mentions of fantasty discrimination, dehumanization, domestic abuse

midge: a small, two-winged fly.

midge was born as soomin, the only child of her parents. she was much-beloved as a child, and a known chatterbox as well as full of energy. she ws nicknamed, affectionately, 'midge' for her tendency to buzz with her words as she ran circles around her poor parents. soomin's cheerful energy and impulsivity did lead her down a darker path, though, as she was prone to following her whims and resisting the authority of those around her. she got into fights frequently, mouthed off to her teachers, and often ran wild in the streets of the city with her friend from the local orphanage. soomin struggled in school, and was expelled twice by the time she was sixteen, when she became a missing person instead.

soomin never recalls the exact circumstances of her Turning, only remembers her dam-the wolf who turned her-afterward. while some werewolves struggle with accepting themselves, the new lupine part of themselves, soomin took to lycanthropy like a duck to water. while she adapted easily, she was only sixteen and did not return to her parents after her turning, sure that they would not accept her. in truth, soomin just didn't want to prove to them irrevocably that she was a disappointment in yet another way. werewolves and other supernatural species were already seen as outsiders in their society, and soomin was reluctant to face her parents' rejection. her dam's constant isolation of soomin from the rest of the world and her controlling behavior only further made soomin unwilling to go home. as her dam's control turned from troubling to manipulative to harmful, soomin's memories of her past before the incredibly stressful moments of Turning began to fade. survival became more important, especially as supernatural species came under more and more fire from the rest of the world.

this chaotic time, as more restrictions cracked down on werewolves and others, allowed midge to slip her leash and run free. she didn't get far-she had dropped out of high school at sixteen, had no income, no job, no prospects. crime only got her thrown briefly into jail, where she encountered the werewolf that would serve as a lighthouse in the storm her life was about to become: echo. midge and echo hit it off immediately; two strange people, in their own ways. they proceeded to more or less chase each other in and out of the logal system over a few more years, as the situation with the supernatural species grew more dire.

The Vinculum was the name of the secret prison-gulag Midge and most other supernatural species the government could capture before they all fled to the Outskirts were sent to. There, to make sure she was able to be tracked and couldn't 'hurt anyone', she was branded and collared to ensure she could not shift. There, Midge was more or less in constant peril and dehumanized more egregiously than ever before. Years passed, and the rest of her memories, her identity, even her voice faded away. When the supernatural Revolution staged a prison break and rescued her, Midge found herself unable to speak-but Echo had been in the Vinculum as well, and the two friends reunited. With Echo, and a bit of time, Midge found herself willing to whisper her words to him-bringing up from the faded memories of a childhood she could no longer recall the name that suited her best: Midge.