[Reese Burnhum's lore revamp because I realise I never splayed it out]
Reece Burnhum was born in Paris, France on his parents honeymoon. He was a completely, almost freakishly planned out planned birth.
He grew up in a household with parents who enabled his every whim, he was the sun, and everybody around him were the planets that waited on him hand and foot. If he was hurt he was immediately coddled, if he wanted something it was immediately his. For this, he became a patron saint of a child around adults. He was the kid your parents loved, the burning star of the city.
But you should always remember that stars are suns, and getting too close to the sun will get you burned.
Reese hated being told what to do. He hated being the perfect little golden boy. It took all his willpower to not scream at them to do it themselves. But that's not how that worked, no. The only way to get away with everything is to make adults think you don't have anything to get away with. Don't give them a reason to believe your accuser.
Reese is an actual psychopath. Like physiologically. He carefully and meticulously plans out every horrible thing he does. He doesn't earnestly experience emotions to as great a degree as anybody else, often choosing to mimic and repeat others and enhance whatever he does feel by 100%.
[ The complete rewrite of Cocktail's Backstory and Lore, because he's turning 4 this year ]
Jesse was an unplanned teenage pregnancy born from a rich alcoholic (Martha Doucette) and a farm boy with dreams to make it big (Huston McAurthur.) Being that the two were unmarried, making Jesse a bastard, Martha was all but shunned by her family and was able to convince Huston to run away to Tulsa with her.
Jesse McAurthur was born on August 17th, 1950 (almost a month earlier than his due date) right before his parents were about to leave for Tulsa. Jesse and his mother had to be put in when intensive care for a week before being discharged from the hospital.
Jesse lived barely above poverty, his father worked for Buck Merrill and his mother (who was a functioning alcoholic on a good day) worked at a grocery store 5 days a week, though she usually showed up for 2, maybe 3 if they got lucky.
Jesse grew up in old thrifted hand-me downs and was relentlessly bullied for it throughout elementary and middle school. He was also bullied for the disabilities that went undiagnosed throughout his life, such as dyscalcula and ADHD.
If Huston loved anything more than horse racing it was car racing, and Huston would often take Jesse on long, fast and dangerous car rides. On September 12th, 1957, Jesse and his father got into a fatal car crash. Huston died on scene and Jesse, who had been sitting in the passenger seat, lost an eye and was left with a mangled scar over the left side of his face when he was thrown almost all the way through the windshield. This instilled Jesse's fear of driving in vehicles.
Once Huston died, his father stopped funding the family and Martha was forced to qualify for any government aide she could. Luckily for her, it worked. Unluckily for Jesse, this meant that Martha had her own little excuse to stay home and day drink until she passed out (word got out about this, and earned him the originally mocking 'cocktail' nickname that turned into just a nickname for those that loved him.)
Martha became a ruthless, neglective drunk. Jesse had to fend for himself, often falling into the habit of caring for his mother who would realistically never do the same for him. He odd jobs that paid little cash and hoarded whatever money they'd give him.
Selfishness became a survival tactic at some point-- not necessarily consciously, but if Jesse didn't hide something or take it for himself, Martha would grab it from him and tell him that he ruined her life, so she deserved it more than him. Because of this, Jesse has a hard time choosing others over himself. He doesn't even necessarily realise it, but when he's called out on it it takes a bit of explaining for him to realise what he's actually done wrong.
Burning himself, other things, and vandalism became an unhealthy coping mechanism with him. Instead of going to big parties on the weekend he tends to drift around down with a spraycan and a lighter, tagging walls and burning Soc gardens.
Jesse is decently close with Buck because of Buck's relationship with his dad, and by proxy people like Dallas Winston and Johnny Cade. He's probably the closest with Twobit overall.
gummygunk
stormborns
kianamaiart
andulkaphoto
