#vitacus

16: What would your characters be for Halloween?

HANDILY I’ve done this:

They’re meant to be ‘Popular Gothic Human Couple,’ but who knows if The Addams Family is rebooted in the 2190s? This party was just casual talking and boardgames- definitely happened after Sirens & Selkies, Kolyat wouldn’t invite anyone from work to his home around Repetitions. The other guests:

Bats would be something half-assed, like turns up in a bed sheet and says it’s Athame’s handmaiden, where’s the booze. He’s also secretly pleased about the Bats decorations Ori made and steals them after

Hoorik forgets and/or runs out of time, but she would turn up late with good whisky she hides from Bats.

Fish got to the highest point of the apartment to watch it all, and hissed at anyone who dared to approach her. Kolyat was very nervous about her being upset, and thought about shutting her in his bedroom- but she was quite content to people watch in safety and put the peasants in their place.

Patel goes all out, to an embarrassing level. Full on handmade Dracula with plastic cape and theatrical yelling, even refusing to take out his fangs to talk.

Vitacus joins in on the fun and is the kind of costume he always has to explain as no one gets it, an obscure background character from a turian movie. He also turned up with fun boardgames (ones you can play drunk and in groups, not stuffy chess and patix like Kolyat plays) which saves the evening. Ori even calls him her hero!

Phalia does something amazingly perfect, like a professional recreation of a Fleet & Flotilla costume, and probably recycles it after for her son’s many after school activities.

My HC for 2190 Halloween is that it just isn’t celebrated much anymore, Ori certainly doesn’t, but because it’s a fun theme most races understand (candy? Costumes? Fun!) humans throw the occasional party in interspecies gatherings.

Turians aren’t so keen on the parading of the dead- so zombies/spirits are a very strict no at Halloween functions. But dressing up as the equivalent of 2190s Batman? A-OK, that’s fun.

17: Does your WIP have any themes or motifs?

Yes, and some of them just happened:

Immigration guilt filtered through being a minority in C-Space

Construction and rebuilding

Moving on from trauma

I’m not in love, so don’t forget

Loneliness in a busy Ward city, and making connections in it

Background hum of politics: drell, Council, C-Sec

The usual homicide and violent crime, this time a curious case of a mould that kills

19: Post a picture or gif that describes your WIP

I tried to mash a gif with all the covers but it didn’t work, so have the last chapter covers:

20: Post a brief excerpt:

The holotape of a crime scene perimeter glimmered over the apartment door. Behind it, Phoy Calisi had crammed the walls and surfaces with dusty knickknacks and hand-made mementos, hardly keeping to the fanatical Siarist beliefs about limited possessions.

A mass of plain frames in the living room took up most of the space, though the holos were switched off. Even the furniture bent to face them, a mute congregation set around an altar.

“Happier times,” Patel said, tapping the glass to wake up the screens. Images of Phoy and her children scrolled by in holo, a pre-war life of colony vacations and outdoor hiking. “Her daughters were on Thessia. Didn’t make it.”

“So it’s a shrine,” I replied. Other species were strange about the remembrance of their dead; even Ori thought of her parents in odd ways.

-the cursor blinked. I had to send out invitations to people Father knew for his memorial service, a weird fucking custom. What was I meant to say?  Who would know- Shepard, she would. Did he even have other friends but her, what-

If you could forget the face of your family, would drell think the same?

11. Intellectual pursuits?

Hoorik: reads heavily, a wide mix of subjects; anything and everything. Gardens too.

Bats: arguing on the extranet about Thessian anime. I’m mostly kidding, Bats knows an awful lot about biotics.

Patel: reads too, does puzzles. Is in charge of the precinct’s quiz nights at the local bar. 

Vitacus: getting his ass handed to him by his sister in the weird turian math-based game they play.

28.  Who do they see as their best friend? Their worst enemy?

Hoorik: old friend back home, survived the war. Still keep in touch.

Bats: That’ll be Kolyat, for his sins.

Patel: his wife.

Vitacus: old friend back in his unit, not seen her in awhile though.

eta: their enemies are numerous, they’re cops. Personal enemies, not so much. unless Patel cursing at the man who ALWAYS TAKES THE POWDERED MILK AT THE RATION DEPOT ALWAYS HIM counts?

Name one thing their parents taught them.

Measure twice, cut once. His parents are engineers, but Siso found his calling as a detective. His father is an absent minded genius specialising in economising fuel cells, and creates an important device that cuts down on energy waste; very important for Postwar building. 

Papa Vitacus is a bit useless at practical family living, though. The kind of man to wander off and leave the stove on, that sort of thing. His wife (also a smart, capable engineer in her own right) usually has to follow her husband with a sigh and a broom to clean up the mess.

Would they agree with the term ‘guilty pleasure’? Do they have any?

Siso doesn’t have guilty pleasures, he has fun. The things that he likes people would associate with guilty pleasure, like:

shitty turian marital art films

dance/house music

dancing at sticky bars with too much neon

Well, that’s an average weekend for Siso. Even his interest in humans he’s been open about.

Do they like children?

Yep! Would even like his own, eventually.

2. what is the most attractive part of their personality?

Siso: To quote @capt-biglou​: 

Bats: you either love or loathe them, but if you meet them you have to admit they have charisma. They can be fairly odious, but can get away with it.

3. what benefits come with being their friend?

Siso: the friend who makes sure your plants are watered, the friend to go dancing, the friend to take to Ikea (or Ikius, as it’s known in my world), the friend who loves to go to restaurants, the friend who actually likes dinner parties and board game nights, the friend who will listen to heartache, the friend who will be torn from joining in on your shenanigans, or cuffing you for them.

Bats: the friend to give you a goddamn night out to remember, the friend to introduce to you weird sticky bars, the friend you can dare to climb the krogan statue and they will, the friend who will send you porn, the friend with the shitty apartment you can vid-game and pizza in, the friend who will stick your hand in a warm bucket of water if you black out, the friend with the questionable girlfriends…

Both of these will be your ride or dies, too. Very loyal.

4. what parts of them do they like and dislike?

Siso: Doesn’t like his mandibles, wishes they were more interesting. He thinks he got great legs, though, and knows he’s got an innocent-looking face and will use it.

Bats: They hide their self-loathing well, but the part of them that remembers. They don’t like that. He also hates how short he is, wishes he was a little bit taller (wish he was a baller, wish he had a girl who look good he would call her…)

5. what parts of others do they envy? 

Siso: He wishes he had swagger and was suave. He knows he’s goofy.

Bats: Tiddies. Bigger tiddies. Torn between wanting them and having them.

L is for Lemons

1. what is their favourite fruit?

Siso: whatever is in the awful neon T’sarli drinks he loves, the equivalent of a slushie from a 7/11.

Bats: whatever booze comes from.

2. what is their least favourite fruit?

Siso: he’s not that fussed over a certain kind of thorned Palaven fruit. His brother and him used to use them as grenades in their mother’s garden.

Bats: actual fruit- “who eats that shit? I ain’t got time.”

3. are there any foods they hate?

Siso: MREs.

Bats: paste-in-tube most biotics carry for instant fuel, hates the stuff.

4. do they have any food intolerances?

Both: not that I am aware of

5. what is their favourite food? 

Siso: he’s an odd one with this; loves the turian equivalent of a 7-11 garbage hotdog and slush, but can be a snob about “cuisine” and go full restaurant critic on a place that tries to hard. 

Bats: B U R R I T O S son.

Actually all the squad (including Kolyat) love junk food; grease is their common bond.

@drellvhen I hope you don’t mind if I don’t do N and P, I’ve done them before. Thanks for the ask though, this one was fun!