☻, ♐ for oswin, ☞, ☾ for mel, ♦ for clara (blast from the past) and ☼ (hand movements) for misty!
☻ - how your character hugs
these days, oswin’s hugs are the sort that start out kind of tentative, which tends to be kind of unexpected, given how casually tactile she can be. but the fact remains that she’s had a loooot of friends who aren’t really down with hugs or physical contact at all, so there’s always that moment of hesitation that she allows both herself and the other person the opportunity to push her away, if need be. it’s almost kind of sad tbh like she’s so used to not really having her affection returned, or only returned with some reluctance or hesitance, but at the same time, physical affection is so much of how she communicates so she can’t just….give it up entirely.
the only person she was entirely confident with was the doctor, and even then, she had to be careful with him towards the end, given that uh. his heartbeats were even more tempting than a normal person’s single one.
sO YEAH that hesitance is there both because she’s used to people not responding right away and because she sometimes needs a moment to be able to trust herself not to just…casually rip someone’s throat out. her control is a lot better than it used to be, but she’s still overly careful regardless.
♐ - how your character fights
looooots of defense tbh. she’s still kind of figuring out her own strength, and even when defending herself, the last thing she wants to do is accidentally kill someone or something. that, and anything offense tends to rile up those predator instincts, which is a generally uncomfortable feeling for her and tends to lead to some brooding, even if she can control them well enough, usually.
she does a lot of weaving and dodging and using her generally smaller size to her advantage. if she absolutely has to incapacitate someone, it’s usually done in a way that will possibly hurt her opponent the least, and honestly she just…tends to avoid outright fighting anyone in general. but, if it comes down to defending herself, she’ll do it.
☞ - how your character talks
iiiit depends on who she’s talking to! generally, though, mel tends to be on the formal side, choosing her words carefully and occasionally hesitating to mull over what she wants to say exactly. she’s still kind of getting the hang of talking to other people at all, and while she’s certainly better at it than she used to be, it’s still very much a work in progress. her voice tends to lean towards being softer and quieter than most, and one might almost mistake her for being shy, if they didn’t know any better.
with people she’s a more familiar with, she’s less afraid of messing up any social convention, and therefore she’ll usually gain a little more confidence in herself. her pauses will be less frequent and her tone of voice will ultimately be steadier, given that most of her friends know that she has plenty of reason to uh….not be all that great with interaction in general. there’ll be less need to pretend, and that notion usually helps a great deal. she’ll also be just a little more prone to gentle teasing and being more light-hearted, uncertain though it might be.
ironically, the only time she’s completely steady and confident is whenever she and henry are confronting each other, because she just point-blank refuses to let him see her any other way. her resolve to stand up to him now, after decades of being submissive and distant, is pretty damn powerful, and she’s definitely not beneath throwing some shade whenever she can.
☾- how this character sleeps
mel is a super restless sleeper tbh. oddly enough, when she does get to sleep, she’s not really a light sleeper, especially if she’s gone for a long time without doing so (which is still a bad habit she has on denny), but she tosses and turns, especially if she’s having a nightmare (which are pretty common these days), and ends up tangling herself in her bedsheets and it’s just…..not pretty. rip anyone who tries to sleep next to her tbh.
♦ - how this character kisses
alright let’s get one thing out of the way and say that she doesn’t do a lot of properly romantic kissing. or like. any. ever.
if the feeling behind it is genuine, she tends to go for cheek kisses. they’re usually gentle enough, but firm too. very sort of no-nonsense, really, the sort you’d expect from a victorian governess, even an unconventional one like clara. there’s affection behind it, certainly, but also a sense that she’s not going to be particularly sappy about it either, unless she’s been caught in a mood to be so.
but, there’s also the matter of her kissing eleven to address, aaand lbr that was like….the furthest thing from romantic. she kissed him to fluster him, to gain the upper hand in the situation and to show that this was the power she could wield over him, the power to make him blush like a schoolboy and be reduced to a flailing mess. if she’s kissing someone like that, it’s typically a manipulative gesture, and she’ll adjust just how it comes off as needed. depending on what the situation is, it could range from soft and gentle to passionate and forceful.
☼ - you choose!: what this character’s hand movements are like
misty tends to talk with her hands a lot, and her gestures can get pretty sweeping if she’s excited. she also like to do a lot of hand-holding, if she’s comfortable enough with someone, usually in a gesture of comfort. ooother than that, they’re pretty unremarkable??? i’ll have to keep an eye out for this kind of thing in my coven rewatch whoops.
OH also she messes with her shawl some whenever she’s nervous, if that counts.
