#chentos

“You didn’t tell her.”

“Obviously. I didn't tell Huckleberry either.”

“Yeah, but…you and Avery have always seemed…closer than you and Whitaker. Or I guess close in a different way? Whatever phrasing you wanna use.”

~Frank Langdon & Trinity Santos, re: Avery Chen

oc pride challenge 2026 (Day 8): Anyone Else (Or Again)

Make something for an OC who is LGBTQIA+ in a way we missed in previous days, or take the chance to do another oc who identifies with some of the previous prompts!

Avery Chen (Pitt OC) is bi!

OOOH ofc ofc 👀 I’d love to!

So for Marina, I had the idea for her really early in my viewing of the show, before I even knew that Mark and Gemma struggled with having a biological child (I won’t say when exactly that’s revealed in the show, but it is). I’ll talk about how that reveal was ultimately the best thing for OC creation, but I’ll start with “where did she come from.” Basically, I came up with her in connection to Mark, because I really love exploring the idea of how Mark’s grief over Gemma affects him raising Marina. Those who have watched Severance, particularly a certain flashback episode, know that Mark is much softer and warmer with Gemma than he is after her. He still loves, but he’s more abrasive, more guarded. What would that look like in the context of a child, especially one who looks so much like his wife (only sharing their Asian-ness, but still)?

He loves her, she knows that intellectually, she remembers that—she had 10 years with him and Gemma (perks of elongating the pre-accident period!). But watching him change, watching him pull away from her…she’s so young still. It can be hard to remember that sometimes. And Mark doesn’t entirely realize that, because when you’re in a state of grief, you’re not always the most empathetic or sensitive to others’ feelings. When he wants to push his loved ones away, he knows it. When he doesn’t, he doesn’t realize he’s doing it. We see it with him and his sister, Devon, and I thought it’d be interesting to see that from the perspective of a daughter.

But of course, I have another motive. Specifically, I read this incredible fic, June’s POV on her father (Petey) being slowly eaten away by Lumon. And I thought…hey, what if Mark had that? And more importantly, what if June got to play more of a role in the story besides a one-off episode…and what if she, and Mark’s daughter, started investigating Lumon together (and maybe even fell in love about it)?

Now let’s get back to the Gemma-is-(likely)-infertile reveal, one that really helped me 😅 I was having such a hard time finding a faceclaim who matched Dichen Lachmann’s ethnicity, so that reveal allowed me to make her an adopted child instead, which freed me in terms of picking a faceclaim. I settled on the very lovely Brianne Tju :D as a bonus, since she and Gemma are both Asian, they probably get mistaken for biologically related anyway (because all Asians are related, obviously / s)

(I also have a lot of thoughts about how Innie!Mark is SO similar to the version of Outie!Mark we meet in the flashbacks, and how the Innies are basically who the Outies were before their big traumas, and how Marina would thus really love Innie!Mark, and how that might make Outie!Mark feel allll kinds of conflicted 👀)

So hopefully that all covers where Marina came from! She’s the longer one lol Avery’s is way simpler:

Originally, I actually thought of having her be Langdon’s little sister (sounds more on brand for me, doesn't it 😅). But writing a character connected to Langdon means delving into how addiction works, PHPs, and alllll different sorts of logistics that I just wasn’t willing to get into 😅 so I changed her backstory: instead of Langdon’s sister, she’s now more similar to my own background: the daughter of two supportive doctors! This also me throwing a middle finger to the “Asian doctor character has parents who push them into medicine, either while being doctors themselves or not” stereotype. Is there truth to that stereotype? Absolutely, in a lot of families. Not in mine though! And for once, I’d like to see my experience represented 😅 granted, I am South Asian, not East Asian, but hey, I really liked Melise Jow as Avery’s faceclaim, sue me.

The rest of the backstory is still what I planned from the very beginning: Trinity Santos’s roommate in undergrad, didn’t realize she had a crush on Trinity until med school, and then oops, she’s now interning at the same hospital where the girl she had (has, go figure) a crush on is also interning. And then said girl is immediately hit on by a hot surgeon before Avery can get the nerve to confess. Talk about awkward (listen, I seldom write love corners, but they can be done well! I’m determined to make that happen).

So hopefully that sheds some light on my process! I love this question :D thanks for asking it!

(also JOIN MEEEE the Pitt fandom drives me crazy more often than not, but the show is truly incredible, and so is Severance!)

talk shop tuesday!