Birchwood Isle Family Roleplay

Basic Information

Where do you live? Northern Isle
Are you married? If yes, to whom? No
Do you have any children? If yes, list them. An Infant daughter named Daisy
Is your family open to adopting children or adolescents? Possibly if the right kid comes along

Appearance
Height: 6'2"
Build: slender
Hair Color: dark blonde/light brown
Eye Color: hazel
Distinguishing Features: serious, intense gaze; a mouth that's almost always smiling; laugh lines
Brief Description: Torrin is tall with exceptionally long legs. They wear their hair shoulder-length (so it just brushes their shoulders). Their face is angular, with high cheekbones and a well-defined jaw, eyes seemingly always ready to smile, and a thin mouth that curves up at the corners. Their style of dress varies from day to day, some days a pair of jeans and a tank top, other days a pair of jeans, Oxford shirt, and a sports jacket. They rarely wear makeup, and alternate days on which they wear a binder beneath their clothes, so some days they present more feminine and other days more masculine. Some days they wear loose clothing and other days they prefer tight clothing. Their hairstyle changes frequently but the length generally remains the same. The one true constant is their smile.

Personality
Strengths: straightforward; soft-spoken; considerate; great listener; tolerant; accepting; creative; curious; authoritative
Flaws: fickle; stubborn; stuck-up; heavy-handed; distractible; shy with strangers; tires easily
Likes: watching the sun rise; long naps in the afternoon; sipping tea by the fire; summer afternoons; snow storms; roller skating; skateboarding; listening to music; playing guitar; breakthroughs
Dislikes: people as stubborn as they are; people who drive too fast; balloons; the color red; dress shoes; dressing up; opera; cats; ice skating; coffee; being woken up
Vices: sleep
Fears: spiders; being forced to do things they don't want to do; gender-affirming surgery
Personality: Torrin is the type of quiet observer who feels "off" to the wrong sort of person. They see everything, including the things people don't want them to see, and a lot of people feel observed when in their presence. Their soft-spoken way of speaking makes people listen up when they speak because it forces them to quiet down, and Torrin uses this to their advantage. While they are incredibly tolerant of a lot of things, Torrin absolutely will not abide bigotry, and this creates conflicts with people who don't understand Torrin's approach to things because they will not back down when they believe in something and may become defensive if they feel confronted. Torrin also tires easily and therefore walks away from arguments that they know they can't win, which some people find offensive.

Relationships & Discipline

How do you normally get along with other adults? Other adults can be a struggle for Torrin because many adults are set in their ways and they see Torrin's gender identity as a "fad." The fact of the matter is that, in general, Torrin agrees with them. A lot of American kids are adopting nonbinary identities as a way to stand out among their peers and don't have gender dysphoria or other qualities common to trans people. Torrin views this as a degree of appropriation, but they will not tolerate adults who refuse to affirm their child's gender identity. Because of this phenomenon, many adults also have a hard time accepting Torrin, which means Torrin walks away from a lot of arguments with adults who invalidate them.

How do you normally get along with teenagers? It really depends. Torrin focuses on validation, especially in teens, but they struggle with how changeable teenagers can be, switching from one thing to another when the next thing is more popular than the first. They struggle with trusting teens a lot of the time and it can take a while to earn their trust sufficiently that they are willing to open with you. On the other hand, Torrin is an excellent listener who validates as much as they can. Teens often appreciate this, but should not take validation for acceptance. Acceptance, for Torrin, comes with accountability and long-term sustainability.

How do you normally get along with children?Torrin loves the freshness of children. They generally get along great with kids over 6 years old. Younger kids can be a challenge.

Link to your discipline sheet: click here ✅

Orphan Village

What is your role at the Orphan Village? Dedicated Therapist
Which house or building do you work for? Cedar House
Do you live in the Village or commute? Torrin lives in the community, in the Northern Isle
Do you have any special training, certification, or skills relevant to your role? Medical Doctorate in Psychiatry, now working as a therapist and prescriber
Do you prefer to work with a particular age group? Which one? Mostly with school-aged children
Do you struggle with a particular age group? Which one? Pre-school-aged children and teenagers.

Briefly describe your caregiving or mentoring style. Torrin is a careful listener. They spend a lot of time listening, asking probing questions, and getting all of the answers before they decide how to handle something -- most of the time. Because at the same time, they are quick to act when action needs to happen quickly. There is also an ironic middle ground, where they will let a fight start to play out before they pull the more successful child off of the less successful child. They are incredibly hands on with kids, which is one of the reasons they chose Cedar House. One-on-one time is essential to their occupation, but they also spend extra time at the house mentoring the kids when their energy levels allow for it.

Describe how you see your role in the village. As far as Torrin is concerned, their role is to get to know 12 kids as deeply as they possibly can, and to serve those 12 kids to the best of their ability. They are not about dealing with the village on the whole, even though they are also among the first to say that it takes a village to raise a child. They're willing to be part of the village, but not to be part of the village for the whole village, if that makes sense.

Is there anything else we should know about your role in the Village? Torrin tires easily because of chronic illness (Lupus). They have good days and bad days.

Background

Education: MD in Psychiatry
Work History: Worked as a therapist for 10 years before moving to Birchwood Isle
Current Goals or Challenges: Torrin is dealing with Lupus
Reason for Living on Birchwood Isle: They had to get away. The schools in the US were filling up with people claiming trans identity without processing their identity and it felt confining and tight for Torrin, rather than inclusive. They were confused and looking for somewhere else.
Brief History: Torrin has always been a serious person, all the way from childhood. They are analytical and need to understand the way things work. It started out as asking why about everything (starting with "why do I have to wear skirts?"), then expanded into taking things apart and putting them back together. One of the earliest questions Torrin asked about the world around them was why some people had to be boys and other people had to be girls. Their parents couldn't answer that for them, but they did support them in exploring their identity on their own, which led to Torrin's confidence and firm convictions on the way children should be treated in relationship to their gender identity. Their own parents were good, so they approached the world expecting more of the same and... didn't find it.

What they did find, albeit many years later, was that while trans people were dying for their right to exist, young adolescents were declaring themselves "transgender" in record numbers. At first, Torrin quietly celebrated, but over time, they began to feel that this behavior was an appropriation of something that was, to Torrin, very real. In every generation, they realized, there is a popular way to stand out among your peers. Where once the halls of a school might be filled with Goths or Scene kids, now they were filled with young people declaring themselves trans and nonbinary. While counseling adolescents, they discovered that many of these people didn't experience gender dysphoria and a large number made no effort to publicly present as the gender with which they claimed to identify. Teenagers claiming "nonbinary" identity while wearing dresses that showed their cleavage or "trans girls" who proudly wore long beards. It was hard enough for Torrin to accept that they enlisted the help of a therapist themselves.

In the end, it was their therapist who encouraged them to get away from it all. Take a break, work on their own identity. Torrin reached the conclusion that they were personally hurt -- no, harmed -- by the casual adoption of trans and nonbinary identity by those who made no effort to live with the effects that identity had on those who came before them.

Additional Information

Torrin takes testosterone injections and therefore their voice is deeper than many people expect. While their appearance is quite androgynous, those who aren't conscious of nonbinary identities often assume they are female, so the deeper voice can be startling. One might also want to note that while Torrin will correct people who refer to them as "she" or "her," they do not introduce themselves with their pronouns and can be somewhat awkward when someone asks them what their pronouns are.