third time is the charm

[Ardan Kennedy]

RETURN OF THE ARDAN!

Okay guys and girls, as most people probably know this is Ardan, otherwise known as Mechanic-y Von Sweet-Lips, but don't let him hear you say that. He has been in the freezer for a while, after pretty much all his plots fell through, but as I bloody adore him I decided it was time to thaw him out and vigourously thrust him upon unsuspecting victims, until some plots and threads appear. You may click the image above to access his application if you so wish.

DETAILS

The rundwn is as follows; Ardan is a thirty-three year old mechanic, living in the South End of Bishop City. He is originally from the West Side, but fell from grace somewhat, following this path; he eloped to New York with a stripper six years older than him, when he was twenty, had two kids with her, developed a bitch of a drug addiction, which came to a head when he had a heart attack aged twenty-five. His wife divorced him, and moved back to Bishop City, when she was six months pregnant with their second child. After this his parents paid to send him to rehab, but wanted to more contact beyond that, so he's estranged from them and his older brother, Darcy. So, Ardan returned to Bishop City, managed to get a job as a mechanic, eventually persuaded his newly re-married ex-wife to give him time with his kids and to some extent turned his life around. However, he is still a recovering addict, with a slightly volatile temper, sarcastic inclinations and a tendency to dwell on how he fucked up his life.

Soooo.... Ardan is a bit of a hot head, impulsive, self destructive, cynical, fiercely loyal, defensive. He's trying to do his best with where his life is now, by keeping his head down and denying some of his less responsible urges. He's also hard working, creative, a dedicated father to his twelve year old daughter and seven year old son, a protective brother to his younger sister Jessica.

PLOTS/THREADS

As for potential plots and the like.... friends would be good. Ardan needs friends. People who have a thick would probably be most likely, as he's not exactly good at keeping his opinions to himself. However, he does have a bit of a softer side hidden in there somewhere, which comes into play around people he has protective impulses towards. Ardan can be quite normal and sociable some times, although he's never going to be the life and soul of the party, and he's quite confident, so he doesn't object to talking to people in a variety of situations. However, he does tend to hold people at arms length, assuming they will leave anyway when they find out about his drug addict past. It would also be nice to have people who knew him from his childhood, before New York and have stuck with him.

Enemies.... he'll likely have these. He does have a tendency to rub people up the wrong way and get into arguments, and the occasional fight. So, yes, I imagine there will be some of these. Anyone connected to his family or his ex-wife will likely get his prickly, defensive side to deal with.

Lovers.... not entirely sure what's going on here, as he does have potential plot, but I'm open to anything really. He's a bit of one night stand or short flings kind of guy, partly because of the aforementioned reluctance to let people closer, combined with an unwillingness to get too involved with anyone he's not 100% sure of, for the sake of his kids.

Anything else.... Ardan has a younger sister and older brother (who he doesn't talk to) working at Sacred Rose hospital, so there are potential connections there if people want them. Also, he's a mechanic so that can be good for meeting people, or anything to do with his kids/ex-wife. I would like to have someone play his ex-wife, Lucy, but as I've been screwed over quite a few times with various wanted characters, I'm going to be quite picky about who plays her, if anyone is interested.

And now my ramble is over. -offers cookies in exchanged for plotting-

[Lucy Faldo]

YAY! HE'S BACK! WELLLLLLL, HE AND TEGAN SHOULD PLOT.

-rolls all over him-

Tegan and he work together, right? And she'd definitely cover shifts for him. She'd also love to meet his kids, especially if he's talked about them. Tegan loves kids. I think they probably get along really well? I mean, I can't imagine why they wouldn't? Occasionally I think she asks him to give her a hand due to her womanly weakness... They're both hot-heads, so I imagine they'd be better at talking each other down. There's definitely a lot of directionless potential, so I vote let's thread it out!

Sorry, I'm so weird today. It's sunny.

[Ardan Kennedy]

Welllll, okay, I agree that they'd get on pretty well as work colleagues, and he would gladly help her out with whatever she needed and be forever grateful if she covers a shift he can't do because of kid things. He might occasionally have to bring his kids to the garage, so she could meet them then. So yes, definitely stuff that they can get up to. We should discuss threading on AIM. -nodsnods-

[Raffaele Fierro]

Hello my darling love! That goes for both you and Ardan, btw XD I'm so happy you've brought him back, and I think we've covered most of mine with him, so I'll just recap what we know!

SAMMY/ARDAN: Sam used to date Ardan's baby-sister back in the day, no? So we've concluded that they know each other, that Sam is a tiny bit intimidated by Ardan, always tries to be cheerful around him (you know, to cheer him up, because Sammy feels like he needs cheering up) and thinks his kids are awesome. I think there was talk of one of them having to go into pediatrics at some point and Sam being their doctor? We'll talk on AIM to refresh memories and whatnot XD

GINNY/ARDAN: Tough one! We had all kinds of plans here that didn't really happen, but I think we concluded that they're going to be joined in friendship by their mutual negativity and love of criticizing their fellow man? I still stand by any previous suggestions that Ginny will appreciate Ardan both for his shiny personality and his pretty face. She does like having attractive young men in her social circle, especially the mechanic-y, ex-junkie type who might be able to kill the demon inside her car.

SNAKE/ARDAN: I remember we spoke about Snake tempting him with drugs when he's having an off day! I have a feeling something like that would be a bit of a...curiosity for Snake, or I don't know what to call it. A kind of...test, because he'd halfway feel like Ardan deserved respect, and halfway want to test if this was true. I seem to remember that Ardan was a buddy of Chef's, too? In which case it would be extra important to test him, because he can't have the unworthy near Chef, of course. (He's a silly goose, really, Snake is.)

MATI/ARDAN: Mati can be a petulant brat and Ardan can call him out on it and Mati can crawl off into a corner and lick his wounds. ... -coughs- If anything ever comes up, we'll know!

COOPER/ARDAN: Cooper comes onto. Or at the very least points out Ardan's attractive aspects. Would probably talk about cars or...sports or something around him, I don't even know if Ardan likes sports XDD

JACK/ARDAN: I think we briefly spoke about these two being buddies? Jack would appreciate that Ardan speaks his mind, even when he's being critical and sharp, and would probably think he was...hilarious.

RAFE/ARDAN: I think we spoke about their sons being friends at some point, while laughing a bit at the mental image of Ardan and Rafe having to share a park bench while the kids played, and quietly disliking each other and carrying on weird conversation through clenched teeth?

I seriously have too many characters.

[Reese-Jericho Lancaster]

I thought about it and I decided: Ardan & RJ need to know each other. They both fucked up their lives (Ardan argueably moreso than RJ) and I think they might be good for each other since both of them could do with a friend and RJ, at the very least, would be a friend to Ardan. Naturally, she would be a little awkward about the whole ex-junkie deal but once she gets the hang of it, I think she would really enjoy Ardan's company and spending time with him. Also, it might be good for RJ to meet other people and to do something besides work and work some more to forget about her divorce.

Now I kept thinking about how they might run into each other and I have several ideas. For one, now that she's moved to Bishop City RJ is bound to do the mandatory tourist tour so she will know her new home. Eventually, her family is going to visit, probably with her nieces, too, and then she would need to know where to take them. So anything that could be along that tour could serve as a meeting point. The Aquarium, the Marina (you can look after all), Collins Avenue (only to LOOK, seriously - it's not Katie after all), the North End Beach, the Cinema Majestic, the park, the pier and of course Cessy's for after-tour lunch/dinner. I don't know how likely it is, but I could easily imagine a situation where perhaps Ardan was taking out his kids for a trip and one of them got separated from him (maybe because the place is so crowded?). RJ might be either helping him to find the kid or the kid to find its daddy. She most certainly would.

Another situation I could imagine is that maybe they're living in the same apartment building - RJ's living in the mediocre part of the South End in my imagination. Maybe Ardan is a neighbour or he is looking to visit someone and got the wrong apartment number? If he IS a neighbour, RJ's open thread would be open for grabs at the moment. It's the perfect opportunity to get to know RJ in her natural habitat.

The only other situation I could imagine would be work-related in so far, that either RJ drops in at the garage or that Ardan has some business to attend with the police and they either bump into each other or RJ has been charged with taking a sample of sorts - maybe a large scale (and entirely voluntary) saliva sample? I remember we had those for particular regions in case of missing children or sexually motivated delicts where a DNA sample of the culprit has been found... if Ardan would even volunteer to give such a sample.

Either of those situations could lead to a continued contact of sorts or even a friendship that might turn dramatically awkward when their respective pasts are brought up (oh and the divorce WILL come up...)

Is Ardan interested? A teensy tiny bit? *pout*

[Ardan Kennedy]

Hellooo!

I agree that they should be friends!

Ardan won't be exactly advertising the whole junkie thing, so that will helpfully not be particularly awkward until further into the friendship, unless there was some kind of reason that she would know about it.

As for how they meet, I'd go with either her finding his kids, and them bonding after that or them living in the same apartment building. I'd say Ardan lives in a fairly mediocre place, so that works for me. Either one of those would be good, I think.