"Every once in awhile I feel like Iām making a difference, and isnāt that all that matters?... I know, itās stupid, nevermind."
Appearance
Hair: He keeps his hair short in general, but he likes having it styled up both because it looks good on him and because it helps him seem a little taller. Itās been described as āwind-sweptā before.
Facial Hair: Unless Nico has not shaved that day or recently, he has no facial hair. Heās not a big fan.
Eyes: His eyes always seem to change, a strange blur of dark blue and teal that is hard to pin down. More often than not they are some shade of blue.
Build: Nico is a pretty average build, not particularly muscular or overweight.
Skin Tone: Pale but not abnormally so.
Height: 5ā 10ā but heās been told he seems taller.
Weight: Roughly 140 pounds.
Voice: Pretty typical for a guy, he tends to speak in a deadpan unless he is incredibly emotional or incredibly drunk. Because of this, many people consider him a sarcastic jerk. Just because it may be accurate does not mean that it is polite.
Handed: Right handed.
Body Markings: Nico has a small phrase in Yiddish curling around his left bicep. It reads ālove is foreverā but he rarely shows it off.
Scar Tissue: Nothing notable.
Unique Body Features: Nothing notable.
Clothing Style: Generally he is found in his most comfortable leather jacket and a t-shirt with jeans, but when heās in a more formal occasion heāll wear a button-up with slacks. Heās never particularly neat and clean or punk. Nico doesnāt really care what heās wearing at any given time; heās got other things on his mind after all.
Name
Nicholas Grant
Nickname
Nico
Nick
Title
TBA
Visual Age
Late 20s
Factual Age
27
Gender
Male
Sexual Orientation
Bisexual, prefers men (so a rough 5 on the 1-7 kinsey scale)
Power Ranking
TBA
Powers
Matter Absorption - 3
Limb Regrowth - 2
Hair Colour Manipulation - 1
Personality
In polite company, Nico is referred to as a witty young man who has the tendency to forget what language heās speaking and doesnāt realize that people donāt automatically know when heās being sarcastic. To just about everyone else, though, heās a sarcastic little shit who really doesnāt know when itās best to shut his damn mouth. Really, Nicoās dominate trait is the fact that he canāt keep his opinions to himself. He doesnāt even try; whatās the point? When you might die in five seconds itās best to just get it all out, leave the air clear and have as few miscommunications as possible. So, in a way, Nicoās just doing everyone a favor right? Heās saying what everyone else is thinking, thatās how he sees it. Just for whatever reason, heās the only one with the guts to voice it.
Really, it isnāt a good idea to have thin skin if youāre going to spend a long time with Nico. Heās got a sharp tongue thatās backed by an equally powerful mind that can come up with half a dozen remarks that are very likely to make you wonder why youāre spending another moment in his presence. Nico knows this and, if anything, it only encourages him. The people who stick around are the ones he can trust and rely on and theyāre the most likely to try not to die on him. Thatās definitely a trait he can approve of. Besides, soft people are just going to get hurt in the end. Nico doesnāt want to have to deal with picking up anyone elseās pieces; heās got enough of his own to deal with.
Despite the fact that he is ready to break others down, Nico hates it when anyone points out his own flaws or whatnot. Heāll laugh it off, certainly, but in private heāll berate himself and repeat whatever the critique was a thousand times over. Itās a bit like being a perfectionist, except if one were to not even try to correct anything. Nico doesnāt see a reason. His motivation for anything that could fall under the umbrella of āself-improvementā is ridiculously small for a multitude of reasons that heās not likely to tell anyone anytime soon. Including the therapist his parents have essentially ordered him to see. Itās not like anyone can help after all.
But once he does decide that youāre going to stay with him, Nico is a loyal friend and will have your back through thick and thin. He understands that he canāt solve all of your problems, nor will he try, but Nicoās the kind of friend whoāll be there to kick your ass back into gear and maybe throw a few punches if he feels like itās needed. Just donāt expect him to go any easier on you; heās still going to call you names and pretend that he couldnāt give two shits about you. Except, well, that wonāt be anything near the truth.
Moral Alignment
Chaotic Good
Motivation
Nico wants to finish grad school so he can become a teacher, preferably at the high school level.
Quirks
Rolls Eyes: What it says on the tin. He rolls his eyes at just about anyone for just about anything.
What Did You Say?: Nico has the tendency to slip into another language when heās saying something particularly insulting about someone or when heās trying to ask a question in private. It tends to annoy people, not that heās about to stop anytime soon.
You Call Me What?: For whatever reason, Nico has the rather annoying habit of calling people anything but their actual name. Heās got a variety of nicknames for people. The more a person has, the more he holds them in regard.
Fears
Going Blind: His two biggest passions in life, reading and playing the piano, are rather reliant on sight. While Nico acknowledges that he could find a way to do both if the worst were to happen, heād rather not have to find out how difficult it would be.
Death: As much as he might dislike his life and the world in general, Nico is much more terrified of what comes after. Though he considers himself rather religious he still doesnāt want to have to actually find out.
Likes
Music:
Books:
Knowledge:
Dislikes
Rain: He used to enjoy the sound of pitter-patter on the roof, the smell that would linger after a particularly heavy shower, all the associated feelings of rain. But now all it brings are bad memories and a particularly surly Nico Grant. He finds solace in a bottle more often than not.
Pop Music: Nico really doesnāt see any redeeming factor in the electronic, auto-tuned crap that is constantly coming on the radio. He makes his opinion on this sort of music very clear and playing it is one of the fastest ways to annoy the shit out of him.
Skills
Languages: Nico is a sponge for foreign languages, picking them up with relative ease and retaining the knowledge with only a little practice. He is fluent in Hebrew, Yiddish, English, and French. As of the present he is learning German; heās dabbled in Spanish and Italian before but not recently. He also knows the alphabet in American Sign Language.
Piano: Heās been playing since he was eight and he still enjoys a few hours sitting down and pounding out a few notes. It helps him relax. Nico certainly isnāt as good as he once was, considering he doesnāt play as much, but he still is better than most.
Sense of Direction: Whether itās from years of wandering around shelves and aisles taller than anyone heās ever met or an innate skill, Nico rarely gets lost. He also is pretty good at finding his car in crowded parking lots.
[Perfect] - [Excellent] - [Good] - [Above Average] - [Average] - [Below Average] - [Poor] - [Very Poor]
Combativeness
Hand-to-Hand Combat: Below Average. Nicoās played sports before and heās not unhealthy per se, but heās definitely by no means educated in terms of fighting. If anything, his only advantage is his relatively large(r) size and the fact that he lifts books for a living.
Melee Combat: Very Poor. Besides the roughhousing he would get into as a kid, using sticks or whatnot as pretend swords, Nico has never used a weapon in his life. Heās not really planning on starting anytime soon either.
Ranged Combat: Very Poor. Considering heās never fired a gun or learned how to use any other sort of weapon, it is unsurprising that he is not very good at this. By any definition.
Control Over Power: TBA
Group Affiliation
TBA
Marital Status
Single, never married
Relatives
Taylor Grant - Mother
Yoseph Grant - Father
Sarah Grant - Older Sister
Noah Grant - Younger Brother
Elena Grant - Younger Sister
Origin
Metro City
Occupation
Librarian Assistant
Nico was born in the city to Taylor Grant and Yoseph (Joseph) Grant. His parents raised him in the Jewish section of Metro, which makes sense considering that the last five generations of his family are Jewish. He was a naturally bright young boy, always curious and making up stories about how he was going to be an astronaut. Or a sailor. Or a pilot. At one point it was fire fighter. Really, he just dreamed and dreamed big, like any child. His parents were more than happy to indulge him, though their attention was taken by his older sister, Sarah, and eventually by his younger siblings Noah and Elena. Still, no one would say that Nico did not have a loving family and he certainly felt it.
Elementary school and junior high were relatively normal for him, though he always did feel a bit different from everyone else. He believed it was a matter of religion; while everyone else got Christmas gifts under a tree, he lit a menorah and exchanged eight presents with his family. Still, it wasnāt that much of a deal until he got to high school where puberty hit Nico like a monster truck.
He liked everyone. They liked him. Except, well, he liked them in the sense that he wanted to take them to the movies and out for dinner and give them flowers. But especially Nico liked a classmate, Tony. There were many awkward attempts to see if there was any interest back, all of which just cumulated into a strong friendship that might have lasted longer if not for a certain event.
Towards the end of sophomore year, when Nico had decided that he was going to ask Tony out, another boy came out as gay. He wasnāt particularly liked or disliked, and in all honesty the majority of the school really couldnāt care less, but it was obvious that he was treated differently by the rest of the guys. Suddenly he wasnāt invited over as much, he wasnāt picked for basketball or football, and there were plenty of narrowed eyes and glares if he looked at someone the wrong way. But there were, unfortunately, those who reacted particularly poorly.
Tony was one of them. Nico watched, too scared to say anything, as his best friend and a group of other guys mercilessly bullied the teen who had otherwise been a perfect stranger. There was nothing he could do, Nico reasoned, and even if he did say anything it wasnāt worth losing his best friend over. But it was then that Nico made himself promise that he wouldnāt tell anyone about the fact that he sometimes liked guys.
It was easy enough to fake during high school anyway, since he liked both well enough. But hearing what Tony called the poor kid, knowing what would happen if anyone did learn about Nicoās preferencesā¦ It wasnāt easy and Nico developed a sense of self-loathing and fell into mild depression. Nothing big enough to warrant too much attention, but just enough to get a prescription for some pills and a conversation or two with his parents. But anything, Nico reasoned, was better than becoming an outcast and a loser.
College came and Nico was ready for a change of pace, somewhere he wasnāt so terrified of being who he was, but he found himself pressured by his parents for the first major time in his life. While he wanted to study to be a teacher, they believed it would be better for him to study something more useful, like business or law. Nico found himself stressed more and more with the problems of adapting to college life, concerns from his parents, and the struggle between wanting to be himself and being terrified of what his new friends might think.
It all came to a head when he was studying one day in the library. Another student tripped over Nicoās backpack and sent a pile of books flying, ones that had to do with education. Helping the young man out, Nico met Jason, who would become his friend, his first male kiss, and his first boyfriend within the span of six months. It wouldnāt be correct to call it love but it was certainly a deep affection and one that helped Nico gain enough courage to tell his parents that he wanted to become a teacher, not whatever else they had planned.
Perhaps Nico would have been able to live a better life, one in which he smiled more and laughed easier, if not for the tendency of Star City, where he went to college, to rain heavily in the fall. If not for the fact that Jason always loved going out for runs in the evening, regardless of the weather. If Nico had just bought his boyfriend a that fucking red jacket instead of the dark blue one for his birthday.
If Jason hadnāt been hit by a car and put into a coma during junior year, just a few weeks before the couple was set to celebrate their two year anniversary.
Nico was by Jasonās bedside when his boyfriendās parents made the decision to pull the plug, only a few months after the accident. Life moved on, everything kept going, but Nico felt trapped in the past. Everything reminded him of Jason. So he dropped out of university and moved back to Metro, a city he hadnāt really lived in for years, in hopes of finishing up undergrad and continuing on the path of being a teacher.