M. A. Whatley

My secret method of choosing meaningful and secretly foreshadowing dates for my stories.

First off, for those who don’t know, here’s a quick Wikipedia description of what synesthesia is: “Synesthesia is a perceptual phenomenon in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway. People who report a lifelong history of such experiences are known as synesthetes. Awareness of synesthetic perceptions varies from person to person. In one common form of synesthesia, known as grapheme-color synesthesia, letters or numbers are perceived as inherently colored. Synesthetic associations can occur in any combination and any number of senses or cognitive pathways.”

Alright. So, I’m a “synesthete”. I’ve had this for as long as I can remember. Most notably, my numbers have personalities. I was told once (by someone who went to school for psychology) that this was probably just some form of imaginary friend type thing since I was an only child.

Mmm, I don’t think so. I did indeed have imaginary friends, but they were different from this. I never talked to, or played with, my numbers like I did my three (!) imaginary friends. Also, I’m almost thirty now, and my numbers still have personalities. The exact same personalities that they’ve always had, since I was at least kindergarten aged.

Ever since learning that this was an actual thing and not just me, and that there can be other types of associations, I’ve noticed a few other things that were always present, but too vague for me to really consciously take notice of. I’ve since figured out that my numbers also have colors, though I haven’t been able to pinpoint all of them yet. And sometimes, if a few different numbers are paired up together, they make a new color, a mixture of them. As such, I don’t really know what colors Eight and Nine are, but I think they’re some sort of purple, because where Five is red, 58 seems more maroon, and so on. And I think at least a few of my letters might have colors as well, but they’re even more obscure.

Another random thing I’ve noticed that I’ve wondered about for years before finally figuring out that it was synesthesia: Juicy Couture perfume smells like Play-Doh.

Let me be clear, it does not literally smell like Play-Doh. But Juicy Couture came out in 2006, and I first smelled it in a magazine. I immediately fell in love with it because when I smelled it, it brought to mind being five years old and playing with Play-Doh.

Note: The actual scent of Juicy Couture is sweet and a little musky, maybe. The actual scent of Play-Doh is kind of salty. I realize that they smell nothing alike. But still, ever since 2006, whenever I smell it, it reminds me of Play-doh. There’s only been one or two other smells that did this kind of thing to me, but Juicy Couture is the strongest of them.

But my strongest association is, and has always been, the fact that my numbers have personalities. They seem to get older at they go up. One, Two, Three are probably approximately eleven years old. Four is maybe twelve years old. Five and Six are around fifteen-sixteen. Seven is a young man, probably like seventeen. And Eight and Nine are young adults, probably like nineteen to twenty. I’ll introduce them real quick (probably not all that quick, if I’m being honest):

1:

One isn’t super smart. He’s not outright stupid, he just likes to act a little goofy. He’s definitely the class clown. I’m not sure what color he is, because it’s like when I try to pay attention to it, he starts moving around so I can’t really tell. Or maybe he’s just white or clear, I don’t really know.

2:

Two is pretty shy. She’s quiet and sweet. She’s a lime-greenish sort of color, but maybe a tad bit darker. Kinda like the color of grass.

3:

Three is yellow. Just plain yellow. He’s a little bit overweight, a little pudgy. He’s just kind of chill, pretty laid back and easy-going.

One, Two, and Three are all best friends. They have their own little clique, and they’re usually together playing.

4:

Four is blue. He’s maybe a little bit older than One, Two, and Three, but he’s a little younger than Five and Six. He’s not really sure who he wants to be, and I’ll explain that after I introduce the next two.

5:

Five is a darkish red, but not quite crimson. He’s very nice, and the best way I know to describe him is “jolly”, and he’s moderately overweight. He almost kind of reminds me of Santa Claus, but younger. Five is not stupid, but he’s pretty clueless and extremely gullible, which will comes into play when I introduce the next number.

6:

Six is a pale orange color. He’s not a good guy. He’s probably in a gang or something, and I think he has a tendency to shoplift and stuff. It’s usually just small-time, petty crimes, but I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if he were caught selling drugs or something. He really should probably be in juvie, and most likely if he were ever sent, Five would get sent too, and maybe Four.

Five is Six’s friend, though Six doesn’t really care about Five except for what he can get out of him. Five doesn’t realize how bad Six is, though. Six uses him, manipulates him into helping commit crimes, which Five doesn’t even register that he’s doing. Like, Five never really does the crimes himself, but Six might tell him to stand there and call out if someone’s coming, which Five just does because his friend asked him to.

Four is caught between the two groups. I think he might be related to Five and Six on some level, because he seems to feel like he’s supposed to hang out with them, like he’s obligated somehow. He doesn’t necessarily want to be a criminal, and he feels bad about it, but he feels like this is where he belongs. But he sees One, Two, and Three over there playing and having fun, and he wants to be their friend and play with them, but whenever he tries, Six bullies him into leaving them and coming back to Five and Six. You can’t ever trust Four, because you never really tell who’s side he’s on and what his true intentions are. He’s too young to realize he needs to get away from Five and Six. If he stays with them, his life’s gonna be ruined.

7:

Seven is dark green. He’s kind of tall and lanky. He’s mentally challenged and doesn’t talk a whole lot. I’ll talk about him a little more after I introduce the next two.

8:

As I mentioned earlier, I’m not sure what color Eight is, but I think she’s some sort of purple. I feel like she’s a sort of semi-light, dusty lilac sort of color. Eight is the “mom friend”. She’s a little plump, but just enough so that she gives really good hugs. She’s not necessarily quiet, but she’s a good listener and knows when to let someone else talk. She’ll listen to their problems and offer any help she can, or else just try and comfort them and make them feel better. She’s kind of like Seven’s caregiver. They’re not related or anything, but she’s taken it upon herself to take care of him and watch out for him.

9:

Nine feels like a darker purple than Eight. Sometimes she seems kind of like a royal purple, sometimes she seems so dark she’s almost black. Nine is my other bad number. But oddly enough, though she doesn’t commit crimes like Six does, she’s even more dangerous. This is simply because 1: she is older and therefore has more access to stuff than Six does (Like being able to drive, for example) and 2: she’s friggin smart. Six manipulates people by bullying them into doing stuff, but Nine knows how to make it seem like they had the idea themselves, and they usually wouldn’t be able to look back after the fact and realize it was her fault to start with.

The only ones she doesn’t mess with are Seven and Eight.

The reason she doesn’t mess with Seven is because he’s just kind of off limits. Even Six knows not to mess with him. Though it’d be pretty easy for Nine or Six to use him, even they have some morals. Besides, if they did try to mess with him, Eight would step in and protect him.

Now, about Eight and Nine’s relationship. Strangely enough, they are best friends. Eight is the only one who can get through to Nine and reign her in. Eight knows how to reach that small, decent part inside of Nine and implore her not to do something. Which is another reason why Nine could never mess with Seven, because not only would Eight protect him, but she would speak softly to Nine and talk her out of doing it. Eight is not fooled, she knows just how bad Nine is and all the things she’s done. However, she knows that Nine doesn’t have to be bad. She knows that Nine has the capacity to be a good person, if only she would just choose to do so. Nine might get a little miffed whenever Eight stops her from doing something, but ultimately, she still loves Eight and appreciates her, because Eight is the only one who believes in her and can see the good in her.

0:

I’m only including Zero in case anyone wonders. I don’t know anything about Zero. Zero has never had a personality for me, or a color. I don’t know why. Zero is just a regular old number, plain and simple.

Now! Since I’ve introduced the whole gang, I’ll go a little into my process of choosing my book character’s birthdays and stuff (but just a little, no spoilers other than what you can work out for yourself).

Two is quiet and kind, and Dimitri’s birthday is February 28th. He’s got two 2s, just to sort of reiterate, strengthen, and reinforce the fact that it reflects his own personality. And then I added an 8 in there as well.

Winchester’s birthday is October 9th. Now, you could say that he’s got a 1 in there because he might clown around a little, and I guess that does work, but it’s not the reason I chose it. I chose it because October is Halloween, which I love, and I wanted him to be born in the same month as Halloween. That just seemed to fit his personality well to me. Now the 9? I put that there for a reason.

Sometimes I might choose a number for a totally different reason aside from synesthesia. For instance, my favorite number is 13. Most people think of it as an unlucky number, but I’ve always thought it was cool, right along with Halloween and all the other spooky stuff that I love.

Now, some writers might use star signs to pick birthdays, and I certainly did look at them, but they didn’t have anything to do with my choices. I’ve read about the (supposed) personality traits of the signs, which I do not believe in in the slightest. I’m a cancer and I’ve never once seen a cancer fact that even vaguely sounded like me. Similarly, Winchester is a libra, and he doesn’t act at all like anything I’ve read about them. HOWEVER! Dimitri, completely by chance, turned out to be a pisces, and it’s amazing how much pisces stuff I’ve seen that fits him to a T. He’s artistic, sympathetic, and he’s very emotionally sensitive. How this all managed to line up perfectly is a mystery to me, but it’s pretty cool.

Out of context, a few other important dates I’ve picked are August 12, April 14, March 6, June 24, May 27, March 13, and September 6 (a particularly bad mix of numbers).

Also, just a fun fact: Dimitri has Synesthesia as well. Some sounds trigger smells or colors for him, along with a few other things. He also has perfect pitch, which is related to his having Synesthesia.

Anyway, this is a long post to say something that’s probably really boring and that no one will particularly care about. But who knows, maybe my series will be the next international sensation (I highly doubt it, but here’s hoping) and someone might find this after the fact and think it’s interesting, and then they can try and figure out what the out of context dates could possibly be for and what they mean. If so, that’ll be fun to sit back and watch.