#FINLEYHB — finley hua brager. 25. hostess at fitzgerald’s. part time photographer for the new york rangers && freelance photographer. written by OLLIE for tbd.
chase sui wonders / she/her / lesbian / cis woman — FINLEY HUA BRAGER is incoming ! they’re a TWENTY-FIVE year-old PHOTOGRAPHER & HOSTESS AT FITZGERALD’S who’s been living at royal view for THREE YEARS. i hear their neighbors call them EASILY DISTRACTED but i’d like to think they’re more DOWN-TO-EARTH. you can find them in apartment 3C, it’s the one always playing ‘ GOOD TIME ’ BY OWL CITY ( FT. CARLY RAE JEPSEN ).
HIGHLIGHTS
a chill girl, almost too down-to-earth some claim but she seems to be getting by just fine ; has big dreams of being a head nhl photographer someday, but is also content with where she’s at in the moment ; freelances her photography touting a specialty in ACTION shots ; if it’s not broken don’t fix it ; always down for an adventure, even if it’s just to the ice cream shop around the corner ; never got over 2010s pop music ; sometimes, you can be happy with what you got.
THE STORY
— finley was born on an unnaturally cold may day in st. cloud, minnesota, her father an aerospace engineering originally from hong kong who married a bright photographer who never left her hometown. she’s the youngest of two with a brother, luke, two years her senior.
— her childhood was seeped with warm happiness. their family never really struggled financially, and though her and her brother didn’t exactly get everything they want, they were comfortable. their allowances stopped at 16 when they were able to get their own jobs and after that they were responsible for anything they bought / did for their own leisure. the exceptions to this were sports and camps. finley’s first job was scooping ice cream.
— finley was in skates almost before she could walk. her brother, two years older was already zooming around the ice and finley wanted nothing more than to join him. the two grew up skating and playing hockey like most children do in minnesota : games of pick up on frozen ponds and homemade backyard rinks in the winter, street hockey where the nets had to be dragged to the sidewalk for every passing car. she played organized hockey officially up through high school. luke continued on longer than that, playing for st. cloud state.
— but unlike her brother, not long after her first skates, finley also took an interest in her mother’s career of photography. she had her first camera —a cheap polaroid thing— at age four and from there her love for it grew even faster than her love for skating and hockey. finley was good at hockey, but she was even better at photography, especially candid shots and nature photography — and then finally came the marriage of her two favorite past times when she found sports photography. she was still in middle school when she was shooting her brother’s high school hockey games — not the greatest photos out of those rolls, but everyone has to start somewhere.
— she stuck with it. hockey is hardly a rare thing in minnesota and it gave her plenty to work with. she nearly got frostbite one winter trying to get the perfect shot of pond hockey, but the result was more than worth it : winning her $1000 in a photography contest. she was sixteen and knew what she wanted to do for the rest of her life.
— college provided a difficult choice for finley, unsure if she wanted to remain in minnesota or go somewhere out of state. eventually, nyu’s phenomenal photography program lured her away from the state of hockey — the innate magic of new york city was also a factor no doubt. she ended up double majoring in communications and photography with a minor in graphic design. all the while she went and shot as many sports games as she could.
— her repertoire expanded to include soccer, football, lacrosse, and dance, though hockey remained a personal favorite of hers. her freshman and sophomore years she blew most of her extra cash on tickets to rangers games, to islanders games, to devils games, shooting as much as she could possibly afford. managing to sell a few to help cover her costs. a budding freelance business helped as well : as she was sought out by dancers and other athletes and daredevils alike.
— she earned an internship with the rangers her junior year in their social media department and though it wasn’t exactly what she wanted to do, it was an in with a pro-hockey team and so she took it. she held that position for two years until her graduation in 2018. in her time there, she plucked the brains of the team photographers, making herself known to the head team photographer, striking up a friendship with him.
— there were no full-time openings on the photography team when finley graduated and finley was faced with another choice : leave the connections she had taken so long to build in new york to somewhere where there might be more opportunity or stay. she was still mulling it over when a part time photography position with the rangers opened up and with her connections, she was offered. she excitedly accepted.
— a part-time position with the rangers wasn’t going to pay for an entire life in new york city, finley knew this and she knew she was going to have to find somewhere cheap to live and somewhere with extremely flexible hours / scheduling. after graduating, she picked up a gig as a hostess with a beer garden on the west side, but the hours weren’t as flexible nor the pay as decent as she would’ve liked. so began the search for a new job.
THE PRESENT
— it was almost luck that she found the hostess opening at fitzgerald’s in the royal view apartment complex, along with rooming with dancer theodora parker in a discounted three bedroom that made it affordable, even in the heavily sought after chelsea neighborhood. with more flexible hours and higher pay, and msg a 10-15 minute walk and even faster skateboard away, finley was more than pleased with the change.
— the apartment is actually pretty organized despite finley’s very distractible tendencies. having an organized space to hang out in helps her keep more on track of things and maybe even have more organized thoughts. it certainly isn’t the sterile feel though : the apartment had a distinct lived in feel. lots of blankets on the couch and the bookcase right by the door is often cluttered no matter how hard she tries. all her clothes get put away but it’s an uphill battle to make her bed every morning so it’s hit or miss if it actually gets done. she has a habit of always doing the dishes in the sink and buying too many candles.
— her hope is that her part-time position with the rangers will put her in the position to someday become a head photographer. the current rangers head photographer is her mentor and she looks up to him tremendously. sometimes in her off hours, she will hang around public rinks and central park to shoot some candids there. in her free time, she’s always in search of a game or something interesting to shoot.
— she does have a bit of a freelance business going, that’s been steadily growing in popularity. she shoots a lot of dancers and is sought after by people looking to get that epic action shot, no matter what that context is. action shots and candids really are her specialty and she wants her BRAND to be that.
MISC.
— give finley the aux cord and she’ll blast bops from the early 2010s. she loves music that makes her happy and in her opinion things peaked musically with pop in 2010. PLAYLIST.
— a HERITAGE SPEAKER of mandarin chinese. she’s more than adept at spoken conversation but her reading and writing literacy is sorely lacking beyond the most basic characters. it wasn’t always that way, especially when she was younger but she’s lost a good chunk of her literacy as she grew older.
— absolutely will host hot pot nights in her apartment. also makes homemade ramen like champ — none of that cheap 99 cent stuff. in general though, her cooking skills are mediocre. not someone getting take out every night, but outside a few dishes / desserts her creativity in the kitchen is lacking.
— has a big love for asian bean buns and bean bread.
— she loves ice cream a lot. no doubt frequents the local ice cream shop frequently. pad thai is her other weakness.
— probably plays pick up somewhere. just a casual thing every now and again. always down to go ice skating tho !!
— knows how to skateboard but only cruising — no tricks or anything. it’s a form of transport she uses sometimes to get places faster than walking and if the weather allows.
— most of her clothes are thrifted or bought off the local facebook group resale group. she’s been meaning to learn have to alter but she’s never gotten around to it — preferring more active past times than the tediousness of sewing.
— is a lesbian !! has known since high school. isn’t really all the shy about it 😘
— she has a little bit of awkwafina’s character in ocean’s 8 tbhhhhh. not a pick pocket tho.
PERSONALITY
finley is someone who really takes things as they come. she’s always on her toes and it takes a lot to phase her. DOWN-TO-EARTH is a good way to describe her, though LAISSEZ-FAIRE is also pretty accurate. taking initiative isn’t her strongest suit, mostly because she doesn’t always sees things as serious until it’s too late. her attitude makes for fun attitude, almost down for anything and able to talk to just about anyone. a very FRIENDLY she’s known for making quick friends, though ones who truly know her deeper than at a superficial level aren’t as many as one might think. it’s said sometimes she comes back to the apartment every time with a new instgram follower and friend.
all that said, finley isn’t the most focused person in the least. she’s so EASILY DISTRACTED by anything and everything that claims her attention. she doesn’t like to be still very long, another reason she likes sports photography with its fast pace and demand to constantly be switching positions. she tried studio art for a while, but she lacked the patience and motivation to see anything through. her life is full of unfinished projects and paths only trod down a few steps. truly the only think that’s been a constant driving force is her desire to be a team photographer for a major sports team. a night with finley starts with one thing and takes the most convoluted path possible : sometimes things end with the beginning intention, sometimes they don’t. she’s a bit SCATTERBRAINED, something that she really should get a grip on with planners and calendars but every time she buys one it goes untouched after a few days. the only thing mooring her life and making sure she’s not late to things is her google calendar.
you could call finley a bit of a FREE SPIRIT in the end : someone people tend to find so cool though she remains oblivious to the fact. other people are far more interesting in her opinion and why she also loves candids so much. there’s a lot you can’t tell about a person from the outside, especially when they’re posed. the humans of new york page is one of her favorites.
APPEARANCE
— 5′6″. naturally very dark brown almost black hair with bleached blonde streaks in the front.
— not really one for jewelry, though when she does it’s usually a few rings and a necklace — all quite minimalistic.
— STYLE : crop tops pairs with oversized flannels or cropped sweaters, mom jeans rolled at the bottom hem, incredibly beat up black converse she’s “waterproofed” herself. when it snows she reluctantly concedes to wearing lace up ankle boots to keep her feet dry or wraps her feet in plastic bags inside her converse to keep them dry. when she skates she usually wears winter leggings with wool socks.
— AESTHETICS : beat up converse sneakers, criticism met with an infectious smile, cherry popsicles in january, cozy oversized flannels with crop tops, snow dusting dark hair, cold fingers for the sake of the perfect shot, seeing the world in endless snapshots, a plethora of digital folders filled with thousands of candids of strangers,...
OOC
helllooooo, everyone !! i’m ollie and i’m superrrrr pumped to get my girl finley off the ground !! i am in fact... a hockey fan ✌️😔
— CONNECTION SENT INTO THE MAIN: a good college friend someone finley knew from nyu !! perhaps an old roommate or could still be roommates, space dependent !! i’d love to see someone who was a college athlete and they connected through finley shooting their games or meets. finley’s super laidback and laissez-faire so an opposite personality could be interesting — the whole two sides to the same coin thing. if female, potential for a romantic vibe if the chemistry works out but again open-ended :)
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