Open Thread: Oracle Hotline

[mithen]

For the next few weeks, let's do some character studies! Grab the last character whose POV you were writing in and (if you feel like it) answer this:

What do you know about this character now that s/he doesn’t yet know?

Let's see, my most recent POV character is wrestler Sami Zayn, and it's a fairly short hurt/comfort piece, so there's not a lot of suppressed self-awareness (also Sami is a pretty darn self-aware character!) He's telling himself that he's helping his former tag partner and current enemy get cleaned up and shaved just so he'll pull out of his depression and keep his job, but what he doesn't know is that he actually kind of just wants to see his friend beardless because it reminds him of happy days before they fell out.

(This is an oddly complicated answer for a simple story! How about you?)

Comments

[me_ya_ri]

Huh, fun one! I'm currently writing a short story about a demigod who's just been accused of stealing the moon by the goddess of new bamboo shoots and a particular demigod in charge of a peninsula covered in sand. And as I write into the dark that's a hard question to answer.

Except it's the 5th story in the cycle and I can say with authority that Keanu is completely unaware that the other gods (all of them, not just these two) are scared shitless of him and his friends. They've killed two gods so far (one directly, one indirectly, destroyed an interdimensional monster that nearly ate a water god, killed an entire library full of evil sentient books bent on world domination and they've only just gotten started.

*grin* So yeah, I'm having fun. And the other gods are quaking in their metaphorical boots for fear of the five of them turning their attention towards overthrowing all the other gods.

Which Keanu would never, ever do and wouldn't even think of. He's a sweet pea to loves everyone and everything, even when he's being mildly cranky about things. He's more interested in seeing that his First Follower Cyrille and his soulmate Akuchi have time to be sweet and adorable together.

And it seems like I had to give long answers, too. *laughs* Good luck with Sami and his H/C!

[mithen]

Except it's the 5th story in the cycle and I can say with authority that Keanu is completely unaware that the other gods (all of them, not just these two) are scared shitless of him and his friends.

OH GOSH I love this kind of character and story, where someone is REALLY POWERFUL and everyone is terrified of them but they're a sweetheart who would never misuse that power. It's just so fun as a writer to hint at the fact that other people are scared when the character themselves is oblivious...

(And I love the descriptions of your deities, I always love gods and demigods in charge of things that that aren't immediately obvious as Important Things...)

[prince0froses]

It's been ages and with the state I'm in I'm not really up for a lot of complicated thought (my days consist of sitting in odd postures and dully watching something to drown out the pain), but character studies are my catnip.

The last thing I wrote was that dialog bit between Dade, Heerah, Sean and Dorian. Since I don't write in a linear fashion, the versions of my characters 'in my head' so to speak always know everything I know - so I'll confine their lack of knowledge to the time period the piece is set in. And since there's no clearly defined POV character, I'll throw in a tidbit for each of them.

Thing Dade does not know about himself at that time: as desperately as he wants to be romantically loved, he does not realize he is not yet ready for it (at this time). Dorian has outpaced him in emotional maturity (just doesn't show it). Also, while he tells himself that Dorian does not love him, deep down he knows otherwise. Dade isn't ready to admit that there were two sides to their emotional falling out and that he shares some of the blame for it, so he has to frame it in his mind as "Dorian doesn't love me anymore, that's why he treats me this way" so he doesn't reach the inevitable conclusion of "I've done my share of wrong in this situation, and -that-'s why he treats me this way." His inability to accept his share of the fault blinds him to the fact that Dorian is still pining.

Thing Dorian does not know about himself at this time: He is not ready to admit, to anyone, how desperately lonely he is and how much he would just love to have friends, so he doesn't admit it to himself. It's not that he -isn't- attracted to everyone he meets (he's v. textbook pansexual), but he's not as hypersexual as he lets on, and a lot of his flirting is an attempt at making social connections without exposing vulnerability. He also does not know his own emotional strength yet.

Thing Heerah does not know about herself at this time: that she is 100% gay and her attraction to men is primarily aesthetic (she still knows when a guy is sexy and voices it, she just wouldn't actually act on it). I didn't know it about her until recently either. It takes Dorian, an objectively stunning man, making a good-natured pass at her, for her to realize that "...nah, actually, I'm done with men, thanks though." and that moment hasn't happened yet.

Thing Sean doesn't know about himself at this point in time: Sean's had over 200 years to know himself, if he doesn't by now, there is no hope for him. I've sat here struggling to think of something, using his connections to others for fodder since it would be 'recent'...but nope. Sean's one of the most introspective characters in the series, he's got himself fairly figured out. The only thing I'd say is he's too hard on himself, but that's low self esteem, not self-ignorance.

[mithen]

That's interesting about Sean! Enough time and a self-reflective character and it would be hard to find much they weren't aware of about themselves...

It takes Dorian, an objectively stunning man, making a good-natured pass at her, for her to realize that "...nah, actually, I'm done with men, thanks though."

I love the image of Heerah being like, "You're nice to look at, but you don't engage the physical stuff, huh."
Dorian not knowing his own emotional strength, or that flirting is mostly about wanting friends for him--! That's so perfect.