𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓌𝑜𝓇𝓁𝒹 𝒾𝓈 𝓎𝑜𝓊𝓇 𝑜𝓎𝓈𝓉𝑒𝓇, 𝒷𝒶𝒷𝑒. 𝓉𝒶𝓀𝑒 𝓉𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝓅𝑒𝒶𝓇𝓁 𝒷𝓎 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝒷𝒶𝓁𝓁𝓈.
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𝐓𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐦 𝐑𝐨𝐰𝐞
𝒯𝒽𝑒 𝑅𝒶𝓅𝓊𝓃𝓏𝑒𝓁
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𝐓𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐨' 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬
𝒷𝒶𝓈𝒾𝒸𝓈 ⟡ 𝓅𝑒𝓇𝓈𝑜𝓃𝒶𝓁𝒾𝓉𝓎 ⟡ 𝒽𝑒𝓇 𝓌𝑜𝓇𝓁𝒹 ⟡ 𝑒𝓍𝓉𝓇𝒶𝓈
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T H E ♛ P E R S O N A L I T Y
𝒫𝑒𝓇𝓈𝑜𝓃𝒶𝓁𝒾𝓉𝓎:
determined ✧ overbearing ✧ irresponsible ✧ adventurous ✧ goofy ✧ ditzy ✧ feisty ✧ courageous ✧ philosophical ✧ supportive ✧ eager to please ✧ insecure ✧ warm ✧ energetic ✧ witty ✧ expressive ✧ charismatic ✧ slightly rebellious
TicTac is a “good girl,” according to her aunt, who often pats her head after she’s spent a whole day alone, her Life360 showing no signs of movement. To this, Tatum simply smiles and scurries off to her room, feigning sleep. Then, once a quiet has settled around the too-big house, she’s got her earbuds blaring and dancing around her kitchen. Sometimes, if she’s feeling particularly free-spirited, she ventures into the woods to find her lake. To her, there are two different people that live within her that battle for dominance. To Aunt Angie, she’s calm, sweet, and eager-to-please. Her boldness, which rarely makes an appearance, tends to upset her aunt, who claims to only want to “keep her safe.” Tatum makes up for her curiosity by complimenting her pseudo-mother, always the one to help out at home so Angelina gets to have a life. The same kindness can read as false to others, especially when it tends to be a bit too much. She’s too warm and tends to freak people out. Constantly fearing rejection, it’s hard to not walk on thin ice around people. Her aunt has known her for years and still gets upset when she isn’t pristine and perfect to the image she has for Tate.
While she is demure and respectful to her aunt, Tatum is quite the opposite around others (if she ever gets the chance to show it off). When she’s feeling playful, her antics are known to induce gut-splitting laughter. The few who know her appreciate the way she tackles things head-on, the way her shoulders are always perched back. Sure, she seems shy, but she has a bubbly personality that hypes up everyone around her. The slight chaos she brings to every conversation and the way she moves from one topic to the next keeps the mood lifted. Not to mention she’s quite the fire-cracker when upset. Granted, TicTac doesn’t have many opportunities to show this off. Most believe her to be ultra-shy, when it’s quite the opposite. She’s just been taught to tamper that side of herself.
However, there are a few things that Tatum keeps to herself, often unable to ever show them to others. She can go on about existentialism for hours, claiming everyone has a choice even if it looks like they don’t (One could call her a hypocrite considering she’s the first to complain about lack of choice). She’ll start to yell about the genius of de Beauvoir if need be. One of her biggest dreams is to get to debate philosophy with someone she loves. Actually- she wants to argue about anything with someone she knows and trusts. Quite the debater, Tate rarely gets to show off her opinions or eloquence without feeling the wrath of her aunt. She just wants someone to listen.
A trait that seems to bleed into either personality is her mastery of making ill-timed decisions on the fly without really comprehending the consequences. One time, she pulled an all-nighter to find her parents’ addresses so she could write them letters. Didn’t go over well with Auntie, and she knew it wouldn’t. Another time, Tate tried to board a train to Chicago and got to Indiana before her aunt noticed. Another incident that didn’t register well. Hell, the reason why she got into ballet was because she enrolled herself in classes. Her most recent escapade was when she, heaven forbid, went out to get pizza with her fellow lifeguards. With adulthood calling to her, Tatum can’t help but find her spontaneity becoming more frequent in even smaller ways, as though she’s gearing up for the Big Leave. In fact, the two different parts of herself are merging overall, and she’s terrified.
𝐿𝒾𝓀𝑒𝓈:
✧ Green tea
✧ Soft-smiles
✧ Laughing until her face and stomach hurts
✧ Adrenaline rushes
✧ Fresh air
✧ The smell of lake water
✧ Yelling, but in a fun way!
✧ Blaring her music
✧ Going on virtual tours of museums
✧ Vegging out
✧ The feeling of a fresh new piece of music inspiring her
✧ Learning something new
✧ Having arguments over non-personal things
✧ Pinching people’s cheeks𝒟𝒾𝓈𝓁𝒾𝓀𝑒𝓈:
✧ People who disagree with her
✧ Feeling closed in, as though she has no other options
✧ Calf-aches
✧ Her aunt’s nagging
✧ Stares
✧ The quiet
✧ Being discounted and underestimated
✧ Anger + being unable to deal with it
✧ Being ignored or talked over
✧ Spinach on pizza
✧ Anyone mentioning her appearance. At all.
✧ Getting in her head about things𝐻𝑜𝒷𝒷𝒾𝑒𝓈:
✧ Hill-bombing on her skateboard late at night
✧ Dancing
✧ People-watching from her window or her post during her shift
✧ Light internet-stalking (not in a creepy way, just in the “well now I know your favorite color because your feed seems to be filled with a lot of green” type of way)
✧ Perfecting recipes from all across the globe
✧ Sewing and designing her own clothes
✧ Painting landscapes and portraits of people who don’t exist
✧ Writing letters to people she’ll probably never talk to
✧ Spending hours researching obscure facts about subcultures, music genres, and fireworks (got a bit of a thing for them)
✧ Hiking
✧ Swimming
✧ Playing Uno against herself
✧ Binging her favorite shows
✧ Taking long drives… though she doesn’t have a car -
H E R ♛ W O R L D
𝑅𝑜𝓁𝑒 𝒶𝓉 𝒞𝑜𝓊𝓃𝓉𝓇𝓎 𝒞𝓁𝓊𝒷:
Despite her overbearing Auntie, TicTac is a lifeguard, hoping to become experienced enough that she’ll get to teach kids. Granted, she only works weekends, but it’s something that she needs to do. Her aunt rarely lets her outside of the house long enough to think about where she’d go, muchless let her get there. She’s one of those teens who has Life360 Pro on her phone, so she often “forgets” to bring it with her when she works, claiming she doesn’t want to get it wet. Her breaks are often spent with Tatum ambling about, studying people from afar, always too afraid to really interact with anyone other than her fellow lifeguards and the kids she oversees.𝐿𝑜𝓃𝑔 𝒯𝑒𝓇𝓂 𝒢𝑜𝒶𝓁𝓈 & 𝒟𝓇𝑒𝒶𝓂𝓈:
It’s not a unique goal, but Tate would give anything to travel the world. Not in the traditional way, however. She could easily make a whole life out of traveling and making a very profitable Instagram feed. Instead, she wants to live in several places for several years at a time, including Italy, California, Vietnam, Belize, and Egypt. Perhaps Australia too, but she’s not down for the count until she can survive Vietnam and its wildlife.To do this, however, she needs a sizable source of income. Tatum has a wild, adventurous heart, but she knows she needs stability to get away from her aunt. All her money from working as a lifeguard goes towards her “Get Me TF Outta Here”-labeled piggy bank. Sooner or later though, she’ll realize $2000 isn’t enough money to get to California with, much less live in the state for five-plus years.
There is one way out for her: dance. TicTac has been on pointe for years, though she eventually quit due to the intense backlash she would get over being the non-ideal shape and size. She’s never stopped, however, and still goes to class though for more contemporary and modern styles (one of the few times her aunt lets her out). Tatum could see the world by becoming a back-up dancer, though her heart might not be fully in it.
𝐹𝒶𝓂𝒾𝓁𝓎 & 𝒫𝑒𝓉𝓈:
✧ Angelina Rowe, 49
Auntie Angie has been Tate’s pseudo-mom practically since she was born. Angelina is overbearing, controlling and competitive. She’s always wanted to be successful, and she tried to use TicTac to do it. She even still attempts to profit off of her dancing ability, but it’s not easy, especially when Tate’s rejected the dance community before it rejected her. One of the only things Angie’s controlling and caring attitude has benefited TicTac is through her endless support. She doesn’t want anything or anyone to hurt the one shot she has at being a̶l̶i̶v̶e̶ a mother.She’s a full-time nurse, often working doubles and sometimes triples well into the evening. Still, Angelina trusts her ‘little one’ to stay home, out of trouble. And if she can’t, well, there’s always Life360. The few times Tatum has disappointed Angie, hell was most definitely paid. It sure helps that Auntie Angelina reminds Tate of how she somehow ‘owes’ her aunt something by the very nature of her existence. The guilt alone is enough to keep her in line.
✧ Libby Riedell, 34
Tatum’s mom, though she doesn’t quite know it. She’s a powerful advertising executive at Rowe & Darling. After giving up her daughter and emancipating herself completely, Libby became a self-made millionaire by the time she turned 25. She refuses to acknowledge the existence of Tate considering she knows she wouldn't be successful if she hadn’t given her daughter up.✧ Roman Rowe, 35
The father of Tate, Roman assisted his common law wife in finding financial freedom. Though he wants to meet his daughter, he’s perhaps too ashamed of what happened to properly apologize. Not to mention he never married Libby, so as of right now, he’s pretty much worthless and sustained only by his employment as her technical “assistant.” It’s not like he can say no to her.✧ Corduroy, 2
Tate’s chameleon that she adopted. Corduroy is known to jump around the house and get lost.𝑅𝑜𝓂𝒶𝓃𝓉𝒾𝒸 𝐼𝓃𝓉𝑒𝓇𝑒𝓈𝓉𝓈 & 𝐹𝓇𝒾𝑒𝓃𝒹𝓈𝒽𝒾𝓅𝓈:
{Everything here is just ideas that are totally subject to change with plotting! I just have ideas and want to get them down tehehe}
✧ The Flynn Ryder, 18
Talk about an insecure existentialist’s dreamboat! He seems to not give a damn about anyone else, and it’s certainly a quality Tate admires. She’s not one to fall headfirst into romantic feelings, given the amount of times her aunt has gone on about the danger of people, especially boys. Still, he seems so full of life and freedom. She can’t help but lust after it, and maybe even him, a little bit…✧ The Mulan, 18
They’ve hung out in the staff rooms enough times that TicTac can’t help but like the girl. Sure, part of her interest in the {The Mulan} is because she wants to have an excuse to hang out around the parking lot, but she genuinely likes her too!✧ The Moana, 17
{The Moana} and Tatum have a lot more in common than what {The Moana} thinks. The energy she brings to the pool is the same type that yearns to be unleashed within Tate, hence why she’s drawn to the girl. Plus- it’s easy to talk to someone when you’re both working the same shift.𝐵𝒾𝑜𝑔𝓇𝒶𝓅𝒽𝓎:
Life in the Rowe household has always been fairly simple, if you count a convoluted compromise that placed Tate into the hands of her aunt instead of her parents. Angelina has always been present, a domineering force within Tatum’s life that she can never fully exorcise. While she dreams of her parents galavanting off to exotic places in place of taking care of their child, her aunt is like gum on her shoe or the angel and devil on her shoulder. Her childhood, beyond its rocky start, was fairly normal, though she struggled to make friends since she was rarely let out to do much other than go to the grocery store or dance. Finally having the opportunity to go out, even if she had to sign herself up for the classes and steal her aunt’s money, was freeing. She continued with it until she was at a boarding school doing exclusively pointe ballet and stress eating. All she wanted was freedom from her aunt, even if it meant learning a new routine every week, doing two hours of homework a day, and stretching her body and mind to its limits.
As one might expect, TicTac had a mental breakdown about a year ago, resulting in her expulsion. Her junior year was rocky, considering she didn’t know anyone and still doesn’t. Every childhood acquaintance turned into an even less familiar presence, especially since she couldn’t recognize half of them. While Tatum had plenty of friends away at school, they all saw her for the crackpot she is and dropped her. Now, she’s taken to admiring people from afar again, except on top of her aunt holding her close to home, she’s got trust issues on top of it all. Oh, and not to mention part of the reason why she got let go from the Rochambeaux Dance Academy was because of her stress-induced weight gain.
Getting a job as a lifeguard brought back the same semblance of freedom Tate found within dance. People-watching and helping others is her jam, especially when the people she helps are cute toddlers and young ones who don’t know how to judge others. At least not in a way that truly matters.
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E X T R A S
Playlist & Pinterest
Something American ~ Jade Bird
I Like Giants ~ Kimya Dawson
Drivin' On 9 ~ The Breeders
Juicebox Baby ~ The Regrettes
When Will My Life Begin? ~ From the Tangled soundtrack
Rebel Waltz ~ The Clash
Tell It Like It Is ~ Nina Simone
Hollywood Factory ~ Skating Polly
Lost In The Supermarket ~ The Clash
Feeling Good ~ Nina Simone
Mannish Boy ~ Jimi Hendrix
Takin' My Love ~ The Jam
Grinnin' In Your Face ~ Jade Bird
Coma Girl ~ Joe Strummer
My Baby Just Cares For Me ~ Nina Simone
Classless Act ~ Skating Polly
All Along The Watchtower ~ Jimi Hendrix
Afro-Cuban Be-bop ~ Joe Strummer
Spanish Bombs ~ The Clash𝐏𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐄𝐒𝐓
Headcanons
✧ Aunt is a kinda predatory and shameless flirts with Tate's possible friends or love interests. She definitely uses it as a deterrent to keep boys (and possibly girls) away from her "sweet angel."
✧ TicTac's favorite color is definitely purple though she wears a lot of blues and whites
✧ Had a Dan and Phil phase
✧ Favorite snack is Hot Cheetos
✧ Creates candles on the side for quick cash
✧ Definitely owns an Etsy store though avoids Depop like the plague
✧ Owns a reusable water bottle that she decorates with stickers from the golf shop
✧ Hangs around the valet too much
✧ Hates "useless" sports like golf and tennis
✧ Easily flustered