Before You, There Was Me

Ray isn't the life of a party - Not as bad as Emil (who would want to fit in at the party so badly that he would turn into a repellent once he started talking) but Ray saw those kinds of occasions as risky and pointless. Anxiety was immersed in Ray's consciousness, as it tends to do. It would also loom over any kind of interview, exam, social event or even when around his friends (again, this is just what anxiety does to a person, by making all of the positives melt away for doubt at every step of your thought process (writing this brings me anxiety, for fucks sake and I'm 99.9% sure that you too suffered from it.)).

Humans are evolutionary-based to be hunters for the sake of survival, even against unknown that could be genuinely not worth it at all, there will be people willing to conquer the beast/ghosts/taxes/that weird house on the ash tree lane.

However, this wasn't Ray.

Hunter would certainly be a horrible description of our hemophobic (fear of blood, google it!) Ray but when he finds his confidence, Ray is a completely new person. He wants responsibility and control that will make him better than others just so he can validate himself for himself. Thus before death, Ray did all sort of extracurricular actives - except now he can't really do much with them now that he's dead. (I.e that one time he took being a math tutor or doing camping.)

The main coping mechanism for Ray however always been the antics of Emil and Ollie. Paternal instincts combined with the fact that most of the arguments between the two were a genuine waste of time lead to a strange boost in self-confidence and knowledge when Ray did his student council duties. Most people require an outsiders perspective to realise their wrongs, Ray was the man for that job.

Ray wasn't bad looking when he was alive, he also had some height but no actual presence even with thick-framed glasses, that when he took them off didn't change anything - for some reason he had now a thinner pair on instead, with puffy red hair which corresponded nicely to the sleek and straight uniform. He was mainly freaked out by the glasses, but as soon as he took them off his vision was fine - this left such a massive mark on Ray that he didn't realise how much of this was reminiscent of when Powerman did the same trick. Alongside this, he got more streamlined and was the first to realise that in a body like that he could actually get any girl he desired with some effort but that would mean forgetting (her) which he didn't want to cope with yet.

*

Julien is a bit of an asshole. He knows it and everyone else knows it but he sugar coats the truth by describing himself as a cat (who doesn't love them, right) - I follow my own path but I return for free food and shelter. Yet, Julien has an edge, if the situation requires it he will try to make himself look better in front of others if it means an easier time for him. However don't expect him to show up with chocolates, he doesn't follow. Rather observes from behind and takes the details with him as a hostage for when you want to copy his homework.

Unlike the rest of our party, Julien is a thrill seeker from games, books or movies to cards, puzzles and even actual social interactions, he wanted to live a varied life.

The main reason why he still sticks with the others is that they are willing to listen to his mumbling rambles on anything from branded plastic bottled water to why building a lego bridge is a plausible idea. At the end of the day, he's just an extroverted nerd with some form of charisma that he buried within him.

But how is it that despite him being a jerk he still has his three amigos? You see the others realise that despite his outward appearance he cares, and is extremely knowledgeable in everything from obscure postmodern novels to the most recent album of another virtual idol, so he's fun to talk with.

Weirdly enough, he was already outside when he awakened again. He found himself trying to adhust his vision to natural light. He was ob straightforward street, pretty clean too actually.

Looking at his arms he saw more muscle, he had a jacket over the school shirt and took a closer look at himself when passing a bakery. A gear in his brain started turning - "I could be an idol in this form", he thought, "no wait idols have it rough maybe an actor will be easier, to pull off". Everything he had on him was and looked stylish, he even had an earring - it satisfied him so badly that he couldn't stop looking, at the bakery window.

He was that busy that he didn't notice a girl running into him.