V9 Pregame is in development! So while you wait for it’s arrival this is the place where you can look for friends, enemies, romances, hobby groups, school clubs and much more! You can start planning threads of your own in this forum to sort out any specific relationships you want for your characters, or you can look through what others' are looking for to find something that would work for your character. Please note that V9 Pregame is still in the future; this forum is merely to allow for more direct and focused planning now that class and location details have been revealed.
Probably won't be participating in V9. I'm leaving this up in case I change my mind, just wanted to be clear about where I currently stand so nobody wastes time trying to ask me for character ideas and such.
Summary: A flaky social butterfly, a serial dater with an avoidant personality who struggles to get close to others but tends to continue to feel their influence even after they're gone from his life, a skilled dancer who already accepted his destiny to be mediocre like his parents before him.
Sohel is part of Blizzard's planned Bangladeshi Brigade (other current handlers running kids in this group include Dogs and Gundham), a tight-knit group of extended family that are mostly first-gen immigrants. His family was the first to emigrate, but his parents struggled the most to adjust to life in America and their consistently bad English limits their job prospects, leaving the family the most working class of the Bangladeshi Brigade despite the parents having been competent civil servants before coming to America. His parents are prideful and also conservative socially, a stark contrast from their more easy-going, soft-spoken son who also happens to be aggressively bisexual. He has not come out to his parents and generally leans more on his friends in the Bangladeshi Brigade, who are among the few friends he keeps consistently.
Appearance: 5'6", lithe and athletic with lean muscle. A stereotypical twunk. He wears his hair in a quiff and has a clean cut goatee (chin only, his lip being clean cut). He has a pretty face with a heavily angular chin, he does well with his skincare, and he is naturally expressive and easily smiles. His fashion sense is limited by budget, with most of it going to his shoes, with several pairs of well cared for sneakers that are often formerly in-vogue streetwear a year or two out of date. The rest of his fashion is thrift that shows attention to detail, with generic but good quality button ups, jeans, and slacks being his go tos. His ears are pierced. Personality: Sohel is a superfically pleasant and affable guy, impossible to offend, easy to make laugh and always having a good time. He's a good active listener and takes a genuine interest in the stories of most people. He's got an understated rizz, and good at casually flirting without coming off as a creep or pressuring. Getting to know him better its clear he's got a low floor and a low ceiling. He gets stand-offish and distant easily if a situation is too intimate in a natural freeze reaction born of a difficulty with opening up to others. He's vaguely aware of this tendency, but doesn't see it for the off-putting thing it is despite being apologetic about it. Think of it as a very well-built defense mechanism- he wants to move on from uncomfortable things quickly, and struggles with confrontation. Social Presence: He has a history of old circles of friends he casually belonged to before moving on, along with a number of exes. He isn't popular, strictly speaking, but he is confident enough to disregard cliques when it comes to chatting people up. His penchant for serial dating manifests as a constant interest in others whenever he happens to be single- he tends to easily see opportunities for a moment of passion and connection, so he is rarely single for longer than a week. His relationships can last a while if people don't mind his struggling with intimacy however, as he also sees nothing wrong with this status quo. He can be friendly towards exes if they don't outwardly hold a grudge towards him, almost like the relationship never even happened. His only consistent social groups are the Bengali Brigade and Red Rock's dance team, and even here his discomfort with being open with his deeper thoughts and feelings tends to be apparent. Clubs: Best Buddies, GSA Politics: Generally apolitical but left-leaning sympathies and aesthetics.
Hobbies/Activities:
Dance: His foremost passion and the one thing he's consistently stuck to in his life. It keeps him fit and he constantly finds time to practice. He's an above average talent and is a centerpiece of the school's dance team, but he's not quite at a professional level of skill. He's not a showboat about it and generally only does it in situations where its appropriate. He can't exactly pay for classes so he sticks to less formal forms of dancing: hip-hop and rave, though his sense of rythym and fundamentals are good enough that he can easily improv an impressive slow dance for a partner.
Auto Mechanics: This is not necessarily a passion, but a skill he's picked up from years observing his father, who also makes a living being an underpaid auto repair tech. Cars did genuinely interest him for a time, but now he views the things he's learned as his likely source of income after graduating high school. He keeps his skills sharp in the school's auto repair class offering and is one of the class's best students, and he also recently started an apprenticeship in his dad's garage. His general technical understanding and knowledge is developed enough that he could likely transfer it into another trade like being an electrician: he sticks to auto work for safety's sake.
Dating and Socializing: To reiterate, he is a powerfully bisexual young man who can't help but constantly be in a relationship... though he's not consciously aware of why its so important to him. He has no particular criterion for the type of person he dates, though he tends to gravitate towards people with more obvious passion or intelligence than he himself has. He's friendly in most scenarios and isn't necessarily limited to the party scene, in general he's quite happy meeting people and engaging with them in most circumstances.
Other People's Hobbies: An understated way he tries to connect with others where his words and emotions fail him is a tendency to use imitation as a form of flattery and bonding. He has a mix of hobbies and interests from his friends and lovers, current and former alike, that he never got that much into for the most part and likely never comes back to much if at all, but he'll generally be good at recalling what he did pick up if it ever comes up again.
Looking For:
Friends, Ex or Current: Could be pretty much anyone. He's just one person so he likely only drifted around in so many different cliques, but he has a good number of people he's had connections with over the years. He can either be still on good terms with people even if a friendship downgraded to acquantances over time, or something could have gone awry (on your characters end, he wouldn't be the sort looking for beef after the fact) leading to some form of bad blood after the fact.
Romantic Partners, Ex or Current: A lesser number than friends, but probably a good amount. His bisexuality is precisely 50/50 and both men and women and any other gender are the sort he could spend time with. As stated above he could have been in a relationship for however long dependent on how tolerant your character was of a relationship that didn't really seem to go anywhere past initial chemistry and attraction, as he'd generally not be the sort to actively seek a relationship's end and he'd more wait for your character to move on. As above, open to folks he's still on good terms with after the fact or on not so good terms with.
Dance Crew: His consistent social group within Red Rock. His above difficulties with intimate connection remain, however, and even with people he's known for years he probably has long periods of time where he seems to only passively be their friend, not really reaching out or making much of an effort.
Kids with Nice Cars: He's good enough and well connected enough that he might offer some repairs or mods to people willing to pay him a fair but under market value rate for his time. He could really use the cash.
Zain Yousef (Blizzardeyewonder) Childhood friends, cousins, Bengali Brigade - Sohel helped Zain develop his English when he emigrated over to America. They support each other as fellow queer kids. From Zain, Sohel picked up drawing for a bit, which Sohel is actually not bad at inherently and he could have developed it with more proper attention.
Rohan Sen (Dogs231) Childhood friends, brief romance (middle school), family friend, Bengali Brigade (technically) - Rohan is the odd one out in the Bengali Brigade, as it's most Americanized member. Rohan and Sohel briefly were an item in middle school, beginning a long pattern of Sohel failing to find his place in a relationship and permanently confirming that Rohan wasn't really into men. The two are still friends to this day, and Sohel is the one most likely to keep other Brigade members from accidentally code switching out of English and excluding Rohan on accident. [hobby/skill copped from Rohan unknown]
Zara Mohammad (Gundham) Childhood friends, cousins, Bengali Brigade - Within the Bengali Brigade Zara stands out as the most successful and driven, and Sohel isn't intimidated by that but acknowledges she's generally out of his league as a person. Zara taught Sohel how to be fashionable around the time Sohel needed it most, and he will be eternally grateful.
Heather Klein (Dr Adjective) Former fling, brief political inspiration - Sohel has a few YouTube and TikTok shorts of dancing to her music. They were briefly an item, long enough for Sohel to naturally want to participate in her firebrand politics for a spell. He didn't really get it on an intellectual level but he was for sure down with the vibe.
Marcy Valerio (Fiori) Former fling, fellow dance crew -
Maggie Wilfred (JacobAllTradez) Former friends - She got a little too close for Johel's comfort. He didn't mind, it just seemed a bit much that she was asking him to help her improve her personality when he didn't think she needed to do anything like that. He still likes the cartoons she introduced to him- when he gets around to watching them. Also, his parents voted for her father, which is apparently news to anybody.
Summary: A terminally awkward and awkwardly affectionate trans girl, a former academic fully burned out by transition and a lack of support, a generic alt-adjacent femme at least in her dreams anyways.
Mysha started transitioning midway through her sophomore year, being put on puberty blockers, then starting proper HRT via informed consent the moment she turned 18 during the summer before senior year. Prior to this she was a quiet and introverted academic with little work ethic and increasingly obvious symptoms of ADHD. When she came out her relationship with her parents became frigid and passive aggressive and they don’t support her beyond passively allowing her to transition. Due to this her former academic skills have collapsed and her ADHD has become increasingly worse, but she maintains at least some forward momentum in converting her formally spoiled and aimless lifestyle into future financial independence despite regular emotional breakdowns.
She’s something of a self-insert, just resetting the current ongoing-transition me into their teen years. Some details are exaggerated for the sake of drama, feel free to guess which.
Appearance: 5’6”, slender and feminine in silhouette, a half year of HRT already working out for her fairly well. She struggles primarily with vocal training and fast growing facial hair. She wears her hair in a wolfcut down her shoulder blades. She deals with significant acne scarring left over from her pre-HRT days, and generally looks sloppy due to her forgetfulness with skin and haircare. Her fashion sense is androgynous due to still mostly having her old male wardrobe to deal with, which was mostly plain monocolor tees and button ups and skinny jeans. She works with what she has as best she can into it with makeup, often nowadays rocking an everyday goth-inspired applique as it comes back into vogue, and her makeup skills are progressing quickly due to her personal enjoyment of practicing. Uniquely she tends to complete her look with men's ties, of which she had a bunch she bought when she still presented as male. Personality: Mysha is socially anxious in most situations and easily clams up into a stone silent or awkwardly rambling person with most people she doesn’t know well. Getting past this isn’t too hard if someone is interested, and she evolves into someone who still has difficulty putting her thoughts together but has a lot to say and generally is a good and thoughtful, if awkward conversationalist who struggles to get the timing on her punchlines right. She is loyal to people who give her a chance and will do anything in her power for a friend, but she’s generally out of her depth and emotionally burnt out so ‘anything in her power’ doesn’t really describe a large reserve of powers to draw on. She often withdraws from people due to a volatile emotional state- she regularly falls into depressive states and her clinginess can ratchet up to overwhelming levels at times. In the case of the latter especially she is mindful and self-aware enough to spare people the agony of dealing with it and hibernates until she's functional again. Social Presence: Mysha, on both sides of transition, isn’t well connected within the school’s ecosystem and is generally a forgettable face in the crowd due to her anxious and withdrawn nature. She is comfortable enough with the handful of friends she is able to have, who will almost always be some flavor of queer friends and or old cis male friends from before her transition who stuck around. That said, she does regularly wish she were more outgoing and less anxious, and while she would never act on it she has a number of squishes (intense platonic needs to be friends with someone). She is a romantic and has crushes on a number of her classmates. She’s bisexual, but is scared of men in a romantic sense and doesn’t know if she’d ever want to date one. Clubs: Anime, GSA Politics: Left to the tune of a socdem or demsoc depending on the day. Has attended rallies and protests but fairly quiet about it day-to-day.
Hobbies/Activities:
Former Hobbies, MMOs, Choir, Academics, and Writing: The hobbies she had prior to transition which she dropped due to the changes in mental state. These exist more to note for the sorts of friends she might have made while still identifying as male. She primarily played FFXIV with a religious amount of hours played per day, though she was never that good at it and was mostly carried by friends in endgame content. In terms of writing she wrote queer fanfic and original work and she did unfortunately write smut while underage. She had a few published works- usually the smut ones, chasing engagement- but only the most privileged of her friends get to know about that particular cringe. With academics she was a typical no work ethic going to burn out in college all-rounder and was a natural at essay writing in particular- she rarely joined study groups but was willing to help out casually with homework if asked. She was in the school's choir since Freshman year as a baritone who flexed between bass and tenor, and dropped out when her vocal dysphoria started being too much to bear.
Music: Genre diverse, she loves it all though she tends to hop around to the point that she lacks the in-depth knowledge of fans with more narrow genre interests. She runs a solo project called My Cringe Anatomy (shout out to Dr Adjective), a synthpop/dreampop thing that has a few Soundcloud releases from before her transition that she keeps up, and that currently frustrates her due to her worsening organizational skills and vocal dysphoria plus lack of motivation. Her primary skill as a musician is actually sound design with synths and mixing and mastering- she has all the software needed on her laptop. She also has a keyboard but she’s kind of shitty at it. She is very supportive of the local band scene within Red Rock, and will follow most of the other artists at school even if they don’t know she exists. She owns CDs and merch probably, if merch was ever made.
Makeup: Something she’s gotten pretty good at within the last year of her transition. She knows all the good drugstore brands- her arsenal mostly consists of them for financial reasons- and is good enough to give her cis friends a decent makeover and might know tips and tricks they don’t. She knows a range of looks from natural and inoffensive up through being able to dabble in theater makeup, though she generally doesn’t have the more heavy duty tools needed to pull those off. Her makeup skills are a bit stymied by her lack of consistent skincare success, but she’s good enough that she can overcome it on most occasions.
Cosplay and Thrifting: Central to her burgeoning need to express her femininity, besides makeup, lies a love for cosplay and general alternative looks like goth and emo. Due to her limited personal budget due to lack of support from her parents she likes to spend most of the day that she doesn’t spend on her part time job or on lying in bed listening to albums in a brain fog addled haze routinely perusing the inventory of the thrift stores in Vegas within range of public transit. She has a second nature understanding of what is available and can provide blog tier thrifting advice- if friends are interested. Often she cannot specifically afford to get the clothes she’s eying up, and her research and thrifting is more aspirational for a future where she can afford to splurge. The series she wants to cosplay tend to be gacha- the only games she still plays as they are technically free and are popular so she feels inspiration from the ample other female cosplayers. Genshin Impact is her current drug of choice.
Self-Improvement and Personal Finance: Knowing how fickle her parents' support of her is given their passive-aggressive opposition to her transition Mysha is primarily working on setting herself up for success if a tipping point is ever reached where it's either her shelter under their roof or her transition. Fixing her mental health and shaping herself up to be responsible and independent is something she expends a lot of difficult mental energy on, and tends to exhaust her. She does self-therapy, mindfulness, and looks into the stories of others with ADHD like her. She also takes steps to prepare herself and has savings already built up. She's pretty stingy with her money: even though she makes an okay amount of it while she doesn't pay any rent, she doesn't really like using it. She has a developing knack for penny-pinching tricks like credit card churning. With friends she’ll only bring up her research and self-improvement journey if asked about and generally frames anything she’s learned in a cynical manner: ‘this probably wouldn’t work, but…’
Part Time Work: Some two thirds of her free time after school is taken up by working part time hours in a local pizzeria. HRT has made her more easily tired and less strong, so days when she’s working tend to leave her wiped out after the fact.
Looking For:
Queer Friends: She wouldn’t say no to cis het friends if they have a reason to want to befriend her, of course, but by and large the people she’d feel most comfortable engaging with nowadays would be queer and would probably share one of her mainline interests! And or just be affable enough to engage with her from time to time (wherein she will initially struggle to engage back but it will be clear she appreciates the company regardless). Friends will have to be okay with her volatile personality and tendencies to withdraw for her own mental health semi-regularly or they’d become ex-friends quickly! As a friend Mysha is generally comfortable being intimately introspective and showing off her more eccentric thought processes and tendency to ramble. Friction in friends groups can arise from her stinginess- it might be hard for her to be a close part of a friends circle if she genrally ducks out of activities due to her tight grip on her wallet. Either its that or people can convince her to spend money since she's a bit of a doormat... and she'll deal with the blow to her mental health later!
Remaining Friends from when she was still Closeted: This is more for the cis het folks, specifically the men who might have engaged with her over her former hobbies. She honestly doesn’t mind people who struggled with her transition- if they didn’t write her out of their life completely she still has a little time for them whenever they try to chat with her. Anyone who wrote her off she’ll be sad to see go, but she won’t really hate them that much unless they give her a reason to by becoming bigoted or the sort. With this set of friends, especially cis men, she is more tight-lipped about certain things like her ongoing transition and how it affects her mental state, as she's anxious they wouldn't get her concerns or might find her annoying.
Anyone who has a band: She’s about as good a fan and supporter of the bands within the school as its possible to be when she has very little money earmarked for supporting them. She’ll do it from a distance unless its known they want her up close and personal, but the first recommendations she will always give to anyone who asks will be anyone from the school, and she’s at the shows against the barricades knowing all the lyrics if she can afford to be there. She’s likely pretty jealous of most bands too, given that they’re all likely more overtly competent and motivated than she is with her own music! Any band members she knows personally will probably fall into one of the above two categories and be her friend in addition to being a member of a band she likes, assuming they don't intimidate her into silence.
Squishes and Crushes: She has a number of them that spring up in her loneliness- people who strongly inspire her and who she wishes she was more like or could be in the life of. These will be all from a distance and one sided, like, anyone who might be into her in turn will find she picks up on no hints whatsoever and generally views herself as currently unlovable. Will predominantly be women given her difficulties with the masc-attracted aspect of her bisexuality.
Summary: Confident ‘speak softly’ alpha girl hiding her general paranoia and distrust of people, sporty and outdoorsy girl who prefers loneliness to people but feels she has to suck up to anyone who can protect (or hurt) her status quo, hiding her power level radical doomer who knows her way around guns and surviving the apocalypse.
Raph is the youngest daughter of a wealthy Indonesian importer, who was on a whim informally adopted off to a rich American family as a manner of strengthening business ties, but who is sidelined and tokenized by both families to the point that she has not earned a legal right to the last name of the family that ‘adopted’ her. Being bounced around and openly disregarded set in her a paranoia of being used and discarded from a young age that underpins many of her current life choices. She’s naturally a cynical and mildly misanthropic introvert and her social position as someone who others either dislike or admire is one earned through sheer willpower.
Appearance: 5’11” with an athletic body typical for a dedicated tennis player. She has naturally straight hair that she grows down to her waist, which she typically wears in a variety of ponytails for practicality. She is a meticulous groomer and has never suffered from teen acne, along with having good skincare and makeup skills, and she usually aims for clean girl natural looks though she has been adapting with changing trends and incorporating more alt inspiration. Her fashion sense is primarily luxury athleisure that tends to be a bit showy- she knows she has a good body so she likes to show off the muscles she worked hard on. She wears expensive sneakers and has a selection of nice handbags she rotates in and out, rarely wearing the same twice in a week. Personality: Raph is a very confident and poised young woman, and while she naturally associates with upper crust folks and power players she carries herself with grace, usually treating people with due interest and attention, though she’s quick to disengage if she detects there will be no chemistry or value. Some people would call it arrogance. She’s not the sort to show off and is more of a listener and a hype person for others. If she’s going to become a bully it's due to going along with group dynamics consciously, her caution means she’s an evasive coward in more intimate situations who watches her words carefully and is more passive aggressive and acceptably snarky as opposed to outright belligerent. People rarely see the truth of her personality- she doesn’t like people much and they exhaust her, and when she doesn’t have to keep up appearances she’s quiet, assuredly self-interested, and shuts down almost all comers. Social Presence: Raph’s core group of friends are those who are moneyed, as she spent a lot of her childhood in their ranks and is very used to how they operate. She’s not a blue blooded person, however, and treats people equally. She is keen on gaining the respect of anyone she can who is important in the context of high school dynamics, always looking to inure herself to at least a few people who are popular with a lot of friends, a few people who have activist bonafides and seem to inspire others, a few people in key clubs like Yearbook and student government. Her restraint in showing off her more mean-spirited and unhinged sides does her well in this regard- people tend to think of her as someone not to be messed with, but not someone who will arbitrarily be a total bitch unless the vitriol is earned, and who will be very thoughtful in conversations and remembering little things about them while also being entertaining with her sharp intellect and ability to open-mindedly go along with the flow. In short she’s not explicitly popular but moves around in many social circles, coming and going and having a reputation for generally being cool- a bit badass, really. Romantically she’s open to flings with men, being about as heterosexual as they come, but she will dismiss anything along the lines of a serious relationship. Clubs: Outdoor Rattlers, Yearbook, Tennis Team, Rifle Team Politics: All over the place but with a preference for authoritarianism. She mixes and matches environmentalism, fundamental religious conservatism, Maoist revolutionary ethos, and a general accelerationist cynicism about the future. She is generally quiet about her beliefs in public but has anonymously contributed to environmental protest mobs and maintains an anonymous online blog detailing some of her more unhinged beliefs that are generally mostly emotional and not especially intellectual in caliber.
Hobbies/Activities:
Outdoor Photography and Sketching: A solitary hobby. She has an artistic eye and general skills for composition, but outside of art class and contributions to the yearbook committee she keeps these skills to herself and her enjoyment of getting lost in nature. She only posts generic hiking influencer type photos to her social media and nothing at all of her drawings- this is a hobby she goes out of her way to keep to herself.
Hiking, Backpacking, Camping, Survival Skills: A more public version of how she engages with her outdoorsy nature. Through Outdoor Rattlers she engages with others who share this interest and she’s always open to day trips and weekend outings where she can be casually social in a setting that she is more fond of. She’ll also invite any other friends who show any interest in it too. Her outdoorsman skills are solid and she has mastered all of the fundamentals, and she’s started working on more advanced survival techniques with a private instructor, things like trap building and tracking that are less necessary in a more social setting, along with stockpiling extra supplies and pro-level gear for wilderness excursions and possible doomsday scenarios.
Environmentalism: Her most quiet and understated interest is an active engagement in environmental causes to an extent that would be considered radical, and intellectually she feels even more strongly than she lets on and only doesn’t go further due to her need to maintain her image. She has only gone so far as to go to blockade protests and anonymous graffiti and property damage, but she also quietly approves of means such as pipeline sabotage, tree spiking, and cyberterrorism, though she stays her hand in actually getting involved besides exploring the opportunity for funding such activities on her own dime. Anyone who asks can generally tell she’s passionate about her environmental causes, but not to what extent she is personally involved as she keeps all that hush hush.
Tennis: Raph plays tennis as a comfort hobby, for the sake of building her discipline and giving her an outlet for her energy that is easier to have at hand in school, in case she can’t get out into the Las Vegas wilderness for a while. She’s been at it as a player intent on competition since elementary school and she takes her gear and practice seriously. She’s not the best on the varsity team outright, but is a fantastic role player and reliably nets her team more set wins than losses. She’s better at singles than doubles, and is more of a serve and volley, explosive type of player. She has athletic scholarship prospects as well.
Parties, Gossip, and Socializing: Raph has been used to schmoozing from a young age, not because she’s interested in people but because it was what was expected of her as an upper class twit in training. Getting to know a lot of people is a reflex for her, and she’s maintained a generally charming and easy to get along with aura that puts her on a lot of party invite short lists across a number of cliques. She passively absorbs gossip and generally holds onto it without distributing it to others, making her marketable as someone trustworthy with secrets and schemes.
Guns and Marksmanship: She’s been practicing with guns since she turned thirteen, and stops by the range at least once a week to keep up with her personal accuracy goals with a variety of firearms. She’s actually only loosely pro-gun and generally believes access to guns should be highly restricted on a merit and bill of mental health basis- the fewer dumbasses own guns, the more people like her who take their craft seriously aren’t made to look bad. She’s already made multiple purchases of rifles since turning 18. She is on the school’s rifle team, but is careful of her interest in guns that might possibly betray the aspects of herself she keeps a lid on, so she does not take competition in the rifle team seriously and comes off as far less skilled a marksman- generally benched by the team- than she actually is.
Looking For:
Clique of fellow old/new money kids: These were the sorts of people she grew up around, the upper crust of the Las Vegas youth. Her status as irrelevant within her own family may or may not have been relevant to your own character’s evaluation of Raph’s social worth, and she wouldn’t try to kiss ass if she realized there was an inherent prejudice against her on these terms. She did her best to be studious and earn respect as a loyal friend and confidante with a bright future, but of course rich people are rich people and there’s only so many people she could reasonably have convinced of her worth. To these people she stays loyal in the present day and likely was one of their first friends.
Outdoorsy acquaintances: Particularly in the Outdoor Rattlers but overall she’ll always be interested in engaging with anyone who shows an interest in outdoorsmanship when she gets to know them. Earning the trust from her to go on camping or hiking expeditions that are more than casual entry level fare requires some familiarity beyond acquaintances. Furthermore she’s paradoxically less outgoing and more of a background character when it comes to this particular crowd- she’s there specifically to enjoy the wilderness, so other people are sidelined for her even if they’re ostensibly there as a group. In this setting she comes off as hyper focused to the extent that she’ll forget to help others and work in a team if not kept on some sort of leash.
Other friends she makes from her main social groups: Yearbook, Tennis, Rifle Team (if we have anyone else from that particular team), she’s also somewhat serious business and about getting the job done in these settings, but she is polite and loose enough to be on good terms with this crowd as well.
Assorted party going acquaintances: The people she makes the most effort to come across as fun and interesting around and not retreat into her aloof, paranoid shell. She’s a good active listener and skilled at injecting dynamism into conversations and situations while generally threading the line between coming off as a bore or as a jackass. She strives to be off-center of the life of the party, and accordingly she keeps a good amount of acquaintances on good terms that she can call on to keep her social stock high.
Maybe people she feels comfortable (sort of) sharing her environmental bonafides with: This is something she’ll be very guarded about, and it will require a true dedication to similar causes to her own plus an extensive period of knowing her personally without the subject coming up, but she does want for allies who share her foremost political passion among the school body. She’s looking for people who can keep her own engagement with them on the down low, but she’ll casually fund their activism and support them as needed.
Casual flings (men): She’s not really looking to be a girlfriend for an extended period of time- any attempt at real intimacy triggers warning alarms for her and she’ll withdraw quickly. If your dude is cool about it and doesn’t seem to be interested in anything more than a good time she’ll be a decent friend with benefits. She’s probably only had two or three of these over time barring some super short party hookups or the sort.
India Quiñones Townsend
Current Plan Summary: Goal is to play a character who feels off on their own planet, trapped in introspection and self-destructive behavior. Daughter of a pastor who got caught in a sex scandal and ran out on his family, mother addicted to painkillers and older sibling skipped town. Introspective, soft-spoken and not much to say, complex relationship with faith and religion, generally skips school, nicotine addiction and a penchant for cheep wine and spirits, associates with rougher elements within the school. Enjoys cooking a lot and aspires to be a line cook when they graduate, already working part time in a kitchen. A good singer and plays accoustic and electric guitar, could be in a band but too flaky. Skateboards a lot in her free time. Lesbian, not good at relationships.
While I don't see any notable connections for my characters towards Sohel, I do have some suggestions for Raph and India.
Raph:
Pretty much all 4 of my characters are going to hate or dislike Raph for numerous and similar reasons, mostly for her being a bully and having a bad reputation. Mortimer will VERY despise her for her obvious hypocrisy in trying to stir shit without shame.
India
Vanessa might try to sympathize with a visibly self-loathing India, however Emma is looking to get her a chance by having her in her punk and metal band. However, I'm guessing that India will be playing an instrument that could require less effort, compared to singing or electric guitar.
It's so hard when your on your own
You might fall into the Forbidden Zone
Mortimer Schuab - The creator is converted into an avatar of all. Happy to tell you that life is completely meaningless and that everyone is going to die horribly.
Emma Drakenberg-West - Rebelling against the system with the power of metal and punk music gets you by, only for a little while, unless you decide to do the right thing only by getting your hands dirty.
Joanne Martinez - She enforces the authority of the school, but even a queen bee must lose the stinger. Now, she wants to make her point clear on who rules.
Vanessa Thibodeaux - Humans and animals are both the same. The lines officially blur for a butcher who will now become the executioner.
I’m here to secure votes for the anarchists in the forthcoming elections. And also to talk shop. Mostly to talk shop.
Sohel!
Heather makes music you can dance to! Genre is a spook but think Aesthetic Perfection, Zardonic, Celldweller, Blue Stahli, that kind of vibe. Also might have had a fling, I dunno. The two things might even be connected.
Raph!
Honestly all of my girls have something you could snipe at, but Hope, Artemis, and LK would probably be particularly vulnerable depending on your approach.
Mercy might be capable of being friends with her? Unsure.
And India!
Could be in, or perhaps more likely if she’s flaky, have been in Mercy’s band if she vibes with 2000s pop punk. May also be able to contribute to Heather’s solo work maybe?
Kinship in the “family life sucks” stakes with Artemis, who I also figure isn’t particularly “needy” wrt maintaining a friendship?
Alright! I've had a few brainitudes here, so I'll note some overall changes based on others proposals or my own thinking based on what I've seen so far in the V9 nebula:
Sohel
I've decided to expand on Sohel's flakiness and his difficulty with emotionally connecting with others. He's, specifically, bad with being availible time wise and being honest with his feelings, gets cold feet when there's too much emotional intimacy and starts to withdraw. His love language takes on an element of 'imitation is the sincerest form of flattery', he is open minded and tends to pick up elements of his flavor of the month boyfriend or girlfriend- little personality quirks he takes on, trying on their hobbies. It probably doesn't help him out in the long term.
Raph
I think there's plenty of competition for alpha-type bullies and delinquients who have magnetic personalities, so I'd like to pivot with Raph... maybe make her more of a trollish sidekick/subordinate type? A natural Starscream who can only really get along with someone who can entertain her enough to keep her in check or she'll be a problem long term. I'm a bit uncertain here so I'm going to mark Raph as fairly WIP for now while I game out what might work for her.
India
Going to qualify that she's a good singer and that she can play the accoustic guitar primarily, but has a knack for picking up instruments pretty dang fast... she just needs them lent to her. She's a frustrated songwriter and her poor mental health means she struggles to be happy with the ways she expresses herself in song- its easier for her to do what others tell her.
Deblod100 wrote: ↑Tue Nov 14, 2023 6:12 pm
While I don't see any notable connections for my characters towards Sohel, I do have some suggestions for Raph and India.
Raph:
Pretty much all 4 of my characters are going to hate or dislike Raph for numerous and similar reasons, mostly for her being a bully and having a bad reputation. Mortimer will VERY despise her for her obvious hypocrisy in trying to stir shit without shame.
India
Vanessa might try to sympathize with a visibly self-loathing India, however Emma is looking to get her a chance by having her in her punk and metal band. However, I'm guessing that India will be playing an instrument that could require less effort, compared to singing or electric guitar.
Raph vision uncertain, so putting that aside for now.
I'm sure India would appreciate the kinship of a fellow sapphic in Vanessa's case. Probably had a crush on Vanessa at some point that never went anywhere save an unpublished few lyrics. I imagine they wouldn't be around one another too often, probably only rarely running into each other at school or when Vanessa's on duty at the shop.
With Emma I'm good with India's current band being FiN, your choice of which instrument she got India to fill in for. With their mutual vices and addictions they seem like a natural fit for being partners in crime, hitting up bars after band practice sessions, generally sympathizing with each other over their shitty lots in life (India's is still WIP, I'll be clear here). I'm wondering if there could be an angle where India might occasionally set off Emma's temper with her more dour and introspective tendencies? Like Emma's felt the need to occasionally harshly berate India for the self-loathing when it comes out, maybe smack her from time to time.
Dr Adjective wrote: ↑Tue Nov 14, 2023 6:13 pm
I’m here to secure votes for the anarchists in the forthcoming elections. And also to talk shop. Mostly to talk shop.
Sohel!
Heather makes music you can dance to! Genre is a spook but think Aesthetic Perfection, Zardonic, Celldweller, Blue Stahli, that kind of vibe. Also might have had a fling, I dunno. The two things might even be connected.
Raph!
Honestly all of my girls have something you could snipe at, but Hope, Artemis, and LK would probably be particularly vulnerable depending on your approach.
Mercy might be capable of being friends with her? Unsure.
And India!
Could be in, or perhaps more likely if she’s flaky, have been in Mercy’s band if she vibes with 2000s pop punk. May also be able to contribute to Heather’s solo work maybe?
Kinship in the “family life sucks” stakes with Artemis, who I also figure isn’t particularly “needy” wrt maintaining a friendship?
For Sohel and Heather. Checked out the songs and sounds like it's good and danceable, so approved. I imagine he never got close enough to her good graces to get to see the basement, but he's probably choreographed a snippet routine or two to her songs uploaded to his TikTok. In terms of their fling Sohel, with his imitative tendencies, likely did his best to try to deepen his understanding of her brand of anarchism and attended a protest or two. He's not quite bright enough to handle it but he put in his best effort and if she ever brings it up after the fact he's still able to remember stuff he read from the introductory works she recommended him.
Raph vision uncertain, so putting that aside for now.
With India being in the Emma camp as of now... TBH I could still see India and Mercy working out as ex-bandmates? India has broad music taste anyways and she probably still occasionally shouts out a horror movie in her own lyrical wanderings that she watched while chilling out with Mercy after band practice. Maybe India helped out Emma with developing what exists of her guitar work? And when India flakes out of the band with a few apologies and then a seen-zone... and reappears some time later in Emma's band, well. Interested in how the reaction might be there!
For India and Heather, I'm down for the possibility that Heather laid down vocals on one of Heather's more obscure songs. No basement rights probably.
India and Artemis could be on good terms! India also needs a cheap place to spend a lot of time and I'm sure she'd appreciate someone else to discuss, like, some of the deeper introspective thoughts she feels that she has difficulty putting to words. So like, a safe space almost, the two hanging out at the library from time to time and having long winded back and forths about things that inspire them and crop up later on in India's thoughts while she's writing songs. India would definitely appreciate a friend who she can pick things up with regularly whenever she returns from her sojurns into her mind fog.
I'm not gonna put up my planning thread THIS early but I do want to let you know about my own bangla kid this version. Zain Yousef is the kind of kid who's always carrying around his sketchbook and sketching people on the bus or in the hallway. He's a kindly, head-in-the-clouds sort of kid. And also, in a shocking twist, he's openly a trans dude and his otherwise typically uptight Bangladeshi mom is fully supportive of this.
For the record, Gundham's contribution to the Bangla Brigade is Zara, Zain's cousin. You'll have to ask Gundham more about her but I did want to let you know we have cousins in this version. if you want you can make Sohel also a cousin to put a twist on the typical relatives-in-sotf thing (and stay more or less true to life with Bengali extended families congregating in one place), or he can just be a family friend.
Tenshi Marie Anastasie Fukushima-Yves
#1 princess and voca-tuber in the whole wide world >Pregame Start:Cast Call --> Pregame Status: Trying and failing to share manga >Homecoming Start: N/A -->Homecoming Status: N/A >Game Start:spawn more overlords! -->Game Status (FINAL): A star has fallen.
Iliya "Liya" Polaris - DEAD
rebelling against a traditional Wiccan upbringing >Pregame Start:Cast Call --> Pregame Status: Some things are more important than a party >Homecoming Start:Guys and Dolls -->Homecoming Status: don't tell anyone this but she was actually one of the raccoons >Game Start:A Question of Faith -->Game Status (FINAL): The spirit was weak.
>Pregame Start:life observes itself -->Pregame Status: Waltzed out a party with her crush >Prom Start:Fancy Meeting You Here -->Prom Status: Taking a dance, taking on the world >Trip Start:The Best of You -->Trip Status: Running away from an eyeful of NSFW >Game Start:Rise Great Undead Lord Dread -->Game Status (FINAL): Stop hitting yourself
I see that Sohel's interested in dancing. Think there's a non-zero chance he and Marcy know each other, as she's almost certainly be a member of the school's dance crew.
Potentially open to the two of them having briefly dated, likely no longer than a week or two before it became clear it wasn't going to work out, but otherwise remaining on amicable terms perhaps?
That's the main connection that springs to mind, but open to suggestions.
Coming soon to a V9 near you Marcia "Marcy" Valerio: The Dancer Koa Tagaloa: The Wrestler Johnny Benowitz: The Jock Florida Riley: The Saint Xavier Martinez: The maybe pregame only character, but don't count on it
Cassie Chao: The WallflowerThank you... For talking to me, when nobody else even knew I was there. Shawn Bellamy:The Bastard"We're the only decent people left on this island, Matt. Way I see it, as long as one of us survives this... I'd say that's a win, wouldn't you?"" Lillian "Lily" Larsen: The Satanist"Don't think explanations will be necessary. Neither of us are exactly innocent anymore." Mitch McDuffy:The GamerJobtown. Baby.
Brian Zhdanovich"Just... Just stay safe Ruby. Don't take any unnecessary risks, or accept candy from strangers. But most of all, don't you ever..." Ruby Forrester"Do you seriously think you're the only person on this island whose had a shitty week?" Jenna Rhodes"Of course, assuming that all goes as planned, we'd have to do something about the whole 24-hours-no-kill limit. Maybe draw straws, or take a vote, something along those lines... Either way, the longer we put this off, the more likely it is that we'll all get rescued and taken away from this hellhole."
Marty J. Lovett""Well... Here we are buddy. To be totally honest with you, I didn't think either of us would make it this far. Who'd of thought, huh? I was SURE that I'd be dead within the first couple of days." Joshua Krakowsk"...I'm tellin' you Marty, somewhere out there is a picture of Danya and George Bush on a boat with the biggest damn catfish you've EVER seen!" Maxwell Lombardi"Now then, I'm afraid I must bid you all adieu. I look forward to meeting the rest of your children, siblings, lovers, friends and what not. And I'm sure they're looking forward to meeting me as well..." Vera Osborne"Now then... Tell me why I shouldn't just snuff out your existence and get it all over and done with?"
Alright, my complete lack of organizational skills is slowly crystalizing into something resembling a coherent relations thread. This should be Sohel's final form, more or less, so hopefully relationship ideas with him will be easier to envision now that he's a complete concept. The others remain in the workshop as I work on them but of course feel free to give them a look!
I see that Sohel's interested in dancing. Think there's a non-zero chance he and Marcy know each other, as she's almost certainly be a member of the school's dance crew.
Potentially open to the two of them having briefly dated, likely no longer than a week or two before it became clear it wasn't going to work out, but otherwise remaining on amicable terms perhaps?
That's the main connection that springs to mind, but open to suggestions.
This makes sense to me! With Marcy's quick temper I'm sure she realized early on he's not exactly good relationship material and so the timeline for breaking it up being weeks long sounds right to me. Otherwise they both seem fun and easy going so I'm sure she had no reason to hold his being bad at intimacy against him. And they're both talented dancers so I'm sure they still respect each other and work together regularly, he's probably on her short list of people to call if she needs more dancers for any project she gets involved with.
EDIT: Hyperfixated a complete Mysha into existence as well!
