#teddyb

INTRODUCING…

name: theodora 'teddy' bellworth

faceclaim: natalia dyer

age: 27

gender & pronouns: cis woman & she/her

DIG DEEPER…

if teddy could have it her way, she would have remained under the radar. despite the loud presence of her family and their legacy, her preference had always been for a quiet night in, a small group of friends, staying out of the spotlight. her ambitions led her to dreams of becoming a teacher, getting a degree at a school out of state, and never looking back at the small ohio town she grew up in. being a bellworth forbid those ideals, bound by the unspoken understanding of family tradition and obligation. while she sought to break the mold her family created, fate had a cruel way of forcing that reality anyway. there was no college or job teaching, nor did she find herself stuck in the facade of small town royalty. what happened in '78—and the year she lost after—left her with a hollow feeling in her chest, and an increasing sense of paranoia in her bones. from the moment she was found in the woods, head shaved and confusion painting her features, teddy began to collapse in on herself. who she once was was long gone, replaced by a shell of a girl trying to make sense of what her life looked like now. growing into a shut-in, teddy locked herself away in her family's home and tried to keep the strange outside world far, far away. with newspapers covering the windows and an unwavering sense of dread threatening to drown her, the years that have followed teddy's return have been difficult. any answers she gave only brought more questions and hesitant looks, turning her blank memories and the fears that came with them into a cautionary tale to stay out of fort hemlock.

CONNECTIONS...

should i stay or should i go / childhood neighbor. while they spent a majority of their childhood within one another’s proximity, there wasn’t a closeness shared between the two. it was more of a mutual understanding, as they observed the other and remained a bystander. after teddy’s unexpected return, they forged a new bond; an unspoken understanding between two people who had seen horrors they could not explain, and never looked at each other any differently because of them. while teddy became the town pariah, the two grew closer, almost inspired to remain connected out of spite. they refused to let the other drown—though the scale leaned more towards keeping teddy from collapsing in—with the understanding that the same grace would always be extended in the opposite direction if the time ever came.

where is my mind / cousin. despite sharing a family name, the differences between the two have always been obvious. one has always been the talk of the town, the shining light and the kind of person to aspire to. then there’s the other side of the coin, never quite living up to the family name. where teddy’s side was put on a pedestal, the pendulum swung in the opposite direction for their extended family. a resentment wedged between them, practically a birthright, only made worse through time and trauma. when teddy moved inward, their cousin’s frustration grew, both knowing exactly why: teddy is the key to getting real answers about what happened that night, even if she doesn’t remember it.

heart of glass / secret ex-girlfriend. tucked behind stacks of library books and 'friendly' sleepovers, the two had been in a relationship, one only known to their closest friends. a first love had been cruelly interrupted by the incident, with teddy seeming to disappear into thin air. seen as just a ‘concerned friend’, they led the charge in the efforts to find teddy. in the  year spent searching for their love, they were often found in the woods with a flashlight and an unwavering determination. after teddy's return home, they tried to pick up where they left off, the two attempting to navigate the aftermath together, though their romance fizzled out within the months after. despite staying friends in the years that follow, the self-reproach remains.