( lola tung / twenty one / cis female / she/her ) — did you see HOPE’S NEIGHBOR AND NOT-SO-SECRET ADMIRER, VIOLET CHANG, wandering around the mercer hollow today? i heard around town that the UNIVERSITY STUDENT is SANGUINE, and DRIVEN, but also UNTRUSTWORTHY, and A TRY-HARD. people say that they remind them of EARLY MORNING JOGS, CHEEKS ACHING FROM FORCING A SMILE, and RUNNING ON TWO HOURS OF SLEEP, but how well can you ever really know someone in mercer hollow?
STATS !
FULL NAME: violet marshal chang
AGE: twenty one
BIRTH CHART: libra sun / cancer moon / sagittarius rising
SEXUAL ORIENTATION: bisexual / biromantic
HEIGHT: 5′7″
OCCUPATION: full-time undergrad student at liberty university
CLUBS/ORGANIZATIONS: violet is currently co-captain of the liberty university swim team and she is heavily involved with several clubs on campus (gay-straight alliance, schools newspaper, etc.)
FAMILY MEMBERS: she has a father, a mother, an older brother named grayson, and a younger brother named fletcher
CLOTHING STYLE: it’s rare to see violet wearing anything other than athleisure or something with the school’s logo printed on it like she is always in between swim team practices or working out so what is the point in changing clothes?? her actual sense of style isn’t great, though. everything she owns is just stuff she has borrowed/stolen from people over the years, all mixed together into a nonsensical collage of pieces that aren’t really hers. so, really, her style could change day-by-day, but it will NEVER look good. that’s a promise.
LIFESTYLE: violet is a vegetarian and a women’s, gender, and sexuality studies major. she is an early bird and a night owl. she is extroverted and a very fast talker. she’s also a kleptomaniac so make sure you keep an eye on your belongings whenever she’s around.
BACKSTORY !
TW: SUBSTANCE ABUSE AND MENTION OF CHRONIC ILLNESS
violet was lucky enough to be born into a family who didn’t have to worry about their next meal or if they were going to be able to keep the lights on. they were upper middle class and proud of it.
this meant that violet and her brothers had a pretty idyllic childhood. they had all the toys they wanted, their family went on fun vacations, and their house was a hotspot for sleepovers... it was perfect, really.
but when her younger brother started having seizures, it definitely put a dent in that perfection. his epilepsy diagnosis was scary and new and unlike anything they had encountered before, but they knew that they would be able to tackle it as a family.
and that worked for a while. they figured out a good schedule for taking him to doctor’s appointments, taking violet to swim practice, and making sure there was dinner on the table when everyone got home.
however, when her older brother got to high school, he almost immediately got mixed in with the wrong crowd. he was home less and less and was getting in trouble all the time - both when he was at home and when he was at school
this added yet another dent in the perfection
unfortunately, the dent became a deep, twisted crack when her older brother got arrested for vandalizing one of his teacher’s cars after hours at school. thankfully, he teacher chose not to press charges, but this news was all the rage in mercer hollow for a week until something new happened and everyone forgot about grayson’s encounter with the law
despite their parents hounding him, grayson’s behavior still hadn’t improved by the time he got to college. instead, it got so much worse. he started to heavily rely on drug use just to get through the day, whether it was for getting homework done or for falling asleep at night.
eventually, he stopped even attending classes and got kicked out in the middle of his sophomore year.
violet’s parents sent him to some treatment center in montana, hoping that their son’s failure wouldn’t blow back on them in their small town’s social circuit.
other than the occasional, strangely-worded letter, violet hasn’t seen or heard from him in years. her parents say that he settled down out in the midwest, but violet isn’t totally sure if she believes that.
through all of this turmoil with her brothers, violet found that it was all too easy to fade into the background of her family. between her one brother’s chronic illness and the other’s behavioral issues, she didn’t want to give her parents another thing to worry about. so, violet decided that she would just dedicate her life to becoming the perfect poster child!
she spent every second of every day doing stuff to beef up her college application, wanting to make sure that she would get into liberty university and graduate - something her brother hadn’t been able to do.
although, none of her excellence has ever stood out to her parents. it’s kind of like they forgot she existed during that rough patch in their family history and have been unable to see her since. i mean, they will smile and nod when she’s telling them about her latest swim team victory, but it’s never enough for them.
CONNECTION TO HOPE !
the changs lived next to the mercers when violet was growing up. as far as violet knew, they weren’t just perfect on the surface like her family. they were like gods in her mind, so iconic that their town was even named after them.
hope, specifically though, was at the center of violet’s affections. she was a few years older and so much cooler. i mean, prom queen, student body president, and captain of the soccer team? she did it all! and she actually got recognized for all of her accomplishments.
so, violet began to model herself after her. she joined clubs hope had been in, tried out for the soccer team (and failed), and even tried to copy hope’s style... all the way down to the part in her hair.
violet figured this was a foolproof plan to get the attention she so desperately craved. and it worked... kind of. let’s just say the attention wasn’t necessarily positive. nobody likes a copycat.
so, it’s pretty safe to say that violet is totally lost now that hope is gone. the sole person who defined her life’s decisions was found face down in a lake... so violet is really starting to question her existence at this point tbh
PERSONALITY !
okay, after that XXL biography... i will try to be brief here i promise
on the surface, violet is very bubbly and optimistic. she is always trying to be helpful and kind to everyone she meets and i’ll be honest, i don’t think violet’s ever met a stranger. she is extremely naive and probably a little too trusting of everyone.
she works extremely hard, though. to the point of overexertion, really. hence the 5 AM jogs and 2 hours of sleep.
but really at the core of her personality, she is extremely competitive and willing to do anything to get what she wants. she is attention-seeking and so, so unhappy with herself and her circumstances. she has many personal identity issues that will become obvious the longer you know her.
she can be very annoying and i wish i could tell you she was a good person in her heart, but i’m just not sure that’s true. but honestly, there’s a reason why she is the way she is and that’s good enough for me.
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