#sw.intro

tl;dr

born in a world of old money and privilege, berenice has grown in a world of men, and found that she was more brilliant than all of them. manipulative and ambitious, she always found ways to turn situations to her advantage. most of the time, that meant seducing them into giving her what she wanted. born from less than ideal parents, she found that she always had to fight to gather everyone's attention. her parents a british politican and an american newscaster, britain and american both have seen her grow up. she enjoyed the attention, played them to put her best self forwards always. she moved to the states at one point to go into law school - made sure to join one school in a town where her background wouldn't make waves.

easier this way to have a bit of fun, there's way assumptions on her. a fresh market, one could say.

three years ago, she moved by home to britain and dabbled in political law. when her client got roped into a big scandal, and that her own marriage with a rugby player ended because of his involvement with another starlet, she dipped. she refused to let this mess stain her dress, and came back to the states in order to find success once more.

get to know the girl a little bit more;

she has a very distinct perfurme, the i guerlain shalimar, making sure that people can not only see her. but they can tell she's been here just by her odour alone.

jamie was a dear friend and an absolute good lay. they laughed, they had fun, they slept together more times that she could recount. at the end of the day, she still remembers he was a friend. they found each other corporally and perhaps she was a bit jealous when he moved on and got himself a girlfriend, but she was happy for him. for sure, she was. and if they continued flirting after that in dark rooms, away from pyring eyes...well, no one saw them, right? his death did affect her, but she tried to use it as a motivation to get the fuck out of minnesota as soon as she could and do her own thing.

she's always smirking, always flirting with everyone in the room sometimes it's serious, some other time it's not. who's to know? definitely not you.

everything about her exudes luxury, from her perfume to her shoes to the designer dress she's wearing. her favourite colour to wear is white. because yes, she's that presumptuous.

she has three brothers, who she considers as dumb as the other. they're mostly in politics, some in finance. she doesn't care about them because most of the inheritance came to her when their father died (yes, she did have a look at that will before his death).

she has a lot of charisma, she likes playing with people, flirting and dancing and one night stands. she is absolutely not one for commitment.

especially not since her marriage ended with her husband cheating on her (the ultimate insult). she vows to destroy everything he is, but for now, she's licking her wounds in NYC.

her first marriage, around eight years ago, ended up lasting only six months - the man had died in a car crash. berenice wasn't quite devastated. not enough.

she will absolutely tell you that your current wife/husband of 20 years is not good enough for you and you should let loose. by getting it on with her.

she enjoys art, old movies, going to clubs, winning in court, splurging, going to the races and the casino, going to the spa, getting massages, etc etc etc...

Some ideas for connections: (click the links for the song inspo!)

one bestie - that person and berenice kept contact after university and through thick and thin, managed to keep being friends. they are probably one of the two people on earth who has ever seen berenice a bit vulnerable. (0/1)

rivalry is not dead - they're rivals. they hate each other. in everything thing they did, they always tried to one up the other. berenice likes this relationship very much because it's fun and entertaining. also is there a...tension there? fun! (0/1)

with a little help from my friends (or acquaintances, colleagues, old schoolmates, etc) - they've known each other for awhile now, their interactions pleasant most of the time. berenice is a fun person to be around and she'll be your best wingwoman if you let her. (0/?)

will they won't they - listen. berenice is known for flirting with everyone and everything, nothing stops her. nothing beside that person. there's something there, a few smiles, hidden away. they might have something during university but they never acted on it. shame. (0/1)

battle of the exe(s) - to add to the list of her numerous exes! it is a privilege club, though being an ex-partner is less expensive than being an ex-husband...she knows a thing or two about divorce law. (0/?)

you broke my heart, b****h - that person probably knows way too much about berenice and berenice hates this. she dared being a bit too vulnerable with that one person but something pulled them apart. now, if berenice can ignore them forever, the better. (0/1)

friends with benefits, but without the friend part - listen, it's fun, it's easy. there's no emotions here, nothing. they're both closed off and they promised each other to stop if they ever got into any feelings. there aren't any, right? right. (0/1)

please if you have any other ideas let me know!

remy thought college would be different, he'd find like-minded people and he'd finally have his crowd, even if it was only a handful of people. that didn't happen, and he was still teased and poked at. jamie novak stood up for remy a few times, especially in the first couple of weeks of college. with the amount of times jamie stepped in, acquaintances quickly built into an unlikely friendship. it wasn't likely many saw it, but he knew that if he needed anything he could go to jamie and even a small selection of jamie's friends. he was devastated when he heard about jamie death, wondering if things would be different if he had put himself out there more, and been with them at the lake instead of being on one of his walks to get away from the overstimulation he was feeling. he returned to panic, and jamie dead.

he latched onto one or two people to make it through the rest of his time at college without his protector there, regressing into himself more and more. harper chen saw this and tried to get remy out of his shell more. it must've taken a month, but she managed it. with her, he could be himself, without having to hide behind the camera or the walls he'd put up to protect himself, but only ever in private. he felt it was too much of a risk to show himself outside of the comforts of privacy, never knowing what the bullies may latch onto next.

they kept in touch, for the most part, and whether she was telling the truth or just hyping him up, knowing that at least harper enjoyed his books were enough for him to keep going. when the news reached him that she died, remy felt himself regress again, and if it weren't for this trip being her dying wish he wouldn't be going. he is doing it for her, but plans to keep himself to himself, refusing to let old scars of ridicule and whisperings open back up.

headcanons. tws: abuse, homophobia mention.

remy grew up in an abusive household, with parents that he would say never loved him or even truly knew what love meant. he never intended to come out to them, intending on cutting his losses and running the moment he got accepted into college but they found out in his senior year after what he thought was a date turned into a prank. pictures of him shirtless and in bed with a guy he thought actually liked him circled around the school, and eventually got back to his parents. his father beat the shit out of him, his mother just watching, and the next monday he turned up to school with a black eye and various other bruises that couldn't be seen.

college was his way out, so he took it and ran, finally thinking he could be his true self. the wounds were deep though, and with him finding it hard to trust it just didn't work out for him like that.

he lives alone in deluth, his apartment is enough for him, it's cozy and more importantly: it's a safe space. he's even managed to have one or two short-term relationships but he's always ended up needing too much reassurance, putting too much pressure on things and questioning his partners attraction to him that it scares them off.

his books are surrounded in the supernatural, the main focus being on witchcraft and ghosts, but most mainstream creatures have a part in his book. it's queer dark fantasy, with a hint of spice thrown in.

connections.

jamie novak - the protector. jamie saw remy getting bullied and within the first week of college, he was standing up for the creep. a lot of people didn't understand why, some backed jamie up. a lot of people never understood why remy was invited to stillwater, remy doesn't either. all he can assume was that jamie felt sorry for him, and wanted him to have a normal college experience

harper chen - the unlikely friend. he never thought he'd be friends with someone like harper, or have someone take the time to get to know him like she did. she managed to get remy out of his shell, and whenever he was around her he could be his true self. he wonders if that also played a part in his invite to stillwater. he wouldn't be going back, if it wasn't her dying wish.

arlo clark - missed spark. there was always something there, or at least remy thought. he assumed one sided, but tragedy struck and soon after, arlo left. remy never got the chance to see if it was reciprocated but his fear wouldn't have let him anyway, not unless arlo made the first move. arlo always backed up his protector, jamie.

camille lawson - you know my secrets. when she moved to portland, oregon - remy's home town - she befriended someone who happened to be one of his bullies. typical peaked in high school bully. they bragged about the prank played on remy, and the consequences he faced from his parents and how he came to school the next day clearly having had the shit beaten out of him by his father.

julian koenig - tough love. remy was always a little on edge around julian, because unlike jamie the way julian protected him was with tough love. he taught remy things, gave him tools to look after himself against the bullies.

dakota hartt - you were her friend. remy didn't have much luck, in high school or college, but a friend of harper's always tried so hard with him, and he always appreciated it. the connection wasn't quite like the one he felt with harper, but he could see that dakota always tried her best to include him in everything, and it never went unappreciated.

matcha attakornsiripho - sketchbook vibes. neither one of them was ever without something to draw in, he noticed that from the start. it made him feel like less of a weirdo, though of course hers went hand in hand with what she was studying so it was more expected. remy understands what having an outlet like that can do for somebody, how much it can help. he hopes she finds her muse again.

connor acosta - the stereotypical jock. it wasn't that he bullied remy, bully was too strong of a word. poked fun at, perhaps. made little comments that often sent remy spiraling, commenting on how he would rather remy not go out with them. often, remy wouldn't, thinking that he was intruding, only joining at harper or jamie's insistence. seeing connor will take him right back to high school, and college, remy regressing into himself drastically.

tba.

wanted connections.

full name: julian adriel koenig (pronounced kay-nig; he once had a little outburst at the bank after the teller mispronounced his name lol) nickname: jules date of birth & age: november 12, 1994 ( 30 years old ) place of birth: palo alto, california zodiac sign: scorpio gender & pronouns: cis man, he / him sexual orientation: bisexual occupation: software engineer / currently unemployed 3 positive traits: intuitive, resourceful, quick-witted 3 negative traits: volatile, nihilistic, vindictive family: dan koenig ( father ), nina roth ( mother ), eleanore koenig ( twin sister)

BACKGROUND

tw: mention of drugs, hospitalization, mental illness.

julian, along with his twin sister, was born in palo alto, california. his father, dan koenig, was a software engineer for apple while his mother, nina roth, was a former hollywood a-lister who was known for being a scream queen in the 80s and 90s. she retired from the limelight when the twins were born and opted to start a health and wellness business (in a similar font as gwyneth paltrow's goop).

very smart kid. like, mensa-level smart. however his parents didn't want him to get in over his head so he still went to a regular, albeit private school. adversely, because he knew he was smarter than everybody else, this sort of gave him a superiority complex and made it difficult for him to get along with other kids.

his best friend growing up was his twin sister, whom he affectionately called ellie (though, to everybody else, she was nora). while they were inseparable, they were also almost complete opposites. ellie was a lot more likable and sociable and often brought julian with her to gatherings and events, much to julian's (and ellie's friends) disdain.

julian was pretty much a carbon copy of his father and was admittedly much closer to him than he was to his mother. nina wasn't as motherly as she made herself out to be in her interviews with entertainment tonight and people magazine and, in fact, missed the spotlight and the glamor that came with her previous life much more than she'd care to admit. dan, however, preferred to keep a quieter, simpler life. that, and his tendency to be married more to his work than to his wife led to their divorce when the twins were in their sophomore year of high school. julian chose to stay with his dad in palo alto, which meant that ellie did, too.

his then-boyfriend got him into adderall and coke in their junior year to stay awake and alert and busy busy busy. these habits worsened in college, especially when he didn't get into stanford (shocker!) which was the one school he applied for as he was so confident he would get in, but apart from his grades and a 1450 SAT score, nothing really made him stand out. with no other backups, his mother pulled some strings at her alma mater in her hometown in minnesota (where she was a regular donor) which was where he and his sister ended up going to.

majored in computer engineering in college where he met jamie novak. jamie was the first friend he made and was one of the very few people he liked hanging out with.

he dated harper chen in their freshman year and broke up mid-sophomore year due to julian's substance abuse and the fact that he just wasn't making enough time for her. however, they remained good friends after.

jamie and julian had a big fight when julian found out that jamie and eleanore hooked up while jamie was dating isa. julian knew how his sister felt about jamie and was afraid that jamie was only playing with eleanore's feelings and confronted him about it, threatening to tell isa if he didn't leave his sister alone. jamie, however, counter-threatened that if he did that, he would tell everyone about julian's own dirty little secret, which was that julian was sleeping with one of his (married) professors, who had introduced him to ketamine to manage his high levels of anxiety. both of them decided to call it a stalemate and wouldn't speak for a couple of months.

that is, until eleanore told julian that jamie and a bunch of other people were going down to stillwater to celebrate the end of the final exams and that he should try to talk to jamie and make up. hesitant at first, julian ended up making the trip and arrived on the last day for the sole purpose of talking to jamie and nothing else. julian found jamie at his cabin where they talked, but to this day julian wouldn't tell anyone, not even his sister, what they talked about. some heard yelling, some saw jamie storming out of the cabin with julian coming out minutes later heading the other direction. later that night, jamie would meet his tragic demise at the lake.

julian was a lot more withdrawn after that, reverting to his old high school ways of keeping to himself, and kept very few people in his circle, which included his sister and harper. he suffered a public nervous breakdown on campus on his last semester where he was a very strong candidate for summa cum laude and end up dropping out. his father brought him back to california where he entered rehab for the first time, returning twice more for the next couple of years.

his father insisted he stay close, so he got a place of his own in palo alto while working as a freelance software engineer, primarily in cyber security. he hasn't been in contact with anyone from college in the past eight years, except of course for harper, who sometimes comes to visit him. he was four months unemployed and two weeks on his third stay in rehab when he received news of harper's untimely passing. opting out of the program early, he traveled back to minnesota to honor harper's last wish and confront old, haunted memories.

OTHER INFO

obsessed with doing crossword puzzles and always keeps a small pocket-sized collection with him at all times.

loves watching movies, which was one of the very few things he got from his mother. he particularly enjoys the horror-slasher ones as well as the lynchian or cronenbergian variety but also appreciates sci-fi and drama.

he was hospitalized in his sophomore year of high school after staying awake for 72 hours straight and consuming mostly energy drinks while reviewing for the SATs, hoping to get early admission to stanford. he was discharged from the hospital the same day as his exam and took it anyway despite remembering almost nothing of what he'd studied, and ended up with a low score. he retook the SATs again the following year and got a 1450.

played chess competitively in high school and has even played in international invitational tournaments.

his dating history isn't very long nor complicated. his first relationship was with dustin wells on his junior year of high school, who gave him his first taste of drugs since his brother was a dealer. the relationship ended not with a bang, but with a fizzle right before they graduated, the reason simply being that dustin was going to attend college abroad and neither thought they were going to make it long-distance. only his sister knew about dustin. his next relationship was with harper chen in their freshman year of college, ending amicably early in their sophomore year. then, very briefly, there was kayla simon, a phd student and beauty queen whom julian met at a lab in LA where she was an intern and he was doing an ocular on their security system. they dated for five months before breaking up when kayla became a finalist for miss universe. and then, finally, noah kelley, a visual artist whom julian met at an art show. they've been together for four years and currently have put their relationship 'on pause' after julian rejected noah's proposal.

while julian is aloof, he is by no means shy—he can get very loud and opinionated when it comes to matters he cares passionately about like tech and current events, often in a condescending manner.

while most people see him as cold and uncaring, he can also be very sweet, mostly towards his inner inner circle and he's not typically into physical touch unless it's with people he's super comfortable with, like ellie and harper.

his appearance has changed almost drastically from when people last saw him in high school. those who knew him then might not recognize him so easily; they might remember him as a well-groomed and baby-faced kid but he's a lot more unkempt nowadays, with unruly curls and a thick stubble. he's also sporting cuts on his face after getting into a fight with another patient at rehab before leaving for stillwater.

what was once a bright-eyed and hopeful young man has now turned into a pessimistic, nihilistic shell of the kid he used to be. untrusting of those around him and paranoid to a fault, he might even resort to lying and distorting the truth—often to a point where he no longer knows what to believe in—as a means of survival and protecting those he cares about, most especially his sister.

CONNECTIONS

jamie novak , first college friend. like many others, jamie introduced julian to his friend group, though often found himself still not quite fitting in, but they were people, at least, that julian still thought about from time to time and made college feel a little bit less like a distant lonely planet. in his sophomore year, julian found out about jamie hooking up with nora, his twin sister, and threatened to tell isa, jamie's girlfriend about it but jamie was holding on to a secret of julian's himself. both boys cut each other off from their lives until the night of jamie's death at stillwater lake.

harper chen , ex-girlfriend. harper and julian remained good friends even after the breakup, constantly keeping in touch years after college up until harper's death.

nora koenig , twin. other half. lifeline. the one person who has ever really known julian, the real julian.

isa morgan , math tutee. julian tutored isa twice a week for an hour and a half after classes as a favor to jamie, both realizing they had a lot more in common than originally thought and striking a weird, albeit brief friendship. lost touch after jamie's death and especially after college.

he’s an orphan. he lost his parents at a very young age, or at least it’s what he’s been told since he doesn’t remember them at all. he was soon taken under the wing of the irish mafia’s boss, who pretty much raised him like his own child so he’s got lot of respect for him. the real story is that his father was an enemy to them and got killed as a part of the process. so did his mom, and since thomas was just a little baby he was taken pity of and therefore raised as a part of the family. ( i literally just came up w that kick my ass ) 

he started working for the mafia as a teenager, since it was pretty much all he knew in life? so it’s safe to say he’s been in the business for a looooong time. 

he arrived in seattle about ten years ago, and he was assigned to secure it there / take care of their charter there. so pretty much whenever someone from the mafia comes there, whether they have to do business, vacations or both, thomas is the one who helps them get around. so lets say they have a job there, and it’s a real important one, he will himself show them everything so it all goes perfect and no mistakes are made, so to speak ??? 

he can be p laid back @ times but don’t be fooled bc 10/10 its just a way he’s testing / analyzing you lmfao. he can be very polite too but that doesn’t exactly mean he is being genuinely nice ?? he definitely has a bit of a temper too, though. when he wanna say it like it is he def doesnt hold back omfg !! he’s great at making business with people but is known to have no mercy when they cross him, tbh ??? he’s def loyal to the irish mafia tbh 

he’s got a wife ( our emilia clarke fc ) whom he loves n respects dearly ! tho the whole mafia thing gets in the way sometimes since obvs its dangerous ??? but he sees her as his partner in crime tbh so he def trusts her a lot ! 

he does cocaine, too. 10/10 breaking the whole ‘ don’t get high on your own supply ’  rule lmfaooo.