she has to think about it.

the chaos of her upbringing didn’t start at the beginning. when she and her brother were born, they were received by a loving home in the valentine cottages, to two exceptional parents. johnathan marx and mackenzie ess did their best for a long time. they covered the fighting, they put their kids first, they focused on the security of their family. but that facade could only last so long. it wasn’t until the was 12 that she felt that shift. her father moved back to his home town of paterson, nj, while her mother maintained the home and shop in cornell beach. she and her family left, while her mother stayed behind. back in those days, rikkie feared that her mother simply hadn’t tried, hadn’t fought for them to be together, but that wasn’t entirely true. now, as an adult, she had a better understanding of the break down of her family. even though her summers were spent in cornell, it was clear that the longer she left, the more she didn’t want to come back.

the next upheaval was when rikkie was 15. mackenzie got sick, so rikkie and her brother moved back to cornell beach and spent their summers in paterson. johnathan marx was nothing if not loyal, and he had raised his children to be exactly the same way. there were no other options, other than to go back. she wouldn’t be able to handle it if she did. but rikkie has always run like a wind up toy, and the gears were starting to slow down. she wasn’t going to be able to keep going the way she was. the hole that had always been in her chest, that had opened even wider when her family split was starting to get bigger. watching her mom suffer was hard, taking care of her was harder, and no one noticed that she was starting to lose herself in her own mind. food, calories, and exercise consumed all of her free time. she had nothing else to do to cope. she didn’t know where she was going, what she was doing, and no one seemed to notice it anyways. so she found herself on her knees in front of the toilet, praying to a god she didn’t believe in and purging herself of the chaos in her mind, and whatever transgressions she had committed to deserve this fate.

seventeen was a worse year than any had been before it. sweet seventeen was rock bottom for rikkie. her mom’s cancer became metastatic, and within six months, she was gone. her last breath like a whisper of love and light, and somehow the darkness encroached from there, consuming rikkie. destroying her from the inside out. she went back to new jersey, a ghost of her former self, and finally someone noticed her. noticed the way she had wasted away, the way she seemed to suffer. that was the first time she was sent away, truly on her own. residential inpatient program. those three words still make the hair on the back of her neck stand up. it was two days after her eighteenth birthday when her father had the intervention, just short of two months after her mother’s death. she went, she did her best, she really tried to get better. but she wasn’t ready. she couldn’t have been, or at least that’s what she tells herself. because just a year later, it felt like dejà vu all over again. another intervention, another inpatient to php to iop style program, another year lost to losing her mind. another prescription to lexapro; god, it all felt so repetitive. when she finally had the all clear to leave, she did the only thing she knew how to do. she returned to cornell beach, the town she had left behind without so much as a backwards glance, five years prior. she and her brother moved back into her mother’s old home, craving a slower pace to life than what she had back in new jersey. she converted her mom’s old office into a small music studio, a haven in the home she once knew, and hopefully, she can make this work out. but who knows? maybe she’ll just pick up and disappear again.

that wasn't to say her personal relationships didn't feel the wrath of her disappearing act. she had ghosted her former girlfriend (accidentally, but she won't admit it) during an intervention gone wrong. her father confiscated her phone, and it wasn't returned to her until it felt too late to say anything. so instead, she let her believe that she was just done, let her believe she had no explanation for her disappearing act. because rikkie wouldn't be caught dead telling her republican, fire-fighting father about who or how she loved, and she wouldn't talk about her slow descent into madness either. so she let it simmer, because what was the worst that could happen?

chaos bullet points about rikkie

don’t get her started on bagels or pizza

doesn’t like to talk money bc she doesn’t know what to do with it

mom’s from cornell beach, dad is from paterson

kind of a callous bitch. always short, keeps ppl at arms length

doesn’t do vulnerable bc she’s got a ton of issues

literally loves music too much for her own good

bumps so hard to brand new it should be a crime

favorite color is pale yellow

so gay but has no game. literally drools over pretty girls & can’t think

absolute klutz

dumb as fuck when she drinks. climbs on laundry machines, disappears on adventures, will talk in ad nauseam about vines

loves weird jokes. will laugh at literally anything

she ghosted literally everyone after her mom died & just didn't come back one summer because of program

Meet Charlotte Murphy! Almost everybody calls her Charlie, and a select few call her Lottie. 

She is a tomboy, but also not: she owns a pennyboard and she games and she draws but she’s also down for cute make-up and shopping and mimosas because most beer tastes horrible

She is a bit of a wild child, she snuck out a lot in high school to go to the beach with her friends and skateboard, and if you say she won’t be able to do something, she will probably react in a stubborn way and try to do it just to prove that she can

She is an only child of parents who had expectations that were far too high, and behind closed doors she was kinda really unhappy at home... hence the sneaking out and staying up all night playing League of Legends.

She was born and raised in the area, and she loves the beach and running in the sand... but she’s not a surfer, and she keeps meaning to learn but never having the time. However, she did play volleyball in high school.

She has a separate instagram for her art, which has an alright following. She mostly has it just to see how her art style changes and progresses, and also because of those daily challenges that forces her to draw every day and make herself a better artist.

Oh, and she has short hair. She kinda just normally looks like this photo.

Connections: Friends? Ex-classmates? Romantic partners? or exes? Honestly, I hate writing out exact dynamics because it’s so fun to explore and create dynamics together, so um... I guess that’s that!