#i have some art in the works for my new couriers and also my lone wanderer so look forward to that

[solarishashernoseinabook]

HELLO HUSBAND MY BELOVED!

Can I get a Haltine treat please?

Have yet another lil ficlet featuring autistic!halt!

And make sure you check out Angel's accompanying art piece!

~

Pauline hummed quietly to herself as she pinned her hair in place. She wore a blue dress today instead of her usual white, and she had added a simple pendant to the ensemble: a colourful riverstone carved and polished to a shine and set on a delicate chain. She wasn’t going anywhere fancy tonight, but that didn’t mean she didn’t want to look nice. Gilan had requested help on a small matter in Merric, so Halt had sent Will along to deal with it. With the cabin empty, Halt had asked Pauline if she would like to join him for dinner. His letter had tried to make it seem like this was simply a matter of using up leftovers, but Pauline knew he was lonely. She and Halt had been spending a lot of time together over the past few months, which Pauline had found extremely pleasant. Halt was still quiet, but it was a comfortable silence; they had learned to anticipate each others’ needs; and, perhaps best of all, Halt had become more comfortable fidgeting around her. Pauline found herself relishing the time they spent together, and missing Halt keenly when they were apart.

When she was ready, Pauline swung her cloak over her shoulders and set off for Halt’s cabin. It was a pleasant evening, and she decided to walk instead of take a horse. Abelard whinnied when she got close, and she paused at the door of the stable to smile at him and scratch his nose.

She also took a discreet look in the compost barrel, just visible around the corner of the house, and smiled to herself. It held feathers from a freshly-plucked partridge and vegetable peels – Halt had cooked something fresh for her instead of using up leftovers. That was very like him, she reflected. Halt opened the door for her and Pauline drew herself away from Abelard to step onto the veranda. Halt took her hand and kissed it gently, and Pauline smiled warmly at him. ‘It’s lovely to see you again, Halt.’ ‘And you, Pauline. The food’s warm, I’m just waiting on coffee now.’ Pauline followed him to the small kitchen and took out some bowls, ladling stew into them. ‘Why don’t we eat on the veranda? It’s a lovely night, and this time of year I’m stuck inside all day.’ Halt nodded and put the dishes and coffee on a wooden platter, then went outside with her. ‘You’ve got a new crop of apprentices, right? How are they?’ ‘Oh, they’re quite fine, progressing nicely. All except for one young man – he doesn’t seem willing to use diplomacy when sneaking around would do instead.’ Pauline sighed softly. ‘I’m not sure he’s suited to Courier work.’ ‘You could send him over to the Ranger Corps,’ Halt said. Pauline smiled. ‘Oh? Volunteering to take on another apprentice, are you, Halt?’ ‘Oh gods no,’ Halt scoffed. ‘With how much of a pain in the neck Will’s been, I’m going to need a break.’ Pauline laughed. She knew, despite Halt’s gruff façade, that he would miss Will terribly. ‘Perhaps Gilan will be interested in taking an apprentice.’ ‘I could ask him for you,’ Halt offered. Pauline settled back in her chair, cradling her coffee mug in her hands. ‘Yes please, thank you.’ Halt set aside his empty bowl and topped up his coffee, then offered the kettle to her. Pauline shook her head. ‘If I have much more, I won’t be able to sleep.’ Halt put the kettle back down. He seemed to be gazing at her – no, she realised, at her pendant. She put her coffee down and unclasped it, handing it over. He accepted it and tilted it, catching the last rays of the day’s light and watching the faceted face sparkle. Pauline smiled, leaning her elbow against the arm of her chair and resting her chin on her fist. This was a side of himself Halt rarely showed, and the sight of his calm face and small smile warmed her heart. Before realising it, she spoke. ‘Why have we put it off for so long?’ ‘Hm?’ Halt looked up at her. ‘Us,’ Pauline said softly. ‘A relationship.’ After a moment, Halt shrugged. ‘Seemed like there was too much else we had to attend to.’ ‘It did,’ Pauline said, ‘but we don’t have to any longer.’ She reached across and took his weathered hand. ‘Halt, I’ve loved you for twenty years. These last few months have been perfect – and I don’t want them to end. I want to marry you.’ Pauline registered the look of momentary surprise before Halt quickly masked it. ‘You could do better than me.’ ‘No, I really don’t think I could,’ Pauline said. Halt smiled slowly. ‘Then I suppose I should say yes before you change your mind.’

[its-a-humanriot]

Give us a rundown on your OCs and I can send some OC asks! (Name, bio, visual reference if possible, the world around them, trivia)

oh thanks friend, that's so kind! I hope it's okay that I answer this publicly cause I actually can't remember if I have done public bios for them anywhere

so both my main current OCs are protagonist characters from the Fallout games (Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas respectively, although their stories do cross over into the plots of the other games)

first up - Billie Morgan! (Lone Wanderer, FO3)

(above art by @its-sixxers of her around FO3 timeline - my pfp by @atomitron is her later in life around FO4 events)

Billie grows up in Vault 101 as the daughter of the vault doctor James Morgan, and all throughout her childhood she really feels the pressure to conform and be an upstanding citizen and follow in her father's footsteps to train to be a doctor. However not long after she turns 19, she wakes up to find her father having left the vault to the supposedly uninhabitable nuclear wasteland outside. Forced to leave the vault in the following chaos, Billie discovers that everything she was told growing up was a lie - that the world outside the vault is inhabitable (if unfriendly, to say the least), and that she and her father actually came from the wasteland to live in the vault when she was a baby following her mother's death.

From there Billie has to explore the wasteland to try and find her father again, and after his death eventually follows through on his dream of bringing clean water to the wasteland with the help of the Brotherhood of Steel. The anger and frustration of being lied to her whole life by her dad does take a toll on her though, as well as her dislike for becoming this recognisable hero-figure in the Capital wasteland. She also suffers after-effects of the massive irradiation she gets from reactivating the water purifier that her dad helped to build, gaining a mutation that is something of a double-edged sword - it increases the rate of her cell regeneration when exposed to radiation, increasing her healing rate, but it also consumes her body's energy stores so causes wasting of her muscles. She eventually has to leave the Capital area after being kicked out of the BoS, so she moves north and works in secrecy with the Railroad to help synths find a life of freedom (where she then crosses into the events of Fallout 4).

Lots of Billie's journey is about grief and how she reacts to things not being how they initially seem to her - about growing and realising that 'good' and 'bad' are not as simple or clear cut in real life as they are in stories. It's also about her finding the freedom to be the version of herself that she feels most comfortable in after having to be different things for different people throughout her life.

Billie trivia: she's actually a really good mechanic and inventor, but a terrible cook. She also has an unusual accent (compared to most people in the wasteland) due to the isolated nature of the vault where she grew up.

---

next - Rylan "Rye" Reed (Courier Six, Fallout: New Vegas)

(original art by @kharonion)

Rye doesn't remember a whole lot before he got mugged of the package he was carrying, shot in the head, and left in a shallow grave to die. The head shot leaves him with multiple physical mental issues including bouts of aphasia (not being able to speak), migraines, and impaired vision and hearing on his left side, as well as anisocoria (one pupil much larger than the other). His mental health also suffers and he thinks of himself for a long time as a 'dead man who hadn't stopped walking yet'. As his attacker had robbed him not only of his delivery package but of his life and his memories, he sets out to find him and gets embroiled in the conflict for who holds the power in New Vegas. Eventually,

Rye's journey is really all about the complete obliteration of who he used to be before and how he eventually rebuilds a new version of himself, with all the loss and fresh starts that come with it. It's also about the collapse of the way things were and the pain of change.

Rye trivia: when Rye is first recovering from his headshot wound, he learns sign language due to his initial inability to speak. even after he recovers, he tends to still use it a lot. He also has an aversion to mirrors and touch for a long time.

-

I have some other OCs in development, but these are my main two for now! Thanks so much!

[bachi-ri]

Minor ghoul npc my beloved

[wearetakingthehobbitstogallifrey]

Kdrama recs Part 1

Hullo and welcome to the kdrama life @camsthisky​! The following list is not in any particular order, other than the fact that I start with a more rom/com vibe and head toward more romantic/action or action. All the following kdramas are set in the modern day, and part 2 of my recs for you will be either darker kdramas set in present day or historical dramas.

Let the list begin!

1. Strong Woman Do Bong Soon: 

Do Bong Soon is a v smol woman who has super strength and who wants 1. To create her own video game 2. Get her police officer crush to return her affections. Which like, police officer is kinda cute but he ain’t that special. Bong Soon winds up becoming a bodyguard to Ahn Min Hyuk, the extremely rich, kinda spoiled, ridiculously extra CEO of a gaming company who does not like the police for secret reasons, and sadly does not have a good relationship with his family. (He a lonely boy underneath everything.) Min Hyuk finds out about Bong Soon’s powers, is in TOTAL awe of her, offers to train her in fighting, and literally falls head over heels for her.

The caveat with this show is there is a subplot or two that annoy me, BUT I just use the 10 second skip button and it is totally worth it because the romance is super cute—SUPER CUTE (also I have a list of favorite actors and Park Hyung Sik is def on it—one minute he is an adorkable, blushing bby the next he can be intense and sad)

He cute

2. Her Private Life: 

Hello fake-dating!! Ryan Gold (an adoptee who didn’t live in Korea for a while) is a former artist who stopped painting because he couldn’t deal with his Stendhol (?) syndrome (among other traumas). Deok Mi is the classy art curator of a famous museum who definitely does not have any secrets she wants to keep from the world—well, other than the fact that she is the number one fangirl of kpop idol, Cha Shi-an (who also appreciates art) and has a major crush on him. Ryan becomes director of the art museum and there is a whole thing with getting Shi-an involved in an art show.

Following this and a series of unfortunate events a false rumor starts that Deok Mi and and Shi-an ARE dating. It’s a little complicated to summarize, but basically what you need to know is that Ryan and Deok Mi become a fake couple so there won’t be a scandal for Shi-an or violence done to Deok Mi by rabid fangirls. I enjoy the fake-dating trope a lot, and how it becomes real for both of them! The leads are played by Kim Jae Wook and Park Min Young, who both have incredible range. Lots of soft moments in this one! Good kisses, a scene where the faves bake together, and also Ryan wears a lot of deep v-neck shirts and jackets which is an attack on me personally.

The show also contains a bit of angst, which I LOVE. Hand-holding becomes an important theme 😊

RYAN NO

3. Crash Landing on You: Rich South Korean heiress/fashion designer Se-ri accidentally winds up in a North Korean village, and really REALLY wants to go home. Mostly because there are no scented candles or spa-like bathtubs in the vicinity, but also because she could easily disappear into a NK jail and never return. A North Korean captain named Ri Jeong Hyeok finds her and decides not to turn her because, one, he’s a good guy who doesn’t want to turn an innocent person over to what might be her death, and two, turning her over might get his four underlings in trouble for reasons. Said underlings are his family, basically, and they are a deLIGHT. One is an argumentative proud sort who likes to drink and to feel important and who tries to provoke (and gets provoked by) Se-ri at every opportunity, one is a lover of banned South Korean dramas, one is a 17 year old bby who misses his mom, and one is the silent but most loyal follower of the captain. 

Besides all these people, there are two other characters (including a surprisingly wise conman) who become faves and major players in the plot.

There is a great mix of humor, romance, found family, and angst, and I love it very much. A few things don’t go the way I want them to near the end, but a bit of imagination and fanfic can fix anything 

ALSO I FORGOT THE CAPTAIN GETS SUPER SULKY FROM TIME TO TIME AND IT IS HILARIOUS

Show of hands, who thinks they will meet again

4. Are You Human Too: A FAVORITE SHOW OF ALL! TIME!

What do you do when your husband dies and your evil mega-rich father-in-law takes your son away from you and keeps you from seeing him ever? Well, if you are scientist with more genius than positive coping methods, you build yourself a robot son who looks exactly like your real son. Great solution, am I right?

Nam Shin III is the name of my favorite robot son, played by the inestimable Seo Kang Joon. He is the purest bby you will ever meet, being designed so that he never lies and so that he will immediately go to hug anyone who cries. He seems quite a contrast to the bitter human Nam Shin, who hates his gilded prison life, hates his Grandpa, and tries to sneak away from his right hand man, Secretary Ji Young Hoon, his only friend in the world. The girl in the show is Kang So Bong, an ex-UFC fighter who was so badly injured she had to quit. She is at first a bit jaded and mercenary because of her past, but she has a golden heart that just needs to be reminded of its existence.

Not going into details to avoid spoilers, but everything upends when the robot Nam Shin has to take the place of the human Nam Shin. The show is a soft, funny, angsty exploration of what it means to be human, with some good found family throughout. The character development is phenomenal, and the connection between So Bong and Nam Shin III is *chef’s kiss*. I just want to give a shout out to Seo Kang Joon who plays a duel role like you wouldn’t believe, to SKJ’s smile, to the soundtrack, and to the character of Young Hoon, a loyal, steady, and self-sacrificing secretary that we do not deserve  (gosh tho he looks good in blue!)

Look at my robot son getting a long-looked for affirmation! (his lil smile!!!

5. W: Two Worlds: 

This show unique because it  meta as HELL! Oh Yeon Joo is a junior doctor and the daughter of a webtoon artist whose big hit, W, is coming to a close. Much to her surprise, she gets pulled into the world of the comic where she encounters and saves the main character, Kang Chul, a former Olympic shooting champion who was blamed for the murder of his entire family, and whose sole desire is to find the real killer. It’s a good romance between them, and I also love Kang Chul’s relationship with his hyung, which, tho it is not always a main focus, is present and wonderful. Kang Chul himself is both intelligent and adorably bratty, charismatic and angsty, soft and fierce, and he is one of my favorite kdrama characters for sure.

As for the meta, the show does a fantastic job exploring the rules of the comic world, of how one can enter and leave, the importance and power of main characters and supporting characters, and the purpose of an author. There is always another twist coming, and it is just so much fun!

UM SIR PLS POINT THAT ELSEWHERE

6. Healer: 

I watched half this show and never realized that the female lead is played by Park Min Young, same actress as in Her Private Life. Someone had to tell me lol! She’s just so good at playing different people. In this show, she is Chae Young Shin, a reporter for a celebrity tabloid who has big dreams of becoming a famous reporter who investigates stories that actually mean something. She is a bit quirky, very cute, very brave, and probably one of my favorite female leads. She lives with her dad above his coffee/teashop bakery and is friends with all the ex-cons he has defended while doing his other job of lawyering.

Anyway this show is more of a romantic/action drama. To get an idea of the titular Healer, picture what you would get if you took some of Batman and Nightwing’s aesthetics (wearing black, hanging out on rooftops, punching people, flipping around, etc) and put them into a night courier who likes to watch National Geographic and dream about one day going off to an island where he can live all by himself for the rest of his days because oh yeah he is a loner whose only friend is an older woman who sets up his jobs and whom he has never actually met.

There is also an older reporter that Young Shin looks up to, the fun tabloid office where she works, a heck lot of mystery surrounding some tragedy involving a group of reporter best friends/found family back in the 80’s/90’s, and of course both members of the OTP have childhood trauma that has made them who they are today. One of my favorite things that happens in the show is that Healer has to go undercover for a while, Clark Kenting it up in Young Shin’s tabloid office, which overnight becomes a real news agency for reasons.

The action is LOTS of fun, and the romance is really soft and cute, and better still, when there is a misunderstanding or something that gets in their way, they almost immediately talk about it and resolve issues. They TRUST each other and give the benefit of the doubt where many tv couples would break up or get in big fights. I find it (plus the character development) very refreshing.

I couldn’t find a gif of my favorite fight sadly. This will have to do

7. Lawless Lawyer: This has Lee Joon Gi. Watch it.

Just kidding, there are many other reasons to watch the show, but it is true that Lee Joon Gi is one of my favorite actors. The man has phoenix eyes, a jawline that could cut silk, diamonds, you name it, and such a deep well of emotional acting that it literally kills me when his characters rage/weep/love/etc.

Anyway, in this legal thriller/romance/action drama, LJG’s character Bong Sang Pil is a beautiful, very extra ex-gangster/now lawyer who opens his own office, ready to fight villainy and avenge his mom with the law or with his fists, whichever is more useful at the time. He has a right hand man named Manager Tae and recruits a bunch of thugs as his minions, and they all become a weird sort of family as the show goes on.

Ha Jae Yi is a quiet badass lawyer who has no time for sexist idiots and gets her license suspended for smacking one of said fools. She gets recruited to assist Sang Pil, and they find their goals align as both their mothers were destroyed by the villains.

Speaking of the villains? EXCELLENT acting by them all, like they need to go down obviously, but you can’t help but be in awe of a few of them or even get attached to one or two in a weird way. Props to the show for having one of the best female villains I have ever seen

What an icon

Here you get two gifs of him

Sorry I needed to make it a magical three lol

~~

Tune in next time for historical dramas and modern dramas that are a bit darker!

[joutacujo]

FNV Companion Meme: Hades

Found this on another’s blog and wanted to have a go using drunkle Hades! This’ll be the lone version without Bitesized or Tesla.

Template

General

Name: Hades

Location: Atomic Wrangler or one of the vagrant camps

How to obtain: Can be hired after completing the quest “King on His Own”

Character photo: I haven’t draw him properly yet, but I have this-

Companion Wheel

I think we should travel together: “You better be packing hydra.” / “Welp, better than lazing around here, I guess.” / (if courier is female) “Do I have to?”

Use Melee: “Shit, I’ll give it a go.” / “I can’t see straight, but a cleaver is a big knife. Bigger range and all.”

Use Ranged: “Does throwing dynamite count?” / (singing) “Shot-gun, sh-sh-sh-shotgun!~”

Open Inventory: “Come on, man. I’ve got a bad back!” / “Are you gonna pay me for this?”

Stay Close: “If I get in your way that’s your fault.” / (if female courier) “You better not be flirting.” 

Keep Distance: (if male courier) “Nice view from back here!” / “Got it, chief.” 

Stealth: “If you here cracking that’s my knees.” / “I’m more of a explode everything and run guy, but I’ll try.” 

Back Up: (jokingly flirting) “Throw it back?” / I’m sure my muscles get in the way.”

Be Passive: “Ugh... really?” / “Yeah, that’ll last until withdrawal hits.”

Be Aggressive:  “Now you’re speaking my language.” / “YEEEAAAHH!”

Use Stimpack: “Doesn’t hit as well as hydra, but it’ll do.” / “P is for pain... also Please give me more.” / (if female courier) “Don’t touch me. I’ll do it myself.” 

Wait Here: “Oh. Don’t go too far, okay?” / “Oookay. Just don’t leave me here.”

Follow Me: “Right on, chief.” / “I ain’t a dog...” 

Send to the Lucky 38: “Oh hell yeah!” / “You know I’m banned from the Strip, right?” 

Send Home: (can be found where?) “Home, sweet home. Time to get high.” / “Finally! I missed Tesla.” (Atomic Wrangle/vagrant camp or Hades’ Shack after his personal quest is done)

Injured: “Uhghhhh... chief I ain’t feeling so good.” / “Hydra hydra.. hell I��d take a bit of jet.” / “Chieeefff! Helpp....” 

Death: “Well... I was expecting this...” / “Oh, finally...” 

Aggression: Aggressive

Confidence: Cautious

Assistance: Helps friends and allies

Karma: Neutral

Perks

What perks does your oc have? Generally companions have a starting perk and then two perks they may achieve depending on how the courier completes their quest line.

[Been Through the Wars]

Hades’ starting quirk adds 3+ DT and 20% resistance to drugs and poisoning. 

[Cut off One Head]

If choosen the “Warrior” end to his quest, adds 25% skill points to the Explosive, Guns and Survival skills. 

[Happy Homesteader]

If choosen the “Retiree” end to his quest, adds 25% skill points to the Medicine, Repair and Barter skills. 

Drops

If killed, does your oc drop anything?

Tesla’s Note -A note from Tesla to Hades about their plans to party after “all of this” is done.

Shot In The Dark -Hades’ unique shotgun that has unlimited slag ammo.

3-6x Hydra 10-12x Dynamite Cleaver

Worn Kings’ Outfit -Hades’ unique version of the Kings’ Outfit

Ruined Dogtags -NCR dogtags with the details scratched out

Quests and Recruitment

How does the courier recruit your oc? Write a short description where your oc is found and if there are any requirements to recruit them as a companion.

You receive the quest “King on His Own” from Pacer after G.I Blues quest is done in the Kings’ favour. He speaks about a member of the Kings that had to be kicked out after “going psycho” from drug withdrawal. He says that this member was really impressive in a fight and he’d like to see him come back to them. Problem is, it’s impossible to get him to go sober, so he asks the Courier if they could do anything.

You can find Hades either in a vagrant camp (usually the one near the Strip) or the Atomic Wrangler. At first he’s very depressed and generally lethargic. Having high reputation with the Kings allows you to hire him as a companion, but first he asks you to track down 5 bottles of Hydra and some whiskey for his “happy time cocktail”. Upon doing this he’ll take this “cocktail” and suddenly become more upbeat and flirtious (if the courier is male). If the courier is female he’ll seem reluctant to join you, but does after a 25 Speech check. 

Bringing him back to Pacer leads to Pacer being disappointed in Hades, but he requests that you keep Hades around for a bit longer to see if you can help. Agreeing to this completes the quest and hires Hades as a proper companion with his quirk.

Personal quests are an important part of developing our companions. What is your oc’s personal quest(s), and what are the different ways the courier can complete them?

After travelling for some time, there’s a random chance you’ll witness Hades going through withdrawal. He’ll become very depressed and easily angered, fighting anything that comes within his perspective. Talking to him will give you the option of giving him Fixer which prompts him to open up more about himself.

He reveals he was born in a Vault set underneath an Arts Theatre. The musical scripts found in it is where his tribe gets their names from; he’s named after Hadestown: The Musical. He left his tribe as a young adult to seek adventure but was captured and sold into slavery. 

He refuses to go into anymore detail. Passing a 50 Speech Check he’ll reveal that he was sold to an older women that lived in this fancy condo for rich people. He’ll shudder at the memory then end dialogue. 

This prompts the beginning of his personal quest, “Why We Build the Wall”.

After completing three quests for the NCR, Hades will mention his distain for the NCR. Through dialogue it’s revealed he was a soldier for them but deserted during the Bitter Springs Massacre. Talking to Captain Gilles with Hades in the party will prompt a conversation between the two. Gilles is disappointed, but not surprise that Hades deserted them while Hades is bitter and disgusted that they’re still here. You can resolve the conversation peacefully with a Speech check of 30. 

After becoming Liked by the Legion this prompts a conversation with Hades. He is neutral towards them, saying their slavery is horrifying but at least they protect their citizens. He says he’d rather join an honest evil than a dishonest good. You can then ask him about his time as a slave. Reluctantly he reveals that his owner would beat and assault him whenever something upset her. He’s biased against women because of this (something he apologizes for if the courier is female). He is gleeful as he reveals that he escaped after she had a heartattack at a party, but quickly becomes subdued again as he’s been wandering every since. 

The last condition needed is to complete the quest “High Times” with Hades in the party. Upon completion he opens dialogue mentioning he drinks and uses drugs to forget his past. He says his companion, Tesla, is a complete amnesiac due to her excessive drug use and he’s kind of been hoping to have that happen to him too. But everytime he has a withdrawal, all those feelings he’s been bottling up just come out and start the cycle over again. 

Through dialogue you get two choices to help him. 

The “Warrior” end, has him continue to use drugs now adding in Buffout to help control his withdrawals. He becomes tougher and buries the past completely. 

The “Retiree” end has him use drugs at a half dose, using more Fixer and visiting the Followers. He regains more skills and unlocks his Shack where he gives you supplies like ammo and different crafting scrap.

Ending Slides

Another important part of companions is their ending slides. How do their endings change based on how their quests are completed and how the courier decides to handle the world around them? Below is a short template listing the different main story outcomes. Feel free to change whatever you need to fit your OC’s story.

If their personal quest is never completed…

Hades, ever drifting between highs and lows, remained a vagrant to the very end. Haunted by his past, body deteriorating from alcoholism, he took his life outside of the Strip’s Gates: a symbol of how the Mojave can chew one up and spit them out. 

If the Courier sides with Legion and Hades quest is completed with the Warrior Ending

As the Legion marched into Freeside they rounded up the drug addicts and vagrants. Most were executed on sight, some, like Hades, showed a battle prowess that impressed Caeser. Hades was cast into the Arena and after many battles, was finally slain. His body was burned in a sign of respect. 

If the Courier sides with Legion and Hades quest is completed with the Retiree Ending

Hidden away in his shack, Hades escaped Legion sight for a long time. Upon finding the now sober Hades, they captured him and sold him to Aurelius of Pheonix (or Lucius if Aurelius is dead) as a repairs specialist. Though once again a slave, Hades accepted his fate and eventually passed of natural causes. 

If the Courier sides with NCR and Hades quest is completed with the Warrior Ending

With the NCR taking over New Vegas, it wasn’t long before deserters were brought to justice. Hades refused arrest and fought until the very end, taking out many NCR soldiers in his wake. He eventually went down under a hail of bullets, screaming his bitterness to the skies.

If the Courier sides with NCR and Hades quest is completed with the Retiree Ending

With the NCR taking over New Vegas, it wasn’t long before deserters were brought to justice. Hades was brought before a trial and accepted his imprisonment. He lived out the rest of his days working in the mines, eventually dying in a mineshaft collapse, surrounded by other Kings. 

If the Courier sides with House and Hades quest is completed with Any Ending

Hades, like many vagrants in Freeside, was either ignored by Mr House or shot down when his robots came strolling into the town. Being a friend of the Courier, he was left alone by other factions in Freeside; leading to a lonely, if peaceful, life. 

If the Courier makes New Vegas independent and Hades quest is completed with Any Ending

Along with the other Kings in Freeside, Hades ruled and enjoyed a free life. In the chaos he often relapsed into using more dangerous drugs and whored himself out without care. Eventually, he passed after a bad, violent trip on pyscho which lead to him being killed in self defense. 

[duamuteffe]

So @rzrcrst​ tagged me to post five facts about myself, and then tag others. I’m going to skip the tagging others part because at this point I’ve either known you all for ten years, we’re new acquaintances but she’s already tagged you, or we’re getting to know each other in Discord :)

1) I have been writing fan fiction since I was 14, although at the time the term hadn’t been coined so far as I am aware of. I fell extremely hard for a character in what’s now known as the Old World of Darkness (previously just the World of Darkness, an RPG setting) and that plus a very difficult time in high school meant my self-insert fics were one of the major things that kept me aboveground and sane. I still have all the originals, which have changed formats several times (I originally started writing on a Tandy 1000 with no internal hard drive that required three disk changes to save- thank the gods for rtf) and man, if there’s an illustration of how writing more means you get better it’s those fics. I can see where my style came from, but lord did I not get pacing, plotting, or basic setting design :) Anyway, a couple of years after that I fell hard again for a character from a show, integrated that into the WoD, and started to get serious. I kept writing and never stopped. Now I mostly post things on Ao3 for other people (I’m Hanako_Cinnamon over there, by the way- when I started you couldn’t transition to mainstream publishing contracts if you’d done fan fiction, though now no one gives a fuck) and keep my self-indulgent stuff for myself, and interested friends. I still write it, though, and you should too. There is nothing wrong with giving yourself a fictional escape.

2) Horses are one of the reasons I’m still aboveground. I wanted them my entire life, but my family didn’t have the money for it, so I made due with magazines (Horse Illustrated and Practical Horseman and Hunter And Sporthorse FTW) and Breyers until I was 19, when I managed to get a job apprenticing myself to a family-owned eventing barn with a thirtyish year history when I got there (in 1998. So they’re hitting that fifty year mark soon, gods love them.) They ran Pony Club, taught me everything about the business of barn management, handling, riding, first-aid, teaching, training, et all from the ground up. I did chores and tacked and groomed six days a week, lived in the house with the family, rode every day, and busted my ass working the hardest I have ever worked. It was glorious. I often wish I’d stayed longer than the few years I did, but I think my then-undiagnosed depression finally managed to talk me out of it :/ But I have a set of skills I can use anywhere in the world, and a hobby/art/spiritual practice that gives me great joy and peace. And I have a mare who I love more than nearly anything. (Incidentally, you don’t have to be rich to own a horse, you just have to accept never having any money :)

3) I’m in an RPG. No, really:

This is honestly the coolest thing about me so far as I’m concerned, lol. I have a character in the tabletop RPG Trouble For Hire, which is very cool and very inexpensive, considering, and available on DriveThruRPG if you and your gaming group are in the mood to basically cooperatively make a post-Western action movie starring a lone courier with a cool car and morals he tries to keep hidden in his coat. (And if you do, tell me if Alex is involved. I am so curious as to what people are doing with my character :)

4) My ideal life would involve living in the middle of nowhere (particularly the middle of nowhere I grew up in, Forest County PA) living that solar punk life and farming, hunting, and fishing. And playing boardgames. Lots of boardgames. I like cities as a place to visit- they seem to keep all the museums, libraries, conservatories, aviaries, zoos, big cemetaries, and whatnot in them- but when it comes down to it I want to go to sleep at night knowing my neighbors are more than a mile away and the Milky Way is shining overhead. We’ll still need broadband, though. I have to keep up with what you guys are up to ^_^

5) I am very in favor of body mods, but don’t have the money to pursue the tattoos I want. Yet. Ask me about my eventual designs, though! I would like some more holes in my ears, as I’ve found through a reputable and amazing piercer that I’m not actually allergic to earrings, I just never healed right after having my lobes done at a mall kiosk with a piercing gun that causes crush damage. Go figure. I also favor distinctive outfits, when I can find what I want and also afford it. It’s a relatively new thing for me to embrace my inner clothes-horse; I struggled with my self-image for a long time (remember I mentioned high school being shitty? Yeah. Struggled with self image = thought I was hideous. Seriously.) but in the last few years, and especially getting on medication for that aforementioned depression (and anxiety) I’m starting to look in the mirror and like what I see. Not every time, not every day, and some weeks not at all. But it happens. And I wear plaid miniskirts in public, waiscoats and ties, knee-high boots with buckles and straps (sometimes all in the same outfit) and fuckin’ love it, something that would have made my younger self just *recoil* in astonishment. I regret all the time I hid in shapeless jeans and beat up t-shirts, too afraid to express myself, but I’m making up for it now. And if I can do it, anyone can. Let me know if you need a pep talk on it.

[mojave-musing]

3, 4, 8, 9, 14, 15, 27, 28, 53, 57, 65, 70, 79, and 94 for whoever you feel like!!

Holy hell Betty that’s a lot here we go

3. What do they wear to bed?

Remington just wears her pants and T-shirt to bed. When she’s camping she leaves boots on but when she’s at a base the boots are off.

Audrey actually made herself a set of patch-work flannel pjs to wear to bed.

Nat usually wears her regular clothes since she’s on the move all the time.

4. Do they like cuddling?

All of my ocs love to cuddle lmao except maybe Null the Synth Courier

8. What are their good and bad traits?

Bartholomew is actually very thoughtful, and he’s working on improving his shit behavior but he’s been greedy, selfish, and a general jackass in the past.

Lynn is a dedicated, all for justice and empathetic, buuuut she lies (albeit for the “greater good”), is a little vindictive and holds a grudge.

9. Do they have any artistic talent?

I think I would say Gwen is the most artistic of the bunch, she can draw very well, though mostly it’s technical drawings.

Bartholomew is surprisingly runner up. He doodles landscapes when given a piece of paper and time. He doesn’t think it would ever classify as art but he’s pretty good.

14. What is a pet peeve of theirs?

Nat definitely hates being talked over. Shes not much of a conversationalist to begin with and when someone starts interrupting her she does not like it at all.

Remington and Lynn hate people not cleaning up after themselves and littering.

Nemo dislikes being talked down to, which is his entire life in the legion.

15. What was the last thing they cried about?

Nat cried seeing the world coming out of the vault. It was the most beautiful thing she had seen yet.

Bartholomew cried being reunited with his girlfriend, Rosie, after being stuck in the Sierra Madre.

Nemo cried while having a mental breakdown after he found out who his bio dad is.

27. What is their favourite holiday?

Remington rather likes Christmas mostly cause she can spoil her friends

Gwen likes Halloween the most

Audrey enjoyed the Fourth oF July before the war purely for the fireworks

Nat likes New Years

28. If they could have one wish, what would they wish for?

Gwen wants anonymity again. She doesn’t want the reputation of being The Lone Wanderer. She likes it in the commonwealth because no one knows her there.

Lynn, Nat, and Remington want peace and to make the world better.

Audrey doesn’t know what she would wish for. She’s been through some serious bullshit and it would be nice to wish it all away but she would have never had learned or grown. Maybe she would wish for an ice cream maker.

53. What is something that they want but can’t have?

Ooooh well obviously Remington, Gwen and Audrey want family members back who are dead.

Nemo would like to have never been born but he’s stuck on this bitch of an earth.

57. What makes them standout among others?

For Lynn it’s the fact she’s the damn general of the Minutemen kinda hard to miss her and the cool hat and jacket.

Audrey looks like a deer in the headlights all the time navigating the new world.

Null, the new synth courier who previously didn’t have a name, it’s the shaved head, the eyepatch and just generally unsettling air about them.

65. What makes them smile?

Cliche ass answer for Remington but seeing Boone smile lmao. She also smiled at kids and puppies and kittens and bad jokes.

Bart is actually an easy one to get to smile, he smiles at most jokes and light conversation and of course at dogs.

Cato smiles all the damn time cause it’s a coping mechanism.

70. What do you, the creator of this OC, like most about them?

Im gonna focus just on Remington because she’s my baby but I love everything about her like Remington is my damn hero. She’s strong and brave and always trying to do the right thing.

79. What object to they care for the most?

Remington it’s a photo of her family.

Nat it’s the Star of David necklace she took from Dassa’s body.

Gwen a copy of Shakespeares plays her dad gave to her.

94. Do they take criticism well?

Bart and Nemo take it terribly lmao

Remington and Nat it’s mixed depending on who it is from

Gwen takes it the best tbh

[nonisartblog]

This guy here wants to know more about all your OCs. Any information is cool.

Hmm okay lets get to know them:)

So where do I begin. I’ma tell you now blade their a lot to post about them.Remember I'm doing this based off memory, so I cant tell you everything about them yet.

Here we go:

(Be noted, the characters that lack a physical desciption have been drawn, check my art tag Anons art if you wanna see them).

Long post ahead:

Raveena "Ravynne" Natsya Celik. Nickname: Mean Mom. She's my older sister's courier. She is Black, Eastern European, Native American, East Indian, and Mongolian. 20yrs old, 5'1, 103lbs. Skinny-thick, and is toned. She's probably far by the meanest courier in the group. She has a low tolerance for stupidity, but is loyal and even merciful (only on good days). She's consirdered beautiful/hot and one hell of a pussycat to many, but she never acknowloges the comments, fightings more of her style. She's pretty cold, but don't let her fool you. She does the right thing, fights fair and saves lives too. Worked for all factions at one point. But secured the Mohave under the NCR's control, with the help of the BOS and Enclave. With the couriers + The Lone.

Karma: Neutral.

Papa Patriarchy: Ex-Legion boy/Courier also known as the silent saviour of the waste. Another courier of my sister's. He's middle eastern (need to finish this). Presumed to be 30yrs old, very tall, well built, handsome man. He doesn't mess with anyone that doesn't mess with him. He has dyed green/yellow hair that he wear’s in a mohawk, and and green/hazel eyes and is high-yellow. He's and honest, hard working man and is highly skilled in combat, due to his past history. He's turned his life around, and helps the people of the waste. Some still fear him, and think he became courier for redemption, others say he did it for some sort of evaluation. But nobody really knows.

Karma: Lawful good/Neutral

Fox Wilde: Tribal kid/Ex-Legion boy/Courier. My oc. He's primarily white, with asian(korean/japanese/ is a smidge of turkish) and native american heritage. Says he's 27 sometimes even 40, looks far younger then that (and is). 5'5/5'7 with his boots on (no body really knows his height. He's a pretty boy, asshole, but is also a complete dork and can be pretty generous in some situation's and started off some what naive.  He is scrawny and underweight. And is related to a certain Fox... He's suffered two trauma's: once being shot in the head/then being beat in the head.

Karma: Chaotic - Good/Neutral & sometimes a dickbag.

Vince: Courier Six/Vinni/Asshole. My and my older sister's oc. Took a team effort to work on him. Though you don't see his face... He is half black (there's some european in there), half asian (Korean/Vietnamese?/Taiwanese). looks kinda like his twin Loretta but pastier. Dark hair and dark eyes. He wears his hair combed back and gelled. He's a shorty and weighs around 95lbs to 101lbs. Skinny noodle boi, has a charisma 9000+, can be rather vain and selfish, but is also kind and caring (once you warm up to him). He only does what has to do to survive in the waste, but tries to avoid any situation that involves his friends.

Karma: Chaotic Good.

Loretta: Sweet pea/Sunshine. Is my oc and Vince's twin. Smol bean (4'9?), kinda thick, weighs more than she looks. Is about 111lbs. She and her brother share similar traits: she's got a charisma 9000+, she is kind and polite, but can be cunning and conniving. Everyone's got a game in the wastes, even Loretta. Many consider her a doll, even though she's had her share of thievery in the waste. That idiot in sunglasses Fantastic likes her and would probably follow her into a pit. While she and Benny constantly butting heads. She makes up for a lot of her wrong "dirty deeds" by providing for the waste, and assuring the people stay safe.  

Good/Lawful Good.

The Lone Wanderer: Docs kid/Bright-eyed wanderer/Kid. My oc. He's half white (italian) and half Black. Is 5'6 and 119lbs. Short curly reddish hair with a white streak, and is almost always wearing his over sized cowboy hat. Mid complection. light freckles from sun exposure. A long (but faded) scar crossing the middle of his face. He has combat skills but when the going get tough he often panics and runs. He can be rather cowardly in some situations, but will put his fears aside whenever its necessary. The boy has guts will patch your gashes up and stitch your wounds. And will fight for those that cant fight for themselves. He saved DC how come he cant save the Mohave too?

Karma:Very Good/Neutral

Nathaniel “Nate” Antonio Renardo Smith: Sole/Blue/Butcher Pete. My oc: He's white (italian), With black hair and blue eyes. His face is riddled with little cuts, scars, old and new. He's pretty pasty but has tanned over time (he has tan lines on his body). Sharp teeth, sometimes stained red. Is always topless and bloody. Has changed since his time in and out the vault. He still has some of his sanity, but its slowly fading. He still fight for the good of the settlers, but on the side he's a glutenous man child, always chewing on something or someone. He's not that bad of a guy, you just need to get to know him. He won't eat his friends or general people... just don't cross him he'll make you pay.

Chaotic Good.

-

Thanks for the awesome ask @a-bladesentinel I'll be sure to expand a little more on these oc's soon!

[the-royal-courier]

Associations of Azeroth: Amberstaff Coalition, “The Wizards of Ambermill”

By Risri Elthron

Set beneath the great purple dome, Ambermill in Silverpine Forest is home to a group of individuals known throughout the lands for their magical arts, Amberstaff Coalition. The group which prides itself on accepting any and all who wish to learn about the schools of magic and encourage members to become experts in their chosen school, has existed since the days of the Troll Wars over 2,500 years ago. Originally known as the Order of the Amberstaff, the Archwizard Purdue took on the mantle of leadership shortly after the death of the former leader, renaming the association to Amberstaff Coalition. Since then, the group has grown to over 130 individuals with both magi and martial types filling the ranks.

Individuals from all over Azeroth and Draenor have joined the order. The Royal Courier spent time with three of Amberstaff’s members, Keeper Helasar Moonblade, Captain Aacer, and Valoo Ironclad. Keeper Moonblade, one of the Amber Wizard apprentices provided a tour of the grounds and gave some background on the prestigious organization.

The grounds themselves consist of several buildings, the main hall and library, housing for the Amberstaff personnel, and a lab. The entire compound also hosts several elementals who serve the members as guards and assistants. Overhead the dome provides a warning system and protection from any hostile incursions. “This dome is only a remade version of the original which was sadly destroyed upon the invasion of the forsaken in this region. The ward is now maintained by a generator,” Keeper Moonblade shared during the tour of the facility.

The name Amberstaff came from both the staves wielded by the magi within the group as well as the practice of Ambermancy, “It is the practice of taking multiple schools and types of magick and forming it into one. This is the practice of creating the amber spells that only the most experienced of amber wizards are able to do.” Helasar explained.

The Amberstaff Coalition works to balance not only magic but also relations between the Alliance and Horde. Keeper Moonblade shared this neutral stance as “Accepting all who are willing to put aside their differences and study the Arcane. Under the dome, we do not recognize the political beliefs or structure of each person.”

Within the Amberstaff Coalition opportunity for advancement is possible with hard work and dedication. “The hierarchy of the Coalition goes as this: The Arbiter of both trees of the guild is at the top slot, and that is the official rank that the Archwizard holds. The officers of the guild make up the Council. The best of each magickal occupation such as the magi, shamans, and the such, with an exception to monks, hold a spot upon the Council. Next is where the two branches fall into place. Of the Magickal tree, the ranks from highest to lowest go as Instructor, Adept, and Apprentice. From the Martial tree, the ranks from highest to lowest are Amber guard, Regular, and Pledge.”

Keeper Moonglade shared how he came to be a member within Amberstaff, ““I was in Stormwind in search for a job and a new way of life other than prowling among the outskirts of Darnassus. I found the Archwizard on the Cathedral stairs, back when he used to openly recruit on the streets. That was the start of this adventure. I needed not to be convinced, for I joined on my own interest and accord. I was willing to start a new part of my life, and the idea of a magickal order peaked my interest to an extreme.” His focus within Amberstaff to teach and mentor arcane students as well as assist the Archwizard with public relations. “I tend to study the Arcane in my free time, for one can never truly master the magickal arts. I mostly do the things that the Archwizard needs done, or anything extremely beneficial to the Coalition as a whole, take example of my Stormwind recruiting sessions.”

Captain Aacer and Valoo Ironclad joined Keeper Moonblade after the tour to discuss how they joined, what they did for the coalition and why someone would want to join the ranks of Amberstaff.  Captain Aacer was a lone adventurer who happened upon his now wife Ivory a long term member who convinced him to join. Mr. Ironclad was recruited by Captain Aacer after the recent Winter Veil Tournament hosted by House Matheredor.

As one of the two directly reporting to the Archwizard, Captain Aacer detailed his responsibilities, “I lead the less magically-inclined of our bunch. For me, that entails the leading of the vanguard, as we are the first and last line of defense for our magi, who often times are in the back. As for training, generally I run our agents through practice sparring with myself and adjust their skills appropriately if I see issue. I'm also in charge of seeking those amongst our ranks for the position of Amberguard, which are the most skilled and elite of the Martial Tree. Since the Broken Shore though, they have been few, as we suffered many casualties during our charge at the Broken Shore.”

Mr. Ironclad told his story of joining, “I think I fall under the martial tree, Captain Aacer here was what drew me to the Coalition.  I ran into him at a charity tournament a few weeks back, we fought and he won.  I wanted a rematch though, so about a week ago I ran into him outside of Stormwind and challenged him to a rematch, he won again, but that’s alright cus it was a much better fight. After that fight we realized we were both big contenders in the Brawler's guild when it was active, and he convinced me to join the Coalition.”

Upon the question of why someone would be interested in joining the Amberstaff Coalition, Captain Aacer spoke passionately about doing something bigger than yourself, “I think the thing that would attract people to the Coalition, would firstly be the attraction of learning more about the magical world around us. Deeper than that though, it is the attraction of doing something bigger and better than yourself. We fight the Legion at its forefront, which for many martials is more than enough to wake up on the daily."

Keeper Moonblade added, “We give a shelter to those willing to study of the magickal arts. Even the controlled practice of demonology is allowed, if they have the proper licenses and such required to legally summon demons. We also provide a safe environment that we use to commence multiple studies and the sorts under the dome of Ambermill.”

The newest member Mr. Ironclad also voiced his enthusiasm of Amberstaff, “I'd say if ye want to fight the Legion it sure is better to do it with a good group of lads at yer back, hah! But nae, The Coalition's treated me well so far, and they've got a good goal.”

Loyalty and trust in the Archwizard was expressed best by Captain Aacer, “I have faith in the ability of Alranon to lead the Coalition into the forefront of situations and get all of us out. He pushes his hardest to care for everyone around him, and attend to every individual he encounters. That stress can take a toll on a man, and he handles it well."

Mr. Ironclad added his approval of the Arbitor and Amberstaff, “The archwizard certainly knows what he's doing and I think we can do a lot a' good work on the isles.”

“Amberstaff is a unit. We are a cooperation of individuals who seek something greater. We look out for one another, so don't be afraid to ask for help. We're all there for you.” Captain Aacer stated proudly.

Keeper Moonblade summed up Amberstaff as “We have a family-esque style of how we treat those in the Coalition, and we have an accepting community within.”

The Amberstaff Coalition is currently looking for more individuals to assist in their pursuit of knowledge of magic to protect and serve Azeroth. If you have interest in joining, seek out Keeper Moonblade or Captain Aacer for more information.

(OOC: Amberstaff is very accepting of all characters, as Helarsar states: “We accept basically everything, however, any character with any DnD alignment that ends with -evil is not allowed in the guild. I recruit about every other day in the mage district as well. For the magickals I recruit, I ask a series of OOC and IC questions to determine if that person is fit to join the guild.”  

Aacer adds, “Well of course we look for mages by the bushel! If you're even slightly interested in magic, waddle on over. As for classes, what Helasar said. Contacting us through whisper is really good! We have two criers who walk through the Mage District everyday proclaiming Amberstaff's name. So that is a really good RP starter. We'll get you set up with an IC interview with either myself if you're a martial, or a wizard if you're magical.

Some additional OOC considerations for joining into Amberstaff, Aacer encouraged newcomers to not be shy, “Having some level of lore knowledge is nice, but we have no issue at all with teaching them and informing them on the lore they need to build a really neat character!” You can expect, “A very loud welcome in guild chat (OOC chat), our discord information, and a waiting new bundle of friends.”)

Amberstaff Coalition is an association working within Azeroth to improve the lives of all citizens. The Archwizard Purdue had this to add, “My people are my family. They are the only thing that keeps me alive. Without them, I would have tossed myself off Dalaran years ago. I lead them because I need them as much as they need me. I give them guidance and share my knowledge, my home, my smile. My people are without equal. The best in all of Azeroth. Captain Aacer and Champion Blackwool can slay any foe. Wizards Helasar and Elias could crush any sorcerer. I unite them because I know under me we can become legends.”

(OOC Note: Once again thank you to Helarsar, Aacer and Valoo for your time, the tour and the excellent RP interview! You let me figure out a few things about how this will work going forward so thank you for being my guinea pigs. Thank you @alranon-purdue for agreeing to letting me do this. I will be reaching out to more GMs in the coming weeks and months about being featured. Please bare with me as I’d like to keep this at a slower pace than the People of Azeroth column which we will be starting up again soon.)

[kiliarobus-blog]

Fiona Banner

Fiona Banner aka The Vanity Press (born 1966) is an English artist, who was shortlisted for the Turner Prize in 2002. In 2010, she produced new work for a Duveen Hall commission at Tate Britain. She is one of the Young British Artists.

Fiona Banner aka The Vanity Press was born in Merseyside, North West England. She studied at Kingston University and completed her MA at Goldsmiths College in 1993. The next year she held her first solo exhibition at City Racing.

In 1995, she was included in General Release: Young British Artists held at the XLVI Venice Biennale. She is one of the “key names”, along with Jake and Dinos Chapman, Gary Hume, Sam Taylor-Wood, Tacita Dean and Douglas Gordon, of the Young British Artists.

Her early work took the form of “wordscapes” or “still films"—blow-by-blow accounts written in her own words of feature films including Point Break (1991) and The Desert (1994). Her work took the form of solid single blocks of text, often the same shape and size as a cinema screen. In 1997, she founded The Vanity Press, through which she published her own works, such as the Nam, The Bastard Word and All The World’s Fighter Planes. The Nam (1997), is a 1,000-page book which describes the plots of six Vietnam films in their entirety: the films are Apocalypse Now, Born on the Fourth of July, The Deer Hunter, Full Metal Jacket, Hamburger Hill and Platoon. Since then she has published many works, some in the form of books, some sculptural, some performance based. In 2009 she issued herself an ISBN number and registered herself as a publication under her own name. Humour, conflict and language are at the core of her work.

Following her shows at the Neuer Aachener Kunstverein, and Dundee Contemporary Arts, Banner was nominated for the Turner Prize in 2002. The wall of her show in the Turner Prize exhibition at was dominated by a 6 x 4-metre advertising billboard, titled Arsewoman in Wonderland. The billboard presented a written description of a pornographic film. The Guardian asked, "It’s art. But is it porn?” calling in “Britain’s biggest porn star”, Ben Dover, to comment.The prize was won that year by Lancastrian artist Keith Tyson.

In 2010, she was selected to create the 10th Duveen Hall commission at Tate Britain for which she transformed and displayed two decommissioned Royal Air Force fighter jets. Other recent exhibitions include: Runway AW17, De Pont Museum, Tilburg, Netherlands (2017),Buoys Boys, De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill, UK (2016),Scroll Down And Keep Scrolling, Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, UK (2015) and Kunsthalle Nuremberg, Germany (2016), Wp Wp Wp, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Wakefield (2014).

Banner’s work includes sculpture, drawing and installation; text is the core of her oeuvre. She has also treated the idea of the classic, art-historical nude, observing a life model and transcribing the pose and form in a similar vein to her earlier transcription of films.

On 1 October 2010, in an open letter to the British government’s culture secretary Jeremy Hunt—co-signed by a further 27 previous Turner prize nominees, and 19 winners—Banner opposed any future cuts in public funding for the arts. In the letter the cosignatories described the arts in Britain as a “remarkable and fertile landscape of culture and creativity.”

Fiona Banner, Born 1966. Lives and works in London. 1986–9 Kingston Polytechnic 1992–3 Goldsmiths College of Art. She is fascinated by the near impossibility of containing action and time in a prescribed form. She is best known for making hand-written and printed texts 'wordscapes' or 'still films', that retell in her own words entire feature films or sequences of events[fn]Only the Lonely: Fiona Banner, Bridget Smith exh. cat. Frith Street Gallery, 1997, p.13[/fn]. These personal transcriptions, which began in 1994 with the film Top Gun, also highlight the way in which actual or imagined events are fictionalised and mythologised. In a recent body of work based on Vietnam war films, Banner has deliberately posed questions about the fictionalisation of historical events.In 1997 she published THE NAM 1997, a one thousand-page book comprising her own frame by frame descriptions in continuous text of the Vietnam war movies Apocalypse Now, Born on the Fourth of July, The Deer Hunter, Full Metal Jacket, Hamburger Hill and Platoon. Her texts, representing eleven unbroken hours of harrowing film, hint at the excessive nature of imagery in our culture. When Banner asked a friend to read THE NAM he concluded that in its entirety it was 'unreadable'. This prompted Banner to makeTrance, a twenty-hour, twenty-two cassette unabridged reading of the book in which the action movies unfold in an hypnotic stream of words.The format of Banner's work is always carefully considered in relation to its content. For example, The desert 1994/95, Banner's retelling of David Lean's epic film Lawrence of Arabia, suggests the panoramic scale of a cinema screen, as well as the vast horizontal expanse of the desert.You gota lot of nerve 1998 is inspired by Bob Dylan's classic song Positively 4th Street. With their accusatory use of the word 'you' Dylan's lyrics seem designed to address specific individuals on a widespread scale. The monumental scale of Banner's canvas, and the proximity of its confrontational words to the viewer, suggests that the 'you' in her text is directed personally to each visitor. Banner's rendering of the acrimonious words are incised into the canvas.[fn]Banner's text begins, for example, with the lines:You gota lot of nerve to say you are my friend, you just wanna be on the side that's winning. You gota lot of nerve to say you got a helping hand to lend, when I was down you just stood there grinning'.[/fn] Ironically this leaves the canvas fragile and vulnerable – the biting words, which bear down on the viewer, are strangely hollow, existing only as negatives or shadows. In this way the artist alludes to what she perceives as the constant power struggle between words and their meaning. Banner is also interested in such seminal and iconic figures as Dylan, who never seem comfortable with celebrity and fail to live up to their own mythic image.In a series of works based on the genre of the car chase, Banner succeeds in giving visual and literary form to a genre virtually found only in films. The most recent work in this series, Break Point, is based on the chase scene in Kathryn Bigelow's cult film Point Break (1991). The slogan featured in the advertisement for the film was, perhaps accurately in this case, '100% pure adrenalin'. Banner transforms and contains the nail-biting and seemingly endless chase into an arresting landscape of words. As the distance between pursuer and pursued closes, the space between the letters and lines of text stencilled on to the canvas in hazard red correspondingly collapses, until the climax of the chase ends in a crash of words at the bottom of the canvas. But significantly, the chase does not reach completion - when the pursuer finally catches his human quarry, he lets him get away.[fn]Banner describes this moment as follows:He shouts something and it echoes across, the guy still running jumps at the wire fence, up there he's hanging off it. He turns round and his face is close and breathless, he wants him so badly. Can't shoot, staring the bullet right out, he stares through the crack in his face. He's still down there clutching the gun, he falls onto his back, holding the gun like it's everything. He glances at the other guy high on the fence, then he stares straight up and the bullets volley into the sky.'[/fn]In 1997 Banner exhibited a neon work in the shape of a full stop, 'the smallest neon in the world'.[fn]op cit Only the Lonely[/fn] Following this she has made a group of enormously enlarged full stops carved in polystyrene. Although varying in size from about two to four and a half foot high they are all enlarged to scale from a variety of such fonts as Courier, Nuptial, Garamond, Blippo, Zapf Chancery, Century and Wing. They each have the same point size but the expanded scale reveals the curious anomalies latent within an apparently universal and uniform symbol.These sculptures evolved from a group of large-scale pencil drawings of full stops in which Banner attempted to investigate the supposed immateriality or insignificance of a full stop. Sanded down, the white polystyrene sculptures have an illusory surface, their distorted ovoid shapes humorously mimicking the perfect forms of the sculptures of Brancusi. Placed on the floor rather than on plinths, the full stops have to be negotiated as physical objects. The artist has referred to the floor as 'the bottom line'. In this sense visitors might be seen to function as letters mingling amongst the punctuation marks, giving meaning to the spaces between.The full stop represents an ending but also signifies a beginning, an in between or a gap. Like the polystyrene, which is used as a packing material or 'space-filler', the full stop is transient. The names of the fonts are displayed on accompanying packing boxes, providing a possible titling system for the sculptures. The boxes also reinforce the idea that the full stops are transportable and multilingual.A full stop denotes the end, and in this sense these works relate to Banner's enduring fascination with the framing or definition of a subject. They also draw attention to the intelligent yet playful investigation of various forms of mark-making, which underpins much of her work.Text written by Virginia Button. 

[vileart]

Perhaps Dramaturgy: Gabriela Muñoz @ Edfringe 2017

Gabriela Muñoz in association with Aurora Nova

Perhaps Perhaps Quizás

Assembly George Square Theatre, Omnitorium

2.10pm 5-28 August 2017 – (not 9, 14 & 21)

First press performance: TBC

UK Premiere 

Gabriela Muñoz is Perhaps Perhaps Quizás, a heart-wrenching, hilarious and strangely romantic piece of clowning and physical theatre.  

On a stage our Miss Havisham-esque heroine waits for her partner to arrive, to ride into her life on a white horse, and while she waits? She eats cake. Is tonight the night love will come? 

In a time where nothing seems to impress anyone anymore, the desire for real connection feels as elusive as it has ever been.  Gabriela Muñoz is renowned in the clown world for her facial expression and ability to tell a story with minimal movement and extraordinary awareness of the human condition.  In Perhaps Perhaps Quizás she has crafted Greta, a lonely woman who rehearses every week the arrival of the so-called ‘one’. 

Prior to bringing this show to the Fringe, Gabriela performed the show in Mexico City to promote the concept of contemporary circus in Mexico, as well as at the New York Clown Theatre Festival, and in countries including Brazil, Colombia, France, and New Zealand.

What was the inspiration for this performance?

I separated from my partner, and began to pay more attention to controlled relationships, romantic dynamics and the fragility with which we build connections. 

It occurred to me that all this came from our deep personal voids... There is something quite lonely and desperate there, but also hopeful. This duality, this teetering on a fine line, made me realize how comedic and tragic my story was - and that it wasn't only my story. Regardless of gender, creed or race, it is story that people relate to and empathize with - they connect to the character but also deeper with themselves. She is a mirror of who we are. 

Is performance still a good space for the public discussion of ideas? 

I think so. Although I think these days we are on a different quest. These days we want to start reconnecting with our feelings more than our ideas. I like to get myself away from the "idea" of  a performance and make it less an interpretation of an event or the representation of emotions but really speak from the only truth I know. 

Surprisingly, that has had a public effect so I guess it's still a good place to 'silently' discuss (hehe). It's an interesting time to offer people the effect theatre had back in the day, the realization of things, the rollercoaster of emotions, the slap in the face, the visual poetry. But, at the moment, because it´s the way we as society develop, we need to take bigger risks in order to accomplish

and produce that effect: the experience that could change you forever. 

I think the theatre is a space to truly inspire one another.

How did you become interested in making performance?

I needed to talk through a lot of things I think! 

I was lucky enough to find my best element of expression through performing arts. 

I enjoy, profoundly, the process of creating a new show, constructing a new story and putting every piece together in order to talk to more people regardless of their gender, nationality, religion. I focus on the common language we all speak: movement and gesture, which have unusual, beautiful dynamics.

Is there any particular approach to the making of the show?

I explore my sense of aesthetics and propose a very lively visual narrative that enhances what the character is experience. The duality of desperation and hope is expressed through the color scheme, the props... I try to create a sense of time stopping, and of decadence. The humor came after, a natural consequence. 

And I wanted to respect the lightness and softness created on stage with silent, still moments. It´s nice to see stillness, especially in clowning.

Does the show fit with your usual productions?

It does. I have moved from large scale productions to this very intimate format and I find both ways extremely satisfying, in different ways.

What do you hope that the audience will experience?

Exactly that, an experience. :)

What strategies did you consider towards shaping this audience experience?

I interact with people from the audience throughout the show but more than this being a 'strategy', I added this dimension because I wanted to play with someone else but couldn´t find what I was looking for with any other performer.

So, I decided to look for it in the audience ,from people who are genuinely going on that rollercoaster with me for the very first time, with a big and visible question mark on their face. The delicacy of that moment makes each performance completely new and unique, for both the audience and myself. It makes me be wholly present every time and offer that opportunity of silent complicity with a new guest each night.

Aurora Nova is back at the Festival Fringe with eighteen theatre works from around Europe and across the globe.  Circus from Belgium, clown from Mexico and physical theatre from Argentina alongside an entire season of Canadian work make up some of the wide ranging programme of trend-setting, innovative and wildly creative work.  

Aurora Nova has been in operation since 2001, first as an alternative venue at The Edinburgh Festival Fringe, now an award-winning programme of work ‘without walls’ which specialises in bringing physical theatre, contemporary circus and new theatrical formats to festivals and venues worldwide. 

Previews: 3-4 August: £9.00

Tickets: 5-28 August:  £10.00 / £11.00 - £11.00 / £12.00 

Box office enquiries: edfringe.com assemblyfestival.com 

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