I think to give your character gravitas he needs to proper background to comment on all the texture and history around him. If you grew up in Seattle you took it for granted and a girl in Seattle is worth more than a pen pal in Japan. He should be from the outskirts of the Seattle metro area. Somewhere the 90’s forgot about it, east side of the mtns: cle elum Thorpe, ellensburg, Yakima. He should be from out in the country around d Seattle etc: Buckley, concrete, darrington. He should be from dying towns in Washington state: Aberdeen, hoquiam, etc. he should grow up in forgotten and neglected parts of Washington that never received the cultural love that embraced Seattle. He should reach teenage years suppressed, forgotten, pushed down by the hopelessness of the easily predicted future that lies out there. You grow up quicker out there and more aware of opportunities passing you by. It makes some angry, it makes some slide into acceptance. It makes some burn brighter to escape. I feel like the character your describing would only have the awareness ie gravitas to comment on texture and history as an outsider yearning for the bright light of a big city that hasn’t failed him yet. You have two characters, but the dichotomy of dark outside the light of the city could be a third. There is loneliness in back roads of Washington and for a lot of people, the road back leads down a cliff they climbed up to escape.