Isn't It Delicate? - 1989 & REPUTATION

Reputation Knights has learned, from a very young age, that love is conditional and pain is routine. Growing up in a cramped, decaying New York apartment with her parents, Jeremy and Kelly, she is surrounded by alcohol, violence, and constant reminders that she is unwanted. They call her a burden, a waste of money, a mistake. And over the years, those words begin to feel heavier than the bruises. By eight years old, even her birthday becomes just another lesson in disappointment.

As Reputation grows older, she becomes quiet, watchful, and sharp in ways no child should have to be. School is not a refuge, only a pause. Home is a place to survive, not to belong. By sixteen, almost seventeen, she is already exhausted by living, carrying the weight of adulthood without any of its freedoms. When her parents announce they're having another baby, Reputation's anger finally boils over. She knows exactly what kind of life that child will be born into, and the thought of someone else enduring the same cruelty pushes her into a violent confrontation with her parents.

Months later, her parents return from the hospital with the newborn, and leave the baby, naked and crying, abandoned on the apartment floor. Reputation finds her by accident. When she picks the baby up, the crying stops instantly. In that moment, something in Reputation breaks open and reforms into resolve. She names her sister 1989, calling her Nine, and silently swears that no matter what it costs, Nine will not grow up the way she did.