Character: Kephri Tamano

I don't base characters on people except in very rare circumstances, and those are usually NPCs. I create characters from a concept I want to play with, or an image that came to me. Kephri came from the image of a white haired man waiting at night in a pool of golden streetlight. He was impatient and grumpy. It's only long after that I realized that just by accident, Kephri is probably the character most like me. Not in looks or personality, but in other ways that other characters do not have. As he is Darkmoon, the other screenname I've carried the longest, guess that makes sense. 

Kephri Tamano

Age: 26

Birthdate: August 29th, 2506

Story: YinYang

Physical Description: Kephri is five feet ten inches in height and of a martial artist's flexible but solid build. Visibly fit but not overly muscular. He has short white hair, typically tousled and unkempt. Eyes are brown and almond shaped, showing Asian ancestry. He is of Japanese and Scandinavian descent, so is naturally pale. Typical clothing consists of worn t-shirts, jeans, combat boots and a long canvas jacket padded with a type of kevlar. He’s almost always found wearing a black ball cap. Often a large knife is tucked into his clothes and a small handgun in one boot.

Personality: Anti-social. Irritable and paranoid of how negatively others see him. Assumes everyone sees him as some weird freak so before they hurt him he attacks first. People must prove themselves worthy (and resist all his attempts) before he’ll accept them, grudgingly. But once they do he’s possessive as he desperately wants to be needed and loved. Deep inside he’s a squishy marshmallow with a touch of innocence. Kephri wants to prove he’s worth it, wants to protect and keep safe those very few people that are safe enough to love. He’s just terrified of being abandoned and hurt again. Always waiting for the other shoe to drop, waiting to betrayed again.

How I got Marion

I don't write other people's characters in RPs. I don't know their mindset, so I'd just do harm and annoy the person who created them. It's why it's so hard for me to write fanfiction even though I love reading it and will defend its existence forever. Really hard to get into someone else's mind and understand why they made this person this way. But sometimes, you need to rescue a really interesting character. Someone that you really wanted to have a chance to tell their story, and because of circumstances, would never be able to otherwise. And at this point, I'm sure he'd be unrecognizeable. How much is the original idea, and how much is the weird twists that I came up with to explain how I saw it? But this is how I got the complication that is Marion. Also known as Soushi. 

He was so important to that Digimon RP. His parents ran everything, and he did so as well, in his own ways. Soushi was also Sariel's counterpoint, the ice to his fire. They fought since the very beginning and had always meant to be. These two magnets, both repelling and attracting at the same time. We had so many ideas and it would be glorious. 

And then she was gone. I can't even remember the name she went by, not really, but I know the only reason we ever got for abandoning the game she brought us together for. She was leaving fandom forever because of something that had happened in a Pokemon RP somewhere else. Nothing to do with us, we were just random casualties. Me and Willow had put so much into our characters though, and we had quite a few. Most were connected to each other, but Sariel was not. And we needed someone with the power and money to bring all these kids together, and that was Soushi. Soushi creeped Willow out, she didn't think she could take him on. I decided I was going to figure out how he worked somehow. And while on the bus one day it started coming to me. During that walk home from bus stop to house I worked it out and he started speaking to me.

Soushi was always this cold, emotionless teen who was very proper in manner and perfect. He was supposed to be rich and a blond, yet Japanese anime boy. It's a manga trope, look at Tamaki from Ouran Host Club. The basics of his family life are still the same now as they were then, having been rigidly trained and controlled to be the perfect child. (Which I used again to different effect with Bliss) The more I used him, the more I leaned into the idea that he was manipulative and always knew everything going on. Soushi could be terrifying regardless, but he preferred to use his powers for good. Even though he had absolutely no problem completely destroying someone if they harmed anyone he cared about. He's not a hero, and  not a villain but he could play either for a time. 

Because he's such a complex character, I've never really been able to let him be. Soushi and Sariel were the first to be brought back from the ashes of Heikin. Renamed Marion Grey, and then Marion Grey Kaijin, his original last name, I've only tried to make his story more realistic. Even when setting them up in a Central CA coastal town. They've both been through multiple different story attempts, always together in some fashion. And Marion's only gotten weirder, enjoying the fact that he can disturb people just by existing. By paying attention he can tell what they're like and what he can do to push their buttons. And he always does, just to see what might happen. He's fascinated by people and how they act, and how he might predict their actions. And just as fascinated by the fact that he's never really been able to predict Seth's actions. Seth can't resist a challenge, and Marion presents the biggest challenge. They are the fire and ice, never happier than when clashing together.