Profile
About
Dominic is a university student studying history. He's an arrogant person with a need to always be right, which leads him to cause problems for the people in his life, whether purposeful or accidental.
He sees himself as very ambitious, but really, all he wants is to be somewhat respected in his chosen field and lead a comfortable life with his boyfriend, Oliver. While he certainly has the drive, love for learning, and intelligence to get there, his unpleasant demeanor and inability to work with others hold him back. He can display charisma when he wants to, but it's all very artificial.
Appearance
Dominic is short, pale, and freckled. He has hazel eyes and wears rectangular glasses. His brown hair is parted neatly in the center, swept to either side. He has long eyelashes and thick eyebrows. His face is somewhat square with a strong jawline, and he has a prominent Adam's apple. His build is scrawny with absolutely no muscle.
When it comes to fashion, Dominic's is old. He usually dresses way too formally for any given situation. He owns a distinctive yellow suit which he formerly wore frequently, until he was told one too many times that it looked ridiculous (he disagrees -- he thinks it's a "statement", but he cares about his image). These days, he often wears a white long-sleeve dress shirt with black slacks, occasionally with a tie or a V-neck sweater vest. If it's really hot out, he'll wear a short-sleeve dress shirt, but his wardrobe rarely gets more casual than that.
- coffee
- studying classical antiquity
- early 20th century films
- impressionist piano music
- the color yellow
- Radiohead
- math
- superheroes
- hyperpop
- pumpkin soup
- dogs
- his parents
"This is a leading question."
Backstory
Dominic is the son of two wealthy lawyers. As a child, a lot of pressure was put on him to succeed. Dominic was intelligent and got excellent grades. His parents took his achievements as indicative of their own success and pushed him harder so they could brag to everyone about their perfect son, who was surely going to go far in life, hopefully become a lawyer and carry on their legacy.
Dominic wasn’t interested in the law, at least not the law of the present. He was interested in the past. He would read dense books on world history in his spare time, starting when he was only 15 or so. Past events, beliefs, societies, wars, leaders, and academics all fascinated him with how they came together to influence the direction of modern society.
Dominic’s parents discouraged him from going into the field of history. As a lawyer, he could be highly regarded, make a huge amount of money and keep the law firm in the family. What could he do with a history degree? Job prospects were looking worse every day. But clearly, Dominic had a passion for it, and to dissuade him would be impossible. As for how Dominic felt about all this, he really did not like his parents, and for good reason. They barely saw him as a person, more as a vessel. He ignored their pressures and worked as hard as he could for his own goals. His relationship with his parents was further strained by having to conceal his sexual orientation from them. He grew up into a bitter, angry, emotionally repressed person.
This is not to justify his awfulness. He truly was awful to everyone, sometimes including himself. In spite of all this, Dominic kept his grades up and his hopes high. At university, he finally felt some freedom. While still a freshman, he cut off contact with his parents, but he continued to receive financial support from other family members.
Present Day
As an undergraduate, Dominic has made a few lasting friendships and had a few troubled affairs, particularly his relationship with Alice. However, he's managed to stay mostly focused on his studies. Now, Dominic is an intern at a local museum while preparing to pursue his master's degree. He shares a small apartment with his boyfriend, Oliver. They're having relationship problems. ["Present day" for this series covers a span of about 6 years, but this describes the most recent canon.]
Dominic and Oliver met at a night cooking class, where they were paired together to make lasagna. They hit it off, went on some dates, and sooner or later they became a couple. Now they live together, and things are more serious than any relationship Dominic's had before. All his life, Dominic has viewed people mostly as tools to advance his own goals, and Oliver is the first person he's felt a genuine, strong attachment to. However, Dominic is the most repressed and emotionally unhealthy man on earth, so he doesn't know how to express this attachment. Dominic doesn't show Oliver much affection, and they don't communicate well, so their relationship suffers. Although they do care about each other, it's unlikely things are going to work out between them.
Clem was in Latin club with Dominic, and she began to crush on him. That obviously didn't work out, but they bonded over their mutual interests in history, ancient languages, and film. Clem is now close friends with both Dominic and Oliver.
During their first and second years of university, Dominic and Alice had a tumultuous romantic relationship. Dominic ended the relationship about six months before before Alice would end up coming out as transfeminine.
