Carter Black
TheLadyAnatola
- Created
- 8 years, 6 months ago
- Creator
- TheLadyAnatola
- Favorites
- 9
Basic Info
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Name
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Carter; original last name was Whitstone, but takes on last name of new father-figure
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Nicknames
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Alexis and Troy used to give him numerous teasing nicknames regarding him being a rich kid
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Age
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16 at death; has existed as an Eksel for 20 years
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Species
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Eksel
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Element
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Non-rifter, but has the supernatural abilities that all Eksel display
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Gender
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Male
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Sexuality
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Heterosexual, but possibly bi-curious
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Creation Year
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2012
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Family
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Humphrey Whitstone (father), Serene Whitstone (mother, deceased)
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Birthplace
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Minneapolis, MN, USA - Taliac
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Current Home
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Yashanarika
Profile
Physical Appearance
- Medium length black hair with purple streaks
- Red eyes
- Fair skinned, very pale
- Medium in height
- Physically fit with a slender, mildly muscled build
- Pierced ears
In life he had short dirty blond hair and blue eyes. He was forced to keep well groomed by his parents, but he tended to rebel and try to grow his hair out more when he wasn't forced to cut it. He got his ears pierced in middle school, which landed him in 3 months of grounding (which he thoroughly ignored). He was still fair skinned but not nearly as pale as he is as an Eksel.
Clothing Style
In life, Carter would be made to dress well by his high class parents, although he'd tend to loosen up once he could get away from the house. His clothing would all be high quality and well branded, and he tended to wear it well until he was out of his parents' sights. He wanted to have a more punk/emo/goth style like his two best friends, although he was somewhat limited with what he could do. He tended to have a somewhat disheveled look of fine jackets, button up shirts, and dress pants with a belt that he'd rarely wear as smoothly as his parents would've liked. He tended to get accessories from Alexis and Troy, including necklaces, bracelets, and hats, and he would leave those with his friends to avoid having to hide them at home.
After becoming an Eksel, Carter has taken on a much more obvious emo/goth style, wearing mostly black with purple accents. He tends to wear black somewhat torn pants with black leather boots, studded belts, and various tops depending on his mood. The designs tend to be anywear between punk and goth theming, and he either wears sleeveless tops with long gloves and multiple bracelets and arm bands, or long sleeves with shorter gloves.
Personality
Carter is a thoroughly curious but insecure young man, seeking to discover new things and knowledge to better develop himself, but he often bottles up all he's discovered and defer to other people. During his life, he was frequently dismissed by his parents whenever he showed interest in anything that wasn't relevant to their desired future for him to carry on the family business, so he has trouble placing faith in his own convictions. He tends to be more confident when someone else shares his views or values, and he's a little bit clingy with those who show him kindness and understanding. He has trouble defending his own thoughts or insisting his values are important, and if anyone implies that he's wrong or dismisses him, he does very little to stand up for himself and will either seek out someone else who can validate him or simply accept it and feel down about having that opinion in the first place. For this reason, Carter can be a little easy to manipulate if he has no one to support him, and he'll begin shaping himself around the new influence if expose to it long enough. Although he'll insist on having an independent exterior, he's is very much dependent on those around him, often being overly impressionable to people he likes or respects. Despite his trouble with making his own choices and decisions, he is genuine toward those around him and tries to be as honest and loyal as possible toward those who offer him support.
When left to his own devices, Carter loves exploring and observing new places and things. He's a very creative person that comes up with crazy and genuine ideas like a child would, and as long as no one put them down he will let them grow into deeply developed concepts. Carter doesn't take criticism well, and constructive criticism must be very carefully presented for him to not feel bad about his ideas. He's the type that loves drawing and imagining new and strange creatures, often wondering what kind of identities they would have. These creatures tend to be projections of the type of people he wonders he might be, and he is constantly seeking out the one that is truly him. While this creativity garnered much dismissal from his parents, Evan has nurtured the boy's desire to create and imagine and taught him to channel it through his Eksel manipulation. For this reason, Carter is extremely adept and flexible with manipulating his shape and powers as an Eksel, but he is still very inexperienced and tires himself out very quickly if he uses his abilities for too long. They tend to come in short, explosive bursts of power followed by exhaustion and a long recovery period, although Evan is currently training him to better pace himself and increase his endurance when it comes to shapeshifting.
Abilities
- Invisibility in the mortal plane
- Eksel Manipulation to change shape and affect matter around him
Strengths
- Curious, creative, and resourceful
- A good listener and a fast learner
- Adapts to change well and quick witted
- Easy to approach and talk to and open minded
Weaknesses
- Crumples under criticism, self conscious, and impressionable
- Dependent on others and tends to disregard his own opinions for other's
- Tends to overexert himself and goes beyond his limits too often
- Triggered by lightning/electricity or flashing lights due to past traumas
Backstory
Carter Whitstone grew up the only son of a rich pair of business owners. He lived in a mansion, spoiled his entire life, but he had no desire to carry on the business for his parents in the future, a topic that caused much conflict between them. Carter became interested in goth/emo styles from his friends, Alexis and Troy at his private school, but his parents forbade him from mingling with "bad influences," which he constantly ignored. Carter also believed he had some mental problems in which he could hear hostile voices in his head, yet his parents ignore him, thinking they were melodramatic cries for attention stemming from his friends influencing him with their "occult nonsense."
After Carter pierced his ears without his parents' permission the family got into a huge argument in which he was forbidden to leave the house without supervision to keep him from interacting with his friends, but Carter would sneak out anyway even after his parents installed security cameras and hired more staff to watch him. Feeling like a prisoner in his own home, Carter ran away from home for about a week before he was found by private investigators and forced to return. Carter began suffering more from the voices in his head, and his parents thought he had gone crazy from being without a home for so long, so they forced him to undergo electroconvulsive therapy for about a month until Carter finally convinced them he couldn't hear them anymore, although it took a long time since they thought he was lying to get out of it (which he was). The experience obviously didn't help Carter at all and he ended up being traumatized by the ordeal since these hostile voices in his head only seemed to worsen and develop into horrifying hallucinations during the therapy sessions, especially since his father forced him to undergo the treatment no matter how much he begged for him to end it.
During this period of treatment, a fence was built around their mansion and he was essentially placed under house arrest by his parents. However, Carter still managed to break his monitoring device and sneak out to be with his friends when they let their guard down after he seemed to behave better after the treatment concluded. After the last time he was forcibly taken home, he and his parents got into a vicious argument in which Carter stormed out of the house into the gardens to let off some steam. While he was alone outside, an Eksel that had been stalking him for the past 2 years attacked and killed him with a single strike through Carter's abdomen with his claws.
Carter woke up as an Eksel and wandered about the Waking Range in a daze for hours before being chased by a larger Eksel. He was rescued by Evan Black, an Eksel that preferred to take on the form of a Dyric man with a goth style, and Carter has since been taken under his wing.
Trivia:
- Carter's general design concept came from me messing around with a Pony Maker game (image shown in his gallery) for fun, and I made ponies of every character from the story I was working on at the time, Clock Tower Fare. Carter and Evan had almost identical designs with only minor differences, which obviously contributed to the current trait of Carter imitating Evan rather closely in appearance and mannerisms. The primary difference (aside from outfit) was the colored streaks in Carter's hair, which carried over into Carter's current design.
- When Carter and Evan were initially made, they were intended to act and look almost identically, or at least it seemed that way from Volkmar and Alec's limited point of view. Obviously Carter and Evan have been developed to be their own individuals with differing backgrounds and personalities, yet Carter still attempts to imitate Evan in a lot of ways as part of his own characterization and lack of self-confidence.
- Carter's appearance in life was also inspired by a (non-pony this time) dollmaker game, and his general hairstyle also carried over into his Eksel form, just with a different color.
- He tends to have regular confidence in himself until someone comments on his behavior or speech. If you point out his habits or manner of speech, regardless if it is positive or negative, he will become very self conscious about it and likely stop doing so forever no matter how much it is insisted he shouldn't.
- Due to vicious tormenting and emotional abuse from the Eksel that ended up killing him along with the neglect and verbal abuse from his parents, Carter has picked up self destructive habits, although they are emotional rather than physical. He tends to punish himself for having "stupid" opinions or ideas, especially if he is called out on them, and he has a hard time recognizing the value of his own thoughts if someone implies they are worthless since he won't try to argue about it.
- The only reason he's had a better time with his confidence recently is due to Evan being extremely nonjudgmental and supportive of Carter, so he never feels foolish for having opinions.
- However, Carter has unconsciously taken up imitating Evan's appearance and some of his mannerisms out of his habit to cling to other identities.
- Evan doesn't mention nor mind it though, and he's used it as an opportunity to let Carter find his own identity by nurturing the characteristics they don't share.
- Carter kept all his keepsakes items from his time with Alexis and Troy in a medium sized, ornate tin box that he hid in the wall of his bedroom behind a loose wood panel. Some of the items included inside it were a strip of photo booth pictures from a trip to the mall, a crystal necklace Alexis bought for him, a chain necklace he bought himself while with them, some drawings Troy made (including ones of Knives and a few other things), among other sentimental items.
- Many years later, Carter finds his way back to his hometown as an Eksel. The mansion he used to live in has since been abandoned and ransacked over the years, but to his surprise the box is still hidden in the wall. He ends up giving it to Alexis and Troy, who are now adults at this point.
- Carter likely would've gotten out of his pointless electroconvulsive therapy only moderately affected, or maybe more mildly traumatized, if there hadn't been the Eksel tormenting him making the sessions so much worse. This Eksel used its manipulation to cause Carter to hallucinate that the sessions were much more painful and terrifying than they already were, essentially making the attempt to "shock the crazy out of him" as his father put it, entirely useless and exceedingly detrimental to Carter's already suffering mental health.
- He had a crush on Alexis during their friendship, yet he never really wanted to act on his feelings since he was sure that she and Troy were happy together, and he didn't want to offend or hurt either of them.
- He later learned that Alexis also had a crush on him anyway. They only talked about their feelings after Carter ran away from home following his traumatic therapy ordeal, and the two slept with each other at Alexis's house after Troy went home.
- Carter felt a little bad about it and probably would've been worried that Troy would get mad at him/them if he found out, but he didn't really have time to be fully worried about it considering the next morning he was forcibly taken home by his father and then later killed by an Eksel.
- Anya has actually remarked that he's "lucky he didn't die a virgin." Carter doesn't really have much of an opinion on the notion and doesn't really consider himself lucky in any sense, it just kind of happened.
- Carter got his ears pierced at a professional establishment by essentially bluffing his way out of needed parental permission by using his family as leverage. He basically use the "my father will hear about this" argument and said he could buy out the entire store and put everyone out of a job if they gave him reason to complain to his father about "poor service."
- For this reason, his piercings didn't have any complications from poor tools or aftercare, although he got in serious trouble with his parents, which started his parents' excessive monitoring of his activity.
- His parents were always trying to get him to let the holes close, but obviously Carter never let that happen. Even when they would take away all his earrings/studs, Alexis and Troy would always let him borrow theirs.
- Carter drank one beer while he was alive, and he didn't like it at all. He pretended to be okay with it though since Troy was the one who offered it and he didn't want to offend him by rejecting it, but Troy obviously picked up on the fact that he didn't like it and said he didn't need to drink anything if he didn't want to.
- Alexis offered to try dying his hair some time, since she frequently dyed her own hair and Troy's, but Carter held off on the offer considering how much trouble he got in for piercing his ears. He was afraid his parents would force him to shave his head if he ever dyed it.
- One time Alexis dared him and Troy to make out as a joke, and Troy just rolled his eyes and did it before Carter could even respond. Carter was a little stunned and wasn't exactly sure what to make of it, and he kind of pretended it didn't happen at all even though Troy and Alexis would tease each other about it.
- Carter only realizes the fate of his parents long after his death: his father was apparently the prime suspect in his murder, and even though he was eventually found innocent due to lack of substantial evidence, the long legal proceedings along with the mountain of circumstantial evidence ruined his reputation, and he was forced out of his own corporation to lessen damages to their company name. In addition, his mother was so crushed by Carter's death and the notion that her husband may have killed him that she committed suicide shortly after he was proclaimed innocent, since she apparently believed he was the perpetrator and that he was going free for murdering their son.
- Carter is a little saddened by the death of his mother, since she was at least better to him than his father and seemed to care for him in some sense. He is mostly indifferent about his father's ruined reputation and apparent disappearance from the public world, although if asked on the topic, Carter would probably say he's moved on from wanting to hold a grudge anymore.
- While still alive, Carter had a habit of using the phrase “My dad would kill me if he found out about...” whenever talking about things his parents didn’t approve of him doing, mostly the “rebellious” things that he’d do with Alexis and Troy. He didn’t really think much of it, but his habit of saying this left an impression on anyone who had heard him say it frequently once his father became the prime suspect in his murder.
- When Carter first arrived in the Waking Ranges, he encountered the elder Eksel wandering there and spoke with him briefly before wandering off on his own, too nervous to stay near the Eksel for very long. A few hours later he was chased by a rogue Eksel in a large monstrous form, and Carter fled into a dark and dead forest where he caught the attention of Evan Black, who fought off the rogue Eksel while Carter hid.
- Carter probably only trusted Evan so quickly because he was the first human looking Eksel he encountered in Yashanarika, and also because Evan happened to have the somewhat goth-ish aesthetic that Carter was familiar with through his friends.
- Thanks to Alexis and Troy, he tends to like hard rock, punk rock, gothic rock, and metal music.
- His favorite color is (unsurprisingly) black. Purple is a close second, followed by green, and then red.
- His favorite foods used to be various pastries that he'd frequently get at coffee shops (although he'd rarely actually get coffee) and Mexican food.
- He picked up on his nail-biting habit by observing Alexis, although he didn't really realize he started doing it until Troy pointed it out to him. He stopped for a while, but he picked up the habit again after becoming an Eksel. It's not like him biting his nails is bad when he can just... make them grow back immediately.
- Troy and Alexis attempted to teach him to play guitar, but he never got enough practice to really be able to play much. He primarily practiced on Troy's bass guitar.
- Due to the trauma of being subjected to electroshock therapy and having an Eksel manipulate the sessions into being more terrifying and painful than normal, Carter can fall into a panic attack when exposed to electricity or lightning. Flashing lights in general that resemble flickering electricity or lightning will make him freak out.
- Used to like finding new ways to avoid the security guards and cameras and sneak out of the house; he was rather resourceful and stealthy about getting out of the house and adjusting to any new tricks that his father would implement to keep him inside.
- Carter wouldn't say he's any good at drawing, but he enjoyed doodling on scrap paper when he had free time. He probably picked up the habit because Troy was always drawing all the time, and Carter was always interested in his art and ideas for comics and stories.
- Used to enjoy Mexican food and various coffee shop foods in life, although he usually only ate Mexican food when away from his parents, since they never would have considering eating that kind of food. Mexican food was usually his friends' go-to food when out and about together.
- Plays with his bangs and tries to blow them out of his face when bored or idle.
- Carter finds it kind of funny that his closest friends in life and as an Eksel have the initials "A" and "T," with Alexis and Troy, and then Anya and Thaddius.
- "Doesn't matter where we were, just figure out where you need to be."
- Carter's family name was originally going to be Whitstein, but a while later I realized that might imply that his family, specifically his father, is a negatively stereotypical depiction of a rich Jewish family because of the -stein ending, which was not intentional. I wanted a name that implied "White" to contrast Carter's current last name, Black, and I just made a name that sounded cool and fancy, like Whitestone but not quite. I decided to change the -stein to -stone instead just to make sure there wasn't any misunderstanding about intention.
- Although now I'm missing out on Carter being a Jewish character, which would have been fine and cool to look into, but I don't want to imply he's a rich Jewish stereotype when that would just be a coincidence, especially when his father is basically an irredeemable jerk.
- Maybe he can be Jewish on his mom’s side, she’s not that bad... I just really like the idea of Carter awkwardly inviting his friends to his after-bar mitzvah party. ^^; I’d have to adjust a few things in his character first, and I don’t imagine his father would be interested in any of it.
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