Who's what?
This is an experiment. I'm going to give a very brief summary of some characters, in different stories I have written, and you tell me if you think the character is a man or woman, based purely on gut instinct.
1. Normal person. Missing daughter, their only interest for about 2/3 is in finding her, but eventually they explode with rage when it looks like she won't be found. Nearly killing the person responsible.
2. Suffering severe childhood trauma, this character loses their grip on reality. The story kicks into gear when they murder the hero's wife.
3. An assassin, while ostensibly sent to kill the hero, reasons that since their job is technically to find the man who murdered their employer's daughter, they will instead hear out the hero's claim that it was someone else, so that they know their paycheck is earned, and their employer is happy.
4. A highly trained, but very green stealth killer nevertheless comes incredibly close to offing our hero in an act of vengeance over the death of their brother, but dies viciously in the attempt.
5. Concentration camp survivor, despite being too young to even remember the camps, is convinced into a lucrative plot to rob gold from some Nazis.
6. Leader. Lethargic. Passes their work off to a second in command, until they learn this second is a ruthless warlord who murders children and the elderly without remorse, so they lock him away as punishment.
7. Psychic and pacifist, helps the police catch murders. Including a close relative. Despite being born into a family of career criminals, who try to take advantage of their "gift."
8. A supernatural figure who attempts to exploit the hero's grief, and his fragile mental state, by claiming to be the "angel of death"
9. A bigshot hires someone to evaluate one of his employees in secret. The employee catches on, and instead successfully convinces the evaluator that it is in his best interest to kill their boss, but this is also a double cross. The distrusted employee only wants to impress their boss with "loyalty," the evaluator is shot in the back, just as the suggested hit is about to be carried out.
10. A religious person, non-violent in principle but exceedingly mean and nasty. Swears a lot.
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There's no such thing as the establishment. Everyone knows that!