Mark Juniper

"You can never be too compassionate. Especially when you’re Marlinchen; compassion is embedded in you."

- Avian in Icarus Juniper's diary

Avian Juniper is the son of Marlinchen from the Juniper Tree, and is destined to follow in the footsteps of his mother. He also sides with the Rebels.

While Avian dislikes his destiny, and reluctant to follow it, he's still willing to go through his tale. Mainly because he knows it ends happily, but also because he really wants new shoes at the end. He's not fond of the killing-his-cousin part. In fact, he's absolutely petrified.

Recently though, his uncle just remarried and he has a new cousin who's probably better suited for the Marlinchen role than he is. Avian's not very happy about that, especially since for most of his life, he had defined himself as the next Marlinchen, and only the next Marlinchen.

He is owned by DatAsymptote

Personality
Avian is excitable and enthusiastic. He's really confident about stuff he likes, like birds or maths or skateboarding, and can and will talk and ramble and rant about anything. Avian is literally interested and fascinated by anything that can hold his attention for more than ten seconds. He's good at holding conversations and is very approachable in that aspect. He's assertive and confident, tending to speak his mind. While he's not the blunt and sarcastic conversationist his cousin is, Avian is a witty guy, full of puns and ironic remarks.

Avian's very much an absent-minded person, which is rather frustrating when paired with his natural diligence. That’s something he really finds annoying because Avian wants to be see as a responsible and trustworthy person, but his constant forgetfulness undermine his diligence. Avian is very easily distracted, often off-topic and off-task. Don't ask him to do anything for you – because chances are, he will forget about it completely.

He has no chill. Like, none. At all. Avian is a very panickly person. He hadn't always been this way, but when you're destined to be the next Marlinchen... well, let's just say, it's not a happy road. Avian sees himself as the next Marlinchen, but that doesn't mean that he's not worried, or panicked, or paranoid about his destiny. (Oh yeah, Avian tends to be rather paranoid. This is shown more obviously in his interactions with Lea die Birke.)

Protective is a word that's usually used to describe Avian. His protective nature is simply just an emphasis of his paranoid one. Being the next Marlinchen is loss – loss of childhood/innocence, loss of family, and loss of freedom. Avian's terrified of loss – whether that's people or things or memories or relationships or anything really. He's very protective over his friends and family and everything that matters to him.

As a result, Avian wants to make people like him. He doesn't want to lose anyone, he doesn't want to scare anyone away. He's built his own personality around gaining friends and sympathy. That means that he's hospitable and friendly, introducing himself to people by offering baking, and never seen without a smile. He often cleans places without thinking about it – because hey, that's what he does, and that's what makes people like him. He's compassionate and considerate – even though he doesn't always understand what others are going through, he'll always try to help. Because of all of this, he's made himself into a people's person. Avian is naturally sociable, and he severely doubts that that would ever change.

Interests and Hobbies
blah blah blah

Avian on Destiny
As one of the most well-mannered and well-behaved Marlinchen over the last century, Avian knows that he’s suited for his destiny. He’s respectful, hospitable and basically everything you need to be a good Marlinchen. One problem: he is a guy.

One of the reasons why Avian’s so unsure about accepting his destiny is not because he thinks it’s embarrassing for having a girl's destiny, but because he doesn’t want to be that guy who takes a destiny that’s respected but also written for a girl away from a girl. His mother had always raised him on feminist ideas so him taking opportunities away isn’t exactly something he’s comfortable with.

That’s something that clashes a lot with another opinion he has about his destiny – he’s going to be a good Marlinchen and one of the most accurate Marlinchens (personality-wise) in the century. Avian knows that his mother, his great-aunt, and all the other Marlinchens before him went through with their destinies despite not having the right personality, so he should, as well.

But soon, his cousin’s dad, his uncle just got married. His uncle’s new wife has a daughter his age who seems to be a perfect future Marlinchen. Avian has always viewed himself as the next Marlinchen and not just Avian, but he’s not quite sure whether he’s willing to fight her for the Marlinchen role.

The thing is, Marlinchen has been a burden that he has carried for his life, and something that has really become to define him. It's something that his whole personality and his whole self has been shaped around. Having the honour of being the next Marlinchen taken away from him feels like having a chunk of himself ripped out, which is why he's so desperately clinging to the Marlinchen destiny.

Appearance
Body-wise, Avian tends to be on the slim side, being rather angular and awkward. While he's of average height, he's quite skinny so he appears taller.

His hair is curly and volatile, often to the point of messy. It's black, often likened to the feathers of the carrion crow. He usually stuffs his hair into a beanie which causes severe hat hair. It should be noted that while wearing the beanie, the ends of his fringe tend to point upwards, resembling a pair of devil horns ( and guess who's possessed by a demon later on? )

He has a small pointed nose all of the time, and a grin most of the time. His eyes are dark brown.

How the Story Goes
A mother wants a baby. Once the baby was born, the mother died from happiness. Her husband soon remarried to a woman who wanted to kill the son because he would interfere with her daughter receiving the inheritance.

The stepmother offers the son an apple from a chest, then slams the lid on the boy's head, which tumbles into the chest. Afraid that she would be accused of her fratricide, she re-attaches the head onto the boy and places the apple in his hand. Finally, she finds her daughter, telling her to ask the boy for the apple. If he does not respond, she should box him on his ears.

The daughter asks her brother, who (naturally) does not respond. So she boxes his ears, and his head falls to the ground. She bursts into tears.

Her mother comforts her, saying that they will disguise the body by making him into blood pudding. At dinner, Marlinchen, the girl, is still in tears, but the father devours the pudding with gusto.

Later that night, the girl goes to the Juniper Tree outside the window, crying tears of blood. Suddenly, a beautiful bird escapes from the tree, singing a song. Jewellers and blacksmiths and various other craftsmen hear this song, and offer the bird gifts.

The bird flies home, drops a pair of shoes into the girl's hands, a golden neck chain into the father's hands, and an anvil on top of his stepmother's head. The Juniper Tree bursts into fire, and the boy returns, well, alive and happy.

This story is seriously macabre.

How does Avian come into it?
Avian’s mother, Marlene “Marlinchen” Juniper, was quite possibly the worst Marlinchen anyone could have seen. She was an outspoken rebel who refused to listen to society. She would wear outrageous clothes and swear a lot. She was the kind of person in high school who would have started a biker gang if they had motorbike licenses.

After high school, she went through her Marlinchen destiny bitterly, reluctantly and regretfully. Aiming to separate herself completely from the Juniper destiny, she went to university and graduated top of her class with a business degree. Soon after she married the hot foreign student she met during uni and everything was great, they had a kid named Avian, and Marlene was pretty sure that her fairytale legacy days were over, that her brother would end up remarrying soon so her son wouldn’t have to end up being the next Marlinchen.

But, her brother Mac ended up being so attached to his first wife that he never remarried, and Marlene was essentially forced to have her son relive her life simply because she didn’t want to risk the Juniper Tree from disappearing from people’s memories.

Avian grew up as a pretty chill kid. But of course, knowing that you’re the next Marlinchen is always a burden, so from a chill kid he went to a teenager with no chill.

Parents
The Junipers are a well-off family, despite not being too well-known. They live in a large house in Germany, surrounded by sheep and suburbs, where buses whizz around everywhere like flies in summer. It's not a very quiet existence, but it sure is an entertaining one.

Avian’s mother is Marlinchen, the sister from the tale, and his father is some random she married. Marlinchen Juniper is a very learned woman, and the CEO of a small yet successful business. Avian cares about his mother a lot, even though she has no regard for the Marlinchen destiny at all, while Avian respects the destiny a lot. His mother often tells Avian that if he's uncomfortable with his destiny, he could always 'bring hex like that Evil Queen girl' did, but Avian isn't exactly fond of that idea.

His father is just some ordinary dad who makes ordinary dad jokes, such as:
 * Dad: Alright so you got your acceptance letter to this weird fairy tale school thing.
 * Avian: Yeah, I’m honoured
 * Dad: Hello Honoured, I’m dad.
 * Avian: THAT WASN’T FUNNY I’M CALLING THE JOKE POLICE.

Icarus Juniper
Marlene's half-brother, Avian’s uncle, was the boy in the story. He also happens to be the father of Icarus Juniper, Avian’s cousin.

While Iccy and Avvy aren’t the most amicable towards each other, they are incredibly close. They know each other's quirks and habits, and even though they may act like the other is the most annoying being on the planet, they do care a lot for each other.

Lea die Birke
Lea is Avian's step-cousin, and the girl who could potentially be the next Marlinchen, rather than Avian.

Avian is, in all respects, jealous of Lea. Lea, the soft-spoken girl who charmed people with her kindness, the girl who could never stay mad at anyone, and the girl filled with so much innate goodness that she fitted the Marlinchen destiny like a glove. Lea is pretty much everything Avian wanted to be, and a girl so perfect for the Marlinchen destiny that it's no wonder why Avian is so jealous and dislikes her so much.

In the events leading up to his uncle's wedding, Avian seperated himself from Lea and his cousin, Icarus, and instead spent most of his time baking pies and cleaning. Most of all, he wanted to prove that he was better than her, and that he was the real Marlinchen. All of that fell to pieces once Avian lost his temper and ended up yelling at his cousins, though. Avian became so embarrassed after that incident that he refused to speak to either of the two, even though he wants to apologise desperately for what he did.

Tenley Rosewood
"You're my one and only Marlinchen, dude."

- Tenley to Avian

By far, Avian is closest to his friend Tenley Rosewood, the next sister in the Rose-Tree. The two are incredibly close, often exchanging quips and the driest jokes in the history of dry jokes. Avian and Tenley have been best friends since they were children (around 10-11 years old), and they have been close ever since. Their friendship is mainly "hey dude do this stupid thing I dare you" "hell yeah I'm doing this stupid thing". They also talk about pretty girls together.

Although Tenley

Airmid Valerian
He also has an odd sort of friendship with Airmid Valerian. Even though the physician treats Avian like a kid sometimes, at least she bothers to listen to what he says.

That friendship is mainly due to Icarus and Airy being buds.

Jon Septem
Another of Avian's friends is Jon Septem. The two met on their very first day at Ever After High, just before the Orientation Day meeting. When Avian’s pet pigeon, Tesla, escaped from her cage, Jon shifted into a raven to stop Tesla from escaping.

Birds
They love him.

Pet
If it isn't obvious, Avian is incredibly fond of birds, and the birds are fond of Avian. Even though he can't exactly speak to birds like others can, he understands birds quite well by watching their body language and trying to pierce together some familiar sounds of their twittering.

Avian generally doesn't see any of the birds as pets. That also includes Tesla, the pigeon that flew towards him during Animal Calling. Avian named her Tesla as a nod to the scientist Nikola Tesla who was obsessed with pigeons. Tesla is less of a pet and more like one of the bird friends he has, except that she lives with him.

Tesla is a douche. There's no doubt about it. Tesla pokes fun at and makes jokes about all of Avian's friends, any potential baes, and pretty much everyone else. The only exceptions are her fellow birbs, whose company she adores the most. The other birds are also the only "people" she thinks should hang out with Avian.

Romance
Avian had a girlfriend once. They didn't really do anything except maybe hold hands and talk about trees. Said girlfriend ended up breaking up with him for an unexplained reason. Younger Avian felt gutted of course, but his mother always told him to respect girls when they said 'no', so Avian just kinda accepted the breakup and moved on. Neither of the two halves of the previous relationship seemed to want to talk about anything related to the relationship, so this dork just ended up diverting conversations when anything related came up. It's also subtly implied that she was "sort-of" a swan maiden I mean what

Later in highschool, he realised he was bisexual and that was pretty chill. His parents were accepting of his identity, and that went pretty well (because his mother Marlene was also bisexual as well).

He had a boyfriend later in highschool and Avian ended up avoiding this boyfriend until they broke up. Like the previous relationship with that girl, no one talks about this relationship. In fact, no one even acknowledges it. Hence why in Icarus Juniper's diary, it is implied that Avian only ever had one ex, because Icarus wasn't counting Avvie's relationship with this unnamed boyfriend.

Also: Avian is always shipped with birds for some reasons. I guess you could call him a chick magnet. Despite Lian Tian-e's claims, Avian does not have a thing for Swan Maidens ( he totally does ).

Ships with him include Ivian, which is entirely one-sided because Avian has no idea that Ivan even exists. Also Jarevian, but it's a very dead ship. There's probably also a few crackships sailing around. Generally, I ship Avian with happiness and food, because why would you ship anything else?

Outfits
{| class="article-table" ! Art !Avian's Outfits
 * Avian_fullbody.png
 * Avian_fullbody.png

Basic (Pre-Branches)
This is the outfit that I usually draw Avian in, and it's charactised by his red beanie.

He wears a white t-shirt with either a bird pun or a pie pun on it, with a teal-green hoodie over it. The hoodie is striped, and has patterns of birds and trees. He wears skinny red jeans over red converse with a tree texture on it. His messy hair is topped with a beanie.

On his "official" art he wears an apron, but usually, he only wears the apron when baking.
 * The beanie vaguely resembles an apple – referencing the apple in the story.
 * Birds and pie quotes are on his t-shirt for obvious reasons.
 * He wears hoodies because they're comfortable. Trees symbolise the Juniper Tree, birds because of the singing birds.
 * Apron because he bakes.
 * His jeans are red to symbolise blood which appears faaaaaar too much in the Juniper Tree.
 * His shoes are red as a reference to the red shoes that Marlinchen is given at the end of the story.
 * They're also converse because converse are associated with skateboarders and Avian skateboards.
 * TBA
 * TBA

Basic (Post-Branches)

 * Avian_Legacy_Day.png
 * Avian_Legacy_Day.png

Legacy Day
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Trivia

 * He talks to birds more than he should. Actually, he doesn't really talk to birds. He can just vaguely decipher what they're saying. Think of a person who took a language at high school speaking to a native speaker. It's basically that.
 * Despite constant arguments with his cousin Icarus Juniper, Avian truly believes that he's the protagonist of the tale. Not that he wants to be the protagonist, mind you, but it's just fun to argue.
 * He's longsighted and wears glasses. He also happens to be red-green colourblind (inherited from his mother), which means he can't see the colour green too well and the colour he sees most vividly is blue. And yes, that is a yellow pen you're holding up. He can see that. Stop.
 * The Juniper Tree isn't actually proper folklore! It was actually a tale written by some guy and given to the Grimms, which makes sense considering the hexload of Biblical references in it.

Quotes
"Think how awesome being a bird would be! No responsibilities, complete and utter glorious freedom, no one to nag you about brushing your hair in the morning..."

- Avian discussing the whole idea of Tenley possibly being the bird in 'the Rose-Tree'

"I like the dangerous part the best. It’s alright when a creature’s awesome and majestic, but when they’re dangerous, it’s instant bragging rights when you get close to it."

- Can I just say that this is the same guy who broke his arm twice in his life?

"Iccy, why don’t you stop caring about gender roles and have some sausage rolls instead?"

- Avian yells at Icarus because Avie is a dick sometimes. "Avian looked at me, wide eyes with fear. That was when I realised that the innocent one in the family wasn’t Lea."

- Icarus Juniper's diary