idfk anymore lmao

nonexistent boo thang character notes

Full Name: undecided

Pronouns: he/him

Age: 17

Species: Human

Sexuality/Gender: Straight or pan (idk yet), cis male

Occupation: Paperboy

Personality: Since Starla is a fuckin excited all the time outgoing spaz I thought it'd be cute and cannon if her boo thang were to be the opposite. So that would mean he's shy and reserved and probably a virgin ass bottom only ever kissed like one other person lookin headass but like he respects the absolute hell out of women (and really just people in general) so with that in addition to all the shyness he's probably the kind of person to always ask first and look for constant reassurance that something's ok before he does it. Also, I feel like he'd be kinda just like Arachne in a way. At least when it comes to personality and background and stuff in the sense that he really enjoys talking to people once he can actually build up enough courage to be their friends and such and then gets super shy in a conversation if there's a long silence after he says something and then he pauses before almost immediately obsessively apologizing.

Name Ideas: ok so idk his name yet but I looked up some popular 1910's names for dudes and some names/nicknames I liked were Edward/Eddie, Nathan/Nate, Alexander/Alex, Wesley/Wess, Otis, Ellis, Nelson/Nel, and Charles/Charlie. I think it'd be a cute lil aw sad moment if he didn't have a last name bc he never knew who his parents were. (For his name in this imma just put "(name)" until I can actually decide on one lmao.)

Backstory: (name) grew up on the streets of new york city, after his parents left him at the front door of an orphanage shortly after he was born. The head of the orphanage always told him his grandparents all died before he was born and that his parents died in a housefire shortly after he was. Although this wasn't true, he still believed her, as he was too young to remember what really happened. He wouldn't find out until later, but his parents were still alive and well, they were very poor and just couldn't afford to have a child. Part of the reason for this was, in fact, because of a housefire. They great people, and were prepared to be amazing parents, and ready to raise him in a small, but loving house with what little money they had, until that house caught fire and left them with nothing. They didn't have home insurance, nor did they have any family or friends they could stay with, and they didn't have enough time or money to find a new place to live that they could afford. They knew there would be no possible way they could raise a newborn on the streets without any money and have the time to get a job where they could make some, so they had no other choice but to give him up before he was forced to live a miserable life. (This is about to be hella "Meet The Robinsons" vibes btw if any of you have ever seen that movie lmao.) They couldn't bear to watch themselves give up the only light they still had left in their lives, so one day, in the middle of the night, they left him in a blanket on the doorstep of a small orphanage. They attached a note to his blanket that said in shaky handwriting: "Our names are James and Margaret. We lost everything in a fire. This is (name). He is our son. His birthday is the 6th of October, 1900. Please take good care of him. Give him the loving home we wish we could have." They knocked until they heard footsteps coming to answer them, then ran away in tears before they were caught. Luckily, Marie Winters, the head of the orphanage, was an extremely kind woman who quickly became a mother figure to (name). She immediately took him in with no hesitation.

(name) grew up in that orphanage. The other children were like siblings to him and they would all celebrate with Marie like a family whenever one of them was adopted. Even after they left, they would frequently write letters to the remaining children and stop by with their new families whenever they were in the area. (name) never had much luck in finding the perfect family, but he was okay with that, as in the 17 years he's lived there, he has grown just as attached to Marie as she had to him. After being left by her husband after it was discovered she was infertile and wouldn't be able to have kids, Marie decided to start an orphanage. She viewed and loved (name) like a son, and although she had always seen the rest of the orphans as her children, he seemed different. She would never admit it to the other kids, but he had always been her favorite and she even considered adopting him as her own at times, but decided against it, as (name) had always dreamed of the day he met his forever mom and dad. For this reason, she was very particular about who she allowed to interview him as a potential son, but even still, although he came close at times, he never had any luck with finding new parents. After 10 years of living in the orphanage, he decided he wanted to help out by getting a job delivering newspapers. He felt bad living there so long, only being required to do a few chores here and there, so he thought it would be nice to make some money and help Marie pay for things. He's had the same job ever since and has built up quite the reputation as your friendly neighborhood paperboy.

Notes, Quirks, And Other Stuff:

When Marie first told (name) what happened to his parents, he was hesitant to believe her without any evidence. She had the note they left him with, along with a newspaper article about the fire, but she knew that if he had any reason to believe there was still a possibility they were still alive somewhere, he would put himself in danger going to the ends of the earth to find them with what little evidence he had. Instead, she told him that all he was left with was his blanket and a piece of paper that had nothing but his birthday and his first name on it. He insisted on seeing the note, so she gave him a fake one that said "(name) 10/6/1900" in forged handwriting. Since that day, he has kept the note with him wherever he goes.

(name) was homeschooled with the other children by Marie. She wasn't certified to teach, so she really only taught them the basics of how to read and write. He was very clever, inventive, and had always been one to think outside the box. He was still really smart despite the fact he had never received a formal education, and would often sneak leftover copies of the newspapers he delivered to read and reread until the newest paper came out, despite not understanding the meaning of a lot of the words. Also, I think it'd be really cute if he was really into astronomy for obvious reasons lol.

Since Arachne often likes to wander beyond the walls of the Swan House, she has run into (name) quite a few times. She's his only real exposure to the supernatural world, but he just sees her as some sort of ghost, rather than a shadow creature. Either way, they're still really good friends, as neither of them really talk to anyone that isn't either Starla or a really nice adult, and they can bond over the fact that they're both extremely poor and have no parents. Since she's kind of (name) and Starla's goto person for venting, she knows about their crushes on each other, but since they only ever refer to each other as "there's this girl/boy I like," she never connects the dots that it's them, even though it's kind of fucking obvious considering there's no other alien highlighter bitches or shy orphan paper boys around (except for maybe Enyo but does anyone really know what happened to him?).

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That's all I can think of for now, but basically, pretty soon he's going to get a new paper route that just so happens to take him by the swan house. Then he finna meet Starla and they gonna be all otp and shit. As for the high school au, he can probably be some sort of shy new student that joins Arachne and Starla's friend group, and like he and Starla are each other's secret crushes where Arachne is the only one who knows about them. Oooh and they can have cute little cannon moments like awkward eye contact, embarrassing themselves in front of each other, hugs that last too long, and their first kiss and other wholesome stuff like that.

Another side note: I'm a real slut for slowburns so like... feel free to take as painfully long as you want to develop their relationship hehe. I want it to be obvious that they like each other but like they're both too shy to do anything about it. Basically don't rush into it and kind of see (name) as a separate character rather than just someone who was randomly made specifically to be a love interest for Starla bc Arson is way too fucking lonely and so are all her characters lmaooo.