Realistic or Modern sleepy hollow investigation of paranormal society // character documents

[forestferns]

hello everyone and welcome to the applications thread for SHIPS!

the current due date for applications is December 28th

A friendly reminder that this roleplay is application based. If I pick another OC over yours and there’s still open roles left, you can apply for one of the open roles.

MEET THE GANG:

The Founder
otto fischer forestferns

The Cameraperson
??????

The Psychic Medium
???????

The Helper
???????

The Book Nerds
??????, ??????

The Tech Nerds
??????, ??????

The Unbeliever
??????

The Artist
???????

CHARACTER APPLICATION FORM

-- you do not have to use code! it is not a requirement here! just make sure you have all the things listed here

Character Image Here

full name
nickname(s)
age - 22-26
gender and pronouns
sexuality - please include romantic and sexuality orientation

their role
how did they join the gang? - examples include being friends with the founder or another member, being a former client now turned member, etc! if unsure, feel free to ask!
are they sensitive to the paranormal?
do they believe in the paranormal?
strengths and weaknesses

personality
birthday
body modifications / scars
history / backstory - completely optional!

likes
dislikes
habits
fears
hobbies

aroma
faceclaim
voiceclaim
headcanons / fun facts

 

[forestferns]

this code scrolls!

otto

the founder

full name

otto theodore fischer

nickname(s)

no

age

twenty-three (23)

gender

trans man, he/otter

p.o.b.

berlin, germany

d.o.b.

april 14th, 1993

sexuality

polyamorous + gay

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  hair

  
  

  very fluffy hair! it's short and fluffy. otto always dyes otters hair different colors.

  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  eyes

  
  

  dark brown

  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  height

  
  

  5'1"

  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  body mods.

  
  

  septum piercing, ear piercings, lip piercing, small tattoos

  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  faceclaim

  
  

  kaiisyourhomie

  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  

  
  
  

  
  
  
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  virtues

  
  

  
  
  
  
  

  loyal, energetic, compassionate
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  

  
  

  vices

  
  

  
  
  
  
  

  cowardly, impulsive, impatient
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  

  
  

  personality

  
  

  
  
  
  
  

  how to describe otto. well, the best way to describe otto is that he is very ambiverted. at times, otter can keep others on their toes with how energetic and off the walls he can be. other times, otto will simply be withdrawn and otter will want to be left alone. if you are able to keep up with otto and how hyperactive otter can be then getting along with him should be an absolute breeze! just a happy, energetic ray of sunshine this man is. however, otto can be very impulsive and he can act without thinking about it first.
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  

  
  

  interests

  
  

  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  
  

  
  

  ghost story telling

  
  

  this is an absolute must for him. otto's gotta gather the gang around and tell some ghost stories!

  
  

  
  
  
  
  

  
  

  swimming

  
  

  otto is a pretty good swimmer! he loves to swim. however, this is restricted to the pool. otter refuses to step into any oceans, lakes, or rivers.

  
  

  
  
  
  
  

  
  

  crocheting

  
  

  otto is pretty good at for crocheting! he lives to make little things like coasters, etc!

  
  

  
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  

  
  

  likes

  
  

  
  
  
  
  

  cats, cat videos, sweets, lemon flavored desserts, desserts in general, sweaters, sweetened coffee, flower crowns, cozy blankets, ghost stories, campfires, cryptids, pretty dresses
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  

  
  

  dislikes

  
  

  
  
  
  
  

  summertime, itchy sweaters, bigots, black coffee, being disturbed, bugs, crowds, sour foods and drinks, mud, cheese
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  

  
  

  fears

  
  

  
  
  
  
  

  cardiophobia (fear of something being wrong with the heart), thanatophobia (fear of dying), thalassophobia (fear of deep bodies of water), arachnophobia (fear of arachnids)
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  

  
  

  habits

  
  

  
  
  
  
  

  fingernail biting, leg bouncing, humming when nervous or scared, pacing
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  

  
  

  strengths

  
  

  
  
  
  
  

  stealth, perception and observation, getting through tight spots
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  

  
  

  weaknesses

  
  

  
  
  
  
  

  mediation skills, climbing, running
  

  
  

  
  
  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
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  contact

  
  
  
  

  this is my status

  
  
  

  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  
  

  sent message here

  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  

  received message here

  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  

  Call lasted x:xx.

  
  
  
  

  
  
  

  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  
  

  
  

  
  

  history

  
  

  
  
  
  
  

  uhmmmm yeah i am not doing this. and you cannot make me do it.
  

  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  
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  scroll

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  role

  
  
  

  founder of SHIPS
  

  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  how did they join the gang?

  
  
  

  otto is the founder! having been a fan of listening to scary stories and reading about cryptid sightings, even though he is scared and cowardly about coming across such things in real life, otter decided to kickstart a gang of mystery solvers!
  

  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  do they believe in the paranormal?

  
  
  

  oh, absolutely yes! otto is an avid believer in the paranormal and cryptids. otter's very insistent that he has seen and experienced such activity!
  

  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  are they sensitive to the paranormal?

  
  
  

  well, otto certainly does get a vibe about places. a feeling. is it a good place or a bad place? otto will either feel comfortable or will get this dreading feeling.
  

  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  disabilties / disorders / allergies

  
  
  

  bee sting allergy, latex allergy, hypochondriasis, GAD, panic disorder, ADHD, chronic insomnia
  

  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  aroma

  
  
  

  brown sugar and caramel
  

  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  extra facts

  
  
  

  ✿ norse pagan
  ✿ otto is very courage the cowardly dog coded
  ✿ did i mention that otto loves sweaters?
  ✿ has a major sweet tooth, like otto is a huge fan of eating sweets and desserts
  ✿ impulsive spender
  ✿ will bite you
  ✿ otto has butter fingers
  ✿ for the love of the gods, DONT LET THIS MAN DRIVE PLEASE
  ✿ dips fries into milkshakes
  ✿ this man loves raw cookie dough
  

  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  
  

  
  
  

  
  
  
  

  
  
  
  

  
  
  

  
  
  
  

  
  
  

  
  
  

  
  
  

  
  
  
  
  

  
  

  lovely

  
  

  billie eilish

  
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  

  
  
  

  
  
  

♡coded by uxie♡

 

[mythcals]

james gao

the helper — “i’m here, i’m not happy about it, let’s keep moving.”

♡coded by uxie♡

scroll

all-american bitch

james

gao

persona

&

attributes

virtues

vices

backstory

&

connections

name.

james naomi liang hua gao.

nicknames.

⎯⎯ jamie/jamison/jim jams/jimbo ( close friends/the team ); jamie is the default, easygoing nickname that everyone uses without thinking. it’s casual and familiar. as cases go on, the team tends to refer with her with more ridiculous, out of the box names (despite her very aggressive protests).

⎯⎯ liang hua ( grandmother ); only her grandmother calls her by her chinese name which makes her appreciate it more.

age.

twenty-three.

birthday.

april 12th.

gender.

cisgender female && she/her.

sexuality.

unlabeled. james has a difficult relationship with her sexuality, something that was often swept under the rug in her youth by her parents. for a long time, she was raised to believe only men and women could be together, that there was nothing more beyond that thinly veiled lie. she's learned more now, and finds that labels are too stringent on who she should love and how.

role.

the helper.

how did they join the gang?

james's connection to sleepy hollow investigation of paranormal society began with the internet, as anticlimactic as it may sound. rarely did james frequent supernatural/paranormal sites, shit she labeled as nothing more than heresy, but the allure of arguing with random strangers on the internet was strong. argumentative nature aside, james was desperate to break away from the family business, desperate for scraps of work. what started as busywork, helping small creators (ie: working with the cameraperson), picking up shifts at the library (where she would come across the book nerds), eventually lead to james's natural integration into the business, the only person able to keep everyone's schedule straight, had a file of multiple potential clients. james has just always kind of been there, as her team would probably say.

in depth.

james fills the cracks within the group, the foundational glue that holds the team together. she does everything else the members tend not to worry about: the one who consults with potential clients with otto, the one who creates a file (both physical and digital) for each case, the one who makes calls to hotels and sets up rooms, the one who makes sure all the equipment is loaded into the back of their cars. she's reliable, always a phone call away, ready to put her pedal to the metal at beck and call. she's the founder's right hand, the team's anchor. while much of her job seems like office work, she enjoys the simplicity of it all, the straightforward nature of her work.

are they sensitive to the paranormal?

the answer's complicated. of all the members in the team, james seems to exhibit more resistance than other members. some would say its her hard-headed nature, that her stubbornness wards off most passive spirits. the more spiteful the spirit, the more obvious of an effect it seems to take on her. it's not obvious at first, the snippiness in her tone often recognized as one of james's bad moods. on a case by case basis, the worst she has ever experienced is car sickness paired with a night bent over the toilet. while she mentally might not be sensitive to spirits, the physical toll is obvious; noted by her complaints of a stomachache, headache, or nausea. all of things which can be written off as coincidental.

do they believe in the paranormal?

james refuses to answer this question outright, always deflecting, always straight business. she says she'll believe it when she sees it. she shares the idea that if ghosts existed, they would be spirits of people who have died, malevolent entities that will cause harm to the living if provoked. while she maintains a clear, neutral view, she often finds herself telling the nonbeliever to lighten up. she thinks there are no right answers, just instances where people taking advantage of naive tourists or townsfolk seems more likely than not. she shares a similar disposition to her nai nai, she avoids talking about death and maintains that respect is important when dealing with sites surrounding cemeteries and funeral homes.

"I am light as a feather, I'm as stiff as a board. I pay attention to things that most people ignore. And I'm alright with the movies that make jokes 'bout senseless cruelty, that's for sure ..."

height.

5'5".

appearance.

james is startling. it's not that her features are anything out of the ordinary, though; on the contrary, she thinks she looks rather plain. warm beige complexion, with freckles speckling her face, enhanced by the sunlight ( she doesn’t exactly know how she has freckles. her parents don't have any ). dark brown, mostly straight hair, reaching to her mid back. it's ever so slightly damaged from the heat she used to use as a child, desperate to burn the wave in her hair, though it’s unnoticeable unless focused on intensely. bleached blonde money pieces frame her face. her jaw is not as defined as she would like it to be, her lips are slightly larger than average and she has a pinched nose. what makes james startling, rather, is her eyes. dark, shadowy eyebags tend to give james a pitiful look. her eyes are forever unrelenting, forever watchful, always observing. her eyes wound without meaning to, and they’re full of hurt.

dist. features.

james has many scars along her legs, all obtained from her years of surfing and field sports, specifically soccer. she is often seen with light bruises along her knees and down her legs from mishaps in investigation, or her little accidents such as slamming the door on her fingers. usually it's obvious, her fingers covered with soft fabrics and her many flimsy, colorful bandages. james doesn’t have any tattoos, but she has had her ears pierced since birth.

aroma.

cocoa butter and old spice fiji dry spray, reminiscent of a day at the beach.

face claim.

chase sui wonders

overview.

james gao is a firecracker wrapped in barbed wire, sharp enough to hurt even herself. she’s quick with her temper, like a match that barely brushes the box before it flares, and god help whoever’s in her path when it does. she’s got a tongue like a razor—cuts fast, cuts deep, and doesn’t pause to watch the damage. irony of it all is, she knows she’s her own worst enemy, but try telling her that when she’s already halfway to snapping. it’s almost funny, really, how self-aware she is; how she hates the anger that’s practically tattooed onto her bones but wears it anyway, like armor that’s too heavy but all she’s got.

loyalty, though—that’s her buried treasure. the people she calls hers are few, and she doesn’t give her heart lightly. but once she does, she’ll fight tooth and nail for them. she’ll turn the world upside down, burn bridges, throw hands, whatever’s needed, no questions asked. some think she’s a loose cannon, unpredictable and a bit of a ticking bomb, but they don’t see the fierce sense of honor stitched beneath all that fire. she’s the first one to see through the bull, knows how to read people with the precision of a surgeon, and there’s no fooling her. a twitch of the eye, a shift of the feet—she clocks it all, even if she doesn’t say a word about it.

james's humor, if you can call it that, is about as warm as ice on steel, dry as dust, and quick to sting. sarcasm is her native language, and she uses it like a shield, deflecting as much as she cuts. it’s not that she’s mean—okay, she can be mean—it’s just that patience isn’t her strong suit, and when she’s frustrated, her words slice sharper. ask her to “soften” something, and she’ll look at you like you’ve suggested she grow a second head. james doesn’t do softness; she does blunt force and brutal honesty. and you’ll never catch her saying what she could just as easily show you.

she’s observant enough to catch every twitch, every fleeting glance, and the weight of her gaze is heavy, piercing. there's no pretense, no sugar-coated words; james doesn’t deal in delicate half-truths. if she speaks, she speaks plainly, painfully honestly, and sometimes her silence is even louder, especially in the way she moves, in the way her actions tell the stories she keeps locked behind tight lips.

she moves through life with the ruthless efficiency of someone who doesn’t have time for frills or second chances. she’s got a pragmatic side that sees through glitter and grabs the core of things, the bare-bones truth. once she decides on something, she digs her heels in, unyielding and obstinate, like a mountain refusing to move. maybe she’s a lot to handle, maybe she’s a little self-destructive. maybe she’s a hurricane all her own, restless and biting and half-wishing she’d just let herself go. but james's more than her anger, even if sometimes she forgets it herself.

"And I am built like a mother and a total machine. I feel for your every little issue, I know just what you mean. And I make light of the darkness. I've got sun in my motherfucking pocket, best believe. Yeah, you know me."

likes && hobbies.

surfing, late night walks, the smell of the ocean and weed, parties, nail polish, comfort wear, lazing around doing nothing, mango, summer, burgers, nothing changing, spicy foods, her guilty pleasure are watching trashy soap operas with her grandmother, reading magazines while tending to the cash register, taking pictures, smoking weed, swimming, mango ice cream, love songs, getting drunk, junk food, reading.

dislikes && fears.

slow walkers, people who get too comfortable when they aren’t your friend, people who insist too much, having to repeat herself, stress, bugs/dirt, the cold, her mother, scratchy sweaters, super energetic people, sour foods, zucchinis, unexpected loud noises, small spaces, cars ( they make her dizzy ), being forced to share her feelings, being pranked, the feeling of chalk, stupid people ( ironic ), overly sweet food, the smell of lavender, the sound of people chewing, group projects, hypocrisy, being told to “calm down”, trying new foods, family dinners.
&&
⎯⎯ the dark, spiders, being defenseless, loved ones dying.

habits.

⸻ clears her throat when she wants to get people’s attention. this includes in the middle of someone else’s sentence.
⸻ similarly, if interrupted, james just keeps talking but louder and with more emphasis to get them to shut up.
⸻ represses her expressions when stressed. she doesn’t like giving away when she doesn’t know what to do.
⸻ in moments of boredom, she habitually braids her money pieces, securing them with small rubber bands.

reliable

"shut up, i'm already on my way there". james is always there for other people, a silent supporter, a cracked door that glows warmly, open arms before the embrace.

strong-willed

"first of all, fuck you, i do what i want." nai nai would say james is a lion-hearted girl, fueled by her own inner flame.

organized

"of course i color coded your room assignments, do you guys even check your email?" another cog in the company's machine, keeps the nitty gritty of it all straight, from journaling the first instances of paranormal activity to just keeping equipment clean.

composed

"shh, i'm thinking." skilled in the “fake it ‘till you make it” style of keeping control. even if she doesn’t know what to do, james will pretend she does until she can think up something.

impatient

"and you're in my way. move, move, move." james struggles with waiting, often rushing headfirst into situations without thinking.

stubborn

"i’ll let you know if my opinion changes, but don’t hold your breath." likely her fatal flaw, james would rather die on the hill she stands on than give into others.

individualist

"whatever, just don’t expect me to care." while reliable, always there for others, james tends to overlap into hypocrite territory, always maintaining a arms distance with others. it's never as easy as she thinks it is.

reactive

"sir, so help me god, if you are shitting me, i will shove my boot so far up your-." although she's insistent she's not defensive, james is gnashing teeth, all bite and no bark. often assigned someone to hold her back in moments of explosive emotion.

"All the time, I'm grateful all the time. I'm sexy and I'm kind, I'm pretty when I cry. Oh, all the time, I'm grateful all the fucking time. I'm sexy and I'm kind, I'm pretty when I cry."

history.

james gao is a girl on the edge, balancing somewhere between defiance and apathy. she grew up in the kind of family where you had to earn affection, and for as long as she can remember, it felt like every word her parents said to her was a critique. good grades, a clean reputation, a life set up for success—the expectations weighed on her like iron shackles. there were years when she tried to play by their rules, desperate to be the girl they wanted: neat, polite, fluent in mandarin, someone they could proudly introduce to relatives as the picture-perfect daughter of hard-working immigrants. she used to sit in her room, cramming for hours with textbooks piled up like a fortress, and held her breath every time they looked at her report card, hoping for a rare look of approval.

but that ended the day she decided she'd had enough. it was a fight that shook their tiny apartment, the kind that leaves the air thick with words no one can take back. her parents—who had demanded so much from her for so long—looked at her with something close to resignation, then turned away and never looked back. they shifted all those burdens, all those sky-high expectations, onto her younger brother, and in their eyes, she faded into the background like wallpaper. sometimes, she can barely remember what it was like when they spoke to her with purpose. now, they only talk when necessary, when her mom needs help at the dry-cleaning shop or when her dad asks where she’s been all night. it’s almost neglect, but part of her wonders if that’s a relief.

her brother, though, became the new golden child, and if there was ever warmth between them, it’s long gone, replaced by something tense and bitter. he resents her for "getting off the hook"; she resents him for becoming everything she’s supposed to be. it’s a silent war, the kind where words are never exchanged, but eyes are narrowed, and dinners pass in mutual disdain.

the only family member she doesn’t mind is her grandmother. her nai nai moved in with them years ago, carrying with her only a suitcase and an endless supply of mandarin soap operas. they don’t have to speak the same language to understand each other; they just fall into a quiet rhythm together, peeling mangoes and watching melodramatic shows on the tiny TV in the living room. it’s one of the few things that brings james comfort, a fragile thread tying her to a family she can barely recognize. her grandmother will sometimes say a string of mandarin, usually instructions on peeling or jokes about the silly characters on TV, and though james doesn’t always understand, she doesn’t mind. it’s the closest thing she has to peace.

at seventeen, school was little more than a waste of hours. james was only there because she had to be, drifting through classes and avoiding assignments, more interested in the relief of the bell than anything a teacher could ever say. her grades were mediocre, her motivation even lower. she would skip class to surf when the waves are good and spends afternoons smoking with her only friend, nicola, or wandering the beach, watching the sun dip below the horizon. sometimes she would end up at one of the keg parties down by the docks, the kind where beer flows like water and every shout echoes across the ocean. she would never go for the people, doesn’t care for the crowd—but there was something satisfying in the noise, in the way it drowns out every thought in her head. her graduation came and passed with little fanfare, little more than a slip of paper tacked to the fridge amongst a sea of her brother's A+ assignments.

before finding work with the sleepy hollow investigation of paranormal society, james would spend her afternoons in the dry-cleaning shop, the smell of starch and hot steam clinging to her clothes long after she leaves. she hated the monotony—the endless parade of clothes she’s got no use for, the steady hum of machines, the rhythm of her parents’ practiced motions as they work alongside her in silence. yet, somehow, she keeps showing up, even on her off days, even now that she's moved out of the house. change isn’t something she embraces easily; the thought of finding somewhere else to work feels like more hassle than it’s worth. so she shrugs it off, barely caring enough to complain, folding shirts and slipping hangers onto racks in a kind of restless boredom.

once, though, she found herself in a high school fight—one that would’ve been forgettable, if not for the fact that it ended up in a suspension. a girl she barely knew made a snide comment about her family’s dry-cleaning business, something laced with the kind of prejudice james had heard a thousand times before. normally, she would’ve let it go, but something snapped, and before she knew it, she’d shoved the girl hard enough to send her stumbling into a desk. it was stupid, reckless, and way over the top—but she can still remember the rush of satisfaction that came from standing her ground, of finally pushing back. for a second, everyone’s eyes were on her, and the power of that moment pulsed through her long after the principal had lectured her and her parents had refused to speak to her for a week.

james doesn’t have much in the way of friends; she isn’t exactly warm, and she’s a little too blunt to make people feel comfortable. but nicola was different, someone who wouldn't ask questions and wouldn't pry, just show up with a grin and a joint, ready to waste the day together. it was a friendship born of mutual disinterest in what everyone else seems to care about, a shared love of days with no structure. they would float from place to place, lying on the sand or sharing earbuds to listen to music, talking only when it feels right. days of her youth she often looks back on.

she’s a girl on the outside, a misfit by choice as much as by circumstance. some days, she can feel the weight of her choices, the space she’s created between herself and her family, her team, even her future. she’s aimless and a little lost, but stubbornly, she doesn’t want to change. she’s made her choices, set herself on this path, and the idea of changing course feels like admitting defeat, like caving to the expectations she’s spent years shrugging off.

yet sometimes, in quiet moments, she feels a flicker of regret, a sliver of something raw and aching beneath the tough exterior. maybe she wonders what life would be like if things had gone differently, if she’d been the daughter they wanted, if she’d ever had a chance to be close to her brother. but regret isn’t a language she lets herself speak. instead, she takes another drag, watches another wave crash, and lets it all slip away, lost to the rhythm of a life lived outside the lines.

mixtape.

⸻ all-american bitch by olivia rodrigo.
⸻ mardy bum by artic monkeys.
⸻ someday soon by harlem.
⸻ deceptacon by le tigre.
⸻ fill in the blank by car seat headrest.
⸻ take a bite by beabadoobee.
⸻ i can’t handle change by roar.

aesthetic.

⸻ short jean shorts & skirts,, tank tops,, messy bun,, hair clips on wild strands,, gold and chunky jewelry,, maximalist fashion,, ocean hair,, chipped nail polish,, weed pens and mangos,, sun kissed freckles,, small starfish necklace,, pencil eyeliner,, smudged mascara,, starfish flip flops,, dean winchester flannels over turtlenecks,, tan lines.

headcanons.

⋆ james is one of those "i love you guys so much" drunks, overly affectionate and clinging to the arm of anyone who lets her. dragging her to bed is especially difficult in this state, a giggly, childish mess.
⋆ james is named after her father, as for much of her mother's pregnancy, she was thought to be a boy for her her tendency to kick her mother and craving of spicy food. the gaos only realized their first child was a girl after giving birth to her, and the name just sort of stuck. her parents briefly tried to call her by her middle name, naomi, growing up but they've come to accept she's a james through and through.

mother

chen mei-ann,, forty-four,, co-owner at the family’s dry-cleaning shop,, alive,, mei-ann loves james fiercely, but it's a love that's been tempered by frustration and disappointment. when james was younger, mei-ann put immense pressure on her to excel, pushing her to embody every sacrifice she and her husband had made. after james's rebellion, mei-ann pulled back entirely, leaving a silent gap between them that’s filled with guilt, misunderstanding, and stubborn pride. though she keeps her distance now, there’s a part of her that wishes they could still be close. sometimes, when she looks at james across the dinner table, mei-ann’s eyes soften for just a second, only to harden again when james rolls her eyes.

father

gao james yong,, forty-eight,, co-owner at the family’s dry-cleaning shop,, alive,, james is strict but quieter than mei-ann, with a simmering disappointment that runs just under the surface. he doesn’t try to mold james anymore, instead redirecting his focus on her younger brother, though this shift isn’t lost on james. he’s a man of few words, and while he’s proud of the life he’s built, he sees james's disinterest in it as a slight against everything he’s worked for. he wishes he could reach her but lacks the language—both literal and emotional—to bridge the gap. when they talk, it’s often about work or school, and it always feels like he’s trying to keep it brief to avoid another fight.

brother

daniel "danny" gao,, fourteen,, student,, alive,, danny embodies both the resentment and rivalry of a younger sibling placed in his older sister’s shadow. unlike james, he tries to meet their parents’ expectations, excelling in school where she has long stopped caring; james sees him as both the golden child and a painful reminder of everything she doesn’t want to be. their relationship is tense, filled with snark and rolled eyes, but there’s an unspoken understanding between them—a shared bitterness toward the relentless demands of their parents. though she would never admit it, james sometimes envies his ability to slip into the role of the dutiful child while also feeling anger at his eagerness to take the place she fought to escape.

grandmother

ah-lam gao,, seventy-seven,, retired,, alive,, ah-lam is james's calm in the storm, her one steady connection to family, even if they speak mostly through gestures and glances. there’s a quiet understanding between them despite the language barrier; ah-lam’s mandarin is halting, and james's is nearly nonexistent, but somehow they understand each other just fine. watching soap operas and peeling mangoes together is their ritual, a wordless companionship where james feels genuinely seen. ah-lam sees james as a kindred spirit, stubborn and strong, though james doubts she’ll ever understand the life her grandmother left behind.

filler

 

[wolfstar]

Archie Finnegan - Psychic Medium

full name: Archer Atlas Finnegan
nickname(s): Archie
age - 25
gender and pronouns: transgender man, he/him
sexuality - homosexual and romantic
Height: 6"0

their role : The psychic medium
how did they join the gang? - Honestly he's been there since the beginning though if you ask him it will be a really long winded tale. But maybe childhood besties with the founder maybe
are they sensitive to the paranormal?: very sensitive - cause he can speak with them in so called trances:
do they believe in the paranormal? : yes
strengths and weaknesses: He's got a good heart and easy to talk too but he tends to be a bit too kind for his own good sometimes and neglect himself

personality: He's a funny guy , who loves to see others be happy. He's protective of his friends and tends to put everyone before himself. He tends to be a bit secretive about his mediumship abilities and a little bit too curious for his own good. But he's got a great head on his shoulders and most of the time can see the bigger picture. ( I can update this more later)
birthday: September 9th
body modifications / scars: top surgery scars
history / backstory - wip

likes--- cherry coke , cherries, calamari, boys, the paranormal, good conversation, a good joke, most animals
dislikes -- bullies, violence
habits-- he tends to mess with his hair a lot
fears -- fire, being alone
hobbies-- he loves to read ( but won't admit it) and greek mythology

aroma: coffee and sage
faceclaim : Young Johnny Depp
voiceclaim: above
headcanons / fun facts: He has a pet cat named Cicero and is British and Greek, would be chaotic good and a slytherin. He got his first psychic vision at 14 and his favorite color is green.

----

He's got a lean bodybuilder, soft brown hair and dark brown eyes.

He tends to prefer wearing flannels and shirts, jeans and boots. But he can dress more formal if he absolutely has too. He also does a bit of guy liner

 

[heartstringss]

application withdrawn, sorry! ​

 

[parhelion]

• PLACEHOLDER
• CS SHEET (like 90% done tbh)

• 
  
  
  
  

  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  

  
  
  

  Marcy Burke

  
  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  # the artist

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  # sophie aldred

  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  
  
  

  ♡coded by uxie♡

  
  
  

  
  
  
  
  
• 
  
  scroll

  Can't Kick Up The Roots

  Neck Deep

  Marcy

  Burke

  persona

  &

  attributes

  virtues

  vices

  backstory

  &

  connections

  name.

  Marcelline Rosetta Burke
  

  alias.

  Marcy
  

  age.

  22
  

  gender.

  demigirl [she/they]
  

  sexuality.

  questioning pansex [femme lean]
  

  occupation.

  SHIPS criminal profiler (resident artist)
  

  role.

  The Artist
  

  "Yeah, this place is such a shipwreck, but this shipwreck, it is mine."

  eyes.

  Hazel
  

  hair.

  Light brown
  

  skin.

  Tan
  

  ethnicity.

  Caucasian
  

  height.

  5' 6"
  

  body mods.

  several piercings
  

  faceclaim & voiceclaim.

  Sophie Aldred [as Ace, in Doctor Who]
  

  overview.

  Marcy can be a lot to handle. She burns hot and bright and powerful with rage and passion and big emotions, but holding such fire in one’s self can just as easily lean to burning out, too. In some ways she’s a grenade, but only if she’s holding the pin herself: there’s something to be said about orchestrated, deliberate self-destruction. There’s a form of control in it, and Marcy has rarely ever had much control over her life, having been herded around constantly.
  
  She doesn’t mince her words and can be abrasive and abrupt, using sarcasm as a coping mechanism for not really knowing how to communicate in substantive ways. No one ever really taught her how to be gentle, ergo she doesn’t know how to navigate gentleness, and so she struggles in situations where she’s expected to exercise it, such as social scenarios. On a more personal level, beneath the tough-girl sorta attitude she puts on, she is deeply insecure about the world and her place in it. She cares deeply, but she doesn’t know how to express that care meaningfully, because her years in state system has taught her to hide any sort of hurt and vulnerability as well as she can, lest she meet disappointment and pain.
  
  Her personality walks a delicate balance along protecting herself from the possibility of being hurt and needing a way to express herself that isn’t oppressed by outside forces. She doesn’t do well with authority figures for this reason – she’s got a peculiar relationship to people in positions of power over her, because almost all of them have failed her in some way or another. This also contributes to making her quite willing to break the law in various different ways, for example being prone to vandalism or breaking-and-entering. Skillsets which do occasionally help SHIPS in their endeavours, but also threaten to get her into hot water from time to time.
  
  

  "If I have no future and it's already paying for the past, just give me the pieces so I can call them mine. I don't care if I leave empty handed. I will learn if I make my own mistakes. I don't care if you don't understand it; I will learn if you let me find my own way."

  style.

  Post-punk, grunge. Bright, bold. Rarely found without her black bomber jacket, which is adorned with various pins and patches aligning with her interests: space, sci-fi, comics, ghosts, etc. Constantly added on to.
  
  

  hobbies.

  art (sketching and painting), skateboarding, urbanex, parkour
  
  

  strengths.

  creativity, situational awareness, good intuition to danger, very fast runner.
  
  

  weaknesses.

  social awareness, does not know how to navigate any sort of intimacy, closes in on herself and doesn’t know how to ask for help. can be a bit too abrasive, not the most charismatic towards clients.
  
  

  fears.

  abandonment, being unwanted (sometimes they're still the kid standing on the outside looking in, the stray that people feed but no one takes home)
  
  

  likes.

  loud rock music, the smell of gasoline, paint, the sound of a shaking spray can, birds, driving just slightly above the speed limit, adrenaline rushes, the colour red, dinosaurs, space, sci-fi, motorbikes, urban exploring, explosions (a bit too much), the punk movement
  
  

  dislikes.

  authority, being told what to do without being given a choice, early mornings, when people touch her artbooks without permission, working customer service, being in the backseat of a car (she's a shotgun girlie) the cold, therapists, black trash bags, being called Marcelline instead of Marcy
  
  

  Brave

  "Well, duh. Ghost-hunting isn't for pussies." It's a non-sequitur for them really; if there is potential for fear, you ball up your fists and you put your chin high and you go on despite it.

  Passionate

  She is very expressive of herself and of her interests, can talk for hours about them. Hyperfixates on art in particular. She loves it, and it’s quite obvious that she does.

  Street Smart

  Most of her experience comes from being raised in a rough environment or spending some time on the streets, so she’s better at navigating those sorts of situations.

  Stubborn

  This can sometimes prove to be a flaw instead of a virtue when it toes the line into a bullish sort of headstrong, but generally once she locks in to something, she’s in for the ride and will rarely back down.

  loyal

  Marcy demonstrates a strong loyalty towards all the people she cares about. Maybe because she's scared of losing them, or maybe because she just doesn't want to see them hurt the same ways she's been hurt. Hell or high water, she's by their side, if they'll let her be.

  Impulsive

  "Bet you've never had a milkshake tipped over your head, 'neither." - Marcy to a rude customer shortly before being fired from her short stint as a waitress at a diner. (...She doesn't necessarily think before she acts sometimes)

  Sarcastic

  Girlie uses sarcasm as a protective mechanism, but it can often be too abrasive or offputting.

  Troubled

  Life hasn’t been easy on her, and she often sees it as a fistfight. She’s not exactly the most stable individual.

  Insecure

  She has spent so much of her life as unwanted that sometimes she still forgets that she can trust her friends to see her vulnerabilities and weaknesses without leaving her in the dust.

  Confrontational

  Give her a reason to, and she's down to fight anyone.

  "People come and go in your life. It is up to you choose how you want to associate with that person. It is up to you to learn and imbibe things from such a person."

  
  

  history.

  Maybe they’re cursed. Maybe they’re just unlucky. Maybe they’re both. Marcy isn’t quite sure, but if there’s one thing that they’ve learned in their years on Earth: life will not pull its punches with her. There are some people in this world who get to breeze through life, unfaltering and unhindered, but she is not one of them. There has never been a time where she hasn’t had to furiously fight for her right to a place in the rat race.
  
  Her biological family was poor, living hand-to-mouth in a trailer park and barely scraping by. Soon after her fourth birthday, her father ditched. Marcy was not quite old enough to remember him well, and thus, that absence does not sting as much. It is the absence of the parent that was physically there that has always hurt more. Her mother was not a mother so much as she was simply the one that birthed Marcy into the world. Dorothy Burke struggled with substance abuse, choosing to distance herself from the world to cope with being within it—and as a result, Marcelline Burke had to grow up too fast, learning how to take care of two.
  
  It wasn’t long until social services came knocking. Constant absences from school had been reported, and the follow-up determined that Marcy had to be taken from the unstable home environment for her own good. So began the foster family ping-pong, bouncing between various places unsuccessfully, another cog in a system too underfunded to truly provide efficient support for the wards in its care.
  
  There was always a reason that the families didn’t want her, a reason for why they chewed her up and spat her back out: she was too loud, too angry, too uncooperative. She was too much work. She wouldn’t trust anyone, so she would try to maintain her own hyper-independence, challenging authority at every turn. Her foster parents, her teachers, the various state therapists she was forced to see. She would stay out late, break into places she shouldn’t, do all the things she shouldn’t, all to see where the breaking point was. How far she had to go, to get thrown back into the cold again.
  
  In her early teen years, her mother cleaned up enough to successfully win custody back. Still too young to really get a say in the matter, Marcy was thrown back into the trailer park home. Marcy’s relationship with her mother remained strained, especially due to conflicting beliefs about Marcy’s budding gender identity. Their little duo of a family was like two puzzle pieces that no longer connected properly to a whole: they were bonded by blood, but that wasn’t quite enough to get through to each other. Shortly after having a particularly explosive fight, Dorothy relapsed, and Marcy could not forgive it. In her eyes, her mother was choosing substances over her daughter. Which she always had before, but this time was different. This time, they’d gotten closer than ever to being a family again and had fallen short.
  
  So Marcy ran away. Didn’t get far before she got picked up again and absorbed back into the foster care system once more. This time she had a short stint in a group home, before being shepherded to what was to hopefully be her last home (by this time, she was nearing the legal age to become her own guardian, aka old enough for state officials to shrug their shoulders and say, ‘well kid, we did our best, you’re on your own now.’)
  
  Enter Vincent Sunday. The most eccentric old man she’d ever met, and the only one patient enough to withstand all her acts of self-destruction and rebellion. It was him who taught her how to make art. He was the one who put a spray can in her hand and told her to destroy a large piece of paper if she must, all in the name of expressing herself and the fire that burns within her soul. And thus, the troubled foster child met Art, and it became her. For the first time in her life, she had something that was hers. Something that let her bare her teeth without biting, that let her have dreams and ambitions and healthy expression. For the first time, she had found a home, instead of just a house she was allowed to stay in.
  
  
  

  how did they join the gang?

  She was out urban-exploring alone (and yes, she may have also been performing some casual vandalism too) in a location that the gang was investigating in, and accidentally got pulled into the chaos of their investigation. Afterwards, she stayed, assuming the role of their feisty artist.
  
  

  are they sensitive to the paranormal?

  No, she's very judgmental towards them. "What up ghosts its ya boi" core. She'd say she can sense the paranormal, and it gives her the heebies and the jeebies. It also strongly influences her art.
  
  

  do they believe in the paranormal.

  yes.

  Vincent Sunday

  The first person who ever believed in her and saw her potential; the kindly (if not extremely eccentric) art professor who took her in after she bounced from foster home to foster home to foster home, giving her a life outside of black garbage bags and safe methods to be able to express herself. Vince is where she inherited her passion for art from, the one she learnt how to be loud and messy and unabashedly themselves from.

  Dorothy Burke [mother, estranged]

  Troubled relationship. Dorothy Burke was not a woman who knew how to be a mother; she barely knew how to be a person on her own. They try not to blame her for it as much anymore, but there's a bitterness still lingering between the two of them. Marcy was absorbed into the state system early on in her life, but briefly was put back under the custody of her mother before eventually running away (and subsequently going back into fostercare)

  filler

  
  

 

[SavannahSmiles]

Book Nerd.

full name

Rowan Beaumont

nickname(s)

Answer

age

22-26

birthday

tbd

gender/pronouns

Male | He/Him

sexuality

Gay + Poly

aesth

height/weight

Answer

hair

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eyes

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Mods/scars

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aroma

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face/voice-claim

George Pomogisebe

run boy run

woodkid

req.

req.

They call us dreamers,
But we're the ones who don't sleep.

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Donec

vestibulum dui eget diam sodales lobortis. Nulla fermentum purus fringilla hendrerit tincidunt. Quisque ullamcorper fringilla augue, a laoreet ligula vehicula vel. Vestibulum laoreet tristique sem, vel malesuada nunc congue quis. Nulla aliquet massa a felis viverra iaculis. Praesent ac tortor quis diam efficitur consequat non id eros. Nullam malesuada quis nisl vitae consequat.

Ut iaculis, est sit amet laoreet fringilla, leo neque pharetra tellus, vel hendrerit lorem neque eget diam. Vivamus varius libero vitae nisl consequat egestas. Ut viverra lorem purus, egestas sagittis nulla dapibus et. Aenean ornare nulla non mattis luctus. Quisque accumsan nec mi in semper. Curabitur dignissim pellentesque dolor, ut malesuada urna interdum iaculis. Integer vulputate risus justo, nec volutpat turpis accumsan a. Nunc at aliquam leo. In vel sem et felis aliquet rutrum. Aenean eget maximus ipsum, fringilla semper velit. Donec tempus porta mauris at rutrum. Phasellus tincidunt, mauris id commodo varius, lorem nisi tincidunt dolor, sed tincidunt quam nulla eu enim. Ut fermentum elit vitae magna dignissim bibendum sed eu mi. Integer non semper mauris. Cras egestas orci quis rhoncus vulputate. Integer vestibulum congue justo vel eleifend.

likes

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dislikes

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habits

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fears

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hobbies

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pers.

pers.

birth

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Ut iaculis, est sit amet laoreet fringilla, leo neque pharetra tellus, vel hendrerit lorem neque eget diam. Vivamus varius libero vitae nisl consequat egestas. Ut viverra lorem purus, egestas sagittis nulla dapibus et. Aenean ornare nulla non mattis luctus. Quisque accumsan nec mi in semper. Curabitur dignissim pellentesque dolor, ut malesuada urna interdum iaculis. Integer vulputate risus justo, nec volutpat turpis accumsan a. Nunc at aliquam leo. In vel sem et felis aliquet rutrum. Aenean eget maximus ipsum, fringilla semper velit. Donec tempus porta mauris at rutrum. Phasellus tincidunt, mauris id commodo varius, lorem nisi tincidunt dolor, sed tincidunt quam nulla eu enim. Ut fermentum elit vitae magna dignissim bibendum sed eu mi. Integer non semper mauris. Cras egestas orci quis rhoncus vulputate. Integer vestibulum congue justo vel eleifend.

part. 2

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Ut iaculis, est sit amet laoreet fringilla, leo neque pharetra tellus, vel hendrerit lorem neque eget diam. Vivamus varius libero vitae nisl consequat egestas. Ut viverra lorem purus, egestas sagittis nulla dapibus et. Aenean ornare nulla non mattis luctus. Quisque accumsan nec mi in semper. Curabitur dignissim pellentesque dolor, ut malesuada urna interdum iaculis. Integer vulputate risus justo, nec volutpat turpis accumsan a. Nunc at aliquam leo. In vel sem et felis aliquet rutrum. Aenean eget maximus ipsum, fringilla semper velit. Donec tempus porta mauris at rutrum. Phasellus tincidunt, mauris id commodo varius, lorem nisi tincidunt dolor, sed tincidunt quam nulla eu enim. Ut fermentum elit vitae magna dignissim bibendum sed eu mi. Integer non semper mauris. Cras egestas orci quis rhoncus vulputate. Integer vestibulum congue justo vel eleifend.

relation

name here

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relation

name here

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relation

name here

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how did they join the gang?

examples include being friends with the founder or another member, being a former client now turned member, etc! if unsure, feel free to ask!

are they sensitive to the paranormal?

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do they believe in the paranormal?

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strengths

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weaknesses

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headcanons

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hist.

hist.

scroll

♡coded by uxie♡

 

[Soap]

Daphne M. Parker

Writer. Investigator. Overthinker.

role:

book nerd

fc:

zoe colletti

ask the questions

and be the one who rewrites the answers

•ﻌ•

♡

❀

❀˖°

 

[asystole.]

kian bakshi

tech nerd. coding connoisseur.

♡coded by uxie♡

 

[fawnsite]

the nonbeliever.

— aj campbell.

basics & visage

name:

Aaron Jeremiah Campbell.

alias:

AJ, his most used nickname. Most predominantly used in his childhood, friends and family refer to him as this. He responds to it the most, he's AJ first, Aaron second. Unless you're his mother, of course.
AA Ron, a cruel mispronunciation of his first name that gained popularity after a certain Key & Peele sketch. Safe to say, middle schoolers are assholes.
Campbell, for his last name, it’s an alright nickname. Was used most often in high school, when he was on the basketball team. He doesn’t really have any personal attachment to it.

age:

Twenty-four.

birthday:

August 26th.

gender:

Cisgender male.

sexuality:

AJ identifies as pansexual (as well as panromantic). His sexuality has never been an issue in his eyes, always something he's known and never afraid to be upfront about. This is in part due to his mother's constant support and his honesty about the world around him.

"We both like apple cider, but your hair be smelling like fruit punch. And I don't even like you that much . . . wait, I do, fuck."

hair:

AJ is wholly unextraordinary. Brown skin, 6'0", average build. Smooth skin, delicate fingers, supple in shape and movements. piercing eyes, quiet gaze. A steely figure that cuts like molten metal. Quietly but with an unnerving precision. Big eyes, both vulnerable and trusting, and determined as sharp glass.

Has a smooth, delicate face, and dark skin with bluish undertones. Has a calm aura, takes care of his appearance, but tries not to stand out.

Throughout his life, AJ's appearance hasn’t really changed. When younger, he had very soft, round features, which he never really lost as he aged. Same dimpled smile, same soft edges. This often leads to people assuming he's much younger than he is as he became an adult. IT seems to be a family thing as all of his family share.

The biggest change seemed to come from his teenage years. AJ hit the stereotypical “awkward teen years” very hard. Really bad acne. Braces for crooked teeth that were charmingly awkward when he was younger but actually started causing problems when he got older. It got him a lot of bullying –– as if it isn’t a usual teen experience –– and AJ's attempts to “fix” it failed hard. Turns out all he needed to do was wait.

faceclaim:

Kedar Williams-Stirling.

voice:

AJ's voice is calm and melodic, full of warmth, the fond amusement of an old friend. When he speaks to someone, he always sounds fully committed to the conversation. There's a slight rasp to AJ's voice, only made more obvious during early mornings and late nights.

habits:

✸ Playing with his hair - Whenever AJ’s boredom gets to him his fingers, almost instantly, get tangled up within his hair. During unimportant conversations or classes, he’ll find himself redoing his twists over and over and over again. He could probably do it in his sleep because his fingers have memorized the patterns.
✸ Mispronouncing words, humming, tapping his fingers against surfaces, twitching his eyes when he’s annoyed, forgetting to blink when he’s focused.

aroma:

Aromatic and fresh, a combination of clean linen, leather, pine-scented hair wax, and sandalwood. Smells vaguely of cinnamon, his preferred flavor of toothpaste.

style:

AJ dresses like the All-American boy-next-door. His wardrobe mostly consists of light colors, or just anything that looks good in his opinion. His signature beanie and Mets baseball hat. He either has his beanie or mets baseball hat on, it’s a part of who he is at this point. He gets most of his clothes from thrift shops, as he is a big saver and believes clothes look good if you make it look good.

persona & attributes

personality:

AJ CAMPBELL HAS ALWAYS BEEN THE BUTT OF JOKES. From his clumsy personality, to the way he messes things up without even trying, he’s just…easy to make fun of. Despite this, AJ is still polite and respectful to everyone he meets. To the outside world, AJ doesn’t care about anyone’s opinions on him. But deep down, he knows he does. Due to previous experiences of bullying in the past, he can be considered as someone who is sensitive to jokes that have him at the center of it. Not that he mentions how he feels, though. AJ has learned to keep his emotions bottled up, as to spare any sympathy from his peers. He prioritizes others before himself, which is a strength but also a weakness. When AJ cares about someone, he’s all in, through thick and thin. He is loyal to a fault, and most of the time his loyalty can blind him to people’s true intentions.

AJ is a mix of reckless and playful, with a childlike sense of wonder in his attitude. He has many interests, and isn’t afraid to talk about them when given the chance. As for the reckless bit, AJ thinks anything is a good idea, as long as he’s having fun. Some may argue that he’s a bit of a himbo (he has yet to know what that means), and to be honest, they’re not exactly wrong. Though with his lively and upbeat attitude, he never fails to light up a room.

In case you couldn’t already tell, AJ is a very social person–whether it be with people he’s just met, or with someone he’s known for years. AJ is very open about his thoughts, sometimes even budding in conversations that have nothing to do with him. Do not trust this man with secrets at all (seriously), this man is a chatterbox and will tell the most embarrassing things to anyone who cares to listen with zero shame. One thing about AJ, he’s learned to become unashamed of the person he is, often telling people, “To be cringe, is to be free!”.

Beneath his happy go lucky exterior, AJ is a man with extreme low self esteem. He has many friends, but few actually know the ‘real’ him. He can arguably be described as a floater of sorts, constantly trying to find a sense of belonging with different people he befriends. AJ doubts that he’ll ever find that belonging, though. And even if he did, he’ll always be craving more.

AJ is immature as hell, probably too immature for his age. It’s almost impossible to get him to be serious about virtually anything (he has the humor of a middle school boy). However, if he sees something is really bothering someone, then he’ll become serious. One thing about AJ is that he’s very empathetic and hates seeing anyone he cares about upset.

Overall, AJ is just…a guy, pretty much. A guy trying to navigate his emotions and life. Well, at least, he’s trying to.

likes:

dad jokes, golden retrievers, 90s sitcoms, criminal minds, true crime documentaries, psychology, learning about human behavior, card games, halloween, late night walks, happy meals, flowers.

hobbies:

going to the gym, reading, talking about his interests, graphic design, gardening.

dislikes:

orange juice, oranges in general, overly gory movies, unnecessary drama, being yelled at, pineapple on pizza, loud noises, thinking about his past, being left out, leftovers.

fears:

the dark, facing his past, being alone, never finding love, what comes after death, the thought he’s wasting his life away.

strengths:

▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ ( Intuition! ) AJ has a strong intuition, which allows him to quickly understand and assess situations, making him an excellent judge of character.

▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ ( Empathy! ) AJ is a highly empathetic individual, which allows him to understand and connect with others on a deep level. He's able to recognize and respond to the emotional needs of others, making him a supportive and compassionate friend.

▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ ( Communication! ) AJ is a skilled communicator, able to express his thoughts and feelings clearly and effectively. He's able to listen and comprehend the perspectives of others.

▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ ( Adaptability! ) AJ is highly adaptable, able to adjust and respond to changing circumstances with ease. He's able to take on new challenges and learn quickly.

weaknesses:

▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ ( Zero Impulse Control! ) – AJ's impulsiveness can lead him to act without considering the consequences, leading to upset with the team for when he acts without consulting any of them first.

▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ ( Difficulty with Confrontation! ) – AJ avoids difficult conversations or conflicts, often burying his feelings instead of addressing them head-on.

▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ ( Emotional Vulnerability! ) – He wears his heart on his sleeve, which makes him susceptible to hurt when others fail to understand or appreciate his depth.

▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ ( Tendency to Overcommit! ) – AJ has a strong desire to help and be involved, sometimes spreading himself too thin and burning out in the process.

lore & backstory

role:

The Nonbeliever. / AJ has always danced the line of plausible deniability, always entertaining the idea of ghosts and ghouls, to an almost comical, sarcastic extent. AJ is a skeptic through and through, a man of logic, and more importantly, rationality. He keeps a cool head on his shoulders, doesn't sweat the small stuff (until he finds the small stuff has stacked onto itself, and then it's all not as small as he thought it was), and makes sure no one does anything stupid without him there. His bachelor's degree in anthropology, while initially surprising, is a key function for the group: the one who makes their crazy antics look good to the press.

how did they join the gang?:

Post-graduation had AJ in a slump. Caught between the mindless drone of day to day, AJ was desperate to break away from the monotony of office work, functioning as a low-ranking paralegal in a company that couldn't give him more than fifteen minutes to eat his lunch in a closet for a cubicle. He learned of SHIPS through word of mouth, water cooler conversation that eventually sent him down the rabbit hole. He initially approached SHIPS seeking to learn about the anthropology and unique function of the company within its community. Eventually, AJ succumbed to the charm of the members working the group and fell in love with the work, quitting his day job to function as the "people" person for the group, working public relations and working alongside the tech crew and cameraperson for brand management.

are they sensitive to the paranormal?:

AJ would be the first person out of the group to "walk into fire", hardly serious, barely capable of taking die-hard believers for their word without laughing out loud. He happily walks arm in arm into the most haunted locations, taunting and teasing spirits. Rationality outweighs any sense of fear he could feel toward the situation, which can make even the most frightful of hauntings seem like child's play. He only really "cracks" when he sees the impact these so-called ghosts and ghouls have on his team members. While maintaining his skepticism, he respects his team enough to know when to cut the bullshit.

do they believe in the paranormal?:

You know those stories in your childhood kids would share on the playground about haunted houses or cursed dolls? To that, AJ says hell no. While most kids in Sunday school entertained the idea of Jesus's return, AJ told them straight: "Dead people stay dead". This straightforward, no-bullshit approach to the world is what has kept AJ from ever entertaining the idea of ghosts. Raised by a man who was indoctrinated by religious views and controversial takes about how "God's world" should be, AJ's feelings on spiritualism is just a hot kettle waiting to boil over. He doesn't believe, and you could never make him.

"You said you liked my hair, so go ahead and touch it. You said you liked the jumper I wore, so I always wore it."

history:

AARON CAMPBELL was born into a rocky environment from when he was first born. With his parents already beginning the process of their divorce, AJ primarily stayed with his father, a distant man who mostly focused on work. And when he was around, it was mostly him berating AJ to be more manly and less sensitive. The times AJ was with his mother, it wasn’t much better– with her talking bad about her ex-husband right in front of AJ, leaving the young boy confused. He didn’t want to take sides, he loved both of his parents equally.

School wasn’t much better either, with AJ facing hurtful remarks and comments from his classmates. The comments were mostly about his home life, and about him being a “divorce baby”. AJ never really had any friends, maybe only one or two people he’d talk to on occasion.

He had to keep it all stuffed in, determined to live up to his fathers unrealistic expectations of ‘becoming a man’. Throughout his early childhood years, AJ had to walk on tight-rope, he was constantly on the edge. From his father, grades, relationships, it was just all too much.

At the age of fifteen AJ began to discover himself and his sexuality. He had never been attracted to just girls, not really. Everytime a girl that was interested in him showed their advances, he would decline, too afraid to confront blossoming feelings for just one gender. AJ didn’t really know why, though. But then he got his answer at a party, drunkenly making out with another boy. It felt natural, right, even. He had love in his heart for anyone, everyone, why tie himself down to just the binary?

By the time AJ began selecting colleges to attend, he came out to his father about his sexuality, thinking that he would be accepted. Instead, he was met with disappointment and visible disgust. That moment was the last time AJ ever contacted his father.

His life at college was…strange. His major was Anthropology, as AJ always had an interest in how humans have evolved overtime with their thoughts. For the first time in forever, AJ found a sense of belonging and hope.

Despite this, AJ will forever carry the weight of not being enough. Because, if his own father has gone this long without any contact, how could anyone love him? Deep down, AJ is still carrying that seven year old boy inside of his heart, hoping that someday, he’ll be enough for someone.

current & past connections

known affiliates:

→ SABRINA CAMPBELL

( biological mother && veterinarian && fifty four ) AJ doesn’t know how to feel about his mother. Or, if he can even refer to her as a mother. She’s been there for all of his accomplishments, but when the trials and tribulations come, she’s nowhere to be found. Their relationship is rooted with complications, with AJ wanting to make an effort, but yet hesitating because he doesn’t want to be disappointed again.

→ EMMANUEL CAMPBELL

( biological father && high school teacher && sixty ) There’s no relationship between them. AJ and his father do not have any contact at all. Even so, Emmanuel still finds a way to creep up into AJ's thoughts from time to time. In AJ's childhood years, it wasn’t any better, with AJ constantly having to set up to achieve the high standards his father put up for him. Sometimes, AJ wonders if he’s man enough to handle certain situations. He doesn’t have the confidence that his father does, and a part of AJ will always envy Emmanuel for that.

relationships:

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[shellsharbor]

Full Name: Vera Quillen
Nickname(s): Vee/V (occasionally)
Age: 22
Gender and Pronouns: Female (She/They)
Sexuality - Asexual Lesbian

Role: Tech Nerd
How did they join the gang? - Vera discovered SHIPS online, and reached out to see if they could team up for an investigation. She ended up really getting along with them and becoming a member, turning over the talents from her previous blog to help this one. (I imagine she’s one of the newer members)
Sensitive to the paranormal? Not in the slightest. She thinks she is, she is not. No cold chills, no feeling of presences, nothing. Most of her “feeling things” is the spooky atmosphere getting to her and her freaking herself out.
Believe in the paranormal? Believe in it? Vera practically centers her LIFE around it. She isn’t the type to physically fight anyone but if prodded enough you will never hear the end of her presenting literally every last scrap of evidence she has to change your mind. She and the Nonbeliever have a bit of a friendly rivalry because of it. She’s got this funny little thing where she believes in it so much that while she can talk about and research the paranormal, when actually confronted with a potential ghost or ghoul she completely panics and retreats.
Strengths:

• Optimism. “Look at me, listen to me, okay? We can do this. We’ve done way harder things.” Vera is filled with an endless glass-half-full kind of attitude, it takes a lot to break her spirit (ha). If something goes wrong in a case, or just in life, Vera is one of the few who isn’t discouraged. Some find her optimism contagious, others find it naïve and annoying.
• Determined. “Give me some coffee and a night, I’ll have it posted by morning.” If you put Vera on a task, or she makes a goal for herself, you better believe it will get done one way or another. She will keep trying until she’s exhausted every option, and then come up with something that shouldn’t have been an option and try that.
• Dreamer. “One day it might be my name up there…” Vera’s got huge ambitions and a ton of passion. She makes big plans that might seem a little unrealistic, but Vera’s confidence tends to inspire hope. Her current big thing is wanting to be famous, but she isn’t quite sure how to achieve that yet.
• Genuine. "That one's on me. I'm sorry." Openness and honesty are some of Vera’s best traits. She’s authentically her weird, eccentric self, and she couldn’t be fake even if she tried. She loves her team like a family, and isn’t afraid to show it.

Weaknesses:

• Scatterbrained. “It was literally right here, I swear.” Without a goal, Vera is easily distracted. Little details tend to slip by her, and she loses things. She’s got a little notebook to keep track of important things because if it’s not the thing that’s currently occupying her mind, she will absolutely forget.
• Dramatic. “No! Screw that guy! He can’t just say that to you and get away with it, I vote we get revenge!” Things are so much bigger for Vera than they are for others. She has a tendency to blow things way out of proportion and react way too strongly.
• Overly Trusting. “Why would they lie? They seemed nice enough.” The double-edged sword. Vera tends to see the best in people, which might seem like a good thing, but it can get her into trouble if those people don’t have their best interest in mind.
• Impatient. “We’ve been sitting here for like thirty minutes! Let’s go, let’s go!” If something needs to be done, it either needs to happen now or never at all. Being forced to wait is like torture.
• Bad people-skills. “Did you know that the legend of the banshee came from the Irish custom of the lament from the eighth century? Oh, yeah, the file-” Vera is… a little odd. She’s incredibly friendly and loves people, but she tends to be awkward and hints fly right over her head. She’s always been better at communicating through text than talking, and she’s always been more tech-savvy than people-savvy.

Personality: Vera is a big people-person with an even bigger personality. She is very friendly, talkative, but kind of weird and eccentric. Her seemingly infinite energy and somewhat frightening, intense interests in ghosts, monsters, and crime tends to scare away the average person. Her extrovertedness isn’t enough to make up for what she lacks in social skills, but she thrives off of people.
She is curious and open-minded, treating each new experience as an opportunity to learn. She values the truth, but also believes that the truth is a little more malleable than it is made out to be and there is a little bit of truth in even the wildest stories, and she wants to find it.
Vera is a restless soul, unable to sit and enjoy the world around her as it is, she craves something more. She loves change, and is never satisfied with where she is, always pushing herself further and further to achieve bigger and better goals. She believes that if she doesn’t do something amazing and incredible like discovering a new planet or winning a gold medal, then her life isn't really worth living.
She is unabashedly a dork, proudly rambling about whatever weird thing has caught her attention and writing articles about media she finds interesting

Birthday: November 23, 1994
History/Backstory: From the very beginning, Vera knew that she was a little odd compared to the other kids. For one, she believed in different things than them. She didn’t go to school, she was homeschooled by her parents who, unbeknownst to her, were in a cult with not necessarily dangerous beliefs, but some questionable and sometimes problematic ones about a coming apocalypse, strict modesty and chastity, and blind faith. She never put down any roots, her family and the cult were constantly on the move looking for new members.
Even among those who shared her faith, she still felt out of place. She couldn’t help but feel like she wasn’t learning all there was to learn and she wasn’t getting the full truth, so when she wasn’t memorizing verses and doing lessons with her mother, she would stop by the library in whatever town they were in and research whatever she wanted. The obsession with ghosts, cryptids, and unsolved crime came from those days in the library. She felt a sort of connection with beings and people that were only seen once or twice but never really known. Since she never really stuck around in towns, she felt like a mystery just like them. Slowly, her belief in the cult started to waver as she educated herself on what the world was really like, much to her parents dismay.
In her teens, her family finally settled into a small town and enrolled Vera in high school. It’s hard to tell whether it’s a result of not interacting with many other kids or Vera’s already eccentric personality, but she struggled to make friends. She tried to start clubs dedicated to the paranormal, run for leadership roles, and joined softball, but she still was forgotten about. The only thing she could find that made her feel like she could make any sort of mark on the world was through the school newspaper.
With no way to express her love of the paranormal at school or at home, she started a small blog where she collected and investigated the ghost stories of her town and surrounding towns. She hoped to make it big, but it never really took off.
High school was also when realized that she just did not understand any of the hype around sex. She wanted a relationship, but she didn’t understand why people got so weird about their crushes being “hot” or “sexy”, genuinely thinking that it was a made up thing. As if that didn’t make her even more alien among her peers, when she realized that romantically she liked girls it became a glaring issue with her religious family. She briefly had a girlfriend online her senior year, but her parents found out and broke apart the relationship.
She escaped to college soon after, cutting off her family, old religion, and handling everything herself. Things became easier, but as always, she eventually became restless and craved something more. She graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Journalism and planned a road trip across the country to try and find what she was looking for through more ghost stories from all over the place. What she found was a group of other paranormal enthusiasts and a place she might finally fit.

Likes: Anything paranormal, 80’s horror movies, social media, wild conspiracy theories, stars (Seriously. There are stars on everything she owns. She’ll draw them on with sharpie or sew star shaped patches onto stuff), bad jokes, purple, halloween, memes, new things
Dislikes: Liars, waiting, being misunderstood, sitting like a normal person, tradition, being controlled, rejection, choir hymns
Habits: Humming while she writes, talks with her hands,
Fears: Ghosts (ironic), being forgotten, going to Hell (yay leftover religious trauma), losing her people after she’s finally found them
Hobbies: Going down weird internet rabbit holes, exploring online archives, writing

Aroma: Coffee, Vanilla, and Pine
Faceclaim: agirlcalledmel
Voiceclaim: Bryce Charles
Headcanons / Fun facts:

• When Vera gets overwhelmed, she tends to shut down. Yelling, pacing, waving her arms around means she can handle it on her own- but sudden silence means something is VERY wrong.
• She doesn’t use curse words, they’ve never been a part of her vocabulary growing up, and even replaces “Oh my god” with “Oh my ghost” because she’s a dork.
• Those softball skills from highschool stuck around. Never ask her to toss anything to you because the old habits will kick and and she will absolutely pitch it to you as hard and fast as she can without thinking
• The cult is one of the only things Vera won’t openly talk about. If you were to ask her about it, she’d just shake her head, say it’s in the past, and move on.
• You would think after taking a whole roadtrip around the country she’d be a good driver. You’d be WRONG.

Style/Aesthetic: