{ reference } this is the meme that never ends

[milordscandal]

Body and Appearance
1. Describe the character's height and build. Is he heavyset, thin, short, rangy? Thalesians tend to run tall; Stragen is no exception to this rule. He's muscular, but not overly so; he can't wriggle in and out of the same tight squeezes that he could when he was a child and adolescent, but in his line of work it pays to be slim and very, very fast.

2. How old is he? Stragen's somewhere in his forties.

3. Describe his posture. Does he carry himself well or does he slouch? He's capable of very good, well-trained posture but he's less likely to stand around with his back straight than he is to lean indolently on something like the obnoxious prick that he is. Maryani has speculated that he calculates his mannerisms for the maximum appearance of rakishness, and she is correct.

4. How is his health? Is he fit or out of shape? Any illnesses or conditions? Any physical disabilities? He's healthy and very fit! Age has slowed him a little, but not as much as someone who doesn't lead the same active lifestyle. (Did you like that euphemism there?)

5. How does he move? Is he clumsy, graceful, tense, fluid? Stragen was basically designed to run along rooftops and sneak around places in the dark, which lends itself to gracefulness; a clumsy thief is not going to get further than the stocks. He's fluid and graceful and very conscious of his movement and surroundings; he's also kind of dramatic and you can tell.

6. How attractive is this character physically? How does he perceive himself in the mirror? This is a very subjective question, but Stragen isn't half bad; he knows he's good looking and isn't above playing to it. He's more aware of his image than his looks, per se; the way that he presents himself is a very deliberate and conscious thing at all times.

7. Describe his complexion. Dark, light, clear, scarred? A little tanned, but pretty clear and light. He does have scarring, but nothing immediately noticeable or disfiguring.

8. Describe his hair: color, texture, style. Long and very blond; he's been known to curl it for the sake of fashion, but it's naturally mostly straight with a bit of a wave.

9. What color are his eyes? Blue-green.

10. Does the character have any other noteworthy features? Not really; Stragen likes to stand out because he's a showman, but it pays to be able to be unassuming and unmemorable as it calls for it.

11. What are his chief tension centers? Due to his tendencies, primarily his hips and the small of his back, going up to his shoulders. His knees have seen a lot of trouble, too. (Shut up.)

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? Very, very varied! He likes to wear pale things - white, cream, pale blue, whatever - but he also has assorted things in black and darker colours, greys and blacks and shades of green or brown. Most of his wardrobe is tailored, satin and silk and velvet, very upper-class - it's a calculated appearance. He has an assortment of more bland items, costumes, whatever he can use if he needs to appear some other way or something to discreetly sneak around in.

13. Do his clothes fit well? Does he seem comfortable in them? Yes.

14. Does he dress the same on the job as he does in his free time? If not, what are the differences? Most of the time he opts for things like his white satin doublets; it's what he likes to boss people around in and how he likes to dress in his 'off hours'; he does not wear the same things when he's scaling buildings.

15. You knew it was coming: Boxers, briefs or commando? ...drawers, codpieces, that kind of thing. WHAT, I'M SORRY, HE'S NOT MODERN.

Speech
1. What does this character's voice sound like? High-pitched, deep, hoarse? Stragen has a very deep voice, quite low, and well modulated.

2. How does he normally speak? Loud, soft, fast, evenly? Does he talk easily, or does he hesitate? The best way of describing it would be 'speaking with the awareness he has an audience'; Stragen has trained his voice and you can usually tell. He enjoys putting on airs, ridiculously; when he drops the act he's less airy-fairy.

3. Does the character have a distinct accent or dialect? Any individual quirks of pronunciation? Any, like, you know, verbal tics? He does have a distinct Thalesian accent; the closest equivalents would be something like German, Austrian.

4. What language/s does he speak, and with how much fluency? He speaks Elenic, Styric and Tamul flawlessly - although his Tamul accent was initially a little iffy, due to the fact he was mostly taught by magic and they didn't polish the accents too much to hide how good they were getting (and how fast they were getting that good). By now he's rather invested in smoothing the accent himself.

5. Does he switch languages or dialects in certain situations? Noooot really; he will speak Styric to Styrics and when he's in Tamul he speaks Tamul, but these are either 'showing off' or 'necessity'.

6. Is he a good impromptu speaker, or does he have to think about his words? He's actually kind of great at it; there was a memorable incident in Sarsos where they were having some trouble swinging the Thousand into an alliance and Stragen abruptly took the reins and with the creative use of bullying and contempt he got what they wanted. Conscience? What conscience?

7. Is he eloquent or inarticulate? Under what circumstances might this change? Very eloquent; underneath everything else, he is basically a performer first and foremost, he likes having an audience, and despite what he uses that for he's taught himself how to make the most of it. He can be shocked into incoherence, but it doesn't happen often.

Mental and Emotional
1. How intelligent is this character? Is he book-smart or street-smart? Stragen is ridiculously clever! It's a mix of the two; he was well educated at the expense of his aristocrat father, but he wasn't entirely permitted entrance to the upperclasses and instead of skirting around on the edges, he opted to go as low as he could manage and make himself king of the underdogs, as it were.

2. Does he think on his feet, or does he need time to deliberate? Given time, Stragen can come up with all kinds of interesting things; he can do it by the seat of his pants, too, if need be.

3. Describe the character's thought process. Is he more logical, or more intuitive? Idealistic or practical? Logical and practical, with a bit of ambitious intuition thrown in there for good measure - some of his ideas are totally insane, and then again sometimes it takes him a while to realize that the opposition has done something in particular because he can't believe anyone would do something that ridiculous. Elenes are all pretty logical at the heart of them - they like lists and things that make sense - but he also enjoys fucking with stereotypes, so.

4. What kind of education has the character had? An incredibly thorough one! He was, as I mentioned, educated at his father's expense - he also proceeded to pick up a lot of other education that you don't get in those circles.

5. What are his areas of expertise? What, if anything, is he interested in learning more about? ...stealing shit, murdering people, politics (which is a lot like stealing shit and murdering people), the secret government (international network of thieves, murderers, whores, etc - yes, really, and he's pretty highly ranked), Styric magic (he's not an expert but he'd like to be, mostly because it can't hurt to round out his skillset like that), he's learning more about the Elene religion than ever before mostly out of exposure, MUSIC. Etc. He's a brilliant swordsman, also; after someone pointed out that if Sarabian insists on carrying a rapier around then he goddamn ought to know how to use it, Stragen personally trained the Tamul Emperor. Martel helped, by which we mean 'Martel showed off'.

6. Is he an introvert or an extrovert? Uh, extrovert. In a big way.

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 incredibly driven; he's a melancholy sort of a man who would prefer to present himself as incorrigibly good-humoured (and frequently does, although people watching closely tend to notice that he's prone to depression and self-flagellating moodswings). He's unfairly hard on himself, but only infrequently do people tend to get a good look at that aspect of his personality; he takes failure very, very hard and he's incapable of making light of it. Most of the time he's sardonic and constantly quipping.

8. How does he respond to new people or situations? Is he suspicious, relaxed, timid, enthusiastic? Enthusiastic! To the point of Kurik speculating that he is in fact totes crazy. (He's not! ...well, not completely.) He's cautious, but he's also prone to making decisions off the cuff just to see where they take him. What! It's usually somewhere interesting.

9. Is he more likely to act, or to react? He'll act rather than react; Stragen likes to be the thing that other people are reacting to. See: the harvest festival. Fuck yeah.

10. Which is his default: fight or flight? Flight. He is a thief, he will peace out with his haul - but there are circumstances under which he'll fight, and he's good at it.

11. Describe the character's sense of humor. Does he appreciate jokes? Puns? Gallows humor? Bathroom humor? Pranks? His sense of humour is pretty bleak, and when he and his BFF get together it can get downright ridiculous. Stragen can make all sorts of things into jokes, and he is not unfond of innuendo. His idea of a good joke tends to involve making fun of somebody or something, possibly himself and frequently his friends.

12. Does the character have any diagnosable mental disorders? If yes, how does he deal with them? He is, as I say, kind of prone to depression; he's rarely crippled by it, but his insecurity coupled with his tendency to fall into deeply dark melancholy does have an unfortunate impact on his decision-making skills. He can function as a leader but for this reason he does need somebody else around to check him at that point.

13. What moments in this character's life have defined him as a person? A lot of stuff to do with his paternal family (I need to look up the details, but I do believe that Stragen murdered at least a few of them!) and his mother, and meeting Ehlana and the rest was kind of a turning point for the way his life proceeded from there. Also, his friendship with Maryani and Martel! They are a very large part of his life these days, much moreso than probably any of them expected to be by this point. He considers them and their children family, and shows it in the weirdest fucking ways.
Oh, also, he's married. That was weird.

14. What does he fear? Inadequacy is probably the big one for Stragen; he's honestly never coped very well with the circumstances of his birth (as shown by how even now, he's ridiculously sensitive about it even as he's really the only one in his immediate circle who gives a fuck), and he's wildly overcompensated to make himself the best of the best of the best. He is honestly insanely talented and intelligent, but he's constantly afraid of not measuring up and it's tragically easy to exploit that weakness of his when he's unprepared for it.

15. What are his hopes or aspirations? Well, now that he's already pulled off the biggest mass murder in history, he's looking for something new...sup, multiverse.

16. What is something he doesn't want anyone to find out about him? That he's actually got like, morals and ethics. NO, REALLY.

Relationships
1. Describe this character's relationship with his parents. sdlkjsdf HAHAHA um. "BAD". Can I just leave it at that? -all right, he actually had a pretty good relationship with his mother, enough to be severely fucked off about how she was treated to the point of patricide.

2. Does the character have any siblings? What is/was their relationship like? He had two half-brothers, and he killed them when they interfered while he was killing their father. ...Stragen, ladies and gentlemen.

3. Are there other blood relatives to whom he is close? Are there ones he can't stand? He's not very close to any of his blood relatives; his mother is dead (choked on a fish bone).

4. Are there other, unrelated people whom he considers part of his family? What are his relationships with them? As above, Martel, Maryani, Nouria, Nikolau and Sera are his extended family; they came into his life when Martel brought Maryani and Nouria with him to Emsat after they fled Rendor and collected Nouria from the convent at Demos. He employed Martel and Maryani essentially as his personal assassins, so you can imagine how much fun life was for everybody else in that period in Emsat; they've remained very close over the years and Stragen was probably Martel's closest ally in Ehlana's court for a long time.

5. Who is/was the character's best friend? How did they meet? ...that would be Martel, see above.

6. Does he have other close friends? Stragen is good friends with Sparhawk (which, yes, was kind of awkward but mysteriously he pulled it off), Ehlana, and most of the rest of the knights - he's always had a soft spot for Talen, since he took the boy in hand in Emsat.

7. Does he make friends easily, or does he have trouble getting along with people? He is ridiculously charming (and manipulative), and rarely has trouble winning people over. Sometimes it's a mixture of winning them over and running merrily over their confusion, but whatever works!

8. Which does he consider more important: family or friends? He would like to say friends, but his family has been a very (negatively) defining aspect of his life and he does have a very, very hard time letting go of that.

9. Is the character single, married, divorced, widowed? Has he been married more than once? He recently married Baroness Melidere, in his first and probably only marriage; she initially put the idea to him as a business deal.

10. Is he currently in a romantic relationship with someone other than a spouse? Stragen is mysteriously monogamous and faithful. No one is quite sure how this happened, but he tends to blame it on the ridiculous amount of money she waved at him.

11. Who was his first crush? Who is his latest? Probably a girl he grew up with, and at the moment he's pretty mad about Melidere.

12. What does he look for in a romantic partner? He wasn't really looking for a partner (a sexual partner, sure, but not a partner); Melidere just kind of happened to him. And then kept happening to him. He's still a little mystified about that, from time to time. She's a good match for him - he doesn't get bored with her and she can more than hold her own. They make a good team in business and politics as well as romantically. Also, Melidere tops. Just sayin'.

13. Does the character have children? Grandchildren? If yes, how does he relate to them? If no, does he want any? Stragen is very, very fond of his three beautiful godchildren - but he will become a father himself over his cold, dead body. Neither Stragen nor Melidere are particularly interested in having their own children, and god willing they probably never will.

14. Does he have any rivals or enemies? ...yes. Quite a lot of them. None stand out as a personal nemesis, but they exist.

15. What is the character's sexual orientation? Where does he fall on the Kinsey scale?He is pretty incredibly straight.

16. How does he feel about sex? How important is it to him? Sex is fantastic and Stragen is very fond of it; he can find time even in the worst political crisis to find somebody else's bed to slink into. He's not going to throw an enormous tantrum if he's not getting any, but honestly, he'd really prefer to be getting some. Regularly, for preference.

17. What are his turn-ons? Turn-offs? Weird bedroom habits? He likes clever women - women who can run rings around him - and he likes somebody he has to figure out. He likes a woman who is on top even when she's not, er, on top, as it were.

Beliefs
1. Do you know your character's astrological (zodiac of choice) sign? How well does he fit type? ...yeah I am totally fail at figuring that stuff out, sry meme.

2. Is this character religious, spiritual, both, or neither? How important are these elements in his life? N...ot really; he's ended up a key player in a couple of holy wars and he's personally acquainted with more than one god, but despite this he's not a very religious person himself; he was never a devout follower of the Elene god and he converted to Styricum sort of by accident/default when he began practising magic through Aphrael. He's very, very aware of the divine - but he leaves that all to other people to worry about. Honestly, he just doesn't give a fuck.

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? He does, yes, but don't tell anyone because he'll punch you and he tends to hit hard. Stragen is willing to do a lot of things, but he does have somewhere he draws the line and weirdly enough, once he's drawn a line he's supremely unlikely to cross it. Rape, child abuse, slavery - these are things he's not down with.

4. How does he regard beliefs that differ from his? Is he tolerant, intolerant, curious, indifferent? Very curious! He wants to know allllll about what you think.

5. What prejudices does he hold? Are they irrational or does he have a good reason for them? He's incredibly prejudiced against trolls, which probably has something to do with coming from Thalesia (troll country) and the fact that they eat humans. It's not really irrational (they eat humans), but it has led him to be kind of shrieky and unreasonable on the subject when they would, in fact, be very useful and they're not nearly as dumb as he thinks they are. Unlike the majority of Elenes, he's not prejudiced against the Styric people - and he can be kind of a pointed jerk about it to other people. Sparhawk did not so much appreciate that in Sarsos, USEFUL AS IT WAS. ...his bitchy little speech to the Thousand was shameless manipulation, not personal prejudice. He's not a bigot, just an asshole :D

Daily Life
1. What is the character's financial situation? Is he rich, poor, comfortable, in debt? Stragen is comfortably wealthy, mostly because it turns out crime does pay, who'd have guessed? His combined worth with his lovely Baroness wife is probably completely insane, and they do not tend to let on just how much they're both worth. Because they prefer not to explain how they came into all of that money, as a rule.

2. What is his social status? Has this changed over time, and if so, how has the change affected him? Stragen's social status is...complex. As a gentleman's bastard, he was sort of - 'neither fish nor fowl', as it were, and took the brunt of that kind of hard. He proceeded to make himself into the perfect gentleman and then use his newfound ability to blend in to rip off and murder his father's fellows while styling himself as an aristocrat ("mostly affectation"). I believe he personally fucked off King Wargun at one point, good job there, well done.
As Ehlana's advisor, he took a step up in the world - but never received an official title or legitimacy, and so remained sort of hesitantly on the edge of things, socially, as well as very wary and sensitive about his birth.
For services rendered during the war in Tamuli, Emperor Sarabian made him a Tamul Viscount, giving him a nice foothold in two of the most important courts in the world. He, Martel and Maryani have not failed to notice their unique and uniquely useful positions, and you'd better believe they will all take advantage.
Anyway, long story short: his social status is a very big deal to him.

3. Where does he live? House, apartment, trailer? Is his home his castle or just a place to crash? What condition is it in? Does he share it with others? Stragen actually has multiple homes, because that's just how his fine ass rolls; he has a place in Emsat, because that's where he's based, he and Melidere have a house in Cimmura and an Elenian estate, and he has his own estate in Tamul proper, with a townhouse in Matherion. He shares these all with his wife, who would be basically a saint for marrying him if she weren't just as bad as he is. For the record.

4. Besides the basic necessities, what does he spend his money on? Stragen is fond of spoiling himself, his wife, and anybody else he happens to feel like it right now; he likes the luxuries and he will spend a lot of money on having the very best of absolutely everything. He likes books, jewelry, new clothes, fancy weapons, whatever - but these things are equally likely to be stolen from somebody else, because he is a goddamn thief. He has a fun habit of thieving things from Martel's display cases and waiting to see how long it takes for his friend to notice and make him give them back. It's just a game, really, but it's fun.

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? Stragen considers himself a thief first and foremost; legally and illegally he is most of all a politician, to be honest. Either with regard to the royal courts of Eosia and Daresia or the secret government, he spends a lot of time manipulating and managing people and occasionally having them killed - it's really kind of great how similar the two roles have turned out to be, he was really charmed. He does enjoy his work and he wouldn't do anything else.

6. What are his interests or hobbies? How does he spend his free time? I hate to be a broken record - but really, stealing things. It's fun as well as profitable! Okay, okay, he does have other interests. Stragen is v. much interested in self-improvement; he likes to be educated, if he finds a new idea then he wants to learn as much about it as he can, mostly just for the principle of the thing. He's a musician (plays the lute exquisitely, is perfectly capable of taking an orchestra in hand and beating them until they play something beautiful), and he's a decent dancer. He enjoys forcing Martel into musical partnership with him (Martel sings, he doesn't), and he likes physical exertion of various kinds.

7. What are his eating habits? Does he skip meals, eat out, drink alcohol, avoid certain foods? He's mostly unconcerned with food except so far as he requires it be as good as everything else in his life; he is a man who likes his luxuries. He does tend to go and splurge on pork after spending a while with Martel and Maryani, whose Styric tendencies extend to the traditional diet.

Associations
Which of the following do you associate with the character, or which is his favorite:

1. Color? Pale, pale grey - almost white, but not quite. Like smoke.
2. Smell? Metal and blood (together), smoke, soap.
3. Time of day? Early, early dawn.
4. Season? Autumn.
5. Book?
6. Music? ...the lute :D
7. Place? Matherion.
8. Substance? Silver.
9. Plant?
10. Animal? Fox. ...what.

END
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