Meet the man and the band

[fey_fire]

Name: Ruairí Markas MacEibhir, often goes by his stage name, Rory Stone
Gender: Male
Species: Púca, a form of Irish horse-fairy
Age: 115 (born 1895)
Height: 6'3"
Build: Tall and lean
Eyes: Dark brown, see below for more details
Hair: Dark brown
Skin: Fair
Defining Marks: See below

History: The general public knows (or can easily Google) quite a few facts about Rory Stone. He created the popular rock band Breaker Street, in which he sings and plays lead guitar. In addition to acting as the band's front man, he writes much of their music, with varying levels of able assistance from his five fellow band members. Breaker Street came up through the New York club scene, during which time Rory also met glass artist Pippa Kerr (sand_and_water), who was either the love of his life or a bitch from hell, depending on which fans are offering their opinions. Pippa gave birth to a son, Marcus (marcusmaceibhir), just before the band hit the big time. Rory and Pippa somehow managed to keep their marriage a secret from the avaricious media until six months after the very private civil ceremony, when Pippa died in a car crash, leaving Rory with memories and their then three-year-old son to cling to.

Of course with celebrity comes speculation, and much of what the public thinks it knows about Rory runs the gamut from skewed all the way to utter horseshit. Since Pippa's death (and regrettably even before), Rory's name has been romantically or at least sexually linked an assortment of starlets, sports figures, fellow musicians and other celebrities of both genders, including some of his band-mates and the head of his record label. Because he comes off stage after concerts very clearly wired, talking nonstop and fairly blazing with energy, people assume he must abuse some kind of stimulants. Suggestions have started cropping up, usually as jokes on the stand-up circuit, that the members of Breaker Street must get group rates on plastic surgery, since none of them seem to have aged all that much since the band was formed. And every time Rory falls into one of his rare but intense bouts of isolation, speculation from the cynics that he's about to disband Breaker Street wars with speculation from the romantics that after all this time, he's still haunted by the memory of his dead wife.

(Take out "the memory of", and for once the romantics are righter than they could possibly know.)

Rory has, however, managed to keep quite a bit of information out of the public's eye and the media's headlines. Though his real last name of MacEibhir has come out-- mainly to confirm that he is in fact Marcus MacEibhir's actual father, thank you very much --his father, brothers and sister only get the occasional mention in interviews. That he was born and raised in Ireland is generally known, and his Connemara accent hasn't faded over the years, but no one has dug too far into the details of his past, not even to pen some scurrilous unofficial biography. So all the most boggling details, his true age, his ability to turn into a horse, the magic that burns through his veins whenever he takes to the stage ... all have remained safely hidden. When you come from a family of púca, it's amazing what a ward of inattention in the right place and at the right time can accomplish.

Now if only he can convince Marcus to stop coming up with new and ever more horrifying ways to troll the paparazzi....

Personality and Quirks: Rory is the MacEibhir family's charmer, with a teasing smile on his face and a gleam in his eye for nearly everyone. He has become so accomplished at his public persona of cheerful, fun-loving rocker (which isn't that much of an act, most of the time) that only a handful of people get to know the quieter, more introspective man underneath. Fewer still ever see the sadness and loneliness that ambush him periodically ever since his wife's death.

Appearance and Abilities: Like most of his family, Rory has kept the animal-like brown irises of his púca kind hidden from his public with a glamour. Aside from his rather elfin good looks, his main distinguishing physical feature is the knotwork armband encircling his right bicep, applied by his brother Tadhg (gifted_hands). Aside from the strength, speed and ability to turn into horse he inherited from his father Ruairí (sonofgranite), Rory has a gift for drawing in the ambient magical power in the environment, particularly that given off by living things. Nowhere does this ability affect him more strongly than on stage, where the intense energies given off by a crowd focused on his band's music hit him like a drug to his bloodstream, and a very potent, addictive drug at that. Though he has learned various ways to deal with that excess energy, a functional addict is an addict still. He has to take extreme care with that excess power after a concert, lest it start influencing the people around him...

Special Skills: Singer, songwriter, player of guitar, keyboards and sometimes violin, Rory is a passionate musician. He still rides whenever he can make the time, and sometimes helps out his father and brother Anraí (thehorseman) with their respective horse businesses. He speaks English, Irish Gaelic and Fae.

BREAKER STREET: Rory's band-mates don't have their own journals yet, but the band does have a "website" dating back to their club era. Here I provide some thumbnail sketches of the people behind the music, much of it the kind of stuff characters might well know. Rory sings lead vocals in most of their songs, but all five of the others can sing, and Junie, Dave and Sascha have all put out solo albums as well.

(For player edification, yes they do know what Rory is, having found out the hard way. They look younger than their actual ages not because of Botox, but because they share a stage with Rory and have the energy he draws from the crowds channeled through them on a regular basis, with a side effect no one expected, not even Rory.)

Junie Cabriano: 2nd guitar, also plays electric cello. The Cuban-Italian den mother of the group, Junie mediates between Breaker Street's disparate personalities quite well, though she enjoys a good argument or prank herself. Fans started speculating about a romance between her and Rory since not long after the group was founded, and no denials on their part have stopped it or even slowed it down. The nasty accusations her ex-husband hurled at her during their divorce didn't help matters, though they did help him gain custody of their son. Junie has dated since then, but is a little gun-shy where long-term commitment is concerned. (pb Inés Sastre)

Nelson "Nil" Cameron: Bass guitar. The shoulder everyone leans on and the ear everyone bends. Nil is easygoing, quietly intellectual and regards the rest of the world with a compassionate kind of wry humor. He cleaned up from the drug addiction he'd succumbed to in his twenties some time before he joined the band, but he has had one public and one very private fall off the wagon during his years with Breaker Street. His fight to regain his sobriety led to the discovery that absorbing a little extra energy from Rory takes the edge off his cravings. Nil's not at all sure how he feels about that, but he'll do whatever he has to for his wife and daughters. (pb Jeff Goldblum)

Marcus Kreske: Drums. Breaker Street's larger-than-life wiseacre and raconteur par excellence. The drummer doesn't get ignored in this band, at least not anymore. The oldest of the crew, Kreske likes to affect a done-and-seen-it-all air, and he has nearly Rory's reputation as a ladies' man. On the more practical side of things, Kreske's long experience with the music business has proved as invaluable to the band's commercial success as Rory's musical creativity. These days he might be thinking about finding someone special and settling down, but good luck getting him to admit it. (pb Mark Sheppard)

Dave Rackley: Keyboards and backup percussion. Dave is an amateur sociologist and philosopher who enjoys getting in deep discussions with Nil and friendly arguments with Junie regularly. The quietest and most private of Breaker Street's members, Dave dodges the paparazzi whenever possible. Want to piss him off? Stick a mic in his face and start asking probing questions about how he feels being the band's token black or his torrid flings with Beyoncé/Halle Berry/Sascha Brockman (hint: only one of these actually happened). Otherwise, his mellow doesn't get harshed by much in the way of personal stuff. (pb Harold Perrineau)

Sascha Brockmann: Keyboards. The band's Juilliard-trained wild child. Though not quite the party girl she was when she first joined Breaker Street, Sascha is still the most Rock Star out of the six, the one who gets the most enjoyment out of being in the limelight. She leads a varied and busy life when not on tour, participating in campaigns for civil and children's rights, shooting commercials for her own perfume line and bearing two children for a pair of gay male friends. She sometimes manages to fit in her on-again-off-again relationship with well-known soccer player Evaristo Cavalcante. (pb a much shorter version of Alexandra Agoston O'Connor)

Morrie Dubrowski: Former sound tech for the group's club gigs, now helps produce their records, still considered a member of Breaker Street. Morrie got hired on at Serptichore Records as a condition of the band's original contract and proceeded to work his way up the ranks. He's had the least exposure to the fae energy that Rory channels through the rest of the group during concerts, and so has aged more normally than the others. His life too has been relatively normal for someone in the music biz, having married one of the label owner's succession of secretaries and fathered four kids. (pb an older version of Maxwell Andrade)

NOTES: I've made a glossary of terms in both English and Gaeilge that will crop up in all the MacEibhir-related journals. Also, if anyone wanders over to the livejournals of Rory and his family, bear in mind that while everything recorded there has happened, the timeframe for all those events has been compressed in the Visions Dancing versions of the characters.