Friday Fiction: Character Building

Hmmm, quite a different challenge. I'll take a stab at it. And that line leads me into one of my favorite stories that I've listened to on Audible several times. That line is actually a spoiler. So, if you want to read or listen to the book, Still Missing, by Chevy Stevens, stop reading this. The story starts as a monologue of a client to a psychiatrist.

This story is about a female realtor who is abducted in broad daylight. She's locked in captivity with this deranged man who abuses her daily, in all ways. Imagine the mental breakdown of having your freedom to move taken away. Being in a small house with no way to get out. Having someone dictate your every move. Including when you could even go to the toilet! This female character blends her inner will to never give up fighting to get her freedom back, with putting on a convincing act of total compliance. She's brilliant in doing this. So much so that eventually this deranged guy lets her out of the cabin in the woods to help him render a deer he hunted, plant a garden and eventually - what led to his end, helping him split wood for burning in the fireplace. She keenly tunes in to the need to get the axe somehow. Her moment arrives. She catches him unaware of her proximity to the axe, out of his line of sight. She grabs the axe and buries it in his skull. Now, I don't believe or glorify hurting anyone!! But!! I do believe in self-defense.

The story doesn't end there. It has some of the craziest twists and turns that make the story un-putdownable. She learns that her own mother arranged the kidnapping in some strange money scheme that unfolds all wrong when the guy turns out to be a real, well, a real deranged piece of work.

She manages to play along with the detective who discovers this evil plan to a point. She shows her wonderful state of independence, and self-confidence when she decides to take her step-father aside and confront him. She convinces him to help entrap her mother. And boy, this is one mother from hell. So delusional she actually thought her daughter would help her after she was arrested. Well, this was one daughter who was not going to cower under anybody's attempt to control her. She walked away from her mother and never looked back.

I like this content, keep it coming.

I don’t have any texts on hand to quote from but after a bit of pondering, I landed on Ender Wiggin from Ender’s Game. This is written by Orson Scott Card (potentially my all time favorite fiction writer). He wrote another series called The Tales of Alvin Maker, Alvin being the main character. Maybe I’ll discuss them both.

Alvin is the youngest son in his family and throughout the story, he is discovering his knack or superpower. So his appearance is smaller and less significant than his older brother who are all defined by their names corresponding to their specific knack. Like his brother Calm, who can, just by being near someone, cause them to settle in temperament. Or Measure, who can accurately gauge the length of something from across the room.

Alvin overcomes a significant mental health challenge in the form of The UnMaker (Alvin is the Maker) who appears to undo Alvin in the most crucial moments. He also has to be shown quite viscerally how he had used his power for evil and how to instead use it for good. 11/10 recommend.

Ender Wiggin is described as a boy genius. I copied this from a website. Ender is the youngest of the three Wiggin children. Ender has the compassion of Valentine, his older sister, but he also has the ruthlessness of Peter, his older brother. Ender does not wish to cause harm to anyone, yet when he is confronted with a pack of students led by the bully Stilson, Ender knows what he has to do. At age six he beats Stilson to death, although he does not know it at the time. Ender can be a killer like his brother. But Ender hates himself for that quality. Other people put him in situations where his negative side emerges, but Ender always wishes for events to be resolved without violence. His compassion is his strongest trait, and it binds people to him; his ruthlessness wins their unswerving faith in him as a commander.

Ender could be seen as a victim, a brilliant child manipulated by adults into playing a game he never wanted to play, but such an explanation is too simplistic. Ender is brilliant enough to understand the manipulation and knows that it is necessary. In the same way that Graff manipulates Ender, Ender manipulates Bean while he is commander of Dragon Army. Ender is a child in name only, and he represents the best that a human being can be, given the context. There is no part of him that desires control, and when he has it, he wishes only to avoid the abuses that he sees others commit. But Ender learns that in life we are sometimes forced to play games that we would rather not play, and that sometimes winning must be second to nothing else. Still, he manages to retain his humanity and his compassion wins out in the end, as he sets out to repay his debt to the buggers. End quote.

Ender overcomes the pressure of the expectation of his leaders, which I consider to be a great mental health challenge.

@ouiCherie

Ah this seems fun. Well we can start with Kaz from the Grishaverse series. For this I'll focus on Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo. Don't read on if you don't want spoilers. Also, TW: talk of death and drugs

Kaz is a very complicated and mysterious character. He doesn't take anything from anyone and he plays his own game. He has a weird quirk where he won't let anyone touch him. He hates the contact of human skin. He wears gloves to protect himself. This is because his brother became sick when they were little and had nowhere to go. He had made friends with this guy named Hertzoon and lived there and did work for him with his brother Jordie. Hertzoon turned them away after the whole family "accidentally" contracted firepox. Kaz and Jorfie eventually catch firepox but Kaz survived it. His brother didn't. He had to drag his brothers body out of the river and into the Reapers Barge. That's where all the dead people go. This is why Kaz hates human skin. It reminds him of his brother. The skin thing seemed like a weird quirk but it was actually ptsd.

Fast forward to when Kaz is a grown adult. He owns his own gambling club called The Crow Club and he has friends. Nina, Inej, Jesper, Wylan, Mathiass, and Milo. Milo is a goat by the way 🤣. His main rival is Pekka Rollins. He owns the rich side of Ketterdam(the city they're in). Basically Pekka Rollins is always one step ahead of Kaz and he doesn't appreciate it. Well basically they go on this mission to stop the production of Jurda Parem. This is a drug that alters grisha power to do insane things. So if a fabrikator could mend a piece of fabric they may be able to mend a hole in the universe if they used the drug. Little do the Crows know that Pekka is also in on this because there is a prize for whoever finds the scientist who created it. So, they have to break into the most prestigious prison to grab the scientist and get back out before Pekka Rollins. Of course, they successfully do this but not without some bumps in the road. They cross Pekka Rollins on their way out and he drugs Nina with the drug. She is a Corporalnik. She can control the body to either kill or heal it. Luckily he locked her in a box so she couldn't hurt anyone. But the drug has a deadly withdrawal if not properly weaned off of it. So, they grab Nina out along with not the scientist, but the scientist's son. The scientist died a long time ago and they've been forcing him to work on an antidote. But not really because the Fejerdans wanted the formula to create a powerful grisha army to take over other countries. And not only that but you remember Pekka? Well you remember Hertzoon? They're the same exact person. So to tie this all in a knot Kaz gets revenge on Hertzoon by giving him the slowest and most painful death possible.

He does that with Nina's help. She survives the withdrawal but becomes a death whisperer essentially. They send Hertzoon to the Reapers Barge and she controls the dead to possess him with the spirits and they eventually kill him. And with that, Kaz burns his gloves. He overcame his ptsd yay!

@ouiCherie

This one is about an anime character that I like. A blonde pomeranian with an explosive personality. He stares at the world with either boredom or disdain. But if you look closely you can also see how impressed he is by the people around him. And if you truly listen to what he says, you can tell that deep down he cares about the people around him. You know he just wants them to succeed even if he sees himself on top. And hopefully one day he can say that he is the best with his best friend by his side.

Can you guess who it is.

@ouiCherie

Here's just a little something I came up with for this.

"Ricky!" The bartender, Joel, called out in surprise as I entered, leaning forward on the bar. It was more than a bar here. Kind of like a lair or a hideout. The strangely sweet smell contrasting with the faded wooden decor. A few unfamiliar faces were here, and I waved to them as they stared. I'd spent a lot of time here with friends, and I was looking forward to being back in my hometown.

I smiled at Joel, and held up two fingers. Joel shook his head and laughed as he set to work on making a double whiskey and coke for me. "Ricky, Ricky, it's been so long that I thought you forgot about us with your new big job. Don't do that to me."

"Meh, just needed a little something to forget about the view up top." I smirked at him and took my drink. They thought it was a new job, they didn't need to know. In fact, nobody knew.

"Comin' in here like that, giving me that. You know, I was hopin' you'd come back so I can give you a big attitude adjustment," Joel said darkly, hovering over me as I took a drink.

I set my drink down hard enough to make some noise. "Come adjust me then," I shouted back, letting my bangs fall to give him a death stare, as I rolled up my sleeves."

Everything in the bar was quiet and we stared at each other, poised to move.

Joel's eyes flickered to the side, and my mouth quivered. I stayed composed, but as soon as I saw his abdomen heave, I couldn't help but laugh and look at the shocked guests with him. They uncomfortably laughed back.

He tussled my hair, still grinning. "It's definitely been too long, you even look different."

It had been a few months. Honestly, he may have had a few more gray hairs, but I shouldn't look different on the surface. My hair was still dark and messy, I still had my average build, my leather jacket... But I was very different, and it was probably subtle mannerisms that were giving it away.

Ever since an encounter at the subway station, I was also living the life of another man. I'd lived the next few months as him, seeing through his eyes, experiencing the world through his body. It was jarring, coming back to my own body, and feeling like I'd gone back in time, though in fact I'd been living out the future. But I'd learned things from doing that... Things beyond anything I ever knew... And so much mystery attached to all of it...

Though there had been only one thing I knew tonight after finally coming back... I really, really needed a drink.

@ouiCherie I have to ask, does every character have to suffer so it comes out as a different person? Isn't it any plot where the character just got enought training and good sorounding to blossom in the absence of the repeating tragedy?