for this task, you’ll be asked to create a moodboard, aesthetic, self-para, playlist, musings post, etc. related to your characters family. this could be immediate family, a group of friends they consider family, a moodboard entirely about their dog, etc. feel free to be creative & do as many as you’re musing. this is meant to inspire some character development & give us a chance to look deeper in your characters background. because this is such a broad task, we have a sample available here.
if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask.
this task is not mandatory, however we would love to see everyone participate. it begins now and currently has no ending date.
you may do as many entries for your character(s) as you seem fit, so long as it doesn’t clog the tag.
“…magda herself claims to have passed her gift down to her children, who now keep the business alive, despite the sceptics denying their authenticity…”
trigger warning, mention of death
magda ⌁ 60 → mother
albert ⌁ 55 → luna’s father *
soleil ⌁ 42 → sister
leonis ⌁ 40 → brother
altair ⌁ 34 → brother
luna ⌁ 28 → self
part i
it was 1976 when a young, eighteen year old magda moved to seagrove along with her slightly older boyfriend and newborn babygirl soleil. they were a young couple, starting their new family, somewhere new in a quaint small town away from everybody they knew. he started working as a mechanic, the amount of cars that broke down on their way to literally anywhere else was bigger than he thought, which was a good thing for business, and for him as an employee. to help provide for the family, magda started doing what she knew best. it started off with some harmless palm reading and counseling, keeping it on the downlow to avoid scrutiny, but in such a small town gossip traveled fast, and what started as something lowkey soon turned into something much bigger than she’d planned. by the time their second child was born–leonis–, people were already piling up to get some counseling from magda. it wasn’t much later when magda’s services went from her living room to her own little shop downtown, in the heart of seagrove. with tourism growing, gradually so did magda’s clientele. within a few years, she’d made a name for herself, and everybody in town had at least heard of infamous magda grant.
part ii
just months after altair– her third child– was born, magda’s sweetheart and father of her kids passed away, it was a drunk driver who took his life way too soon. but for magda he was never really gone, & often times she’d find herself having conversations with him throughout the day. for the longest time, there wasn’t anyone who could compare to her late husband. and there never was, but there was one man who managed to charm his way to her. a tourist, who was on his way to some big city, with some big plans. after checking in to the local motel for the night, he couldn’t leave without getting his fortune telling. hoping to hear what he wanted to hear, he walked into the shop and was not disappointed. & nine months later, her youngest, luna, is born. not knowing whether her father would ever come back, luna is given the surname grant just like her siblings. she is the youngest by far, the baby of the family, so she becomes magda’s spoiled little girl. it was a year after luna was born that her father returns to seagrove, after accomplishing his plans, he had no intentions on staying in town, but after learning he was now a father, he didn’t think twice before getting a place somewhere close. he and magda never got together, he simply stuck around for luna who’d be his only child.
seagrove task 4: family, part 1.
ASTRID FT. MOM & DAD.
“every time you tell your daughter you yell at her out of love,
you teach her to confuse anger with kindness
which seems like a good idea, ‘till she grows up to trust men who hurt her,
‘cause they look so much like you.”
abuse tw below.
from astrid to dad. UNSENT, tap to retry.
2:01 am: sometimes i wonder why you never loved me
2:05 am: i wish you did
from astrid to mom. SENT.
12:25 pm: i’m not going to come visit right now
12:26 pm: it’s better this way. i hope you understand.
“i didn't leave because I stopped loving you, I left because the longer i stayed the less i loved myself.”
astrid’s history with her parents is complicated, but the girl who’s in love with the stars fell in love with them because of how they make her feel. free, happy. something she never felt in her own house. to spare the details of a broken girl with a father who cared more about drugs then he did his wife and daughter, astrid’s life flashes forward to twenty-one, when she’s moving away from her family. moving on with her life. two years later. she’s stronger. not physically, not emotionally. she has people who carry her. she doesn’t need her parents, despite the fact that perhaps her mom needs her.
she needed her father for twenty years, and never got that. therefore, she allows herself to be selfish. to be happy. after so many years of bad treatment, of neglect. she allows herself to have friends that act more like her parents than her own parents ever did, or ever will. she allows herself to be in a town that feels more like a home then her family home ever did. she allows herself to be around people who teach her that angry men who insist they care about her aren’t the type of people she needs in her life.
“I want to live the rest of my life, however long or short, with as much sweetness as I can decently manage, loving all the people I love, and doing as much as I can of the work I still have to do. I am going to write fire until it comes out of my ears, my eyes, my noseholes--everywhere. Until it's every breath I breathe. I'm going to go out like a fucking meteor!” ― Audre Lorde
Daniel smiled widely as he stepped out of the cab in front of his apartment. A week in Chile had been amazing but it was never the same when he was away from his wife for that long. He had wanted her to come on the trip but of course, her schedule hadn’t allowed it. Dan took a hold of his suitcase, taking a breath as he walked inside, pulling out his keys as he go to their floor. He smiled as he opened the door, expecting their dog to come running towards him as soon as he opened the door. When she didn’t Dan furrowed his brows as he stepped further inside. “Babe? Are you here? Daisy? Come here girl!” He dropped his bag at the door, feeling slightly worried as he stepped into the kitchen, letting out a breath when he spotted Sandra in the living room.
“Hey, where’s...where’s the dog? I mean, hi, I missed you,” he said with a smile as he stepped forward and reached down to kiss her softly. He rasied an eyebrow but didn’t protest when she pulled him in closer and kissed him deeply, wanting to think of it as a sign that she had missed him. But there was something in it that felt off, that had felt off as soon as he looked in her eyes. Still, he stayed in the kiss, only pulling away when she did. “Guess you missed me too,” he said a little breathless as he pulled back.
“I know you just got home but..we need to talk. I didn’t want to do this like this but I just,” Sandra sighed, running her fingers through her hair as Dan moved to sit on the couch in front of her.
“Talk? Is everything okay? Are you okay?” He wanted to jump back to his feet and be near her but he sensed that wouldn’t be the best idea. So he willed himself to sit down, already sensing that bad news was coming.
“Danny, I don’t know another way to say this so I’m just...gonna come out and say this.” She took a breath and met his eyes finally. “I want a divorce. I-I’m leaving and I uh, I’m moving in with someone...else.”
Daniel wasn’t sure he had heard anything after the word ‘divorce.’ He felt like all of the sound had drained from the room and his stomach tied itself in knots as he looked at her. He was too smart to think she was kidding and he knew that this was really happening no matter how much he didn’t want to accept it. He hadn’t expected it. How had he not sensed this? He felt like he couldn’t breath and he closed his eyes for a moment as he tried to find his words. “A divorce?” The pain was clear in his eyes as he sat up more, his shock slowly turning into a mix of sadness and anger. “What the fuck, Sandra? I’m away for an entire week and you wait til the first day I come back to fucking drop this bomb on me?” He took in another deep breath, getting to his feet and letting out a bitter laugh. “I can’t believe this shit. You’re seeing someone? You’ve...you’ve been cheating on me?”
He hadn’t thought that anything could get worse than the divorce but knowing that she had been unfaithful was a whole other punch in the gut. All she did was nod, her eyes trained on her hands as Daniel kept pacing.
“What did I do?” He started, his voice cracking as he let his emotions get the best of him. He sat back down and took a breath, running his hands over his face. “T-this is too much, I don’t..I dont even know what to say. Twelve years, twelve years married and fucking sixteen years together and you just..you want a divorce. We don’t get to talk...w-work things out because what? You love him? Whoever you’re with y-you love him?”
He waited for her too look at him, clenching and unclenching his fists nervously.
“Dan, please don’t make this harder than it needs to be, okay? I do..I love him. He’s a good man and..I’m not throwing it away. We both know we’ve been struggling for a while now.”
“Yeah but you don’t just throw a relationship away because you hit some bumps. We sit down, we figure it out,” he said as he moved to sit closer to her. “We try, we don’t go straight for divorce.” He sighed and hung his head for a second. “How long?” He breathed out.
“How long ago did the affair start?”
Dan took a deep breath, feeling a few tears escape as he got back to his feet and returned to sit where he had before. “No. How long ago did you stop loving me?”
He heard her take in a deep breath as he wiped at face. “I’ve been seeing him for a few years,” she admitted, ignoring the question he had asked.
“Years?” Dan whispered, his voice breaking, suddenly not having it in him to yell. He looked down at his hands before closing his eyes, trying not to break down in front of her but not sure he could stop himself. He took a deep breath, his eyes opening as he realized something and he looked up at her. “You took the fucking dog? Is that why the dogs not here? You already moved out? You took the fucking dog?!”
“Yes, I took the dog, Dan. She’s my dog. I paid for her and I walk her more than you do.”
“That’s not true and the only reason you paid was because I had just made the fucking downpayment on this apartment.”
“I’m taking the dog. And I already took all of my stuff, Danny I’m,” she paused and Dan was surprised to find tears streaming down her face. He knew that she wasn’t this cold, she never had been. But she was trying to be so she could walk away from this with as little mess as possible. So that when she thought back it, when she lay with her boyfriend at night, she could feel less guilty. And as much as he wanted to make it worse on her, he didn’t have it in him. He just didn’t have the strength.
Daniel took in a deep breath and got to his feet. “You should go,” he said softly, already walking towards the door so he could open it for her. It hadn’t been how he had imagined coming home but the more she spoke, the less he wanted to hear. He needed to be alone, to break down completely and then call his sister.
He stopped at the door, looking at her as she stopped in front of him. He thought about their kiss earlier and realized then that it had been her way of saying goodbye. He blinked back a wave of fresh tears and resisted the urge to reach out for her.
“I love you so much,” he whispered, almost like a final plea as he unlocked the door.
“I know,” she said softly, looking at him one more time before moving towards the door.
Her words were like a final punch in his gut and he opened the door quickly, throwing it shut as soon as she was gone. He took a breath, feeling his tears fall as he pulled out his phone from his pocket. His hands were shaky and he could feel a sob threatening to leave his mouth as he clicked on his sister’s contact. He leaned against the kitchen counter as he waited for her to answer.
“Hey, loser, I’m in a meeting, what’s up?”
Dan did his best to hold it together but found his voice cracking as soon as he spoke. “D-dana...I need to come home.”
