Nikolai walks with a spine of steel and a cold expression on his face -- making him hard to approach, at first glance. He has a certain drive in his steps, often serving as a leader in any group he falls in with... no matter how unwillingly he's made to step into that role. Despite the distance that he keeps from most people, Nikolai's loyal to a fault, often feeling like he's guilty for other people's actions, responsible for things he couldn't possibly have caused. He expects the same devotion from his friends and loved ones in return, however. It's hard for him to understand, let alone tolerate, any true act of betrayal.

• Nikolai's incredibly offline; he rarely spends any time on social media (besides Facebook and LinkedIn) and most Internet memes and phrases pass over his head.

• He tends to visit Lucius at the bar Lucius works at, once his classes are over. (This is also where Lucius first got him to start smoking.) Nikolai and Lucius share hairties, whenever one of them can't find one of their own.

• Laverne and Nikolai spend a lot of time knitting and embroidering together, sharing spare yarn with each other whenever they've finished one of their projects.

Laverne is the picture of elegance: you'd be hard-pressed to catch her with a hair out of place that she hasn't intended to be artfully messy in the first place. She speaks with a natural refinement, trained by the years she spent lost in her world of fiction and fantasy when she was young. Somewhat of a hopeless romantic, Laverne still finds herself comparing her books to reality, getting lost in her daydreams and ideals even in the waking world. Nevertheless, she cares for others more wholly and deeply than anybody could ever imagine. The idea of breaking other people's trust upsets her more than anything else.

• When she's working at the library, she gets a lot of visits from her friends... to the point where her coworkers and supervisor have to tell her friends to quiet down, with how loudly they're all talking together in one place.

• Laverne and Cameron plan on creating a children's book together one day, with Laverne providing the writing and Cameron providing the illustrations.

• Tolys is one of the few people that Laverne can share her fiction and classical literature with, having a deeper understanding of their themes and messages in a way that others typically don't. By the time the two of them are finished with a book, they understand it both inside and out, from at least three different perspectives -- minimum.

You tend to hear Kay before you actually see them. They're aggressive, aren't afraid to take up space in a room, and laugh louder than anybody else whenever they find something funny. Finding it a waste of effort to fake friendships they have no intention of keeping up, they can be incredibly condescending and rude towards people that they don't think are worth their time. While they're just as blunt and impolite towards their friends as they are towards strangers, the longer you spend around Kay, the more you understand their sense of humor -- and the strange ways in which they express their loyalty and care.

• In their later years of college, Kay's forced to stop dying their hair, having to cut it short and start wearing more practical clothing as they get considered more seriously for a permanent position as a mechanic.

• Kay drags Clarence out of their room during finals week specifically so that they can dye their hair orange and blue, respectively. (They dye their hair almost all the time. To cope.)

• Whenever Aaron and Kay are together, they're always the loudest people in the room -- you can hear them from a mile away. Half of their texts are just them inviting each other to play various phone games together. (8-ball Pool is their favorite.)

It's easy to lose yourself in conversation when you're talking to Tolys -- he's bright, quick-witted, and has a skill for engaging and prying secrets out of others that few can truly match. She has a wide net of friends and acquaintances, taking good care of her connections and her network so that she doesn't miss out on any opportunities that come her way. Ambitious to the bone, Tolys's sociable mask hides the fact that he's willing to do and sacrifice anything in order to leave a legacy on the world around him. His well-trained charisma is just another tool that she uses in her desperate pursuit of knowledge.

• Tolys started college late because he was busy helping with his father's research -- his father being a well-known academic that Tolys has always compared himself to.

• She started putting his hair in a bun after Lucius, flirtingly, told her that she looked better with her hair up. (Secretly, Lucius was just annoyed at the fact that Tolys looked too much like Laverne with his hair down.)

• Even though Kay openly expresses their distaste for Tolys, Tolys can't help but try to befriend them; she finds them incredibly entertaining to watch and listen to.

Duncan comes off as prickly and rude, often being annoyed by others simply because he doesn't think that they're taking themselves as seriously as he does. It's hard for him to make friends with others; if people aren't willing to actively reach out to him, he'd rather be alone than be the person asking for attention and company on his own initiative. In reality, Duncan finds it hard to manage his emotions, unable to properly express what he's thinking or feeling... unless it's for some kind of paper, of course. His lack of common sense is -- as he'd like to believe -- "made up for" by his intelligence and academic sharpness.

• Duncan's parents were both really into classic literature and Shakespeare. When he was born, they drew lots from a jar filled with names from Macbeth in order to name him. He got lucky as there were… less than ideal options in there.

• Whenever Duncan gets stressed, he goes to a nearby bar or party to drink and observe his surroundings. It usually ends up being the bar that Lucius works at, even though he's too distracted (and tipsy) to actually notice Lucius. Lucius notices, though, and it always annoys him -- knowing that Duncan's "competing" with him for Aaron's time.

• Duncan and Tolys always seem to compete with each other whenever they're together; Duncan can't stand how proudly that Tolys acts about his academic achievements. (Duncan always ends up excusing himself first whenever Tolys is around, though. He gets so irritated that he needs to go somewhere else to cool down.)

Polite and mild-mannered, Clarence usually ends up being a relatively-unassuming person, preferring the company of his work over others. While he's disinclined towards most social situations, he enjoys being around the company of people who don't try to pry at his thoughts. They like coming off as generally friendly and trustable, wanting to stay in others' good graces. At their core, however, they can be somewhat cruel -- and paranoid that the world will learn about that cruelty. Clarence lets very few people ever see his true self; it's easy for him to make acquaintances, but near-impossible for him to find true friends.

• Clarence has always been somewhat photosensitive; he can only sleep when it's completely dark in the room, and they usually have to use an eyemask/sleep mask if he doesn't want to wake up in the middle of the night.

• Both Clarence and Duncan are part of the chess club. They're two of the best players there; it always annoys their friends whenever they face each other, given how long their games drag on and how neither of them can stand being bothered during them.

• Between what Clarence and Lucius know, you could probably find some kind of dirt about everybody that attends their university. The two of them trade information and gossip like it's currency... while Clarence helps Lucius dispose of bodies from the black-market jobs that Lucius takes in order to make extra money.

Lucius comes off as a listening ear, a friendly face, someone that people can rely on and tell their secrets to. He's rarely seen without a subtle smile on his face, the natural gravity in his voice drawing attention to him whether he wants it or not. Most of the time, he does -- preferring to come off as somebody that people can genuinely trust. In reality, Lucius tends to see his relationships as transactional, at best. He gathers information in order to defend himself from a world he thinks is out to get him. Holding a deep disdain for most others, Lucius keeps his secrets close to his chest, refusing to let anyone know his true intentions.

• Lucius had to fund his own college tuition, which is why he works so much even while he's still attending school. His parents refused to help support him.

• He near-exclusively takes morning classes, sleeping in the afternoons so that he can make it to his job on time. (The job's only half the reason he does so -- in reality, he just wants to avoid being on campus whenever Laverne is.)

• Nikolai's one of the few people that Lucius looks forward to seeing when he's on-shift. He smokes with Nikolai whenever he takes his fifteen-minute breaks. He started sharing hairties with Nikolai after Nikolai first offered him one, seeing his hair down one day.

Chanto is like a beam of sunlight; she immediately lightens the mood of every room she walks into, just by how cheery and excitable she usually is. She loves seeing other people happy, genuinely caring about the well-being of both friends and strangers alike. If she could, she'd spend most of her time outdoors -- wanting to work and play in the sunshine as much as she possibly can. At the same time, however, she tends to have a childish naivete to her behavior, acting clumsily and getting distracted by even the most trivial things. It's hard for her to focus when everything around her is just so exciting!

• Chanto loves animals, and was determined to get a dorm room that allowed for pets when she was in college (since she couldn't get one when she was in high school). She now keeps a pet hamster and a rabbit.

• Chanto nearly failed her college entrance exams. The only reason she managed to pass was because Duncan and Aaron worked together to help her cram and study as much as she could; without their help, she probably wouldn't have gotten into university.

• Tolys and Laverne are both teaching assistants in classes that Chanto's taking... and given that they're friends, she tends to see them at the same time more often than not. This gets her embarrassed and flustered, since she has a bit of a crush on both of them.

Shy and closed-off, Cameron finds most people to be too overwhelming or too intimidating to spend long periods of time around. It's easier for them to communicate through the emotions and energy that they put into their art, after all, than to have to deal with the exhaustion that comes with constantly explaining their selective muteness. Cameron can be deeply devoted when it comes to people who accept them for who they are. Around their loved ones, it's easy for them to become almost an entirely different person, communicating using dramatic facial expressions and exaggerated body language that they'd never use in public.

• They started college late because they had to be homeschooled when they were younger, causing them to be held back a year.

• Cameron's selectively mute, and it typically carries over into text as well. They prefer to text using reaction images and GIFs. Chanto loves sending Cameron animal videos, knowing that Cameron will reply with cat reaction pictures that she's never seen before.

• The first time that Cameron and Clarence met, Cameron instantly got bad vibes from him, with a strange feeling telling them that Clarence was up to no good. Even though they're intrigued by Clarence's blueprints (and can even relate to Clarence's wrist problems), they're too scared of him to actually ask him for anything, always having to go through Laverne or Aaron in order to do so.