6. What's a subtle quirk your protag has? How do you convey it in your writing?
(specifically curious about what quirks daniel has in your mind but really you can pick any character and I'll love the answer)
Here are some quirks I think Daniel has, some of which I know you and @rainbowcarousels and others tend to agree. This turned out more like a list of headcanons, whoops:
The first one is not subtle at all and I know it’s one a lot of us tend to write for him, and that's the way he runs his hand through his hair or tugs at his hair when he’s agitated.
I also always picture him tapping his fingers against the leg of his jeans or pants, particularly when he’s impatient (like, say, when Armand is not answering him or he’s waiting for a towncar or something) and scratching his stubble when he’s mortal and has it. And sometimes even as a vampire, he scratches his chin like the stubble is still there.
He likes to jot things down. For example, things that come into his head or things he wants to look up, or something funny he overhears, even if his memory is probably vampire-good and he doesn’t necessarily need to write things down anymore. He usually carries a little notepad or notebook, like a small pocket sized one, in case he thinks of something he wants to write down. It comes from his journalism days, but also from when Armand was chasing him around and he wanted to write down some of the more fascinating things Armand said.
Daniel has always been distractible and he gets lost in thought. Sometimes he stares off into space while he’s going down some mental rabbit hole and doesn’t really notice things going on around him. After his bout with madness, this worries Armand, particularly after they first get back together, but it’s just Daniel mentally going over things.
Daniel leans. He leans in doorways and against the backs of sofas and on railings. If there’s something for him to lean on, he will typically lean against it.
He worries his lip when he's thinking. Chews on it when he's trying to work something out.
He can talk a lot when he’s excited. He’s a great listener and he knows how to ask good questions to provoke other people into talking, but if he’s on a roll or jazzed about something, he can definitely go off on a tangent with no room for anyone else to get a word in. Armand can usually stop him by putting a gentle hand on his shoulder. But god help the others when Daniel and Armand are both excited about something because they just feed each other’s chaos.
He loves listening to talk radio (podcasts, now, mostly) when he’s working on a project. Most of the Portuguese he learned came from listening to the radio while building his models.
Daniel gets groggy like a mortal when the sunrise starts to tug at his awareness, and he tends to yawn, get sleepy, and stumble around.
He has an oral fixation (insert blow job joke here). When he was mortal, that meant a lot of a mints stolen from bars and diners and cigarettes. Now he still has cigarettes, but has been known to have a toothpick in his mouth, or a straw if he’s in a bar or restaurant and pretending to drink.
I guess I incorporate them by having him do these things as they come up in fic, lol, I don't know. I know I have that guy running his hand through his hair way too much but it's definitely one of the habits I picture him having and he's agitated a lot.
