Forty-five minutes later, as Laurel finished fluffing up her masses of curly golden hair, she heard a knock on her door and opened it to a grinning Adam. “May I come in?” he asked gallantly.
“Adam, you sure like to live dangerously. Someone could have seen you. Where did you teleport into?”
“Transport, not teleport. We transport ourselves, we teleport apples. And we’ve barely touched on transporting — there’s certainly more interesting places to go than your porch, true?”
Laurel smiled despite herself, despite the total disorientation of the past couple days. “I admit teleporting — um, transporting — would be an easy and ecological way of getting places. As long as nobody was there on the other end to see you. So where are we going today?”
“What is a place where you’ve been before, that you can visualize well enough that you can take us there?”
“Safely? Without people seeing us pop in from the middle of nowhere?” Laurel asked skeptically.
“You have a point there. Maybe we should wait until dark. We have some time to kill — a couple hours, I suspect.” Adam crossed his legs and leaned back. “Tell me about yourself.”
“Well, given that I only remember the last twelve years of my life, there’s not much to talk about. I woke up in the hospital, broke out, and spent a twilight existence working under the table for subsistence wages. I’ve slept in basement apartments, squatted under bridges, lived in homeless shelters. I’ve …” Laurel looked over at Adam, her eyes blinking. “I’ve kept apart from others. I’m not used to talking to people, because I’ve been afraid I would give away something, like my freakish ability to heal. I’ve lived a solitary existence.”
“Most Archetypes live solitary existences. We were created that way, as Archetypes who gather together could be a danger.”
“How? A danger to what?” Laurel leaned forward, as if she could find a clue to herself in Adam’s revelation.
“Remember,” Adam said, steepling his fingers. “The Maker created us as vessels for human patterns. If we die, the humans whose patterns we carry die as well. We’re nearly indestructible, but that small possibility can’t be risked. Conflict could set us up for battle, and battle against other beings like us — strong and swift and almost indestructible — could result in our death and the death of the millions whose patterns we carry. So we are kept apart from each other.”
“Whose patterns do I carry?” Laurel asked.
“That I don’t know. I’m sure the information is in the Archives somewhere …” Adam trailed off, remembering his own unique status as an Archetype who carried no patterns.
Tag: conflict
Open Questions and Characters Again: Conflict
My character sheets — the ones from Scrivener — have two categories on them that I’m not happy with: Character’s internal conflicts, and Character’s external conflicts. I fill them with short, telegraphic statements:
William’s conflicts: Internally — because he deserted his lover, who was killed 18 years later; Externally — With his employer, Free White State; with Jude, who he feels is hiding something.
Jude’s conflicts: Internally — For not fitting in with other Archetypes/Folk; Externally: With his Archetype parents, for deserting him; With the Commune, for sheltering humans and Nephilim; With Free White State, for moving slowly with their plan.
One of these is a flawed good guy; the other is a sympathetic bad guy. How can you tell?
Conflicts can cause anger, fear, fury, hopelessness; sadness; and many other emotions. Can you tell what emotions come up with each conflict? You can assume, and you might be wrong, even if they’re your characters.
Conflicts can stir up desires for reconciliation, revenge, murder, wallowing in self-pity, petty bickering and passive-aggressive snapping — and more. Do any of the segments above give this impression? No!
I want to feel my characters — their loves, their dislikes, their conflicts — so I’m about to take another approach: Open-ended questions.
*****
Me: Jude, tell me about your conflict with your parents.
Jude: I understand that in InterSpace, engendered children seldom have contact with their parents after engendering. But they’re quickly apprised of their purpose — or were, until the Council of the Oldest gave the humans their cultural memories back. Archetypes engendered Earthside — that is, from the renegades — have contact with their parents and other Archetypes, at least occasionally. I was left in a privy, the abandoned result of unauthorized intercourse between two Archetypes. There I was, a freak who served no purpose and who was born fully adult. I would kill my father if he hadn’t already died saving the humans. I don’t know why they deserved more than I did.
Now, for a similar situation with William:
Me: Tell me about your conflict with your parents.
William: My situation was interesting. Six thousand years ago. the Archetypes calling themselves the Triumvirate staged the Garden of Eden in order to control society’s women, and thus the entire society, through religion. The Triumvirate engendered a male Archetype called Adam and a female Nephilim — half-human — called Eve. You may know the story. What you probably don’t know is that a couple Archetypes — Su and her apprentice Luke — engendered a female Archetype named after an older legend than Adam and Eve, called Lilith. Adam chose Lilith, not Eve, as his consort, and the Triumvirate tried to get Lilith, but not Adam, killed. Adam and Lilith went into hiding Earthside.
At that point, my parents, the female Norwegian Archetype and the male Bering Strait Archetype, decided to subtly go rogue, vowing to stand against the Triumvirate just as Luke and Su had. They had me in defiance, and placed me among the Aleut. What I discovered was that parentage among Archetypes was as nothing, the humans held parentage in great esteem. Not only did I not know my parents, but I couldn’t speak of them because Archetypes were not open to the humans.
Someday I will demand an explanation from my parents.
****
So different, huh? It’s a lot of work, but I’m getting a good idea of the characters, their conflicts, and how they intend to deal with things. I may not do this for all the characters, but the main ones: Anna, Daniel, Jude (listed above), MariJo, and William. Especially Daniel, because all he is right now is aLove Interest. (Although it would be a nice way to counter all those useless female love interests endemic in fantasy, comics, and damn near everything else written, I will not put Daniel into that spot.)
I have my work cut out for me today, and what I really need is to hole up in a coffee shop and start talking to my characters.
Words Like Me 