Character Profile: Sage Chiave

Okay, so…today’s post is about the other main character in the works for Insomnia. I don’t have her character concept completely solidified (or even gelatinized…it’s very runny right now). So, yeah…here we go!

Name: Sage Chiave (Key-ah-vay)
Age: 19
Height: 5’10”
Weight: A lady never tells
Hair Color: Red, long, slightly wavy
Eye Color: Pale green, cloudy, no pupils (Yep, it’s THAT character)

Sage was born blind. As is to be expected, she has adapted to sightlessness quite well and is able to perform many of the tasks required for day-to-day living. Technology has definitely opened up the world to her in ways that some people may never have expected. At a young age, Sage was “abandoned” by her parents, leaving her in the care of her uncle (her parents couldn’t handle the perceived stigma of having a blind child). Sage, of course, is unaware of this reason; being under her uncle’s protection was just a fact of life.

Sage is very strong-willed and confident. She tends to keep her composure under intense stress, leading people to believe that she is more calm and collected than she actually is (her body language does not reflect her internal state). She tends to be very defensive when approached by new people and may come off as cold or standoffish, but she is actually quite warm and loving once she opens up.

Sage currently resides in a house (owned by her uncle) in the southern suburbs of Chicago with her cousin (a 16-year-old girl). She works part-time as a singer in a bar (her uncle’s) while she attends college in the city. She is largely independent and ends up helping her cousin more than vice-versa.

She spends much of her time listening to recorded readings of novels on her tablet and has created a decent amount of poetry (mostly describing how she “sees” the world through her remaining functioning senses). On a fun side note, her favorite book (and the book she is listening to when Ian Locke first sees her) is The Scars that Led Me to You by Elise Forrestier.

There’s other information about her in the works, including stuff regarding her family’s very intimate ties to organized crime, but I haven’t figured all of that out yet. I hope this gives a nice little taste of this character. Any feedback is welcome and appreciated, but please keep it constructive (as always).

See y’all next time!

Character Profile: Ian Locke

Hey all, I know it’s been awhile. Sorry, I’ve been busy and stressed and, well, unmotivated. Happy Thanksgiving to all celebrating it and all that. Okay, today, I wanted to write out a profile for a new character for a story that is still in the development stage (more specifically, it’s just a bunch of ideas bouncing around my mind). At this point, it’s title will either be Insomnia or Dysthymia. Some of these details are subject to change.

Name: Ian Locke
Age: 24
Height: 6’2″
Weight: 180 lbs.
Hair Color: Sandy; Short, Straight
Eye Color: Ice-Blue

Ian has a problem with insomnia. Oftentimes, he will stay awake for days on end without feeling the relief of sleep. He’s found that the only relief for his condition (the only thing that will allow him to sleep) is sexual release. But…it doesn’t work so well if he’s alone…So as exhaustion begins to overtake him, Ian often seeks out an intimate partner to help him nod off to the world of dreams. Turns out, he’s quite good at this…

Ian has a phenomenal (and altogether uncontrollable) ability to persuade anyone who makes eye-contact with his icy stare to give him whatever he asks for. He uses this to coax women into bed whenever he’s in the mood. His strange ability comes with some drawbacks…the more he influences a person, the less capable of volitional behavior they are (a problem he discovered first by accidentally plunging his own mother into a catatonic depression from which she will do nothing unless explicitly instructed to do so). He’s come to realize that using it once or twice isn’t a problem though, so he often hunts for different women every night, using it once to get them into bed, and using it again to get them to forget. To prevent himself from influencing people accidentally (risking future damage), he often wears dark sunglasses, thereby making it impossible to make eye-contact.

At his core, Ian means well. However, he keeps up a very convincing air of arrogance. It doesn’t help that he gets anything that he wants, making him somewhat cocky and entitled. However, he hides his vulnerable side – the tormented brain afflicted by guilt over his questionable exploits and the damage he’s done to his family.

One day, Ian is on the hunt once again. On the train into the city, he catches sight of an attractive young woman. He approaches her to work his “magic”, but something is wrong. She’s not responding the way she should. She resists every advance he makes and does not seem affected in the least by his gaze. He notices that her eyes are without pupils and are a hazy green; it finally occurs to him: she’s blind. Her resistance to his desires intrigue him further and he quietly vows to persist…

That’s all I got right now. The character is still a work in progress and there are some other details that I’ve thought of that are more likely to change than others, so I didn’t include them here. Hope you enjoyed.

See y’all next time!