#It would be difficult to make it work without Eden and without the established lore in my head but

[degrees-of-fuck]

Thinking about my OCs as DoL protags #2: Eden and Esmee Koizumi

im sorry for subjecting you to more of this but thats why read more exists i guess. I put these 2 together because. Y’know. Being deeply codependent twins, they can’t really Be separated outright. Each other coming up is kind of inevitable. Also as I mentioned before the actual Degrees of Lewdity character Eden is not going to come up here because it would be so fucking confusing to talk about that, as much as I think it would be interesting.

tw for quasi-incestuous bullshit. Like more than whatever Robin and Clara have going on. And also once again, LONG.

The twins were the minor child star children of some out of town rich folk, so when a servant arrived dropping off the two ten year olds all hush-hush and on the down low, it was... Strange. As far as the twins themselves know, this orphanage was just... Nearby. Exactly their god damn luck.

People were very curious about them at first, but on account of them both being really difficult to talk to in their own ways interest would eventually die down. Eden would likely have made constant vain attempts to make Bailey like them. Going around scolding the others for things they wouldn’t like, bringing (poorly made) coffee every morning, shit like that. Esmee on the other hand fucking hates Bailey and has made it her life mission to make their life more difficult in every way she can conceive of. She hates authority figures by default, but with how much she likely rifled through their stuff, she probably figured out exactly how bad they are pretty early on.

TF-wise, I’d say that Eden is a harpy angel and Esmee is a harpy fallen angel! They’re riddled with angelic imagery in any universe and they have simultaneously a songbird thing And a swan thing going on. So angels and birds are Key Koizumitwins Motifs that I cannot ignore.

They were both with the temple from a pretty young age. They’d probably know Sydney pretty well?? (I’ll go more into what a clusterfuck I’m picturing THAT as in a bit-) Eden would remain loyal to the temple, but Esmee - curious cat that she is would find some shady shit about them eventually. That paired with her dislike of being constrained in any way and how creepy some of the clergy members here are would lead to... Well, she wouldn’t stop showing up. She’d be too worried about Eden. But she’d stop paying attention and stop giving a shit. Minimum grace lol. She’s just sat next to Eden glaring viciously at anyone that approaches them.

I think Eden would end up in a similar boat to Robin, honestly. I can’t picture any way that Esmee would even be willing to let them pay their own rent in this hell town. She NEEDS to preserve that innocence she hates so much at all costs. So from the moment she turned 18, she was paying for two. Eden is technically the older twin and takes that seriously, so this serves as yet another instance of them failing to protect her. So they really fucking resent this arrangement, but not quite enough to change it.

Speaking of which, they probably wouldn’t talk to Robin much honestly. At the orphanage, the two would keep to themselves and not really befriend any of the other orphans. (Particularly with what an annoying little hardass Eden was as a kid lmao)

On top of them both being kind of childhood friends with Sydney, both would be drawn toward them for the same reason! Sydney reminds Eden of their idealized version of Esmee and reminds Esmee of Eden. So obviously they’d both have weird feelings for them. :) And also both would be maybe... A little too in favour of Sydney dying their hair black and maybe cutting it? A bit shorter? Maybe? Don’t look into it too much, you’ll get a headache. 😬 

Esmee finds Sydney FUCKING INFURIATING sometimes tbh. Like for the Exact reason she’s drawn to them, too. Of course she’s annoyed by them, they remind her of her sibling that she “hates.” She thinks that there’s no way they can survive in this world and is making a near constant concerted effort to corrupt them because of that. Which also? Removes a lot of the traits that remind her of Eden??? I guess it’s where she vents the part of her that wants to shatter Eden’s bubble of immaculate purity that stands in opposition to the larger part of her that wants to protect it.

Eden has a lot in common with Sydney tbh, so they can be Besties. The only reason Eden doesn’t sneak out of the orphanage to hang out with Sydney at the temple at night is that they know Esmee is out there, might see and would be seemingly unreasonably angry at them for going out alone at night (because she doesn’t want them to be jumped). Sometimes they manage to swallow their pride and ask her to go together, but not often. They’re the older twin, damn it! Why should they have to ask their little sister to protect them!? But they do want to do that, because they have really horrible insomnia. At least the two can bond over a chronic lack of sleep. They take naps together in the library <3 On the more negative side, Sydney reminds Eden of their idealized version of how Esmee used to be. Which sucks for Sydney. They may not be able to protect their actual sister, but they CAN try to protect Sydney! SO BASICALLY EDEN BECOMES A STALKER. (like twin like twin i guess) This. Might put a bit of a dampener on their friendship once Eden gets to that point,,,,,,,,,

Esmee’s actual love interest would probably be Kylar! She’s fully aware of how fucked they are, but she’s like. About equally fucked in a different direction, she thinks. If anything, she respects the Stalker Hustle lol. AND they have  really nice knife! She has lots of knives! Kylar check out her knives. These ones are throwing knives, but they’re really cute right? (Plus it’s. Nice to not be the one over-anxiously following someone around trying to keep them safe for once. And they’ll NEVER abandon her, unlike SOME people!) Although I think that actually getting involved with Kylar puts Esmee in A LOT OF DANGER! Because ESMEE FUCKS. If someone looks like they’ll make Eden worry about Esmee and need to keep close to her, she’s right into their pants. If someone looks like they’ll satisfy her self harming Thrill-seeker tendencies, she is into their pants. You get the picture. She is going to wreak absolute havoc on Kylar’s nerves, even if she Does put a stop to this if they get into a serious relationship just on account of being a massive flirt with a particular reputation. Good luck both of you : I

SO BASICALLY we have Kylar stalking Esmee who is stalking Eden (and about 12 other people) who is stalking Sydney! COOL.

In theory, Esmee would be a fun delinquent that would absolutely get in on whatever Whitney’s got going on. However. Whitney would bully Eden MERCILESSLY I imagine?? So Esmee wants Whitney in a hastily dug hole in the woods, with twenty knives in them. Sorry Whitney Likers. So I imagine that as far as Whitney’s concerned, Esmee’s in the same category as Kylar: Weird little creep that pulls knives on them in the cafeteria. She’s just slightly cooler on account of the whole Bad Girl 😎 thing.

Esmee gets around a lot, but I don’t think she’d prostitute herself. Not out of concern for her wellbeing or like Puritan Moral reasons tho. Just PURE UNADULTERATED SPITE toward Bailey for being so eager to whore her out. She mostly steals and blackmails. Well liked by Landry I’d imagine!

Avery took Esmee out on like two dates because she’s a pretty little thing that they know to be a talented musician that would make them look good, but her personality was too unbearable to them lol. After one violent encounter in a hotel room, they never went out together again as Avery moved onto Eden! Who is ALSO a pretty little thing they know to be a talented musician that would make them look good ! The key difference is that Eden is malleable. Truly, a much better companion than that sister of theirs that keeps popping their tires and phoning them in the night with threats and a voice changer. It’s a shame that they’re so, uh... Reserved, though. The furthest Avery’s managed to get them to go is nervous mouth stuff and it’s really starting to piss them off.

In terms of teachers, Eden is probably well-liked by most of them? (Though they mostly avoid Leighton.) Sirris probably likes them both on account of having been good friends with Sydney for so many years. Doren has likely noticed Esmee’s weird behaviour tho tbh. She’s told them a lot of weird shit that sure SOUNDS like she was raped, but she keeps insisting that she’s FINE, ACTUALLY. Very concerning. They keep telling her she can come to them whenever she needs to talk, but she keeps blowing them off :/ Esmee likes to swim at the lake and Mason’s is her favourite class, so she spends plenty of time annoying the shit out of them and trying to blow them off too.

As for Leighton,,,, Eden avoids them like the plague and cries a little whenever the threat of detention even comes up. Esmee often ends up taking their place, borrowing their uniform and re-styling her hair to look like them on the rare occasion they somehow get it. As for Esmee,,,, I think that while she hates Leighton, she probably features in their Home Movies and Photo Albums quite regularly. Better than Eden and in a sense, it feels kind of cathartic to her. Occasionally, Eden tries to return the favour in a moment of courage. They don’t exactly regret it? But they hate it SO SO MUCH. If they way Leighton treats them is frightening, the way Leighton treats Esmee is enough to give them a heart attack! Which is really all the more reason to take their sister’s place whenever they can do so sneakily enough that she won’t bully them into staying out of it. Thankfully, Leighton’s interest lies mostly in watching, but they still come out of every instance of this wanting to sob and throw up. Esmee can never know.

Esmee is probably on good terms with Darryl. Same feelings of frustration toward them as Sydney and Eden occasionally, but she feels a lot more guilty for those feelings in this instance. She appreciates having a place to work that doesn’t involve Briar and being whored out and breaking her Spite Pact. It’s a shame because she wants to fuck Briar. (Plus it’s like, safer or whatever. She doesn’t care about that part.) I think Esmee will tend toward defending them and then acting super aloof toward them for the rest of the night.

Every time Esmee disappears for a while under suspicious circumstances, Eden just completely retreats into themselves and refuses to leave their room <3 Or hers, more likely. Yea they probably just start sleeping there and lock themselves in.

Esmee seems like a fucked up little sewer rat treasure hunter sort to me lol. Depends on her mood at the time. This does unfortunately mean she has totally met Morgan. She.... Stayed with them for longer than she cares to admit. Being Charlene and staying with a parent that would never abandon you to the point of it being terrifying was something that held a certain appeal to her, even if it was fucking awful down there. She hates herself for it, but sometimes she goes back and gets caught on purpose. Just to pretend for a while.

Lol Eden somehow managed to win the math competition without drugs and everyone is perpetually baffled by how they pulled this off. (IT’S BECAUSE THEY DON’T FUCKING SLEEP. They were really desperate to win both that and the science fair, it was finally a way to make money that they could do! They wanted to help their sister!!!)

Both of them met Avery basically simultaneously when Esmee was trying to help Eden up a tree with her weak ass 5′2 self. Avery helped them up, but was more drawn to Esmee initially, since she’s the more charming of the two.