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Ohhh, how much do I love Fairly? I seem to fixate on a character at a time in ~rotation~ and at the moment it's Alex. I think what I love is he is deeply, deeply flawed but a lot of the flaw has to do with how he does relate to his Tale, and how he relates to people around him. His Tale essentially dictates the attitudes that make him an ass, but also why he does have values and integrity way deep down - and when he does try and disassociate from his Tale, it's the integrity he moves away from, so Alex primarily sees Shahryar as a good king and man rather than a womaniser, which is actually Alex himself.

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Essentially he's young, and he's deeply wrapped up in 1001 Nights. He doesn't want to be 'rescued' from it - which seems on the surface to not wanting to leave his womanising/sleazy, free-n-easy life behind - but it's more because if he does surrender, and buckle down and be with One Woman, he's got nothing left. The Tale was over when Shahryar settled down, and Alex has been Shahryar for so long, he can't make the separation - life would be over if the Tale ended. His history reflects the Arabian Nights, his attitudes, the way he was brought up and born, and his 'skill' with girls - even the things he's good at in life, so no wonder he can't detach himself from that.

The thing with the kid is interesting, because it was an originally, 'what happens if a sleazy guy gets caught out?' But for Alex it's so much more than that. It's outside his Tale, it's outside his limit of experience, and he is freaking out about it as both an ending to his life, and an ending to his Tale - as if by living outside the Tale-dictated patterns, he is ending its existence. It's the same with the stuff with Bee ...which hasn't happened yet, but will. It's a repeat, a pattern which doesn't ~fit~ and something he can't control, or fit back in.

It'll be interesting seeing how Velvet fits into all this, because he's going to protect her from the better part of Taledom, but it's also a part of Shahryar he loathes, a weakness. So in a sense, he's looking for her approval because it's pretty much inbuilt, but he's also looking to break from it because she represents 'The End'.

My boy will grow up eventually.
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The problem with RP is it utterly destroys my ability to write. I miss the feedback intensely from RP; I know that people with writing groups and writing partners get on better, and I would love to get into that sort of dynamic, because - someone being interested and bouncing ideas is what drives me to keep going, to keep churning out the words to draw someone in. But I have no idea how to find that, and it generally requires a writer who writes similar stuff.