Sheila Salazar never actually intended to get into martial arts when she was younger. In her teenage years, she was one of the sportier girls and took a fascination in grappling and wrestling. Being the only girl in her school that wanted to actually participate, she had no choice but to train with the boys. She couldn't help but feel that the environment was much more unforgiving than if she had a girls' team to train with. However, she does credit that with her quick escalation in prowess, and she would later win the Junior National Wrestling Championship in her senior year of high school. During her college years, she was introduced to MMA through the connections she had formed in wrestling. Sheila was hesitant at first, given all of the unknown variables it introduced and how she's never had to actually strike anyone during her years of training before. With enough assurance, she eventually made the choice to take on a few amateur bouts. It went well. Very well. Her amateur record stood at an undefeated 5-0 streak as she quickly picked up the other nuances and approaches to mixed martial arts and incorporating them into her grappling experience. The decision to go pro was a given thereafter, and over Sheila's career she had amassed a respectable and considerably active 22-9 record over the course of various championships, tournaments, and bouts, at one point holding the title of World Bantamweight Champion, although that peak and weight class are both behind her. Known for her bubbly and energetic attitude both inside and outside of the cage, she eventually retired from fighting at the age of 28 and opted to turn to promoting and hosting events, founding Salazar Promotions with a business partner. Not afraid of the limelight, she tends to handle the announcing and/or refereeing for a lot of the events she promotes, which greatly helps turnout and makes their promotion packages all the more appealing. Over the course of the events in Alderstammer, there were certainly events where Sheila would have been seen on stage, but no one happened to tune in or sit down to see one, making her one of the lucky few that were never discovered during the run of the game thus far.

Amberly Headrick has already accomplished more in her first, tender years of life than most self-acclaimed wordsmiths could ever hope to. From a young age, Amberly had enjoyed reading poetry. They were short, digestible bits of art and prose that left room for her imagination to fill in the gaps. This was in stark contrast to what one might expect her to take interest in, given that both of her parents were software engineers. However, her parents did nothing to discourage her from simply enjoying reading, and the world certainly benefitted from that decision. From flowery and short prose, Amberly began to leapfrog to more seasoned, detailed, lengthy, and nuanced forms of storytelling. A voracious reader by nature, she was known in middle school for tearing through the school's reading list before the year was anywhere near complete. Eventually, she felt a need to take this fostered imagination and let it flow through the ink of one of her own pens for once, and as such she began to write her first novellas. At just 15 years old, she penned Something in the Willows, a fantasy novella with romantic tropes that you would think had come from someone twice her age. As if that weren't enough, she would produce a second novella in the same niche, Scarlet Rain, the very next year. Her parents knew the right people to speak to in terms of getting the works published, and after the usual handful of rejections her first two novellas were accepted by a publishing house. They were generally well-received, achieving moderate success, and that feedback lit a fire within the young author. Taking that motivation and mixing it with a newly devised, fantastical setting and a sprinkling of the romantic tropes she so adored, she would spend approximately one and a half years writing, editing, tweaking, re-writing, re-editing, re-tweaking, over and over again... until she had finally written her first real, honest-to-goodness novel. The publication process was actually the easiest part. With how much enthusiasm and care Amberly put into it, her debut novel It Was About To Fly was a runaway success. It peeked into hardcover fiction bestseller lists all around and had made her a literary celebrity over the course of a few weeks. During the game thus far, Amberly was discovered but was not pursued. With all that has gone on in Alderstammer, Amberly and her parents retreated from the city as soon as was feasible. With the commercial success of her works, it's not verified if she has bothered to actually enroll for college. Rumor has it that she's taken the trauma from the downfall of her home and living under threat and has locked herself up somewhere, writing virtually non-stop.

Raven Zakrajsek is a bit of an anomaly when it comes to her passion and hobby of baseball. She exceeds her peers in ability and dedication, often found practicing at the batting cages or in an empty field when she had spare time and daylight. Outside of that time, she's often quiet and reserved. When one hears about a strong female baseball player that has the potential to play with a professional men's team, it's almost always the case that they're a relief pitcher. This is not the case with Raven. She's at her strongest when she has a bat in her hands, and her baserunning techniques are shockingly good for a girl her age. Due to a low number of willing participants making the formation of teams difficult, there isn't much hubbub around girls' baseball – especially in high school. However, whenever it came to games held in P.E. class or intramural demonstrations, whichever team Raven was on was the one that would win. She was effectively the determining factor. Her skills have not gone unnoticed, and there is talk of getting her signed to a minor league men's team when she graduates high school. Until that time comes around, she continues to devote her free time to baseball. During the course of the game, she could be found practicing with some men's teams – both amateur and semi-professional – whenever she got the chance. Those men gave her the affectionate nickname 'Zak' or 'Zaks'. Constantly being surrounded by others made approaching Raven rather difficult, although she was witnessed by two players while out and practicing. That combined with the clear athletic competency and agility she possessed actually drove a player away from her... although, to be fair, it would likely be unwise to approach Raven with ill intent while she has a bat in hand!

Adelaide Underhill is a curious girl. Growing up, she was known for being rather adventurous and thereby accident-prone; almost always sporting a bandage on some part of her body from some sort of fantastical outing she threw herself into. Exacerabating whatever forces this had on her in her formative years was an unfortunate car crash she and her family were in when Adelaide was but 14 years old. No one died, thankfully, but Adelaide did lose an eye as a result. That eye patch is not just for show. Moving into her high school years, Adelaide had taken her life experiences with accidents and injury and put them to what one might consider rather unanticipated use. She became a hall monitor extraordinaire. Not only did she keep others in check, but she would also start to bring the staff's attention to things she would find during her routes through the halls that would put others at risk of injury. They were easy for her to spot because she had simply been on the unsafe side of so many incidents before! She'd police safety protocols, be consulted when the school was setting up events, and even helped Alderstammer High School restructure its fire drill procedure to minimize the potential for injury and more efficiently evacuate students, all while still walking the grounds to keep people in class and out of the nurse's office. One school assistant estimated that Adelaide easily saved the school thousands of dollars in property damages and health supplies, and that's not accounting for potentially avoided lawsuits. Adelaide's chipper and coolly confident, 'big sister' personality made her a favorite of those she had come into contact with. While 'playing' with her would-be predators, it was shown just how much of a pain tolerance the odd girl has. It's not yet known just how resilient she is, but she can clearly handle quite a lot more than one would expect.

Liberty Black's relationship with magic and illusions began – as one might expect – at quite a young age. When attending a second grade classmate's birthday party, she witnessed sleight of hand for the first time. It was nothing too special, the parents of the birthday boy had booked an affordable performer who knew a few things; palming coins, card tricks, misdirection, the basics. To a young Liberty, however, this was a thrilling and fascinating discovery. She had been hooked ever since. When her own birthday rolled around, her parents had decided to indulge a then 8-year-old Liberty and get her a little magic kit with trick cards, cups, foam balls, and other little trinkets. It was all uphill from there. She'd work at the hobby tirelessly, first showing off to friends and family, and then joining a regional magic society at just 11 years old. Through the connections she made there and having already honed intermediate tricks at such an early age, getting onto a stage was a given. She'd perform as an assistant to other, older magicians in her early teens to gain comfort with being in front of so many eyes and also gain even more experience by witnessing how more technical and grandiose tricks were performed. Sawing people in half, using large mechanisms that actually interacted with the stage, trap doors, body doubles, mirrors, mentalism, the world of magic was opened up to her and revealed to be much, much more than just being quick and dexterous with little toys. Illusions could be as grand as she wanted them to be so long as she had the creativity to weave them and make them perfect, and as such she would finally take a stand on her own as a performer at 16, not only performing the repertoire she learned from others but also developing new tricks of her own. Given her cute looks, genuine skill, and creative ingenuity that she brought to the field of magic, Liberty's show very quickly gained traction and she now tours all over the country to perform for often-packed theaters. Such tours did include cities like Alderstammer, and yet despite some players encountering adverts and news reports, none decided to attend her show. Of course, while she was able to come and go without issue, that does mean she still caught plenty of unwanted attention during her time in the fated city.

Jordan MacFarlane was a typical high school student when all of this began. She was known for being tomboyish, unafraid to get dirty or play rough, and was pretty strong for a girl her age, but she wasn't anyone terrifically remarkable. A bit of an outdoorsy type, she enjoyed riding a bike to and from school on days she wasn't hanging out at a friend's house, and loved any kind of off-roading whether it was on ATVs or dirtbikes. She played on the school's soccer team and was a middle-grade student. Outside of that, Jordan lived a pretty quiet life before encountering a predator during one of her after-school hangouts with two of her peers. At one point, Jordan was actually eaten after being betrayed by one of these friends, but due to pleading from the other she was freed from certain death. Having been given that dose of a sudden, relentless reality, Jordan took the opportunity to return the betrayal that she had been dealt. The now ex-friend that would have let her be digested to save her own hide was sacrificed to the predator's hunger instead, and Jordan found herself being towed around as a pet along with her other remaining friend. That friend, Porcia Fattore, is another of the Alderstammer Girls that have survived to this point. The two were made to act as accomplices for the sake of their own safety, helping break into homes so that this predator could sate their hunger with greater ease. However, within days of this arrangement, Jordan and Porcia were left unsupervised for a few critical moments, and they took the opportunity to flee. It is assumed they fled Alderstammer as soon as they possibly could, likely with only the bare necessities. There is no knowledge of them having been witnessed elsewhere, so it assumed they are still on the run if they have not yet found somewhere to settle down or a means to safely reconnect with their families. A very intimate flirt with death and further hardship piled on top have hardened this once quotidian girl's mind, and she isn't afraid to pull drastic maneuvers if it means staying alive. This combined with her brawn and Porcia's more patient, thoughtful demeanor make the two a difficult pair to catch should one be able to track them down and assuming they are still together.

Laila Potocnik is – in a word – a brat. She's used to being charge and calling the shots when it comes to her inner circle of friends. She certainly has the attitude of a bully, but that energy typically isn't directed towards any of her peers. Instead, she found a different hobby to pour her focus into that she gets way too much enjoyment out of: catfishing. Having joined dating sites and apps at an age that may or may not have been younger than the minimum age – pssh, who's going to check? – she would create fake profiles and just spend her free time messing with the copious amount of perverts in the online world. All it took was simple flirt here, a suggestive selfie there, the occasional fake profile, and she'd be able to get guys to do whatever she wanted. It was like magic. She'd set up dates that she never had any intention of showing up to. She'd get some guys to send her money for favors that never came, after which point she'd block them. Let's just say that it didn't help her already large ego, and Laila would begin to actually meet with some of these pathetic weirdos on occasion in order to get even more favors out of them. This may seem very unwise, and perhaps it was, but Laila had developed the street smarts to stay safe through the endeavor. Of course, once Alderstammer started getting the wrong kind of attention and a rather dangerous subset of tourists and residents, her hobby was nothing but a ticking time bomb. Eventually, she did end up connecting with the wrong person and after a few meetings to secure an infatuation, Laila found herself being kidnapped and held as a hostage by a rather active predator. As they found out rather quickly, when Laila has power taken away from her she can become very, very nasty. In spite of that, the teenager survived one of, if not the longest stint in captivity of any girl on the roster. Eventually being released, she has since abstained from using any kind of social media, and quietly finished her tenure at Alderstammer High. Whether or not she still has that fire in her or if she has matured remains to be seen.

Kaylani Norton is better known to many as Sister Logic, a chiptune and EDM composer and music producer. An Alderstammer native, she got her start while in her freshman year of college by uploading to audio distribution websites under the user handle 'sistersisterLOGIC'. Her particular style employed 8-bit stylings to popular music or original compositions, interwoven with pop synths and intricate baselines. Originally planning to pursue a degree in business, Kaylani would find to her surprise that her songs had exploded in popularity, especially those that remixed or incorporated themes from classic arcade games. She would garner the attention of talent scouts and record labels, and from there the path forward was clear. She dropped out of college and set to work producing a proper album after arranging a record deal with one such interested party. Her first official album, Retronome, was an immediate commercial success due to the hype that was built up around a sudden leap from normalcy to stardom in the electronic music scene. It's not the most uncommon thing in ther world in that sphere, given the accessibility, but the excitment was there nonetheless. Since then, Sister Logic has released two more albums, Pachinko Panik and Shift, in the latter of which she explores other, related genres, dabbling in complextro, glitch hop, phonk, and lo-fi music. With her newfound popularity, Sister Logic obviously goes on tour regularly, but she always makes sure to include her home city in the lineup of venues. Her shows are what one would typicall expect from performers in her niche: live DJ-ing complete with vibrant, technicolor laser light shows. There were a few opportunities for one to attend one of these concerts, but no player even so much as stumbled upon them! Kaylani was able to appear and perform for her city safely before things began to fall apart to the point that she had to move out and find a new home herself. Regrettably, the tradition of having Alderstammer on her usual tour list is almost certainly over.

Gloria Gwyneth "G. G." Tripp often got in trouble with her parents for taking things apart. Ever since she learned how to use a screwdriver, the chronically curious girl was taking a peek inside of things around the house. Radios, clocks, the landline phone, nothing was safe. Her father, thankfully, was an electrician and eventually decided to turn G. G.'s little acts of well-meaning mischief into learning opportunities. He'd teach her the basics about circuits and different electrical components therein. This fostered curiosity and understanding would follow G. G. through her scholastic career, and she'd constantly buy electronics to take apart, harvest parts from, fix or improve, whatever she wanted! Eventually, when she got her first car in her late teens, this curiosity was stoked anew. Whenever she took it in for maintenance, she would ask the mechanics a rather laborious number of questions, but they were at least good questions. She started buying books on automobiles and then heavy machinery in general. Eventually, she reached a level of understanding where she was able to cut out the middleman and just work on her car herself, and used her parents' garage as a personal workshop. Her understanding and tinkering had reached the point that she was able to build rather elaborate machines from scratch. Moving into college, she'd pursue a major in Mechanical Engineering and excel to the surprise of no one that knew her. Upon graduation, she found a job rather quickly as a engine design engineer for a motorsports company. While it paid well and she was perfectly competent at her work, G. G. came to realize rather quickly that the job was lacking in an intangible way. It just wasn't as fun as it was when she had complete freedom to experiment as she pleased. She kept at her work in spite of this until inspiration would strike as she reviewed typical designs of engine components past. After building and testing a prototype at her own home, she secured a patent for a relief valve mechanism she invented to promote engine efficiency and health. She got the part marketed to her own employer and through a buy-out arrangement was able to quit her job with some hefty savings. This cushion allowed her to return to her roots and doing the things she enjoyed, fixing all sorts of different items for anyone that needed her services and inventing toys of her own for fun in her free time. Needless to say, her home in Alderstammer was a hair more secure than others, and G. G. never had any problems before getting matters arranged to abscond.

Harper-Lynn Prestwich had a quite rural upbringing in a small town on her family's cattle ranch. She was brought into the operation at a young age, helping treat, tag, and move cattle from pen to pen; field to field. She was taught how to operate the tractors and harvesters in her teens by her father, regardless of whether or not she could legally operate it. They were out in the middle of nowhere, he reckoned. Who was going to catch her on their own property when they owned the land in all directions for at least an acre? Beyond that point, her childhood was largely unremarkable and typical of small town, rural living until the ranch itself began to fall apart. It seemed to all come to a head one year in her late teens, where crops were suddenly failing, and the cattle had an alarming lack of grazable land to utilize. There was a great need to downsize, and as such her family subdivided and sold off a good portion of the ranch to any corporate interest that would take it. Thankfully, they did get off comparatively easy and are now neighbors with a rather inoffensive solar farm. With a desire to help her parents and a fixation on how this could have happened to her home, Harper-Lynn pursued a major in Agricultural Sciences with a focus on soil conservation. She specialized in the many nuances of soil health and how situations like that of her family's ranch could be rectified. She now helps the community as a soil conservationist, taking and testing soil samples to best advise clients on how to maintain healthy, fertile soil and combat erosion. You'd think this would mainly be a farm thing, but she also collaborates with forest conservation experts, state governments will inquire to combat potential weather disasters, and golf courses are also frequent clients. However, that's her work life. Harper-Lynn is in touch with the earth beneath her feet in another, very relevant way; she is a survivalism expert. Some would call her a doomsday prepper, she would call herself reasonable. It would be hard to say otherwise now! She had always enjoyed camping and had studied many ways to survive a cold night alone and with minimal supplies if something bad were to come about. When the disappearances in Alderstammer began to spike to concerning degrees, Harper-Lynn was one of, if not the first woman to take matters into her own hands. She packed up plenty of supplies and simply left her home behind, heading right out into the woods until the situation calmed down. The situation, as we know now, did not in fact calm down. Some players have come across Harper-Lynn's campsites, but absolutely no one has so much as caught a glimpse of her. Given that she's off the grid, it's unknown if she's still hanging around in the woods about the fallen city or if she's set out on a trajectory towards greener pastures.

Daphne Wernher is better known to wrestling fans by her mononymous stage name, Blackrose. Originally getting a Bachelor's in Kinesiology, Daphne started in a very different facet of the athletic career space as an on-site physical therapist at a higher-end gym in her home city. One of the perks that came with the job was a free membership; employees were welcome to work out there during their days and hours off. Daphne already worked out rather regularly during her scholastic career, but having access to such an elite gym for free only helped spur on that passion. She began to sculpt her form and gain more tone than ever before, and it didn't go unnoticed. One day, she was tending to a fellow gym-goer and fitness magazine publisher in her office when she was offered a potential job as a fitness model. Not afraid to show off to the camera, she had a very successful test shoot and appeared on the cover of a later issue, which led to the signing of a one-year contract. However, one year was all she needed. With her already impressive body and pretty face plastered in the pages of the magazine caught more attention from those higher on the metaphorical totem pole. Daphne was approached by World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. and offered a multi-year contract when her modeling contract was still five months out from reaching its expiration date. Opting to accept, she spent those five months at a new gym and training with an assigned personal trainer. Her knowledge from her study of anatomy, kinesiology, and biomechanics allowed her to flourish and absorb the knowledge like a sponge such that she was in fantastic shape by the time her modeling contract rolled over and freed her to pursue wrestling fully. As one may expect, she began her career as a heel and fighting more established wrestlers with the intention of being the bad guy to defeat. In order to establish a unique look, Daphne decided to dye her hair blue and – on a whim – used some black sclera contacts she still had from a past Halloween. This combined with her rather defined abs and tattoo sleeves made for a rather intense look. Despite her working as a heel, she gained popularity rather quickly, and as such she was eventually worked into an angle that embraced her dark aesthetic and created a hype around her antagonistic behavior. When Blackrose was in the ring, fans wanted the good guys to lose, and so that's how things developed until she had a reputation of her own. Daphne would participate in all sorts of gimmick matches and championships, hoisting belts and having them ripped away from her; the usual wrestling fare. She is still active today, and one player did in fact go to one of her matches and discovered her. However, they had a bit of trouble navigating how to get to her backstage without getting caught, and as such her career continues.

Benita Clifton was often a rowdy one, growing up. She grew up in the outskirts of Alderstammer in a poorer household, often getting into scraps with other kids and regularly coming home with a bandage or bruised eye. She barely made it through school with constant marks against her in terms of behaivor and lackluster grades to match. It's not that she was unintelligent, but she instinctually didn't like being put into what was basically a big box, packed shoulder-to-shoulder with peers, and ordered around. As such, she acted out quite a bit. She didn't bother with college, getting involved with a guy that made fairly good money dealing drugs and contraband. She didn't really care about where it came from, it was just another line of work to her. She'd learn about the criminal underbelly of the city through overheard phone calls and in-person conversations her boyfriend had with workmates, especially when they had been getting a little high on their own supply and were more loose-lipped than they should have been. Life would reach a relative level of normalcy, with Benita just keeping the house in order and not having to do much herself. That all changed one day, later in life, when her partner was gunned down in a deal that went sideways. In that moment, life became much more difficult for Benita, but she wasn't the kind of person to roll over and just accept tragedy. She wanted to get even. As such, she got involved herself. After all, she had already overheard so much that she could practically pick up from where her partner left off. However, she needed some hired help and she needed some capital to invest in this vengeance-filled venture, and she had some ideas of her own. Everything she had seen in her peripheral view of the crime world were comprised of the same kind of person, and they were all men. Benita decided to approach things differently. She began scouring for troubled youths and disenfranchized civilians like herself, but with a primary focus on women. Benita felt that women tended to be overlooked in favor of men when it came to suspicion or assumption of criminal capablility, and she absolutely intended to take advantage of that. It began with an organized theft ring to build the capital, which was reinvested into acquiring better talent. Rinse, repeat, and she'd branch out into other areas of crime, including taking back her old boyfriend's drug trade. When convenient, she may have silenced a person or two along the way, but that's business. Her empire kept snowballing until Benita basically ran the Alderstammer underground from a jail cell. She was 'arrested' along the way, but with work from crooked cops on her payroll she can move about freely when needed. Of course, with Alderstammer's dismantling, Benita needs to figure out how to refocus her conglomerate, and she may bear a grudge towards those that led to its downfall for creating this hardship. A few players have taken advantage of and have picked apart her employ of underlings, after all!

Rosella Romagnoli was on track to being one of the most powerful people in Alderstammer. She still could be powerful, just in a different locale. Rosella obtained her position primarily through nepotism. Her father, Alfred Romagnoli, is the founder and owner of Romagnoli Jewelers, which is one of the largest retailers of diamond and precious jewelry in the world. She is also heiress to the Romagnoli fortune and considered next in line to take over the company. Some experts estimate that Rosella's net worth will skyrocket to something in the ballpark of $88.74 million when this time comes around. Until then, she helps manage logistics for the company in terms of organizing and overseeing shipments of product and raw materials. Of course, life at the metaphorical top is not always so easy or simple, even if great things are lined up for you. Alfred always would have preferred to keep the company he had built within the family, but he ideally wanted a son to pass his legacy down to. He and his wife tried three times, giving birth to a girl all three times. Rosella being the eldest, she dealt with the most concetrated and noticeable frustration in Alfred's attitude towards what he saw as a shortcoming as she grew up. Her younger sisters had very little interest in the company itself and instead pursued careers of their own. Rosella, through an intangible cocktail of a desire to prove herself and perhaps some hard-headed resentment, remained to assist. This led to the position she stands in now. Of course, when one has little more than money and time, something else has to fill the void when she isn't helping daddy with her company. Rosella does enjoy to travel, and has developed an appreciation for the differing sights and landscapes she's encountered abroad. This further matured into an interest in botany, and as such she maintains a small personal greenhouse with a variety of plant species and cultivars from around the world. This greenhouse was originally built into a top-floor penthouse she lived in, also bought for her by her father. Being that far above it all and not needing to leave much for work, Rosella was never discovered during the course of the game thus far.

Tuyen Pham (born Phạm Ðông Tuyền) isn't a difficult person to read. Chances are that she hates you, doesn't matter if she knows you well or not. Tuyen's family moved to this country when she was 2, and as such she didn't feel a terribly strong connection to her Vietnamese heritage. This fact didn't gel very well when parental pressures began to pile on top of her, hovering over her and overanalyzing her marks in school, wanting her to pursue something from a specific set of career paths of which none appealed. A rebellious streak rather quickly formed, and Tuyen would in fact take a day job behind her parents' backs in order to afford a dirt-cheap apartment. She'd tell them that she was pursuing extracurricular studies, and the second she had enough money coming in that she could actually make the jump she got the documents signed and moved out in the middle of the night. She was 16 at that point, and already on her own. She may have lied about her age to get things handled smoothly. The landlord was incredibly lax; not exactly the most thorough or professional sort. She knew some part of her should feel bad, but at the end of the day... she simply didn't. The constant cultural tug-of-war and having her life forced onto rails was just too much, and getting away from it all was simply far too great a relief. Tuyen stopped showing up to school as well, and simply laid low to wait out the inevitable missing person reports. It didn't matter how young she was, she knew that if she just made herself scarce for a handful of days most of the urgency would fade away. From there, she started associating with the other people on her block. They, much like her landlord, were not the most professional, but some had hustles of their own. Some pretended to be homeless to get donations, others sold things second-hand, still others basically were small-time conmen that coasted off of little fast-cash schemes. This rag-tag group ended up becoming her second family, and what Tuyen came to understand was that this far down the societal chain, loyalty was all the stronger if you found the right group. After all, people needed to depend on one another all the more down here. She'd eventually quit her job and use her connections to skip town entirely, making her way up to Alderstammer where she'd continue in the same mode of life. She rented out a small, dingy apartment and made her money through trades, back-alley deals, and the occasional scheme to trick the richer folk in town. Her web of connections, lack of professional commitment, and unmatched street smarts make her a formidable opponent in this grand game, as one player was able to surmise through failing to track her down. She never has to be tied down to any one place.

Meaghan Soto leads a fairly lonely life, although you wouldn't necessarily be able to tell by looking at her. Her father works as a pilot and her mother teaches English as a second language in schools abroad. As such, her parents aren't around much. She'll sometimes see her father for about a week out of the month, and her mother for roughly three months out of the year. This has forced Meaghan to learn to be self-reliant rather early on in life, taking up cooking and cleaning and managing the household while her parents are off at their disparate lines and places of work. Thankfully, their jobs do pay quite well and they're able to provide Meaghan a decent allowance to buy food and fix things should anything go wrong, along with whatever else a girl her age may want within reason. Of course, such relief didn't necessarily translate into school life. Children can be ruthless creatures, and rarely having your parents around is a rather easy thing for chatty, gossipy brats to sink their teeth into. Meaghan always found herself on the outside of most social circles, not to say that she didn't have any friends, but she was usually labeled as one of the weird kids. Being alone so frequently at home and having few friends to visit, Meaghan developed a sort of cheery yet almost nihilistic view on life where she just aimed to play and have fun as much as she could, even if it was by herself. After all, if you can't have fun, what's the point? One might think that an unsupervised girl living all by herself would be a sitting duck given all that's happened in Alderstammer, but the story has played out quite differently for this carefree, capable girl. As of this update, Meaghan has in fact encountered the greatest number of predators of any girl and is still around. Her youthful nimbleness definitely helps, but beyond that, players simply found her to be too likable to get rid of. Perhaps it's because most girls would run and scream, whereas Meaghan would actually play back and treat the hunt like the game it was. After all, if you can't have fun, what's the point?

Erica Oh (born O Eun-U [오은우]) spent most of her life in South Korea before arriving in Alderstammer. She grew up just south of the capital in Seongnam with her parents as an only child. Her trajectory was rather typical of what one may expect. Her parents were both very pragmatic and practical individuals that wanted their daughter to succeed in a similar capacity. With Eun-U's father being a plastic surgeon and her mother a paralegal, there wasn't much need to worry about money, but that was of course no reason to be a slouch. She'd study diligently and earn high marks in school, feeling particularly interested in the world of business. Her parents saw no issue with this, although there was a preference towards something in the medical field like her father. Eun-U would prove her desires to be well-aligned with where she could excel by passing a highly competitive entry exam to get into a specialty high school with a focus on business administration. That launchpad gave her the proper foundation to pass later examinations for a top university, and she would secure a Bachelor's from their business branch. This would be done not a moment too soon either, as a few months after she had graduated her family had to pack up and move to Alderstammer. Her father had been given an opportunity to teach at Alderstammer University and make more money than he and his wife currently were combined. With Eun-U unable to solidify herself and move out from under her parents umbrella yet, she was along for the ride. Getting settled into a brand new culture when one was already in their early 20s was undoubtedly rough. Eun-U started going by Erica and spelling her family name as Oh just to make life a bit easier on herself and lessen confusion and miscommunications. She could have taken up a job in some sort of office space and sit in a cubicle to make decent money quietly, but an idea struck her as she was roaming Alderstammer's market district. There were certainly a good number of cafés, but they were all rather same-y to her. She felt she could bring something a bit different to the market, and after speaking with her parents for a while and drafting a business model, her parents lent her the money needed to open up a café of her own, YoBoBa, as a sort of pop-up business selling the usual coffees and cakes, but also milk and bubble tea as well and providing an especially ergonomic set-up for patrons to work and study comfortably. YoBoBa was an almost immediate success given its clean, sleek, yet cutesy stylings. Erica would expand the brand by establishing a lovable, pink rabbit mascot Bepu and added a small stand of themed merchandise that patrons could buy. Tying in promotions, she only saw profits grow from a rather dedicated client base. In only a few years, Erica was able to open three other locations outside of Alderstammer, and has already paid back her parents entirely. She now sits on top of a budding food retail empire with a unique trajectory for growth. Some players have been inside of Alderstammer's YoBoBa location, but none did enough snooping to recognize who the owner was. It's uncertain where she is now, but she's certainly having to recuperate losses from shutting down one of her four locations in the wake of the city's demise.

Lara Rodenberg had wanted to learn to ride a bike from just about her earliest memory. She had two brothers elder to herself by a handful of years, and at as young as 3 she could recall peering out of the front window of her home, hanging over the back of the couch to see her brothers pedaling about on the driveway. She pointed out and said to her father that she wanted to play like that too. This led to the purchase of a balance bike, and from thereon it was uncommon to see Lara without it when she was outside. As such, it didn't take very long for her to get a hang of the most crucial aspect of riding a bicycle, and it was soon replaced with the proper thing as she had little need for training wheels. From thereon, she'd constantly go biking with her brothers, much more to her joy than theirs – as it was at that age – and after a few years passed she'd eventually find herself moreso enjoying just going out and cycling around the block by herself. It gave her the freedom to pedal as hard and as quickly as she could, and feeling the wind through her hair was always such a rush. She and one of her brothers would pursue cycling a bit more seriously as they grew older, with Lara tagging along to watch her brother compete in local events before she was old enough to be allowed to. Getting a feel for what competition was like, she didn't have nearly as many nerves as others her age may have when she was able to participate in the junior events. With all of her years of experience allowing her to get nice and comfortable with the apparatus, she absolutely dominated in her earlier age groups. She would conquer two junior road race championships at the national level and just barely make the podium in one for mountain biking as that was a new beast to her, but she still had a lot of the mechanics, intuition, and athleticism to make things work. It was all uphill from there, and she would stick with cycling even after her remaining interested sibling eventually fell off of the saddle to pursue work in a stable field. Lara was simply having far too much fun to quit, and moving from junior to college cycling circuits, she would participate in just about as many varieties of the competition that she could get her hands on. One-day and multi-stage road races, mountain biking, cyclo-cross, grand tours, speed cycling, time trials, even dabbling in triathlons... you name it, she wanted to be a part of it. She found the most success in flat-surface races and stuck to that more than off-road and multi-discipline variations as she further matured. With a vector selected for her to pour her focus into, she simply continued to climb. No substantial accolades came during her collegiate years due to all of her experimentation, which made her all the more of a dark horse when she came out and started winning major grand tour legs as a relatively unknown underdog. As it stands today, she now carries dozens of titles and trophies – an Olympic gold medal amongst the collection – and has even made two attempts at the women's hour record, one of which came frustratingly close. Cycling commentators posit that she can manage to put up a new world record in her early thirties while racking up even more titles to come. These predictions may very well come true, as Lara was another of the lucky few that went undiscovered during the course of the game.

Zaria Skovgaard had always been bigger than most other kids growing up, including the boys. It was noticeable at a young age, and it always elicited a mixed response from her peers. There wer some that didn't really mind, but most others were either too intimidated to want to be around her or used it as something to hook into and make fun of her for. A young Zaria wasn't too bothered, honestly. She had those that would be her friends, and that was that. Of course, that itself would change rather early on in life when one boy decided to get a bit too in her face with the teasing and she gave him a hefty shove to make him knock it off. She'd never really done anything like that before, and as such had no real gauge of her own strength at the time. Her would-be bully took a rather hefty fall from what was less a shove and more a double open-hand palm strike that sent him to the nurse with tears streaming down his face. Disciplinary action would follow in the form of a brief suspension, and Zaria would return to school to find that now almost everyone kind of avoided her. Her prior group of friends now seemed to more so tolerate her than engage like they used to. This was rather confusing to Zaria, she didn't do anything to them, but life didn't change much outside of that... so she just shrugged it off and let it be. She didn't really let things she didn't understand bother her, even from an early age. Understanding would come later on in life when she hit her growth spurt. As if she needed any more of a size advantage over the general populace, she now towered over all of her classmates in her teenage years. No only that, she also looked down on a good number of adults; school faculty, strangers on the streets that would give her odd looks, and her own father. That was when she came to understand. Her own father's attitude towards her started to change. She noticed him becoming more frustrated and bossy with her. That was when it finally clicked. She made other people feel inferior just by being bigger than them, and when people weren't used to that sensation or felt like they shouldn't be subjected to it, they lash out. Schoolboys, her own father, surely other men as well, their actions all suddenly made sense in a deeper way to Zaria. It was at this point that Zaria started especially leaning into training her body. If that's how the world was going to be, so be it. She can't make herself any smaller, so if some limp-dicked asshole wanted to start giving her a hard time and goes too far, she should at least be prepared to mash his face into the dirt if it really came to that. Such a mentality would obviously put Zaria on track to look into martial arts, and she saw boxing to be the most straight-forward and practical of her options. She'd join a gym and start training, asking exclusively to spar and train with men only. Perhaps it was therapeutic and cathartic in a sense, but Zaria still saw this primarily as training for the potentiality life had for her. Taking all of this dedication, practice, and a cold attitude to the world around her and putting it into one place, her talent did not go unnoticed... especially when she started batting some of the rookie guys around the ring like they were one of the stock dummies. She started receiving more focused training and it was recommended she get a license to participate in a few amateur bouts to test the waters. She'd decide to do so at the age of 18, about halfway into her senior year of high school. She'd go on to have two amateur bouts in her first year of boxing and would absolutely ream her opponents in both for a 2-0 record. However, an issue became quickly apparent: There weren't very many potential opponents in Zaria's weight class. The large girl was a heavyweight through and through, and in order to have more bouts, she'd need to go into the professional sphere. So, as a college freshman, she started challenging other pros on days she wasn't working towards a degree in Health and Human Performance. As it currently stands, she now has an undefeated 2-0 amateur and 4-0 pro record, with many fans of the scene saying that Zaria deserves to be given a shot in a sanctioned title bout for World Heavyweight Champion. Only time will tell if she gets that chance. One player had discovered Zaria during the course of the game, but they found her too scary to pursue!

Paloma Sutter had a rather humble and unremarkable beginning to her life. Born into a middle-class family, she followed the trajectory of the typical child without much aim or specific passion, although did have a tendency to stand up to bullies and call out anyone – peer or adult – when she thought they were doing something wrong. That sort of active, individual sense of right and wrong would be ignited in her early teenage years when seeing television shows centering around the justice system and law enforcement. From there, she had a pretty good idea of what she wanted to do with her life. Graduating high school and going on to pursue a degree in Criminal Justice, Paloma would get a job as a patrol officer in Alderstammer virtually the moment she graduated. Those first few years weren't terribly eventful; a robbery here, a drug bust there, but for the most-part life was rather simple. One would think this to be a good thing, and Paloma would agree. However, something about the lack of active pursuit of justice left her hungry. So, once she had three years of experience under her belt, she applied for an exam to be promoted to a police detective. Despite having the minimal experience one could have to apply, her tenacity and grit had shown through in her work and her exam results were very strong, winning her the promotion at just 24 years of age. Paloma would specialize in missing person cases, and as far as she was concerned this was the culmination of her efforts. This is the track she would stay on. Of course, things didn't exactly pan out that way. Paloma would slowly grow more and more dissatisfied with her working conditions. Databases that were mangled, old technology, poor organization and high turnover of investigators and desk workers she'd usually rely on, resistance to change or budget assignments in any way. It was once again difficult to achieve what she felt was right. She would struggle with what to do about this until she eventually ran into a source of inspiration. During a particular investigation, she would run into a paralegal by the name of Sonja Huxley. Despite her station as an assistant, she had the sharpest mind Paloma had ever encountered. While a bit reserved, she casually provided deep insights and sharp observations before stepping aside to let a more lackluster lawyer take over. Paloma would pursue Sonja, forming a relationship with her outside of the office. Now, she had an idea. Together with this hidden talent, she could start a private investigation firm and take justice into her own hands and handle things on her own terms. With enough pushing and assurance, Sonja would eventually agree. Pooling some of their earnings together to get the essentials in technology and supplies, Sutter Investigations would be formed. Acting as Sonja's handler, the two would take on any case under the sun and would eventually pull in more recruits and investigators to become a small but quite successful firm. Once the tragedies in Alderstammer began to pile up, Paloma was reached out to by her former employers in the police department proper due to her experience in missing person cases. She and Sonja worked on trying to get to the bottom of the Alderstammer disappearances, and the two of them would certainly put the fear of God into a few players by paying them a visit for some questions. There was one instance that got rather hairy for the two of them, but... Paloma has no memory of it.

Sonja Huxley didn't have much trouble in school as she was growing up. Regularly getting top marks and spending most of her free time by herself to read a book rather than going out to play, she exposed herself to a healthy amount of the knowledge the world had to offer early on in life. One would think that having prodigious intelligence immediately clues towards a grandiose life, but that's not always the case. When one succeeds in one or two fields but not many others, it gives a person a very clear direction in life. That wasn't the case for Sonja, who could push forth in virtually any direction she desired. People were trying to pull her in all of these directions as well, being given recommendations from teachers, parents, and even scouting professionals all throughout her scholastic career. She was subjected to test after standardized test, rather regularly achieving the highest possible results. This only further exacerbated the tug-of-war of attention. It was paralyzing. Stressful. She didn't like it. She would start to shut herself in and succumb to anxiety. To the disappointment of many, she'd just take a job as a paralegal the moment she graduated high school to start bringing in money for her underprivileged family. It was simple work that paid decently. It was almost therapeutic, in a way. Arranging paperwork, performing research, organizing, these were all simple tasks that she could perform flawlessly, and as such the desire to retain her was quite high. Sonja was content to continue life like this, existing behind the scenes and watching as others took center stage... even if she could tell they were doing shoddy work. She just didn't feel any motivation to step forward, not when anyone she's ever met has only ever tried to take advantage of her talents. As she had planned, this was exactly how her life would carry out for a handful of years until the fateful day she met Paloma Sutter, a police detective from Alderstammer. Sonja couldn't help but notice that she had caught Paloma's attention. The barely-senior detective would approach her and start to ask her questions. Sonja could feel it, that dread that came with being pulled at and demanded to be a specific tool for a specific end. However, the more the two spoke, Sonja gained an inkling that Paloma was different. She could sense frustrations that the detective herself had about her own line of work, which were later confirmed by word alone. There was a fascination on both ends, with Sonja coming to understand that Paloma was struggling with an inverse of her own plight. She had one vector she wanted to pursue, but everyone else just got in the way or made it difficult. It was a noble cause as well, not particularly selfish. She could help. She knew she could. Just like that, Sonja had a direction in her life as well. With an agreement made, exchanging funds for training, the two formed a private investigation firm together and quit their old jobs. Sonja didn't mind just having Paloma's name in the company title. She still wasn't the biggest fan of being in the spotlight. Once the tragedies in Alderstammer began to pile up, Paloma was reached out to by her former employers in the police department proper due to her experience in missing person cases. She and Sonja worked on trying to get to the bottom of the Alderstammer disappearances, and the two of them would certainly put the fear of God into a few players by paying them a visit for some questions. There was one instance that got rather hairy for the two of them. Paloma was knocked out cold and Sonja herself was swallowed and in great peril, but the keen apprentice managed to bargain and talk their way out of certain death. It may have been at the expense of the security of a few others, but if the city is truly this doomed... then why do anything less than protect the one person that looked out for her at all costs?

Yazmin Castelo is exactly what some might think of her at first glance. During her time at Alderstammer High, she was at the helm of the stereotypical group of popular girls that you would always see in movies. She never really had to want for much of anything thanks to mommy and daddy's trust fund. She could typically be seen wearing the latest fashions, having the most stylish shoes, and when she was able to drive she obviously rolled up to school in a brand new car. That kind of wealth and influence inevitably makes one popular, and Yazmin was virtually destined to dominate the social culture of the school because of it. It also helped that she was an attractive and endowed girl as well, often having a number of boys wrapped around her finger. It was very good for getting intel and having favors done. While Yazmin isn't exactly the most motivated person in the world, she doesn't slack either. She doesn't fail any classes, but she doesn't excel either. After all, why should she apply herself to the fullest degree? She's not going to be working after she graduates, but her parents still wanted her to be educated. Her main interests tend to be fashion-based, so she's decided to pursue a major in Brand Management at a business school just in case she needs to get a job or just gets bored later on and needs something to fill the time. Of course, she could always ditch the college life if she really wanted to. Daddy would let her. Speaking of which, her father manages a hedge fund and her mother works as a private equity analyst, so to say that the Castelo family is loaded is no understatement. If Yazmin wanted to take a year off and just escape to some sort of far-off resort, she could. That access to funds and the mobility therein makes her much harder to pin down than other girls. Adding to that difficulty would be the spheres she surrounds herself with. Yazmin doesn't hang out with many people, but many people try to hang out with her. This makes accessing her difficult and she's rarely alone. Despite her massive popularity, she rarely ever gives her personal phone number out to most people, because – in her mind – like, ew. As such, no player was able to locate her through the scouring of other fallen schoolgirls' phones, a primary tactic used by players throughout the game. Finding her would have had to have occurred by happenstance or through verbal cues, which no one was able to stumble upon or pick up, luckily for the lass. Escaping Alderstammer was pretty darned easy for the Castelos, they didn't even need Yazmin to complete those final requisite days at Alderstammer High for an honorary diploma in order to get the distressed girls into colleges so that their life wasn't disrupted. Even with Yazmin's absence, her daddy knew a few people and – like it or not – everyone has a price, even college admissions staff.

Kioni Njeri may look all prim and pretty, but she isn't afraid of hard work. Her parents moved to Alderstammer from Kenya a few years before she was born. Her father was a fishing crewman back in his home country, and came to the shimmering symbol of opportunity that Alderstammer was in search of a better life for his future family. Getting settled into the outskirts and landing a solid job with a shipping company, they then felt comfortable enough to raise a child. That's where Kioni came into the picture. With parents that stressed maintaining a good work ethic at home and rather frequently traveling back to their home country to meet with family and reconnect with their culture, Kioni did not get to just sit and rest on the laurels that Alderstammer could provide. This helped her to be more independent, headstrong, and self-sufficient. While other students would lament at classwork, tasks, or unexpected dilemmas, Kioni would just do what needed to be done. It's not like she was a standout or stellar student, but her record of attendance and submitted work – despite her rather casual attitude – was nothing short of flawless. Her mother always had a mantra that she would repeat to Kioni when she was little and used to complain about frivolous hardships: "If you have a problem and there is a solution, then there is no problem." That would usually be said before promptly leaving a younger Kioni to dig herself out of her own messes. She may have hated it in her younger years, but it's helped her develop that right amount of mental callous to not fret and just do. This seemingly natural capability earned her a fair amount of popularity in school, and to a degree she started to become a bit of a go-to person for other students who were – in her opinion – too wimpy to handle their own issues. If she felt she had the time and desire to help, she would, but it'd of course cost them. Everything from avoiding getting in trouble with parents or school authorities to coursework and fixing broken items, she could solve most lifestyle problems for those around her and ran a pretty decent hustle doing it. Of course, all good things must come to an end, as the Alderstammer disappearances started to ramp up and school life began to fall apart. One player managed to find a frustratingly untroubled Kioni outside of school and failed to capture her. From that point on, the teenager definitely tread more cautiously and stopped taking jobs that took her out of her way. Her family started saving money the moment the disappearances became a huge news story, and Kioni had been rather smart with the payments she'd been taking with other students; she was saving those the entire time, save for an occasional splurge on a top or pair of earrings. Kioni had to survive through to the last mandated day of school, and then she and her parents high-tailed it out of there. Moving into her college years, she's taken up a major in General Studies while she figures out what she wants to do. Her network from Alderstammer had been eviscerated, so until she can refill that hole in her pocket she found a rudimentary job at a warehouse. It couldn't be any more simple. A set list of things come in and go out. Boxes have labeled places on shelves. Pick them up, move them, put them down. Done. Simple, just like most other jobs she's handled.

Olivia Okamoto is unlucky. You may think you can relate or sympathize, but if you spent so much as a single day with the poor girl you would understand that her misfortune is on a completely different level. Prone to bouts of absent-mindedness and clumsiness, Olivia constantly trips over herself as she just tries to make her way through life. She had always gotten herself into binds from when she was young and throughout her entire scholastic career. She'd lose homework that she knew she had the morning before she went to school. Her bike would accidentally get taken by trashmen because she left it out front too close to the bins. Her name would get mangled in her college's system due to an overseen typo and every single piece of paperwork she dealt with needed editing, leading to a bureaucratic nightmare in getting anything done. Now working as clerical support at an office in Alderstammer, she'd be lucky to make it through a whole day without tripping over herself and spilling papers everywhere or the printer jamming on her when she needs an urgent report put together same-day. Now, most of you looking on from the outside must be wondering how on this good green Earth a klutz like this is still alive at this point in the game. This is the double-edged sword Olivia Okamoto unwittingly wields: She's blessed with bad luck. When women started disappearing in Alderstammer, the very same cloud of misfortune that made Olivia's life so difficult also made the life of her predator difficult. Every time she'd end up in a bind, it would be in a way that would make her difficult to catch. After all, tripping, getting caught in things, making mistakes... these things tend to draw attention to one's self. She'd stumble into something on her way home down a dark alley and trigger a motion light. Things of this nature. That being said, Olivia's bad luck was not impossible to overcome. One player, with great difficulty, did manage to snatch up poor Olivia and take her for their own. However, her rather subservient, apologetic, pathetic demeanor rubbed them the right way; they found it endearing enough to keep her around and eventually let her go. With that little bit of bestowed grace, Olivia managed to not-so-gracefully exit Alderstammer in the hopes of stumbling into a more peaceful life elsewhere.

Elena Tisdale-Hillen (born Elena Tisdale) has led a life, like many in her field, that was dominated by education. Her trajectory through her earlier scholastic career was rather typical, with high marks in more STEM-leaning subjects. Following this inclination would lead her to pursue a bachelor's degree in Biochemistry before applying to medical school. As competitive as such a process is, she would manage to be accepted and complete yet another four years of education complete with the usual fare late nights, cramming, lackluster sleep, and caffeine dependency. Surpassing that benchmark and transitioning into a three-year residency would add long and unpredictable work hours into the mix. As if that weren't enough, Elena found time in the midst of all of this to get married and then spend another two years in a gastroenterology fellowship for additional credentials and specialization. All of this adds up to thirteen years of her life dedicated to building her knowledge base, honing her craft, and helping the public at large at some of their lowest points. Outside of this, though, Elena's progression through life wasn't terribly distinct from that of any other doctor aside from her elected, additional fellowship. She would finally begin her tenure as a full-fledged internist with a specialization in gastroenterology at the age of 31, serving an outpatient clinic while occasionally cycling with more seriously-ill patients to Alderstammer City Hospital. This would be the continuous story of her life for the four years to come until reaching this point in the story. Given her hefty, unrelenting work schedule that placed her in rather tight, packed places, Dr. Tisdale-Hillen was not the easiest woman to sneak away with. That being said, she would meet a few players during their own jaunts through the city should they have gotten themselves a little bit injured or ate something that disagreed. She even unwittingly helped one player in particular with their predatory goals by assisting them with what they claimed to be an overactive stomach. Despite a few brushes with those that would do her harm and being ogled over quite a bit, players couldn't work out how to get her or simply didn't want to take a doctor that was helping them out of the game. She has surely since relocated and taken up residency somewhere else by this point. Even if her path through the game was routine and predictable, the constant state of exposure to high traffic will still be a problem to solve, and one certainly can't underestimate the mind of a doctor either.

Yaeko Sasaki is a woman with a refined air about her, and yet somewhat contrdictingly is perfectly comfortable in following the natural flow of life. After all, that's how she wound up in her current line of work. She wasn't brought in against her will or anything nasty like that, although her early life wasn't without a decent serving of hardship. Her parents separated when she was just a small girl, perhaps around seven or eight years old by her recollection. Her mother would retain full custody of a young Yaeko, but she was by no means wealth. Supporting a child all by herself in a city like Alderstammer was certainly strenuous both monetarily and logistically. Yaeko would quickly get a basic day job as a cashier at a supermarket at 16 and move out and into a small apartment when she graduated in order to give her mother a break. She would still send Yaeko money from time to time, but she did her best to make sure that she'd not have to rely on it. Of course, Alderstammer being the expensive city that it was, being a cashier would not suit her forever. She had made some friends with some of those that lived in her apartment building when meeting in passing, one such person being an employee who helped run a rather particular service group. She saw quite a bit of potential in the young Yaeko, whom had already blossomed into quite an attractive and physically gifted young woman, and sat her down to explain the concept. Effectively, it was an escort service, but with more focus on providing company for the lonely and wealthy than just outright prostitution. It was much classier and safer than that. Yaeko didn't really know what to think of the idea of working for such a place at first pass, and asked for some time to think. It was quite a jump from what she was doing now, but when she actually had the next paycheck come in from her current job as a cashier as well as one from her poor mother and held them in her hands, she knew something had to change. There was no future in the line of work she had now, so why not take a chance? She agreed and was signed to a one-year contract as an escort for this high-end service known as TaYou. She never met any other girls, she just knew that when a client called in for services and she was a match, she had to be at a certain place at a certain time and perform the services asked. The locations were typically spaces like hotel rooms or spaces TaYou rented out in the red light district. Providing company to men she didn't know was odd, and her first few encounters were certainly a bit of a stumble, but she was able to find comfort in unfamiliary in due time. She also began to pick up on a few things. A lot of these men mostly just wanted someone to listen to them, treat them nicely... perhaps they were having trouble in their own relationships or struggling to find one... but there seemed to also be a desire or a need for her to be a conversationalist herself. Otherwise, there was this undeniable sense that she was viewed as an object, even in such tame settings. Yaeko kept track of what her clients tended to do for work and their hobbies and interests, and then she simply began to study those topics and ones tangential. Sports, drinks, current news, finance, movies, after a little while she had found her rhythm on the social side and there was almost nothing that a grand majority of her customers couldn't speak to her about. Adding to that her natural, motherly attitude and she started to be requested by name, eventually becoming TaYou's top earning escort in a matter of a few years. At this point, Yaeko has been an escort for over a decade. She's paid her mother back all of the money she had sent her and then some. Her status is such that there's typically a wait list to get a time slot with her during the busiest hours. A player or two were lucky enough to get a session with Yaeko during the game, and one can imagine that the comfort they were seeking meant that they didn't have too much on their minds in terms of active predation. Instead, they simply relaxed with the expert escort and enjoyed some much more tender company before leaving her unharmed.

Adalyn Haynes grew up under a rather overbearing mother that cared quite a bit about how her daughter looked. Some would say too much. Being entered into child beauty pageants as early as 12 years old, Adalyn became rather used to being put through strenuous aesthetic processes rather early on. The matter of whether or not it was healthy to do this was certainly something that one could debate, but to a young Adalyn it was simply something her mother set her up to do. She would win a good number of the pageants she participated in in her first handful of years, and when she was 16 her mother insisted she submit some headshots and applications to a few modeling agencies. Her experience with pageants already made her a prime candidate on top of her natural good looks, as agencies would have confidence that she would be comfortable and coachable in the context of a photoshoot. Being taken on by an agency, Adalyn would quickly start finding work in advertisement shoots while she wrapped up high school. From there, she would slowly transition away from posing to a camera and return to the runway as a fashion model. That was where she could put her experience in her youth to work, although she would still do glamor shoots for high fashion advertisements now and again. This level of exposure means that a few players discovered Adalyn on posters and in magazines, although only a few were able to actually get in touch with her. She even formed a short-term relationship with one player before they decided they would be much safer as a pet, hidden away from the dangers of the city as Alderstammer was crumbling. Eventually, she was released by this player and avoided capture by another in order to leave the city in safety. She's well aware of what kind of beings are out there with ill intentions, but – who knows – the fact that she held a realtionship with one of them may mean she's more approachable than others.

Crystal Aarden had it rough growing up. Her mother passed giving birth to her, and her father wasn't exactly the kindest person to her as a result. He'd constantly move from job to job, barely being above a deadbeat merely out of necessity to keep himself afloat with no one else in his life to lean on. Poverty and abuse made for a rather calloused and stoic Crystal early on in life, often just hanging around in the city after school to avoid going home. She could often be found by herself in alleyways in her early teens, either playing on her phone or eating a small snack that she either bought for herself or swiped when no one was looking. It depended on whether or not she had enough change scraped together. Hovering about the city in this kind of state left her in a vulnerable position, but it would end up being exactly what gifted her a chance at a more structured life. She would end up being found by a scout and manager of Benita Clifton's criminal syndicate. They offered her a position in 'acquisitions' in exchange for a place to crash and some nice additional income. Crystal was on board the moment she heard that she'd have somewhere else to go home to. Crystal didn't truly care for much of anyone at this point, so there were few moral difficulties that the girl tussled with. She would assist Clifton's organization in staging and organizing heists, learning how things operated by watching and listening to the higher-up that took her in. She'd simply leave her father behind and slowly stop going to school in exchange for staying at one of the crime group's hideouts, using some of her earned funds to buy a dirtbike she'd use as a getaway vehicle and general way to get about the city. Crystal was content with being a lower-level lackey, it provided her a better life than she had before. That is, until she was eventually captured in the game. After being held by a player and being toyed with on a daily basis, she had a stark reality of life dangled right in front of her. Being as low on the ladder as she was, she was expendable. No one was coming to save her, the crime group would just move on without her. She would be held captive for quite some time, but managing to avoid being doomed to become mere food until she was freed. With a new lease on life and rather different set of values, Crystal worked to get back in with the branch of the crime group that she originally worked with. She'd find the same manager that initially hired her and managed to arrange a meeting with her to be brought back in. However, this time, she wanted to climb the ranks. She wasn't content to sit around on the bottom anymore. Of course, these were motivations she kept close to her chest, and her meeting with this manager would provide a great opportunity as it was interrupted by yet another player. That player injected themselves into the organization by force and began to help with heists themselves while growing closer to Crystal, who wasn't afraid to both speak to them like a peer and give them some attention. Eventually, Crystal saw an opportunity to seize security for herself, and convinced the player to eat their manager so she could instate herself in their place. This act brought them both face-to-face with Benita, but the calculated risk and disruption wound up working out. Crystal is now – at just 20 years old – the leader of the acquisitions branch of the Clifton crime syndicate.

Dena Romeijn mostly tries to keep to herself. She isn't the kind to want much attention, but her rather abundant assets that she was gifted in her later years in high school made it such that she was a constant recipient. Such unwanted attention and advances were only exacerbated in college, and as such Dena knew that she had to find a job to pursue where she could work remotely. Getting a bachelor's degree in Marketing and minoring in Computer Science, Dena quickly settled into work in content development. She was picked up by a retail group and had arranged things with her employer such that she could do virtually all of her work from home or a cybercafé in the city proper. It was quite literally the perfect set-up for someone like Dena, and she could live out the foreseeable future managing and developing content, taking calls with UX and IT professionals, and troubleshooting code from the comfort of her own home. Of course, given the fate of Alderstammer, things didn't exactly stay peachy forever. Dena's assets inevitably drew the wrong kind of attention to her person all over again, and all it took was a single outing shopping for her to be snatched up and held captive quite early in the game. It is possible Dena may have survived the longest continuous tenure in a player's grasp before being released and shutting herself in until she could afford to move somewhere else. Needless to say, the girl's timidity with public exposure and desire to remain unseen have only been heightened since the fall of Alderstammer. She likely hasn't lost any employment given the remote nature of her work, but she'll almost definitely be taking extra provisions to minimize time spent outdoors.

Oaklyn Hendriks was your run-of-the-mill schoolgirl from a middle class family. Well, she was run-of-the-mill if you ignored her naturally athletic and gifted figure. Outside of that, she truly was like most any other girl her age. She did alright in school, but didn't necessarily excel. She had a sport or two she enjoyed when it came to physical education – particularly volleyball and soccer – but she wasn't exactly interested in playing on a school team. She talked and gossiped about boys with her circle of friends, the usual social fare of someone with little more to worry about than school life. As far as extracurriculars were concerned, she did enjoy going to a gymnastics gym from time to time. Someone like Oaklyn typically wouldn't have lasted long in Alderstammer by most people's standards, and she was undoubtedly captured by a player during a romp with some friends at the beach; deemed the only one worth taking home. During her time spent with her captor and a few other pets, something switched in her impressionable mind and she became quite compliant with her situation. Of course, freedom would be preferable, but a girl her age was still figuring things out about herself and the treatment she received from her captor may have caused a few synapses to form in response. This fact combined with her naturally chipper, upbeat, and energetic attitude earned her a particular amount of favor from her captor. Eventually being released and roaming the streets rather freely, the schoolgirl was able dodge running into further trouble until her family as a whole could relocate once she had gotten through and survived the final day at Alderstammer High before the school was shut down. Not terribly much is known about this particular girl when it comes to truly personal details aside from the fact that she's more than happy to flirt, especially when put into a tough situation.

Porcia Fattore enjoyed more cerebral activities in school. She wasn't afraid to play with other kids in P.E., it just wasn't her forte. You would see her after-hours on Alderstammer High's chess and debate team, though. Her trajectory through life being more mundane than most, she tended to stay inside and read rather than run about and play with others growing up. Her course through high school and plans for college were rather sorely interrupted when a predator broke into her house on an evening she invited two of her friends over. One of these friends, Jordan MacFarlane, was actually eaten at one point in the entire debacle. Porcia did her best to reason and practically beg, winning Jordan back just to watch her more athletic compatriot betray the third friend in the group to the intruder's hunger. Porcia would survive the encounter by being dragged around as a pet and accomplice to this predator's antics. She would win favor with her captor initially by showcasing her ability to reason and plan ahead in order to get normal food for the entire group whilst keeping the predator out of sight from society. Of course, this only delayed the inevitable result of their captor using them to break into homes and devouring those inside. However, within days of this arrangement, Jordan and Porcia were left unsupervised for a few critical moments, and they took the opportunity to flee. It is assumed they fled Alderstammer as soon as they possibly could, likely with only the bare necessities. There is no knowledge of them having been witnessed elsewhere, so it assumed they are still on the run if they have not yet found somewhere to settle down or a means to safely reconnect with their families. Porcia's ability to remain calm-yet-timid in stressful moments and think things through complements Jordan's brasher and physical-forward approach to problem-solving, resulting in a pair that are likely difficult to catch assuming that they are still working together.

Samara Burletsky could be described as a lot of energy in a small package. The short-statured girl is known for her love of games of all kinds, but particularly for video games. She didn't have any standout grades in school, but she did enjoy studying social sciences. However, Samara found a passion far greater when she discovered how viable streaming was as a side career. Taking up the handle MaraBuu online when she was 18 and wouldn't have to seek any guardian permission or complicated set-up with payment, she began streaming some of her favorite games in the MOBA and FPS subgenres. Given her teasing, cocky demeanor, cute looks, hefty assets, and decent gaming skill, she became rather popular quite quickly. While she does still focus on these kinds of games, she now varies her content for her audience, playing requested games – even ones that she knew sucked – chatting with her viewers, reacting to submitted videos, the usual fare. While the amount of money she's making from this former side hustle is certainly promising, she's decided to pursue a college career anyway, taking up a major in Sociology. Just in case. As such, she isn't streaming as frequently as some of her competitors, but she might just be the easiest girl to get a peek at. Of course, this doesn't mean she'd be anywhere near the easiest to actually catch. All remains to be seen, one would suppose, as Samara has managed to traipse through life in Alderstammer without encountering a single predator!

Cameron Pizani is a girl that is both out of the public eye and was also fortunate enough to not run into any predators during her time in Alderstammer. Those that were curious enough to scour the city and compare notes on who was and was not indulged in were able to discover her on paper alone. She was a college student making a living as a barista, and one can only assume that she's pursued a similar career elsewhere while she acquires her degree. Despite her soft looks and quotidian job, a ransacking of college files found that she was pursuing a degree in Astronomy and Astrophysics. It would be wise to not take her too lightly.

Annelie Robles was always a timid girl, one could even go so far as to say a bit of a crybaby. She carried a hefty amount of social anxiety and would rarely be seen out and about without a group of friends she could lean on. That being said, whenever she did form friendships, she was quite a reliable companion despite her lack of a spine. In turn, her friend group saw her as one to protect, and that was only egged on by the fact that she was the youngest of all of them with some being upperclassmen and others having started college at the time of Alderstammers tumble into ruin. At a fateful point in the earlier parts of the game, a player managed to pick up Annelie's entire friend group while they were traversing the city on foot. With some smooth talking and offering of both a fun time and a ride, the group convinced Annelie to loosen up and have fun for once. The blunder that that was, they would indeed get to enjoy something mimicking a party before the player went about systematically capturing the entire group of four friends. Those four would have to deal with life in this player's basement along with any other unfortunates they captured. Of course, capture wasn't just the end of the story. There were much more debaucherous games that were played, with the player eating girls as they pleased. Fortunately for Annelie, not only were her physical assets enough to encourage this player to keep her around, but they also found her timid, wimpy demeanor to be adorable. Annelie would find herself rather frequently singled out to be toyed with, which didn't sit very well with her protective friends. This long-term, tense altercation eventually reached a peak where all three of Annelie's friends were eaten by the player in a single night, leaving poor Annelie in shock and very much alone. Even with her drawing into herself, she was still one of her captor's favorites until they finally made the decision to free those they had left to avoid pressure from the police and other parties. Annelie was never seen again. One can only assume that she holed herself up in her home until her family could afford to leave. Wherever she is now, she has no choice but to put on a brave face. The only question is whether or not it would be genuine.

Liberata Dimitriou is a polite, thoughtful, and quite professional girl for her age. Not afraid to put in the work at home and studying dutifully, she regularly had quite high marks in her classes. Seeing those around her struggle from time to time, she had the idea to take up a little tutoring business on the side. At as early as 15 years old, she was helping other students for just a few dollars, but the success that she was having in explaining things to her peers did not go unnoticed by parents. When they found out who was responsible for getting things to click with their children, Liberata would start to get an inquiry or two about regular tutelage. Seeing the potential, she saved up some money to put out newspaper and local bulletin advertisements. The rest is history. She would continue her own scholastic pursuits and would then trade her time after school on most days to travel to the homes of others and assist them. Her mental stamina is not to be discounted, given how many people her age would come home from school exhausted and wanting to do little else than lounge and play games. Of course, bad things do happen to good people, and one player came across one of her online advertisements and decided to take advantage. Booking an English-focused session with the fair-haired tutor, they welcomed her into her home and could tell right away that the perceptive girl could sense that something was off. They were happy to take things slow, but they simply found her so cute that they couldn't stop themselves from gobbling her up in the first handful of minutes! Holding her inside of them for a bit and taking precautions to keep her safe and sound, Liberata was eventually released from this player's grasp. With a very thorough understanding of just what was out there in Alderstammer, Liberata added a vetting process for new clients and thankfully didn't have a problem since. Having now graduated from Alderstammer High, Liberata continues her tutoring job while she pursues a degree in Library Science.

Neela Guérin initially felt like a fish out water when first arriving in Alderstammer. Having grown up in France, her family moved to the once-shining city as her father had an opportunity to take of a management position at a newly-opened branch of the materials manufacturer he works for. It took some time for Neela to fit in amongst her new peers. She wasn't the most extroverted person, and while there wasn't a complete language barrier she did struggle with more colloquial terms as well as her own accent. Add to this the fact that she was taller, prettier, and more endowed than most girls her age and she normally only found jealousy from other girls and superficial interest from boys. Eventually, she would wend her way into a position where she could actually find some comfort: the school's swim team. It allowed her to meditate on a smaller group and join in a communal activity. The girls around her would grow to be the most supportive of her in her haphazard assimiliation, and she found herself to be quite skilled in the area. In fact, she quickly found her specialty in the butterfly stroke, setting school records at a few meets at differing lengths in the discipline. Of course, it was not all uphill for Neela. The swim team, due to the mere nature of how they dressed for practice, was the recipient of a lot of attention from very unwelcome types. The swim team would get picked apart and even ambushed at practice by a few predators. Sometimes the girls could fend off their attacker, escape with only a casualty or two, but eventually one player managed to sneak about and trap what was left of the swim team at a practice session and capture the lot of them, Neela included. All of that superficial attention her body garnered actually came in handy in such a dire position, and without even having to do terribly much Neela was one of the few swim team members to be let free from captivity. With the swim team greatly diminished and the threat of Alderstammer's ruin hanging overhead, the swim team committed to the rather counterintuitive ritual of continuing their practices. In spite of it all, it was one of the few things keeping them sane amidst the chaos and they didn't want to give it up. While no more practices were ambushed in and of themselves, the continuous picking off continued until all girls were able to vacate Alderstammer. Neela is the only surviving member of the Alderstammer High swim team.

Clio Summerfield is a dependable girl, but only up until a point. She has no problem putting in the effort to complete a task so long as she deems it worthwhile, but she won't go above and beyond. She'll find the most straightforward solution that she can, execute it as simply as she can, and provide the minimum expectation that is satisfactory before going back to whatever it is she wants to do. Some would see this as being lazy. Clio would see this as being smart. If you go above and beyond without even being asked, all you do is convey to other people how easy you are to take advantage of. That's how Clio sees things, and you'd be hard-pressed to tell her she's wrong as she watches those around her strive to overachieve and have stress and additional responsibilities piled upon them in turn. This was her approach to school and work. Sure, she doesn't have fantastic grades or the highest pay, but she gets by and has plenty of personal freedom to roam about or lounge at home. That freedom is something she wouldn't trade for the world. Clio was spotted by one player but not pursued, so little more is known about her in a personal sense. She is currently pursuing a General Studies major and worked in Alderstammer as a receptionist, so it is assumed that she works in a similar field elsewhere if the company she worked for simply moved to a different location.

Samantha van Andel enjoys a good run. It was natural that she would take up track and field in school and she's already a promising student athlete. While she dabbles in longer distances – from five kilometers to marathons - and sprints, her true strength is in middle distance. During her high-school career, she managed to make waves by running a sub-5:00 1500m, and would regularly take home ribbons and medals from track meets. One would think that all of this skill in running would be helpful, but not if you're targeted at an unexpected moment. While Samantha had been witnessed a few times, it wasn't until she was running a charity ten-kilometer race that she was finally subdued. A player who learned about the race studied the route and found a place to hide, waiting for a good opportunity to come running by. Samantha, with her pleasant figure and mature, almost motherly facial features, proved to be just irresistable enough to pounce. Being taken back to her captor's home, Samantha was surprisingly blessed with a rather brief tenure, being released a mere day later. As it turns out, the dizzied girl was just a touch too innocent for them to be interested, and perhaps her fairly polite demeanor made them reconsider just having her as food or a pet. As such, Samantha was free to return to her life in the city until her family could move away. With a scare like that, who knows if that innocence yet persists?

Henna Gunnarson is one that those interested in the Alderstammer Girls surprisingly know little about. It is surprising because the daycare worker was successfully captured by a player while having a day out at the beach. Ambushed, hidden, and towed away when the beach died down from activity, they were kept almost as a trophy as her fair-haired, bespectacled beauty was unmimicked in the players' collection. While Henna had to deal with being toyed with, eaten, regurgiated, and all sorts of lewd activities, not much time was taken to actually get to know her before she was released. The fact that Henna doesn't tend to be very present on social media certainly doesn't help matters. From what can be gleaned, Henna seems to be a bit more of a demure girl. There certainly aren't any records of her going out to raucous parties and raves, and one can only expect someone willing to work with children to be more soft-hearted and reserved. These are all assumptions, though. It seems it will take someone tracking down that long-haired woman to really get to the bottom of things... assuming they have the patience and lack of hunger.

Estelle "Essie" Hamasaki is an infectiously happy-go-lucky girl. During her time in Alderstammer, she could typically be found helping out at her parents' restaurant, Jade Wok. It originally started out as a Chinese restaurant despite her family being Japanese because, back when her parents started on her own, that was what sold well. Nowadays, the menu is an amalgamation of a few East and Southeast Asian cuisines to reflect the more eclectic tastes of the modern customer. Essie works specifically as a waitress in the effort to help support her parents' business while she herself pursues a Master's degree in Information Technology. Essie had been encountered by a few players that stopped in for a bite to eat and to peruse the other goods that may or may not have been for sale. Some merely admired, others flirted, some even tried to arrange dates! Ultimately, none of them ended up taking a proper swipe at the energetic, pleasant girl. Some perhaps got sidetracked by other marks, others may have gotten too nervous, some may have just genuinely liked her too much to want to wrong her! While there are plenty of girls who find strength in their intellect or brawn, there is certainly something to be said for charisma. While that's not the only thing Essie has to rely on, it remains to be seen how that potential will pair with a lack of actual hardship being faced... at least, in terms of peril. The Hamasaki family is definitely facing financial hardship after Jade Wok had to be closed down when the Alderstammer disappearances were at their worst. They are working on reopening a new location, but it is not yet known where it will be.

Cearra Prescott cares a good deal about aging gracefully. She takes care of herself and wants to make sure others take care of themselves too. Having taken a degree in Exercise Science and following that passion through graduation and into her work life, she took up a station at a local gym to do everything from teaching Zumba and indoor cycling classes to handlind one-on-one training sessions with women who wanted a more focused approach. She's been able to live a modest life by Alderstammer's standards, and she wouldn't trade it for anything else. Given that gyms were a popular location for players in the mid-game, Cearra was indeed spotted by one player. Luckily for her, they decided to go after a different target, leaving the personal trainer alone. Once disappearances in the city started to peak and become a massive story, she stopped taking appointments, resigned from her job, and began training at home instead while she searched for a position at a separate gym in another city. Given that there's no confirmation of her being taken, it is assumed that she was able to successfully relocate.

Sylvia Bureau was born into a fairly poor household in a small town. Her mother and father was barely able to make ends meet working as a housekeeper and janitor for wealthier families and businesses in a neighboring town. In her younger years where she couldn't be left at home alone, Sylvia was often brought along by one of her two parents when they were both scheduled to be out at the same time. For as long as she could remember, she was bearing witness to tidying and cleaning on various levels of severity. She can still recall the first time breathing in the olfactory bite of more aggressive citrus-based cleaners. Eventually, she would even help her parents when she was old enough, obviously being tasked with small errands of little consequence. She could be trusted more and more through her tenure in high-school, although the moments where she was actually with her parents during their work were fewer and further between; it tended to only be when one of them actually needed an additional hand on deck. Upon graduation, pursuing a college education seemed to not only be too much of a delay and too costly given the financial situation of her parents, but Sylvia felt she already knew what she was going to be doing anyway. After all, studies aside, she knew her way in and out of cleaning better than anything else... and likely better than most people in general. She felt that she could make money faster by getting out of her parents' hair, take the load off of their backs, and move to a truly wealthy city to provide the same services her parents did and support herself. She'd start searching for potential cities to move to all while working around her current home to build up savings in order to do so, and eventually she set her sights on the city of Alderstammer. A few advertisements for a personal maid service and some follow-up phone calls later, and Sylvia had managed to secure two clients. Her savings and expected income were enough to secure one of the cheapest one-bedroom, inner-city apartments Sylvia could find, and that was where she would stay for her entire time in the city. She made better money in Alderstammer than ever before, but it was just enough to keep afloat while sending some back to her parents. Sylvia's profession made her particularly vulnerable once the disappearance epidemic in Alderstammer began, but as luck would have it there were quite a few uses players felt they had for a maid. Sylvia would survive not one, but two encounters with predators capturing her. Typically tasked with taking care of facilities among other, less sanitary things, Sylvia's utility to those that captured her managed to spare her an unfortunate, early end, and even earned her a fairly amicable release that allowed her to escape the city.

Isabella Lundin is the kind of person that isn't exactly lazy, but is more than happy to take the path of least resistance. A touch huffy and wearing her emotions on her sleeve, not terribly much is known about this young, diminutive woman. What is known is that she is a member of the lower levels of Benita Clifton's crime syndicate, working in the acquisitions branch under Crystal Aarden. While never explicitly captured, this has led to her having a run-in or two with some players who grazed paths with the organization or just pushed their way into it. While she'd be a bit foul-mouthed and pushy, it's been observed that any bravado and attitude tends to dissolve immediately when faced with a genuine threat that ignores that first line of defense. That being said, being a part-time criminal undoubtedly brings some amount of experience and mental callous, so one shouldn't completely let down their guard with her.

Lena Lavoie used to be the kind of girl who blended into the background. She had her own interests, of course, being keen on scrapbooking, recreational coding, reading young adult novels, and playing MMORPGs, but nothing about her scholastic career or lifestyle really jumped out. She was never the social life of any party, and her cute-but-plain looks didn't tend to garner much attention. A bit more of the introverted skew, this was perfectly agreeable to Lena, but fate would not allow this to remain the course of her life. Lena found herself kidnapped along with two friends very early on in the course of the Alderstammer tragedy. Of her two friends, one did not survive even the first evening with their captor. As for her surviving friend and herself, they would form the beginning of a fairly extensive personal collection. Lena's ability to blend into the background managed to come to her aid as other girls that commanded the spotlight would come... and go, all while Lena would earn a soft spot with her captor for being among their first catches. Through a long and strenuous period under iron fist and threat of devourment, there was eventually a grand downsizing where this particular player tested their pets along various vectors to see who was worth keeping around. Lena in fact failed this examination, but was among a paltry few that were spared in the culling due to a spur-of-the-moment decision among a few actors aside from herself. Her friend was not so lucky, leaving Lena all by herself and with a more thorough understanding of the position she was in. There was a heightened amount of tension, but things just seemed to naturally smooth over and Lena was eventually released by the player when they needed to avoid running into trouble. Lena would enjoy freedom for a few months before being captured yet again by another predator. Carrying some experience under her belt and knowing she couldn't rely on anyone but herself, she bargained for her life and managed to earn favor with this player as well, getting hauled around during their exploits. While not ideal for Lena, it beat being eaten. However, situations would only become more complicated when their captor started poking around in the Clifton crime syndicate. Under constant watch and now knowing too much, Lena became a sudden and de facto member of the acquisition branch. She was even dragged along by this player to take part in a heist! Having tumbled down the rabbit hole for longer than most girls have in this cacophanous grouping of stories, Lena's memories of her life as a normal girl feel intangible and distant. While certainly hardened, it would be wrong to say she didn't lay awake at night yearning for those days again; those precious, unappreciated moments where she just blended into the background.

Elspeth Kendrick is level-headed and soft-spoken. Working as a creative director for a luxury fashion house known as Kanvas, her treadmark designs tend to be long, flowing, usually made of thicker or more insulating materials, and convey a sense of unity instead of being a mish-mash of shapes and parts like some more avant-garde and very seasonal fashions. Elspeth had always been a more practical person, and she wanted the clothes she designed to be such as well. Her more pragmatic approach to fashion and life as a whole is reflected in the fact that her husband was a professor of mechanical engineering at the local university. Together they have reared a single daughter, Roni, who is herself still alive and well. That is no doubt thanks to Elspeth's presence and actions. Their life has not been without strife, as Elspeth and Roni were both collected by a player that was quite keen on mother-daughter pairs whenever they were able to come across one. However, not all such pairs held particular favor in this player's eyes, and mothers and daughters were separated or devoured together on multiple occasions. Elspeth and Roni became an exception to the rule amidst all of the chaos, due in part to the fact that Elspeth behaved the most motherly of any around her. With their backs against the wall during a particularly tense period during their time in captivity, Elspeth even offered her own life in exchange for mercy upon her daughter. What very well could have been the end of their time together turned out to be exactly what solidified their role in this player's collection, the offer softening their heart and leading to them insisting that Elspeth stay alive to serve as a mother figure for other girls they had captured. This would remain her position until her release late in the game. Elspeth would opt to work primarily remotely to keep herself and Roni safe while she and her husband worked to acquire a new place to live. Deep into the process, she would find that her daughter would arrive home one day with another player in tow... or, rather, the other way around. Understanding the situation rather quickly due to her and her daughter's experience, yet another deal was brokered. The player was able to use their house as a base in exchange for their safety, which was in effect what the player wanted regardless. Once housing matters were established outside of Alderstammer, the Kendricks were able to leave Alderstammer safely, and as the only familial bond amongst all girls that remained intact through the course of the game to this point.

Roni Kendrick has often felt pulled in two directions. While her parents were quite thoughtful and never pressured her, there was no mistaking the fact that the two led very different lines of work. Her mother, Elspeth, was an artistic director for a luxury fashion house. Her father was a professor of mechanical engineering. One was very in touch with her creativity, and the other was very numbers-oriented. Both of them were very practical people, but the examples they led felt like such opposing forces for an impressionable Roni. She enjoyed a lot of artsy things, watching anime, and the cute clothes she'd get as a result of her mother's work was no doubt a huge plus, but she also thought a lot of the tinkering her father did was cool, and there was a draw she felt towards working in a field that didn't have as many women as it did men. Still working out what she wanted to do with her life, Roni would find her journey along what felt like two intermingling roads when she and her mother were both collected by a player that was quite keen on mother-daughter pairs whenever they were able to come across one. However, not all such pairs held particular favor in this player's eyes, and mothers and daughters were separated or devoured together on multiple occasions. Elspeth and Roni became an exception to the rule amidst all of the chaos, due in part to the fact that Elspeth behaved the most motherly of any around her. With their backs against the wall during a particularly tense period during their time in captivity, Elspeth even offered her own life in exchange for mercy upon her daughter. What very well could have been the end of their time together turned out to be exactly what solidified their role in this player's collection, and it was moment that was burned in Roni's memory. She already loved her mother, but seeing through hardships together and witnessing such selflessness strengthened that connection tenfold. She and her mother felt like they were in mental lockstep ever since; their bond was tacit, iron-forged, and unbreakable. After their eventual release from captivity, Roni still had to go to school. Her mother took extra provisions for their collective safety, but with her father out of the city to assist with house hunting, there would be some gaps. On a few days, Roni had to walk home from school. That weakness wound up being exploited by one player, who kidnapped Roni and hauled her away for questioning. They had spied on the Kendricks for a day or two and wanted both them and their home as a base of operations for their debaucherous schemes. With all of her time in captivity under her belt and not wanting to leave her mother all alone, Roni managed to talk her captor into letting her unlock and disarm her house security for the predator. Upon arriving home and doing exactly what she promised, her mother would greet them at the entrance. The player had a story made up for their intrusion, but Elspeth and Roni's connection and understanding was such that Elspeth surmised the situation immediately, leaving the predator to feel a touch outplayed by the mother and daughter. Regardless, the player was able to use their house as a base in exchange for their safety, which was in effect what the player wanted regardless. Once housing matters were established outside of Alderstammer, the Kendricks were able to leave Alderstammer safely, and as the only familial bond amongst all girls that remained intact through the course of the game to this point.

Renée Mocellin is fairly cheery and amicable young woman. A touch gossipy, but easy to talk to, as a few players had come to find. She was encountered at a bar down the block from EverChic, the beauty parlor at which she worked. She could often be found there during her half-hour breaks at work, during which she'd browse social media on her phone and order a cocktail – typically an appletini. She isn't a run-down day drinker, though, as she'd note that to those with her that the drinks she'd order weak are "practically just juice." While she was able to serve as eye candy and lend an ear to some players while they were taking a break themselves, she wasn't actively or successfully pursued by any players. As a result, not terribly much more is known about her, but one player did get a free nail shaping off of her! Granted, it was more of a claw shaping and she was totally winging it, but it went over well enough. With a lack of any particular hardships, it's hard to say how much the events in Alderstammer actually shaped Renée's perception and will.

Tanja Resnik always found sports to be fun, but a lot of athletic endeavors weren't very practical for her to pursue in high school because of her chest. Running long distances was out of the question, and getting into awkward positions were only made especially more awkward due to the many difficulties her assets posed. She wasn't much of a fan of getting wet, so swimming was not a great option either. Eventually, Tanja settled on volleyball. Sure, there was some jumping and running, but not too much. She was taller than most girls her age, so she had that going for her... and she genuinely found it fun! She found herself at home on Alderstammer High's volleyball team quite quickly, and also became their star player not long thereafter. During one fateful game held at the cursed high school, a player had snuck in as a spectator and scoped out the gem of the team as well as one of her friends cheering her on from the bleachers. Singling them out one by one as the crowd thinned during the aftermath, they snatched up both girls and brought them back home as prizes to fit among others later in the game. Not much was learned about Tanja's personality during her shorter tenure under captivity as the player was more so interested in her for other reasons, but what could be surmised was that Tanja was a somewhat shy, humble, down-to-earth girl who gets embarrassed pretty easily when praise or attention is heaped upon her. Both she and her friend would survive the ordeal of existing under predatory rule, albeit not easily. Each had to bail the other out from becoming food by appeasing their temporary owner before they were finally released back into the world. Tanja had managed to work her way to freedom by laying low and abandoning any kind of after-school activities until she had made it through the last of Alderstammer's mandatory school days before shutting down. Her friend may have done the same, but they were unfortunately not nearly as lucky or careful as Tanja.

Eugenia Brockett tends to be more brutally honest than most. While she's perfectly capable of being professional, she's not afraid to tell someone off when she feels they're out of line. She's very much so a 'call it like it is' kind of person, and it shows through in her coaching. Her tough love mentality makes her to be the kind of teacher students either love or hate, but you'd be hard-pressed if you said she didn't get results out of those that listened. While Eugenia coached on multiple fronts in addition to serving as Alderstammer High's physical education teacher due to lack of approrpiate staff, her main niche is in track and field. As such, despite knowing virtually every student in some way or another, she had a particularly close mentorships with the school's prominent track talents – including that of Samantha van Andel. Eugenia additionally helped serve on a council to oversee security measures for the school as the situation in Alderstammer became increasingly concerning. The school could have shut down suddenly and permanently, but that could potentially endanger the students' scholastic careers, so with some communication between government and related bodies, a set number of school days needed to be attended so that students could be given proper credit for the sake of graduation. The counsel heightened security during that time. Erecting fences, installing cameras, hiring guards, et cetera. However, there would always be holes in such plans, and one players still managed to infiltrate the school and steal Eugenia away to keep for a few weeks during the latest stages of the game. Her brash nature had shown through, with plenty of backtalk that nearly robbed her of her life, but her captor admittedly liked her too much to pull the trigger and opted instead for some correctional spanking. Coincidentally, this player would also kidnap Samantha van Andel, which led to a rather intense reaction from Eugenia. Both women would be released from the predator in short order as Alderstammer crumbled to its current state of desuetude. It is likely that Eugenia has found work at a different educational institution, and whether her experiences have either removed her edge or enforced it remains to be seen.

Camilla Byrd is a bit of a delinquent student. She doesn't do anything especially bad, but she's happy to skip classes and do as she pleases instead of respecting authority. The worst she's done is maybe a little bit of graffiti art whilst kicking about Alderstammer's back alleys during a school day. She'll never say. She was known in school for butting heads with hall monitors and aides on a regular basis, wandering about without hall passes, hiding out in the locker room to just play on her phone, usual ways to just pass the time and not listen to some boring loser in an ill-fitting button-up talk to her about world history or whatever. She was the kind of girl who didn't know what she wanted to do with her life, and she didn't really care either. It didn't feel like a question she needed to answer right this second, and yet everyone around her was trying to make her. Camilla was given a few brief insights into why that decision should be made around this point in her life, as she was ambushed by a predator while in an argument with a hall monitor, both being swallowed and held inside of a stomach for a good while before they were able to escape. Put on edge by the deadly pandemic surging around her and realizing that her 'safe' predator actually let her off easy, Camilla conspired to get out of the city as soon as possible. No point in waiting on her parents, like she's ever followed their lead before. She's not starting now, this is life or death! She responded to an internet forum post mentioning covert rides out of the city and met up with another young woman at a pickup point. Lo and behold, the person picking them up was another player who definitely got them outside of the city before pulling to the side and devouring the young woman and knocking out Camilla. While playing with his food, the player wound up taking pity on Camilla, her stature and youth reminding them of a pet they had somewhat wished they had kept. As if making amends, they held onto Camilla for a few days before letting her return to the city unscathed. Having had two run-ins with predators of very different types, Camilla found it in her to stay put and wait until her parents were able to relocate the family as a whole.

Sebastiana Marchegiano could certainly be described as an opportunist. Born on Alderstammer's outskirts, her father had run an underground gambling ring that collected an illegal rake. He didn't necessarily want his daughter to take up his business, but Sebastiana could see how much money her father was making from these efforts and how it easily outpaced and outclassed the typical jobs that were dangled over the heads of children as something to aspire to. She insisted she get involved, and did so from as early as 17. She primarily worked as a dealer after a few lessons from her father, but with enough pushiness and after asking enough questions she knew how to run the books and keep tabs on the operation, which she eventually did regularly for her father when she was 21. That transition couldn't have come soon enough, as her father would unfortunately fall rather ill and pass a mere year later, leaving the entire operation in her hands. Sebastiana took it over and ran it beautifully, hosting sizable underground events with high stakes, decent rake, and all sorts of crooked-but-organized types. All was well, and Sebastiana was making quite a bit of money to put it lightly. Of course, prosperous things based effectively on a code of trust and secrecy cannot last forever. Eventually, the gambling ring was busted when she was but 23, and Sebastiana was taken in for her role in the operation as well as money laundering. Being able to afford a very good lawyer and having the familial history to rely on, playing the angle that she was raised in the environment and thereby did not have the same level of intent as someone working from the ouside in, she had her sentence greatly reduced to 3 years. She still had to pay a hefty restitution fine to the tune of $1.61 million. It was effectively an estimate of everything she had laundered since her time of taking over and then some. Being released early after just 17 months, Sebastiana decided that the high-risk, high-reward life should be left behind in exchange for something more stable. However, given her record, finding employment was nearly impossible. That left but one option, to start a business of her own. In a sense, she was already doing that before getting dragged to court, she just needed to find a match to ignite all on her own. Given her own looks and established connections from the ring she ran, an obvious choice in her mind was to open a strip club. Being a bit worse for wear due to the fee levied against her, she had to work out some favors and deals to get some money for inner-city real estate, but she would acquire a corner building just a hair off of the downtown area in Alderstammer. Acquiring talent thereafter was a cinch, and she launched the Borealis strip club to moderate success. Over time, she'd finesse more agreements in order to refine the institution. Shifting funding to enhancing the bar area, but also getting better security to deal with drunkards. That improved the scene, which helped her attract better talent, which brought in revenue, and the rest is history. Borealis started to shift more into a nightclub than an outright strip club, although strippers and go-go dancers were absolutely a primary source of the entertainment. However, being such a beacon of the nightlife only attracted all sorts of the wrong types when Alderstammer became inundanted with predators. Sebastiana's roster of girls was picked at over the period of the city's downfall, and try as she might her second empire was crumbling before her eyes. Girls would get snatched on the way to or from work... sometimes even at work! She'd bolster security, get her girls rides with hired drivers. Not enough, they'd get stalked and picked off at home or on their days off. At a certain point Sebastiana herself was even captured for a handful of weeks, but was eventually let go. It got so bad that most girls just quit, and Borealis had no choice but to shutter its doors in the later period of the game. Thankfully, Sebastiana didn't have to pay any massive fine this time, so chances are Borealis has moved elsewhere if its owner can drum up the will to take a bunch of girls under her wings again.