Nova

• Hispanic Heritage - Originally from Puerto Rico though, she considers Miami her hometown.
• Street Racing - It's better when you bet, best when you lose.
• Automotive Artist - Custom car paint jobs, her ride is her own work.
• Recreational Drug User - Pretty open, especially after a bad string of nightmares.
• Tricks and Spins - Exotic dancer gifted in pole dance.
• Mi Hermano - Her little brother is very dear to her. If you know one, you've heard of the other.
• Sparkle and Shine - She glimmers hardcore, sometimes making her afraid to be alone...

Puerto Rico is the single brightest place on earth if you ask Nova, filled with the sunniest moments of her life. The clear coastal waters and surrounding shores beg for exploration, exactly what two adventurous local children did regularly. The thing was her brother Rekani had the ability to take them...elsewhere exactly once. It’s not exactly like she could have let him go alone, what kind of crap older sister does that? Inside what the two of them nicknamed “elsewhere” were things both beautiful and terrifying, creatures that wanted out. To a seven year old they were her imaginary friends, though they were far more dangerous than that. Despite only seeing them once, she figured out that she could recreate them from her imagination. It was unfortunate that others could then see them as well, her renderings of the beasts. Later Nova’s very religious parents would refer to them as monstrously deformed vermin or minions of el diablo.

The theories were only supported by the fact that both of their children began experiencing night terrors in a simultaneous fashion. Each perpetuating their own self destructive cycle. For Nova, the more demonic beings that plagued her at night, the more friends she conjured for herself. In the darkest parts of the night, she could no longer bear to be alone.

Having had enough, the family joined her Tío in Miami. This took away some of the only real friends Nova had. Not wanting to have this happen again, she began to depend on other people rather than her imagination, deciding not to go on anymore expeditions. Her family took this as her becoming a well-adjusted social butterfly. When she wasn’t with friends or family she always took time with her little brother. What they did not realize was this was often tear-stained interaction based in torment and a desire not to have to close her eyes.

Tío felt some guilt over the void of his presence in the children’s early life and tried to make up for it by inviting them into his classic Miami passion, cars. Nova found that any image she could envision became a stencil, form fitted to the car. Something less obvious than looming creatures that still felt like expression. The problem with an interest in cars as a kid is an obsession with speed. Learning to drive and to do so fast made Nova feel as though she could outrun anything at night.

When you have a love of going fast you start to win races, and if people don’t have money...they have some things to keep you up a few extra hours. A bad trip will put you into a waking nightmare, one you don’t want to face alone, or one you want to be even less sober for.

This got her a boyfriend who was worse than any bad dream. While originally Nova thought he could protect her or keep her well supplied, she soon found out he had his own issues. A man bad at business and high on temper that would take out a bad day on his sub-eighteen girlfriend. If she tried to move on in town, he found her, and reminded her how much worse it was to face life on her own. After all Rekani had more going on for himself now. Her boyfriend fed on her fears until an especially bad night where she came home in a state bad enough she couldn’t hide it. If she stayed she was genuinely afraid he would eventually kill her.

Nova found out that Rekani’s life had not been going as picture perfect as she thought, being pressured to join the same gang her boyfriend dealt for. Miami no longer looked like a glowing future for either of them. Agreeing to finish out their last months of high school, the two left without goodbyes. Nova would never have had the courage to leave alone.

At eighteen with no extended education options for employment were slim for a Latina without connections. Street racing became dangerous when you did not have a community to keep you and your car hidden when cops got involved. What races she did participate in did reinforce that the only thing people seemed to want to do was objectify her. If they were going to be dumb enough to think that was all she had to her, well she could just relieve them of some of their dinero. She had grown up with movement as a mandatory part of her community activities, and she had in the past kept a man’s attention;stripping was not difficult for her to pick up. Nova found that for a girl who kept her body toned to run from her issues, she was strong on a pole. Inversions, spins, climbs, nailing a new trick gave her the same high as racing. The better she got the more money she earned and the more pull to get Rekani in to DJ for her, to watch out for her.

Between the two of them, they found they could make enough to hop to somewhere new every time a slow season hit. While it wasn’t easy, it was always exciting. Even allowing some global travel with some shitty accommodations.

None of this made sleeping through the night any easier. The problem with shining bright is the shadows revealed at the edges, the co-dependency it creates. Their first rut has been Seattle, the money not quite good enough to move across country seasonally. This forced Nova to look about for a smaller gig than she may have typically taken.

That's when they saw the listing for Gray Harbor...

Between her career, transient life style, and artistic nature; Nova takes every opportunity to reinvent herself. Over time she has become very practiced with lace-front wigs, changing her hair constantly. Naturally she has a dark, bob-length style.

Her style is characterized as both street and provocative by Gray Harbor standards. Built for dance, she has an athletic frame, with more pronounced hips. Her skin ranges from a sun-kissed glow to bronzed depending on the amount of time she spends outside, though that is not often given her profession.

Nova has a love for color and attention, often consciously displaying herself for others to look at. She does like being comfortable, but that will not stop her look from being loud in some aspect.