41: free translator by the books

im gonna do birddog for my other choice hehe!!

👻 GHOST - do they believe in ghosts? what are their “ghostly experiences”, if any?

oh phenomenal question. like functionally samira Has to believe in ghosts because the reson she's doing all of this is like stupid desperate hope that the synapse will show her a vision of her dead sister. which isnt how the synapse works but its what she needs so bad. however she has never had any ghostly experiences, and i dont think she ever will!!! i always go back and forth on if ibtihaj's ghost actually shows up during the course of signoise or not but right now im firmly in 'no'.

i think the definition of 'ghost' is weird for birdie - both her and most of the people she knows are able to physically come back to life, so seeing them again after death isn't abnormal for her. i think if she saw something that she understood as a ghost she would be DEEPLY unsettled

🍧 SHAVED ICE - do they still have any objects from their childhood? what significance does it have to them? what would their reaction be if they lost it?

i dont think samira does!!! the amount to which samira is outright dismissive of, cagey about, and has disregarded her own history is notable for the fact shes a historian and also a thing she's specifically thought about. she is so interested in keeping records that she knows very well that she does not want to leave one of her own for someone else to find and interpret. the act of being interpreted is so frightening to samira (HYPOCRITE!!!!!)

erika take my hand we’re going to the mar!!!! fucked up cave world yay!!

the mar is a…place? supernatural effect on the world? miasma? conceptual realm? physical fallout? something like that. that exists side by side (or above/below) the ‘physical’ world in west faraday. the two are concurrent everywhere, but there are places where the mar is ‘more concentrated’ (for example, the synapse to the east of lariat) and places where it’s ‘less concentrated’ or ‘stabilized’ (such as the areas around most major cities). what the mar is, actually, is a lot of things at the same time: a realm of sheer chance and probability, a preserved history of the world that used to be, a possible future, an impression of thought, the conceptual made real. it’s a place built by the impressions and perceptions of itself. its the shadows on the cave wall in plato’s cave if the shadows were the true things and the things casting them were false.

which is to say. it’s weird in there!

functionally, it looks a lot like a cave and acts a lot like a cave because, like a cave, it is 1. difficult to navigate 2. easy to die in 3. bends your understanding of how the world should work 4. is often familiar enough to be compelling but unfamiliar enough to be dangerous 5. dark 6. removed from, but still a part of, the world around it 7. has a lot of historical context in the way different people over time understand, interact with, and use it. it is also (like a cave) just as often stunningly beautiful and shockingly revelatory, and there’s a very good reason that the people who dive in it are often compelled to keep going back.

it is very likely a leftover effect of the very very first apocalypse that destroyed this world, but that was like 400 apocalypses ago so that’s a hard maybe. it’s also very commonly thought to be the source of subsequent apocalypses, which is probably sometimes true but not always.

what is hell to the god that you pray to? either way tell the devil ‘just trust us’ don’t expect anybody would’ve saved you bloodlust tastes a little like justice

bloodlust, left at london

a distant galaxy dangling in the dark hope that floats above the deep and the only way out is where we fell in but i can’t swim.

14. Any favorite motifs i looooooove animal/nature visual metaphors (i especially really like specifically like seabirds and ants) and duplicating lineart + fucking with colors to make like ghostly copies

20. Something everyone else finds hard to draw but you enjoy

it's overwhelming sometimes when you're all alone and you can't tell if you're floating or falling out of place like the astronaut calls a little dot a home like he can tell from outer space

omg hi erika!!! no such thing as too late :D

25. Do they have a daily/nightly routine?

sam: YES. oh my god yes. literally even when she lives alone on that tower and has fuckall to do she'll plan out like every hour of her day, so she for sure has a daily + nightly routine!!! it's nothing too long or complicated but also she has to do every step of it. even on their journey she tends to wake up before anyone else just to do her little routine every day!!!

melanie: yes, but more on the side of 'survival necessity' than anything else!! she's used to traveling and knows well the things she needs to keep an eye on/get set up correctly/double check daily in order to stay safe!!! most of this stuff is so second nature to her she barely thinks of it as a routine

emily: pretty similar to above, but mel tends to be a little more rigid in her routine than em, em does things a little more out of order!! em tends to over rely on the fact that mel is overprepared, which is a bit of an issue when she's traveling with other people

jackie: i think they have like one extremely specific ritual they do every morning, but i don't know what it is bc im coming up with this right now. something related to their family or their home or something along those lines, more as a type of memorial than anything else

grace: eh. not really. i think mostly bc of various mental illnesses that make that incredibly difficult for her, but still

darcy: the most minimal bare bones routine possible to give him like. Some semblance of structure but its literally like. brushed my teeth OK routine done

higgs: higgs lives most of her life on a very strict routine (just out of familiarity of habit than anything else), so i imagine she does also have a morning and night routine!! she makes up arbitrary times to do these when on other planets/in space

tachyon: guy never knows what time of day it is. doesn't know how time in space even works. hes running on vibes he has no idea what a routine is.

hedge: wakes up. smokes one loose cigarette that she finds in her ship console. ready to face the day