Okay I am INFINITELY curious, what is this little funny half-life ape man I keep seeing? 'Cause he's fucking COOL. Unironically? I feel there's a story here, and I desperately want to read it...
EEK well i'm glad you like him!!!! That means a lot ;_; He's a Simius! a small species of primate i came up that's inspired by the borrowers. They are aboreal, crepuscular/nocturnal scavengers. On my blog Colacaridi i go more in debth abt their speculative biology if Ur interested.
His story is soooo long so i'll try to summarize best i can. Nicholas was born around the 70s, so a while before the war. He was the smallest and shyest so his mom thought he'd die early, and that gave him and her a troubled relationship. In his childhood he witnessed plenty of horrors, as it is for all small creatures at the bottom of the food chain, many of which were a reminder of the threat humans pose. He Is, like all Simius, terrified of humans. They had always been their main predators, so the fear is not only taught but instinctual.
He loses his family when the resonance cascade happens. He's devastated and angry and scared, but he has no time to mourn. The next decade it's just him trying to survive with his pigeon friend. During this time he finds no one else of his kind, and eventually gives up entirely in finding anyone when attacked by a spore infected Simius. He spends the past twenty years alone and beliving to be the last of his kind (though he is not in reality)
Nicholas is quiet, jumpy, nevrotic, lonely and paranoid. He feels in duty to survive the best he can so that his people will die with dignity, as well as to prove himself (which connects to when he was young with his mother) because of the stress as well of his traumas he starts hallucinating, both visual and auditory. It's been a reacurring thing. He tends to self harm to focus. He's genuinely a sweet guy, but all he had known for years was pain and violence, and he's been alone for so long he forgot how to be with others, if he ever got the chance.
He fears and despises humans deeply. He is only vaguely aware of what is going on with the resistance and the combine.
At some point, Nicholas while foraging, gets into a scuffle with a mouse that ends up injurying him when they fight in a vermin trap. He kills it but is trapped, and later found by the gardener of the rebel base: Finch. A defective combine soldier that the rebels had took in.
Finch takes it upon themself to house Nicholas until he's healed, and this is a terrifying situation for Nick.
He's terrified of Finch. He's cornered and hurt and helpless with a giant predator hanging over him, touching him. He hates them for putting him through this, for being this cruel for no reason. He's ashamed for letting them catch him. He doesn't want to spend the rest of his life in a box as some human's pet. He's in constant stress.
However, during his time there, Finch is very patient and sweet with him. They don't bother him if they don't have to, they don't retaliate when he bites them, they bring him things to keep him busy. Eventually Nicholas starts to listen, starts to get interested, starts to trust them. It's very slow, Nicholas is still jumpy and shy when he approaches Finch or even climbs into their hand, but it's happening.
But It shouldn't happen, Nicholas shouldn't get comfortable with a human, it's wrong and it's dangerous. There's something wrong with him. So in the middle of the night, half healed and without saying goodbye he leaves.
But getting a taste of company just makes him realize how much he missed having someone else with him, to talk to. Someone who doesn't want to hurt him. When he goes back to his hollow, he realizes how quiet it is.
In a moment of desperation, he goes back. He doesn't want to be alone again, and of course Finch is more than happy to see him.
Nicholas still lives at his own home, but now very frequently visits the base and Finch, to whom he has a strong bond with, and even helps with his engineering skills. He's still traumatized, and he's still nevrotic and shy. He doesn't trust people easy and he's nervous around humans he doesn't know, but he's not alone anymore.
I wish i could Say i wrote his story out but i didn't....this Is very summarized and i had to leave some details out but if you have any questions id be more than happy to answer !! :>