Helloooo! I’ve (finally) filled out the talk tag post to give you guys some info on my version of Medusa! Please let me know if you have any questions about her, or if you’d like to plot! I’m definitely looking for a roommate or two, as well as any other connection under the sun (especially for fellow New Olympians). Let’s get this party started! (Well...it’s been started...for awhile now...I am very late...but for ME it’s a very new party, okay?)
Also I might have made some assumptions here as far as our characters go, so if you see something wonky please tell me
BASICS
full name: Myra Shirin Bahl
The name is commonly associated with the Latin word, myyrh: a bitter resin extracted from a small, thorny plant. Though many bitter things might make you pucker when they first touch your tongue, they are often proven to be very useful, such as in medicinal herbs, or flavoring fine wine. And as they say, many beautiful, wonderful things are known to be protected by thorns.
any nicknames?: As a child she went by Mimi. She doesn’t use that name anymore. Though she hears some of the folk at Old Olympus call her Medusa behind her back.
age: 25. a quarter of a century, oh no!
birthday/zodiac sign: August 19th, 1992. Leo. A fiery lioness filled with passion.
height: 5′-6:
any tattoos, piercings?: Though she has done a lot of breaking boundaries and exploring new options for herself, piercings and tattoos have been a little too permanent for her to take the plunge on. Besides a single piercing in each of her ears, her skin remains undecorated for the time being. Though she considers it from time to time, she still wonders if she’ll ever be able to reconnect with her family and her old self, and something like a tattoo is just a little too much of a commitment for the time being.
FAVORITES
sound: Ocean waves softly kissing the shore ( she sleeps with a soft noise machine when the other apartment tenants are particularly loud )
color: Dusty lilacs and calming blue hues. The color of a clear, cloudless sky. And deep, royal purple ( not just for the matriarchal implications )
person: A multitude of faces rush through her head--her mother, her father, her brother, her ex-lover, her ex-best-friend--before she reminds herself they can’t be her favorite anymore. She has to be her own favorite person now.
memory: It’s hard to pick a favorite memory when so many of the people she shared them with no longer see her in the same light. Every good moment becomes a cherished memory in hindsight. They appear in flashes: peeling carrots with her mother, sharing lighthearted conversation about how men were helpless in the kitchen. Walking down the street as a young girl, holding her father’s hand and feeling so safe, like nothing in the world could touch her with her impenetrable father there to protect her.
place: Gritty, warm sand beneath her toes, the hot sun on her back, the cool water at her feet. Specifically, the beaches home in Los Angeles (especially Malibu). New York beaches just can’t compare, though when she’s desperate for some sun she’ll use them as a placeholder.
vice: Warm lips on her neck, rough hands on her skin. She never expected to be the type to fall for such carnal pleasures, but once she got a taste, it was an urge that always came back to haunt her. Though it has never been as fulfilling as the first time, with the woman she’d loved, she loved the feeling of another person on top of her.
HAVE THEY EVER…
…been in love?
Luli had been the most beautiful woman she’d ever seen. At first, Myra wasn’t sure if she wanted to be with her or simply wanted to be her. Soon, the question answered itself. She never thought she would want a woman in such a primitive way, nor a romantic way, but Luli changed Myra’s perspective on just about everything. It was passionate and warm and enlightening and thriving and everything Myra had never thought she’d wanted, or needed. It was the most wonderful and thrilling feeling she’d ever experienced--
even if it didn’t last.
…done drugs?
When she’d first gotten involved with Olympus, still new to the big city. There were so many new opportunities for her here that hadn’t existed back home, and she wanted to try everything. Nothing too dangerous, but she’ll never forget the bubbling excitement of her first joint. There had been a naive air about her that both made people protective of her, and also made people want to push things on her, but she stood her ground. She wanted to enjoy her newfound freedom, but within reason, and she certainly wasn’t about to ruin her new life by getting hooked on something bad.
…killed someone?
Not by choice. Everything that night had gone wrong. It was her first year on transportation and things weren’t going as smoothly as everyone expected them to. It was her or them and she panicked. She did what she had to do, but the first time she took someone else’s life was the hardest, even if it was for her own safety.
…betrayed someone’s trust?
Despite the age difference, Victoria had been her best friend. She’d been the first person Myra had connected with in New York, and Myra had crawled under her wing and adopted her as her mentor, whether she’d initially wanted it or not. Victoria was her secret keeper, the first person she’d told about her life back in California, what she had fled from and what she had fled to become.
At first, it hadn’t felt like cheating. But then it did. And she knew it was wrong. And she didn’t put a stop to it until it was too late. In the end, she isn’t sure which loss was worst: her lover or her best friend.
…had their heart broken?
If love was the best feeling in the world, heartbreak was the worst. It had teared her to shreds, ripped her apart after every attempt at glueing herself back together again. What it also did, however, was harden her: make her strong, impervious, impenetrable. Just like the myth of a broken bone healing stronger than before, her broken heart and broken soul came back ten times stronger after that, and she swore she would never let it break again.
…lost someone?
Never by death, but unattainable by the weight of her own actions. Not lost, but simply impossible to find as they once were..
DO THEY…
have any pets?: This is technically TBD since I don’t know who her roommates are yet, but in my head she has two small pet (land) turtles, named after women’s rights activists Susan B. Anthony and Lucretia Mott (“Susie and Lucy”)
have a family they still talk to?: No. Sometimes she wishes she could, but she feels it’s just too late. Even if she were to contact them, she would probably have to change back into who she was--into Mimi--and she’s just not willing to do that.
have a best friend?: It used to be Victoria, back when she first touched down in NYC. Someone she could tell anything to, confess her deepest fears and biggest secrets. Well, she left out one particularly large secret, and their best-friendship was broken forever. (Who is it now? Only time will tell)
want to get married and/or have kids?: It used to be a given that as a woman, she would settle down with a husband and pop out a few kids. Now that she’s breached so far past the Bahl Family Norm, she’s not so sure she could ever go back to that. Sure, after a stressful, dangerous day, she might think a normal, quiet life in a suburb with a family might be nice, but as far as she’s concerned, she’s too far gone to ever get that old little girl dream.
want to leave?: Sometimes, but she’s already run away once before, and reinventing yourself certainly takes its toll on your identity. Everyone has hard days, where they want to leave their life behind and start somewhere new, but she doesn’t feel she’s been in New York long enough yet to call it quits. Not to mention, she would be letting down the other members of New Olympus, the people who took her in when she was still new to the city and had no place to go, and she wouldn’t let her own flight risk tendencies harm them in anyway..
THIS OR THAT?
phone call or text? T E X T. They’re straight-forward, to the point, and leave interpretation out of the equation. “Meet at 11:05 in the alley?” There’s nothing else to it. It’s quick and it’s efficient., and there’s no way for it to be construed
wealth or loyalty? L O Y A L T Y. All the money in the world can’t buy you trust or friendship. Though she could really use the money, everyone needs at least one person they can trust in above all else.
love or lust? L U S T. Love gets you nothing but heartbreak. It tears down your walls and pillages your heart like an invading army and it leaves nothing but ruin in its wake. Lust allows you “all the same perks” without the emotional investment and vulnerability. It is clearly the superior choice.
5 Friends or 100 Acquaintances? 5 FRIENDS. True loyalty is hard to come by these days, and the less you know a person, the more dangerous to you they can be to you.
summer or winter? S U M M E R! Having grown up in California, the New York winters are pretty bracing to her. Even if summer weather reminds her of home, she will never not love the sun.
[also still a wip and subject to changes im just impatient and wanna post this]
BASICS
full name: andres jose de leon // andres, spanish variant of andrew, meaning brave or manly; jose, spanish variant of joseph (biblical connotations), meaning may god bless or god shall add // he was named after two famous filipino heroes which... y’know. doesn’t get more patriotic than that
nicknames: arjo, aj, hermes
age: 29 (turning 30 this year)
pronouns: he/they
birthday/zodiac sign: june 1st 1988, wednesday / gemini
height: 5′10
tattoos/piercings: surprisingly... none just yet. he has thought about getting a full sleeve one, but he’s also wary of tarnishing his beautiful body. i mean... that golden skin with some ink? maybe. he has thought of getting one with apollo before but then, you know, you never do know if you’re gonna end up getting someone arrested so it’s probably best not to get a tattoo with anyone at this point.
FAVORITES
sound: the hustle and bustle of the city. hermes counts it as that very intimate act of pressing your ear on someone’s chest and hearing their heartbeat, and though he doesn’t buy into the whole overhyping of new york in the media, he loves living here nevertheless (he’d love living in any other city with this much people and just as many activities, tbh). the beauty of being in such a crowded city is that the whole “everybody knows everybody” cliche doesn’t stand true, there’s a new, fascinating stranger that hermes can connect with everyday, and he lives by having as many exciting adventures as he could possibly have with a life so limited. hermes also carries a childlike fascination with any form of transportation: boats, planes, but most especially trains - he loves the sounds that they make, with the railroads and the whistles, enough that it’s even the message tone on his phone.
color: gold and blues in all its shades, but especially the color of the sky, there’s just something comforting about it.
person: himself. straight up. it isn’t so much narcissism as it is a very strong sense of independence and isolation. as sociable and charismatic as he is, at the end of the day, his trust lies solely on what he is capable of and what he is willing to do in the name of self preservation. which, given what he has already done, is a lot. since his parents left, family is something that he doesn’t have in new york and other states - there are relatives, sure, but none familiar to him - and what little semblance of that he does still have lies with the filipino community that he remains connected with. apollo is his best friend... or was... something about getting someone arrested tends to muddle relationships up, who knew? his favorite people would have to be the people who fall for his charms. it doesn’t help that he’s incredibly persuasive to anyone who doesn’t know him well enough to know that he’s that much of an ass at times.
memory: uh... i’ll get back to you on this one.
place: smack dab in the most crowded place in new york city - times square. or any place that has throngs of lively, chatty, exciting people, hermes almost thrives off of their energy, uses it to fuel his own, gets a high off of it. he’s not someone who particularly loves being by himself, although he is prone to doing it every now and then, especially in his apartment which is pretty much a bachelor pad. hermes does absolutely, irrevocably, deeply loves traveling, and if zeus and hera didn’t outright tell him that they needed him to stick around new york and do his job, hermes would just as likely be jetsetting off to god knows where, having adventures, soaking up the sun, seeing how far he can go with just the clothes off his back, his innocent face and his impish smile. he does favor sunny places more than cold ones, but he would definitely love to visit every country at least once.
vice: hermes genuinely love, love, loves fucking with people. he loves pushing them close to the edge, annoying them with his antics or simply flashing them with his shit eating grin, all the things that would alleviate his boredom which is the last thing that he wants to ever feel. even if it comes at the expense of himself or the people around him, making people laugh is an addiction that he can’t get enough of. even in the most serious of circumstances, hermes has the tendency to stick his foot in his mouth willingly and mess the whole interaction up. another vice of his is this... well, small tendency towards kleptomania. and i say small for the present, in the past, in his youth, he did run with some not-so-decent people and committed some petty larceny, but he’s... somewhat matured from that and only now steals the occasional small trinket or two, out of habit than any serious need to. if he hadn’t gotten into old olympus, into something with a steady-ish paycheck, then hermes likely would have been more susceptible to letting his habit get the best of him. he does offer this talent of his to the gang every now and then, if they need it, and his position as transportation means that he’s... unlocked a car that’s not his every now and then. perhaps if he wasn’t so unreliable, he would have a different position in the gang that suits this talent of his better, but for now, transpo is very much up his alley.
HAVE THEY EVER…
been in love: not really? maybe? possibly? it’s hard to tell since they tend to get into relationships fast and loose, with many notches on his bedpost. arjo loves being in the company of people and being the center of attention, but most of these relationships stem mainly from his enjoyment of getting away with it. when people say “you’re just in it for the chase”, it’s probably because they’ve met arjo before. he’s disingenuous at best and a straight up manipulator at his worse, though it has never stepped into the realm of being too much - if it stops being fun and starts being too much work, then he’ll give up and move on. so he likes to portray a different image of himself every now and then, so he shows people what they like and let them fall for that false version of himself, it’s harmless, it’s fun, all because he’s always made it clear that he’s not looking for anything serious.
done drugs: sure, why not? yolo, right? not the hard ones, mind you, he’s dabbled here and there, but it’s never gone into becoming an addiction or a regularity. if he’s at a party or if someone offers, who is he to say no? he’d never say this himself because it’s a fucking cliche and also the cheesiest goddamn thing, but he likes to get high on life!!! there are way better things to get your high from than drugs.
killed someone: no, it’s never come to that and he’s hoping it never does. becoming part of old olympus was... well, it was a reckless decision done simply because he honestly thought “well... what the heck” and his position as transportation reflects the fact that he isn’t really looking to do anything wildly unlawful. he likes to play with the lines of the law without entirely crossing or breaking them.
betrayed someone’s trust: hey apollo how’s it hangin buddy? the notion of trust for hermes is very........ complicated. on the one hand, i understand if not a lot of people trust him, he gives off this vibe of not taking anything seriously or not even having the capability to take anything seriously (he acts like an idiot and he is, in some regard, but he’s actually very, very cunning and the act itself is part of it), but at the end of the day... yeah, i would say, be careful around him. he doesn’t intentionally mean to betray people, he just doesn’t see the point in putting someone else before or above himself. is that selfish? maaaybe, but it’s not foolish and he’d rather selfish than be that.
had their heart broken: eh. he’ll have to have allowed his heart to form any serious attachment for it to be broken, and he’s never done that. he thinks he’s too smart for that, too smart to ever let the risks outweigh the facts, so if we’re counting successes by way of how many times he’s had his heart broken then hermes is a winner, definitely. but he’s never truly been with someone either, whatever relationships he has had before have always been with him having one foot out the door, perhaps even an entire half of his body out the door, and it gets lonely at times, sure, but if he doesn’t think about it then it’s not an issue.
lost someone: nope. hermes has lived his life relatively loss-free, and i think that does manifest itself in his personality and his devil-may-care viewing of life.
DO THEY…
have any pets: a cherry head red footed tortoise named torta, five years old. he isn’t nearly responsible enough to have a dog on his own, though he does love dogs and is kind of a dog himself. he’s thinking of getting a pet rabbit just so he can race torta and the rabbit against each other, or maybe even a pet snake just cause snakes are cool, but neither have come to fruition yet.
have a family they still talk to: hermes actually still pretty regularly chats with his family, but it’s never something that he instigates or pointedly makes time for in his schedule. it’s more a force of habit than anything that actually calls on him as a need, but he does recognize the efforts that his parents made to give him a good life, sometimes he just can’t help but wish that it had been better.
have a best friend: a-a... apo....... apollo.................?
want to get married and/or have kids: neither. the prospect of them having a child causes them to empty the entire contents of their stomach, it’s that dreadful. not that they have an aversion to children, but more often than not, if they have to spend more than fifteen minutes with a child, hermes ends up picking fights and being more childish than them. the playfulness that is inherent in hermes’ being makes them great with kids, but the responsibility? the hard work? the seriousness? it doesn’t exist.
want to leave: the going’s still good, so why ruin that? though there is no deep rooted loyalty in him to old olympus or to zeus, for that matter, and he may have made that pretty evident by the way that he pushed apollo to take the fall for him. being part of the gang is something that he just happened to get into, it’s not something that he’s passionate or serious about, and everyone knows that which is why he understands that progression isn’t something in store for him in this profession. not that he cares or wants to, but for now, as long as he’s having fun, he gets to walk the wild side of life, then yeah, he’ll play with the big boiiis.
THIS OR THAT?
phone call or text: text. for the emojis. but if it’s an option, he does do a fair amount of video calls because it saves from the tendency to misunderstanding and vagueness that other communication styles have. seeing someone’s face, hearing their response as soon as they come up with it, and then there’s the added bonus of the other person seeing his beautiful face, what’s not to like?
wealth or loyalty: loyalty to himself, wealth if it comes easily. considering what he’s done recently re: apollo and that whole fiasco, it is easy to assume that hermes functions under a zero sense of loyalty to anyone, but in truth, his loyalty just happens to be that much stronger to his whims, and sometimes that takes over his affection for other people. on some level, he does still carry loyalty for apollo, for anyone who is his friend and has done nothing wrong against him, it just so happens that he understands how hard it is to trust anyone nowadays and he likes playing around with people. for now, he stands in line with old olympus and zeus, but he is as easily swayable as a feather under a steady breeze, and just as liable to fly to the next offer if it fits his desires.
love or lust: there’s a big difference? caerus whom the fuc no, he knows that there is, but hermes likes to pretend that there isn’t. truthfully, he does have romantic notions now and then, but he’s always been successful in quelling them, just because he operates under this view that romance is weakness, romance makes someone boring and stale, romance is death to fun. he’s only in his late twenties, he has no desire to settle down... or at least that’s what he tells himself. inwardly, i do think that hermes is a one person kinda dude. has he had his fair share of flings? sure, and most people who know him chalk it off as this insatiable lust or his being some kind of casanova, but when i say he’s in it for the thrill of the chase, i mean that as just that. what comes after isn’t as interesting to him, sex is a game and if he has to, he can just as easily live without it.
5 friends or 100 acquaintances: 100 acquaintances. at least one of them is bound to be rich and willing to share their blessings with others, especially those with strong jaws and handsome features. and with 100 acquaintances, some of them are also bound to be fun and can keep up with his lifestyle, as opposed to five friends who are very liable to letting him down and disappointing him. in all honesty, hermes just isn’t someone that can hold down a handful of friends, both for lack of trying and interest. if people manage to stay in his company, that’s nothing to him but an added bonus. though he would love to have more genuine friends, he knows that he’s something of an acquired taste and not a lot of people do get him.
summer or winter: summer. tank tops, beach bod, ibiza, vodka, tijuana, tequila. the only thing fun about winter is that he gets to pelt people with snow then run away, knowing that they can’t chase after him because it’s cold and slippery.
OTHERS:
wanted plots/connections: shiiiiiit if i know but i would love if there were people that he’s maybe been with, people he’s friends with, people he’s fucked with and they maybe want revenge of his petty ass, something!!! i thought of maybe a flatmate but i’m not so sure, he does like his personal space, but then... it could be fun... idk i’ll think about it
tl;dr // sunny is... not all that sad but also... kinda sad... this got away from me...
tw: emotional abuse tw, parental neglect tw, death tw, drugs tw, misgendering tw
BASICS
full name: sunyoung yoo ( SUN (善) - goodness; virtuous / YOUNG (英) - flower / YOO (劉) - family name without any meaning but in Hanja, it can also mean ‘to kill or destroy’ )
nicknames: sunny, artemis
age: 22 (turning 23 this year)
birthday/zodiac sign: september 5th 1994 / virgo
height: 6′1 because someone drank their milk before bed every night and did their jumps and stretches, though this may be subject to change if tiny boy bastien asks for an inch or two. can’t even begin to tell you how much of an advantage it was in all the sports she joined
tattoos/piercings: her ears are pierced but the only pair of earrings she owns are cookie monster ones and even those, she doesn’t really wear much or at all; this armband tattoo on her upper right arm with the hangul letters of her name written on the inside; this tattoo on her lower arm but the big star is replaced by a sun (the sun being apollo and because apollo he is the light of sunny’s life; the moon as sunny; julian as the planet that orbits the two and because it’s adorable like he is; the lightning bolt as morpheus cause they came into her life unexpectedly and they are just as deadly but just as beautiful to witness); this tattoo wrapping around her right wrist she both because loves animals and also in memory of her old dog brandy rip you were a good bitch; the words ‘inhale’ and ‘exhale’ tattooed on the inside of her feet because they were the instructions repeatedly told her in all of the sports she participated in and also what helped get her through her anxiety; honestly she would love to have more done but those are the only ones for now
FAVORITES
sound: wind whistling through the grass and leaves. she really feels the most peaceful when she’s lying on her back in a field, staring up at the sky; day or night, it doesn’t matter, she typically starts when the sun is still high and ends with the moon already up among the stars anyway. sunny loves being barefoot on the grass and feeling it between her toes. if she ever does get around to leaving new york, she would love for it to be somewhere with a lot of space for her to run and hide in, and lot more grass for her to press her ear close to and pretend that they’re singing a song. she also loves any sound any animal makes and will turn to putty whenever tiny puppies yip up at her
color: black, green, yellow. black is more of a personal preference, it’s almost always present in any ensemble she’s in. green relies on constancy: it’s there in her favorite places. yellow because she feels it a part of who she is: sunny, sun, brightness.
person: @apollokarlsson how you doin’? @jullybeans @metamorpheus HIT ME WITH THAT FOUND FAMILY TROPE SHOOT IT STRAIGHT INTO MY VEINS I DON’T CARE
memory: being introduced to apollo. now, she knows that she was a little too young that the details of her memory may not be exactly accurate, but her emotions during and about it are so visceral that she’s convinced there’s really no other version of what happened other than how she remembers it. there was such a beautiful glow about apollo that day, sunny could’ve sworn they were an angel, a halo hovering above their head. this was at the height of her solitude too: her mother had abandoned her, her father worked and was absent more than ever, so that may have contributed to it, but the fact that apollo was quick to take her hand, quick to be a sibling that she never really thought or imagined she would have. a part of her had worried that it was all just for show, that the moment their father and their stepmother left, apollo would switch gears and be someone intimidating - the age gap between them certainly didn’t help - but the kindness that was shown that day never faltered and that really did make life at home so much bearable for sunny. in the blink of an eye, it didn’t matter that none of her athletic accomplishments ever amount to anything for her parents - when apollo saw the trophies and the medals that littered her room, the pride in their eyes more than compensated for it and motivated her to do even better. everything felt that much easier and brighter so when apollo’s problems started catching up to them, it was also the toughest and saddest memory of hers to watch that halo dip into dimness
place: please refer to favorite sound. sunny also loves being in their apartment when both apollo and julian are there, she just loves watching the three of them exist around each other, playful and happy, as though they don’t exist in a world where they’re surrounded by so much danger and misery. if someone had told her before when they were still only dealing to julian that he would end up living with them, sunny would’ve scoffed and said ‘........... okay guy’ but now it’s like. was it ever not like this? simply imagining the alternate reality where julian never moved in and apollo was taken away, leaving her all by herself, well... it’s not fun. her room can also fit in here. it’s sparsely decorated and she also impulsively bought a privacy pop tent that she uses when she’s in a particularly bad mood and wants to - literally and figuratively - black it all out.
vice: does “running to cross the street because she saw someone walking their dog and just had to pet it” count as a vice? she drinks very limitedly to the point where it often feels like the first time again when she finally does, she doesn’t do drugs and she doesn’t smoke - her father did and it was a habit that she hated suffering through when they were together. it’s possible that she does have the vice of being in denial. sunny has the tendency to ignore her problems in favor of being more optimistic and lighthearted, and it has resulted in this slow bubbling of anger inside her that she comes to let out through her athletic pursuits: if you see her aggressively running full pelt down an oval, music blaring through her headphone and her teeth grit. and if she invites you to play soccer with her with her eyebrows furrowed, don’t say yes. if red cards are a thing during friendlies, sunny would be down for the count three times over. it’s tough for her to address the darker issues that cloud her life, opting to let them sort themselves out. when apollo left and it was just her and julian in the apartment, all the unsaid things hovered between them until julian slowly started showing signs that he was going to stand by her through that difficult time. truth be told, sunny had half thought he would want to leave, distance himself from their misfortune, but he stood by her through her ‘i don’t want to talk to anyone or do anything’ phase. when things don’t get solved on their own, sunny just believes in letting it all die down and be forgotten.
HAVE THEY EVER…
been in love: nah. the only time that she’s ever been “romantically involved” with someone was with one of her past teammates in swimming. they were the two most intense members of the team so they trained with each other the most, pushed each other in every race, and somehow, without their even planning it, naturally fell into hanging out with each other afterward, aimlessly wandering the city or catching a movie. it never was explicitly defined, though sunny knew that it was most likely because they didn’t have anyone else to be with. they carried the semblance of being close friends, even had sleepovers some nights and kissed a number of times, but after graduation, it all was still unspoken and they simply parted ways. they still text sometimes, she knows that the other went on to continue swimming, playing for university of georgia. if being in love is something that sunny is capable of or something that she allows herself to be, it may not happen anytime soon
done drugs: only weed, never to excess and very rarely. it’s the remnants of her athletic career during her school years: she’d followed the strict instructions to take care of her body to a tee, so she never really went through that adolescent phase of trying things for the first time with a group of friends, carrying that through to her life after. it was only after she left home and moved in with apollo and dionysus did she get to really be around drugs, but even then she hesitated and was only convinced because she was told it would help with her anxiety. she did terribly with smoking a blunt - she didn’t seal it properly at all and it all came undone when she tried to take a hit; after she fixed it, she then pulled on it too long and gave herself a coughing fit - so pot brownies it is! whoever thought to combine chocolate and weed should obviously be given the nobel prize
killed someone: no, though sunny does acknowledge that she’s probably (read: definitely) capable of it, and has at times felt a certain build up of rage deep within her when it comes to certain people or certain issues. she’s not naive enough to think that it’s beyond her... or anyone, she knows that everyone has that point or that topic where they can just snap, but she does like to think of herself still leaning towards the side of the Universal Good where killing is bad all the time. not that that’s stopped her from trying to learn how to hold and use a gun from morpheus, but that doesn’t instantly mean that she’s going to shoot it or that she’s going to swing a fist. self defense will always be her primary motivation when it comes to this topic... for now. (wink wink nudge nudge future hitman sunny yoo)
betrayed someone’s trust: being able to betray someone’s trust would entail that she forms a lot of connections to begin with, and sunny doesn’t really have that. all the people in her youth were merely passing - teammates, schoolmates, acquaintances - and none of them gave her their full trust to begin with, for betrayal to even be an option. of the handful of people that do reside in her life now, sunny has never once thought of going against them or turning her back on them. once they’ve made it through the difficult phase of becoming close and important to her, she latches on and becomes dangerously selfless and sacrificing for their sake.
had their heart broken: romantically, not really. sunny has never formed that kind of attachment towards someone before. in general though, yes. she can still distinctly remember the first time that she came home with a trophy in hand, still clad in her sweaty track suit and medals slung around her neck. it was easy to forget how painful it had been for her to turn to the stands, searching for their familiar faces and finding none, but in the throes of victory, sunny was quick to forget that. and she shouldn’t have, she really should have taken that as a sign and not expected more. when the three of them sat down to dinner together - one of the rare times that they did, another reason that the occasion should have been a happy one - she’d eagerly presented the trophy to her mother, who barely glanced at it before passing it on, the cogs in her mind turning to come up with a comment. her father looked at the trophy and asked her ‘was there any prize money?’ which caught her by surprise, only able to reply no after a minute of gathering herself. that’s when he told her that it wasn’t really a win if they just gave her a trophy: what good was a trophy? just something to look at, something to show, she couldn’t get anything out of it. then her mother hit her with admonishments: how it would mess up her body, make her look like a man, make her lose her appeal to potential suitors. sunny not only didn’t bother defending herself, but she also apologized and took the trophy back, keeping it by her bedside table for only her to see. in the years following, she never came to expect anything out of them anymore, and any recognition she received were stacked up in her bedroom closet.
lost someone: (tw death) the closest that sunny has come to death is through some of her schoolmates getting into a drunken accident and one of them passing away, there isn’t enough numbers in her family for her to really be able to lose someone with a sense of finality. perhaps the only person that she’s ever really lost - though she doesn’t know if it’s permanently, the woman does have the tendency to flit in and out of people’s lives and steal parts of it with her bUT WHO’S BITTER NOT SUNNY - is her mother, and that isn’t even something that she mourns about (or maybe she’s sad about it but, if you refer to her vice, she’s deeply in denial about it too). for her to lose that relationship means that there was even one to begin with, and though it’s something of a feat for her to think that her mother decided to keep her after her father got her pregnant, that doesn’t really mean that much of anything came afterward, that was the extent of her mother’s maternal instincts. if she goes by gut instinct, sunny is convinced that after her mother ditched a while back without a word of goodbye, she’s likely out of the state or maybe even out of the country, but that doesn’t stop her from worrying that the two of them might cross paths one of these days, especially when she’s near and around the hospital where her mother worked. she could go in and inquire, know for sure, but there’s not really much of a motivation in there for her since she doesn’t see any benefit in knowing. there’s also, of course, apollo, but that’s not really a loss so much as a temporary absence. sunny always knew they’d come back, she just wished that the sweetness of being reunited wasn’t soured by the fact that apollo left at all when they promised they never would.
DO THEY…
have any pets: she adopted a rescue dog when she was eight years old - an eight month old golden retriever she named brandy because ‘brandy you’re a fine girl’ was stuck in her head that week after hearing her father singing to it - under very sketchy circumstances involving forged signatures, saved up allowances and intense guilt tripping after the attendant mistook her for a little boy and she hammed up being offended by it. they were together for twelve years, the dog serving as her closest companion when she still lived with her parents. brandy has since been gone due to old age (if you say to or around her that brandy died, you will get punched on the arm so hard) for a few months over two years now and though sunny would love nothing more than to have another one soon, she’s still recovering from the loss. also has a pet turtle named tommy and a hamster named hal. she likes to make them race sometimes and forces them to hang out with each other. hal doesn’t like it but tommy doesn’t seem to mind. she doesn’t believe in the idea of ‘pet names’ because it makes her feel like she’s separating herself from her pets when she truly views them as family. it’s a pet peeve, pun intended... get it? pet peeve? it’s funny, i’m brilliant, donate money to my paypal
have a family they still talk to: does apollo count? this is mostly a no, and it’s largely because of her own volition. her mother disappeared on her years ago and though sunny knows where she works (worked? in case she’s transferred hospitals since then) and could very easily track her down, it’s not something that she’s ever felt up to doing - leaving home when she did was one of the most freeing experiences she has ever had, and to reacquaint herself with a woman who made her feel more and more suffocated with each passing year feels like a huge step backward that she doesn’t really need or want to take. there are no more hard feelings within her, sure, but it doesn’t mean that forging a relationship is on her to-do list. her father, on the other hand, does still reach out to her, trying to start small talk only to be cut off by her because, oddly enough, it’s with him that she does still harbor some resentment towards. their relationship was only a step above the one with her mother, but it was still something better, yet when she left, he didn’t seem to have made much of an effort to get her back and that stung. he tries to engage her about the most banal shit like the weather or news, tries to tell her what he’s doing and how his day was, but sunny has no time for it: if he’s not going to address the big issue between them, there’s no point in letting him back into her life.
have a best friend: just one??? what kind of weak person... without a doubt, apollo is the one who knows her best, perhaps even knows her better than she knows herself, which is a cliche that she doesn’t want to subscribe to but has to because it just fits. when it comes to her sibling, it’s impossible for sunny to hold their decisions against them, even though time and time again they’ve hurt. and it’s not that it hurts her but that it hurts apollo, and the most that she can do is voice her concern softly, be careful not to seem demanding or controlling, but she can’t make apollo’s choices for them. sometimes she doesn’t know if it’s a good or bad thing that she seems to be able to forgive her sibling anything, but the one thing she does know for uncertain is that her heart holds a love for the other deeper than she ever thought herself capable of feeling, and it scares her sometimes, especially right now when she can’t determine if their relationship can weather the storm it’s currently under. other than apollo, julian is a close second, someone who got to see her be weak and didn’t push. to be honest, when they initially met, sunny didn’t know what to think of the guy: he seemed as much bad news as apollo used to be, but he was funny, he didn’t overstep, and he cared in his own little way. after apollo left and it was just the two of them in the apartment, sunny was more withdrawn than ever but julian never gave up on her and she genuinely thinks, in some way, he really did save her. and then there’s morpheis. HOO BOY WHAT TO SAY. they just.. jumped at her, completely unexpected, and quickly stole a part of her heart. were they initially tasked to kill her if she messed up? sure, but now that’s just a funny story they can tell people who ask them how the hell the two of them met... and a lot of people do seem to want to, considering how odd a pair they make. between sunny’s piercing glare and morpheus’ intimidating stature though, nobody really tries to, but that makes it all the more better. the two of them exist in this bubble, this world, where somehow it’s easier to be vulnerable, something that sunny doesn’t really want to be anymore. though it’s clear to her that they suffered through so much more than she has (and probably ever will, though if she could, it would be great to have the ability to wipe away the grief from their face), for some reason she can’t grasp, their soul feels kindred to hers. she loves apollo and julian, but her relationship with morpheus is something that’s a little more open, a little more honest, and a little more liable to break her should it ever turn against her.
want to get married and/or have kids: so far, what sunny has seen of marriage isn’t really all that pretty, but she always knew that her parents’ arrangement was more of the exception than the rule. marriage is... daunting. she doesn’t really see it as something that she necessarily has to do, and if there comes a time that she does find someone that she feels she can spend the rest of her life with, then she simply would, wedding or no. if they ask her to tie the knot, then she would, but not for any want of hers. kids? they’re... nice. they’re a nice concept. she really feels like she’s too young to think about this right now, she doesn’t even think so much about getting into a relationship, let alone sleeping with someone for another someone to form inside her. though she does think that she’s the kind of person to prefer adoption over having kids of her own: it isn’t really an equal comparison, but she loves her pets as though they were her own children, and they’re all rescue. she knows the feeling of being unwanted, of being an impulse decision eventually regretted, and kids? who feel that same thing, only worse because they were actually abandoned by their parents? if she could help with that, she would. sunny has a fondness for babies more than she does for little kids, but she does love the way that their minds work and would, if it’s possible, rather be in conversation with them than most adults since they can be so banal and double edged
want to leave: leave new olympus? she’d be lying if she said that she hasn’t considered it, and really, when she signed up to be a part of it, sunny always thought that it would be something temporary and that one of these days, she’ll just drop off of it. syrus knew just what to say, just how to challenge her to get her in of her own volition, but two years later, she still stands with them and holds such a soft spot for a lot of the other members. she’d thought they would be dismissive of her, that her young age would be considered a strike against her, but after that first hurdle of proving herself, they have been nothing if not supportive, with some even offering to teach her a thing or two. sure, they’re not trying to teach her the best things, but it’s a nice gesture at its core nevertheless. with apollo holding no alliance, sunny knows that her own is tied to that: if apollo asks her to leave, she would honestly consider it, but only on the condition that if she leaves, they leave this world for good, because that makes it easier for her to sleep at night, knowing that they’re separate from a world that could be so tempting to apollo’s demons. if she leaves, they go the straight and narrow. but these people have become family to her, the thought of leaving morpheus all by himself, not having their late night conversations where she pulls him back from the edge or indulges his drunken ramblings... there’s also syrus making some offers of help and, if she was being really honest with herself, sunny has become attached to these people, much more than she knows or realizes.
THIS OR THAT?
phone call or text: text, definitely. there’s something very satisfying for sunny to just not have to think of what to say and what tone to say it with, not to mention that she’s not entirely the best at maintaining a conversation too. at least when it comes to text, she has the option of being an accidental ignorer... you know, the kind of person who leaves you on read and then comes back two days later with ‘sorry for the late reply, i had a dentist appointment’? she annoyingly does that, but has also reached the point where she doesn’t even come up with excuses anymore and just straight up says she didn’t feel like replying. she’s also a very liberal user of emojis as a way to end a conversation or to respond to a conversation that she doesn’t really want prolonged and will be That Person who texts ‘... ok’ to annoy someone. only the people closest to her bother to call her and only to them does she hold long (or at least longer than she’d usually care for) conversations with over the phone. she’s not the best talker, but she makes sure to breathe unto the receiver so they can sense that she’s there at least, and that she’s listening and commiserating. sometimes it’s really all she can do
wealth or loyalty: loyalty. somewhat ironically suits her home life really, her father was wealthy but horribly disloyal, and it painted this picture for her of what wealth does to people: it makes them complacent, it makes them arrogant, it makes them dismissive, and none of these are traits that sunny want with the people she associates with or with herself. she’s never been someone who’s materialistic anyhow, minimalist almost to a fault, and what they do have now is enough for her. true, when she first left home, there was a slight shock in how different life was on the other side of the veil, but it lasted only a second because it was the people that she left home for anyway: for apollo, for julian, for the little home life that they’d built together as a ragtag group, quasi-family full of misfits and degenerates.
love or lust: love. that isn’t to say that she’s a bleeding heart romantic or has ever felt something akin to that level of attachment for someone before, but sunny knows that lust isn’t something that she necessarily feels intensely, she’s never felt that very primal need to be with someone in that way nor does she gauge people based on how much she’d like to be with them or not. how can she prefer something that she isn’t even sure she can feel? that’s not to say that she hasn’t entertained the notion or that she isn’t aware of how powerful an act it can be, especially for those who do it well, but she does somewhat still subscribe to the idea that it’s something that’s reserved for intimate relationships, which is why she’s still a virgin and not really chomping at the bit to change that
5 friends or 100 acquaintances: five friends. because she’s already filled up three of the slots, so that’s convenient, lol. she’s relatively private, and the idea of a hundred or so people knowing who she is, knowing just enough about her to cross the line from stranger to acquaintances, leaves a bad taste in her mouth. she likens herself to a gust of wind in how fleeting she is: after the necessary moment of interaction, if she doesn’t really want a connection to go further, she just ends it, so friendships are long, hard work for her, which justifies how she can allow them to know about her, to be close to her.
summer or winter: no preference, really. she loves getting to wear her tank tops or going jogging and hiking during the summer just as much as she loves burrowing under the covers or wearing her puffy coats and pretending she’s a penguin during the winter. she understands that a lot of people don’t really like the sweltering heat because of how much it makes them sweat, but her past athletic career mostly entailed that, it’s something that she’s taken in her stride. and who doesn’t love the way that snow makes it possible for you to fuck up and slip on the ground but not crack your head open on the sidewalk because there’s a pile of snow there? its not really such a polarizing topic for her and one that she barely pays attention to; it doesn’t really matter whether she likes one more than the other, they’re both still going to keep coming back, might as well make the most of both
OTHERS:
wanted plots/connections: will come up with one soon maybe or just plot with everyone idk
Any nicknames?: Morpheus, Mark, Marky, Russ, plus a slew of unflattering nicknames from old Army buddies that belong solely to that group of people.
Age: 35
Birthday/Zodiac sign: May 9th, 1982 // Taurus. Marcus has a majority of the typical Taurus traits: practical, dependable, down to earth. Regardless of his line of work, this isn’t a guy with a hair-trigger temper or the type to get his rocks off on on the violence in what he does, though he does have a very grim self awareness of just what kind of person he has to be to excel without apology at this job. That sense of strong commitment that keeps him nailed down to assignments with single-minded dedication tends to be a double-edged sword in the way it can overwhelm pretty much everything else and push it to the side in favor of finishing the task at hand. He’s the type that really needs and values internal stability in himself and others, which is BIG when it comes to why his lack of it is so self destructive.
Height: 5′10. Taller guys, don’t talk shit.
Any tattoos, piercings?: 15 y/o Marcus had a bathroom + sewing needle variety of piercing in his left ear that has long since closed up and been forgotten. Cocky young recruit Marcus got the ‘onward to victory’ printed in neat stacked black script on his ribcage, right side, that he shares with three other recruits from his hometown (this phrase picked from several equally dramatic Big Damn Hero quotes they threw around, all freshly eighteen and very full of aspirations of being badasses), and under that, in ascending levels of freshness, are the month/year arrival and return dates for his three deployments. Deployment #1 has one small dot beside it, #3 has two, tallying those in his squadron ‘fallen in line of duty’, as much as he hates that term. There’s no ‘falling’ involved in an IED on the side of the road blasting you straight to hell but - ! Marcus’ bitterness internalized again, we move on to, of course, this classic number on his left forearm.
FAVORITES
Sound: He likes NYC’s urban flavor of white noise. Anything repetitive without harshness to it: wind chimes, a clock ticking, steady rain. Back when he used to live on the coast in South Carolina, Marcus went in for all those soothing beach sounds, but the bustle on the city streets has its own charm against waves and seagulls.
Color: Marcus lives in washed out colors, closer to neutrals, with a side of beige and olive green. Even his black is a little less harsh, like a t shirt that’s still being worn years after it’s faded and started collecting holes. His mind is all vibrant orange though, that Mad Max sandstorm orange, Norah’s orange when he thinks of her every time he peels a tangerine, that kind of desert orange that’s still stuck on him after all these years -- even if in the scope of his service, six years in the real world isn’t very long at all.
Person: He won’t forgive himself if he says Artemis. That’s too much responsibility to put on her shoulders. So maybe not favorite, but most important? That’s pretty hefty too. Whatever it is, Sunny’s calming influence on this guy can’t be overstated.
Memory: BCT, or basic training. Now listen, a lot of basic is really really shitty. Shitty food, shitty schedule, shitty exercise, the same shitty drills over and over and over every day. You get tear gassed in basic training. You sweat harder than you’ve ever sweat in your life and you go to bed at night absolutely exhausted. But BCT was the first time Marcus actually saw his future falling into place in a way he could be proud of, when he started to figure out his strengths and advance, and where he found people he could relate to and build friendships with. Really, with that in mind, he’d happily take the shitty food again.
Place: Lmfao his apartment, messy as he and it are on the inside. Always good to have a good secure place to come back to. Weirdly enough though, he is also pretty comfortable with/fond of the Westside Dock, just because of the sheer amount of time he spends camped out there supervising deals from a distance just in case anything goes wrong. Zeus would’ve kept him parked plenty busy on his main trade, but Hades spreads Marcus over more varied tasks, which is what’s led to his familiarity with every boat, rooftop, and shipping container in that yard. He used to frequent the Warehouse with weekly regularity for the good live music, but understandably some work disagreements have rendered that a no-go zone.
Vice: He’s got the holy trio of Drugs, Booze, and Cigarettes going on, but in light of Madi’s favorite vice mini-meme I’m going to go with his complete lack of any sort of positive coping mechanisms or drive to start trying to develop them. Marcus’ constant self-reassurance is ‘it could be so much worse stop being a whiny bitch’, even the very middle of a panic attack, so shout out to that toxic suck-it-up type of masculinity the Army cultivates along with an unhealthy dose of ‘mental illness isn’t that extreme’ mentality. Keep tellin yourself that, bud.
HAVE THEY EVER…
Been in love?: Yes, in both the high school puppy variety and his one experience in slow-burning, real n’ deep adult love.
Done drugs?: Oh yeah, and a pretty big variety. Marcus’ hard limit is anything requiring a needle, he knows just how easy it is to fall headlong into addiction with something that potent. Most of his heaviest various drug use was high school and right after his discharge, but he’s settled into a routine of pot whenever the opportunity shows itself and the rare bump of cocaine when he really really needs it. The latter tends to allow him to get what he needs done done, but it understandably sends his mental state straight to shit in the fallout, not to mention it’s an expensive for a picker-upper. Cocaine is down as something that happens a handful of times a year, maybe. Doing a line is, in his mind, a lot less extreme than shooting something up straight to your veins. Marky’s pretty willfully blind to the fact that something you snort can be just as addictive as something you inject.
Killed someone?:
Marcus isn’t really keeping track of that number anymore. There’s a lot of the emotional part of his psyche that gets turned off for this process -- it’s not a person, it’s not murder, it’s a mission, you get it done clean and fast and you get out. Never think of a mark as an individual, complex human being. You’re screwed the second you do.
Betrayed someone’s trust?: Not on the scale of large deceptions. Eurydice might just count, positive and unsuspecting enough as their interactions were before Cronus’ order came down and Marcus had a hit to carry out. But, he reasons, it is the mob. Their definition of trust stands on shaky ground. And thinking that, it’s hard for him to resist the urge to just laugh at how malformed his morality has gotten these past few years.
Had their heart broken?: I mean, yeah, but he did it his damn self and he still thinks it was the right thing. Ending the engagement would never hurt as much as going through with it and waking up twenty years down the road, miserably unhappy. Norah is the closest he’s ever gotten to feeling truly understood but shackling her to his troubled ass would only bog her down and foster a resent towards him he could honestly never hypothetically blame her for feeling. We’ll call it heart break in the name of the greater good.
Lost someone?: Everyone in the combat zone has a story about losing someone, but Marcus never felt his squad buddies were so close to him he had that kind of ownership over their lives to say they were someone he’d ‘lost’. No close family members dead either, Norah might be something closer to loss if their split hadn’t been his choice. So no, there’s no one he’s mourning, just some still strangely vacant spaces in his mental roster and more than enough persistent ghosts left in his memories.
DO THEY…
Have any pets?: Nope, though he is very firmly a dog person.
Have a family they still talk to?: Yes, but he’s not overly fond of doing it, #1 Son of the Year. Maria and Randy are still firmly parked in Newburgh and it’s honestly just depressing to him to call home and visualize them sitting in the same shitty house on the same shitty couch living the same aimless repetitive lives.
Have a best friend?: It’s tempting to say Artemis again, real tempting in the kneejerk way, but he’s got way too much insecurity around their relationship and how much pressure his problems can put on a person once they’re close enough to know about them to weigh her down with best friend, if that’s even the phrase for what their relationship is. He’s not about to try and compete with the likes of Apollo and Dionysus either, not when he knows how much they both mean to her.
Want to get married and/or have kids?: Oh boy. Well, there’s a difference between wanting it and actually pursuing it. Marcus is of the give-your-kids-a-better-life-than-you mentality and he doesn’t think he could do that now that he’s pretty deep in an illegal lifestyle. As for marriage, we all know about his track record with that.
Want to leave?: He might, if he had any idea of where else he could go without immediately falling into the mental Pit of Despair. NYC has pretty much everything keeping him somewhat together.
THIS OR THAT?
CALL OR TEXT; texting is convenient but there’s too much in tone and word choice left up for interpretation and it can turn into a liability when he’s got time-sensitive information he needs to know. Marcus almost always calls, especially if it’s about a job; texting is for sharing contact information or an address, or more casual ‘off-duty’ plans.
WEALTH OR LOYALTY; loyalty wins out, but just barely. Wealth is mighty tempting to someone who’s never had it, but at the same time, he’s never had it. When it comes down to choosing one or the other, wealth is the one he’s most capable of living without (no matter how sweet it would be to have). There’s the added fact that genuine excessive wealth makes him almost uncomfortable?? There’s the conspicuous feeling off a sign taped to his back that tells more bougie people ‘this man considers Kraft the superior kind of cheese’ and that’s not gonna change if he suddenly pulls the winning lotto ticket at the minimart below his apartment.
LOVE OR LUST; not that Marcus is some heartbroken cynic cruising bars every night, but lust is easy and manageable and the occasional one night stand gets lost in the big city without any of those pesky loose ends; it’s been six years and the soreness of parting ways with Norah isn’t so fresh he feels her absence like he did first time he went home with a girl in NYC. He’s not about to entertain any fantasies of romance. The pool of people with shared life experience, or at least similar enough experiences to understand, is... small, to say the least. Why rope some poor unsuspecting soul into his personal whirlpool of bullshit?
5 FRIENDS OR 100 ACQUAINTANCES; that’s a lot closer to his situation now, Marcus doesn’t tend to accumulate close friends, or at least semi-purposefully he doesn’t. He’s good at that kind of (surprisingly) pleasant, simple interaction that tends to fix a version of himself in people’s minds that doesn’t invite further speculation or questions (though if you ask, he’ll nine times out of ten be an open book). What you see with Mark is what you get, unless you stumble into or purposefully try for something deeper.
SUMMER OR WINTER; you’d think summer, considering Marcus’ open air approach to his apartment (though that’s more of a claustrophobia thing than anything else), but he finds winter a lot more manageable and he’s had more than enough time in the Middle East to properly enjoy heat, even though going outside when it’s warm and he isn’t wearing 60 pounds of gear is a little treasure in itself. People are easier to track during winter too, their patterns are more predictable, there’s less roaming outside when it’s fuckin cold.
full name: patrícia perry santos
nicknames: patty
age: twenty one
birthday: compassionate exciting instability (july 24th, 1996)
astrology: ♌ sun / ♏ moon / ♎ rising
height: 5′ 8′’
tattoos? piercings?: oh absolutely she has a belly button piercing that she got on a dare at age 16. a few ear piercings, and she’s entertained the idea of a nose ring, but she’s never committed!
she has one tattoo of a hand and crossed fingers that was supposed to be for mr. you know who... it’s on her shoulderblade and she doesn’t like talking about it. she also has a ribbon around her wrist with the birthdate of her daughter.
favorites
sound: the vibrations of music from the other room. sitting in the stillness of the night outside of a bustling party and hearing the chorals of chatter intermixed with a disembodied pop song that’s being played on a broken bluetooth speaker.
color: bright and loud. candy hues. you could reach out and eat it, but you can’t. the kind of colors that give aesthetically sensitive people a headache.
person: dreamy types. the rock stars and the performers on stage. the guys in leather jackets writing sonnets for their modern love. the girls in sequins, because they are authentically themselves.
memory: back from the hospital, laying in her bed. holding frannie in her arms and her cheeks hurt from smiling. there’s something magical here, she thinks. it’s just her and her baby girl.
place: the car. daytime with the windows rolled down and the radio blaring. nighttime with steamy kisses and a hand gripping her thigh.
vice: falling in love. smoking.
have they ever...
been in love? all the time!
done drugs? only in a social setting—no recreational drug use besides smoking.
killed someone? no way!
betrayed someone’s trust? as a terribly petty and bitter individual, yes.
had their heart broken? only once, and once is enough.
lost someone? she only mourns the loss of her sisters, but she knows they didn’t like her very much.
do they...
have any pets? no pets, her landlord won’t allow it (but wouldn’t a pomeranian or a pug be cute?).
have a family they still talk to? she’s cut off contact with them since coming to new york city. maybe someday she’ll reach out to her sisters.
have a best friend? a kind of kinship with a few girls in high school, but as she remembers, they all hated each other at the end of the day. a best friend is someone she’d trust with all of her secrets, but she figures most friends lie and cheat for their own benefit anyway.
want to get married and/or have kids? already did one of those things! marriage is such an abstract, far-off concept, but that doesn’t stop her from looking at bridal magazines. someday, maybe, but god not anytime soon.
want to leave? more than anything else in the world. for her and her baby’s safety.
this or that?
phone call or text? both! she’s the type to talk as she’s walking and to triple text someone. she’s always on her phone.
wealth or loyalty? you almost got her here... but it’s wealth. who gives a fuck about loyalty when you’ve got enough money to live your own way? winning the lottery is more realistic than expecting men to stay loyal.
love or lust? love is a kind of lust, and lust is a kind of love. both she wants, but it’s the latter she ends up with.
five friends or one hundred acquaintances? one hundred acquaintances.
summer or winter? summer.
YASMIN ( yaz-meen ) → Variant of the name ‘Jasmine,’ which is derived from the name of the jasmine flower. || Just as Persephone spent half the year on earth and the other half in the Underworld, jasmine flowers bloom only from spring until autumn. In Pakistan, garlands of white jasmine and red roses are worn by both the bride and groom in weddings, and are also used in burial garlands to symbolize a final farewell. I think that’s fitting, considering how Persephone was married to the god of Underworld and ruled the land of the dead alongside him.
NAJM ( nuh-jhm ) → An Arabic word meaning ‘star.’ || Persephone has always been one of my favorite figures in mythology because of how she has control over both life and death; for half the year she brings life and bounty to the land, and the other half she escorts the souls of the dead in the Underworld. Science and mythology don’t often mix, but I had the life cycle of stars in mind when picking out Yasmin’s surname. When a large star goes into supernova, the shockwave can initiate star formation in other interstellar clouds, and the remains of the core can form a neutron star or a black hole. So going back to all that life & death symbolism, it’s just beautiful to know that the result of the original star’s destruction is the birth of something new.
Any Nicknames?
As of right now, only Persephone & Yas. Victoria might sometimes refer to her as “brat,” but that’s not necessarily out of affection.
Age
23
Birthday / Zodiac Sign
March 21st, 1994 / Pisces
Spinning lazy circles around her latest conquest, acquisition, or interest, the Piscean woman is a mysterious, sensual mermaid, her secrets kept secure behind inscrutable dark eyes. She has a vivid mind, and is romantic and spiritual. Like the rivers and seas this sign swims in, Piscean women have deep emotions and strong undertows in their personalities, so watch out for still waters – they often hide a passionate, sensitive nature.
Spiritual, curious, and gentle, the Pisces woman is a true dreamer. She puts a great deal of emphasis on the unseen in her life, whether it be her own intuition, her emotions, or the world of spirituality and religion. This is a woman who is always looking for – and finding – deeper meaning, from the grand scheme of life itself to her own social interactions. She absorbs the events around her, making connections that other people would never even see. She observes patterns in the feelings and actions of other people, and can be quite insightful as to what motivates them.
Pisceans are often artists, expressing their inner passions through paint, dance or song. Their work is often whimsical and outlandish, but always enchanting.
She is sensitive and caring and considers the needs of others. This imaginative and dreamy woman must determine how she will swim through life: with the flow or against it. Pisceans are kind to their friends – and strangers. At any gathering, the Pisces woman will either be the shy one in the corner who will listen to people’s problems or the outgoing greeter who warmly welcomes each individual. It all depends on her current mood!
Pisces is ruled by dreamy Neptune, and her intuition runs deep. Like the stormy sea, her emotions are complex and changeable. Her challenge is to discern between essential truths of spirit and mere mirage.
Height
5′6″ / 167.64 cm
Tattoos / Piercings
Had her earlobes pierced on her eleventh birthday, and got her belly button pierced when she was seventeen (though DEMETER didn’t find out about it until she was nineteen).
Wants to get a tattoo, but has no idea of what she wants. Has a journal solely for doodles and designs that she’d possibly like to have inked on her skin, but is never 100% certain of what she wants.
❀ FAVORITES
Sound(s)
A saxophone being played in the midst of a crowded subway station. A bass after it has just been tuned. Birds chirping in the morning, crickets crooning in the evening. An old Billie Holiday record played at a dinner party. Her girlfriends’ collective chatter after a good show. Fish frying in the pan after a long day. Dante’s voice waking her up at the crack of dawn. Harvey’s booming applause at the end of her set. DEMETER’s storytelling voice. Hyas’ immediate bark at the sight of her face. Syrus’ laughter over the phone.
Color
A vibrant green; New York fauna in spring, evergreen trees during Christmas, fresh vegetables at the farmer’s market, the herbs growing on her windowsill, leaves of the potted plants on all her shelves, the vines growing across her building’s exterior, the organic juice she makes every morning, her venus flytrap in the sunlight.
Person
Her godparent, DEMETER. They’re the one person who has never left their side, willingly or unwillingly. They have given her everything and so much more, and there is nothing Yasmin wouldn’t do for them. Even while knowing all the unseemly things they have done for Olympus (and aware that what she knows isn’t even all of it), Yasmin’s faith in them is unwavering. That’s why every small act of betrayal she commits - whether it’d be about her dreams of leaving New York or the misplaced feelings of sympathy she knows she shouldn’t have - feels like a dagger in her own heart.
Memory
The first time she sang in front of an audience. She was only eight, and had a solo for her school choir. It was such a simple show but it impacted her in such a profound way, that nothing else compares. It’s one of the few memories she doesn’t have tied to the gang, and has no bittersweetness or sorrow attatched to it. It was her singing for her school, for DEMETER sitting in the front row. It was the beginning of many more memorable performances, piano and voice lessons, rounds of applause. It’s when she discovered she had a special power, one that could potentially help heal. It was the first time she found a purpose, a cause, a passion. It helped shape her identity, and the rest is history.
Place
Central Park. Specifically, the Conservatory Garden.
Vice
Lying. It shouldn’t be as easy as it is, but Yasmin has found herself to be so good at it, and willing to manipulate for her advantage. With DEMETER, with Syrus, with herself - it’s easy and it’s how she gets through each day.
❀ HAVE THEY EVER…
…been in love?
Often, and deeply. Yasmin has been a tiny bit in love with every person she’s ever been in a relationship with; the measure of that love just varies with each person. Yasmin loves being in love, and even when she attempts a “no strings attatched” relationship, a small part of her will stubbornly fall in love with that person. She’s incapable of being with someone without feelings involved. Even if her heart is broken in the end, she’ll never be able to fully shake off the bit of her that was in love with that person.
…done drugs?
( DRUG MENTION CW )
Nothing stronger than pot, and she only smokes that socially. Harvey always gave Yasmin strict lectures about staying away from drugs as a child, and given his profession she found it both somewhat ironic and completely understandable. His attempts to scare her straight were effective, and she quickly gets turned off by people who depend on drugs or are frequently not sober.
…killed someone?
Has accidentally crushed insects, unintentionally allowed her plants to wilt, and ended up flushing her gold fish down the toilet. She was the only one who mourned for those lives lost, but aside from those deaths her hands remain clean.
…betrayed someone’s trust?
Only to the people she cares for. When DEMETER risked everything to keep her safe, she’d sneak out through her window and put herself in harm’s way.
…had their heart broken?
Just as often as she’s allowed herself to fall in love, she’s been hurt as well. A piece of her heart chips away every time she loses a loved one, when she sees Frankie in the streets and dares to think of what could have been, when she notices that DEMETER isn’t being completely honest with her.
…lost someone?
If Yasmin had to sit and list every single person she’s lost, she’d break down before even making it halfway through all the names. Growing up within the gang means that she’s gotten too used to saying goodbye, has gone to more funerals than birthday parties.
❀ DO THEY…
…have any pets?
No, although she loves animals. Yasmin often cares after the strays in her neighborhood, leaving food outside and making sure that they end up finding a place at no-kill shelters. She also has a birdhouse right outside her window, which is often occupied by a family of sparrows throughout the year. Yasmin has also gotten familiar with Richard’s dog Hyas, much to the Titan’s chagrin.
…have a family they still talk to?
Has no living blood relatives, but Yasmin has never believed that blood makes family. DEMETER raised her, and Yasmin could never cut them out of her life. Even on days when she’s furious with her godparent, she still makes sure to keep in touch with them and is never more than a subway ride away. Her greatest fear is the day when DEMETER completely stops responding to her, because Yasmin knows it would never be by choice.
Although her relationship with Richard is still fragile and new, Yasmin believes that he has a place in her family tree. In some weird way, they’re almost siblings, and after losing so many of her family members there is no way she is going to take him for granted. Although she doesn’t know much about his relationship with Harvey, she is determined to get to know him.
…have a best friend?
Five of them. Yasmin has her own small gang of female musicians, who play with her at The Warehouse. They call themselves The Sirens, though they’ve made no effort to trademark the name and are happy to just play music on street corners.
Chell, the pianist who is also a full-time physics student at New York University. The rest of the girls suspect she might have made a deal with a demon a long time ago, or was created in a lab, because she manages to keep a 4.0 while juggling the band and an active social life simultaneously. Chell claims that she just knows how to manage he schedule, but The Sirens have seen the inside of her day planner and it is terrifying. No one knows when she sleeps, if ever.
Reyna, the bassist and makeup artist. Dropped out of high school the second she turned eighteen and went straight to cosmetology school instead. She always said she works best with a makeup brush in her hand instead of a pencil, and wears a different kind of look every day. Has the most Instagram followers out of anyone else in the band, mostly due to her mini makeup tutorial videos and professional selfie skills.
Fatima, the drummer seeking an early death. The daredevil of the group, giving the other girls a heart attack whenever she sends them a video of her dangling off the edge of a cliff or willingly jumping out of an airplane. Perhaps the most resilient member of the group, as Fatima always jumps back on her feet the second she’s able, no matter how much her doctors urge her to rest (Fatima claims that word isn’t in her vocabulary). She’ll often be up on stage with a cast or bandage somewhere on her body, and it’s almost a miracle she can still play.
Mariana, the saxophonist and amateur psychic. Has always claimed to have a connection to the other side, after she saw the ghost of her pet hamster when she was seven. Carries a stack of tarot cards with her everywhere, and her complicated pre-show ritual (which involves burning sage) has gotten the band kicked out of several venues. Though to be fair, they do perform exceptionally well on the nights she manages to complete it.
…want to get married and/or have kids?
Getting married would be wonderful, but also not necessary. Yasmin was definitely one of those girls who made their own little wedding scrapbook, but all she really wants is to grow old with someone she loves.
Kids, on the other hand, are a more complicated matter. If Yasmin was certain that she’d live a long life in a safe place far from New York, then she’d adopt as many kids as she possibly could. However, she knows that there are no certainties in life, and doesn’t want to raise a child in her world.
…want to leave?
It’s her greatest secret, one she could never say out loud, not even to herself. Leaving New York has never been an option, only a fantasy. It’d be selfish to abandon her godparent and all that they’ve done for her, to turn her back on Harvey’s empire and the family that she’s grown up with. And yet, she wants nothing more than to do just that. Cast aside the Olympians, go off on her own, and see what the world has to offer. In another world, she’d be singing for an different audience every night, standing on a stage in a new country.
❀ THIS OR THAT?
PHONE CALL or TEXT?
It’s difficult to convey everything with just words, and phone calls feel so much more personal. Yasmin will only send a text if she’s unable to take a call, and most of her text logs consist of sent photographs and voice memos. It’s much harder to convey tone and meaning through text, although emojis are a lot of fun. At the end of the day, Yasmin would much rather talk to someone instead of tiring her fingers out.
WEALTH or LOYALTY?
Yasmin was fortunate enough to never have to worry about money. And in the end, her bohemian ideals trump materialism regardless. If she has to live a starving artist stereotype in exchange for companions who will stand by her through it all, then so be it. Yasmin would gladly give up all the riches in the world in exchange for someone who has proven themselves loyal to her - not just to her godparent, to Olympus, but to her as a person.
LOVE or LUST?
Every time she’s given into lust, she’s left feeling empty. Love hurts tenfold, but she’d rather accept pain than the absence of feeling. In her opinion, there’s nothing better than feeling giddy over a new crush, or falling head over heels. Lust is fleeting, and fades away once the sheets turn cold. Yasmin remembers every person she’s ever been in love with, and cherishes even the heartbreaks.
FIVE FRIENDS or 100 ACQUAINTANCES?
Over the years she’s learned that five can very quickly turn to zero with the blink of an eye. People aren’t made to last, and perhaps she’d be less alone if she was had more people surrounding her. And perhaps it’d hurt less if she wasn’t as close to them when they inevitably left her.
However, Yasmin isn’t sure if she’s capable of just being casually acquainted with someone. She grows attatched quickly and falls deeply, whether she wants to or not.
SUMMER or WINTER?
Although New York summers can be brutal, Yasmin loves the season. It’s a time for sundresses and cold drinks and fresh fruit, and like a flower she thrives under the sun. Though she’s been living in New York all her life, Yasmin doesn’t fare well in cold weather. Her heating bill is astronomical in the winter, and she avoids going outside as much as she can during the colder months. Yasmin has an entire closet full of nothing but winter-wear, thick wool sweaters, quilts, and fuzzy socks. She wears no less than four layers all season, along with a comically large pair of faux-fur ear muffs.
❀ OTHERS
Wanted Plots / Connections
( i’ll make an official page sometime in the future but here are a few stray ideas! )
( KIDNAPPING TW ) This is kind of dark but something akin to Persephone’s abduction, where Yasmin gets kidnapped, though I can’t imagine why anyone would want to do that unless they were out to piss Demeter off. Maybe in the future Yasmin’s curiosity gets the best of her and learns/sees something she probably shouldn’t have, and becomes a liability?
Someone matches with Yas on Bumble and it’s only until halfway through their date do the two of them realize that they’re affiliated with the Olympians/Titans. Awkwardness ensues.