He shuffled his papers again, lining them up neatly. They had to be neat. They had to be neat, because if they weren’t neat, he had to shuffle them up and line them up neatly again. No, not right still. Nigel spent a good ten minutes reordering his papers, until someone’s hands closed over his and made him jump slightly. The dark-haired boy looked up through the long fringe he wore across his face at the boy he usually sat next to, well, when Troy Barton bothered to show up for any classes that is. Something in Nigel’s chest squeezed really hard, he felt his cheeks colour, and he looked back down at his papers. Ah no, messy again. That wouldn’t do, but Troy’s hands were covering his, what to do, what to do?
“If you mess with those papers one more time I’m going to take ‘em and throw ‘em in the nearest recycle receptacle,” Troy drawled in an exasperated voice.
“S-sorry...” Nigel mumbled in reply.
When NIgel stole another look at Troy, the other boy was smiling at him in that way that made girls say nasty things at Nigel, for hogging the good-looking Troy all to himself. They were friends, though? At least, that’s what Troy insisted they were every time they had lunch together, or hung out together, or did homework together. Well, when Nigel did homework, Troy on the other hand always sat and watched him with a little smile on his face, but when Nigel asked him “what?” the reply would always be a “nothing”. Kinda weird, but… Not awful?
“Nothing to be sorry fer, it’s just… You need to relax, I keep telling you that right?”
It was true. Troy always told him to relax, to stop worrying, but Nigel couldn’t change the nervous energies he experienced from time to time. His mom and dad called it a phase that he should start growing out of, like the long hair, but so far there was only an increase in rituals and not the opposite. Simple things at first, that got bigger and bigger and more elaborate the closer he was to his demons, but when Troy stepped in, threw his arm across Nigel’s shoulders and jokingly told him weird stories about the cadets, Nigel forgot his rituals, forgot his demons, and forgot to reshuffle his papers dozens of times.
Troy was amazing like that. Troy with the devil-may-care attitude, Troy who made any bad situation just go away. Nigel didn’t think it was strange people wanted to get to know his best friend, but at the same time Troy’s aloof attitude towards everyone else welcomed very little communication. Nigel was shocked himself when Troy—out of the blue—asked to borrow a pen one day, even though Nigel had never seen him write any notes down in class ever. Everyone was shook by that, which was when the nasty comments started up about him, but it was also the first moment of contact between them, and Nigel couldn’t believe the boy he had a crush on spoke to him so casually. With a smile!
Thick as thieves since then, even though Nigel never, ever, EVER, brought up how Troy made him really feel. Maybe… One day… He looked through his fringe at the warm hazel eyes that looked back at him and made something inside of him turn to jelly. Troy was such a looker… And when he smiled he had dimples! And he was already bigger than most other boys in their grade, going through an early growth spurt, plus all the physical training he did, hoping to get into the FCON cadets.
No, no, nononono. It was impossible. How could he ever tell Troy that he liked him? That was stupid. He was being dumb. Troy would laugh at him, call him something unpleasant, then end their friendship right there. If that happened, Nigel didn’t know who would chase away the demons. They were everywhere these days. Except, except around Troy, there was enough light shining that the demons couldn’t live around him for very long.
Nigel stood meekly by his desk while Troy packed away his things like he was his mom, which usually meant he wanted them to be someplace else ASAP. Would Troy freak out? Would he push him away? He wasn’t that kind of person, right? Nigel pinched at his other arm, the little sharp pains snapping his dissenting thoughts into the background.
“Hey, stop that,” Troy chastised, putting his hand over the other boy’s to stop him from hurting himself. “Lunch on me today, ‘kay? The barbecue stands are out in the Grease Slums, we can pick something up on the way back.”
“Mom says that sorta stuff’s poison for your body,” Nigel protested weakly.
Troy took Nigel’s sweaty hand in his own, linking their fingers together so Nigel had no escape, not that the quieter mousy boy complained. He was ridiculously happy, and equally grateful for the fact his parents hadn’t forced him to cut his hair yet, because it did a passable job at hiding his blush, except for the crimson tips of his ears that stuck out of the soft black mop. That was another thing Troy never commented on, the fact that his hands were always cold and clammy, but despite that Troy never failed to grab him by the hand and tug him in a direction he fancied.
“Your mom’s also an anti-vaxxer,” Troy pointed out meaningfully.
Troy didn’t like his parents. That much was clear whenever Nigel said anything about them Troy would snort or say “that’s dumb”, but then again, the feeling was mutual. Nigel’s mother warned him about getting too close to “that Barton boy”. She didn’t like him, which meant Nigel liked Troy even more. An insignificantly infinitesimal rebellion, but it made him happy, even if he was the only one who knew about it.
Stumbling after his friend, Nigel looked up at the back of Troy’s head, the choppy mess of his thick brown hair, and wondered briefly what things could be like between them if he knew about his feelings. Troy looked back over his shoulder, caught him staring and smiled at him until his dimples showed, and Nigel assaulted by the radiant sunshine that was Troy’s smile, tore his gaze away and willed his heartbeat to calm itself. Just think of the barbecue, barbecue, barbecue… Nigel, really, really liked barbecue.
Look at this fucking adorable commission I got from @heronfoot. I’ve been staring at it for five hours.
Rorik isn’t the connoisseur of shitty romance novels that Barton is, but that’s not going to stop him from pointing out inconsistencies (or taking notes, and making a binder of them, with the good tabs, because knowledge is power).
Bless @nataruma for Troy Barton. <3
@thewormwood assures me that she sent me an ask asking for Barton’s romantic opinions on Dagny, tumblr for whatever reason decided not to let it through so Ima write one anyone. Phhbbbt at you tumblr.
VISUAL ATTRACTIVENESS: 💗💗
Now hold up, before you pull out your hair in shock and awe, let me explain why this isn’t a 0 out of 10 thing or even a 1. IF Barton were to look at Dagny from the BACK, he would grudgingly have to admit that Dagny has a very attractive physique, but if Dagny were to turn around and display his deshness in all of its mordic greatness, Barton would feel squeamish. HOW CAN YOU EVEN LIVE WITHOUT HALF A FACE I CAN’T EVEN-
FRIENDSHIP LEVEL: 💔
Not friends, never will be, forGET it, asshole. Barton thinks Dagny is a cold-hearted, callous and manipulative bag of dicks. Efficiency doesn’t mean kicking an injured teammate off the assault vehicle so it can go faster, Dagny.
SEXUAL DESIRE: 💔
NOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPEhedoeshaveaniceassbutNOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPE.
ROMANTIC INTENT: 💔
Let me put it this way, if Dagny was the last living creature sharing Nexus with Barton, Barton would rather die of a broken heart than try to strike up anything with the creepy engineer. Even though Dagny can be romantic, Barton would read it as self-serving (which would probably be very true), and would more than likely burst out laughing at the notion of Dagny providing anyone with attention that doesn’t somehow benefit himself in some way. He is also still pissed that he lost at Grismaran battlestaves against Dagny and had to give up on Orris, this does not help his romantic inclination any.
💔 Non-existent
💗 Very low
💗💗 A little
💗💗💗 Hopeful
💗💗💗💗 High
💗💗💗💗💗 Maximum
It’s smol, it’s furry, it’s even a cute shade of pink! Raz’s attitude may not go with his looks, but Barton has never spoken a word to Raz ever, so there would be nothing to temper his double-take of interest. That ass? Check. That tail? Mmmhm. Those ears? Yep, just wants to grab them and smoosh and fluffle. Good thing he doesn’t act on these subconscious desires, or he would come out of the exchange a lot worse for wear. The only reason this isn’t a 5 hearts is that the less beefy types are more visually appealing to B, and Raz is pretty meaty for a little guy.
FRIENDSHIP LEVEL: 💗💗
Nothing doing. They have never really met, might have just passed each other in a hallway somewhere and B may have taken a long gander, but otherwise not spoken a word to him.
EDIT: I had to amend this, because with new information and visuals popping up, I could see Barton probably being like a ‘bro’ friend with Raz, the kind who would sit on the aurin and make him yell ‘uncle’ when he’s had enough suffocating steely man ass bearing down on him. Patience would be low for Raz’s shit however, and this would probably be a repeat tactic employed to deal with his attitude. I can now totally see them playing video games together.
SEXUAL DESIRE: 💗💗💗💗💗
Barton has this thing about casual sex where he’s not really likely to jump into bed with the first pretty thing he sees, but he also has a pretty major weakness when it comes to smaller guys and aurin. He finds them exceptionally sexually attractive, and even he’s not sure why exactly that is. Could be the alpha male hormones charging up their lasers so they can protect the smol precious things. There’s also aurin porn. Barton has looked at a lot of it, and I’m very sure he’s stumbled across Raz & Dragomir’s live streams at some point and fapped to them wholeheartedly. 10/10, would bang.
ROMANTIC INTENT: 💗
Barton would more than likely, based on appearances alone, try to strike something up with Raz if he wasn’t in a committed relationship at the time. And then Raz would open his mouth, and every romantic thought B may have had would just scatter and vanish into thin air.
6: Does your OC have an unrealistic view of some area of their life or worldview?
Barton tends to be very pragmatic with both feet on the ground when it comes to everyday struggles or just going through life, the complications happen when getting into the more romantic. He has a tendency of being overbearing in a sense. He gets very serious about relationships, and can sometimes push for goals that make sense only to himself, like getting engaged/married and adopting a couple of rugrats, the whole nine yards.
It’s probably Barton’s wistful desire for romanticism and a ‘meaningful’ partnership that tends to channel his vision down that path, and perhaps the serious focus of his relationship goals has caused people in the past to bail more often than not.
18: What aspect of your OC’s personality or essence do other people usually have a problem with?
He can get overprotective, has a problem with jealousy, and can come across as controlling sometimes when he means to keep someone from making what Barton would perceived as a mistake. He also has a bad habit of making decisions on behalf of a person whether they have provided input or not.
20: Do other people have misconceptions about some parts of your OC’s personality?
People may tend to think of him as boring, because of his tendency not to party it up or get sucked into wild social scenes, or that he may be a bit of a wallflower, or just uptight, but Barton’s not above doing something crazy and irresponsible as long as he’s having fun doing it. A lot of what others in his circles find ‘fun’ involves a lot of substances Barton’s trying to stay away from, and of course his withdrawal from that comes off as being cold and distant.
