Survival Of The Fittest

Sharad "Shay" Narang: Half-Italian-American half-Indian-American kid from a small beach town in California. Orphaned at a very young age and raised by maternal grandparents who were neglectful and abusive. Very much a beach town kid at heart; loves surfing and diving and longboarding, prefers being barefoot unless shoes are absolutely required, smokes a lot of weed and spends the vast majority of his time outside whenever possible. Also something of a punk and delinquent and mostly hangs with other delinquent kids. Terrible student under serious threat of not graduating. Has only been moved to Vegas fairly recently, and deeply loathes it there and resents his family for the move. Has a very bitter, acerbic personality and a tendency to push others away and put others down, but the rare person who he lets the bad attitude down for can see a softer, warmer side to him and find a loyal and dedicated friend behind the facade.

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Rhoda Simmons: Daughter of a single mother and eldest sibling of three. Saddled with largely taking care of her younger siblings in place of her overworked mother, a matter that takes up much of her spare time outside of school and put a great deal of strain on her and her mother's relationship. An excellent student with a particular head for math and sciences, but doesn't have much direction for what she wants to do with her life once she graduates and doesn't feel she can afford going to college. Self-described emo who likes singing and playing guitar but is mostly too shy to do so in front of others, and loves drawing and sketching but rarely shows her art to anyone. Diagnosed with depression that is going largely untreated. Usually comes across as withdrawn, oversensitive and moody, and can be kinda difficult to get along with as a result, but is aware of and trying to improve that behavior and make more friends where she can.

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Micah (formerly Lynette) Copeland: Child of a well-off manager of a hotel and casino. Parents are controlling and micromanaging of his time and academic career, and are heavily pressuring him into a career in medicine, which he resents but complies with. A straight-A student overburdened with extracurriculars and frequently exhausted as a result, struggling to keep it all up. Dedicates what little free time he has towards nerdy stuff like fantasy novels, Star Wars and old computer RPGs, despite parental disapproval of such frivolous entertainment. Secretly trans and prefers to be called Micah over his birth name, but has hidden this from his conservative parents for fear of disownment. Comes off as stuffy, haughty and ambitious, but is deeply insecure and has poor self-worth.

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Inés Rios Ortega: A girl born in Mexico City whose family moved to the US when she was young. Has a large extended family living across both the US and Mexico and a close, loving relationship with most of them, and an especially close one with her parents. The family moved around a lot while she was growing up to pursue various jobs but eventually settled into running a gas station a ways outside of Vegas city limits, for which she does a lot of mostly-unpaid work to help her parents keep it afloat. Not a great student overall, but a terrific athlete and one of the star runners of the girl's track team, and plans to pursue scholarships for college on that front in the hopes of getting a well-paying job to support her parents and other family. A friendly girl, if somewhat shy and socially awkward, who's happy to help anyone who asks or lend an ear to anyone who needs it.

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Hello hi it's me, me. Like M E, because I'm Emmy. I'm funny.

Anyway! Sharad aka Shay!
Maybe gets on with Heather? She's a rebel who has (perhaps annoyingly) developed a sincere cause of late, so that might be a wedge between them compared to her younger years simply being a contrarian, or maybe he's into that. If nothing else she's a fellow out-of-towner (still undecided but most likely a fellow Californian) who he can smoke with and bitch about how Nevada sucks together. Plus she's pretty liberal about sex so probably DTF if he is.
My other gals, I dunno, probably not much there.

Rhoda!
Might be a fan of Mercy's band? She mostly does MCR covers, and is by-and-large focused on 00s emo throwback vibes.
Again, not sure about the others, unless she feels like sharing her art with Hope. Hope kinda lives vicariously through other kids who can draw, wishing that she could do it herself.

Micah!
Heather's the self-appointed guardian angel of queer youth, so he'll always have her ear if he needs.
Hope's also a nerd with conservative parents, so they'd likely move in the same circles and get along fairly well? She's quite liberal herself and already besties with local enby Taylor, so no need to be closeted with her. Plus she could do with help with academia...
LK is also transgender and also a gamer, but she doesn't really go for retro. Still, might be some solidarity there if not really friendship.
Nothing much for Mercy or Grace tbh.

Inés!
Not sure I have much to offer that's not "pleasant acquaintance", outside of my likely-pregame-only Grace being a fellow athlete.

Dr Adjective wrote: ↑Mon May 20, 2024 11:28 am Anyway! Sharad aka Shay!
Maybe gets on with Heather? She's a rebel who has (perhaps annoyingly) developed a sincere cause of late, so that might be a wedge between them compared to her younger years simply being a contrarian, or maybe he's into that. If nothing else she's a fellow out-of-towner (still undecided but most likely a fellow Californian) who he can smoke with and bitch about how Nevada sucks together. Plus she's pretty liberal about sex so probably DTF if he is.
My other gals, I dunno, probably not much there.

While I think Shay is kinda apathetic to the world, I think he could respect someone else having that kind of conviction and they'd be buds. Having a fellow Cali emigrant who hates it in Vegas and can also be a smoking buddy is also a huge boon. I can perhaps see Shay agreeing to have sex if Heather asks, but I think it'd be a one time thing; I think Shay is both more attracted to guys than girls and also would be on edge about blowing up a friendship in a town where he has very few of those by adding intimacy into the mix.

Dr Adjective wrote: ↑Mon May 20, 2024 11:28 am Rhoda!
Might be a fan of Mercy's band? She mostly does MCR covers, and is by-and-large focused on 00s emo throwback vibes.
Again, not sure about the others, unless she feels like sharing her art with Hope. Hope kinda lives vicariously through other kids who can draw, wishing that she could do it herself.

Rhoda would absolutely be done for a local band who covers MCR and other emo bands of the era! Perhaps she even asks for pointers from Mercy or other bandmates since she privately enjoys playing that kind of music (and also more indie music) herself.

Rhoda's kinda cagey about showing her art to people, but if Hope maybe sees some of it over her shoulder or something and likes it I can see her being more willing to share from that point forward. Perhaps they can make some small talk and be buddies from there.

Dr Adjective wrote: ↑Mon May 20, 2024 11:28 am Micah!
Heather's the self-appointed guardian angel of queer youth, so he'll always have her ear if he needs.
Hope's also a nerd with conservative parents, so they'd likely move in the same circles and get along fairly well? She's quite liberal herself and already besties with local enby Taylor, so no need to be closeted with her. Plus she could do with help with academia...
LK is also transgender and also a gamer, but she doesn't really go for retro. Still, might be some solidarity there if not really friendship.
Nothing much for Mercy or Grace tbh.

Cool with all of these I think! Perhaps I can think of more specifics of them when I've got more of a grasp on Micah (he and Inés are a bit less fleshed out in my head than Shay and Rhoda)

I’m afraid I don’t have a lot to offer.

My kid Alec is into Star Wars and other such nerd stuff (he’s mostly into comics) and also has self esteem issues, though he wears his on his sleeve.

gonna give us a little bump here now that v9 pregame is on the horizon, probably gonna update some stuff about these blurbs in the near future

Neat I think I can jot some things down for this

Sharad "Shay" Narang

Manuel "Mañana" Hernández

I think they'd be close friends, lemme explain. They are very similar in the fact that they're both delinquents with primarily bad attitude facades behind which is a very loyal tendency to people close to them, coupled with a certain warm friendliness. I feel like they'd initially hang out with each other purely because of the similar circles they run in, but become closer as they learned more about each other and bonded. For some side flavour to their friendship, Manuel is a Vegas native and tries, to whatever extent he can, to show Shay the appeal to the city, usually to some comical failure.

Raya Loux

Shay is someone Raya attempted to take under her wing, as it were, due to her noticing how bitter and miserable he seems here, attempting to bond with him as a genuine friend. Whether this actually works is up to you, though if he showed enough resistance, she would reluctantly back off.

Rhoda Simmons

Raya Loux

Raya is in a similar position to Rhoda, being the eldest of three and dealing with large amounts of work outside of school between working at her dad's Auto shop and taking care of her younger brothers. Through this position, I think she'd try to appeal to Rhoda and become a friend of hers, sharing advice and experiences with her and showing interests in the interests Rhoda is shy about.

Micah Copeland

Sylvie Rattray-Aubert

Sylvie and Micah are in similar positions as children of upper-class parents who put pressure on them academically, and are inwardly struggling with both insecurity and keeping up several tasking aspects of their lives. I feel like they'd initially just run in similar social circles due to their economic class and status as preps, but could potentially get to know each other and bond over their shared struggles. Both, I think, would be happy there's someone in school who can more personally empathize with their situations.

Manuel "Mañana" Hernández

Manuel holds great disdain for people who come off theway Micah does. He'd regularly talk shit about him behind his back and occasionally to his face in passing, making few attempts to look any deeper in.

Inés Rios Ortega

Nothing comes to mind for her specifically, unfortunately.

In General

Céline Sharpe

That creepy, loner weirdo with the fraud psychic mom who wears forest-witchy clothes, gets bullied constantly, has no friends and seems to exhibit no outside emotions. Likely best avoided.