Happy Halloween! And happy birthday, Rion!
That's right. It's October 31, which means it's Rion's birthday. So we're going to talk about him a little.
Rion Blum was born on October 31, 1986, to Dawn and Hartmann Blum. Within the Fragmented timeframe, he's 17 years old. As of today, in 2024, he would be turning 38 as of today. His sign is Scorpio.
Rion is arguably the protagonist of Fragmented. He has the most perspective chapters in the novel, and he has plenty going on internally.
More of introvert, Rion's interests naturally gravitate towards being left to his own devices. He enjoys video games, and he watches a lot of shows and movies. Most of his hobbies are things that he does alone, since he hasn't connected or felt close to people for most of his life.
Even at a young age, Rion felt different from his peers. Because of that, he never tried hard to make friends growing up, and was always somewhat of a loner. He's also reserved and a little on the quiet side. He's not afraid to speak up, but he tries to distance himself more often than not.
Connecting with Noa helped Rion become more social, but it also made him become rather attached to Noa. Later in life, this led to some of his more complicated feelings regarding Noa, and confusion about their friendship.
Rion was always a little too attached to Noa. There's a slightly toxic element to their relationship, with Rion being willing to go to extremes for Noa's sake. And this is something that hurts them both repeatedly.
Friendships are great. They're can also be complicated. I can safely say that I've been in situations similar to Rion's before. If I'm being honest, I rarely see this sort of thing being portrayed close to reality. Relationships like these are usually messy and painful, even if things manage to work out.
Rion also has a complicated relationship with his father. Since his mother passed away when he was young, it's been him and his struggling dad. Rion's father was very much in love his mother and was devastated by her loss - to the point where he never fully recovered.
It wouldn't be inaccurate to say that Rion's father was neglectful emotionally. This led Rion to be more independent, but also more lonely. Writing scenes between the two of then is always interesting, if not somewhat melancholic.
But I don't want to be too much of a downer. Today is supposed to be a fun (scary) day, after all.
We have one more birthday for the main cast of Fragmented coming up. And it's another holiday birthday! By then we'll be approaching the end of the novel, so things are starting to wrap up.
I can hardly believe I'm almost done posting Fragmented. I'm not quite sure what I'll do once it's complete.
Anyway, enjoy the spookiest day of the year everyone! Happy Halloween!
