#forever pleased by the evolution of euphie from “flatters men 1000 times a day” to “if you're not her daughter you aren't getting a smile”

[lordundying]

3, 13, 17 for varya & euphie!

thank you macy!! i kiss 💌

weirdly specific but helpful character building questions

— how often do they show their genuine emotions to others versus just the audience knowing?

i would say it's a pretty cool 25% on showing the genuine emotion in everything but her original fantasyverse, and most of the time it's just a bit of the surface of what she's actually feeling. typically, i write outside of varya from the pov of people around her, because the crux of her character in most fics is that she's, say, playing 5d chess while someone like roman is using the chess board to incur blunt force trauma.

the exception, rather than the rule, is ruin or rapture—largely because the audience sits in her pov despite her being the antagonist for an equal amount of time as the protagonist, and also because everything is just different for her in that universe; her loved ones, the ties that bind her, her goals etc!

— when do they fake a smile? how often?

whenever it would get her what she wants, and she wants things frequently. she never fake smiles for the sake of someone else (letting someone think they're funny, for example) and only ever does it to serve herself.

— what do they notice first in the mirror versus what most people first notice looking at them?

she always notices her own eyes first. lots of eye horror in that girl's life (primarily in ror) and the confirmation her eyes are familiar is how she keeps herself grounded in reality a lot. especially when her transformation starts really picking up, both from the lazarus pit & from the pact she makes in ror, her eyes are markedly different with that tapetum lucidum/animal light reflection.

people usually notice her hair first, i think! because it's so long and always done-up one way or another.

— how often do they show their genuine emotions to others versus just the audience knowing?

euphie is like a 70-30 girl when it comes to showing genuine emotion. she's not as good at hiding her thoughts and feelings as she would like to be, especially when someone is annoying her ("ice queen euphie" said with derogatory intentions). her rbf is insane. her active bitch face is also insane. she gets better at it the longer she spends under the table, and by the time the marquis is in her life she has to be very mindful of it for the sake of making it out of that viper pit alive. almost all of her canon verse is spent in her pov, though, so audience members never really wonder what she's thinking lol.

— when do they fake a smile? how often?

early days under the table and before santi, euphie was frequently bouncing around being arm candy for whatever big, scary gangster wanted her—not who she wanted, so there was a lot of fake smiling going on. post the events of jw4, she hardly ever fake smiles, perfectly content to let anyone around her be aware of her disapproval.

— what do they notice first in the mirror versus what most people first notice looking at them?

euphie always notices her neck scar first, even if it's packed down with makeup. haunted by themes and narratives, as it were. people usually notice her eyes first; santino always told her they were her best feature.