hi!!! i'm elle, happy to be here with chen haoran (pinterest) who is the biggest loser on campus until proven otherwise. to his witch, whoever they may be: sorry about your luck. to everyone else: it could always be worse. between his stats page & the intro below, i have plenty of info on him to hopefully make plotting really easy!!! like this post if interested and we can get the party started!!!
biog
born 10/10/2000 in hsinchu, taiwan. lived there for about 10 years, and then due to various promotions and company mergers his dad was asked to relocate to south korea. the family, which was only haoran and his parents, made the move.
naturally, they hadn't exactly expected to live out the rest of their lives in south korea, so none of them spoke any korean at the time of the move. it was a huge obstacle in which haoran took on most of the burden - he was young, he had a still-growing brain, and he was in school. he could do it. and he did. somehow transitioned from "let's all do this together" to "hao can you translate this for us"
hao assimilated well. his dad assimilated decently. his mom? never assimilated, works some boring part-time job that she doesn't even really need to work 'cause her husband makes plenty of money but if she stays home all the time she'll go crazy, you know?
were they a happy family? they were alright. nothing sticks out to hao from his childhood - it was fine. even if there were problems, they all became very miniscule to him after he shifted (into a goddamn red squirrel, of all things) for the first time. was about ~16 years old? the perfect age to experience an unbelievable, astounding, what-the-fuck moment that you can't share with anyone else of course
(for the record, he has not even to this day shared this with his parents because, well, how can he? if they are magical they've never shared it with him because, well, how can they? so he operates under the assumption that they're normal which is likely true)
as far as the rest of his adolescence life goes - that was not as fine. was picked on a lot for things that were mostly out of his control. not speaking korean well, being a chubby kid/teen, being awkward, being shy, calling the teacher "mom", sucking at football on school sports days, etc etc etc. wasn't badly bullied but was made fun of, like, constantly. it changed him
his personality developed accordingly. learned to set himself up for failure so when he fails it doesn't sting as bad, and to make a fool of himself so he knows why people are laughing. not the best for his self esteem, but did wonders for his... bravery? i guess? willing to try anything, doesn't really experience anxiety about the unknown. thinks very low of himself and just assumes everyone else does too/always assumes things aren't going to go that well for him so it kind of doesn't matter iykwim. it's like a little treat when he's proven wrong :)
went to college (not a good one) and got a degree in (undisclosed). never bothered trying to get a job with said degree because he kind of just got it because he didn't have any other plans for himself. would've eventually gotten around to shopping the job market if he hadn't stumbled upon......................... a magical boarding school that would've saved him the damn trouble of college if he'd found it earlier.
pretty much brings us up to date. has been floating around for a year and a half, getting not much done & trying desperately to make friends/find his witch.
as far as his personality goes, he's a lonely guy. it shows. he might come off as shy if you don't know him, but he's really not - has a tendency to observe more than interact, and i think he's someone people might speak to out of pity. like "oh that guy is always so quiet, i'll ask him about his day this one time" but all it takes is that one time for him to open up completely. tells a lot of stupid lies but also discloses an embarrassing amount of personal info by conversation 2. is cringe - physically awkward, doesn't put a lot of effort into his appearance (see: his fuckass mullet), his humor is offbeat, his style isn't that good, he misuses a lot of words. tells a lot of jokes no one laughs at, but tells a lot that people do laugh at too so it's enough to keep him going. type of guy to be laughing about something with a group of people and then he tries to add something that's so not funny that everyone stops laughing and dissipates.
if you do know him, prepare to never get rid of him completely. he might not reach out for a few days, he might not reach out for a few weeks, he might not reach out for a few months. but he always comes back. type of guy to act like he's doing you a favor by nurturing the friendship once every couple of months while you're wondering if you should block his number and be done with it.
and then there are the people he places as higher priorities - if you're a good friend of his, he'll check in at least once every few days. usually way more often than that. like a million times a day. likes to talk, and he talks a lot once he's comfortable. likes to listen too, but is not really a good listener so he doesn't remember much of what he's told. things like birthdays, events, favorite foods, etc etc stick with him but other things like fears and experiences he wasn't a part of slip his mind easily. you can tell him the same story a million times and it's fine because he doesn't remember it anyway! also really likes to make people smile and laugh :) part of him being cringe is that he will willingly embarrass himself to make someone else laugh - if they're laughing, he'll keep pushing it one step further.
hates conflict. he's not someone who's quick to anger over small things and is instead a fire extinguisher. likes to solve problems before they've even really become problems - if you have a problem with him, he'll shut down immediately, so there's that.
organized but doesn't appear to be. has everything accounted for, notices even the most miniscule of changes, but lives in complete chaos :/ messy.
has a lot of free time, so he also has a lot of hobbies in order to pass the time. is currently really into whittling. has a pocket knife on him at all times should there be a tree in the vicinity (and there usually is).
overall, very much an "it is what it is" guy. a "taking a walk because what else can i do about it" guy. doesn't take things as seriously as he should, probably? i think secretly he's hoping that his recent increasing levels of laziness, aimlessness and vague sense of doom are directly related to the fact that he's yet to find his witch.
plot ideas
other nest-building familiars he's perpetually competing with for resources lmfao
can i have a witch he's obsessed with. definitely not actually their fated familiar but he really wants to be
maybe you got him fired from his recent job. i have no actual concrete idea for how/why he left that job but it could be fun if someone complained about something that was definitely his fault and it was the straw that broke the camel's back regarding his employment. and he knows who did it. his one and only enemy. currently sabotaging them in really stupid and microscopic ways, not putting a whole lot of effort into it because he likes being unemployed lowkey (for reference he was managing some small discount retail store in the nearby magical town)
other jobless familiars he spends an annoying amount of time with because they're both usually available?
need to have the obligatory "friend who's only a friend because they're too nice to not be". you cringe when you see him walking towards you. ma...ybe he can grow on you?
does anyone want to help him fix his fuckass mullet. he's not gonna do it himself
other outdoorsy people. someone to go on long walks with. as a consequence of this you will know everything about him from birth to present day
c...an i have someone who actually genuinely enjoys his company but is currently standing as one of his acquaintances he only reaches out to once a month? i think his head would explode if someone said they wanted to spend more time with him
are there any other losers here. two people with such low self-esteem that they place e/o on pedestals?
etc etc etc. open to all types of plots!!!










