• GB Eating GB Whilst Listening To GB - Crywank
• Panda - TTNG
• Stay Lost - Sianvar
• Expectation - Tame Impala

Alfonse's life took a turn for the worse early on when his mother, the family breadwinner, abandoned him and his father. Unable to pay rent in the city they had to move out to the periphery. Alfonse was too young to remember much, but he does still remember how much of a toll it took on his father, how early he woke up to commute for work, how hard he tried to constantly reassure Alfonse at all times that everything would be fine despite their shaky economic situation.

Life with his father in the Richordi periphery was not glamorous but it was not unbearable either. Alfonse's hypersensitivity made finding friends hard but with his father's encouragement, his early childhood years were happy. Alfonse was very attached to his father and cherished his time spent with him. Until middle school, he was all Alfonse had in the way of family, as his mother and her side of the family wanted nothing to do with them, and his paternal grandparents died before Alfonse was born. Rather, Alfonse thought his father was all the family he had until his aunt came into their lives.

His father's younger sister, Alfonse's aunt found herself homeless after being kicked out of the nth rehab clinic for her alcoholism. Her brother took her in to save her from the street and she immediately fit in comfortably with Alfonse and his father, taking on her share of chores, picking up Alfonse from school, shopping for groceries... Alfonse's father appreciated her earnestness in helping him through single parenthood; Alfonse loved having his aunt around because she was always supportive of anything he did, always willing to console him when his classmates made fun of his hypersensitivity or shy nature.

However, that idyllic family did not last long. Unwilling to try rehab (or even a support group) again, Alfonse's aunt relapsed every few months which added an extra source of stress to Alfonse's father's already highly stressful life. The two would often have arguments which ended with the aunt crying and promising to try harder and her brother telling her - over and over again - that all he said was for her own good. Throughout the following years Alfonse's aunt was never a stable presence in his life. She would stay with them for anywhere between a couple of days and some months, then disappear into rehab for an equally unpredictable amount of time, only to come back when her addiction became too much to handle. Yet whenever she came back, Alfonse and his father took her in with open arms. As Alfose grew up he came to confide more in his aunt, seeing her as a close friend more than family. For Alfonse's father however, no amount of love he felt for his sister would diminish how stressful having to watch over her was - and Alfonse saw, through the years, how his father gradually became a shell of his former self, unable to do anything but work and take care of his family.

Alfonse started working as soon as he finished secondary school. He found employment at a newsstand inside the city, which entailed an exhausting daily commute. And the job itself, while not hard, was drab and unpleasant. Alfonse still lived with his father and his aunt, whenever the woman would inevitably find herself back in their small apartment.

His late teens and early twenties were plagued by a slew of unfulfilling relationships. Desperate to find anyone, Alfonse would latch onto people and dedicate himself to them until his emotional issues (and Alfonse's lacklustre attempts to work on himself) became too hard to ignore, and the other party would break up with him. It became depressingly familiar. However, it changed when Alfonse met Zacharie. Theirs was a chance meeting but Alfonse was too much of a romantic to believe in coincidences, so instead believed it had been fate. He fell in love with Zacharie in a matter of weeks. Their relationship became passionate and intense in a staggeringly short time; Alfonse moved in with Zacharie in the man's studio, which aside from saving him the commute from the periphery, also allowed them to spend more time together.

Then Zacharie confessed he had fallen out of love with Alfonse. A casual, passive remark as many of Zacharie's were. Perhaps it was because Alfonse was already too deeply entrenched in the idealised idea of his and Zacharie's relationship, but he chose to ignore Zacharie's feelings and stay with him regardless of how the man might have felt - Zacharie not pushing him away only reinforced Alfonse's choice. Though, as time goes on and their relationship diverts more from what it used to be, Alfonse finds himself growing more aware of how obsessed he is with Zacharie, more cynical, and ultimately, more frustrated at his inability to overcome his feelings.

trivia

• Tends to undercook food because he's so worried about burning it

design

• Often has reddened and puffy eyes, as if he just finished crying (and he probably did)
• Thicc eyebrows
• Loves his turtlenecks

Zacharie

Alfonse's love towards Zacharie is obsessive. Since the moment he developed feelings for the man (shortly after meeting him), Alfonse has dedicated himself wholly to Zacharie. Their relationship - in retrospect - was never the idyllic happy ending Alfonse saw it as, but Alfonse only realised that when it began falling apart and, as it did, what was he to do? Zacharie made it clear he had no feelings for Alfonse. Maybe never had. But Alfonse cannot control his feelings nor stop loving Zacharie, so he still lives with the man, attempting to fool himself into believing they are happy.