Storyteller Saturday: Your characters are on a ship and a bomb is about to go off. Who is doing what to help with the situation?
Oh I adore this question, thanks so much for asking!
Clara is reciting the rules and guidelines for how to safely abandon a ship and board lifeboats to frightened employees so that they know what to do if they’ve forgotten. (And probably stays on the ship to track down who planted it with Caerwyn.)
Callisto is tracking down the bomb and the person who planted it with Clara, and is taking drastic measures to find it, like axing down walls if necessary.
Zach is helping to reassure and calm people who are freaking out and panicking, and is lifting smaller people onto lifeboats, or physically supporting people who need it.
Laurel is giving up his seat in the lifeboat to other people, and is helping Zach keep people relatively calm. He’s probably the one that spots a suspicious person somewhere as well, he’s surprisingly
Blake is helping people board lifeboats while simultaneously keeping mental records of who’s getting off the ship and who isn’t, who looks suspicious, etc., just in case, and eventually will publish the newspaper story about it.
Aiden and Jess are probably fighting the antagonists that put the bomb on the ship.
Vanessa safely dismantles the bomb with alarming and suspicious ease and expertise.
Storyteller Saturday: Come ask me about my writing!
03. What would be their favorite physical trait about themselves?
Blake likes her profile. She likes how sharp her features are, and she thinks it makes her look intimidating. (She’s not very intimidating).
07. Is there a catchphrase or sound that they tend to make a lot (likely without being aware of it)?
Blake groans and sighs a lot, usually in frustration or irritation. She’s surrounded by stupid people who are too ignorant to see past their own noses, and they think that they’re always right, so... You know, a girl has to express that irritation somehow before they explode.
She also groans in embarrassment a lot too.
13. What are your character’s sleeping habits? Heavy or light sleeper? Blanket stealer? One that always rolls onto the floor? Pushes their lover onto the floor? Sleep talker or walker?
Blake isn’t a person with terrible sleep habits, she doesn’t roll on the floor (often, it probably happened like two times in her life), and she usually doesn’t end up with her feet on the pillow, but she’s also not a still sleeper. She moves around a lot. She’s a pretty heavy sleeper because she usually pushes herself to the point of exhaustion before she crawls into bed, and often falls asleep at her desk.
She definitely talks in her sleep too.
Get to know my characters by sending me a number from this list!
Some people say that a person’s handwriting can reveal a lot about who they are... So what does your OC’s handwriting say about them?
RULES: Describe the handwriting of a few OCs, and tag 7 people!
Figured that I’ll start a new tag game because.... Why not? ive never done this before am i doing it right
BLAKE
As the main character of Post-Script, a story told entirely by letter-writing, handwriting is a really important background detail. Blake’s handwriting is extremely messy because she rushes to write everything down. As a journalist and a really impulsive person, she constantly has lots of thoughts swirling around her brain and her hand can’t keep up with the deluge of words that she’s trying to record. Because of this, her handwriting is kind of cursive-like, but not really. The letters are often connected accidentally because she’s scribbling down the next letter before she finishes writing the first, but it’s not meant to be continuous and flowy like actual cursive. Her handwriting tends to slant heavily towards the right at different degrees depending on what position she’s in and how fast she’s writing. Her letters tend to be large and loopy, and when the letters are actually closed, it’s a happy coincidence.
CALLISTO
In every single setting that Callisto exists in, she’s always the daughter of a high-class family that values appearances highly. Consequently, gorgeous penmanship was something that was strictly enforced. Her penmanship is legitimate calligraphy. She makes her capital letters large, while the lowercase letters tend to be much smaller in comparison. If there’s one word to describe her penmanship, it’s elegant. Her upstrokes are never heavy, and her downstrokes are decisive — there are very few errors in her penmanship, and she does this with seemingly little effort. In both of the urban fantasy settings she’s part of (surprisingly yes, it’s in the modern world not a medieval fantasy type thing!), she’s probably never held a pencil or a pen in her life so she probably has some difficulty adjusting to something that doesn’t have the nib of a calligraphy pen or a quill — that changes how you have to write, after all!
LAUREL
Laurel writes small, and his handwriting is a bit on the awkward side. His penmanship isn’t messy or illegible in any way and it’s actually very easy to read, but it’s not well-balanced. Sometimes a line is a bit too short, or a loop is a bit too big for it to look cohesive, and there’s always a lopsided letter here and there in every sentence. Even if his letters are a bit off, he always closes the letters. The ‘o’ is always connected, and there’s never a gap in the ‘a’. There’s also never a slant in his penmanship, his writing is straight up and down. Although his letters aren’t uniform, if there’s one thing he knows how to do, it’s write in a straight line, even without lines on his paper to guide his writing. Above all, Laurel’s handwriting is simple. No frills, no flourishes, and his handwriting hasn’t changed since he was about 7 years old — that’s not to say that he has a messy child’s handwriting, but just that his handwriting was remarkably neat and mature for a little kid at the time, and he never progressed beyond that.
Going to tag a lot of people to hopefully get the ball rolling! @incandescent-creativity @bookenders @bookishdiplodocus @bookish-actor @dove-actually @caitwritesstuff @cawolters @abalonetea @writings-of-a-narwhal @roselinproductions @writinginslowmotion @tenacious-scripturient @neirawrites @myhoniahakah @wolvesofarcadia @writingfyis @quilloftheclouds @lady-redshield-writes @quillwritten @kaatiba @hyba @tiredbard @n1ghtcrwler @quill-of-doom @esoteric-eclectic-eccentric @thewordsinthesky-andstars @leave-her-a-tome @thewritertiffany @farradays @slytherin-bookworm-guy @bexminx and anyone else who wants to do this!
Honestly, a lot of things set Blake off because she can get very angry very quickly under the right circumstances since she is a passionate gal, I usually interpret pet peeve’s as something super petty so...
She hates grammatical errors. She’s a journalist, and she spends a lot of time (and sometimes money) making sure that her writing is free of those errors. Anyone who doesn’t take the time to do that is just lazy.
And you know, the occasional typo is okay! It happens, it slips through the cracks. But she hates the stupid ones where people say “would of” instead of “would have” or “would’ve”. Hates it!!! With!!! A!!! Burning!!! Passion!!!!!! (coincidentally I also hate it!!!!)
Storyteller Saturday: Come ask me about my writing!
Happy STS! What is something that your characters would never leave home without? Hope you have a good day!
Blake always carries with her a notebook, pen, a small camera, and voice recorder so she’s always ready for an impromptu scoop or interview or story! Oh and her phone works in a pinch on the off chance that she doesn’t have one (or all) of those things.
I actually once wrote out all of the contents of Blake’s bag as an exercise... It was a lot. She needs to carry a very big bag.
Thanks for asking!
Storyteller Saturday: Come ask me about my writing!
I feel like I should remind everyone that I actually write sometimes too — shocking, I know. So here’s a thing I wrote a long time ago, just to pretend that I’m a real Writeblr for a bit.
If there ever was a reason to be grateful, it was that Blake lives in a time where coffee and other sources of caffeine are readily available. Although it was just before 9 o'clock in the morning, she was already half-way through her second mug and a small tower of used creamers were stacked unevenly at the corner of her desk. Damn those early morning meetings; was it really necessary to gather everyone under the age of twenty-five early in the morning to discuss the implications of retweets? The Capital was full of old, decrepit people who would still use fax machines if they could. At this point, Blake was sure she was spending more time teaching her superiors how to use computers instead of her actual job.
And they said that the life of a journalist wasn't glamourous.
Her desk was full of unfinished drafts, photographs, and other piles of papers stacked haphazardly over every inch of the surface. With a sigh, Blake just piled the existing piles on top of each other to create a precarious mountain of paper to clear out some space. It was organized chaos at its finest — her desk may be a mess, but she knew where everything was... Or at least she hoped.
With a heavy sigh and tapping fingers fueled by coffee jitters, Blake impatiently waited for her computer to load web pages. Fingers automatically typed up ‘twitter.com’ into the address bar, but she thought better of it and quickly hit backspace. After lecturing a sixty-year old crusty, balding man on how to navigate the 'tweeter-sphere', she really wasn't in the mood to revisit the social media site and its apparently impossible-to-use interface.
When she logged into her email account, it was no surprise that hundreds of unread emails were blinking on the browser. 317 emails to be exact, the red bubble notification on her phone had been mocking her for days now. Wearily, Blake started clicking and manually sorting through useful emails and trash that didn't even need to be read. Passive-aggressive work memos from loud coworkers (shut up Patricia, no one cares about your lunch), junk mail (there's a sale going on in a nearby department store apparently), and death threats (only 12 emails, significantly less than yesterday) were among the ones immediately deleted without even opening.
Several rapid clicks later, her inbox was emptied of all unnecessary emails, and she could focus on what actually mattered — once she sorted through all of the false leads, that is. Days ago, Blake had published a request for the Other to contact her if they wanted their stories heard. It was a good idea in theory to gather information and first-hand accounts, but she really, really should've seen the amount of humans pretending to be the Other coming. Internet anonymity was a bitch, and a lot of trolls, people that were obsessed with the Other and bored humans who had way too much time on their hands were claiming to be special.
Somehow, Blake sincerely doubted that a real vampire or werewolf would throw in blatant Twilight or Vampire Diaries references into these emails. Just a hunch. On the off chance that they were truly what they said they were, it wasn't the type of person (could they still be called a person?) she wanted to write about. Now that article would immediately become the laughing stock of the internet. Blake's mouse hovered over the trash can icon for a long second as she fought the urge to delete the lot of them. Duty won out, just in case she was deleting important information. The things she would do for a story...
There was one email in particular however, that seemed more genuine for whatever reason. Call it journalist's intuition, or just a lack of modern (if slightly outdated) pop culture references.
Dear B. Preston,
Apologies for the throwaway email address – I don’t like paper trails. I saw your call for stories from the Other in The Capital, and after serious deliberation, I have decided to express my own interest in the project. I am a vampire of not insignificant experience who would be willing to answer any questions you might have, from my condition in general to my personal history, so long as the result is anonymised.
As this is uncharted territory for the both of us, and perhaps even both our kinds, I am an unsure as to whether the best medium would be in writing or an in-person interview. Whichever option you would feel more comfortable with. Obviously, dining with the stuff of nightmares isn’t everyone’s cup of tea.
Looking forward to your reply.
Sincerely,
Someone who would rather not sign his name in writing.
Blake leaned back into her office chair as she read and reread that email, thoughtfully chewing off the lipstick she had hastily smeared on so that she could claim that she cared about appearances. It was impossible to gleam whether this email rang true or not, but there was something different about this one that felt like it was worth following up on — at least the throwaway email wasn't something like totallyabloodsucker69 that she saw about three emails prior.
After quickly doing her carpal tunnel prevention hand stretches, Blake wrote out a long reply, then went back and deleted an entire unnecessary paragraph and several other snarky comments that had just slipped out. She was a professional, and should probably act as such. No need to scare off a potential vampire contact — as silly as that sounds.
Dear someone who would rather not sign their name in writing,
Thank you for your response, your willingness to share your story to the public is greatly appreciated. I can promise it will be put to good use.
An in-person interview probably would work best, if only to be able to say that I've confirmed that you're a vampire in person. It's far too easy for people to pretend to be something they're not online — there's simply not enough credibility over the internet. I conduct a lot of interviews over at The Daily Grind for the casual atmosphere, but I'm open to any alternatives you have in mind. I've attached my schedule to this email, let me know when you're available.
And finally as a formality — and I honestly have no idea what I'm looking for — is there any way you can send me proof of your claim? As mentioned before, there are far too many people pretending to be anything other than human.
Regards,
Blake Preston.
Perhaps only a split-second after she hit send, a roar of "Preston, turn the radio on now!" was shouted at her from behind. Blake spun around in her chair in alarm, staring at Jones who just barged through the door with wild, panicked eyes.
"What are you——"
"Do it! Now!"
Jones didn't even give Blake another moment to respond as he flew forward to fiddle the radio to the right broadcast, not bothering to wait for the shocked journalist to catch up to his intensity. Precious few seconds were evidently lost as Jones' fumbling fingers finally managed to push the right set of buttons. Blake actually listened to On the Edge radio quite often, but an unfamiliar voice flowed through the speakers.
Think of the teenagers lost during Nick Bloodfang’s rampage: three young girls, on their way home from a party on the wrong night of the lunar cycle, left for dead. That is only the tip of the iceberg...
Though she didn't quite understand what was going on yet, Blake turned on the recording function of her phone after seeing Jones frantically gesticulated to her. Blake's brows were knit in confusion as she listened to the broadcast. Something wasn't right, something didn't feel right.
Blake's jaw dropped along with her stomach as the 'segment' ended with a human call for action. It was pathos at its finest, playing up on the fear that she knew swept throughout the humans when the Other first came to light a month or so ago. Even though the current position of most people was uncertain, tension and fear grated roughly on most humans that she knew. Jones and Blake shared a slack-jawed stare of disbelief.
This was hate speech, inciting people to violent acts because they painted the Other as mere criminals with no other purpose besides murdering innocent people.
By the time Louise's voice came back on the air, Blake snapped out of her stupor to open a brand new word document on her computer. Although the highjack had ended only seconds before, she was already replaying it on her phone as her fingers flew over the keyboard, transcribing it to the best of her ability. "I can't believe I missed the bloody beginning. Colin, did you get——"
Blake's fingers kept moving as she glanced over to her partner's desk, suspiciously empty and untouched since yesterday.
happy sts! ❤️ if you were stranded on a deserted island, which three of your ocs would you want with you? why? // ~livvywrites
Vanessa because she is a survivor with really sharp instincts. While I doubt that she’s ever been stranded on a deserted island, if anyone can find a way to come back from that, it’s her. She’s ruthless and clever enough to find a way out.
Zach because he’s optimistic without being naive. In a stressful situation like that, I think it’s really important to have someone who can help you feel better without giving you false hope or empty assurances. He’s also really smart and resourceful, he’s probably read some ‘how to survive on a deserted island’ books for fun tbh.
Blake because she’s a relatively famous journalist with a big online presence. I don’t know if she’s the best person to have with you for the surviving part of being stranded, but she’s well-known enough that people would be concerned for her. Additionally, she could write about her experiences when we’ve made it off the island and sell a lot of books. That would give me enough fame and prestige and money to let me live easy for a while!
Thanks for asking, this was a fun one!
Storyteller Saturday: Come ask me about my writing!
Ahhhhh Undine!!! Storyteller Saturday question time! Who of your characters require glasses? Who *should* have glasses? Who has the best sight of all of them? (Does anyone have nightvision or other supernatural sight traits?)
Oh my gosh, do any of my characters have glasses??
Most of my characters are created off of a foundation of a face claim — for me, the personality has to match the face somewhat, and a face claim helps solidify the concept — and a lot of face claims tend to be minor celebrities because I feel skeevy about using people who don’t consent to their image being used in media, which means that a lot of them don’t wear glasses in their images/gifs, so I never really thought about it too much.
Zachary definitely needs glasses, but I think he usually just wears contacts. He only really wears his glasses in the morning before he puts in his contacts, and at night once he’s ready for bed, or having a lazy night in with the boyfriend. I feel like he really likes the glasses as a symbol of sorts for when he’s relaxed/lounging, as opposed to when he’s out and about.
Blake probably wears glasses too, now that I think about it. There’s no why she survived childhood with her vision still perfectly intact. She mostly wears contacts as well because it seems a bit more professional — but also because she wears computer glasses to help prevent eye strain from staring at a digital screen for too long, and she can’t wear them with her actual glasses. Blake isn’t really the type to care about taking care of her eyes, but as a journalist she spends a lot of time staring at the computer, and she started feeling the eye fatigue hardcore enough to take preventative measures.
Vanessa probably should have glasses since she’s in the dark a lot, and I dunno, she just seems like she would, and mostly wear contacts despite having several frames for stylish glasses. I think her vampirism fixed her vision though, and allows her to see much better than a human, especially at night.
I feel like Clara has really good vision, despite being the type of person who seems like they should have glasses. She’s such a nerd and definitely stays up reading in the dark, but somehow it hasn’t impacted her vision at all.
As for supernatural vision abilities... I’ve never particularly been a fan of clairvoyance so I’ve never used it. But in For Queen and Country, several characters have enhanced vision due to being a nonhuman. Vanessa and Callisto for example, definitely can see much more than a human because they’re a vampire and fae respectively. (Being a werewolf however, doesn’t seem to have an effect on Zachary’s eyesight).
