#souriya prakash-cooper

[practically-an-x-man]

Since I was just talking about this with a friend... here's the symbolism for my various OCs' names!

At least... here are the main OCs, though I usually apply symbolism to the antagonists, secondary characters, etc. as well (I can talk about them too, but that would make this post ridiculously long)

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Rachel "Rae" Ayla McKinney: the name Rae is used as a shortened nickname from Rachel, but on its own means "protector" - fitting, with her protective personality and ability to create impenetrable energy shields! Middle name was chosen from her grandmother's first name; the same grandmother that she inherited her mutation from. Surname was not chosen with intentional deeper meaning, just chosen for a Scottish surname. Hero name, Aegis, is a reference to Athena's mythological shield.

Robin Eleanor Cassidy: first name is both a traditionally Irish name and links back to the music- and sound-based themes within her story. Middle name is also Irish in origin, and can be seen as a variation on the name Leonore, as in the opera Fidelio. Surname wasn't chosen with deeper symbolic meaning, just to connect her to the X-Men's Cassidy family as a whole. Hero name, Aria, is a reference to her sound-based mutation and operatic background.

Madison Sarah Douglas: first name has multiple derived forms, one of which means "strength in battle", and was also chosen with nicknames in mind to symbolize the stages of her life: she goes by Maddie until she's 15, then leaves that behind once she runs to the wilderness and begins going only by her full name, then begins to adopt the nickname "Mads" as she grows comfortable with Alex. Middle name was chosen from a list of popular names for the time, intended to be simple and unassuming like Madison's parents (her mother especially) expected her to be. Surname is can be translated from Gaidhlig to mean "black stream", a symbol towards her aquatic-based mutation. Hero name, Lionfish, is a reference to the physical traits her mutation grants her, and in the earlier stages of her story can be seen as foreshadowing towards the venomous fins and more lionfish-like traits she will later develop.

Ophelia Jo Octavius: first name stems from the Shakespearean Ophelia, intended both to connect her to her literary-focused mother and to foreshadow the tragedy she will experience throughout her life (and at one point, foreshadows her multiversal variant that genuinely goes mad and later dies to her own actions). Middle name is also literary, stemming from Little Women; however, her middle name is only Jo, not the full Josephine, meant to symbolism Ophelia standing apart from expectations. Surname is not chosen with deeper meaning, just to tie her into the canon Octavius family, but the alliteration of her first and last name is meant to be "superhero-like" and further connect her to her father. Hero name, Argonaut, represents both Jason's mythological Argo and a species of pelagic octopus.

Giovanna "Gia" Isabelle Pantazis: First name, in both its full and shortened forms, translates to "God is gracious", symbolizing Gia's faith and feeling that her surviving HYDRA was an act of God's will. Middle name also holds faith-based translations to further this symbolism. Surname is derived from the Greek blessing "live forever!", representing how having her life force bound to her clover makes her effectively immortal (at least in certain ways).

Jasper Nightingale Wilson: First name was chosen from a list of modern gender-neutral names, mainly meant to be a fitting, likely choice for a name a genderfluid teen would choose for themself in the 2010s. Middle name was chosen to honor Florence Nightingale, Jasper's personal hero and the person that inspired them to go into nursing. Surname can be derived in some ways from "desire", but was also chosen for an ongoing joke with their partner about having "two first names". Derby name, Gemstone, is meant as a connection to the name Jasper. [note: I will not be analyzing the symbolism of their deadname, and I didn't choose extensive symbolism for their deadname even if there's some to potentially be found. The only thing I chose to line up is that they chose their former derby name to be derivative of their first name, the same way Gemstone is derived from Jasper]

Indigo: Uses no surname until marriage - first because she didn't know her family, later as an act of rebellion for how "loaded" her family surnames would be. She chose her first name herself, for the deep blue color of her eyes, because being a foundling on the dog-eat-dog world of Corellia meant nobody bothered to choose a proper name for her (prior to choosing her name, her guardians would just summon her with "girl!" or "hey, you!"). Name was also chosen with a nickname in mind, both to provide variety and as a symbol of familiarity as she moves through the story.

Prometheus: Name as a nightmare was Nyx (from the Greek god of night), or the Fear of the Dark, for them being a primal nightmare of the dark. Name as a dream keeps the Greek mythological roots, but represents them claiming fire for the sake of the human dreamers they choose to protect, as well as representing the day-by-day injury they undergo in order to protect those same dreamers. The transition from Nyx to Prometheus also represents them becoming closer to their human dreamers - beginning as a primordial god, ending as a human hero.

Eris: Given name from Themyscira was Adamantia, meaning "untameable" or "unbreakable". After their bloodlust and sense for conflict became clear to the people around them, those on Themyscira began referring to them as Eris - believing they were an embodiment of conflict itself, a reincarnation of the Greek god Eris (similar to the Ares story in Wonder Woman)

Nikoletta Bordeaux: First name means "victorious" and is drawn from the Greek Nike. Surname is a region in France, but has no other translated or derived meaning (especially considering that Nikoletta's family stem from Louisiana Cajun French, not traditional French, and the further linguistic separation there). Altogether, her name symbolizes "a victory that means nothing", indicating the various façades she implements while in Belle Reve - holding a position that only grants her power while within the prison, and her abilities themselves being used as a symbol for death while actually having no tangible danger.

Azalea Jordan "AJ" Campbell: First name is a flower, connecting her to her mother Violet as well as representing her career as an assassin in disguise: azaleas are beautiful flowers, but are toxic to humans and animals. Middle name, as well as her nickname, are intentionally gender-neutral, meant to symbolize her ongoing disguises and anonymity as an assassin (since the names apply to any gender, there are fewer visual assumptions that can be made about her). Surname translates to "crooked mouth", representing and foreshadowing the reveal of her facial scars.

Quinn: Any surname or former name for her have not been revealed or even decided, and I don't intend to choose any - that stage of her life has been left long in the past, and she's intentionally placed a distinction between that life and her current identity. The name Quinn has various meanings: it can be derived from "wise", "beautiful", or "chief", but was also chosen in-universe as a reference to Harley Quinn. Her rooftop name, Aces, furthers the association with Harley Quinn, decks/suits of cards, and luck/gambling.

Kestrel: Name and character design as a whole are pulled from an American kestrel - solitary animals save for their lifelong mating bonds, known to be adaptable to a variety of habitats and nesting conditions, and extremely effective hunters despite their small size. Former name, Deborah "Debbie" Browning, was merely meant as a mundane and human identity for them to have held before they revealed themself as a changeling.

Katherine Alessia Johnson: Name is largely derived from the NASA astronomer Katherine Johnson, known for contributing valuable research and computations to the moon landing (the moon symbolism also being tied back to the moonlight-powered Tablet of Khonsu). Middle name Alessia means "defender" or "truthful", notable elements of Katherine's character as well as her connection to Bastet, the Egyptian god of domestic protectiveness.

James "Jimmy" Aaron Luciano: As a whole, name was just chosen on a whim based on what sounded right, and wasn't intended with particular deeper meaning aside from being a period-accurate name for an Italian-American New Yorker in the 1910s. However, there is symbolism to be found in that both his former partner Robert and current love interest Lars choose to refer to him as James rather than his nickname.

Vivienne Siversdatter Andenæs: First name means "life", representing her being saved from death by her transformation into a siren - the name was also chosen to be a classically beautiful and feminine name, both for a siren's ethereal beauty and as a subversion towards Vivienne being nonbinary (at least, that it would be nonbinary by modern standards). Middle name is a family surname from Norwegian naming conventions, preserving her father's name. Surname has no listed translation or meaning, but is also Norwegian in origin.

Souriya "Spider" Prakash-Cooper: First name is Lao in origin and means "sun" to symbolize his explosive energy and social "brightness", and was chosen by his parents to honor his maternal grandfather. Surname is his parents hyphenated last names - his mother Adhira Prakash and his father Darius Cooper. Prakash also means "sunlight" to double that earlier symbolism; and while the surname Cooper originally derives from barrel-making, the name was chosen more for the juxtaposition between his father's family in America and his mother's family across India and Laos. His nickname Spider comes from friends at his speed-climbing gym, who gave him the nickname for his long limbs and fast, eclectic climbing strategy.

[practically-an-x-man]

One prompt I can send is "They heard that sound, and knew something was going wrong"

Thank you!! I think I'm gonna write something for Spider here, I need to start writing more of him :D

____ Dead Air

Word Count: 1.1k Content Warnings: some horror themes, but it's an A Quiet Place fic, so that shouldn't be a surprise

____

It wasn't the sound of the meteors falling that worried him.

It frightened him, sure, the same way a thunderstorm or tornado watch would frighten him. Animal fear, sudden danger, bright and immediate. There was a difference between fear and worry. The climber in him always knew that much. Falling was frightening. Thinking about where you would land was worrying. Worry could be rationalized, in some way or another. Fear was an instinct- immutable, unstoppable.

So the meteors frightened him. Watching great chunks of rock rip through the overcast New York skyline and crash into buildings all around him was scary, in the purest simplest sense.

Spider's first thought, like any other rational human being, was to find cover.

His second thought, perhaps less rational, was to reach for his tape recorder. There was an orchestra of devastating noise around him, and he wondered if someday it might be made into a film of its own. Directors went wild for found-footage recordings like that. It could be the most valuable sound in his arsenal, once the disaster itself had passed.

What truly worried him was what came after.

First there was the cacophony. Crunching metal, splintering wood, two-ton impact of rock against rock, shrieking people, blaring sirens, pounding footsteps. Symphony of Destruction became much more than a song on his metal playlist.

Then came stranger noises. Organic, animal sounds, but not from any animal he recognized. Even, dolphin-like clicks amidst prowling, carnivorous footsteps. It sparked random associations in his mind - alligators and their heavy reptilian movements, deep-sea sonar and its echolocation-chatter, chitinous insects' legs and subsonic cetacean rumbling and a thousand other things he couldn't begin to categorize.

It wasn't familiar. It wasn't Earthly. Thousands of tapes, a whole world categorized in sound, and Spider couldn't even begin to place a label to what he heard before him.

He heard that sound, and knew something was going wrong.

This was no ordinary disaster. This was no Katrina, no 9-11, no California wildfire. This was more than a news special and a page in the history books.

Souriya Prakash-Cooper heard those noises, tape recorder held tight in a white-knuckled grip, and he knew his life had met a permanent shift.

He racked his brain for a way to put those sounds in order, a way to label them, a way to make this strange new shape fit amongst the carefully-cultivated shelves that lined his brain. He came up empty.

And even once he peered out from behind the rubble and caught a look at what was producing such a sound, he still couldn't find the words to describe it.

It was indeed animal, though that was as far as he got before his imagination shattered. The creatures roved the buildings like harvestmen over an old garden wall- the same comparison that had earned Spider his nickname in the climbing gym, in fact. Something shivered within him, to see his own movements reflected in something so undeniably alien.

The beasts were four-limbed and gangly, covered in a thick greenish shell. Their heads were armored plates, void of any openings - until he caught a lucky glance and saw one open in flowerlike petals, a pink membrane fluttering inside. It looked like the inside of a speaker.

Or an ear.

The creature let out a fresh series of spent-magazine clicks, angling its head like a radar dish. Spider watched, terrified yet entranced, his hand sweaty around his tape recorder. The creature's open maw swiveled towards him, and he realized he'd fallen back into foley habits. He stood stock-still, knees slightly bent to keep himself grounded, breathing slowly and silently like he'd trained himself to do during those long studio hours.

The pink membrane twitched inside its dark shell. Silence suddenly seemed very, very important. He didn't even dare shut off his recording - the soft click of the button might as well have been the blast of a shotgun.

Something echoed in the alleyway off to his left. The beast's radar ear flashed towards it, and then those petals snapped shut and it went crashing down the street. Spider finally allowed himself to shut off the recording, his heart thundering in his chest.

Though he could hardly bear to look, he forced himself to turn and watch the monster's movements as it sprinted for its prey. It moved wildly, fast and focused and yet somehow blind. It scrabbled not around but over obstacles in its path, indiscriminate of the litter and rubble and crashed vehicles.

Cautiously, Spider lifted his tape recorder to his ear and played back the tape.

Click-click-click-click-click.

The clicks changed pitch and speed, very subtly, and he remembered watching the creature swivel that radar-dish of a head. He remembered that quivering pink membrane on the inside, delicate flesh amid that rock-hard exoskeleton, and then way the shell had snapped shut as soon as it had found its prey.

Spider remembered a trip he'd taken as a boy. His family had all flown down to Miami one summer, just for a week. He remembered the crust of salt on his skin as he splashed his sisters with seawater, or ducked below the surface to grab them by the ankles and startle them.

He remembered the chorus of strange ocean-noises down there under the water, clicks and pops and creaks from unseen sources. He thought some of them might have come from dolphins, but maybe that was just his mind romanticizing the memory. He wished he could record the noises he heard back then.

He rewound the tape and played it again. He almost had those noises now. Not quite, but... close.

Something fell into place.

It hunted by sound.

It couldn't smell him. It couldn't see him. It might have heard him, if he'd been careless enough to make a sound, but he hadn't.

Spider glanced down at his Chuck Taylors, bright red like his hair but with soft rubber soles. He had a pair of climbing shoes in his bag, even softer. Even quieter.

He looked at the buildings around him, torn and broken but rife with texture- with handholds, footholds, dynamic movement - and the creatures that scuttled over them with their too-long grasping limbs. He glanced at the tape recorder in his hand, the growing almanac of those unworldly, ethereal noises.

He thought of kinetic camouflage, auditory camouflage, a way to blend in not through sight but through sound and movement. He knew sound. He lived on sound. He could hear every echo before it happened, how to magnify and how to dampen and how to move quieter than a secret.

A plan began to fall together in his mind.

He could work with this.

[practically-an-x-man]

Souriya "Spider" Prakash-Cooper

(picrew is @potato-lord-but-not's Persona Creator, moodboard by @negative-speedforce, no faceclaim yet)

Full Name: Souriya Prakash-Cooper Pronouns: he/him (cisgender omnisexual man)

Nicknames: Spider (usual nickname), bandar (from his mom, slang term meaning "monkey" or a mischievous child) Pet Names: ??? (how do you have pet names when nobody's allowed to speak?)

Relevant Tags:��#oc spider, #souriya prakash-cooper

Birthday: June 20th, 1994 Age in Chapter One: 25 (about to be 26)

Universe/Fandom: A Quiet Place, specifically Day One

Physical Traits: 6'1", with the build of a speed climber (athletic, wiry but with muscle in his shoulders, quads, and especially forearms). He has particularly large hands and a long wingspan, traits that aided his success in climbing. Of Lao, Indian, and Black American descent, he has an oval-shaped face with heavily-lidded black eyes, a wide flat nose, thick but expressive eyebrows, and a crooked smile with moderately full lips. His hair is naturally a very dark brown and between a 3B and 3C hair type, though he frequently dyes it a bright cardinal-red. It is styled as an undercut, with the top reaching down to his shoulders, though he ties it into a bun or a tight braid when he climbs. He has earlobe piercings in both ears, along with an industrial in his right ear and a septum ring in his nose.

Character Traits: Highly observant and detail-oriented, good at pattern recognition, but also a confident social butterfly who thrives around others. He's charismatic and funny, if a little eccentric, and has no problem making himself look the fool for the sake of a laugh (or for his job). He's a problem-solver by nature and good at thinking outside-the-box, though tends to struggle when said problems fall outside his skill set.

Relationships: - Family: Adhira Nanette Prakash (mother), Darius Cooper (father), Devi and Manichan "Minnie" Prakash-Cooper (sisters) - Friends: A thriving network of friends within the film business pre-apocalypse, roommates Newt and Ginger, climbing buddies "Ghost" (Jaxon), "Dart" (Sophie), and "Sparky" (DJ); post-apocalypse finds allies in Sam, Eric, Marcus (OC), and Amina (OC) - Romantic Partner: Unsure (probably Eric but I haven't sorted out the details yet-)

Additional Information: - Was born in Seattle, but moved to Los Angeles as an adult to pursue a career in foley effects - At the time of AQP:DO, he was in New York for a television project - Also was a semiprofessional speed climber, and very briefly held a world record for a 15-meter prepared climb - Regularly carries around a handheld tape recorder, and uses it to record any interesting sounds he comes across - He also tries not to tape over sounds he's already recorded (unless he absolutely has to), and has whole crates of tapes collected and labelled in his home - He understands sound extremely well and is capable of moving near-silently when he tries - a combination of his impressive body control from climbing and his innate knowledge of sound from his foley career - Has recorded the sound of the Death Angels' echolocation-clicks and uses the sound to temporarily distract them when he needs a quick escape - ^ as a whole, he chooses to imitate the creatures' noises and movements rather than attempting to remain completely silent, which is a terrifying but often effective strategy - He is a sensation-seeker and often tries to experience as many different events as he can (demolition derbies, skydiving, rage rooms, live sports and concerts, etc.) - both to collect interesting sounds and simply to enjoy the experience - His nickname, Spider, was originally given to him at his climbing gym (for his long limbs and fast, eclectic climbing style), but he later began using it in his personal life as well - ^ However, he always had himself professionally credited by his full, given name, as a credit to his parents and a refusal to Anglicanize himself for film credits - First gained his interest in foley from Bollywood films and sci-fi/horror movies, since the sound design was intriguing to him

[practically-an-x-man]

Echoes and Mementos (Spider's introduction)

Summary: An introductory ficlet, post-Death Angels, about Spider and his life in a world without sound

Word Count: 1.9k

Tags: introduction, gen fic, non-romantic, OC focused, light angst

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Spider missed his tapes.

Granted, he wasn't entirely sure what he'd do with them if he had them. He couldn't play them anymore, not in this too-silent world filled with beasts that hunted by sound. It was too much of a risk.

But just seeing them, all lined up and organized in their boxes, having the collection in front of him, would be comforting to him. It was something normal, at least to him, and there was a shortage of normal in this new world.

He imagined looking them over, running his fingers along their smooth plastic cases, pulling one out just to peer at it. Or opening up his laptop - most tapes had multiple sounds recorded, and most a very random assortment, which made it impossible to truly organize everything perfectly with an analog system - and pulling up the spreadsheet he'd finally gotten finished days before he flew to New York, searching for a particular sound by label and finding it amidst the crates.

DoorSlamClick 4 - box C, row three, number seventeen or eighteen down the row. That was one of his favorites. He'd taped it while staying in an Airbnb for a film trip, and it was one of the most intensely satisfying sounds he'd ever had the pleasure of memorializing on film. It was a heavy oak door with an old-fashioned lock, and there was something about the solid fshh-thud-click that he thought would be perfect for an animated period-Medieval piece someday.

DogWhineTrill - box 2F, row one, the very first in line. He'd encountered that one while walking past a line of houses in residential Los Angeles - some small yappy dog straining against the chain-link fence that surrounded its house, making a strange warbling sound that seemed like it couldn't decide whether to be a growl or a whine. Spider wasn't sure what he'd end up using that one for, but it was a sound he didn't think he could replicate. And that was the point of his collection. The tapes were only pointless until someone needed a sound they couldn't produce in a studio.

StunGunSlowed - box 2B, row five, and the fifth one in line. The symmetry of that one made it easy to remember. Spider had gotten his hands on a stun gun in the studio one day, and had digitally slowed the sound until each individual click could be heard - intended for the echolocation of a massive, monstrous bat in a B-list Dracula spinoff he'd worked on. It was digitally saved on his computer, but he'd recorded the sound on tape too, just to be safe. And he swore up and down, that one would be downright perfect as monster-bait in this new world. If only it weren't on the other side of the country.

BrokenFaucetHiss - unboxed and uncategorized, a brand new sound still waiting to enter the collection. He'd found it the night before he left for New York: his kitchen faucet had gone faulty and spat water whenever he turned it on, accompanied by a fascinating staggered tch-ssss-TCH-ssssh. The pitch changed when he cranked the handle to different positions. He'd played around with it for a while, finally recorded something he was happy with, then vowed himself two things: that he'd one day use the sound for a snakelike alien language in a sci-fi piece, and that he'd get the faucet fixed the instant he got home from New York.

Neither of those really ended up coming true, in the end.

And now he was two and a half thousand miles away, his beloved tapes gathering dust in their mouldering cardboard boxes, and that broken faucet no longer mattered. The BrokenFaucetHiss tape still sat on his cluttered desktop, waiting endlessly to be placed with its brethren.

The thought saddened him more than he expected. Spider tried not to anthropomorphize his tapes, he knew they were just inanimate objects at the core of it all, but... each sound just had such personality, and it was hard just to see them as things when they were so close to his heart.

He wanted to return to his collection. If only to see it again. If only for that closure.

The world is different now, he thought, I can't play you anymore. I have to say goodbye. But thanks for all you've done for me.

It sounded a little saccharine, even in his own head. The tapes hadn't really given him his career- he wouldn't even have the tapes if it weren't for his fascination with sound, and that was what gave him his success. But they'd played a role in it, without question.

He couldn't count the number of times a director, or sometimes even another foley artist, had approached him utterly stumped for a sound. And each time, he'd done a little searching, pulled options from his records, and there was almost always something that worked out. And then that director spread the word, and he landed more jobs, and the collection grew, and the cycle repeated all over again.

Spider knew his collection made him distinct. Maybe distinct erred on the side of eccentric at times, or even downright weird at others, but the film world thrived on people who could bring something utterly unique to the table. Rick Baker had his Change-O-Heads. Matthew Mungle had his gelatin. Irmin Roberts had his dolly zoom.

And Souriya Prakash-Cooper had his tapes. A vast collection of sounds spanning everything from AppleCrunchBite to ZooTrolleyDing, and thousands more in between.

He owed his livelihood to his collection. Perhaps it had gotten out-of-hand after a while, boxes and boxes of random scraps of sound cluttering his apartment, but he couldn't bring himself to get rid of a single one. And he never taped over them - not unless he absolutely had to, and even then he tried to stick to sounds he stood a chance at recreating later.

Only about one in every hundred tapes ever ended up used, and even that was generous. But he could never guess which ones he might need in the future, and so he couldn't bring himself to get rid of a single one. According to his spreadsheet, the total tapes amounted nearly sixteen thousand, and he couldn't even count the amount of individual sounds that contained. He'd been building his collection for over fifteen years, and never went anywhere without his tape recorder. He thought eventually he'd have his own studio, his very own library of sound - millions of them.

And now... he had four. Four precious sound-filled tapes still tucked into his pockets, six more blank ones ready to record. He was saving those. He wasn't sure where he'd get more, now that the entire world had crumbled around him.

He had three full boxes of blank tapes back home. He bought them in bulk. He never knew when they might be discontinued, and he always used the same model of handheld tape recorder - what good was his collection if he couldn't access all the tapes? Backwards-compatability was a must.

But he didn't have those tapes. He had six blank ones and four that he'd already filled.

Needing to feel them in his hands, their blocky plastic, their comforting size, Spider dug them out of the deep pockets of his windbreaker.

Six blank ones. One, two, three, four, five, six, back into his pockets for later. He didn't want to damage them, especially when they were so beautifully new and fresh.

MonsterBait - that one wasn't technically in his hands. It was still in his tape recorder, rewound and ready to play at a moment's notice. Unlike many of his other tapes, it only contained a single sound: a full side, 15 minutes, of various snippets of the clicking sounds he'd recorded from the creatures. Collecting those sounds was the most terrifying thing he'd ever experienced, but it had paid its dues a dozen times over. The B-side was still in progress, intended as a collection of all the creatures' other, non-click noises. Most of those were rather gruesome.

BullSnort1-8/DoorCreak3/FootstepsGravelCrunch/CarDirtRoad/... - he'd grabbed that one largely at random, and it turned out to be a session from when a friend had dragged him out to his aunt's farm for a weekend. He was intending to use it as a demonstration of his collection when he got to the crew meeting. And then... that crew meeting had never happened, and the tape sat useless in his pocket.

ElevatorDing/IntercomSquawk/TrollyRumble/CrowdBabble12/... - he'd been working on that one on the way to New York: the airport, the flight, even the taxi back to the hotel. It was, he realized, the last sounds he had before the silent apocalypse. They were utterly mundane, commonplace sounds, just the average cacophony of the urban crowd - even then, he doubted he'd ever end up using them, they were such easy sounds to replicate - but now it felt like the last little bubble of humanity left in the world.

He still had room on that tape, but couldn't bear to fill it. He couldn't mix pre-apocalypse and post-apocalypse. That would... tarnish something about the past. He wanted to keep it intact, at least in his own mind.

Mixing the past and the present generated too many unsavory thoughts. It reminded Spider that he still didn't know what happened to his parents, his sisters, his friends and extended family and everyone else he cared about. As long as he kept those two worlds separate, he could convince himself they were still at home, silent and safe, rather than tormenting himself with gruesome realities.

That tape was filled with the voices of the dead. He knew that airport was now silent, for one reason or another, only broken by the heavy, crunching steps of the beasts that now infested the world. But he couldn't bear to tape over it.

And then there was one more.

The Best Sound in the World.

He'd struggled with the title for a while. StormPoemRead would be more accurate, or RainVoiceEric or any number of other descriptions, and it would fit with how he'd categorized every other sound in his collection. Even with his collection now obsolete and gathering dust, the consistency would be a comfort.

But it felt too clinical. There were so few sounds in the world anymore. He couldn't stand to lump this one in with the rest. It was special. A snippet of speech in a near-speechless world.

Perhaps someday the world would recover. He wanted to believe, if he held out long enough, the beasts would starve or be eradicated and the world would gradually resume its normalcy, though that seemed like an impossible concept when looked at the wreckage of the city around him. Even if the world at large recovered, there would be no more New York City. Hell, he was sure his career would be toast - when it came to repairing all the damages, entertainment would certainly be one of the last steps.

But it would be worth it, if it meant he could once again live in a world with speech and music and simple little noises again. It was exhausting to be hypervigilant of his every move, to fear making any sound.

He hoped he would live long enough to reach that world again.

But until then, he missed his tapes.

[practically-an-x-man]

I won't lie. I got distracted watching a video of a guy who's tent was being torn apart by leaf cutter ants and began researching the logistics of that.

BUT I'M BACK with an ask ONCE AGAIN. And it's bugged themed. For definitely unrelated reasons.

Your characters gain the ability to control one species of bug (specific species, not all of ants or all of wasps), and they have as much time as they need to research what bug they'd like. What qualifies as a bug in this case is subjective. Anything in class insecta is fair game but arachnida is cool too.

First of all, that documentary sounds fascinating and I can totally appreciate going down a research rabbithole like that :D

Second, I love this ask, let's dive right in!!

Rae: Copidosoma floridanum - a type of cosmopolitan wasp. The main reason she'd choose it is for it being cosmopolitan, she can utilize this power regardless of her travels.

Robin: Reticulitermes flavipes - the eastern subterranean termite. She'd pretty much exclusively use this power to keep them away from the operahouse and its wooden sets (same with her parents' house, since it's pretty old)

Madison: Pachydiplax longipennis - the blue dasher dragonfly. Technically any dragonfly would suffice, but blue dashers are common where she lives so she wouldn't have trouble finding them. Either way - semiaquatic, predatory, and edible in a pinch.

Ophelia: Camponotus pennsylvanicus - the black carpenter ant. Am I stealing this from Ant-Man? Maybe. But she'd find a way to use them in her lab, for sure.

Gia: Apis mellifera - the Western honey bee. Having an infinite supply of pollinators is a surefire way to keep her shop, and her clover, as healthy as possible.

Jasper: Melolontha vulgaris - the May beetle. Oil from their larvae is sometimes used as a topical treatment for scratches, abrasions, and rheumatism in traditional medicine - it's not quite Neosporin, but it'll work in a pinch

Kestrel: Eristalis tenax - the common drone fly. Another cosmopolitan species, good for use on their travels, but small and unassuming enough that could be good for some quiet espionage.

Katherine: Anthrenus scrophulariae - the common carpet beetle. They're one of the four common species of beetles that cause damage to textiles and other artifacts in museums, so that's a 25% lower chance that they'll get damaged on her watch

Quinn: Pepsis grossa - a North American tarantula hawk moth. Its sting is said to be incredibly painful and is among the highest ranked on the Schmidt pain index - she'd go with the bullet ant, but she's a lot less likely to find those in the California desert.

Eris: Paraponera clavata - there's the bullet ant. Eris just wants to cause as much pain as possible, when they need to. What kind of bug could double as a weapon to be used in battle? Bullet ant.

Nikoletta: Periplaneta americana - the American cockroach. It's gross, and she honestly hates roaches (and half of this power would just be used keeping them away from her home), but they're so common in big cities like New Orleans that she's always got a few around to control. It's a similar strategy to Cleo and her rats, really.

Jimmy: Drosophilia melanogaster - fruit flies. Look, here's his logic: they were first used in genetics back in 1910, and they were a big deal, and he works with scientists now too... maybe they'd have use for this power of his? (also credit to the one scientific name I did not have to look up beforehand because I had it memorized lol)

Vivienne: Aedes aegypti - the yellow fever mosquito. Disease is... kind of a big deal in her time, there aren't a lot of cures for these horrific ailments, and while Vivienne itself is largely immune by being a siren, she doesn't want Wojchek or his crew stricken ill by some tiny little bug.

Spider: Sigh... I'd been so careful about strictly insects this whole time, but it would be wrong to give him anything but a spider. Hogna carolinensis - the wolf spider, and the largest wolf spider species to be found in America. He just thinks it would be cool to freak people out by having this massive wolf spider crawl out of his mouth or something. He's... an odd one, that for sure.

[practically-an-x-man]

Spider seems like a really cool character! Do you have any fun facts about him?

Thank you!!

Hm....

He's never had a pet (his mom was allergic to fur and pet dander, and he just never had a pet that fell outside that)

However, before the apocalypse he was making plans to adopt a crested gecko. He had the enclosure set up and was making arrangements with the reptile breeder, but got called in to New York before he could finalize it

He had a lot of allergies as a kid, but most of them got less sensitive as he aged (he had treatments to help). He's still very allergic to peanuts and a few other kinds of nuts though

For a while, he was a devoted vegetarian, but he had trouble getting enough protein (especially with how active he was), so now he's more of a pescatarian

He had trouble living alone at first, when he first moved out, and ended up switching from a studio apartment to a three-bedroom with roommates (even though that had its challenges) because he was so used to living around other people

He mainly sticks to climbing in a gym, but he has scaled up the outside of multiple city buildings in an attempt to challenge himself

He's so used to keeping himself silent for foley work (bc you need the only sound to be the sound that you're making for the effect) that he comes off as almost eerily quiet to others around him - at least when he's not talking, and he's pretty chatty

His main passion is foley of course, but he's dipped his toe into a lot of different art mediums as well. His art is very weird and a little macabre most of the time (I mentioned in Revan's ask about vampires that he'd be the type to get people's blood by claiming it was for an experimental art project, but like... he probably would paint with blood if he had the chance)

He's had a few different tape recorders over the course of his interest in collecting sound, just because they start to wear out with how much he uses them, but he always gets the same model because he wants the tapes to remain backwards-compatible.

Several times, he's gone into the studio after watching a new movie (that he didn't work on himself), just to try and recreate some of the sound design he notices. It's like a challenge to himself, learning to recognize and recreate different noises. He does the same with organic noises, though those are tougher because he doesn't always know if they have a foley equivalent.

[practically-an-x-man]

Remember how I kept saying I gotta show up in your inbox again with weird asks? Guess what! I'm back!

Your characters gain the ability to summon one (1) type of object. It can be any object that's not living (but it can be something that was once alive). They can summon as many as they'd like whenever they'd like for the rest of their lives, but it can only ever be the exact same object originally chosen with zero future modifications.

What do they choose?

Ooooh, I love this!! That's really cool!! Thank you!

Rae: Just a regular ink pen. Do you know how many times she's needed to write something down and doesn't have a pen?

Robin: Something really basic like a granola bar or other simple food item. Obviously very useful for herself, and means that no matter what she won't go hungry, but even more useful when Peter burns a lot of calories zipping around and needs a quick boost.

Madison: Just a bottle of water. Convenient after training or missions or wherever else, even better if she ever ends up in another survival situation, it's just... practical.

Ophelia: A roll of gauze. Look, she's out in the battlefield a lot, she gets pretty beat up and so do all her allies, and maybe a roll of gauze isn't a perfect fix but it's better than nothing in a pinch.

Gia: Probably something super practical and consumable, like a bag of soil or plant food that she uses in her shop. Saves her the money and trouble of having to order it in bulk every week.

Jasper: A very basic first-aid kit (they argue that the kit counts as one item, even if it contains other supplies, because when you say "first aid kit" you have a general idea of what it will contain) that has bandages, burn cream, arnica gel, ibuprofen, and a suture kit. Similar to Ophelia's idea - not a solution to every problem, but definitely helps while they find that better solution.

Kestrel: An empty field journal. Do you know how many field journals they go through?? They take copious notes when they work, and having a fresh journal whenever they need it would be a lifesaver on complicated missions

Katherine: A new, freshly-sharpened pencil. Similar premise to Rae's, she has a writing implement whenever she needs it, but extra helpful for Katherine when she feels like sketching or doodling.

Quinn: A bottle of pain meds in her prescription. No more doctor's visits to get it refilled, can be summoned whenever and wherever she needs them, and useful if anyone else on the team needs them as well since she doesn't have to be stingy with them. Could this cause a drug crisis? On a large enough scale, probably. But she literally just uses it to save herself the trouble of dragging herself to some doctor every three months to get the prescription refilled.

Eris: A small throwing knife. The details don't matter all that much - infinite throwing knives? Hell yeah!

Nikoletta: A pair of gloves like the ones she wore in Belle Reve. Useful for when her shadow-touch returns or she loses her usual gloves, helpful in more mundane ways (like when there's something she just doesn't want to touch with her bare skin), and sometimes it just helps with some of her ongoing anxiety.

Jimmy: A copy of his favorite book (Jane Eyre). It's always going to summon the same book, and by now he's pretty much got the whole thing memorized, but he honestly can't think of anything else he'd want or need to summon. And if nothing else, he could donate the books to Little Free Libraries or other programs he finds.

Vivienne: Does a glass of orange juice count as "was once alive"? If it does, that's what she's going with - combats the hydration problem AND the Vitamin C problem while out at sea, all in one fell swoop. Neither of those are generally huge problems for Vivienne, being a siren and all, but you bet it uses this power to take care of Wojchek and his crew while they're at sea for months on end.

Spider: More tapes for his handheld recorder. He's always taping interesting sounds he finds, and he goes through a lot of tapes because he refuses to tape over what he's already recorded unless he absolutely has to. An infinite supply of blank tapes would be incredibly useful for him.

[practically-an-x-man]

👑🏆💋💔🩹⚙️ for Katherine, Spider, and Gia?

Thank you so much!!!

OC Background Relationships Ask Game

👑 - Person who raised your OC and/or was important during their formative years

Katherine: Her mother and grandmother

Spider: His mother, father, and two younger sisters

Gia: Her parents, older brother, younger sister, and her extended family in Greece

🏆 - Best friends (past, current or future)

Katherine: Emília Mendoza (her friend in art school) and Jace Scott (her roommate in NYC)

Spider: His film colleague Amina, roommates Newt and Ginger, and climbing buddies Ghost (Jaxon), Dart (Sophie), and Sparky (DJ)

Gia: Several online friends, though she doesn't know any of their real names (and they don't know hers) and tends to keep personal talk to a minimum- that's about all her anxiety will allow her, at first.

💋 - First kiss

Katherine: A boy she went to Homecoming with, her freshman year of high school

Spider: A girl at summer camp, between 7th and 8th grade (he climbed up a tree and swung himself upside-down so they would do a "Spider-Man kiss")

Gia: One of her girl friends, senior year of high school (about a half-dozen of them were having a sleepover and learned Gia still hadn't had her first kiss, so they dared her)

💔 - Exes

Katherine: That same boy she went to Homecoming with, who she dated for only about 3 months

Spider: Assorted lighthearted flings of various genders, briefly dated his roommate Newt before they realized they were better off as friends, but never had a particularly serious relationship bc he was so caught up in his work

Gia: None, Kate is her first serious relationship (she realized she was a lesbian late, realized she was ace even later, and then her trauma from HYDRA got in the way of any other relationships she might've sought out)

🩹 - Someone who was a source of trauma

Katherine: Her high school bullies, Jason and Ezekiel (Zeke)

Spider: Do the Death Angels count as a "someone"? The whole silent apocalypse is really the main thing in his life that could be considered genuinely traumatic

Gia: Her younger sister Yadzia - it wasn't her fault by any means, but her leukemia struggle and later death definitely resulted in some trauma for Gia that she never really worked through

⚙️ - Coworkers/boss (krewe/other charr outside of warband)

Well, this is an interesting lineup for this particular question XD

Katherine: Artist on commission, but mainly works with museum directors like Dr. McPhee

Spider: Also a freelancer, works with a variety of film directors and studios

Gia: Owns her own flower shop and works alone

[practically-an-x-man]

Lucy + fluent in several languages

Rae is the obvious answer, she works as a translator and is fluent in 6 languages in addition to English, but I've got a few other OCs this applies to as well!

Ophelia knows Italian and a bit of Yiddish in addition to English

Robin knows ASL and BASL, and she grew up with a bit of Gaeilge

Gia has a bit of Greek, though she hasn't spoken it in a while and is definitely rusty

Spider grew up speaking Lao and Hindi when he visited his mom's side of the family, though it's been a few years and he's much better at listening/understanding than he is speaking.

And of course Eris speaks just about every language on the planet Earth, they've been around for literal centuries.

[practically-an-x-man]

Not familiar with any of your OCs either, but!

* Agate is a really big fan of both sewing and knitting

* Rowan likes gardening, in particular taking care of bonsai

* Fern doesn't know how to cook so his diet consists of instant noodles and energy drinks

Thank you!!

Madison knows how to make and mend clothes thanks to the 5 years she spent living out in the wilderness, and while it's not a principal hobby for her I'd say she does enjoy it

Gia owns her own flower shop and loves working with plants! I don't know that she's ever kept bonsai specifically, but she'd certainly be interested in trying it sometime

Quinn's definitely a match for that one XD They've never been a great cook, and their chronic pain makes it a difficulty, so most days they just shove something in the microwave and hope for the best. Also, honorable mention to Spider - he can cook, but he spends so much time in the studio (film work is intense, I can say first-hand) that he rarely has time to, so his diet is a lot of instant crap like that too.

[practically-an-x-man]

This isnt TST but an idea I had: Your OCs and their plus ones are all going to a halloween party and they come to you for extreme hollywood level makeup/effects/costuming. What do they get transformed into.

Bonus if you wanna write a fic/ramble: After the party you find out you're a Super whose powers are transformstions. All those partygoers are now really what you made their makeup/costumes for...

Ooooooh, thank you!! This will be fun!

Think I'm gonna skip that bonus part, just don't have the mental energy for it right now, but it's a cool idea!!

Talk Shop Tuesday (I'm still counting it lol)

Rae & Warren W: Honestly, I think they'd just be like "gimme the scariest thing you got", they're both pretty daring and adventurous people who are down for just about anything

Robin & Peter M: Frankenstein (it's frahnk-en-steen!) and the Creature from Young Frankenstein, Robin's favorite movie

Madison & Alex: They'd pay extra for all-night makeup service, they've got a plan. Both appear at the party looking completely normal, dressed in fairly plain clothes. Halfway through, they disappear - when they come back, Madison's a little scratched up, Alex has patches of fur and Wolfman claws, and both their clothes are torn. By the end of the party, they both disappear again, and later Madison is found on the floor of the kitchen, covered in blood and gruesome wounds with Bravo (her wolfdog) standing over her looking menacing.

Ophelia & Peter P: Oh, they don't need me. They both show up in intentionally-shitty costumes of the other's hero persona, having independently decided to try and fuck with each other in the exact same way.

Gia & Kate: Assuming Gia would even agree to going to a party in the first place... I could see them going as classic Goosebumps monsters. Gia's the humanoid plant from Stay Out of the Basement, Kate's a scarecrow from They're Alive! Alternatively, I could see them as a genderbent/WLW Seymour and Audrey from Little Shop of Horrors, with Gia's clover mixed in with her prop Twoey (ok ok, that's partially bc it gives Gia an excuse to have her clover with her and fend off a little of that anxiety... but mostly because Gia as a character is based on Seymour originally and I think it's playfully ironic)

Jasper & Kyle: Frank N' Furter and Rocky, of course! Kyle brings a robe since it would get a little uncomfortable to just wear the Speedo the whole time, but he does wear it.... the things people do for love, lol

Kestrel & Warren B: Warren's the only one who needs a costume, Kestrel will just shift into what fits with the theme. And honestly, with that freedom, it could be just about anything. Probably something Indiana Jones-themed, since they're Warren's favorite movies.

Katherine & Ahk: Honestly, Kat would probably just revisit her Bastet costume from that first Halloween party and clean it up a little, and Ahk would wear what he normally wears.

Quinn & Billy: I can't imagine Quinn would want particularly heavy makeup, since she would have to have to deal with removing it all after the party (when she's already tired and in pain from being on her feet). Maybe Morticia and Gomez Addams? That would be fun, and if Quinn wears her platforms she can really make the height difference pop (she's 6'3" without heels, Billy is 5'11"). And of course, Billy's so undeniably smitten he doesn't even need to act the part of Gomez.

Eris & Rick: Hm... tough question. On the one hand, I could see Eris getting really into it, spending weeks putting together the perfect costume only for it to be some historical figure that nobody besides them even really remembers. On the other hand, I could see them being pretty open about it, and willing to follow Rick's lead with whatever costume he decides on - as one of Eris' little hidden gestures of how much they care about him. Sorry this one's a non-answer, I just can't really think of something specific for them.

Nikoletta & Abner: Honestly, I don't know that they're the type for costumes. Neither of them really grew up in an environment where they celebrated Halloween much (save perhaps for Nikoletta being exposed to all the tourists flocking to New Orleans for the holiday), so there's not really nostalgia in dressing up, and they wouldn't be motivated to spend their hard-earned and limited money on costumes or makeup. I could see them agreeing to a group costume (probably at Harley's insistance), but they wouldn't come up with anything on their own.

Jimmy & Lars: Honestly, it would be fun enough just to play up the whole Ghostbusters thing. They're something of local celebrities, but with Lars being more of a behind-the-scenes guy and Jimmy being... well, a ghost that doesn't look like a ghost, everyone just thinks it's a damn good costume until they demonstrate the reality of it. If Lars can get his idea for a painless proton stream worked out in time, he'll make a spectacular show of "catching" Jimmy. If he can't, he'll just make a spectacular show of missing.

Spider (pre-apocalypse, attends alone): Would show up with a detailed sketch of a monster of his own devising, something super creative and super creepy. Hell, he's probably got four-leg stilts and an articulated costume tail of his own, just to add to the effect - he's a film guy, he takes Halloween seriously!

[practically-an-x-man]

it's been A Week lol so what do your OCs do when they're particularly stressed?

It has indeed been A Week XD

Thank you for the ask!!! <3333

Rae: Depends on what kind of stress it is - physical stress she'll take out on a punching bag down in the Danger Room, mental stress she'll work out with a good book (she likes Stephen King)

Robin: Honestly, she's not that great at dealing with stress XD But Peter will sometimes whisk her off to grab a meal or a few rounds of Joust down in the rec room when he can see she needs a break

Madison: She'll take Bravo out for a walk! (which for her translates to a 4-mile hike through the woods). She also tends to stress-bake sometimes.

Ophelia: She's also horrible about dealing with stress, but powerlifting is a great way to clear her mind and boost her endorphins when she's feeling overwhelmed - Peter even had to go out and buy her a set of dumbbells while her knee was healing, since she still got restless and stressed but couldn't do a full workout like she normally would.

Gia: She'll try to take a step back, maybe play some video games or spend some time with Thistle, but the fact is that she's pretty much in a perpetual state of stress and anxiety and doesn't know what to do about it

Jasper: If they can, they'll bust out the skates - either down to the rink for some actual derby practice, or just a bit of skating around the streets - but sometimes the best stress-reliever is just some cuddles with Kyle (especially when they're overwhelmed with emotional sludge from a long day at work, he's got this inner sunshine that just melts all of that away)

Kestrel: Also depends on the type of stress, and where they are. Sometimes it's that they feel cooped-up and need to go for a fly, other times they need to get out some of that frustrated or destructive energy by pulling up weeds and digging around in their garden, and sometimes they just need some quiet, domestic comfort and to be reminded that they're loved (one of their biggest sources of stress is just the ingrained insecurity of belonging somewhere)

Katherine: Comic books!! They've always been a source of escapism for her, and even as an adult she finds it really calming to just be able to dive into those fantastical worlds where the hero always comes out on top

Quinn: Things go up and down for her. First it was parkour - great stress-reliever, being able to run around and feel like you're on top of the world - but after her disability prevented that, she didn't really have a stress-reliever aside from turning to alcohol or pot. Thankfully things start to look up for her once she joins the Ghosts (gets some mobility back, and starts to build that support system), and she usually ends up going for a float at the hidden reservoir or playing some stupid prank on One.

Eris: Sparring. Easy. If they can't find a partner willing to trade blows for a bit (Rick is usually down for it, but sometimes he's beat up from a mission or is just too busy to step away), they'll pick up a weapon and run some forms, but they've always treated martial arts as a way to find balance - and he's surprisingly graceful when he's focused on technique rather than simply felling his enemies!

Nikoletta: She's also not great about dealing with stress, namely because there wasn't any way she could let off stress in Belle Reve. She had to keep up the illusion of poise and control, for one, and prison meant limited options even at the best of times. She finds some stress-relief in kitty-cuddles once they adopt Baron and Barbie, and once she builds up her skills a bit I think she would find cooking fairly relaxing, but most of the time she just tends to sit in it and let herself be miserable unless Abner reminds her to take care of herself (though, to be fair, he does the same thing, so they're in the same boat there)

Jimmy: He's honestly kind of clingy when he's stressed XD If he's demanding attention like an understimulated parrot, that's probably a sign that something's bothering him - though to be fair, he spent over a hundred years as a wandering ghost with no human interaction, so can you really blame him?

Vivienne: As usual, storytelling becomes its escape to pretty much anything. Something stressing her? Well, that becomes a great storm or a terrible plague or a fearsome leviathan that her hero must defeat. Some of her stories are from her own experiences, but many of them are just legends and tall tales it creates from nothing more than its own imagination.

Spider: Off to the climbing gym! Or if he can't get to the gym, he'll at least want to find a tree or some kind of interesting architectural feature, something to get him off the ground. That, or he'll take a look at his tape collection - the organization of it all tends to calm him, especially once he's got it all labeled and digitally catalogued.

[practically-an-x-man]

Vampire AU?

Thank you!!

And ooooh, there are a lot of different directions I could go with this one...

I think I'm actually going to pull from an ask you sent me a while ago, asking about how my OCs would react to becoming vampires - specifically, how a pre-apocalypse Spider would be the eccentric artist-type who obtains blood consensually by claiming it would be used in an art project.

I think in a full AU, I'd take this idea a little further and make Eric a repeat donor (he's a law student living in a whole separate continent from the rest of his family, he needs money, and this is a gig that pays well enough for him to keep groceries in the pantry). Spider realizes this after a few sessions and realizes Eric must be struggling for money more than he lets on, and maybe tries to up his pay for the blood - after all, the reason he does this rather than traditional hunting is that he doesn't want to hurt people, but his donors bleeding themselves dry just to afford their rent is just as hurtful in the end.

Eventually, y'know, Eric either calls him out on it or Spider approaches the issue directly, they get to talking, more secrets are revealed, et cetera..

[practically-an-x-man]

Which canon character does your OC respect a lot?

Does your OC have a crush on anyone?

Who has your OC made cry?

Who does your OC love? (platonic)

Does your OC love anyone? (romantic)

Did your OC bear witness to anyone’s full character arc?

Is there anyone who your OC would die for?

For Spider and Quinn

Thank you so much!!

Fandom OC Ask Meme

Which canon character does your OC respect a lot?

Spider: There are only like 2 other main characters in the movie but here we go- Sam (Lupita Nyong'o's character), for sure. She's going through all this with a terminal disease, in a lot of pain at every given moment, and he's got a lot of respect for how she still holds herself up through that.

Quinn: She's actually got a lot of respect for Five, and it's the only reason she's managed to stick through physical therapy so consistently with her. Five can be friendly, but she also doesn't take any bullshit from anyone (including Quinn), and that's exactly the kind of person Quinn respects. Yes, please, call her out when she's being an asshole! At least you've got the guts to be honest!

Does your OC have a crush on anyone?

Spider: I mean, they're all a little too focused on the impending doom and destruction of society to be thinking about that sort of thing, but... there might be a budding thing with Eric (Joseph Quinn's character) there. I mean, the guy reads poetry and does close-up magic, he's such a goofball, what's not to like?

Quinn: She's had a crush on Billy for about eight full years at this point. Has this changed now that they're together? Absolutely not. As far as she's concerned, he's still the hottest guy in any room and will always be a total catch.

Who has your OC made cry?

Spider: Honestly... I can't think of anyone. Maybe it's just that he's a new OC and I haven't sorted out all the details yet, but I can't quite picture this. He's not quite a ray of sunshine the way Jimmy is, and he can admittedly be a little out-there at times, but he's still a pretty nice guy.

Quinn: Out of the canon group... I don't think any of them, really. They're a pretty hardy lot, I don't think anyone would cry particularly easily. But I'm sure she's made plenty of people cry in the past, intentionally or not - she's tall and kind of intimidating-looking, and her sharp wit doesn't usually go over as well as she'd like it to.

Who does your OC love? (platonic)

Spider: He had a lot of friends before the apocalypse, mainly in the film circles (they just get him, and they're the same type of weird, like they're on the same wavelength), and one of his main goals post-Death Angels is to try and see if any of them have survived.

Quinn: As much as they get on her nerves, she loves the other Ghosts. She just loves being a part of a crew, there's something about it that's always been close to her heart.

Does your OC love anyone? (romantic)

Spider: Not yet. Again, imminent apocalypse, not much time for romance. He has had relationships in the past and did love his partners, but none currently.

Quinn: Again, Billy. They're absolutely inseparable.

Did your OC bear witness to anyone’s full character arc?

Spider: I mean... does anyone ever bear witness to a full character arc? Isn't everyone always changing and adapting in some way, just by the nature of life? Anyway, philosophy of it aside, I don't think so. He comes in at a very specific point in time, just like how Sam and Eric end up meeting in the movie, and he witnesses some character growth throughout that, but perhaps not a full arc.

Quinn: If it's anyone, it would be Billy. She met him when he was still pretty inexperienced with leading the crew, stuck with him as he got better about being a leader, stuck with him while he was with Lex, with Kyiv, and then when they finally get back together again, she sees the way he's matured after a few near-death experiences and all that time apart. The guy she'd known back at the start of the Wolf Pack would not have been so patient with her disabilities, let's just put it that way. He's a lot more open and understanding than he was when she knew him before (and it's mainly because of her...)

Is there anyone who your OC would die for?

Spider: No, but I don't mean that in a selfish way. He can't really imagine dying at all. He takes risks, sure, and he knows there's danger in those risks, but if he's going to die he imagines it'll come from some kind of accident or unforeseen circumstance, not something he'd seek out even for the sake of a loved one.

Quinn: Oh, sure. She really does have faith in her cause, and while she certainly isn't throwing herself into the paths of all the bullets she comes across, she wouldn't hesitate to give her life for any one of her teammates if it really came down to it.

[practically-an-x-man]

Assumption: Because Spider's spent so long surrounded by sound, the silence of the post-Death Angel world gives him severe anxiety

Oh, one thousand percent. It makes him so squirrelly, especially walking through the empty streets and just knowing all the sounds that should be there (the rumbling engines and annoyed honks of traffic, the bustle of people, even smaller sounds like pigeons and squirrels and other animals moving around) and instead being faced with just utter silence.

And of course, he can't find solace in his tape recorder, because there's nothing to record. Part of the reason he needs other people to survive is that even just the sounds of their breathing and the rustle of their clothing around him give him something to hold onto.

[practically-an-x-man]

your OCs are invited/challenged to do something like Naked & Afraid: who agrees? what would it take for any of the others to agree?

Ooooh, interesting! Thank you!

Rae: On the one hand, she's always down for a new adventure and there's very few things she wouldn't try at least once. On the other hand, she doesn't have much survival training and wouldn't be thrilled about having her uncovered body just broadcast on television, so I really can't tell with her. It really depends on the timing of it and how she feels about it.

Robin: Pass. Really not her thing. She's never been much of a wilderness person, there's a lot of risk just... for fun? Without much real gain? She'd do her best with wilderness survival if it really mattered, like for her genuine safety or survival, but I can't see her signing up just for fun. She has opera rehearsals to get to!

Madison: Wilderness survival is kind of her thing, and the premise of the challenge would absolutely intrigue her. She's not thrilled about the "naked" part, especially since the premise of the show is that your survival partner is a stranger (I think she'd be more likely to sign up for Alone than Naked & Afraid), but I could definitely see her enjoying a challenge like that. Hell, she lived like that for five years!

Ophelia: Absolutely not. She's always been a city girl, she'd hate to be without technology for longer than a few days, and that's not even accounting for her bad knee and the challenges that would prove. I could see her researching some survival tips just in case, but she's definitely not signing up for the show.

Gia: Absolutely not. You think the girl who can barely leave her home due to intense unresolved anxiety issues is going to spend three weeks in the middle of nowhere without even clothes to wear? She'd probably laugh in your face if you suggested it, but she wouldn't want to be rude.

Jasper: Hm... another tough one. They grew up out in the bayou (the boonies, as they'd say) and have been camping a few good times, so brushing up on those survival skills wouldn't take too much, but... the whole "naked and afraid" concept wouldn't be great for their dysphoria, especially on camera, and they'd rather be back at their warm, cozy apartment with Kyle and their pets

Kestrel: Oh, in a heartbeat. Like Madison, wilderness survival is a big tenet to who they are and they'd excel at the challenge. Really, the hardest part would just be remembering not to shapeshift or use magic on camera.

Katherine: Eh, no thanks. It's an interesting premise, but really not within her interests or capabilities. She wouldn't mind trying out for some game show or other TV show, but it wouldn't be a survival show

Quinn: Nope. Similar to Ophelia's, really - the combination of living her whole life in an urban setting and just physically not being fit for a hardcore survival situation like that.

Eris: Sure, why not? It's been a while since they've been in the thick of true wilderness survival, but he won't shy away from a good challenge (and you know she wouldn't be at all self-conscious about the "naked" part lol). Honestly, I could see him trying to get Rick in on it too, like Eris' weird idea of a couple's retreat lmao

Nikoletta: Hard pass. She's never been a wilderness kind of person, she has no interest in learning, and especially not now. She's finally at the point in her life where she is comfortable and safe, why would she give that up just for some gimmicky show? No thanks. She'd rather be safe at home, cuddled up with Abner and the cats.

Jimmy: Disqualified for being a ghost, there's no point.

Vivienne: Disqualified bc TV doesn't exist in her time.

Spider: Pre-apocalypse, I think he'd probably go for it, honestly. He enjoys trying new things, and this seems like a neat opportunity. He'd struggle to be surrounded by so many unique sounds and not have his tape recorder, and he'd definitely need to do some wilderness survival training before he signed up, but I could see him giving it a go.