Beautiful People-May

Occasionally, I write books, and occasionally they have characters in them. And very occasionally I like to share these characters with you all. Today I’m participating in the Beautiful People link-up, hosted by Cait@Paper Fury and Sky@Further Up and Further In. This is a link-up designed to help you and your readers get to know your characters a little better. There are ten or so questions to answer this month, but I’m only going to be answering five of them. However, as my current project, Snow, happens to have two main characters, we’ll be hearing both their answers for the questions.

Snow is a superhero retelling of the fairytale Snow White, starring Eric, a mutant with awesomely ice powers. He’s kind of a cool guy. His co-star is Nicola, five foot nothing with the awkward habit of sprouting a fishy tail every time she goes swimming. They’re radically different people, and ever so much fun to write about. And now you know the basics about these characters, on to the questions!

Do they get nightmares? If so, why or what of?

Eric does not get specific nightmares. He has plenty of problems to worry about during the day, including a murderous uncle and unfriendly allies, but sleep has always been a place where he can escape from his troubles, even for a little while.

Nicola on the other hand, dreams about her problems a lot. She has quite the troubled past, including a horrifying family life and shattered dreams to become a pro-surfer, and these traumatic events often come back to haunt her in her dreams.

Are they easily persuaded or do they need more proof?

Eric is very easily persuaded, which is why he ends up accidentally working for the wrong side for a while. Say anything to him with a serious face and he’ll probably believe you. Which makes his adorably naïve, but also terribly misled.

Nicola is very hard to persuade. She requires a bucket-load of proof before she’ll even consider believing you might be telling the truth. Getting her to trust strangers with shady pasts is a nigh on impossible task.

How do they handle a crisis?

Eric runs away. If it’s a problem, and it’s big, and he’s mixed up in it, chances are he’s going to try and run away from it as fast as humanly possible. Bravery is not his strong point unfortunately.

Nicola gets mad at it, then storms off and lets someone else deal with it. Not having the most logical mind, it’s very rare that she will stop to think a situation through and work out how to fix it.

Do they have a temper?

Eric can get angry, but he’s usually more worried about getting into trouble, or other people getting upset at him. Of course, if someone is being unreasonably mean to him, then he will definitely stand up for himself, but he’s more of cool character than anything else.

Nicola definitely has a temper. Her reaction to pretty much any situation she doesn’t like is to get angry. It’s like her defence mechanism. Combined with her breathtaking trust issues, she is one tough girl to get to know.

What things do they value most in life?

Eric values friends and family. Having lost his own family, who were a very close-knit unit when they were alive, he knows how important it is to keep the people you love close to you. He would do most things for the people he loves and who like him back.

Nicola values strength. She’s made it this far by being strong and independent, and she values people who have the strength to stay standing when times are bad. She especially values having the strength to stand up to your problems and find some way to overcome them, rather than burying your head in the sand or running away.

So there we have it, Eric and Nicola’s answers to the Beautiful People link-up questions. Which character interests you the most? Which one would you like to know more about, and what? Are you participating in this month’s Beautiful People? Link me to your post!