monleonrpg

[monleonrpg]

@nicjohnscn

[monleonrpg]

ACCEPTANCES!

Hi all! I just wanted to pop on and let you all know that we’ll be holding acceptances this FRIDAY. Send in your reserves and applications now — and don’t forget to check out our wanted connections before you do! We’re so excited to have you join us!

COADMIN SUMMER. ☆

[monleonrpg]

@russohq

[monleonrpg]

WELCOME TO MONLEON:

FULL NAME: Evren Mufty

OCCUPATION: Pilot

AGE & D.O.B.: 27 & May 11th.

RESIDENCE: Bougainvillea Park

ORIGINALLY FROM:  Monleon, Florida

HOW LONG THEY’VE BEEN IN TOWN: Native

BIOGRAPHY:

TW: Drug use & Overdose

You know what they say about the difference between raising a son and a daughter? All you do with a daughter is just try to keep her from getting screwed. All you do with a son is try to keep him from screwing himself.  When you’re a Mufty and the only boy there was always this high expectation for Evren.  He was the youngest but when his Mother, Zehra became pregnant and found out she was indeed having a boy their family was finally complete. They had a real heir. See, the Mufty’s were immigrants who originated from Turkey . They wanted the best for themselves and their future offspring. Formal education will make you a living; self education will make you a fortune. And what better way to make their own young dreams come true then by living up to their potential. They built an empire of becoming one of the most prominent of luxury yacht dealers on the East Coast. Now, this didn’t come without some blood, sweat and tears but nothing in life comes easy and the struggles make the end result that more satisfying.

Growing up, Evren couldn’t not indulge with the activities that was bestowed upon him. He had the latest and greatest clothing. Whatever trends there were in he was the first one at his school that usually set the standard. The popularity followed him like a shadow. Though he embraced it willingly. Maybe a little too much. It was like he was a celebrity and that attention was ever so addicting. The Mufty’s knew that Evren was partaking in not so friendly activities: partying, returning home late, smelling like Marijuana, finding used condoms in his brand new Range Rover (even if he was only 16) which had become his sweet 16 birthday present. All of these signs were clear indicators of what the future might hold for the man and that was a slow fall from grace. But they kind of brushed it under the rug as regular teenage activities. To them – their innocence wasn’t much better while growing up. Living in Çinçin, the slums were highly dangerous for it’s residents . Their typical day of sight seeing in their city was another cross being put up in memorial of another young life that was lost. Both of them grew up poor and was a mere miracle that they didn’t become another statistic or another body in body bag. So, of course they wanted their children to experience the royalties of their hard work. That was what life was about correct? To give your children what you never had and more.

The weight of his ego was sure to push the crust of the earth toward a breaking point. His own breaking point which he would soon stumble upon from his party lifestyle. At 18 - Evren was partying with a much older crowd and with the mind set that you could hang with the big dogs was a feeling that the male was all too familiar with. One night he had pushed himself to his maximum and did line after line of Cocaine. He was continuously an attention seeker and with that the weapon of his inflated ego came into play, but in reality when he thought he was hot shit he was just being damn right self destructive. That night was his fall from grace and if it wasn’t for the sharp and fully trained staff at Monleon Memorial, it was most likely he would have died that night. He had gone into a full seizure and was literally foaming at the mouth. To this day, Evren doesn’t like to think of that event as it’s a hard pill to shallow. Understanding and coping with the fact that his parents had the possibility at their front door of potentially burying their son, that grief is still overwhelming to this day.  Although no one can go back and make a brand new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending. To him, he needed to alienate from a present notion that surrounded him. Evren was his own person and he wanted to live free from a set of standards he had to follow or that at least seemed to be surrounding him. The more a man has, the more he wants. Instead of filling a vacuum, it makes one. Which he would refuse to entertain after getting a second chance.

Fast forward to the present: He lives more of a basic lifestyle and honestly it has caused some tension in his families name. Evren no longer wants to be the heir of their business.  Greed is a bottomless pit which exhausts the person in an endless effort to satisfy the need without ever reaching satisfaction. The man has quite an addictive personality, that still holds true to this day. But he has learned with maturity that he shouldn’t indulge in things and situations that would fuel those urges. Without them, he has cut the chord to it before it can even start to form. To say that Mr. Mufty was unimpressed would be a total understatement. But, the man still loves his son as Evren does too of course. You don’t choose your family. They are God’s gift to you, as you are to them. No matter what choices they might choose. Nowadays, his roots however are still partially lingering. As he still loves the water. In the end, the ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak. This lifestyle choice is far more humbling

EVREN MUFTY is portrayed by ALPEREN DUYMAZ and written by BETHANY.

[monleonrpg]

WELCOME TO MONLEON:

FULL NAME: Jude Bennett

OCCUPATION: Tattoo Artist.

AGE & D.O.B.: 27 years old. April 14th, 1994.

RESIDENCE: Bougainvillea Park

ORIGINALLY FROM:  Scottsdale, Arizona

HOW LONG THEY’VE BEEN IN TOWN: Nine years

BIOGRAPHY:

TW: cheating.

Jude Ainsley Bennett was the second-born in a family of five children to a pair of very Catholic parents. From the moment she was born she was thrown into the Catholic lifestyle; church every week and sometimes multiple days during the holidays, private all girls Catholic school, Communion, Sunday school, the whole Catholic shindig right down to her name (an homage to the patron saint of desperate cases and lost causes, fitting she thinks).

It didn’t take long for Jude to pick apart the lifestyle and realize it wasn’t for her and at the ripe age of fourteen she found herself rebelling against it, at least, she felt like a rebel but considering the fact that her family nor anyone else ever knew about her little ‘ha ha take that’ moments, did it really count as an act of rebellion? Still, she found little bits and pieces of herself as she kissed girls at school behind dark stairwells and doodled obscene words in the back-half of her school notebooks as she counted down the days until she would be free of the obligations and standards her family and the community expected of her.

As those days inched closer, she found herself continuing to play the role of oldest and beloved daughter in her family dynamic. Her parents doted on her and the ladies at church couldn’t get enough of her - if only they knew. At the age of sixteen, Jude found herself sneaking out after dinner one night to meet up with a friend, which wasn’t out of the ordinary for her and with parents who trusted her every move, she found it incredibly easy to get away with time after time. A few hours and a friend of a friend of that friend later, Jude was climbing back through her window just before the sun rose with swollen skin and a fresh tattoo of St. Jude’s flame settled low on her hip.

That night sparked an interest in her that quickly bloomed into a bonfire passion, fascinated by the art of taking something you created and putting it onto someone’s body, as though the skin became a canvas for your hands only. Jude, always creating art in some way or another, found herself craving that passionate lifestyle and as soon as she turned eighteen she found herself leaving Arizona and setting her sights on Florida.

The lifestyle, as with most artists, didn’t come easy. Jude found herself in Monleon with only a meager lifetime savings and no place to go. But, as she found herself spending the last of her money on a simple trailer on wheels outside of the city and microwave ramen in bulk to get her through a few months, she felt like she finally was able to breathe for the first moment in her life.

Jude was always someone who rarely lost her cool. Spending her life waiting out a lifestyle she knew she didn’t want for herself (and a never-ending wait for the shower to open up after four siblings fought to get ready in the morning), Jude had developed a calm and collected patience and a steady hand, something that eventually helped her land a paid internship with a tattoo parlor in the city. It wasn’t much, but it gave her enough money to move into a tiny apartment in Monleon, Florida.

Life seemed to pick up for her and the internship she had accepted had quickly turned into a full time job offer, an exciting piece of news she instantly had to stop herself from sharing with her family. Although she left home with the intent to distance herself from them, Jude found herself drawn back into the life she once had and despite fabricating every part of her life, like the respectable school she was definitely not attending or the very respectable boys she was definitely not dating, she found comfort in still having something that resembled family (even if it was all a sham).

Eventually, her two worlds faded together, and meeting her now ex-girlfriend at the age of twenty-two had played a huge part in that. In the beginning, Jude was content with it being just the two of them, spending every waking moment they could together, while her family back in Arizona new nothing of the life she was living states away. But things between Jude and the woman she had fallen in love with became serious and within the five years that their relationship lasted, she found herself coming out to her older brother and her mother, introducing them to a part of her life that she had kept hidden for so long. And she was glad she had, because when her then-girlfriend, who she had fallen for so deeply, who she had moved into a house in Bougainvillea Park with, and who she had even browsed through ring catalogs and shop windows for, ended up cheating on her, Jude’s brother and mom were there to help her gather the pieces of her fractured heart.

Since splitting with her ex-girlfriend, she’s been focusing on enjoying the finer things in life and not worrying so much about settling down and committing and instead finding comfort in working, nights out with friends, nights in with flings, and the playful love-hate relationship that she and her new roommate (to replace the loss of rent that came with her ex moving out) have come to develop over the last few months.

JUDE BENNETT is portrayed by ALYCIA DEBNAM-CAREY and written by ASHLEY.

[monleonrpg]

WELCOME TO MONLEON:

FULL NAME: Hayden Diaz

OCCUPATION: Influencer, freelance photographer

AGE & D.O.B.: 39, October 31st 1981

RESIDENCE: South Poinsettia

ORIGINALLY FROM: Wilmington, North Carolina

HOW LONG THEY’VE BEEN IN TOWN: 6 years

BIOGRAPHY:

On October 31st back in 1981, the Diaz family was completed. Elizabeth and Antonio Diaz had welcomed their third and final child into this World at 6:30 in the morning, with two older children named Thomas and Ryleigh impatiently waiting for their new sibling. Another beautiful baby girl was born and everyone wasn’t surprised one bit, they decided to name her Hayden. Her beautiful brown eyes opened and starred up at her mother and father, and they couldn’t of been happier and more in love with the little one. Hayden Amelia Davis was a name to remember.

Hayden’s childhood was pretty much perfect. She had two older siblings whom she loved, parents who were her best friends and a dog that she took care of. Living right smack on the the beach in Wilmington, North Carolina it helped that the girl was a fan of salty air and sea hair. Hayden would spend hours when she wasn’t in school in the ocean, swimming until the sun went down. Her parents had taught her however that education was the most important thing, and even though Hayden was labeled as the Wallflower early on throughout her school years, she studied hard and always got straight A’s. She made a good group of friends and never really felt alone while growing up. Hayden was really a happy kid. Aside from surfing, her hobbies included volleyball as she was placed on the junior varsity volleyball team in high school, she was also a fan of reading and writing. Even if Hayden was considered as a wallflower, the girl was a big part of her school and wrote for her schools newspaper and was on the Yearbook committee. It probably wasn’t the best clubs to be apart of, but Hayden didn’t care. In her Junior year of high school when you’re supposed to know what you want to do in life, Hayden figured out she really loved writing. Being editor in chief for her high school newspaper really helped with finding that passion. Getting along with her siblings, it helped that they were supportive when Hayden had told them she wanted to get into photography and create a blog. On her free days when she wasn’t so busy, that’s what the brunette was doing, was blogging and becoming obsessed with the World within it.

She soon got into fashion, and watched her blog soar with the content she was posting. When Hayden graduated from high school with honor roll and other achievements, Hayden decided to move out of her small town of Wilmington to New York City. She got accepted into FIT, and majored in Fashion Design, and minored in Film and Media. In college, Hayden pretty much kept to herself but again made a good group of friends. She didn’t party much, but whenever she did people around Campus knew who she was due to her blog. Never really getting used to the popularity, Hayden realized she was more than just a blogger. She was a content creator, and had decided during her Senior year of college that she wanted to take this job seriously. After researching more about the job she’s found a passion for, Hayden’s followers grew and grew.

When graduating from FIT again with honor roll and other achievements, once again always being good about school, Hayden realized she still loved photography. During the time she’d come home, Hayden decided to take it up upon herself to find a job that included photography. During the summer time throughout her teenage years, she worked at her local Aquarium. Taking up the job again, this time she became a photographer for them. However, after a few years of living back home, Hayden figured it was time to move again but this time she moved to some place she’s never been before to get a fresh start, which was Monleon, Florida. Hayden always loved to travel and always dreamed about starting over in another town, and that’s what she did. Still being a content creator, and now a freelance photographer, Hayden couldn’t of been happier with the decision she has made. Living in Monleon for six years now, she’s been working at another Aquarium and continues with her blog. She now has a Youtube Channel and is active on instagram and twitter, she has gained a ton of followers and is still passionate about what she does.

HAYDEN DIAZ is portrayed by JESSICA ALBA and written by BROOKE.

[monleonrpg]

WELCOME TO MONLEON:

FULL NAME: Axel Kolton

OCCUPATION: Boxer

AGE & D.O.B.: 38; January 6th, 1983

RESIDENCE: St. Rosemary’s District

ORIGINALLY FROM:  New York, New York

HOW LONG THEY’VE BEEN IN TOWN: 7 years

BIOGRAPHY:

TW: murder, substance abuse, imprisonment.

Axel James was born on a cold January night, in the hood of New York City, to a young girl who was barely sixteen and homeless, and a father who split soon after hearing the news of a pregnancy. This wouldn’t seem good for the young mother, and her newborn son. Only, there would seem to come a blessing, in the most unlikely of forms. Patrica James’ son’s biological father’s family? That’s right. Michael Kolton’s younger brother and mother stepped up to help the woman and child he had left behind, in order to follow his own desires. Allowing Trish to continue on with her schooling, and make something out of herself. Something her and her young son could be proud of. And for years to come, that was exactly what happened. She went through school, and became a nurse at a local hospital that paid fairly well. Her son never had to feel as though he went without. Although things were still pretty tight around the house. And they both had the support and love from a family they never thought would be. Axel had found his first couple of years surrounded by two strong women, and a father figure better than his own. There really was nothing more he could’ve asked for. Patrica James, a woman who grew into her own, never really found time outside of work or raising her son, to date. Or even really pay much attention to the opposite sex. She figured love just wasn’t something that’d be in the cards for her. How wrong she’d end up being, when she found herself confronted by a truth she’d never quite imagine. Elijah Kolton, her son’s father’s not too much younger brother, had confessed his love for her. At first, this wasn’t something she cared to even humor, finding the whole idea funny. It wouldn’t be long until she’d realize just how important this man had become to her, how important his friendship had become to her. And that she too hadn’t wanted to live without him.

It would turn into this winded love affair, one that just seemed so right, and by the time Axel was fifteen, they both sat him down and announced that they’d be getting married. This was news that excited the young male, even more so when Elijah asked him if he’d be okay with him adopting him. This was a no brainer, after all, Elijah had been his father for as long as he could remember. Within half a year, the pair would be married, and Axel would officially be a Kolton. Everything seemed like it was perfect, and for a long time it was. At sixteen, the news of a new addition would fill the Kolton household. Soon a little baby girl would be entering the world, blessing them all with her presence. A little girl that they’d name Mikayla Jayde Kolton. Axel would turn out to be the doting big brother, always there to help in any way he possibly could. Even long after he graduated, and began college. It’d be at the age of twenty-two when everything the Kolton family seemed to work for would come crashing down around them. Axel had been in class when he got the call, and missing it would be something that came to haunt him for awhile. Twenty-six missed calls, and twelve text messages. Elijah had been killed. In a robbery gone wrong at a local gas station. His little sister had been there to witness it. Nothing seemed real, nothing was okay. To make matters worse, they’d all come to find out that Trish Kolton was pregnant with her third baby. Only a few weeks along. And now three kids without a father.

The birth of Mariah Jocelyn Kolton was nothing short of a miracle, of course, but it was hard to go through with. Knowing that Elijah wouldn’t be there to welcome his daughter home. Axel had started withdrawing from school, finding himself in the gym more and more each day. The grief he felt did better against that of a punching bag, than it did against notes and text books. Despite his pain, however, he made sure to be there for his sisters. Especially Mikayla who wasn’t herself anymore. Considering she had been there to watch her father get killed. But what no one expected was the fall Trish Kolton would take. One night, at work, she had stolen a few pills from one of her patients. The next night, a few more, and then a couple more. Eventually the hospital had realized this, especially after she didn’t seem like herself anymore. She was asked to resign, and with this she did, before fading completely into the streets of New York. Her interest less and less in her children had become known to Axel, and his grandmother. Of course, this was her grief. It wouldn’t be long before the mother of three would find herself hard into drugs to numb whatever she was feeling. Causing a lot of the responsibilities for her kids to fall upon her oldest and her mother-in-law.

One day while he was at the gym, he’d find himself coming head to head with a top-grade trainer. One that wanted to know if he’d have any interest in taking up a fight, the cash bonus being almost too good to pass up. It didn’t take much to convince the young male, and therefore, he began dipping his toe in the waters of martial arts. Whatever might’ve seemed like a promising future, would be destroyed when he’d find himself with his hands over his head, and a gun pointed at his head. Arrested in a drug bust that hadn’t had anything to do with him, in the first place. Always being the kid who looked out for the ones he loved, he found himself constantly trying to help his mother. Rehabs, breaking up drug deals, whatever, you name it. Aware that it wasn’t ever the smartest idea, but he knew that this person wasn’t his mother, and he wanted her to snap out of it. Elijah wouldn’t have wanted to see her like this. Therefore, he found himself taking the fall for a raid in which his mother had been at fault for. Giving him ten years in prison, with good behavior, he was out in eight. When he was released, it’d be his grandmother and youngest sister, now almost eleven, welcoming him with open arms. While his other sister sat in the car, angry that he left. He promised he wouldn’t leave. Everyone always leave.

The small family would come to relocate to Monleon, FL, where his grandmother had moved after she gained custody of the girls, in an attempt for a new start. As far as where Trish Kolton was? This was anyone’s guess. Nearing almost seven years since he had been released from prison, Axel has hit the gym harder than ever, determined to better his life. His fight for a better life, for a dream he thought he had lost so long ago, would make it’s real appearance within the last year. Everything changing for him for the best, as the money rolls in, and his success in the box goes highly noticed, only building his profile. Despite his success, he still remains rather humble, and close to home where his sisters and grandmother are, who are just as equally proud of him. For him, there is no where to go, but up.

With his heart being as big as it is, always, Axel found himself innertwined with a woman that had quite her troubling steaks. The relationship at times, rather toxic. Off and on, the pairing would go for a little over a year, up until she ended up pregnant. After the birth of their son, Elijah Jordan “EJ”, she would disappear, leaving son and father together. Despite not liking the boys mother, but any means, the kolton family adores the hell out of now 2 year old EJ.

AXEL KOLTON is portrayed by CHARLIE HUNNAM and written by MATI.

[monleonrpg]

WELCOME TO MONLEON:

FULL NAME: Madison Watts

OCCUPATION: Production Assistant at MX7 Production Studios

AGE & D.O.B.: 26 / October 13th 1994

RESIDENCE: South Poinsettia

ORIGINALLY FROM:  Monleon, Florida

HOW LONG THEY’VE BEEN IN TOWN: Native

BIOGRAPHY:

TW: parental death, abortion

Madison was the third of four children born into the Watts family. And for the most part, you could class the Watts family as a pretty average one. Madison grew up in a mostly happy, and as you can imagine loud household. I suppose that’s one of the perks of having siblings. There was usually always someone around to go bother, or to bother you. With having two older siblings came the pressure of living up to the standard that had been set. Madison was aware of this pressure, but she wasn’t as concerned about it as her parents maybe wanted her to be.

That standard carried its way into Madison’s school life too. Teachers were aware of the Watts family name, and expected great things from Madison. It wasn’t that Madison didn’t do well at school. She would pass her classes, and get decent grades which meant to fell middle of the pack. Of course her parents were happy, or shall we say content, with this average result. It didn’t stop the reminders of being like her siblings, and to just study harder and “apply herself”. Madison would often grow tired of hearing the same speech over and over again. By the time Madison was in high school, it got the point where she would started to walk away from the conversation having heard enough. At the end of the day, in Madison’s eyes, she wasn’t failing any of her classes and was getting good enough grades that would help her in the future. What was so wrong with that?

When she was 16, Madison got a bit of a shock to her system when her mother died in a car accident. Madison didn’t find out straight away. Her father waited until she came home after spending the night at a friends house. And, of course, Madison didn’t want to believe it. To top things off, Madison felt even worse with her last conversation with her mother being an argument. Full of regret, Madison took it harder than her siblings. But she tried not to show it. Instead Madison found ways to avoid thinking and processing it all. She would spend as little time as possible at home, thinking that would help. And by the time it came for Madison to start her senior year, she then threw herself more into her extracurricular activities. While also joining any new ones she could.

Madison didn’t face much difficulty when it came to getting into college. She kept up her grades at the average standard, and had all of her extracurriculars under her belt. At first, she wasn’t sure where to go. And there was the temptation to stay in Florida. But in the end Madison decided to leave home, and find her feet elsewhere in the world. She took the big chance, and moved to New York and started attending NYU.

Life in the city gave Madison a boost of confidence, she managed to make a great circle of new friends and have a few not-so-serious relationships. That was until she met Oliver. It started as a casual relationship, but the two quickly fell for each other. There wasn’t much question to them moving in together once Madison had graduated from NYU and had decided to stay in the city, considering returning to NYU after taking a gap year.

The couple of years after having graduated, Madison was happy. She was gaining credits to help her career path, she had a loving boyfriend, had great friends and was getting ready to go back to NYU. And then Madison had a gut feeling to take a pregnancy test, which she was right in doing. It wasn’t at all what Madison wanted. She wasn’t ready for a baby. Her career had barely begun, and was about to return to university. Madison had only been with Oliver for two years, to her that was too early for their relationship. Especially considering they’d not spoke about their future in that way much. Madison sat Oliver down to share the news, but got a very different reaction from him. He tried to reassure her that they could do this together, they’d find a way to manage. But nothing he said managed to calm Madison’s panic and over-thinking, which in the end lead to her getting an abortion. It was that decision that shattered their relationship.

Madison withdrew her positions of returning to NYU, and she left the city within the month. She returned to Florida. To start with, Madison moved back into her family home. And she could tell her father was happy to have her back. It didn’t take too long for Madison to find her feet again. She was home after all. Within a few months Madison was moving into her own place in Monleon.

MADISON WATTS is portrayed by LILY JAMES and written by CAIT.

[monleonrpg]

WELCOME TO MONLEON:

FULL NAME: Natalia Garcia

OCCUPATION: Fashion Designer & Social Media Influencer

AGE & D.O.B.: 28  & December 5, 1992

RESIDENCE: St. Rosemary’s District

ORIGINALLY FROM: Monleon, Florida

HOW LONG THEY’VE BEEN IN TOWN: Native

BIOGRAPHY:

TW: Death, Transphobia

Natalia Bella Garcia was born in Monleon, Florida to her proud Mexican-American parents, Alberto and Mariana. Her father had passed away when she was just a few months old, and she was raised by her single mother who worked as a maid in some of the wealthier neighbourhoods.

She was assigned male at birth, and most of her childhood had been spent questioning her gender identity. She had always known that there was something different about her, but it hadn’t been until high school did she allow herself to learn more about who she was.

Natalia had her high school English teacher - Mrs. Baker - to thank for that, as she had offered her the support and the resources she needed when Natalia had first confided in her teacher that she had been questioning her gender identity. It hadn’t been easy for Natalia to trust someone and come out to them, but she was certainly grateful that her teacher had only made her feel valid. While having this kind of support had certainly made things easier for Natalia, a part of her had wondered if her Roman Catholic family would be just as supportive.

Her mother was quite supportive of her when she had come out to her, but her extended family… not so much. Her grandparents, aunts and uncles shunned her for simply being who she was, and shamed her mother’s parenting for being supportive of her daughter. But her mother was willing to stand by her daughter’s side no matter what. Truth be told, Natalia knew that she was one of the lucky ones.

With their extended family now refusing to financially support them, Mariana was left to work twice as much in hopes of saving up for her daughter’s gender reassignment surgery. Feeling responsible for her mother’s financial dilemma, Natalia offered to help out with her mother’s work during the weekends; she had mastered the art of completing domestic tasks by the time she was ten, so it was no surprise that she was able to help her mother at a time like that.

It was around this time that Natalia had met Dr. Newman, a retired plastic surgeon whom her mother was working for. He was a childless man, and Natalia was able to offer him some company whenever she joined her mother at work. The man certainly seemed to appreciate that, as he had spent most of his days playing tennis with his friends at the country club. It was nice to be around someone who was young. He’d seen her as the grandchild he never had, and she’d seen him as the father figure she always wanted. Their bond was really like no other; she even addressed him as ‘abuelito.’

Dr. Newman had offered to pay for her reassignment surgery, which she had been rather hesitant to accept at first. But she was grateful for that, as she had always worried that she had caused a financial burden on her mother. Nevertheless, she proceeded with her transition the moment she turned 18, and she could not be happier to be in a place where she felt so loved and accepted by so many people in her life. Again, she was one of the lucky ones.

Upon Dr. Newman’s insistence, she enrolled at the University of Tampa to pursue her bachelor’s degree, with a major in Business and a minor in Women and Gender studies. When she was in her junior year, Dr. Newman passed away and it turned out that he had left his entire fortune to Natalia, as if the man hadn’t done enough for her and her mother.

With her newfound wealth, Natalia convinced her mother to finally retire and sent her off to live in her own villa in Mexico; mama sure deserved the vacation. Following her graduation, she interned with various Florida-based fashion designers before eventually launching her own online fashion company called ‘New & Bella’, where she creates and sells various items of clothing. Her brand is known to be size inclusive and locally sourced, and has been quite successful in the last two years.

Aside from being a fashion designer, she is also a social media influencer and trans rights activist who uses her platform to bring awareness about various social issues as well as promote local businesses.

NATALIA GARCIA is portrayed by ZION MORENO and written by ANNIE.

[monleonrpg]

WELCOME TO MONLEON:

FULL NAME: Natalie Nordegraf

OCCUPATION: Musician, Record Producer and DJ

AGE & D.O.B.: 26 / March 10th, 1994

RESIDENCE: Foncebadón

ORIGINALLY FROM:  Monleon, Florida

HOW LONG THEY’VE BEEN IN TOWN: 17 years

BIOGRAPHY:

TW: light mentions of drugs and abandonment

Raised between New York and Florida, Natalie Nordegraf’s life was always a dichotomy of pushes and pulls, but then again, they were the type who loved working against the status quo. Their earliest memories were of white picket fences, people coming to their beck and call, and the quaint, pictorial scenes from their bedroom balcony―marble fountains and a great verdant lawn where they usually ran about, lost in a world of their own. Their early life was very much a spectacle: behind the scenes, nannies and professional caretakers played the part of their mother, and in the spotlight, on dark stages before the flashing paraphernalia of paparazzi, their mother played the part she had forsaken for the sake of freedom. Natalie, far from being a true conglomerate of Charlotte’s ornamental grandeur and Thomas’ natural born charisma, tried to smile through it all despite their discomfort with being in the spotlight, both a shot of malt and its remedy combined in a sweet dose, auburn-haired and brown eyed, a flaming glory which was only waiting for morning to bloom.

A pop of color in any landscape and incredibly ironic in a sense that was often viewed as different; they were the giggle at the funeral, the kid living in the phrase “go big or go home”. Growing up as a small celebrity in a big state, it wasn’t only the family money (vintage Porches, two rugged Golden retrievers, a snapping flagpole in the circular drive through), but the reputation which preceded them; which came to define the Nordegraf’s only child. Their family had long forged a straight and scenic path before Natalie, smoothing out every possible inconvenience that could have risen. Thomas was the money and the name, Charlotte his beloved, docile wife; and Natalie—well, Natalie was the one who seemed to break up the image of their perfect family, the one who appeared in the doorway, bright-eyed and tousle-haired, clothes stained with grass stains. Wild, unrefined.

Natalie was born with the kind of brain that took some growing into. Not necessarily on their part; they never questioned their own peculiarity when it was the rest of the world that seemed to lag a pace behind. Truthfully, Natalie was happy to be Natalie, but they were never happy being lonely. They loved having friends, few as they came, fleeting as they were. Lanky for their age and awkward, they sought out human connections eagerly and did not fail for lack of trying; making other kids like you was just a little harder when they seemed to exist on a different wavelength, and communication across frequencies didn’t come easily to them. When everyone else rushed outside to play kickball or hopscotch, Natalie spent their recess indoors—tapping at the glass of the classroom’s monarch tank, craning their neck nearly ninety degrees to solemnly peer at the hanging chrysalises. When the girls were chatting away about TV shows and giggling about their classroom crushes, Natalie tried to join in with a lively discussion about the latest Lord of the Rings book they’d just finished or their current favorite band to listen to—but got nothing but dirty looks in return. Once, after watching everyone else trade Pokemon cards at lunch, Natalie had brought in hand-made cards of their own creature inventions and shared them around happily. They’d found them all crumpled in the trash at the end of the day, the drawings crudely vandalized. At the time, they didn’t really understand it, but the reason for their ostracization was simple: “gifted” did not cancel out “weird” in the eyes of other fifth-graders.

So like most oddballs and offbeats, childhood was simply a waiting game for Natalie. There eventually came a time when being different was no longer the leprosy of the playground, and dragging around an over creative mind didn’t always get in the way of every social interaction they attempted. Being quirky was no longer weird; it was admirable, enviable, a label that came with it’s own inverted cool factor even in the face of the letterman-wearing jocks and pony-tailed cheerleaders. Now that the barriers had been lifted, their friendly and extroverted personality left them with no shortage of friends. Their quirks flourished in the company of those who could appreciate them. High school was also an era of enlightenment for Natalie in other ways; with their extraordinary knack for learning multiple instruments and blossoming love of all things artistic, they’d never even realized how starved they’d been on the music and art curriculum of their previous years until they started teaching themself. From the first time they learned to read sheet music to holding a guitar in their hands, they felt the click of something falling rightfully in it’s place. It didn’t get much closer to love at first sight than that.

For someone who’s brain had seemed to have a decent enough start, their personality took longer to fully bloom. Maybe it was those early years of classroom and home isolation that had stunted it, or the fact that even their identity needed some time to catch up with their creative flow; whatever the case, only by their last years of high school did the “weird girl” start to resemble the real Natalie Veronica Nordegraf: finally coming out as queer and non-binary, of eccentric style, multiplying tattoos, and the speaking rate of a NASCAR engine. The strange, colorful appearance gave off one impression; opening their mouth into an excited conversation about making synthesized music beats or the latest episode of Attack on Titan turned it into entirely another. By the time they embarked upon their four years at University, Natalie had self-actualized into such a bundle of contradictions that everything about them seemed designed purely to baffle people—but truthfully, they were never the kind of person to blueprint their personality.

Their parents decided that it was better off keeping their one and only child away from the spotlight for fear of extreme scrutiny concerning their peculiar nature. Unsurprising as Natalie hadn’t ever truly felt seen by their parents—especially after coming out. Their relationship with Charlotte and Thomas was always a difficult one, if anything non-existent. Still, when Natalie was just a freshman in college, their mother had a mid-life stroke and it affected them all the same. Natalie was ready and willing to drop all their classes and fly home on the next available flight, but their father assured them there was no need for such drastic measures—they were to stick to their studies, and things would be just fine at home. And they were, for a while. Charlotte battled her way through a long, slow recovery to retrain some of the functions she’d lost, and regain pieces of the charismatic, sharp-witted woman she’d always been—until the second stroke blindsided them all. This bleed was worse than the last. It was a hemorrhage Hiroshima that wilted Charlotte Nordegraf overnight, and wiped her personality clean like a hard drive. Natalie didn’t even get a chance to say goodbye to their mother—the real Charlotte, not the empty husk that had replaced her by the next morning.

Their mother’s steep and sudden decline was a fissure that would eventually crack the family completely in two; Natalie, helpless and frustrated in grief, found themself blaming their father for not prioritizing their own mother over a year or two of school. Maybe being at home would’ve helped her. Maybe it would’ve changed things. The crack soon widened into a chasm when their father admitted that he was looking into long-term care facilities that could provide for his wife better than he could; Natalie protested vehemently, but argument after argument amounted to nothing. From that moment on, Natalie let the distance between them grow without so much as another phone call. Taking on one part-time job, then another, Natalie found that a constant stream of work kept their brain a little too exhausted for them to continue on with their studies. Eventually, instead of becoming a security blanket school became a burden; and Natalie found themself dropping out.

The next three years passed by in a blur after that; they shacked up with some friends turned roommates, got a few new tattoos, learned more instruments, and tried to focus more on their passions despite the unresolved trauma they carried with them. Eventually, Natalie moved inside the old house that their father never frequented and that they grew up in—entirely too large for one person but they found a small solace in the space surprisingly. Ever since, Natalie has tried to anchor their life as best as they could in their hometown. Though their family is now a family of their own choosing: people who love them as unapologetically as Natalie loves them. Though their heart may still ache for what has been lost, it’s a pain that will soften with time; for now, they are content to find comfort simply in belonging. All those years of loneliness, all that time spent hungering for friends to call their own, and it’s back home in Monleon that they’d found their place—and the utmost fulfillment of a puzzle piece that’s finally discovered where it fits.

They prefer to dwell in the positive. Natalie’s passions include music, playing gigs with their band Dommy Mommy Propaganda, gaming, learning to play new instruments, animals, burgers, fries, beer, and lots of weed. On a typical night out, Natalie will be amiable, easygoing, give off a lot of himbo/bimbo energy while being effortlessly awkward. As they talk weightlessly, you may notice a sadness lurking behind their eyes. As they swig their beer, you may also notice them absently thumbing the tiny, claw-machine silver pendant that hangs around their neck—the rare gift from their mother. Though they still dare to dream big; they are currently getting into producing and putting more of their music out there.

NATALIE NORDEGRAF is portrayed by BRIGETTE LUNDY-PAINE and written by TOMMIE.

[monleonrpg]

WELCOME TO MONLEON:

FULL NAME: Amelia Preston

OCCUPATION: Art consultant and educator at Merrick Art Museum

AGE & D.O.B.: 35 & October 13th, 1985

RESIDENCE: St. Rosemary District

ORIGINALLY FROM: New York City, New York

HOW LONG THEY’VE BEEN IN TOWN: Four years

BIOGRAPHY:

TW: Mental illness

One of Amy’s first memories is of looking into one unblinking eye and a cloudy, blue sky. She doesn’t remember much more, but in her mother’s telling of the story a three year old Amy stood transfixed in front of a Magritte at the Museum of Modern Art, unwilling to budge. Renee had brought her to work that rainy Saturday morning, before opening, and held her hand as they walked through unusually quiet hallways. Amy shuffled along quietly, listening but not comprehending her mother’s quiet narration about the paintings, which was probably more for herself than her daughter anyway. When they reached The False Mirror, though, Amy stopped and stared. After long minutes, Renee picked her up and carried her off into the next room. Although Amy’s mental image of the event has been colored more by her mother’s retellings than her own memory, she accepts the gravity Renee assigns to it: that it was the first time Amy fell in love.

It’s an idealized version of what could’ve been just an adolescent fixation on the colors in the painted sky, but it lead to her mother taking Amy to work with her whenever she got the chance, carrying her up and down the six floors of the MoMA, telling her stories about the van Goghs and Picassos and Pollocks until Amy knew them all by heart. With both nature and nurture at work, she took on her mother’s love of art. Their frequent trips were excuses to be around it but, more importantly, excuses to be around each other that stretched over years and years of Amy’s growing up. She was lucky – she had the combination of a childhood love and the privilege of access to understanding as much of it as she could, and she seized on it. Much of what she remembers of the first decade of her life is the MoMA, the Met, the Guggenheim, the Whitney, and her mother leading the way.

The first signs of anything being wrong for a family which was more or less perfect started when Amy was reaching the end of that decade. Although she didn’t know the word for the root cause of it at the time, her mother started to become more erratic, going through episodes of depression or paranoia that Amy and her older siblings – still children – found more alarming than their doctor father. Things escalated over a few years, but to Amy they felt like the blink of an eye. The museum trips slowed to an eventual stop; Amy was too young to ride the subway alone, their father had thrown himself into his work, her oldest brother had left home, and her older sister had her hands full taking care of both their mother and their youngest sister. During those years, Amy withdrew, never sure of her place. She tried to help out at home as much as she could, but Renee’s worsening condition scared her. She felt helpless watching her once-vibrant mother become something else entirely and let her older sister take the lead, following helplessly in her wake, even though that had never been her way before.

The sense of self that Amy had only just started to cultivate started to slip away from her by degrees. Although she was quiet about her fear and worry, there were days when she couldn’t help but let it consume her. There were times when she would sit with her mother on her more lucid days, they would talk as they always had, and Amy would think that things were changing for the better. Her hopes rose every time, but it never hurt any less when they were swiftly put down. What saved her in the end was an eventual return to her first love, which she’d always associated so closely with her mother and had let slip away as her mental health deteriorated. With urging and help from a family friend, one of Renee’s former coworkers at the MoMA who would check in on Amy and her sisters every so often, Amy pulled together a portfolio during her eighth grade year and sent it out to arts high schools all over the city. Come fall, Amy was starting her freshman year at LaGuardia High School.

Being once again surrounded by something she could both see herself in and discover herself though, she started to return to a feeling of belonging to something, which in turn directed her long-wandering feelings of self. Things were still hard at home – if anything, they got harder every day – but she had something to hang onto again. At the end of her freshman year, though, she was at a friend’s apartment in Brooklyn, celebrating the end of their first year and a successful exhibition, when she got a call telling her that her older sister had been gravely injured at the hands of their mother in the throes of a psychotic episode. Once again, things moved very quickly; Theo was off to Stanford not long after her recovery, Renee was moving to Florida to get better care, leaving Amy and Holly in New York with an absent father. Amy couldn’t help the feelings of abandonment that overwhelmed her, but she managed to wrangle them and redirect them to taking care of her younger sister, seven years her junior. Their family was scattered across the country, but Amy was unwavering in her efforts to make sure that Holly never felt that she was alone.

After LaGuardia came Columbia, as Amy decided to stay in the city for as long as Holly was in school. Although she loved creating she knew there wasn’t much of a future for her as an artist, so she started down the same path her mother had once taken, pursuing a degree in art history. She ended up living at home for seven more years as she finished her undergraduate and then graduate degree at Columbia, through Holly becoming a legal adult, their mother’s recovery, and their parents’ inevitable divorce. She loved New York, had never thought much about life outside of it, but when she graduated for the second time at twenty-five, she knew that it was time to move on. She decided to throw caution to the wind and take a leap, figuring she had nothing to lose. Six months later, she was moving to Paris to pursue her doctorate at the Sorbonne.

Once the initial culture shock was over, living and working in Paris was like living inside of a dream. The language was challenging and the people were rude, but Amy adapted quickly enough and basked in the feeling of being in the very center of the art world. The three years she ended up spending there were fast-paced and exciting like nothing else had ever been. Toward the end, however, she started to feel very tired, very quickly. When she stopped to look back at her life, she realized that she hadn’t really come up for air since she started high school. She loved her work, but it had taken over her entire life. After a while, she came to the decision to leave the Sorbonne and move back to New York, where she found her own apartment and decided to take a break as long as her savings would allow. She remained present in the art world, using her school connections as well as her mother’s old ones at the MoMA to stay connected, but mostly enjoyed being a twenty-something in New York City, taking deep breaths for the first time in years.

As she evaluated her goals and priorities during those years, she returned to old dreams and wants that had either been discarded or pushed to the back of her mind to make room for her work. She realized how much she’d loved taking care of Holly for all of those years, the unconditional willingness and generosity that it had brought out in her. She sat on an idea for a year, mulling it over and going over all of her options before asking her best friend if he’d father her child. Her daughter, Olive Renee, was born on Easter of 2015, and she changed everything.

Amy and Olive made the move to Monleon at the end of 2016; Amy wanted to be close to her family, and Monleon seemed like a good place for her daughter to have a childhood. With her experience and a hoard of positive recommendations following her from New York, she quickly got a job as an educator at the Merrick Art Museum and began buying art for private clients, the latter easily being the more lucrative field, but the former being something that genuinely makes her happy. Although she sometimes misses the rush of a city and the endless inquisitiveness that came with her work in academia, she wouldn’t trade what she has now for anything.

AMY PRESTON is portrayed by COBIE SMULDERS and written by KAT.

[monleonrpg]

WELCOME TO MONLEON:

FULL NAME: Sadie Wolfsohn

OCCUPATION: Filmmaker & Photographer

AGE & D.O.B.: 34 years old; November 1, 1986

RESIDENCE: Foncebadón

ORIGINALLY FROM:  Monleon, Florida

HOW LONG THEY’VE BEEN IN TOWN: One month

BIOGRAPHY:

TW: implied abuse, terminal illness.

Sadie’s earliest memories are of slammed doors and muffled arguments, cowering with her siblings in a household too fraught to be called home. Her love of film began as an excuse to get out of the house, as she spent hours in the local movie theaters, or wandering around town with her secondhand camera. She found her calling young and never wavered, her ambition and perfectionism propelling her forward.

Her mother finally filed for divorce when Sadie was a teenager. Money had never been plentiful, and now it seemed that there was none at all, with the family crammed into an apartment too small for four people. She worked more hours than she could manage, both to contribute and to get some breathing room, using what free time she had to build a portfolio.

The sleepless nights paid off, and she was accepted to the Rhode Island School of Design. After graduation, she moved to New York City, paying the bills by photographing weddings first and then fashion, moonlighting with fine-art photography and short films.

Her first feature, a self-financed microbudget film that unexpectedly won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance, put her on the map as a filmmaker. Sadie’s subsequent work, though it was too experimental to be crowd-pleasing, cemented her status as one of the most innovative auteurs working, beloved by arthouse audiences. Her latest film, a horror-thriller, became a sleeper hit and an awards favorite. 

And then Sadie’s mother got sick. To her own surprise, she didn’t feel a moment of hesitation about packing up and moving back to Monleon, to be close to her family for the first time in adulthood, and to work on her next screenplay. Despite the circumstances, this is the first time in ages that she’s really had a break — a bittersweet thing for a workaholic like her. She’s living in the kind of house she dreamed of as a child in the town she worked so hard to leave, marveling at how some things are uncannily the same and others seem completely foreign. The same could be said for Sadie herself.

SADIE WOLFSOHN is portrayed by ZOË KRAVITZ and written by WINTER.

[monleonrpg]

WELCOME TO MONLEON:

FULL NAME: Cierra Lennox

OCCUPATION: MUA & Social media influencer

AGE & D.O.B.: 33, October 13th, 1987

RESIDENCE: Merrick Village

ORIGINALLY FROM:  Manhattan, New York

HOW LONG THEY’VE BEEN IN TOWN: 13 years

BIOGRAPHY:

TW: miscarriage, death, substance abuse

Born the second oldest of the Lennox family, on a beautiful, yet chilly, October night, in the upper east side of New York City; there was no short of happiness to go around. A beautiful little girl, that would go on to be called Cierra Katarina and she’d be nothing short of perfection. At least for a couple of years. The Lennox family never had to worry about their oldest daughter doing anything wrong, always respectful, and on top of her studies. Never fearing that she’d go on to place shame or disrespectful of the family’s name. No, she was everything a parent could hope and dream of, and this; well, this seemed to bring extra pressure from her mother. More so when Ragan was born, and the family would come to see just what a spit fire she’d be. It was a relief to momma Lennox, that her oldest daughter kept the kind of tact that she believed would be important. But while she was being praised by her mother for being such a — lady, she couldn’t help but admire the spunk that her baby sister had. In some ways, she almost envied it.

To look at Cierra Lennox, it’d almost seem as though the perfect child thing came effortlessly to her. She came off almost shy, and timid in her surrounding, yet, what this was really about was an awkward and unsure of herself. It would be at the age of twelve that Cierra would find themselves working among their father, or maybe more like, in front of him. Finding herself cast in a movie that would go on to be world successful, and still be well known today. This would launched the young Lennox into a stardom they weren’t all that sure if they wanted. She had a cute childish innocent, beautiful brown eyes eyes, and long dark hair— this was gold to just about any casting director. And for the next four years, Cierra would find herself a child star, as well as a star-A student and daughter at home. And even going into modeling. This, of course, finding its way to drown her, as everyone expected you to be perfect, therefore, she found herself eating less and less. Which would come to make her an easy target for notorious bad bitch, tattoo artist, Kate Rose, who was six years older than Cierra’s seventeen.

If you were to ask Cierra how it all happened, she wouldn’t be able to give you a straight answer. All she could say was that she had attended a party, one that would help change the course of her life. It had been a party she had been invited to by one of her model friends, who’s boyfriend happened to be in a rock band. Normally well put together, goodie-good two shoes Cierra wouldn’t be caught at such a thing. But tonight, tonight, she decided she’d go. And before she knew it, she had had enough alcohol in her system, and the feeling of a high so great. Her and Kate had found themselves flirting, and grinding on each other all night. This, of course, left no surprise when she’d then find herself alone, in a strange bed, the next morning. This would mark it as her first time, and she could barely remember it. Kate and Cierra wouldn’t come to see each other again, until it would seem that Kate would be one of the photographers on a shoot she would be doing. Surprisingly, the awkwardness you’d expect wasn’t there. In fact, they seemed to carry on as if they’ve known each other their whole lives. It wouldn’t be long before this would turn into a secret affair. One that no one really knew about, and for Cierra, that was important. As she still didn’t quite know what was happening, or why.

But along with this affair came a much darker side of the limelight, and what it’d mean for the young girl. Kate, who she’d sometimes nickname Rosie, wasn’t as innocent as she might’ve seen. In fact, her life was far from it. And before Cierra knew, she’d be hooked on drugs, and partying. Causing the young girl to cause a scene almost larger than Lindsay Lohan. The shame that her family never thought she’d bring them, was suddenly all she brought them. And it wouldn’t be much longer before it came out that she had been seeing another girl. It wouldn’t be until she hit twenty-one, that it all would come to a haul for the young rich girl. In and out of rehabs, and a incredibly toxic relationship, it’d come the death of the woman she believed she loved, to set her back on the right path. It was a car accident, Rosie had been driving, and Cierra had been intoxicated. A fight had broken out, and out of reaction, Cierra found herself grabbing a hold of the wheel, and swerving. In a effort to regain control, Rosie fought her, and this landed with their car going over a ditch, and rolling. Both girls had been hurt, but only Rosie didn’t make it. As for Cierra, it’d take some time for her to regain full control. Distraught, was what she was, however— and she found herself with eighteen months probation for her part in the accident.

With the support of her family, this which surprised her, Cierra was able to find her way back to who she used to be. Finally committing to rehab, she’d find herself getting clean, and along with her family, they’d come to leave LA and move to a somewhat quieter area; Monleon. During her time in rehab, she’d come to find a new passion in life; cosmetology. And as she eased out of rehab, and embraced her recovery, she’d find herself attending courses for her cosmetology degree. Really enjoying hair, and then later on; make up. By the time she was 26, she was making a new career out of her skills. Even coming back to media with such talent. Only this time, social media. Ranking all her social media accounts out show casing her beauty talents more over her fail career as an actress. She was capable of making a living that way.

It would only seem that her life would start to look up even more during a chance encounter. It would bring her to meeting her wife. Somehow they seemed to hit it off, and quickly it’d turn into whirl wind romance. It almost seemed like they were the perfect match. She was carefree and fun, and this was able to remind her that she could also be just as much. She was something completely different then Rosie. She brought out a more easy-going person, while she brought out a sense of determination within her. Able to see just how bright the female was, Cierra wanted to make sure she used it to her fullest. For 3 years, the pairing would seem so perfectly matched, but as time went on, Jamie would seem more and more unhappy. Her not quite fitting with her family possibly having something to do with it. Before either of them knew it, however, their marriage would come to a wall when Cierra found Jamie cheating on her. Absolutely devastating news for her. even worse by the fact that Cierra had just gotten pregnant with the couples first child. At first they had agreed to work it out, but at four months, Cierra would wake up with horrible cramp, finding that she had lost their child. This was the end of their relationship, as Cierra couldn’t bring herself to forgive Jamie, and had blame her at the time. The divorce currently pending, as Cierra throws herself into her work on social media. Currently working on her newest cosmetology line.

CIERRA LENNOX is portrayed by SHAY MITCHELL and written by MATI.

[monleonrpg]

WELCOME TO MONLEON:

FULL NAME: Samuel Wilde

OCCUPATION: Businessman, entrepreneur, & investor. 

AGE & D.O.B.: 43 years old

RESIDENCE: Foncebadón

ORIGINALLY FROM:  Miami, Florida

HOW LONG THEY’VE BEEN IN TOWN: Twenty-years

BIOGRAPHY:

His father expected greatness from Isaiah. Isaiah’s dad was the epitome of a rags to riches success story, investing in stock and risky deals in order to make his business succeed. It was no surprise that he put pressure on his son to follow in his footsteps even from an early age. He made his son enroll in piano lessons as well as get his own private tutor at the age of three. If there was one thing he needed, it was to have a leg up. However, Sam just wanted to be a kid. While the neighborhood kids were getting to play together, Sam was stuck inside with a pencil learning how to read and write.

Once he was elementary school aged, Samuel quickly learned what his family expected from him: they expected obedience which he was happy to provide in exchange for materialistic items.

His parents met through an arranged marriage of sorts, a business deal that his paternal grandfather had made with his maternal one. Growing up, that’s how he thought marriages worked. It wasn’t about love, it was about business. Business was pushed onto him at an early age. Being an only child, Samuel knew that he would eventually take over the family business. Even if it was what he didn’t want. He accepted that was his fate and instead of fighting it, he decided to excel at the pressures put on him.

Most would crack under the amount of pressure that he was put under. However, Samuel channeled all of his feelings into his extra-curriculars. It probably wasn’t great to cover up his emotions but that was how he was raised. In order to run a business, he couldn’t show emotion. Every time his father set the bar higher, Samuel always reached it without a problem. Samuel was a man of few talents, the main one being that he knew how to run a business and the other was that he could fake it until he made it.

Being groomed for a business meant that he knew how to speak to people. He used his charm to his advantage most of the time. Whether it was speaking to a girl, or a few, or convincing one of his teachers to bump his grade up one or two points. It was as if he was turning into a snake, which wasn’t considered a bad thing in his family. At college, Samuel majored in business with a minor in economics, barely getting by because he knew he had a job out of college anyway. This would be the last time in his life that he would be able to not have to worry about everything and he took full advantage of it during that time.

Just because he was under his father’s watchful eye didn’t meant that he wasn’t going to at least get away from him which is how he found himself with a small check of $500,000 dollars and a new opportunity to turn ideas into real businesses in Monleon.

Life seemed to finally be paying off for him, he was making a lot of money and enjoying his job. That’s when he met Quinn. Of course he did what he did best and used his connections to the news and smooth talking to get her a big time gig.

It didn’t take long for everything to get to his head. His success, his wife, his reputation, all of it was used to boast around Monleon like he owned it. Power corrupts a man, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. It didn’t take long for him to make transactions off the books and use his power to get what he wanted in the town. He never said he was good. He just knows that he wants more and will buy or take anything he wants to.

SAMUEL WILDE is portrayed by OMARI HARDWICK and written by JAM.

[monleonrpg]

WELCOME TO MONLEON:

FULL NAME: Stevie Calhoun

OCCUPATION: Sound engineer at MX7 Production Studios

AGE & D.O.B.: 26 years old; February 26th, 1994

RESIDENCE: Bougainvillea Park

ORIGINALLY FROM:  Monleon, Florida

HOW LONG THEY’VE BEEN IN TOWN: 18 years

BIOGRAPHY:

TW: mentions of physical/emotional abuse, eating disorder and arson

Perhaps this part is her refrain; how six hundred miles and a decade away, most nights, it always loops back to the past. If this is a song (and all things are), it starts with serendipity—a meet cute between one of Monleon’s favourite daughters and a musician, and the kind of love that all the greatest songs are about. From Monaco, they make their way to Venice, Berlin, Amsterdam. He sings her Sam Cooke, Marvin Gaye, Otis Redding—and once they’re ready, they settle in Monleon to begin a family of their own. 

They name their firstborn Stevie; their little Wonder, made of Fleetwood Mac-like magic. And that same music jives in her veins, a child who dances before she learns to speak. They sneak her into The Jazz Club beneath their coats and bolstered by her granddaddy’s generosity, they open the town’s first record store—a legacy for little Stevie. And Etta James was right; life is like a song. Momma teaches her piano, daddy how to sing—he lets her pick the records he plays on the radio each week. And it always comes back to this, and wondering—wondering what it would’ve been like if life had stayed the same.

It doesn’t change with Bowie’s birth, but after her brother turns five. Stevie is seven and even then, she knows that he’s strange. It begins when he pushes Luis Sanchez from the top of the stairs to see what would happen—and before that there’s the lies, the lack of remorse, the litany of broken, stolen toys coerced from neighbourhood kids. He can sweet talk his way around any adult, switch off his tears mid-sob to negotiate for what he wants. Bowie is angelic, a bright-burning academic spark one moment—a terror the next. He’s a vortex, a black hole; he gorges on their parents’ attention and leaves nothing left for Stevie. 

And he’s smart, the kind of intelligence with teeth. With age, he cultivates an appetite for violence. There are accidents that involve the neighbour’s pets, other children he swears as his most-recent enemy—but Bowie’s main focus is always Stevie. He leaves nasty surprises around every turn, uses his body to draw blood and bruises from her and when that no longer works, he sharpens his words. Bowie is no longer the cold spot in the room; he’s suffocating and soon, even her sanctuary of the record store is no longer safe. By thirteen, Stevie draws herself into invisibility at the breakfast table; she counts her calories because this she can control. By fourteen, she finds out what it means when people think you’re pretty, the pleasant thrill of a lingering stare. She sleeps with the first almost by accident; she sleeps around to avoid sleeping under the same roof as Bowie, and soon it’s simply another means to blur the world. 

And Bowie—Bowie is fifteen when he tries to burn down the school. And maybe this is the moment she should wonder, wonder what it would’ve been like if once again, her brother got his way. By then, life is soft non-sobriety, but she remembers hearing about the kids climbing out of classroom windows. She remembers the sirens, the social workers. She remembers the lighter fluid and matches beneath Bowie’s bed, and the notebooks, and her name over and over in his furious scrawl—

Life should be better once he’s hospitalised. It’s not. His absence is the first breath, but the bills pile up, the businesses suffer and all of it is a noose that wrings the music from her parents’ marriage. Stevie is left in the carnage of Bowie’s devastation, to new sorts of stares that linger whenever the name Calhoun comes up. She’s barely eighteen when a marriage proposal offers a meal ticket out of Monleon, she accepts. 

The marriage doesn’t last, but Stevie falls for New Orleans. She’s surrounded by music at every turn; soon, she learns to write stories in song, learns that she’s talented too. She learns she’s good at all sorts of things, even if she misses the rent routinely and her relationships never get off the ground. Daddy’s got her beat there—she’s there when he remarries, but keeps her distance once the first new kid comes along. Mama stays in Monleon, collecting dust along with her records, satisfied with stilted conversations over Facetime that grow from weeks to months apart.

And then Mama grows sick, the kind that won’t go away. The kind that calls Stevie back to Monleon when all this time, for each refrain, she’s always stayed away. If this is a song (and all things are) Stevie can’t find the melody in the dissonance. She returns to her hometown to fulfil her mother’s death wish, to hold her breath for the drop to come.

STEVIE CALHOUN is portrayed by ZENDAYA COLEMAN and written by TASH.

[monleonrpg]

WELCOME TO MONLEON:

FULL NAME: Nicole Johnson

OCCUPATION: Advice Columnist for the Soleada Tribune

AGE & D.O.B.: 27; February 7, 1994

RESIDENCE: Bougainvillea Park

ORIGINALLY FROM:  St. Petersburg, Florida

HOW LONG THEY’VE BEEN IN TOWN: Native

BIOGRAPHY:

Any shelves in the Johnson family home were littered with miniature snow globes and yellow spined National Geographic magazines. Postcards from different cities covered the empty space on their refrigerator. Framed photos of her parents’ travels hung along the wall leading up the stairs. There were drawers dedicated specifically for brightly colored, cheesy neon tees and closet space mapped out for different types of luggage. Keychains in the shape of different monuments around the globe could be found in the boxes hidden underneath her bed. Her father was a pilot, his wife a former flight attendant, their marriage memorialized around the house in tangible little trinkets that Nicole would eventually, and happily, inherit. She had grown up hearing the stories of their travels, imagining herself within the cities her parents had described. Printing out articles and images to hang on the bulletin board in her room till the corkboard was buried underneath colored scraps of paper.

Nicole was seven when she’d started her own travel fund, through local lemonade stands and whatever change she managed to find among the couch cushions. As she got older, she began babysitting, adding dollar bills to the piggy bank she’d kept in her room. From watching kids to waitressing, tutoring to dog walking, she sought out any and all odd jobs in order to save up enough money to eventually eat, pray, love her way through a year internationally. She would go to bed watching travel vlogs and reading testimonials about how others had traveled for cheap, memorizing their tips on how to make your money stretch further when living abroad. With each birthday, however, it became harder to envision that future for herself. It started when her mother lost her job; Nicole’s earnings were used to help supplement her father’s income (if only slightly) in order to help keep their family afloat. Then it was the repairs that were needed around the home (fuck water damage – am I right?). A broken washing machine. Groceries. College tuition. What little she could contribute became a bandaid over any unexpected financial troubles her parents would face. Her adventure fund had long run out; the image of Julia Roberts on her makeshift mood board becoming more faded overtime.

The disappointment of having worked so hard for something only to have it delayed time and time again lingers. It’s there every time she notices the souvenirs she’s held onto, or when the freshly printed copy of NatGeo arrives at her door. There when the crowds of Spring Breakers arrive each March. Nicole is waiting for the day she can comfortably buy a one-way ticket out of the continental U.S. and live out the stories her parents would tell her around the dining table. For now, she’s saving up her earnings from working for the town’s paper, writing for two different columns in order to put aside some of her paycheck for her future plans.

NICOLE JOHNSON is portrayed by ADELAIDE KANE and written by ANUM.

[monleonrpg]

WELCOME TO MONLEON:

FULL NAME: Giselle Demir

OCCUPATION: Former actress & law graduate 

AGE & D.O.B.: 31 years old; March 28th 1989

RESIDENCE: Merrick Village

ORIGINALLY FROM:  Paradise, Nevada

HOW LONG THEY’VE BEEN IN TOWN: 2 years

BIOGRAPHY:

Giselle. German, derived from gisil—to owe, a pledge, a mutual obligation. It turns out to be a prophecy, but when your mother holds you for the first time, it’s merely a wish. Giselle Dilara Cleopatra Demir. A stage name for a prop of a child; a 7lb 2 ounce beautiful burden.

It begins long before you’re a thought, when all your mother thinks of is the silver screen. If she’d chased that calling, if she hadn’t allowed that bastard and the backseat of his camaro to steer her off course—well. What follows is disownment, derailment, and almost-end credits. Instead, as you take form, an idea germinates. She gives birth to it the same day she gives birth to you and oh, you are a burden, she never lets you forget it. Later, you learn you are a gateway too.

You are proof that a dream does not have to die, that destiny is an inheritance. You are clay from your first breath and your mother only sculpts one image; her own. She shapes you with ballet slippers and stagecoach; with classic cinema and quizzes at every breakfast. And your mind is bright, but your mother demands another kind of shine. So your body bends, you bear it forward. Whilst your classmates go to birthday parties, your mother drives you five hours one way to Los Angeles every weekend. You are exceptional, she says. You’re above them. You always will be,

In the end, she’s right. You blossom, more beautiful and talented than anyone else—than even your mother, before she had you. When the studios begin to notice you, she only grows sharper. By now you’re used to this resentment, the sting that comes when someone has given up so much. The bitterness that sacrifice trails. It hurts all the same.

You know how to act; your mother assured that, but you know that you’re noticed because of your looks. You fell in love with acting for the stories, but you learn that you don’t control the narrative. Hollywood is a machine that threatens to chew you up into someone else. By the time you realise you want out, you’re on your way to becoming a household name. You find out it’s far easier to give up a dream that was never yours. Instead, you head east and settle in small town Florida, following a rumour and a destiny all of your own.

GISELLE DEMIR is portrayed by HANDE ERCEL and written by TASH.