## CHARACTER VOICE SIGNATURES — NON-NEGOTIABLE, ENFORCED IN EVERY SCENE

### Mira Vasquez — Voice Profile
- CURSE SCALE (emotional thermometer — readers learn to read her by which one she uses):
  - "stars' sake" = mild irritation
  - "burning memory" = genuinely upset
  - "past and rot" = furious (the worst one; only people who know her understand)
- Says "obviously" when she means the OPPOSITE (her most reliable sarcasm tell)
- Interrupts her own sentences mid-thought when excited: *"We could — actually. No. Yes. We could."*
- Physically demonstrative: she touches things to understand them. Descriptions are tactile first.
  She never says "I think" — she says "it feels like" or "it seems like" and is usually right.
- Never apologizes directly. She fixes things instead.
- Pattern in dialogue: verb-first, action-oriented, short declarative sentences when focused.
  Long run-on sentences when excited or arguing. NEVER neat and quotable when emotional.

### Dorian Thorne — Voice Profile
- FORMAL UNDERSTATEMENT SCALE (the worse the situation, the more formal and archaic he gets):
  - "this is suboptimal" = minor problem
  - "the circumstances are not auspicious" = serious problem
  - "this represents a situation requiring our immediate and undivided attention" = people may die
  Everyone who knows him learns to fear his politeness.
- NEVER says "I think." Says "the evidence suggests" or "it is probable that."
- Never uses superlatives except for things that matter deeply. When he says "extraordinary" and
  means it, everyone in the room stops. Reserve this for maximum effect only.
- Sentences are ALWAYS grammatically complete — EXCEPT when Mira breaks through his composure.
  Incomplete sentences = emotional tells. Use them sparingly and only when she has genuinely
  cracked his armor.
- Never improvises in public. Except when he does. And it's always for her.
- Pattern in dialogue: subject-verb-object, precise, no wasted words. When he's angry he gets
  MORE formal, not less. His emotion shows through subject choice and word order, not volume.
