HER DEMONIAS ARE WEARING A HOLE IN THE CARPET, shiny silver buckles clanking against her ankle as she spins around on the ball of her foot. her bracelets jingle, her tarnished rings clink against the marble table in their entry way. in the years since screwing her head on to something approximating maturity she's walked this entryway many times. seen the photo displayed proudly at the entrance, noted every time that she refused to take off her hole t-shirt for the photo and nearly gave her mother a heart attack. the guilt lingers, as persistent as the dew blading the grass. she will undoubtably leave arms overflowing with banchan and health supplements and the guilt will bite again, teeth sinking into the exposed line of her jugular.
"eomma?" she calls dropping her bag onto the table, her old shoes still sit in the rack just next to the table, purple shoelaces trailing onto the ground. she frowns and steps further into the house into the living room. evie is there looking eternally ebullient and nora crosses her arms over her chest. "where are eomma & appa? they told me to come for dinner."
THE CAT CLOCK ON THE WALL STARES INCESSENTATLY. its beady, black eyes sit in two identical states of listlessness tail swishing in a mercurial arc. nora blows a ring of smoke and it dissolves into the ceiling fan so ephemeral she can't recall it's shape as soon as it reaches the blades. she taps out the blunt onto a small, glass ashtray shaped like a liver and frowns at the receding cherry red tip. her eyelashes flutter, dark eyebrows furrowing in annoyance and she sits up, her her neatly bisecting the pallor of her skin.
"i can hear you breathing." she snaps. it's an unfair accusation, libelous in it's mean-spirited nature, but she levels it regardless. it's not yubin's fault that she had a bad day but the worse angels of her nature rear their head regardless. spiteful, bitter, vindictive, nora can't remember a time when she was anything except. "you're so loud."
NORA DAE, TWENTY-SIX, TATTOO ARTIST @ SWEET PINE STUDIO.
ratty black combat boots on their last leg but still together with duct tape & a dream, last night's eyeliner still lingering on a waterline, a million tiny fine line tattoos scattered in various locales, headphones surgically fused to ears, a pair of drumsticks in a back pocket, strong opinions on which of the friday the 13th movies is the best (dream warriors), lips chewed to high hell, a black cat who only enjoys one person, complicated sibling relationships, the smell of incense.
statistics
name: eleanor "nora" dae
nicknames: nora to almost everyone, her parents are the only people who call her eleanor.
occupation: tattoo artist at sweet pine studio, drummer for vertical bombshell
sexuality: biromantic bisexual
gender: cis female, she & her
likes: horror movies, musky perfume, crystals, essential oils, femme punk, death metal, her cat, alone time, taking photos of weird things, vincent price.
dislikes: chatty people, eating her greens, black coffee, going to concerts without earplugs, anyone touching her drums, scratchy shirts, pinehaven sometimes
three songs: weird girl by mommy long legs, dead guy by dog party, punk rock werewolf by the dollyrots
history
nora always knew she was different. it was one of those implicit senses of awareness that spring up seemingly out of no particular incident. just like she knew her hair was black and she had two siblings, nora dae knew she was different.
her interest in the morbid and peculiar had always been a point of contention among her parents who while deeply loving, couldn't understand how their sweet daughter who enjoyed disney princesses only two years earlier was now watching poltergeist for the fourth time this week.
nora found her stride in middle school. she began experimenting with her clothes and hair trying to find her place in the world and her family. she connected with her father on some level of their mutual love of music and began taking drum lessons.
despite this she would spend hours locked in her room, sketching, playing drums or watching movies. she always had the sense that her family didn't quite have an idea what to do with her. that they appreciated her eccentricities but (in perhaps a projection of her own insecurity) would have preferred her without them.
the final straw of her own temper came when she was twenty, still deferring from college and working part-time at the drive in. at the time she seemed aimless. her relationship was questionable and her habits included staying out at all hours of the night and smoking so much weed she smelled like a walking dispensary.
needless to say when she told her parents that she wouldn't be attending college at all to take on an apprenticeship at a tattoo shop it didn't go over her. her family was ubiquitously unsupportive and concerned about her and nora, quick to lose her head and even faster to hold a grudge decided that was her cue to move out.
she couch-surfed for a couple months before moving in with a friend and remained stubbornly no contact for two years until a mentor in the tattoo industry kindly told her she was being a hard-headed idiot.
tattooing gave nora a sense of grounding and purpose. she lost much of her childish anger (but never her ability to surgically excise those from her life she felt who had wronged her) and she mended fences with her family.
she and her friends came together to fulfill a long-time dream of starting a femme punk band last year and she can often be found in bars or underground shows breaking drumsticks and standing offputtingly in the corner when the set is over.
personality
nora is at first glance, entirely unflappable. she smiles infrequently and rarely inflects her words. it's almost impossible to tell what she's feeling at any given moment unless she explains it which is a difficult ask for her. she's not unkind but she is fairly unapproachable to the uninitiated of the nora dae effect. she's straightforward, a good person to have in your corner when shit hits the fan or you need difficult advice. she's fiercely independent to a fault and will respond to a missed text 4 days later like no time has passed in between. she has a pathological degree of avoidant behavior when it comes to her emotions and often elects to just run away when things get too real. despite her flaws she's a loyal friend who is incredibly grounded and pragmatic.
wanted connections
vertical bombshell: this is nora's femme punk band! (think babes in toyland, cheap perfume & hole) a few of them were longtime friends before starting the band but it's entirely possible someone else was recruited in. nora is the drummer we still need a guitarist, a bassist, & a vocalist! they regularly play underground shows and bar gigs together and will occasionally travel out of town to play smaller festivals. not famous by any means but they do write and put out some music together.
toxic till the end: this was a staggering seven year situationship that officially ended six months ago for the last time. they were on-again-off-again through most of that time. there were issues on both sides but for nora's part it was her tacit refuse to be emotionally vulnerable or even admit she would have liked a label on the relationship. how they're feeling now is up to you but nora is mostly trying to avoid them.
housemates: nora rents an old allegedly haunted house on the other side of town. it's a three bedroom two bath and she shares it with two other roommates. they could be friends or they could hate each others guts. nora is neat in public spaces but her bedroom is a bit of nightmare and her nocturnal habits can be a little freaky.
movie buddy: this is someone she used to work at the drive-in with as a teenager, perhaps they went to high school together. they bonded over their mutual love of movies (hopefully horror) and have been friends ever since. they now catch whatever's showing at the drive-in every sunday without fail.
misc:
tattoo clients
friends of her siblings who think she's a little weird
people she hated in high school and hasn't gotten over it
jacobvanloon
germansingergirl
2087
origamiaround
theartofmadeline
stormborns
discoholicmusic
tangentwithtanner