Name: Dakota Valentina Salgado de la Rosa
Nicknames: Kota
Age: 19
Birthday: October 28th
Gender: Female
Species: ½ Human, ½ Cat Shifter
Ethnicity: ½ Puerto Rican, ½ Spanish
Languages: Spanish (1st), English (Close 2nd)
Sexuality: Hetero-flexible
Category: Civilian
Occupation: Bartender; Mechanic/Carpenter
Appearance:
Personality:
Powers:
Species Traits:
History:
Additional Information:
N/A
Nicknames: Kota
Age: 19
Birthday: October 28th
Gender: Female
Species: ½ Human, ½ Cat Shifter
Ethnicity: ½ Puerto Rican, ½ Spanish
Languages: Spanish (1st), English (Close 2nd)
Sexuality: Hetero-flexible
Category: Civilian
Occupation: Bartender; Mechanic/Carpenter
Appearance:
- 5’3”
- Slender waist; full hips, thighs, and rear; smallish but proportionate breasts
- Hair is long, thick and very dark brown with loose waves
- Brown eyes
- Jagged, vertically aligned scar on her side from a stab wound, about 4 inches long
- Has other scars from various sources as well, including a few little round cigarette burns on her shoulders, arms and wrists, as well as a single one on her collar bone. Most are not bad burns - the scars are faint - but the burn on her collarbone is noticeable.
- Dakota’s style is a lot of skin-tight ripped things, with a looser top thrown in here or there, or maybe a skirt and some fishnets. She takes pride in her shoes - cool sneakers and laced-up combats, mostly - and approves of accessories and makeup when she can manage. That being said, Dakota’s not a girly girl; she dresses to match her own style, her task at hand, or both, and for no one but herself. Screw current fashion trends; Dakota prefers a thrift shop.
- Piercings include regular ones on her ears, as well as several cartilage piercings. Her belly button is also done.
- Dakota can often be found with a cigarette in hand, or a bottle of alcohol half-disguised within a paper bag. Her voice is like velvet with a sharp, scratchy flavor, and she often expresses her words alongside hand and head gestures.
- Dakota’s accent is unique, influenced both by a lifetime in the Bronx and a strong Puerto Rican background. Her Spanish often seems unaffected, though distinctly Puerto Rican, giving it rapid-fire, sing-songy qualities. However, when speaking English, her accent is very noticable to those not from her area. It is essentially a mash-up of a Bronx accent and a Puerto Rican one, with prominence changing as she goes. At times, Dakota’s background in New York City may be painfully obvious as she speaks, while at others her accent just screams “Puerto Rico.”
- She is also prone to language switching, especially during a rant, and tends to speak quickly. Overall, Dakota considers Spanish to be her native language, even though she speaks both fluently; Spanish is what she was first raised with.
- https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/7e/63/f0/7e63f0ce171abe7b36361f7016a18b52.jpg — cat form
- Slightly smaller than an ordinary female house cat
- Smallish paws
- Tail is a bit longer than average — an effective “feather duster”
Personality:
- Bold, Strong-Willed and Independent
- Assertive and Confident
- Sociable [but not fond of pointless interaction]
- Tough Emotionally
- Rational and Practical
- Good Problem Solver; Creative in her Solutions [which often involved duct tape]
- Perceptive, Subtly Attentive
- Direct, Blunt and Honest
- Impatient, but Lazy
- Unstructured and Disorganized
- Impulsive; Improvisational
- Defiant
- Vulgar and Sarcastic
- ”Survival of the Fittest” Mentality;
Powers:
Dakota is able to move completely silently, even through fallen leaves or over bubble wrap.
She can also effectively evade followers and prey alike; when active, she gives off no smell — perfume and lingering cigarette smells, so long as they are are only aromas, are cancelled, though a lit cig in-hand wouldn’t be negated whatsoever. Blood, fallen hair, etc. also dissipate into dust upon leaving her person. Dakota can still leave behind things such as broken twigs and disturbed leaves, but they are slight, and her pursuer would have to have skill in tracking to notice. Dakota leaves no footprints in mud, nor tracks of mud if it has been walked through, etc.
Finally, this power negates electronic tracking devices, cancelling signals from GPS trackers on her person and essentially putting any phone/internet/etc signals into “airplane mode.”
When hiding, Dakota can still be found, of course; she isn’t invisible or anything. In this sense, those who know Dakota will have a distinct advantage, as they know her likely hiding spots. She simply cannot be tracked to these areas, and finding her is more a guessing game than anything.
She can also effectively evade followers and prey alike; when active, she gives off no smell — perfume and lingering cigarette smells, so long as they are are only aromas, are cancelled, though a lit cig in-hand wouldn’t be negated whatsoever. Blood, fallen hair, etc. also dissipate into dust upon leaving her person. Dakota can still leave behind things such as broken twigs and disturbed leaves, but they are slight, and her pursuer would have to have skill in tracking to notice. Dakota leaves no footprints in mud, nor tracks of mud if it has been walked through, etc.
Finally, this power negates electronic tracking devices, cancelling signals from GPS trackers on her person and essentially putting any phone/internet/etc signals into “airplane mode.”
When hiding, Dakota can still be found, of course; she isn’t invisible or anything. In this sense, those who know Dakota will have a distinct advantage, as they know her likely hiding spots. She simply cannot be tracked to these areas, and finding her is more a guessing game than anything.
Species Traits:
- Can shift between human and feline form, both of which are detailed in the appearance section.
- Strong, sharp teeth and claws, in feline form only. Claws are retractable. In human form, can temporarily sharpen nails and teeth.
- Agility (and, in turn, both flexibility and balance) are heightened considerably, equivalent to a cat’s.
- Dakota can also jump as far/high as a cat can proportionately.
- Because of her increased flexibility, Dakota can fit into small spaces often too cramped for an ordinary human, though nothing unreasonable.
- Also, like a cat, Dakota almost always lands on her feet, uninjured, when jumping from any height that a cat is also able to survive.
- Speed enhanced to 30 mph max
- Reflexes enhanced as well, in response to the increases in flexibility, agility and speed.
- That being said, aside from her ability to land from great heights, Dakota is physically more liable to harm than most humans. Injuries take longer to heal, gashes scar more easily, and she has to work harder to maintain her strength than others via gym visits and weight lifting.
- Capable of climbing up any surface that a cat is able to climb, as well as surfaces such as brick walls and the like, so long as there is enough traction for her fingers; Dakota can climb a tree very easily, can scale a brick building with concentration, and cannot climb an ordinary house wall.
- Dakota’s senses - hearing, taste and smell - are enhanced to be equivalent to a cat’s. She is also able to see at night. Extremely potent smells and tastes often result in headaches due to her heightened senses. Loud and/or extremely high pitched noises give the same effect, and bright flashes at night blind Dakota longer than an average human.
- Like many cats, Dakota requires more sleep than the average human in order to be a pleasant, moderately energetic individual. She grows lethargic easily in the sun and is biologically prone to obnoxiously constant laziness and procrastination. When tired, Dakota is prone to moodiness and annoyance, her disposition able to go from pleasant and sociable to "bloodthirsty" on a dime, despite her actual personality being generally stable.
- Dakota is also prone to bouts of hyperactive mania, often in the wee hours of the morning when everyone else is finally asleep. This is not something she can really control. It's just... What she's meant to do.
- Scruff Instinct: Just like with all cats, Dakota was born with the scruff instinct. In any form, if one pinches the back of her neck where her scruff would be, she will immediately fall into a peaceful, limp state — kinda like a ‘lil noodle.
- Can sometimes be startled by absolutely ridiculous things, much like an unsuspecting cat. These things include cucumbers, socks, etc... It's really quite funny, and she can't control when it happens. Dakota's more prone to this when tired or distracted.
- Prone to accidental feline vocabulary, such as purring, chirping or mewling.
- Small, quick-moving things, especially strings, shinies or things that resemble prey, are nearly irresistible at all times
- Dakota has a hunting instinct. If she can’t catch things periodically, she will hide behind corners and catch your ankles instead.
History:
Warnings: Drug abuse [during pregnancy], underage domestic abuse, underage sex/noncon, mention of prostitution, death
Dakota’s mother, Ariana, was a Puerto Rican immigrant who ended up in the Bronx borough of New York City, USA. Though she arrived with good intent, bad times hit hard, and she became addicted to illegal drugs. When her money ran out, she sold herself instead, and ended up with three children from various unknown fathers.
In order, these children were: Manuel, a boy; Dakota; and Angelica, a girl. Manual was three years older than Dakota, and Angelica was six years younger than Dakota. Though Ariana was able to stay sober through Dakota’s and Angelica’s pregnancies, Manuel was born addicted to drugs. Ariana was able to keep custody of Manuel, but only under the promise of total sobriety, CPS checking in on her regularly. These visits lessened with time as Ariana got a real job and gained tangible control over her addiction, but only to yearly visits; it helped that Ariana was maintaining a healthy relationship with a man named Santiago, and their child together, Dakota, was born healthy.
Of Ariana’s kids, Dakota was the only one with powers. This is attributed to her father, whom Ariana was with for 7 years, 5 of them occurring after Dakota’s birth. It was from her father, Santiago, that Dakota also learned to control her powers, and by the age of 5 she had mastered Shifting completely. (It is worth noting that Dakota was the cutest kitten imaginable.)
Unfortunately, hard times hit shortly after Dakota turned five. Santiago was caught cheating one time too many, and though he promised it would be the last, Ariana left him. Though she maintained sobriety for a final CPS visit, Ariana quickly fell back into her old addictions, and so 11 months after Santiago left, with Dakota a little over 6 and Manuel around nine, Ariana gave birth to Angelica. She, like Manuel, was born addicted to drugs, and this was the last straw for CPS.
All siblings were removed from Ariana’s home at once. Ariana, who, having birthed a second child with NAS, did not fight when her children were taken from her; she felt that it was best for them and could no longer trust herself with their lives. As Santiago was also deemed an unfit parent for Dakota, due to a mix of unemployment and a taste for bringing strange women home every night, CPS decided to place all three children in foster care. Ariana only requested that they keep the children together, knowing how close Dakota and Manuel were, and how attached Dakota already was to Angelica. The courts obliged as much as they could, and Ariana’s parental rights were officially terminated. Custody of the de la Rosa children lied officially with the state of New York.
Dakota and Manuel managed to stay in the same area of their same borough, the Bronx, through their entire lives as foster children. And, for several years, all three siblings managed to be fostered together, just as Ariana had wished for them. They attended the same public school system for their entire lives and managed to keep the same friends.
In the midst of hopping foster families and finding her way in the world, Dakota grew up playing on the streets of the Bronx. Her older brother, Manuel, was her idol; she worshipped him and rarely left his side. Dakota ended up included in his group of neighborhood friends, despite the age and gender differences, and grew up with rough-housing, stickball and spit-dangling.
However, eventually, these innocent activities grew more dangerous; theft, smoking, alcohol, and street fighting took the place of childhood games. Now, the kids played the Robbers but the Cops were real, and Dakota learned quickly how her powers of evasion could save her. Nevertheless, she was arrested several times for various crimes, and got a nice, long stay in a cell during middle school.
This time in juvie may have saved her life; while her brother and his friends continued down the path to gang violence and illegal drugs, Dakota was too scared to join them. The only other friend to act so responsibly was Luis, a friend only a year older than Dakota, who seemed more intimidated by it all than she did.
Hiding was not the only thing that Dakota learned to do. She discovered early that she could not always run away from people that wanted to hurt her, and so she forced herself to learn self-defense. From a young age, Dakota knew how to hold herself on the streets, and she did so by fighting… and fighting dirty. Crow bars, baseball bats and broken bottles — nothing was too cheap for Dakota, and it was her own quick thinking that saved her from the streets’ worst.
Both fortunately and unfortunately, when Dakota’s foster family when she was 13 (Angelica 7, Manuel 16) took a special interest in Angelica. The family was set to move out of the city, hoping for a quieter life for a while, and wanted to take Angelica with them as a legal daughter. However, with Dakota and Manuel acting up too much for the family to monitor, they could only bring Angelica. So, it was at this time that Dakota and Manuel were forever separated from their baby sister, only ever kept updated by a few postcards from Angelica’s new home.
Though the loss of her sister affected her profoundly, Dakota refused to wallow in her absence. She sought a purpose in life, a goal to aim towards, and she found it in the form of mechanics.
Dakota first became interested in car mechanics from a friend of her brother’s, Dariel. He taught her what he knew about how automobiles worked, nurturing her interest into something to serve her for life. This eventually inspired Dakota to attend vocational school instead of regular high school, earning her basic qualifications for mechanic work in the future.
Dakota and Dariel bonded through cars, eventually going on to do other activities together — movies, then parties, then clubs. It became obvious that there was more to their relationship than a simple education. Manuel, whose judgement was growing progressively more questionable with age, approved, and so, by the time she was 14, Dakota was comfortably in a relationship with Dariel, who was already 17.
Slowly, very slowly, Dariel became abusive as their relationship progressed; it only worsened when he discovered Dakota’s powers. By the time she was 16, Dariel was abusing her physically, and Dakota was often bruised and bloodied at his hands. However, he was careful — very careful — and rarely left marks where CPS would be able to detect them.
Dariel controlled her - physically, psychologically, financially and sexually - and even her brother overlooked this. With age, Manuel had fallen from his old status as Dakota’s hero, so lost in crime and addiction. Luis, her old friend, was the only one who seemed to notice, the only one who ever tried to help, but even his efforts could not do much against Dariel’s will.
Though Dakota herself had periods where she tried to fight back, Dariel was quick to stamp it out of her. And for a long time, she was torn between loving the person he used to be and hating the person he had become. Finally, by age 17, Dakota tried leaving him once, twice, but psychological wounds take more than gauze to heal, and between years of dependence, her brother’s disdain and her ever-changing foster situation, Dakota returned to him. Dariel treated her well for a while each time, faking remorse, before falling back into the pattern of abuse Dakota was so desperate to escape.
The third time was nearly the charm, but only nearly. Dakota moved out of her final foster home shortly after turning 18, instead rooming with Luis, the only one with enough sense left to realize how bad Dakota was being treated. Though Dakota suspected, deep down, that Luis liked her romantically, both of them let it lie, not wanting to break the fragile confidence they shared.
These developments only made Dariel more eager to gain Dakota back, however, and eventually he won. Though back once again with her abuser, Dakota at least was beginning to wake up a little, and, though her communication was now limited (especially as the group now kept a mistrusting eye on Luis, for previously helping Dakota), her growing independence was fueled by Luis’ words.
Dakota finally snapped only weeks after graduating her vocational high school. Dariel was drunk and high off a little more than just weed. She’d done something, something she can’t even remember anymore, and it set Dariel off. He threatened her life, her friend’s life, her brother’s, sister’s and mother’s lives, and then grew violent.
Dakota wouldn’t have snapped at this alone, but at some point, a knife came into the game for the first time in their relationship. Dakota was stabbed in the side, but it was shallow enough that adrenaline and rage clouded the pain, and she launched into a violent fury. The knife was quickly lost, but a lamp was found, and after that Dakota blacked out. When she awoke, she was straddling her boyfriend, the lamp lying to the side, her knuckles bloodied and her side aching horribly. Dariel was dead.
Dakota was deemed innocent by the courts, the murder a case of self-defense. However, Manuel and the others didn’t take Dakota’s side in the matter, instead enraged that Dariel was killed at her hand. A heated fight with Manuel soon followed the trial, and so Dakota left her brother for the last time. She still has not spoken to him since.
After leaving her brother, Dakota didn’t bother even attempting to maintain ties with her old “friends.” She cut them out savagely, all except for the one person who stayed and tried to help her: Luis.
Luis took her side at once, abandoning their childhood group without remorse; apparently he had only stuck around at all, once they took up hard drugs and abusing women, to make sure the girls were okay — especially Dakota. She moved in with him and, now with legal freedom to do as she pleased, began visiting her mother (and, once she found him, her father) every now and again. Their relationships were… rocky, to say the least, but necessary. Dakota was also able to visit Angelica, but less frequently, of course, due to her adoptive parents’ worries. Angelica was happy and their mother was on a long sober stretch, and knowing these things helped put some of Dakota’s long-term worries to rest.
In the months that followed Dakota’s housing change, she and Luis fell into a comfortable domestic routine, the most functional relationship she’d ever had with anyone. They ate meals together, talked about their days, and sorted out discussions in hushed voices. It was calm… eerily calm, to someone like Dakota. She knew something had to be up. It was too… nice.
Dakota confronted Luis, finally, after months of letting it go. Though he tried to swerve the discussion, Dakota wouldn’t drop it, knowing there was something Luis wasn’t telling her, and he broke. He admitted to feeling for her romantically, unable to keep it to himself any longer — not when he loved her like he did. But Dakota, though she felt him irreplaceable as a friend to her, did not feel the same for Luis.
The rejection caused tension between them. Dakota was used to violence in the same of romance, to emotional dependability used as a weapon and suffocation in place of affection. She was uncomfortable around Luis, still used to Dariel’s unpredictability despite her friend’s assurances that he wouldn’t push it, and slowly a rift began to form between them.
When Dakota got her letter to Starlight Academy, it was almost a godsend — an excuse to leave the home without damaging what friendship she had left. Luis understood, too, felt it may be good for her to get some space. So, it was with the promise to write and call frequently that Dakota left for Manta Carlos, hoping to finally put some space between her and her past for good.
Dakota has lived in Manta Carlos since early January, 2017. In the months between her arrival and approval, she has purchased a cheap, run-down warehouse-like garage in a less-densely-populated area of town, as the property was cheap. She has since converted this building into both a work and housing space, with a large section made into a garage for carpentry and auto-repair, and a somewhat smaller area built into a home. She rents-to-own her equipment, and currently works two jobs: A full-time employment at a local bar, alongside whatever automobiles and carpentry jobs she gets.
Dakota’s mother, Ariana, was a Puerto Rican immigrant who ended up in the Bronx borough of New York City, USA. Though she arrived with good intent, bad times hit hard, and she became addicted to illegal drugs. When her money ran out, she sold herself instead, and ended up with three children from various unknown fathers.
In order, these children were: Manuel, a boy; Dakota; and Angelica, a girl. Manual was three years older than Dakota, and Angelica was six years younger than Dakota. Though Ariana was able to stay sober through Dakota’s and Angelica’s pregnancies, Manuel was born addicted to drugs. Ariana was able to keep custody of Manuel, but only under the promise of total sobriety, CPS checking in on her regularly. These visits lessened with time as Ariana got a real job and gained tangible control over her addiction, but only to yearly visits; it helped that Ariana was maintaining a healthy relationship with a man named Santiago, and their child together, Dakota, was born healthy.
Of Ariana’s kids, Dakota was the only one with powers. This is attributed to her father, whom Ariana was with for 7 years, 5 of them occurring after Dakota’s birth. It was from her father, Santiago, that Dakota also learned to control her powers, and by the age of 5 she had mastered Shifting completely. (It is worth noting that Dakota was the cutest kitten imaginable.)
Unfortunately, hard times hit shortly after Dakota turned five. Santiago was caught cheating one time too many, and though he promised it would be the last, Ariana left him. Though she maintained sobriety for a final CPS visit, Ariana quickly fell back into her old addictions, and so 11 months after Santiago left, with Dakota a little over 6 and Manuel around nine, Ariana gave birth to Angelica. She, like Manuel, was born addicted to drugs, and this was the last straw for CPS.
All siblings were removed from Ariana’s home at once. Ariana, who, having birthed a second child with NAS, did not fight when her children were taken from her; she felt that it was best for them and could no longer trust herself with their lives. As Santiago was also deemed an unfit parent for Dakota, due to a mix of unemployment and a taste for bringing strange women home every night, CPS decided to place all three children in foster care. Ariana only requested that they keep the children together, knowing how close Dakota and Manuel were, and how attached Dakota already was to Angelica. The courts obliged as much as they could, and Ariana’s parental rights were officially terminated. Custody of the de la Rosa children lied officially with the state of New York.
Dakota and Manuel managed to stay in the same area of their same borough, the Bronx, through their entire lives as foster children. And, for several years, all three siblings managed to be fostered together, just as Ariana had wished for them. They attended the same public school system for their entire lives and managed to keep the same friends.
In the midst of hopping foster families and finding her way in the world, Dakota grew up playing on the streets of the Bronx. Her older brother, Manuel, was her idol; she worshipped him and rarely left his side. Dakota ended up included in his group of neighborhood friends, despite the age and gender differences, and grew up with rough-housing, stickball and spit-dangling.
However, eventually, these innocent activities grew more dangerous; theft, smoking, alcohol, and street fighting took the place of childhood games. Now, the kids played the Robbers but the Cops were real, and Dakota learned quickly how her powers of evasion could save her. Nevertheless, she was arrested several times for various crimes, and got a nice, long stay in a cell during middle school.
This time in juvie may have saved her life; while her brother and his friends continued down the path to gang violence and illegal drugs, Dakota was too scared to join them. The only other friend to act so responsibly was Luis, a friend only a year older than Dakota, who seemed more intimidated by it all than she did.
Hiding was not the only thing that Dakota learned to do. She discovered early that she could not always run away from people that wanted to hurt her, and so she forced herself to learn self-defense. From a young age, Dakota knew how to hold herself on the streets, and she did so by fighting… and fighting dirty. Crow bars, baseball bats and broken bottles — nothing was too cheap for Dakota, and it was her own quick thinking that saved her from the streets’ worst.
Both fortunately and unfortunately, when Dakota’s foster family when she was 13 (Angelica 7, Manuel 16) took a special interest in Angelica. The family was set to move out of the city, hoping for a quieter life for a while, and wanted to take Angelica with them as a legal daughter. However, with Dakota and Manuel acting up too much for the family to monitor, they could only bring Angelica. So, it was at this time that Dakota and Manuel were forever separated from their baby sister, only ever kept updated by a few postcards from Angelica’s new home.
Though the loss of her sister affected her profoundly, Dakota refused to wallow in her absence. She sought a purpose in life, a goal to aim towards, and she found it in the form of mechanics.
Dakota first became interested in car mechanics from a friend of her brother’s, Dariel. He taught her what he knew about how automobiles worked, nurturing her interest into something to serve her for life. This eventually inspired Dakota to attend vocational school instead of regular high school, earning her basic qualifications for mechanic work in the future.
Dakota and Dariel bonded through cars, eventually going on to do other activities together — movies, then parties, then clubs. It became obvious that there was more to their relationship than a simple education. Manuel, whose judgement was growing progressively more questionable with age, approved, and so, by the time she was 14, Dakota was comfortably in a relationship with Dariel, who was already 17.
Slowly, very slowly, Dariel became abusive as their relationship progressed; it only worsened when he discovered Dakota’s powers. By the time she was 16, Dariel was abusing her physically, and Dakota was often bruised and bloodied at his hands. However, he was careful — very careful — and rarely left marks where CPS would be able to detect them.
Dariel controlled her - physically, psychologically, financially and sexually - and even her brother overlooked this. With age, Manuel had fallen from his old status as Dakota’s hero, so lost in crime and addiction. Luis, her old friend, was the only one who seemed to notice, the only one who ever tried to help, but even his efforts could not do much against Dariel’s will.
Though Dakota herself had periods where she tried to fight back, Dariel was quick to stamp it out of her. And for a long time, she was torn between loving the person he used to be and hating the person he had become. Finally, by age 17, Dakota tried leaving him once, twice, but psychological wounds take more than gauze to heal, and between years of dependence, her brother’s disdain and her ever-changing foster situation, Dakota returned to him. Dariel treated her well for a while each time, faking remorse, before falling back into the pattern of abuse Dakota was so desperate to escape.
The third time was nearly the charm, but only nearly. Dakota moved out of her final foster home shortly after turning 18, instead rooming with Luis, the only one with enough sense left to realize how bad Dakota was being treated. Though Dakota suspected, deep down, that Luis liked her romantically, both of them let it lie, not wanting to break the fragile confidence they shared.
These developments only made Dariel more eager to gain Dakota back, however, and eventually he won. Though back once again with her abuser, Dakota at least was beginning to wake up a little, and, though her communication was now limited (especially as the group now kept a mistrusting eye on Luis, for previously helping Dakota), her growing independence was fueled by Luis’ words.
Dakota finally snapped only weeks after graduating her vocational high school. Dariel was drunk and high off a little more than just weed. She’d done something, something she can’t even remember anymore, and it set Dariel off. He threatened her life, her friend’s life, her brother’s, sister’s and mother’s lives, and then grew violent.
Dakota wouldn’t have snapped at this alone, but at some point, a knife came into the game for the first time in their relationship. Dakota was stabbed in the side, but it was shallow enough that adrenaline and rage clouded the pain, and she launched into a violent fury. The knife was quickly lost, but a lamp was found, and after that Dakota blacked out. When she awoke, she was straddling her boyfriend, the lamp lying to the side, her knuckles bloodied and her side aching horribly. Dariel was dead.
Dakota was deemed innocent by the courts, the murder a case of self-defense. However, Manuel and the others didn’t take Dakota’s side in the matter, instead enraged that Dariel was killed at her hand. A heated fight with Manuel soon followed the trial, and so Dakota left her brother for the last time. She still has not spoken to him since.
After leaving her brother, Dakota didn’t bother even attempting to maintain ties with her old “friends.” She cut them out savagely, all except for the one person who stayed and tried to help her: Luis.
Luis took her side at once, abandoning their childhood group without remorse; apparently he had only stuck around at all, once they took up hard drugs and abusing women, to make sure the girls were okay — especially Dakota. She moved in with him and, now with legal freedom to do as she pleased, began visiting her mother (and, once she found him, her father) every now and again. Their relationships were… rocky, to say the least, but necessary. Dakota was also able to visit Angelica, but less frequently, of course, due to her adoptive parents’ worries. Angelica was happy and their mother was on a long sober stretch, and knowing these things helped put some of Dakota’s long-term worries to rest.
In the months that followed Dakota’s housing change, she and Luis fell into a comfortable domestic routine, the most functional relationship she’d ever had with anyone. They ate meals together, talked about their days, and sorted out discussions in hushed voices. It was calm… eerily calm, to someone like Dakota. She knew something had to be up. It was too… nice.
Dakota confronted Luis, finally, after months of letting it go. Though he tried to swerve the discussion, Dakota wouldn’t drop it, knowing there was something Luis wasn’t telling her, and he broke. He admitted to feeling for her romantically, unable to keep it to himself any longer — not when he loved her like he did. But Dakota, though she felt him irreplaceable as a friend to her, did not feel the same for Luis.
The rejection caused tension between them. Dakota was used to violence in the same of romance, to emotional dependability used as a weapon and suffocation in place of affection. She was uncomfortable around Luis, still used to Dariel’s unpredictability despite her friend’s assurances that he wouldn’t push it, and slowly a rift began to form between them.
When Dakota got her letter to Starlight Academy, it was almost a godsend — an excuse to leave the home without damaging what friendship she had left. Luis understood, too, felt it may be good for her to get some space. So, it was with the promise to write and call frequently that Dakota left for Manta Carlos, hoping to finally put some space between her and her past for good.
Dakota has lived in Manta Carlos since early January, 2017. In the months between her arrival and approval, she has purchased a cheap, run-down warehouse-like garage in a less-densely-populated area of town, as the property was cheap. She has since converted this building into both a work and housing space, with a large section made into a garage for carpentry and auto-repair, and a somewhat smaller area built into a home. She rents-to-own her equipment, and currently works two jobs: A full-time employment at a local bar, alongside whatever automobiles and carpentry jobs she gets.
Additional Information:
N/A
Last edited:
Name: Dakota Valentine Salgado de la Rosa