The New, Improved Character Survey of Doom - (Needs a beta)
Body and Appearance
1. Describe the character's height and build. Is he heavyset, thin, short, rangy? Laurent is 135. lb / 63,56 Kgm and 5'2" inches/ 157.48 cm tall. He got some solid muscle density despite small stature due to fact that he's been doing physical work and dancing since he was little. When he's dressed as a woman he's easily mistaken for a girl, though.
2. How old is he? Laurent is a 17-year-old. Marid, the god-like entity whom he shares his soul is 1000 years old.
3. Describe his posture. Does he carry himself well or does he slouch? When he was a slave he rarely looked at anybody in the eye or raised his voice, once he was free he started to open up and relax when in company. However he's also easily embarrassed, and nerves are often evident in his body language. When he's in Marid form he becomes more determined and driven. When he smiles in that state it comes out as a cocky grin and his fangs are visible.
4. How is his health? Is he fit or out of shape? Any illnesses or conditions? Any physical disabilities? Marid's existence prevented him from getting ill, but he suffered from malnutrition while growing up. He got better, though.
5. How does he move? Is he clumsy, graceful, tense, fluid? Aisha trained him to be aware of his body and the reaction it can cause. He's quite graceful because he's used to dancing. If you get him nervous, however, he has a tendency to fidget. In terms of walking across a room, he's usually a ninja discrete.
6. How attractive is this character physically? How does he perceive himself in the mirror? Laurent is prettier than he is handsome because he has some feminine features . He doesn't think himself as attractive at all, mostly due to the way human treat his race. He doesn't care for his looks and, while he's could be considered attractive if someone mentions that to him he will get confused. He's not used to compliments.
7. Describe his complexion. Dark, light, clear, scarred? He got dark skin, with very few scars and a tattoo on his back, it's his slave mark.
8. Describe his hair: color, texture, style. It's made of rainbows He got purple light hair, a characteristic of his race. It's short and straight, with a strand of hair out of place that usually fall on the middle of his face.
9. What color are his eyes? Forest green with touches of yellow green.
10. Does the character have any other noteworthy features? He has a large tattoo on his upper back, it's two scythe blades put together. And his shadow often moves on it's own and might appear to have wings due to Marid's influence.
11. What are his chief tension centers? The shoulders, neck and back. If he gets really scared or nervous he becomes rigid like a table.
12. What is the character's wardrobe like? Casual, dressy, utilitarian? Bright colors, pastels, neutrals? Is it varied, or does he have six of the same suit? Bright colors, pastels, neutrals? Is it varied, or does he have six of the same suit? As a slave he wore a really simple and ragged attire. When he was dancing in the circus he had a variety of colorful clothes and jewels. Now that he's none of those things he dress more casual but still likes to wear different colors, mostly green and yellow, and jewels that he makes himself (and aren't really expensive).
13. Do his clothes fit well? Does he seem comfortable in them? I'm going for the casual ones he uses now so, yeah, they are comfortable and he likes to cover himself up as much as he cant. He showed way too many stuff for his liking in the past.
14. Does he dress the same on the job as he does in his free time? If not, what are the differences? Nope, they were pretty different. Laurent's work generally demanded a flexible wardrobe at best, and his owner made him go around half naked at worse, so yeah...that's why he liked to cover himself up as soon as he was done with the job he had to do. When not on a specific assignment, though, he wore simply yellow-ish clothes.
15. You knew it was coming: Boxers, briefs or commando? Before? Comando. But he always liked boxers and shorts and it's what he wears now.
Speech
1. What does this character's voice sound like? High-pitched, deep, hoarse? Calm and more mature then what his physical age is but usually pleasant to hear (he can't sing to save his life, though). In very rare occasions it might sound disembodied if Marid is trying to take control or Laurent gets really angry.
2. How does he normally speak? Loud, soft, fast, evenly? Does he talk easily, or does he hesitate? Usually calm and very polite, but when he's nervous he stutters and hesitates. While angry, Laurent gets into a calm fury mode and his voice sounds unusually cold.
3. Does the character have a distinct accent or dialect? Any individual quirks of pronunciation? Any, like, you know, verbal tics? He has a bit of an accent that gets more noticeable when hes nervous or when he tries to pronounce certain words. As example, when he says 'kitten' it sounds a bit like 'kittah' instead. He's not hard to understand, however.
4. What language/s does he speak, and with how much fluency? The Keltoi have their own language, and he can speak and write it properly. He knows the other common language spoke in Carmadine, and can speak and read it fluently, but he doesn’t like writing very much because he's not very good at grammar.
However, Marid can speak many languages, including the language of the Gods and certain magical creatures, so Laurent can access Marid's memory and use his knowledge to talk to all sort of people. Writing those down is still an issue for him.
5. Does he switch languages or dialects in certain situations? Not really, he's very aware of the language he's speaking at the time.
6. Is he a good impromptu speaker, or does he have to think about his words? He usually thinks before to speak, he chooses his words well, but he's not slow.
7. Is he eloquent or inarticulate? Under what circumstances might this change? Laurent is an eloquent person, but he has no idea how to handle compliments. People saying nice things to him will confuse him or make him blush. The the smallest bit of honest romantic affection confuses him. If he notices that they are just saying that to get something form him he will give them a blank expression in return and might become unusually cold.
Mental and Emotional
1. How intelligent is this character? Is he book-smart or street-smart? Street smart mostly, but he loves to read and he's a fast learned. He is very clever, despite his scarce of education, making him able to use his own street smarts for defense and survival.
2. Does he think on his feet, or does he need time to deliberate? A mix of both, he is a quick thinker, however he tries not to make rushed decision that can be the wrong ones.
3. Describe the character's thought process. Is he more logical, or more intuitive? Idealistic or practical? Depends of the situation, he's usually logical when facing a technical problem, and he becomes more intuitive while dealing with living creatures. He tries to be always practical, though.
4. What kind of education has the character had? He stopped going to school when he was made a slave, but Laurent already knew how to read and write and later on Aisha acted as a private teacher. He loves to read all sort of books if he has the opportunity to do so.
5. What are his areas of expertise? What, if anything, is he interested in learning more about? He's very good at doing things with his hands: Sewing, cooking, making jewels and taking care of animals and plants. Also at sex, but he doesn't particularly enjoy that talent. He's interested in all sort of different subjects except the romantic ones. Books about theology and medicine have a particularly interest for him due to his half-god heritage and his curiosity about what makes species different or alike.
6. Is he an introvert or an extrovert? More an introvert than anything. He's shy and quite socially awkward. Specially after meeting his new friends he starts to open up and becomes less concerned about speaking his mind. He often speaks more freely around children and those who aren't human, no matter if their species (vampire, werewolves, dragon, gods...) could be essentially considered more dangerous than humans itself. He is, however, very blunt while talking about his own past life.
Because his friends insisted that he should stop bottling things up and freely speak his mind, he often delivers news or information about his traumatic experiences in a very eerie way, like all of it happened to someone else and didn’t really affect him that much. The facade crumbles eventually, and he suffers from a breakdown that finally ends with Laurent facing his demons, but it takes time to really notice the deep psychological effects of his traumatic past.
7. Describe the character's temperament. Is he even-tempered or does he have mood swings? Cheerful or melancholy? Laid-back or driven? He's calm, non judgmental and more welcoming that extremely cheerful. He keeps a cool head, in ridiculous situations (Adam and Lilith sure had a lot of those) and during serious ones.
8. How does he respond to new people or situations? Is he suspicious, relaxed, timid, enthusiastic? He's polite and shy and he becomes hesitant when he's put on the spot, but deeply he's a very warm, caring person with a protective streak. When he feels comfortable around a person, he can be sharp and assertive, and even tease others. The more he is with people that treat him as a person the less shy he becomes.
9. Is he more likely to act, or to react? In a general sense, he's more of an observer and people-watcher than a man of action, but in the defense of others he becomes determined and intense. When someone he believes he can help is suffering or in danger he feels the urge to help them, even if they are complete strangers. It’s, again, in Marid’s nature to act like that, and he unconsciously starts most of Laurent’s actions.
10. Which is his default: fight or flight? Talk, actually. He dislike violence, but he's not a coward per se. He thinks problems can solved in a better way than fighting, and thus he tries to resolve most of the situations that present with calming words.
11. Describe the character's sense of humor. Does he appreciate jokes? Puns? Gallows humor? Bathroom humor? Pranks? He has a sense of humor but he's rarely seen laughing out loud or telling funny stories. One of the reasons for that is that he's also very literal. Colloquial expressions (such as: 'You are so cute I could eat you', 'It's so fluffy I'm going to die', or 'I'm going to wax the floor with your ass'...) confuse him a lot because he takes them in the most literal sense. He hates pranks and mean jokes, he's been the butt-monkey way too often in the past to appreciate them in any form or shape.
12. Does the character have any diagnosable mental disorders? If yes, how does he deal with them? Laurent developed claustrophobia and deep fear of drowning close to aquaphobia due to the traumatic experience he lived when he was enslaved. He saw many people die during the travel; the storms and bad weather nearly crushed the ship they were on, they were herded together without adequate space, ventilation, or sanitary conditions, and they had to endure both the horrible crowding and the harassment of the guards. He avoids being closed in small spaces, tries to find jobs where he can work in the open (such as taking care of animals), and avoids waters as much as he can.
13. What moments in this character's life have defined him as a person?
The slave raiding and years as a slave in general.. He was only seven at that time and the ship travel left him scared forever of enclosed places and the sea. At some point he got used to the fact that people saw him as a thing rather than a person and became rather uncaring about what was happening to him.
Meeting Aisha. She was one of the few persons that show any sort of kindness to him, as genuinely cared for his well being. She was his big sister and taught him many useful things, Her death was a really important change in his life that triggered Marid's powers.
Meeting Adam and company, they saved him from slavery and become his (rather discfunctional) new family. This is the moment that turned his whole previous self around and he started caring about himself again.
Later on, his encounter with the ancient dragon Melkarth and the Gods that rule his world. Being told that he had the powers to save humanity or destroy it? Yeah It didn't fly so well with him and Laurent had a hard time coping with the revelation.
14. What does he fear? He can be rather fearless in some ways and a hell of a coward in others. He has the same fear as any other living being fear, and that's losing what's important to him: his friends/family and his family.
His greatest fear consists of being enslaved again or confined, going back to his previous life. He's also afraid of deep water and closed spaces. Guards and people related to the law (who aren't Knights and thus doesn't serve a code) scare him due to bad past experiences involving them and he will avoid them at all cost.
He is not, ironically enough, scared of pain or death. He's familiar with those and he even met the Gods of death once, he actually thinks they are rather nice.
15. What are his hopes or aspirations? He was a better life for his race and his friends and stop the whole slavery system that's going on in his world. However, he wants the change in the society to be real and not forced by his new powers, and that means that changing things will take a lot of time.
The needs of others will always sit above his own. No matter what they did, he couldn't hate humanity or much to destroy them in order to create a better word because he knows it won't last. Peace and equality aren't something one can force on people, and they need to come from the heart.
16. What is something he doesn't want anyone to find out about him? So, so many things about his past. He's blunt while talking about it, but he doesn't go into much details for this reason.
Relationships
1. Describe this character's relationship with his parents. He has two mothers, weird as it might sound, since he is the son of a Keltoi but also has the soul of a demi-god. He refers as the goddess Asherah as her mother since he can't barely remember his real parents anymore. Laurent and her are still learning to know each other better, but Marids memories of the goddess tell him all he needs to know about the caring goddess that saved their life.
2. Does the character have any siblings? What is/was their relationship like? He does, but he doesn’t know about them because they were born after Laurent was captures and dragged away form his home place. Marid's siblings perished in the war with the dragons and gods. And that was a complicated relationship at best, specially between the corrupted Ifrit and the djinn.
3. Are there other blood relatives to whom he is close? Are there ones he can't stand? Nope
4. Are there other, unrelated people whom he considers part of his family? What are his relationships with them? Aisha and him grew really close and acted like sister and brother. Her death was what triggered Marid's powers and what made Laurent scape from the Circus.
5. Who is/was the character's best friend? How did they meet? Lilith quickly become one of his best friends. First because he's more comfortable around women than men, and second because her strong and caring personality reminded him of Aisha.
6. Does he have other close friends? Adam, Durham and Hunter.
7. Does he make friends easily, or does he have trouble getting along with people? Despite all his shyness, he makes friends quite easily due to his gentle nature. He gets along with others quite well as long as they don't have an issue with his looks/race. If they do, Laurent will try to avoid them.
8. Which does he consider more important: family or friends? He doesn’t think that people would have to choose. His friends are his family too.
9. Is the character single, married, divorced, widowed? Has he been married more than once? Nope
10. Is he currently in a romantic relationship with someone other than a spouse? He doesn’t believe in romantic love.
11. Who was his first crush? Who is his latest? The same person, Durham, but he haven't associate with feeling with the idea of 'crush', he just likes to stay with him more than with other people. Is a very subtle thing, actually, and he will never act on it.
12. What does he look for in a romantic partner? Ha, ha....romantic partner../sob.
13. Does the character have children? Grandchildren? If yes, how does he relate to them? If no, does he want any? No, but Laurent loves children and he would like to have one or two.
14. Does he have any rivals or enemies? Oh boy, lots. Starting with Beelshamên (‘Beel’), hist old owner, then all the people that dislike him just for the race he belongs to, then there's Belial and his irritating insistence in destroying everyone to create a new society.....
15. What is the character's sexual orientation? Where does he fall on the Kinsey scale? 3 -Equally heterosexual and homosexual/ Bisexual. It's actually the norm in his world, so sexuality is rarely an issue there.
16. How does he feel about sex? How important is it to him? Aisha taught him all he needed to know about how to satisfy his possible partner, male or female, and sex has no secrets for him. He is confident in that aspect, but he knows absolutely nothing about romance and the smallest bit of affection confuses him and make him blush.
Laurent isn’t very interested in sex because he was abused since he was very young and sees it as something purely physical that has no emotional attachment or lasting effect. If he can avoid it, he will, but if his possible partner insist about it he will do whatever they want to make them happy. Lilith and Durham tried to explain to him the difference between lust and love, but it's an issue that needs to be worked on.
17. What are his turn-ons? Turn-offs? Weird bedroom habits?He's just not into it. But if someone got him interested enough in the idea, he wouldn't really care if it was a man or a woman as long as they treated him with respect. Is consent a kink?
Beliefs
1. Do you know your character's astrological (zodiac of choice) sign? How well does he fit type? Taurus/Rabbit, he was born the 10th of May. Both him him quite well.
2. Is this character religious, spiritual, both, or neither? How important are these elements in his life? He's a demi-god and he met other Gods in eprson, take a guess.
3. Does this character have a personal code of morals or ethics? If so, how did that begin? What would it take to compromise it? Laurent's principles have certain similarities with Gandhism, he is in favor of the nonviolence resistant and achieving goals without using violence. His commitments to non-violence, freedom, equality and justice are product of his life subdued to slavery, bondage and imperialism. He took it to himself to fight for their rights and make them struggle for attaining independence from the humans that have most of his race enslavered.
4. How does he regard beliefs that differ from his? Is he tolerant, intolerant, curious, indifferent? Laurent usually keeps himself very controlled - should you make a comment that could be considered derogatory to a certain race, sexuality or gender, he's might take offense but very rarely show it. Sexual violence, or violence against children and his friends is his berserker button and he will react badly to it.
5. What prejudices does he hold? Are they irrational or does he have a good reason for them? He is biased against police officers, guards, and people related to the law. He will try to avoid them at all cost, even if they did nothing to him. Bad past experiences with guards and the law made him wary of them.
Daily Life
1. What is the character's financial situation? Is he rich, poor, comfortable, in debt? He has no moneys, never had.
2. What is his social status? Has this changed over time, and if so, how has the change affected him? It changed quite a lot, eh was free, then made a slave, then free again and now he's considered a demi-god.
3. Where does he live? House, apartment, trailer? Is his home his castle or just a place to crash? He didn't had a room for his own for more than a decade or a place to call his home. He traveled around with the circus and later on he traveled even more when he was with hsi new friends. He can sleep anywhere, on the floor, on a chair...beds are privilege for him.
4. Besides the basic necessities, what does he spend his money on? Nothing, really, food and some clothes is all he needs. He would love to buy books, but he can bring those with him when eh travels, so he only visit the libraries when he has the opportunity
5. What does he do for a living? Is he good at it? Does he enjoy it, or would he rather be doing something else? If he could choose, beside fighting for his people, he will like to do something more mundane. He loves to design and made jewels and clothes, and he's good at it. It's also a job that he can do on his own and that means he doesn't have to share a room with strangers.
6. What are his interests or hobbies? How does he spend his free time? Reading, cooking and making jewels are his favorite hobbies, but he never really had 'free time' before. He spend most of his time working and then resting properly if he had the opportunity.
7. What are his eating habits? Does he skip meals, eat out, drink alcohol, avoid certain foods? He will eat any sort of food (for real, he cooked snakes and bugs before...) unless it's fish or something that comes from the sea. If he could live only of fruit he would, is his favorite food, .
Associations
Which of the following do you associate with the character, or which is his favorite:
1. Color? His favorite color is white, but he rarely wears it. He thinks is a way too pure color for him. The color most associated with the character is yellow, though.
2. Smell? Depends. He spends a lot of time outside, so it goes from flowers to campfire. He likes to have plants in his hair and clothes, so he usually smells like some flowers or the other.
3. Time of day? Midday. Always the neutral guy.
4. Season? Spring.
5. Book? None
6. Music? Ambling alp- Yeasayer a fantastic song about sticking up for justice in an unjust world.
7. Place? The temple of the mother goddess Asherah
8. Substance? ·A· uh?
9. Plant? Nénuphar or Blue Water lily. An aquatic plant associated with his mother. Because he's afraid of water his friends used to pick up the flowers for him.
10. Animal? A white baby rabbit :3
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