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Adam and MINDLESSAMBITION
I hope you don’t mind that the character profile is rather basic- I generally like to leave it simple and see where the rp takes the character.
Nice. Would you like me to open?
Got it. Just give me a moment.
Troy was sitting on a bench near the sidewalk, doodling absently in his beat-up notebook and watching people walk by. He had an old duffel bag tucked under the bench behind his feet, which contained anything and everything he owned at the time; mostly half-empty paint tubes, brushes, and canvas, as well as a few changes of clothes and a water bottle.
When he saw Xander pass by, and then wave at him, his face flushed and he paused his doodling. What was he supposed to do? Wave back, probably, but wow, this guy. Troy was terrible when it came to people, and though he usually tried his best to act normal, it was hard when he wasn’t expecting to have to interact with someone. He quickly waved back, then in a moment of recklessness, tucked his sketchbook under his arm and ran up to the guy, bumping into a few people as he did. “Uh- hi-! Sorry- sorry I just happened to uhm- hi.”
“Yes.” He nodded, then kept talking, still flustered and having no idea what he was doing. “I noticed that you’re, uh, very pretty, and I thought- just, maybe if you’re free sometime recently- I mean soon- if you’d be willing to sit for a painting, that would be great and I would give you money for your time.” He smiled nervously. He knew he’d botched that whole thing, but he couldn’t blame himself too much, because he hadn’t had time to think about what he was saying.
He grinned, excited that Xander had agreed. He hadn’t exactly expected this to work. “Oh, uh, my name is Troy. Xander is a nice name.” He said, not pronouncing the x quite right, but getting close enough that it wasn’t too noticeable.
“Oh, yeah, sure! I can uh- I have some in my bag.” He said, nodding quickly and taking a step backward towards the bench his bag still sat under, silently asking Xander to follow.
“Uhhh. Yeah. I live around here.” He said, not exactly lying. While he didn’t have a proper home, he still lived in the general area, and did know it very well. He reached under the bench for his duffel bag, then set it down and started to rummage around in it. All his finished paintings were at the bottom, and he clumsily pulled two of them out. Both were of women, and they looked on the older side, maybe 40-50. His style seemed realistic, but enhanced with a subtle element of exaggeration which gave it a charming feel, incorporating the texture of the acrylic paint in the artwork itself.
“Thank you! Oh- uhm, and yeah, I have lots of friends.” He nodded, putting his things back away in his back and standing up, looking around for a spot that would be nice for painting.
He laughed quietly. “I usually just approach anyone I think looks interesting. Once or twice someone has come to up me and asked about my paintings, and I always offer to paint someone when they approach me first.”
“O-oh, are you sure?” He asked, feeling a bit guilty. “I don’t want to keep you from anywhere.”
He flinched back from the touch and gave a nervous half-laugh. “Ah, okay, that does make sense.” He nodded. Part of him wanted to ask what Xander’s job was, but from when he’d asked people that before, it usually ended with them asking him in return, and he didn’t want to have to lie.
“Yeah! Hmm…” He looked around for a moment longer at the grassy lot behind his bench. He picked up his duffel bag and walked over to a tree he found particularly pretty. “Okay, okay, how about you can lean on the tree, and that will be what I paint? I think that’d be a cute scene.”
“Yeah! Wow, that’s perfect.” He grinned, sitting down on his knees in the grass and taking out his painting supplies. With a light blue color, he started to block in some basic shapes, as a sketch of sorts.
“Mhm. You’re look very… natural. Do you pose for things a lot?” He looked up at Xander and the scene around him, before grabbing a few tubes of paint to use to mix the colors he needed. He mixed the colors with a cheap plastic palette knife on the cover of his notebook.
“Yeah, it’s very pretty.” He nodded, applying paint to the canvas in broad, sweeping strokes. He looked up at Xander frequently as a reference.
“Hm… maybe five with ten- fifteen minutes.” He said, shrugging. “But I can go quicker if you need to leave, probably.”
His face flushed. “Ah- uh, y-yes, sir.” He replied, a little quieter than before. He never quite knew how to react to comments like that, so he resorted to his more comfortable default of being polite.
“Huh? Oh- oh, no, I’m not uncomfortable. I just get nervous. I’m not, eh, the best at responding to flattery.” He said with a nervous laugh.
“Plenty of people deserve it more than me.” He said with a lighthearted sigh, looking down at the painting as he worked.
The sincerity of that caught him off-guard. “Thank you… that was very nice of you.” He said, smiling.
“Uhhh.” He thought for a second. “Depends, what month is it?”
“It’s in August. Forgot the day though. But that means I’m 21 right now.” He said, shrugging.
He grinned. “Really? I would have thought you were older than me. Huh.”
He nodded. “Mhm. Very strange things.” He said, leaning closer to the canvas as he started to polish up the finer details.
After a few more minutes, Troy used a thin liner brush and some white paint to sign his name. His signature was small, a little messy, and inconspicuous- it could easily be mistaken for just another bit of graffiti on the alley wall that sat behind Xander, beyond the grassy lot they were on right now. His style wasn’t quite realistic, having a subtle but interesting element of exaggeration to it. He wiped his brushes clean on his jeans, capped his paints, and sat back. “Alright, you can come look at it now!” He said, smiling.
“Oh, don’t flatter me! It’s nothing special.” He said, blushing. “It’ll be dry in a minute or so.”
“W-well, I’m glad you like it.” He said, smiling. “If you ever are free and… I dunno… I mean, I’m not great at talking, but I’m usually in this area and I definitely wouldn’t mind speaking to you again.” He rushed the bit, getting nervous but not wanting to stop mid-sentence.
He nodded, smiling. This was going far better than he’d expected. “Yeah! And you’re… Xander.” He said, again mispronouncing the X. “No, I’m not saying that right- Xander. There.”
“Alright. I’ll see you around.” He said, quickly checking to make sure that the painting was dry- he’d used acrylics and thin layers, so it was- before handing it to Xander.
“S-see you soon.” He said, lowering his voice out of shyness. He was a bit overwhelmed with all the compliments. He watched Xander leave, waving goodbye.
(Mhm, just give me a second. :) )
The next day, Troy was on the same bench he’d been on the previous day, wearing the same oversized blue T-shirt and pale jeans as the day before. He’d just finished brushing his hair, and left it down, unlike yesterday’s ponytail. He put his little handheld mirror and brush back in his bag, before taking out a messy-looking binder and a notebook, occasionally glancing at the binder as he wrote in the notebook.
Even though he was exhausted, he found comfort in what he was doing. Making money was hard since he couldn’t get a real job, so he’d resorted to tutoring a group of local high schoolers, helping them with their math work. He’d always had a thing for math. Numbers never lied to him, not like words could. So he didn’t mind the work at all.
((Hello, hope you’re doing well :) ))
((It’s alright! Dw))After a little while, he looked up from the papers only to see none other than Xander, walking along the sidewalk just as he’d been yesterday. A grin broke out across his face and he set aside the math work he’d been doing, waving at Xander.
“Ahah, yeah!” He said nervously, shutting the binder and looking at him. “Are you- are you doing well?”
“Mhm!” He nodded, despite the fact that he hadn’t really slept last night. He didn’t sleep every night, mostly because he couldn’t find a place he deemed safe enough, or because he was busy doing other things. He wasn’t about to admit to that, though. “So, uh, what are you supposed to do today?”
“Oh, uh, we. I dunno. What kind of things do you like to do?”
He swallowed nervously, but nodded. “Uh- yeah, that- that sounds good.” He nodded, biting the insid of his cheek. Nobody had ever invited him to hang out so quickly after meeting him, and especially not at their house. He was worried that there might be some sort of ulterior motive going on, but at the same time, he knew he could defend himself if things went askew.
He nodded, hastily grabbing his duffel bag from under the bench and putting the binder back in it, before standing and putting it over his shoulder.
He pulled his hand back, grabbing onto the strap of his bag as he moved to walk just a little further from Xander. “So, er, how far away is your house?”
He nodded, relieved that Xander didn’t comment about him pulling away so quickly. “That’s good. What- what kinds of movies do you watch?”
He smiled slightly. “Good to know.”
He nodded quickly and followed Xander.
He watched Xander carefully, glancing around as he unlocked the door before going inside with him. He let out a small huff of relief to be inside- even though it wasn’t freezing outside, the weather had been cooling down a bit. Glancing around, he took in Xander’s house, scoping out his surroundings.
((Sorry for any typos, I’m on mobile atm))
Age: 21
Gender: Male, cisgender
Orientation: Gay
Appearance: https://pin.it/1RfIBvc