no idea where that came from

“I don’t want to live without you, either,” he whispers, but not in the common tongue. He retreats into Zaunish, where it feels a little safer, and kisses Jayce again. It’s still soft, just a press, but this time it lingers. He’s never been very good at saying how he feels but he’s trying. For Jayce.

A little something for this thing I wrote

(Art without text below)

ONE MILLION HAPPY ENDINGS 1/?

perhaps i have become you

such that i no longer have to ask for you

AHHHHAHAHA I can post pics now! This is Match Your Breath to Mine, by dear @27dragons <3 Stunning artwork of chapter 4 by @wr0wn.

As always, crafty details under the cut!

Just Jayce. Content, hot, and a little tipsy. A gift for my friend ❤️

Background

Authenticity

Connection

The first is straight-forward. Where did they come from? Where were they born? Who are their parents, their friends, their lover(s)? A solid foundation builds everything else. Backgrounds can be a dry, bare-bones frame work, but you build off it.

Authenticity is a bit harder to nail. Depending on the context and genre, they need to FEEL human. How would they react to a minor inconvenience, how do they view the world? What dreams would they have, if they were left to pursue them undeterred? I do this personally by drawing from my own experiences, which is why so many of my own characters share traits from me and my past. If I don't have something to draw on, I look up first-hand accounts from others. The best way to breathe human life into a character is by echoing someone real - yourself or others.

Connection is the final piece. This can be family connections, friendships, how they behave around people they love verses strangers and dislikes. But it can also be their connection to the world itself - where do they stand? What parts of them are echoed in their surroundings? Do they connect with a higher power or some greater sense of purpose, or is it something far smaller and personal? It's both their place in surroundings and what tugs at their core strings.

This brings me to (what I personally view) as some of THE best written people in fiction. Not just of the decade, but that I've ever seen. Something that, contrasted with the system I use to build worlds and people, fits so perfectly it drives me a bit insane: Jayce and Viktor.

SO MUCH Is shown with them, rather than told. Every scene they have separate or shared conveys so much information on screen that I still catch things on rewatches and combing through their storyline. They never tell you outright, but I can probably tell you how Jayce or Viktor would react to cold weather. Or stubbing their toe. Or even eating a meal from childhood they haven't had in ages.

There's literally nothing to them that doesn't feel real. *Human.* If I saw them on the street, they'd be a complete creation - they way they were written and performed feels less like characters and more like people I get snippets of. Less like beautiful make believe and more like a complete photograph.

I think that's the reason they're the only fictional characters I've ever been comfortable writing on my own that aren't my own creations. Something about them feels so *whole*. You know where they stand, you understand such little threads of their mind-set and view. I've never seen a pair so well constructed and, unfortunately, I don't think I ever will.

I'd go as far to say that the driving force in most other timelines that led to a bad end was, unfortunately, violence. We see the start of the 'bad timeline' when Jayce chooses to kill Viktor on the whim of Mage Viktor's instructions. We see the 'intended' ending where Jayce and Viktor fight in the final episode (more violence!), and it's only when something else comes in and gives Jayce time to pour his heart out, do they resolve things.