Wraiths Headcanons
Ash Merry
ᴄʜɪʟᴅʜᴏᴏᴅ:Ash's childhood was, in a word, dull.ᴍɪssɪᴏɴ:
She was the daughter of two older parents, their only child by necessity less than choice. She wasn't particularly lonely, given her cousins, but she didn't have a lot of friends past those she made at church. Things were typical of a small town in a rural county; her father worked, her mother kept the house, Ash assisted them where she could, mostly at home helping her mother. They attended church as a family, just like the rest of the town and everyone knew everyone else in town.
Things were easy going, and Ash was a relatively happy, if occasionally bored young woman. Her powers made things a little more complex, but ultimately, she assigned the same dedication to her powers as she did the rest of her life and powered through the change.
Back when she first joined Regiment, Ash's first mission was a disaster -she copied the wrong hair colour, her mannerisms fell short and she needed to kick her way out of a building to complete her objective. It was the first time that Ash got a taste for what she'd be doing -going from nursing to being a secret agent wasn't a walk in the park afterall.sᴇxᴜᴀʟ:
It was this mission that drove Ash to succeed. Her attention to detail got better and better, she trained harder in martial arts, assisted by her agility, her healing would only get her so far, after all, she couldn't rely on that. Ash has an almost perfect mission record beyond that first mission; her objectives are always completed, but in Ash's opinion, no deaths on her missions are the most important factor.
She's not great with trainees, because she holds herself, and those around her, to an exceptionally high standard. That being said, she is a good mentor while on mission to aid with new agents. While no one has died on any of Ash's missions, she has had a few agents injured, and most recently, a handler captured. Ash takes these incidents hard and believes they are a representation of her ability in the field, and points of where she needs to do better.
For Ash, sexuality is very fluid, given her gender is fluid. She tends not to attach labels to her preferences, due to the fact that she doesn't prefer to be one gender to the next, although she primarily identifies as female, she will and does get comfortable in male bodies and, when doing so, identifies just fine as that gender. Her gender identity and sexuality tend not to mirror one another, as she has been both gay and straight in each genders.ʙɪɢɢᴇsᴛ ʀᴇɢʀᴇᴛ:
While she feels comfortable with most bodies, she tends to not engage in intimate relationships while wearing her true skin -it's possible that she occasionally feels like this would be the final release of her husband, and while Ash has moved on from her dead partner, she's still sure he was the love of her life.
Mostly, Ash has certain forms which she slips to for certain moods; these are where her preferences tend to differ depending on who she feels she wants to be at the time.
From one stand point, Ash has many regrets; stemming from Darren's death to giving up Dominic to agreeing to be a Regiment agent to becoming a successful agent. Ultimately, her biggest regret has to come back to her husbands death. If they'd avoided that area and the riot, Darren wouldn't have died, and Ash wouldn't have been exposed and Dominic would still be with them.ᴅʀᴜɴᴋ:
Tracing her swerve in life to one thing, it does boil down to that. Had she just stayed in with Dominic and Darren, she'd still have her family and life would be utterly different for them.
Contrary to some healers, Ash can get drunk. It's difficult, and involves some less than savoury habits, but she can work around her healing factor in order to get drunk. Part of it is drinking so much her healing finds it hard to keep up, if she can get drunk quickly and stay on that level, she can trick her healing factor into shutting down until she stops drinking and it can catch up.ʀᴏᴍᴀɴᴛɪᴄ:
Alternatively, she can give her healing factor something else to focus on while drinking. It's frowned on, and Ash only really does it when she really needs to just let go for a while, but if she has another injury, the healing factor focuses on that and Ash can drink herself dumb.
Which is pretty much what drunk Ash is. She's giggling and joking, usually a little more free with her emotions too. She can get a little bit emotional in general while drunk, but she manages to avoid being a cliche clingy drunk or an oversharer. She doesn't resemble her cool and calm self when drunk, although too drunk and she'll get morose and nostalgic, which isn't a good look for her. The real saving grace, ultimately, is that Ash never suffers from hangovers.
For all intents and purposes, Ash is a conventional romantic; at least for the era in which she developed.
As much as she's grown into all this casual sex and free love stuff, she's still a fairly conservative, Christian girl at heart. She likes romance, she likes the gestures and the conversations, she still believes very heavily in monogamy and old fashioned family values. She's not overly concerned with having romance in her life. She had a whirlwind with her husband, and still holds him dear in her heart, all these years later.
Typically speaking, Ash is faithful in believing that the male should make the first move (unless both parties are of the same gender, then do what feels right), she's a fond believer of courtship -dates, meals, shared interests- over physical love showing (re: rigourous sex) without conversation or connection, and while she knows that to each their own, it's just how she approaches things -even if she is the male in question at any time.
Clementine Garraway
ᴅʀᴜɴᴋ:Clem tends to get drunk on fruity cocktail shit; not because she really likes the cocktails, but because she doesn't really like alcohol that much. If it's disguised with sugar and juice, it's far better.ʀᴏᴍᴀɴᴛɪᴄ:
Usually, Clementine is a mellow drunk. She's not overly loud or active, she doesn't get up to any antics that make great stories the next day, she isn't the life of the party suddenly. That being said, she gets deep, very insightful and more than a little honest when she drinks. It's like the last filter to keep things back just goes away. She tends to world vomit a lot, but it tends to be run on sentences about something. One time, it was the history of hemp.
Due to suffering horrific hangovers that can, potentially, last into the next day, Clem doesn't drink a lot, and if she does, she paces herself pretty well or sticks to beer, which she'll nurse literally all night.
There's a lot to be said for playing your cards close to your chest, and Clem adopts this when it comes to matters of the heart. Clem doesn't fall hard and fast, most of the time, she doesn't fall at all -she slides.ᴅᴇᴇᴘᴇsᴛ ꜰᴇᴀʀ:
While she is exceptionally free with appreciating all genders and all walks of life, attraction and romantic interest are not the same thing, and Clem is entirely aware of this matter. What she feels physically does not determine her romantic interest. She's very good at compartmentalising her affections and her attractions so that they aren't the same thing. That said, her affections tend to be the slow burning build up from getting to know people, while her attraction is a fast hitting and quick release type.
Clementine likes to get to know a person, really know them, before opening herself up romantically to anyone. Feelings are complex and multi-layered, and while she might be attracted to someone, she isn't always sure she could potentially feel more for them. She likes to worm through those before making any intention known, but is always upfront when it's just a matter of base attraction.
Clem's deepest fear was losing control of her powers; she's aware how dangerous they are, even as she's fairly confident with them, blase sometimes about the seriousness of what she can do. But she always knew how to keep a handle on them, until she suddenly didn't.ᴅᴏᴍᴇsᴛɪᴄ:
Balancing the realisation of her worst fear with the understanding that the consequences are that severe isn't an easy trip. There's a lot to come to terms with on the scale of controlling life, and the seriousness of losing control, and it's something Clem doesn't take lightly, joke as she might about her ineffective handling of her powers, not only her own failings, but the failings of those around her.
It's a particularly bitter pill to swallow, knowing that you could, ultimately, be the accidental cause of people you care abouts death, and Clem battles with that every time she feels her powers tug at her.
Clementine grew up in a commune, which typically means she's a jack of all trades. She's far more with the personalised stuff than she used to be, mostly because possessions are fun, and since leaving the trailer park commune, she's exceptionally fond of the amenities that an apartment lends someone.ᴘᴇʀsᴏɴᴀʟɪᴛʏ:
Moving to New York City meant a huge change for Clem; primarily a walk up, but also having foundation, that was kinda cool. She likes the view from slightly higher and enjoys the sounds of the city. At the same time, she definitely misses the community aspect of a commune, since God help her if she'd ever left her door unlocked.
Since she never really had to cook, it didn't really come into play for Clem until she lived on her own. Learning that she needed to follow recipes if she wanted them to turn out right rather than winging it took some work. She's pretty good at cleaning up after herself, but still favours the simpler of cooking habits -if she can just heat something up or add hot water? Winning. She does maintain a lot of her commune upbringing -all her inside doors are always open, she has a herb garden, and she always takes her shoes off inside her flat -she still does this on the floor of her suite if she knows she's staying a while.
For the most part, Clem is clean and tidy; she'll do her laundry on a weekly basis, there's a day set aside for cleaning things, and her dishes are cleaned after use. Mess bothers her, and while she might not be great at it, she does make her space livable and neat.
In numerous ways, Clem straddles the half of two wholes; she's not entirely introverted or extroverted, but somewhere close to the middle, it does let her blend with her group at the time, but it also means she can end up in a mixed batch of company. Luckily, she is quite assertive in herself that she doesn't let anyone push her around.
Many of Clem's traits come from her mom; she's engaging and open, likes to try new things and very accepting of all people. She's also a little bit of an enviromentalist from time to time. Clem does believe that her mother is a strong personality, and those strong traits were what shaped her and her sister into who they became. While Clem does have a bit of a rebellious streak, from her dad, the impulsiveness means that she is prone to just going with the flow, something she, again, adopted from her mother.
Clem is exceptionally good at compartmentalising; she's not sure if this comes from somewhere or is just her thing alone, but in general, aside from the shit she sees through the eyes of her powers, or the things she can do, she's still able to see the brighter side, to see good in people and places, and not let things get her down permenantely.