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Physical Appearance

What the reader sees first.

Faces, hands, posture, voice and the details that make someone recognisable across a room.

Starter ideas

  1. 01
    They look like they're always about to apologise, right up until they don't.
  2. 02
    Unremarkable in every way except their extraordinary, slightly unsettling hands.
  3. 03
    A face built for bad news. Doctors would kill for it.

Browse by feature

Faces

  • · A face that looks permanently about to laugh, even at funerals.
  • · Strangers always think they've met before.
  • · Handsome only from one angle, and they know exactly which one.

Hair

  • · Hair cut by themselves in the dark, and somehow it works.
  • · A single grey streak since age twelve, and a different story about it for everyone.
  • · Hair always slightly damp, as if they've just come in from some weather nobody else saw.

Eyes

  • · Eyes that go still when they're lying.
  • · One eye slightly lazy when tired, so you always know when they've stayed too long.
  • · They never quite look at you, they look just past your shoulder at something you can't see.

Skin

  • · Freckles that appear only in summer, like a second season of them.
  • · Weathered hands and a face that's somehow never seen the sun.
  • · Skin that flushes blotchy red when they're proud, which is very inconvenient.

Body Types

  • · Built like a door and moves like a dancer.
  • · Small, round and impossibly strong. People always underestimate the lift.
  • · Long-limbed and always slightly folded, as if apologising for the space.

Height

  • · Very tall, and has developed a habit of crouching to speak with everyone.
  • · Short, and enters every room like it owes them money.
  • · Exactly average height, which they use to disappear in crowds.

Scars

  • · A scar they tell a different, more heroic story about every time. The truth involves a goose.
  • · A neat surgical scar and absolutely no memory of the surgery.
  • · A burn across one palm, so they shake hands left-handed.

Birthmarks

  • · A birthmark shaped like a country that no longer exists.
  • · Their grandmother had the same mark in the same place, and so, unsettlingly, does their rival.
  • · A port-wine mark they stopped covering at thirty and never looked back.

Tattoos

  • · A tattoo in a language they don't speak, chosen by someone they don't talk to anymore.
  • · Tiny tally marks on the wrist. They won't say what they're counting.
  • · A half-finished sleeve, abandoned the week everything changed.

Piercings

  • · One earring, always the same one, never the pair.
  • · Piercings they did themselves at fifteen, still in, slightly crooked.
  • · Removes every piercing before visiting home, then puts them back in the car.

Distinctive Features

  • · A gap in their teeth they whistle through when nervous.
  • · Ears that go red before the rest of their face knows they're embarrassed.
  • · Always smells faintly of oranges, and nobody knows why.

Hands

  • · Ink-stained fingers on a person who claims they never write anything down.
  • · Enormous, gentle hands that are hopeless with buttons.
  • · Nails bitten on the left hand only.

Posture

  • · Stands like they're about to be measured.
  • · Sits on the edge of every chair, ready to leave.
  • · Perfect posture that collapses the moment they think they're alone.

Movement

  • · Moves through crowds like water, never once bumping a shoulder.
  • · Walks too fast, then waits at every corner looking annoyed and fond.
  • · Completely silent on stairs. People keep jumping when they arrive.

Voice

  • · A surprisingly deep voice that they hate and everyone else trusts instantly.
  • · Speaks softly enough that rooms go quiet to hear them.
  • · Their accent comes back only when they're angry or very drunk.

Fashion

  • · Dresses exactly like their dead father, without ever having decided to.
  • · Wears the same coat in every season and has strong opinions about it.
  • · Immaculate from the ankle up. The shoes are a disaster.

Accessories

  • · A watch that's always seven minutes fast, on purpose.
  • · Carries a pocketknife, a handkerchief, and a single spare button belonging to someone else.
  • · A ring they twist when anyone mentions marriage.

Mannerisms

  • · Taps the table twice before saying anything they mean.
  • · Hums when they lie, very quietly, the same three notes.
  • · Touches the doorframe on the way out of every room.
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