TRACY, Chance Munro

[chance munro tracy]

CHANCE MUNRO TRACY

FULL NAME: Chance Munro Tracy
NICKNAMES: Chancey
AGE: Thirty-one
GENDER: Male.
SEXUALITY: Straight.
STATUS: Single.
GROUP: Citizen.
GRADE: N/A.
MAJOR: N/A.
JOB OCCUPATION: Owner of Back Alley Music (with family).

HAIR: Blonde, short enough to be neat, but still enough on his head to grab a handful of when he’s frustrated. He likes it well away from his face though for when he’s working.
EYES: Blue.
SCARS/BIRTHMARKS: One on his throat and chest from the shooting and the surgery. That one people tend to stare at the most, but he has another in his eyebrow which is just from roughhousing as a kid.
TATTOOS: On the inside of his left bicep he has a tattoo of Theda Bara – a silent actress – with a skeleton. He got it shortly after he was released from hospital because it was symbolic of what he had gone through. On the outside of his bicep he has the cover of The Giving Tree, which is a book he was read over and over as a child; it symbolises family to him, other than the shop. He has a barcode of sorts on his wrist, which he has never explained. Finally, there’s what looks like a cactus on his forearm – it’s not supposed to be a cactus, but it looks like one so he’s resigned to it being one. He did it himself as a lost bet, along with the initials WHR for his brothers who initiated the damn bet.
PIERCINGS: None.
PLAY-BY: Ryan Gosling!

LIKES: Spending time with Emilie, being in the workshop, playing guitar, listening to music, his family, feeling normal, cooking, Central Park, cycling, chicken wings, grilling (not cooking – he maintains there is a difference), fluffy pillows, pets, second chances, whiskey, text conversations, photographs, goofing around, Cajun fries, milk before bed, camping with campfires.
DISLIKES: Hearing his voice, pity, being set up, his ex-girlfriend, mental blocks, ignorant people, Emilie being upset or hurt, anchovies, exhaustion, sandy beaches, missing his past – specifically performing, apples, sour candies, bug bites, hipsters, family fights, a backlog at work, true crime dramatizations, cynics, bad covers of good songs, cherry stones, unreliable people.
FEARS: Losing Emilie, being shot again, never making music again.
SECRETS: Emilie’s mother – his ex – died of an overdose six months back, but Chance hasn’t told a soul yet. He doesn’t know how to. She was never a part of Emilie’s life, and he never had anything to do with her after he took Emilie from her custody all those years ago. He feels like he should say or do something, but he simply doesn’t know how to grieve for a woman he came to despise.
PERSONALITY: Chance is very much a family man. There is nothing he wouldn't do for his family; especially Emilie. He's musically gifted, and handy, creating guitars and other stringed instruments in the workshop of the family run shop. He's strong, but there's a sensitive side that he's not afraid to show – even if his brothers will tease him about tearing up over Emilie's recitals or school work. Despite how his life has changed, Chance is still very creative and will write new music and lyrics despite no longer performing as a singer. He values the little things over the big gestures, too. Chance is a laidback type of guy, who enjoys making friends, and being in good company. He believes that everyone deserves a second chance in life, so he’s forgiving to an extent; he’ll give that second chance, but very few people will get a third from him. He’s not a doormat, or a pushover. He’s proud, but not too proud to ask for help when he needs it; he just won’t let people do things for him when he’s capable of doing it himself, or when he feels they’re only there out of pity or to make themselves look good. He won’t stand for that kind of thing. He’s not a pet or a project to be played with or pushed around for someone else’s incentive. Protective of those who he cherishes, Chance is no stranger to scrapping when he thinks it is warranted, and he was raised to defend his family and stand up for what he believes in, as well as those around him. He’s cautious in love, not only because of ex-girlfriends who have left him with a bitter taste, but also because he has Emilie to think about. She will always come first and he won’t date anyone who can’t understand that. Beyond that half-wall though, Chance is an old school romantic though, who will sometimes break out the cheese to go with a bottle of wine.

MOTHER: Maggie Henriette Tracy, 60.
FATHER: Nelson Marcus Tracy, 63.
SIBLINGS: Wesley Keegan Tracy, 36.
Reed Shaughnessy Tracy, 33.
Hunter Logan Tracy 33.
Posey Desiree Tracy-Halliwell, 27.
Candice Lily Tracy-26.
OTHERS: Emilie Olivia Tracy, 10, daughter.
Lorna Hennessey, deceased, Chance’s ex and Emilie’s mother
Hannah Josie Tracy, 34 – Wesley’s wife.
Chrissy Annabelle Tracy, 6 – Wesley’s daughter
Spike Bowie Tracy, 4 – Wesley’s son.
Farrah Tracy, 29 – Reed’s wife.
Jackie Gretchen Oswell, 30 – Hunter’s fiancée
Joey Mathias Tracy, 3 – Hunter’s son.
Dean Hamilton Halliwell, 31 – Posey’s husband
PETS: Russian Blue called Roxy.
HOMETOWN: Staten Island, New York.
HISTORY: Maggie met Nelson at Back Alley Music. His father had opened the store and he worked there, putting his love for music to good use. She had come in looking for something for her then boyfriend, but Nelson isn’t ashamed to say he stole her away from ‘the man who wasn’t good enough’. The guy wasn’t. He was a slob who flitted from job to job and often borrowed money from bartender Maggie and never paid her back. Nelson was a much nicer man, a flirt, but he was a man with ambition. He would take the store over once his father retired and there was a whole floor still to be renovated. It was a wedding present to Maggie that he turned it into a bar. It meant that the upper floor was the bar, the ground floor was the music store, and the basement was the workshop where he and his employees – two friends from school – built guitars, pedals and repaired anything that came their way over the years.

Maggie and Nelson had a large family; six kids came over ten years. Nelson joked he just couldn’t keep his hands off his wife, but they were both very family-centric people who wanted a big family. The store – and music – came to mean a great deal to all of them. They all learnt to play instruments when they were young. Chance picked up guitar, piano, and the drums, but he favoured the guitar most of all. He wrote his own songs and sang quite a bit when he was growing up. He was a typical musician when he was teenager; headphones in all the time, guitar case glued to his body, hair longer than it ought to be and girls following him around hoping he would notice them. He didn’t even realise they were interested in him; he was busy in his own head, clueless as ever. His brothers would tease him about it, but in his family that was the way of the world. They teased each other and had fist fights like they hated each other, only to be putting a song together ten minutes later. The Back Alley bar frequently had local acts on, and Chance and his brothers played there a lot, whilst working in the store that would one day be their own. None of them ever fancied trying their hand at anything else because music was in their veins. His sisters, as invested in music as they were, too, helped his mother with the bar side of things when they were old enough to do so.

Chance, like his brothers, went to college. There he studied music and business. He didn’t need to, but having the qualifications made them look more reliable and it gave them a better brain for it all. The world had changed a lot in the twenty or so years since Nelson had taken the shop from his father, and things needed to be updated or at least understood. The siblings had no plans to change how the shop was. All they had done was been able to expand the workload and take on more. Between them they could hand make more instruments, specialise in certain things individually and start having lessons on weekend mornings. Chance had gone beyond guitars to start crafting all manner of string instruments, though they took time and he was still learning what he could and couldn’t do with ease and affordability.

At college in New York, Chance met Lorna. She was a real party girl, and truth be told, Chance was only hooking up with her because he was drunk and fancied a fling. Normally she would not have been his time, but thinking that he’d never see her again, he threw caution to the wind and took her home to his apartment. She was gone when he woke up and he thought nothing more of it – until she showed up again several weeks later to tell him that she was pregnant and the baby was definitely his. He was shocked to say the least; he was twenty one and hadn’t even thought about kids yet. He had been careful that night, but something had gone wrong. Lorna was a mess. She still wanted to go out partying with her friends, despite the growing baby bump. Whenever Chance expressed his concern for the baby she complained he was suffocating her, nagging at her, or something else along those lines. Lorna did not want to be responsible, and yet she went through with the pregnancy. They had a little girl together who they named Emilie. It was only a week after the birth though before Lorna was dumping Emilie on Chance so she could go out with her friends. She’d promise to be back later and show up three days later. She’d leave Emilie with few diapers, no change of clothes, and nothing Chance might need. If he called, she ignored it. Emilie was eighteen months when he went ahead and petitioned for custody of her. Whenever Lorna had shown up to collect Emilie she was high still, or hungover and Chance wouldn’t hand over the baby to her. So she would vanish again. In the end he thought it best to take his daughter completely so he did, and a judge let him. After that Lorna never came back. There was a card every now and then, and she would show up once in a while, still a mess, to drop off a cheap ass birthday present or Christmas gift. She was not a mother by any means, but Emilie did come to recognise her as the woman who brought her into the world.

When Chance was twenty-five, he was closing up the bar one night. It was his parents’ anniversary, so they had been shooed off hours earlier and he had stayed late to work the bar which he never usually did. He was shutting everything down when a man in a mask came in to rob the place. Chance tried to hold his ground because this was his family’s business, so the assailant fired his gun into the ceiling to show he wasn’t messing. That gunshot caught the attention of someone outside who called the cops. Before they reached the place though, he had Chance empty the till and the smaller bar safe – unfamiliar with the big safe in the back – and then shot him, thinking he would kill him and get away with the robbery that way. The bullet hit Chance in the chest and he went down fast. The only reason he survived was because the police were already on their way and reached him within minutes, calling for paramedics immediately. That saved his life. He didn’t do well though. He crashed twice; once in the ambulance and again during surgery. He had a collapsed lung and a lot of bleeding was happening inside his chest. Thankfully, doctor’s stabilised him, but during intubation damage had been done to his vocal cords which they were going to try to repair with more surgery once he was stable. It was a hit or miss chance, but he opted to take it. After all, he was a performer. If there was a chance he could sing again he’d go for it. Unfortunately, it was the opposite outcome and he was rendered mute. He was temporarily devastated, but he had Emilie to think about. She was his ray of hope during his recovery. It was difficult at first since he couldn’t communicate with her. Everyone needed to learn ASL to adapt and they put some new fittings into the shop for when Chance was ready to come back there. Oddly, he wasn’t triggered or afraid of the place despite everything. He had a good memory of what had happened, and his shooter, so he was behind bars quick enough, and the store felt like coming home to him. His dad kitted the place out with some literal bells and whistles so Chance could get the attention of people when he was on another floor. Emilie was confused at first about why her daddy couldn’t talk, but she picked up ASL, too, and soon the bond between them was stronger than ever.

What took Chance the longest to get back to was songwriting. Eventually he did, forcing his brother Reed to perform whenever they were on the stage now. He’d criticise from a stool nearby where he played his guitar as part of the Tracy Brothers band, but it was still a little bit hard to give up that rush of singing. It wasn’t like he had a choice though. Chance adapted. He became a fixed person in the workshop, putting in his hours there and not in the storefront. He used his brothers or his dad if someone wanted to speak with him, but he was still very much a part of the store and the family.

Time went by and Chance got used to life without his voice. It hurt to hear it on old recordings and videos. It was like he didn’t miss it at all until it was there in front of him again. He spent his time between the shop and Emilie, teaching his little girl guitar and violin at her request – he had to teach himself the latter to teach her it, but there wasn’t a thing he wouldn’t do for her. He tried to date, but it was awkward. Some women were overwhelmed by his mutism, and others overcompensated for it. There were one or two who even treated him like he was a project they could tend to, which was not what he wanted. He didn’t need to be pitied or looked after; he was a man raising his daughter and co-running a business, not suffering. He just wanted someone to treat him like another human being.

He almost can’t believe that his little Emilie is ten now. Or that her mother died six months ago. An accidental overdose they called it, but the body was cremated and ashes scattered before Chance even knew. He doesn’t know what to tell her, especially since she’s not been around for the last four years after he told her to get clean or keep away. For now he’s just being the best father he can be because that little girl is his world.

YOUR ALIAS: Kim.
RULE WORDS: kidnappedbykim.
WHERE YOU FOUND US: In my bag of tricks.
SAMPLE:

Expecto Patronum!

[kim]