Krys Evensong Larcen

• Species: Virginia Possum
• Sex: ♀
• Age: 23
• Height: 6ft 11in (approx. 210.82cm)
• Weight: 260 lbs (approx. 118kg)
• Siblings: None that she knows of. Adopted as an infant and has never seen records of her biological family
• Interests: Punk rocker

Krys is an original character from the My Own Evensong storyline. She is an opossum who was adopted by a skunk, and grew up in poverty. However, the discovery of the punk subculture gave her a lease of life that she absolutely relishes!

Trust & Confidence

(newborn)

City archives state that the first record of Krys’ life is her discovery as an abandoned newborn on the outskirts of a park in rural upstate New York, by a 19 year old hippie skunk named Aurora Gardenia Larcen. Krys hadn’t been hidden and was naked and in plain view of passers-by. Aurora was not the first person to see Krys, but she was the first to respond.

Horrified to see an infant abandoned like this, Aurora’s first action was to take Krys to the hospital in the hope that they could find a record of Krys’ birth. There were no such records.

Empathising with Krys' desperate situation, Aurora took her in and looked after her in the short term, until she found a better solution. She brought her to her home: a small but pleasant trailer on a large garden area. This garden was Aurora’s livelihood: on it, she grew botanicals, crops, and flowers. Aurora was practical enough to make a living this way, while also sticking to her hippie ideals of peace, love, and understanding, and the desire to live with the land, not just off of it. She believed in modern medicine and did not consider her concoctions to be a good substitute.

Motherhood, abruptly imposed on her though it was, came quite naturally to Aurora. Krys was a noisy infant and often cried out for attention from Aurora but rarely so with distress.

In time it became clear that nobody was going to claim Krys and this was when Aurora decided to name her. She had warmed to Krys and by the time she named her, and she had started to hope that nobody would come for her. From then on, she considered Krys her daughter.

Confusion about her feelings relating to her origins plague Krys, despite Aurora's love and affection. As an adoptee, deep down Krys is haunted by the knowledge that her original mother chose to abandon her. In the current day she puts a lot of effort into staking out her place in the world (she is very much a larger than life person) while also arguably being pleasing towards others to a sado-masochistic degree. For Krys, this comes from a deep grief about having been given away by her birth mother and a slight desire for her birth mother to come back for her, while also maintaining a position that she may not want a relationship with her. Essentially her actions translate as, “what do I need to do to get your attention?”,“why don’t you love me?”, “What did I do to deserve being abandoned?” and “I will never forgive you for leaving me.”

At times this line of thinking (intuitive as it is; she does not think these things on a conscious, rational level) becomes unbearable, so at these times she feels murderously angry. This is where her irascible attitude comes from.

Freedom & Self-Determination

(toddlerhood)

Life went on with Aurora looking after Krys. As she grew into a toddler Krys grew more hair on her head, and it was strangely colourful – neon green and purple. Concerned, Aurora took her to a paediatrician. The doctor looked at her, found nothing wrong, and proclaimed that it was simply strange genetics.

As a toddler she was always a holder-on, and it’s hard to blame her for that. What more precious thing could a baby lose than their own mother? Because of this, she held on to everything she could. Aurora offered her a wonderful alternative but Krys always had a grain of a sense that something was not quite right with her history. For all of Aurora’s warmth, she could not take away that newborn feeling of betrayal and could only help Krys learn how to trust in spite of it.

As an adult, she has turned this attitude on its head. She has learned over the years that she cannot always hold on to things, not even things that matter deeply to her. Instead, she can efficiently flip into a let-go mindset of, “it’s not worth my time and energy”. Of course, this is a feeling rather than a thought – she often expresses the sentiment of “not worth it” as dislike and stops investing her time and effort into it before it can feel like too much of a loss (or too actively detrimental). On the odd occasion that someone really lets her down to the point that she starts loathing them, she will retaliate – hard.

As Aurora’s adopted child she often felt doubtful. What if this mother left her too? It is very unlikely that she understood at this age that she had been given up by her birth mother, but she would have had a sense that something vital was missing from her life and therefore, that she needed to fight to get it back or not to lose any more. With this in mind, Aurora, as an easy-going hippie, may have inadvertently set Krys off on occasion. Whenever Aurora presented as lukewarm enough that Krys doubted her affection for her, Krys would sometimes feel panicky and want to ‘wake Aurora up’ to make sure she was present for her. As a result, Krys developed a habit of being mischievous. Furthermore, because she started doing this at such a young age and did it specifically to get attention, she had become very good at provoking a reaction from others by her later years.

As an adult, Krys enjoys chaos. This, combined with her rage (as described in the Trust & Confidence section), means that she can often be destructive and is occasionally prone to cruelty. However, she usually reins this in enough to only be mischievous. She likes to spook people and pull pranks. On the odd occasion that she feels that somebody deserves it, she will unleash the full force of her rage on them, and at these times she can absolutely be cruel. She enjoys these as they give her an outlet for the fury she feels inside. Although she may not be conscious of it, she is on the look-out for people to do this with.

That, once again, is how she expresses her angry side, but her pleasing, appealing side is no less forceful.

Krys has a big heart and loves to be around people (after all, she doesn’t want to get left behind or left out). So long as she does not feel betrayed and feels that there is a chance at a good relationship with someone, she is friendly, kind, compassionate, empathetic, and gregarious. Sometimes her empathy may be misdirected or overly expressed as she has so much unresolved pain herself that still needs to be empathised with, but she is very keen to make the effort. In her efforts to build relationships and meet new people she is often crass, brash, and uncouth. Some may not like this, but for her, it works as a way of finding people who understand her and weeding out those who don’t.

Overall, some would describe her as odd, but to the right person she is not unpleasant.

Many people grow up to be full of self-doubt as a result of their parents managing their toddlerhood poorly (usually this happens when parents put demands on their toddler that they are unable to meet). Krys’ adoptive mother, Aurora, was not the demanding type. As a result, under most circumstances Krys does not doubt herself and comes across as blisteringly confident. However, certain, very specific circumstances leave her feeling doubtful of herself. In particular, the one demand (whether real or imagined) that Krys feels she cannot cope with is genuine romantic love. If somebody feel this for her then she feels she is expected to reciprocate (not necessarily by loving the person back, but at the very least by being careful with their hearts), and she does not feel well-prepared to do this. If somebody demonstrates romantic love to her, she closes herself off to make sure she doesn’t get hurt – and that she doesn’t hurt the other person too.

Krys puts great stock in her personal autonomy. This is a survival instinct to her: she felt unable to survive when she was an infant and that utter powerlessness felt terrifying to her, so ever since she was a toddler and had at least some ability to ensure her own survival (by seeking out Aurora and provoking a reaction out of her whenever she needed something), she has been exercising that ability. As a result, Krys can be extremely wilful, but also embraces cooperation when it is obvious to her that it is in her best interests. Her anger can get in the way, however, and whenever she feels that somebody else is trying to control her, she retaliates to make sure that she retains control.

Ambition

(young childhood)

As Krys grew, she continued to be loud. Aurora decided that instead of scolding this behaviour she would nurture it. She taught Krys songs to sing, and when she started taking an interest in musical instruments, she introduced her to the acoustic guitar. Krys enjoyed this immensely.

Krys was a very energetic child. Her will to survive, along with the sense of streamlining she felt as she grew from a toddler into a small child (ie., her body feeling more fluidly under her control, especially as it got bigger and stronger, and her mind becoming clearer as she firmed up her understanding of how the world works), meant that she had a lot of energy to work with.

She loved to achieve things, and took huge pride in her accomplishments, even if they happened at somebody else’s expense. This was the rule, but sometimes exceptions would happen she realised how unfair it can be to take from somebody else. For the most part however, she felt that the other person would get over it and that her need was greater.

As far as Krys knows she doesn’t have any biological siblings, so has no idea what her place is within her birth family. She has not gone in search of family records, and she remained an only child with Aurora, as Aurora never adopted or fostered any other children.

By the time Krys turned 6 it was clear that she was going to be huge. As a 6 year old she was already 4ft 5in and 83lbs.

Krys’ biggest ambition is to live an enjoyable life. She is already fulfilling this as she finds her current lifestyle incredibly enjoyable!

Krys was not generally prone to being bullied. However, other children occasionally made nasty comments to her about her being different or not belonging.

Productivity

(older childhood)

Krys found the transition into structured school life quite rough. This was for a few reasons. The first is her strong will: she didn’t like being forced to do anything she didn’t want to do. She wasn’t against doing school work per se, so long as she enjoyed it, but the idea of doing a piece of work because somebody else had decided she would do it angered her and she would either refuse to do it or fight tooth and nail.

Aurora had developed a harmonious relationship with Krys so that, while Krys was mouthy, she was at least happy to cooperate with Aurora. Indeed, she will do just about anything for her into the present day. Krys took somewhat less kindly to the faculty.

The other reason was that she was bullied by some other kids for being different (more specifically, her height, weight, and the strange colour of her hair), and for being poor (which they could tell from her wardrobe, which mostly comprised of hand me downs). Some children thought it was strange that Krys’ mother was a skunk and she an opossum, and some went as far as to comment that they thought she was adopted. The phrase, “no one could ever love you” came up, and this really stung.

Krys had grown up with Aurora and never questioned the fact that they were different species, so this idea of her being adopted hurt – more so that she had, in part, wilfully ignored the possibility. When the other children brought it to her conscious attention, she couldn’t ignore it any more.

As an opossum, Krys also had (and continues to have) a unique body aroma that while strong, is not entirely unpleasant. This led to further comments about her mother, including “of course the only person who could be around you is a skunk”.

The fact that opossums were not common in Krys’ school contributed to this alienation and bullying in a small way. It was not a primary reason for it but exacerbated it.

Krys was 7 – 8 years old when the bullying became nasty enough for her to pay attention to it. When she did, she asked Aurora to tell her the truth and Aurora told her everything. Krys went into a downward spiral for a while as a result of this. Finally acknowledging that she was adopted left her wondering why she had been abandoned and whether there was anything wrong with her. At the back of her mind, she wondered whether she might drive anybody else away.

Although Krys did not have a traditional father figure (as Aurora did not have a partner throughout Krys’ childhood), she had a strong male figure in her life in the form of Matthew ‘Matt’ O’Malley, who was a German Shepherd and the sheriff of the small town Aurora and Krys lived in. He had known Aurora quite closely for many years and seen her at her most alone and impoverished, and wanted to help. He helped out by buying groceries, school supplies, and the occasional piece of clothing for Krys. In addition, being the sheriff meant he was often on call whenever Krys caused a ruckus big enough for the police to show up.

Krys liked to contribute at school and at home – it gave her a sense that she was adding value to a relationship in a way that didn’t involve performing. Or at least, not performing in an attention-grabbing way. Aurora would have her help with basic housekeeping, tending the garden, and similar tasks. She started helping out with these tasks at around the age of 8. This helped in a small way towards her abandonment issues. However, contributing was also a double-edged sword for her as it also required that she be cooperative with people who she sometimes did not want to cooperate with; it impacted on her sense of autonomy, so sometimes this got in the way of her wanting to contribute. Aside from this, Krys found it difficult to deal with feelings of frustration, so she sometimes struggled when her own attempts to contribute didn’t go to plan.

She is quite happy for others to contribute. She feels so able to contribute by herself that she doesn’t feel that others’ contributions are a threat or undermine her.

Krys had been singing and playing the acoustic guitar for a while by this point, but although she enjoyed making music, ultimately it didn’t quite speak to her. Then, one day, she heard a metal song on the radio and that lit a fire in her heart. From then on, she had a much better idea of the music that resonated with her.

After this she joined the school choir to help hone her skills. Her teachers had little idea how to react to her as she enthusiastically screamed and howled her way through practice, and she also graduated from acoustic guitar to bass guitar, which she could be very rough with during school practice. They tried scolding and correcting her for this, but she paid no attention. In fact, she defended her right to sing and play in this way so loudly that she came close to being expelled a few times.

Child to Adult Transition

(adolescence)

By the time Kris turned 13 she was already 6ft and had the strength to back it up. She liked to use her strength in fights and got into a lot during high school. She also hated using deodorant, so one of her favourite moves during fights was to pull her opponent into a headlock so that they had to smell her scent.

Krys has self-identified for a long time as a punk and embraces the cultural expectations that come with this subculture. She didn’t get to know anyone else in the punk subculture, but she was fine with this. It allowed her to stand out that much more easily, in a small town where most people had the outlook you would expect from a rural community (i.e. conservative, though not necessarily politically, and close-knit to the point of being nearly xenophobic). Her town had its share of goths, rockers, jocks, preppy types, and other similar stereotypes, but punks were hard to come by.

As a teenager Krys got several piercings (more so than most other teens, enough to make her punk leanings more immediately obvious). As a child growing up with a hippie mum she also preferred not to shave, so grew up to enjoy the natural hairiness of her body. She also developed a taste for tattered and torn pants, often paired with leather jackets with spike covered shoulders, and white tank tops which she wore, and continues to wear, on more days than not. She detests doing laundry, so these are often dirty. She doesn’t like to wear footwear so goes barefoot whenever she can, but when she absolutely has to wear anything on her feet she goes for biker or combat boots. In addition to this, she likes any kind of clothing or accessories that include sharp and pointy things.

Some people liked teenage Krys very much while others didn’t. She was highly expressive of her identity and had a controversial enough way of delivering her expression that she had a polarising effect on people. Some loved her, some hated her. Perhaps Krys may have grown up to have a more tortured attitude to this if she had not grown up with Aurora, who taught her the hippie ideal of self-love. With this help, Krys learned that whatever others thought of her, she could always love herself. This faith in herself has allowed her to remain level-headed during the times when it mattered most and has even prompted other people to come to like her when they might have otherwise swung the other way.

Krys’ friends were those who liked her and were able to either ignore, or actively enjoy, her punkhood. She had always been skeptical of the intentions of others but has also been eager for friendship, so she valued her friends. She tended to express her affection in quite a boisterous way and has always been highly physical and rough, but this is how she expresses it and those people she develops friendships with are generally able to withstand this.

Krys didn’t have a steady adversary, even during her adolescence. This may be because she felt she was on such a knife-edge where friendships were concerned, and if she felt that somebody had betrayed her then she would retaliate by intimidating them or being physically violent towards them, and then cut them out of her life, so would have no on-going adversarial relationship with them.

Krys managed to overcome the bullying. The other kids’ reactions to her had always been a mixed bag, and over time she cultured enough friendships that the bullies no longer mattered to her. By her mid-teens she had also mastered the art of intimidating her bullies enough to get them to leave her alone. She also won over some of the worst culprits, usually after meeting their bullying head-on by tearing them down, physically and/or emotionally in a fit of extreme rage. After such rages she would often pick the person up off the ground (usually literally) and tell them some variation of, “You don’t need to be like this,” “I don’t blame you, and I don’t hate you”, or “I know you made the choices you did because you hurt deep inside. I hurt too, you know. You’re not alone.”

At times Krys has not only prevented further bullying for herself but has also protected others from being bullied. Once, she even prevented a rape from occurring.

When Krys started dating she discovered a new way of pleasing others, and of being boisterous: sexuality. Her sex life came to mirror her platonic life but on a more intense level: she could please others by doing the things they enjoyed, she could be rough with them, and she made herself vulnerable in a way she hadn’t before. As a result, Krys got hurt a few times. During one such painful spell she decided that this was why teenage relationships are called “crushes”.

Overall, Krys graduated from adolescence to adulthood with a sense of agency within relationships that has led her to be able to keep herself emotionally safe enough. Her mother helped her to understand her feelings whenever she found herself confused or in pain from a romantic attraction, although if a person deliberately tried to hurt her (such as deliberately and vindictively leading her on), she would take vengeance and hurt them back – usually physically. She differentiated between deliberate attempts to hurt her and hurt caused accidentally (such as a crush that was not reciprocated). Often, she would be sullen around a crush for a while but would move on eventually, especially after talking it through with Aurora. Krys tried to preserve a relationship with a crush wherever possible, as she valued her platonic relationships and did not want to lose one unnecessarily over a one-sided crush.

Despite her interest in dating and her promiscuity, she only lost her virginity at age 18.

Her partners were a mix of people – she was generally more interested in the interaction with the person than their sex or gender.

Closeness in Relationships

(young adulthood)

By the time Krys reached adulthood she had taken many constructive messages both from her hippie upbringing with Aurora and from her punk heritage, about self-love, celebrating her unique identity, standing her ground, and the importance of being resilient against nay-sayers.

So far, Krys is finding adulthood easier than her chaotic childhood might suggest. She affiliates with others well. Ultimately her gregariousness prompts her to want to be around others, enjoy their presence, and to be enjoyed herself. She still has trust issues so feels that she needs to avoid making herself too vulnerable, but she is managing that without too much cost to herself.

Her sexual expression remains rough and she is extremely dominant. She is into various unusual fetishes and likes to experiment with others who are equally open to experimentation. It should be noted that despite her dominant disposition she is not the type to force herself on anyone. She is very aware of the concept of consent and if the consent she is given is not whole-hearted and total, she will not engage in any sexual activity with the person.

Currently Krys works as a bouncer for a strip club. She loves the work, is protective of the dancers (who also offer escort services), and gets heavy discounts on alcohol, which she also enjoys.

Passing on Responsibilities

(older adulthood)

So far, and with Krys only being in her early 20’s, she has not given any thought to her later adulthood. She could conceivably develop her skills as a bouncer and become a mentor, but so far has not considered this.

She also has no current desire or plans to have children.

End of Life

(old age)

Krys’ attitude towards life and death is that life is better if it is enjoyed, so she is determined to spend her time alive enjoying it as much as she can. She hopes that when death comes she can give it the finger first.

Credits

Based on theory by:
Erikson, E., (1951) 'Childhood and Society', W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. chapter 7.

Krys Evensong Larcen is © Ulteriorpanzie
Artwork by SarcasticNood and provided with their kind permission
Wording by The Character Consultancy

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