Before Roxy Rook had been a person, she had been an idea. And she, for the life of her, had absolutely no clue when the change had happened.

Wicker Lamont-Seabright was a wanderer. He was once a scribe, a servant worker of the greatest civilization of the tangle, but when he returned to deliver his stories and markings to find his world a ruin, he'd been alone ever since. It was a stretch to say enida xalar had ever been his *home*, or the enidians his people*, per se, scribes had always been more functional cogs in the machine that had been their empire than they had ever been proper citizens, but the sudden and unmistakable loneliness of being the only one of your kind left in the tangle still troubled him. He was an expert at holding his emotions within, but even the most stoic need a confidant. And so, he made up a face in his mind, and he spoke to her when he couldn't speak honestly to anyone else. And eventually, at some point along the line, she began to speak back to him. And neither of them thought that was strange in the slightest.

Roxy didn't mind being Wicker's tulpa. It was an exciting existence, and remarkably unstressful, even when circumstances within his own life were dire and horrifying. He was her friend, her partner, and to a certain extent, her favourite tv show, and for the low low price of being a shoulder to rest his head on and an ear to hear his voice when there were no others around to do so, she enjoyed getting swept along for the most incredibly ride in the tangle. She was the first to embrace him after every victory, the first to reach out and wipe away his tears after every bitter defeat, and whenever he needed her, she would always be but a thought or a glance away. Did she love him? Probably, it was difficult not to, it was her *purpose*, after all. But more than that, she was the person that Wicker loved, because he'd be a very different person if he had nobody to love, and neither of them wanted to see that happen to him, so there she was.

And then things got bad. Very bad, very suddenly, and for the first time in her life, Roxy realized that the adventure might not go on forever.

Wicker's face was stony and set as she begged and shook him, shouting to find some other way. Imploring him to just try a little harder, think a little more, find a way out. He always did. He always had before. But that's the trick of being inside someone else's head, Roxy knew exactly what he was thinking, and she knew he was right. They had finally gone too far, tempted fate for too long, and it was finally time to go.

She was content with that, or at least she thought she was. If he was going away, then so would she, because he'd never gone anywhere without her before. Resignation washed over her, and she smiled, because at least she'd gotten to see the greatest adventure ever.

Then another thought occurred to Wicker, and Eoxy barely had time to register it before she was suddenly somewhere else. She hadn't even had time to scream at him before she felt flesh knitting her together and flying her away, and she was thrown bodily out onto the floor of a living room, much to the surprise of the two she had been sent to for safekeeping, her first breath as flesh and blood was icily cold, and it was weeks before she fully reckoned with the fact that she was human, she was alive, and Wicker Lamont-Seabright was nowhere in her sight. Muffin and April were good enough to look, for a little while, at least. They opened their home to Roxy as she learned the ropes of the nasty trick called existence. They never found him. And eventually, finally, Roxy learned how to cry, and she did it thoroughly and properly, he deserved that much, for everything he had given her.

The unfortunate thing was, even after she finished mourning, she still... Existed, and she was apparently meant to keep doing that for however long it would take for her to naturally stop. And she had absolutely no idea how to do that.

Muffin and April had been accommodating and kind, but after Roxy's time spent crashing on their couch approached a year, she could tell they were getting a little impatient. Discussions of things like finding a job or paying rent were brought up softly at first, and then flatly when they fell on deaf ears, but so far as Roxy was concerned, why would she bother? What silly people these natural-born humans were, didn't they realize that lying down and enjoying oneself was by far the better way to live than voluntarily subjecting oneself to discomfort just to be 'productive'?

After being so rudely shunted free of her old life, Roxy was just now getting settled and comfortable in her new one. And she was going to be damned if she was going to give up that hard-won comfort so easily.

Wyatt Donovan: The first rebound boyfriend, the most jealous, and the most ardent at trying to get her back. It's as rough as it sounds.

Renesmee Oliviera-Foley: Roxy's contact and sponsor at SCCPAO (Support & Community Council for Persons of Anomalous Origins)

Tea Landry: Roxy's extremely personable and charismatic weed dealer.

The Endless Rotating Door of Boyfriends: There are so many of them, and they are all so very short-lived and so very bad for her in so many various and sundry ways. It's not worth it to name them all, but not a single one has lasted longer than three months. Roxy has very bad taste in men.