#infodump

Have to stick with plain Myles 😔

When did Levi get into film scripts, and why does he love it so much?

OOC: Okay so it would take an eternity to go through the whole timeline of events that led up to Levi getting into writing film scripts specifically in detail so uhhhh most of it will be summarized to hell.

Levi was taught to write by his parents from a very young age (mainly though being heavily encouraged to journal)

Levi also watched a lot of movies from a young age as well, and was the type of kid to often watch the special features included on movie discs (ex. Us, we were that type of kid ourselves XD). He found the hard work that goes into making a film very fascinating.

Around 8-10 years old, Levi starts getting to play a couple minor acting roles in plays that Landon would write for the Cate's Crossing Performing Arts Center, of which they had become the owner of not long before this point (I dunno if that's ever been mentioned in the RP story line or anywhere else that isn't the timeline doc we made for ourselves so there that is) (this bit is ALSO inspired by our childhood btw haha), Levi eventually realizes that acting isn't really his style, but he still really loves the idea of being involved in the storytelling process in general

Levi gets older and he starts to seriously wonder what he wants to do when he grows up. The beginning of that journey for him starts right around the same time he both comes out as trans/starts socially transitioning and when he started getting his reoccurring dreams about Project Genesis, both being somewhat strong factors in making him start to really consider his future.

He knew that he wanted to be like his parents - but which one? Well, as time went on, it became more and more obvious that it was Landon's footsteps that he felt most comfortable and happy following.

Levi was never bad at science, nor does he dislike it, but he quickly realized it wasn't something he wanted to make a career out of like Perseus had. And on the cult side of things - while Levi did have his odd dreams that ended up leaning more towards having some sort of prophetic weight within them once Evelyn moved to Cate's Crossing, he saw them as far less useful/significant than Percy's prophetic abilities. (obviously not knowing the full scope of his dreams' purpose, as he doesn't even realize that in the present day).

Meanwhile, Levi has always found English/Lit to be his strongest suite academically, he loves stories as a concept (both on their own and also fascinated by the power they're said to hold in the Eye (gee I wonder why /silly)), and he feels both very confident in his writing ability and very drawn to it.

But then... he runs into a bit of a road bump. Levi's found himself seeing his journals as more of just a fact of his life rather than something he's super passionate about, and as for his creative writing - he believes that his dialogue writing is spot on, but personally finds his narration to be poor quality. And of course, he could just work to improve his narration/descriptive writing, but the fact that he thinks he sucks at it causes him to hate the thought of trying to improve. So he just sticks to writing what he's good at.

The problem with THAT though is now everything he writes feels empty and not bound to anything meaningful with it being JUST dialogue. So Levi gets the thought to learn how to draw to maybe turn his ideas into a comic or something along those lines. He was already friends with Evelyn before this point, but him being in the same art club as she was in helped the two become closer.

Unfortunately, he ALSO ended up feeling like he was getting diminishing returns on his attempts at drawing. This felt him feeling pretty hopeless, until one night Evelyn invited him over to her house for a horror movie marathon. During this marathon, the two started talking about their shared fascination with the film making process, and Evelyn gave Levi the idea of making his stories into films, which he loved. (This is also the moment that made Levi believe that he was in love with Evelyn haha. Something something altering the course of his life for the better with information she gave him something something Levi projecting his idea of how his dads got together onto the situation-)

As for why he found film to be the best medium for his work, well, aside from what was said in that long multi-paragraph answer to your first question, it's the storytelling medium he simply finds himself to be the best at. Levi struggles to feel encouraged to do something if he thinks it's gonna turn out bad (or just worse than the very high expectations that he has for himself)

OOC: Oh, absolutely to both! Though it is... a bit complicated.

While Levi does have quite a lot of people in his life who are very supportive of him being trans and him transitioning medically (some also trans in various ways and some lovely cis allies), including his entire family, there are unfortunately also quite a few people in his community (AKA in The Eye) that aren't as supportive.

It's usually not outright blatant bigotry like outright misgendering or deadnaming him (both because of it just in general gravitating towards more "microaggression" type of stuff, and because Levi does have the protection of his parents both having rather important roles in the cult, so there's that fear of being punished if they push Levi too far). Instead, they tend to act supportive on the surface, affirming Levi's identity as a man and all that entails, but specifically being against him medically transitioning.

Now, why would they do this? (Aside from transphobia) Most of y'all who follow this blog can probably hazard a guess, but I know my good friend who is asking here isn't all to familiar with the vintage eight multiverse and everything it DOES know is from us or the other V8 fans in our polycule (though it is very mostly us as we are by far the most passionate about the series haha), so I'm gonna give an extra amount of context for it.

First half of the context - a part of the pledge that those who are joining the Eye recite as a part of their conversion states that "I have nothing of worth except my body and soul, which I offer in hopes of finally being whole once more."; the "body" part of that section being the vital puzzle piece here, being something that is meant to be offered to the Eye (the god/creature) (quite literally being fed to it at the end of their life).

Second half of context - a pretty core belief of The Eye of The Fallen God is that AFTER death, they will at some point be reincarnated. But this isn't the "soul is immediately placed into a body upon rebirth" sort of deal - it's messier than that. Far messier. (this IS a horror series after all ;p). The rebirth process starts with the soul being inside a baseball-sized eyeball that's been expelled from the Eye (creature), it then is taken alongside the many others that were expelled with it by currently living members of the Eye's followers and it's stuffed into a stuffed animal/toy (supposedly. we've only seen the former though), and then that soul-stuffed toy is given to an unsuspecting victim and that person is soon possessed by the soul.

What those two halves amount to - there are people who say that Levi (as well as other trans & nonbinary members of the Eye) shouldn't medically transition, and should instead sacrifice themselves to the Eye and be reborn into a body that better suits their identity. Which is, obviously, a fucked up and transphobic thing to say to a trans person!

im going to info dump what I’m planning for my self insert !

gum, was an ordinary person before he succumbed into his mental illnesses but is recovering from whatever, though forever will be this way. This also led him getting hospitalized for a few weeks

he doesn’t remember his real name anymore but only replies to his referred name, Gum. Including other things he loved doing, sewing or going out as much anymore.

though what he does to remember people he used to know or has a familiarity to, he feels their clothing fabrics, hands, scent or hair.

he did this extremely with candyman because due to almost not remembering what he used to before he was “candyman” but he felt most familiarity with him ^_^

he was also good friends with dice before but he only did the things normally that he would do.

oh yeah and he works in a cafe shop where candyman usually visits him to bug him or something.

OOC: There're several different ways that it manifests, but in essence their favorite thing to do together is to share their passions with one another.

Levi loves to hear Evelyn info dump about whatever the latest scary/creepy story that she's found. Or sometimes the two of them will read it together if the story in question is in text format (ex. a creepypasta or a post on somewhere like r/NoSleep)

And in exchange, Levi lets Evelyn read things from his journals (to an Extent. though ofc this becomes more flexible and lax the more he gets Evelyn into the Eye)

Another example - Levi does sometimes write little one-off stories and post them online, and every time that he does Ev is always right there to draw fanart of them!