I was looking for something else in my dribbles folder, but I found this. It's a half-idea and very much unfinished, but I still enjoy it. Ryder x Reyes, but mostly just Ryder dealing with the aftermath of playing with Remtech on his own.
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For a boy that once drunk ryncol and lived, the drop from Lexi's drug cocktail goes right to the top of Auggie’s shittiest experiences ever list. Whether that cocktail is trying to hold back his mind or simply broke fully open and existence simply transcends beyond comprehension, he can only follow its path.
Words stop having any sense of meaning as does time. Every sensation, every sound, explodes around him like ten thousand fractal grenades. It's too much, everything everywhere, and this constant ping ping ping like a broken radar but loud, so loud and no one else seems to hear it and he's pretty sure he's floating outside his body again too. It freaks him out, being too here and nowhere at the same time too.
He can't feel anything at all except the whole of the universe. It’s terrifying.
“It's a side-effect of the Remnant”, a light says and after an eternity or maybe just a moment, it adds, “I think.”
He blinks back into existence.
“You think?!?” Snapping his head up, it doesn’t take long for everything to become too much again and a hand quickly guides it back down again. He faceplants into something soft, solid, warm and another arm or maybe thirty loop around his waist.
It feels familiar, a repeated pattern over time and Auggie feels loved like he’s never been loved before.
“Just stay here.” It speaks gently, stroking what feels like his soul but probably is just his hair. It’s nice, until the first light continues.
“You used a lot of it. Unassisted. Your brain is …It’s trying to cope.”
“I'm gonna puke.”
“No. That’s why you're staying here. Breathe, it'll be fine.“ His favorite light says, gently guiding him back to reality with words and love.
“I like this light.” He pats the space in front of him. The hand stops, for a moment but moments are eternities now and Auggie just whines until it comes back.
“So needy.” But affection laces every syllable.
Nothing else tries to reason with him after that but hand stays put, gently playing with his soul as Auggie falls through a millennium of suspended motion.
When he finally reaches the end, breaking through the film of existence and time begins again and words stop overlying into a millions languages and dialects, Auggie finds himself on the Tempest.
He’s in his room, though not in his bed.
Outside, a dark unnatural planet floats in space, barely visible to the naked eye. Stars burn around and he's curled up against Reyes' chest.
It must be uncomfortable, with his feet up on the desk. That, and Auggie’s scrawny ass can’t be helping any. He weighs nearly nothing, but nearly nothing over a millennium must still be exhausting all the same.
There's still a hand in his hair, and exhaustion tugs his head down again. What's another hour, after all?
Personal headcanon but weight restrictions to be damned, Auggie + Seeley bought as much clothing as their funky little gay hearts could to Andromeda. Auggie def wears his fuck you fuck you fuck you shirt to every meeting with Tann. ‘Sorry, it’s all I got atm,’ he says slipping air out of an empty cup to really drill home how little fucks are given as Seeley just cackles on the other end of SAM’s private channel.
Replaying a bit of Andromeda since my mind doesn’t want to focus atm and god, have I ever mentioned how much I love Auggie’s main gun? It’s just an angora pistol that already packs a heavy punch but I slotted it with a Grenade Launcher too and, it’s, beautiful. I love it. It makes playing so so much fun.
Mainly because it one-hits most everything in a fiery explosion of awesome so fuck learning to aim well. It’s also very Auggie. He’s a subtle oops explosions kinda guy. c:
Auggie is also making a Reluctant Pathfinder Club because he hasn't found a pathfinder yet whose been, you know, excited for the job. :l Plus, he likes Avitus & Vederia so they might as well get together every so often and bitch about the job~.
Haha! Being sick and mentally drained on my mini-vacation was so great but I wanted to get caught with this today so, yeah. I’ll put most of it under a cut though because this got long. Sorry. .___.;;
20 DAYS | What first impressions does Ryder tend to give people? Do they have any ‘odd’ or specific mannerisms, habits or other quirks? How do they present and carry themselves?
Reserved, a bit quiet but not shy and standoffish. Selby definitely doesn’t have the most personable aura when you first met him, I feel. He’s not a dick either, just polite and a bit cold. Seeley is the one person go to for warmth so Selby never felt the need to step up his game tbh. Not sure about quirks yet, but professional comes to mind for carrying himself despite the fact he’s pretty much a shitshow everywhere else in his life.
19 DAYS | Where would Ryder fall in the classic Paragon/Renegade morality system? What would their D&D alignment be? If you know their personality type in any personality typing systems (such as MBTI and Enneagram - you can find various type descriptions and tests using Google), feel free to add and discuss them here.
Paragade, True Neutral and Type Four: The Individualist. I feel like these are all pretty contradictory listed out. Damnit. Okay! For Paragade & True Neutral, Selby just isn’t one for extreme viewpoints. He prefers good to evil. He cares about his family. He doesn’t like hurting people even for job advance. But, he’s not Shepard either. He’s not the type to fight off hordes of Reapers either. He just doesn’t care enough. To quote The Alignment System:
A neutral character does what seems to be a good idea. She doesn't feel strongly one way or the other when it comes to good vs. evil or law vs. chaos. Most neutral characters exhibit a lack of conviction or bias rather than a commitment to neutrality. Such a character thinks of good as better than evil-after all, she would rather have good neighbors and rulers than evil ones. Still, she's not personally committed to upholding good in any abstract or universal way.
This is Selby, basically. :l While he has (some) high ideals in spirit, in act they definitely definitely fall very very flat. Neutral in acts child, forever.
He’s not neutral for his personality though hence Individualist Enneagram. On the inside, kid is rather turbulent with his emotions and self-identity. Just gonna keep quoting sites here, so: Fours are self-aware, sensitive, and reserved. They are emotionally honest, creative, and personal, but can also be moody and self-conscious. Withholding themselves from others due to feeling vulnerable and defective, they can also feel disdainful and exempt from ordinary ways of living. They typically have problems with melancholy, self-indulgence, and self-pity.
One of the basic fears for Type Fours is having no identity or personal significance and Selby feels this so so hard. He has a deep insecurity that he’s only ever gonna be Alec Ryder’s son and never Selby Ryder. He really just wants to find himself and find people who can see him as Selby first, not a Ryder.
As for MTBI types, maybe INTJ? It’s the closest I feel for him, but it hasn’t clicked-clicked yet. Kid is also a hardcore Pisces, just saying.
18 DAYS | What qualities does Ryder like and dislike in other people? Are there any things they particularly appreciate or can’t stand?
Selby likes warm and positive people so so much. ;;v;; <33 He knows he’s not super at the emotions and feelings thing, so he truly appreciates people who can do emotions and aren’t annoyed by his occasional moodiness too. Like, he gets distant people but as a distant person, he needs people who will pull him outside his comfort zone.
He’s also easily charmed by bright and charismatic guys. It’s kinda ridiculous at times, but he’s normally staved for affection outside of Seeley and his moms so. He falls hard, every time.
As for not being able to stand, ah? Needlessly cruel people? People who use others with no regards for their personal being? Like, he comes off as distant and cold but kid was a very gooey center. He’s just bad at showing and implying it to situations. Also, anyone who harps on being Alec’s son will irk him so so much. I fear this will be most of the crew. Please please let them see Selby as Selby.
17 DAYS | List some of Ryder’s favorite things - colors, food, music, etc. Is there anything of this nature that they hate? Do they have any hobbies or skills outside of combat?
Color, he loves loves loves teal and yellow. Like, kid def has a pair of yellow chucks. He probably has multiple pairs of yellow chucks. Black & red though are nos. Just not his thing.
Food, fresh fruit! He doesn’t care what kind of fruit as long as it’s fresh though he really loves peaches. I imagine despite it being the future and all, growing up on the Citadel meant fresh fruit was expensive and thus a rare treat. <3 On the other coin, freeze-dried rations and just plain food in general. He just likes flavor?
Music, everything? It’s the future! All music is good music! I think he’d dig learning about the music of other races because why not though in his heart of hearts, he loves shitty Earth pop music and noisey rock like Modest Mouse & Los Campesinos!. Wiki says they’re both just indie rock/pop & alt rock. I feel there’s a better genre than that but whatevs.
As for hobbies? I wanna say love. He likes love and dating and daydreaming about finding the perfect person and all the love they could have together. For that, he does love romance novels a lot (secretly) and studying maps (not so secretly). Cartography is just so cool especially in space, yeah? Space in general he loves hence why he left the Milky Way for Andromeda. Sure, he wanted to escape a shit-bad break-up, a lot, a lot a lot, but seeing a new galaxy tugged at him too.
What are Ryder’s personality traits? Describe 5 strengths and 5 flaws
I’m not great at dividing traits into strengths and flaws (because it’s really flip-floppy in my head) but these are some of Ryder’s traits. He’s a romantic, the hopeless kind. He just falls hard for people and his internal world is a bit of the ‘suggestive of an idealized view of reality’ kind, to quote a dictionary. It’s kinda funny because he keeps his romanticism pretty lock-n-key’d up. Seeley knows about it (all too much), but most other people probably wouldn’t have a clue.
More people would probably peg his incisive and stubborn nature more easily. He likes to figure things out and if he can’t… Well, he’ll keep it out until it breaks and someone distracts him when something better. It’s his excellent work ethic at play, though he’s not very unambitious. He just likes to see what happens instead of marking off a checklist of things to do. Kid is also loyal as dicks, though that loyalty can be hard-won. Sometimes. He’s still a romantic deep down inside, after all~
Are you going to use the default appearance or create a custom Ryder? If custom, describe your Ryder’s physical appearance (hair color, eye color, skin color, height, weight, facial features, any scars or tattoos, racial origin, etc). If you have art and/or a face-claim, feel free to add them here.
Custom Ryder that best that I can! I tend to bond with my characters better when I can create them myself~. I’m not sold on any ideas for Auggie yet (except that he’s on the shorter side of tall) mostly because I’d like to see the options available to us first. Plus, it’s always fun playing around with options instead of going in with a set plan. That being said, I’ve been using Micky Ayoub as a stand in face for him? I like his vibe for Auggie quite a bit. c:
I do hope they add the options of freckles and maybe tattoos in ME:A though. o: I’d love to be able to cover Auggie in a million freckles and tattoos~. <3
What is your Ryder’s name? Why did you pick this name - is there a meaning or origin story behind it? Do they go by any nicknames? What would you name their sibling, father and mother if you were able to choose?
Auggie Viridian Ryder. Originally, I had been planning to pick one name that went with Scott and one to go with Sarah. Selby was the name I originally picked for my SisRyder just because I liked how it went with Scott but when I stumbled over Seeley and the horrible combo of Selby & Seeley, I gave up that up and just went wild with my own canon with the Ryder twins. :’l SisRyder ended up stealing Seeley, so. Yeah. Selby’s name origin.
Which I later changed to Auggie because cute. :’l
Viridian is from Pokemon and Seeley has Olivine as her middle name too. Their moms just really liked pokemon and played a lot of it during their mutual pregnancies and named their kids after their favorite cities from it? Nerds.
I’m okay with sticking with Alec for Dad but Sarah will always be Seeley Olivine to me and I dearly love their little polyamorous family in my head. <3
