Travelers (OOC)

I had this really weird dream that I'm pretty positive had some sort of Beauty and the Beast reference (It's the movie and all the buzz, but I haven't seen it and I still prefer the original animated one), and that was how I got Konrad's character idea. The dream, despite being surreal, was extremely vivid and I remembered it.

I dreamed I was in this wealthy-looking manor embedded into the side of a cliff, and if you looked out the windows you were level with the tops of trees, and through those you could see that it was just an endless-looking forest that was really dense. The interior of the home itself was dark, but very clean, like there just wasn't activity but someone was still maintaining the place, and a bunch of random baubles and such were just neatly sitting all over scattered tables in weird places, and on the floor, though none of them were dusty, falling over, or broken. There were columns that supported the roof, and although around windows the wall was carefully-carved stone left natural for the most part, the flooring was wooden planks, as were the walls further in. The place was ornate, but it wasn't painfully flashy like Victorian-era furniture-wise. It was relatively more muted, just smooth, curving planks versus geometric or heavily carved.

There was a monster in the dream that didn't seem like he wanted to be seen by people, he was always trying to conceal himself behind columns and doors, or he even left the building and went into the forest, and if you tried to follow him he would try to run and lose you. Even if he didn't run, he always kept a certain distance between himself and others. The monster, for lack of better description, looked extremely similar to Konrad, he had a dragon-like face and a long, fluffy tail that was flexible like a monkey and fluffy like a cat's, and he was covered in pigeon-like feathers. He had very human-like facial expressions and eyes, and when he spoke it sounded more like a man trying to quietly whisper, like he was afraid of scaring someone, or if he was talking to a child. He was wearing clothing a bit more dated-looking. He had a purple velvet cape of sorts, versus a black patch-work trench coat like Konrad does, but otherwise had similar clothing, although there weren't any tears or patches in it.


Ultimately, the character in the dream had such a positive association that I made him into a character, and based the backstory on Beauty and the Beast because there was the association. The difference, though, is that Konrad changed himself, rather than someone else going and helping him, and struggled with his own self-reflection alone. There was no romance involved in Konrad's curse or his redemption, because I don't quite equate romantic love to compassion and kindness, in the sense of what Konrad was lacking. Konrad also never broke his curse due to unfortunate circumstances, because the 'forever' part isn't often used, but it's the major creepy part about a curse, and someone eventually has to fail before it becomes permanent.