Hidden Haven

This post would rightly be a long time coming.

I'm sorry about the confusing likeness of the names. Honestly when I first started writing Next Assignment I had no plans to write Vivant's story. He was a minor, small character in an embarrassingly childish story and I thought that was the last anyone would see of him.

So yes, Vivrael is in fact, very much, based off Vivant.

The original Vivant is very much different to both Vivrael and the current Vivant - savagely proud, antagonistic to the point of sadistic, wildly unpredictable, manipulative for the sake of manipulative...kind of like Sigmund and Lyriel and Vivrael all combined.

Vivrael hadn't meant to resemble Vivant in all that. The main thing he bore away from Vivant was his easy charisma. I'm not sure if new (younger) Vivant has that. I think it's much harder to come through when 1) he's young and allows himself to be bumbling, and 2) it's written in first person.

But Vivrael...I think even young Vivrael, even when he's a jerk and an idiot and messing around in the Black Zone stirring up fights, even when people dislike him for his bullheaded aggression, he still has an unsheddable charisma that undoubtedly attracted Solen to him. I think anyone else would have envied and hated him, but Solen has seen the vulnerable child behind the flimsy confidence, and chose grudgingly to stay beside him.

And older Vivrael, the one that was most closely based on (original) Vivant, would in spite of his efforts be more alluring in personality. Less flamboyant, and because of what he's been through, more thoughtful and weighed in his actions. He probably doesn't realise how much impact he has when he drops his smile.

It's funny how two characters stemming from the same can cease to resemble each other. Vivant turns out to be much graver than Vivrael would be at his age...and he isn't even being angsty! He seems much more measured, quietly analytical of his own actions and of those around him.

And surprisingly that he would be quieter when he's more of a loose string - he has no ties to family, very few friends he would trust, and just a thin claim to responsibility. I wonder if his early friendships were what defined his relationships hence. His closest trust with Arianna was betrayed, and every acquaintance he makes since are either politically motivated or simply not clever enough to understand him.

Giras in some ways is like Solen, the weary babysitter, who tries to tidy up when hell breaks loose. But Giras never comes to understand Vivant as Solen does Vivrael. He's too honest for it, and sooner or later his and Vivant's ideals and morals will clash.

I think maybe it's the lack of parenting that finally gets to Vivant. Unlike Giras, he doesn't have the luxury of knowing what he believes in. He only knows people...and their determination to tread over everyone else for their wants. He learns, and those flimsy ethics he learned years past in defunct Sorcerer Council become outdated.

And I think because, towards the end, he gives up...because those ethics cannot stop hurting his friends, and his friends cannot stop hurting his emotions, and his emotions cannot stop hurting himself. So he turns away...and when he turns back, it's much too late.

But that's a long time away, for now.