Ordinary and Something Extra

It's probably tempting for many fantasy fans to make characters with vibrant colored hair and eyes, but personally, I find that when those are a dime a dozen, it's the more subtle characters that shine. Rather than lead up to talking about the character as usual, I'm going to use Lyria directly as the example in this post.

Lyria has brown hair and green eyes. I'm going to cringingly admit that I don't remember offhand how I described them in the book, but I know that over time, I definitely made it head-canon that it was not some startling shade of green but a green more like my own-- just eyes that couldn't decide whether to be brown or blue. I also envisioned hair like mine-- the sort of brown that is common in kids that started out platinum blond, sort of ashen and not exactly dark or light.

There are some parallels between this character in myself, but she was never written to be me and I never favored living in her head more than any of the others, but I did give her something else of mine-- an ordinary existence with extraordinary tendencies.

I don't have anything in common with her origin story, being anything but ordinary. Her mother fled from her home with a newborn her and she never knew her father or really any father for that matter. The closest thing to it was the man her mother chose to live with. When her mother died when she was young, she ended up living with that man who is very like a step-father but was more like an employer since she worked in his tavern/inn to earn her keep.

She has a sort of low-key double edged superpower though and whomever she touches, she knows what they are thinking. She often uses it to reveal dishonesty or danger in the people who stay at the inn or hang out in the tavern, but it keeps her at a distance.

And yes, now that True Blood is a thing, I know how very much it parallels Sookie Stackhouse, but there are a lot of ideas I had prior to these popular themes where I feel like I'm sharing a lot of creepy brainwaves yet absolutely cursed to not beat anyone to it. Remember, the first books of my series were plotted out over 15 years ago. Charlaine Harris wasn't the first; I won't be the last.

But alas, no vampires, werewolves, or fairies in this version of the idea. 

Like most odd/rare/quirky types, they tend to find more people like them and it cultivates this strength that they aren't really so rare or weird, etc. Except Lyria doesn't really get that. What she does run into is Pierait, who is also an anomaly in an anomaly, the closest thing to it. 

Nevertheless, she doesn't run into anyone with her particular issue. Freaks, even when they find each other, are still usually plagued the specific differences that keep them in a feeling of isolation. In some ways, they strive to display their most ordinary qualities to offset what makes them stand out. Even when they let their freak flag fly, they tend to pick their battles as they grow. At best, they find ways to best use this difference for better or worse simply because masking it is a lost cause.

It's human to want what we're not. Ordinary people want to be extraordinary and vice versa. Yes, that's right; it's not always some humble brag or else big celebrities wouldn't fade while their demand is high to simply enjoy anonymity (and probably their extraordinary fortune, but I just don't see anyone going full-hobo on principle).

As a story develops, it's damn near impossible to keep an ordinary character from becoming extraordinary. It would be a waste not to develop that element. How they evolve as a person could reflect either simple humility or extravagant grandeur. They would learn there are consequences to making it known (which was why Tony Stark flat out admitting he was Iron Man was a very different approach to the dual lives most superheroes take on for anonymity. Break that wall and you pioneer unknown territory to consider). They would also decide if they can handle them.

Too much humility can be crippling as well. You've probably met or befriended (or are) one of those types that is ridiculously talented but brushing it off or even apologizing for it. There is a lot to weigh in deciding which aspects of yourself to show or eliminating any consideration at all. A lot of people who were reckless in their youth become cautious when the consequences slammed a harsh reality down. For Lyria, it's hard enough to bear the burden of invading other people's thoughts. It's another problem if they suspect she's doing it.

COLOR-PORN TIME!

While mucking through color sliders, I found one named 'mud' that was oddly perfect for her hair. You can see the ashen quality, the blonde base that darkened to a medium brown that wavers between dark and light next to other browns even slightly different. The difficulty with this brown is that it's not representing one color with this hair type in the least. It's the sort of hair that has odd copper streaks, even black and white strands, and even looks a lot darker or lighter depending on where the hair is parted or how it is styled. As rainbow in the natural hair spectrum as it sounds, it's oddly still a drab ashen brown overall, one that can be overlooked in most light.

For her eyes, I actually used the coloring groupings below the hair color this time and took the green from its square but desaturated it 25% more. Again, a nice natural earthy color without being drab. It's very nearly a mineral green, one that would take a standard blue/grey eye color and mix with a light brown/hazel hue. They look nice together, both greyish and even drab, but with the potential to brighten with different combinations. Actually, let's try that out...

Playing with opacities between them (the original colors at top) we see some ranges where they work together. We could go much lighter and darker with both, but these are lighter towards the middle.

Next up, we'll have Melchior. We'll finish up this color series with the big bad.

Where does your character, favorite or not, fall on the ordinary/extraordinary scale? Sometimes it's a muddy area where perception colors it, but your perception as a writer is often something your fans will be very interested in since it is different than their own.