Nickname: “Linds,” mostly.
Gender/Pronoun: Cis man, he/him.
Age: 50.
Birthday: March 5th, 1975.
Sign: Pisces.
Gemstone: Aquamarine and bloodstone.
Blood Type: B–
Fav. Food: Thin Mints. Or a breakfast sandwich with bacon, cheese, and a sunny-side-up egg. But mostly Thin Mints.
Hated Food: Skittles. The dye melts and gets your fingers all sticky, and the fake fruit flavor is absolutely nauseating.
Occupation: Creative director at an advertising agency. He also has a side-hustle in writing fiction (mostly short stories, but sometimes, he mixes it up).
Hobbies:
Queer Community: Lindsey first helped set up a DC pride event in 1993, when he still believed himself straight. Until he came out to himself in 2023, he remained involved as an alleged ally, donating time, energy, and money to support queer spaces/businesses in town and help create safe places for Destiny City’s different LGBTQ+ folks. His involvement in the scene has shifted somewhat since he realized that he’s gay. While he still helps out with organizing things, he also more actively uses these spaces himself, attending events, support groups, and the like as a participant, not an assistant.
Queercore Music & Community: Another scene he got involved in before realizing he’s gay, going to local shows and playing in bands if they needed a bassist and were okay with him being “straight.” He still does those things now, but as an out gay man. As a listener, Lindsey favors the artists he listened to in the early-mid-90’s, but he makes a point of giving new queer artists a shot, even if they aren’t his usual taste. His current band, The Auntie Flames, is a passion project between him and an old friend. They’re pretty much only known locally (unless someone finds them on Spotify), but they have fun.
Songwriting: While he primarily plays bass, Lindsey also knows his way around a lead guitar part and a piano (thank you, mother). He has an easy time writing music for either, largely because he subscribes to the “three chords and the truth” school of songwriting (i.e., simple melodies and harmonies with honest, resonant lyrics). Most of his work goes toward The Auntie Flames (since coming out, he’s written lyrics more often), but he also experiments on his own without necessarily intending it as a project for the band. He’s also happy to help anyone else workshop their songs if he can.
Soccer: Because he shares this hobby with his teenage child, Lindsey generally lets people think he got into soccer from being involved in their youth league. Truthfully, he’s been playing since he was a kid himself. It never led him to anything professional, but running around a field is a good way to stay fit and he has fun connecting with people. Officially, he plays for a local adult recreational league team, but he loves casual, friendly pickup games just as much. You can also find him at every Azure Valley soccer game. Win or lose doesn’t matter; he’s there for his kid and the team.
Sobriety: Not exactly a “hobby” so much as something that requires continual upkeep, even two years sober, and thus, regular effort and focus. On one hand, there’s the individual work, helped along by Lindsey’s therapist and loved ones. On the other hand, he also needs the community provided by his handful of support groups and the people he meets there. Whether he needs someone’s help or he has the chance to reach out and help someone else, those connections are essential to his wellbeing.
Virtues:
Passionate: Lindsey is someone who gets very invested in things. Projects, hobbies and interests, his kid’s hobbies and interests, debates—whatever it is that gets Lindsey going today, he’s going to give it his all. Being allowed to pursue something full-throttle excites him, and he takes joy in projects, outings, and conversations that keep him on his toes. The feelings or motivations underlying any given activity may differ—e.g., he might get into something out of anger or spite, rather than joy, curiosity, etc.—but regardless, the feelings will be genuine and strong.
Curious: A lifelong learner, Lindsey is driven to ask questions and try things out. He’s the sort of person who isn’t content with being handed the right answer to a question or puzzle; he wants to investigate and suss out the right answer in his own way. This also applies to people: Lindsey enjoys hearing other people’s stories and asking them about where they came from, how they got to where they are now, what they’re feeling, etc. Don’t just tell him what the weather’s doing; he also wants to hear your opinions about it.
Open-Minded: Fortunately, Lindsey is not asking questions with the intent to judge anybody for their answers. While he does have a judgmental instinct, it is something that Lindsey works very hard to push through because that’s not who he wants to be. People come from all walks of life, with all kinds of experiences making them who they are. Meeting that with judgment and/or condemnation doesn’t make Lindsey feel good about what he’s putting out into the world, so he tries to be patient and give people chances to show him who they really are.
Tenacious: Doggedly persistent, Lindsey never wants to give up. Not on causes, not on projects, not on groups or ideas, and especially not on people. True, sometimes, you probably need to cut your losses and move on, he realizes that……but he doesn’t want to call it quits on anything he starts until he has tried as many things as he can think of and justify attempting to make it all work. People refusing to give up on him is the biggest reason Lindsey’s still here, and he wants to put that same energy out into the universe.
Flaws:
Intense: In his passions, Lindsey doesn’t always realize how strongly he can come across to others. He rarely, if ever, gives people the time they need to warm up to him, preferring to go full throttle and get to the heart of things rather than wasting time on performative social niceties. When he pursues something or gets wrapped up in a project, he can easily lose the ability to focus on anything else. While he’s aware of these tendencies in himself, he doesn’t do much to change and/or moderate them, leaving everyone else to take him or leave him.
Guarded: For as strong as he comes on, Lindsey is slow to reveal his true depths to people. He uses his intellect, his intensity, and a snarky edge to put up walls between himself and others. This can alienate people and put them off, leaving Lindsey himself isolated and alone. Even when he wants to let people in, getting himself to do so is usually A Whole Process™, with stops, starts, and fumbles as Lindsey fights against a self-defense mechanism that has become instinctive to him.
Blunt: Lindsey is perfectly capable of dressing different sentiments up and presenting them more nicely—his line of work requires that—but he also hates doing it. The fact that he needs to play such verbal dress-up games at work makes him even more loath to do so in his personal life. If he wants to tell you how he feels, he will mince words as little as possible. Even when he does try to be gentler about delivering some news or other, he finds it better to cut to the chase regardless of any potential for hurt feelings.
Overcommitted: Lindsey has too many things in life that he wants to do and a bad habit of disregarding his own boundaries in trying to do all of them. The crunch of multiple deadlines falling in quick succession feels like less of a suggestion that he balance things better for himself, and more of a personal challenge, even when he causes himself and those around him wild amounts of stress. Having a cellphone and a calendar app has made him less likely to accidentally end up with two appointments at the same time, but he will still book himself so solid that he has little to no room for anything to run overtime.
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTIONEyes: Dark green, closer to the blue/cyan end of greens [#144228]. Often (but not always) accompanied by black, rectangle frame glasses.
Hair: Salt-and-pepper: a rich blue-black with some gray streaked throughout. Wavy, voluminous, and perpetually messy. Falls to about his waist when left to its own devices, but regularly tamed into a ponytail or a bun.
Face: Overall rectangle/oblong shape. Longish but not too long, with a strong jaw. Generally clean-shaven. Roman nose (long with a pronounced bridge), slightly misaligned from having gotten broken one too many times.
Skin Tone: #F7E5DA.
Body Type: 5’9”, about 145 pounds. Slim and pretty in shape, especially for his age (being two years alcohol-free helps a lot), but not intimidatingly fit.
Clothes: Most of the time, work dictates that you’ll catch him in sharp blazers, nice suits, and other professional attire. But on his own time, Lindsey is a “jeans and t-shirts” guy, give or take some punk accessories (usually vintage). Since he can still wear concert tees from his twenties, Lindsey often does.
