Paris Lowery

[almostinhuman]

Name: Paris "Duskblade" Lowery
Gender: Nonbinary
Age: 18
Hobbies and Interests: Cyber Reality games (especially parkour sims and skateboarding sims), JRPGs, anime and manga (especially action-oriented shonen), fantasy novels, reading and writing fanfiction, online community moderation

Appearance: Paris is 5' 4" and weighs 108 lbs, being a bit underweight and thin. They're Caucasian and have an olive skin tone. Their straight dark brown hair goes a bit past the shoulders, and their almond-shaped eyes are hazel in color. Their face is a bit thin, plain and gaunt, and dominated by a particularly long and thin nose. There's a thin, faded scar running across their left cheek and ending just shy of the corner of their mouth.

In their real life, Paris rarely leaves the house, and thus rarely tends to their appearance overmuch or worries about how they dress. They favor comfortable clothes like t-shirts, hoodies, sweatpants or shorts, even on those occasions when they do go outside. They wear slip-ons or sneakers when they have to head out, but don't bother with footwear at all when at home. Their hair is always worn unstyled and loose, and they never wear makeup or accessorize. On the day of the attack, they were wearing an oversized purple hoodie over a striped black-and-red t-shirt and black shorts.

Their avatar is substantially different. Their hair is of similar texture but is white and waist-length, and their eyes are red with slit pupils due to colored contact lenses. Their face is fuller and their body is more average in frame. Their clothing is often quite ostentatious, especially outside of school, dressing in ways similar to characters from anime and video games they enjoy, with red and black being the dominant colors most of the time.

In more athletic CR simulations, they tend towards athletic gear resembling stereotypical ninja garb, martial arts-style gis, or just clothing a real-life traceur or skateboarder might wear. Either gloves or protective wraps are usually worn on their hands, and they favor athletic shoes or ninja-like tabi boots over other footwear. Their face is often covered by some sort of face mask, usually a simple one covering the bottom half of their face, though they've used more elaborate or full face masks on occasion. They frequently wear makeup, such as lipstick or nail polish, generally in black and even worn when masks or gloves would hide it.

In other CR simulations, including at school, their style of dress shares some similarities, such as in color scheme or makeup, but also contains some distinct fashion choices. They wear somewhat more fashionable and feminine clothing, with a tendency towards wearing skirts over tights or shorts instead of pants. They're much more likely to wear jewelry of some kind, including various earrings with unusual and eyecatching designs. They usually wear heavy boots or heeled shoes. They still prefer to keep their face covered.

On the day of the attack, their avatar was wearing an all-black fur-lined crop jacket over a red sleeveless turtleneck top, a black-and-white plaid skirt over red leggings, and black boots. For accessories they had black cross-shaped earrings, a red headband keeping their hair back, black gloves, black-rimmed sunglasses with red lenses, and a black face mask worn loose around their neck. Their eyes have black eyeliner around them, and their nails under their gloves and boots are also painted black.

Background: Paris is the only child of Gregory and Marian Lowery, born in San Jose, California. Gregory, a cardiac surgeon by trade, was very well paid, and the family lived in a very nice neighborhood and suffered from no true financial woes. However, Gregory was fundamentally dedicated to his job far above his commitment to his family, and was almost never around; even when he was, he did little to care for or connect with Paris. He seemed to take at least mild pride in his child's academic successes and pushed heavily for them to follow his footsteps and enter a career in medicine, but aside from that their influence over their life was almost exclusively a financial one.

Marian, a graphic designer who worked out of the house, did most of the childrearing for Paris growing up. However, Marian struggled with undiagnosed emotional issues that left her emotionally volatile, and her presence was often a destabilizing one for her child. She was at times very clingy and smothering, leaning very hard on Paris for emotional support; at other times, she grew resentful of them, harshly belittling and verbally abusing them. Occasionally, when things were particularly bad, she would physically hurt Paris, striking them or throwing things at them. The scar on their face was from one such incident when they were young, where a throw picture frame shattered and badly cut their cheek, requiring an ER visit and stitches. She also almost never let them leave the house except for school or other important functions, especially not without her, which left Paris very isolated from other kids their age as they grew up. Such an unstable and unsupportive environment had a profound effect on Paris, leaving them very withdrawn, anxious, people-pleasing and lonely.

The problems at home compounded problems they had at school. Due to their timid nature they had no real friends to speak of, struggling to speak to other kids their age and being antsy when paid any attention to. They were typically ignored by most of their classmates as a result, though occasionally bullied by other boys their age for being rather sensitive and a little effeminate. This only further worsened their feelings of isolation growing up.

To cope with their difficult situation, they turned to various forms of entertainment. They threw themselves into fantasy novels, like the A Song Of Ice and Fire series; shonen anime and manga, including Bleach and Attack on Titan; and JRPGs, such as Persona and Kingdom Hearts. They enjoyed the often-colorful and fantastical worlds of these works. They also hung out online in several communities dedicated to their favorite works, making friends with folks over the internet to make up for their lack of connection to anyone in their real life. Online they acted far more confident, eager and friendly, getting into long discussions over story theories or intense debates on favorite characters, and even started moderating on one of the anime forums and chatrooms they spent a particularly large amount of their time on when they were 17, though they'd lied and claimed to be older than that long before. While friendly in discussions, they were a bit tightfisted and heavy-handed as a moderator, and sometimes abused their powers a little against users they didn't care for, punishing them more harshly for infractions than they otherwise might have. On some level, they did this to exert a degree of control that they lacked at home.

As a teen, they began writing fanfic of some of these works and posting them on fanfic websites. These enjoyed mild success and popularity, though were never even close to being the most popular fanfics for their respective works; nonetheless, this helped Paris in making even more connections with other fans and fanfic writers. They responded glowingly to praise and tried to take criticism to heart, though they occasionally bristled at and negatively commented on some of it. They had little interest in branching out into non-fanfiction writing, enjoying the act of creating stories based of their favorite games and anime and not really caring if their writing was seen as a bit juvenile or silly because of it.

In most of these communities, Paris kept their real-life identity tightly under wraps, presenting as little personal information as they could get away with. Most of the time, this included hiding their gender, initially done merely to cover up their identity even more. However, over time as they got older and interacted with the occasional queer users in their online spaces, they started to realize such presentation "felt right" and made them happier than identifying as a boy. They also came to realize they were bisexual, finding people of any gender attractive, though they never got a chance to date anyone. As a result, they began presenting as openly nonbinary and bisexual online, though this they kept from their parents for fear of reprisal; their mother had expressed a disdain for trans people and had harped on Paris for being unmasculine, so they were certain she in particular would be furious. They would attempt to appear at least a little androgynous, letting their hair grow out a bit and slipping a bit of pink and purple into their wardrobe, but that was as far as they were willing to risk it.

With the advent and rise of Cyber Reality technology and gaming came another form of online expression. They would design their avatars to be delibrately very androgynous, wearing more feminine clothing and accessories but doing nothing to disguise their relatively-masculine voice, even occasionally letting their avatars have a degree of facial hair. They also designed these avatars to resemble the characters from the media they enjoyed, with a particular tendency to make them look "cool" and "edgy" like the rivals or villains out of shonen. They used a different online handle specifically in these CR games to keep their online personas seperate, going by "Dusk" or "Duskblade", though at school they are still usually referred to by their actual name. They particularly came to enjoy parkour sims and skateboarding sims, letting them enjoy physical activities and show off in ways that they couldn't do in real life. Their edgy persona is sometimes derided by other users, but they enjoyed presenting that way too much to take much mind of it.

This persona was also present when they attended Cyber Reality schooling, which they began attending in 7th grade. While CR schooling left them even more stuck at home and physically isolated, it also let them present the way they wanted far more often. They generally had to tone down their avatar's appearance quite a bit to be allowed to use them at school, and were occasionally warned for using the avatar editor too much or having avatars that broke dress code in some way. Still, the opportunity to look and act in a way they were more comfortable with did a lot to improve their mood, and while many of their classmates found their looks and personality a bit weird and nerdy, they still made a friend or two that they could then connect with outside of school.

Paris has plans for after high school, though they are largely plans assigned to them by their parents. They'll be attending college and pursuing a major in the medical field. They are a fairly good student, with overall high grades, so they are likely to get into most places they apply, and their family's wealth means they are likely to have no trouble affording it. Moreover, going to college is an opportunity to move out of their home, getting away from their mother and living on their own for the first time, a possibility they're eagerly looking forward to.

Personality: In real life, Paris is an incredible shy and withdrawn person. They suffer from such severe social anxiety they struggle with answering a knock at the front door, and they're deeply depressed and prone to getting pushed around and behaving in an overly people-pleasing manner. This is contrasted with both of their online personas, however. On their forums and fanfiction communities they are a very active, friendly and gregarious user, talking at length about their favorite media and eagerly showing off their fanfics to others. Meanwhile, their persona in Cyber Reality is cool, confident and has more than a bit of a smug edge to it, as well as a tendency to show off when in CR games they enjoy.

Reputation: In real life, people barely know Paris at all. They are so sequestered in their home that few people even know they exist, and those who do tend to take pity on them or find them a bit pathetic. Online, however, they are far more well known. In online communities for anime or other media they enjoy, they tend to be pretty well-liked and are a widely-known active user, and the fanfics they write are mildly popular on the fanfic sites they post on regularly. As a moderator, they tend to be viewed a little less favorably due to their heavy-handed approach. In CR communities their attitude is more aloof, smug and disaffected in an effort to appear cool, an attitude that continues in a more reined-in form at school.

[Cicadan]

Hello there! There shall be critique.

[+] .

I'd like it to be specified that in school they get their unusual eyes from contacts, per school guidelines on Avatar appearances and semi-realism. It's fine for it to not be contacts in other settings, of course.

Could you give some examples of specific pieces and accessories they tend to wear as their Avatar? Similar to how you define their wardrobe in meatspace. You could also give examples of some of the specific characters from anime they've aped looks from, optionally.

How was their early schooling experience prior to CR schooling, and around what grade did they get enrolled into CR schooling?

When she applied as a mod was there never any vetting to confirm her age? Around what age did she start first moderating for a forum?

What sort of series/fandoms did she do the bulk of her writing for? This is actually relevant, hear me out: the fandom would help us determine what sort of viewership she had with her mid-level popular fics.

though this they kept from their parents for fear of reprisal.

For the sake of clarity I'd like to confirm explicitly if their parents (specifically their mother, in context) were homophobic or otherwise made the home feel like an unsafe space for Paris to come out of the closet? What was the basis for Paris to decide to keep their identity under wraps?

To clarify, is "Duskblade" a handle they go by in Sycamore High?

How is their personality expressed specifically in Sycamore High- are they closer to their real life self of being meek and withdrawn or closer to the confidence they espouse in their gaming and fandom communities?

That's it.

[almostinhuman]

edited!

[Cicadan]

Approved.