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Dinah Jane Johnson

"I believe in the father and the holy ghost...and this here jay."

0 · 870 views · located in New York

a character in “A New York Life”, as played by chanelindistress

Description

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D E S P E R A D OXB YXR I H A N N A
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F U L LXN A M E

Dinah Jane Victoria Johnson

N I C K N A M E S


"Most people just call me Dinah or Dinah Jane. Not a big fan of nicknames."

DJ {most common and the only she normally allows}

A G EX:XD A T EXO FXB I R T H

21 : April 3rd

S E X U A L I T Y

Bisexual : Biromantic

E T H N I C I T Y

African American

J O B

Senior at NYU, double majoring in Botany & Chemistry : Marijuana Grower : Hairstylist (Occasionally)



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G O D SX&XM O N S T E R SXB YXL A N AXD E LXR A Y
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H E I G H T

5'5

W E I G H T

130 lbs

E Y EXC O L O R

Hazel

H A I RXC O L O R

Brown : Currently, black

XF U L LXD E S C R I P T I O N

It would not be a lie to call Dinah a very lovely young woman with her brown-flecked almond-shaped green eyes, peanut-butter brown skin, naturally full and plump lips, and slim yet curvy body. Her bust area may not be the most boast-worthy feature on her form, but what she lacks in that department she more than makes up for with her rounded and perky bottom, which leads to toned thighs and sleek looking legs. Her hair, which she consistently dabbles with, can be seen in two ways: one, is in it's more natural state, where her long, thick brown locks are left out and styled in whatever way she deems fit. As of recently, however, she has dyed her hair black. The other is her long-standing love for miniature, waist-length Marley twists. Currently, her hair is in the aforementioned twists, interspersed with brown, red, and white-blonde extensions. Currently, she has black Senegalese twists with white-blonde interspersed. She has a bit of an edgy bohemian style. The piercings Dinah actually does have are in her ears and they're the simple standard piercings, a piercing in her right nostril though the occasional fake septum piercing can be confusing, and she has a tattoo on her lower back that her sister still threatens to have removed.



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S C A R SXB YXT O V EXL O
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P E R SO N A L I T Y

A lot of people, when they discover this little tidbit about Dinah Jane, are relatively surprised upon finding out that she is a preacher's daughter. Hell, a good number have been rather appalled by the revelation. In a way, she fits the stereotype of a preacher's kid: that idolized, sweet girl you see in the pew while her daddy gives speeches who's probably a little freak once the church dress and pristine white gloves are removed. The wild child who's got her poor little daddy rummaging through his bible every night, sweating profusely in the middle of praying to the Almighty to deliver her from her sinful ways. At the same time, the whole reckless-heathen-going-to-hell isn't really her own fault, and Dinah makes sure to remind her father of that little fact every time they talk. Luckily for the both of them, those talks are few and far in between. Plus, she's perfectly fine with being called or considered bad. Bad gets her paid. She's not completely incorrigible and downright evil, but she's definitely not the goody two-shoes that left Randall Memorial United Methodist Church close to four years ago.

The main difference between the Dinah she was before she left for college and the woman she has become now is that she seemingly lacks a conscience. She tends to lack guilt, remorse and shame for her actions, especially now that she's gotten into cultivating some rather intoxicatingly dangerous marijuana. She doesn't see what she's doing as wrong as it is a survivalist strategy. She needs money to get by and she spends her time surrounded by plants anyway; why not use such resources to her advantage while maintaining her 3.99999999 GPA? It's the same with her personal life. She doesn't typically feel ashamed for hurting someone else's feelings with her bluntness and she's known as a spitfire to most of her classmates, so it's not like they aren't prepared for it. Before, she took things and people in stride - was actually the sweet Christian child her grandmother would have been proud of. But once her father and church members lost her trust, that was the end, finite. And it's evident in a few of her relationships.

Dinah Jane has become a bit of a manipulator and she's so unassuming with it that most people don't actually notice that she's doing it. Hell, sometimes she doesn't recognize when she does it, but that's a tidbit for later. Most of her relationships have not formed out of shared occurrence or random conversations. As troubling as it sounds, Dinah befriends most people based on how quickly and effectively the connection can benefit her. With that in mind, she also is selfish enough to believe them to be dispensable as well and she has no qualms against cutting people out of her life - ask her father, he'll be the first to attest to it. A part of it is as selfish as it sounds - Dinah Jane, that same cute little hazel-eyed beauty you sat beside in your first year math class because everyone had to take it, is the same girl who can charm and throw away a person in the same breath. She tells herself that she doesn't have time for genuine emotional connections or random bouts of sympathy. It did her no good before, so why bother? The other part of it is...well, again, most of this is simply because a strategic survivor and if it means a bit of self-preservation at the cost of another person's feelings, then so be it. She got what she needed from them and, depending on the person, they received what they needed from her at the time. No real loss...though, such a detached and callous mentality can easily be shifted depending on whether or not a child is involved, or even if the situation is far more sympathy-inducing than she would like. After all, Dinah is still a bit of herself. Just colder.

So what if she has managed to become a bit perceptive in that she uses her manipulatively friendly ways in order to find and possibly exploit people's weaknesses when they piss her off? It's a bit of a sign that Dinah Jane is still that teenage girl looking for approval all around her and not finding it. Hell, she still is looking for approval. She is sensitive - far more than her pride wants to admit. More than that, she's looking for genuine relationships, even if her occasional machinations make that hard to believe. She doesn't even recognize when she's not manipulating people, lending to a whole lot of people in her contact list but not as many on an actual friends' list. It goes to show how much her trust and past naivete has been compromised. She became so used to being used and objectified that she's forgotten to just be, and she's supposed to not feel shame for any of this. She knows she does. Then again, she swore she was done with her faith in God and yet, she still has her grandmother's bible under her pillow. So, Dinah Jane just contends with being that really smart girl with ulterior motives and one hell of a secret when it comes to the plants she cultivates outside of the ones actually permitted by her school. The really smart girl with a lot of baggage.



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W I L DXT H I N G SXB YXA L E S S I AXC A R A
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L I K E S

✦Singing ✧Her braids ✦ Trap music ✧R&B music ✦Criminal Minds, Supernatural, HTGAWM, The Leftovers, Power & Empire ✧Chemistry ✦Being in control of lab assignments and projects ✧Marijuana ✦Drawing ✧Doing someone else's hair ✦Long, hot baths ✧Getting high ✦Plants ✧Cooking family recipes ✦Black Panther, Storm, Rogue, Black Widow & Deadpool ✧Learning ✦Motorcycles ✧Brownies ✦Listening to music ✧Brownies ✦Chai tea ✧The idea of developing natural medications ✦Going to the movies ✧Apple fritters ✦Gospel music ✧Shopping ✦Hair beads and other hair accessories ✧Tacos ✦Chicken and bacon pizza ✧Rings and bracelets ✦Feeling the thrum of the music through her veins ✧Frank Ocean, Lana del Ray, ZZ Ward, Emelie Sande, Zara Larrson, Sasha Keable, & The Weeknd ✦Snow ✧Being busy ✦Her grandma's bible ✧Red wine ✦Sex ✧Making money ✦Being able to sleep ✧Peach-flavored Ciroc & Sprite ✦Seafood




D I S L I K E S

✦Coffee unless it has enough milk and sugar in it to send her into a sugar coma ✧Sodas ✦Her current thesis paper ✧Instability ✦Twizzlers ✧Being forced to do something ✦Not being in the know ✧Overly rambunctious or flirty guys at the club/bar ✦When people tell themselves they can make Cajun cooking ✧Her father ✦Clowns ✧NYU and the way they treat their students ✦People who look down on others ✧Bullies ✦Anyone who thinks they can control her ✧Guys who think they're tough shit ✦Not having lotion ✧Going to church ✦Being cheated out of money ✧Bigotry of any kind ✦Feeling weak or out of sorts ✧Clients who don't know what they want her to do with their hair ✦Beyonce's BeyHive ✧Failed experiments ✦Laws against marijuana ✧Kale ✦Being underestimated



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S T R A N G EXB I R D S XB YXB I R D Y
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H I S T O R Y


What Dinah's father likes to tell people is that his alcoholism had yes, been a result of the personal demons he had not been able to face. But it was, in no way, the reason why her mother walked away when she was five years old. Or the richer, more successful and impossibly more attractive football player turned lawyer from their college days whom she had never truly lost contact with. He never really liked remembering that little facet of their lives, simply liked telling the story from the second he was saved and realized he had a calling to work in the Lord's name and blah, blah, blah. Besides, talking about that diminished any sort of trauma or pain Dinah might have felt at being abandoned by her own mother and that was good. At least, for him. Talking about those long nights where he would be out drinking what money he did make while Dinah practically raised herself and occasionally babysat the children next door for a measly wage in his absence just truly spoke to how wrong he was in his life and for a self-righteous deacon of the illustrious Randall Memorial United Methodist Church of Washington D. C - that would just not do. In the big scheme of things, what Dinah will never say is that she never had a roof over her head and food to eat. While that might have had more to do with the fact that she had to learn to cook when she was small and sometimes get groceries from the next door neighbor of their apartment complex, it didn't really matter because she had survived. They had survived. Even if they survived with her now waking up in the wee hours of the night because that was usually when her father slammed into their home, drunk off his ass and always angry. Luckily for her, Dinah has no long-lasting bruises or scars to show for it.

However, during those years, Dinah had not succumbed to her bitterness nor had her father's occasional drunken, verbal assaults hardened her. In an attempt to not allow it to do so, she focused on school and thrived - which was probably a shock considering the fact that the public school system in D.C. had been known to fail so many African-American students. Dinah surprised herself, teachers and her father for how well she performed in school, particularly in science and mathematics. She was relatively a sweet girl and while she wouldn't go so far as to say that she was good every second of the day since no one is, she never let her growing into her preteens affect the amount of time she spent with the children she consistently babysat. They were her saving grace, if we're being honest - solace, if you will. And when her father joined the church, so did Dinah. Her father was baptized when she turned twelve and it was the first time she had officially met her maternal grandmother. While her father lost himself following what he called the "righteous" way - since joining the church and having his own personal testimony gave him the audience he would have never received in the outside world - Dinah's experience with the Methodist church was much more genuine and comforting. She didn't necessarily or, to be honest, ever have the holy ghost, but it was refreshing to have someone or something to believe in. She grew to love singing like her grandmother, helped with Sunday school for the children, started a green initiative with the young people ministry, and still managed to keep up her grades. Because, to the rest of the church, Dinah was a good girl. Her Dad was really becoming a good preacher and was even invited by the church's pastor to take over Sunday services and travel to events for the Baltimore-Washington Methodist conference.

But Dinah was also growing up and that meant developing, so it meant suffocation, apparently. It meant that when Dinah occasionally danced with the dance ministry, she had to change up the uniform or not perform a certain move for caution...you know, for the men in the church. Her father was even worse. Dinah's body and a few other girls' were policed consistently during her teen years and it was only worse for her when her grandmother wasn't at the church anymore to buffer them. And even worse when she caught the eye of one of the church's proclaimed babies. Unlike Dinah, Perry had been a member of the church since he was in his mother's womb and with his mom being the finance chair and his father the Minister of Music, he had more defense than she ever could. Not to mention money, but bringing that up meant there was something un-Christian-ly about the Elliots and that just would not do. Her Dad loved that she caught the class president of her school's eye. He was the main supporter of the relationship, if you would call what they had a relationship. Dinah would never. She can't - even today - deny - that she had been attracted to Perry. She was definitely more attracted to Alexa from Calculus, but that was an entirely different conversation that got her grounded. And at the time, with applying for colleges and exams coming up - not to mention her grandmother's recent diagnosis of breast cancer - Dinah didn't have time to be stressed over her father's refusal to accept her sexuality. And she was, in fact, attracted to Perry. Up until he decided that, despite the many times that Dinah told him no and that she wasn't ready, raped her. Twice, since the first time, she had really wanted to believe that perhaps she had wanted it and she had only been nervous. It took the second time to realize that, nope, all of this was force and not right.

The assault itself wasn't what did Dinah in. As probably unhealthy as it sounds, she had always been jumpy when people were stupid drunk, especially when slammed doors and yelling was involved. She survived not running away; to her, the sexual assault wasn't even that big of a deal, even though it probably still is considering the fact that she never actually grieved it or anything of that nature that she would like to avoid talking about.. No, what made her turn her back on her father and the church was the reaction once she told them. She knew that she and her Dad weren't on the same page, always known that. But he didn't believe her. Perry had already told his parents his "version" of the story and her Dad sided with them, noting the times Dinah would be sneaky or lie like when she went out with friends after her Dad told her not to, the times he had caught her high with a few friends after studying for an AP exam, or when she went on a thirty-six hour road trip that she totally had grandmother's permission to go on, but none of that mattered. The situation was her fault and she was practically shunned for it. Only a handful of churchgoers believed her side of the story, but the bulk sided with their precious golden boy and for a church to be so flippantly ignorant when they had become literally the family her father had never been able to provide - it hurt. And so when it was time to leave for school, Dinah didn't even tell her Dad when she had to leave. She just packed her things, took the money her grandmother had set outside for her, and went off to the school that offered her the most money.

To be completely fair, it wasn't like she expected NYU to be some kind of safe haven where everything was perfectly okay and taken care of. No, she wasn't that naive. However, she didn't expect there to be housing issues and complete and utter disregard to the fact that she wasn't an in-state student. It didn't matter though. Dinah made it work; she had taken care of herself before and she could do it again. So, she worked - first, she started with simply braiding black girls' hair on campus since it was hard to find people who could do it with the prices she offered, then with being a waitress while being a teacher's aid in the chemistry department. However, the bigger money came when, in the middle of smoking marijuana with a few classmates, she pondered cultivating her own cannabis. It was easy to get weed, but the potency could be lacking and she knew people who wanted something stronger - something that could give them the best high. Her Dad was barely helping and there was only so much her grandmother could do with having to pay for chemotherapy treatments on her own since the cancer had come back when she had supposedly been in remission. So, she got creative and used her connects, and the labs at the school. She would go from couch to couch, and even sometimes staying in student suites with classmates she found useful for the time until she found the perfect strains of marijuana that enabled her to earn more cash.

Which was how she found her way to working with Nick Moreno and even finding out about the apartment complex he was staying at. Sure, she could have been the good girl and continued busting tables and earning clean money. But she had tried the good girl way and it didn't work. Plus, she gets a better pay now and can say that she's found a place all on her own, and doesn't have to give a fuck about people who would fail her. So what if that meant she's a bit harder than before? That's life, right?



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P O R T R A Y E DXB Y

Girl2Fine2

F A C EXC L A I M

Kiana Brown

V O I C E

Here

So begins...

Dinah Jane Johnson's Story

Setting

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Kacey Rogers Character Portrait: Dinah Jane Johnson
Tag Characters » Add to Arc »

0.00 INK

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Location
New York University

Her Look
Outfit

Dialogue Color #C35817 | Thought Color #730800

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"I just don't want you thinking that I don't want you to stay here 'cuz I do," Clarissa, or maybe it was Marissa and Dinah was once again proving that she honestly gave zero fucks about the other girl. It didn't really matter. At the end of the day, the rules were as they were: the only college students allowed to reside in the residence halls, even in the illustrious and better-kept suites that upperclassmen were privy to, were the ones who paid the hefty price attached to such a treat. It just so happened that Dinah was not one of them, a fact that she had been very well aware of for quite some time. After all, she didn't go into many things without premeditation.

"Babe," she decided on, thus allowing herself to get away with forgetting which classmate she was speaking to but still allowing the girl to think their relationship far more intimate than it actually was, "It's cool. You did what you could for me in the span of time that you could allot for me, and I appreciate that. I should be out of your hair soon anyway. Give me at least two days, maybe less, and you won't even have to worry about it." Dinah pointedly ignored the sympathetic and apologetic glance the blonde shot her way. It would do neither of them any good, after all. Dinah would move out on her own, as she always did, and before the week was out Marissa or Clarissa would just be another name on her contact list.

Besides, Dinah had been looking for a more stable apartment for a while. Most of her supposed friends and classmates believed that she had contended herself to couch hopping and the like, but that was far from the truth. With the money she had collected from recent weed cultivation and braiding persons of color's hair when asked, she had enough to put on rent for a month and help with groceries. When she first came to school during her freshman year, she had pots and pans from her grandmother and was not against using paper plates and plastic silverware. But in the last four years, things had been rather difficult for her, which was why this apartment hunting took up most of her time. She had happened upon a Craigslist housing listing in an apartment complex she could have sworn she heard Nick, a guy she worked with, talking about only once before. But Dinah had jumped on it immediately and while Clarissa began her whiny apology about how room inspections were in a few days and that if administration saw the air mattress Dinah had, she sent the other woman a message.

Kacey:
Hello, this is Dinah Jane Johnson. I recently saw your listing for a roommate and I am interested. I am in a bit of a bind myself, but I am prepared to pay as soon as possible. Is it possible to see the apartment some time soon? Perhaps within a day?

Setting

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Chanel Owens Character Portrait: Nick Moreno Character Portrait: Kacey Rogers Character Portrait: Dinah Jane Johnson
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0.00 INK

#, as written by Thunder
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This girl was weird, Kacey decided, as she listened to Chanel speak, but a weird that was a good kind of weird. Quirkiness, maybe, was a better word for it, because while she seemed a little bit overly-friendly, it was in an endearing sort of way. Chanel even admitted right then that she had a tendency to talk a lot, but it wasn't annoying and it wasn't even "too much". It was simply different than what Kacey was used to, since having Colton as a roommate for a year meant that aside from the occasional banter, there wasn't too much interaction. The last few days didn't really reflect it, but on a normal day a few weeks ago, Kacey and Colton would maybe have a couple exchanges, if that, and would be on their ways. "Nah, don't sweat it," she laughed lightly, in response to Chanel saying that she could tell her to stop talking, "You're good." The girl's description of her life confirmed the idea that she was normal, and just really friendly, or at least it seemed that way. The whole "coming to New York to find yourself" concept was something that Kacey was familiar with herself, so that alone made her feel a bit more connected to Chanel than before, and knowing that she was sort of on the same tier as her, in the field of job prestige made her more comfortable as well. The freelance graphic design stuff sounded complicated, but the retail and coffee shop work made her seem like someone who actually fell in her league when it came to possible friendships and similarities.

When Chanel stopped midway through her sentence to address the now-partly open door, Kacey peered in that direction as well, but quickly diverted her attention to her phone, seeing it as a good opportunity to email back the girl from Craigslist. She read the email once, and then once again. For someone who had never lived a luxurious life, the idea of having a roommate was bothering her more than it should have. It wasn't like she hadn't lived comfortably, because she had, but she just wasn't so privileged that the idea of a roommate should have bothered her so much. It probably wasn't the idea of having a roommate, so much as to why she had to have a roommate. Needing a roommate meant that she was broke, and being broke meant that her career aspirations were becoming more and more fantasy-like, over realistic. After reading the email for a third time, she responded with her phone number and a message that read:

"Hey Dinah,

Yeah, I'm free tomorrow between 8 AM and 11 AM if you want to stop by. The address is 314 W 14th. Text me what time would be good for you.

Kacey"


After sending it, she returned her attention to what was now going on, which entailed the guy from earlier, who Kacey recalled being addressed as Nick, coming in with a box of pizza in his hand. Since Kacey didn't know him, the way he was acting now didn't seem any more out of character than him asking Makayla to smoke with him earlier, so she didn't know that he was drunk right off the bat. "Kacey," she stated, a minimal smile reaching her face as he questioned her name, though it faded quickly. Not for any real reason. She wasn't particularly offended by Nick not knowing her name, mostly because she had no grounds to be. She hadn't been formally introduced to Nick. They had not crossed paths during the short span of time that Kacey spent across the hall the night before, and though she had seen him this afternoon, when he tried to get Makayla to smoke with him, they hadn't actually interacted. Makayla had seemed perturbed by him and abruptly left with Holly, and he went off with Chanel to her room. Kacey left the apartment soon after for her second audition of the day, so she had not had a chance to get a good opinion on the guy. He seemed to be a friend of Chanel's, and maybe more, as she had guessed that afternoon. Since Nick admitted to being drunk, Kacey felt more at ease with joking around and being a bit bolder, since he was the one who was already more likely to make a fool out of himself. "And I'm not hungry, but thanks," she said, responding to his offer of the pizza. It did smell good, and with how Kacey's cravings were sneaking up on her today, she was half-tempted to go for it, but there was no need. She had lasagna she could heat up if she was really hungry, and she wasn't. These cinnamon buns were only a decoy, a way for her to eat her feelings, and she didn't need to do that through them and a slice of greasy pizza. When he stepped into the living room for a second, she looked at Chanel with a more playful expression and said, "This your boo?", only allowing the smirk to drop when Nick reappeared and began to question Chanel about whether he could use her tableware.

Setting

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Character Portrait: Kacey Rogers Character Portrait: Dinah Jane Johnson
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Though she had never really preferred it before, Kacey wasn't completely minding the morning shifts that she had gotten for most of this week. Forcing herself to get up at five thirty wasn't pleasant in the moment of it each morning, but at the very least, once her shift was over at two, she ended up being more productive for the rest of the day than she would, if she worked noon to eight at night. Another plus was that from Sunday to today, every morning that she woke up, she was able to go into the bathroom and shower and get ready without having to wait at all for any of her roommates. Chanel had her own bathroom, so that made sense, but she didn't run into either of the boys in there, and that was a plus, especially when having to share a bathroom with Colton had always irked her. He worked early in the morning as well, so normally, if she was scheduled for a morning shift, she would end up tight over him taking too long in the bathroom and making her late, or something.

It was unfortunate, in a sense, but it seemed like the weeks that she had no auditions scheduled ended up going better than the ones that were packed full of them. In the beginning of her life in New York, it had been the complete opposite, because she still was naive and inexperienced in the field, and mostly because she was filled with hope. Now, it was only tiring. She loved acting and singing and performing, and it wasn't something that she could give up on, but sometimes she wondered whether she was just holding onto this dream and forcing herself to continue down dead ends, because she couldn't accept defeat. What sounded noble, wasn't always. Sometimes realizing that you were going no where, and that yeah, the system was unfair, but one person could not change it, if no one gives them a chance, was the more noble pursuit. Kacey had been struggling with that lately, sometimes telling herself that it was too early to give up and that if she gave up, it would only mean that she hadn't wanted this enough, and on the other hand, just feeling so tired concerning all of this. She hoped that the roommate situation would help. Dinah Jane had come into the picture pretty quickly, but part of Kacey felt like that was going to be a good thing. It left her with less time to worry about to possibilities of this going wrong, and equally, less time to worry about struggling with coming up with rent money. Chanel had seemed okay with the idea, but then again, she seemed pretty understanding of most things. Kacey just hoped that Dinah would end up being normal, and not someone that everyone dreaded moving in.

Kacey ran a couple of errands after work and by three o'clock, was home and showered. Partly thanks to Colton, her lasagna was finished off by now, but as she did most days, she had taken home some food from the diner. Her diner had a reputation for making the best breakfast food, 24/7, so today's choice was a stack of chocolate chip pancakes. She knew that they were never as good reheated as they were right off the stove, but she would settle for second best, since she hadn't been charged for them. As she popped them into the microwave, she noticed the time and realized that Dinah was probably going to get there soon. She had said she was going to come in the afternoon today, and Kacey assumed that that would probably be before four or five. In case she had trouble finding the place or needed help moving up her stuff, she decided to send her a text.

To: Dinah Jane
Hey just lmk when you get here if you need help bringing your stuff up. I'm home so I can help

Setting

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Kacey Rogers Character Portrait: Dinah Jane Johnson
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Location
304 W 14th Street

Her Look
Outfit

Dialogue Color #C35817 | Thought Color #730800

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Despite the fact that she could have asked one of those guys from Statistics to help with getting her stuff to the apartment complex, Dinah had decided to take a taxi. Well, it was more of an Uber, but same difference, all in all. She had - stiffly - returned Clarissa's parting hug earlier, grabbed her two suitcases and over-sized backpack, and then scurried off to the waiting car with barely a glance over her shoulder. No love lost here, she told herself mentally as the campus' south portion disappeared from her sight.

From what she had gathered from their email exchange, Kacey Rogers seemed...tolerable. Dinah wasn't moving into the apartment to gain a friend, but garnering an ally in the person whose space you would be occupying was perfectly acceptable to her. Besides, despite how much she had told Clarissa that she was whatever about moving somewhere new and possibly permanent, the uneasy fluttering in her stomach shed light on the fact that perhaps, for once, she was actually just a bit nervous. Dinah never particularly felt like being friendly and open like when she was younger, but she didn't not want to be liked. What if Kacey was actually really good friends with the other tenants? What if Dinah said something wrong and then she turned into a social pariah? What if she actually had to take time out of school just as her senior year started and then wind up being a year behind -

No, she had to think for her own self-preservation, taking one deep breath after another. She hadn't had a panic attack since she moved out of her dad's home and she damn sure wasn't going to have one in the car of some random New Yorker in the streets. Not gonna happen, Dinah thought just as her phone vibrated in sweatsuit jacket's pocket, and she had to reach into her coat first before reaching underneath to grasp the phone to see the message from Kacey. Humming to herself, she glanced back out the window to hear the driver say that they were getting close. Which forced her to send her own text.

To: Kacey
That'd actually be great. Pulling up in less than 5.

Setting

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Chanel Owens Character Portrait: Makayla Wright Character Portrait: Kacey Rogers Character Portrait: Dinah Jane Johnson
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After a long shift at work, the hot, sweet pancakes really hit the spot. She would deal with the guilt of eating so poorly later, but for now, all that Kacey wanted to do was sit down and eat. She had a couple of minutes to do just that, but halfway through the second pancake, she got a text back from Dinah, saying that she was almost there. It took a little bit of effort, and another minute to allow herself to finish the pancake, but she was eventually able to get herself up, and in a friendly mood. It might not have been the most authentic one, but that didn't have anything to do with Dinah personally. Kacey just wasn't the type of person who thrived around new people and social situations. She was amicable to an extent, and someone who could make friends if she tried, but she also had a strong mouth on her, and sometimes just lacked the effort to pretend to care. What she reminded herself now though, as she headed out of the apartment, was that she needed to care. Not because she needed Dinah as a friend or companion, but because she needed her as a roommate. Her presence wasn't so much desired as her share of the rent was, but Kacey would be friendly just for that. Saving $750 a month was going to take a lot of stress off of her shoulders; so much so, that she had begun considering that maybe she would be able to afford a plane ticket home for Christmas.

To: Dinah Jane
Coming down now

She sent Dinah a text just as she entered the hallway, and upon doing so, she noticed Chanel and Makayla outside. Chanel had grocery bags in her hands and Makayla looked like she was about to enter the apartment across the hall. "Hey, you guys," she smiled, sensing that they were in the middle of a conversation and opting to keep her greeting short and sweet. She directed her next comment more towards Chanel as she said, "Dinah's on her way here now, so I'm just going to go down and see if she needs any help bringing her things up." She wasn't expecting or looking for a response, so with that, she kept walking and made her way down the five flights of stairs that led to the building's lobby. It took only a minute of waiting outside for a car to pull up in front of a building, and for a girl to get out of the passenger's side. When she recognized her as Dinah, Kacey approached, and pasted on the best smile that she could muster. "Dinah? Hey, what can I bring up for you?" she said. She wondered if it would have been more appropriate to try to make small talk first; maybe comment on how she was glad that she got here, or ask about the traffic or something. Ultimately, it seemed pointless, though. She just wanted to help Dinah move in and get back to her chocolate chip pancakes.

Setting

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Nick Moreno Character Portrait: Kacey Rogers Character Portrait: Dinah Jane Johnson
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Nick had spent the majority of the day out, which wasn't necessarily out of character for him to begin with, but had become a consistent pattern over the past few days. After falling into his pathetic drunken stupor on Friday, he allowed himself one morning to recover on Saturday, and then vowed that he wouldn't get like that again. He wasn't emotionally recovered and his marijuana intake had only increased after he promised himself that he wouldn't use alcohol as a coping mechanism, but at least he wasn't allowing himself to mope around and wallow in self-pity. He always had trouble escaping from himself, since overthinking seemed to be his specialty, but keeping busy had helped, at least a little bit. He made more deals over the past few days than he normally did in a week, and he pushed himself to follow up on leads for new clients and network. Money was coming in, and that was always a good thing, but it was strange not to feel forced to save it. It had been less than a week since Brooklyn had broken up with him, and yet Nick was already missing her. He missed the good things, of course, but strangely, he missed the things about her that had always led to their problems. He no longer had to hear her being hypercritical about any and everything. She wasn't waking him up at five in the morning as she stumbled into bed, smelling of liquor and perfume, after a long night at work. He wasn't chastised for smoking too much, and he wasn't made to feel like a worthless nobody for not being able to treat her to fancy dinners. It was so cliche and cheesy, but while Brooklyn had been a pain in the ass, she had been his pain in the ass, and losing that after so long definitely left him with a void. It was a void that had proven so far, to be impossible to be filled with any amount of distractions, money, or marijuana.

Since Friday, he had not tried to reach out to Brooklyn again. It seemed futile because clearly, this wasn't like any of their past fights and Nick didn't doubt that his mistake fell into the category of unforgivable things. He could try to justify, all he wanted, that Brooklyn had done some bad things to him too, like sleeping with Ryan, but by now, he had taken enough responsibility to know that his action had been the one to ignite the rest. Brooklyn wasn't perfect, and neither was he, but she had always been faithful to him until he had broken their line of trust.

His supply that should have lasted him at least another week, had been depleted earlier that morning after a few big sales, so Nick spent most of his day picking up a new supply. His supplier lived in the Bronx, which took about forty minutes to reach through the subway system. He didn't stay in the borough for very long, mostly because even though his supplier trusted him, it wasn't a relationship where either party wanted to hang out and chat. All it really was, actually, was a text message saying he was there, being allowed into the man's apartment for less than a minute where the transaction would go down, and Nick leaving with a cheap suitcase filled with drugs, and one thousand less dollars in his pocket. He was back in Manhattan by noon, and though he knew it was risky to travel with such a large amount of drugs on him, he didn't want to return to the apartment just then, and spent another few hours making some small deals, before finally returning to the apartment building again. He was so focused on how badly he didn't want to run into Brooklyn, that felt an unnecessary sense of relief when he ran into two other familiar faces: Kacey and Dinah. Dinah had contacted him a few days back saying she had found a place to stay in his building, which was cool with him, because he liked Dinah. He didn't know her extremely well, but that was easy to say about most of the people that he knew through his business. He didn't know, however, that she would end up actually moving into his actual apartment. If Chanel or Kacey had mentioned it, it wouldn't have even been surprising that Nick hadn't been paying enough attention to absorb the information, but seeing Kacey outside, talking to Dinah, was a start at linking the two together. At the very least, it would have been coincidental if Dinah knew both him and Kacey, one of his roommates, for different reasons. "Hey Dinah," he said with a wave, as he approached them with a light smile. "You never answered my text the other day, about when you were actually moving in, but I guess this answers it--that today's the day." Although he had apologized and properly introduced himself to Kacey on Saturday, after drunkenly greeting her Friday, it still wasn't like Nick was close with her at all, but he still felt the need to acknowledge her too. "Hey. How do you know you guys know each other?"

Setting

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Nick Moreno Character Portrait: Kacey Rogers Character Portrait: Dinah Jane Johnson
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Location
304 W 14th Street

Her Look
Outfit

Dialogue Color #C35817 | Thought Color #730800

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Maybe today was meant to be a good day or something - Dinah wouldn't be able to say, but she was more than a bit surprised when her driver offered, without prompting, to get her second suitcase out of the trunk. She had figured that since she had to put in the work to put it in when he had picked her up, that no absolutely no fucks were given about her or her heavy bags. Look at God, some infernal voice in her head decided to exclaim and Dinah managed an appreciative lift of the corners of her mouth for the man, not particularly a smile but not the grimace she had given one of her classmates a few days ago. "Thanks," she finally stated just as she heard her name being called by an unfamiliar voice.

"Hey," she exclaimed, painting on a lighter smile as she took in the newcomer. Her driver must have sensed it was time for him to go and honestly, Dinah's attention was on the woman who had emerged from the building. "Kacey, right?" Just this suitcase, if it's not too heavy for you. Thanks" Despite not looking forward to lugging up the bag, she chose to give her new roommate the smaller suitcase. It wasn't like she wasn't used to bearing the weight anyway. "I can store them elsewhere if they start taking up room. Got a few people who kinda owe me favors right now anyway." What she meant was that she had people whose guilt about not being able to help her was exploitable and she could easily use that to her advantage, though she kept that little tidbit to herself. Still, Dinah felt like she was doing good. She wasn't being a chatterbox like Clarissa, but she found it better to fill the silence. Be a bit friendlier.

It helped that in the few seconds it took to acquaint herself with Kacey somewhat that Nick appeared out of nowhere because, despite it being small, her plump lips broadened into a much brighter and sincere smile. Sure, Dinah and Nick weren't...close friends. In fact, they were colleagues at best, colleagues who happened to get along a bit better than she would have thought when they were doing business. She liked him, at least enough to give him a real smile. "Nick, hey..." she greeted him, shifting subtly on her feet to brace herself against the cool breeze that zipped past the bustling warm bodies. "What can I say? I kinda like having the element of surprise on my side. And Kacey here is allowing me to be her new roommate, wasn't that nice?"

Setting

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Nick Moreno Character Portrait: Kacey Rogers Character Portrait: Dinah Jane Johnson
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"No, it's no big deal. There's space up there," Kacey said, trying to be as friendly as possible. There definitely was room in the bedroom for Dinah's room, but mostly because Kacey had spent a lot of time since she weekend, redesigning the layout that she had planned the room out in originally. During their email exchanges, Kacey explained that she didn't have any major furniture to move in, and though Kacey had originally shrugged at the thought of Dinah having to find her own way with a bed, just a day later, the building manager was hauling a bed frame and mattress out to the curb. When he explained that a tenant had left it in an apartment after their lease expired, and he was throwing it out, she went against character and called Colton down to move it upstairs and into her bedroom. It was her good deed of the year, she rationed, and she figured that it would make her look like a better roommate, all while costing her nothing.

Kacey lingered a few steps to the side, allowing Nick and Dinah to speak for a couple of minutes before Nick turned away and continued walking in the opposite direction from the building. Kacey was beyond confused on how the two of them knew each other, but she didn't bring it up immediately, as she and Dinah headed into the building. Instead, she opted to be more friendly than she wanted, and maybe, more friendly than Dinah wanted too. It just seemed necessary to get the basics down." I just moved into this room a few days back, actually, since I was on a different floor before there were... structural issues with that apartment. Like I said in the email, though, the apartment manager was tossing a bed from one of the tenants that recently moved out and left it here, so I had a friend move that up into the room yesterday for you. The mattress is thin as hell, so you'll probably want to look into getting a new one at some point... but it's livable, at least by my standards. And clearly you know Nick, but aside from him, we have two other roommates. He likes with a guy named Roman, in one of the bedrooms, and in the other, is a girl named Chanel. How do you know Nick though, if you don't mind me asking?" She was tempted to mention how the building didn't have an elevator, and how they were five flights up, but with how heavy the suitcase that Dinah was lugging looked, she figured that it would probably only put a negative spin on the mood, and opted just to start walking up, instead.

Setting

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Makayla Wright Character Portrait: Brooklyn West Character Portrait: Kacey Rogers Character Portrait: Dinah Jane Johnson
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Had Brooklyn not been so hungover, she might have cared more about what Makayla said, and what was about to go down being her and Cara. Cara was the last person who she felt any sort of loyalty towards at the moment, and Makayla had earned a lot of loyalty points at Cara's expense, so she had no need to get involved any further than to try to help Makayla. She did that, with her advice, and now it seemed like her job was done. Makayla could kill Cara and get herself kicked out, and Brooklyn would be able to tell herself that she had done as much as possible to prevent it, given her state of mind at the moment. She had not gotten any notifications about her food deliveryman being at the apartment building yet, but with the way she was feeling, she was growing more and more impatient by the minute. After having a glass of water, she decided that there was no harm in saving some time now, by going downstairs and waiting for the deliveryman in front of the building. Normally, she would have requested that he come up to the apartment to save herself the time and energy of walking down and up five flights of stairs, but apparently, she had nothing but time right now, so it seemed harmless.

She went three flights down without seeing a single neighbor, which was something that she appreciated immensely. Brooklyn wasn't friendly to strangers, and even though she recognized some faces, especially of other people who lived on the fifth floor, she rarely initiated or even responded to friendly gestures when passing them. It was probably rude to blatantly ignore people who were just trying to be nice by saying "hello" or "good morning" but frankly, she didn't care. She didn't want to establish those forced-interaction relationships with people because even on her good days, she likely wasn't in the mood to entertain any sort of conversation with strangers. They were strangers for a reason, and she intended on keeping it that way. Even when she hit the second floor, and walked past Kacey, who she recognized from Thanksgiving, and another girl, who did look vaguely familiar to her, but not so much that she knew from where, or who she was, she didn't change the stoic look on her face. She had been in the same room as Kacey on Thanksgiving, but she was now automatically a bitch just because she happened to be living with Nick, despite Brooklyn knowing that any feelings she had for him had to be destroyed, because she would never get back with him. Beyond just that, it wasn't like they had even interacted on Thanksgiving, and even if they had, Brooklyn wouldn't have offered her any sort of pleasantries right now. Her head was still spinning, and a few steps past them, she got the notification that her deliveryman was waiting out front for her. Finally.