#the ditz

IN CHARACTER INFORMATION:

LABEL: The Ditz. FULL NAME: Lark Rutherford Sinclair. AGE: 22 Years Old. GENDER + PRONOUNS: cis-male, he/him pronouns.  FACECLAIM: Tarjei Sandvik Moe.

EXPLORATION:

3+ HEADCANONS:        –– Is there any blessing greater than to have two healthy children? With all the money they could want, Laurel and Andrew Rutherford-Sinclair never realised that they were missing something until they had it: their sons, their twins. Lark and his brother were doted on from the very first moment, cherished and adored by everyone who came in contact with them. Childhood was a golden kind of bliss, neither boy knowing the meaning of the words fear or worry. At least, they didn’t until the night the Bogeyman came. A summer night with sweltering heat, a rasp of their bedroom window sliding open. Lark watched with wide eyes while a monster took his big brother away from him. Something twisted and cruel and stinking, with dirty shoe-prints pressed into the pale carpet of the room.        –– Lark feels blessed when he enters High School, a year later than he should have. The delay seems like fate when he thinks of it later. After all, if he’d gone when he was supposed to, he may never have made the friends he did. He approaches it as he approaches all things, with cautious optimism, and a smile fixed perfectly in place. Lark makes friends easily, with a grace that comes naturally to him. Lark is a delight to teach, because Lark is always polite and happy, even if he isn’t the sharpest tool in the shed. Lark is always polite and happy, because that is how he has trained himself to be. The perfect son, attempting to sooth the ache of missing things. Everything bad gets stamped down, and replaced with a serene smile. He doesn’t get scared any more. He doesn’t cry. He doesn’t lay awake at night still thinking about the Bogeyman, a phantom at his window.        –– He knows what he wants to be. He is sure of it. An investigative journalist, the man who asks questions and solves mysteries and does it all with style and grace. It feels like a safe way to harbor this obsession he has with crime, with weird old men wearing masks, with little kids who get stolen away. He wants to be the man to expose corruption. He works himself to the bone, harder than one should probably have to, to get his grades and get accepted into university. For the past three years he’s worked with confidence, through every hurdle, to make sure he becomes the person he longs to be. Someone cool, someone confident, someone skilled at the art they have chosen to pursue. People still underestimate him, even at college, but he tries not to let it get to him. He holds his head high and pushes forward, and knows they’ll all regret thinking he was only some soft frail thing. 

2+ TROPES:        –– Genius Ditz: Everyone knows that Lark is a little slow on the uptake. Not the brightest crayon in the box, the sharpest tool in the shed. When it comes to cars, however, Lark is just about the smartest guy you can find. Cars seem to make sense in a way that few other  things do, with their parts carefully put together. They’re things of beauty, and Lark has always loved beautiful things.        –– Beware the Nice Ones: Sweet, gentle, polite. A long fuse, rarely driven to anger. Lark is skilled at staying cordial and kind in any number of stressful situations. Perhaps only witnessed once before, however, his temper flares up like a volcano when you push him hard enough. 

1+ PLOT IDEAS:        –– O Brother, Where Art Thou?: Jordie’s disappearance will always haunt Lark. He’ll have always sat and watched while a strange man stole his brother. He’ll always feel that absence. For so long, he really did believe it was a monster. The Bogeyman. But he knows better now, knows that there’s no such thing as monsters like that. That doesn’t mean he isn’t scared of it, though. Thoughts of Jordie, and whoever or whatever took him, are the thing that can make Lark freeze up quicker than anything. He hopes, someday, to know what happened to him, to finally get closure.       –– Friends without Benefits: Is there anything softer than staying friends with the boy you dated in High School? Strictly friends, because you realised after a few quick months that this relationship was going nowhere fast, that all you really wanted to do was keep each other, not necessarily in a romantic way. But the familiarity never fades, like an emotional comfort blanket. Someone you know will always look out for you, always have your back. Lark is a loyal little thing, and he doesn’t let go easily. 

EXTRAS:

( aesthetic moodboard )