#auctoris

"You must return for examination," the Cassian woman said, her voice smoothly gilding her words with leaves of reason. She slid her hand down his forearm, her touch uncomfortably gentle against his chassis, as though he might shatter if she pressed too hard against his plates. When she turned her eyes toward him, a kindness wrinkled her brows and twisted her lips. "You should not have been released so soon after your recovery."

"Agent Sieverx oversaw my release." Auctoris felt his circuits twisting with emotions surging beyond his control, yet he kept his words steady, distant. Although his voice sounded ordinary to him, still it caused the Cassian to narrow her eyes. "My normal functioning has resumed, and I have been cleared to no longer be studied for remaining abnormalities." There — he heard it, his words twisting with a cold annoyance.  The hate swirling within his crystal cores had seeped into his voice.  In her eyes he saw only pity.

"You are not the same," her words twisted as he heard them, changing into their hidden meaning she tried so desperately to coat with politeness.  She thought him broken, like a mechanical toy that a highborn child might play with before tossing aside. If he went with her, perhaps he might learn to see himself the way she did.

ooc; This is a really great question. I’d say that for the most part none of them have fictional characters that inspire them or their personalities/creation too heavily. Normally I go through character creation by coming up with the appearances of my characters before I delve into what makes them who they are instead of having personality inspirations first.

For example with Fredrick, I knew that I wanted to make a character that wasn’t traditionally attractive. He has that adorably giant nose of his, his ruddy cheeks (oh, and the freckles!) and honestly I think he turned out more cute than I intended. But I did make sure to give him a lot of scruff, so that he wouldn’t shave very much out of laziness, and the general appearance of a down-to-earth loner farmer type. Luckily when I created him I had just played a game with a very cowardly character in it who never receives too much character development in that regard, and so I was all focused on that idea when I made Fredrick - the idea of an ordinary guy without any real heroic aims in a society of explorers, fighters, and more. He’s a simple guy at heart, you know? And then I poured in a lot of feelings of isolation into him so that he’d be really, really grateful and happy when he found his place when it came to farming and ranching on Nexus. He doesn’t take his new, laid-back life for granted because he knows how delicate peace is; he’s seen so many Exiles fight and die to protect it. But still he just wants his farm and maybe a family down the line, and he’ll be happy.

I guess he’s sort of inspired by general NPCs in games.

Perseus? I don’t think he has any actual outside character inspiration. He came to me rather fully formed after I created a Dominion character on a whim. If I had to find sources of inspiration, I’d say that I poured a lot of internal struggles and core inconsistencies into him to give him that gritty, raw feeling he gets when he finally lowers his professional exterior. I wanted a character who could break without actually breaking, who carried a lot of hurt but never actually allowed it to take him down.  And also I knew I wanted to create a military character, because the military is very important to my extended family members and I’ve had a lot of exposure to it through that area. I would say most of Perseus’s inspiration comes from giving the man lots of deeply rooted flaws, as well as some strength, and just building him out from there.

Chloe and Auctoris are easy in this regard. After I created Fred and Perseus, I realized that both boys were rather goodie-two-shoes when it came to their governments. They’re not really the types to get involved in any character "underground". Chloe was inspired by both Fred’s backstory (she was always there to begin with) and also my desire to push my writing style and also my normal rp comfort area by getting her involved in all sorts of dastardly plots. Also, I have a love for fashion that Perseus’s meticulous fashion love didn’t really fully scratch, so I was really happy to make Chloe this really simple, Fred-ish character on the surface with lots of simple things that make her happy - but without many of his moral groundings.

By the time I made Auctoris, on a whim, I was still feeling like I needed another antagonist-esque character. He was inspired by a one off joke I made - I mean, I made a mechari who looked rather brutish for a mechari, so I called him a thug. But then I’ve really built him out from that by taking into consideration different things I’ve talked about with friends before - how there really aren’t many traditionally socially adjusted to organics but fighting-smart (not head-smart) mechari around out there, primarily, and so I found that a fun area to play around in during his character development. Also, I was really careful to play around with the idea of being designed for a purpose when it came to him, and I thought about how someone could chafe under the idea of having been gods-crafted into a highly strict empire structure.  And I realized how much potential he has to go into rather dark but fun territory because of the backstory I’ve given him.

i'm not making thug mechari

i'm not —