#brady ackerman. ── character study. | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

apcthetics · 2 years ago

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questions to get to know your oc: brady jacob ackerman edition.

what are their eating habits like? how do they look after themselves? do they exercise? play any sports?

although his life is kind of a mess, brady takes pretty decent care of himself. ever since he was in high school he’s been a big long-distance runner, which is something that he’s able to do no matter where he is in the world. he especially takes advantage of the fact that he’s a man and won’t get attacked by running at night- he’ll spend the entire day hunched over his computer desk recording podcasts or editing videos, and then he gets restless once it gets into the early hours of the morning, so he’ll take advantage of that restless energy to go running. the length of his runs will often depend on how stressed he is, how much is going through his head, and how tired he is, though he’ll usually run for about an hour. it’s one of the few consistencies that he has in the chaos of his life.

as for eating habits, while i’d never consider brady particularly health conscious, he has a pretty wide palette considering he’s travelled all over the globe and therefore kind of has to be. his comfort meals tend to lean towards jewish food he ate when he was a kid and the cultural food that indie grew up on and therefore cooks for him all the time.

are they a big partier ? do they do drugs, drink alcohol ? what’s their stance on these things ? are they promiscuous ? do they prefer one-night stands, or do they like dating ? what about online dating ? why ?

alright homebodys let’s discuss how much of a slut this boy is. he’s an introvert but over years of trying to force himself to be something he isn’t, he’s convinced himself that he’s an extrovert and therefore large parties and premieres don’t exhaust him. these places that are full of people he’s not friends with and doesn’t really know stress him out. he’s a good actor, though, and you’d never be able to tell; brady has gotten so good over the years at honing his wild, influencer persona that he’s able to slip it on and off like he’s putting on clothes, which means despite the fact that he’s often exhausted after being there for only a little while, he can keep going for hours and nobody will question anything but.

another reason he can do that is because, despite the fact he knows he shouldn’t, he does do a lot of party drugs. i imagine outside of like, parties and even his job, brady does smoke a lot of weed just because he has difficult cooling down or turning “off” and needs a hand in doing that (otherwise he would feel the need to always be turned on and he would completely burn himself out over and over again), but when he’s out, he doesn’t make the best choices. he relies pretty heavily on party drugs to get through afterparties and premieres- he’s done ecstasy and LSD and cocaine, all those kinds of things, because he thinks that he has to be fun, and if parties drain him, how is he supposed to be fun? they also help his anxiety, because he stops caring so much as to what everyone thinks about him. he has the career and lifestyle to be able to support it, so he doesn’t see the issue with it (he does, but he’s reliant on it now to get through these things that he won’t admit to seeing the issue.)

as for alcohol, he doesn’t drink as much as he does other things, but being the life of the party that he is, he’s still gotten himself into plenty of situations. he also tends to rely on alcohol more in places where his usual coping mechanisms aren’t accessible. he’s a sad drunk as much as he’s a messy drunk, which is probably why he hasn’t ended up relying as heavily on drinking.

as for promiscuity, he is a slut. at this point in his life he would probably sleep with just about anybody (perhaps a small part of him is trying to move on from indie- let’s not discuss). he’s not a typical whore though. in some ways he is a serial monogamist; he’s often in relationships, though these relationships don’t last for longer than a couple weeks at most. he’s the kind of person who would take you home but make you breakfast in the morning, and call if you wanted. he would take someone he was planning on sleeping with to dinner, and thinks it’s very important to be clear on what expectations with one night stands like that. he doesn’t want to hurt anybody, and he’s fucked up enough to know that it’s very easy to do so.

i think he goes through phases with dating apps, and they’re definitely the place that most of his brief, one-night stand hookups come from. it’s very difficult for him to feel any kind of connection with someone through a screen or because of who he portrays via the screen because of his job, so it just wouldn’t be possible for him to feel comfortable with someone he met via that way.

what hobbies do they have ? what do they spend most of their free time doing ? how did they get involved in those things ?

obviously, a lot of brady’s free time goes towards his job, because of how much he loves it, but besides that and travelling, he plays a lot of video games. i think ever since he was a kid video games were a kind of escape for him, a place where this average teenager who felt insecure was able to play the cool hero and go on all these adventures that he dreamed on going on. that has definitely translated into adulthood, and he loves those bigass rpg games that come out that you have to invest like 30 hours into in order to complete. he still finds it so easy to lose himself into those worlds and those stories. the same goes for movies; he’s always loved big action adventure movies like indiana jones and star wars because of the sense of excitement he felt as a kid watching them. as he’s gotten older he’s gotten more of an appreciation for film study (from being a creator himself) and although his childish intrigue still remains, a lot of his appreciation comes from that perspective, too.

he also journals, though over the years that’s become more of a part of his job than a hobby, especially when he’s recording thoughts for his podcast or blog when he’s on the road.

what is their favourite place to be ? where do they spend most of their time if not at home ? why ?

i don’t think brady has a particular place where he loves to be. he’s travelled so much and seen so many beautiful places that he would have difficulty picking one- although definitely his most frequented spaces are those that he would share with people he cares about. when he’s in the city, most of his time is split between the bed & breakfast with amari, or the studio with indie, or just being in the apartment with gina. he’s very people based, so if he’s not with someone he loves, there’s nothing about a particular place that would feel special to him anymore. that being said, i think he does like running in central park, because looking at building gets kinda boring sometimes. sometimes you just wanna be surrounded by tourists and trees, especially when he’s feeling that kind of restlessness that usually comes with wanting to travel.

what kind of music do they listen to ? do they listen a lot, or just once and a while ? how do they listen ?

brady’s music taste is all over the map. obviously, his favourite band is make happy (it’d be rude if it wasn’t), but they’re one of the few american bands that he keeps in his roster. although he has nothing against popular music and enjoys himself a good top 50 every once and a while, part of his fun when exploring other places is to go to these smaller, non-touristy places and through that he’s discovered a lot of smaller bands that he may have never heard. he also listens to a lot of non-english music, just because there are a lot of bangers that he’s heard outside of the country that he may not have listened to before.

he has a tenancy to lean more towards acoustic tracks and jazz bands than other kinds of music, though admittedly his playlist might go from country to kpop to anything else. he has no identity tied to his music, and instead will be open to listening to just about anything because he’s such a sucker for new experiences. he also has a deeper appreciation for lyrics and feeling in music, though a good portion of that knowledge and thought comes from indie.

pretty typically, most of his listening he does via spotify, but he likes to support the bands he listens to directly (especially if they’re smaller ones) so if he’s somewhere listening to someone and they have CDs for sale, he’ll buy one. although he doesn’t have a CD player, he has quite the collection of random, kinda obscure CDs.

can they drive ? do they like driving ? what’s their car like ?

brady can drive, but he hasn’t owned a car since just before he started travelling. when he went to college and lived with his parents on staten island, it was important for him to have one, considering he was constantly chasing after his sister and travelling between school and home, but he sold it to put the money towards his first plane ticket/adventure just before he got big. he hasn’t owned a car since. though he does do a lot of driving when he’s traveling, it makes much more sense to rent vans or cars when he’s in the country itself, so he definitely has a good grasp of how to drive. but when he’s in the city (which is infrequently enough to justify not owning a car) he just uses taxis or public transport or on occasion, drives with someone else/borrows their car.

are they an animal person ? did they have animals growing up ? do they have animals now ?

when he was a kid, brady did really want a pet. he had tried begging his parents for one, but his parents had been so busy with work and nancy had been such a handful for them that they could never justify getting him one. he thought that having a pet might make him feel a little less lonely when he was at the house all by himself, though he didn’t want to guilt his parents into getting a pet, so he never told them that. by the time that he was out of school and of adult age to get one and take care of it, he was travelling all the time, so it truly didn’t make any sense for him to get an animal he’d never been around to take care of.

i never ran this past vee so she can veto it if she wants, but i truly believe that milo was a joint impulse decision between brady and gina. like once they moved in together, there was a day where they were just like “we should get a cat” and then they went on down to the shelter, picked out the stupidest, wobbliest orange kitten that was there and then took him home, and now they’re like a little family. gina & brady are absolutely platonic soulmates, so milo is 100% their son.

he is the kind of pet parent to try and teach milo tricks all the time and just drown him in love. like that current trend about trying to coax your cat to jump through a hula hoop? milo can’t walk, but he’s absolutely spent hours trying to teach milo how to do that trick (probably filmed it for some stupid side video.) he also taught milo how to perch on his shoulder like a parrot. he is living every childhood dream of having a pet that he never got to experience as a thirty-seven year old man.

what’s their social media presence like ? what platforms do they use ? do they have a lot of followers ? what do they post ?

social media and branding are a huge part of brady’s job, so they’re incredibly important to him, and he’s got them nailed down after years of practice. he’s very much a genuine kind of influencer, a lot of his posts are very down to earth rather than feeling like bragging or showing off (a big part of his brand and why people like him is because watching him feels like you could /be/ him and do the things that he’s done.) he tweets a lot, mostly it’s really random stuff, just twitter thoughts and other jokes, and that’s the platform where he’s most likely to interact with his followers and enjoys doing so.

instagram is a little bit more posed, with most of his timeline photos being photos of him travelling or clips of him interviewing people or posts of him reminiscing on places he’s been, but his stories are absolutely unhinged. they are everything from stupid “toothbrush in mouth shirtless mirror selfie” to dumb videos of milo doing stupid shit (see above) and other kind of videos of him having fun at events or just being out with friends. he also posts a lot of about different restaurants or places he’s been, because he really likes being able to draw hype to places. there’s also 100% a lot of “stream make happy” photos (most of his selfies, tbh). he does do instagram lives, but i imagine they’re only when he has something to announce or when he’s with someone for fun.

obviously, his main source of income now is his podcast, which originally started off as a travel podcast but has morphed into a podcast where he basically just kind of talks about whatever he wants/finds interesting. he posts an episode every week or so, both as a podcast & then as a recorded video, and edits them all himself. he’s not actively writing on his blog anymore as much as he was, but he does keep it updated when he travels, and therefore has content for it.

a lot of his social media presence is tied to indie (although he does invite all of his friends on his podcast if they want to join him.) he features a lot in her instagram stories, especially for live Q&As and the two of them have a twitch account where they stream games together- or brady plays the game, and indie messes around and screws him up.

what’s their job like ? how did they get it ? do they like it ? do they hate it ? why ?

he loves his job, but there are certain aspects of it that have been, and are, very difficult for him to deal with. the fact that he’s now paid to travel and explore the world and record it and do all of these crazy, unexpected adventures is really awesome, and he loves making content, everything down from the filming of it to the editing of it. he loves sharing the content he makes with people, and interacting with the community and talking to people and fans and writing was always something that he enjoyed doing, so it’s very cool for him to be able to share it with the world, and people who appreciate it.

he hates the pressure that comes with it, though. he wishes that he was able to just create and explore without feeling as though he has to constantly perform for everybody, both on camera and then also in real life. doing this has shaken up his entire sense of self instead of giving him the identity that he thought he wanted, and it gnaws at his insecurities, often times pushing him towards doing things that might be unsafe or irresponsible, things he may not have done before. a lot of his relationships feel ingenuine and he has difficulty connection with people he hasn’t known his whole life because he’s never sure of the kind of person that they want him to be. it takes up a lot of time, and often times trips can be so ladened with this pressure that he doesn’t enjoy them as much as he did when he first started.

he does spend a lot of time holed up in his bedroom just editing a video or recording a podcast and in that time, because he’s so focused on making it perfect, he’ll forget to take care of himself. its something that really has effectively taken over his life, and now he’s not sure where the line of “i’m a podcaster” ends and “i’m a person” begins.

what’s their family like ? is it close ? is it big ? how often do they see each other ?

his family had a really rocky start, and for a very long time his parents were distant and his sister hated him and brady felt ridiculously lonely and without the support system that he needed. luckily, though, after his sister got pregnant and everything in his world kind of fell apart, that changed. his parents seemed to realize with two kids on the cusp of ruining their own lives that they hadn’t exactly been the kind of parents they dreamed they would be; and despite both their children being almost adults, they did their best to make up for it. being stuck in the house with nancy while she had to be careful because of her pregnancy did a lot for the two of them to get to know each other and understand each other, and they were able to grow closer because of it.

although things aren’t perfect, they’re very much a family unit now, who see each other for holidays and visits and go out of their way to give each other calls when they can. his parents are some of the first supporters of every opportunity he gets (even if they were cautious when he started) and nancy is the same. they’re the kind of family that drop by unannounced with dinner when they know he’s back in the city. him and his niece- who is now sixteen- are surprisingly close. he’s the uncle she calls when she makes a bad decision and needs someone who isn’t her parents to bail her out, and he also gives her bragging rights since he’s semi-internet famous (and let’s her tell everybody that her aunt is the lead singer of a band they like- though she always fails to mention that brady and indie aren’t dating.)

he was raised very jewish, and both sets of his grandparents who grew up in the same community are devout to their religion. he was, for a very long time, like them; although now he holds a lot of guilt for a lot of the decisions he makes that he knows they wouldn’t approve of. he does his best to make up for the sins that he thinks he causes, despite the fact he knows they don’t know about his issues with substance abuse or the life he leads. he visits them often, takes them to the synagogue when they ask and always is sure to cover his tattoos. he’s also very grateful that they’re not very tech savvy and therefore have no way to see what he’s actually like, even though he knows they would still love him. they’re just very important to him.

what’s their mental state like ? what are their insecurities ? what parts of themselves do they like the most ? how would they describe themselves ?

he has a lot of charm, and due to his success, he definitely gives off the impression that he has everything figured out, his life is perfect and he has everything together. that couldn’t be further from the truth, and anyone who actually knows him would be able to tell you that. his life is an absolute mess and he knows it; he does drugs, he can’t keep a relationship for more than a few months, his friendship with indie is rocky and he can feel a lot of the negative feelings he’s been trying for so long to avoid creeping in. he feels like an imposter inside the life he’s created for himself, like every piece of the puzzle of the life that he’s created was created by a lie, even though there’s no way that could be true. he has a very skewed idea of who he actually is, and honestly looses track between what’s happening on camera, and off camera, and is never very good at balancing those things.

there’s a lot that he’s created that he’s very proud of. his book, for one, is something that he feels he’s done a good job on. there are some travel videos that he’s very proud of. but for the most part, the amount of success and attention that he’s gotten has made him feel like a fraud. his whole life he’s known that there’s nothing special about him- he’s just some average kid from staten island, who had no particular talents or skills- and so he doesn’t see why all of that would suddenly change because he left the country and started a blog. he’s constantly trying to prove himself to a world that he doesn’t need to prove himself too: prove that he’s funny, and brave, and smart, and charming, and all of the things they believe he is but he doesn’t think he is. so much of his personality has been amped up that he either has difficulty pulling it back down or it’s just become a piece of who he is.

he also really needs people to like him. even people he perceives as not liking him- strangers, moreso than people that are close to him- he’ll jump just about any hoop to get in their good graces. he feels like he has to be perfect, this perfect ideal of who everyone on the internet believes him to be, but he doesn’t feel like he is that way, and it’s slowly eating him from the inside out. as much as he loves the adventure and the chaos, he also craves some stability, and the ability to be comfortable within his own skin, which he never quite is, no matter what he portrays online.

#★. ─── BRADY ACKERMAN : CHARACTER STUDY #these are so long but i #wanted to write them #so

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