HOME
( my oc universe )
main characters
relevant side characters
the main home story timeline spans from 1974 to the mid-90's. it primarily focuses on mr. and mrs. harrell's relationship from the very beginning all the way up to several years after it ends. a majority of the story takes place in morrisville, north carolina during the 80's.morrisville is a traditionalist suburban area populated by mostly upper-middle-class families. it is not very big, so people mostly all know each other.plot summary is not gratuitously worded but keep in mind these cws: infidelity, abuse, c/sa
>plot
PART 1 (1C1-5)young aïcha was a cheery teenager who struggled to make friends and had a difficult relationship with her parents. soon after she started high school, she met and subsequently became involved with mr. harrell. at the time, he was one of her teachers. their union had been forcefully imposed onto her, but she swallowed her tears and 'fell in love' with mr. harrell because he was the first person she felt had ever truly cared about her. over of a few years, they had a child (amanda) and got married. mr. harrell relocated them and their young daughter to morrisville right after their wedding.their relationship had always been complicated, but things became particularly messy between them after the move. mr. harrell gradually became less and less attracted to her which made him frustrated and frequently angry. his solution to his persistent dissatisfaction with his wife was to begin openly cheating on her with an escort he had met named perfect. all blame for the 'necessity' of his infidelity was placed onto mrs. harrell. this sentiment deeply upset her because, unlike him, she was still very committed to their marriage. unable to do much to protest, she continued on in her miserable and mundane everyday life. her delusions and proclivities were some of her lonely heart's only sources of comfort.this cycle of misery was suddenly interrupted when mrs. harrell was randomly assaulted by someone who wasn't her husband. this incident was mr. harrell's last straw, and he finally demanded that they get divorced.---PART 2 (2C1-5)mrs. harrell and amanda (who, at this point, is 13) moved back to chicago to stay with her family. it was incredibly difficult for mrs. harrell to be on her own after being dependent on mr. harrell for so long. amanda held a lot of resentment towards mrs. harrell which was only exacerbated by all of their additional stress due to the relocation and divorce.back in morrisville: an officially unburdened mr. harrell went on to pursue a new illicit relationship and then died.his passing worsened mrs. harrell's depression so badly that she became completely unable to function. she spent her days holed up in her room, coming out only if necessary. she had previously been comforting herself with the notion that one day he would forgive her and invite her back home, but his death finalized their severance. meeting with perfect again during his funeral further complicated their relationship and cast gay spells on both of them. they eventually end up getting together.more stuff happens. this half of the story is much less defined.
• Mrs. Harrell / Aïcha Dubois
• Usually Mid-Late 20s
• She/Her
Mrs. Harrell is a very affectionate and sad woman. With her mind always somewhere in the clouds, she spends her time staring off into space and smiling to herself. Her self is inconsequential because her reality exists elsewhere, far away from all her troubles. She is extremely attached to her abusive and resentful husband. Even though he mostly loses interest in her over the course of their relationship, she’s committed herself to waiting for him to come back to her. She spends her days off in her own little world, filling in the cracks in her life by daydreaming them away. Her mind's dream home—her delusional fantasy—is where heaven and Earth meet and touch endlessly, enveloping her lonely heart in the pure love she alone keeps alive.
• Mr. Harrell / Marshall John Harrell Jr.
• Usually in his late 40s-early 50s
• He/Him
Mr. Harrell is fundamentally an extremely insecure, sex-obsessed, and angry person. He believes that women find him to be charming and irresistible, but his truly unpleasant nature is hard to ignore. He is uptight, obsessively nitpicky, condescending, and rude to others. He has an incredibly fragile ego that he defends with an aggressive temper. Despite his immense self-hatred, he still considers himself to be superior to most other people. He is particularly cruel towards women whom he is sexually attracted to. He spends most of his time entertaining his disturbingly misogynistic sexual fantasies and neurotically obsessing over how he should best assert his allegedly superior social standing.
amanda harrell • she’s usually 10-13 • she/her (for now)amanda has always been a tomboyish girl at heart, but she is being forced to conform to archaic and rigid confines of femininity by her insanely misogynistic father. because of her natural talents and obedient nature, her father regarded her as his most prized possession. when she was younger, she was much closer to her father and obeyed his demands for her to indulge in refined "feminine" hobbies exclusively. her heart wasn't in most of these hobbies except for ballet, which she ended up getting quite invested in. sadly, it didn’t last— years into her practice, she got into an accident before a recital which permanently disabled her. as she grew older, she developed a strong resentment of both of her parents. all her pent-up rage eventually boiled over and caused her to start acting out as a preteen.
perfect / dolores honey* • she’s usually mid-late 20s • she/her (ironically)
dolores works as an escort and, for a couple of years, was Mr. Harrell's pretend girlfriend. she tends to be pretty level-headed and sociable. As if piloting a machine, she firmly controls her behaviors and mannerisms. She doesn't recognize herself as a real or complete person— to hide her 'self' from the world, she breaks off into different manageable micro-personalities tailored to particular social situations. She is debilitatingly claustrophobic and feels very anxious inside locked areas.perfect is the artificial reflection of a woman. she is feminine, playful, and empty. perfect is a shield that plays a role in protecting dolores from the outside world.*perfect and dolores are not interchangeable characters. they exist parallel to one another
mrs. othonos / erdene othonos • early 50s • she/hermrs. othonos is her husband’s most valuable and ornate possession. she’s thoroughly detached from and uninterested in her life, opting to spend most of her days sulking and doing nothing. she reserves a cold apathy towards anything that isn't her dog. she chooses to spend all of her time locked away in her room.
nicole othonos • 17 • she/hernicole has an air of arrogance that you would expect from the daughter of a local corporate aristocrat. despite being an heiress to a sizable fortune, she has little interest in all the stuffiness involved in navigating her socioeconomic class. she’s annoying, preppy, and fully immersed in the biosphere of high-school life— juggling being her cheer squad team captain, an honor student, and a well-liked socialite. underneath all the layers, though, she’s a lonely person who has never had a serious romantic experience in her life. she feels insecure, oftentimes even jealous, among her peers who are in happy relationships. she pursues ‘maturity’ by trying to act older than she is, but at the end of the day she’s still just a kid. in order to fill this hole in her heart, she becomes involved with someone she shouldn’t have… and it ends disastrously.
rikers / frank ryker • mid-late 40s • he/himRikers is a fun, quirky guy who works alongside Mr. Harrell. He is a perpetual thrill-seeker who is always looking for an excuse to let loose and have fun. Despite being several years younger than Mr. Harrell, Rikers holds seniority over him at OthoCo. While he is generally agreeable, albeit mildly annoying, he also has a sadistic side to him. He is obsessed with Mr. Harrell and will often tease him or push his buttons to make him upset. He is married to his wife Phyllis, with whom he has no children. Their marriage dynamic is heavily one-sided, as he doesn’t care much for her. He only proposed to her because they were friends in college and he wanted to marry into her family’s fortune. Over the years his view of her began to skew more negatively, as he increasingly began to view her as a burden on him.
mr. green / harvey green • mid-30s • he/himMr. Green is a creepy loner who's friends with Mrs. Harrell. He works as one of the many mailmen serving Morrisville. He's paranoid, withdrawn, and otherwise disagreeable. he has a gigantic, obsessive crush on mrs. harrell. he wants to be her knight in shining armor, a hero who saves her from her marriage.