Character Solidifying Questions: Accepting!
32. How does your character react to stress situations? Defensively? Aggressively? Evasively?
It depends on how long he’s been stressed. Will has a tendency to bury stress down deep and pretend that everything is okay. He knows that he has a problem with rage - his first instinct is to deal with things aggressively - and so he stuffs and tries not to deal with them in any way that shows that aggression. This is even more true after he rage murders Randall.
The problem with that is, after burying and stuffing so much, the anger and aggression eventually reaches a boiling point and explodes - especially if there has been a lot of stress at once (re: Randall Tier).
So the correct answer is...not well.
39. What do they like to ridicule? What do they find stupid?
Will rarely ridicules anything. He is too likely to see why something might be important to another person and, although he might disagree or dislike or even find the thing to be quite stupid, he will rarely call it that in front of other people. He jokes, yes, but he doesn’t ridicule, doesn’t mock. (Except in a gentle jesting way with his friends, but that is different, I think.)
Will finds...a lot of things to be stupid. Exploding over little things, for one. Being judgmental. TicTacs and chewing gum and those little bitty Tamagatchi games (get a real pet - they will love you more and they’re a lot harder to accidentally kill).
40. How is their sense of humor? Do they have one?
Will has an excellent sense of humor. He often tends to joke in stressful situations to diffuse the tension (as I’m finding) and tends to use a joke as form of call out. More often than not, Will would rather be joking than being extremely tense. It’s something he learned while living with his mother and his sister, the latter of whom it was greatly built for.
41. Is your character aware of who they are? Strengths? Weaknesses? Idiosyncrasies? Capable of self-irony?
To an extent. Will is much more aware of his flaws than his strengths and often sees his strength (his empathy) as a flaw due to its consequences (the blurring and, often, loss of self). He can be capable of self-irony, especially when he is upset with himself, but it often comes across as extremely bitter.
He does not note his idiosyncrasies. He is not aware of them. What are those?
44. How badly do they want to obtain their life objectives? How do they pursue them?
Will’s main objective in life is to not be like his father and he does whatever he can to that end. At the same time, after killing Randall, he does believe that he became his father and worse than him, seeing as Matthias never killed anyone. But, as a result, he does seek help by turning himself in, by going to a mental institute, by retiring from his detective work.
45. Is your character pragmatic? Think first? Responsible? All action? A visionary? Passionate? Quixotic?
Will is both responsible and passionate. He does not think first, he is not a visionary, and he is only all action in situations where he thinks he needs to be. He is definitely not quixotic or pragmatic - the latter because he spends too much time focusing on theories (although he is often accurate and that may come across as being very pragmatic).
