Nonhuman psychology?

[Tom]

My MC is one-quarter Faerie, and his mother is half Faerie. The Fey in my world are like those in Celtic mythology--capricious, sinister tricksters who have no qualms against using their magic on humans. My MC and his mother both display emotional, mental, and physical Faerie traits. I'm having some trouble with the mental/emotional traits. I have a few established: inappropriate displays of emotion (like laughing at a funeral), violent mood swings, taking pleasure in tricking/playing pranks on others, alternation between intense focus and distraction. Do you guys have any more suggestions for traits?

Plus, I need some help showing my MC's "otherness" in his thoughts, actions, and judgments. What are some techniques I can use to give his narration an alien touch?

Thanks, guys!

 

[Legendary Sidekick]

Maybe casual thoughts that a normal person wouldn't think and/or demonstrate another way of looking at life. Like if the quarter-fairy is laughing at a funeral and getting strange looks from humans, her thoughts could be something like, "What? I'm supposed to be depressing to honor the dead? Morons."

 

[psychotick]

Hi,

I think before you can look at traits you need to examine the underlying basis of your faerie. You need to come to grips with their nature. It's all very well to say they are capricious tricksters but why are they like that? Is it that they believe those that they trick are lessor beings? In which case are they arrogant or self involved? Is it that they regard tricking someone as a high form of art? Or is it that being immortal they simply don't understand the pain that they cause?

Once you can answer these sorts of questions, you'll be better able to work out what their behaviour might be like.

Cheers, Greg.

 

[Tom]

Thanks, psychotick.

I have some of that worked out--the Faerie are immortal and have a closer connection to magic than humans, so they don't understand mortal life or concepts like pain and death. They consider humans to be lesser beings as well.

 

[psychotick]

Hi,

Then from there certain things follow.

If they're immortal they may have lessor understanding of death. So for them death is not a bogeyman, it's a stranger. So if they kill someone what does that mean to them? Only that that person is no longer around. Whereas for humans being born to die and having death's spectre over our shoulders, death is something we fear, and conversely we empathise with others dying. Immortality makes for a very different concept of not just death, but life.

The humans as a lessor race is interesting. Have you considered what it means for those of mixed blood? Let's put it in human terms. People don't have issues with chimps - in fact we quite like them. They're fun. But what would happen if a hybrid human chimp was born? I can only imagine the widespread disgust and horror that would spread across the world at the thought. Terms like monster, unnatural and freak would abound.

And the magic is another interesting thing. Consider that Fae regard themselves as superior on any number of points. But one of them is that they have magic. So what would happen if some humans ha the ability to do magic? How would they be treated / regarded? As freaks? Violations of the "natural order"? Or worse proof that the fae's magic is not really so special after all? And what would it mean for the position of humans within their world view? Consider Mr. Ed the talking horse. Were he real what would that mean for the right of humans to ride horses? To use them as work animals? How would we justify turning them into glue? Breeding them like - well animals?

Cheers, Greg.

 

[wordwalker]

Another layer of this-- or rather, two layers: how do the two characters view being part fey, do they want to embrace it or contain it or what?

For instance, is the MC's mother trying to fit in among humans and considers her more fey instincts dangerous? Has she been hurt or hunted by the fey (half-chimp, like psychotick said) and hates and fears them, or is she trying to impress the fey (or the humans) by choosing to be "more fey than the faerie themselves"?

That's the spin his mother puts on their situation. That sets up the other question, how does the MC react to how his mother has been raising him? (And the rest of their situation, of course. Is his human father around? Are there other fey nearby, so far?)

Many stories like this give the MC the ominous attitude of "Mom's got to be overreacting. The Faerie sound like they have a bad side, sure, but we're special. And how dangerous could they really be?"

 

[Tom]

Another layer of this-- or rather, two layers: how do the two characters view being part fey, do they want to embrace it or contain it or what?

For instance, is the MC's mother trying to fit in among humans and considers her more fey instincts dangerous? Has she been hurt or hunted by the fey (half-chimp, like psychotick said) and hates and fears them, or is she trying to impress the fey (or the humans) by choosing to be "more fey than the faerie themselves"?

That's the spin his mother puts on their situation. That sets up the other question, how does the MC react to how his mother has been raising him? (And the rest of their situation, of course. Is his human father around? Are there other fey nearby, so far?)

Many stories like this give the MC the ominous attitude of "Mom's got to be overreacting. The Faerie sound like they have a bad side, sure, but we're special. And how dangerous could they really be?"

Thanks for the observations. Yes, the MC's human father is around, but he's kind of distant. The MC tries to hide his Fey traits, since Faeries are widely feared and hated. His mother cares a lot less about it, and because of that the MC both loves and fears her because, even though she's his mom, she can be unpredictable and even dangerous.

The Faeries' attitude toward half-Fey is a little complicated; if they think the halfblood Fey enough, they might try to get him/her to agree to become pure-blooded Faeries, but if the halfblood is "too human" they'll leave him/her alone, assuming that he/she has too much of the lesser race in him/her to be redeemable.

 

[K.S. Crooks]

You could also show the inner thoughts of those around him. You should decide how he is going to deal with the negative attention he receives, whether he becomes defensive, doesn't care, or doesn't understand why his actions are seen in a negative light. Also are his non-typical human behaviours going to be limited to things that are not really detrimental/permanent or will he do things that cause people lasting harm. hope this sparks a few ideas.

 

[Tom]

You could also show the inner thoughts of those around him. You should decide how he is going to deal with the negative attention he receives, whether he becomes defensive, doesn't care, or doesn't understand why his actions are seen in a negative light. Also are his non-typical human behaviours going to be limited to things that are not really detrimental/permanent or will he do things that cause people lasting harm. hope this sparks a few ideas.

Thanks, K.S. Actually, I'm thinking about introducing the MC's problem in the form of a flashback to childhood: him playing a game with other kids, getting too emotional and unintentionally hurting another kid. So he's definitely got to keep control; he's kind of hot-blooded, and could do some real damage.