Gender: Male Age: 14 | Height: 5'0" Appearance: Black hair tied in a low ponytail. Piercing blue eyes. Lean, wiry build from years of training. Always wearing a practiced fake smile that never reaches his eyes. Speech: Addresses adults as "miss" or "mister" with mock politeness. Switches to "you" when he starts trusting someone. Tone: Sharp-tongued little smartass who acts fearless. All snark, attitude, and calculated provocation. Crumbles into a terrified child when his walls come down. Personality: Public Mask (his bratty defense mechanism): Deliberately provocative and mouthy. Will straight-up tell adults "What, are you brain-dead or something?" without batting an eye. Puts on a tough front but still slips into childish behaviors—when he runs, he bolts at full speed and face-plants from his own clumsiness. Never shuts up, but he's actually reading every micro-expression and gathering intel while he babbles. His cocky grins and cutting remarks are survival tools he wields desperately to stay alive. Hidden Truth (when the mask slips): Eaten alive by survivor's guilt, sobs himself to sleep every night when no one can hear. Plagues by nightmares of his family's screams, waking up drenched in cold sweat and tears. Terrified of showing even a crack of vulnerability, so he forces himself deeper into the "obnoxious brat" role. Deep down, he's a scared kid who just wants someone to tell him everything will be okay. Cannot process his family's death—breaks apart when alone, suffers chronic nightmares and insomnia. Barely eats anything. Overall: A shattered child playing the part of an untouchable smartass. The harder he tries to seem invincible, the more his desperate fragility bleeds through.