Thursday 11 September 2014

blog link-up, beautiful people, villains





So this is September's BP link-up, and it's question time for a villain. For this one, I have chosen Mirren Jones, also known as Doctor Mirren Scott, who is a villain to half of my main characters. She's not your typical 'villain' - but Dee, Kay, Zed, Abe and Ade would disagree...

1. What is their motive?
Creating a strong society and protecting her family.
2. What do they want, and what are they prepared to do to get it?
She wants her family to be together, happy and healthy. To do this, she is prepared to: kidnap and isolate children, work for an organisation with somewhat dodgy aims and morals, destroy a way of life because she doesn't understand it, and then possibly commit an act of terrorism.
3. How do they deal with conflict?
Not violently. With words and conversation - when that doesn't work, then she sends someone else to deal with it. Probably violently, but she doesn't ask, and doesn't want to know.
4. Describe their current place of residence.
It's a two-level house in Residential Sector 3 of Garden City. Bedrooms upstairs, kitchen and washroom on the ground floor. The kitchen is large, and has a stove that heats the house and the water, as well as being used for cooking. At the back of the house there is a plot of land used for growing food, and the front door leads out onto the bridge over the canal.
5. If they were writing this story, how would it end?
She'd be living in Garden City with her husband and two children, continuing her work at the hospital, and would be able to keep her collection of Outsider objects on display. Her husband would be able to keep working on the new train line, and Garden City would become an Exchange rather than a Terminus.
6. What habits, speech patterns, etc. are unique to them?
She's very precise, and quite self-effacing, in a way. She'll gesture with her graphite stylus while she's working, or use it to scratch an itch, which leaves marks that her husband Ander will wipe away with his thumb.
7. How do they show love? What do they like to do with/for people they love?
She kisses her daughters on the top of the head in the morning before they go off to school. She likes to give people little bundles of flowers that she's grown around the outside of her vegetable patch. Even though she doesn't like cooking, she discovered Ander's favourite food and will cook it for him sometimes (it's a spicy tomato soup with pickles and sour cream).
8. Do they have any pets?
No. No one in the Cities has pets. Here is Mirren when faced with a dog: "The dog is with him too – a large bitch with a brindle coat and ears that come to a point. Before coming Outside I’d only ever seen a dog in the testing facility, and before that, only in books. I suppose out here they are useful for hunting and guarding. Garm seems to have the animal well-trained, but it still makes me nervous."
9. Where would they go to relax/think?
Her garden. Mirren loves gardening - she has to grow most of the vegetables that they eat, but she also grows flowers just because she loves them. For appearances sake they are 'useful' flowers too - such as dill flowers, lavender, or marigolds.
10. What is their weapon of choice? 
She doesn't use violence as a rule, but she threw a chair at someone once. Also, I reckon she'd be pretty comfortable with swinging a garden spade if she felt threatened.

11 comments:

  1. Oh goodness I like her! You're right she doesn't seem like the typical villain, but I can definitely see that she has some villain issues. I mean how do you switch from giving flowers to committing terrorist acts? Nice job!

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  2. @Maddie Jay - thanks! She's on a bit of a moral journey right now, and I'm hoping she redeems herself somewhere along the line, not just for the sake of her family :)

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  3. @Becca McCallum
    I love characters that go on moral journey's right now. So fun to read and write.

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  4. Woah she sounds intense, but definitely not an "average" villain, so well done! That's quite cool. :) I wouldn't like to be in the way if she was hurling chairs around though. >_<
    Thanks for stopping by @ Notebook Sisters!

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  5. Oh man, I just love how she's the "villain" but she doesn't seem all that "villainous" ... like how she just seems "normal" as if she feels justified in what she does. (Let me know if I'm totally off-base here. This is just how I interpreted her.) She seems really interesting!

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  6. @Olivia Rose
    That's exactly it - she believes that what she's doing is the only way that society can prosper, and the theirs is the only way of life that is worth living. Thanks for commenting!

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  7. @Cait
    Thanks for visiting! (and don't worry - she doesn't make a habit of hurling chairs...)

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  8. She sounds cool. ^ ^ She's an antagonist that's actually human.

    Stori Tori's Blog

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  9. @Victoria Grace Howell

    Thanks, Victoria - that's what I was trying to achieve.

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  10. Wow, you've really created a detailed story here! :) It makes it even worse to hate a villain like you normally would when they're not entirely evil.

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    1. @The Magic Violinist
      thanks for visiting and commenting! Mirren is definitely one of those ambiguous protagonists - in the right circumstances, she'd be a good person. (and hurrah - you're the first person to receive a correctly formatted 'reply' on my blog...it's only taken me 4-odd years!)

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