Venus

The Sands of Time

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The price of carrying a legacy was no easy feat.

Aliana Brady knew this well. Upon her graduation from Salem U, the young woman had been appointed by her parents as the Assistant Manager of The Brady Pub: the oldest drinking hut of Salem, and a historic staple of the town. The pub had been run by the Brady family for over three hundred years, and there were no plans for new management outside the family any time soon. However, working with family came with a price to pay. As if impressing an unknown superior wasn’t easy, it was harder to prove to a pair of stubborn parents that their daughter had the capacity to handle the family business. Of course, in their minds, Aliana was still the rebellious child who fussed about cleaning her room or following instructions. No matter how hard she’d tried, Shawn and Caroline still refused to give her some leeway to show her full potential. This had lead to more than a few arguments, with them promising to cut her some slack then ultimately failing to do so. But even with these odds against her, she would be damned before she let anything come in the way of showing her parents all that she was capable of.

Completely oblivious to some skank making some moves on her boyfriend a few miles away, Ali was hard at work. She had spent most of the morning making inventory of what was needed in the pub, to make the order for restocking before that afternoon. This had involved some back and forth between her tiny office and the bar area; and it was during one of these times when she heard her older brother’s voice addressing her.

“I don’t know how you stand working here for him. I could never do it. I’d probably kill myself after the first day.”

Aliana could only smile and shake her head at him. She was more than aware of Colin’s rocky relationship with her parents: it was a persistent, dampening cloud of resentment that none of the two parties ever let go of. The young woman understood were both sides were coming from, though. Shawn and Caroline had been notorious for shoving their aspirations for their children down their throats. The couple would make a point of always reminding them what they expected from them, and how anything less than that would make them an object of shame in their eyes. Enough to say, one would crack under the pressure; which is exactly what had happened to Colin. Hell, it had even happened to her back in her teen years! They were only human, after all.

On the other hand, Aliana knew their parents’ banter came from a good place (even if it was hard to see sometimes). The elders wanted their children to be successful in live, and to have more than they ever had growing up. The whole family also wanted Colin to stay as healthy as he could, and to stay as far away as he could from those disgusting drugs that threatened to fuck up his existence not that long ago. Sure, Shawn and Caroline could use better words and tone to express themselves, but it was as useless as teaching an old dog new tricks.

“Who’s to say I haven’t tried?” Ali replied to her brother, rolling her eyes at him but keeping the smile still in place to know she was just going along with the joke. “Seriously, though. You know I love them to death, Colin, but they’re so damn stubborn that sometimes I feel like I’m talking to a brick wall,” she complained, letting out a frustrated sigh. “So if you know of any other place that they’re looking for a manager, hit me up. Lord knows I could use the money.”

The Sands of Time

#OTP
Credit to @Aewin

The Sands of Time

LOCATION — The Pool at Hacienda Castillo
INTERACTING WITH — Mi Gordo (Big Brother Adrián) @spooner

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In the summertime, most of the young population in Salem was occupied with being productive members of society: be it with summer jobs, advancing their studies, off on internships or even vacationing with family. Marlena Castillo was not one of these people. The youngest Castillo daughter was born with a silver spoon in her mouth, so the thought of doing anything besides relaxing and having fun was not a welcome one. Why would she be so cruel as to take away the chance for someone less fortunate to make a little something? Hell, they could call her Mother Teresa of Calcutta for her benevolent consideration! Not working was the best contribution to society Marlie could make.

Instead of doing something as menial and mundane as working -gag-, Marlie had spent her summer days between frequent shopping sprees, clubbing and hanging around with her best friend Julia Davis. Although she’d occasionally dropped by her mother’s office to coordinate the last details of her lip kits, the cosmetics were already in the distribution phase, so there wasn’t much for her to do besides a tour of the lab (which she’d done enough times so that it lost all the fun). This had been fun enough the first month of vacation. But now, with Julia gone and doing the same thing for so long, the enjoyment was starting to wear off.

This was why, on Independence Day’s eve, Marlie found herself in the middle of her home’s pool, getting a tan while slowly gliding around in one of those mattress-style floaters. She had her black bikini and shades on, a refreshing drink in one hand, rose gold iPhone X in the other. The young woman had taken a few selfies, and was in the process of tweaking them out a bit when she noticed Adrian making his entrance to the pool area. Finally, a golden opportunity to complain to someone who would sort of listen!

“Ay Gordo!” Marlie whined from her spot in the pool, flipping her glasses up to the top of her head and looking at her older brother with puppy dog eyes and a pout. “I’m bored out of my pinche vida! Why can’t Daddy jet us off to Bali, or Santorini, or Cancún- even if we’ve been there a million times?! Julia’s off on some dumb holiday with her family, and I’m just here by myself all the time because nobody in this lame, stupid town likes me…” she complained saltily, taking a sip of her piña colada. "Está de la chingada esto."

The Sands of Time

The Sands of Time

Character tab has been updated so that when you click each family photo it takes you to their CS! Huge special thanks to @Aewin for taking care of the aesthetic of each character! It looks freaking bomb and I love it so muchhhhh. <3

The Sands of Time

Aliana Noelle Brady

"Life ain't always easy. You gotta work hard for what you want in it."

_{Somewhere weakness is our strength, and I'll die searching for it. I can't let myself regret, such selfishness} | _{Wait, they don’t love you like I love you.}

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Name

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Aliana Noelle Brady

Age

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23 | July 31st

Gender

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Female

Sexuality

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Bisexual

Education Level

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B.A. in Business Management, Minor in Accounting

Occupation

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Assistant Manager of The Brady Pub

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^{"She’s a badass with a good heart, soft but strong. Unapologetic and honest. She’s the type of woman you go to war besides, the type of woman you marry." — R.H. Sin}

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Appearance

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The first feature you notice upon setting your sights on Aliana is the signature red hair coming from the long line of Irish descent, which she mostly wears down or in a ponytail. In terms of style, it can definitely be described as grungy-casual. Her outfits includes T-shirts, jeans, sneakers, loafers or boots and a leather or varsity jacket. As expected, most of her ensembles will contain a black item, as it is her favorite color. In terms of accessories, she will wear necklaces, rings and bracelets to add some spice to her outfits. However, her four inseparable companions are a pair of sunglasses, earrings, her earbuds and a gold necklace with the initials A and E in two separate circular pendants. You will only see Ali wearing things like sundresses and shorts during the summer, and only in very important social events or dates with her boyfriend will you see her all decked out. Makeup-wise, she keeps it simple with just mascara and watermelon-flavored lip gloss; occasionally a winged liner. She has four continuous piercings in each ear along with a cartilage ring. Ali has no tattoos, but she has a fair share of faded scars on her legs from falling off her bike as a child.

Personality

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Aliana Brady is a direct descendant from one of the co-founding families of Salem, and this shows in the way she presents herself. She's a charming, strong-willed, confident young woman, who expresses herself with poise and eloquence. She is witty, sarcastic, with a dark sense of humor and laid back attitude. With her siblings, friends and lovers, she is caring, affectionate and loyal to the core, and will defend her own tooth and nail. When it comes to romance, Ali loves hard, deeply and intensely. She will go out of her way to make her significant other feel happy, love and safe. Those who know her will say she gets what she wants in life; perseveres and works her hardest to achieve all her goals. She definitely knows the value of being stubborn until she gets what she wants (and that sometimes you gotta be a bitch about it), but she isn’t stupid or reckless, and isn’t about to let one wrong move jeopardize her plans.

Upbringing

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Aliana Noelle Brady was born on the sunny afternoon of a 31st day of July nearly twenty-four years before, the second-born daughter to Salem’s own Shawn and Caroline Brady. Her childhood was nothing out of the ordinary one for the typical American child. She grew up in a closely-knit family, protected by her older brother and at the same time protecting her older siblings. Her parents, ever the hard-workers, always made a point to teach their children the difference from right and wrong, and instill in each of them the importance of working hard for the things you want. Ali was more than happy to comply, but with the years began to resent her parents for the very vocal and constant expectations being imposed on her and her siblings.

When she reached her thirteenth birthday, Aliana finally became completely tired of playing Little Miss Perfect. She began to rebel against her parents and her expectations: refusing to attend events, constantly arguing with them, sneaking out to smoke pot, and so on. This lead to Ali's relationship with her parents getting shaky, which in turn lead her to taking comfort on her best friends. At the age of fifteen, she had her first relationship with a woman, coming out as bisexual. As expected, this didn’t sit very well with her heavily Catholic family; and although the relationship was short lived, it was enough to further strain the relationship.

It was not all completely lost, though. In her senior year of high school, Aliana discovered that the feelings she had for Elliot Horton went far beyond the best-friendship they had shared since they were toddlers. Taking a leap of faith, she decided to come clean… And was surprised to find out he’d been feeling the exact same way for over half his life. From then on, the rest was history between them. They began a relationship right away- much to the pleasure of both families- and continue to go on strong to this very day.

It seemed Elliot was the good influence needed to steer Ali’s life back on track. She began to work on herself, enrolling in Salem U and slowly fixing her relationship with her parents to a healthy level. The young woman graduated uni with honors, achieving her goal of. She was appointed to assistant manager at her parents’ pub upon her graduation, with hopes of taking over the family business whenever her parents decide to retire. However, the stubbornness trait of the Brady family has made the job a little more difficult than normal for Ali. Her parents refuse to let go of the reigns enough to give her any sort of complete responsibility, which has lead to more than one argument between parents and daughter. And although she would love to carry on the family legacy, it looks like her current employers are more trouble than they’re worth.

Misc

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• Has been dating Elliot Horton for the last 4 years.
• Her goals in the next five years include opening up a restaurant with Eli, and hopefully get married and have children… Whenever Eli decides to propose, that is.
• They are currently on the hunt for their own little place to call home.

_{Face Claim: Sophie Turner | Color: Crimson}

The Sands of Time

@Taytay @SpicyMeatball Both accepted! ♡

The Sands of Time

@Prosaic Accepted! Place him in the charrie tab and welcome aboard! ♡

The King of the Sea & the Queen of the Land

_{Chance is the only game I play with, baby
We let our battles choose us}

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It had been about an hour and a half since Demi had arrived at the party and the music had kicked off. She’d spent some time assessing the crowd’s interests, paying attention to their body language when she played certain songs and genres. At this point, she’d had them all figured out up: they had their hands in the air, bodies swaying at the beat of the music and smiles of enjoyment in their faces. Dem had been busy selecting the songs to play next when her attention was called away from her device.

“Ey, Graves!” a familiar voice shouted from the bottom of the booth. When she turned to look, she found herself staring at Sean Murphy: the devilishly attractive captain of the Hufflepuff quidditch team. The two had known each other for years, as you would with a person who’s been your competitor and classmate for a while. Sporting rivalries aside, the two got along surprisingly well. They’d had a couple of classes together in which they were required to work as a team, and they would occasionally have lunch together to discuss all things quidditch. It was Sean, in fact, who had been Demi’s first crush when arriving to Hogwarts- way before Kalder was ever in the picture. More than once, she’d entertained the thought of what things would have been like if she’d never fallen for Kal and had gone after Sean instead. Maybe she wouldn’t be stuck in the pits of the drama hell like she was at the moment. But, alas, what was done, was done. She would never know.

“Hey, Sean!” Demi shouted back with a smile, waving at him while still dancing. He motioned at him to come up to the booth so she could hear him better, and when he did, she eagerly continued. “Good game today, wasn’t it? Too bad you guys couldn’t stop us,” she teased, winking at him to make sure he knew she was just joking around.

“Ye would say that, wouldn’t ye?” he replied, smiling and shaking his head as memories of how dreadful his team had done earlier in the day flooded him. His thick Irish accent made Demi secretly swoon on the inside. “Ye guys played good, but I know we’ll get yous back eventually.”

The young woman shot Sean a smirk, wiggling her eyebrows at him. “We’ll be waiting for the rematch, then.”

Sean grinned at her, but suddenly seemed to stop for a second. He looked around and swallowed nervously, as if preparing himself to say something that could backfire. The blond male cleared his throat before looking back at Demi. “Actually, Demetria, I came ‘ere to congratulate ye. Ye doin’ real good as the Gryffindor cap’n, an’ is been real fun to be playin’ against ye’.”

“Awwwww!” Demi exclaimed, looking away with pink cheeks and a small smile on her face. Was this really happening? Sean Murphy -the ever-competitiveHufflepuff heartthrob- had actually made a point to compliment her even after losing a game against her? This was either a ruse to get back at her for the shame of losing… Or he honestly meant it. And from the way he was looking at her right in this very moment with those sweet baby blue eyes and that smile? The latter was looking more likely. “I really appreciate that, Sean, I really do. That’s super sweet of you! And hey, you’re doing a great job yourself! I’m sure we’ll see each other at the final. Just don’t stop believing in yourself and your team.”

“I ‘ear ye,” Sean replied, nodding at Demi with a small smile. “But enough about the game, ye? Would ye… Care for a dance with me?” he asked, politely extending his hand at her in a form of invitation. His pale cheeks were blushing all the while, which only made him all the more endearing in Demi’s eyes.

The brunette beamed, eagerly taking his hand. “I would love to. Let us dance!”

As the two team captains began to move around to the music, Demi looked around one last time. It was then when she noticed that Kalder -like the playboy that he was- had switched partners, and was now with Beatrice. An evil smile spread on her lips, knowing fully well the perfect moment to kick off her secret revenge plan was near. Without missing a beat, the young woman quickly looked up the playlist she was looking for on her iPod. She discreetly watched the two backstabbing snakes dancing happily, and she felt quite benevolent at having graciously granted them the privilege of the full song before she went ahead and stirred the pot.

Once the last notes of the current song ended, Demi eagerly pressed play on her device’s screen. Just like that, the first notes of Taylor Swift’s “We Are Never Getting Back Together” began to play and fill the room. And from her position in the makeshift DJ booth, Demi happily danced along with a completely naive Sean to the mocking choreography she’d come up with on the spot.

‘You go talk to your friends, talk to my friends, talk to me.’

“But we are never ever, ever, ever getting back together!” Demi sang at the top of her voice, unflinching blue eyes looking straight at Kalder, never missing a beat all the while.

Then came Kelly Clarkson’s “Since U Been Gone”, followed by Electric Mantis’ “Lying and Loving, back to backs of Katy Perry’s “Dark Horse” and “Swish Swish” (a swift nod to Beatrice), Demi Lovato’s “Really Don’t Care” and disco remixes of Rihanna’s “No Love Allowed”, Adele’s “Rolling In The Deep”, Michelle Branch’s “Are You Happy Now”, Ellie Goulding’s “On My Mind” (taking a deep swig of butterbeer every time she sang ‘so I pour it down’), CeeLo Green’s “Fuck You”, and closing off with Demi Lovato’s “You Don’t Do It For Me Anymore.”

I see the future without you
The hell was I doing in the past?
Now that I've learned all about you
A love just like ours wouldn't last

I won't fall for your games
So don't hate me when I say

That you
Don't do it for me anymore
No, you
Don't do it for me anymore

Money won't pay for your problems
You gotta fix them yourself
Vices and pity won't solve 'em
Stop feeling bad for yourself’

The crowd had seemed to love the little heartbreak playlist- most especially the girls in attendance. She’d heard their voices shrieking along to the lyrics, fists raised whenever they felt especially identified with a particular line in a sort of group karaoke session. Surprisingly, most people knew the lyrics of the songs, which was to show that the topic of being betrayed by a man went beyond any world. Bottom line? Everything had gone perfectly.

Beaming at how flawlessly her plan had been executed, Demi resumed the original party playlist. Holding Sean’s hand, she sauntered away from the booth to go grab some drinks and socialize with Jomana, Caleb and the rest of their group. The last glimpse she’d gotten from Kalder’s face told her that he’d been caught completely off guard: just like she’d wanted it to be. She sincerely hoped that this got him thinking twice of having hurt her the way he did.

If this wasn’t the biggest fuck-you to an ex without having anybody else notice, then she didn’t know what was.

The Sands of Time

I can smell the fights between the two oldest Castillo siblings and the two oldest Zima siblings a mile away lol, And the others like: