Vanilla (Hi-Fi Rush AU)

Name: Vanilla

Gender: Male

Age: 27

Eye color: Yellow

Hair color: White with blond accents

Height: 5'6"

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Appearance: Vanilla is a brown skinned young man with long, messy white hair and a robotic enhancement on his right arm that boosts his ice themed abilities. He has yellow eyes and thick white eyebrows.

In his glam-rock outfit, Vanilla wears a purple v-neck shirt with sequins on the collar that accentuate the V shape. He has blue faux fur on his shoulders that lead to the dark glove-sleeves of his shirt. His middle finger is gloved while the rest of the sleeve is finger less on his left arm, but the sleeve on his right is fully gloved. His purple studded belts and bracelets match with his choker. A dark and light blue faux fur key chain hangs from his right hip. He wears high-waisted pants with tears along the legs that reveal the orange fishnets he's wearing underneath. His glam-rock boots are long with two bright blue Vs at the ends. He wears a hoop piercing in his left ear and two blue spiky piercings on his upper right ear. He has make-up on the underside of his left eye of two blue marks meant to resemble icicles. He also has a tongue piercing he shows off whenever he can.

In his regular outfit, Vanilla wears a purple jacket with dark sleeves. The collar and sleeves are decorated with faux blue fur similar to the material on his shoulders in his glam-rock look. He has a purple smiley face button and a small yellow button decorating his collar. His jeans are similar to his glam-rock pants, except that there is only one tear on the right knee and they are a darker color. He still has his orange fishnets on underneath, along with the same three belts and fuzzy key chain at his hip. His long glam-rock boots are replaced with black winklepicker boots with ice blue soles. He does not wear the icicle make up under his left eye and the colors are reversed on the fuzzy key chain. He also wears some of his hair up in a round bun meant to resemble a snowball or scoop of ice cream. He has a tattoo of a flock of bats on his left arm! 

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Personality:  Back in college, Vanilla was a nervous wreck, always trying to keep his grades above B's while keeping his major a secret from his parents. Although he panicked frequently about schoolwork and deadlines, he was a gentle person who tried his best to be helpful towards his classmates and make friends. He can be a bit of a daydreamer and may need someone to repeat things for him a few times before it sticks. Having sleepless nights due to studying didn't help his tendency to zone out. Most people initially find Vanilla rude because of his monotone voice, but they soon figure out that he's not a mean dude at all. His monotone voice (a result of his autism) has made him seem uninterested and even sarcastic, but he's very genuine with what he says and thinks, and this is reflected in his body language. Vanilla is the type of guy to trust people easily, especially if they're kind to him and have (seemingly) good intentions. This has made him into quite a doormat, but he becomes very vengeful when he realizes he's been taken advantage of or mistreated. In the present, he tries to adopt a more serious personality, but often falls back into his day dreamer ways. This makes him seem like someone you can't take seriously, but don't let that fool you. He's decided to embrace a glamrock persona on his quest to gain more confidence, and it's been helping! He's a klutz, but he's become good at preventing the messes he almost causes from being clumsy. He's excitable and likes to go out and have fun when he has free time. He especially likes arcades and trying new food places. Aside from that, he also frequents gyms and likes to work out to deal with his anxiety spikes. He often picks up traits from others and will say words or phrases his friends tend to say often. Whenever he's nervous, he talks in a very formal manner, likely a result of his parents' strict parenting. Though he's usually organized, when he's wrapped up in a project, he allows messes to grow, often leaving dirty dishes, dirty clothes, books, paper, and other items strewn about. He's the type to keep up appearances in public and with others, but in the confines of his own home...it can be pretty bad when he doesn't have the downtime to clean up after himself. He's not good at confronting people and often tries to dance around issues if it means keeping the peace with people he cares about. This is something he's trying his best to work on, especially after this trait harmed Chai during their Uni days. He still had a difficult time standing up to his parents, but he'll get there eventually. He especially feels guilty for having been so bad at confrontation when he realizes how much it affected Chai when professors would compare the two to embarrass him. It reminded him of the way his parents always compared him to his brother. Even though Vanilla is mild mannered, he will get very serious and curt when people degrade music and it takes him a bit to get over it. He also really fucking hates if you make Vanilla Ice jokes at him because of his name and his powers. Just...just don't do that. He is heavily associated with bats, but  dachshunds are his favorite animal. He still LOVES bats, but he likes them weenie dogs more.

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Abilities and Powers: Vanilla has ice powers that allow him to do all kinds of things. His siblings and father also have ice powers, with Vanilla's being the weakest of the four. After getting implants to enhance them from a shady company, his powers get strong enough to be useful in a fight. He can make weapons, shortcuts, icy bat wings, and he can even make a guitar similar to Chai's scrap metal guitar. Although his ice powers are handy and powerful, they're utterly useless if Vanilla is in a hot environment. He resorts to using powerful kicks with his big glam rock boots and slashing with the claw-like fingers on his right arm's enhancement to fight. His parents used to put him in a lot of self-defense classes/sports growing up, so he's a pretty strong and agile fighter. His main weapon is an icy whip, but he alternates between different methods of attack. 

He had a kind of super sonic

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Backstory: Being the middle child, Vanilla had a tough time figuring himself out. His parents always pushed their ideals onto him and constantly reminded him to follow in his older brother's footsteps. For the longest time, Vanilla quietly complied with their wishes and did everything as they commanded. He'd be quiet, polite, studious, obedient, well-mannered, and if he ever so much as misbehaved or fell behind in his studies, he would regret it. Punishment was the #1 thing to avoid, so Vanilla was always at his best. When he was in the 7th grade, he was in the middle of leaving the schools library after doing some tutoring when he overheard a pair of kids listening to some intense and rebellious music on the library computers. The sound intrigued Vanilla, and he clumsily tried to walk past them to see what the name of the song was before the librarian came over to reprimand the punks. When he got home, he snuck onto his dad's computer and looked up the song, taking in its raunchy and free spirited lyrics. It was all so fascinating to him! This music was showing him a whole new world. A world where you gave authority the finger and you could be whoever you wanted to be. You didn't have to be a carbon copy of your older brother! You didn't have to be perfect all the time! How powerful! Vanilla would continue to listen to music of this nature in secret and finally figure out what he liked and what he wanted instead of going along with what his parents liked and wanted. Of course, it was still a struggle. He remained obedient on the surface, but he began to lie to his parents about a number of things. For one, he stopped giving tutoring lessons to kids after school in order to sneak into the record shops nearby and buy cds of various post-punk and alt bands to listen to in bed at night. The lies would keep coming, but they were mostly harmless! At least Vanilla hoped they were...he was just so happy being his own person when his parents weren't looking. He made friends who shared his interests and encouraged him, and he even found his passion! He wanted to write songs as moving and intense as the ones that inspired him to find himself. Fame didn't matter to him, as long as he was making art he enjoyed with like-minded individuals. He knew he would have to be very sneaky about it when it came to getting into university. His parents wanted him to be something productive, successful! He couldn't just tell them he wanted to be a musician. He had to lie and tell them what they wanted to hear. So, he told them he would go into law and become a lawyer. It was more impressive than his older brother's accountant job, so his folks were happy and he was in the clear! 

It's in Uni that Vanilla meets Chai and their friendship would put him through a roller coaster of emotions. The two had some very brief and forgettable history prior to college. Vanilla worked a pizza boy job in his late teens and would often deliver pizza to Chai's home. The amount of times Chai would order from them was so frequent that everyone working at the pizzeria had his order memorized by heart, including Vani. Vanilla didn't really recognize Chai in university and vice-versa. Chai was rarely the type to pay attention to someone long enough to remember how they looked, he just wanted his pizza. The two were classmates in an English class, but they didn't interact until one day when Vanilla nearly sent Chai flying off of the second floor of the English department while running to class after sleeping in. He caught him by his sling just in time. After taking an exam, Vanilla approached him to apologize for almost sending him to his death. Chai just waved him off, assuring him it was no biggie. This confused Vanilla but he quickly shook off the confusion after noticing a pin on Chai's bag of a band he really liked. He excitedly complimented him on the pin and asked him if he heard the new album. The discussion led to the two getting lunch together and talking some more. After that, Vanilla would sit next to Chai in English and the two would continue to get along over shared music tastes. Chai's easy going nature was something that helped Vanilla with his overwhelming anxiety over school work and the overarching dread of his parents ever catching him lying and Chai was glad to have a...n acquaintance after being a loner for so long. The two would hype each other's dreams up and enable one another to do both good and bad things. Stuff would take a turn for the worst once Vanilla excitedly ran the idea of starting a band together after a late night candy run. At the time they were stoked for it, but their clashing principles when it came to school caused damage to their friendship. Vanilla tried his best to passive aggressively push Chai to stop slacking, but his fear of confrontation would lead him to do Chai's assignments for him in secret, something that Chai would catch onto. Knowing how much graduating meant to Vanilla and how much trouble he'd get into if he was caught doing this, Chai confronted him and told him to let him handle his own work. A part of him also felt a bit patronized and embarrassed by Vanilla taking the initiative to do his work for him, but he would do his best to combat that thought, remembering that Vanilla admired him, it seemed like genuine admiration too. So there's no way he was looking down on him...right? 

For a while Chai would pick up the pace with his work, though he'd go about it in his own way. To really stick it to the shitty professors that belittled him, he'd only give enough of a shit towards his work to get by with C's so that Vanilla didn't have to worry about him too much. Even though Vanilla would always be supportive of Chai and seemed happy around him, Chai's fear of inferiority and rejection would get the best of him the more the two hung out and talked about music and schoolwork. Chai could tell that Vanilla was serious about all of this, like, REALLY serious. The guy knew his stuff! Chai couldn't understand half of what the hell he was saying when he got to talking about the technicalities of music and music making. All Chai knew was that he wanted to be a rock star because that was the "easiest" way of gaining the admiration of others without getting too close to them and risking getting hurt! But Vanilla...this guy knew everything. It was awesome...but...it definitely amplified the insecurities that Chai always did his best to ignore whenever he'd act like he was the coolest dude ever. On top of that, what if he would just get in the way of Vanilla's dream? Yeah, the guy wanted to start a band with him but would Chai be able to keep up? Their professors always pointed out the difference in effort and dedication between them. It was hard thinking about Vanilla and himself. He hated the thought of ruining a cool guy's dream by showing just how little he actually knew about music, but he hated facing his inferiority even more. Things would just get worse as Vanilla kept giving it his all and Chai kept giving it his half before giving it his nothing again. Having a band they both liked show up to one of their classes to guest speak was the final nail in the coffin. Chai jokingly tells Vanilla he should share a song he wrote with the band to get their opinion before they left, to which Vanilla goes through with because why would he ever say no to something his awesome pal Chai told him to do? Chai tries to stop him but notices the band actually really likes the song and he backs off. Watching his "friend" get such a warm reception from a group he likes and then reminiscing on the time the band Chai loved blew him off. He wanted to be happy for Vani but the experience stung and added onto his doubts that he could make a good band mate. After that, Chai started trying his best to avoid Vanilla, flaking on him often and making rude remarks towards him to try to get him to back off. Maybe if Vanilla stopped hanging out with him on his own accord it would be better than him telling him upfront that he didn't want to be band mates anymore. 

This plan would not work in the slightest. Most of the time Vanilla would laugh off any rude remark, taking them as jokes and playful jabs between friends. When Chai would flake out on him, he would make excuses for him and think that he had his reasons for not being able to make it to whatever they planned to do that day. He'd still invite Chai to things and excitedly come over and hang out with him in his dorm. Chai was relieved deep down, even if he struggled with his inner turmoil over Vanilla, he still liked being around him! This was gonna be tougher than he thought. Of course it would be, this was the first guy in a while Chai allowed to get close to him after years of fake friends and bullies chipping away at his trust. Even then, Vani wasn't really that close to him...it's why Chai wasn't comfortable calling him his friend even though he wanted to. The Chai Vanilla was so taken with was someone he made up to deal with his trauma, after all. If Vani knew the real Chai...would he be this excited to be around him and be in a band with him? It was all too much to think about and Chai wanted nothing more than to STOP thinking about it. One night he'd agree to meet up with Vani for a late night snack run, even if he was emotionally exhausted from all the junk going on in his head. Vanilla would notice how quiet Chai was as they stuffed their faces with junk food on the roof of one of the physical education buildings. He'd ask him if he was alright, to which Chai would try to tell Vanilla then that maybe he should find someone else to be in the band with him. Vanilla would respond by freaking out, objecting to the idea firmly and telling him that he needed to be in the band with him! If Chai left, then he didn't want to be in a band at all. His reaction unnerves Chai and he backpedals on the idea to get Vanilla to calm down. Vanilla does relax a bit, but he asks Chai why he felt like leaving the band in the first place. Chai didn't want to tell him his reasons so he just shrugged and made up that he just thought maybe his voice didn't fit with Vanilla's song lyrics. Vanilla would shake his head and tell him his voice was perfect for them, he didn't want anyone else singing his songs. Truth be told, Vanilla holding onto Chai being lead vocals in the band was his own way of trying to keep their friendship together. Still, it was an uncomfortable conversation and Vanilla tried his best to bring the mood up again by bringing up a new song he was working on.

Chai would listen to him and took a look at the lyrics, all the while his mind started racing with thoughts again. Why did Vanilla care what he thought about his songs? He hadn't written any himself! He didn't even know where to begin, and making words rhyme together was hard! Is this a joke? The more Chai lost himself in his thoughts the more frustrated he grew and he insulted Vanilla's new song, his remarks doubling as a way for him to let out his frustrations with himself. Vanilla was shocked by the response but he dryly chuckled and thanked Chai for the feedback. He tells him that this is why he needs him in the band and Chai wants to snap and tell him that no he doesn't!!!! He doesn't need a guy who doesn't even know what the hell he's doing to be in a band with him!!! But then he thinks about how this could be his chance to get Vanilla to back off. 

He scoffs and nods. "Yeah, maybe you do need me! I dunno how a band with songs like these could get anywhere." Fuuuck does it suck to say something like that to Vani. Chai always really liked Vanilla's songs, even the ones with lyrics that scared him! Like, no duh the band that talked to their class also liked his work! He can tell that stung for Vani and he bites his lip but keeps at it. Vanilla asks him if he always felt that way about his songs and Chai gives him a flat yup. It makes Vanilla panic and he asks Chai what he should fix. Chai sweats nervously and just tells him all of it and Vanilla asks how in clear distress. Being told a band with his songs would get nowhere made him think about his parents and how they would react to his secret major. They'd definitely say something about how he wouldn't get anywhere with this too...and hearing it from Chai? He's fucking SHAKEN. Chai instantly regrets saying those things upon seeing him freak out. It reminds him of when his fake friends growing up would drop the bomb on him that they kept him around as a joke or they only pretended to be his friend out of pity or because of some cruel bet. It sucked. He doesn't know how to backpedal after all of that, and knowing how bad Chai is with talking, he just keeps at it. He tells him he doesn't think any of his advice could do much. He can't make Vani a better songwriter. Vanilla feels like he got punched in the gut and still tries to muster up some kind of hope. He asks Chai if maybe he can still try? Still try to help him work on it? Chai feels like shit about all of this so he just shrugs and tells him "sure" to ease some of the guilt. After this, Chai decides to drop out and ghost Vanilla entirely. Even when he was at his worst, Vanilla still wanted to hang around him and he really couldn't take it anymore.

Vanilla's heartbroken by Chai's disappearance, and his friends try to reassure him that it's no real loss. They convince him it's for the best that Chai left and that he should keep focusing on his dream. Vanilla takes their advice and keeps giving school his all out of spite for his parents and now Chai. It doesn't help that when Vani told them about their argument his friends put the idea in his head that Chai probably thinks he's better than Vani and would have just used the band as a stepping stone or something for a solo career. His friends already didn't like Chai very much because to them, he seemed like a self-centered asshole (which he was one to an extent!) so they really jumped at the chance to tear into him and get Vanilla to realize how shitty he was. So, Vanilla keeps working hard to finish up at uni and graduate to get started on his dream. After he graduates, Vanilla is offered a job with the band that came to visit their class as their song writer and he accepts. He's pretty psyched to be able to write music for a band he liked so much, forgetting how he convinced himself that only Chai would be the one to sing his songs. Things were great for a while, but Vanilla soon became jaded over being the guy behind the scenes and not the guy on the stage playing the music he poured so much of himself into. The band was kind to him, but even so, it was tough! Sometimes they wouldn't get the emotion right or they decided to change some of the instrumentals and it REALLY drove him up a wall, but he had to just grin and bear it! Can't throw a fit at the people who employed you! 

Vanilla hears about sign ups for Project Armstrong while getting himself some coffee and considers getting robotic implants to help heighten his ice powers and maybe even get a device that could enhance his voice so he could finally say goodbye to songwriting and say hello to performing...and songwriting. He boards a boat to Vandelay island only to be met with Chai's blown up face on the posters for the program. He instantly sees red and turns around to go back home when he's stopped by someone who notices him changing his mind about signing up for Project Armstrong. The person gives him the option to try his luck with another robotics company and tells him he was smart to change his mind after the whole SPECTRA thing that happened. Vanilla has no idea what the hell this person is talking about, but he decides to visit the other company the shady stranger suggested. After the procedure, Vanilla starts to write new songs to sing and does a pretty good job of making a decent name for himself as a solo artist. Months later, Roxanne hears about this newcomer's success and decides to give him a chance, emailing Vani to ask if he is interested in opening for the upcoming Project Armstrong festival. Vanilla accepts her invitation as an opportunity to rub it in Chai's face after he discovers that Chai is the main act. When the day for the festival comes, it takes Chai a moment to recognize Vani in his glamrock get up, but when he does, he shuts down, causing Peppermint and the gang to wonder what the heck is wrong with him. Chai, still completely shook up by Vani's presence, chokes during his performance and Vanilla takes the opportunity to show him up some more by "saving" the concert and swooping in to "perform" with Chai. By "perform" I mean they fight and there's music during the fight so the crowd eats it up. During the fight, Chai breaks the implant in Vanilla's choker that amplifies his voice for singing and that gets him even more pissed at Chai. (It also goes to show that the company he went to wasn't as serious as Vandelay about helping others...) Chai is further humiliated when Vanilla kicks his ass thoroughly (Now Chai knows how Mimosa felt). Peppermint interferes before Vanilla can hurt Chai further and he leaves after the two share a glare with each other. After everything, Chai opens up to the gang about their history. He tells them how he's been resisting the urge to reconnect with Vanilla and explain himself and apologize to him for how things ended in Uni. He's hesitant because of his guilt and how he thinks Vanilla is better off without him, and after what happened today he clearly he is! Peppermint snarks him and tells him he should still try to talk things out if he's really been meaning to! 

Vanilla sticks around Vandelay island for a bit after the festival. Beating the shit out of Chai eases some of his anger towards him, and he starts to think about things and realizes he wants a chance to talk to him about what happened. Even if he's still super ultra mega PISSED at him about it and for breaking his implant, he still can't help but remember the good times they had and he hates to admit it, but seeing Chai again in person excited him for the first time in a while. Their next encounter draws a crowd that eggs them into having a rock battle after Chai was so clearly humiliated by Vanilla and the two have a Gitaroo Man-esque guitar battle for the crowd. Chai has more fun with this encounter, but Vanilla is conflicted when a fan notes how well they sounded together and he remembers the argument on the phys ed. roof. He gets upset seeing Chai get in over his head as the people praise him, thinking he's still a self-centered jerk after all, and leaves before they can talk. They do eventually get to have their talk and give one another closure, reconciling. Vanilla admits he was clingy and there were times where he should have spoken up more and Chai is open and honest with him about everything. Vanilla is glad to see that he has actually changed and as he boards the boat back home the two agree to keep in touch, with Vanilla offering to help him and the gang whenever they need it. Vanilla decides not to get his voice device fixed, choosing instead to enroll in speech therapy to improve his monotone voice.  

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Relationships: 

Chai: Vanilla used to hold Chai in high regards. He saw him as one of his coolest friends, always excited to hear Chai's opinion on music and talk about all kinds of stuff for hours. While Chai also valued Vanilla's company, his tendency to slack off and keep people at arms length often made him a crappy friend. Vanilla didn't really see things that way though, as being around Chai often soothed his nerves over school and let him breathe in between exams and assignments. It felt as though Chai's easy going nature would rub off on him when they hung out, so it was real nice not being so horribly anxious whenever Chai was near. He really wanted Chai to accomplish their shared dream of being rock stars and took a lot of comfort in knowing someone who also had difficulties when it came to this dream. After Chai completely ghosts him, Vanilla grows bitter towards him. These bitter feelings amplify the ass beating Vanilla unleashes upon Chai once the two meet up again. Even though he's pissed at Chai, deep down, Vanilla wants to reconcile or at least get closure from Chai ghosting him. Chai also wants to make amends, but has a hard time doing so at first because of the crushing weight of his guilt and Vanilla letting out his frustrations keeping him from getting a word in. Once they reconcile, the two are absolute dumbasses together and go back to enabling each other and having a grand old time whenever they meet up. Chai gets flustered around Vanilla and it's as if the roles have reversed since Uni. Now he's the one that's often starstruck whenever he's around Vani and he flirts with him often or does his best to seem cool around him. Vanilla still thinks he's a cool dude, but he's removed Chai from the pedestal he once had him perched upon and is enjoying getting to know the real Chai. 

Peppermint: Vanilla had some feelings of jealousy towards Peppermint when they first met. His jealousy stemmed from seeing how close Peppermint and Chai are. He wondered why she was able to get close to him in a way he couldn't, not knowing that Peppermint's tough attitude and ability to put her foot down with Chai was the reason. After he gets closure, Vanilla grows to really appreciate Peppermint and how much she's contributed to Chai's growth as a person. Vanilla is super impressed with her intellect and Peppermint is glad Vanilla isn't a smart ass. Though Peppermint can lose her patience with Vanilla the same way she does with Chai, she's at least glad any slip ups from Vanilla aren't from cockiness and are just geniune mistakes. The two get along well and Vanilla does his best to stay on her good side and holds a great deal of respect for her after she makes some adjustments and refinements to the implant in his right arm. She scolds Vanilla for letting someone trick him into getting shady implants from an obviously shady company but just sighs and tells him to be more careful next time in the end. His respect for her often leads him to be kind of a doormat with Peppermint, something she tries her best not to abuse but she can't help herself when he is so willing to help her out and do stuff for her. He agrees that Peppermint is waaay cooler than Chai, but don't let Chai know that. 

Macaron: Vanilla loves Macaron! He really appreciates his kind and gentle nature and especially when Peppermint's patience thins. The two often try to break up any arguments between Chai and Peppermint, but give up once they realize you shouldn't get involved in a fight between a cat and another cat. Vanilla and Macaron also train together, with Macaron helping Vanilla improve his upper body strength, and Vanilla helps him improve his kicks and leg day stuff. They also enjoy talking about metal music and can be seen headbanging to some tunes whenever Vanilla comes to visit. As guys who struggle with confrontation, they both do their best to hype each other into being more forward. They definitely meet up to cry and eat ice cream when they had a hard time standing up to someone. 

Korsica: Vanilla is intimidated by Korsica at first, but he soon feels more at ease around her once he sees she's just a tired soul doing her best out here. He could relate to how she used to be a busy body, and the two talk about the stress of work, proving their efficiency and worth, and how they coped with it all. Vanilla is subjected to Korsica letting some puns slip during their talks, and even though he doesn't always get them right away, he gets a smile out of them. Definitely tells Chai about it to Korsica's dismay. 

CNMN: CNMN's chipper tone of voice often confuses Vanilla the same way his own monotone voice confuses others. When CNMN usually says something about Vanilla's more negative traits, he thinks the robot is complimenting him until someone tells him that's not the case. Even though this sometimes frustrates Vanilla, he still thinks CNMN is cool. CNMN is the one to convince Vanilla to seek other ways of dealing with his monotone voice after Vanilla expresses how he doesn't want to get his device fixed. The fact Chai broke it in the first place just made Vanilla feel weird and sad about it. He's incredibly grateful for CNMN and their encouragement to not give up and to just find another solution. 

808: He loves the kitty :333! 808 also loves him, but not as much as she loves Chai and Peppermint.

Paprika: (oc that belongs to my bestie Mel) Vanilla's roommate back in Uni, she usually kept to herself but would often question Vanilla's affinity for Chai. They still keep in touch and remain good friends to this day.

His parents: Vanilla has a strained relationship with his mother and father thanks to their overbearing parenting. Being the middle child, Vanilla was especially subjected to their strictness and his mom and dad breathing down his neck over the kind of adult he would be. They all love each other, but they have a very difficult time talking and Vanilla is usually the first one to leave during family gatherings. His folks are really disappointed in him for lying about his schooling and what he decided to do for a career, so they don't really call him often. Vanilla texts them once a month to let them know he's doing well, but he doesn't say much beyond "I'm housed and fed." Chai is the one that convinces Vanilla's parents to reconsider their attitude towards their son's choices and gets them to actually listen to Vanilla's music one day to see how hard he works on it. It takes them a while, but they come around to it and slowly begin to accept that Vanilla's choice makes him happy and that money and success isn't the only way their child can be happy and safe. They're very fond of Chai, and especially when they first find out he "works" for THE Roxanne Vandelay. Vanilla's dad especially respects him for standing up to them and changing their minds, although he wishes Vanilla himself could have had a deeper talk with them about this. His parents understand that they didn't make it easy for him and so they're all taking it slow with the repairs to their relationship. 

Berry: Vanilla used to haaate his older brother because of how often his parents told him to be just like him. As they got older, Vanilla continued to be distant with him. Berry was uncomfortable with the disdain his younger brother had towards him so he organized a meeting for them at an ice cream place to talk. Berry does his best to tell Vanilla how much pressure he was under growing up to be the perfect older sibling and to appease their parents. Even though Vanilla understood the pressure Berry was put under, he still had a hard time being comfortable with his big brother. They're on much better terms now and Vanilla often asks him how he's doing and likes to meet up with him at the ice cream place to talk face to face. 

Cocoa: Vanilla's little sister who has it a little easier than her older brothers. By now their folks have mellowed out a little with their strict "do good in school and be obediant always, or else" style of parenting. Cocoa still has to deal with some pressure from their folks, but she gets away with more as the baby, She's a chill kid who likes fashion and robotics and wants to work for Vandelay when she grows up. She's initially excited to hear that Vanilla is friends with people who work at Vandelay, but is disappointed when it's Chai that shows up to their house. Vanilla promises to let her meet Peppermint and Macaron someday since they're the ones who have a lot of experience with robotics and mechanics. She has a good relationship with her older brothers, but she also loooves to mess with them, especially Vanilla.