Requests: - Since you are planning to eventually canon update him to when he is older, we would like to see more on the differences between the two ages. - We would also like one sample from older Regis’ point of view.
Differences between the two ages: They fall into three groups: Accumulation of life experience, bearing the brunt of sacrifices made, as opposed to sacrifices committed to, and bearing the mantle of power.
The first set of differences comes from having lived thirty years longer. He married and had a son, he loved and lost and loved again, and all those things have left marks through him, though they are not always visible. But they give him the ability to understand people better, the patience to give them space to find their own way, and the determination to keep on caring.
Because, despite the decades of war and pain and loss, Regis at fifty still cares. He barely has the energy to express it, or the time, or the opportunity, but it is there in the concealed pain in his good-bye to Noctis, in the smile with which he greets Lunafreya. It is there in his anger with Ardyn's conditions and in the quiet, resigned pain and despair that come with recognizing who Glauca is. But each of those similarities is covered by caution and patience and consideration for the bigger picture, by a veneer of sadness and a tiny bit of longing.
The second set of differences comes with the growth from being determined to make the sacrifices asked of him, ones he's had time to grow used to the idea of, and having actually been making those sacrifices, day after day after day after year after year after year. Sacrificing his health and vitality, sacrificing his time, sacrificing parts of his very life for the protection of others many of which he knows are already doomed. Sacrifices of his sleep at night over the news of having to sacrifice his son, over attempts to make logistics of a war any better, over feeling his life and magic get sapped away, some times faster than others. Of losing some of his friends and knowing those who remain are stretched overly thin already, so asking them for more support is unacceptable, so he keeps on going all alone. Regis at fifty is professional at hoarding what energy he does have, and at pretending, always pretending, that his exhaustion is really secrecy and dignity. (He has both of those, they just don't look the same way as the tranquility he projects.)
Even though he is running on empty and is dangerously used to doing so, the mantle of power rests steadily on his shoulders by the end of his life. At twenty, he has had more privilege than anything else, and though he has used that for good, it's nowhere near the same caliber as what having had to wield so much power - physical, magical, and political - for so long. Being the most dangerous person in the room, or on some very rare occasions, one of the most dangerous, has shaped him away from the prince he used to be. And so have the decisions that go with power, decisions by which people have lived and they have died, by which they have suffered and rejoiced. This has brought steel to Regis, in both the good ways and the bad, and has disillusioned him from any idealized ideas about himself.
Revision request
- Since you are planning to eventually canon update him to when he is older, we would like to see more on the differences between the two ages.
- We would also like one sample from older Regis’ point of view.
Differences between the two ages:
They fall into three groups: Accumulation of life experience, bearing the brunt of sacrifices made, as opposed to sacrifices committed to, and bearing the mantle of power.
The first set of differences comes from having lived thirty years longer. He married and had a son, he loved and lost and loved again, and all those things have left marks through him, though they are not always visible. But they give him the ability to understand people better, the patience to give them space to find their own way, and the determination to keep on caring.
Because, despite the decades of war and pain and loss, Regis at fifty still cares. He barely has the energy to express it, or the time, or the opportunity, but it is there in the concealed pain in his good-bye to Noctis, in the smile with which he greets Lunafreya. It is there in his anger with Ardyn's conditions and in the quiet, resigned pain and despair that come with recognizing who Glauca is. But each of those similarities is covered by caution and patience and consideration for the bigger picture, by a veneer of sadness and a tiny bit of longing.
The second set of differences comes with the growth from being determined to make the sacrifices asked of him, ones he's had time to grow used to the idea of, and having actually been making those sacrifices, day after day after day after year after year after year. Sacrificing his health and vitality, sacrificing his time, sacrificing parts of his very life for the protection of others many of which he knows are already doomed. Sacrifices of his sleep at night over the news of having to sacrifice his son, over attempts to make logistics of a war any better, over feeling his life and magic get sapped away, some times faster than others. Of losing some of his friends and knowing those who remain are stretched overly thin already, so asking them for more support is unacceptable, so he keeps on going all alone. Regis at fifty is professional at hoarding what energy he does have, and at pretending, always pretending, that his exhaustion is really secrecy and dignity. (He has both of those, they just don't look the same way as the tranquility he projects.)
Even though he is running on empty and is dangerously used to doing so, the mantle of power rests steadily on his shoulders by the end of his life. At twenty, he has had more privilege than anything else, and though he has used that for good, it's nowhere near the same caliber as what having had to wield so much power - physical, magical, and political - for so long. Being the most dangerous person in the room, or on some very rare occasions, one of the most dangerous, has shaped him away from the prince he used to be. And so have the decisions that go with power, decisions by which people have lived and they have died, by which they have suffered and rejoiced. This has brought steel to Regis, in both the good ways and the bad, and has disillusioned him from any idealized ideas about himself.
Sample: There goes.