Quintessa Swindell & They / Them - Non Binary‷ Watch out , Phoenix ‘Nix’ Chaplin has crash-landed into Roswell !! They look Twenty Five and celebrate their birthday on the Third of September. They are from Roswell, New Mexico, reside in Tripp’s Trailer Park and are currently working as a clerk & machine technician at Space Invader Arcade. One thing you should know about them is They’ve held Roswell’s Galiga high score for over three years now.
Trigger Warning for Miscarriage mention
Reynard and Reba eloped right out of high school, cutting ties with their families and moving to Roswell so they could finally live out their school dreams of starting a family together. They spent years trying to have a child each time ending in tragedy. Just when it began to feel hopeless amongst the two, Phoenix was born. The doctors said Phoenix wouldn’t survive the first week. But they did and they survived another then another and another. Until an entire year had passed. Nix was their parents' blessing and they truly treated Nix as such.
Nix grew up spoiled, given everything they could ever want. It would be expected that they’d wind up rotten. But the Chaplin household was a kind household, a loving household dedicated to their community. With Reynard a firefighter dedicated to protecting those in his community and Reba a veterinarian hoping to bring joy to every home of Roswell. Together the two raised Nix to be just as loving with their community as they both were.
Nix was always a bit of an odd child. Like most children they were introduced to the fantastical at a young age with stories of fairies, dragons, goblins and the like. Unlike most children they never really lost their interest in the fantastical. Instead they kept believing that somewhere fairies had to exist, at some point dragons must have been real, all these fantasies they loved had to exist. The world couldn’t be as boring as it seemed. Their interest in the fantastical soon spread beyond fairies and goblins and dragons. Living in Roswell they were always surrounded by the alien culture that came from living so close to a famous crash landing site. When they were old enough to read on their own they began to read books on the extraterrestrial nonstop. Following reading of extraterrestrials soon came an interest in the paranormal, the unexplainable. It only fueled their belief that more was out there, more HAD to be out there.
They didn’t make many friends, having trouble understanding how socialization worked with others. Always feeling like everyone had a certain rule book for socializing that they didn’t have. That everyone else knew how to socialize while Nix simply did not. It didn’t help that they spoke mostly of the fantastical, aliens, fairies, horror and other oddities of life. However they did make a few friends and the few friends they made were lifelong one’s.
Including Nix’s best friend who they’ve known and been close with since middle school. Their friend never judged them or made fun of them for their odd interests, never cut them off from their long discussions of the whimsical. Likewise Nix was always there to listen to their friend to offer a helping hand whenever needed and share smiles with them for years to come. Over time something began changing in Nix. Their feelings for their friend deepened to more, a lot more. Feelings they don’t know if they want to share with their best friend.
Their life was happy for the most part, the town knew them and their family well. When tragedy struck, a fire that got out of control took Reynard from the Chaplin family when Nix was only fifteen. It didn’t tear the family apart, it pulled Reba and Nix closer if anything else. But it did shut Nix off from the rest of the town. The town that tried to support them during a difficult time. They greatly appreciated it and loved that their community wanted to be there for them. But at the same time they felt that they had to put on a brave face for the community, for their mother. The community who’d lost a hero and their mother who’d lost the love of her life. Meanwhile, burying the fact they’d lost their father.
Things became difficult for the Chaplin family after that. To keep from losing the house Reba took more shifts at work. While Nix began working at the Space Invader Arcade to help pay the bills. The two saw less of each other neither realizing how hard the other was taking the loss. Both trying to be strong for the other without ever actually talking to the other. Maybe if they’d talked more Nix would have seen how sick their mother was getting.Â
They never found out about how sick their mom was until the hospitalization seven years later. Reba fell at work one day. Nix was called at work to come to the hospital. The doctor said their mother had a brain tumor, it would have been noticed sooner had she gone to a doctor. Instead blaming the symptoms from it on stress and powering through it. Nix began working more to pay for their mother’s hospital bills and to pay for their house. At the same time visiting their mother everyday spending more time at the hospital than at home. Five months later however, Reba was gone and Nix was alone.
Nix planned the funeral, called their estranged family, did everything to see their mother off. And in the end their uncle’s took them to court to fight their mother’s will. It wasn’t much but it was enough they wanted to fight for it. The hospital bills, the lawyers, the court case, it drained Nix of what little money they had left. In the end they even forfeited their mother’s will to their uncles just to stop the fighting.
They moved from their home to a trailer at Tripp’s. They wound up selling most everything that belonged to them and their parents. Trying to bury what they’d lost. Trying to act like it didn’t affect them, coming off as cold to their parents' loss. It didn’t help that they never wanted to talk about what happened either. Not even with their best friend or with the person they were dating. Like they just didn’t care about what happened. But they did. They just didn’t want the town bringing it up, hoping if they ignored it then the town would too.
Their silence lost them the love of their life though. The refusal to talk about what was happening or reach out, caused a rift between them and the person they loved. It didn’t kill their relationship entirely, they stayed friends. But the trust their lover had in them was lost.
It’s been three years since the loss and two years since the breakup. Life has returned to as normal as it can be for Nix. They adopted a pit bull who they named Ned, are still happily working at Space Invader’s Arcade and living out of their Trailer at Tripp’s. They try to remain as upbeat as ever, continuing their belief in magic. But still don’t talk about what happened, when it’s brought up they tend to brush it off. Claiming they’re okay that it’s in the past now. Yet it’s fairly obvious they’re not as okay about it as they say they are.
Additional Info
Nix is a ga(y)mer. They love video games but have been trying to get into roleplaying games like DnD recently.
Total explorer in fact they used to get in a lot of trouble for sneaking into places they weren’t supposed to be in because they were curious.
They collect knives, rings and old video games!
Connections
The Hookup Nix is Awkward About- Winter Carver