Post by Emily Moore on Jan 26, 2011 6:59:04 GMT -5
- Other characters: Lavinia Sinclair, Lara Abbott
1. Name: Emily Moore
2. Age: 24
3. Occupation: waitress/barista
4. Groupie to: Icarus (used to be; she still likes their music but has not been to their shows since her break-up with Reese Lovera), Fear Incarnate, Damage (the latter is the main reason why she has come to Syrinx)
5. Biography:
From a fairly young age, Emily was known as “that girl”. The odd one, who could go from being awkward and withdrawn to confronting and even aggressive, known for her unpredictability as well as her general inability to get along with other children. This wasn't for any obvious reason: a reasonably gifted girl from a standard, middle-class New York family, Emily's upbringing did not contain any particularly traumatic events, and her relatives tended to consider her a well-adjusted, if somewhat antisocial girl. Like most adults, they believed she would outgrow it, and paid little mind.
In school, Emily was an outsider: excluded from the “popular” group practically by default, she wasn't enough of an achiever to be considered a geek, nor sufficiently gloomy to be a goth. She did not go out of her way to cause trouble, and despite being a misfit, she wasn't counted among the truly odd and unusual.
Year after year, Emily felt more and more excluded, angry and frustrated at her own inability to be whatever others expected her to be. She wasn't truly anti-social; she simply had not, for some reason or other, learned how to connect with people. The subtle nuances of social behaviour evaded her. Her very bouts of unpredictability that sometimes made little sense to others were a symptom of that fact, Emily's haphazard attempts to find her footing within a social circle that felt awfully confusing and forbidding to her. The fact that she was shunned and even bullied for it did not help.
As Emily matured from a girl into a young woman, and a rather pretty one at that, she was met with a kind of positive attention she was not accustomed to: that of boys. Although strange and a little frightening at first, Emily fell prey to it like many teenage girls do, which earned her an additional reputation: for being easy. It was a bitter pill to swallow, one which Emily felt ambivalent about, not wanting to give in to the belief that she was just being used. That the rumours floating around school were started by those who had it in for her, and that she wasn't becoming known as a slut. She used to immerse herself in music whenever she could as a means of distraction, entertainment and a strange kind of companionship, rarely seen without a pair of headphones in her ears.
Then, in her senior year, things began to change for Emily. She finally found someone she could bond with, forming the first close friendship in her life: a fellow classmate by the name of Penelope, or Penny for short. They were like two peas in a pod, and slowly Emily's confidence grew as her years of loneliness were washed away, to be replaced with the warm comfort of having a friend. Penny, however, would end up being more than a friend, as Emily developed a burgeoning crush on her, thus discovering that she wasn't only interested in boys. One day she gathered her courage and kissed Penny, quite out of the blue and with her heart hammering away inside her chest – to her immense joy, the other girl responded in kind.
They kept their relationship private at first, but as the weeks progressed into months, it became a kind of public secret. Some were curious or surprised, others scornful, but it didn't matter; they were happy. Emily thought she was in love, and it was changing her, little by bit. Although still not the most outgoing person around, she became more friendly and approachable; having the considerably more sociable Penny as a model helped too. It all felt like a dream, but one which ultimately ended with a rude awakening.
One day, Emily walked into the girls' locker room and spotted Penny together with several other girls she'd had many conflicts with. They all looked very chummy, laughing together, which she thought as odd so, out of curiosity, she did not announce herself. Whatever the group was discussing was clearly hilarious and Emily remained unnoticed long enough to hear Penny being commended for rising up to their dare, which had been to “nail Emily Strange *”, and for her girlfriend to demand props for it. Then, they noticed Emily standing there and went quiet, but the contemptuous smirks lingered on their lips as they stared her down, Penny at their front. Emily said nothing; she simply turned on her heel and bolted out of the door.
Penny's cruel deception took a heavy toll on Emily's confidence and self-esteem who reverted to her old anti-social ways now as a means of self-protection as much as anything else, but it wasn't long before she was presented with a second chance, of sorts. A chance not only to forget Penny, but to create a much-needed distance from her past and reputation: college was starting, and Emily was determined to change herself, hopefully for the better. She was then old and mature enough to recognize her past misgivings, as well as being more in tune with other people and their behaviour; although the process was slow and bumpy at first, Emily gradually began to came out of her shell. Being in college, in a new environment around people who did not know her and did not automatically brand her “that weirdo” proved the turning point. Although never the life of the party, Emily began going out and befriending others who by simple acceptance helped her become more and more comfortable and at ease with having a normal social life. She was still insecure and uncertain, but she was getting better.
Emily began working weekends at a club not far from campus, tending the bar; it was hard work but it also allowed her to indulge in her love of music. The club in question offered live performances featuring mostly unknown and unsigned bands, and it proved a wonderful way to come across new artists she might like. One of these was an up-and-coming rock band by the name of Icarus Emily knew she liked after the first song. It was more than just the music; it was a vibe, a...chemistry if you will, that felt entirely in tune with her own. She began attending their shows whenever she could and even followed them on their first tour along the East Coast though it meant missing college in the meantime. By then, there was an ulterior motive for it: the lead singer, Reese Lovera, whom Emily felt intensely attracted to, without much hope of it ever going anywhere. She could still get her fill of ogling him though, right?
On the day before the end of the tour, one of Emily's friends who'd accompanied her burst into the trailer they shared, insanely excited about something, and waved a pair of backstage passes under her nose: they would get to meet Icarus! It was how despite all odds, Emily and Reese met. She did her utmost best not to become overwhelmed by the situation or sound like a babbling, starstruck fan, nor was she all over him with the sleaze of a consummate groupie; instead, she tried to be herself, and hopefully see a glimpse of the man behind the image as well. She did; but what she didn't realize then was that she saw a façade, behind which lurked a drugs addict. When Emily walked out of there with Reese' phone number, she could hardly believe it; when he called her the following day to have a drink after the show, she was flabbergasted. Their relationship evolved quickly, ending the night with a passionate tryst Emily did not regret for one second. She was far too giddy, far too happy, to think about the implications.
With Icarus performing mostly in and around New York for long periods of time, it wasn't difficult for Emily to keep in touch with Reese, which she did with the selective blindness of infatuation, ignoring the ill-boding signs that she was more invested in the relationship than he was. For instance, the way she tended to call him more often than he did, and while he was quite interested in her in private, that interest seemed to wane when they were around his friends. Likewise, the fact that more and more their relationship was turning into a physical one with Reese shutting her out of the emotional and intellectual aspects of it. Emily was aware that he used heroin, and although apprehensive, she accepted it a couple of times as well and might have gone down the path of addiction had it not been for what happened next: she surprised Reese with another woman. Emily was crushed, both by the affair and the fact that her supposed boyfriend seemed utterly unconcerned, turning the blame on her for apparently “getting the wrong idea” about their relationship. She finally understood then: he had never seen her as his girlfriend; she was a bit of fun, a meaningless fling. A groupie. Deeply hurt, confused and desperate, Emily went on a weekend-long binge, then out of vengeance slept with Robbie, one of Reese's best friends. She made sure he knew about it, too, though it did little good for the two of them. On the contrary, in fact.
The break-up marked the beginning of a downward spiral for Emily: she turned to a combination of alcohol, music and one night stands to dull the pain, travelling across country to various shows and festivals to lose herself in the atmosphere and party hard enough she did not have to think about her problems. She lost her job; two months later, she dropped out of college, to the outrage of her parents. Suddenly homeless and with a quickly-depleting supply of money, Emily rented a small apartment together with a roommate, a girl she knew from college. She began waiting tables in various small cafés and fast-food restaurants, spending most of her money on booze, CDs and concert tickets, becoming more and more immersed in her vices. A regular festival goer, Emily became acquainted with people "in the scene" who among other things had access to backstage and VIP areas and through them she began meeting several more of her favourite bands. And their members; intimately. It was like living her experience with Reese over and over again, but mechanically, feeling bitter and hollow once the haze dissipated and she was left with the unpleasant realization of what she was doing to herself. She used sex as a challenge of sorts, a means of proving both to herself and the world that she didn't care while repelling the niggling feeling that it was all she was good for, all anyone had ever wanted from her: her teenaged flings, Penny, Reese... Although Emily occasionally sampled other drugs, her main vice remained alcohol, a constant part of her daily life.
Initially, Emily did not want to attend Syrinx this year, knowing Icarus would be there, but old habits die hard...
6. Additional info:
Emily dresses in a style that's difficult to pin down, mostly because she doesn't follow any specific trend. Typically, it's a combination of indie and rock chick with a whiff of punk, and she feels equally at home in worn jeans and t-shirts and ultra-mini leather skirts and stilettos.
She has many piercings: ten in her ears including her tragus, her nose, left brow as well as other, more private places. Getting them done provides a kind of catharsis for her, not unlike self-harm.
Several months ago, Emily has terminated an accidental pregnancy.
She used to study Psychology in college, before dropping out in her second year.
She is an only child.
* Emily's highschool nickname, Emily Strange refers to the character with the same name
7. Picture:
8. Name of portrayal: Lauren Peralta
