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Personality

Positive Traits: curious, intelligent, studious, supportive, polite
Negative Traits: shy, obsessive, indecisive, insecure, quiet

Likes: learning, reading, being challenged, new ideas, unexpected (in a good way) results, teaching
Dislikes: physical activity, loud music, simplification, breaking things, unexpected (in a bad way) results

Favorite Class: science
Least Favorite Class: history

Secret: has rotting knees and shoulders that zey hates to be exposed, proud of zeir knitting abilities
Fears: failing a class, misinterpreting a social signal, heights

Hobbies: research, knitting, deciphering diagrams

Personality: Zalir has grown up in the academy, and considers this to be zeir home, zeir community, and, to some extent, zeir duty as well. If the purpose of a university is to teach and to learn, then it is the duty of the student to uphold those values. With this belief in mind, Zalir does not socialize often outside of class, and will, in fact, run away from socialization if confronted with an opportunity for it. Zey has occasionally been forced into it, however, usually to explain a concept to a classmate that zey understands but the classmate does not. In these instances, Zalir has been surprisingly good at explaining things to zeir classmate, and can even be quite animated on these occasions—until alerted to the fact, at which point zey quickly withdraws into zeir shell.

If it sounds like Zalir is self-conscious, it’s because zey is. Zalir has difficulty reading other people’s faces, and is acutely aware that in the past, zey has misinterpreted social signals. Zey is quite afraid of making someone upset or becoming a subject of ridicule, making zem withdraw even further into zeir shell. Zalir was bullied as a child, and has no wish to go through the experience again. Zalir is also self-conscious about zeir appearance—both zeir knees and zeir shoulders are rotted, and zey hates letting anyone else see this. Zey has long since given up on hiding zeir rotten ear, though—zey has to pick their battles somewhere, and the ear is a lost cause.

With no friends, trouble with the senses, and a fear of social interactions, Zalir has withdrawn into zeir books, and the result is a young nightmare who knows a little of everything, but especially of science and magic. When zey gets into a book, zey really gets into a book, and can spend weeks at a time absorbed by the content, whether it be fictional or non-fictional. Class notes are covered in doodles, which sometimes devolve into notes, questions, and theories on the extra-curricular book zey was reading last night. Zey has sometimes gotten in trouble for taking more notes on zeir own thoughts than on the subject at hand. This occasionally leads to a night of cramming before exams, because zeir notes are practically useless!

Zalir is forever asking questions, though zey is too shy to just ask the professor or teacher during class. Zey prefers to ask after class, practically harassing the instructor with questions until zey gets an answer that satisfies zem. It can sometimes get zem into trouble with the staff, and has led to trouble in the past when zeir classmates decide zey is a teacher’s pet or too much of a nerd. But should a classmate try to get help from zem outside of class, well…they had best be very persistent, because Zalir will be afraid that they are just trying to bully zem again.

Zalir’s least two favorite classes are physical education and history. Physical education can be embarrassing, both due to gym uniforms showing off more of zeir body, and because of zeir slow reflexes. On more than one occasion, zey has been hit in the head with a ball that zey had been trying to catch. As for history, zey simply has no interest in it. It’s a subject that involves a lot of people doing a lot of other things, and frankly, zey isn’t familiar with or interested in enough cultures outside of the academy to have any idea of who these people are. It’s these notes that suffer the most from zeir obsessive scribblings.

Zalir’s favorite classes are alchemy and science, especially chemistry. Both of these deal with the material of the world, and Zalir considers this to be of utmost importance to anyone who actually lives in the world. It’s here that Zalir’s indecisive nature is at its most obvious—zey wants to be either a chemist or an alchemist, and can’t decide which zey likes better. Zey thinks that because both subjects are rich and fascinating, zey should only pick one or the other, and as a result, every week oscillates between which one zey prefers. Zalir will devour any new book zey finds on the subject, and will voraciously read it and think about it. This is where those hijacked class notes come in…zeir opinions about various theories and hypotheses fluctuate with which book zey has read most recently. This doesn’t exactly help zeir self-esteem, as zey feels like this makes zem ephemeral and wishy-washy.

Zey loves academia, but there are some aspects of it that zey finds distasteful. For one thing, zey hates simplification. Zey admires the world for its complexity, and feels like simplification and modeling remove the subtlety from it. Zalir is still willing to use models to teach people and to explain things, but zey wishes, nonetheless, that it was not necessary. Zeir love of science also gives zem the idea that things should be predictable—hence zeir dislike of the wishy-washy things in life. Science teaches zem that if an experiment has an unexpected result, then either the theory was wrong or zey set it up improperly. Both of these are unacceptable to Zalir.

When Zalir isn’t studying, reading, or theorizing, zey can be found knitting in a common room. Zey learned the technique from a book, and prefers to knit as many of zeir clothes as possible—that way, zey can have things just the way zey likes them, and in just the right colors. It feels good to express zemself, though Zalir does not normally think of zeirself as creative, and will hotly stutteringly deny it if accused of creativity. Knitting is one of the few ways that Zalir expresses zemself in public, and zey is secretly proud that zey was able to learn all this from a book—without help!—when zey was a freshling.

Zalir does not have any friends at the moment, but this does not mean that Zalir will never make friends—zey is completely capable of it, but zey has not yet done so. The best chance Zalir has of making friends is if other people reach out to zem—whether it’s to ask zem to join a club or ask zem for help. Zey would kind of like a friend—everything people have said about friends makes them sound like a really swell thing to have—but doesn’t know how to go about it or who, even, to try to approach. Zeir lack of friends is not due to lack of interest, but rather to frozen anxiety.

(This is a part of Zalir’s character development I would like to concentrate on during zeir junior and senior years at academy, and I have left it deliberately blank to offer more opportunity for growth. As a junior, Zalir will join clubs, organize study groups, and generally be eased out of zeir shell. It will probably start when zey start meeting more and more bookworms, as well as sweet, kind, extroverted students. I would like zem to eventually be a founding member of a club, probably for knitting or suchlike, and I would also like zem to start tutoring other students—as well as receive tutoring from someone better versed in history.)

Although Zalir feels quite comfortable in zeir house, zey is not exactly proud of it, per se. Zalir has no interest in participating in house events, and does not see zemself ever getting involved. So far as Zalir is concerned, Enoch’s major concentrations are of more importance than the ability to belong with like-minded people, though zey will hopefully grow to appreciate the camaraderie of fellow science students.

Updated!