8,9,10 for all of them!! i'm so excited to see your story unfold :3
thank you thank you! these questions work so well together lol. i think they really help show off my pack of idiots :>
8. Is your character open with their emotions?
9. Something awesome just happened in your character's life! How are they celebrating?
10. Your character wants attention. How do they go about getting it, even if it's in a negative way?
8. Is she supposed to be emotionally open? Yes? She'd reckon she is. She has a compulsion to appear nice and helpful. It's partly the culture of the frigid southeastern Holzhyt (especially the Dhostyan communities), and it's partly an attempt to dodge stereotypes of (esp transfem) Dhostyan humans and make her seem less threatening. More recently, she's learned how to weaponize that, so she's definitely not sharing anything. Certain emotions are especially important for her to hide, though four years of hiding her chronic guilt is wearing her down.
9. She likes to celebrate with friends (though she tries not to go too hard, lest her body go on adventures without her). She'll end up at home by herself or with close friends / partners, awake just a little too late, reflecting. She'll inevitably perform an "Alpiyet toast" (a tradition from Axye's homeland mostly characerized by drinking a special expensive, harsh, clear alcohol, and a lot of it). She fills a glass for Axye. Sometimes, when she can't keep it down, she can bear to imagine the ghost of her mentor scolding her for wasting good alcohol.
10. Ysa comes off stronger than she realizes as a consequence of her obsession with social optimization. Lots of gifts, when appropriate; given that she's analyzed everyone she knows down to axiomatic fragments, she often chooses well. One of her weapons is one-sided conversation, where she engages her target, asks them questions, and makes them feel like the smartest and most special "birthday them" in all of reality. Similarly, when she wants sexual attention, she tries to play into exactly what she thinks the other person at the time wants (as she's convinced herself that she's service). No matter what, she tries to buy their attention by giving attention of her own; she's frequently disappointed by the lack of results and often convinces herself that she is merely tolerated.
8. Last time she did that, her efforts to tie Axye of None to a conspiracy unintentionally threatened to get Axye deported, which would prevent her from manufacturing the truth; she ended up in a psych ward for two years after that. Nowadays, she has to keep her emotions under wrap for the sake of her work (not that they make it easy, but she's learning to control them through her new support system).
9. There was a time where Erras would struggle to remember a celebration where she didn't drink alone at a bar, barely avoid blacking out, profusely apologizing to a taxi driver, smelling like vomit when she woke up, and consequently doing a lot of laundry. There were, in service of variety, a couple times she did fully black out. Nowadays, with her social circle, it's about champagne, pushing tables together at restaurants, and ceremonies. She's grateful.
10. There was a day where she could command attention by invoking a warrant or her legal powers to detain certain citizens without one. That day has passed. Now, she is quite capable of commanding attention without such crutches, so long as nobody catches on to her new crutches made of highly illegal chimaery. It's very effective, even if she still has plenty to learn from her mentor. Of course, by attending the meetings of the secret society that adopted her, she gets a satisfaction that replaces attention, which only bolsters any small attention that she does receive. She must simply follow the rules—something she has learned not to disobey after being blacklisted and committed all those years ago.
8. She refuses to listen to her emotions anymore, so that makes it tricky for everyone else. She learned quickly that, in her profession, guilt gets in the way of making money. Those assholes probably deserved to be blackmailed, anyway.
9. Mostly, this involves getting drunk and falling asleep early. The grind never stops.
10. Most of the attention she wants is when she delivers gentle reminders clients that have neglected to pay her. Even then, the attention must be well-timed: thanks to her camera and a little perseverence, she can collect what was owed and her hourly wage for the time she spent collecting the money. In her mind, they should be grateful that she didn't ask for more. There are times, of course, where she does yearn. She hardly ever acts on it, and it's always a disaster when she does. She always reminds herself that she has too much work to do (and she's definitely not scared of being known).
8. As a sex worker, his job involves an incredible amount of emotional labor. That's about the only time he can control them, but he is able to channel his genuine enjoyment of his work. Otherwise, he's pretty hopeless, which has gotten him in trouble before.
9. He treats himself! It's not like he'll be able to climb out of his situation, so might as well take on whatever debt he can to have some fun. He'll listen to the same radio programs he usually does but with way too much candy—he craves stimulation. Alcohol doesn't exactly affect him enough to make it worth the cost anymore, nor does any other drug he used to take, so his nest on the couch quickly becomes a vault of sugar. And, like a king, he happily distributes his wealth to his roommate. It's a rare moment of genuine happiness, though he too quickly returns to the numb fugue he's used to.
10. He finds it incredibly easy. He's attractive and knows how to flirt—when he's crossdressing. His only real experience is at work as a fairy (under the colloquial, old-fashioned, crossdressing-sex-worker meaning of the word), so he "has to dress like [his work persona] to get in character." To his credit, it does work; after all, he's able to go method to pull off appearing happy and confident. As his everyday, twink-like self, he is incredibly self-conscious; however, he still barters with sex, whether it be with his mentor in exchange for discharging the chimaeric buildup he accrues when his mentor orders him to work a client or with the local drug dealer to, say, get the heroin he needs to keep that chimaeric buildup from killing him (or worse).
8. Maggie, notoriously, acts like a smug, sardonic dickhead. To the surprise of the few people who get to know her, she's actually incredibly emotionally open. This is because she genuinely is a smug, sardonic dickhead in most situations. It helps her survives in her line of work without coming across as dangerously nervous. She also does not hide her wrath. The one exception is her soft side, of which only Axye knows about.
9. It varies pretty heavily. Her current identity may not allow her to celebrate. She may be forced to celebrate because of her current identity, and in very specific ways. She may have to celebrate at a party. She may have to celebrate in a small group. She may even have to celebrate by herself, if she's sure someone is looking. However, if and when she is finally able to, she finds Axye, and they will, at the very least, perform the "Alpiyet toast."
10. Most of the time, money, coercion, physical harm, emotional harm, and loudly divulging her target's greatest weaknesses. If she wants Axye's attention, Maggie can use her choice of smacking her head, tackling her to the ground, yelling random words to interrupt her thought process, incessantly biting her, pulling whatever prosthetic limb she's using most off her body, groping her, and many other such techniques. When Axye withstands this long enough that Maggie loses patience, she resorts to the old, faithful strategy: yanking at the base her tail so hard that it overloads her artificial spine and leaves her, paralyzed, looking like a furious owl wrapped in a blanket. She's then free to carry Axye wherever she wants to. Delivering Axye to Ihczya's apartment just about gets her attention (but so does posing seductively in her bed when she comes back to her apartment after a long day, which annoys her to no end).
8. One would sooner get a seaside pebble to talk about the ramifications of the death of its father. If one ever forced Axye to go to therapy, that therapist might as well treat it like an extra hour of lunch. Axye would appreciate the hour of uninterruptible time, anyway: she always, almost maniacally needs to get more work done. Her body language betrays nothing. Her face betrays nothing, with or without that mask she always wears. That destroyed, whispery voice of hers conveys no emotion, with or without her electrolarynx. Few can understand the micro-expressions she performs. Perhaps three people at most have seen her smile. This is made worse by the immense amount of stress of being an internationally-known public figure.
9. Very much like Maggie, but with much lower stakes. She does often celebrate quietly with Ihczya, where nobody can see them nearly tolerating each other, or even with her small circle of friends. However, she must toast with Maggie every time she visits. They don't get to see each other enough (not to imply that they could ever see each other enough; they'd merge together into one form if they could).
10. There are few times when she voluntarily puts down whatever research she's reading or writing in order to get attention. Frankly, the only attention she wants happens to be attention she doesn't need to do anything to get. Maggie breaks into Axye's apartment to prepare a surprise attack whenever she visits. Axye can get at least ten hours of attention from her (depending on if they fall asleep and how much of their respective work schedules they can ditch). As part of their collaborative research, Axye and Ihczya used to meet frequently in each others' apartments. Truly unfortunate, as they do hate each other. Now that Ihczya's research is conducted at a different temple than Axye's, she "is forced to" telephone Ihczya instead. Once a month, one visits the other to argue about the integration of their research "discretely" in front of each others' research teams, and also hatefuck.
8. Another transfem Dhostyan in Holzhyt, and another public figure thanks to working together with Axye. That she is a human raised by myazhun only brings more pressures. Her strategy is to dampen her emotions in professional situations. In more casual situations, she becomes a troll (in the "u mad" sense); as fun as it is for her, and as much as her friends may or may not find it funny, it does function as another mask. However, not only is she capable of actually talking about her feelings, she actually does it sometimes. She probably is the best off out of anyone in this sense—but this does not mean she's good at sharing them.
9. Now that she's calmed down from her rowdier school years, she prefers quieter celebrations. Big dinners, lots of friends, nice alcohol. Every year, on her birthday, she blows a month's worth of her "Dolaowence" on a specialty order of a small chunk of cocoa (not cacao vodka). She rations it through the year, trying to recreate a drink her mother made. She'll drink it in honor of the distant memories of her family and wonder what they might think of her. There are few people, Axye "reluctantly" included and Maggie reluctantly included, who she shares this with. She makes sure they're grateful, because the cocoa is expensive.
10. Her favorite method is to start small debates with people before using rather pedantic approaches to piss them off. She's ended up in a lot of beds this way. However, being her earnest and curious self is enough to draw attention to her, to her chagrin. She does use this as a last resort.
Ruby Caine (your friend and mine)
8. You had never thought about it. You had not paid much attention to her face. She had smiled the entire time. You had seen that much. People do smile when they're happy. We all know that people do smile when they're happy. Ruby had seemed happy. Talk show hosts always smile. We all know that talk show hosts always smile. Ruby had always smiled. Ruby had always been happy. Ruby had always been open. Ruby had not been closed off. Talk show hosts always have perfect teeth.
9. She had always celebrated with her audience. She had always celebrated her audience. Her audience had celebrated. She had celebrated that.
10. She had never had trouble choosing guests onto her show. Her audience always loved her guests. She had never had trouble bringing guests onto her show. She had always thrived in the attention of her audience. She had always thrived by directing the attention of her audience. She had always found the redirection of the attention of her audience satisfying and rejuvinating and thrilling and exciting and, most importantly, useful.
