Candice PattonΒ / She/HerΒ /Β Cis WomanΒ | Have you met DINA THOMAS yet? Theyβre the THIRTY-FOUR year old EVENING NEWS ANCHOR that lives around FINCH PARK. I think theyβve lived in Seattle for ONE MONTH. From what Iβve heard, theyβre HEARTFELT but once youβve known them long enough youβll find they can also be TEMPERAMENTAL. When I think of them, I usually think of GOOD DAYS by SZA. (OOC: Jessa, 24, she/her, EST)
BASICS!
nickname(s): dee, didi age: thirty-four date of birth: june 29, 1988 zodiac sign: cancer gender/pronouns: cis woman sexual orientation: pansexual romantic orientation: panromantic residence: finch park occupation: evening news anchor for king 5 news
Dina Emerson Thomas grew up in a suburb of Houston, Texas in a huge tight-knit family that's been part of the community for decades. Her father, Maxwell, worked as a semi-truck driver for touring artists whereas her mother, Samira, was a homemaker. Her father made a name of himself within his industry, and he brought up his three children up in a good home. Dina was the name from of her great-grandmother on her mother's side, and Emerson was her paternal great-grandmother's name. So many traditional names were inherited, so it was almost as if she had a lot to live up to.
Being the baby of the family as well as the only girl meant that Dina grew up somewhat spoiled and protected. Though, she wasn't protected in the way of being sheltered. Instead, her family helped her learn to stand up for herself. They wanted to protect her, but they also knew that they wouldn't be around all the time. So instead of fending off people who might hurt her, they gave her the tools necessary to defend herself.
While her father and brothers taught her to be tough, her mother taught her to be classy and elegant. Her mother taught her to be sensitive to others and empathetic to their issues. She also taught her to love the softer things in life and made sure that Dina was aware that being a free-spoken woman didn't mean she couldn't embrace her childlike wonder or romantic side. Growing up in a well rounded environment allowed her to become the woman she is today - a lovely mix of sweet and sassy, confident and independent, caring but not too naive.
Dina did fairly well in school because there was always someone to ask for help when it came to her school work. What she didn't do well at, surprisingly, was social interaction. As outgoing as her family members seemed to be, Dina was a bit more on the reserved side in public and chose to stick to herself or the one or two friends she made that moved with her through school. Her parents worried a bit about her development, but eventually gave up, figuring she'd come into her own and break out of her shell when she was ready.
Dina was never really that rebellious teenager that would sneak out in the middle of the night, but she never did adhere to a curfew. She often came home later than she was supposed to only to get yelled at in the morning. She would excuse herself by telling them she had a poor sense of time, which didn't really work. Her parents were never awfully strict though, so they would forget about it later on. They knew she wasn't going out doing drugs. That was something she never experimented with.
Entering into high school was a bit scary for Dina. Everyone was talking about crushes on boys while she looked around and had crushes on boys and girls. Not knowing what she was feeling, she talked to her parents about it and they reassured her that they would love her no matter what. It allowed Dina to feel comfortable about exploring her feelings without worrying about if she would be unaccepted. After dating a few different people, she knew she was pansexual and felt comfortable with finally labeling herself.
When it came time to apply to college, Dina knew that she wanted to go into something that was in journalism. Her passion for telling stories kicked into high gear after spending her years in high school behind an anchor desk for the school's news, and getting the feel of what it would be like to be a broadcast journalist. After looking through her options, she settled on going to school in Missouri and eventually graduated with a bachelor's degree in journalism. Afterwards, she accepted an offer from a local station in Atlanta, Georgia where she worked hard to gain respect. In the mean time, she fell in love with Sunny Fletcher and soon found herself in a serious relationship. However, Dina called it quits after many years into their relationship when she began to feel like she was an afterthought to Sunny, not wanting to be in a relationship that mirrored her parents where she spent more time missing her partner than being with them.
Dina spent her first night after the breakup in bed, crying. She realized that she was terrified of being alone. Before the breakup, she felt like her life had been set in stone for her by Sunny's job and had too much pride to tell her ex-girlfriend how she really felt. But Dina looked at her life and kept pushing forward. Her mother started nagging her about the life that she had given up. Her father tried to support her as much as possible since she was still his little girl.
After spending many years in Atlanta, Dina felt like she needed a change of scenery to help her feel like herself again. She was ready to try to be happier in a place that didn't have memories tied to her ex. And so, Dina picked a spot on the map and drove to Seattle and wanted to make a name for herself. It wasn't long before she got a job offer to replace one of the evening news anchors who worked at King 5 News before she did. Dina moved into a small place in Finch Park and started subletting her place in Atlanta after she left it. Seattle was going to be her new home.
Now she's trying to make her life happier by going out and shedding the life she had in Atlanta. Granted, she sounds like a definite outsider in this big city. Maybe she would be better off staying in Atlanta and powering through it, but she has a plan. That plan: just be happier. Though, to be honest, asking her to describe how she truly feels at any given time would be a disaster and while she is always happy to put on the mask - whoever was necessary to be - it never feels completely natural. But she is good at hiding her emotions.
It's only been a year after their breakup and Dina is still feeling some remnants of their relationship. Dina is coping with life on her own and sometimes she gets mad at herself as she could have been making lifelong plans with Sunny by now, but she pulls herself together. And in this new environment, she's already working on getting the most out of the city. But there's one thing she forgot about Seattle before she took the leap... Sunny Fletcher also lives in the city.
HEADCANONS!
She's not a super great cook and when she knows she has to be a host, she brings home carry out and fixes them up a bit and makes them kinda fancy. Other than that, she's usually dining on takeout. That also means that she's looking forward to enjoying and exploring Seattle's exploding restaurant scene.
She really loves traveling - a bucket list goal of hers is to travel to each continent around the world.
She enjoys being active outside and exploring national and state parks. She loves hiking, and can't wait to explore more of the areas around Seattle.
Playing board games and visiting bars are common weekend activities for her.
She is a huge music fan - specifically 90s r&b! She grew up playing the piano and occasionally still finds time to play.
She's also is a huge sports fan. She follows Houston sports extensively, especially the Houston Rockets. When she isn't working, you can catch her with some sort of game on if she isn't at one in person.
She loves volunteering and is always looking to meet people around the community.
She grew up doing competitive dance and cheer. While in Georgia, her favorite activity was teaching contemporary and hip-hop-inspired routines at various dance studios in Atlanta and hopes to make that happen in Seattle.
Other activities she enjoys are working out, going to brunch, shopping and watching Netflix.
She has trouble expressing her emotions in a positive way. Meaning that she tends to avoid them and how she feels sometimes until they bottle up and explode, leading to arguments with loved ones where she doesn't have the words to express how she feels. She's a lot more sensitive than she lets on. The kind of person that would cry and then five minutes later be like "well, that was embarrassing as fucking shit, so let's never mention it again." So⦠she leaves. Which is how she ended up in Seattle, to be honest.
She will do anything if it's a dare/competition, case and point: reigning champion at an Atlanta restaurant for eating the most hot dogs in two minutes (and she's literally so proud about it).
Dina says she likes scary movies but actually ends up hiding her face in someone's chest for the entire movie⦠literally. She peeks out and then hides again. It's pathetic.
She used to help out with her grandmother's yard sales and would hustle people for twice their money on items that she had an attachment to.
(injury tw) Once broke her leg falling out of a tree she had climbed, and had her brothers decorate the cast with various doodles and drawings.
(nsfw tw) She has a sex toy collection, self explanatory.
likes: sunsets, journaling, mountains, audiobooks, homecooked meals, dancing, concerts, the spring season, oversized sweaters, found family, pizza, tea, word puzzles, solo dance parties, cheese, candles, nature, red wine, movie dates, hugs, spicy food, stargazing, new clothes, sushi, high heels, the beach, shared playlists, cats, gold jewelry, leftover chinese food.
dislikes: cooking, coffee, waffles, true crime tv shows, rainy days, driving, cherries, early mornings, intense and emotional conversations, socks, .
aspirations: make new friends in town, further her career in journalism, providing a platform for people to voice their concerns about their community, continue to report ethically while disseminating information people want to, need to, or ought to know.
pet-peeves: people who talk with their mouth full, people who don't respect service workers, people who don't use their manners, wearing wet clothes, waking up before her alarm clock, finding out she has lipstick on her teeth.
PLOTTING + WANTED CONNECTIONS
PLATONIC
Okay, so, Dina is new in town. She's extremely quiet, but she's friendly. She's not one to go out and actively search for people/friends, but she's an absolute sweetheart so she'd be more than open to friendships with as many people as possible. She works as an evening news anchor for King 5 News, but she spends most of her time in Seattle trying to make her life over, so really if anyone is willing to go out on a limb and make her their friend, she would literally do anything they want. That's just how she makes friends. Her friends, however, are going to have to be able to deal with someone who may literally lock herself in her house with a large pizza and not speak to anyone for days. Also, her friends will have to deal with her going a little overboard on making people happy. Overall, she has a good reputation and she's very affectionate and caring. Once someone is in her heart, they have a place in it forever.
While she can sometimes be a tad too intrusive, she rarely shares much about herself that she considers too 'heavy'. The kind of person that would suggest waving away issues instead of confronting them (or just jumping in headfirst without much thought), she's probably not the best person to go to for solid advice but she does a good enough job of making those she cares about feel better, even if it's only for a little while.
Surprisingly not that big on the party scene, but she does frequent such spaces since she likes having the company around, so she's probably gathered a fair amount of party friends during her stay here.
ANTAGONISTIC
As easy as it is for Dina to try and befriend people, it might be even easier for her to rub people the wrong way. Sometimes on purpose, sometimes not. And while it unfortunately isn't too hard for her to fall out of contact with friends, keeping enemies is something that she's far better at doing. She's got a knack for holding grudges and being a pain in the ass.
Peace, love, more tolerance⦠is what Dina would say if some people didn't make her eyes roll into the back of her head more times than she could count, if she bothered to count at all. Every now and again, Dina has these moments when she's so eager to argue with someone that she could jump into arguments she has no place being in, largely because she can never keep her opinions to herself. And why should she? In her mind, everything she says is brilliant and also the cold hard truth, and anyone that says otherwise should be ready to have Dina talk their ears off about how wrong they are. Plus, she has to flush out all that frustration she never addresses somehow, right?
ROMANTIC
Outside of going on dates here and there and maybe one or two one-night-stands, Dina hasn't really had too much of a love life since she moved to Seattle. Granted, she recently got out of a pretty serious relationship just a year ago. She is a hopeless romantic, so she wants to be swept off of her feet eventually. Also, her mom is jumping down her throat to just settle down and have kids, so she's probably going to be putting that off as much as humanly people.
I'm pretty open to any kind of connections, so hit me up on here or on Discord!
CONNECTIONS
FRIENDS - Dina is an easy person to get along with, she has a competitive streak, and hates admitting when she is wrong sometimes. She wants to have a group of friends that she can confide in when she needs to talk to someone. She can be serious most of time, especially with work, but she has a comedic side where she can be funny. They do almost everything together, go out to eat, going to concerts, exploring Seattle, and sporting events. These friends can be people that she has recently met or we can plot something else, etc.
SUNNY FLETCHER (ex-girlfriend) - tbd.
MELODY GUERRERO (co-worker) - tbd.
NATE HEWITT (neighbor) - tbd.
