More info coming

Appearance

When Nik is alone, his body language is quite neutral and he doesn't stand out, but when he gets company, his movement is vivid and he uses his whole body to express himself. He's 189 cm (6'2'') tall, but with people he usually twists his body in positions that make him look shorter. Even though he is expressing himself openly, he will keep distance to other people and is expecting others to stay further as well, though he doesn't exactly flinch when touched. He is quite thin and flexible.
He smiles a lot and he looks way younger than he actually is. His skin is light brown and he has some moles. His big round eyes are warm pale gray and the dark eyelashes and shadows under his eyes add an impression of staring. He has brown straight medium length hair he usually has on a loose ponytail or a bun.

Personality

Nik is cautious to approach other people and he seems reserved and even insecure, but he will relax shortly and he turns out to be a very talkative and genuinely kind person. He will immediately treat nice people as they were his best friends and he can be annoyingly clingy. He's not scared of rude people, either, and if he sees the slightest chance of getting on their better side, he will aim for it. Nik is craving for other people's acceptance and is doing his best to be as likable as possible. He avoids conflicts to the last breath, he is submissive and if he has to disagree, he will put his words extra kindly and apologizes a lot. He rarely loses his temper and he doesn't get upset easily - his positive attitude in a messed up, cold society raises suspicions.

Nik is a terrible liar, his expressions give him away immediately. He might be careful to tell his opinions out loud, but he doesn't see the need to lie about anything. He's trying his best to hide his flickering, though, because he knows he's most likely going to get into troubles if people knew about it. Nik himself is not concerned about his flickering and he is actually happy in his current state that's leading him to his death. Before the exposure to the Echo he was depressed, extremely cautious, cowardly and felt off all the time, and now when Nik is looking back to this person he was before, he can't relate to him anymore. He chose to start a new life with a new attitude, and he has willingly taken the excuse to leave behind all his past mistakes and guilty complexes by separating his new self completely from his past self. He's living one day at the time and doesn't seem like a victim of the circumstances - he sees he has changed into a better person.

Nik is a sensitive person and he has a high emotional reactivity to things. He feels he's more present in the moment than ever before, and he's truly feeling the world with his every cell. He frequently just stops to look at the environment and he finds little details extremely captivating. He has a habit to stare people around him for too long and his behavior is often thought seen as a sign of attraction, but Nik can't feel physical attraction to people at all until he has formed a deep emotional connection with them.

Nik isn't very smart, he doesn't always notice small hints and he often misses the big picture. He has a strong sense of survival, though, and he is good at practical thinking. He chooses his fights and he has no need to prove himself to anybody and easily admits if he has made a mistake - he wants people to like him but as who he is, so he stays true to himself. Nik likes company, but if he has work to do, he prefers to do it on his own because he finds it hard to both get the job done and please the people working with him. Being alone is not a problem for him at all: if given a choice, he actually prefers being alone than with people - despite his new positive attitude, he is still more used to think he's alone in the world and he has to make it on his own. The exposure to the Echo has made him be more interested in people than before, but still, despite his friendliness and openness, he hasn't yet learned how to be at ease with people.

Backstory

s o o n
*3 years later*
S O O N

Extra info

• In Drunnaki culture the birth name is sacred, and it's an immeasurable honor when a drunnaki tells their name. Nik hasn't told his whole name to anyone, not even to his closest friends.
• Nik's exposure to the Echo has made him happier than he ever was - it's an uncommon change, but not one of it's kind. Usually the exposure makes people depressed or erratic.
  • Currently he's flickering, which means the Echo has changed him, but hasn't yet taken control over him.
    • Flickering leads eventually to the stage of glowing(and people who are glowing are called glowers). Then the Echo will have a full control over him and his thoughts, and the Echo hates people. Every glower will only think about how to destroy the humankind.
• The Echo likes animals and the animals like people who have been exposed to it - Nik is often surrounded by stray cats.
  
  

Trivia

• Created in 2020 on a whim - I was thinking about my old Echo (or Glow as I called it earlier) story and I felt like I wanna spice it up a little!
• Totally unintended, but from an "easy" comfort character Nik has become to be more or less a self-insert, which makes him very special to me. ;_;
  • ... Though I'm still going to sacrifice him since his story arc is leading him to his death eventually. ú_ú