#the only thing this country is number 1 at is putting bandaids on bullet holes

[sophiahunt119]

Another unchronological upload, but here are my three character ideas

Character 1 - Crochet Lady

THEIR WORLD

Most of Crochet Lady’s life is spent indoors in the walls of her house. Her house is old and run down, she doesn’t spend a lot of time maintaining it because she’s so focussed on her crochet. It has a certain charm about it though, and her house certainly has character. Almost everything has a crochet detail to it, the rugs, blankets, pillow cases, light shades, pot plant holders, table cloths, it’s all crochet. Her house stands alone and has a nice but severely overgrown backyard. Let’s just say it has a lot of biodiversity! The paint on the outside is chipping away and the ornate details are rusting away. There are a lot of trees surrounding the house, which isolates Crochet Lady even more, but that’s how she likes it. Sometimes she ventures out into the real world, but tries to avoid it because she gets a lot of anxiety when doing it. Her house is quite messy and dusty. 

AN EXTERNAL PROBLEM

Crochet Lady has been traumatised by her interactions in the past. She signed up to join a “stitch and bitch” to try and better her social skills while still remaining in her comfort zone doing crochet. The other people in the group didn’t really take to her and because she is quiet and shy, they misinterpreted her as being sneaky or rude. She didn’t feel welcomed or like she belonged in the group, and one day she received an email telling her that they didn’t feel like she was a good fit for the group and to not come to future meetings. This really took a blow to Crochet Lady’s confidence and put her back in a deep dark hole of loneliness, only her cat and crochet to keep her company. However one day she gets a call from her mother saying that her father is very sick and is likely to pass away in the next few weeks. Her mother and father live in another country, and if Crochet Lady wants to see her father before he dies, she must embark on an international journey to make it to him. This absolutely terrifies her. How will she manage the small talk with the cab driver to the airport? How will she make it through airport security without making a fool of herself? In her mind is a constant conflict of wanting to see her father before he dies, but being petrified to push herself so far out of her comfort zone. 

HOW DOES YOUR CHARACTER OVERCOME THIS PROBLEM?

Crochet Lady does a lot of research and decides that she needs to do some “practise interactions” before diving headfirst into this journey. She thinks the easiest way to get this done is to sign up to a dating website and go on a date. That way she can practise her social skills without anything riding on it, because if it all goes to shit, it doesn’t matter - she doesn’t have to see the person ever again. She is an absolute nervous wreck before her first date. She is sweating bullets and feels like she is going to puke. She powers through it, and meets up with a person who she actually genuinely gets along with. It’s a little awkward at first, but once she has a couple of drinks she can relax a little bit and actually enjoys talking with her date. She’s surprised and proud of herself and it gives her the confidence to buy the plane ticket to see her dad. She is absolutely terrified the whole time, and some things do go slightly wrong, but she makes it there to see her dad in time before he dies. She really values her time that she spends with her parents while she’s there, and realises how important it was that she come here. She gets scared thinking about how she wasn’t going to go originally, and that her own mind could have stopped her from having this important experience. She does have to grieve the loss of her father, but this whole experience taught her a lot.

AN INTERNAL PROBLEM

Crochet Lady has a deep loneliness that she pushes to the side. She tells herself that she is happy being alone, she doesn’t have to worry about being judged, or mocked, or humiliated. It’s easier this way, and more comfortable. Her crippling social anxiety only reinforces these ideas and makes Crochet Lady feel like the outside world is a horrible place where she doesn’t want to spend any time. Her peers used to bully her for being different, they used to call her a grandma because her hobbies included crochet, embroidery and sewing. She was always a naturally shy person, and has a very creative and hands on personality. She decided she didn’t need people, since they made her feel terrible about her passions. To avoid the bullying, she started to avoid people, and became obsessed with crocheting especially. It was relaxing to her and made her forget about her worries. She got great satisfaction out of the end results of her projects. However this only pushed everyone in her life away from her. Her parents still tried to maintain a relationship with her, and she kind of let them, but her antisocial behavior strained their relationship.  She moved out of her parents home as soon as she could, and began her life living on her own. Once her parents moved to a different country, she was truly alone, with no friends and now no family. 

WHAT DO THEY WANT OR NEED?

She really just needs human interaction. A human companion. A friend or a partner. She knows this deep down but doesn’t want to admit it, because it’s less scary to just be on her own. She needs someone to help push her out of her comfort zone.

WHAT IS THEIR SPECIAL ABILITY OR SKILL? 

Her special ability is her epic crocheting skills. She can do it ridiculously fast and creates some beautiful things. Her home is decorated head to toe in crochet items, there’s nothing she can’t make.

WHAT WILL THEY LEARN?

Crochet Lady will learn the value in a meaningful relationship, and that not everyone is out to get her. She will learn that putting herself out of her comfort zone is the only way to progress in her life and move forward. Crawling back into her isolated hole is just a bandaid on a bigger wound that she needs to heal. Sometimes she will fall back into her old habits, but that’s ok. She’s learning to be more forgiving to herself. She will also learn that not everyone is bad, and she can actually get a lot of fulfillment out of social interactions. She still struggles with her social anxiety, but she makes small steps at a time. After her trip she realises how much she has been missing out on, and although it’s scary, she wants to see more. She goes on a few more dates, and gets a new job working at a craft store, which she gets great fulfilment out of.

Character 2 - Cedric

THEIR WORLD

Cedric is a humble vacuum salesman. He enjoys what he does, as he’s good at talking to people and is pretty charismatic. He spends a lot of time at work - up to 50 hours a week. When he gets home, he is alone. He doesn’t get along with his housemates and can be quite cranky and unpleasant since he’s so tired from working all the time. His home life is pretty boring and uneventful. He tries to stay away from it as much as possible and doesn’t really see it as a home, more as a place to sleep and store food. He doesn’t like or really know how to cook so he eats a lot of takeaways & instant noodles. He has some friends, who he gets a lot of value out of. He enjoys hanging out with them on the weekends for some drinks, it’s his only casual social interaction throughout the whole week so he really depends on it for his sanity. He’s making an alright salary and he gets a high from seeing his bank account go up. He has a craving for that number to keep climbing up and up, he’s pretty good at not spending money on frivolous things. One day at work he is selling a vacuum to a customer as per usual, but at the end of it, the customer reveals that he in fact owns one of the most prestigious car sale lots in the town, and he was very impressed with his selling skills. He offers him an interview at the car lot if Cedric is interested. He is absolutely stoked and accepts the interview. He ends up getting the job and starts working as a car salesman.

AN EXTERNAL PROBLEM

Cedric does exceptionally well at his job, selling a lot of cars, in fact he becomes one of the top salesmen in the country for the company. This starts to get to his head a lot, and he adopts an entirely new attitude. He becomes arrogant and patronising a lot of the time, even to his friends who he values so dearly. His friends sit him down and try to talk to him about this unpleasant change in attitude, and they express their concern for his long work hours. All he did was work and work and never took time to pursue any hobbies or interests outside of selling cars. Cedric becomes defensive and doesn’t see his working as an issue. He likes being at work and he’s making a lot of money, so he doesn’t see the problem. This causes a rift between him and his friends. He doesn’t see why they think he’s changing, he feels the same, and he’s offended that they think he’s behaving in an unpleasant manner. 

HOW DOES YOUR CHARACTER “OVERCOME” THIS PROBLEM?

Cedric starts to distance himself from his friends. His friends don’t make him money, and they’re making him feel bad by confronting him about his attitude. He starts working even longer hours, and his bank account is going up fast. This gives him a sense of accomplishment and a hunger for more, but deep down he feels sad that his friendships have been broken. To cover those feelings he becomes a straight up workaholic. While he’s at work he doesn’t have to face the loneliness and emptiness back at home. He starts to realise he has a lot more money than he thought he would, and starts to buy himself new things to give himself that rush of endorphins he doesn’t get from his friends anymore. A new watch, a gold chain, a new car, a house, he can’t get enough of buying new things. His personality transforms from someone who used to be a rather frugal, sensible money spender, to someone materialistic and money hungry. He doesn’t overcome this problem, rather he takes a descent into his ways until he is completely alone, surrounded by expensive things. 

AN INTERNAL PROBLEM

Cedric is constantly battling with his ego. It slowly starts to take over his mind, making him become self centred and out of touch with others and his true self. He loses any hobbies that he once had and essentially wakes up, goes to work, comes home and watches TV, then goes to sleep and repeats. 

WHAT DO THEY WANT OR NEED?

All Cedric can think about is money, work and how to please other people at his work. He wants to feel like he has some sort of authority and has a desperate need to prove himself and his sales abilities. 

WHAT WILL THEY LEARN?

Cedric won’t really learn anything that will change his life for the better. He gives in to his own ways and becomes a person the old him would have loathed. 

Character 3 - Ebony

THEIR WORLD

Her parents are famous news reporters/journalists so she has to accompany them wherever their careers take her. They don’t live in one place for more than a few months, so she has never really had a real “home”. Her home is wherever her parents are. She doesn’t have any real close friends and is an only child. She’s quite a social person but doesn’t get the chance to form any real bonds with anyone. She spends a lot of time alone. She’s really passionate about nature and spends as much time in it as she can. She loves to go for long walks and will bring her sketchbook along with her. She’s pretty good at drawing landscapes and plants, which are her favourite to draw. She wishes she had a pet of her own, but her parents won’t let her because of their unusual living situation. 

AN EXTERNAL PROBLEM

She starts to act out at school, because she is so sick of never being able to keep friendships since she’s never in school for long enough. She starts to get in a lot of trouble and her parents are not pleased with her. They decide that she needs to be sent to live with her grandparents. She moves to go and live with them on their rural property, and immediately despises it. She spends a lot of time outdoors, wandering around the very large property, away from her grandparents. She doesn’t know them very well and she doesn’t want to get along with them because she is angry with her parents for sending her there in the first place.

HOW DOES YOUR CHARACTER “OVERCOME” THIS PROBLEM?

She realises that maybe this situation is what she really needed. She’s now in a situation where she’s in the same place, she can attend the school and actually form friendships. Her grandparents turn out to not be as bad as she originally thought, her grandad is a little bit tough, but he has good value, and her grandma has been loving and welcoming to her since the beginning. She still holds a lot of resentment towards her parents, but ultimately accepts this new situation she’s in and finds the good things in it. 

AN INTERNAL PROBLEM

She has a lot of anger problems. She feels frustrated that her parents never listened to her when she expressed how she didn’t want to keep moving from place to place. She has a missing part of her that doesn’t know where her home is. Her parents are her only home, but even then, they are very busy people and don’t have a whole lot of time for her. She just wants to stay in one place where she can plant her roots and form deeper friendships and have a sense of belonging. She also struggles socially since she has been in a constant state of being the “new girl”. She doesn’t know what it means to have a solid friendship or a stable home. She can be quite uninterested in finding out more about other people because she has a sense of there being no point. This can make her come across as quite self centred, but in reality she’s just lost and given up. 

WHAT DO THEY WANT OR NEED?

She just wants to stay in one place and wants a close friendship. 

WHAT WILL THEY LEARN?

She will learn how to establish friendships with people her age, and will learn what it truly means to be home.