+1 shounen pianist

[pianistofraielin]

Hallo zusammen! The Guindo (healspec-mun) here, bringing you an addition to the high school crowd.

This is Raiel from Violinist of Hameln. Originally he was a wandering monster-hunter who defeated mazoku with the ~*power of music*~. Using a baby-grand piano. That he carried around on his back. Raiel is slightly crazy.

Here he is Russel Goldman, a 17-year-old high school junior who has lived in Locke City all his life. He does not play any instruments because he is completely tone deaf, but he does obsessively collect music and his iPod contains a playlist for every occasion. He is ~*SUPER FRIENDLY*~ and will try to make friends with anyone, but he is kind of a weirdo spaz.

Potential points of pre-existing CR:

• His mother, Patricia Goldman, has been in politics for about 20 years and is in her second term as the state comptroller. His father, Samuel Goldman, writes unpopular/terrible children's books.
• He attends the local public high school!
• Where he is on the football team
• And in the drama club
• And he has a habit of jumping in to protect people from bullies. He has gotten into fights and had a few suspensions for this.
• He collects loner/outcast kids who don't have many friends
• He has at least one MMO that he is EXTREMELY PASSIONATE about but idk what MMOs are established as game canon, so the details are open on that one.
• He has an Australian shepherd named Tchaikovsky who is the cutest ever and he can be encountered walking her or playing with her at the dog park.

He got his first Echo from tainted tap water out of the school drinking fountain on Friday and was sent to the principal's office during 3rd period for being disruptive because he kept laughing. So, you know, maybe your character saw that happen.

His info post is here and his app is here. If I don't have you friended on plurk yet feel free to add me at ninjarobotclone!

Comments

[toobig]

oh man his dad's a writer?

bertholdt probably knows him, especially if he's awful at it

[pianistofraielin]

Yesss I am down for that. Being awful makes him memorable!

[toobig]

Bertholdt's an editor and he definitely remembers the awful ones before the good ones.

[pianistofraielin]

Haha then Samuel Goldman's name may be infamous to him

He's really a very nice person who's a pleasure to work with! He's just...awful...

[italktofish]

Music-loving weirdo spaz, you say? HI.

So Arthur here has quite possibly bussed around a few football teams in his tenure as a bus driver, even if he usually drives for the middle school.

[pianistofraielin]

lol I get the feeling Arthur and Russel would get along... swimmingly.

Russel would totally be that kid sitting at the front of the bus to chat with the bus driver too, haha

[italktofish]

Awww, yes, water puns.

And Arthur would be more than happy to regale a football player on his way to a game with stories of his own football days in high school! 8D

[pianistofraielin]

Oh man yes, please share all your high school football stories. Russel is enthralled

[italktofish]

YES, he LOVES a willing enthralled audience. 8D

[enrages]

karson hates your mom and his dog is cuter
take that

[pianistofraielin]

Karson it's okay you don't have to pretend to hate everything just to seem cool.

And it's obvious that Tchaikovsky's cuter but it's good that you're defending Crab, that's responsible pet-ownership!

[enrages]

son ur cruisin for a bruisin

[pianistofraielin]

HE JUST WANTS TO BE FRIENDS WITH EVERYONE KARSON

DON'T FIGHT IT

[enrages]

fights it
fights u

[originaloddcouple]

Don't fight it, Karson

If you don't know what it is.

[shiromadoushi]

All the ones Bakura plays are vague WoW clones that have no set name soooo... we can make one up :D

[reapsthewind]

Which of course Chris also plays.

[shiromadoushi]

Yes good~

[I SAY AS IF I HAVE EVER PLAYED ANY OF THEM T~T]

[reapsthewind]

I've played both guild wars, the old republic, and a bit of The Secret World, so I can fill in thine gaps.

[shiromadoushi]

Huzzah!

[pianistofraielin]

Ha ha I haven't played any of them either... But I'm down with this

[pianistofraielin]

Excellent! Russel probably plays some sort of summoner DPS class, like WoW Warlock-ish.

Same guild, perhaps?

[shiromadoushi]

Maybe! I'm not exactly sure how the guilds work since all the free play MMOs I've toyed with were more unofficial alliances and free-for-alls. Bakura's handle on all games is DreamEater and he tends to play trickster/thief types and is generally one of those guys who's a jerk to most people [ie, abuses emotes/actions, makes "funny" comments, lols at stupid newbies] but will help a fellow player out if it looks like they're going to get their ass kicked kinda thing. He also will sometimes for full out role play on it too and just cheese it up/pretend to be an NPC/troll newbies/etc.

Basically, he's the type who gets bored easily and does his own thing, but mostly harmless fun. :)

[pianistofraielin]

I've played a few where it's basically an initial investment to start a guild (in RO you need a rare item, for example). We could probably cobble together a half-assed guild system. I'm thinking Raiel is really into raiding or guild wars or whatever variation the game would have on that high-end player end-game stuff.

But he's more interested in experiencing the game's story and like ~*being a part of the setting*~ than in being super hardcore. So even though he's really intense about it, he's still playing to have fun and he's not an asshole about the high-end stuff.

omg Bakura stop trolling newbies be nice to them!! (Russel is the dude who will hand newbies a bunch of good low-level gear and send them out into the world.)

[shiromadoushi]

Hey, it's not like he's scamming them, he's just having fun~ He just likes seeing what they'll believe~ :D

Bakura's not hardcore with his gaming either (well, not his MMOs anyway :D), so not sure if he would be in a guild, but he can be recruited once they find out they both play!

[pianistofraielin]

Sounds like a plan, then!

[gogoghostpowers]

A guy on the football team who protects kids from bullies???

danny can't even reconcile these two concepts together. he cannot even fathom.

(anyway yes Russel has probably defended Danny from The Bullies at least once. And possibly tried to befriend him because Danny is a mostly-friendless guy.)

[pianistofraielin]

BELIEVE IT, DANNY! He even confronts his teammates about it if he catches wind of them doing it. He can't stand bullies they are just the worst

Man with Danny's reputation being what it is, Russel would've tracked him down for friendship like a bloodhound. He would also stand up for him even when he's not around.

[unwakingwaters]

Maya is in the publishing industry and probably knows of his dad.

[pianistofraielin]

Excellent! I am down for that.

Russel has probably read Maya's books and thinks they're ~*amazing~

[originaloddcouple]

The power of friendship, you say?

Weirdo spaz, you say?

Perfect

The Dians are also former outcasts here, so that's a factor.

[pianistofraielin]

Oh man Russel would get along with them so well. They absolutely must meet, we will make this happen >=|!!!

[originaloddcouple]

Friendship everywhere~

[erenplz]

oh my god raiel yes

Mikasa is in marching band, so plays at all the football games in addition to having a brother on the football team, so she quite possibly at least knows who he is, whether they've talked before or not!

/gently adds plurk

[pianistofraielin]

Oh man did I stumble across that elusive beast known as a fellow VoH fan?!

With the combination of her being in the marching band and her brother being on the team, Raiel would've gone out of his way to talk to her at least once.

[erenplz]

It would have been a much more pleasant experience than trying to talk to her in canon, thankfully! :V

and YES I haven't reread Hameln in ages but I was literally thinking a few days ago that I ought to do that again when I find the time, so seeing this pop up was kind of beautiful.

[pianistofraielin]

lmao an attempt to communicate with canon Mikasa would end in disaster so let's all be thankful for that

Oh man my timing is amazing then. Obviously it's a sign!

[respecting]

Oh hey, Beat's on the football team so they probably know each other! I'm deathdesu on plurk.

[pianistofraielin]

Oh man Beat is the kind of person he'd get along with super well, too! If Beat's new on the team then they probably haven't known each other very long, but Russel tries very hard to help the new members feel welcome and to show them the ropes.

[drama8om8]

Hello this douche is in drama club too! Though she'd probably avoid Russel due to his outcast-befriending-ness (she has a reputation to uphold gosh). BUT STILL

[pianistofraielin]

Oh man with Tavia's terrible acting and Russel's hammy melodramatic acting they will conquer the stage! or just drive the club supervisor nuts

IT'S OKAY TAVIA HE'S VERY PERSISTENT. He would basically act like they're friends anyway and just be like 'ha ha ok' whenever she disagreed on that point.

[professorwolf]

Obviously he will have to know Lyall :B Whether as bio teacher or health teacher or just that teacher who happens to also be on the network....

[pianistofraielin]

Yes!! I will say he probably had Lyall for both, health freshman and bio sophomore? But alas, now he is no longer in any of Lyall's classes.

Will defs be in that afterschool numbers club once he knows it's a thing, tho!