#binderverse

[eirenical]

I just read through your binderverse tag and fell in love, if you ever feel like talking more about them please know you’d have a very willing reader!

*vibrates excitedly* NONNY.

Nonny~~~~~~~~

TT^TT

OMG, seriously, that means so much to me. ^_____^ I love these four with my entire heart and I feel like I've been letting them sit on a shelf untouched for quite some time. So I absolutely will GLADLY talk about them (...once I'm out of grading hell, that is). :D :D :D

Is there anything in particular you would like to know? ^_^

[uryufriend6]

i finally said something where my friends were like those are just words you’re not making any sense

so i watched Oppenheimer last night finally but my internet poisoned brain could only think “i think oppenheimer would be a transmasc nagito komaeda kinnie in the thomas jefferson miku binderverse”

[eirenical]

New book in the book press!  :D  Been a while, eh?  :D  I’m particularly pleased with how the stitching came out.  the blue thread looks really nice.  Now I’ll just have to find a good color cover paper to match it.  ^_^

Just... don’t ask what I went through to find my book press this morning, OK?  OK.

Of course, working on this has brought back to mind thoughts of my OCs for the first time in a while, so now I kind of want to do some work on that.  Hmmm...  MAYBE I WILL.  ;D

Side note: ALL MY INK SAMPLES AND MY NEW GLASS DIP PEN HAVE ARRIVED and I just spent like... an hour playing with them and I AM IN LOVE.  *_*

Not going to post pictures of ALL the inks, I tried, but here was my favorite of the bunch:

Diamine Jack Frost.  *_*

It’s a lovely turquoise with pink shading (yes, I know it looks more purple here, but trust me, it’s pink).  And I am OBSESSED.  I think I may need a full bottle of this one.  ^__________^

Anyway... how are you all doing on this lovely morning?  Any fun plans?  ^_^

[eirenical]

( @kingesstropolis in response to this post.)

OK, first of all, just the THOUGHT of you wanting to write fic for something I wrote has me squeaking and blushing and hiding my face.  So.  There’s that.  ;D

But yeah, if you’re picturing Braden like... climbing up a trellis and over a balcony railing and through the window of Declan’s bedroom?  

...I’m not saying that’s what happened, but yeah, that’s pretty much exactly what happened.  ;D

So, your brain is right on track with mine.  As usual.  XDDDD

[eirenical]

Because @kingesstropolis was kind enough to ask me several questions from the character solidifying meme, and I decided to answer all of them for all four of my central characters, I thought I’d break them up.  Otherwise, these would be very VERY long posts.  XD

If anyone else would like to ask me questions, I welcome them!  Adesina, Braden, and Declan are a poly trio (FxMxM), and Lehana is a younger woman who comes to them for help.

And… here’s the second question!

23. What do they want from a partner? What do they think and feel of sex?

OHOHOHOHO.  This is a fun one.  ;D

So… a bit of a preemptive explanation.  Because of certain aspects of this world (some of which I've figured out, some of which I'm still working on), if a person doesn't marry by the time they're 25 years old, they become kind of a ward of their family or their town or the state.  Same deal if they lose their spouse and are unable to remarry.  These laws originally came about for somewhat nefarious purposes and essentially remained in place because they were advantageous to this world's 1%/nobility and no one with power wanted to change it.

Adesina: So, we come to Adesina.  She is a bit of an unusual character for this world.  When Braden and Declan first meet her, she is older than 25 and still unwed. (They're in their very early 20s at the time.)  Her family is well aware of this and supports it.  She wants to see the world and doesn't want to settle on someone just because her age has forced the situation.  She wants to marry for love.  She wants to marry the right person, not just the nearest available one. She's looking for someone who will support her the way her family has, who will let her be herself and who will take on their share of the work.  She wants someone kind, someone gentle, and who appreciates a good story and even an intellectual pursuit here and there.  Between Braden and Declan, she finds everything she wants.  

As for sex, she's definitely a sex-positive character.  She's into it and she experienced enough to know what she likes, but she's also a little adventurous and willing to try new things. As long as everyone is happy and feeling good, she's down for it.  If I were trying to pin down her sexuality, I'd say she's bisexual but with a bit of a preference for men.  (…probably a good thing, since she ends up with two of them.  ;D)

Lehana: Lehana is aromantic and asexual.  She does not want a partner.  She does not need a partner.  She is just not at all interested in romance or sex or ANY of that.  She's never understood it and she doesn't want to. She doesn't understand how it seems to turn even the most sensible people around her into hormonal idiots.  And she resents like WHOA the fact that she'll have to marry by the time she's 25 (probably earlier, because alliance marriage) or risk losing her position, especially as she has designs on her mother's throne.  (Don't worry, her elder brother ALSO has designs to put Lehana on their mother's throne.  He has no desire to be heir, but he has even less desire to see Lehana put in the position of having to have a child when he knows she doesn't ever want to have sex.  It's… complicated.  But they're working on it.  :P)

Braden: Braden is… complicated.  And a bit spoilery.  So, I think I'll put his and Declan’s answers behind a cut, because they’re both related…

So, Braden is… ironically generally… pretty much straight?  Or at the very least, he's bisexual but with a strong preference for women.  Then thing is, though, that that hardly matters.  Because Braden has had a firm, solid crush on his best friend (Declan) since he was old enough to know what a crush WAS… and probably before then, too. So, his 'type' is pretty much soft and intellectual with a dry, occasionally biting wit, willing to let themself be taken care of (by Braden, of course), willing to let themselves be pampered (again, by Braden)… you get the idea.  ;D So, when he meets Adesina and starts to fall for her a little, too (and Declan, lord help all of us, does HIS level best to push them together when he figures out it's mutual OTZ), he kind of panics.  Because he loves Declan and he's only EVER loved Declan and now he thinks he might love Adesina and what is he supposed to DO.  Fortunately, Adesina has the brain cell that day and knows that there are loopholes in the marriage laws that allow three people to marry and once she gets Declan on board, everything works out to everyone's advantage.  ^_^

As for sex… gender kind of complicates things, so let’s talk about that, shall we?

Braden was born Kiera and AFAB.  Braden had known he was a man since he was pretty young.  And it didn't help that he never really fit into the gender role he was expected to fit, either, nor did he fit into the familial role as heir to a wealthy merchant family.  He was always more interested in physical pursuits than mental ones, and if he weren't his family's heir, he'd have taken himself off to sign up for the Guard the second he was legally allowed to do so.  The Captain of the Guard and her wife were always more mothers to him than his biological mother was, and they encouraged him where they could, but there was only so much they could do.  And he probably would have found a way to live and be true to himself as best he could, but Declan had a better idea.  The long and the short of it is that Declan found a way to use his magic to turn Braden into the man Braden always knew he was.  Before that transition sex was… not something that really appealed to Braden. There were a few experiments pre-transition that involved Declan and strap-ons, but there was so much concern about getting caught that neither was ever able to fully enjoy it as much as they could have.  Post transition, OTOH?  Oh.  Oh, Braden is INTO IT.  No more rushed adrenaline-laced couplings, no more dysphoria, and he is ready to make up for lost time.  ^_~

Declan: Declan… isn't looking for a partner.  It's the last thing on earth he wants, actually. Because of the way magic works on this world, he knows he's going to die young, younger than most, if he keeps pushing himself the way he's been doing.  He'll be lucky to see 35, much less 40.  So, because of the way the marriage laws are set up, the absolute LAST thing he wants is to put someone he loves in a position to become a ward of whatever government rules the place they end up settling in.  He's more willing to put himself in that position than anyone else.  To him, it's just not worth the risk.  BUT, if he had to pick someone… it would be Braden.  Hands down. Because…

Declan is demiromantic and asexual as FUCK.  Part of it is that he just honestly never really has the energy or opportunity to be attracted to anyone.  Part of it is natural inclination.  He just… doesn't really feel sexual attraction.  Towards the end of Braden's time as Kiera, he's willing to experiment with him a little, but that's really more because he knows Braden wants it and can't really go to (…nor does he WANT to go to) anyone else.  Which isn't to say that he doesn't enjoy the sex; he does! But left to his own devices, he would never have sought out that kind of relationship, nor does he ever really initiate sex on his own.  He ends up in a similar kind of arrangement with Adesina once they become a triad, but they're both careful not to overwhelm him with attention that he may not have the energy or desire for.

[eirenical]

Because @kingesstropolis was kind enough to ask me several questions from the character solidifying meme, and I decided to answer all of them for all four of my central characters, I thought I’d break them up.  Otherwise, these would be very VERY long posts.  XD

If anyone else would like to ask me questions, I welcome them!  Adesina, Braden, and Declan are a poly trio (FxMxM), and Lehana is a younger woman who comes to them for help.

And... here’s the second question!

11. How do they see themselves: as smart, as intelligent, uneducated?

Adesina: I don't think Adesina sees herself as intelligent in a classic way.  She was educated "on the job," so to speak?  She learned everything she needed to learn while doing it, and a lot of her people's histories are passed down orally by tradition, since storytelling is a good way to pass the time on long trips at sea or on land.  But she IS highly intelligent.  She has a mind like a steel trap, and she can suss out a lie from a mile away.  She's clever, even more than she's intelligent, if that makes sense.  She's very good at problem-solving and finding loopholes in arguments, and I'm thinking once the three of them settle down that one of her side jobs is offering legal advice for free.  But I think there's always going to be a part of her that feels she isn't as intelligent as she really is because she's lacking in that formal education and schooling.

Braden: Braden… Braden is highly educated—only child of landed wealthy merchants and all—but doesn't see himself as particularly intelligent, nor does he want to.  He's definitely the brawn of this operation.  No matter how hard his family pushed the books when he was younger, he pulled just as hard away in the direction of the captain of the guard. If it weren't for Declan helping him (and the captain convincing him that he could never join a proper guard company if he couldn't read his marching orders), he probably wouldn't have ever managed to learn to read.  Or write. Or do much of anything formal education-wise.  If we're going to dip into education, though, he DOES have high bodily-kinesthetic intelligence.  He's a very good fighter and a pretty decent strategist.  And though he enjoys a good story when Adesina or Declan can be convinced to share one, you generally won't catch him reading on his own.

Declan: (cribbing from a similar question I already answered once… ;D) Declan is intelligent, an intellectual, and very much book-smart. Due to having a magical gift that made him highly valuable, he led a relatively sheltered life.  Books were both his only escape from that life… and for an entirely different reason, the bane of his existence.  As a result, he spent much of his time with them, even as he resented them.  So, he learned a lot and significantly broadened his own horizons, but he never had a chance to run and play and engage with the world the way other children did.  That left a lot of his knowledge in the realm of the purely theoretical.  On some level, he very much resents his own intelligence, because he feels that—like the magical gift and the books it’s so wrapped up in—it’s the only thing for which he is valued.  And that magical gift he has is someday going to be the end of him.

Lehana: She's the second child of a ruling monarchy… she is highly, highly educated, and she knows it.  And flaunts it.  Whenever she has a chance.  She's gotten used to thinking of herself as the smartest person in the room, and the most clever.  She can debate circles around most of her mother's advisors by the time she's sixteen. She's well-read, she speaks several languages, and learned the art of diplomacy at her mother's knee.  It's a bit of a novelty for her when she meets Adesina and Declan, because they're definitely at least a match for her in that department.  Sometimes she'll start arguments with one of them just for fun.  Adesina will indulge her, but only to a point, but if she can get Declan going, he'll debate her all afternoon just because a) he can and b) they both enjoy it.

[eirenical]

Because @kingesstropolis was kind enough to ask me several questions from the character solidifying meme, and I decided to answer all of them for all four of my central characters, I thought I’d break them up.  Otherwise, this would be a very VERY long post.  XD

If anyone else would like to ask me questions, I welcome them!  Adesina, Braden, and Declan are a poly trio (FxMxM), and Lehana is a younger woman who comes to them for help.

So, let’s go!

5. Were they overprotected as a child? Sheltered?

Adesina: Adesina was born to a trading family and has been journeying with them since she was very young.  That instilled a certain sense of freedom and independence in her from the beginning.  So, no, I wouldn't say she was particularly sheltered or overprotected.  She has a caring family who is supportive of her dreams and abilities, protective when needed but not overly so.  She's probably the most well-adjusted of all my characters in this series, now that I think about it.  ;D

Braden: Braden was also born the only child of a merchant family.  So, in some respects he had a similar amount of freedom as Adesina, but being the heir to a landed, rich family, he was a bit more sheltered.  His family was nowhere near as supportive of him as Adesina's and was definitely the type to restrict freedom and deny support as punishment for not fitting the mold, but Braden has always been headstrong and found his way around those restrictions whenever necessary.

Declan: Declan was EXTREMELY overprotected as a child.  Due to having a magical gift that made him highly valuable, he led a relatively sheltered life.  He was never really allowed to run around outside with the other children and only really allowed outside in the company of a guardian, lest someone try to steal him away.  Fortunately, he had Braden who, as mentioned, finds his way around restrictions whenever necessary.  So, even when Declan couldn't go OUT, Braden would find a way IN.  He also got pretty good at sneaking Declan out of the house whenever he wanted, and that came in pretty useful when they both eventually made a break for it.

Lehana: Lehana was born the second child of royalty.  In many ways that left her almost as sheltered as Declan, but in many others almost as free as Adesina.  Being the second heir, she had a certain amount of choice in the path her life took that her older brother didn't, but she was also given a level of responsibility that most children her age didn't have.  She's the second most well-adjusted of the bunch, really.  Don't get me wrong: she's pampered and protected and spoiled and generally used to getting her own way, but she takes her responsibility to her people very, VERY seriously, and that helps to balance it out somewhat.  She's also the youngest of the bunch when the story starts, being only 18.  The others are in their mid-late 30s in comparison.

[eirenical]

For the prompt meme, 12 or 18 (or both—both is good) for your bindverse! (I can’t recall anyone’s names so feel free to choose your own character combo!)

OMG, @kingesstropolis, you woke a monster.  ;D So, for anyone curious, this snippet of story comes from an original fiction universe I’ve been picking at for a few years.  There’s a LOT going on behind this scene, and it happens relatively late in what would be the first book of the trilogy.  But I think it can stand on its own?  If you have any questions, though, FEEL FREE TO ASK.  PLEASE.  I’d love to talk about these guys more.  ^_^

things you said when you thought iwas asleep & things you said when you were scared (binderverse)

“He doesn’t have much time left,does he?”

Lehana’s voice.  Hesitant. Young.  All but breathless.  It penetrated the fog Declan had been lost infor the past who-knew-how-long as little else would have.

“No.  No, he doesn’t.”

Adesina’s voice, this time.  Soft. Firm.  Accompanied by the touch ofgentle fingers running through his hair. Declan would have given almost anything to have the energy in that momentto reach up, to catch those fingers, to offer some words of reassurance, somedenial… but he didn’t.  This morning’sworking had seen to that.  He barely hadthe energy to follow the conversation.

“We’ll think of something.  We’ll find something.  We can’t give up hope yet.  We can’t.”

The surface Declan was lying onshifted with those words.  Braedon.  Reaching out to catch Adesina’s restless handwhen Declan couldn’t, even as his other arm tightened around Declan, refusingto let go of either of them, no matter how difficult it was to hold on.  That was Braedon, through and through.

Adesina jerked her hand out of Braedon’shold—the reverberation of that movement causing Braedon to tighten his gripeven further.  Declan was going to havebruises where Braedon’s fingers had dug into his side.  Not that it mattered.  He’d be beyond petty concerns like bruises soonenough.  Adesina’s footsteps echoed in theworkshop as she began pacing, fading as she walked away, creaking louder as shereturned, until she stopped.  “I’ve hadenough of false hope.  Because that’s allwe’ve found, Braedon.  In fifteen yearsof trying, there’s been no real cure, no real hope of a cure, even.  This is how it ends.  This is how it always ends for aBinder.  You know that.  He knows that.  We all know that.  And every second you spend away from himlooking for a cure that doesn’t exist is one more second you won’t have withhim before the end.  Is that what youwant?  Is that what you want for him?”

“No.”  Declan’s chest ached, his heart skipping severalbeats—beats it could ill afford to skip when he had so precious few left—at theway that single syllable was all but dragged, limping and broken, from Braedon’sthroat.  Braedon’s hold shifted, pulling Declancloser as Braedon’s head dropped to burrow into his neck.  Braedon’s next words were muffled, but spoken so closeto his ear, Declan heard them loud and clear. “This can’t be it.  You can’tleave me.  Not yet.  We were supposed to have more time.”

They were.  By all the Powers Above and Below, they were.  Braedon was right about that, more right thanhe knew.  They should have had moretime.  Ten years more.  Twenty years more.  Possibly as many as thirty.  But Declan had sacrificed those extra yearslong ago, when he was too young to understand what that would mean twenty yearshence.  But he’d done it to save the lifeof the person he’d loved best in the world… he’d done it for Braedon.  A simple truth that would break Braedon completely if he even suspected it.  So, Declan would take that secret to thegrave.

Finally able to dredge up enoughenergy to do more than lie in Braedon’s arms like a wet dishrag, Declan priedhis eyes open, stretched out his hand to touch Braedon’s leg.  Braedon’s head came up like a shot, one handloosing its desperate hold on Declan’s body to touch his face instead.  A touch so soft, so hesitant, that had Declanhad the energy, he’d have wept on contact.

Seconds later, Adesina had droppedback down beside them, her hand cupping Declan’s other cheek as though, betweenthey two, Braedon and Adesina could hold him to this life by sheer force ofwill.  

If only that were so.

It was Lehana who broke up themoment, her voice sharp and quick as a whip lash.  “Would you two back off?  He can barely breathe for all your hovering,much less speak!”

As quickly as they’d converged,both Braedon and Adesina let go, stung into doing exactly what Lehana had askedfrom the force of her words alone.  A smilelifted the corner of Declan’s lips.  Thatwas exactly why this was going to work. That was exactly why he’d been willing to spend what little remained ofhis life and power on Lehana’s commission. Because maybe, just maybe, in so doing, he could make the rest of theworld listen to her, too.

Declan touched Braedon and Adesina’sfaces in turn, offering each a softer version of the smile that Lehana’swords had prompted.  Then he reached outfor Lehana’s hand.  “That’s enough restfor now, I think.  Shall we get back towork?”

And even as Braedon and Adesina eruptedinto protests around them, Lehana’s lips were lifting into a smile to matchDeclan’s own.  Reaching for his otherhand, she pulled him to his feet.  Andeven though he swayed, still far from steady, with her help, it wasenough.  As for time… he might not havemuch, but with Lehana’s help, Declan thought he might just have enough of that,too.

[eirenical]

kingesstropolis reblogged your post: “For the prompt meme, 12 or 18 (or both—both is good) for your...”

#you guys#my friend wrote a thing#an original thing!#and she shared it on tumblr which is hard and scary#and the thing is full of FEELINGS#and the thing is full of people who love each other#WHO TRAGICALLY LOVE EACH OTHER#and you should all roll around in the feelings with me#(and then go bug eirenical for more)#(she responds very well to excited babble jsyk)

OMG, @kingesstropolis.  ^______^  THANK YOU.  Not just a reblog, but a reblog WITH TAGS???  You totally made my morning!  XD

I am glad you liked it!  Especially as writing this got ME having all the feelings TOO, and what I’m saying is that I may have spent an hour in bed this morning just... looking up how to make paper from scratch because RESEARCH.  So.  ;D  THANK YOU FOR GETTING ME THINKING ABOUT THEM AGAIN.

[eirenical]

17 and 25 for the poly trio?

THANK YOU, @fixaidea!  ^_^  I love having the opportunity to babble aboutthese three and it has been WAY TOO LONG.  ^_______^

If anyone else wants to ask questions, here is the meme, and here are the characters: Adesina, Braedon, and Declan (a poly trio), and Lehana (a young princess who comes to Declan for help).

17. Did they travel? Where? Why? When?

The answer is “yes” for all three of them, and actually formuch the same reasons, initially.

Adesina:  AmongAdesina’s people, curiosity is encouraged, as is openness to new ideas.  Upon reaching their age of majority, it iscommon for the young adults of her people to take a year or several years totravel, to see the world.  They areencouraged to try new things, to meet new people, to gain some life experienceunder their belt.  Sometimes those yearsof travel turn into settling elsewhere, if they find someone or something thatattracts their fancy.  Sometimes it doesn’t,and they return home richer in experience to find partners and occupations athome.  It was during this journeyingperiod that she met Braedon and Declan and ended up settling down withthem.  Now that she has the shop to run,she doesn’t tend to travel much, except locally.

Braedon: Braedon is the most experienced and frequenttraveler of the bunch.  As a child, Braedonwas the only child and heir to the wealthiest merchant family in town.  They traveled often, several times a year, tothe bigger cities and occasionally even out of the country.  Braedon generally went with them on thesetrips.  When he reached his 18thbirthday… things happened (spoilery things), and he and Declan were forced toflee their hometown in the middle of the night. Eventually they caught a ride with Adesina’s caravan, and we all knowhow that ended.  ^_~  Of the three of them, Braedon is really the onlyone who still travels any distance.  Hemakes his living as a caravan guard, so if he hires on for a week or a month or(rarely) a whole season, he goes wherever they go.  He also uses this travel time to researchways that he might help Declan survive the curse of his own magicalpowers.  He hasn’t yet had any success,but that doesn’t stop him from hoping that the next trip he’ll meet someone orfind something that will have an answer for him.

Declan: Declan, on the other hand, was sheltered in the extremeas a child.  He became a ward of the villagefairly young, after his parents died under… somewhat mysterious circumstances,and he was barely allowed to play rough sports, much less travel out oftown.  His first (and last) major bit oftravel was that trip with Braedon, fleeing their home village when they turned18.

25. What are their hobbies and interests?

Adesina: Adesina likes working with her hands.  In that way, she and Declan are very much alike.  She enjoys knotwork (think macramé),especially, which had been popular in her hometown when she was a child.  She finds it soothing, having something to dowith her hands while she sits otherwise idle. It’s actually how the shop she runs (which started out life as a generalstore/bookbindery) became more of a bookbindery/specialties and artists’shop.  She was sitting behind the counterone day, messing around with some knotwork, just keeping her hands busy, when acustomer admired the piece and asked what such a craft would go for.  So, her hobby ended up becoming more of abusiness.  Now her hobby/interests alsoinclude searching the nearby area for other independent artists who could use amore public venue to sell their wares, recruiting them to sell on consignmentthrough her store.

Braedon: When Braedon was a child, he was being raised totake over the family merchant business—something which he had no talent for orinterest in—and fled as often as he could for the Weaponmaster’s training yard.  He was good at the fighting arts, at strategyand tactics, and he had a passion for anything that involved physicality, thatcould take him out of his head and out of his body into a world of puremovement and instinct.  Even though henow has an entire career as outlet for that particular need, his hobbies—when hehas the time to indulge them—still run along the same lines.  Rock climbing.  Martial arts. Running.  He loves anything thatrequires full-blown physical and mental effort from him, things that take himout of himself and out of the trap that’s been slowly closing around his bestfriend (now husband) since the day he was born.

Declan: As I said, he was never able to really rough andtumble around with the other children in his village, so he learned quickly tofind hobbies that were safe, quiet, wouldn’t call attention to him, and that isa habit that carried through until adulthood. (Of course, now that he’s deteriorating, there are more practicalreasons for sticking with quiet hobbies, but that’s another story, altogether.  :P)  Mostlyhe likes to read, to sit quietly with his thoughts and his imagination.  Sometimes he writes.  Sometimes he draws.  And, of course, there are all the necessary artsof his chosen trade to keep him occupied, as well: leatherwork, paper crafting,and so forth.

[eirenical]

Dream AU, and Headcanon and Who You Wish Would Write It?:D

(Here is the meme. ^_^)

Again, assuming LM as the fandom in question…

Dream AU: OMG, just take a look through my plot bunnies or imagine your otp tags.  XD  (...I did not just waste 20 minutes gazing fondly through those tags, no sire, I did not, and even if I did, you can’t prove anything.  -.-;;;)  Seriously, I don’t have a SINGLE Dream AU, I have like... a hundred.  OTZ

BUT, the one I kind of really want to write is actually a reincarnation-ish AU of an original fic world of my own... so it will make very little sense to pretty much everyone (except maybe @kingesstropolis?), but basically Courfeyrac is Declan--not reincarnated, he’s just still alive--and Enjolras is Lehana reincarnated and Marius and Cosette are Braden and Adesina reincarnated, and I realize that probably makes no sense to you, but here we are.  OTZ  SORRY.

As for headcanon... I’m kind of in the same boat.  I have so many and _I_ want to write them all, but I HAVE NO TIME.  *cries*

...I realize these are very much cop-out answers.  SORRY, PILF.

[eirenical]

Poly trio, 16 and 26 please?

AH.  THOSE ARE GOODONES.  ESPECIALLY THAT FIRST ONE.  THANK YOU. ^____________^

(If anyone else would like to send me questions, feel free! The characters are Declan, Braden, and Adesina (a poly trio), and Lehana (aprincess who comes to them for help).

16. What does your character do for a living? How do theysee their profession? What do they like about it? Dislike?

Braden:Braden is a caravan guard.  He loveshaving the opportunity to put his skills to use, to protect people.  It’s a good outlet for him, being able toprotect people he actually canprotect.  It also gives him anopportunity to travel, something he’s loved since he was young.  It was the one good thing about being born toa merchant family.  They were alwaystraveling to other towns, even to the big cities, and Braden got a taste for ityoung, even if he never developed a taste for the rest of the merchantlife.  He also loves that it gives him theopportunity to meet new people, to talk to them.  For most of his life, his best friend, nowhis husband, has been living under a death sentence thanks to his magical gift,and though Declan has long been resigned to that, Braden refuses to giveup.  He keeps thinking that if he justtravels to one more new place, talks to one more new person, someone will have to know something thatwill help him save Declan’s life.  Ofcourse, that’s the downside, too.  Hisjob often takes Braden away from home. And since his time with Declan is already going to be cut short, hehates that his job forces him to cut it shorter still.

Adesina:Adesina runs the shop.  Mostly they sellbooks—blank books, ledgers, notepads, loose paper, handwritten books, a fewprinted books from the capital where the big presses are—but they also sellwriting supplies, pens, pencils, quills, inks, and the like, and basicsupplies, as well.  She sells works fromlocal artists on consignment and has been known to stock whatever strikes heras something that will sell well.  Everyonelaughed when she started carrying honey candy that one of the local beekeepersmade, but it quickly became one of the best-selling products in the store.  She’s always had an eye for things like that—thingsof value—both in product and in people. And she’s a talented salesperson, too. She inspires confidence and trust. Her suppliers trust her, and her clients trust her, too.  And, she loves what she does.  She loves providing space for independent artistswithout patrons to make a living.  Sheloves bringing brightness and beauty and life to the small city she livesin.  She loves people.  There really isn’t much that she doesn’t loveabout her job… except when a client comes in looking for something that isn’talready on the shelf.  Something thatwill have to be commissioned.  A clientfor Declan…

Declan:Declan is a Binder.  This is both who heis and what he does.  He binds books—mostof the blank ones, as well as the handwritten ones, are his work.  He also does book repairs.  This is the easier part of his job and, byfar, the less risky.  But a Binder isn’tan ordinary bookbinder.  There’s more toit than that.  By Binding magic into the booksthat they make, they enable people to change reality.  This can mean anything from helping a girlfind her lost dog to rewriting the entire story of a person’s life to rewritingthe fate of an entire town or country. The greater the magic, the greater the price… to the Binder.  For every magical work a Binder does, theypay for it in time.  A scribbled note tohelp a girl find her lost dog?  Maybethat will cost an hour.  An eight pagesignature detailing a rise in business or an increase in the output of a farmmight cost a week or even a month.  Afull volume could easily cost him a year or more.

But just as using his magic comes with a price, so, too,does not using it.  Humans were never meantto wield magic.  Many years ago, a groupof ambitious people set out to change that, to harness magic in such a way thathumans could use it without burning themselves to a cinder.  They planned to channel the magic through oneof their number, assuring her that the very nature of the spell would protecther, allowing her to channel that magic safely. They lied.  They had set her up asa sacrificial lamb, knowing that she would burn herself out in the casting.  She found out and altered the spell.  The outcome was this: all Bound magic comeswith a price, shortening each Binder’s lifespan as they use it.  To refuse to release the magic Bound into one’sbody will result in the magic burning one up from within.  No Binder can use magic without channeling itthrough the written medium.  To do so wouldburn them out even faster.

And so Declan, like all Binders, is caught in a perpetualconundrum: to use just enough magic to release the pent-up pressure of itinside their bodies without using so much that they trade away their entire lifespan on frivolous things.  Most Binderstake only small commissions, weighing and measuring each in a complex cost-benefitanalysis before agreeing to take it on. Many people have running water, cold rooms for food storage, and waterheaters in their homes thanks to small commissions like this.  In the bigger cities, there are even rumorsof carriages that run on Binder magic instead of having to be pulled by horsesand other wonderous inventions.

Declan doesn’t weigh and measure his magic quite socarefully.  Instead he measures by a differentscale.  If he’s going to burn himselfout, he’s going to do it helping as many people as he can… and that is why Adesinadreads so much sending clients his way and will sometimes turn them away whenshe thinks they may ask for too much, and it’s also why Braden risks spending somuch time away from home looking for a cure—both are desperate to do whateverthey can to save Declan from himself.

26. What does your character’s home look like? Personaltaste? Clothing? Hair? Appearance?

Well, they all live together, so that first question is abit easier.  ^_~  They live above Adesina’s shop.  It’s a modest apartment, but it’s large bysmall city standards.  (When a town or asmaller city manages to attract a Binder, they tend to throw the choice realestate their way in the hopes of convincing them to stay.)  Downstairs holds the shop and the stockroom.  Declan’s workshop is in the back and opens intothe walled-in back garden.  It has itsown staircase to the upper floors, as well. There are three floors above the shop. The second floor has most of the communal living space—the dining room,the kitchen, and a room for entertaining. The third floor has two bedrooms—the triad’s room and a guest room— and amore private communal room, and the fourth floor is an attic with a thirdbedroom and its own washroom.  It alsohas its own staircase down to the main level that leads down to the back garden.  When Declan is having a bad night, or hasbeen working late, he’ll sometimes spend the night up there so he won’t disturbBraden and Adesina.

As for clothing, hair, and appearance… I hate to pull thecop-out answer, but I just got a work incident dumped in my lap that I’m goingto have to go in early to deal with, and I don’t have that entirely sorted yet,because those are usually the last things I think about.  -.-;;; I will come back to this one later, if I get it sorted, though!

[eirenical]

Adesina and Lehana, 6, 11 and 30?

THANK YOU.  I washoping someone would give me a chance to talk about them.  ^____________^

(If anyone else would like to send me questions, feel free! The characters are Declan, Braden, and Adesina (a poly trio), and Lehana (aprincess who comes to them for help).

(Previous answers can be found here.)

6. Did they feel rejection or affection as a child?

Adesina:I’d have to say that for Adesina, it was a mixture of both.  Her family loved her, and she never wantedfor anything, materially, but she wanted something different for her life thanher parents wanted for her.  As such,they clashed more and more often as Adesina grew older.  She wanted to see the world, to go off andhave adventures on her own before settling down.  In many ways, her story parallels Braden’s,actually.  The difference is that whenshe told her parents that she would never be happy with the life that had beenlaid out for her and she wanted to find happiness on her own terms, theyultimately supported that, and they let her go.

Lehana:Lehana grew up a pampered (perhaps one might even say spoiled) princess.  A middle child sandwiched between twobrothers, she was the darling of her family, the jewel of her kingdom.  Affection doesn’t even begin to cover it.  Everyoneloves her.  She’s their equivalent of a Disneyprincess.  ;D  And she was content with that role for a verylong time.  That changed as she gotolder, however, and certain truths about herself and her brothers came tolight.  At that point, she began tryingto buck the system.  She refused to acceptthat only the eldest could inherit, and that all who would be citizens must marryby their 21st birthday or relinquish their right to citizenship andself-determination.  When she started talkingabout such things, trying to win people over to her cause, it confused people—herparents, in particular—but even so, none of that affection faded.  She was still their princess, still beloved.

11. How do they see themselves: as smart, as intelligent,uneducated?

Adesina:Adesina thinks that she’s clever, but not particularly well educated.  Her family are traders and they don’t tend tosettle down long in any one place, certainly not long enough for formalschooling.  She knows plenty about how tomake her way in the world, how to survive in the long stretches of wildernesswhere towns and supplies are scarce, how to look out for herself andothers.  She can read and write and dosums, but her knowledge is mostly of a practical bent, so she doesn’t seeherself as any kind of a great thinker or particularly educated.

Lehana:Lehana, on the other hand, had the best education money could buy.  She knows that she is well-educated; sheknows she is intelligent; she knows she is smart.  Though she is innocent in the ways of theworld, having led a very sheltered life until now, she has complete and utterfaith that she can think her way through any difficult situation she might findherself in.  And, up until now, that hasproved to be true.  Her intelligence isone of her greatest assets, something that would have been of great use to heras her elder brother’s advisor, where it not for the fact that she (and he) hadvery different plans for how she should use her more than capable brain.  ^_~

30. Are they holding on to something in the past? Can he orshe forgive?

Adesina:Honestly, not really?  As I mentioned,her parents might not have understood her, but they did everything they couldto support her regardless.  She thinksthat the marriage laws are generally unfair, but since she ended up in theenviable position of being able to have her cake and eat it too on that score,she’s generally let that one go.

Lehana:Oh, boy, is she ever.  And forgiveness…?  Our dear princess can hold a grudge likethere’s no tomorrow.  Part of that isjust her personality.  Part of it is thatshe’s young, not quite 18.  Her emotionsrun hot, her anger burns long, and there are two things that have happened inher past that she can’t quite forgive: that she had the bad luck to be bornsecond and that her father wasn’t willing to bend the laws of the kingdom toallow her brother to step aside in her favor. She doesn’t understand why, if both she and her brother want it, it can’tbe done.

[eirenical]

Ayyy for the character solidlifying thing 10, 20, 30, 40, and 50 for Declan?

First of all, thank you for asking!  :D  I’mhonestly pretty excited to get to talk about these guys, and Declan was the firstcharacter to form out of this universe, so that’s pretty exciting, too. ^_^  And, WHOO, apparently I’ve just been looking for an excuse to babble about this ‘verse, and I think you got more than what you bargained for.  ;D

(If anyone else would like to send me questions, feel free!  The characters are Declan, Braden, and Adesina (a poly trio), and Lehana (a princess who comes to them for help).

10. Is your character street-smart, book-smart, intelligent,intellectual, slow-witted?

Declan is intelligent, an intellectual, and very muchbook-smart.  Due to having a magical giftthat made him highly valuable, he led a relatively sheltered life.  Books were both his only escape from thatlife… and for an entirely different reason, the bane of his existence.  As a result, he spent much of his time withthem, even as he resented them.  So, helearned a lot and significantly broadened his own horizons, but he never had achance to run and play and engage with the world the way other children did.  That left a lot of his knowledge in the realmof the purely theoretical.  On somelevel, he very much resents his own intelligence, because he feels that—like themagical gift and the books it’s so wrapped up in—it’s the only thing for whichhe is valued.  And that magical gift hehas is someday going to be the end of him.

30. Are they holding on to something in the past? Can he orshe forgive?

Very much so.  Heholds a serious grudge against the people of his hometown—not so much on hisown behalf—but on Braden’s.  The price Declanpaid to get them both free of that place was a steep one and, because of it,neither of them will ever truly be free to be happy.  And he resents the hell out of the people oftheir hometown for having forced him to make that decision in the first place.

40. How is their sense of humor? Do they have one?

Oh, yes.  Declan has asense of humor.  It’s dry and biting andoften self-directed, but he has one.

50. What are the prevailing facial expressions? Sour?Cheerful? Dominating?

Sad.  Melancholy.  On the surface, Declan has everything hecould ever possibly want in love.  Heshares his life and heart with two amazing people.  They have everything they could ever need materially.  They have autonomy and fulfilling work.  But like all Binders, Declan has been livingunder a death sentence since the day he was born.  And thanks to the events I’m going to discussin answer to your next question… he has even less time than most.  He isn’t sad on his own behalf, though.  He’s known he was going to die before histime since the day he first understood what his gift meant.  He’s sad on Braden and Adesina’s behalf.  He tried to free Braden when they were young,tried to release him to seek someone else, someone he could keep for life.  He tried again when they met Adesina, thoughtthey would be happy alone with each other, but neither was willing to let himgo.  So, he knows that they’re going tolose him someday, and he knows they’re going to lose him sooner than either ofthem thinks they will, so that reality is never far from his mind.  It weighs heavily on him, and it shows in hisfacial expressions.

20. What were the most deeply impressive political orsocial, national or international, events that they experienced?

Hmm… that’s actually a hard one to get into without gettinginto serious spoiler territory.  Because overthe course of this trilogy, he and Braden, Adesina, and Lehana are going to beVERY involved in changing the sociopolitical face of the entire country.  But… like I said… spoilers.  -.-;;; So, I’m going to put the rest of this behind a cut.  ^_^

Apart from those events, the biggest social event he experiencedwas at the local level (his own hometown), and it involved Braden, one of thetwo members of his triad.  The firstthing you need to know is that Braden wasn’t born Braden.  He was born Kiera.  Kiera and Declan were best friends with veryopposite problems.  Just as Declan wouldhave loved a chance to play outdoors or even just have an opportunity to sit inthe fields or surrounding forests unsupervised, Kiera was forever seeking escapefrom her indoor chores to go out to play. She learned tracking and hunting from by spending time alone in the woods(and a lot of trial and error).  She learnedweapons and fighting and strategy by persuading the retired arm’s master to teachher.  She hadn’t the patience for most indoorpursuits, but she was truly gifted when it came to most physical skills.

Normally, this wouldn’t have been a problem. Unfortunately, shewas her parents’ only heir.  Apprenticingto the arm’s master, joining the army, even running off to join a mercenarycompany, none of those were choices for her. She had to marry locally, and she had to marry a man, so that anotherheir could be produced.  Her parents hadalready arranged a match for her, one that would join their merchant empire tothe textiles empire in the next town over.

Declan, on the other hand, was supposed to perform a majormagical working for the town when he reached his 18th birthday.  This would have changed the fate of theentire town, rewriting them into a more prosperous and politically advantageousposition within their country.  It wouldtake years, maybe even decades, off of Declan’s lifespan to do it—all Bindingmagic comes with a price—but he’d been groomed for this from the minute he wasborn.  

…but, at the last minute, Declan pulled a bait and switch.

You see, thanks to a quirk in Declan’s gift, and the factthat he knew Kiera very well and loved her very dearly, he saw what no one elsesaw: in the future that had been laid out for her, Kiera would be dead within twoyears of marrying.  And he wasn’t willingto let that happen.  So when everyoneelse thought he was planning to change the fate of the entire town, he decidedhe was going to change only one person’s fate—Kiera’s.  He began meeting with her in secret, mappingout with her the future she wanted for herself. And in the end, Kiera became Braden, and when Braden fled the town toseek his fortunes elsewhere, he took Declan with him.  The town declined, after that, never again ableto convince another Binder to set up shop as word spread of what they’d almostdone to the one who’d been born there. Binders look after their own.

(I hope you enjoyed this little peek into my original characters!  ^_^  Thank you again for giving me the opportunity to babble about them!  ^_^)