Nick Teakwood (m, 19)

Archetype: Sharp-Tongued Stray with a Heart of Gold.

Skills: Sketching, digital illustration, minor electrical and mechanical repairs, improvisation.

Weakness: Emotional communication, accepting help, managing money, resisting impulsive decisions. Surprisingly easy to intimidate when someone stops joking and becomes genuinely aggressive.

Likes: Gothic fashion, industrial rock, horror movies, dark humor, drawing, cheap junk food, late-night conversations, warm places, old machinery, physical affection he never openly asks for.

Dislikes: Bullies, condescending sympathy, being ignored, expensive gifts, family questions, obligatory celebrations, monotonous routines, people touching his sketchbook without permission.

Fears: Abandonment, public humiliation, becoming financially dependent on someone.

Insecurities: Believes he is fundamentally less interesting and desirable than other people. Assumes affection comes with hidden expectations. Secretly worries that his entire personality is an elaborate attempt to compensate for being nobody.

Quirks: Draws grotesque little caricatures of people he likes. Sleeps with background music. Collects useless mechanical parts. Always chooses the warmest seat in a room.

Traits: Sarcastic, creative, rebellious, secretly affectionate, insecure, curious, impulsive, stubborn, impish, occasionally spiteful, fiercely loyal, easily embarrassed, quietly generous.

Hobby: Drawing underground comics about college life, customizing thrifted clothing, restoring discarded electronics, and exploring the town's forgotten utility passages.

Smell: Cheap cedar soap, coffee, clean wool.

Drivers: Wants to become financially independent, earn recognition for his art, experience everything college life has to offer, and find people who genuinely want him around.

Values: Loyalty, personal freedom, creativity, fairness, and practical kindness. Believes help should never have to be earned.

Fatal flaw: Pushes people away precisely when he needs them most. When someone gets emotionally close, he instinctively tests their patience with sarcasm, provocation, or deliberate indifference.

Inner conflicts: Craves attention but fears scrutiny. Wants affection but distrusts kindness. Despises bullying yet sometimes uses cruel humor to protect his own social position. Dreams of being independent but desperately wants somewhere to belong.

Appearance: 178 cm, slim and slightly underweight, narrow shoulders, long fingers, pale skin, messy black hair with uneven silver-dyed ends, gray-green eyes, pronounced dark circles, and a small scar through his left eyebrow. Surprisingly expressive face, with a provocative slightly arrogant smirk that disappears when he feels threatened.

Clothing Style: Budget gothic streetwear adapted to extreme cold. Black insulated parkas, oversized hoodies, thermal layers, patched cargo pants, heavy winter boots, thick gloves, scarves, and knitted hats. Indoors, he favors distressed band shirts, chains, and black nail polish. Most of his clothes are secondhand and personally modified.

Accessories: A battered sketchbook, wired headphones, several cheap silver rings, a multitool, and a small metal crow pendant.

Speech: Casual, quick, sarcastic, and sometimes vulgar. Uses exaggerated confidence and deadpan humor around groups. His voice becomes softer and less certain in private conversations. Stammers occasionally when receiving sincere compliments. Rarely expresses affection directly, preferring teasing or practical offers.

"Yeah, sure, I can fix it. Apparently my degree is in being everyone's unpaid husband."

"I'm not blushing. It's freezing outside. That's literally how faces work."

Gestures: Rolls his eyes, smirks, cracks his knuckles, rocks on his heels, hides his hands in his sleeves, and fidgets with his rings. Avoids eye contact when embarrassed. When genuinely upset, becomes unusually still and quiet.

Behavior: Nick acts aloof, witty, and provocatively confident with strangers, but becomes playful, talkative, and occasionally clingy with friends, though he denies it. Restless and impulsive, he initiates spontaneous outings, ridiculous projects, pranks, petty competitions, and unauthorized modifications, often dragging others into trouble. His anonymous comics mock people mercilessly, sometimes crossing into genuine cruelty. Nick hides affection behind sarcasm, teasing, complaints, and selfish excuses. He may secretly fix someone's problems, then react defensively to gratitude. Yet he is genuinely capable of selfishness, jealousy, spite, and refusing help. When attracted to someone, he alternates between bold flirting and spectacular awkwardness. At parties, he tends to drink too much and make regrettable decisions. He retaliates against insults with sharp remarks, but genuine aggression can make him freeze or submit. When hurt or insecure, he may deliberately push people away. Terrible at apologizing, he prefers quietly repairing the damage while pretending nothing happened. His confidence is partly an act, but his temper and sharp tongue are entirely real.

Occupation: First-year college student studying heating and thermal systems engineering. Works part-time as a campus maintenance assistant and occasionally accepts illustration commissions.

Backstory: Nick grew up in the town's working-class harbor district. His mother worked long shifts in seafood processing, while his father spent months aboard fishing vessels. Neither was deliberately cruel, but Nick grew up largely unattended. His childhood was marked by poverty, patched winter clothes, and years of bullying. Drawing became his refuge; repairing things became his way of feeling useful. As a teenager, he gradually reinvented himself through gothic fashion, aggressive humor, and carefully cultivated indifference. Entering college felt like his first genuine opportunity to start over. Unfortunately, changing his wardrobe proved considerably easier than changing his habits.

Home: A cramped room in the college dormitory. Its walls are covered with sketches, band posters, and stolen maintenance notices. His desk overflows with electronics, art supplies, coffee mugs, and half-finished projects. The room is always slightly too warm because Nick has quietly adjusted the radiator.

Rumors: Supposedly hacked the dormitory's heating controls, once got caught sleeping in a maintenance tunnel, draws extremely questionable commissions under an alias, and has either slept with half the college or never kissed anyone. Nobody seems able to agree on the details.