Afzin Al-Tamar

✦ "Of Celestial Cartography". -- About

It's no secret that Afzin is just one of the Sumeru Akademiya's exhausted undergraduates, studying the stars as an astronomy student in the Rtawahist Darshan. Often seen haunting the Akademiya's House of Daena or the nearby Puspa Café, he is an introverted type with an inherent curiosity for the world around him. Despite preferring his own company, Afzin knows how to be sociable and can get along with others decently well in most situations, pushing himself to interact with others if not just to break the cycle of studying and snatched moments of sleep to clear his mind a little. Afzin isn't the most adept at making friends due to a combination of factors, but he's by no means a mean or unlikeable person and approaches most situations at least with affable civility ( provided nothing happens to instigate his irritation ), if not a sense of apprehension about how he will be treated. He tends to warm up more to people if he has common ground with them, particularly his favourite things like ancient runic scripts or Genius Invokation TCG, quickly changing his tune from somewhat wary to wholeheartedly delighted when indulged.

Afzin can often be abrasive; he has an unwelcome tendency to speak without thinking, leading to him spitting out insults and venom over the simplest issues when he is angered. Luckily, such bouts never last very long and he is often over them within a breath of being set off in the first place - a forgive-and-forget type when it comes to conflicts with others, no matter how big or small. To say he is neurotic and a little on-edge much of the time is most definitely an understatement; amidst a flurry of essay-writing and late-night stargazing, Afzin has developed a short and rather snappy temper, a tendency to get upset very easily and is often prone to brief moments of panic and periods of high stress. He's a hardworking soul who puts his all into his research work and the piecing-together of his final thesis, meticulously trying to see to every detail, but the cost has taken a great toll on him. Afzin is chronically fatigued from a lack of sleep, and he often over-indulges in coffee to keep himself awake through the nights, resulting in an near-permanent caffeine high. He is jittery, often full of energy and is rarely seen doing nothing at all; Afzin also has ADHD, which also contributes enormously to his distracted and overactive nature, and his inability to pay attention particularly in social and academic situations.

Overall, Afzin is a creative but highly-emotional individual, but one who errs toward mood swings and burnout often as a result of his hectic lifestyle. Because of these factors, Afzin feels he is quite a misunderstood person. This means that he grows very attached to the few people he feels understand him well enough very quickly, and he can often be a little over-dependent on them in return for absolute loyalty and a deep and unshakeable affection. With such people, he can be warm, funny and relaxed to the point of being completely shameless; he tends to be a little bit of a braggart with absolutely nothing to back up his claims, often sensationalising his own thoughts and ideas with an embarrassment-inducing amount of grandiose. He also likes to help the people around him with their own schoolwork in return for others covering his weaknesses in his own, enjoying a sense of community with his peers built on helping each other and sharing knowledge and understanding related to their fields.

Though he comes across as a wallflower, Afzin has never allowed himself to be a victim and will let nobody walk all over him; he firmly bites back if someone tries to start on him, and isn't afraid to speak his mind if he feels he needs to get his point across. He's also artlessly ( and brutally ) stubborn and pigheaded, and will keep pushing others until they relent and give him his own way regardless of how many times they refuse to help him - a firm believer that, if he annoys someone enough, they'll acquiesce to his request if not simply to shut him up and get him out of the way. He's terrible at reading the mood and / or current situation before he responds, leading to many naively-insensitive words and actions in the past and very little sense of what he did to cause hurt. Getting along with Afzin sometimes requires a certain amount of patience to be invested in him.

Appearance

Afzin is tall and lanky, with a height of 6'0" ( 183 cm ) and a posture that reflects his terrible sitting habits - he slouches constantly, making him seem shorter than he truly is. He has brown skin with a clear complexion, and a notable mole on the left side of his neck. Afzin has strong features; a broad Roman nose and thick dark eyebrows that are naturally turned inward as if he were angry, with the right eyebrow having a slit in it where an old scar sits. As he doesn't sleep very well, his amber-orange eyes are surrounded by noticeable eyebags that betray his weariness. However, he hides the worst of his dark circles with smoky orange eyeshadow. He has round, plump lips and a natural frown set into the corner of his mouth. Afzin's hair is two-toned, dark brown at the fringe and side, and red-orange in the back; it is thick and wildly wavy and curly, streaked through with grey hairs from stressing about his schoolwork, and typically worn up in a loose low bun toward the left. Afzin always wears a hat on his head to cover the worst of his untameable hair, most typically a blue hat with a star and moon pattern and the emblem of the Rtawahist Darshan attached just over his left ear. There are two silver star-shaped earrings in both of his earlobes.

Afzin wears a light, powder blue kurta jacket with white stitching on the collar and fastenings, and matching cropped pants in the same colour that cut off just above his ankle. Beneath his jacket, he wears a white cotton shirt, and over the top an array of silver decorated chains in different lengths that reach down to his waist. For footwear, he favours light brown leather mid-calf boots with flat soles, decorated with silver star embroidery and thin filigree silver threads. Over his ensemble, Afzin dons a decorative overcoat in both light and dark blue - the overcoat is pleated between both colours, decorated with blue flowers at the bottom hem and a dark blue, silver-trimmed collar. Afzin's Vision is worn at the back of his neck, fastened to the coat collar just below his nape. Notably, his coat is oversized and the sleeves are long enough to allow him to hide his hands in them. He has also chewed thumbholes into them. Over his ensemble, he wears a long pale red-orange scarf wrapped around his shoulders and fastened with silver laurel wreath pins, so the ends both fall at his front.