2) The best answer I can offer is that my loved ones have inspired me more than I can put into words. The vast majority of my relationship with @ElectricKeet has been her trying to get me to be A Good Buni(tm), and all of my mates and friends have given me reason to want to do better in life.

I would also be remiss if I didn't mention Mitchell, the first person to really show me magic from the outside, even if I would outpace his lessons before either of us realized I had.

3) I value what others think of me to the extent that I think their opinions are valuable. I don't care what most people think of me, because if I did, I'd have been unable to transition in Texas in 2000 at 194cm and 155kg. I'd have been unable to survive being tagged as gay at age ten in 1984. I couldn't and can't afford to care what randos think of me. I value what the beings and entities and minds around me that I respect think of me, regardless of whether they're people.

4) Right now, my biggest future anticipation is retirement. I've had a twenty-year plan -- now more like forty -- in the works since just after college on how to get to not having to work for a living safely and some idea of how many people I could bring with me into that state. As my resources have grown, the world has collapsed out from under me and the number of people needing help has incrased, but the plan is still largely intact. It's just longer-term now than it was.

5) I think @Soreth said it best: "Always move closer to the truest you." That doesn't mean that "you" is necessarily singular, or that truth is externally measurable. We must all decide for ourselves what our truest selves looks like. Keep swinging on the spiral. Keep rising towards the light. Be honest with yourself about who you are, who you want to be, and where you want to go. If you don't know how, look for those who you think are better at being themselves and ask for help.

6) Writer. Author. Crafter of words and worlds, creator of dreams that others choose to inhabit. Essayist on matters magical, spiritual, literary, and ethical. To get paid enough for... this... that I could get away from the lightning songs and still bring others with me.

7) As a creator of "fictional" "characters," I'm going to start by saying it would be cheating to declare any of my own works in the list of eligibles. I want to meet Rotwang. I want to get to know him before his breakdown. I want to document his techniques. I want to understand his breakthroughs. And I want, just maybe, to try to nudge him off the path of "can implies should" that led to so much suffering. Though, if I did, maybe Metropolis wouldn't have fallen, and it needed to fall.

@literorrery

You'd much rather work with liquid words than lightning songs. :-}