{From Promise to Promise} // D9 Colburns, OPEN

I am so, so sorry for the length of this app, btw. x3

ALIAS: Lei
CHARACTER YOU WANT: Shivani<3

CHARACTER IDEAS: Why do I want the only character in this plot that's not really part of the Colburns and will therefore never be in any of the family thread? Idek, I just have a lot muse for this girl x3

Shivani's not quite sure when everything started to go downhill. Her home life wasn't all that great in the first place, growing up with a deadbeat dad and a mother who sold herself for the money they so desperately needed to support themselves. She grew up on breadcrumbs and a poor education, her parents taking her in and out of school depending on the income, and therefore didn't have many friends to speak of or kids her age to connect with. She was written off as an outcast, ignored by her schoolmates and neglected by her parents, and in order to keep herself from crumbling into depression, Shivani became as tough as nails as she could be, growing up into a hard-edged little fireball with a head as thick as the walls she threw up between her and anyone who tried to get too close.

But someone did get close, crashing through her walls with the same recklessness he was famous for. Falling in love with Graham Colburn was the best and worst thing ever to happen to Shivani in all her life. Here was this handsome, rough-and-tumble boy with a rebellious streak and a cocky little grin that Shiva thought could light up her whole world, and for a while she was happy with him. Things were starting to look up, she thought, things were getting better. And then she got pregnant.

Shivani was devastated, her parents were outraged - even her father managed to unglue himself from the recliner just to rant at her for her selfishness and lack of foresight. In a fit of rage, she ended up kicking herself out - a pretty stupid idea she would soon regret. Sixteen years old, unemployed, and lacking a proper education, she had nowhere to go but to the home of her boyfriend, hoping he would let her stay with him. But Graham let her down, promising to help support the child but refusing to let her stay in his house. Instead, he gave her every last penny he had - and a portion of his parents' savings - and Shivani managed to purchase herself a ramshackle apartment on the bad end of town, a one-bedroom, nasty thing that she very much despises but puts up with simply because she can't afford anything else. After a long, horrible pregnancy in a lonely apartment with no one but Graham's sometimes frequent company and the occasional visit from her condescending and less than encouraging mother, Seth was born.

Though Seth soon became the light of her world, a new mouth to feed posed a new problem - she didn't have a job, and they couldn't live off the little Graham managed to scrounge up for them, so Shivani resorted to prostitution. She despised herself for it, seeing it as "becoming her mother", but she also believed it to be necessary for her and her son's survival. She now manages to make enough to keep them both going - to keep them semi-fed and just barely above the poverty line - but thinking about her new occupation and the uncertain state of her and her son's less-than-bright looking futures, she often wonders - at what price?

PLOT IDEAS: Okay, so, I have about roughly ten million ideas for this girl, but this app is long enough as it is so I'm just going to put out a few. x3 First of all, I was thinking that Seth could be autistic. He's only about a year old now so there would be very few signs to go on, but Shivani could maybe be suspecting yet keeping her suspicions from Graham. Also, maybe some disaster could happen - Seth gets hurt or something and maybe Shiva and Graham both get desperate enough to reveal Seth to the Colburns, or at least get help from one of the siblings. None of it would have to happen in the near future, of course, but just an idea. :3

LINK TO RP SAMPLE: eheh<3
FC IDEA: this beauty