roman and julia's backstory is that they were both raised in upper class households that were very controlling and strict and sheltered . and then they meet because they are both students at the same, uhhh... idk, prestigious private school? or, uhhh, expensive private tutoring group that they are taking alongside school? something like that. idk what the classes were. probably dance classes because i like when there is partner dancing #normal
anyway, they are probably a little bit distant and standoffish at first but after a little bit they warm up to each other and become close friends. they bond over how shit their homelives are and their friendship is a brief respite from the rest of their daily routines
but eventually, after a few years, they graduate or whatever. so they'll no longer be taking classes together. and both of them have kind of been dreading this because it means they won't get to see each other often anymore, if at all. so on the day before they graduate, julia pulls roman aside. "let's run away," she says, with a strange glint in her eye and both of her hands on roman's shoulders, because she wants to escape and wants roman to escape with her. but roman is frightened by the idea of leaving everything behind because surely he can't just disregard all of the expectations that his family have for him, he's not allowed to do that. so he hesitantly refuses. and that is how that conversation ends, not with a bang but with a whimper, julia's quietly muttered "oh" and her unreadable expression.
and that is basically the last time they see each other. their paths no longer have any reason to cross now that their classes are over and their parents are far too strict and controlling for them to arrange hanging out on their own, so they just fall out of each other's lives like that. a few years pass like this, with roman growing increasingly more miserable now that he has nobody to talk to, and eventually he thinks back on that conversation with julia -- the idea of running away, and how he was too scared to abandon his life to accept. well, he realizes now that living like this isn't really living at all, so he decides to make good on julia's offer, even if they're no longer able to go together.
he abruptly leaves home (maaaybe he steals a couple of expensive trinkets from around the house to pawn off for some money) and tries to make a life for himself. it works out okay. now that he's out of the grip of his overbearing parents he kind of goes in the exact opposite direction of his prim-and-proper sheltered upbringing, immediately hanging out at bars and getting into fights, etc. this is when he meets jensen and gets taken into their fold!
life is pretty good for a couple years. he's buddies with jensen, he's gotten to live in a way that he's never lived before...but one day he gets the idea to try and get back into contact with julia. i mean, they're adults now. their parents aren't controlling every single aspect of their lives anymore. they can just talk. so he tries to get back into contact with her. maybe he asks their teacher/tutor, or a fellow student, but everyone he asks just says...they haven't heard from julia in a very, very long time. nobody knows where she is or how she's doing. hearing this kind of fucks with roman's head and shakes him out of the positivity. he starts to feel a bit guilty that apparently while he was having a fun happy time with his new life, julia's been ... who knows? how is she? what is she doing? nobody's heard from her in ages. he thinks about her often and wonders if she's okay.
ahem. okay this next part needs to be fleshed out this is the part i am having trouble developing. SOMETHING needs to happen after this that causes roman to fall out of contact with jensen. something in his life got in the way, or made him too tired or sad to keep up with a social life -- i will figure that out later and post about it separately because i don't want to interrupt this one with brainstorming.
anyway, point is, he's at a sort of middling time of his life for a few years. he is depressed or exhausted enough that he's self isolating a little bit, but not enough that he considers himself unsavable. he's still somewhat holding onto hope. and in the last few years where things have gotten worse, he's started thinking about julia much more often. she kind of sticks in his mind as a point of fixation, like a perpetual "what if?" since he never really got closure on her. he always imagines what life would be like right now if he had accepted her offer to run away with her and always wonders how she's doing. maybe she's doing better than him. who knows.
well, one day he's trying to take a walk to clear his head, and stapled to a pole, he sees ... a missing person poster with julia's face on it. looks old, like it's been up for a while. since he's already in a pretty fragile state, seeing that poster and having julia recategorized in his mind from "maybe she's okay" to "missing person" is kind of what pushes him into spiraling. maybe some other things happen in his life that compound on this spiraling too, i have to figure that out. but as his life worsens he becomes of the mindset that none of this was ever going to work out, he was doomed to fail, and he believes himself naive and stupid for ever believing otherwise. but he does still keep revisiting his last conversation with julia. maybe things could've been different then, if he had just accepted her offer. maybe she would be okay today. he doesn't deserve to be happy now but she did. maybe things would've been different.
after a while like this...he receives a letter. it's an invitation to meet up at a strange old abandoned mansion, signed by julia.
he's so mentally and emotionally exhausted by this point from the haze of the depression he's been experiencing that his reaction to this letter is just to go ahead and meet up. some sort of sick joke? he doesn't care. whatever. he just goes. he doesn't know what he's expecting. nothing, probably. but when he gets there and opens the door, it is julia that greets him. mostly. something about her seems different, but he can't bring himself to ask any questions, or feel any shock or confusion -- all he feels is a sense of melancholy. and yet she greets him fondly, taking his hand in hers like nothing is wrong.
she says something about how this house is special and how she is part of it now. but she never really stopped caring about roman. "join me," she says, with something otherworldly in her eyes and both of her hands on roman's shoulders, because she is part of the house now and wants roman to be part of it with her.
and this time, roman has nothing to hold him back, and nothing to make him hesitate in leaving everything else behind to accept her offer. and this time he will not abandon her again. so he says yes.
so that's the set up ☺️ that's when they start the ritual for roman (successor!roman) to become another host of the house, and the ritual involves killing a version of himself from the past (sacrifice!roman), yada yada yada. so that's what the whole point of the mansion party is, to get sacrifice!roman into the house to be killed by successor!roman for the ritual. they also invite some other extraneous guests to serve as extra food for the house to consume, And Then Jensen's Ghost Accidentally Appears Too, and then we start there
