Today I was flipping through my really old artbooks, childish colourings from high school. I came across a picture of Xantes, and came across a lot of things I wrote on him, as notes on the character.
He had always been Arianna's son. A lot of things in the original setting will/must change. Vivant has changed a lot...originally he was an afterthought attached to Xantes.
When I first began Vivant's story I had forgotten Xantes' defining characteristic, and it was when I re-read those cringeworthy things I wrote nearly 10 years ago that I remembered.
Xantes had a "charming smile". It was how I described it. But I guess it was the sort of smile that melted resolves and made friends even when they tried to resist.
In the original setting, he was Arianna's son, killed by her when he was seven for no known reason, his broken body found not far from home (I was such a sadistic 15-year-old XD).
Other things I had forgotten. "Foxling", he was called, fondly by Vivant, and much less fondly by others. "Little fox", sly and coy like his mother.
But his personality wasn't very much like his mother at all. Less calculating and ambitious, much more like Saesario (whom, in the original, he was half-brother to, a setting which I think I'll have to discard).
Sometimes though, reading back, he seems more like Vivant. Of course this was never something I went into much detail about before, but maybe he picked it up from Vivant. The steady smile, laced lightly with sarcasm. He's not as well-defended as Vivant...strange that, even in the old story, Vivant was so well-protected, so closed-off, so withdrawn from being moved by emotion.
It's not as though Vivant doesn't show or feel emotions, but somehow he rarely lets them possess him, instead stepping back and then choosing his response.
And funny how, even back then, he was well-versed in flattery XDDDDDDD Probably better-versed, in fact, coloured by experience and purpose, no longer honest compliments offered by a child.
I think I must have loved the old Vivant because of how easily he stirred up arguments around him. A hidden barb, offered in that pleasant, mild voice...and a pointed look. It's not a skill the new Vivant has acquired yet, which is a bit sad...LOL
Vivant was really fond of Xantes. He will still be, but never to the same extent.
I haven't decided what to do with Xantes yet (well, I know what will happen to Xantes at the end of Vivant's story, but not beyond that).
I wonder if Xantes will ever cross paths again with Vivant, and greet him, with those eyes that look so like his mother's, and that smile that could disarm the tightest resistance. I wonder if he'll pretend they had never met.
I wonder if Vivant will play along, answering his smile, hiding his wariness behind a pleasant web of lies. And maybe, just accidentally, he'll find himself disarmed...
He had always been Arianna's son. A lot of things in the original setting will/must change. Vivant has changed a lot...originally he was an afterthought attached to Xantes.
When I first began Vivant's story I had forgotten Xantes' defining characteristic, and it was when I re-read those cringeworthy things I wrote nearly 10 years ago that I remembered.
Xantes had a "charming smile". It was how I described it. But I guess it was the sort of smile that melted resolves and made friends even when they tried to resist.
In the original setting, he was Arianna's son, killed by her when he was seven for no known reason, his broken body found not far from home (I was such a sadistic 15-year-old XD).
Other things I had forgotten. "Foxling", he was called, fondly by Vivant, and much less fondly by others. "Little fox", sly and coy like his mother.
But his personality wasn't very much like his mother at all. Less calculating and ambitious, much more like Saesario (whom, in the original, he was half-brother to, a setting which I think I'll have to discard).
Sometimes though, reading back, he seems more like Vivant. Of course this was never something I went into much detail about before, but maybe he picked it up from Vivant. The steady smile, laced lightly with sarcasm. He's not as well-defended as Vivant...strange that, even in the old story, Vivant was so well-protected, so closed-off, so withdrawn from being moved by emotion.
It's not as though Vivant doesn't show or feel emotions, but somehow he rarely lets them possess him, instead stepping back and then choosing his response.
And funny how, even back then, he was well-versed in flattery XDDDDDDD Probably better-versed, in fact, coloured by experience and purpose, no longer honest compliments offered by a child.
I think I must have loved the old Vivant because of how easily he stirred up arguments around him. A hidden barb, offered in that pleasant, mild voice...and a pointed look. It's not a skill the new Vivant has acquired yet, which is a bit sad...LOL
Vivant was really fond of Xantes. He will still be, but never to the same extent.
I haven't decided what to do with Xantes yet (well, I know what will happen to Xantes at the end of Vivant's story, but not beyond that).
I wonder if Xantes will ever cross paths again with Vivant, and greet him, with those eyes that look so like his mother's, and that smile that could disarm the tightest resistance. I wonder if he'll pretend they had never met.
I wonder if Vivant will play along, answering his smile, hiding his wariness behind a pleasant web of lies. And maybe, just accidentally, he'll find himself disarmed...
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