[hider=Hazel Miller | The Outsider][color=#2e2c2c].
.[/color]
[indent][indent][table][row][sup][h1][color=181818][b]▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅[/b][right][b]▅▅▅▅▅[/b][/right][/color][right][color=a04535]Hazel Miller[/color][color=181818]...[/color][/right][/h1][/sup][/row][row]
[cell][color=2e2c2c]....................................................[/color][img]https://img.roleplayerguild.com/prod/users/019e19db-fb5c-764a-945f-df2907176662.webp[/img]

[img]https://i.postimg.cc/Fz0Zxrt9/pls.gif[/img]
[center][color=807B84][sup]__________________________________________[/sup][/color] 
[sub][color=a04535][b]H A Z E L [color=2e2c2c].[/color] M I L L E R[/b][/color]
[color=807B84][sup]________________________________________________________[/sup][/color] 
[color=a04535]36     [color=808080][b]|[/b][/color]     female     [color=808080][b]|[/b][/color]     heterosexual[/color]
[color=807B84][sup]__________________________________________[/sup][/color][/sub][/center][sub][color=2e2c2c]..................[/color][color=a04535][b]▹ hair color  [/b][/color] [color=808080][b]|[/b][/color] [color=808080]  dark brown[/color]
[color=2e2c2c]..................[/color][color=a04535][b]▹ eye color  [/b][/color] [color=808080][b]|[/b][/color] [color=808080]  brown[/color]
[color=2e2c2c]..................[/color][color=a04535][b]▹ height  [/b][/color] [color=808080][b]|[/b][/color] [color=808080]  5' 4"[/color]
[color=2e2c2c]..................[/color][color=a04535][b]▹ build  [/b][/color] [color=808080][b]|[/b][/color] [color=808080]  slight, athletic[/color]
[color=2e2c2c]..................[/color][color=a04535][b]▹ species  [/b][/color] [color=808080][b]|[/b][/color] [color=808080]  human[/color]
[color=2e2c2c]..................[/color][color=a04535][b]▹ faction  [/b][/color] [color=808080][b]|[/b][/color] [color=808080]  the citizens[/color]
[color=2e2c2c]..................[/color][color=a04535][b]▹ role  [/b][/color] [color=808080][b]|[/b][/color] [color=808080]  diner worker[/color]
[/sub]
[/cell][cell][justify][sup][color=2e2c2c].[/color]
[color=a04535][b]S T R E N G T H S[/b][/color]
[color=d6d6d6][b]perceptive[/b][/color] [color=808080][i]- Years of reading rooms and anticipating needs before they became heavy demands have made Hazel unnervingly attuned to the people around her. She notices the shift in someone's tone before they finish the sentence, tracks tension in a jaw, and feels the temperature of a conversation change before anyone else in the room does. It is not a gift so much as a survival skill worn smooth by long use, and in Pine Ridge it will prove far more significant than she yet understands.[/i][/color]

[color=d6d6d6][b]adaptable[/b][/color] [color=808080][i]- She has rebuilt herself from scratch before. So, when a situation demands something new, Hazel steps into it without drama or resistance. She adjusts her posture, her vocabulary, and her small habits, all to belong somewhere she has never been. Most people never need to develop such chameleonic flexibility. Hazel had no choice but to. And that lack of choice has made her quietly formidable, though she would never think to claim it.[/i][/color]

[color=d6d6d6][b]resilient[/b][/color] [color=808080][i]- She has endured things that would have unmade stronger people. Yet here she stands. Whatever has been taken from Hazel Miller, it has not taken her tenderness. [/i][/color]

[color=a04535][b]W E A K N E S S E S[/b][/color]
[color=d6d6d6][b]self-abandoning[/b][/color] [color=808080][i]- Her people-pleasing runs bone deep. Her own needs and safety will consistently come last in any equation involving someone else’s comfort.[/i][/color]

[color=d6d6d6][b]conflict averse[/b][/color] [color=808080][i]- She will absorb an enormous amount before she pushes back. Disagreement feels dangerous in her body even when her mind knows better, and so she smooths, deflects, accommodates, and smiles until the moment passes. It is a reflex honed over years, and unlearning it is slow, painful work she has barely begun.[/i][/color]

[color=d6d6d6][b]deeply distrustful[/b][/color] [color=808080][i]- Beneath the warmth she projects, Hazel lets almost nobody actually close. She will listen to anyone who sits across from her in a booth. But real intimacy she has learned to treat as a threat. [/i][/color]

[center][color=807B84][sup]__________________________________________________________________________________[/sup][/color][/center]
[color=a04535][b]P E R S O N A L I T Y[/b][/color]
[color=d6d6d6][b]observant [color=2e2c2c]....[/color] [color=808080]|[/color] [color=2e2c2c]....[/color] accommodating [color=2e2c2c]....[/color] [color=808080]|[/color] [color=2e2c2c]....[/color] resilient [color=2e2c2c]....[/color] [color=808080]|[/color] [color=2e2c2c]....[/color] guarded [color=2e2c2c]....[/color] [color=808080]|[/color] [color=2e2c2c]....[/color] tenacious[/b][/color]

[color=a04535][b]H I S T O R Y[/b][/color]
[color=808080]Hazel Miller arrived in Pine Ridge with two bags, a car that had seen better decades, and a name that was not entirely her own. She told the woman at the motel desk she was passing through in search of somewhere quiet. 

That was six weeks ago. She is still here.

She found the diner on her second morning, ordered coffee she did not need just to have somewhere to sit, and by the end of the week, she had asked about the help-wanted sign taped inside the window. The owner did not ask many questions either, which was good because Hazel did not offer many answers. 

What Pine Ridge knows about Hazel Miller is exactly what she has allowed it to know. That she is from somewhere out west. That she does not talk about family. That she remembers how everyone takes their coffee by the third visit and never makes anyone feel like an inconvenience. She is, essentially, the kind of woman a small town absorbs without much friction, which is precisely what she needed it to do.

What Pine Ridge does not know is that her name is Soleil Villanueva, that she grew up in Denver, and that she left behind a life she is not yet ready to talk about if ever. The shape of what happened lives in the way she flinches at certain tones of voice and in the excuse that surfaces too quickly when someone asks a question too personal. She is not hiding so much as she is healing, though she would not use that word either. Either way, she chose Pine Ridge because it was far enough and small enough and, she reasoned, dull enough. A restored ghost town and a place where people minded their own. 

But what she did not know about was the thing beneath the mountain. She did not know about the tunnels, or the coven, or the old blood feud burning between the pack and something far older and colder that moves through the dark without a sound. And while she is already beginning to suspect that Pine Ridge is not quite what it appears to be, she does not yet know how right she truly is.[/color]

[center][color=807B84][sup]__________________________________________________________________________________[/sup][/color][/center]

[center][color=808080][color=a04535][b]hexcode[/b][/color] [color=2e2c2c].[/color] | [color=2e2c2c].[/color] #a04535 [color=2e2c2c]........[/color] [color=a04535][b]faceclaim[/b][/color] [color=2e2c2c].[/color] | [color=2e2c2c].[/color] lindsey morgan [color=2e2c2c]........[/color] [color=a04535][b]creator[/b][/color] [color=2e2c2c].[/color] | [color=2e2c2c].[/color] qia[/color][/center][/sup][/justify][/cell]
[/row][/table][/indent][/indent][color=#2e2c2c].
.[/color][/hider]
[hider=Hazel's Relationships]
[center][color=2e2c2c].[/color][/center]
[center][sup][h3][center][img]https://i.imgur.com/Z7DAque.jpeg[/img][/center][b][center]
[right][color=3c6c6b]W A R R E N [color=2e2c2c].[/color] B O O N E[/color][color=2e2c2c].....[/color][/right][/center][/b][/h3][/sup][/center]

[indent][indent][indent][justify][color=808080][color=ffffff][b]relationship[/b][/color] [color=2e2c2c].[/color] | [color=2e2c2c].[/color] [i]guarded appreciation[/i]

[color=ffffff][b]brief description[/b][/color] [color=2e2c2c].[/color] | [color=a04535][i]"Came in the first week, remembered my name by the second visit. Tipped well, laughed loud, and made the whole diner feel a little brighter just by being in it. Pine Ridge clearly loves him. Me? I'm...just trying to get used to it all still."[/i][/color][/color][/justify][/indent][/indent][/indent]
[center][color=2e2c2c].[/color][/center]
[center][sup][h3][center][img]https://i.imgur.com/Z7DAque.jpeg[/img][/center][b][center]
[right][color=737e62]H A R L A N [color=2e2c2c].[/color] B O O N E[/color][color=2e2c2c].....[/color][/right][/center][/b][/h3][/sup][/center]

[indent][indent][indent][justify][color=808080][color=ffffff][b]relationship[/b][/color] [color=2e2c2c].[/color] | [color=2e2c2c].[/color] [i]familiar stranger[/i]

[color=ffffff][b]brief description[/b][/color] [color=2e2c2c].[/color] | [color=2e2c2c].[/color][color=a04535][i]"Same stool, same order, same time most mornings. Black coffee, no conversation unless I start it. In Denver, I might have found it a little boring, but you know what? There's something...restful about that kind of predictability. I’m grateful for it ‘cus there are way worse things. He's good people, I think. Him and his brother."[/i][/color][/color][/justify][/indent][/indent][/indent]
[center][color=2e2c2c].[/color][/center]
[center][sup][h3][center][img]https://i.imgur.com/Z7DAque.jpeg[/img][/center][b][center]
[right][color=6e4685]V A L E R I A [color=2e2c2c].[/color] C A R R I N G T O N[/color][color=2e2c2c].....[/color][/right][/center][/b][/h3][/sup][/center]

[indent][indent][indent][justify][color=808080][color=ffffff][b]relationship[/b][/color] [color=2e2c2c].[/color] | [color=2e2c2c].[/color] [i]polite unease[/i]

[color=ffffff][b]brief description[/b][/color] [color=2e2c2c].[/color] | [color=2e2c2c].[/color][color=a04535][i]"I go to Wells Market twice a week, sometimes more. She's almost always there and always seems to know exactly what's happening in every corner of that store. I don’t think there's anything wrong with her. She's never been anything but professional. I just feel slightly…underdressed for the occasion? Yeah. That’s it."[/i][/color][/color][/justify][/indent][/indent][/indent]
[center][color=2e2c2c].[/color][/center]
[center][sup][h3][center][img]https://i.imgur.com/Z7DAque.jpeg[/img][/center][b][center]
[right][color=ff4500]D R A V I A N [color=2e2c2c].[/color] F O R S C Y T H E[/color][color=2e2c2c].....[/color][/right][/center][/b][/h3][/sup][/center]

[indent][indent][indent][justify][color=808080][color=ffffff][b]relationship[/b][/color] [color=2e2c2c].[/color] | [color=2e2c2c].[/color] [i]guarded wariness[/i]

[color=ffffff][b]brief description[/b][/color] [color=2e2c2c].[/color] | [color=2e2c2c].[/color][color=a04535][i]"He came in for coffee once and talked like he'd known me for years, so clearly, he’s the charming type. I used to find that kind of thing really appealing once. Now? I remind myself that easy charm is just that. Easy."[/i][/color][/color][/justify][/indent][/indent][/indent]
[center][color=2e2c2c].[/color][/center]
[center][sup][h3][center][img]https://i.imgur.com/Z7DAque.jpeg[/img][/center][b][center]
[right][color=315b70]S A M U E L [color=2e2c2c].[/color] H O L T[/color][color=2e2c2c].....[/color][/right][/center][/b][/h3][/sup][/center]

[indent][indent][indent][justify][color=808080][color=ffffff][b]relationship[/b][/color] [color=2e2c2c].[/color] | [color=2e2c2c].[/color] [i]grateful unease[/i]

[color=ffffff][b]brief description[/b][/color] [color=2e2c2c].[/color] | [color=2e2c2c].[/color][i][color=a04535]"The mayor. He's only come in twice since I started, but both times he left a crisp hundred on the table. I thanked him both times and meant it because Lord knows I needed it. But a tip like that from a man like him doesn't feel like nothing. Actually…I don't know what it feels like exactly. Just...not nothing."[/color][/i][/color][/justify][/indent][/indent][/indent]
[center][color=2e2c2c].[/color][/center]
[center][sup][h3][center][img]https://i.imgur.com/Z7DAque.jpeg[/img][/center][b][center]
[right][color=2e6f40]W I L L O W [color=2e2c2c].[/color] H Y D E[/color][color=2e2c2c].....[/color][/right][/center][/b][/h3][/sup][/center]

[indent][indent][indent][justify][color=808080][color=ffffff][b]relationship[/b][/color] [color=2e2c2c].[/color] | [color=2e2c2c].[/color] [i]admiring distance[/i]

[color=ffffff][b]brief description[/b][/color] [color=2e2c2c].[/color] | [color=2e2c2c].[/color][i][color=a04535]"Everyone in Pine Ridge seems to love Dr. Hyde. Harv mentioned she even does house calls sometimes, which in a town this size makes sense. I've been meaning to register as a patient, but I keep finding reasons not to. It's nothing personal…."[/color][/i][/color][/justify][/indent][/indent][/indent]
[center][color=2e2c2c].[/color][/center]
[center][sup][h3][center][img]https://i.imgur.com/Z7DAque.jpeg[/img][/center][b][center]
[right][color=fcb9c1]S U T T O N [color=2e2c2c].[/color] L O C K W O O D[/color][color=2e2c2c].....[/color][/right][/center][/b][/h3][/sup][/center]

[indent][indent][indent][justify][color=808080][color=ffffff][b]relationship[/b][/color] [color=2e2c2c].[/color] | [color=2e2c2c].[/color] [i]uncertain fondness[/i]

[color=ffffff][b]brief description[/b][/color] [color=2e2c2c].[/color] | [color=a04535][i]"She comes in pretty regularly, always friendly and always has something nice to say about Pine Ridge. She told me about the Halloween festival, too, and I said I'd think about it. She seems...happy here, at least."[/i][/color][/color][/justify][/indent][/indent][/indent]
[center][color=2e2c2c].[/color][/center]
[center][sup][h3][center][img]https://i.imgur.com/Z7DAque.jpeg[/img][/center][b][center]
[right][color=9fc9a8]C H A R L O T T E [color=2e2c2c].[/color] M C C O Y[/color][color=2e2c2c].....[/color][/right][/center][/b][/h3][/sup][/center]

[indent][indent][indent][justify][color=808080][color=ffffff][b]relationship[/b][/color] [color=2e2c2c].[/color] | [color=2e2c2c].[/color] [i]disarming warmth[/i]

[color=ffffff][b]brief description[/b][/color] [color=2e2c2c].[/color] | [color=2e2c2c].[/color][i][color=a04535]"She showed up at my door with lasagna and a hand-drawn map of the town about a week after I arrived. I ended up eating the whole thing in one sitting and felt pretty guilty about it.  She doesn’t even know my real name."[/color][/i][/color][/justify][/indent][/indent][/indent]
[center][color=2e2c2c].[/color][/center]
[center][sup][h3][center][img]https://i.imgur.com/Z7DAque.jpeg[/img][/center][b][center]
[right][color=565a8f]S A B L E [color=2e2c2c].[/color] P R I T C H A R D[/color][color=2e2c2c].....[/color][/right][/center][/b][/h3][/sup][/center]

[indent][indent][indent][justify][color=808080][color=ffffff][b]relationship[/b][/color] [color=2e2c2c].[/color] | [color=2e2c2c].[/color] [i]passing acquaintance[/i]

[color=ffffff][b]brief description[/b][/color] [color=2e2c2c].[/color] | [color=2e2c2c].[/color][i][color=a04535]"She owns the apothecary on Main Street. I went in once just to browse. Nice shop. I bought a small amethyst because she said it was supposed to have a calming effect. I keep it in my apron pocket during shifts. I don't know if it works, but it doesn't hurt to have it."[/color][/i][/color][/justify][/indent][/indent][/indent]
[center][color=2e2c2c].[/color][/center]
[center][sup][h3][center][img]https://i.imgur.com/Z7DAque.jpeg[/img][/center][b][center]
[right][color=00aeef]D E V [color=2e2c2c].[/color] S A R K A R[/color][color=2e2c2c].....[/color][/right][/center][/b][/h3][/sup][/center]

[indent][indent][indent][justify][color=808080][color=ffffff][b]relationship[/b][/color] [color=2e2c2c].[/color] | [color=2e2c2c].[/color] [i]guarded cordiality[/i]

[color=ffffff][b]brief description[/b][/color] [color=2e2c2c].[/color] | [color=2e2c2c].[/color][i][color=a04535]"He comes in most mornings. Good tipper, doesn't talk much, which I appreciate. I'm always a little more careful when he's at the counter, though. He hasn’t done anything. Just because…you know."[/color][/i][/color][/justify][/indent][/indent][/indent]
[center][color=2e2c2c].[/color][/center]
[center][sup][h3][center][img]https://i.imgur.com/Z7DAque.jpeg[/img][/center][b][center]
[right][color=89684d]C L I N T [color=2e2c2c].[/color] W E S T O N[/color][color=2e2c2c].....[/color][/right][/center][/b][/h3][/sup][/center]

[indent][indent][indent][justify][color=808080][color=ffffff][b]relationship[/b][/color] [color=2e2c2c].[/color] | [color=2e2c2c].[/color] [i]familiar stranger[/i]

[color=ffffff][b]brief description[/b][/color] [color=2e2c2c].[/color] | [color=2e2c2c].[/color][i][color=a04535]"He’s sort of hard to miss with that horse of his, which I suppose is a pretty normal thing around here. He’s friendly enough and seems to have this old-fashioned kind of charm about him."[/color][/i][/color][/justify][/indent][/indent][/indent]
[center][color=2e2c2c].[/color][/center][/hider]
[hider=Hazel's Place + The Tank][center][img]https://img.roleplayerguild.com/prod/users/019e3d98-ddc0-756f-9f01-592452809731.webp[/img]

[img]https://imagescdn.d2cmedia.ca/mb6a0be1f906b69/3635/13837747/1/Honda-Pilot-2017.jpg[/img][/center][/hider]
[hr]
[hider=Rafael Fontenelle | The Bereft][color=#2e2c2c].
.[/color]
[indent][indent][table][row][sup][h1][color=181818][b]▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅[/b][right][b]▅▅▅▅▅[/b][/right][/color][right][color=94260e]Rafael Fontenelle[/color][color=181818]...[/color][/right][/h1][/sup][/row][row]
[cell][color=2e2c2c]....................................................[/color][img]https://img.roleplayerguild.com/prod/users/019e1d02-e2b9-75ce-92e8-e55ba6e01790.webp[/img]

[img]https://i.postimg.cc/BvKy25n9/Raf.gif[/img]
[center][color=807B84][sup]__________________________________________[/sup][/color] 
[sub][color=94260e][b]R A F A E L [color=2e2c2c].[/color] F O N T E N E L L E[/b][/color]
[color=807B84][sup]________________________________________________________[/sup][/color] 
[color=94260e]210     [color=808080][b]|[/b][/color]     male     [color=808080][b]|[/b][/color]     pansexual[/color]
[color=807B84][sup]__________________________________________[/sup][/color][/sub][/center][sub][color=2e2c2c]..................[/color][color=94260e][b]▹ hair color  [/b][/color] [color=808080][b]|[/b][/color] [color=808080]  dark, close cropped[/color]
[color=2e2c2c]..................[/color][color=94260e][b]▹ eye color  [/b][/color] [color=808080][b]|[/b][/color] [color=808080]  dark brown[/color]
[color=2e2c2c]..................[/color][color=94260e][b]▹ height  [/b][/color] [color=808080][b]|[/b][/color] [color=808080]  6' 1"[/color]
[color=2e2c2c]..................[/color][color=94260e][b]▹ build  [/b][/color] [color=808080][b]|[/b][/color] [color=808080]  lean, athletic[/color]
[color=2e2c2c]..................[/color][color=94260e][b]▹ species  [/b][/color] [color=808080][b]|[/b][/color] [color=808080]  vampire[/color]
[color=2e2c2c]..................[/color][color=94260e][b]▹ faction  [/b][/color] [color=808080][b]|[/b][/color] [color=808080]  the coven[/color]
[color=2e2c2c]..................[/color][color=94260e][b]▹ role  [/b][/color] [color=808080][b]|[/b][/color] [color=808080]  antique dealer[/color]
[/sub]
[/cell][cell][justify][sup][color=2e2c2c].[/color]
[color=94260e][b]S T R E N G T H S[/b][/color]
[color=d6d6d6][b]composure[/b][/color] [color=808080][i]- Rafael is a locked room; you may rattle the handle, but you will never find the key. Two centuries of existing with something unresolved have given him a stillness that borders on the unnerving. He does not react usually and only responds precisely when he chooses to. Which isn't to say that emotion does not exist in him, but it is kept behind a facade so practiced and impenetrable that most people spend years in his presence without glimpsing what lies beneath. Within a coven built on ambition and fractured loyalty, that kind of self-assurance makes him extraordinarily difficult to manipulate or read.[/i][/color]

[color=d6d6d6][b]authority[/b][/color] [color=808080][i]- He carries decades upon decades in his bones, and it shows in the way he occupies a room. Without a raised voice or overt threats, people find themselves taking him seriously before they have consciously decided to do so.[/i][/color]

[color=d6d6d6][b]patience[/b][/color] [color=808080][i]- Impatience is for those who believe time is running out. Rafael knows better. Time is the one resource he has in excess.[/i][/color]

[color=94260e][b]W E A K N E S S E S[/b][/color]
[color=d6d6d6][b]haunted[/b][/color] [color=808080][i]- Beneath the composure lives something that has never healed and never will. The child. The choice he made. The face of whoever took them during the chaos of those early years — a face he never clearly saw, a name he never learned. It could have been anyone. That is perhaps the most corrosive part of it since not knowing has made everyone a suspect, his own kind included. This is the one place his control fractures, the single wound that bypasses every defence he has built. Anyone who discovers it holds something genuinely dangerous over him.[/i][/color]

[color=d6d6d6][b]ruthless[/b][/color] [color=808080][i]- He does what needs doing. He has made peace with that about himself and feels no particular need to revisit it. But ruthlessness without the tempering influence of real human connection has made him capable of decisions that most people, human or otherwise, would recoil from. He no longer always recognizes where the line is because he crossed it so long ago.[/i][/color]

[color=d6d6d6][b]imperious[/b][/color] [color=808080][i]- He has outlived generations and watched Pine Ridge remake itself from the ground up more than once. The consequence of that survival is an immovable conviction that he understands things better than those around him and an inability to genuinely entertain the possibility that he might be wrong. It has cost him before. It will cost him again. There is a thin and treacherous border between wisdom and arrogance after all, and Rafael has forgotten where it lies.[/i][/color]

[center][color=807B84][sup]__________________________________________________________________________________[/sup][/color][/center]
[color=94260e][b]P E R S O N A L I T Y[/b][/color]
[color=d6d6d6][b]composed [color=2e2c2c]....[/color] [color=808080]|[/color] [color=2e2c2c]....[/color] imperious [color=2e2c2c]....[/color] [color=808080]|[/color] [color=2e2c2c]....[/color] patient [color=2e2c2c]....[/color] [color=808080]|[/color] [color=2e2c2c]....[/color] haunted [color=2e2c2c]....[/color] [color=808080]|[/color] [color=2e2c2c]....[/color] ruthless[/b][/color]

[color=94260e][b]H I S T O R Y[/b][/color]
[color=808080]Trinidad held its contradictions close, beauty and brutality breathing the same air, their roots tangled so deep beneath the surface that you could not pull one free without disturbing the other. Rafael Fontenelle was born into that very beauty and that darkness as the eldest son of a family that had learned generations ago how to survive a world not built with their survival in mind. You see, that world exacted a price. First, colonial mercilessness claimed his father. Rafael was mercifully young enough that the grief arrived before the full understanding. But by the time the understanding came, the grief had already calcified into something smaller and more permanent. He was a boy becoming a man in a cruel world, and he could not afford to fall apart.

Then [i]la fièvre jaune[/i] consumed his mother some years later, and she left the world in the same breath that brought the child into it; his infant sibling, whose name he no longer speaks aloud. From that moment on, Rafael found himself holding her absence and the child's existence as one inseparable thing: Grief and Responsibility, so indistinguishable from each other that he stopped trying to tell them apart.

He could not say he was ready, but he had no other option but to become so.

From then on, the child became the architect of his life. Everything he built and every decision he made were structured around that small, singular fact. Unfortunately, he was not a remarkable man in any way the world around him would have recognized or rewarded, and yet the hunger for such gratification had always been there, even in childhood. Trinidad breathed with it, too, in the songs sung after midnight, in the hands of the healing women who read dreams, and in the understanding carried by those who had managed to cross oceans that the world the colonizers described was never the whole of what existed.

So you see, that liminal caché of hidden hierarchies had called to Rafael long before he knew why.

Gold, ultimately, was what brought him to America. Or rather, the simple promise of it. Rafael was not naive enough to believe the streets were paved with the thing, but he was practical enough to recognize opportunity and restless enough to cross an ocean toward one. He did not make the journey alone; few sensible men who looked like him did in those years. Instead, he travelled with a group, mostly other Trinidadians drawn by the same rumours and the same restlessness. Among them was a man he had known from home, someone who offered the kind of companionship that forms quickly between people who share a history. At the height of the gold rush, they arrived in the Black Hills with the child beside them, six years old and largely unbothered by the enormity of what they had left behind. Rafael had made certain of that.

Given all this, he does not speak of what happened next to anyone, not even after all the centuries have passed.
 

[right][sub][s]The child was taken, rendering a human life purposeless for the second time.[/s][/sub][/right]

What Rafael [i]will[/i] say is this: something broke open beneath Pine Ridge during those early days. A pall of dark energy that flooded the town, changing everything it touched, indiscriminate and vast and entirely without mercy. It was the man from Trinidad who changed first while Rafael watched it all happen. What moved through his companion was monstrous... and extraordinary.

So he made the ask, understanding the risk or believing that he did.

Rafael was lucky. Luckier than most. He came through the other side of it changed and alive, which in those early days was not something anyone could truly guarantee. The man from Trinidad survived, too. At least for a time. It was long enough for the two of them to navigate those first bewildering years together, to figure out by trial and catastrophic error what they had become and what that meant. Long enough to know the whole of Rafael's story: the child, Trinidad, all of it. He was eventually one of the vampires who did not endure across the decades, claimed by something Rafael has never fully accounted for and does not discuss. Another absence added to the ledger. Another name he no longer speaks aloud.

The decades since exist in his memory with the uneven texture of a life lived too long in one place. He did not leave Pine Ridge, or rather, when he did, he always made sure to return. What he had found beneath the town was the loose collection of changed and confused individuals that would eventually become the coven. He has since watched Pine Ridge above him breathe and fracture and slowly rebuild itself across decades. He was here in 1987 when the mountain swallowed half the town whole, when the tunnels groaned with the sound of a buried thing turning in its sleep. He is here now as whatever survived that collapse begins to wake, stretching limbs that have not moved in a generation.[/color]

[center][color=807B84][sup]__________________________________________________________________________________[/sup][/color][/center]

[center][color=808080][color=94260e][b]hexcode[/b][/color] [color=2e2c2c].[/color] | [color=2e2c2c].[/color] #94260e [color=2e2c2c]........[/color] [color=94260e][b]faceclaim[/b][/color] [color=2e2c2c].[/color] | [color=2e2c2c].[/color] damson idris [color=2e2c2c]........[/color] [color=94260e][b]creator[/b][/color] [color=2e2c2c].[/color] | [color=2e2c2c].[/color] qia[/color][/center][/sup][/justify][/cell]
[/row][/table][/indent][/indent][color=#2e2c2c].
.[/color][/hider]
[hider=Rafael's Relationships]
[center][color=2e2c2c].[/color][/center]
[center][sup][h3][center][img]https://i.imgur.com/Z7DAque.jpeg[/img][/center][b][center]
[right][color=3c6c6b]W A R R E N [color=2e2c2c].[/color] B O O N E[/color][color=2e2c2c].....[/color][/right][/center][/b][/h3][/sup][/center]

[indent][indent][indent][justify][color=808080][color=ffffff][b]relationship[/b][/color] [color=2e2c2c].[/color] | [color=2e2c2c].[/color] [i]cautious respect[/i]

[color=ffffff][b]brief description[/b][/color] [color=2e2c2c].[/color] | [color=2e2c2c].[/color][i][color=94260e]"The Alpha. Young for it too, I think. He run that garage, run his pack, make the whole town feel like everything under control. People like him. Really like him. But he's a wolf, and I've been here long enough to know what wolves are capable of, the ones who smile just as much as the ones who don't. I don't hold it against him personally. I just don't forget it either."[/color][/i][/color][/justify][/indent][/indent][/indent]
[center][color=2e2c2c].[/color][/center]
[center][sup][h3][center][img]https://i.imgur.com/Z7DAque.jpeg[/img][/center][b][center]
[right][color=737e62]H A R L A N [color=2e2c2c].[/color] B O O N E[/color][color=2e2c2c].....[/color][/right][/center][/b][/h3][/sup][/center]

[indent][indent][indent][justify][color=808080][color=ffffff][b]relationship[/b][/color] [color=2e2c2c].[/color] | [color=2e2c2c].[/color] [i]mutual distance[/i]

[color=ffffff][b]brief description[/b][/color] [color=2e2c2c].[/color] | [color=2e2c2c].[/color][i][color=94260e]"Quieter than his brother. Doesn't mean I trust him. But I notice him. In my experience, the quiet ones always worth noticing."[/color][/i][/color][/justify][/indent][/indent][/indent]
[center][color=2e2c2c].[/color][/center]
[center][sup][h3][center][img]https://i.imgur.com/Z7DAque.jpeg[/img][/center][b][center]
[right][color=d10019]V I N C E N T [color=2e2c2c].[/color] B A U E R[/color][color=2e2c2c].....[/color][/right][/center][/b][/h3][/sup][/center]

[indent][indent][indent][justify][color=808080][color=ffffff][b]relationship[/b][/color] [color=2e2c2c].[/color] | [color=2e2c2c].[/color] [i]quiet contempt[/i]

[color=ffffff][b]brief description[/b][/color] [color=2e2c2c].[/color] | [color=2e2c2c].[/color][i][color=94260e]"Wajang. That's the word for guys like this. Come back to town smelling like desperation and bad decisions, weaker than when he left. I've seen men like him before with all that energy with nowhere useful to go. They're unpredictable, and unpredictable men make me uncomfortable."[/color][/i][/color][/justify][/indent][/indent][/indent]
[center][color=2e2c2c].[/color][/center]
[center][sup][h3][center][img]https://i.imgur.com/Z7DAque.jpeg[/img][/center][b][center]
[right][color=6e4685]V A L E R I A [color=2e2c2c].[/color] C A R R I N G T O N[/color][color=2e2c2c].....[/color][/right][/center][/b][/h3][/sup][/center]

[indent][indent][indent][justify][color=808080][color=ffffff][b]relationship[/b][/color] [color=2e2c2c].[/color] | [color=2e2c2c].[/color] [i]detached observation[/i]

[color=ffffff][b]brief description[/b][/color] [color=2e2c2c].[/color] | [color=2e2c2c].[/color][i][color=94260e]"Smart woman. Capable. But I've been around long enough to see Samuel's fingerprints on everything she does, even when she think she acting on her own. That's not an insult. It's just what it is. She's finding her feet. Whether she ever fully finds them, away from him... that I don't know yet."[/color][/i][/color][/justify][/indent][/indent][/indent]
[center][color=2e2c2c].[/color][/center]
[center][sup][h3][center][img]https://i.imgur.com/Z7DAque.jpeg[/img][/center][b][center]
[right][color=ff4500]D R A V I A N [color=2e2c2c].[/color] F O R S C Y T H E[/color][color=2e2c2c].....[/color][/right][/center][/b][/h3][/sup][/center]

[indent][indent][indent][justify][color=808080][color=ffffff][b]relationship[/b][/color] [color=2e2c2c].[/color] | [color=2e2c2c].[/color] [i]useful arrangement[/i]

[color=ffffff][b]brief description[/b][/color] [color=2e2c2c].[/color] | [color=94260e][i]"Showed up about six months ago offering to source inventory at a cut rate. I asked only one question: Can you be discreet? He said yes, and so far he's been right. I don't ask where things come from, and he doesn't ask why I need them. Things have worked best that way."[/i][/color][/color][/justify][/indent][/indent][/indent]
[center][color=2e2c2c].[/color][/center]
[center][sup][h3][center][img]https://i.imgur.com/Z7DAque.jpeg[/img][/center][b][center]
[right][color=315b70]S A M U E L [color=2e2c2c].[/color] H O L T[/color][color=2e2c2c].....[/color][/right][/center][/b][/h3][/sup][/center]

[indent][indent][indent][justify][color=808080][color=ffffff][b]relationship[/b][/color] [color=2e2c2c].[/color] | [color=2e2c2c].[/color] [i]uneasy allies[/i]

[color=ffffff][b]brief description[/b][/color] [color=2e2c2c].[/color] | [color=94260e][i]"Samuel I understand. Maybe that's the problem. I see what he built and I know why he built it. A man who survived what he survived? You think he was ever going to be comfortable being at anyone's mercy again? No. Neither was I. We just chose different ways to make sure of it. His way make him mayor. Mine make me...careful. I don't trust him. But I respect what's underneath the not trusting."[/i][/color][/color][/justify][/indent][/indent][/indent]
[center][color=2e2c2c].[/color][/center]
[center][sup][h3][center][img]https://i.imgur.com/Z7DAque.jpeg[/img][/center][b][center]
[right][color=2e6f40]W I L L O W [color=2e2c2c].[/color] H Y D E[/color][color=2e2c2c].....[/color][/right][/center][/b][/h3][/sup][/center]

[indent][indent][indent][justify][color=808080][color=ffffff][b]relationship[/b][/color] [color=2e2c2c].[/color] | [color=2e2c2c].[/color] [i]quiet respect[/i]

[color=ffffff][b]brief description[/b][/color] [color=2e2c2c].[/color] | [color=2e2c2c].[/color][i][color=94260e]"She been here her whole life, which should tell you something about her. People who stay in Pine Ridge either can't leave or choose not to, and with her I think it's the latter. She pour herself into this town like it's something worth caring for. Maybe it is….The town sure does trust her, and I find myself...not disagreeing with that."[/color][/i][/color][/justify][/indent][/indent][/indent]
[center][color=2e2c2c].[/color][/center]
[center][sup][h3][center][img]https://i.imgur.com/Z7DAque.jpeg[/img][/center][b][center]
[right][color=fcb9c1]S U T T O N [color=2e2c2c].[/color] L O C K W O O D[/color][color=2e2c2c].....[/color][/right][/center][/b][/h3][/sup][/center]

[indent][indent][indent][justify][color=808080][color=ffffff][b]relationship[/b][/color] [color=2e2c2c].[/color] | [color=2e2c2c].[/color] [i]wary sympathy[/i]

[color=ffffff][b]brief description[/b][/color] [color=2e2c2c].[/color] | [color=2e2c2c].[/color][i][color=94260e]"The Lockwood name been part of this town longer than most. Good family, from what I've watched across the years. This one's smart too, you can see it. But she's never far from Samuel, and I've already told you what I think about Samuel."[/color][/i][/color][/justify][/indent][/indent][/indent]
[center][color=2e2c2c].[/color][/center]
[center][sup][h3][center][img]https://i.imgur.com/Z7DAque.jpeg[/img][/center][b][center]
[right][color=9fc9a8]C H A R L O T T E [color=2e2c2c].[/color] M C C O Y[/color][color=2e2c2c].....[/color][/right][/center][/b][/h3][/sup][/center]

[indent][indent][indent][justify][color=808080][color=ffffff][b]relationship[/b][/color] [color=2e2c2c].[/color] | [color=2e2c2c].[/color] [i]unwitting kinship[/i]

[color=ffffff][b]brief description[/b][/color] [color=2e2c2c].[/color] | [color=2e2c2c].[/color][i][color=94260e]"McCoy family been in these woods longer than most. Her father before her, and his people before him. Her mother disappeared a long time ago. I remember that. Pine Ridge has a way of taking people and not explaining itself. She's still looking…. I recognize that too."[/color][/i][/color][/justify][/indent][/indent][/indent]
[center][color=2e2c2c].[/color][/center]
[center][sup][h3][center][img]https://i.imgur.com/Z7DAque.jpeg[/img][/center][b][center]
[right][color=565a8f]S A B L E [color=2e2c2c].[/color] P R I T C H A R D[/color][color=2e2c2c].....[/color][/right][/center][/b][/h3][/sup][/center]

[indent][indent][indent][justify][color=808080][color=ffffff][b]relationship[/b][/color] [color=2e2c2c].[/color] | [color=2e2c2c].[/color] [i]mutual distance[/i]

[color=ffffff][b]brief description[/b][/color] [color=2e2c2c].[/color] | [color=2e2c2c].[/color][i][color=94260e]"The Pritchard women have been here as long as I have. This one is no different from the ones before her, with the same annoying quality of making you feel like she already knows what you're going to say before you say it. I respect the Circle's work even when I don't trust their motives. From a distance, that is, which is exactly where she prefers me and I her."[/color][/i][/color][/justify][/indent][/indent][/indent]
[center][color=2e2c2c].[/color][/center]
[center][sup][h3][center][img]https://i.imgur.com/Z7DAque.jpeg[/img][/center][b][center]
[right][color=00aeef]D E V [color=2e2c2c].[/color] S A R K A R[/color][color=2e2c2c].....[/color][/right][/center][/b][/h3][/sup][/center]

[indent][indent][indent][justify][color=808080][color=ffffff][b]relationship[/b][/color] [color=2e2c2c].[/color] | [color=2e2c2c].[/color] [i]cautious assessment[/i]

[color=ffffff][b]brief description[/b][/color] [color=2e2c2c].[/color] | [color=2e2c2c].[/color][i][color=94260e]"New sheriff in town. Came from somewhere bigger than Pine Ridge and brought his habits with him (you can smell the whiskey from across the diner). But don't let that fool you. Man like that, with eyes like that? That's the kind of sheriff this town hasn't had in a while, nothing against old Hawthorne. I'm still deciding if that's good or bad for the rest of us."[/color][/i][/color][/justify][/indent][/indent][/indent]
[center][color=2e2c2c].[/color][/center]
[center][sup][h3][center][img]https://i.imgur.com/Z7DAque.jpeg[/img][/center][b][center]
[right][color=89684d]C L I N T [color=2e2c2c].[/color] W E S T O N[/color][color=2e2c2c].....[/color][/right][/center][/b][/h3][/sup][/center]

[indent][indent][indent][justify][color=808080][color=ffffff][b]relationship[/b][/color] [color=2e2c2c].[/color] | [color=2e2c2c].[/color] [i]complicated respect[/i]

[color=ffffff][b]brief description[/b][/color] [color=2e2c2c].[/color] | [color=94260e][i]"Strange thing, Clint Weston. He's a good man, and I don't say that easy. But men who look like him... I grew up knowing what men who look like him could do. What they did. My father could tell you, if he was still here to tell anything. So yes, it take time. Two centuries, if I'm being honest. But the man is what he is and I can't hold his face against him when his actions never gave me reason to."[/i][/color][/color][/justify][/indent][/indent][/indent]
[center][color=2e2c2c].[/color][/center]
[/hider]
[hider=Rafael's place][center][img]https://img.roleplayerguild.com/prod/users/019e3dc6-61aa-73c8-808f-0599ac3fff93.webp[/img][/center][/hider][hr]
[hider=Harper Baxter | The Free Spirit]
[color=#2e2c2c].
.[/color]
[indent][indent][table][row][sup][h1][color=181818][b]▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅[/b][right][b]▅▅▅▅▅[/b][/right][/color][right][color=fcb04d]Harper Baxter[/color][color=181818]...[/color][/right][/h1][/sup][/row][row]
[cell][color=2e2c2c]....................................................[/color][img]https://i.postimg.cc/1XgBTwtm/Harper.png[/img]

[img]https://i.postimg.cc/y8wHry8k/Harper-Gif.gif[/img]

[img]https://i.postimg.cc/FzBrF5Np/2nd-img.jpg[/img]
[center][color=807B84][sup]__________________________________________[/sup][/color] 
[sub][color=fcb04d][b]H A R P E R[/b] [color=2e2c2c].[/color] [b]B A X T E R[/b][/color]
[color=807B84][sup]________________________________________________________[/sup][/color] 
[color=fcb04d]25     [color=808080][b]|[/b][/color]     female     [color=808080][b]|[/b][/color]     pansexual[/color]
[color=807B84][sup]__________________________________________[/sup][/color][/sub][/center][sub][color=2e2c2c]..................[/color][color=fcb04d][b]▹ hair color  [/b][/color] [color=808080][b]|[/b][/color] [color=808080]  dark brown[/color]
[color=2e2c2c]..................[/color][color=fcb04d][b]▹ eye color  [/b][/color] [color=808080][b]|[/b][/color] [color=808080]  hazel[/color]
[color=2e2c2c]..................[/color][color=fcb04d][b]▹ height  [/b][/color] [color=808080][b]|[/b][/color] [color=808080]  5' 8"[/color]
[color=2e2c2c]..................[/color][color=fcb04d][b]▹ build  [/b][/color] [color=808080][b]|[/b][/color] [color=808080]  lean and athletic[/color]
[color=2e2c2c]..................[/color][color=fcb04d][b]▹ species  [/b][/color] [color=808080][b]|[/b][/color] [color=808080]  werewolf[/color]
[color=2e2c2c]..................[/color][color=fcb04d][b]▹ faction  [/b][/color] [color=808080][b]|[/b][/color] [color=808080]  the pack[/color]
[color=2e2c2c]..................[/color][color=fcb04d][b]▹ role  [/b][/color] [color=808080][b]|[/b][/color] [color=808080]  bartender[/color]
[/sub]
[/cell][cell][justify][sup][color=2e2c2c].[/color]
[color=fcb04d][b]S T R E N G T H S[/b][/color]
[color=d6d6d6][b]resourceful[/b][/color] [color=808080][i]-  Harper grew up with very little in the conventional sense, given she had no parents and a guardian who would freely admit she had no idea what she was doing half the time. Still, she learned early to make things work with what she had. 
[/i][/color]

[color=d6d6d6][b]courageous[/b][/color] [color=808080][i]- It is not that Harper doesn't feel fear. She does. She simply has never found it particularly convincing as a reason not to do something. Growing up the way she did, losing what she lost as young as she lost it, recalibrated her sense of what actually constitutes danger, and most things don't make the cut. [/i][/color]

[color=d6d6d6][b]genuine[/b][/color] [color=808080][i]- What you see with Harper Baxter is what you get, completely and without revision. Cece raised her without patience for pretense, and it stuck. People tend to trust her quickly and sometimes more than they mean to because of this.[/i][/color]

[color=fcb04d][b]W E A K N E S S E S[/b][/color]
[color=d6d6d6][b]recklessness[/b][/color] [color=808080][i]- Harper operates on instinct and feeling in a way that serves her well right up until it doesn't, and it has gotten her into situations she couldn't laugh her way out of more than once. The recklessness lives in the same place her courage does, and sometimes she can't tell the difference. [/i][/color]

[color=d6d6d6][b]loyalty blindness[/b][/color] [color=808080][i]- The pack is everything to Harper in a way that is non-negotiable. This love is real to her, and it’s one of her finest qualities. But it is also the thing most likely to undo her. Harper is slow to see clearly when the person causing a problem is someone she loves, for instance, and slower still to act on what she sees.[/i][/color]

[color=d6d6d6][b]naive[/b][/color] [color=808080][i]- Harper's genuine nature, like her courage, has a shadow side. She extends good faith readily. Too readily. She assumes people mean what they say because she means what she says, and this has burned her more than once. Harper knows she is not stupid either. She just wants to believe in people and wants the world to be a little kinder than it is. And that wanting, more than any lack of intelligence, is what makes her naive. 
[/i][/color]

[center][color=807B84][sup]__________________________________________________________________________________[/sup][/color][/center]
[color=fcb04d][b]P E R S O N A L I T Y[/b][/color]
[color=d6d6d6][b]candid[color=2e2c2c]....[/color] [color=808080]|[/color] [color=2e2c2c]....[/color] earnest [color=2e2c2c]....[/color] [color=808080]|[/color] [color=2e2c2c]....[/color] steadfast [color=2e2c2c]....[/color] [color=808080]|[/color] [color=2e2c2c]....[/color] spirited [color=2e2c2c]....[/color] [color=808080]|[/color] [color=2e2c2c]....[/color] cheeky[/b][/color]

[color=fcb04d][b]H I S T O R Y[/b][/color]
[color=808080]For Harper Baxter, the scent of Pine Ridge is the scent of before and after all mixed into one. The bite of mountain pine and the loamy smell of the forest floor are the smells of her mother’s fur and of her father’s breathy laugh. But they are also the smells of the night when everything changed. She was four, and her wolf had not yet fully formed, but the animal inside her had somehow been aware. It had felt the tearing of the pack bond, a sudden, howling silence where two bright presences once had been.

Still, while she’d been old enough to understand the significance of their absence, she had not been old enough to remember the details of exactly who or what took them. What she knows, she only knows in fragments. Something about a vampire skirmish: Cece had filled in what she could and left the rest alone, and Harper, somewhere along the way, decided that was all she needed to know. The full story lives somewhere in buried pack history she has never asked to be told, and she has made a quiet peace with letting it remain unknown to her. 

Cecelia Blythe was not built for motherhood. She’d even tell you that herself if you asked, usually while pouring herself a glass of something strong and pointing out that she once forgot to water a cactus for six months and it still fucking died even though…weren’t those fuckers supposed to take care of themselves anyway? Well, shit. So, one could say that at thirty-two, she was much more comfortable with other things, such as having most of her time for herself and knowing exactly where her belongings were at [i]all[/i] times. Nothing at all to do with a child’s sticky fingers and ever bottomless need for the kind of love that couldn’t clock out at five. 

But the pack had looked at a four-year-old girl with her mother's eyes and her father's stubborn chin, and then they had looked at Cece and somehow that had been that. She would tell you she didn't volunteer for the thing, either. She would also tell you that nobody else was going to do it properly, so really, what choice did she have but to take the little shit in? None, that's what. And yet, Harper has heard this story enough times with the same words and the same gruff delivery to know it is Cece's way of saying she would do it all again without hesitation. That she has, in fact, done it every single day since.

That isn't to say that the puberty years were easy. Grief in a wolf runs deeper than thought, roots itself into the marrow and grows there. Harper had carried her parents' absence in a human body for nearly a decade before the wolf finally surfaced, and when it did, everything she had learned to manage came flooding back with it. She shifted without warning, without control, chasing the feeling of her parents in the only form that still carried their scent in her memory. Through these experiences, Cece quickly learned to keep the back door unlocked. She learned other things too, like how sometimes Harper needed the forest more than she needed walls, that running helped where sitting still only made things worse, and that a child who had lost everything needed to know with absolute certainty that the people still standing weren't going anywhere. Cece was not soft about any of it. She was the kind of hard that keeps a kid alive. But she was also present. Relentlessly, exhaustingly, present. Which turned out to be exactly what Harper had needed.

Now at 25, she tends the bar at the Pine Ridge Saloon most nights. She likes people. Specifically, she likes being the person a stranger tells their whole life story to over two drinks and a bowl of peanuts. She likes that by the time they leave, they feel a little lighter than when they walked in, as if she has taken something heavy from them and hidden it under the counter with the dirty glasses. Pine Ridge is her town, and its people are her people, every last complicated one of them. 

Even the vampires. Well…sorta.[/color]

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[center][color=808080][color=fcb04d][b]hexcode[/b][/color] [color=2e2c2c].[/color] | [color=2e2c2c].[/color] #fcb04d [color=2e2c2c]........[/color] [color=fcb04d][b]faceclaim[/b][/color] [color=2e2c2c].[/color] | [color=2e2c2c].[/color] hailee steinfeld [color=2e2c2c]........[/color] [color=fcb04d][b]creator[/b][/color] [color=2e2c2c].[/color] | [color=2e2c2c].[/color] Qia[/color][/center][/sup][/justify][/cell]
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