#ivan.intro

A B O U T  

tw: shooting, fire, drugs and death mentions

☢        he doesn’t even know where he was born. his family lived in a camper. all six of his siblings, some of them not even by blood lived in a tiny ass camper. his entire extended family also had campers and vans and just followed the other wherever. 

☢        ivan was too young to tell what his family did for a living, but he came to understand it the very hard way as he became more aware and closer to his teens. the women? prostitutes. the men? their pimps, but some of them also dabbled on drug and weapon dealing. 

☢        they had a fuck ton of money, but they never cared to save anything in the bank. they didn’t trust anybody with their money, and most of it, ofc, was in cash. they just had it in different jars, boxes and suitcases inside the campers as they traveled. 

☢        they went unnoticed. they didn’t even do shopping, their vans were pretty run down. it was not the great life, but it was what ivan knew and grew to love. he was never alone. he always had a sibling or a cousin to hang out. which... included joint and cigarette smoking from very much the age of 10.

☢        [ tw starts ] and then it all changed. it started with a lot of smoke coming from one of the campers, which made them all stop and get down to see what was going on. it was a trap. the second they were out of the campers, a shooting broke out. some even got inside the vans, burned them down- it was a massacre. 

☢        a twelve year old ivan hid under one of the campers, and somehow got spared. he was the only survivor of his family. they took the lives of men, women, and children, but not his. which came with a lot of survivor’s guilt, and... darker stuff. 

☢        time passed. he somehow avoided the system, and grew up on his own, moving from town to town, trying to get people’s pity and sympathy. he was seventeen when he got a woman pregnant. she was older than him. he thought they would get married, but he fucked up. 

☢        he promised he would stay clean and sober after the baby was born, but one night when he was supposed to take care of their son, he was passed out while the baby played on the dinner table. which was covered in powder (not baby powder). she even got a restriction order on him. he cannot physically come close to his son. all he has is an old photo of him at age one. 

☢        nobody knows how he made it to centralia, but it’s been a long time ever since. eventually, at about twenty five, and after almost overdosing, ivan got his wakeup call and got sober. to this day he still attends meetings. he hasn’t touched a bottle or anything other than good old cigarettes he often rolls himself. [ tw end ]

☢        the only job that would take him was the cemetery. he took it with a bit of a concern and a little bit of fear, unsure of what to expect but with the horrors of life he has endured, ivan became almost enamored of the peace in the job. he talks to the shadows, sings to the recent graves and changes the flowers of the old ones, as well as keeping everything clean and tidy. 

☢        nobody has a clue about how in the world ivan is still alive, not even himself, but at some point he admitted that maybe it’s god’s calling to keep him in this earth. and somehow, he’s the happiest he’s ever been. 

M I S C E L A N E O U S

☢        he has an old dog who has been him for about ten years and a cat that comes and goes whenever he wants. he simply named them cat and dog. 

☢        he plays guitar and has an old old old one somebody gave to him as a gift. 

☢        he loves plants. doesn’t know shit about them, some of them will die in his hands because he overwatered them, or didn’t give them the appropriate care for the kind of plant, but he makes sure to give them proper burial? i dunno. he’s crazy. 

☢        he thinks ghosts are his friends. names the shadows in the corner of his eye.

☢        he LOVES kids? and loves story telling? a lot of kids come to find him when it’s halloween time so he can tell them stories of things he has seen and lived in the cemetery. most of them are made up, but he likes to put on a show. 

☢        he really wants to be loved? he’s very fucking lonely so he makes conversation out of anything. he just likes to be in company of people, but he’s used to himself by now. 

A B O U T

He's called himself Ivy since he was little. He had a bit of trouble learning to talk, so he would oversimplify words, including his name, hence Ivy. He also likes that people usually expect a girl whenever they hear from him, and it's... well, someone that often blurs the lines.

He had a very tough time in school, could never sit still longer than 30min and unless he's utterly high, that's still his reality. He dropped out before he turned 16, because he figured he could do much better working than being a pain for his parents and school authorities. He got his GED a couple years ago, so he stopped feeling like a total failure.

He used to hang out with much older kids before he dropped out, and even more after he did. He smoked his first cigarette at 13, which naturally led to drug use and abuse in the following years. He doesn't think he has a problem because, according to him, he keeps it under control and has managed to stay functional.

His lifestyle led him to be your friendly neighborhood plug. He wouldn't call himself a dealer, but he will get you anything you want if you don't know where to find it. He's very careful with the stuff he gets, tries it himself before passing it down. He likes to take care of everyone, even during the wildest of their trips.

He works at the smoke shop because it is natural for him to do so. He also has a way with words, so he's a perfect seller. You go in looking for one thing, you end up with 10 different trinkets you'll probably regret buying, but he got a smile out of you.

He's a flirt? He knows he's easy on the eyes, he can play up the latino accent... He knows he's got it. He will use it to your advantage, or not. It depends on who you are, what he wants from you, etc.

He doesn't date. The moment he starts getting attached or senses the other person is getting too close, he will push them away in whatever way he finds, and will regret it for the rest of his mortal life. He does sleep around a lot, though. (It's perfectly fine if you assume your character has slept with Ivan before, just give me a heads up somehow)

He doesn't think he's good at anything? Jack of all trades, master of none. When he's not working, he can help you with anything you need, from sewing a pair of socks to fixing your apartment's plumbing.

He has an insane collection of graphic t-shirts and baby tees. They're outrageous, provocative, explicit, and dumb. If you love him, you will gift him a graphic tee.

He lives in an old van that he bought when he turned 18. The thing barely works, but it has a functional stereo and AC. He took out the backseats and uses the space as his bed most of the time. He relies on friends and family to get a decent shower and sleep on an actual bed every now and then.