#lyallocask

🍑  :    how meticulously does my muse look after their physical appearance?  do they spend a lot of time on their hair,  makeup,  grooming,  and clothing?  is there a particular reason why they do or don’t? 

When Mel was a teenager he actually cared a lot, probably too much, about his appearance.

Serena would make jokes about the fact that he needed twice as long in the bathroom as her just to do his hair alone. That was slightly exaggerated on her end though.

To Mel focusing on his appearance was mainly an attempt to get his insecurities and dislike for himself under control. He had certain (sometimes rather conflicting) images in his head of how he wanted or was supposed to look but despite his best efforts he could never quite get it right.

These days Mel isn't really in a position to focus or at the very least do anything about his appearance, given his living situation. It's still on his mind from time to time though...it's a complicated subject all around for him.

The only time he sees himself is in the crusty bathroom mirrors of public toilets or when he passes a storefront window, and while he doesn't go out of his way to avoid it he's still not overly keen on perceiving himself.

Nowadays he switches between being completely disconnected from his appearance to  feeling immense shame and self hatred to getting a grim kind of gratification from that.

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Lyall

🥝  :    does my muse have any  ‘  unusual  ’  habits,  interests,  and  /  or talents?  do they hide it,  or are they proud of it? 

Lyall almost has a sixth sense for people. He can observe a person and assess how they feel, what they fear, what they want, what they need. And 9 our of 10 times he's correct with his assumption.

Although he perceives it as a gift (as well as a curse) to some degree he's still not proud of it for two reasons

1) it has a pretty grim background. It mostly stems from the fact that he had to assess his surroundings almost constantly as a child. Being able to read the room was necessary for survival to him.

2) He feels that being proud of it would cloud his judgement and hinder him more than anything.

He's also got a knack for solving riddles, puzzles, brain teasers of any kind. (Something he used to annoy Alev with on occasion when she was still a kid)

Again, not something he's particularly proud of. Although he thinks it speaks for his ability to think outside the box and not take everything at face value, which he definitely is proud of although he probably wourdn't admit it.

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Roland

🥭  :    how important to my muse is their hometown,  or where they’re from?  are they proud of it,  or considered a hometown hero?  did they move away,  or do they wish to?

Roland has always been a bit of an involuntary drifter at heart. He finds it difficult to build connections to places.

The city he was born in, Omsk he has absolutely no connection towards anymore. He moved away from there when he was very young and he's only been there once since, because he wanted to know what it's like. But it just didn't feel like home to him.

Dublin, where he grew up, also doesn't have much meaning too him anymore.

His parents cast him out after his discharge from the military which basically eradicated any feeling of home he had for this place.

Lyall

2. How long was the process before the character reached its final version? (or a version that would be clearly recognizable as the character?)

Incredibly long. I talked about his process a bit in my "silver children post" and most of it still rings true:

"Lyall's character has been in the making for quite some time and he has given me a fuckin headache throughout most of that process. But it's also been an incredibly interesting experience. He's went through a shit ton of changes. "

I think the biggest challenge for me was that I wanted him to look likeable...but also like someone you don't wanna fuck with.

I wanted to create a character who has the ability to draw people in, make them look up to him, despite being in need of guidance himself deep down, someone who generally has good intentions or ideals but is pushed into straying from those by his environment and lack of proper support and I wanted his looks to match that in a way.

When I initially tweaked all my Sims big time in like 2019 I had real issues finding a fitting look/ face for Lyall that didn't make him look hella unsympathetic. It took until I watched my sister play Detroit Become Human, I found the character Markus portrayed by Jesse Williams to kind of fit the vibe I was going for and sorta went from there.

Details like his eye prosthetic, and face tattoo were more of an accident/ me just working with what I had. I remember the only reason I removed his eye was because I initially fucked up his eye texture, but at this point he looks sorta naked to me without either xD

Truth is i'm still not 100% satisfied with the way he looks in sims, I'm probably gonna tweak him a bit more before he becomes a more essential character. But I'm very content with his general appearance and don't wanna change that. I'm also happy I manage to recreate him in other games fairly well (unlike Mel xD)

9. How big is their role in the story? Do they make a frequent appearance or are they a character with little "screentime" but big influence? Or are they just a favourite background guy?

His role in Volatile is actually rather big, although it might not seem like that at this point. I wouldn't even know what to label his role in the story, I'd say at some point he becomes the main antagonist of sorts. Then again that's subjective in my opinion.

He will make a lot of appearances in the Volatile memory chapters that explain what happened to Mel after he ran away from the children's home, and those chapters will also introduce a major story arc in the present chapters (that I won't dive into just yet) that goes beyond Mel's more introspective storyline.

He will also make more major appearances at the end of Volatile (which I'll doubt I'll ever reach but oh well)

Serena

3.What was the first thing you decided on, the character's name, appearance, personality or their role in the story?

The first thing I decided on Serena was weirdly enough that she would have the pyromaniac trait You know that hidden trait you get in sims 3 if you have a child with a firefighter?

Basically when I created my Death Note knock off orphanage, I wanted all the kids to have unique or special abilities of some sort...and Serena had the ability to start fires from nothing while Roy had the ability to control them (a pattern that is still kind of present with them in other areas of life I'd say.)

Obviously she doesn't have that trait anymore nor does she have any pyromanic tendencies, apart from maybe fiddling excessively with her lighter every now and then but it's what got her character creation rolling.

The second thing was her appearance, which I've upgraded since then but really hasn't changed that much. Especially her teenage version. She even has the same hairstyle Serena had when I first created her xD

4. And reverse, which one of the four things did you struggle with the most?

I remember really struggling getting her skin texture just right. It took a lot of blending and tweaking until I reached a point where I was like yep, this is it.

Roland

7. What is an aspect of their appearance that you like the most?

Hard to say tbh, there's nothing I really dislike about his appearance (apart from my shoddy skin making maybe)

If I had to choose I'd probably say his eyes. I think they're hella expressive.

16. Is there any memes or running jokes associated with the character, both in- and out of universe?

There are a few I'd say xD

For one, his inability to keep swear words out of his vocabulary or censoring himself last minute and generally being a rather unconventional role model in front of smol Mel is a running joke with him I very much enjoy.

Then there's an endless debate between Mel and Serena about what his neck tattoo means. Serena is convinced that it stands for "swift vent kick" aka kicking someone in the crotch. While Mel assumes it's the name of a sniper rifle. Neither of them know for sure though and they have never dared to ask.

As for outside memes...i can't help but think of Roland whenever I see the Ben Affleck smoking meme.

You know this one

"If you want peace, prepare for war"

~Latin quote he got tattooed on his back)

"Sometimes you have to break the lamb's legs to keep it from straying."

~something his father said when he was fairly young that's been ingrained in his mind ever since.

"I am dirty, Milena, endlessly dirty, that is why I make such a fuss about cleanliness. None sing as purely as those in deepest hell; it is their singing we take for the singing of angels."

~quote from Franz Kafka

"I pick the broken dreams that hang in city centre trees. All the love made urgently that gathers in the gutters of your mind"

~lyrics from 'White Noise White Heat' by Elbow

"If luck follows the wicked, I'm a lucky man. If hope is for the true, then I'm hopeless, my friend."

~lyrics from 'Golden Liar' by Zeal and Ardor

"If you're frightened of dying and you're holding on, you'll see devils tearing your life away. But if you've made your peace, then the devils are really angels freeing you from the earth"