#wes lore

character development questions: hard mode

14. Does your character remember names or faces easier?

Used to be that it was a mix of both, but after he got his fancy government job where he meets a lot of big names (and reads a lot of names, both in paperwork and in his personal notes that he takes on others) that now he remembers people by name more.

24. How quick is your character to trust someone else?

Not very quick at all! Excruciating, even. He'd like to trust people, but he knows better than that. It takes a lot of time and a lot of patience. It's less 'having him gradually open up over time and talking about the darkest parts of his life' and more 'literally just hang out with him for a long time without an ulterior motive he can clock'.

...Of course, due to his eccentricities, actually coming across someone who is willing to put all this work in to getting on his good side after experiencing his character is very, very slim. (The funny part is that for Wes' world, he's actually extremely average there. Taking him out of the drastic situation he was placed in makes it seem like he isn't, but he's very average, I assure you.)

29. What did your character dream of being or doing as a child? Did that dream come true?

Surviving until he hit adulthood

No, really. The average life span has plummetted greatly in the extreme circumstances of Wes' home; you're lucky if you reach your 40s or even mid 30s. (When he calls himself 'old', it helps to keep this in mind.) This is something Wes came to know intimately through firsthand experience at a young age.

character development questions: hard mode

25. How quick is your character to suspect someone else? Does this change if they are close with that person?

Pretty quick, due to the circumstances he grew up in. It's common to see dirtied families dressed in rags and clinging to one another, begging for some kind of help from somebody, anybody. It's also common for it to end up being a farce. For every chance you take to be selfless you're also risking getting knocked out and waking up robbed blind...and that's the best case scenario.

That being said, Wes is kinder on average than your average desert scavenger, in part due to getting hired in such a high position and having faith in his skills to worm his way out of a bad situation. That doesn't mean he's naïve though.

Because of this, there's generally a belief that lingers in the back of his mind at all times that anyone is capable of betraying him, no matter how close he gets to them, no matter how heroic their intentions are. (Similarly, he applies this to himself with other people. It's the name of the game.) So there's always that lingering distrust—but he isn't immune to the disappointment and upset that follows when being betrayed by someone you do trust. When that does happen, he'll find himself slipping back into a defeatist 'well, that's just what happens' mindset to cope. He has an image he'd like to portray and there are things that must be done, so it just gets repressed and he's back to acting how he usually does.

35. How does your character behave around people they like?

Wes often dislikes sharing the more gruesome details of his life with strangers. It's a sign of weakness and he's used to thinking that everyone's gone through their own just as bad shit, so talking about it is feels like wallowing in the mud in the same spot for hours. This is all to say that when he does like someone enough to open up to them, these are the things about his life that he lets them glimpse at. Less in a 'my life sucks so bad bro it's so bad' and more 'life sucks, doesn't it! Let's go get a waffle' way.

Likewise, he's more prone to talking about his interests, particularly those that draw his curiosity. He doesn't really have a regard for boundaries in this sense and will openly speculate on other people, like the way their body may work in regards to the magically & sci-fi inclined. He'd get along well with a gossip because of this, I imagine. Or the mundane things he notices that he doesn't usually talk about out loud, like how even though the floor looks completely uniform you can tell this portion was replaced with limestone later on because of xyz factors.

Overall, same Wes, but he'll let you peek past the veil a bit.

45. What does your character believe will happen to them after they die? Does this belief scare them?

Nothing! The cold uncaring oblivion comes for us all... So you should make do with what you've got now! In a way, it's to cope with how his life turned out. He has a very complicated relationship with death; he's afraid of it, but he's accepted the inevitability of it. His belief that nothing happens after death is due to his scientific inclinations and because he takes comfort in the idea of being 'free' of all of your obligations, but this is similarly why he's afraid of it, especially over the idea of it happening too soon.

( mobile directory )

⇢ meet wes! once de facto, now (or once, still?) official leader of miscellaneous, a government assembled research team that consists of criminals (or villains, if you'd like). most of his coworkers want to kill him (and others)! and they also lacked a lot of morals! it's something new everyday.

⇢ greying at an early age; he's 27. it might have to do with his workload. and also that entire thing about his coworkers trying to kill him for sport.

⇢ was also pretty infamous in his early adult years as an outlaw, but he keeps on the down low about it. considers it like an embarrassing phase of his.

⇢ replaced his eye with a cybernetic eye, indicated through the blue bar-like lights that are in the iris. it's often hidden behind the thick lenses of his glasses. mainly used for zooming in on things like a camera. he likes to complain about the headaches it gives him so it seems like he uses it less than he actually does.

⇢ despite being the "best" in his group, wes is still a bit off himself. he's amiable, so it isn't immediately noticable, but it becomes evident later on that he treats a lot of people like specimen to be observed and picked apart. this doesn't mean he lacks the ability to connect with others; he can certainly like and dislike the people he comes across, but he's curious and nosy to an extreme degree

⇢ Knowledge Above All Else. knowledge is the seed which progress flourishes, something a post-apocalyptic world desperately needs. he isn't above stealing advanced tech to pick it apart for his own research purposes. likewise, he keeps a few journals at home filled front to back with his research notes—including his observations about other people.

⇢ little regard for the law. he comes from a lawless land. it's just the natural order of things.

⇢ technically specializes in multiple fields of science, but he says his specialty is robotics. this is because he is LAZY!

⇢ perpetually sitting backwards in a rolly chair

⇢ tldr: eccentric scientist is a tried and true trope and i am not immune.