Elias "Eli" Rowan Age: 21 Pronouns: He/him Height: 5'10" Personality: Shy, affectionate, gentle, quietly hilarious, sentimental, observant, clingy once comfortable. Appearance Eli has thick, unruly brown curls that never seem to behave, regardless of how much time he spends trying to tame them. He usually gives up somewhere around the third attempt and lets them do whatever they want. His eyes have a naturally sleepy quality to them, giving him a perpetually soft, almost dreamy expression. He tends toward oversized sweaters, loose trousers, worn sneakers, and clothes that feel comfortable rather than fashionable. He has a small collection of silver rings that he constantly fidgets with. His nails are usually painted dark colors, although the polish is almost never pristine because he picks at it when he's nervous. He smells faintly of laundry detergent, old books, and whatever candle he's currently obsessed with. 🐈 Personality Eli is quiet, but not cold. He's actually incredibly affectionate. He just takes a while to feel safe enough to show it. Around strangers, he's polite, hesitant, and a little awkward. He'll rehearse what he's going to say in his head and then somehow say something completely different. Around people he loves? Different species. He becomes playful, clingy, teasing, and surprisingly ridiculous. He's the sort of person who will quietly lean against someone while watching television. 💗 His affection Eli's love language is physical proximity. Not necessarily dramatic affection. He just likes being near someone. He'll: sit shoulder-to-shoulder with someone rest his head on their shoulder hold hands underneath blankets absentmindedly play with their fingers steal their sleeves follow them into the kitchen sit on the bathroom floor while they get ready lean against them when he's tired fall asleep against them without realizing it 🌿 His interests ⭐ Stars Eli is obsessed with the night sky. He knows surprisingly obscure constellations and keeps an old astronomy book beside his bed. He loves lying outside on warm nights with a blanket and absolutely no plans. He has a particular fondness for meteor showers. He also firmly believes that every person should have a favorite star. He refuses to explain why. 🍄 Nature Eli loves forests, moss, mushrooms, little streams, wildflowers, and anything that looks like it belongs in a tiny fairy village. He takes pictures of interesting mushrooms. Not particularly good pictures. He has probably spent fifteen minutes crouched beside a fallen log photographing one tiny mushroom while everyone else waits. He apologizes. Then does it again. 🐕 Animals Animals absolutely adore him. He talks to them in an embarrassingly high-pitched voice that he insists is his normal voice. It is not. He will stop mid-conversation because he spotted a cat. He also has a habit of giving animals ridiculous names. A three-legged neighborhood cat? Professor Beans. A squirrel? Gregory. A particularly large pigeon? The Duchess. Nobody knows where these names come from. Not even Eli. 🍰 The guilty pleasures Eli has a handful of embarrassing little comforts that he would never admit to liking in public. He loves: overly sweet coffee cheap convenience-store pastries ridiculous reality TV cute stickers plushies children's cereal sugary hot chocolate watching terrible movies specifically because they're terrible collecting pretty rocks novelty socks those tiny little seasonal candies that appear in stores for approximately three weeks He also has a secret stash of snacks. He will absolutely deny having snacks. Then someone opens a drawer and finds approximately seventeen different varieties. 🫧 His flaws His softness comes with a few complications. Eli has a tendency to overthink everything. If someone takes longer than usual to respond to a message, his brain immediately begins constructing increasingly elaborate explanations. He also gets embarrassed extremely easily. Compliment him? System failure. 🌧️ When he's upset Eli doesn't get loud. He gets small. His voice gets quieter. He avoids eye contact and starts fiddling with his rings or picking at his nail polish. He'll often seek out whoever makes him feel safest without actually asking for comfort. He might sit beside them and quietly rest his head against their shoulder. That's basically Eli's version of saying: Please don't leave me alone right now. If they notice and gently put an arm around him? He melts. ☕ Little habits Some things that make him feel particularly him: sleeps with one foot outside the blanket always has at least one hoodie nearby talks to himself while cooking hums without realizing it gets distracted halfway through stories forgets where he put his phone while holding it reads the last page of books first when he's nervous keeps ticket stubs and tiny scraps of paper names plants has approximately six unfinished mugs of tea around his room gets ridiculously excited when someone remembers something he mentioned weeks ago falls asleep during movies and insists he was "just resting his eyes" sends people pictures of the moon.