(no subject)
1.) Describe your character’s relationship with their mother or their father, or both. Was it good? Bad? Were they spoiled rotten, ignored? Do they still get along now, or no?
Saval's parents are dead now, having died in the destruction of Vulcan, but he wasn't very close with them when they were alive. They believed that demonstrating affection was un-Vulcan and unacceptably emotional, and the xenophobic views they instilled in Saval as a child took a long time for him to shake.
2.) What are your characters most prominent physical features?
Humans tend to notice his ears and other Vulcan features, whereas Vulcans usually notice his sharp jawline and cheekbones. He also has unusually full lips.
3.) Name one scar your character has, and tell us where it came from. If they don’t have any, is there a reason?
The bridge of his nose has a very slight bump in it, the result of Spock pounding his face in as a child.
4.) How vain is your character? Do they find themselves attractive?
Vulcans have a logical list of criteria for physical attractiveness, and Saval knows that he meets enough of them to be considered handsome. He's less certain of whether humans consider him good-looking, but he's not too concerned with it. He's only a little bit vain.
5.) What’s your character’s ranking on the Kinsey Scale?
It generally depends on the verse, but he's about a 5. He loved his late wife, and there are women he finds attractive, but when he feels sexual attraction it's almost always towards men.
6.) Describe your character’s happiest memory.
Saval doesn't have a lot of memories he would describe as "happy," what with that being too emotional a descriptor. There are memories he thinks of as pleasing, or things he remembers being proud of, like his wedding day or the day he got his medical license.
7.) Is there one event or happening your character would like to erase from their past? Why?
I feel like it would be cheating to put "the destruction of Vulcan," since...seriously, what Vulcan wouldn't want that not to have happened. Aside from that, Saval regrets bullying Spock and wishes he'd never done it. He'd probably erase the "human whore" incident and subsequent face-smashing, if he could only pick one.
8.) Day of Favorites! What’s your character’s favorite ice cream flavor? Color? Song? Flower?
Saval has never had ice cream! If he had, though, he'd probably like some kind of really sour sherbet, maybe lime. His favorite color is blue, because it's not a color that was seen a lot on Vulcan and he thinks it's exotic and pretty.
He doesn't know much about human music, but his favorite song is an old Vulcan ballad/epic poem about Nirak the legendarily incompetent soldier. His favorite flower is waneti, a desert plant with little white lily-of-the-valley-like blossoms.
9.) Who does your character trust?
Saval is a pretty trusting person who likes to be able to give people the benefit of the doubt, but most of his former trusted acquaintances are dead now. He trusts miss_gaila more than anyone else alive, and he trusts in Spock's leadership skills.
10.) Can you define a turning point in your character’s life? Multiples are acceptable.
Getting beaten up by Spock was the beginning of his realization that his bullying was destructive and unacceptable, though it still took some years for that to sink in. Coming to serve on the Enterprise was another significant turning point, because it marked the first time he'd ever really worked with any non-Vulcans, let alone been completely surrounded by them.
11.) Is there an animal you equate with your character?
Oh man, I don't know. He hates snakes, but if he were a Harry Potter character, he would absolutely be a Slytherin.
...Yes, this is how I choose animals to represent my characters.
12.) How is your character with technology? Super savvy, or way behind the times? Letters or email?
Saval is one of those obnoxious technology addicts who can't go anywhere without a PADD. If he lived in the 21st century, he would have an iPhone or a Blackberry grafted onto his hand.
13.) What does your character’s bed look like when he/she wakes up? Are the covers off on one side of the bed, are they all curled around a pillow, sprawled everywhere? In what position might they sleep?
Saval is a fidgety sleeper for a Vulcan. When he's on the Enterprise, he burrows under blankets because it's cold, so he usually wakes up wrapped in a cocoon of them. He sleeps on his back, but occasionally rolls onto his side.
14.) How does your character react to temperature changes such as extreme heat and cold?
Being from the crazy hot deserty part of Vulcan, Saval can handle extreme heat very well, but he does terribly with cold. He doesn't have a high threshold for discomfort, by Vulcan standards, so anything colder than 70 degrees Fahrenheit will have him bitching about how freezing it is. Colder than 45F or so will cause hypothermia if he doesn't have warm clothes.
15.) Is your character an early morning bird or a night owl?
Saval doesn't need to sleep more than once a week, so he wouldn't really understand the distinction, but he prefers working at night when he's not on board a ship because his vision is better suited to dark than light. Otherwise, he prefers whatever time of day there are more people awake and around to hang out with.
16.) Are there any blood relatives that your character is particularly close with, besides the immediate ones? Cousins, Uncles, Grandfathers, Aunts, et cetera. Are there any others that your character practically considers a blood relative?
Saval was really close with his grandmother, who taught him emotional control but still gave him the warmth and acceptance he never got from his parents. He has a half-sister, T'Mari, from his father's first marriage, who might still be alive--he hasn't been able to find out one way or the other, but if she is, he wants to develop a closer relationship with her, especially since they'd always gotten along on the rare occasions when they saw each other.
He considers miss_gaila family, as close as he ever was to any of his blood relatives.
17.) What’s your character’s desk/workspace look like? Are they neat or messy?
Saval is always tidy and logical and well-organized, and he completely can't fathom how any human could work in a messy environment.
18.) Is your character a good cook? What’s their favorite recipe, whether they’re good or not? (Microwave mac-and-cheese applies.)
Saval is a terrible cook. He follows recipes obsessively to the letter, and yet somehow they never turn out well. He and nyota_uhura24 do make a mean custard pie together, though.
19.) What’s your character’s preferred means of travel?
Whatever gets him where he's going the fastest. Saval's all about efficiency.
20.) Does your character have any irrational fears?
He would claim he doesn't, because fear is emotional and he likes to think nothing he does is irrational, but of course he does. He's terrified of snakes, after having been bitten and nearly killed by one as a child, and he has a weird phobia of tears. Vulcans don't have tear ducts, so he thinks of them as strange and unnatural, but mostly, they remind him of his childhood cruelty to Spock, and they bring up memories of guilt. Whenever he sees someone crying, no matter what the reason, he has a hard time shaking the instinctive feeling that it's his fault.
21.) What would your character’s cutie mark be?
I totally made My Little Pony versions of all my characters once! Saval was a zebra unicorn and his cutie mark was a green version of the Red Cross symbol, but only because I couldn't get a caduceus to not look all pixelated.
22.) If your character could time travel, where would they go?
Hmm. There aren't any aspects of Vulcan history that Saval would really want to see firsthand, but he'd probably be intrigued by Victorian-era Earth. He'd probably think they had the right idea about repression and sex and so forth. Or something.
23.) Is your character superstitious?
Superstitions are illogical.
24.) What might your character’s ideal romantic partner be?
Spock. Saval does well with adventurous people who can convince him to try new things, and people who challenge his preconceptions. And yeah, he's still kind of pining for Spock.
25.) Describe your character’s hands. Are they small, long, calloused, smooth, stubby?
Saval's hands are well-suited for surgery. They're delicate, with very long fingers, short nails, not double-jointed or anything, but deft and flexible.
26.) Second day of favorites! Favorite comfort food, favorite vice, favorite outfit, favorite hot drink, favorite time of year, and favorite holiday.
Saval's favorite comfort food is soup and biscuits. He hates plomeek soup, but he likes a kind that's sort of like a very spicy peanut soup. He would say that indulging in vice is unbecoming of a Vulcan, but he likes flirting with people, even if he pretends he's not doing it.
He's usually wearing a borrowed science-blue Starfleet uniform with no rank insignia, but back on Vulcan, when he wasn't wearing hospital scrubs, he favored comfortable silk robelike things in shades of gray and blue.
He likes k'vass, a mildly intoxicating sugary drink that's kind of like hot buttered rum, although he'll admit that it probably counts as another vice what with the fact that it's the Vulcan equivalent of beer. He also likes strong black coffee.
Time of year and holiday...I don't think Vulcans really have holidays that aren't depressing, so I'll say his birthday is his favorite one, and since his region of Vulcan didn't really have seasons, his favorite time of year is the month of his birthday.
27.) Pick two songs that describe your character at two different points of their life, and explain why you chose them.
Again and Again by Keane will always, always be my Spock/Saval song, because it just reminds me so much of what Saval would think about the bullying when looking back on it with regret, and what he might have been thinking at the time.
The lightest words are heavy, and promises are easy
And no one's ever happy or sad for very long,
But just because I said it
Doesn't mean I meant it
I guess that was the way all along.
Give me something that's real,
Give me half of your bitterest pill,
Something from under the surface
You actually feel...
The One You Knew, by Joshua Radin, reminds me of Saval and Gaila, when they inevitably have to part ways and he has to go back to the colony. She's taught him so much, and he's found endless ways to justify his relationship with her, because he knows his people would never understand his un-Vulcan love for her.
I'm leaving, but don't worry, I'll be back again
I'm always right here,
And you're grieving, but don't hurry to your pack of friends
I'll stay, it's clear,
The one you knew from your love,
I grew into complete and whole,
And the way I justify,
It's my way to control
Love everlasting.
28.) If your character’s life was a genre, what would it be?
Aside from sci-fi? IDK, Saval's life is kind of a romantic melodrama. XD
29.) How does your character smell? Do they wear perfume or cologne?
Saval has practically no sense of smell, so he doesn't wear any kind of scent. I was going to say he smells like soap, since he's a surgeon and always washing his hands, but I don't think they use soap and water anymore in the 23rd century. Or maybe they still use soap, but not water.
Whatever; he smells like a hospital. XD
30.) And finally: Write a letter to your character, from yourself.
Dear Saval,
You're the first original character I've ever developed, and you'll always be my baby even if I do neglect you a lot in favor of that asshole from Glee. I promise to be nicer to you in future and maybe even to finish that fic about you someday.
Love and maintaining-of-respectful-physical-distance,
me.