Overview: CW MENTIONS OF PHYSICAL ABUSE, DRUG USE, AND PROSTITUTION

Connections

Poppy Cox

Janet Johnson

Loretta Mccoy ( NEEDS A REWRITE)

Medea Reuter (NEEDS A REWRITE)

Exes

Simone Argo (Complete)

Holly Berry

Siblings

Secora Turner

Half siblings

Nessia Cathartes (Complete?)

Darby Myers 

Adopted siblings

Freddie Copperfield

Backstory

Paige Grew up in a small poor town with her loving mother and a sort of distant father, but life was simple and nice in her younger years. She was a very rambunctious and playful kid.

Though things didn’t stay so happy and innocent for her when her younger sister Secora was born. Her father had been found out for an affair he had the whole time his wife was pregnant (This affair was how Nessia even exists) with Secora which resulted in him having another kid out of wedlock.

This caused a massive string of arguments and fights between the two leaving Paige to pick up the pieces of their slowly shattering family. When she wasn’t terrified hiding from their massive fights she was taking care of her baby sister Secora.

Secora was Paige’s light she adored her baby sister and made sure she was taken care of the best a 6 year old could take care of a baby. Though she loved her, Paige was becoming more of a mother than their mother was to her which profoundly affected her later down the line and untimely made her try to live up to the impossible standards that a six-year-old just couldn’t do.

One day her father finally had enough and left them. Paige didn’t understand what she did wrong and placed the blame on herself for not helping more than she already had been while her mom redirected her pain on the both of them though she often blamed Secora for it all.

As their finances deteriorated the more frustrated and desperate their mom became eventually resorting to drug use which made her extremely abusive when got high which often escalated to physical abuse of both of them. She always was sure to make them fear CPS by filling their heads full of lies about what they do with the children they take to dissuade them from opening up about their abuse.

Though Paige wasn’t often her target she always stood up to and took it for Secora to protect her. No matter what if her mother started with Secora it always ended with Paige getting the brunt of it for defending her.

As they got worse off for money their mother seeing no other way to keep a roof over all of them resorted to sex work. Often bring shady clients back home with her which often put Paige and Secora in danger along with hearing some things they shouldn’t have.

Due to the stress home brought for the both of them every time their mother brought clients back Paige often took Secora outside with her to do something fun to help her get away and just focus on having fun.

Their favorite place to go was the park nearby their house and their nature trails always provided them with a peaceful and different escape each time. It was soon a daily ritual the two did after school no matter the weather, Paige would make sure they got to stay out as long as possible in order to spare her from their mom and her job.

Though their mother’s behavior and abuse didn’t go unnoticed. When Paige was 16 she showed up to class with a noticeable bruise on her cheek that she thought she covered up enough with makeup, though a concerned teacher easily saw it and silently reported it.

When Paige and Secora got home they noticed the scene unfolding outside their house. Due to the report, a person was sent to investigate which got her mom caught for drug possession and prostitution this ended in her arrest and the emergency removal of both Paige and Secora. Due to the fear-mongering, their mother did about  CPS the two didn’t go willingly. Paige grabbed Secora and ran. Of course, she could only get so far before they caught up to them.

They were able to yank Secora out of her grasp which only made Paige try and fight harder though she wasn’t strong enough to get Secora back, so she made the impulsive decision out of fear to run and leave Secora. She still to this day lives with the guilt and shame of abandoning Secora she considers her biggest regret in life.

She was 16 out on her own on the streets unable to go back to school in fear of being turned over to CPS. She didn’t know what to do or how to survive she was homeless and alone crashing on the couches of anyone nice enough to let her in. She did a lot of odd jobs for money, but none of them were enough to keep her supported and stable and she eventually resorted to prostitution at 18.

Disgusted at the fact she was starting down the path that her mother took she saw no other way out and just had to accept it and push that fact out of her mind.

It was a couple of months into her work when she met an older woman on the street she worked. She was also a sex worker but seeing Paige and how young she was walking the streets broke her heart and made her think of her own daughter, so she took her under her wing and took her home to help her turn her life around. It was at her home she met her unofficially adopted sister Freddie.

Freddie wasn’t very fond of her at first and Paige could easily pick up on that fact, but still, she craved to have a sisterly relationship with her, especially with the guilt of betraying Secora still a fresh and deep wound in her mind and she saw this as a sort of chance to atone for that mistake.

Freddie was also dealing with the fresh wound of dealing with the tragic loss of her brother which Paige came to learn from her mother it was then she realized that Freddie saw her as trying to replace his place which made her back off a bit so she could approach her at her own pace. Though it took months for that to happen and it only happened after Paige witnessed the torment she faced from her peers which resulted in Paige defending Freddie from her tormenters with her fists no one was gonna make fun of her and take swings at her little sister no matter if she was blood-related or not.

The way Paige defended her reminded Freddie of her brother and she was able to let down her guard a bit around Paige to bond with her. They were able to bond over the stigma both of them faced over the fact that they both had a mother that was a sex worker and how it affected people’s perception of them and they soon discovered each other’s interest in outdoorsy activities which only strengthened their bond as they had similar interests as well. Freddie even taught Paige how to fish as it was her favorite activity though Paige was infamous for losing lures because of her bad casting aim Freddie was just happy to have someone to do things with.

Paige's adoptive mom eventually got her a job with the help of a family friend named Janet as a cleaning lady at a hotel it offered a good amount of pay and gave Paige financial independence so she would be able to survive on her own if something ever happened to her. Paige was neutral toward Janet and was very grateful for the job she gave her though Janet was a bit of a hard ass sometimes she knew it came from a good place.

Though this good place in Paige’s life was short when she was 20 she got a devastating knock at the door on her day off while she was attempting to make everyone dinner she wasn’t a very good cook given she was never taught but she was trying to get into it at the time to take some weight off of everyone’s shoulders when it came to food, but that was attempt was very short-lived after she opened that door. There were two officers at the door looking for Freddie who was out at the time, so Paige inquired about their business with her and that’s when her new life was completely shattered they were there to break the news that their mother had been murdered. Paige was in shock it took her a minute to process what just came out of their mouth. she told them where Freddie was because she couldn’t tell her the news herself.

After they left she sat down and completely broke down Freddie’s mom was more of a mother to her than her bio mom ever was to her, so it was very hard for her emotionally. When Freddie did come home the two didn’t speak to each other they were too overwhelmed to at the moment given the news. There was a bit of a distance between them after the news given they grieved in their own ways and it didn’t help that Janet was the one found guilty. Freddie didn’t believe it was her and was suspicious of the claim while Paige just accepted it at face value given she wasn’t close with her and didn’t know her like Freddie did which in turn only caused even more friction between the two.

They hit a breaking point in their once close relationship when they were getting tight for money now being down a major contributor to the bills. The stress and grief of it all drove Paige back into sex work to pay off some bills. Sex work wasn’t all she got back into given her state she wanted anything to take the pain she was feeling away and got mixed up in heroin use. which did take the immediate pain of everything she was going to away but in turn when Freddie discovered what she had gone back to and what she had gotten into she was beyond furious with her which caused a big argument that ended in Paige promising to get sober, but she was already too far into her addiction and in a way she chose it over, Freddie again abandoning another little sister that needed her to be there for them.

Freddie later cut contact with her leaving Paige all on her own again and on a destructive path. At 24 she was still an addict and a prostitute seeing no other route to turn her life around and seeing no hope in things ever getting better she just sank into her situation. It wasn’t until she met a girl by the name of Simone that she got the glimmer of hope that she desperately needed at the time. It started off as almost all her days and clients do, she shows up to the place they request and usually they get down to business, but Simone was different she didn’t want that she just wanted the company of anyone she could get. Paige was very confused at first she wasn’t used to getting to know the clients she lay with and especially with the lack of any action, but also she deeply sympathized with her struggles with loneliness. Simone treated Paige more like a friend than what she was and to Paige that meant a lot to her because for the past 4 years since she and Frankie’s fight happened she hadn’t felt like much of anything more than just a vessel for others to use for their own enjoyment.

It soon became a sort of routine with Simone hiring her so much, so Paige stopped taking her money and just showed up of her own volition and the two started a short-lived fling. It was the first real relationship the two had ever had and their feelings were extremely strong for each other, though it wasn’t the healthiest relationship given the two both had substance abuse issues, Though Paige actively hid her addiction from Simone while Simone was more open about hers she still deeply loved Simone regardless. However, Simone saw it best to break it off with her because of her own addiction and made it clear that was the reason, but Paige still took it pretty hard, but Simone did show her something she craved and that was a relationship with someone who saw her as a person.

After the fling with Simone fell through she desperately tried to get her life back on track, but she ended up getting arrested on drug charges. While in prison she found out she contracted an STI from one of her clients and tried to hide it while in prison out of shame though her hiding it only ended up in her being hospitalized for the infection. As a result of her infection being untreated for so long, she is now infertile and can never have children which was something she always wanted when she was clean.

After she got out of prison she was more determined than ever to get her life back on track, so she finally looked into the options she had available to her to help manage her addiction. She started with pills to reduce her cravings for opioids and slowly had to wean her body off of it a bit to keep her from dying from the width draw she could have if she quit cold turkey. Though she did relapse a couple of times she was putting in her full effort to get better not only for herself but also for Freddie and Secora. She wanted to repair the relationship that she had ruined and if she found Secora she wouldn't want her to see her like she is now.

While on her journey to sobriety, she had to find a way to get lower doses of an opioid to help ween her off of needing it and she needed someone to help her control her dosage as it went down and not cave to her cravings for more this is how she met Holly. She had been recommended her by multiple people on an anonymous message board for addicts seeking sobriety and it just so happened her business was close by. Though she was deeply ashamed of admitting why she had sought out her herbalist services Holly approached her with no judgment and the reassurance that it was part of her job to help anyone that sought her out. Paige was relieved by Holly’s response and continued with the treatment that she provided.

While going through her treatment Holly offered to take her in and let her stay at her place, though Paige was super reluctant she did ultimately decide to take her up on her offer, she wanted to be sure she could get herself under control no matter what it took. It was untimely the best decision for her as Holly was able to monitor her better and be there to comfort her through bad withdrawal symptoms. Thanks to Holly’s help she was doing good in her treatment and due to all Holly was helping her with she started to develop strong feelings for her.

Holly didn’t feel as strongly as Paige did for her, but she still went along with Paige into a  relationship she wasn’t quite prepared for. They were more a friends-with-benefits deal than girlfriends and the longer it went on the more one-sided it became which was what eventually ended their short relationship, though they didn’t end on bad terms and are still best friends to this day. Holly has been a great support and influence on Paige and thanks to her she was able to finally call and talk to Freddie after all these years which got the gears moving on repairing their relationship.

Paige and Freddie are still working on their relationship, but they are now on much better terms now than before. though things have changed a lot since they haven’t spoken. Freddie is now completely blind due to an accident she won’t divulge the details of, Paige understands her reluctance on the matter and doesn’t push her too much on it, but she did make it very clear that she would listen anytime she’d like to talk about what happened. She does try very hard to be sure she’s accommodating without babying her since it is sort of her nature to baby anyone that is younger than her, but in Freddie’s case it could come off as patronizing, so she wanted to work on it for her.

Paige is still trying to find her place in the world and what she wants to do in life she was able to get her GED before applying for some more odd jobs and to her surprise, she was excepted as a freelance editor by a struggling journalist by the name of Poppy. She really enjoys her job and discussing articles with Poppy and she sometimes uses the articles she writes to get into new hobbies and browse possible career paths, though more recently Poppy’s papers have taken on a more sinister tone all directed at a woman named Loretta. When confronted about what her issue with Loretta was she told Paige that she met a private investigator named Medea and that she needed to help her expose the truth about Loretta to prevent her from hurting more people. This left Paige feeling very suspicious of Medea and her real motives towards Loretta.

Personality

Paige is a very warm and very sociable person with a horrible lack of personal space due to what she used to do at a job and her old home environment. She’s often very clingy to those she gets close to and a very nurturing person by nature. she’s very motherly to those younger than her and is fiercely protective of the people she perceives as young and naïve. She tries to be open-minded and nice to every new person she meets, but she does have a temper hidden underneath all her fluffy niceties that do rear its head up more often than you’d think. Despite her happy demeanor, she does carry around a lot of guilt and shame.