Foible: a minor weakness or eccentricity in someone's character. "they have to tolerate each other's little foibles"
I've noticed as I get older I'm developing some foibles that I never had when I was younger - at least I don't think I had!
I have found that I do tend to add foibles to my characters in my stories. Perfection is boring and real people have foibles.
In my novel, REQUIEM, my heroine, Cam has several, the most noticeable one is her tenacity when faced with overwhelming odds. She just can't let whatever it is go.
REQUIEM
Excerpt:
Nadic and Seisyll
darted from the darkness and raced across the lit area, crouching near the
service door adjacent to the refuse pit. With an economy of motion, the weapons
tech hacked into the security system and the door angled open.
She ambled towards
their position, keeping a close watch for any unforeseen trouble. With a brief
wave of his hand, Nadic followed by Seisyll slipped through the opening and
disappeared.
Now we wait! Her teeth clenched. She hated this part!
She wanted to be right there in the thick of things! Not out here! Adrenaline
kept her on edge but her only outlet was to continue the charade of patrolling
the perimeter and keeping watch. As the newest member of the team, she was
still working to prove her worth but she felt she was gaining ground bit by bit.
Nadic, one of Lord Tegan’s warriors, proved to be a tough team leader but a
fair one. He’d given her a chance long before any of the others would even
consider her and she’d done her best to show him he’d made the right choice.
Her lips curved in
a slight smile. If things went right, at some obscure time in the future, she
planned to investigate whether he had any personal interest in her. He hadn’t
bonded with any female to her knowledge and from her perspective, he was open
season.
Time slowed to a
sloth’s pace. Her skin crawled, tingling nerve endings stimulated by the stress
of waiting. The faceplate clicked and a small screen opened up in the lower left
corner displaying the operation from Nadic’s perspective. Surprised, her pace
slowed for a fraction of a parsec. The weapon was far smaller than she’d
envisioned. Hardly big enough to create the chaos surrounding its purported
destructive use.
Nadic and Seisyll
were engaged in scanning the unimposing mechanism, working in a concerted
effort to ensure every angle was photographed and transmitted to the ops techs.
The faceplate clicked and retrieve the
weapon flashed across the screen. Seisyll’s slanted eyes rounded, exhibiting
astonishment but with a shrug, he bent to the task.
This was supposed
to be a simple snatch and grab—grab whatever data they could on the weapon and
scram. Not grab the damn weapon itself!
She gritted her
teeth, forcing herself to keep the strolling pace but every atom of her being
demanded she race to their position and lend aid. Only the knowledge that Nadic
would have her head on a platter kept her walking the perimeter.
“Got it!” Seisyll hissed.
She tensed even
tighter as the weapons tech hoisted the weapon and stored it in a large pack
and then snapped the bag shut.
Nadic’s hand
fisted. “Done! We’re leaving!”
Her relief died a
quick death as her vid-com screen blinked off.
What the f…!”
The compound
erupted in a blinding flash of high-powered pulse beams! Startled, she hunched
down and then jumped sideways as a huge chunk of the compound wall toppled down
and then rolled, almost crushing her. The screeching whine of attack vessels
almost split her eardrums as a squadron of fighter aircraft rained destruction
on the fortress. In swift succession, pulse blasts wiped out the guard towers
and portions of the high wall. Within parsecs, against the blazing glow of the
detonations, dark figures rappelled from a transport hovering over the central
command turret—Nadic and Seisyll’s last known position! What the fuck!
She punched her
fist against the faceplate attempting to reconnect but the apparatus appeared
dead, registering nothing. She flipped up the useless apparatus. Catching
movement, she watched as Drust almost fell over the rim of the high barricade,
tumbled down the extraction rope and landed in a heap at the base of the wall.
She raced over, caught a fistful of his vest and dragged him from beneath the
torrent of debris falling from above. A quick check of his vitals confirmed he
was alive but severely injured. There was no sign of Ursula!
Against mission protocol,
she tapped her wrist com. At most, it was only good for close communications
but right now it was all she had.
“Nadic! Seisyll! Report,” she hissed.
Nothing!
To her right,
beyond the refuse pit, an unidentified alien vessel dropped down and settled on
the ground. A portal opened up but all she could see of the interior was blackness.
She dragged Drust
further into the dark, injected him with a pain inhibitor before covering him
with dried brush. It was all she could do until help arrived!
The compound door
slammed open and a figure raced out. In his arms, he clutched a bag! Nadic?
Seisyll?
But no! The lone
figure raced towards the waiting transport!
The bastard’s stealing our weapon!
Aghast, she stood
up and then charged after the figure, running full tilt across the uneven ground.
The team had spent too many long rotations in planning this mission and it was far
too important to give up now! Her quarry
reached the transport and clambered in as the portal door began to swing shut.
Without conscious thought, she jumped, flew through the air and landed headlong
in the interior. She rolled to her feet, coming face-to-face with a bug-eyed
green alien, she started to raise her weapon before pain wracked her brain and
the lights went out.
Buy Link:
New Concepts Publishing:
https://www.newconceptspublishing.com/product-page/copy-of-deg-nara-four-requiem
Do you admit to having foibles?
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