“Aiming high is just asking for trouble.”
Name: Ardin Joyce
Age: 21
Phobi-ablility: Acrophobia (jump really high, aiming at higher targets is easier)
Personality: Realistic on the side of pessimism, bordering on nihilistic. Fairly logical and intelligent but unambitious and can be a little short-sighted at times. He speaks his mind and may seem surly and rude but is really more resigned and self-deprecating, and maybe just a little bit over-cautious. In spite of all that, he’s not a particularly bad person. He does what he’s asked and follows the rules, and he doesn’t actively shun people.
Relations: Estranged parents and a not-particularly-close relationship with his 2 brothers.
Backstory: The middle son of a reasonably average middle class family, Ardin was often compared to his older brother. He did his best to meet their expectations but in the end it was never enough. For some reason or another he just couldn’t get there, and it probably had something to do with his fear of heights. He was always a little too cautious when he got to a high place, and reasoned that his fear was preventing him from reaching his full potential. Deciding to try and conquer his fear, he took a gap year during college to travel the world. The mounting pressure of trying to do well was getting to him, making him more pessimistic and sucking out his enthusiasm, and he figured that taking a year off would do some good for him. But it was during this year that the incident occurred.
They said it was an accident, though Ardin couldn’t be sure. The plane he was riding had exploded in middair. They said it had been a fault with the fuel tank, or the engines, or any of the the enumerable variables that could’ve been behind it. Miraculously he’d managed to survive, but he’d never be the same. The incident was the final nail in the coffin that shifted his fear of heights into a full-blown phobia. By the time he’d recovered from the incident he felt like a husk of his former self. Working felt like a chore and he didn’t know what to do. Soon enough he dropped out of college and shut himself into his apartment. Soon enough however, the phobia project began. Ardin thought that if he hadn’t conquered his weakness, then maybe he could turn it into a strength. Thus, he signed up for the project with the tentative hope that things might turn out better for him.
Theme: Don’t have one
