I love character quirks that actually come in handy later or reflect some hidden aspect of the character’s personality or backstory. I also just enjoy the extra texture they give characters.
1. Makes Up Words
They might splice two words together to create a new one, or turn nouns into verbs (fun fact: the first use of Google as a verb was in Buffy the Vampire Slayer!).
2. Known For Being Late
Everyone tells them they’re meeting an hour earlier than the actual meet-up time and they still end up being late.
3. Always Carries Something Odd
A lucky coin they flip when they’re making a decision, or a lucky charm they squeeze when they’re stressed, or a notebook to jot down their ideas (which may come mid-sentence).
4. Great Memory For Useless Things
They know Napoleon’s birthday and the exact date of Catherine of Aragon’s death, but they can’t tell you what they had for lunch (me).
5. Unintentionally Copies
They’re not doing it on purpose, but they’ll noticeably pick up the accents, vocab, mannerisms, and habits of people they’ve been spending a lot of time with.
6. Great at Noticing Patterns
Some may call them psychic, but they’re actually just really good at pattern recognition.
7. Weirdly Good Sense of Smell
Something that may start off as an odd quirk (“Did you eat buttered noodles today?”) but end up as a useful skill that saves their life (e.g. noticing a suspicious almond smell...cyanide!)
8. Really Bad At Analogies
Their analogies are worse than when you microwave a chicken and the outside bit is really hot and the inside bit isn’t cold exactly but is kind of lukewarm in a way that’s not really salmonella-bad but it’s just kind of unpleasant, you know?
9. Can Connect Anything to Astrology
They love crystals, star signs and birth charts. If you tell them something, they’ll connect it back to your star sign. They will probably use the word ‘retrograde’ more than the average person (which is to say: at all).
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