Here is some information on the Southeast Tacoma High local youth subcultures, coming up on the Winter quarter of 2072 (put in terms of current concepts to help potential players understand them):
Blinkenlights
[ Spoiler ]
A youth subculture fixated on the promise of the Matrix and everything linked with it. Their semi-serious name is the Children of the Shining LED, but they very quickly became known by the universal nickname: blinkenlights, or just fraggin' blinkies. Hence the slang term for entering VR: blinking out.
Their personal grooming is frequently slovenly, as if to suggest that they spend so much time outside meatspace that it holds no value for them. The ones too young to have jacks installed, are rarely seen without their trodes. One exception to the grooming rule is that if for any reason they have cyberware, it tends to be flashy and obvious. They are often festooned with PANs so elaborate that they border on being walking Matrix access systems themselves. They worship Technomancers, although somewhat jealously.
Clones
[ Spoiler ]
The clones are a subculture, by negative definition - it's a derogatory term for dedicated students, who spend much time in VR studying like crazy. It's a modern equivalent of nerds. They're also called drones or zombies. They overlap with the Blinkenlights to some extent, although their attention is more on academic excellence than on how cool their rigs are.
Hollies
[ Spoiler ]
The Hollies are a youth subculture obsessed with entertainment - either consuming, or trying to emulate, or even create it. It has elements of star worship, otaku focus, wannabe, and A/V club. Games, simsense, trid, it's all the same to them.
The name comes from Hollywood, as an abstraction rather than the literal place, since so much of modern entertainment is effectively borderless, or the product of corporate global teams. Some of the more self-righteous ones want to be journalists, and follow the news obsessively.
Shadowcrawlers
[ Spoiler ]
The Shadowcrawlers are a youth subculture of baby shadowrunners, or so goes the cliche. They idolise shadowrunners, watch trid shows which (purport to) document shadowrunners, play shadowrunning themed games, whether AR, VR or otherwise, and adopt the shadowrun cool image. They use shadowrun slang, and depending on their approach, tend to be fairly violent or elitist.
A lot of cosmetics companies, clothiers and makers of various forms of entertainment pander to them in one way or another.
Sixers
[ Spoiler ]
Sixers are a youth subculture who are interested in the metahuman, awakened and magical aspects of the sixth world. There's a fair degree of overlap with environmentalist interests, elf posers, ork posers, and in some cases shadowcrawlers. They tend to be colourful, frequently flamboyant, and in stylistic opposition to the washouts. They like a lot of music which purports to be from, or inspired by metahuman cultures. They often line up to be tested for magic or unexpressed genetic aberrations, and are devastated to discover that they are bog standard, Mark 1 Mod 0 human beings.
Wabbits
[ Spoiler ]
Wabbits are a youth subculture focused on physical games involving speed and dexterity. They have moved beyond simple parkour to include anything they can do with gecko gloves, spring shoes, frictionless surfaces or wheels. The common wisdom is that they will all be go-gangers if they survive their teenage antics. They often idolise street samurai, or adepts, and have given up spraypaint for placing AROs in all sorts of creative and annoying places.
Washouts
[ Spoiler ]
Washout is a youth subculture (sort of retread of goth, with some differences for the era). The guiding philosophy is that all the overstimulation of the world is a veil of lies masking its true dull hopelessness. They dress in grey clothing, of varying degrees of skimpiness or sheerness. If they have colours, they're very muted and dull. Their cosmetic choices are low key, and generally make them look monochrome, if possible. Subtle shades are looked on with approval. This includes tattoos, temporary or otherwise.
They tend to write despairing poetry, contrasting physical and technical flash with inner ennui. They do use AR, and VR, but mostly to offer themselves a very muted and minimalistic environment. Many of them do a lot of meditation, and quite a few do martial arts of one sort or another in preference to other sports. They have little interest as a rule in conventional sorcery or conjuring, but think that adepts exemplify the human potential. Their music tends to be a mix between ambient and minimalist electronica, with elements of darkwave and triphop, sometimes underpinned with beats reminiscent of, if less obtrusive than dubstep.
Bear in mind that if you're attending high school, it means that you're not a doomed barrens rat, in social terms, so your active day-to-day involvement with gangs is going to be limited at best. This does not preclude having gang contacts, being on friendly terms with some, or owing them favours.
Also, just because the clones spend all their time getting academic credits in the VR instructional systems does not mean that they get to graduate particularly early. It's still a child minding system for working parents.
