BUT WHEN I WAKE UP, I SEE YOU WITH ME - baby rosie, open

[JOSEPHINE]

[align=center][div style="width: 400px; text-align: justify; font-size: 12px; font-family: calibri; letter-spacing: .6px; color: #494949;"]she isn’t able to remember a time where she’s felt a motherly instinct. she hasn’t had anything to mother and never felt the need to seek out things to mother. joey has always been the one that everyone else watched after and took care of. and now, officially, shes being shoved into the role of a new mom. if being pregnant wasn’t traumatic enough for her self image and worth, setting aside the whole murder and blackmail situation, giving birth has been the worst thing to happen to her to date. as well, she felt so alone in it. her family were excited for a little niece or nephew, the father is uninterested, along with joey but it didn’t help, and outsiders seemed to also be excited for even more little fucking grubs.

joey can’t remember how long it took her to stop crying. she didn’t even want to hold it, when it was placed in her arms, joey cried even harder until someone else took it from her. apparently it’s a girl. she was asked about names, but she couldn’t even think, she didn’t want to name it; that felt like it was officially officially over, her life as she knows it, surrendering to being washed up single mother by accident. she begged to leave the little room, just wanting to forget and bury the events of the past few hours, deny it happened. finally, someone came to her bedside and offered her help to get up and head to her and max’s room. after getting out of the bed, joey pushed off her helper, wanting to be left alone and to do it herself. she started heading back to her room wordlessly, just tear stained cheeks. much to her dismay, her siblings do end up following behind with the little spawn.

the sound of cooing wakes her, causing a distressed and hitched breath leave her chest, face scrunched on the edge of crying. her siblings fawn over the little bundle in an old cot a few feet from her bed. the door’s open and the lights are dim, but still enough to have her squinting. she assumes they’ve invited people to meet her, but that sounds like the literal last thing she wants right now. a few tears spill out of her eyes and she turns her head away from the growing crowd in her room. “ can you guys do that somewhere else? “ she groans, covering her face with her hands. she receives some grief from her siblings which only pisses her off. she wipes her eyes and makes herself sit up, an intense scowl on her face with her jaw tight.

“ [color=#990000]welcome to my own personal hell! “ she mutters as a couple people file in, her green eyes rolling so far back into her head.

[spoiler=tags, updated 08/24/2020]◜BASICS ┊ [color=#990000]I HAD A DREAM◞
&. ❝ josephine elena van doren ❞ |  joey, joy, hoey | female [ she/her ] .
&. 21 years old . | november first ; scorpio .
&. reaper of flintlock lodge .

◜PERSONALITY ┊ GOT EVERYTHING I EVER WANTED◞
&. impulsive . outgoing . femme fatale . flirtatious . seemingly emotionless . guarded . self-destructive . obsessive . hot headed . reckless . kleptomania tendencies . selfish . brat .  assertive . loyal to those close to her . intuitive . stubborn . passionate . self-preserving . quick . nosey . reliable . non-committal . determined . secretive . resentful . resourceful . distrusting .

◜ APPEARANCE ┊ NOT WHAT YOU THINK ◞
&.  five foot six & one hundred and seventeen pounds ; reference .
↳ blonde hair just past her collarbone, grows a dirtier blonde, lightening up as soon as any sun touches it .
↳ slim, muscular build. legs on the longer side .
↳ big blue/green doe eyes, light yet well-groomed eyebrows, full lips, dimples .

◜ INTERACTIONS ┊ AND IF I’M BEING HONEST ◞
&.  [ 8/10 ] physically  |  [ 9/10 ] psychologically .
↳ difficulty w/ guns [ medium ] | difficulty w/ melees [ hard ] | difficulty w/ hand-to-hand [ hard ]
↳ combat information .
&. attack in bold #990000 | [member=570]scully[/member] | PM for any major plots .
&. friendly or nonviolent actions may be powerplayed .

◜INVENTORY ┊ IT MIGHT’VE BEEN A NIGHTMARE◞
&. [ 2 ] weapons | [ 0 ] armor pieces | [ 0 ] consumables | [ 2 ] aid items | [ 1 ] misc .
↳ one combat knife .
↳ a three piece throwing knife set
↳ one german short-haired pointer puppy, demetri
↳ one english setter puppy, robin
↳ a bracelet from her late mother, each one of her sisters has a piece to the same set, their mother having the biggest piece

◜ RELATIONSHIPS ┊ TO ANYONE WHO MIGHT CARE◞
&. elizabeth van doren (npc) x malcolm van doren (npc) | second youngest of nine children .
↳ cassian van doren, eldest, flintlock .
↳ beau van doren, second eldest, unknown .
↳ range rover van doren, unknown & scarlett van doren, dead .
↳ auden van doren, unknown & tara van doren, dead .
↳ maxine van doren, just older than joey, flintlock .
↳ richard van doren, youngest, flintlock .
&. pansexual, panromantic ; mongamous  . | scared of commitment, however enjoys casual fun .
&. mother to rosalie willa van doren, newborn . [/spoiler]

[MAXINE.]

[align=center][div style="width: 350px; text-align: justify; font-family: helvetica; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 1.4;"]ever since she was little, maxine had always loved to help take care of others. josephine and richard were only a few years younger than her, but she never passed up the opportunity to help their parents look after them. so naturally, she was always looking forward to the day where she would have a child of her own. as if it were possible, the motherly part of max only grew stronger as she grew older. it definitely had to do with her not wanting to focus on her own problems, but she would never make that point known, even if it were quite transparent. as of late, even with her personal life being in twists and knots, she still found herself putting quite a bit of her attention onto the younger two. they were adults now and she previously was trying to start and step back, but ever since that night they showed up to flintlock, she found herself going back into her worried and caring tendencies. joey and seb still occasionally bickered and acted like children, so she would use that as a veil to mask the fact that she was terrified of losing them like the others.

she wasn’t proud of it, but at the news of joey being pregnant, while she was excited of the idea of being an aunt, there was also a lingering feeling of ugly jealousy. even though it wasn’t what joey wanted and she had every right to be upset over it, maxine felt overly annoyed with that displeasure she felt, always trying to remind herself that joey didn’t have to react the same way maxine would have if she were the pregnant one. so, she sucked up her own emotions and was simply there for her sister throughout it, even doing so much as being in the room to support joey as she gave birth. once the baby was born, max had her focus on her sister, praising her for how strong she was and just trying to comfort her. when the baby was first handed to joey, there was a small smile that started to form on her face until she saw her reaction and instead she felt a small pain for her sister. her eyebrows furrowed as she watched the tears slip from her green eyes and max even felt her own eyes started to fill with some tears. she had been with her throughout the whole pregnancy and was there for joey’s complaints, but this had probably been the first real time where max saw the actual emotional turmoil this whole situation had been for joey.

after a few moments of feeling hurt for josephine, she made the attempt to switch her focus to the newborn little girl and was soon looking at her in awe. she whispered soft words to her niece as she lightly swayed her, looking up as seb popped his head in through the door. a wide smile was on his face as he walked over to look at the baby as well, an excited skip in his step. "she's so beautiful, jo-" he started to say, cutting off as the two looked up to see joey already making her way out of the small room. max exchanged a solemn glance with him, hanging behind for a brief second before they followed after her, the two of them staring lovingly at the small bundle as they walked. after they got to the girls' room, they tried their best to keep quiet as they cooed over the unnamed little girl, eventually opening the door if anyone else wanted to meet the newest flintlock lodge member.

max's eyebrows furrowed at joey when she spoke, looking over to her. "it's her room now, too, joey. she's-" there was more that max wanted to say, but she stopped herself short for now. instead, she scootched a bit closer to the edge of her bed to get a bit closer to see the baby better, lightly running her thumb over her soft cheek. "look at my niece, guys! i am an auntie now!" seb was quick to say to people walking in, a huge grin on his face. max rolled her eyes slightly at joey's comment about being in hell, instead focusing onto seb. "that's not how it works, richie." she said, finding it hard to pull her eyes off of the baby and onto the visitors.

[freddie]

[align=center][div style="background=transparent; borderwidth=0px; bordercolor=; width: 400px; font-size: 8pt; line-height: 125%; text-align: justify; font-family: arial; color: black"]

— this whole baby thing had been an absolute emotional rollercoaster. god, who did joey and will think they were, causing freddie this much stress? right when freddie started learning to cope with the idea of yet another squealing, disgusting child running amuck in the lodge, it seemed like there was always something else to toss into the mix. an awkward failed proposal. a little bit of family tension. if there ever was a next time - god forbid there ever be a next time, he hoped there would never be a next time - maybe they ought to think more about other people for once (ironically said, coming from frederick stirling of all people). there had been so much to process; fred struggled to see exactly where he stood when it all came down to. eventually, he settled with the idea that it wasn’t any of his business at the end of the day. so long as that thing didn’t come along and ruin fred’s life, it didn’t bother him any. 

and then, maybe he had suddenly become a little excited with the thought of becoming an uncle. of course, not for the part where the thing was a young and insufferable baby - but for when he grew up. the idea of getting to play catch or baseball with the little guy was an exciting one. take him fishing. camping. it was hard to come to terms with the fact that fred was actually looking forward to seeing a child for once; fuck, was this what maturity felt like? it was absolutely disgusting; freddie wanted nothing to do with it.

after word started going around that the baby was finally born, freddie waited a little bit before he sauntered on over to the room people were wandering into. stepping in, he grinned as people started to talk about the new addition to the lodge - act as if he wasn’t completely disinterested in another little tyke wandering around. “look at my niece, guys! i am an auntie now!” he rolled his eyes lightheartedly at the announcement. and then, it finally registered. a niece? as in- a girl? all of his dreams went shattering right at his feet. oh this was unfair. this was cruel. how was freddie supposed to be the “cool uncle” to a girl?

fred still had so much to learn.

“welcome to my own personal hell!”
he scoffed in amusement. he peered over at the baby for a moment before opting to focus on the new mother. that was something he could do a hell of a lot better than giving the newborn any attention. “hey. after this we get to throw one hell of a party, yeah?” then, he paused. "i think." turning his head around, he furrowed his brows. “right?” he literally had hardly any clue what a new mother could and couldn’t do. he really did have so much left to learn. this wasn't particularly anything fred ever really needed - or would need - to learn about.

[STIRLING.]

#1b2763[align=center][div style="width: 430px; text-align: justify; font-family: verdana; font-size: 6pt; letter-spacing: 1.5px; word-spacing: 0px; line-height: 12px; color: #000"]He wasn’t ready for this. He wasn’t ready and he wasn’t sure he would ever be ready. Perhaps most children could only dream to have a father as undoubtedly likeable as William, but he never quite saw himself as the paternal type. If anything, the very notion of having to provide for some mealy-mouthed growth had him squirming uncomfortably in his skin. He didn’t enjoy that feeling very much; that feeling of being forced into a corner when he wanted to be free.

William could point the finger all he wanted if it would keep him satisfied, but that would be a temporary alleviation to something which would have a far more grave result afterwards. If Joey wasn’t so unjustifiably mistrustful of William’s suggestion of terminating the pregnancy somehow, they could have avoided the inevitable: a lifetime of serving a brat that they created. Who in their right mind would willingly procreate? In all truth, William saw children as nothing more than a liability and impediment.

At least, the very worst case, he could absolve all responsibility he would have for the child when it was old enough to fend for itself. Life wasn’t that difficult to survive in, granted the kid would need to know the right people - they’d learn that in time. Best case scenario, the child would not have made it during the birth - that would be the greatest relief.

Understandably, Joey had become less of an object of desire to him and more so an obstacle to overcome, especially following the proposal that had gone so horribly wrong. It was such a pitiful position to be thrust into - absolute rejection. On the bright side, it seemed many people also sympathised with him. After all, he was the poor charming man who’d just had his heart so woefully broken by a stone cold bitch.

Joey was treading a fine line with William.

Eddie had insisted, not long after the announcement of the birth, that William ought to eventually visit his new spawn. ❝ You need to do the right thing and be there for Joey. ❞ William scowled, feet kicked up comfortably as he sat reading a novel. Eddie certainly couldn’t talk - being there for the mother of his children? No, no, Eddie was far too busy getting cosy with all the wrong people. Abstinence wasn’t always such a terrible idea, William contemplated as the only thing he’d take away from that conversation.

Begrudgingly, William eventually found himself wandering towards the room where Joey and their new child was, Eddie leading him into the room as if he didn’t trust William to turn up on his own accord. Eddie was right in thinking so; William didn’t even get to finish the chapter he was reading.

He stepped into the room, peeking his head over Eddie’s shoulder to look at the people who were already in the room. Joey’s family, Freddie - God, this was uncomfortable. William stayed close to the door as vacant features observed the cot nearby. He craned his neck from side to side - almost irritable that he’d been forced into a situation he wanted to avoid for longer. Instead, he flitted his gaze over to look at Freddie, then over towards Seb. ❝ Look at my niece, guys! ❞ He exclaimed. So, it was a girl. William leaned against the wall nearby the door, outright refusing to step further into the room. Unable to see his own child because having to see her would only affirm the reality of his new, dreadful life.

He glanced towards Eddie as he saw the leader stop to stand nearby Maxine, his hand raising to rest softly on the small of her back. ❝ She’s beautiful, ‘ey? ❞ He heard Eddie say to Max; if they adored the baby so much, why couldn’t they just do Joey and him the favor of whisking away the kid and claiming it as their own? This was disgusting.

❝ Have you two thought of what you’re going to name her? ❞ Eddie then asked, glancing over his shoulder to look at Joey and William. William slowly tipped his head to the side to look towards Joey, utterly disinterested, as he waited for her response. He didn’t know what to call her and quite frankly he didn’t care. He shrugged his shoulders impassively at Joey, and then looked towards Eddie. ❝ Frodo? ❞ Lighthearted sarcasm. William casually folded his arms across his chest. Eddie didn’t laugh, instead his brows bunching together with a look of mild displeasure, enough to make William want to roll his eyes before Eddie looked back to Joey.

Eddie should have left William with his Lord of the Rings trilogy. William was enjoying it more than standing around and having to face his problems head-on.