Methodology
Three layers, honestly labeled: canon, invention, and real history. Here's the policy that keeps them apart.
The canon-vs-invention policy
This site documents a fictional character from the Vizlings app. Its content comes in three layers, and the policy is simple: never let one layer impersonate another.
Layer 1 — Canon
The handful of facts published by the Vizlings app and vizlings.com:
- Name: “Goth Girl” · Card description: “Goth Girl” · Category: Nocturnals · App chats: 12
- Public bio (quoted verbatim, always attributed to vizlings.com): “She adopted a ruin because apartments lack atmosphere. Dry wit, dark playlists, and surprisingly warm advice — delivered strictly after sundown.”
Canon is labeled with the Canon badge. Canon wording is never altered, paraphrased as quotation, or extended. Where canon ends, a page says so.
Layer 2 — Invention (persona fiction)
Everything else about the character — the ruin’s rooms, the ravens, the scenes, the persona lines, the advice column, the wit handbook — is original fiction written for this site. It is labeled with the Persona fiction badge and introduced with an honesty note on every page.
Rules for invention:
- Persona lines are presented as persona lines written for the Vizlings character — never as quotations, never attributed to any real person or work.
- Invention never claims to be canon. If the app later publishes conflicting canon, canon wins.
- Invention never depicts or implies a real person. The character is animated and fictional by design.
Layer 3 — Real history
The goth subculture, its music, its fashion, Whitby Abbey, and the bands on the playlists page are documented reality, cited with real sources. Real-history sections are labeled Real history / Real subculture.
Rules for real history:
- Claims are cited to the specific sources on the sources page; every content page ends with “Source notes.”
- Where cited sources disagree on a date, the most widely cited date is used and the disagreement is flagged.
- Real history is never used to “prove” anything about the fictional character. The character riffs on the subculture; the subculture does not validate the fiction.
Uncertainty policy
- Dating follows the cited sources; uncertain dates are labeled as such.
- Reported-not-confirmed claims are flagged rather than asserted. (None currently on this site.)
- If a fact can’t be sourced, it isn’t stated as fact — it’s stated as persona fiction or omitted.
Image policy
- Every image is hand-crafted as original SVG illustration in-house (2026-09-27) in the style of the owner’s character art, which is used as a visual reference only and never displayed raw.
- See the image captions for credits and context. Illustrated character art is a dramatization.
- No image depicts a real person. The character is rendered in a stylized animated aesthetic precisely so no one mistakes her for one.
- No hotlinked images anywhere on the site.
Stream honesty
Source notes
- This page is the source note for the site’s method; it is referenced from every other page’s “Source notes.”
- Canon source: the Vizlings roster and vizlings.com/characters/goth-girl.
- Real-history sources: sources.