hi everyone, i’m sorry for not being around and pretty much just lurking, wi-fi has been down for a couple days here and i was mooching off a friend for a little bit there, but it should be back up tomorrow so i’m hoping that i’ll be able to do my replies and stuff in the midst of my tgiving baking !! sending all love !!
◜ ⁘ chris evans, cismale, thirty-three. → have you met michael owens? he is a journalist that has lived in philadelphia for fifteen years. i heard they’re also a sagittarius with a knack for being bright & personable, but can also be quite spacey & faithless. he always makes me think of film cameras and golden retrievers, and you can always catch play something country by brooks and dunn from their window.
◜ ⁘ laura harrier, cisfemale, twenty-five. → have you met gwyneth collier? she is a surgical intern that has lived in philadelphia for twenty-five years. i heard they’re also a gemini with a knack for being bright & diligent, but can also be quite defensive & a workaholic. she always makes me think of pulling all-nighters, and you can always catch irreplaceable by beyoncé blaring from their window.
–––––––“HEY, LOGAN, would you mind picking up james from school ?? i know i was supposed to do it but i’m totally swamped at work, i can’t imagine what they would do without me. please tell her that i’m so sorry and that i love her and that i will totally be there tomorrow. thank you bud, love you.”
good morning !! work was awful last night so i’m just waking up && beginning to think that the side blogs thing was a mistake... i have to clean my room and deal with family stuff today but i have my replies drafted at the moment, and i’ll be kind of around if anyone wants to chat !!
『 𝐅𝐎𝐍𝐃𝐍𝐄𝐒𝐒 sweeps across odette’s gaze as she takes a moment to consider the offer, although she already knows of her reluctant let down. “ my dad takes turkey privileges V E R Y seriously, i’m afraid. anyone who doesn’t arrive early to thanksgiving dinner is immediately jinxed for the rest of the year — or so he says. ” a flimsy shrug punctuates her admission, a smile teasing over her coral lips. “ if he burns the bird for the third year in a row, though, you just might have the WHOLE novak clan over - my apologies in advance. ”
–––––––“WELL, IT was a long shot anyways, though of course i would be more than happy to host your entire family,” she chuckles, “let’s hope that things don’t go wrong enough for us to have to get there. to be completely honest, though, i was just hoping to get my hands on one of your famous pumpkin pies that i keep hearing so much about. do you think i still could, as a means of, well, insurance ??”
Thanksgiving wasn’t a very familiar holiday for Eloise. Being British, she didn’t celebrate it, and when she moved to America last year, she still didn’t see a need to celebrate it. She usually spent the week of Thanksgiving putting up her Christmas decorations, and now this year, Harper was finally old enough to help her, to some extent. Elle smiled at Riley’s offer, she honestly, she was considering accepting it. She had never been invited anywhere for Thanksgiving before. Since Riley was her neighbor, she was one of the first people she met when she arrived in Philadelphia with her infant daughter two years ago.
“Thank you for the offer. That’s so sweet of you to think of us,” Elle said, shifting Harper to her other hip as she held her in her arms. “I’ll let you know. Maybe we can stop by for a little while. I usually catch up on sleep on my days off,” she laughed. She didn’t have plans, but didn’t want to intrude in any way.
––––––––“HEY, JUST because you’re not technically an american doesn’t mean that you can’t celebrate an american holiday. actually, scratch that, if you’re going to celebrate american holidays thanksgiving is a fucking awful place to start, given its history and all that. still, you know me, i will take just about any excuse i can get to have non-work conversations with other adults, and good food made by not me.” she chuckles, figuring that the woman in front of her understood what she was saying –– ever since eloise had moved in down the block a year ago riley has really appreciated having someone to talk to about all the joys that come with being a single mother. “trust me, i get the temptation to sleep, but come on elle, it’ll be so fun !! james can keep harper distracted, or vice versa, and you can have wine and talk to grown-ups !! knowing the crowd around here i wouldn’t be surprised if an eligible bachelor or two showed up. don’t hesitate on my account, please, we would love to have you both.”
–––––SHE KNEW that the holidays were a rough time for a lot of people. she’d been there herself. when things were bad, it always seemed like everyone was happier in the world, having romantic outings with their partners or hosting instagrammable dinners with their families. for a while after the death of her parents, riley got especially mopey around the holidays, but did her best to hide it for the sake of her daughter. it wasn’t until her brother told her that she needed to snap out of it that she finally did, and, just after her daughter’s fourth birthday, she hosted her first “orphan’s thanksgiving” ( an appropriate title, she thought, given the fact that she was an orphan herself ). the first year, it was just riley, logan, james, and a couple of riley’s friends from work. it had since grown, as riley got ‘hooked on the feeling’ and started inviting just about everyone that she ran into in the street. this year would be no exception.
“i was just saying that, maybe, if you didn’t have anywhere else to be, you could join us. there will be food and friends, no family except for, well, mine, and so many people bring food along with them that it really ends up being a full-blown feast. i know we would be so happy to have you, and at the very least you’ll eat for free and stay out of the cold. i don’t need an answer now, just tell me you’ll at least consider it??”
◜ ⁘ lily collins, cisfemale, twenty-seven. → have you met riley hansen? she is a paralegal that has lived in philadelphia for six years. i heard they’re also a cancer with a knack for being brilliant & ambitious, but can also be quite preoccupied & overprotective. she always makes me think of the smell of laundry detergent, and you can always i am a rock by simon and garfunkel blaring from their window.
hey !! my name is coco, i’m nineteen and in pst, and i’m super hype about this !! this is my girl riley !! some basics can be found here but i wanted to get her story down and i didn’t want this post to be too long !!
riley was the first in her family ( here is her birth chart ), born in pittsburgh, penn. and her parents were both very loving. riley was especially close with her father, they used to go to every pittsburgh pirates sunday home game. her father was a lawyer, and growing up riley always wanted to be just like him.
her brother, logan, was born just a few months before her eighth birthday. her parents had been trying all her life for a second baby and logan was their last effort, and they called him the ‘miracle baby.’ surprisingly, riley took to him immediately, and cared for him as they grew up. they’ve been close his entire life.
her parents were economically secure but not rich or anything, and made sure to teach their children how to be responsible about their finances. the two of them had a more ‘traditional’ childhood and were always very happy.
riley was always very responsible and had a very solid idea of how her life would go. she would go to college ( u penn, her father’s alma mater ), do internships over summers, and then go to law school immediately after. she had jobs throughout high school and bought herself a car when she was seventeen as to better help her parents.
in the summer after her freshman year of college, riley found out she was pregnant. she had been with her boyfriend at the time for a couple months, and he was from an upper-class well-to-do family who insisted that the two of them get married. it wasn’t what they wanted but they did so, but her husband disappeared before the birth of their daughter, who riley named for her father, james. unfortunately the pre-nup that riley signed didn’t protect her all that much, and divorce papers showed up in the mail before james’ first birthday.
after the birth of her daughter, riley decided that she was going to take some time off of school and get a job back in pittsburgh, where her mother, who had already retired, could look after her daughter. she had only done three semesters at upenn by this point and had every intention of going back.
[ car accident/death tw ] one winter night when she was twenty-one, riley was pulling a double at the restaurant that she was working at and her father went to pick up her car ( the one she had bought when she was seventeen ), and her mother went with him. while they were out and she was at work, the car spun out on a bridge, killing both of her parents on impact. suddenly, riley was the guardian of her brother, who was thirteen at the time, as well as her daughter.
almost immediately after, riley arranged to sell the house that she grew up in and moved back to philadelphia with her brother in tow, using the money that she had been left to pay for an apartment while she could finish school. because she had been taking classes here and there, she was able to finish her degree in three more semesters.
after the death of her parents, riley started to become very interested in astrology and began to see a psychic, something that her brother calls “a weird quirk.”
after graduation, riley started working full-time as a hostess at a restaurant, deciding that she needed to support her family and that the money left by her parents should go to college for her brother and daughter. while working full-time, she was also getting her paralegal certificate online.
she finished her paralegal certification by twenty-six and has been a paralegal for about a year now. it pays much better than working at the restaurant did and she has more regular hours, and is able to spend more time with her daughter, who is now 8. her brother has begun college but is still living with riley to help her take care of james, who he loves dearly.
as her life has gotten more “normal,” she has begun to realize that she hasn’t really thought about herself at all since the birth of her daughter, which of course she is willing to do, but she doesn’t have many close friends ( mostly colleagues ), and hasn’t dated anyone since james was born.
so that brings us about current !! i had some ideas for connections:
family of her college ex-boyfriend ( essentially relatives of her daughter ): i don’t have any details about their relationship besides that he was from a well-to-do family, and that she hasn’t seen him since they were married or heard from him since their divorce. i imagine that his family might want to have some relationship with her, but that would be up to you !!
friends from college / the restaurant in philly / the law office
in case anyone’s character is from pittsburgh, i’m sure she would appreciate friends from childhood
but that’s about the size of it !! maybe like this if you want to plot and i can come to you ?? xo coco
and that was the thing about her,
she kept on surviving.
with bullet holes in her lungs,
and knife marks etched in her back.
she never let anything get in her way,
resilient.
a fighter,
not by choice.
but a warrior at heart.
