Play sat on her bed considering the day's events, mulling over in her mind the various plans and ideas that had been plaguing her mind. Though her sketching did much to ease the constant maelstrom in her thoughts, it wasn't quite enough to quell them entirely. She had bought a notebook earlier that day, not really knowing why but she had felt the need just the same. As she looked over at it where it sat on the dresser her thoughts came into focus. Standing slowly as she gripped the fresh stab wound under her ribs, she reached for it and sat once more at the foot of the bed. Letting it rest in her hands she thought a moment longer, expressing her thoughts in words perhaps would be a way of letting them fade from her crowded mind. So she opened up the cover, the spiral giving a quiet creak from the fresh paper as it protested being moved from it's original place where it sat since leaving the factory. Play bit her lip and tugged at it with her teeth, uncertain where to begin until it dawned on her. Everything had a beginning, so she should start at hers.

Chicago was where Play was born and raised, the younger of two daughters in a lower middle class family in the not so great part of town. But she spent the first few years of her life a happy child with not a care in the world. That all began to change when she was nine years old and her father had enough of being a family man. He vanished without a trace, breaking her mother's heart and devastating her sister Lacey who had been daddy's little princess from day one. As life went on her mother had ended up needing to work two jobs to send her daughters to a safe school away from the influence of the neighborhood kids, and keep food on the table. Play grew up into a young woman, naive and sheltered in many ways though not an easy mark for the gangs that had sprung up around their apartment building.

When she turned fourteen she found out that her mother was ill, lung cancer had creeped it's way into her life. Soon after Play discovered the reasons for Lacey disappearing at all hours of the night, coming back looking like she was nearly dead. Her sister had become addicted to cocaine, and she didn't dare try to find out how she got the money to support her habit. As time went on Play's mother wasn't able to work the two jobs to support the girls anymore, and the medical bills began to pile up. Lacey eventually didn't come home anymore, leaving Play to take care of their mother alone. At the age of fourteen she couldn't go out and get a job, and even if she could it wouldn't be enough to support her and her mother and pay for the medicine that she needed and the medical bills. So she did the only thing she knew that a girl her age in her neighborhood could do to make easy money. She approached the local gang, most of them old childhood friends and soon became a member. Running the same drugs that had stolen her sister leaving an empty shell in her place, wherever her place was. Three years passed and she grew into a formidable force to be reckoned with, running her own crew and taking care of business for the family. Her childhood friends had become her new family. And after her mother passed away after a long and painful stay in the hospital, they had been the only ones that kept her sane and alive. She took many unwarranted chances, convincing herself that there was no one left in her life to care, so why should she. Until the day she met Dino, a boy from the nice side of town that liked hanging out in her neighborhood. She had picked a fight with him, thinking that he would be a way to work out her frustrations on an easy target. But he had charmed her with an easy going manner and a ready smile, and soon they were the best of friends. He often rescued her from the aftermath of her needing to push the envelope, sometimes too far. Taking her to an old family friend for medical treatment so she wasn't subjected to panic attacks she had developed for hospitals. Always with no questions, no lectures, just a simple matter of looking after her when no one else would.

Two years went by, and Play's death wish antics got fewer and more far between until they nearly vanished. But it was too late, Dino's father had already noticed, and he was none too pleased. His father was Dante Oliveri, the local crime boss, and he didn't appreciate the way Play dragged his son into being places he didn't like him to be. So one day he set her up, making sure she would force his hand into dealing with her in the way someone in his position normally would. With one exception, Dino pleaded her case and saved her life one last time. Instead of the grisly death that Dante had planned, she was beaten nearly to death, and banished from her home and everyone she knew or cared about. She was told not to return home, or try to contact anyone, or they would be back to finish the job. So she woke up on a beach in southern Louisianna, Hathian to be precise. A key to a room at the local YMCA left in her pocket along with a backpack of her meager belongings that Dino had put together for her. For the next few weeks she recovered and healed, thinking about the direction she wanted her life to go.

Once she was feeling strong again, Play roamed out into the city. Pulling minor grifts to at least eat and keep her room she watched the local families and how they conducted themselves and their business. She soon gravitated to the Bloods, the small band of seemingly misfit toys that formed a tight bond and kept under the radar of the local police. She quickly proved herself an asset and was asked to join, wearing the colors proudly and taking care of business so well that Carly had asked her to run things while she was away. Which she did to the best of her abilities, until the few began making life difficult for the many. So she decided it was time to move on in her life. Finding herself and the two sisters that followed her in a new venture with new possibilities on the horizon. Including a new life with her fiance Duck, who while being the ex of one of her closest friends, and nearly old enough to be her father, was the ray of light in the dark dismal city of Hathian.
As she finished writing she felt her load lighten a little, a smile returning to her face as she closed the notebook for now. Setting it back on the dresser where she had picked it up from, then turning to walk out of the motel room door to walk to the coffee shop, her sketch book in hand. It was cinnamon cappucino time, and charcoal and paper were waiting.