Tyler Tian Huang | 黄泰勒田 (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
asmywitness) wrote2020-02-22 03:53 pm
asmywitness) wrote2020-02-22 03:53 pm
Personal History
Tyler Tian Huang is the oldest of five children. At age eighteen, he had a twelve year old sister, Ai Chen; ten year old brother, Chia-Hao; six year old sister, Juan Lee; and five year old sister, Song. Of the five of them, Tyler and Chia-Hao, as well as their father, are all severely deaf, Tyler the most of them all.
He was never enrolled in speech therapy, or surgery for internal aids; rather, his parents went out of their way to make sure Tyler would be able to understand Taiwanese Sign Language and AusLan, and was taught the languages as soon as he was able to make the signs with his stubby little fingers. When he was entered in school, he also learned how to read English and traditional Mandarin.
During his first few years of primary school he didn't make many friends; he was a bit shy, and reluctant to sign to people when he could. It wasn't until Nick Wallace, a boy in his grade who was very relentless in including him in activities and tried really hard to learn AusLan so they could communicate properly, that Tyler finally had his first real friend, and the two were thick as thieves from second grade onwards.
Tyler always had a propensity for languages, and when given the opportunity in high school to pick his own subjects, chose to study nothing but English in all its forms (and maths, but that's because it's compulsory), and finished school with high marks. His lifestyle, disability and generally sharp temperament meant that Nick was one of his few genuine friends by the time they started university; Tyler pursued a Bachelor in Writing and Publishing at a Melbourne-based university.
When Nick joined the local drama club, associated with Tyler's uni (Nick himself not being a student there), Tyler followed along for lack of anything better to do, now that his siblings were old enough to start taking care of each other without him, between university and a part-time job at a nearby cafe. He and one of the established members, Gil Ryanson, quickly took an interest in each other, and very quickly developed a rather tumultuous sexual relationship; Gil wasn't interested in an actual long-term commitment, while Tyler was; the two had an on-and-off relationship for several months, until Tyler finally broke it off.
He has a far more positive series of set with Gil and Nick's other friends - especially when they all made the effort to learn, or at least attempt, sign language so that they could include him in conversations. As well, Tyler's messy relationship with Gil made him realise his actual feelings for Nick; and after some nervous talks with him, the two started dating in sincerity, and it was great.
Late the next year, their group of seven was Taken by a Faerie.
None of them knew the Fair Folk were real - fairies are just stories, after all. So there was nothing to worry about, when there was a mysterious audience member watching their group that night, who just sat and took in their performance; and when the group of seven friends left, they didn't notice their eighth member, leading them into the Hedge and into the Faerie's personal realm until they were in the middle of a performance that ended with Nick cutting Gil's head off.
Only the other six were on stage; Tyler's role was a bit different. Their Keeper, who they came to call the Director, forced Tyler into two linked roles: the first, to be the writer of their gruesome productions, creating new and unique stories that the Director had never seen before, to entertain their capricious whims; and the second, to narrate them, in such a grandiose and engaging manner that the Director would be forced to pay attention the whole time. And while Tyler was able to write just fine, he's still deaf - and so he spent the most of his time being brutally punished by the Director, forced to learn how to use his voice for the first time, and to do so magnificently, or he would utterly suffer.
Not that he was the only one in pain, at the end of the day. Tyler's stories were, more often than not, forced to be heroic, mythical tales, of dashing princes saving their beloved princesses and killing the monster that trapped them. And if he was to ever repeat one, he'd be punished, because that was boring. So he has to constantly find new and interesting ways for Nick to kill Gil as the Monster, torment Bailey in his role as the Villain, woo and seduce Eileen as the Princess - and the last one tore him apart, because if he didn't make the love look convincing, too, he'd be punished again.
It took him less time than he'd like to get really good at not being punished. But more than he'd ever hoped to be able to find a way to trick the Director, wake Nick and Mai up from the story they were forced to play in, and try to flee. It almost didn't work, until Nick turned back and attacked their Keeper - which gave Tyler and Mai just enough time to find an exit back to the real world, and discover that their seemingly endless years of torment in Arcadia has amounted to just about a year outside.
But time in Arcadia, especially at the hands of a True Fae, changes you: Tyler hadn't been left as disfigured as the others, but he no longer looked human either. His skin was like paper, the same sallow dry yellow as aged parchment, and his fingers all leaked ink so much that his hands, even through the Mask, were stained permanently black, and anywhere he touched was smeared with the stuff. His eyes, forced to predict and bear witness to the cruelties he set upon his friends, were nothing more than crystal balls with which to see. He had become what was known among Changeling as a Wizened; the "subtle and ingenious crafters of Arcadia, the wise and cunning wondermakers".
He and Mai tried going back into the main city district of Melbourne, but their ragged clothes and beaten forms got them both quickly snatched up by a local Changeling group, in order to get them safe and updated on what has happened to them, and what to expect now; namely, a new life, with no chance of going back to their old ones. This was because, when they got taken, their Keeper left behind a number of creatures called Fetch - living dolls made of scrap and sticks that magically resemble the Faerie's victims that takes over their lives, so no-one knows they're missing.
Tyler and Mai, to each other, both agreed that they did want to see what had happened with their familiies; when Mai went and sought out her family anyway, but found that her family was happy and content with the replacement, she couldn't bring herself to ruin that and left without being noticed. When Tyler went and investigated his old house, that he and Nick shared, he found their Fetch living completely normal, mundane lives: and the raw fury and rage the sight filled him with drove him to stalk the pair of constructs, until he found an opportunity to twist the fate of Nick's Fetch, and got him killed by a hit-and-run driver with the sole intent of making his own Fetch suffer. It was untraceable back to Tyler, of course - magic is a tricky thing like that - but he continued stalking his own Fetch until the false Nick's funeral, at which point his Fetch confronted him and called him out on killing his partner. Tyler had no hesitation whatsoever in twisting a cruel irony out of fate and killing his own Fetch as well - but it's only then he realised that he just killed two highly beloved members of a family he still adored, and the sheer scope of what he did sent him running.
He never told Mai that he found and killed the two Fetch.
He was never enrolled in speech therapy, or surgery for internal aids; rather, his parents went out of their way to make sure Tyler would be able to understand Taiwanese Sign Language and AusLan, and was taught the languages as soon as he was able to make the signs with his stubby little fingers. When he was entered in school, he also learned how to read English and traditional Mandarin.
During his first few years of primary school he didn't make many friends; he was a bit shy, and reluctant to sign to people when he could. It wasn't until Nick Wallace, a boy in his grade who was very relentless in including him in activities and tried really hard to learn AusLan so they could communicate properly, that Tyler finally had his first real friend, and the two were thick as thieves from second grade onwards.
Tyler always had a propensity for languages, and when given the opportunity in high school to pick his own subjects, chose to study nothing but English in all its forms (and maths, but that's because it's compulsory), and finished school with high marks. His lifestyle, disability and generally sharp temperament meant that Nick was one of his few genuine friends by the time they started university; Tyler pursued a Bachelor in Writing and Publishing at a Melbourne-based university.
When Nick joined the local drama club, associated with Tyler's uni (Nick himself not being a student there), Tyler followed along for lack of anything better to do, now that his siblings were old enough to start taking care of each other without him, between university and a part-time job at a nearby cafe. He and one of the established members, Gil Ryanson, quickly took an interest in each other, and very quickly developed a rather tumultuous sexual relationship; Gil wasn't interested in an actual long-term commitment, while Tyler was; the two had an on-and-off relationship for several months, until Tyler finally broke it off.
He has a far more positive series of set with Gil and Nick's other friends - especially when they all made the effort to learn, or at least attempt, sign language so that they could include him in conversations. As well, Tyler's messy relationship with Gil made him realise his actual feelings for Nick; and after some nervous talks with him, the two started dating in sincerity, and it was great.
Late the next year, their group of seven was Taken by a Faerie.
None of them knew the Fair Folk were real - fairies are just stories, after all. So there was nothing to worry about, when there was a mysterious audience member watching their group that night, who just sat and took in their performance; and when the group of seven friends left, they didn't notice their eighth member, leading them into the Hedge and into the Faerie's personal realm until they were in the middle of a performance that ended with Nick cutting Gil's head off.
Only the other six were on stage; Tyler's role was a bit different. Their Keeper, who they came to call the Director, forced Tyler into two linked roles: the first, to be the writer of their gruesome productions, creating new and unique stories that the Director had never seen before, to entertain their capricious whims; and the second, to narrate them, in such a grandiose and engaging manner that the Director would be forced to pay attention the whole time. And while Tyler was able to write just fine, he's still deaf - and so he spent the most of his time being brutally punished by the Director, forced to learn how to use his voice for the first time, and to do so magnificently, or he would utterly suffer.
Not that he was the only one in pain, at the end of the day. Tyler's stories were, more often than not, forced to be heroic, mythical tales, of dashing princes saving their beloved princesses and killing the monster that trapped them. And if he was to ever repeat one, he'd be punished, because that was boring. So he has to constantly find new and interesting ways for Nick to kill Gil as the Monster, torment Bailey in his role as the Villain, woo and seduce Eileen as the Princess - and the last one tore him apart, because if he didn't make the love look convincing, too, he'd be punished again.
It took him less time than he'd like to get really good at not being punished. But more than he'd ever hoped to be able to find a way to trick the Director, wake Nick and Mai up from the story they were forced to play in, and try to flee. It almost didn't work, until Nick turned back and attacked their Keeper - which gave Tyler and Mai just enough time to find an exit back to the real world, and discover that their seemingly endless years of torment in Arcadia has amounted to just about a year outside.
But time in Arcadia, especially at the hands of a True Fae, changes you: Tyler hadn't been left as disfigured as the others, but he no longer looked human either. His skin was like paper, the same sallow dry yellow as aged parchment, and his fingers all leaked ink so much that his hands, even through the Mask, were stained permanently black, and anywhere he touched was smeared with the stuff. His eyes, forced to predict and bear witness to the cruelties he set upon his friends, were nothing more than crystal balls with which to see. He had become what was known among Changeling as a Wizened; the "subtle and ingenious crafters of Arcadia, the wise and cunning wondermakers".
He and Mai tried going back into the main city district of Melbourne, but their ragged clothes and beaten forms got them both quickly snatched up by a local Changeling group, in order to get them safe and updated on what has happened to them, and what to expect now; namely, a new life, with no chance of going back to their old ones. This was because, when they got taken, their Keeper left behind a number of creatures called Fetch - living dolls made of scrap and sticks that magically resemble the Faerie's victims that takes over their lives, so no-one knows they're missing.
Tyler and Mai, to each other, both agreed that they did want to see what had happened with their familiies; when Mai went and sought out her family anyway, but found that her family was happy and content with the replacement, she couldn't bring herself to ruin that and left without being noticed. When Tyler went and investigated his old house, that he and Nick shared, he found their Fetch living completely normal, mundane lives: and the raw fury and rage the sight filled him with drove him to stalk the pair of constructs, until he found an opportunity to twist the fate of Nick's Fetch, and got him killed by a hit-and-run driver with the sole intent of making his own Fetch suffer. It was untraceable back to Tyler, of course - magic is a tricky thing like that - but he continued stalking his own Fetch until the false Nick's funeral, at which point his Fetch confronted him and called him out on killing his partner. Tyler had no hesitation whatsoever in twisting a cruel irony out of fate and killing his own Fetch as well - but it's only then he realised that he just killed two highly beloved members of a family he still adored, and the sheer scope of what he did sent him running.
He never told Mai that he found and killed the two Fetch.