Xerxes - weird sketch thing + more

a whole bunch of expressions of everyone's favorite goatee man, haha

Since he can't speak anymore, he has to make up for it by being as genuine and straightforward in his expressions as possible - almost cartoonishly so. But hey, it gets the point across!

I did a lot of research on mutism, and many things around it. I won't bore you here, but suffice it to say that being mute obviously changes your life in a lot of ways. Since communication is a huge part of life, especially so for romantic and sexual relationships, having a mute main character presents a big challenge. But it is a challenge with very rewarding results, in my opinion.

In fantasy and fiction, stories will likely not show the nuanced complexity of struggles real people with disabilities face unless it is THE explicit focus of the narrative, so please take my observations from research with a grain of salt. There is only so much space on the page, and my story is meant to be fun overall (sad and serious, as real life is, being opposite of fun). Even so, there is a big amount of respect that must be understood, as with every writing experience outside of your own life.

It sounds basic but, as I understand: your voice is made up of sounds from your vocal chords combined with the air passing through them. Humming, singing, talking, etc. So what sounds CAN you make without a voice? Because his vocal chords don't work, the only sounds he can make are variations of hissing, clicking, and basic 'consonant' sounds (T, K, etc.). When he laughs, it's more of a low wheeze, and if he cries, you probably wouldn't hear much, maybe gasping. He can still whistle! That only requires your lips and air, haha.

He can write, but the urgency or fleetingness of the situations he's in don't often present the opportunity he needs to carry out a conversation. Gestures and expressions become infinitely more important in these short scenes!

Related: A lot of writers take the easy way out, and basically erase the flaws while keeping the 'tragedy appeal' of mutism by making their character telepathic anyway - what's the point then? There's a difference between having an arc where they learn to cope with disability (or overcome it, in the case of someone learning to walk again; given that it is an option - not all situations are the same) and writing a disability in for tragedy's sake and immediately erasing it's effect on the character. Telepathically-communicating mute characters scream laziness to me, but that's subjective I suppose.

There's more I wanted to say but we're far enough into this lol.

tl;dr

All of these details might not come up too much, but he is alive to me, and I want to know more about him every time he appears.

About the picture: I was getting anxiety so I started drawing a bunch of food in between everything, lol. Eggs and burgers are like, my go-to 'nervous drawing repetitions' haha.