“People too often forget that it is your own choice how you want to spend the rest of your life.”
Father - Theodore L. Winthrop II (fc: Christoph Waltz) 61-year-old Lawyer
A businessman tried and true. His business card might say attorney at law and partner of one of the biggest law firms in New York City, but the man doesn’t do anything unless it benefits himself. Like his father, before him, he values money and power over everything which is why he can be found at the office or kicking it with other prominent men rather than spending time with his family. Image is, however, everything and he and his wife Elaine have an agreement to put forth their best efforts in being presentable as possible.
In courtrooms he can be as ruthless as they come; making murderers appear as innocent as a newborn baby to make the old lady whose car got hit by a drunk driver into a gold digging parasite at the drop of a dime. He can be charming when he needs to be and can cut you down when the situation calls for it. If it wasn’t for his last name and deep pockets people wouldn’t like the snake of a man. But- money can buy anything, even friends.
Relationship: There hasn’t been a day in Teddy’s life that he hasn’t looked up to his father and wanted to be exactly like him. The man is his inspiration and reason for being a lawyer. He desperately wishes he can be the man his father wants him to be and it kills him that he isn’t. As a child, he rarely got to see his father outside of the office and from a young age, he was told that it would someday be his. It wasn’t until later did he realize what a burden that would be and how he would never be able to let bad guys get away with things solely because they can pay their way out of things.
Elaine Winthrop is the embodiment of a woman who has too much time and money on her hands. While she invests in charities galore the rest of her free time is spent spending her husband's money on clothes, alcohol, makeup, and anything else that keeps her in the running of a high society woman. Once she might have liked to think she married the older Theodore for love but as time went on it was obvious that neither cared for the other enough other than to get some children out of their arrangement.
While she prides herself on having a beautiful family and has Theodore on her arm at most events and galas, she has had a slew of lovers for a while now. No one questions the late night meetings because with both kids gone, and a husband married to his job, there is no one left to question her agenda.
Relationship: Never the traditional mother, it wasn’t until he got out of New York that Teddy realized that having a nanny to raise you in your formative years was not normal. His childhood memories of his mom always included some fancy party that she'd scold him for messing up his shirt from playing, or running towards her when she’d get home from an event and she’d yell for the nanny to come get him and put him to bed. Theodore doesn’t resent the woman but he does wish they’d have had a closer bond.
Because Kendal was not born a boy, she was never favored by their father. More importantly, she was never interested in the stuffy office space her father inhabited nor was she fascinated with the facade her mother played with the other wives. She tolerated growing up and being forced to wear dresses and bows in her hair but there was always a yearning to be hanging with the boys. Rather than sit through tea and be a debutante she wished to get her hands dirty and learn more practical skills.
It was no surprise to her brother when she went into the peace core after graduating from college. It was her idea of wanting to help others and get a real taste of life beyond the silver spoon. Still very much a woman of her upbringing, enjoying the luxuries money can buy, Kendal is a lot less concerned with what people think of her. She is involved with charities that actually help others and is the first to volunteer both time and money for a good cause.
Relationship: Given that she is but five years younger than Teddy, he has always viewed himself as the protector of their relationship. Even if she’s the one to kill a spider for him. The two have always had a close bond as they only had each other to lean on when both parents were busy and wanted nothing to do with children. His memories of her include lots of running around their parent's penthouse apartment, playing hide and go seek at one of their many vacation homes, and playing pranks on the countless staff that their parents have on the payroll. She is also the only member of the Winthrop family that Teddy has come out t which shows how much trust and respect he has for his sister.
The apple never does fall far from the tree, does it? Whether you’re the black sheep or the pride of the family name, DNA can’t be denied. For this task, describe individual members of your character’s family and the impact they’ve had on your character. Whether it’s a shared trait, memory, or experience, their influence should be defined.
All Muddy Waters tasks are optional, and may be posted in any preferred format unless otherwise specified. Links to completed tasks will be featured on the main, so have fun and get creative!
Deadline: Thursday, November 30, 2017
Task tag: #mwtask03
The Vinciguerra patriarch, on his back laid the foundations of a supposed empire; despite this, he was a doting grandfather, generous and kind, and Sunday mornings are spent on a long table for a meal with the extended family. The man was terrifying and magnetic all at once and the respect given to Niccolo was warranted.
There was an instance when Luca was six where he had boldly chosen to hide in his grandfather’s office; it was a restricted area and for a good reason. The cries that came from the man as his finger was removed with a cigar cutter was deafening, and Luca watched as the severed body part landed by his shoe. When Niccolo bent down to pick it up, their eyes met and his gaze softened as it landed on the boy, he reached out to caress Luca’s cheek, staining his pale skin with a vivid shade of red. It wasn’t just the color that was arresting, it was the way the smell clung to his grandfather’s hands.
Of his grandchildren, Francesco was his favorite, but Luca held a special place as being the youngest of the thirteen; he paid more attention to him after the incident and often spent afternoons with Maria and the boy as they practiced the piano.
Maria Vinciguerra - Ambrosi (deceased)
Behind every great man is a woman and the youngest Vinciguerra child had proven herself just as capable as her brothers, but love was something that cannot be planned and Maria fell hard for a ruthless killer, wasting an opportunity to unite with another family through marriage. Duality was ingrained in her, she knew her strengths and played it well, making her dangerous without ever using a weapon. Niccolo was protective of his only daughter and had it not been for her stubbornness, she would have ended like the other women in the family, left in the sidelines.
As a mother, Maria allowed her sons to forge their own paths, letting them choose to work in the family business rather than force them to. Her three children were so different and it took a special kind of rearing to ensure that they would be able to handle the world that they lived in. Luca adored her, a woman in a man’s world, and though her he learned that there were different kinds of strength. She loved music and Luca was the only one who ever learned how to play the piano, an enduring memory of his affection for his mother.
Antonio ‘Tony’ Ambrosi
You can’t blame a man for doing what he can to survive, and you can’t hate him for being good at what he does. Tony Ambrosi was charming as he was ruthless; he killed without remorse and some would even say that he enjoyed it. Hard to argue with it when the man kept an arsenal of weapons. His favorite was the knife, a customized set of blades that he carried with him; it was more personal, he told Luca, and death feels more intimate.
Antonio had nothing to his name and it was hard work and sheer determination that got him where he was. His first kill was at ten years old, and he watched as the blood pooled around his abusive father’s body. He trained his sons to be like him, for they were not born a Vinciguerra but an Ambrosi, they needed to be useful just as he had been so they may win Niccolo’s favor. But his ambition, strong as it may be was quelled by his adoration for Maria, and so he remained a foot soldier, a hunting dog with a beautiful leash in the form of his wife.
From his father Luca learned how to fight, how to use a weapon and other practical things that a fancy education couldn’t teach; he learned to not hold on to the luxury provided by the security of the family which made his transition to a group home somewhat bearable. Despite Gio’s tenacity, it was Luca who perfected Tony’s skill set; he was agile, calm and his conscientious nature meant avoiding trouble, something his brother couldn’t seem to understand.
Francesco would fulfill his ambitions and he’s resigned to keeping Giuseppe out of trouble; Luca on the other hand, reminded Tony of himself; in the moments where the boy would show a flash of anger, of hurt, the glint in his dark eyes reflected that. Since his incarceration, Luca is yet to visit, for whatever reason that he kept his distance, Tony prefers it that way.
Francesco ‘Franco’ Ambrosi
Cool, calm and collected, if there was anyone worthy of inheriting Niccolo Vinciguerra’s empire, it was Francesco. He knew early on that not everything can be won by force or violence, he was careful and discreet in learning the family business. Of the three Ambrosi sons, their father’s ambition coursed through him the strongest, like the very blood that run through his veins.
He inherited his mother’s calculating nature and it proved to be useful on many occasions; once the police started their investigation on the explosion, it easy for him to turn his back on Luca and his father. With everyone gone, it was up to him to rebuild the family business, securing the necessary documentations and access to accounts with their remaining resources and connections from overseas.
Luca and Franco were close, despite their six-year gap, he displayed composure that the eldest appreciated; they had many shared interests and his willingness to help Franco achieve his ambition to succeed their grandfather endeared him to his brother even more. He relayed information he learned to Luca, teaching him the side of the business that only Niccolo and a few others knew. He was a constant figure in the boy’s life up until the time of the explosion, which made the abandonment confusing and heartbreaking for the boy.
To have to go through identifying his loved ones’ remains and to be the only family member present for the funeral while refusing help and cooperation from the law was enough to sober up Luca, he had too many unanswered questions but like Franco, he was patient, and he was willing to wait decades if needed.
Giuseppe ‘Gio’ Ambrosi (deceased)
It seemed that the middle son absorbed their father’s penchant for violence; Gio valued brute strength and did not shy away from getting his hands dirty. He did not possess Tony’s finesse, however, or Francesco’s tact and he grew up getting into trouble with anyone and everyone, picking fights in and out of school. He loved things in excess, money, liquor, drugs and the women, and Giuseppe was determined to live his life in pleasure, family business be damned.
He had no patience for Luca, they were five years apart and Gio believed that they had nothing in common; the only time he paid attention to the boy was whenever he used him as his punching bag. Despite the onslaught of abuse masked by sparring practice, not once did he ever get in trouble with their parents, Luca refused to run to them for help.
An incident involving their father’s knife finally made him stop; Gio was drunk one night and engaged his brother in knife play, the boy refused which angered him and he lunged at Luca, to which the boy countered and ended up gashing his older brother’s midsection. The wound required stitches and the look on Luca’s face was haunting-- there was a perverse pleasure in what he had done. It was Gio’s turn to keep his mouth shut and it remained a secret between them until his untimely death.
“But the hearts of small children are delicate organs. A cruel beginning in this world can twist them into curious shapes. The heart of a hurt child can shrink so that forever afterwards it is hard and pitted as the seed of a peach. Or again, the heart of such a child may fester and swell until it is a misery to carry within the body, easily chafed and hurt by the most ordinary things.”
Maverick Crimson & Olive Brady || Fifty-Three & Fifty-Two || Beaufort, South Carolina || Current Location Unknown
If you read their love story on paper you’d very quickly become a fan of the passion and dedication Maverick and Olive have to each other and their chosen lifestyle. If you were told the fairytale of a couple of primary school sweethearts in a small town in South Carolina, who fell in love and ran away to pursue adventure, how could you not dream of such a love? They were the best of friends growing up, and through high school that translated to truer feelings. They were each others passion, escape, colour in a black and white world. They only wanted each other, their beat up van and the open road.
Now if I told you the story of two parents who neglected their children to the point that they entirely forgot their names. If these two parents in turn even forgot how many children they had. Young but entirely unloving towards the small lives they brought into the world. Feeding their children stolen food and abandoning them for entire nights in the back of a car. What if I told you a story about a couple that had 7 kids over the span of 20 years, and abandoned each at a small house in Muddy Waters to fend for themselves and each other.
Both are true stories about Maverick Crimson and Olive Brady. Having their first child as teenagers they had a dream to travel around America in a van. To make no real home or roots, just them and new experiences everyday. They were addicted to adventure, but that wasn’t the only thing they were addicted too. Alcohol and drugs were as much a lifestyle to them as their van travels. If they weren’t high, or drunk, or some combination of both, they were stealing and lying and betraying. They love each other and their chosen vices, and outside of that they had quickly decided there was not enough room for anyone else. They bought a house in Muddy Waters with some money they’d won in Vegas, and since that day the only time they thought of this home was when they had another kid to drop off.
Lark was left at 5 years old, and then began a habit of leaving their offspring at this place to be forgotten. To unburden themselves and their amazing lifestyle from children and responsibility. This house was where they went to reset, to forget and start fresh on a new chapter. They didn’t hate their children, they simply didn’t love them. And that made leaving them so very easy to do. They don’t know how many kids they’ve left in Muddy Waters, their names or anything about them. Honestly, they’re content on the road. Children were never the future for them.
Lark Crimson || Thirty-Six || Las Vegas, Nevada || Lasted 5 years
The leader of their clan and the first one to be abandoned by Maverick and Olive. He was barely five when his parents left without a word. One night he went to sleep in his bed under the stairs, they were smoking on the back porch talking about all the things they wanted to see one day. Then he woke up the next morning to silence, turns out they’d gone to see those sights without him. Lark got by on the generosity of others, his neighbours coming over every evening to bring him some food, local shop owners giving him some loose change from the tip jar so he could get by. Until he was old enough to start fairing for himself, Lark was taken care of by the community of Muddy Waters and more importantly to him, The Northside Rascals. He grew up dedicated to the gang before he was even a member. He idolised the people that took care of him the way his parents never had. And he vowed to take care of his family and to repay the Rascals with his undying loyalty. Present day, he does just that.
The original child, and the parent to the clan of misfits Muddy Waters now know as the Crimson Seven. Lark has become the loving role model each child that came after him needed. He was the type of brother that would beat the shit out of any kid that teased his sibling even once. And then when the sun went down and everyone went to sleep, he’d go through each room and pull the blanket up to make sure nobody got cold. He’d deny it with his last breath, but he has become their parental figure. Each and every Crimson looks up to their brother, his courage and bravery, his care and loyalty, his sacrifice for all of them.
The softest side you’ll ever seen of Lark Crimson is when he speaks about his little brother Bodhi. It’d been just him and the girls, when that little five month old kid appeared in his life. From the first day he’d spent with Bodhi, Lark knew he was different. He didn’t throw explosive tantrums like Clove, or constantly talk like Finley. No he was…..quiet. Always watching his siblings move around him. Lark took care of Bodhi in a much different fashion than he did the girls, because he knew Bodhi wasn’t going to tell him if something happened. Lark knew the world was cruel and could see from the smile of a young Bodhi, that the boy was going to give his heart to people that were going to hurt him. So he was always checking on Bodhi, always asking if he was okay. Lark sat out the front of Bodhi door for eighteen years, every night, just to hear him play his guitar. To feel some part of his soul. It hurts every fibre of his being when he has to see his brother suffer under the unreciprocated love of their parents.
Finley Crimson || Thirty || Salmon National Park, Idaho || Lasted 1.5 years
The second child and most wide eyed of them all, Finley arrived at the Crimson household halfway to two, and she found her eight year old brother. The most nurturing of the Crimson Seven, she always has a soft hand and gentle word for each of her siblings. She is a far cry from the violence and fire that Clove spits. In fact if Finley didn’t love her siblings so dearly, she would have taken off to the woods long ago to live her life in a tent by a river. She is known as Lark’s co-parent and the good cop of the two. She is the first with a tissue in hand when someone cries or has a troubling situation. Full of photos to share from their lives together as their own little family, and book quotes that could fill a library in her mind. When her siblings use their fists to fight their battles, Finley is readily there with a first aid kit to back them up. She’s reckless in her own right, but will always look out for her family first.
Finley set the tone for a softer side of the Crimson’s, she encouraged them to not bottle everything up but within the comfort of their home to open up with one another. But god help them all had they let everything turn to fire and anger from when they were young. To be fair not everyone had fully embraced Finley’s attempts to keep them all sane, but most respect her attempts to heal her siblings pain. She sees the pain her parents have left in their absence, she feels it herself. She has told Lark from well ago when they were children, that if she had the choice she’d bring the moon down to crush their parents and give a star to each of the Seven to chase out the dark holes in their hearts. It was up to Finley she’d take all the heavy hearts she sees in the darkened crying corners of their home, and she’d burden them upon herself to see her siblings live a life of love and fullness.
In her loving heart, Finley has always had the softest spot for Bodhi. Not because he’s different from the rest of them, including herself, but because he’s the hardest to read. In all her long speeches over the breakfast table about being open and honest and vulnerable with one another, Bodhi has always been the hardest to crack. She can read every one of her siblings, they’re pain is clear as day to her, even the fakest of Gryff’s smiles. But Bodhi is much quieter than everyone else, he’s a lot more reserved with his pain. He doesn’t fly through the door of the house and yell about how angry or upset he is. He walks in like any other day, and pretends like the world hadn’t crashed around him. Finley, aside from Lark, feels most connected to Bodhi. She sees a lot of her wide eyed hope in her younger brother, and she also sees a lot of stubborn loyalty to people that will continue to hurt him.
If there was a Crimson that everyone knew about, it would third oldest Clove. The sharpest of tongues and knives to match, she is the last sibling you’d want to get on the bad side of. More dangerous than the other six combined, Clove’s first solution is always undoubtedly violence. If it weren’t for her great ability to avoid capture, Clove would most definitely be imprisoned by this point. She has taught ever sibling to both take a punch and throw a harder one. Because Clove believes while she is always willing to murder someone that wrongs her family, they should always be able to fight back in the moment. So while her older siblings may have a more nurturing hand, Clove dishes it out as it is and doesn’t hold back. Whether that be getting into a fight with Van about his blatant disregard for his health and siblings worry for him, or running Sunny’s good for nothing boyfriend over with her car, Clove has no boundaries. And while she is reckless when it comes to the safety and well being of her family, she can be sensible in her individual life.
After twenty-eight years, Clove has still taken the abandonment of her parents perhaps the hardest. While her other siblings, aside from Bodhi, have taken to no longer caring and ridding themselves of worry, Clove harbours a lot of anger. She was abandoned the earliest and nobody mentions that, but she is awfully aware of this fact. She’s hates her parents like she’s never hated anyone before, not only for her own abandonment but for that of her siblings. Especially the likes of Finley and Bodhi, who have the purest hearts the world has ever seen. It’s this kind of anger that has found her knelt over her unconscious mother several times, a knife in hand ready to take her pain away. Or with a fistful of her fathers shirt, slamming him against the wall ready to unload her anger through her fists hitting his face. Lark is always there to pull her away, and Gryff to take her to the bar to keep her away. But that has never stopped the urge or desire of getting on her bike and hunting them down to a far off place where nobody would be there to stop her.
Nobody is immune to Clove’s aggressive outbursts, not even Bodhi. There has been a few times where she has stormed into his room and given him hell. But it has only ever been an uncontrollable outburst of frustration towards his constant attempts to make their parents love him. She knows he deserves more than a life of chasing their love and care, that if he let it go he could have so much more. But Clove doesn’t have the words to say that, the only way she knows how is to yell. But despite their few quarrels, Clove has always looked out for Bodhi. She was the first one to beat up a bunch of high school boys who were giving him a hard time, and she was always the one to drop him off at class in primary school. She had been Bodhi’s protector since he was a kid, and still is. On the day his leg was run over and his life had changed forever, Clove brought him the cane that he still uses to this day. She’s anger and he’s kindness, but they’re strangely good at understanding each other.
Gryff Crimson || Twenty-One || San Francisco, California || Lasted 2 months
Perhaps the craziest of them all Gryff is never seen without a spray paint can in hand and a mischievous grin to match. His laugh is intoxicating and his art is mesmerising. He has the creativity of Finley and the careless attitude of Clove. Gryff contributes to family discussions with misplaced jokes and a humorous approach to sometimes very serious situations. This can annoy the more sensible of the clan, though somehow Gryff has always become a very vital part of any hard time in the Crimson household. He doesn’t nurture like Finley, he distracts. Gryff encourages his siblings to ignore their problems and instead focus on other things, this isn’t the best received advice but it works for some. Gryff is proud to hold the title of longest arrest record among his siblings, getting arrested countless times for vandalism, car theft and break and enter. He’s as fun as the Crimson’s come and he knows it.
Since he was a boy Gryff hasn’t even batted an eyelash at his parents disregard and lack of care for any of the Crimson Seven. He has shown very little care for them when they drop in, and some would even question if he notices their presence at all. Of all the siblings Gryff is the only one that completely ignores the two and is seemingly unaffected by their actions. He’s vocal with his emotions aside from when it comes to his parents. When Maverick and Olive are in question, Gryff paints. A myriad of paintings have been created from their visits, littered around the house. Every drop off that he saw, Gyrff painted and as for those that came before him he created pieces from the stories he’d been told. He doesn’t care about what his parents did or where they are in the world. All he wants to do is create works of art so the Crimson Seven will never forgot how they came together as a family from the harshest of places to the tightest of units.
From the day younger sister Sunny was dropped off, Gryff was moved into Bodhi’s room, and they’ve shared ever since. The two have an unlikely bond, almost polar opposites but the closest of friends. They’ve literally grown up in each others pockets, the space equally their own. They’ve always supported one another in their creative outlets, and their room has quickly become an expression of the two of them combined. Gryff teaches Bodhi how to live life more in the moment and Bodhi is teaching Gryff to slow down before he burns out. They’re strangely good influences on each other.
There isn’t much to be said about Sunny Crimson, aside from the fact that she is equal part Old Hollywood Glamour and small town grunge. She dances worthy of a spot among ballet royalty, then she’ll get on her skateboard with a cigarette between her lips and take off until the middle of the night. She was either going to be a smaller version of Clove, or move on to become a big star someday. It was clear what her other six siblings would have wanted for her, but somehow Sunny was happy living in a perfect combination of both. Because she wasn’t one or the other, she was a bit of each. If you paid a few minutes attention you’d see that Sunny is a little bit of every sibling that has come before her. She has Lark’s courage, Finley’s drive, Clove’s aggression, Bodhi’s contentedness and Gryff’s way of looking at the world. Maybe that was what maybe Sunny so hard to pin down, she was a mesh of a million different things.
When Sunny arrived at the house, everyone was surprised. It had been four years since Gryff came, they honestly weren’t expecting another one after such a long time. And everyone was only further surprised to learn that Sunny had been with their parents a year already, nobody since Finley had last even more than 5 months. But that didn’t change anything, they still welcomed her with open arms and a loving attitude. They’re having a tougher time with her lately, Sunny taking a more selfish stance than most that had come before her. She’d still do anything for her siblings, she’d walk through hell and fight the devil for each and every one of them. Though she does have a slight tenancy to put her own wants first.
Sunny isn’t as close with Bodhi as most, she finds that she doesn’t understand him. They’re similar in many aspects, they’re both quieter than the rest, both content with a small town life, of never getting out. They’re both at peace with their inevitable future in Muddy Waters and their mediocre lives despite their talents. But what Sunny doesn’t understand is how Bodhi can hold onto such hope and faith in the world after everything that’s happened. She gets it with Finley, because Finley is only doing it for her siblings wanting the greatest opportunities for them. As is Bodhi, but Sunny can’t quiet wrap her head around his dead set attitude on saving people that are beyond help. Sunny feels disconnected from Bodhi, more so than the others. But that has never stopped her from being there, or from him being there for her. From each dance performance she had, or each musical performance he had. It didn’t stop her from sleeping in the hospital when he was in with his knee, or him helping her with her homework when it didn’t quite make sense. They don’t get each other, they’re not close, but their still Crimsons, they still love each other.
Van Crimson || Sixteen || New York City, New York || Lasted 8 months
The youngest and the biggest cause of the arguments inside of the Crimson household, Van has very little care for the world around him. He’s young, already addicted to drugs and a lover of everything frowned upon by the community and more important his siblings. Van is not a bad guy, not in any sense, but it’s a known fact that he follows most in their parents footsteps. He’s chasing the illusive dream, he wants to party, get drunk and high then smash anything and everything he sees. Some of the older siblings will argue that Van is just a teenager and that his actions are due to his young age and careless attitude. Though other siblings, mainly Lark and Clove, will argue that he’s self serving and destructive due to following his own desires and not considering the consequences. Everyone has a different opinion on Van’s lifestyle, and honestly the youngest Crimson couldn’t care less about what any of them said about what he was doing. He has disregarded what they have said to him for so long now that he feels like he has his own separate rule book.
Van doesn’t hate his family, not at all. He simply loves his lifestyle as much as he does them. And it is those similarities to their parents that scare and worry his oldest siblings. Now he doesn’t idolise his parents, he hates them as much as anyone else. But he can’t see the uncanny likeness between himself and them. Van just wants to be a typical guy, he talks about getting out of Muddy Waters and leaving some place far away. Of living the dream as people call it, he talks of forging his own path. Someday he might grow out of it, his siblings would never ask him too, but they like the family together. All they have is each other, and it would appear that Van isn’t as interested in that as everyone else.
Bodhi feels heavily responsible for Van, nobody ever made it a point to say that Bodhi himself needed to look out for Van, he’d simply taken it upon himself. Nowadays the middle child well and truly has his work cut out for him. Van uses his kindness and protective instinct to his advantage. Bodhi will follow his younger brother around to his most criminal acts in hopes that somehow he could stop or help his brother from getting into further trouble. The biggest problem being that when Van knows he has a helping hand nearby, it only drives him to choose more reckless acts. Decisions Bodhi usually has to answer for as much, if not more than Van. Little does the youngest brother know he is the reason Bodhi’s leg got run over in the first place. Van had run out to their parents, under the impression that if he asked nicely they’d stay. But Bodhi had chased him to stop the younger boy and put himself between Van and their parents speeding off in a fury. Bodhi had given up his leg under the wheel the their parents car, for a little boy that didn’t know better.
The Ascott-Sterling union was one no one expected nor wanted and for good reason. The two of them were volatile whirlwinds who were as mature as they were kind-- which was to say none at all. Never seeming to want to grow up, the two tackled their relationship with emotionally charged recklessness that all of Muddy Waters could hear from all the way in the trailer parks, earning them a reputation among the townsfolk as the couple who could never quite get it together.
Their ill-planning left them living in dust and poverty, constantly in a struggle to get by on misdeeds and gut feelings alone but they were happy. Their family home a double-wide with shotgun pellets in the door frame, welcoming all misfits and vandals inside. While incredibly feral, Mary and Marshall still lived by the laws of the rascals and always took care of their own.
Mary Ascott (Bloody Mary)
Now incarcerated, Mary is doing time for aggravated assault. Contrary to popular belief, she was a warm and loving person or at least, to the best of her ability to be one while she was busy kicking ass and taking names. Her position in the Rascals had always been a point of contention between her and Kelly who began to let go of the idea of saving her mother when her dad became a bigger problem. Mary wasn’t so much of a violent person as an extremely just one, always following her laser-sharp instincts when it comes to dealing with people and things, making her an exemplary leader and a sometimes crappy mom.
Kelly loathes her mother’s reputation the most knowing that the odd glances she was getting from older men had nothing to do with the fact that she was young, teenage and female but rather recognition. More than Mary’s reputation, Kelly hated the crown that came with it and still refuses to acknowledge the Rascals as her family.
Marshall “Knuckles” Sterling
Once fair and noble, Marshall fell a long way down from the top when alcoholism took over his life. While Mary had refused to mature, Marshall wanted more from life than motorcycles and leather boots but could never seem to figure out where to start when all he’d ever known was the gang life. After being stripped of his rank by Mary, the two of them continuously fought and fucked through their relationship until the Rascals had decided that enough was enough.
Kelly didn’t have much of an opinion on her father until he moved in with her on the better side of down and laid hands on her. A part of her knows that it’s not really all his fault, and that he’s a result of his environment, but she can’t help feeling bitter about all of the excuses that she’d made for him while isolating herself from her friends (but one). Kelly is convinced that her father broke some part of her that can’t be replaced, making her permanently unavailable and morbid.
Moreover, her pride had swollen tenfold due to the abuse and her need to prove that she is more than a textbook case of kid-from-broken-home can sometimes be overwhelming. Kelly overcompensates a lot due to her family, determined to show everyone that she won’t be another casualty of Muddy Waters even if she comes out of it in 300 pieces.
At first glance, the Mckennas hardly seem any different from your average nuclear family but looks can be deceiving and any tabloid could easily tell you that there’s nothing average about the Mckennas at all. From TV stardom to gracing the runways, the Mckennas seem to only produce star-studded children. Lead by Jocelyn Mckenna, family matriarch, Ben and Sasha have been groomed to be the biggest and brightest stars that they could be and they have all the therapy bills to prove for it.
Living on the labor of their own children, the Mckenna household hadn’t always flourished with excess. Before Ben reached national stardom, the Mckennas didn’t have a penny to their name. With Dom being a charitable pastor and Jocelyn studying for her license, fame was Jocelyn’s last resort to survival. Ben’s success came with a whole new era of plastic smiles and locked lips when the Mckennas went from nobodies to somebodies overnight. All press was good press according to Jocelyn, who took full advantage of her crazy kids as Dom spectated silently at a distance.
Jocelyn Mckenna
Jocelyn is the matriarch of the family. She controls everything from their meals to their schedules to how they lived their lives so it’s not a wonder why Ben was (and still is) so attached to her. She’s a cunning fox of a woman who sometimes lets her ambitions get the better of her, case and point her negligence when it came to her children in favor of manipulating the press to their favor-- good or bad. It isn’t to say that she doesn’t love her kids but rather demands them to meet impossible expectations in order to obtain her affection at full value. The question of whether that exists or not is one that everyone’s been asking, especially when it comes to addressing the accusations of selling her son to Hollywood (to which she refuses to comment).
Growing up behind Jocelyn’s kneecaps, it’s not a mystery as to why Ben has an affinity for older women despite his mother’s casual disregard for him when he’s not capitalizing on his stardom. Ben often finds himself searching for someone to take the reins seeing as how he’s incapable of doing much on his own.
There isn’t anything of Ben’s that she hasn’t taken from him and bartered for more fame, leaving him with a low sense of worth and withered self-esteem.
Sasha Mckenna
For as long as he could remember, there had always been just him and Sasha, together in this weird journey they were on where everything came in twos and adults. Sasha grew up to be far more out-spoken and fiery than he was which left her fighting most of his battles for him despite their on-going (one-sided) competition for mom’s love. Ben managed to come out of their childhood unscathed under the shield of blissful ignorance when it came to Sasha’s barbs and has always loved her a lot, even if he had a hard time understanding her anger. Chances were that if he was going to throw down for anyone, it’d likely be for her honor considering the number of times she’d been outraged over his.
Ben’s attachment to Sasha had only gotten worse with distance when Sasha went to college, leaving him alone with his mother at the vulnerable brink of adulthood. His loneliness in her absence was only mitigated by copious amounts of drugs and partying which eventually resulted in an episode of drug-induced psychosis that made it onto TMZ.
Dominic Mckenna
Once a clergyman, Reverend Mckenna is everything unexpected when confronted with 200lbs of hulking muscle. He’s a big softie and a passionate, loving man which was how he wiggled his way into Jocelyn’s radar in the first place. And he might’ve realized that marrying her had to be one of his worst mistakes yet had his darling children not been there to distract him from her overbearing personality. Although he won’t be winning any father-of-the-year awards for the number of times he’d sat Ben down and gave him the wrong kind of talk about sexual misconduct, Dom does try his best to keep his family together and happy even if his voice is no match for his wife’s.
Ben doesn’t really have a relationship with his father, feeling alienated and awkward around him because of the discrepancy between what his experiences and what his father has told him about what it takes to be a man. They had once been courteous to one another, but since Ben’s fall from grace, have fallen out completely due to irreconcilable amounts of shame (on Dom’s part) and Ben’s unwillingness to tell his dad that his silence may be the most damaging thing about their family yet.
Dallas (deceased)
Ben’s beloved childhood pet, lost in a prank when Jesse Childs swapped his collar with Keith Medlin‘s dog when he was in the 6th grade. Dallas is now cremated in a jar that sits on Ben’s desk after Ben and Jesse exhumed his carcass from the Medlin’s yard.
...because blood runs thicker and heavier than muddy water
(( tw: HIV & AIDs ))
Mama who bore me. ( determination, courage, pretty face, blue eyes )
Eve Reid was quite a woman. Being pregnant at 19 was hard enough, but to raise the child all on her own? It took an unbelievable amount of guts, a heart bursting with love, and a shit ton of bravery. Especially when Grandma and Grandpa weren’t too eager of having a grandchild born from a teenage mom out of wedlock.
So Eve raised her daughter on her own, bouncing from man to man, job to job, as she struggled to provide for her sole princess. And Eva looked up to her mother with immense admiration, in awe of how such a woman could summon the strength to keep going on.
Unfortunately, what would have been a picture-perfect life had been trashed the soonest that Eve had chosen to eventually live in and settle with her son-of-a-bitch druggie of a boyfriend, Todd. When Eve contracted HIV from Todd, it was only a matter of time before her health degenerated. Eventually, AIDS set in, followed by the ultimate killer: pneumonia.
When Eve died, she left an 18 year old Eva practically an orphan. Without a choice, the young one had nothing but to have courage of her own: the courage to leave her comfort zone, and embark on her own journey.
No show dad. ( flightiness, selfishness, lack of long-term will )
What could Eva expect from a guy who barely batted an eye when her mom told her that she was pregnant? From a guy who left her mom to her own devices? From a guy who never came back for his child? Nothing.
The only cousin that Eva ever had was Philippe. The son of her mom’s only sister and 8 years older than she was, Philippe had a better head screwed in. He, after all, was raised in a loving household, with a complete set of supportive, loving parents. She had fond memories with him, with her mostly running to her cousin’s family place whenever things got sour at home.
Philippe served as her big brother, the one who taught her to aim high boldly, and to be ruthless about it. Philippe, who thought her how to fight and to use her brains rather than let her beauty take over. Philippe, who willingly taught her how to use a knife in the first place. These were her childhood memories, ones that not even their parents knew about.
And though her cousin eventually moved to London for his career, Eva remained in touch with him, even so much as telling him where she was when she finally left home at 18. Much had changed for her dear older cousin, as he quickly rose to big-shot fame for working in a famous empire ( and infamous gang).
Despite his success, he continues to help her out in times of need. It’s almost comical, how the cousin duo ended up on practically the same path of gang-life. Thankfully, Philippe remains to be in her corner, up to this day.
