⸻ sophie thatcher, 24, female, she/her ; ] … the photo on the missing poster is of TESSA LIDDLE. they are TWENTY THREE, and have been missing for ONE WEEK. when the sun rises, they work as UNEMPLOYED (picking up odd jobs around town in the mean time). rumors in town say they can be ARGUMENTATIVE and INDEPENDENT. they chose to live in THE CINEMA, and have an uncanny resemblance to ELLIE WILLIAMS (The Last of Us), MAX MAYFIELD (Stranger Things), MAEVE WILEY (Sex Education), STEPH GINGRICH (Life is Strange). can they survive another night ?…⸻ chipped fingernail paint and over grown roots, the helplessness in being alone, the smell of a burnt out candle.
BASICS ;
FULL NAME: Tessa Marie Liddle AGE: 23 BIRTH DATE: October 27th GENDER: Female PRONOUNS: She/Her OCCUPATION: Formerly a student, in Arcadia just picking up odd jobs RESIDENCE: The Cinema LENGTH OF TIME TRAPPED IN ARCADIA: One week
BACKGROUND ;
tw; mentions of / allusions to drug use and alcohol abuse
Tessa wasn't brought into the world with any sort of plan. The Liddle family was already falling to pieces, holding it together by threads that fractured when she was born. She never really knew her mother, who decided motherhood truly wasn't for her after her second child was brought into the world and went to pursue another life and forget about her old one. Her father was almost more absent even though he was supposed to be their caretaker, choosing to spent long hours at work and even more at the bar than actually at home with the girls. Instead, Tessa's sister was the one who raised her from childhood and beyond - she filled the shoes of a parent more than their actual parents even though she was little more than a child herself.
Her sister had been there for her through all of it - her shit school experiences, her dabbling with drugs and alcohol. Tessa doesn't like to think about it too much, but it's hard not to believe her sister had put everything on hold to help Tessa through her childhood and teenage year. Once she was entering community college and working on finding herself it made more sense for them not to be quite so close.
But it still wasn't right when she straight up disappeared. Tessa had always, always been able to reach her no matter the time of day or night, and the radio silence put a bad taste in her mouth. She waited a week, then a month, then more before she started making a plan. This wasn't normal and no one else seemed to give a fuck. 'She's an adult,' 'she can take care of herself,' 'there is no reason to suspect foul play.' The fuck there wasn't.
It didn't take much to pack up her meager belongings into her car and take off on the road, following the nearly nonexistent signs of where her sister had gone and why. She had spent several months on the road at this point, following clues and false leads, losing track of time along the way. That was what had eventually put her on a collision course with Arcadia.
INQUIRIES ;
How did your muse spend their first night in Arcadia, and where?
Tessa came into Arcadia like a storm blowing in with pointed fingers and flung accusations. The answers she got weren't the ones she was looking for. None about her sister and where she had gone to, but instead hushed whispers about them and that she needed to find somewhere to stay safe. Pfft.
After one too many drinks and far too many unanswered questions, Tessa had been walking the streets late at night, balancing (or attempting to and failing) on the curb with a bottle of liquor clutched in hand. It wasn't until someone had grabbed her elbow and brought her to the cinema, the nearest building with an amulet that would protect her from them, that Tessa began to pay any sort of attention. Not that she believed any of the crazy stories that were being woven together like something to frighten a child into staying in at night. Not until she saw them with her own two eyes. Not until she found herself trapped within this shit excuse for a town itself. Not until she was curled in a ball on the floor of the cinema, knees to chest and arms hugging close, rocking back and forth and attempting to block out the sounds of them calling to her all through the night. But she is strong and smart and nothing scares her - or so she'll tell you, even if the fear lives behind her eyes.
Why did your muse choose to live where they do?
Seeing as it was the first place she found true shelter from them, it just sort of stuck. She doesn't plan to make Arcadia into any sort of home, so the cinema serves as a good enough place to lay down her head night after night. Plus, there is something oddly satisfying about exploring the abandoned cinema and fiddling with the projector like it might just come back to life. Not to mention the comfort in curling up to watch a movie - even if the screen remains blank and she'd never actually admit to the childhood nostalgia factor.
What was your muse doing when they came across the tree?
She had been driving, continuing her search to try and follow a quickly fading path of where her sister might have disappeared to. The town she discovered in her path as she drove along the empty street was surprising, to say the least. There wasn't supposed to be anything out this way, just emptiness on the drive to her destination. But then that tree came into view, and she knew there was something more here than she thought.
Has your muse left anything behind that they are desperately trying to return to or escape?
The answer varies based on the day and how you slice it. Tessa knows what it means to be left behind, alone, and has lived with it for much of her life. Yes, she came here in search of her sister that had disappeared some time ago (or was she running away from their own shit life and simply leaving Tessa behind, too?) She doesn't have much to return to other than her fruitless mission of survival. And maybe there is a part of her that simply doesn't want to be alone anymore. At least this town has people who might actually care? Or maybe that was just some sort of need to rely on one another to survive the night.
