Name: Matilda ‘Tilda’ Hatami
Age: Forty-Four.
Gender: cis Female, She/Her
Occupation: manager of the Grape Escape
Birthday: December 23, 1979
Location: Uptown, Providence Peak, Colorado.
Birthplace: Bighorn Hills, Providence Peak, Colorado.
Orientation: Bisexual
QUICK FACTS
Born and raised in Providence Peak.
Left in December 1996.
Previously a journalist in the Seattle Times.
Widow of Dominic Ballantine (d. 2022).
Mother of two – Layla (13) & Nazanin (2)
Currently managing the Grape Escape.
PHYSIQUE
Eye Color: Brown.
Natural Hair Color: Dark brown.
Height: 5′ 3″.
Body Type: Athletic, slim
Allergies: Shellfish
Dominant Hand: Right.
Scars: Several ones scattered across her palms from an incident in childhood. One on her arm from when it was broken.
Tattoos: Her daughters’ names on her wrists. Some flowers, birds, and other assortment of random things on her shoulder and back.
Piercings: Earrings.
INTRODUCTION
tw: implied child abuse/neglect & death
For a family attempting to build a legacy, there was little time for a daughter who seemed lacking. As the suspected product of an affair, Matilda ‘Tilda’ Hatami spent much of her childhood under her father’s suspicious eyes. This attention only worsened until her mother’s death some years later, taking the secrets of Tilda’s parentage with her into the afterlife. As such, Tilda’s childhood was spent with her eyes and chin on the ground, attempting to draw little attention to the differences between her and her elder siblings. With her father busy climbing the corporate ladder, she was often left to the mercy of elder siblings. The chasm between Tilda and her siblings widened until the ignorance of childhood turned to the cruelty of youth.
Tilda survived the bitter frost of childhood to blossom as a young adult and her flight from Providence Peak. She graduated with a degree in journalism at the University of Washington and accepted a position at the Seattle Times. Among literary circles, Tilda was well-known for her competitive streak and her ruthless dive into the truth. Her words attracted attention for their bite and their honesty.
So it surprised no one that her work drew her into contact with Dominic Ballantine. Their meeting was an accidental breaking-and-entering of an old building rumored to hold the scoop of the century. While he was too amused at her abrupt and frightening entrance to press charges, he did graciously accept her card as apology. A few days later, he asked her on a date and the rest is simply history.
Once married, her life was a blur of merging households, learning to fit into the daily grind of Dominic’s life. Weeks turned into months turned into years of relationship bliss until Tilda blinked and she was a married mother of two. Balancing the needs of two daughters with an often absent husband proved a daunting task. The first slide was her career, abandoned in the wake of learning American Sign Language and reshaping the world for her eldest daughter’s needs. Then, her relationship with friends slipped away, forgotten in the requirements of caring for her second child, a toddler as defiant as herself and prone to illness.
She tried writing again, but the spark of words and inspiration was gone. Whoever Tilda was, a journalist didn’t fit anymore. In the midst of this crisis, Tilda and Dominic faced their worst and longest fight yet until tragedy struck. In December of 2022, a stroke stole her husband without warning. In his will, he bequeathed his childhood home in Providence Peak – and his business of the Grape Escape – to his daughters. Never mind his siblings stooped to inherit, or his mother still living and lingering.
Unwilling to fling away their legacy, Tilda relocated her family to the one place she vowed she’d never return. While her mother-in-law is a welcome help, Tilda can’t help wondering if this move was a mistake. But she’ll handle it the way she did everything once upon a time: barreling in and hoping for the best.
