do the sensates in each cluster know who their "birth" parents are?
Do any of us really know who our parents are?
Existential questions aside, the short answer is yes!
The show’s lore about birth parents for clusters is a bit complicated yet a little sparse, so for the purposes of this RP, take the next few paragraphs as canon! Yes, the sensates generally know who their parents are - older members of a cluster will have better memory than say, the youngest member of a cluster who may have been quite young during the birth of the cluster. Both females and males can birth a cluster, and some can birth multiple clusters; it also does not matter what age you are when you give birth, though most are in between the ages of 40-65, though there are of course, outliers (or so the TOTEM data says).
Birth parents have a special connection with their children - whereas you have to explicitly make eye contact at another cluster member that is not within your own to communicate (within your own cluster, you can even mentally ‘visit’ and experience what they’re experiencing, but it takes practice), birth parents can be anywhere in the world and communicate with their children still. What the birth parent wants to disclose is up to them; some clusters have very close relationships with their parents while others rarely ever get contact from them (…like real life, too).
With that being said - let me lay out my ‘birth’ parents for the clusters:
Alpha - FC: Joan Chen…Huang Sihua (55)…..A mildly successful actress in her younger years working in China, but found more fame and passion in producing and working closely with a director that is steadily gaining more and more traction in the film industry for their inventive screenplays. This is her third cluster, as she tends to birth them during long breaks in between projects, and also for the adrenaline rush immediately after to help with inspiration. She is very connected for some periods of time, then pretty distant during the crux of filming. Asks her cluster to call her ‘Mother.’
Beta - FC: Chun Ho Jin…..Name ??? (60)…..Very Important Businessman ™ who may just be (more than) a little crooked, located in South Korea. This is his first and only cluster birthed (purposefully). But, he has not told his cluster his actual name now his occupation, just communicates with them to see their progress in their connections to each other. Certain members of the group think he’s involved with TOTEM, but can’t be sure. An overall mystery. Tells the cluster to just call him ‘Uncle.’
Gamma - FC: Irma P. Hall…..Odessa Munson (81)…..Beloved member of her local community, she worked as the front desk receptionist in a television network company in New York for all the years prior to her retirement. So far she has given birth to over ten clusters, and is warm and welcoming towards all of her children (over 70 at this point). Gamma holds a special place in her heart as it’s the most children in a cluster she’s birthed, and probably one of, if not, her last. She is very close with the Gamma children who reach out to her. Asks her cluster to call her ‘Grandma Odessa’ - “I’m too old to just be a mother!”
Delta - FC: John Francis-Daley….. Grant Weir (33)…..Highly intelligent and book-smart, he is a serial degree collector and hoarder…with no intention of actually putting any of it to use. He comes from a highly wealthy background thus his ability to continue paying for school, and is based out of California. Communicates with his cluster quite a bit, though is terrible at factoring in timezones and gets a little bit awkward around his first cluster, since he’s not that much older than them. Doesn’t really care what his cluster calls him, so most just call him ‘Grant.’
AMAZING question - thank you! I had so much fun answering it too!
UPDATE 4.20.20: Will be converting this information into a resources page for each cluster!
