#phqintro

as u can probably already tell from the name, yes jordan is related to george alby. he’s one of the old geezer’s grandchildren, to be specific! his mother is george’s daughter.

born in santa monica, ca, jordan’s family spent every summer at pleasance. he’d always particularly loved taking boat rides on the lake. he had a group of friends here in pleasance that he always hung out with whenever he was in town and they’d usually smoke some pot, take some pills, so when jordan started seeing and hearing a woman in the lake, he just attributed it to the drugs.

which brings us to june 2006 - jordan had just turned 17 and was taking a boat ride by himself and the next thing he knew, he was soaking wet, lying on dirt, surrounded by concerned faces, among those of which his mother and grandfather. apparently, someone saw him just jump into the water and when it took some time before he resurfaced, they decided to go after him. he remembered nothing of this story.

after that, the summers at pleasance stopped. jordan never bothered asking why they couldn’t go back for he simply assumed that there was some kind of animosity between his mother and grandfather since they seemed to have stopped communicating with each other as well.

fast forward 2 years. jordan enlisted in the air force and trained to become a cyberspace operations officer. he was eventually based in san antonio, texas and things had only gotten weirder from there.

he started receiving radio frequencies transmitted from somewhere in ohio. and not only was he not able to pinpoint the exact coordinates from where the signals were coming, but he couldn’t even decipher what they meant or who they were even meant for.

he never told anyone about this, least of all his superiors. so for years, he kept this information solely to himself, documented every occurrence, tried to figure out the patterns. this obviously took out a huge chunk of his time, but that was the least of his concerns; somehow, he’d fallen into a more troubling drug habit than what he’d been dabbling in when he was younger, which alarmed his coworkers the less he showed up for work, and when he did show up, he was rarely himself. a simple drug test was enough to confirm what jordan had been up to, resulting to his immediate dismissal.

jordan moved back to santa monica with his parents and was admitted into a rehabilitation facility for his substance abuse issues. the program was successful and he managed to start building his life back up. he made himself useful at his father’s store and even rented out his parents’ garage as his temporary residence ( also because they didn’t yet trust him to live on his own ). what they didn’t know, however, was that he’d taken some files from san antonio with him and was covertly continuing his investigation on the sound frequencies.

eventually, he was able to locate the source of the transmissions. needless to say, seeing pleasance’s coordinates on the map couldn’t have been any more surprising.

he needed to follow the trail before it goes cold, so he told his parents that he wanted to move to pleasance for a change of scenery, help out at his grandfather’s hotel. george alby was more than happy to take his grandson in seeing as one of jordan’s older siblings was already the hotel’s manager. jordan, given his previous work experience, would be the new head of the it department.

he’s been in pleasance for six months now and has been continuing his research, which has been frustratingly slow in terms of progress, if there’s any at all. 

WANTED CONNECTIONS!

siblings (3) - jordan has an older brother and an older sister - one of which is currently the manager of nouveau hotel and resort - and a younger sister. 

summer lovin - jordan used to always come to pleasance every summer with his family until he was 17. this character would’ve started off as a summer friend but as they grew older, it became more apparent that there was definitely an attraction there. they probably hooked up for the first time the summer that jordan drowned and that was the last they’ve ever heard of each other until jordan returned 6 months ago.

kings and queens of summer - basically jordan’s group of friends he would always hang out with whenever he was in town for the summer until he was 17. 

neighbor - probably met when jordan was helping them set up a router or some other tecchy stuff and since then their doors have been constantly open to each other - they probably have keys to each other’s houses too, tbh. the neighbor also maybe occasionally just comes over to check in on jordan esp if they’re a friend of george alby, kind of like someone coming over to water somebody’s plant, only it’s a human plant.

fellow investigator - somebody who’s actively looking into the strange phenomena in town, not necessarily the same frequencies that jordan’s trying to monitor but they could totally put all their findings together at some point to make better sense of things.

ESTABLISHED CONNECTIONS!

whisper will also answer to wispy and any other variation you can get from her name

she has congenital heart disease. she was born with it and she takes medication for it. she had open heart surgery when she was three months old, so she has a large scar down her chest. she doesn’t hide it and she doesn’t mind people asking about it, it’s not a sensitive subject for her.  the only close call with death she’s ever had was when she gave birth to her daughter. she’s been fine ever since, and tends to take it easy as far as strenuous activity goes

speaking of sensitive... she is one. she has sort of a sixth sense. she can feel when something unordinary/supernatural is around (it’s mostly the energy of spirits she can feel, she’s just ultrasensitive to it). it doesn’t mean she can talk to ghosts, but she can in fact see certain apparitions. she can feel when something of the like is around, and she can usually tell if it’s good or bad. she gets the feeling most of the time around cemeteries, in the morgue, in her embalming room, or near places that are historically old

mom is italian, dad is greek. she speaks both languages fluently and she can speak american sign language, as well as in italian and greek

if you’re not her family or her friend, don’t call her anything that pertains to her height (or lack thereof)

she’s a mortician and she loves her job, even if it’s emotionally trying at times

she’s a practicing witch and has been ever since she could remember

she loves creepy stuff

scary movies are her favorite

she will eat anyone out of house and home

her daughter is the love of her life

don’t come for her or her family. she can and will make your death look like an accident

tries not to curse, so she uses alternative phrases the best she can

will absolutely correct you on something if she knows she’s right about it. if she’s claiming she’s right, it’s because she is --- she learned it, didn’t guess it

dresses like a total tomboy. she only gets ‘girly’ when she’s dressing up for an event or meeting. her usual attire consists of jeans and a baggy t-shirt and converse

++ BIOGRAPHY

full biography here

Tdlr; Behrooz is the child of a mother who disappeared and a father who drank himself to death before they were even one year old. As a result they were told to lay low and not make themselves another burden to the family. After being contacted by their aunt, Behrooz tried everything to try and meet her. At nineteen they traveled from London to Cincinnati, Ohio, the United States, where they moved in with their aunt and started a six-week training program to become a cop. Their grandmother called them crazy for their choices, but that only made Behrooz more intent to succeed. At age twenty-four they were made a detective, as part of a commisonar’s reelection program, promoting a British Muslim who also openly identified as Agender was the best promotional stunt. Soon as she was reelected, Behrooz was transferred to Pleasance, Ohio. 

++ WANTED CONNECTIONS

++ A FRIEND AND CONFIDANT: Behrooz moved in recently, they never shy away from a conversation with a stranger, and neither have you.

++ THINK AS… VERY STRONG COFFEE: every single morning - save for a few days especially on the weekend - you have stood in front or behind Bez in the line at Daily Grind. They’ve struck up a conversation several times, they’re friendly, boastful, very open, and you are very confused. But it works.

++ HIDING SOMETHING?: They’re a cop. They’re supposed to find the bad guy, they’re supposed to notice when something is off about someone. And you are very certain that the reason why they keep on checking in on you is because they think you’re not who you want everyone to think you are.

++ I SUPPOSE? WHY NOT: Friends with Benefits. ‘Nough said.

++ AND I WOULD WALK FIVE HUNDRED MILES…: hiking by yourself can be interesting, but hiking together helps heal the soul. Behrooz has seen you take to the trails a few times, and they’re very keen to join you.

++ SOME FUN HEADCANONS

++ Wears a lot of loosely fitted clothing outside of work

++ Continues to pray five times a day, alas they do that on their own. They try to drive to a nearby city every weekend that has a mosque. Religion still calms them down. 

++ Is very open about who they are. Whether their gender identity, religion, or where they’re from, they’re not used to hiding it. That and having been the poster-boy for a future commissioner has made them unable to hide it as well, at least within the police force. 

++ They come off as rather lazy, drinks a lot of coffee, and falls asleep on the job. They’re less outspoken, more silent and observant, that and their quick reflex to smile makes them appear stupid. 

++ But while silent and observant on the job, Behrooz in more personal situations is a bubbly individual with a lot to say, a lot to ask, and a lot to joke about. They’re friendly, eager, presenting the very best that they can. They give people way too many chances and they get far too personal with most people. They’re kind and curious in their demeanor, more likely to strike up a conversation with a suspect rather than state them their rights. 

++ They believe in the occult, they can be rather spiritual and superstitious. It has nothing to do with their religious background however, but they think the USA is filled with spirits and mysteries that nobody can make much sense of. A continent of pain and genocide. Or in their words; a fucked up place if you ask me. 

++ They regularly send back letters to their aunt - despite not really sure where they stand with her - detailing what they’ve been doing. 

++ They love to go hiking. Nature is a place where they can be alone and recharge just as much as a mosque is. Also placing a prayer mat outside is one of the best experiences, it makes them feel even closer to Allah. 

++ INCREDIBLY helpful. They have some background in coding, so they tend to jump on things when ICT is concerned, they also are a great listening ear. 

++ Horny, very horny. 

++ No task is too small. Getting coffee, no problem, they’ll probably make a friend along the way. Printing some papers, not an issue. Writing out a report, give them five minutes. Behrooz does everything with the same conviction. 

++ They’re very chill with the nickname Bez. Though they’re formally known as Detective (or Junior Detective) Najm. 

++ They never did learn what happened to their mother. From what they have been able to figure out - another reason why becoming a cop was not such a bad idea - their mother was never heard from again after delivering a baby in a New York hospital. She did survive however, and the man with her was named Hakim Najm, who helped her out of the hospital. Between then and Hakim arriving back in London with a little baby, things are a blur. 

++ Their house is an absolute mess, coffee mugs everywhere, clothes on the floor. They’ve considered hiring someone to clean, but never got to that part.

++ Confused about the idea of being called an adult, still very much feels like they’re a child. However, this is mostly because despite their position in life, they often feel like they’re on a road without any road markers. 

++ They don’t drink, they don’t do drugs, and they’ve been eating less and less meat because they can’t find Hallal anywhere nearby. Being raised in a strict Muslim family, Bez’s one huge obstacle when becoming a cop was the idea that they didn’t want to consume alcohol and also not touch it - a statement that got them fired after two months working in a grocery store in London because for that reason they didn’t want to be a cashier. However there have been instances where they’ve been asked to take in bottles of alcohol for evidence, and they’re very uncomfortable with the notion.

++ Receives the question: “Behrooz, are you paying attention?” way too often. 

++ Gets lost in thought a lot. 

++ Heavy British (Cockney) accent. (Think John Constantine)

++ They’ve read the Quran, although their grandmother never taught them Arabic beforehand, so they’re currently reading it in English in between classes, thesis writing, and walks.

His mother said it was a surprise birth that happened at home, but even then… no midwife, and it was a few days before the baby was taken to the hospital for all the requisite paperwork and checkups. In fact, most people were surprised. They couldn’t particularly remember Kincade’s mother, Rhona, being pregnant. They couldn’t remember her not being pregnant either. It just seemed that anyone close had failed to notice the lovely young Irish woman and her soft-spoken husband had been expecting. Rumors hardly even started at his birth, and certainly none sustained by the time Kincade entered school.

Not nearly so quiet as their father, Kincade was an excitable child, eager to talk and to please. They fit in well with the other children, not a natural leader per se, but one who stepped up when no one else would, offering imaginative ideas for play. In the younger years, the sheer energy of the child had been a boon to all those around them. By the time they got older, however, teachers didn’t take so kindly to their talkative, excitable nature. It wasn’t an easy lesson to learn, but Kincade became quiet and withdrawn over the years and impossibly polite to boot, much to the dismay of their parents. But despite their efforts to communicate with Kincade’s teachers, there seemed nothing amiss to anyone else. Kincade excelled in school in some areas, was merely passable in others, but that was to be expected. The teachers encouraged Kincade’s interests in english and social studies, finding their comprehension well above that of their peers. Nothing much came of it though, as Kincade began to shy away from others with each passing year.

Those who knew them well knew that Kincade was a bit of a collector. At the tender age of ten, they had found a silver pocket watch hanging from a tree branch and snatched it up to show at school the next day. The story encouraged a teacher to touch base with their parents, concerned of stealing, but Rhona and James assured them that the pocket watch was honestly gotten, swearing it belonged to them and James must have simply lost it in the backyard. The matter was put to rest, and nothing was ever said of it to Kincade.

As years went on, Kincade found more and more things that way. Picked them up off the sidewalk, found them in spare spaces and closets, just little valuable trinkets here and there. As they got older, seeming more larger stuff appeared. An antique wooden chair, an old steamer trunk, a decent wooden table. With a few woodshop classes in high school, Kincade would soon learn a hobby that would become the main distraction from the tragedy that was soon to befall them.

Just days after their 16th birthday (and telling their parents they didn’t quite feel at home in their body), Kincade’s parents disappeared. They’d seen their parents on the walk home from school, just stepping past the treeline into Southwood Forest from their small neighborhood. Kincade had called out, but it had fallen on deaf ears. Unconcerned at the time, Kincade headed home, picking up a rare mint coin off the sidewalk on the way. It wasn’t unusual for their parents to go for walks together, after all. What was unusual was when they didn’t return home after an hour, or two hours, or later that night, or the next morning. Eventually, a search was underway, but there was no sign of them. Kincade temporarily went into the care of a teacher in town while the search carried on, but eventually everyone had to conclude that Rhona and James simply weren’t coming back. Abandonment. No one would say it to Kincade, not in so many words, but they were all thinking it.

With the help of a few teachers, the sheriff, and a small fortune left to them by their parents, Kincade successfully filed to become an independent, even at the young age of 16. Their grades were okay enough, finances well cared for until they were at least 21, barring any major financial setbacks, and it was clear Kincade could handle themselves. No one saw much grief from them in the time after. It seemed that Kincade was simply as quiet and withdrawn as ever, polite to every well-wisher. Many called it maturity, but it was simply a sad child unwilling to let others see their weakness. God forbid anyone take them from their home, send them to people they had never met. With no family to speak of and no experience with the larger world, it seemed safer to simply stay in Pleasance and try to make the best of it. When they were old enough, they would surely leave, go to college for something widely applicable, like business or accounting. But it never happened.

Kincade never flagged in the last years of high school, still pulled top marks in social sciences and adequate marks everywhere else. Though still prone to rambunctious outbursts of excitement and chattiness, the timid nature had started developing nicely into passive politeness with everyone, even the once close-friends who had grown distant. The only place Kincade was really themself was the library. After graduating, Kincade would sink entire days in the library and its archive, consuming every piece of history contained within. News articles, journals and diaries, letters and cards uselessly donated after every estate sale.

Eventually, ends had to be met and Kincade had a mind to do some sort of work to stretch their inheritance a little further, maybe even save up again for personal purposes. Kincade doesn’t remember the first time someone bought something from them, but pretty soon, people knew of their ability to restore antique items. When it wasn’t a commission to repair a piece of heirloom furniture, it was an offer to buy one of the far-too-many furnishings in their house, and the money came in easily. Taking a gamble on what they’d saved and the last of their inheritance, Kincade leased the storefront for their new shop, For Keeps. It was small throwback to one of the many times Kincade’s mother had gently given back something they had found. “For keeps,” she’d say, and it would find itself stashed on one of the many shelves in their room.

Now years down the line, Kincade lives life on autopilot. The town has its comings and goings, but they don’t pay much attention. They go to work, go home, find items as they always have out in the world, repair them, bring them in to sell, go to the archive to look into disappearances in Pleasance’s history, go home, go to work…

And really, Kincade is unsure what’s keeping them here. The community college would be a good place to start, it would help their business at least to get a degree, but better yet, it would offer them the opportunity to leave Pleasance. And yet, something about it doesn’t feel right. Like the destination is wrong, so they can’t even step down the path. People are nice enough, but they talk, and more than anything, Kincade wants to not be “the boy abandoned by his parents.”

Headcanons:

Kincade is quite good with their hands, but woodworking and fine jewelry are their favorites. One scratches the itch to be active, the other to be hyperfocused.

Absolutely has ADHD but has no idea and functions just this side of well enough that no one else notices. Had a lot of their more dramatic behaviors suppressed through punishment in the school system as a child.

Absolutely obsessed with trying to understand what could have happened to their parents, convinced that they were not abandoned.

Doesn’t believe in the ghost stories around town, but also doesn’t not believe.

Reads quite a bit, somewhat old-fashioned with technology. Whip smart at learning new things nonetheless, just doesn’t particularly prefer it.

Something of a loner. Kincade makes fast friends with plenty of people, but it isn’t very deep and they tend to fail to become anything more because Kincade, for whatever reason, doesn’t put the time and effort in to cultivate it.

The silver pocket watch they found as a child is the only thing they haven’t sold or refurbished. It’s constantly on their person, along with a small silver key that once belonged to their mother, though they have no idea what it goes to.

Prone to moments of overly-excited talkativeness. If prompted to discuss one of the few things they care greatly about, all social mores go out the window for at least a few minutes, until such time as they remember themselves and settle down with a quiet apology.

this is the clown montana, but u can just call him tan. he grew up in pleasance but moved to seattle around 10-ish years ago to study law ( but also bc he had a falling out with his ex-bestie @kincadedonnelly​ which just made the decision to study out of state so much easier ) and only just returned last december!

tan is the middle child of three. he has an older brother and a younger sister. their family used to own a mom and pop store that has since then been bought out by alby and turned into the pleasance general store under new management in 2000. his father had since turned to various enterprises to try and support the family which included carpentry and being a delivery truck driver. his mother, on the other hand, took to music tutoring on the weekends apart from being a high school teacher. needless to say, things had been pretty tough financially on the family since alby took their business away from them.

growing up, tan was p much....mediocre. which was never a dirty word for him, but it was to his parents. it was actually their dream for him to become a lawyer, which he wasn’t exactly opposed to, mostly because he didn’t really have anything else in mind.

he had enough in the way of friends, played sports, did ok in school. wasn’t super smart but also wasn’t at the bottom. he just coasted by and it was fine. he was fine. at least he was funny.

when he was 21, he was accepted into law school thru a scholarship at the university of washington. it was the first time he’d ever really gone out of state, let alone lived away from home on his own.

but seattle treated him well. it was there that he was able to explore more of who he was and what he wanted to be—and really wanted to be—which was, to no one’s surprise, not to become a lawyer, but a writer. a storyteller. but knowing that he couldn’t come home without a law degree, he sought to finish his four-year stay and make his parents proud all the while harboring words in his journal as a hobby.

he was out drinking with his friends when he got into a drunken fight with another patron for some dumb reason he couldn’t even remember anymore even if he tried. it really started early into the night but then hours later when the group was set to go home, they had run into the patron and his friends outside. tan couldn’t keep his blasted mouth shut and the long and short of it is that he’d ended up in the hospital with a dislocated jaw, a broken nose, and a lesion in his brain after he took a crowbar to the head. he was on his last semester of law school.

which, of course, put a damper on his parents’ plans of finally having a lawyer in the family. and it took a while, but throughout the frustration of relearning how to put a shirt on or the staring spells he would have in the living room or the fact that he started having atonic seizures that required a service dog in his aid, he decided to see the silver lining coming about a year into his recovery.

meds were expensive and therapy didn’t come cheap, so when he submitted a column narrating his experience from small-town mediocrity from a turkish-albanian background to big city law school dropout now with a disability card to a local publication, he’d only expected the cash it came with in exchange for his submission; he didn’t expect an email from a guy who, as it turned out, was a pretty big tv producer saying that he’d read his column and wanted to meet up to chat about an ‘opportunity’.

said opportunity turned out to be a job offer. or, well, a trial offer— he was currently producing the second season of a show on comedy central and wanted to invite him on as a writer’s assistant. with no employment opportunities on his immediate horizon ( with the alternative being to book a plane ticket back to ohio ), he knew he couldn’t say no.

the job was not glamorous and the salary was dismal, but it helped him remember how to become a person again, this time in an environment he actually enjoyed. no more case readings, no more depressing internship hunts with law firms who didn’t want him.

as he became more and more immersed into the culture of the show ( and other programs in the network ), he was eventually given his own episodes to write, all the while making his debut on stage as a stand up comic ( which was a difficult feat to even try and muster the courage to face an audience, let alone an audience in bars ). shortly after he’d made a relatively dignified name for himself, he started working on publishing his first book, which he liked to describe as ‘part-memoir, part-fiction, 100% mediocre’ entitled ‘Stop and Smell the...’ which chronicled his experience as a small-town midwestern boy who gre up in an immigrant household and was then living in a big city with a condition that could very well be attributed to his big mouth.

and he was, by no means, famous. maybe not even quasi-famous. but his new life had allowed him to support his family back home especially when his father had come down with a mysterious illness that prohibited him from continuing work. on top of that, his younger sister had gotten pregnant and was then forced to marry a businessman in cincinnati just so she could raise the child.

his father finally succumbed to his illness last december and it was only then that tan finally came home to deal with the funeral arrangements. he took a sabbatical from work, with every intention of his trip back to pleasance being temporary, but it’s months and he still hasn’t found it in him to leave pleasance again.

extras:

he has been living with his family again and has no plans of getting a place on his own since this is just ‘temporary’.

yes, he also brought his service dog, dakota ( and yes, he’s montana and she’s dakota and they’re just quirky like that 🤪 ) with him to pleasance and he takes her everywhere. since the move, dakota has enjoyed the bigger spaces that pleasance has to offer and you can find the pair most often at the park or playing catch on death ranch where the thrill of getting caught has never gotten old since he was seven.

he’s bisexual and he came out in 2013. he’s always sort of known that he’s not just attracted to girls since he was younger ( as evidenced by the will-they-won’t-they relationship he had with his ex-best friend kincade fuckin rippp ) but he’s never really been open about that part of himself until then.

a serial dater and a serial flirt. also soooo so so needy.

he’s a taurus sun with an aries moon so he’s equal parts ‘date me uwu’ and ‘fite me uwu’

like his fc bariş, tan sports a half-sleeve tattoo on his left arm: (body image tw) click here for reference !! also a smiley on his right thigh, his siblings’ initials on his right ankle, and a small ‘K’ on his left hip.

HISTORY

Ritesh and Harsha had one dream for their only child: to be born under the best possible consequences. Which was after they had settled down in the United States, gotten their motel running, and ensured there was no possible way they could be sent back. 

None of that worked out. Ajita Hannu was born in Mumbai, India, after all. 

She grew up with her family, all of them on a small estate in the middle of the city, being exposed to the noises and the smells of her parent’s city. She was taught English by her mother’s sister, she learned some Hindi, but mostly she was kept at home while her parents tried to figure out their plan. Because the plan was still the plan. When her parents had finally gotten the visa’s and everything needed for their planned immigration, Ajita was seven. She had the same attitude as her peers: to be the best at everything. 

Still, Pleasance Ohio was a huge adjustment. Everything was so quiet. Ajita spent a lot of her time either at home or at school, because she didn’t like how quiet it was. Something about it felt eerie. But slowly she became more and more acquainted with the other kids in the town, even if she had little time for it. Her parents owned the small inn at the border of the tow: the Southwood Inn. And between herself, her mom, her dad, and a friend of theirs who helps with the cleaning all the work is divided up. After school she helped out. Just a little bit at first, but by the time she was twelve, she did everything. And she did it as practically as possible. Ajita wasted not a single moment. 

She would study while manning the front desk, listen to Spanish podcasts while she cleaned the rooms, and prepare her school paper while she checked the inventory. Ajita always had her hands in multiple projects at once. She was the main voice for less plastic at school, protected anyone at school who felt different, started a LGBTQ+ group because she had realised already at eleven that she was very much into women. Most people thought she was too much, always voicing her opinion or trying to get votes or signatures or followers or whatever she needed. She had very few friends, but she didn’t care. Her parents were her best friends, and Ajita had great plans. Like her parents, she had great plans. 

Studying came effortless to Ajita, she got high marks, sucked in information at any opportunity and by age sixteen was fluent in English, Hindi, and Spanish, with the intention of learning Catalan, German, and Italian. To her every subject was equally important, but there was one thing she was most interested in: what people wanted. How people saw themselves. People. She wanted to know how humanity worked. So she applied at the University of Barcelona. Her parents weren’t happy, and she was met with some resistance. They didn’t want to let her go, afraid that she would be the odd one out, misunderstood, and that she didn’t want to come back. But they didn’t realise how much Ajita loved Pleasance. She would always come back. 

After a whole lot of begging, Ajita was allowed to leave. 

She moved to Barcelona at eighteen, her grades were top of the bunch, the scholarship was in her pocket, and she had grand dreams for her future. She was already on her way to study Catalan, and managed to pick her way through the application in Spanish without any difficulty. 

She studied for one and a half year in Barcelona, traveling all over the country on the weekend, before she quit the program. The language was part of the problem, Catalan was different from Spanish, and because of her internal confusion trying to differentiate between two languages, she didn’t get the marks she wanted, or the marks that would keep her there.

Since she still had half a year till the next semester, Ajita traveled around most of Western and some of Eastern Europe, backpacking and crowd surfing. She had made enough friends over the years that she could knock on the doors in random cities and towns, and would always find a place to stay if she wasn’t staying in hostels. The experience was fantastic, and it was even better when she realised not much later that she had been accepted at the University of Ghent for another course in Philosophy. 

Now nineteen, Ajita moved to Belgium for a second try at Philosophy, taking Dutch classes on the side and once again spending her weekends traveling all over, this time visiting places in Belgium, the Netherlands, and Germany. 

Her bachelor was three years, and a one year Master - another reason why she came to love the Belgian system. That and she didn’t have to pay all that much when it came to tuition. But Ajita found more than just happiness in the place. She also learned a lot about herself. Belgium was a whole lot more accepting of her status as being a lesbian, but it wasn’t just that, she joined the LGBTQ+ clubs around the city of Ghent, and found herself. 

Growing up they had always felt different, not really fitting the gender roles people had assigned to them. They didn’t like wearing dresses, they joined soccer teams, and all their friends growing up had been boys. They had felt slightly awkward in their own body, and jealous of male characters in the media. Growing up they wanted to be Batman or Ash Ketchum for Halloween, not a princes like their girly classmates. They loved getting dirty and felt awkward when someone suggested they wear make-up. They were a tomboy, according to the neighbors, their long hair always in a knot on the back of their head, checking out their face in the mirror, imaging themselves different. 

Although Ajita could never really say different in what way. 

Demi-girl was the term she adopted in Belgium, and she planned to bring home with her. 

Their last summer vacation they traveled to India, where they stayed till Holi. 

She returned home with a Bachelor in her pocket, and over twenty thousand followers on her youtube traveling account. Both of which were worth little back in Pleasance, but she would find a way. 

The plan was to take over the family business, and then she was going to run for mayor, but before she would do everything she could to make Pleasance better. Her beloved hometown. Despite all the cities they had seen and placed they had visited, nothing could top Pleasance. 

HEADCANONS

They have a husky called Charlemagne. They found him a year ago in Bulgaria, and after a whole lot of effort, managed to send him to their parents in Pleasance. For the past year they’ve taken care of him, but he instantly recognised Ajita when she returned home.

Ajita does not believe in Ghosts. She does believe that local legends can help Pleasance grow as a tourist spot. 

Ajita is rather known around Pleasance, or was, before she left to study abroad. She was a very annoying kid, who was always putting a foot in someone’s business, writing her school paper, getting signatures. Ajita had so many causes that she got swamped half of the time. She would talk to anyone who she met on the street, any tourist, any traveler. The tourists love her, the locals not so much at times. 

She helped put some places out of business when she was younger, outing businesses that were doing horrible things to their employees. But she has also managed to keep a lot of big corporations out, collecting so many signatures that she got a project stopped before it even began. 

She doesn’t like George Alby at all.

Local businesses to Ajita are the most important thing in a small town, and big companies put them out of business is one of their major concerns. They understand the philosophy behind it, and get why small business have problems surviving while big corporations can go ahead without much trouble, but she believes there is a possibility. 

They love backpacking, and hiking, which is what they always end up doing during the weekend, bringing Charlemagne along. 

WANTED CONNECTIONS

- childhood friends: Ajita was seven when they came to Pleasance. They’re bound to have known most people around the school, being as active as they were, though few people could probably stand them.

- enemies: you don’t get as politically active as Ajita and not make any enemies, they are sure to figure out where they stand now, having returned after studying.