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apradonite · 2 months ago

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workplace christmas party

(surface lore under cut)

Back on the surface, Alexis Kane’s god-given name was Virginia Wulff – and instead of a lavish underwater penthouse, she lived in a dingy old studio in Jersey City. Going door-to-door and living paycheck-to-paycheck, her last place of employment was a location for a telephone production company, where she worked as one of their many smiling salesmen. It was as much of a road block as her other sales gigs were, but as the war came to an end and women were kicked out of the workforce in droves, there weren’t a whole lot of options. Selling overpriced rotaries to schmucks had to do.

Still, Wulff was always an ambitious woman, and even the jail cell of a dead-end job couldn't keep that locked in. She worked her ass off day and night, and eventually became one of the best salespeople in the company’s location. She won’t bring up the occasional tampered sales report or faking invoices with outside friends. It didn't matter how meager the achievement was in the grand scheme of things, just that she was the best at something for once.

McNamara worked in the office while Wulff was peddling in neighborhoods, so their interactions were minimal. Wulff knew her as more gentle and sweet compared to some of the others, but she never knew her much deeper than that. Never knew of any family, pets, or other friends she might’ve had. She saw her as a bit of a doormat then – hearing her regularly over-apologizing to customers that were obviously in the wrong – but she kept her mouth shut. McNamara didn’t have strong opinions on her either, but believed they had a generally cordial relationship. Unfortunately that was proven wrong in late 1947, when McNamara unexpectedly entered the office late at night while Kane was there “reworking” the numbers on another co-worker's report.

It was an accident; she didn’t mean to kill her. But she did mean to hit her over the head with a decorative vase during her panic.

She never checked her pulse. Not while she hauled the body and scraps of vase to her car, and not while she buried her in a shallow grave. Lying to the police was the easy part, but the Herculean task was managing the guilt months later. Admitting her murder wasn’t an option, but god knows she could only tell herself that she was just stepping on others to reach for the top so many times. She needed an out.

Her golden ticket was from accidentally eavesdropping on a couple of drunkards: An underwater utopia for people who want to escape from the economic and political perils of the surface. Somewhere a person could have a fresh start and others wouldn’t ask too many questions.

Wulff would’ve laughed at the idea in a normal situation. But a name change, a stolen recruitment letter, and a boat ride later, Alexis Kane left her baggage at the door to finally make a name for herself. Or did she?

#finally. the kanepost #i don't really think kane would have like. a lore heavy childhood but i DO imagine she grew up lower class with multiple siblings #and that kinda helped fuel her motivation of “making it big” despite not really knowing what she'd actually be doing in the future #so she's stuck with dead-end jobs and no real direction until she finally makes it to rapture #im thinking of putting this as part of my commissions page...which im making btw teehee #bioshock #bioshock oc #alexis kane #helen mcnamara #oc #original character #digital art #artists on tumblr

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ruvviks · 6 days ago

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// oc deep dive.

tagged by; @aztarion and @devilbrakers, thank you so much!!

tagging; @mojaves, @deadrlngers, @ordinarymaine, @claudiawolf, @adelaidedrubman and YOU!

What common/uncommon fear do they have?

Nathan has a lot of fears stemming from his paranoia. Tangible ones such as getting captured or killed by MOBIUS, his friends walking away from him, or someone following him home; as well as more unrealistic ones, such as somehow ending up back in STEM, or getting stuck in a time loop, or a giant sinkhole all the way to the core of the earth opening up right at his feet.

It also happens often enough that certain actions don’t necessarily scare him, but make him uncomfortable or highly on edge (often with good reason); think of someone locking the door of the room he’s in– especially when it’s just them two– or getting too close without warning. He often fears people he gets too close to will end up treating him like the Administrator did, which is why it takes a while for him to let Sebastian get any closer physically, despite warming up to him relatively fast.

A more uncommon fear he has is waking up one morning and having lost one of his senses or his ability to speak. Aside from the mental erosion that had become a growing issue among Union citizens, MOBIUS observed a similar kind of process in its agents who regularly jumped in and out of STEM for general maintenance and the like– presumably caused by the constant changes in brain activity, which more than often led to exactly what Nathan’s fear mentioned above describes. While he was among the agents who worked both in and outside of STEM on the Union environment, he was lucky enough to never suffer the consequences.

Lastly, he is deadly afraid of Anima. Despite not having shown any other symptom of succumbing to the STEM domination process, Nathan would have started seeing her around sometime before Lily vanished– presumably got her attention after some of his escapades in the secret labs in the Marrow– and he has not been able to sleep soundly in STEM ever since. While his fear of her mostly acts up when he’s in a STEM environment, it definitely translates over to the real world as well; during bad mental health episodes he has auditory hallucinations of her, and she makes regular appearances in his nightmares too.

Do they have any pet peeves?

When people are too passive. Nathan can’t stand it when he’s expected to initiate everything, from conversations to taking action, both in a work context (scheduling meetings, deploying new code) as well as personal context (scheduling to hang out, doing household chores). He also doesn’t like having to constantly ask people to do what they’re supposed to do– though this irritation more than often extends a little too far, to things he is expecting of people but never told them about.

Loud and unexpected noises, especially when done on purpose. Fireworks would be a great example of this, and they piss Nathan off no end. He gets snippy when people raise their voice at him for no reason, or when they keep banging their fist on a surface to get others’ attention.

Getting cut off in traffic. Nathan’s road rage is easily awakened and he can get a little drastic with it. His reflexes are fast enough to brake on time to avoid ending up in someone’s trunk, but will in that same breath speed right back up to crash into them on purpose as revenge for pissing him off.

What are three items you can find in their bedroom?

A large ring binder full of old code snippets, notes from various projects he worked on back at MOBIUS, and all his research ranging from neuroscience all the way to electrical engineering. Nathan is a little old-school in that regard– he’d much rather have all his research physically with him than save it all to some online storage platform and risk losing it like that.

A jigsaw puzzle, made entirely out of different pieces that he’s collected over the years (stolen from others’ puzzles, found in various locations, stolen directly from the store, etc). The full piece would total up to nearly 2000 pieces, though it is still missing a large chunk in the center; the result is an abstract piece containing mostly darker colors, though with various bursts of color scattered around like flowers in a field. Nathan isn’t the artistic type, but the project keeps him busy and he considers it a type of self-expression.

The knife he killed his parents with when he was sixteen years old. He’s not entirely sure why he kept it all those years– perhaps to remind himself what got him to where he is now, or because it’s the only thing he still has from that time of his life. Either way, it’s kept safe in the top drawer of his nightstand, easy enough to reach in case someone breaks into his apartment.

What do they notice first in a person?

First: State of mind, overall mood. How approachable do they look; can he afford to lower his guard or does he need to tread with caution, can he get close without worrying about a knife to the stomach or should he keep his distance? Nathan rarely shows immediate interest in someone’s overall personality, he would rather want to know which of their emotions he’s gonna have to deal with during their interaction(s).

Second: Body language. Ties in with the first thing mentioned– cautiously watching for threats, waiting to see if they make a move to touch (or harm) him so he can step out of their range. But it also extends a little further; Nathan tends to mimic others’ body language in conversation to make himself appear more approachable. If someone gestures a lot, he will do the same.

Third: Their smile, if relevant. Smiling is an eye-catching action to him, since he’s not one to quickly do so himself. It’s attractive to him; if someone smiles at him, you’ll be able to catch him staring.

Fourth: Scars, and other (skin) details. Nathan isn’t one to ask about them, of course– but they’ll catch his attention anyway, for a brief moment, since some of them already tell a story on their own even without words.

Fifth: Nervous tics, if relevant. By this point he’s been in conversation long enough to pick up on the little details– a slight thrill or shakiness to their voice, a thumb running over the side of their index finger, a nose twitch. In some cases it eases his mind, knowing the other person isn’t confident in their conversation either; in other cases it sets off alarms in his mind, and makes him wonder if there’s more going on than what they’re showing or telling him.

On a scale of 1 to 10, how high is their pain tolerance?

Physically: 7. While he doesn’t quite look like it, Nathan can take a hit or two. Most of his injuries happen in STEM– though with the way the technology works, the pain is very much real, and in some cases the scars are lasting even in the real world despite the damage having been sustained in STEM. To an extent, Nathan even enjoys the pain; it’s grounding for him, and keeps him from dissociating. When it gets too much to handle he simply drinks it away.

Mentally: 10. Nathan’s life has been a constant downward spiral; sent to a youth detention center after being wrongfully accused of killing his younger sister, and he was bullied relentlessly there, which continued until long after his release both at school and at home. At MOBIUS, he was required to work shifts in their HQ as well as in the Marrow, in the Union STEM environment– he was required to be mentally strong, or he would have already started suffering from mental erosion by long-term STEM exposure after his first few trips in. It takes a lot to break him (or so he likes to believe).

Emotionally: 4. Once you get past all the barriers, Nathan is pretty sensitive. He doesn’t deal well with rejection or misunderstanding, and is prone to assuming things are all his fault the second something goes wrong. It’s easy to upset him, though he won’t easily show; but the damage often takes a while to repair.

Do they go into fight or flight mode when under pressure? (Or freeze or fawn?)

Fight, more than often; though it may appear as flight at first, since Nathan’s favored combat approach is stealth and he will always find cover before doing anything rash. In certain cases, however, he would be more likely to freeze; especially anything related to Anima or an enemy type like her, where fighting is out of the question, and he knows that a single wrong move can mean his demise.

It translates to non-combat situations too– often willing to talk to people but his initial response is to get defensive and close himself off, and if not given a moment to regain himself it can lead to either fighting or freezing; biting back with similar ferocity or shutting down altogether, unable to pick up his rational train of thought in the heat of the moment.

It really depends on the type of confrontation, though; taking his own state of mind and who else is involved into consideration. He’s known to fawn when a situation starts feeling a little too familiar– generally surrounding the abuse he suffered from partially his parents, but mostly the Administrator.

What animal represents them best?

Wolf; bordering on dog motif, but cautiously so, requiring infinite patience and understanding to win his trust. Nathan is loyal and guarding to those he cares about, but he values his freedom– his choices and decisions are his and his alone, and anyone who tries to take that away from him will suffer the necessary consequences.

How would a stranger likely describe them?

Curious, above anything else. Distant, reserved; surprisingly well-spoken, almost technical in his interactions with others as if the whole conversation is pre-programmed in his mind. Nathan isn’t necessarily cold towards others, but people would also not be quick to describe him as kind; though there is a certain warmth to the way he speaks and looks at people, despite the fact he very rarely smiles and isn’t one to quickly compliment someone else.

Appearance-wise, people tend to notice the white strands in his black hair first. They’re clustered at the front of his head, and match with the white hairs in his left eyebrow and the white eyelashes in the outer corner of his left eye. Nathan has very pale and rough skin, patchy but dark facial hair covering up most of his acne (/scarring); and part of the skin around his left eyebrow is lacking pigment, though it’s a little hard to see. He has very pale and bright blue eyes, which can be a little unnerving when staring at them for too long. Many people cannot maintain eye contact with him for very long.

Do they have any hobbies?

Nathan’s career is directly intertwined with his hobbies, and he enjoys working on code even long after cutting ties with MOBIUS. Software development, application optimization– his laptop runs on an operating system that he coded entirely himself, and whenever he has some time to spare he can be found tweaking and optimizing it and adding new features.

To no one’s surprise, he’s a gamer. Shooters, roguelikes, survival horror– he does not play all too often as his schedule often doesn’t allow for it, but he generally doesn’t have a hard time playing on higher difficulties and enjoys the challenge. Nathan has tried his hand at game design and development too, but stopped quickly when he found it too similar to developing the Union environment in STEM.

And last, surprisingly, would be writing. Journaling, some sort of attempt at poetry, or articles he would want to send in to some website or appropriate magazine but never does– a lot of Nathan’s writing is for his eyes alone, but it helps as an outlet, it keeps him grounded. For a while after leaving MOBIUS, he worked on writing tech manuals for various employers to earn some extra cash, which also ties directly into his interests.

#tag games #ask:nathan #using his full name in the banner to fill up all the empty space but it feels so funny like no one calls him that. no one calls him that #idk who's already done this i'm very out of the loop but hi =] until tumblr fixes itself my brain will only let me tag 5 people #in stuff like this so if you see this and i haven't tagged you. you are tagged now. i am tagging you in my mind palace #anyway hi =] i love nathan he is a little bit of a freak a little bit of a weirdo but that's part of his charm #possibly autistic but he's got a job so he doesn't really care about that right now #to me nathan is the same sort of oc flavor as vitali is but it's hard to explain. they both carry this energy around that makes them #fit very well in one specific environment if that makes sense?? vitali being a corpo boy nathan being lead STEM developer #and to then see them outside of that environment kind of makes them feel out of place in a very similar way as #how they themselves feel a little alienated from the rest of the world #taught to do what they do and when expected to function outside of that reality and mingle with the crowds #they don't really know what to do with themselves etc etc. does that make sense. i hope it does #either way. for nathan it really shows in how he struggles connecting with his friends and why he ends up #latching on to ruben so much once he allows him to move in with him. there's SO many parallels between them #and ruben is also a guy who grew up dedicating his life to one thing only and now he doesn't know what else there is for him #that's why they work so well together... both struggling to find purpose and connection. you know what i mean #ok i've said enough now but just know i could easily write an essay or two about this guy

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