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F U L LXN A M E
Soren James Bowers
N I C K N A M E (S)
Sor
B I R T H D A Y
January 18
A G E
24
S E X U A L I T Y
Bisexual
E T H N I C I T Y
White American
H O M E T O W N
New York
H E X
#4d5676
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S T Y L E
Soren’s style has completely changed from when he was a teenager. In his twenties, he discovered not only colour, but also patterns, and now his wardrobe is full of both. He’s mastered the art of balancing them too. When he’s not doing band stuff, he has a tendency to drift back to his old style with band t-shirts, ripped jeans, and leather jackets. He’s no stranger to makeup, mostly on stage, but has been known to wear eyeliner day to day when he's having a good day.
H E I G H T & B U I L D
6'2", slim
A P P E A R A N C E
Soren is often described as striking. There’s those ice-blue eyes which give away far too much of his emotions than he would like at times, as well as a strong bone structure. But his most distinctive feature is his smile. Big, a little lopsided at times, and entirely endearing. He lost a lot of weight after the accident, but he's managed to put most of it back on, managing to build a bit of muscle back onto his frame as well. His hair is constantly changing colours and styles; from black and blue, to blonde and blue, to all blue, and back again. He’s got a number of tattoos ([right shoulder blade][right forearm][left arm below elbow][left arm near wrist]) and both of his ears are pierced several times, including an industrial and rook in his left ear.
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Despite all of his troubles as a teenager, Soren was generally well liked, and that hasn’t changed. He’s charismatic, energetic, and usually cheerful. He’s loved by his fans and generally regarded as one of the nicest guys on the rock scene by both his peers and the fans. In interviews and behind the scenes of music videos, he’s always cracking jokes and goofing around, without ever crossing the line into being annoying or irritating. He’s got a reputation of being exceptionally honest, and there are only a handful of things about his life he keeps totally honest. He gives his everything to the crowds and to the fans, which is part of the reason he finds touring so exhausting. Even when he’s having a bad day, he puts on a brave face and does his best to appear fine. This was what he did when things were at their worst. He’d push the attention away from himself, crack a joke, put a smile on his face, and make sure people didn’t see the fact that the light behind his eyes was rapidly fading. At his worst, he knew he wasn’t fooling anyone with the act, but people around him pretended to believe it, which was what he wanted at the time.
Nowadays, he’s trying to get out of the habit of hiding it. But habits of a lifetime die hard. He has a tendency to downplay how bad he’s really feeling, be it physically or mentally. It’s an old habit, nothing more than that. He wants to let people in, he wants to let them help, because the support of other people is the only reason he’s gotten to where he is, and he knows that. But for years, letting people in meant letting them see how bad things really were, and that wasn’t an option. As terrible as his mother was, she was family, and the only family he had left, and letting go was impossible. Letting people in meant possibly losing her, and that wasn’t going to be an option for him. He wasn’t going to be alone in the world and he wasn’t going to give up on family. This is something that’s still true today. There are a handful of people that he would do anything for and that he considers his new family, and as bad as things can get, he won’t give up on them as long as they don’t give up on him.
All of the anger and the pain and the hurt that Soren went through as a teenager hasn’t vanished, though. He was never cruel, but he was angry. Even his friends saw how quickly he could tip to the edge of snapping, only to pull himself back. This is what led him to bars and to fights he knew he couldn’t win. He tries to process it in healthier ways; but it’s very much still something he’s working on, and sometimes all of the emotions he’s bottling up come surging out of him in a wave. He’s managed to avoid falling back into his habit of getting into fights, at least, but his pain and anger are explosive, and he’ll do anything to get rid of them. He’s increasingly aware of his dependence on his prescription painkillers, and has written it off so far as needing them after the physical strains of tour, with the intention of reducing them down now he’s home and has some time off; but there’s a part of him that fears he’ll never be able to.
For all of his problems though, Soren feels properly alive for the first time. He’s burned out, he’s exhausted, and in desperate need of a break; but he’d do it all over again without a second thought. He knows that being where he is now seemed impossible for sixteen year old him, and so he makes sure to get the most out of it. He knows he’s got his limitations, but he’s not afraid to push them just to see how far he can get. He’s not done dreaming by a long shot. He’s determined to leave the past in the past and keep moving forward, not wanting to let things hold him back.
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H I S T O R I A
content warning for mentions of abuse, addiction, medical stuff, and burnout
For six years of Soren’s life, his family seemed picture perfect. He had a mom and a dad who loved each other and who adored him. He was an only child, but he made friends easily and so was never lonely. And then Soren’s father died in a freak accident when Soren was seven, and everything changed. Soren was with him at the time, and his father pushed him out of the way of the falling debris, before being killed instantly. His mother was heartbroken. Having lost her soulmate, there was only one way she could find to numb the pain, and that was to block out the world with alcohol and drugs. It didn’t take long for her to begin to blame Soren for his father’s death. With the blame came verbal abuse and emotional manipulation. She never laid a finger on Soren, but she didn’t need to. The words tore strips from him and destroyed what self-esteem he had. Music was his only salvation. His father had taught him to play the piano, and Soren wrote his first songs on his father’s upright piano. That, and his friends, were perhaps the only reason he survived his teenage years. He kept starting bands, and they kept falling through or not working out. But he stayed writing.
His mother died when he was sixteen. Despite everything she’d put him through, he’d still cared about her, so this broke him even more. In search of self-destruction, he began going to bars that he was too young for, but where they didn’t look too closely at the fake ID he showed. It was here he started getting into fights. He never started them. But when he saw somebody picking on someone smaller or weaker than them, or a guy hassling some girl, he’d intervene. At that age, he was already tall, and could surprisingly hold his own, but he usually ended up the worse off. He didn’t care. That was the point. His band at the time would often play shows at venues and end up having to pull Soren back from a fight after the show. He had a gun pulled on him more than once. It was also around the time he started dating Lauren. Lauren was bad for him, and it seemed like everyone around him knew except him. And possibly even including him. But for a while, their relationship was good, even if she did encourage all of his bad habits. They surprised people with how well they seemed to fit together. It seemed like Soren brought out the good in Lauren; although this would soon be shown to all be an act.
He was eighteen, had just graduated high school by a hair, and was on his way home from a gig. The band were at their wits’ end with him, having had to pull him away from yet another guy with a gun. And then a drunk driver plowed into the taxi he was in, killing the driver and seriously injuring Soren. He was in a coma for three days, and when he came around, he was constantly medicated and groggy. A week after the accident, Lauren broke up with Soren, not wanting to have to deal with his road to recovery. At that stage, he was still on so many meds and in so much pain that the conversation didn’t register in his memory, and he had to be told again when he was more conscious. He would later discover she’d been cheating on him for that week, and possibly before that.
The accident was the wake up call he needed, and he began to pull his life back together. He apologised to the band and promised to make things better. The recording session to record an EP was a peace offering more than anything else, and they didn’t expect it to really bring them anywhere. But it got them attention, and more people started coming to their shows. Two years after the accident, Beautiful Strangers were signed to a leading rock label based in LA. They recorded their first album there and immediately began touring, and toured for almost four years straight, taking a six month break two years ago to record their second album. However, Soren’s physical and mental health were beginning to severely suffer after the stress of touring. He was in a bad state, and both he and everyone else around him knew that. As they began to look towards working on their third album, Soren begged their team for a break from touring to get himself fixed up. They agreed, and Soren moved back to New York to live with one of his best friends.
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S E C R E T S
His current mental and physical state. The stress of constantly working has led to the emotional abuse he was subjected to as a teenager rearing its ugly head again and leading to him struggling. He’s also suffered from chronic pain and fatigue ever since the accident which tend to fluctuate.
Lauren has contacted him several times over the past few years, and even tracked him down while he was on tour. He’s told her where to shove it every single time, but she doesn’t seem to be willing to let it drop. Most recently, she showed up at the last show of their tour, and discovered his prescription painkillers back stage. She threatened to tell the world he was a junkie, and he dared her to do it. She hasn’t done anything yet, but Soren doubts she’d back down that easily.
His growing dependence on painkillers is a concern for him. His mother was an addict, and he knows that these things tend to be genetic. Now he’s starting to recover from tour, he’s reducing down his usage, but that voice in the back of his head is telling him he won’t be able to do it, so why even try?
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