watch as i gamble away every last concept in this thread

[Zetsu]

hi hello yes

might add a 4th kid down the line if I think I have the spoons for it, but this is what I got for now

[+] color code

close/best friends
friendly acquaintances
it's complicated
dislike
hate
romance

Birch Zhu

[+] Shitpost

[+] Piccrew

birch.png (202.42 KiB) Viewed 52 times

[+] Info

• High-strung high-achieving ace student and clarinetist who can definitely avert burnout if only they snort enough cocaine (false)
• Proooooobably hasn’t actually done cocaine, but they’re incredibly reckless and more than a little self-destructive, mostly as a way to cope with the unbelievable amount of pressure they (and their parents) subject themself to. Basically an over-caffeinated ball of resentment and anxiety who lacks healthy outlets
• Parents are just extremely pushy tiger parents of the worst order. They have a tendency to treat Birch like a trophy to show off and boast about, and, well, it’s very embarrassing when your kid’s lacking in boast-worthy qualities. Lately, though, they’ve taken to encouraging Birch to practice less on the clarinet—it’s all well and good when you can brag about how good of a musician your daughter is, but she shouldn’t get it into her head that she can make a career out of it, you know? (Amusingly, Birch now practices more on clarinet than they used to, out of spite)
• Likes to rebel by partaking in delinquent activities whenever they have the plausible deniability for it. If they’re not already in with the delinquent crowd, they’re definitely begging to be inducted. Ask them to do something stupid and dangerous and they’ll find a way to do it that’s even more stupid and dangerous
• How are they finding time to study and practice and engage in delinquency, you ask? Good question! The answer is that they Don’t Sleep
• One more thing: they’re a nonbinary transmasc, keeping it a secret from their parents, and extremely twitchy and nervous about being caught. Don’t ask them if they’re binding safely; they’re not

[+] Looking for

• TBA/in progress, if you have any ideas at all then let me know
• Okay but, like, obviously they have delinquent friends/enemies/homoerotic rivals
• Bisexual, may or may not have a string of exes with whom they broke up under acrimonious circumstances

[+] Relations

Alice Robinson

[+] Shitpost

[+] Piccrew

alice.png (77.1 KiB) Viewed 52 times

[+] Info

• So she’s a 10/10 butch lesbian heartthrob but she’s, like, really really really into fossils and rocks
• She knows that a lot of people find it grating when she derails the conversation to explain precisely why Lystrosaurus was just so damn abundant during the early Triassic period or whatever, so she tries not to talk about it too much. In fact, she’s very charming and good at getting a good grade in social situations! Though, of course, if you want to hear about Lystrosaurus’ status as a survival taxon…haha jk…unless…
• The one thing about that is that if you say something egregiously inaccurate about a paleontological subject, she will um akshually you. She knows it’s obnoxious, but she simply does not care—it matters when people have an inaccurate view of natural history, damn you!
• In general she’s p good at school, does solidly well in all of her classes without needing to try too hard—except for biology, for that subject she’s a die-hard tryhard and consistently top of the class
• Has a carefully-managed competitive streak, which mostly comes out when she’s playing fighting games. She can also be kinda cocky, though mostly in a playful ‘haha wouldn’t it be funny if I got punished for my hubris’ kind of way
• Her sense of humor is dry and somewhat deadpan, and she’s probably something of an introverted extrovert? She’ll show up to social events and whatnot, and she seems to enjoy it, but she probably won’t say a lot unless you hit her hyperfixation button
• She really really likes hiking. Rocks, animals, maybe even a fossil if you’re lucky—what more can she ask for?
• Actually has a healthy and loving relationship with her parents because someone’s gotta balance out Birch and Vivian

[+] Looking for

• TBA/in progress, if you have any ideas at all then let me know
• Friends probably include outdoorsy kids and paleontology/geology/zoology nerds? Conversely, if your kid likes Jurassic World (or similar media) too much then she probably has an incredibly petty hatred for them
• Lesbian. One of Alice's themes is feeling like people only want her for the role they expect her to play, in a 'everybody looks at me and sees a handsome athletic butch who can step on them, nobody's interested in listening to me infodump about paleontology' kind of way. So if you have a girl and you're up for a romance attempt that ends up with Alice feeling like she's been used, let me know!

[+] Relations

Vivian Cho

[+] Shitpost

mask and wearer.png (15.88 KiB) Viewed 588 times

[+] Piccrew

I've not been able to find a piccrew that conveys Vivian's fashion sense completely accurately, so, uh...picture a version of this that's more suited to the desert

[+] Info

• Former nerd who got so good at cosplaying as a pretty popular girl that she became a pretty popular girl. As one does
• Used to be really good at school, until her depressed and chronically stressed-out med student brother fell asleep at the wheel and got into a lethal car crash when she was in 8th grade. After that she did her best to stop trying and have fun instead, because, like, what’s the point?
• Needless to say this really pissed her parents off, but they were inattentive and neglectful toward her while her brother was alive so they can suck it
• Despite affecting a cavalier attitude towards schoolwork, low grades still make her anxious, so she ‘relapses’ into studying often enough to maintain a B+ average
• Intentionally cultivates an image of being a vapid, vacuous valley girl, but isn’t particularly secretive about the fact that it’s an act. Will give you an ‘I know that you know’ wink if she thinks you know. Generally rather chill and laid-back, and tends not to take anything too seriously
• Probably unsurprisingly, she’s really into performance art and weird experimental theatre stuff. Also likes tabletop rp, for similar reasons. Also also likes drag and burlesque, but it's harder to get entry to those when you're a minor
• Knows how to put together a good outfit, and uses this knowledge to put together the most atrocious outfits possible. If she doesn't look like she got vomited on by a unicorn then she is, in her opinion, not wearing enough colors
• Is just a very sweet and friendly person. Life’s too short to be anything else, y’know? That said, she's not above some light-hearted trolling; Vivian's discovered that playing dumb is an effective way to mess with people who, in her opinion, take themselves too seriously
• Pansexual, generally attracted to people she perceives as feminine regardless of gender. Has also been getting some gender envy for femboys as of late, but…nah. Just because she finds femboys attractive doesn’t mean she wants to be a femboy…right?

[+] Looking for

• TBA/in progress, if you have any ideas at all then let me know
• Probably has a pretty broad friend group? Vivian's very extroverted and friendly to pretty much everyone, and she's also incredibly indifferent to cliques
• Generally, I'm gonna be looking for friends who fall into each of the following categories: friends who completely buy her valley girl aesthetic, friends who suspect that her aesthetic is an act but are chill and go along with it, and friends who suspect that her valley girl aesthetic is an act and are *determined* to figure out 'what kind of person she really is'
• Pansexual, as mentioned above. She's caring and supportive towards her partners, but she's also the kind of person you can be dating for over a year and still feel like you barely know

[+] Relations

[Dr Adjective]

Like a ninja, I easily bypass the defences of this thread and target the ideas within.

Hello Birch!
Depending on the time scaling, Heather's either more than happy to introduce a new person to Rebelling, or the one that's still part of that crowd but beginning to grow away from troublemaking for its own sake and towards a more directly politicised sort of rebellion. In either case, in the present day she's certainly pro-pissing off your pushy parents and doing your own thing, but slightly more of a voice of reason within that context. Taking care of your comrades is praxis. She's also kinda-sorta self-appointing herself the guardian angel of queer kids so she is a safe space to talk gender stuff.

Also see Mercy Myers and the extended Family for people they may be moving away from?

Hello Alice!
Artemis doesn't know very much about dinosaurs, but she's plenty eager to hear more. She does know that birds are supposedly the descendents of dinosaurs, and she likes those! Might be down to go on an outdoors trek from time to time but she's more of an indoors person by-and-large though.

Butch lesbian hearthrob? LK fancies her, there is no avoiding this. Romance on the cards but with the caveats that LK is fairly early in transition and that she's probably involved in a poly thing, either or both of which may not be to Alice's taste.. Also an indoors person but very down to 1v1 her at any given fighting game, though her own preference is for the FGC's black sheep Super Smash Bros.

Mercy disliked the Jurassic World movies for different reasons, so there's... almost something there. Problem is she likes the original Jurassic Park. It's a classic! It has Jeff Goldblum!

And hello at last to Vivian!
Speaking of Mercy, guess who's good at literal costumes and has a handful of nerdy interests whilst also being a pretty, popular girl? This kid! Could be a gateway drug to the world of being not-a-dork. Come listen to her band and/or watch horror movies with her! Oh she may also be of use in makeup for performance art, significantly more likely to want to help if it’s in any way macabre.

If she's still actively involved in tabletop stuff, Artemis is supposed to have a group. So far I think it includes Koa? I forget if there were others. My brain is a sieve when it comes to anything actually useful.

Hope might be a former friend who feels a bit left-in-the-cold by her glow up, potentially?

[Fiori]

Guten tag

Marcy and Birch: Can see Birch and Marcy being fellow inductees into the delinquent crowd, possibly even egging each other to prove they're not just posers?

Koa and Vivian: Theatre kid AND tabletop geek? Imagine she and Koa will at least hang out amongst the same crowds, possible he maybe even knew her back when she was more openly nerdy?

[Deblod100]

While I think Mortimer, Emma, and Joanne are relatively neutral to all three.

Alice on the other hand (depending on her height), can be the perfect candidate for being Vanessa's girlfriend.

[Cicada]

[+] Birch

I can nominate Sohel as one of Birch's acrimonious (on their end anyways) exes if you'll be going down that path! Sohel has like... nothing to offer someone like Birch at all, the only reason they could have ever gotten together however briefly is probably because Sohel casually went rizz mode on them during a class assignment he was looking for help on, he asked Birch out, Birch said 'eh why not' then realized their mistake a couple of days later and unceremoniously booted him out. They can probably go in on insulting him and belittling him for a while then realize he just shrugs and takes it in good humor.

[Zetsu]

sorry about the delays everyone! i've been on vacation and such

[+] Dr A

Hello Birch!
Depending on the time scaling, Heather's either more than happy to introduce a new person to Rebelling, or the one that's still part of that crowd but beginning to grow away from troublemaking for its own sake and towards a more directly politicised sort of rebellion. In either case, in the present day she's certainly pro-pissing off your pushy parents and doing your own thing, but slightly more of a voice of reason within that context. Taking care of your comrades is praxis. She's also kinda-sorta self-appointing herself the guardian angel of queer kids so she is a safe space to talk gender stuff.

Also see Mercy Myers and the extended Family for people they may be moving away from?

Hmm, I think Birch entered their rebellious era somewhere around the second semester of 10th grade? But yeah, they're gonna be running in the same circles as Heather, and they're happy to take their troublemaking in more political directions; their politics trend far-left but are generally more feelings-and-vibes oriented than politically coherent (if adopting a given position lets them feel the catharsis of justified anger, chances are they're gonna adopt it). Birch would probably be kinda wary of Heather's self-appointed guardian-angel status, as they kinda just don't trust anyone who positions themself as an authority figure, even a benevolent one. They're also just kinda prone to swinging between paranoia and clinginess--with those things in mind, maybe a hot-and-cold friendship?

Re: Mercy, probably not? Birch's old social circle would probably consist mostly of academic try-hards and band kids; their family's very well-off, but they're not blue-blooded.

Hello Alice!
Artemis doesn't know very much about dinosaurs, but she's plenty eager to hear more. She does know that birds are supposedly the descendents of dinosaurs, and she likes those! Might be down to go on an outdoors trek from time to time but she's more of an indoors person by-and-large though.

Butch lesbian hearthrob? LK fancies her, there is no avoiding this. Romance on the cards but with the caveats that LK is fairly early in transition and that she's probably involved in a poly thing, either or both of which may not be to Alice's taste.. Also an indoors person but very down to 1v1 her at any given fighting game, though her own preference is for the FGC's black sheep Super Smash Bros.

Mercy disliked the Jurassic World movies for different reasons, so there's... almost something there. Problem is she likes the original Jurassic Park. It's a classic! It has Jeff Goldblum!

Alice, like any self-respecting dinosaur lover, loves birds--perhaps the occasional birdwatching excursion could be a thing?

Won't rule out romance for LK, but it's unlikely to happen? Being early in transition isn't a sticking point, nor is being polyamorous; however, it's rather hard to worm your way into Alice's heart if you don't have at least some interest in paleontology or outdoorsy stuff. It'd make sense if they matched against each other in fighting games and/or Smash Bros from time to time, tho!

Alice actually likes the OG Jurassic Park, it had cutting edge science for the time! Still probably not enough of an actual connection there to justify anything, though xD

And hello at last to Vivian!
Speaking of Mercy, guess who's good at literal costumes and has a handful of nerdy interests whilst also being a pretty, popular girl? This kid! Could be a gateway drug to the world of being not-a-dork. Come listen to her band and/or watch horror movies with her! Oh she may also be of use in makeup for performance art, significantly more likely to want to help if it’s in any way macabre.

If she's still actively involved in tabletop stuff, Artemis is supposed to have a group. So far I think it includes Koa? I forget if there were others. My brain is a sieve when it comes to anything actually useful.

Hope might be a former friend who feels a bit left-in-the-cold by her glow up, potentially?

Mercy and Vivian probably run in the same circles and get along, yeah! Stuff re: costuming, makeup (Vivian's not particularly macabre but she's not opposed to it), listening to Mercy's band, and watching horror movies together all check out. Only thing that wouldn't work is the Mercy-as-gateway thing: I think Vivian's transformation is largely self-driven and happens fairly abruptly.

Penciling in Artemis, Koa, and Vivian as potential members of a tabletop group! Vivian gravitates towards charisma-based casters and rogues.

I don't think Vivian is the kind of girl who'd leave behind her old friends once she became popular--if Hope had been a friend pre-glow-up, she'd probably be a friend post-glow-up. That said, not entirely sure what their connection would be pre-glow-up?

[+] Fiori

Marcy and Birch: Can see Birch and Marcy being fellow inductees into the delinquent crowd, possibly even egging each other to prove they're not just posers?

Koa and Vivian: Theatre kid AND tabletop geek? Imagine she and Koa will at least hang out amongst the same crowds, possible he maybe even knew her back when she was more openly nerdy?

Absolutely yes to Marcy and Birch egging each other on! They're also both quite volatile and struggle with anger management, so perhaps a soap opera of a friendship could be on the cards...?

The funny thing about Vivian is that her interests arguably got more nerdy after she became a popular girl--in the past, she was mostly the straight-laced-and-good-grades kind of nerd. But it would absolutely make sense for them to be good friends in the present day! Vivian would also have a more-than-passing interest in wrestling--she likes the campy elements a lot, and the performance artist in her thinks that kayfabe as a concept is fascinating.

[+] Deblod

While I think Mortimer, Emma, and Joanne are relatively neutral to all three.

Alice on the other hand (depending on her height), can be the perfect candidate for being Vanessa's girlfriend.

Will probably pass on this one; Alice and Vanessa don't really have any common interests, so there wouldn't be much for them to connect over!

[+] Cicada

I can nominate Sohel as one of Birch's acrimonious (on their end anyways) exes if you'll be going down that path! Sohel has like... nothing to offer someone like Birch at all, the only reason they could have ever gotten together however briefly is probably because Sohel casually went rizz mode on them during a class assignment he was looking for help on, he asked Birch out, Birch said 'eh why not' then realized their mistake a couple of days later and unceremoniously booted him out. They can probably go in on insulting him and belittling him for a while then realize he just shrugs and takes it in good humor.

Hmm, I think Birch is proooobably a bit too all-in and fervorous about their relationships for the kind of casual dating scenario you describe here? A better candidate for romantic entanglements with Sohel would probably be Vivian, but I'll save the details for DM's.

[Polybius]

Link to my characters

Mo and Birch could do rebel stuff together, he might egg them on for fun

As for Vivian, I can imagine both Mo and Buster liking her. Buster just because they're both very social. Mo would come onto her but she doesn't seem like the type for casual hookups so I doubt it'd work. Neither one would notice she's faking, probably.

[Zetsu]

All of these dynamics should work! Birch might yell at Mo from time to time if they notice him pushing the envelope with the girls he's hitting on. Vivian would turn down Mo, but less because she's unwilling to do hook-ups and more because Mo's just not really her type. She generally doesn't mind getting hit on, though, so there's a chance he's just been continuously hitting on her ever since they met and she in return has been continuously deflecting and brushing him off cheerfully.

One more thing that occurs to me is that Vivian's general trajectory has been almost the opposite of Penny's, in that Vivian went from a loner nerd to an outgoing party girl. That could make for an interesting dynamic, but I'm also not sure it'd make sense for either of them to be aware that they're inverses of each other.

[Polybius]

Yeah all that sounds good. I can imagine Penny maybe knowing who Vivian is and being a bit jealous of her? Like maybe she's noticed Vivian's change but not the other way around, Vivian just barely knows who Penny is.