Devin Phillips

Biography
Devin and Ava met as children and became best friends, and between his discovery of her father’s abusive nature and her father’s arrest, she was briefly adopted into his family. The two became a couple shortly after Ava attempted suicide at 16, a moment which prompted some considerable soul-searching for both of them. The stress of this period contributed considerably to his parents’ messy divorce, which collapsed the family entirely.

Newton College Shooting
The two attended the prestigious Newton College, but dropped out at 22 after a mass shooting nearly claimed both their lives. Having had a brush with mental illness himself after Ava’s near-death, and recognising signs of this in the attacker, he attempted to talk him down - and was starting to make progress when he was handed a firearm and instructed to join in. He tried to turn the gun on the attacker, failed, and both he and Ava were shot.

The fallout from this attack had a considerable effect on Devin’s life; he recovered from his wounds relatively quickly, but Ava was left comatose for a further three weeks. Both suffered from PTSD in the years following, something he countered by writing Blackbird, a novel that retold the pivotal moments of their relationship through those six years. This was published pseudonymously to protect their privacy and, while it received considerable acclaim, he has never been publicly identified as its author. To his knowledge, the only person who has ever made this discovery is Ava’s half-sister Olivia, who studied the book when she attended the same university to study English Literature some years later and has since helped to maintain the deception. The autobiography remains Devin’s only published work.

Flight to Icecrown
Devin’s mental illness has steadily improved since, but he has been unable to hold down a single job and is becoming more and more frustrated with his inability to find a publisher. After these frustrations started to affect his relationship he and Ava agreed to spend a fortnight travelling separately around the world - not counting their recovery, the longest period they will have spent apart since childhood. They remain in contact and are still firmly a couple, and hope the time to themselves will strengthen their relationship.