#thomas weaver

hm... yeah, some of them.

xiuying will watch tv or read books sometimes, but she mostly doesn’t like things that involve sitting still. she’d rather be doing physical stuff or going to parties lmao

meiling and lev watch stuff together. they don’t have the same interests, so they take turns choosing. they don’t mind trying out new stuff and they like doing commentary together (although half the time lev’s commentary is “the manga was better”)

alexa likes sports anime, especially eyeshield 21 bc football. since i personally don’t care for sports anime and haven’t watched most of them, i can’t really tell you much about that one.

sandhya isn’t really interested in that stuff, but she’ll watch with alexa sometimes. she usually has no idea what’s going on and has to keep asking what the characters’ names are.

thomas only watches things with his little sister, so he sees stuff like digimon or whatever kids watch these days. he doesn’t know it’s anime, though. he probably would if he paid more attention.

aabir’s a bit weird. he’ll watch things like pokémon one minute and deadman wonderland the next. he tends to watch obscure things just because, though, and his favorite anime is sasameki koto (miyako/tomoe is his otp).

riley saw an episode of sailor moon once as a kid. he thinks. maybe. there was a blonde girl yelling about the moon or something. maybe a cat??? idk

luca watched michiko to hatchin after a friend recommended it to him. he also likes cowboy bebop.

anyway, here are the main characters:

Lev Abulafia– 15; half-Ashkenazi, half-Sephardi; raised in a fairly secular household (mom wears a tichel because she wants to, not because she’s super orthodox; they only really go to the local synagogue for Rosh Hashanah; etc.); autistic; has a crush on Aabir; lives with his mom and sometimes with the Wen family, who’ve essentially been actual family since before Lev was born

Meiling Wen– 15; at least half-Chinese (only met her dad); Lev’s sister and best friend; has known she was a girl since she was two; mentally ill (haven’t quite decided on a diagnosis yet, for multiple reasons, but psychosis is involved); celebrates the Jewish holidays but is uncomfortable calling herself Jewish; pretty nice but also lowkey loves sassing her siblings

Xiuying Wen– 22; half-Chinese (shares a dad with Meiling); Olympic gymnast and martial artist; diagnosed with ASPD at age 19; is the only person allowed to call Meiling “Mei” (because Meiling was afraid to ask her not to when she was younger and now she’s just used to it); likes partying and booze; stopped doing anything beyond weed at 21; pansexual and polyamorous; not super reliable but relatively self-aware; unlike Meiling, she does consider herself Jewish, since she was raised with Jewish holidays and culture as a major part of her life, even though she isn’t religiously or ethnically Jewish

Aabir ibn Isaiah al-Hashimi– 15; father is Sunni and mother is Shia (may change this bc I definitely don’t want to start anything and I’m not super educated on Sunni-Shia relations yet); has an older sister; bisexual; best friends with Thomas, even though no one can figure out why; believes that there is good in everyone, which leads to him trying to help people he sees “going down the wrong path” (like Thomas); plays basketball

Sandhya Ghatak– 16; born in Tripura, India and moved to the States at age 5 because her doctor was moving; has four arms (hence why her parents moved with her doctor); speaks Bengali, Hindi, English, and a little bit of Kokborok; closeted lesbian; dating Alex; fire powers (have to learn more about Hinduism and Agni before I go into more detail about that tbh); really loves makeup but is also very aware of where she buys it from, and is very, very clear about why she wears it (for herself, no one else); student council vice-president; straight-A student; very popular and probably the prettiest girl in the school; high anxiety and probably some other mental illness but I haven’t decided what yet

Alex(a) Howe– 16; closeted trans lesbian; was raised by super liberal parents and is hyper aware of his privileges; only out to Sandhya, so mostly uses he/him pronouns; doesn’t have a transphobic family but is choosing to remain closeted because he wants to be a professional football player; doesn’t like spicy food but is trying to increase his tolerance to impress Sandhya’s parents; had trouble saying Sandhya’s name at first so he practiced over and over again until he got it right; doesn’t use makeup himself but is pretty knowledgeable about it bc of how much his girlfriend likes it; pretty intimidating at first sight but honestly a giant teddy bear; learning Bengali; became friends with Sandhya in kindergarten and started dating her in high school

Jess Cooper– 15; nonbinary black teen; lives with their father and younger brothers; older half-‘sister’ went missing seven years ago; spends a lot of time working with their pastor helping out charities; PTSD from the death of their mother and SPD (Schizoid Personality Disorder - a “secret schizoid”); befriends Thomas after he learns why Aabir befriended him and tries to help him become a better person; doesn’t bind bc they can’t afford a binder; works two part-time jobs to help pay for younger brother’s medical expenses; sexuality currently undecided (I was going to have them be asexual, but I want to make sure I’m not stereotyping people with SPD before I finalize their sexuality)

Thomas Weaver– 15; lives with his abusive dad and younger half-sister Sarah; cis, white, poor, straight, Catholic, and super bigoted; only friend is Aabir; starts off as antagonistic until he overhears Aabir telling Lev and Meiling that he only befriended Thomas because he realized that Thomas fit the profile of a potential school shooter; becomes depressed and lashes out until Jess confronts him and he breaks down in front of them; character arc revolves around unlearning toxic behaviors, accepting others, and open-mindedness; develops a crush on Jess which leads to internal conflict when he realizes he sees them as a girl and therefore hasn’t come as far as he’d first thought

Sarah García Weaver– 6; Thomas’s younger half-sister; has lived with Thomas and his dad for since she was 3 when her parents died in a car accident; half-Mexican on her father’s side; often used by father and brother as “I can’t be racist” playing card; too young to really understand much; likes cars but plays with dolls bc her stepdad thinks cars are for boys only; wants to be a train conductor when she grows up

Riley Cooper– 21; Jess’s older half-brother who ended up in another dimension when he went to what was supposed to be a meeting for closeted trans teens; left before either he or Jess came out, so both referred to the other as “my sister” until they met up again; mother was a white woman from a racist family who got disowned for dating a black man and was hit by a car during a panic attack when Riley was 4; considered Jess’s mom to be like a second mother and was heartbroken to learn she’d died while he was gone; bisexual; ends up in a relationship with Xiuying and Luca; transitioned via magic while missing and worked as a soldier so he kinda looks like he can bench-press a tank

Luca Finley– 21; half-Romani, half-Native Hawaiian; was raised by Roma mother after other mom (I think the word is ‘Māhū’?) was killed in a hate crime; wants to learn about Shaktism but doesn’t have the resources to do so; bisexual; works as a bartender in a club Xiuying likes to go to; ends up in an open relationship with Xiuying, which Riley eventually becomes part of

(i certainly don’t mind! XD)

for thomas... tough. i think i’ve mentioned before that he’s the character i’ve put the least about of work in. lemme check my blog to see what i’ve already said.

ooh, i know!

i’ve mentioned before that thomas is really close with his sister, despite his typical behavior, and while he’s not like. the greatest brother of all time, he genuinely does care about her. on the other hand, she’s a walking reminder that his mom ran off with another guy and didn’t really make an effort to stay in touch with him, so there’s a bit of bitterness there as well. he’s also a bit jealous bc his dad is more lenient with her (which makes sense - she’s six and he’s fifteen, but it’s not like jealousy listens to logic).

Thomas would probably be the only one to want to give it to the police but I think it'd be pretty easy to change his mind, depending on how far along he is in his redemption arc.

Xiuying would joke about wanting to eat it, but she wouldn't really.

Well, initially I hated Thomas. But I created him to be dislikable. Still, since he was only a kid, I decided I didn't want him to be stuck in that unlikable state forever - people can change, after all. So I made a conscious effort to change his story. Rather than keeping him as the token bigot, I decided to show where he learned that hate from and give him an out from all that, which led to the development of his backstory and family.