Sasha Rodriguez

* illustration
* face claim, original
* face claim, current
* Doodle Face

> "I'm sorry, Mother. I'm sorry I let you down."
>
> --Imagine Dragons, Night Visions

Sasha Angela Rodriguez is a main character in The Series. She is a major supporting character in *The Apartment on 3rd Street* and a main protagonist in *The Cafe on Mulberry Avenue* and *The Lamp Post on 6th Street*.

Sasha is Carson's best friend and the glue that holds the group together. She often stops by the apartment to check on Carson and Lizzie, and is the biggest advocate of their growing romantic relationship.

## History

### Background

Sasha was born on May 24th, 1991 to Maria and Lupe Rodriguez. She has a brother, Julio Rodriguez, who is two years older than her.

Sasha attended Davidson Elementary and Mason Junior High School. She was the target of a lot of bullying when she was a child, due to her working class background.

She attended Wilkinson High School for two years, where she was a cheerleader and fairly well-liked by the mainstream student body. Eventually, she fell into the "wrong crowd," attending parties where alcohol and illegal substances were used. She became addicted and abused these substances. When word got out, her image was irreversibly damaged, and she was consequently ostracized.

Sasha accidentally overdosed in her sophomore year. When she awoke in the emergency room, she realized that she needed to make a change. Her parents sent her to a rehabiliation center for her addiction and counseling for anger management [?]. She continues to attend counseling.

She transferred to Pilsen High School at the start of her junior year for a fresh start. This is where she met Luke Phillips, with whom she became best friends. She found in him a pillar to rebuild her self-esteem and social foundation.
Sasha quit drugs cold turkey and spent a summer at a rehab center, but she wanted out of it by the time the new school term was meant to start. By the time she met Carson--despite some mishaps--she had been tentatively sober for a few months.
Sasha now attends [University]. In her first year there, she met Carson Mackenzie. They also became best friends.

Sasha joined the track and field team at university, where she met Ethan and Mia Lazzari-Qian, who introduced her to Blair Moore.

With Sasha as their emotional center, the group became close-knit, her found family.

## Behavior and Psychology

*"SASHA NO" --everyone to Sasha, all the time, forever*

### Personality

Prior to her drug addiction, Sasha was a popular cheerleader and social butterfly. When she became addicted, she underwent a drastic shift in personality. As a result of the damage to her reputation and subsequent otracization, Sasha became ill-tempered, unsociable, and hostile. After finding a friend in Luke, she grew into the person she is now.

Currently, Sasha's personality can be described as "sugar and spice." Usually, she has it turned to the "spice" setting, which shows through in her wildness and vibrancy. She has endless energy and is a bit of a troublemaker and daredevil. When Luke tries to steer the group into messy shenanigans, Sasha is the first to volunteer. <should provide specific details/supporting evidence...> She has a tendency to speak quickly and loudly, not in a way that is obnoxious, but in a way that always sounds like she is laughing or smiling.

At select times, the "sugar" side of her personality comes out. Though she seems carefree, she is an exceptionally keen judge of character and perceptive of others' feelings, always the first to know what her friends are feeling, sometimes before they themselves understand it. She intuits Lizzie's minor crush on Blair and is the first to notice Lizzie and Carson's growing mutual feelings. The only one who has escaped her keen gaydar has been Mia, who is very secretive about her dating life. While she is good at picking up on other people's feelings, she is not as aware of her own. To revist the previous example, she was in denial about Mia being gay because of the implications it would have for her crush on Mia.

### Motivation

Sasha loves freedom, being uninhibited, and feeling that she is free from judgment to be who she is.

She considers her friends her true family and her top priority. She helps them find the courage to be themselves through her words of encouragement and her example. Frequent subjects of this encouragement are Lizzie, Carson, and Blair. Due to her own history, she has had to fight to learn to like herself, and she hates the thought of her friends trying to be who they are not. Sasha is very much a ride or die kind of gal, after all, she knows what it’s like for ppl to give up on you,,, she hates the thought of doing it to someone else.

### Ambition

Sasha is working towards a degree in social work, hoping to specialize in drug rehab for teens.

### Greatest fear

Despite her unconditional love for her friends, Sasha grapples with the darker aspects of her personality. Sasha worries that she is "too much" for someone. Too much cheer, too much noise, too much joy... too much anger, too much baggage, too much bitterness, too much grief. She is afraid it that would scare her partner away, to find the thorns to her roses.

Weaknesses/flaws

Of the group, Sasha is the one who is most terrible at hiding things <chat log 2016/01/16>. she's both a good and bad liar? it depends on who she's trying to lie to. <2019/04/16> While Sasha is good at expressing joy and excitement, she has trouble managing her depression. She is the most likely of her friends to turn to alcohol when dealing with sadness. She also has lingering anger management issues, for which she is going to counseling.

Biggest secret

[drug addiction]

Sasha is glad that Blair and Mia did not know her during her troubled teenage years, but it is also them that help her accept the uglier parts of her personality.

### Relating to Others

Sasha gravitates toward quiet people. Curious by nature, there's always something under the surface that she wants to see. She also has a keen eye for troubled people.

Sasha can talk about anything and everything under the sun, from random facts to hyperfixated topics, which has gotten her into trouble before for being an “annoying" "chatterbox”, but she has a problem of braindumping herself because when she’s interested in someone, she’s *really* interested, and wants to get to know someone asap. she’s not always the most patient person.

## Appearance

Sasha is the shortest of her friends after Lizzie. She has a curvy and athletic physique, olive skin, and brown eyes. Her chin-length hair is dyed blonde with dark roots.

### Mannerisms or Gestures

Sasha's body language is playful and self-assured. She likes to swing her arms from time to time, swing her legs back and forth when sitting on a bench, and is more likely to hold her hands behind her back than to cross her arms. Sasha has a skip in her steps, but when she's in competition she's suddenly focused and driven, her whole body fluid and efficient, no energy wasted in extraneous motions. In general, she's always in motion, absent-mindedly playing with the bracelets around her wrist or stroking someone's arm that she's holding. Sasha displays her feelings, showing dark thoughts along her shoulders, hands limp by her hips, gaze unfocused.

### Style of Dress

Sasha's fashion style is cheery and playful, often featuring floral patterns, and consists of feminine or neutral garments: tank tops, cute blouses, jeans, denim shorts, skirts, and short dresses. She likes wearing bright colors, especially reds, oranges, yellows, blues and greens. She wears peach or light pink lipstick.

### Prominent Features and Distinguishing Marks

Sasha has several tattoos. Her back is adorned with a large tattoo of a skull and roses. Wrapping around each wrist is a long, thin tattoo of a rose plant, complex-looking with many interweaving stems adorned with thorns, leaves, and rose buds. The wrist tattoos are a reminder to herself of her addiction and temper problems.

(the wrist tattoos probably came first. does she get them before or after she meets Luke, i'm not sure. i kind of want her to have them before Luke, but i'm not sure of his reaction to them. on the one hand, i imagine he thinks it's cool because Luke is All About Cool (or so he boasts), but i imagine they make him unsure of what Sasha is really all about, because they are indeed in a prominent place. i imagine he was a lil intimidated, and more than a little wary, since he really wants to get to know Sasha, but it was like walking on eggshells around her)

Sasha's feelings about her body are complicated because of the drug addiction. Her tattoos have helped her feel better about her body. She doesn't like the scars on her wrists, but she does like the vine of thorns that hide them, with rose buds slowly blooming. The skulls look like death and she was close to it, but she was also closer to her ancestors. It's spiritual to her, and more and more it's a painted temple to her. She has just the one body and she'll change it how she sees fit. Some people think her tattoos make her an Edgelord when really all her tattoos are connected to her feelings about her culture and body. She's just trying to feel safe again.

## Speech

Her voice is high. She speaks with a Mexican lilt. She often sounds like she's laughing.

[tone of voice, language or accent, favorite phrases]

## Background

Interests and hobbies
Sasha's main hobby is track and field. On the track, Sasha is second only to Carson in speed, a great feat considering their large height difference. She is also the best of the group at jumping, a distinction she shares with Mia.

Getting into track and field and making friends with the group gave her something to live for. Running has become a way to cope with her addiction.

Skills

...

Family

She has a rocky family life. Her overworked, frustrated, and bitter parents often argue. She and her brother constantly antagonize each other.​​​​​

Current Home

Sasha lives in Pilsen(?), a "really bad" part of town where some of her former dealers still stop by. She wants to move out of her neighborhood eventually.

Finances

...

Occupation

...

Education

...

Health

...

### Sexuality

Sasha also has a crush on every one of her female friends. Her heart goes out to every girl.

Sasha is particularly attracted to gnc women (and/or nb folk?)

Heritage

Sasha has deeply complicated feelings about her race and heritage. there's that inferiority she feels as a Latina, that self-consciousness on account of being hypersexualized (part of why she fell thru the cracks when she first got addicted; no one cares about another 'druggie Latina')

Because of her Mexican heritage, her feelings on death are different from those of her friends. She has mixed feelings on how death is sometimes portrayed in the horror genre. Some horror films she gets into, and others leave her unfazed: "i get that, like, seeing a dead body come back to life is scary for some people but if my Tio suddenly popped out of the grave he'd probably be asking when's the next fiesta, just saying" --Sasha, 2017/03/24

## Relationships

### Carson Mackenzie

They are best friends and have an intense relationship. See Relationships page for more information on their bond.

### Luke Phillips

They're compadres. See Relationships page for more information!

### Mia Lazzari-Qian

See Relationships page for more information on Sasha's relationship with the group's heart throb.

### Blair Moore

See Relationships page for their love/hate dynamic.

Sasha suspects Blair's cat, Witch, of plotting world domination. <move this to Witch's page.>

### Mia Lazzari-Qian & Blair Moore

See Relationships page for information on their relationship.

### Ethan Lazzari-Qian

Sasha sees Ethan as a big brother. See Relationships page for more information.

## Quotes

"You do you." - Sasha's motto -- something along those lines anyway. we haven't gotten that far yet

## Trivia

* Sasha' patronus is a sorrel (vibrant red/chestnut coating) mustang.
* Her color is vibrant orange.
* Besides track and field, Sasha likes skateboarding and boogie boarding.
* Sasha has asked Blair to cosplay as Carmilla Karnstein for Halloween
* Sasha would win a rap battle amongst the nerds.
* If the nerds were in a band, Sasha would play acoustic guitar.
* Sasha's dreams consist of her eating endless churros.
* Favorites
* Dessert: Churros

### Likes

* Sasha LOVES getting flowers and fruits and candy (Mexicans in general often give candy and fruits as gifts).

### Dislikes

* Valentines Day. "Another year, another Valentine's all by myself and Jack Daniels," Sasha says as she pours a long glass.