A day out

[ceitfianna]

Today I drove my parents out to the DIA, which is fast becoming one of my favorite places in Detroit. Those of you who follow me on Twitter will have seen some of the pictures I took and I have even more. The thing I love best in a beautiful museum is to wander around and just go where my eye takes me.

At the DIA, there are many rewards in that and then over lunch, my parents and I talked art and Detroit. Since the drive to the DIA is following Woodward Avenue and goes from the sort of suburbs I live in all the way to the city going by parks, abandoned buildings and vibrant museums. Detroit is a beautiful, living and complex city, I look forward to getting to know it better. I was also able to get some holiday shopping done, which makes me happy.

Tonight we're making dinner of cod and roasted fennel and just being together. Tagging will happen here and there but the majority of it will wait until tomorrow when they leave.

In the meantime have a fun meme that's been floating around.

Pick a character* I've written and I will give and explain the top five** ideas/concepts/etc I keep in mind while writing that character that I believe are essential to depicting them.

* Try to make it someone I've written either often (including characters I RP'ed) or recently in order for me to answer.
** May not actually be five.

Comments

[adiva_calandia]

Charles!

[ceitfianna]

Loneliness: Charles is constantly on the edge of loneliness because he is so aware of the spaces between people. He expects that when people find out what his ability is that they will be suspicious and tell him to get out, to leave them alone, he partly expects it. This is what happened when he was younger with his telepathy, he said things he shouldn't have aloud and lost friends, Raven only lets him in so far as does Erik. Whenever someone goes, its okay, you can come in, I want to learn about what you can do, he's amazed. Also because he knows loneliness so intimately, its important to him to keep others from feeling lonely. He wants other mutants to know that they're not the only one, there are other people who do understand being alone on the edges. I always think of it as like that phrase I saw tumblr I think; the loneliest people are the friendliest because they don't want someone else to feel like they do.

Sanity: The fear and awareness of the thin line between being sane and himself and getting lost in other's minds and madness dictates Charles' control. The fear comes from how when he was younger and hadn't figured out how best to manage his telepathy, his mother considered that perhaps he might be a little mad, that terrified him. Also he fears getting lost in other's minds and dreams especially, so he works to have control, he needs that control. He also understands that when he chooses how to use his mutation, it becomes more than what he does. This philosophy is how he teaches other mutants, when you have control then your mutation isn't something strange inside of you but you.

Truth: He doesn't like lying, he can be a decent liar but not a great one, because when what's thought and what's said doesn't match up it bothers him. He knows that life requires lots of little lies, but he constantly tries to be emotionally honest as much as possible. This is tied to feeling like he has to hide his telepathy, his way of balancing all he knows is that he will be as honest as he can be. He wants to be able to say to the world, this is who I am, accept me.

Balance: On his own and with others, he's experienced the best and worst of people's emotions and tries to have a balance. The moment in the movie when he talks about rage and serenity to Erik for me was an aha for me. Since he feels what others feel, he can get pulled deep into someone's despair and joy, which means his own center has to be strong enough to pull him back to himself.

Privilege: He comes from a wealthy family, is smart, handsome and has a mutation that's invisible. Though he knows and has experienced some difficult things, he still comes from a wonderful starting point. That's why at times, he's an idiot and doesn't think through some of his choices and how they will affect someone not from the same place. Telepathy and empathy aren't always enough to equal his privilege. Erik is the balance for him in this as Erik will go, no, that's being stupid and not right. Raven will do some of this as well but their relationship has a different shape to it, so Erik will say things that she won't.

Education: Charles is a constant teacher and a student, it comes naturally to him and he wants to help. If he sees a way to be of assistance, then he will offer, because he enjoys teaching and he always ends up learning something.

[lienne]

all of this kind of makes Jokes go BABY LET ME SNUGGLE YOU.

XD

[ashen_key]

Demeter!

[ceitfianna]

Family: It all begins and ends with family for Demeter. Her actual family with their complicated, messed up history and her choice to not live on Olympus. If she was needed to protect her family, she would be there in a moment, because that's what you do. Yet she considers that Zeus betrayed her and Kore by allowing Hades to take Kore, she's never letting that go. She finds families and creates them around her, because she is at her best when she's tending to growing lives. Her reactions when her families are hurt can seem strange to mortals though, because her sense of scale and what's proper isn't mortal.

Ripeness/Growing: When she's at her full power, she brings the world to ripeness. In Milliways, she's many times explained what she does by saying, "I help things grow." This sums up to me both her sphere agriculture and fertility and her, she wants to see a person grow into a place where they're happy and see a field of wheat be perfectly ripe.

Sensuality: She will never marry, because marriage among the Greek gods is messy. Instead she's happiest when she has joyful days and nights with men who are sharing her joy for life. This is connected to the idea of ripeness, in the Summer, she is a woman at her peak; sure of what she wants and prepared to enjoy it.

Kore: Her daughter is her world. This isn't terribly healthy, but this is how it is for her.

Transformation: She shifts with the seasons, because who she is in Spring/Summer is different from who she is in Fall/Winter. In the Spring/Summer, she is alive and the world echoes her as it grows and reaches for the sun. In the Fall/Winter, the world is quieter and harboring its strength for a later point. Also she doesn't think the idea of shifting shape is odd as its something her family does on a normal basis. This is another reflection of how she's not mortal, shape and looks and form aren't as solid to her as they might be to someone else.

Immortal: She may look like a human, but she's not. Her sense of morality, her ideas of proper scale of reaction, her power, all of these things aren't always obvious but they are there. She has sought out mortals and knows them and their lives fairly well, but she will never be one of them. There are points when this comes out, when her sense of proportion and reaction are strange. This has to be there, because she's a goddess and not like those she resembles.