Right place, wrong time.

BASICS

NAME: Andrei Asimov NICKNAME: N/A AGE: 21 SEXUALITY: Bisexual BIRTHDAY: January 8th ZODIAC: Capricorn JOB: Shop assistant at Castoffs

BACKGROUND

Born the 8th and final child to a diplomat and his socialite wife, life had been easy for Andrei. Despite how many Russians living in the USSR struggled his family saw wealth greatly due to his father's social status and position in the government at large. As a result there was a tremendous pressure to uphold the family's reputation that fell on Andrei and all of his siblings.

Academics were highly important as well as pursuits outside of education that were considered prestigious. Some of his older brothers went into politics to follow in their father's footsteps. Another became a writer for a major newspaper in Moscow, his sisters went into ballet or opera or some other form of the arts.

By the time Andrei came along there were few accolades left that the Asimov family achieved. It came as no suprise that at the ripe age of four years old Andrei was enrolled in figure skating lessons. Whether Andrei was naturally talented or simply a product of repetition and countless hours of practice is unclear but he quickly surpassed his peers and it become very clear that skating was his niche and at the age of eight he got partnered up with another promising young skater named Svetlana and proceeded to train as a duo from that day forward.

Andrei and Lana competed all across the country throughout their teen years and the older Andrei got the more competitive he became. The pair of skaters had formed of a name for themselves in the skating community and showed a lot of promise. All of that came to a halt at the 1996 Russian Figure Skating Championships, it was only their second year qualifying for the championships but remarkably the pair placed 10th overall at the age of nineteen and nerves were at an all time high. It's unclear exactly what happened on the ice that night but Andrei had been unable to catch Svetlana during a trick the had practiced hundreds of times. That one misstep resulted in her falling on the ice and causing a spinal cord injury.

Their skating career was immediately put to a halt and Andrei was wracked with guilt as it became unclear whether or not she would ever be able to return to the ice in a capacity needed to compete. Andrei stayed by her side as she learned to walk again and went through grueling physical therapy as she hoped to regain her ability to skate again. However somewhere along the line in her recovery she fell pregnant with her longtime boyfriend at the time. The swift marriage that followed and the birth of her daughter had been the final nail in the coffin and she put her skating career behind having never gotten the clearance to skate again.

Even though he'd seen it coming and felt deep down that Svetlana was going to leave the competitive skating world behind that didn't make the blow any less hard for Andrei. While he could've continued on and found a new partner with ease his heart was no longer in the sport. Having skated with Svetlana for over a decade made it impossible for him to see himself continuing on with out her and at the age of 20 he formally put himself into retirement.

While his parents were not thrilled at Andrei quitting skating they weren't surprised and were surprisingly more understanding about his decision probably due to the fact he was the baby of the family. Still it was hard to remain in Moscow after making his decision and feeling like a waste of potential. On somewhat of a whim Andrei decided to move to America. It was easy enough with his father's diplomat status to get him a visa to live in the states and Andrei chose L.A. for no reason in particular other than he knew that's where Hollywood was.

BASICS

NAME: Pascal Gallo NICKNAME: Paz AGE: 25 SEXUALITY: Bisexual BIRTHDAY: October 31st ZODIAC: Scorpio JOB: Shop assistant at Wheel of Fate

BACKGROUND

Pascal's story starts nearly 130 years ago in Italy. His great, great, great grandfather had the reputation of being a crook and in general not a positive person in his community. He was a scam artist and one fateful day he swindled a woman who would eventually be his downfall. The woman claimed to be a witch and put a curse on his him and his lineage condemning them to an eternity of misfortune. His great, great, great grandfather was a man of science and didn't believe in such fanciful things as magic and had chalked it up to nothing more than the ranting and raving of a scorn woman. Still, whether it was an unfortunate coincidence or truly divine intervention the man was trampled by a horse and killed not even 2 days after he'd been cursed.

It seemed this curse had some validity to it and continued to be passed down from generation to generation. While unfortunate events happen to everyone the Gallo family became convinced that every tragedy and misfortune was a result of their family's wrong doing and became a self fulfilling prophecy for the family than anything actually founded in reality.

When it finally came Pascal's turn to inherited the curse the moment he entered this world. He arrived five weeks premature and was born on Halloween after his mother had to have an emergency C-section. He spent his first few weeks of his life in an incubator and his early arrival had put a strain on his already struggling family.

From a very young age Pascal was told about the family curse and it soon became his scapegoat in life just as much as it was for his father. They never had much money and his father was constantly losing his job which he blamed on everything else besides his drinking problem. Which ultimately led to his father dying at the age of 47 due to alcohol related complications when Pascal was 20 years old.

While Pascal had fumbled and felt he was more unlucky than any of his peers his entire life the death of his father shaped his life in a completely different direction. It was the first time he really questioned the validity of this so called "curse" and had mixed feelings about the way in which his father passed. To him it seemed like everything that led up to his father's death had been of his own doing.

Now five years after his father's passing quite a bit has changed in his life. He continues to live in L.A. but has a completely different circle from the people he used to hang out with when he was younger. He had very few people he knew that had lost a parent so young and he had not many of his peers showed up for him in his time of need. He tries not to feel jaded about it.

BASICS

Name: Stephanie Larson Nickname: Steph AGE: 27 SEXUALITY: Straight-ish/perpetually questioning BIRTHDAY: February 15 ZODIAC: Aquarius JOB: Assistant Manager at Captain's Quarters

BACKGROUND

Stephanie was born in Omaha, Nebraska. She has no recollection of living there having moved to Los Angeles at the age of three. All that she's learned about the state comes from her yearly visits with family and the casseroles her mother still makes today. She thanks her lucky stars for not having to grow up in Nebraska because she finds it the most boring place in the entire world.

With a small loan from her grandparents her father wound up opening a furniture store. Having spent his entire life in a landlocked state he leaned in heavily to all things nautical and ended up naming the store Captain's Quarters. Stephanie finds the name incredibly tacky and hates all the wooden anchors and Captain's wheels that decorate the walls of the store.

Stephanie's childhood was nothing remarkable. She had a stay at home mom and a dad who came home at 7 PM each night and she had a very nuclear upbringing. When she entered school things remained just as normal. She got okay grades, had a social life, and never had to want for anything.

Things only really started to take a turn once she entered high school. Once the angst of puberty hit and she started drawing the attention of boys she stripped her "good girl" personality she hadn't even known she'd developed.

At 15 she picked up smoking and not soon after she started smoking weed and drinking at parties. She'd started sneaking out almost nightly just because she wanted to and because no matter how many times her parents "grounded" her the punishments never stuck. She found herself getting wound up in a lot of flings with older guys she hoped would flourish into something but only ended up giving her the reputation of being easy-- a title she's yet to shake to this day.

College was never in the cards for Stephanie even though her parents could easily afford it. She hated school and had no real desire to get a proper career because she knew eventually she'd wind up taking over the furniture store. Besides, why would she move out of L.A. the best place in the world? She thought maybe she'd become an actress or something to escape her fate of selling recliners and desk lamps forever.