#utsbecauseofu

[valleyfthdolls]

Who's the cast of your story "Freaks" ?

The cast isn't fully fleshed out yet, but the most planned out characters so far include Ashika Ray, Lottie Spektor, Winnipeg Carter, Tara Fei, Virgil Wagnon, and the titular Freaks- malicious spirits attached to each character who prey on their traumas and weaknesses. There is one such Freak for each character.

Content warning for various forms of abuse, mental health issues, mention of human trafficking, and child abandonment under the cut. Nothing is in-detail except mental health stuff.

Also for people in the RP, this does spoil the main parts of Tara's backstory. You can read if you want to, it won't diminish her character or anything, just know that there's still no reason for anyone else's characters to know anything about it until Tara herself actually lets on about it to them. I mean she hasn't even told her BFFs lmao

Libitina "Lottie" Spektor (she/her) is the protagonist of the story. She was removed from the custody of her mother at the age of two due to accusations of trafficking, which were true, and lived in foster care until she was fifteen. Through her youth, she experienced major behavioral issues, and when she was fifteen, she was moved to a group home for teens (15-19) with severe physical and mental health issues under the precedent that it was likely she had a personality disorder. What she actually has is more likely just severe PTSD, which, despite her claims that she's fine and she's not like the other kids at the home, does start to really rear its head as soon as she's there. She's also extremely wary of the home, having something of a sixth sense for hauntings and spirits and basically clocking immediately that the place is haunted. The Freak attached to her is Lola, a feminine ghost with a thick figure whose presence is denoted by the clicking of her tongue. Her face is akin to that of a snake. One of the ways Lola torments Lottie specifically aside from just generally messing with her is grabbing and pinching her wrists. This drives Lottie insane, just because of how wary of touch she is all around. She represents Lottie's fear of not having bodily autonomy or control of her life.

Ashika Ray (she/her) kind of serves as Lottie's foil. Where Lottie is overly mature and mean, Ashika is childish to the point of not being mature enough to care for herself and extremely kind to everyone around her. She lived with her single father until she was four, when he suddenly died in a tragic accident, and she's never really mentally grown up from that time. That's the main reason she's in the group home. She calls one of the caretakers "Auntie" and is overly affectionate and naive, which Lottie uses to mess with her at the beginning, but even someone as jaded and cold as Lottie feels bad about messing with Ashika when she's so pure-hearted and gentle. No matter how anyone treats her, she always tries to be good to them and be their friend. The Freak attached to her is Deva, an imp-like ghost with no discernible gender. Unable to get into her head and cause her to spiral, Deva instead torments Ashika by messing with her things and causing her terrible luck. They represent her sorrow about the unfortunate but unstoppable circumstances that brought her here.

Winnipeg "Winnie" Carter (they/xey/he) lived with their grandpa most of their life. They inherited a lot of health issues from their mother plus some, which made their parents unable to care for them since it was already a lot to take care of their mother, so they were put in the care of their grandfather Alexander so he could "give them the life they deserved" when their parents couldn't. They spent most of their youth in the Winnipeg General Hospital undergoing surgery and treatment, but eventually came to the US to get a specific doctor to operate. After this, they were never healthy enough to return to Canada, so they and their grandpa settled in the US, but Alexander was getting too old to care for them, so they were moved into the group home to help them with their day to day life. They're bitter and moody, but very creative, and they have a very soft spot for Ashika. They love to talk to and play with her, and having someone keep them company like that helps them normalize the idea of needing this kind of care. They remain close with their grandpa and are still in contact with their parents. The Freak attached to him is Bones, a skeletally thin contortionist with an exposed heart and no teeth, whose joints pop and crack when she walks. She represents Winnie's fear of not having a life ahead of him that isn't defined by physical pain and diminished by the shame associated with it.

Tara Fei (she/they/it/dae; but possibly a trans guy who hasn't realized it yet) was raised in a Catholic cult in Saratov, Russia. Her Father was the leader of the cult, and they believed Tara to be essentially the next Mother Mary- the one who would bring the second coming of Jesus. They were very extreme about this belief, and Tara spent most of her life not even being touched because they believed it would dirty her and ruin her purpose. She was isolated from the other children, brainwashed by her Father, who was treated like a god by the cult, and forced to pray and be as pure and modest as she could. When she was fourteen, she ran away and made it to an airport where she got onto a flight to Lhasa, Tibet, where she lived for two months until someone called the cops on her and she was recognized as the missing child from Saratov who was believed to have been taken out of the country. She did manage to get through to the police and some people willing to help her about her situation, though, and she ended up moved to the US to escape her family, where she was given the name Tara Fei. Due to her extreme paranoia, PTSD and psychosis, she was moved into the group home as well. She's usually soft-spoken and gentle, though she has her moments of screaming and yelling and even attacking others when she's afraid, and she has a fascination with religion, spirituality and the occult. She loves to read. The Freak attached to her is Mary, a goat-legged figure wrapped in cloth and often seen praying, whose presence worsens Tara's psychosis. It represents Tara's fear that the cult was right and that she's going to die for violating their rules about her purity.

Virgil Wagnon (he/him) is the son of two French-American immigrants. When he was two years old and still couldn't walk, his parents abandoned him, believing he was never going to be able to do anything for himself, and Virgil deeply internalized this. He had no idea why his parents left, so he came to assume it was his fault for being so boring that they simply forgot about him or, when he was older, so boring that they could not love him. He desperately tries to gain the attention of others and the approval of an audience, covering up everything that makes him human (and by proxy, boring) with masks and fancy prose and self destructive performances. He's stoic, poetic, and polite, but willing to abandon any and all semblances of his personality to perform and make a show of himself, and he can be very cutthroat about it, trying to match the tone of the world around him, which has been, suffice it to say, cruel. He longs for attention and approval, and prides himself on making others smile and laugh. The Freak attached to him is Alice, a three-faced male figure with an appearance sort of like the Mad Hatter and a presence that is composed and theatrical. He just kind of generally harasses and torments Virgil.

The Freaks are less like traditional ghosts of the dead and are more malicious, protective over the house they're settled in, and taking various forms to drive the kids out by any means possible from simply tormenting them until they can't take staying anymore to killing them outright. Since the kids have no other choice but to stay here, though, their attempts aren't quite thwarted, but are lived through. Each ghost attaches to a child, taking the form of their worst traumas, deepest fears, and most painful sorrows, knowing they would rather do anything but confront those struggles, to try to force them out of the house. Though Lottie is the only one who can see and commune with them, all of the others are aware the ghosts are there, at least on a subconscious level. The only one aside from Lottie who wholeheartedly believes it is Tara, but even being skeptical, the others are influenced by the spirits' presences.