NOTE: Since Dove's still new to the Tumblr world, she's pretty much just arrived at the Tower and hasn't had time to find much of a routine or lifestyle. Much of what she says, owns, and does is only out of pure necessity, or fear, and these answers only apply to the first month or so of her life in Titans' Tower.
{{ For more in-depth character development: See this external link; I filled out a very, very long character profile and went as deeply into her motivations, stories, and reactions as I possibly could. }}
1. What does their bedroom look like?
At the moment, it's rather bare, with a plain but cozy bed, a small shelf, and a large window in place of the western wall. It's a guest room, after all - it's relatively small, but she doesn't need much space, just somewhere for privacy.
2. Do they have any daily rituals?
It's the first few days she's been in a bed; there hasn't been time to develop rituals. The only certainty is that she'll try to avoid every other occupant until she needs to. And if she has to leave, she's extremely careful to find the path least crowded - if she can even find the path to where she's going... (She's very easily disoriented in the huge building.)
3. Do they exercise, and if so, what do they do? How often?
Exercise is beyond her right now; she's still weak from wandering without much food and shelter for a few months. She walks aimlessly as a nervous habit, though - and she's quite aware of it.
4. What would they do if they needed to make dinner but the kitchen was busy?
Wait and probably go back to her room for a couple of hours, until the kitchen was less crowded. (She nearly starved to death more than once; the way she sees it, delaying one more meal won't kill her.)
5. Cleanliness habits (personal, workspace, etc.)
Space: She keeps her space clean and tidy, though not necessarily organized.
Personal hygiene: She's still trying to figure out how the shower works, but she bathes when the inclination strikes - probably every other day. Hot baths relax her especially, they're so soothing...
6. Eating habits and sample daily menu:
She eats very little (daily, it's barely enough to make a meal and a half for most people), especially when she's nervous, and she also won't eat meat. She's not vegan, but she can't have dairy, either; lactose intolerance. Health-consciousness isn't a problem for her, but overly sweet and fatty things are hard for her to digest.
Sample menu - she'll only eat three times a day, at most. Usually it's only twice, but she came to the Tower near-starved.
Breakfast: Two slices of toast and a cup of tea.
Lunch: A handful of sliced apple.
Snack: Something simple like a granola bar and some water.
Dinner: Whatever the others are having (or a salad and peanuts), with more tea if she's stressed.
Later snack, if dinner was too crowded for her to eat comfortably: leftovers, or something sweet and soothing like cucumber, cantaloupe, or coconut.
(She hasn't figured out how to cook with the foods here yet, but she likes experimenting and she's actually a much better cook than Raven. /XD; )
7. Favorite way to waste time and feelings surrounding wasting time?
She doesn't even have the concept of wasting time yet; so far she spends most of her spare time resting and recovering from the long journey and ill health.
8. Favorite indulgence and feelings surrounding indulging:
Rest and peace and quiet! "Indulging" implies it's a bad thing, but she thinks it's the best thing for her, such relief that she really needs...
9. Makeup?
No idea what that is.
10. Neuroses? Do they recognize them as such?
Not exactly... Neuroses, medically speaking, are irrational - her fears and social anxiety are all "learned behaviors" from being raised in isolation and taught she'd be hated and feared the moment she was discovered. (Or being afraid to hurt people, or specific situational fears, all of which are related to traumatic experiences.) She does know her anxieties aren't normal, though.
11. Intellectual pursuits?
At the moment, she's too tired (and homesick) to study much. She knows that sometime she needs to learn more about her new home, though… and she’s not exactly looking forward to it.
12. Favorite book genre?
Dark fantasy and certain mythology-based adventure books.
13. Sexual Orientation? And, regardless of own orientation, thoughts on sexual orientation in general?
Straight romantic (definitely NOT sexual - she doesn't even pay attention to sex, on purpose, not for quite a few years). And she doesn't care about orientation, love is love and I don't even think she really differentiates between genders in her mind; gender's only a manifestation of one half of life or the other, any way you combine it makes a whole relationship.
14. Physical abnormalities? (Both visible and not, including injuries/disabilities, long-term illnesses, food-intolerances, etc.)
~ Her eyes aren't one solid color - they have that layered look, deep blue and subtle crimson underlay. It must be closely observed to be noticed, though.
~ There's probably something only slightly off and indescribably exotic but undetectable in her facial structure. I have no idea what that might be though.
~ In the right light, her hair has a slightly silvery tint to it, natural highlights subtle enough to miss.
~ Body-shape wise, she's one of those "late bloomers" - even almost four years after hitting puberty, she's barely "developed" in any meaning of the word.
~ I already mentioned the lactose intolerance...
~ She'd probably end up with something like food poisoning if anyone tried to get her to eat meat. I doubt her digestive system produces the enzymes, since she's never had it...
~ I also imagine that since she's neither full-blood human nor a heavy eater, her digestive system is different somehow - more efficient enzymes, and chemicals, and tissues... Everything physiological, come to think of it.. (Her "human" side is also Azarathean, and since they've been separated long enough to be a sort of sapiens subspecies, I theorize that their physiology is slightly different from ours - like an African's might be different from an Ainu.)
~ Her stomach is sensitive; she's extremely squeamish around blood, she gets motion-sick in every vehicle known to man, and for now she's sensitive to new foods and anything with a strong flavor. (Starvation and being raised on mild-ness does that to anyone, though.)
~ Because of this physiological difference, medicines sometimes don't work on her, or work far more potently than planned. Pharmaceutical drugs like NSAIDs and Dramamine tend to last for half the time they usually would; mild herbal remedies often have pronounced effects; and powerful medicine (herbs, yes, but pharmaceutical especially) tend to have unexpected side-effects (vertigo, mild hallucinations, etc).
15. Biggest and smallest short term goals?
Biggest: Find someplace to live and feel safe there.
Smallest: Find the bathroom.
16. Biggest and smallest long term goals?
Biggest: Eventually get her powers under control.
Smallest: Probably learn to cook with foods from this dimension.
17. Preferred mode of dress and rituals surrounding dress:
Her mother's outfit - and the cloak, hood lifted, when she feels ill at ease (which is most of the time in current continuity).
The only "ritual" is that she'll put the dresses on carefully, because it's her mother's own design, hand sewn, and some of them containing fibers home-spun by her grandmother (who she never met, but her mother told her the story time and time again of how Magena saved both their lives before Dove was even born).
Oh, and to take off the cloak at night.
That only applies if she’s wearing it – she only puts it on when she’s feeling stressed or afraid. (For now, that’s nearly always – hood up and everything. But eventually she’ll begin lowering the hood and letting her face show, and then leaving the cloak in her room completely. But that won’t happen until she’s more at ease around everyone in the tower.)
18. Favorite beverage?
Tea. (I'm not sure what kind, exactly - she seems to like jasmine, chamomile, and mint blends. Her favorite is any that calms and soothes, mind or body.)
19. What do they think about before falling asleep at night?
It depends on how her day went and her mental state by the end of it. If she's relaxed, she'll probably let her mind wander to joyful memories or random ideas and she's prone to philosophical contemplation... but if she's nervous, anxious, frustrated, or on edge, everything from the worst memories of her life, to mourning all she lost and left behind, to the utterly consuming fears of what could happen if she stumbles down the wrong path mentally, or physically, or just so happens to fall asleep in the wrong state of mind, and completely lose control...
Needless to say, some nights she doesn’t even sleep.
20. Childhood illnesses? Any interesting stories behind them?
With such a fierce immune system, the closest thing to a childhood "illness" that got her were from overwhelming sources of telepathy and empathy from her mother... and one nightmare that struck her particularly deeply. Any time she ends up "sick" there's an explanation behind it.
~ When Dove was young (perhaps 7, 9?), her mother once had a vision of something very dark and traumatizing in the child's future, and it left Alerina so sick and horrified that Dove ended up sick and too miserable to stand, too...
~ Dove was even younger when Alerina broke her ankle, and the sheltered child was too unaccustomed to pain and ended up unconscious, and violently thrown into shock.
~ With a scryer's psychic blood, she tends to have nightmares that leave her more emotionally sick than physical.
If age 15 still counts as "childhood", and only if fanfics count here (I *do* plan to roleplay in the context of this someday), there's a story called Dove's Dark Discovery where internal forces drive her to do things so unspeakably evil and sadistic, she stops eating, sleeping, and seems to fall into a bizarre form of depressive guilt that leaves her with no motivation to get better. Only surrender...... and after the as-of-yet-unpublished climax (sorry, can't reveal the story behind THIS bit yet!), her condition is forced to near-death brokenness, and it takes a couple of weeks for her to come out of the coma and even find the strength to speak.
21. Turn-ons? Turn-offs?
Turn-ons: N/A (As in, none yet.)
Turn-offs: Any mention of sex. (Seriously, she has an extremely raw spot in her heart for that - mother's unpleasant memories, direct experiences because she looked into her mind... It's a long and excruciatingly unpleasant story.)
22. Given a blank piece of paper, a pencil, and nothing to do, what would happen?
Thoughtful words, most likely - unless she felt dreamy and especially at ease, then some sort of zen-looking picture might emerge, simple and elegant with only vague strokes hinting at what it is.
23. How organized are they? How does this organization/disorganization manifest in their everyday life?
She tends to organize things by what makes sense, vicinity-wise: e.g. she'll put like things with like things, what makes most sense to be near other things together, like all meditation and scrying items, and books are organized by genre and feelings invoked instead of title or author or date. She doesn't organize by how things look. She normally puts things back immediately so they're stored somewhere safe.
~ Disorganization only happens when she's frightened, flustered, or frustrated, and she stops caring about how or where she puts something back - often a book will end up lying spine-up on her table or a stack of candles left on the floor when she's upset and disoriented.
24. Is there one subject of study that they excel at? Or do they even care about intellectual pursuits at all?
Once assimilated to her life here, she spent a lot of her free time reading and studying, and she actually enjoys it. Her "favorite" things to study are probably English and Philosophy, and though she doesn’t know there's a name for it, art deconstruction.
25. How do they see themselves 5 years from today?
She doesn't even want to think about that. It's great if she can just make it through today.
26. Do they have any plans for the future? Any contingency plans if things don’t workout?
Nope. When life goes terribly wrong, she's stunned and adapts the best she can.
27. What is their biggest regret?
So far: she left Azarath without saying goodbye to her one and only childhood friend, Srentha...
28. Who do they see as their best friend? Their worst enemy?
Best friend: Srentha. (A once-lonely Azarathean boy with enough optimism and curiosity to cancel out any nightmare and fear she'd ever have, and a mind too quick for many sorrows to catch up. But he was also open and quiet and receptive when she needed him to be. Just being around him briefly always made Dove feel happier for days.)
Worst enemy: herself. Though she's horrified by what her father is and does, she feels no personal animosity towards him, or between him and herself. (Not yet anyways.)
29. Reaction to sudden extrapersonal disaster (eg The house is on fire! What do they do?)
Oh, that already happened - her entire homeworld was razed to the ground. And her reaction was to flee (then again, Trigon was involved and she wanted anything but for him to find her). In any other situation she would probably flee (though prooooobably not across the dimensions this time), and save what's most important to her (people-wise first, and objects if there's time).
30. Reaction to sudden intrapersonal disaster (eg close family member suddenly dies)
...That happened, too... Her mother was lost in the day of Azarath's obliteration.
She still hasn't recovered from the loss.
31. Most prized possession?
It's hard to say, but it was certainly something her mother loved and passed on to her. She feels especially fond of her mother's poem books (expressing the deepest levels of what made Alerina the woman Dove so looked up to)... and a small and spectacular golden statue of a dove that Alerina had always treasured, and was always one of Dove's favorites, too. I think one of Dove's recent ancestors worked it by hand. Its wings were spread and it seemed eternally ready to fly - Alerina promised that one day Dove would be as free as flight, and its outspread wings carried Dove's hope...
32. Thoughts on material possessions in general?
Generally, they're unimportant. She places a high price on memories and sentimental value, though.
33. Concept of home and family?
Well, considering that she only ever lived with her mother (though Srentha was like a sibling to her), her idea of a home is one stable place, preferably a small one, that's safe, secure, and solitary when need be; and the family is very self-contained and nuclear, ideally small and extremely close.
34. Thoughts on privacy? (Are they a private person, or are they prone to ‘TMI’?)
Definitely more private than "TMI" - she likes having her personal space, thoughts, and opinions.
35. What activities do they enjoy, but consider to be a waste of time?
I don't even think she considers anything to be a waste of time. Priorities are personal, and if it feels okay to do then it's okay. (In a more desolate sense, she probably considers training and trying to improve with any powers but her telepathy a waste of time, because she's convinced it'll never happen...)
36. What makes them feel guilty?
Any thoughts of her past home or her mother, the friend she left without saying goodbye, and any time she hurts another, keeps a secret that hurts them to not know, or lies. She's a terrible liar, but if she's lying there's a good reason and she never relents when pressed.
37. Are they more analytical or more emotional in their decision-making?
Definitely more emotional; she's guided by what feels right to her heart and immediate compassion more than that's lawfully right and "the greater good".
38. Would they consider themselves a Type A or Type B personality? (RHS Addition: Take this test, it helps GREATLY. http://www.psych.uncc.edu/pagoolka/TypeAB.html )
...*needs to Google* (Type A = high-energy, B = low-energy.)
I think she's Type B, though she's really more balanced - she's easily stressed by any task she thinks she lacks the ability to do, highly concerned for her friends and family, and despite her typical hesitance, she jumps into action if there's anything she can do.
39. What recharges them when they’re feeling drained?
Introvert = alone time, reading, resting, letting herself focus on her thoughts, and letting her thoughts free, staying away from any sources of emotional stress to keep her powers from draining her energy even more...
40. Would you say that they have a superiority-complex? Inferiority-complex? Neither?
Definitely an inferiority complex. Though it's not so much comparative as the word "inferiority" implies; it's more like a feeling that she should, and could, be better than she is (especially when it comes to controlling her powers, maintaining control of her emotions. and being easy to communicate with and at ease around people).
41. How misanthropic are they?
She doesn't hate people, she just hates interacting with them. ("Hate" is really the wrong word to use - fear is more appropriate.) She's really quite compassionate, she just doesn't have the opportunity (or capacity) to show it yet.
42. Hobbies?
Greatest hobbies: Reading, contemplating, and meditating (especially more for spirituality than grounding/control).
Minor: writing, learning old native legends, some folk music, singing herself back to a peaceful mindset with her mother's lullabies. Sometimes she even sings (in her soft, quiet, and usually unprojected voice) just she feels comfortable enough to do it.
43. How far did they get in formal education? What are their views on formal education vs self-education?
Neither formal [meaning public and standardized] nor self-educated - though she has potential for teaching herself, all her life she'd been taught by her mother and guided by whatever the Universe decided to show her in visions and intuition.
She doesn’t even know there's a formal education system yet.
44. Religion?
She follows the teachings of the Cult of Azar. (Generally. There are a few exceptions, but she clings to what she knows for the first few weeks here.)
45. Superstitions or views on the occult?
No superstitions, though I'm sure she'd instantly fear and avoid anything attached to Trigon or the Church of Blood.
Her views on the "occult" are really more related to mysticism and supernatural - as a telepath, a Scryer (though she hasn't developed the talent much at all yet), a very small bit of an empath, and the granddaughter and daughter of women who were expert spell-workers, she believes in magic and psychism, she believes there are always more forms of "knowledge" and more ways to experience the world than we understand, and she believes in other worlds (other planes - the spirit world, the astral - and other dimensions, of course).
46. Do they express their thoughts through words or deeds?
She's not very good at either, actually... but once she eases into interaction, she's more likely to use words. If she's close enough someone and they know her well, subtle body language and a quick glance could substitute a muttered plea for help.
47. If they were to fall in love, who (or what) is their ideal?
....She doesn't have a clue. (For those she interacts with, maybe... Robin would come the absolute closest, though only when he's upbeat and supportive - he frightens her sometimes with his obsessive intensity.)
(Jericho...? o///o *so afraid I'll scare off my partner with this* )
48. How do they express love?
Right now, not at all. Eventually she expresses "love" as friendship and appreciation, with a warm smile, nods of thanks, and, if they'll let her, helping out in any way she can. She's very "attached" and... not exactly selective about showing affection, but it takes a lot of time and patience and care to get to the level of appreciation that she feels comfortable hugging and holding onto when she needs. Showing trust is her equivalent of showing love.
49. If this person were to get into a fist fight, what is their fighting style like?
She wouldn't be in a fist-fight - she'd be fist fought. She's utterly pacifist, through and through; and even if she was fighting, it would be verbal and she'd back down. She doesn't ever use any sort of physical tactic - if she was desperate and frightened enough, though, her powers might lash out and strike her assailant's mind before she could stop herself. For the victim, disorientation and mental blanks might happen first - hearing her thoughts, and eventually her thoughts would overtake the other's mind if they refused to let her go. The astral energies would escape as well (she isn't used to being physically hurt), but they'd hardly impact the outcome.
50. Is this person afraid of dying? Why or why not?
Not really. She accepts death as something that come whenever it's time, and it's inevitable - part of the Azarathean pacifism is nonresponsiveness and nonresistance - she won't do anything to try resisting death. If it wasn't for the vision, she would have stayed and encountered death with calm acceptance.
