Character study #1: Character interview

~Choose 3 or more of your own original characters.
~Imagine they are in the same room together as they do these questions.
~No one but them, and you.
~Both you, and your characters are to answer.


Who -

LF: General Mischa, Admiral Leland, and Doctor Lorelei Tencha have agreed to grant me a brief interview with them.



# Where are you? Where is everyone sitting/standing?

LF: We're in their Family Housing unit on Venus; Doctor Tencha's sitting on a comfy couch. General Mischa and Admiral are sitting across and to either side of her, whilst I'm sitting directly across from the doctor, making a diamond, or square, where we can all see each other. There's a coffee table (excuse me, General Mischa, a chai table) in between, with hot cocoa and chai on it.


# Gender? Age? Height? Weight, if you please?

LF: For comparison, I'm a 23-year-old female, about 5'8", and about 145lbs. General Mischa?
General Mischa: (A brief sigh) Female, 19, 6', about 160lbs.

Dr. Tencha: I still can't beleive I'm older than you. (She blushes slightly, very obvious on her white skin) I'm female, 25, 5'8", and about 120lbs. It's the Madison's Syndrome; I can't gain weight.

Admiral Leland: (He gives her a reassuring smile) It's all right, Lori. I'm male, 19, 6'", and about 235lbs. It's all muscle.

GM: (Rolls her eyes a bit) And I'm sitting here all flabby? (She pats her stomach and Dr. Tencha covers a smile)

AL: I'll check for you later.

GM: I'll stab you.

DT: Do you see what I put up with? And they act so mature and professional in public . . . (She sighs and shakes her head)



# What is your favorite memory?

LF: My own favourite memory is actually whenever I see my mother, because we don't live near each other. Admiral?

AL: Meeting Mischa for the first time. Oh, what a brat she was --- and still is. She ambushed the convoy whilst we were going to visit her branch of the Family. I'm talking a rock slide, booby traps, war-paint . . . the works, and all by herself. We were three.

LF: Three years into your military training?

AL: That, too, but three years old. (He laughs at the look on my face) Family Members are bred for war, you know. We're genetically programmed for it. Mischa and I are the absolute pinnacle of that breeding.

LF: Oh. Of course. Ah, Doctor Tencha?

DT: Finding out that Mischa was alive, and would survive, after she took Batch Five of the H Serum. (She glares at Mischa, who has slowly been draining the life out of a plant by her chair. As the General looks up, the doctor raises her hand and the plant starts to renew itself)

GM: My favourite memory is too private to tell anyone; even the person or persons it involves. (Her eyes might seem a little haunted. I start to pry, but Admiral Leland gives me a warning look and I move on)


# Where are you from?

LF: All right. I was born in Utah, in the former United States of America, but I was raised in Fortuna, California, of the same region.

DT: I'm not sure how many thousands of years in the future we are ("Sorry," I mutter. "You'd better be," General Mischa mutters back. Dr. tencha ignores us), but I was born in the approximate area of what used to be India. I can't pin it down more than that.

AL: Mischa and I were both born in what used to be the island of Madagascar, before it merged with the African continent.

GM: Lemurs.


# What is the most interesting thing about you?

LF: Lemurs? (Admiral Leland shakes his head) Fascinating. All right, what would you say is the most interesting thing about you? I suppose that for me, it's that I've got such a variety of interests and hobbies.

GM: I hang around Leland; why I do it is the most interesting thing about me.

AL: She's serious, Mischa.

GM: So am I. (She finally smiles a little) I've taken nine batches of the H Serum in order to drive off the Benders for good. I'm bat-shit crazy, and still people care for me.

AL: (He smiles at Mischa, and it's a sad, wistful smile) I'm a source of strength for Mischa.

DT: (She, too, has a sad and wistful smile) I'm one of the best genetecists on Earth --- I mean, Venus --- and I've been privileged to become friends with Admiral Leland and General Mischa.


# Ask anyone else in the room a question!

GM: What's the recipe for Dr. Vu's mother's cream baklava?

DT: I don't know, and she won't tell me. Larissa, are you going to finish NaNoWriMo?

LF: I hope to gods I do. I think I will. I hope. Admiral Leland, are you really a slut?

AL: (Guffaws) I swear, I'm not.

GM: Yes, he is.

AL: She thinks anyone who has sex is a slut. Speaking of, why do you hate traditional [breeding] so much, Mischa?

GM: (Makes a face) I never said I hated it. I just . . . don't want to.

(Admiral Leland looks at her for a long time, then nods and turns back to me)


# Any wise words?

LF: Well, we're just about done. Other than "Never give your characters too much free will," what have you all got to say?

AL: If Mischa tells you she wants you to help her with something, and she's grinning, don't do it.

GM: There is no right decision; there's only the best decision. And there's no guarantee it won't keep you up at night, wondering if there was a better one you could have made.

DT: (She's watching General Mischa with a sorrowful look on her face) It's easy to die for someone. You don't have to do anything else. The truly difficult thing to do is to live for them, because then you admit that there's something greater than you, something you have to suffer for, something you would change your very soul for. That's the most difficult thing to do.


# Have anything to say to your creator?

LF: Mom, I love you. You're my best friend, and I'm glad you've finally found someone who makes you happy.

DT: Larissa, thank you for giving us the chance to be here.

GM: I want a happy ending, Larissa. Don't look guilty at me! I want a freaking happy ending!

AL: Ancestors, please tell me Mischa gets better in the next novel . . .