Barriss gave Nikita a look. âYou know, Iâm trying not to think about my missing sister Gossip Girl-ing the school... the population of which includes me.â It was incredibly hard not to, though, what with everyone buzzing about it. "I do, however... think itâs plausible.âÂ
For one, if the person were Natalia, they wouldnât be bluffing about knowing all of Barrissâ secrets, some of which involved the person she was talking to right now. In light of all this, the only real question she had was why?
(  mc , nineteen , nb , they/them , est , no [applicable] triggers.  ) â ARIZONA U is proud to introduce you to BARRISS âBâ LINDERMAN, the twenty-one year old , undergraduate astrophysics major in her JUNIOR year. most of their peers deem them as someone who is enthusiastic , adroit & open-minded but i know that some of their professors think theyâre more boisterous , hedonic & reticent , maybe thatâs why the police are still interviewing them on the reopened cold case. maybe it was because they were also the ADOPTED SIBLING of NATALIA LINDERMAN. i mean that is just a little suspicious, but i only really think of mountain dew, the late-night glow of a computer screen, manic panic hair dye, star wars, and opinionated female rock when i hear their name, not murder. but i could be wrong. â DANIELLE ROSE RUSSELL. ( ** Nikitaâs best friend )
TW: Drug, Death Mention
Barriss got adopted by the Lindermanâs fairly early, so she doesnât know too much about her life before. The biggest thing she knows is that her bio parents were very close friends of the Lindermanâs, but thatâs about it. They donât seem to want to be very talkative.Â
The Linderman parents are an interesting bunch: a Broadway performer (Christine in Phantom, Cinderella in Into the Woods, Ellen in Miss Saigon, Cosette in Les Mis, et cetera) and a âsuper geek.â Itâs very easy to tell which parent each of the Linderman kids took after!Â
Barriss, of course, was the super geek. (It is literally in her name, after all.) Science and math came very easy to her -- she really enjoyed them, even, and actively pursued them. Even at a very young age. She occupied her time with Robotics, Science Olympiad, and basically every nerdy K-12 activity available. To add insult to injury, she was -- and is -- quite the Star Wars fan, too.Â
Pressures were high. Barriss wanted to be perfect... you know, just like Natalia, their biological child. Natalia, star of every school play, every musical. Natalia, Thespian Society president. Natalia, with the perfect boyfriend and life. She loved her older sister, but fuck. It didnât feel fair.
They had a really weird relationship because of it: loving, friendly, happy, but with an imbalance of power always lurking in the subtext. Natalia tried to assuage the younger oneâs fears and concerns, but it only worked superficially.
Sometime during her high school career, Barriss met someone (online, that is): Nikita Tanaka. Nikita was slightly older than her, not that it mattered too much. She liked really soft stuff, like, berry picking and fairy lights and crap. She was passionate about psychology and mental health and the wellbeing of other people... even when she was struggling herself. Nikita scared her, really. Barriss was afraid for and of how she was starting to feel about Nikita, as in... she was kinda in love with her. That wasnât important, though. What mattered was his strict her parents were and the assholes that drugged and recorded her and made Nikita feel like any of it was her fucking fault. Oh yeah, and by the way... Barriss was really pissed off for her, too, if that wasnât obvious.
As far as actual school, Barriss was pretty darn good at that, too. She took AP Physics, AP Calc BC, and just about every AP offered, all while remaining considerably involved in school activities. She somehow managed to graduate as valedictorian, even.
Things were going pretty well towards the end, especially with Natalia (pretty funny, you know, since her end is the one in question). Barriss would be going off to Stanford to study Physics in a few months, too.
Disaster struck not too long after. June 7th, 2017 came, and Natalia, along with the other three, disappeared. This hit Barriss particularly hard, and Stanford became an afterthought. Who cared about Stanford when your sister was probably dead?
So, she went to Arizona instead, conveniently just down the block. Barriss had to live in Nataliaâs shadow, even more looming in light of Juneâs events... but she could stay at home for a bit, at least. Nikita ending up there eventually was also a plus... in a 100% platonic way.
Headcanons
Barriss wants to work for NASA doing astrophysics research, or something of the like, and has since middle school.
She has glow-in-the-dark stars on her ceiling.
Barriss dyes her hair a lot, but itâs most often hot pink (sometimes streaks, sometimes tips, and sometimes the whole nine yards; depends on how sheâs feeling!).
She is probably a lesbian but hasnât really come out to anyone yet (Barriss is definitely known to not be straight, though).
As much of a âsuper geekâ as Barriss is, she has an artistic side, too, and loves to draw; she would definitely not mind working in video games/animation someday (though that perhaps qualifies as âsuper geek,â too) as another option.
She writes and illustrates a web comic with a humble amount of internet popularity that I will formulate the details of later!!
etc etc etc
I would luv to plot with Everyone and plot Every Thing (I am pretty bad w/ wanted connections lmao),, so please hmu here or at i am the senate#3477 on discord whenevaa
This may be my favorite song. I donât really know. It really just bring me into the Star Wars Universe, which just seems so much more large and real than a fictional place.
