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INTRODUCTION

How would you describe a bully? Someone that harasses another person? That lad that slams his foot into the backs of your knees? That gal that treats you as inferior through back handed compliments? Merriam-Webster describes a bully as "a blustering, browbeating person. Especially : one who is habitually cruel, insulting, or threatening to others who are weaker, smaller, or in some way vulnerable." The essence of a bully - the point - is cruelty by design.

Here is where our Whitney from Degrees of Lewdity is born.

If you've played this game, they need no introduction. Whitney is one of the main love interests and special NNPCs with a unique story, interactions, and base preferences. The foundation of their character is what is written on the tin: a popular bully. Popularity gained through both admiration and fear. At their lowest opinion of you, they serve to antagonise the PC and be a threat at school/around town. Their stats are: dominance, love, and lust. Again, they do what they say on the tin. This is all fine and all but what I am more keenly interested is the specific bully Whitney is in relation to PC, their relationships with others, their own cores, their own self view, the life they lead, and love.

THE BULLY

Whitney is not a social bully in the traditional sense; Whitney's popularity gives them the effect of a social bully. However, they are much more a habitual physical bully and sexual assaulter. In regard to PC specifically: they sexually harass, physically beat, sexually assault, demean, shame, steal from, and force/coerce PC into dangerous scenarios. PC, a perpetual victim of their environment by design, is forced into few options to deal with Whitney in the early game without cheats. You can give into Whitney's demands so they don't hurt you worse, you can try to run, you can try to avoid them, or you can try to fight back. Again, early game makes some of these options outright impossible. Whitney is genuinely a terrifying individual against PC when you remind yourself not to be desensitised to the game's mechanics/Whitney.

Cruelty is their point and they seem to have no moral lines for what is off-limits for their own amusement. Involving animals, rape, humiliation, etc.

It can be safely assumed that Whitney probably treats a lot of people like this across the student population. An example being the locker student they always steal from on the rooftop/wanting to throw said student off. They resent the faculty/adult/authority figures of the game and show zero respect for their demands. So, pretty much everyone has a complicated hate/fear/admiration for Whitney. Yourself included.

THE HOME: FOUNDATIONS OF BEING

But why is Whitney so fucked? It comes of no surprise to anyone that Whitney seems to come from a rough upbringing/family life. They avoid speaking to PC about their home or family and often only offer curt answers. Right now we can only assume what these circumstances may be. Considering that children are mirrors of those that offer care for them, we can assume that as a child Whitney was exposed to lots of violence and sexual content at an early age. This belief is hardened for me considering the place that DoLTown is. I can't make any solid assumptions on what these may have been but I can say this at the very least: Whitney was a victim first of abuse. Reminder that exposing a minor to sexual content/violence is abuse. If we take this as a baseline for what Whitney may have gone through, it surely shaped the way they see those interactions and behaviours.

Physical abuse is power for Whitney - they find it amusing and stimulating. It is encoded into so many of their interactions, its like they can't live without violence. That makes me think that violence in itself is hardwired into their brain - so exposure must've started in their early years [0-5]. Whitney's sexual assault behaviour seems to stem less of arousal and more so trying to humiliate and defile the person being assaulted by them.

Whitney does not view sex as connection first.

It is a tool. A weapon. It is violence, not love.

What they had to have witnessed to arrive at this idea and encode it into themselves had to be traumatic. It can be safely assumed that this was the case. I do know I am going quite hard on child psychology here for them that I doubt will ever be really present in the game, but it is essential if you want to grasp a full picture. No one is born into a bully. Into someone who is reaching for violence like it is the only thing they truly understand. That person is made. That person is shaped starting with their foundations: the first home. The first home can be anything but I call it the first place someone truly knows in their inner and outer world. That place is formed from those first parents/guardians. This might be a commonly known fact but your brain and the shape of you is mainly built during your first seven years of life. Hard-wired. The things you learn/experience during these essential years are very, very hard to forget on a bodily level. Psychologically speaking, you can rewire it but the body and brain will remember.

Whoever was caring for Whitney during these years set out the foundation for The Bully. I doubt the rest of their upbringing was any different so the hard-wiring is then reinforced.

THE CORES: VIOLENT, LONELINESS, & LOW SELF-PRESERVATION

The cores of a character is what I determine to be hard to change principles hard-wired into one. We've established that Whitney's point is violence. A hard-wired reaction in them that stems from the environment they are in. Its been said before that Whitney actually feels a sense of peer pressure as well in their actions toward others. Almost like because people expect them to be violent then Whitney gives in and refuses to change. Whitney has also been listed as a character who once wished someone could've interfered with them becoming who they now are before they became worse. Whitney never got that interference. Things brings me to believe that along with the violent/traumatised child foundation Whitney is built on - violence and lashing out is a coping mechanism. Its the one thing they really understand, can do well, is expected of them, and has remained consistent throughout their life.

"If being bad gives me purpose, a reason to remain, a reason to be remembered by someone - even if that is harm - then bad I shall be."

This brings me to my next core: loneliness. Whitney is deeply lonely which sounds like a contradiction, doesn't it? But they are. They crave power but they also crave something deeper: to be seen. Whitney is one of the most popular students and everyone knows their name but its been said that even their mates, Whitney isn't really close with anyone. They don't have a stable family life, no true friends, no one that understands them. Whitney would probably say to that: thank fuck. Thank fuck no one really knows me and what I've been through. Thank fuck no one can read my mind and my vulnerabilities. They are lonely by their own design: its a shield. Its also the sword they stab themselves with when chasing validation from their peers... and later, PC. To be known is terrifying to Whitney, I say this from the way they immediately treat PC when they open up to them. Often harming PC or shrugging them off in disgust as a result. Acting like they don't care or crave this intimacy. Its terrifying because they never had that framework of being known - or maybe they once did. It didn't end well.

Our third core: low self-preservation. As a result of everything, I don't think Whitney thinks highly of themselves at all. Not in the typical insecure way, I wouldn't call them that. Its more so a passive low self-preservation: bad things will happen to me, let them come. I will inflict suffering, let it happen. What people think of me doesn't matter. I'm at rock bottom anyway, yeah? Its an apathy of everything. Its why Whitney is able to inflict so much harm to others and themselves without remorse, on top of everything else. Its not that they can't feel. They just have nothing to care about when it comes to themselves and in return they treat their environment the exact same way.

The way they view themselves based on these cores, foundations, and daily life comes to an insecure attachment to themselves. A child clinging onto it's own shirt, a dog with a tail between its legs while snarling... except the threat is themself. If nothing changes for them then Whitney only continues to self-destruct and become worse with these principles all guiding them. They don't change - they see no point. Whitney is a cycle of violence, lack of warmth, and a mirror that cracked long before they were tall enough to look into it.

LOVE & PC: THE CATALYST

So what role do we really play at all for Whitney as PC or any character that could fill that role? PC is the catalyst that directly contradicts everything that Whitney structures their life around when you strive for romance with them. PC provides warmth, endless forgiveness, devotion, care, companionship, gentleness, and love. Whitney thinks that PC is pathetic for it. They are still Whitney despite it. Their confession is charged with violence while trying to be gentle [forced kiss, forced to be their partner]. Their love of PC is still abusive. They'll parade PC in humiliating ways that feels like pride and passion to them. PC is theirs to mould, shape, and reform and PC asks for more. Is that not love? Is that not the perfect lover to keep but not adore? A loyal pet to abuse?

Except... this isn't all there is, is there? You see, PC can easily be any other victim that Whitney finds fun. The perfect victim to be uncaring for. Hold no remorse. But this isn't that. It would be much more simple to wrap this up as just that. PC wouldn't be a catalyst if it were just that. No.

Whitney loves you.

That's not just some dramatic statement. They love PC. They care about PC. Against everything they are built for, they need PC. And they fucking hate that. They don't understand why. They get don't why PC is so damn special, but they are. We see it in gentler moments with Whitney. We see it in every text that shows their hesitation or conflict. We see it in the way PC is the closest they've been to anyone, even their mates.

And every time we observe that kindness and little moments of love, it is in the absence of the mirror: DoLTown.

In the absence of violence, of their leading cores, of their foundation screaming at them that love is violence - Whitney can be gentle. Whitney cares so damn much. I don't think I can even encapsulate how much they care. It terrifies them. Its vulnerability. Its not part of their grand plan of life. Its not gonna help them in their reputation. It serves no point to be in love with PC. That aggravates them... but they can't stop. They finally get a fill of what they've been missing - caring and being cared for. Being truly seen. Being loved for themself as horrific as they are. And isn't it amazing? Isn't it a drug? Just one more dose, then discard it like the trash it is. But Whitney watches very carefully where their "trash" lands... and goes back for it again and again. Possessive. Obsessive. Emotional. You're their favourite trash, after all.

Dramatic events that attack Whitney's core affect them on that hard-wired level too. Like, for example, parenthood. I often hear people ask why Whitney of all people would be a good parent and the answer is simple: they have something that overrides their low self-preservation, loneliness, and violence. A purpose in life to strive to be better. To do better. To break a cycle because suddenly they have a new mirror: their child. That's a hell of a wake up call for anyone. It makes you reflect on the kind of person you are. But its also not something that happens out of the blue. Again: In the absence of violence, of their leading cores, of their foundation screaming at them that love is violence - Whitney can be gentle. Whitney cares so damn much. In a kinder world, Whitney is gentle. Is probably a tease at most. But this isn't that world.

And this isn't that kind of Whitney.

Whitney loves anyway. It may not be the healthiest whatsoever but they love. It may not last, but they love. They may not understand it fully, but they love. Like a loyal dog with a bird in its mouth. They love.

And that might be the cruellest thing of all about Whitney the Bully. Loving PC in the absence of mirrors then shoving their face in a bowl. Kissing PC sweetly then stripping them of all clothes. Tearing up when they reunite with a kidnapped PC then fucking them in front of everyone mid-day in the park. But that's the point, isn't it?