Tag: Leonard Burton

The White Knight #1 – Devotion

Content warnings for talk of police corruption, references to military service, chronic illness, hospitals, shooting (nothing graphic), blood and medical issues, prejudice against fictional people, talk of gangs, non-graphic violence, mentions of drug and alcohol addiction, misgendering (in the context of someone assuming the gender where it’s not known), mention of spiders and rats, smoking, and swearing.

Many thanks to LB Lee and KristyCat for sensitivity and beta-reading. Any mistakes are my own.

Please let me know if you see any typos or other mistakes. Thanks.


Shard City doesn’t love anybody, but I can’t help loving it. It has its bright spots but unless you stay in those small oases it turns into a very ugly place at night, The cops hardly try anymore – too many crimes, too many gangs. It’s funny how you get used to it. Used to watching out for the sun setting, for the alleys like open mouths, for the people with gleaming eyes and hidden weapons. I’m sick of it. And I mean to do something about it.

My name is Delia Tyelu. I’m the White Knight.

 

* * *

A family photo - a tall white, blond man in doing bunny ears to a shorter, chubbier white, blonde man, who is holding the hand of a short Asian woman. She has her arm around her teenage kid who has his arm around her shoulders.
Left to right: Leonard Burton, Nathan Burton, Delia Tyelu, and Joel Tyelu-Burton. Picture taken on Joel’s 19th birthday.

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Character Writing Finale!

Let’s see if I can’t finish off these character building questions that I’ve been working on too long!

What does your character’s bed look like when he/she wakes up? Are the covers off on one side of the bed, are they all curled around a pillow, sprawled everywhere? In what position might they sleep? (TW: child neglect)

Wild Rush – the thing you need to know about Wild Rush’s sleep habits are that his parents were super neglectful. He slept in the basement on a cot from an army surplus. If he’s stressed at all or having nightmares, he’ll toss and turn winding himself in the blankets, and make himself as small as possible (but not curl up, because the cot was too narrow). If he’s relaxed or dozing, he’ll splay out which takes up most of the bed. He’s not a fun person to sleep with, is what I’m saying.

Daisy – As absolutely terrible as her dad was, he at least bought her a proper bed. She tends to curl up and snuggle with a pillow or somebody if they’re there. She gets warm and throws the blankets around and they end up in the floor by morning.

Charles – Charles runs hot, so usually just wants a sheet. Ne sleeps on neir back mostly. Ne sleeps really hard and sometimes snores.

Andre – He runs cold, but luckily he sleeps with a human furnace. He’s a side-sleeper that starts curls up and straightens out as he gets hot. He drools and snores. If he’s sleeping alone he buries himself under a pile of blankets until you can hardly see him. Half of them end up shoved to the side by morning.

Delia – she prefers just a sheet and light blanket. She often ends of sleeping on her front, especially after long days. She likes to splay out and if sharing a bed, to just barely touch each other’s legs and arms. She sleeps really hard and has a hard time waking up.

Joel – Joel buries himself under blankets and sleeps on his side with his limbs relaxed. He snores, but not that loudly, and will talk nonsense in his sleep. He’s a zombie in the mornings.

How about we finish off the Troy-Burton family?

Leonard Burton – he absolutely prefers to sleep with someone and will start as snuggling on his side of the bed and not move until morning no matter where the other person moves to and how much of the blankets they steal. If he has to sleep alone, he’s got a body pillow, but he doesn’t sleep as well and ends up wrapping himself up in the blankets.

Nathan Burton (Delia’s husband, Leonard’s brother, Joel’s dad) – he tends to splay out on his back or side and hog the covers. He moves a lot in his sleep too.

Are there any blood relatives that your character is particularly close with, besides the immediate ones? Are there any others that your character practically considers a blood relative?

Wild Rush – Nope. He hates his family with a passion and will have nothing to do with any of them. If he considered someone a blood relative, he’d loathe them.

Daisy – she never really knew any of her grandparents. Her mom was an only child and her dad’s brothers died in The War. Andre and Charles are like brothers to her.

Charles – not really. Neir extended family lives in different states and ne never saw them much. Ne thinks of Daisy as a little sister.

Andre – He’s got a whole bevy of cousins, but nobody he’s super close with. Like Charles, he thinks of Daisy as a little sister.

Delia – she’s got an aunt that she visits often, and then Leonard, her brother-in-law.

Mask – most of his family is in another country, but he’s close with several of his cousins and tries to spoil the younger members of the family. He’s good friends with several of his aunts and uncles too, although they don’t talk about his work much. He’s got a friend in a monastery that he’s practically brothers with, but that doesn’t approve of his work at all. He considers his lieutenants like younger family too.
What’s your character’s desk/workspace look like? Are they neat or messy?

Wild Rush – super messy. He’ll have pencils, pens, and markers everywhere and doodles in all the margins. He has a huge desk he works on and ends up with a pile of rejected ideas on the floor. He pins tons of stuff to the walls too.

Daisy – she has a smaller desk in her room for homework. She tries to keep it neat, but sprawls out when she’s working, then shoves everything inside when she’s done.

Charles – neir workspace is the kitchen. Ne’s a super neat cook, washing dishes as ne goes and such, but ends up with splatters of stuff on neir clothes and in neir hair. Which is why ne has a collection of cute aprons.

Andre – the closest thing he has to a workspace would be the bathroom when he’s primping. He makes a mess, but cleans it up when he’s done, otherwise Charles nags him.

Techrat – is super neat. Everything has a place and that’s where it stays.

Gimmick – also very neat, but will misplace stuff when he’s focused. His neatness is learned because he was a messy kid and got tired of it.

Delia – her workspaces end up a mess, but she knows where everything is. It all gets taken care of when she’s done of the day.

Joel – about the same as his mom, although he’ll often leave things out because he’s going to get back to them.

Donna Cooper – super neat. She’s got an inbox and an outbox and stuff is in one or the other or being worked on.

Harry Suchek – also very neat, although he tends toward the pile method. He’s got a clear desk by the end of the night.

Kella Aurita – she drives Sucheck (and Cooper) nuts because her desk looks like total chaos. She says she can find everything, but a lot of the time it’s after several minutes of searching. Nothing ever gets lost, but that’s because it won’t leave the desk until she’s done with it.

What might your character’s ideal romantic partner be? (TW: sex, misandry, misogynistic stereotypes, BDSM…)

I’m going to have to diversify, since most of the people I’ve been doing are or were in relationships…

Joel Burton – he says he’d like someone to spoil him at home and just relax with, but he ends up dating extroverts and going to concerts, theme parks, outdoor stuff, and other exciting events.

Jill – she wants excitement! And maybe a sugar daddy. She wants fast cars, fine dinners, dancing, and really hot sex. And he has to be smart enough to keep up with her. Which is why we know two of the people she’s dated were Gimmick and Wild Rush (and WR’s brains are only borderline good enough).

Techrat – if he were to think about a romantic (non-sexual) partner, he’d want somebody that would take care of him. Basically a mother.

Tectrix – …probably a harem of brainless beauties that he’d mostly ignore as they got up to lesbian fun… That or somebody as twisted as him.

Mick Adler – a very smart, very independent domme that would treat him harshly, take care of him after, and leave him alone when he’s working. … He may be the character with the healthiest, most reasonable idea on this list…

Describe your character’s hands. Are they small, long, calloused, smooth, stubby? (TW: weapons, violence)

Wild Rush – he has large elegant masculine hands. He’s a master at sleight-of-hand and watching him work, whether it’s lockpicking, doing card tricks, or playing with guns and knives can be mesmerizing.

Daisy – she’s got small soft hands. Everything looks big in her hands, but she can be as mesmerizing as Wild Rush when need be.

Charles – he’s got very strong hands. He keeps them soft, but everybody knows he can crush anything in them. He likes to keep his nails a little longer and will paint them sometimes, often doing Daisy’s too.

Andre – his hands are rough and calloused. He’s not as strong as Charles (not surprising), but he’s quick and nimble.

Delia – her hands are large, very strong, and tend to be rough. Her nails are always battered and short.

Mask – his hands are gnarled and stiff. He can be strong when necessary, but pays for it later.

Techrat – his hand are beat up, rough, calloused, but he has long elegant nimble fingers. His nails and cuticles are always broken and bitten.

Jill – has very feminine elegant hands, but they have a ton of scars from working with her ferrets. She forgets to use lotion, so they’re usually rough.

Mick Adler – he’s got stubby fingers that are often rough from working. He likes to get manicures and will even get his nails painted, but he’s got tough calluses from working in his lab.

Stuart Ashbow – he has beautiful hands, with a wedding ring tattooed on one finger. It’s garland of rose branches with a small rose where the diamond would be. He gets manicures often (sometimes him and Mick go together and maybe drag Delia along) and takes good care of his nails and hands.

Swordcat – has fuzzy, super strong, clawed hands. They’re big (… I’m noticing some author appeal here… ) and with thick fingers and knuckles.


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Character Writing #12

How does your character react to temperature changes such as extreme heat and cold? 

(Hey, I’ve got a writing snippet that talks about this a bit!)

Wild Rush doesn’t really notice it. If it’s super hot or cold he might change what he’s wearing a bit, but not much.

Daisy feels them and either snuggles with somebody or tries to cool off.

Charles tends to run hot and Andre tends to run cool, so they even out. Andre prefers to run around in bright shirts and Charles likes skirts and dresses sometimes.

Delia doesn’t get cold that often, but can get really hot. She’ll blast the AC or take a cold bath or something.

Joel tends to run cold. He has tons of blankets to wear and warm jackets.

Leonard Burton (Delia’s brother-in-law) loves to go skinny-dipping when he’s hot or lay in front of a fire (preferably with a girlfriend) when he’s cold.

Morning bird or Night owl?

Delia and Joel are both naturally polyphasic sleepers and tend to be night owls. Delia has an easier time in the morning than Joel.

Leonard Burton is also a night owl and is often a slug-a-bed. But he’ll get up to make breakfast for people.

Wild Rush is totally a night owl. That’s when all the exciting stuff happens.

Daisy is more of a morning person, but likes to stay up with Wild Rush.

Charles is totally a morning person. It’s quiet and ne can relax and read or get caught up on things or whatever.

Andre honestly isn’t super fond of either. He’d prefers during the day when there’s lots of light.

Sergeant Aurita is totally a night person, for the same reason Wild Rush is. Night time is exciting.

Silver Dollar loves to sleep in late and stay up late. It’s a really really bad idea to wake him up without a good reason.

Techrat is… none of the above. He keeps a very bad and erratic sleep schedule and often gets his days and nights reversed.

Gimmick is a morning person. The earlier you get up, the earlier you can get stuff done. He likes to watch the sun rise with breakfast.

Donna Cooper is about the same. If she gets up early, she can get started on stuff before people starting bringing more problems.

Swordcat is another slug-a-bed. He takes catnaps and is up all night.

Mask is another morning person. Usually because he couldn’t sleep. He tends to go to bed early because he’s exhausted.

Jill loves to go out at night, dancing and drinking, and causing trouble. And then she gets up at a reasonable hour to do research and stuff.

Mick Adler is not a morning person at all, unless he woke up with an idea. He also likes to go out at night, but if possible he’ll go home with somebody fairly early.


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Character Writing #7 (or so)

I misnumbered one last time and had a mini, but we’ll call it seven.

Yeah, been a while since I did this. I’m trying to do Camp Nanowrimo and don’t really feel like working on the story I was trying to do, so I’m doing this instead. And counting it.

It occurred to me a few days ago that Wild Rush’s grey skin could be related to argyria (tw for medical stuff and eyes in that link). He got splashed with some sort of chemical in a robbery gone wrong and a patch of skin turned grey and then spread. Now, he stayed grey and turned completely grey because he wanted to, so his powers made it happen. But. I dunno.

I’m currently trying to find out if it would turn his tongue and around his eyes grey too. (The pictures I can find of people with argyria aren’t very clear). It looks like it’s worse where light hits it? So the inside of the mouth probably wouldn’t be affected? (Unless I decide it is…)

But. To the actual character writing.

#29. How does your character smell? Do they wear any perfume / cologne?

Wild Rush – like wool and aftershave

Daisy – I’d imagine she likes flowery scents and would wear perfume. If she hasn’t put any on, she smells like jasmine or something from her shampoo.

Delia – when she’s superheroing, like leather and metal. Otherwise, probably likes spicy scents.

Joel – he burns incense a lot, so he smells like that

Leonard Burton – cotton, leather, and motorcycles. Just good man smells.

Charles – ne wears perfume, something spicy and flowery.

Andre – he wears a subtle cologne, something with a vanilla undertone

Techrat – like cotton. Doesn’t wear anything. Often sweaty and metallic smelling from working too long with electronics.

Gimmick – if he’s working, like metal and sulfur and other electronic smells. If he’s showing off, like nice cologne.

Swordcat – like a cat. Kinda a dusty musk.

Mask – not good. Wool, with b.o. He doesn’t sweat and hardly has a sense of smell. He does his best, but it’s an uphill battle.

 

 


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Character Writing #3

(Trigger warning: light misgendering, senility, food mentions, disability, scarring & tattoo talk, murder)

I’m adding three more characters. I’m also going to do the questions for Charles and Andre (I need to look up their last names, but it’s on the other computer) and then a random character that will probably change for each question.

Character’s relationship with parents:

Charles – (I haven’t decided pronouns, so for now I’m going to use zie/zir for zie) Zir parents were really conservative, but trying. They were fine with zem being gay, but confused by zem being non-binary. For years they assumed that meant zie wanted to be a girl and would buy zem typically female-assigned stuff. That was partly okay, because zie does like feminine stuff, but they overdid it. Zie’s got two sisters and their family didn’t have huge amounts of money. Zie gets along fine with all of zir family, although zie often finds zir parents tiring.

Andre – he was spoiled rotten and getting out on his own was a huge shock. His mom would do all his cleaning, food prep, etc, so he didn’t know how to do laundry, cook, etc. Charles thought that was funny and helped him learn when they were in college. His dad has gone senile and Andre finds visiting him very sad, but tries to go at least once a month. He has a younger brother that takes care of his parents (they’re in a nursing home) and he doesn’t approve of Andre’s career and won’t take any of his money. But they’re polite to each other, in a somewhat awkward, prickly way.

Joel Burton (okay, I’m giving myself an easy one :P ) – seeing as his parents have more than plenty of money, Joel’s got a fairly easy ride. Which makes dealing with his disability a lot better. (I can’t remember the name I gave the disease – it’s similar to Parkinson’s). His dad would spoil him and his mom was stricter, but overall it balanced out.

Most prominent feature:

Charles is huge. Like tall, massive, generally huge.

Andre is very classically good looking.

Techrat – his shaved head. Not like fuzzy shaved. Bald shaved. And not cuz he’s balding. Aside from that, probably the barcode tattooed on the back of his neck.

Scars:

Okay, so medical technology is more advanced than in our world, so people generally don’t get scars from surgeries, etc. People get the normal day to day scars, which can be removed easily if they want.

Charles has a puckered sort of scar on his right shoulder where zie got a tattoo removed. Zie was really young when zie got it and a friend did it with a homemade tattoo gun. Zie keeps the scar as a reminder that we all do stupid things sometimes.

Andre is one of the few people that the scar removal tech doesn’t work on. He’s got scars all over his chest and arms from the various fights he’s been in.

Delia would have a c-section scar if not for the technology.

Gimmick has heavy calluses behind his ears from the hearing aids he wears (of his own design). He’s also got a faint white mark on his left shoulder that is all that remains of the surgery scar when he got his rotator cuff repaired.

How vain:

Charles thinks zie’s pretty good looking, but zie’s not vain about it.

Andre loves to primp, but he keeps it private (cuz Wild Rush is a lot more vain than he is and will throw a tantrum.)

Techrat absolutely hates how he looks. But he has serious issues, in that he wishes he was a machine.

Sexual Orientation and history:

Charles just loves the dudes.

Andre is closer to being bi than gay, but identifies as gay. He’s slept with people of all types, but is only romantically attracted to men.

Leonard Burton (Delia’s brother-in-law) loves the ladies. He’s aromantic and just wants sex and to spoil his (current) girlfriend. He stays really good friends with past girlfriends, in a completely healthy way (he’s not a nice guy™, he’s actually a really nice, giving guy, who just likes to sleep around).

How easily does your character make friends? Are they well liked?

Charles makes friends pretty well, but drops them quickly too if they say anything even remotely bigoted.

Andre is more forgiving, but has a harder time making close friends. He has a huge number of acquaintances who think they’re closer than they are.

Gimmick doesn’t really make friends. He’s got a giant ego that doesn’t make room for anyone else. One of his closest friends is Techrat, because they share a love for technology.

Techrat also doesn’t make friends, but that’s because he finds people disgusting and annoying.

Describe your character’s happiest memory

Ugh, I hate questions like this. Either you get cliche answers (when they met their spouse, when they got married, when they had their kid…) or you get spoilers.

Delia: One of those cliches. She was deeply in love with her husband. Probably also when the company she worked for (that she co-founded with friends) took off after all their hard work.

(Trigger warning: murder)

Wild Rush: probably the one he values most is when he killed his parents, although probably falling in love with Daisy is happier.

(end trigger warning)

Daisy: learning to drive, falling in love. I dunno.

Charles: meeting other non-binary people for the first time.

Andre: graduating college

Gimmick: when he got his first hearing aids and then when he made better ones (the money he makes off the patent doesn’t hurt any either)


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