#intro all

tw: loved one passing

Ever since Duan has a memory, he's wanted to be a writer. It all started when he was very young. He grew tired of being read the same stories every single night before going to bed, so he became the storyteller instead. There are several homemade videos of him telling the most intricate stories at barely six years old. He would do it everywhere: at home, in school, at the playground– it was something that always came easily to him.

Having a supportive and well-off family helped, and as Duan got older, he learned not to take it for granted. He was encouraged to get into writing competitions, and even though his parents never really pressured him into winning any sort of award, Duan became his very own worst enemy. Every time he wrote something, he would put so much pressure on himself that he often forgot to sleep, eat, or even drink water, and more than once, it landed him in the hospital for extreme exhaustion.

Hard work paid off, however. Right before graduating from high school, Duan signed a contract with a publishing company, and by the time he was 19, he was releasing his very first novel instead of sending in college applications; by 25, he already had a level of fame that very few authors ever even aspire to towards the end of their lives.

He met his partner that same year as he closed on a deal to bring one of his books to the big screen. He was the lawyer for the film company, and there had to be something between the lines as they argued the terms for the contract, because as soon as the first meeting was over, the two of them were attached at the hip. Duan loved being challenged, loved the bickering, loved the chemistry... Duan, who never cared about romance, fell for him instantly.

They got married in a private ceremony two years later and settled down in Toronto, of all places. Their lives seemed perfect. They were, after all, a double-income-no-kids couple, and they both did exactly what they loved, and Duan, perhaps, took something for granted for the first time in his life.

On the morning of his 30th birthday, his partner decided to wake up early to surprise him. There was nothing Duan loved more than an early morning bath, so that's exactly what his partner was doing for him. A few minutes later, Duan was surprised by a loud bang coming from the bathroom. His blood ran out of his face when he rushed to the room and found his husband unconscious on the floor.

Duan was quick to call an ambulance, but despite the doctors' efforts, his husband passed away three days later after they were unable to control a brain hemorrhage.

The publishing company was very understanding for a while, letting Duan mourn the death of his husband. They were able to push a few contracts back a few months, and some of them even one whole year, but no matter how long it passed, Duan wouldn't seem to be able to pull himself together. Uncountable times, he sat in front of his computer only to end up breaking into tears or into uncontrollable rage that twice ended up with him buying a new laptop.

Eventually, Duan was able to stop crying every night and get himself back to normal, but the words wouldn't come out of his fingers no matter how hard he tried. With the publishing company pressuring him even more every week, he started considering giving up completely, but there was absolutely nothing else he could see himself doing.

After two and a half years, his publishing company has issued an ultimatum for him to complete at least one novel by the end of the year, or they will be forced to terminate their contract.

As one last desperate attempt to pick himself up, Duane packed his essentials and moved out to the countryside of New York, to a small town called Ennora. He saw some pictures of the landscape and managed to get an unlimited lease on one of the lakeside cabins for himself, hoping that a change of scenery would help him write and finally get out of the dark cloud that had been following him for the past two years.

Despite being neck-deep in mourning and depression, Duan has managed not to lose his quick wit and rather eccentric personality. He's never been quite the popular type, but he's not afraid to speak his mind, throw in bad jokes, and laugh alone at them.

Random little things:

His nickname means "moon"

He's written pretty much every genre out there, but his favorites are fantasy and horror.

He's written spicy romance novels under a pseudonym that he will never reveal. They pay good money and, not that he would admit it, but he has a great time writing them.

He speaks English, Thai, Korean, some French, and he's currently learning Spanish.

He's very sensitive, but his face doesn't usually express it. He's also not great with honest talks unless it's in written form.

tw: rough upbringing, abusive family, nothing too explicit.

He was born twenty-two minutes after Sky, his twin brother. He wasn't breathing for about four minutes longer, and doctors were quick to call it a miracle that he'd actually made it. However, his life was not the priority for too long after that, since their mother was almost dying on the table. Theerachit Wachira was handed to a nurse who quickly set him up in an incubator, where he survived through his very first weeks of life.

Growing up wasn't much different. Their mother had complicated feelings about them, and no matter how much Jib tried to get closer to her, it was like talking to an ice wall. In her mind, it was how all mothers were, so he didn't really think much about it in his childhood. Their father was always busy with work, whatever that word meant for him at the moment, and even though they saw him often at home, he wasn't exactly present in Jib's life either. He was a sickly child and often looked down on for being too weak and fragile, which led to his father completely ignoring him when he'd decided to teach Sky about the 'family business'.

The only person left was Sky, his brother and best friend. Jib found refuge in his brother's company for as long as he could. He followed him like a shadow everywhere he was allowed to, and even in the places he wasn't allowed to, Jib usually found a way to sneak around and watch over him.

Jib was never great in school– he was always slightly below average at everything, which he never really minded. He was some kind of ghost haunting the school's building, and he was okay with it. Even though he wasn't exactly shy or anti-social, Jib always preferred staying quiet, so it wasn't like he had a big group of friends that weren't much connected to his brother. Still, he didn't mind. Jib always found a way to be content with the life he was living, more often than not finding the bright side of things. It was simply the life he'd been born into, and never really allowed himself to dream bigger.

To this day, he's still not sure how it all happened. One morning he woke up, and Sky wasn't in the house anymore. When he asked their parents about it, they simply said he'd gone on a long camping trip. Jib wondered why he hadn't been sent to the same camp, considering the twins were attached at the hip, but he never really asked out loud.

Those weeks changed Jib completely. With his brother gone, their parents had nobody else to focus on. His father took him out on the streets to try and teach him the ropes of his work, but Jib had clumsy fingers and asked too many questions for his own good. His father often lost his patience with him, yelled, and shoved him, making him cry, which resulted in even more yelling and punishment when they made it back home. The punishment was to stay at home, which made his mother really upset. Jib remembers the one time she had a few too many drinks and confessed to him that she wished he wouldn't have made it past his first week.

Jib took it all silently, and even though he tried his best to be a better son to both his parents, deep down he knew he wasn't as skilled as Sky, and he would never become the kind of child they wished for.

He asked many times when Sky would be coming back, never really getting a straight answer from either of them, until the day finally came. Jib, more quiet and depressed than ever, put on his best smile to receive Sky back home, only to find out that only the shell of his brother had returned. It took a long time for Sky to tell him what the camp had actually been about, and it just added another line on the list of things he resented their parents for.

He would have never thought about running away from home, but the second Sky hinted at it, Jib knew he would follow him.

Life in LA didn't become any easier, but definitely happier. Sky never became the person he had been before the summer he left for that camp, but Jib could see a little spark lit up inside him, pushing him to do something with his life. He didn't want to use any of the money Sky was using to put himself through school, so he got any job he could get around town: he was a paper boy, a mailman, a waiter, a living advertisement for a fast food restaurant... He worked at different TV and film productions as the coffee guy, holding wires and lights, learning everything he could and trying his best to retain it. Jib did anything that would pay for his share of the rent and whatever else the two of them could need.

When Sky started working on his own business, Jib was able to work as his assistant, doing whatever he needed at any given time. He learned how to drive, and he thought this would be the life they would both end up having, until one day his brother came home with the idea of moving to a small town in New York. He didn't dare to question him, and even though he wanted to follow him right away, Jib was under contract at some film production, and he knew leaving unannounced would be far worse in the long run. He didn't want to get sued. With a promise of a daily phone call, Jib left Sky at the bus station, and for the second time in their lives, they went apart.

Not even a month had passed when Jib came home to a messed-up apartment. There were lamps on the floor, the TV screen was shattered, and everything was covered in glass. He panicked, running to his bedroom to check on the small stash of cash he kept under his bed, only to find out that the people who'd done it were still in there. They pinned him against a wall and asked for answers that Jib didn't know. The men believed him when he said he didn't know where his brother was, and roughed him up pretty badly before leaving with the promise of coming back to get them. That very same night, Jib packed up his stuff and got on a bus on his way to Ennora.

Random little things:

He lives in the same trailer as Sky at the moment and still helps him with work or whatever he wants to do.

His nickname means "Sparkle," and it was chosen by his grandfather at birth.

He's very soft-spoken and can pass as quiet, but once he trusts someone, he's witty and eloquent. He's very wise and often the voice of reason where there needs to be one.

He will do anything for money or food.

He's always had a knack for the arts. He loves painting, photography, and music. One of the things he brought with him was an old guitar he got in LA.

He is Charlotte Everly and Erik Leads' child.

He was named after Orlando, the character from Shakespeare's As You Like It, thanks to his father's lifelong obsession with theatre.

His wasn't a bad childhood. His parents loved him, he always knew deep down. The root of the problem was how lonely he often got.

He was rarely ever with his parents, and whenever he was, it was with his father, Erik, who more often than not took him to work with him. His life was spent backstage in different theatres of the city, swimming in big dresses, wigs, character shoes, and makeup.

Being around actors, perhaps, shaped his personality into what it is now. Lando has a tendency to be melodramatic, expressive, and volatile. He doesn't really have a lot of control over his emotions and will break into dramatic scenes if given the chance, as if he were the main character of a movie. He firmly believes he is.

At some point, Lando thought about being an actor. He grew up thinking he would become one after he starred for less than 5 minutes of stage time in one of the plays his father was involved with. However, as he grew older, the less he wanted to be a part of that world. Not because he didn't love it, but if anything, to do something different with his life than his father did.

When Lando hit his teens, he became a bit of a rebel. He refused to go to work with Erik and hated the idea of staying at home, so he started exploring with different groups of friends and different clubs, which landed him in what became his passion for a while: wrestling. It was the total opposite of everything his parents wanted for him, and it immediately became the one thing he wanted the most.

His body changed accordingly; Lando started hitting the gym and trained over three hours a day aside from the club meeting hours, thinking that maybe the fame he could have gotten in the theatre, he could get from becoming an athlete. He dreamed of a scholarship away from New York so he could start a life of his own, but unfortunately for him, in his senior year of high school, he was matched with a much bigger, much more experienced wrestler from a different school, and it ended with a dislocated shoulder and a third-degree tear on his pectoral muscle. He was taken into surgery right away, and even though he recovered completely, it was too late to get into wrestling again.

Most of his college opportunities went down the drain. He never made an effort in school, so he wasn't particularly smart or brilliant enough to get into college, so he ended up taking, what he planned, would be a gap year, except it never really ended.

During that year, Lando went back to working at different theatres. He didn't like the idea of being on stage, even though he had the skills and charisma to do it. He had enough strength to help behind the scenes, however, and the right attitude to do so.

Working off-Broadway, he became good friends with another one of the guys behind the scenes. He started hanging out with him nonstop– first during work hours, then he started hanging out with him outside of the theatre. They became inseparable, and he would be the person who'd introduce him to his current passion.

During a night out, this guy took him to what seemed like an abandoned building on the outside– some kind of venue big enough to hold a couple hundred people. The energy was electric as he moved through the crowd all the way to the center, where some sort of metal cage was set up. A few minutes later, two men came out, bumped their fists, and got to fighting. There were no rules or regulations. It was all pure instinct. And when they announced the money prize for the winner, Lando's eyes grew wide and glossy.

He went back on his own a few times after that. He started learning the ropes, techniques, and what the entire thing was about. It wasn't exactly legal, but that never stopped Lando from wanting to do something, and on his fifth visit, he became more than a simple spectator, and after a few different matches, a favorite of the crowd.

Lando never moved out of Ennora despite having the means to do it. He figured it was safer to get out of the city every now and then before an angry rival figured out his address. He did move out of his father's house at around 22 and moved into an apartment in the Old Mill District, where he currently resides.