cast
Maximus Ryong (he/him)
18, 27-29
Gay, autistic
AKA: Max, Masquerade
Masquerade is the perfect son and the perfect scapegoat. So strange and quiet, he’ll do anything for anyone in order to make them happy—or to avoid consequence. He rarely speaks more than ten words a day, even when the bunker is raided and over fifty missing children are brought home after years of doubt and grief, Masquerade (or Max) won’t speak to his parents. He seems still convinced that the woman that kidnapped him from the youth group is his real mother, and that those fifty-plus kids are his brothers and sisters. His parents stay hopeful that he’ll recover mentally from the ordeal until the day he kills them.
Max now roams the country looking for his regrouped family—his true one—so that he can feel whole again. If he doesn’t…then what’s next? Who else would take him in like that? Who would ever want to be his family without the Elder’s mandate? What else is he good for?
Hector Ortíz (he/him)
21, 30-32
Gay, schizophrenic, BPD
Hector was doomed the day Anki set his eyes on him. The demon followed him since he must have been 8 years old, and only got closer and friendlier with time. Hector could never prove he existed, but one day, it simply didn’t matter if the thing did; it had managed to trick him into burning his whole face off, and Hector and his younger brother, Lee, were plunged into life-ruining debt.
Hector’s always felt like a burden to the people around him, due to things he knows, things he can feel himself doing but can never control. One day he makes one mistake too bad to take back, and Lee decides that the only way to protect the both of them is if Hector leaves for good. This doesn’t go well; if anything, it just proves to Hector that he’s never been good family, always been a burden, and always will be. Nobody would be able to live with the kind of person he is, would they? Could anyone see the good in someone so lost and hopeless?
Anki (he/it)
1,000,000+ Sexually ambiguous
AKA: Mr. Grime, Calvin Grime
Anki is a face-stealer, but it's troublesome to be walking around looking identical to someone else. In order to take a likeness, he must destroy its original somehow. Hector's primary and most distressing hallucination, Anki can most easily be described as gross, a walking intrusive thought when he isn't acting as a doppelganger. He enjoys tormenting others, though; Hector is particularly entertaining, since it's so easy to make him paranoid and panicky. His trademarks are chaos and vanity, as he thrives on sowing disgust, conflict and mistrust everywhere he goes. With a new friend on the way for Hector, and years of doubt and mistrust needed to thaw for the two to bond, Anki is excited for this new prospect and all the games he can play with them to wedge them apart.
MANDATORY CREEPYPASTA DISCLAIMER
as much as i am tempted to bury it, this story began from a creepypasta fanfic and has since been adapted into its own original universe that I am trying not to associate, even slyly, with creepypasta unless with an inside joke or two. i'm sure you can guess who was who. this is its own thing now which is also why i'm currently abandoning the attempt to string all 4 of the (previously) creepypasta stories into Catalyst and instead settling with just the first two. it just doesnt make sense otherwise. i cover this in the main catalyst page. oki enjoy your stay :)
Spoiler-Free Synopsis
Vagrant meets hermit. M is a tall, traveling nobody rounding the rural US whose appearance, despite his best efforts, raises a few brows. Not that anybody's noticed, though. He's on a straight and narrow mission: to find his family, who he lost over ten years ago, scattered to the winds after a police raid in their home tore them apart. He treats it as a sort of pilgrimage, being good and honorable as best he can, not wishing ill will upon others or doing them harm. His mother and father are dead.
The house he lands at now is one he's seen before, in the paper—in fact, that's the very reason he finds and approaches it in the first place. A ghostly house, one nobody seems interested in touching—a murder scene. A young woman named Annabelle murdered her father and ran away, and after some time (it must be almost a decade at this point) the house still hasn't sold. This certainly is a strange house to be staying in, with such a grim history. People would notice if there was movement coming from it, as well; but he feels as if he has no choice but to visit. Annabelle and her disappearance are crucial to his mission.
But as he quickly discovers, someone is already living there.
It's just one man, and there's no way he's living there legally. He only sneaks out in the evening, when no one is looking, buys food and drink in bulk and returns. He's a hermit. He's a bit tall (not as tall as M, of course), a bit stocky, with an intimidating, curmudgeonly face that looks like it's seen quite a bit of violence. But M needs this. He tries to start up some casual conversation with this figure at the town's cheap grocery, coming on way too strong, especially about the house that he most definitely saw this guy coming out of, which the guy… clearly does not like.
When M sucks up his principles and covers an extra beer for him, though, the man seems to realize something. That this strange, thin, awkward man accosting him at the grocer was real. Unfortunately for M, this does not give him the in he needs: he's going to need to break in, and this other squatter is just going to have to deal with that.
Unfortunately for M again, though, he is not nearly as strong as this man, which makes it a bit awkward when he's caught in the house and thrown to the wall with his arms twisted behind his back.
"What did I tell you."
Hector, though afraid of ghosts and demons, is used to them in this house. But what he likes even less is the idea of this real, alive man living in his fortress.
2025 Maxtor sheet! I was super focused the month i did this on making them distinct and look like real people. Hector, much like the Alex problem, looks more realistic but just a little bit off from how I imagine him. I think his face is more squarish and his eyes are larger in my mind's eye, when I immediately think of him. I will keep workshopping these. Max yorue perfect, like a beautiful horse
developmental sketch of Hector's face; I modeled him partially after Eddie Spears (his look in Sleepy Hollow in particular) and like his overarching demeanor to be stone-faced, but kind.
some cuddles (designs narrowed down to their most fundamental shapes, as this was after making them 2d animation models. Max is triangular and Hector is square)