i think part of the difficulty that comes with writing nine is due to his characteristic unpredictability. that’s why he’s so fickle to deal with, as a character and as a person. his characterization is complex. even though he’s unpredictable in behavior, there’s some things integral to his personality that can probably help figure out what he’s going to do. the hard part is, to other people, he’s an enigma.something you’ll find in nines behavior along the line is that it’s contradictory. humans are contradictory. he doesn’t know what he wants.he’s very nice, i can say that. as long as you’re not a target, he’s a sweetheart. he’s nice even if he’s terrorizing you, sometimes. if they know what he is, a lot of people will have a very hard time with his attitude. they seem to think it’s all a ruse, a trap, but the truth is he’s just being honest. he doesn’t care enough to be a dick. he doesn’t care about you enough to be rude to you. being mean takes energy away from him. it’s much easier for him to be politely apathetic. it’s in his nature to be kind to others, even in his own twisted way. he shows basic regards to everyone without being super enthusiastic.part of that shows in how he treats employees in places, i think. he rarely ever causes trouble in stores, unless it happens to be a place of target practice. he always pays for things, leaves tips, he’s not very partial to stealing. that being said, he definitely gets things for free a lot of the time. he’s huge and scary.nine is pretty chipper for someone who hates himself and his life and thinks he’s a horrible person (he is). you’ll barely ever catch him moping around. he only mopes when he’s alone and even then he doesn’t do it much, he hates moping. he’s in constant emotional (and physical) pain and he has been for so long to the point that comfort makes him uncomfortable. he’s extremely comfortable in his suffering. he pushes away things he likes, people he likes, because he’s not used to feeling that happiness, and he doesn’t want to feel that happiness.he’s hypocritical about it too. he hates happiness and being unhappy makes him happy. sometimes he’ll make himself happy on purpose just to make himself uncomfortable. it’s a paradox.he does take time to entertain himself sometimes, even though he hates admitting it. he usually doesn’t even realize it’s making him happy, which is why he immediately stops what he’s doing when it finally comes to him. he’ll stick around with people if he can, people that he likes watching. he likes watching how people behave, making comments about it, irritating them about it. that’s just his way of making friends. tell him about your interests, life story, favorite memories. he loves hearing about other people because it means there’s less space for him to fill up about himself.he doesn’t like talking about himself. if asked, he’s usually pretty cryptic. he puts his whole life simply, more simple than it is. simple so you won’t ask questions. simple so he doesn’t have to think about it too hard. some people would probably see this as being humble, and he is humble, humble to the point of hatred.he hates himself very thoroughly but that doesn’t stop him from making jokes. he’s a flirt, as everyone knows. very into teasing people about having crushes on him (which works, because they either do or they will.) people might take this as self confidence or arrogance, it’s anything but. he just likes reactions.i think a lot of people might see him as careless. and he is, at least a little bit. he’s not careless as in sloppy, but careless as in nonchalant. he’s extremely nonchalant. some people might even find it annoying. nothing spooks him, nothing worries him, nothing excites him. nothing you know about, at least, nothing you’ll ever know about. he’s always calm and casual, and he never wipes that lazy smile off his face.nine likes feigning things. not because he’s dishonest, but because he likes making jokes, he likes being entertaining. you’ll never really scare him, but he’ll give you a delayed gasp and hand over his heart just to irritate you. you’ll never really make him angry, but he’ll give you a sudden outburst if he thinks you need to be scared back into your place, and quickly laugh when you jump. it never seems like he’s being serious. he’s always joking, he’s always lighthearted. you’ll know when he’s being serious.something that was a LOT more apparent when he was an older teenager, he can be protective. he’s very aware that most people are weaker than him, he’s been aware of that for a while now, and he’s learned to take advantage of that. when he was younger he was almost like a communal bodyguard. wherever he was, nine was the protector of whoever was there, and they all knew that. he used to equally see himself as a protector and a punisher, but now he’s just a punisher. at least he thinks so. now protection is somewhat of a habit. he’ll put himself between you and a stranger, block someone off with an arm, tell you to walk on the inside of him on the sidewalk, make you walk close in front of him in unfamiliar places.

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