#she's an ex-criminal and that was basically a life sentence lmao

[haharuspex]

my lovely lagertha!! she's a dwarf paladin, oath of revenge, and i get to play her for a bit after my barbarian died and before i'll switch to my fave pink tiefling bard :) finished this portrait some time ago but i still looove looking at it

[oliviaculpo]

YOU

NAME/ALIAS: Kelly!

TIMEZONE: MST! For good this time too :D since we just closed on our house here!! YAY! No more moving finaaaalllyyyyy

RANDOM FACT: I have two kitties and a cute great Pyrenees puppy! 

CHARACTER ONE

NAME: Lucky Caruso 

FACECLAIM: DJ Cotrona

BACKGROUND: 

TRIGGER WARNINGS: death, armed robbery, white-collar crimes 

Born & raised in Miami to a single mother who had no business being a mom.

High school drop out?? Nah, middle school drop out. Well, he didn’t officially drop out until high school, but he stopped going when he was HELLA young.

Really only street and survival smart. He knows basics buuuut yeah.

Nicknamed Lucky by his mom even tho he’s not lucky at all.

Has a deviated septum that he’ll never get fixed hahaha.

His mom died when he was 17 and she finally told him who his father was. So he went to find the dude and laughed when he saw them.

Figured fuck it since he was gonna be 18 soon so it didn’t matter. BUT his dad wanted to get to know him so like over time they got to know one another.

Now has two half-brothers Nathan and Lawson Marlowe and a half-sister Olivia Marlowe.

The Marlowe family had dipped into cheap versions of white-collar crimes.

So they focused a lot of like small investment fraud, identity theft, stealing social security checks, stuff like that. But they were nothing compared to like big dogs who had all this money from it. In fact, they were still pretty poor wannabe criminals lmao. Then again, their knock-off ponzi schemes weren’t that great.  

Eventually, he met Elena. And despite the fact that they fight like cats and dogs the two of them married….which was the worst decision ever. Like why did they do this to themselves???? Literally, do they actually even love each other??? Idk what even happened there okay. Lucky is just....yeah.

Went to jail from 27 to 28 for a stupid warrant he didn’t realize was out there. AND THENNNNN as soon as he was out, he got in trouble again…….

When Lucky was 30 he was on a job to rob a bank which was planned for a really really long time. He was nothing more than a simple associate with a cut of the money.

It blew up in their faces but only Lucky and one other were caught and taken in.

He was put on trial which lasted two years to finally finalize. During that time he was released on bail.

Eventually, he was sentenced to ten years which was a lesser sentence because he sold out the people he was working with because tbh he ain’t concerned about them I guess.

Served five years (one year was spent from being in and out during his trial period) until he was released for overcrowding and is now on parole and work release and has to do like classes for the state. 

Only just got out a few weeks ago and was sent to a halfway house but now he’s finally back and things are hella different. Very much wants a divorce and figure shiz out for himself?? like wtf he gonna do now??? 

HEADCANONS: 

Has a deviated septum (I know it’s listed above but he literally can’t sleep because of it) so he has sleep apnea. 

Doesn’t drink or do drugs. Really doesn’t do anything associated with drugs honestly. But people tend to assume that about him given his lifestyle. But he does smoke cigs which is bad too but whatevs!! 

Headcanon for the future but I’d love for him to enroll in some online classes and actually get his GED??? Since he dropped out so young. 

LOVES a good laugh. If you can make him laugh you’re cool with him. He’s actually a really mellow guy. He’s not standoff-ish and doesn’t try to be intimidating you know? He’s like a gentle giant if anything. Sure, he has his moments but for the most part, he just like walks away from people who piss him off. Especially now since he’s on parole and can’t exactly do shit to mess with that. 

WANTED CONNECTIONS: 

I don’t have much for him aside from like family stuff and like his estranged wife and an ex. Other than that I’m completely open and I’d LOVE stuff for him. Enemies, friends, someone who helps him out, someone he helps out. Someone to make him laugh hahaha. 

CHARACTER TWO 

NAME: Isla von Dehn 

FACECLAIM: Olivia Culpo

BACKGROUND: 

Miami girl born and raised. Granddaughter of Hyatt Robert von Dehn. Aka co-founder of Hyatt Hotels. Which means she comes from a lot of wealth and all that jazz, even after they sold the brand to a diff fam and started their investment business.

Because of that, she became really in love with the idea of just spending money all the time. Like Naomi Clarke from 90210??? Who just loved buying shit. 

Definitely more than a pretty face but she didn’t really care to prove that she was until later on in life??? 

Not the type of person to judge, hate and all that. Like yeah, she has her moments, but the materialistic things don’t really make her a selfish brat. She just loves life’s luxuries ya feel?????? definitely feel?????

Nicknamed LADY LEGS / LEGS because she’s got a pair that goes on for days.

Accepted into prestigious college (haven’t picked which yet lmaoooo) because of her family and the fact that her father wrote a pretty hefty check. He wanted her and her older sibling to follow in their footsteps and whatnot.

But she didn’t want to follow in their footsteps really. Maybe she thought she did, but she didn’t. So instead she just hung out with her girlfriends and.... you guessed it, spend money. 

Eventually had a huge fight with her family and her dad threatened to take away her trust fund if she didn’t do something with her life and stop racking up so many high credit card bills. 

Felt underestimated so she stepped it up and graduated from college, got her bachelors, worked her butt off, took the LSATs and later the BAR buuuut failed which was really sad. So she was like clearly i’m not meant to go down that path, so she picked something else.

Eventually started working as a stylist at a high-end boutique and later became a personal stylist which was much more suited for her.  

Recently she married her boyfriend at her friend’s bachelorette party in new orleans. and everyone is like wtf???? why would you marry him y’all only been dating for a few months now???? but whatevs i guess do u girl??? 

She’s is honestly just the type of person who wants to enjoy life and what she has. 

She’s pretty much a recycled and fixed up version of an old charrie of mine named Phoebe????? so yeah she holds some things that are very near and dear to my heart <3

HEADCANONS: 

Lmao loves glitter. Has so many sparkly tops because she’s lame like that. 

Incredibly, incredibly close to her family. Yes, her dad can be harsh sometimes but he means well. He just wants her to succeed and she gets that.

Doesn’t really do drugs like at all?? But her friend circle def does. She’s more in love with shopping LMAO. Confessions of a shopaholic okay. 

Has two cats who she loves soooo much. 

Will always let you raid her closet. 

Has over twenty small tattoos (inspo from Chiara Ferragni) all around her body. Her mom hates them but she finds the body to be like a canvas. 

WANTED CONNECTIONS: 

Again, like Lucky, I don’t have much for her yet. But I’d love like friendships, enemies, chance encounters, sibling-like friendships, friends to enemies, enemies to friends. Anything!! I’m also very open to like just going with the flow you know? 

[the-jennnster]

Novel Prep: Stars

I was tagged by @arynneva​!

First Look

1. Describe your novel in 1-2 sentences (elevator pitch)

A criminal and the mechanic she’s kidnapped start out on what seems to be a short adventure, but as they get to know each other, secrets are revealed and enemies are met, forcing them into a fight with their country in the balance.

2. How long do you plan for your novel to be? (Is it a novella, single book, book series, etc.)

This is (I hope) the first in a trilogy, with a couple stories expanding off of it because there are some side characters in here whom I think definitely deserve to have their stories told.

3. What is your novel’s aesthetic? 

Secrets admitted at midnight underneath the stars while avoiding all the shit of the world around you.

4. What other stories inspire your novel? 

@marielubooks​‘s Legend Trilogy was definitely a major inspiration. Cee, one of my main characters, is basically the Day/June lovechild lmao

ALSO HOW COOL IS IT THAT THERE’S GONNA BE A BOOK 4? AHHHH

5. Share 3+ images that give a feel for your novel 

(All of these images were stolen from Pinterest btw) 

6. Who is your protagonist? 

I have two!

Cee - A criminal who’s supposedly ruthless and cruel and has a dark past she hides from everything. 

Kyle - A mechanic who is working his ass off to support his family and isn’t used to doing things for himself

7. Who is their closest ally? 

Besides each other, Cee and Kyle rely a lot on the Specialists later on in the book. Among these Specialists, the most important people are: 

-Sixilia, a mischievous assassin whose past is dangerously intertwined with Cee’s

-Cat, a disgraced noble hardened by the struggles she’s gone through as both a trans woman and a mutate (my version of mutants lol)

-Blake, a hyperactive, happy-go-lucky disgraced soldier

-Hanna, a ex-gang member who’s lost everyone in her life, including her parents and girlfriend (who she was planning to marry)

8. Who is their enemy?

Daniela, a seventeen-year-old world-renowned genius, corrupted by an international organization hell-bent on destroying the American government.

9. What do they want more than anything?

Cee just wants to escape her past and be her own person, independent of the reputations she’s been forced to uphold in both the lives she’s led

Kyle just wants his family to be safe, to honor his mother’s memory, to let his sister live a life with choices, and to just be able to live.

10. Why can’t they have it?

Because Cee is burdened by the reputation of the infamous, cruel criminal she’s shaped herself out to be in her quest for respite and Kyle is struggling to work around the shitty governmental systems that make it difficult for a teenage boy to support his depressed, disabled father and toddler sister.

11. What do they wrongly believe about themselves?

Cee believes that she’s undeserving of love because of the things she’s gone through and the things she’s been forced to do in her life as a criminal and Kyle thinks his chance for a life outside of supporting his family is shot, seeing as he dropped out of school and has lost his chance at his own dreams.

12. Draw your protagonist! (Or share a description) 

Cee and Kyle were actually drawn by @hestray​, who I am very lucky to have! She’s my sounding board and listens to my ramble about this all the time!

Plot Points

13. What is the internal conflict?

The internal conflict revolves a lot about family, about what we owe to them and what we owe to ourselves. There’s also some classic morality about the value of life and death, and a sexuality crisis in there too for good measure.

14. What is the external conflict?

Daniela and her army, trying to dismantle the government, which would do the exact opposite of what she wants to do: put mutates on equal playing grounds with regular humans

15. What is the worst thing that could happen to your protagonist?

For Cee, if you told her that her brothers hated her, if you told her that her brothers had always hated her, if they told her they hated her... she’d be utterly wrecked she is utterly wrecked

Kyle would be a mess if somebody took his sister from him. Four years, he’s been fighting to keep her, to provide for her and give her a good life, giving up his own in the process. If she was taken from him, everything he’d done would be for nothing, and he’d be an absolute mess.

16. What secret will be revealed that changes the course of the story?

Cee’s real identity is a big one, because it’s a lot about her connections to Daniela and how big of a role she really plays in this whole “destroy the government” scheme.

17. Do you know how it ends?

Couple schemes, a few screaming matches, and a death that I hopes rocks people to their cores. I’d like to say I’ve got a decent idea, though things have changed.

Bits and Bobs

18. What is the theme?

I said this before for number 13, but it’s really about what we owe to our families and what we owe to ourselves. Cee and Kyle have very different approaches to their families, but both of them have made drastic decisions revolving around them. They each need to learn the balance between making decisions for their families and making decisions for themselves.

19. What is a reoccurring symbol?

The first one off the top of my head would be Cee’s hair, which in the beginning is long as a symbol to her freedom (because when she was young, it was kept short for practicality). At one point, she chops it off as a show that she’s given up that freedom and is back to working under someone’s thumb.

20. Where is the story set? (Share a description!)

The story is set in 2364, in a post-WWIII American Empire. The soldiers who fought in the war twenty years prior are traumatized and injured and their own children were genetically mutated thanks to the nuclear weaponry used during the fighting, causing them to grow up feared and discriminated against thanks to the deadly abilities that followed. 

21. Do you have any images or scenes in your mind already?

I have a ton of scenes in my mind and nearly a hundred pages written for just this iteration (which is the fourth so far). This isn’t even counting all the expansions I’ve scribbled down between drafts.

22. What excited you about this story?

I’m really excited to tell these characters’ stories, first and foremost! Each of them, the main characters and the Specialists, have a lot that they’ve gone through and a lot to tell the world about it.

It’s also a test of my abilities to write heavier topics. Cee in particular has gone through a lot of shit, so it’s new ground for me to be tackling some of this stuff, and I hope I do it justice and write it in a way that allows people to understand this kind of stuff.

23. Tell us about your usual writing method!

Usually writing for me starts with whatever idea’s in my head for the moment. If it’s a scene I’ve been bouncing around for a while, it might have a song on my playlist, which I’ll then play over and over and over until the scene’s written to my liking.

Props to anyone who actually read the whole post lmfao. It’s a lot of my own bullshit, but if you’re actually interested in my story and characters, I’m begging you to let me know! Always craving that validation

NOW FOR TAGS!

@thegirlfairytalesforgot​ is the only one I can think of at the moment, but if any of my lovely followers have a passion project they’re working on, feel free to do the challenge and tag me when you post it! I’m always looking to read other peoples’ ideas!