History

DeeDee Dearest

Deanna was born on November 4, 2000, to Dan and Eileen Wilcox, in Atlanta. The Wilcoxes were artists: Eileen a painter and Dan a photographer. Deanna was the result of a hookup between Dan and Eileen, who was spiraling after calling it quits with her husband, Clark.

Dan had surprised Eileen by being willing to marry her and parent their child together, though their honeymoon period was short-lived. Their relationship with explosive and unpredictable, marked by periods of intense violence only worsened by Eileen’s developing substance abuse issues. Deanna was protected from the worst of Eileen’s dark periods and Dan’s outbursts by her older brother Kieran, Eileen’s son with Clark. Though Kieran was only two years older than her (though, functionally, closer to three, her birthday being late in the year), Dee grew to idolize her big brother, seeing him as a lone reliable presence in an uncertain life.

Her earliest memories were comprised of tagging along after Kieran and their cousin Eli, who lived in their building with his mother Tina, Eileen’s best friend. The childhood trio was fractured when Kieran found a different playmate in the form of Nat Ramos, a new neighbor. As a result, Eli gradually drifted away from the Wilcox siblings, though Deanna was never far from her brother.

Innocent Until Proven…

In January 2014, a gas explosion took out a chunk of the Wilcox family’s building. There were only two fatalities: Nat Ramos’s parents, Felipe and Elisabet. Nat herself was badly burned and lost her eyesight. Though the explosion was initially investigated as an accident, Eli told the police he’d seen Kieran carrying Nat away from her apartment and had earlier overheard Kieran telling her he wanted to help her “take care” of her abusive parents.

The case went to trial and Kieran plead guilty. This confession, corroborated by Eli’s testimony and by a harrowing account from Nat of the abuse she’d suffered at her parents hands, had an impact on the jury. Kieran was sentenced to three years in juvenile detention. Eli’s testimony caused a damaging rift, not just between Eileen and Tina, but between Dee and her cousin. The loss of her rock was a debilitating blow, and Deanna held onto the belief that Eli was mistaken and that Kieran was innocent of the crime for which he’d been convicted.

Little Orphan DeeDee

Ultimately, Kieran only served one year of his sentence, and was released in early 2015 on good behavior. In that time, matters in the Wilcoxes’ poky apartment (they had been temporarily homeless following the explosion but had ultimately moved back in) had only worsened. Without Kieran to act as a buffer, Dan’s violent outbursts had become more frequent, and Eileen and Deanna were left to his mercy.

Kieran’s return signaled a brief return to something like normalcy, though Dee found her brother had hardened while he was away. Even so, the family knew only a few months together before tragedy struck once more.

On September 12, Dan and Eileen were driving home from a night out when their car crashed. Dan was killed instantly but Eileen lived long enough to make it to the ER, though she passed before the Wilcoxes, who had rushed to the hospital, could say goodbye. The loss of her parents, especially her mother, shattered her utterly and Deanna retreated from the world, becoming quiet and withdrawn.

Home on the Hudson

With Dan and Eileen dead, custody of Kieran and Deanna went to the next appropriate adult. Not the nearest: Tina was neither willing nor able. Dan had no surviving relations and so it was left to Kieran’s surviving parent, Clark Hudson. After leaving the Atlanta PD in disgrace 15 years prior, he’d reestablished himself in the upwardly mobile suburb of Lakewood, Louisiana, where he now served as sheriff. Clark had last visited Atlanta eight years ago, and Deanna had no memory of him at all.

The siblings came to Lakewood on the evening of October 18. It was Deanna’s first road trip and she was still on edge from the violence of her parents’ deaths, screaming when a car caught off Kieran’s truck on I-85.¹

They reached the Hudson home and found it empty. Kieran, undeterred, picked the lock. The exhausted Deanna found herself asleep on the couch before Kieran could even attempt putting together dinner.²

Dee woke up to find Clark had come home and been received, not at all warmly, by Kieran. Things weren’t improved by the knowledge of why Clark hadn’t been there to meet them: he’d been at a crime scene, investigating the murders of Stacy Winters and Brock Carmichael, two of Deanna’s would-be classmates.³

Appearance

Deanna was a petite young woman with a fair complexion, wavy blonde hair and blue-green eyes. In her coloring, she strongly resembled her mother Eileen.⁴

Wardrobe

In the wake of her parents’ deaths, Deanna adopted a mousy, introverted style that served to help her blend in with the background. She wore hoodies and hi-tops with regularity.^{5 6}

Personality

Following her parents’ deaths, Deanna withdrew from the world to the point that she came off as utterly introverted to the many new people she met after relocating to Lakewood. Despite her quiet nature, she retained a bit of the spirit that had characterized her before Dan and Eileen’s deaths.

Origins and Development

Deanna was created by Fate for the 2015 Season 1 AU. She was the first of two OCs Fate created for the game, both of whom were sisters of a canon character. While Gemma was Tyler’s sadistic big sister, Deanna was Kieran’s demure little sister. Her predominant trait in the Season 1 forum was her quietness: Deanna was so traumatized by the deaths of her parents that she functionally nonverbal, only reliably communicating with Kieran. A major storyline over the forum’s run was Clark trying to earn Deanna’s trust.

While Fate fashioned Gemma for a villainous role, and may even have intended for her to be the face behind Ghostface’s mask, Deanna had an opposite purpose: she was supposed to die relatively early, with her murder serving to galvanize Kieran (and, potentially, Clark) into vengeful action. However, the forum went defunct shortly after completing its second “episode”, and Deanna’s violent end didn’t come to pass.

When Fate joined the May 2016 Season 2 AU, she brought Deanna with her. Fate joined the forum later than the other refugees from the 2015 game, meaning that things were well underway and Kieran (still portrayed by his 2015 writer, TellatrixForever) had not mentioned his little sister before. This inconsistency was quickly solved with the explanation that Dee had run away shortly after the events of the first season, presumably traumatized by Clark’s murder, and had been missing for months. As a consequence, the bedraggled Deanna makes a dramatic entrance: walking into the school cafeteria and promptly passing out.

This drama was quickly followed by chaos over the murder of Paula Henderson, which dominated the rest of the forum, keeping the reunited Wilcox siblings to the sideline.

The Season 2 AU tapered off before the conclusion of its canon equivalent, which revealed that Kieran was the season’s Ghostface, and had also been an accomplice to Piper Shaw in Season 1. This reveal was adapted by the October 2016 Season 3 AU, heavily recontextualizing the Wilcox siblings’ relationship, with the imprisoned Kieran (now played by forum moderator TheDerpHowlsatMidnight) calling Deanna from his cell, toying with her as the canonical Ghostfaces had toyed with Emma and Audrey. This dynamic gave Deanna her most significant role in the drama yet, and she was a central figure in the chaos surrounding the murder of Terrance Smith that dominated the forum’s action.

Deanna made the final leap to the SRU three years later, when The Final Retreat began. Fate portrayed Deanna through to Dee’s murder at the end of the game’s sixth chapter, written in late 2019.

Other Interpretations

Original OC Bio

The following is the application for Deanna Wilcox, submitted by Fate for the 2015 Season 1 AU on September 3, 2015. Text is presented as it was originally displayed on Fanfiction.net, with no redactions.

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Name: Deanna Wilcox

Age: 14

Personality: Deanna is smart and cunning, though she can be very shy and timid when approached by anyone other then those she knows. She is now shut down because of what happened to her parents, and will only talk to Kieran.

Appearance: (link is preferable, however description is also acceptable) Since links haven’t been working lately, her face claim is Saoirse Ronan. She is around 5’5″ tall, slender build, her hair is long and light brown in coloring. She wears jeans and t-shirts with an oversized hooded jacket most often. She wears converse for shoes, black in color. And she has blue eyes.

Likes/Dislikes: Deanna likes to listen to music, write and keep to herself. She doesn’t like slasher films, or jocks.

Favorite Movie: Her favorite movie is The Notebook.

Bio: Deanna and Kieran moved to Lakewood after their parents died in a car crash, she is not Clark’s daughter though, she is the child of Kieran’s step-father. She was a happy girl, and always loved hanging out with her brother Kieran. After the crash and move to Lakewood, Deanna shut down and became reserved and quiet around everyone. She only opens up and talks to Kieran when their at school or at home. She doesn’t like slasher flics, or anything else that has to do with death and horror. Whenever their at home, she tends to steer clear of Clark and anyone else for the most part.

Other: She is Kieran’s half-sister, younger by two years.

How far do you see them lasting: (this will help determine a few things) I kind of thought maybe she would die shortly after she and Kieran started school. Kind of throw Kieran into a fit a bit, maybe after the party after Nina died.

Season 1 AU

According to her original character bio, Deanna’s favorite movie was The Notebook. This never comes up.

Deanna’s debut post in the forum claims that she and Kieran are moving “back” to Lakewood, implying that they were both born there and, by extension, Clark and Eileen were originally from Lakewood.⁷ When they arrive at Clark’s house, Deanna reflects that their mother once lived there with him.⁸ This isn’t further examined and was potentially quietly retconned over the course of the game, where Deanna never shows any indication any of Lakewood’s people or places are familiar to her.

Deanna’s tendency of referring to Kieran as “big brother” originates from this incarnation of the character.⁹

Deanna is meant to be severely traumatized throughout the game, as a result of her parents’ deaths. To this end, she spends most of the game nonverbal, communicating through Kieran, sometimes with the aid of text messages. Her trauma, however, manifests is odd ways, such as her convincing Clark to purchase a new truck on their very first day of acquaintance. Clark acquiesces, because he wants to be a good father.

Trivia

Deanna was the first OC submitted to the 2015 Season 1 AU, which effectively makes her the oldest original character in the SRU. Not counting appearances in The Story so Far and Lakewood: Year One, Deanna, Edward Teague, and Theodora Kellerman are the only OCs to have remained in the continuity from the 2015 forum through to the present.

Deanna’s faceclaim, Saoirse Ronan, is the first “movie star” to serve as an OC in the SRU. At the time Fate “cast” her in the role, she wasn’t as big a name and was perhaps most known for 2009’s The Lovely Bones and 2013’s The Host (adapted from Twilight author Stephanie Meyer’s follow-up romance novel). Ironically, Ronan would go on to costar with Scream the TV Series‘ John Karna (Noah Foster) in 2017’s Lady Bird, for which she won a Golden Globe.

Fate’s obituary for Deanna, written in December 2019, listed her birthday as April 13, 2000. This was rejected when the original Story so Far Appendix was compiled in 2020/21, with the rationale being that Deanna is 14 in Volume I, 15 in Volume II, and 16 The Final Retreat, meaning her birthday must be later in the year.

1. The Story so Far, Vol. I: Chapter 1, Scene 3 ↩︎
2. The Story so Far, Vol. I: Chapter 1, Scene 3 ↩︎
3. The Story so Far, Vol. I: Chapter 1, Scene 11 ↩︎
4. The Story so Far, Vol. I: Chapter 1, Scene 3 ↩︎
5. The Story so Far, Vol. I: Chapter 1, Scene 3 ↩︎
6. The Story so Far, Vol. I: Chapter 1, Scene 11 ↩︎
7. Season 1 AU: Pilot, Post 5 ↩︎
8. Season 1 AU: Pilot, Post 23 ↩︎
9. Season 1 AU: Pilot, Post 28 ↩︎