[Teleios] Application

[powerof_ice]

Player Info

Name: Bria
Age: 38
Contact: ElenaKillbert
Characters Already in Teleios: Sebastian Monroe and Elijah Mikaelson
Reserve: Here!

Character Basics:

Character Name: Nick Armstrong
Journal: powerof_ice
Age: 17
Fandom: The Secret Circle
Canon Point: Near the end of The Power as the house collapses around them.
Debt:

Class A: 1 year
Class B: 2 years
Class C: 137 months = 11 years, 5 months
GRAND TOTAL: 14 years, 5 months

Canon Character Section:

History: Basic info on novels & Brief Nick overview (His personal history, neglected in the wiki, is greatly expounded on in personality section)

Personality:

For his entire life, Nick Armstrong has lived with the shadow of the tragedy that befell the families of Crowhaven Road and left him an orphan. The story of his parents’ death—and that of many other parents on the road—was that sixteen years ago a hurricane hit the island on which New Salem is located, killing nearly half the population of Crowhaven Road. Nick’s parents were among the dead. He was raised by his aunt and uncle, who were constantly bickering and bitter and seemed to eye him with something like resentment, which he never understood. Part of him felt like his parents had done something wrong, been foolish somehow, and now he was left as a burden—not wanted, but tolerated.

In this atmosphere, Nick learned it was best to just not draw attention to himself. Unlike the other boys in the Circle, Nick is quiet, almost to the point that you can forget he’s there. Taciturn would be a good description. He’s not chatty—even when he’s content, he uses as few words as possible to say what needs to be said. It’s as if he’s trying to take up as little space as he can. He’s a presence that can be felt, though, always there, on the edges.

Suzan posits that he’s cold, like his power of ice, and that is how most people seem to see him: cold, withdrawn, brooding, detached, unfeeling. But the ice around him really is just a shell. Faye, Cassie and Diana are the only ones who seem to see beyond it to the fire under the surface, the smoldering embers of a contained, but powerful presence that feels almost too much sometimes. Diana cautions Cassie to be careful—not because Nick might hurt her, but because he’s more vulnerable than he seems. Faye disputes Suzan’s claim of Nick’s cold, reptilian blood, by warning her away from him—Faye and Nick have “an arrangement,” she tells her. And when Cassie dates him to try and forget about Adam, she finds him to be warm and caring, almost hesitant with her, but a bulwark, strong and steady to shelter her in the storm brewing around them. His kinder heart and strength both show, even from the start. The twins have a lot of fun trying to terrorize Cassie and pick on her. When they capture her backpack and basically play keep-away with it, Nick steps in and catches it. He hands it back to Cassie without a word, and she says his look is cold, but when he turns it on Doug and Chris they immediately skulk off. Nick’s power might not be overt, then, but those who are paying attention recognize it.

When the Circle starts digging into their past, they discover that the dead parent of Crowhaven Road were, yes, killed in a hurricane, but not a natural one. Instead, it was a hurricane created by Black John, the powerful witch who had returned from the grave to build the strongest coven the world had ever seen—not the parents’ Circle, though. He wanted their children. He broke up couples, put people with different people in order to create the strongest children possible. When the parents saw how powerful their children were as babies, they realized what he had done, what he was planning. Half of them were determined to destroy Black John, to save their kids, while the other half basically put their heads down and hid. Those who went after Black John paid the ultimate price, but were able to banish him again before doing so. They died heroes, while those left behind had to live with their cowardice.

Nick’s parents both went to fight Black John, and when he finds this out, it lifts that burden of feeling abandoned and ashamed off of his shoulders. His aunt and uncle and parents were two of the engineered couples, he also learns—his aunt was supposed to marry his father, and she never stopped loving him, which, coupled with their cowardice, is the reason for so much strife in their marriage and why she can barely bring herself to look at Nick—every time she does, she sees her lost love and the child that could have been, but isn’t, hers.

That doesn’t make up for the years of emotional neglect, but it gives Nick answers, lets him know it isn’t him that’s broken, it’s them. And with that, he is starting to heal. It’s a very recent knowledge, however, so, as of yet, not much outwardly has changed in his behavior, except for a lightening of his constant broodiness.

The three people who seem most important to Nick are Faye, Cassie and Deb. While he and Deb aren’t seen a great deal together in the books, because it is told through Cassie’s point of view, they were raised together, in the same house and situation with Deb’s parents. Deb loves motorcycles, Nick loves cars—working on them, driving them, speed and primal fun with them, it’s another thing they share.

The Circle does not interact with Outsiders. Cassis is considered not one of them for a long time, because they believe she’s half-Outsider. While this doesn’t seem to bother them yet for the future—they are only 16 and 17, after all—there is also a natural seeming pairing of the Alpha partners, as it were. Diana and Adam, Nick and Faye. Cassie’s arrival disrupts that somewhat, and she is briefly with Nick, then settles with Adam, but Nick and Faye still seem a natural choice—fire and ice. While Nick would never call her his girlfriend, she’s the girl he lost his virginity with, the girl he goes to who gets him, and the girl he kind of figures he’ll end up with—at least until Cassie comes. Nick gets disgusted by Faye’s ploys when compared to Cassie, but as Faye settles (a little) and returns to the Circle, that seems like a relationship that could be mended.

On the other hand, Nick refuses to choose sides in Circle politics. When the vote for coven leader comes on Diana and Faye’s birthday, Nick refuses to vote, saying he won’t participate in it. Having been raised in all that bickering, he knows that it isn’t good for the Circle, and he refuses to let his non-relationship with Faye lump him into her “side,” even though that’s where most people see him.

He doesn’t like Adam; Adam doesn’t like him. There is no canonical reason given, but it is likely Nick’s bad boy image, his refusal to engage and support Diana, and his relationship with Faye all tying into it. He’s jealous of Nick being with Cassie, obviously, but the dislike seems to go far deeper, and it is mentioned that it goes back a long way. Adam can be a bit arrogant, likes to act like he’s in charge, at least of the boys, so that is probably part of the friction there. Like Faye and Diana, Nick and Adam are mirrors of each other, two sides of the coin, dark and light. Nick might straddle the line—as Cassie does—but in Adam’s mind, that puts him in the dark. In Nick’s mind, Adam is a hypocrite and a liar for his refusal to tell Diana about his love for Cassie.

Nick doesn’t like to be bound, doesn’t like to bow to authority—not at school, not in the Circle. His biggest upset at Faye comes when she tries to control him, assumes he’s hers, takes him for granted. At Adam, it comes whenever he tries to assert a similar kind of control. Nick’s got a sort of rebel-without-a-cause thing going, and the “without a cause” is pretty strong. He doesn’t know, yet, where he stands, what he wants. Granted, he’s only 17 and most 17-year-olds don’t know that, yet, either. Knowing his parent died fighting Black John, though, he is completely committed to that, and the pride in their actions likely will lead him toward finding some sort of protective purpose—protect his friends, protect his Circle…quietly in the background. He doesn’t need Adam’s glory and craving the spotlight, but ultimately, Nick gets more done.

Nick’s view of the world is highly insular, like most of the Circle. It’s us vs. them, and them is a world of witch hunters and idiots, basically. There’s an air of superiority most of the Circle carries, but with Nick, it’s as much detachment as anything. Don’t open up, don’t let someone close, don’t let them reject you, because who could ever want him. Beyond the Circle, it’s just worse, a world he might like to visit, to have wide open highways to drive instead of just the island’s roads, but he knows he’d be even more out of place there than at home in New Salem.

Nick’ll probably do just fine in Teleios, on at least an emotional level and groundedness. Faye is there. Diana is there. Deb is there. Cassie isn’t there to pour salt on the wounds she gave his heart, so he can focus back in on the three other members of his Circle he actually likes/cares deeply about. The loss of his magic won’t bother him too much, as he almost never uses it anyway except in rituals with the whole Circle. He’s not much for individual spell-work, though it comes in handy when your drink’s getting hot sitting out in the sun while you work on your car, so being able to cool it back off is nice.

As for his crimes…I don’t think Nick feels guilty for that much of what he’s done. He’s a witch—he won’t see the magic he’s been part of as problematic, and why should he help Outsiders, and what’s wrong with driving his car too fast and being addicted to nicotine anyway? The idea that the Two think Diana has any debt is likely to bother him far more, actually. He doesn’t think she’s a shining angel by a long shot, but crimes? There’s likely going to be a flare of resentment at the idea of being judged by these mysterious beings, and it’ll be a while before he might come to see why he’s incurred his debt, but he’ll accept it mostly with his usual stoicism. Trying to get him to engage with those outside the Circle will be a fun challenge, given he has absolutely no use for Outsiders, but it will be very, very good for him once he does. The fact that Faye is there and has made some connections will help with that, because he may have to be dragged out of his shell by the girls for a while. I think once he’s out and about, though, starts making those connections he’s avoided all his life that he’ll start to be able to look at his choices differently.

He’s probably never gonna be sorry for the joyriding and reckless driving, though. ;-)

Powers/Abilities: Nick is a witch, bred to be part of the most powerful Circle North America has ever seen. Unlike the others in the Circle, he doesn't use his magic a lot, seems fairly disconnected from it individually. He is always a participant in Circle rituals, however, and his particular affinity is for water element, specifically ice.

Appearance: Nick is tall, tan and well muscled. His hair is darkest brown and his eyes are described as "mahogany" (because it was 1990s YA, so). He tends to dress in black--black jeans, black t-shirts and black leather jacket. His t-shirts sometimes wind up with sayings on them like, "Friends don't let friends drive Chevys." Given all the time he spends working on cars, he often has grease stains here and there, and under his nails, but he cleans up really well...although still not in much more than black. The two formal occasions he attends in the novels, he wears black slacks and a black sweater instead of jeans and a t-shirt. I am using Casey Jon Deidrick as his PB:

Samples:

Actionspam Sample:

Valentine's day thread with Faye

Prose Sample:

It's not the time to be messing around with his car. Nick knows this, but he's in the garage on the cold of the night, anyway. School with Black John in charge is intolerable. Stay in class. No roughhousing in the halls. No smoking, even outside. Don't leave school grounds. Rules aimed at them, obviously, as Black John cuts off their ability to gather together, even (loitering), leaving them nowhere to turn but, he hopes, to him.

Like hell that's gonna happen.

What he might have done, before, he doesn't know. It stopped the bickering, at least, to have someone step in--but Black John is kidding himself if he thinks Faye is going to submit the power of the Circle to him, no matter what role he has her playing now. But Nick knows now. Knows what Black John did. Knows why his parents died.

He wants to shake Faye until she remembers as well. Her father died in that hurricane. Her mother has never recovered, abandoning her as surely as Deb's parents have abandoned him--in feeling if not physical care. Their childhoods, their lives could have been so different, if not for Black John. And Faye is standing at his side. The insinuation that she might shift it to more than business with John...makes him sick. Yeah, he knows she wants power, knows she wants control--but he never thought, for all her scheming and games, that she'd go this far.

His wrench slips under the force of the fury he channels into it through his tight grip. It's too much, and the tool hits his other hand, unable to stop its trajectory. Metal bites into skin, and he curses, yanking his bleeding left hand back. For a moment, all he can do is stare at the welling of blood, the rage cycling back into the heavy, almost lost feeling. Black John defeated their parents, and maybe he created them to be stronger than any before them, but the Circle is divided, and they're only teenagers.

Broken as they are, he doesn't have any idea how they'll win this war. A little shaky, he wraps his hand in one of the clean rags on the shelf, then pulls out a cigarette. He'd tried stopping, for Cassie, but he needs it now. Lighting it with a flicker of power, he leans back against the car while his thoughts circle around and around the problem, but come up with no answers.