Proof of Life

The project necessitated improvisation, but it seemed to be going as planned. The final pose was to be a relaxed curl, chin resting on front paws with one hind leg dangling languorously from whatever shelf she lay on. What that meant was that a traditional hard form would be nearly impossible to stretch the hide over, so once he had finished his sculpting he’d cut the shape into pieces and fed each part in individually, anchoring them as he went. He was almost done, now. 

He did miss the eyes. There was no need, of course, in a sleeping attitude, but the selection and placement of a specimen’s glass eyes was one of his favorite steps of the process. He’d been meaning to learn how to make them himself for some time now. He set the wine down and wiped his hands off on a cloth before carefully stroking the cat’s back. When it was properly dried and fluffed, the fur would be soft as sin. 

1. One of Warren’s taxidermy pieces is an almost entirely black sighthound (think a saluki, but not necessarily purebred) that he purchased through semi-legal means after it was euthanized at the clinic he works at. It’s sitting elegantly in a corner of his workroom.

2. He hates being sick and on the rare occasions it happens, he makes all efforts to not let anyone know (e.g. making up unrelated reasons why he has to miss work).

3. The only times he’s been to church was as a boy, during the very brief period of time when his mother thought a priest/pastor could help “fix” him. The idea of an omniscient god or gods struck him as odd and rather horrifying at the time.

1. Warren’s mother never trusted him around animals or children younger than himself. When he was an adult, he got his blackbirds in part as a vindictive proof that he could keep them alive and healthy. 

2. On a related note, for several months as an elementary schooler he kept a dead raccoon as a “pet” in the woods behind his house, brushing its fur, pretending to feed it, and pretending to train it to do tricks. 

3. He’s a bit of a food snob, and prepares virtually all his meals himself. Any time Matthew stays long enough for food to be required, Warren makes something from scratch and is invariably offended by Matthew’s complete lack of appreciation.

...

Look at me. Hey. Fucking look at me. 

1. Do they have many personalities/masks, or only a few?  I’m going to go with “only a few,” but I do want to make note that the masks he does have are extremely in-depth and high fidelity.

3. Is it important to them that others believe they’re being genuine? Very much so. Warren’s never been diagnosed (or even fully evaluated) but he’s trending somewhere around sociopathy, and depends on blending in with everyone around him in day-to-day life.

6. Do they put effort into maintaining and cultivating each version of themself, or do they go with the flow and adjust their behavior without reflecting on it? He puts a lot of effort into it. Especially when he was younger he had to more or less study the people around him to learn what acceptable behaviors and mannerisms were, and because of that mindset he quite literally classifies various traits into different roles.

7. When they see discrepancies in another character’s behavior, do they feel betrayed? Unsettled? This one’s a bit hard to answer. I’d say that he’s a bit taken aback, though he also intimately understands the need to act in specific ways around specific groups of people. On the other hand, he doesn’t spend a lot of time thinking deeply about the thoughts and motivations of others, because on some deep level he’s not convinced that anyone else is as real as he is.

8. Have they encountered problems in the past, regarding their own inconsistencies? Absolutely, especially when he was a child and teenager, and not as good at faking the masks he needed to be accepted by his classmates / teachers / mother. He semi-regularly wound up in detention, though “teacher’s pet” was one of the first roles he became skilled at, and he was never fully able to convince his mother of anything.

13. Do they more admire adaptability or authenticity? This one is also difficult, because again, he doesn’t put thought into other people like that. The honest answer is that if we’re talking about people other than him, he really doesn’t care so long as it doesn’t inconvenience him. For himself, he values his adaptability because it allows him to navigate and be successful in life, but he’s also quite egotistical, and values his own authentic self even higher. He just knows he needs to live within the confines of the rest of the world.

14. Pick a mask. What is its purpose? Can-I-Speak-To-Your-Manager, aka White Suburban Mom. Emphasis on the “white suburban,” it has nothing to do with children and everything to do with passive aggressive potlucks and filing anonymous complaints with the Home Owner’s Association because Karen’s husband blew leaves onto your share of the sidewalk. It’s purpose is ostensibly to fit in with his neighborhood, but it does also happen to wear very comfortably.