This is a read-only archive of the Gateway Roleplay forums as they were on Oct 22, 2026. Posting, reactions and logins are disabled.

≫ WHAT'S UP WITH GATEWAY ROLEPLAY? ≪

  • We've been radio silent for a long time now. We posted an announcement in our Discord server back in April of 2025, but never updated the forums. So what's up with Gateway Roleplay?

    After 5 long years, we've decided to place the development of Ties That Bind on an indefinite hold.

    This doesn't mean it's cancelled. We fully intend to run Ties That Bind: What Lies Beneath and Ties That Bind: City of Angels eventually. But to do so, we need to take a step back. In the meantime, we'll be working on smaller, invite-only projects.

    Thank you to everyone who has stuck with us this long! MindGate and I (Pika) have been working on this server for over a decade now. It truly is a passion project for us.

Danielle Stenton | Pika

  • Thread starter Pika
  • Start date
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Pika

Pika

Co-Owner | Resident Gerbil
Staff member
Dumbass Lesbian
Application Master
Owner
Admin
Donator++
Donator+
Donator
Joined
Aug 26, 2019
Messages
1,191
Points
63
Location
hell
Whitelist Name
Danielle Stenton

I Agree
Yes

Has this character appeared in a previous lore?
No

Age
17

Personality
Dani is a kind girl, albeit a bit of a jokester. She's incredibly extroverted and sociable, finding it easy to form relationships with others. She cares greatly for her friends and will do whatever she can to protect them. She tends to value others over herself unless the situation is incredibly dire. Although she's typically positive, when things get to her they get to her. It's easy for guilt to overtake her.

More than anything, she hopes to one day see her best friends again. A longshot, maybe, but she can dream. She uses humor to cope with stress. It may seem as if she's making light of situations when it's actually quite the opposite. She tries to appear strong and brave, though ultimately she's still a child.

Physical Appearance
Dani has long brown hair and dark brown eyes. She's around 5'5'' with a fit build. She wears glasses, and she's got dimples, too! She typically wears graphic tees and short-shorts, along with black striped Adidas sneakers. Her whole clothing style is pretty casual.

Currently, she has a notable amount of cuts and bruises. She's bandaged what she could with what little medical supplies was left at her grandmother's house. The majority are on her legs.

Character Image Link

In-Character Profession
Student

Would you like your character to start with any items?
Duffelbag
Bedtime Stories
I'll spawn the rest in myself, that's all I can think of now.

Would you like to pre-claim a building?
6670,5509,0

Biography
In the early hours of the morning on May 15, 2002, Danielle Stenton was born to her parents, Melissa and Gregory Stenton. She lived a relatively happy life. Her parents doted on her; her friends loved her; she felt as if she would be able to live carefree just as she always had for the rest of her life. But, of course, all good things come to an end.

Dani grew up in Nashville, Tennesse. Her family owned a sizable home on a nice side of town. She had always been a sociable girl; she had no trouble making friends with the other neighborhood kids. She’d spend her days running around outside, hanging out in her treehouse, doodling all sorts of things. She was so easily occupied that she rarely ever found herself bored.

At the age of 3, her parents signed her up for a youth soccer team at the local YMCA. Dani absolutely adored it. Soccer was an outlet for her to let out all her excess energy. As exhausting as it was, she’d feel giddy each and every week, unable to wait for her Saturday morning games. She continued on with the sport until she aged out of classes offered at 14.

Although her love for soccer ran deep, Dani had a bigger passion: art. Specifically digital art. She received her first drawing tablet at the age of twelve—a Wacom Bamboo Pen and Touch. She’d practice each and every day, even going as far as to pirate a copy of Paint Tool Sai. She had only ever done traditional art prior to receiving a tablet, so it took a bit of getting used to, but Dani excelled. She gained quite the following on Tumblr for her fanart of various different series. Namely, Avatar the Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra. She was having the time of her life.

It was around 11 or 12 that Dani began to realize that she was different from the other girls. Everyone was getting older. They suddenly began to fantasize over boys and gossip about crushes and boyfriends, and… none of that ever clicked with Dani. Quite the opposite, really. The thought of kissing a boy was nauseating to her. But girls? That was a totally different story. While most girls obsessed over One Direction and 5SOS, Dani found herself enthralled by girl groups. Probably more enthralled than she should have been. But that was normal to her.

At 13, Dani came out to her family as a lesbian. Although initially surprised, her parents took the news fairly well. As well as they could have. Her mother expressed some disappointment; though, that didn’t last long. Coming out was incredibly liberating for her. Dani felt happier and more… her, than ever. That was all her parents could have ever hoped for.

Hoping to pursue art as a career in the future, Dani applied to attend Nashville School of the Arts. It was a private high school for students primarily interested in the arts. Her portfolio must have impressed the admissions committee because it wasn’t long before she heard news back that she was accepted. Dani was ecstatic. She knew that she had a bright future.

It was at the school’s welcome ceremony that Dani had the chance meeting of a lifetime. Everyone had filed into the auditorium and sat down. The chairs were cheap plastic folding chairs, the kind that makes you feel sore after sitting in them for a while. The chairs were pressed close together to cram as many students inside as they possibly could. It was humid and she was sweating buckets. An all-around unpleasant experience.
Dani looked to the girls sitting beside her. The girl to her left had short black hair that was shaved on her sides. She may have been the only Asian girl in the room, but Dani didn’t want to bother looking. The girl to her right had short blonde hair. It was a complete mess. In fact—it looked as if the girl had barely gotten any sleep the night before. She looked absolutely exhausted. Not like Dani could blame her.

Hoping to strike up a conversation, she nudged the girl on her left and whispered something to her. Some cheesy joke she thought up on the spot. The girl giggled. Though, this seemed to have attracted the attention of the other girl. She stared at the two, her eyes wide, then gestured back to the front of the auditorium. They both just giggled.

They chatted all throughout the assembly, cracking jokes and discussing their interests. They even managed to string the other girl into the conversation. It was clear that they were interrupting the other students around them, but they didn’t really care. It was their first day of high school and they were already having a great time, and that’s what mattered.

That was how Dani made her first two friends in high school: Stella Takeuchi and Samantha Thompson. Each of them studied a different aspect of art. Sam focused on drawing and painting, while Stella was enthralled with sculpting. They had a couple of classes together, despite this, and spent the majority of them passing notes around to each other. Every day they’d scout out an empty classroom and eat lunch inside. It was much better than the cafeteria, which was unbearably loud.

The three felt as if they were inseparable. It was always the three of them. Always.

And then Dani caught feelings.

While it’s difficult to pinpoint exactly when she started to feel different about Stella, it was most likely somewhere around the beginning of their sophomore year. Sure, Dani had experienced crushes before, but they had never been that… intense. Even the simple act of glancing at Stella made her heart race. Whenever Sam would go somewhere briefly, leaving the two of them alone, Dani would grow so anxious she couldn’t even speak. She was sure Stella could tell—though if she did, she never said anything about it.

Dani knew that Stella was a lesbian. That was something she had made very clear. She was more out than even Dani was. Her being a girl wasn’t an issue. The issue was Sam. Dani worried constantly that Sam would be upset if she were to voice her feelings. She felt that it may cause a rift between the three of them. She wouldn’t be able to bear that. Or even worse—what if Sam liked Stella too? While she wasn’t out, it was very clear that she was gay, even if she constantly denied it. Dani found it incredibly difficult to overcome her internal struggle.

Finally, in the middle of their junior year, she told Sam. To Dani’s surprise, she took it incredibly well. In fact, she cheered her on, encouraging her to confess to Stella. Dani gained a sense of confidence that she never knew she was capable of having. She confessed to Stella after school the very same day, and she reciprocated!

While spending time alone with Stella felt a bit weird, it was also… nice. Dani wanted to stay by her side forever. She was living the dream.

High school had flown by. The end of their junior year came before they knew it. The three bid each other farewell. While they would certainly spend the majority of the summer together, Dani’s family had been planning a trip to visit her grandparents down in Jubilee, Texas for two weeks. May 17th to June May 31st. Those were the dates. If only they had known beforehand that they wouldn’t be coming home.

Everything ended so suddenly. It was too much for Dani to take in. Her parents nearly busted down the door of the room she was staying in to tell her the news: there were mass murders all around the country. People were tearing each other apart. The military was losing the fight. It felt like something out of a zombie movie.

She tried to text Stella and Sam, but the reception was dead. She couldn’t get through to them, no matter how many times she tried. Her parents returned not long after, telling her that they had to evacuate immediately. Dani grabbed her duffel and stuffed whatever she could inside—which wasn’t much—and piled into the car with her family. She thought everything would be alright, she thought they’d get out.

But they didn’t.

While peeling out of the neighborhood, her father came across a horde of those… things. He attempted to swerve away but veered off the road and into a ditch. Their car flipped. Dani briefly lost consciousness. It felt like the whole world was spinning. She came to not even a minute later, the sound of moaning defeaning. Blood trickled down her forehead. She wasn’t sure how badly she was injured, but there was no time to figure it out. Her family was screaming. One had broken through the windshield and her father was attempting to bat it away with a bag, but it managed to get ahold of his arm, gnashing into it.

Dani did the only thing she could think to do: she grabbed her bag, made her way out through the trunk, and made a break for it. She left her family behind to save her own life. It’s her biggest regret.

She spent the next two weeks ducking in and out of random houses, attempting to keep herself alive. They were the only things keeping her going. She wanted more than anything else to see Sam and Stella again, but there was no way she would be able to make her way back to Tennessee. She was stranded, all alone in a crumbling world.

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Lil_Bit

Lil_Bit

the GOAT
Joined
Sep 7, 2019
Messages
20
Points
13
Heya, Pika! I've reviewed your application and it's accepted!

Here's your login info:


Username: Danielle Stenton
Password: lostgirl
You'll be whitelisted once the server is up and running.


If you have any questions, feel free to respond and ask. Thanks!