It's A Rat Party!

Welcome to the Rat Party! This is a sideblog for ratasum, where I plan to answer asks IC with mostly sketches and some screenshots, focused around three of my mains! Feel free to drop any of them asks.

[sharkratparty]

Welcome to the Rat Party!

A sideblog for @ratasum to answer questions IC, with sketches and periodic screenshots, for three of my mains (with periodic appearances of Leyya's lovely wife, Zojja). Rules and introductions will be listed below.

A brief introduction to the three asura you can ask questions of on this blog:

Leyya of Pruri (trans woman, she/her, lesbian) A skilled associate within the Order of Whispers, Leyya was Zojja's childhood best friend and grew up alongside her. They remained close despite going into different colleges, and as things started heating up during the Personal Story, Leyya served as something of a liaison, keeping track of the Commander during her work with the Order of Whispers. Between getting a kryptis stuck in her head in Heart of Thorns, her long hiatus with Zojja in Lion's Arch after, and her near death during SotO after her possession overtook her, she's had a time. She's still extremely friendly and a little goofy, spending her days as (in her words) "Zojja's trophy housewife" while Zojja tackles her new job as a councilor. Currently, Leyya is helping to raise her baby sister Chuui after winning custody from her father.

Kippa of Suzzi (cis woman, she/her, demisexual) Originally from the lost asuran city of Rata Thauma, a cube that was above the doomed Thaumanova Reactor an was destroyed when it exploded, Kippa lost her entire family with the exception of her uncle, Steward Gixx of the Durmand Priory. She started traveling with Rhenn when he took on the role of Commander, distrustful of him initially. Over time, as Rhenn grew away from the Inquest and Kippa got to know him, a rapport grew between them, growing into attraction much later. During Icebrood Saga into End of Dragons, she discovered her terrifyingly powerful healing magic was - in fact - a result of her connection to the Elder Dragons, coming into her own as the Oracle of Aurene. She served as the Wayfinder during SotO, though currently she's taken a back seat after the birth of she and Rhenn's first child, their daughter Suzzi.

Rhenn of No One (cis man, he/him, bisexual) Born and raised in the Inquest, Rhenn spent most of his life in the shadow of his father Overseer Prikk in the Applied Maginetics lab in Metrica Province. He spent his entire life thinking that he was just a normal asura growing up within the megakrewe. When his father sent him out to approach the Priory after the disastrous mission on Claw Island, he just thought he was completing the Inquest's mission. Followed by his "assistant," a captive charr named Iuno, and the soft spoken Priory healer Kippa, he worked his way through his time as Commander, growing further away from the Inquest as he realized how wrong his understanding had been. It wasn't until S4 that he learned he was designed to be a weapon, grown in a lab to be the proof of concept for a line of custom made super soldiers for the Inquest, his resulting furious outburst causing him to crush his father's head with his hammer. Though he took the sideline during SotO, he's back to it in Janthir Wilds.

RULES

You can be flirty but remember they're all in relationships! You can ask about characters related to them, as well (like asking Leyya about Zojja or her family, Kippa about Gixx or her lost family in Rata Thauma, or Rhenn about his parents or lost sister).

PG13 at best; I do draw adult work but I won't be drawing any for this blog in particular.

I'll answer antagonizing stuff but I'll cut it off if it gets too mean/nasty.

Canon events may be different! Feel free to needle into them!

THERE WILL BE SPOILERS and they won't be under cuts. Please be aware of this.

More may be added but I think this is fine for now.

[sharkratparty]

Rhenn, how do you feel about Aurene in the context of the both of you lacking a natural upbringing? I know it's not fair at all to compare her time with the Exalted to your experiences with the Inquest, but do you ever wonder what she would have been like, had she grown up a free dragon?

Though, I suppose destiny is a leash which is the hardest to shake of them all.

"I think about Aurene's early months a lot in that regard, honestly.

Neither of us ever had a choice in how we were born or who we became. Yeah, people can argue "oh you chose to leave the Inquest, to stay commander," but that's not the point. I was designed to be a weapon. Everything Prikk did was to mold me into a perfect soldier, the pinnacle of what an asura could be. And that's what I became.

On the same path, Aurene was meant from the moment she cracked her shell to be the filter for all magic in Tyria. To save the world from the threat of her own family. She never got to be a kid.

Neither of us did.

From day one, we were meant for something other people wanted us to be, and neither of us could ever escape that.

If I'm being honest with you, I think Aurene coming into my life was the real moment I started to feel like something was... off with how I was raised. I hid from it for the longest time, and... I think that's why she pulled on the leash too.

I did my best to give Aurene a childhood she deserved. One I never got, and I knew would be stolen from her at the earliest opportunity. It wasn't a lot. I tried.

I think... I think that's what tied us together, at first. Both of us realized, as we grew together, that we couldn't escape from what we existed to be. A savior. A weapon. Regardless of how we tried to shape that future, either one of us, it was never something we could escape. We both knew that.

So... yeah. I do think a lot about how she may have grown if she wasn't tethered by her destiny. By what she was meant to be at the hands of others. I think a lot about that for myself, too. Being able to become our own people. Make our own choices! To live a life free of tethers and leashes and other people putting chains around our necks! It's so intoxicating to think about. I dream about it, sometimes.

But in the end... we couldn't escape what we were. Aurene was always going to be Tyria's last hope. I was always going to be a weapon, swung at any threat whenever someone needed it destroyed. There's no escaping that. For either of us."

[sharkratparty]

Two asks have been answered; we are OFFICIALLY STARTED.

Feel free to ask any of these three whatever you'd like! I may not be fast but I'll do it.

[sharkratparty]

I've got one ask left I'm working on today! Feel free to pester them about anything; it's what they're here for!

[sharkratparty]

Question for all three if they don't mind, but what's their favorite holiday and what do they like best about said holiday?

[sharkratparty]

Hey now Rhenn, they were just trying to make you stronger. you should take that as a gift.

-Halik

(she's inquest)

"Here's the thing: they weren't trying to make me stronger.

My "dad" was the overseer of the Applied Maginetics lab, and his entire mission was to create genetically enhanced super soldiers from scratch, following the requests of important members of the Inquest. I wasn't meant to be a strong person, or even a person at all. I was designed from the ground up, grown from harvested genetic material in a tube, to be a weapon with someone else holding my leash.

Prikk didn't want a son. He didn't want an independent child. He wanted an obedient tool, a hammer meant to be swung with force at whatever he decided needed destroyed. The only reason I'm where I am now is that he forgot one very important detail: a living weapon can realize it can take the leash back itself.

Sure. The experiments he performed on me, all the unethical surgeries and pointless fights and spars and strict orders, turned me into a weapon. I'm stronger, faster, more resilient than any other asura you'll ever meet. I don't get sick. I can go longer without getting tired. Most toxins have no effect on me. I am strong. But those things aren't what make me strong.

That's my integrity. My will to be my own person, my love for my friends and family. Their love for me. Hell, even Zojja, for as much as she and I constantly butt heads, came to have the faith in me that helped me get the hell away from that mess.

The Inquest only sees strength as something they can use. I know now that it's a lot more than that.

They weren't trying to make me stronger. I did that on my own."

[sharkratparty]

Kippa! you in big boom too? the big fire boom! boom was scary .......

-Tre'ach'tchik

(tick got too close to the Thaumanova Reactor explosion and got elementalist powers from it)

(he's a skritt)

"Oh! No no, I wasn't in the explosion myself. You see, before the big explosion, there was a city far above the reactor called Rata Thauma, and I grew up there. I was at the Durmand Priory when it happened, but the city as completely destroyed, and my family...

...anyway. I can't imagine how scary that must've been for you. It was big enough to destroy the entirety of the city, and contaminated so much of that area with magical fallout. The Inquest certainly did a number on a lot of lives that day, but I think that the fact we're here at all is just as important a thing to remember as all the bad things that happened that day, you know?"

[sharkratparty]

Two asks have been answered; we are OFFICIALLY STARTED.

Feel free to ask any of these three whatever you'd like! I may not be fast but I'll do it.

[sharkratparty]

Rhen and Kippa, how's life been as new parents?

(R) "Honestly? It's kind of amazing. I mean, it's exhausting sure, but Suzzi's the best thing that's happened in my life since I met Kippa. With all the work I'm doing in Janthir lately, I haven't spent as much time with her and Kips as I should, but I try to take breaks as often as I can to help."

(K) "I don't mind. I get to listen in on the most interesting things during Alliance meetings, since I'm technically Isgarren's liaison anyway. And it does help that Lyhr is very fond of me. He's taken with Suzzi, and whenever he checks in he takes her off my hands to tote her around. You'd think he was her grandpa the way he acts."

(R) "And she's smart as hell! I mean sure she's not making full words yet, but it's clear she recognizes things and can point out things we tell her. Pretty common for progeny, I know, but I'll bet she'll be talking before too long. It's so wild to me how fast she picks things up. I just hope I don't miss any big milestones."

(K) "As if I'd let you. Yao did lend me that holo-recorder... it works so much better than the old one Uncle Gixx has in his collection back at the Priory. Even if you're not there, you'll get to see it regardless."

(R) "And I do appreciate that, beautiful- that being said? It's a lot of sleepless nights, sure, but it's exciting all the same. Watching her become her own little person is the best thing in the world, and we're both looking forward to where she goes from here."

[sharkratparty]

Leyya, do you know where Zojja is? I can't seem to find her

"As much as I'd like to tell you that she's off on some grand adventure, she's honestly just spending most of her time tangled up in red tape with the council. Especially considering how much she's been needling Ludo during all the Tyrian Alliance nonsense.

And to be fair, she's glad she has the position. She can push back on Flax and Yahk, and she's always keeping an ear out for... you know. Interesting gossip I can share with my good friends.

But most of the time it's listening to fiscal reports, going over budgets, being the tangle vote that keeps the Inquest from scrabbling back too much power, and making sure the less progressive councilors don't try to take advantage of our new alliance with the rest of Tyria's major world powers.

I just wish she'd take the time to get some more sleep. She comes home exhausted constantly, then goes straight to tutoring Chuui. She keeps falling asleep on the couch during dinner.

But... yeah. If you really need to talk to her, I'd check the council chambers first."