NAME: |
Roe |
AGE: |
Young adult (20s) |
SPECIES: |
Sockeye salmon |
HEIGHT: |
5'7" |
NATIONALITY: |
Born in Christophen, currently lives in Silve |
PRONOUNS: |
He/him |
SEXUALITY : |
Butch4Butch lesbian |
OCCUPATION: |
Professional video game streamer |
LIKES: |
Gaming, fishing, hunting, hiking |
SMELLS LIKE: |
A sushi shop; slightly fishy, but fresh and clean, with a hint of ocean, sea salt, and cologne meant for old men |
Roe's parents were the oddest mixture of overbearing and uncaring. They prohibited him from doing absolutely anything fun even in their tiny little rural town in the province of Christophen. No going out with friends without a parent present, no boys allowed in the house, and absolutely no staying up past his bedtime. And yes, even well into his teenage years, Roe still had a strict bedtime of 10:30. He wasn't even trusted to do housework and was banned from touching anything potentially breakable such as dishes and glasses. He ate and drank exclusively with paper and plastic utensils.
Roe almost never had any friends at school. Others often commented on his creepy lack of facial expressions. He was once compared to a haunted doll. He was part of the special ed program, but he didn't understand what "autism" or "flat affect" was supposed to mean. He just knew that everyone treated him as if he was some sort of alien. In high school, he started using he/him pronouns and identifying as a non-binary butch lesbian. But he didn't plan on trying to explain this to anyone.
He retreated to the internet, the only place he could find friends and success. Great success, in fact. He quickly amassed a large following as a video game streamer, though most of his fans saw him as a straight man due to his unusually deep voice, rather than the butch lesbian that he was. Rather than face any potential obnoxious confusion about his identity, he simply allowed this to be who he was online. Regardless, his fans adored his endlessly calm demeanor, technical tone of voice, and dry sense of humor.
Even after graduating from high school and turning 19, Roe wasn't allowed to have his own bank account. His parents had full financial control over him. They would scream at him, demanding to know what exactly he was doing online and how he was making all this money. But the old fashioned folks wouldn't understand what streaming was, and would just accuse him of stealing or "selling his body, if he even knew what sex was".
Roe found his father incredibly stupid; it was easy to steal the laptop back, and he continued to stream whenever his parents weren't home. They didn't trust Roe at home by himself, but someimes they both had to go into work, and Roe somehow managed to convince them that he didn't need a fucking babysitter at 19 years old. But his father began using his streaming money to buy expensive alcohol.
Things came to a head when Roe turned 20. For his birthday, his father ran his laptop over with his pickup truck. "I'll buy you a new one if you get a real job," he rasped.
"I had a real job until you crushed it!" Roe retorted.
"Sitting in front of the computer all day!" his father slurred incredulously, hopping out of the truck and stumbling towards Roe.
"Yeah, because you and everyone else in this town are fucking insufferable." Roe's hands clenched into fists in his pockets, but his face, as it so often did, revealed nothing.
"Why'd you have to come out wrong?!" his dad screamed, shaking Roe by the shoulders. "Why couldn't we have a normal baby girl?!"
The tan and red flash of Roe's fist locked against his father's face. Not hard enough to leave a mark, but more than enough to leave a message. "Fuck you. Maybe you should just have another kid. Oh wait, I forgot: you probably can't even get it up anymore."
Roe attempted to run away that very moment, but the police quickly found him at the local community center.
"Ma'am, we're going to need you to come with us," the officer sneered.
"I'm 20 years old. I moved out of my parents' house willingly, and I don't want to go back."
The officer shifted on his feet. "If you had moved out, you'd have suitcases with you and a place to stay. They're really worried about you. You're going to have to come with me."
Roe desperately looked around the room for help at the other people walking past. They stared at him en masse, but not with any sort of sympathy. Just that all-too-familiar feeling that he was some sort of monster in a room full of mortals.
"I don't want to. I'm staying at a friend's house. I'm just... waiting for them to pick me up."
"Come on now, ma'am. Lying to an officer isn't a petty offense. Come with me. I won't ask again."
"My parents are abusive," Roe suddenly blurted.
The officer, about to grab onto Roe's wrist, hesitated for just a moment. And for just a moment, Roe felt a glimmer of hope spark in his chest. But no. "Your mother was crying on the phone. Sounded like a lovely woman to me." The officer's hand connects with Roe's wrist as tears roll down his unmoving cheeks.
Roe was at least able to continue to message his group chat on his phone, which he took extra care to hide from his father. Thankfully, the man was too unfamiliar with technology to realize that he could easily stop paying the household's phone bills. Roe is brutally honest about what happened to his fans, and his good online friend Octane offers him a place to stay. "I live in a truck with some old guy named Diesel," Octane explains. "We travel around. We're gonna save up to buy a house. I'm sure he can set you up with a new laptop in the meantime." It was too good to be true; Octane is one of the only friends with whom Roe was open about all of his experiences and identity. For once, he could be himself.
When Roe finally moves into the truck with Octane, Khadija, and Diesel, he leaves an extremely detailed letter to his parents along with a direct demand not to look for him. He states extremely plainly that he left by his own choice, and that he will press charges if he is forced to go back to his parents again. He left multiple copies of this letter in hidden locations so that his parents couldn't destroy them all, and kept an additional copy on his person at all times. And with the monetary support of Diesel, the threat of pressing charges wasn't empty anymore.
Once the four live on the road for a couple years, they do end up buying a small, rickety house up in northern Silve, Roe also realizes that he had never been asked to contribute to a household before. It's a new concept to him, and it takes a bit of adjustment for him to get used to doing the dishes and taking the garbage out in turn with his three new roommates... and eating off of actual plates with metal forks. It's the first time in his life that he's treated not as a rowdy pet but as an equal person.
Roe starts dating Octane, and Diesel becomes the unofficial father figure of the group, being much older than the others, but in reality Roe is the one who usually runs things. Khadija acts like Roe's weird younger sibling who tries to get on his nerves. But in reality, Roe is impossible to annoy, so Khadija ends up getting on Octane's nerves instead. Eventually, Roe and Octane pick up more outside hobbies like fishing, hiking, and hunting.
Roe is an anthropomorphic salmon with a large, finned tail. He is almost always seen in his baseball cap and red tennis shoes, and is otherwise usually decked out in video game merchandise. He does not make many facial expressions aside from the occasional grumpy glare or smug smirk.
♦ Obviously, Roe is not Roe's legal name. He does have a first and last legal name, but he does not wish it to be known.
♦ As a fish, Roe must bathe multiple times a day! Anthro fish such as himself have both lungs and gills, and require access to water at all times lest they begin to dry out.
♦ His scales are normally a smooth, cool texture, but they become slimy when wet.
♦ He has webbed fingers and feet, allowing him to swim much faster. But these appendages were difficult to play games with at first- it took a bit of practice for the webbing to not hinder his reflexes.
♦ Roe is a horrible texter and will probably never text you back if you aren't Octane, Diesel, or Khadija. He dreads e-mails even moreso. He almost exclusively talks in group settings rather than one-on-one conversations.
♦ His favorite foods are seafood, bubble tea, tropical fruits, coconut milk, and he dislikes most sweets aside from dark chocolate and pie.
 Artwork by @6uny |
 Artwork by @nebquerna |