Hello, hello, time for my- uh- sporadic posting schedule! (There is no schedule) [also, I made the drawings for all of my Mcs at once, but I was too lazy to post all their stories all at once, so you can see that I was- uh... more or less motivated in making Hee-Jin and Phya]
Here's Hee-Jin 'Moonie' Yoon!
She's Wasian 50/50 Irish and Korean, Opal is fully Korean in this route and Hee-Jin doesn't really look like her. It causes a little (*cough* lot *cough*) of self-consciousness... she stays using she/her pronouns throughout.
Hee-Jin, in step 1, is a diva and a girls-girl, she doesn't outright dislike guys, but it's easier to make her dislike you if you 'discriminate' against people who are girls. She had a big group of friends befire she moved, she's still in touch with them.
She doesn't like it when people confuse her as an adopted child of Opal because of how different they look from eachother. She always notices how people look at her when she introduces herself. She always has to explain that, no she's not a koreaboo, she really is Korean, just white-passing. It annoys her heavily that she has to explain every time.
Step 2 is where she becomes a 'reserved, proper lady' and is less insecure about looking different from Opal, and stopped with straightening her hair (she has Irish curls). She's in denial about crushing on Qiu. She's about as popular as Qiu as well, so she doesn't have to explain herself of her name, she doesn't mind them and runs herself exhausted with being there for everyone.
She's teamworking for both Qiu and Tamarack, unassuming and accepting for Qiu, Praising and admiring for Tamarack.
I wanted to make a different Qiu romance route that isn't my main Mc, so he's Hee-Jin! Although I don't think she'll end up with them at the end? I feel like if it was a storyline, then it would be 'a love that was never meant to be' type of situation.
Welp! Time to rip the bandaid off for the next character of mine!
Meet the saltiest of my Mcs, Arséne 'Ari' Desjardins!
He's a French boy, he stays using he/him throughout his life. He's normally brash and isn't afraid to say what's bothering him! Uh- but the way he places his words can be a bit rough (even for those with thick skins).
He lived in Marseille, France before coming to Golden Grove and the sudden change leaves him heavily annoyed. He does not care if you're older or younger, he'll outright says what he thinks of you- usually it's bad. He had a group of friends, but they got disconnected from the distance. He doesn't really mind though, never close to begin with.
Step 2 is where his sulky-ness mellows out, he's a lot more passive aggressive, though, it doesn't mean he hasn't thrown hands. He still misses Marseille and gets horrified whenever he pronounces things with an American accent. He's somehow naturally charismatic but also unintentionally picks on people? Struggles in most subjects in school except computer science. He also has a habit of insulting people in French.
He's contesting, unassuming, and accepting of both Qiu and Tamarack.
Initially, he was going to be less straightforward mean and more like 'oh he doesn't mean to be mean! Oh wait- no he is.'-type of mean, but I had too much fun making him be a brat straight up
Welp, now that we're just waiting, I guess I'm gonna dump the rest of my guys? They- alongside the others- have been on the backburner for a while. (´ 3｀)
This devious fella is Fran Silva! (In Step 1)
They're 90-99% Chilean, the one percents just a random thing, I think? They use he/him in step 1, later they have a preference for they/them (however, unlike Qiu, they don't mind if they get called by he/him or she/her, infact, it's really amusing to them on how they get perceived by other people).
Fran is as cheeky and mischievous as a 10 year-old can get, no active hostility though. They lived in Australia before moving to Golden Grove. Quite relieved to actually. Despite how popular they were, they also had a target on their back by some kids and got pinned down and those kids tried doing a crude job of trying to remove his birthmark, saying it'd make them look a lot prettier.
Opal was not happy and extremely worried when Fran came home with a gashed forehead, y'know as one parent does, and Fran came to hate his birthmark. If anything can break their mischievous persona, just bring up their birthmark and you'll meet a snappy Fran and a glare. He's best friends with Qiu in 1 and 2, and likes to tease them about how popular they stayed- unlike Fran, falling from popularity and is probably on many people's hit list (they think it's really funny that people are that pressed on their existence), and friends with Tamarack, trying to coax the inner-wildchild out again.
Step 2 Fran, who now gets the nickname 'Ace' because of how they're seemingly flawless at everything they do, is not much better than their 10-year-old self when it comes to mischief. Instead of just staying in one place this bastard (with love) reached their claws out onto the town. They don't mean for anything to last long, usually ending up with a silent apology of gifts or acts to help.
Fran is teasing, and doting for Tamarack and Qiu, but teamworking for Tamarack and contesting for Qiu.
Initially, I was going to have Fran be a lot more colder and be one of those kids that 'you could never get close to', intending them be my 'just neighbors' route dude but as actually played their route, I scrapped that idea and we have this fella.
Omg am I posing about the other characters that I said I'd talk about a month ago? Gasp. Anyways he's for Tamarack's romance route.
This is Kale 'Cran' Berry! (Step 1 specifically)
He's ~20% Greek and ~80% Jamaican. He's trans, FtM, from the very start of the game. He doesn’t tell anybody in the first step, but I think in the 2 Step, he tells them about it.
Cran is actually an awkward kid, but his awkward-ness paired with his 'stone cold face unintentionally gave him the title of 'nonchalant'. He was relieved to leave his old town of Phoenix, Arizona to get away from the heat, but he was also reluctant to part with the real friends he was finally making.
Because Cran has a cold-looking exterior, he doesn't make friends often and grew to learn not to expect to be friends right off the bat of first meeting. And when Qiu made the proclamation of being friends, he was reluctant because of how hard Qiu was trying to be so adult-like and a case of people pretending to be friends. He's a lot softer to Tamarack because she was more like an open book.
In step 2, he grows to learn to not be overly protective of himself and also when he changed his name from Kale to Cran. His favorite hobby is both baking and cooking for both Qiu and Tamarack, He specifically uses a cookbook that was made by his food-obsessed uncle (I'm still working on him, so he doesn't have a name yet).
He's teamworking for both Qiu and Tamarack. Unassuming and Accepting to Qiu, Praising and Doting for Tamarack.
I named him Cran Berry as a jokey thing, initially just wanting 'Cran' to stay a nickname, and Kale was a placeholder name until I found something I liked for him, but it slowly dissolved into Cran being his name so... that's how I made up the story of him using Kale as a placeholder name. Also, he's oblivious to the fact that his nickname was a pun for 'Cranberry'.
This is so corny- (also, since Dot's my main Oc for everything, I'm used to drawing her- so like, I'm getting used to drawing the others :>)