#lomktask

It’s that time again! Thanks to everyone who participated in our first development task, we loved reading all of of them. Since November starts off the holiday ball rolling with Thanksgiving, this month’s prompt is FAMILY. Tell us about your characters background, family and how they interact. This can be blood family, adopted family, chosen family.... there are many ways people choose to apply the word family and we would love to see how any of these apply to your character.

Once again, these tasks are optional and we won’t be keeping track of who does or doesn’t do them. Feel free to complete this prompt in whatever way you feel inspired to do so, whether that’s with a self-para, a headcanon, a playlist....it’s up to you!

The Aeron Family - Last of My Kind Development Task #2

Family, for Ryder, is a knot tied so tightly around his heart, that no matter how much you tug on it it just won’t unravel. When asked about a mother he’ll direct you to Rowan Thane, the only proper mother figure he knew. The only woman in his life that looked at him and cared for him regardless of his faults. If pressed about a father figure, Ryder - if you haven’t chased him far away from the word - will point to two men: Kameer Gbeho, the lawyer who helped him through the court proceedings following what the Aeron’s now call “The Incident”. (Because the continuous abuse of your second born son needs a cute title). He was the man who gave him a roof over his head while arrangements with Ryder’s aunt were made. And Andy Thane, who taught Ryder everything he needed to know about this life he was diving head first into. The world revolves around his two siblings - Collette Alves, who means so much to Ryder that his guest room will forever be called Lettie’s Room so she knows she’s got a place to stay. And now, Benny Thane, the baby that has already found his own little spot in Ryder’s heart. 

That’s who his family is. But there’s not denying that Ryder’s issues with family stem from the group of people who share a bloodline with him. All his therapists have tried different ways to get him to open up about his biological family. The only one to actually succeed, was Betsy. Who took a shot in the dark and asked Ryder about them one day, fully expecting no response. And she didn’t that day.

But the next week he surprised her; and told her as much as he could handle. What she learned was:

Clay Aeron ruled the Aeron home with an iron fist that was established in his high school years as he ran for student body president. When he won his junior year of high school he got a huge head; decided that this would become his life and already began his research for his presidential run. But when he lost his senior year, that’s when Clay’s cruelty came crashing down. His brother, who won over him, came to school the next day with a busted lip that when paired with Clay’s black eye, proved that Clay Aeron didn’t take losing very well, and the fuse to his anger was minuscule. Any tiny thing would set it off. But of course that wasn’t to be shown to the public, so Clay put on a happy face and eventually schmoozed his way into the heart of Raissa Darcelle when they met in college. 

Raissa was the older of two daughters born to a popular host of a Christian talk show and her executive producer. Determined to prove to her parents that she would do what she wanted now that she was out of the house and away from their - and God’s - constant scrutiny, she picked up every habit she could think of that would make her mother clutch her rosary. Raissa met Clay behind the campus library. She was smoking a cigarette, hating the burning of the ash, but loving the way it would make her mother’s eyes burn with disdain, and he asked for a light. They got married by their graduation, and when Clay got a high paying job in Georgia working for the State House, Raissa was able to start writing her series of self help books about becoming true to yourself when everything was stacked against you. 

Though her younger sister, Lexia Darcelle worshiped Raissa; she didn’t take to her sister’s righteous rebellion. Lexi stayed close to their hometown of Baton Rogue, Louisiana for most of her life. She got into the teaching school at Louisiana State, and ended up teaching high school all over Louisiana before settling down in Olympus and teaching at the private high school the next town over. Lexia means well, she truly does, and when the police called about the state of her nephew, she took him in. And she tried to give him the life he deserved; but it was hard to come to terms with the fact that her sister allowed everything that happened to her younger son to happen, so she eventually started to distance herself from the redheaded evidence of the cruel side of the woman she looked up to all her life. 

With the start of a new week, we’re also going to be starting a new tradition here at Last of My Kind with DEVELOPMENT TASKS for everyone. These are completely optional and we won’t be keeping track of who does or doesn’t do them, but they are a fun little way of digging deeper into your character and their background. These tasks can be done in whatever way you think best! You can write a self-para or a headcanon, you can whip something up in photoshop, you could post a playlist --- whatever way(s) you feel inspired to complete it! 

“Fear is the main source of superstition, and one of the main sources of cruelty.”

Our first prompt is FEAR. Tell us about your characters fears whether they be deep or surface level, rational or irrational. How do they react when faced with one of these fears?