Hortense Tennebaum

Registry of the Non-Evolved Database

File #29 Jan 2011 01:11

Summary

Name Hortense Penelope Tennebaum Aliases Status Registered Non-Evolved Gender Female Race/Eth. Caucasian Birthdate Age 27 Height 5'10 Build Slim Eyes Gray Hair Brown Residence Battery Park Marina - Slip 42 Employment Self Employed - Masseuse Parents Addison Tennenbaum Petunia Tennenbaum Siblings Brother 1 Brother 2 Sister 1 Marital Status Divorced Children None First Seen Freedom To Go Last Seen Profile Hortense - don't shorten it, she likes it as it is, is a tremendously superstitious roving masseuse who reside in a houseboat (Good Mooring) in New York, occasionally can be found doing street side or malls when not working, giving mini massages in her chair to get new clients and has some of the worst luck in the world.

portrayed by Mandy Moore

Background

Hortense Peneleope Tennenbaum is a mouthful of a name for any person but Hortense herself seems to fill it fairly well. A woman with a joyous sense of humor, one has to have it when saddled with such a name. Born to a small family, upper middle class and on it's way with a string of family owned car dealerships out in Jersey, uneventful childhoods spent kicking tires, learning to be a charmer, the ins and outs of motors and how to best care for cars and sailing with her grandparents on their vacations up and down the coast and really good cars when turning 16. Three generations of Jersey and proud of it. Minus the accent, long nail and big hair.

Then there was the falling out. It wasn't that they objected to her chosen vocation when she graduated highschool and opted to become a masseuse instead of something that would benefit the family business like a business degree. Her parents were disappointed but her grandfather who she was closest to, understood. Sometimes, kicking tires and selling them wasn't in the blood and he could see it wasn't in hers. Making people feel better was and he couldn't deny that she could give a real mean shoulder rub.

No. It was the marriage at 19 to her high school sweetheart turned asshole. They all saw the writing on the board before that, knew that he was nothing but trouble and would break her heart. But it's always those outside the situation who see if but your too stubborn to. However they were always a family that believed in you learning your lesson without interference. Children gotta make mistakes and get themselves out of it, without help. Or how will they learn? They never even attended the wedding, refused to give their permission but that didn't stop them from tying the knot and they did. He was sleeping around within three months and she was too oblivious with love to see it.

And because of that, she became estranged from them over the next few years. Not welcome to bring Derek with her, a pregnancy scare or two, one miscarriage, she resolutely stuck to her guns and her husband. Only her grandfather kept ties on the sly with her, believing that family sticks to family no matter what. Her being His only granddaughter too, he made sure that she had some contact, took her out sailing - Husband welcome - and ensured that she wasn't alone, would know she was still loved. He knew at some point, that she would see the light, he had faith in her. There are always exceptions to the rule and she was his.

Then she caught him red handed, in their bed with one of her so called best friends from work. Needless to say, she was down a friend, up a doctors bill for blood tests - god knows who else he had slept with - and less 210 pounds of cheating man through a nasty divorce.

She was also down an apartment. Somehow he had managed to make out good and take her for everything such was her luck. She didn't feel like she could go home even though her parents had made noises that she was welcome. That was defeat. And she had pride. Her grandfather however, always the one to come and lean her up when she needed it, gave her a suggestion. He was heading to Florida, going to retire, spend the cold winters there. Would she mind taking the boat? The boat in question was the "Good Mooring" and while he could take it down with him, he was getting on in years and it was harder for him to take care of it.

He could, but it was an excuse, a way around his granddaughters pride. Which is how she came to the battery Park Marina and called it home. Divorce took a great deal out of her finances, her personal belongings, but her work could take her anywhere and there was no lack of people who needed a little stress relief and therapy. She still had her job, had a car. Her grandfather would take care of the slip fee's, she'd pay for her parking spot and the utilities that came with living aboard a boat. She could jump across the harbor, park the boat and visit her parents and then head back home. It was strange transitioning from living in a building with four walls and a roof to a boat with it's constant movement.

Within a year though, midtown had blown and what few windows she had on the boat had needed to be replaced as they had blown out from the force of Peter's implosion. She'd spent two weeks at a hotel before it was repaired and the world, or at least New York, seemed to stop. It made the Tennenbaum family be a little more aware to how close they needed to get back to being and Hortense too and out of the tragedy came a reforming of familial bonds.

That was a lean time for her, and thank god for her grandfather. Getting massages didn't seem to be on the top of everyone's priority list. But the city started to recover in as much as it could and life for those not afflicted too hard by the disaster soon found life getting back to normal. Only with the giant ugly scar as a reminder. One that she could see if she took a bos'un seat to the top of her mast and looked.

She kept working for a small spa, going over the years - two failed relationships - a cat, two goldfish and a decision with the backing of some private clients to open her own massage business brought her to where she is. No store front means that she doesn't have the overhead, her equipment kept in a locker assigned to her slip or in her car.

She had to abandon the Good Mooring in the winter of 09/10 when not even her little heater in the boat could keep up with the heat. She returned to a boat that needed some minor repairs but had weathered it well.

Martial Law and Curfew has been hell on her and brings her into more contact with police than she ever has over her whole life and she's no stranger to the post 9pm knocks on her hull asking if she's at home. Or the inquiry as to where her boat was on the nights when she hoofs it to Jersey. It's not uncommon for her to need to produce paperwork or stop so patrols on the river can check out her boat. Terrorists don't you know? She can't say that living in New York hasn't made her contemplate drawing up anchor and taking off for other ports. Not like she can't work her profession elsewhere or she's lacking the skills to get there.

But she sticks around, because there's family nearby, because she likes her clients and she's loathe to give up on a city that could use a little hand.

Psych Profile

Hortense is not as stuffy and uptight as her name might imply. No chin rising, back straight and A-type. No. Hortense is loose, easygoing, ride with the flow and see where it takes you. Unless it's head first into trouble. But with her luck, and she acknowledges that she has some of the worst luck at times, it's inescapable.

She doesn't like the city as it's turned into, the fear that lurks at every corner, even though it's frankly done good for her own business as more people don't want to emerge from their homes and brave the streets and are more willing to hire someone to come to them. Evolved's have mystified her, tend to put her at ill ease when they're knowingly around her. She doesn't like them, but she's not keen on them and not on ones who flash their abilities. More because as she's seen, they tend to draw attention and people with guns.

Family is good, and while she spent a period estranged from hers, she's big on it and will go out of her way to do what needs done for them. A friend in need is a friend indeed and she'll do them a solid with no expectation of reciprocation or pay back. She has a pretty broad and sometimes strange sense of humor, to call people out on disgusting behaviors like fur wearing, cigarette smoking, law breaking. She unashamed to make a spectacle of herself in forms that aren't so public and more relegated to dark bars where she can karaoke - sometimes badly - and enjoy a night (early) out with friends. She has a bad tendency to forget moderation and over-indulge.

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