Post by duke asriel ridley on Feb 26, 2015 21:31:41 GMT -5
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DUKE ASRIEL RIDLEY
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On August 20, 1988, Duke Asriel Ridley was welcomed into the world by Connor and Dawn Ridley. He was a healthy baby boy, and the youngest of their four sons. His parents were simple people who owned a twenty-acre farm in Vermont and raised their boys on the money they earned from growing and selling produce. The Ridleys also had a small poultry farm, but they kept the spoils of that labor for themselves for the most part. The boys were raised with hard-working values and once they were of a good age and stature, they joined the work on the farm. The farm was the pride and joy of the Ridley clan--the land went back two generations, and even Duke's uncles, aunts, cousins, and all kinds of distant relatives who lived close by would chip in and help out at the farm. The Ridleys saved a bit of money by keeping most of the labor in the family, and the Ridley boys learned some invaluable skills from their work on the farm. Duke himself has many fond memories of his time on his family's farm, but Duke isn't living in Vermont anymore, is he? Now he's a semi-successful journalist for The New Yorker and has taken a permanent residence in the Big Apple--and that's only the tip of the iceberg. Let's see how he got there...
THE EARLY YEARS
As mentioned above, Duke was the youngest of four boys and that pretty much set him up for how the rest of his life would go. His brothers were two, four, and five years older than him, respectively, but it always felt as if the other three were part of some club that Duke could never get into. Sure, they all had their fair share of sibling spats, and Duke was allowed into the treehouse once he turned ten, but there was always something that kept him distant from the rest of his brothers. A big part of it was that the other three loved to gang up on him altogether, which was a great bonding experience for the three of them, but which meant that Duke's life was almost daily torture. Being the youngest made him the baby in everyone's eyes, no matter how old he got. It was great with his parents because it meant they coddled him the most out of all his brothers, but it wasn't so great with his bros. Being the youngest meant he was always getting his hair mussed, always getting called dumb nicknames that he could never shake, and always being the last to shower in the mornings after all the hot water had been used up. Duke and his brothers grew strong from their constant work on the farm and from just roughhousing and being boys who lived on a wide open plain with little else to do but run around, but Duke was always seen as the weakest even though he could hold his own just as well as his brothers. The farm was a great source of income for the family, but they weren't incredibly wealthy by any means, and so being the youngest meant Duke got all the hand-me-downs--even clothes that his father and grandfather had once owned. When he was too young to care, it didn't bother him, but as Duke got older, he constantly longed for something that was truly his own and only his. Because he was the youngest and because his other brothers were so close with one another, Duke was the obvious target for most of their pranks and bullying. Duke had a sense of humor, but his brothers' games got old quickly. He loved his brothers with all his heart, but he's sure even today that all their bullying made him so sullen and serious like he is now. Despite all this, Duke always wanted to have a big family of his own. He loved having a full house and having to set all the places at their large dinner table, and he especially loved working on the farm when other family members stopped by. There was never a dull moment at family reunions, and Duke loved being around that kind of energy.
EDUCATION AND THE MIDDLE YEARS
Farming was incredibly important to the Ridleys, but so was general education. The boys learned a lot about life, death, growing, and nurturing from their work on the farm--amongst so many other hands on and practical things--but Duke was the only one of his siblings who really took to academic learning. He loved to read and write more than anything, and if he couldn't be found in the fields observing all the different ecosystems on their farm, then he was probably in his room or in the barn curled up with a book. When he was twelve, Duke started to keep a journal because he had this grandiose idea that one day, his journal would be the only remaining artifact that could tell people how life on the Ridley farm really was. His brothers found his journal though, and ridiculed him endlessly for it, so Duke started keeping his writings and musings to himself. To avoid embarrassment, Duke often just kept things to himself and as he got older, he started hanging out alone more and more. The Ridleys didn't have regular internet access--mostly because Duke's parents didn't "believe in the Internet"--so Duke often strayed to the ends of the farm, just jotting his thoughts down in notebooks or daydreaming. His brothers made fun of him for that too, of course, but that time alone was Duke's greatest solace. Duke did incredibly well in school, and his parents played up his achievements a lot, especially considering the rest of their sons were just average academically. Duke's brothers teased him for being a nerd, and although his parents were incredibly supportive of his academic trysts, they also put a lot of pressure on him to perform well in school. While Duke loved working on the farm, it was obvious from a young age that it wasn't something he wanted to do for the rest of his life; his parents told him that doing well in school was the only way he was going to make it anywhere else.
HIGH SCHOOL AND THE TEEN YEARS
The Ridleys were a good looking bunch of boys, and Duke never had to do much to be known in their small town, considering everyone knew about their family's farm and he had his brothers' reputations to precede him. Duke wasn't like his older brothers, however, and despite his good looks, his bookish behavior prevailed and he continued to mostly keep to himself. He had a few friends, but he hardly met up with them outside of school hours, and Duke was the kind of kid who would get more excited about going home early to finish the next chapter of a novel than to drive forty-five minutes out to the nearest mall just to stand around and check out chicks. He wasn't unlikable by any means, but he wasn't as popular as his more outgoing, rambunctious older brothers. Still, on the off-chance that Duke went out to be social, his older brothers always looked out for him, making sure he got anything he needed to have a good time. Duke experimented with alcohol a little in his junior and senior year of high school, and he did shrooms once on the farm with one of his brothers, but that was about as outlandish as he got. He spent most of his shroom trip trying to write down everything he was experiencing anyway.
COLLEGE AND NEW YORK CITY
Despite not being a terribly social kid, Duke had been involved with many school clubs, including Yearbook and the newsletter. He was actually the editor of the school journal in his senior year, and received a scholarship for a state school in NYC because of it. He became a Journalism and English double-major and graduated with a 3.9 GPA. However, academics weren't the only thing he learned at college. Although he took to socializing like a normal person very slowly, once he got into the groove of things, it wasn't too horrible. Living in a large city with a population over two thousand times larger than his hometown was super jarring and at first, very overwhelming. But Duke loves NYC now, especially the way that he can easily become an anonymous face in a large crowd. He didn't have the shadow of his much more popular older brothers looming over him, so Duke actually got to make his own name for himself. Girls found him attractive, other guys didn't find him threatening or uncool, and although he wasn't the most known dude on campus, he still managed to make quite a number of friends. Duke discovered that he could actually be charming sometimes, and for once, being shy and sensitive worked in his favor. He managed to charm his way into bed with two women before his senior year. Duke was really just a polite guy, which a lot of people misread as him being kind. He wasn't mean by any means, but Duke was a pretty serious guy overall and only really loosened up around people he knew well or after he'd had a couple of beers. He could be too calculating and academic, putting reason and logic before emotion. He wasn't the type of guy to broadcast his life story, and most of the friends he made weren't terribly close to him. He was briefly in a band (he played bass and also knows how to play a little cello), and that was a pretty fun part of his college career. Sometimes Duke still wishes he was talented enough to pull off being a musician as a full-time career (but he loves what he does now). Anyway, college also led him to one of the most important people in his life...
BOBBY SHARP
Duke met Bobby at a party his senior year of college after he bumped into her and made her spill her drink down the front of her shirt. He'd been a little buzzed and had actually been on his way out of the party, but he remembered her face. He'd tried to clean up his mess as best as possible, too tipsy to consider personal space and boundaries and all that jazz. He kind of wanted to say more at the time than just apologizing profusely, but he got tongue-tied, and besides, he was never really smooth with the ladies. So he left, not thinking it likely that he'd see this woman again. Imagine his pleasant surprise when he runs into her a little over a week later at a coffee shop. They got to talking and their relationship took off from there. Bobby was the only person Duke had ever really been in love with and their whole romance was a huge whirlwind for him, but he really enjoyed being with her. Bobby was unbelievably sweet and lovely, and Duke couldn't believe how lucky he'd been to find a lady like her. The pair got married on August 15, 2012 and for a while, Duke thought he'd finally found true happiness in life. He was married to an incredible, beautiful woman, he had a stable job that he loved, he had been on great terms with his brothers since the wedding, and he really felt like NYC was home. It seemed like they were ready to start a family, which Duke had always wanted. He came from a big family, but wanted one of his own. But the happiness didn't last forever. On November 27th, 2014, Bobby told him she had ovarian cancer, and all Duke could think about was how the news shattered his dreams. He didn't think about what this meant for her and he couldn't even fathom being there for her emotionally. He loved Bobby but, in the moment, he felt like this was something they couldn't get past. He wanted a family with her, and now it seemed like that would never happen. He was scared too: if the cancer spread, if it got bad, he didn't know how they would deal. He couldn't imagine watching Bobby slowly die, to become this shell of herself. He obsessively Googled things like the costs of chemo, or the survival rates of ovarian cancer, and so on. Finally, two weeks after Bobby told him the news, Duke came to a decision: he couldn't do it. At first, he only wanted a break to have a little breathing room, but after more thought, a divorce seemed to be the logical conclusion.
NOW
Once the divorce proceedings started, Duke really began to regret his decision. He still loves Bobby, and he still wants to be with her, but the idea of what their future would be like is too painful for him to deal with. However, he also feels like a total jerk for the way he's handled the situation up to now. He's worried about what Bobby thinks of him now, and he's absolutely torn between what to do. He's been throwing himself into his work and writing some personal essays and such in order to process his feelings. He's not sure where life's gonna take him next and right now, nothing seems scarier than his future.
THE EARLY YEARS
As mentioned above, Duke was the youngest of four boys and that pretty much set him up for how the rest of his life would go. His brothers were two, four, and five years older than him, respectively, but it always felt as if the other three were part of some club that Duke could never get into. Sure, they all had their fair share of sibling spats, and Duke was allowed into the treehouse once he turned ten, but there was always something that kept him distant from the rest of his brothers. A big part of it was that the other three loved to gang up on him altogether, which was a great bonding experience for the three of them, but which meant that Duke's life was almost daily torture. Being the youngest made him the baby in everyone's eyes, no matter how old he got. It was great with his parents because it meant they coddled him the most out of all his brothers, but it wasn't so great with his bros. Being the youngest meant he was always getting his hair mussed, always getting called dumb nicknames that he could never shake, and always being the last to shower in the mornings after all the hot water had been used up. Duke and his brothers grew strong from their constant work on the farm and from just roughhousing and being boys who lived on a wide open plain with little else to do but run around, but Duke was always seen as the weakest even though he could hold his own just as well as his brothers. The farm was a great source of income for the family, but they weren't incredibly wealthy by any means, and so being the youngest meant Duke got all the hand-me-downs--even clothes that his father and grandfather had once owned. When he was too young to care, it didn't bother him, but as Duke got older, he constantly longed for something that was truly his own and only his. Because he was the youngest and because his other brothers were so close with one another, Duke was the obvious target for most of their pranks and bullying. Duke had a sense of humor, but his brothers' games got old quickly. He loved his brothers with all his heart, but he's sure even today that all their bullying made him so sullen and serious like he is now. Despite all this, Duke always wanted to have a big family of his own. He loved having a full house and having to set all the places at their large dinner table, and he especially loved working on the farm when other family members stopped by. There was never a dull moment at family reunions, and Duke loved being around that kind of energy.
EDUCATION AND THE MIDDLE YEARS
Farming was incredibly important to the Ridleys, but so was general education. The boys learned a lot about life, death, growing, and nurturing from their work on the farm--amongst so many other hands on and practical things--but Duke was the only one of his siblings who really took to academic learning. He loved to read and write more than anything, and if he couldn't be found in the fields observing all the different ecosystems on their farm, then he was probably in his room or in the barn curled up with a book. When he was twelve, Duke started to keep a journal because he had this grandiose idea that one day, his journal would be the only remaining artifact that could tell people how life on the Ridley farm really was. His brothers found his journal though, and ridiculed him endlessly for it, so Duke started keeping his writings and musings to himself. To avoid embarrassment, Duke often just kept things to himself and as he got older, he started hanging out alone more and more. The Ridleys didn't have regular internet access--mostly because Duke's parents didn't "believe in the Internet"--so Duke often strayed to the ends of the farm, just jotting his thoughts down in notebooks or daydreaming. His brothers made fun of him for that too, of course, but that time alone was Duke's greatest solace. Duke did incredibly well in school, and his parents played up his achievements a lot, especially considering the rest of their sons were just average academically. Duke's brothers teased him for being a nerd, and although his parents were incredibly supportive of his academic trysts, they also put a lot of pressure on him to perform well in school. While Duke loved working on the farm, it was obvious from a young age that it wasn't something he wanted to do for the rest of his life; his parents told him that doing well in school was the only way he was going to make it anywhere else.
HIGH SCHOOL AND THE TEEN YEARS
The Ridleys were a good looking bunch of boys, and Duke never had to do much to be known in their small town, considering everyone knew about their family's farm and he had his brothers' reputations to precede him. Duke wasn't like his older brothers, however, and despite his good looks, his bookish behavior prevailed and he continued to mostly keep to himself. He had a few friends, but he hardly met up with them outside of school hours, and Duke was the kind of kid who would get more excited about going home early to finish the next chapter of a novel than to drive forty-five minutes out to the nearest mall just to stand around and check out chicks. He wasn't unlikable by any means, but he wasn't as popular as his more outgoing, rambunctious older brothers. Still, on the off-chance that Duke went out to be social, his older brothers always looked out for him, making sure he got anything he needed to have a good time. Duke experimented with alcohol a little in his junior and senior year of high school, and he did shrooms once on the farm with one of his brothers, but that was about as outlandish as he got. He spent most of his shroom trip trying to write down everything he was experiencing anyway.
COLLEGE AND NEW YORK CITY
Despite not being a terribly social kid, Duke had been involved with many school clubs, including Yearbook and the newsletter. He was actually the editor of the school journal in his senior year, and received a scholarship for a state school in NYC because of it. He became a Journalism and English double-major and graduated with a 3.9 GPA. However, academics weren't the only thing he learned at college. Although he took to socializing like a normal person very slowly, once he got into the groove of things, it wasn't too horrible. Living in a large city with a population over two thousand times larger than his hometown was super jarring and at first, very overwhelming. But Duke loves NYC now, especially the way that he can easily become an anonymous face in a large crowd. He didn't have the shadow of his much more popular older brothers looming over him, so Duke actually got to make his own name for himself. Girls found him attractive, other guys didn't find him threatening or uncool, and although he wasn't the most known dude on campus, he still managed to make quite a number of friends. Duke discovered that he could actually be charming sometimes, and for once, being shy and sensitive worked in his favor. He managed to charm his way into bed with two women before his senior year. Duke was really just a polite guy, which a lot of people misread as him being kind. He wasn't mean by any means, but Duke was a pretty serious guy overall and only really loosened up around people he knew well or after he'd had a couple of beers. He could be too calculating and academic, putting reason and logic before emotion. He wasn't the type of guy to broadcast his life story, and most of the friends he made weren't terribly close to him. He was briefly in a band (he played bass and also knows how to play a little cello), and that was a pretty fun part of his college career. Sometimes Duke still wishes he was talented enough to pull off being a musician as a full-time career (but he loves what he does now). Anyway, college also led him to one of the most important people in his life...
BOBBY SHARP
Duke met Bobby at a party his senior year of college after he bumped into her and made her spill her drink down the front of her shirt. He'd been a little buzzed and had actually been on his way out of the party, but he remembered her face. He'd tried to clean up his mess as best as possible, too tipsy to consider personal space and boundaries and all that jazz. He kind of wanted to say more at the time than just apologizing profusely, but he got tongue-tied, and besides, he was never really smooth with the ladies. So he left, not thinking it likely that he'd see this woman again. Imagine his pleasant surprise when he runs into her a little over a week later at a coffee shop. They got to talking and their relationship took off from there. Bobby was the only person Duke had ever really been in love with and their whole romance was a huge whirlwind for him, but he really enjoyed being with her. Bobby was unbelievably sweet and lovely, and Duke couldn't believe how lucky he'd been to find a lady like her. The pair got married on August 15, 2012 and for a while, Duke thought he'd finally found true happiness in life. He was married to an incredible, beautiful woman, he had a stable job that he loved, he had been on great terms with his brothers since the wedding, and he really felt like NYC was home. It seemed like they were ready to start a family, which Duke had always wanted. He came from a big family, but wanted one of his own. But the happiness didn't last forever. On November 27th, 2014, Bobby told him she had ovarian cancer, and all Duke could think about was how the news shattered his dreams. He didn't think about what this meant for her and he couldn't even fathom being there for her emotionally. He loved Bobby but, in the moment, he felt like this was something they couldn't get past. He wanted a family with her, and now it seemed like that would never happen. He was scared too: if the cancer spread, if it got bad, he didn't know how they would deal. He couldn't imagine watching Bobby slowly die, to become this shell of herself. He obsessively Googled things like the costs of chemo, or the survival rates of ovarian cancer, and so on. Finally, two weeks after Bobby told him the news, Duke came to a decision: he couldn't do it. At first, he only wanted a break to have a little breathing room, but after more thought, a divorce seemed to be the logical conclusion.
NOW
Once the divorce proceedings started, Duke really began to regret his decision. He still loves Bobby, and he still wants to be with her, but the idea of what their future would be like is too painful for him to deal with. However, he also feels like a total jerk for the way he's handled the situation up to now. He's worried about what Bobby thinks of him now, and he's absolutely torn between what to do. He's been throwing himself into his work and writing some personal essays and such in order to process his feelings. He's not sure where life's gonna take him next and right now, nothing seems scarier than his future.
SEAN FARIS - LOCAL - WRITTEN BY SHAZI
