[ciswoman, she/hers] Welcome to Aurora Bay, [VERA HÉ]! I couldn’t help but notice you look an awful lot like [CONSTANCE WU]. You must be the [FORTY-ONE] year old [PLAYWRIGHT & DIRECTOR]. Word is you’re [DRIVEN] but can also be a bit [IMPERSONAL] and your favorite song is [I'M NOT MY SEASON BY FLEET FOXES]. I also heard you’ll be staying in [SEABROOK QUARTER]. I’m sure you’ll love it!
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tw: premature labor, abuse (parental, s*xual (very briefly alluded to)), addiction (side character), parental death, pregnancy, postpartum depression, divorce
@aurorabayaesthetic
Full Name: Vera Hé Nickname(s): V Age: 41 Birthday: November 23rd, 1983 Astrological Sign: Sagittarius Place of Birth: Los Angeles, California Time in Aurora Bay: 25 years, left from April 2019 until May 2024, here 8 months Adoptive Parents: Edward (76) and Samantha (deceased at 64 (13 years ago) Hé Birth Parents: Millicent "Millie" Hé (deceased at 27 (32 years ago) and Unknown father Siblings: (3)* Cousins Raised as Siblings (wanted connections) Children: Seren Davenport (15) and Sydney Davenport (8) Pets: Lloyd (7 year old red Persian cat) *Relationships: Soren Davenport - ex-husband Scars: One right above her eyebrow from a childhood fall Tattoos: The comedy mask behind her left ear and the tragedy mask behind her right ear Other Physical Distinctions: A large dimple that appears when she smiles on her left cheek Sexual Orientation & Gender: Pansexual and Panromantic ;; Cis Female Occupation: Director and Playwright (now working almost exclusively @ The Charles Levin)/ member of the board at The Charles Levin Theater *subject to change as roles are taken
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tw: premature labor, abuse (parental, s*xual (very briefly alluded to)), addiction (side character), parental death, pregnancy, postpartum depression, divorce
○ vera hé was the definition of a "whoops" baby. her mother millicent, known more commonly as millie, was only eighteen when she discovered she was pregnant. she also happened to be in the throws of an addiction to drugs and only found out about the baby when she started experiencing contractions. on a november night in a Los Angeles emergency room amongst a crew of nurses trying to figure out what was wrong with millie, a screaming baby girl came into the world. despite all the odds and a lengthy stay in the NICU, vera survived with a strength she has continued to possess throughout her life.
○ it was no secret her mother shouldn't have been a mother. the woman barely registered that vera was around most days. being an adult now, she can recognize her mother was going through her own battles but there is no excuse for what she put that young version of her through. she learned from a young age how to take care of herself to the best of her abilities and grew up far too fast. millie was not only careless (letting her new 'boyfriend of the week' stay over at the house alone with vera, causing her to go through things that she has since deemed unmentionable) but filled with rage as well. though she was so young, vera could never do right by her. hitting, burning, screaming, all of it was inflicted on the young girl. by the time she was nine, she had become numb to it; more of a stone statue than a girl with the world at her feet. even when she came home from school to discover her mother had passed while she was away, the little girl barely shed a tear before calling the police.
○ her mother's death brought a true angel into her life, however: an uncle that she had never been aware of (this later explained due to millie running to LA to 'make it big' and becoming lost to the hé family for almost 10 years at that point) was the next of kin. he and his wife were coming to formally adopt her to keep her out of the foster system. the two had been living in her mother's hometown of leavenworth, washington but had decided to move to california to hopefully make the adoption process easier. though, they had feared los angeles was a bit too metropolitan for them so the two decided to move the newly formed family to the sleepy town of aurora bay.
○ the first decade of her life left vera a very closed-off person. she doesn't trust easily and rarely allows people to peek behind the carefully crafted curtains she's hung up around her. that's why she dove into writing once she was within the safe walls of her aunt and uncle's home: she could create people she knew would never betray her. and when they betrayed others? she knew every meaning behind what they did because she created them. they were safe. her characters became her dearest friends.
○ one would have expected the little girl who grew up mere minutes away from the mecca of movie-making to want her writing talents to go towards that. but LA carried too big of a scar. her true line of writing passion came to be after her aunt began taking her to shows put on at the charles levin theater. there was something about the ephemeral nature of the stage that intrigued her; knowing the words that were being said were tangibly in the room and they would only exist that way for the next hour or so sparked something in her. from that day on she began to switch her manic scribblings over to writing rudimentary plays. before she knew it, she was becoming a fully fledged playwright.
○ therapy (correctly) became a constant in her life ever since the day she found her mother, but vera loathes it. not only has the trauma caused gaps in her memory making it virtually impossible to talk through every formative moment, but even dipping her toes into the thoughts that do remain makes her sick to her stomach. the only person she had ever told about her past (outside of the family) was her ex husband: soren.
○ she met soren davenport during her sophomore year of college. it was a whole year of change for her: it was the year she went from just a creative writing major to a creative writing and theatre (acting/directing track) major after directing a small scene for an elective and also finding that her strong, no-nonsense nature boded well directing productions. and it was the years she attended her first college party, having spent her first year an icy and unapproachable pillar of pure academia. the sweet, if not a bit uptight man intrigued her. a friendship, one that was deeper than the surface-level friendships she had made over the years, bloomed. then, as they always seem to do in these stories, a romance trotted not far behind.
○ the two practically dove into each other: becoming engaged before graduation and shocking both families when they eloped a short time after. he was everything to her. and though this story doesn't end in a 'happily ever after', he still means so much to her today.
○ the birth of their daughter seren changed vera in so many ways. there was a wave of emotions felt, but none of them felt correct. she felt numb, terror, and an immense sense that she was going to fail this beautiful little girl much like her mother had failed her. though she now knows this to be postpartum depression, vera was determined to just suck what she saw as silly feelings down. she hid this feeling so well (she had years of practice burying sadness) that no one would have noticed any different. the white-knuckled grip on the sink in the dead of night, as she cried away from others, was saved for her to deal with.
○ her feelings only became exasperated after the birth of their second (something she swore would be different in this pregnancy since she was prepared by her first (not knowing that this wasn't how anything worked)). the solution this time? throw herself into her work. she was barely a month postpartum before she was taking jobs out of state to distract her. she turned into a stranger in her own home.
○ flying out to new york and boston so often, plus her slowly detaching from the family eventually came to a head when vera had missed one too many family events. the last was her eldest's birthday trip, which she had let completely slip her mind and was photographed out 'living it up' with her cast and crew of whatever show she was working on at the time. not long after, her and soren decided to split. and it was the same reaction that followed every big moment in her life, it seemed: pure, deafening numbness.
○ not long after the divorce was finalized, vera flew out to new york city to live there for a while as she continued to live for her work. her and soren had stayed friendly despite everything. she thought this was just how her life needed to be. she didn't need anyone by her side. she had always depended on herself.
○ no one called her back to aurora bay: a deep sense of needing to do what was right did. when the news of seren's troubles at school got back to her, a pang of guilt ripped through her. she had barely bonded with her daughter, let alone helped her navigate the pure hell that was teenage girlhood. then the thought came. the thought that made her pack up her entire life in new york and head back: she was no better than her mother. she had abandoned her own little girl.
○ it's been eight months since vera has returned and things seem to be going okay: she had a job she loves, her co-parenting situation has been going well, and she is back trying to work on herself as a mother. can she continue on her upswing?
wanted connections / plots
TBD
