AXEL MARTIN WINTER
INTRO
Axel is probably the most mellow person in his family. Between Reba's snappy attitude, Berry's eccentricity, and his mother's... you know, he definitely considers themself the most tame out of all of them. It didn't save him from getting screamed at and disowned, though.
He got the good grades. He stayed out of trouble. He did all the right things. And now that he's a mafia leader with a water magician in his head, Axel is just so, so bitter. What did they do wrong? Why can't he just live a normal life with a normal family with a normal job and normal fucking friends?
Nobody actually knows that Axel feels like this. He covers it up by being all stoic, and they're not sure how much longer he can keep up the masquerade.
BACKGROUND
The Winter siblings were born entirely through their mother's various drunk accidents. Berry was a faulty condom, Reba was concieved... non-consensually, and Axel was revenge on an ex that went too far. Their mother brought a new man home every week, and gulped down wine when she didn't. Things were fine when she was sober, usually, but she was never sober. Under the influence, her favorite pastime was yelling at the siblings for the smallest little things, hitting them when they made one mistake, or even when they didn't. Everyone in that house was hurting, and it all came to a crescendo when Reba attempted suicide on her 13th birthday.
She decided against it at the last minute, but Axel didn't know that. No one knew that. All he knew was that Reba was gone, and she had left a note behind. Axel wanted to find her body immediately, but Berry had other ideas. Xe stomped into the living room, where their mother was on her second bottle of the day, and xe waved the note in her face, and xe said "This is all your fault,” and xe started ranting. Axel almost didn't want to hear it, but he was frozen right there, and then Berry shouted that xe was non-binary, and that Axel was transgender. That was when he knocked the blue vase off of the end table, and that was when the two of them got kicked out.
Axel and Berry were forced to live on the streets after that. He hated Berry for outing him, for practically ruining his life, but Berry was offering bigger portions of the small meals they scavenged for, and god damn, they did not know how to feel about Berry. And he couldn't stop thinking about Reba, either. Dead, by her own paws, as far as Axel was concerned. He thought he didn't do enough, and you know what, maybe Berry should've snapped sooner, perfect, goody-two-shoes Berry. But Axel was on the streets, so he had no time to grieve. They just grit their teeth, clenched their paws, and pretended not to flinch every time someone with bright pink fur crossed his line of sight.
Eventually, someone got suspicious of the two disheveled teenagers walking around the suburb alone. They called CPS on Axel and Berry, and boom. Foster care. They were a pair of lucky kids, and were adopted barely a week after admission, but Axel always cites it as one of the worst weeks of his life.
Axel's two fathers in a new suburb were fine and dandy, just like before, and everything was fine. But Axel didn't want "fine.” He couldn't just leave his sister behind. Reba wouldn't want that. She always said, when she was little, when she was happier, that if she were to die, then Axel and Berry have to avenge her and smite her killer, because Reba would never, ever die of "natural causes,” and she was right. Reba didn't die of natural causes. Her mother killed her. Not directly, but it was damn close enough.
Axel started a gang in Capwich, a crime-ridden city close to the suburb he grew up in, but he wanted it to grow into a mafia. He needed to start an empire, he needed to get powerful. Axel wasn't going to kill his mother, because that would make him just as bad as her. But hey, if one of their goons shoots a few guys, then what does it matter, really? At least it was quick, at least it was painless, and at least it wasn't a member of their own families.
His gang got big. It turned into something akin to an organized crime syndicate. They called themselves the East Coast Disasters. Sometimes their exploits made it to the paper. And Axel was still pretending to be normal back at his dad's, still going to highschool. In fact, it was the day before his graduation when Berry was hired into the police force.
Xe had joked about being a cop six months before, and that's all Axel thought it was: a joke. But now that Berry was really going to become one of those pigs, he knew he had to do something. Being close to a cop, especially as a respected crime lord, was never a good idea. So, he started an argument! He disguised it as "safety,” and "I don't want you to get hurt,” but it was really about "Your career is a danger to mine.” Axel couldn't persuade their porcine sibling to resign, so he resigned from living in that house. He was eighteen, after all. CPS couldn't catch him this time.
Axel became a full-time crime boss. At this point, the East Coast Disasters controlled every part of Capwich that their rival, the Lavender Mares, didn't. Axel was powerful, respected, envied, and all of this had gotten him a substantial amount of money. His syndicate's headquarters was respectable, tidy, and only reeked of wealth a little bit. And he was only getting power-hungry and greedy a little bit.
He and his goons were inspecting an abandoned warehouse one day, and that's when he found Reba.
DESIGN
MISC
DESIGN NOTES
- Axel's design used to lean into more green tones, so that's alright.
- His fur-hair is sort of like an Afro. Just not that big.
- Please don't forget the heart on their jeans in the first outfit!
- Axel's rings and paws glow in the dark.
TRIVIA
- Axel is very, very overprotective of people close to him. His sister, Reba gets extremely pissed off by this.
- Axel buys up the strangest things for the mafia headquarters. He isn't sure what to do with all this income... but they know it won't be taxes.
- Axel is extremely closed off about his interests. You'll need to really be spying on him before you see them take a picture.
- Axel is transmasculine. You would think being a crime boss would be a dangerous situation, huh?
LIKES
- Photography
- Sewing
- Coffee
- Purple
DISLIKES
- Berry
- Cowards
- Rural areas
- Fried food
- Petty crime
RELATIONSHIPS
REBA ALLISON WINTER
sister
Reba is Axel's younger sister. Their relationship gets a little clouded from the trauma of their alcoholic mother, but otherwise, they're thick as thieves.
BERRY M. WINTER
sibling; enemy
Berry is Axel's elder sibling. As Axel is a mafia leader and Berry a cop, you can infer how things get complicated.
MARIANNE MEDVEDEVA
employee; friend
As one of the East Coast Disasters' top assassins, Marianne knows how to get on her boss's good side. She and Axel often gossip about other members of the syndicate.