NASH RUSSELL is a "28 year old" electrical engineer. Around the time of the end of history, his fiancee had cheated on him, he was out of work, and his life had generally gone to shit. Now, given a second chance, he's trying to pick up the pieces again.
He is 5'10 and around 183 lbs. His build is muscular and wiry; he's always been a relatively lean guy, but ever since he started transitioning, he's built on muscle by going to the gym regularly. He enjoys running and used to run cross-country. He has his master's degree in electrical engineering, specializing in magnets and their use in power systems.
He has everything he wanted: his own home, off the grid, with no interference or regulations to worry about. Nobody to come up his driveway and bother him. Nobody to cheat on him or influence him to break his sobriety. Nothing to bother him anymore; nothing to distract him from working on his projects. But... no matter how much he wished for peace and quiet before the end of history, he didn't want everyone to disappear. He needs the company, no matter how insistent he is on pushing everyone away.
The story he tells Alan is that one day, while he was out hunting, he found Alan bleeding out in the middle of the woods. This isn't the entire truth, but... he doesn't need to know that right now. Nash is too busy figuring out where he recognizes him from. He just needs a little more time.
Nash is an intense person. He has such high standards for his friends that he didn't have many before the end of history. He was hot-headed and confrontational, preferring fistfights to sucking it up and walking away from a potential conflict. After the end of history, though, he's learned a couple things. Now, he prefers to meet people on the level they're at rather than trying to get them to meet his impossible standards. He's trying to make himself a better person, but he's gritting his teeth and bitching while he does it.
Nash is impulsive, but he's also principled and pragmatic. No matter what, he sticks to his guns, making him incredibly stubborn. Once he picks a hill, he'll die on it, no matter how small or how insignificant that hill is. His pattern recognition is amazing, leading him to be overly cautious at times and distrusting of other people. He takes a logical perspective to most things (besides when to walk away), and is dedicated and persistent, making him an excellent engineer. He loathes debts, making sure he pays back whoever he owes as soon as possible as if not to rely on them. He's thoughtful, but prefers not to express it, worried he'll be taken advantage of or his time will be wasted. He's also guilty about the ways he hurts people and the things he says when he doesn't think before he speaks, but he doesn't dare admit that to anyone. He gets frustrated with Alan's surface-level talk, goading him into verbal arguments by picking at the things Alan suggests about himself. He's trying to be kinder and open himself up more, but he's so curious about Alan that he can't stop himself from picking at the scab.
At his best, Nash is mindful and able to express his emotions. He thinks before he acts or speaks, and is mindful about how the things he says can hurt his loved ones. He has a lively connection and embraces community because he recognizes he's a valuable part of it. At his worst, Nash is reckless and violent. He hurts people with the things he notices about them, choosing to spend his life drowning in half-finished projects.
At the end of history, Nash was confused.
Of all people, he knew he didn't deserve to be left behind. He refused to believe he possessed some hidden virtue others didn't, choosing to pick up his bag and travel the world rather than face the rest of the Virtues. He denied EVERYTHING's desire to see him request things, insistent on doing everything on his own.
After years of isolation and minimal contact with the other Virtues (besides fixing whatever electrical problems they faced), Akira reached out to him personally with a proposition. Since the world was beginning to decay, she started KIROCO, a people-owned research group whose goal was to create a haven where the other Virtues could live, since they now faced the problem of the world gradually decaying around them. She wanted him to work with them to help design Eden. Although he didn't believe the other survivors were capable of responsibly owning a piece of the company and would eventually play to seize power from each other, he ultimately didn't see the harm in saying yes... as long as he was an independent contractor.
Besides his work on Eden, he found himself working on strangely unrelated tasks... but due to his suspicion and isolation, he didn't have the rapport to ask his coworkers about what they thought. He worked on Eden's power systems and automation, personally responsible for learning centuries of research and skills. However, because those left behind at the end of history failed to age, he had years to complete this endeavor.
Once KIROCO "disbanded," (at least, that's what Akira had told him on the phone), he eventually moved out of him and his ex-girlfriend's old home and made one request to EVERYTHING: to build him his desired home he'd designed during his years of travel. Once he moved in, he started a small farm and took over a ranch nearby. He was content living alone... until Alan showed up.
