[ chase sui wonders | demi-girl | she/they | twenty-one ] —— it’s just another typical week in hawkins i guess — isn’t that right, mingzhu tuan? huh, guess they can’t hear me over rapture by blondie playing on their walkman, but it looks like they’re headed to class at an roane community college and work at milton’s electronics. did you know misty has been in hawkins for nine years? yeah, they’ve been described as a bit heedless, but i suppose them also being adroit outweighs the negative. i’ve also heard people say they remind them of never living up to your potential, a closet full of hoodies, forged prescriptions … however, that could just be this weeks newest rumor.
the basics.
name. mingzhu tuan. other names. misty, mists. birth date. january 13th, 1966. age. twenty-one. gender. demi-girl. pronouns. she/they. orientation. bisexual. species. human. nationality. american. ethnicity. chinese, white. current location. hawkins, indiana. current living conditions. lives in a small studio apartment right above milton's electronics.
birth place. fairfax, virginia. social class. middle class. education. high school graduate, currently working towards an undergraduate degree. parents. laura milton (née tuan), mother ; george milton, stepfather. siblings. elizabeth "sissy" milton, younger half-sister. other relationships. edwin hyder, biological father. occupation. computer engineering student at roane community college, head manager at milton's electronics.
general headcanons.
▫ born in fairfax, virginia, it had always been misty and their mom for most of their life, their dad practically zipping out of town the moment laura tuan told him she was eight weeks pregnant, especially after she had been disowned by her own parents. it hadn't been easy, being just the two of them, but misty's mother always made do, always made them feel like they weren't alone.
▫ unlike most cliches, misty actually welcomed the presence of a stepfather into her life pretty easily. george milton was a good man, treated her mother like the queen she is, and brought gifts for misty every time he visited. it wasn't long before george and her mother got married, misty being the maid-of-honor at the wedding, of course.
▫ the only caveat to george and laura's marriage? they had to move to hawkins, because george had to take over the family business, or whatever. see, fairfax wasn't the pinnacle of city living, but to misty, it beat living in middle-of-nowhere, indiana, especially right as they were approaching teenhood. still, there were some good things to come out of the move, such as misty discovering the new love of their life-- computers. they pored over the electronics george sold at the store, assembling and disassembling them to figure out just how they worked. it was a no-brainer that they were to work at milton's electronics, and for that, the move was made a little bit easier.
▫ misty never adjusted to life in hawkins, not really, always proclaiming herself as an outcast by choice, preferring to stay with their machines and gadgets. she had above-average grades, and at school she was the president of the hawkins high school av club-- though also possibly being its sole member. either way, misty blended into the background in high school, which she preferred just fine.
▫ milton's electronics was the only store of its kind in hawkins-- that is, until, starcourt rolled into town, bringing with it its new-fangled wares and radioshack. why, startcourt almost drove milton’s electronics into the ground! luckily, the place survived, even after an earthquake and the resurgence of starcourt, but that doesn’t mean the place isn’t struggling.
▫ misty is aware that her parents are keeping it a secret from her, but she knows that the store isn’t doing so well, which is why she decided to study at the community college rather than take that scholarship to that fancy tech school in massachusetts. of course, their parents don’t know that that’s why they decided to stay in hawkins– in fact, their parents think they didn’t get the scholarship in the first place, and while misty is often berated for this assumption, they believe it’s better for their parents to think that their kid wasn’t good enough for a scholarship rather than them knowing the real reason behind it.
▫ they currently live in a studio apartment right above milton's, proclaiming some sense of independence from their parents, despite the fact that they still have dinner with george and laura almost every evening. still, they kind of run the place now, george giving them the freedom to do whatever in the store as they please, as long as it's within budget, which misty tries to follow.
▫ while they mainly work at milton’s electronics, misty has had a pretty booming side-business in forgery, tracing all the way back to their humble beginnings in high school, forging excuse letters and hall passes. nowadays, she keeps the side hustle to a minimum, but for the right price she can divvy up a forgery worthy of the MET, or whatever. i reckon she got in trouble for it once and got too spooked to make it a consistent thing, but it’s not like they’re completely opposed to it !