Yo wassup
Since we're all waiting, I decided why not throw my OCs I'll be playing on update into the club. This is my first time doing this, so hopefully I did these alright.
Starting off with Maki, who's the most logically intelligent of the three. He's a bit stilted in conversations since he never connected with many people before the move. If it wasn't for Qiu and Tamarack having an initial interest in being his friend, he most likely would've been the same here.
As stated, his method is often to read the room and act accordingly. There's a bit of a people pleasing mentality, but where it usually manifests because of wanting to be liked, for him it's the only way to connect without becoming distant.
He follows Tamarack a bit more because of this, as she's very clear about what she wants. He eventually starts to genuinely learn about her love for nature outside of this and starts to hang out with her on his own accord. They get close enough to where he starts developing a crush on her in Step 2, but he wouldn't know half of what that is.
Qiu is actually able to get him to open himself up during his first year. It's marginal, but enough for Maki to feel he can express himself a bit more. They started to gain a competitive friendship after the bike race in the Wheels event, and Maki started looking forward to finding ways to challenge them since.
I'm still waiting for Step 2 to decide what to do with them, but Maki will almost certainly take on a savior complex, since they were his first friend group. Seeing his friends struggle but not having the emotional intelligence to know what to do, he'd try to solve things logically, as he usually does. Of course, the one thing Maki never truly learned was that people aren't made to be "solved." Notably, he starts to disassociate with his full first name in this Step, as it reminds him too much of the philosopher Machiavelli, the complete opposite if what he wants to be in the friend group.
Cassie is essentially the complete opposite of Maki: she's very emotionally intelligent, able to read the context of even intentionally vague statements. Being an open book allows her to make friends easily, even with people who start with some reservations like Darren.
She didn't have many opportunities to explore in her old neighborhood, which further fuels her desire to explore. It's hard to find anything that truly scares her, unless it relates to an obstacle in her relationships, which she'd take harder than anything.
She knew Tamarack would be her best friend from the moment she jumped out of that leaf pile. Their energy put together makes every scenario lively, no matter what it is. Of course, this also often ends in extreme recklessness, but Cassie sees the risk as part of the fun. This only increased after learning Tamarack might have to move one day, attempting to distract her from the ever-looming possibility.
Qiu would also be Cassie's best friend, but the world mechanics banned it. Despite being the early leader figure, he's had times where he struggled to keep up with her, though she has no problem following him as long as they do something fun. Cassie admires Qiu's ability to create a new adventure for them to go on constantly and even sees him as the group's foundation. She had feelings for him from the start and was never afraid to show it.
Cassie takes Step 2 hard, as her strongest value as a friend is to be able to help no matter what happens. She attempts to act as the pillar she saw Qiu as in Step 1, but unable to see herself in that same light, she inadvertently becomes more protective of the two in trying to shield them from anything that happens. Unfortunately for her, even when a helmet takes a hit for you, it can't take any more if it breaks.
X is determined to stay as just the neighbor you don't mess with. He hates everything that reminds him how fickle relationships can be, including his own name, which is meant to be a symbol of leadership and trust. He has no interest in friends, especially since he's convinced himself he couldn't make any if he tried.
Decision still pending if this becomes an official canon, but as of now, X is the only one to skip a Moment. In fact... he skipped all the ones in Step 1. The closest he let himself get to the neighbors was being forced to be watched by them when his mother was at work as he convinces himself he isn't missing anything.
Despite this, he noticed a bit of relatability in Tamarack, being forced to live away from them as they worked. While he would never say it out loud, it was a bit admirable how she never seemed to be bitter towards them. This admiration can quickly turn into a jealous annoyance when she pushes for her plans or jumps to make friends with people, which caused him to step in when they first met Darren.
Qiu, as sweet as he was, was never truly able to break through to X. Of course, part of it was skipping the events, but even at school, X held no interest for his friendly invitations. If X were able to be honest, Qiu scared him. He never truly understood why he made such desperate pushes to include him when everyone who mattered to him seemed to push him away, not to mention a slight jealousy for having both parents around. It was in these emotions that he almost went with the group multiple times, but his stubborn hurt won over in the end.
Step 2 was a dramatic shift... at least X saw it what way. He had become friends with Tamarack... well, "friends" in the sense she was nice to him and he would begrudgingly check on her occasionally. Qiu's lack of recent invitations or even going out was also a confusion to him, though he'd never show it. The fact that he even still cares about it is a nuisance to him, though now their relationship has shifted to that of awkwardly cordial neighbors instead of outright disgust at his constant presence.
And that's all three! Hopefully it's not too much, I didn't want to take up space with multiple posts.
That is a wall tho
