[OOC] OBLIVION

[skidcrow]

i wouldnt let that slide if i were you

[CaliforniaState]

He has to wear a paper bag over his head now, it’s part of his power stipulation.

[Rockette]

it'll just add more to the mystery.

[Memoria]

But how will we know if he's hot or not though? lol

[Mirandae]

The only word I see in almost every character sheet is "bullied", and I can't help but sweat a little. So, let's take care of the elephant in the room, yes? I did this in the previous game, so might as well do it again here.

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MEIR—@Salsa Verde
Going with the same setup as in the previous game: Meir probably got the worse from Nat's buddies rather than herself, but neither did she stop anything. Nat and Meir exchanged a few words here and there when the rest of the gang wasn't around, maybe? Surface-level things, school shit.

WILLIAM—@Gisk
Again, going with a similar setup as the previous game: Natalie follows William on Insta/social media due to the music thing. But, there isn't much beyond that, and he wasn't a target of Nat's buddies either.

SARA—@banjoanjo
Going with a variation of the previous game: Natalie being insecure about her own sexuality at the time, she took her frustrations out on Sara in the dreaded but classic 'bathroom encounters' with snarky remarks and outright nasty commentary. I'm thinking this is also because of Sara's heritage, coming as an immigrant, being an easy target.

JACK—@nodogs
Going with a neutral standing again. Natalie probably dumped some interesting gossip about the 'plastics' on Jack every now and then. No fucking honor among thieves here.

MELANIE—@Benzaiten
I'm thinking that Melaine gained some good standing with Natalie in some PE class duo/team sport or competition thing. Then, whenever this bullying cycle began, Natalie would let any remarks from her buddies slide, but then sort of 'apologize' for her not doing anything about it AFTER the cycle ended. Let me know what you think about this.

OLEANDER—@Aeolian
Under the radar as it were. I've got nothing here, love. Unless you've got something in mind, of course. I'm all ears.

MARCO—@udonoodles
My thought here was to have Natalie like Marco's artistic expression to the point of quietly 'protecting' him from any bullshit that the rest of the school might have given him. She'd follow him on social media if he had/has any. There could also be a few occasions of conversation beyond a word or two, perhaps? She'd let him know about the art and that he should talk to her if anyone would give him 'shit'. Let me know what you think about this.

DANTE—@Laertes
I'm thinking that Dante would've received the full premium package of snarky-ass remarks and mean comments from Natalie's buddies. I'd say that Nat herself would've been either indifferent about it or given Dante a 'pass' every now and then. I have a question, though: how well known would that transition have been at Ritman, if at all? I think Natalie would lean more towards not doing anything against Dante if she knew about it.

SAMUEL—@Rockette
Sorry, pumpkin, Sammy gets the full ride of diehard bullying. Natalie won't even recognize him now, though, right? I'd say she'll be kinda stunned, embarrassed about all the shit at Ritman.

[Rockette]

@Prisk
that's right. Sam looks absolutely nothing like he did in school.
shaped up, all bad ass tatted with puberty and adult hood having smacked him right in the damn face like a brick.

speaking of. Found a FC for Sam. Edited my sheet and tacked a photo on the bottom.

other than some social media blubs and posts from Black Arrow and his own personal handle, Sam has been kind of recluse.
Ocean City is a killer tourist attraction though, so anyone with tattoos could've been done by Sam and they not even know who the hell he is.

[Gisk]

I do intend to make a relation sheet, I think it's helpful.

Unless you say otherwise, if you're from the original, I'll just copy my old one for it.

It will probably be a while before I get them done. Later tonight or maybe tomorrow.

[skidcrow]

speaking of. Found a FC for Sam. Edited my sheet and tacked a photo on the bottom.

@Rockette

[Benzaiten]

MELANIE—@Benzaiten
I'm thinking that Melaine gained some good standing with Natalie in some PE class duo/team sport or competition thing. Then, whenever this bullying cycle began, Natalie would let any remarks from her buddies slide, but then sort of 'apologize' for her not doing anything about it AFTER the cycle ended. Let me know what you think about this.

@Prisk

That's totally fine with me. For Melanie's character it also could work if they'd gotten a bit closer (maybe due to getting along in PE quite fine and then seeing each other at a party or during a group project) and ended up having had sex / kissed that one time. But that's just what would work for Mel, cause she would have gone with the opportunity if presented with it. I could also see them getting along fine whenever Natalie wasn't surrounded by her other friends, so maybe they sat together in a class or two and would talk sometimes, or Natalie could have been in some group projects together with Melanie because Mel was a guaranteed way to get an A and have someone else do the entire workload. And she wouldn't even have complained about it.

@Benzaiten

I think outside of Sara, Melanie and Meir would have the most personal relationship by virtue of both having gone to MIT. Maybe it fizzled out towards the end since their majors branched off towards senior year or maybe it didn’t and they still talk regularly. Either way lmk.

@Salsa Verde

Yes, I think that makes sense. Would he have been in some of her classes during MIT? Would it make sense that they sometimes sat in quiet companionship in the library or somewhere, both at Ritman and MIT, to work on their class assignments? I'm not quite sure what their relationship would have looked like. It doesn't seem like they have similar interests beside doing well in their studies.

[Rockette]

@nodogs
damn right he is.

[CaliforniaState]

Yes, I think that makes sense. Would he have been in some of her classes during MIT? Would it make sense that they sometimes sat in quiet companionship in the library or somewhere, both at Ritman and MIT, to work on their class assignments? I'm not quite sure what their relationship would have looked like. It doesn't seem like they have similar interests beside doing well in their studies.

@Benzaiten

I think most of their entry classes like Freshman for sure and sophomore years they attended pretty similar classes if not all since they're mostly intro classes. Probably spurred them to talk a bit, whether that's deep or shallow I don't mind. Library makes sense for them since they were big on academics. They probably shared academic status' for each of their respective schools within MIT. I think the saying it opposites attract. Sara is as well another academic and her and Meir were close as can be.

[Benzaiten]

@Salsa Verde Alright! Then Meir and Mel would have been something like loose friends. I'd imagine if Sara and Meir were very close, it makes sense that at times they met with Mel to hang out, so Mel and Sara would also be lose friends or at least acquainted through Meir. What do you think @banjoanjo

Edit: They could have also been a friend group of 3 with Meir and Sara being much closer and Mel just kinda being the secondary friend.

[Mirandae]

@Benzaiten
Oh yeah, I'm down for all that. I like the guaranteed grade thing/group work. Nat would've been able to blame it on whatever to her buddies while having another reason for it with Mel. And then some sexy fling towards the end of everything, before graduating.

[CaliforniaState]

@Benzaiten

We..we could be M&M or S&M squared

[Benzaiten]

@Prisk Dope. Should we discuss how they reacted after that fling? And for the grade thing, well Mel is a liiiiittttleee bit controlling when it comes to her work - which back then included her grades of course. So she would have happily done all the work herself to ensure it's up to her standards and she wouldn't have judged Natalie for "taking advantage" of her cause this way she didn't have to deal with someone messing up her grade through some stupid group project. So it would have made a lot of sense for Melanie to be fine with doing group projects with Natalie. Though she would insist on meeting up at least 2-3 times before handing in the work to bring Natalie up to date on what the project was about, what she had to present and how to, etc. So Mel would have actually ensured Natalie got away with it just fine in front of teachers and Natalie would never have had to worry about Mel snitching or letting her look "dumb" in front of class cause Mel didn't care about those things.

And though Mel had high academic standards for herself, she never held others to it. So she really didn't care if people decided to cheat in school, including paying others to write essays for them. She was entirely neutral on that front. She didn't have a "moral standard" attached to that academic passion, there was no feeling of superiority over those who cheated or who weren't as enthusiastic about their grades as her. She didn't even care for any academic recognition outside of her own grades.

Edit: As for after graduation, I'd say that Melanie probably had times where she looked up Nat's name and checked her social media. Mel wouldn't really be on social media herself, just occasionally have that sudden "I wonder what she's doing now" once in a while. She wouldn't admit this though. (Though maybe she accidentally left a like somewhere and Natalie noticed, who knows...)

[CaliforniaState]

@Prisk

I liked the dynamic they were slowly forming at the bar before (Meir and Natalie now) so I would like to continue that unlikely duo if that was something you were interested in.

[Mirandae]

@Salsa Verde
Asbolutely! I planned on going the same route.

@Benzaiten
Hah, yeah, I know that type of student all too well. It's a perfect fit for Nat's type. That sort of frees the excuses up a lot. That is, Nat wouldn't have to sneak around or lie about it to her buddies, seeing as Mel would pretty much be in on it for the same reasons, just on the other side of the same coin. This also leads me to think that Natalie's friends would gradually loosen up on the shit they would've given Mel at the get-go of things. So, towards the end of Ritman, they'd more or less leave her alone altogether.

Awesome, then Natalie probably paid Mel for an essay on more than one occasion.

Well, I put the character down as an 'influencer' with a fairly large following. I think I mentioned half a million followers in the previous game, but not in the character sheet. So, it would be very easy to check on Nat after Ritman.

I think Nat would consider that fling to be the perfect 'thank you for everything'-gesture. Like, it would be the highest form of payment and appreciation in Nat's mind to give herself, her body. She probably wouldn't think to do anything like that again, at that point, but that could've changed now a few years later in the story.

[Benzaiten]

@Prisk That sounds good. Mel wouldn't have thought anything of the fling other than they had that attraction and went with it once and that was that. But Natalie would have stayed in her mind nonetheless. Melanie would have probably only written essays for Natalie and no one else because she kind of liked her in a way and it didn't bother her. She also wouldn't have had time to do it for more people or on a very regular basis cause she was always busy tinkering and studying.

I think Melanie would consider doing it again (meaning with Natalie). Which puts us at an interesting starting point for them IC. She wouldn't admit it, even to herself, at this point, but I can see Mel being rather quick to fall back into that feeling from back then, whatever spur-in-the-moment heat it was. Depending on how things play out IC, she might backtrack then and realize she has played that up in her head quite a bit.

[Gisk]

Here's a relationship chart. If I've misread your character, or forget them, give me a shout and we can fix it together.

Relationships

Obviously these are all just first thoughts and suggestions, I'd love to hear what you think as well, since of course you know your own characters better.

@nodogs
Jack: Billy would have been insistent on staying in her ever shifting circle of friends. I'll leave it to you how she took that.

@banjoanjo
Sara: Freshman year, Billy for his part is still transitioning from church going band geek to goof-off theater kid. They were dropped off at the mall by their respective parents(maybe her brother was secretly tasked with keeping an eye on them, under the guise of hanging out with his own friends). There just wasn't any chemistry, maybe this is when Sara started to realize she wasn't into guys.

Billy's parents asked "what happened to that nice Sara girl?" for years after.

@Salsa Verde
Mier: Billy would be decent to him, but probably didn't have a lot of interest or common ground to form any real friendship

@Prisk
Natalie: Billy was well liked, but in high school that's not the same as popular, and for the most part they didn't really move in the same circles. They did, however, follow each other on Instagram, and actually still do(though, for his part Billy is only vaguely aware of the fact).

@Benzaiten
Melanie: Billy and Melanie seem to be pretty self involved, but in very different ways. I think they likely had very little to do with each other, though Billy probably attended exactly one(1) dungeons and dragons club session.

@Aeolian
Oleander: I think Billy would have taken kind of a shine to him, but probably expressed it through a lot of teasing and good natured jokes. If Oleander put up with this long enough, Billy probably would advance to openly flirting in senior year(when Billy at least was out as pan at school).

@udonoodles
Marco: If you allow, I can see Billy being one of Marco's few close friends, at least until Marco started to kind of drop off. Unfortunately, Billy probably didn't keep up with him as well as a friend should(granted, senior year and after graduation he definitely had his own drama going on).
I can see a friendly rivalry through underclass years, them being two of the school's biggest musical talents.

@Laertes
Dante: Is there any chance he was in Billy's high school band?

@Rockette
Samuel: I think at the very least they would have shared cigarettes, but Billy is relentless when trying to be friends with someone. You can tell me how Sam felt about that.

@The Man Emperor
Trystan: I don't think Billy likes him very much, but more than anything he would just stay out of his way.

[Benzaiten]

@Gisk I agree, I don't see Mel and Billy really mingling. She would have seen him perform for the school like most people. And she would remember that one session he was in if he attended D&D club once.