[Homework]

[Two Positives and a Negative]


[These profiles have been written in Lexi's voice, but they're not generally something she would ever write or say. I thought about how to justify her tabulating everyone's strengths and weaknesses, but there wasn't anything I could think of that wasn't kinda strained. So for the purposes of this post, let's say Lexi was watching Futurama, got hypnotized by the Hypnotoad (ALL GLORY TO THE HYPNOTOAD), and spouted this out at her TV while no one else was there to hear.]


Andrew

1. Andrew is really smart and helpful and always helps me figure out what to do.

2. He’s also just really dutiful and always does his best to do what’s best for the group.

N. He doesn’t really put himself forward enough, you know? Like, how his dad was trapped and he was all hesitant to ask us to go free him first. I was like, “What? C’mon, of COURSE we’re gonna help you save your dad ASAP. Why didn’t you ask earlier?” I think it’s that he’s afraid of being the leader. He’s so good at helping us all that I think he’d make a great leader, but he doesn’t actually want to be in control of us at all, even though we’d probably let him if he wanted.

Hal

1. Hal tries really, really hard to not look like a brute, but the secret he’s trying (and failing) to keep is that he’s actually not one at all. He has perseverance, but isn’t a bully. It’s funny, I really think he could stand to loosen up and just be himself, but he can’t because he really doesn’t know, deep down, that “just himself” is a perfectly nice guy.

2. Hal is very stubborn. This is good because it means he doesn’t let little obstacles get in his way.

N. Hal is very stubborn. This is bad because it means sometimes he lets little problems get him off-target.

Kennedy

1. Kennedy is quiet a lot of the time, but I think it’s because she has great dignity. I always feel like I’m talking to ocean, or the night sky, when I’m talking with Kennedy, and I mean that in a good way. There’s a vastness to her that swallows up your words, like echoes in a cathedral. She has an old soul.

2. I think it’s really nice how much family means to Ken. And now she has the wolf pack as new family, but she’s keeping her old family as well, and then there’s us, too. She has this ability to stretch her love around so many people without straining.

N. I’m not sure why, but she also seems, I dunno, kinda naïve to me. Like the whole business with Hal: I’m not sure of all the details and I don’t really want to pry, but it seems like she’s waiting for her knight in shining armor, but that’s not really what you get most of the time. Some of the happiest couples I know met under the most boring of circumstances and fell in love for highly mundane reasons. Though I dunno, I’ve been thinking a lot about how Fate works ever since my mother gave me that poker card and maybe since she’s a Scion it wouldn’t be so outlandish to expect such a thing, even literally.

Claire

1. She and Cindy are pretty adorable together. She has a caustic sense of humor (really, just an aggressive outlook in general), but it complements Cindy’s toughness.

2. She’s spunky, but that’s just a cover for her indefatigable rage. I don’t think we’ve actually seen her well and truly angry yet, and when we do, she will burn hot enough to boil oceans, cold enough to kill gods.

N. She has no focus, whatsoever. I’m sure there are things she really cares about (and Cindy’s one of them, though she downplays it to an extent), but she’s sitting on them and dicking around. She uses her sharp jokes to pare away the edges of things that get too close to her so she can keep sitting back and pretend like none of this really matters to her. I think, to an extent, it’s because she knows how dangerous her anger could be and doesn’t want to trigger it for real, so she uses her apathy as a guard.

Cindy

1. She and Claire are pretty adorable together. She’s really straightforward and I know a lot of people that would drive crazy, but I don’t think Claire could tolerate (much less appreciate) anything else.

2. She’s utterly fearless, and I don’t even think it’s a front. Fear and anger, the two are entwined, and I don’t think she has either in especial excess. She taps into courage when she fights, not rage, and goes boldly even when it’s dangerous. Not that she’s an automaton or anything. Some things can scare her and others make her angry, but neither feeling really drives her. This is actually another reason why I think she and Claire work well together: she isn’t afraid of Claire’s anger, and she has enough courage to compete with it head-to-head.

N. She really could stand to think things through a bit more. Courage is all well and good, and sometimes mad charges pay off, but it’s going to get her killed some day.