‘00s rpg: hardcore

6’6” and built like an old-school heavyweight boxer. He has a shaved head, a thick gray goatee, and always wears a cheap, wrinkled suit with a tie that’s slightly too short. He has a booming, gravelly voice and a habit of slamming his fist on lockers to get attention. He smells like stale coffee and cigars. He treats the school like a medium-security prison. He doesn't care about education; he cares about "order." He uses physical intimidation and "Isolation Stalls" (windowless closets in the basement) to break rebellious kids. He is secretly in the pocket of Jaxson Thorne’s father, which is why Jaxson is untouchable. He keeps a "confiscation drawer" full of student property (phones, money, jewelry) that he never returns—he sells it off-campus.

6’2”, always in a sweat-stained police uniform with a heavy utility belt that jingles as he walks. He has a permanent "thousand-yard stare" and a face reddened by years of heavy drinking. He spends most of his time leaning against the metal detectors at the front entrance, staring down students. Dippo is a failed city cop who was demoted to school duty. He is deeply bitter and "Slick" Nicky’s best business partner. He takes bribes from Nicky to "lose" evidence or look the other way during drug deals. However, if he’s in a bad mood, he’ll pin an outcast like Artie against a wall just to feel powerful. He carries a "heavy" flashlight that he isn't afraid to use as a club during hallway scuffles.

6’11”, pure muscle and scar tissue. He wears a whistle around his neck and a permanent "red" complexion from screaming. He only wears tight athletic gear, showing off tattoos from his time in the military. He believes in "survival of the fittest." He actively encourages Tank Kovacs to bully the smaller kids during dodgeball, calling it "toughening them up." He views the Outcasts as "genetic failures" and treats them with open disgust. He organizes "Friday Night Fights" in the dark gym—unsupervised matches where students settle debts with their fists while he bets on the winner.

5’8”, with sharp, bird-like features and cold, gray eyes behind thick spectacles. She wears clinical white lab coats over dark turtlenecks. She has a persistent tremor in her hands that she tries to hide by gripping her clipboard. She is a brilliant scientist who lost her research job and ended up in this hellhole. She is a "functioning" drug-addict who keeps a flask in her desk drawer. She has a silent agreement with Daria and Nicky: they provide her "medication," and she lets them use her back-office lab for their "chemistry projects." She has a zero-tolerance policy for noise; if you speak in her class without permission, she fails you instantly. No exceptions.

5’11” and skeletal. He looks like a ghost. He wears a massive, grime-covered trench coat (despite the school ban) and heavy chains that clank when he walks. His hair is a matted mess of blue and green dye. He has a permanent "manic" grin and eyes that dart around constantly. He is usually covered in dirt or grease because he spends his time under the school bleachers or in the basement pipes. Retch is the one who does the jobs even Maddox won't do. He’s a pyromaniac and a prankster whose "pranks" usually end with someone in the hospital or the fire department showing up. He has a terrifying lack of self-preservation. If Slick Nicky tries to blackmail him, Retch just laughs and threatens to burn Nicky’s house down with everyone inside. He is the wildcard that keeps the "Elite" boys awake at night. Retch shouldn't even be in the building. He was expelled months ago, but he keeps "glitching" back into the school through windows and vents. He doesn't attend classes; he just haunts the hallways like a poltergeist, stealing food from the cafeteria and leaving "gifts" (like dead rats) in the Jocks' lockers.

5’9” with an intimidating, sharp aesthetic. She has a "death-hawk" (a mohawk that’s slicked down) and wears heavy, smudged black eyeliner that makes her look like she hasn't slept since 2003. She wears oversized band hoodies, fishnet sleeves, and a heavy spiked collar. She has several "garage" tattoos on her fingers and a piercing in her septum that she hides with a flip-up retainer. She’s never seen without her beat-up skateboard, which she uses as a weapon as much as a transport. Vex is the brains of the Rebels. She’s the one who figures out how to ruin mean girls’ reputation or how to steal the keys to the gym so the Punks can have a party. She is fiercely independent and hates the "Mean Girls" with a passion, often calling out their insecurities to their faces. She is the "Queen of the Pit" (the smoking area behind the gym) and handles the group’s "war chest" of stolen goods and lunch money. Vex is actually smarter than Liam or Tank, but she finds the curriculum "brainwashing." She passes her tests without studying just to prove she can, then mocks the teachers for how easy their classes are. She spends her time reading anarchist philosophy and drawing maps of the school’s security blind spots.

6’3” and wiry, built like a coiled spring. He has a jagged scar running through his left eyebrow and messy, dyed-black hair. He wears a beat-up leather biker jacket covered in hand-painted band logos (Exploited, Black Flag), shredded black jeans held together by safety pins, and heavy combat boots. He constantly smells like hand-rolled tobacco and cheap spray paint. He has a "0% chance" look in his eyes—like he’s already decided the day is going to end in a fight. Maddox is the only person in school who will look Tank Miller in the eye and spit on his boots. He has a deep-seated hatred for authority and "fake" people like Jaxson. He doesn't bully the weak; he targets the strong. He is highly protective of the Outcasts (Artie and Bug), often stepping in when the Jocks go too far—not because he’s a hero, but because he loves a reason to break someone’s nose. He lives in a squat and spends his nights tagging the school roof. Maddox hasn't turned in an assignment in two years. He shows up to class just to sleep or insult the teacher's intelligence. He is on "Permanent Probation," and the only reason he hasn't been expelled is that the Principal is actually afraid of what Maddox would do to his car if he did.

5’2”—he is the smallest kid in the grade, making him a "toy" for Tank. He has a high-pitched voice and a face that still looks twelve years old. He wears oversized skater clothes (Etnies shoes and Blind skate hoodies) to try and look "tougher," but it only makes him look more vulnerable. He is almost always covered in ink marks because Brandon and Tyler use him as a "human sketchbook" during study hall. Bug tries to survive by being "funny" or a "clown," hoping that if he makes the popular boys laugh, they’ll hit him less. It rarely works. He is the one who gets stuffed into the ceiling tiles or forced to crawl into tight spaces to retrieve things the Jocks "lose." He has no home life to speak of (his parents are never there), so the school's hell is his only reality. He is incredibly loyal to Artie and Glitch, often taking the "hit" for them because he thinks he’s already "broken" anyway. Bug has severe undiagnosed ADHD and can't focus on a book for more than five minutes. The teachers have largely given up on him, viewing him as a "lost cause." He mostly just doodles graffiti in the margins of his notebooks, dreaming of the day he can hop a train and leave this city behind.

5’9” with a nervous, twitchy energy (hence the nickname). He has buzzed hair that he cut himself and wears tech-wear before it was a trend—cargo pants with too many pockets filled with wires, screwdrivers, and broken electronics. He always has a pair of cheap, foam-padded headphones around his neck. His fingers are stained with ink and solder burns. He has a permanent "thousand-yard stare" and a nervous habit of biting his fingernails until they bleed. Glitch is a social pariah because he’s "weird" and prone to sensory overloads. He is Nicky’s involuntary employee. Nicky discovered Glitch could hack into the school’s grade database and "clone" Razr SIM cards, so now Glitch is kept in a state of constant terror to perform tech-crimes for the inner circle. He hates himself for helping them, but Nicky has photos of Glitch’s private life that would get him killed in this town. He is a ticking time bomb of repressed resentment. Glitch is smart enough to be a straight-A student, but he deliberately fails or barely passes to stay invisible. He knows that if he stands out, the teachers (like Mrs. Vane) will notice him, and he can't risk anyone looking too closely at what he does on his laptop. He spends his classes "zoning out," coding scripts on a graphing calculator to bypass the school's firewall.

5’5” and painfully thin, looking like he hasn't slept in years. He wears thrift-store clothes that are three sizes too big to hide his frame, usually charcoal-colored hoodies with the drawstrings pulled tight. He has thick, taped-up glasses and greasy hair he uses as a curtain to avoid eye contact. His skin is pale, often sporting "yellowing" bruises on his jaw or ribs from Tank’s "locker room justice." He carries a massive, heavy JanSport backpack that he uses as a literal shield when walking through the hallways. Artie is paralyzed by chronic anxiety and a stutter that gets worse when he’s cornered. He is the "designated victim" because he never fights back. He spends his lunch breaks hiding in the disused boiler room or the back of the library. However, under the fear, he is a silent recorder. He has a small, cheap digital voice recorder he uses to document the threats Jaxson and the others make, hoping one day he’ll be brave enough to use it. He is a "ghost" who sees the school's darkest corners because he’s always hiding in them. Artie is a genius, which makes him even more of a target. He is forced to write Jaxson’s AP History essays and Sierra’s English papers. If he makes a single mistake or gets a better grade than them, he pays for it physically. He stays at the top of the class not out of ambition, but because the library is the only place with a security camera that (usually) keeps the bullies away.

5’4” with a "Scene Queen" aesthetic that’s just starting to transition into hardcore. She wears tutu skirts over fishnets, studded belts, and Converse sneakers she’s drawn all over with Sharpie. Her hair is dyed bright neon pink and is always teased to maximum volume. She wears "kandi" beaded bracelets up to her elbows, which she uses to hide the track marks or bruises from the "party lifestyle" she leads with Nicky and Tank. She has a lip piercing (a "snake bite") that she hides from teachers by flipping the stud. Kaylee is "Slick" Nicky’s shadow. She is the one who actually carries the "product" for him because the teachers are less likely to strip-search a girl in a tutu. She is bubbly, hyperactive, and seemingly "sweet," but it’s a mask for a deeply unstable and manipulative person. She uses her "innocent" look to lure younger kids into Nicky’s schemes. She is the "honey trap"—she flirts with guys to get them into compromising positions so Nicky can photograph them for blackmail. She is completely addicted to the chaos (and the substances) of the inner circle. Kaylee stopped caring about school in the 8th grade. she shows up late, high, or not at all. She usually spends her classes in the bathroom stalls, smoking or texting Nicky. The only reason she’s still in school is that her parents are never home and the school hasn't managed to catch her with enough "contraband" to expel her yet. She is a "burnout" in training, kept afloat only by her usefulness to the popular boys.

Sierra is 5’7” and tries desperately to look like a music video extra. She overuses self-tanner (giving her a streaky orange glow) and wears "Bratz-style" platform boots, ultra low-rise flared jeans with a "JUICY" rhinestone belt, and tiny baby tees. Her hair is bleached white-blonde with chunky "raccoon tail" black stripes underneath. She always has a digital camera hanging from her wrist to document the popular boys' parties and a pink Motorola Razr glued to her ear. She smells like a mix of vanilla body spray and Victoria's Secret lip gloss. Sierra is Jaxson’s #1 fan and self-appointed "bodyguard." She isn't his girlfriend (he wouldn't claim her), but she acts like his secretary. She manages the guest lists for the parties and decides who is "cool enough" to sit near them. She is viciously insecure and takes it out on any girl who even looks at Jax. She is the one who starts the "burn books" on MySpace and sends anonymous, hateful texts to outcasts. She is a sycophant—she will do anything, no matter how cruel or illegal, just for a nod of approval from the elite boys. Unlike the boys, Sierra actually tries in school because she wants to stay "respectable" enough to be in the same AP classes as Jaxson. She does Jaxson’s homework for him and helps "Slick" Nicky organize his digital blackmail files. She uses her position as a teacher’s assistant in the front office to steal hall passes and look up other students' home addresses for the boys. She isn't naturally smart, but she is a workhorse for the Elite.

Nicky is 5’10” with a wiry, restless energy. He has dark, slicked-back hair and a sharp, fox-like face. Unlike Jax’s preppy labels or Tank’s athletic gear, Nicky is all about "street luxury" of the early 2000s. He wears velour tracksuits (Sean John or Rocawear), oversized tinted aviators, and a heavy platinum-plated "Jesus piece" chain. He always has a cigarette tucked behind his ear and a sidekick pager clipped to his waistband. His fingers are never still—he’s always flipping a butterfly knife or counting a roll of crumpled twenties. He smells like expensive cologne mixed with menthol tobacco. Nicky is the classic "middleman." He doesn't have Jax’s ego or Tank’s rage; he has greed. He is terrifyingly charming and can talk his way out of a police interrogation or a locker search. He treats the school like a marketplace. He’s the one who provided the "supplements" that turned Tank into a monster and the "party favors" that keep the popular girls dependent on him. He keeps a "little black book" (digitally stored on his encrypted laptop) full of recordings, intercepted texts, and photos he uses for blackmail. If you need a fake ID, a stolen exam, or a way to make a problem "disappear," you go to Nicky—but the interest rate is life-ruining. Nicky is brilliant but has zero interest in academics. He maintains a "passing" average purely to stay under the radar of the administration. He treats his classes as networking opportunities, sitting in the back row to coordinate deals. He doesn't cheat by copying; he buys the answer keys from the district's janitors or hacks into the school's outdated server. He knows exactly which teachers are "on the take" and which ones have gambling debts he can exploit. To the teachers, he’s a "distracted" kid; to the students, he’s the guy who owns their secrets.

A massive, intimidating presence standing at 6'5" and weighing 260 lbs of pure, functional muscle. Unlike Jax’s lean model look, Tank is built like a brick wall. His neck is thick, and his shoulders are permanently hunched. He has a buzzed military-style haircut that reveals several scars from street fights. He’s almost always seen in his varsity football jacket (red and black), even when it’s too hot, with the sleeves pushed up to show off his bruised, calloused knuckles. He wears baggy Dickies or cargo pants and heavy timberland boots. His face is usually set in a scowl, and his skin is often broken out in "backne" (steroid acne), which he tries to hide under layers of cheap body spray. Tank is the physical consequence of Jaxson’s psychological games. He has a hair-trigger temper and suffers from severe intermittent explosive disorder, often fueled by the "supplements" he gets from Slick Nicky. He isn't interested in popularity or being liked; he wants to be feared. He runs the locker rooms like a drill sergeant, initiating brutal hazing rituals that leave younger students traumatized. He has a twisted sense of loyalty to Jaxson, acting as his bodyguard and "cleaner," but deep down, he resents everyone who doesn't have to fight for their status with their fists. He is the guy who will put a kid in a trash can—or through a window—just for looking at him wrong. Tank is technically "academically ineligible" to play football, but the school looks the other way because he’s their star linebacker. He rarely shows up to class, and when he does, he spends the hour sleeping or staring menacingly at the teacher. He doesn't even bother cheating; he simply doesn't turn in work. The only reason he hasn't been expelled is that Coach Hammer handles his "paperwork" (meaning the Coach writes his essays or pressures teachers to give him a passing 60%). He knows his only ticket out of this gray city is a sports scholarship, and the pressure of that is making him more violent.

Jax has that "dirty blonde" 2000s heartbreaker look—hair perfectly messy with expensive highlights, held in place by too much hair wax. He stands at 6'8” with a lean, athletic build from tennis and swimming, not the bulk of a typical football player. He usually wears premium labels like Abercrombie & Fitch or Lacoste, always with the collar popped. You’ll often see him with a silver Tiffany chain tucked under his shirt and a high-end Motorola V3 Razr constantly flipped open in his hand. His eyes are cold, often bloodshot from late-night parties, hidden behind designer aviator sunglasses even indoors. A textbook narcissist and sociopath. Jax doesn't scream or throw fits; he speaks in a calm, condescending drawl that makes everyone feel small. He views the school as his personal kingdom and the students as pawns for his entertainment. He is a master of psychological warfare, knowing exactly which insecurity to poke to make someone break down in tears. He has zero empathy and enjoys creating "challenges" for his friends that usually involve ruining someone’s reputation or getting an outcast expelled for fun. He is charming to parents and the Principal, but a monster behind closed doors. Jaxson is highly intelligent, but he doesn't actually study. His grades are a result of a sophisticated system of cheating, bribery, and intimidation. He has "Slick" Nicky source the exam papers weeks in advance, and he forces the "nerds" in the library to write his essays under threat of social (or physical) ruin. If a teacher tries to fail him, his wealthy father makes a "donation" to the school, or Jax uncovers a piece of blackmail to shut them up. To the Ivy League recruiters, he looks like the perfect student-leader; to the school, he is a ghost in the grading system.