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@trallion @deeprun Thank you both so much! Yeah, trying to demonstrate sensitivity accurately could be difficult since he’s not my POV character. . .

Trust is an interesting thing for him. Part of his backstory is that a friend he literally trusted with his life (kind of had to) once betrayed him. After a few things went haywire, his friend tried to fix things (he was manipulated into betraying him), but it took a long time for things to heal.

On a slightly different level, his backstory has a lot to do with how he emotionally trusts people. He grew up in a pretty callous, violent tribe that has a strong unspoken “men don’t cry or show much emotion at all” outlook. He ended up with this inward battle between his innate nature and his culture, trying to act like everyone else so he wouldn’t be marginalized but feeling pathetic because he wasn’t actually their standard of what a man should be. As he got older, he slowly began to decide that he didn’t want to be what the others were, even if that made him “weak”. He started distancing himself from others so he wouldn’t have to explain why he was acting differently. After that, lots of crazy traumatic stuff happened that resulted in him leaving the tribe and meeting other people with different perspectives on what manhood really is. His view starts changing (to his relief), and eventually one of his greatest motives in life is to be different from his tribe. And that’s where he is when my story starts.

Yeah. . . I kind of went crazy with the backstory development. . . XD It was so much fun, though.

SO. The way I’ve written him so far, he’s a bit shy (though far less so than he used to be), a generally cheerful and likeable person, loves cats, is very protective of friends. . . actually, here’s my sister’s description of him, since she’s read my whole story beginning to end as it is:

“Kiet is…a realistic gentleness forged through fire. Realistic in the sense that it is not always natural; sometimes it is strained, but he almost always chooses a selfless (to a fault) kind of kindness. His “selflessness” however can darken towards suicidal ideation though”

I also just found out that in reading, she’s kind of gotten a ‘vibe’ that he doesn’t readily show negative feelings, which makes me feel pretty relieved. 😅

SO, if you managed to make it through that essay, does that sound realistic to either of you? Are there any pieces that don’t sound right, or are there some major flaws? If you need me to, I can totally post a snippet or two of the story where he’s involved.