The most sacred policy of the sirens is that the girls don't reveal their pasts unless they're absolutely comfortable with it.
All of them have darkness to deal with, some more than others.
I think I'd just about evened the playing field with my latest epiphany regarding Talia.
Details I won't go into too much detail about because I'd like to keep some spoilers to myself... assuming that anyone even reads this blog :-P
funny how it's become the least visible and active blog when my Prince blog has been getting a lot of attention this year... maybe because I'm writing about more than him and actually sharing what I'd been writing about.
To some, the darkness in her past might be a cliché only too common among prostitutes, but it does kick up the script more than just the fact her stepfather convinced her to sleep with him for years, making her believe she was special while he was robbing her family blind.
I was stuck on that passage in my notebook for ages. Amber asking what gave Talia the right to make the other girls subject themselves to selling their bodies for sex when she didn't suffer like they did.
In her case, the abuse was mental and psychological, being led to believe one thing when the opposite was right, and it fractured the relationship she had with her mother to the point that she left her alone with him... which only exaggerated the problems she was dealing with.
Amber discovers this secret by accident, but the two of them come to an understanding as a result. Something that was needed to even the playing field when it'd become so dramatic and fierce.
***
...might as well strike while the iron's hot, so I took advantage of another idea that came to mind not long ago... don't even remember how it came about, but it was the answer I'd been seeking for a long time regarding how Ruby got away from her abusive father.
What I wound up writing was pretty dramatic and disturbing in itself, maybe too dialogue-heavy (writing people might call it an "info dump"), but it fit perfectly.
The opening for that storyline was after "Two Black Cadillacs." The other girls went to get lunch while on break. This was a day where they'd act out deeply personal events in their lives through the right songs and the door would be open for discussion if they chose. As was the possibility the acts could make it to the public.
Scarlet's exhilarated after they did the routine, wondering what it'd be like if they actually acted it out. Ruby has no choice but reveal that she'd kill their father and staged it for the police as murder by self-defense.
Why she did it...
The dude that runs the strip club she works at, a friend of her father's, was going on about how much commission they'd get if Scarlet was still around because clients would pay more for twins.
Their father decided that he had to go out to find Scarlet, something Ruby couldn't allow. Insist on stopping him, she fights him but he locks her in the basement. Not before she swipes his cell phone (to call for help) and his car keys (to give him a reason to go after her).
She calls for help just before he demands the keys. She also psychologically talks him into taking her one last time, commenting how she could show him fight because that was the one thing about Scarlet he messed when he assaulted her. The attack's pretty brutal on her body, so if the cops hadn't shown up, there's the possibility she could have irreplaceable damage or simply bled to death... but it was worth it to get away with killing him.
Why he brings the gun into the basement... not sure, maybe his inebriated mindset (he had a monster hangover from the night before) made him bring it... maybe he was bringing it to threaten Scarlet to return with him... I didn't work that out entirely, but everything is staged perfectly for Ruby to get away scot-free.
As far as I'm concerned, I got a couple of the most complex parts of the story worked out now... now I just need to figure out the complicated relationship Talia has with Juan Paulo. And that makes me feel better since I'd been away from this project for a while after getting stuck on a few big details.
