Here's an intro to my OC Nicholas! The original version of this was written and posted in August 2022, and it was revised in October 2023.
Origins/Background
In 2016 I began RPing Dooku. I wrote a fic called Stuck In The Middle With You [archive-locked] which had a great premise but was... very flawed in execution... where he never fell to the Dark Side. In 2017 I also wrote a series about a resurrected Dooku coming to terms with his decisions, repair his old relationships and trying to create a more grey Force order, which I deleted because I was unsatisfied with it. Both AUs featured an OC of mine named Severus/Severin, who later became Sören.
In May 2018 I began to write a self-indulgent modern AU with Nicolae Dooku as one of a tiny handful of Force sensitives, and meets a younger Icelander named Sören; May/December romance ensues. This fic, Don't Threaten Me With A Good Time, still holds a very dear place in my heart - the multiverse is basically this fic's fault, because I started off writing a sequel to this story called In Chains and then AUs of AUs.
In my earlier universes I wrote Nicolae Dooku as an Englishman descended of Romanian nobility, so he does in fact hold the title of Count, and from Learning To Fly on down he became Nicholas Decaux [who's been either an Englishman of French descent, or French-from-France, or Quebecois, depending upon the universe], which is less of an eyesore of a name than Dooku. Having said that, I had some fun with do cu being Portuguese for "I do anal" - when Maglor is introduced in Chains, he is pretending to be Brazilian and points this out to Dooku, and then Sören has a field day because that's Sören.
As the multiverse wore on, I decided Nicholas had evolved into his own OC, and label him accordingly.
In my three major long universes [Northern Lights, Under The Rose and Learning To Fly], Nicholas/Nicolae is born in December 1948. There is a significant age gap between him and Sören [who was born in 1984 in these universes] and Anthony [who was born in 1980 in these universes]; when Sören and Nicolae meet in 2017 in Don't Threaten Me With A Good Time, Sören is thirty-two and Nicolae is sixty-eight.
Now then. Because I've gotten shit about this before, including very underhanded harassment from someone who shall remain nameless who basically decided to write a whole-ass entire series about ~trafficking~ starring an expy of Sören [right down to the phoenix symbolism] who got ~victimized~ by an older greyhaired man...
I give ZERO FUCKS if you think their age difference is ~problematic~.
Silver daddies not your cup of tea? Fine! To each their own. Acting like this is somehow exactly the same as sexual abuse? Not fine.
If you care more about fictional characters being supposedly "p*dos" than you do actual IRL victims of CSA, speaking as an actual CSA survivor, kindly fuck off and let us have fun hanging out in our make-believe worlds please.
However, I decided that going forward in new universes and standalones, I'm aging Nicholas down to an older Gen Xer - late fifties rather than late sixties. Not because it's ~problematic~ [again, I give no fucks] but because the idea of Nicholas as Gen X and having had a goth or metalhead phase amuses me. [I'm a young Xer.] I mean, Gen X is aging too so it won't be long before there are Gen Xers in their late sixties, playing Nirvana and Snoop Dogg at the nursing home, but anyway.
To head off the question of whether or not I will write Dooku in a Star Wars setting again - the answer is no. I left Star Wars behind due to the toxicity of the fandom during the sequel trilogy, and I have no real interest in that [I can only deal with one toxic fandom at a time thanks] nor do I have any interest in spending money to get past Disney's paywall to keep up with their changes to canon.
Appearance
[Blanket disclaimer: my characters are not their faceclaims.]
Nicholas's faceclaim is Sir Christopher Lee, and he also has the man's wonderfully sexy velvet voice. But not his Tory politics.
When Nicholas is cis he stands 6'5", and in 2023 I began writing him as FTM and intersex [I am both, though he is not a self-insert] and when that applies he's at least 6' or a little over. His build is lean but muscular - someone who still works out and stays active in his old age. He is usually a silver daddy, but started off with dark hair. He has dark brown eyes. Big-ass eyebrows. Epic bitchface. Cute smile. [Nicholas: "I am NOT cute." Sören: "Hi Not Cute."]
Nicholas dresses simple but elegant, preferring neutral colors and black, sometimes blues. Occasionally in the Northern Lights and Learning To Fly worlds, he can be seen with his cape.
Of course, Sören likes it best when Nicholas is wearing no clothes at all.
TMI
Nicholas enjoys being the Daddy to younger men. [Obviously Sören but this includes Anthony, who still affectionately competes with him for "who's in charge" of their little pack.] He is dominant in a gentle way, and a sensualist - think "oil massage and slow sex with lots of foreplay in front of a fireplace on a bearskin rug" and you've got his rizz.
Speaking of the word "rizz":
What's The Deal With "As You Know" And "Shan't"?
So back in 2016, I was having a conversation with my now-ex about Dooku telling Obi-Wan "You forget that he was once my apprentice, just as you were once his." [re: Qui-Gon] in Episode Two, and I called Dooku "Darth Obvious".
I ended up with this headcanon that Dooku likes to remind people of really obvious stuff everyone knows, and in 2018 when I wrote Four Jedi, Two Rooms for my NaNoWriMo that year [which I ended up deleting and reposting in 2019], Dooku gives Qui-Gon a lecture. Later:
Qui let himself in Obi's room, where Obi was sitting in his bed in his pajamas."How bad was the lecture?" Obi asked.
"Not terrible," Qui said.
"How many 'as you know's?"
Qui smirked. "Seven."
"Only seven?"
"Only seven."
"Wow, he's slacking off."
Qui laughed aloud.
Then, as the multiverse wore on, it just became This Thing. I've made jokes that if there were a Flameborn Multiverse Drinking Game, if you take a drink every time Dooku | Nicholas says "as you know" you will end up with liver failure pretty sure this is what happened to Obi-Wan.
As far as "shan't", when I write him in modern Earth AUs it just makes sense to me that he would speak more formally. He also says "needn't" and he has a fondness for old-fashioned words like "rapscallion"; he's called Sören a "rakehell", which Sören is extremely amused by. For the same reason, Nicholas really hates current slang, especially words like "rizz".
"AS YOU KNOW, THAT IS NOT EVEN A WORD. STOP CALLING 'RIZZ' A WORD."
😇 Moving right along:
Personality and Other Details
I've written Nicholas/Nicolae as a professor, a barrister, a chef, and an art gallery owner. In To The East And To The West, he owns a pot farm with a bed-and-breakfast.
I have also explored him having been a priest, leaving the priesthood and having a crisis of faith. In a past life, Nicholas was Fingolfin, and I interpret the priesthood decision as Background Fingolfin's lingering guilt over his "sin" with Fëanor.
Nicholas is a cat person and he loves literature, cooking, gardening, classical music, symphonic metal, opera, and is a quite a history buff [reflected in him teaching Classics or Ancient History depending upon universe]. He enjoys antiquing and has an impressive collection of old books. He is in very good shape for his age thanks to Tai Chi, walking, and fencing; he also picked up the martial art Krav Maga in the Under The Rose universe.
Nicholas has undiagnosed autistic spectrum traits, and his dating/sexual history pre-Sören [and/or Anthony and/or Maglor] often tends to be either nonexistent or fraught.
As mentioned above, Nicholas is... rather formal and old-fashioned in his mannerisms. He has refined personal tastes, and is pedantic about proper spelling and grammar. Nicholas is cool and reserved, but warm [albeit in a stiff, formal way] and nurturing when he lets people in past an arm's length. He is not just Sören's lover but also Sören's father figure across the multiverse when their paths intersect, and becomes "the dad friend" who "adopts" a group of younger people in the Learning To Fly universe.
"Such atrocious grammar for a meaningful event," Nicholas said. "No dignity.""It's called no diggity," Sören said, not able to resist ribbing him. Anthony laughed.
Sören loves teasing him and bantering with him, yes.
Finally - Nicholas is a Sagittarius [Capricorn cusp, has traits of both signs], his Myers-Briggs type is ISTJ, and his Enneagram type is 8w9.
Finally-finally, please enjoy this photo from 2016 of my Dooku action figure doll, wearing a flower crown.
And a picture from my birthday in 2020:
^My roommate said this was "Fingolfin riding Pusheenallor" and I lost it.
Want to get to know Nicholas better? Here are some places to start. All of these can be read as standalones, even though some of them are parts of larger universes:
More fics to come, eventually.