[eileendlc]

meet eileen de la cruz, a stay-at-home mom who lives in the old ashmore district of ashmore. she's 35, born 03/17, making her a pisces - which makes sense, she is pretty stubborn and bright. she's originally from ashmore, oregon; i wonder if she'll stay in ashmore forever ― tiffany boone, lesbian, woman + she/her.

BIOGRAPHY:

born eileen attaway

mother was a nurse and her father often jumped around between jobs, with neither frequently around

grew up with her parents often fighting, learning that was what love was like

she met diangelo de la cruz when they were five on the first day of kindergarten, the two quickly becoming best friends

she didn't make a lot of friends throughout school, as an awkward child often more interested in simply disappearing into books rather than dealing with the world around her

she always did well in school largely naturally, though while she was often a curious child who liked to learn she never much enjoyed school itself

it was in middle school that she first started to notice her attraction to other women, though she was quick to push it all down and deny it

the first moment she can now remember was while having a sleepover with one of her few friends, curled up together in the other girl's bed and watching a movie together, but all she could focus on was the idea of leaning over to kiss her

she never had much concrete reasoning for her denial or fear, besides perhaps simply not considering it a real option at the time

it was then in high school that her and angel's relationship changed when he asked her out during their sophomore year

eileen had no interest in him the way he had in her, but she did know that she loved him deeply and didn't truly believe that romantic love existed, and compared to her parents she considered that a win

she also simply wanted to make him happy, and had no concept that allowing him to do whatever he pleased and then pretending to like it wasn't the way to make him happy

in the spring of their junior year, eileen managed to find herself pregnant

it wasn't ideal, it was far from ideal, but they both decided they wanted to keep the baby and angel proposed the day after she told him

her parents were less supportive, she was allowed to stay in their house up until her eighteenth birthday but then she had to get out

so on january 10, 2006, zee de la cruz was born, and on the day of her birthday two months later she and angel went to the courthouse to get married

eileen, angel, and zee all moved in together shortly after in a small rental house in old ashmore, where they have raised their child for the seventeen years since

that was also when her and angel's marriage started to fall apart, she was still deeply in denial about her sexuality but slowly with proximity angel started to notice just how unhappy she was in their relationship

the real breaking point for eileen came when eileen tried to treat him for his twenty-first birthday

their sex life had died within a year of them moving in together, so eileen had for the end of the night bought a new lingerie set to try to reinvigorate it for him

finally, angel simply decided to talk to her about what was so obvious to him, that she was a lesbian and didn't need to do any of this for him, which she didn't react well to

it took another year for eileen to be able to fully realize and admit that she was a lesbian, with angel there supporting her the whole time as he could, support that included a very awkward and ill advised movie night viewing of imagine me & you

in the end a lot of their future planning after everything settled was based around then three year old zee and how best to raise them

they didn't want to split their childhood between two homes unless absolutely necessary, and with eileen dedicating all of her time to raising them it wasn't feasible for her to move out anyhow

they also saw no point in dealing with the process of getting legally divorced, the only reason they could think of for going through the lengthy, expensive, and complicated process was the possibility of marrying someone else, which neither had the time for

eileen's first relationship with another woman after the breakup was a mess, toxic and codependent, and one that they can't stop coming back to every few years

the only thing that kept eileen from fully self destructing for this woman was needing to care for zee, the thought of how she would be able to care for them pulling her off the ledge of the worst decisions she was wanting to make

and angel was there supporting her throughout it all, their friendship had been deeply wounded, but through everything the both of them did love each other, and while it might be fully platonic the two did still consider themselves some sort of soul mates

now zee is in their senior year of high school and mere months from their eighteenth birthday, and eileen and angel are trying to figure out how to be able to put them through college, and if that's fully what they want

eileen is also trying to figure out what she's going to do with the rest of her life, since the entire reason she was in the home was to be able to care for zee

when she was pregnant—and infrequently when she could find someone to give her just a few hours when she had the time—she had worked as a waitress, but growing up she had always been told how smart she was and then what a waste it was for her to end up "just being a mom", but also if they weren't certain they could put zee through college then eileen going herself was out of the question just then

eileen never knew what she wanted to do with her life, and then had that decision largely made for her, but then that decision only lasted for so long

FUN FACTS:

eileen has found many ways to entertain herself through the day and while she works over the years such as; grey's anatomy dvds, daytime soap operas—including telenovelas and in more recent years with the expansion of what's available over the internet british and indian soaps as well, sewing—she has sewn all of zee's clothes herself since they were in preschool, and podcasts

eileen is fluent in both english and spanish, and while she took spanish for seven years in school most of her knowledge is actually from angel

eileen was named for her mother's favorite song when she was born, come on eileen by dexys midnight runners and the emerald express

POSSIBLE CONNECTIONS:

old school friends

mom friends

more family

old crushes/exes

a love interest???

EXISTING CONNECTIONS:

diangelo de la cruz — husband/best friend

zee de la cruz — child (npc)

first last — supportive extended family member

first last — toxic on-again-off-again girlfriend (currently off)

[landslidc]

"Seriously? Why's it called candied yams then if it's actually sweet potatoes," Eamon questioned out loud though he didn't expect her to answer. "I guess I'll just double back and look for the sweet potatoes then." Her description was helpful as Eamon had never seen a sweet potato that hadn't already been transformed into a dish before and he was glad that things were labeled in the grocery store so he wouldn't embarrass himself and head home with some russet potatoes.

"Yeah, grocery shopping has never been my forte," Eamon agreed. "I'm usually the one doing the dishes after dinner is done instead of helping out beforehand." Being twenty-three it was about time that he did more fending for himself but independence from his parents wasn't that high on his priority list. He already had a whole upstairs floor to himself at home. Sharing the common spaces and meals was really just perks for him.

[eileendlc]

"Grocery stores mislabeled them a lot, can't say why they did that, though," Eileen explained, "My mom and I used to make a yellow yam stew in bulk whenever she had some real time off, it was always a hassle trying to find the real thing when she'd send me out."

"Someone else doing the dishes when you're tired from cooking is always a godsend, I never want to do them after spending hours cooking." She nodded, just thinking about the mess that something like Thanksgiving could be with dirty dishes and food to be made she was glad she still only had to cook for three, "If you need any other help, I've been coming here for decades now to shop, so."

[landslidc]

Eamon didn't know the first thing about cooking and it was clear in his disappointment learning the two weren't interchangeable. "Well my mom's planning on making candied yams so I don't think sweetness is the problem," he explained. "But yams are literally in the name of the dish so it's got to be yams, right?" Eamon asked. He usually wasn't one to pester strangers but he was in a bit of a bind and really didn't want to make another trip somewhere else just for one ingredient. He knew his mother would never make a special trip. She was a creature of habit and she'd been shopping at this same grocery store for all their food for as long as Eamon could remember. "I don't think I've ever been to the Asian grocery store. I'm not typically the one who does the shopping."

[eileendlc]

"Oh," Eileen perked up slightly at that, "True yams actually aren't used particularly often in making candied yams, sweet potatoes are sometimes mislabeled as yams and so unless your mom is asking specifically for true yams, or white or yellow yams or something, the recipe probably actually wants sweet potatoes. You're looking for sweet potatoes with bright orange flesh, on the longer and thinner end."

She smiled softly at the mention of not generally doing the shopping and added, "It takes a while to all learn, I struggled a lot too when my mom first started sending me out for stuff."

[landslidc]

Closed starter for Eileen De La Cruz ( @eileendlc ) Location: Ashmore Grocers

Since Eamon still lived at home he never got away from doing chores. The only difference was now that he was an adult he no longer got paid to do things for the household. Usually he was tasked with things like taking out the trash and the dishes but today he was sent out with his mother's grocery list.

Eamon was floundering about the produce aisle when he finally decided to approach someone for some help. "Do you know if sweet potatoes are the same thing as yams? I was sent out to get yams but I haven't seen a single one in this place," he explained as he held up what he thought was a sweet potato. He was a terrible cook which made him just as terrible of a shopper but her cart seemed full and it looked like she'd shopped more than a handful of times in her life.

[eileendlc]

Over the years, Eileen had gotten into a habit when it came to grocery shopping. Perhaps one might call it a rut, but it certainly made housework easier to do when you had a habit that took less effort to follow. So when grocery day came around she did as she did every week, making her way through the aisles one by one, leaving the refrigerated sections and then the frozen section for last, focused on what she needed up until someone approached her for help.

"They aren't exactly the same, no," Eileen explained, "You can use them in place of yams, if you don't mind what you're making ending up a bit sweeter than you originally intended." She then thought for a second, had she ever seen yams here before? "You might have to go to a specialty grocery store if you need yams specifically, I think there's an Asian grocery store a few blocks down from here, that's where I usually go, though I can't remember the name..."

[wickcdlove]

closed starter ;  @eileendlc

location ;  eileen's house. ( afternoon. )

₊ ⊹ ─── ⋆⋅❀⋅⋆ ─── ⊹ ₊ with a charming little box of freshly baked pecan cookies in her hands, orisa makes her way to eileen’s. nestled under the first box is a second, full of an assortment of extra cookies for eileen herself. she figures it wouldn’t be fair to bring a gift for only one of them, after all. the presentation is very professional, as though they’d just come from the local bakery instead of orisa’s own kitchen. she approaches the door and, filled with both anticipation and goodwill, knocks gently, a smile poised on her lips. as the seconds pass, she patiently waits for the door to open and reveal eileen. "hey eileen," she greets, holding out the boxes of baked goods. "sorry to intrude, but zee stopped by frank’s yesterday and while i usually slip them some pecan cookies, i didn’t have any. they seemed kinda disappointed so i promised them i’d bring some by today, i hope you don’t mind. and i brought some for you too, of course."  

[eileendlc]

Eileen hadn't been expecting a visitor that day, so when she heard the knock at the front door her immediate reaction was a small startle, before pausing what she was doing and peeking out a window to see not a missionary or a small child selling cookies or chocolate, but Orisa there. A much more welcome knock at the door.

"Hey, Orisa," Eileen greeted back as she opened the door, "Oh, that's very kind, thank you so much. They're upstairs now working on homework, so I'll bring this up to them in a bit, they don't do well with interruptions. Here, come in."

Eileen moved out of the way of the door to give Orisa space to move in, and to move to put both the boxes on the kitchen counter.

[angeldlc]

close starter location: Da la Cruz house @eileendlc

Angel comes home, exhausted from a long day working on motors and the like, yet also excited since coming home means seeing one of those that he loves most: The family's beloved rats; Pikachu, Raichu, Plusle and Minun. The sweetest things in his whole world, besides Zee, of course. Oh, and Eileen.

He parks the car in the driveway and speeds through the front door, giving a quick hi to Eileen, who's cleaning and then leaving before he hears a response to go to the upstairs landing. He is a man on a mission to see his beloved rats.

When he see them at the edge of the hall, all the stress and fatigue of the day just disappears as he see the rats happily scurrying around and— Ohhhh, Pikachu is up at the front of the glass, looking at him with one paw up! He's saying hi!

"Hewwo my precious babus," Angel just starts cooing, not unlike a parent to a newborn child, "Papa's back, did you miss me? I missed you!"

His endless cooing and baby talk can be heard through out the hallway.

[eileendlc]

It had actually been a rather quiet day for Eileen. The early week was always the easiest on tidying, just trying to stay on top of the mess that had been made the evening before until it started to balloon later in the week, and then Zee had texted during lunch to say they were going to hang out with a friend after school and could walk home on their own before dark. So, most of the day had been spent folding the laundry that hadn't been gotten to over the weekend and prepping for dinner later, letting the television run with minimal direction through out.

She had been vacuuming up a spill in the kitchen when she heard the door open, pausing to talk to Angel as he came in only for him to only give a quick greeting and then rush straight upstairs. The rats, of course. Her answer when Zee had asked about a pet rat was an absolute no, she did not want to go inviting vermin into her home when she put so much effort into keeping them out, but then Angel had overheard and suddenly they had four and, of course, she had ended up as their primary caregiver. They clearly made the other two happy, so she would care for them, but also still didn't really want to.

Eileen shut off the vacuum properly as she heard Angel cooing at the rats up the stairs, sighing and making her way up as well to watch from behind him.

"You really think they're adorable?"

[landon-barnes]

Location: Bookworm Bookstore & Cafe, late afternoon Open: @ashmorestart

"Okay, I'm so sorry but I've talked to so many people in the last five minutes, I'm getting everyone's questions scrambled. Can you remind me... were you the one looking for a copy of either Jane Eyre or Pride and Prejudice? Totally different vibes even though a lot of people kind of blur them together, but I assure you, they're not. And don't get me started on the Brontes versus Austen beef or we'll be here a while," Landon said with a little smile. They were mostly joking, although they did have that knowledge in their back pocket. "Anyway, if that wasn't it, let me know if there's anything at all I can help you find, okay?"

[eileendlc]

"Oh, you're quite alright," It was Eileen's immediate reaction whenever someone apologized for something that didn't quite merit much annoyance from her, "Two very different books, though, yes, I remember having to read Jane Eyre for school and being excited because I'd enjoyed the Keira Knightly movie recently, and those two seemed similar, but no, not at all."

She chuckled at the memory, she had very quickly come to decide that the Brontë Sisters did not seem the writers for her, even if she could understand them when she thought of it more logically in the years since.

"Though I'm looking for something more contemporary right now, Iris Kelly Doesn't Date? By Ashley Herring Blake?"