@Peri, sure, having the experiments sit together at lunch is a great idea! Here's my experiment charrie :)

Name: His full name is Diarmuid Evers; he's commonly known as Tam, for unspecified reasons.

Pronouns: He/him

Student or experiment?: Experiment

Species:  Human

Personality: A really decent, nice boy, with some of the more stereotypical boyish traits (he's sometimes foolhardy, he likes the latest "cool" music [if there is "cool" music in Kyngdom??], he doesn't enjoy getting emotional or "sappy." But he's loyal, eager, friendly, caring, and fun.

Skills and abilities: He's very good at skateboarding :P Other than that, he's good at making people laugh; singing; playing music; and wilderness survival.

Likes: He likes music, hanging out with friends, finding out about the natural world, and hiking.

Dislikes: Fussy old ladies, having to think about his appearance

Other: He's about 16.

Diarmuid's POV:

Diarmuid stepped into the lunch area, looking around. There were a lot of people here, all making a racket as usual. He glanced at the menu. Ugh, not beets and underdone fish again. The scientists were trying to see if the experiments could be made resistant to the bacteria in raw fish, and so far nobody had gotten sick, but the fish sure tasted terrible. Sighing, he picked up a tray and made his way over to a table where a couple of other people were sitting.

Let me know if any of this won't work. also is 316 more reasonable for age? I'm sorry i can't do math

~ 

Name: Ve wants a name, but Kestrel started to be so against choosing his own name that ve feels like ve shouldn’t. Ve sometimes thinks of vimself as Alloy or Rust. I haven’t fully decided on a name but i’ll call vim Alloy for now.

Age: 15?

Pronouns:  ve/vir/vim/vimself, she/her if necessary. Ve is nonbinary and feminine, but dresses very masculine and sometimes finds being percieved as feminine dysphoric. AMAB if it matters.

Student or experiment? Experiment 

Species: human?  due to vir nature the army is hesitant to give vir any enhancements. Ve is a test for lifesaving procedures and things that weaken. Sometimes they will get vir very sick and test medicines on vir; other times they will test things like tranquilizers and weakening things. Because of this vir right foot is scarred and often painful, and ve has weak lungs, gets sick easily, and doesn’t have much endurance. 

Skills and abilities: Ve is a friend of metals and sometimes rocks. Ve can talk to them, coax them into bending or crumbling. Sometimes the metals don’t want to. Other times it’s easier. Ve needs to be touching them in order to communicate, and things usually happen slowly, with a few seconds of delay. The heavier the rock and the harder the command, the longer it takes. Ve is a very good artist; ve bases vir worth on it far too much, because Kestrel was always proud of that. Ve is also pretty good at budgeting; Kestrel would spend way too much on bird stuff even though he had no place to put it and then Kestrel would be super happy but they wouldn’t be able to eat. Because of this ve has major anxiety around money and generally is against spending it, even when ve needs to. Also very very practical.`

A few weaknesses I want to mention: Ve has no sense of time (ve thinks 5 minutes have past when an hour has and vice versa); large parts of vir personality; incredibly disorganized, not a good person to give something remotely important to; will often make bad decisions to avoid feeling cornered or trapped or like someone else is in control of vir

Personality: switches between recklessly irrelevant and submissive; charismatic; apathetic about other people; very awkward and anxious when ve doesn’t have an explicit goal behind the interaction. Ve is flashy, charismatic, and very good at getting what ve needs - ve often had to do all the interactions for Kestrel, especially with his social anxiety. And yet even when ve wants to, ve doesn’t care about others; to vim, they register as NPCs in a way. Usually ve doesn’t think of Kestrel like this, but sometimes ve does, and sometimes (not always) that scares vim. Ve doesn’t know how to interact with people when ve doesn’t want something from them, usually avoiding it. Why would ve anyway? Ve will not trust you even when ve has a good reason to, because ve had to be Kestrel’s social danger detector. Ve changes vir mind quickly, always adapting to what has to be done. Ve has very little faith in vir own perceptions and can be easily persuaded that ve’s wrong. Ve is scared far more easily than ve would ever admit, but the feeling is dull to vim at this point. Sometimes ve acts erratic and flashy because it’s fun to scare people; other times ve just acts erratic and flashy.

Likes: the memory of Kestrel,  sometimes; drawing; rocks and metals; rust

Dislikes: Vir biggest fears are sickness and death, with the dark and cold coming close. But ve is scared of far more than ve would ever let virself admit. Ve also dislikes fear, and even more than the feeling hates the idea of showing it.

Other: Mixed loyalties. on one hand, Kestrel was convinced that BIG was the best option, and 316 absorbed that; but on the other hand, if it wasn’t for BIG, Kestrel would still be alive. See backstory. Ve has forgotten most of vir past, including much about Kestrel; ve has a smallish notebook crammed it full of memories of him, even some of the bad. This is vir most treasured possession, and ve is terrified of losing it. Ve is also very forgetful in general; basically anything that happened more than an hour ago is more or less lost unless ve wrote it down, though ve often remembers things better during situations with more adrenaline (unless it’s too scary or inescapable). ADHD. Also ve's Japanese (i know that's kind of world breaking and idk if it'll come in but eh)

Backstory: Ver brother, Kestrel (who was 4 years older) was convinced that BIG was the way forward - the only way forward. The two left home when Kestrel was thirteen. Kestrel won’t talk about what happened at home, and even though 316 was nine when Kestrel decided to leave, ve has no idea. All ve knows is that on occasion ve will get the strongest feeling that ve’s there, and it’s not good. After a few months on the streets or with an aunt who sometimes let them stay with her, a SOCS official approached them and gave them a place to stay. They explained what was happening, and it didn’t take long for Kestrel to accept. Soon after, Kestrel volunteered both himself and Alloy for anything they needed. Three years later, he was dead. 

Alloy very much blames virself for Kestrel’s death, but even more for everything that happened when he was alive. For all the times he got hurt, but also for all the things that couldn’t happen. How often ve couldn’t get Kestrel to eat, because he often would refuse any help. All the things Kestrel couldn’t get across, no matter he tried and no matter how hard 316 tried to understand. (I might post basics on Kestrel later)

okay so i'm not going to post the first part I've written yet so i don't overwhelm the admins but -

I was wondering if it might be okay to have another experiment? I totally understand if not, and I’m worried that it might slightly overtake the plot (nobody else would have to do anything with it, i just might post too much), so i’m not sure i would even do that (I might do that in a separate book regardless). Anyway, since Alloy’s brother is dead, I was thinking: what if he wasn’t? What if he had been somewhere else, and he came back? I totally get if this is a no, but he is just really important to Alloy’s character and I really like him hehe, and also i really want to have some things from his perspective for a lot of reasons. i could do a ghost thing or something so it's less important and takes up less time as well. like i said, i might not do this even if it's okay, but just let me know what you think 

Also knowing Alloy, I was thinking maybe ve would approach the table as more of a stranger having heard of the escape elsewhere. I’m thinking ve also might wrestle with whether ve should report it or not because of vir brother being very loyal to BIG. Ve won’t end up reporting it, though, because I want the plot to go places XD 

Also @peri, by any chance would you want to keep going with Toad and Callums’ discussion on the Holiday Party thread? If you don’t want to keep the holiday theme we could change it or restart on another theme/idea. Sorry that i ended up not posting, it wasn’t because I didn’t want to. it's fine if you're busy i just was enjoying that :D

**Zinnia**

Zinnia sat a lunch table, a tray of food before them, and forced some of the food down. The food here was disgusting; Zinnia wondered what food in the outside world was like.

Via arrived to the table and sat down next to Zinnia. "Hi, Zinnie," she said, giving Zinnia a hug. 

Zinnia smiled, in spite of themself, and hugged Via back. "Hi, Via." They tried to keep exhaustion from creeping into their voice. 

Zinnia glanced around the cafeteria. The others should be arriving soon. They were supposed to go over the plan.  

~~

I really want this to stay alive, guys. Please feel free to make as many charries as you want and rp at the school or the cafeteria. Maybe I'll make a post on Random Thoughts to try to get a few more people to join. I feel like it'd be good to get a few more student characters; we have a good number of experiments for right now (I feel like too many experiments would be a little OP and it wouldn't be believable that a very large number of them could escape) but I think it'd be good to have some students. And maybe I should make another student character, myself…

Yes let's not let this die!

-Avi-

The dining room. Blech. Everything about it was bland. The walls were a strange shade off-white, the floor looked as if a sick child had been let loose 100 years ago, and the food tasted sour and exactly what you'd expect someone's least favorite food would taste like. 

Avi sat alone, like he always did, in a corner, like he always did, and watched his small little world go round, just like he always did. He wondered what the outside world was like and dreamed of escape. It certainly made the food go down easier.

I'm going to make another student charrie (which I think Peri said was ok)

Name: Alyria "Aly" Virsoe 

Pronouns: she/her

Student or experiment?: student

Species: homo lupus (which no one knows about, not that she cares much about it)

Personality: thoughtful, caring, impulsive

Skills and abilities: archery, general combat skills, mentoring, and accuracy (in any context)

Likes: archery, making friends, adventure

Dislikes: being left out, not being accurate, bad people in general

Other: n/a

@Peri - first off i’m not abandoning this! I’ve just been really busy (I had a concerto competition today hehe and turns out that takes up basically your whole day with prep, lessons, a rehearsal) and also just failing to post this (it’s been mostly ready for too long XD)

That’s about what I was thinking for Kestrel. I didn’t explain very well though, sorry; i’m not sure he’s an experiment at the moment, but he used to be. I did consider making him a student but am not sure it would work very well because of his personality and disabilities; I’ll look at the traveler’s RP, but his story is pretty connected to this one. I think a ghost could actually be very interesting as was a more major role, if that fits with the world. Maybe he wasn’t able to be at the experiment place (what is it called?) due to some magical thing. That would also bring him in later when the plot is more established. It could also balance the party a bit, since the rest don’t seem to have fighting skills and if Kestrel was a ghost maybe he would have some. Although he is pretty loyal to it, which might be an issue (if they’re having the experiments do stuff surely a thing where they make you overly loyal to the wrong cause and aren’t too overtly horrible otherwise would be more effective). But if he can’t go back, that might be an explanation (and also he really cares about Alloy)

And yeah the thread would be great! I might not be able to be super active or have super detailed POV parts but I’d really enjoy it :D We could put it on This Month, or just top the holiday party thread? 

@Wildsong (sorry no caps) - That could be cool! Unfortunately i don’t have any ideas besides perhaps a rivals to slight friends arc; what’s Avi’s backstory like maybe? That could give them a reason to interact.