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LOCATION: Record Store DATE & TIME: 17/08, 1pm OPEN TO: @saintjameshq

It really hadn’t taken very long at all to find Jesse. There was after all, only one record store in town and given it was almost time for glee, and he was a consummate professional like herself, it was likely that he’d visit there at some point. After all, music just didn’t sound quite the same digitally. That and facebook was an easy source of finding your friends locations. She hadn’t exactly stalked him around the store either, she’d simply hovered between shelving units until he was in a prime position for an ambush.

“Hello Jesse.” she popped up from behind the records, what she would consider a friendly grin on her face as she did. “What a surprise to find you here, one would think you might have tagged yourself in on facebook, enabling anyone to find you. Of course, if you did I am completely unaware and it is a lovely coincidence that we are both here, at the same time, looking at the same records in fact.”

She stepped out from behind the shelves, coming around to his side with a perky bounce in her step as she did so.

“Speaking of happy coincidences, I’ve been meaning to speak with you about a problem that seems to be plaguing the two of us.” she stepped closer casually, lowering her voice as she picked up a record and pretended to read the song list on the back of it. “I’ve noticed online, that recently your sexuality has been coming into question and I am sure you have noticed I of course, changed my relationship status fairly recently.”

She paused, tilting her head as she continued to peruse the song list, lest anyone notice them and decide to listen in on their conversation. It was important to remain stealth like when approaching someone with a secret plan. She knew that part was important. She had googled it before she came.

“It would seem, that my boyfriend has turned out to be a fifty seven year old man in Texas and I’m sure you can imagine this is very unfortunate. I’m neither within his age range, nor am I in Texas….” she paused, looking up at him finally and bestowing him with her very best smile. “I thought we could work together on protecting your heterosexual reputation and keeping my catfish experience under wraps until it is time to release my memoir.”

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LOCATION: McCarthy Residence  DATE & TIME: 18/08, 4pm  OPEN TO: @mcmadisonhq

Rachel had been baking most of the morning. It was no secret that Madison was obviously plotting against her. With it being so close to the new school year, and so many potential new glee arrivals, Rachel simply couldn’t risk a coo at this stage. No, it would be best for all involved, if Madison was simply a little unwell for the next couple of days. Enabling her to gather some perspective and allow for Rachel to continue her glee recruitment drive free from intervention and an assassination of her character.

It was really a life lesson for the both of them. One she knew Madison would be grateful for when she ultimately came to the correct conclusion that overthrowing Rachel was not what was best for their glee family. She wasn’t of course, hurt by the comments online made by Madison. And this wasn’t simply a desperate act of hurt feelings by a girl who wanted to be liked. Of course it wasn’t. She was a professional. The comments aimed at her appearance, talent and overall being did not bother her in the slightest.

Which was why she was here, knocking on the door to Madison’s home and waiting patiently as it opened. 

“Hello Madison, I thought we should talk.” she smiled sweetly, holding out the tray of brownies she’d decorated with M’s for added charm. “It would seem, there is some active tension between us. Anyone with eyes can see from the online chat that there appears to be animosity.”

She sighed, as though deeply troubled by the very idea of such a thing, before she took a breath to continue the monologue she had practiced just that morning in her bathroom mirror. She was, after all, a consummate professional.

“Now some people may mistake that for sexual chemistry, I have to admit I did wonder for a minute if you were in fact, in love with me and whilst I am flattered and believe it would make for a wonderfully ominous start to a love story, I do fear that it would, in fact, end in tragedy. I’m destined for Broadway Madison, as apparently are you — we’re not built for a shakespearean tragedy.”

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LOCATION: Smythe Residence  DATE & TIME: 18/08, 10am  OPEN TO: @sebastiansmythehq

It hadn’t taken a vast amount of stalking to find Sebastian’s address. Between geo-tags and Snapchat maps it had been relatively easy to narrow down the houses and follow the smell of teenage angst and sexual over exuberance. Rachel would not, in fact, even refer to it as stalking and would instead consider it an act of public service. She had, after all, decided to make a conscious effort to be welcoming and accommodating to new potential glee club members. 

There was nothing more welcoming nor accommodating than showing up unannounced to said new members house in order to improve their life substantially. She expected she was likely to win an award for good deeds. One she would graciously turn down the first time she was asked of course, until it was appropriate to humbly accept.

So here she was. Wide smile on her face as she knocked on the door to the house in question, a filled binder in hand and her laptop in the bag slung over her shoulder. She waited patiently at least fifteen seconds before knocking again, and again, smiling reassuringly as the door was opened.

 “Hello Sebastian, Rachel Berry here, this is for you.” she pushed the binder towards him with little explanation. “If you can please turn to page five you will see a summary and timeline of events. I also took the liberty of taking a look at your class and extra curricular schedule in order to make time for our sessions. You’ll find the timetable on page ten. Shall I come inside?”

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get to know me meme → favorite characters [1/?]:  Rachel Barbra Berry

↳ “I know I may not be a typical beauty, and no one’s ever gonna pay me to walk the runway at Fashion Week or I’m not gonna cure cancer, or write the great American novel, but if you give me a stage to sing on, I know in my gut, there’s no one that can beat me.”

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texts 🎶 mr. & mrs. spenchel

Spencer: Yo, Berry ✌🏼

Spencer: I really am busy Friday nights. Someone's gotta pick up the slack for the rest of the team, am I right? 😜

Spencer: But Sunday afternoons are pretty open after church. Maybe I'll pull thru and we can do some warm-ups or something? Whatever shit you to do to sound so good. I'm too much of a stud to sway in the background this year and I'd really like a solo so I can say I won us Nationals.

Spencer: Don't tell anyone I texted you btw. We'll keep it on the DL. It'll be our little secret. 😎

Rachel: Hello Spencer.

Rachel: Well, dedication is certainly an admirable trait. I can't blame you for wanting to hone your craft.

Rachel: ....you want to come to my house? To sing? With me? Together?

Rachel: This is Rachel Berry, you do know that?

Rachel: Oh, of course. I won't tell a soul, I've never had a special secret with someone before. I'm honoured you've chosen to trust me.

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LOCATION: Scandals DATE & TIME: 16/08 (some ungodly hour) OPEN TO: @blaineydayshq

She really hadn’t meant to get so drunk. Not that she was drunk. Because if she was drunk, that would indicate a level of irresponsibleness that Rachel simply didn’t possess. So she was not drunk. She was simply happy, basking in the atmosphere of music and some entirely inappropriate behaviour happening in the corner of the room. 

If she was drunk, she would have fallen down by now and considering she had only mildly tripped when dancing to a particularly good song, she could safely say, with all confidence. She was most certainly, completely sober.

“Hello Blaine!” she appeared in front of him suddenly, a wide (some may say manic), grin on her face as she held her hand out. “I’m Rachel Berry. Rachel Barbra Berry to be precise and you are Blaine Anderson. I know that because of the group chat, not because I google searched you or looked up your academic records and youtube performances — I did that too — but that’s beside the point.”

She swayed slightly on her feet as she held her hand out insistently. Shaking hands was the standard and polite way to introduce yourself after all. Rachel was a hugger personally, but she didn’t get very many opportunities to hug and she was, after all, trying to make a good impression on people who might not have formed negative opinions of her already.

“You’re extremely talented, some might say crack house material, but not me. I would not say that. As I am a reformed character.”

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LOCATION: Scandals DATE & TIME: 16/08 (some ungodly hour) OPEN TO: @mattxrutherford

Rachel hadn’t known what she’d been expecting out of the night, she’d never been to a gay bar before. She’d never been to any bar before. She’d never really been invited anywhere before. She’d tried to contain her excitement, but an influx of new students who were actively interested and impressed by glee club meant an opportunity for friends that had never presented itself before.She couldn’t possibly pass up a chance to be included or involved, even if it was likely to be a very bad decision. A very bad one indeed. 

However, a couple of drinks in, purchased by a very nice drag queen over in the corner and it seemed like the best decision she’d ever made in her entire life. She was having a fantastic time. She’d possibly not thought through the ensemble, and had been required to ditch the themed sweater an hour into the night, but aside from that — it was all going swimmingly.

“Matt!” she screeched, as she noticed her friend (and wasn’t that a lovely word), over by the bar. “Matt! Matt! Matt!”

She figured continually repeating his name at an increasingly higher pitch was guaranteed to get his attention, but she made her way through the crowd over to him anyway, wrapping her arms around his neck and pressing a clumsy kiss to his cheek.

“You’re so beautiful, a beautiful soul. I can tell, you have beautiful soul like eyes.”

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Character Information

Full Name: Rachel Barbara Berry

Age & Birthday: December 18, age 16

Gender Identity: Cis Female

Preferred Pronouns: She/Her

Romantic Orientation: Biromantic

Sexual Orientation: Bisexual / Attentionsexual

Hometown: Lima, Ohio

Family Information

Mother: Shelby Corcoran

Father: Hiram Berry, Leroy Berry

Siblings: N/A 

Pets: Rachel would love to keep chickens or something equally homey in which she could dedicate a chapter of her memoir to the simple life she had keeping chickens. However, an unfortunate experience with eggs has ensured she has an entirely new chapter regarding chickens planned. 

Other Family Members of Importance: No other living relatives

Financial Status: Middle class. The Berry family are by no means rich, but Rachel has never had to struggle for anything. They are entirely comfortable, her fathers have successful careers and aside from having to attend public school, Rachel never goes without. 

Please describe your character’s family dynamics: Rachel was planned, bought and paid for. A baby that was desired and extremely wanted. Her dads have worshipped her from birth, she has never wanted for anything her entire life. Rachel had never had chance to form a pout, or develop a fever before attention was given and any hurts soothed away. Her parents are loving and attentive, and perhaps overly indulgent. They have their family traditions, movie night, musical theatre night, karaoke night and at least once a month will sit and watch home movies which include, and are most definitely limited to, a highlight reel of all Rachel’s achievements. Her fathers were grown, successful men by the time they had the finances to be able to afford to create a baby, so she only had one set of Grandparents on Hiram’s side until she was eight years old. The Jewish faith and adherence to the religion even though she isn’t particularly religious herself, came from the relationship with her grandparents, and a way to honour their memory, when it’s not being honoured in song form. 

Personality Information

Positive Traits: Caring, talented, dedicated, loyal, loving

Negative Traits: Selfish, insecure, desperate, obnoxious, blunt

Star Sign: Sagittarius 

Likes: Broadway, Gold stars, Singing, Animals, Writing strongly worded letters, Herself, Sweaters, Knee socks, Old movies, Pink, MySpace, Attention, Admiration, Praise

Dislikes: Meat, Rudeness (in others, not herself, obviously), Bad singing, A lack of dedication, Slushies, Eggs, MySpace comments, Being ignored

Pet Peeves: A lack of ambition. She cannot understand it, nor can she keep her mouth shut when she notices it in others and when people sing through movies (unless it is her). 

Most Embarrassing Memory: Being egged by vocal adrenaline. Rachel is very rarely embarrassed by her own behaviour, she is able to rationalise her own embarrassing traits to herself and what others may cringe at, she takes pride in. Being egged was something she hadn’t prepared for, and had been completely mortified to not only 

Hobbies: Singing, dancing, blogging, acting, vlogging, theatre, exercise, crafts

Guilty Pleasure: Vegan ice cream, she is an emotional eater. 

Unusual Talents. She is excellent at scrapbooking, Rachel is terribly sentimental even if she doesn’t always seem as though she cares about more than herself. She longs to fit in and be accepted, so any happy memories that seem even a tiny bit like friendship are cherished and recorded. She has a talent for song writing not yet discovered. 

Habits. Nail biting and playing with her hair when overly stressed

Schooling Information

Grade. Senior

GPA: Rachel puts effort into all of her studies, she is a perfect student and nothing less than the best is good enough for her. She may dot her i’s with hearts and stars alternately and assign herself gold stars for work well done, but she maintains a perfect GPA despite obnoxious habits. Although she would say, because of them. 

Extracurriculars: Glee club, drama club, school council, dance

Character Development

Canon Integration:

I’d like to include her crush on Mr Schue and sending Sunshine to a crackhouse as episodes that happened during her past. I think they are important to her personality. 

I don’t want to infringe on anyone who might play Jesse, so I will incorporate Shelby into future development plans. 

I would however, like to include her experience of being egged by vocal adrenaline, but I am happy to have had that be another boy.

Plans for Development. 

I’d like to explore her friendships, how they develop and how she becomes less selfish because of them. I’d be keen to explore possibly within the future her tendency to sacrifice herself for the greater good. She can be loud and obnoxious and incredibly selfish, but I’d like to explore how she changes because of the attention of those around her. Once she’s given the chance to be a friend, she can make a great one. 

 It would be interesting to explore Rachel’s sexuality in comparison to how she see’s herself. She imagines her life to be the standard, girl meets boy and falls in love and whilst that may happen, it would be interesting to explore her acknowledging at least that she has an attraction to women too, and that she can’t always control every aspect of her life. 

I’d like to explore her issues with her mother and her feelings of being unwanted when it comes to her. She’s been worshipped by her fathers, but her mother very clearly did not want to be that to Rachel and as much as she pretends that she doesn’t need her, she desperately wants to be loved and longs for a maternal figure. During the course of the RP, I’d like to explore her writing to her mother and trying to form the relationship she desperately craves but isn’t going to receive. 

It would be fun to explore Rachel romantically, she can be too much and doesn’t know how to pull it back. It would be interesting to explore how Rachel acts when she has genuine feelings and when she simply wants to be loved. 

Character Biography (654 words)

December 18 was the date a star was born. Quite literally. The day one, Rachel Barbra Berry, entered the world and began her destiny to stardom. Born to gay fathers, Rachel was adored from birth. Never did a frown or pout have time to form on her face before her needs were attended to. Anything she desired, any dream she had, however far fetched, was made possible through the love and devotion of her parents. Rachel expressed an interest in performing and everything financially possible was done for her. She had acting lessons, singing, dancing, and was entered into every competition available in their small town and beyond.

When she was younger, she had not only the devotion of her parents, but that of her grandparents on Hiram’s side. Until her grandfathers death when she was 6 and her Grandmother's the following year, they had been two of her biggest fans. They would visit every weekend and sit patiently as Rachel performed song after song, applauding dutifully after each. Her grandmother had a love of animals and Rachel learned from her to cook and use only cruelty free products. Her devotion to a faith she isn’t strict with, came from a respect for the grandparents who loved her and a way of honouring their memory when sometimes, very rarely, a song simply wouldn’t do it.

Although her family life was close to perfect, Rachel always missed a maternal figure in her life. She certainly didn’t go without, and her dads provided everything they could. But she’d stand to the side for mother/daughter days, and would stare longingly at the mother's day greeting cards in stores, knowing she had no reason to purchase one. Sometimes she did, she’d write cards to the mother she didn’t have. She’d write about herself, and the problems that girls had as they grew up that she couldn’t always share with her dads. They’d prepared a PowerPoint on periods and puberty, had been sure to buy every single brand of sanitary products they could their hands on. But it wasn’t the same, there were things she didn’t understand, changes happening to her body she couldn’t account for and unlike other girls, she’d had to find those things out for herself. Rachel longs to find what she feels is a missing piece within her life, but is incredibly wary of seeming ungrateful for the amazing life her parents have provided.

Whilst her home life was filled with love, laughter and joy. Rachel had never had the same experience with school. She very rarely related to her peers and whether that was sometimes through no fault of her own due to living in Lima and having two dads, a lot of it came down to her spoiled nature and overbearing personality. She went through her younger years longing for a friend, and yet driving anyone away who tried to be that. She was overly critical, bossy and often too much. She wasn’t afraid to speak her mind and had many delusions of grandeur when it came to her own talents. She’d thought that might change in high school, a chance for a fresh start, but her interests simply didn’t line up to those of her peers. They were never going to make her popular and well-liked and instead of conforming, Rachel went the same way she always had and over compensated her loneliness by being loud and obnoxious in a desperate bid for attention and admiration.

Since finding glee she’s made steps towards creating true friendships. She can still be overbearing, she can be bossy and selfish at times. But she cares and she’s learning to allow others to shine, even when she wants to take the spotlight for herself. Rachel is slowly learning how to make lasting friendships and is hoping to be able to fill the memory board in her room with something other than certificates of her achievements.

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When: May 30th, 2018 @ 6:30pm

Where: Rachel’s bedroom

Mentions: Hiram Berry (NPC), Anonymous internet troll (NPC)

Triggers: Cyber bullying

Word Count: 815

Rachel Berry had made the executive decision a long time ago to simply not care about the wrong opinion of others. In her sixteen years of life experience, she knew that the brightest stars were simply unappreciated during their younger years. Talent such as hers was a dying breed and it was simply unrealistic to expect the youth of today to understand it.

It was her duty, after all, to ensure that despite their lack of education in the arts, she continued to provide them with an example to aspire to.

It was that thought she repeated as she uploaded her latest video. That thought that she kept with her as she titled it and waited for the notification that the video was live on her page. She uploaded videos weekly, and even as she told herself she didn’t care, even as she expected the usual….she couldn’t help but hope for better.

It would just take one. One thumbs up. One positive comment. One person to tell her that she was talented. One person that she didn’t sit down to dinner with every night to be left in awe at her voice. It would only take one, and she could live off that praise for the foreseeable.

Considering MySpace was apparently a dying medium, it certainly didn’t take long for the comments to begin rolling in. Rachel did not care. She didn’t even care enough to read them, and if her eyes somehow managed to glance over the hastily typed words, that was simply a product of perfect eyesight.

I’d fuck it if someone put a bag over its face.

Who knew a nose could sing?

Why am I watching this?

Pretty sure my ears are bleeding.

On and on it went. Her eyes scanning over every word, mouse scrolling through over and over again as though there was going to be something different. She didn’t care of course, cyber bullying would make for an emotional chapter in her memoir. But if she did, if she was someone who cared about that, maybe she would store those comments in her mind. Maybe she would think of them every single time she opened her mouth to sing and wonder if that’s what everyone was thinking. But she didn’t care, so that didn’t matter. Those were not thoughts or feelings she had.

Her room was filled with trophies and rosettes, even certificates her fathers had printed for her during their family karaoke nights. Her wall was a picture perfect example of her achievements, and yet the board labelled “memories” was filled with that alone. Empty examples of prizes she’d won, or praise received from the family who loved her. There was nothing else, no memories of friendships or comments she wanted to think of with fondness to force her to be as uncaring as she desired when she read the reactions to her videos every night.

But she did not care. And a room full of accolades that were only appreciated by herself and her parents was still a room full of accolades.

“Rachel, honey, dinner is on the table!” she was snapped out of her thoughts as her father's voice travelled up the stairs and her fingers hastily clicked out of the comment section as though she’d been burned.

“I won’t be a minute!” she answered, taking a breath to control the slightly shrill edge to her voice.

If she was someone who cared, she would be writing a reply to the latest comment. If she was someone who cared, her fingers would be typing frantically on the keyboard, a frown adorning her face as she did.

Dear commenter,

It’s incredibly unfortunate that your genetics have rendered you unable to appreciate true talent. Although, I would like to inform you that this will change in time, I’m afraid your lack of grammar leads me to believe that your poor taste is simply a lack of intellect on your part.

Everyone has their own skill, and I’m sure you will find an untold amount of pleasure in your future career as a janitor. I am sure that will allow you to live out your dreams of drinking a four pack every night and leaving unpleasant comments on the videos of those more talented than you.

I wish you all the success your lack of talent and originality will bring you.

Kind regards,

Rachel Barbra Berry

PS. A large nose is a sign of intelligence and unconventional beauty.

If she was someone who cared she would be pressing send on the reply, tear filled eyes reading over the words as they appeared against her video. She wasn’t that person, she was not someone who cared, and yet she wiped her eyes anyway, taking a breath as she stood from her chair and lifted her head.

She would make sure to leave her reply out of her memoir.

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