Ian Nicholas McKinlen | "Nick" | M | 23
Theme
Personality.Nick is a completely unreliable, unsteady individual that has spent most of his life jumping from town to town and even state to state working small menial jobs, blowing his money on a cheap apartment, booze and weed, hooking up a few times, then leaving as soon as things got to hot for him. He repeats his process several times a year, even replacing his phone and only ever using a select few people as references and previous employers. Nick essentially works the system, and doing so has allotted him a life of working menial, 40-hour-a-week jobs and sleeping with a few dozen women. Most of his attitude is due to his absentee father that not only wanted nothing to do with him, but in the few interactions he had with him often called Nick what ruined his life. His mother fell into a drunken stupor for similar reasons, ultimately leaving Nick to drop out of school only to later attain a G.E.D., party hard and eventually take up his vagabond life in an attempt to escape from commitment and stagnancy. Unless you have moral implications with his lifestyle, Nick is relatively easy to get along with. He has no real prejudices towards anyone and a common quote of his is, "I'll smoke with anybody."
History.As previously stated, Nick comes from a terrible home and terrible childhood. His mother was a pleasant, fair woman from Colorado while his father was an ill-tempered Irishman from Kansas. As is the case of young rogues, one night with Nick's mother led to his conception. His father, Earl McKinlen, attempted the fatherly life fora few years, but ultimately tossed it aside as he couldn't bare being tied down and supporting a family while barely having enough money to drink. Just as Nick was growing old enough to actually understand the dynamic between his parents, his father abruptly left after several instances of both physical and verbal abuse to him and his mother, leaving permanent psychological scars on Nick.
Later in life, Nick watched as his mother could barely support them through a waitressing job and his grades were always poor in school, despite decent potential to be a B student. As Nick hit adolescence, he watched and was enveloped by his mother's despair whom at this point had taken up the bottle and multiple men, originally trying to find a father for Nick and ultimately just falling into what pleasure she could take from the moments. Nick reflected that attitude with youthful promiscuity and an early outlook on partying and drugs. Ultimately, when Nick was of age, he took up a job of his own and somehow always managed to get by, and perform well at the workplace.
Years went by after Nick originally left his mother, his past and his home town, but not much had changed. Despite moving across the north-central United States, he always fell back into the same habits: save up some money, repair his car, then party with whoever, minors included. Nick, with what ingenuity he had, left great impressions on a few people whom were always willing to give him a good character check for job interviews, as long as he cycled them out, and had set up jobs where he excelled solely to later use them as job references. Nick has set up a system to waste his life, and has no real reason to stop now.
Abilities
[ Wind 2 | Earth 1 | Water 1 | Fire 0 | Strength 3 | Channeling 5 | Healing: 4 | Element: 1 ]Nick specializes in 'networking' people. Through mind-melding, shields and transference of energy, Nick can support an entire group, but is relatively weak on his own. He is not specifically strong in any one area as he has a connection with three of the four elements, but he uses this to his advantage as he is capable of assisting 3/4ths of all other magic users due to sharing their affinity, if only slightly. The only element he can use offensively is Wind.
Animal
[North American Porcupine (Erethizon dorsatum)]Information.The porcupine bonded to Nick will only be about a year old. They are generally capable of living on their own at three months and are essentially fully matured, yet still quite young at that age. The porcupine to bond with Nick will share the similar trait of solidarity as he has. The runt of a little, he was removed by his mother and ultimately survived by living off the scraps of his former family. Upon later maturity, he prospered on his own with his own ingenuity, and the simple fact few predators want to fuck with a porcupine. Nick and his bonded animal both share the similar trait of being excluded from or at the very least not fitting into their familial niche and eventually learning to survive on their own, even from a relatively young age. Both of them have overcome, or at least faced, some time of unfair adversity, and survived through it, and that will be the binding factor between the two, 'cause Magic.