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1. Family
Both Blake and Mortimer are only children. Blake grew up playing with his cousins and neighborhood children. Mortimer enjoyed the company of native playmates in India and occasional visits with the children of fellow colonials. Both men were exposed to arts, music, and other refinements by their mothers, who would have been great friends had they ever met.
Olrik has several half siblings whom he has never met. His mother was an underage Eurasian dancer who lost interest in him shortly after giving birth. His father was a minor Hungarian noble who was willing to pay for the child’s upkeep in foster homes and military schools, but nothing more.
2. Sex
Like John Watson, Mortimer has enjoyed the company of women on several continents. He is friendly with most of his former lovers, but has no intention of settling down. He hasn’t ruled it out, but at his age he can’t imagine finding real romantic love as he did in his youth. Perhaps Sarah Summerstown…
Blake is nearly asexual, but not aromantic. He would like to get married to a good woman who shared his tastes, but has yet to find one. Nevertheless, he lives in hope. He would love to have children and family life some day. Blake knows his sex drive is not typical, but he sees it as a benefit. Sexual passion is a distraction.
Olrik is bisexual. That isn’t really a word in his time, of course, but Olrik is familiar with Caesar, who was every man’s woman and every woman’s man. He has brief liaisons for physical release and to a lesser extent, emotional solace. Contrary to the stereotypes about bisexual people, Olrik is very choosy about his partners, and has actually slept with fewer people than Mortimer. For him, his unorthodox sexuality is just another part of his outsider identity.
4. Food and drink
Captain Blake likes sherry and plain English cooking: fish, vegetables, bread and cheese. He views the love of food as an unseemly weakness. Very rarely he enjoys an old-fashioned English fry-up, but he always feels a bit regretful afterwards.
Professor Mortimer loves the Indian dishes he grew up with, but they’re never quite right in England. He tends to forget to eat while he’s working hard, but has a real love for roast beef, Yorkshire puddings, and English pastries. He forces himself to be moderate in his tastes. His drink of choice is whiskey.
Colonel Olrik resents having to eat second-rate food when he is in prison or the military. Given his choice, he indulges in the finest food and drink (gin, preferably) he can find, but always in moderation. He likes to stock up on food whenever he’s temporarily settled. If you told him this is because of a neurotic fear of going hungry, he might kill you.
5. They had their colors done
Blake is a summer. Mortimer is an autumn. Olrik is a winter.
6. Sun Sign Archetypes
Blake is an Aquarius. Mortimer is a Pisces. Olrik is an Aries.
7. Have you ever?
Olrik has never seen a movie in the theater, or eaten ice cream, or ridden a bicycle.
Blake has never slept completely naked, had a pet, or struck another person in anger.
Mortimer has never had a really lazy vacation, or finished reading War and Peace. Every time he comes close to finishing his memoirs, work distracts him.
8. Insomnia
When Olrik can’t sleep, he watches television. He loves crime and horror films, which he finds hilarious. If that doesn’t work, he goes for long walks, regardless of the weather or time of night.
When Blake can’t sleep, he reads, usually Marcus Aurelius, Wordsworth, or Shakespeare. He also meditates from time to time, but insomnia is not usually a problem.
When Mortimer can’t sleep, he goes over his most recent calculations or draws elaborate machines with no practical use. Sometimes he just gets up and goes to work before the sun is up.
9. Diversions
Olrik sometimes goes to the opera alone. He pays for a box seat and gets completely caught up in the story and the music. It helps that he understands the major operatic languages.
Mortimer sometimes skives off work and takes in a matinee. He particularly enjoys ridiculous cowboy movies and love stories. Quite often he walks out of the theatre with a completely new perspective on his work.
Blake is a cricket fan and while he doesn’t get chance to see many matches, he thoroughly enjoys every one he can manage. It doesn’t matter if it’s a professional match, or a group of kids messing around. Blake is always passionately involved.
10. Women
Lily Sing and Olrik never had an affair, but they came close. Her status was not secure enough to risk getting intimate with a white man, even one as respected as Olrik. Her attraction completely disappeared when she heard about his role as Guinea Pig.
Sarah Summerstown is, in fact, the mother of Mortimer’s child. They talk it over and agree to explain the truth when the girl turns 21. She loved her father and is well-provided for, so anything beyond that seems foolish.
Nastasia would marry Blake in a heartbeat. She imagines that there are hidden passions beneath his cool exterior.
11. They're all tied together
Olrik secretly envies both Blake and Mortimer. They’ve beaten him many times, yes, but only with a whole society behind them. You and what army, indeed! Neither one would last long in the underworld, Olrik tells himself. By contrast, who knows what heights he could have reached with the backing of friends, family, institutions?
Blake sometimes wonders if Mortimer is his mate for life. Oh, not in that way, people. Blake is no child and he is aware that people whisper absurdities for their own amusement, but he has no sexual attraction to Mortimer or any man. There is not arguing, however, that Mortimer is the most important person in his world.
Mortimer has a connection to Olrik that he both cherishes and resents: from the moment he saw his enemy helpless in the hands of Septimus, a degree of compassion has softened the anger and contempt with which Mortimer views the man. This is inconvenient, because Mortimer can never leave Olrik to his fate, however deserved. It’s important, because if the last two wars have taught him anything, it’s the importance of recognizing everyone as human.
12. Fears
Mortimer has no particular fears and goes through life with a sanguine attitude. Except for bad. He can’t see bats fluttering around a lamppost without feeling a surge of disgust. He was never fond of the creatures, but after Egypt… ugh!
Blake is afraid of accidentally causing harm to someone he cares for. It started with the terrible incident of T.E. Lawrence. Ever since, Blake’s nightmares have been about friends, family, and colleagues dying or getting hurt because of something he does or fails to do.
Olrik doesn’t like being in small spaces, especially if the light is bad. No, he is not afraid, he would insist. He just doesn’t like not knowing what’s going on. Even as a child he hated not knowing where he was at all times. This has only got worse since the incident at The Great Pyramid.
13. Hobbies
Mortimer is a Renaissance man! Who else could make a hobby out of archeology? He also enjoys boxing, riding, hiking and fishing. Mortimer has no particular interest in art or music, but he thinks he might like to learn woodwork when he has more time.
Blake is athletic in his own quiet way. He enjoys swimming and running – individual, contemplative sports. He trains frequently in both armed and unarmed combat. Unlike Mortimer, Blake enjoys music, even popular music and he’s a surprisingly decent camp cook.
Olrik doesn’t have hobbies, or so he thinks. Yes, he trains in fencing and firearms whenever he has a chance, but that’s just common sense. Same with flying, and riding. (He secretly loves both.) Learning new languages is part of the job, and collecting East Asian art is an intellectual challenge, not a hobby.
14. Past hurts
When Olrik was young people often made unkind comments about his looks. Even the softness of childhood couldn’t hide his prominent nose and chin. In – well, let’s just say a country full of fair, rosy people – his sallow darkness stood out, and he was a skinny, sullen boy with downcast eyes.
To hell with those people. He grew tall and strong and even handsome to some eyes. Besides, nobody dares say a damned thing to his face now.
Mortimer had a happy childhood surrounded by loving family, friends, and material wealth, but when he went to England to complete his education, he was the strange boy from Simla. For someone used to being treated with respect, even deference, this was a bit of a surprise, but Mortimer took it in stride. He gritted his teeth when he was mocked for being the “brilliant newcomer” in the words of one overenthusiastic teacher.
Mortimer’s brains didn’t make friends, but his equable temperament and skill with his fists did – or at least they made his few enemies shut up. He has learned to grit his teeth through the first weeks of a new situation, but not to like it.
Blake had an almost angelic beauty as a boy, and while he was as capable of getting into trouble as any young fellow, he was gentle by nature even then and saw nothing wrong with going on a hike or visiting the lending library with a female friend. A few other boys vented their jealousy by calling him a queer or a pansy. After having obtained permission from is father, Blake flattened their noses for them, and the teasing stopped. It stuck with him, though. Blake doesn’t consider himself queer, but he’s knows he’s not quite the same as other men.