Riley Mitchell

OOC

Game	Journal	Portrayed By
Gracey Mansion	riley_dances	Sasha Cohen

Basic Stats (current)

Full Name: Riley Mitchell
Nickname(s): Ri
Gender: Female
Age: 19
Date of Birth: February 14, 1988
Zodiac: Aquarius
Sexuality: Straight
Relationship Status: Single
Residence: Gracey Mansion, New Orleans, Louisiana
Four words to describe her: Driven; hard-worker; dancer; charming
Pet: None

Family (current)

Father: Thomas Mitchell
Mother: Elizabeth Mitchell

History (current)

The only child of Thomas and Elizabeth Mitchell, Riley was the apple of her parents' eye. Their absolutely perfect little girl, with her mother's long brown hair and her father's big brown eyes. She had so much potential, they pictured her as the next Albert Einstein, the next Alexander Fleming, the next Bill Gates.

When Riley was four, they took her to see The Nutcracker, and all those big dreams that they had for her disappeared in an instant, as soon as the curtain rose and the child, who'd never been easy to sit still, stared at the stage in rapt fascination, barely moving throughout the acts and spending the entire intermission and drive home asking questions about the ballet and the dancers and the costumes. A few weeks later, her parents enrolled her in a beginning ballet class with the local ballet company, hoping that it was a phase that, after she saw how much hard work it was, she would grow out of.

Grow out of it, however, Riley did not. She adored everything about ballet, and she didn't even mind the gruelling practices, the drive for perfection, the blisters and calluses that developed on her feet. When she was nine, she started taking extra classes in other types of dancing, in hopes of becoming a well-rounded dancer. Although ballet remained her true love, she developed skills in jazz, lyrical, hip hop, and modern dance, as well. Riley dreamed of becoming a primary dancer for a major company. She wanted to be as great as Mikhail Baryshnikov.

When she was thirteen, two big things happened. First, she started assisting in the classes for the younger girls and boys, helping to teach them the basics of ballet, an honor that Riley was thrilled with. It cultivated in her the desire to, after she could no longer dance, teach ballet to the younger generation. At the same time, she became obsessed with her weight. The girls in her classes who were getting the better parts were thinner than she was, so she started dieting to lose weight. Nothing seemed to work, however, and she still felt fat. One of the other girls confided to her that she sometimes forced herself to throw up, especially if she had just eaten a bunch of junk food. Although the thought of purposely throwing up disgusted Riley, she was desperate to be thin, so she tried it. Then she tried it again. Soon, she couldn't stop. She would eat when around other people, particularly with her parents and at school, but she would usually later excuse herself to the bathroom and throw up. Not after every meal, but whenever she felt like she ate too much.

Although she lost weight, she didn't feel like she was losing enough, so she decided to eat even less. The only times she ate full meals was at home with her parents, but she wouldn't keep it down for very long. The rest of the time, she subsided on raw vegetables and water, though she would occasionally "pig out" and get ice cream or other junk food with her friends, which she would also throw up later. Even though her diet made her feel tired, she loved how she looked, and she started getting better parts in her class recitals.

Still desperate to be a primary dancer for a major company, she knew that she would need to attend a performing arts high school, as opposed to a regular one. That was the best way to be noticed by the major companies. After months of wheedling her parents, they finally relented, under the condition that, if she did not receive an offer from a major company by the end of her senior year, she attend a regular college and pursue a degree in something not related to dance.

Although Riley excelled at the performing arts school, and she put her heart and soul into everything she did, her senior year came and went without an offer from any ballet company. So, she enrolled at the local community college the following fall and started taking generic classes, since she didn't know what she wanted to do with her life, other than dance. During this time, she went back to taking evening classes in ballet, but she was always the oldest in her classes, and she resented the younger girls, the ones who seemed to have it all and hadn't been overlooked by every ballet company. They still had a chance, while Riley felt like every door had been closed in her face.

She was just settling into her second semester of community college when, again, two big things happened, one right after the other. The first was tragic news from New Orleans: three of the primary dancers for the New Orleans Ballet Company had had to leave the company, one male and two female. The male dancer had fallen horribly ill and had to leave the company while he sought treatment. One of the females had been in an accident and broken her leg in three places; even with extensive physical therapy, it was doubtful she would ever dance again. The other female simply went crazy. As horrible as this news was, it offered a silver lining to people like Riley: the NOBC would be holding open auditions in July for dancers to take the place of those primary dancers. Unfortunately, Riley's parents informed her that they would not finance her going out to New Orleans to try out for the company.

Fortunately, the second big thing happened only a few days later. Riley received an invitation to serve as a test audience for the grand pre-opening of a new hotel in New Orleans, the Gracey Mansion. Her stay would be entirely complimentary, and she could come stay at the hotel any time after April until the end of October. It was perfect! If she could stay at the hotel, she would have plenty of time to get settled into New Orleans, put feelers out to the NOBC, audition for the company, and also find somewhere more permanent to live in the city, assuming she was accepted into the company.

Absolutely perfect. So Riley RSVPed and, as soon as she finished her classes at the community college at the beginning of May, she packed up some of her things and headed out to New Orleans and the Gracey Mansion. And, hopefully, her future.

Basic Stats (spirit)

Full Name: Régine Michaud
Nickname(s): None
Gender: Female
Age at Death: 18
Date of Birth: April 17, 1901
Date of Death: June 10, 1919
Zodiac: Gemini
Sexuality: Straight
Relationship Status: Engaged
Hometown: New Orleans, Louisiana
Residence: Michaud Manor, New Orleans
Four words to describe her: Spoiled; shallow; lazy; elegant
Pet: None

Family (spirit)

Father: Arnaud Michaud
Mother: Nicole Michaud

History (spirit)

The Michaud family had lived in the French Quarter for generations. In fact, they had been one of the first families in La Nouvelle Orléans. Although, over time, the family slowly Americanized and married non-French descendants, the Michaud blood still ran proudly through the veins of all the descendants of Guillaume and Amélie Michaud. The Michaud family was a proud one, and indeed a haughty one, as well. To be a Michaud was to be nearly royal, in their eyes. The créme de la créme, so to speak. This idea was passed on to all the children, who all were raised spoiled and shallow, caring only about what others thought of them.

In April of 1901, Arnaud and Nicole Michaud, the latest heirs of the Michaud name and household in New Orleans, welcomed a daughter, Régine. An only child, she resembled a porcelain doll, with long blonde curls as fine as silk, blue eyes that gleamed and shone, and perfect porcelain skin, not even marred by a single freckle. Her parents treated her as if she were a doll, as well, taking great care that she not linger in the sun any longer than necessary, and that her clothes stay clean and unwrinkled. Régine loved the doting attention she received and played into it. Growing up, she became vapid and shallow like the rest of her family, caring little for anything other than socializing, dancing, an searching for her future husband — which she knew her parents would arrange for her, anyway.

It was in the early spring of 1919, just before Régine turned 18, that such a marriage was arranged. Régine was thrilled with the match, mostly because her fiancé was handsome and rich, and he was also from an old French family. The arrangement was, in her eyes, perfect. Her fiancé doted on her, as well, and she knew that their marriage would be wonderful. They were due to be wed that July. During their short engagement (which was busy with wedding preparations), Régine and her fiancé attended many social events, to show off what a wonderful couple they were. Really, though, Régine would take anything as an excuse to attend social events, especially now that she was engaged.

Although some of her ancestors had cultivated interests in the occult and other "silly things" (in Régine's opinion), Régine herself found it to be silly and unworthy of her attention. As such, although she was thrilled to be invited to a party at Gracey Mansion on the seventh of June, 1919, she was wholly indifferent to the occult stuff that Madame Leota was going on and on about. Who really cared about that stuff, anyway? Ghosts and spirits and all that was just … ew. So Régine ignored all of that and spent the night dancing with her fiancé. All was well until they wanted to stop dancing to get some food, only to find that they (as well as the other five couples with whom they had been dancing) were unable to stop.

Madame Leota had been so insulted by them ignoring her that she had cursed them to dance until their bodies succumbed to the Angel of Death. Despite growing tired and hungry, they did continue dancing, on and on, until their bodies relented and they died, but not after several days. Régine died before her fiancé did, and he had to continue on dancing, holding his beloved's body in his arms until he, too, died. Their souls were doomed to remain in the mansion, unable to either pass on or cross over, until they were released in the early 70s, when the caretaker freed Madame Leota from her crystal ball, which released all the other souls from the mansion as well.