Characterization Qs

3, 4, 13, 20, 23, 25, 32, Larrrryyyyyyy

3. How do they position themselves in a group? lol bye. verrrrrry much on the periphery. that was also his preference before the crash, but he had to grin and bear being the center of attention a lot more as Hero Captain Larry Trainor

4. What is their size and build? How does it influence how they use their body, if it does? this has come up quite a bit lately, partly because of the literal two-body problem haha

I actually like the idea that the crash (or at least all the shit that happened to him immediately after it -- laying around in the hospital forever and then laying around again on various Ant Farm tables / in his cell) also changed his body in at least one more small but very slightly noticeable way

Hero Captain Larry Trainor was fit af obviously and at least he didn't lose any of that actual muscle, but he is a little taller and slimmer... I actually just suddenly had a LOT of thoughts about that but I'll put a pin in this for now

as for an actual answer: he's a little above average height and around average in build although he's clearly stronger than he looks

I think the most interesting thing about the way he moves is that he tends to overexaggerate his gestures to compensate for the bandages -- I have him tilting his head a lot, fiddling with or moving his hands, etc.

picture him doing everything with his body a tiny bit more than a typical person would

13. How do they greet the world — what is their typical attitude towards life? How does it differ in different circumstances, or towards different subjects? Why do they take these attitudes, and why do they change? How do these tend to be expressed? is :| an attitude

idk actually I'd say it REALLY varies depending on what's going on. like right now he's in a very exciting period and a lot of things are changing, which is FUCKING EXHAUSTING and in some moments he might actually be more stressed/snappish than usual but means that his overall outlook on life is pretty bright atm

dammit plurk

he's not going around singing or anything but man, the Barge is doing right by him, and if anything he's really regretting spending so much of his time back home just sitting around instead of trying to figure out what kind of actual life he could have

OTOH: he is due for a big, big backslide, and when it happens it'll be "is there really any point, most of us are just marking time and trying to make life as painless as possible and why bother trying for more"

(when he hits this moment in canon, Rita and he have moved into their own apartment and she has a job and he's working on a cool project -- but when she asks him what they're actually doing, he says they're just getting by, the same as they did when they lived at the manor. gotta fill the days with something.)

20. What kind of individual relationships do they have with others, and how do they behave in them? How are they different between intimate relationships like friends, family, and lovers versus more impersonal relationships? the closer you are, the more real he is. strangers and people he keeps at arm's length get somewhere between 75-100% dry

sarcasm depending on the situation and any practicalities that have to be dealt with, but he's going to stay on the most pragmatic surface level.

... or he might get pissed and give them shit. but he wouldn't, say, explain why.

friendlies get Actual Content, the closer you get the more likely it is that he will share actual feelings or touch you in a meaningful way.

one thing that's been interesting on the Barge is how he navigates talking about his past, which he almost never does with ANYONE back home, even Rita -- there's even a flashback of sorts where Niles brings up John in an verrrry circumspect way and Larry completely flips out on him

I mean, everyone there has his plane crash backstory, and he's relatively open with that on the Barge since everyone asks about it ANYAWY

anyway*

and he finally came out to his manor family like two weeks before the Barge and being openly gay there has been very interesting and very cool -- but talking about stuff like his family, John, etc. is more hit and miss

a LOT of the reason he got so close to Norton so quickly is just that they have a huge amount of history in common and so it's been really easy to talk to him about a lot of things he'd have to do much more explaining to anyone else

23. How do they respond to difficult social moments? What makes them consider a social situation difficult? /POINTS TO KIRK POST lmao

THAT WOULD BE A DIFFICULT SITUATION

he'll either say something shitty (like he's doing right now) or if it's about him, freak out and/or run away

25. What do they need and want out of relationships, and how do they go about getting it? Honestly, that's a big part of what he's learning right now, and he doesn't really have an answer yet. Like, his old life was VERY practical, even kind of mercenary, in that every relationship he had really did fill a very specific and pragmatic need.

Even John, who he genuinely was in love with. And back home he had mostly just Rita and Niles, and ended up sort of shaping his life around them instead -- like, he also genuinely cares about them both, and he doesn't think of Rita as anything but an equal, but he definitely morphed into much more of a giver and stopped really thinking of himself as

having needs of his own. So now he's in a place where relationships are genuinely optional, and not necessarily for anything, and that's been interesting.

32. Do they have any “props” that are a significant part of their life, identity, activities, or self-presentation somehow? I mean.......