#character work

Working on Ralsies character sheet

"cliche question, boss. What are you really asking?" Rook turned from their canvas, dropping the brush in a glass jar of plum colored water.

Auron smirked. "Why legal work? You'd clearly enjoy something less tedious than all the contracts and emails I throw at you."

Rook sighed and reached for their glass on the small table beside them, half covered in paint tubes and brushes. "...it's reliable, decent money wherever I go with my experience. You certainly pay well."

"reliable the only reason?"

"...it made my family proud." They smiled. "Better than forensics."

Auron raised a brow. "Forensics science?"

When you have a character, it’s good to know the difference between what they want and what they need. Often, this advice is used so an author can make their characters choose between the two, and either punish them or reward them depending on their choice. That’s a really good practice and I absolutely think you should utilize it if it so fits your story, but let’s talk about those wants and needs, shall we?

If your character has any sort of sentience at all, odds are they want something. But how does what they want affect the plot, and how does it affect them?

oncnept art for my oc's childhood home

Because— we know that Damiano likes having power over people. Likes to display every ounce heavier his upper hand is than another person’s. He thrives on the work he does in the mines because it’s basically enrichment for a naughty mutt. And Spadaro is the kind of dog owner who laughs at his pet’s violent nature, calls it useful and almost endearing at times.

Damiano loves power. And he has the kind of job that employs this aberration to the maximum.

But demonstrating this while at work is one thing, while letting it be a part of his everyday life is another.

I don’t think Damiano has the ability to remove this like from a romantic relationship, much less a platonic one. And maybe the ladies he pays find it—kind of like how I mentioned Spadaro does—endearing and kind of sexy at first. ‘Oh wow, he really likes taking control of the situation! What a man!’ And so on and so forth.

But then they begin to realize it’s not a persona put in order so he can woo them. This man practically sucks the life out of them like a vampire for mental and emotional energy. He’s painfully specific and overbearing, frequently demeaning those around him in manners varying from mild to severe, and he almost always ends the night with at least one new confrontation/fight under his belt.

He’s good to his brother, of course, but I doubt he honestly knows how to show even Corrado normal affection and playfulness anymore and sometimes, that mean thing that makes up so much of him just slips out, and he says something less than kind, does something inconsiderate, or gets way too defensive and angry at his big brother.

It doesn’t help that a horrendous amount of guilt and shame and self loathing gnaws at him from the inside out after he does this— because Corrado is the only one he really feels bad for being unfair to, these days. He doesn’t know how to bare the consequences his own body and mind lay out for him as a result of his actions, when body and mind have only ever agreed with this behavior before.

L’Ombra doesn’t act like he cares much at all. Sure, he corrects, gives Damiano a nudge here and there to, ‘hey, get your shit together,’ but he’s known his brother all his life. He’s known him since the guy was just a bump in their mother’s stomach. He’s seen what he’s been through, how he’s handled it, and how he failed as a Dami’s big brother by not keeping him from becoming as destructive and unlovable as he is. Of course he understands when Damiano is frustrated and tired and unable to make the usual exception for his behavior.

He lets him know it’s ok, there’s no problem. They’re family, and they’re going to argue sometimes, what with loving each other as much as they both know they do.

Yes, Corrado Bastoni understands his brother. Without question. However, I believe he doesn’t quite relate to these feelings of Damiano’s, himself.

I believe he does his job well, intimidates and frightens people to do as told, as indentured. It’s thrilling to win a fight, to counter a display of disobedience. But Corrado mounts a horse to break it, make it drop its head and give. Damiano gets on for the sake of the ride. Digs his spurs in mid buck and yanks on the reins without purpose and takes.

L’Ombra doesn’t enjoy making men cower, nor does he feel intoxicated by the prospect of power. It’s gratifying, yes, but he can live without it, doesn’t need it to get most of his work done. In all honesty, it can bore and exasperate him, sometimes, watching his brother pick on literal minor miners. (Heheheheheheh)

Outside of work and underneath his title, he’s…kinder, in a sense. He still has that ominous look in his eyes that makes you think he’s plotting your doom specifically, but he’s approachable. Softer. This man is already relaxed and laid back—given things are running smoothly—whilst overseeing the mines, so it only makes sense that, without needing to appear intimidating and like he can beat the proper fuck out of you, that he would be more cooled down and normal (as much as someone from Shitezolfo can be).

I feel like he’d keep all of that out of a romantic relationship and a good bit out of platonic ones. He’d be soft and affable and the kind of guy to do that guiding-through-crowd-with-hands-on-lover’s-shoulders thing. There’s still a slight coldness to his demeanor, the kind that comes with years of death on his hands and in his memories, and no amount of calm ever really gets rid of the teasing he’s become so accustomed to with Damiano, causing this to bleed through the fine lines that separate dear affection and familial affection.

He still does horrible things. Has done horrible things. But sometimes it’s just easy to forget those facts, if only for a moment.

Damiano has a pretty enough face, with a pretty enough waist to match it, so, before the women of Collezolfo got tired of his soul-sucking and ruckus-causing ass, refusing to do business with him any longer, he was a frequenting customer.

Well, the idea of Corrado bedding woman after woman seems a little unlikely to begin with, but I also don’t think he would be inordinate if he could. Some of the girls get to talking with him and, to their utter bafflement, want to lie with the man. Pity is a powerful thing between brothers, though, so Corrado hardly ever stops by there, what with Damiano being unable to do so.

There’s fighting with him, yes, we can tell by the wraps around his arms and knuckles, but it’s rarely unnecessary. Coming out on top comes easy to a man of his stature. For a man nicknamed ‘The Shadow,’ he sure does car crash (hehehehehe) into a fight. Generous fella he is, he takes hits and returns them tenfold.

And he likes that for the same reason he finds satisfaction in his job. He gets to make a man go from angry and fighting and thrashing, to yielding, relenting, giving.

Something very similar occurs during negotiations or debates of some sorts…but it’s different. In Disgrazia, he begins to talk Enzo down, cooling as a dip for a red hot blade, hand going up to calm him, will him to settle. It’s hard to believe he would have shot if Cesare had gotten there an instant later. Because Corrado was reining Enzo in, pulling him down from his adrenaline high with a slow voice and deliberate words. You don’t throw a rope over a horse when it’s barely settled— not unless to want that same rope to flay your hand open.

Because as much as Corrado likes to make something give, it’s a special kind of thing when he can manage to make something lend itself over and let him touch it without biting…