location : ruby woods
open to: all sapphire cove residents
this is the time of day micah loves most—early morning, when the world has barely stirred. just him, walking through the woods, the trees rustling in the wind, the crunch of leaves and twigs beneath his boots, and one of his many collected strays padding along at his side. the air is crisp, clean, the pale light slowly filtering through the branches, offering the day a soft, unhurried rise.
today, he has indi with him—named after indiana jones for his love of adventure, off leash and trotting ahead, ears perked and nose to the ground. it’s indi who notices it first, a sound, distant but distinct. something—or someone, up ahead.
at first, micah assumes it’s a deer. the dogs have a habit of chasing them off the trail, but when he squints through the trees, it’s not an animal. it’s a person.“indi, get back here!” micah calls, whistling low between his teeth. the mutt hesitates, then trots back toward him.
micah lifts his hand in a quiet, easy gesture of reassurance. “sorry about him — he’s friendly, i promise. just a bit boisterous.”
Another overnight shift down in the books, unlike most who might try to take the opportunity to get some shut eye, Talia much preferred to take advantage of the quiet early mornings. The soft glow of the rising sun, and the distant call of birds in the trees made for just the thing to clear her head. As much as she loved her work, even she had her hard nights. And last night was a particularly troubling one to say the least.
Ruby woods was one of Talia's favorite spots to do some early morning jogging, and off she went, trying her best to let the stress go with each pounding footstep. She almost completely lost in thought until she spotted a dog bouncing straight for her. A small crack of a smile grew across her lips hearing someone call for him in the distance, a voice she knew she recognized.
Talia broke back out into a jog, raising a frail hand to shield the morning rays from her eyes so she could get a better glimpse at who lied ahead of her. "Hey!" She called out, picking up her pace to catch up to Micah.
She took a breath after reaching him and bent down extending her hand out for the dog to smell her hand. Talia looked back up with a grin, "hey Micah!" she rose back up, standing level with him. "funny bumping into you here, who's this cutie you've got with you today?"
Full Name: Elias Cruz Reyes
Nicknames: E, Eli, Lío,
Pronouns: He/Him
Sexuality: Heterosexual
Date of birth: August 18th 1993
Home Town: Sapphire Cove, CA
Age: 31
Zodiac: Leo
Occupation: Tattoo artist
Personality
Positive Traits: Meticulous, stoic, taciturn, cultivated
Negative Traits: Cynical, reticent, jaded, reckless
Trope: The dirtbag
Likes: Thunderstorms, abandoned places, finding doodles on napkins or scrap pieces of paper, the muted hum of a busy street
Dislikes: Dependency, feeling helpless, black and white thinking, florescent lights.
Fears: Irrelevance, the sound of silence where there should be noise, confined spaces
Quirks: keeps a box of toothpicks on him that her chews on when stressed, remembers people by their tattoos rather than their faces, always leaves the last page of sketchbooks blank
Background
Elias Cruz Reyes born and raised in Sapphire Cove with Father Tomas and mother Lucia. Elias was the middle to three Reyes children, and their household was tumultuous to put it lightly. Tomas worked as a mechanic in town, with anger that always hung on the corner of his mouth, and Lucia who was too soft spoken and quietly devoted.
Tomas was the kind of father to resort to physical punishment as a form of discipline, where Elias learned that silence and obedience was key to survival. He was guarded, never too loud and never spoke when he wasn't spoken to, but he was always watching, calculating.
There was always one thing that kept his mind quiet in the noise of their household, and that was drawing. He didn't care whether it looked good, it just felt like relief to put his feelings on paper, drawings could replace the words he could never seem to find. Tomas was not fond of his son drawing, always claimed it was girly. His father had told him that once he is old enough he will work in the garage and help run the business. But this push just made Elias want to rebel even more. So he practiced, and eventually grew really good at his sketches and drawings.
At 16 Elias was laser focused on his passion and began to care less about the consequences, skipping school to tag buildings with his buddies, staying up late in his cousin's tattoo shop helping him to work around the shop, and giving his friends questionable stick 'n pokes in his room. This only enraged his father even more, but Elias didn't care about the screaming or the back hands when he would talk back, he was counting down the days until he turned 18 and could leave.
And that is just what he did, at 18 years old Elias fled his house and never looked back. He won't admit he still feels a twinge of pain when he thinks about the pleading look on his mothers face when he walked out the door. But Elias didn't regret his decision for one second. Doing what he could to scrape by, couch surfing, living out of his car while he apprenticed at Angel Ink. Until he finally saved up enough money to get his own place, and threw himself into his passion.
Full Name: Talia Rae Merrick
Nicknames: Tali, Lia, Tal, Titi
Pronouns: She/her
Sexuality: Bisexual
Date of birth: June 30th 1990
Home Town: Centralia, WA
Age: 35
Zodiac: Cancer
Occupation: Nurse
Personality
Positive Traits: Altruistic, empathetic, discerning, resourceful
Negative Traits: Impulsive, overzealous, obstinate, guarded
Trope: The effervescent
Likes: The morning silence before a shift, black coffee, old sweatshirts that smell like home, late night drives, the smell of rain, finding the positive in any situation
Dislikes: Performative kindness, being touched unexpectedly, feeling trapped, dry hands
Fears: Failure, abandonment, being misunderstood
Quirks: Hums a lullaby to herself when stressed, bakes or cooks when she can't sleep, carries around a box of Marlboro menthols and will smoke one on very rare occasion.
Background
Talia was born in Centralia, Washington to Alexander and Gabriela Merrick and was the oldest of one other sibling. Centralia not being known for much other than having higher crime and poverty rate averages than the state average of Washington. The Merricks were no strangers to those struggles. Alexander and Gabriela were high school sweethearts who had kids younger than a struggling couple their age should have, but they hoped that having kids would solve their problems.
Not long after Talia's sibling was born was when her father and mother decided to call it quits, and Alexander walked away without any hesitation or carrying on any responsibility. Gabriela was determined to to make things work for her and her kids, and was working from sun up to sun down. Despite being determined to carry the weight of her family on her shoulders, Gabriela turned to support from anything that could boost her energy to keep her going. She told herself it was a necessity to the long hours, but the necessity turned into a habit, and a habit turned into addiction.
Once the addiction started, Gabriela began to careless about keeping her and her children afloat as long as she could get her fix. It all came to an end when Talia was 5 and their mother was arrested during a traffic stop. Her and her sibling were split during the court process, with Talia being sent to live with her grandparents Mabel and Franklin.
Mabel and Franklin lived as humble and hard working farmers located not far out of town in Centralia. They had a tough love kind of mind-set and believed in old school values. As soon as Talia was old enough to start helping out around the farm she was put to work. With most old school values, Talia was mainly sent to help her grandmother doing things like feeding the animals, doing laundry, and helping to prepare dinner. It wasn't perfect, but it was stable and the first time Talia felt some sense of safety.
Growing up in a town like Centralia, one truly gets to see people struggle first hand, and instead of succumbing to the cycle, Talia knew exactly what she wanted to do. She had her sights set on Nursing, and worked herself to the bone in school to make sure she could get in on a full ride. Once graduated from high school, she set her sights to California. Talia decided on going to University of San Fransico, and graduated with her degree in Nursing, moving to Sapphire Cove not long after. And one thing never changed, Talia was determined on helping others.
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