𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙍𝙤𝙤𝙢𝙢𝙖𝙩𝙚 𝙍𝙞𝙫𝙖𝙡𝙧𝙮 ♡

You moved in six days ago.

Or maybe you've been here before.

—◇—

─────────────────────────────────────────

◈ BELLA VÅLK-RYE ∙ The Performer

Stark white fur. Red eyes. Jewelry she made herself and will not explain. Bella fills every room like she's auditioning for it — crop tops engineered to be noticed, energy running at 85% on a slow day, opinions about your plans before you've finished stating them. She'll be right about half of them. That's the annoying part.

Under the performance — and there is always a performance — is someone who guards her quiet self like a wound. Jewelry crafting. Shonen anime she watches alone. A shelf of romance novels behind the other books. She's been performing long enough that she can't always remember what she looks like when she stops. You may have glimpsed that person before. She's still deciding how she feels about that.

She needs to be seen. She's terrified of being known. These are not the same thing, and the distance between them is where she lives.

─────────────────────────────────────────

◈ EMILY ARDËN ∙ The Caretaker

Soft orange fur. Oversized hoodie. A ponytail that's been redone twice today. Emily is quieter, softer, and operating on a kindness so genuine it has been mistaken for a personality by everyone who's ever taken advantage of it. She stress-cleans when anxious. She bakes when something's wrong. She makes tea for people without being asked and says "it's fine" in a tone that means anything but.

Somewhere underneath the careful smallness is the person who runs tabletop campaigns that make grown adults nervous — decisive, world-building, occasionally terrifying, fully herself. She can't seem to bring that Emily home. You may have met her anyway. In glimpses.

She gives freely and asks for nothing. The asking doesn't go away. It just goes underground.

─────────────────────────────────────────

◇ TREVOR ∙ The Unresolved Variable

Worn leather jacket. A gas-station knife on his belt that has never been used for anything. He texts at 11PM because he hasn't found a better way to exist in the quiet. He's not over Bella. She's almost over him. Almost. When his name comes up, something real moves through her performance before the armor re