Tougher Than She Looks

     DYLAN REYNOLDS | 27 | BARTENDER | JENNIFER LAWRENCE

↳ BASICS

Full Name: Dylan Elizabeth Reynolds

Birthdate: January 20th, 1988

Birthplace: Montreal, Québec, Canada

Location: Mont-Royal

Gender: Female

Sexuality: Heterosexual

Length of Time in Montreal: Four months

↳ BIOGRAPHY

Dylan was stubborn before she was even born. Constantly moving around in her mother’s stomach, only to turn around when it came time for an ultrasound. Hence the name, her father had “a feeling” that she was a boy, unfortunately by the time she came out kicking and screaming it was clear that he was not cut out to raise a daughter. Marcus Reynolds met his high school sweetheart and Dylan’s mother Annabeth at a homecoming dance and after a few loving years together they were married. Without much drive for a career and no money at home for the newlyweds, Marcus enlisted in the army (much to his wife’s dismay) and Annabeth got a job as a receptionist. It was difficult for the young couple, being away from one another while Marcus went through bootcamp and was eventually deployed, but after a few weeks on leave Marcus got a call from his wife telling him that she was pregnant. It seemed like good news, something that would bring the drifting couple together, but once Dylan was born, raising their daughter as an army wife only seemed to make Annabeth resent her husband for being away more. Annabeth eventually left when Dylan was seven years old. As far as Dylan knows there wasn’t much of an explanation, just a bagged packed in the night and an empty bed the next morning.

Three tours later and Marcus was finished with military duty and found himself facing a challenge that seemed to test him more than anything he had faced in the field. As she got older Dylan and her father were never very close, no matter how hard she tried to get his attention and devotion, his PTSD from the war and dealing with the his wife leaving made him keep her at an arm’s length. Dylan tried hard in school to make the grades that would make her father happy, she received honorary titles by graduation, and by the time that diploma was handed off it her, she made one last attempt to salvage her relationship with her father. Enlisting in the army was a choice that seemed solely driven by her need to make her father proud of her, but the more she thought about it, the more it seemed like the right place to be. Somewhat directionless Dylan began her training and what started out as a shot in the dark seemed like a calling. She excelled in training, moving up to eventually becoming the first sergeant with nothing but commitment and dedication to push her there. Being deployed scared the shit out of her, not that she’d ever admit to it, but it was being apart of something bigger that made it all feel worth it. That sense of pride that washed over her when she stepped into the uniform, or the soldiers around her that seemed more like a family to her than the Reynolds ever had.

It wasn’t until October 2014 that Dylan finally felt the searing pain that enlisting could entail. The squad Dylan was in deployed to fight back against ISIL and she found herself on the ground near enemy lines.  Friendly fire; the cynic in Dylan still finds herself laughing about how any type of fire in a war can be nicknamed friendly. That fire set of a series of shots from the enemy and it was only a matter of time before Dylan was running, dodging bullets and getting as close as she could to the attackers. Dylan was never as invincible as she thought she was though.

Three days later she finally woke up in a hospital bed, confused and disoriented Dylan began to sob as the doctor spoke to her. She could see his lips moving, but couldn’t hear a single word coming out of his mouth. Post-Traumatic hearing loss from her head slamming the ground after being blown back and a head trauma to match. She spent over six months in recovery getting back all of her motor skills that were affected due to the slight injury of her cerebellum. She spent just as long getting more and more annoyed with each person who told her what a miracle she’s been through.  Feeling helpless while in rehab was like a nightmare for Dylan, the only thing she wanted more than to run and hold her balance again was to get out of there and get back at it, find something new rather than waiting day in and day out to get out of there.  

With burn scars up her neck and shrapnyl scars on various points of her body Dylan was finally released and she returned to Montreal. The thought of heading back to her childhood home made Dylan feel a little at ease, but once she was there, being stuck in the confines of her bedroom was suffocating and her father being mostly alone all those years took a toll on him. He looked like he’d aged twenty years in the span of her last deployment and recovery time. She knew what she was doing was wrong, moving out of the house and leaving him there alone was only going to send him further into a downward spiral, but after being so independent for so long, going back to feeling so cautious and always needing to prove something wasn’t good for the state that she was returning home in. So she got a lease on an apartment in Mont-Royal and a job working as a bartender at night, while she goes back to Lachine once a week to cook a proper meal for her father and check in on him.

↳ PERSONALITY

FAMY | Ava