Riddle, Xylia Zoya

[xylia zoya riddle]

XYLIA ZOYA RIDDLE

FULL NAME: Xylia Zoya Riddle.
NICKNAMES: Zee.
AGE: Twenty-two
GENDER: Female
SEXUALITY: Bisexual.
STATUS: Single.
GROUP: Student.
GRADE: Sophomore.
MAJOR: Film & Media.
JOB OCCUPATION: Barnes & Noble Assistant.

HAIR: Red, long, and with a natural wave she spent years hating, but only the last few appreciating. Often worn down, it’s actually a laziness and a constant habit of losing hair ties and pins that leads to this.
EYES: Hazel.
SCARS/BIRTHMARKS: None.
TATTOOS: She has a coffin with bat wings surrounded with bats and the night sky on her stomach, a pair of monster hands making a heart locket with crown on her chest, right at the top. There’s Tank Girl on her upper left arm, with a gun, and what she calls her ‘sweet treats’ tattoo along her lower left arm, full of candy and cupcakes. There’s a Skeleton key on her left middle finger, an on her Alien right index finger with a Dagger appearing to go through the outside of her left hand by her little finger. She also has a Ram skull with arrows and feathers on her right thigh, Armoured horse head on her left calf and “Rapunzel’s Tower” tattoo on left the inside of her left calf. A Snake runs the full length of her right shin with all kinds of decorations, teeth, nails, voodoo pins. A hand holding a rose on the back of her right calf, too.
PIERCINGS: Just her ears the once.
PLAY-BY: Hattie Watson!

LIKES: Alfred Hitchcock, horror movies, movie marathons, experimenting with popcorn, tattoos, comic books, writing quotes on things, summer, dress up parties, collecting tea cups, Love Hearts candy, camper vans, swearing, her video camera, dental floss, grapefruit juice, tequila, video games (but only with friends), bacon, cooking experiments, cold pizza, the butterfly effect theory.
DISLIKES: Her half-siblings, cold mornings, bad movie remakes, poison ivy, Christmas, her dad trying to be friendly, her freckles, spots showing up overnight, crossword puzzles, fitness freaks, pencil skirts, bourbon, Facebook, flying, Sundays, misplacing things, iced tea, celery, dry meat, bad CGI in newer movies, her hair misbehaving, pointy shoes, her neighbour’s cat.
FEARS: Flying, head lice, being burnt alive.
SECRETS: Xylia doesn’t know where her fear of flying comes from since she’s never actually been on a plane before. The thought just gives her a panic attack and really makes her freak out.
PERSONALITY: Xylia is a self-certified scream queen in that she owns and knows all about horrow movies. She lives for them and marathons them at least once a week. She’s experimental in all walks of life, and will try anything once, but mostly it’s food she likes to play with. Ever had chocolate on a pepperoni pizza? Xylia has. She lives her life freely, driving a VW camper so she can take off for weekends away when she just wants to sleep under the stars and get away from the toils of life. However, that attitude also means that she runs from her problems and has a habit of avoiding things that she ought to deal with when they crop up, rather than sticking her head in the sand and just hoping they’ll go away. She’s childish at times, and tends to shy away from responsibility as much as possible. Because of all the issues with her family, Xylia can be clingy with friends and sometimes shows up when she’s not wanted and she’ll be oblivious to subtle hints to ask her to leave. Xylia isn’t aggressive or even defensive. In fact, she’s the type who will be all talk but no action, and run away the second danger shows up. When it comes to love, she’s definitely passionate, and she’s got a big heart carefully guarded. She likes fun and playful relationships, but she’s also not ashamed to have casual partners who are more FWB than anything else. She’s an affectionate soul and makes it clear that she is interested, unembarrassed if they don’t feel the same back. She’d just rather not miss out on something – however fleeting – if there might be a spark there.

MOTHER: Briana Gertrude Faulks, 50.
FATHER: Samuel Tate Riddle, 53.
SIBLINGS: Clarissa Margot Riddle, 25 – half-sister
Matthew Palmer Riddle, 23 – half-brother.
OTHERS: Violet Leona Riddle, 52 - Samuel’s wife.
PETS: Harry, a Miniature Schnauzer of four!
HOMETOWN: Stillwater, Minnesota.
HISTORY: Briana knew she shouldn’t have an affair with a married man, but Samuel Riddle was charming and knew all the right things to say to her. He was a college professor who met Briana at the movie theatre where she worked. He loved his wife and children, but he was the type who was easily bored and when Violet was struggling to adjust after having their first child, he found himself looking at other women and Briana was the one who caught his eye and stuck with him. It was never supposed to become anything, and whenever Briana told him it was over, this was the last time, he always managed to change her mind before they parted ways. When she found out she was pregnant, Briana wasn’t going to keep the baby at first. She was in no place financially to raise a child and Samuel expressly told her that he wouldn’t be able to help out with the upkeep. He had a family – he didn’t want another. Briana booked a date for termination and she was all set to go through with it, but at the last moment she changed her mind. It was a young girl crying in the waiting room that did it. She couldn’t explain exactly why it hit her so much, but it did.

She got a small house at a cheap rate because it needed so much work doing to it, and throughout her pregnancy she worked to fix it up as best as she could. It was far from perfect, but it was what she could afford. Samuel said he’d do nothing to help, cursing her out for keeping the kid, but Briana told him that she’d name him as father and make him take a paternity test if she had to. She didn’t want money for herself, but she wanted her baby to be safe should anything happen to her. Samuel made arrangements to open a bank account in the baby’s name when she was born and put money in there for her, as well as paying a small maintenance monthly, but he wanted to keep his name out of the spotlight. For all intents and purposes, Briana was knocked up by some random guy and not a married college professor who had a reputation to maintain.

Xylia was three when that secret got out though. Samuel had held no contact with his daughter, but had met Briana discreetly when certain things needed dealing with. At one of those meetings he was spotted by someone who told Violet and then it all started to unravel. Soon enough the truth came out and it was Briana who seemed to pay the price with Xylia. She was branded the whore, she was the one they targeted and all the while Samuel kept his distance and continued to teach at the college. He only showed up after he heard news through several other people that Briana’s house had been broken into and vandalised while she was at work and Xylia at day care. He showed up, apologetic, but Briana told him to leave. She didn’t need him to come when it suited him. They had needed him when all of the trouble started, but he was too much of a coward to come and protect his daughter then. He could take his money, his sympathy and go back to his real family as far as Briana was concerned – they didn’t need it.

And that was how Xylia ended up spending most of her childhood without a father. Briana couldn’t afford childcare either, so when they moved to a new neighbourhood and the friendlier neighbours who didn’t see Briana as some homewrecking skank couldn’t look after Xylia, the little girl ended up at the movie theatre with her mom. It was there that Xylia got her start and her first love for the big screen and everything that was on it. During school holidays she would get to watch all the children friendly films for free and her mother never knew that she sometimes snuck out of the office where she was supposed to be and sat on the floor at the back of some of the scarier films. It was a mystery to Briana why her eight year old was having nightmares that were coincidentally similar to what the movies were playing at the time, but she was too tired to put two and two together back then.

Unfortunately, Xylia ended up attending the same school as her half-sister and brother. They knew who Xylia was because they had been old enough to understand what their father had done. Plus, she was the little redhaired girl with freckles who shared their last name. Clarissa absolutely loathed Xylia and set out to make her life hell. Xylia wasn’t allowed friends, and anyone who was friends with the little ginger was bullied until they left her alone. Matthew wasn’t quite as bad, but he did make a show of going out of his way to avoid her, and the only words he ever spoke to Xylia were “You shouldn’t exist.” When they met in the school yard one day. Xylia had always wanted a brother or sister to play with, but the closest thing fate would give her both despised her with a fury she would never see anywhere else. Matthew might have remained disinterested in his half-sister, avoiding her and the gossip at all costs, but Clarissa was a bitch to Xylia. If there was anything she could do to make her life hell she would do it. It could be small or it could be massive, but she would do everything she could think of to try to ruin the life of her younger sister.

Xylia worked through her teenage years at the same theatre her mother worked, usually starting as Briana finished. Mother and daughter were thick and thieves, and Xylia looked like a miniature version of Briana to boot. Samuel made contact when Xylia was sixteen and Briana wanted nothing to do with him, but told Xylia it was her choice whether or not she wanted a relationship with the man who had ignored her for the last thirteen years, despite knowing exactly where she was and the hell his eldest daughter was giving the youngest. Xylia wanted to give it a go, but Samuel overcompensated and she hated it so much. He never listened and constantly pushed her in a direction she never wanted to be pushed. Their relationship was strained and Xylia quickly realised that it was too late to have a father daughter bond with him.

She didn’t going to college at eighteen, instead using the money saved up in that bank account over the years by Samuel to buy herself a VW campervan and start off her tattoo collection. Neither were decisions Samuel approved of, but Briana encouraged Xylia to be who she wanted to be. She had already helped her daughter struggle through accepting her sexuality when during her senior year she had broken up with her boyfriend to try things out with a girl she wanted to be with. They only broke up when the girl went off to college and Xylia wanted to stay in Minnesota a little longer. Briana just wanted Xylia to be happy, no matter what. If that meant sitting by her side through horror movies she herself couldn’t stand while Xylia pigged out on ice cream to get over a break up, then so be it.

Xylia spent a few more years working and just taking it easy while she saved and inked herself at her regular studio with her regular guy. She was twenty when she enrolled in college, choosing to try New York City and put some distance between herself and Minnesota after an awkward situation between a girl she was dating and her cousin who had made a move on Xylia one night after a few too many beers. Xylia had apparently made out with him way back in high school and he wanted to pick up where they left off. She thought a break from any familiar faces might be a good idea after that. So she headed to New York City, grabbed a job at Barnes and Noble and enrolled at NYU to study Film & Media.

Two years later and she feels rather at home in the city that never sleeps. It’s a far cry from Minnesota, but here no one cares who her daddy is, and she’s pretty good at her classes. She skips out of town in her van when she can afford to, and it’s a nice break when she needs it. Xylia is content for now, even with the mistakes she makes and the things she might miss from back home.

YOUR ALIAS: Kim.
RULE WORDS: kidnappedbykim.
WHERE YOU FOUND US: On the Mountains of DOOM.
SAMPLE:

No. Just no.

[kim]