Disclaimer...I don't own Rent, its characters, its actors, or anything that wasn't created out of the sheer madness that exists in my head.
Prolouge: Our Current Situation
(as told by Mark Cohen)
9 November
Zoom in on the Boho boys...doing absolutley nothing... the story of our lives.
Well, Collins is out teaching.
It's been three years since Angel's death and Collins has been dying a lit bit at time ever since. Angel was his heartbeat and now his heart break.
Roger's heartbeat is sleeping curled up against his chest, next to the guitar layed on the other side of the breaking-apart-couch. No, not Mimi. Mimi gave Roger another heartbeat right before she died. His name is Noah. And by some miracle, the two year old shows no sign of HIV/ AIDS. His birth gave Roger no time to slip into a depression and he's been slowly putting it back to together since then.
Benny (yes Benny's here too) is sprawled over some legal work that Joanne sent over, slowly falling asleep. Not long before Mimi died the biggest twist in our story came from the Benny front. He showed up one morning, moving in to Mimi's old place. And who can blame him? It's not his fault Muffy, Alison, pulled one over all of us and pulled a Maureen. Mr. Grey, in his extremely flustered moment, gave permanent rights to the loft building, the studio that is next door, money to service them for, well, eternity, plus some, to keep everything, the divorce and the reason covered up and it all went to Benny. One month ago, Benny moved up here, to give his place to the kid of an old family friend, who's moving in today.
Maureen and Joanne have two heart beats of their own. Aurora Marquez and Roman Dumott Jefferson were born six months after Noah. I knew pregnant Maureen would be something to be reckoned with, I don't know how Joanne put up with it. Maureen's changed, well, at least she has an actual job now.
We all have jobs now. I think partly in an effort to make it up to us for his years as a lousy friend, Benny turned Cyber Arts into Life Arts, for the starving artists of the alphabet city that actually show promise. And after the building were the Life Support meeting, was rendered useless, the floorwhich was supposed to be the condos became the new home.
Collins speaks in classes for those who just discovered they have HIV/ AIDS.
Roger runs the recording studio and is doing as well as one can do music-wise in this neighborhood, with several really nice gigs occasionally.
Joanne does the legal work. Benny heads everything.
Maureen (here's a scary thought) runs the small child care facility. You'd be surprised how many starving artist have starving kids too.
But, hey, it helps distribute some of that money Mr. Grey left Benny.
Me? I still film. Help out randomly.
As for my heartbeat, well, no girlfriend.
The other type? The kind Roger has? The kind Maureen and Joanne share?
Well...
I had one, eighteen years ago, Maureen and I shared one for ten days, before signing the papers. Wait, today is November 9. As of four days ago, Nineteen years ago.
Probably why it took so long for Joanne to convince Maureen to have Rora and Roman.
Why I didn't help father those two and an old friend of Joanne's had to.
Why I try to ignore the fact I've known Maureen all those years.
So how was that for the Prolouge?
Want to clarify ages (this way they can work for the story)
and for the heck of it I gave everyone birthdays...there's a clue in there if you want to figure it out.
Mark (5 May)34
Maureen (7 July)34
Collins(18 Dec.)turning 36
Joanne(17 Oct.)35
Benny (14 Dec.)turning 31
Roger (1 Feb.)29
And just for fun:
Angel (5 Aug.)
Mimi (2 Jan.)
April (13 April)
If you figure it out let me know if not I'll just tell it in the end probably.