4, 25, & 26 for leverett?
Leverrett is biracial (black/white)! She’s American (though her mother is Black Creole while her father is German American).
One of the biggest guilty pleasures that Leverrett has (aside from watching really bad horror movies be herself) is that she (back when she was still on Earth) used to eat at the stash of candy meant for trick-or-treaters during Halloween once she was seen as “too old” for trick-or-treating.
27. What’s their family like? Who’s in it? What’s their relationship with them?
While in the main story aside from Mark, Leverrett is pretty much completely separated from her family from beginning to end (save for some flashbacks scenes), I will go over her childhood relationships with the family she had!
So first, we have Mark Chaplin. He is Leverrett’s brother who is four years older than she is. Growing up, Mark and Leverrett, though not entirely antagonistic to each other, they were somewhat argumentative and they would even occasionally have small prank wars with each other. Mark was always kind of the air headed jock who excelled in sports but was not so great in academics. Meanwhile, Leverrett was more of a troublemaking but cunning introvert who was much more interested in horror movies and making movie props. At the time, Mark was not aware that Leverrett was a trans girl (plus he was an ignorant teenage boy who still thought he was heterosexual in the 1970s) so he did occasionally make fun of Leverrett for being ‘gay’, ‘a sissy’, etc... While Mark didn’t quite realize that Leverrett was in fact, not cishet, this made Leverrett feel conflicted towards her brother. At the time, she felt like she needed to hide her identity from Mark (which considering her environment, it was for the best).
Of course this changes when 18 year old Leverrett went missing gets spirited away to another dimension and this immediately broke Mark’s heart. Mark sort of had a Come to Jesus moment where he realized what he had done in the past and felt guilty about how he treated Leverrett, feeling like he was partially responsible for her disappearance. Leverrett is unaware of these feelings and she assumes Mark wouldn’t have cared about her that much.... Though this would eventually change when she sees a familiar face in Hell..
Next we have Leverrett’s mother, Marie Chaplin. While Marie was the world’s okayest mom who did try her best with trying to raise her children, she was battling chronic depression during her time as a mother (and wasn’t diagnosed with it until after Leverrett’s disappearance). For a while, she was alcoholic as she was using drinking as a self destructive coping mechanism and she often felt the need to hide her depression from her family in order to function. She often tried to avoid the problem altogether, trying to avoid acknowledging her shortcomings despite trying desperately to show affection towards her kids. Leverrett’s relationship with her soured as she felt distant from her mother, having feeling little connection with her. When Leverrett disappeared, her loss dealt a heavy emotional blow to her, her believing the Leverrett hated her and ended up running away.
In GD Verse, she is seen years later, now going to therapy for coping with the loss of her child and the treatment of depression and alcoholism. At this time, she has since learned how to cope with her problems in a healthier way and has mended her relationship with her son. Still, she misses Leverrett and hopes to reconcile with her one day. Meanwhile, Leverrett has mixed feelings towards her mom. While she now understands why her mother turned to alcoholism and became distant, she still feels hurt by the years raised by her. If she were to ever see her again, Leverrett wouldn’t completely be against talking to her mother at least once... though she is anxious about how she would react to her being trans.
Then there’s her father, Richard Chaplin. Out of the family Leverrett has interacted with, he was the worst. Richard was a born-again Christian, an evangelist who was the most toxic influence in Leverrett’s life. A man who worked in the Christian music industry and distributed Chick Tracts for a living, he was the paranoid sort of person, believing Satanism was always lurking in the shadows and latched on to ant-LGBT rhetoric. While to outsiders, he seemed mild mannered and even friendly, behind closed doors, he often used his religious beliefs to minimize or rationalize abusive behaviors, especially towards his children. He often shamed his both of kids (often for things such as daring to listen to anything that was remotely not religious), criticized them, and generally used emotional/verbal abuse tactics to get his way. He was the harshest towards Leverrett, especially once he learned of her fascination with horror and music that wasn’t remotely Christian. This lead to Leverrett growing rebellious as a teenager, always feeling animosity towards her father. As a result, she ended up learning how to be deceptive in order to avoid confrontations with her father.
After her disappearance, her father would end up divorcing his wife due to their failing marriage. Leverrett is glad that she hasn’t seen her dad in years and would prefer to keep it that way.
Last (relevant) family member I’ll talk about is Leverrett’s maternal grandmother, June! Out of the family she knew, June was the most positive influence in Leverrett’s life. Whenever Leverrett visited her Grandma during the summer in New Orleans, the time spent together was among the better family times in Leverrett’s life. Often spending time with her exploring the city, going out to restaurants, telling ghost stories, watching tv/movies, and simply relaxing at her home, Leverrett had always had a special connection with her grandmother from literally day one as June made a knitted a black rabbit plushie with a red bow for the newborn Leverrett as a gift. Leverrett often talked freely with June, as she was a blunt but understanding lady who was honest and tolerant as a person.
June was a children’s author who often wrote and illustrated books. As such she was planning to write a book dedicated to Leverret, knowing she would appreciate the gesture. However, this was not to be as she passed away from a heart attack when Leverrett was only 11 years old. Despite not finishing it, she left the outline for Leverrett upon her death. At the time, Leverrett still went by her deadname. However, once she came to the realization that she was trans at 13, she ended up adopting the name “Leverrett” for herself after a character in the unfinished book as a way to honor her grandma.
