infinite baths

doing this despite aul being an oc .. i think this is the first time i've posted visual art of him, so, bit of a weird introduction, but there he is :)

#7: thinking about how you don't expect him to emote in a super human way as he doesn't show very many emotions, though what little u can see of his face through the mask anyway, and emotes a little strangely with his body language

the long periods of silence with pauses to type in the chat, where it's just words but you can infer personality ("> well this isn't natural terrain is it") and emotions ("> hmm nothing > aha") perfectly well, both from the words themselves and how/when he types them

that's quite similar to how i imagine aul's "psychic" method of communication is to experience

essentially, he transmits messages, usually through conduits, but sometimes through direct physical contact

long periods of silence where d3r is looking around and would have to stop moving to type, so doesn't -> although he can send messages while doing other stuff, i'd say aul talks with a similar frequency to d3r in the video, and decides to transmit a message for similar reasons to why d3r would stop to talk, if that makes any sense. though i'd say aul is less likely to use a transmission to communicate what he thinks you and he should do/where to go next. he'll just do that with gestures and the like.

words on screen that you can infer personality from -> receiving one of aul's transmissions isn't exactly like hearing a voice, it is much more like seeing text in a chat onscreen, but similarly to how you see letters appear to form words and know d3r is typing them in, which can tell you things through hesitation or unusual typos etc, receiving them does give you a bit more information from aul than simply receiving text would.

there are things you can sense about his messages

the messages d3r types out for the viewer's benefit but doesn't send are also pretty similar to aul's more private transmissions

like i said, aul tends to send transmissions through conduits, which can be most small physical objects including creatures (so a scarf would work, but not a wall)

but he can also just send them directly through physical contact, which takes some more getting used to and that he generally doesn't use for those other than close friends (and sometimes animals perhaps)

this gives you a clearer image and more information in general on tone, emotion etc

and i guess would be much harder to intercept or to catch if he doesn't let you

but in the end both types of "transmission" are pretty similar to d3r's way of communicating in that video . similar to how game chats only take up a small corner of the screen, they're not very all-encompassing, alarming or in-your-face,, and just like in that footage, they're one-way. unless you already had psychic abilities, you can't transmit back.

#4: he can't fight

with the right weapon he'd do fine, well enough to defend himself in a big fight, but he's a bit uncoordinated, easily knocked over and hesitant to exert a lot of force on others

he gets a lot less hesitant in dangerous situations but will still look for alternate solutions

i'd say he's probably a staff fighter when he does

#3: wonder what food he'd like. how picky he'd be/how much taste and texture matter to him.

i can actually imagine him being quite picky when he can afford to be. i think between the two of us he's usually the one amusedly trying to coax me into trying a new or strong tasting food, but that's not to say the inverse could never happen

since he's quite methodical, i can imagine he'd be good at preparing food, but i wonder if it's been a while since he's considered what he eats to be an important thing, outside of getting enough/an acceptable amount of everything (proteins nutrients etc)

he's spent a lot of time interacting with the world through these transient, almost entirely intangible extensions from himself that he can control at will like regular limbs - tendrils, extra lower arms, proboscis, that kind of thing, so his physical body isn't the usual way he reads things (other than his eyesight, for example). so it often looks inactive or motionless, just because he'll naturally go to use that other system for many things. this is also why he's dissociated a lot in the past and has to try to ground himself, as the entire world feels transient to him and he has a hard time distinguishing between real and imagined sometimes.