Chitter

Mental Breakdown

Cracking

Chitter is an enthusiastic squirrel who is very eager to talk about ideas and notice subtle things that others would otherwise not notice. He lives in Cloud Nine and attends Freak School.

He is seen as very helpful and quirky, and is one of the more well-liked Freaks on Cloud Nine. Chitter is also known as the developer who consistently maintains and updates the Cuddle Club's main website.

## Appearance

Chitter is a small, pale-brown-furred semi-anthropomorphic squirrel. He has an exceptionally bushy tail and looks somewhat cute.

## Personality

### Nervous and Fidgety

He is also very nervous and fidgets a lot with his hands. He is also often seen with some kind of chew toy to bite on, because it helps him alleviate his nervousness.

### Helpful and very productive when calm

Chitter is well known for being very helpful, and finds enjoyment in helping others. So long as he is kept calm, he is also productive and diligent at his job as a software developer.

### Loves talking

Chitter enjoys talking to other people, and always has something to say. He likes listening to what others have to say, and loves to talk about almost anything so long as it's new information. This is part of why Chitter is highly liked in Cloud Nine and has many friends.

Chitter may sometimes annoy people who don't feel like talking, although he is able to stop talking once people give him a clear sign to.

### Terrified of responsibility

Chitter is scared stiff of responsibility. He feels that his opinions shouldn't be considered, and is especially afraid of letting other people down. Despite his fears, his goodwill drives him to feel compelled to help others if the task is very important to them, which lands him in situations where he has to be responsible.

### Talks about cool ideas, but is afraid that someone will actually implement them

Sometimes, he compulsively talks about 'cool ideas'. However, he strongly feels that nobody should actually listen to his ideas, and may panic if someone actually starts to try implement them.

### Cracks under pressure

However, he is also known to handle stress very badly, and many of his friends are aware of this and try to be as gentle as possible with him, even when there are deadlines.

When Chitter feels stressed enough, usually because of deadlines or being forced to take important decisions, he can suffer from a mental breakdown, which can turn him into a total mess. The mental breakdown can get ugly. He not only stops being productive at work, but may fail to take care of his own hygiene and chores. At worst, he may stop feeding himself and begin starving. He very much looks up to Katie, who with her mature attitude, is able to make him feel secure and confident enough to resume functioning.

## Voice, Speaking habits & Examples

* Speaks fast
* Stutters quickly when nervous

**Example phrases:**

## Motives

### Dealing with the pain of failure

A large part of what drives Chitter's behaviour is failure. He struggles with coping with failure, and as a temporary coping mechanism he tries to avoid responsibility (as he sees it as a risk). But, he somewhat wishes that he could not react so badly to failing.

### Make friends

Chitter sees life as something that should be enjoyed, and he enjoys the presence of people immensely. In addition, this motive is further strengthened by the fact that if he is left alone to his own thoughts for too long, his anxiety may overcome him.

## Hobbies

### Gaming

Chitter enjoys gaming. He is a social gamer and usually plays multiplayer games with friends, and rarely plays single-player games.

### Coding Games

Chitter enjoys coding for fun, making various small console applications or very simple games. He does not aim for making very big projects, because he doesn't like failing. At the same time, this has served him well since he has more games that are actually finished, even if they are usually simple.

### Group events

The highlight of Chitter's week are social events - birthday parties, hikes, laser tag, going out for a beer - anything that involves meeting other people.

## Pre-freak History

Back when he was a human named Henry, he lived a very streamlined life. He grew up in a middle class family, went to school, performed well, got into game development, got employed instantly and was always surrounded with friends because he of how fun he is to be around and how much he cares for other people. Henry's parents were always loving and protected him whenever anyone would threaten his wellbeing. He also had the privilege of having a very wise mother and father, who went to several parenting courses and raised him not only as an only child, but were very intentional about preparing him for adult life. When Henry graduated, he had no school loans, a property provided to him by his parents, and a stable, well paid job.

It all started when Henry faced an unexpected promotion just 3 years into his career in game development. Henry was given not only a hike in his salary, but additional responsibilities that made him feel indispensable to the company. As the project went on, however, Henry started raising several red flags, saying that the project was heading to disaster according to his experience. Despite his evidence, the management did not listen to him, and he was forced to lead a team that was meant to deliver under an impossible deadline. As the deadline grew nearer and several hours of crunch time were put in, his team's sanity, as well as his own, began to plummet.

There was one problem, however. Henry never had any major failures in his life up till that point. And this looked like it was going to be the first failure he would ever have. Henry was never taught how to fail. And so, without being able to cope, he became physically and mentally sick, and stopped going to work completely, when his team needed him the most. Because of crunch time, his part of the project was ill documented, and they couldn't figure out his code. When management called him repeatedly and he did not answer, one of his colleagues reached out to him and managed to get him on the phone. He sounded weak and sickly, and confessed that he gave up not only the project, but on everything. He said he was hungry, thirsty and wanted to quit his job and run away. His colleague called up his parents, who upon realizing that his mental health had gone downhill, they sent the police and an ambulance to get him hospitalized.

However, it was too late. Henry transformed shortly after into a squirrel in front of the ambulance's personnel.

## Post-freak History

After a visit to the hospital and a good feeding and a well needed drink, Henry (now as Chitter) was sent back to his parents, who despite being distraught, kept their composure. While the hospital staff were responsible for nursing him back to physical health, it was thanks to his parents and the support of all his friends that he was nursed back to health.

With the encouragement of his parents, Chitter quit his job and started going out with his friends, who were all surprised and amused to see that he looked like a squirrel. One of his closest friends, Charlie, happened to be someone from the Culture of Harmony, and told Chitter that the squirrel body Chitter has now is because of a Freak transformation. Shocked to see that this meant that the Astro Surveillance Team will likely send him to the Island of Freaks if they discovered him. Charlie gave him the idea that since he looks so much like a squirrel, he can disguise as a pet. They nicknamed him "Chitter", as a teasing homage to how much he likes to talk, much to his embarrassment.

Chitter then lead a life of luxury, free of responsibility. He would go on to live with his parents who were very happy to see him being safe and mentally healthy again, and occasionally meet Charlie and his friends for various activities.

Chitter then started discovering that he had some magical powers, even though they seemed weak, but they were amusing. He was able to run very fast and teleport for short distances. He also saw that his mental capacity had increased, and after a near-accident, discovered that he could fit several minutes of thinking in one second. One of his other friends, Erik, took great interest in this, and explained to Chitter how Freaks are able to perform magical feats. He seemed to know a lot about the mechanics of magic, much to the surprise of everyone, and particularly to the surprise of Charlie.

The Astro Surveillance Team eventually caught wind of his existence. Charlie and Chitter theorized that this might have been due to one of his friend talking about him, and that word of mouth eventually spreads. However, the AST could not locate him because he blended so well with other squirrels. In addition, they couldn't interrogate his friend because since Chitter was not doing anything wrong, they had no legal clearance to ask his friend to speak up. His friend told Chitter about the AST catching wind of him, and told him to be extra careful with using his powers in public. They also decided that it would be dangerous to meet as regularly as they did, so he had to start excluding himself from the activities that Chitter went to, which saddened both of them.

After a year of enjoying this peaceful life, Chitter began to think about his job, and what it was like to have responsibility. He started feeling guilty about living this 'padded' life, where everything was geared to cushion his blows, a life where he had become just a pet, even though many people loved him.

One day, Charlie pulled Chitter aside to speak with him privately. He began the conversation by telling Chitter how the company he was at suffered a huge loss when he resigned, and that several people from middle management were fired. This somewhat made Chitter feel guilty, which surprised Charlie, who thought he would feel satisfied that the people who set him up for an impossible deadline got fired. Chitter confessed that he knows deep down that he is bound to meet failure in life, and if it wasn't them, it would have been someone else, or even himself. Charlie, understanding this, told Chitter that even though it won't change his mind, that he probably should know something that he had been hiding from him. Feeling afraid, Chitter didn't want to continue the conversation and wanted to leave. But, when cornered, he had no choice but to hear Charlie say that he is actually an agent for the Astro Surveillance Team. He was interrupted when Chitter had a panic attack, and ran up a tree to hide. Telling him to wait and not run away yet, Charlie pleaded to Chitter to believe him when he says that he wasn't the one who told AST about him, and that he had been breaking protocol to his organization the whole time by not reporting his presence to them. Charlie explained that the AST takes Freaks to the island for the sake of the safety of both humanity and the Freak themselves, mentioning several examples of Freak Outs and Freaks who were mistreated for just being themselves.

Chitter did not believe this. When asked to prove it, Charlie brought him over to his house and showed him the AST Profiling App, an internal application that he could only access through a VPN, with several profiles of suspected Freaks. Charlie had been pretending to make unsuccessful searches, documenting fake interviews with actual squirrels. Charlie said that he too had been avoiding responsibility, just like him.

Chitter, feeling weirded out by the situation, had to take some time to think. Chitter felt like it wasn't the right thing to spend his entire life avoid responsibility. Even if he couldn't handle failure, he felt like this was the one time he wanted to make an exception and show that he is capable of being responsible. He felt like irresponsible to spend his entire life avoiding work, and even though his life allowed it, he felt like had become something less. He missed the satisfaction that software development gave him, and felt embarrassed that he's become practically a pet, someone who will never accomplish anything in life, even if it's a nice and secure one. While he felt that the pet life is a good one, and that some people may actually like it, he felt that it's not the one for him.

Chitter called the AST himself, and presented himself to them. They picked him up for an interview, and told him that he is one of those rare cases where he can actually opt to not go to the island, and continue living with his parents, so long as he doesn't reveal himself to the public. They explained that revealing himself to the public has the danger of rising him to stardom, and humanity can get very polarized over Freaks. Some may start stalking him, some may hate him and want to kill him. In addition, they mention Serendipity Inc., who have a history of capturing Freaks for the sake of experimentation, since they want to understand how magic works. Since he was classified as a low-danger Freak, the AST also gave him the option to be able to visit his parents and friends whenever he wants, so long as he keeps everything undercover.

The AST interviewer was surprised when Chitter said that he thought they were going to capture him and throw him to the island, to which the interviewer laughed and said that it only happens with high-danger Freaks, such as those who cause destruction, threaten harm, or have a high risk of exposing themselves.

Chitter agreed, and told his friends and family about this. While initially shocked and heartbroken about his decision to leave, they were later comforted and then agreed when his parents and friends found out that he would be able to visit any time up to a limit of 3 consecutive days, after which he will need to spend 2 weeks on the island.

And so, Chitter was transported to the island, where he was greeted by Katie. He was extremely nervous with this huge change. The first Freak he met was Squiggles, who immediately took a liking to him. She toured him around Cloud Nine, and forced him to join the Cuddle Club, where despite making a mockery of himself because of his nervous nature, quickly made many more friends who actually found his nervous, unconfident nature to be cute.

After overhearing a conversation complaining about how it's so difficult to find times where other cuddlers would be free, Chitter eagerly started talking about how a simple Cuddle Club webapp could solve that problem, and people can enter their scheduled times and others can check who's available. Later on, Katie got wind of this idea, and announced that a new Cuddle Club mobile app was going to be developed by an independent software house by the end of next month. Chitter panicked and started desperately trying to convince Katie to back down from the decision, by insisting that it's a bad idea and she shouldn't have listened to his ideas, and using his knowledge of software development tell her that one month isn't enough and gave her a breakdown of what the tasks should be.

Katie, being surprised at how knowledgeable he is, told him that he should develop it himself. Chitter had a panic attack, saying that the project was going to end in disaster and that he'd have no-one to blame but himself for suggesting such a bad idea. Katie then pulled him aside for a cuddle on a sofa and helped him calm down. She told him how she had no idea that such a small, pet-like Freak was actually a capable software developer. Through conversation, Katie built his self-confidence by finding more about him and getting him to talk about his accomplishments, and made him feel that if he took the project in his own hands with the help of a handful of Drones, that not only is it unlikely for him to fail, but that even if he does, he won't be blamed or held accountable, because he would have tried his best.

Chitter agreed to lead a group of Drones, who are Multiplex Freaks who like to work, managing not only his own responsibilities, but the drones' responsibilities as well. He was terrified at first, but with support from Katie, he started becoming effective. Soon, the project succeeded, and Freaks were able to use a mobile app to see who's available for cuddling. The Cuddle Club official website was also given a redesign, a smaller project that Chitter was also given responsibility over delivering, with a lot of pushing and encouragement from Katie.

Now, with a stable salary, he lives his life peacefully on Cloud Nine. He wonders when his next major failure will be, and how he will handle it when it comes. But until then, he lives in peace, working comfortably and being well liked by most.

## Reputation

### Character relations

This section is currently being researched.

## Chitter

This section is currently being researched.