Beautiful People is here again!
(Er… that is… it’s been here for three weeks already and is about to close for the month. I never said I was punctual… *cough*)
This month’s theme for the questions is Childhood! YAY! So I’m doing Teague from The Other Half of Everything. Because.
I’ve noticed that whenever I answer the questions about the characters, it’s more informative, buuut when the characters answer the questions themselves, it may be way less informative but more fun.
I feel like fun, so I’ve tweaked the questions from “their” to “your”, directed at him, and talked Teague into answering because I told him he could answer in between reading. …I now see that may have been a bad idea.
Anyhow, on with the show!
Beautiful People: Childhood Edition (June 2016) with Teague
(I’m in bold; Teague is in regular type.)
1. What is your first childhood memory?
*looks up from behind book* *directs a vague stare my way from under eyelids drooped halfway down* Meridian would tell you that I can’t remember what I had for breakfast this morning — which I must admit is entirely true. (Did I have breakfast today? I certainly wouldn’t know.) And you’re asking me about my earliest childhood memory? Well, someone is obviously in for a surprise.
Because you don’t remember?
Because I do, as a matter of fact. *goes back to reading* *looks up again* Right, yes… I distinctly recall, at the age of two or so, falling flat on my face when I tripped over a tussock of grass. Fascinating, I know.
2. What were your best and worst childhood experiences?
*mild sigh* Are we really doing this?
Yes.
Mmm… Best: that really good book I read, the one with the . . .
*gives him a look*
*pauses* What does that look mean? Is it a hint?
It means actual experiences, specifically outside of pages.
A bit picky . . . but all right, adventures with my siblings, then. Worst: Probably the time I got eaten. Nearly. Dragon incident. Not my fault, by the way . . . *trails off because is already reading again*
3. What was your childhood home like?
*long, long pause while Teague continues to read*
Ahem.
*longer pause*
Finally: *Teague glances up* Oh, we’re still doing this, are we? Well. I suppose you could say it was a house. In fact, it was… house-like. Wooden. Painted white. Like Lulin’s hair. *shrug*
4. What’s something that scared you as child?
Oh, the usual, you know: dragons or paper cuts or something. Moving on, then.
Author’s note: His worst fears: losing one of his siblings, and losing his imagination. Um. Let’s just say he doesn’t like to talk about this… >.>
5. Who did you look up to most?
My father, I suspect. And my favorite authors.
6. Favourite and least favourite childhood foods?
This question sounds suspiciously like it came from Meridian… always badgering me about food. I can’t fathom it, exactly. I never have been very into food, to be honest. It’s not something I think about. But I do remember rather disliking cauliflower cheese, and I recall some quite good meat pasties with some sort of grey-ish mushroom-y gravy, as well as being moderately fond of lemon meringue pie.
7. If you had your childhood again, would you change anything?
Nothing. And everything. *tilts head sideways* Would you?
8. What kind of child were you? Curious? Wild? Quiet? Devious?
Definitely more on the quiet side, with a touch of curiosity, perhaps… I left the wild and devious side of things to Ivan and… others. I never went in for that kind of thing. Of course not. Absurd, really. I don’t know why in the world you would think it, honestly. *sticks nose firmly back in book*
9. What was your relationship to your parents and siblings like?
It was fine, thank you. You said there were ten questions, so what’s the last one? *goes back to reading*
All right, I’ll answer this. When he says “fine” he does mean it — he got along rather well with his whole family. It’s just a complicated question to ask NOW because his relationships “now” are far from “fine”, so it’s not a subject he dwells on.
Teague was always rather independent, if reserved (usually), but his relationship with his parents was a good one… but they’re dead now. He always had a good relationship with his little sister Lulin (not so little now), and that has not changed. She has a mischievous side like Ivan’s, but also a streak of quietness, which means she and Teague often understood each other when the wilder brothers didn’t.
Teague’s relationship with his two brothers is more complicated.
Teague was the quiet leader type role, but his next brother, Errol, of-whom-we-do-not-speak, was very much the dashing charismatic ringleader. Ivan was the reckless mischievous type, and would have followed Errol anywhere, and often did. Teague got along well with Errol — they all did; he was the center of their group, the heart, if you will — but Teague also often tried to temper Errol’s daring schemes with more wisdom.
Teague and Ivan got along okay, usually, though truthfully neither of them paid a ton of attention to each other since there was always Errol between them. Ivan always found Teague a little too cautious, which was boring and stuffy. Teague always thought Ivan was a little too reckless, but it never mattered much because between Errol and Teague’s dual leadership, they all always got out of their scrapes and adventures well enough. Until they didn’t.
Now Errol is dead, and Ivan and Teague are very much not on speaking terms. Lulin’s still on good terms with both of them, but angry with them for the split. Things are a bit… strained, you might say. So as you can imagine, Teague does not like to discuss his relationships to his siblings because they used to be fine, and now they’re… not.
…I told you it was more informative (and longer) but less fun when I answer questions. >.> Back to Teague, now.
10. What did you want to be when you grew up, and what did you actually become?
*arches eyebrows and stares over book at questioner* I beg your pardon, Miss Interviewer, but that is not the correct way to ask things at all. People never grow up. I do wish people would understand this. “What do you want to be when you grow up”, “what are you now that you’re grown up” — nonsense, all of it. *stares vaguely into the middle-distance* It’s not like people hit some magical threshold and floof, they’re “grown up” —
(“Floof”? Really?)
*waves hand slightly* It was the sound that wanted to be made. At any rate, grown-up-ness is never achieved, and we do not “become” something suddenly… it has to happen which is a process… And all that “when” you grow up and “now that” you’re grown up… where does it really get us? It doesn’t, because you must admit those are definite statements of past or future, and all we really have, ever, for a certainty, is the present, the now . . .
*face-palm* Just answer the question.
*blinks mildly* Excuse me?
Fine then. Please.
*little absent shrug of uncaring* If you want to be that way. Don’t blame me if it doesn’t turn out the sort of answer you wanted, with a ludicrous question like that. But I don’t know why you can ask about what I am when I’m grown up, at my age.
You’re twenty-five.
Precisely my point. I’m nobody’s grandfather, exactly. Still a bit young, don’t you think? But all right. *turns an absent dreamy look apparently through his nearest bookcase* Well. I wanted to be a writer and a hero. I’m a little of both, you could say, so I suppose that turned out fairly all right, if you put it in those terms. There’s always room for improvement, though, on both counts.
(I take it back about the “longer” thing.)
***
This concludes Beautiful People June 2016.
Thank you for reading!
*look of minor surprise* Why, you’re welcome. I suppose it is rather rare to find readers these days…
…I was talking to the blog readers, thanking them for reading your rabbit-trail-y answers.
Oh. Well, they’re welcome, too. And I thank them as well. *smiles faintly* *a pause* I am not rabbit-trail-y, by the way. In fact, everything I said was entirely related–
*hastily wraps up post before he can get rabbit-trail-y again*
*yawns* I heard that, you know. And I may very well get offended. *goes back to reading* *adds:* Someday.
Meridian calls from the background: “Unlikely!” *pause* “Now come eat your breakfast, Teague!”
The End.
P.S. Don’t forget that that lovely fan-voted Fantasy Oscar thing the Silmarillion Awards are still underway! Nominations end on July 1st, so if a) you haven’t nominated anyone yet, b) you haven’t nosed around the comments lately to see if there are gems of characters others have nominated who you must second, or c) if you have a friend or three who might enjoy sharing their two cents on favorite fantasy characters, do gallop on over to the posts and join in the fun! Remember that Teague approves of this, because, ya know, Fantasy. 😉
The lovely Emily Ann Benedict (author of the Persuasion retelling in the 
Mirriam Neal is a twenty-two-year-old Northwestern hipster living in Atlanta. She writes hard-to-describe books in hard-to-describe genres, and illustrates things whenever she finds the time. She aspires to live as faithfully and creatively as she can and she hopes you do, too.
Deborah O'Carroll (Road of a Writer) 