#oc: Raymond Brinkwater

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I made some voiceclaims for the ocs I have so far!

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Trying out a new art style with some eye studies

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Family Affirmations

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Actually now that u think of it in Rosalyn’s context what if Professor Edwin hates her because she can easily surpass her and go straight to her dad if she wants something added to the school

Edwin heavily objected to adding the Isle of Love on campus because she thought it was a waste of money and has nothing to do with the college experience. So Rosalyn just went to her dads office and the rest was history

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Raymond timeline dump for a ref:

He was born in 1968

Went to New York University from 1986-1990 for a bachelor's degree in Applied Psychology

While studying he met Rosalyn and Roscoe's mother Ramona, whom he fell in love with in 1987. Ramona was on the pre-med track and a year ahead of him.

Ramona got pregnant in 1990 and gave birth to Roscoe in 1991. Between juggling Roscoe between each other and various babysitters and pursuing their respective careers, the two of them made it work.

He worked as a teacher's assistant for various classes to get credit at NYU from 1988-1992

He got a Master of Arts in Psychology at NYU in 1992.

He got married to Ramona in 1994

He got a PhD in School Psychology at Northeastern University in 1997

Ramona gave birth to Rosalyn in 1998

He worked as an assistant professor at Rutgers New Brunswick in the psychology department from 1997 to 2007 before he got upgraded to a full on university professor where he worked until 2010.

Ramona disappeared in 2003 and was presumed deceased in 2004

He ran and was elected to the school board of education where Lakeside would be built in 2010 and has been working there ever since

Lakeside High School was built in 2014 after being in construction for 3 years. Rosalyn was a rising high school sophomore at the time.

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i think i might be confusing people so like. when Lakeside was conceptualized it wasn't originally made with Rosalyn in mind, as the board been working on it since 2010. (Lakeside opened in 2014 idk i need to check the timeline). But Raymond was the head of the project. It was his first proposal since joining the board of education, and it was this proposal that elevated him to the head of the student board. He theorized that the jump between high school and college was too jarring and students who weren't properly prepared for high school would fall through the cracks. Therefore, he wanted to design a school that functions like a university, but there's a lot more safeguards involved. As the students age through the system, those safeguards are gradually removed to help the student gain the independence needed for college.

You know how there's post-bacc programs to kind of get you primed for graduate school? Lakeside is kind of like that but for college. Instead of everything being condensed into one building, things are divided into different academic buildings. Students are responsible from getting from one building to the other for their classes. When i was a HS freshman they made us travel together in lines because our schedules grouped us into classes... anyways.

So Project: Lakeside had been underway for a couple years. Ideally, Raymond wanted his daughter Rosalyn to be the first student. It was a bit too late for Roscoe as he had already graduated high school at the time. But he didn't want to rip Rosalyn away from her friends at Berry High and thrust her into an all new unfamiliar environment, he assumed she was happy there. He was obviously heartbroken when he found out that wasn't the case. To make her feel better, he suggested that she transfer to Lakeside. She was more than happy to agree. She was a rising sophomore at the time*

A few people on the board chided Raymond for this but he let Rosalyn control how the school would look outside of where the buildings would be placed (such as the school colors, the mascot, etc). I always say Rosalyn runs her school (and she does, just not in the official way). She's in charge of a lot of facilities at the school (welcoming committee, admissions office, student council president) so like... yeah she kinda does.

And so Project: Lakeside was underway!

*Initially I had Rosalyn start HSS as a junior but given her timeline with Ace I wanted to give them more time for their relationship to develop while in high school. If Rosalyn starts as a junior, and the Ace quests happen a little over a year since the game started, and I'm assuming the Ace quests happen over the course of a few months, by the time Ace joins the school for real they'd be finishing up their senior year. I wanted them to spend at least a year together before going off to college. IDK. the HSS world is my sandbox and I get to adjust the timeline as I please.

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she's literally just a girl!

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I've decided. Rosalyn and Roscoe are fully Ghanaian American, their mom is a continental African (born and raised in Ghana before she moved to the US) and their dad is a first generational African who was raised in Louisiana before moving up north for college (his parents traveled to the US in the 50s and had Raymond in 1968).

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Raymond tries not to swear in front of Rosalyn but it’s hard breaking old habits

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Raymond with Rosalyn vs Raymond with Roscoe

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The family ever

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She’ll always be his baby

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Raymond with Rosalyn

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For the first 5 years of Rosalyn’s life she’s convinced Santa Claus is black because every year her dad Raymond would surprise her and Roscoe dressed up as Santa Claus. Then her mom disappeared and he’d stopped doing that for a while.

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Man, I'm still thinking about how Raymond (Rosalyn's) dad feels about this irt the Ace quests. Imagine the school you dedicated to your little girl who was unhappy at her old school had "suddenly" gone to shit and was in danger of being closed down. What's worse is you can only watch it happen because even though you're the head of the student board you're barred from making a direct decision because the school involves your daughter and it would be a conflict of interest

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I dont think Raymond ever knew the extent of the bullying Rosalyn faced at Berry which was her motivation for wanting to transfer. He just knew his daughter was sad, he just happened to be in the process of building a new school, why not go above and beyond to cheer her up by giving her the chance to shape the rest of her high school life? Perks of being a nepo baby i guess.