#tw:emotional neglect

[love-elijah]

(ELIJAH LOVE) who looks an awful lot like (DEWANDA WISE) has just been seen around Las Rio!  Apparently (SHE) is a (34) year old (CIS FEMALE) born on (FEBRUARY 18th) and has been in the city for (20 YEARS (LEFT FOR A WHILE AND RETURNED)) and is a (TATTOO ARTIST/SHOP OWNER). If there is a quote to describe them it would be “SOFT SOUL: YOU ARE SO SENSITIVE, AND YOU THINK THAT’S WHAT’S WRONG WITH YOU… BUT IT’S SOMETHING BEAUTIFUL ABOUT YOU, IT’S WHAT MAKES YOU SO GOOD.” BUTTERFLIES RISING  - But we have yet to make up our mind if that is accurate. [Kia, 30+, She/her, EST]

I. BASIC

Full name: Elijah Simone Love

Nicknames: E, Lijah,

Age: 34

Face Claim: DeWanda Wise

Birthdate: February 18th

Hometown: Las Rio, NM 

Height: 5ft6

Sexual Orientation: Lesbionic

Marital Status: Single Pringle

Gender Identity: Cisgender female

Occupation: Artist/Tattoo Artist/Owner of ‘Love Ink’

Neighborhood: Downtown Las Rio

Hair Color: Brown

Eye Color: Hazel

Pets: Selena (black cat w/green eyes)

More info and Full bio below the cut

II. Personality

Moral Alignment: Chaotic good

Personality Type: Mediator (INFP)

Avatar Element: Water

GOT House: House Stark

Hogwarts House: Hufflepuff

Zodiac: Aquarius

Positive Traits: Passionate, creative, compassionate, witty, curious, empathetic,

Negative Traits: Jaded, opinionated, awkward, stubborn

Pet Peeves: People who are only concerned with their well being at the expense of others. Talking with your mouth full.

Bad Habits: Tunnel visioned. Emotional eating/drinking

III. Other

Religion: Agnostic.

Political Party: Liberal

Piercings: 5

Tattoos: 7

Typical Attire:.

Scent: Cocoa butter, lavender, and cedarwood & pituli

Hobbies: Painting, guitar, reading, volunteering, travel, eating

Phobias: fire (traumatic childhood event)

Psychiatric Disorders: Anxiety

Physical/Genetic Disorders: None.

IV. Biography

When politics is the family business, there are always heavy expectations on every member of said family. And that old adage is true, image is everything. Even before the invasive nature of social media, proper conduct in every public setting wasn’t a suggestion but a written in stone rule. Katherine Thompson and Michael Love both grew up in families that had some hand in the political world. From advisors, to lobbyists, to congressmen. These two families traveled in important circles, so it was no surprise to anyone when Kate and Mike found one another. The match was pleasing to their families, to say the least. They looked good on paper, a couple of lawyers headed for the senate. It was a perfect match. Luckily for the pair they’d actually fallen in love with one another.

The outside view of the pair’s life was picturesque. They married, practiced law at separate but equally prominent firms, before both throwing their hats in the political ring. Michael hated every minute of all of it, but there were those pesky expectations to live up to. Katherine, on the other hand, thrived. She was meant for that world, not simply bred for it. Katherine was a rising political star. She became one of Las Rio’s most beloved mayors. Her family had lived there for generations so it was the perfect place to get her start in the political world… the truth is she really did love the town.

Elijah Simone Love came at the complete wrong time but she was adored, especially by her father, he doted completely. Three years later one little Evelyn Anissa Love completed the brood. Michael took to fatherhood immediately, and it wasn’t long before he decided to take a job at a small nonprofit and help support his wife’s political career by being the primary caregiver to their children. He had finally found his calling, husband and father. Music lessons, dance recitals, elementary school bake sales, he was there for it all, and never made his wife feel an ounce of guilt for missing most of it. He was his girls’ whole world.

A young Elijah wanted nothing more than to make her parents proud, so when she was continuously called on to portray the image everyone wanted to see, perfect dutiful daughter, sister and student, she always obliged with a smile. Things became suffocating and the pressure of perfection weighed heavily on Elijah’s shoulders. No one seemed to notice or worse they didn’t care enough to jeopardize public standing.  The one thing that gave her solace when things got too difficult or her anxiety was too high was art. The release that came with the freedom of creating somehow provided her with room to breathe. In that room she learned much about herself and the world outside of the bubble her parents created. Authenticity was always important to Elijah so she pushed herself out of her comfort zone to give her work truth. The things she saw and learned, when sneaking off to places her parents would never willingly let her go, changed her view of the world.

While her mother’s political star continued to rise to places even the older woman couldn’t have imagined, her actual presence in her home became more sparse. She always made time for them in the event of a photo-op, Elijah noted, but Katherine couldn’t be bothered when it really mattered. She resented her mother for this and even more so she resented her father for falling in line and not advocating for his daughters. He’d always felt like her number one protector and he seemed to forget their best interest when it came to his wife’s career. Their relationship began to splinter.

It was Evelyn who gave Elijah purpose when it came to her family. Though the older sister rebelled she reigned it in in efforts to protect Evelyn from feeling the full wrath of their parents. There was very little Elijah wouldn’t do to protect her little sister, that’s why what happened next hurt more than anything ever could. Figuring out that she was gay wasn’t some long conflicted drawn out process. Elijah will tell anyone who asks her, that her first love was Ms Campbell, her kindergarten teacher. Her family’s knowledge of this didn’t come until much later. A 16 yr old E was found making out with a girl in her home. All hell broke loose. And as the unsuspecting teen slipped out the screaming match ensued. Things were said, the sort of things you can’t just take back. Evelyn took her parents’ side and broke Elijah’s heart. The last two years in her home were silent but still, ever the dutiful daughter, Elijah showed up when there was some political schmooze fest or press event.

Living a double life made high school a bit of a marathon. She went to a private school that required discretion for her family’s sake, so she wasn’t able to be herself there or home. She couldn’t talk about her art or the work she did in the inner-city that inspired so much of it. She was very anti-establishment and that meant most of the time anti-government and that was more reason to be at odds with her family and the life she’d lived for so long.

After months of a fairly intense application process, Elijah was accepted to California Institute of the Arts, continuing her love affair with artistic expression. The new found freedom away from the public eye was an awakening for her. New experiences unhindered by persona. She could just be, and she could be asked out by the girl who she’d been stumbling around for weeks and say yes without the scrutiny and worry of what having a gay daughter meant for her mother’s political career prospects. What a revelation.

After receiving her BFA, Elijah took some time in the world outside of school living and traveling and painting and found that making money just to support yourself as an artist presented a multitude of challenges. Very late one night a slightly tipsy and very curious Elijah made her way into an interesting tattoo parlor for her 3rd tattoo on a whim. There was something so cathartic about the process of getting a tattoo, but that night for some reason she found her mind wandering to the other side. What was it like to be the person to give ‘life’ to that for someone else, collaborate, design and create this permanent beauty on someone else’s body? She’d asked the tattoo artist so many questions that night, she’d talked herself right into an apprenticeship. And the rest as they say, was history. She fell in love with art all over again.

After a few years of making a name for herself in NYC, something about home called to Elijah. She decided there was no better place to open up her own shop and create some sort of stability in her life, for a while at least. Her family spent a lot of time in DC, she wasn’t likely to have to run into them too much.

V. HEADCANONS

Enjoys a good comicbook.

Ex-girlfriend, broke her heart real good and she definitely isn’t over it.

Father is very ill and dealing with that knowing how he treated her has Elijah in a spin