#~cw ppl dont interact~ uwu

[mc-dude]

i need help i'm so tempted to write a fantasy halbarry au with a cute cleric barry and his lantern knight but i'm really insecure about how to write barry's personality and inner monologue pls help ur the Premier Barry Authority and i trust u implicitly

i get a lot of these kinds of msgs (FOR SOME REASON??? IM FLATTERED) and im really shit at responding to all of them so ill try to fit my Thoughts in here

first and foremost, if you are unsure about a character’s personality type or inner thoughts– read comics! seriously the first thing i do before i write anything is binge read as much content as humanly possible (comics, wikis, etc). readcomicsonline.to is a good resource for broke people (usually i read on there first, and then buy a physical copy later if i think its worth it) and that’s how i read most of barry’s comics.

secondly– THIS AU IS SUPER CUTE.. reminds me and @spector’s extensive dragon age au where barry is a circle mage (who is a spirit healer being helped by the spirit of Hope) and hal is a templar who gets infected by the arch dragon Parallax…… sighs wistfully… i still need to write that one day.. i got like 12 pages of small elf barry in my gdoc somewhere.. MAYBE ONE DAY………….. anyways

thirdly– i can’t really tell you what exactly barry will be thinking about, since it’s an AU, but i can tell you.. i guess what he’s like? like….

barry is always thinking of other people before himself. if there’s something wrong with hal, you bet barry will be thinking about how to make hal better before he even considers his own problems. he will go out of his way to accommodate other people and make them feel comfortable and safe at great personal disregard because barry is a Protector first and everything else second. you could say that this stems from him “failing” to protect his mom as a kid but honestly barry has always been this way since way before geoff Edgified his origin story. i’m assuming since barry is a healer in this AU he would be going out of his way to cast little spells n such to make hal feel Good. barry feels good when other people feel good, that’s just how he is. it’s one of his most defining characteristics, to the point of it being one of his flaws.

i guess another one of barry’s traits is that he doesn’t really do mean-spirited humor. he’ll poke fun at people, sure, but he isn’t like, super sarcastic in a mean way. compare his brand of humor to someone, say.. ollie? they’re kinda opposites. ollie will be like ‘u huge piece of shit haha’ but barry will be like ‘omg ur ridiculous’ kinda thing. idk if that made sense? but there it is. he’s not a mean boy. he’s kind always.. UNLESS.. the people he cares abt are being threatened and then he will get Angry.

barry is also self-conscious for a lot of reasons, mostly stemming from his sudden transformation into a Hunk from a Cutie Patootie & his isolationist childhood. he still sees himself as a sort of scrawny nerd and forgets sometimes that he’s Swol. people hitting on him? goes right over his fuckin head. he has no idea when people are flirting at him and when he does realise it (after it’s made painfully obvious) he will blush and stutter and generally have no idea what the fuck To Do. likewise when someone actually wants to talk to him he’ll be a little surprised? because he’s so used to people avoiding him. people wanting to be around him is something that a constant pleasant surprise to him, even though he yearns for human contact constantly

he’s also pretty reserved and quiet, always thinks things out thoroughly before speaking. this stems from his isolated childhood where any wrong thing said would be held against him and used as bullying fodder. he was avoided by most kids and left to his own devices, so he developed as a pretty introverted dude. i don’t think by nature? just sort of out of necessity. i think the right person (cough… hal…) could bring out his extroverted side and really get him talkin n laughing a lot but he just sort of naturally reverts to isolation mode because that’s just how he grew up. the fact that he takes a lot of time before saying anything (something expedited by his speed) gives him a reputation as a very thoughtful person, which i think is indisputably accurate. your birthday coming up? you fuckin bet barry is THERE, 800 balloons and a home-made cake in hand.

i guess maybe the last major thing is that barry loves giving & receiving affection. it’s something that he had a lot of as a kid but throughout most of his adolescent years was essentially deprived of in all forms. he’s sorta desperate for any sort of affectionate contact and even tiny little touches, like an arm thrown around his shoulders, someone squeezing his arm or a pat on the back are SO important to him. he cherishes every little touch, which is good because hal is a VERY touchy dude. barry will often just be Struck by how warm a person’s hand is or how nice it is to have someone to lean against or just.. very small things that a lot of people take for granted, but barry had to live without for years and years

i guess that about sums it up. let me know if you have any other questions