tobi is aroace! there are also a few that i think of as demiromantic/demisexual or other aspec/arospec identities
16. Did you ever change an oc's identity when they were already established? Why?
i decided adeline was transfem relatively recently bc i felt like it would help her story make a little more sense. also trans people are cool so why not
♤ this one is loosely inspired by things that have happened to me, it was an experience to write lmao
Tobi arrived home from school at three. He sat in the back next to Phoebe while Melody talked about her day with their mom. Phoebe looked sad.
Seventh grade was taxing - he knew Melody would be horrified if he said that to her, what with her grown-up high school classes, but at that point in their life, it was 100% true. They went into the pantry and grabbed themself a granola bar from the box their mom had gotten at the grocery store and took a seat on the couch. It was a colder day, and Mom had finally turned the heat on.
They turned on the TV and switched it to some cooking channel. They honestly didn’t usually watch much of whatever they turned on - they just liked the background noise. It helped him to think.
Phoebe was in the kitchen microwaving herself a bag of popcorn. Melody had brought her backpack upstairs, presumably to work on homework.
“How was school, kid?” The way Phoebe talked made them sound so much older than they were. They were only a teenager, not that much older than Tobi in the grand scheme of things, but she was such a mentor to them that she might as well have been three years older in Tobi’s mind.
“Fine,” he answered. “A little boring.”
“I remember when I was in seventh grade. I was always bored out of my mind.” She chuckled softly and took a seat beside them on the couch, holding an open bag of popcorn. “Don’t tell Mom about this, alright, dude?” They gestured to the bag of popcorn - technically, eating on the couch was a no-go. Tobi nodded. They weren’t a snitch, especially not about a rule so small that they were actively breaking themself.
A few minutes later, Phoebe stood up and gave Tobi a little bonk on the head - not hard enough to hurt, but a simple, friendly tap. “I’ve got homework. See ya at dinner, kid.” Tobi waved and she headed up the stairs.
Tobi got up and went to the piano in the other room - they could take a little time to practice before they had to study for their math quiz. The walls of the room were lined with art projects of varying quality from the kids of the family, and their music sat in a messy, disorganized pile atop the piano. One book sat on the stand in front of the keys, the result of yesterday’s practice.
Miss Emily had assigned him a new piece at the last lesson. He opened to page sixteen and looked over the notes briefly. This one was fairly new to them, since they’d only played it a couple of times so far.
They straightened their back and rested their fingertips on the keys -
- when they heard talking.
Not talking. Talking wouldn’t be notable. This was talking just on the cusp of yelling, voice raising but not quite that much.
“You have to be kidding me.”
That was Phoebe for sure - only she and Melody were home besides him, and that voice, in all its boldness and clarity, was unquestionably hers.
“Phoebe, you aren’t listening to me -”
“Oh, I’m not listening to you? Grow up and stop acting like you’re better than me.”
“You’re being ridiculous-”
Tobi covered their ears and pressed them closer to his head until his sisters’ gradually crescendoing voices became an unintelligible mix of muffled sound. They knew they should be used to all the arguing by now, but it still made them sad to hear. He remembered seeing them slowly lose their ability to get along as they got older. One of his very first memories was hearing the two of them proudly proclaim that they would be best friends forever - he watched that vow gradually decay, and it probably hadn’t even hit rock bottom yet.
Suddenly, they didn’t feel much like practicing anymore.
He went back to the kitchen, picked up his backpack, and took it down to the basement couch. Their voices were still audible from downstairs, but they were quieter and easier to cover up with headphones.
He slipped on his headphones and plugged them into the family laptop. Listening in to these arguments was useless, he’d learned - there was no point in taking sides, because neither one would mention it later anyway. They would try not to fight around Tobi - he’d inevitably hear it, but the effort was nice of them.
They pulled up a Depeche Mode album and pressed the play button. The math Quizlet would always be agonizing, especially with his sisters fighting upstairs, but maybe good music would make it a little less insufferable.
The older they grew, the more they realized how much of a mess their household really was. But it was theirs regardless.
He turned up the volume of the music, desperately hoping to drown the yells out.
Rank all of your OCs from most to least likely to physically fight someone if they have serious beef KAJDJFHF
1. mary would kill someone for her friends
2. daisy would also kill someone for her friends
3. requiem has solid anger management but would definitely slap someone if he felt it was necessary
4. tobi would not start a physical fight but if the other person did they would absolutely continue said fight
5. phoebe is pretty much the same as tobi
6. kiki will punch someone if they touch her when shes not expecting it. shes like 9 so it probably wouldn't hurt that bad but she will still do it. otherwise she wouldn't
7. javier would step in to protect someone he loved if they got in a fight
8. melody would rather fight verbally
9. theo would only fight someone if he absolutely had to
requiem - loves metal and various genres of alternative music. fav band is ghost
melody - not much of a music person, but when she does listen to it it's usually lofi beats to study to type stuff
phoebe - punk enjoyer. fav bands are against me! and PUP because they're just as angry as she is
tobi - goth music. fav bands are the cure and depeche mode
adeline - baroque music. she's a vivaldi girlie 4ever
kiki - grew up on 80s and 90s music, never really got the chance to explore her tastes but her parents did own a few beatles records and she liked them
theo - inexplicably the biggest mcr fan you will ever meet. requiem played it one time and ever since then he's been obsessed. don't ask him why bc he will not know
onyx - doesn't listen to a ton of music but when he does it's usually classical. he appreciates music in general though and will enjoy pretty much anything
javier - one of those people who says they listen to everything except he's being 100% fr. this dude's playlist is crazy. fav artists are lil nas x, alex g and ghost
daisy - never got to listen to much music but she liked acapella and vocals-focused stuff
onyx was best friends with his twin sister daisy from day one. they grew up really close and tended to come as a package deal in terms of friendship - it was either the both of them or neither of them. when they were around 11 or 12 daisy found out she had a terminal illness and wasn't likely to live very long, and at this point onyx dedicated himself to going into the medical field. his relationship with his parents was rocky at best, as he was considered "soft" and sensitive, and his father had a tendency to drink. he would often talk about this with daisy and they shared a (special 👁👁) interest in moths. the two of them would look at bugs outside together :) daisy was a bit of a tomboy, which their parents didn't approve of. he was also growing up bisexual which was troubling for him as he simply didn't understand what was going on with him, why he felt this way, which led to him never really exploring romantically with boys or girls because he was too scared of his feelings. he never told anyone about his sexuality, even daisy, who he trusted the most. if it seems like theres a lot of daisy in here thats the point - they were inseperable as kids, but they eventually grew independent while still staying close. a lot of the lore important stuff happened in his adult years though
tobi's life so far has kind of been the reverse of onyx, while onyx started off close with his sister and was eventually pulled away from her by outside forces, tobi started off alone and slowly grew close with phoebe specifically. he was a very lonely kid in his earlier years, his twin sisters melody and phoebe were several years older than them and often too busy with each other to spend time with them. this was until the three of them started getting a little older and melody and phoebe started to drift apart, when phoebe started to spend more time with tobi. most of their childhood memories either consist of playing games with phoebe (they play ttrpgs together (: ) or their (eventually important) childhood friend jake. a lot of the important stuff happens in their teen years which im not going to really delve into here but they slowly understood what happened between phoebe and melody and started to build a quiet resentment for melody. his relationship with his parents was also troubling, as they had expectations far too high for their kids and manipulative tendencies
those are my silly fellas and their silly childhoods :))
