𝕿𝖍𝖊 𝕭𝖑𝖆𝖈𝖐 𝕯𝖚𝖘𝖙 𝕮𝖍𝖗𝖔𝖓𝖎𝖈𝖑𝖊𝖘
❝HE COMPLETELY SUBMERGED ME IN HIMSELF. JUST LIKE THE POISON IVY THAT CLIMBS UP ON OLD BUILDINGS, EVENTUALLY, ONLY HE WAS VISIBLE. WHILE I WAS BURIED DEEP UNDERNEATH THE HEAVY FOLIAGE OF HIS SUFFOCATIN...
Poison Ivy includes many characters even though it was initially supposed to be focused on two main characters Perseus Burke and Tom Riddle only. Since it was a plot driven novel, I could have left out the focus on other characters but I found myself unable to do so and resorted to create each character appropriately according to the theme of the story such that even the side characters have back stories, evident traits and vital roles that are reflected in the fanfic.
In this chapter, I will be sharing with you all my experience while fleshing out the characters for this story.
1. Perseus Burke:
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Since he was the main protagonist, I had to work a lot on developing his character. The brief outline Purplemist14 had given me for this character was that Perce was supposed to be a naive and shy person, easy to manipulate for Tom Riddle, an embodiment of the tragic hero trope.
But I asked her if I could change a few aspects of his personality to suit the version of Perseus Burke I had in mind to which she agreed and so I made him into the instinctive but strong willed person that he is represented as in this fanfic. He is cute, caring and has a gentle nature but is resilient and tough on the inside such that he is able to keep resisting all the fatal blows inflicted on him by Riddle for such a long time.
Besides, breaking a character who's naive and shut out is quite easy as compared to an independent and strong willed character. I just wanted to have a lot of fun with trying this plot on an apparently harmless but cunning version of Perseus Burke.
Other than that, I gave Perce a silent demeanor and observant nature so that he could see through Tom's facade and be on his guard as depicted in [06] Selecting The Pawn and [10] Predator And Prey, the latter chapter shows the difference in outlook between the two quite evidently.
The whole story focuses on his resilience against Riddle which could not have been possible if he possessed a timid personality. True, he is an introvert and prefers the company of books as compared to people but due to all the literature he had read and stored in the vaults of his brain, he had come to sense things that an average wizard would not even notice.
Perce could sense that Riddle was different from other humans because he had removed a major portion of his soul due to the Horcrux he had created in his diary. And after Hepzibah Smith's murder when Riddle created another Horcrux, he had sensed that too as shown in [12] The House Elf Scandal.
Throughout the story, I had to keep his character clean and pure despite his knowledge of the Dark Arts which was no easy feat. But he goes through conflict often and gets unstable as portrayed in chapters [20] Black Dust, [25] Repeated Failure and [52] Threat Of Death.
