Hello, lovely Closer-ians! I've been on a bit of a hiatus (who am I kidding? I've had quite a lot of those lately) but I'm here to try again! I have four characters here on Closer, so I'll just list them out here and let you all have at 'em. =)

Douglas Carmichael

• Ex-husband to Virginia Jenner and father to Kieran and Anna-Maria Jenner-Carmichael
• A hardworking man who made his way in the world. Now works as a VP of an architectural company
• Put work before his family and went through a divorce as a result. He has since realised what he gave up and is trying to be more of a father to his children.
• Though incredibly professional in his business life, he is a joker at heart. He loves to make fun of people, all in good fun, and has a wicked sarcasm streak.
• Somewhat distant and cynical, but he's a friendly enough fellow. Just don't expect him to declare his undying love and appreciation and any friendships should be fairly smooth sailing.

Jenae Norcutt

• Born in Japan, where she lived in an orphanage until she was adopted at age three.
• Grew up the daughter of a Chicago politician, very aware of her differences from her siblings and the spotlight that was placed on her in her youth. Her parents had a far from perfect marriage, and she was often caught between the two. This pressure eventually manifested itself as an eating disorder, one that she has not yet shaken.
• Moved to Bishop City for her university studies, hoping to escape from pressures back home and reinvent herself.
• Tends to make up names and stories for herself when meeting people she doubts she'll ever see again. She always portrays herself as exotic and exciting, someone who has everything together.
• Loves having friends (even ones who know her real name/general story) but keeps friendships on a superficial level to the best of her ability.

Kendall Coetzee

• Born and raised in South Africa to a white American and black South African, one of a set of sextuplets. She grew up surrounded by racial tension and has a slightly skewed view of self as a result.
• She lost her parents and one brother in an earthquake, then moved to America to live with her aunt and uncle shortly after.
• Quiet and unassuming, she prefers to rely on intellect than emotion. Consequently, she tries to rationalise away emotions of pain or confusion.
• Sweet and overly trusting, she tends to look for the best in people, even shady characters in alleys. She doesn't understand true danger; as such, moving to Bishop City has been quite the adjustment.

Cole Ridley

• He was born an artist, ready and willing to colour anything just as soon as he could hold a crayon. In his teenage years, he learned the effectiveness of art in channelling his emotions.
• Was hit by a car while walking when he was twenty years old, causing him to lose his eyesight. He was able to graduate with an art degree, learning to use sculpting and writing as a means of artistic expression rather than painting.
• Has a naturally fiery temper, but has learned to control it, for the most part.
• Enjoys observing others and being in spaces where other people are. He prefers being a spectator to being a participator. However, he does enjoy good conversation (particularly over coffee) in settings with one or two friends. He has few good friends, but keeps them close to his heart.

Feel free to hit me up with ideas, or even current plots if you are interested in keeping/expanding them! My AIM is spatzikat... I'm on there sporadically.

Jenae and my girl Raina could maybe know each other simply because of their family? Like, how the rich kids always hang out in the same environment, same parties, know the same people? She's older than Raina by three years, but their age is also close enough I can see them sometimes intersecting in certain events where kids were allowed to attend while growing up. Jenae also took ballet, so we can also say (if you want) that he knew Raina from ballet class. This is more probable, since Raina has been taking it for a ridic long time. XD

I can see them getting along because in a lot of ways, they are very similar, specially in terms of their personalities. With Jenae, Raina won't feel her constant censoring of herself is odd (the way Ruth, Briana and Kathryn does, whether they mean to or not). I don't know about the reinventing herself, like if you want Raina to be aware of it, but if she does hear something about it, you can bet she would never be the one to comment about it. Probably - shamefully - ignore it, deny about it. She's a loyal friend, but not very strong. There can be a break, a sort of issue between them about that, my opinion. Something we can expand on if you're willing.

If you're not feeling this scenario, it can also apply to Kendall, the friendship angle. I know, I know. Raina is too nice. She'll befriend anyone, so long as they dont look like a hobo. Or a pusher. Or a rapist. ;___; I'm sorry I don't have any that will be bitchy to your girls. It's driving me bonkers, too! But yeah, friends? ;o;

The last character is Cole. Ethan is also an artist and I think it's safe to say they would know each other, if only by name. XD I'm willing to let you decide if they are friends or just acquaintance, and if you want, maybe even a sort of friendly ambiguity. Yeah, that term totally made sense in my head. ;D

What I mean is, I don't see them as rivals, because Ethan does not do rivalry - it implies and active participation in his part to be competitive with someone over, what? Fame? Fortune? Recognition? Whatever it is, Ethan doesn't really care about it enough to be personally or even professionally invested into it, so a sort of wry acknowledgement on his part would be the only thing he'd show if they were ever in the same room. Hmnn... I had a point. And now it seems kind of pointless.

:/

WE CAN JUST MAKE THEM FRIENDS?! I CAN TOTALLY SEE THEM AS FRIENDS! =D

ETA: I totally spazzed out and forgot to mention Ethan before turning into a full time artist was (still is, even!) a licensed architect. He's even managed to do some major construction project for an established institution up North. So there is also that possible angle for Douglas and Ethan to meet. I just don't know how strong an RP plot it would be, so gimme time to figure something out? Unless you have an idea in which case I'm all for it!

Hey Katja!

I’m Sina, one of the freshies. I just joined this year. It’s great to meet you!

I have three characters here at Closer. First is Katerina Smirnov, usually called Katie. She’s the daughter of a drug trafficker working for the Russian syndicate. Katie herself has made a career as catburglar, stealing for the Goncharov’s as much as for her personal amusement, training purposes or personal gain (not that I’d managed to play that up enough in the past months). Her cover job is that of a fashion journalist for A-Line Fashion magazine. She has yet to write something big for the magazine that would go cover story or something similar.

Katie’s pretty open and friendly, slightly flirty, too. I could imagine her running into Cole or Douglas while covertly scoping out the security measures for her next B&E, but that’s about it. Katie probably doesn’t do the kind of social functions these two usually attend. For that matter, I could imagine her running into your two girls, too during such a scope out.

Next up is Hwa Young Choi. Hwa Young enjoys art & literature, so I could imagine her to commission a sculpture from Cole, provided he does commissions. Hwa Young herself can paint and she has an eye for architecture, in which she has a master degree obtained at Colombia University. However, she hasn’t worked with her degree in architecture since taking over the syndicate, that doesn’t mean she’s lost her love for it, however. I can picture her going to symposiums held in Bishop City (she’s quite shackled down with her job) just for fun and because she is truly interested in it.

Other than that, Hwa Young is very much focused on the finer points in life.

My final character is Reese-Jericho Lancaster, who insists on being called RJ and never tells anyone what the J stands for. Reese has only just moved to Bishop City and would be happy about any form of contact she could get. :P She’s a forensic scientist with BCPD, however. As with Hwa Young I have little ideas how RJ and your characters could meet and interact with each other, but I’ve added her to the list anyway. Maybe you have an idea?

Anyway, I hope to be plotting with you! :D

EDIT: For reasons I cannot comprehend I kept mixing up your Cole with Douglas' son. SORRY!!! I corrected it now!

Yayyy, Katja!!

Okay, so I have many, many characters to offer, but I'll try and keep it brief so this doesn't turn into an essay, and then we can work the rest of it out on AIM.

Dougie + Anna = Obviously these two have a plot all ready and waiting for them, being father and daughter. I think so we've had a few calls with them, with a bit of added tension because of a certain misdemeanour of Anna's, and her being a brat about it. She's actually going to keep seeing Tomas, without telling her parents, so that could cause some issues further down the line. HOWEVER, Anna is generally a little angel for her daddy and adores him and he can do no wrong and all that jazz, so it might be fun to do something with them where these ideological views they have each other are gradually disrupted. Also, just general father/daughter bonding would be good too, but I think they'd need a little bit extra to make this more interesting for an RPing context.

Dougie + Ardan = I think we decided that these two are going to be friends? Which could be made intensely awkward, as Ginny and Ardan are supposed to be getting involved with each other. I'm guessing he won't really make the connection between her as he knows her and her as Doug ex-wife, so that could be interesting once it comes out.

Dougie + Phoenix/Vicky/Devon = I can't really think of anything major between these two, although I feel like he and Vicky might get along quite well if they ever met.

Jenae + Phoenix = Again, I believe we've discussed this before, but I can't remember what we decided, so I'm just going to throw something out there. They both have a tendency to lie to other people and invent names and back stories, so it might be funny if they end up in a position where they're both made up something, and then end up getting busted when they're thrown into another meeting together. After that, they could team up and have some fun tricking people into thinking various things about the two of them. Which Phoenix would find extremely amusing, I don't know about Jenae.

Jenae + Ardan/Anna/Vicky/Devon = Yeah, I don't really anything for these, unless Anna and Jenae are friends through college.

Kendall + all of them = I don't really have any ideas, but if you do, let me know!

Cole + Anna = I seem to recall something about these two meeting while kickboxing and building a friendship, winding each other up a little, and generally butting heads and Cole having a little bit of a crush on Anna, but disapproving of her job. I might just be making it up or confusing him with someone else, though. ANYWAY. I like the idea of them having a bit of antagonistic friendship going on, and him discovering what she does for a job and them arguing about it or something.

Cole + Ardan/Phoenix/Vicky/Devon = Uhmmm, so Phoenix will think that Cole is absolutely beautiful and have no shame in telling him in at various points. He'd probably want to ask about what it's like to be blind too, because he's overly curious and has no filter, so that could cause some interesting interactions. And then Devon is Cole's sister's bar tender, basically, which I seem to remember Cole not being too thrilled about. I don't know if that will go anywhere though.

Aaaaaand, that's it. -breathes- Let me know if any of that works for you, or if you see something else happening etc etc.

Jenae & Raina
Seeing as Jenae and Raina were raised in separate cities, I don't think that they would have much of a connection based on the past. I wrote the description late last night and while doing about four other things at once, so my apologies for not including those details. =) Jenae tends to be rather clever in her descriptions, at least as much as she can be. She enjoye putting up fronts for people, but she doesn't get too crazy with it. So, unless Raina caught her in a situation where Jenae somehow slipped up, I don't think it would be very obvious. I think that they could be friends on some level, though. Maybe the sort who would hang about and relate well enough, but never go too deep, as I think you said.

Kendall & Raina
I can see a bit more interaction for Kendall and Raina, as they're more the same age and probably met at school sometime (provided she also attended West Bishop High) or somewhere around there. Kendall is friendly enough, though rather quiet. I think they'd get on alright if they met.

Cole & Ethan
Sure, they can know one another somehow. Cole gets along well enough with most people if they don't provoke him or do things like treat him like an invalid (he gets a little testy sometimes). So as long as Ethan treated him like a normal human being, I'm sure they could have some level of bonding over art or whatnot.

Cole & Katerina
I think she's a bit young for Doug to pay her much notice. If he saw her somewhere where alcohol was served, he might ask her whether she should be at home (since he has a daughter of his own and has those natural tendencies toward overprotectiveness). Otherwise, I don't see too much there. With Cole, there might be some friendly encounter. I honestly can't think of anything specific for him or the others, unfortunately. I'll let you know if anything comes to mind.

Cole & Hwa Young
Cole would do anything involving art that pays money... within reason. He's trying to make his way in the art world currently so he can quit his stuffy job at his father's office. We could potentially do something with that, for sure. She and Doug might have some mild interactions on the architecture front, but I can't think of anything specific.

Kendall and RJ
To be honest, I don't have any specific ideas for my characters and RJ. I just have this strange (but kind of cute) mental image of Kendall seeing her somehow/sometime and falling into a state of admiration. She quite looks up to women who can hold their own and use their brains. I'm not sure how that would work out, if at all, but thought I would toss it out there regardless. =)

Doug and Anna
Is it horrible that I love the idea of father-daughter tension and the disruption of near-prefect relationships? I thought so. Even so, I like the idea of something getting in the way of their great relationship... and of giving Dougie more trouble, because God knows he doesn't have enough already. He'd be quite torn between that image of his perfect little girl and his actual feelings about the situation. Should be interesting, I'd think!

Doug and Ardan
Considering Doug's attraction affection confusion where ginny is concerned, this would be near the deepest form of treachery for him. I can imagine it wouldn't go to well once he knew, though Doug would try to cover it with some sort of joking that would no doubt sound intensely bitter. More tension! Fun.

Jenae & Phoenix
I don't remember what we've discussed on that front either, to be honest, but I love that idea. Jenae tries to be careful in her lies, but they'll inevitably catch up sooner or later. She needs someone fun in her life, anyway, so I like the idea of them turning it into a game of sorts.

Cole & Anna
Yeah, I think we decided he had some feelings for her back in the day. The job disapproval is inevitable. Cole takes that protective/brotherly sort of role upon himself in most relationships with females. He'd see what she was doing and immediately try to do something about it. And yes, the antagonism... I think the back and forth with them would be fun to play out.

Cole & Phoenix
I have actually been thinking about this lately, and I think that Cole and Phoenix need to know one another. It might be in the future rather than just now, but with Charlee and him getting involved (sometime), their meeting is inevitable. I think we could go two ways with it, either having them know one another now and get through the awkward time of Phoenix calling him beautiful/asking about his blindness/etc. before the Charlee deal, or they can meet through her and it can just be awkward all around at that point. I think Emilee and I had discussed Cole finding out about her guy friends and going a little ballistic, since she might neglect to mention that they're gay. But I don't know that we decided anything on that front, so we can perhaps discuss more and come to a conclusion later.

Cole & Devon
Here we see Cole's overprotectiveness again... but aside from possibly giving him a talking to and all that, I think they'd get on well enough. At least, I don't see them having any long-term conflict.

I think Doug going all fatherly on her would greatly amuse Katie. I can see Katie being a little hesitant with Cole at first unless she's out to stealing his art from right under his nose (wouldn't put it past her)... however in terms of plotting, I come up empty handed, too. Sadly. :(

I'd love for Hwa Young to commission something from Cole... we should definitely follow up on that one. :)

I didn't have any ideas for RJ, either. Just thought I'd mention her. I can picture her to talk to students about her job, either at the high school or the university, on career day or something. She could chat with Kendall about career prospects but I don't know whether that would make for an extremely interesting plot...

Oh, well, it seems like there's not much to RP about them then except for some basic (first) meeting, so I'll wait for you to figure out an angle that would be interesting to RP between our characters since you would know about them more. Maybe Kendall and Raina when you have the time, since they seem to be the ones that have the most potential, based on your reply. ^^ Looking forward reading about your threads!

Cole & Hwa Young
That sounds great! I'd be up for a thread geared in that direction sometime if you're ever interested. Cole is always a bit surprised when people actually show interest in his art (his father isn't exactly supportive of his ambitions) so it could be amusing, maybe, to see them interact on that front.

Kendall & Raina
Since it's possible they've seen one another around, maybe Raina can spot Kendall doing something stupid (let's be honest, she's prone to doing unsafe things) and ask, "Are you crazy?" That is, if Raina would even do something like that. It's kind of a fail idea, but it might get them somewhere. If you'd prefer, we can always do one of those uneventful first meeting threads with these two or Cole and Ethan (I think either could work well) and just speed through it (shorter posts and such) to get a feel for them. It might spark ideas. Or we can chat over AIM to brainstorm. =) Sorry that I'm not coming up with life-changing muses at the moment. I'm still getting back into the swing of plotting and RPing.

It's cool. ^^ I know how hard it is to find a strong plot between characters and how frustrating it is for long time RPers to have to navigate the 'first meeting' threads. Why don't we do Raina and Kendall first, as they are easier characters to navigate postwise, just so we can get a feel of each others' writing style? The joy of having light, easy-breezy characters is they make excellent chemistry-trial thingy (Yeah, my English is wonky. I blame lack of sleep again!). Once we get a hang of it, once we're more comfortable with each other, we can mosey into Cole/Ethan, two characters who require more careful handling, if your current threads with Cole is any indication.

Any setting that cater to the young and rich would work. I can even swing Raina to the U or any of the party clubs by saying she came with Kathryn, so I'm more than willing to follow your cue wherever you decide to put the thread.