Body and Appearance
1. Describe the character's height and build. Is he heavyset, thin, short, rangy?
At 5'11", Arc's tall, though not imposingly so, and relatively slender.
2. How old is he?
He's sixteen years old.
3. Describe his posture. Does he carry himself well or does he slouch?
He's a bit of a sloucher, invariably bending over a book, a sketchpad, or just avoiding making eye contact with others.
4. How is his health? Is he fit or out of shape? Any illnesses or conditions? Any physical disabilities?
Arc's relatively healthy, and can even do a decent bit of running, but he's not much for heavy lifting.
5. How does he move? Is he clumsy, graceful, tense, fluid?
He's a tad clumsy, although not at Bella Swan levels of klutziness. More, his movements tend to be a bit on the awkward side unless he's familiar with the terrain.
6. How attractive is this character physically? How does he perceive himself in the mirror?
I think he's pretty cute, honestly. The anime art style makes it hard for a character to look 'plain'. Arc thinks he's alright looking, but doesn't really care over much about his appearance. He dislikes his eyes though, 'cause his pupils and irises are a bit smaller than normal, making his whites pretty prominent and thus he used to get teased for looking like a cartoon character.
7. Describe his complexion. Dark, light, clear, scarred?
Brown. Arc's not glaringly dark, but he's pretty obviously not-white, especially in comparison to several of other kids in Squadrons 1-5.
8. Describe his hair: color, texture, style.
Arc's hair is dark brown/black, and is entirely in dreadlocks of varying lengths, although most of his locks are near waist-length. Generally he wears it so that the longer locks are pulled back into a ponytail while he just lets the shorter locks fall wherever.
9. What color are his eyes?
Brown.
10. Does the character have any other noteworthy features?
He's got a bit of a button nose, large eyes with comparatively huge whites, thin eyebrows and a long neck.
11. What are his chief tension centers?
Probably his mouth. When he's stressed he'll clench his teeth, his lips will twist into a grimace, etc.
12. What is the character's wardrobe like? Casual, dressy, utilitarian? Bright colors, pastels, neutrals? Is it varied, or does he have six of the same suit?
Very casual, although despite his picture he doesn't wear rags. Mostly just stuff like t-shirts and jeans, and he favors neutral, earthy colors like black, brown, green, and so forth. There isn't a huge variety in his closet, just a few sets of jeans and t-shirts that he tends to wash and rotate as needed, but he has all the clothes he's likely to need covered.
13. Do his clothes fit well? Does he seem comfortable in them?
Most of his wardrobe fits, even if it's not precisely tailored to his form. He's usually comfortable with what he's wearing, provided it's not a 'monkey suit'.
14. Does he dress the same on the job as he does in his free time? If not, what are the differences?
I suppose you could count his PALADIN uniform, which is both more formal and brighter than his usual wardrobe.
15. You knew it was coming: Boxers, briefs or commando?
Briefs.
Speech
1. What does this character's voice sound like? High-pitched, deep, hoarse?
Arc's voice is of medium pitched- clearly male, but not impressively deep, with a slight rasping quality. Something like a youthful dramatic tenor in terms of range?
2. How does he normally speak? Loud, soft, fast, evenly? Does he talk easily, or does he hesitate?
His voice is a bit low and quiet normally. He doesn't say much, but he's usually pretty certain when he does speak.
3. Does the character have a distinct accent or dialect? Any individual quirks of pronunciation? Any, like, you know, verbal tics?
Arc's from Virginia, so he apparently has a bit of a tidewater accent. One quirk of this is non-rhotic pronunciation- which is to say, he has a tendency to drop the 'r' from words where an r isn't immediately followed by a vowel.
I'm not, nor have I ever been, near Virginia, so this is mostly me just guessing based on some quick googling. So those of you who've been to Virginia might be snickering at my ignorance right now.
4. What language/s does he speak, and with how much fluency?
Arc speaks English, and that's pretty much it.
5. Does he switch languages or dialects in certain situations?
Nope, although odds are he's going to at least expand his vocabulary while he's at PALADIN.
6. Is he a good impromptu speaker, or does he have to think about his words?
He's not much of an impromptu speaker. If he wants to be reasonably eloquent, then he usually needs to take a brief moment to go over how he'll phrase something.
7. Is he eloquent or inarticulate? Under what circumstances might this change?
He's relatively eloquent, in a crude sort of way, provided he has some time to think about his words. The greater the pressure, the higher the chance he'll be inarticulate.
Mental and Emotional
1. How intelligent is this character? Is he book-smart or street-smart?
I'd say Arc is... somewhere around average intelligence, maybe a bit above average. He's not brilliant, but he has his sharp moments. Due to his lack of experiences, he probably leans more towards book-smart than street-smart.
2. Does he think on his feet, or does he need time to deliberate?
Arc prefers time to deliberate if at all possible. He can think on his feet if the situation requires it, but he prefers to gather as much information as he can before making a decision.
3. Describe the character's thought process. Is he more logical, or more intuitive? Idealistic or practical?
Arc's thought process can seem a bit odd at times, as he leaps from disjointed thought to disjointed thought until after much time, he either comes to a conclusion or moves on. It's sort of like a jigsaw puzzle, as he endlessly picks over little scraps and details until suddenly he reveals the big picture. Although I liken it to a puzzle, I think Arc prefers to use his intuition to work things out. He's also a bit of a pessimist, although it's more due to teenage resentment than practical reasons.
4. What kind of education has the character had?
Arc is sixteen years old and most of the way through his high school education, although it's unfortunately been interrupted by the whole alien invasion thing. He also used to go to Sunday school up until he was nine, when his parents had a falling out with the local church. Overall his education has been adequate and his grades have been surprisingly high.
5. What are his areas of expertise? What, if anything, is he interested in learning more about?
Arc's 'thing' is that he's into artwork, mostly just traditional black and white pencil sketches, although he likes working with paint. He's sort of curious about digital artwork, but he prefers to work with his hands and so the photoshop program his grandma bought him is still gathering dust. Most of what he draws are landscapes, but he can draw people with a decent amount of skill. He's also reasonably knowledgeable about the Christian bible. Unfortunately, he's not hugely interested in learning any new things.
6. Is he an introvert or an extrovert?
My brother, upon hearing about Arc, described him as 'insular and spiky' which I think accurately describes his sociability. Which is to say, he's not much for interacting with others and gets angry when people try to push him into being social. That said, he does have some desire to get to know and befriend others, he just has limited patience for people. So I'd say he's more of an introvert.
7. Describe the character's temperament. Is he even-tempered or does he have mood swings? Cheerful or melancholy? Laid-back or driven?
Arc's a bit of a grump, although he's not blowing up at people all the time, he just tends to have an automatic defensiveness and gruffness. This is also combined with a certain dreaminess, and he tends to drift off into his own thoughts a lot. However, he's otherwise pretty levelheaded and prefers to hang back except under certain circumstances.
8. How does he respond to new people or situations? Is he suspicious, relaxed, timid, enthusiastic?
Arc's not too good with new things, and if he doesn't fully understand something he tends to get frustrated and blow it off until he's grown more comfortable with it. It's only unless he's given time to observe something and get a clearer understanding that he starts to relax and express interest. His response to new people is more variable, but he tends to be a bit standoffish the first time he meets someone until he's formed an impression of them.
9. Is he more likely to act, or to react?
Definitely more of a reactionary sort, Arc works mostly as an observer. He pays attention to events, but rarely instigates things.
10. Which is his default: fight or flight?
It sort of depends. Generally he'll choose 'flight' unless it's a situation that's bothering his principles.
11. Describe the character's sense of humor. Does he appreciate jokes? Puns? Gallows humor? Bathroom humor? Pranks?
Like many teenagers, his sense of humor veers towards the dry sarcasm variety. He's not much of a joker overall, but he has some appreciation for irony and absurd situations.
12. Does the character have any diagnosable mental disorders? If yes, how does he deal with them?
Nothing I'm deliberately writing him with.
13. What moments in this character's life have defined him as a person?
Probably the biggest, most dramatic moment in his life so far would be his sibling's betrayal, which put quite the dent in his already bruised trust in authority figures. There would also be his first vision at the age of twelve, of a man and his dog on a motorcycle by the sea, an image that he's redrawn over and over, and identified him as a psychic and therefore somebody who was other from society.
14. What does he fear?
Mostly, Arc fears having to be dependent on others. He fears needing people and he's afraid that other people will hurt him somehow.
15. What are his hopes or aspirations?
In spite of his wariness over Things-He-Doesn't-Understand, Arc has some slightly vague dreams about seeing the world beyond Fall's Church, Virginia. He'd also like to have a girlfriend.
16. What is something he doesn't want anyone to find out about him?
Mainly just the fact that underneath his surly surface Arc is actually a pretty softhearted, vulnerable guy. He also doesn't like sharing his artwork with people, since it's fairly personal to him.
Relationships
1. Describe this character's relationship with his parents.
In a word, strained. They love each other in an automatic sort of way, but have little common ground and Arc's parents left most of the actual raising of Arc up to his older siblings and grandmother. Due to their unpredictable and often irresponsible behavior, Arc doesn't really trust them or see them as people he can go to for support, which means that he also resents them for not being more normal parents. On their side, their parents tend to be rather bewildered by their moody, introverted son and deal with it mostly by ignoring him. His father's named Brandon, his mother's named Kimberly.
2. Does the character have any siblings? What is/was their relationship like?
Arc is a middle child, with two older siblings and two younger siblings. His older siblings are his sister Abital, aged nineteen, and brother Reuvan, aged eighteen. Both of them are very extroverted and social types, and somewhat thrill-seeking. Despite this, they've both got strong responsible streaks thanks to doing a lot of the legwork involved in raising Arc and his younger siblings and in the past when push came to shove, Arc could rely on them. As a result although he still has the problem that he had with his parents where his personality wasn't quite in sync with theirs, he had a lot more respect for Abital and Reuvan than his parents. Hence why it was such a huge blow to him when they gave him up to PALADIN.
He also has two younger siblings, again of mixed gender, consisting of a ten year old boy named Seraiah and a four year old girl named Yiskah. His relationship with Seraiah mostly consists of friendly antagonism. They'll fight over chips, the TV, computer, etc. with Arc usually winning, and Arc will poke fun at his brother and call him Sarah while at the same time semi-jokingly threaten to beat up other kids who do the same thing. Seraiah's also probably the smartest of the five kids or at least would be if they were all the same age, and similar enough to Arc in personality that they have a better understanding of each other than their siblings do.
Yiskah on the other hand, is much harder for Arc to get along with, since her reaction to boredom, stress, not getting her way, being hungry, the sun being in her eyes, etc. is to throw a temper tantrum. As a result Arc usually tries to avoid her, but still ends up looking after her a lot because he's old enough to and Abital and Reuvan have a busier social life than he does. He doesn't like Yiskah much as a person, but Arc does have a certain protectiveness and affection for her since she is his sister after all.
3. Are there other blood relatives to whom he is close? Are there ones he can't stand?
The only other blood relative of note is his grandmother, Mary Hill. Arc and Mary aren't the closest of folks but she probably did more of the dirty work in raising Arc than even Abital and Reuvan did. Unfortunately, her arthritis and other health problems means that she doesn't really leave her house, or even her room, very often and in a way Arc sees her as another person that needs to be taken care of. However, Mary has an artistic streak much like Arc, albeit expressed mostly in poetry, and she encourages Arc to improve himself in this regard. They're both a bit shy about sharing too much of their interest, but if either of them are feeling particularly bold than they might show off some of their work to each other.
4. Are there other, unrelated people whom he considers part of his family? What are his relationships with them?
Arc's fine with the family he has so far. It's difficult for him to get close to people in the first place.
5. Who is/was the character's best friend? How did they meet?
Arc's never really had a Diana Barry to his Anne Shirley, but he's always had a few other boys his own age whom he could hang out with at lunch times to discuss school, girls, local events, random thoughts, etc.
6. Does he have other close friends?
The two boys he's probably been closest to were Nathan and Kevin, as the three of them have been semi-consistently around since middle school even while drifting in and out of other social groups.
7. Does he make friends easily, or does he have trouble getting along with people?
Arc really does not make friends easily for the most part? He tends to be a bit judge-y of people, not to mention I've already described how acerbic he is. Basically it usually takes a while for him and another person to warm up to each other.
8. Which does he consider more important: family or friends?
His family's a higher priority than his friends, whom can take care of themselves.
9. Is the character single, married, divorced, widowed? Has he been married more than once?
Arc's a sixteen year old American male. Yeah, he's never been married or even close to being so.
10. Is he currently in a romantic relationship with someone other than a spouse?
Nope, Arc's single! Ladies.
11. Who was his first crush? Who is his latest?
Arc's probably had a few crushes over the years, mostly of the 'sighing after that cute girl in your biology class from afar without ever actually speaking to her' variety. He's had a grand total of one actual relationship with a girl named Lesly, which barely lasted a month. At the moment there aren't any girls he's particularly interested in.
12. What does he look for in a romantic partner?
He's not overly picky on looks, although it's generally the first thing he notices. He needs to actually respect a girl before he desires an actual relationship, so she'd have to demonstrate a definite degree of competence, reliability, intelligence and sanity. He'd also look for someone who's very tolerant and relaxed around others, even if they're surly or introverted or weird- if a girl makes him uncomfortable about being himself, than she's not worth going for, as far as Arc's concerned.
13. Does the character have children? Grandchildren? If yes, how does he relate to them? If no, does he want any?
Arc has no kids, figures he'll probably have some eventually, but has no desire to actually have some any time soon.
14. Does he have any rivals or enemies?
Various classmates he considers douchebags and who consider Arc a douchebag. Nothing particularly serious though.
15. What is the character's sexual orientation? Where does he fall on the Kinsey scale?
I see Arc as pretty damned straight- ranking from a zero to one on the Kinsey scale. Men really don't do anything for him.
16. How does he feel about sex? How important is it to him?
Sex is a bit asjdfhkfhsb for Arc, as it is for any teenager. He desires it, but isn't really sure how to go about getting it nor is it a huge point of pride for him to get laid. If he did get into a relationship with a girl Arc would probably start trying to push things in the direction of the bedroom after a while, but he'd still be perfectly happy with just mild bits of physical affection such as holding hands, cuddling, etc.
17. What are his turn-ons? Turn-offs? Weird bedroom habits?
Let's not get into that here.
Beliefs
1. Do you know your character's astrological (zodiac of choice) sign? How well does he fit type?
Western astrology: Arc's birthdate is 2007, November 5th, making him a Scorpio. Scorpios are intense, full of FEELINGS which they mostly keep under wraps, and watchful of themselves and others... He's fairly close in terms of personality, although it's not a completely perfect fit.
Eastern astrology: Arc's birthdate is 2007, November 5th, making him a Yin Fire Pig. In contrast, the eastern zodiac is less accurate. Fire Pigs are supposed to be 'bold and adventurous ... never to rest on their laurels' which doesn't really sound like Arc to me.
2. Is this character religious, spiritual, both, or neither? How important are these elements in his life?
Arc's pretty firmly an atheist although he keeps it under wraps since he's grown up in a religious family and community. That said, his clairvoyance provides a... sort of spiritual experience for him, in that he often uses it as a kind of meditation. Both have obviously had a large effect on his life and identity.
3. Does this character have a personal code of morals or ethics? If so, how did that begin? What would it take to compromise it?
He's got the usual society rules in place- y'know, don't lie/cheat/steal/murder/rape/pillage/jaywalk. The sort of stuff that most societies agree on at this point. His moral code isn't exactly written in stone, but he generally will try to do the right thing. He prides himself on keeping promises though he might break one if the consequences for fulfilling it would be severe enough.
4. How does he regard beliefs that differ from his? Is he tolerant, intolerant, curious, indifferent?
Despite being an atheist, he's pretty tolerant and understanding of more religious, spiritual types. Other than that he's usually kind of indifferent to another person's beliefs, unless they run totally opposite to his moral code. (i.e. believing that it's perfectly acceptable to murder somebody of a different class would be uncool.)
5. What prejudices does he hold? Are they irrational or does he have a good reason for them?
He's slightly uncomfortable with male homosexuality, although odds are that he'd get over it if he actually met a gay male. He also distrusts authority figures and those he sees as blindly following them, having a sort of 'guilty until proven innocent' attitude toward it.
Daily Life
1. What is the character's financial situation? Is he rich, poor, comfortable, in debt?
Somewhere between poor and comfortable. His parents and older siblings are pretty happy to spend money on impulsive stuff and then turn around and go, "Uh, whoops! Forgot to buy food!". Their income also tends to be sporadic- one year everyone will be employed and providing money, the next year they'll be living off of Mary's pension check and Abital's minimum wage part-time job. What this generally means is that Arc has a few nice things, but is also used to such things as living off of cheap food, wearing Reuvan's hand me downs, and forgoing a school trip to help buy groceries this month.
2. What is his social status? Has this changed over time, and if so, how has the change affected him?
Not particularly high. He's a kid from an unstable environment and until they get to know him, most people don't see Arc as someone particularly reputable.
3. Where does he live? House, apartment, trailer? Is his home his castle or just a place to crash? What condition is it in? Does he share it with others?
Arc lives in a house which his grandmother owns. It's a little cramped, being a three bedroom house with six-eight people of mixed genders living in at a time. He spends most of his time either on the porch if the weather's nice, or in the walk-in closet he calls his room. (No really- it was built as a walk-in closet attached to the master bedroom, which is now the boy's room and Arc ended up moving into the closet out of sheer privacy desperation.) The house itself isn't about to fall apart, but it's pretty messy most of the time and usually has lots of little things that need to be fixed; a permanently drippy faucet, a rip in the screen door, a window that won't open properly, etc.
4. Besides the basic necessities, what does he spend his money on?
Mostly art supplies, snacks, the occasional tech toy like a cheap phone/PDA, bus rides, etc. He doesn't have a lot of disposable income, so his purchases are few and far between. His sketch books are very crowded, as one might imagine.
5. What does he do for a living? Is he good at it? Does he enjoy it, or would he rather be doing something else?
Arc's in high school and still mooching as much as he can, although before PALADIN came for him he was starting to seriously look into getting a part-time/summer job. You could argue he's also got a job as a psychic at PALADIN. Right now he'd rather be doing something else, but it's a bit too early to tell how it'll go.
6. What are his interests or hobbies? How does he spend his free time?
I think it's probably pretty obvious by now that sketching and occasionally painting are his primary hobbies. He also spends a lot of time using his remote viewing powers, as it's a reasonably interesting way to kill a few minutes at a time. He also likes just... going for walks, hiking if he can, riding his bicycle. He's got a decent appreciation for what nature his town has. Sometimes he hangs out outside of school with Nathan and Kevin or their periphery friends. He watches television, listens to music, chats online, plays Crustacean Crusher with his brothers, typical teenager stuff.
7. What are his eating habits? Does he skip meals, eat out, drink alcohol, avoid certain foods?
I briefly mentioned in his profile that the doctor who examined Arc thinks he could use a healthier diet. Which is pretty true- he mostly eats a lot of cheap food that use copious amounts of salt and grease to make 'em taste good. He doesn't really do meals, preferring to make himself quick snacks regularly throughout the day, and he often skips getting lunch if it's a school day. He tries to avoid alcohol and other recreational substances since he doesn't like the idea of not being in complete control. Overall though, he's not a picky eater.
Associations
Which of the following do you associate with the character, or which is his favorite:
1. Color? Associate: Brown/dark green. Favorite: Also green.
2. Smell? Favorite: Paper.
3. Time of day? Favorite: Sunrise.
4. Season? Associate: Autumn. Favorite: Also autumn.
5. Book? Favorite: Probably some graphic novel or other.
6. Music? Associate: Leaving so soon? Favorite: Progressive Rock.
7. Place? Associate: Virginia. Favorite: Forests.
8. Substance? n/a
9. Plant? Favorite: Trees?
10. Animal? Favorite: Birds.
