okay to start out he was my character for this tabletop game called Rifts which is sort of like a dystopian game but more accurately an alt-history type game? and since it came out in the 90s we tried to keep it to that aesthetic dkljhdkd but the plot is like, these rifts started to open up around earth and destroyed everything, and brought in beings from other worlds, dimensions, timelines, etc etc. so now there's aliens and dragons and monsters and demons and robots and amazing tech an people with magic and psychic powers, etc etc... BASICALLY IT WAS ANYTHING GOES HAHA it was a cool setting

so my character's Newt, his actual name is Kristophe but he uses that as an alias. he's a techno-wizard which means he combines magic and technology to make cool weapons and devices that only people with powers can use, so example he'd have to cast spells like fireball out of his rifle, or he could make goggles that had nightvision magic, etc etc

so you can tell he's Russian. in Russia it's reverted back to sort of the dark ages because their country got overrun with demons and the smaller villages decided to return to the old, tried and true way of living as a way of surviving and overcoming it. but this also meant that they have a very god fearing way of living, so anyone who's a magic user is seen as a "witch" and to them that means you must be in league with the demons. the country's also run in a warlord system, where different warlords fight over territory and if you end up in the middle of this you can get messed up, and your quality of life really depends on who currently owns your village.

so his parents were former adventurers/demon hunters that ended up falling in love, and they're pretty progressive compared to a lot of the country. his mother is Tajik-Russian and Muslim, while his father is Catholic. because of that they raised their kids with the teachings and values of both their religions and let them decide what they wanted to believe and follow. he has two older brothers, Ibrahim and Rurik. Ibrahim's a good natured big brother type while Rurik's kind of a grumpy cynical asshole. he also has a little sister Liliya... actually I have an old art of them all together



but yeah as a kid Newt always had an interest in technology. there's a lot of tech in Russia but it's left mostly in the cities, so whenever his father traveled out of town he'd always bring back some little gadget for Newt to play with and take apart. they realized pretty early on he had an abnormally high IQ, so they encouraged him to study while his brothers ended up taking on more of his chores on their farm, which Rurik wasn't happy about.

when they were kids Kristophe always wanted to play with Rurik which his brother basically hated you know... moody preteen boy being followed around by his kid brother, not unusual. ACTUALLY WAIT I have more old art of them as kids:



so one day when Kristophe wanted to play with him Rurik got the idea to try to scare him off once and for all. there was woods near their village that they were always warned not to play in, since demons and fae were said to lurk in there, but Rurik never took it too seriously. so he dared Kristophe to enter the woods with him if he wasn't scared, and Kristophe agreed. but while they were exploring the woods, a sudden thunder storm hit them. scary enough, but in their country storms bring out a type of demon called the Il'ya, which are terrifying shape shifting creatures with animal heads that thrive on chaos. they'll kill anyone left alone outside, unless they are children. they instead love to play a game with children where they kidnap them and hide them in the woods to terrorize them until a search party arrives, and then slaughter the search party. important to know that.

so Rurik and Kristophe are trying to run back home but just as they reached the forest line, a demon swooped in and grabbed Kristophe by the ankle, dragging him back into the woods with him while Rurik could only watch in terror.



when he ran back home, there was nothing his family could do. his mother was a warrior and would have took it on herself, but she was pregnant with their sister at the time, and their father was out of town. none of the other villagers would leave their houses or risk their lives either, they knew too well. luckily a foreign party from America was currently traveling through, which most the townfolk did not trust and would not interact with, but in her desperation their mother asked them to rescue him.

eventually they did find him stored away in the woods traumatized and scared. they couldn't find anything to get him to talk until his attention was caught by one of the party member's tech, who was a techno-wizard. and she was happy to explain it to him and show it to him, which really helped him through it while they got him home. and it's something he never forgot. it amazed him how deep a connection somebody could have to technology with magic, and in secret, he began to study and practice magic while also continuing to study on mechanics and engineering.

Rurik on the other hand took on a more closeminded approach. he felt ashamed for letting that happen to his brother and wanted to get back, so he became a demon hunting farmer essentially. so imagine the blow up when he accidentally stumbled on Newt practicing magic. the punishment for witchcraft could be as severe as banishment or death, and anyone found supporting it (such as his family) would be punished as well. so both out of protection of the rest of the family, and anger at Kristophe for practicing magic at all (which he sees as a betrayal after all he had been through), he turned his brother over to their warlord and his family disowned him publicly, despite loving him still.

so since Kristophe's actually pretty useful with all his knowledge and abilities, the warlord decided to keep him alive but as a prisoner in his camp. and for 5 long years he worked in this camp repairing their vehicles, building weapons, fixing up devices, all the while being bullied and berated by the other workers there, who did not like him. he had a device around his neck that if he tried to escape the camp, it'd explode. but that was a stupid choice considering uhhhhh what he does for a living, so he was able to remove it, steal some equipment, and run away

and his goal at this point is "get to America" because in his mind he sees it as a place of opportunity and openmindedness where he can practice magic all he wants. and on the way he kind of.. goes completely the wrong direction, somehow ends up in Tibet, meets an electric monk, gets them both kicked out, and they ship off to America together where they meet the rest of the crew yadda yadda I could go into them if you wanted but this is about my boy

so when he got to American he settled into a city called New Brooklyn and was just AMAZED by how vibrant and living it all was and seeing all these different types of beings getting along and celebrating that diversity. and on his first day there he was introduced to things like piercings, body mods, hair dye, fashion, all that fun stuff and dived in HEAD FIRST.

and he over indulges now and just does whatever seems fun and exciting, which is why he dresses like a 90s neon disaster, he genuinely loves it and doesnt understand what 'tacky' means lkdjkd and he loves going to raves and parties and clubs and having fun and dancing, and he's always excited to meet new people and make friends

but on the dark side his past REALLY traumatized him and he's still suffering from it. so he's highly neurotic and anxious, and thunderstorms especially will send him into a panic. to calm himself he's always using his hands and building things/taking things apart, and he has a highly addictive personality which is why he still smokes (a habit he picked up in the camp to calm himself). he also frequently suffers from insomnia and will stay up for days at a time, usually distracting himself with coding or building something or getting deep into weird chatrooms.

also he doesn't have a house because he wastes all his money on dumb stuff so he actually lives in a storage unit? HAHA like sometimes he'll crash at other people's places but yeah he's built himself a cozy room that's just wall to wall computer monitors and tech he's wasted his money on or gathered up in his adventures

uhh what else... on okay just random trivia. he's ambidextrous, girls make him nervous, and he can speak Russian, English, and Tajiki, but the latter two aren't as fluent as his Russian obviously.