#ira neda roshani

[solipseismic]

heads up seven up!

thank u @storyhole for the tag !!! rules r to post the last seven lines of whatever u wrote :) i’m putting seven from demon city and seven from bullSHIT (unnamed space opera ... something) because i haven’t done any of the tag games (that i should b doing) in a Long time jsdjfjjd 

from dc: 

“Yeah. Nick said you’re the best coach around.”

Well. That was nice. Ira tapped her knee again, a two-step staccato in uncertainty. “I give him Eggos. He’s biased.”

“You’re the only one our unrealistically high expectations somewhat match,” Esther said, mouth twisted into a sardonic half-smile, half-frown.

from bullSHIT:

“Right. My squad.” Blue ran a hand over his hair. The Commander had been staring at it for the past five minutes, something slightly awed and horrified brewing in his gaze. “Dyed it just last night,” Blue said cheerfully, catching the Commander’s gaze with an obnoxious wink. And it had taken him hours. “This way you’ll never have trouble finding me, yeah?”

tagging anyone who sees this and wants to do it!!! really. everyone :)) pls

[solipseismic]

i know i JUST did a first lines post for demon eyes but ira neda is so Quotable so here u go. there’s some slight gore / violence but it’s not too bad !!

“If you gave a Venus fly trap tofu, do you think it would get mad?” Skysteel punched a feathery bitch in the teeth and felt hollow bone give under her knuckles.

“I don’t think Venus fly traps have enough situational awareness to get mad,” Poltergeist grunted out, heaving in another ragged-sounding breath through bared teeth and drop-kicking an Avian into a crumbling brick wall.

“Yeah, but. Have you tried?”

“No, Skysteel. I’ve never tried to give a Venus fly trap tofu and gauged whether or not it was subsequently filled with rage. Somehow I’ve gone my entire adult life without giving in to the burning urge to do so.”

+

“You’re short, did you know?”

“Shut the hell up, Bargain Value haunted house prop lookin’ ass,” Skysteel snarled, taking an experimental swipe.

+

“Just – shit – gimme a second! Two seconds! There may have been some tactical error on my part – not my jugular, you bitch – ” Skysteel freed a hand and fumbled for a knife, kneeing the Avian in the kidney and slashing its throat from ear to ear. The other turned and fled through the rift and Skysteel rubbed the scratches on her throat, convulsively swallowing. “Closing it now. If you die I’m gonna laugh during your funeral.”

“And I’ll haunt your ass.”

“I’d haunt my ass too.”

“It’s not that good of an ass.”

“Point.”

+

“Remember when you benched me last week?” Geist asked, voice tinny through the comms.

“With glee,” Skysteel replied, vaulting over a fence and skulking through an unlit side street. 

“Remember when you almost died just yesterday?”

“With considerably less glee.” Unbidden, one of Skysteel’s hands rubbed at the side of her throat, remembering what it felt like to black out and wake up covered in grit and rubble, the desperation in Geist’s voice as he’d hugged her tight. She never wanted to hear that note in his voice again. “If this is you trying to bench me, that’s a vehement ‘no’ from my end. I’m fine.”

“Note the disbelief in my voice,” Geist replied, voice dry and flat. “Your heart stopped for a minute and seven seconds.”

+

“It’s not so bad.”

“From the way you’re holding the edge of the table for dear life, I’d call that a lie,” Ira replied, picking up a gauze pad and soaking it in rubbing alcohol. She was no surgeon, but she knew how to patch up wounds like this, even on a human. “Avian talons can hold all sorts of fun infections.”

“My alien friends are scarier than their alien friends,” Alan mumbled to his knees, hands still braced against the edge of the table.

hey I wanna know about your main character(s). Got any favorite lines of them?

[solipseismic]

i still have to write 7.5k by tonight pray for me lads but here, have an excerpt from chapter two 

Movement fluttered in Skysteel’s peripherals and she half-turned. Nothing but a grid of silver white moonlight highlighting the gravel of the rooftop. She turned in a slow circle, scanning the buildings around her. Windows winked at her; some black like the surface of a lake under the night sky, others like the glint of the sun reflecting off a mirror. No movement. The scales on the back of Skysteel’s neck felt like they were trying to crawl off her skin and she turned another circle, hands closing into fists.

Someone was on this rooftop with her.

“Skysteel.”

She nearly jumped off the roof and out of her skin; Geist materialized out of the shadow cast by a rooftop exhaust fan and Skysteel blew out a breath, shaking her head.

“God. Who should be the one wearing a bell, now?” Skysteel said, giving the man a baleful look. The slice of chin and mouth left exposed by his cowl was pale under the moonlight, washed out and faded.

“What?” Geist gave Skysteel a blank look.

“… nothing.” Skysteel rolled her shoulders, eyeing the man. He looked much better than he had last time Skysteel had seen him. Shoulders rolled back, the same cocky stride he had on the rooftops of Anehaven, away from the light and mess of the streets. There was no longer that rolling hitch in his step that denoted a set of broken ribs, no tilt of the chin that Geist had begun giving her; the man’s version of how are you? “Hey, how’s your cat doing?”

“Fine.” Geist stopped his pacing and turned to face Skysteel, the movement jerky and abrupt. Something fluttered at the edge of Skysteel’s vision again – a rag, a newspaper, someone’s hand – but she didn’t turn to look. “He – doesn’t have… a cat, does he?”

“The man’s allergic,” Skysteel replied, baring her teeth in a vicious grin. “But it was a good effort.”

“And he’s – so fit… too.” Decidedly Not Geist looked down at gauntleted hands, flexing his fingers and turning them over, staring like he’d never seen a set of hands before. “Shame. He could – do with… one. Always – so… tense.”

“Tell me about it.” Skysteel pointed two claw-tipped fingers down at Not Geist in a come-hither motion, still grinning. “I thought you were dead.”

Not Geist melted away, collapsing into a shuffling pile of rags and hole-filled scraps of… something. Skysteel didn’t like to think about it, and that was really saying something.

“What is – death but… change?”

Skysteel whirled, lashing out at the voice that had come from somewhere over her left shoulder – she came up on empty air and growled in frustration, teeth bared.

“I did – change. I have… changed quite a – bit.”

The staccato stop-start of Rag and Bone Man’s voice was tearing the last of Skysteel’s nerves to itty bitty shreds and she snarled, loud and guttural.

“Always so – quick to anger… I’ve never been – able to touch… you. I’ve – always… wondered what it would – be like.”

His voice was echoing from somewhere. Pinpoint the echo, find the location. Skysteel closed her eyes and turned in another tight, quick circle, feeling cornered. To the left. Take it back now, y’all, a small, hysterical part of her mind whispered. He had to be somewhere. He couldn’t step into another plane or dimension, not like her or Poltergeist. He could mimic Geist’s teleportation, but he couldn’t copy it entirely. Ergo, he was somewhere here. Somewhere near. A ventriloquist with a grudge. Skysteel had never thought she’d see the day. “Curious to have a taste of the impossible?”

“Not – a taste. A... touch. All I need – is one… touch.” Rag and Bone Man loomed up from the gravel under her very feet, pale hand outstretched. He was a nightmare to look at; festering, rotting flesh wrapped tight in fluttering ribbons of rags and plague victims’ bandages, stained with age and blood. Ivory teeth winked at Skysteel and empty sockets gaped like yawning mouths. Skysteel reeled back, knocking his hand away with the heel of her palm and jabbing two fingers into where his solar plexus should have been, except – “I don’t – have what… you’re looking for. Unfortunately. For you.”

[solipseismic]

love languages from your wip! thank you sm @ashen-crest for the tag !! i’ll be doing the main + auxiliary protagonists / antagonist for demon city, kind of in that order - 

ira neda - acts of service, physical touch. ira is an extremely action-oriented person and tends to be very kinetic, and she shows affection through physical touch or doing things for them - hands on shoulders, quick side hugs, high fives and fist bumps, tackling, punching, the whole nine yards

alan - giving: gifts, receiving: verbal affirmation. alan likes putting the thought and work into giving someone the perfect gift and he’s honestly like a magpie or really dedicated cat. he has a tendency to just ... hand things off to different people as a way of showing gratitude or affection, but he’s really not good at verbalizing it. that being said, the man absolutely melts for thoughtful compliments or observations

bane - verbal affection and quality time!! she’s very sparing with kind words and in return doesn’t get kind words from many people. plus she tends to express affection through aggression so when she’s saying something nice, you know she really means it

tagging @maximised ,  @thatfizzyyyy ,  @radiomacbeth ,  and @rhyaxxyn !!

[solipseismic]

!! + !!

Love you!

I LOVE U TOO CHARLES <3 mwhah thank u sm <3

oc introductions

ORRICK GRAVES - no.1 saddest and wettest patheticguy! necromancer from california featured in my first ever urban horror story. tall, scruffy, kinda pale, works full-time job as a hedge manager (lol) and part-time employed by the city as a necromancer (to heal or bring people back from the dead). wears a lot of silver (energy repository for necros) and is generally the most damp blanket around. guy bestfriends with retired mage IVER HAWTHORNE. likes pigeons.

EDEN VAN HARRIS - three years running voted most likely to bite someone unprovoked! egyptian half-alien come to america in her teens and adopted by IRA NEDA ROSHANI, also known as the vigilante EDEN (creativity only extends as far as acts of violence enacted upon others). able to manipulate gravity and friction, famous for once punching a man so hard she crushed his sternum. meanest asshole alive to everyone including her friends (it's equality!) but delights in being with people who bite back. belongs to my group of figure skater vigilantes (please don't ask, i don't know why i have so many of them either). tall, buff, dark skin and dark hair that's been dyed and bleached and dyed so many times it's given up its attempts to be curly, best nose in the world (focal point of her face) that's also been broken like three times, and like 50 face piercings

[solipseismic]

if ur ocs were tarot cards which would they be and why

sir shaw i am dipping u backwards and kissing u so so sweetly thank u SO much for this ask im ❣❣❣ i will restrain myself and do a moderate and conservative top ten ft. some of the guys im doing for artfight (honestly unbelievable that signing up for artfight means i actually have to draw my ocs ...)

1. hasseleh hezeri: nine of swords

hizi has been drawn as nine / ten of swords so it is her card :) she's not an overly tragic character but there's an underlying strain of grief and loss that kind of haunts her story. both cards are typically dark (color-wise) which fits both her faith / perspective on life and her clothing choices

2. adeth del: the high priestess

adeth is VERY devout and is regarded by everyone who knows her as a bit of the kahali equivalent of a priestess / prophetess. she's extremely intuitive and faithful, both in the religious and loyal sense

3. ira neda roshani: the tower

ira is queen of disaster and calamity, babey!! her entire life is just one shitshow after the other and she is an expert in new beginnings and constant flux. she's also seen by some as the reincarnation of an ancient deity + very reckless

4. kirand: queen of swords

sol's no.1 reluctant assassin character! queen of swords is a card of unbiased judgement, independence, and keeping emotion in check. kirand's formative development was very tumultuous, balanced out by the person they've now become--just, unyielding, and disciplined

5. formosa fuyue: seven of wands

formosa turned against his own people to aid in the revolution of kahal, which garnered him a shit ton of people who (yaaay!!) hate his guts! he has a very calm and reserved manner, but this hides a well of self-doubt and uncertainty

6. blue / sepehr fainn: three of swords

card of emotional resilience and recovery / healing! blue is stunningly one of my most mentally healthy characters and often plays impromptu therapist to those around him. he’s very centered and knows himself, in and out

7. koeia kurhah: judgment

koeia is the last spirit seer of kahal. also, during the threshing--what some call the part of the kahali revolution where most of the ruling class were executed--he killed his parents and two sisters (tl;dr kahali soldiers were previously oppressed by the ruling class, revolted, and revamped the government. dissenters--mostly members of the ruling class--were killed quickly and efficiently). card of big decisions, self-awareness, change, and absolution 

8. nix byrne: the moon

nix is a telepath--among other things--and very inwardly focused, prone to introspection and careful deliberation. she’s also very fearful and anxious, especially earlier in her arc. also, moon aesthetics are like. her Thing. 

9. eden van harris: five of cups

card of challenge and loss. eden is someone who keeps moving on no matter the cost and yet someone who has suffered heavy defeat at almost every turn. also, she holds grudges like a motherfucker 

10. malice: death

change and transformation! malice is a very transformative character. also, she kills things a lot 

also: art! 

[solipseismic]

!!!!!! whenever u choose to give me one or three or. more. oc me 🤲 ready to gain new blorbo in laws

kissing u sweetly on the lips thank u sm brieuc !!

oc ask game

IRA NEDA ROSHANI - the man the myth the legend the eternal star of my dreams (this year's nanowrimo project) aka sol's first blorbim. quasi-human alien (human part half farsi / half korean) retired figure skater and vigilante known as SKYSTEEL. also, the guy who started it all (figure skater vigilante trend). aggressively friendly and charismatic, able to teleport between worlds / dimensions / galaxies, and learn any mode of communication within a few minutes of exposure. likes long hikes on the mountain, experimental industrial post rock, and obstructing justice

ANROTHAN XIX - pronounced AWN ruh hawn (anɹʌhan) ynci-altan assassin-champion (essentially, everyone in her warband voted her "most likely to win any fight ever against anyone anywhere"). umber skin and black-brown eyes, skinny, long hair in lots of little braids kept coiled and pinned tight against her head, fingers tattooed with black rings. hates being made responsible for things (constantly asking to be demoted) despite being one of the highest-ranking individuals in the ynci-altan army, brusque but kind, hates traveling

BLUE WILSON - cousin to ALAN WILSON (poltergeist), also known as the vigilante EIDOLON, and co-ceo of ThorneTech with alan. hair trigger temper, welsh accent that gets heavier when they're angry or tired, and probably just as buff as alan (no one has ever gotten close enough to check). tetchy about personal boundaries and space but very overtly affectionate with people they're familiar with (alan and ira). looks related to alan in the way that they both have the same features but wear them differently; tall, square shoulders and jaw, black curly hair, blue eyes, but where alan stands like the 🧍‍♂️ emoji at all times possible and has a face to match, blue has a tendency to fidget and is extremely expressive

[solipseismic]

Solipsism’s WIP Directory (and other things)

Fuck it bulletpoint writeblr intro and WIP list

- my name is sol and my pronouns are they / them and ze / hir!

- i mainly write urban / high fantasy and slipstream but other favorites are futuristic horror and bio- and cyberpunk. most of my works are new adult / adult 

- i’m korean-american and favorite tropes are enemies to lovers, found family, and bridging two worlds

- here is my carrd do with it what you will

- i love tag games (writing or otherwise) so always feel free to tag me in any or ask to be tagged! 

- i don’t often do follows or follow backs because various brain reasons. that being said, always always feel free to add me to any taglist you have, tag me in writing or art you’re proud of, or come interact! i love hearing about other people’s characters and projects :)

- post subject to updates and edits 

THE QUIET ⤐ Nix Byrne’s world is small. It is her planter box in the spring, when green shoots begin to show above black dirt; it is the rows and rows of old, faded sketchbooks lined up on the shelf by her bed; it is the pair of pointe shoes that don’t fit her anymore but used to belong to her older sister. She hasn’t seen or talked to Ruarc Wilson in almost five years, but here he is--windswept, exhausted, desperate. Kids with alien blood--like Nix, like Ruarc--are disappearing all across America. Is anything a choice if you already know the answer?

DEMON CITY ⤐ Ira Neda Roshani--the ex-vigilante known as SKYSTEEL--only wants to avenge her dead brother. Despite her best efforts, she’s pulled deeper and deeper into the mystery of the countless missing across Anehaven. Book one of APOTHEOSIS.

DEMON EYES ⤐ The world is ending. Fortunately, Skysteel is a problem solver. Unfortunately, four other people--the vigilantes SOLSTICE, EQUINOX, HUSH, and POLTERGEIST--think the same exact thing. A group of pissy, formerly-retired superheroes have to learn to work together before the veil between dimensions disappears entirely. Book two of APOTHEOSIS.

DEMON SPITE  ⤐ Skysteel has been described as many things, most of them uncomplimentary. When her bloody past is revealed to her friends and allies and her twin brother’s murderers start hunting her, she’s left with two options: fight or run. Book three of APOTHEOSIS. 

UNDER GODLESS EYES ⤐ Orrick Graves is a part-time necromancer working for the city. Normally it would be a cushy job, nothing too complicated, nothing too hard. Normally, though, there isn’t a serial arsonist dead set on turning the city to ash and embers.

SAINT ⤐ Neasa needs to stop a war. Step 1: travel to the enemy country. Step 2: try not to kill the enemy country’s General and High Councilor. Step 3: apologize for breaking his nose. In her defense, he’s got a very punch-able face. On the other side of the continent, Fell wakes with no memories of her past. All she knows is that she used to heal--and with a war looming on the horizon, Fell has to choose between recovering her memories or making new ones. 

[solipseismic]

no longer canon tag game!

thank u for the tag @vellichor-virgo !! 

there’s a LOT i’ve changed n overhauled lately across various projects but i think the most egregious things ...

- changed frostcliff to frostcant and dreamcatcher to dreammonger, foresight has a bf and his name is destiny

- neasa and liam are now t4t (neasa is bigender and liam is transmasc :)) and nixed fell’s storyline from arbiter entirely (which is funny because arbiter was originally supposed to be All About Fell) 

- liam was formerly a NERD (studied traditional omnan poetry) (almost became a well-to-do sciop) (still composes strict meter poetry in his free time) 

- ira and alan and blue are adhd / autism / adhd hostility solidarity, respectively

- ira doesn’t remember anything about her parents anymore and doesn’t really have Feelings for them one way or the other, except sometimes that she had gotten to know them. also, she hates nazari now. why, you ask? no idea. she also gets a dog! she takes him on run! previously ira had a cat that was actually a person that she just kind of hung out with and then it was her parents’ best friend who was turned into a cat (brain and all :( ) and then it was just a normal ass cat. now she feeds the feral cats that pop in and out the woods behind her house but now she Also Has a Dog

- ira works for nazari as a translator. they have a really weird relationship going on in which nazari antagonizes Ira Neda “Loose Cannon” Roshani and ira thinks violent and evil thoughts at nazari 

tagging anyone who sees this and wants to do it :)

[solipseismic]

scented candles tag!

thank u for the tag @kcsmall and @47crayons !! i’ll b doing this for the main characters of demon city; some of these are taken from the bath + body works website

ira neda roshani: nectarines or autumn apples! something crisp and tart

blue wilson: fresh linen (they like fresh + blue / white scents)

alan wilson: mahogany (something warm and woodsy / spicy)

nick king: limoncello / lemongrass (something citrusy) 

eden van harris: raspberry mimosa (bc why the fuck not)

noel ettin: vanilla / almond / honey (something bland and inoffensive)

tagging @ashen-crest ,  @drippingmoon ,  @bladeverbena ,  @sleepy-night-child ,  and anyone else who wants to do this!

[solipseismic]

who is your fav oc? i don't know any of them yet so i would appreciate like, a mild intro for the main ones w more details for your fav? :D

OUHH MADDIE I AM INDEBTED TO U ETERNALLY. i would literally kill a man for u. in a heartbeat.

i do in fact have just over 300 characters (last count put me at 301 but i Know i'm missing several). here's a rundown of the ones i tend to talk about the most :)

IRA NEDA ROSHANI - part-alien worldhopper. farsi woman, 5'1, vigilante known as SKYSTEEL based in anehaven. she is perhaps ... maybe my favorite bitch of all. i've had her for approximately 586 years and she's easily one of my most developed! she's a retired world champ figure skater (two-time olympic gold medalist!) who now coaches several kids (baby vigilantes!!) who are also part alien, part human (noel ettin, nick king, esther tristian, ian pierce, ashley ledder, eden van harris, katie song). on weekends she bullies alan wilson (fellow vigilante known as "POLTERGEIST") and occasionally saves the world for fun and profit. she's a performer thru and thru and is haunted by 1) her dead twin brother (adrian nemat) and 2) a Very Bad decision she made in the wake of his death. her and her friends (adrian and four others) made an album when they were very young (around 16) and adrian and ira planned to retire from the figure skating scene and go into making music full time at the age of 18 (and then adrian was murdered and the band broke up). ira can speak any language (part of her super funky alien magic!) but usually goes between farsi (the language of her mother) and english :)

NIX BYRNE - african-british cockney lady with albinism! she's the youngest of six (i think) and also part-alien; her powers are technically telepathy, but she's not very good at it, so most of her powers are little spells and wards! she's also Very tall (around 5'11) and has precognition which manifests in the form of visions, which she draws (she's very good). vigilante call sign "hex"

NICK KING - possessed by an eldritch demon! hispanic figure skater with elements of body horror no. 1 (i only have three but it's ... weird that it's happened three times). also known as the vigilante KING LUCK.

SEPEHR FAINN - preferred name BLUE (or, if you're Kahali like him, "Sek," which is "blue" in Kahali! ex-assassin, ex-revolutionary, ex-child soldier. he's more recent but uhhh *slaps roof of man* this bad boy can fit so much projection about my MASSIVE mommy issues. he's from my unnamed space opera and his signature weapon(s) is a pair of deer horn knives :) and he's called blue because he dyes his hair THEE most obnoxious fucking shade of blue (the same shade he used to paint his armor)

EDEN VAN HARRIS - egyptian figure skater!! she is very angry all the time. part alien. once punched a man so hard she broke three of his ribs. she can and will pick a fight with literally anyone. her one true love is fighting people twice her size and winning. her vigilante call sign is "eden," bc i never said she was creative and she has gravity and friction manipulation!

FORMOSA FUYUE - another recent Kahali character!! formosa has albinism (weird genetic thing that's specific to the people of Kahal; about 27% of the population has it) and he's immune to pretty much any poison, toxin, or venom that affects humans (via a Very fucked up childhood). he's also 6'5 and wields a cool energy-based sword (ofc nothing At All like a Lightsaber(tm)) like a rapier with knuckle knives or a dadao as his offhand :)

ADETH DEL - she is ... wait for it ... a recent Kahali. she's extremely devout and dual wields twin sickles named "diplomacy" and "subtlety" / a pair of brass knuckles named "discretion" and "tact" (she is very funny ik)

EQUINOX &&. SOLSTICE - gays! nox (noah harper) and sol (alec iakabos) are one of the Sol Patented Enemies to LoversTM duos i have and they are both superheroes first seen in demon eyes (book two of apotheosis,, demon city is book one!). noah was a scientist studying the conjunction between science and magic / religion (ie the stuff that was used to give sol and nox their powers) and him and alec are the results of a (very inhumane) ritual / experiment that was intended to turn noah and alec into living gods (or something adjacent) (it kinda worked)

ORRICK GRAVES - part-time necromancer. hedge fund manager. chain smoker (he's trying to quit)

[solipseismic]

*wraps myself up in blanket* tell me more about ira :)

ROSE I ADORE U !!! i am doing bullet point bc a lot of her backstory requires wider context but !!

- technically welsh / farsi !! both of her parents are part alien / part human but her mom's human part is farsi and her dad's human part is welsh, but her mom was more human (about 50-50) whereas her dad isn't, so it doesn't show much!

- was in a band called starrdom that she made with her friends! her and her brother were co-singers and songwriters, and the band name itself is a play on their surname--roshani--which means brightness / light / stars (or star-like). it broke up when adrian nemat died, but their first (and only) album was WILDLY successful

- farsi naming conventions are like. two first names and one surname, which is why ira's name is technically ira neda and adrian's is adrian nemat :)

- she and her brother were raised by three siblings, who were family friends and adopted ira + adrian when their parents died! erysidn, kirand, and yetaglin are the mcs of another trilogy that takes place 300 years (and on a different world) before the events of demon city!

- ira is pan and demiro

- while ira works as a figure skating coach, the brunt of her money making comes from working as a translator! half her kids are either estranged from their parents or not the kind of people who can pay for high-end figure skating (only rich or lucky people become famous figure skaters)

- the VERY first iteration of ira had the call sign "cheshire," named for her ability to blink in and out of places (which later turned to dimension- / worldhopping)

[solipseismic]

Perhaps a better ask would be, can you give me a run down of your story? Or universe? Where do these OCS fit in? Figure skaters and aliens, I'm intrigued??! Vigilantes? Tell me more!

right ok SO (u have enabled me i make no promises as to the coherency of any of this)

demon city: set in near-future on a parallel earth, where superheroes exist--they're just called "vigilantes," though, and the supervillain equivalents are just called "terrorists." similar set-up to most other superhero media; marvel / dc / vertigo / wildstorm comics, dreadnought (april daniels), hero (perry moore). the series title is Apotheosis, and there are (as far as i can tell) five books slated for it: demon city, demon eyes, demon spite, demon days, and demon heart. they revolve around ira neda roshani and her search for her twin brother's murderers and the various problems that come up while she does (anehaven being weird, alien invasions, etc)

universe: aliens exist and live on earth, which is kind of an open secret. different aliens can do different things but the most powerful are the dragich, who live in another dimension. you can have / get powers by having alien dna--skysteel, lord crimson, poltergeist--by having alien dna or other things implanted--psych, archangel--by just being Weird--johnny sharp, calamity--by learning the human flavor of magic (there are different kinds but the most prevalent are mages and necromancers)--orrick graves, azalea parrish, elias moore--science experiments--solstice and equinox--or other fun things (that i'm forgetting at the moment)

figure skaters + aliens: it's a Cultural ThingTM. ira picks eden, noel, and nick up in book 1 because she sees three teens in trouble, asks "is anyone gonna adopt these children" and doesn't wait for an answer. dragich have this informal mentorship thing that they do, where extended family or family friends will teach young dragich how to use their magic and help them find a suitable career path. typically, dragich of the same clan--so dragich who have the same kinds of magic--would be paired together. ira's clan is, uh ... all dead, though. she's the last one. so the figure skating is a guise for the fact that she's actually teaching them how to be Successful Vigilantes (which, on their respective homeworlds, is actually fairly normal**)

vigilantes: i'm gonna b honest, i made most of these characters + a lot of these concepts when i was like, 12, so it's just been me constantly adjusting and readjusting to make the concepts more three-dimensional as i've gotten older. 12-year-old me just thought superheroes were the coolest thing, and i used to figure skate (before the pandemic :( ) so i just ... combined the two lol.

** dragich culture is VERY uh ... aggressive. it doesn't have a standing military but in lieu of that, it's a societal norm for dragich to be raised as vicious warriors--or at the very least, being able to hold their own in a fight. they're an extremely sophisticated society (the oldest in existence!) and pretty widespread so while you wouldn't want to get into a fight with one, it's not like they're a widely-feared military power, either (this is intentional). i'd also like the ladies and gentlefucks of the jury to note that 12 year old me was fucking obsessed with dragons and the dragich are literally just lizards with wings and magic (relationships between dragich and humans are possible because hand wavey technology / magic and shapeshifting shenanigans). so. technically speaking. ira is raising her kids the way she'd been raised, because she has no way to do it properly (ie with other members of her clan)

kahal: the kahali space opera characters (sepehr fainn, formosa fuyue, adeth del) are technically in the same universe simply by virtue of everything i write belongs to the SCU (sol cinematic universe) but they're not in the same area / genre. like, whereas any books about vigilantes will be set in the same world as demon city and co., the space opera bullshit is set in a Different corner of the galaxy. kahal is what happens when i get angry about japanese imperialism and go "fuck it, space koreans with elements of chinese and japanese space colonialism." i spent like a month on kahal and made a stupid gay little language for it and everything and planned out not one but two (2) civil wars. absolutely ridiculous.

[solipseismic]

thank u for the tag @ashen-crest !! 

rules: pick one character from your wip, then attach one song that fits them (or their part in the journey) and tag someone else! it can be any character from your story, so there’s a possibility of having fun in re-tags!

WELL for demon city but more specifically for ira neda roshani, we have mister impossible. it’s mostly the “impossible” part - ira does things that are theoretically impossible, whether it be just by being a Good Friend and Mentor or by doing weird kind of cursed things with her magic. there’s also the “i’m the sun and the moon and the stars” and her magic / umm aesthetic ,, slash-design are just. Space and Galactic-based, if that makes sense? 

tagging @maximised ,  @thatfizzyyyy ,  and @storyhole !! 

[solipseismic]

hi i am curious please tell me about skysteel/ira and neasa 🥺👉👈

OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH THIS IS. the absolute best (worst?) question u could ever ask about me. ira neda is my entire life. she is,,,, very special to me. i mean neasa is also very neat BUT. ira neda .... u have just Unlocked So Many Things and i absolutely adore u for it. thank u so fuckin much. ira neda is one of my oldest characters and (arguably) my most developed + favorite and requires. a little bit of context from everything else i think and i'm very bad at explaining my characters in concise ways so um. have this word dump !!!! i'm gonna,,, i'm gonna make a separate post for neasa and. tag u in that one bc this is uh. this is gonna be Longe.

- SO ira neda roshani is, at the current moment, a part alien / part human vigilante based in Anehaven, New York (fictional city) and she has cool Cosmic Space and Dimensional Based Powers which is why 99% of her aesthetics are just Galaxy Shit

- trivia :  the human bit of her is Farsi, she’s 5′1 (as a human), pan and greyromantic / -sexual, she used to be in a very - very - short-lived band (lead singer / songwriter!), two-time Olympic champ (figure skater!), has The Chronic Sad (clinical depression), currently works as a figure skating coach (But Really She’s Also Coaching Mini Vigilantes)

- she’s impatient and reckless and not very grounded, with an effervescent personality that takes up a lot of Room, so to speak. ira’s just one of those glowy people you meet and they’re so charismatic and funny and outgoing that you just instantly fall in love with, you know?

- below the line is a shit ton of context. like a lot. there is so much. i had to stop myself from putting more because it’s not actually necessary. i’m so sorry.

- her specific Flavor(tm) of alien is Dragich, which - essentially - are dragons. space lizards. with magic. her Flavor(tm) of human is from Earth Variant 65, colloquially known as EV- / Eve-65, which is the EV that she occupies for the majority of her series

- so, Dragich, right??? weird ass old lizards. the general idea is that there are Other Dimensions and one of those is (sometimes) called the soul dimension which also may be the fourth dimension (but i would need to research a bit more to apply that theory). in the beginning there was nothing, and then there were Dragich. they’re simultaneously the oldest and most powerful beings in existence and the majority of the other worlds that know of their existence generally agree that they’re meddling shits but also super kinda useful meddling shits. they’re like deus ex machina if that was, like, an entire people because they’re so far advanced that their technology and thaumaturgy (tech / magic fusion) are like. mindblowingly complex and useful, right? the kicker is that they’re immortal. like age-wise. they CAN be killed through outside influences but as they age they just keep getting more powerful

- there are different FLAVORS of dragich. i think off the top of my head maybe ten to fifteen different Clans but every few years i shuffle thru them and delete / add a few as needed. different Clans have different kinds of magic but the younger you are, the more likely it is that you ALSO have pieces of OTHER Clans’ magic because u know. inter-Clan marriage and all (using marriage loosely here bc they don’t rly have the same concept of that whole,, thing). the older u are, the more “rigid” your magic is. Dragich actually have super cool nuanced names for the different Clans but then the Merni were like “bro that shit’s a whole mouthful” and named each clan a different compound word for what they could do, which is what made it into English

----- for instance, Rinascz is Holy Shit Fuck Dirt Old and while she has Holy Shit Fuck Powerful magic, she can literally only do ice magic (Iceheart), which is limited hydrokinesis and being able to leech energy / warmth out of things + her surroundings but she’s really, really good at it

----- and then on the other hand, we have Nixrhyis, who’s like. sixteen (in human years, during book three). she’s a Realitybent (telepaths) but she’s actually kind of awful at it. HOWEVER, she’s young enough that she has a kind of jack of all trades general magic, which enables her to make Hexes and Wards (offensive / defensive magic, respectively) to Do Things (but nixie is rly an extreme example, most dragich don’t have that brand of jack of all trades magic unless they specifically specialize in it)

---- Dragich have three names. it’s not like, three parts of a whole name (eg american / english names). it’s like. three different names. you have your informal / family name that’s pretty fluid, ur parents give u one but u can do whatever you want with it. then u have ur formal name, which is like the one that strangers call you (it’s generally considered polite to use the formal name if you don’t know the person very well) and then you have your clan name. so in order of appearance we have Ira Neda / Skysteel / Starcall, Rinascz / Frostcliff / Iceheart, Nixrhyis / Raindancer / Realitybent

- so now that we have THAT. ira neda is a Starcall. this means different things for different people because even within a clan, different people like to specialize in different things, but Starcall is like the explorer / diplomat Clan. they have two types of magic; superficial and unseen

----- superficial is like, easily seen and understandable - the ability to learn any language once you’ve listened to a few sentences of it, the ability to assimilate into / learn any culture once you’ve been exposed to it for an hour or two, generalized invulnerability and resistance to extremes (for flying! in space!!), big fuck-off wings, the ability to teleport and “Hop” between worlds / dimensions / universes

----- unseen is more subtle - the ability to influence different realities (somewhat, nothing wild), a wildly amazing ability to multitask (to keep track of everything), the ability to create artifacts (Things imbued w magic!) that enable dimension / universe-Hopping, general facilitation of magic shenanigans pertaining to space and dimensional shit, space warping (to be used! for flying! in space!)

----- the thing about unseen is that it’s (usually) subconscious. ira neda can’t influence the outcome of something, but she can - potentially - look into other mirror realities to look at the outcomes (she never does, she doesn’t fw other realities). it’s nigh-impossible to consciously do these things with the exception of creating artifacts, but THAT is a very specialized branch of magic you have to Work Hard at

- ira neda used to have a twin, adrian nemat, who died when they were both 18. essentially, there are people (organized into a whole group; worship the primordial concept of Chaos; nicknamed “The Forsaken” because like chaos as an ideal is chill but these people are NOT) who HATE starcalls because they can do some real shady shit with their magic (and they have in the past but not as a group, just Abuse of Power from Certain Individuals) but also because they’re super good for keeping the, like cosmic Balance. so when ira and adrian were like 5 or 6, the Forsaken were like “bro i’m tired of these mfs” and got rid of (almost) all of the starcalls, including ira / adrian’s mother, and killed their father (he wasn’t a starcall, rip to him tho)

----- right but ira and adrian survived and went on to be raised on earth as somewhat-humans by a family friend, Erysidn / Steelweaver / Soulsurge, hence the wildly successful skating careers (they did not use their magic to cheat, if ur wondering) bc partial Dragich have the superfun option of being able to SHAPESHIFT, so their “natural” form is a fusion of the two but they’re also able to be in various states between the two, including All The Way Dragich and All the Way [Insert Other Species]. at the ripe and tender age of 18, the twins were targeted by the Forsaken, who realized they’d not gotten All of the starcalls, and adrian nemat was killed

----- a small recess to explain that dragich twins are different from human twins in that they’re like. one person / two bodies. the prevailing theory is that they Share a Soul (not physical) but have Two Brains (yes physical), so twins’ magic is typically not quite TWICE as strong but. stronger. they’re a little less common than human twins tho

---- so naturally ira went insane (like, clinically) from the strain of her twin dying because most Dragich actually DON’T survive the death of a twin and has approx. three years of her life that she does not remember (spent in the dragich equivalent of in-patient care)

- i’m actually struggling w what i want to do w her character at this junction because. she has so Much because i haven’t,,, like realistically considered how she would work as an Actual Person so i’ve had to pare her down a bit bc some of the stuff i’ve tabled for her is. actually ridiculous. still kind of is (oops)

- so anyways once ira recovers from her Ordeal (around 21-22) she goes out with some friends because she’s... tired of living with the consequences of her past. they just kind of explore other universes and worlds together for several years, as u do. we have Neri and Rian (Linktae, shapeshifter-y shadow people), Etryn (Merni, humanoid ppl who use wood- and blood-based magic), and Danika / Tiyerte (another Dragich lady !!!!!). they have this lil group (found family) and they’re all incredibly close friends from Very Young Ages so adrian nemat’s death hit them all extremely hard (none as badly as ira tho)

- right so when they’re done with this (29?? 27 ish??? maybe??) ira goes back to her earth of origin because she has found out during her travels that the ppl who were responsible for adrian’s death are still alive !! so that’s why she becomes a vigilante in Anehaven, w the call sign “Skysteel”

[solipseismic]

hi sol! i have a question regarding the oc of your choice. what inspired them? was it a particular character in media, or just a general piece of fiction (including movies/tv)?

hey, thank u sm!! for this i think i'll pick eden van harris, she's been on the brain a lot lately :) so her power set (gravity and friction manipulation) is loosely inspired by edgedancers from brandon sanderson's stormlight archive! the only one he's shown so far (i think, i haven't read rhythm of war yet </3) is lift and i thought that the particular combination was really neat--it makes sense to put the two together when you think about it! while the mechanics are pretty different and the two characters are ... about as different as you can get, that's kind of where the idea for eden got started.

after that i just kind of let her hang around. she's a bit of me--i've always wanted to bleach my hair gold--and bits of what i think would be really fucking cool--i could never get another piercing (i can barely handle one), but eden has several and she's VERY tall and buff. she's a little also inspired by ira neda roshani, who's another one of my ocs. ira neda is farsi and eden is egyptian but the two of them grew up speaking a lot of different languages--partially because they're both part-alien, part-human, and partially just as a geographical bonus. they're also both very, very angry all the time but it manifests in different ways!