#eof asks

[educationoffathers]

I wanna know...about Vrtanes's belief system pls? Is he religious? Superstitious? Indifferent to the idea of higher powers? I WANNA KNOW.

Great question. The short and simple answer is that he’s agnostic. But since you know I can never keep my answers short and simple, here’s the long-winded answer:

Vrtanes is nominally Christian. Specifically, he was baptized into the Armenian Apostolic Church. Growing up in Western Armenia (at that time a part of the Ottoman Empire) the church was an integral part of community and family life for him, and played a significant role in his early education.

At the age of 17, he moved from rural Armenia to the metropolitan center of Constantinople, where he was a student at the Berberian School and later went on to study at the precursor to Istanbul University, the Darülfünûn. As he was introduced to modern literature, philosophy, and science, Vrtanes became less attached to the monotheistic traditions of the Armenian church and adopted a more agnostic view towards his own spirituality.

His faith in the existence of God has remained important to him, however. He believes that while he might not be able to comprehend the true nature of God, it is impossible that a world so full of beauty and diversity and promise could exist without it being the design of some higher power. But he does not believe that this higher power is necessarily the Christian God, or even a monotheistic God. He’s curious about all religions, and open-minded about all beliefs. He has read the Quran as well as the Torah, and some Hindu and Buddhist writings as well. He believes that all interpretations of God have their own merits and are worthy of respect.

Vrtanes does not believe that God (or whatever higher power might exist) intervenes in the world on behalf of specific individuals. He does not believe that his escape from the Armenian genocide was an “act of God” or that God protected or saved him. If that were true, then that would also mean that God allowed the deaths of his friends and family who did not escape. Such a God is not one that Vrtanes would want to worship or acknowledge. He prefers to believe that God has no part in human atrocity at all.

In his new life in New York, Vrtanes attends church semi-regularly, not because he identifies with Christian orthodoxy but because it is a place of community. His connections within the Armenian diaspora in New York are deeply important to him, and have helped him put down roots in his new home. His neighbors in Little Armenia and the members of his congregation are very much an adoptive family to him. So he goes to church and recites the prayers he learned as a child, and they welcome him there as someone who belongs, even if he doesn’t always relate to his faith in the same way as other Armenian-Americans.

Vrtanes is also drawn to the concept of spiritualism, which he first encountered only after his arrival in New York. The idea that a person’s spirit continues to exist after death and that the living can communicate with the dead is one that appeals to Vrtanes, who lost many beloved friends in the Armenian genocide, along with (to the best of his knowledge) his entire family.

He dabbled tentatively at first, afraid of being taken in for a fool by some opportunistic charlatan, but his experiences thus far have been comforting ones. Vrtanes isn’t sure how to explain or define these experiences. He doesn’t know if he actually believes that his loved ones can speak to him through a medium, but he knows that it’s the first time since he left his home that he’s felt any kind of peace, and that is not nothing.

The tl;dr about Vrtanes and his belief system is that he’s a man who feels very comfortable with uncertainty. He knows that he doesn’t know, and that’s okay with him. He doesn’t need to know what God actually is or whether there’s life after death. He has his share of questions, but he’s content in the knowledge that some questions don’t have an answer – at least not one that can be understood in a single lifetime.

[educationoffathers]

Answering a few more questions for Emory from this meme, requested by @birdfrenchforbird.

22. Who are their friends? Lovers? ‘Type’ or ‘ideal’ partner?

Emory has never made friends easily. He’s too comfortable in his own solitude, too sensitive to what he perceives as criticism or rejection, and too settled in his routines. When he does make friends, it's helpful if they possess two qualities: gregariousness, to keep the conversation going when Emory falls into his unsociable silences; and patience, to tolerate his eccentricities and perfectionistic tendencies.

Emory’s oldest friend is his business partner, Orville Hall, who studied with him at Cooper Union. Both gregarious and patient, Orville serves as the public face of their architectural firm, Marlowe & Hall, and takes care of the business end of things while Emory is the firm’s lead designer.

He’s only had one lover in his life, and that was his late wife, Athene. She was in every way his type and his ideal partner -- sophisticated, competent, and dazzlingly intelligent. When Emory spoke of her to anyone else, it was always her intelligence that he mentioned above all. She was smarter than him, and he knew it and adored her for it. She wasn’t simply patient with Emory; she understood him, and loved him with all his quirks. Her strengths complemented his weaknesses.

Emory often said he was the best version of himself when he was with her.

29. What is your character’s weaknesses? Hubris? Pride? Controlling?

Pride is definitely one of his weaknesses -- specifically, pride in the form of vanity. Again, this ties into his sensitivity to criticism. He can tend to take himself too seriously at times. Emory’s vanity is the sort that comes from deep-seated insecurity, self-doubt, and fear of failure. He needs to be reminded to laugh at himself, and not worry so much about what other people think of him.

Fortunately, his daughter Winsome is of a character that makes it almost impossible for him not to be reminded of this regularly.

[educationoffathers]

1 for winsome and 21 for vrtanes?

1. How does your character think of their father? What do they hate and love about him? What influence – literal or imagined – did the father have?

Winsome’s relationship with her father is going to evolve quite a bit over the course of the story, but when we first meet them at the beginning of the story, their relationship is tender and loving but somewhat…awkward.

Winsome loves Emory. She thinks he’s brilliant and good and the best father in the world, and she knows that he loves her tremendously. But she also sees his shortcomings and how much he struggles to take care of her after Theo’s death, which leads Winsome to believe that she needs to be strong for him, even though she’s the child and he’s the parent.

As a result, Winsome holds back a lot of her own feelings about her mother’s death and pretends that she’s doing better than she actually is, for Emory’s sake. She loves her father and wants him to be okay, wants him to be able to do his job and finish the plans for the building he was commissioned to design, and she thinks that she can help by doing her best not to be a burden for him.

There’s nothing Winsome hates about her father, but she sometimes wishes that he would be a little less absent-minded, and a little better at being the parental figure she really needs in her life. Her mother was the one who cooked and cleaned for her and made sure she got to school and spent time making sure she had everything she needed, and she misses that attention, which she doesn’t get from Emory to the same degree.

Emory has always been the fun parent – the one who plays with her and reads her stories and takes her for ice cream, but doesn’t necessarily know how to be a father in the sense of being a role model for his daughter. How that will change, and what kind of influence he’ll eventually have on Winsome as she grows into a young woman, will be explored in the story.

21. What are your character’s manners like? What is their type of hero? Whom do they hate?

Vrtanes’s manners are old world and old school. When he addresses someone unfamiliar, he bows to acknowledge them, or at the very least inclines his head. Everyone is “sir” or “madam” or “friend,” depending on his level of acquaintance. He holds open doors for both women and men, serves everyone else at the table before himself, and never interrupts another person while they’re speaking.

In everything he does, Vrtanes embodies a humble and unassuming air that comes to him naturally, and he’s a stickler for courtesy even in the face of absolute disrespect.

Vrtanes’s heroes are those who strive to do the greatest good and the least harm to their fellow human beings. He admires artists and writers and creators of all kinds for this reason, because surely telling the shared stories of humanity and bringing a smile to someone’s face as an artist or entertainer is the purest form of good one can contribute to society.

One of his personal heroes is Theodore Blythe, the pseudonymous author who was actually Emory’s wife, and whose satiric novels tackled issues such as gender, sexuality, education, social inequality, and religion.

Vrtanes would say that hate is a wrongful and poisonous emotion, one that does more harm to the person feeling it than the object of their hatred. However, he would also admit that he is not perfect – he has known and felt hatred, most significantly toward those in the Ottoman government who orchestrated the Armenian genocide.

For most wrongs that have been committed against him or others, he’s able to find forgiveness in his heart, but for what was perpetrated against his people, Vrtanes has yet to find that forgiveness. He is not sure that he wants to forgive them, or that he should.

Send me character-solidifying asks.

[educationoffathers]

Here’s the last of the character asks that were sent over to my main blog. This one was requested by @valkatra​ for Vrtanes. Thanks for your interest! :D

43. Does your character have any secrets? If so, are they holding them back?

Vrtanes isn’t a man of many true secrets, but he is a private fellow who plays his cards close to his chest. He doesn’t talk much about himself unless asked directly, and even then, he’s hardly an open book. Most of the time, this is simply because he doesn’t consider the details of his personal life to be of any relevance to the conversation, but it can lend him a certain air of mystery.

Only two things about him could be called true secrets, things he guards himself against revealing to others: his sexuality, and his escape from the Armenian genocide.

Vrtanes is attracted to both men and women, but most of his experiences have been with men. As a matter of practicality, he’s cautious about who he shares that information with, but it’s not something that he hides out of shame or that holds him back. He’s entirely comfortable with his sexuality and actively pursues relationships with people he finds himself drawn to, regardless of their gender.

His escape from the genocide is a different matter. It’s a subject he never talks about, and in fact actively avoids, even when asked. This is a source of deep shame and guilt for Vrtanes. He was spared only through sheer luck, and he has suffered a great deal of survivor’s guilt. There’s a part of him that feels cowardly for not having remained in the Ottoman Empire to face his fate alongside his dear friends and family. He feels that he betrayed them, in a way.

It would be accurate to say that this secret is holding Vrtanes back from reaching a real sense of closure about the loss of his family and friends.

Send character solidifying asks for the EoF crew.

[educationoffathers]

Brown for vrtanes pls?

Brown: Where do you call home?

In certain ways, it has been the hardest truth for Vrtanes to face -- that both Western Armenia and the Ottoman Empire, the two lands he once called home, have ceased to exist.

The trauma of genocide is something Vrtanes can recognize and name. The trauma of rootlessness, of placelessness, of the gnawing sense of unbelonging -- that is something else, something he can’t as easily label and place in a box.

It would be tempting to say that Vrtanes’s home is his community and culture. To an extent, that’s certainly true. His Armenian neighbors and congregation members have become an adoptive family for him in New York. Their presence and support helps to remind him that he’s not as rootless as he feels, that there are others who share his culture and understand what he went through to reach this new place and new life in America.

But while his cultural identity is important to him, I think it’s more complex than that for Vrtanes. There are parts of his culture that he has never identified with, both as an agnostic and as a man who is attracted to other men, and that can be difficult for his neighbors and friends to understand. There are times when even in a room full of Armenians, he still feels isolated and rootless, still feels that sense of not quite belonging.

The only place Vrtanes has always felt at home is in his books and his writing, in words. All his life, he has found strength and comfort and hope through fictional stories and characters. He believes that language and the stories we tell with language are at the very heart of humanity, that the act of telling and sharing stories defines what it is to be human.

His own native language, Western Armenian, is especially precious to him. As long as stories continue to be told in that language, Western Armenia can never truly disappear.

So, to answer your question, Vrtanes would say that stories are the closest thing to a home he has, and he only home he needs.

Send me a shade of color for my OCs to answer.

[educationoffathers]

rust for emory and orange for winsome?

Thank u for the questions! I’m not going to answer them in character because I’m too lazy a maverick.

Rust: Have you thought about becoming old? Can you become old? Are you scared of being old? What do you think about elders? 

Before Theo’s death, Emory never worried about getting old. He assumed Theo would be there to grow old with him, and they’d both watch their daughter grow into a young woman. Since losing her so suddenly, Emory broods on the subject far more often. He’s not afraid of getting old so much as he’s afraid of getting old alone. It’s not something he had prepared himself for, and he doesn’t know how to face it now that it’s his reality.

Theo was his partner in every way, and he’s struggling to come to terms with what her death means in terms of his future and the life they’d planned together. Emory doesn’t cope well with uncertainty.

As for his attitude towards his elders, he’s fairly traditional in that regard and holds the elder generations in high esteem. He respects his parents and is generally inclined to trust their advice -- a point of contention between him and Theo, who was far less traditional and more progressive-minded.

Orange: What are some of your comfort foods?

Besides her mother’s almond raisin cake, which was her absolute favorite comfort food, Winsome loves chicken pot pie, red flannel hash, creamed potatoes, and curried egg sandwiches.

She doesn’t like seafood at all -- no fish, no shellfish, no lobster, nothing -- a quirk which greatly vexed both of her New England-born parents.

Send me a shade of color for my OCs to answer.

[educationoffathers]

These were sent to my main blog, but I decided to answer here instead, so I can keep all the asks and answers related to EoF in one place. Tagging @focsle, who requested 26 for Emory and 49 for Vrtanes, from this meme.

26. What does your character’s home look like? Personal taste? Clothing? Hair? Appearance?

Emory’s sense of personal taste is fastidious and particular. One might describe it as “pragmatism with a flair.” In his architectural designs, he favors the clean but classic lines of eclecticism and Beaux-Arts architecture -- the sophistication and flair of the 19th century, streamlined with an understated and modern 20th-century elegance. He disdains overwrought and ostentatious designs, which he calls “architectural vomit,” but he hates the sterility of true modernism too. He believes in a balance between creativity and practicality.

The same understated sense of style exhibited in his architecture can be found in all aspects of his life: the furnishings in his home, the clothes he wears, and even the music and art he appreciates. He dresses well but predictably, in tweed suits and striped neckties and argyle socks.

He carries at least one pencil and a small notepad with him at all times, in case inspiration strikes when he’s not at his drafting table. His hair, wavy and light ash-brown, he keeps oiled and brushed back. He shaves every morning and wears stiffly starched detachable club collars on all his shirts.

From the outside, the Brooklyn Heights brownstone where he lives with his daughter Winsome is the same -- stately but not imposing, elegant but not without flair. Since his wife’s death, however, the interior has become rather less stately and elegant.

Chairs and tables are now home to discarded neckties and coats and books and old mail. Both Emory and Winsome leave things lying around the house that never get put away. Their young Borzoi pup, Beauregard, leaves chaos in his wake. And Emory hasn’t yet found the strength to pack away Athene’s belongings, which instead have been left to gather dust.

The disorderly state of their home is highly uncharacteristic of the typically scrupulous Emory, and perhaps the most visible indication of his poor state of mind since her sudden and unexpected passing.

49. What about voice? Pitch? Strength? Tempo and rhythm of speech? Pronunciation? Accent?

Vrtanes’s voice is low and musical -- the kind of voice you instinctively know you can trust. A rich, throaty baritone, soft-spoken but strong enough to hold the weight of authority without ever raising his voice. When he speaks, everyone in the room turns to listen.

His English is non-native and heavily accented with Armenian. Although he studied English literature at university in Constantinople, he didn’t learn to speak English until he came to New York, less than five years ago. In that time, he’s picked up enough to be able to hold a simple conversation with relative ease, but idioms or uncommon/complex topics make him fumble for the right words.

When he’s speaking his native Western Armenian, his rhythm is almost musical, rising and falling with the cadence of the words. He speaks in a steady mid-tempo, unless he’s in a particularly good mood -- then he speaks more quickly and also tends to gesture more with his hands. His words are infused with emotion and feeling.

When he’s speaking English, he’s more self-conscious and his tempo is generally slower. His English consonants often take on the breathy rasp of Armenian fricatives, and some of his vowels gain a thick, lilting sort of quality. Sometimes he misplaces the syllabic emphasis on English words, giving his English a foreign but not unpleasant cadence almost as musical as his Armenian.

[educationoffathers]

WHAT'S EMORY'S FAV BRIDGE IN NEW YORK? Mine is the queensboro bridge.

The Queensboro Bridge is Emory’s favorite of the bridges on the East River. But his favorite bridge of them all is the High Bridge, which at the time of EoF would’ve been in its original state as a stone arch bridge spanning the Harlem River. The aqueduct construction of the High Bridge evokes a European aesthetic that Emory appreciates.

His second favorite bridge would be the Washington Bridge, for its sleek and simple elegance, followed by the Queensboro Bridge. Usually he’s not a fan of bridges in the Queensboro style, with too much ornate steelwork webbing. But somehow the Queensboro bridge does it right.