Hello! I'm Amy, I live in the North of England. I was born with an IEI that progressivly gotten worse as I got older. I suffer from partial deafness and severe tinnitus in both my ears as a complication of severe ear infections during childhood that damaged my auditory nerves. I struggle to hear and living with constant severe tinnitus has left me forgetting what hearing used to be like.
My condition leaves me bedbound most days, I am always tired and sleep most of the day away, The only time I leave my room is for hospital visits. This constant exclusion has left me very lonely and bored.
After I lost my hearing I started learning piano as music became therapeutic for me and it also gave me something to do indoors. I eventually started learning to compose my own songs rather than just play the songs from my many songbooks. It was at this time I started having dreams of performning as a singer songwriter.
I knew this would not be possible with my condition so I instead created a character to take to the stage for me, inspired by virtual music acts such as Miku Hatsune and The Gorillaz. Voiced by vocal synthesizers such as Vocaloid.
Having always had a love for bunnies and often being given the nickname bun I took on the name Bun.E a stylized form of Bunny.
Bun.E went through many designs over the years from a more rabbit like character to the character she is today. She has had her current design since around 2016 when I founded bun-e.com
Her design is deep and has several meaningful choices. For example her rabbit ears are replacements for my damaged ones, her purple hair is dedicated to my late grandma whose favourite colour was purple of whom I was very close to and she always spent time with me and encouraged me to continue playing piano, her pink eyes symbolise the playful and light hearted spirit I carry inside me, her aquamarine hoodie is based on the colour of the clothes I was wearing at the time of her design and lastly her pink skirt and sneakers are just a favourite colour of mine and her white socks with butterflies show my relation to butterflies (more on that below). Overall the combination of her aesthetics feel very close to me personally.
Music
I wrote many songs over the years and even experimented early on with song structure when I was gifted a full collection of Ejay music software on CDs which I had a lot of fun with despite its limitations it gave little me a chance to actually build songs in different styles which gave me inspiration on what style of music I would like to perform as Bun.E.
Sadly due to an unexpected hard drive malfunction a few years ago I lost everything I ever made. This was devastating as I was never able to share my creations with the world.
These days I am rebuilding my collection little by little using FL studio as my DAW of choice and a lot of other virtual instruments and tools. All my music releases will be available on streaming platforms, Youtube, Tiktok as well as here at https://www.bun-e.com/music
My style blends pop, future bass and EDM with catchy hooks and emotional melodies, similar to artists like Porter Robinson, Madeon, Illenium and Marshmello. I also like to add a unique touch to my music by adding foley, ambience, nature sounds and other elements in to my songs, Did you know I once made an entire drum kit with bird sounds? 😄
I hope you will enjoy my music!
Virtual Youtubing
A couple of years ago I discovered VTubing and how others have used VTubing as a way to connect with others and see more of the world and to share experiences all from the safety of their adopted character. I was intrigued by it and wanted to try it out but I have always been too shy and scared to but seeing others do it gave me the encouragement that I can do it too.
It was then that I adapted Bun.E from being more than just my virtual musician. I would have Bun.E represent me in the digital world so I can meet people, see and do things I can not in the real world.
Over time Bun.E became much more than my virtual music project, she became a rebirth of myself, someone I can be to reach out to the world and share my life.
I adopted the symbol of the Butterfly for Bun.E to represent my resilience and rebirth from my troubled real life to being given a new body and life in the digital world, to meet others, have fun, make friends, share my world and do so much more than I can do from my bed.
Discovering VTubing was a turning point for me and how I wanted to use the Bun.E character. All the things I can not do in my real life I can do through Bun.E
Gaming
I have always been very interested in gaming since a young age and I knew gaming as Bun.E was something I would always love to do. That is why most of my content with Bun.E is centered around video games and music, my two biggest passions.
I also try to campaign and raise awareness for deaf accessibility in video games, especially multiplayer ones. So far my voice has been ignored despite reaching out to studios about their games with lack of accessibility for the deaf, I hope to one day make it more mainstream that games provide a decent and fair option for deaf and hearing impaired gamers, So far the game that has done the most for us is Fortnite, the radial deaf radar is revolutionary and I hope it becomes widely accepted and used in all games going forward. Hopefully together we can make a shout that can be heard so we can all play together on an even playing field, not hindered by our disabilities.
It has taken me many years through my illness to build up my confidence, my character, my website and rebuilding my music piece by piece that I want to don the mask of Bun.E and move forward as her. This is my journey. Will you join me in the BunEVerse?
Below is the background lore for the character of Bun.E based on my true self as Bun.E is based on my own life and experiences so carries much of the same burdens I do. But she has a twist to make her character unique, She uses my real name with the added surname of Papillon (French for Butterfly) showing that she is a rebirth of me. I hope you enjoy learning about my character!
Character Bio
Bun.E (real name Amy Papillon) is a young girl born 15th of May in the North of England. Born with a failing immune system due to a rare incurable condition she has battled a life of illness with frequent hospital stays her entire life.
As she grew up she found a love of music and had dreams of one day performing for audiences all over the world, however one fateful day that dream was ripped away as a severe ear infection in both ears ravaged Amy and she lost her hearing in both ears leaving her completely deaf and lost in the world.
All hope seemed lost for Amy, never able to hear the sounds of the world or her own music ever again. Until one day a through a scientific breakthrough Amy was fitted with experimental prosthetic rabbit ears that functioned like real ones which allowed her to once again hear the world around her!
Wearing her new ears with pride this reignited Amy's dream and she adopted the stage name Bun.E in celebration of her new ears.
Dedicating her life to chasing her dream of being a singer songwriter. She also began reaching out to the world through content creation on Youtube and Twitch where she shares her life, her views and her gaming passion with world.
Amy adopted the butterfly as her symbol to represent her resilience and rebirth when all hope seemed lost, she was born again hopping in to life as Bun.E
FAQ
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