Post by Rio Adams on Jan 11, 2011 14:16:23 GMT -5
- Other characters: Dominic de Vere, Daniel de Vere, Asher Kingsley and Reese Lovera.
1. Name: Rio Adams alias Rio Vance
2. Age: 19
3. Occupation: Student
4. Biography:
Army brat. Loser. Fag. Freak. Those are just some of the labels Rio Adams has been called over the years, and not a single one of them has managed to define him a single bit better than any the rest have. For while they all contain a grain of truth, there's still so much more to Rio than that, and he would never define himself through terms so simple. Or cheap, for that matter.
Let's start with the "army brat", shall we?
Indeed, that would perhaps be one of the slightly more extensive ones, because while he might be far more than that, he is also just that; a so-called army brat. With his part American, part Italian father working as a training officer in the US Army, Rio grew up on various military bases around the country, him and his mother following his father to live with him wherever he happened to be stationed. East coast, west coast, north, south, he's seen them all. Although many of them remain a blur in his memory, because to a child, it's really not all that important where you live, just that you have your parents with you, and friends to play with. As a child, Rio always did. Having had to go through the process of making new friends all over again as soon as they arrived at a new base, he'd soon grown to become a fairly confident and outgoing boy, and it never took him more than a day or two to find someone to play with. And someone to get up to nothing good with. Despite his parents' strict discipline and high morals - or rather, his father's, as he was the man of the house, and his mother was more of a demure and submissive housewife - Rio just loved causing mischief and go on adventures. Never really anything truly bad or dangerous, but just the usual children's games. Sure, whenever caught it tended to result in lenghty lectures, punishments such as being grounded, and also the occasional spanking or belting, and while especially the latter might have a rather dampening effect on his spirits, it never lasted more than a few days.
Next in line; "loser"?
Well, that one would be among the more debatable ones. It isn't that Rio is in any way dense or unintelligent. That has nothing whatsoever to do with the average (at best) grades he got in school. He was a bright boy, who over the years grew up to be a bright young man. But with the constant moving around and the school hopping that came with it, it was always difficult for him to achieve anything even resembling a consistency in his education. Every teacher had their own way of doing things, every class had their own pace, which in the long-run meant that Rio kept going back and forth between being far ahead of everyone, and being far behind everyone. Only rarely did he manage to fall into the same place of learning as the rest of his class. Though granted, with the rest of the kids in the class also being army brats, sometimes there really wasn't any place to fall into, since the majority were having the same problem.
So, Rio's bad, barely passing grades were never a reflection of his intelligence, but rather a reflection of his outward circumstances, and the resignation and disinterest that eventually came with it; after all, if all his hard work to keep up was only going to turn out to be for nothing the next time they moved, why bother with it?
That brings us to "fag".
Now that one, is true. There's no denying that. Although Rio himself would prefer simply "gay", since "fag" tends to bring with it this huge pile of preconceived notions that he's feminine and acts like a girl, and that when speaking, he sounds like a grade A bimbo on speed. He may be slender and somewhat delicate, but he is still most definitely a guy. A guy that just happens to be attracted to other guys. It's as simple as that.
At least, it is these days. It wasn't always.
By the age of fourteen, he'd had a couple of encounters with girls. Fairly innocent encounters, but no less of a romantic kind because of it. Sort of. At the time he'd thought it'd been romance. There had been a kiss or two exchanged between himself and a couple of girls since the age of twelve, and he'd even "gone steady" with one of them for a few weeks. And all the while, he'd been thinking that even though the feeling of pressing his lips carefully against a girl's was nice, it was just that; nice. Nothing more. The fireworks and all the other hoopla everyone was talking about, just wasn't there for him. Instead, he found himself far more intrigued by the idea of kissing another boy, wondering to himself what'd it be like, and trying to picture himself doing it. There was this boy down the street at the time, Cale, whom Rio hung out with quite a bit, and who had the most inviting pair of lips Rio had ever seen. Though he never acted on it. Boys who kissed other boys just weren't "right in the head", as he'd heard his father say once, and so Rio tried his best to ignore those urges. But, on his fifteenth birthday, it all became painfully clear to him that wrong or not, he didn't like girls. As a birthday present, Vicki, the sixteen year old girl from next door, had dragged him away from his own party and up to his room, and started asking him all kinds of questions about whether he'd ever done this or ever done that to a girl, only to then announce that she wanted to be his first. "Awkward" didn't even begin to describe the situation when despite her best efforts to turn him on, nothing really happened, and Rio eventually managed to escape, his cheeks flushing red in embarrassment, and humiliation.
Six months later, he announced to his parents that he was gay. Shortly after his birthday, with the memories of how flustered and distressed he'd felt with Vicki still haunting him, he'd ventured off the base, and caught the bus into town, and there sought out this club he'd heard of, notorious on the base for the "perversion" that went on in there. Although far too young to enter, he'd hung around outside, watching the people who came and went, and putting himself in the middle of it. It hadn't been long before he'd caught the interest of a young man, and eventually ended up in the alley around the corner, making out. And, with the fireworks and the excitement he'd never felt with girls now surging through him, that's when he knew. He was most definitely gay.
It took him another few months to work up the courage to come out, but despite his mother's crying and wailing, and his father's fit of anger - later to cool to a simmering resentment as soon as the subject came up - he's never regretted it.
And as for "freak"?
Well, that one started occurring right after "fag", and so had more to do with that, than with Rio himself; people so hopped up on prejudice that anything that made you different from them, made you an alien. A freak. Rio's used to it by now, and tries to not let it get to him. And with the fairly recent change of enviroment, that came with starting college a year ago, he's now surrounded by people who are generally a bit more openminded, and less judgemental.
5. Additional info:
Is a photography major.
Is friends with Lara Abbott. They met as a result of her being made his mentor when he first started college.
A few months into his first year at college, he was approached about doing a bit of modelling/acting for a gay oriented porn site specializing on young emo guys and ad-lib pictures/videos. He eventually accepted, more out of curiousity than anything, but turned out to quite enjoy it. By now, he's one of the site's main features, going by the alias Rio Vance. However, his family doesn't know, nor do most of his friends.
Knows he has an older half-sister somewhere, from one of his father's earlier relationships. He knows her name is Lavinia, and has for various reasons (partly because of the things he's been told by his father, and partly because of his own research) come to suspect that it might be none other than Lavinia Sinclair, of Deus Ex Machina.
His current boyfriend is Brad Dreyer, the 24 y/o bassist in Tears of Andromeda; a somewhat known emo band, who are making their first appearance at the Syrinx Music Festival this year. However, their relationship has yet to make it into the media, since as "just" the bass player of a small band, Brad's lovelife yet isn't of very much interest to the press.
6. Picture:
7. Name of portrayal: Alex McKee
8. Questionnaire:
(He's not a performer at the festival, but he is an artist of sorts, and he does have fans, so...
)Name: Rio Vance
Nickname: none
Instrument: Eh... myself? And others? ;-)
Previous bands: none
Siblings: Remains to be seen
Food of choice: Mexican
Drink of choice: Chai latte. If alcoholic, Long Island Iced Tea
Weapon of choice: I'm part Italian, so I figure I'm expected to say Beretta here?
Accessory of choice: Belts and belt chains. And my camera.
Movie of choice: Memento. And Fight Club. I like movies that mess with my head.
Most inspirational artist (musician or not): Anton Corbijn
Never goes on stage without: I don't go on stage, but if I did, I'd never do it without a crowd!
Lucky charm: Thin leather strap bracelet on my left wrist.
Preferred time of day and why: Every time of day has it's charm, though I tend to like the evening; no classes!
If in an emergency, the one person you'd first think to call, and why: Depends on the situation,
but either my boyfriend or my dad. We're not all that close, but he's good in crisis situations.
Personal quote: "Wait, is that my ass?" (Don't ask!)
