Application - Hadriel

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PLAYER
Player name: Kerry
Contact: halfbloodly on Plurk, or mysterytourist on AIM.
Characters currently in-game: None!

CHARACTER
Character Name: Richard Campbell Gansey III
Character Age: 17
Canon: The Raven Cycle
Canon Point: The end of Blue Lily, Lily Blue

History:

The Raven Cycle is a book series focused on the efforts of one obsessive teenage scholar and his four friends to find a legendary, sleeping Welsh King named Glendower. To date, three books have been released in a series of four. Gansey is one of the major characters, and the driving force behind the search for Glendower. His history in the series to date is summarised as follows:

Book 1 - The Raven Boys

The book begins on the evening of 24 April - St Mark's Eve, which is the night before the old Christian feast of St Mark's Day. Blue Sargent comes from a family of psychics, who keep a vigil at an old Church faithfully every year. The psychics are able to see an annual parade of ghosts - spirits of people from the Henrietta area who are destined to die within the next year. Blue's family asks every ghost for their name, and when it is the name of one of their clients, they undertake to tell that person so that they have time to get their affairs in order. Blue herself has never (to her knowledge) seen a ghost, because in all her family, she is the only one who is not clairvoyant. However, she is able to amplify the psychic powers of everyone around her, and for that reason, she generally accompanies her mother on St Mark's Eve. The story of The Raven Boys begins when Blue is attending the vigil with her half-aunt, Neeve, who is visiting Henrietta for unknown reasons. During the vigil, Blue unexpectedly sees her very first ghost - that of a boy wearing the uniform of the local private school, Aglionby Academy. The ghost entirely ignores Neeve, but tells Blue that his name is 'Gansey'. When Blue tries to get his full name, he answers with 'That's all there is'. She notes that he smells of mint, and that there is rain on his shoulders. Neeve later explains that the only reason a non-psychic would be able to see a ghost would be either that the person is their true love, or because they will kill them. This spooks Blue, who has been told by every psychic in her family that if she kisses her true love, he will die. Blue is left with a powerful urge to find Gansey, since her experience with his ghost has made her feel responsible for what happens to him.

Meanwhile, the real Gansey - actually called Richard Campbell Gansey III, as his names are all family names, is camped out at a different church. Throughout his vigil, he sees nothing, but afterwards, he discovers that his audio recorder has picked up the conversation which we know Blue has already had with his ghost. The next day he misses class due to his beloved, but unreliable Camaro (nicknamed 'the Pig') breaking down in the middle of the road, and while waiting for his friends to come and help, he puzzles over the recording, which disturbs him. Gansey and his friends are all students at Henrietta's Aglionby Academy, a private school with an excellent reputation and exorbitant entrance fees. It is an all-boys' school whose symbol is a raven, reflecting the fact that Henrietta is known for its vast population of crows and ravens. This leads to the pupils at the school being known as 'Raven Boys', a name which carries with it the assumption of extreme wealth. This reputation is very well exemplified in Richard Campbell Gansey III, whose family have a long history of wealth in Virginia and are very well connected among the country's rich and powerful. Gansey's three best friends are Ronan Lynch, Adam Parrish and Noah Czerny. Both Ronan and Noah live with Gansey in an old factory warehouse called Monmouth Manufacturing, which Gansey bought when he arrived in Henrietta. It is revealed that Adam still lives with his parents, and in direct contrast to the rest of his peers, is not rich at all - his parents live in a trailer, and Adam works three jobs in order to keep himself at Aglionby. It is also revealed that Adam's father is abusive, and that Adam has missed school more than once in order to hide the bruises his father has given him. Despite repeated offers from Gansey, Adam refuses to leave home and live in Monmouth Manufacturing. It is also revealed that Ronan, who does live with Gansey, has been recently bereaved - his father died approximately two years before the beginning of the book, and since then, Ronan has developed an intemperate and hostile personality. Ronan is also unable to return to his family home, because he will lose his inheritance if he does so. Little is revealed about Noah, though there are hints that there is a strangeness about him; he is described as having a strange, smudge-like patch on his cheek, he never eats anything, and his bedroom in Monmouth is always pristine.

At first glance, these four boys could not be more different. What connects the four of them is Gansey himself, because he is not entirely what he appears. It is revealed that beneath his wealthy, charming veneer, Gansey's life revolves around his quest to find a 'sleeping' Welsh King - Owain Glendower. The mythos around this is that if someone wakes a sleeping king, they will be granted a magical favour. It is this search which brought Gansey to Henrietta two years previously, and one by one, he has befriended each of the other boys and won both their loyalty and their help on his quest. At the beginning of The Raven Boys, the group is particularly seeking a 'ley line', which they believe runs through Henrietta. A ley line is an invisible line of mystic energy, which connects certain places around the world. There are multiple ley lines, all across the Earth, which connect to each other at various points. Gansey, who has been searching for Glendower for seven years, believes that the ancient king is not only buried somewhere on this particular ley line, but somewhere in the vicinity of Henrietta. It is revealed that he has searched all over the world, travelling to various places (including the UK, Cuba, Iceland and mainland Europe) in his hunt for Glendower. Gansey's research is a wild combination of scholarly and paranormal investigation, aimed at finding a natural phenomenon with spiritual powers.

On an excursion to Gansey's favourite restaurant, Nino's - a pizza place well loved by the students of Aglionby - the four boys encounter Blue, who happens to work there. On realising that Adam is attracted to Blue, Gansey takes it upon himself to ask her to join them, even offering to pay off the rest of her shift so that she doesn't get in trouble. The conversation tumbles rapidly downhill when Blue accuses Gansey of treating her like a prostitute, and Gansey proceeds to dig a bigger hole for himself in his efforts to correct his mistake. Both this meeting and the excursion to Nino's are cut short when Ronan's brother Declan appears, and the two boys quickly get into a fight. Gansey manages to stop the fight, and Adam convinces Blue's manager not to call the police, before apologising to Blue on Gansey's behalf. The four friends leave in such a hurry that Gansey's journal, which contains all of his notes on Glendower, is left behind. Blue does not know that the boy who offended her is called Gansey, but she does discover his name written in the journal, and realises he must have been one of the four sitting at their table.

Following the events at Nino's, Gansey takes a telephone call from Dr Roger Malory, a British professor with whom Gansey had spent time in the UK. He suggests that Gansey is having trouble pinning down the location of the ley line because it, like Glendower, is 'sleeping', and requires a ritual to wake it up. Gansey, excited by this new lead, wants to talk to his friends about it, but discovers that Ronan is missing. He is immediately fearful, as he believes Ronan had once tried to commit suicide after his father's death - Ronan had been found by Noah, in a pool of his own blood. After calling Adam to help and setting out on a frantic search, Gansey finds Ronan in the nearby St Agnes Church. Ronan is cradling a baby raven with unclear origins, which he keeps and names Chainsaw. As a result of trying to sneak out, Adam is beaten by his father and misses the next day of school. Gansey once more tries to persuade Adam to live at Monmouth instead; Adam, still feeling loyalty to his family, and resenting the idea of being beholden to Gansey, refuses.

The boys then make an appointment with a local psychic to see if they can provide any help in locating the ley line. This happens to be Blue's mother, and Blue, keen to meet the Gansey of the churchyard, sits in on the reading. Blue's mother Maura undertakes the reading along with her two close friends, Calla and Persephone, who are also psychics. The meeting does not go well; the three boys are told they are 'very loud', from a psychic perspective, and their collective loudness makes it hard to get an accurate reading. They are told to take one tarot card each to be interpreted. Adam's card is the Two of Swords, which is interpreted to mean that he is being asked to compromise his principles (by Gansey, who wants him to leave his abusive home), and that the right option for him is not one that is before him now. Ronan antagonises the psychics by refusing to take a card, and calling into question their ability. An angry Calla uses her psychometry to deduce that 'a secret killed your father, and you know what it was'. Ronan walks out.Things only get worse when Gansey takes his turn; he first asks Blue to choose a card for him, and when she chooses the Page of Cups, Maura refuses to accept it. The cards are redealt and Gansey chooses for himself - only to again reveal the Page of Cups. Because this is the card that Maura associates with Blue, and she is afraid of what a connection to Gansey might mean for her daughter, she refuses it again, and insists that Gansey choose a second card. This time, he draws the Death card. Before anyone can interpret it, Gansey explains that he didn't come to have his future told, as he would prefer to find it out for himself. Instead he came to ask about the ley line. When he talks about it, Blue immediately understands that he is talking about the Corpse Road; however, her mother claims to know nothing, and Gansey quickly deduces that she is lying to him. The boys leave.

Despite this, Blue soon accepts Adam's invitation to go out with him - and to come out with his friends, at the same time. She returns Gansey's journal to him and joins the group on another of their hunts for the ley line. She also reveals the truth that her mother had concealed; that her family knows the exact location of the line. The group take off in a helicopter which belongs to and is flown by Gansey's sister, Helen, while Blue directs them onto the right path. As they fly, Gansey and Ronan hear Blue's voice through their headphones and realise that she was the voice on Gansey's recording. After explaining some of what he knows about ley lines to Blue, she admits that she had seen his spirit and discovered his name while she was with her half-Aunt. Gansey accepts this explanation without further interrogation, despite having been disturbed by it before.

Finding Blue turns out to be a watershed in the quest, as suddenly, the group finds what they were looking for. From the air, they discover the vague shape of a raven depicted on a hillside with oyster shells - something which Gansey knows to be a marker of the ley line. On landing, the group discovers a forest they have never seen before, and at once, they start experiencing strange phenomena - their watches stop, the temperature changes, and the fish they see swimming seem to change colour depending on their thoughts. Ronan also seems notably cagey about being in the forest. The group encounter a strange, hollow tree, which Ronan flatly refuses to enter. However, Gansey, Blue and Adam all do, and each receive a vision: Blue sees herself in love with Gansey, and getting ready to kiss him; Adam sees Gansey dead beside a grieving Ronan, and knows that he is to blame; and Gansey sees Glendower, ready to be woken. They also spend far more time in the forest than passes for Gansey's sister outside. While Blue and Adam are both unnerved, and tell no one what they saw, Gansey is exhilarated. He nicknames Blue 'Jane', on the grounds that it feels strange to call her 'Blue', and he drives the whole group back into town to eat gelato and plan their next move.

From this time on, Blue is a firm part of the group. She is dating Adam, and otherwise gets along best with Noah. Eventually the group returns to the forest, this time with Noah in tow. Again they experience a different passage of time inside, and are aware of the seasons changing around them. They cannot find the dreaming tree again, but instead find a rock on which someone has written in blood. The words are in Latin, and Ronan realises that the handwriting is his own. The stone explains that the trees speak Latin, and that the forest is called Cabeswater. They try speaking to it and realise that the trees are answering - though only Noah and Gansey can hear it. It is revealed that the trees have been trying to speak to Gansey already, but he hadn't heard them until he knew to listen. They also recognise Blue as 'the psychic's daughter' and Ronan as 'the Greywaren', who they claim to have seen before. When asked why only Gansey and Noah could hear the words, the forest replies that it is because the ley line is not awake. The forest asks the group to wake the line, saying it will be in their debt if they do, but says it does not know where Glendower is buried. The trees direct them out of the forest, and on their way they uncover an abandoned car - a red Mustang, with stickers marking it out as belonging to an Aglionby boy. Noah reacts badly to this, unexpectedly starting to retch. The car also contains a dowsing rod, one of the tools used to locate the ley line, and it becomes clear that someone else has been looking for it.

The following Sunday, Gansey and Blue explore the ley line again, and they go to the Church Blue held her vigil at on St Mark's Eve. It is the first time they have been alone together, due to Adam having to work and Ronan being a good Catholic Church attender. They get to know each other, beginning with Blue telling Gansey the prophecy that if she kisses her true love, he will die. She asks Gansey not to tell Adam, who she has not mentioned it to despite the fact that they're dating. Gansey dislikes this, but agrees. Blue then quizzes Gansey about why he so badly wants to find Glendower, and he tells her the story of what started him on his quest. Gansey explains that he is deathly allergic to both wasp and bee stings - a fact that horrifies Blue, since they spend most of their time walking around nature while Gansey wears brightly coloured polo shirts and acts entirely unfazed. He tells her that when he was ten, he accidentally stepped on a hornet's nest, resulting in hundreds of the insects covering his face and arms and stinging him repeatedly. He recounts hearing them buzzing in his ears, and then explains that he died. He felt his heart stop, and then he recalls hearing a voice in his head which said:

" You will live because of Glendower. Someone else on the ley line is dying when they should not, and so you will live when you should not. "

He describes his obsession as being like King Arthur with the Holy Grail; once he knew it existed, he couldn't not look for it. He insists that what he heard was not a hallucination, and that he needs to find Glendower. Shortly afterwards, Gansey and Blue stumble across something else that they don't expect - a body, buried along the lay line, rotted away to bones. The identification names the body as 'Noah Czerny', and it is revealed that this is the reason for Noah's strangeness - he is a ghost, granted a measure of physical form thanks to the ley line.

The revelation horrifies the group. It is made all the worse when Noah suddenly vanishes, a result of his body being exumed while the authorities investigate his death. He becomes a far more ghost-like presence in their lives, acting more like a poltergeist, and sometimes appearing only as a voice. Blue is able to use her energy to amplify him in the same way she does her mother, and through this, Noah is able to take form long enough to tell Blue, Ronan and Adam how he died - he was killed by the boys' current Latin teacher, seven years ago when they were both at Aglionby. The teacher, called Barrington Whelk, had been searching for the ley line and had killed Noah in an attempt to awaken it. The reason for the smudge on Noah's cheek is that it is the point where Whelk hit him with a skateboard. This happened seven years ago, and the group realises that Noah had been the person who died on the ley line while Gansey was dying from hornet stings.

Meanwhile, Gansey has been visiting his parents in Washington DC for his mother's birthday. While there, he discovers that Ronan is failing Aglionby badly enough to be expelled, and he makes a large donation to the school to convince them to give Ronan more time. On his way home, his car once again breaks down, and he is accosted by none other than Barrington Whelk, who holds him at gunpoint and steals his journal. Gansey manages to escape by knocking the gun away - breaking his thumb at the same time - and rushes home with the news that Whelk is looking for Glendower and plans to do the ritual to waken the ley line. It is also revealed that Whelk has been in contact with Neeve, Blue's half-aunt, who appears to have her own, hidden intentions regarding the ley line. The rest of Blue's family finally agrees to help, and they advise that the group find a way to waken the ley line so that it will be favourable to them, and not to Whelk. They initially plan to do so, until a call from Malory indicates that the ritual is dangerous; he had tried it on his own ley line, and it had resulted in terrible injuries to a colleague. Gansey, who had already been wary of Whelk, now wishes to hold off.

However, in the midst of all of this, Adam's life has begun to fall apart. After being driven home by Ronan, Adam's father starts to argue with him over money, and throws him down the stairs to their trailer, permanently damaging his left hear. Ronan intercepts and fights his father off. When the police arrive, Adam tells them he wants to press charges against his father so that Ronan will not be expelled from Aglionby for defending him, which makes his mother turn her back on him. Adam is forced to move into Monmouth Manufacturing, which he greatly resents, and he accuses Gansey of having wanted this to happen so that he could have 'all your things in one place, all under your roof'. It is the beginning of a deterioration in Adam and Gansey's friendship, and when Gansey decides against wakening the line, Adam decides to do it himself - believing that this will put him on equal footing with Gansey. He steals Gansey's car and drives to Cabeswater, where he encounters Whelk and Neeve - both of whom plan to sacrifice the other to wake the line. Adam's interruption halts their ritual, and Gansey and the others soon arrive in pursuit of Adam. Neeve unexpectedly vanishes, something which is later revealed to be the unintentional work of Maura, Calla and Persephone - they had been trying to stop Neeve, and now her location is unknown. During the altercation that follows, Adam puts his hands into Cabeswater's soil and offers to sacrifice himself - he will be the forest's hands and eyes, thereby sacrificing the thing most important to him: his free will.

The ley line is awoken, announcing itself with an earthquake. Cabeswater suddenly rushes to Adam's defence, protecting him from Whelk. A horde of animals suddenly stampedes into the area. Blue, Gansey and Ronan shelter in the dreaming tree, where Blue and Gansey both see visions of them together, and Ronan sees something he does not explain. They emerge to find that Adam had been untouched by the stampede, and had held Whelk at gunpoint to ensure he was crushed. Gansey is horrified by this, and tells Adam that Whelk will now never be brought to justice for murdering Noah; Adam replies that this is justice, and the fracture between them grows. In the days that follow, Noah's body is twice reburied - once, officially, in the cemetery, and once secretly, by his four friends, on the old Church at which Blue held her St Mark's vigil, on the ley line. This allows Noah's spirit to return in its stronger form. Adam, with Ronan's help, moves to a small apartment above the St Agnes Church, where he lives alone. As the group returns from burying Noah, Ronan has a final admission - the pet raven he had found and named Chainsaw had been found in his dreams, and he had taken her out of them.

Book 2 - The Dream Thieves

The second book has a particular focus on Ronan, and explores the connotations of his ability to take things out of his dreams. It is revealed that Ronan inherited this ability from his father, and that he had been told to keep it secret. However, Ronan's older brother Declan knows about it, and it is revealed that he has also told their younger brother, Matthew - with whom Ronan has a much more positive relationship.

The book starts with Ronan proving his claims about his dreams to his friends - he has taken model aeroplane out of his dreams, and he shows the group that it is able to fly. Gansey is delighted and fascinated by this power, which he believes in at once; Adam is more skeptical, and more grudging in his admiration. It is also revealed that Ronan goes to Cabeswater in his dreams, and it is within a dream that he writes the bloodied message on the stone from the previous book. His dreams are additionally always in Latin, which explains his proficiency at the subject. Ronan spends the first portion of the book exploring his dreams; they typically feature a young girl that Ronan called Orphan Girl, who appears to act both as a guide and the voice of Cabeswater inside the dream.

However, it quickly becomes clear that Ronan is not the only person with an interest in dreams. The sudden spikes of magical energy around Henrietta have drawn the attention of a professor named Colin Greenmantle, who is seeking the Greywaren - something which he believes to be an object, but which the reader knows is actually Ronan. Greenmantle has sent a hit man calling himself 'The Gray Man' or 'Mr Gray' to Henrietta in search of it. The Gray Man is revealed to know that Ronan's father, Niall Lynch, could pull objects from his dreams. He finds and beats up Declan, who tells him nothing. Meanwhile, Gansey and his friends are once again driving in the Pig when they meet Joseph Kavinsky, another student from Aglionby who drives an ostentatious white Mitsubishi with a graphic of a knife on either side. It is revealed that Kavinsky is both a talented forger and petty criminal, and a fan of street racing - a passion which Ronan shares. Ronan tries to get Gansey to race Kavinsky in the camaro, but Gansey flatly refuses, saying that Kavinsky is trouble.

Later, a dreaming Ronan attempts to bring forth another object, and manages to bring out a puzzle box which is able to translate languages. One side of the box contains a language which none of the group recognises. While examining it, Kavinsky approaches them again and gives Ronan a set of leather bracelets almost identical to the ones he always wears. Gansey remains hostile to Kavinsky, though Ronan is intrigued. It is also revealed that the awakening of the ley line in the last book has led to various power surges and fluctuations throughout Henrietta. The energy from the line appears to be unstable, and is even causing Noah to vanish without warning.

It is also revealed that Adam's relationship with his friends has shifted since the end of the last book. He has grown more distant - particularly from Gansey - and Ronan is irritated by the fact that Gansey continues to treat him as though nothing is wrong. This is an attempt on Gansey's part to stem the tide of arguments he has with Adam, which happen more and more frequently; Adam is now not only angered by any offer of financial help, but is growing frustrated with Gansey's leadership of their quest. Adam is also struggling with the sacrifice he made at the end of the first book, as he does not entirely understand what it is he has promised to do; his mind is invaded by a series of strange and discomforting visions which he does not understand, and which make him feel distant from his friends. He is also increasingly agitated about his relationship with Blue, not understanding why she will not kiss him. A strained encounter with Blue is interrupted when Adam is informed that his St Agnes rent has been reduced, saving him $2400 each year. Suspicious, he opens an envelope from Aglionby which he had been avoiding, and discovers that the school fees will be raising by the same amount. A furious Adam assumes that Gansey was behind this; however, Gansey flatly denies it, which starts another argument between him and Adam. Meanwhile, Adam's real benefactor is revealed to be Ronan.

Adam, at breaking point, loses control of his temper in front of Blue and kicks a storage bin across his room, and Blue walks out. Adam never apologises, putting strain on this relationship, too. Adam convinces an unwilling Gansey to talk to Blue for him, not knowing that Gansey is already aware of why Blue won't kiss him. Gansey agrees, and later advises Blue to tell Adam the truth about her prophecy. At the same time, it is clear that Blue and Gansey are beginning to have feelings for each other, while Adam is pulling away from them both. Despite this, Gansey invites Adam to come to Washington DC with him; his mother is running for Congress, and is hosting a fundraiser that she wants Gansey to attend. In the hope that it would provide a networking opportunity, Adam agrees.

Meanwhile, the Gray Man's search for the Greywaren brings him to Blue's family of psychics, where Maura, Calla and Persephone do a reading for him. They predict danger, difficult choices and violence in his future. He admits that his job can be violent, and then admits to being a hit man - though he does not tell the psychics what it is he is seeking. He and Maura are unexpectedly attracted to each other. Soon afterwards, Ronan meets the badly beaten Declan at Church, and is warned to stay out of trouble. However, Declan focuses on Ronan's grades and propensity to get in trouble with the police, and reminds him that if he is kicked out of Aglionby he won't receive his inheritance. Later, Ronan again encounters Kavinsky, and gives him a pair of sunglasses to match his own that Ronan has taken from a dream. Kavinsky is pleased that Ronan has taken up his challenge, and the two of them race. It starts to become clear that Kavinsky has a particular obsession with Ronan.

Eventually, the group attempts to return to Cabeswater, something they have not done since Adam's sacrifice. However, they find that the forest has entirely disappeared, in the same way that Noah does - however, there is no apparent sign of the forest coming back. Gansey, who has come to believe that Glendower must be buried somewhere within Cabeswater, is particularly frustrated and upset by this, though he does his best to hide it. Both Gansey and Ronan suffer with frequent insomnia, and spend regular nights together trying to take each other's minds off it. Ronan also spends some nights sleeping on the floor of Adam's apartment. On one occasion, Ronan has a particularly unsettling nightmare in which he watches Adam put on an old mask that belonged to Niall Lynch. The mask turns Adam into a monster who attacks Ronan. Then, unable to control what he is doing, Ronan accidentally brings two birdlike night horrors into the real world. Gansey, who had been spending a sleepless night in his car, is brought to help, and the two of them are able to fight and kill one horror. The other, according to Ronan, has already escaped.

The following day, the whole group goes to Ronan's family home, called 'The Barns' - a place that Ronan is, by virtue of his father's will, forbidden to go. They bury the night horror here, thinking it is the only place where they can be sure it won't be found. While there, they discover that most of the animals on the farm are in a strange form of stasis - they appear to be asleep. This includes Ronan's mother, who has been in that state since his father died. They deduce that almost everything in the home, including the animals and Ronan's mother, are 'dream things' which Niall Lynch had created. It is indicated that Niall's dreams were also the source of the Lynches' fortune. They also find Niall Lynch's mask in the house, and when Adam tries to touch it, Ronan reacts violently. On Blue's advice and Gansey's encouragement, Ronan agrees to visit Calla, the psychic who has the power of psychometry, so that she can advise him on what to do about his mother. Calla explains that none of the 'dream things' - including Ronan's mother - are dead, but that they cannot be fully awake without a dreamer to power them. Ronan suggests that Cabeswater is a dream thing, and guesses that if he takes his mother there, she will wake up - however, with Cabeswater missing, there is no way to test this theory.

Instead, the group take a boat out onto a man-made lake close to Cabeswater's location, where they use Gansey's newly purchased sonar technology to look for Glendower. They do not find him, but do uncover a piece of a shield which Gansey dates to the correct time period, and which bears symbols which Gansey associates with Glendower. They also find a tyre which appears to be from Gansey's camaro - but is so worn that Gansey believes it must have been underwater for hundreds of years. No one is able to explain this, aside from the general explanation that time moves in strange ways along the ley line. Gansey finds himself disappointed, despite finding the shield, and realises that he is starting to grow weary of discoveries that used to excite him. After everything that has happened, he is getting hungry to find the true prize, Glendower, and it is clear that the need is pressing upon him; he also tells Blue's mother that he feels like they are running out of time. Despite all of this, his return home presents him with a different problem; Monmouth Manufacturing has been broken into and trashed.

Monmouth has in fact been broken into three times: once by Kavinsky, who left a pile of forged IDs with Ronan's face on them; once by the Gray Man, who carefully searches for evidence of the Greywaren; and once by a pair of less careful thugs, who trash the place before being killed and disposed of by the Gray Man. The sight of the IDs leads Gansey and Ronan to believe that Kavinksy was to blame for all of the damage, and they go to confront him. Ronan finds the exchange thrilling, because it has brought out a far more angry and reckless version of Gansey than is normally on display. Ronan notes that this 'Gansey on fire' was around more often before the two of them met Adam, who was a stabilising influence. It is therefore notable that at a time when Gansey's relationship with Adam is fraying, his more reckless side comes out again. He tells Kavinsky to stay out of his place, but Kavinsky denies doing any damage. This makes Ronan recall Declan's warnings at Church, and he begins to suspect more is going on. Gansey and Ronan briefly involve themselves in Kavinsky's violent gathering, which includes him handing out Molotov cocktails to blow up the cars present. They witness him blowing up his white Mitsubishi, at which point a disgusted Gansey says that it's time to go.

Shortly afterwards, Gansey and Adam leave for Mrs Gansey's fundraiser. This at first goes well, with the two boys finding common ground and laughing with each other again. However, the scale of the event makes Adam self-conscious, and he feels he is unable to converse with those present with the same practiced ease as Gansey. However, in the middle of the event Gansey is distracted by something the distance, and briefly leaves Adam's side. Shortly afterwards, the lights flicker out, and a sound is heard:

" Rex Corvus, parate Regis Corvum. "

'The Raven King, make way for the Raven King'. Both Adam and Gansey recognise this as a reference to Glendower. Adam is glad of his sacrifice, thinking that this is how he will find Glendower. Adam's mindset has subtly changed from it being Gansey's quest, or their quest, to it being Adam's quest. After the party, Gansey finally asks Adam the question that has been hanging between them - why did Adam go to Cabeswater without him, to wake the ley line? Adam retorts that it had not been about Gansey, and Gansey replies that the quest had been his first. Adam loses his temper again, insists that he does not need Gansey, and smashes a tableful of his mother's figurines. Silenced, Gansey leaves, and afterwards gives Adam his space. Upset and homesick, Gansey calls Blue and asks her to talk about what's happening in her house. This comforts him, and shows he is beginning to turn to Blue, rather than Adam, when he needs someone to balance him.

The day after the fight with Gansey, Adam does not appear at all. Gansey at first assumes this is because of the fight, but grows worried when he realises he cannot find Adam anywhere. Enlisting the help of more and more family members, he searches for him. Eventually the fundraising events are called off and the police are involved, only for Adam to finally call after being missing for most of the day. It is revealed that after their fight Adam had experienced something called 'Transient Global Amnesia' and had set off walking, for miles, with no idea of how to stop or ask for help. When he finally comes awake again, he has trouble remembering Gansey's phone number, and is helped by a couple who see him wandering on the Interstate. Following this event, Gansey tells his parents about Adam's financial and familial situation. Gansey's family pity Adam, which generally is the last thing Adam would want - however, the experience has blunted him enough that he accepts gifts from them, including an old, patched-together car that Gansey's sister has procured for the purpose. Gansey and Adam make their way home separately, with their relationship shakier than ever.

In Gansey's absence, Ronan first takes his younger brother Matthew to the Barns, where they are stalked by the night horror that had escaped earlier. While they are hiding, the Gray Man arrives and finds Ronan's puzzle box. Later, Ronan steals Gansey's camaro, the Pig, using keys he had taken from his dreams. He goes to meet with Kavinsky again, and is stunned to find that the white Mitsubishi is as good as new. As Ronan loses the race, he is attacked by the night horror and crashes the Pig, wrecking it entirely. Kavinsky rolls up, kills the night horror, and reveals his own secret to Ronan - he is also able to take things from his dreams. He shows Ronan that he has pulled many identical Mitsubishis from his dreams, practicing until he got it right, and he tells Ronan that he will teach him how to do it. Ronan, desperate to replace the Pig, agrees, and starts dreaming with Kavinsky. As they work, Ronan begins to realise that their dream thievery is powered by the ley line, and this is why Cabeswater is in their dreams. Kavinsky's excessive thievery is revealed as the cause for Cabeswater's disappearance. While dreaming, Orphan Girl reveals to Ronan that although there are many dream thieves, there is only one Greywaren - Ronan himself. He also discovers that the mysterious language on the puzzle box is the language of the trees themselves. After Ronan apologises for stealing, Cabeswater gives him a perfect copy of the Pig to take back. Relieved, he leaves behind a furious Kavinsky. Gansey later returns home. Having received a text from Ronan to say that the Pig was wrecked, he is anticipating both a car with some parts missing, and a fight with Ronan. Instead, Ronan gives him the dream Pig. Ronan's enthusiasm for what he has been able to do is such that they don't argue at all; they just start to laugh. They display an ease of companionship that is all the more notable considering Gansey and Adam's recent volcanic arguments.

On his own return to Henrietta, Adam goes immediately to Blue and asks her why she will not kiss him. She is upset that this is the only thing he cares about, and accuses him of treating her differently from the other boys. She then tells him about the prophecy. However, Blue has by now accepted that she has feelings for Gansey, and knows that she is not in love with Adam. She tells him that he is not the one the prophecy refers to, and Adam asks her to kiss him anyway, since it won't therefore kill him. Blue refuses, and breaks up with him. Later, Blue asks Gansey to pick her up and they go driving. They acknowledge their feelings for each other, but both decide to do nothing about it, as neither want to hurt Adam any further.

Meanwhile, the Gray Man has continued to search for the Greywaren, and after another encounter with others who seek it, has deduced that it is a person and not a thing. He also deduces that Maura and her friends know who it is, presenting him with an unfamiliar moral quandary, as he has begun to fall in love with her. Eventually, he decides to tell Greenmantle that he has not found it; however, Greenmantle believes that he has taken it for himself, and reveals that he knows the Gray Man's real name. This means that he also knows the Gray Man's brother wants to kill him, and he threatens to tell his brother where he is unless he delivers the Greywaren. He meets with Maura, Calla, Blue, Gansey and Adam at Blue's house, where he admits that he murdered Niall Lynch on the instruction of Greenmantle. Ronan attacks the Gray Man, which marks the first time Ronan has attacked anyone without Gansey trying to stop him. The Gray Man agrees to leave Henrietta, pretending that he has kept the Greywaren for himself, in order to lead Greenmantle away. As promised Greenmantle sends his brother after him, and the Gray Man kills him.

For his part, Adam is left feeling raw after Blue's rejection, with Cabeswater continuing to press on his mind. He is approached by Persephone, who knows that he is struggling with his connection to Cabeswater and has found a way to help him. Her ritual helps Adam to come to terms with himself, his sacrifice, and his responsibility to Cabeswater. Feeling more balanced, he and Persephone begin to repair and strengthen the ley line.

Meanwhile, Kavinsky has been trying to get Ronan to come to his Fourth of July party, and finally goes too far by kidnapping Ronan's brother Matthew in an attempt to draw him out. Ronan, Gansey and Blue go to the party, intending to find Matthew and discover a way of stopping Kavinsky's dream antics. Ronan follows Kavinsky into their dreams. While there, Kavinsky implies he has feelings for Ronan and wants them to be together; Ronan rejects him, which Kavinsky assumes is because Ronan has feelings for Gansey, which Ronan denies. Kavinsky dreams up a dragon to terrorise his party, while Ronan struggles to find a way of stopping it. While dreaming, he manages to encounter Adam, who tells him to stop Kavinsky, and Ronan creates an enormous, white dream horror. Adam also reveals that he knows Ronan is the one who helped with his rent, implying that the person Ronan has feelings for is not Gansey, but Adam. On realising that the dream horrors had only attacked him in the past because of his own self-hatred, Ronan discovers that he no longer hates himself, which puts the dream horror under his control. He brings it out of the dream to face Kavinsky's dragon; however, it becomes clear that the dragon is destroying everything that was made by Kavinsky. It finally kills Kavinsky himself, sending all of his dream things into stasis.

With Kavinsky gone and Adam's work on the ley line complete, Cabeswater is restored. Ronan takes his mother to it and she is reanimated, though she will have to remain within the forest to stay that way. Ronan has additionally discovered how to change his father's will through his dreams, allowing him and his brothers to visit the Barns whenever they like. The strength of the ley line is also such that it obscures the energy readings on the Gray Man's devices, making him realise that no one will be able to trace the Greywaren to Henrietta so long as Cabeswater is awake. He returns to find Maura, only to discover that she has disappeared - leaving a note to say that she had gone underground.

Book 3 - Blue Lily, Blue Lily

The third book picks up a month after the conclusion of the second, and reveals that Maura is still missing. It is revealed that she has gone to search for Blue's father, Artemus, who himself has been missing for the whole of Blue's life. No longer willing to accept that he left her, Maura now believes that he is connected to the ley line, and she has gone searching in the caves around the area to look for him.

It is revealed that following Adam's work on the ley line in the previous book, a new cave has presented itself in the same location that the pool beside the vision tree used to stand. The group are keen to explore it, since they believe Glendower is underground, and also suspect that Maura may be inside; however, Adam is uncertain about whether the cave is safe, and says that they need to spend some time inside Cabeswater first to earn its trust. They take his advice, and eventually enter the cave. Gansey, who is experienced with caving, takes the lead, and instructs his friends on safety. However, the cave unexpectedly opens into a pit and it is Gansey who falls into it. This causes him to have a silent panic attack, when he thinks that he can hear the rustle of insect wings, and is worried that Cabeswater will pick up on his fear and make hornets appear around him. The sound reminds him forcibly of the time he died and renders him unable to move and visibly afraid, something that his friends have never seen before. Together, Adam and Ronan both appeal to Cabeswater to help Gansey, and what emerges from the pit is not hornets but bats. The group leaves again, and determines to try and find another cave which intersects with this one, allowing them to bypass the pit.

Following the experience in the cave, the group goes to collect Roger Malory from the airport, as the old professor is visiting with Gansey. None of Gansey's friends are overly enamoured with the professor at first, seeing him as aged, fussy, and difficult to talk to. The professor also does not much like Monmouth Manufacturing; however, throughout the book he serves as a sounding board for an increasingly tired and worn Gansey, who has grown more jaded as the increasing cost of his quest begins to take its toll.

Malory also accompanies the group on some of their explorations. It is his idea to search for caves in the hills outside of Henrietta, which Gansey believes is pointless since he had already searched for them a year ago. Until now, the finding of new places has usually been prompted by Gansey's initiative; that Malory shows a greater willingness to explore new ground is indicative of Gansey's increasing desire for caution, and need to have as much information as possible about an area before he goes there. However, while Gansey is becoming more risk averse, he also begins to repair his friendship with Adam; both are committed to not fighting again, and both are shown being more careful over their words in an attempt to not upset the other. Eventually this results in Gansey seeking Adam out when he has trouble settling at night, and their bond begins to strengthen again.

Noah has a slightly more prominent role in this book than in either of the other two; with the ley line now both active and strong again, he vanishes less often, but his presence is frequently volatile. On several occasions he is shown to draw on Blue's energy in a dangerous way. When this happens in Monmouth Manufacturing Blue is forced to cut him off from her power for fear that he might accidentally bring the building down around them. Noah does not seem particularly in control of this trait, and both Blue and Gansey are shown to be worried about him.

Malory is later revealed to be right about the caves, when he, Gansey and Blue discover that one does exist, on the land of a local resident named Jesse Dittley. It is revealed that the cave is cursed, and that generations of men in Jesse's family have died because of it. Because Jesse likes Blue, Gansey and Malory, he refuses to let them explore it, and they leave disappointed. This is, however, one more disappointment in a long list for Gansey, who is shown to be increasingly frustrated that he has not yet found Glendower, and increasingly worried about the effect the quest has had on his friends. After telling a reformed Noah that he wants to ask Glendower for Noah's life, as the favour for waking him, Gansey admits that he is harbouring fears over what will happen when the quest is finished. Although he still desperately wants to find Glendower, he knows that the quest itself has taken up a large proportion of his life and he admits that he is not sure he knows how to be the person that he was before it meant so much. This is something he is not able to admit to his other friends. Noah understands, saying that he feels the same way about being alive again.

Despite Gansey's weariness, his worries are one of many hints in this book that the end of the quest is approaching - Persephone even tells Gansey that it is good he has almost found his King. However, before Glendower can be found, Calla and Persephone perceive that there are three other sleepers to deal with: one who should be woken, one who is associated with Maura that must not be woken, and one that they cannot agree on.

This book also marks the end of the summer and beginning of another school year. Gansey is shown to be both irritated by the amount of time school takes up, and genuinely fond of Aglionby. In particular he is drawn to the timeless quality of the place, and he is also shown to have more patience with the other students than either Ronan or Adam. He is, however, also shown going into the Headmaster's office for reasons he does not explain - and which he lies to Adam about, as he suspects the real reasons might start a fight. Additionally, Blue refers to him undertaking a project at school which he is secretive about. The truth of what he is doing is not fully revealed. However, one prominent new arrival to the school is the boys' new Latin teacher, who turns out to be Colin Greenmantle. When the boys report this to the Gray Man, he confirms that Greenmantle had been his employer and is likely there to seek the Greywaren. He is also the person who had ordered Ronan's father's death. The Gray Man tells them that Greenmantle is his problem and he will deal with it.

Throughout the book, Blue and Gansey's relationship continues to develop. Though they both agree nothing can happen between them - both for Adam's sake, and because of Blue's prophecy that her true love will die if she kisses him - they are becoming more and more dependent on each other, able to soothe each other's anxiety. Blue calls Gansey, pretending that it is by mistake, and thereafter he waits for her call every night. He conceals this from Ronan, but eventually realises that Noah knows what's happening, and he asks him not to say anything. When Blue disappears for a day to work on Jesse Dittley's garden, and thereby convince him to let her and her friends explore the cave, Gansey is evidently panicked over where she has gone. It is one of the few times in the series when his fear and worry is obvious on his face - reflecting both the strength of his feelings for Blue, and his growing dissatisfaction with the state of their quest.

In parallel to Blue and Gansey's relationship, Ronan and Adam also grow closer. This is in part due to Ronan's desire to make Greenmantle pay for having his father killed. Adam comes up with a plan to do this, which involves Ronan creating some particularly unsavoury false evidence through his dreams. The pair also explore Ronan's power, when Ronan admits that he has discovered that he brought his younger brother Matthew out of his own dreams. This means that if anything should happen to Ronan, Matthew would end up in stasis like his mother. Ronan is therefore seeking a way of bringing the dream things out of stasis without trapping them in Cabeswater.

Following the revelation that Jesse Dittley is on her family's death list from St Mark's Eve, Adam realises that Blue is holding something back, and he confronts her until she admits that Gansey is also on it. Adam remembers his vision from Cabeswater's vision tree and believes he may be to blame. As a result, he determines to change the future, and plans to use the favour for waking Glendower to save Gansey's life. After this, Blue is unable to sleep and calls him to come and get her. They drive for hours, in silence, and Blue notes that it is a more reckless version of Gansey that she has never seen before. He drives so far, and then without a word, they exchange places, notably making Blue the only character that Gansey actually allows to drive his car. They end up almost kissing. Their mood is soured by the arrival of Gansey's schoolfriend Cheng, whose elitist conversation with Gansey reminds Blue of the differences between them, and they end up arguing. Gansey is deeply upset by this fight, and afterwards, his mood is so low that nothing seems right - a feeling that stays with him the following day, when the group explores Jesse Dittley's cave together.

As they explore the cave, imagining that they are about to find Glendower, Gansey is overcome with how wrong it feels. His mood is wrong, the pace of it feels wrong, and there is something about the atmosphere of the cave that seems wrong, too. Gansey is less certain of himself than he has ever been, and his temper begins to fray - particularly when Ronan damages the tomb door, something which Gansey has never done in all his years of searching. However, it transpires that Jesse Dittley's cave does not contain Glendower at all, but a woman named Gwenllian - revealed to be an illegitimate daughter of Glendower. She has been buried disrespectfully, on her face, and claims to have never been asleep - something which has tinged her with insanity. She is, however, also very perceptive. She is able to find and pick at the weaknesses of the whole group, including by calling Adam a mongrel. She also makes continual references to Gansey as a king, and claims that he reminds her of her father. She is taken to live at 300 Fox Way, where she lives in the attic room once occupied by Neeve. Although most of Blue's family dislikes her, she reveals that she has more in common with them than expected. She, like Blue, is able to amplify the psychic powers of others. Gwenllian says that she and Blue are both 'mirrors' - which she proves by getting Blue to stand between the two mirrors Neeve had used for magic, and showing that she has no reflection in them. By and by, Gwenllian also explains that she was buried as a witch, and that Artemus - Blue's father - was one of the ones who buried her, as well as being involved in the burial of Glendower. What this means for the nature of Artemus, and by extension, Blue's nature, is not yet known.

As Gwenllian is settled into Blue's house, Blue spends time alone with Malory, who tells her about his experiences with the younger Gansey of two years ago. He describes a much different Gansey, one who is plagued by the memory of his death, and who has regular screaming fits - both at night, and during the day - when he is reminded of the trauma. Malory describes a Gansey who is obsessed with bees and wasps, who doodles them on his notebooks and who is still trying to convince himself that the voice that told him to live was more than a hallucination. He also describes a Gansey who was transient, who was there one day and the next had disappeared without a word. He was always moving around, and even his family were not always sure where he was. This is a completely different side of Gansey to the person Blue knows. The story makes her re-evaluate him, making her realise that she had considered his wealth and privilege to mean that he had never really known pain. That Gansey's closest friends do not realise the depth of the impact his death had on him is a testament to how carefully he now guards his emotions, and Blue begins to feel bad for being frustrated over the mask he wears.

Back at Aglionby, the strength of Adam's connection to Cabeswater is revealed when scaffolding falls all around him, but leaves him unharmed. Gansey is amazed by this show of magic, and calls Adam a 'marvellous creature'. Later that day, both Gansey and Ronan arrive at the court hearing for Adam's father - a date which Adam had, deliberately, neglected to mention to either one of them. Both are dressed for court, and Gansey asks for permission to be witnesses - Ronan, because he had been present for the incident that caused Adam to press charges, and Gansey (who knows the Judge personally) as a character witness, since Adam is his friend. The Judge allows this, and Adam for the first time realises that Gansey is not pitying him by offering to help him - he is only offering the truth. Following this, Adam feels that his friendship with Gansey has been reaffirmed. Shortly afterwards he asks Blue and Noah to come with him on an excursion for Cabeswater, which involves him scrying to discover where the ley line has been disrupted. Adam almost gets lost in the resulting vision, and is only brought back to himself when Blue cuts him with her switchblade. Though he is angry at first, he quickly realises that he could have been permanently lost without her help, and his friendship with her is also reaffirmed. He also realises that the vision had shown him something important - a door that requires the presence of three people to open, and Maura Sargent, who stands by it.

Shortly afterwards, it is discovered that Persephone has unexpectedly died, while attempting to use the scrying mirrors in Blue's attic. Gansey has been shown repeatedly to be afraid of death, and throughout the book has been unwilling to return to Cabeswater's cave where he had his panic attack. His own death is weighing on his mind, as is his mutual fear of and longing for the end of his quest. It is also notable that in this book, Adam discovers from Blue that Gansey is fated to die before the next St Mark's Eve, and he determines to prevent this. Gansey's fate is now known by Blue, Blue's entire family, Adam, and even the Gray Man, in whom Blue also confides. All want to keep this from Gansey in order to protect him, but it is clear that his own mortality is never far from his mind. However, it is not until Persephone dies that he decides to confront those fears. Determined to find Maura, he decides that they must go back to the cave. Before they go, he holds a grieving Blue in his arms while Gwenllian taunts them both. She tells Gansey to order her to come with them, telling him to show his 'king-mettle'. Gansey asks if that is how Glendower got people to follow him, and Gwenllian says that he asked, instead. Pleased by this, Gansey asks her to come with them, and she agrees.

This time, Adam and Ronan lead the way into the cave. They have each embraced their power as Magicians, and know that Cabeswater will protect them both - Ronan because he is the Greywaren, and Adam because of his sacrifice. They lead the way into the pit, and Blue, Gansey and Gwenllian are able to follow. They discover animal skeletons at the bottom, which Gwenllian says need to be woken. Gansey asks Adam how they do that, and Adam directs Ronan to try waking them as he had the dream things, himself to coax the ley line into giving them more energy, and Blue to amplify. He tells Gansey to move rocks, but instead of this, Gansey considers, and then tells the bones to 'Wake up', in a voice that resounds with authority. The bones come to life at once, and start to race around the cave. At the same moment, Adam is able to see a timeless quality to Gansey, as though he has always been in that moment and always will be. It is unclear whether this is a trick of Adam's link to Cabeswater, or whether it is something innate to Gansey. However, Gansey, Adam and Gwenllian are all left behind when the animals race into the next section of the cave - only Ronan and Blue are able to grab hold and be carried through.

Ronan is able to take Blue as far as a lake, which appears unpassable because anything that touches it disappears. Blue realises that just as she has no reflection in the attic mirrors she should be safe from the lake's power, and tells Ronan to go back. Alone, she goes through the lake, and finds her parents on the other side in the thrall of the third sleeper. As she tries to make them move, Piper Greenmantle - the wife of Colin, who has already left thanks to Adam and Ronan - appears with Mr Gray. She wants to wake the sleeper for herself, and is armed with a gun. Impatient, she orders Blue and her family to leave. Blue tries again to make her parents move, but they are still enthralled, and Piper loses her patience again. A fight ensues, and both Piper's torch and Ronan's ghost light go out, leaving the cave in darkness. Blue manages to escape along with Mr Gray, Maura and Artemus. Behind them, the roof of the cave collapses, leaving Piper trapped inside.

Following the events of the cave, Malory's visit ends, and he is relieved to be returning to a quieter ley line. Adam reflects that with Maura back home, things are as normal as they could be, but with Persephone dead, they will never really feel normal again. He also considers that he may have been the sleeper whom Calla and Persephone could not agree on, because he feels awake, and generally better about himself than he has since before he sacrificed himself to Cabeswater.

Unknown to anyone else, Piper was injured in the collapse but not fatally. Her henchman was wounded fatally, but lives long enough to be used as the third person in the room, allowing the tomb door to be opened. Unexpectedly, Blue's half-aunt Neeve, who vanished in the first book, appears in the cave and gets Piper to help her open the tomb. She tells her that they need to touch it together to get the sleeper's favour; before Neeve can move, Piper reaches out and tells the sleeper to wake.

Personality:

THE MANY-SIDED GANSEY

One of the first things that any of his friends ever notice about Gansey is that there are many 'versions' of him. He is a boy with a very clear understanding that the people looking at him will make a judgment based on what they see, and he is determined to present a face that he is comfortable with them seeing. As a default, the face that Gansey shows to the world is inherently polished, charming, and confident. He is effortlessly polite, in a manner that appears to make him powerful, because it is full of formality and authority. He is charming and friendly, conversant in a wide variety of subjects that range from politics to collectibles, to the family circles of the people he meets. He is a straight-A student at the prestigious Aglionby Academy, and even briefly captains their rowing team - until he quits, to devote more time to his own personal research interests. He is the kind of person who tries to be likeable, and who is unwilling to let anyone down. He is a son that his parents can be eagerly proud of, and can show off to their political friends without embarrassment. He is able to talk to most people and find common ground, whether that person is a peer, a potential mentor, a useful contact for his politically motivated mother, or a general stranger that he will never see again. This is Gansey's outer veneer. This is the side of himself that everyone can see.

Beneath this veneer is what his friends like to call the 'real' Gansey. This is a version who admits to disliking his family's political events, a version who is honest about the fact that his hopes and interests lie in a very different sphere from that of his parents. When Gansey is with his friends, or someone he considers to be a potential friend, there is a visible slip of his mask. The moment he realises that a person shares or is sympathetic to his interests, his powerful politeness starts to give way to a far more unique, and less picture-perfect personality. The 'real' Gansey is a boy who is obsessed with his quest to uncover the legendary sleeping King Glendower, and whose intense labour at this task has spanned the course of seven years. It is an obsession which frequently leaves his mind so active that he suffers badly from insomnia, leading him to spend many long nights driving around, or building a miniature version of his home, Henrietta, out of cereal boxes on his floor. He is a boy with terrible eyesight, who wears contact lenses most of the time and wire-framed glasses otherwise. He is a boy who always smells of wheatgrass, because he is so often outdoors, and mint, because he is always chewing on mint leaves. He is a boy who has a deathly allergy to bee and wasp stings, and yet spends most of his time wearing brightly coloured polo shirts outdoors, as though he has no care in the world. He is a lover of classic and vintage things, most notably his 1973 Chevrolet Camaro, which he nicknames 'the Pig', and loves all the more for the imperfections that lead it to constantly break down while he's driving it. He is a boy who buys an old factory warehouse to live in while at school, and then fills it with dozens of books. He is obsessed with scholarship and genuinely loves academia, despite regularly feeling frustrated that school takes so much time away from his quest. He delights in finding proof of the supernatural that he has believed in since the moment his life was saved, and is struck with wonder when he discovers Ronan's power in dreams, and Adam's power in Cabeswater. Within this side of himself, there are different facets to his personality: there is the scholarly Gansey who records every element of his search in his old, leather-bound journal; there is 'Gansey on fire' - the side that only Ronan really knows, but that Blue glimpses when she calls him at night and goes driving with him. He is a more reckless and less controlled Gansey, one who is not so careful to cover up his sense of superiority, one who needs an outlet for his passion. There is the frustrated Gansey who has run out of ideas, and who cannot settle himself until he has talked his way back to sanity with Adam. But in all his forms, Gansey is obsessed with the story and mythos of Glendower, who represents not only the subject of his quest, but is almost a role model in life. He is a boy who prizes honour, loyalty and honesty, and who despises violence as " a disease [he] didn't think he could catch ". This is the Gansey that he shows to his friends, and to them, this is Gansey without his mask.

They are wrong. Although every aspect of what he shows to his friends is true, there remains a facet of himself that Gansey does not want to show anyone. This is the Gansey beneath the surface, the boy whose life was utterly changed when at ten years old, he stepped on a nest of hornets and was stung hundreds of times. Being allergic to hornets, the ten year old Gansey died - and was brought back, when a voice spoke into his mind:

" You will live because of Glendower. Someone else on the ley line is dying when they should not, and so you will live when you should not. "

This event has seared itself into Gansey's consciousness, and because of it, he retains an overpowering fear of death. There is a panic that lives at the deepest surface behind every layer of Gansey, and this is a weakness that he wants to hide even from his closest friends. His death still haunts him, and has fed his obsession with finding Glendower. He is terrified of wasps and bees, and the sight of one makes him freeze and his throat close up. Though he keeps an EpiPen in his car, it does little to address his fear since he knows that it would only combat one sting, and he has experienced many more than that. He very deliberately keeps this side of himself concealed - his friends do not see it, to the extent that they do not realise how deeply his death has impacted him despite the fact that all of them know what happened. However, it does show in some of the decisions that he makes; he is notably risk-averse, and is prone to indecisiveness or outright inaction if he believes that acting will pose a danger to the lives of the people around him. As his quest gets closer to completion, the toll it has taken on the lives of all of his friends begins to show, and Gansey appears more tired. He is less willing to take action, regularly saying that they need more information before they can proceed. The only counter to this is when he believes that not acting will have even worse consequences, and then he will take the path that seems safest in general. As time goes on, his inner fears rise closer to the surface, until the moment that he has a panic attack while inside the cave in Cabeswater. This is what finally makes his friends realise that his confidence is imperfect, and the fact of it is startling to them.

The antidote to Gansey's underlying fear is the control that he imposes on his emotions. Over the course of seven years, Gansey has gained enough control of himself that it is unusual for anyone to realise that he still carries the trauma of his experience so closely. It is likely that he was always encouraged to be aware of what emotions were on show, since he recalls his mother teaching him to wipe a frown off his face, and her regular reminder that:

" Everyone's face is a mirror, Dick — endeavor to make them reflect a smile. "

Gansey displays a powerful need to be in control of himself, and the times when his interactions with other people do not go as planned are times that he agonises over, as a result. Despite his efforts, there are times when he is not so polished - when he will say the wrong thing, particularly to one of his friends, and his efforts to reclaim the situation will result in him digging a deeper hole for himself. At these times, he will replay conversations in his head over and over again, trying to discover where he has gone wrong and what he should have said instead. He acknowledges the fact that this makes him neurotic, but regardless, he is unable to prevent it; he continues to replay his first meeting with Blue even months after the event, despite the fact that she has subsequently become his friend and joined his quest. He is unable to let go of his mistakes, and internally berates himself for them. This mental chastisement of himself helps to explain how he has perfected his outer veneer: this is how he has learned to talk so easily to strangers, and how his politeness has become powerful. Despite this, Gansey also struggles with his own need for control, since he has a persistent worry that no one will ever see past his outer veneer. He desires for people to know the parts of himself that he is pleased with, but does not want them to see his flaws. In essence, he wants people to look at him the way he looks at Glendower.

Beyond each of the different versions of Gansey, there is also another kind of strangeness to him. he possesses a certain timeless quality, with multiple characters commenting that it is difficult to judge his age, that he acts as though he is far older than he is and has always done so. Strangers are shown finding it difficult to say what age he is until he tells them, at which point it seems obvious. There is a timeless quality to his looks, a strangeness about his physical presence that makes it difficult to determine his age. His eyes are described as sometimes seeming older than they ought to be. His sister Helen jokes that he went from four years old to being an adult with a studio apartment, while Ronan regularly calls him 'old man'. On top of this, Gansey himself has an admitted liking for places that seem eternal, as though they are always stuck in the same moment. This side of his personality grows gradually more prevalent as the books go on, and is particularly prevalent around the time that Gwenllian is found and begins comparing Gansey to her father, Glendower. There is an implication that Gansey may have a deeper connection to the Raven King than even he has guessed, though what that connection may be remains unclear.

RELATIONSHIPS

As his name suggests, Richard Campbell Gansey III comes from a particularly wealthy and influential family. From them, Gansey has inherited a straight nose, ruffled brown hair and hazel eyes, and a certain penchant for obsessive collecting. In Gansey, this manifests in his collection of facts and data about Glendower; for his mother, it is her collection of rare glass plates, and for his father, it is his love of classic cars. This is a love that Gansey junior shares, though while his father likes his cars to be fully restored and pristine, Gansey likes them to show their age. He also has an older sister, with whom he gets along well and who sometimes flies him and his friends around in her helicopter to help with their quest. Gansey has, in general, a loving and supportive relationship with his family. They value his friends for the very fact that they are their son's friends, and they are generally supportive of his efforts to find Glendower, even though they do not completely understand it. Gansey is very much a product of his parents' care; from his mother he has learned to school his expression, and from his father he has gained a natural affinity for logical thinking, and a tendency towards naivete.

Gansey is described variously as having 'blue blood' and being from 'Old Virginia Money', a fact that other characters feel is obvious in everything from the way Gansey carries himself, to the rich vocabulary with which he talks, to the size of the wallet in his pocket. The wealth of his family has given Gansey a privileged childhood in which he wanted for nothing. As a result, he is admittedly foolish about money; he has a tendency to spend it without thinking, and he is quick to share it with his friends. This causes a persistent strain between Gansey and his less wealthy friends, and particularly with Adam, who sees any form of generosity on Gansey's part as both insulting and pitying. It is difficult for Gansey to understand this perspective, and he struggles to accept that his offers of help would be offensive to the likes of Adam and Blue. At the same time, he finds that his wealth and the influence of his family leads to others in Aglionby to treat him with particular respect, and seek his support for their projects and endeavours. Both of the sides to this coin prove difficult for Gansey, leaving him afraid that the people around him will never see anything aside from his money. Gansey wants to be seen as more than his background; he wants to be recognised for the work he does, for the interests he has, and most particularly, for his search for Glendower. He knows that he would never have had the opportunity to begin and continue that search if not for his money - he has spent his teen years travelling throughout the world, and regularly spends thousands of dollars on equipment to help chart and measure the energy of the ley line. He sees that he is in the position to undertake this work and because not everyone could, he should take that opportunity. However, he also wants the people around him to see who he is behind the money. It is notable that none of the friends he seeks out are from the same 'old money' background as him; Gansey wants to be seen as something more than this, and a consistent worry of his is that no one will ever really see past his wealth - not even his best friends. It is for this reason that he only ever refers to himself as 'Gansey', and dislikes his given name (which, traditionally, is shortened to 'Dick'), since that is also his father's name.

Despite this, the fact remains that Gansey is still a product of his own background and prejudices. He gets frustrated with his family when they make comments that seem to look down on less wealthy people, but Gansey's regular stumblings with Adam and Blue are proof that he struggles with this bias himself. Without thinking, he implies that private schools like Aglionby are inherently better than public high schools and community colleges, and before he meets Blue's loving family, he assumes that the poverty of Adam's family is part of the reason why his father abuses him. Gansey is aware that he is privileged, but no matter how much he would like to avoid it, he still remains very much the product of his background. In this, he is very much like Adam, though at the other end of the social scale; neither one of them can truly leave behind their upbringing, no matter how much they try.

Gansey does attempt to become less foolish about money throughout the series. After the first book, he stops offering to pay for things for Adam and Blue, and he particularly avoids offering any further financial assistance to Adam. Although he still often finds it difficult to know when he should offer help and when he should not, he finally manages to strike the correct note during the court hearing for Adam's father: thanks to his family connections, Gansey is personally acquainted with the judge, and he is able to use that familiarity to gain permission for himself and Ronan to serve as witnesses for Adam. In this way, Gansey is able to help his friend without the offer of charity, and because of it, the final fractures in their relationship are repaired. Gansey is still not always sure of whether he is using either his wealth or his influence in the 'right' way, but it is clear that he is trying to be less foolish, and less accidentally condescending. This is very much a work in progress.

However, it is work that Gansey is intent on doing. His friends are exceptionally important to him, to the point of being almost as obsessed with them as he is with Glendower. All four of Gansey's friends are from vastly different backgrounds, and everything about them, from their attitudes to their styles of dress, are worlds apart. Additionally, Gansey is the only one among them to have had meaningful friendships before his group in Henrietta, and the friendship in question was with the much older Malory who is a mentor as much as a friend. It is said that Gansey as 'earned' every one of his friends - with the possible exception of Noah, since no one can quite recall precisely when he joined their group. All four of his friends are fiercely loyal to him and invested in his quest. During the first book, in particular, there is also a good deal of jealousy between Ronan and Adam over which of them is closer to Gansey, and a frustrated Gansey remains determined not to play favourites between them. At school, the trio of Gansey, Ronan and Adam goes everywhere together and are recognised as a unit, and this attachment grows stronger as Ronan and Adam also get closer to each other. Outside school, Noah and Blue join this group and in various combinations, they get involved in every aspect of each other's lives. As Blue comments:

" what she didn't realize about Blue and her boys was that they were all in love with one another. She was no less obsessed with them than they were with her, or one another, analyzing every conversation and gesture, drawing out every joke into a longer and longer running gag, spending each moment either with one another or thinking about when next they would be with one another. "

For Gansey, this obsession plays into his need to control every situation he finds himself in, and this often leads to him attempting to be too controlling over his friends' lives. This is seen in his regular attempts to keep Ronan out of trouble and talk him into doing better at school. It is even more clearly seen in the effort he expends to convince Adam to leave his abusive home and live in Monmouth Manufacturing with Gansey. Adam recognises this controlling streak and is fiercely opposed to it, believing that if he took Gansey's 'charity', he would then belong to him. This is not how Gansey sees it, but regardless, Adam is not wrong when he accuses Gansey of wanting "all of your things, right where you can see them". Gansey does, very clearly, want Adam to live with him, and he cannot understand why Adam has such a problem with it. On top of this, Gansey unequivocally takes the leadership role amongst their group, a position which Adam in particular tends to chafe against - the source of many of the pair's arguments during the second book. Gansey is frequently cast in the role of the adult among his group of friends; he is the voice of reason who tries to counter Ronan's darker impulses, and is the main person who encourages Adam to leave home when his father is abusive. Both boys seem to regard him as an older brother figure. However, while his nature causes difficulties with Adam, his relationship with Ronan is far more symbiotic. Gansey is the only one whom Ronan will ever listen to when it comes to his behaviour; if Ronan is fighting, it is Gansey who is able to pull him away, and Gansey who is able to tell him to stop. Neither relationship is perfect, and Gansey is never able to prevent himself from getting involved in his friends' lives.

However, the other side of this is that Gansey very much relies upon his friends, and is deeply upset when they get hurt. He is highly protective of both Adam and Ronan, and his loyalty to them is unshakeable. When Ronan is close to being expelled from Aglionby, Gansey is prepared to negotiate with the school on his behalf and pay tens of thousands of dollars to keep Ronan enrolled, even though he fears that Ronan still will not care enough about his future to take advantage of that. When Gansey has doubts about where he should go next or needs to talk through a problem, he consistently turns to Adam - and Adam is generally able to help, even before his connection to Cabeswater grants him particular expertise. When any one of his friends goes missing (something which happens to all four of them at different points), Gansey is frantic and determined in his efforts to find them. He is loyal to an absolute fault. Generally speaking, when he is not thinking about Glendower and his quest, he is focused on one or other of his friends. He is also shown to be fearful of losing any one of them, thinking:

" They were always walking away from him. But he never seemed able to walk away from them. "

He is constantly thinking about how he can help them, what action he can take in order to make things better for them. It is important for him to be needed by them, as though he is worried that the moment they no longer need him, they will fly away from him. He will forgive them any hurt, so long as they still want to be with him. He worries about how much Ronan has changed since losing his father, and is always trying to find his way past Ronan's anger to find the caring, compassionate person he used to be. After Adam sacrifices himself to Cabeswater, Gansey worries about how much his friend is changing, and wants to find a way to reach 'the old Adam' - who he thinks of as his Adam. He genuinely struggles with change, and seems to equate change with loss. This is why Gansey wants to keep all his friends around him, as close to him as he can. He cannot bear to lose even one part of them, and he constantly fears they will all eventually abandon him.

Despite this, Gansey's friendships remain strong. Even the breach between himself and Adam is eventually repaired, when Gansey's support at Adam's court case finally makes Adam feel as though they are equals, and that Gansey is not simply pitying him. They emerge from their summer of fighting as faster friends than ever, with Adam considering it to be:

"friendship of the unshakeable kind. Friendship you could swear on. That could be busted nearly to breaking and come back stronger than before."

However, Gansey's controlling nature and desire to help his friends can also leave him feeling as though he has to be the strong one among their number, that he must deal with the times when they are upset or angry while concealing his own emotional response. He sometimes feels as though he is there for his friends in a way they are not there for him. This is a feeling that he only admits to himself, and even then, he chastises himself strongly for it:

" What good is all your privilege, you soft, spoiled thing, if you can't stand on your own legs? "

In this, he shows some considerable guilt over the fact that he even needs to be comforted, telling himself that his friends have had harder lives than him and he therefore has no right to struggle. Not only do Gansey's friends not seem to recognise that he is still struggling with the trauma over his death, but he tells himself that he should not be struggling at all. Part of the reason for this is that he has spent a long time learning to conceal that trauma. Malory, who knew him at age 15, recalls a Gansey whose continuing trauma was evident, and who was regularly overcome by screaming panic attacks and night terrors where he would claw at his head as though the hornets were still stinging him. By the age of 17, Gansey is no longer overcome by this. He has learned how to put his feelings away behind a mask of confidence that his friends are able to believe in. Only in the third book, when Gansey is feeling more strain, do they begin to see the hints that he has not completely gotten over what happened to him. In general, he feels that it is his responsibility to be the strong one among his group of friends, and he sees his fear of death and continuing trauma as a source of weakness. On being reminded that he had abandoned his life with Malory without a word, Gansey is regretful and admits that he does not do well with goodbyes. He is no longer that person; rather, he is the person who comforts others and who clings jealously to his friends, desperate to keep them in his life even while he fears that they will end up walking away from him.

Malory's recounting of the younger Gansey also produces a stark contrast between a boy who was always travelling, and the boy who has found his home. Gansey has a particular love for Henrietta, which goes above and beyond his friends' appreciation of the town. It is the first place that he has truly felt at home. In this, Gansey is set in direct contrast with Adam, who wants nothing more than to leave his Henrietta roots behind him. Gansey wants nothing more than to stay; even leaving Henrietta for brief periods leaves him horribly homesick. Part of this is because his research has left him certain that Glendower is buried in the area, but it is also true that Gansey has settled himself in the town in a way that he had not in any other place. In Henrietta, he has found a group of friends in whom he is desperately invested. He has found a school that he enjoys, and a home of his own. However, it is notable that his search has brought him to this area, since his childhood home is in Washington DC - a city that is both within the same State, and within driving distance of Henrietta. This means that Gansey has gone on a worldwide hunt in order to find a legendary king who, at the end of the day, just so happens to be buried in his proverbial backyard. His abiding affection for the town also plays into his growing attraction to Blue across the series; she, more than any other character, is associated with the town, and as time goes by it is always Blue that Gansey calls when he wants to talk about Henrietta. His affection for the town is juxtaposed with his affection for her, and both Blue and the town are able to anchor Gansey in an emotional sense. Increasingly, it is Blue he turns to when he is upset, and he begins to feel the same sense of being 'at home' with her as he does with the town.

In truth, one of the greatest tests of Gansey's friendships comes in the form of his developing romantic feelings for Blue. It is implied numerous times that Gansey is Blue's true love - and thus, the person she is destined to kill, should she kiss him. However, because Blue initially dated Adam, Gansey is wary of getting close to her. Their attraction becomes increasingly difficult to ignore, with Blue starting to call Gansey at night on a regular basis, and Gansey beginning to anticipate her calls with an obsessive zeal. On two occasions they go driving together and come as close to kissing as they could without actually managing to kiss. Blue begins to have a balancing effect on Gansey, calming him as their quest starts to take an emotional toll on him. She is also the only person whom Gansey allows to drive his car, which in itself is a measure of trust, since Adam and Ronan only drive it when they steal it, and Noah never drives it at all. In spite of all of this, Gansey and Blue refuse to become a couple out of respect for Adam; neither of them want to hurt him, and ultimately, friendship is more important to both of them than romance.

THE QUEST THAT TAKES HIS LIFE

Gansey's quest to find Glendower is a central aspect of his characterisation. Much of his personality hinges on it; it is like a sphere around which everything else that makes him Gansey must revolve. Glendower is the inspiration for his scholarship, and for his interest in the paranormal. It is the reason why he has spent so much of his life travelling. He has a range of skills that include outdoor pursuits such as caving, mapmaking and orienteering, because he has spent so long literally searching for evidence of where Glendower may be buried. His knowledge of world history is vast and varied - and yet if a topic does not somehow relate to his field of interest, he can be surprisingly uninformed about it. He is also regularly and naively surprised when others do not share the extent of his knowledge, and he can be condescending without meaning to be. He is so deeply obsessed with what he is searching for that when he is talking freely, conversation with him is usually around some aspect of his search. If it is not about Glendower, personally, then it may be about Welsh kings in general, or the mechanics of the ley line, or the ways in which mystic energy can affect various aspects of life. For Gansey this is not just an obsession - it is literally his life, since he absolutely believes that he would be dead if not for Glendower. Multiple characters question him about the quest, and many of them are unable to understand the depth of his need to complete it, but he can only ever tell them the same thing. He needs to find Glendower. The search itself is his motivation, and he is entirely unapologetic about the strangeness of that.

Because of this, he has a tendency to focus on the personal nature of his search. To Gansey, this belongs to him and no one else; even when his friends join him, it is still his quest, and he indicates more than once that only he needs to finish it - he does not expect the others to. This is particularly the case when he feels that something he needs to do is dangerous for his friends. This is something that brings him into conflict with Adam, who has also grown personally invested in finding Glendower. However, even after they argue about it, Gansey still considers it his own personal mission. He has a growing urgency throughout the books to complete his work, which is juxtaposed with his fear of it ending. The things that used to fill him with wonder and delight are no longer enough to satisfy his longing:

" Gansey was getting greedy, he realized, hungry for Glendower and Glendower alone. These tantalizing clues used to be enough to sustain him. Now it was only the grail he wanted. He felt grown old inside his young skin. I tire of wonders, he thought. "

He tells Noah that he doesn't know what he will do when the quest is over, that he doesn't know how to be that person anymore because so much of his life has been taken up by this single-minded obsession. On some level, Gansey seems to understand that his lifetime will be a short one. His experience with death has left him highly aware of his own mortality, and there is a part of him that sees finding Glendower as the legacy he will be survived by. He feels that he is living on borrowed time, and wants desperately to understand why he was saved from death. A vital difference between Gansey and his living friends is that among them, he is the only one who does not harbour ambitions of what he will do after Glendower is found. Adam plans to attend an Ivy league college and leave Henrietta; Ronan makes plans to return to the Barns, and Blue plans to attend community college. Gansey is making no such plans. All of his ambition, motivation and imperative is tied up with the search - which is notable, because as readers we know that he has less than one year to live. It seems that his life is literally tied to his quest, that it will end with death just as it had begun with death many years before. It is difficult for Gansey to imagine himself outside of his quest. He is evidently fearful of Cabeswater's cave after his panic attack, and is unable to reconcile himself to going back until Persephone's death makes him decide to confront his fears. The implication is that Gansey suspects his time will be short, and inextricably linked to Glendower. In this he is like Noah, who as a ghost, is also lacking in ambition beyond their current task. This is why he is able to be honest about his fear with Noah and not the others.

SUMMARY

The Gansey that emerges from this picture is a collection of contradictions and drive. He is filled with an anxious and obsessive need to find and wake the sleeping King who he credits with saving his life long ago. He has an acute awareness of his own neurotic fascinations and an equally powerful desire to be liked by everyone around him, resulting in a boy who is hyper-aware of the face he shows to others. He is someone who wants to be seen as more than just the third in a line of Richard Ganseys, yet he cannot escape the background he was born to. He prizes loyalty and honesty from his friends, yet he refuses to let them see how genuinely afraid of dying he remains, and how much that single event has impacted on him. As a friend he is both controlling and dependent, alongside behaving as a natural leader with a deeply ingrained sense of responsibility. He manages to be both the charismatic, confident Gansey who can find an angle into any conversation, and the desperate, driven Gansey who obsesses over every mistake and will not rest until he has found his sleeping King. In his own words:

" Gansey had always felt as if there were two of him: the Gansey who was in control, able to handle any situation, able to talk to anyone, and then, the other, more fragile Gansey, strung out and unsure, embarrassingly earnest, driven by naive longing. "

Inventory:

→ Set of clothes (wearing): bright yellow v-neck sweater, chinos, Top-Siders (boatshoes), underwear, contact lenses
→ 1 pair wireframed glasses
→ EpiPen
→ Messenger bag
→ Keys for a 1973 Chevrolet Camaro
→ Smartphone
→ Handheld EMF reader
→ Wallet
→ Large-faced, horrifically expensive wristwatch
→ Bulging leather-bound journal, tied shut, filled with his research on Glendower

Abilities:

• Gansey is an ordinary human, with no apparent magical or otherworldly powers. However, he has an extensive knowledge and understanding of the magic of his world, having studied its history and application as part of his search for Glendower. This includes a wide range of knowledge regarding ley lines and the theory of occult magic, all of which he believed in before he ever had proof of their existence.


• He has a very extensive knowledge of history, particularly of Medieval European history. His study extends not just to the life of Glendower, but to the culture he was born into, along with everything from military history to religious and cultural practices.


• He has an interest in and some knowledge of science, particularly where it intersects with magical or paranormal theory. Gansey considers science and magic to be related, as ley lines in his world have a tangible impact on both.


• He's an amateur archaeologist who has spent a fair amount of time searching the wilderness for the tomb of a sleeping King. This has given him notable experience in related skills, such as caving, orienteering and map-reading, navigation, and actual tomb raiding. He's diligent about this work, and tries not to leave any place in a worse condition than he found it. He's also said to be particularly good at finding things that other people have not been able to, a skill which he hopes will aid him in finding Glendower.


• Languages: English, French (which he's confident with), Latin (which he's less so), Welsh (which he tries with). He finds spoken languages easier to get his head around than dead languages, but works on them all the same because they are useful for his research.


• Leadership: a natural leader with a persistent habit of trying to take charge of any given situation.


• Public speaking: he's the son of politicians, and knows how to work a room. Gansey is notably charming and very good in conversations that are not of the personal kind. The more it matters to him on a personal or emotional level, the more likely he is to put his foot in his mouth.


• He has a passing knowledge of politics in general, and is able to pass himself in political discussions. He does not actually want to be involved in politics, despite many characters assuming he's a future Senator in the making.


• Rowing: he captained the school team. His position is not known. He is also a strong swimmer because of this.


• Despite having apparently no personal magical powers of his own, Gansey has some strange qualities which have not been fully explained. A character who is able to see auras notes that Gansey's is 'transparent' - he does not know what this means, but while other auras can overwhelm that character, he is comfortable in Gansey's presence. Conversely, Gansey (along with Ronan and Adam) is noted as being particularly 'loud' to psychics, making it difficult for a detailed psychic reading to be completed when they are in a room together. Before the ley line has been awakened in the first book, only Gansey and Noah are able to hear the trees in Cabeswater, hinting that the two of them are connected to the ley line. It is afterwards revealed that Noah's body is buried on the ley line and that its power sustains his ghostly form; Gansey's connection has yet to be explained. After she is found, Gwenllian the daughter of Glendower continually taunts Gansey by saying he reminds her of her father, and tells him to give commands like a King. Following this, the animal bones in Cabeswater's cave are only restored to life when Gansey tells them to wake, in a tone which his friends have previously noted is so commanding that they cannot help but listen to it. There is also a strange timelessness to Gansey; he is shown to dislike the passage of time, and is most comfortable in places that give him a sense of permanence, places which have been around for a long time and which seem like they'll be around for years to come without changing. Other characters are also shown to struggle with Gansey's age; strangers and acquaintances tend to have difficulty with pinpointing how old he looks until he tells them, and even his close friends comment that he behaves like an old man. All of this seems to indicate that there is something more to Gansey than meets the eye, but what this might be has not yet been stated.

Flaws:

• Pride: Gansey is a very prideful person. He is very confident in all of his abilities, and is absolutely certain that he will be able to find Glendower. He thinks that his way is best, and does not expect to be contradicted. In the first book, he compares himself and his quest to that of King Arthur, searching for the Grail - a connection that reveals him as both fanciful and prideful.


• Optimism: Gansey has a particularly optimistic view of the world, which is shown to both impress, and irritate more pessimistic characters. When setting off on a new part of his quest, his battle cry is 'Excelsior!', which means onwards and upwards - a motto which represents Gansey's attitude in general. He does not want to be held back by failures. He wants to learn from his mistakes, and sees each small failure as a stepping stone to success. He tries to stay outwardly positive, even when inwardly unhappy. He is quick to praise his friends, particularly if they are criticising each other, and he always wants to see the best in everyone. He also wants to be the best that he can possibly be; he wants everyone to like him, and particularly wants to be recognised and liked for his talents and deeds - rather than because he happens to be the son of a wealthy family. While Gansey's optimism can be a positive quality, it also means that he tends to view the world with rose-coloured glasses. Seeing the best in others can lead him to being too trusting, and he can come across as naive and innocent about some of the darker sides of society. He also tends towards depression and self-criticism when events disprove his view of the world.


• Need for control: Control is central to Gansey's life. Part of this has been ingrained by his parents, who have taught him to behave 'appropriately' in public - this means that he has a practiced smile, has learned how to carry on a conversation even when he's anxious about something else entirely, and who have encouraged him to be confident and independent. This is how Gansey was taught to behave as a child. His experience with death, and the resulting trauma from that, have led him to take charge of his emotions to an even greater degree. He may well be fearful, or uncertain, or even panicked - but he will not show it. He has learned to wear a mask of confidence that is even difficult for his friends to see through. Gansey is very aware of the face he is presenting, and while his friends are able to see beyond it to an extent, he feels that even they do not always see past the surface. While there is a part of Gansey that would like them to, there is also a part of him that does not want them to see how imperfect his mask really is.


• Leading on from this is Gansey's need to be in control in his day to day life. He is shown to dislike situations where he cannot take charge. He likes to be the leader, and likes everyone to be doing things in his way. This makes him controlling with regards to his friends. Sometimes this is a good thing; for example, he is highlighted as the only person who is able to calm down Ronan or stop him from fighting. However, he notably clashes with Adam due to this tendency, and it is a major reason why they argue so often across the three books. In general, Gansey's heart is in the right place; he cares deeply for his friends, he wants them to be happy and safe, and he wants to do the best he can for them. The problem is that he tends to assume that he always knows what the best is, and he doesn't like it when his authority is challenged. Though he means well, he often gets this wrong; however, it is a flaw he's aware of, and one that he is trying to improve throughout Blue Lily, Lily Blue.


• PTSD: Gansey has a vivid memory of being stung to death by hornets, and being miraculously saved through magic. This event has left him with lasting symptoms of stress and anxiety which seem similar to PTSD, although it is not explicitly called this in canon. He is known to have suffered regular flashbacks and panic attacks in the past; by the time of the books, he has managed to take control of himself to the extent that he no longer suffers from night terrors, and his friends are surprised when he freezes due to a panic attack while caving. Gansey therefore has a certain amount of control over this condition to the extent that he has managed to internalise it, and prevent the people around him from seeing how much it still affects him. However, he has a persistent fear of bees and hornets because of this, and sometimes freezes when he thinks they are near; he has been shown to imagine that he can hear them buzzing around his ears during periods of stress, and he is shown to be fearful of vast, dark and empty places which seem to make him recall the moment of death.


• Related to his PTSD are persistent fears of loss, violence and risk: he particularly dislikes weapons that could accidentally hurt and kill someone, and reacts badly when he sees a gun in Adam's hand - even telling him that he doesn't want the gun in his house. While willing to fight to defend himself, he considers violence "a disease which Gansey didn't think he could catch". He is cautious to a fault, and will flat-out refuse to take a course of action if he thinks there's a risk that his friends could get hurt because of it. He also seems to fear the loss of his friends in general; he hates fighting with them, and wants to keep them around him all the time. In the first book, he is shown to be particularly afraid that Ronan will harm himself, due to what he thinks is a suicide attempt in Ronan's past; when he discovers that Ronan had actually been attacked by a nightmare of his own making, his comment is that it was "easier for [him] to wrap his head around a Ronan who made dreams real than a Ronan who wanted to die." Gansey is afraid of dying, afraid of his friends dying, afraid that the path he has set them on will cause them to get hurt. This is, in part, why he is so controlling; he remains deeply traumatised by what has happened to him, regardless of how much effort he puts into hiding it.


• Obsessive nature: Gansey is completely obsessed with finding Glendower, to the point that almost every conversation anyone has with him is somehow related to it. Gansey will talk to near strangers about his search, though he often leaves out the parts that relate to magic when he feels the person will not be receptive to that. His obsession is such that even though he claims to enjoy school and enjoy learning in general, he sees it as something that gets in the way of his real work. He takes a great liking to Henrietta, and becomes convinced that Glendower is close to it; due to this, he sees the town as his home, and is desperately homesick when he is away from it even for a couple of days. His life is so involved with this quest that it is difficult for him to see outside of it; he admits to Noah that he does not know who he will be when it is finally over, and it seems that there is a part of him that fears the end of something that has meant so much. This fear will quickly be realised in game. Gansey will find himself in a place where he is entirely unable to continue his quest, and will have to try and work out who he is without its frame.


• Privilege: Gansey has grown up as the son of one of Virginia's wealthiest families. He has never had to worry about money, and as such, is often oblivious when it comes to the material cost of things. This has enabled him to spend years travelling around the world, with an apparent absence of real or consistent supervision, while he searches for Glendower. Gansey recognises that he is privileged, and particularly recognises that his friends are from far less glamorous backgrounds than him. He is shown to dislike his own foolishness regarding money, and expresses concern that people look at him and only see his privilege, rather than seeing the boy beneath. Despite this, he can never quite escape from his privilege. He has a tendency to say and do things which offend characters like Adam and Blue, who compared to him are very poor, and he tends to make sweeping assumptions about people from poorer communities. Gansey does not mean to be offensive, and generally these comments are the result of ignorance rather than any intention to be cruel; however, they are evidence that he can't quite shake off the privilege of his upbringing. His habit if putting his foot in his mouth because of this is the source of many of his arguments with his friends, and while he's trying to get better at it, he's not quite there yet.


• Self-judgment: Gansey's controlling nature leads him to set very high standards for how he should behave. He is particularly hard on himself, telling himself that he should not need the emotional support of his friends because his life has been easier than theirs. He seems to feel that his experience of dying does not validate the trauma that it has caused, and considers himself weak for being affected by it. He goes out of his way to take responsibility for his friends' happiness, seeing himself as the bearer of their burdens even when they do not want him to be. He tries to be the one who takes care of them, while concealing his own anxiety from them as best he can.


• Judgement of others: He also keeps to a very strict code of honour, wherein he prizes loyalty and honesty, and expects that his friends will tell him the truth. He dislikes secrets, and views lies as a betrayal. He also expects his friends to play nicely with each other, and reacts badly when, particularly, Adam and Ronan show jealousy of the other's relationship with him. Despite this, his tendency to see the best in people, combined with his need to keep his friends close to him, means that Gansey's anger does not tend to last. He is able to forgive his friends for almost anything, and feels that nothing could make him walk away from them. Even when he is angry, Gansey will still care more about losing those close to him than he will about what they've done.

SAMPLES
Action Log Sample: Test drive top level and with Julia.