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A Modern World

Maisi Dennis

Analysis

-Henri Matisse

Full History

Maisi's childhood was a fairly normal one; average, most might say. She grew up a little poorer than some, but her parents were resourceful and practical and taught her how to be happy with what she had. When she was around ten years old her parents adopted a five year old girl from the community they happened to be a part of at the time, and while Maisi was more than happy to have a little sister, it would be the beginning of a series of events that would slowly but surely lead to her leaving home with mixed feelings eight years later.

Her elementary years were filled with good and bad times, like anyone else. She and Alyssa were homeschooled during that time and got along splendidly for the most part, aside from the typical sibling squabble now and then; they got their social interaction in various forms, be it meeting other kids at local parks, taking classes with co-op groups, or being part of local events. Surprisingly enough, Maisi got in quite a few fights during these social times--the reasons varied, and sometimes it was because another kid picked on her or her sister, or maybe because someone insulted the things she liked...now and then, she got into a tussle just to prove that she could do it. The fights were never too serious, and often ended in Maisi's favor; she was a tough kid in more ways than one, and she usually won the respect of whoever she was scrapping with, whether the respect was admiring or begrudging.

It was during highschool that Maisi discovered her love and talent for art; during this time she also decided she didn't care for the idea of college and paying off student loans for years on end, but her parents insisted it was a smart choice. They hoped, by getting her into a good college, to get her interested in something other than art, which they didn't think was a very profitable or stable career. The term "starving artist" existed for a reason after all, but it was genuinely out of love and concern that they inadvertently caused their daughter such a hard time. In their minds she was making her decisions in the foolish passion of youth, forgetting how mature and responsible she already was; this frustrated and hurt Maisi to no end, and no matter how she tried to present her case, her parents held their beliefs that she needed to get a diploma and have a "real job". Doing art as a hobby or on the side once she had a "real job" wouldn't hurt anyone or threaten her financial well being, so they didn't attempt to entirely discourage her artistic pursuits, only subdue them.

It all came to a head during her senior year of high school when, against her personal preference, she agreed to go to college to get an English degree. She stayed for one year and was miserable; among other things, her relationship with her roommates was toxic, the college she went to was very strict, and several false rumors turned a couple of her professors against her. Exhausted mentally and emotionally, Maisi decided to drop out--much to her parents' chagrin. Upon coming home, several arguments between herself and her parents ensued and finally ended with the young artist deciding she would be better off striking out on her own.

Being polite and working hard earned Maisi several jobs over the next couple of years, but she always ended up working multiple jobs to afford housing and often ended up losing jobs more quickly than she'd like due to the fact her employers felt she couldn't keep up with her hours because of her other schedules. In an odd sort of continuous conundrum, Maisi found herself rotating from job to job, struggling to provide for her physical needs of shelter and food as well as to afford the various supplies she needs for her art. On top of all this, she took on the added work of earning an online degree from an art school, some part of her still feeling the need to satisfy her parents despite the extra stress and work the degree brings.
((wip))

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Family
Father:: James Randy Dennis, 47 // James stands at an even 6', has a crop of short salt-n-pepper and a black goatee with a white streak down the chin; he's a little hefty, but does what he can to keep in shape and active. A college football champ, he enjoys sports and has coached his daughter Alyssa in soccer since before the Dennis family adopted her. He's much more relaxed and casual than his wife and tries to help keep her calm and in her own space rather than micromanaging their daughters. Although his job doesn't pay much, he does his best to support his family and make sure they have what they need to get by. Usually seen as the voice of wisdom, he's a critical thinker but can sometimes be dogmatic when he's formed a strong opinion on something, sometimes causing him to butt heads with others who have a different point of view.

Mother:: Lilian Helen Dennis, 40 // Lilian stands at about 5'4, has dark brown hair that reaches just past her shoulders, dark blue eyes, and is a healthy sort of thin. Although a loving and caring woman, she has a tendency to be something of a worrywart. With a very Type-A personality, she likes to have things done on time and to take care of tasks as they come up, which can lead to irritation and nervousness when too many things fall onto her plate at once or when something doesn't happen according to plan. On top of this, she tends to worry not only over her own schedule but those of her husband and daughters, often taking on more than she needs to in an attempt to make sure everything is run smoothly. Despite this, she has a typical but endearing sense of mom humor, enjoys eating healthy and loves her family whole-heartedly. She's an excellent cook and earned a degree in education before becoming a mother and deciding to quit her job and stay home to raise her children.

Sister:: Alyssa Gillian Moore Dennis, 14-19 // Alyssa stands at 5'9 and is quite proud of her height and the fact she's 2 inches taller than her older sister. She's lithe and athletic, her long, dark hair filled with golden streaks from exposure to sunlight and her tanned skin covered in innumerable freckles. Dark blue eyes look critically but cheerfully out on the world, and some of her favorite activities are watching creepy (sometimes cheesy) movies, exploring cosplay, and playing soccer. During high school she earned a scholarship to a large college for her soccer playing, building skills and stamina on various teams and clubs since she was young. She was born to a mother who died a year after her birth, and a father who was an alcoholic; she first met the Dennis family when her father would bring her to soccer games to watch a friend's kid play. James Dennis, who often helped coach the local kids team, took a shine to the spunky little girl and would often play with her while her father was neglecting her. When she was five her father died in a DUI accident and the Dennis family adopted her. She doesn't remember much of her dad and has integrated smoothly into the Dennis family, forming strong bonds with all of them and considering herself a true part of the family. She and Maisi are very close, and she often looks to Maisi for advice and help.

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Personality
An artist's personality can be tricky to describe oftentimes, but it's usually over a matter of an extreme mentality or some outrageous beliefs. Maisi, on the other hand, believes herself to be a rather mild person--she may have her small moments of excitement, but for the most part she feels her life is rather one-note. She hates this immensely yet finds it difficult to push herself into something more adventurous, partially because she's torn between being the mature, responsible young woman her parents raised her to be and someone who's willing to take some risks, even if that means getting in some sticky situations. More than once she comes to the verge of breaking away but always falls back; despite having a rebellious nature, she lacks the drive to act on it in a major way--except for the time she openly disagreed with her parents and left home. ((WIP))

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Relationships
◦ Maisi doesn't have many platonic relationships of a friendly nature, mostly because when she's not working at a job or on art, she's giving herself some much needed alone time (or sleeping). While plenty of people might consider her their friend, she tends to view most of these "friends" as just acquaintances until they've both gotten to know one another fairly well and/or there's some kind of connection. Typically, as Maisi tends to be the quiet, observant type, she ends up knowing about everyone else and being on the receiving end of vented feelings or gossip due to her ability to be a good listener; at the same time, not many people actually take the time to get to know her or offer to let her vent to them about her own troubles. To her bosses and coworkers, she's proved herself to be a mature, friendly, dependable, responsible, and hard worker.
◦ Romantically, Maisi is almost laughably inexperienced. Aside from a couple of crushes that never amounted to anything during her elementary and high school years, she hasn't really met anyone that caught her fancy--or at least, fancied her in return. She's more than used to being catcalled or harassed at her various places of work however, and has sometimes been ~~flirted with~~ pestered by coworkers. Neither situation impresses her much. She's not really sure she has a "dream man", but there are definitely things she admires--chivalry, for one, along with intelligence and maturity will always stand out to her; as will a pretty set of eyes or an interesting accent.
◦ When it comes to her family, Maisi's relationship with her parents and little sister is...somewhat awkward. It's plain they all still love each other, but with their unresolved disagreements it's hard to talk or interact. Alyssa gets along much better with Maisi than her parents do and understands to a certain degree why her older sister has taken the path she has, but Maisi often feels guilty that she's not being the role model her parents would like her to be and often hides from Alyssa how poorly things are going for her at any given time.

Miscellaneous
Scent :: After work, she usually carries the smell of various foods and drinks and the general area where she's been working. Outside of work, she hosts a scent of paints and charcoal, the strength of it depending on how long she's been working on her art; beneath that, there's a faint smell of pine needles and honeysuckle, reminiscent of all the time she spends wandering outdoors.
Voice :: The timbre of her voice is steady, neither very high or deep; her accent is hard to describe at times though there's often something of an American southern drawl mixed in. Due to moving several times in her youth, she never really developed a particular accent but did pick up on some of the slang her parents used.
Personality Type :: INFP, The Healer | Enneagram Type 2, The Giver
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Style
Maisi's style is "simple", to put it, well, simply. She wears jeans and thriftstore-bought shirts and sweaters, rarely does anything more than put her hair up in a ponytail or under a bandanna, and generally refuses to wear makeup. Part of this is due to growing up with parents who couldn't afford to buy her brand name clothes or the latest fashions, and when she got older and started making her own money she found there were much more important things to spend her hard-earned funds on than clothes. That said, she still makes sure she's presentable and takes care of the clothes she has--excepted for her designated painting clothes.
When it comes to accessories, she doesn't usually wear any jewelry and doesn't have pierced ears; occasionally she might don something that was a gift from someone (especially if she likes said someone) but prefers casual jewelry, like a simple ring or bracelet. She does own a broach given to her by a stranger who saw her painting in the park once, and it's probably the most expensive wearable item she owns. It comes out on very, very special occasions, which is typically very, very rare.
(broach)

As for where she got the blonde hair--her mother was blonde before Maisi was born and jokes that Maisi stole it from her. Honestly, she looks like she's the adopted one.

Rough Patches

There are several things in Maisi's past and present she doesn't often talk directly about, and though she might say they've left her stronger, the truth is they've also hurt her very deeply.

Cole & Ali

While at college, Maisi was paired with a girl named Colette as her roommate; with the suite setup of the dorms, they had a suitemate named Aliysha who had a dorm to herself, connected to theirs by a bathroom. For the first month or so all the girls got along and both Cole and Ali tended to treat Maisi as a sort of group leader. Over time however things began to grow toxic; Cole was extremely co-dependent and relied on Maisi as her supposed "only friend", using the artist as a sort of emotional punching bag and therapist. She often kept Maisi up late into the night talking about all her personal, family, career, and relationship problems while expecting Maisi to solve or help solve them all, which very quickly wore the artist out in every way possible. While she struggled to cope with Cole's heavy co-dependency, she began facing drama from Aliysha, who thought her two suitemates were purposely leaving her out of things when she thought they'd all been "so close" before. In reality, she was just extremely self-centered and thought she was entitled to being invited to everything by her suitemates when their scheduling often didn't give them the opportunity to do everything together; she began fabricating stories about Maisi and Colette purposely avoiding her and trying to lock her out of the bathroom, even telling Maisi's professors that the artist was ignoring her and being purposely cruel and petty. From there it was just mind games, with Maisi trying to appease both roommates while Aliysha fluctuated between acting like they were fine and accusing them of treating her horribly. Several times, while acting as if everything was okay, Aliysha would ask Maisi to draw her something or help her draw something, only to pass off Maisi's work as her own and gift it to professors. Eventually everything came to a head and there was a big argument between Ali and Maisi, with Colette backing Maisi but just barely. When she left the college, Maisi attempted to break ties but Colette continued to text her at least once a month, even when her texts were ignored, and at long last the artist just blocked her number.

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Alex

Unfortunately for Maisi, her kindness not only has a tendency to come across as weakness, but once or twice it's also been taken for flirting. Normally the confused party might not mention it, might flirt back and realize their interest isn't returned, or maybe ask up front about her intentions. Alex, however, chose to interpret a smile as flirting and refused to give up on the notion even when Maisi turned him down. They met at college when Maisi was at her work study job in a writing lab; he pestered her for several months before it came to a head one night and he stopped her as she was on her way back to her dorm. He succeeded in sexually assaulting her, but Maisi managed to get away before it turned into rape. Conflicted about the ordeal, Maisi hesitated to report Alex and in the meantime he spread rumors that she had tried to force herself on him, which turned into a slew of nasty gossip about Maisi circulating the school. Even after leaving the college and cutting all ties, Maisi struggles with occasionally feeling violated and feeling regret over not reporting Alex before everything got out of hand.

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Toxicity

No matter how many normal and kind-hearted people Maisi attracts, there always seems to be twice as many toxic and destructive people drawn to her. She struggles to form long-lasting friendships due to multiple experiences with toxic or unhealthy relationships, and the unseen scars of all those experiences linger in Maisi's subconscious even to the present day. Thanks to Alex and Colette, she still feels a little anxious whenever she has to check her phone and often "forgets" to keep it on her to avoid the feeling. The sound of water bottles being crushed is especially unpleasant to her, as Cole had a habit of crumpling her bottles when she'd finished them. Particular voices and accents remind Maisi of Aliysha and she often struggles to listen or look at anyone that sounds or resembles Ali or Alex. The slightest sign of co-dependent behavior sends her into a conflict between the desire to shut herself off and the natural instinct to help, which wears her out at an astonishingly fast rate.

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Playlist

- Cookie Cutter :: Ivory Layne

- GET UP (Piano Version) :: Shinedown

- I Believe in Us :: WILD

- Silhouette :: Owl City

- Keep On :: Sasha Sloan

- Fireflies :: Owl City

- You Can't Stop the Girl :: Bebe Rexha

- Daisies :: Katy Perry

- Happy :: Young Rising Sons

- Perfect Color :: SafetySuit

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Some Tropes...

Girl Next Door :: Token Wholesome :: Only Sane Employee :: Nice Girl :: Morality Pet :: Big Sister Instinct :: Hates Wearing Dresses :: Nature Lover :: The Conscience :: Good Is Not Dumb :: The Reliable One :: Kindhearted Cat Lover :: Neutral Good :: Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right! :: tbd, tbd, tbd

Paint = Pain

Relationships

Friends

	James Moriarty (played by Atheist)
"Jim? Oh, I love Jim! ...wait, not -- not like that, I meant-- I meant he's really nice, is all--" (( Maybe she chooses to be ignorant; maybe she chooses to see the best. ))

Romances

	Remington Wilde (played by Vaporwave)
(( romance from a now dead roleplay - - lovely character! ))

Family

	Maggie Hartford (played anonymously)
"We're not usually at the same family reunions, but I like Mags." (( Maggie is a distant cousin of Maisi's; they very rarely interact, but they do get along. ))

Acquaintance

	Erica (played anonymously)
"I just know someday I'm going to look up and see her name in shining lights..." (( Maisi met Erica in a public park once and really enjoyed her music! ))

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