Personality: Nathaniel appears at first to be a fairly average, if somewhat stoic individual. He's sensible and knowledgeable, and he has a lot of patience when dealing with the people around him. Combined with his politely friendly attitude, Nathaniel may seem like a very calm and collected person to people who don't know him. In reality however, Nathaniel tends to get flustered fairly easily, and doesn't perform so well in the event of non-duel-related confrontation. He acts much more relaxed and friendly around people he actually knows, and it really takes some work to get on his bad side. His composed exterior is also a front to hide some serious self-esteem issues due to an unfortunate incident in his past. In fact, just the mention of the words "Junior Disaster" can cause twitching and stuttering, and continuing to press this little pressure point can cause him to have a full-on nervous breakdown. At heart however, he is still an entertainer. Once you get him in front of a cheering crowd, his entire world lights up, and the previously composed and reserved Nathaniel turns into a grinning, shouting dorkperformer.
History: Toronto, Ontario born and raised, Nathaniel is the only child of a happy family. Throughout his childhood, Nathaniel was all smiles, well-known among those around him for never ever giving up. Having taken up Duel Monsters at a very early age, Nathaniel was especially taken by the Entertainment Duels on TV. Duelists and monsters acting in tandem to bring joy to all who watched them; for Nathaniel, that was the coolest thing in the world, and he dreamed of going pro as an Entertainment Duelist himself. Unfortunately, Nathaniel wasn't very good at the game. In fact, he rarely won a duel, and never once in an actual contest setting. While it wore on him, he wasn't the type to let that stop him, and he continued to enter into numerous Junior Contests with his parents' full loving support.
Five years ago, he entered into the Toronto Junior Entertainment Contest. The preliminary round consisted of each contestant dueling three other random contestants, and judges would decide who moved on based on their performances. Nathaniel, already a crowd favorite at the time due to his cheerful personality and colorful performances, predictably lost his first two duels. Then came the third duel. Nathaniel drew his hand... and it was perfect. After his opponent set up some weak defenses, Nathaniel quickly swarmed the field. The duel was no longer a show to entertain, but a battle in which Nathaniel aimed to overwhelm his opponent as quickly as possible. The OTK he proceeded to deliver was so brutal that his opponent was left sobbing at the end of it. Nathaniel proudly looked to the audience, but no cheers met his ears. Even the judges exchanged no discussion, only wide-eyed stares as they looked on in shock. Realizing what he had done, Nathaniel soon began to bawl as well, and the two young contestants had to be escorted out of the arena. Needlessly to say, Nathaniel did not make it to the next round. This little event, which eventually ended up on Youtube, became known as the Toronto Junior Disaster, and it would continue to haunt Nathaniel to this very day.
Despite his parents' best attempts to cheer him up, Nathaniel didn't enter into any more contests after that. After dropping Duel Monsters for two years, Nathaniel suddenly picked it up again in middle school. He took out the Pendulum Monsters that had led him to his previous pyrrhic victory, and went back to regularly losing with his Main Deck monsters, and although he still won a duel every now and then, these victories were few and far in-between. At this time, he also began to look into applying to the Duel Tower, planning for this to be his one last hurrah in his history of Duel Monsters before he went back to Canada to study marketing or something. As he got on that plane, he felt finally ready to leave the Junior Disaster debacle behind him. After all, this was an institution in the middle of a desert. There is no way these people will have heard about Junior Disaster, right? ...Right?
Favorite Card/Archetype or theme: Performapals, of course. Bowhopper in particular looks super rad.
