Nicholas Joel Ward

[Nicholas Ward]

The Basics

Name: Nicholas Joel Ward
Nicknames: Nick, Nicky, Taylor/Tay (just because you’re not identical doesn’t mean your mother won’t occasionally throw out the wrong name at the wrong kid)
Age: Twenty seven
Orientation: Equal opportunity lover (... so... yes, bisexual)
Desired Rank/Job: Local - Electrician – second (and final!) year apprentice
Powers: Telekinesis – While it has the magical upside of being able to summon small objects right to him, it often gives him a sense of tingling to full blown migraines, depending on how much he’s used it. It also gives him poor spacial awareness, which is fantastic when you’re already a giant klutz.

He can only move or lift things that he could physically move himself.  The bigger the object, the more concentration he needs, and the harsher the side effects.
Play By: Chris Hemsworth

The Details

Hair Color: Blond
Eye Color: Grey...ish
Any Piercings? Single piercings in each earlobe – usually with tiny hoops or small studs in the holes
Any Tattoos? A very classy Pikachu with a giant lollipop on his left shoulder blade.
Any Scars? Many, many, many small, insignificant ones. They accumulate when you trip over thin air.

General Appearance: Nick is not one to take a huge amount of pride in his appearance, which is fortunate, as he tends to allow himself about three minutes to get ready in the morning. Sleep trumps... just about anything, really, when it comes to mornings. A quick run of his fingers through his hair, clothes, and he’s out the door.

He usually has a solid layer of scruff on his face, primarily because he likes it, but it also helps that just maintaining the little he keeps around is a lot easier than shaving daily. His hair grows fast, and he learned early that shaving in the morning often leads to a near five o’clock shadow by bedtime. No shaving also equals more time in bed, which he couldn’t complain about if he tried.  He also likes to keep his hair on the longer side, often needing to resort to small ponytails when he's working to keep it out of his face.

For work he generally wears plain t-shirts or long sleeved shirts paired with durable pants like Carharts, work boots, and if it’s cool enough, a hoodie. Chances are, he’s going to get dirty, and it’s pointless to wear nice things when that is the end result. He hates laundry with a passion, so the longer he can wear something, the better.

At home it’s not uncommon to find him in pajama pants at any hour of the day, and the chances of him wearing a shirt with them are about fifty-fifty. When he actually has to go out, his preferred poison is either jeans or cargo pants and a t-shirt. He adores plaid patterns for shirts, and as such has a number of long sleeved button up plaid shirts that he’ll throw on top of a plain t-shirt. Often they end up tied around his waist if he gets too warm or starts to roughhouse with his friends, but they’re almost always there regardless.

He can be persuaded (read: bribed the hell out of) into nicer clothes if he needs to be, but he always feels out of place and uncomfortable in anything nicer than jeans. He doesn’t exactly enjoy playing dress up, but he’s well aware that it’s a necessary evil at times.

As his job is very physical, Nick is solidly built, but he doesn’t have any real height to back it up. He comes in at 5’10”, much to his dismay. His twin brother is taller than him, which he has pointed out as unfair too many times to bother keeping count. But he’s stronger, as proven by many an arm wrestling (or actual wrestling) match.

Personality: Picture the most laid back person you possibly can. Got that? Good. Now dial it down about eleven notches, and there you have one Nicholas Ward. Chill does not begin to define him. Very little bothers him enough to put him out of sorts, and his primary mode of operation is quite simply... relaxed. He passes almost anything off as something that can be dealt with, and probably isn’t very much of an emergency thank you very much. His temper is much like him in the morning. Difficult to rise, and even harder to keep up. While he is quite capable of getting angry... it takes a hell of a lot to get that motor started. When he is angry, it’s like he has all this energy he doesn’t know what to do with. He might yell, but a lot of it isn’t exactly well thought out and by the time he’s done he’s quite likely both made an ass of himself, and confused the hell out of whoever (or whatever) he was mad at in the first place. Once that angry energy is gone, he’s more likely to forgive and forget than hold on to a real grudge.

Granted, that doesn’t actually stop him from holding very, very stupid grudges. Like the fact that when they were six years old, Taylor somehow ended up with two popsicles instead of one at their grandparent’s house. It was entirely unfair and he maintains that Taylor owes him a popsicle.

Taylor wisely tends to ignore this.

While Nick can often be reckless, it has less to do with any real daredevil urges, and more the fact that he doesn’t do a lot of thinking before acting. Most people assess a situation and consider the pros, cons, and potential outcomes of said situation. If Nick thinks something looks like fun, he often bypasses that critical thinking stage and jumps right into doing. This has resulted in injury more than once, and more than ten times, but it doesn’t stop him from doing it again and again and again. In his mind life is for living. Unlike his father and brother, who wrap themselves up in work and school, Nick would rather work when he has to, and play the rest of the time.

He does acknowledge, and mostly accept the general concept of adulthood, maturity, and responsibilities. He just confines those to specific times and places. Yes, he can go to work and act like a reasonably responsible adult. He can even handle things like rent and insurance and groceries. But those things all have their times and places, and that is where he leaves them. As such, it isn’t uncommon to see him arrive home from work, and within ten minutes he has lost his pants, flipped on cartoons, and has commenced eating cereal from the box with Tesla.

Despite being the ‘older’ twin, while Nick has a protective drive, he’s never quite figured out how to use it. It didn’t help that as a child he was often the needier one between himself and Taylor, and was usually the one being snuggled and coddled. As an adult, he often devolves back into this state with Trevor, as Trevor is the protective one between them. If he’s sick, or he’s hurt himself (yet again), he is very, very good at seeking his comforts from his fiancé.

Nick also has a hard time with sitting still and doing nothing, or paying attention to something for long periods of time. His parents suspected at one time or another that he was potentially ADHD, but while he would test borderline, it wasn’t enough to actually confirm it. He is always on the go, which is what he likes about his job. At home he tries to be still, but eventually squirming wins out and he’s either laying upside-down on the couch, or he’s rolling on the floor with Tesla.

Your Vices

Likes:
+ Photography
+ Hiking
+ Camping
+ Thunderstorms
+ Dogs
+ Questionable Nickelodeon cartoons
+ Tumblr
+ South Park
+ Plaid ANYTHING
+ Koosh balls
+ Coffee that is more sugar and cream than actual coffee
+ Vodka
+ Building things
+ Lego
+ Pokémon games
+ Skateboarding
+ Heights
+ Contact sports like football and rugby – the rougher the better
+ Blanket forts
+ Pillow fights
+ Food of ANY kind – seriously, least picky person on the planet
+ Sweet things
+ Cuddles
+ Dumb blonde jokes
+ Wrestling with Tesla
+ Pikachu
+ Facial hair on himself and others
+ Snowball fights
+ Karaoke
+ Swearing
+ Being the older twin
+ Aviator sunglasses
+ Making a fool of himself to make other people laugh
+ Pop tarts

Dislikes:
- 3D movies – they make him nauseous
- Electrical shocks
- Being Klutzilla
- His telekinesis (he never did quite master the whole ‘don’t smack yourself in the face with the item you just summoned you idiot’ thing)
- Being quiet
- Dentists (no, doesn’t matter how nice they are, they ALL SUCK)
- Mornings
- Adulting
- Golf (so... boring...)
- Being told to grow up
- Cleaning
- Ties
- ‘Constructive criticism’ – don’t sugar coat stuff, just say it like it is
- Tesla’s puppy eyes – HE ALWAYS CAVES. ALWAYS.
- Cavities (not that that stops him from inhaling sugar at alarming rates)
- Wool socks or sweaters (he doesn’t care how warm they are, they ITCH)
- Making the bed
- Skinny jeans
- Garden gnomes (What? They’re weird. And creepy.)
- Picky eaters (Food is AWESOME)
- Knuckles cracking (the noise makes him cringe)
- Laundry

Strengths:
+ Physically strong
+ Loyal
+ Decently good at building things, but equally good at breaking things too
+ Charming
+ Determined when he wants to be (such as actually working towards a goal)
+ Whining (but whether or not it actually works is another story)
+ Injuring himself

Weaknesses:
- Easily distracted
- Clumsy as sin
- Immature at times
- Impulsive – sometimes his hands or his mouth go too fast for his head to catch up. Think before you say or do? Not always.
- Coffee (he does not function like a human being without it)
- Trevor

Fears: Not that he’d admit to either, but...

The Dentist. He puts this off for as long as humanly possible, and even when he does go, it’s an ordeal of whining at whoever will listen and contemplating escape routes. If he doesn’t have Trevor force him out the door and drag him himself, the likelihood of him actually going voluntarily is about negative twelve. Good luck.

Failure. Not that he’s a stranger to it. But there is a difference between bombing a tenth grade quiz on the industrial revolution and failing a test that will get you one step up the ladder of your chosen career. This didn’t used to bother him so much, but the older he gets and the longer his apprenticeship runs... yeah. It bothers him. A lot.  But time is running out, and the more he procrastinates, the worse he makes it for himself.

Secret:
He totally believed his mother that if he kept making faces they would freeze that way. Sadly, he tested this. Many. Many. Times. It doesn’t work. His mother is made of lies.

It took him until the better part of sixth grade to fully grasp that no, fraternal twins are not the same as identical twins, so no, you cannot claim to be Taylor no matter how much trouble you’re trying to avoid.. Nor can you try to get your brother to take a test for you. It isn’t going to work.

He is actually scared of taking his last year of schooling and going for his journeyman’s certification. Mostly because he’s worried he’ll fail and let everyone down – especially Trevor. He uses the excuse that the classes have been full up lately, but the truth is he’s scared to even try.

Family Ties

Father: Dr. Thomas Ward, 53, Veterinarian, Canine Communication
Mother: Marnie Ward nee Miller, 52, Homemaker, Telepathy
Siblings: Taylor Ward – fraternal twin brother, veterinary student, Coyote Shifter
Any Other Important People: Trevor Cunningham – fiancé
Tesla, five month old Welsh Pembroke Corgi

History

Thomas and Marine Ward met at The Hammel Institute, and simply never separated upon graduation. Even when Tom went off to university to get his bachelor of science and doctorate in veterinary medicine, Marnie was behind him, working multiple jobs to keep them supported until he was out of school. Upon completion of his school, Tom asked Marnie to marry him, and the rest is history.

Well, their history. This is Nick’s history.

Nicholas and Taylor Ward were born June 15th, 1988 to their proud parents. Though the news of twins had been a bit of a surprise, by the time the boys were born, they felt a little more prepared. Of the twins, Nick was also the needier of the two, often seeking his mother out for cuddle time while Taylor occupied himself. Early on he expressed a love of building, often spending time carefully stacking and constructing towers out of blocks and, later, Legos. He was always the rougher of the two boys, eager to wrestle around and play physically than sit down and color.

As he grew, so did his interests. He loved being outside, and delighted at taking pictures with his mother’s camera and exploring trails near his home in Montana. At eight, he received a skateboard for his birthday, and more or less lived with the thing glued to his feet. Yes, it resulted in him eating pavement more than once, but he didn’t care. It wasn’t like it was an uncommon thing for him. By nature he was constantly running into things, tripping, and generally being a disaster on two legs. It never did really sink in just how exhausting he was for his mother to keep up with and patch up.

In school Nick’s attention was easily diverted from lessons, and any time he could be out of his seat, he was. Though he was tested for the possibility of being ADHD, his scores were consistently borderline and not quite enough to definitively diagnose it. His teachers seemed equipped to try to keep him occupied, and he made it through elementary and most of middle school with minimal hitches.

With two meta-human parents, it wasn’t a surprise when Taylor manifested shortly after the twins’ thirteenth birthday. Though it was an alarming experience to have a very skittish coyote running around the house, followed by a very shaken up son, meta-human powers were loosely explained, as was Hammel. It wasn’t long before a recruiter came to pick him up to start training.

At first Nick pitched a fit over not being meta as well, trying hard to will a power to emerge. But no matter how hard he tried, his body didn’t respond. No fires, no mind reading like his mother, no nothing.

It wasn’t until he’d all but given up hope that he’d ever be a metahuman like the rest of his family that his power finally surfaced. He’d been practicing skateboarding in the driveway when his mother called out that he’d forgotten his knee pads again. With her holding them out to him, he’d held out his hand as he’d rolled towards her.

Only instead of coming up close and taking them, the pads came to him. Okay, so they smacked him right in the face and it kind of hurt, but they’d come to him! Like he was some kind of Jedi with powers just like Luke Skywalker!

Wait. Powers!

Sure enough, just six months after his brother had been carted to Hammel, Nick finally got to follow him. He even got assigned to the same dorm, much to the twins’ delight. Six months was a long time to be separated from a sibling, twins or not. It was in their dorm that Nick got to meet Trevor Cunningham. Taylor had already made friends with him, and anyone Taylor was friends with, Nick was just as happy to go along with.

All throughout his childhood and early teens, Nick didn’t ever seem to show a strong preference for males or females. Hell, he’d even told his mother when he was seven that he was going to marry the Pink Power Ranger one day, and if she said no that that was okay, because he’d just ask the White Ranger to marry him instead, because he was pretty too. He’d never seemed overly confused by this – it was simply how he viewed the world. And to him, Trevor Cunningham was about as cute as the Pink and the White Rangers combined.

Just being friends with Trevor was good enough for a while. He liked the older boy, and between him and Taylor, he was loving Hammel. The classes were fun, even if training involved a lot of items hitting him in the head, or his hands if he managed to get them up fast enough. But Trevor was his favorite part, and he was constantly bouncing around him like a puppy begging to play.

As they got older and closer to their senior years, Nick kept hoping that eventually Trevor might give some indication that he was either into guys (fingers crossed), or into girls (boo, but at least he’d still have a friend).  Trying to wheedle the information out of him tended to prove fruitless, but that wasn’t uncommon with Trevor. It seemed like trying to get just about anything out of him some days was like pulling teeth. Not wanting to send his friend packing, Nick simply kept his little crush to himself and tried his best to act like everything was fine.

It wasn’t until their senior year that he finally got an answer out of Trevor. On their way down to the auditorium for Dr. Neville’s ‘Talk’, he couldn’t help but notice the amount of complaining coming out of Trevor’s mouth. Sure, it was kind of a drag but they didn’t have to go to classes, so it wasn’t that bad, right? No amount of asking him why it sucked so much seemed to have much effect until they took their seats way in the back of the auditorium. Trevor passed him a note pointing out that it sucked because he was asexual, but that he liked guys. While this baffled Nick for a few moments, the next note confused him even more. ‘Guys like you.’

The fact that Trevor wouldn’t make eye contact with him after that was maddeningly frustrating, but not as much as the silence that occurred after the assembly. No matter how much he hounded and pestered his friend, Trevor wouldn’t budge on talking about it. As a final threat, Nick simply reached for the most ridiculous thing he possibly could to see if it would get him to talk. Quite likely in an effort to shut him up, Trevor agreed to talk if he did the thing.

The thing was dying his hair pink. Sure enough, Nick disappeared for a few hours that weekend, and returned with Barbie Pink hair. Yes, he got looks, but he didn’t care because this was what held the key to Trevor talking. And, after some staring and head shaking in disbelief, there was finally talking.

After talking, and Nick admitting his long-term crush, the two boys finally started dating in their senior year. After graduation, with some help from his parents, Nick started renting an apartment in Pilot Ridge and invited Trevor to live with him. It helped that Nick started working as a construction laborer right out of school, which later prompted him to start his electrical apprenticeship.  At least they had money coming in while Trevor trained at Hammel to become a trainer. 

After begging, bartering, and whining, Nick got Trevor to agree to getting a dog, and he happily brought home a nine week old Welsh Pembroke Corgi he proudly named Tesla. Though he was constantly running into walls and sliding on the floor, Nick hadn’t ever been happier. He had Trevor, he had his own place, and now he had a dog that was as energetic as he was.

It was chasing Tesla that changed the dynamic of his and Trevor’s relationship. One evening while Trevor was looking over student files, Nick had been racing up and down the hall with Tesla. As anyone could have predicted, he accomplished in sliding on the floor and bashing his elbow on the hardwood. Nick wasn’t a stranger to injuring himself, and was quite used to patching himself up and carrying on. But with Trevor around, he often wasn’t allowed to get near the first aid kit before he was being healed. While it was okay for bigger stuff, he honestly didn’t think a slightly skinned elbow was anything to fuss about. As he was getting up to head for the first aid kit, Trevor stopped him with his cranky face and just started healing. As much as getting healed was handy, Nick hated that Trevor had to feel the pain as he healed it, and if he could spare him that, he could. For one of the very few times Nick’s temper rose, he jerked away and told Trevor not to heal it. That only prompted Trevor to get annoyed with him and try to grab for his arm again to get back to work.

After a while, both of them were shouting at one another, mostly that Trevor was only healing him because he loved him, which prompted Nick to announce that he loved him more. Back and forth, back and forth until Nick finally snapped that they should get married if they love each other so much. This actually made them both stop for a moment, partially out of a realization that they were still yelling at one another, and partly because... Nick had just proposed. In the least romantic way possible, but he had.

The next day after work, Nick made a stop at a special store, and when he got home, he tied a small item onto Tesla’s collar before releasing him to go and find Trevor. The command confused the little Corgi, but after a bit of pointing and encouragement, he took off to love all over Trevor. When the ring was found, Trevor untied it and eyed Nick before smiling and retrieving his own ring from his pocket and giving it to Nick. With very little fanfare, they were engaged.

Nick is excited for the upcoming wedding, despite having very little interest in actually sitting down and planning the damn thing. He is also busy avoiding his last year of school, because he is terrified he won’t pass his journeyman’s exam. As far as anyone knows, the classes just keep getting full up, but he’s on a waiting list, he swears.  He's aware time is running out, though, and sooner or later he's going to have to suck it up if he doesn't want to have to re-do the program.  He's sure his boss would be thrilled with that.

The boys still see Taylor as well, as he currently attends University in his last year of veterinary studies at Tufts University in Boston. He will often make the drive on weekends to visit, and endures constant phone calls and whining from his twin.

Roleplay Example

-points out all the threads-

What About You?

Name: Madsala
Age: 2....7?
Experience: I ran out of fingers to count that high.
How Did You Find Us? I was born here.
Ready To Play? Bacon!

[Admin!]

Accepted!

You know what to do! Have fun!