zen melton!

Physical description:

1. Name: Zen Melton
2. Age: 22
3. Sex: Nonbinary (she/they pronouns)
4. Ethnicity: White
5. Description of features and mannerisms: Zen is somewhat lanky with long, clumsy limbs. Everything about them can be described as messy. They have deep under-eye bags, and are often found with acne on their face. She tends to be very animated when she talks, and stumbles over their words a lot. Zen carries a restless air about them, always tapping toes and fingers, chewing nails, scratching head, etc. Their hair, dyed and faded, is always in an unkempt mane of a ponytail behind their head. Overall, they carry the air of someone who is always just a little unprepared for their day, most always seeming disheveled or late.

Personal/professional history:

6. Edcuation: Currently enrolled in a prestigious art school as an Oil painting major
7. Occupation: Barista at Starbucks, also does lots of odd jobs for people when they can. Nothing makes them happier than being able to paint commissions for people, though those opportunities are very rare.
8. Description of parents: Zen’s parents are extremely sweet and lax, and she’s terrified of disappointing them. Her mother is a Teen’s Librarian, and her father is a fine artist. They are both 100% supportive of Zen in all of their endeavors, but sometimes, that support makes Zen feel crushed. Her parents are very active in a variety of hobbies and endeavors, which also makes Zen feel like she’s living a very boring life, since she only bounces between homework, work, and sleep. Zen also feels like she will never be as good as her father when it comes to art.
9.  Description of upbringing/childhood: Diagnosed with anxiety at a very young age, Zen has always had trouble with overthinking and committing to things. Their parents were always very patient with them, withdrawing them to homeschool them for the majority of their educational career. Zen never had many friends whatsoever, but took great solace in staying home to draw with their father. In their teen years, their mental health worsened considerably, leading them to act out in a lot of ways. They felt jealous and angry, and like their art was never good enough, and felt very stagnant no matter what they drew. It also dawned on them how lonely and friendless they felt. It took many years for their angst to dissipate, but even now as an adult studying art in college, they are still trying to figure out how to make art fun again – and how to navigate a lot of fresh, new social interactions. Even though their parents were often at a loss of what to do with Zen’s raging storm of emotions, they always did their best to support them, and understand just how important art is to Zen.
10. Main relationships: As mentioned, Zen doesn’t have many friends at all. However, recently, in an Illustration class they were in, they met Haneul, the first boy they’d ever befriended. Oftentimes, they meet up to draw their homework together. They don’t talk much, and Zen doesn’t even know how much they have in common, but it thrills them to have someone that they can call a friend. They also have a coworker at the coffee shop she works at, a really sassy girl named Becca, who always teases Zen for her clumsiness and lack of social tact. But besides them, Zen really doesn’t have a lot of people in her life.
11. Type/intensity of religion, if any: Agnostic, gets very anxious if they think about God or lack of a God for too long. Definitely had a few existential crises about the possibility of dying as a kid. Parents are also very lax about religion, but her dad is vaguely Catholic, since that’s how he was raised. Zen is very confused about the whole thing.

Personality:

12. Basic personality traits (thoughtful, angry, goofy, etc.): Zen is a very strung-out person. They constantly feel like they’re at their wits end. They push themself really hard, to the point of burnout. They are deadly serious about most everything they put their mind to, and are very emotional, too. They have a true artist’s spirit of being eccentric and unpredictable. Most everything that they feel, they feel in extremes, and tend to question everything/overcomplicate things.
13. Shortcomings/weaknesses: When Zen gets too much in their head, they can halt completely in their tracks and become stagnant. For example, sometimes, if they think too hard about an assignment, they might stress over it to the point where they produce nothing at all. They struggle with procrastination. Since they also complicate most social interactions, they prefer not to talk to people much at all. She tends to bully herself for not being more of a “normal person”.
14. Strengths/special abilities: Once Zen gets working on something, she is amazing. She’s very creative and intuitive because of how hard she pushes herself, and because of how much she’s worked to develop her skills over the years. It’s undeniable what a creative and hardworking person she is, and how much they dedicate themself to their craft. They are also amazing at noticing the small details in people’s works to appreciate.

What makes this character tick?

15. Driving motivation(s) or goals: The fact that they don’t have any concrete goals is partially what pushes Zen on. They want to find something that works perfectly for them and fulfills them, but as for right now, all they can do is just work to improve their art. The future is very uncertain for them, and that only makes them want to work harder to become the best artist that they can be.

Interrogate your character:

16. Dirty secret: She may have a crush on Haneul, but she doesn’t really know what having a crush on someone feels like, so that scares her a lot.
17. First love: Haneul… MAYBE?!
18. Favorite music and/or art: For music: The Smiths, Mitski, Mother Mother, Oingo Boingo, classic rock in general, deep tracks when drawing. For art, she has an appreciation for most anything.
19. Incident that created a scar, either physical or mental: The realization as a kid when she compared her own (of course, childish) art to her father’s professional fine art, that she wasn’t as good as he was.
20. Describe a turning point in character’s life: When she moved out of her parents house and into an apartment for school. Suddenly everything that was familiar to her changed. Even though in their early 20s, they felt like they had no identity, and felt like a baby bird thrown out of the nest without any structure.