Mari De Palma

ooc: so here’s Mari, I love her, and I hope y’all will love her too! 

Name: Mariella “Mari” De Palma

Birthday: December 15th 1993

Birthplace: Reggio Emilia Italy

Location: Seattle Washington

Sexuality: Pansexual

Gender: Female

Height: 6'0

Occupation: Model

FC: Khadijha Red Thunder

Likes: Rose Gold, Brunch, Sequins/Sparkles, Anything with Caffeine, Instagram, Dancing, Swimming, Makeup, Running, Swords/sword making…

Dislikes: Cold weather, Slow or boring tasks that don’t keep her attention, Arrogance, Cruelty.

Hobbies: Dancing, Swimming, Personal Fitness, Sword Making, Adult-Coloring Books, Shopping

Music: Cardi B, Kesha, P!nk, Andy Black/Black Veil Brides, Slipknot, HOLYCHILD, Of Mice and Men, Little Mix, Avatar, Lizzo, Fergie, In This Moment, Wage War, The Struts, Prince, The Weeknd, T.Shan, Dua Lipa

Vaughn had a tendency to take refuge in audacity, He was rarely ever embarrassed, usually because the end result was often caused by his own actions. Even now, being found in a public place missing his shirt, Vaughn was more confused how to leave without being banned from the establishment, versus being fully embarrassed by being caught. “ Yeah, crap indeed” Vaughn replied with a half smile, as he stood in front of the surprise visitor. “ Honestly though. That would be harder to justify. “ He added shaking his head. “  I figure I can take someone’s jacket in here and leave sans shirt. “

"If you wanna get accused of stealing be my guest." She shrugged. To be honest, she would have done the same thing if she was in his shoes. Mari thought to run out to her car and see if she had some kind of shirt. Anything in Sean's size for him to wear. She knew she had spare clothes, but they were vastly different clothing sizes. She shot Sean a quick text if he had any dress shirts in his car. Much to her shock Sean replied with yes. "Can you like sneak to the restroom or something? Just for like five minutes I might have a shirt for you." 

Harper nodded, comprehension coming to her at the other woman’s words. "Oh, so you’re like Internet famous” she said with a grin. Which she supposed counted as much as any other kind of famous these days, right? Then she added “Italy is such a beautiful country. Did you live there for a long time?” Harper had always wished her father had been stationed in Italy, but the Norwoods had only visited the country, rather than lived there. Still, Harper made a point of visiting Italy as much as possible, usually telling herself it counted as a work trip because she was the manager of a restaurant that served Italian food.

Internet famous felt more her speed. In a small corner of the internet, people know who Mari was. What little traces she had left of a public internet life. "Born and raised there. I'm from Reggio-Emilia, but I've been basically all over the country." She'd been gone for quite some time now and truth be told she missed it deeply. "I think it might be time to pop back over for a little. Or at least have my family come here." 

“Oh you and your kind words, if you keep them up you’ll get me blushing.” Jackie teased, following her to the food court. Not even realized how she hadn’t even had a mean in quite a few hours. She hummed as she thought, “That is such a good question, there are so many options. Is it bad I kind of want to go nostalgic and get chicken strips or a pretzel?” Jackie chuckled though, “Well then we have to get it! I love how she knows exactly what she wants. That spot is especially cool though especially the ones that glow.” 

"Oh pretzels can't go wrong there." She agreed. Chicken fingers were a last ditch effort for her if nothing else was on the menu. She wasn't sure how valid their 'vegetarian' options were. "I think it's a little ironic they sell clam chowder here. And I'm gonna be that girl and try it." She laughed. Gabi was just as headstrong as Mari was a child. It warmed her heart hearing all the updates whenever they spoke. "She's quite the drama queen I'd say I taught her well but she was just a baby when I lived at home. She absolutely has remnants of my attitude it's so funny." 

Eden may have been a little hard on trust when it came to men. But that was mostly when it was about her own life; she could appreciate a man’s devotion to another woman and, as far she knew, Sean was devoted to Mari and he had faith in whatever she put to mind. “Agreed. Sometimes it’s even better reall .” She agreed. “And if you ever feel like subtly self-promoting, I’m always around if you feel like doing a little radio.” The girl chuckled and subtly nudged the other’s shoulder. “Not that it wouldn’t benefit me too, who are we kidding, but…” she trailed off with a wink. Though not a fan of using one’s friends for work benefit, Eden couldn’t deny that sometimes friends helped each other out or gave one another a boost whenever they felt like one.

"I'll rebuild my brand with your radio show." Mari laughed. She had to get her name back out there somehow. Maybe when she felt comfortable enough she'd give it a shot. For now, she just wanted to get her feet wet and wade in the shallow end of the pool. If it was safe to do she'd invite Eden to hang out at her upcoming photoshoot. So she fibbed a little. "Do you want to hang out with me after my first shoot? It's this weekend at sunset outside of downtown Seattle." 

“Sean has his ducks in a row and his head on his shoulders, that’s why.” Eden pointed out. “He knows who you are, babe, he doesn’t need to worry about tabs being assholes.” She often wondered what would have happened had her dad not chickened out with the paparazzi back then. Would her parents have stayed together or would the man Leo Knox have found something else to send him running? Surely enough, Mari had mentioned actually putting in effort to stay away from the spotlight but it hadn’t really occurred to her just how much that had been. Maybe it was actually proportionate to how much effort one had put in getting to the point that the spotlight would be on them; in was commendable. “You will when you’re ready.” She simply offered not wanting to push the girl further.

Sean really was the more mature one of the two. Even if she was forced to grow up before she was anywhere near ready, Mari hadn't exactly done that. She tried and then said, 'fuck it' and did whatever she wanted. Knowing she had Sean's trust honestly felt like her biggest accomplishment. "Baby steps. I've learned they're just as important as taking giant leaps. I do have some things lined up. Hopefully they go well. It's not far away, just some small things around Seattle. Time to find out if I've burned too many bridges or not." 

“You are! Even more beautiful than you already are!” Jackie complimented, she loved seeing people so happy. When she mentioned dancing though all she could hope was that she could do what she did before. But she kept a smile on her face, “Oh it is going well, I am just so glad that I can teach and share how wonderful it is with other people.” She nodded though, “Of course! Its tough to find time for that but hey maybe its something you could even do once a week!” 

"Stop, you're so sweet. Thank you beautiful." Mari smiled. They had made their way to the food court after walking a considerable portion. So far they weren't skipping any exhibits so they had about half the aquarium left after their pit stop. "Do you want anything? I'm a little hungry myself." She briefly looked to clear all the notifications on the new aquarium album she uploaded for her friends and family. "My little sister demands pictures of a jellyfish. We're not allowed to leave unless she gets pictures of the spotted lagoon jellyfish." She smiled reading the comments left by her sibling. 

“Every day’s super photogenic, but then, that’s just my opinion.” Cameron had been known to find most things on most days beautiful —- he kept his eyes open for inspiration at all time. “I’m sure that you will,” he answered her with a nod and a chuckle. “For tonight I think I’m staying down here. Gotta get the kids home as soon as they’re done.” Which would (or should have been) any minute. “What’s so wrong with New York?”

That was a fair point. She knew this as well but if someone felt the need to post about it, the view had to be worth checking out. "One of the people I follow mentioned it. Figured it was worth talking about. Or they were just trying to drum up business for the pier. Which is fine too." Mari exhaled. It wasn't quite a sigh. There was more... drama behind it. "It's who is in New York. Or as far as I know she's in New York and she can rot there. She's not important, but she's obsessed with and ruining anything I have going for me. I can't figure out why and I can't get her to stop. She thinks I'm still in Los Angeles though. Otherwise I love New York! I had a lot of fun there." She didn't enjoy explaining the whole mess of a situation. It felt like mentioning it brought Nora back into her life faster. But honestly, she'd been gone for years. Whatever she'd done to constantly find Mari every time she moved, hadn't happened this time. 

x

He rolled his eyes at Mari and didn’t even bother with pretending that he bought her fake offended act. “You are cute but not that great of an actress Mari.” Luke teased and looked back out at the water. “Hopefully I don’t screw it up but we’ll see. I ran into Isabella the other night and we…had a moment. It was awkward and now it’s more awkward so I’m just ready to get out there and do something else.” He didn’t need to admit that he’d slept with her. That was a mistake for another time to think about. “Rowdy as always. I’m sure he still has to take you down a notch all the time.”

"Okay but I am that great. You wish you were as good of an actor as me." She let a little more of her sass show. She'd mostly buried that side of her but sometimes it showed up. Mostly for laughs now as opposed to hurting someone's feelings. "Ain't nobody can take me down a notch. Not a soul on this planet." That was a lie. There were eight hundred stories of Sean saving her ass from the messes she made or found herself involved in. She was beyond happy that Luke had a good time with someone he seemed relatively interested in.

Harper had been unable to avoid noticing the exchange between the other woman and an apparent fan. Raising her eyebrow with interest at the woman’s words, she said "Don’t take this wrong way, but are you famous?” She wondered if the other woman was an actress or singer. She didn’t recognize her from anything, but then again she found it impossible for anybody to recognize every celebrity in the world.

"No no that's completely valid." Mari wanted to brag. She wanted to inflate her ego and make herself sound like the queen of the world. But she couldn't. The thought made her stomach churn... because she'd be lying. And that was not her scene anymore. "If we're talking Instagram numbers yes I'm famous. But walking down the street and be recognized, no I'm not all that famous. I model, been doing it for a long time now and I was something of a socialite back in Italy. That whole exchange was an anomaly. Greatly appreciated though. I don't have words for the wonders that just did for my self esteem." 

x

“I’m sure you’d say that about anyone who fawned over you.” Alyria teased the other, winking playfully. She knew that Mari didn’t actually think like that, she was too good of a person. And Aly didn’t worry about her ego getting out of control. Though, the brunette was happy to give a reality check if needed. 

A laugh rose in her chest when the other mentioned going back to the otters, even though they’d already spent a good chuck of time watching them. “We can go back around and see them again. But only because they’re like real life cuddly toys.” They seemed so carefree, playing with the objects in their enclosure. 

"No stop she was so cute. I love her, I love my fans... Oh god that sound strange. My fans..." She giggled, cheeks blushed bright red. It always seemed like something unobtainable goal. She might carry herself like a top supermodel but she knew damn well her ego and reality were two different things. She'd be lying if she wasn't craving more interactions like that. For now otters were going to keep her distracted from the vain thoughts of wishing she had more popularity. "Alright Otters, here we come! I'd risk it all to learn how to become an otter caretaker." 

Eden groaned at the story, sympathy hitting hard. Though her mother had never wanted her to read all the olden days’ tabs about her and Lenox, Eden had done just that at some point, and the stories had been brutal. “I’m sorry you have to go through that kind of stuff…” Eden shook her head. “I can’t imagine everyone and their grandma having an opinion on my life and who I spent my time with.” She guessed it was the downside of being famous, people thinking they owned bits of you. “And, god, it must be so awkward to explain to explain to a spouse when someone runs their mouth…” Thinking about it, she shrugged. “If you still have his old number, you can text him. Or we can look him up through the vine. We all need cool people around us.”

"It's... gotten a little easier to deal with. Sean doesn't care about that stuff we've both been through so much garbage that he knows I'm not running around behind his back." Mari shrugged. She wasn't completely cold the the idea of being tabloid fodder, but having a dad who worked in the legal system for high profile clients she learned early on to let those things go. You had to brush it off or it would eat you alive. "The problem is I dropped out of the public eye so I don't have to deal with it. Well I'm currently trying to make a comeback. It's gone well. No tabloids yet. I'd have to dig through some old accounts. Maybe one day I'll reach out."