PHOENIX

Past

Phoenix grew up mostly with his mom and his little brother Jay. He was raised in a small trailer home a bit outside of the city, and without very much money. What money they did have was often spent on alcohol by his mother, which he would also get into frequently as he got older. His father was...technically in the picture, but not much. He had a tendency to disappear for months on end, the only evidence of his existence usually just being photos in the house, and some money he'd earn being sent to his mother. When he did show up, he was terrible, always high on something new, starting off all cheery and then quickly getting angry and violent once something bothered him.

As a result of both of his parents being incredibly dysfunctional, Phoenix ended up being the one caring for his little brother usually, often chasing him off to their room to avoid having to see everything happening, sometimes following close behind too. Video games were a good way to distract Jay from any fighting, turning up the volume to drown anything out, and if their dad was around to interrupt or complain about the volume, Phoenix would step out and take his anger instead. And he'd look after his mother too. He hated that she kept letting this man back into their house, and how little she'd do to assist them, but he hated his father more, and would at least try to look over her and make sure she didn't drink herself to death. His mother would never lay hands on him or Jay, she would sometimes yell, but would always break down sobbing and apologizing in the middle of it. Sometimes Phoenix would use the fact that he was handling almost everything to his advantage, especially since he'd learned that his memory was apparently exceptional compared to most other people he knew, which his mother and brother often praised him for. Both of them trusting his memory so much would often tempt him to lie and claim that certain things didn't happen so that he could get more of what he wanted. He never got caught, at least not when it mattered, his mother was too drunk to ever remember, and his little brother was too young to question him for a long time, by the time he did start to question it, Phoenix didn't really care anymore.

As a result of all this happening at home, Phoenix couldn't have given less of a shit about school. School was time where he didn't have to listen to all that crap, and where he could be out of the house for multiple hours without his mother trying to call him every hour. Most of the time he'd try to ditch class whenever he could get away with it, when he didn't ditch it he would cause trouble for fun, finding it fun to antagonize any teachers he didn't like, and sometimes even the ones he did like. The other students were no exception to his taunting. When he'd ditch school, he'd often end up in juvie overnight frequently for getting caught stealing at stores. Most of these thefts were innocent enough, usually just wanting to steal candy and chocolate, despite having an intolerance to sugar, he would try and eat it anyway. He would also sometimes end up being held for vandalism or property destruction as well. Any objects left unattended were free game for him to vent out all his anger.

After multiple suspensions, yet somehow managing to avoid expulsion from school, he would eventually decide to expell himself. At around age 16 he stopped going to school entirely, and shortly after decided he was done living in this crappy place all together. He left without a word in the middle of the night, and decided to start making his way to the city, believing that he could make himself a better life there. Things didn't go quite as planned, making the mistake of assuming a job would be easier to find than it actually was. But he refused to go back home, and instead went back to his thieving ways by shoplifting constantly and pickpocketing strangers unlucky enough to get too close to him. At one point he stole from the wrong person, but impressed by how long it took for them to notice, they decided to offer him a choice: He could come help steal things for the group they were apart of, or they could "punish" him. Phoenix decided to join them without too much hesitation, he'd gotten good at sweet-talking people by now, and figured that this was as good of a way to get money as any other way. So he ended up as the newest member of this underground group, ran by an older man who's name he was never told. He never did learn his first name, but his last name was easy enough, because his daughter, Alora Noble, was much more open about her own name when he eventually passed away and she took over the group.

Phoenix's duties werent really violent at first, just theft, but as the likelihood of more extreme punishment became a possibility, it became a smart idea to leave no witnesses or evidence, he'd try his best to sneak around, but god help those that he noticed had spotted him, at the least, he tried to make things quick. It wasn't his idea to start "disposing" of witnesses, but it was pushed upon him heavily when he worked in a group, and eventually he just kept the habit, even if he wasn't fond of it. The first time he had to kill someone was a cat anthro that had caught him, and she put up a strong fight, managing to claw both his nose and his chest rather deeply before she went down. Being rather young still, this moment has stuck with Phoenix. He was already nervous around regular pet cats, having had bad experiences with them, but with this on top of it he was fully afraid of almost all cats, people or pets.

On his 21st birthday, the group had taken him out for drinks, something he was not new to at all, but he had been doing a good job recently, and they wanted to offer him his first legal one together. On the way out of the bar, a high school aged kid had ran headfirst into one of them, and then immediately started apologizing. The member that had been slammed into was already annoyed, but upon feeling his pockets seeming lighter, realized the kid had snatched his wallet, and being drunk out of his mind, grabbed them before they could run off and started threatening them with his switchblade. The kid had almost instantly started crying and apologizing further, trying to explain that he had no food at all at home and was starving, he just needed money. Phoenix was trying to ignore the entire scene at first, but eventually felt sorry for this kid, who couldn't have been any older than he was when he'd done nearly the exact same thing. He snatched the wallet back from them and handed it to its owner before pushing the two away from eachother, convincing his colleague to relax, and telling the kid that they would let them go, just as long as they quit trying to steal things. The kid nodded rapidly, swore they'd never do it again, and Phoenix decided to pat them on the head before shooing them off.

About 5 years later, he managed to befriend a stranger named Zacharie. The two would meet up and chat on and off for awhile, getting along surprisingly well, mostly bonding over making fun of strangers outfits at the places they visited. 2 years after that Zacharie would offer for Phoenix to move in and be his roommate, as long as he could help a little bit with money. Phoenix certainly wasn't a moneymaker, but he did manage to get some from what he was doing for "work", and that was enough for Zacharie, since someone making too much money while living with him would have gotten him kicked off his disability benefits anyway. So the benefit of company and just a little bit of extra cash was still good to him.

He figured that what had happened with that random teenager he defended would be the last of it, but shortly after moving in with Zacharie, the same kid found him again somehow while he was on his own, introducing themself as "Ally" and began profusely thanking him for "saving their life". Phoenix had...absolutely no clue what to do about this, and just sort of stared at them until they spoke again, saying they wanted to stay with him and would help him out however he needed. Phoenix refused, trying to chase them off again, he didn't want some teenager following him around all day, but he eventually gave in when Ally would mention being kicked out of their home, had nowhere else to go, and just though that they would feel a little safer out here around him. Phoenix still dreaded letting them follow him around, even if they were almost an adult as well by now, but the damn puppy eyes Ally kept pulling got to him. He agreed on one condition; that Ally had to at least try and find a job or something, because he needed time to do his own "job" without being followed around, as well as being unable to invite Ally to live with him and Zacharie anyways, and Ally agreed. So whenever Phoenix had some downtime, Ally would quickly show up by his side. Ally was far more successful in finding a job than Phoenix had been way back when, it wasn't a very well paying one, but it was still a job, and it at least let them get cheap hotel rooms, allowing Phoenix to distance himself a bit from the fact that he was housed and they weren't. Ally was very clingy, always wanting to drag Phoenix around to check things out, and buying food for the two of them, which Phoenix would typically just passively follow along for the free food, mostly disinterested in whatever Ally was doing.

He expected Ally to eventually get bored of him, but it never happened. Over time Phoenix grew more fond of having them around, the company unrelated to committing crimes was nice. After about a year of this he'd finally considered Ally an actual friend, an annoying one, but a friend nonetheless. Another year would pass and Ally would only get clingier, and tried to ask Phoenix out on a date. Phoenix once again refused this initially, and stuck by that for awhile, Ally was 23 by now, and Phoenix 28, but he still found the idea strange. At some point, somewhere around 2 years later, Phoenix would change his mind about Ally, he knew he was terrible at any commitment, and figured, wrongly, that Ally would eventually be fed up with his behavior and leave first. They never did, and much like before, Phoenix would eventually let the idea grow on him a bit more, but unfortunately, he didn't really stop his crappy behavior even if he was actually starting to like Ally.

Over time though, the distance between them though from Phoenix living with Zacharie and Ally being homeless still would make Ally more stressed, sometimes beginning to accuse Phoenix of all sorts of things with Zacharie, especially since Phoenix hadn't exactly been the most loyal person before. Phoenix would usually manage to calm Ally down, because it was the truth that he had almost 0 interest in Zacharie that way. But these constant calls on top of Ally's usual clinginess would take a toll on him too, becoming aggravating to wake up every morning to a new crazy voicemail, and since these had to be sent to Zacharie's phone, it was getting on his nerves too. This began to degrade the relationship with all 3 of them, mostly involving Phoenix. Zacharie sided a little more with Ally, believing (rightfully) that this sort of behavior must have originated from something Phoenix did, and Phoenix didn't hide it, but he didn't get why now it was suddenly a huge deal. He would end up going out more, particularly with his other colleagues from before, going from doing the bare minimum back to helping out more often.

At some point during another bar visit, about 2 + 1/2 years later, Phoenix caught one of his ""friends"" trying to slip something into a woman's drink, and that wouldn't stand with him, with the added influence of already being drunk he ended up beating the hell out of them until the bar's staff had to physically drag him outside.

Beating another member of the group almost to a pulp would normally result in a severe punishment, especially since the event had put the man into a coma, he knew that, and expected this was it for him. But Alora showed him mercy, given the reason he had done what he did and the fact that she had hated that particular man as well. He was booted from the group, but this didn't mean he was free. Alora still wanted to be extra sure that Phoenix would not decide to spill details about their work to other people or the police, and told him that he would have an eye kept on him.

By now everything was reaching a boiling point when it came to his stress levels, never knowing if he was being watched, Ally's clinginess and mood swings, and Zacharie's own hellish mental health at home. Things weren't fun anymore, and one day Zacharie and him got into an explosive argument, a screaming match basically the entire apartment complex could hear. The argument ended when Phoenix reached the point of being sick of words, and he roughly shoved Zacharie, intending for him to just fall onto his ass to the floor, but underestimating his strength and sending him backwards farther than intended. When Zacharie turned slightly to try and catch himself, he failed and instead got a large gash sliced into his cheek by the corner of their table. That was the final straw, and Zacharie told Phoenix to get the hell out and never speak to him again. Phoenix didn't argue with that, and left.

Current

Back to the same situation he and Ally were in before, both of them simply living on the street, except they were together instead of doing so separately, and now Phoenix didn't have any obligation to his old group. Things would surprisingly get a little bit better. Ally started to relax again, even if Phoenix didn't get why, since he was still sleeping around with strangers occassionally, but he'd given up on understanding Ally by now. He at least tried to cut down on doing that as often, and spending more time with Ally, it wasn't like he had much else to be doing now anyway.

The two would eventually find someone sleeping in their usual alleyway, and Phoenix was irritated, both because this man had the worst uncanny face to him, it wasn't much different from phoenix's own face, but with cat features instead. But also because Ally predictably was too nice to them, and offered to let them hang out around there too. Phoenix hates this, he doesn't want to have more people hanging around them, especially one he hardly knows, and it didn't help that over time this "Rowan" guy would remind him slightly of Zacharie. Unfortunately this wasn't the end of it, and eventually Ally brought another person into their little group, a opossum named Damien. This situation sucks, but if it keeps Ally happy, Phoenix will at least....tolerate it. As best as he can.

It's been the 4 of them for some years now, and the group has generally grown closer, but not necessarily because they like eachother. The only connecting link most of them have is that they all care about Ally, and that they don't want to be on the street alone. So while the group is constantly bickering, they refuse to leave eachother and will still...generally help eachother out. Caring for Ally unfortunately means caring about what happens to the other 2 as well. Phoenix can't stand Rowan or Damien. Damien is too uptight, and won't quit fucking smoking all the time, and Rowan is....Rowan. Rowan keeps taking any chance to try and antagonize Phoenix, and he swears he's caught him staring at Ally way too much. At this point he is only tolerating them for Ally, but even Ally has been getting on his nerves more lately. He loves them, he really does, at least he thinks he does. But he's so damn tired of all this shit happening around him.