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ontinia April 13 2011, 03:51:06 UTC
Now, Pretend. Oh, Pretend. He is my absolute favorite character I have ever created. And he's been through the most development as well. Pretend Heist fits into a fantasy type realm. See, he doesn't keep one shape. He constantly shifts. Long dark hair, ginger ringlets, lime green eyes, silver eyes, thin nose, full lips, skinny, short, tall, cat ears, wings, tail. Whatever he can think of. And because of this he can instantly heal himself - but he can still get sick as the virus isn't actually part of his body. The problem is Pretend doesn't have a good attention span and so he'll Rapid Shift, which is where he can't control his shape. He can concentrate better if he changes his shape more often.

Also, when he talks it's with a mixture of accents making it impossible to tell where he hails from. Or, I should say, that's his default accent. He can do any accent or voice he wants. He could even be a girl, or in theory - invisible. He just prefers being a boy. Two things he cannot change are his smile and laugh. His smile is always crooked and his laugh sounds like bells.

His thoughts are every which way, which is why he can't concentrate. But he's pretty much always optimistic and cares deeply and is very protective of his friends. He doesn't much care what happens to him, but you can't hurt his friends. He counts his friends as his family because he grew up in an orphanage where he'd been picked on because when he was younger he couldn't actually control his shape.

I think what makes him so much fun to write (beyond the fact that he's always happy and I get to describe his new look all the time) is that he likes words. He likes words that have been described to me as 'retro' (nifty, spiffy, it's peachy keen or the cat's meow) and that he uses more words than he could.
For instance.
"Hi, how are you?" becomes "Salutations, how might your very own self be on this beautiful day of today?"

Oh, and his day job might be working in a bookstore or in a laundry mat (or some other obscure but fun job), but his other job? Yeah, his last name is Heist for a reason. He steals things, but he's not a criminal mastermind. He'll only steal things that have already been stolen.

Some painting you bought stolen by someone the police can't get to (or something to that extent)? You call on Pretend and he'll be in and out without anyone realizing it was him. After all, he can change shape.

But yeah, that's the basics for Pretend. And I love him so.

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lezi April 13 2011, 21:50:28 UTC
Alright. Here we are.
I. I love your characters' names. Pretend? Epic. (I'm being completely honest when I say that you inspired this post. When you mentioned a Pretend in my last entry, I just had to know more!)

II. Your characters/snippets had me all,


Seriously.

III. I can't think of how to even begin with this comment.

I love your attention to details, from personalities to histories (to "but he can still get sick as the virus isn't actually part of his body."). Considering how fucking fail I am at giving my characters histories, I am both envious and in awe at your utter detail, patience and skill. (And then there's the very small matter of "serious Victorian sex". Just... PFFTROFLMAO.)

I really love the Dev/John interactions you shared. They're so... UNF. They're perfect and playful, and I love the picture it paints of Dev as a character.

Also: NIFTY! PRETEND, I AM TOTALLY WITH YOU. NIFTY IS THE BEE'S KNEES. ♥ The way Pretend talks reminds me of a Babel Fish translation. It's really endearing. :B

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ontinia April 14 2011, 02:54:37 UTC
I. I think one of my favorite things is to come up with their names. I put a lot of thought into it.

II. :D
I'm so glad to know that! And that you liked my snippits and all.

III. One year in school in the creative writing class we had to create a character. It was an easy grade. Give ten facts, you got a C, twenty facts a B and thirty got you and A (or something to that extent). I write to profiles for them with appearances and personalities and histories to seven and couldn't choose one character to turn in so I turned them all in. Some of my classmate's read them and were astounded. "I never even thought about a history." I replied with, "You have to know their history because how else could you write them and know how they would react to things?"

"but he can still get sick as the virus isn't actually part of his body." Well that just makes sense, doesn't it? I put that in and then like a week later realized that Pretend is kinda immortal because he can heal himself. In theory if he practiced enough he could still survive if his head was cut off or if he got shot. He can heal it instantly or even move his vital organs if he saw it coming. I really needed to give him some sort of weakness other than his horrible attention span or willingness to give his life for those he loves.

I really love the Dev/John interactions you shared. They're so... UNF. They're perfect and playful, and I love the picture it paints of Dev as a character. So much. Oh God, I completely adore writing them. My cousin had described John as a monster with ADD/ADHD. Which is rather true. if you want I could email you what I have written so far, I'd love your input if you want to give it, if you want to read more Dev/John stuff

Also: NIFTY! PRETEND, I AM TOTALLY WITH YOU. NIFTY IS THE BEE'S KNEES. ♥ The way Pretend talks reminds me of a Babel Fish translation. It's really endearing.
THERE IS A REASON WHY I WOULD MARRY THIS CHARACTER IF I COULD. OH, I CANNOT DESCRIBE HOW MUCH I LOVE HIM. It is rather endearing. I've not yet met someone who doesn't like him. (I've RP'd a lot with him). and he's going to have a bit in the John and Dev story, so is Ontinia and Doryean. Oh and this one guy who I really haven't developed at all, but his name is Dominic, or Dom for short, and I picture him with short, dark, curly hair but he has a power that is across his (or your) chest are kinda subtitles. Only these subtitles say what you really mean. So you can't lie around him. But his power they call 'sub'. So Dom is a sub. And that brings more more joy than it should I'm working on a very short story that is just Pretend's. And when I get done writing it I'll have to have someone who doesn't really know his character read it because I'd want to make sure I get the point of his POV and powers across the right way to someone who doesn't know about them.

...and shutting up now. No more rambling. for now

I lied.. I LOVE that you seemed to like my characters. :D

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