Character meme

[rhi]

As seen here and there on my friendslist, and now that my headache's gone: 

Pick a character and I will give and explain the top three to five ideas/concepts/etc I keep in mind while writing that character that I believe are essential to accurately depicting them.

Until then, back to writing.  (Also?  I'm in the South.  I do like winter, but wow, the last couple have been 'interesting.'  If it's gonna be this gorram cold, I want more snow with it!)

(Hey, raine --  It's a miracle!  I'm working on Depth of Field!)
 

Comments

[eponin]

Hmm... so many to choose from. :D

Darius.

[rhi]

Hmm. I think I've ended up with five things Darius tries to remember, so hopefully this'll do...

1. Ends are important, but so are means. What someone meant to do needs to be considered as well as the end results.

2. Happiness is important but so are promises. (Or he'd have never kept the sanctity of the confessional with Xavier St. Cloud.)

3. It's important to know what's going on around him (words, actions, promises, events), but he tries to reserve judgment until he has facts. Sometimes, though, Darius resorts to having a variety of contingency plans instead.

4. People are interesting, weather is interesting, plants are interesting... if he's bored, he's not paying attention!

5. You can't form a strategy without facts and a goal, and you can't get much done without a plan. So, Darius tries to know what he's doing, why, and how.

[kickair8p]

Which one's Depth of Field? Regardless: yay, Rhi's writing!

For the meme, Rich Ryan.

~

[rhi]

The next (and next to last) Southern Comfort fic. I'm working on it and then the final one to release both at once. And Rich's 5 things tomorrow, sorry -- gonna go crash. Ballet kicked my ass in all the good ways!

[rhi]

Depth of Field is the second to last Southern Comfort fic. (I'm starting to consider chaining myself to a chair, too.)

And important things about Rich?

1. He's impetuous. He moves *way* faster than he should sometimes, and his brain to mouth filter is frequently not yet engaged.

2. He's smart. Ask the cops, the orphanage, the foster homes, the cops. And no, I don't just mean a smart mouth.

3. Like a lot of us, he's trying to find someplace he fits in. In some of my stories, he's figured out he can make someplace he fits in, too, instead of finding it.

4. He regrets the headhunting, and the rep, and killing people he didn't have to. (Carter Wellan's high on that list.) But he doesn't regret being stronger from it.

5. He thinks he's never going to live up to Duncan, and hates that he'll never get to tell Tessa thank you, and he actually likes it when Joe grumbles at him, because he's figured out Joe bitches when he cares.

[kickair8p]

Yeah, that makes sense. And sorry for the delay in replying -- just got home.

~

[dswdiane]

Xan and Alex, please

[pat_t]

Yes, so totally yes.

[rhi]

Finally replied on the twins; see below.

[rhi]

Hmm. And part 2.

1. Alex tends to worship Apollo and Hades; Xan tends to worship Poseidon and Eros.

2. They both believe firmly in the saying about a sound mind in sound body, and they believe in keeping the body balanced -- Xan's a better runner, but that doesn't mean Alex can't do a marathon. Alex is a superb wrestler, but Xan doesn't leave out the upper body workouts. Partly it's what they grew up with, and partly they don't think the Game allows for overspecialization.

3. The twins prefer to break rules deliberately, but on occasion they'll let themselves be rushed. They're willing to accept that sometimes, the end justifies the means. But they also feel that, in general, the means dignify the end.

[rhi]

::laughing helplessly:: Ohmigod, the twins? Um. Okay.

1. They died the first time fighting for Rome, but they're not Romans, they're Greek. Rome was a paycheck. Greece was and is home.

2. Alex is a year older. This is completely fucking trivial by now, but it does occasionally get brought up. By either side, actually.

3. Xan handles the tactics; Alex handles the strategy. But they're both madly practical.

4. Xan's more likely to get hit on by guys, but Alex is actually the one of them who prefers men. Xan likes men, likes women a little better, but he loves Alex. And they both like raising kids and training students.

5. Gods help anyone who tries to turn them against each other. They won't.

[pat_t]

I really adore these guys. I wish the writers had come up with characters as interesting. I've read your story so much that I feel like they are canon.

[samjohnsson]

Matthew or Mulder, takes your pick. ^^

[rhi]

Hmm. Matthew downstream for Devo, I think, so. (Tomorrow, mind, but yeah.) So, Mulder.

1. Smart, and well-read, and obscurely read. The man has a fricking PhD in psych, and studied at Oxford, and then you add in the conspiracy theory stuff and oh, yeah. I want his library. No. I *covet* his library.

2. ohmigod bad taste in dates. Just watch S. 1 and marvel at the female Jersey Devil and the vampire.

3. Capable of remaining unflapped by the damnedest things as needed, and when not needed, will happily roll in strange neat stuff with the enthusiasm of a small kid, and make it as contagious as the little kid would, too.

4. Majorly conflicted about his family (they did not put the FUN in dysfunctional) and smart enough, and a good enough head shrinker, to know it.

5. And yeah. Mulder really does want to believe in a lot of things -- including that there *are* reasons for things -- and he also wants things to believe in. At the end of the day, he's almost Don Quixote, riding the FBI to tilt at windmills of bureaucratic opinions and popularly believed bullshit. Which is why he's sometimes obnoxious; he'd rather know the truth than settle for a lie, and sometimes, people want that lie. Which he knows, as a psych major, and sometimes (frequently?) ignores as a law enforcement agent.

4 & 5 a. His ability to recognize simultaneously held, mutually incompatible opinions -- especially when he's the one holding them -- is why he's such a good profiler, and why I keep thinking he must be a Seer.

[samjohnsson]

Interesting. Mulder was the only reason I watched the show when I did. And all of that? Really sounds on.

[pat_t]

Duncan or Methos - take your pick. Or both. Or Duncan/Methos

5 things about Methos, then.

[rhi]

1. Yeah, really: Just a guy. Likes the basic things in life -- beer, good food, books, hanging out and shooting the breeze -- because in five thousand years, he's learned to appreciate the leisure to enjoy them!

2. Beer is good. Wine is good. Food is good. Someone else's cooking is good. (Variety is the spice of life, after all.) And sometimes he pulls out the old, odd recipes because he'd like to taste something different... and sometimes he sticks with (his idea of) basics because he just can't be bothered to cook anything that needs his attention.

This attitude is replicated elsewhere in his life.

3. "You're never paranoid enough" is, actually, not quite correct. If you're gibbering in corners, or locked into a room you can't get out of? You're way past paranoid enough. That said, a good backup weapon is a gem beyond price, and a backup to your backup -- preferably, one that 99% of the populace wouldn't recognize as a weapon? -- is getting into the 'worth its weight in platinum' stage.

4. "Do nothing" really will solve a lot of problems. Of course, so can friends.

5. At any moment, in any second, 'just a guy' can turn right back into Death if he has to. Methos tries very hard to find other ways because the problem is, it takes a while to *stop* being Death. A lifestyle that considers 'consequences' to be 'problems to solve' is rather addictive. The problem was never remembering the old ways; the problem was *forgetting* them.

Re: Depth of Field

[raine]

\o/! :)

Re: Depth of Field

[rhi]

Thanks! (I'm gonna be doing Depth of Field and the last one both, and post them one after the other. Like a sane woman. Now I have to look through photographic/art terms again for the final title.)

[devohoneybee]

since Matthew is taken, I'll go for Lacroix. :)

[rhi]

If I don't do Matthew, do you want him or LaCroix?

[ilyena_sylph]

Danielle St. Vir.

Since apparently I want to have my heart ripped out through my chest.

Or, you know, Kastagir.

[rhi]

::eyes you:: I can do Dani, certainly. You want her or Kastagir?

[jiltanith]

If this offer is still open? Ish, please.

Now that I'm getting used to this computer....

[rhi]

Ish, huh?

1. If there's a chance for mischief, Ish is probably contemplating it. Usually, he's non-malicious, but if he's pissed off, gods help and Goldberg contraptions could happen.

2. If there's a pre-immortal in the area? Ish will notice them. He's found 8 babies in a thousand years -- including the one up in the icon. Usually, he finds them other families, though. He likes to wander.

3. He wanders a lot. His lovers get used to him being elliptical -- he circles in and out, but he comes back.

4. He likes strong women and calm men, and he likes playing with kids. He's been known to take up with single mothers because, well, strong women, kids to play with.

5. He's drop dead gorgeous, and considers that a pain in the ass and a reason to act up, and out, and differently to see who's watching him, not the face or the body. It drives the rest of his line nuts, because sometimes, he makes the masks too good, and that's unfair in the opposite direction.