Eden Ezekiel-Eybenshutz

Eden Ezekiel-Eybenshutz is a main character in Friends of a Friend.

For unknown reasons, Eden has been plagued by legend cycles and motifs for her entire life, as well as the compulsive need to talk about them, hence her being known as the "Friend of a Friend".

Appearance
Eden is a tall and fairly lanky woman in her 20s. She has brown skin and curly, shoulder-length light gray hair that she parts at the center. Her hair was originally black, but lost its color after experiencing extreme horror in her youth. She dyed it for several years after but rarely does anymore.

Her eyes are slanted slightly downward, with beady red irises. Her eyes are often haft-lidded with faint bags underneath, giving her a tired look. Her nose has a hooked shape, and her teeth are notably straight.

Eden's typical outfit consists of a plain black shirt and pants underneath a buttoned-up khaki trench coat that she essentially wears as a dress. She wears long yellow rubber gloves and yellow galoshes. She wears a black neck gaiter, either around her neck like a scarf or over her nose and mouth like a face mask.

Pre-Series
Eden was born to Boris Eybenshutz, an East German ex-KGB agent, and Shani Ezekiel, an Israeli ex-Mossad agent in Yonkers, New York. Both her parents were terminated from their positions for also being members of the CIA and PLO respectively, although at a certain point neither of them were sure or could remember which side they were originally on.

Eden's tendency to become subjected to legend cycles began very early. As a baby, the family cat attempted to suck the breath from her mouth. At 3, she nearly died after eating an entire bouquet of poinsettias. She was 8 when she heard the story of the Cow's Head, which caused her hair (which was originally black) to turn gray from fear.

At some point during before high school, Eden began transitioning from male to female.

Due to her parent's overprotective nature and her tendency to get her friends injured when they were with her, Eden grew up isolated and had few friends, outside of her oldest friend, Ninel Utkina. While she did attend school, and worked summer jobs, she largely kept to herself. Despite this, she developed a propensity for starting "rumors" (which, from her perspective, were all just true anecdotes from her life) that would spread so far beyond her reach that her place in the narrative would become replaced with "a friend of a friend". Eden was not actively bullied, but many of her peers regarded her as strange and kept their distance, which she convinced herself was for the best.

Despite her parent's concerns for her safety, Eden left home for college, during which she encountered a number of academic legend cycles. After graduation, she landed an entry level position for Rumor Mill, a tabloid publisher. She began renting a one-bedroom, knowing a roommate situation would go horribly (especially after what happened in college), and adopted her "dog" Buby from a coworker who had brought him back from a trip to Yucatan.

Prior to meeting Sid, she tried hard to not make close connections with others.

Personality
Eden's tendency to act resigned to any situation can make her appear as though she has some sort of death wish. In reality, her heightened savviness towards her situation makes her hyper aware of the situations that befall her, as well as how they end up playing out. She finds life annoyingly predictable in this way, craving mundanity because it would at least be more interesting.

Eden has learned to take pleasure in life's simpler things; her favorite foods, movies and activities being more than enough to make her happy. She sincerely enjoys the company of others, but her distrust of them often overpowers this. As such, she relies heavily on animal companionship. She can come off as somewhat abrasive towards others, especially her friend Sid, whose upbeat perspective on her life situation often annoys her. Eden tries to keep to herself in public, but nonetheless always ends up getting roped into the affairs of others. Through this, she has developed very strong social skills, which surprises people, as she initially appears very socially inept.

Inspiration
Eden is said to be the true "friend of a friend of a friend"; nobody knows her personally, but every story can be traced back to her.

Trivia

 * Eden is Jewish on both sides of her family.
 * Her father is Ashkenazi, or Eastern European Jewish, and her mother is of Beta Israel, or Ethiopian Jewish, descent.
 * Eden's birthday is April 1, which coincides with April Fool's Day.
 * Sid describes her as an "old woman in the body of a frumpy rom-com protagonist who will probably end up accidently killing her love interest on their wedding night".
 * Eden is a transgender woman.
 * She began transitioning before entering high school, taking anti-androgens of questionable origins. A soda she consumed as a child had, conveniently enough, already rendered her sterile and feminized.
 * She received a vaginoplasty in college, celebrating her recovery by taking a trip to Bangkok.
 * She has considered reaching out to her mohel to apologize for going over his work.


 * Eden got her bachelor's at Pace University's Westchester campus, where she majored in communications and minored in religious studies.
 * In contrast with Sid, Eden is a fairly moderate drinker but abstains from other drugs. She attributes this to a "bad trip" she had in her freshman year of college that apparently lasted a week and a half.
 * She is voiced by Tawny Newsome in the animated series.