#shawntbh

1) Something this character is truly proud of. 

Gerard!Rich: He’s proud that despite two years of being molded near military-style by an evil piece of technology in his brain into someone else entirely that he never lost touch with his real self and he never became someone that he could no longer recognise or would never be able to forgive. On the contrary, the first steps of his mental recovery while he’s physically recovering from his burns in the hospital are learning to forgive himself for all he’s done while under the Squip’s influence but also to acknowledge that he had fought that thing every step of the way because he did not agree with it morally. The Squip didn’t change Rich as a person, it merely suppressed the outward traits and behaviours that it thought were “less desirable” about him. Rich can take comfort and pride in that fact.

Troy!Rich: He has so much pride in his bisexuality. Like, he talks about it every chance he gets and you can’t take him to the movies because for the majority of them he’ll end up blurting out loud enough for other people to hear at some point, “Seems too heterosexual for my taste.” and he has also been known to quote Thomas Sanders on, “Could be gayer.” (he probably has a merch shirt of that that he wears too tbh.) When people express biphobia by saying things like, ‘So you’re actually gay but just don’t want to admit it, right?’ Rich is just like, “Oh no, honey, I’m bi, you just don’t want to admit that you’re intimidated by the fact that my sexual prowess appeals to multiple genders and your narrow-minded one only appeals to one.” 

Also!! With the support of and a push from Morgan!Christine, Rich ends up pitching the idea of a GSA club at their school to the principal so that other students like him don’t end up feeling lost and alone and in that dark place that wound up with him thinking putting a computer in his brain was the only way to pass for “normal”. 

(Troy!Rich is also super proud of his heritage and can go on for a while about that as well, but considering his sexuality is a newer discovery that tends to come up more often. But Rich has also been known to blurt out things during movies such as, “Why is everyone white? I can’t tell them apart.” and, “Oh look, there’s one black character in this movie - how much you wanna bet they die first?” and he’s just generally a salty brown boy.)

5) A cherished personal belonging. 

Gerard!Rich: Is super attached to a book all about space that he got for Christmas in 1st grade. It’s got some dog-eared corners and some crinkled pages because he spilled juice in it once (or twice) and as a whole it looks like it’s been well-loved. But!! This book is how Rich discovered his love of space, not that he ever wanted to be an astronaut or anything, but from a hobby standpoint. And this boy can absolutely infodump facts of the cosmos when interest is shown.

Troy!Rich: Keeps an Omamori charm with him at all times. Thankfully there’s a shop in the local mall that sells them and keeping with Japanese tradition he replaces it every year though always with the same type of charm, 幸せ (shiawase) which is to increase happiness. It’s not so much the charm itself that is cherished as they are replaced each year, but what having one on him represents as a tie to his heritage and culture. His mother gave him one when he was born and exchanged it with a new one each year on his birthday until she passed away when he was 6. For several years after that his Grandma continued to send them from overseas and when Rich was 10 he started putting aside money small bits of money from holidays and such so that he would be able to replace the charm himself every year. Although you aren’t supposed to keep expired charms, Rich still has all six of the charms his mother gave him in a box under his bed, bad luck be damned.

12) How they sleep. 

Gerard!Rich: Sleeps on his stomach, head turned to one side with both arms hugging the pillow. When he got his squip it started zapping him whenever he tried to sleep in this position because it’s actually really bad for your neck and back and also makes it more difficult for you to breathe. The squip forced him to switch to fetal position because that’s what most sleep experts recommend but Rich finds himself weirdly vulnerable in that position (perhaps because he doesn’t need to be a sleeping position that makes him appear even smaller?) and needless to say once the squip is gone and he’s out of the hospital and free of casts he reverts back to his old sleeping habits…even if they do leave him in pain and grouchy some mornings, at least that’s his own damn fault.

Troy!Rich: Sleeps primarily on his right side with a stuffed Stitch plushie he’s had since he was small (he can also do a really good Stitch voice himself but a lot of people don’t know that about him because he’s been shot down for being “annoying” with it). Stitch also serves as a comfort item when Rich is upset. Needless to say the squip tried to make Rich throw Stitch out but Rich wouldn’t budge on the idea no matter how much it taunted him about what a baby he was being and how childish his peers would think him if any of them saw it because he was too old for it. They conceded on Rich would stop sleeping with it and Rich put it on the shelf in his closet because he wasn’t ready to get rid of it. One of the first things he does when he gets home from the hospital squipless is pull Stitch back out and take nap with him and it’s the best sleep he’s had in a long time.

17) What they’d sing at karaoke 

Gerard!Rich: Billy Joel’s We Didn’t Start The Fire. He chooses it because he actually agrees with the message of it, like yeah, the world is so shitty that we all thought putting technology in our brains would help us survive it for a bit there?? But also unsquipped Rich is really bad at understanding social etiquette and doesn’t quite understand that it’s a little too soon for him to be making fire jokes and by the end of it everyone is almost speechless. Like, was it a good performance? Sure, but Rich you can’t be joking about setting fires, why are you like this???

Troy!Rich: Joan Jett’s Bad Reputation. He chooses it ironically because unsquipped he actually does give a damn about not being That Asshole anymore, thank you very much! Not to mention that even while squipped he never fully lost the qualities about himself that made him himself, they just merged with the false persona the squip wanted him to portray to make him more intimidating and confident, so when he sings Bad Reputation it’s not about him not giving a damn about doing bad well, it’s just him sarcastically being like, LOOK WHAT A DORK I AM I’M AWFUL AT BEING A BAD BOY LOL.

bonuses!!:

Gerard!Rich and Lauren!Brooke sing At The Beginning from Anastasia. It’s Brooke’s idea and all she has to do is go, “Rich, I have the BEST idea!” and Rich is immediately like, “I’m sold but go on.” because Rich had a blast singing and dancing with her on Halloween and he has a hard time saying no to Brooke anyway.

Troy!Rich convinces Anthony!Jake to sing Rock ‘n Roll Party Queen from Grease with him, Rich as Doody and Jake as Roger. Both Jake and Rich decided after the school play that despite the squipcident disaster and their less than great reasons for joining the school play to begin with that they enjoyed theatre more than they thought they would and it’s even more fun when they get to perform together.

But then Morgan!Christine is like, ‘Waaaaait. You sang a song with Jake but not me?? Get over here!!’ and then she talks Troy!Rich into singing P!nk’s Just Give Me A Reason with her (and by ‘talks into’ I mean literally all she has to do is suggest it and Rich is like, ‘Cool, cool, yeah!! Let’s do this thing!’).

.20) Household chore they hate the most

Gerard!Rich: Hates having to take the trash out. Namely because it’s full of alcohol beverage containers of various sorts. Why aren’t they in a recycling bin? Because his dad is a lazy bitter asshole who just throws everything in the trash and Rich is embarrassed about it because he’s pretty sure the people who work at the dump are angry about having to sort through their trash that should already be sorted and he’s also concerned that one of these days they’re going to look at all the alcohol content in there and call for an inspection of their house and that somehow it’ll all end up being his fault. 

(One time in early 8th grade Rich picked all the bottles out of the trash so that he could return them to the grocery store for money to buy cigarettes. Needless to say that ended badly because his dad could smell smoke on him and demanded to know where he’d gotten the money for that and then Rich got hell for wasting his money when he could be be doing more for his family’s financial situation!! and blah, blah, blah. After that Rich started being more discreet about stealing returnables and making sure he didn’t come home reeking of smoke.)