Louis Riddlan

17

Trans male

Homosexual

Visual arts

 Louis was once rather laid back yet insecure about who he was. It took a hard time in his life for Louis to really accept himself. Around the time he turned 15 he stopped hiding behind the maks of 'hipster' and just started being him. Louis is blunt and carries a little too much passion for the things he's into.

Louis has always been a big fan of the 'acult classics'. Give him an old black and white horror movie and some homebrew coffee and you had yourself a very happy Louis. Monsters have always been something that inspired his artistic side and he often sketched his own version of Count Dracula, The Wolfman or even Frankenstein's Monster.

Around the time he was 14 his sister tried to re-introduce him to his 'culture'. Although only a few things really stood out to him. Louis was drawn heavily to the stories and art of Yokai. And from then on they played a big part in his artwork.

Louis is blunt and that can often come off as rude which is something he'll never apologize for. Louis isn't nice, he has never been. And the incident in his childhood only increased his distance with people. New people make him nervous and uncomfortable which in turn makes him put up his defensive walls. His bitterness and quick tongue often form a ten-foot pole that pushes people away from him. It has been a long time since Louis has made his own friends, for as long as he can remember Ro has been the one who brought new friends into his life and each time he has been uncomfortable until he wasn't.

Louis is a coffee lover, but nothing instant or fake. He only likes the best beans, ground by the best people. Those people being himself.

For as long as he could work Louis has worked in his families cafe, he was good at it. Even though at times he was rude to customers he was a model employee. He knows his way around a coffee shop and can tell a good coffee from a bad one.

He's never been into animals or pets and has never seen the hype around puppies and kittens. They're just messy in his opinion.

Although Louis seems like the type to be a neat freak or a minimalist. But that just isn't the case. Louis lives in a constant state of artistic clutter. Something which his father has always hated about him. All over his walls are half finished sketches, his floor is covered in art supplies and not to mention he hardly ever picks up after himself.

Louis has always had a thing for 'pretty boys'. His first crush was a pretty boy and the only other gay he knew. But that didn't last long, not like his second crush which just didn't end well. This taste still lives with him even though he tries to stray away from most of that 'romance' stuff due to his past.

Louis wasn't born Louis, he was born a bouncy baby girl named Louise. Louis doesn't know much about the first part of his life. He knows it wasn't great and something bad must have happened because he was put into foster care at a young age. And he was even seeing a child psychologist from the age 4 and up. It was through this psychologist that Louis met his forever parents. He was brought into a loving home and when he came out as transgender at age 8 it was welcomed and nourished.

Of course just because his parents accepted him didn't mean the world did. It took some time and a lot of fights from his father before he was allowed to wear the boy uniform at school, and even more to use the boy bathrooms. As soon as he was able Louis changed his name and his gender on paper and he was all the happier for it.

After that his gender was hardly ever an issue, most people just accepted it and if they didn't. Well, they got an earful from his best friend and social justice warrior Ro. He loved her, he really did but she was over the top and he often wanted to hide when she started going off.

There was a group of older boys that Louis often hung out with when he was 13, his cousin was in the group and so was Ro's brother so he was never really out of place and they always tried to include him even though he was smaller and had nowhere near as much stamina as they did.

In that group was Jordan, the first boy Louis ever liked. He was type of gay that you knew was gay just by looking at him. And it didn't take long for Louis to grow out of his little crush and fall for someone else. This is where all the trouble in his life really took off.

He fell in love with this older straight boy called Angel. At times he liked to refer to him as his 'Angel' and would follow him around like a lost puppy.

Everyone else saw the signs but Angel seemed oblivious for a long time.

There was a point where Angel tried to let Louis down easy, without hurting his feelings but Angel was never good with words and what he said only made Louis try to win his affection harder.

The crush turned into a pure obsession. And when Angel got a girlfriend Louis sort of snapped. He had planned to stab Angel's girlfriend Aspen, he had completely lost all sense of danger and when he pulled out his scissors to hurt her Angel got in the way. Louis ended up stabbing Angel, lucky he hit a place that wouldn't do a lot of perminate damage but this ruined Louis.

He was stuffed in a hospital and forced to go through therapy, he only just got out of going to juvie because of mental issues and he was stuck away from his friends and family for months, almost a full year.

It was around that time that his long-lost sister came back into the picture. She came looking for him, or more. She came looking for Louise, her sister. After a while, she managed to track Louis down but she right away rejected his trans identity which put a wedge between the two.

For a long time after that Louis wanted nothing to do with her and he even argued with his parents when they adopted her into the family.

But over time the two sorted out their differences and his sister managed to bring a little of his culture back into his life.

Louis never much saw Angel again after that. He wrote him a letter because his therapist told him too but he thought it best he just stay away.

This little blotch in Louis's history made it hard for him to get into art school and he had to fight hard for it. But now that he's here he isn't letting it go.