SHAWN KELLY

“You think you’re possessing me / But I’ve got my teeth in you.” — Angela Carter, from “Unicorn”

A dull ache pulsed through Shawn's arms as the tight metal surrounding his wrists dug into his skin. He pushes the handcuffs harder into his skin, a stinging pain erupting beneath the surface of his skin, making him hiss. He holds it there for a couple of seconds, eyes focused on how red his wrist was getting before he let up, sighing contently and pressing himself against the seat of the police car.

Shawn's face throbbed, bruises spanning across it, red and tender. His attacker got him good, he could easily admit, but Shawn knew nothing if not the intricacies of suffering. It was the only thing he was good for—provoking violence within his victims with carefully thought out phrases coated in venom, causing them to lose their morals and swing at him. It became a skill of his and he thrived off of it.

He thrived off of the pain that came with running his mouth and the wave of calmness that crashed down on him when he pressed on the wounds left on his body after whatever altercation he managed to drag out of his victims. It left him feeling more in control of himself than he usually was and the feeling was intoxicating—the feeling of normalcy.

He'd piss anyone off if it meant he'd feel like himself for a few moments.

VINCENT FITZ-RUIZ

“Like any unloved thing, I don’t know if I’m real when I’m not being touched.” — Natalie Wee, from “Lonely: Our Bodies and Other Fine Machines”

At the rise of the sun, when a breeze still broke up the unbearable heat the day promised, Vincent felt so cold he shook with it. The light wind blowing through his clothes didn't help, but he still made his way through the field of grass, searching for something he couldn't quite put a name to.

Crazed with loneliness, Vincent sat down on the warm grass, wrapping his arms tightly around himself, holding onto himself with a desperation he's ashamed to have felt before, silently willing himself to stay whole. He shut his eyes, trying to clear his mind of the unsavoury thoughts that plagued him.

He feared he'd shake apart, so he gripped onto himself, pressing his arms into himself harshly as he tried to regain his sense of self. He felt out of his mind, but even through the fog threatening to cloud his sense, he knew what he needed.

A touch. Someone's warmth..

To have someone hold him up instead of having to hold himself together.

DOLORES BEAUCHAMP

“Did I beat you at your own game? Typical of me to put us all to shame.” — Marina, from “The Family Jewels”

The table went quiet as soon as Dolores' voice carried throughout the room, a challenging look in her eyes as she stared at her stepfather. She tilted her head, waiting for an explanation she already deemed as nonsense, using her fork to push her bland food around the flower-trimmed plate.

At his silence, Dolores felt a satisfaction wash over her. It didn't take him long to realize that whatever he said was going to incite her to push the taboo topic, questioning his every word and deeply analyzing them until he was forced to examine his outdated opinions with a discomfort that amused her. As she did many times before, Dolores eyed him knowingly, a silent communication passing between them, before she returned to playing with her food.

The enjoyment she felt out of dinner stopped when she flicked her eyes over to her mother, who stared back at her which such a potent look of disappointment it made Dolores' stomach churn. She shuffled in her seat, dragging her eyes away from her mother to instead gaze down at her plate, the slightest bit of shame lapping at her gut.

Dolores still couldn't handle that look—no matter how many times her mother dished it out. It brought her back to the reality that her mother couldn't handle such a child and all her screaming. It reminded her there was some parts of herself she had to repress if she wanted to make sure her mother didn't make a habit of eyeing her like she was less-than.

LUCAS MCKINNEY-GRAVES

“To be made of flesh was humiliation.” — Alice Munro, from “Lives of Girls and Women”

As he turned on the tap, Lucas tried his hardest not to let his eyes flick up to the mirror in front of him. He struggled to focus on washing his hands, placing his hands under the warm running water before removing one to pump soap into it. He clinically went through the steps of cleaning his hands, rubbing the soap into his skin thoroughly before rinsing them. He shut the tap off, reaching down to grab the hand towel hung up near the double doors below the sink, roughly drying his hands.

In an act of betrayal, Lucas let his eyes wander up to the mirror, clenching onto the towel at the sight of himself. He wanted to look away—had to look away—but like a magnet to metal, his eyes were drawn to his face.

Similar to inspecting a organism under a microscope, Lucas examined each of his features, with a seriousness unlike him, as his brain helpfully pointed out the flaws with them. His jaw was too soft. His lips were too plump. His nose was too round.

As Lucas stared at him with hardened eyes, an urge to brutalize his face made its way to the surface of his rampant thoughts.

If he bled without shedding any tears, maybe he'd look more like a man.

SIENNA VOSS

“I’m both too cold-hearted and too lit with passion. Always too much and never enough.” — Tara Love, from “The Search for Perfection”

Sienna ran a hand through her short hair, brushing the wisps out her face as she sat down on the floor of her dorm room with her knees to her chest. She started down at the wooden boards beneath her, pressing her bare feet down onto them to feel something real on her skin, trying to ground herself against the overthinking that tormented her.

She wasn't sure of herself—of her existence—and she was sure the people around her saw the way she was a hollowed human, barely living. She never found out how to be herself without having plaguing worries of others' perception of her, leading her to become a living contradiction.

Too loud and too quiet. Too passionate and too cold-hearted.

Sienna's need to be needed lead her to think she was doomed to spend her life in an awkward space—where she can't show all of herself, all of the parts of herself she knows, in fear of being too much and in fear of being not enough.

She didn't know how to just be, away from all the pressures of everything around her, and it made her miserable.

8. Does your OC pursue only monogamous relationships? Or are they open to other, more creative, options?

SHAWN: Shawn hasn't actively pursued any relationship, but if he did, he'd pursue strictly monogamous relationships because of his selfishness. If he had more than one partner, he wouldn't be able to balance his egocentrism and the care he has for them, and in result of that, he'd discard the care he has for his partners to bring himself peace of mind.

VINCENT: Vincent is open to more creative relationship options, but he doesn't need it. He'd pursue any kind of relationship if it means he's going to be loved.

DOLORES: Dolores already struggles with monogamous relationships, because of her need to be independent, so having more than one partner doesn't appeal to her. She feels like it would tie her down harder.

LUCAS: Lucas doesn't want more than one partner because he pours himself fully into one person, and that sort of intimacy with more than one person isn't for him.

SIENNA: Sienna would be open to a poly relationship options if the opportunity arises, but she has a hard time believing even one person would be into her, so she doesn't actively look for creative relationship options.

11. Has your OC ever been the object of someone’s affections that they did not (or could not) reciprocate?

SHAWN: Shawn hasn't been the object of affection of anyone because most people he's had around him during his lifetime have known of or have been victims of his cruelty.

VINCENT: The only people Vincent has ever rejected were girls. (Guess why.) But as for guys that have had crushes on him, he always saw where it went, if anywhere.

DOLORES: Dolores has rejected a lot of people during her lifetime, and she's not nice about it, especially if the person asking her out is a guy.

LUCAS: Lucas has had to reject one person before because he felt as if he couldn't love someone else properly when he didn't love himself.

SIENNA: Sienna's never rejected anyone because nobody ever had the courage to admit they liked her.

15. Is your OC easy to love? If not, then what are the barriers?

SHAWN: Out of the main characters of Keep The Rain, Shawn is definitely the hardest to love—he makes it difficult for someone to even just be his friend. He has a very rigid, unmovable mindset when it comes to who he is: he won't make himself tolerable for another person, no matter how strongly he feels about them. This causes him to have slips where he shows the worst parts of his being to someone with no guilt—his cruelty, his manipulation, his selfishness, his apathy. . . Shawn's personality alone makes him hard to love because he doesn't care to make himself lovable. He, very selfishly, will always want his comfort and peace of mind over making someone else happy.

VINCENT: He gives a lot of himself to everyone he meets and everyone he who he wants to be a constant in his life, giving them a lot of love and support. He's very easy to love because of this—he's open and giving with everything and he doesn't shy away from communication when things are wrong. The only problem is he is very clingy because he hates being alone, which can make him annoying.

DOLORES: Dolores is not that hard to love, but some of the things that make her hard to love is her love of arguing and her commitment issues. She struggles with being tied down to someone because she feels sort of trapped, but she still wants to experience love, so she often leads people along, which gets tiring after a while for her potential partners. She also hates showing affection and being vulnerable and intimate—key things in relationships.

LUCAS: Lucas isn't hard to love, but his self-loathing affects his relationships a lot—causes him to constantly ask for reassurance. He's also a wonderful partner because he gives a lot, but he struggles a lot with letting his partner give back to him, which makes a relationship with him very one-sided.

SIENNA: Sienna is a people pleaser to her core, so loving her will be very easy, unless you like open and honest communication. In her mind, she's just lucky to have someone like her that she'll put up with things she shouldn't, but it also makes her a hollowed version of a partner—afraid to disagree and argue, afraid to say the wrong thing, afraid to be a whole person.

Keep The Rain taglist: @inseasofgreen, . . . ask to be added!

“Dolly—“ Vincent starts, but Dolly lifts her finger up in front of his lips, silencing him without even looking at him.

“Immediately, no.”

Vincent recoils at that, and then drops his shoulders, furrowing his eyebrows at her in confusion. “You don’t even know what I was gonna say.”

Dolly turns around at that, gazing up at him incredulously. “And were you gonna say something?” she asks, but Vincent knows the question is rhetorical by her tone. “Because you said my name in the way you do when you’re about to ask me for a ridiculous favour.”

Vincent scoffs, scrunching his face up. “I wasn’t gonna—I don’t say your name differently when I need something.”

Dolly stares at him.

“Okay, maybe I do,” he admits, raising his hands up in defeat. “But I just need your help with my mom.”

Dolly laughs in his face. “Why would I subject myself to the torture that is your mother?”

Vincent can’t fault her for that. “Because you love me,” he answers, sounding unsure.

Dolly pouts and says, “awe,” in a tone of exaggerated condescension as she pats his face with her hand twice. “No, get somebody else to do it.”

Keep The Rain taglist: @inseasofgreen, . . . ask to be added!