#irrigone

Bonus fox Felassan because my friend Mori requested it

Oh god ONLY THREE?! god that's like trying to choose my top three ocs [its viridian rowan and edith- dont tell my other babes i said that I love them all equally]

I say this... im not really a pudding kinda girl, I like my sweet treats but I tend not to eat a pudding after a meal ???? I'll more just have a little snack in the afternoon or evening... I had to think so hard about this lololol

Ok anyway !! Will add recipes as well anyone wanted to try and make them

Cornflake tart and warm custard - https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/cornflake_tart_94382

2. Gingerbread men and a cup of tea - https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/gingerbread_men_99096

Well, I delivered a ramble to my cousin just last night that went long enough to end with the colloquial 'thank you for coming to my TED talk', so I feel like I'm obliged to repeat that topic: the recent resurgence of chinoiserie, in interior decorating and also more general aesthetic & trend-y spheres. America is showing its ass on the global stage and our disillusioned youth are distancing themselves from anything that feels too 'murican (understandable) and China is a pretty natural pivot--historically there's been a lot of effort expended to set China up as America's direct cultural rival & contrast. And at the same time, China and Korea both have been doing a ton to increase their global cultural influence. So we're getting chinoiserie again! Just about on schedule, too, if we're assuming the usual two or three decade cycle on fashion.

oc roots asks

5. What did your OC think their life would be like when they grew up? Has it lived up to that expectation?

OPEEEE damn. Well, Bea always thought she'd just be a nomad. She really loved this badass princess warrior from a book her mom would read to her. So, she always thought she'd be going on runs and kicking raffen ass.

Her life has uh obviously not lived up to that expectation. Well, at least not at first. However, nomad life is hard for her to get used to once she becomes clan leader because she didn't really grow up as a nomad. She lived as a nomad for the first 14 years of her life, but the rest was spent in an Arasaka Training Facility so she felt pretty disconnected from it.

She learns a lot from the different clans and families she meets on the road trip, but there are many things that still feel foreign to her, especially some of the insularity. She relies on Miriam for guidance, especially when it comes to some of the Cohen religious observances, but Miriam also welcomes change, having lived with the Aldecaldos and splitting her time between her husband Saul there and the Cohen camp.

8. Were there expectations placed on your OC when they were growing up? Have they lived up to those expectations?

There was some background talk about Bea becoming a future leader of the clan, but it was something that seemed eons away. She was so young and her mom was so young and she couldn't imagine that happening. Her mom was pretty adamant about not allowing anyone to groom Bea for leadership, she wanted her to have a normal nomad childhood.

Her grandpa Seymour Cohen, the leader of the clan at that time, had died the year before she went to Arasaka and so her mom was easing into the leadership. Her dad and the others on the run for the HJKE delivery were going to report back to her mom about how Bea acted because, as much as her mom didn't want to, she did kind of have to start teaching Bea now. So, if things went well on the run then she'd start planning for more runs Bea could go on.

I am a coffee shop writer from way back!

Headphones are my number one piece of advice, and I forgot mine today so I'm struggling to stay on target, hence answering asks. Also I wrote a bunch earlier today so I'm not quite as invested as I would be otherwise.

The location is also important. Do they have enough seating, or will I feel awkward hanging out with a single coffee for awhile? Will they be so busy that even headphones won't be enough to keep me focused?

in an early chapter of arpeggio valerie has a dream:

She dreamt of a bucolic valley, lush and green, with a small village tucked into its breast. She lived in this village for seven years, in a house with chickens in the back and flowering trees in the front. She married a kind village man in the second year, had three children, and lost one. At the end of the seventh year a rain began and did not stop until the valley was flooded and the village and every last child and chicken was washed out to the sea.

Thanks for the asks! :>

[ao3 wrapped questions]

18. The character that gave you the most trouble writing this year?

Probably, Johnny lol. Trying to put myself in the mindset of a teenage boy while also trying to interpret what he might’ve been like when he was younger was a challenge. I know I went off the cannon rails with Smalltown Boy but I’ve never really liked Mike’s assertion that Johnny started off with no humanity and just kept that trajectory until he blew up Arasaka Tower. Like, that’s not an overly compelling character backstory in my opinion. But what do I know?

River is has always been hard for me to write too. Though I think that’s largely overthinking on my part. Again, it’s that straddling of cannon but also inventing stuff that makes sense for the character

29.   Favorite line/passage you wrote this year?

He blinked again, panoptic blue flashing in the dark.

Last line of So It Goes. Simply for the sheer catharsis of it finally being over! And 2 points for using the word “panoptic” in a sentence. In general, I also really enjoyed that last chapter. It was the shortest chapter in the whole fic (about 500ish words) and featured that structural symmetry that I enjoy putting in my work lol. Hats off to unassuming middle men in suits!

30.  Biggest surprise while writing this year?

Getting someone to beta read something for me? (Thanks @luvwich!) I’m bad at asking for things lol. It was a pretty smooth process and overall it was great to get some critical feedback on my writing. I’m still unsure if I’d want a beta for longer projects though just because of how time consuming it can be and also because of how slow I write. I’m usually pretty fed up with my writing by the time I say it’s done enough, so having to do multiple editing passes might actually drive me bonkers. But I’m definitely less reticent to ask on shorter works now.

Ahhhhh thank you so much this is so sweet! Let's see......

🎤- Kerry Eurodyne

Riley and Kerry had a very very rocky start. Kerry is basically Riley's ultimate opposite: the peppy to her moody, the extreme optimist to her extreme realist, the "fuck it, let's blow up a car what's the worst that can happen?" to her "no no no can we please try to come up with a plan I am BEGGING YOU--". Riley's biggest hangup with Kerry is evident in her most core memory of him, where he calls her out of the blue after the Samurai gig and goes "Johnny...?" first, leaving her to awkwardly explain that no, sorry, he's not available, she's gonna have to do, which Kerry shrugs off and goes "okay, yeah, you'll work I guess."

Riley is a bit prickly regarding Kerry's, uh, preference towards Johnny, to the point that she spends the first few weeks of their friendship convinced that Kerry's just waiting for her to shrivel up and die so he can get his best friend back. As a result of that conversation, she pretty much considers that sentiment confirmed in her eyes and thus starts a very awkward companionship where Riley doesn't really even know why she's bothering (the money definitely doesn't hurt, though) and Kerry's just jazzed to have a buddy that enables his destructive ideas in the way Johnny used to. They do eventually become real legit friends and Riley gets over her misgivings around the Dark Matter junket, but they definitely got off on the wrong foot for a while.

🔧- Saul Bright

Oh, Saul. Riley actually likes Saul more than she probably should. After growing up as a very serious, rule-oriented child in a nomad clan, it's natural that she would gravitate towards a very serious, rule-oriented clan leader like Saul, who's stricter than her former Bakkers chieftain Selita but not to the point that it makes him hated among the clan. In truth, Riley is more divided about Saul and Panam's Biotechnica conflict than she would let on, because while she does ultimately think that Panam is right, she doesn't think grand plays of recklessness and mutiny are effective ways of solving it. Regardless, Riley sticks with Panam because she's loyal to a fault for her friends and hey, if she doesn't keep Pan on this side of the living, who's gonna?

The night after Panam and Riley rescue Saul, Riley-- somewhat of a restless sleeper when Raffens are about-- goes to use the bathroom and runs into a similarly wide-awake Saul. The pair of them talk a little 1 v 1, in which Saul kinda-sorta thanks Riley for watching out for Panam and keeping her out of danger, and he tries to pry some more information about her former life as a Bakker to no avail. They talk for a while more until the conversation turns towards Panam again-- in many ways, Saul still views Panam as a child, and is somewhat of the mind that the plan to bust him free was Riley's and not hers. Riley has to put her foot down and set him straight in regards to that too; Hey man, the plan was hers, you may not agree with her approach on shit because I definitely don't sometimes, but Panam gets results and like it or not, she's a person you'd want in your corner rather than out of it, so wise the fuck up and stop tearing her down every chance you get.