#If I say in a description that they’re someone else’s sibling then it’s a bio relation not adoptive

[shockwave-the-dog]

K I shall talk abt my sillies :3

@theanoninyourinbox since you asked

My sillies (formally known as the Hazardous Warfare Division) are a squadron of 9 decepticons, most of whom were experimented on in some capacity, and found family in each other, as they felt unwanted by those around them.

Hazard - he/him - modified tank alt

Hazard is the de facto leader of the HWD. He’s the largest and physically strongest of the group, and is arguably the most responsible out of all of them (aside from Crux). The experiments he underwent made him nigh-indestructible and incredibly acid resistant. His blasters were modified to essentially shoot acid. He’s also the one Autobots tend to fear the most, as, on the battlefield, he comes across as cold, merciless, and brutal. In actuality, he puts on a ‘mask’ during battles so the Autobots don’t see just how afraid he is of losing his siblings. Outside of battle, he’s a fun-loving gentle giant who cares very very much for his siblings and friends.

Crux - she/her - drone alt

Crux is a mini bot and the team medic. Obviously, she’s the shortest of the group, but she’s also the oldest and the most responsible aside from Hazard. She used to be an Autobot, but left for reasons she has yet to specify. Because of this, she’s the only one in the group who wasn’t experimented on. She comes across as strict more often than not, but it comes from a place of love. She’s kind, compassionate, and is constantly checking up on her team to make sure they’re taking care of themselves.

Havoc - he/she - jet alt

Havoc is the spy and communications officer of the team. She’s actually Hazard’s older sibling, having raised him when the two of them were quite young, after the sudden deaths of their carrier and sire. The experiments Havoc underwent effectively turned him into a glass cannon. He wields a powerful sniper rifle, capable of easily punching through the armor of most bots. However, Havoc’s frame was heavily modified for speed and stealth, rendering their plating quite…thin. Most hits that would only injure most bots could be devastating for Havoc. She’s terrified of being seen as weak, and hides it behind a cheeky, sarcastic, and quick-witted attitude. She comes across as carefree, but truly she cares very very much.

Freezefire - he/she/they - submarine alt

Freezefire is the one who typically handles all the heavy lifting. Freezefire was actually not experimented on by the decepticons, but by their carrier, Dreadclaw. Their sparkling-hood with Dreadclaw is one that they do not speak of often, but it’s pretty clear to their siblings that Dreadclaw was responsible for their current abilities. The experiments that Freezefire underwent effectively granted them cryo-kinesis. Their frame is almost always unnaturally cold, with the tips of their digits constantly coated in a layer of frost. They wield a specialized blaster that’s attached to their frame which shoots blasts of ice that’ll freeze a bot in solid ice when hit. Freezefire is very quiet and reserved. They have problems trusting others, and it makes them come across as cold and aloof. It took a long time of knowing Hazard and Havoc in order for them to become comfortable with joining the HWD.

Paradox - she/they - small gryphon alt

Paradox is the group’s scientist and engineer. She’s in charge of dealing with things when they break or are in need of an upgrade. Paradox’s experimentation came in the form of her alt mode. Initially, she was a small hazmat truck, but after getting severely injured on a mission, she was reformatted to be a predacon. Hating how she was treated because of her new animalistic alt mode, she went off on her own for a while before meeting Crux and deciding to join the HWD. Initially, they come across as shy, anxious, and fidgety. But that’s only with bots they don’t know. When around bots that they know and are comfortable with, they’re much more open and talkative. If they like you and you get them talking, they can and will ramble to you about their special interest.

Tempest - he/him - heavy artillery cannon alt

Typhoon - he/they - hover car alt

Tempest and Typhoon are a package deal. If you get one you have to get the other. The twins refuse to leave each other alone. Tempest went under experiments to grant him the ability of producing sonic booms. Tempest’s artillery fire is designed so that, instead of exploding upon impact, release a sonic boom that deafens anyone not protecting their audials. The experiments Typhoon underwent implanted a power core in his chassis, granting him the ability of building up power and using it to electrify those he touches. He likes to randomly shock the others to fuck with them. Tempest does not take any shit. He’s got a very serious and no-nonsense attitude, and doesn’t like it all that much when Typhoon does things just to fuck with the others. He’s disciplined, loyal, and determined to do what he can to keep his family safe. Typhoon, on the other hand, is very un-serious. He’s very cheerful and happy-go-lucky, and always tries to make the best out of bad situations. He messes with the others purposefully to try and distract them whenever they’re upset.

Savage - it/its - amphibious aircraft alt

Savage is certainly a guy. It’s the older sibling of the group’s youngest member, Feral, and can be a bit much to be around. The experiments it underwent was a failed attempt at making them into a sort of super soldier, capable of surviving in any environment. The project didn’t get very far before it was shut down. The small part of the project that it did get to go through granted it enhanced senses, along with sharp claws and teeth. Though it also resulted in a bit of a change in behavior, as it made it more easily overstimulated, and prone to biting when agitated or stressed. Outside of that, Savage is fierce, snarky, and competitive. It takes no nonsense during missions, but despite that it relishes in the thrill that combat brings. It isn’t afraid to get its servos dirty, especially when it means pranking their siblings.

and finally…

Feral - they/them - helicopter

Ah yes, the youngest member of the HWD. Feral is the younger sibling of Savage, and looks up to their family members a lot, especially Crux. The experiments that Feral underwent were to make their plating resistant to fire and extreme temperatures, as well as giving them blasters that spit fire and a stomach full of lava. Feral is headstrong, firey, and reckless, often throwing themself into danger with little regard for their safety. They’re also playful and mischievous, responsible for starting a prank war between themself, Savage, and Havoc. However, this leads to them not getting along very well with Decepticons outside of the HWD, often being responsible for starting fights.

Edit: pretend I didn’t forget to add this

The sillies, in order from oldest to youngest are: Crux, Havoc, Freezefire, Hazard, Tempest, Typhoon, Savage, Paradox, and Feral.

Megatron thinks of them as loyal and highly capable warriors, but the rest of Decepticon High Command? Not so much. The HWD only answer to Megatron (and Soundwave) and it pisses off Starscream and worries the others bc the HWD could be a threat to Decepticon High Command with so few people keeping them in check.

Does anyone want to listen to me talk about my TF ocs

[halfgclden]

EPISODE 32: A MAJOR OCCURANCE

The sound of spooky intro music plays and fades out. As the microphone clicks on, faint sounds of water and traffic can be heard in the background.

JADE: Hello cryptwizzlers, cryptrackers, but never cryptormentors because we’re all friends here. Welcome to a very special episode of Cryptwins in which we are not actually researching a cryptid. But! Before you shut this off and call us hacks, we are instead researching the recent disappearance of social media fitness guru; Edison Major.

More spooky music plays. There is also the sound of fingers tapping a rhythm. It's typical Joel, unable to contain his energy as he taps the dashboard in time with their intro music.

JOEL: Weeeeeeeell...Maybe we are hacks. —a pause as he laughs— Nah, just kidding. This is the real deal. I'm not sure you're ready for this. This is some spooky, and excuse my French, spooky shit. Tell us more about this Major disappearance? —another laugh— Get it?

JADE: [A short laugh-sigh is let out at Joel’s joke.] Okay, before we begin, two things. One, get ready for the barrage of major and minor jokes, courtesy of Joel here.

JOEL: Got a whole list, be ready! He lets Jade finish, but listeners can still hear the tapping sound while she speaks.

JADE: Secondly, we’re still on the road here, so if the audio is bad or choppy... deal with it? —another small laugh— Anyyyyway. Spooky is right. This all began in September of last year, when @majored posted a picture of himself in a dark basement wearing a weird costume and then immediately went off the grid. And, you know, I’m all for a social media cleanse, people do it all the time. Buuut, what really brought this to our attention was a month later, on Halloween Eve of all nights, when a video popped up of him getting his ass kicked by someone in a Kakashi Hatake costume.

JOEL: Now, I know y'all are asking yourselves "Isn't he a fitness guru? Why was some weeb kickin' his ass?" And to that I say hey! Some weebs are strong, some are Super Saiyan, and others are Kakashi Hatake, the most talented ninja in Konohagukure.

JADE: lets out a laughing wheeze.

JOEL: We don't endorse fighting here. But I digress —a laugh— back on topic. So this guy just up and disappears out of nowhere? And there's not a peep of him until we see Kakashi givin’ him the business. What does this all mean?

JADE: Okay, so, let’s get the full story. @majored goes off the grid, comes back to get his ass kicked by a Naruto character, disappears again, comes back to spit on someone and call them a see you next Tuesday, and then disappears again. And he hasn’t come back online. So what’s up with that? Well... we did a little digging.

Another spooky noise plays over the sound of Jade organizing a stack of papers.

JOEL: Daaaaaaang. I’d say those are some fightin' words, especially from someone who keeps pulling a vanishing act, don’t ya think?

JADE: They really are! I mean, he is from New Zealand, but even so, I think you don’t use that word unless you want to attract some attention. -She clicks her tongue as she gets back on topic- The video was originally posted the night before Halloween of last year, by @ime.are on Twitter. Obviously they got a lot of hate and questions after posting this, but all of them were left unanswered. The only person in the video that was tagged was Major, but upon further examination, this Ime seems to follow and have pictures with someone who happened to be dressed as Kakashi that same night, which has led many to speculate that these ninjas are the same person.

JOEL: So we all know Halloween's a spooooky season. Perfect for parties and all that jazz. But all those costumes make it a perfect time for disguises. Was that even the real Major? Was the person who spit the real Major? Who is this Ime and how do they fit into the story? And who— a pause for dramatic effect and muffled laughter as he tries to stay serious— is this mystery ninja? Tell us more!

JADE: Alright, alright. So this mystery ninja goes by Abel, or @_kllledbycain on the Gram. At first glance, they look pretty much like every other TikTok e-boy; black and white photos, pet snake, the insinuation that they’re dead, whole nine yards.

JOEL: snorts when Jade announces their handle, and again at her eboy comment, wheezing. It's true, it's true!

JADE: And this stuff is so common right now, so nothing really raises any eyebrows, right? Right? Well, tell me, why would a Tik Tok goth go around beating the crap out of a random influencer? Stay tuned for the theory. First, we’re gonna take a step back and look at the whole situation, because, of course, it doesn’t end there.

JOEL: Ohhhh snap! I'm on the edge of my seat, and I bet our listeners are too.

JADE: [clears her throat] So if we go back to the original poster of the video, @ime.are, and we take a look at their Insta, who is on it but... @devinitely? Okay, so @devinitely is in the same place as @majored, clearly, and, for anyone that doesn’t know, she’s been doing a bunch of collabs with @loganvance. This places not one, not two, but three influencers all together in this place where weebs are running around assaulting people.

JOEL: Okay. Okay, I need to know! Where are they? What's bringing all these influencers together? Are @devinitely and @loganvance part of something much more sinister than it seems? [He makes a funny face at Jade and wiggles his fingers, before dropping his voice to a stage-whisper.] Is it some kind of twisted influencer cult?

JADE: Shhhh, Joel, spoilers.

JOEL: [He laughs.] Sorry, sorry!

JADE: [muffled laughter over the sound of more papers rustling.] So, any skeptics out there might say, oh, well, this Ime Are is just a lucky person who happens to be in the presence of more than one social media personality. However, Devin follows the weeb that may or may not have kicked Major's ass. And, according to a cast photo of Rocky Horror, on her boyfriend's Instagram, both the weeb in question and the hot man that tore the two apart were part of the cast. This would be a great time to mention that a link to the video is in the description, as are all the pictures from social media that I'm referencing.

JOEL: [to Jade but loud enough for the mic to pick it up at regular volume] Oh snap, you got everything together in a link? Like, I could click the link to check it out right now? — A pause as he does just that.— Woah, cryptwizzlers, she's not kidding. Click the link in bio, you won't be disappointed. Okay, Jade...hear me out. Given that it was Halloween, the night of nights. Do you think that...maybe it was all an elaborate event? Was it staged? Is any of this real?

JADE: Oh, my dear brother, always the skeptic. Don’t you think that it’s a bit much for him to stop posting entirely in order to get publicity? And we mustn’t forget the spitting on someone in South Dakota, that’s not exactly his brand. Unless he’s trying out something like Taylor Swift and Reputation but... I digress. No, I don’t think any of this is staged, and I’ll tell you why. Let’s go back to the weird cow print basement post. You know who also happened to post something about some cowboy party? Oh, um, Devin’s boyfriend? A picture of him, Devin, and Logan? Which... puts them and Major in the same place on the night that he disappeared.

JOEL: Not a skeptic! Just trying to get all these questions answered. —A laugh— You're right, that's 180 from the online presence he used to have. All theories aside, —a pause— I'd love to go to a cowboy party. Get me a glow-in-the-dark cowboy hat. You know they make 'em. —He laughs again, mouthing 'what?' to Jade.—

JADE: Oh, def. We're getting matching hats. Check out our merch in a few weeks —she laughs— Glow in the dark mothman themed cowboy hats, talk about a niche.

JOEL: Snap, we have to do that now, 'cause I want one real bad. But okay, back on track. This cowboy party. The origin of this theory, yeah? Oh snap...what were those three doing in the same place as Major? And all in cow print too? That's....majorly suspicious! [He trails off into laughter, his voice doing that wheezy thing when someone's trying to finish their sentence before cracking up. Recovering, he adds the following.] Wait, wait, wait. What about—

JADE: Yes, yes, yes. —she cuts Joel off as though he's finished his sentence, chuckling at his joke— Patience, my dear twin, we will get there. —the smile is evident in her voice—

JOEL: I feel like somehow, I ended up as your Padawan for this episode. — he laughs—

JADE: You heard it here, I'm absolutely schooling Joel this episode. — she laughs— First, we're going to backtrack all the way to the original poster again. You know we snooped their whole page, and they're pretty regularly posting pictures with this person, @rengaaay, who isn't an influencer but she makes some of those sick ass roller skating videos... this isn't sus, just cool, link in the description. —a slight pause as she tries to get back to her train of thought— Anyway, what is sus is that she tags two people in her photos all the time... But no joke guys check out their Insta profiles they look different in like every other picture. Which, uh, could just be editing but also could be something.... more sinister? Hold onto that thought.

JOEL: That's such a good handle, dang! Better than @lumberjoel, honestly. I have to say I'm jelly. We should get branded rollerskates, maybe @rengaaay can advertise for us if we ship them. JK...unless? —more laughter as he waits for Jade to get back on the train and pulls up the profiles in question to take a look for himself— Huh...is it editing? Are they masters of disguise? Makeup professionals? —He starts to say something else but is pretty sure he's figured out where Jade's going with this.— What could be more sinister than human chameleons?

JADE: [The sound of papers shuffling can be heard] Oh, yeah, so, it's weird but I think every time the siblings are in a pic together they look more like each other? I dunno if this really makes sense but seriously dudes check the post with this episode because it has a bunch of photos side by side and... yeah. You pull a photo of them by themself and it's like okay, I know what this dude looks like and then you put them side by side and... I dunno, makeup? Contacts? Cloning, mayhaps? And, just so that I'm not just holding on to one thing too much... check their post from August 12th, linked below. Their brother... doesn't have a shadow. Why would you edit that out of a photo? No way are they going that hard to be memelords.

JOEL: Okay, let me look at this. Wha— That's weird as hell. How much hair dye do these two use? Hm. Could be clones? —snaps his fingers—Definitely clones. —he snorts loudly, laughing before clearing his throat— Ahem, uh. No shadow? That's dedication! I dunno, maybe it's some new challenge for the 'gram. Oh...but wait. I found a video. Look, Jade. No shadow. In a video. What the—

JADE: A video, guys. —A moment of muffled laughter before her mic cuts out, but the sound of it clicking on again is followed almost immediately— This is a big family, guys, and a big weird one because their other brother @sleepyfinch... Okay, wait, he himself is pretty normal, super cute, shout out, but guys, ghouls, you know who he has tagged in a recent post? Yet another influencer. Except this one is from Italy? @gaborealis; essentially, he’s a medium, so if you didn’t believe that the supernatural were at play beforehand... buckle up.

JOEL: Wait, wait, I'm still on the video thing. Who has time to edit a video? —his voice cracks when he says video and he covers his laughter as he focuses—

JADE: [wheezing] Shut up —there is no malice in her voice, and she’s laughing too.—

JOEL: So weird, I love it. Oh snap— the @gaborealis? It's time to get ghosty! —echoes "ghosty" and hums the Cha Cha Slide tune for a couple seconds— Okay, so wait. Does this mean everyone's favorite medium is also in the same place as...three? Three other influencers and this weird family of....maybe shapeshifters? No? Too crazy a theory?

JADE: You know what they say, cryptoddlers; no theory is too crazy. Everything Einstein came up with? Theory.

JOEL: Bringing Einstein into it, huh?

JADE: Oh you know it. —a snort— Anyway, according to Devin’s boyfriend’s Instagram, it doesn’t end there. @spencerkeahi, a youtuber and disability rights advocate who comes from Hawaii is also there with that gaggle. Shout out to @elidrising for tagging people and location. So what are these influencers from all corners of the globe gathering together for? Well, let’s take a look at the original poster again. You go on their Twitter, and a few months back it’s all just videos of people... fighting? In some sort of underground place. Mayhaps... the same creepy basement that Major posted his last photo? —a small gasp, as though she’s surprised by this— No, that must be a coincidence... or is it?

Another spooky sound plays

JOEL: @elidrising is the man, dang! Are you tellin' me there's a...—he lowers his voice to a whisper— secret influencers-only Fight Club? I wouldn't put it past @devinitely TBH. Honestly, I'd join one...even though I guess I've broken the first rule but talking about it, huh? Actually— Jay, do you think we'd even be allowed to join? Are podcasters influencers? Poll in my story right now, let us know what y'all think.

JADE: Right now? Joel, this isn’t going up for another week, at least. —She’s obviously trying to sound less amused than she’s coming off— Once we get the blue check we’re influencers, so we’ve got a few million followers to go, I think.

JOEL: Yeah, right now! They'll hear that when the episode goes up and respond in real ti— Oh, no. You're right. Oops. No poll in my story, y'all. False alarm. Blue check, huh? You heard it here, cryptwizzlers, we're gonna get that blue check. Tell your friends, tell your family. Heck, tell that cute barista at your coffee shop to listen to our podcast! We might just do a giveaway when we get that lil' blue swoosh.

JADE: [clears her throat.] You know what’s a great way to get us that blue check, though?

A different, light sort of spooky music begins playing in the background, meaning that it’s time for the ad break

JOEL: Take it away!

JADE: Checking out a little app called Creature Comforts. Alright guys, not that this show isn’t one hundred percent real as it is, but for real, I love this app. A dating sim that features everyone’s favorite... for lack of a better term, monsters. Did you watch the Shape of Water and go, “Damn, I’d tap that”? Do you want to snuggle with a Sasquatch? Do you just wish you could find yourself a GF with more eyes? Well, have we got the app for you. Creature Comforts lets you do all this and more. A choose-your-own-adventure game where you can smooch beasts, marry Mothman, and ignore the outside world. It’s seriously all I want. And, if you enter the code cryptwins— that’s the name of the podcast you’re listening to, no capital letters, when you download the app, then it’s only 99 cents to play without ads. Which, trust me ghouls, is worth it. I don’t want anything interrupting my cut scene with the most stunning eyes in West Virginia.

JOEL: Don't forget that scuba diving date with Nessie! Or, or...that half-day hike with Bigfoot. —he's laughing again smh— There's a reason Jade does the ad reads and not me. But, I can tell you that Mothman is sure to sweep you off your feet. And it's not just because he can fly.

JADE: It’s the —a pause for finger snapping— alliteration for me. But that’s Creature Comforts, exactly how you think you’d spell it, don’t ask us ‘cause we’re dyslexic, and cryptwins, like the name of this podcast. Tweet us @cryptwins to let us know how far along you are, who you’re pursuing, and what mysteries you unlock about their backstories. Now... I think it’s time for a timeline, just to get us sorted out, what do you think, Joel?

JOEL: Personally, I'm still tryin' to land a date with the Creature from the Black Lagoon. I guess we'll see what happens. Aw heck yeah! Give us a timeline, give us the dirt. — a laugh — Give the people what they want!

JADE: Okay — the shuffling of paper is heard once more — We start in September: @majored goes off the grid after posting a creepy picture of himself in a weird outfit in a spooky basement. This is around the same time that the Scarlet Surfer was in NYC for fashion week, which @majored accompanied him to, meaning that it isn’t entirely out of the question for him to still be in New York. Also on social media at this time is @devinitely and @loganvance also both is cowboy outfits, though the creepy basement is absent from both of them.

JOEL: I guess September isn't too early for weird Halloween stuff to start? What with the spooky basement and everything. Right? And everyone loves a cowboy moment— or have cowboys become the new clown? I heard there was a clown renaissance and people like them now? I don't really know where we stand on the whole clown— what?

JADE: I see our next hot debate. Cowboys: Hot or not? Personally, I liked cow print, but I can see cowboys going out soon. Once they reach killer clown status is when it’ll be ideal for me.

JOEL: Personally, I vote hot. And uhhh, not to kinkshame you Jay, but killer clowns are a no from me.

JADE: [tsks] Kinkshamed, by my own brother no less.

JOEL: [a loud laugh] You know I'm just kidding. No kinkshaking, ya heard? I'd literally let the Jersey Devil step on me so. To each their own.

JADE: [snorting] Um, gross.

JADE: Now to October: There is a production of Rocky Horror, a cast photo is uploaded to @elidrising, the account of @devinitely’s boyfriend. This places not only @devinitely and @loganvance in Montauk, but it also places @crispyboiz and @_kllledbycain in Montauk too. These are two of the people that are suspected to belong in the video by @ime.are, in which (suspected) @_kllledbycain, dressed as Kakashi Hatake attacked @majored, only to be torn apart by good citizen @crispyboiz. This video is the first that we’ve seen of @majored since his last post, and he offers nothing in response to it.

JOEL: Okay. Okay. Now, you know I love a good shadow-cast of Rocky Horror. I've always wanted to play Frank. I would rock that part. Am I wrong? —he laughs— But okay, that's - count 'em - three influencers in one place? If @elidrising is there, we can assume @devinitely is too because she was in the same location as, uh, whatshername? Logan? And that's the same location as @ime.are. Who took the video of  Kakashi kicking @majored's ass. @_kllledbycain— more like killedbyKakashi, eh? Seriously why are all these people together?

JOEL: [as an afterthought] It's gotta be a cult.

JADE: November to December: Nothing happens with @majored, @ime.are also offers nothing except for quote unquote “#teamkakashi”, which is funny because they never tagged Kakashi, but anyways. Upon deeper inspection, there are videos on their Twitter from last May, of people in a fighting ring. And then people fighting on a lake? But the fighting ring looks super dangerous and I dunno, like you said, cult-y? Fight-club-y? Call it what you will. In any case, we are led to believe that this fighting has been going on for some time in the background.

JOEL: Okay, come on. That’s definitely a cult. I’ve seen the movie, can confirm. — he groans— Literally what is an Italian astrologer doing there? Wait, wait, wait. Montauk? You said Montauk. Montauk, as in on Long Island. As in like —he drops his voice to a stage-whisper— the part of Long Island that peeps believe to be the site of a government cover-up involving kidnapping, mind control, and time travel? The part that inspired Stranger Things? That Montauk? Snap. I can’t believe I didn’t put two and two together sooner. Jade, Jade. What if this is, I don’t know, like, MKUltra 2.0?

JADE: Yes, yes that Montauk, I’m glad you picked up on that. Look, I’m not saying that it’s an influencer’s-only thing, but I am saying that some might be in the area, and maybe involved. At the same time throughout all of this, we have a culmination of more influencers seeming to know this network of people. @gaborealis, an Italian astrologer, is seen in pictures of @sleepyfinch, who was also in the production of Rocky Horror, and has pictures with @crispyboiz and, god, this name is a freaking nightmare, @_kllledbycain. Not to mention this guy has many pictures of weird… family members? Who sometimes look alike? Okay, but seriously, @kodakola and @sonofpeter, how is your hair not straw at this point? Is it wigs? I think my hair would simply fall out. And y’all using Insta filters or what, cause… I’m not gonna get into it, let’s keep going.

JOEL: Maybe they're makeup vloggers or something. Gotta change up the look for views, right? Don't forget to like, comment, subscribe and uhhhh, smash that follow button— or whatever YouTubers say. —he laughs— Okay but seriously, yeah. @sonofpeter, @kodakola, whatever you two are doing to your hair, let me know because I'm trying to bleach my hair and dye it bright purple without it falling out. And since we're doing it at our next stop, well, your advice will probably be too late. But still, what are your secrets? Is it...clones?

JADE: Joel! —she’s laughing again.— Timeline and then theories. —she clears her throat— After that long silence, a Tweet emerges. January 8th. "Can’t believe @majored SPAT on me and called me a C-Blank-Blank-T when he checked into @SDFamilyMotel last night”. This places Major across the country from where we believed him to be, but acting so strangely that one must wonder… was that really him? Or was it someone that just looked like him? Or was it a cry for help? Nothing’s been heard since from @majored, which I guess… leads us to our theories. —a pause— You were saying… clones, Joel?

JOEL: Sheeeeesh, this is not @majored's year. I gotta say, this sounds totally different from the vibe that this guy used to put out on his social media. Obviously Instagram is fake blah blah blah, you know the spiel, but like. Damn. He spit on them? —a pause as he considers what his sibling has said— You know....I think that's a really good point. Was that even the real him? Will the real Ed Major please stand up?

JADE: I know. It just seems out of character, and terrible for a reputation, but it also would make sense if... One, this is a fake @majored, meant to stir up controversy before he goes underground again. And with an action like spitting on someone and calling them a name like that? Who cares what the dude does after that? Unfollowed, cancelled, whatever. And why would this guy want to go underground, well, I'm glad you're so interested. Well, the official Cryptwins theory is that maybe... just maybe, the crazy, government cover-up Montauk that we all know and love isn't that far from truth. We see that they have means of covering up shadows —she lets out a laugh— and people whose faces just change? And who else is there, @spencerkeahi, someone who explains rehabilitation, maybe someone who has experience helping people get used to being a clone? @ime.are, a nurse who enjoys taking videos of people fighting? It all adds up, people!

JOEL: Yeah, seriously. With the real @majored MIA, there would be no one to combat the backlash from this supposed...clone? Imposter? And maybe that’s what they want. Looks like Montauk isn’t the ideal vacation spot anymore, huh? Even if their seaside cabins are super chill and homey. But I digress. Something sinister is going on. Something bigger than we can even imagine. A secret underground facility that’s...cloning influencers? Training them? Your guess is as good as mine. And that’s why we’re on this road trip, isn’t that right Jade? To get some answers?

JADE: Exactly. —it sounds as though she is holding back a laugh or a cough.— Cross country roadtrip in which we explore different topics like this one, and on the way, we'll document our progress and any spooky encounters. Check out our insta, @cryptwins to get all the updates, and consider hitting us up on Patreon if you want us to be able to afford the gas to get all the way to the east coast.

JOEL: I’ll be posting behind the scenes content in the “ROADTRIP” highlight on my Insta throughout the trip so be sure to check my stories. You might get lucky and find some special codes for Creature Comforts but, hey. You didn’t hear it from me. -he laughs and there’s the distinct sound of a bag of chips being opened- What Jade meant to say is gas and snack money. So yeah, go go go! Check out the Patreon! We might even do a giveaway at the end of our trip, get you guys some cool souvenirs we pick up on our travels. Not a bad idea, eh?

JADE: Joel, my ears are literally bleeding right now. Thanks. Anyway, our second theory will also be exclusive to our Patrons, so be sure to get the full video there. Cryptwins... out...

Her voice fades out and the music from the beginning fades in, takes over, and plays until the end of the track.

[writtenbyhappynerds]

Unit 3: Face Claims, Please Stop Using Emily Rudd

     Ok. So now lets look at face claims. Face claims are a broader topic to character creation and OCs as a whole. I like face claims. They’re great, because they allow you the writer to get in your head what the main character looks like and how they fit in with the cast and the world. I have nothing against face claims, I use them myself because I like to visualize what I’m working with. However, as we’ve seen in Unit 2, it’s on the writer to convey what the character looks like. As we’ve seen in Unit 1, the character should be cohesive with the rules of the universe. Face claims and characterization can apply the first two units very easily. 

     Reference images are for your eyes only, so that you can see what the character looks like. When describing a character, pull details from your reference image to explain what they look like. You do not have to be overly specific. Ebony Dark'ness Dementia Raven Way is a prime example of being overly specific, given the first paragraph of her fanfiction My Immortal is: 

     “Hi my name is Ebony Dark’ness Dementia Raven Way and I have long ebony black hair (that’s how I got my name) with purple streaks and red tips that reaches my mid-back and icy blue eyes like limpid tears and a lot of people tell me I look like Amy Lee (AN: if u don’t know who she is get da hell out of here!). I’m not related to Gerard Way but I wish I was because he’s a major fucking hottie. I’m a vampire but my teeth are straight and white. I have pale white skin. I’m also a witch, and I go to a magic school called Hogwarts in England where I’m in the seventh year (I’m seventeen). I’m a goth (in case you couldn’t tell) and I wear mostly black. I love Hot Topic and I buy all my clothes from there. For example today I was wearing a black corset with matching lace around it and a black leather miniskirt, pink fishnets and black combat boots. I was wearing black lipstick, white foundation, black eyeliner and red eyeshadow.”

     Never do this. I will find you and we will have a very nice conversation about how to improve your writing. Ebony Dark’ness Dementia Raven Way breaks the three big rules of characterization and character description: She drops the face claim directly in the narrative (Amy Lee, lead singer of Evanescence), she describes every characterizing feature about her (vampire teeth, ebony black hair), and she describes her complete outfit. To give a better standard of describing characters, we are going to fix Ebony Dark’ness Dementia Raven Way. 

     Young Adult novels very often stick to height, hair color, eye color, and body shape. This is something you as an author should think about, but sticking just to this blueprint can be pretty generic. When you look at other people, those aren’t the only things you notice, right? Those aren’t even things you necessarily need! A big example of going against the grain of the standard is found in The Great Gatsby. Despite having loads of color imagery, we never learn what Daisy’s hair color or eye color is. But somehow, we don’t need them because we are supplemented with, “Her face was sad and lovely with bright things in it. Bright eyes and a bright, passionate mouth.” Fitzgerald focuses on how his characters carry themselves and their facial expressions. These give descriptions of their personalities. When he does describe hair color or eye color, he does it in a way that fits with the style and vibe of his writing, and you as a writer can do the same. 

     In my own personal opinion, eye color does not need to be described immediately. You can save small descriptions of your characters and sprinkle them in throughout the story, rather than dumping an appearance in one paragraph. In one instance you can describe what a character’s wearing, and in another later on, describe their hair as they pull it away from their face. Describe it as it changes from the normal. Jeremy Scott’s The Ables is a great example of character description and characterization. The main character is blind, which means that the cast gets by on contrasting personalities. We don’t know the ethnicity of many of the characters until we’re halfway through the book, and the main character only learns his basic appearance because it’s been described to him by his parents. Things like eye color and hair color and how tall someone is don’t matter as a whole. What matters is how it can be applied and further the story and the personality of the character. A character having curly brown hair? Don’t necessarily need that. A character who takes the time to curl her brown hair every morning? That tells me something about that character. Small moments, and giving descriptors through details can really help you avoid the paragraph dump. 

     Character Bios are the bane of my existence. Do not put character bios in the beginning of your fanfiction. All you’re doing is giving me a paragraph I’m not going to read. Character bios are lazy writing. It’s low-hanging fruit to mention them as something to not do. There are so many ways to incorporate detail into a story. By putting in a character bio, you tell the reader that you either: don’t know how to incorporate these facts, are too lazy to incorporate these facts, or don’t care enough about what you’re writing to incorporate this information that we must know immediately about your character. In addition, we don’t need to know your character’s favorite color and the music they like on page one, so why do that to yourself? Not caring about your work can ruin a fanfiction. If you don’t care about what you’re putting out there, how can you expect your audience to care enough to read it. 

     Another important aspect of characterization is show-don’t-tell. Which we’ve all heard, but I’ve rarely seen it used. When used effectively you can draw the reader in, and allow them to use context clues to draw their own conclusions. A good rule of thumb, and the Show Don’t Tell 101 is that you show emotions, and tell feelings. You don’t need to tell me how the floor swayed under someone’s feet and they felt as if they were underwater. You can just say they felt tired that morning. However you can show emotion, and show the full range of anger and pain when someone’s upset to convey properly how that character is feeling. This is something that requires a light touch. It ties in with context clues and foreshadowing. I shouldn’t know from the third line of dialogue of a Shane Dawson fanfiction that the OC has an eating disorder. I shouldn’t know when exactly two characters are going to end up together, or when two characters are going to split apart. It should come as a surprise. An example I can give is a story I have of two spies who fall in love. From the first chapter, it’s obvious to the reader how this world is a game to them, and how they click and exist on that same wavelength. Chemistry can be obvious. Banter can be a fun way to express chemistry. What wasn’t obvious in this story, was that one of the spies would be killed by his own organization. What wasn’t obvious was how this would shape the other spy, who became the main villain of later works. If you make the narrative obvious I want you to then surprise the reader. Because you yourself will get bored. That’s why you see a lot of fanfics get dropped after three chapters- the writer has it all planned out how something will happen, and this plan becomes boring, but they don’t try to change the plot to make it more exciting. Throw in a wrench. Shoot someone. Spice it up my dudes. 

     We titled this chapter Please Stop Using Emily Rudd because one, we see Emily Rudd, as well as other girls who will be in an imgur album at the end of this chapter, way too often as the main OCs in fanfiction, and two, they represent a saturation and an insecurity in the market of main characters. We as writers don’t need to rely on these girls, and we actually keyhole and limit ourselves when we stick to stereotypical goth/emo girls (ex: Eugenia Cooney, Aly Antorcha, and Taylor Momsen face claims), or pale girl with dark hair and green eyes (Emily Rudd) same thing different descriptor for Nina Dobrev, or that red haired girl with green eyes who I couldn’t find a name for but she’s in almost every Harry Potter and/or Weasley sibling fanfic so you know who I’m talking about. 

     These girls should not be the standard of OCs. On top of that, not every OC has to be “strikingly beautiful” some of these OCs are like, 11-12 at the start of the fanfic. It’s ok to not describe how pretty they are. On top of that, not all of the world looks “strikingly beautiful” and that shouldn’t be a character descriptor. When one fanfiction I read had the love interest describe the OC as, “nothing to look at,” they contrasted everything else I’d read before because they made the beauty in that character not about what she looked like but her actions and who she was as a person. She became more beautiful as the fanfiction went on because of her personality, and by the end of it, it made sense that the love interest fell in love with her because he loved her as a person, not as an object. That’s what it boils down to. These girls don’t have to be pretty thin models and celebrities to be good face claims. Spending less time on the appearance, and more time on the personality makes for a character more beautiful and more believable than if you used some model. Don’t feed the manic pixie dream girl trend. 

     Moving on. Your character should not fill a hole or replace a member of the cast. They should bring a new perspective and add, not take conflict from the original work. For example, if you are writing Harry Potter fanfic, the character should not be composed of all the attitude Harry and Ron didn’t get in the movies. If you write Sherlock fanfiction, the character should not be the voice of reason to apologize for Sherlock’s antics while still doing the same things as him. In my own Psycho-Pass fanfiction, my character should not be a manifestation of Shogo Makishima’s soul. All these things do are fill holes in the story without adding to the narrative. If they were removed the story wouldn’t know they’re gone. If you can add conflict or alternative plots to the narrative, making the characters and the cast go through something they didn’t go through otherwise, you make the OC matter more. There used to be a beautiful Harry Potter fanfic that got deleted, where the OC went on full fledged adventures without the cast. She did her own thing, hanging out in the Harry Potter universe. This fanfic worked because the OC was the star of her own narrative. She wasn’t hanging on to Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Draco. They did their thing, and she did hers. It made for a great fanfic that I’m very sad to have seen the end of. Try and give your character something to do that doesn’t involve the cast. Think of it like fanfiction’s version of the Bechdel Test: Can your OC go through a chapter of fanfiction without relying on the cast. 

     Let’s revisit our darling, dearest, dead, Ebony Dark’ness Dementia Ravenway. Using what we’ve discussed in the previous paragraphs, I am going to attempt to fix the introduction given by our dear Enoby in Chapter One of My Immortal. Pray for me. 

     By Year 7 at Hogwarts, I had given up on the uniform. I’ve been at this school for too long to keep wearing the same damn thing, and as soon as I’m done I can bow out of button-ups and itchy sweaters. Professor McGonagall had a fit when I walked in last year with purple and red streaks in my hair. I smile as I imagine her face when she sees my miniskirt and corset. I sloughed in front of my mirror, carefully winging out my eyeliner and dabbling my lids with red eyeshadow. I popped on a black lip, blew myself a kiss, and felt stupid for doing so. 

     McGonagall didn’t even let me make the Great Hall. She marched me back, and forced me to change into the school uniform. I added pink fishnets and combat boots, and rolled my skirt up before heading back down to the Great Hall. My classmates gave me a wide berth. As I walked past a cluster of Slytherins I could hear them whisper. 

     “Fangy bitch.”

     “Say that again?” I said setting my sights on them. “Do you really want to insult me now? I haven’t even had breakfast yet, though I could make an exception.” They scurried off. I flipped them the bird as they went, and carried on downstairs. Remus Lupin was the best thing to ever happen to this school. Yeah, he was a werewolf, but I felt a little less alone. At least there was more than one monster running around here. 

     Next week we will be discussing names. Ebony Dark’ness Dementia Raven Way will make a return, as well as some other names that are uncomfortable and cringy to read. This is your warning now, that in 2 weeks we will have our first exam for Fanfiction 101. I did say in the introduction that there would be an exam, and it’s on its way. We will give you more information next week when we see you to discuss Nameberry.com. 

     Supplemental Instruction: The aforementioned imgur album of overused face claims and OCs. Think of this like a newly minted banned book list. 

https://imgur.com/gallery/SpIGZhF

[mystery-star]

Mystery Star Requests – Rules & Guidelines

Requests are currently closed!

Please read the whole post carefully before you request something, once I open them again.

Characters I’m writing for

I’ve limited them to like 2-3 per Fandom and these will be the people I write everything that is within my rules & guidelines.

However, you can ask for another character but be prepared that I’ll say no, unless I’m in the mood or find the general story idea brilliant. (So don’t get mad if you request another character, I say no but write it for someone else.)

Harry Potter

I am currently NOT writing or taking requests for HP

Star Trek (TOS and AOS)*

-Spock

-Leonard McCoy

Hobbit & Lord of the Rings

-Fíli

-Kíli

-Faramir

 Vampire Diaries & The Originals

-Damon Salvatore

-Klaus Mikaelson

 Marvel (MCU)

-Bucky

-Steve Rogers

*If you don’t specify whether it’s TOS (The Original series) or AOS (The new movies in the alternate reality) I’ll chose whatever I like best or that fits the plot. But it’ll mostly be AOS anyway. Also, I haven’t seen Discovery yet. If you don’t write anything, I might also make the reader a non-human.

General Rules & Guidelines

Read the Rules and Guidelines (this post) before you make a request

Before you place a request, check my Bio to see if they’re still open.

Place your request via Ask or otherwise I won’t do it.

I only take about 5-7 requests at once and then close them until I’ve written them and have time for new ones. I decide which requests I’ll do along the lines of “first come, first served”. But this doesn’t mean that’s the order in which I write and publish them.

And if your request was “too late” aka, I’ve got enough others, I’ll inform you and you’ll have to request it again once I reopen the requests.

I will only do character x reader imagines. Which means no first names for the characters (Surnames can be taken from canon characters if the reader is the child or sibling of someone). And no specific descriptions of the appearance.

Tell me if you want a male or gender-neutral reader. Otherwise I’ll make it a female reader (means I won’t pay extra attention I to the pronouns)!

I advise you to, if you are registered on Tumblr, not to make an anonymous request because then I can contact you for queries or to ask if it’s okay if I make some minor plot changes (when you have a description)

I reserve myself the right to modify plot descriptions a little if they seem to be too unlikely / OOC or if I have a prompt / imagine I already got myself or whatever. (This is why you should not make anonymous requests if you have a specific idea)

It can happen that I might merge two (or more) requests into one imagine if the plot allows it

If there’s anything (like a topic) you don’t want in the story, please let me know.

It might take me up to 2 or 3 months (or more) until I publish the imagine.

 What I WON’T write:

This actually depends on the Fandom / the character and I really have a high limit of tolerance towards darker themes.

However, here’s what I won’t do:

Anything that supports / defends / glorifies: Anti LGBTQ+, pedophilia, racism, sexism, abuse or sexual harassment. (Which does not mean that it can’t be a topic of the story, eg someone got abused or sexually harassed by a bad person, so when I include it it’ll be shown as something bad)

I also don’t like writing characters OOC unless there’s a really good reason.

Too explicit torture / violence

Incest

Concerning SMUT

I do write Smut but I won’t always make it all super explicit throughout the whole act.

But I’m only comfortable with writing Male x Female Smut.

Please note that I’m quite prone to fill my stories with sexual allusions or implied Smut or so. If you DON’T want that, please tell me with the code word “clean fluff”

I won’t write about kinks or fetishes but I can do some ‘harmless’ things like tying up or slight dom/sub relations.

 AUs

You can also request AUs! If you do so, please give me a rough plotline or at least define the roles the characters (reader and your chosen character) should have (eg in Royal AU, who’s a royal, who not?)

There might be some combinations (like a certain AU for a certain character) which I won’t do because I already wrote such an AU for the character or am currently writing one.

Here are the AUs I like and will write for.

Royal AU

Middle Ages AU

Certain Soulmate AUs

Modern AUs (resp. 21st century for Star Trek)

Pirate AU

Wild West AU

Dark AU (basically, where all good characters are villains)

All Human AU (with no magic of any kind)

Mafia AU

Slavery AU

“Oh shit the book/movie is real!” AU (aka reader thinks it’s just fiction until they get thrown into the world of the Fandom)

-

Mixing Fandoms can work too if I find a good way to explain it (like all the characters from Fandom X but they live in Fandom Y or people from Fandom X suddenly find themselves in Fandom Z)

 Misc.

It might happen that I add some background ships non-canon background ships that are implied / mentioned.

The imagines I’ll write for you will be very different in length. Some may just be around 700 words while others contain over 3k words. And if you’re very lucky I might decide to make more parts if I’m really getting into it and love the idea…

When I reopen my requests after I finished the first bunch I might change some on the guidelines / characters I write for etc, so please read them again before you request something.

[klsywccds]

hello all! val back with another, jfc valerie revamp to Kelsey. a lot of her story is still the same && all of her connections are still in place! this is just a little more fleshed out to give her some more depth because i was having a hard time relating to her, rip. WARNING: this shit is long. val got carried away... again. what else is new? so here is kelsey’s new and improved bio !! sliding this in the ‘call’ tag as well bc my sunshine bb desperately needs more plots. did i mention that i love y’all? without further ado, read on!

[ alycia debnam-carey, twenty-five, cisfemale, she/her ] ━ hey, I just saw [ kelsey woods ] walking down the streets of crownsville. they’ve lived in town for [ 18 years ], and you can catch them around town working as a [ high school art teacher ]. I hear they’re known to be [ bubbly & creative ] and [ timid & sensitive ]. if asked, they would say their aesthetic would be [ service dogs, deaf culture, over-alls covered in paint, succulent plants, sunflowers, pride flags, cup of tea ]

Kelsey Noelle Woods (nee Williams) was born on February 24th, 1994 in Gold Coast, Australia. She has never had much information about either one of her biological parents aside from the fact that her mother was a teenager. Kelsey was abandoned on the steps of a fire department a mere few days after her birth. It was a gut wrenching decision for her mother. As much as she adored the little girl, she knew that she wasn’t equipped to provide for all of the child’s needs. Kelsey never really harbored any animosity towards her mother for this but it did cause her to grow up with a deep-rooted insecurity and fear of not being enough.

After her surrender, Kelsey grew up in the foster care system in Australia. Kelsey hated every minute of it. Although some foster parents genuinely did have their hearts in the right place, most of the homes were overcrowded and the parents stretched too thin while also being weary of getting overly attached to the foster children. At worst, the homes were abusive. Kelsey always felt on edge and had an anxiety disorder from a young age. She had a hard time making friends with the other kids due to her never staying in one place for long. The little girl would go to bed and dream of finding a family of her own.

At the age of 7, Kelsey’s dreams came true and she was adopted by the Woods family. The move from Australia to Crownsville was rough for Kelsey. Even after the adoption was finalized, Kelsey was terrified that the smallest mistake would make her dads realize that they had made a huge mistake and send Kelsey back into the foster system. It wasn’t until she bonded with her adopted brother, Connor, that Kelsey started to realize that her new family wasn’t going anywhere. They actually wanted her around --- the first time in Kelsey’s life that someone had wanted her. 

She was diagnosed hard of hearing shortly after she moved in with the Woods’. After a couple of surgeries as a child, her hearing was partially restored in her right ear. However, out of her left ear she can’t hear anything. Eventually, Kelsey will lose her hearing all together. She can speak aloud but prefers to use ASL and can hold her own with reading lips. Kelsey never really felt like this held her back in life. It was all that she had ever known. Her dads insisted that, since her other senses became stronger, Kelsey was the superhero of the family. This started a life-long obsession with superheroes. Figuring that it would help their daughter, Kelsey got her first service dog when she was eight. Her first service dog was named Jarvis (after Iron Man which is her favorite movie). The dog was trained not only to alert Kelsey to sounds but also to help with her anxiety. 

School was a mixed bag for Kelsey. She was a naturally bright and gifted student, always at the top of her class academically and never daring to misbehave. She never wanted to draw unnecessary attention to herself. However, Kelsey was severely bullied by the other kids. She was bullied for everything from being adopted, to her thick Australian accent, to her disability, and finally for being gay after she came out in high school. She spent most of her time with the teachers. Her teachers always adored Kelsey and, ever since, Kelsey knew that one day she wanted to be a teacher so that she could help kids too.

Kelsey also fell in love with art at a young age. Although Kelsey is modest about her talent, anyone can see that she is a remarkable painter. She paints everything from completely abstract, to scenery, to almost scarily accurate portraits of people. When she got to college, Kelsey decided to combine her two interests and study to become an art teacher. She originally intended on staying in Georgia for college. However, after a lot of thought, Kelsey decided to take a leap of faith and go out of state for college. She accepted a full ride art scholarship at the University of Colorado. Since then, Kelsey never looked back. 

Kelsey moved back home to Crownsville after finishing her undergraduate degree. She missed being around her family so she got her teaching certificate in Atlanta. With her latest service dog, Gamora, by her side, Kelsey is in her first year of teaching art at the high school. It’s funny to her to be back walking the same halls not long after she graduated and even funnier to be working alongside her former teachers. As well as teaching art, Kelsey also runs the high school’s Gay-Straight Alliance. She is eager to prove herself and make her classroom a safe space for her students. She suspects her students are more interested in Gamora than anything else --- but hey, whatever works, right?

Kelsey is the ultimate sweetheart and would never dare to speak ill of anyone. Even though she’s had her fair share of heartbreak, Kelsey chooses to look on the bright side. She believes there’s beauty in the world and a good person inside of everyone.

WANTED CONNECTIONS

a page will be coming soon with more detailed descriptions! but off the top of my head: biological mother, biological siblings, foster siblings, college friends, teacher friends, artist friends, ex-girlfriend that she dated before leaving for college, neighbors, former bully in high school turned close friend. and as always, anything that your beautiful mind can think of!

TAKEN CONNECTIONS

adopted brother --- @conncrwoods --- kelsey’s #1 in life. she will forever consider him her best friend and he’s always the first one kelsey calls in a time of crisis. she’d do anything for him.

childhood friends --- @lvcybirch, @elirades, @will-blooms​ --- people that kelsey grew up with in crownsville and have stayed close over the years.

first love --- @tierneytaylcr --- tierney and kelsey met in college. they were each other’s roommate. right from the start, they hit it off and fell pretty quickly for each other. they dated for four years but broke up after graduation because kelsey wanted to return home while tierney wanted to travel the world and pursue her music career.

roommate --- @ellymunro --- honestly, kelsey believes they were destined to be each other’s roommate. elly is one of the only people who is just as nerdy as kelsey is. she can’t imagine living with anyone else.

current girlfriend --- @silver-sixx --- in true kelsey fashion, kelsey was crushing hard on silver ever since they met on the booze cruise. completely flustered, kelsey accidentally introduced herself as batman. kelsey was sure that she completely ruined her chances until a month later, when silver kissed her in a coffee shop. they’ve been together ever since.

close friend / lowkey bad influence --- @amara-lange --- whereas kelsey has always played it safe and never wanted any trouble, amara always presses kelsey to get out of her comfort zone. kelsey is always nervous but ends up loving it. almost all of her ‘wild’ stories happened with amara.

[bigskydreaming]

Batfandom’s favorite word to use is “adopted.” And I don’t mean that in a good way, but in a ‘nah, this is actually kinda obnoxious’ way?

Like, 90% of fics and headcanons in Batfandom flat out refuse to use the words ‘father,’ ‘brother(s),’ ‘sister’ or ‘son(s),’ without the qualifier ‘adopted’ always, always, ALWAYS attached to the front of said words. Like, endlessly. Over and over. Not just once, early on, to establish the specific nature of the family relationships, but like....this sledgehammer insistence on bringing that point home. Each. And. Every. Time. A. Familial. Relationship. Is. Described. Ever.

Sorry to be cranky about it, I know people don’t mean any harm by it, and like, I’m not saying its offensive. That’s not the right word IMO, but its definitely....grating? And just to be clear, I don’t pretend I’m speaking for everyone who’s adopted or from adopted families, I’m sure plenty of people who fit that description have different takes on this than me. BUUUUT I also know for a fact that I am not the only person this bugs in a big way. I’ve had this convo over the years with a lot of other fans I know who are adopted. And its not just Batfandom either, its every fandom with central adoptive relationships, like Thor and Loki, etc. Its just especially jarring in Batfandom because there’s so many different adoptive relationships front and center, so this pops up like...EVERYWHERE.

Idk, like....I’d just ask that writers please consider WHY they feel the qualifier ‘adopted/adoptive’ is a necessary addition every time the label of father/son/brother is used in a fic. What they think it adds, what they feel it describes about the relationship that’s different from any other father/son/brother relationship. Because I do think that most people (at least those not from adopted families themselves) do it without thinking about it. It seems just like another descriptor, like its addition is just a level of specificity that’s like, slightly more accurate than JUST father/son/brother......its just. In my experience, and that of most other adopted kids/relatives of adopted kids I’ve spoken with personally....that’s not really how it works?

Its about context, is the thing. How a thing is framed. When used just initially, like when establishing the exact nature of family dynamics, sure, in that sense its an accurate descriptor that lends an additional level of specificity to family relationships. It describes how this particular family formed, how it came to be. But AFTER that’s been established....that qualifier of adopted tacked onto every family label....its no longer establishing anything further. Instead, now its just perpetuating the idea that the nature of the family relationship itself is inherently different, BECAUSE of how it was formed.

Its a subtle distinction, but its very much a real and definite distinction. When first used, ‘adopted’ describes a family origin. Used over and over, ‘adopted’ describes a family that’s somehow wholly different from non-adopted families, BECAUSE that specific family origin is seen as superseding and overlaying every other aspect of the family and its inter-dynamics. You see what I’m saying? And its that latter part that grates, because...no? That’s not....that’s not nearly the omnipresent thing that I think a lot of people seem to take for granted it is?

Again, maybe its different for other adopted families, but like.....okay. So, in my case, my mom’s technically my adopted mom, I have a different bio mom that I haven’t seen since I was ten, my older sister has the same bio parents as me and my two younger siblings are adopted with no biological relation to each other or to anyone else in our family, though unlike me and my sister were adopted at birth. For as long as my mom’s been my mom....I barely ever referred to my mom as anything other than my mom. It usually didn’t occur to me to use qualifiers when describing her, because like, she was who I saw as my mom. I mean, she’s literally my mom. That’s literally what that word adopted in front of the label ‘mother’ means. Whether you include it or not, the mother part remains true. 

And in fact, describing her as my adopted mom wasn’t even like, an establishing qualifier I always included when first talking about my family to someone who didn’t know our history. It was usually more kinda....a tenth conversation kind of clarification because it was more an afterthought than anything else? Like kinda a belated realization when they looked at me confused at something I just said, like...’oh yeah, see technically my mom is my adopted mom, and when I said ‘my mom’ there just now I was actually talking about my bio mom, totally different thing. Like technically I have two, but only one really matters most of the time so its not worth mentioning to like, everyone I meet, you know?’ That sort of thing. If anything, I was more likely to use the qualifier in regards to my birth mom, the one I didn’t live with. Like I’d say, this is my mom when talking about my mom, as in my adopted mom, and I’d refer to my birth mom as just that, as my birth mom or my bio mom.

And my siblings and I tended to describe ourselves as adopted siblings more upfront, at least when introducing ourselves and our familial relationship to someone new...but that was less about us seeing us our sibling relationship as being different from non-adopted families, and more just like...a necessary avoidance of bullshit? LOL, because I mean, its kinda obvious that my siblings and I aren’t biologically related. I’m white, my little sister is Vietnamese, my little brother’s indigenous Mexican. We tended to lead with “this is my sister/brother, we’re adopted’, but mostly because like.....full offense, but people are kinda dumb? *Shrugs* If we just said ‘this is my sister and this is my brother’ and just left it at that, people would nine out of ten times like....stutter and get all squinty-eyed and confused and be all...what...how...because lol, idk, apparently its a hugely hard leap to figure out oh hey, maybe adoption is a thing here? 

(And also just FYI in general, it was always just annoying because like, even if you don’t ‘get’ HOW two seemingly unrelated people can be related and all they say when introducing themselves is ‘we’re brother and sister’, like.....you’re not actually owed an in depth explanation as to omg how did this strange phenomenon come to be. And the entitlement so many people we encountered growing up, where like....they felt they were owed our life stories upon meeting us just once, simply because they Didn’t Understand and somehow this equated to But They NEEDED To Understand, because...Reasons....like, no. You don’t actually need to understand how two people are related if they don’t feel like providing you with the full context. Either take them at face value or don’t, you don’t get to be a dick and demand a full accounting of their legal and symbolic relationships just so you can like....validate this and be all okay yeah, that checks out, I’ll allow it. LOL. No? Your validation of our relationship is not required, nor is your understanding of it, get over yourselves. So just. Like. Don’t be Those Guys. If you meet people who introduce themselves as family and the exact nature of that family relationship isn’t immediately obvious or seems somewhat confusing like....just...deal? They’ll tell you more if they want you to know more, and if they don’t tell you more they probably feel you know everything you need to know and that’s literally their call to make, so....yeah).

Idk. Like, due to the age differences in our family, my little sister and I were the only ones who overlapped in attending the same schools at the same time, just different grade levels. And we used to have this bit where any time someone new stumbled while grasping the fact that we were brother and sister, and they did that Brain Malfunction, Processing Error glitch face while they tried to compute Asian sister, white brother, how does that even work....so like, at some point we just started doing this thing where any time we saw that Look, my little sister would launch into this painfully earnest explanation of how so, “okay, our dad’s Vietnamese and our mom’s white, and I got all the Vietnamese genes and my brother here got all the white genes,” and I would just keep a totally straight face and nod along, backing her up, and you could literally see them falling for it for a good minute or so before they realized oh hey, they’re totally just bullshitting me. And then eventually we got told to cut it out because teachers were complaining about looking dumb in front of other students when we did that, which, well duh that’s cuz you were, dumbasses BUT I DIGRESS.

But point is.....I honestly do not know many (if any) adopted families who go around making a point to emphasize the adopted part of their family relationships any and every time they come up, the way most fiction tends to depict adopted characters doing? Once we established to a person that yes, we’re adopted, we didn’t ever feel a need to re-emphasize that or re-establish that same point any time after that. If they idk, forgot or got confused again or whatever, I mean...not our problem, you know? You get one explanation, if you still don’t get it after that, you’re probably not gonna get it anyway because its not like....rocket science. Was pretty much our stance.

And so okay, full disclosure, since anyone who’s followed me for some time has heard me talk about not really having a relationship with my family anymore....like yeah, its true, but because of a whole host of reasons that have absolutely nothing to do with anyone’s adoption status. I mean, I basically hate my parents’ guts and have for a long time, but they’re still my parents, biological and adopted ones alike. And I love my siblings, we’re just unfortunately not close anymore because of all kinds of baggage that got heaped on us that there was really no way to deal with gracefully, look there are reasons I project on the Batfam and identify with that source material, lmao. 

Again though, my point is.....even at the best of times, my family was crazy dysfunctional, much like the Batfamily is.....but even at the worst of times, literally nobody in my family was ever going around insisting on making a distinction about most of us not being biologically related, you know? That’s just....not a thing, IME. Like, family’s kinda all or nothing. You’re either family, or you’re not. The how of it only really matters if you’re hashing out something where that’s specifically relevant, otherwise, not so much because I mean....if it was that easy to make a distinction about how your family is only kinda technically sorta your family, it’d be a hell of a lot easier to just...walk away, you know? Like, even when you flat out hate members of your family, there’s not really a lot of confusion on whether or not you actually consider them family. As complicated as your family dynamic might be, people aren’t usually looking for places to add in that additional complication of ‘mmm but are we reeeeeeally even family, technically?’

So all of that plays into why its so jarring to see writers so insistently and repeatedly emphasize the ‘adopted’ part of Batfamily relationships, as though its like the most important aspect of their entire family dynamic...the be all and end all, the thing EVERYTHING inevitably traces back to, in every fight, in every dynamic, etc. And yeah, I do think people who aren’t adopted or from blended families themselves should maybe put a little more thought into what’s going through their head when they emphasize the adopted part of a family dynamic, like why they fixate on it as the most defining aspect or criteria of it. Because its really not nearly as reflective of reality as the sheer overwhelming SAMENESS of how often its written that way would suggest. Again, just speaking in my experience and that of those I’ve had this fandom conversation with, over the years.

Like, any way you write them, the Batfamily is dysfunctional as hell and always will be. But bottom line, there are some not that great implications underlying the....default assumption, that this dysfunctionality all stems from or inevitably traces back to that ‘adoptive’ qualifier. Have Dick or Jason or Tim or Damian flat out hating each other’s guts at times, there’s certainly canon to support it, and sure, insecurity as to their individual places in their family is always going to be at least a PART of it, but like....being insecure about your place in your family isn’t exactly an experience unique to adopted members of families, you know? But the way the Batfamily is usually written certainly seems to treat that as the takeaway, and again, I’m not sure offensive is the way I’d describe that, but it most definitely is grating. And it never fails to pull me right out of a story and like, moan dramatically at the heavens “oh my god, whyyyyyy, why do so many writers think we’re all just...totally unaware that these kids are all adopted and need to remind themselves and each other and us of that every other paragraph’. 

Mostly because I’m dramatic like that, but also because its annoying too. Like....we get it, dudes. This is not brand new information. Its okay. You can refer to Bruce as just ‘their father’ or to their brothers or Cass as just ‘their brothers and sister’. You will not have like...lied, or anything.

Anyway. Those are my 6 am thoughts on the Batfam, fandom in general, and how you really only need to use the word ‘adopted’ like...once per relationship per fic. That’s really all it takes? The additional 674 mentions of adoption are kinda....gratuitous.

[lakegrimstonerpg]

The Government is pleased to announce that they have secured JEREMIAH POPE that has the power of AGE MANIPULATION. There is no doubt that Lake Grimstone will offer JEREMIAH the necessary help they need to learn to master their power.

Welcome to Lake Grimstone, KRISTIE! It is clear from your app that you really have connected with Jeremiah. We loved reading the ideas you have for him and we can’t wait to see him develop on the dash! Now that you’ve been accepted, take a look at OUR MEMBER CHECKLIST. Please send in the account within 24 hours!

Out of character:

Name: Kristie; she/her

Age/Timezone: 21, GMT+8

Activity level: Numerically, I’d say 9/10. For a brief description: unless something comes up, I have no responsibilities at present except random appointments. Also, I’ve been sort of eh lately, but it’s finally wearing down. I’d like to pick up with someone all new, instead of continuing in the ruts Sapphire and Peyton were in.

In character:

Desired Character: Jeremiah Pope

Why would you like this character:

As you well know, I recently dropped Sapphire and Peyton because I felt they didn’t have anything left to do for development, or if they did, I didn’t have any inspiration to explore it further. Jeremiah’s bio caught my eye the same way theirs did originally, the same way the others did.

He’s unique from my lot in the sense that he actually comes from a largeish family – by which I mean he actually has a sibling, and was clearly close to him. The ramifications that has had on his personality is pretty clear in the bio – protective and loyal, anyone? But he’s been burned, clearly, which is also written into his bio, and that gives his temper all the more reason to flare up.

His power seems selfish at a glance – admittedly I thought it was quite lame at first. Part of the appeal it has comes from me dwelling more on that. Nowhere does it say his age manipulation is limited to himself; indeed, the wiki says it applies to organic things in general. In theory, he could age a crop to bear fruit in not long at all, or de-age a cancerous tumor until it’s ‘young’ enough to respond to treatment. Thing is, no one would really assume this without giving it much thought, and it lends this power that’s at first glance quite useless and selfish. It also adds a little depth to Jeremiah himself – if he uses these other applications, doesn’t it say something about him being less the selfish fun-lover, trusting people so little he initially hesitated to take a position to protect residents? It speaks more of someone willing to try for the benefit of someone else. The fact that he eventually caved to the offer because it seemed rightgives him more of a moral standpoint than any of my other, uh, heavy-hitting characters. I mean, Marcelle’s a guard because of personal ambition, Anika’s difficult because of pure selfishness, Reece’s a scientist for more selfish reasons. Sure, they all have a moral compass, but Jeremiah actually uses his to make major decisions instead of launching into internal debates.

Also, you know, shades of gray. That’ll be fun to play with – I have a lot of characters who subscribe to black-and-white thinking; having a character who recognizes it’s not always so clear what’s right and wrong? Yeah, that’s different enough to warrant attention and experimentation.

Anyway. Why I like Jeremiah: he’s different from my cast of plenty in ways that enable possibility, he’s got layers I can play with, and he’s got the trait sarcastic, so my usual approach of blatant sarcasm is applicable. Plus, apparently I like guards a lot. They’re fun to play. Especially where their powers don’t seem to lend themselves to, you know, protecting the populace.

[lczzieza]

i fall in love; lizzie.

( cis female | she/her | anya taylor-joy ) —— isn’t that MARY-ELIZABETH “LIZZIE” BELL (CATTERMOLE)? yeah that is them, sitting there at the HUFFLEPUFF table with those other SIXTH years. when sybill looks into that crystal ball of hers, she sees bright eyes and red lipstick; half burnt matches; a well loved cello and callused fingers, romance novels with split spines and tattered covers; dandelion fluff; scattered daisy petals; buttercup glow; forgotten cups of tea scattered around a room; a half knitted scarf, knitted badly; lace trimmed socks; well trimmed nails.  anyway i’ve heard they’re pretty JEALOUS, RESILIENT, and MELODRAMATIC. apparently they’re NEUTRAL and MUGGLEBORN but i’m sure that’s not related. —— [ mhairi : gmt : 19 : she/they ]

→ NAME: mary-elizabeth stacey bell → NICKNAMES: elizabeth, elizabeth-mary, beth, eliza, betty, lizzie, bess, bessie, liz, essentially any variation on elizabeth → AGE / D.O.B.: 16 / July 3rd 1960 → SPECIES: ‘muggleborn’ witch (her mothers parents are both squibs) → GENDER / PRONOUNS: cisfemale / she&her → SEXUALITY: bisexual

FAMILY → PARENTS: vincent bell & barbra clifford, greengrocers. → GRANDPARENTS: marius  black  clifford & ____  place  clifford (maternal),  → SIBLINGS: juliana david n��e bell, 23. laurence “laurie” bell, 18. charles bell, 14. → PETS: paulie, cat. hubert, owl she and laurie share.

LIFESTYLE → BORN&RAISED: st annes, north west england → CURRENT RESIDENCE: hogwarts castle / st annes → NATIONALITY: english → SPOKEN LANGUAGES: english, basic spanish & italian from primary school → OCCUPATION: student & prefect → DRINK | SMOKE | DRUGS: yes / yes / no → RELIGION: church of england

PHYSICAL ATTRIBUTES → FACE CLAIM: anya taylor-joy → ETHNICITY: english → HEIGHT: 4ft 11in → WEIGHT: 93lbs → BUILD: tiny and slim → HAIR: dark brown and cut into a long bob → EYE COLOR: brown → DOMINANT HAND: right → SCENT: rose, jasmine, geranium and musk → ACCENT: non-descript but distinctly northern english → NERVOUS HABITS: biting her lips and the inside of her cheeks

CHARACTER → MORAL ALIGNMENT: neutral good → MBTI: infp → WESTERN ZODIAC: cancer sun, libra moon, libra rising → CHINESE ZODIAC: rat → TAROT CARD: the lovers → ARCHETYPE: the lover → SONG: someone new - hozier

MAGIC → WAND: cherry, 8¾", unicorn hair → PATRONUS: butterfly → BOGGART: snakes → OWLS: lizzie sat nine OWLs in her fifth year, getting two outstanding’s, three exceeds expectations, three acceptable’s and one poor. astronomy, O. care of magical creatures, E. charms, E. defence against the dark arts, A. divination, P. history of Magic, A. herbology, O. transfiguration, E. potions, A. → NEWTS: lizzie took four subjects on to NEWT level. astronomy, charms, herbology, transfiguration.

BIO

mary-elizabeth; that was never meant to be lizzie’s name. mary or elizabeth: it was a toss up between the two and when her father’s mind when blank when he went to register the birth? it became two.

it was a story, a conversation starter, but in practicality she’s never been anything but elizabeth or some variation thereof. little lizzie bell, not the youngest in the family but she was the youngest girl.

it was a picture perfect beginning for a picture perfect girl, the kind of ordinary upbringing a character in a novel would have. little lizzie bell grew up cherished and loved with her parents and three siblings in a solidly middle class family in st annes. with her mothers parents living around the corner she was never far from family and never really alone.

a big reader from a young age, with three siblings and her parents attention running the greengrocers they lived over lizzie was often left in the care of her mothers parents and to her books. after all, she wasn’t causing a fuss so it surely must be for the best? school yard weddings, stealing the good tablecloths and the net curtains on washing day to be a bride, loves me loves me not. it was an obsession.

but lizzie read more than your average child quickly moving on from picture books to classic children’s tales, to grand romances. a theme she soon found herself stuck on.

you see little lizzie had lived her entire life surrounded by grand tales of romance. from her own parents story (with her father and mother, him swooping in to rescue a friend of his younger sister who had been stood up at a dance and both becoming smitten), to her fathers parents ( a nurse and soldier who had met in one world war and died on the same day in the second), to her mothers parents (who according to the story they told had ran off from their wealthy families to be together). she grew up surrounded by it and ate it up wherever she could find it.

but all was not as it seemed. at least when it came to lizzie’s mother’s parents and indeed lizzie herself and her older brother. for running of from their wealthy families was not the full story. for their wealthy families were of the wizarding world. marius and ___ clifford were squibs. marius black who was blasted off the black family tree and ___ who ran off from her less than accepting family to be with her love.

perhaps that was why lizzie and her brothers magic had gone unnoticed for so long. it wasn’t. marius and ___ noticed and hid the signs from barbra and vincent.

it wasn’t until her brother laurie got his hogwarts letter and discovered he was a wizard that little lizzie found out she was a witch. and what followed was a year that shaped the lizzie of today. a year were she was set apart from her siblings. the one who could understand at a school she would only later find out was away off in the scottish highlands. a year were she took to books more obsessively than ever before. a year were she worried about this new world she was set to join. a year were she feared she would never get her happy ending.

but when that day finally came? she took to it like a fish to water, a boarding school? she was in an enid blyton book. sorted into hufflepuff the girl made fast friends across the school. quirky but not odd. talkative but not annoying. she was a bit of an acquired taste but she’d keep her distance if she knew you didn’t like her.

she always had a reputation for being a little boy crazy but then came the summer between her second and third year and her older sister juliana was a beautiful summer bride. and the craze got worse. she wasn’t going to wait for love to find her, she was going to find it. and she was going to help others find it.

even as a muggleborn, the war means little to lizzie. it’s just an interesting backdrop to the novel that is her life. she’s very much the kind of person who would think up (but not say) and be completely smitten by a line such as “if it takes fight a war for us to meet, it will have been worth it,”

but that was the problem, helping others find it. in becoming hogwarts resident matchmaker she could never find someone for herself. not someone who wouldn’t be better with someone else. she falls in love with everyone and no one, it never lasts. never alone on a hogsmeade trip but never with the same person. and so, at the age of sixteen lizzie has become convinced she is destined to die alone. condemned to die an old maid... there’s something poetic about that..; maybe she can come to terms with it.

in the mean time she has only doubled down in her efforts to couple up those around her, she will make others happy.

[ask-multiverse]

Nara Eriko - Information (would you look at that I actually made it- wow)

MUN NOTE —

❝I clearly don’t own most of the stuff about her except for her concept. Clans and all that stuff obviously belong to Kishimoto.❞

♚ ABOUT THE MUSE: Eriko♚

❝They’re all so powerful in their own way... I can only dream to surpass them or get anywhere close to the level of fame of Team 7.❞ – Eriko

CHARACTER INFORMATION —

→ Name: “Nara” Kaguya Eriko

→ Nickname: Monster, Nara Clan’s Black Sheep (Majority of the Ninja), and Eri (Ryuto).

→ Age: 15 in part l, 17 in part ll

→ Birthday: November 28th

→ Zodiac: Sagittarius

→ Gender: Female

→ Species: Human

→ Height: 5’10

→ Hair Color: Black

→ Eye Color: Brown

→ Skin Tone: Fair

→ Sexuality: Heterosexual

BIO —

→ Not knowing much about her other roots from the clan being dead and her mother not saying much, Eriko is more like a Kaguya like her father without the bloodlust being consistent instead of her Nara-raised mother. All she remembers is one day her mother took her to see the Nara clan and then she never saw her father again. She does, however, gain a huge boost of confidence if she takes down an enemy or beats someone ‘superior’ in a fight and doesn’t seem bothered by blood unless it’s her allies blood. It seems to just send her more on a tactical, but still unpredictable rampage.

PERSONALITY —

→ Serious down to the bone(no pun intended), Eriko constantly trains her body and mind with techniques and strategies. If she’s not doing that, she’s helping her mother tend to the deer. Despite her no nonsense exterior, she’s actually a kind and gentle soul who wouldn’t go out to purposely pick a fight if she saw no reason to, and would prefer reason to combat. This can change if you push her past her limits of mercy, then she changes drastically to a merciless bloodlusting killer. Despite her own morals, she has nothing against dropping her nice side to show someone she means serious business. She is a responsible girl who takes every task given to her, no questions asked. Even with this, she has insecurities about her own strength and heavily flags herself later whenever she would end up losing it and causing someone to end up bloody or dead without the order being given. She doesn’t want to be feared and known just for that, and considers herself to be the black sheep of the Nara clan. This also pushes her to want to try to learn healing Jutsus to make up for her darker side and hopefully be able to properly correct any near deathly wrongs she may do in the future.

APPEARANCE —

→ 💀 ☠

→ ((forgive me but appearances are not my best things for descriptions)) Her fairly long black hair is kept in loop braids and she wears usual ninja attire on occasion [flak jacket, etc]. Usually though, she wears a decently low [not showing her entire chest, but it’s there to be convenient enough for her to be able to do use her attempts of using the Shikotsumyaku (kekkei genkai) without having to entirely fear having her whole outfit literally rip off from having bones elsewhere randomly jutting out and tearing it up. She can make said bones work to cover the places she would rather not anyway too, so not too much of a disadvantage. But yeah no she’s not going to constantly reveal herself to the extreme. Go somewhere else if you want her to.] cut white and cream kimono-dress with long sleeves and a knee length skirt. 

((Possible FCs : Ai Emma - Hell Girl [Part 1/2]))

HISTORY —

→ Eriko was only a child when she was in the Kaguya clan. She doesn’t remember much outside of knowing that eventually they would throw her into battles once she becomes like any other Kaguya when the clan was still alive. She can only remember the few arguments made by her mother to her father and vice versa when she showed potential to be able to manipulate her bones to be her weapon; have the rare ability only one other child of the clan did and they feared that use. Most of these memories are in a suppressed state, mixed with the fact that it’s been so long since then. Only not too long after after her own ‘training’ did her mother seemingly take her away to visit some distant family, so she said, and that was the last time she ever saw a Kaguya clan member alive, or her own father. Now she works hard on her own to try to prove herself in both knowledge and strength while also helping her mother and deals with the occasional bullying over her odd ability.

INTERESTS AND HOBBIES —

→ Likes: Cooking, Tending to animals, Cleaning and sharpening (tending) weapons, exploring, training, and success.

→ Hobbies: Bird Watching, Training, Reading, and wood carving.

→ Preferred Music Genre: Rock

→ Goals and Ambitions: To become an elite ninja, control her rare but deathly temperament (or escape the bloodlusting when she’s angered that much), finally learn some sort of Medical Ninjutsu and have the Shikotsumyaku completely mastered.

HEALTH INFO —

→ Diseases/Illnesses: None

→ Emotional Status: Varies

→ Memory: Outstanding past childhood, near nonexistent for other memories.

→ Food Allergies: None

→ Plant or Natural Allergies: Pollen.

→ Energy Level: Average

→ Overall Status: Questionable.

→ Sleeping Times: 10 pm to 6 am

→ Physical Status: Above average

→ Other: n/a

COMBAT AND FIGHTING STYLES —

→ Assertive or Aggressive: Aggressive

→ Anger Management: not the best, but not horrible either

→ Short Temper?: depends

→ Pain Tolerance: high

→ Fighting Methods: Can be a mix of methods to which she is decent at, but prefers long range and being on the defense rather than up close and personal, but can use close combat methods.

→ Weapons: the usual weapons you would find on a ninja.

→ Magic Usage: outside of her few jutsu’s not much. She doesn’t know as many as she’d like to.

RELATIONSHIPS —

→ Biological Parents: Unnamed Father and unnamed mother.

→ Siblings: none

→ Other Relatives: an unnamed distant uncle.

→ Companions: Hiroko(former) and Arakan (Former)

→ Children: None.

→ Love Interests: None.

QUOTES —

→ ❝I’m... feared? But I’m still me, right Otōsan? The only difference is my possibility of having such a scary sounding power. You’re not afraid of me, right?❞– Child Eriko, to her father

→ ❝(Team 7... how could I ever compare to them? I’ll likely only end up as a ninja in their shadow. I could never compare to them, no matter how hard I try. I’m still inferior, and still learning. Even the others- they are all so different and special... I wish I had positive acknowledgement. I don’t want it out of people’s pity either.)❞– Eriko, to herself

→ ❝You... Hehe, you’re funny for a dead person. I’d like to see you mock me when I take this (finger) bone scalpel and cut that tongue right out of your little mouth.❞– Eriko

→ ❝One, two, three... I will master this for their sake. I mustn’t fail them. I can’t fall behind. I will prove I’m not just a killing machine, and I’m not someone they can just overlook either. I have to show them I can use these techniques for good and that I’m capable of being a respected ninja.❞– Eriko

TRIVIA —

→Despite flowers making her sneeze, she actually loves lily of the valley.

→Contrary to popular belief, she has more times where she’s seeing red when her massive bloodshed and visible hidden bloodlust happens more often than not, causing her to even be shocked with herself for her gruesome attacks. It’s also why it can be difficult to control.

[acuppellarp]

We’re excited to announce that Aly has decided to level up Eva Vega from a mumu minor character to a main character! Please go through the checklist to make sure you’re ready to go and send in your account within the next 24 hours. 

OOC INFO

Name + pronouns: Aly + She/Her. Age: 27. Timezone: GMT. Ships: Eva/Chemistry. Anti-Ships: Eva/Forced.

IC INFO

Full Name: Eva Sofía Vega. Face Claim: Gina Rodriguez. Age/Birthday: 29/January 31st. Occupation: Music Journalist for Billboard Magazine. Personality: Adaptable, Chill, Enthusiastic, Impulsive, Sarcastic. Hometown: Chicago, Illinois. Bio:

Originally from Chicago, the Vega family have many members, and not very much money to go around. There are seven children in total, with Eva the eldest girl (she has two older brothers, three younger brothers and one younger sister), and the only one born to her absent father. Unfortunately, her mother, Camila, has just never been able to hold down a solid relationship, but she has always done everything she can for her children with what little money she has, and if anyone were to ask Eva who her hero is, she’d say her mother without missing a beat. Because Camila has always worked multiple (admittedly minimum wage) jobs, her mother, Eva’s widowed grandmother, has always been a staple in their home, moving in with Camila when Eva was still in diapers.

Until she was old enough to work herself, Eva would help out her abuelita with her younger siblings as much as she could, then begun to work part-time jobs as soon as she was of age to do so. Basically, she’s no stranger to hard work; she has seen her mother do it her whole life, and has always done her part, too. For a person coming from so little, Eva has a huge amount of pride, and definitely does not accept handouts. She has been taught to be independent, strong and hardworking, three things she takes very seriously. Which is kind of a feat really, because to know Eva is to know she takes hardly anything seriously at all.

It doesn’t matter how tired she is, or how overworked she may be, Eva is generally seen with a smile on her face. She’s always happy, always bubbly, and does genuinely have a heart of gold, although she’s by no means perfect. Recreational drugs are definitely a big factor in how Eva keeps her cool the way she does. It’s fair to say she’s a bit of a stereotypical hippie when it comes to that kind of lifestyle, in fact. She’s very free as far as love, too; she’ll give anyone a chance, and even a second one if she feels they deserve it, though she’s definitely not a pushover, and if someone really wrongs her or someone she cares about, it’s not something she’ll forget about, nor will she hesitate to call anybody out on their crap.

As far as romantic love, Eva has never been very lucky in it. It took her a long time to accept the fact that she had no attraction toward the opposite sex, mostly because she wasn’t sure how her mother and grandmother would take the news. Fortunately, it turned out they were both very supportive, though Eva lost what little relationship she had with her father in coming out, but that was never any kind of heartache for her; her dad has always been an absent figure in her life, anyway. Her mother and grandmother are to credit for raising her, not him, so their opinions are the ones that matter. Of course, being the loud, vibrant person she is, once she’d truly accepted herself for who she was, she began to really embrace it, and is now a very big, passionate voice for any and everything LGBTQ+ related.

Something that has always been there for Eva, that has always been a constant in her life, is music. She’s no singer herself, but she has a big interest in sound and the way it’s created, and is always up to speed with the current music scene. Her second constant is writing. Without a television in the Vega household when Eva was growing up, both reading and writing were definitely good pastimes, and Eva loved to get lost in her own imagination, filling notebook after notebook with her own, original creations. Naturally, a job where she could incorporate a little bit of both, music and writing, was right up her alley, and Eva worked her butt off at community college, with the end goal to go into music journalism.

Moving to New York after graduation was a big deal for her, not only because it was an expensive move, but because it meant leaving her family behind in Chicago. Though, her siblings were all a little older by that time, a little more self-sufficient, and thanks to the multiple part-time jobs she had worked over the years and all of the spare change she had accumulated, she was able to make it work, though only with the promise of a job at the other side. How Eva landed herself a position writing for Billboard Magazine, she’ll still never know. Then again, she has always been one of those people who can talk her way into getting what she wants, so maybe it shouldn’t have been too surprising, but still. Eva is grateful for the job she has been afforded every single day.

New York City was where Eva felt she could fully spread her wings. It was there that she fell further in love with the music scene, where she really got to make it on her own, and where she first experienced real, true love. Unfortunately, the situation wasn’t ideal, and the whole thing ended almost unfairly, but Eva definitely doesn’t regret it. The experience has, however, become a bit of a deterrent for her as far as romantic relationships go now; Eva is almost thirty, and while she won’t admit to it, she’s scared to let herself be vulnerable enough to actually share her life with someone else. She doesn’t feel she’s missing out, though, at least not for now.

For now, she has her thriving social life, her job, and her life in the big city to keep her occupied. Oh, and her notebooks, all brimming with original stories. Though, she doesn’t allow people to read them. For as confident as she may be, and as much as she doesn’t really care about other people’s opinions of her, she’s very guarded and private about the things she writes in her spare time. To be published some day would be amazing, but it’s almost like stage fright for her; she has the talent, she just can’t showcase it, so for now, her journalism quenches her thirst. She’s beginning to crave something more, though. Quietly, of course. And to herself – Eva Vega doesn’t like to put on anybody else, she never has. She’s the suffer in silence type; a true artist, if you will.

Pets: N/A. Relationships:

Riley Lynn — Roommate. Eva’s previous lease was up around the same time Riley was graduating and having to move out of the dorms. Eva put out an ad for a roommate, Riley saw it and answered it. They didn’t know each other super well before, it was more just a ‘right place, right time’ kind of deal, but it has worked out well for them.

Luciana Muñoz — Ex girlfriend. Eva and Luci met when Eva was dating Luci’s older sister, Alejandra. They dated for around six months, but when Eva and Luci begun to hit it off, Eva ended things with Alejandra. Eva and Luci then begun dating in secret, their relationship progressing pretty deeply. Because of Alejandra, though, neither ever dared to actually tell people about the two of them, so after over a year together, they decided to eventually call it quits. It ended pretty bitterly, mostly because neither really wanted it to be over, it just kind of had to be.

Hunter Clarington — Best friend. Hunter won’t admit to the fact that they’re best friends, but they totally are. They’ve known one another the whole time Eva has been in NYC, with Eva getting to be a bridesmaid at Hunter’s wedding. They’re complete opposites, and while Eva is very open with her affection, she understands that Hunter isn’t, but knows her well enough to know that she cares right back. They can definitely call each other out on their crap at this point without the other blowing up.

EXTRA INFO

[ This is for the masterlist, but also a fun little way to get to know your character! ]

Eva Vega/@evalasvega/description: I’m that big a deal, they feature my name in Billboard every single issue.

Five latest tweets:

@evalasvega: .@netflix I don’t know what the ending to that movie was but you can cancel my subscription. @evalasvega: .@netflix wait no don’t really cancel it, I would be so lost! @evalasvega: SOS there’s a literal other hamster coming out of one of my friend’s hamsters… This is either a real life Alien remake or I’m witnessing a labor. Someone send help. @evalasvega: Hamster update: IT HAD NINE. Mother and babies are all well. I need a joint. Midwifery is hard. @evalasvega: Finding $5 in my pants pocket and then realizing they’re not my pants is basically setting the tone for this whole week.

[transandcrs]