BASIC INFO
Full name: Brendan Alexander Nichols
Nickname(s): Bren, B
Age: 28
Birthday: February 14th, 1997
Hometown: Windsor Bay, Oregon
Zodiac big three: Aquarius Sun, Aries Moon, Scorpio Rising
Sexuality: Heterosexual
Residence: Mountainside
Occupation: Tattoo Artist at Ink City
PERSONALITY
To put it bluntly, Brendan can be described as an asshole, douchebag, or any other negative term of your choosing. He learned from an early age to expect disappointment from people. He keeps most at arm’s length and pushes anyone away that attempts to know him better. Though the few that have been persistent and patient enough to breakthrough to him, have a loyal and protective friend on their side for life. With these people, he shows a softer side, lets his guard down, and tries to be the lighter version of himself. He has a tendency to be a bit hot-headed, which is only worse when he’s been drinking...which he frequently does.
BIOGRAPHY
TW: Alcoholism
Brendan Alexander Nichols was born the middle out of five children to Mark and Claudia Nichols. It was his two other brothers, him, one younger brother, and his sister was the baby of the family. With the boys all being close in age, there was a lot of roughhousing between them while growing up. Countless pieces of furniture in the Nichols household needed to be replaced after the boys practiced their WWE moves. Being in the midst of all of this chaos only caused Brendan to grow a thick skin and he learned how to defend himself and hold his own ground from a young age. By the time their baby sister was born, all four of the boys had a soft spot for her and always did their best to protect her. Of course, that didn't mean she was excluded from their taunting and occasional practical jokes while growing up. They were allowed to mess with her, but no one else could never and would never get away with it.
The family grew up financially fortunate, given that their father was a surgeon and their mother a nurse at the local hospital in town. They never had to struggle for money and their parents oftentimes had a hard time saying no to their children. Some thought of them as spoiled, but with both parents putting in long hours at the hospital, they tried to make up for their absence with material things. “Sorry we had to work on your birthday. Here’s a hundred bucks to buy yourself something nice at the mall.” He learned early on to expect disappointment from people and kept most at arm’s length. His parents may have disappointed him when it came to missing birthdays and other important life events, but Brendan still had a strong connection with his mother, Claudia. Ever since he was a toddler, he had been a mama’s boy and was practically glued to her side throughout his childhood.
As he grew to be a teenager, Brendan became interested in soccer and went on to join his high school’s team. He had always been competitive by nature, which made sports the perfect outlet for him. Although he did play football for a year of high school, soccer was always the sport he couldn’t get enough of.
During his sophomore year of high school, he noticed things were starting to get rocky with his parent’s relationship. They started bickering more, getting into longer and uglier fights. They did their best to keep him and his siblings out of it, even though they all knew something was off. They just weren’t sure what it was. Since Brendan felt such a close bond with his mother, he decided to try talking to her about it. He thought that maybe she would open up a little bit and give him an insight to what she was feeling or what was going on. There was a lingering fear in the back of his mind that his parents were headed for divorce. He'd watch so many of his friends go through it and he was terrified that his family was next. When he expressed this fear to his mother, she looked him square in the eyes and assured him that wouldn't happen. And he actually believed her when she said those words.
A few months later, Brendan made the impulsive decision to leave school on a Friday morning and start his weekend off early. Since it was the off-season for soccer, he didn't have to worry about attending practice. This time of year, his attitude towards his grades shifted, as his main priority was keeping them high enough to actively participate on the field. Once soccer was over for the year, he really only put in enough effort to skate by and not completely flunk out. When he got home, he spotted a familiar car in the driveway. He couldn't quite place where he had seen it before, but figured it was most likely a maid or maintenance person had hired to do some work around the house. As soon as he walked inside, he was met with the image of his mother and his soccer coach rolling around on the couch, half undressed and in a panic trying to cover themselves up. It was at that very moment that it dawned on Brendan that the car belonged to his coach. He stood there frozen in shock and confusion as both adults approached him to carefully explain their ways out of this situation. Claudia tried her best to come up with an explanation, but they both knew there wasn't one. Brendan knew his parents were having trouble in their relationship, but he never thought his mother would be cheating, let alone with his soccer coach of all people. He felt completely betrayed by two of the adults he trusted and respected most in his life. It felt as if it was some type of personal attack coming from both his mother and his coach. The two had teamed up to devise a plan to ruin his life. At least, that is what it seemed like in Brendan’s head. His mother even convinced him to not tell his father about what he saw, even going so far as to bribe him with money and gifts in exchange for his silence. Not knowing what else to do about the situation, Brendan agreed to stay silent. He didn't want to be the one to break the news to his father and ultimately destroy their family. He still foolishly trusted her enough to believe her when she assured him that things between his father and her were going to be fine.
Brendan found himself falling out of love with the sport that he once felt such a burning passion for. His once eager urges to go to practice and hone his skill and been replaced with the fear of coming face to face with the man responsible for coming between his parents. Every time he passed his former coach in the school hallways, Brendan immediately put his head down and looked the other way. He didn't want to look him in the eye, out of fear of having flashbacks to that very day. Quitting soccer meant losing most of his friends that he had made over the years thanks to the game. Some excluded him simply because he was no longer on the team, while most just naturally drifted away due to opposing schedules and even classes. He turned to drawing as his new passion that would fill the void that once held soccer. It started off with innocent doodles in class, until one day a classmate commented on how cool one of his drawings were. Small comments like that gave him the urge to practice more and hone his new craft like he once did with soccer.
His father grew suspicious of Brendan's sudden loss of interest in his once favorite sport. Brendan just shrugged it off and tried to say he grew out of it and how he just didn't feel like playing any longer. He even tried to convince his dad he wanted to try out for other sports, which his schedule wouldn't allow for if he continued playing. Brendan wasn't sure exactly how his father found out, but he did eventually put the puzzle pieces together and serve Claudia with divorce papers. It was also then that he realized his mother hadn't stopped seeing his former soccer coach like she had promised him. From that moment forward, Brendan's entire outlook on relationships, dating, and marriage had completely changed. He lost a sense of trust when it came to women and instead learned how to build his walls up and keep himself defended. He made sure he was always the one to break things off first with whatever girl he had been seeing. While it would result in the girls getting angry, heartbroken, or pissed off. But it was better than him trusting a woman only to end up in his dad's shoes later on down the line.
Throughout his junior and senior years, Brendan continued to focus on his newfound love for art. He started off with simple sketches and advanced up to different types of paintings and techniques. Over time he realized that art helped him express himself in situations where he couldn't find the words to bring his feelings to life. This helped him achieve a full-ride scholarship to the Pacific Northwest College of Art in Portland, Oregon. It was a new beginning for Brendan, one that he was eager to experience on his own.
Brendan never had been the type of excel in an academic setting. Instead he looked at his newfound independence in college as a way of socializing, making new friends, and finding his way through this new world. It didn't take long for Brendan to slip into the partying scene and begin to get lost within it. What started off as his roommate or friends sneaking alcohol into their dorms, turned into all night ragers at the nearby frat houses. For the first time in his life, Brendan felt at peace when he was drinking. The horrible memories of the events of his parent's divorce were no longer playing on a film reel in his mind. His insecurities about relationships and fears of never being able to find "the one" were finally silenced. He felt light. He felt free. He felt unstoppable. It wasn't long before he was getting plastered just about every night. He'd hit up some of the local bars and clubs around the college campus and bring back a different girl every night, with no intention of ever calling or seeing them again. Occasionally he would run into a few of his past hookups around campus, which would result in them calling him an asshole or douchebag and hoping they never see him again.
By the time his sophomore year of college rolled around, Brendan had met this one girl in particular that had him questioning his stance on relationships. She took the time to break down some of his walls and had him so close to making it official. They had a few classes together, which meant they saw each other at multiple points throughout their days. Their relationship started off as hooking up in between their classes and evolved into her oftentimes spending the night in his bed with him. They had an undeniable spark of chemistry and Brendan grew too comfortable in having her so close to him on a daily basis. He felt himself beginning to let his guard down and become more vulnerable around this woman, which terrified him. He did his best to push through it, as he knew this was the kind of girl that was worth it. As more time passed, she wanted their relationship to become more serious and have the official title of boyfriend and girlfriend tacked on. Immediately, this caused Brendan to get lost inside his own head and he began pushing her away. He told himself that she was better off without him anyway because she was the type of girl that was way too good for him in the first place. That doesn't mean it didn't hurt when she became tired of his games and his bullshit and moved on with another guy. One who actually wanted a relationship and could give her all the things he couldn’t. To deal with the pain, Brendan turned to alcohol to numb himself and lost himself in the college party scene again.
It wasn't until the end of his junior year when he met another woman that left him questioning his relationship stance. He allowed her to get closer than any woman in his past, especially since she took the time to understand parts of why he is the way he is. He let her in enough to the point where he asked her to be his girlfriend. Their relationship was happy for the first few months, only really struggling when Brendan gave into the demons of his alcohol addiction. When he did so, he turned into the asshole version of himself where he spewed ugly lies through slurred words. It wasn't until halfway through his senior year when she dropped the bombshell that she was pregnant. Not knowing what else to do or where else to turn, Brendan went to his father for advice. The last thing Mark wanted was for his son's short term girlfriend to get in the way of Brendan's college education and full scholarship, especially when so close to graduation. Unbeknownst to Brendan, his father got in contact with his girlfriend and offered her money to have an abortion, insisting it's what Brendan wanted. When in reality, Brendan received a text from his girlfriend telling him about the abortion, only to never hear from her again. In his mind, he thought it could be possible to find a way to make things work. Only he never had the opportunity to, as she walked out of his life before he even had the chance.
After this, Brendan's alcohol addiction worsened. In the past he had at least tried to keep a steady C average in school, occasionally finding a D appear in his transcripts. Now, his average grades were all sitting with bright red Fs next to them. Brendan lost the motivation to even care, so instead he dropped out of college. Both of his parent's were disappointed but it was his father that urged him to move back home to Windsor Bay and he would help him get back on his feet. With nowhere else to go, Brendan obliged and even attended a few AA meetings just to humor his father. He only attended a few before he began ditching them and heading to one of the bars across town. He never could learn how to curb his alcohol addiction. He just became better at hiding it from people. Brendan found himself turning back to art as a way to express himself. This caused him to take an interest in the art style of tattoos and eventually began learning that craft. He did thorough research and ordered his first tattoo gun online. Even though he also ordered plenty of those silicone skin mats to practice on, he couldn't help but ink his first deign right onto his upper thigh, which was a little alien smoking a joint. Before he knew it, he landed an apprenticeship at Ink City and has since worked his way up to becoming a full time artist who has built a sturdy client list. His parents are convinced that his alcohol addition was just a phase that kids go through in college. But in reality, it's something Brendan still struggles with, but he's gotten much better at hiding it from the people he loves the most.
