Tej Virani
Skeleton: Gallifrey Age: 34 Gender: cis man Pronouns: he/him/his Sexuality: Bisexual Former Occupation: Artist (more info here!) Power: Light/Dark Manipulation
Height: 6’ Hair/eyes: black/brown Build: Lean/athletic Piercings/Tattoos: Yes/yes
Hometown: Seattle, WA, USA Family: Grandfather, younger brother, younger sister; parents (deceased), grandmother (deceased)
Crystal bracelet is here!
Wanted plots/connections: linked soon!
Extended bio below the cut Content warning: parent death, child death, addiction mention
Tej never knew his parents. Initially, he was spared the details of their deaths. All he knew was the love of the grandparents who raised him.
It was a jealous cousin who broke the news. Tej’s father, a promising surgeon, was struck down in his prime by a heart attack. His mother’s death proved more complicated. A nightmarish headline: toddler found alone in house with deceased mother… While grateful to be too young to remember his mother’s death, he was rocked by the truth.
Tej was shaken further when his beloved grandmother succumbed to a merciless disease. Still a child, he began to wonder, was there something he could’ve done to prevent it all. Other gruesome ideas filtered through his head– would his mother’s last breath permeate through the rest of his life. Was he cursed, should he never hold anything (or anyone) too tightly?
Art became a refuge. Tej forced hurt into shapes of escapism, his anger into colors of fantasy. He retreated wordless into childish drawings, then moved on to graffiti art. After high school, he was pushed towards uni. A compromise was made, with Tej attending school in the UK. His grandfather hoped family in London would look after Tej and nudge him towards more ‘worthwhile’ pursuits. Meanwhile, the move placated the old man as it opened new doors for Tej.
Thanks to dyslexia and a general disinterest in academics, Tej barely finished the first semester before he abandoned university. He earned the ire of his grandfather but reveled in found family of his own. He made budding connections with other artists and collectives, including one who steered him into graphic design. This allowed Tej to support himself and continue with his own art. Death appeared again within his tight knit group of friends, and he continued to channel grief into creative expression.
By 29, things changed for the better. Tej's street art became large scale pieces of mixed media and scavenged materials, and he finally had his first opening at a gallery. It was there he met a cocky chef. They moved in together quickly. The relationship was tempestuous, exciting, a living thing that did not reside at the end of a paint stroke.
His sister seemed determined to follow in the footsteps of addiction like their mother. With his grandfather ailing, Tej’s niece Inika needed a home. The fact that Zaid so easily embraced her too further solidified Tej’s feelings towards the chef. Such a beautiful life, one he never assumed possible. Old fears of losing it all cropped up but he did his best to avoid those thoughts.
Zaid’s fame began to skyrocket, but a move to New York did not go as expected. While Tej breathed the rarified air of the rich (and pretentious) through Zaid’s vast network, it didn’t make up for Zaid’s absences. Frictions that were once easily soothed and smoothed over stretched into insurmountable chasms between them. Living with someone who, from Tej’s point of view, seemed so disinterested felt pointless. They split, with their last shared interest being Inika.
But Zaid did the unthinkable. After a weekend with Inika, Zaid refused to return her to Tej. And then, the unforgivable. It was Zaid who took Inika to the beach, and Zaid who distracted them both to the point they lost the little girl to the ocean.
Tej’s biggest fear came true. He lost the two people he loved most. it was one of those people who lit the match and incinerated everything too.
For the first time, Tej abandoned his art. He felt parts of him blink out of existence and wasn’t so certain he cared to save the rest of himself. Now what? he thought. Landing on a mysterious island would’ve been his last guess.
