Survival Of The Fittest

Hello folks! For my first V8 spin I've got one character I'm very certain I'll be bringing into the ring, and a couple more I'm not so certain about, but'd like to explore themes with and ideas about.

Max McCormick
Max McCormick has a serious case of Boston Irish appearance, with long red hair and a single bright green eye, since the other one was lost in a car accident when he was a child. Having been bullied relentlessly for most of his adolescent years, Max is a deeply insular, deeply insecure kid. He doesn't involve himself with any school societies and clubs, doesn't have many friends, and tries to steer clear of just about everyone else out of his own strange methods of self-preservation. Max's biggest advantage is that he's very capable academically, and this, combined with his generally reticent attitude have made him somewhat of a hit with more sympathetic teachers, a good shield for whenever suspicion of him selling prescription drugs and/or weed is aroused. Absolutely hates anything to do with Salem's 'witchiness,' thanks to it being used to taunt him when he was younger. He is a semi-lapsed Catholic, however his attendance at church is spotty at best and his adherence to doctrine is worse, yet he still prays and still calls himself a Catholic, so the label sticks.

Most people probably don't know that he's actually a big music nerd- he plays both guitar and bass, but only owns one electric guitar and a third-hand, slightly blown-out amp. He learned bass pretty much only in the music shop.

Looking for one or two friends who have somehow gotten through and stuck with him, a group of people who do buy what he sells, and possibly some current and/or ex bullies, along with a loose collection of weirdos who don't mind sharing a lunch table with a dude wearing an eyepatch.

[+] Relationships

Juanita Reid: Just the absolute worst pair of friends to ever cross paths. They have a like/hate relationship that careens wildly between each extreme, but deep down, Max does, actually, genuinely have some fondness for Juanita. Somewhere. Deep down there. Keep digging.

Kyoto Aizawa: Astonishingly, Max McKormick has friends. There's a lot of similarities between the pair- car accidents, bullies, blue-collar families making ends meet. It's nice to have someone covering your back.

David Cooper: Mutual gentlemen of business. There's respect here, if not friendship.

Trent Taylor: Trent smokes, Max deals, and the pair have enough familiarity in the life department to find common ground. No more, no less.

Medea Parth: One of the few people who's nice to Max. He wouldn't exactly call her a friend, but he does have a pretty big crush on her that he keeps under wraps.

Evie McKown: The pair haven't... Really... Talked? Ever? But Max does offer her the nod, the highest form of respect offered to people he doesn't consider 'friends' in Max-world.

Soo-Bin Kim-Reyes: There's got to be more to her than meets the eye, and Max intends on being the person that provides it. It's just business.

Randolph Whateley: Weirdo emnity. Randolph's occult interests and lack of much common ground elsewhere means that despite being another strange individual that Max might otherwise click with, Max doesn't exactly feel the need to spend time with him.

Gwendolyn Rodruigez: What exactly Max sees through is up for debate, but Max has, and continues to feel that Gwen is as fake as a person can get.

Eunice St Claire: Oh great, someone else who thinks Max is a freak. That's not one he's ever heard before.

Bethany Lyon: Max sees through Bethany's 'totally not bullying' bullying and hates her guts for it. Bitch.

Stephan Fields: To Max, an entitled, stuck-up bastard. Tangling with him's more trouble than it's worth though.

Aramina Canlas : You'd think from looking at this pair that they'd sworn a vendetta against each other, which... Wouldn't be inaccurate, actually.

Benjamin Beecham
Built like a steel spring; all compacted tension and no extra fluff, Benji is an avid sportsperson, with lacrosse and MMA being their favourites, but also a good runner, especially in middle distances. AMAB, Benji now considers themselves genderfluid, and is happy to be called a variety of names from 'Jamie' to 'Bebe.' Confident, outgoing, tough and active, they've got grades good enough to keep them in the decent graces of most members of faculty, and are pretty popular around campus. Benji can be surprisingly leftist at times, but exactly how extreme their views are is hard to pin down- they're certainly a Bernie Bro though.

Looking for... Pretty much anyone else around who interacts with a fairly popular person? Friends, potentially a girlfriend or boyfriend, fellow sportspeople, maybe an MMA sparring partner, that sort of thing. Benji's easygoing like that.

[+] Relationships

Danielle "Dani" Bird: They had a date, but it never really worked out between them beyond that. They're still on good terms.

Alec Lewis: Benji likes to think there's something cool between these two. They teach Alec fighting, Alec teaches them dancing, and they're good friends outside that as well. That's pretty cool, right?

Evie McKown: She's a nice girl, and she tries to get things right. That's all I really ask for.

Kyoto Aizawa: Sparring partners, casual acquiantances.

Ashlyn Graves: With all these working partners it's a miracle Benji actually gets any practice done as opposed to perpetually gossiping.

Medea Parth: Friendly, but not particularly close to.

Salem Fox: Benji digs the aesthetic, and being a sports correspondent means Salem comes into contact with them plenty.

Dominick del Rosario: Lacross buddies and fellow sportspeople.

Bethany Lyon: What an absolute ass. Respecting someone's pronouns isn't difficult you bigoted nitwit, and your ancestor spitting on someone and getting in legal trouble for it is called consequences, not matyrdom.

Jessica Lee-Smith
Artist, writer, fashion fan, fiercly intelligent and without a whole lot of common sense, Jessica is a dazzling, slightly ditzy girl with a love for life and a family that can be traced back to the Mayflower. She's definitely up there on the nerdiness spectrum, being a furry, bit of an anime and manga weeb and writes for the school newspaper. Considers herself a staunch LGBT+ and BLM ally despite being as straight, cis, and dazzlingly white as it is possible to be. Comes from an old New England family with old New England wealth, and as such hasn't really learnt the value of a dollar.

Looking for a few close friends, a looser clique of artist and nerds, and maybe a few fellow furries to hang around with. Lacks enough common sense to realise when someone's hitting on her unless they do so with all the subtelty of a sledgehammer crashing through a cabinet of precious china.

[+] Relationships

Cedar Dalisay: Woo! Buddies! Cedar's a bit of a rudder for Jess, being a nice, rational, grounded and orderly counterweight, which is occasionally just what you need!

Medea Parth: Woo! Also buddies! Jess keeps her streams in the background when she's doing art, and in turn, her small art streams often have Medea watching them.

Salem Fox: Woo! Newspaper buddies! Salem seems really friendly, which is great, but she's pretty sure she confused him or something? Maybe not- she's not super sure about that.

Danielle "Dani" Bird: Woo! More buddies!! Jess isn't much for cosplay herself, but she sure does like helping Dani with them!

Evie McKown Otter mode! Otter Mode! Does it count as spreading the PathOwOgen if they came to you with a fursona, but they didn't call it that?

Alec Lewis: He's really sweet! Jess doesn't have super much in common but it's nice to hang out sometimes!

Randolph Whateley: Funnily enough, from the same part of Salem. Their families have encountered each other a few times throughout the years, and she knows a little about him.

Eunice St Claire: Jess wanted to be friends but they didn't seem to like her... She wonders what she did wrong.

Stephan Fields: Jess has tried, she really has, but it's so hard to make a connection when someone just looks down on you! He even has a super-cute nickname!

Bethany Lyon: Jess has no idea what Bethany's problem with her is, but it's spoiled any potential relationship between them pretty badly.

And uh... There we have it! Feel free to drop me a line, I'm excited to get going!

Max
Medea: Super nice girl who loves everyone! She would probably be nice to him! Not sure if they'd be friends, but she would be very friendly!
Randolph: Very weird kid who probably wouldn't mind being around. Though given how weird Randolph is, and Randolph being into the occult, I don't think Max would like him very much.

Benji
Medea: Again, very friendly girl though they don't have much in common.
Dani: Popular and sporty, so definitely her type. Maybe they dated in the past and are on good terms? Would offer to have her be currently dating, but I want to try and keep options open for a while.

Jess
Medea: Third verse, same as the first.
Randolph: Also comes from an Old Money family, so might know each other loosely.

As promised <3

Max
Evie's a sweetheart, but she'd probably take the hint that Max doesn't want to be her friend, unless he extends the olive branch first. Could be something there.
Beth definitely bullied/bullies him in that deniable bitchy way, negging how he's doing so well despite his problems and the like.

Benjamin
Seems like Evie could be a friend or just a friendly acquaintance, depending. She's a little politically apathetic but her love-everyone-and-everything attitude makes her very sympathetic to leftist ideas. She might slip up on pronouns from time to time, but it's not malicious.
Beth does not like Benjamin. She doesn't get this whole genderfluid thing and pointedly avoids using any pronouns if forced to refer to them at all, and moreover, ew, that communist Bernie? She hates that.

Jessica
Did Jessica make Evie's "Otter Mode" logo? It's not a fursona, she swears. Just a cute logo. Similar to Jamie, she's sympathetic to all the good causes... if not very good at giving any real support. I could see these two being friends, potentially.
The three-peat, look at this antithesis to who Bethany is. Look at her throwing in with anarchy and degeneracy when she could be so like Beth. Horrifying.

Irredeemable wrote: ↑Sun Jan 17, 2021 11:40 am Eunice:

100% probably looks down on Max, from how you've described her. Max would probably see her as just another dickhead he has to deal with. There's some potential for Jess, since they're both pretty artsy types, but I don't think there's much in common here.

Alec:

I got nothing. You might, though?

Ara:

I feel like Max made one offhand remark, she responded with something, and the pair have been in a constant downwards spiral since that sees both of them hating each other. Max is just too caustic for someone who holds slights against them like grudges to be able to deal with. Likely a casual friend with Benji, but nothing special.

Alright, here's what I got.

Eunice: Sounds about right with Max! She sees the eyepatch and teacher's pet thing, she needs no more motivation to label him as a freak. Not really a bully, but you know, unreasonable dickhead. As for Jess, they could just be loose acquaintances. Maybe she tried to talk to her about art, and Eunice predictably bristled like a cat and was abrasive as usual. Should work if Jess would run off from that and avoid her, but it would still be an encounter that leaves an impression. In Eunice's side, she'd be annoyed with herself for driving another one away, but ultimately would dismiss it.

Alec: I think Alec should be good being friends or at least a friendly acquaintance to both Benji and Jess! He's a nice and easygoing person as well, so it shouldn't be hard for him to be friendly with an outgoing person like Benji, despite having not much in common. As for Jess, while Alec is primarily a dancer in the creative department, he has some experience and interest in art as well, so I can imagine a casual friendship between them.

Ara: We should probably hash out some more details about it, but I am loving that idea with Max! I like that it might've started with a small stupid thing but now they're in too deep with each other's hatred. Agree with being casual friends with Benji too.

Dr Adjective wrote: ↑Tue Jan 19, 2021 1:47 am As promised <3

Max
Evie's a sweetheart, but she'd probably take the hint that Max doesn't want to be her friend, unless he extends the olive branch first. Could be something there.
Beth definitely bullied/bullies him in that deniable bitchy way, negging how he's doing so well despite his problems and the like.

Benjamin
Seems like Evie could be a friend or just a friendly acquaintance, depending. She's a little politically apathetic but her love-everyone-and-everything attitude makes her very sympathetic to leftist ideas. She might slip up on pronouns from time to time, but it's not malicious.
Beth does not like Benjamin. She doesn't get this whole genderfluid thing and pointedly avoids using any pronouns if forced to refer to them at all, and moreover, ew, that communist Bernie? She hates that.

Jessica
Did Jessica make Evie's "Otter Mode" logo? It's not a fursona, she swears. Just a cute logo. Similar to Jamie, she's sympathetic to all the good causes... if not very good at giving any real support. I could see these two being friends, potentially.
The three-peat, look at this antithesis to who Bethany is. Look at her throwing in with anarchy and degeneracy when she could be so like Beth. Horrifying.

Max probably doesn't think that ill of Evie, but he's prickly and solitary, so I think it makes sense that neither of them have really approached each other much. Perhaps he offers her a nod when they pass in the hallways, which, in Max-world is roughly equivalent to a warm greeting. He probably sees straight through the deniable bitchiness and is just a straight asshole back towards her- his reputation with 'the popular kids' is in the sewers as it is, what's another pissed off rich bitch to add to the collection?

Benji's perfectly gracious towards peope who aren't with the casue, assuming they're nice people and aren't trying to mess with them or otherwise be malicious, so I think they'd be happy to call Evie part of their extended friendship circle. It's also for this excact reason that they will dislike Bethany. Quite probably a lot. Benji has a habit of flipping the tables on people who get funny with pronouns by calling them by the wrong name to see how they like it, and will probably have, at some point have made a jab that spitting on someone and whacking them with a metal stick and then getting arrested for it isn't being a matryr, it's just being disruptive and paying the price.

Jessica absolutely made the Otter Mode logo and she's done two mockups of it as a full drawing and has been bugging Evie to acknowledge them. Jessica is fairly passive in her support for things despite considering herself very social justicy; she talks the talk but does not walk the walk. Jess is probably pretty ignorant to how much Beth dislikes her in turn, although she might have accidentally made things worse between them by talking about family history and making some unwise comments about lineage.

Cleaned stuff up and added new relationships, so gonna bump this and see what else comes of it!