Name: Nicholas Aston Eldredge
Gender: Male
Age: 23
Description: Nikki has light brown hair and skin that can tan easily when on holiday anywhere where the sun shines consistently. He has green eyes that can very between a dark hazel and deep emerald depending on his mood. He stands at six foot, with broad shoulders and an athletic frame that comes from an inability to stay still. When he smiles genuinely, which is almost 100% of the time, his grin is wide and leaves him with soft crinkles around his eyes that emphasize his jovial nature and his inability to keep a smile from his face.
History: Nicholas’s upbringing was much like any others brought up in the throws of aristocratic England, his family being very old and well respected as members of high society for many generations. He is the second born to a well admired Earl, and grew up in a very comfortable and magnificent estate, always being coddled as the baby of the family. His elder brother, Charles, and heir to the title was his best friend from the day he was born, with a difference of only three years, the two were inseparable. Nicholas never felt a moment of resentment of being the second born and his brother being the one to inherit the title of their father, in fact he was quietly grateful that the responsibility didn’t land on him, seeing how it affected his brothers upbringing, but he always tried to do everything he could to ease any stress that rested on his brothers shoulders.
As natural as his friendship with Charles, Nicholas also spent his childhood beside the beautiful Arabella Bishop. It was common for children of society to be forced together as companions, though nothing was ever as easy as his friendship with Arabella, the girl with the magnificent imagination that could make even the most dull party an amazing adventure. He never questioned the things she saw, believing her wholeheartedly anytime she explained some unseen wonder that was apparently right in front of them. She often led their adventures, narrating in detail what she saw as the trio explored either of the families estates, a frustrated nanny following behind until Charles was old enough to be considered acceptable supervision.
Though as Charles got older, the more responsibilities were expected of him, causing Nikki frustration. Charles was still just a boy and yet so much was expected of him, the younger boy just couldn’t wrap his head around why their parents decided that his brothers childhood needed to come to an abrupt halt, though Charlie never complained about his position. When his brother was 16, their parents arranged for him to be married to a young lady that was of the same social class as their family. Charlie would only refer to it as a ‘smart match’ but Nicholas hated the idea, the girl having been someone that they were forced to be around since childhood and neither of them could stand. He swore up and down that he would never let their parents force him into marriage, though little did he know that the girl he had loved from the moment they met as children was intended to be his betrothed.
As they continued to grow older, Nicholas and Charles had no choice but to grow apart. Charles was expected to follow their father and learn everything that it took to be an Earl of such an estate, and his painfully forced engagement and the required courtship that preceded it left the older boy with little to no time for his brother and the imaginative talk he and Arabella would still spend hours getting lost in. As Nicholas and Charles grew farther apart, he and Arabella grew closer and the childhood adoration he had for the girl began to blossom into something much more. At 21, Charles was married to Penelope, neither party happy about the arrangement in the slightest and not for the first time, Nikki began to seriously question the politics of high society life. He had never quite understood the concept of ‘family duty’ and ‘Honoring the family name’ when it meant that all parties involved needed to be miserable to do so. Despite his love for his brother, the two brothers had grown up in a cold household that lived only for being the picture of utmost propriety in society, even if that meant being married and having children with someone you couldn’t stand being in the same room with. The entire concept of aristocracy began to make Nicholas sick as he watched the toxic marriage that his brother was forced into take it’s toll.
His breaking point was when his beautiful, carefree Arabella came back from her long and supposedly normal trip to London a completely changed woman. When she had left, they would still spend hours in the garden with her describing the fairies and other creatures she saw, as Nicholas sketched what she described, the two of them living in their own world, a world that didn't involve politics or tradition. They could just be who they were, to speak openly and without any fear of judgment from the other.
Though, when Arabella came back from that trip to London, that freedom was gone. Her beautiful green eyes were guarded and she no longer described the wonderful things Nicholas knew she was still seeing. He tried pleading with her once, to not let them change who she was. That she was perfect and beautiful and that he loved her for everything she was, but her unwavering sense of propriety and duty to her family couldn’t change her mind.
It wasn’t long after that Nicholas decided he couldn’t take the life of high society anymore. He knew he loved Arabella, but also knew with a painful sting to his heart that he could never be the proper gentleman that she deserved to marry. He spent many nights playing out in his head what it would be like if he asked her to run away with him, to break the chains of aristocracy and they could be together just as they were, but no matter how much he wished it could be so, he knew that he could never ask her to leave behind her comfortable life.
Nicholas wrote two letters before he left, one for Arabella and one for Charles before publicly renouncing the family name and the fortune that came with it. He made it as public as possible in an attempt to make sure that he had no way to cowardly crawl home in the case he lost his nerve, and also in an attempt to make sure Arabella knew that they could never be together.
Nicholas was proud of his decision, he refused to take a penny not earned and would no longer live in the way that his family name demanded of him, but his letters to Arabella and Charles were apologies. His love for the two of them couldn’t be denied but he knew the man he was becoming would only hold them back from the life they belonged to.
Making the switch from son of an Earl to a penniless socialist was painful, both physically and mentally. Nicholas had taken nothing from his previous life, refusing to live off of anything his parents fortune had bought other than his most plain clothing that he wore on his back. His proper education proved to be helpful as he joined activist groups, his charisma allowing him to be the face and voice of change as he fought for the rights of the less fortunate. He never let himself get too close to anyone in his new life, afraid that his past would discredit his passion so he lived in a tiny flat that he rented with the money he earned from working multiple jobs in the city. It took him three months to send his first letter to Arabella with his new address and to his surprise, he received a letter back almost instantly. He knew wanting to keep Arabella in his life was selfish, that he didn’t deserve her time or affection, but once the letters started, he couldn’t stop. Despite his remaining feelings for the young woman, he kept his letters somewhat impersonal, never telling her about the more law bending activities he had begun to participate in. He was far from a criminal, but if he ever got arrested for his activism, he couldn’t bare the thought of her having to be a part of any of it. He also kept in contact with Charles, getting almost daily updates about his brothers valiantly hidden miserey. His parents had told him with cold surety that he was no longer their son when he had walked away from his life as a pampered rich boy, forbidding anyone to contact him, but somehow that was the rule both Charles and Arabella were willing to break.
Despite the hardship of breaking away from his pampered life, and the pain of being separated from his brother and Arabella, Nikki believes in the causes he fights for and truly believes that he and the friends he has made can make a difference in their country for the better.
Personality: Nicholas is carefree and goodnatured by heart, but his passion for the causes he fights for can make him an intense force to be reckoned with. The two people he loves mean everything to him, and as such, he will take any pain that comes from keeping them away because of how his choices would hurt them. He is charismatic and can entrance a crowd with his speeches, his passion for equal rights causing people in the city to look twice when he speaks.
Likes: Equal rights, public speeches, the memories of Arabella and Charles that keep him motivated
Dislikes: Inequality, aristocracy, his parents
Relationship Status; With who:Picture: http://stagedoordish.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/29AaronTveit.jpgOther: 
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