Subject: Let's have another little character game.
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Posted on: 2019-09-07 20:31:00 UTC

Please consider the following: two of your characters with one core personality trait swapped. Just the one.

As an example, let's look at two of the characters I've got some of you might be familiar with: Ce'rana of Borune, DTE(g) agent from the Belgariadverse (Tolnedran Dryad), and Melissa Marlowe of the Multiverse Monitor, who's more or less from World One.

Let's swap Ce'rana's need to come off as mature with Melissa's fear of 99% of active-duty agents.

On Melissa's end, not much would change, at least on the surface. She wouldn't be afraid of the people around her, so she would be much more open about where she works and what she does there. She'd turn into a much more efficient reporter, though her disdain at the thought of working for a tabloid would become infinitely more obvious - but then, she might go and start a much more serious side column instead, just to prove that she can. It would also probably be a lot harder to get her flustered by going off-script.

Ce'rana, on the other hand... for one, she would be a lot less prone to stabbing her partner, in large part because there would be less need for stabbing in the first place - but also in large part because now, she's afraid of him, which would completely change their relationship. As it is now, they consider each other annoying burdens and will eventually move into adoptive-sibling territory; Ce'rana being scared of Alex would make it much more likely that she'd bite her tongue and do whatever he says to avoid him getting angry with her. And while it hasn't come up yet in stories, she keeps a ledger of what they 'owe' each other, from money to favors to kindnesses. Remove her need to be mature and the ledger becomes a lot more messy; add a fear of everyone around her and it probably disappears in its entirety. A fear of active agents wouldn't necessarily change her backstory at all, but no need to be mature would - she probably wouldn't have stayed in Tol Honeth at all, instead choosing to either move to Tol Borune (her father's ancestral home) or the Wood of the Dryads (her mother's), and more likely the latter - which means she would probably both still believe in magic and be significantly less greedy, and an even better archer than she already is.

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