character writing meme

[kradeelav]

> list three quintessential traits, positive or negative, that you think of when writing a character.

soartfullydone: For the character writing meme, I'd love to know about Diane! She's a treasure~

<3

• resentful - I think about this quote with her a lot.  She’s … always felt like there’s a thin layer of existential separation from her and any other person; there’s really no chance for her to blend into the crowd and be somebody else for a bit, or even know how she truly stands in the eyes of anyone she vaguely respects, and so it manifests in her low-key lashing out for attention.  It’s all empty darkness and thorns all the way down, from that glittering golden (perilous) podium she’s teetering on as a daughter of a tyrant (because oh, what power she has to be used)- and she’s very aware of that implicitly, if not quite explicitly.
• defiant - the one trait that sets her very apart from her father; and something that others find out very quickly if they do try to use her obviously in their political games.  Thankfully she’s (mostly) been favored by her father so her threats kept most of the real human-shaped predators away.  Hardin was a little more subtle and he was very much attracted by that defiance - and so wasn’t going to extinguish that part, at least. 
• two-faced - Somewhat intermingled with the first one; she hates feeling burnt out on hollow vague anger that can’t be focused, and would much prefer to simply harmlessly pester people anyway - so she comes across as a little more scatterbrained, possibly manipulative, and impish at first glance. She fucks with people, essentially - finds that they’re more interesting when riled up and it’s much easier to see their real opinions of her.

Anonymous: zihark!

thinking back to the Uprising days, aren’t we? :P

• poker face - i mentioned this very briefly in a totally unrelated post, but the quintessential zihark is very good at falsehoods. I don’t say lying because he’s not actively trying to (maliciously) manipulate - however, he grew up with and spent too long among people who would slit his throat for saying (what seems to us) the decent, Right thing.  That kind of suffocating oppression stayed with him - and he’s very, very good at playing other people’s game in the name of the long con.
• purposely disarming - what manifests as his empathy, i think, is an unwavering need of de-escalating conflicts. This goes in both a micro (a random conversation between him and an enemy swordsman in that one level where you fight Naesala in FE9) and macro scale (trying to convince the Prince of Daein to … just not fight in a raging world war when it’s really … not terribly realistic to ask that). I’d even go as far to say this is his core trait that everything else rides on - he’s not a doormat (usually; I can actually think of a few exceptions which is interesting and unusual for a male character), but it’s a good goal that he’s gratefully latched on to.
• meticulous/easily bored - he’s a smart sassy bastard, and there’s a distinctive whiff of him liking to (gently) poke people with a stick in a good-natured teasing way as his way of having fun with them (and also how to figure out how they tick).  He’s got a few hobbies that demand quite the intense focus (swordplay, fixing up clothes/leather, politics) - and imo all of that speaks to a restless mind that likes to figure out how things work. And, ultimately, is driven to do so.

editoress: Also how you write Vau

I knew he was going to be one of these, haha.

• control - [ gestures at a convenient long-ass essay here ]
• alienated - this plays into a very interesting duality of him sticking like a burr around groups of people for occasional social needs, and then having them splintered (again and again) in pretty traumatic ways.  It’s almost inevitably taught him to distrust any kind of groups (at the same time that his loneliness is making him crave them) - which gives you that constant low-grade argument you see in his head of ‘do I stay or do I go?’.
• misanthropic - i teetered with using this or resentful (again); however while I think he was previously much more resentful of existence ten, twenty years ago or even during the Kamino years - it’s mellowed to a low degree general disdain of humanity.  He doesn’t actively hate anyone other than the Death Watch - it’s an apathy that tangos with the above - but it does dovetail worryingly into some offhand cruelness [gestures at everything with Sev]. Thankfully it’s the kind of not-active maliciousness that he realizes he done fucked up, and so he makes amends as well as a sixty-something bitter man can.
  • (Mird helps.)

editoress: Shard, because he looks like ssssooooo much fun to write.

heh, you said it. :P  (he’s not exactly a PG kind of character though lol.)

• death seeker - without spoilers, shard is … a very empty mind. I don’t even say a man, because he doesn’t even see himself as that; there’s been a tremendously powerful institution that’s kept him for centuries with handlers who -hate- his existence that kept him around for the sole reason to break his mind in the name of creating that perfect unwavering weapon. That kind of damage .. ain’t a pretty thing. and it affects every level of the psyche to the point where he’s a walking stockholm syndrome.  This post, since I’m apparently linking everywhere, sums it up quite well.
  •  honestly most takes on this ~for the angst~ annoys me so much it was one of the reasons why I wrote IC lmao
• loneliness / envy - somewhat tied to the above; he’s not unaware of what he’s become and that there’s frankly not a whole lot he can do about it - so he tends to write himself off as a tool that never had the choice anyway … whiiiiich doesn’t work as well (as he wishes) when brief memories of what it was like to be human pop back up.  Putting aside his biggest wish, he would very much rather be - or at least be treated - as a man again (which dovetails in some … interesting ways given his possession shtick, and his personal disgust at that.)
• contempt / impulsiveness - also tied to the bit above; he’s very much emotionally like a child in that he experiences every emotion magnified; usually the negative ones in those moments he can’t turn his mind off.  There’s a pretty extreme undercurrent of shit that builds up - of lust, a need to defile anything sacred, and everything re: his mentality on death - that’s this big ol’ ball of wax of petty lashing out and a sheer inability to hold things at bay. (Another way to say it - it’s much easier to bear an unwanted immortality when you embrace the hedonistic side.)
• two-faced - I’m gonna steal one from Diane’s here because they really are much more similar than you’d think at first glance; again, it’s not an active manipulative two-faced quality, but it’s how they’re perceived by folks who’ve only been around them a short time.  They both unapologetically fuck with people to get reactions (for him, it’s also a need to solve people like rubik’s cubes for protection’s sake) - and so they both alarmingly swing from moodiness to sassy, flirty, annoying fuckers that are an amazing fit for each other, hah.

nihilnovisubsole: for the character meme: this could honestly be anyone from IC but i'll go with shard, because of course

of course

ONE MORE SHARD … with a little bit of hardin thrown in.

• vanity - both of them are ridiculously vain men to the degree where it’s  hilarious; hardin puts more care into his clothes and hair (him finger-brushing back his hair after he takes off his cap is a gesture that’s  become a meme with the other guards), and then you’ve got the demon who has a long memory of knowing exactly what makes heads turn especially in terms of body language and reading other folks … thusly, two actual peacocks.
  • (Shard would -and does- forgive A Lot in the name of a ’lookin’ good, handsome’)
  • on that note, it’s where his telepathy comes in amusingly frequently; he doesn’t actively mind-read people as much as you’d expect as he respects boundaries to a surprising degree - and as it’s also limited to whoever’s holding the dagger/Keeper - but knowing common thought patterns and being generally observant gives him a tremendous leg up in talking with others and directing the conversation where he wants.