Karrigan/Karny

Karrigan "Karny" VanGarden is a juvenile at ParaSocial Academy. They've been at the facility for almost 4 years. They really are just trying to make the best out of their life but nothing is working

## Appearance

Karny is a short, kind of chubby person with curly, white hair. They have one green eye and one diluted white eye, which used to be covered by sunglasses. Karny has golden brown skin that is constantly flushed, paired with discoloration in the face and freckles.

More often than not, they are wearing a red jacket with a blue lining on the inside. The jacket can be closed with buttons rather than a zipper and it stops right above mid-thigh. Under the jacket is a black tank top that mayor may not be tucked in, it really just depends on the day for them. They're usually sporting either black leather pants or some baggy ripped jeans that have been painted on.

## Personality

Karny is very hard to get to at first. They start off as the shy, introverted type. Even around most friends and family, they won't talk and if they do they are a quiet, stuttering mess. The beginning stage of knowing them is the one were it's easy to annoy them. They have horrible anger issues and random people are the start of them.

Once they start to get comfortable around someone, that's when they are their best self. They don't stutter as much and they'll joke around a bit. They'll also let you know things that you probably shouldn't know, like how they are morally confused, how they stress bake in the middle of the night, or how despite their build they are very athletic. They are very fearful despite not showing, but will do almost anything for the people they care for. Overall, they are a charming mess

## Background

Born the fall of 2003, Karrigan wasn't the most fortunate child. From the age of six they were beat by their mom, all because she saw them as the "imperfect child". This put some tension between the two later in life. Their father was usually never present, either always at work or at the church, praying for the day that his youngest child would change for the path of God. The VanGarden family was based and born into Catholicism and had very strict rules when it came to it, so when it came to Karny, they were immediately worried that they would stray off to the wrong path.

Over the years, they made friends with their sister Forest's friends, Julian and Alek. They had become a friend group very quickly after meeting. The two boys would get Karny into multiple fights, which resulted into their mom beating them more and their abuela taking care of them. Getting into these fights made them want to be better than everyone else, but they secretly knew that they never will be. So they pretended to be confident and acted like they were able to hold their own.

In the spring of 2011, their dad had left for a business trip in another country that was only supposed to be a few days. Those days turned to weeks, and those weeks turned to months. Karny was paranoid that their mother would become more violent at this. Then, Forest left two months later. Their mother beat them even more since her two most important people had left her. Karny looked and was a human punching bag.

Over this time, Karny had attempted to end their own life three total times. They felt the tension rising between them and their mother and they didn't want to be around for any of it. This feeling had prolonged over the course of two years. 2013 was the year their mother decided that their new home was the attic. They would occasionally get food and water until their mother forgot about them months later. They were stuck in that attic, feasting on the small birds that would usually fly into the small space and carving phrases in Spanish into the walls, hoping to one day some out. They stayed like that for over three years.

Around 2017, Forest came back to visit. Their mother also around this time remembered that Karny was in the attic, so she finally let them out. Forced to shower and socialize, their mother had a family party over their sister's return. At some point during the party, they're not sure if something was said or something happened, they had snapped. They had gone out to the shed, locked all the doors in the house, and had murdered all of their family with a hatchet, leaving their mother for last. They had ran out with a fire they had started in the woods. The fire had spread to the woods, which killed several children that were playing in there. They were eventually arrested after days of hiding and were sentenced to ParaSocial Academy.

## ParaSocial Life

To say the least, Karrigan's life at ParaSocial has its major ups and its major downs. They've seen students come and go, and they wish it were them. To some extent, they enjoy the parts that are hidden. They make sweaters for the staff around the fall and winter months, that's how they make money, and essentially being the school's counselor (and fight club coach) was something they enjoyed. But with the good comes the bad and there is a lot of bad. Since the major part of the staff doesn't actually care about their students, they were blind for 3+ years with no help. The blindness was a school incident but nothing was ever done. They have addressed the number of students ending up dead and nothing being done, but that was only met with backlash from the higher ups and 8 months in solitary. They believe that there is an in school operation with the death of these students, but they can't speak of it out loud.

As for current life, their life is an actual hole that they wished they could get out of. Between being harassed by Julian Peralez more than once, being threatened with violence by Julian and Aleksander, having their safety threatened by Augur Licht. and Sebastian Carnell, basically having their life ruined by Heinz, being chased down by their abusive sister, and just overall having feelings, it can be seen that they are struggling. They made a promise to themselves that if one more thing went wrong, they would jump off of the rooftop of the school. Everyday, they leave their dorm just to visit the rooftop and ponder if they should do it sooner rather than later for they feel like they won't be able to take the pain of the next bad thing to happen