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IN CHARACTER
Character Name: Adam Parrish
Canon: The Raven Cycle
Canon Point: Post Opal: A Raven Cycle Story
In-Game Tattoo Placement: Back of his right hand.
Current Health/Status: Alive and healthy; arrives sleeping.
Age: 19
Species: Human
History: Wiki link for book summaries.
(cw: child abuse)
Adam was born and raised in Henrietta, Virginia. Little is said about his childhood but he recalls an instance where he watched his parents express regret to each other about having him. At some unspecified point, his father began regularly physically abusing him in addition to emotional abuse.
Adam grew to hate his circumstances: his family's poverty, the trailer park he lived in, and the town itself. He made it a goal to get out of it all by working toward financial independence and going to college.
Luckily for him, this small Virginia town was also home to a prestigious all-boys college prep academy, Aglionby. He was convinced to apply when he went to pick up a few groceries for his mother at the store. During checkout, his mother's card didn't have enough for the purchase and he had no cash to pay for any of it. In another line was a boy in his Aglionby uniform who swiped his card without even looking at the total, and Adam envied his confidence. His desire to become that led him to apply to the school.
He was accepted but only on a partial scholarship. He took on three part-time jobs and told his father that he was making less than he actually was so that he could secretly pay the tuition.
As soon as he arrived at the school, he felt immediately out of place. The other students were all wealthy and completely unrelatable to him. With the stress of three jobs, rigorous academic work, his social isolation, and his father's increasing anger (toward Adam's attempts to better himself), he was struggling enough to wonder if Aglionby was worth it.
Not long after he began attending, he was riding his bike to school when he saw a bright orange Camaro broken down and an Aglionby student stuck there. One of Adam's job was as a mechanic, and he stopped to help him fix the car. Once it was running, the student, Richard Gansey, gave him a ride to school and in that time they became fast friends.
Gansey's goal in Henrietta was to find the ancient Welsh king Glendower who was supposedly buried somewhere in Virginia. Finding him meant he would grant a wish. Though Adam was a skeptic, he needed a wish badly enough to help Gansey in his search.
This is where the first book picks up.
Personality:
(cw: child abuse, discussion of trauma associated with that)
With Adam, it's important to start with the practical. He does everything carefully, quietly, and logically. He'll put a towel down before kneeling to fix a car in order to avoid dirtying his school uniform or save a chocolate bar to have for dinner. Adam does nothing without first thinking it through, whether through research or observation. In fact, Adam's quiet nature in social situations is not from shyness but from observing others. He takes pride in the fact that people rarely notice him observing them.
Aside from research and observation, knowledge in general is important to him. He is highly intelligent and is at the top of all of his classes at his competitive prep school (aside from Latin where he is second to Ronan). In particular, he is interested in how things work, from cars to science to magic. Despite joining Gansey on his search for a dead Welsh king, Adam needs proof to believe in something. For example, even after discovering a magic forest that he sacrificed himself to, he still wants to see Ronan's dream powers with his own eyes before believing it. Once he does see it, he immediately begins trying to understand how the dream object works.
It should be noted that he approaches knowledge in a purely analytical way and that tends to be how he views the world. He has learned to ignore his emotions and instead tries to find a rational basis for everything - even emotions themselves. When uncertain about whether he's in love with Ronan, he goes to Gansey for an explanation and seems to expect a clear sign. Hiding his emotions to the point where he doesn’t even recognize them is habit for him. When Gansey dies in front of him and the others react emotionally, it is noted that Adam isn’t crying and is instead looking off somewhere, shutting himself off emotionally.
Though his default tends to be wary and serious, Adam is capable of being lighthearted. When he is around his friends, he relaxes slightly and jokes around, often sarcastically. He's a teenage boy through it all and seems to enjoy activities that make him forget about thinking. For instance, getting pushed in a shopping cart through a parking lot or getting pulled on a dolly attached to a car. These sorts of activities force him to be present in the moment, which is freeing to someone who is always planning ahead.
There's still that unfathomable part of him, though. For all his attempts to understand others, he believes no one can understand him and refuses to let them try. He is intensely secretive and rarely talks about himself. When asked, "Where do you live?" he responds, "A place made for leaving." Even when he's told, "That's not really an answer," he just says, "It's not really a place." He tends to dance around answers with self-deprecating humor, which hints at why he refuses to open up at all.
As mentioned, he believes none of his friends can understand him due to the fact that they've either grown up with money or love or both. But in addition to that, he believes that if anyone were to really know him, they would hate him. He hides his accent and things about himself from others out of fear that they will judge him. At one point, he believed that he would grow into his father and that he had "monster blood" in him, that he was inherently worthless, unlovable, and bad. These were all things that had been drilled into his head daily from his father and he still struggles with his self-worth, although by the end of the series he no longer believes that he will become his father.
Saving himself, or survival, has always been his goal. It is what his ambition has centered on: freedom and independence to become different from his father. Adam is clearly dedicated and hard-working, maintaining top grades while working three jobs, searching for a dead Welsh king, and working for a magic forest. In order to maintain his independence, he believes he needs to work for everything himself. He is often described as proud because he refuses help from his friends even when he needs it. The stress of that and his daily life has led to a lot of bitterness.
Repressing his emotions has caused them to build up until he has to express them in some way. In particular, he has a lot of anger that can occasionally be directed at others. His strongest emotion throughout the series is envy. It was his driving force to enroll in Aglionby - the desire to become like the boy at the checkout counter who could swipe his card without looking - and makes him resentful of the people around him who have more than him. This is most often directed toward Gansey, who represents the person Adam wishes he could be. He even states that he's jealous of each of his friends whenever they're together without him. These feelings can result in him losing his temper even at innocuous comments or small annoyances, which occasionally ends in serious arguments.
Because of that, Adam tries desperately to improve himself. Not just at being good at things, though he practices to be good at many different things, but at being a better person. He actively tries to change when told that he's wrong, like learning to be more of a feminist when he's accused of being sexist. He also works to fight less with his friends and stop isolating himself from them as much. By the end of the series, he seems more confident because he no longer fears his father and can talk to him as an equal. His relationship with Ronan has also changed him for the better. Even when he's upset about a personal failure and snaps at Ronan, he takes it back immediately. Throughout the short story, he is focused on fixing his car so that he can take it to college even though Ronan has offered to dream him a fix for it. After Ronan nearly dies because he hasn't been dreaming anything, Adam tells him to dream him a fix - his pride no longer takes precedence over his relationships.
Moral Code
Adam tends toward consequentialism in his view of the world - achieving his goals is the most important thing to him and he will do anything necessary to reach that end. This is because Adam has always needed to focus on his survival, which would be accomplished by reaching his goals, and he simply hasn't had the capacity to worry about other people. He believes that people are responsible for taking care of themselves, like he does, and he doesn't have a responsibility to step in. There are multiple scenes where Ronan is either fighting with his brother or destroying things out of anger, and Adam merely watches. Gansey asks him why he doesn't stop Ronan in the latter scenario and Adam replies that he can't "kill his demons."
The best example of his morality is at the end of the first book, when the group's Latin teacher, Whelk, is attempting to wake the ley line. They fear that him waking it will allow him to find Glendower and take the wish, but Gansey believes waking the ley line will get someone hurt and they have to find a way to avoid that. Adam disagrees and believes they have to stop him or it will be too late and they will lose their chance at Glendower, and the wish that Adam desperately needs. Knowing that Gansey will not agree, Adam steals Gansey's car to drive to Cabeswater himself with his father's gun. When he gets there, he confronts Whelk about killing Noah (their ghost friend who was once Whelk's friend). Adam's first words to him are: “Why Noah? Why not someone horrible?”
Adam does not ask why he killed someone at all, because logically Whelk was also trying to achieve an end, but the problem is with who he killed. In fact, once Adam awakens the ley line and sacrifices himself to Cabeswater, he allows Whelk to be trampled by animals by pointing a gun at him to keep him out of safety. When Gansey is horrified at the fact that Adam essentially murdered him, Adam replies that he deserved it. Because he killed Noah, who was good, Whelk was a horrible person and therefore deserved to die.
Gansey continues to be upset, and Adam's conclusion is: “Now the ley line is awake and we can find Glendower on it and everything will be as it should be.” The entire path to this, stealing Gansey's car, sacrificing himself, and killing Whelk, all led to their ultimate goal of finding Glendower and getting their wish. Therefore, it was all justified.
Adam appears to feel no guilt about Whelk's death throughout the series and when another antagonist dies, he notes that he doesn't particularly care that he's dead. When Ronan wants revenge on his father's murderer, Adam knows that simply killing him will result in retaliation, so he comes up with an extensive blackmail plot. However, he needs Ronan to dream up the evidence to make it work, and Ronan is disgusted by the crimes Adam has come up with. Adam tells him it's the only way to make it work, and his guilt stems just from what Ronan will think of him. Finally, when Ronan accidentally takes a girl out of his dreams, Adam's first thought is that, had she been one of Ronan's dream creatures, they could have killed her or left her somewhere. He immediately feels shameful about that thought, though. This shows that he has limits - the girl, Opal, had done nothing wrong and his thought was only out of a desire for convenience; there were other options for how to deal with her.
He notes at the end of the series that he feels some desire to save children who are like him and that it makes him feel slightly heroic. He seems to want to be a more selfless person, but he hasn't had much of a chance to develop that.
Insecurities/Fears
Adam's main fear is becoming like his father, which motivates him throughout the series. By the epilogue, he notes that he is not his father but he could have been. He has managed to free himself enough from his father that he no longer feels bound in the cycle of abuse. That does not mean he no longer fears the possibility, though - after a lifetime of believing he would become his father, it is still a mindset he may return to when faced with guilt over his actions.
Relatedly, Adam does not think very highly of himself. He is insecure about practically everything that might suggest he is poor or pitiful. He hides his accent so that people won't think he's a hick, he worries about a loose thread on his school uniform because people might realize it's secondhand, and he believes everyone who looks at him can tell that he's from a trailer park. He believes all of these things make him lesser than others and that everyone else believes that as well.
Aside from his social status, he struggles with believing that there is something inherently wrong with him and that he is worthless. Until recently, he believed he was incapable of loving or being loved because his parents never loved him and he was afraid of being the same. His first experience with love was Cabeswater because it provided comfort for him and made him feel special. When Cabeswater 'died' at the end of the series, Adam believed he lost everything - he was no longer magical and therefore no longer important.
He is also incredibly afraid of failure; that, after working himself to death for so long, he might not be able to achieve any of his goals. He receives a rejection letter from a college in the mail and is crushed by it, despite applying to other colleges, because he thinks that he might not get into anywhere and his work will have been for nothing.
Inner Demons
His father is fairly explicitly referred to as an inner demon. As mentioned, he no longer fears his father and believes that he has saved himself from becoming like him, but the effects of his father's abuse still haunt him. His PTSD is shown multiple times over the series when confronted with his father or an object that reminds him of his childhood, from flashbacks to disassociation.
He was also possessed by a demon at the end of the last book that made him attempt to kill Ronan. He felt that it ruined him, though eventually managed to separate the idea of the demon from Cabeswater and himself by association. This is what made him realize that he and his father were different, but like with his father, the trauma of losing his autonomy to a demon probably still affects him.
Abilities/Powers/Weaknesses & Warping:
Adam once sacrificed himself to Cabeswater and became connected to the ley line. When Cabeswater died, Adam lost that connection but is nonetheless noted to be a psychic, in particular because he can still feel the ley line. This includes sensing Ronan's powers, which are connected to the ley line. Presumably he can still use the psychic techniques he learned from another psychic, like scrying and tarot reading, because those are separate from any connection to Cabeswater. Other than that, he is a normal human.
Inventory:
Clothes (a t-shirt, jeans, ratty shoes, etc.)
Wallet (containing a few dollars, some change, some coupons)
Half-eaten chocolate bar
Small bottle of (magical) hand lotion
Writing Samples:
inbox thread from a previous game. (cw: references to injuries and past violence)
log from a previous game. (cw: references to injuries and past violence)
OUT OF CHARACTER
Player Name: Ran
Player Age: 21+
Player Contact:
Other Characters In Game: n/a
In-Game Tag If Accepted: adam parrish: ran
Permissions for Character: link
Are you comfortable with prominent elements of fourth-walling?: Yes
What themes of horror/psychological thrillers do you enjoy the most?: I enjoy psychological horror through suspense and paranoia/delusions/etc; survival horror; demonic-type creatures.
Is there anything in particular you absolutely need specific content warnings for?: Animal cruelty
(no subject)
POWERS.
Chlorokinesis.
limitations: only able to manipulate existing plant matter, cannot create plants from nothing. cannot be used in barren areas.
riverview | information & permissions
| THE MAGICIAN Rags to riches isn't a story anyone wants to hear until after it's done. |
   PERSONALITY
|
ABOUT
APPEARANCE
IN-GAME
|
BASICS NAME: Adam Parrish CANON: The Raven Cycle CANON POINT: Post-Opal: A Raven Cycle Story AGE: 19 STATUS: In relationship with Ronan Lynch OCCUPATION: RESIDENCE: PERMISSIONS BACKTAGGING: ✓ THREADJACKING: ✓ MIND READING: ✓ FIGHTING: X ROMANCE: ✓ INJURY: Talk to me. KILLING: Talk to me. OOC NAME: Ran PLURK: |
day 4 (post-execution)
[ Adam has been gone ever since the execution ended, hiding away in some corner of the complex where no one would think to look for him. Luckily for Leo and Dojima, it's where he got out all of his unsightly emotions that he can't show to anyone else.
So when he returns to the apartment a bit before curfew, he's entirely blank. He's limping from his foot injury and he's clutching something tightly in his hand, but he doesn't acknowledge either of his roommates. All he does is kick off his shoes and fall into the now-vacant bed, curling up and pretending like he's going to sleep. ]
So when he returns to the apartment a bit before curfew, he's entirely blank. He's limping from his foot injury and he's clutching something tightly in his hand, but he doesn't acknowledge either of his roommates. All he does is kick off his shoes and fall into the now-vacant bed, curling up and pretending like he's going to sleep. ]
day 2 (morning)
[ Adam is quiet as he leads Luke away from the crime scene and all the people. There's no part of him that wants to be around all of them right now but he does actually have something to talk about with Luke, something that was on his mind as soon as he was able to comprehend the murder.
He only knows how to survive. It's instinct like in every human. Adam doesn't even know what he's surviving for at this point but he's not going to give up like this.
They finally end up in the bathroom, and then Adam opens the door to the sauna. He motions for Luke to step in. ]
Miss it? [ The sauna. ]
He only knows how to survive. It's instinct like in every human. Adam doesn't even know what he's surviving for at this point but he's not going to give up like this.
They finally end up in the bathroom, and then Adam opens the door to the sauna. He motions for Luke to step in. ]
Miss it? [ The sauna. ]
62 private convos
Day 1
Luke
Day 2
Luke
Luke (post-trial)
Day 3
Hitsugi
Day 4
Leo+Dojima
Day 5
Angel
Letter from Luke
Day 9
Letter to Leo
Luke
Day 2
Luke
Luke (post-trial)
Day 3
Hitsugi
Day 4
Leo+Dojima
Day 5
Angel
Letter from Luke
Day 9
Letter to Leo
cradle private convos archive
for this journal only
Week 5
Arumat (notes)
Dorian (notes)
Machias (notes)
Luke
Week 6
Dorian
Luke
Week 8
Jason
Luke
Week 9
Luke
Week 10
Jessie
Luke
Week 11
Luke
Luke + Dr. Lin
Week 12
Luke
cradle
Week 5
Arumat (notes)
Dorian (notes)
Machias (notes)
Luke
Week 6
Dorian
Luke
Week 8
Jason
Luke
Week 9
Luke
Week 10
Jessie
Luke
Week 11
Luke
Luke + Dr. Lin
Week 12
Luke
cradle
week 13; cradle
[ They arrive outside a large farm. The farmhouse is right in front of them, huge and covered by trees like there was a failed attempt to hide it, suggesting that the residents are a bit anti-social. Despite that, the door is wide open which means someone is probably inside.
To the side of the house are barns, but they seem mostly empty. It's a nice day, so the animals are probably all out in the fields. If they listen, they can hear a child's laughter along with the cawing of a raven somewhere beyond the house itself. Various woodland creatures like deer and rabbits are skittering by them, unafraid. A quick look around will also suggest the first signs of something a bit unnatural—there are no insects on the ground. They might be able to catch butterflies (resting on the noses of deer) or dragonflies, but anything beyond that has been forgotten. Even without the insects, though, flowers are blooming wildly. Rare and even entirely unknown flowers seem to sprout like weeds, and various types of fruit trees are ready to be picked despite possibly not being in season.
Behind them are a dozen cars all in a row, shiny and like-new. There are various models, but some that don't seem to be recognizable as one particular type, more like an amalgamation of the best parts of a lot of different brands. The only one that doesn't look new is a black BMW. ]
To the side of the house are barns, but they seem mostly empty. It's a nice day, so the animals are probably all out in the fields. If they listen, they can hear a child's laughter along with the cawing of a raven somewhere beyond the house itself. Various woodland creatures like deer and rabbits are skittering by them, unafraid. A quick look around will also suggest the first signs of something a bit unnatural—there are no insects on the ground. They might be able to catch butterflies (resting on the noses of deer) or dragonflies, but anything beyond that has been forgotten. Even without the insects, though, flowers are blooming wildly. Rare and even entirely unknown flowers seem to sprout like weeds, and various types of fruit trees are ready to be picked despite possibly not being in season.
Behind them are a dozen cars all in a row, shiny and like-new. There are various models, but some that don't seem to be recognizable as one particular type, more like an amalgamation of the best parts of a lot of different brands. The only one that doesn't look new is a black BMW. ]
week 12; post-execution
[ It's over. Adrien is alive but Marinette is dead and just about everyone is wounded. Even Adam, when he thought he'd never go fight one of those monsters because it would be pointless and stupid. And it was pointless and stupid but he can't deny that it felt good to stab into that creature and make it suffer a little bit.
But now Adam is in pain, which isn't a new sensation. He's never been stabbed this badly before, thankfully, but he knows exactly how to deal with pain quietly and efficiently. It's just this time he can't walk well and he has another body to take care of. He's not entirely sure how they got off the top floor because he's been in and out of consciousness but he forces himself and Luke and whoever Luke's bringing along to the medbay. He's entirely quiet the whole time despite the burning agony in his leg whenever he puts pressure on it, feeling the blood soak into his pants.
The medbay is restocked and he feels a pang for Marinette. He was never that close to her, but she ultimately was a hero. He hopes she realizes that. He focuses again and grabs all the supplies they'll need and probably a little extra, then he's quick to pull Luke out and to a private room because there's too many bloody people in there and he's not going to take off his pants around them.
The first chance he gets, he drops himself to the floor and wraps a bandage tightly around his pants leg for the moment, then motions for Luke to come near him. According to Sunny there won't be any infections which is nice, so he grabs the bandages and salve to treat Luke first. Once he actually looks at him, though, he makes the first noise since the execution: a sigh. ]
But now Adam is in pain, which isn't a new sensation. He's never been stabbed this badly before, thankfully, but he knows exactly how to deal with pain quietly and efficiently. It's just this time he can't walk well and he has another body to take care of. He's not entirely sure how they got off the top floor because he's been in and out of consciousness but he forces himself and Luke and whoever Luke's bringing along to the medbay. He's entirely quiet the whole time despite the burning agony in his leg whenever he puts pressure on it, feeling the blood soak into his pants.
The medbay is restocked and he feels a pang for Marinette. He was never that close to her, but she ultimately was a hero. He hopes she realizes that. He focuses again and grabs all the supplies they'll need and probably a little extra, then he's quick to pull Luke out and to a private room because there's too many bloody people in there and he's not going to take off his pants around them.
The first chance he gets, he drops himself to the floor and wraps a bandage tightly around his pants leg for the moment, then motions for Luke to come near him. According to Sunny there won't be any infections which is nice, so he grabs the bandages and salve to treat Luke first. Once he actually looks at him, though, he makes the first noise since the execution: a sigh. ]
week 11; friday; luke's room
[ Right after everyone's done talking about the zombies, Adam and Luke return to their room. Adam is wild-eyed and feeling intense guilt after planning to kill someone—which would have effectively killed Ronan and Annabeth. ]
We need answers. Now. This can't be all. [ It can't be the Pygmalion or Nuwa. He wants to live but he can't be responsible for Ronan dying. He waits for any sort of confirmation from Luke, then goes to the statue of River in their room. ]
River. Please. We need to talk.
We need answers. Now. This can't be all. [ It can't be the Pygmalion or Nuwa. He wants to live but he can't be responsible for Ronan dying. He waits for any sort of confirmation from Luke, then goes to the statue of River in their room. ]
River. Please. We need to talk.
week 11; monday evening; luke's room
[ Once the meeting in the conference room is over, Adam has to leave to decide how this is all going to play out. He ends up in the airlock wondering how far away Ronan is. Will they ever see each other again? Adam hasn't gone through life to let himself die like this, and losing Ronan would be the end of his world.
He knows Ronan is thinking the same thing. Ronan can't die because he has so many people attached to him. If necessary, Ronan will kill for them. And Adam will do the same thing for him. Different scenarios play through his head, trying to find a way that will ensure they both live. There's only one way to do it.
He returns to Luke's room once that's decided. Luke deserves to know what's going on even if he might not agree, so he doesn't waste time in pretending things are alright. ]
Someone has to die. I can't wait around for people to debate the philosophical dilemma. It has to happen.
He knows Ronan is thinking the same thing. Ronan can't die because he has so many people attached to him. If necessary, Ronan will kill for them. And Adam will do the same thing for him. Different scenarios play through his head, trying to find a way that will ensure they both live. There's only one way to do it.
He returns to Luke's room once that's decided. Luke deserves to know what's going on even if he might not agree, so he doesn't waste time in pretending things are alright. ]
Someone has to die. I can't wait around for people to debate the philosophical dilemma. It has to happen.
week 10; friday night; luke's room
[ Murderday has come and gone, but things are not all well. Adam had returned after getting breakfast in the cafeteria to find Luke and grab him for the investigation, but unsurprisingly, he couldn't get in because Luke was gone.
Which, of course, led to some mild panic because of the two murder announcements but he was eventually able to get information on who died and none of them were Luke. Except one of them was Elizabeth, which would have upset him more had Luke not given him a heart attack earlier on.
Now the information is starting to settle in and it's depressing. He returns to the room playing with some twine and manages to look disgruntled at Luke before sighing. ]
It's hard to believe she's dead.
Which, of course, led to some mild panic because of the two murder announcements but he was eventually able to get information on who died and none of them were Luke. Except one of them was Elizabeth, which would have upset him more had Luke not given him a heart attack earlier on.
Now the information is starting to settle in and it's depressing. He returns to the room playing with some twine and manages to look disgruntled at Luke before sighing. ]
It's hard to believe she's dead.