#braeswood

[joef64]

Untitled. Houston, Texas. 2018.

[devinstonerpg]

INTRODUCING,

NAME: Tess Bryant.

AGE: Thirty.

GENDER/PRONOUNS: Cis female, she/her.

ORIGINALLY FROM: Devinstone, MA.

OCCUPATION: Detective.

CURRENT RESIDENCE: Braeswood.

"The past is just a story we tell ourselves."

BIOGRAPHY,

Trigger warnings/content warnings: kidnapping, depression, addiction

A strong woman is one who doesn’t rely on anyone, but has a past no one would wish to relive. At the innocent age of eight, Tess Bryant lost everything that mattered to her, everything that she held dear to her heart and everything that she loved. It was all taken away from her by a man she trusted, a man she considered to be her own flesh and blood, a man she use to call Uncle.

It was the summer of 1997, and Devinstone was scorching hot with it’s first triple digits in over fifteen years. Tess and her little sister (by only two minutes) Hannah were lounging around with their jeans rolled up to their knees, while their feet dangled from the dock at Monroe Lake and soaked in the cool night water. They had just come from the little carnival Devinstone held every year for the Fourth of July, it was the towns biggest event, besides their Christmas festival that is. The sisters shared cotton candy and talked about their current crushes, which always happened to be the same boy.

They laughed and joked, shared secrets and future goals. But, as the sun began to set their brother yelled for them from inside their home, which Hannah of course ignored. Grabbing her shoes, Tess stood from the dock, nudging Hannah on her way up, as a way of letting her know to hurry. Instead Hannah had other plans - to grab some ice cream back at the carnival. But Tess knew her sister, and knew she was just going to meet Billy behind the bleachers at their high school, “their favorite spot”, Hannah had once said. Parting ways, Tess walked the short distance inside their home, while Hannah snuck out the side gate.

Later that night, Tess fell asleep listening to Radiohead while reading her favorite chapter book, unable to stay awake to wait for Hannah. With the sound of their bedroom phone line ringing, Tess awoke and answered quickly. To her surprise it was Billy, asking for Hannah. Confused, Tess asked if he had seen her that night, which he had quickly responded, “No”. Worried, Tess hung up, and marched to her brothers room, swung the door open without knocking and told him everything. Immediately, they grabbed their flashlights and went out looking for their sister, not daring to wake their mother or father. But they couldn’t find her. They walked back home, leaving their muddy boots by the door. The next morning they told their parents. Without hesitation, they called the authorities, whom showed up just minutes later. They took all the information, including a photo of their daughter. They couldn’t find evidence, no trace of fourteen year old Hannah Bryant. The town came together to search for her and held night vigils for the young girl. But when eight years passed, and her flyers became faded, everyone had forgotten about little Hannah Bryant.

With years and years gone, and at twenty-one years old, Tess finished her schooling and began working as a 911 operator ( a job she felt appropriate for her after the disappearance of her sister). Because of her connections within the department, and with advanced technology, she convinced her colleagues to re-open her sister’s case.

They agreed, but with some hesitation, since the only suspect they had encountered was Hannah’s old boyfriend, who had now a small family of his own. They began working day and night, sifting through old cold case boxes, which had included Hannah’s old diary, a piece of evidence that had been overlooked. She talked highly of their Uncle Frank, a family friend who wasn’t technically their uncle, but a good friend of their father’s. With questioning underway, they caught lead, after lead, after lead, and eventually cornered in on their favorite Uncle Frank. It was a step in the case that had taken Tess through a whirlwind of emotions and eventually depression. She couldn’t muster up the courage to attend the court hearing, where they charged her uncle with life in prison, after finding her sister’s body buried in his backyard - the same backyard she had visited many times after her sister’s disappearance. She took an eight year leave from the department, unable to muster up the courage to continue.

The guilt of knowing she could have helped her sister, saved her even, tortured her beyond repair. She quickly turned to prescription medication and alcohol, as a way to ease the pain and turn off her many thoughts and nightmares.

With her sister in mind, Tess attended an AA meeting one night, out of the blue. She knew that it wasn’t the life she was meant to live and knew that if Hannah were to have seen her, she’d be highly disappointing. Ever since that one meeting, Tess continued to go, until she felt no need for her alcohol or her medication. She began putting her thoughts to paper and eventually published a book called, “Losing my Other Half”, a book that eventually landed on the New York’s Best Seller’s list for a few months. Instead of continuing her job as a dispatcher, she pushed her body to the limit, through exercise and intense training to become a part of the police department as a detective. Because of her past, she felt a need to serve her small town and give back to the community.

+ Brave, Easy-going, Responsible. - Disorganized, Guilty, Paranoid.

PLAYED BY: Piinky.

FACE CLAIM: Brie Larson.

[devinstonerpg]

INTRODUCING,

NAME: Sophia Connoly.

AGE: Thirty-five.

GENDER/PRONOUNS: Cis female, she/her.

ORIGINALLY FROM: Devinstone, MA.

OCCUPATION: Food truck owner.

CURRENT RESIDENCE: Braeswood.

"She was never quite ready. But she was brave. And the universe listens to brave."

BIOGRAPHY,

Trigger warnings/content warnings: drug use tw

Sophia was the eldest child of two parents who, she believed, to be soulmates. While her parents had gone through rough times while she was a child, they had always showed their children nothing but the most positive aspect of their relationship. Though they didn’t agree on much, they did agree to not have verbal disagreements or show their kids any of their financial difficulties. Her mother was a stay at home mom to two children, and an author of two successful cook books. Her father worked construction and did his best to always put food on their table by working hard. Sophia had grown up against her mothers lap as she cooked, until she became old enough to help her out. Soon after the release of her second cook book, around the age of seven years old, her father had an accident at his work place. Being crushed by a big boulder, he was pulled off work and placed on disability which cause a big financial strain on the family. On top of the strain, her father’s constant pain and clear abuse of his pain killers had started to create a ripple in the perfect image they’d created for their children.

Soon, they began to disagree and they could no longer hide in corners to do so. Her father was placed in rehab only to immediately fail and come out. By the second failed attempt, he came home to an empty house as her mother packed their bags and moved them out of the home. Sophia’s life completely crumbled around her. A divorce soon followed and the distance between herself and her father began. It was only ten years later at the age of seventeen that she rekindled a relationship with her father when he met a woman who he felt the need to get sober for. While there’s some resentment there as she never felt like enough for her father to get sober, she’s beginning to understand that addiction simply doesn’t work like that. With additional financial help from her mother and her step dad, as well as her father and his new girlfriend – she managed to pay her way through a culinary program.

However, rather than immediately put the money into the school – she decided to go for the first two weeks before she decided that she completely hated the structured way they taught and how it dwindled her creativity. She knew how to cook and didn’t feel like wanting to learn a singular way of cooking, rather she felt that the best way of cooking was to actually be doing – rather than learning. Therefore, she made a ballsy move and put a deposit on a food truck that she found on craigslist without telling her parents. She parked it at her friends house while she drained the entirety of their money into that truck. It wasn’t until she pulled up on their front door that they realized rather than being in class, she’d been spending the entirety of their money on a new venture. While their anger was evident, she wouldn’t allow their doubts to put a damper into her dreams. Rather, she got herself a permit and went out on the town. While the first few months were rough, she continued to keep hope until she finally became quite successful. While her restaurant on wheels usually prepares breakfast meals, she has taken it a step further with desserts and various other distinct foods.

In the midst of her rather hectic her life, she managed to meet someone during the first successful years of her job. While she hadn’t been lucky in love in the past given how she often destroyed her relationships herself in fear of coming out as her parents did – she ended up marrying the man. However, as the pattern continued, they ended up divorcing a few years later. What pained her the most was the inability to cut the cord completely as they had a daughter of a few months old at the time that they are now raising together while also trying to navigate their own lives apart.

+ Charming, Adventurous, Empathic. - Stubborn, Impulsive, Finicky.

PLAYED BY: Jo.

FACE CLAIM: Minka Kelly.

[devinstonerpg]

INTRODUCING,

NAME: Alana Maverick.

AGE: Twenty-nine.

GENDER/PRONOUNS: Cis female, she/her.

ORIGINALLY FROM: Devinstone, MA.

OCCUPATION: Podcaster / Freelance writer.

CURRENT RESIDENCE: Braeswood.

"Who’s the real you? The person who did something awful, or the one who’s horrified by the awful thing you did?"

BIOGRAPHY,

Trigger warnings/content warnings: drugs, death, gambling

Every now and then the cosmos aligned just right and a soul was born into a name that proved fate to be something real. Alana was born to Laura and Alexander Maverick, a couple who had married right out of high school and were going nowhere fast. The two couldn’t seem to figure out adult life and how to live efficiently; money was often squandered too quickly, often as soon as it hit the pockets or bank account so that they could enjoy young adulthood, forgetting they had a young child who needed proper attention and consistent care. Alana or Lana as most called her, spent much of her time in the care of a neighbor while her parents worked and then burned through their paychecks. A latchkey kid was what she would soon become, finding she had personality traits all too similar to her parents — addictive like her father and hedonistic like her mother. Alexander had a gambling habit, known locally as a bit of a card shark that would occasionally take a trip to large cities to hit up bigger game and bigger jackpots. Her mother, Laura, was into anything that made her feel good; whether that was dabbling in drugs and drink or getting in a fast car with a man that wasn’t her high school sweetheart turned husband, she was game for it.

It was two weeks before Alana’s fourteenth birthday when her father never returned home from a weekend rounders trip up in New Jersey. Missing persons reports were filed and investigations eventually went cold after a month of not so hard looking around. Apparently Alexander had a reputation in Jersey City and Atlantic City which caused for the police to tell Alana and her mother to expect the worst — he was no doubt gone and not meant to be found. Of course the young teen was devastated by the disappearance and permanent loss, though perhaps not so much as she could have been given the lack of depth to her connection with her parents. They had always been somewhat distant and absent, loving but too invested in themselves rather than creating a wholesome family like much of her friends and classmates at school had. Instead of grieving heavily, Alana opted for fantasy, imagining that her dad was some explorer or an archaeologist working on a dig in some foreign and far away land. She did it because even then Alana had the thoughts that there had to be more to life than this.

Coping well wasn’t something her mother did when it came to the loss of Alexander. It surprised Alana, she had believed they pretty much lived separate and distant lives. Given that she was the only parent now to put food on the table and provide for Alana, Laura stepped up and cleaned up her act a bit. Nothing was given up in entirety, things simply slowed and didn’t happen as often. The absenteeism of boundaries and structure in her life set Alana on a crash course for destruction and ruin for her own life, as it seemed every time life led to a fork in the road she always took the path less traveled, always made the wrong choice and went the wrong direction. It seemed she was determined to learn things the hard way, through mistakes and major fuckups. She wasn’t yet fifteen when she gave into experimenting with drugs, and like her mother, anything that got her heart racing. But Alana always seemed to get caught or into more than she could handle.

After getting caught drag racing cars, it was determined by the state that she wouldn’t be able to drive a car legally until she was eighteen. Despite it being an ‘oh shit’ moment and quite the wrench in her youth, the minor brush with the law couldn’t set her straight. No, she continued to make bad decisions. At seventeen, Alana was expelled from high school for drug possession and if her own vices weren’t bad enough, the young brunette’s attractiveness also turned out to be a problem. She knew how to use her long and lean legs, sun kissed skin, and sweet talk coming from glistening pink lips to get just about anything she wanted from someone. Usually it was for a fix or a drink, older men always being the best targets, no matter her goals and dreams in life, Alana just couldn’t seem to get it right. Holding down a job was laughable, giving up on her own hedonistic indulgences generally always turned out to be too big of a sacrifice, so Alana went on bouncing through life one or more problems at a time.

The town just seemed to get smaller and smaller, too many people knew her and not in a way that would have Alana holding her head high when sober. Her mother long gave up on her so the official freedom of eighteen sent the girl to the big city, finding Boston to be exciting and a fresh start. She managed to get her GED and enrolled in college, though again, a normal social structure and schedule was too hard to maintain and it took longer than the average for Alana to earn an associate’s of arts in journalism, one of her dreams being an editor. It was during her time in college that the Maverick began to pull out of society’s labeled boxes. College was also a time where dating a woman opened up to her and just another avenue of life she walked down the path of. Sexually, women were great but she learned that romantically she still needed a man, and both were fun to entertain on the college and creative scene she got involved with. For some time, she was hardly around, traveling with other creatives led her to adventures she wouldn’t soon forget. Such as the trip in New Orleans where she got mugged, or the sex party she somehow ended up at while in Los Angeles, the paths were never clear how she got from one place to the next but it sure as hell wasn’t the rational part of her brain that made the decisions.

Eventually when back in Boston, her addictions got her in trouble once again and with the threat of jail time looming over her head, Alana yet again made a one sided pact with God that if he helped her out of the mess she would go clean and straight. The lesson would have been to take the consequences, sell out her dealer and do a little time then work to live life responsibly. She was edging on thirty, in that over twenty-five space and still hadn’t really begun living properly, something that had festered under the surface and nagged at her in the back of her mind. The DEA had another plan for her, one she stupidly took, and that was no jail time if she worked as an informant. What she didn’t expect with taking on the name Samantha and getting close to James was that she would find such a kindred spirit and someone she felt the need to help and take care of but also a man she would fall crazily in love with. Partly, she would tell herself that it was the drugs and the partying she did with him but Alana had gotten very good at lying to herself. Eventually being between a rock and a hard place, she cracked, the pressure from the DEA and the love she had for James sent her running away. She fed the DEA some fairly useless information and made up the rest, keeping all of James’s secrets before leaving town and entering into rehab.

It was one thing to break her own heart over and over again in life, it was another to have someone else’s heart in your hands and to take advantage and hurt someone you loved. Her new vow was to get clean and stay clean, to finally live life as a real adult in the world should. During her stint in rehab is when she made a connection that once again she didn’t expect. Alana became friends with a producer of a radio show and they convinced her that for whatever reason she had the chops to be a host. Since her release and move to back to Devinstone, Savannah took up that job working in radio while she tried to figure out what to really do with her life. She considered going back to school and finishing her degree but her venture into podcasting took off, with her show landing in the top ten ratings and deciding to hang out there Alana felt a bit set and secure. The main struggles are the temptations, she’s stayed clean of drugs but not walking off onto the wild side often leaves her ansty with boredom.

+ Adventurous, engaging, free-spirited. - Aimless, irresponsible, fickle.

PLAYED BY: Chandler.

FACE CLAIM: Nina Dobrev.

[realtrillmatic]

https://www.trillmatic.com/thy-kingdem-let-me-grow-audio-prod-by-quest-dior/

Listen to Thy Kingdem from Houston's 'Let Me Grow'

Braeswood, Houston artist Thy Kingdem wants you to let him grow in this single featuring production from Quest Dior.

[nummymuffin]

#braysbayou #sunset #cloudporn #instaclouds #braeswood #meyerland #houston #texas (at Brays Bayou Hike & Bike Trail)

[ashsevan]

[nummymuffin]

This princess was swerving madly in front of us, raced to a red light, and kept trying to plow between two cars, just to get stopped at this glorious train. I laughed loudly. She's currently riding the ass of another car in front of us. Good riddance. Hope you don't kill anyone today. #somepeople #douchebaggery #baddriver #ridiculousness #meyerland #braeswood #houston #texas (at 610 South Loop Fwy at Stella Link)