#kaisthewriter

I was tagged by @kaisthewriter and @oheoo and @greenhousewriting, thanks lovelies! <3

Three aesthetics for three tags 😘

JACKAL: rusted bolts, long showers, shaky fingers, oil and smoke, fog melting down the side of the mountain, pine trees stripped of their needles, stained jeans, split tires, dust, hammers, broken locks, gray rain, “fuck you”

VIKTOR: bullet casings, brandy, chipped shot glasses, callouses, black ink, white lies, stuffed animals missing their eyes, hot wind, muggy days, dry riverbanks, weighted dice, 777-jackpot!, ruined bullseyes, blackberries, blood, red sunrises, hope on the horizon, a collection of scars–“I am a hammer and I break as easily as I build”

AMARYLLIS: mint, tea leaves, mortar and pestle, rain, damp soil, sharp syringe, creamy smiles, hunting knives, tart berries, birdsong, laughter, startled deer, curious thoughts, wandering fingers, white bandages, mason jars, sweet smoke, “you’re safe with me”

I was tagged by @fdicenzo and @homesteadhorner, thanks lovelies! <3

For Eosophobia...

Bored after the apocalypse, Death spreads the rumor that a cure for Dawn--the engineered supervirus that destroyed the world--has been found in the Pacific Northwest and revels in the chaos, violence, and heartbreak that follows. 

I was tagged by the lovely @reining-in-the-fire-writing, thanks hon! 💖

Rules: Answer this question (and any previous questions you wish), and then tag as many or as few people as you feel like, between zero and infinity.

What is/are the most defining parts of your main character(s) appearance(s)? (Bonus points if there’s a story behind them or they have a direct connection to the character’s personality.)

Jackal considers his appearance to be simple, a drab overlay to match a drab interior--why bother with an expensive paint job if the insides are rotted?  With taupe skin, curly dark brown hair, a tall and lanky build, and gray eyes, Jackal optimistically believes that he has made himself boring enough to be ignored.

As Death so gladly reminds him, the world is not so easily duped...

"You stand small.  You surround yourself with bigger targets thinking it will keep you safe, that predators will desire you less.  But, my dear, this is simply not the truth--we desire you more for it.  You linger just out of reach, tantalizing, teasing.  You surround yourself with small predators and pray," he stops to chuckle, "you pray that their fangs will be enough to keep you safe.  It will never be.  The dark wants you, Kal, if only because you deny yourself your own nature of being a predator, because you are so desperate to avoid the inevitable."

The most defining part of Jackal's appearance is his gray eyes.  They're not startling, per se, but they're incredibly catching, and the surprising intensity of their color and gaze are impossible to forget.  Gray is incredibly fitting: Jackal sees the world in a million shades of gray, in all its smoke and fog, and tries so hard to blend in with it.  His philosophy, personality, and appearance all lend towards the same end: a monochromatic world, and the simple goal to survive it.

The eye color of my characters--especially the way and frequency with which they're described--is a great portrayal of who they are as a character.   It's usually subconscious on my part during drafting, but man, it makes itself really obvious whenever I edit.  Viktor is my infamous example: his eyes are mentioned constantly (you can tell I used to write fanfic), and they're a dry, calculating, blood-mud brown when he's sober--and a storming red-black ocean when he's drunk.  The constant mentioning of his eye color is used to suggest that he's emotional, whereas the rare but intense focus on Jackal's gray eyes gives away his apathetic and simultaneously instinctive state of being.