Might be pushing it here, but can we hear some trivia like facts about Ruby? Things like fav color, song, tv shows, etc?
This is a weirdly difficult question! Mostly, I think, because all of Ruby’s favorites were the favorites she had pre-camp, and after that point she wasn’t exactly in the position to be watching movies or TV shows, you know? I always hesitate to use any culture references unless they’re classics/long-running shows (for example, the classic rock songs, mentions of Wheel of Fortune re-runs in IN TIME, etc.) because I don’t want to exactly place when this is happening in the readers’ minds. Does that make sense?
When I say I know the character extremely well and they feel real to me, I really mean the information I know about them has a lot more to do with their life experiences—sort of like random glimpses of memory that make up who they are as people. Things like how Ruby lost all four of her front teeth at once when someone tripped her while she was playing kiddie soccer at age five. If you would have asked her at age nine what she wanted to be when she grew up, she would have said an FBI agent because she met a cool lady while going to the police station with her dad for Take Your Child to Work Day. She can’t stand the smell or taste of creamed corn after eating so much of it to spite her mom (who told her she needed to eat more than that for dinner) she spent half a night throwing it up.
Chubs was too scared to learn how to ride a bike as a kid so he still doesn’t know how to, he’s allergic to cats despite being somewhat obsessed with them (he’s really obsessed with most cute baby animals, to be honest), and never had chicken pox so he lives in actual terror of it every day.
Everything Liam knows about cars is because Harry (his step-father, who worked in a mechanic shop after leaving the Army) took him under his wing and taught him to avoid him continuing down a troubled path after Cole. Liam used to indulge Claire at every turn and play Barbies with her—and he’s the one that found her when she didn’t wake up that last morning. He was bullied relentlessly in sixth grade by kids at school and his brother, and the bullying at school didn’t stop until Cole (who was apparently okay with no one else giving him crap) ‘dealt’ with them one afternoon.
Zu’s parents were strict about speaking only Japanese at home and she struggled a bit in school since English was her second language. She once got lost at Disneyland when she was very, very young and her parents left her alone for hours alone to teach her a lesson about wandering off (she had a great time by herself, which only made them angrier). The only thing she grew up afraid of was the ocean and only because her uncle (the one who lives in California) jokingly told her that jellyfish eat little girls’ toes.
It’s interesting, because as much as I can tell you about who they were pre-camps, the experiences they had there, and then after, on the run, were so formative to who they are that it feels like they’ve all lived two very different lives.
