#probably isn't an intellectual equal for Julian but that's not really fair he's extremely intelligent in his own field

[basingstokemercury]

Realised that the heroine's love interest for one of my back-burner projects (if you've seen me mention it, the one about a young woman travelling back in time to meet the opera singer she's obsessed with) is basically Julian created before I'd even gotten to TNG S6 😅

Had a difficult childhood and cut off contact with his parents, but grew into a cheerful, extroverted, and even rather naïve adult

His boisterous personality is in no way a façade, but he's also emotionally perceptive (when his own don't run away with him) and a very caring friend

And his main flaw aside from naivete is probably holding himself to too high a standard of perfectionism, and expecting others to come from the same place of optimism and goodwill.

The funny thing is I wasn't even intending to create a character who was "my type", my process was figuring out the kind of person who would fall in love with a mysterious fangirl and brush off his friends' misgivings while also being thoroughly likeable and charming to the story's audience

And now I have a problem because when I work on that story I have to make sure I'm writing my character and not Julian oops

Helps somewhat that I have a definite appearance in mind for him (and they look very little alike aside from having dark hair and a skin tone on the olive spectrum), but I don't know what will happen if I ever get to fully focusing on this story and its cast