Daily Routines! I once read a guide on character development that commented on learning your character as well as a friend or maybe even better. It mentioned knowing things like their daily routine, so here is a writing prompt for working out or writing about your character’s daily routine. You can just list the things they do. You don’t have to post a story; I just posted this one as I’ve had it in my head for a while.
______________________Routine Quotidienne
The irritating buzz of an alarm cut through the air like an overcharged vibroblade and a shock of red hair stood up at awkward angles out of a tangled mess of richly decorated and colored sheets and blankets. Slowly, a head emerged from its fabric nest and bleary eyes blinked slowly as vision dulled by sleep attempted to adjust to the rude arrival of day. Jessak Roze was not by any streak a morning person and today was definitely no exception.
Blankets launched through the air as the young, human woman flailed around, limbs everywhere, in her attempt to get out of bed. Then, two delicately manicured hands quickly clamped down on the chrono alarm to silence it or choke it. Jessak was still undecided on that count. She slumped over--looking for all of Nar Shaddaa like a wet rat--as she crankily and begrudgingly greeted the morning.
Today was a work day, so Jessak rubbed her eyes, stretched, and resigned herself to not having the option of returning to bed and turning over back into a pleasant, comfortable dream. It was unfortunate but nevertheless true. The soft, shuffling sound of dragging feet on heated metal floors quietly bounced of the decorated walls while Jessak groggily shuffled towards her in-suite refresher.
A large deep breath did little to ease the sting of morning, and Jessak noted how much worse she looked in the lights of her refresher. She stared at her bedraggled appearance in the mirror as she washed up her face and brushed her teeth, and a few disgruntled faces in the mirror frowned and glowered back at her before she carelessly threw her sleep clothes into corner and stepped into the shower. She may have been
required to go work, but in exchange for dutifully going to work, she would spend as much time in the refresher as possible.
After a fair amount of time had passed, a soaking wet Jessak stepped out of the shower and grabbed a towel to dry off as she kept trying to shake the morning grumpies and residual sleepiness. It was still not working; however, so she balled up the towel in irritation and grumpily threw it an imaginary irritant in a corner and stalked out into her expensively furnished room to at least find her underwear if not her good morning-personality.
Now clothed, she slumped over like a wet rat again and struggled with the overwhelming urge to just crawl back in bed and forget that the day had even started. A tired, “Bah,” escaped her still bare lips as she looked around for her music player. With a day starting as rough as this one was, there was only one last solution to get her going and try to shake off the funk of being awake entirely too early.
Sleepily, she shuffled to the player and turned on the local dance music station. Despite being pretty much unable to dance in any recognized fashion, she loved the music and the strong rhythms and pulsing music had an energy to them that could get her going despite most circumstances. Today was one of those necessary circumstances, and it was time to bring out the big guns. She turned the music up then wandered over to her closet to pick out her uniform.
Rhythmic foot tapping and head nodding accompanied the first few beat driven songs that came and went. It wasn’t a miracle fix yet, but at least her mood was improving and she was slowly waking up. As the music played, she dug her corporate shirt out of her extensive closet and with considerable effort threw it out of the closet and on to the bed. Then it hit. The first few notes of
her song floated through the door to her closet striking chords within her creeping subtlely into her movements.
A little twitch here and a tap of her foot there, slowly, as the music progressed, Jessak started to feel a little more energized and even got that ill-advised notion to dance, despite a lack of skill. As the beat increased, she slid out of her closet in her underwear and started dancing around the room like no one was watching which was actually the case, fortunately enough.
Swaying to the beat, she danced passed a tube of mascara which became her microphone as the lyrics started and she sang along with the well-memorized lyrics. As the beat picked up, Jessak twitched and wiggled more around the room and sung the lyrics which to spoke to her this morning, “the music’s gonna ignite something in my soul…”
The pulsing music lifted Jessak’s mood considerably as she sang and danced around her room to the beat. She kept singing along to the music and wiggled her hips when the chorus, “I wanna dance. I wanna rock you tonight,” repeated, and she thought of a certain Imperial, Ratattaki solider. Grabbing her shirt off the bed, she held it up and sang and danced with it around the room as she held her own private dance party.
After several minutes of dancing, the song ended. Jessak finished her impromptu dance routine with a flourish then looked around her room with a cheeky grin. Fortunately, no one had been around to witness that little scene, and now that the song was over and she had gotten that out of her system, she could return to sorting out clothes, hair and makeup like a sane person.
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The title for this story comes from French for daily routine. I loved the French translation ever since I came across it in my French textbook so there you go. :D Jessak is a silly sort when at ease, so here’s a bit of Jessak silliness that would not be seen in RP.
_________________________________Seenine- Initialize systems and run cursory diagnostics.
- Generate daily task lists
- Communicate with the droids that were last active to see if any special tasks remain to be added to the day’s task lists.
Imazi- Get up and stretch out her limbs before sitting on the edge for a few minutes
- Get washed up, put her hair back into its heart buns, apply her makeup, and get dressed in her robes
- She either sits and does morning meditation next or stops to disassemble and reassemble an ancient droid arm that she possesses which is also meditative to her.
- Once she has eased into the morning, she goes to get a breakfast of eggs, bread, some kind of meat, and some kind of juice. Imazi doesn’t do caf.
