Was I tagged? Uh, no. Are these screenshots even mine? Also no. *coughs and looks at autumn_sunfire  who got them from Silmarilz1701 * But! I shall be doing this anyways! Because what author doesn't want an excuse to talk about her children and their various quirks?

Sedgewick Alverdyne

Quirk #1: NAMES

This is one of those facts that I knew but didn't really notice, if you get my meaning. It clicked for me the other day and boggled my mind.

Names are important to Sedgewick. Not because they indicate title, family, or acceptance (like Feyla's struggle with losing her own) but because of the closeness and sense of identity that comes from naming and being named.

There's a reason Sedgewick goes by "Master Sedgewick Alverdyne" and doesn't like his first name shortened. He worked for that name. He chose it. Changing his name was one of the ways he confirmed his identity as a mage and distanced himself from both his father and from the "useless" boy of his youth. He embraced "Sedge" and "Sedgy" from Bilara as a way of confirming his identity as a boyfriend/fiancé/partner but now that she's ruined those, not even Feyla can reclaim them.

Other people's names are important to him as well. Anytime Sedgewick transitions from using "Feyla" to using "Miss Everbloom", it's usually because he's utilizing alternate names to create emotional distance. The opposite is true too. Him moving from calling her "Miss Everbloom" to "Feyla" in their backstory shows their growing closeness.

Despite his own dislike of nicknames, he also tends to nickname those he's especially close to. Eleyna is "My girl", Tamara is "'Mara", Bilara used to be "'Lara", Feyla is "Dearest", Mydel gets "Boy" a lot (along with another character in Sedgewick's past), and King Eldain was "Dain" but only when they weren't working. Queen Alena (which is pronounced A-lee-na btw) did not receive a cutesy nickname. She was a formal "Your Majesty" in public and a reverent "My Lady" in private. Make of that what you will.

Conversely, taking away people's names instead of giving them a personal one is a way that Sedgewick shows intense dislike. Fenroy is and always shall be "That Man" and Daydrel has swiftly turned into "That Healer" as well. "Boy" is also occasionally used as a weapon instead of an endearment depending on the person and the relationship.

Quirk #2: You're my child, and you, and you...

Another fact that clicked for me recently: Sedgewick has a tendency to adopt/take people younger than him under his wing.

He experienced it himself when he was younger, an although his master was hardly the most nurturing of men, he did give Sedgewick more support than his dad ever did.

I don't think he's quite aware of it, but when he sees someone who reminds him of his childhood (no good father figure, talent but without the opportunity to nurture it) he finds himself reaching out and trying to fill that gap. And acting surprisingly tender compared to how most people see him.

Eleyna gets a special mention.

Quirk #3: "My Girl"

I'll save the discussion of whether Sedgewick's relationship with Eleyna's grandmother, Queen Alena, was healthy or not for another time, but I will say this: he loved her. Deeply, ardently. If there was a cult of Alena then he would have been her most passionate acolyte.

He would have died for her but he didn't get the chance.

So, when Eleyna came along years later and was this tiny, diminutive version of the woman he first loved, it threw him for a loop. He couldn't save Alena but here was her heir, her flesh-and-blood, her features reborn and wielding the same magic powers that killed her. Here was a chance to right his mistake. Sedgewick loved her from the first but when Eleyna was thrust into his care and his protection, then he loved her as his own. Little Eleyna who stared up at him with eyes brighter than her grandmother's. Who when she spoke, spoke what she felt with no obfuscation or carefully crafted avoidance. Who asked for spell books to be read along with stories and had favorites out of each that she clung to even more firmly than she clung to him.

When King Eldain, already not the most emotionally intelligent of feys, began pulling away as he grappled with his only child having the same dangerous powers that killed his mother, part of Sedgewick was...relieved. It was selfish. Eldain was his friend and Eleyna deserved a father.

But if Eldain did not wish to act like a father then Sedgewick would slide into his place without argument. He couldn't give Eleyna his name the way his master had passed down his, but make no mistake, she was his child as far as he was concerned. Calling her "My girl" is him claiming an emotional position as much as it is a term of endearment.

And without Eleyna to love and (slightly) open up to, I don't think he would have been ready to open up to Feyla when the time came.

Feyla Everbloom(?)

Quirk #1: APPEARANCE

If you've paid close enough attention to Feyla, then you might have noticed this but I'm going to delve into it a little more. While other people's physical appearances don't concern her as much, Feyla herself is "a little vanity" regarding her own for a variety of reasons. She knows she's pretty and she isn't afraid to admit that fact or show off her looks when it suits her.

While Feyla doesn't favor her mother's plainer, more conservative style of dress, she did inherit Arilla's concern with looking "just so". Her vanity at her house is filled with lotions and hair tonics and perfume and lip dye and kohl to frame her eyes (although the last two aren't an everyday thing). She takes a certain amount of pride in looking put-together. Not that she's incapable of getting her hands dirty (she did train with blood and diseases after all) but once the job is done, she cleans herself up thoroughly.

There are several reasons for this. The first, strongest, and most obvious in just because that's the kind of person she is. I think she'd act this way regardless of the second reason. Be that as it may, the second reason is less positive.

I think, at least a small part of her, is afraid that people might care for her less if she looked less pretty. A small part of her mind reminds her that her father didn't get caught cheating on her mother until her mother started aging a bit. It doesn't impact her constantly, but every so often she'll look in the mirror and apply the tiniest bit more lotion and fluff her hair just a few seconds longer. Or she'll fish for a compliment when she usually wouldn't. Or she'll bite her lip when another woman bats her eyes at her whoever she's in love with. It's not a constant thing. More of a niggling insecurity that pokes through her skin once in a while.

Quirk #2: JEALOUSY

Let's be real. Feyla's a jealous creature. She can control it, stifle it, but like her vanity, it rears it's ugly head sometimes.

She dislikes visiting the Ivory Tower with Sedgewick for many reasons but a few of them are that 1. Sedgewick's attention is 95% focused elsewhere while they're there and 2. He's the mage version of a celebrity so the young acolytes and apprentices fawn over him and his magic (especially his magic). One particularly brave girl brought him some coffee unprompted and Feyla gave her such a death glare. That's her job. Her mage.

Sedgewick is, of course, mostly oblivious.

It's not just romantic jealousy though. There are several point in both Magic's Minister and Magic's Memories where I had Feyla internally express envy over Eleyna and those won't be the only times.

She doesn't want her crown or Fenroy or anything like that. Politics doesn't suit her and Fenroy's not her type. But she does envy their relationship. Fenroy's a very loyal husband and his every action speaks to his love for his wife. And the despite being stoic in some ways, Eleyna softens for him. The two of them get compared to Breyguard and Aarya, the greatest love story of the fey people.

And then there's Feyla who despite her best efforts, can't seem to find love herself (at least until a certain mage stops sticking his head in the sand). Whose relationship get criticized and dismissed instead of idealized. Who (eventually) struggles to conceive when Eleyna doesn't.

So seeing Eleyna not struggle with everything Feyla worries about and wants eats at her. It gnaws at her gut like a poison. She knows it's not fair. She know she shouldn't feel this way, but sometimes she still does.

I think this is one of the few things she never fully explains to Sedgewick. She doesn't want to admit that she feels jealous of the woman he views as a daughter and she doesn't want him to starting thinking that she's dissatisfied with him or with their relationship.

Like the insecurities regarding her appearance, this isn't a constant thing. She's not stomping around glaring daggers at every woman near Sedgewick and she's not stewing in envy every time Eleyna walks into the room. Feyla doesn't like the feeling. She knows feeling that way is bad for her and her relationships. Jealousy doesn't rule her life, but it's still there and sometimes it surfaces despite her best efforts. She's only fey, after all.

...as a complete side note, I just realized that she shares the trait of jealousy with her son. So that's where he gets it from. *pats my subconscious on the back*

I could continue on with quirks for Eleyna and Fenroy but this has become very long already and taken forever as it is so I'll save that for another day. Hope someone finds this ramble about my character's psyches entertaining. What quirks do your characters have?