My character, Rae (previously Max, and still a bit upset at me for changing her nickname), has asked for the chance to come out and play today. I won’t let her post her original rambling – go figure it’s got spoilers. But in its place she assures me she has some brilliant character insight. That remains to be seen but I’m going to let her at it anyway.
Rae/Max
I have a gift. I see things other people don’t. No, not like dead people. Cliche much? Like what’s under the surface. I’ve known two people in my life, out of thousands, who can do something similar. But it’s not the same.
One of them – brilliant at seeing potential. He can look at a person and recognize what they might be some day. He sees what a person is capable of learning, being, and knowing. It’s a gift I’m envious of because thanks to what I do, all I see is what they won’t be. The sad thing about all of this is, people so rarely realize their potential. But he keeps looking.
The other friend, gifted at getting people to say what he knows they want to. It’s what makes him such a good salesman. I believe his ex-girlfriend said his lifeblood was selling popsicles to Eskimos. She was right, as crude and vague as that is. Don’t even get me started on her. But him…he can spend fifteen, ten, five minutes talking to a person and know whether or not they’re receptive to his pitch. And then…reel them in.
I’m not quite so jealous of that one. It’s a surface trick. Something that can be taught, learned, used for evil. But he was born with the gift and uses it well. Houdini well.
But what I do…I know what a person doesn’t even know about themselves. I can talk to someone and know what their deepest, darkest insecurities are. The ones that no matter how introspective they are, they don’t admit they have. The things that aren’t on the surface. I know what people are lying to themselves about.
Even my two friends.
Using sarcasm to keep people at arm’s length? Talking big because you’re worried you’re not as smart as the people around you? Completely invested in your religion because it’s the one way you have of making yourself superior since you won’t grasp something that belongs to you and you alone to do it?
No? Of course not. You would never do that.
Except I know which people would. You know what sucks about being able to do such a thing? No one believes it. Every once in a while I think I’ve found someone who might get it and I take a chance. I tell them what I see. I have yet to not be shot down, so I don’t do it very often. But I also have yet to be proven wrong.
Cocky? Maybe. But that kind of arrogance is what makes me such a great character to play with, ne?
So, dear reader/writer/author/friend, what are your characters hiding from themselves? Maybe it’s time to exploit it.
