Mention a random quirk about your character

When Varla is at the beach, occasionally she'll build a tiny sandcastle, as small and delicate as she can get away with, and then channel a blast of geyser heat to fuse the sand into glass so it'll last a little longer.

Alpha/Aleph is rather nervous when around other people,but much more confident when talking over communications devices.

His species is made of non-linear extradimensional beings that can choose whatever age to appear as, are capable of transforming into spaceships, and have both a human and an alien mind. The alien mind is nonlinear and has infinite memory capacity throughout past/present/future, but the human mind is not and instead is capable of feeling humanity, empathy and emotions. The alien mind passes a small subset of memories/experiences pertaining to the situation into the human mind, which uses said information along with human emotions to perform their actions.

Among a certain eligible demographic of Web of Friendship members, it's a Running Gag that only one of them at a time will have an Inconvenient Attraction crush on Sarquoql, their archenemy villain with Hypnotic Eyes, even though they all know what a huge security risk that specific crush is and what a terrible, horrible, backfire-prone idea it is to want a bad boy in general. Whoever is afflicted will inevitably end up yelling "Stupid hormones!" at least once.

Between a Defense Mechanism Superpower and Congruent Memory, Rosalind Lumina Eisenberg Does Not Know Her Own Strength. She is strong enough to punch through zombie skulls, but she thinks it's because zombie bones decay and get brittle much faster than bones in uninfected human corpses. She also thinks her own bones are brittle, because it hurts to punch through zombie skulls.

Allister Harper will inflict serious harm upon you for spelling his name Alistair, Alestair, Alastair, or Alister..and God help you if you spell it Alastor, which he will violently remind you is "Etymologically un-fuckin'-related to Allister!"

One would think that making her living as a hunter in the riverlands of the Qorisayane Empire would provide enough excitement, but Layi ul'Oriyith has a deep, unapologetic love for Qorisayane Planetary Romance radio plays.^note The parallel evolution of an Earthly sci-fi genres isn't as unusual as it might seem. The Qorisayane are conquerors with nowhere left to conquer; they are the sole remaining power on their small native continent, but have a poor navy and significant rivals on the larger continent across the sea. Little wonder they dream of sailing the stars and finding new worlds to conquer liberate from conveniently despicable overlords. This leads to some Genre Savvy (she correctly identifies a cybernetic limb, something only theorized about on her world, and makes some reasonable guesses about it), and some Wrong Genre Savvy (gumption, dirty tricks, and the indefatigable Qorisayane spirit are not enough to win a fight with a post-human Corporate Samurai).

I’m still not really all that certain about whether or not that this is the right place for this sort of thing, but;

The character that I’m planning to use for a fanfiction story of mine is supposed to be a very threatening, very intelligent and very powerful antagonist to deal with. However, while I have imagined him having a rather large force of followers at his disposal, consisting of not only both humans and robots, but also a few monsters as well, I am afraid that I’m starting to feel like I haven’t given that much thought into what his army could actually do story-wise. I mean I have imagined them as acting like a force for the heroes to do battle with every once in a while, as well as them acting as a security force for a few of the big bad’s more major operations and the people he sends to steal certain items or conduct certain experiments. But since the main antagonist’s initial goal really is ultimately a form of world domination, I feel like I’m having him not use his forces to their best abilities. And while I have considered giving this problem a rather simple explanation: he prefers to wait until he has a plan that will help to ensure his victory, with his army mainly serving as the extra muscle needed to preserve his success, rather than simply using his very large force to start an all-out war, unless he is actually able to gather up enough strength for his forces to completely unstoppable, I have recently begun to wonder just what type of antagonist that that particular line of thinking ultimately makes my character in the absolute long run?

What you guys think?

Give this guy more personality. Explore how and why he manages to unite human, man and monster together to a common cause, as well as his motivations for serving the bad guy, and how this relationship affects the protagonist.

One of my characters in a crime story I'm is an exiled Yakuza mobster who is sent to Hawaii in 1988 after stirring some shit with a rival Yakuza family back in Hiroshima. Half-Japanese and half-Korean and having dual American and Japanese citizenship, the oyabun fakes his death and sends him to Oahu to scope out for some business opportunities during the period's real estate boom. He gets involved in scuffles with local Hawaiian street gangs, the Triads, and a corrupt real estate company from San Diego.

Raised briefly in an internment camp as well as Los Angeles in the 40s and 50s before moving back to war-torn Hiroshima with his mother after his father's death, the mobster embodies two sides of his upbringing in his personality. A passion for violence, hedonism and action, which represents his American side, and honor and loyalty to his friends and family, which represents his Japanese side.

Lemme know what you think.

Edited by YouSitTightBuddy on May 8th 2020 at 6:16:29 AM

Could this character be inclined to branch out into espionage? Know Thy Enemy, and all that? Are there any members of this guy's force who can be The Mole? I have a vaguely similar character who does mind-control, and the first thing he did with it was practice to make it less obvious, because he knew that otherwise his goal to conquer the galaxy wouldn't get anywhere.

I haven't fully fleshed out this idea, but I got an idea for a story about three dragons and a vampire, only the story is not an epic action/adventure or horror story starring humans, but a domestic comedy starring the dragons. (A bit like Monsters, Inc.) Papa dragon "goes to work" finding treasure and hunting sheep and deer, mama dragon gardens and kills knight infestations in the garden and in the cave, and the little girl dragon is being homeschooled. The little girl dragon wants a pet princess, but when she goes out looking for one, she only has vague ideas of what castles look like, so she mistakes a church with a cemetery for a castle. She looks in the bell tower (highest room in the tallest tower) and finds no princesses, just bells, but she keeps searching until she finds a hibernating vampire in a coffin. The little girl dragon thinks that this is a weird place to keep a princess in an enchanted sleep, but she still takes the coffin and flies home. The dragons find out pretty quickly that their new pet is a vampire and not a princess, but the little girl dragon doesn't care, she already likes and got attached to her pet. The vampire acts like and is treated like a cantankerous cat: screeching and struggling when it's time for a shower; hunting knights and presenting the corpses; falling asleep in sunbeams while sprawled out in the way; climbing the walls to hang from the ceiling and swat at the dragons' heads...

Edited by Miss_Desperado on May 8th 2020 at 8:46:14 AM

Eli uses tons of weird, outdated, or regional slang. Colin avoids touching any sports-related objects due to a childhood incident. Iris swears in French, even when she doesn't have to. Alex doesn't eat eggs that are just plain in any form. Peggy keeps a small toolbox and a circuit in her pocket as a sort of fidget toy.

Ashley doesn't mind being called hideous, in fact, she takes it as a compliment.

Autumn, 18, flushes things down the toilet for fun. Mostly old plushies and small toys she doesn't care about.

Arthryn, the Paladin protagonist in the Obligatory Quarantine Book I'm writing, grew up on a world where one side always faces the sun. The side opposite the sun is crawling with demons.

So, naturally, she's utterly terrified by the day-night cycle on the next world over.

Not actually 'random' as its the central plot driver, but...

Rereading the lumps I've finished of one romance, it's astounding how genuinely clueless the Everyone Can See It couple are. 25 years of friends and family saying 'for God's sake, just bloody well ask him/her out.' Rereading what I have written they ARE GENUINELY ignorant - Alex sort of knows, but buries it so deep he won't admit it to himself, because he's worried about losing Izzy if he tells her.

Obviously I have written the plot, but reading stuff again I am actually frustrated with the pair of them (as people) for not seeing/admitting it. I'm with their freinds on this one - I just want to say 'For God's sake, kiss him/her'.

Alternova Exoth Dauntless is a girl of the same race as Alpha (mentioned above). She's quite a fashionista and as an extradimensional being, can instantly change her clothes and hairstyle as a free action.

Kynn Derra is an alien whose species's hat is being good at language and encryption-breaking. She has a large vertical scar on her throat from an encounter with a monoclaw tiger on her home planet when she was a young and stupid adolescent in Spy School. Vampires using Vein-o-Vision on her have remarked that it looks weird and disturbing to see her pulse through the scar, which she finds amusing.

Edited by Miss_Desperado on Oct 27th 2020 at 3:37:43 AM

Erin sings country songs whenever she's bored.

Benjamin 'Belfry' Keeling doesn't think twice about living in an occupied graveyard. After all, ghosts are people too! He happens to be monokerophobic. Unicorns do NOT exist, therefore any unicorn he sees is a hallucination. However: hallucinations aren't supposed to be able to touch you in front of witnesses!

Rhinocerotes are also foul-tempered homicidal beasts. This cannot be a mere coincidence as far as he's concerned.

Candelaria is actually a pretty talented artist but barely makes use of her talent because she's living in such a bad, dangerous environment that doing things like art would just be a waste of time when she needs to survive and follow the orders of her gang leader. But there's a graffiti wall somewhere near the plaza and she's responsible for a decent amount of the art there, even if she can't take credit for it.

Ella-Maria likes pears, but hates apples. She thinks apples taste like half-assed knockoffs of pears. Likewise, she likes raspberries but not strawberries for the same reason. She thinks blueberries taste weird and incomplete without maple syrup. She can't stand white or milk chocolate and would rather have her chocolate minimally sweet, as dark as possible, and maybe even spicy.

Nico can listen to music he hates for hours. Like, he detests any music from before the year 2000, but if there's eighties music on, he can still listen to it for quite a while.

Before becoming a Moon Hawk (i.e. magical special ops), Oseru aq'Xueral was seriously considering going into a career in Qorisayane opera. It didn't quite pan out: she had real talent, and as a noblewoman's daughter, the money and connections to buy excellent mentorship. It ultimately wasn't enough for theatrical directors and other actors to justify putting up with her temper and arrogance. Nonetheless, she was chosen for the Earth infiltration mission because of her training. She's proven able to maintain an impressive number of distinct cover identities, each with their own consistent mannerisms, body language, dialects, and quirks.

However, there's one consistent thread across these identities: thanks to Oseru's operatic training and pride, she cannot resist utterly dominating any karaoke night.

Alice Winters loves jazz. She picked up the fondness from her best friend's grandfather, the man who effectively raised her because her own mother was terrible. The complexity and emphasis on improvisation particularly speak to her, and she goes out of her way to see live shows whenever she has spare time. If one wants a favor from the infamously prickly Alice, such a live show is the best time to ask.

On the other hand, she has a hatred verging on fury for synthwave. In a moment of candor with her boss, she admits she's probably being unfair, but "every wannabe on both sides of my line of work [corporate security] is writing their code to 1980s synths, so everyone is just like, 'you like synthwave, right'? The expectations grates, y'know?"

Edited by KillerClowns on Mar 19th 2021 at 9:11:01 AM

BUN-3 is kind of a trickster. She turns off the lights, so you can only see her screen. Gets creepy when she does a nightmare face. It’s funny to her.

From my Pokémon Mystery Dungeon-inspired story (read the prologue on my Tumblr blog here), Riolu, As You Know, is an Amnesiac Hero who has spent almost his entire life in the forest, so when the protagonists bring him into civilization, he is very Easily Impressed. I’m planning a scene where he comes across a vending machine, and after Axew (one of the protagonists) tells him how it works, he then proceeds to spend all their change on snacks from it.

Nobody in the Collective has ever heard Caroline Gyaltsen swear, unless she is directly quoting someone else^note "When you say you like being a 'cranky sunnuvabitch', can you tell me a bit more about what that means?". Not even a Gosh Dang It to Heck!. At worst, Mortimer Gerhardt remembers hearing her respond to a stubbed toe with a sharp inhalation of breath and an irritated groan. Many assume this is from working as an animator and writer for children's television before becoming a leader in an anti-corporate movement (It Makes Sense in Context). However, even her former co-workers will say that her clean language in even the most dire circumstances — and ability to make anger and frustration known without — was remarkable.

Edited by KillerClowns on May 17th 2021 at 9:14:54 AM