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julie ray (sea_queen) wrote,
@ 2008-08-19 16:43:00

IC INFO & APPEARANCE

FULL NAME: Julianne Isabel Ray
NICKNAME: Julie Ray
AGE & BIRTHDAY: March 6, 1987; 21
ETHNICITY: Italian (Sicilian, specifically)
ALLIANCE: Senshi, Outer Senshi
SCHOOL: Juilliard School of the Performing Arts; Part-time
GRADE: Sophomore
EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES: None
RESIDENCE: Downtown New York; apartment rented by record label
FAMILY: Dante Ray (father), Gianna Ray (mother), Isabella DeMonte (grandmother)
OCCUPATION: Voice and guitar tutor; signed recording artist.
REINCARNATION OF: Sailor Neptune; Michiru Kaioh

APPEARANCE:
Julie Ray stands an average height of 5 feet 5 inches. She is a very petite woman, wearing a size zero in almost everything. Her hair is raggedy and usually long. She considers her hair one of her best canvasses to display colorful artwork, second only to her face. She loves to color her hair, but only when the mood strikes her. For a moderate portion of the time, her hair is raven black. Contrasting to that, her skin is a porcelain white. It makes for quite the statement, she finds.

She has always been referred as the "graceful girl" or the one with impeccable posture. It seems that Julie Ray, even when she was little, always held herself with grace and dignity. She was always in a sense, elegant. Even now when she is rocking out a show, her jumps and body twists and distortions always have an odd elegance to them.

Clothing wise, Julie is a fashionista. She loves to mix rocker/punk chick clothes with glamorous accessories and shoes. Her shirts tend to usually be printed tee's, ripped and layered. She loves skinny jeans and skirts. The majority of the time she wears colored heels or heeled boots - she needs the extra length of the heels to make her look taller!

The other "stand out" thing about Julie's appearance is her make up. She loves to make a statement with her face, especially her lipstick choice. While she is performing, Julie puts on a show - she becomes a different person than she is when dealing with every day life. So, she figures, why not do something fantastical with her face? Ruby red lips and slathered on eye-liner are her two specialities.

Her favorite color to dress in or accessorize with is any shade of blue. Her particular favorite is a cerulean blue - a deep but enchanting color that reminds her of the ocean. She also enjoys wearing turquoise jewelry and frequently getting blue high lights in her hair.

PERSONALITY & HISTORY
PERSONALITY:
There are two parts to this young woman - Julie Ray & Julianne.

Being a recording artist does not mean what it used to. Anymore, these days, you also have to be a performer of sorts. So, Julianne Ray decided - on the verge of her recording career - that she would become Julie Ray, a woman much different than her natural self. Julie is an outgoing, loud and brash woman. She knows what she wants and she isn't afraid to get it. Think of this as Julianne's alter ego. Julie Ray, when it comes down to it, is a performer. She can scream to a crowd and sing like it's nobodies business when she needs to.

Julianne, on the other hand, is the quiet side of her personality when she isn't in front of a crowd of fans. She is soft spoken and seemingly delicate, but make no mistake, she can hold her own. Often seen as cold or unfeeling, Julianne is such a reserved person that she doesn't allow herself to be anything more than congenial to others.

What Julianne doesn't understand, though, is that both these personalities are just facets of who she is as a growing woman. There are days when she likes to be loud and aggressive and there are days when she enjoys being passive and quiet. The public often associates "Julie Ray" as the only facet of Julianne's personality, because that is who she displays publicly, but they don't understand that when they see her off stage or on the street and she doesn't want to sign autographs or take pictures that she is often very protective of her private life.

Living a life of privilege and love, Julie Ray didn't have much to complain about. But she always felt there was something missing from her general existence. Her parents had raised her to be loyal, strong and intellectually curious young woman, so naturally, she was inquisitive as to what was "missing" in her life. She still hasn't found that answer, but through all her searching, she has learned that the road to discovery isn't paved with gold, but instead gravel. Many bumps along the way have humbled Julie, so while some perceive her as pretentious, she couldn't be farther from the meaning of the word...for the most part. ;)

HISTORY:
Dante and Gianna Ray have a long history together. Friends from their teenage days, the two managed to keep contact throughout their college years and further. Dante was born in Sicily, Italy and Gianna was born in the U.S. The two met when they were babies, as both families were friends with one another, and even hit it off when they were children, as told by Julie's grandmother. Both Dante and Gianna had budding interests in the entertainment industry. As teenagers, they would take about how their dreams would get them to Hollywood and some day they would become more famous than anyone could imagine.

Flash forward about ten years. Dante and Gianna are still in contact, but the two have grown apart. Dante is studying film production at UCLA while Gianna is working in New York as a dancer and student of the prestigious Juilliard School of Performing Arts. It isn't until they both head back to Italy for a summer vacation that the two reconnect and become as close as they used to. On the beautiful beaches of Sorrento Italy, the two realized they had fallen in love with each other. Both were passionate romantics and believed in taking risks, so within the next month, the couple had married to both their families approval and joy.

Flash forward another five years. The couple welcomes their first and only child, Julianne Isabel Ray. She's a healthy baby girl with the laugh of an angel. The couple had moved permanently to Los Angeles, but Julie's father often traversed between L.A., New York and Rome. He had become a very prominent indie movie producer and now was getting offers to start producing blockbusters. He agreed, the money was better, but his passion was quickly fading for the popcorn genre. Julie's mother, on the other hand, stayed home with her daughter and taught competitive swimming at the local YMCA and ballet in a dance studio she had renovated.

Little did the Ray family know that their daughter was a budding superstar. From the tender age of 4, young Julianne was taking several instrumental lessons and voice lessons. Her passion, even from that early age, was music. She loved listening to it, singing it and playing her instruments. She felt like an accomplished musician at the age of 14, when she could play the piano, the guitar and the violin with master class skill. From there, since both the guitar and violin were the basic instruments from which others were derived (such as the cello and ukulele), she could do many feats with most instruments.

Julie prided herself on her voice, though. Growing up in the eighties, her idols were Pat Benatar, Blondie and Cyndi Lauper. She tried to imitate those great women, but could never reach their exactness. It was only until her mother explained that Julie had a voice her own, that she didn't need to copy another to become a great singer, that she truly blossomed as a vocalist.

Julie's teenager years were not very tumultuous, but instead rather steady. She was sailing through her high school classes and was planning to graduate early. Ever since her sophomore year, her mother's alma matter, Juilliard, had been courting Julie to audition and enroll there. Always the individual, Julie felt the school sucked any creativity out of an artist, musician or actor. But her mother wanted her to attend so badly, Julie hesitantly accepted the offer to audition.

The audition, as expected, went extremely well and she was immediately accepted by the arts conservatory. Both her parents were overjoyed by this revelation, but Julie couldn't hide her disappointment. She wanted to travel the world and become a musician on her own terms. She had briefly entertained the idea of training to become an Olympic swimmer (another secret passion of hers) but felt that music was her higher calling.

The summer before she was going to attend Juilliard, Julianne went with her family on their annual trip to Capri Island in Italy. The had a villa on the island and vacationed there as often as they could. This place, surrounded by the gorgeous ocean, was where Julie really felt alive. Ever since she was a child, Julie had an affinity for water. She loved swimming, loved the beauty of the water and how elusive it was. It could at once be calm and then be destructive. That dichotomy always amazed her.

During the latter part of the her trip on the island, Julie was scheduled to do a gig at a local theater. She was going to perform some self-written songs she planned to record on an E.P. That night, before the gig, she had a gut feeling something amazing was about to happen. She went out onto the stage and gave the crowd of about 150 a rousing and strong set of acoustic songs. They thundered with applause when she finished, and she walked off stage with a sense of fulfillment. This is what she wanted to do for the rest of her life.

After the show, while she was signing a few papers and napkins, Julie was introduced to a man who was the label executive for Epic Records. He was on the island with his family and they all thoroughly enjoyed her concert. Her offered her, on the spot, a record deal with the company if she would move to New York and set up base there. She, almost immediately, agreed. She was going to New York for Juilliard anyway, right? This was just a little side attraction on the road to her life.

Again, we flash forward. Two years after her good luck on Capri, Julie is living the life of a successful recording artist. She has yet to appeal to the broad American music audience but she is a huge success in the international music markets, specifically in Europe, Canada and Australia. She has a rather large underground fan base in American that support her, rain or shine. As an artist, she feels that she has blended her love of pop music with the virtues of 80's, indie, and electro music to her liking.

The label has graciously rented her an apartment in downtown New York City and Juilliard, though having strict standards, has allowed her to become a part-time student because of her hectic touring/recording escapades. She has extensively toured Europe and America the past year, promoting her professional E.P., as she puts finishing touches on her debut album. While not a "tabloid" figure nor a household name, Julie is expected to sell well with the indie and underground crowds. She is also starting to experience the negative sides of minor fame, with vicious bloggers and haters attacking her personal choices and privacy. She's labeled within the blogging community as "Two Face". She's energetic, wild and crazy when she performs but she's also labeled, in the words of one writer, "a bitch in real life".

Adjusting to life in the fast lane is still growing on Julie. She's always lived her life at her own pace, her own timing. Her parents, who both now live in Italy, have always encouraged her to follow her dreams. And now that she is, she couldn't be happier. But something, still deep inside her, is missing and she can't figure out what.

To top that off, Julie had attended an album release party for a musician she supported when she met a young woman named Ren Satoh. The name had no particular meaning but the face and the vibe gave Julie a huge moment of deja vu. She wasn't usually more than congenial with people, but Julie felt a lingering pang to speak with the girl when she noticed her outside. Surprisingly, the two remained in contact and become friends quite quickly. They've been friends for the past 6 or so months, and Julie wouldn't have it any other way. The girl was so opposite of herself but something felt so right about being around her. The "intuition" she had experienced all her life was pointing to good things with Ren. The girls, though so vastly different, seemed to understand each other on a different level. Coincidence? Fate, you say? A serendipitous occasion? Julie didn't know but the one thing she did understand was that she liked being around this girl, regardless of consequence.

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