Survival Of The Fittest

Revamped with more relevant and detailed information, wow!

Iris Waite: Iris is socially awkward and clingy and has been that way for her entire school life thanks to her mommy issues and overbearing single dad. She's pretty emotionally needy, but a big people-pleaser, which unfortunately opens her up to being the butt of jokes or having her goodwill abused by people who just want favors from her. She is interested in insects and photography. She's ostensibly straight but is willing to go on a date with anybody who shows interest in her.

Clubs/Teams: Volleyball, student council (planning to run for a cabinet position this year but undecided on what), yearbook/photography club

[+] Relationship notes

Richard Buster: "Dated" for like two months in middle school. She refuses to call him Big Dick. Close friends.
Cedar Dalisay: Close friends.
Do Seungri: Fellow student council member. Friends.
Dominiqua Ashmore: Fellow photography club member. Friendly acquaintances.
Medea Parth: Friends or friendly acquaintances.
Danielle Bird: Volleyball teammate. Friends or friendly acquaintances.
Jessica Romero: Volleyball teammate. Friends or friendly acquaintances.
Marshall West: Fellow student council member. Please yell less. Friendly acquaintances.
Ashlyn Graves: Volleyball teammate. Former bully. Tense acquaintances.
Beth Lyon: Iris really wants to be her friend but yikes.
Vladimir Tepes: Iris please make better choices. Major crush.

Looking for: Actual friends, would-be friends that find her weird, boys (or girls or other) who have led her on romantically for a laugh or in exchange for her doing their homework.

Kai Rosado-Prince: A nice but very reserved and kind of asocial guy. Prefers to spend time out in the woods or driving around town rather than being around people, but he has a few close friends. May be inadvertently threatening. He's also a part of his church choir and attends regularly with his aunt and uncle, with whom he lives after his parents' messy divorce several years ago. Bisexual but deeply closeted.

Clubs/Teams: None

Looking for: Fellow woodland beings, people he might have inadvertently spooked, people who attend the same church as his family, maybe a couple potential crushes.

Taylor Thorne: Energetic, upbeat, sleeps worryingly little but don't worry about it. Taylor likes video games, especially surreal exploration games, partying, and spending 7 hours a day on social media. They're privately gender-questioning but still present as a girl to most people they know and are exclusively interested in dating girls. The most normal kid out of this bunch.

Looking for: Friends, acquaintances, crushes, people who find them to be annoying.

Angelo Lee: Angelo does tabletop and LARP, cosplay, social activism, and archery. He is part of the Filipino-American squad, though his lack of connection with his roots is a point of friction between himself and his parents. A very friendly guy but also very outspoken about his beliefs, also just generally loud.

Clubs/Teams: Local archery team, tabletop club if that's a thing at school, local LARP group.

Looking for: Friends outside the Filipino squad who share his hobbies, people he might have clashed with for various reasons.

Stormy Delacroix: Was on the basketball team, got dared to try out for the cheer squad because lol cheer is for girls. Made the squad and discovered he actually really enjoyed it and ended up quitting the basketball team in favor of cheer, which not all of his teammates took kindly. Otherwise, Stormy is very nice, if a little gullible and not very book-smart. He is coming around to acknowledging his passion for more feminine-coded hobbies, like fashion in addition to cheer. He also enjoys traveling and his secret talent is juggling. My obligatory goth.

Clubs/Teams: Formerly on the basketball team, cheerleading squad

Looking for: Other cheerleaders, goth/fashionable kids, former basketball teammates who either are still friendly with him or feel let down that he left the team

Hello, yes, let us do this.

Iris
Medea: Is a lovely person who would be super nice to her and genuinely want to get to know her. So they can be friends or at least be friendly acquaintances!
Dani: Also on the volleyball team, so teammates! Dani is nice, but maybe your kid weirded her out so they aren't exactly friends?

Kai
Randolph: Hello, yes, would your local Slenderman want to be friends with the local Deep One? Hobbies include being creepy and in the woods. :v

Taylor
Medea: Friends? Medea also likes video games and is a streamer, so they could bond over that!

Angelo
Medea: Might be on good terms? Don't know if they would be friends, but Medea does participate in online activism.

Stormy
Dani: Fellow cheerleader, fashion kid, and Instagram model! So I can imagine they would be good friends.
Randolph: Goth adjacent kid who is into the occult and shit. Might be on okay terms due to both of them being goth, but I don't know. If you have more ideas let me know!

Iris and Jessica would probably be friends, they are both on the volleyball team and she probably wouldn't care about any weird behavior.

Kai may also know of Jessica as both of them like doing stuff in the woods.

Taylor looks ready-made to annoy California.

If Angelo is into tabletops and anything like that he'd know Robbie.

Stormy and Aracelis would know each other from the cheerleading team but I don't know if they'd be close friends.

Hey I remembered that this is a thing that exists.

@TLOA All of those sound pretty good to me! Kai enjoys hiking and camping, so he may know Randolph as a fellow outdoors enthusiast if that's the sort of outdoorsiness that Randolph is into. I think that Stormy and Dani would also get along especially well.

@Dea I'm really down for Taylor to annoy Cali. I think that in addition to knowing Jessica, we talked about Kai and Cali also having some sort of friendship? Angelo does do tabletops, so if there's a D&D group or something similar, he and Robbie might both be in that or have shared a table and/or discussed game ideas at some point. Stormy is pretty laidback and kind of dumb, so I don't feel like he and Aracelis would really vibe together despite both being on the cheer squad. Friendly acquaintances at best, probably.

Pinoy Platoon or whatever we're calling it now

respect the name!!

[+] barely thought out ideas

Ashlyn-Iris : If they were in the same middle school Ash might have been a former 'wow what a freak' bully over the notetaking thing. I like that possibility b/c it complexifies their future prospects? They're on the same team and Ash probably in hindsight would've done the exact same thing, plus she wants to be a good leader/teammate, etc. It would be interesting if Ash reverse bullied her way into them being on good terms over time, since she'd pointedly ignore their rockier past and Iris might have to deal with some confusion over that.
Cedar-Iris : You know they have to be the duo sitting in a corner vibing over the ant farm. But yeah, Cedar probably would have tried to help out/friend Iris in the immediate aftermath of the notes disaster so Cedar might be cling-worthy.
Salem-Taylor : As they annoy the sister so too would they probably be good party buddies with Salem. He's more difficult to tire out, but he probably keeps some distance to avoid being eroded over time, etc.
Cedar-Angelo : In the context of the Platoon (only acceptable name) I think at some point we have to establish who is in the Platoons' tabletop weekends subsquad. Besides that since they're both socially conscious sorts I'm sure they're on good terms within the Platoons internal social structure? Cedar might be the more mature one, I can't tell for sure.
Salem-Stormy : They were twink cheerleaders together, back in the day. Seems like a good enough reason for them to still be on good terms to this day, honestly.

Updated the first post with some more detailed information about these kids, and there will likely appear another character entry soon up there because I have a disease.

For Iris, I think Dominiqua would know her from Photography Club. If she has any insect photos, Domi might take interest.

For Kai, maybe he encounters Dominiqua on a hiking trail and they walk together, enjoying the scenery. He could have spooked Wendy at some point, and they might have seen each other at church, if their families practice the same religion.

Wendy could follow Taylor on social media, or play video games with her.

What kind of beliefs does Angelo have? If he has progressive views like Chester, they could get along. Wendy might take an interest in cosplay and look to him for help.

If Stormy still plays basketball, Dominiqua could play with him.

Ryuki wrote: ↑Tue Jun 15, 2021 1:16 pm For Iris, I think Dominiqua would know her from Photography Club. If she has any insect photos, Domi might take interest.

For Kai, maybe he encounters Dominiqua on a hiking trail and they walk together, enjoying the scenery. He could have spooked Wendy at some point, and they might have seen each other at church, if their families practice the same religion.

Wendy could follow Taylor on social media, or play video games with her.

What kind of beliefs does Angelo have? If he has progressive views like Chester, they could get along. Wendy might take an interest in cosplay and look to him for help.

If Stormy still plays basketball, Dominiqua could play with him.

Yep, Iris would definitely like to show off any insect pictures she might have taken if Dominiqua is interested! Stormy also plays basketball casually still, so I could see them having a few pickup games in the park or after school. Kai bumping into her on hikes seems like a likely occurrence so they could be friendly acquaintances. His family is Christian but probably attend a non-denominational church, if that works for Wendy.

Taylor and Wendy seem like they'd get along pretty well too! Taylor is spotty in playing multiplayer games, but they are on social media a lot and would be happy to join games if invited to them. Angelo would also be happy to work on cosplay together and maybe discuss games as well - he doesn't play video games as much but still has an interest in the RPG genre generally.

Angelo is quite progressive and particularly focused on racial equality and immigration issues, so I could see him and Chester having that in common at least. If Chester attends demonstrations and such, they could have encountered each other at some of those.

Relevant and detailed information? Can't relate, I would never come up with such things.

Iris!
I don't have particularly deep ideas here, just that Evie would be fond of her (makes two friends that like bugs and photos, now that I think of it) and Beth probably makes a habit of taking advantage of her.

Kai!
Might have a church in common with Beth, depending on denomination? Dubious if she pays him any mind, but maybe if they do have a connection he might have opinions about her?

Taylor!
Not sure how/if they'd have crossed paths, but if so, maybe Evie's come to them privately for advice recently re; also being interested in dating girls? She's also something of a gamer herself, so there's that!

Angelo!
I foresee clashes with Beth, their politics and habits of talking about them don't seem very compatible.

Stormy!
I don't have a lot here but I hate to leave one kid out after having an idea for everyone else... Beth's probably given him a hard time, though. Recently I've been having a lot of thoughts about how she publically buys into the right-wing discourse about feminising young men being terrible and The Liberal Agenda(tm), but privately is already realising she's attracted to at least one self-described femboy. So maybe that's something to have fun with if when I finally finish writing her profile?

Alright! For Evie, I think the friends ideas work pretty well. Iris is very much in need of some positivity, and Taylor is quite social, so I can see both of them crossing paths with Evie. Taylor doesn't really make a secret of being attracted to girls, so that is something they could have discussed (though Taylor's actual dating advice might be... questionable).

For Beth, she seems like someone Iris would have sucked up to in the past for sure. Angelo isn't a participant in Model UN, but he's got friends there and Beth would not be one of them. It looks like they're both fairly outspoken and have very contrasting views, so that could be fun. Kai's family most likely attends a non-denominational church, but he also tries to avoid getting entangled in anything too staunchly political and might just choose to Homer Simpson back into the bushes if Beth is around on a spiel. I imagine Stormy has had some run-ins with people who have issues with the way he's chosen to embrace some of his interests. I wouldn't describe him as being particularly feminine in appearance, but he could be the eyeliner-wearing himbo of your dreams. I can definitely see some interesting potential with the two of them.

RELATIONSHIPS???

[+] Things

Iris:

Grant: Yeah, Iris might've been one of the ladies Grant dated and then quickly dumped. What's worse about this is that he kinda wasn't even intentionally doing it for a laugh, but more because she seemed into him and he kind of liked the attention, until the whole oh wait I'm not actually into her thing happened. And now they might be on student council. Yay.

Pari: Weirdly possible that Iris is one of the people Pari clings to in the grad becauseshe does not have a lot of social capital at this point. Perhaps Pari has tried using that friendship, but ultimately she comes running back to Iris because she doesn't really have a lot of options.

Kai:

Janelle: Has definitely been freaked out by Kai while on a hunting trip with her dad. Thankfully has good trigger discipline. May actually be one of the few people to know Janelle goes hunting, a strange friendship forming?

Taylor:

Grant: Is a fellow party animal, but thinks Taylor is kinda weird and annoying, but that does give Grant someone to regularly argue with.

Janelle: Party friends.

Angelo:

Grant: Again, Grant is probably dismissive to mean when interacting with Angelo. What's a LARP, anyways? Does find Angelo's politics respectable, just not his hobbies.

Stormy:

Pari: Does find Stormy pretty hot, but has decided that she's trying not to make moves any of the guys in cheerleading. Don't crap where you eat, and all that.

Grant: Finds Stormy's interests sort of weird, but pays it no mind. Privately thinks very highly of Stormy for deciding to leave the sinking ship that is the school's basketball team.