#mediocre.intro

tws : organized crime, guns.

finley had a life path set out for him since he was little, but not the same sort that most career-driven families create for their children. the nieves had made something of a name for themselves among the criminal sort, never particularly high-ranking or respected but simply so deep-rooted in that world that it would be impossible to discount their importance.

when finley was growing up, he didn’t think much of this. his family wasn’t wealthy from their occupation but they weren’t struggling either--- their stresses didn’t come from money, but instead from the constant agitation that came alongside their profession, the worry over arrests and betrayals and enemies with vendettas. they kept locks on their doors and a gun in the hall closet and called this normal, so finley believed it to be.

he was raised into the lifestyle in such a seamless way that he didn’t even really realize it was happening at first. finley was taught things that he assumed to be commonplace ; how to hold his keys in his fist like a weapon, or keep his heart rate steady through a lie detector test, or fire a gun with wicked accuracy, or read when someone wasn’t telling him the whole truth.

his family was big, and it was tight-knit. finley didn’t have any direct siblings but he had cousins that were all around enough that it might as well have counted, a constant tangle and overlap of relatives passing through their guest room and crashing on their couch and vanishing for days at a time when trouble caught up to them. the nieves bloodline was a tangled network of stepmothers and grand-nephews and third cousins once removed--- when someone new showed up in his dining room for breakfast and claimed their relation, finley knew better than to question it.

the gravity of their family business didn’t come to weigh on finley for years, but when the realization hit it landed like a semitruck. he was fifteen, and while he’d heard cautionary tales of relatives who’d been caught by police or bitter rivals, he’d never seen it unfold firsthand until then. if asked about it now he would only have the vaguest things to say for any of it--- shapeless memories of hiding under the bed as someone broke down the door in the next room, a knife in the wall from a missed attack from the pissed-off intruder, the sirens that came flooding in from the street, the man who got a good look at his face before being pulled away at gunpoint. finley had never felt unsafe until that point, as his parents had always assured him that they’d never let anything bad happen to him, but with both of them suddenly gone and arrested, that peace of mind had dissipated. there were people who knew him, who expected things of him, or who hoped to see him hurt simply because of his last name, and finley wanted none of it.

at age sixteen, he bolted. he’d seen where his path was steering him, and he wanted no part of it. so he took his name and a few stacks of bills from beneath the bathroom sink, traded them in for a half-dozen aliases across a handful of fake ids, and set out running.

he doesn’t like to settle for long. he rarely stays anywhere for more than a few months at a time, as he finds it’s harder to keep up with any fake history the more people there are around to question after him. because of this, he is also very hesitant to get close to new people--- as a sort of self-defense, a necessity, and a habit.

while his real name is finley nieves, it’s very rare that anyone actually knows those two for him together. the nieves are not famous by any means, but they do have enough of a widespread reputation to be known among a few circles that finley would prefer to stay distanced from. on his lease he is listed as finley weaver, and that’s likely the name most of the others around the complex would know him as. he has countless aliases he cycles through for security, and will adopt and drop new ones as he sees fit, but he has his favorites--- often ‘weaver’ for a last name, and ‘alexander’ as a first.

it’s likely he’s told everyone else a slightly different story as to how he ended up where he is. all of them are lies, to some degree, and none of them explain strange scars or the ease of which he can pick a lock or the tenseness in his frame when someone gives him too dirty a look. 

uhhH honestly i have a lot more to say about him but this is already long as hell, thank you if you have read this far

tldr ; son of a crime family up and runs one day, spends the next few years flipping through fake names and identities and never landing anywhere for long. seems normal enough in passing, a pretty easygoing type who’s willing to share cigarettes and meaningless conversation, but probably has strange things to notice--- the sort of person that you would be surprised to know keeps a handgun by their bed, one that probably shouldn’t be asked about.

i have a couple super vague connection ideas, a list i’m hoping to expand on more sometime but for now here are just a handful :

anyone who has met him in the past, even in passing, especially if he was using a different name then than he is now.

a closer friend or romantic interest that he can be kind of hot and cold with, cause he’s honestly pretty good-natured but he can go quiet really fast when he realizes that he’s probably just going to up and disappear again soon.

fwb !!!  hookups !  ill-advised one-night-stands !!  he’s here for it and so am i, what can i say.

someone he feels weirdly protective of ?

a neighbor who’s probably seen some weird shit.

anyone who is suspicious™ cause honestly he can be a little sketchy.

someone who just helps him relax--- that can either fall under that hookup umbrella or something totally platonic, who just gets him to not mope around so much or just worry less about always looking over his shoulder.

right off the bat i want u to know that i’m illiterate

anyways, freya was born & raised in east la w/ her parents and a plethora of extended family/family friends less than a block away. money was Always tight, but the one thing they never really had to worry about was safety bc her dad was a gang leader in their area ( tho it was only rly seen as a gang by the police & the few people in their neighborhood who weren’t colombian lmao ). her dad, saul puentes was like the big man on campus around where they lived, but people liked to rail him for marrying a gringa. ‘we were in love’ is the story he liked to tell, but they were polar opposites — his main focus had always been keeping himself and his family safe, no matter the cost. she, on the other hand, wanted a life she could brag to her friends and colleagues about. clearly, there were some warring factors there.

things were.. how u say.. Tense for the first handful of years of freya’s life, though she thought the entire world of her papa ( saw him as a kinda Hero, especially w/ the way most people deferred to him ). like she’d known her parents weren’t exactly In Love with each other but she just figured that was how all adults acted ( leaving her Uninterested in being married from a young age lmao ).

it was when her dad got arrested that changed things. at first they figured it would blow over & he’d be home in no time, but as evidence kept stacking up, it became less and less likely that he’d be released ( freya was like 8 at the time ). freya’s mom, completely strung out and Over It at this point, packed her and freya’s things & tried to move them out, but freya was uhh Not Having It, like at all, so some of her extended family took her in when her mom gave up trying to fight freya into the cab ( honestly, her mom is a self-centered bitch with no regard for anyone but herself, but i digress )

in the years following, freya continued to visit her dad in prison, always parting with the same promise of freeing him one day ( his bail was set at some outrageous sum, so she’s literally been saving forever ). being so focused on that goal & completely disinterested in going to college, freya dropped right out of high school as soon as she turned 16 and moved into the medina apartments so she wasn’t freeloading off her dad’s friends anymore. when she leased the apt, she did so under her mother’s maiden name cos it’s better to be safe than sorry & bc her dad also had a lot of enemies lmao lbr

being a mechanic hadnt ever crossed her mind as something she’d be good at & even less something she’d enjoy. when she was fifteen, though, one of her cousins ( think, like, 5th cousins lmao ) offered to let her work at his garage instead of having to wait tables at a shitty diner or, even worse, babysit. at first she wasn’t too thrilled about it & it felt like she’d never get the hang of it, but with time, she found she really enjoyed the work, especially the reward of hearing the engine rumble when you start it up for the first time. she didn’t fall in love with it, though, until the charger. her cousin had the shell of a ‘69 dodge charger & told her that if she could fix it up, she could keep it. WELL, the next 4 years of scavenging and looting for parts eventually paid off, leaving her with a love for cars & the envy of muscled white guys everywhere.

a part of her life she’s much more public about, tho, is how much she loves to party. now, according to her, [shrek vc] parties have layers. there are the dull parties, where it’s frowned upon to drink more than champagne, there are club parties where it’s more dancing and drinking than doing hard drugs ( fun, but not the best ) & there’s the house party in which both alcohol and drugs are always available ( her personal favorite ). it doesnt stop there tho bc there are also layers to house parties! the absolute best kind of party, in her opinion, are valley parties. sure, there’s bound to be stuck up rich people with sticks so far up their asses they can’t bend to tie their shoes, but valley parties also have the best selection of top shelf liquor & entire rooms dedicated to doing lines. those parties are the absolute peak, in her opinion & she will never pass up an opportunity to attend.

personality wise .. well, let’s just say she doesn’t really have one ? unless you count being completely bitter and cynical about everything as a personality.. she’s very very short tempered and will not hesitate to make a scene if the need arises ( she loves to argue! loves to shout! so im sorry to all her neighbors! ). literally disagrees with everyone on everything for the hell of it and is the most stubborn personal alive. when her mind is made up u will absolutely never be able to change it so i mean good luck if u wanna try! adding on to the bitter thing.. she p much has it out for anyone who even thinks of lording themself over her ( @ her mom ) and pretending to be better than anyone else so she’d highkey start a fight with little to no provocation

word ok ! this is vinny, my actual father !

he’s a phat drama queen and has been since he was a kiddo back in the day lmao! always had the dream of making it big in hollywood & he actually? ended up doing p well for himself when he got there?? did some commercials and cameos in blockbuster movies and shit like that — no starring roles, but he was cool with just being in movies ygm!

anyways! when he got Tired of going to auditions and shit lmao he was like ‘nah lemme relax with my modest million’ & that’s what he did! legends only! he went on to do guest appearances on talk shows and red carpets cos he’s a fucking leech for the drama & honest to god probably worked for entertainment tonight for a hot minute lmao

so ya he don’t do that anymore, but he’s got a blog now! he rly be bloggin like that! making coin from doing absolutely nothing? yeah, the dream, honestly! he was also like .. why not get my own pack of guinea pigs to study and poke BFVCNJD love his MIND !

anyways so YEAH that’s why he be the way he be & why he’s occasionally lenient with rent.. its not like he Needs the money but hes like .. be responsible, please .. with an eyeroll emoji like ‘Idiots” FVNJC

( lily collins, cis female, she/her. ) — jane harris has been a medina complex resident for three years, now. they’re twenty-three years old, and they tend to avoid making eye contact. sometimes when i walk by B06, i hear cherry-coloured funk by cocteau twins playing. lately, i’d say they’re pretty effervescent, but sometimes that’s overwhelmed by the fact that they’re neurotic. i mean, they usually pay their rent on time, though, and that’s most important fact here.

repeatedly fixing the apartment number on the door when it swings down to a nine, a split moment of shadow after the radiance of laughter, carl sagan’s pale blue dot, a life of frequent minor accidents, constant hunger for balance overshadowed by emotional turbulence.

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TW ALCOHOLISM EMOTIONAL ABUSE DEPRESSION & ANXIETY !!!!! ok moving on

her parents met in art school in paris.. her mom is french and studied art history while her dad was an exchange student from california with a skewed artist mentality. it was that saccharine, toxic sort of love. her mom always felt like she needed to be the guardian angel in the relationship who would always hold him up when he was feeling down and he was feeling down….. a lot. because she was putting all that energy to save her relationship, she was drowning too but never enough to walk away. there was a lot of love there but it was twisted and uncomfortable at times

when they found out jane was on the way, it felt like they needed to suddenly grow up. her mom was ready to make changes, adapt to the new lifestyle. her dad, on the other hand, urged they rethink if this is what they want but he didn’t push for abortion.. he understood it was jane’s mothers choice to make and reassured that he would be there for the both of them no. matter. what. 

but ??? the reality was he felt trapped by the idea of a child and he struggled to acknowledge and accept how quickly his life was flipping upside down and how he lost all control of it. he wanted to travel around europe ???? soak in nature, daydream and make art . but jane’s mom wanted to settle. instead of embarking on adventures after graduating, they decided to move to california. 

things just seemed to fall apart like domino from then on. janes mom was lead astray.. thinking that what california would bring them was stability but instead, it was all chaos. they rushed to get married .. turned out janes father wasnt on good terms with his parents. he was irresponsible financially, put both his parents in huge debt, was blinded by his ego to ever realise his mistakes. lied constantly .. convincing janes mom that there’s light going forward. that once he finds a sponsor for his art .... once he sells his first piece ... once they see in him what he always saw in himself , he was going to make it right. and he reassured he would make it right for jane.

janes mom was so pathetically in love that she pushed through .. living in a sort of imagined world, believing that things were better than they actually were. and her dad was good at persuading that narrative. he would come home with a pocketful of cash and the bills paid. oftentimes, it was all an act. his art wasn’t selling and a lot of what he bragged about was borrowed or stolen. behind the curtain, he was absent and unmotivated. he would come home in the evening claiming that the whisky breath was celebratory but in reality, he was complaining to the barman two blocks away about how his life feels monotone .. like a french black and white movie.  

the day of jane’s birth was a whole mess. her father decided to drive her mother to the hospital, knowing he had one too many. they were caught for speeding and while janes dad spent the night at a nearby station for driving under influence, her mom was at the back of a cop car, crying for one too many reasons .. jane decided to hang on for a little while longer and was born at 3am the following night. cradled in her mothers arms and her dads voice humming on the line

jane would only ever hear the romanticised version of this story from her mother. this ??? fucked up sense of security that no matter what, love conquers all. that love means supporting each other, loving each other extra when everything else falls apart. but truth is.. her mother was forced to give up her own dreams, lost all connections to her past, worked days and nights at a nursing home to support her family and pitch in to her husbands alcoholism while she’s at it. making excuses that jane was too young to contradict. all while the only source of happiness for her father was the haziness of his evenings, when he felt like floating and he could barely hold onto to his paintbrush. he was a stranger living in their basement .. more than he was ever a father 

growing up, jane watched her mother mask her depression. carry empty bottles out from the basement, trying to hide it from jane .. it brought her shame. she was doing the same thing to jane that he was doing to her for all these years .. consistently expressing a certain attitude, this unwavering satisfaction for the life they are living and so ... it hardens. you start to believe it. except unlike her mother, jane was observant.. she had other lives around her to compare to her own, voices of reason that pierced through the skewed perception her mother drilled into her skull. when jane grew into her skin, she felt so ... disgusted and angry. she tried to pull her mother out of her fantasy but nothing worked. 

through her high school years, she felt helpless .. her home life was a nightmare and she made every possible attempt to stay out of it for as long as possible. she took on jobs and extracurriculars .. stayed at her friends’ house until she couldn’t. and she would think.. think so hard, she would start crying. pushing her own problems away .. in her head, she would imagine herself in a different skin, a different place. it was the only way she could calm her breathing. only to have to battle the same thoughts the following morning

after graduating high school, jane went to community college for product management got a job offering after her placement at a big company and moved out shortly after ( and MOVED IN to medina... can i get a yee yee ) .. she got insurance for the first time in her life and eats too many of free pizza slices at work to save up on groceries every week <3

she doesn’t visit her parents bc she no longer feels like her mother is on her team. she’s lived a maddening and terribly draining life and living alone has brought her deserving peace.. although she’d rather keep contact with her mother to a minimum, its obvious that jane is her mothers anchor. if she feels as though her daughter is not fighting for her, she breaks down.. as much as jane wants to run away from her past, it always seems to catch up 

if ur still reading literally who are u lafjdkl. ill be done schoon ..... oof 

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if they are friends ... jane. will. talk. ur. ear. off. but probably not for the right reasons lol .. she has never been assessed by a professional, isn’t taking any treatment but she definitely needs it :( shes a chronic overthinker.. the voice in her head keeps chattering away most of the time which gets a little nauseating. she hates silence and feels like she needs to fill it with words. she often says the wrong things .. to the wrong people ... at the WRONG time and she is very aware of it. its the culprit for her self doubt and struggle to open up emotionally to the people shes close to. shes very critical towards herself, she micro analyses everything from the way she acts, the way she looks and what she says. shes also not a fan of confrontation !!!!!!!BUT!!!!!!!!!!!

 she is a FIREBALL when she stands up for others. i dont know how she hasnt gotten into a physical fight yet. she would literally rip ur side mirror off ur car if u didnt wait for an old lady to cross the street. is intense in every possible way. if shes angry, shes angry and impulsive and out of control, when she is in love, she feels it in her bones and simultaneously wants to rip her hair out, when she’s passionate about something, she is persistent until she isn’t and when she loses motivation, everything feels bleak .. theres never any emotional balance, even though she fights so hard for it every day 

likes sci fi movies .. literally when they are Floating in space ???? SIGN! JANE! THE! FUCK! UP! letterboxd is probably her favorite app. sometimes she will post a review, read it over and over, find something wrong with what she said and then delete it. shes very neurotic. she either has good days where she can comfortably be herself or bad days, when it feels like everyone is judging her every move when in reality. ... it is always .. all in her head. 

and she is mostly in her head. she creates fantasies of her life, relationships platonic and romantic and as a result, nothing ever seems to measure up. she feels secure in her fantasies but oftentimes when it hits her that they are just that, fantasies, she ... feels really alone. 

will trip over her own feet . has like 5 bruises from washing the dishes </3

she works as a part of a product design team in a big company.. probably has the knowledge to move up the tier but does not have the courage to stand up for herself . she doesnt believe in herself and is kind of a pessimist .......  

got high one night and decided she wants to start an uber ....... only for women. but doesnt think its a good ide a (its a good idea. id like to think in 10 years time ... bitch made it) 

really weird. likes eating broad beans and frozen strawberries .. will literally eat a lemon. 

she will have different interests every week but never seems to be any good at anything ???????????? makes her sad. 

claims tidying up with marie kondo changed her life LAKJDSKLDJ