the night still felt almost too young to belong truly to itself. something that was now stretching out with every hour that was yet to burn in absence, or presence. maddie stepped out from her break and slipped back behind the bar as though she had never left, settling into the role she wore perhaps too easily. the feline curve of her smile wound its way back into place, her eyes brightening just enough to catch and keep the necessary attention, and an open ear that remained offered to whatever strange confessions or fleeting little amount of joy came her way.
there was still time before close, plenty of it honestly, and she moved as she needed. shoulders brushing past the other bartenders in an easy form of familiarity whilst her hands worked on instinct alone, barely needing to register the orders as they met her. her laughter broke through the haze of the process where it mattered, even almost something real at the right moments, whilst her gaze skimmed the room in a quiet form of awareness, ensuring the space remained as it should.
eventually, the night softened just for a moment. the crowd thinned, and the noise dipped into something quieter as if the hush had been called upon by will alone.
and maddie tipped the bottle in her hand, topping off the glass of one of the last stragglers still by the bar without a draw of attention to it. her hip rested lazily against the counter now, posturing loosening now that it was possible. a brow arched in an invitation, subtle at best, but still there, and her voice followed easily.
“penny for your thoughts, love?” maddie reached for another glass, pulling it towards herself without a second thought. “last call on charity.”
[ zendaya, 31, cis woman, she/her ] Welcome to Redford, MADDEN "MADDIE" KNIGHT! Local sources report that you’ve been in town for FIVE MONTHS and have settled in THE COAST. You’ve also gained a reputation for being MAGNETIC, though some whisper that you can be a bit GUARDED. Others have dredged up rumours that you’re involved in YOUR OWN SECRET AFFAIRS ( was involved in the murder of her friend 15 years ago ), but most know you for your work as a BARTENDER at PNW's. We’ll see you around town soon!
BASIC INFORMATION.
legal name: madden lenore knight
known aliases: maddie, mads
physical identifier: zendaya coleman
date of birth: june 19th, 1994
orientation/preference: pansexual / romantic
moral alignment: true neutral
professional occupation: bartender at PNW's
subplot & role: n/a — own secret affairs ( involved in the murder of her friend 15 years ago )
maddie was born in phoenix, arizona, as the youngest daughter to a notably wealthy and comfortable living family. the kind that already had their futures set up for them and all they had to do was just follow along with what was expected.
for the most part, she kept to that trend as did her older siblings, listening when expected and attending to whatever it was that required it, but as the years bled into the next it was obvious to most that she might not have been as.. collected as the others, so to say. not that there was anything wrong with maddie, but rather she wasn't one to be so easily moulded into the proper daughter desire.
that fact presented itself in quite little ways more than anything, and nothing alarming either. she was still being set up well with her grades and understanding, and even her own want of it, to go to law school when she graduated. but the cracks showed themselves in the fact she liked to party, she liked to have fun, hell she just liked to be a little wilder with the friends that she'd made and the little group they possessed.
it wasn't lost on maddie that her parents held near to no approval of those she surrounded herself with anyway, and even more obvious was it to her that they disapproved of the boyfriend she held at the time and the fact she seemed rather set on remaining with him for the years that would come.
but things eventually shift, as they so often do, and one summer when she was sixteen would change the course of her entire life forever.
it started off as nothing really, just a group of friends in a cabin for a weekend in the middle of nowhere. phone signal lost, the sounds of birds and running water as the soundtrack, and the trees and themselves as their only witnesses. it was supposed to be their summer break and that farewell party for those in the group now heading to college or university, or to wherever it was the sea and sky may take them. and most of all, it was supposed to be fun.
one of their friends, nathan holloway, had the bright idea that they should film a movie whilst they were there. some crazy little horror flick and all the found footage of it. he was among those graduating and heading to study film, after all, and it wasn't the first time the group had participated in any of his little films.
and so the stage was set.
it was the typical story. the cabin in the woods, tale as old as time where everyone is running from a masked murderer and hoping for the best. nathan himself was directing whilst also playing the first victim so that he could be off camera for the rest of it instead.
but everything that followed what drug induced psychedelic trip of nothing and everything, and eventually emerged in the death of nathan holloway. and near enough every friend that that attended that trip and witnessed the death, will give the same answer of not knowing exactly what happened or why it happened.
maddie herself, with washed off blood on her hands and a career in law on the line, would stare with horror lingering behind her eyes and testify on the stands that she played no part in it and she was inside the entire time.
because maddie was the only one that hadn't been seen in the footage that had been obtained as evidence. maddie was the only one that held no viable evidence that would point to her participation beyond the word of mouth of others that was already becoming something convoluted and blame thrown around. psychological warfare, if you would. and because maddie had been edited out of the footage before it could be taken, because another had chosen to try and help her rather than help himself.
maddie may not have been found completely guilty, but she wasn't completely innocent either. in the months that followed she was sentenced community service hours instead, whilst watching the rest of her friends all be sentenced to various degrees of prison time instead. all of them knowing that she had walked free on top of that.
but life isn't kind to those that skate by on the thinnest of threads, and in the aftermath of it all maddie had to move schools and her dream of studying law was wiped clean from being something viable anymore. her parents remained with her and keeping her until she was eighteen, but as soon that prime age was met she was forced out, practically disowned in every way that meant it anyway. the only mercy in it all was being left with the money that had been saved up for her for university, and enough to at least rent out an apartment whilst she found a job.
and that led to her next years of job hopping and hunting. crashing on another's couch or searching for her next high as if it would erase the past and erase anything that she had ever done. she doesn't sleep, not in the same sense others do, instead going days without it until she hits a level of exhaustion no one should allow themselves to encounter. and each job almost always poses some kind of threat until she moves along to the next.
but she's thirty one when things take a turn that she can't avoid, and that is the turn of an old friend being released from prison early, and maddie has held bare contact with many of them by now but enough to know that most do not look kindly upon her. and in one of those few visits to prison and to the one that ensured that she would not be implicated directly in the murder, seongmin offered her an out to the cottage his aunt had given him for when he would be released in redford, oregon. and that would mark the second time that he had aided in protecting her life as maddie took it and promised to wait for him there with the hope that perhaps life could find some semblance of normality.
little did she know that this town was and odd as it apparently could come.
QUESTIONNAIRE.
what is their biggest fear?
that karma is waiting and that one day it's finally going to catch up to her, as if it hasn't already. that she'll lose even more of what she has already lost and that she has no way to fix it. that she has no way to repay for her sins, and she has no way to claim back herself. that all she is, and ever will be, is who she is now.
what is their main motivation?
she was given an out, a chance to live free to and to actually live in general, and she's been given that twice now. so she takes that chance whenever it comes and she uses that to remind herself of what she still has and what she can do. that she might still have a live ahead of herself that means something. and that at least being here means she has freedom on a level of it.
are they a believer or a sceptic?
when she was younger, maddie likely would've believed herself to be a sceptic. however in growing older she would not think the same, nor would she think likely of it. through that, it's easy to say that she is most certainly a believer in most sense.. but she may still cast a side long glance or a raise brow upon certain things.. she can hardly help that fact.
what brought them to redford and/or what keeps them from leaving?
the easiest answer to that would be both the seeking of safety as well as the act of running away. both can be true at the same time, and she was offered a place to stay where those she doesn't trust, or possibly fears, can't find her. and that alone is what keeps her here.
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