Brooks Chau

+ Patient ・Thorough・Optimistic・Sincere
= Passive・Methodological・ Unambitious
- Oversensitive・Forgetful・Cowardly・Weak-willed

Brooks is someone who is patient (+), willing to wait as long as needed for anything or anyone. This, paired with his tendency to be thorough (+), helps him do good and productive work during his day job at the plant nursery.

Having worked with a variety of people, he does his best to be calm and optimistic (+), hopeful that things will work out in the end- And if it doesn’t work out, it isn’t the end. He is a sincere (+) person who doesn’t like to say things he doesn’t mean, and believes that while being a good person individually might not change the world, it might improve the lives of other people and himself.

Generally, Brooks is a passive (=) person who prefers to go with the flow rather than let his personal opinions be known, if it isn’t anything major. Though in contrast to his generally passive and flexible disposition towards things in his personal life, he is rather firm and methodological (=) when it comes to things he feels he has knowledge in, such as horticulture. Only preferring to do things by the book or from his own experience, he doesn’t like it when people are dismissive towards following tried and true methods. Despite this, he’s an unambitious (=) person who doesn’t really feel the need to climb any sort of ladder or become rich or famous in his life. He doesn’t mind being stuck in one place, as long as he’s content and happy with where he is now.

At the same time, Brooks is somewhat of an oversensitive (-) person, which sometimes doesn’t pair well with working in retail. He takes others' words too seriously and feels deeply, oftentimes getting teary both when someone raises his voice at him or when someone describes a bad situation they’ve been in, but does his best to keep his cool and answer questions even if you can see his eyes welling up. He’s too cowardly (-) to stand up for himself or even for others if it has implications of damaging his personal life, and perhaps weak-willed in the sense that even if he wanted to stand up for himself or others, being too afraid to do so and inevitably backing out.

And perhaps most surprising to people who know him, despite being rather knowledgeable about plants, he’s very forgetful (-) when it comes to other people and places, needing to write things down or risk forgetting them. Often misplacing his things or getting lost, he unfortunately still relies on his handy Garmin GPS for even basic trips around town.

TW: Backstory includes mentions of verbal abuse

TL;DR:Brooks grew up in Portland, OR as the youngest son in a family of immigrants, with two older sisters. His eldest sister had to take care of him a lot, and to not cause trouble, he stayed indoors reading a lot which sparked an interest in plants. To the disappointment of his family, he studied horticulture instead of a more stable engineering job like his sisters, but eventually lost his job during the 2007 recession. His parents decided to sell their home to retire in Suncrest, OR and Brooks moved back in with them, eventually resolving some trauma in the family and many things working out. Currently he works at a plant nursery in Suncrest.

Youth

Brooks Chau, born Châu Văn Thành, is the youngest son in a family of working class Vietnamese immigrants. While born in Vietnam, his family immigrated to Portland, Oregon by the time he was 2, so he has no memories of his birth country. His two older sisters, having a 5 and 8 year age gap relative to Brooks, on the other hand, remember more of the culture and language, so while the rest of his family can freely speak, understand and write it, he can only understand and speak it conversationally.

As the only and youngest son, he was often spoiled compared to his older sisters, who in turn sometimes resented him for it. While he was often given what he wanted without many expectations placed on him, his oldest sister especially was oftentimes tasked to essentially act as a third parent to Brooks, needing to put her life on hold to ensure the younger of the two siblings were taken care of while their parents went to work.

Growing up, his oldest sister, often overwhelmed with school, studying, taking care of her siblings, and just being a teenage girl, would sometimes take out her anger and frustrations on him and his middle sister through verbal abuse. And when their parents would return, they wouldn't offer much emotional support to their children or show appreciation to their oldest daughter, more occupied with making sure they had enough on the table to eat. Somewhat in reaction to this, Brooks tried his best to be a more passive and unproblematic child, though would still get sad and often cry at his somewhat dysfunctional family situation.

One of the things that calmed him down was flipping through the pictures of beautiful flowers and plants in the encyclopedias gifted to him by relatives, and so if he wasn’t at school or doing homework, he was reading and looking at plants. His interest further grew during a biology unit in grade school, and after an interesting science fair project on light levels and plant growth, his parents began to support his growing interest in it- Assuming he would go into a more stable STEM career.

Adulthood

Both his older sisters were more ambitious and competitive, graduating with high GPAs from high school and going to competitive universities for engineering in California. But by the time Brooks was finishing high school, he was certain he wanted nothing more than being a gardener- Much to the dismay and disapproval of his family.

His parents refused to support his college education, while his elder sisters disagreed but didn’t bother trying to talk him out of it. But unsure of what else to pursue, he went and enrolled in a horticulture program at the community college nearby. Since he had good grades and qualified for FAFSA, he was able to pretty much go to school at minimal cost, and by the time he graduated, his parents had mostly accepted it.

While his sisters were down in California working as engineers, Brooks stayed near his parents. Working for a few years in the Portland area at various gardens and nurseries, all was well until the 2007 recession hit. Both Brooks and his father lost their jobs, and uncertain if they had enough for retirement, Brooks’ parents sold their family home and used the money to buy a cheaper home in Suncrest, Oregon- a small, coastal town in Southern Oregon that they had visited once while driving down to their elder daughters. With Brooks unable to afford rent on his own apartment without a job, he also decided to make the move to the Suncrest home and moved in with his parents.

Brooks was discouraged and disappointed, feeling like a failure moving back in at 26 after insisting he was meant to do work in horticulture. While at first it was difficult to get used to for him, eventually after talking with his now more matured parents, they were able to resolve many past grievances and move on. He prompted them to apologize to their elder daughters, particularly the oldest, and they called their two daughters up to visit. And after a teary family reunion, it seemed like everything turned out okay in the end, and the Chau's had a memorable week spending time at the Suncrest home and the nearby parks and coastal areas, making new and fonder memories together.

Present Day

Now living with his parents, Brooks helps around at his parents home as his form of ‘rent’. Doing most of the cleaning and maintenance work on the house, he also helps with the design and management of their rather beautiful backyard garden. Managing to find a job at a local plant nursery, while the pay isn’t great, it helps out with household expenses, and he feels content with life.

While his parents certainly don’t want their son to live with them forever, Brooks feels content in his current situation and enjoys living with family now, so he isn’t in any rush for things to change. He's especially happy to finally feel a sense of home that he hadn't felt before, so Brooks is happy to enjoy his life as it is now for as long as possible.

N/A

Name: Raiku
Age: 22
Pronouns: She/they
Timezone: PDT (GMT-7)
RP Method: Discord! In server preferred, DMs for headcanons always open though! : D
RP Comfort: Pretty open to anything in terms of interaction/dialogue wise, not comfortable with surprise or immediate ships in group settings!
I try to match lengths but above 3 paragraphs and I can’t guarantee it (you can write however long you want though!) I’m more of an artist than a writer just as a heads up!