─── ıılıılı excellent fun til you get to know her
full name: finley laine shyba nicknames: fin date of birth: october 26, 2001 zodiac sign: scorpio orientation: bisexual gender: cis woman pronouns: she/her
birthplace: blackstone ridge, texas mother: potential wc father: potential wc siblings: one brother a year or two younger, potential wc pets: tba
hair: blonde eyes: brown height: 5’3 tattoos: none piercings: both ears notable features: tba
like everyone in the shyba family for the better part of the last century, her parents assumed that the baby they were expecting would be a boy. picking out a name, buying clothes, and setting up a bedroom with that expectation in mind. so confident they didn’t even bother to confirm — so you can imagine their surprise when the doctor in the delivery room handed them their baby girl. a lot of plans changed very quickly after that, sending family and friends out shopping for baby things they felt better suited a daughter before even leaving the hospital with her. the one thing they kept the name they’d picked out — figuring finley was neutral enough of a name to suit a girl and tweaking the spelling of her middle name to be more feminine. to say the whole family was shocked would be an understatement. news traveled from a texas hospital room to distant family living states and countries away that, apparently, her grandfather’s son was was the first shyba in recent memory who managed to produce an x chromosome.
or maybe allegedly would be the more accurate word. it didn’t take long for some conspiratorially minded distant uncle or cousin to get the idea that there’s no way one of them actually had a biological daughter. and, well, once an idea like that gets started, it’s hard to get it to stop. whispers that started with family finley would never even meet eventually made their way back to texas and the ears of her more immediate family. to his credit, her parents refused to entertain the idea. pointing out that she was the mirror image of her father as a baby, and her father getting into at least a few arguments accusing his brothers and uncles of being jealous that they weren’t the ones to break the streak.
by the time fin was old enough to be aware of family gossip things had simmered down. but the aftermath remained. the whole family accepted her, but many who were still skeptical about her origin had a clear bias for the little brother born a few short years after her. there was a lingering tension between them and her mother, who always seemed mildly uncomfortable at family functions. maybe a certain amount of that tension grew between fin and her mother over time — but what mother and daughter don’t have an at times contentious relationship? besides, finley preferred to spend most of her time away from home anyway. choosing to stay behind in the school library until the librarian ushered her out when she finally wanted to go home rather than go home to the babysitter of the month, later moving from the school library to the town library, and eventually to whatever location her slowly accumulated friend group decided to terrorize this week. anything is better than being in an empty house, really.
school always came easy to her — one of those kids who was always in the most advanced reading group and got pulled out of regular class a few times a week for the gifted and talented program in elementary school, ap classes and honor roll once she got to middle and high school, always one of the first to finish classwork and tests leaving her with plenty of time to read on her own. fin mostly kept to herself at school, making friends by simply letting other kids decide to befriend her. that handful of kids being the first ones she would eventually feel comfortable being herself with. you can imagine their surprise when the kid who almost never spoke unless spoken to first started making snarky ( but affectionate ) comments about their antics.
going out of state for college is what really made her come out of her shell. everywhere she applied to was at least a state or two away, wanting the space and freedom being that far away from family would afford her. got into a few pretty big name universities even, but eventually settled on going to georgia. based almost purely based on weather after a family trip to new york in the winter — she’s just not built for the kind of cold they get in the northeast where most of her other choices were. got herself a business degree because her grandparents weren’t about to pay for the liberal arts she would have preferred. that degree at least came with the perk of a guaranteed job after graduation, if she decided to return home. and well, she didn’t exactly have many other places to go. and a job at the family firm where she wouldn’t really be expected to do much sounded far better than having to actually use her degree. she’s supposed to be working her way up the corporate ladder — something about giving the appearance of putting in the work, but she’s more than content to make copies and send faxes for her dad and uncles for as long as they’ll let her.
despite all her longing for freedom and getting the hell away from her problems, etc etc: she can’t drive. hit a traffic cone and had a panic attack in the school parking lot in front of half the class, and that was the moment she decided she’s not built to be behind the wheel. she did get her permit after moving back, though. she just freaks out on highways and whenever cars going the opposite way approach her and at night and when it rains and if she perceives other people in the car judging her and —
when she left for college she was known to be quiet, sweet and to keep to herself. and she does still prefer her own company and the company of very select people, but she came back a lot more willing to speak her mind. and if what’s on her mind is usually pointing out when someone is being stupid, well... she’d say that means you should self reflect.
the other big thing that’s changed? she’s somewhat more prone to make the same kind of decisions one would expect someone without a fully developed frontal lobe to make. she’s heard “i would have expected more from you” and “i would have thought you would know better” more than a few times. the most notable of those decisions? marrying her boyfriend ( hi soren! ) on a group trip to vegas after he drunkenly proposed. yes, her family would absolutely kill both of them without hesitation if they knew, and that’s why she hasn’t told them. it's fine. they're fine.
if she’d actually had a choice in her degree she probably would have gone for... whatever it is you need to be a school librarian? she likes kids and her school librarians that she made friends with as a kid made an impact on her as a kid. maybe if she’s ever forced to do more substantial work at the family company she'll quit and make a career change.
speaking of the company. please don’t ask me too many questions about it. i don’t know and neither does fin. she just works here and doesn’t care enough to find out. some nondescript corporate america nonsense. one of those companies big enough that you’ve heard of it but life depends on it, you could not say what they do. like engineers. but in suits.
she knows a little bit about a lot of things and loves to remind people about it. she would do great on jeopardy. in particular she really likes obscure history and psychology and linguistics. loves connecting little dots and psychoanalyzing people. got into an argument with an english professor one time about how “proper english” isn’t real and change in language over time is normal and good, and the “rules” were made up as a tool of oppression and aren’t even consistent anyway.
a little bit of a control freak. wants to make her own decisions and be in charge of her own life and have everything exactly the way she likes it to a degree that probably isn’t neurotypical but the fact that this may not be healthy hasn’t yet crossed her mind and it certainly wasn’t addressed as a child.
connections
family: may or may not make actual wcs for her parents and brother. i mostly just don’t want to come up with names for them right now. but hit me up if you’d be interested! the relationships are complicated. she does love them, but i wouldn’t say they’re a super close family. fin tries with her brother, but i’m sure that relationship can be complicated at times. i’d absolutely be down for cousins! they’d all be on her dad’s side, so they’re a bunch of boys that she’s grown up with. i imagine she’s closer with some of them than others. all very vibes dependent. aunts / uncles could be cool too!
childhood best friend: in my head, they’ve probably known each other since elementary school. kind of a rarely see one without the other kind of beat, very sibling adjacent relationship.
surrogate parental figures: because of aforementioned familial issues, fin has a tendency to seek out connection and approval from other people instead. they don’t always have a choice in the matter.
i may or may not add onto this, i'm absolutely awful at specific connection ideas, but i have this for ideas if you want to have a look!
