You know these moments when your characters meet each for the first time and it’s an awkward one, do you have one or a few? Tell me about those moments.
My Turn:
Project Succession has a few actually that are really interesting.
How Aeris met Lazarus? She and her fellow Knights travel through the sewers to beat the sun. Everyone is a different race, but they all viewed Lazarus differently. Lazarus is a ghost essentially and ghosts are viewed differently by different Alagossian races. They don’t see ghosts or Os’zars the same as others.
Lisselotte and Aeris shared their first meeting by Lisselotte crashing through the window of a random inn. That is how she met Lazarus again, who passed through the ceiling of the same inn.
Aeris met Mephisto by infiltrating the party after Aeris’s sudden coronation by her dumping into him, thus freezing time which allowed them to talk or rather threaten each other.
Dietrich and Aeris are cousins, but they never knew it. They met by Dietrich trying to kill their grandmother Stephanie on the coronation that was later changed to be for Aeris. The cousins tried killing each other in a fight.
LOL!
I do not mind if it’s a humorous one or a cute one.
Hmmm…welp, this is neither humorous or cute, but here goes. The main character, Treymor, is running away from some swindlers who chiseled him and his friends at a phantasmagoria by claiming they could bring the dead king back to life. When the smoke clears the group realizes it’s not the real king, just an actor, so they heckle the phantasmagoria troupe, who then chase them through Venice.
As Treymor is running from them, he’s grabbed from behind and pushed into a gondola, where he finds that his savior is actually the real life dead son of the dead king, who managed to survive the burning of the palace years earlier by crawling out through a servants’ door. He’d heard about the phantasmagoria troupe and had hoped they truly could bring his father back from the dead, but was disappointed to find it was just a scam. (♯^.^ღ)
Alma meets Garick for the first time shortly after being activated. He doesn’t really know what to expect from the world or anyone in it so he’s very new and shiny, meanwhile Garick is jaded and has seen some sh*t. Garick is there to basically act as Alma’s doctor so he’s giving him a checkup to make sure he’s functioning properly. He makes some really rude comments to Alma though because he doesn’t view him as a person, just a machine. Alma doesn’t even know how to respond to this because he’s still just trying to proccess being alive. So, I guess you could call that awkward.
A more cute one is when Alma meets Brook-Lynn. He thinks someone is being hurt because he hears sounds of a fight, so he rushes to help, only to realize she’s sparring with someone for training. She beats her opponent and then asks Alma if he’d like to spar too. He has never done this before, but downloads some info on how to spar from his internal internet connection and agrees to try. She ends up pinning him with her legs around his neck, which is a very awkward position for him to be in. They have a quick rematch and Alma learns quick enough to pin her next so they are pretty evenly matched and Brook-Lynn is thrilled to have a sparring partner on her level so they become fast friends. But it was a bit of an awkward first meeting.
Eliza and Caspian might be the only really awkward first first meeting. Eliza more or less just dug herself out of her own grave and is very naked with the exception of a very big cloak. Caspian is also the first man in her adult life to see her naked, and a ripped Fae lord so she really is just having a terrible day.
Leander and Eliza’s first in person meeting is her drunk, sad and totally clueless that he’s the guy who resurrected her. And proceeds to go on a long tangent about how shitty of a time she’s having and how some asshole ditched her in the woods naked and buried. Then instantly realizing the hot scary guy flirting with her happens to be that asshole.
When Hannah first meets Dov and Freyja....rough notes for a future chapter...
Hannah arrives home early and unannounced and finds two strangers in her family’s kitchen. DEFCON Zero time. Hannah draws her suppressed Jericho and demands answers. Hannah’s thought process begins with ‘first lie this man tells, he’s dead’ and soon changes to ‘next mistake I make, I’m dead.’
In a terse conversation, the man introduces himself as Dov, and the young, muscular, silent yet enraged* girl by his side as Freyja. Hannah learns Dov is a former Commando, and Karen’s guest. Hannah also notices Dov’s Australian accent, and she soon recognises Freyja as a fellow orphan; about equal to Dov in strength, and about equal to Hannah in her near-suicidal devotion to those who care for her (and to those she cares for more than herself).*
*
If you take a pop-shot at Freyja, she’s going to shoot back. But if you take a pop-shot and it lands anywhere near Dov, things are going to escalate very quickly […] What’s about to happen to you will be brought up the next time Geneva has a Convention ~ The Fat Electrician (much paraphrased).
Krista diffuses the situation as she struts into the kitchen like she owns the place, and gives both Dov and Freyja a crushing hug. Krista rebukes the silly Hannah for being very impolite to their new housemates, and to Krista’s new roomie, especially since the girls’ Commando Teddy (Dov’s official rank, apparently) saved Krista’s life yesterday.
On hearing Hannah’s name, Dov and Freyja relax. Freyja meekly gives Hannah a light hug and asks for forgiveness, for being unfriendly to (/ almost leaping across the room to eviscerate) Karen’s daughter, and for wearing Hannah’s clothes without permission. A bewildered Hannah holsters her pistol, permits Freyja to keep any clothes she likes, and offers to help make their breakfast. Freyja whispers one more request; for Dov and Hannah to be friends. Hannah agrees, so long as Dov always looks after Freyja, and makes her smile.**
**
My future plans are for Hannah and Dov to become tentative friends, and for Hannah becomes quite fond of Freyja, treating her as a (doted on) little sister. However, Hannah is always quick to rebuke or punish Dov for any hint of failing to appreciate or admire the beautiful talented Freyja standing beside him. This is often done to entertain or complement Freyja, and to show Israeli-style affection to Dov, but there is always an underlying warning.
Betray my family, break Freyja’s heart, I feed you to the desert ~ Hannah.
Yasmine is a self-trained Bedouin assassin / mercenary, and Zorik’s ex-girlfriend and former protegee.
Jason is a hopeful mercenary recruit, and a former Canadian / US Navy SEAL (Scout-sniper).
Both are applying to join Karen’s mercenary group. Zorik is also Karen’s bodyguard, closest friend, and her first mercenary.
To test the foreign recruits’ combat skills, Karen decides to pit them against Amos’ Bedouin team (all ex-Sayeret operatives, and all from the same Bedouin tribe). Yasmine is included in Amos’ team, and his distant niece, but she is also the only non-Special Forces trained member.
The ‘mock’ battle, fought in a CQB house training area, is a short vicious duel that almost ends in a draw. Yasmine, over-eager to prove her worth as a fighter and to justify her presence on Amos’ team, empties a third of her carbine’s magazine into an SAS trooper’s head (rubber bullets still hurt, helmet or no), then leaps over a couch, spear-tackles Jason to the floor, and whips her dagger (blunt edge) across his throat, ending the battle.
Jason is quite bemused and captivated by the equally mysterious and dangerous Bedouin girl with breath-taking anger management issues (an Avengers film reference), and zero tolerance for fools. Yasmine begrudgingly accepts Jason into her company as a team-mate, then as a battle-buddy and, by the second novel’s beginning, Jason and Yasmine are dating.
So how did you two lovebirds meet? We tried to kill each other in training.
This was about a week after Robin started his journey. He was walking through a town when Aiden came running from a bakery that he had stolen bread from, and ran directly into him. Robin, despite not knowing Aiden, offered the baker some gold coins for the bread, and the baker accepted, and let Aiden keep the bread. Aiden later came to him and thanked him, then joined him on his journey.
Faramond and Zannah
Zannah decided he wanted to see the royal family, but knew he wouldn’t be allowed in the castle. So he decided to try to find a secret entrance. And ended up getting caught by Faramond, who threw him out. And then they met again later after they both got told to attend a meeting by the king.
Viper and Lexi
Viper is a Doberman who was part of Adder’s pack, and Lexi is the alpha of another pack. They met after Viper escaped from Adder, and was running. He ended up in Lexi’s pack’s territory, and Lexi was at first suspicious, but Viper explained the situation, and she took him in.
Maggie and Tay
They met at a camp when they were younger. Maggie was taking a canoe, and Tay was bored. So he decided to take a running leap into the canoe. Which, of course, ended up overturning the canoe. Maggie was understandably not happy about that, and Tay wanted to make it up to her. He eventually did, and they became friends, but he got the nickname “Clumsy Jumper”, and Maggie, in turn, got the nickname “Messy Noodle” (in reference to her spilling noodles everywhere during dinner, the same day that they met). The people who they met later, and started adventuring with, have no idea what these nicknames mean.
Things were pretty awkward for a while after Patrick was found by Domino and the group she travels with.
They found him after he had been stranded on a planet for a bit. When they first meet she points her sniper rifle at him and suggests she shoots him to the others, only to later reveal that she was joking.
Doesn’t get much more mean spirited or awkward than that
