4. If your muse could change one thing about themself, what would it be?
Outwardly, it would definitely be the scars. Even if he didn’t mind them from a purely aesthetical point of view, which he very much does - they are the cause of his limp and plenty other unpleasant side-effects he would be very, very happy to live without. Don’t get me wrong, he’s still fit enough, even with the limp and the occasional hyperventilation but, at the same time, he feels like he can't rely on himself and his body as much as he used to which, in turn, makes him feel unsafe. Naturally, being a man of his position, he does carry a handgun wherever he goes, but that hardly makes him feel any better.
Inwardly, he would for sure get rid of his tendency towards depression if he could for much the same reasons – it makes it so he can’t rely on himself as much as he used to, his personal sense of resilience and self-sufficiency are not as strong as they used to be, because he doesn’t know himself when he’s depressed. Even in his darkest days back when Rachel and he were still living with their father, he always knew there had to be a way out because, well, he just had to – otherwise, it would have become a self-fulfilling prophecy and neither one of them would have ever made it out (which isn’t entirely true, it sort of makes Rachel seem helpless and unable of handling herself – but you get the gist). When he’s depressed, all that gets thrown away without so much as a second thought, and he’ll allow himself to sink farther and farther into it because, well, that’s just how depression is – everything is terrible all the time and you can’t see a way out because you don’t think there exists one.
5. What kind of first impression does your muse give off to people just meeting them? How does this change as people get to know them better?
That depends on who you ask, really, and the manner with which they’re involved in Levi’s life. If we’re talking about other individuals from the Bianchi family or other criminal organizations - Levi always tries to maintain a respectful air. He will always address people by their title, always keep his language clean (at least towards them), always hear them out and will always do his best to keep both parties satisfied (within his means, of course - and that being said, the Bianchis will always come first). He’s rather the impressive diplomat which often fares well, but not always. Some people view him as lacking authority, little more than Marco’s personal lap dog, and won’t take him seriously; some view his diplomacy as cowardice and compliance which, in turn, makes him unfit for his role as Marco’s second-in-command, even if Marco is much of the same (hell – some view Marco as cowardly and compliant, too). He knows it’s the right way to get anything accomplished, though, with minimum fuss and minimum damage for all parties involved, so I don’t see him getting all combatant and irrational anytime soon.
If we’re talking just ordinary people who are not involved in or unaware of his criminal status – I’d say he comes across as charming (or that’s the way I try to portray him, anyway), in a thinly-veiled brutish, violent sort of way. He’s obviously a thug, but he’s clever and kind of funny and, if anything, he’s a good listener. He doesn’t often want to involve people in his personal experiences or past due to obvious reasons (did anyone say trust issues?), which usually has him leading people to talk more about themselves and, lbr - most people want to talk about themselves, it makes them feel heard and interesting, so, yes. Long story short, Levi is a good diplomat and most times, people tend to like that about him.
I do think people tend to notice, at some point, that he’s a private man, that he doesn’t want anyone getting too close to him, and the reactions vary depending on things like the nature of the relationship or, simply, the type of person the other party is. Some accept it and hope he’ll eventually open up; some try to push him there (which usually leads to his distancing himself); some give up the struggle and, with it, the relationship. It doesn't feel too nice when a person you care about clearly doesn't want you all up in their personal shit and, after a while, the charm fades, and a good listener can easily turn into a secretive, emotionally-distant creep. I do actually really want someone to confront him about it, but I think I’ll need to have been writing him longer and have him develop more personal relationships for that to happen.
6. If your muse could erase a single event from their memory, would they take the opportunity? What would they erase?
Naturally, the first thought that popped in my head is Levi’s childhood/home life, but thinking about it, I don’t think he would’ve wanted to erase any of it. It would mean granting either of his parents forgiveness which he doesn’t feel like either of them deserves and, more importantly: it probably means he wouldn’t be as wary of people as he is today, which he would consider a disadvantage. It’s good that he’s always on his feet because, that way, it’s much more difficult for the current/new people in his life to hurt him and, with his type of job, that shit is necessary in order to survive.
He might consider wiping his memory of the incident that caused his injury and killed seven of his comrades, though I’m not sure whether he’d go through with that either. It’s far more likely that he’d choose to erase that memory if only because it doesn’t serve to “remind” him of anything, unlike his childhood and memories of his parents – it’s just a very painful, very traumatizing thing that happened that he can never take back or forget about, and he’s all too aware of how deeply he's affected by it. He knows he’d probably be much better off, much more stable and emotionally healthy, were he not to remember it but, at the same time, he is at least partially responsible for what happened, partially responsible for all those lost lives, and escaping that isn’t something he’d be interested in doing. It’s a burden he doesn’t so much want to bear, but recognizes that he needs to nevertheless (so much so that I’ve recently added a third tattoo to his medical diagram).
@asilverjackal / unusual and/or prying character questions.