For the obscure dnd asks - 1, 5, 6 and 21 for both Julian and Pepper! I want to hear all about them!
1. What does your character typically keep in their pockets?
Julian: Spare writing implements, the better to take impromptu field notes with. An adderstone, despite knowing that’s pure superstition and faerie-story and no substitute for truesight, but he’s read too many stories not to carry one with him in strange hope of needing it. Loose change. A little cloth to clean his glasses, which he always forgets in favour of cleaning them on his shirt.
Pepper: Stray beads and spare beads and twists of wire from projects incomplete, or as a reminder of an idea yet to be embarked upon. Replacement necklace clasps. A tiny spool of silvered thread in her dress-front pocket in case her clan braids need a touch-up. Hair-clips, probably.
5. How does your character express they’re comfortable?
Julian: Shutting up for once in his life. Julian’s the kind of person who tries to fill silences - he’s an awkward babbler, a rambler, a nervous commentator. A prolonged silence that Julian doesn’t move to fill is either deathly terrifying or so easy that he doesn’t feel the need. Also allowing himself to take up space with his body - Julian tends to occupy a very slim and vertical space, elbows tucked in, that does not overlap with that of another person. Casual physical contact or any kind of spreading-out suggests a significant degree of relaxation usually reserved for his family or Heather’s company.
Pepper: With other people this means lots of casual physical contact - more than usual: leaning, sitting on you, hair-braiding if you’ll let her, the full Gnomish works. She allows vulnerability without her usual giggly deflection, instead opening up with that 3AM At A Sleepover brand of candor. Pepper at ease is like....what you see from her the rest of the time, but somehow more genuine.
6. How does your character express that they’re uncomfortable?
Julian: Tighter-than-usual posture - he fidgets with his hands and glasses, clears his throat, his voice starts creeping upwards in his register if he’s really very ill-at-ease. The filler word percentage of his sentences rises. He starts drifting closer to Heather, if she’s available, or trying to catch her eye. (If not her, the nearest individual he can signal to with his eyes that hello, please notice that I am not enjoying this situation) Flight and fawn are Julian’s favoured responses to uncomfortable situations and it shows.
Pepper: Her face is very animated about her discomfort, as is the rest of her - every gnome worth their salt knows how to project a whole array of very meaningful full body grimaces, and she’s got a grimace for every situation. Pepper is queen of the Face Journey. If she’s actively disguising discomfort, it’s an excess of bubbliness, it’s slightly-too-chirpy excuses to leave, a disguise made of This-Is-Fine.
21. If they were a potion, what would it look like? (Color, glass shape, smell, etc.)
Julian: A small ceramic or earthenware jar decorated with floral motifs, stopped with a cork stopper. It’s full of a rich clear green potion with the consistency of sap, swirled through with tiny impossible flowers. It would smell like fresh-pressed cotton and fresh-cut grass, crushed herbs, and taste - in an odd but pleasant twist - like lemon sugar cookies.
Pepper: A tiny, round glass bottle with inlaid gold filigree adornments, a miniature charm bracelet wrapped about the neck for decoration. The potion itself is amber and glittering with flecks of gold inside, and glows with a flickering inner light. It smells sweetly, almost saccharine, but to drink it packs a surprising and liquor-like kick.
