Application for Folkmore
May. 31st, 2023 08:49 am★ Character Information ★
Skills: Beyond resume-worthy skills like creative thinking, as a theatre kid, Jeremy is good at acting and has a great singing voice. He has also learned how to interface with electronics, being able to interact with them hands-free. This essentially just lets him check nearby Bluetooth devices or turn the TV on and off with his mind. He's also pretty good at cooking and baking.
Canon Abilities: Jeremy's SQUIP lets him play XBox hands-free - "With a SQUIP, the only controller you need is your mind!" He is good at video games and can roller skate.
Role: Legend, as described here.
Role Qualities/Attributes: He has no wings yet, but around his head is a transparent circular halo, more like an ancient painting than a cartoonish floating yellow ring. The ring is transparent with blue circuitry extending out from his head, a CD-like rainbow sheen whenever the circuits catch the light. His eyes, normally a very human shade of blue, are similarly almost neon in their glow. This is only noticable to Jeremy in the occasional flicker of blue in the corners of his eyes.
Role Reasoning: Jeremy sees himself as the villain of his own story, having been barely redeemed from his attempt at school-and-possibly-global domination. In reality, Jeremy was a victim of intense psychological manipulation - he was convinced by a malicious entity that he could help others. He changed his mind only after the damage had already been done except for a fortunate last-minute rescue by his friend Michael Mell. Jeremy doesn't consider himself a good guy, but is aware of his flaws and is actively trying to improve. At his most evil, Jeremy was a douchey high schooler. He tends to magnify his own flaws, so being seen as heroic/angelic could create some interesting tension - especially between Jeremy and Rich Goranski, Jeremy's former bully and current friend, who sees himself as having corrupted Jeremy.
Please choose one of the follow options for your personality section. Please clarify which option you have picked and, if option 2, which questions you are answering:
OPTION 2 QUESTIONS (PICK 4-5) 100-300 WORD LIMIT EACH:
What would your character sacrifice to get what they want or to reach their potential? What have they sacrificed already?
Character Name: Jeremy Heere.
Character Age: 18, but still a senior in high school. A little over a year after the events of canon.
Character Species: Human - technically a cyborg because of a nanotech brain implant called a SQUIP.
Current Health: Alive and well. He has OCD and takes medication for this.
Outfit: Jeremy still wears clothes similar to the ones he wore in canon - striped shirts, a blue cardigan, Converse shoes, jeans.
Character Canon: Be More Chill (musical)
Link to History: See character information section here. Only difference is that Jeremy is now in senior year. (It also uses my deadname.)
Canon Point: Post-canon
Canon Iteration: CRAU based on Jeremy's experiences in Aefenglom.
Canon Iteration Explanation: Jeremy was taken to Aefenglom a few months postcanon at age 17. His months there were largely traumatic, involving supernatural attacks, his friends (and enemies) turning into monsters, and a whole lot of guilt. As a Witch, he did learn to practice magic in Aefenglom, but he never became skilled at it. These abilities disappeared when he returned to his home world.
Jeremy also remembers various TDMs that he has visited, all of them involving Rich Goranski. He understands that Rich does not remember him between these visits. If prompted, he will also remember a private roleplay relationship with an android named Ai. (These have all been coordinated with Rich's roleplayer, Venus, who also invited me to Folkmore. She also plays Ai in our private roleplay.) I do not plan to have the private roleplay influence any conversations in Folkmore beyond vague references to Jeremy knowing an android back home.
Character Age: 18, but still a senior in high school. A little over a year after the events of canon.
Character Species: Human - technically a cyborg because of a nanotech brain implant called a SQUIP.
Current Health: Alive and well. He has OCD and takes medication for this.
Outfit: Jeremy still wears clothes similar to the ones he wore in canon - striped shirts, a blue cardigan, Converse shoes, jeans.
Character Canon: Be More Chill (musical)
Link to History: See character information section here. Only difference is that Jeremy is now in senior year. (It also uses my deadname.)
Canon Point: Post-canon
Canon Iteration: CRAU based on Jeremy's experiences in Aefenglom.
Canon Iteration Explanation: Jeremy was taken to Aefenglom a few months postcanon at age 17. His months there were largely traumatic, involving supernatural attacks, his friends (and enemies) turning into monsters, and a whole lot of guilt. As a Witch, he did learn to practice magic in Aefenglom, but he never became skilled at it. These abilities disappeared when he returned to his home world.
Jeremy also remembers various TDMs that he has visited, all of them involving Rich Goranski. He understands that Rich does not remember him between these visits. If prompted, he will also remember a private roleplay relationship with an android named Ai. (These have all been coordinated with Rich's roleplayer, Venus, who also invited me to Folkmore. She also plays Ai in our private roleplay.) I do not plan to have the private roleplay influence any conversations in Folkmore beyond vague references to Jeremy knowing an android back home.
★ Folkmore Roles & Attributes ★
Skills: Beyond resume-worthy skills like creative thinking, as a theatre kid, Jeremy is good at acting and has a great singing voice. He has also learned how to interface with electronics, being able to interact with them hands-free. This essentially just lets him check nearby Bluetooth devices or turn the TV on and off with his mind. He's also pretty good at cooking and baking.
Canon Abilities: Jeremy's SQUIP lets him play XBox hands-free - "With a SQUIP, the only controller you need is your mind!" He is good at video games and can roller skate.
Role: Legend, as described here.
Role Qualities/Attributes: He has no wings yet, but around his head is a transparent circular halo, more like an ancient painting than a cartoonish floating yellow ring. The ring is transparent with blue circuitry extending out from his head, a CD-like rainbow sheen whenever the circuits catch the light. His eyes, normally a very human shade of blue, are similarly almost neon in their glow. This is only noticable to Jeremy in the occasional flicker of blue in the corners of his eyes.
Role Reasoning: Jeremy sees himself as the villain of his own story, having been barely redeemed from his attempt at school-and-possibly-global domination. In reality, Jeremy was a victim of intense psychological manipulation - he was convinced by a malicious entity that he could help others. He changed his mind only after the damage had already been done except for a fortunate last-minute rescue by his friend Michael Mell. Jeremy doesn't consider himself a good guy, but is aware of his flaws and is actively trying to improve. At his most evil, Jeremy was a douchey high schooler. He tends to magnify his own flaws, so being seen as heroic/angelic could create some interesting tension - especially between Jeremy and Rich Goranski, Jeremy's former bully and current friend, who sees himself as having corrupted Jeremy.
★ Personality ★
Please choose one of the follow options for your personality section. Please clarify which option you have picked and, if option 2, which questions you are answering:
Option 2. Choose FOUR-FIVE of the following questions to answer and expand upon. You may choose a fifth question if you feel it is integral to your character's personality. Each answer has a 100-300 word requirement.
OPTION 2 QUESTIONS (PICK 4-5) 100-300 WORD LIMIT EACH:
What would your character sacrifice to get what they want or to reach their potential? What have they sacrificed already?
(I'm moving this question to the top to contextualize the rest.)
Jeremy has a weird relationship with his own "potential." The SQUIP encouraged him to become a totally different person. As a teenager trying to find his identity, Jeremy needed to try that and the SQUIP gave him a much-needed confidence boost. But it required sacrifices of its own - it isolated Jeremy and controlled every aspect of his life, leaving him no genuinely free decisions. Jeremy now would associate "reaching his full potential" with that traumatic experience of reinventing himself to delete all his flaws one by one.
This is a possible source of conflict in the story, since he'll see any attempt to cultivate his potential as being malicious.
In reality, Jeremy's potential is his continual growth as he learns to confront his problems, including his trauma about the SQUIP, in a way that is neither avoidant nor overly confrontational. He is already aware of his biggest character flaw of getting too in his own head. He's a kid learning to take responsibility, how to cope, when to ask for help, and how to stay open with the people who care about him.
What is a headcanon (or two) you feel strongly about and that you prefer playing your character with? How is this supported in canon and why do you think it benefits the character's story?
This is a possible source of conflict in the story, since he'll see any attempt to cultivate his potential as being malicious.
In reality, Jeremy's potential is his continual growth as he learns to confront his problems, including his trauma about the SQUIP, in a way that is neither avoidant nor overly confrontational. He is already aware of his biggest character flaw of getting too in his own head. He's a kid learning to take responsibility, how to cope, when to ask for help, and how to stay open with the people who care about him.
What is a headcanon (or two) you feel strongly about and that you prefer playing your character with? How is this supported in canon and why do you think it benefits the character's story?
One of the writing samples is a conversation between Jeremy and his friend Rich about Jeremy's recent diagnosis of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. I have OCD and I see a lot of my own traits in Jeremy. I write Jeremy based on the musical Be More Chill, but I like to include details from the original novel as well. The novel had Jeremy keeping "humiliation sheets" to keep count of every time he felt embarrassed at school. I also write Jeremy as having other compulsions related to his canon anxieties. In canon, Jeremy frets about if anyone at school will see armpit stains on his shirt, so my version of Jeremy will compulsively put on extra layers of deodorant.
I believe this benefits Jeremy's story because it offers insight into his many anxieties. Being able to identify his anxiety with something I know firsthand makes his mental health feel more real to me when writing and makes him a more well-rounded character to interact with.
What is your character's moral code? Do they have one? Why or why not?
Jeremy, as a high schooler, doesn't usually need to grapple with philosophy or moral quandaries. If asked, he would tell you that he doesn't really have a moral code. He doesn't have a single moral rule that he has to follow or a strong self-image of being lawful good.
But he's aware of his own negative traits and is trying to overcome them. He wouldn't call it "being a good person" so much as "not being an asshole," but even that much has been a struggle for him since the incident with the SQUIP. He is trying to learn to be less self-absorbed than he tends to be by default, which can lead to him ignoring others or hurting them without noticing. But he also has been learning the self-confidence needed to take up space and stand up for himself.
Is your character capable of forgiveness or will they hold a grudge until they die? Would anything ever make them change their mind?
What is your character's moral code? Do they have one? Why or why not?
Jeremy, as a high schooler, doesn't usually need to grapple with philosophy or moral quandaries. If asked, he would tell you that he doesn't really have a moral code. He doesn't have a single moral rule that he has to follow or a strong self-image of being lawful good.
But he's aware of his own negative traits and is trying to overcome them. He wouldn't call it "being a good person" so much as "not being an asshole," but even that much has been a struggle for him since the incident with the SQUIP. He is trying to learn to be less self-absorbed than he tends to be by default, which can lead to him ignoring others or hurting them without noticing. But he also has been learning the self-confidence needed to take up space and stand up for himself.
Is your character capable of forgiveness or will they hold a grudge until they die? Would anything ever make them change their mind?
Jeremy takes his own opinions with a giant grain of salt, knowing how often he can be wrong, and therefore tends to extend more forgiveness to others than they deserve. If you run him over in the street, he'll apologize for being in your way. He isn't necessarily a pushover, but he has a hard time accurately judging personal interactions. When in doubt, apologize. Jeremy's instant forgiveness would be naive if he didn't spend so much effort justifying it first.
This can be a good thing - it has helped him repair relationships with people who have otherwise hurt him. But it also makes him more open to suggestion from forces that don't have his best interests at heart. The SQUIP hurt Jeremy and was in general a pretty malicious entity. Jeremy knows that intellectually but he still feels deeply guilty for his enthusiastic consent when working with the SQUIP. It's easy for him to rationalize what it did to him.
★ Player Information ★
[ permissions ]
Oct. 5th, 2019 12:52 pmpermissions
backtagging ✓
fourthwalling ✓
threadjacking ✓
mindreading ✗ It's fine if you do!
injury ✓
death ✓
nsfw ✗ Fade to black is okay!
sensitive topics ✓
Writing sample
Sep. 21st, 2019 10:53 pm The following is an excerpt from a private Discord server roleplay with ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
firewalled (posted with permission). Jeremy is in his room with Rich, reluctantly discussing worksheets given to him by his therapist.
Jeremy:
Jeremy's fists clench into the fabric of his jeans. "OCD," he blurts out. "They're worksheets for people with obsessive compulsive disorder. Specifically."
He stares at the desk instead of looking at Rich. Its messiness suddenly seems haunting, and he decides Rich is definitely going to tell him that the therapist is off her rocker, or maybe his screening tests got mixed up with someone else's. An OCD guy who doesn't even keep his stuff clean? Jeremy is always such a punchline in everything he does. He wants to snatch the worksheets away and crumple them into the trash. Rich:
Jeremy:
Rich:
Jeremy:
Rich:
Jeremy:
Rich:
Jeremy:
Rich:
Jeremy:
firewalled (posted with permission). Jeremy is in his room with Rich, reluctantly discussing worksheets given to him by his therapist.Jeremy:
Jeremy's fists clench into the fabric of his jeans. "OCD," he blurts out. "They're worksheets for people with obsessive compulsive disorder. Specifically."
He stares at the desk instead of looking at Rich. Its messiness suddenly seems haunting, and he decides Rich is definitely going to tell him that the therapist is off her rocker, or maybe his screening tests got mixed up with someone else's. An OCD guy who doesn't even keep his stuff clean? Jeremy is always such a punchline in everything he does. He wants to snatch the worksheets away and crumple them into the trash.
Jeremy is expecting a lot of things that don't happen in that moment. Rich just nods thoughtfully, passing the papers back to their rightful owner. "Yeah, that makes sense. You always seemed to focus so much energy on stuff that didn't seem that big to me. Part of that was probably my ADD, but..." A diagnosis for a diagnosis seems fair, right? Maybe, just maybe, it'll help Jeremy feel like it's okay to talk about this. "So like, is it giving you imaginary situations to react to? Or is it just journaling about what makes you dwell on shit?"
Jeremy blinks.
Huh?
"I thought you said you weren't like Christine," he tries to joke as a distraction from his latest mental breakdown. It falls flat. "It's so dumb," he says, taking the papers from Rich and clearing a space on the desk. He scans the worksheet. "'What I Have Lost To OCD.' And then I'm supposed to write up how much it sucks that I do all this stuff? It's not like the doctor's getting paid to hear me whine about my life."
He's at least gone over symptoms and the definition of the diagnosis after he got the screening results. Jeremy knows what his worst symptoms are, at least the surface-level ones, but this feels like a pop quiz more than a way to improve his life. He laughs under his breath, jabbing a finger at a two-inch-tall blank space. "Like, look, 'humiliating experiences.' Can I get away with just stapling a week's worth of humiliation sheets on here and calling it a day?"
"I didn't say I wasn't like her. I was saying I'm probably not a valid crush option like her, but I can see the resemblance with her." Only difference really is how damn nice Christine is. She seemed more than happy to start that fund for Rich's hospital bills, despite never hanging out with him. She's a good kid. Probably too good for Rich to hang around.
"Don't say it's dumb. Therapists are literally paid for exactly what you're saying, you know that." He's about to explain that acknowledging how his mental illness affects him isn't the same as whining when he registers what Jeremy said and blinks.
"Humiliation sheets? Are you telling me you actually recorded every time someone made you feel shitty?" God, that leaves a bad taste in Rich's mouth. How many times has he been on those sheets?
Jeremy freezes.
"I didn't say that," he says.
Then he starts rummaging around the papers on the desk, plucking them up one-by-one and smushing them into a ball in his fist. He should have burned these. He's not sure why he feels like he needs to save them for posterity--each one is just a list of tally marks in various columns, most of them having to do with how popular people react to him at school. There's tons of fun things to count, from Snickers to Mortification Events to Getting Stared At In The Hall. Rich doesn't have his own dedicated column, but he's contributed more than his fair share over the years. Especially in the Getting Called Gay category.
The SQUIP called the sheets "neurotic" and made Jeremy stop giving them a dedicated page, even though he still hides tallies with coded abbreviations next to them in the margins of his notebooks.
That's all separate stuff, though. OCD didn't cause any of them--except for that time that Jenna caught him filling out the sheet and there was a month of Mortification Events and Snotty Comments. That's like tally-mark-ception.
"You definitely said something," Rich accuses, reaching out for on of those papers for a second before catching himself. If Jeremy likes the control and stability of knowing where all his sheets are, Rich snatching one away is just going to make him freak out more.
"You... don't have to show me. But like... you do see how that's something that your illness took away from you, right? You made all those sheets to keep track of all the terrible things that happened to you, and... it made you dwell on them more. Plus, like, you were already setting yourself up to have a shitty day. I know our school's the thirteenth circle of hell and God has forsaken every student there, but you're already thinking you've gotta keep track of this shit, like it's definitely going to happen, instead of maybe just... letting yourself be happy? I don't know."
He hopes Jeremy can see his side here, but he knows Jeremy is still trying to insist it wasn't that bad. He picks up a pencil off the desk to roll between his fingers as an effort to distract himself.
Rich is saying "illness" like it's an actual thing, somehow separate from Jeremy. Jeremy isn't sure what to make of that. Jeremy Heere is a bundle of weird habits shoved into a pimply virgin body and that's really all there is to him.
He reaches under the desk, dropping the crumpled papers into his trash can. He can dig them out later if he needs to.
"I guess that makes sense." He's not sure that Rich is right, but he doesn't have any arguments against what he's saying. "Hey, look." He grabs a pen and taps it on the paper underneath a heading that says 'Lost/Wasted Time.' "There's a spot for that too." He scrawls a bullet point summarizing what Rich just said.
Of course it's an actual thing! Maybe it's not completely separate from Jeremy's personality, but it did cause Jeremy to develop all the weird habits and self-hatred he has, from what Rich can see. He sighs as Jeremy drops the paper in the bin, shaking his head.
"Yeah, see? I do make sense if your worksheet agrees with me. What other columns are on there? I bet we can fill a bunch of them." He lights up a bit. "Wait though, for wasted time, do you have like, any routines you get nervous if you don't do them every day? I think a lot of people with OCD have those. Not saying you don't have to fit that, but..."
Jeremy starts tapping the desk with his pen, an old familiar rhythm. "I can't think of any." Sure, he has routines, but who doesn't? He chews on the inside of his cheek, mentally going over what the therapist told him were symptoms. "I mean... she talked to me about how I wear deodorant."
His face colors and he stammers for a second, hurrying to clarify, "I mean, of course I wear deodorant! B-b-but I always put it on, and then I'm like, hold on, did I actually put it on or did I just think I put it on? So I put it on again just in case, because if I got pit stains at school, I think I'd die on the spot, y'know? And after I put it on again, even though I know I put it on, it feels like maybe I didn't? I've left the house before and then had to double back to put more on and then I'm late to school sometimes. I go through those Old Spice sticks crazy often."
Rich:
Rich listens to Jeremy's rambling with his mouth agape. It is getting more and more unbelievable that Jeremy doesn't think he has OCD. Maybe he just refuses to believe anything could be wrong with him, after all the effort the SQUIP put into fixing him. Rich kind of had the opposite. He's so sure all of his issues are gone now that the SQUIP is out of him, and facing the fact that he's still just as fucked up is difficult.
But this isn't about him. This is Jeremy. So Rich just sighs and focuses on explaining himself as calmly as possible.
"Okay. So that's the C of OCD, you know that, right? You find yourself compelled to do things all the time, even if you know you don't need to. You trick yourself into having to do it again and again, and like, eventually it becomes unhealthy, you know? It's like the cliche OCD idea of constantly washing your hands until your skin gets all cracked and shit. So I think that definitely counts as a routine, even if you think it's not really a pattern."
Jeremy:
Jeremy obediently starts writing the example down, conspicuously avoiding looking at Rich. This feels just as weird as having their first conversation about SQUIPs at the urinal had been--raw and uncomfortable and probably better off kept private. It seems honest and not altogether bad to be talking about this with someone who actually knows him.
Application for ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
aefenglom
Sep. 6th, 2019 04:51 pmPlayer Information
Name: (deadname removed 2023) Jordan / Pika
Age: 25
Contact: Discord at Bakurapika#4565
Other Characters: N/A
Character Information
Name: Jeremy Heere
Canon: Be More Chill (Musical)
Canon Point: A few months post-canon
Age: 17
History:
Jeremy Heere is and always has been a loser. Not even the fun kind of loser who you'd write a book about--more like a guy you wouldn't notice no matter how many times you passed him in a crowd. Life passed him by without so much as a "hello" unless it was actively trying to beat the crap out of him. Which life (in the form of height-challenged asshole Rich Goranski) did, repeatedly and gleefully. Jeremy's only escape was through fantasizing about his dream girl Christine, playing ancient Nintendo games, and getting stoned with his fellow loser Michael Mell.
In junior year of high school, Jeremy's life changed.
It started when Rich pulled him aside by the urinals in the school bathroom, promising not to beat him up if he bought some wonder drug from him called the SQUIP. Or, well, Rich was insistent that a SQUIP was not drugs. It was a Super Quantum Unit Intel Processor, a supercomputer that would install into Jeremy's own brain, fixing Jeremy's many flaws by instructing him directly.
Jeremy was dying for a solution and Rich gave it to him.
The SQUIP wasn't without its side effects. Sure, it got Jeremy tons of hot girls... who weren't Christine. It got him invited to parties... that went up in flames. It taught him how to make friends... and how to lose the one real friend he had, after the SQUIP calculated how dangerous Michael would be for its future.
But the SQUIP inarguably made Jeremy a more functional person, so Jeremy was totally (completely... maybe 80%) on board when the SQUIP suggested giving the pill to all his classmates. It was only after Christine got SQUIPped against her will that Jeremy realized the error of his ways.
It was too late for him until Michael burst in to save the day, having figured out how to disable the SQUIP using an obscure soft drink from the 1990s.
Somehow the road to recovery post-SQUIP was even harder for Jeremy than fixing his flaws had been, but he no longer had to go it alone. Michael and Jeremy's best-friendship was restored, Jeremy got a lunch date with his dream girl, and even Rich was reformed from being Jeremy's bully into acting like a pretty decent guy. (It turns out that one of the main symptoms of getting SQUIPped, aside from being controlled by an evil supercomputer, is acting like a douche. The jerkiness gets uninstalled when the SQUIP is. Who knew?)
The SQUIP's damage was already done. Its voice still echoes through Jeremy's head, becoming the anthropomorphization of Jeremy's worst anxiety and fears--only now, Jeremy knows that these worries aren't rational. He has a support network and a new understanding of himself and the world around him.
By the last half of his junior year, Jeremy knows that no matter who tries to control him and how, the only person responsible for his own actions is him.
Personality:
Jeremy has what can charitably be called a "nervous disposition." He doesn't tend to have a bigger-picture perspective of anything that happens to him--instead, he focuses on minutiae, obsessing over details that he can influence. He struggles to make personal decisions unless someone's actively influencing him one way or the other--a role first occupied by Michael and, soon, by the SQUIP. He's self-conscious to a fault. Post-SQUIP, he's learned to recognize when he's spiraling or getting too wrapped up in his own head and to cope more healthily when it happens.
Because of how much he throws himself into situations, he has an excitement for things he loves that is either annoying or infectious (depending on who's describing it).
Jeremy has generalized anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorder, seen in the way Jeremy wraps his head around concepts if they have clearly defined rules. Jeremy's first reaction to an unknown situation is usually "what am I supposed to do" instead of "what do I want to do." (The SQUIP knew this and thoroughly abused the concept by giving Jeremy an infinite list of rules and compulsions to follow.)
Because Jeremy tends to over-value how others see him, he comes across as nervous to new people, although he has learned post-SQUIP to stand up for himself when pushed. With close, trusted friends, Jeremy has a much less extreme personality-- friendly, goofy, humble, and kind.
Abilities & Skills:
Due to Jeremy's history with the SQUIP, he has an affinity for technology that borders on inhuman. He can do a few party tricks, like turning on the television with his mind.
The SQUIP gave Jeremy a crash-course on social manipulation. Jeremy isn't naturally charismatic, but he can "flip a switch" to shut down his own emotions and focus on the people around him if the situation requires.
Jeremy is naturally good at video games. He's great at sorting and categorizing information. He is self-consciously meticulous about doing anything he considers important. He's also amazing at rote memorization, which used to give him excellence as a SQUIP-follower and now is mostly used for learning lines at his school plays.
Inventory/Companions:
Jeremy has a backpack with the faded letters BOYF scrawled across it in sharpie. Inside are unfinished worksheets, both for school and from his therapist. He has a journal full of meticulous lists with assorted codes and tallies that only make sense to him. Various school supplies are littered in the backpack as well as two or three sticks of backup deodorant and a Hello Kitty beanie baby that Michael won for him at the arcade. He's wearing faded Converse sneakers and a Gameboy Color is in his pocket.
Choice: Witch
Reason: Jeremy's affinity for electrical energy may lend itself to evocation (and he will be curious about the workings and manipulation of magitech). Jeremy is already prone to exploding emotionally from pent-up self-created energy; the switch to magical energy will not be a large leap. Jeremy's canon and post-canon character development have focused on self-control so it will be an interesting challenge for him to have the limits of it tested.
Sample:
Sample 1 (September TDM)
Sample 2 (Private roleplay excerpt)
Name: (deadname removed 2023) Jordan / Pika
Age: 25
Contact: Discord at Bakurapika#4565
Other Characters: N/A
Character Information
Name: Jeremy Heere
Canon: Be More Chill (Musical)
Canon Point: A few months post-canon
Age: 17
History:
Jeremy Heere is and always has been a loser. Not even the fun kind of loser who you'd write a book about--more like a guy you wouldn't notice no matter how many times you passed him in a crowd. Life passed him by without so much as a "hello" unless it was actively trying to beat the crap out of him. Which life (in the form of height-challenged asshole Rich Goranski) did, repeatedly and gleefully. Jeremy's only escape was through fantasizing about his dream girl Christine, playing ancient Nintendo games, and getting stoned with his fellow loser Michael Mell.
In junior year of high school, Jeremy's life changed.
It started when Rich pulled him aside by the urinals in the school bathroom, promising not to beat him up if he bought some wonder drug from him called the SQUIP. Or, well, Rich was insistent that a SQUIP was not drugs. It was a Super Quantum Unit Intel Processor, a supercomputer that would install into Jeremy's own brain, fixing Jeremy's many flaws by instructing him directly.
Jeremy was dying for a solution and Rich gave it to him.
The SQUIP wasn't without its side effects. Sure, it got Jeremy tons of hot girls... who weren't Christine. It got him invited to parties... that went up in flames. It taught him how to make friends... and how to lose the one real friend he had, after the SQUIP calculated how dangerous Michael would be for its future.
But the SQUIP inarguably made Jeremy a more functional person, so Jeremy was totally (completely... maybe 80%) on board when the SQUIP suggested giving the pill to all his classmates. It was only after Christine got SQUIPped against her will that Jeremy realized the error of his ways.
It was too late for him until Michael burst in to save the day, having figured out how to disable the SQUIP using an obscure soft drink from the 1990s.
Somehow the road to recovery post-SQUIP was even harder for Jeremy than fixing his flaws had been, but he no longer had to go it alone. Michael and Jeremy's best-friendship was restored, Jeremy got a lunch date with his dream girl, and even Rich was reformed from being Jeremy's bully into acting like a pretty decent guy. (It turns out that one of the main symptoms of getting SQUIPped, aside from being controlled by an evil supercomputer, is acting like a douche. The jerkiness gets uninstalled when the SQUIP is. Who knew?)
The SQUIP's damage was already done. Its voice still echoes through Jeremy's head, becoming the anthropomorphization of Jeremy's worst anxiety and fears--only now, Jeremy knows that these worries aren't rational. He has a support network and a new understanding of himself and the world around him.
By the last half of his junior year, Jeremy knows that no matter who tries to control him and how, the only person responsible for his own actions is him.
Personality:
Jeremy has what can charitably be called a "nervous disposition." He doesn't tend to have a bigger-picture perspective of anything that happens to him--instead, he focuses on minutiae, obsessing over details that he can influence. He struggles to make personal decisions unless someone's actively influencing him one way or the other--a role first occupied by Michael and, soon, by the SQUIP. He's self-conscious to a fault. Post-SQUIP, he's learned to recognize when he's spiraling or getting too wrapped up in his own head and to cope more healthily when it happens.
Because of how much he throws himself into situations, he has an excitement for things he loves that is either annoying or infectious (depending on who's describing it).
Jeremy has generalized anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorder, seen in the way Jeremy wraps his head around concepts if they have clearly defined rules. Jeremy's first reaction to an unknown situation is usually "what am I supposed to do" instead of "what do I want to do." (The SQUIP knew this and thoroughly abused the concept by giving Jeremy an infinite list of rules and compulsions to follow.)
Because Jeremy tends to over-value how others see him, he comes across as nervous to new people, although he has learned post-SQUIP to stand up for himself when pushed. With close, trusted friends, Jeremy has a much less extreme personality-- friendly, goofy, humble, and kind.
Abilities & Skills:
Due to Jeremy's history with the SQUIP, he has an affinity for technology that borders on inhuman. He can do a few party tricks, like turning on the television with his mind.
The SQUIP gave Jeremy a crash-course on social manipulation. Jeremy isn't naturally charismatic, but he can "flip a switch" to shut down his own emotions and focus on the people around him if the situation requires.
Jeremy is naturally good at video games. He's great at sorting and categorizing information. He is self-consciously meticulous about doing anything he considers important. He's also amazing at rote memorization, which used to give him excellence as a SQUIP-follower and now is mostly used for learning lines at his school plays.
Inventory/Companions:
Jeremy has a backpack with the faded letters BOYF scrawled across it in sharpie. Inside are unfinished worksheets, both for school and from his therapist. He has a journal full of meticulous lists with assorted codes and tallies that only make sense to him. Various school supplies are littered in the backpack as well as two or three sticks of backup deodorant and a Hello Kitty beanie baby that Michael won for him at the arcade. He's wearing faded Converse sneakers and a Gameboy Color is in his pocket.
Choice: Witch
Reason: Jeremy's affinity for electrical energy may lend itself to evocation (and he will be curious about the workings and manipulation of magitech). Jeremy is already prone to exploding emotionally from pent-up self-created energy; the switch to magical energy will not be a large leap. Jeremy's canon and post-canon character development have focused on self-control so it will be an interesting challenge for him to have the limits of it tested.
Sample:
Sample 1 (September TDM)
Sample 2 (Private roleplay excerpt)
