For the soft oc asks, for Lena (or mix and match with any other OCs!):
ooh, thank you for the ask!!
~ soft oc asks ~
7. If they were in a book, how would they describe themselves?
This is a bit of a hard one, actually. I think she'd err on the side of describing herself as fairly plain, physically, and instead she'd emphasize her presence - think words like 'no-nonsense', 'community-driven', 'perceptive', 'persuasive'. Which like, is mostly true? But I think the description would end up underselling both her looks and her fun side, somewhat by design.
18. What's their favorite scent?
Pre-war, I think Lena favored warmer, softer scents, like cinnamon-vanilla, or jasmine, but post-war? I think she finds that her favorite smell is just-laundered clothes, still a bit damp from the wash and undercut with that faint metallic tinge that the Sanctuary river water carries. Second favorite is that vaguely dusty/attic-y smell that John's coat has if she really buries her face against it.
19. What's their favorite texture?
Well-worn cotton fabric. Not quite fully smooth, maybe with the slightest picks in it, but so thin and well-loved that it's super soft anyhow.
20. What's something they do absentmindedly that their partner (if they have one) finds adorable?
Lena often hums while she works, whether that work is a repair around Sanctuary, mending clothes, or cleaning her weapons. But she's very, very quiet about it, almost entirely to herself, so the only real sign of it is the occasional little mumble and the slight nodding of her head to the music. I think both John and Nick find that little nodding and mumbling to be pretty adorable.
Before the war, she would often doodle while she was thinking - not drawings, really, just repetitive pen scribbles that did a number on her legal pad when she was really puzzling on something. Post-war, she spends far more of her thinking time away from a desk and notepad, so she ends up subtly tracing little shapes on her thigh, over and over, when she's particularly zoned out and lost in thought. I don't know that D would call it adorable, but I do think he's quite endeared by it.