#sephira actinus

[sparatus]

[cracks knuckles] questions from this ask game, giving you an excuse to infodump <3

for the madelivios (axilus, tollak, sephira, and aephis):

🤥 LYING - are they good liars? do they have tells to show they're lying?

💢 ANGER - what are some habits they have that will take some getting used to?

🍧 SHAVED ICE - do they still have any objects from their childhood? what significance does it have to them? what would their reaction be if they lost it?

🍃 FALLING LEAF - do they enjoy being in nature? what is their favourite outdoor activity?

📣 MEGAPHONE - how loud are they? what do they speak like? got a voice claim?

🪤 MOUSE TRAP - what will always lure them into certain danger? a loved one in danger? a promise of something they are always searching for?

❇️ SPARKLE - what is their most prized possession? what do they value?

☁️ CLOUD - a soft headcanon

💓 BEATING HEART - what gets their heart racing?

💚 GREEN HEART - what things make your oc feel comforted? hugs, kisses, food?

ily take your time <3

OH BOY

oc emoji asks

under a cut for obvious reasons

🤥 LYING - are they good liars? do they have tells to show they're lying?

axilus: doesn't start out that way, sephira didn't teach her boys to be liars, but his time out in terminus teaches him to get real good at it. the only tell is a specific tilt of his mandibles and tip of his head, which people who aren't familiar with him brush off as standard turian body language.

tollak: not in the slightest. not only did sephira teach her boys honesty, he's also autistic and has a Bad Brain Time if he lies, and also he's literally a lawyer and relies on having a strong reputation for being honest and honorable. on the rare occasions he does lie, like for trying to keep a secret for a gift or whatever, he gets very visibly nervous and flustered.

aephis: depends on the lie. if it's small shit like "did you take out the trash", it rolls off the tongue quite easily, but bigger things he can't make eye contact and starts looking for escapes from the conversation.

sephira: this woman can spin a bald-faced lie to her superiors and not so much as twitch. she doesn't often, but being fairly stern and deadpan all the time goes a long way.

💢 ANGER - what are some habits they have that will take some getting used to?

axilus: bad terminus merc manners. puts his feet up on things, percussive maintenance, dumps his armor at the door and doesn't pick it up - part of why he can't go home is the whole AWOL from the cabals thing, part of it is that his mom will kill him if she sees the habits he's gotten into while living outside turian space.

tollak: talks to himself a lot, also clicks his talons together. it's just him stimming, mostly.

aephis: talks loudly, and very hands-on. cheerful back pats, side hugs, and so on. he'll respect it if you ask not to be touched, but boy, touch sure is a major part of talking to him. also, he kinda loves the sound of his own voice and will talk about whatever he wants forever if you let him.

sephira: comes off as very full of herself and standoffish, just based on how she talks and carries herself. doesn't like small talk and cuts it off quickly. (exception is aephis. he has a nice voice and she likes letting him ramble.)

🍧 SHAVED ICE - do they still have any objects from their childhood? what significance does it have to them? what would their reaction be if they lost it?

axilus: his mom has left his childhood room much the same as it was when he left, so he still has all his stuffed toys and action figures and posters and such. he took a few of them with him when he left for the citadel, mostly the ones he was most attached to, but he appreciates that he always has that space to go back to if he needs it.

tollak: he kept a few of his old blankets and stuffed toys and favorite books for comfort when he moved out. don't touch them.

aephis: some old carvings and things his grandparents (both sides! the shai 🤝 tiirtis: carving bones into figures and art pieces) made for him when he was young have survived into adulthood and live in places of honor in his bedroom.

sephira: most of her stuff is back at her parents' house, but she hung onto a raggedy toy shatha her dad made for her. he went to basic with her, she'd be inconsolable if she lost him.

🍃 FALLING LEAF - do they enjoy being in nature? what is their favourite outdoor activity?

axilus: he grew up visiting his grandparents in zouklos over the summer and occasionally taking trips north to tiirtias, and he associates it with good memories, so he enjoys nature well enough. he gains a better appreciation for it after spending years on end in space on ships and stations. he misses going on hikes with his marmat and marpat.

tollak: his other option that he was considering for his career was botany. boy likes plants.

aephis: ambivalent. he enjoys fresh air and leaving the city, but it's not a life-or-death matter to him. his family are from shaal (sandy desert) and tiirtias (north pole) and his parents made damn sure he got plenty of time in both, and then he married a zouklian and became an officer in spec ops, so he's not hurting for exposure to the natural world like his sons (pirate and embassy ambassador, respectively) are.

sephira: surprisingly, despite being a zouklian and the child of a botanist and an agricultural engineer, she actually prefers the city. her family home is pretty far out, and as much as she likes the environment, she likes the conveniences of the city more.

📣 MEGAPHONE - how loud are they? what do they speak like? got a voice claim?

axilus: sweet adhd baby is SO LOUD and struggles with not being that, he just gets SO EXCITED. he's a sweet boy, really, he speaks pretty casually and he tries to mind his manners like his mama taught him, he just has a problem with volume control sometimes.

tollak: in contrast to his little brother, he's pretty quiet and nervous. he uses big words a lot, he's a lawyer and later ambassador by trade, but he tries to go back and explain when he can.

aephis: this man has OPINIONS and you are GOING to hear about them. his tiirti mom says it's the shai in him, his shai dad says it's the tiirti, it is secretly both <3 he knows when to be quiet but he's a spec ops officer being loud and commanding is just kinda force of habit, especially with two large incredibly stubborn sons who love challenging him SO much <3

sephira: she seems quiet most of the time, but that's mostly just because she doesn't want to waste her breath on others. she can get pretty damn loud if she feels the need to, especially when her husband and sons start yelling back and forth. nobody is louder than sephira actinus when she needs the flat to be fucking quiet for 10 fucking minutes.

🪤 MOUSE TRAP - what will always lure them into certain danger? a loved one in danger? a promise of something they are always searching for?

axilus: his own need to prove himself and be as brave as he thinks everyone wants him to be <3 this is a plot point <3

tollak: he is a coward! and conveniently has a career where danger is highly unlikely!

aephis: loved ones, absolutely his loved ones, especially his wife and sons. he breaks the rules and risks his career and reputation to help axilus escape the cabals, you bet your ass he'd do anything to protect his family.

sephira: also loved ones. do not fuck with her boys.

❇️ SPARKLE - what is their most prized possession? what do they value?

axilus: when he was 5, his family went on a vacation to visit the citadel, and ax got separated from his parents. while he was panicking, a couple spectres were passing by and stopped to help the little crying child. baby ax was obsessed with spectres so this was like god himself coming down to hold his hand, especially because it was in fact saren and nihlus, two of the most prominent and thus coolest (especially nihlus, who was big and red like his dad and super nice in interviews but really cool in action footage and one of ax's favorites). nihlus gave him his helmet to carry to help him calm down and give him something else to focus on besides how scared he was while saren did a bit of roundabout texting to figure out where sephira and aephis were. once ax was reunited with his parents, nihlus told him he could keep the helmet, and also signed it for him. it's got a place of honor on his shelf back home, and his mom has promised to keep it safe for him. close runner-up is the autographed poster of saren on his wall, because spectre fanboy child. mom made a passing comment while he was fanboying over saren that she knew his big brother, and he begged her to get his autograph, and that was his birthday gift that year.

tollak: so in his apartment on the citadel, he has a bunch of indoor plants and an herb garden and such. and among those, he has a specific pot, not very big, just large enough for a single medium-size houseplant that lives on his dresser, that his marmat orian painted with him when he was small and she was teaching him how to take care of plants. for a while, it lived in zouklos with her and marpat, but when he was getting ready to move out of his parents' place in cipritine, she gave it to him so he could plant something in it and have that little piece of home with him somewhere so far away.

aephis: a few of his favorite action figures and figurines when he was a kid, the ones he played with the most and set up in places of honor on his shelves when he wasn't playing with them, got packed into his gear when he left for basic and traveled with him until he married his wife and got a flat in cipritine with her. they mostly still live on his shelves, but every so often he'd get to take them down and play with them with his sons. he still reminisces about those days fondly.

sephira: on her bookshelf, she has a book about the history of turian space travel, particularly the early days when they were just figuring out getting off the planet and the first rocket launches and such. it's worn and clearly been read and reread a thousand times over, and lovingly repaired just as many times. her parents got it for her one day after she came home from school excitedly yelling about what they'd talked about that day: the first successful manned spaceflight, they'd watched the ancient vid footage and everything, and it had filled baby sephira with such a sense of awe and wonder she'd pretty much decided what she wanted to do with her life that very day. trierceo and orian were happy to encourage her newfound passion, and that book is a symbol of that to her just as much as it's just a good, well-written history book.

☁️ CLOUD - a soft headcanon

axilus: at the end of the day, all the piracy and raiding and hoo-ra bullshit is fun, but his real passion is history. it's what he planned his life around doing, and it's what he always wants to return to. it takes some workarounds and loopholes, but after he's safe from the cabals, he gets set up with online schooling with u-tie and slowly works his way towards the degree. not being in the historical unit is a bit of a hindrance, since that would have been a great resource, but his family is happy to help out, and by the time he retires for good, he's putting the finishing touches on his doctorate, and takes a position teaching history with u-tie navialine in zouklos.

tollak: he meets his future wife, vitellea, in law school. he'd never really been interested in anybody before her, more interested in his studies, and generally considered himself ace. vitellea was in his study group, and they were fast friends. after several years together, he came to realize he was in love with her, and he was more demisexual than he'd thought. she buys him a terrarium for his desk after he asks her to marry him, because she remembered him mentioning years prior that he was sad he couldn't grow the tropical plants he'd grown up with in zouklos in his great-aunt's home in tiirtias, where he'd been staying for school. he still keeps it on his desk at work.

aephis: admittedly, he started pursuing sephira because of a bet with his friends. at the time, they were on the same ship (him with the army, her with the engineering crew), and she already had a reputation as cold and heartless but smoking hot, while aephis was a charmer who bragged about being able to get any partner he wanted, so his squaddies made a bet with him to win over the frigid hen in engineering who threw wrenches at people who bothered her. if he could, they'd give him all their best rations for a year, if he couldn't, vice versa. it was difficult, but the harder he had to try to get her attention, the more he found himself being genuinely interested - and genuinely excited when she gave him the time of day. by the time she finally agreed to go on a date with him, he'd forgotten all about the bet, and was just over the moon that she'd accepted. he's been stupid in love with her ever since. (he did share the good rations with her, because it was only fair.)

sephira: marriage and kids weren't really things she ever saw for herself. she always had her eyes on the prize, wanting success in her career and maybe some bird nobel prizes in her future. she had a few flings here and there, but nothing really stuck for good until aephis came along. she threw a wrench at him and everything, but he kept coming back around. nobody was more surprised than her when he actually managed to charm his way into her heart, but she still told herself he wouldn't last and to stick to her work. she didn't know what a goner she was until she found herself wondering what their kids would look like. he even promised to take the bulk of childrearing himself if she needed him to, so having little kids in the flat wouldn't mean putting everything she'd worked for on hold. years later, she admitted that she'd known about the bet he had with his friends about her, and just wanted to see what he'd do. he laughed and kissed her stupid about it.

💓 BEATING HEART - what gets their heart racing?

axilus: impending disaster, mostly. this is defined as "anything going slightly different from plan" and can encompass anything from life-threatening situations to calling his mom.

tollak: public speaking, his wife, his boss, answering emails, missed call from mom - this man is a ball of anxiety masquerading as a bird

aephis: the thrill of combat and going home to his hot wife with a cool story of how badass and extremely fuckable he was, he's a simple man

sephira: her big idiot husband coming home with a story of how badass and extremely fuckable he was on deployment, tragically, but also any news of her family being in danger, and that moment right as everything's coming together with her math to reach a conclusion she can already tell will be good.

💚 GREEN HEART - what things make your oc feel comforted? hugs, kisses, food?

axilus: food, preferably something warm to drink and a good meaty curry like his mom made. a hug from his mom or hearing her voice also works well, he's a mama's boy at heart, but in the absence of that he'll take zouklian takeout.

tollak: hug and cuddle that boy. smooth his crest. let him curl up in a ball and bring him a blanket and smooch the top of his head. his wife has the secret bonus option of lying on top of him, the pressure helps.

aephis: preening, please preen him he almost never does it himself and it calms him down so much. hugs and food also work very well

sephira: hugs, but only if you're legally allowed to touch her (sons, aephis, parents, friends she used to bang sometimes). otherwise, blanket, hot drink, shitty guilty pleasure vids and couch time. preferably with at least one aephis or babyboy present to lean on.

[lieutenantabrudas]

it’s mother’s day here in the u.s., so i did a bunch of busts of some turian mom ocs!!! i actually intended to do two more to make it a square 9, but there’s only a few minutes left in the day so i’m calling it good, lol

this is kinda a new style i’m trying and i think i want to keep using for doodles; i can get them done a lot faster if i don’t obsess over lineart and perfection, so i can put out more art than just one major piece whenever i work up the executive functioning to sit down and go through the whole process. i just sorta threw it together so i wouldn’t have to do full things and i kinda dig the results

in order, from left to right (you can also check captions for names):

Ciciteria Bellinaris, mafia wife and enforcer, mother of 1

Aediteia Epirian, award-winning reporter for Citadel NewsNet, wife of Cnclr. Sparatus and mother of his 3 children

Milotia Ezekian, Cabal officer, wife of Spectre agent Serlius Ezekian and mother of several children with him

Veniria Arterius, nurse, mother of Saren and Desolas Arterius, died when Saren was five

Sephira Actinus, astronautical engineer and project lead on the Tantalus drive core for the Normandy collaborative project, mother of 2

Gratoris Calposcus, scavenger boss on Korlus and chop shop owner, mother of 2

Fira Cassi, “mother, wife, wielder of The Boot of Discipline"

ciciteria (and her husband and daughter) belongs to @ardentzer0​, and fira and her lot belong to @space-marsupial​. the rest are all mine!!

[nonbinarysparatus]

49 for all ur ocs who have a specific most valued object?

im pretty sure there’s more than just these guys but this is off the top of my head

49. What is their most valued object? Are they sentimental? Is there something they have to take everywhere with them?

axilus has a doll his mom hand-made for him when he was two. she’s a very roughly asari-shaped doll (it was easiest for sephira to make) named jaera, and he can’t sleep without her. every now and then he makes trips home and asks his mom to repair a hole or rip in her cause he can’t sew and it isn’t the same asking anybody else.

xala has a sash and a ring his husband gave him as symbols of their marriage. he wears them everywhere, because he’s the biggest sap in the migrant fleet marines.

taeja found a full set of perfectly-preserved armor belonging to her 120x-great-grandfather, beelo gurji, the first-ever spectre, in the citadel archives while doing research for an unrelated mission. after personally verifying it to make sure it was authentic, she swapped out one of the pauldrons for the corresponding one from her own set. it’s more a good-luck charm than anything else, but she freaks out if she can’t find it. it’s some serious family history, plus the council would probably murder her if they found out she stole from the archives (she intends to return it if she ever retires, or at least leave a note in her will).

sephira has a small model of one particular turian ship she worked on. her sons bought it for her when they were little, because she was sad and they wanted to do something to make her smile. it sits at her desk at work for a while, but she moves it to her bedside table after both boys have left home.

chesk has an old, super-outdated motherboard that he keeps in a secret compartment of his toolbox. it was the original hardware holding his first ai. null has since moved on to new, better platforms and hardware, but chesk hangs onto it for sentimental reasons.

[sparatus]

okay lads just for fun. gonna try to do a pattern of drawing a canon character, then an oc, but i got a shitload of ocs and a lotta wips so, for funsies, let's do a poll

if you don't know the characters just pick based on vibes

[sparatus]

🖊🖊🖊🖊🖊 go ham bitch I’ll read in the morning

YEAHHHHHH BITCH

send me a 🖊and i’ll talk about my oc

ok babealicious 5 emojis 5 ocs here we go, lemme do some i don’t talk about as much

slappin this shit under a cut cause HOOOOO DO I TALK A LOT my sincerest apologies to anyone on mobile if it fucks up

1) aulsius aberlianus is a big, burly infiltrator with the 26th armiger legion, a friendly sort despite his sometimes abrasive personality. he was the result of a one-night stand between his mother and a visiting general, who believed his rank and modest celebrity status in the empire allowed him to do whatever he wanted, including sleeping with random women and skipping town before they could hold him accountable for any repercussions he may have left behind. after a long struggle, aulsius’s mother decided to keep the baby, and raise them to be a better person than their father out of spite.

when aulsius was about 7 or so, he learned the truth about his conception. he adored his mother, and already understood how much she fought to raise him properly as a single parent, so the idea that someone could do such a thing to her incensed him greatly. he became determined to be a better man than his father, and a better general on top of that. as an adult, he has started to develop similar vices to his father (drinking and sex, mostly, with the occasional splash of gambling), and is terrified of turning out just like him.

during his time with the 26th, he meets viridus caestero (belonging to @ardentzer0), a havoc soldier from another squad. though the two initially butt heads at every turn, some conspiring on behalf of their squadmates and a late-night breakthrough turns the tides, and the two bond over shared insecurities and hidden depths. they eventually end up married.

2) sephira actinus is an albino astronautical engineer focusing on drive core technology. notoriously surly, she has a notable soft spot for her husband, aephis madelivio, and their two sons, tollak and axilus. she has incredible skill with engineering, the top in her division, and is the turian lead for the normandy project, at least the team working on the new drive core.

she is very touchy about her albinism, as she has had an unfortunate number of encounters with turians whose interest in her was purely fetishistic; albino turians are considered exotic beauties due to their rarity and how their plates seem to collect and exude lunar light. as a result of this guardedness, her first meaningful relationship was with a fellow albino, desolas arterius, a lieutenant at the time. they split off after a couple of years on amicable terms, as they were being assigned to different places and wanted to keep their options open due to their youth. this turned out to be a good thing, as a few years later she met aephis, and fell head-over-heels for the lovable tank of a drake.

sephira also has a schizophrenia spectrum disorder, which is discovered in her late 60s. the diagnosis, while explaining quite a few things that had been worrying both her and her family, terrifies her, and she becomes dependent on regular contact with her loved ones and especially physical touch to assure herself of what’s real. her family and friends, for their part, are very understanding, and do as much as they can to ensure her comfort.

3) vaehirn adreon is a salarian priest from mannovai, and the second-in-command of the taumakai, aka the salarian mafia, under his sister irajii. though grouchy and snappish due mostly to his age, he has a kind heart, and does what he can to look out for others, particularly his young quarian assistant driss.

mannovai was built near a dormant volcano in order to harness the heat and geothermal energy, but what the salarians didn’t realize until it was too late was that the volcanic vents nearby were also leaking eezo into the water. as a result, the colony has the highest incidence rate of both biotics and eezo-induced birth defects of any salarian settlement, potentially of any non-asari species. adreon was both lucky and unlucky; though eezo exposure in the egg left him with incredibly powerful biotics, it also caused his pelvis to form improperly (among other, less immediately noticeable defects), leaving him with a stiff hip and a permanent limp. he also gets severe migraines, though he can at least counteract those with medication. to compensate for these, he has a service varren by the name of cuddles, a racer rescued from being put down when he was more interested in playing than racing.

4) hiae t’saeri is an ardat-yakshi in hiding. like morinth, she ran away from home shortly after being diagnosed with the condition, refusing to spend the rest of her life hidden away in a monastery. she has since gone through several false identities, ranging from a commando to a supermodel to a detective to a tattoo artist, faking her death and hiding for years before resurfacing with a new name, a new personality, and a new face each time somebody discovered her secret. 

she is a master actress, having put on a wide variety of false personalities and backstories to avoid detection. her personal favorite identity was cyatiana, a missing-persons detective for c-sec, a mask she wore for over a century. cyatiana was the closest to her true personality, and she enjoyed the work, so it was the face she was most comfortable in. she was actually very reluctant to run away when her partner at the time, a young venari pallin, started getting too close, so rather than fake her own death, she simply vanished, leaving open the possibility she might return to that life. part of her still pines for pallin, though she knows he has moved on and has his own family now, and she’s happy for him.

currently, she’s an infiltration expert on the mercenary ship eijalsen, having finally come clean about her true identity after deciding she could trust the crew not to call in the justicars. among the crew is the brilliant but scatter-brained quarian engineer dara’neeya, who hiae loves dearly, and who loves her in return, and isn’t bothered by the knowledge that melding would hurt very badly (hiae, thankfully, has a non-lethal version of the condition, unlike morinth, who is stated to have a particularly severe case). after the reaper war, they decide to settle on rannoch together, and raise a handful of children, all adopted.

5) tovik khesnakk is a batarian sentinel, another member of the eijalsen crew. formerly a high-ranking hegemony military officer, tovik left khar’shan with his brother matan to get away from his ex-wife. as fairly high-born batarians, the khesnakk had arranged a marriage for tovik to a woman from another high-caste family, with a specified length of time the marriage had to last and number of children to be produced. they, unfortunately for their families, despised each other. after an unpleasant number of years of forcing themselves to be civil for the kids’ sake, they divorced at the first opportunity, and tovik grabbed his brother and ran.

on omega, tovik found a lot of his worldview (drummed into him by the hegemony) challenged. being the sort to listen and think rather than charge into a fight, he decided to actually ruminate on the new perspectives being presented to him, and gradually came around to the idea that maybe the hegemony was wrong. like, a lot, about everything. eventually, he and matan found themselves falling in with the anti-hegemony resistance led by morvarn tarayn.

unfortunately for tovik, most strangers don’t bother to learn your backstory. shortly after the raid on mindoir, tovik and matan were hanging out in a bar when a human, very drunk and very angry about the news feeds, decided to pick a fight with the first batarian they saw, even though logically there was no way any batarian currently on omega could have been a part of the raid due to the distance. tovik had a shot glass smashed into his upper right eye, and the medical team was unable to save it. that eye is now a glassy white from scar tissue, and surrounded by jagged scars in his skin as well.

[sparatus]

4, 8, 11, 15, 30 for anyone you like

thanks!! i’m gonna do it for uhhh my girl sephira cause i love her very much and i miss working with her :(

ask me some oc questions

4.What type of discipline was your character subjected to at home? Strict? Lenient?

she was an only child, and had a lot of medical issues in infancy, so her parents were very doting. they did set a lot of rules, and were very strict about where the line was drawn, but she had a lot of freedom within those bounds.

8.How does your character feel about religion?

she generally rolls with the whole spirits thing, and she knows all the tales and observes most of the traditions. the concept of loved ones staying with her as spirits beyond the veil watching and waiting for her to join them is comforting to her, so that’s what she puts the most stock in.

11.How do they see themselves: as smart, as intelligent, uneducated?

honestly she sees herself as the smartest person in the room in most situations :/ which i mean when it’s a room full of people in her field it’s a fair assumption but

15.Did they graduate? High-School? College? Do they have a PHD? A GED?

i haven’t really thought abt how the turians would do college degrees but she’s top astronautical propulsion engineer in the turian engineering corp’s cipritine branch so that counts for something right

30.Are they holding on to something in the past? Can he or she forgive?

she lost a very good friend in the relay 314 incident, and she’s very bitter about it. she tries to be tolerant and accepting of other races, but she hates how pushy and entitled humans act. she has to work with them on the normandy project, and she’s willing to put up with them, but she makes it very clear that she’s the boss bitch in tec-cipritine and the visiting humans better stay in line.

[sparatus]

ಥoಥ for anyone you choose?

i swear i meant to answer this sooner but shit came up..... anyway thanks!!!! im gonna pick sephira cause i was thinkin abt her earlier, she’s a turian engineer

How are they like when they cry? Do they just stream tears nonstop? Does their nose get clogged to the point that it’s hard to breathe? Is it easy for them to speak when they are sobbing? Do they hiccup when they cry?

she tries to be stoic and cry silently, but if the trigger is bad enough, she has to retreat to somewhere private and completely break down. when it gets that bad, she sorta... screams. loud, gut-wrenching wails, those kinda inhales that sound like she’s screaming, just the worst kind of crying imaginable. it worries people, which is why she tries to keep it in until either nobody else is around or everyone else is asleep.

[sparatus]

Aediteia and Sephira for the world building?

thanks nihlus!!

aediteia

B A S I C S

full name: Aediteia Epirian

gender: crestless female turian

sexuality: pansexual

pronouns: she/her

O T H E R S

family: mother and father, one elder brother, two older sisters, various in-laws and nieces and nephews, 3 children, 5 grandchildren

birthplace: Tayseri Ward on the Citadel

job: senior reporter for Citadel NewsNet, eventually accepts an anchor position with Palaven Daily News when Ierian retires and they return to Palaven

phobias: abandonment, losing her loved ones (especially Ierian, given his position makes him a bigger target), bugs

guilty pleasures: staying in bed and cuddling all day, listening to space podcasts during work

M O R A L S

morality alignment?: neutral good

sins: pride, gluttony

virtues: charity, kindness, humility, patience

T H I S - O R - T H A T

introvert/extrovert: ambivert

organized/disorganized: organized

close minded/open-minded: open-minded

calm/anxious: anxious

disagreeable/agreeable: agreeable

cautious/reckless: cautious

patient/impatient: patient

outspoken/reserved: outspoken

leader/follower: follower

empathetic/unemphatic: empathetic

optimistic/pessimistic: optimistic

traditional/modern: modern

hard-working/lazy: hard-working

R E L A T I O N S H I P S

otp: HER AND IERIAN

ot3: no

brotp: also her and ierian she married her best friend (and also struggles to make friends in the first place poor dear)

notp: idk???

sephira

B A S I C S

full name: Sephira Actinus

gender: crestless female turian

sexuality: heteroflexible

pronouns: she/her

O T H E R S

family: mother and father, no siblings but a bunch of cousins, two sons, and i think like 8 grandkids (like half of them are adopted)

birthplace: Zouklos, a coastal nation on Palaven’s southernmost continent

job: astronautical engineer with the Turian Engineering Corps, specializing in drive core and mass effect technology

phobias: outliving her children, her mom gets more and more scatter-brained and forgetful with age and she sees how upsetting it is for everyone involved so she’s terrified that that’ll happen to her [it’s actually an undiagnosed cognitive disorder that just gets worse with age, but it’s still scary; doesn’t help that seph herself is somewhere on the schizophrenia spectrum]

guilty pleasures: junk food, taking “mental health days” off from work just so she can have a day to herself and/or with her husband

M O R A L S

morality alignment?: chaotic neutral

sins: wrath, pride

virtues: patience, diligence, charity

T H I S - O R - T H A T

introvert/extrovert: introvert

organized/disorganized: organized

close minded/open-minded: close-minded, but slowly grows more open-minded as her sons grow and start to challenge her

calm/anxious: anxious

disagreeable/agreeable: disagreeable

cautious/reckless: cautious

patient/impatient: impatient

outspoken/reserved: outspoken

leader/follower: leader

empathetic/unemphatic: empathetic

optimistic/pessimistic: pessimistic

traditional/modern: traditional

hard-working/lazy: hard-working

R E L A T I O N S H I P S

otp: her and aephis, also her and gahlan*

ot3: nah

brotp: her and desolas, she and valis also become buds after valis is hospitalized post-shanxi and des asks his friends in cipritine to visit her and keep her company while he’s off doing secret shit

notp: she had this one coworker who was really creepy to her during mandatory service to the point where she had to fake getting pregnant with aephis’s kid to make him leave her alone

*aephis dies after me1 helping to suppress the remaining geth threats, gahlan was an old friend who had a crush on her when they were younger but respectfully backed off when she fell for aephis and they get together during the war. in the no-reapers au, aephis lives, so i get one universe where each pairing is canon ;)

[sparatus]

@capt-biglou replied to your post: wraps talons neatly around steaming mug of tea...

My OC! Eliana. Engineer, officer and fencer from the Colony of Macedyn. BBQ master, brandy lover and chancla mom. She rules the house.! What about your OC? What does she do?

i love her!!! i love her very much!!!!!

sephira is an astronautical engineer from southern palaven, specializing in mass effect propulsion technology, and was the project lead on the turian end of designing the tantalus drive core for the original normandy!! she’s got two sons, and she’s kinda stern and strict with them cause they can get really rowdy, but she loves them and fusses over them and insists they call her at least twice a month after they move out because she worries a lot <3

what’s eliana’s family like? :0

[sparatus]

a guide to the sparatus family, by me, tumblr user sparatus

the url gives me authority

since i am Apparently now making a lot of sparatus content involving the extended family here is a quick-and-dirty guide to the whole big lot of them, both for y’all’s and my own reference. if for whatever reason you’d like to use any of these characters, please ask beforehand, as a lot of them are pretty near and dear to my heart so i will not be happy if somebody’s using them without talking to me about it.

this list is grouped by generation, with generation zero being ierian’s own age group (siblings, sibling-in-laws, and first cousins he’s close with) and working backwards and forwards from there; so, gen -1 is his parents, -2 is grandparents, +1 is his kids, +2 is grandkids. only the most relevant ones were included, because otherwise this gets real complicated real fast. the grandkids i mostly just think of as kids so that’s why i don’t list out careers or anything

ok here we go

the man himself: ierian sparatus, current representative to the citadel council for the turian empire. born 2107. lean, slightly shorter than average dark brown crested.

and his darling from whom he would never stray: aediteia “teia” epirian, senior reporter for citadel newsnet and wife of cnclr ierian sparatus. born 2106. small, slender, almost pixie-ish tawny crestless with a patch of muddy brown in the middle of her face.

generation 0 (siblings & cousins)

coracia sparatus: ierian’s older sister. ophthalmologist. born 2105. lean, average-height cloudy gray crestless.

amulitus sparatus (née acilion): coracia’s husband, ierian’s brother-in-law. fiction writer and language arts professor at the university of the turian interstellar empire’s acalin campus. born 2104. stocky, average-height dark gray crested.

galactian epirian: aediteia’s older brother, ierian’s brother-in-law. freelance wildlife photographer. born 2098. tall, lanky chestnut-brown crested.

culpitia “cole” isadros (née epirian): aediteia’s older sister, ierian’s sister-in-law. funeral director. born 2101. tall, thin dark gray crestless.

aephis madelivio: ierian’s first cousin. turian imperial army spec ops officer. born 2106. tall, muscular maroon crested.

sephira actinus: aephis’s wife, ierian’s cousin-in-law. astronautical engineer with a focus on mass effect propulsion drives with the turian engineering corps, and project lead for the tantalus drive core of the normandy project. born 2109. tall, lean albino crestless.

ziphian sparatus: ierian’s first cousin. fisher and current union boss. born 2108. average height, lean gray crested.

gabiceria “gabi” sylidros: ierian’s second cousin. dazduus herder and current owner of the sylidros family farm. born 2118. burly, slightly shorter than average dark brown crestless.

generation -1 (parents, aunts, uncles)

meana sparatus: ierian and coracia’s mother. general practitioner. born 2062. lean, small-ish silver crestless.

triadim sparatus (née duvilius): meana’s husband, ierian and coracia’s father. xenocriminal defense attorney. born 2061. tall, reedy mud-brown crested.

incuria epirian: aediteia’s mother, ierian’s mother-in-law. real estate agent. born 2059. very short, slender pale gold crestless. [extremely frosty relationship due to toxic behavior towards aediteia, with a restraining order against him, his wife, and the third sister merea.]

algidus epirian (née paptius): aediteia’s father, incuria’s husband, ierian’s father-in-law. high-ranking c-sec officer. born 2057. tall, stern-faced, thin copper crested. [extremely frosty relationship due to toxic behavior towards aediteia, with a restraining order against him, his wife, and the third sister merea.]

lisia sparatus: meana’s younger sister, ziphian’s mother, ierian and coracia’s aunt. skald. born 2065. slightly smaller than average, lean silver crestless.

corinn madelivio (née sparatus): meana’s younger sister, aephis’s mother, ierian and coracia’s aunt. cardiovascular surgeon. born 2070. slightly taller than average, lean reddish-brown crestless.

octyrus madelivio: corinn’s husband, aephis’s father, ierian and coracia’s uncle. turian imperial navy officer. born 2068. tall, burly mud-brown crested.

jaxiter sylidros: meana’s first cousin, gabiceria’s father, ierian’s first cousin once removed. dazduus herder. born 2066. average height, burly bronze crested. [raised so closely with his cousins they basically consider each other siblings, as is tiirti tradition; as such, is called “uncle” by his cousins’ children, including ierian.]

generation -2 (grandparents, etc)

virian sparatus: meana’s father, ierian’s maternal grandfather. neurologist. born 2030. tall, reedy dark brown crested.

calvetana sparatus (née sylidros): meana’s mother, ierian’s maternal grandmother. fisher and retired union boss. born 2030. tall, muscular cloudy gray crestless.

verritana sylidros: calvetana’s identical twin sister, ierian’s great-aunt. dazduus herder. born 2030. tall, muscular cloudy gray crestless.

barcidia sylidros (née maxirinus): verritana’s wife, ierian’s great-aunt. painter. born 2026, died 2166. slightly shorter than average, stocky dark copper crestless.

aemitia duvilius: triadim’s mother, ierian’s paternal grandmother. software developer. born 2025, died 2176. tall, lean bronze crestless.

galertius duvilius (née ignarion): triadim’s father, ierian’s paternal grandfather. xenocriminal defense attorney. born 2027, died 2182. tall, average-build silver crested.

generation +1 (children, niblings)

areus sparatus: ierian and teia’s oldest child. astronomer. born 2142. slender, slightly shorter than average (but an inch taller than his father) tawny crested; looks like a taller, crested version of his mother without the muddy patch.

sivia nazarinus: areus’s wife, ierian’s daughter-in-law. civic engineer. born 2143. tall, burly stormcloud-gray crestless.

verres sparatus: ierian and teia’s middle child. turian imperial army officer. born 2149. tall, buff cloudy gray crested.

torch octavian: verres’s wife, ierian’s daughter-in-law. belongs to @korblez, who you should ask for more information, because torch is precious and deserves all the love

calvetorin “cal” sparatus: ierian and teia’s youngest child. pediatrician. born 2152. tiny, pixie-like brown crestless; approximately the color of chocolate pudding, thus her wife calls her “puddin’.”

carinnia mutinion: cal’s wife, ierian’s daughter-in-law. trans lesbian. professional clawball player for the citadel widowers. born 2150. tall, lean-muscular gray crestless; roughly the color of a russian blue cat.

daxaeus sparatus: coracia’s only child, ierian’s nephew. epidemiologist. born 2147. tall, buff charcoal-gray crested.

recelius paetraka: daxaeus’s husband, ierian’s nephew-in-law. historian. born 2147. smaller end of average, reedy sooty-gray crested.

axilus madelivio: aephis’s son, ierian’s first cousin once removed. mercenary pilot, later historian and professor of turian anthropology at the university of the turian interstellar empire’s navialine campus. born 2149. very tall, burly maroon crested.

generation +2 (grandchildren, great-niblings)

casbius sparatus: areus’s son, ierian’s grandson. born 2176. tall-ish, reedy ruddy-brown crested. [very close with his grandfather, and wants to be a lawyer like him; becomes councilor eventually.]

kaevus sparatus: areus’s son, ierian’s grandson. born 2179. average-height, lean steel-gray crested.

eritus sparatus: areus’s son, ierian’s grandson. born 2183. tall, burly mud-brown crested.

jaxian sparatus: areus’s son, ierian’s grandson. born 2188. tall, burly gold crested.

avelias sparatus-paetraka: daxaeus’s daughter, ierian’s great-niece. born 2182. average height, burly steel-gray crestless.

coralian sparatus-paetraka: daxaeus’s son, ierian’s great-nephew. born 2187. average height, slender gold crested.

noviteia sparatus: cal’s daughter, ierian’s granddaughter. born 2184. short-ish, lean-muscular dark brown crestless; looks like a crestless version of ierian.

viteltiria sparatus: cal’s daughter, ierian’s granddaughter. born 2187. short, stocky bronze crestless. born completely blind.

arrusius sparatus: cal’s son, ierian’s grandson. born 2192. small, slender silver crested.

cantia “tia” octavian-sparatus: verres’s daughter, ierian’s granddaughter; ollie’s fraternal twin sister. born 2190. tiny, pixie-ish copper crestless.

aullio “ollie” octavian-sparatus: verres’s son, ierian’s grandson; tia’s fraternal twin brother. born 2190. tall, bulky gray crested.

[sparatus]

ok so Turian Moms who get busts for mother’s day

sephira actinus (axilus and tollak’s mom)

abrudas

veniria (saren and desolas’s mom)

aediteia (cnclr sparatus’s wife)

milotia (serlius’s wife, mom of baby caien)

plus sephira gets another pic with her sons

IDEALLY i would also like a 6th mom to do a bust of cause i can arrange 6 pics more neatly than 5 so like if anybody has any suggestions im all ears

[sparatus]

Relationships: 1,3,6,7 even though I know the answers

owo

oc relationship questions

(under a cut for length)

1. What OC has the biggest family? How do they get along?

uh

well

I MEAN,

i GUESS the goddamn fuckin. madelivio-sparatus-actinus-sylidros-et fucking cetera clan, since i just keep fucking developing more and more of its members into proper ocs instead of just placeholder names. guarantee it’d be a lot smaller if i hadn’t decided way back when many years ago to make axilus related to the councilor just cause their markings looked vaguely similar but whatever here we are i fucking guess

also it’s very important we all understand that family tree isn’t finished yet, there are a LOT more people in this huge-ass clan

3. What OC has a huge group of friends?

axilus. axilus has a special talent for befriending literally everyone he meets.

also his mother sephira has at least one friend and/or acquaintance on just about every planet or station so like,

niazmina seems to have a lot of friends but really her boyfriend just has a huge-ass family

6. What OC is the Mom Friend?

teia is the obvious answer but there’s also:

hiae t’saeri

thrajul “teezh” shad’derah

axilus madelivio, surprisingly

serlius ezekian

solihim arnnek

aerazl’xala

7. What OC really needs the Mom Friend around?

like all of the migrant fleet marines, most of the eijalsen crew, both of the other two shad’derah brothers, kethan, probably 90% of the sparatus-madelivio clan the madelivios are impulsive disasters and the sparatuses operate at speed nervous

[sparatus]

oc tag meme (again)

y’all re-tagged me 5 times i would kill for you. thisll fill one tag from @electric-space-possum

back at it again with the d20 this time it’s my big baby boy tollak

B A S I C S

full name: Tollak Madelivio

gender: male

sexuality: bi

pronouns: he/him

O T H E R S

family: Aephis Madelivio (father), Sephira Actinus (mother), Axilus Madelivio (younger brother), Octyrus and Corinn Madelivio (paternal grandparents), Trierceo and Orian Actinus (maternal grandparents), Malvea Adepnian (wife), Aelan Madelivio (daughter), Vopilius Madelivio (son)

birthplace: Cipritine, Palaven

job: politician; ambassador on the Citadel, later councilor after Councilor Sparatus retires

phobias: krogan, disappointing his mother

guilty pleasures: shitty horror vids, passing off paperwork on eager-to-please interns

hobbies: gardening, clawball

M O R A L S

morality alignment? Lawful Good

sins: Desire / Despair / Envy / Fear / Hunger / Pride / Rage / Sloth

virtues: Charity / Chastity / Diligence / Humility / Justice / Kindness / Patience 

T H I S - O R - T H A T

introvert/extrovert: introvert

organized/disorganized: organized

close minded/open-minded: sorta straddles the line between both, he’s trying really

disagreeable/agreeable: generally agreeable, he’s hates it when people get mad at him

cautious/reckless: cautious

patient/impatient: impatient

outspoken/reserved: reserved

leader/follower: leader

empathetic/unempathetic: empathetic

optimistic/pessimistic: pessimistic

traditional/modern: traditional

hard-working/lazy: hard-working

R E L A T I O N S H I P S

otp: tollak/malvea ofc

Acceptable ships: tollak/a peaceful life, tollak/love, tollak/happiness, tollak/mom hugs

ot3: tollak/love/happiness

brotp: tollak & axilus

notp: tollak/stress

taggin @electric-space-possum @autistic-council-spectre @drellvhen and @rawliverandcigarettes again cause i know y’all got lots of ocs and i thrive on hearin abt them, gimme gimme, kissy face

also if anyone else wants to go ahead

[sparatus]

oc details meme

another tag by @electric-space-possum​

the d20 is all-knowing..... last night it chose tollak today it gives me his brother truly a blessed die

B A S I C S

full name: Axilus Madelivio

gender: crested male

sexuality: bi

pronouns: he/him

O T H E R S

family: Aephis Madelivio (father), Sephira Actinus (mother), Tollak Madelivio (older brother), Thie’Haasn & Freiya Domitiana (mates), a small boatload of children both bio and adopted

birthplace: Cipritine, Palaven

job: pilot and co-captain of the pirate ship Eijalsen and associated merc crew; retires after the Reaper War to become a turian cultural history + anthropology professor on Palaven

phobias: losing his loved ones (whether through death or a fight that never gets resolved)

guilty pleasures: spectre paraphernalia, junk food

hobbies: turian romance novels, anthropology, hittin’ stuff

M O R A L S

morality alignment? True Neutral

sins: Desire / Despair / Envy / Fear / Hunger / Pride / Rage / Sloth

virtues: Charity / Chastity / Diligence / Humility / Justice / Kindness / Patience 

T H I S - O R - T H A T

introvert/extrovert: extrovert

organized/disorganized: disorganized

close minded/open-minded: open-minded, or at least he does his best, he was raised in the heart of the empire so there’s a lot of pro-imperial indoctrination he has to work through

disagreeable/agreeable: agreeable

cautious/reckless: cautious

patient/impatient: patient

outspoken/reserved: outspoken

leader/follower: follower

empathetic/unempathetic: empathetic

optimistic/pessimistic: optimistic

traditional/modern: modern

hard-working/lazy: lazy lazy lazy

R E L A T I O N S H I P S

otp: Axilus/Thie

Acceptable ships: Axilus/Freiya, Axilus/happiness, Axilus/a happy ending, Axilus/his family’s approval

ot3: Axilus/Thie/Freiya

brotp: axilus & tollak, axilus & raik

notp: ax thie & freiya as a love triangle instead of a happy healthy poly trio, ax/being disowned by his family

taggin @electric-space-possum again, also @rock-paperback-scissors and @ardentzer0 tell the class abt ur children bb (no pressure if u don’t wanna tho)

[sparatus]

As someone who seriously overthinks every aspect of everything they try to write and end up coming up with, how do you come up with names for your characters and places? Your many babes all seem to have lovely names, and you seem to have a good idea of what you want to name things and places, so... just curious. Thank you very much in advance!

honestly im just a master of The Art Of Bullshitting™

i try to just approach it with more of a “vibe” i want the name to give off, something that feels fitting but also sounds good, like ierian sounds very regal and elegant yet reserved to me, or tiberinius sounds Hardcore™. milotia is a snobby-sounding name for a snobby turian. millie has a douchebag ex-boyfriend named ogrixes, which is a harsh and grating name to my ear and was so picked because he’s a very unpleasant person. stuff like that. the shad’derah brothers were expies of the seekers from transformers, so i tried to find names in a generator that both had letters/sounds close to their originals [starscream -> tarvok, skywarp -> kaza, thundercracker “tc” -> thrajul “tee-zhee”] and “felt” like names fitting their personalities.

sometimes i work backwards, and just go through a name generator, pick out the ones that are acoustically pleasing to me, and then just sorta go “what kind of person would have this kind of name.” sephira and galeana are both imperious-sounding names, and so the characters grew into imperious and dominant women with soft sides for their families. vartus sounds very stereotypically turian, so he became a stickler for the rules with a sense of humor almost unrecognizable as such to humans (with, again, a soft spot for loved ones, because i’m a known sucker for that trope).

locations and things i tend to cheat a little on with the help of google translate and a skill for smashing words together, OR just stringing together sounds until it Sounds Right™, but even then i still end up basing it off a “vibe” i get from the word or name. i’d already come up with parnithak as a language and cuisine just by stringing together a few syllables until i had something suitably turian-sounding, but then i had to decide what kind of place it was, so i sorta felt along with how the word sounded to me and decided it sounded like the name of a more out-of-the-way yet still culturally relevant place.

basically i just sorta go through name generators or smash some sounds together to get something i like that sounds “right,” and try to come up with what it sounds like it would be the name of. or if i already have something in mind, i try to find a name in a generator that gives me a similar vibe. it’s all in how stuff sounds for me, not necessarily what it means.

EDIT: important note whenever i’m naming a person i always try to say the full name out loud to see if it actually sounds good!! that’s really important!! sometimes it’s almost painfully obvious when somebody just grabs the first result from a name generator and slaps it in, once found a fic where sparatus was named augos and it was..... Painful. augos sparatus. that doesn’t sound good. a lot of characters i find a nice name for and then spend ages trying to find a good surname that goes with the first name, and if i can’t then i find a new first name. how it sounds all together is very important. aediteia epirian, sephira actinus, tarvok shad’derah, gurji taeja, niazmina khulozai, they all sound good all together and that’s so important for reading them