Calla Evans

[Polybius]

Name: Calla Evans
Gender: Female
Age: 17
Grade: 11th
Hobbies and Interests: Goth music, SOTF-TV, video games, horror & true crime media

Appearance: Calla is 5’7” and weighs 142 pounds. She has a rectangular shaped body with wide shoulders and long arms. Due to a lack of exercise and long times spent indoors, Calla’s skin is pale and she lacks noticeable muscle. Calla has a round face, a thin mouth, and a snub nose. Her eyes are dark brown and topped with thin, curved eyebrows. Calla’s hair is naturally straight and black; she’s been growing it out for years, and it now extends to her lower back.

Calla styles herself as a goth, preferring black clothes and dark makeup. She has a preference for wearing layers as well, even in spring, which makes her stand out in the Miami heat. On the day of the abduction, she was wearing a sleeveless black dress with a short, flowing skirt, black pantyhose, black boots, and a long black jacket. For makeup, she had thick black eyeliner, light foundation, and black red lipstick. She has a silver nose stud, as well as two cartilage rings in each ear.

Biography: Calla Miranda Evans was born on December 13th, 2003 in Miami to Kyle and Mila Evans. She was the third of four children: her elder brother, Asher was six years older, her sister Maya was three years older, and her younger brother Reese was two years younger. Kyle was a surgeon at Jackson Memorial Hospital; Mila was a researcher at a local news network, though she quit to focus on her children shortly before Calla was born.

The Evans household was chaotic during Calla’s early childhood. While Kyle’s job paid well, he worked long and unpredictable hours, so he wasn’t often around. Mila was left to look after three, and later four, young children by herself. Her mother found her attention divided between watching baby Reese and dealing with the demands of the very loud and stubborn Maya, so Calla sometimes got lost in the shuffle, and she spent a lot of time on her own, reading in her room. Calla developed an interest in scary stories during this time, reading everything vaguely horror-related that was available to her at home or in her elementary school library. In particular, she enjoyed going through a box of old Goosebumps books that had been passed down through her parents and older siblings. The suspense of these stories excited her, and the dark plots kept her attention.

At school, Calla was a friendly and energetic child, but she had a tendency to act out. She liked to play pranks on other students and make up stories to scare them. Occasionally, she was punished by her teachers, and then punished by her parents. However, the punishments didn’t stop her - if anything, she enjoyed the attention. It encouraged her to try again and see what other reactions she could get. Despite her mischief, Calla received good grades. She was smart and learned new things quickly. In particular, her reading level was always well above most other kids her age.

It was during these years that Calla had her first contact with SOTF. Both of her parents became big fans of the show as soon as it premiered, and by the time she turned six Calla was interested to see the show that everyone was always talking about. Her parents thought it was too violent for her, and forbid Calla to watch it with them, but she did whatever she could to catch a glimpse. She’d quietly snatch peeks of her parents watching from the hallway, and whenever she was able to access the internet unmonitered, she looked up clips of the show. The forbidden nature of the show intrigued her, with the dark subject matter and stark reality shown in the program kept her hooked.

When Calla was in fourth grade, her mother returned to work. Mila had never particularly enjoyed being a homemaker, and she thought the extra income would be useful. Mila got a new job in TV news through some old connections, which led her to be away from home for most of the day. She figured that Asher and Maya were old enough to stay at home and look after the younger children until she returned. During this time, Calla began to bond with her older brother. He was a fan of old video games and horror movies, and he let Calla play on his game systems and watch movies with him. After a lot of begging, Asher even let Calla watch older seasons of SOTF with him, though he swore her to never tell their parents.

Calla’s life changed as she entered middle school. She became friends with Virginia Burns, a girl a year older than her, who introduced her to the rebellious counterculture side of school. She eventually became taken with the goth subculture, as it complimented her interest in dark subjects and desire to stand out. She started dressing entirely in black and wearing dark makeup. She also started listening to goth music, in particular enjoying older British bands like The Sisters of Mercy, The Cure, Siouxsie and the Banshees, and Fields of the Nephilim. Calla’s parents weren’t worried by this shift - if anything, they considered it a predictable route for her to take as she entered adolescence - but they still warned her to stay out of trouble. Calla followed that advice: she sometimes went to parties but never overdid it, and she never isolated herself from the more mainstream students.

Shortly after this, Kyle and Mila allowed Call to watch SOTF openly. They figured she was old enough to handle it, and they thought that it would be useless to try to hide a soon-to-be-teenager from the biggest pop culture sensation in the country. Now that she could watch it openly, Calla became obsessed with the show. She watched all of the previous seasons, kept up with coverage of new seasons, and began discussing the show on fan websites. Calla gained a tendency to attach herself to certain contestants, usually the people she found unusual or interesting. She would obsess about her favorites, buy their merchandise, and fiercely defend them against criticism. On the flip side, she hated contestants she thought were receiving undue attention despite being boring, and she often went on fierce rants against them. Calla’s accounts became known on various websites for being extremely vitriolic even getting banned from a few websites. The consequences to her actions didn't stop her; Calla decided any sites that wouldn't let her be herself weren't worth going to anyway. As a result, she has focused more on lightly-moderated sites.

Calla’s success in her schoolwork continued throughout middle school. In addition to being a naturally fast learner, she studied diligently. Upon graduation, Calla took the Mangrove Garden High entrance exam and scored well enough to earn a scholarship. Calla has maintained her success through high school, always scoring within the top 15% of the rankings. She performs well in all of her classes without any notable weak points, particularly excelling in science and history.

Though SOTF is Calla’s main hobby, she holds other interests. She’s continued her interest in horror through movies, books, and stories she finds online. In recent years, she’s acquired in an interest in real-life crimes and serial killers. She maintains this interest through reading internet articles and listening to true crime podcasts; like with SOTF, Calla is attracted to the real-life horror of these crimes. She’s also maintained an interest in video games: Calla’s played every SOTF game available, just because of her love for the show, but she has also branched out to unrelated survival horror games. She considers video games to be a great medium for horror, as they emulate dropping the player directly into the horror as the subject rather than just an observer. She’s tried her hand at streaming, mixing her gameplay with macabre commentary, but her channel has received little success so far.

At school, she hangs out with goths, punks, and outsiders. She likes to keep up a certain image: she actually wants to be seen as weird and creepy. She thinks being weird is better than being forgettable, and she likes to see peoples’ reactions when they’re uncomfortable. To that end, Calla will often make morbid jokes and casually drops references to death in conversation, which can drive many away. She doesn’t particularly care about coming off as creepy, and she’s fine with sticking to her own cliques, where her attitude is more accepted.

She’s usually amiable and calm, but when the topic of SOTF comes up she becomes very passionate. She’s not as vitriolic in real life as she is online, but she can get into heated arguments about certain seasons and contestants. Her favorite contestants, who she will always fiercely defend, include A.C. Bones from season 1, Agustin Olivera from season 27, and Carlisle Scott from season 45. One contestant she particularly does not like is season 66 co-winner Jewel Evans, who she views as disingenuous and undeserving; in recent months, many people have compared Calla to Jewel due to their perceived similarities, something that always annoys Calla.

Calla has mixed relationships with her family. Her parents are very hands off; they let her do whatever she wants as long she stays out of trouble, and Calla is fine with that. Kyle has been constantly busy for Calla's entire life, so the time he spends with his family is minimal. Calla has a warmer relationship with her mother, who tries to keep up with her childrens' lives despite also being busy; Mila doesn't quite understand Calla's fashion or attitude, but supports her nonetheless. Calla's sister is in Gainesville attending the University of Florida, and they don't often keep in touch. They've always had trouble getting along; Maya is headstrong and straightforward, and Calla has always viewed her as too demanding. They would often get into arguments, and both of them could be too stubborn to apologize. Her relationship with her younger brother Reese is also contentious; they’ve always had something of a rivalry due to Reese’s status as the youngest taking attention away from her when they were children. Reese, who was never interested in attending an academically rigorous institution, attends a public school, so they don't see each other during the school day. The only family member Calla truly close with is Asher; though he lives in a different state now, whenever he visits they watch movies together and discuss SOTF like they did when they were younger.

Calla is uncertain of what she wants to do in her future. She knows she wants to go to college, and she’s began looking for the right one.

Advantages: Calla has an encyclopedic knowledge of the show and the strategies employed by successful contestants. In addition, she intelligent and a quick learner, which can help her adapt to new situations easily.
Disadvantages: Calla’s attitude has rubbed some people the wrong way. Her public comments about SOTF and death in general could make people expect the worst from her in-game. Calla is very stubborn; once she has dug her heels into an opinion, she always sticks to it.

[MurderWeasel]

Heya, Poly!

Calla's a really solid start, but she is DENIED pending a bit of expansion and editing.

What type of footwear was Calla wearing on casting day?

How did Calla feel about being the one to sometimes slip out of her parents' focus? What caused this to happen--was she just naturally quieter than her siblings?

What about horror specifically appealed to her?

How old exactly was Calla when SOTF caught her attention? It sounds like it was at some point in her elementary school years before fourth grade as phrased (so somewhere between ages 5-8 or so) but her parents starting to follow around launch could place it as early as 2006, when she was 3, which seems a little precocious.

How did Calla feel about getting banned from sites? Did she ever temper her behavior, or did she dig her heels in?

What about games does Calla enjoy?

Can I get just a bit more about some of Calla's family relationships? What sorts of things is Maya into? Does she still live at home, or is she off in college by now? Has Reese followed Calla to Mangrove Garden, or is he doing his freshman year somewhere else? Also, can I maybe get one detail or so distinct to the relationship between Calla and each parent individually, so they function a bit less as a single collective unit?

Finally, can I hear a little more about Calla's anger issues and how they affect her in normal life? When do they crop up, aside from online? Have they ever gotten her in notable trouble? How aware of them is she, and how does she feel about these incidents?

And a bit of grammar:

"She’d quietly snatch peeks of her parents watching for the hallway" -> "She’d quietly snatch peeks of her parents watching from the hallway"

Post when you've got that taken care of, and we'll give Calla another look. Thanks!

[Polybius]

Adding things where you wanting stuff added. I changed her disadvantage from being angry to being stubborn. Reading back on it, I think that's more supported in her biography.

[MurderWeasel]

APPROVED