is this open/accepting apps?

absolutely! we’ve been a tad slower this week with some mini hiatus’, but the admin will be around this weekend before taking a small hiatus herself next week due to work. i’ll still be able to answer questions / concerns, but applications received after tomorrow may not be reviewed until friday, april 3rd. 

                 cassel resident : talia wilkes.

full name. natalie ‘talia’ wilkes. age. thirty four birthdate. august 8th, 1986          zodiac. leo. gender. female                            pronouns. she/her occupation. doctor ( family medicine ) lives in. main street.

                                     about talia wilkes.

when talia imagines herself, she is always leaving. and maybe that’s always been the greatest constant in her life, reaching the crest of the mountain top & then turning back down right before hitting the peak. that’s what her mother would say anyways. and she always did have so much to say. 

she wasn’t always like this: family disappointment, the daughter whose name gets glossed over in conversations with her parent’s country-club friends. the joke sits on the roof of her mouth: no, I used to be worse. 

the thing was, talia always felt like she was too big for this world. like she was a great, cosmic force that had been trapped inside a tiny glass jar, sitting on a shelf & collecting dust. she felt everything too deeply & too strongly, each emotion could echo off her canyon chest for eternities. she wasn’t meant to be a proper young lady, one that would evolve into a proper young wife that hung off her proper young husband’s arm before eventually popping out proper little children & repeating the cycle all over again. she wasn’t built for school board meetings or cocktail hours, lunch at the club and summer in the vineyard. she was a wild creature, always saying the wrong things and laughing with all her teeth, perpetually sneaking out of her girlhood bedroom at all hours of the moon-dark night.

for the record, talia did try. she really did. despite her near-constant bad behavior, her grades were excellent. no one could take that away from her. and by the time university came, she had her pick of the ivies, eventually settling on yale. things were on the uptick, she had fallen in love with her pre-med courses. she spent nights in the library buried beneath piles of books or recording hours volunteering at the local hospital. with medicine, she’d finally found something she was good at, something worthwhile that she could offer the world. something to make her family proud. talia shined at her med-school interviews, winning competing offers from schools like stanford and princeton. and then she got pregnant at twenty-one, just a few months shy of her college graduation. 

even now, she can hear the ringing sound of her parent’s voices after the news broke. you’ve ruined your life. you’ve completely ruined your life, natalia. for a time — she believed it, numbingly agreeing to let them take the reins of her existence, which seemed to grow smaller and smaller by the day. talia denied her other offers and picked u-chicago’s medical school so that she’d be closer to her family. she let her then-boyfriend slip an antique engagement ring around her finger and ignored how much congratulations sounded like the click of a lock. she delivered her twins, leila and noah, in the sticky heat of june. she drove herself to the hospital. it was a few hours after an anatomy exam.

she continued this transitory life until her second year of medical school, as her mother & would-be mother in law were planning her wedding. with the wedding, which was already promising to be a lavish affair, talia would finally make things “right”, settle down & have a real family. the babies were a minor hiccup, they said, something people would eventually grow to forgive in time. and talia, despite her restless heart screaming otherwise, once again agreed. but then she saw her wedding dress. her fingers traced the delicate lace & suddenly it all became dizzyingly real. natalia saw her life play out before her — an unhappy marriage, children that would grow resentful of her, a life she’d spent so much of her life trying to escape from thrust upon her hands. and she left. all she remembers is a crescent moon hung low in the sky, guiding her way. new start, talia she repeated like a mantra, this is a new start. 

with what was left in her bank account she was able to scrap together rent for the next few years, living on the outskirts of the chicago. she pulled out loans for tuition. for the three years, she worked her ass off and ignored her brother’s pleas to come home. her parents didn’t really bother, talia supposed in their eyes she had already made her choice. she spent mornings waitressing & her evenings studying, relying on the kindness of her friends who didn’t mind her twins sleeping in the background of their all-nighters. when residency came, she already knew what she wanted to do. there was a statistic she’d once seen in undergrad, about how twenty percent of americans lived in rural areas and yet barely a tenth of doctors practiced there. she knew she wanted to do something about it. and she did. she applied to residency programs across the country. including cassel’s hospital. her classmates thought she was bananas to even consider a program in what they affectionately called “bum-fuck-nowhere, USA”, but she didn’t really pay them any mind — letting their laughter bounce off her like dew slipping off a leaf. she knew what she wanted to do. anyone else’s opinion was secondary.

this was some years ago — nearly seven, if she was counting. despite everything, she’s carved herself a lovely little life here in cassel. sure, there are small inconveniences — her med school debt getting in the way of finally buying a house being the chief amongst them, but she’s done the best she can. and that’s all you can do, right? after a lifetime’s worth of strife, to keep moving forwards despite it all. to earn yourself some stability, fill the space in between with love.

                                   three songs. under the table ( fiona apple ) / baby birch ( joanna newsom ) / storms ( fleetwood mac )

       ↳ talia wilkes is faced by aiysha hart and penned by yazzy.

   welcome to cassel, il. we hope you feel right at home.

             the following players have been accepted. please send your account in within twenty four hours to the main! 

talia wilkes ( aiysha hart fc ) 

please unfollow mason jarr as the player did not respond to the activity check.

activity check ; 

the following players need to either react to the discord activity check or message the main account within twenty four hours ( 8pm CST tuesday, march 22nd ) or their spots will be reopened. 

@masonhqs

we currently have one application (  aiysha hart fc ) in the inbox with an audition review scheduled for tomorrow, tuesday march 22nd at 8pm CST ! 

                  cassel resident : sloan martin.

full name. sloan martin. age. thirty birthdate. october 12th, 1990          zodiac. libra. gender. female                            pronouns. she/her occupation. owner of harry’s garage. lives in. miller park.

                                      about sloan martin.

The baby of the Martin family grew up with four elder brothers and an irresistible need to prove herself. If her brothers climbed a tree, she needed to go one branch higher; if they raced one another, she’d try to go one block further; if they so much as insinuated that she couldn’t do something, she’d have to demolish their expectations. Scraped knees and broken bones warranted frequent trips to the emergency room, but all her catastrophic failures only pushed Sloan forward.

Her parents barely had time to worry about their precocious little hellion between raising their other children and running Harry’s Garage, aptly named after the patriarch of the family. This lack of attention fostered a fiercely stubborn and independent streak in Sloan, which culminated in turbulent teenage years. Fights became all too common, as were suspensions from school, which left her time to help her father in the garage. It turned out that tearing things apart and building them back up became an excellent conduit for her aggressive energy, so it came as no surprise that she set herself on the same path her father had taken in his youth. She had already dropped out of high school, but managed to earn her GED and complete the automotive mechanic program at a technical school.

By the time her father retired, she had more-or-less taken over the physical labor at Harry’s, the only thing left to do was to learn how to keep the books and manage finances – - knowledge she gleaned from her mother, who had a shrewd mind and kept the business afloat during the most turbulent times. During this period, Sloan and one of her siblings’ many friends got it in their mind to start something of a second business in the form of a little Friday night get-together. The owner of the only other garage in town, who Sloan had practically grown up with, managed a much bigger operation by the time he and Sloan got it in their heads to engage in a bit of friendly competition. An offhand comment about how a fight club was “just some place office guys go to jerk each other off,” ended in a squabble that presented Sloan with a new challenge. If she thought a fight club was so easy to run, then why didn’t she have one herself? Ever the competitor, Sloan began devising a club of her own – - one that was located a little closer to town, one that could accept law enforcement officials as participants, and one that would rival her friend’s operation.

Chess Club was slow to start – - word of mouth was the only way to advertise for an illegal fight club - – but it eventually picked up and took off. A simple premise – - people could come place bets, fight, or play audience while Sloan sold cheap beer from lukewarm coolers and snacks out of the bed of her truck - – grew into a decently sized, much anticipated weekly social event. It was something she built herself, rather than something she inherited through luck and nepotism. She and her competition quickly realized how easily they could manipulate the market if they worked together; they started rumors about feuds between the two organizations, bad blood that existed between the mechanics. Tournaments were scheduled and they both saw a significant improvement in the size of crowds, though it seemed that Chess Club was destined to be much smaller than the original operation.

Unfortunately, Sloan couldn’t devote all of her time to the club, as she soon came to realize that running the garage came with a lot of extra responsibilities. Her father and mother moved to a nice little retirement complex in the Florida Keys without a single word about the delicate balance that had been struck between Harry and a fair amount of the town’s seedy population. It didn’t take long before she was forced to decide whether she would work with the rif raff or discontinue the nice little side hustle her father nurtured through the years

Sloan’s connection to the her hometown’s seedy underbelly was loose – - her grandfather had been a bootlegger up until his untimely imprisonment at the hands of the Bureau of Prohibition - – but that was all she needed to justify moving forward with shady dealings. For a long time, she helped where she felt comfortable and offered free drinks to suspect individuals every couple of Fridays at Chess Club. Sloan could stay (mostly) on the right side of the law and could avoid difficult entanglements that might have little payout later, and that was enough for her. Things might’ve continued this way, with Sloan dancing on the fringes with criminals and the department, until one particularly unfortunate Friday pushed her over the edge.

It wasn’t uncommon to see members of the department placing bets or jumping in the action after enough beers at Chess Club. They’d always had something of an understanding with Sloan; she provided a place to blow off steam, and they’d look the other way when it came to her activities. This lasted for years, until a couple cops decided to save their own skins by rolling up to Sloan’s, sirens blaring and guns drawn, to bust up her little club. These were the same men who previously enjoyed her hospitality every other Friday, but that didn’t matter when their boss put them under the slightest pressure. Both Sloan and her business suffered considerably, giving her enough reason to distance herself from law enforcement personnel.

Chess Club might’ve faded into obscurity altogether if it hadn’t been for the untimely death of her competition, who had been a friend and confidant for a great many years. The game they manipulated forced her to grieve in private – - after all, why would she be so upset over someone she was actively fighting with? Unable to drop her pride or their ruse, Sloan simply absorbed a fair amount of the disbanded club’s customer base and continued doing what she always had.

Nowadays, Sloan is known for being able to procure and fix just about anything. Her services rarely come free, and anything that’s off the usual auto-repair repertoire comes with a hefty price tag, but one can be certain that her work will be immaculate and she’ll make damn sure there’s nothing amiss before calling it quits.

                                    three songs. my type ( saint motel ) / swear to god ( tyler childers ) / south ( hippocampus )

        ↳ sloan martin is faced by margot robbie and penned by charlie.

                  cassel resident : jess hinkley.

full name. . jess hinkley. age. twenty six birthdate. august 10th, 1994          zodiac. leo. gender. non-binary                            pronouns. they/them occupation. clerk at bookends secondhand bookstore lives in. main street.

                                      about jess hinkley.

triggers: terminal illness, parental death, injury, hospitalization, loss of limb/amputation, vehicle crash, drug use

When Jess Hinkley was born, there were two very different stories reaching integral points; the beginning of the end for one and the end of the beginning for the other. The first was the story of Jess’ mother, Robin Hinkley (nee Hartford). Robin’s own story started in Cassel, Illinois, where her family had lived for generations. Like an increasing number of folks in town, she wanted to get out of Cassel the first chance she got. The moment she graduated high school, she was off to Kansas City to study literature at the University of Missouri. She loved everything to do with words; hand-writing letters, learning new styles of calligraphy, reading any literature she could get her hands on. She especially loved classic adventure novels like Treasure Island, Around the World in Eighty Days, and the Swiss Family Robinson, and dreamed of writing a story like that of her own. Shortly after arriving, she answered a wanted ad at a local barbeque place and waited tables there for years before the restaurant hired a new pitmaster. A local chef, Guy Hinkley, came to fill the position and the rest was history. Robin fell for Guy in a matter of a few short weeks, and they were married hardly more than a year after they met.

The second story unfolding when Jess was born belonged to Guy Hinkley, their father. For all that he looked the strong and silent type, he was a goofy and memorable father. The birth of his and Robin’s first child, Elijah, had given him a new lease on life and Guy used that newfound confidence to convince his wife that they should take their show on the road. More specifically, that his dream of owning his own restaurant would be better realized in sunny California. Five years before Jess was born, they moved their little family from Kansas City to San Diego, where they opened up Robin’s Barbeque. Though Guy often became distracted with work in the restaurant, Jess’ mother was a warm, gentle, and fun-loving mother despite a lifelong illness that often dampened her plans. No matter how sick she got, she still managed to fill her children’s lives with adventure when they couldn’t go on adventures out in the real world. Her children would come to associate anything related to books and writing with their mother. In a cruel twist of fate, the Hinkley kids lost their mother when Jess was 11, their brother Elijah was 18, and their little sister Kenzie wasn’t even two. Though he tried his best to hide it, the loss cut their father Guy to his very core and changed him permanently.

When Jess’ mother was alive, their father only really seemed to care about their restaurant. Every moment he spent in that kitchen was less time with his family, but Jess’ mother had always known he did it for them. Jess didn’t see it this way for a long time, especially after losing their mother, but when they started working in the family restaurant at 14, they understood it right away. The restaurant was full of reminders of their mother; pictures in the kitchen and on the walls, all her favorite dishes on the menu, her name on the sign outside. Robin’s Barbeque was a labor of love, and that revelation was a turning point for Jess, whose heart was starting to turn bitter in the wake of their troubled adolescence. In the years after their mother’s death, Jess and their siblings became even more tightly knit and learned to fend for themselves, for the most part. Their father spent more time at home than he did when their mother was around, but even their little sister understood from a young age what it meant for their father to keep the restaurant up and running in their mother’s memory.

Being the middle child and barely in middle school, Jess didn’t have the same level responsibility as their older brother when their mother passed. As they got older, Jess started to chip in and help with their younger sister, but their head was always in the clouds and their heart always flipped from one desire to the next; their self-control never coming along for the ride. Their older brother developed into a serious and strong-willed young man, while Jess became anything but. They spent years sneaking out of the house to get up to traditional rapscallion activities with the other kids who didn’t feel like they fit in anywhere else. There were five or six of them in their group, all from imperfect homes who had less than perfect morals and dark senses of humor, and mostly queer kids like Jess. Besides smoking weed in the park, petty vandalism of abandoned buildings, and gas station parking lot loitering, the worst they really ever did was play their music too loud in Jess’ family’s basement and turn to fisticuffs a couple times a year when high school betrayals went too far.

Of course, like any good high school story, there was one rapscallion who wasn’t like the rest of them, at least to Jess. It didn’t matter how broken she was (really, how broken they all were), Jess thought she was sunshine incarnate. Jess’ jokes were stupid and goofy, and they could be mean when they were upset or drunk, but their high school sweetheart was wholesome and caring to Jess; thoughtful. When Jess started with a season-long perfect record on the track team, and every coach within 100 miles suddenly came to recruit them, their girlfriend was at every event. When everyone pushed Jess to train for the Olympics, she was by Jess’ side the whole time; the greatest support a joker like them could ask for. She believed in Jess, and suddenly Jess had a reason to believe in themself, as nonconforming as they turned out to be. They started conditioning for the next Olympics and for once in their life, had a real plan for their future. Then college took their sweetheart halfway around the world, and Jess was never the same.

Life during their last year of high school and beyond proved troublesome, but Jess ran hard and fast (from the cops and during their track events) to avoid any kind of a permanent record that might disqualify them from the Olympics, disappoint their father and brother, or impede their ability to look after their little sister. It was bittersweet, running without the support they had once had after their first love was gone, but supporting their family was enough motivation for Jess to run faster and jump higher than they ever had. To Jess, supporting their family meant qualifying for and competing in the Olympics. In return, their family stepped up and provided the support they needed when they needed it most. When news got out that Jess had qualified for the Olympic trials in Oregon at 20 years old, the town started to rally behind them as well; an unlikely hometown hero if there ever was one. The most difficult training of their life began immediately and before they could believe it, Jess was heading to Oregon to face the toughest competition they could’ve ever imagined.

In an afternoon that they would never forget, Jess came out on top in their event and it became official: Jess Hinkley was going to the Olympics. Santa Diego lit up with news that they were home to another Olympic hopeful and Jess’ father bought 50 copies of the newspaper with Jess on the front page, handing them out to anybody who would take one. They floated on that high for two months before a summer blowout celebration, when the boat Jess and their friends were on was hit by another boat, killing two of the fourteen people involved and injuring nearly everyone else. Jess themself was injured so badly that their right leg had to be amputated from the knee down after the accident, which meant one thing to them when they woke up: their Olympic dreams were over. Not many people in the city actually blamed Jess for the losses, though most people in town had heard the “official” story – that Jess had been the one to steal the boat they were on from their girlfriend’s family and let someone underage and drunk drive it – but it was still the biggest blow and toughest failure Jess had ever known.

For weeks, Jess’ hospital room was all they knew. They went through the stages of grief after losing their leg, almost akin to having lost a family member. On the back of the sudden shock, they struggled to see the accident as anything but the death of their independence, their dreams, and their future. Even after the hardest part of their physical therapy ended and they could see the light at the end of the tunnel, it took months for Jess to be fitted and actually receive their prosthetic; months which they spent coming to terms with the abrupt changes in their life and getting used to crutches when they did (rarely) get out of bed. Slowly, Jess spent more and more time on their crutches and moving around without too much complaining. They started small by going on walks with their little sister and eventually meeting up with their friends, but after two or so years, Jess was nearly back to their former self and able to do most of the things they’d missed so much. They moved out of their dad’s house and into an apartment with a couple of friends, and that independence put the true spirit of Jess back into them. They regained the sparkle in their eye, the mischief in their grin, and the signature curiosity that had followed Jess around since they were knee high to a grasshopper.

That curiosity was triggered, and not for the first time, when their mother’s hometown of Cassel, Illinois was brought up. It had been years since they’d thought about Cassel, but it had come as news to Jess during a family dinner that their aunt and grandmother still lived there, and they couldn’t stop thinking about it after that night. Gathering up all the information they had and twenty-six years of questions, Jess packed their bags and flew 2,000 miles to Cassel. They expected it to take weeks to find out anything more about her mother than they already knew, and even rented a room in anticipation of being in town for a while. What they didn’t expect was to feel their mother’s presence the moment they stepped into town. It was rundown and obviously no longer in its heyday, but every corner brought a new vision to Jess’ memory: their mother gossiping as she walked home with friends after school, sharing a milkshake at the diner and dancing to the song on the jukebox, making a place for herself in the local bookstore and devouring tales of adventure and life well lived voraciously. It’s been two years since Jess first arrived and they have no plans of leaving. Their bond with their grandmother and their aunt’s family started tentatively, but has blossomed into a support system they can lean on when they feel stranded in the small town; just as their mother had when she was still in town.

Jess had their life in a certain “organized chaotic” order when they left home, and they’ve tried to keep that up now that they’re out of California. Their regimen doesn’t include as much adaptive yoga or green juice as it did back home, but they’re okay with that. After applying for and receiving a grant, crowdfunding money for a prosthetic sports blade, and a dozen appointments with their prostheticist, they’re even able to run and hike again, and they’ve even started rock climbing at a local gym. The band they’ve played drums in since they were 15 took a hiatus when they left town, and Jess has been searching high and low for someone to jam with around Cassel. After having to completely re-learn how to skate with a prosthetic, their skateboard has plenty of scrapes and scratches on it, but it made it all the way to Illinois. You can find them decked out in ‘fits from the local thrift shops, hunkered over the arcade games at the bowling alley, or trying to invent a new pizza combination at their new favorite pizza place like they have been since they were a kid (even if their favorite pizza place has changed half a dozen times). And for now, that’s enough.

                                    five songs. brandy [ you’re a fine looking girl ] ( looking glass ) / once in a lifetime ( talking heads ) / dancing in the moonlight ( king harvest ) / heroes ( david bowie ) / rio ( duran duran )

        ↳ jess hinkley is faced by brigette lundy paine and penned by bird.

welcome to cassel, il. we hope you feel right at home.

the following characters have been accepted; please send us your account within 24 hours !

jess hinkley  (  brigette lundy-paine ) 

sloan martin ( margot robbie ) 

i want to say a quick ‘thank you’ to our members during this past week for their patience, and a thank you to those applicants in the inbox awaiting review - we’ll be reviewing all applications during our normal tuesday review time, at 8pm CST - we apologize for the delay, but do appreciate the window given while the admin was suffering with a temporary illness.  also, i’d like to update some pages - specifically, the town page with businesses. if your character and/or their family would like to be the owners of a business or if you’d like to add a business to the cassel page, please submit the name of the business & the family name of ownership so we can get that updated. i know there are a few characters in play that own / work in family owned businesses and this way we can have an idea of who is where !  another also, we’ll be putting together a connections page for the current plot - if your character has a certain connection to our current season plot of casey andrews, please submit that ( separately ! ) with a brief description of your characters connection.                      for example, stella garcia is connected to the casey andrews plot due to being her guidance counselor for the past three years, and has a close relationship with the family due to casey’s weekly sessions. she’s also a peer of todd harding at cassel high.  if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask, and we once again appreciate everything you are all doing here to bring this incredible story to life  ♡

Hi i wanted to let you know that there are some anons sending around info to the rpc tag that this group refuses to be inclusive of POC, specifically dark skinned face claims. They've mentioned that 3 applicants with dark skinned face claims were denied the day that a white face claim was accepted. I thought it would be important to let you know as this might become some drama in the future.

ugh. thank you for this heads up anon - i think i’ve only declined about two applications total the entire run of this game, and none were POC - much less dark skinned POC. even i think the group is very white right now and i would love to see more POC involved, which is why we have the diversity rules we have in place.  i’m very sorry if anyone has felt that we’re not attempting to be inclusive, and i’m always open to hearing constructive criticism, but honestly this is just.....crap. i’m glad you seemed to know that and thank you, again, for letting me know - i’m not going to go seeking it out and diffusing it as that tends to only make situations worse, but at least now we have warning for if they come directly to us.  i hope you have a great night :)   ♡ ♡ ♡

hi there! what time do you accept?

normally we accept around 8pm CST; however, the admin is currently severely under the weather and acceptances may or may not happen this evening. i’m going to try and get them prepped for our normal acceptance time, but they may be delayed ( in which case those who have applied would be messaged to let them know a timeframe when i’ll be able to go through things better ! ) 

                                  suburbias plot 002 / season one.

                                                   but not forgotten.

though neither casey nor todd have been located since her first disappearance almost a month ago, few can forget the tragedy that’s come undone in their little town. the girls soccer team has been disbanded for the season, with no one willing to step up to the plate. the andrews family have become all but recluse, only allowing extended family and neighbors visit them, the father found pacing the streets late at night as if it will bring his little girl home.  the police say they’re trying - but without the help of mrs. vanessa harding, who claims to have had no contact with her husband since his disappearance, they can’t seem to close in on him. though his picture flashes on televisions all across illinois and the greater midwest, his features are generic enough to blend in. there’s a thousand of him, but none seem to have casey with him.  in the meantime, newcomers have begun floating in to the small town. journalists, hoping this can be their big break. huxsters, hoping to con the people of cassel into giving up their money in exchange for hope. people long since gone, returning to care for the family they’d abandoned years ago.  it’s a whirlwind of secrets, lies and emotions just waiting to explode.  but it’s clarissa andrews who finally comes clean -                         a sobbing confession, heard around town. it’s all my fault, her voice echoing from the social media video posted to her account in a plea for her sister to return. the two had fought, viciously, sending them both out of the house in different directions.                    if clarissa hadn’t of pushed her sister, would she have been picked up so easily?                            if clarissa had told sooner, could casey be home already?

in the wake of everything, it feels like a betrayal to most. sisters, turned against one another, pitted in competition over and over again throughout the years. and while heartbreaking, it still begs the question : how much longer can cassel have hope? will casey ever, truly return home, or should the rotting flyers be indication enough that she’s truly gone?

this is a plot drop to help move along the casey andrews story. with our new members & characters, we have some new connections to the plot and look forward to building this story into the storyline of our characters involved ! if you’d like to establish a connection between your muse and the current plot, please let the admins know ASAP - specific ties will be updated over the course of the weekend in a post on our inspo blog once the queue has been restocked !

                   cassel resident : kit gallagher.

full name. . catherine ‘kit’ gallagher. age. twenty eight birthdate. november 3rd, 1992          zodiac. scorpio. gender. female                            pronouns. she/her occupation. radio host / former musician lives in. main street.

                                       about kit gallagher.

TRIGGER WARNING: parental death, boat accident, car accident, injury description, minor suicide mention

Catherine has the subtlety of an earthquake, says Mrs. Gallagher, when her eldest daughter is around five years old. She didn’t know her words would last longer than herself, standing the test of time under the skin of an unrelenting woman. Catherine, or Kit, because Catherine sounds so serious, would grow up to be just that — seismic proportions, more havoc than human. Well, some could say she was some kind of natural tragedy.

Nick Gallagher had been a roadie (slash backup guitar, backup bass, backup producer) when he met neuroscientist Dr. Elena Rhodes in Chicago. At the time, he’d been more worried about Eddie Vedder’s concert schedule than starting a family. Similarly, Elena was concerned with her distinguished career: she had just obtained her PhD and was starting a teaching position at Northwestern, hoping to further her research into early diagnostics of neurodegenerative diseases. Being such different people, they didn’t even plan to see each other again after the initial attraction, so it was a surprise that they would be forever linked: even then, it seems their eldest daughter hardly ever sought permission to do anything. Their story starts backwards: first came the baby, then the love. Kit was a toddler when they decided to actually get married — more for practicality than anything. Elena was a canadian citizen and had just been offered a more financially advantageous position at the University of Toronto as deputy head of the Department of Neuroscience. Nick, on the other hand, felt pretty much lost for a while. He had never expected to be anything other than a musician — a business school dropout as he was, but he was smart and quick to adapt. While they were living in Toronto, he made a name for himself teaching music, or teaching rock and roll, as he would say, especially because of his classical training and the famous band names he was able to attach himself too. When they moved back to Cassel, he finally had enough money to start his business (and put those classes to good work). He bought a corner store that used to be a big pub for cheap — turning it into the bar/music venue of his dreams: Firehouse. It was modest, but just big enough for Cassel, IL. The one place where cool people went for a good time and good music.

Kit grew up in Cassel, a small house in the Meadows as background, and she wouldn’t have it any other way. She was early trained in critical thinking and classical music, which she understood as pillars of a life well-lived. To say she was an easy kid would be dishonest: Catherine was opinionated, to say the least, and she loved being right, which was a regular occurrence. She grew up watching amazing women rule the world around her, her mother at the forefront of adventure as a scientist and, for that reason, she grew to believe that she could do anything. Besides the constant annoyance of the little sister she loved, she figured her life was pretty perfect.

Until it wasn’t. In 2007, Dr. Elena Rhodes passed away under strange circumstances after a car accident, leaving a shattered family behind. Despite having two daughters to provide for, Nick was often overtaken by his grief, which meant that the girls’ grandparents had to step in and help the family get back on track. It was two years before they moved back to their own house. At sixteen, Catherine began to help around the bar and the rest of the town pretended they didn’t notice — helping the family business stay afloat or not, she was still a minor. The bar never lacked the clientele, but her father’s state the previous years made a mess out of many things. The death of her mother, her very own superwoman, made her retreat more into herself. While she spent the majority of her free time at the bar, her study hours were spent with her violin, her chosen instrument, in a type of self-imposed, focused solitude. As much of a coping mechanism as it was pure love, she threw herself into the music. In addition to her poignant personality, she became a tad unapproachable, resulting in the once popular girl becoming a person of fewer friends, even though she appreciated the fact that they were good ones. It was no surprise that she was accepted into the prestigious Juilliard music program — the surprise came with the rejection of financial aid.

After Nick almost sold the bar to send her to her dream school, Kit discovered that her mother had left her and her sister a tuition fund for college. It wasn’t enough to pay off everything, but the community of Cassel once again came around and helped her find summer jobs and promote Firehouse around the area. Soon enough, the business was back on track and thriving more than ever — enough that it became a town staple. And when the time came, Kit left for Juilliard. She graduated with honors and, despite her desire to stay in New York City, she couldn’t afford to — not when the competition meant that the job market was a bloodbath. After acquiring a reference letter from her mentor, she auditioned for several symphonies and orchestras, eventually landing a position at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, where she worked diligently for a year as second violin.

In the beginning of 2017, when the 10th anniversary of her mother’s passing arrived, everything changed: as she drove up the way from Chicago to Cassel in a rental car, trying to arrive at the memorial on time, it crashed. The road conditions were already terrible because of the snow, but she had been rushing, which caused the whole thing to take a turn for the worse. Luckily, she survived, waking up four days later at the hospital, but as she took a look at her arm, for a second she wished she hadn’t. To save her movements on the broken arm they had to insert a giant nail, which made it impossible to hold the position required to play the violin — at once, she felt like she had lost everything again, grieving the mother she no longer had and the dream career that wouldn’t be.

Good morning, fellow suburbians, it’s time to rock and roll. It’s that time of the year again, so don’t forget to save water — if nothing else, you have an excuse to shower together. We’re starting slow today with the The Smiths, says Catherine, twenty years later. After half a year recovering, she decided she would permanently move back home to Cassel, moving back into her childhood home and working with her dad at Firehouse Lounge. Her family had been known around town, which brought attention to her mother’s accident and the untimely end to her career. The story caught the eye of an executive at the local radio station. At first, they brought her in to talk about music and work as an assistant producer. Then, trying to appeal to a younger crowd, the station started a live program, where she was once invited to give pointers to the local youth about getting into prestigious programs in North America. Kit was snarky, humorous and knew her music — unlike her peers at school, who were often intimidated by her presence, the public liked her. After almost a year, she was promoted to full-time radio host, now presenting daily music programs and a weekly podcast: The True Shrew, filled with real life, no bullshit feminist discourse, pop culture discussions and true crime. In the past year and a half, she gained a decent following, which allowed her to venture into social media and afford to leave her dad’s house — barely. Her sudden success was something she was grateful for. She might even tell you she wouldn’t have it any other way. If you know her, however, you’ll know how much she misses playing music. Some might even suspect that she is scared to go back into it, which is why she spends so much time commenting.

                                     five songs. angel of small death & the codeine scene ( hozier ) / arabella ( arctic monkeys ) / poltergeist ( banks ) / dark necessities ( red hot chili peppers ) / cool girl ( toye lo ) 

         ↳ kit gallagher is faced by elizabeth lail and penned by mia.

                    cassel resident : isidore castillo.

full name. . isidore estevan castillo. age. thirty birthdate. november 11th, 1990          zodiac. scorpio. gender. male                            pronouns. he/him occupation. tattoo artist & manager of ink anchor. lives in. miller park.

                                        about isidore castillo.

Birth - Teenage Years

Though he was born in a different part of Illinois, most of Isidore’s childhood had him growing up right in the small city Cassel. He was beginning the second grade when his single mom made the choice to leave the busier city life behind and settle down in her own hometown, near her parents; and end the financial struggling that had been a focal point of Isi’s life until coming to Cassel. His dad was out of the picture and had been for a few years - he was never told why, or what happened, and couldn’t bear the look on his mother’s face when he asked. So, a mystery it would remain, a singular trait that would the two together in likeness the older Isidore got. 

So, Isidore was 8 and growing quickly every year, existing in a quiet town full of quiet people and plenty of rules. Like many of the other families, he found himself settled into a church pew with his hair combed and slicked, next to his mother and grandparents. He’d never been a bad child… just, perhaps, a bit more wild than the limits of the town would have preferred to allow him. Authority was something to be challenged, and rules were in place to question, and the child never once stopped asking why. 

Teen - Young Adult

Highschool brought on a new slew of problems for the young man. He stopped attending church, finding little value in the teachings and scripture, and rejected many of the stereotypical norms that were enforced in Cassel. He liked nicotine, and late night drives in his mom’s car, he liked weed and loud music. He hated math and science, he didn’t like bullies, and stupid teachers. Isidore wasn’t afraid to voice his disinterest in things, and it got him into minor trouble a handful of times. When Isi liked someone, he told them, and he stood up for the underdogs when he could. There was always a fine line between bad and good, and most days, Isi felt he tettered right along the edge of it, unsure which way he would sway on any given day. 

As an average student, Isidore graduated from Highschool with nothing special on his record, but nothing too damning. Rage was a daily battle, always fuming beneath his quiet but firm surface, and it was actually one of the pastor’s suggestions that he give the military a shot. “It will teach you obedience, and honor, and how to control your emotions,” He was promised, so at the fresh age of 19, Isidore enlisted into the marines. Never a man to be afraid, Isidore signed on for a 6 year contract… but would only end up serving for 5. 

Being A Marine

At first, the Corps were all Isidore had needed. There was something to feel passion for, pour all of his energy into, and it helped in his own life, too. With the men he trained with, Isidore felt he belonged more than he did in the sleepy Cassel town, and he could smoke and drink and curse up a storm without guilt. Leaving his mom was hard, but she had been dating a man seriously, and Isidore felt he was leaving her in good hands, especially when news of their pregnancy was soon announced after he left for his training. Plus… he got to travel, leaving Illinois for the first time in his life.

Isidore got to live in North Carolina, then Japan, briefly Hawaii, before returning to Japan again by his 4th year enlisted. He called home frequently, in the beginning, but never returned for a visit… and slowly, the calls became fewer and far between. When he sent the news to his family, she was eager to tell anyone who listen - her baby boy was engaged, the woman a Japanese beauty, and it seemed all was going so well for the Marine. Finally, Isidore had found his purpose, right?

Unfortunately, few knew what happened behind the scenes. Isidore loved the water, the sea, the smell of salt in the wind, and found himself comfortable in an engineering position on ships, enjoying the artistic craft of the machines. But he did not go without trouble, even in the Corps, and had a list of write-ups and disciplinary actions in his file. He was less than a year from completing his 6-year contract, when Isidore stormed off from the unit, and refused to complete the contract. His reasoning was inconsolable differences with his superiors, but deep down, Isidore had realized that he was making enemies, and that his home with the Marines no longer felt safe and comfortable. His plan was to accept the consequences for abandonment, marry his lady, and live in Japan-

But like all good things, that, too, ended. While he was busy with work, the love of his life was busy in social scenes, and when the truth came out, Isidore gave up on that future, too. When he parted ways, something changed within him. That passion burning, the fire fueling, it began to die out.

Coming Home

Cassel was the only place Isidore knew to return, after trying to settle back down in North Carolina unhappily, he made the sheepish trek back to his original home. He didn’t want to burden his family by staying with his mom and his step-dad and his sisters (one half-sister, and a step-sister), so he briefly stayed with his grandparents. It was Isidore who realized they were getting too old to live alone, and it was Isidore who helped them transition into an elderly home, and he chose to stay in their house. It was small, quaint, quiet, and starting to fall apart - so Isi spent his days repairing it. 

Those who remembered him, were surprised by the change. He wasn’t so outspoken, so obvious with his anger, and far less charming and mischievous… but something remained the same. Isidore was mysterious as ever, choosing what information he divulged carefully. The dark clothing and drinking didn’t fit into the role most mid-20 year-old men were meant to play, and his tall frame in a church pew was unheard of now. 

A couple of years after returning home, Isidore stepped into an apprentice role as a tattoo artist. He’d always loved drawing, art, and all things creative; and the town was hurting for a good artist. He was a quick learner, and dedicated to the new passion, and easily became a staple to the tattoo shop.

The Present

He has been home in Cassel for nearly five years now. Isidore is close with his family, spends a lot of time working and constantly repairing his grandparent’s home, and takes weekend trips to Chicago frequently to go boating out on Lake Michigan or simply enjoy the breezy beaches, imagining a past life he had left behind. Casey Andrews was a close friend of his step-sister, and when she disappeared, Isi couldn’t deny his interest in the case, feeling a flicker of a burn of something more-

The motorcycle gang has also been a sort of new home to him, more recently. They call him the baby, the youngest of the crew, but with eyes that have seen equal trouble than even some of the older guys. Isidore likes their company, the feel of the wind and the speed on his back as he races down country roads, and he doesn’t mind the whispers of the town. Not anymore. Plus, if anyone can get to the bottom of the Missing Casey Andrews, isn’t it them?

                                      five songs. war child ( hollywood undead ) / the past should stay dead ( emarosa ) / colors ( halsey ) / sweater weather ( the neighborhood ) / suburbia ( troye sivan )

          ↳ isidore castillo is faced by jamie lorente and penned by kuromi.