mild cicada noises
I'll bring up my characters and their place in the overall picture/history at some point or another, but for now I'd like to note some overall team vibes that have been implied over the course of pregame/in OOC discussions. Puts them in once place and lets them be debated/discussed if need be:
- The Rattler cheer teams, JV and Varsity, do not do the competitive cheer circuit sanctioned by Varsity (the NCA, the NHSCC, Cheer Worlds, etc). Established as a mutual decision between Coach Harper and a majority of the team. Referenced to here by Stella and Ingrid M. Coach Harper has been said to make her poor experience as a long term member of that world clear to her squads: the people she's seen injured, emotionally abused by coaches and judges, that sort of thing. If your kid would want to be part of the competitive circuit they'd probably have to join an external gym that operates a team that does go to sanctioned regional/national events. Ivy explicitly does this.
There are non Varsity competitions and showcases, et cetera, might be something the team does if there's a vibe for that. Besides that, the Rattlers are ultimately just a sidelines team there to rah-rah school spirit and to do fundraisers. One that does stunts and could be in competitive if they wanted to be, or at least the skilled members of the team could be.
- The team is agnostic to skill level so you can have a cheer kid who's pretty mid, etc. Thanks to Buko for some OOC clarifications/discussions for how the Rattler cheers might operate in this regard.
- Notable team injuries have happened before. In junior year Marcy was taken out of commission for the entire year due to a torn ACL. Two(?) slots for who was involved in the accident are taken (Clarissa for sure, maybe Joanne), if you want in just say it somewhere. Cheer is a fairly injury prone sport (aaaaa etc) so if you want your cheer kid to have been hurt before to the extent that it would be a big deal for the team and something they'd remember as an Event you can definitely throw that in for the vibes.
- Team's going to be larger than the playable cast. We'd have a whole cadre of juniors/more skilled underclassmen running around in the background. At this point we could easily have a 32-member varsity team.
Some things I'll bring up to think about/weigh in on:
- Cheer season is formally over, as cheer teams are only specifically sidelines for fall sports like football and boy's basketball. What the team is specifically doing in the pregame timeline is fundraisers (which I will bring up ICly at some point via the up-and-coming varsity cheer squad official Instagram(s)), community events and showcases, and the seniors helping the non-graduating team members prepare/stay in shape. I was going to propose the team runs a weekend cheer clinic (teaching interested kids in elementary/middle school years). Your cheer kids level of involvement in post-season events and training can be kept in mind if you choose to depict it.
- Thoughts on the cheer outfit?
Sylvie's brought it up before so it might come out to skirt/shell/bodysuit with sleeves. Las Vegas is a hot place most of the year so keep that in mind. Could do a shell with sleeves and midriff coverage that leaves the legs below the skirt exposed, or a full body suit covering arms/legs.
- One thing I was considering is softly pitching and discussing who the captain and co-captain (the team is large by default now so there's definitely a co-captain) might be prior to the actual IC votes? I know we usually wait some time into pregame before voting on club positions so there's more kids in the running to have opinons and votes on it, but we might want to be at least thinking about who they might be and how that affects team dynamics slash activities in advance.
