#i swear i have actual lore about my oc but trying to translate thoughts into art is very hard sometimes :x

[crescentfool]

a silly little comic i drew in a one hour haze featuring @fwishfearme and i’s ocs! aka: what happens when you put fishing extraordinaire shirayuri fugetsu in the same scenario as my silly squid minatoast? (alt text/dialogue in image captions)

[konoa-t]

I wanna talk about Mort more!! :D

Kinda long, so putting this behind a cut

[TW: Violence, mental collapse, torment, profanities, loud sounds]

Ok so I took a screenshot from the document where I hold a synopsis of all my OCs current lore, and I’m gonna elaborate on all of these points cuz I thought it would be fun!! I’ll be addressing each point in this image (starting from the top-most one)

Ok so idk how this got started but for some reason Mort just loves pancakes. Like he can’t get enough of them. His favorite is blueberry pancakes, with classic buttermilk being a close second (Yes this is very important information).

I couldn’t decide on what military rank to give Mort, so I just made it unkown :o) On a mildly related note, I did think about making him the colony’s scientist :D

Mort doesn’t talk at all. Technically he is capable of speech, but his mind has been so broken that he has almost lost all motivation or ability to form coherent sentences. However, he has found a way around this. He uses sign language to communicate with others when he feels like talking. Occasionally he will have a translator with him (either Reuben, Ackley, or Cormick [another OC, I’ll reveal him at some point in the future]) to help those who do not understand sign language. He’ll also make grunting, growling, or snarling noises in response to certain things (caveman brain LMAO. Though he’s pretty smart so maybe just gremlin brain would be a better term).

Also to add on to the previous point: when mort is signing, he swears a lot. Example:

Opponent: If you don’t get over here and fight me…

Mort: 🤏✋🖐️✊ (Kiss my grape-colored ass.)

Ok so here I mentioned that he was tortured, but I never specified how, so I’ll go ahead n elaborate on that OvO;; so basically the dark essence creatures used their dark magic to try and corrupt him (believe it or not, they weren’t initially intending to hurt him; they just wanted to turn him over to their side). Mort’s body rejected the magic, which led to his body painfully distorting itself (hence why he has a face that looks like it’s literally melting off. This is also what led to his mind breaking).

Okay so this one is more of a reference, specifically to this audio (VOLUME WARNING). I once made a joke about Mort’s feral screaming sounding like the typical caveman scream and it was so funny to me that I decided to keep it. So, whenever he screams, it just kinda sounds like “RAAAAAAAAGHHHHH!!” (If I’m being honest, his snarls sound more threatening than his screams.)

Mort has a bad tendency of, well, being excessively violent. Like, DOOM Slayer levels of violence. Most people are terrified of him for this reason.

This is another thing that started off as an edgy joke but is kinda sorta canon now. He doesn’t always do this, but if he’s pissed off enough (or.. hungry… enough? Maybe??) he’ll literally just… take a bite out of his opponent. Like full on, edgelord Baraka main style, just… Nom. (Fun fact: Baraka was actually one of the inspirations for his design!)

Thankfully, Mort is pretty tolerant of people he doesn’t regard as threats. This includes established allies, animals, and children (even though he REALLY doesn’t like them). He won’t attack people who fall into those categories.

Even though the worst part of his life has passed, he still has to be tormented every day by dealing with the nonsense of his colleagues. They often get him involved in shenanigans, which he is always less then pleased to get dragged into.

…Yeah, Mort does NOT like kids. He can’t stand them. They’re very… screechy (ironic, coming from him) and he finds that annoying. He won’t harm them in any way, but sometimes he just gets the urge to punt them over a fence.

Mort has a horrible tendency to bite people on impulse. Anyone who makes sudden or violent movements towards him should expect to get some part of their body chomped off. Even Reuben has to be extremely careful when checking any injuries Mort gets. In order to prevent this habit, Mort agreed to having a metal plate placed in front of his mouth (its held in place with short screws). While this is mostly effective, it is not a failsafe, as Mort is still able to knock or break it off at will.

Yeah, Mort is very creature-pilled... He is violent and unpredictable. However, he is still able to be pacified and befriended. (And who doesn't wanna be friends with an absolute creature?)

Because of everything that’s happened to him, his mind is pretty much in shambles. He is still able to retain some of his sanity, though he mostly acts very feral o_O;;

This bullet point was mostly in regards to allies and such. If he doesn’t think you’re a threat, he’ll just kinda sit there and pay you no mind. If you wanna chat with him, you’ll have to initiate it. Otherwise he’ll just… stare at you. (NPC behavior indeed. He’s not a fully serious character if you couldn’t tell lmao)

While Mort will listen to direct commands, he often just does whatever he wants. If he wants to do something, then off he goes to do it. He still gets his work done though, so no one in his colony really complains.

Bonus: Mort's official ref image, provided for convenience :D

[archangelraphael]

Hello so I saw your recent post about the nephils. I was wondering if you could tell more about you oc. Thank you

Anon, this ask was sent to me april 2022 and I swear that I thought about answering it every day but last year was insane to me. I will answer it now tho [Just a little disclaimer that since this was once a spn insert you might find similarities, but i'm trying to differenciate it as much as possible.]

I don't usually form solid canon for my ocs, so I just go around testing different ideas on the same characters. There are a couple of things i maintened "canon" for them tho:

About the story:

The basic setting is that it would be settled somewhere in ancient/biblical times. In this scenario, most of the events mentioned in the old books would be consequences of the ongoing battle between Heaven and Hell. In the middle of the chaos, nephilim would be created by deserted angels in hope of creating powerful weapons to use in the conflict. There also nephilim created as a result of the love between an angel and a human, but even those angels were punished aswell.

Most nephilim ended up dying by the hands of the angels. Aurie and a couple of other ocs are part of the survivor group that manages to go some time unnoticed. I planned on making it 7 survivors as a reference to the 7 archangels. I do have their concepts, despite not having worked on them. the idea is that each one would be the child of one archangel, but i don't plan on being 100% faithful to the religious lore.

The idea is that it would be a found family kind of story but i haven't decided if i actually want them to be related as a real family, but it's almost certain that not.

After one huge loss in one of the battles, Heaven ends up finding out about the remaining nephilim, and decide to "accept" them in heaven as their soldiers, as a way to take advantage of their power. Except some of them are children of dead/rebelious angels and have to be apart, some in heaven, some in hell.

In this world I also made angels have certain "specialities" in a way that was compliant with the angel types we already know like ophanim, seraphim, archangels etc, but it's an extensive research to do so by know i have been classifying them as: Warriors/Guardians, Healer, Messengers and Reapers.

About Aurie:

After oficially joining heaven she would be placed in an interesting position. Her father, Gabriel, who was supposed to be heaven's chief messenger and most of his angels are now occupying positions as soldiers along Michael's army. Then, it becomes her responsibility to replace her father in this position when communicating to mankind. Because she is a little too good at the job and has a taste for fighting it later becomes her responsibility to gather information about the enemy.

I make all her powers and skills around this idea of being a nephilim of a messenger angel. Messengers angels, aside from communication, are also responsible for heaven's writting, archives and sigils, meaning that they would have control over the "spells" and knowledge that heaven create. It would be the idea that later when she is little older that she wouold create some powerful sigils, but i haven't developed that part yet since it is a whole system to think of ksdjsdk.

I imagine her being able to sing and integrating that into the sigils she creates.

About her name and design i base her off almost entirely of this "Golden aesthetic". I found her name a long long time ago on pinterest originally as "Auriella", which also has some translations related to gold, but over time I changed it to "Auriel" since i find it more angel like you know? I also try to base her on angel cliches.

I also have one part of her story that while defending the prophet she ends up getting hurt by holy fire and ends up with burning scars but i haven't tried drawing it yet since i don't know if i will keep it in the story.

I think the story can pass during all the phases of her life, but mostly when the nephilim are children/teenagers or sometimes young adults.

Her:

Thank you for asking! ^^

[hearse-song]

Quinn and Kate!

Hello I’m turning up to Projection Time very late indeed, but yes! Rambling ahead, because I can’t just list things, no, there has to be Paragraphs

Quinn

They got both my quietness (we’re both pretty happy going days at a time without talking at all) and my mildly cluttered speech patterns. I actually had a little difficulty figuring out what they’d talk like when I started writing their story which I need to get back on that rip so it was just like, screw it, they get to talk at least somewhat like me and no one can stop me.

And on the subject of dialogue, I also gave consciously gave them some of my swearing habits. Quinn doesn’t really swear all that much, but when they do it’s usually in Québécois French. Which like, the in-story reason is that while they’re not from Quebec they’ve spent a lot of time there and picked up a few things, but the actual writing reason is because I learned some Québécois French swears so I could swear in public without getting in trouble (basically because the frameworks for what counts as swearing in English and Québécois French are so far apart that even if I had to translate it wouldn’t register as profanity in English) and I really wanted to share the language fun with one of my OC’s and Quinn seemed about right.

Also! I’m counting this under projection Because. So, because I’m incapable of having a more-or-less immortal character without trying to work in at least some of my historical obsessions Somehow, the entire reason that Quinn was around for the Year Without A Summer is because it’s one of my history special interests (sorry, Quinn, but also not)

Kate

I actually gave her a big chunk of my music tastes!  We’re both Very Much about murder ballads, and mostly play/sing said murder ballads when we’re just vibing. You know, just chilling and singing about drowning someone and making a harp with their bones, as one does.

Appearance-wise, at least for her current appearance, she got both my height (short) and hair (blonde and looks like it’s maybe been brushed once at some point maybe). She also got my dark sense of humor, though granted I’m not sure if that’s projection or if it’s because “cheerful about horrible things” is something I look for in a whumper or both, both is good.     

And again, I’m counting under projection my being completely incapable of having a in this case actually immortal character without working in some historical special interests, and in her case I was able to work a few in. I already mentioned in a previous ask about her being a member of her universe’s equivalent of the Bender family, but I also Decided that she was her universe’s equivalent of the Cleveland Torso Murderer (warning for murder/dismemberment/various Serial Killer Things for that link), called the King’s Run Butcher in her universe, and was the inspiration for the Christie-Cleek legend (warning for murder and cannibalism of course for that link). Also, she wasn’t involved in any of the events surrounding my Eternal History Special Interest Alexander Pearce (warning for murder and cannibalism for that link also), but she was around in the right place at the right time to hear about All Of That as it was being reported on and she thought it was all hilarious, and at one point had a copy of a newspaper that reported on the events (though she lost it at some point during her Immortal Wanderings).  Basically I’m just *hands Kate a bunch of special interest Events* well, here you go

Well this ended up long. And I don’t know if this stayed in Projection Times or if it sort of drifted sideways into “lore that I’m not sure if I’ll be able to fit into any writings so Here It Is”. But also also, I’m basically just multiple special interests in a trench coat, so in my case what is projecting if not constantly finding ways to involve my characters in said special interests?

Anyway, thanks for the ask, it was fun!

[lavalampelfchild]

Random sea-faring in Thedas thoughts

You know how DAI gives us just a crap-ton of tavern songs?  Some of them fun, others of them annoying?  Well, where are my sea shanties?  That’s what I want to know.  You’ve got Isabela, who’s a ship captain (except she’s grounded with no ship throughout most of DA2…), then you’ve got Eleanor Cousland, who comes from a family of SEA-FARING PRIVATEERS, so where in heck are the sea shanties? 

Next OC I make is going to be a shantyman.

Haul on the Bowline?  Blow the Man Down?  Drunken Sailor?  Come on, people, let’s get some maritime culture going on here!  And yes, there is that shanty “Soldier and the Seawolf”, which is fine, but that can’t be it, and who the hell wrote it?  A bard?  Bards don’t write shanties… Shanties are work songs…. Was it a shantyman?  What kind of shanty is it?  Long drag?  Captstan?  Pumping?  (Yes, I am showing off just a bit; I wrote a paper on this in college, it’s super interesting, shut up!)  Different musical structures and tempos were used for different kinds of work that required different kinds of collective movements!  It was more than just call and response!  Whatever!  Just give me more shanties, please.  And more actual maritime culture…

Also, while we’re on the topic of sailing, a topic which I love, I read some diary entries written by a passenger on a transatlantic maritime journey, and she basically said that, in a storm, when she heard the sailors swearing, she knew they were fine, but when she heard the sailors praying, that was when she knew they were screwed.  And I loved that excerpt so darn much.  Someone please write a short fic with Isabela’s or Eleanor's old crew doing this. 

But (one more thing!) seriously, do you know how awesome it would be to get more in-depth with the maritime culture of sailors?  Historically, this was one of the most removed classes of people from land-dwellers (land-lubbers, as we often hear in films).  These were people who were seen as walking the line between life and death, making a living in the dangerous and untamable oceans and seas of the world, and for that reason, they were considered beyond the aid of religion, because religion just couldn’t reach that far.  The culture of sailors, who spent most of their time on the ocean, was remarkably separate from culture on land, and in some cases, having people of all different cultures working on the same ship led to developments of entirely new pidgin and slang and accents and habits.

Translate this to Thedas: you’d have a group of people who may not actually care about whether or not they were elves, humans, dwarves.  Hell, maybe a ship has even got a Qunari or two because they travel from Amaranthine to Seheron to trade, and they need someone who knows the language.  And that elf they got from the alienage is faster in the riggings than anyone else.  And that exiled surface dwarf knows all the best ways to preserve and cook the limited food rations they have to work with so that the sailors don’t get bacterial diseases from it.

These guys aren’t as beholden to the teachings of the Chantry either because the Chantry can’t and won’t follow them on their months long voyage to deliver furs from Gwaren to Kirkwall.  Maybe some of the newer sailors will be leery about working with people who are different from them, but you learn quickly when you’re on the open ocean not to be stingy about the guys/gals at your back, unless they’re just flat-out incompetent.  If anything, experienced sailors will most likely be leery of new sailors because they don’t know how well these greenhorns will be able to work with them. 

Anyhow, I think that’s enough rambling from me, but seriously, I want to see more sailor culture and maritime lore in Thedas.  Like those random NPCs at the docks in DA2?  The random sailors who are remarkably unimpressed with sassy Hawke?  More of them please.  More dockworkers and sailors who just don’t give a shit and get mouthy when people try to snark at them.

Also, you have to love all the everyday phrases we use that come from naval parlance and nautical terms:

Dead ahead

Toe the line

Batten down the hatches

By and large

Close quarters

Cut and run

Get underway

Know the ropes

Loose cannon

Taken aback

I could go on.  Challenge: go through all the writing you’ve done in recent days and pick out the times you’ve used any one of these phrases, or even try to look at your own language over the past few days.  I would bet that just about everyone I know has at least used the phrase “taken aback”.

http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/nautical-phrases.html