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1. What’s your MC’s social media presence like? If they have any
He has a Twitter. He doesn’t really ever post anything, just uses it to keep up with news and various academics and politics and social justice shit. Hockey. And also Lin-Manuel Miranda.
Money says Tina tags him in stuff and tweets at him, and he will respond. And like. And occasionally tag her in stuff.
2. If they could see any one band/artist in concert – living or dead – who would they choose to see?
Queen with Freddie Mercury. No question.
3. How would they respond to being approached by/coming across an obviously lost child?
-crouches down in front of the kid, srs bzns- “What seems to be the problem, sir/ma’am? … Ah, you’ve lost your parent? Parents, am I right? Always running off, doing whatever they want. You probably need to keep them on a leash if you wanna keep them around!.. well, lucky for you, I happen to be a detective–” -shows badge- “–and this sort of thing is what I’m trained to handle. So let’s go back to where you saw them last, and then we can see where to go from there. Okay?”
4. Describe their body type.
5’9". Weighs X lbs because, holy shit, I’m horrible at gauging that sort of thing.
He might’ve been considered “athletic-ish” once upon a time – and, honestly, he could probably be considered such again if he put some work into it. He’s not that far removed from his college hockey years, after all.
But being a cop in a small town with little crime (so the only real action he sees is walking a beat when not stuck at his desk) and focusing on work such as he does, one doesn’t get as much time to focus on working out and all that. Plus, even if he did have time – which, actually, lbr: he does – he doesn’t have the internal structural bullshit necessary to establish and stick to the routines necessary to get back into shape on his own. Also, his eating habits leave a lot to be desired. In that he eats sporadically. Inconsistently. And not very healthily.
5. Are they persnickety about grammar/spelling?
When it comes to his own? You betcha. When it comes to others, he tries to keep in mind that language evolves and all that good stuff, and all that really matters is if someone gets their point across in a way that is generally understood.
That said, there are two things that befuddle/irk him:
confusing your/you’re often confuses him (“‘Your stupid’? My stupid what? …oh. OH. Okay.”)
and confusing infer/imply irks him (“…they aren’t. Fucking. InterCHANGEABLE.”)
6. What would they name their child?
Not like it’s gonna happen, but…
If it were a girl, he’d throw down… sigh, okay, Ada, but that’s because Ada Lovelace was a friggin’ bamf. This was decided aeons ago. Maybe Amelia. Bc Amelia Earhart.
For a boy… he’d kick around Alan because Alan Turing, but would probably ultimately discard that. Probably Sullivan, for Arthur Sullivan. Of Gilbert and Sullivan.
7.What were they wearing when they got snatched by Murphy?
who wants a *pic*?!
and dark grey jammy shorts. with pockets!
And, luckily, he had his sleepable contacts in. Imagine how screwed everyone would’ve been if he’d had his glasses on and then lost them upon being transported to Murphy’s secret lair! Ha ha…
8. If, shortly after meeting UB, you were to tell your MC that they’ll eventually end up with their RO, how would they respond? Would that response change if you told them that just after the end of Book 1?
After "initial" UB meeting
“You’re going to hit that.”
He regards me skeptically, then shrugs and says “I’m not going to hit anything. And you’re going to have to be a hell of a lot more specific than that.”
“Adam,” I say, and he flinches. “You are going to hit–” I waggle my eyebrows suggestively “–Adam.”
He stares at me in abject disbelief for a few moments before his faces scrunches in contemplation and confusion. His mouth opens every so often as if to say something before he huffs a sigh and shuts up. Then he shrugs again, asks flippantly “sooo…do you get off on lying, or…?”
“So you don’t believe me.”
“Fuck no!” He laughs. “And there is a whole fucking host of reasons why I don’t believe you, but I have shit to do, so… if you’ll excuse me?”
post-Murphy
“He is the one for you, you know.”
He stares at me from his hospital bed, then shakes his head and leans back against his pillow.
“So you’re escalating? From “hitting that” to soulmates or some shit?”
“Okay,” I say. “I’ll admit that I opened with “hitting that” 'cause it’s so gosh darned fun to say. Should’ve just gone with “you’re gonna fall deeply for each other.””
He shakes his head again. “Why do you have to do him dirty like that?”
I gape at him.
He continues. “You’re basically slandering him at this point. I mean, yeah, dude’s got issues, but who doesn’t? Doesn’t mean you gotta take his name, rake it through the fuckin’ mud by associating it with mine in…” He gestures vaguely with his left hand. “Some impossible romantical sense.” He sits back up and looks directly in my eyes as I gape even harder. “Pretty sure he’s got better taste than that, anyway. But, I… not that I have much of anything to base that on. But…”
“All right,” I say. “That’s a lot about him. But what about how you’re gonna be falling, too?”
He shrugs. “Who gives a shit about me?”
I want to smack him. But it would be terrible, terrible form to hit a man in a hospital bed.
9. What are they like to shop with?
grocery shopping:
“Okay, so. I don’t wanna be here any longer than I have to be, so I have a list. I need to stick with the list. And then I am outta here.”
-*does his shopping diligently, vetoing things because It’s not on the list! *-
-passes the ice cream aisle-
-checks his list. Sighs-
“It’s not on the–”
-has already thrown, like, three boxes of orange creamsicles into the cart-
“…gdi.”
Clothes shopping:
“There are. Seriously. Far more important things we could be doing right now. Jesus. Fuck.”
“But this was your idea?”
“…it was? Shit. It was. Doesn’t make it any less annoying, though. Fucking hell, I have clothes…”
Book shopping:
“It’s fun to look, but I already have two bigass boxes and a Kindle filled with–” -has already checked out, two decent sized bags of books in tow- " Oh. yay."
Everything else:
“thank GOD for the internet!”
10. Phone model? Lockscreen/homescreen wallpapers? Ringtone? Text tone? Do they have special tones for specific people? Favorite apps?
Refurbed iPhone 6s. The Hamilton logo/ an action shot of a Chicago Blackhawk (probably Hossa, knowing this dweeb.) The solo from “Stairway to Heaven”. A goal horn. Not yet, he doesn’t, but he will. Pokémon Go, the news app.
11. In a The Purge-like situation (no laws for however long, probably a bit more involved than that, I’ve never actually seen any of the flicks) how would they act? What would they do?
He’d be out and about, trying to help people who want nothing more than to keep them and theirs safe, but who might not have had time or resources to properly set up shelter.
12. Is your MC superstitious in any way?
…he played hockey. And was in the theatre. I mean. Not necessarily on purpose, but yeah. At least a lil bit.
He also has personal experience with accidents that directly followed some uneducated fool repeatedly uttering the name of… the Scottish play in the midst of preparations for another (Death of a Salesman. Junior year of high school. Bad news all around. They did manage to eke out a decent enough show, though. So. Y’know.)
13. Extra silly question!: what would your MC/RO’s ship name be? (Lmao, number 13. Is a cursed question!)
Squishing the names together: Adiver? Olam? Those sound like Skyrim NPCs. Heh.
Maybe Blond Redhead? Hehe, wait, Chilly Pepper. Because Adam’s an ice king and he got pepper sprayed? And Oliver’s got red hair? And if you bite into him hard enough, he can get spicy!
…um. Yeah.
…bleh. I don’t have the imagination for this.
14. How would they handle seeing a spider or cockroach in their room?
Mild annoyance and disgust. If it were a spider, he’d leave the thing be because, as disgusting as those little creatures are… and as much as he wants to smash it, they’re good for keeping other bugs at bay. Right? And if it’s out and about, it’s probably not venomous or all that dangerous. Or… well. He thinks. He’s not a bug scientist. Entomologist? Or whatever the spider equivalent of that shit would be.
The roach wouldn’t get squished, either. It’d get scooped onto a paper plate or something and then flung unceremoniously out the window. So it might die, but then it would be gravity’s fault. Ugh. He’d still feel a little bad.
15. If your MC was to temporarily lose their voice but still had to interact with other people, how would they go about communicating?
A combination of gestures, writing shit down, texting, using his phone’s note app and showing it to the person he’s trying to talk to, using text-to-speech…
16-30
16. Would your MC be down with pranking/being pranked? If so, what would their preferred method of pranking be?
He’s down either way, so long as nobody’s seriously injured. He prefers the more subtle kinds of pranks, though. He’s always wanted to do that thing where you move all the furniture in someone’s room 2cm to the left once a week or so over a long period of time. Buuuuut… would that really count as a “prank,” though? Or is that more like subtle psychological fuckery? Hmmm…
17. Do they prefer the heat or the cold? Any particular reason why?
“The cold! 'Cause you can layer up like crazy, but you can’t strip down any further than your skin.” He thinks for a moment. “Unless you get Buffalo Bill to help you?” He shrugs.
18.After everything goes down with Murphy, your MC comes to in their own bed. They go to check their phone only to find that it’s the morning of the Janet Greenland murder scene. And they remember everything. What do they do?
His first instinct would be to call Rebecca and get everything situated. But then he would begin to consider how trying to change things too much might fuck with reality or whatever – but, wait, doesn’t my being here, now, knowing what I know already prove that reality’s kind of fucked? – and then he’d wonder if he’d actually be able to change things or if this was some vicious thing where he would have to relive the entire ordeal and not be able to effect any sort of meaningful change. And then he’d wonder if this was the universe’s overdramatic way of telling him that he plays absolutely no part in the proceedings of life, to which he’d respond “no shit.” And then he’d get fixated on all the ways his meddling could royally fuck this shit up because he doesn’t know what to do with this kind of high-level bullshit.
And then he’d bite the bullet and confront Rebecca when she shows up at the station. And then he’d go to the warehouse that evening and let UB know that he knows. Who knows how it would go from there?
Not me.
19. How would they answer this age old question: “how many licks does it take to get to the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Pop?”
“I imagine it kind of depends on saliva production and how long you let the thing chill in your mouth between licks. Also, how hot it might have been because a hot Tootsie Pop is a soft Tootsie Pop. I’m more of a Blow Pop kind of guy, though, to be honest.”
20. Your MC is in a Die Hard situation… and they’re John McClane. How do they handle it?
He is much too excited about a situation where people’s lives are in danger. And he admits that he should probably call someone–
“I should call Adam or something. Man, he’d absolutely flip!” His smile fades. “Yeah, he’d flip. And then he’d probably tell me to do something sensible like wait for help to arrive and keep out of trouble. But.” Pfft. “People’s lives are in danger now.” He puts his phone away. “Eh, he’ll probably see this shit on the news anyway. Or… something. People’ll find out somehow. And the cavalry will arrive.”
And then he goes off to save lives. Which he does. Because by this point, he’s probably seen and done some shit.
21. How would they react to discovering that they’re the hot new meme of the moment?
“I… do not remember taking this picture. Was somebody creeping on me?” He glances around nervously.
22. If your MC was in a heist flick, which role would they fill?
Honestly. He’d probably actually be an honest cop or government agent or some shit trying to stop them, always only seemingly one step behind (having been waylaid by dishonest coworkers), but then he shows up in time to stop them only to get shot or something when he refuses to take a bribe or whatever. I just can’t see him as part of a heist.
23. Does your MC have any experience with prophetic dreams – whether they’re predicting something mundane or something exceptional? If they did have a dream of something a bit more off the wall that ended up coming true, would they think anything of it? Would they think anything about having dreamt about their RO prior to meeting them?
None that he can recall. And none at all, in actuality.
He’d be kind of amused. Unless he dreamt someone died and it happened. Then he would be flipping the fuck out at himself. (“I literally saw it happen and I didn’t do anything to prevent it. What the fuck, what the–”)
If he saw Adam in a dream and then met him and remembered that he’d already “met” in a dream…he’d shake his head, try not to think anything of it, but keep coming back to it during those quiet moments. Maybe wondering “does it mean anything? Nah.” But kind of unintentionally hanging onto it.
24. Your MC is approached with the following offer:
pick any one of your strengths or weaknesses to give up. In return, a coin shall be flipped: heads means you get a new strength of choice, tails means you get a new weakness of choice.
Would they take the offer? If yes, what would they give up? What would they choose for either heads or tails?
[For the sake of the question, the offer is 100% legit, and all parties are fully aware of this. Unless you want this shit to be sketch. Do you, boo.]
He regards the being in front of him.
Thinks: “Yeah, no…I’m already hip-deep in trying to sort out all my bullshit as it is. I don’t need to introduce a whole new thing to factor into things. I’m good. Or, well, not good, but–”
Actually says: “Nope. But, thanks, I guess?”
25. What is your MC’s texting style? Do they abuse emojis? How quick are they to respond to texts?
Full sentences. Proper punctuation. Proper spelling, but sometimes autocorrect is the enemy, and he might send things off a touch too quickly. May use too many commas, but that’s life, right? Will occasionally use acronyms because, honestly, “gdi” and “god damn it” carry different energies.
Abhors emojis 'cause “they’re fucking ugly. Seriously.”
Pretty punctual about texting people back.
26. If your MC were declared God-Emperor of Earth, what would be their first order of business?
“Oh. Well. Shit. Can I turn this down or–”
“No.”
“…fuck. Okay. I’m gonna need a better chair for my desk, then. Since I imagine this shit is gonna involve an assload of sitting. …wait.”
27. Are there any common expressions/phrases/cliches/so on that your MC absolutely despises?
I don’t know necessarily about despises, but…
Them: “Curiosity killed the cat, you know!”
Oliver: regards them blankly, says evenly " then I’ll be sure to pass the message along to any cats I happen to see. Now, if you’ll excuse me…" -goes off to sate his curiosity-
He also hates cliches when they’re all he can come up with when trying to write, like, poetry and junk. Otherwise, he’s chill with them.
28.Who would your MC want to play them in a movie of their life?
“No, see, I’d be some extra in the movie of someone else’s life.” He thinks for a moment. “So whomever… whomever, right? Whomever. As long as they don’t do something stupid like sweeping the air or something. But…wait, that’d probably be an accurate depiction of me. Hmmm.”
29. If your MC were to say one thing to you right at this moment, fully aware of your role in their creation/continued existence, what would they say? And how would you respond?
He stands in the center of the space, arms stretched wide as if trying to indicate the whole of creation. He looks slowly from side to side, taking eternity in, eyes finally settling on mine… and then his face lights up with a triumphant grin.
“No. One. Cares,” he says, slowly – emphatically-- and then his arms drop loosely to his sides.
I cock my head to one side, then take a step. And then another. His smile fades into a look of mild curiosity as I walk to stand scant inches in front of him, and then he flinches ever so slightly as I bring my hands up to cradle the sides of his head, “idiot sandwich” style. I smile.
“But. I. Do,” I reply, just as slowly. Just as emphatically.
His eyes widen, but otherwise he’s stock still as he stares at me. Then his mouth opens, the breathy promise of a spoken first syllable of some word forces its way from his throat, but then he’s gone. Our exchange is complete.
30.Your MC is about to go out like the badass action hero they definitely are. What would they want their final words to be?
“I guess this is what they meant by Oliver…” -sunglasses- “…or nothing. … Wait. Shit. Are those my last–”
[He glares at me. “I’d never say anything that fucking stupid. Give me a little credit.”]
(Actually, it’d probably be something closer to:
"you’d better do yourself a fuckin’ favor and forget all about me, you gorgeous fool.
…and…" he smiles “…but if you don’t… don’t you ever forget I love you.”)