(oc) shh, they're bonding
hope you guys like more backstory!! this is a second part to my first post (featuring another older sketch that,, i still like a lot ngl)left to right: Selene (she/her) and Reuben (he/him)
content warning: abuse mention, way too much writing
after Kai stopped being interested by Selene, he handed her off to Reuben, who had been acting as her body guard while she was Kai's girlfriend.
Selene was tired of feeling so fragile and dependent on others. in the world she lived in then, there was a severe power imbalance between her and those around her. she wanted to learn how to defend herself, and how to use the things Kai had seen as weaknesses to her advantage. her mindset was far from the healthiest one while she was an antagonist, but she resolved to keep going and get better out of spite towards Kai and her circumstances.
Kai's abuse wasn't limited to Selene; all of his team had endured their fair share of it. in Reuben's case, before meeting Kai he'd been doing work as a mercenary/hitman for A Long time and was very miserable doing it. he didn't have a whole lot of say in the matter: he'd been taken from his family and trained to enter the field when he was a kid. but, after finally getting out of the whole murder-for-hire industry, his opinion of himself was so low that he ended up taking Kai's job opportunity to be hired muscle. Kai, of course, didn't want to lose Reuben as an asset, so he made sure to encourage Reuben's massive amount of guilt and the idea that he could never change.
so Selene and Reuben, after each getting past their initial trust issues and beliefs that they didn't deserve love/ to be cared for, became close friends. they did what they could to help keep each other safe and get through the nasty stuff that their environment presented them with.
about the actual art, Reuben had always been required to keep his hair short but wished to one day have the freedom to grow it out. it was also pretty culturally common/significant for where he grew up, which he doesn't have a whole lot left from. Selene kept her hair long bc of Kai, but after a while grew to hate it and, when her mental health got really bad, gave up on it's upkeep all together.
(as an aside, other members of the antagonists were friends with them too: Vee in particular was a longtime friend of Reuben's and helped Selene find ways to gain more confidence and power to fight back against the gross guys they worked with.)
right now I'm under the impression that Reuben's always been averse to talking, but while he was an antagonist he still opened up a bit with those he trusted. after a throat injury he took to primarily using sign language.
yikes im sorry this is a lotJan 8, 2021
#oc
#infodump
#backstory
Comments
