characterbios11

[characterbios11]

Hans

Unlucky number thirteen. The number has followed Hans around his entire life. He was cursed for it, or so he was told by all twelve of his older brothers. At least, when they acknowledged his existence. Life was easier when they didn’t. Hans learned early on that the safest option was to remain as invisible as possible, the only way to avoid the kind of attention that inevitably ended in ridicule and abuse. His father was loud and demeaning and his mother was distant and always appeared tired. The closest he had to a friend was Lars, fourth born son and the only who had a significant age gap between himself and his younger brothers, meaning he spent time as the youngest as well. 

Life didn’t change much when their father died. The king was a cold man, and his eldest son Caleb wasn’t much different. Hans was six when Caleb took the throne, as well parental responsibilities, and, for the most part, things went on the same as they had before. There were whispers of unrest among the people, not that Hans was privy to the politics. The Westergaard family had not been good to their kingdom, and the people stirred against them. The new king Caleb went to a witch for a solution and while she gave him magic powerful enough to convince the people to love him, it came at the cost of a curse. Unbeknownst to Hans, he was the one to pay that cost. A shard of glass from a very ancient and powerful mirror dropped in his eye while he was sleeping, and the kingdom was at peace. Peasants could rot and starve in a bountiful kingdom, all while happily paying the last of their money to the royal family. 

The effects on Hans were subtle, in the beginning. People put it off to him growing older, adapting to the people around him. He was mocked for not having a personality of his own, another cookie cutter prince. Even that wasn’t enough to get his brothers to accept him. Unlucky number thirteen followed him wherever he went, and twelve older brothers promised that he would never see any important role in life. Instead, he was shipped off to the navy where his now moldable personality could be whatever was demanded of him. It was Lars who eventually took pity on him, helped him to craft the plan of being the one sent to Arendelle for the coronation of Queen Elsa. When that failed, Hans returned a guilty disgrace. 

He had his reasons for why he did things, he thought. There always felt ample reason in the moment to act the way he did, and yet when he looked back on it, he couldn’t fathom what drove him to make the choices he did. Some days it felt as though there were an external force driving him, but that was no excuse he could speak up about. His brothers were all too happy to be rid of him, and Hans was reduced to slave labor in the castle stables. 

That was the closest to peace he ever felt in life. Simple, manual labor was enough to shut out any other thoughts and he was allowed a look into the lives of the Southern Isles people. He was allowed to be something other than a prince. 

When their world began to crumble, Hans was one of the first to dive headlong into the new world, attempting to escape the reaches of his family. From the pan to the fire, Hans walked straight into the domain of the Fairy Godmother and was quickly converted into a lackey for another overpowered tyrant. In this world, he collects debts and hurts who She tells him to hurt. The life is enough to make him miss the Southern Isles, and yet for all his trying, he can’t seem to quit.

[characterbios11]

Adrian

The first time Adrian Prince died was the day he was born. Premature, he was born without a heartbeat and revived in the ICU. The product of a one-night stand, his beginning set the stage for the rest of his life. His mother had very little interest in being a mother and did only the bare necessities to keep him alive until chance brought them back to his father. Adrian was two years old when his mother dropped him with a stranger and left. His newfound father was gruff and American and knew nothing about being a parent. He had a questionable profession and no experience, but he did his best by Adrian. For the first few years, the stayed mostly in seedy motels across Europe, Nathan coming home with bloodstains on his clothes and Adrian making a game of trying to bring a smile to his face. 

The second time Adrian Prince died, he was six years old. Left alone in a motel which Nathan was working, a fire started in the building. He was unconscious by the time a young Spanish man pulled him from the fire and his heart stopped for thirty seconds at the hospital before they brought him back. That same night, Nathan was shot at work. Changes had to be made in their life. They chose to settle some, getting a real apartment and Nathan taking a job as a handyman instead of a mercenary. They found a routine and the young man who’d pulled Adrian from the fire began hanging around more. It was only a matter of time before Adrian had a second father and the three of them settled into something resembling domesticity. Adrian enrolled in real school and quickly proved himself to have inherited his father’s sharp mind. From his other father, Nico, he inherited a love for the supernatural. 

Adrian though, took it a little too far. He loved to learn and had Nathan’s wandering feet, a dangerous combination. With two parents who encouraged independence, he was allowed to take trips and indulge his obsessions, despite the health issues he’d developed from the fire. He was often sick, smaller than his peers, and had terrible asthma. Regardless, he was allowed to travel and search for answers to his neverending list of questions. 

Which brings about the third time that Adrian Prince died. He was hiking through the Moorlands of Ireland when he was bit. Nobody was ever sure what insect it was that got him, but he was deathly allergic. His throat swelled and his heart stopped and he was medically dead for three minutes. They brought him back though and his fathers flew in to see him. As it turned out, the hospital was a blessing in disguise. While he was there, they found a heart defect. His heart had a time limit on it, he was told he wouldn’t live past twenty-one. He was fifteen at the time. With his other health issues stacked on top of it, his chances of getting a new heart were practically impossible. 

If his fathers were indulgent before, now they were incorrigible. They knew that his traveling could kill him, but they knew that forcing him to stay in one place would kill him much faster. So they let him go. They funded his habit, let him search for meaning in life. Intelligent enough to keep up with school on top of it all, Adrian devoured books like they were lifeblood. He read everything he could get his hands on in regards to the supernatural, half for the good of the search and half in hopes that he might find something to save himself. Eventually, his searching lead him to the Americas. It started in the mountains of Peru, then moved up through Mexico, and finally into Texas. He was nineteen by then, done with high school and counting down the last years of his life. 

There in Texas was the fourth and final time that Adrian Prince died. This time his heart gave out. He’d been putting too much strain on it, doing too much. Hiking on his own, he had no hopes of rescue, of coming back this time. The last of his living memories were of a woman finding him. The next thing he knew, he was dead. Dead, and still among the living. The woman to find him was a vampire and she had turned him, saved him. Adrian no longer had to worry about dying. Adair brought him back to her coven, a small group of vampires living on a small lake, outside of a small town called Henrietta. It was a new kind of home and family and life to adjust to, without the threat of a defective heart hanging over his head. He tried to learn to settle, but his feet still had the itch of wanderlust, despite finding a hotbed of the very thing he’d been searching for. 

He went home. He told his fathers everything, that they didn’t have to worry about him anymore. Life had ended, and yet life went on. It was a strange adjustment at first, to the idea that he wasn’t sick anymore. He could travel freely without fear, something he took full advantage of. Back and forth, Adrian bounced around the world, home and to Henrietta and off again, doing odd jobs with the eclectic skills he’d picked up over the years. Decades slipped away that Adrian dedicated to learning all that he could. Against all expectations, he outlived his fathers. 

It’s been two decades now since the last time he returned to Henrietta, and the years have worn on him enough that he’s looking to settle for a while. The wanderlust finally grows thin. 

[characterbios11]

Thomas

Thomas grew up in a foster home. He wasn’t an orphan, not given up or unwanted. Rather, he was one of three biological children of a witch couple. Two people who had been hurt by the foster system themselves, growing up freaks of every group home they were sent to. As adults, they chose to open up their home to similar children, seek out the supernatural kids who had nowhere else to go. They were good parents with big hearts and not enough time to go around. As a stable child with a quiet demeanor and no visible supernatural traits or special abilities, it was easy for Thomas to slip through the cracks. 

He didn’t mind. He knew that the other kids generally needed them more, and he was always a self-sufficient child. It was easier to stay out of the way. He was eight when he found out that he wasn’t so normal. One of the new foster kids was afraid and hiding under their bed. All he knew was that he wanted to help take the fear away from them. He touched them, and the next thing he knew, he was terrified. The other child was not. They adapted into the family and learned to trust, while suddenly the people that Thomas knew would never hurt him seemed like monsters. It took some time to figure out what had happened, but eventually his parents worked out that Thomas had a very specific skill. 

He could absorb fear. It was a process after that, more attention than he was used to, working out all the little details of his ability. He first learned how to work through his own fears, conquer them and move on. While his parents never pushed him to, he moved rom that onto working with other people to help them. Mostly the fosters kids and the fears and anxieties they inevitably had picked up in the system or their past homes. He had to learn how to control what he took, and how much. How to put things back, how to avoid letting his own fears backwash into the person he was working with. He could give fear too, it just happened. Only fears that he already possessed. Pass them along to someone else through touch, though that was not something he practiced. 

His parents also tried to teach him other, more classic magic. He never took to it, though he did learn some of the basics, and how to put on a show at the very least. To say he was viewed as strange in school was an understatement. Most of the kids outside of his extensive ‘family’ avoided him, causing no disappointment on his part. He always found it easier to be alone than to be around other people, something that stuck with him past high school. 

He didn’t bother with college. He smart enough, of course, but there wasn’t much point with his ability. He had the perfect opportunity to help people, he only had to be very picky about his clients. Hear from people first, listen to their situation, suggest other treatments before he ever used his own gift. The ‘business’ was lucrative, but left him with near crippling anxieties as it became a little too popular. Working through fears is a tricky business and could get overwhelming with too many clients. When his location was leaked, people started coming to his house, harassing him for help, until it became unbearable. 

Reaching out to the biological parent of one of his foster siblings, he found a small town with an established coven he could run away to for a while, catch his breath and regroup. A shop to work, nobody who knew who he was or what he could do. Henrietta sounded like a blessing in disguise.

[characterbios11]

Corrine

Selkies are a dying breed. Native to the West, yet forced out of their waters when the gods were driven into the sea. They fled south, to more crowded seas, instead. Between the warmer waters, the excess of shipping (both merchants and sailors) and the other creatures of the sea that resided there, their numbers have dropped to the point that they border on nonexistent. Corrine is one of the last of them. Born blind, she made an easy target for slavers and merchant ships. Men who wanted a wife, men who wanted to steal and sell her coat, selkie pelts being a rare and priceless item with many magical qualities. As a child, she learned to avoid ships and go unnoticed, even with her disability. Her luck ran out in the early stages of adulthood, caught by a slaver ship, separated from her coat and prepared to be sold in market to the highest bidder. Before the ship could reach land, however, it was attacked by a pirate ship. The Queen Anne’s Revenge, captained by Blackbeard herself. Corrine prepared herself for the worst. Yet the slaves were freed and she was reunited with her coat. Given the option of taking up a position on board the ship, Corrine took the opportunity to learn more about the humans she’d worked so hard to avoid. She remained on the ship, learned the human ways. Learned the Captain’s ways. The thing about a selkie, is they will always return to the sea. It is their home, their first love. Feelings for Rowan would never be enough to keep her on the Queen Anne’s Revenge. It was only once she tried to leave that things took an ugly turn. Betrayed and heartbroken, Rowan took the coat back from her and in an act of revenge, sold it. They part ways there, both bitter and angry. Unable to return to the sea now, Corrine was left destitute in the South. She learned the rules of survival, learned to do whatever it took to stay alive. She picked up street magic and found it was a thing that came naturally to her. Her beginning in this sense was not the right way to do things. It was messy and backwards, but she clawed her way out the gutters selling homemade potions and magical services. Eventually, she made enough to pay for proper schooling at a real magic school. She earned the certification to have a respectable practice, then went on to learn enough to teach herself. It was a long, messy, complicated process, but one that she was determined to get through on her own strength and will. A self-made success. Taking a teaching job at a well-respected school, Corrine chafed under the rules and regulations and lack of freedom. She suffered through years of teaching in order to put away enough money to start her own school. The beginning was hard and full of doubt, but she made her school her own and something to be proud of. It nearly went under at year two. The funds weren’t coming in enough to sustain the school yet and her savings were depleted. She was left with the unfortunate option of taking on an investor. Forced into the societal world of wealth and politics, Corrine didn’t like what she found. Plenty were willing to invest, but they wanted a say in what she did at the school too. They wanted to know how she was going to expand and eventually compete with the larger, prestigious schools. Corrine wanted to remain small and simple, which did not fit with the desires of most investors. Golden Boy was the very picture of everything she hated about that world. Wealthy, Western, with no apparent knowledge of how painful the real world could be. Still, he was also enthusiastic and insistent that she could do what she wished with the school, so long as she made him her partner, not investor. The negotiations dragged out, Corrine forever dragging her feet on the idea of actually sharing the responsibility with him. In the end, financial problems forced her to relent and agree, expecting him to get bored of the project in a few weeks and leave her alone once more. Instead, he threw himself wholeheartedly into the running of the school. He moved himself fully to the South and took up with the school with unending enthusiasm. Initially reluctant, he wore Corrine down over time. He became her friend. Her confidant. Rather than somebody watching from afar, he truly did become her partner, facing each oncoming problem beside. For the first time, she wasn’t facing the world alone. Of course, it quickly became apparent that he had a different type of feelings involved, something Corrine did her best to shut down. It wasn’t that she didn’t have her own feelings involved (she initially tried to deny them even to herself and failed) but there was still that fear of being betrayed once more. After Rowan, she had done her very best to avoid getting romantically involved with anyone. It didn’t help that she still held onto the idea that he would eventually get bored of the project and move on. It is an easier matter to keep him at arms length - a partner and a friend, but nothing more.

[characterbios11]

Kel

Life isn’t fair. This is, perhaps, the first lesson Kelton ever learned. Born the bastard son of the king of Rethar and a maidservant from the South, he spent most of his life as an odd kind of outcast. Everyone know who he was, knew what he was, servants talk. It didn’t help his situation when his mother died of a mysterious illness when he was still just a child. He fell to the responsibility of the other castle staff, and it was Llerlin, another Southerner and the leader of the Retharian army. Llerlin was a stern man and by no means a father figure, but he was good for Kel. He taught Kel everything he knew and pushed him to do better and not allow bitterness to take over, from the time he was a child. 

Ella helped with that. The King’s recognized daughter, the legitimate child. She had the life that Kel might have had, if things had been different, and she was miserable. She came to the armory with unexplained bruises and anger and she fought with everyone in sight. It taught Kel to be grateful for what he had in life, as he watched her and only wished that he could help. She was never supposed to acknowledge him, but she did. She claimed him as her brother even when it made things worse for her, every bit as full of love and morality as she was full of anger. 

As for Kel, he was not so full of anger. He learned dutifully the skills of fighting from Llerlin, but it was never his heart. He was more easily found watching the children of the castle staff, weaving flower crowns and telling stories, feeling more at home with a baby in his arms. Growing into adulthood, he found a certain contentedness in life. 

And then there was Holly. She came into his life like a rush of wind, blowing in from the desert with a group of Swialia people. The nomads came through every few years to trade and stay for a while, and when the two of them met, that was it. Holly was wild and beautiful and Kel was smitten the moment he met her. They had a whirlwind romance and married within a year. Holly stayed with him the next time the Swialia left, and they spent a year together before her people came back through. 

Kel brought up children. He thought it had always been obvious that he loved children, that he wanted them, that he wanted all the domestic things of life, but it had not been. As it turned out, it had not even been obvious to Holly that they were married. The next morning when he woke up, both the Swialia and Holly were gone. Heartbroken, Kel couldn’t bring himself to stay somewhere that had so many memories of her, and he didn’t hold onto any illusions that she might come back for him. He traveled South instead, using connections from Llerlin to secure employment as a nanny for a wealthy family. 

He found another kind of happiness there, taking care of children and, in a way, claiming them as his own. He spent a few years there, trying to forget and make something new for himself. He kept up steady correspondence with both Llerlin and Ella, but letters took time, and by the time he’d heard of his half-sister’s wedding, it had already happened. He still took his leave immediately, returning to what once had been his home, to find that Ella had already been sent off to the North, and sternly held back from going after her. 

It wasn’t long before she was brought back, with claims that she had been kidnapped by Traynia and forced into a marriage. The never-ending war between Rethar and Traynia loomed once more, this time with Ella in the thick of it. When she came to Kel for help, he did everything he could to give it, smuggling her and her husband out once more to run for the North. The chaos that erupted with them gone was difficult to follow. The King was dead, Ella rumored to have killed him. The Queen now took charge, battle loomed, and the Retharian troops whispered their support of Ella instead. 

For Kel, this was where things went dark. In a fit of anger, Anastasia, Ella’s stepsister, had used him as a way to cause Ella pain. She cast a curse over him, banishing him to a castle in the desert. Disfigured and left with the other outcasts that inhabited the castle, Kel all but gave hope. There were, of course, ways to break such curses, but his ‘true love’ had already chosen to leave him. The last thing he ever expected was for her to show up once more, claiming she had come to help him, and all the anger stored up over every unfair thing in his life erupted. He told her to leave, and refused to speak with her.

[characterbios11]

Dani

Dani was born to live a lie. Her parents had no intentions of having a child, but she came anyway and so they put her to use. From the moment she was just a sparkle in their eye, she was being used in their cons. A pregnant woman could get a lot more pity, and a baby could do even more. By the time she was a toddler, she had learned to lie and knick things from stores, to throw fits as a distraction, whatever was needed to move the plan along. It wasn’t the best childhood, but it definitely wasn’t the worst. Her parents, while not loving, we never cruel. They always had praise to offer for her efforts and her acting, and she learned that the harder she worked and the more money she could get them, the more praise she got. 

She became an accomplished liar quickly, burying her own personality so deep she lost track of who she was. She was eleven, when things went wrong. They had found an empty house to crash in, the owners out for the summer. Her parents left her there while they went to run a job. They were supposed to be gone three days. After a week, Dani ventured out to steal more food. After a month, the family came back home and she was discovered. Tossed into the system, Dani came to the conclusion that her parents had abandoned her. 

Oddly enough, she didn’t spend much time in the system. She was specifically requested by a couple who heard her story and shipped down to Texas to meet them. What she found was something that felt like fiction. A couple living in a small town in Texas, on an island in a lake, pretending to be faeries. The oddest thing about it, was that the entire town believed it. The whole island was inhabited by women who had convinced an entire town that they were supernatural creatures and it was all because the town had other supernatural creatures. 

She learned to love it, in time. It was hard to adjust initially, go from life on the move to one steady place. She was homeschooled and expected to be herself, while she had no idea who herself was. In time, she adapted and settled into her own personality. As if to make up for the falseness of her past life, she became as authentic as she could manage, shedding every girly aspect of her personality and becoming whatever she wanted. She did everything her parents had told her not to do. Climbed trees, used her own name, got loud and drew attention to herself. 

She had a good relationship with her adoptive moms, but it was never quite what they wanted. The one thing she held onto from her biological parents was the need to remain independent, to not trust anyone. She preferred to rely on herself. 

And then there came Barryl. Dani met her working on the ferry, the other girl a sophomore while Dani was a senior. They had nothing in common, argued the whole time, and exchanged numbers before the ferry ride was through. Their friendship from there was tedious and much like their first meeting, but they still kept talking. It took a few months before Dani saw the signs of abuse, the bruises and the makeup and the quiet moments after a bad night. Ever brash, the revelation came with her punching Barry’s current foster father and effectively kidnapping her to Murkwood island. 

After some interesting legal issues, Barry made her own home on the island. Most of the other residents could never tell if they loved or hated each other, but they were rarely seen without the other. Polar opposites in some ways and so much alike in other ways, their friendship was an enigma that lasted countless fights and meddling from others. As for Dani’s own feelings, they grew more confusing every day. As far as she could tell, Barry liked boys. There were comments here and there, and so Dani kept her own thoughts and feelings to herself to save the friendship. She tried to date, but kept breaking it off when it failed to make her stop thinking about her best friend. She resigned herself to the idea of pining over the unattainable for the rest of her life. 

It was Barry’s 21st birthday that the truth came out. Dani finally managed to drag her out to a bar to celebrate and after getting her friend thoroughly drunk, Barry went on and called her cute. Questions followed, confessions after that, and the rest was simple. Nothing much changed once they started dating. They still fought, still did everything together, spending half their nights crashing at the other one’s home.

[characterbios11]

Raylin, 

Seems like everyone who shows up here is some kind of fucked up. That’s alright, most of us who were born here are too, I’m living (or dying) proof of that. The good thing about fucked up people is they watch out for each other. Maybe nobody asks questions about pasts, we’ve all gotten good at that. We just make it safe. I don’t know, I’m rambling now. I haven’t known you too long, but I’ve enjoyed crashing your trailer and doing impromptu karaoke. I wish I could be around a little longer to teach you how to properly annoy each person in the pack, but I’ll have to leave you to discover all those tricks on your own. 

Anyway. This place makes for a good fresh start. Hold onto that. 

Love, Beau

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Delilah, 

I officially pass the torch to you; you are the baby of the pack. It’s a lot of responsibility to bear, a lot of sweets and hugs to handle, but I’m confident that you can take it on. I wouldn’t trust anyone else with the job. I think you are the only person in the pack that I refer to as kiddo, which is fitting. I’m glad you’re not scared of me anymore, not that it matters much now. You’d probably be scared all over again if you saw me right now, but that’s why I’m mostly holed up in Mads’ trailer. That and I don’t think she’s gonna let me out of her sight. 

You’re a good one, Delilah. Don’t settle for anything that doesn’t make you happy in life, because out of everyone here, you deserve sunshine. So keep shining kiddo. The pack is gonna need someone to make them smile real soon. And don’t bother crying for a mess like me. I’ll be just fine. 

Love,

Beau

[characterbios11]

Silver, 

So you know that plant you have that apparently “isn’t weed”? Yeah, I am a little sorry about that one. I would recommend growing less deceiving plants. But I also won’t be around to torture them anymore, so I guess you don’t have to worry about it too much. I was just really disappointed when I thought there was an actual pot dealer in the park, and turned out to just be someone with a lot of planting pots. We’ve had this conversation before, haven’t we? 

Ah well. Sorry for the shitty goodbye, I’m terrible at them. Watch out for everyone. Especially the soft ones. They’re probably gonna be messy, or maybe that’s just my self-absorbed thinking.

Love, Beau

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Bailey, 

Otherwise known as my own personal chef. The pack was great and all before you showed up, but I didn’t live before you finally stole the grill from Wade. You were a godsend. You’re also probably the only wolf in the pack that hasn’t literally thrown me out of your trailer, so I appreciate that as well. I don’t know how much this means coming from me, the bum of the pack, but I’m glad you showed up. This pack needed you. 

I get the feeling that you needed this pack as well, but everyone has a past. I’m not sure if anyone’s told you this, but you’ll be watched out for here. If someone ever comes for you, I can promise the whole pack is gonna back you (excluding me). I hope that doesn’t happen, but I thought you oughta know as much. 

Love, Beau

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Lena,

You win! 

Too soon? Yeah, too soon I guess. But you know, all joking aside, go for it. He could use some support right now, I bet. You’re a lot better for him than I ever was, and I’m sorry that I have to be dying to admit to it. 

This might sound weird, but thanks for being the one person in the park willing to give me shit. You made my days a little brighter, for all the bitching that went on between us. I never said it out loud, so I guess I’ll tell you here that I think you’re pretty neat. Too straight for my taste, but everyone has something. Just, you know, take care of him. Don’t you fucking hurt him, or I swear I will come back from the afterlife and haunt your kitching cabinets, fucking try me. 

With love, 

Beau

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Bear, 

I want you to know that really, truly, from the bottom of my heart. 

I know your real name isn’t Bear. 

Also I stole your tv remote and changed the channels from outside your trailer and I’m not sorry and I’m not telling you where I left it. 

Remember me with love, 

Beau

[characterbios11]

Joanie, 

Hey mom. Say an extra prayer for me, would you? I guess I really should have paid closer attention to your lessons and advice. I used to be a good student, a long time ago. Now I’m just a mess. But you never looked down on me for that. I guess thank you for being a safe place, without judgement. I always knew you were praying for me when you thought I wasn’t listening or watching, but I heard a lot of it and it meant more to me than I’ll say. 

You know that I grew up without a bio mom. Just sorta bounced around in the pack, started calling everyone mom, it really wasn’t bad. I made a family out of the pack. You really were like a real mom though. I’m real glad I got to know you. If this is sounding like a goodbye letter, that’s because that’s what this is. Might be a little soon to be jumping to conclusions, but I just want to make sure to have these ready in case I don’t have the energy to later. 

I want you to know that I love you and you made my life better while I was here.

Love, 

Beau

[characterbios11]

Max, 

My favorite thing about our park is how many people come into it. Without warning, we gain a new member to the family, and they feel like they’ve always been there. A new mom, dad, sister, or in this case, a new brother. I want you to know that you’re never going to find the flannel that I stole from you, and I don’t feel guilty about that. Let its absence make you think of me. 

I’m okay. Well, I’m shit at lying, so no I’m not. And I don’t think that this one is going to end well for me. It’d be nice to accept my fate with dignity and all, but I don’t think I can say that either. I can say that I had a family to the end, and I’m glad you were a part of it. You probably deserve a better goodbye, but I’m hiding behind a piece of paper because I can’t face anyone. 

Anyway. Take care of Delilah. Keep Wade out of trouble. Keep him from leaving, yeah? You need to be the responsible one of the pack now, keep everybody together. I’m trusting you to do that, okay? 

Love, 

Beau

[characterbios11]

Maggie

The thing about small towns, they have a way of creating generational ruts. Broken merry-go-rounds that sentence every generation to another trailer, another high school love, another distraction. Kids always say they won’t end up like their parents, but they all fall into the same rut eventually. The Wilson family was generations of it, the originators of the trailer pack and the founders of the Happy Paws Trailer Park. The sort of legacy thing that kids are always meant to be proud of. 

Maggie was not. Four years old on her father’s knee, he told her she could be anything she wanted and she took him at his word. She was a wild one right from the start, a holy terror racing about the park and wreaking havoc. From the time she was old enough to understand what an expectation was, she was fighting against it. She was determined to keep from falling into the same routine that everyone in the little town of Henrietta eventually fell into. She bumped in and out of relationships, caused as much ruckus as someone her size could and refused to be tied down to anything. 

For all her fighting and insistence that she didn’t want to grow up to be a part of the trailer pack, Maggie’s love for the pack family shone through in her actions. She pulled in more than one member, having a sort of radar for the kind of people that needed the kind of help the pack could offer. Still wild, still rebellious, and the fiercest secret defender of the pack in Henrietta.

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Bobby

Brigid O’Connolly, born to be queen of the wrong side of the tracks. She comes from a dynasty of Irish mafia rooted in New York. One might have expected her to be hardened and taught the ways of the family by her father, preparing to take over his position eventually without any siblings. She was not. She was protected from the worst of it, kept away from the dirty bits while the others had all the fun. The most she was ever able to do was convince her father to let her be taught how to protect herself, in case anyone ever tried to hurt her. 

She was fourteen when Liam was given the duty of teaching her self-defense and keeping an eye on her. Twelve years her senior, they shouldn’t have had anything in common, but the two became instant friends and Brigid whiled him into teaching much more than mere self-defense. Aging into teen years, Brigid managed to wrap him around her finger so thoroughly he was sneaking her out to help him with jobs and she was chasing whatever thrills she could find. She had spent too many years trapped away from any real life and she took whatever she could. 

Liam got married, Brigid aged more, the two drifted apart more. Youth wore away and Brigid began attempting to form herself into who she was meant to be, resigning herself to the fate that had already been chosen for her. It was only when her engagement was announced, to a man she hardly knew, that she needed another night of freedom. Liam was easily convinced into one last hurrah, only to be found slipping through her window in the middle of the night. Her father of course assumed it was a romantic connection and put a bullet through his head without asking any questions. 

Brigid was done. It was the tipping point. She went on pretending to be compliant, to regret what she had done, to be ready to be what the family needed, all while gathering the information she needed. The night before her wedding, she cleaned out the family safe and disappeared. It wasn’t easy, making her way in the real world. She adopted the name Bobby to keep from being found, hopped on a train and went until she couldn’t sit anymore. She got out in Chicago, fading into the city life there. It was easy to get lost in the booming place, learn who she was without the O’Connolly name hanging over her head. With the money she’d put away, she bought herself a diner. She was going to put the old family life behind her. 

There was the matter of defending her diner. Not all of Bobby’s old ways could be retired, not being a single woman in possession of business. She learned to run off gangs and bullies and make her diner a safe place. That was, until the Riots. The gang started small and grew slow, but they were more a family than anything else, holding onto each other to keep from going under. They started meeting at her diner, as though Bobby didn’t know what they were. She let them, some maternal part of her waking up to watch out for them. She started to think of them as hers far before she ever joined. 

It meant that when one of them was in trouble, Bobby didn’t wait to let the others decide what to do. She broke out her best ass-kicking outfit and did what needed to be done. Only once she dragged the missing member back did she sit them all down and give a good lecture on how to better watch out for the gang. From there on out, that was it. Bobby became the mom of the Riots, the one they came to for a full belly or to deal with the messiest situations. She found herself right back in the same sort of place she had started, only this was her choice. The Riots were the right kind of family, the kind that picked each other.

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Wade

Wade has always been exactly what you expect from someone born and raised in a town like Henrietta. He fitted himself quite firmly into the category of ‘good ol’ boy’ (a step above redneck but still a significant step below a true cowboy). He was more solidly entrenched in the human portion of the town, though there were some distant relatives of questionable...species. It made for interesting family reunions. Really though, it wasn’t like all the humans of the town didn’t know about the supernatural. The thing was, if they were all willing to keep to themselves and not cause trouble, what was the point in stirring anything up? Sure, a few cattle might go missing here and there, but there was also always a mysterious check in the mail or some kind of peace offering delivered shortly after. 

As that side of things didn’t affect Wade, he rarely paid it much attention (of course he was careful to not go out on full moons and was in the habit of wearing a crucifix that he clasped should he ever bleed heavily in public). Apart from that, he was as normal as he could be. He got average grades, made the quarterback position in high school, threw hay to make extra money in the summers. And when the time came, he enlisted. 

It was easier than going to college and trying to decide what he wanted to do with his life. All it took was a signature and the next four years of his life were decided. Simple, right? Training was easy, really. It pushed him, but he was used to that. He found new friends, a new comradarie that high school had never really provided. All the time leading up to it, people had been telling him that it wouldn’t be fun and games, and all he had discovered was that they had been wrong. He shipped out with friends with the belief that nothing could touch them. 

It was only a few months later that they found themselves in the middle of what those back on home turf affectionately termed a ‘spat’. In truth, it killed half his squad, maimed several others and left Wade with a permanent limp. And he was the lucky one of the bunch. One plane ride and an honorable discharge later, Wade was back home. His family had moved out of town, but Wade was seeking the familiarity of Henrietta and went back home with the freshly sobered eyes of someone who, for lack of better words, had seen some shit. 

Physicality limited, he got work a mechanic and worked on learning a trade and trudging through the trauma of the past few years with the determination of someone who didn’t want to grow old and bitter too quickly. He’d forgotten some of the rules, though. He went out without thinking a little too early one morning, before the full moon had really faded. It was his fault, really. Coming up too fast and not realizing there was a person there (well, not really a person. Almost, but almost not). The surprise earned him a row of scratches down his arm before the ‘person’ focused in. 

It was all apologies from there and a fair amount of crying as Wade did his best to assure the stranger that he’d dealt with worse, until the truth clicked into place. Werewolves, of course. That explained the guilt and the crying over a little scratch, Wade was a werewolf now. It could be worse. His limp got a little better. The mere fact of what he was got him adopted into a new family and the very person that had turned him became an unexpected best friend. 

What might have been a tragedy in most people’s eyes turned out to be a fresh start to wade as he started to find sense in the world and some kind of purpose for himself again. It didn’t take him long to settle into the pack and get comfortable (he never has had much trouble with getting along with people) and claim his new home.