Birchwood Isle Family Roleplay

Basic Information

Full Name: Toby Jael Andrews
Nickname, if Any: Occasionally TJ
Age: 14
Birthday: November 11th
Sex: Female
Pronouns: she/her
Current Grade/Year in School, if Applicable: 7th
Current Occupation, if Applicable: None
Special Needs: Toby is anorexic and struggles with dyslexia.

Appearance

Height: 5'3"
Build: very skinny
Hair Color: black
Eye Color: dark blue
Distinguishing Features: Toby is very thin, wears almost exclusively black clothing, and tends to layer her clothing even in hot weather; very developed bust
Brief Description: Toby would be cute if it wasn't for what appears to be a permanent frown (what some people will one day refer to as "resting bitch face") and if she wasn't so skinny that her cheeks are sunken and her skin sallow. Adults often wonder what she might look like if she could just put on a little bit of weight, because her thinness is her dominant feature. She's on the tall side for her age and would be taller if she was better nourished. Most of the time, she wears her black hair in two braids that go all the way down her back. Like everything about her, the braids would be thicker if she were eating better. Her eyes are very dark blue and deep set, and her clothing is almost exclusively black because she wants to blend in rather than stand out with loud colors. Most of the time, she wears skirts, and those skirts are often layered over a pair of leggings. Almost all of her clothing fits too large on her thin frame. Despite being thin in most areas, she has a very developed bust.

Personality

What are your greatest strengths? List 5-10: artistic; financially astute; persistent; remarkable; talented; intelligent; independent
What are your greatest weaknesses? List 5-10: grumpy; easily exhausted; unmotivated; dyslexic; disloyal; unfriendly; resistant; defiant

What do you struggle with? Mostly with food. Toby has serious problems with anorexia and fears eating specific foods, which has made it easier for her to avoid food altogether. She is specifically terrified of her body continuing to develop. Because of her anorexia, she also struggles with sleep and some mood fluctuations that are impacted by her refusal to eat enough to sustain her body. There are some serious potential health risks involved here, too.

She also has trouble with school because of her dyslexia, with which she has never been taught to cope and therefore still doesn't (or, more accurately, can't) read.

What are your hobbies or interests? storytelling through art; painting
What do you really enjoy? being outdoors; painting; art stores; long walks; earning money; being left alone; animals
What do you really dislike? children under the age of 12; being watched while she eats; excessive rules; being alone in a room with one other person with the door closed; sudden movements; raised voices; alcohol; drugs
What are your favorite things? a photo of her mother that she keeps in a frame and carries with her in her bag most places
What do you fear? gaining weight; being trapped alone with a man; returning to her father
Describe your personality in 100-500 words: In a word, Toby is caustic. She's sarcastic, angry, and lashes out at everyone because, despite her art, she lacks an outlet. She finds it difficult to talk to other people of any age because few people can relate to her, and the frustration piles up to the point that she takes it out on other people instead of even trying to talk about the things she's been through and how she feels about them. Most of the time, she prefers to be alone, but then she also suffers for a lack of friends and allies. This makes her difficult for anyone to get to know, but she grieves the loss of something she hasn't had in five years: family. While she makes it impossible to get to know her (and some might say to love her), she craves the affection of a lasting relationship with adults. At the same time, she deeply distrusts adults and fears rejection, particularly by women (despite the fact that her abusers have always been male).

Relationships & Behavior

How do you normally get along with adults? Toby generally struggles to form lasting, meaningful relationships with adults. This is mostly because she fears them. In her life with her father, she experienced brutal physical and sexual abuse, not just at his hands, but at the hands of his friends (who would pay to hurt her). While in foster care, she suffered similar abuse, more often physical, but also often sexual. While the men were usually the abusers, most women sat by and allowed the abuse to take place, and Toby learned not to trust adults of any gender as a result. However, you will want to note that she gets along much, much better with men than with women despite this. (It's something that I, as the person writing for her, do not understand but have had to accept in the 35 or so years that she's been with me.) Above all else, Toby will resist closeness with adults at all costs, but this is largely because she needs them to keep trying. Any adult who gives up too easily will not wind up being a good fit for her, so if you don't have the stamina to keep working at her, please do not engage with her!

How do you normally get along with teenagers? Again, Toby doesn't trust most people her own age. Her caustic personality makes it difficult for people to like her, but not being liked also hurts her. As with adults, she gets along better with male teenagers than female, and she's had an on-again, off-again boyfriend who is several years her senior for the past couple of years. Teens who want to be friends with Toby will need to have a lot of patience for her attitude and lack of desire to engage with them because without that patience, no relationship is possible. With all this said, however, Toby is capable of making friends and she can be a good friend as long as her friends fit a specific mode for her. For example, she's less likely to befriend someone who drinks heavily than she is someone who smokes (like she does).

How do you normally get along with other children? To put it bluntly, Toby hates younger children. It shows.

How independent are you? Toby is very independent. She can do most things for herself and doesn't want interference.

How do you normally react when you get into trouble? The first thing Toby's likely to do is to try to argue her way out of it, of course. But she doesn't physically fight discipline.

Link to your discipline sheet: click here

Orphan Village

How long have you lived at the Orphan Village? Just arrived
Which House do you belong to? Cedar House
Are you currently enrolled at the Orphan Village Academy or BWI College? Orphan Village Academy
What jobs or responsibilities do you have at the Orphan Village? currently none due to the risk of over-exertion

How did you come to live at the Orphan Village? Toby is an emergency case. Her social worker, Faith Carson, needed to move her from a violent situation in the United States to somewhere she knew she would be safe. Faith has been considering moving to the island as it is, and she made the snap decision to bring Toby here instead of keeping her in the American system. It is very likely that Faith will have to make her own move quickly from this point forward, however, because the authorities aren't likely to appreciate her move. After all, Toby's father tends to intermittently get her back despite his history of abusing her.

How do you generally get along with caregivers and authority figures? Toby has a lot of trust issues due to years of being in and out of foster care with abusive caregivers. She doesn't extend her trust easily, and therefore her relationships with caregivers and authority figures can be confusing for the person on the other side of them. Notably, she comes across as unfriendly but cooperative. She has a lot of attitude, but she also tends to lean into relationships with male caregivers. (Given her history, this is as confusing for me as it is for you, trust me.) Most of the time she won't push someone's goodwill unless they have given her a specific and tangible reason. However, she often tests the boundaries with authority figures to find out where they will break and hurt her (read: harm her). If she manages to make an adult break (and all except for the most hardened usually will at some point under her needling and ribbing when she sets out to make the break), she will push and fight even harder to back out of the situation she's just initiated. She also uses corporal punishment as a form of self-harm and she will do her absolute best to push adults to punish her so that she can get the emotional relief and release this gives her. As the player here, I ask that you not fight this, even if what follows feels a lot like abuse. Without it, Toby tends to wither and hide from me for long periods of time.

How do you generally get along with younger residents? Toby avoids other teenagers unless she can get something she needs from them, and she does not tolerate children under the age of 12. The latter tends to be less avoidable and therefore there may be incidents when younger kids can't or won't leave her be. It also bears mentioning that she makes a lot of kids uncomfortable because she has no filter when it comes to talking about her past, and she will go off during therapy sessions if she feels pressured to participate. This is the one time she would ordinarily take a back seat and let other people talk about their shit because she doesn't see her past as the problem other people see it as -- at least not in the "you need therapy to get through your trauma" type of way. It's not exactly that she's being generous, but there is a kind person underneath all the rest of it.

How do you generally get along with your peers? I already answered this in the above section. I expected it to be elsewhere in the app. Whoops. Shame on me, being the one who wrote the app and all that.

Do you prefer to be adopted or remain in the Orphan Village? Toby prefers to be adopted.
Describe your ideal adoptive family. There should be at least one man, and she would do best either as an only child or as the youngest child in a family with no more than three children (including her).

Is there anything else we should know about how you get along in the Orphan Village? Toby's going to make people uncomfortable, and she's also very likely to try to sneak out of the village to get into town for cigarettes. If she can't, she'll steal them from adults within the village.

Background

Describe your history in 150-1000 words: Born in the UK and moved to the US when she was seven, Toby still has quite a strong midlands accent. Her mother died the year following their emigration, leaving her in the sole custody of her father. Upon his wife's death, Toby's father changed. Nobody knows exactly why, but the theory is that grief over her loss snapped something in him. The drinking began first. Then the beatings started. By the time Toby was ten, her father had begun to invite his friends to their house, where they would "enjoy her body." Shortly after that, he began to accept payment for this "transaction." Toby began smoking cigarettes before she was eleven, and developed anorexia as a way to cope with the loss of control she felt about the world going on around her. When she discovered the internet at twelve, she found ways to sell her artwork. She had to hide these activities from her father because her art was, even then, incredibly good (Toby is an art prodigy) and she has managed to save almost a quarter of a million dollars in art sales by not touching her earnings except for to purchase more supplies. She's even been shown in galleries, but she goes by an online handle and nobody knows her real name or her age.

Other

Is there anything else we need to know about you? Toby is my longest-standing inner kid. She's probably the most important, or one of the two most important. Negotiations need to be made for a lot of scenarios for her and unless we have a long history and you really understand her, it is absolutely best to let me initiate any threads involving her.