come crashing,

[violetta juliet giovanni]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=style,width: 450px; padding: 10px;] [bg=121212][style=font-family: arial narrow; color: #a17163; font-weight: bold; font-size: 20px; letter-spacing: -1px; line-height: 16px; padding-left: 5px; border-left: 335px solid #a17163;]AN INVITATION.[/style] [style=text-align: center; color: #e4e4e4; font-size: 10px; letter-spacing: 3px; font-family: arial;]TO YOUR PERSONAL DISASTER.[/style] [style=margin-top: 5px; font-size: 10px; text-align: justify; color: #e4e4e4; background-color: #212121; padding: 5px; border: 1px solid #222222;] --- "YOU'RE not mad, are you?" violet stopped at a red light and looked at rocco sitting in the backseat from the rear view mirror. "i'm not mad," she said and she could see her son ever so slightly relax. "i'm livid," she corrected him. rocco tensed again and looked down in his lap. "i said i was sorry." the light turned green and violet continued driving down the street. the car ride had been completely silent from when they both got into the car at the elementary school till now, downtown and heading towards the drugstore. as of an hour ago, she was at the gallery, checking in new items from a shipment that had arrived the previous night. she was interrupted when she got a call from rocco's principal at school. he got into a fight at school and they were sending him home. at first, violet thought they had the wrong boy. rocco never had acted out. sure enough, when she closed down the shop, early she might add, she got to the school with rocco in the principal's office. she must have arrived when the other boy's mother was picking up her son because a woman was leaving with another boy with a nice little shiner forming over the little boy's left eye. she had closed her eyes, not believing what she was seeing. the mother of the boy shot her a nasty look as the secretary led her into principal jackson's office where rocco was sitting, head down. she was embarrassed because kid's actions did reflect on the parents. but in the case, she was sure it reflected on the family name. principal jackson knew who violet was as a person, she volunteered at school events and participated in the pta group at the school. she sat down next to rocco, who from the looks of it looked more disheveled that injured. a few scratches on his face, but nothing that looked like the other boy. principal jackson started explaining what had happened. the two boys got into a fight during recess. he assured her the school wasn't going to expel either the boys, but they were going to send the boys home for the day. rocco probably thought they were just going to go home and talk about this incident at home, but no, violet had errands to run, so she was going to make him sweat it out. first stop, she had to pick up some things at the drug store. she pulled into an open parking space and got out, rocco following. she was silent as she navigated her way around the aisles, throwing necessities into their car. toothpaste, soap, toilet paper, cereal. rocco hated going grocery shopping like this which was why he kept shuffling his feet behind her. "i didn't start it," he said. violet stopped and turned around, holding a roll of paper towels in her hand. "that doesn't make it any better. rocco. you know better. i didn't raise you to start fights." the anticipation of waiting was probably killing him and even if she didn't want to discuss this in an aisle, he surely wanted to get this off his chest. "uncle luca told me that we're giovannis and that means something. he told me that giovannis take crap from no one." violet sighed and turned back to push her cart. "of course he said that. did you teach you how to fight, too?" violet knew he learned how to throw a punch to the eye from someone, and she was betting it was luca. though rocco was far from knowing what his last name truly brought him, he wasn't blind either. he just... didn't understand everything. confusion. like all of violet and her cousins were when they were ten years old. "i got too old to color." unbelievable. well, she was definitely calling luca at some point today. her phone rang she dug into her purse. "hey lore," she said greeting one of her many cousins. "are you at the gallery right now?" he asked her. "no. rocco decided to get into a fight as school today so i had to go pick him up," she explained looking at rocco and shaking her head. "did he win?" lore asked and she scolded him. "that's not the point." she was sure luca would ask the same question when she got around to talking to him. "i just wanted to call. a shipment is coming in, so you should... be there." oh, right. she forgot about that. "that's right. it slipped my mind. i'm heading back now then." shipment meant guns. hidden between sculptures or paintings. she did remember writing down that a shipment was coming in this afternoon. lorenzo hung up and she pushed the cart towards the check-out line and paid for items. rocco volunteered to help her carry some of the bags back to the car outside. "maybe when we get to the gallery, i could go upstairs and hang out with luca?" rocco hopped into the backseat again as violet took to the driver's seat. "ha. absolutely not. anyway, he won't be up there, he's probably working." it was sort of funny that violet ran the gallery right below where luca and maggie lived and there were days where she wouldn't see them at all int he passing. "besides, you're going to be busy writing an apology to that boy you hit." he entire family were violent people to those they were enemies with. if luca wrote apologies to every person he had hurt, he'd be writing for days on end. and here they were, back at the gallery. she felt guilty for closing it up. the hours for the gallery were always slightly varied day-to-day. rocco swung his backpack over his shoulder as they both walked up to the storefront so she could unlock the front door. "and don't think our conversation is over about your fight today. you can't go hitting people rocco, you have to be the bigger person." it was comical that she was giving this advice when no man in her family followed it. she swung the door open and rocco ran to behind the counter so he could work on homework since going upstairs was out of the cards. violet looked down at the papers she was working on before she got the call. receipts, shipping dates, certificates of authenticity for the pieces from last night. she put her glasses back on and started organizing everything to make way for the new shipment that was already en route. [style=color: #a17163; text-align: center; letter-spacing: 1px; background-color: #121212; padding: 2px;]TAGGING: OPEN @ ART GALLERY | OUTFIT: HERE | LYRICS: DIGITAL DAGGERS | NOTES: OPENNN[/style][/style]

[style=font-size: 10px; font-family: georiga; text-align: center; letter-spacing: 3px;]TEMPLATE BY SAMARECARM OF OTE + BTN[/style]

[cynthia lunette airaldi]

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' ' It had been a long time since Cynthia Lunette Airaldi had set foot on the shores of Valkyrie, California. Usually going by the nickname Thia or her sign name which was the 'C' hand shape moving into the sign for 'moon' which was an 'L' hand with the index and thumb slightly curved to look like a crescent around the right eye, or left eye if you happened to be left handed. Thia was given that sign name by her sign teacher when she was five years old, just after she lost her hearing. She said it was because of the meaning of her name as well as her eyes. Thia's mother had always called her moon eyes, they were why her english name was Cynthia Lunette. Lunette clearly referred to the name of Earth's moon, Luna, and Cynthia happened to be a modern form of Kynthia which was one of many names for the greek moon goddess. Yes, her mom was an interesting one, but hey, she wanted her daughter's name to mean something, no judgement there. Thia would probably do the same if she were to ever have children, not that she really wanted them. The whole American Dream thing had just passed her up completely. A kid would mean ties, responsibility. Thia was all about freedom to do what she wanted and go where she pleases. Maybe it was her way of rejecting the plastic gloves she was always handled with.

Because most hearing people she met either were crazy religious and believed signing was devil's speak, or they treated her like she had a disability or was damaged somehow. When they would hear her speak or see her sign, they would just get awkward and not know what to say or how to act. They would all for some reason apologize to her. Sometimes they heard her spoke and assumed she was mentally challenged, had a speech impediment that needed to be fixed or the rare one thought she was British which Thia still found strange. From what she had been told by other's, British people do not sound like their deaf at any level. Their lips moved different from other deaf people she had met and her own when she used to practice in the mirror. To be frank, Thia was a very good speaker, apparently. And a good lip reader. She had been doing it since she was a kid, she had only ever been really surrounded by her family, none of whom were deaf, she never went to a deaf school, she was not a part of the deaf community nor did she too heavily associate with deaf culture. She was Thia, bad ass modern day pirate with a classic soul, built for freedom, open waters, drinking and wealth. Wealth, not class. Always a difference.

Thia was casual and fun loving. She was the girl who wore shorts and a t-shirt almost everyday. She loved the sun but loved the night even more. It would be hard to tell how many nights she spent in a row up in the masts of the Dagger Moon just watching the horizon and the stars. Thia did not want to wear the diamond rings, she wanted to steal the rings and then sell it for cash. She did not want to wear designer dresses or prada shoes with heels, she wanted to take those clothes and either exchange them for cash, or sell them like the street venders in New York, same with furs. She was perfectly fine with her cot under the deck of their ship and sleeping in close quarters with her crewmates. She loved eating the fish they had just caught that day, with nothing but a bit of salt. She didn't need fancy food at five star restaurants. All she saw in high society and houses that can't float away were rigid walls and rules. But hey, everyone lived their lives differently right? No, Thia was not a high class girl, despite the mansions she grew up running around. Those mansions were obtained with blood money anyways. So why did she want the money? Why would 'greed' be one of the first traits listed on her personality profile? It was because she loved money. She loved items of value she could use to barter or trade with or even sell. She loved the touch, she loved the feel. She loved the look of money. Money meant power and while Thia was not power hungry, it gave her the power to have that freedom she longed for so desperately.

Thia stepped off the Dagger Moon. Her and her crewmates had docked there late the night before. She rubbed her hands on the sides of her hips as her eyes scanned the coastline for what it was worth. She smiled to see that Valkyrie had an active life by the water. She would hate to have to go to an inland city. Thia had spent the day with her crewmates as they dealt with lining up a buyer for the small schooner they had Drake sail next to them the whole time. It was a really nice little boat, they had taken it from some vacationers in Mexico. They hadn't even fought them. Just saw them coming aboard, panicked, gotten into their life vests and abandoned ship. They were close enough to shore, eventually they would have been able to swim back to shore, or float in, depending on their patience. Honestly, no one on the Dagger cared to think about it past the fact that them jumping was highly convenient for their own purposes. Thia actually had a beautiful jewelry box filled with jewelry that she had procured from another raid that she had needed to trade in and sell that day. Which was why she had stopped back at the Dagger, wanted to take the 6 grand cash and put it into the safe instead of carrying it around in her pocket. She did keep a solid hundred in her back pocket though, just in case she needed to get anything.

But no, now it was the time to go see if any of her family was around. Honestly, she was avoiding going to the hospital to see her brother. Her younger brother was a soldier for the Giovanni's. He worked for one of their many cousins, had gotten himself put into a coma. Gino's dumbass, he could always be reckless. Not that Thia was never reckless but she was also very good at what she did. But Gino and her were close, he was probably the one she texted with the most as she was gone, and he had even traveled to meet her a couple times, once while she was with the traveling circus scam, and twice in the past three and half years as she'd been with the Dagger crew. But instead of going straight to the Giovanni mansion, she decided to buffer a bit. Apparently they had a nice art gallery downtown. She figured she would check it out. She turned around and looked at the Dagger and waved up to Avery who was unload. She got his attention and signed quickly, I WILL BE BACK, LATER. FAMILY. She gave him a grin as he gave her a salute and she turned and made her way away from the docks where she grabbed a bus downtown. Stepping off the bus she rubbed her hands on her hips once more before jogging across the street and pushed open the door to the gallery. She grinned seeing her cousin Violet and the gigantic little boy she hadn't seen in years. "I don't know if I told you this, but I quite love that you have an art gallery, something I can respect you know." She spoke. She was easily understandable but it was clear she had what she called the Deaf accent.

((i googled how to write the deaf accent, turns out it's offensive to write it. was told just to write normally and make sure to mention it so...))

[/b] tagged; vi outfit; simple casual
notes: grammatically, sign is written in all caps, hence my notation [/ul]
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[violetta juliet giovanni]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=style,width: 450px; padding: 10px;] [bg=121212][style=font-family: arial narrow; color: #a17163; font-weight: bold; font-size: 20px; letter-spacing: -1px; line-height: 16px; padding-left: 5px; border-left: 335px solid #a17163;]AN INVITATION.[/style] [style=text-align: center; color: #e4e4e4; font-size: 10px; letter-spacing: 3px; font-family: arial;]TO YOUR PERSONAL DISASTER.[/style] [style=margin-top: 5px; font-size: 10px; text-align: justify; color: #e4e4e4; background-color: #212121; padding: 5px; border: 1px solid #222222;] --- "ROCCO, no matter what way you spin it, you're still in the wrong. you should have just turned the other cheek." violet's back was to her son. they had been working silently for the past twenty minutes, but rocco mentioned again that he only hit the other boy because the boy hit him first. "well, uncle luca said that turning the other cheek is an excuse to get walked all over.." violet was getting a little irritated of the 'uncle luca says...' phrase. she loved her cousin dearly, but she named him godfather to guide rocco, not wind up getting him killed in the future. now that rocco was getting older, his fate did cross violet's mind a lot. he admired luca a lot. her cousin was rocco's hero. that did sort of scare her. she knew what luca did and what he was responsible for. he left valkyrie for five years because he was being threatened by the russians. she knew he had killed before. as much as this was a family business, violet knew mothers didn't wish this life on their sons. it was dangerous, it was risky, and unfortunately, it had a shelf life. she didn't want to raise rocco only to end up in jail in ten years, or worse. but, it was a choice he would make when he was eighteen. she wasn't going to forbid him. luca actually didn't join at first. he graduated from high school early to go back-packing in europe. he saw some family in naples, and sold his photographs. he was so talented with a camera. violet was sad to see that he had abandoned something he did well. violet couldn't see herself giving up painting. she even had some of luca's old photographs in the back rooms. she hadn't tried to sell them yet. but, once luca was done with his european adventure, he found himself back in los angeles and working under alberto jr. did violet have the same opportunity to join the family business? sure she did. it was uncommon to find girls in the mafia, but it happened, maggie was the first to obtain a capo rank. by the time she was eighteen, she already had a toddler, and fausto already called her agnellino which was little lamb. she liked to paint, and she was more than happy to stay there. of course now, she was helping her family smuggle in illegal arms through her art gallery. she didn't fight, she didn't kill, and she was doing her own little part. violet was quite satisfied with that. unfortunately, violet knew her son all too well, and he wore his italian flag very proudly. he'd be a soldier and she only wanted to stunt that as long as possible. she'd rather him be with the italians, instead of, well, the russians. it was another perpetual fear of hers. it had been ten years and nothing ever happened. she just hoped the russian that raped her didn't know she ended up pregnant. it was the only thing that gave her peace of mind. violet scratched her head as she filed receipt after receipt. she went through some client files. even if the new shipment was half illegal, she was still getting some paintings in that would appeal to her regular clients. calling them in to check some out was what she did when new items came in. most of her clients resided here in valkyrie, but she had some in the surrounding areas. some from los angeles, a few from las vegas, and some in other california cities nearby. at least in fifty years, people would still be appreciating the art. there would always be a demand for art. whether it be pictures, paintings, or sculptures, she'd probably be selling it in this art gallery years down the road. i'm sorry mom, ok?" rocco said to her. but, she knew the tone. "could you say that with a little bit more conviction?" she asked him, still not looking behind her shoulder. "you're too young to be in fights. i can't imagine what you'll be like in high school if you keep this up." violet knew luca meant well, but it just didn't pan out that way. she knew he and maggie were going to make great parents to the twins just based off of how they had interacted with rocco over the years. she heard rocco sigh and go back to whatever he was doing. she knew he would come around. clearly by now, he knew what he did today was wrong and he felt guilty about it. the door to the gallery swung open and violet looked up. "I don't know if I told you this, but I quite love that you have an art gallery, something I can respect you know." she broke out into a smile, putting down her pen and pushing herself away from the counter. it was thia, one of her many many cousins. but this cousin, she hadn't seen in... jeez, six years now? thia and her were very similar in the fact that they both had traumatic events happen in their younger years. thia had been mugged. and while the giovannis were always fiercely protective of their own, thia's was only heightened on the account that she had loss her hearing when she got sick as a child. when violet was around eighteen, thia had runaway. but, it wasn't like they hadn't heard from her. she'd send them text messages from time to time to let them know she was ok. she violet viewed luca as her brother, she viewed thia like a sister. "oh, my god, thia," she said and hugged thia. it had been too long. violet pulled away, keeping her hands on thia's shoulders. while violet was pregnant, she removed herself from school to be homeschooled at the family mansion in los angeles, and she hadn't returned to a public setting until she attended ucla for a year before moving to valkyrie, but during her pregnancy, she slowly learned how to sign to fluidly communicate with thia. though now, it had been six years since she had needed to use it. she scratched her head momentarily before saying, "when did you get back?" and signing, probably brokenly though, the question. she knew thia was probably back because of gino, her brother, who was in the hospital. luca and violet had gone tot he hospital a few days ago to visit. she brought flowers to brighten the room, even if their cousin was in a coma. "have you visited gino, yet?" she asked. [style=color: #a17163; text-align: center; letter-spacing: 1px; background-color: #121212; padding: 2px;]TAGGING: THIA @ ART GALLERY | OUTFIT: HERE | LYRICS: DIGITAL DAGGERS | NOTES: ---[/style][/style]

[style=font-size: 10px; font-family: georiga; text-align: center; letter-spacing: 3px;]TEMPLATE BY SAMARECARM OF OTE + BTN[/style]

[cynthia lunette airaldi]

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' ' Thia's mother was the sister of the current Don of the Italian mafia. She was born into the Giovanni crime family. She never really got into the business or anything. Thia's father on the other hand, he was not related to the Giovanni's or the mafia at all at first. When he was a teenager his parents and him lost everything in a fire and were not being repaid or taken care of. Their insurance never came through. Her father needed to take up some work to help out. He was living in Naples, Italy at the time, the easiest work to find was running errands for the older gentlemen at a specific restaurant whom everyone new was mafia. All he would have to do is take a box to a corner and give it to the limo that pulls up, or other little things like that. He was obedient. They liked that about him and they paid him the equivalent of 100 bucks per errand, about an errand a day... he was doing pretty good for himself and his family. But as he got older, so did his parents. They got sick and after his dad died, his mother was not far behind. Heartbroken but not willing to show it, as my father had always been, he was sent to work further in deep with the Italians. Eventually he became the consigliere to the Italian Mafia, working with the Giovanni family core of the mafia and was sent to Los Angeles. Mom met Dad and Ta DA! out popped Thia and her siblings.

After that, her father was as much of a part of the Italian mafia as a person could be without being born into it. He worked with the Don, married into the Giovanni's and had children who were therefore direct Giovanni bloodline, even if their name was Airaldi instead. He had done well for himself if you asked Thia's opinion and he was self made in his success. Thia respected that. She wanted that. She had wanted to be a part of the mafia business for a long time but when it became increasingly obviously that her family would not allow a young, female, deaf girl do anything but twiddle her thumbs while baking the men cookies? She took off. She left a way for them to contact her via text message so they could always at least sort of check in to see if she was okay. There were a few times she knew they tried to have her tailed. She would usually let them get a picture or something before disappearing again, again she never wanted them to worry about her, but if Cynthia was anything, it was a free spirit and being confined and controlled and fussed over, even if it was by people who loved her? It was not something she could tolerate. Violetta had experienced some of that frustration too.

Any woman in such a male dominated environment did but Vi especially, since like Thia, Vi had been kidnapped and attacked when she was a young teenage girl. Unlike Thia though, Vi had come back with child. Honestly, Thia did not know if she could have been as strong as Vi was. Thia probably would have been yelling as loudly as she could, in spoken english, so it would sound funny too, "ABORTION, get it out! get it out!" Then again, if Thia found out she was pregnant tomorrow she would probably do the same thing. Kids meant settling, kids meant strings and responsibilities. Thia couldn't do it. Nope. She'd miss the ropes of the Dagger Moon too much. The point was, after Vi was attacked, they got a bit extra protective of her too, so she had never really treated Thia like she was made of glass like so many others, including Thia's brother did. She appreciated the love but I mean jesus. Let her breathe. But Violetta and her had always been close. Thia grinned as Vi turned around and hugged her. When she pulled away, Thia watched as Vi seemed to think for a moment before signing. "when did you get back?" Thia chuckled slightly with a large grin and nodded, "Rusty I see." She both spoke out loud and signed the ASL equivalent with her hands. She shrugged, " 'Round 4:30 this morning. Slept, ate, had some logistical business tp take care." She replied, again signing ASL as spoke.

She rarely only spoke unless she knew the person she was taking to was a dumb ass, but it helped her think through her words and what she had already said since she couldn't hear herself for pacing. Although since ASL used less words than English, and allowed for different ordering, her grammar was sometimes off. "have you visited gino, yet?" This shook her head a bit, hey universal signing! Gino was her younger older brother. He was in a coma, it was one of the reasons she came back to valkyrie. Well, the reason really. She hadn't seen any of her family in so long, she figured it might be time. The Dagger crew had to dock anyways and Valkyrie seemed to have an active black market, clearly the spirits of the sea were determined to get her back. "I'm soon going, tomorrow." She was not sure how she would see him. She did not like unhappy realities for the ones she loved. Seeing her brother in a coma would make the coma real for her. Avoidance, on the other hand, was something Thia was incredibly good at. She used her eyes to point behind Vi towards the boy, "Is that Rocco? Last time I saw him, he was the size of a pea."

[/b] tagged; vi outfit; simple casual
notes: kinda cruddy [/ul]
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