RENT stuff

she’s a brown tabby with a white chest and belly, and everyone calls her alleycat, which eventually gets shortened to just allie. she’s at least five when mark moves in, and she’s already very mellow. everyone feeds her table scraps like she’s a dog, and she knows how to open the cupboards by herself. mark adores her. between him and roger, who are constantly, silently competing for her affection and giving her secret treats, she’s spoiled her whole life.

the next Loft Cat is named socks, and he once belonged to benny. he’s gray and white and lives up to his name. he’s not too perturbed to be abandoned by his previous owner, though; benny was never a very attentive owner, and socks needs a lot of attention. he likes collins best because he’ll play with him for hours until he’s tired out. when socks doesn’t get the attention he needs, bad things happen, which mark learns the first time he finds his work shoes swimming in cat piss.

maureen moves in with a black cat named jaeger, who fits right in. but he needs a lot of attention too and unfortunately, once things start going downhill with roger and the drugs and april, mark just can’t give it to him anymore. it’s a shame. jaeger is the perfect balance between playful and cuddly, and mark misses him horribly once he’s gone.

april had a cat back at her own apartment. the day she dies, mark goes there and coaxes her into a carrier. she’s mottled black-and-orange and skittish as a mouse. he’s pretty sure her name is pumpkin. that’s what he calls her, anyway; he crosses his fingers and just hopes that she’ll be more comfort to roger than bitter reminder.

pumpkin sleeps with roger every night through withdrawal, right on top of his feet. mark has heart palpitations for weeks, anxious to let her bear roger, anxious to let him near her. nothing terrible happens. she settles in.

thankfully, the loft is pretty huge. there’s plenty of room for all the cats to have their space even while jaeger is still around. (he isn’t for much longer; maureen takes him when she leaves, and mark spends years wondering if he made the wrong call in asking her to take him with her) mark is especially thankful for this when he comes home with a stray in his jacket one day while roger is nearly two weeks clean, and silently begs to keep it.

the final Loft Cat has many names, mostly because mark left it up to roger and roger never formally decided what to call it. he’s orange-striped and grows to be unusually large, hard to heft up, but he’s the sweetest cat in the world and mark is forever glad that he plucked him out of a dumpster that night. he’s rambunctious and clumsy and so horribly young. he shakes the loft when he pounces and gets out once in a while, and brings back headless mice to drop at mark’s feet. he trips mark on a daily basis by winding around his ankles at inipportune moments and yelling his displeasure.

oddly, though, mark hardly realizes how many furry friends he has until roger moves downstairs and leaves him alone with the herd.

hmm, i feel like roger would definitely have MORE tattoos. i see mimi as being interested in tattoos, but she’s very young compared to him. would have had less time and less money to get them. roger was the lead singer of a metal-rock band, he most likely had some extra cash for a couple of years, and probably plenty of buddies willing to ink him for free or at least discounted.

plus… i assume that roger got his diagnosis when he was a bit older than mimi was when she got hers. the ADA technically makes it illegal to refuse services to people with blood-borne illnesses but i can see the whole idea of going to a shop and asking someone to jab you with needles, knowing you have a contagious disease in your veins, would be… anxiety-inducing. i mean. you don’t know how they’re going to react. angrily, maybe even violently, depending on what sort of neighborhood you’re in… i headcanon roger to have gotten most of his many, many tattoos before his diagnosis for this very reason. and mimi… i dunno, i don’t think that she would bother. she’s got plenty of other forms of self-expression to fall back on.

if anything, i can imagine mimi getting tattoos after she gets together with roger, inspired by him, emboldened. i’m sure he could bring her to whatever artist he’s gone to, who he knows will be safe and cool about it.

possibly they’d get some cute, tacky little couple’s tattoos. i think mimi would like that. and i think roger would take basically any excuse to get inked. after a certain number, we all sort of get like that. it’s… addictive. the pain, the intimacy of it, and the look of the ink shiny under your skin when it first heals up.

god, pizza topping headcanons would be such a long post (crucial info tho), but as for pineapple on pizza specifically:

for:

mark

angel

collins

against:

roger

mimi

maureen

benny

is scared to try it:

things that they all do to care for each other:

for mark: ruffling his hair, letting him wear your sweater/jacket, letting him ramble at you for a while about his latest project

for collins: remembering the names of his students and asking after them, coming to him for advice, calling to make sure he got home safe

for angel: cheek kisses, big bear hugs, telling her stories abt your life or your day, complimenting her outfits

for roger: offering him free coffee, asking him his opinion on any piece of music whatsoever, sharing food w/ him

for mimi: giving her little trinkets / accessories (she’s a sucker for jewelry even if it’s cheap), playing w/ or braiding her hair, cuddles

for maureen: playing along w/ her pet names, coming up w/ pet names for her, coming to her performances, holding her hands

Roger Davis: It is 100% easier not to do things than to do them.

Tom Collins: I'm very gay, I'd like a few dollars.

Angel Schunard: Lost in New York? The streets are numbered. How’d you get lost in New York?

Mimi Marquez: Cause I couldn't be like, "No, that's okay, I was lying. It was a lie. To get drugs. You know, like a crime."

Maureen Johnson: I guess someone said like something something police. And in a brilliant moment of word association, I yelled "fuck da police!" and everyone else joined in.

Joanne Jefferson: This might as well happen. Adult life is already so goddamn weird.

mark: quiet kid / nerd / teachers pet

roger: emo stoner/burnout

maureen: drama geek / gossip queen

collins: genius stoner / class clown

mimi: slutty party girl / cheerleader

angel: hipster / art club kid

joanne: anxious nerd (student council)

benny: poser prep / overachiever

mark’s seen as a nerd but he’s constantly overshadowed by his older sister who was a fucking superstudent, the favorite of all his teachers. academics don’t come to him as easily as they did to her so he has to work twice as hard to get good grades, and spends a lot of time panicking and chasing his teachers around asking for help, trying desperately to be good enough. he has trouble balancing studying (which he hates) with his hobbies, which are ALSO seen as nerdy, and which his parents don’t really see the point of. he doesn’t have any friends really, except maureen, which everyone finds bizarre because she’s like… way out of his league. (but they’re next door neighbors and childhood friends, which most people don’t know)

maureen’s got a lot of self-esteem issues, which she overcompensates for. a lot. she wears a lot of makeup and is that obnoxious theatre kid that sings really loudly in the hallways. she’s constantly bugging mark, briefly dating him, and is the only person to stand up for him for a long time when he’s a major bully magnet. she has a mean streak though and tends to intimidate new kids, especially during musical season. when she realizes she’s gay she predictably makes a huge spectacle of coming out and kisses joanne (who’s name she barely knows) in the auditorium in front of everyone. she always dresses up for spirit day, likes to rebel, and challenges teachers on “bigoted” topics in class even when none of the other students will stand with her.

joanne is a closeted anxious little mess. everyone calls her an overachiever, but she’s very very quiet about her accomplishments and honestly would prefer to be invisible. since she was extremely young, her parents have pushed her hard academically and she has a lot of extracurriculars, including student council, which she often wonders why she even participates in when they don’t actually DO anything constructive. maureen kissing her prompts her to make a bunch of unlikely friends, and finally gives her the courage to let loose. she helps her friends cheat in class. is obsessed with college apps and starts studying for midterms and finals approximately three months in advance.

mimi’s the troubled popular girl that the other popular girls shun because she’s a little… too wild. people whisper about her because she goes to parties and gets really drunk, and everyone knows her as the chick who will do basically anything (drugs, sex, etc) once. she secretly dates benny, until he refuses to go public with their relationship and she gets sick of his bullshit (also finds out he has a snooty preppy girlfriend). commits social suicide by then pursuing roger, the grungy stoner, but doesn’t give a fuck and stays on the cheerleading team despite pressure from the other girls to quit. she and the school counselor are very familiar with each other.

benny’s that indecisive prep who constantly Wonders what it would be like to let go of his rung on the social ladder and be free to do whatever he wants without scrutiny, but he’s a pussy so he never commits to it and turns his back on his new friends eventually to go back to being Popular.

april’s that really alternative girl who acts really angry and confident but has serious issues that she’s repressing. she does a lot of drugs and generally avoids people, talks shit about how humanity is a disease etc. (she attempts/commits suicide in her junior or senior year, probably after breaking up with roger)

roger is the angry emo kid who literally avoids EVERYONE. all the time. he has cynical opinions about everyone in his class, skips as often as he can, and gets caught smoking in the bathroom every so often. serves a lot of detention. can’t stand kids like mark and joanne, who he sees as suck ups, but somehow ends up realizing they’re just as anxious and fucked up as he is and feels kind of like an asshole. he’s that kid who constantly talks about how much he hates this town and wants to just Leave, take his guitar and go live in some shitty apartment somewhere he can become a rockstar. he scorns the art/music kids and theatre department but secretly wishes he was good enough to do that stuff.

collins is so far ahead of the class that eventually his parents take him out to homeschool him, because his boredom is resulting in him constantly distracting the other kids. he’s very weird and doesn’t seem to realize or care that he’s picked on when he’s younger. he’s scary smart. disappears when he’s about 10, then mysteriously comes back to school in sophomore year for a semester (for no apparent reason, since he’s mostly taking classes at the nearest university) only to disappear again. rumor has it that he graduated three years early and is already going to harvard or working with a hacker organization, depending on who you talk to.

angel is fiercely optimistic and cheerful, that kid that refuses to have their day ruined. she floats from one art to the next. spends a lot of time in art club and sometimes hanging out with the school band - she used to play drums with them before quitting, never talks about it but her dad forced her to quit because it was “too gay” - she’s the only kid in school whos out of the closet in freshman year and the bullying doesn’t deter her at all. she’s extremely sassy to bullies, and extremely protective other kids. one day when she sees mark being taunted in the hallway she booby traps the bully’s locker later that day and he ends up covered in red paint. she becomes mark’s second ever friend.

final rent crew pokemon teams! caption below:

mark: ivysaur, espeon, noctowl, audino, parasect, crobat

roger: torracat, umbreon, raichu, gengar, marowak, mimikyu

collins: alakazam, smeargle, ursaring, sableye, wigglytuff, nidoking

maureen: blaziken, glameow, ampharos, loudred, togekiss, seviper

mimi: persian, pachirisu, salamence, jolteon, liepard, pidgeotto

joanne: empoleon, granbull, venemoth, sealeo, azumarill, zangoose

angel: machoke, blissey, rosalia, lycanroc, sylveon, nidoqueen

benny: feraligatr, raticate, hydreigon, aggron, steelix, croagunk

april: quilava, duskul, zubat, sneasel, pikachu, mightyena

cindy: butterfree, tangela, cherubi

mark: bulbasaur, kecleon, tangela, eevee, paras, hoothoot

roger: litten, houndour, eevee, gastly, cubone, gabite

maureen: torchic, glameow, flaafy, loudred, togepi, kirlia

benny: croconaw, rattata, aron, onyx, beedrill, breloom

collins: sceptile, smeargle, teddiursa, wigglytuff, nidorino, vigaroth

some explanation: mark’s sister cindy never was interested in training pokemon, but she raised a caterpie in their backyard in childhood and when mark’s tangela got homesick, he sent it home to her and they became close.

(his kecleon went back to scarsdale as well, but it’s closer to his mother.)

when april killed herself, so did her sneasel. her starter pokemon - quilava - took it terribly, but it stuck around through roger’s withdrawal (evolving into typhlosion in the process) and left once it was sure that mark and roger didn’t need it anymore, just disappeared. they’ve looked for it, but either it’s long gone or doesn’t want to be found. they gave her mightyena up for adoption, as well as roger’s houndour, when they were unable to take care of them because of roger’s long withdrawal period.

her duskull refused to leave, and still haunts their loft. it’s attracted some other dark and ghost type pokemon since, including roger’s mimikyu and collins’ sableye. they have periodic infestations.

april’s pikachu became roger’s raichu, and her zubat stuck with mark and eventually evolved into crobat.

collins’ sceptile and maureen’s kirlia (which evolved into gardevoir) both decided that they wanted different things than their trainers, and left on good terms. roger’s gabite left before he even went into withdrawal; they were never very close, and it was frankly sick of his bullshit.

the vigaroth that collins’ trained evolved into a slaking and no longer felt able to follow him around when he was living a nomadic lifestyle, so he left it at the loft to hang around with his roommates while he was gone.

neither angel or mimi had starter pokemon because they grew up poor (and in angel’s case, with unsupportive parents.) roger didn’t technically have a starter either, because he was also poor - his litten was a stray that started following him home from school when he was a teenager. mimi’s first pokemon was a meowth (each of her siblings was given one adopted pokemon by their parents, none of them were starters), angel’s was a machop which her father gave her passive-aggressively just before he found out that she had been secretly attending girl scouts for years.

when benny was taken on by mr. grey, he was gifted a fully-evolved high-level hydreigon which he has.. no idea what to do with, but eventually (post-rent i imagine) they do get to know each other and become close. he’s also coerced into trading his onyx away briefly, and evolving it, which strains their relationship. he gives up his beedrill and his breloom leaves him, bitter about the way he’s treated his pokemon since his engagement/marriage. it lives at the loft for a while until benny comes looking for it, and then disappears.

1. you flatter me 2 much :’)

2. what would mark and roger do if they visited mark’s parents?

i think roger actually probably goes with mark… every time he visits his parents, after a certain point in their friendship… it’s half out of moral support and half because roger has a bit of separation anxiety, once mark becomes his favorite friend (oh, he doesn’t say that, but they all know) and he doesn’t like being alone in the loft when mark’s at home. even if it’s only for like, two days. so he comes with him. sitting on the bus is a lot more fun when you have someone to share your seat with, anyway. plus, it makes him kind of warm to get to cram into mark’s twin sized bed in his childhood room, talking quietly late into the night… sort of like they do at home, except here they’re really whispering. there’s an element of adventure to it for roger that he doesn’t really get at home, yknow?

roger was born and raised in the city, so being in the suburbs is kind of a novelty for him. he probably wouldn’t last more than a week away from the hustle and bustle of new york but… whenever he goes home with mark he makes him take him on walks, smell the fresh air, experience a little bit of nature… mark takes him to the park he frequented as a child, shows him how he used to sneak over to maureen’s window next door by creeping through the backyard and climbing the tree that’s branches nearly brush her windowsill. he shows roger all of the schools he went to, tells him embarrassing stories from when he was a kid. 

mark’s mom is really apprehensive about roger at first but after the second time he visits he’s like a son to her. seriously. he wanders into the kitchen in the morning with bedhead and bites his lip and asks if it would be okay if he made himself some coffee (mark, still sleeping, had shoved him off and grumbled at him to ask her himself when he tried to get him to get up and do it, so he has to suffer through the social anxiety) and mark’s mom shoos him and says she’ll make it for him, and does he like french vanilla creamer? (he does) 

she gets to know all of his favorite foods and he gets to pore over endless photo albums and scrapbooks, listening in fascination as mark’s mom talks a mile a minute about her kids and her grandkids and cataloging every awkward detail to tease mark mercilessly about later. he really does love listening, though… he grew up without a father, with an absentee mother who could barely put enough food on the table even when she was working every waking moment of the day, and he’s a little jealous of mark’s slightly dysfunctional family life because at least he HAD one… 

he lives vicariously for a bit, and mark’s mom grows a soft spot for her son’s unconventional roommate and watches the way they lean against each other on the couch falling asleep watching late night infomercials, the way roger caresses the back of mark’s hand with his thumb, the way they look at each other when the other isn’t paying attention, and she doesn’t feel alarmed or upset like she expects to, but warm in the knowledge that her boy is loved and cared for even if she doesn’t hear from him quite as often as she’d like.

also, having a good relationship with roger has it’s benefits. namely, guilting mark to come around more often. :L

3. favorite memes:

roger: surprise, bitch! i bet you thought you’d seen the last of me, “i’m gonna fuck [x]” “DO NOT FUCK [X]”

mark: “ok… sounds fake but ok”, the you tried stars meme, spiders georg

maureen: the breadstick purse meme, the Good Shit meme, “girls don’t like boys, girls like [x] and [y]”

collins: rickrolling (EVERYONE has fallen for his rickrolls), “and in that moment…”, “let [x] say fuck”

mimi: “i’m always a slut for [x], zodiac meme, “bitch i might be”

joanne: every lesbian meme (handmaiden vs feudal lord, gal pals, etc)

angel: six word horror story (she’s really really good at making them up on the spot) and the musical audition meme

mark: loose fitting blue plaid boxers (very comfortable)

roger: an old pair of black calvin klein boxer briefs that are kind of faded but wayyyyy too comfy to throw away

maureen: stretchy black boyshorts that make her ass look👌👌👌

collins: an extremely obnoxious pair of rainbow-striped briefs which he found in a thrift shop

benny: gray briefs with a white waistband & crotch outline (lol)

mimi: black lace thong with sections of red ribbon crisscrossed & tied into bows on either side

joanne: high-waisted floral lacy purple thong, which only maureen has ever seen

angel: satiny green hipster panties with white hearts and a scalloped waistband (she may have sewn them herself)

maureen does a lot of capslock, never uses periods unless she’s Serious (or angry), sends a lot of nonsensical texts like “mmmmmm”, kiss emojis, and uses these kinds of emojis way too much but she doesn’t care :3c xD :*

joanne types properly up until she becomes close to you, then she loosens up. uses emojis sparingly except when she’s drunk.

roger gives literally no fucks about grammar or punctuation, types in all lowercase and abbreviations in run on sentences (caps are usually reserved for HOLY SHIT EXCITED SCREAMING!!!) he is one with the middle finger and peace sign emojis.

mimi adds ‘z’ to the end of random words (lolz, feelz, etc) and keysmashes frequently. it kind of covers up that she’s not a very good speller. a slut for group chats.

collins sends either one word texts, emojis and nothing else, or SUPER long winded philosophical rambling that’s way above everyone else’s heads. no in between. overuses the most obscure emojis ever.

angel likes to reply in selfie form, or in bitmojis. she types mostly in lowercase because it’s ~friendlier and more relaxed~ but she’s good with punctuation. lots of exclamation marks and smiley faces.

benny types out his smiley faces with noses :-) and types like a typical straight guy, always types question marks in multiples, lots of ellipses. lots of winky faces.