character ask meme thing

[kawuli]

I might just do some of these for fun, but if you are curious about anything/anyone in particular, go ahead and ask. (some answers are spoilery so I'll probably evade those, just so you know)

1. Does your character have siblings or family members in their age group? Which one are they closest with?
2. What is/was your character’s relationship with their mother like?
3. What is/was your character’s relationship with their father like?
4. Has your character ever witnessed something that fundamentally changed them? If so, does anyone else know?
5. On an average day, what can be found in your character’s pockets?
6. Does your character have recurring themes in their dreams?
7. Does your character have recurring themes in their nightmares?
8. Has your character ever fired a gun? If so, what was their first target?
9. Is your character’s current socioeconomic status different than it was when they were growing up?
10. Does your character feel more comfortable with more clothing, or with less clothing?
11. In what situation was your character the most afraid they’ve ever been?
12. In what situation was your character the most calm they’ve ever been?
13. Is your character bothered by the sight of blood? If so, in what way?
14. Does your character remember names or faces easier?
15. Is your character preoccupied with money or material possession? Why or why not?
16. Which does your character idealize most: happiness or success?
17. What was your character’s favorite toy as a child?
18. Is your character more likely to admire wisdom, or ambition in others?
19. What is your character’s biggest relationship flaw? Has this flaw destroyed relationships for them before?
20. In what ways does your character compare themselves to others? Do they do this for the sake of self-validation, or self-criticism?
21. If something tragic or negative happens to your character, do they believe they may have caused or deserved it, or are they quick to blame others?
22. What does your character like in other people?
23. What does your character dislike in other people?
24. How quick is your character to trust someone else?
25. How quick is your character to suspect someone else? Does this change if they are close with that person?
26. How does your character behave around children?
27. How does your character normally deal with confrontation?
28. How quick or slow is your character to resort to physical violence in a confrontation?
29. What did your character dream of being or doing as a child? Did that dream come true?
30. What does your character find repulsive or disgusting?
31. Describe a scenario in which your character feels most comfortable.
32. Describe a scenario in which your character feels most uncomfortable.
33. In the face of criticism, is your character defensive, self-deprecating, or willing to improve?
34. Is your character more likely to keep trying a solution/method that didn’t work the first time, or immediately move on to a different solution/method?
35. How does your character behave around people they like?
36. How does your character behave around people they dislike?
37. Is your character more concerned with defending their honor, or protecting their status?
38. Is your character more likely to remove a problem/threat, or remove themselves from a problem/threat?
39. Has your character ever been bitten by an animal? How were they affected (or unaffected)?
40. How does your character treat people in service jobs?
41. Does your character feel that they deserve to have what they want, whether it be material or abstract, or do they feel they must earn it first?
42. Has your character ever had a parental figure who was not related to them?
43. Has your character ever had a dependent figure who was not related to them?
44. How easy or difficult is it for your character to say “I love you?” Can they say it without meaning it?
45. What does your character believe will happen to them after they die? Does this belief scare them?

Comments

[lorata.livejournal.com]

HOW ABOUT ANYTHING ABOUT ANYONE FROM THE OCTOPUS AU THOUGH

>>

Petra

[kawuli.livejournal.com]

15. Is your character preoccupied with money or material possession? Why or why not?

Petra would like to point out that this question was obviously written by someone who has always had plenty of money, because otherwise they would realize that you have to be preoccupied with money if you don't have any. She's fine _now_, and it's not like she's got a lot of expenses, but seriously, this is a stupid question.

16. Which does your character idealize most: happiness or success?

Success. Petra can't imagine being happy without being successful, so it's a bit of a confusing question. But it's success ON HER TERMS. She wants to be good at her job. She wants to move up the ranks, she wants to be better than Selene. She doesn't give a fuck about being rich or famous (she would like to be notorious in military circles, but that's different), she doesn't have time for shit like dating, she doesn't care if you think she's nice or pretty or any of that. She's very focused (Selene would snort and say "obsessive").

19. What is your character’s biggest relationship flaw? Has this flaw destroyed relationships for them before?

Petra doesn't trust people. She will trust her squadmates once they have proven to be trustworthy, but that's within specific parameters. She doesn't open up easily, and comes across as hostile by default. It's not so much that this has destroyed relationships as that it prevents them from starting--she's had random flings with girls plenty of times, but as soon as anyone wants more than that she's like NOPE. And is kind of harsh about it, like "silly girl what, you thought this was going somewhere?" This, unsurprisingly, does not endear her to those girls. Which makes it even more annoying that Selene can have friends-with-benefits things right and left with no hard feelings, because HOW?

20. In what ways does your character compare themselves to others? Do they do this for the sake of self-validation, or self-criticism?

Petra compares herself on objective criteria (so she claims). This is why she likes the military, there are standards and regulations and she can be objectively and inarguably the best at things. Which is obviously the goal.

She doesn't like to admit to comparing herself to people otherwise, but she does look at Selene and her seemingly-effortless ability to make friends and wonder how the fuck that's even supposed to work and whether there's something wrong with one or the other of them. She would not admit this even if you waterboarded her, though.

33. In the face of criticism, is your character defensive, self-deprecating, or willing to improve?

Both defensive and willing to improve. Her instinctive immediate reaction is to be defensive, but then she will work insanely hard to fix whatever the problem is. I think when she was in training there'd be times her instructors would have to stop her from basically working on something until she collapsed, if she was having trouble getting it right. She made it through Special Forces training mainly on obsessive stubbornness and absolute refusal to quit ever, so she's not about to change now.

(side note: a guy I know who went through Marine Recon training failed the first couple times because part of it was being out in the ocean for a really long time and he got so cold they had to pull him out. He had to walk around with a jar of peanut butter eating it straight pretty much constantly in order to gain enough fat to get through the water stuff without literally getting hypothermia. Point being that Petra would absolutely be that guy, not necessarily with that specific problem, but yeah she would keep going until she got hypothermia rather than admit she couldn't do something)

[kawuli.livejournal.com]

2. What is/was your character’s relationship with their mother family like?

Rokia's grandparents immigrated from Mali when her grandfather won a green card lottery, and live near Detroit. Salif was born in Mali but they moved when he was really young so he doesn't remember it much. Rokia's mom, Fatoumata, was born in the US. She left home when she was 16 because her dad's idea of how to parent a teenage girl was pretty much "she stays home, no boys allowed but also marry young and be a housewife" enforced by corporal punishment that bordered on abusive. She came home when she got pregnant with Rokia, but ends up getting back together with the crowd she ran around with as a teenager, who've since gotten more involved in drugs and so forth, and gets kicked out when Rokia's grandpa finds out she's been using. At which point she calls up Salif, who's living in Chicago and offers her a place to stay, because he's well aware that their dad is not the easiest person to live with.

Once he gets tired of her coming in and out at odd hours and things start disappearing when Fatoumata's around, he tells her to find another place to live, but he keeps an eye on Rokia when he can. So she basically grows up in and out of the shop where he works (and then becomes manager of). They move through a series of Rokia's mom's boyfriends and various other precarious living situations until Rokia and her sisters end up in the foster system pretty soon after Kadi is born (when Rokia is 9 or so). Basically Rokia misses so much school taking care of the girls and her mom that social services starts coming around, and while it takes a while for things to get processed because the south side of Chicago isn't exactly known for effective public services, eventually the kids get taken away. (They all 3 have different fathers, none of whom are involved at all).

Rokia actually tries to help her mom retain custody, because the three girls keep getting broken up and Rokia figures okay, well, if mom has custody at least we'll be together and I can take care of the girls and it'll be fine. So she gets really mad and frustrated and confused when her mom doesn't really fight to keep them, but she keeps trying all through the process until finally mom's parental rights are terminated, when Rokia's maybe 14. She also keeps getting in trouble for sneaking out to visit Allie and Kadi when they're in different places, so while their social workers can't always keep them together they try to at least make sure they're nearby.

Sara and Matt are basically Rokia's family, too: they meet because Matt works for Sal after school, starting when he's 14 (and Rokia's 12), and Sara and Matt are friends since forever, went to school together, etc. Sara's parents immigrated from... let's say Guatemala (Sara was born in Chicago), and she has a whole extended family that's super close, a combination of documented and undocumented and US Citizen and they all look out for each other. So the idea that Rokia basically doesn't have family beyond Sal and her mom and sisters is BAFFLING to Sara, and kinda sad, and frustrating because why doesn't SAL just take the girls (because Magda, as in other universes), or Rokia's grandparents (because they're out of state, at first, and then because they don't check out because Rokia's grandfather is still not interested in accepting US childraising norms), or...just ????? Rokia on the other hand is completely overwhelmed by Sara's family and also doesn't speak much Spanish so when she goes to family things she kind of hides behind Sara the whole time.

Sara's family was initially NOT THRILLED that she was a) marrying a woman and b) not marrying that nice Rivera boy down the block his parents are so great they would get along so well they played together as kids and everyone thought etc etc etc. But they get over it by the time the girls actually get married, and Sara's mom and aunts and grandma become VERY PROTECTIVE of the two of them and look out for Rokia's sisters after Rokia and Sara leave for California/Alaska, and probably show up at Heidi and Marc's place with tamales like HERE WE FEED PEOPLE BECAUSE SAYING I LOVE YOU IS COMPLICATED.

.....and i was gonna do some other ones but then that got ludicrously long omg

[kawuli.livejournal.com]

mildred-of-midgard on Dreamwidth asked for Johanna and/or Finnick, so here's some for Jo:

1. Does your character have siblings or family members in their age group? Which one are they closest with?

AFAIK there's no canon on this, I have her as an only child but not for any deep and important reason

2. What is/was your character’s relationship with their mother like?
3. What is/was your character’s relationship with their father like?

Doing these together: Johanna was always kind of a daddy's girl growing up, had fairly typical teenage parental relationship issues but nothing major.

After the games everything got weird: her parents didn't want to live off their daughter's stipend so her dad got a job in town (i think i said paper mill? or sawmill? idk), and her mom doesn't have a regular job but she does hassle the bachelor 7 victors into letting her do stuff like mending clothes or what have you.

They don't really know how to deal with Johanna's trauma issues. She gets angry and sullen and lashes out or tears off into the woods or whatever, doesn't want to talk about it, she wants to be able to curl up on her mom's lap and go out fishing with her dad but it just doesn't...work. Her parents want to let her...do what she needs to do, but also they want their little girl back, they want her to keep some kind of daily routine because they think it'd be good for her, they want her to actually find a Talent she can do because just sitting around all day isn't good for anyone...

They're not wrong, exactly, but Johanna doesn't want to hear it. Mom ends up doing most of the hard conversations while Dad gets to be the fun one for the most part. It only gets worse when she's being sold and going to the Capitol and they see her on TV looking out-of-control and wild. They want to talk to her about it, like "honey we want you to be happy, is this good for you?" but seeing as Johanna can't (and definitely doesn't want to) tell them what's actually going on, things are just kind of tense and hostile a lot of the time.

And then she gets them killed (in her mind), and all she wants is to have them back, and she can't believe she treated them like that and it's a big horrible mess of guilt and shame and awful, and that's when she starts spending more and more time in the Capitol, drinking and taking whatever drugs seem like they'll let her not feel like shit for a while and sleeping around because same. Snow could put a stop to it but it's entertainment and it means most people see Jo as just a crazy girl, and that's fine with him. Plus he's just a sadist and enjoys watching people self-destruct.

20. In what ways does your character compare themselves to others? Do they do this for the sake of self-validation, or self-criticism?

So this is where I really hope people realize that Johanna is the furthest thing from a reliable narrator. She looks at Finnick and sees someone who has it figured out, who is in the same position she was but has managed NOT to get his family killed and NOT to go nuts, and so clearly if she was just BETTER she could do the same. But she's a fuckup, everybody knows it, and it's not like there's any point in trying to be different now.

Of course, Finnick is not as put together as she thinks he is, he just has a better support system (which is to say, he has a support system) in Four, and more socially-acceptable coping mechanisms.

There's probably nobody among the Victors Johanna doesn't think is better than she is. Mayyybe the morphlings from Six but then again she's not that different, she just has different drugs of choice. (again, this is johanna's pov, an objective observer might well see it differently)

Which brings us to...

21. If something tragic or negative happens to your character, do they believe they may have caused or deserved it, or are they quick to blame others?

Of course it's her fault, why wouldn't it be? Getting her parents killed. Failing her Block test in 13 means in canon she wants to blame herself for Finnick's death (except let's be real, she's useless anyway so it's not like she could have helped anything, but then again whose fault is it that she's useless? Hers.)

Johanna's levels of self-hatred are.... A Lot.


AAAAND THAT'S ALL HORRIBLY DEPRESSING SO I'M GONNA STOP NOW

[lorata.livejournal.com]

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack

[seta-suzume.livejournal.com]

I gave Johanna a younger sister in my writing to mirror Katniss, but I didn't think of it until I saw the Catching Fire movie, ha

The parts where Johanna compares herself to Finnick in your fics are definitely one of the parts where Johanna's particular POV really, uh, my first thought was "shines" but I guess what I mean is it stands out.

By the way, I enjoyed your reblog of that note-counter I posted with links to the relevant posts- I mean, there were cute animals there I hadn't seen previously!!

[kawuli.livejournal.com]

ha yes Johanna fics require a whole new set of vocabulary to describe because :D doesn't work. and thanks!

and yes cute animals, it was fun to go through those :)

[seta-suzume.livejournal.com]

I have to actually exercise my vocabulary(?! XD;)! You're welcome!

[seta-suzume.livejournal.com]

Hey, I want to know about any of the Hunger Games characters you like to write about and/or your Hunger Games OCs re: #8 if you're interested

[kawuli.livejournal.com]

okay this is an excellent one and also sounds like an awesome drabbles-collection prompt thing so this is just a comment to say I WILL GET BACK TO YOU ON THIS

[seta-suzume.livejournal.com]

Sure!! Take your time~

Sara, first time firing a gun

[kawuli.livejournal.com]

well here's one I just wrote for the D9 fic so sneak preview:

“You wanted to learn to shoot?” Alister asks.

“Yes.” It comes out almost before he finishes.

“Well, better to make noise here, so they can’t trace it back to camp,” Alister says, pulling his pistol out of its holster.

“And I’m guessing they’ve got bigger things to worry about at the moment,” Sara adds, smirking a little. [spoilers]

“That too.” Alister grants the point.

Sara steps up beside him, watching carefully.

“First rule,” Alister says, looking her in the eye. “Never point it at anyone you’re not planning on shooting. Ever.”

Sara nods.

“Not even if you’re sure it’s unloaded. Never. Got it?”

“Yeah,” Sara says, her enthusiasm turning more serious given the tone of voice he’s using. “I got it.”

“Okay,” he says. “Second rule: don’t put your finger on the trigger until you’re ready to shoot.” He turns so Sara can see how he’s holding it, finger along one side.

She nods again. “Okay.”

He goes through quite a few more rules, but none of them have the same deadly seriousness. Then he hands her the thing, and she tries to hold it like he showed her. It’s heavy, dark steel, and the handle settles into her palms like it belongs there.

Alister steps behind her, puts his hands over hers. Sara can smell sweat, and metal, and something sharper. The trees all seem to stand out a little more in the dark.

“Okay,” Alister says, “That pine tree, see if you can hit it.”

Sara moves her finger over the trigger, carefully, adjusts her aim. Alister’s hands are still over hers, but he’s letting her do the work.

“Okay,” Sara whispers, takes a deep breath, and fires.

The shock runs up her arms and she might have stumbled back if Alister wasn’t there. The sound echoes in the hills and then dies away.

There’s a broad groove in the side of the tree, bark splintering where the bullet passed.

Alister steps back. Sara lowers the gun, mindful of Rule One, and turns to look at him. She just fired a Peacekeeper’s gun. For the moment she feels invincible.

“One more, on your own,” Alister says, “then we’ve gotta go, that’s enough noise for one night.”

Sara nods, turns back to the tree. This time she braces herself, so the recoil jolts her shoulders, hurts enough where she’s beat up that she can’t hide the wince, but the bullet hits the tree.

It’s not dead center, the tree’s not that far away, but she did it.

She’s grinning when she hands back the weapon, feels her eyes gone wide. Alister smiles a little bit. “Well done,” he says. “Now let’s get this stuff back before someone comes out here to find us.”

Re: Sara, first time firing a gun

[seta-suzume.livejournal.com]

Wow! Thanks for sharing that! (I wondered if I'd get you for this, D9!)

[chronicbookworm.livejournal.com]

I'd like to know about Zea, 22, 23 and 24 if you're still doing these!

[kawuli.livejournal.com]

these were fun! I kept having to go "oh wait no that's spoilers" though, i should really work on finishing the next D9 fic >>

22. What does your character like in other people? and 23. What does your character dislike in other people? together because it works better that way.

Zea admires competence and confidence. Emmer and Sara both have those in spades which is probably why she gets along so well with both of them. She likes directness and practicality and just getting shit done, and one reason she clashes with Emmer's parents is that she doesn't like artifice and the status games they sometimes play, and doesn't like/understand things she sees as frivolous, like planting flowers. (views of the characters != views of the author etc)

She's a little uncertain about Milo sometimes, because he's definitely CONFIDENT and he's fully capable of doing his job, but he's such a smartass and can't stay out of trouble and she's like seriously dude? Get it together.

She's pretty introverted, but not shy, if that makes sense? She likes meeting people, she likes talking to people, she just has a limited capacity for it. She likes people who are more thoughtful, as opposed to people who talk a lot and think out loud. She's very thoughtful herself, so she comes off as...slow isn't quite right, but idk, I think of my slow-talking great-uncle, who'd listen to you, and nod, and then when you're about to start up again he'd respond with some really insightful thing, because he'd spent that whole pause thinking about what you said. So with faster-paced people she sorta gets lost, because she doesn't get those conversational pauses to think about things.

One relevant thing...Bravery, to Zea, isn't necessarily a great thing. It's too close to recklessness, it makes her nervous. She respects that the people she's with are brave and that they need to be because of what they're doing, but in other circumstances she wouldn't be thinking of bravery as something to look for in friends/etc. At least not as typically defined. She values the slow unglamorous background work more than the flashy exciting stuff. Which puts her very much out of her element right now because she's part of this lunatic band of guerrilla saboteurs. I think probably once they take D9, she'll be working with Lucerne and some others to try and get production and storage and such up and running again, and that's much more her kind of thing.

24. How quick is your character to trust someone else?
Zea is probably the most trusting of any character I write. She had the easiest growing up, no childhood trauma, no Games-shit, parents who love her, crew-friends starting when she was 16 or so. She doesn't do well with a LOT of people at once, because until her first winter at the barracks she'd basically never been around more than like 10 people at a time living out in the Depots. But one-on-one or in small groups she trusts people and makes friends pretty easily. Which means she gets pretty attached to her friends and cares a lot about them, even the ones she doesn't know as well. It also makes it hard for her to keep secrets--she understands why she has to, she's not really tempted to tell anybody, she just doesn't like having this big secret about the rebellion stuff.

Zea assumes the best about people, it takes her a while to recognize people being deliberately mean or whatever because she wants to give them the benefit of the doubt as much as possible. It's why she never really thought about all the evil shit in Panem, because a) she has been pretty isolated her whole life, not a lot of mandatory TV in Depots or on crews, and b) she assumes people are generally good so there must be reasons for things. Once she starts realizing that isn't the case, or that the reasons are things like "keeping the Capitol rich" and "suppressing dissent" she starts picking at threads and pulling on things until her whole conception of how the world works basically falls apart.

This is jarring, to put it mildly.

[chronicbookworm.livejournal.com]

This was awesome and now I'm going to go reread your existing D9 fics (for the n-th time)!

[kawuli.livejournal.com]

Ha this was also a good push to get some writing done on the new D9 one which i REALLY HOPE i can post by the end of July.

(It's already almost 23k omg WHOOPS turns out in wars lots of STUFF happens and I have to write plot and logistics and ha ha ha oh dear)

[kawuli.livejournal.com]

(oh and up there ^^ is a snippet of Sara from the D9 WIP if you want a sneak preview)

[chronicbookworm.livejournal.com]

Loved the preview, can't wait to see the rest of it! 23K words of plot and logistics sounds amazing!

[misskruger.livejournal.com]

I really like Zea! One question - do you pronounce her name like 'bee' or is it two syllables, where you hear the e and the a?

Also, I LOVED the snippet of Sara firing the gun, and am eagerly anticipating more D9 at war fic. When you're ready.

[kawuli.livejournal.com]

So Zea's name comes for the scientific name for maize, which is Zea mays--pronounced with two syllables.

(Durum and Emmer are both types of wheat, Lucerne is the Aussie name for what I'd call alfalfa, Milo is the western-US name for sorghum, Bran from wheat bran. Most of the other D9 names are from relatives of mine who are from Kansas)

I really want to finish the next D9 piece and I'm really pretty close but my brain is being uncooperative >( SOON I HOPE

(and i'm always extra gratified when people like the D9 fics, I think they're some of my best stuff in terms of like, writing quality? but super niche obviously so I don't get much feedback XD)