3, 14, 20, and 29 for Oedon, please! (And hope you're doing well, friend! ^_^ )
Sorry it took a little while to respond to this, my friend! I had a few unexpected, but urgent, circumstances arise today that I had to take care of ASAP. Nonetheless, still doing well and I hope you’re doing even better :)
3. How would they describe love?
Oof. You had to start off with a hard one, didn’tcha?
The hard part about answering this question is that Oeden would readily admit that he doesn’t know what love is. He knows he’s horrible with love, considering his upbringing and flawed family dynamic. He likely wouldn’t know how to define it. In fact, he’d be genuinely embarrassed in his inability to provide a definition for something so seemingly simple.
If he had to summarize how he experiences love, in any form, it would be someone that makes him feel like he is home. They’re his shelter, his comfort, his hiding place. He can be himself around them without fear of being judged. Together, they can grow, just like you could expand upon a house with new additions and ripping out what no longer works. You can come to them when you’re weary and they will both hold and uphold you. Oeden struggles so much with finding his “home” - literally and metaphorically - throughout the series that I think he would feel the most love for someone when he feels as though they are a home to him in and of themselves.
14. What smells or tastes do you associate with them?
I know I’ve definitely answered this before for my characters…but I don’t think I recorded my conclusions lol whoops! Well, if anyone remembers those old answers, good on ya, but the author doesn’t, so let me consider something fresh instead. Heck, maybe it’ll be more fitting for the newest draft of Oeden, anyways.
For scents, Oeden would need to stand in stark contrast to the rest of Aeonor. Aeonor, especially in its capital, is clean linens and pine trees and newly-roasted meat from a fresh kill and never-ending bonfires to ward off the winter. Oeden is almost none of those things. He is the stinging scent of salt water in . a land of snow, the incense from the temple censers, the spicy sweetness of cinnamon.
For tastes, Oeden is a citrus. He is that first bite into a lemon, the unexpected taint of raspberry, the shock of a Sour Patch Kid - sour…and then, all of a sudden, sweet. Oeden comes off very strong, even harsh at times. It’s not something everyone would be suited to, appreciate, or understand why anyone else would want that. That’s the sour - and his family and few friends the only ones who push through to reach the sweetness. For underneath all of those emotional barbs and sharp words lies a hidden kindness, a compassion few get to see, because they abandon ship when they come into contact with the initial bitterness.
20. Would they make vines if they could?
Okay, honest confession: I may or may not have thought this meant vines as in grapevines. I was like “well, I mean, yeah I guess he could have a little vineyard one day down the line? He’d like wine and the aesthetic of a winery and all that, so sure?” Apparently, ya boy has been playing too much Harvest Moon to understand all this hip, fresh millennial slang!
Y’all. Could anyone imagine Oeden of all people making Vines? Never in a million years would he ever indulge in that. Royan, however, would undoubtedly think he’s going to be the next big Vine star and drag Oeden (unwillingly) into his vines. The irony is that only the Vines with Oeden in them are the ones that get popular, so Royan pouts and Oeden blames Royan for making him internet famous.
29. Is there a quote and/or lyric that truly resonates with them?
Oh, I have a billion. This could be a book in and of itself. For Book One, I find myself drifting back to the phrase “a golden cage is still a cage”. Aeonor is a place of natural beauty, one at peace and with enough to provide him with food, water, shelter, wealth - all he would need…yet still, he is dissatisfied. Sure, the cage is pretty. Sure, his captors keep him well-fed. But does that not mean he feels at home here, for he can never be free of it.
As for lyrics? I have whole playlists pertaining to him. Plenty of them are spoilerific, but one of them that fits with the quote above would be from Various Storms & Saints by Florence + the Machine: “I am teaching myself to be free”. That whole song is super Oeden-y, as is most of Florence’s music.
