[Fic] The Star's Alphabet
Jul. 12th, 2009 11:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kittydesadeTitle: The Star's Alphabet
Fandom: The Dresden Files (book)
Characters: Warden Carlos Ramirez
Word Count: 3,813
Rating: PG
Summary: The Star's alphabet. Warden Carlos Ramirez, from A to Zee, my interpretations and understandings of him.
A is for Abandon - Carlos Ramirez takes his life seriously, though it really doesn't look like it from the way he acts. He takes his life seriously and does nothing he doesn't have to that might jeopardize it, takes care of his health and safety, and engages life to the fullest. With the war they've found themselves steeped in, with everything else that goes on in the world and the way technology encroaches on the wizard's half-world closer and closer all the time, he's not sure how long anything will last in his life anymore. So he gives himself license to enjoy it, free of inhibitions or worries or shame. He's only got one life, and he wants to get as much out of it as he can.
B is for Brazen - All the Warden trainees talk about Carlos's complete lack of shame with awe and giggling attraction, and all the Wardens talk about him with amusement and a resigned rolling of the eyes. If it were more than talk on anyone's part, like as not it would not be tolerated. And they tell him this, repeatedly and with stern looks. Carlos only smiles and continues to act with brazen swagger, as long as it does not impinge on anyone's safety. Lead by example, he was taught, by the Wardens and by Harry Dresden. The example he sets is that it's all right to swagger as much as you want as long as you do your job and keep in mind your responsibilities.
C is for Charisma - Carlos would attract eyes even if he didn't smile and laugh and flirt the way he does. His mother always told him he was a handsome boy; he started breaking hearts his freshman year in high school. Not intentionally, of course. Never intentionally, but his first attempts at playing the field were not as thoughtful as they might have been. He got better at it later, much better. Learning how to bestow charm and flattery and the feeling of personal attention on every woman (and maybe a few men) regardless of his actual interest. Learning how to balance one desire against another so that the embitterment of jealousy didn't spoil everyone's fun. By the time he was a Regional Commander of the Wardens he was as adept with his charisma as he was with any magical force, and as ready to use it.
D is for Dare - Carlos is the kind of man who gets into a lot of trouble. A good portion of that trouble is because he has few boundaries and no sense of proportion, or at least he acts to cultivate that image a great deal of the time. He's the kind of man who would not only spit in Death's eye, he'd pants the creature and give it a wet willie as a reminder. Part of it is sheer mischief, but as he grows up and sees the effect is has on people it becomes increasingly motivated by the desire to teach someone a lesson about humility or security or just the need not to take oneself too seriously.
E is for Entertain - Say what you will about Carlos, he is entertaining. Whether in combat or in civilian life he knows how to make a person laugh, how to make them forget their cares and worries. He's a master of distraction, of the casual jest that leaves no one insulted, of making a fool of himself in just such a way that they see only the entertainment value and none of the foolishness, keeping his respect. He's so entertaining, in fact, that sometimes they forget to take him seriously. Which sometimes is exactly what he wants.
F is for Flirt - Carlos keeps some things close to the vest. Affection is not one of them. He lavishes affection on every lady he comes across, a smile, a hug, a kiss on the cheek. He is what most Wardens fondly refer to as an incorrigible flirt; he would be a heart-breaker if he wasn't so damn nice about it and if he were to tell the truth (to Harry, maybe) he isnt' sure he hasn't broken a few hearts anyway. If he's not being serious he'd say he's broken dozens. Hundreds. All that flirting is just for show, of course. There's no woman on the planet or in the other realms who could lay claim to having been a lover of his, if one cared to look. If one cared to really look, however, one just might find a woman or two who he might like to be.
G is for Glee - Carlos takes an almost unholy glee in everything he does. The lighter pursuits, training and communicating and so on, well, perhaps he should lend more dignity to his office but he sees no reason for that. He gives it the seriousness it is due and no more. The darker ones, fighting the vampires and their minions, ghouls and zombies and things of that nature, well, he takes a manic kind of glee in that too. It's a rush. It's adrenaline and excitement and when he's victorious, it's the knowledge that he's gotten just that much better. And if he isn't, well. At least he'll know that he went out smiling.
H is for Hidden - Carlos keeps some things close to the vest. The fact that he's never, despite hours and hours and days of boasting, been with a woman that way. The fact that he does have a deep and abiding love, even if she never knows it. The conspiracy of the Gray Council, as Harry called it, to which Carlos remarked that he was too young to be Gandalf. The hatred he does still have, for Lara, for Cowl, for the enemies they've faced and defeated and let walk away alive. Carlos wears only most of his heart on his sleeve; it enables him to keep some things hidden, the most precious things, the things he's still too shy and too much a child to let others see, that childlike vulnerability that still lingers being one of those most precious things that even his closest friends haven't guessed at.
I is for Incorrigible - The Wardens found out even before he put on the cloak that there is no stopping Carlos. If they thought the somber gray would put any kind of a dampener on his enthusiasm they soon found out how mistaken they were. Give him all the dirty looks and exasperated sighs they could, he continued his flirting and antics as long as he had an audience to laugh at them. And why shouldn't he? If it lightens the spirits of those around him then he has done his job, not only for the protection of the lives of his charges, but also their hearts and their souls.
J is for Joie de Vivre - He learned that phrase from Luccio. Joy in life, joy of life, it may be French but he likes it pretty well. It sums up his life's philosophy with a little more dignity than Hakuna Matata. The idea of being the ones dancing and singing while the Titanic goes down. Or singing at the barricades, which is more apt for what's going on in the wizard's world now. Just because things are grim doesn't mean he can't have a little fun, get a little joy out of life. Just because all the older Wardens are going around with faces like stone walls (he's looking at you, Morgan) doesn't mean he has to. Besides, it scares the kiddies. He's a new Warden for a new age, cut (he hopes) more from Dresden's mold. Laugh in the face of danger. Take all the joy out of life he can.
K is for Kick - Carlos is always looking for that little extra something. Part of it is just wanting to go that extra mile, do more, help more people. But part of it is really looking for that extra little kick, to run faster, go farther, do the spell bigger and better than he has before. Maybe it's just a matter of re-allocating energy resources. Maybe it's something else. He hears the kids in the neighborhood next door to his old home ground talking about the drogas and what they have now, the new shit, but that's not the kind of kick he's looking for. He's looking for the rush he gets every time he does it faster and better than he did the last time, whatever it might be. Doing better. Doing more.
L is for Laughter - Carlos is a firm believer in laughter. Taking yourself too seriously is the first sign of ossification, hardening of the mental arteries, an opinion only reinforced by the behavior of the Senior Council and the trouble they've gotten themselves into not listening to younger Wardens. Never take yourself too seriously, it's the first step to believing you know all you need to know, and that way lies defeat. Laughing at the world around you, well, that just makes it more bearable. Otherwise you'd be always in tears, and who wants that? And getting people to laugh with you, well. That just increases the enjoyment in life, doesn't it?
M is for Mask - There are times when it's all a front. Most of the time Carlos's sense of humor is unfeigned, real and vibrant, but some of the time that smile has an edge to it. Some of the time that smile and goofy exterior hides the fact that he's looking around and taking note of what he sees and, even more dangerous, what it means. Or the shock when things don't go as they should, exaggerated, pulled out, to make them think he's more off balance than he is. He recovers quickly. Or the grief, or the rage, he's good at faking most things. People don't think about that, what it takes to be a performer, even an amateur one. People don't think that because he's a jokester and a clown that he's capable of pretending and doing something else underneath, but he is. It's their own fault if they can't see beneath the mask.
N is for Nerve - Refuge in audacity could be another one of Carlos's mottos, if not a summation of many of them. He skates by on pure nerve half of the time, with his enemies as well as with the Council. His daring is the kind of thing that gets him into trouble when it doesn't work, but when he does pull it off it leaves that much greater impact, everyone standing around and staring and wondering how in the hell he managed that one. It's the kind of stare that extreme skateboarders get. Snowboarders riding ahead of the avalanche. Carlos is riding ahead of an avalance, surfing a tsunami, every time he bucks Council tradition or faces down the White King's daughter with a handgun, a rejection, and a smile. Riding on pure nerve.
O is for Ovation - Carlos plays to an audience. Even if it's just an audience of one, he's playing to that one, playing it up and for laughs and applause and adoration. Not because he needs it. Carlos is just as happy to get the job done and leave everything else as a pretty little bonus, but because he likes it. He likes the applause. He does crave it even as he knows it's not essential, the sound of laughter and applause, the stage of a street corner or an arena, a dock or a battlefield or that scrap of Dresden's island. The Council chamber. Whatever it is, he likes to perform and play it up till that last moment when he's out there, job's done. Cue applause. Curtain.
P is for Play - There are times, fewer and fewer of them these days, but there are still times when it's just a game to him. He doesn't care about whose earth magic is the best or who's got the bigger wand. He doesn't give a damn if warden trainee what the hell ever can kick his ass in weapons training. It's all a game, played for the fun of it, for the sake of playing around. It's not a zero sum game, it's not about a fixed number of winners and everyone else has to be losers, it's just about playing fair and playing it right. In the end, if you had fun and maybe learned a little something, that's all he wants. He's glad that more and more of the warden trainees are coming over to his way of thinking. It keeps them humble and light-hearted and happy, but also, it means he has more new friends to play with.
Q is for Quirk - Warden Ramirez is far from a conventional warden of the White Council. Everyone knows that. It's the little quirks of his behavior that make him stand out, though. The fact that he trusts Harry Dresden, a man who is still in the ill graces of the Council though he has been cleared of formal charges and is popular with the youngest of the wizards. The fact that he uses knives, guns, and magic with equal reflexive alacrity and skill. His habit of flirting with everything female and remotely attractive, and even offering respectful flattery to women who are older or less than comely. His jokes, his bright smile. Little quirks and differences and habits that stand out from the rest of the Wardens. It makes him stick in the minds of his superiors, which may fast-track him to greatness within the Council. It also makes him stick in the minds of his enemies, painting a target on his back.
R is for Respect - One of the more significant marks of greatness in Carlos is that he offers the same respect to everyone, regardless of age or gender or status in the Council, magical power, station in society. He gives the same basic respect until a person either earns more or throws it away in his eyes, which is more than he's seen others do. To his way of thinking it is not only something you earn, it is something you give because it increases your own honor to do so. To treat a stranger with respect is the mark of a man who allows the world to surprise him and allows that he may not know everything about anyone on first glance. It is the mark of a man with generosity of spirit, which is not why he does it. He does it because it is how he was raised, to respect himself, and to respect the idea of other people until he finds out that the reality is better... or sometimes worse.
S is for Support - As much as he boasts about being able to slay monsters and woo women singlehandedly the truth is Carlos would not be here now if it wasn't for his support network. His friends and family who bear him up when he needs it, and boy does he sometimes need it. He gets into enough trouble on his own without adding the war into it. The truth is that he is aware that he cannot work alone, for all his grandstanding, and he needs the support of others who may have skills he doesn't, allies and assets and connections he needs, supplies and materials. Resources. He repays their help by being there when they need him, as much and as best as he can, no questions asked.
T is for Trust - A certain amount of respect is free, but trust must be earned. Especially now, when their enemies may be their friends and being a conspiracy theorist could be what keeps you alive. He trusts people in stages, some with his things, some with his life. Fewer with his friends' lives, because when they place their trust in him he guards that trust as carefully as he can. But that trust isn't given often. It's hard to know when and where, sometimes he doesn't have a choice, sometimes he makes the wrong decisions and gets hurt for it. Sometimes others pay the price for it. It's hard, making those decisions day after day to trust someone when they say that a piece of information is good or when they promise they'll be there to back him up. When they say they know what they're doing making a plot involving bringing senior council members to an island with a nightflyer and a traitor and god knows what else. It's hard to make the decision to trust someone who acts like he's crazy, or evil, or both. There are times when Carlos wonders if he can trust his own judgment. There are more times, especially these days, when he simply doesn't have a choice.
U is for Up - The world's been getting harder and harder these days, and the war weighs down on him like a man with a hammer beating down on his head and shoulders. Carlos fights back by pulling himself up by his bootstraps goddammit and dragging everyone else up with him. It's why he does what he does, why he acts so wacky. He needs to bring things up a notch. Push harder, faster. Raise it up to a higher frequency. Lift the mood, lift the spirits so that they can think and react free of the weight of broodiness and depression. Despair makes people react in jerky, unthinking ways. He won't say it out loud but that's part of Dresden's problem, the man lets everything pull him down too much. One problem at a time, one battle, one weight tossed off at a time. One step up the stairs at a time, one foot in front of the other, till you reach the top. Then you can look down and see how far you've come, instead of looking up and being overwhelmed by how far you have to go.
V is for View - Carlos grew up in the world of Star Wars, and as silly as it sounded back then when Dresden started his inadvertent cultural revolution within the Council it started sounding less silly, taking life lessons from movies. The part he most remembers is the part about clinging to a point of view, to one truth, one true way that he puts above all others. Maybe Darth Vader killed Anakin or maybe he didn't. To the Council, maybe Dresden's a warlock who escaped what was coming to him, or maybe not. He's been noticing that a lot lately, clinging to one or another point of view to make themselves feel safe and like they're doing the right thing. For his part, he's more sure of doing the right thing if he tries to extend his mind to see the other person's point of view. Even if that point of view is, say, Lara Raith.
W is for Whimsy - Carlos flits back and forth between serious and silly at a moment's notice, usually on a whim. His instincts are good and he describes it as following his instincts but most of the time it would be more accurate to say he satisfies his peculiar sense of whimsy. He follows the right path but also the most exciting of the right paths, the one that affords him the biggest opportunity to be all flash and glitter, laughing and flinging little green bolts of light. Cracking wise is his way of indulging himself even if the circumstances are too dire or serious to indulge in anything like noogies or goosing someone. Little moments of whimsy that keep himself from taking himself too seriously and getting too bogged down by the gravity of the situation, because damned if he doesn't need it sometimes.
X is X's and O's marked in a little red card with gilded lettering he bought Molly for Valentine's Day. He'd actually thought about it since she hit eighteen, maybe a little older, he can't remember quite around which birthday he started realizing that she'd grown into an attractive young woman. She's Dresden's apprentice too, which makes it all the more exciting and gives him more pretexts to see her. Not that she'll know. He isn't treating her any different from any of the other girls he flirts with, little X's and O's marked at the bottoms of cute little cards and notes, just Carlos flirting like usual, except that with her he pays just a little more attention to detail so thatby the time it gets beyond the X's and O's everyone gets, he'll have something serious to say.
Y is for Yes! - Carlos is definitely a yes-man. Not to any one person, no matter what the Council would prefer, and there are times when he's cracking wise and siding with undesirables that they'd really prefer if he was, in the more conventional sense. No, he's more of the sort of yes-man who says yes to things. Not stupid things, like step into my parlor little tasty bantam, no matter what the White Court bitch thinks. But yes to crazy plans, yes to dates, yes to living life the way he wants to, on his terms, without fear or hesitation. He's not going to turn down a challenge that he stands a chance at winning, that isn't going to throw him into a stupid situation. He's not going to turn down something because of a foolish whim or phobia or because he might stand a less than perfect chance of success. He'll say yes to just about anything, within reason.
Z is for Zany - Warden Carlos Ramirez is a strange, strange man. Not quite as strange as some, but close. It might be that the ways in which he's normal only serve to highlight the ways in which he runs right off the rails, surprising Morgan and the Council and even Dresden sometimes, but usually within the boundaries of what might be called "good ways." Usually. And then there are the times when he's just off the wall zany, surprising everyone, Council and Courts alike with what he does. Unpredictable and wild, taking chances and names and slinging spells and launching plans that haven't a snowball's chance in hell of working. And yet they do. He's taken lessons from the best in zany, after all. He knows how to mix it up with just enough practicality so that it works.
Fandom: The Dresden Files (book)
Characters: Warden Carlos Ramirez
Word Count: 3,813
Rating: PG
Summary: The Star's alphabet. Warden Carlos Ramirez, from A to Zee, my interpretations and understandings of him.
A is for Abandon - Carlos Ramirez takes his life seriously, though it really doesn't look like it from the way he acts. He takes his life seriously and does nothing he doesn't have to that might jeopardize it, takes care of his health and safety, and engages life to the fullest. With the war they've found themselves steeped in, with everything else that goes on in the world and the way technology encroaches on the wizard's half-world closer and closer all the time, he's not sure how long anything will last in his life anymore. So he gives himself license to enjoy it, free of inhibitions or worries or shame. He's only got one life, and he wants to get as much out of it as he can.
B is for Brazen - All the Warden trainees talk about Carlos's complete lack of shame with awe and giggling attraction, and all the Wardens talk about him with amusement and a resigned rolling of the eyes. If it were more than talk on anyone's part, like as not it would not be tolerated. And they tell him this, repeatedly and with stern looks. Carlos only smiles and continues to act with brazen swagger, as long as it does not impinge on anyone's safety. Lead by example, he was taught, by the Wardens and by Harry Dresden. The example he sets is that it's all right to swagger as much as you want as long as you do your job and keep in mind your responsibilities.
C is for Charisma - Carlos would attract eyes even if he didn't smile and laugh and flirt the way he does. His mother always told him he was a handsome boy; he started breaking hearts his freshman year in high school. Not intentionally, of course. Never intentionally, but his first attempts at playing the field were not as thoughtful as they might have been. He got better at it later, much better. Learning how to bestow charm and flattery and the feeling of personal attention on every woman (and maybe a few men) regardless of his actual interest. Learning how to balance one desire against another so that the embitterment of jealousy didn't spoil everyone's fun. By the time he was a Regional Commander of the Wardens he was as adept with his charisma as he was with any magical force, and as ready to use it.
D is for Dare - Carlos is the kind of man who gets into a lot of trouble. A good portion of that trouble is because he has few boundaries and no sense of proportion, or at least he acts to cultivate that image a great deal of the time. He's the kind of man who would not only spit in Death's eye, he'd pants the creature and give it a wet willie as a reminder. Part of it is sheer mischief, but as he grows up and sees the effect is has on people it becomes increasingly motivated by the desire to teach someone a lesson about humility or security or just the need not to take oneself too seriously.
E is for Entertain - Say what you will about Carlos, he is entertaining. Whether in combat or in civilian life he knows how to make a person laugh, how to make them forget their cares and worries. He's a master of distraction, of the casual jest that leaves no one insulted, of making a fool of himself in just such a way that they see only the entertainment value and none of the foolishness, keeping his respect. He's so entertaining, in fact, that sometimes they forget to take him seriously. Which sometimes is exactly what he wants.
F is for Flirt - Carlos keeps some things close to the vest. Affection is not one of them. He lavishes affection on every lady he comes across, a smile, a hug, a kiss on the cheek. He is what most Wardens fondly refer to as an incorrigible flirt; he would be a heart-breaker if he wasn't so damn nice about it and if he were to tell the truth (to Harry, maybe) he isnt' sure he hasn't broken a few hearts anyway. If he's not being serious he'd say he's broken dozens. Hundreds. All that flirting is just for show, of course. There's no woman on the planet or in the other realms who could lay claim to having been a lover of his, if one cared to look. If one cared to really look, however, one just might find a woman or two who he might like to be.
G is for Glee - Carlos takes an almost unholy glee in everything he does. The lighter pursuits, training and communicating and so on, well, perhaps he should lend more dignity to his office but he sees no reason for that. He gives it the seriousness it is due and no more. The darker ones, fighting the vampires and their minions, ghouls and zombies and things of that nature, well, he takes a manic kind of glee in that too. It's a rush. It's adrenaline and excitement and when he's victorious, it's the knowledge that he's gotten just that much better. And if he isn't, well. At least he'll know that he went out smiling.
H is for Hidden - Carlos keeps some things close to the vest. The fact that he's never, despite hours and hours and days of boasting, been with a woman that way. The fact that he does have a deep and abiding love, even if she never knows it. The conspiracy of the Gray Council, as Harry called it, to which Carlos remarked that he was too young to be Gandalf. The hatred he does still have, for Lara, for Cowl, for the enemies they've faced and defeated and let walk away alive. Carlos wears only most of his heart on his sleeve; it enables him to keep some things hidden, the most precious things, the things he's still too shy and too much a child to let others see, that childlike vulnerability that still lingers being one of those most precious things that even his closest friends haven't guessed at.
I is for Incorrigible - The Wardens found out even before he put on the cloak that there is no stopping Carlos. If they thought the somber gray would put any kind of a dampener on his enthusiasm they soon found out how mistaken they were. Give him all the dirty looks and exasperated sighs they could, he continued his flirting and antics as long as he had an audience to laugh at them. And why shouldn't he? If it lightens the spirits of those around him then he has done his job, not only for the protection of the lives of his charges, but also their hearts and their souls.
J is for Joie de Vivre - He learned that phrase from Luccio. Joy in life, joy of life, it may be French but he likes it pretty well. It sums up his life's philosophy with a little more dignity than Hakuna Matata. The idea of being the ones dancing and singing while the Titanic goes down. Or singing at the barricades, which is more apt for what's going on in the wizard's world now. Just because things are grim doesn't mean he can't have a little fun, get a little joy out of life. Just because all the older Wardens are going around with faces like stone walls (he's looking at you, Morgan) doesn't mean he has to. Besides, it scares the kiddies. He's a new Warden for a new age, cut (he hopes) more from Dresden's mold. Laugh in the face of danger. Take all the joy out of life he can.
K is for Kick - Carlos is always looking for that little extra something. Part of it is just wanting to go that extra mile, do more, help more people. But part of it is really looking for that extra little kick, to run faster, go farther, do the spell bigger and better than he has before. Maybe it's just a matter of re-allocating energy resources. Maybe it's something else. He hears the kids in the neighborhood next door to his old home ground talking about the drogas and what they have now, the new shit, but that's not the kind of kick he's looking for. He's looking for the rush he gets every time he does it faster and better than he did the last time, whatever it might be. Doing better. Doing more.
L is for Laughter - Carlos is a firm believer in laughter. Taking yourself too seriously is the first sign of ossification, hardening of the mental arteries, an opinion only reinforced by the behavior of the Senior Council and the trouble they've gotten themselves into not listening to younger Wardens. Never take yourself too seriously, it's the first step to believing you know all you need to know, and that way lies defeat. Laughing at the world around you, well, that just makes it more bearable. Otherwise you'd be always in tears, and who wants that? And getting people to laugh with you, well. That just increases the enjoyment in life, doesn't it?
M is for Mask - There are times when it's all a front. Most of the time Carlos's sense of humor is unfeigned, real and vibrant, but some of the time that smile has an edge to it. Some of the time that smile and goofy exterior hides the fact that he's looking around and taking note of what he sees and, even more dangerous, what it means. Or the shock when things don't go as they should, exaggerated, pulled out, to make them think he's more off balance than he is. He recovers quickly. Or the grief, or the rage, he's good at faking most things. People don't think about that, what it takes to be a performer, even an amateur one. People don't think that because he's a jokester and a clown that he's capable of pretending and doing something else underneath, but he is. It's their own fault if they can't see beneath the mask.
N is for Nerve - Refuge in audacity could be another one of Carlos's mottos, if not a summation of many of them. He skates by on pure nerve half of the time, with his enemies as well as with the Council. His daring is the kind of thing that gets him into trouble when it doesn't work, but when he does pull it off it leaves that much greater impact, everyone standing around and staring and wondering how in the hell he managed that one. It's the kind of stare that extreme skateboarders get. Snowboarders riding ahead of the avalanche. Carlos is riding ahead of an avalance, surfing a tsunami, every time he bucks Council tradition or faces down the White King's daughter with a handgun, a rejection, and a smile. Riding on pure nerve.
O is for Ovation - Carlos plays to an audience. Even if it's just an audience of one, he's playing to that one, playing it up and for laughs and applause and adoration. Not because he needs it. Carlos is just as happy to get the job done and leave everything else as a pretty little bonus, but because he likes it. He likes the applause. He does crave it even as he knows it's not essential, the sound of laughter and applause, the stage of a street corner or an arena, a dock or a battlefield or that scrap of Dresden's island. The Council chamber. Whatever it is, he likes to perform and play it up till that last moment when he's out there, job's done. Cue applause. Curtain.
P is for Play - There are times, fewer and fewer of them these days, but there are still times when it's just a game to him. He doesn't care about whose earth magic is the best or who's got the bigger wand. He doesn't give a damn if warden trainee what the hell ever can kick his ass in weapons training. It's all a game, played for the fun of it, for the sake of playing around. It's not a zero sum game, it's not about a fixed number of winners and everyone else has to be losers, it's just about playing fair and playing it right. In the end, if you had fun and maybe learned a little something, that's all he wants. He's glad that more and more of the warden trainees are coming over to his way of thinking. It keeps them humble and light-hearted and happy, but also, it means he has more new friends to play with.
Q is for Quirk - Warden Ramirez is far from a conventional warden of the White Council. Everyone knows that. It's the little quirks of his behavior that make him stand out, though. The fact that he trusts Harry Dresden, a man who is still in the ill graces of the Council though he has been cleared of formal charges and is popular with the youngest of the wizards. The fact that he uses knives, guns, and magic with equal reflexive alacrity and skill. His habit of flirting with everything female and remotely attractive, and even offering respectful flattery to women who are older or less than comely. His jokes, his bright smile. Little quirks and differences and habits that stand out from the rest of the Wardens. It makes him stick in the minds of his superiors, which may fast-track him to greatness within the Council. It also makes him stick in the minds of his enemies, painting a target on his back.
R is for Respect - One of the more significant marks of greatness in Carlos is that he offers the same respect to everyone, regardless of age or gender or status in the Council, magical power, station in society. He gives the same basic respect until a person either earns more or throws it away in his eyes, which is more than he's seen others do. To his way of thinking it is not only something you earn, it is something you give because it increases your own honor to do so. To treat a stranger with respect is the mark of a man who allows the world to surprise him and allows that he may not know everything about anyone on first glance. It is the mark of a man with generosity of spirit, which is not why he does it. He does it because it is how he was raised, to respect himself, and to respect the idea of other people until he finds out that the reality is better... or sometimes worse.
S is for Support - As much as he boasts about being able to slay monsters and woo women singlehandedly the truth is Carlos would not be here now if it wasn't for his support network. His friends and family who bear him up when he needs it, and boy does he sometimes need it. He gets into enough trouble on his own without adding the war into it. The truth is that he is aware that he cannot work alone, for all his grandstanding, and he needs the support of others who may have skills he doesn't, allies and assets and connections he needs, supplies and materials. Resources. He repays their help by being there when they need him, as much and as best as he can, no questions asked.
T is for Trust - A certain amount of respect is free, but trust must be earned. Especially now, when their enemies may be their friends and being a conspiracy theorist could be what keeps you alive. He trusts people in stages, some with his things, some with his life. Fewer with his friends' lives, because when they place their trust in him he guards that trust as carefully as he can. But that trust isn't given often. It's hard to know when and where, sometimes he doesn't have a choice, sometimes he makes the wrong decisions and gets hurt for it. Sometimes others pay the price for it. It's hard, making those decisions day after day to trust someone when they say that a piece of information is good or when they promise they'll be there to back him up. When they say they know what they're doing making a plot involving bringing senior council members to an island with a nightflyer and a traitor and god knows what else. It's hard to make the decision to trust someone who acts like he's crazy, or evil, or both. There are times when Carlos wonders if he can trust his own judgment. There are more times, especially these days, when he simply doesn't have a choice.
U is for Up - The world's been getting harder and harder these days, and the war weighs down on him like a man with a hammer beating down on his head and shoulders. Carlos fights back by pulling himself up by his bootstraps goddammit and dragging everyone else up with him. It's why he does what he does, why he acts so wacky. He needs to bring things up a notch. Push harder, faster. Raise it up to a higher frequency. Lift the mood, lift the spirits so that they can think and react free of the weight of broodiness and depression. Despair makes people react in jerky, unthinking ways. He won't say it out loud but that's part of Dresden's problem, the man lets everything pull him down too much. One problem at a time, one battle, one weight tossed off at a time. One step up the stairs at a time, one foot in front of the other, till you reach the top. Then you can look down and see how far you've come, instead of looking up and being overwhelmed by how far you have to go.
V is for View - Carlos grew up in the world of Star Wars, and as silly as it sounded back then when Dresden started his inadvertent cultural revolution within the Council it started sounding less silly, taking life lessons from movies. The part he most remembers is the part about clinging to a point of view, to one truth, one true way that he puts above all others. Maybe Darth Vader killed Anakin or maybe he didn't. To the Council, maybe Dresden's a warlock who escaped what was coming to him, or maybe not. He's been noticing that a lot lately, clinging to one or another point of view to make themselves feel safe and like they're doing the right thing. For his part, he's more sure of doing the right thing if he tries to extend his mind to see the other person's point of view. Even if that point of view is, say, Lara Raith.
W is for Whimsy - Carlos flits back and forth between serious and silly at a moment's notice, usually on a whim. His instincts are good and he describes it as following his instincts but most of the time it would be more accurate to say he satisfies his peculiar sense of whimsy. He follows the right path but also the most exciting of the right paths, the one that affords him the biggest opportunity to be all flash and glitter, laughing and flinging little green bolts of light. Cracking wise is his way of indulging himself even if the circumstances are too dire or serious to indulge in anything like noogies or goosing someone. Little moments of whimsy that keep himself from taking himself too seriously and getting too bogged down by the gravity of the situation, because damned if he doesn't need it sometimes.
X is X's and O's marked in a little red card with gilded lettering he bought Molly for Valentine's Day. He'd actually thought about it since she hit eighteen, maybe a little older, he can't remember quite around which birthday he started realizing that she'd grown into an attractive young woman. She's Dresden's apprentice too, which makes it all the more exciting and gives him more pretexts to see her. Not that she'll know. He isn't treating her any different from any of the other girls he flirts with, little X's and O's marked at the bottoms of cute little cards and notes, just Carlos flirting like usual, except that with her he pays just a little more attention to detail so thatby the time it gets beyond the X's and O's everyone gets, he'll have something serious to say.
Y is for Yes! - Carlos is definitely a yes-man. Not to any one person, no matter what the Council would prefer, and there are times when he's cracking wise and siding with undesirables that they'd really prefer if he was, in the more conventional sense. No, he's more of the sort of yes-man who says yes to things. Not stupid things, like step into my parlor little tasty bantam, no matter what the White Court bitch thinks. But yes to crazy plans, yes to dates, yes to living life the way he wants to, on his terms, without fear or hesitation. He's not going to turn down a challenge that he stands a chance at winning, that isn't going to throw him into a stupid situation. He's not going to turn down something because of a foolish whim or phobia or because he might stand a less than perfect chance of success. He'll say yes to just about anything, within reason.
Z is for Zany - Warden Carlos Ramirez is a strange, strange man. Not quite as strange as some, but close. It might be that the ways in which he's normal only serve to highlight the ways in which he runs right off the rails, surprising Morgan and the Council and even Dresden sometimes, but usually within the boundaries of what might be called "good ways." Usually. And then there are the times when he's just off the wall zany, surprising everyone, Council and Courts alike with what he does. Unpredictable and wild, taking chances and names and slinging spells and launching plans that haven't a snowball's chance in hell of working. And yet they do. He's taken lessons from the best in zany, after all. He knows how to mix it up with just enough practicality so that it works.