I have been so utterly in love with this meme for the last week or so, having been given this assignment of sorts from a fellow blogger. After finishing this one, I was given three more prompts, which are in the works. It’s quite the long/photo-heavy post compared to my normal work, so bear with me! In other news, I’m so dearly in love with this story-building-format that I’m considering using it this year to plot out my NaNo novel. Thoughts? Suggestions? Fellow Nanowrimo obsessives out there?

I’ll admit, I didn’t stick as closely to the prompt as I would have liked. No matter how I tried to make it funny and sweet (the word “zany” even came to mind!) — this crazy drama kept coming out. Race relations and poverty and murder and betrayal… Eventually, I went with it despite the prompt. Also, feel free to take part and I’ll leave prompts here as well!

The Rules:
1. Comment to this post with “I surrender!” and I’ll assign you the basis of some TV show idea. (post-apocalyptic scifi-fi drama, fantasy, noir gumshoe pulp, criminal procedure…IN SPACE, historical drama WITH WEREWOLVES, etc.).
2. Create a cast of characters, including the actors who’d play them.
3. Add in any actor photos, character bios, and show synopsis that you want.
4. Post.
Title: Crossed Stars
Prompt: “The totally true and sweet adventures of a girl and her pet werewolf.”
Type: Fantasy-drama in 1hr 22-episode seasons; some shots are done documentary style.
Setting: Present day Boston
Opening Credits Song: Augustana’s “Stars & Boulevards”
Closing Credits Song: My Chemical Romance’s “Sing”
Tagline: “I like the stars; it’s the illusion of permanence. I can pretend that things last; that lives last longer than moments.” Said in the commercials by various characters (quote by Neil Gaiman)

Synopsis: Allyson’s lived a hard life – absentee (at best) mother, no father, a fuck-up of a lovable older brother. She’s always been the adult, and if it weren’t for her music and her loyal and wonderful boyfriend, she’d probably have succumbed to the neighborhood long before now. Now, though, things are different. Her mother and her brother are dead. Even music doesn’t ring true anymore. So she packs her bags, she gives Santy back his high school ring, and finds a house in Boston filled with insane artists, east coast snobs, and a landlord who just happens to be a werewolf. And just happens to fall in love with her. And just happens to tell her his truth.

Suddenly, Allyson is needing to balance the lives of the supernatural, the dead, the mortal, and the newborn while also keeping herself afloat and trying to make it big in a small business. Luckily, with lifelong allies and brand new family at her side, she’ll be able to find her voice and make anything possible.

Allyson moves to Boston at the very beginning of the series, after the gang-related death of her older brother, Mark, and her mother, AnneMarie. She’s a struggling singer (she performs as “Allie & Son”), and has left behind her longtime boyfriend, Santy, to get away from the memories of Los Angeles. All she has is the small money left over from her mother’s life insurance after paying for both funerals. She takes a room in a group house in Allston, the cheap artsy/hipster capital of the city, and gets a job at The Draft, a local sports bar much to her horror. Eventually she learns that her landlord/housemate/brand new best friend (Kris) is a werewolf. Through their friendship, his trials & tribulations, and the new life she builds on the East coast, she finds new strength and eventually rights the wrongs of her family while learning of the wonders surrounding her everyday she’d simply always been blind to.

Andrew Lee Potts as Kris Anderson
“So, you see, I change at every full moon, and it can be quite awful and quite fun. I’ve met vampires and witches and ghosts. I’ve seen it all. And nothing has ever… Shocked and… Confused… And amazed me like seeing you on that stage tonight.”
Landlord/Housemate, 28 from London

Kris is the brains of the group. He’s a little bit of a businessman, dabbles in real estate, investment, and the odd grifting scheme every so often. He’s a master poker player, can throw down in a fight better than anyone he’s ever met, and has no idea how he became a werewolf. In truth, he was born that way. When he’s in his wolf form, normally he just stays in his room for the weekend, but with Allyson’s arrival he eventually stays with her, curled up on the foot of her bed throughout the full moon. She stays with him through the transformations, which she learns about after they’ve gotten close. Kris doesn’t get close to people, he’s a fast talker and always looking for the angle, always keeping himself and his secret safe, but falls in love with her over the course of the first season and tells her the truth in an attempt to start a relationship in ‘the right way’. This is how Mikey Lee finds out his secret and from there the rest of the house eventually learns the truth. He and Allyson go back and forth – the big romantic question of the series will be “Kris or Santy?”

Walter Perez as Santos “Santy” Perez
“We grew up crazy, man, but I always had two things that made sense. When my dad was comin’ after me, or Ally’s mom disappeared with some guy… We always had two things. The music. Each other. And when everything else fell apart, she left and took both with her.”
Allyson’s ex-boyfriend, 25 from LA, Nanny

Santy is Allyson’s childhood sweetheart. He considers her the basis for all of his success, his staying out of the gangs (which unfortunately his little brother didn’t do, and still runs with the Latino gang of their neighborhood), and when she leaves after the loss of her family he feels as if everything in his life has fallen apart. They had an up and down relationship throughout the years but when he shows up in Boston, renting a room from a Spanish-speaking family he’s doing light work for (helping them fix up the house, taking care of their kids after school, essentially nanny-ing), he’s determined to make things work. He is a very talented pianist (mostly from years of accompanying Allyson) and writes songs for her as well. When she’s convinced things have fallen apart with Kris, he writes “Almost Lover” for her to sing (yes, the A Fine Frenzy song, lol). He is sure that as they get through everything, they will end up together.

Carey Mulligan as Sissy O’Connor
“He was never supposed to die. They promised me.”
24 from Los Angeles

Sissy was Mark’s fiancée at the time of his death. Was raised in the same neighborhood as the Getty’s, basically brought up by her older brother who was a year above Mark in school. She and Mark got together when she was in high school, and at the time of his death she was 2 months pregnant with his son, Matthew. While it’s originally believed that Mark & AnneMarie were killed in gang violence due to Mark’s gambling habit, it later comes out – when Sissy shows up in Boston with her son, planning to and then eventually leaving him with Allyson to raise – that she had asked her brother to simply scare Mark straight. Having learned of the pregnancy, her brother aims to kill during the attack.

Kat Graham as Elizabeth “Frankie” Franklin
“Sissy, you can’t leave this on us. We’re irresponsible and terrified and broke ass poor. I can’t sit still for five minutes without herbal guidance and Allyson… She’s got it worse than any of us, worse than you even. She’s carrying everyone else, she’s gonna drown if you put this on her, too.”
Housemate, 25 from Roxbury, Art Institute of Boston, Model/Fashion Artist

Frankie is obsessed with art and fashion, she’s eccentric and loud, almost always in bright orange or red lipstick. She works at the Boston Globe during the day, in their online content office as a designer. She stashes all of her extra money for eventually opening her own fashion store in Allston, thus living in the group house even though she could afford her own place better than the rest. She’s bisexual and a massive pothead but a fierce friend, especially to Allyson, who she basically adopts. She’s the only born and bred Bostonian and gets really into baseball despite her other really girly qualities. She’s been with Mikey for 3 years but doesn’t blink about leaving him in Season 2. Has turns at harder drug addiction and fights eating disorders more than once throughout her 20’s. She helps to take on a lot of the responsibility with Allyson after Sissy leaves Matthew in Boston.

Justin Chon as Mikey Lee
“I won’t let anyone’s misguided sense of loyalty get in the way, Frankie. Not yours, not his, not even mine.”
Boyfriend of housemate, 26 from upstate NY, BU film school, film maker

Mikey is originally as close to Kris as they come. However, he does not learn Kris’ secret until the first season finale, setting up the show for it’s second season as he goes about attempting to expose Kris and his kind to the world. During the first season he’s filming his friends in their work and personal lives for ‘his documentary’ about being young and artistic in the Northeast. He hates the movie Rent (for it’s “unrealistic portrayal – they were a bunch of sellouts and trust fund babies!”). His sexuality is often questioned due to his style & feminine manner however he has been dating Frankie steadily for three years. Has a major break with the group and becomes the ‘villain’ of sorts as he tries to expose Kris’ secret, at the very least resulting in the group finding out. Has a very dark ambition that you wouldn’t know about in his everyday, friendly, eager personality.

Garrett Hedlund as Mark Getty
“Allie & Son, huh? But you don’t have any kids, unless you count me and mom. But no… I like it, sis, you’re gonna be just fine.”
Killed at 28, Los Angeles

Mark got in with a bad element when he was in high school and stayed there. Working as a mechanic in LA, he spent his free time with his sister, his girlfriend Sissy, and gambling in street games with the local gangs. He was always supportive of his sister’s art and planned to marry Sissy as soon as he could afford it. He died roughly 45K in debt to the local gangs, and it was assumed that was the reason behind his death. It’s later found that he was killed ‘accidentally’ by Sissy’s brother, whom he had gone to school with.

Bruno Mars as Gavin Morse
“We all been through shit. Orson Welles’d call it the gutter. Face down, gasping for breath, but he saw somethin’ else in it. He said some of us just turn over and stare at the stars. Something to that, don’t you think?”
Housemate, 27 from San Diego, Writer

 

Gavin is incredibly whimsical, he considers himself Kris’ best friend though would never give anyone that title for himself. He can often be found simply people watching. He lives off of the money his wealthy father had originally put away to send Gavin to his alma mater, Harvard. It’s still lasting him, and he gets odd jobs painting houses, moving furniture and the like through friends in the city. He has very little ambition in this world beyond art and language. He does not know about the supernatural elements of the show until after Mikey’s betrayal, and it puts a real strain on his friendship with Kris. As Mikey is essentially kicked out of the group, Gavin finds himself growing closer to the girls and eventually takes up a loosely defined relationship with Frankie. He babysits for Nan on a regular basis.

Adele as Nan Harrison
“I dunno. I sing because then it doesn’t feel as bad.”
Housemate, 31 from Tallahassee FL, Singer

Nan is the first to make it singing. She’s got a great big voice that Allyson’s jealous of throughout the series, but she’s incredibly kind and bubbly so Allyson can’t ever really hold anything against her. She finds out later in the series that she has to have a hysterectomy for cervical cancer, this eventually leads her to be the one who adopts, permanently, Sissy and Mark’s little boy.

Domhnall Gleeson as Charles “Chuck” O’Connor
“Sissy, trust me, I got this.”
Sissy’s brother, 29 from LA

Chuck is, despite Sissy and Mark always thinking otherwise, a terrible, terrible guy. Murder for hire, car lifting, theft, you name it – he’s done it. He works in and out of the gangs in the area, taking advantage of the poor neighborhood he grew up in (along with Sissy, Allyson, and Mark of course). He’s got a long gash of a scar down his face from a knife fight he got in before he learned it’s just easier to have a handgun in a fight. He’s Mark’s murderer, as far as we know, though that isn’t found out for quite a while.

Leslie Mann as AnneMarie Getty’s Ghost

AnneMarie is killed before the series begins in what is assumed to be gang violence due to her son, Mark’s, severe gambling debts. She is a product of collateral damage in the attack on her son. She was never a model mother or friend, often leaving on drinking binges or flings with bad element boyfriends for days and weeks at a time. In death, she silently appears to Allyson often, though as a ghost or a figment of Allyson’s imagination, we don’t know. She never speaks on screen during the series.

Show Notes:

-| Supernatural | Yes, it all exists. There are times we see it – friends of Kris coming to stay at the house, strangers, bad guys, in the news eventually. Lycanthropy is an inherited trait – there are no ancient curses (at least that we learn of), it does not include immortality or longevity (and if Kris’ family is any indication, it tends to lead to a shorter life, because, you know, you get into more scraps as a wolf than as a human, he imagines). The nature of the change is very painful but once in the full body of the wolf you can very much be of your normal mindset, thus he basically spends his full moons moping about his room until he meets Allyson. To be honest, it seems to me that the supernatural is more of a catalyst for more crazy human drama than anything else!

-| Sexuality | There are really no rules here… A couple of characters are definitely one way or another (it’s an issue at one point when Frankie hits on Allyson at the beginning of the series – Allyson is definitely straight), but this being a pretty fluid community, other than the Getty’s, Santy, and the O’Connors at least, I’d say anything goes.

-| Romantic Shipping | Who isn’t shippable on this show? There’s evil shipping with Sissy or Chuck or Mark, there’s the LOVE TRIANGLE THAT OWNS MY SOUL of Santy/Allyson/Kris (OMG WHO WILL SHE CHOOSE?!), there’s the pure hotness of Frankie/anyone (and the beautiful angst of Frankie/Mikey and the beautiful comfort of Frankie/Gavin!). Seriously, I don’t ship the mom’s ghost with anyone and that’s about it.