#spy vs spy oc concepts

[mimithesketchfigure]

SKETCH DUMP #1

[midnightyx3]

Don't remember if I mentioned it or not.

But Lavender does use some chemicals. Just rarely.

[captain-harpo]

Today in lecture we learned about the “Great Dinosaur Rush” of the American West from 1877-1892. It starred two guys named O.C. Marsh and E.D. Cope. They hated each other and competed to see who could discover the most new dinosaurs, which led to wacky hijinks™

They put spies on each other’s teams to lead them in the wrong direction and gather intel

They dug on each others’ private property

They trash-talked in magazines and refused to acknowledge the legitimacy of the other’s findings

They had rock fights

They blew up fossils with dynamite to keep the other person from getting them

All this got the Rush to be nicknamed “The Bone Wars”

Cope said that when they died he wanted their brains to be taken out and measured to see who was the smartest

And yet together they discovered over 140 new species of dinosaurs

And so long story short I want a mutual-pining enemies-to-lovers story starring these two gay old west scientists please 

[thetriggeredhappy]

Bit of a broad question, but: do you have any tips on writing the mercs?

broad question means broad answer, pal, hope you like essays.

the unfortunate, terrible truth is that the best way to get better at writing the tf2 mercenaries… is to get better at writing in general. picking up new skills means having more skills to apply, especially in the sense that the tf2 universe’s fanworks can be pretty much any genre you want. i’ve personally written mystery, romance, comedy, drama, slice-of-life, sitcom-esque, and that’s just the ones i can think of. and believe it or not, different genres require completely different skills.

characterization is obviously one thing people struggle with a lot, and my suggestion would be to try moving away from the “incorrect quotes” method of characterization. trying to slot characters into specific tropes can be really limiting, and ultimately doesn’t actually encourage you to get creative with them, it encourages you to follow genre conventions. sometimes that’s good, but it doesn’t help you write any better or understand genre conventions any better in the long run. security blankets are important in any hobby, but that’s the first one i would let go of when you start writing your own stuff.

firstly, free yourself of the concept of one singular characterization. change details. in one universe have heavy talk about how good his relationship with his father was; in another, have him say he doesn’t remember a single thing about him. in one universe the engineer learned most of the things he knows from apprenticing; in another he only started in on practical application when he got to Mann Co. it’s fine. nobody minds. seriously, nobody minds. and moreover, orbiting around the canon details and changing the ones you’re forced to invent whenever you write them will keep the characters fresh for you, and you’ll learn a lot about how to work in weird details; what comes up organically? how do you bring something up in a way that seems natural before that information is absolutely necessary? for example, could you include a detail about pyro not knowing how to swim that comes across naturally and organically so that later on in a scene taking place near the water, it doesn’t feel sudden and contrived to make pyro scared of the water?

secondly, get used to actively considering certain character details. what is scout’s relationship with money? what is demo’s relationship with the concept of a family name? what is sniper’s relationship with the concept of nature vs nurture? consider the more noteworthy aspects of any given merc’s character; why does it stand out? what made them this way? in what circumstance would they break from that behavior or aspect of themselves? in what circumstance would this aspect of them prove useful? how would the mercs describe each other?

some people make character playlists, either with songs they think apply to that character or music that character would like. some people just read a lot of fic and bookmark the ones they like the best to use as references when writing their own (which is fine, by the way. i borrowed a lot of details and concepts from other writers when coming up with some characterizations i use near-constantly). being a bit of a nerd, i’ve taken an approach sometimes where i read personality quizzes or those “oc questions” lists and try to consider how i think that character would answer, which is really helpful for me. but by far the thing that most consistently helps me write characters is writing them. i have literally thousands of words dedicated to writing characters in funny little situations. the engineer talking scout through changing a tire. spy chewing medic out over him being snappy with people. demo trying home remedies for a cold. soldier going through his morning routine. i can assure you, they’re all completely unreadable. they’re boring and uninteresting and contrived, and i learned a lot from writing them. i’ve also made a practice of taking requests—writing five hundred words for a request on tumblr of something extremely simple will do a very important thing called Making You Write. writing is the hard part of writing. the more you write, the easier it gets, and getting into the habit of writing is like taking up exercising, sometimes. important but annoying.

how do you write the mercs. honestly, it’s just that i have practice writing in general. write and then write some more. if you’re having trouble with their speech patterns, try playing stenographer, writing out the script for their meet the team videos. imagine them on a talk show, or an interview. who are they more polite with, and more rude with? writing the mercs feels like memorizing the fuckin’ pokémon type chart sometimes, if i’m honest. i imagine sniper is quiet, unless he has something important to say, and except when arguing with spy, except i think he would argue less in front of other people, except for scout and pyro who take his side, but scout probably wouldn’t start shit in front of the engineer, and pyro would be more calm if around someone they like. have them react to each other. consider what they expect each other to be like, and how they would feel if proven wrong, either disappointed or pleasantly surprised.

make them gossip. make them argue about what is and is not technically a fish. make them get annoyed about each other’s eating habits. make them make bets. my greatest piece of advice that i’ll insist on is to write characters like they’re human beings first. maybe up to some sitcom antics or ridiculous nonsense, but i think everyone on the planet is capable of becoming extremely stupid and hilarious if pressed far enough, so press these characters far enough. make them have to go ask for no pickles. make them have to figure out what to do when the takeout place is closed and they have like no food in the base. make them embarrassed. make them hyped. make them sad enough that they reconsider everything they’re doing. make them happy enough that they find some kind of peace. where are their limits, their boundaries, their standards?

it doesn’t necessarily just apply to the mercs, it applies to writing anything. write some stuff and then write some more different stuff. show people your stuff. try to write some stuff you don’t feel super confident about and then write it eight more times and then the time after that when you write it, show it to people.

i’m not one of those “you have to write every day” people, because that’s a surefire way to lose aspiring authors to burnout, but i do encourage self-indulgence. i’ll have a bad day and feel sad, and i’ll write someone being sad. i’ll be struggling with some aspect of myself and i’ll write similar turmoil. i’ll hate something, and write about it. i’ll love something, and write about it. write whatever you want, until you want to write reflexively, and then soon you’ll be writing things even if you don’t feel like writing, and you’ll only get better from there. you might end up writing every day, which sometimes just means rereading something you did and editing for typos. i write almost every day, in that regard, even if most of it never sees the light of day. for every hundred words i’ve posted, i’ve written three hundred and never shown anyone, and that’s not an exaggeration.

here’s a secret they don’t tell you in any writing class i’ve ever been in: you don’t have to show anyone. it’s alright. just share what you’re happy with, and only if you want to, and only to the people you want to; you don’t need to post it online, you can just send a google doc to three of your friends, it’s fine. sharing will feel nice at times, though. share to justify the amount of time sunk into a project, or to justify the stress, or to justify “well i already posted it so no editing now!”. write some stuff just because you’ll want to reread it later. i have a number of things i’ve written for the express purpose of it helping to calm me down when my anxiety starts spiraling particularly badly. running blind was a writing exercise in limiting my overuse of visual descriptions. persistence was an exercise in writing a character in turmoil from outside of that character’s mind, instead from a different point of view. try writing in an author’s style that you admire. i’ve taken inspiration in writing from Letterkenny and Douglas Adams, in particular, sometimes pretty directly trying to mirror their mannerisms. also sometimes The Stanley Parable, in my narration style. it’s good for you, go on. plagiarize in the privacy of your own home then bring the skills it teaches you with you when you go to write something else. nobody will notice. nobody will go “hey wait a minute, your ability to write tone-neutral humorous third person narration comes from reading A Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and internalizing it, you picked up on writing both subtle and non-subtle symbolism and cheesy overly-genuine sentimental shit from reading Castaways of the Flying Dutchman by Brian Jacques (and others in the series), you watched a lot of sitcoms in your youth and model back and forth dialogues after them, and you think dry humor is funny because you watch a lot of twitch streamers who use it”. they’ll just call you gay and neurodivergent. which they should’ve known based on the fact that you’re writing team fortress 2 fanfiction but whatever

i’m running out of helpful advice. all my advice can be replaced by just writing more and reading more and writing more again. probably reread and rewatch the canonical content every once and a while to make sure you’re touching base and not making OCs, because if you’re gonna make an OC, go play a tabletop roleplaying game with them or write your own book or something, don’t use them on fanfiction, they can get so much more mileage out of being used somewhere else and you’ll be glad you did it. or do make fic for them and tag it as OC content! the OC creators in the tf2 fandom are, in my experience, all super sweet super nice people who love making new friends! make your OCs rivals with theirs idk it’ll be great

hope literally any of that helps. i should really get a tag for my writing advice. maybe someday

[zootycutieart]

Been meaning to make a Spy vs. Spy OC for a while, but could never get an idea working right design-wise. I had the concept I wanted, but could never do it...until now! Halftone Spy signed up as a Gray Spy. She IS a Gray Spy. Some unfortunate and confusing circumstances somehow lead her to also being part of the White Embassy...and the Black Embassy, the two enemy sides of her nation. So she fakes it. Very nervously. A couple dress modifications, a new pair of shoes, swapping out her glasses for prescription sunglasses or color contacts, and pulling he hair up, makes her look a bit different. Despite being able to hid her appearance, her personality remains. She's jittery about being an accidental mole, and accidentally keeps offing her "team members" whenever she's on the field with one of them. Sure, this makes her a great assent to the Gray Embassy...but what happens when the stress finally gets to her there?

[dragonomatopoeia]

fine. fine. two sentence summaries of OC Project concepts in various stages of completion. you all have to be cool about this or i will stare at you with big watery eyes and a devastated mien 

1) Chosen One/Best friend who thinks being a chosen one is basically a ponzi scheme (and is not wrong but was a dick about it and now they haven't spoken to each other for over five years)

2) Main character finds a lost phone with records and info and texts from a few  years in the future and learns of her own disappearance. has to solve her own disappearance when it hasn't happened yet

3) Main character reads a tragedy and gets really attached to the paladin protagonist who tries to fix the corrupt paladin organization and dies for it. MC isekai's over and resigns herself to being the villain in order to bring the church down and protect the protagonist, even if she hates her for it 4) Spy vs Spy Time Heist where MC is commissioned to manipulate her past self, but the love interest + friends are working against her through both sabotage, as well as just generally being kind and genuine to her past self. MC’s job becomes harder as she learns to see her past self as a person instead of a concept/state she grew out of 5) MC works for a holistic exorcism agency. Exorcism went wrong and now there's a ghost in MC's body who doesn't pay rent, but at least she can cook 

6) MC is a cannon fodder character who doesn’t care much about the story repeating over and over again because she basically gets to do whatever until her appointed time of death. Love interest is the main character who wants out of this story if it’s the last fucking thing she does

There are also my plots for twine game projects but those are probably never going to get finished so don’t worry about that. also stella collab project. PLEASE be cool and that means refraining from rebl*gging this ty

[swtorpadawan]

Why Chiss Would Make Terrible Intelligence Agents

It is no secret that selecting a Chiss for the Imperial Agent class is a sort of "standard". And on paper, Agent seems a better fit for a Chiss OC than for any other class. They are already Empire-aligned, the Chiss hate Force-sensitives, and the "protypical Chiss" - which is basically Thrawn - seems a match made in heaven, dealing with the struggle of order vs. chaos as opposed to silly concepts like good vs. evil. Heck - the official SWTOR promotional artwork even features a Chiss as its token Imperial Agent. 

So let me say I love the Imperial Agent story and - at this point - i have more Chiss than any other species on my "semi-active OC" list. (They're aesthetic is so colorful!)

But... sorry to say... on a practical level, Chiss would make terrible Imperial Agents. Not because of their mindset, or abilities, or any of those other things, but simply because spies are meant to be anonymous. They are meant to blend in. They are meant to be easily disguisable.

I love the Imperial Agent story because it feels far more grounded than the others. But playing a spy who sticks out like that isn't great. For context, check out this video from a former CIA Disguise Chief.  Aside from using a holo-projector, there isn't much room for a Chiss to change their appearance. Chiss, outside of their Ascendancy, are very, very rare. And with their appearance, they stand out a lot. Walk around Dromund Kaas. Its perhaps the most cosmopolitan city in the entire Sith Empire, and there are, like, maybe THREE chiss NPCs on the street. If that. Outside the Sith Empire, it only gets worse. Yes, you see an odd chiss here and there, but they are usually memorable. With the exception of Hoth - not exactly a hot spot for intrigue (see what i did there?) - their presence is minute. Nar Shaddaa is possibly the most diverse planet in the classic campaign. But find me two chiss there! (Why would a non-OC chiss even go to Nar Shaddaa, anyway?) Even walking around the Alliance base on Odessen, where people come from everywhere, you can only find - like - one Chiss, not counting Master Ranos.

How many Imperial Agent missions are dependent on a degree of anonymity? The Red Blade on Hutta wears a mask, but doesn't it seem far-fetched that no one would know he was a Chiss? You’re probably the only Chiss on Hutta! On Balmorra, you portray an independent anti-Imperial terrorist. How many independent Chiss are even out there? How many of them would choose to actively fight the Empire? On Hutta, you're looking into shady corporations and pharmaceuticals. Why would a Chiss care? On Alderaan you pretend to be a high-ranking member of House Thul. (Ahem - you are blue?) It doesn't get better in Chapter Two - the SIS should be smarter about their recruiting efforts. In Chapter Three, on Belsavis - you're supposed to be some criminal mastermind planning a heist. People should be wondering 'WTF - a Chiss?'

So yeah - i'll keep playing Chiss Imperial Agents. But i will do so with a grain of salt.

[shabre-legacy]

Annilai and Fifteen for the tag meme? :)

@rainofaugustsith thanks for the ask

Full Name: Niaken Amia, That’s all she knows, there might have more at some point but not anymore

Gender and Sexuality: Bisexual

Ethnicity/Species: Mirialan

Birthplace and Birthdate: unknown 

Guilty Pleasures: Quiet moments alone with tea. (Tea is a luxury and she isn’t supposed to be alone as she is supposed to be the Eyes of the Sith inside intelligence. 

Phobias: Being summoned by Sith, especially Baras or Jadus. Being buried alive. 

What They Would Be Famous For:  She’d like to write holonovels someday. Let people know what life was like for her and the people around her through fiction. 

What They Would Get Arrested For: In the beginning of her story, excessive force or ‘disobedience’ (sassing the wrong person even while she follows orders), after Corellia: possibly treason (going against the empire for Izutsa or Kaliyo)

OC You Ship Them With: Ambassador Toa (Izutsa’s older sister) they don’t really become a thing. But if she were to be around Toa more, they totally would be. 

OC Most Likely To Murder Them: Savri, She doesn’t really believe in the concept of a warriors code and mocks those that claim to live by one. So while Darsha, Natamai and a few others might challenge her to a duel, Savri would just straight up shot her for insulting his friends and family. But Nat and Izutsa are able to keep the two in line on the rare instance they interact.

Favorite Movie/Book Genre: she likes the spy stories. They’re always terrible and her favorites come from the republic because of how inaccurate they are. They just make her laugh and she loves that

Least Favorite Movie/Book Cliche: Romances, She thinks they are boring and unrealistic

Talents and/or Powers: Poetry, fireworks (both as distractions and improvised weapons, tinkering.  

Why Someone Might Love Them: she’s ’loyal, focused and passionate, once she actually admits she cares about someone, she’s willing to burn the galaxy and everything she knows, even herself to take care of/protect them.

Why Someone Might Hate Them: She can be rude, arrogant and selfish, she’d burn the galaxy and everything and everyone, including herself for her friends

How They Change: She starts out overly aggressive in her duties and completely focused on her duty to the Sith, with time and the influence of her friends, she breaks free a bit and while still arrogant and sometimes violent, she becomes warmer and devoted to her friends and to Kaliyo and Izutsa especially. becoming less a puppet and more a person

Why You Love Them: she’s pretty and charmingly arrogant and just loves her friends so damn much, she suffers, but grows into someone who’ll destroy everything she’s ever known and face everything she fears for those few friends. 

Full Name: Annalai Laenir Jhasis

Gender and Sexuality: Lesbian 

Ethnicity/Species: Cathar Birthplace and Birthdate: lower levels of Coruscant, 3667 bby

Guilty Pleasures: combat, taunting sith, perfumes from Naboo

Phobias: the black wing virus. (nobody’s heard of an outbreak in ages, so it’s kinda like someone being terrified of getting scurvy, even though they don’t live a lifestyle where they could get scurvy. She’s just terrified of it, and so any mentions of a mission that could involve facing sith alchemy)

What They Would Be Famous For: I’m not sure honestly

What They Would Get Arrested For: she doesn’t tend to break laws if she can avoid it, she’s a jedi

OC You Ship Them With: Caithi or Zeriu if they existed in the same universe. Her and Nyaisa would be good together but it wouldn’t work and they have their other love interests. 

OC Most Likely To Murder Them: Sersere, she is trained to take down Jedi and wants to make sure no one can forget that fact. Naatha, Sonim or Shaialis (if she was allowed) She’s a Jedi, they are Sith and let no one forget that fact. 

Favorite Movie/Book Genre: She actually likes documentaries. She loves learning new things and thinks they’re really interesting. Also has a weakness for cathar cultural classics (because you will never make me believe that those don’t exist)

Least Favorite Movie/Book Cliche: she isn’t a fan of action dramas. While she loves fighting a bit more than perhaps a jedi should, she doesn’t want to watch more violence and explosions when she’s trying to relax

Talents and/or Powers: The Force, shatterpoint, she’s also good at malacia (doesn’t use it much, thinks it feels to dark to use often)

Why Someone Might Love Them: She’s excitable, kind, and confident

Why Someone Might Hate Them: her confidence sometimes comes across as arrogance, she tends not to listen as well as she should. she can be a bit overly blunt about things and likes to show off her force abilities a bit more than might be polite.

How They Change: She starts out with a very firm us vs them ideas, kind of deciding based on imperial or republic whether someone is good or evil without a thought. By the end of their story, despite everything she goes through with leshlaa, she reaches more of an equilibrium, she’s a jedi by choice, she does good by choice, it’s not the side that decides good or evil, but the individuals choices determine if the individual is evil. So by the time she meets Lana she’s kind of decided that the dark side doesn’t inherently make someone evil, it’s more that the power that comes with it pushes a person in that direction and it’s their choice if they go that far or follow the dark side, but not be evil. (not a popular view and she doesn’t know if she firmly believes it to be correct, but it works for her)

Why You Love Them: She’s just fun and pretty 

[bluedraggy]

An essay on writing a fanfiction, and grieving for an OC.

(Spoilers for You Only Live 18 Times are complete. If you’ve not read it and have any intention of doing so, this essay isn’t a good idea to read first.)

I don't know exactly who my target audience for this essay is honestly, but in my conceit, I felt like writing it anyway. You're welcome to ignore it. No sexy khajiits here, alas. But I wanted to write something about my process of writing fanfiction, and YOL18T is a good example of that.

First, the concept of my Spyjirra stories started out simply enough - I got the idea of basing a story on the old 007 movies, but with a sexy Ra'Jirra khajiit and set in a future Elder Scrolls universe. I wouldn't say I literally copied from the movies, just got some general outlines from them. However, I had to upscale the TES technology to roughly 1700s era, with some bits of technology more advanced, others less than the literal period. So we have rifles and handguns, but no motorized vehicles. Magic still exists, but is fading.

When I started YOL18T I first watched the old Bond movie You Only Live Twice.  In it, "American and Russian spacecraft go missing, leaving each superpower to blame the other."  The protagonist fakes his own death, then is sent to investigate in Japan. They discover it's a conspiracy by SPECTRE, the standard organized villain corporation.

So I start with a similar plotline, but spacecraft are obviously way too advanced for even my future-TES universe. Instead, the plot revolves around ships with a new technology - engines. Hammerfell and the Imperials are the two superpowers, with Hammerfell playing the part of the Russians, though not quite exclusively.  In fact, I have Hammerfell being the more technologically advanced of the two. Anyway, so instead of spacecraft, both countries are testing new powered ships, but they are both destroyed and each side blames the other.

In my story, Elsweyr plays the part of the English, ostensibly an ally of Cyrodiil but Ra'Jirra leans towards liking Hammerfell better after the last story. The Aldmeri Dominion plays the role of SPECTRE, and I conceived of them having a submarine and torpedoes that they used to destroy the ships - though the submarine is magically powered since the Altmer still possess decent magical abilities.

I was able to link the first story to the second by having Ra'Jirra's fake suicide done in Hammerfell where she meets a couple of characters from the original story. But the main new OC is Wears-Only-Ropes, an Argonian sailor who is on the Imperial ship that is destroyed. It seemed natural that, since this story would be very naval-oriented, the Argonians with their ability to breathe underwater would play an important role in any navy, even though their own country is resolutely neutral and not really even ocean-going.

(Forgive me pls for posting Wears-Only-Ropes images you’ve already seen. I am still in mourning over her, in a more real sense than I have any right to be.)

In the Bond movie, a large portion of it is devoted to James Bond visiting Japan and some serious time is taken in describing the society there. I thought that having Ra'Jirra visit Argonia, (The Argonians wouldn't call it the Black Marsh after all), would be a natural replacement for Japan. So similarly I spend some time imagining the society that the Argonians would have.  Even the Sumo wrestling scene gets an equivalent Argonian sporting event - chase the eel.

So while I do follow the plotline of the Bond movie in very broad terms, the specifics are very different obviously.

Anyway, as I was writing, I realized early on that Ra'Jirra needed a partner - primarily so she has someone to talk to and I don't need to have internal dialogue, but also to give an alternate viewpoint on occasion. Since I tend to write sexy scenes once in a while, a male khajiit would make sense. (I don't think it's too sexist to have her be hetero. Besides, I had a rather clear lesbian scene in the prior story with her anyway.)  Then I realized that it would be cute if her partner was an Alfiq - one of the more bizarre forms of khajiit in that they're basically the size and shape of a housecat, but intelligent - though TES sources indicate they can't speak. So that would be a bit of a problem. I worked around that by having him be a biologist of sorts working with Lycanthropy who had been turned into an Alfiq. Also, he gets to turn back into his native form of a Cathay when the moons are aligned. So Ra'Jirra and he can occasionally have Sexy Fun Times. Plus he can talk. Okay, that's a good OC and should be fun to play with! A spy organization like the HMSS would certainly have good use of someone like that.

I then started the story with a chapter on Wears-Only-Ropes and the destruction of her ship.  Rather liked how it turned out. I thought it made for a pretty good "hook" to start the reader out with something big.  Then I had to abandon her for most of the next half. In fact, she doesn't actually meet Ra'Jirra till 3/4 of the way through the story, so she gets a few more chapters from her point of view. But I came to really like her as a character. Mixing some bits I knew of pirates (women pirates would typically go shirtless as did the men) I had the concept of her "wearing" ropes as a bra of sorts, thus the name.

Another thing that originally came from the Bond film... in it, James Bond flys a mini-helicopter at one point. Well, a helicopter is way too advanced, but I came up with the CATv3 instead - a sort of Jet Ski/Waverunner thing. Once I had that, I had to give it some sort of weapon. A set of mines would make sense, as the thing would be bouncing all over the waves so trying to aim it with a gun in the front wouldn't really work.  As soon as I got the idea of a mines on the CATv3, the logical way to destroy the sub became apparent.  

But the mines would be surface mines, meant to thwart attackers chasing her on boats or similar.  The submarine would be deep underwater... how? Oh. OH! OOOOOH!

Suddenly, Wears-Only-Ropes' fate was sealed. She would have to take a mine down to the sub. Ra'Jirra couldn't do it even if she wanted to. Argonians can breathe underwater. Ra'Jirra can dog-paddle for a little bit.

Even then I had hoped to have her survive. I really had grown fond of her. But, minimal though it is, I do try to ground my stories in reality as much as possible given The Elder Scrolls-inspired world. I researched underwater explosions.  I'd hoped that perhaps an underwater explosion - given the density and non-compact-ability of water might allow her to live. But my research showed that, far from being safer than airborne explosions, an underwater explosion is even more deadly. And the explosion would be huge. The mine wouldn't just detonate against the hull of the sub, it would trigger the explosion of all the torpedoes within.

Fight as I would as a writer, I couldn't justifiably have her live. Any number of solutions were possible, but they all were just too outlandish and smacked of Deus Ex-Machina solutions. No, she had to die in the explosion. Granted, she'd expected to. All her 'family' and friends had died in the original ship torpedoing at the first chapter. It would be fitting that she would sacrifice herself to their retribution. I couldn't deny her that. So, though I don't explicitly make it clear, she died.

It's weird how such a thing can affect me, her author. I really feel bad about it, even though it was both fitting and made for a more impressive story IMHO. I've toyed with the idea of her Twin Sister, etc, but that doesn't feel right either.  No, she's a one-story character, and YOL18T is her story as much as Ra'Jirra's.

One other thing, I needed a core motive for the Dominion's action. Sure, they were trying to instigate a war between Hammerfell and Cyrodiil - but WHY would they want to do that? The answer was right in front of me. Technology vs Magic. In my TES-future universe, magic is dying. The Altmer of the Dominion are the last capable magic-users (to any large extent), but the humans and their rapidly increasing technology were threatening. But not just that. I conceived of them using their magic to look far into the future, and what they saw there was a world in which humans were the only intelligent inhabitants. The khajiit, argonians and mer were all gone. It gave them a much more noble reason for their actions - even if they were also self-serving. And therein lies the core of the sequel and end of the trilogy actually. In YOL18T, I didn't do much with that, other than have the Dominion explain their reasons to Ra'Jirra.

And that's how YOL18T was conceived. I am currently doing an audio-recording of the story chapter-by-chapter. I'm not a good voice actor at all. In fact, I just pitch-shift my voice to portray the different characters in it. I spend most of my time adding background effects so it's not quite just a dry reading. Though I'm also currently writing the sequel and last story in the Spyjirra trilogy, I think YOL18T is the highlight - even though the current one is a "bigger picture" story than either of the first two and really doesn’t track along with the Bond movie in any way.

But I do miss Ropes. She deserved more than a single story. The one thing I might do someday is write more of her backstory. But prequels are a tough sell, esp. when you know how her story has to end. Eh... maybe not.  I tried to write a prequel once for Katia to explore her life before she came to Anvil. I aborted it as too depressing. I really prefer happy endings. So probably Ropes is gone for good. I hope her story is good enough for her.

[sakura-soldier]

Barry Madison - Avengers OC Uniform

Ok, it's been 1 year since I've drawn and uploaded an Avengers uniform design for Tracey. Fast-forward to January 2016, I found myself having an urge to draw her twin brother, Barry in HIS new Avengers uniform. He was originally a S.H.I.E.L.D agent, but he and his fraternal twin sister ended up joining the Avengers sometime after the events of Captain America: The Winter Soldier (he's also part of the Winter Is Ending series, written by @winter-is-ending/Singer of Water). Back in S.H.I.E.L.D, he was simply known as "Agent Madison", but then a couple years later (read "The Fireman" by Just A Little Birdy on fanfiction.net to understand this pic: www.fanfiction.net/s/11575901/…), he discovered a flamethrower gun during a mission, which originally belonged to one of those cliched mad scientists, and had to use it to fight a monster. Because of this, the internet and the Avengers (much to Barry's suffering) originally called him Fireman, but then Tracey hacked into social media and she christened him with the superhero name Firebrand instead.

Weird thing was, I tried starting this drawing back in January 2016, but that time, I was struggling with how his uniform was supposed to look like AND I got swamped over by homework and stuff, resulting in a huge-ass case of artist's blocks for months and months, so I only finished part of the lineart until just now (late April 2017-Thursday. May. 11, 2017), when I finally got the inspiration and guts to finish the whole thing (even though sadly, it took me about a few months/1 year-ish to even finish). Also, the WEIRDER thing was that, way back before Just a Little Birdy's story was written, I came up with a DIFFERENT superhero name and power/weapons for Barry; I originally wanted to call him Endgame and I planned to give him special gloves/fingerless gloves (?) that would give him the ability to move objects around in thin air with the help of physical motion/gestures and telekinesis just after leaving a signature imprint on it (inspired by video game logic and abilities). Sadly, I had to start my concept over from scratch, as well as the colour palette a few times as soon as Barry became Firebrand (unless like, I don't know, you wanna see Barry as Endgame, maybe?).

So for this outfit, I wanted to give off some kind of connection to Barry's original job as a S.H.I.E.L.D agent, but since he's an Avenger now (with a new alias, too), I wanted him to prove that he is more independent, less restrained by militaristic or spy rules, and have a sense of freedom and individuality, but still connected to the organization he previously (currently?) worked in. The difficult part though, was to not make it super flashy, let alone make it super obvious that his flamethrower-like gun/fire was his weapon (think Johnny Storm's powers/Fantastic 4 uniform, flame-patterned fabrics and clothing, warm colours like red, orange, yellow, etc..); otherwise, it would make him a bigger target for the enemy to attack or notice him. For Barry's uniform, his jacket (don't worry, he's wearing a short-sleeved top underneath) and leggings could be connected together with tiny metal hooks hooking inside the jacket and legging's waistline, as if it looks like a bodyglove/jumpsuit, but it can appear as separate clothing items as well. They are charcoal black (although slightly lighter) and slightly distressed with a bit of a metallic sheen underneath (you know how some leather clothing would have have shiny, iridescent, metallic layers underneath the original black, brown, or gray colour; it's kinda like that), but it's not too obvious. Believe it or not, the jacket was actually based on a black trench coat I owned, which has a high collar like the one Barry's sporting. The collar flaps, as you can see, can be laid flat like the ones from a leather jacket, rolled up to his neck like a turtleneck or scarf for warmth, or even pulled up to cover the lower half of his face like a mask or scarf for warmth, concealing his identity, or (if Stark Industries or other technology allows it) even acting like a gas mask of some kind. The jacket buttons are bright blue, but they could also be navy blue, silver, or black either in plain or the Avengers logo. There's even a darker black pocket on his left side for extra storage, which I got the idea from after randomly discovering a jean pocket from a denim bag I saw on tumblr. :P Since Barry and Tracey are fraternal twin brother and sister, I wanted to create a few similarities and indications that can imply that Barry's related to Tracey (the two uniforms have slightly loose yet form-fitting jacket, tight leggings, the asymmetrical zipper on Barry's right and Tracey's left, the buckles on Barry's left shoulder/his left and Tracey's right shoulder/her right that are inspired by asymmetrical leather jackets and Bucky's Howling Commando's jacket, belt shape, usage of fingerless gloves, and ankle boots), but it's also easy to tell that they're mostly different (by colour schemes, abilities/strengths/skills/themes, button and belt colours, zipper and buckle positions, silhouettes, belt structure, separate vs. attachment pieces, and shades of black in the leather).

The leggings should provide mobility and freedom to move around (and to give Darcy some secret eye-candy, mmm~), while his simple black ankle boots have flat soles, rather than ones with heels, laces, or buckles, so that they're easy to put on. There's a holster with a pouch on his right left while his belt design is actually inspired by chain belts and this ribbon-like version Dan Kuso from Bakugan: New Vestroia wore as his New Vestroia/Vestal outfit (you're gonna have to look him up though, to get the idea); the "chain" is more of a decoration than anything, but it can be attached or detached from the actual belt depending on what Barry's comfortable with. The fingerless gloves are two separate versions; the "outer" layer is technically part of the jacket is based on atheltic stretch tops, running shirts, oversized sleeves, and Quicksilver's/Pietro's (Age of Ultron version)'s blue Under Armor top, while the inner layer is a dark, inky black and they're actual fingerless gloves underneath, which can be worn together or separately for protection and to keep his palms warm.

Now, the most unique part about Barry's uniform are the flame designs that run down from his shoulders to barely touching his hands, from his outer thighs to his ankles. They don't seem too significant at first, UNTIL you actually look at them more closely. At first glance, people might perceive them as normal swirls, but really, they're stylistic designs of flames (ok, I struggled with drawing actual flames for his drawing that doesn't too obvious, is small enough for the size, AND easier to tell that it's fire, so I experimented with swirls and curves like I did with Tracey's hair and ended up creating my own flame designs, which looks really cool). As for the colours, you'd be surprised at how colourful they looked; depending on how Barry moves around, the lighting, angles, or even his emotions, either the entire designs or the individual flames can change colour, which can vary from blues, whites, traditional fire colours of red, orange, and yellow, or even unusual colours like purple, pink, gold, or green. But why those colours? Well, basically, they represent the physical states of fire, which can change into different colours depending on the chemical compositions of burning material, immediate reaction products, chemicals, and temperature. I recommend looking this up to have a better understanding of flame colours and temperatures: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flame. They also reflect the temperment and unpredictability of Barry's personality inside and outside of his missions. Also, the colours COULD also act like a mood ring, in which the flame colours can change and reflect depending on his emotions and mental state. BUT if Tony Stark, S.H.I.E.L.D, or other kinds of technology could make this possible, then the flame designs would also emit and/or reflect heat to keep himself and other people warm, could light up a dark room like reflective tape/glow-in-the-dark clothes and paint/reflective elements like in Pietro's shirt, AND/OR if Barry got manhandled/grabbed/physically in contact with the enemy (human, monster, robots, or otherwise), he can either unleash his anger as a trigger (like how Bruce turns into the Hulk) or use hidden buttons inside his uniform to make himself burst into actual flames that come out via the flame designs to burn or melt the enemy/enemies, but can be cooled off by self-control/calmness/non-angry feelings or the hidden buttons so that they won't burn his actual clothing. Either of the following options depend on @winter-is-ending/Singer of Water and her choices for future stories.

I also managed to provide colour palettes for the overall outfit and the flames (sorry if some parts are cropped up though; I think my parents cut off part of it with Photoshop without telling me -__-), and I tried to practice the jacket collar in two variations (though it's actually three) and Barry's hair with several headshots. The front view made him look like Finnick Odair (or maybe that's just me?) while everything else is either sticky-uppy or loosy and shaggy. (BARRY MADISON, YOUR HAIR IS AN ABOMINATION!!!! NAH, JK, I LOVE YOU EVEN IF YOU HAVE HARD-TO-DRAW HAIR, BRO.) The materials I used were pencil crayons, two different types of pens, a thin fineliner, and a hint of eraser. It took longer to draw Barry compared to Tracey and I had to improve and reinvent a lot of stuff compared to what I originally planned, but I liked the results so far and I hope Mel would like it. *^^*

deviantArt version: http://artist-cupid.deviantart.com/art/Barry-Madison-Avengers-OC-Uniform-Design-680500893?ga_submit_new=10%3A1494763216&ga_type=edit&ga_changes=1&ga_recent=1

Drawing and uniform concept design belongs to me, @sakura-soldier.

Barry Madison/Firebrand belongs to @winter-is-ending/@the-melapedes-main-blog (also known as Singer of Water.

Please don't use my drawing or uniform design without my permission first, thank you.