History:

Born Amélie Desrosiers, daughter to the famous French actress and movie star Étienne Desrosiers and her American agent and manager, Raymond Parkers. The unfortunate consequence of a woman willing to do whatever it took to make it into Hollywood, Amélie’s conception and subsequent pregnancy pushed the two Catholics to marry in secret and raise the child, though she was mostly her mother’s care in France for the first decade of her life. The responsibilities that came with a child had hindered her mother’s career at the pinnacle of her fame; she was nationally recognised in the French theatres and starred in around five films before her death, two of which being leading roles and all of them made by French film companies.

In America, the Desrosiers name is much less prevalent. Mr. Parkers squeezed every last penny out of the actress, waylaying and stalling her debut in Hollywood to milk her renown in France. The stress of being a mother and juggling plays, movies and public events caused Étienne to fall ill; Parkers used this opportunity to bring the young Amélie under his care in Saint Denis, both to privately tutor her and as an incentive to continue overworking herself for his benefit.

Amélie spent five years in the care of Taylor Parkers, her biological uncle. She was largely restricted to his third-floor apartment and homeschooled. It was a stark contrast to her previous life but she acquiesced to the crueler treatment in order to keep her mother safe. It still did nothing to prevent the inevitable; her mother’s condition deteriorated and the medical bills started to outweigh the profits of her failing career prospects. She presumably died penniless, but her will suggested otherwise; everything was in her daughter’s name, including several assets that Raymond Parkers was unaware of.

Amélie was repeatedly subject to coercion, pressuring the young girl in every which way to sign documents that would transfer ownership of these assets to her father. They were inaccessible until her eighteenth birthday and nobody knew what sum of money she had in her name. She resisted for three months at her mother’s private behest; her dying wish and sole command was that her daughter signs nothing that the Parkers set before her. When one of these attempts turned too dangerous for her liking, the ensuing struggle knocked over an oil lantern into the open drawer of Taylor’s desk. The resulting fire was in the daily news. Her uncle reportedly died of smoke inhalation and Amélie fled from the building with nobody the wiser to her presence there.

This was around two years ago. Since then, Amélie has taken on the English name of Alexandra (though she prefers the name Alex), cut her hair and masqueraded as a young boy on the streets. She worked in a steel mill by day and swept a chapel at night in exchange for hot meals and a place to sleep. Things were going smoothly until the her favourite pastor’s painkillers for his chronic condition were swiftly made inaccessible to him due to a sharp increase in the price. Traumatised by the hopelessness of her mother's slow death and seeing the similarities unfolding before her, Alex acted recklessly and called in a friend of the pastor to rob a medicine wagon.

His name was Brooks Lockwood. He was, once upon a time, a member of a small band of outlaws that never even bothered to make a name for themselves in the grander scheme of things, focusing on smaller heists to pay for provisions and constantly on the move. Due to the dissolution of his gang and it's leader missing, Brooks was permanently stationed in Saint Denis. Alex had seen him repenting in the chapel several times and persuaded him to do this for their mutual friend.

Whilst they got the painkillers the pastor needed, they botched the operation and received a bounty on their heads that forced them to flee to the mountains over the winter period, tucked away in one of Brooks' old gang hideouts where he taught Alex how to ride and hunt. When the weather cleared, they headed to Armadillo for the spring and helped the town to solve a hysterical rumour of ‘Chupacabra’ sightings that ended up being a mangy grizzly bear. With the respect of the townsfolk, they were able to live comfortably in the settlement for a few months and then crept back into the prairies during the summer. During their absence, the impossible happened; Raymond Parker recognised the description of the 'boy' on the wanted posters and has begun hiring out bounty hunters to recapture them both alive, presuming the sum of Étienne’s inheritance to vastly outweigh the cost of Amélie’s retrieval. Their bounty has increased substantially as a result, under the condition that minimal harm may come to them and they are to be delivered to the Parker Estate, on the outskirts of Bluewater marsh.

Alex and Brooks were ambushed in Blackwater and separated in the confusion of a scuffle. Alex has managed to wander into West Austin but there is no sign of her partner in crime. She hopes that returning to Armadillo and retracing their footsteps will make it easier to meet again, but the journey to the mountains is treacherous and will take weeks, if not months of constant travel.