#autumn.ask

[aurora-radiation-zone]

How do you characterize him, then? 👀 - Ryley

thank you for asking! i do have some general notes here but since i'm working on fic-specific stuff i'll try to keep it focused to that now!

also this got long so it's going under the cut (oops)

at the beginning of the fic, ryley's doing pretty bad: the kharaa's spreading and so he's dying, he's been alone for months, he's trying to come to terms with alterra not caring about aurora or any possible survivors... there's a lot going on with him when he finally meets the sea emperor. he's initially a little anxious about exploring the places he is, but he doesn't have any other leads--he's desperate. and so meeting another person is like a burden lifted off his shoulders, at least for a little bit, you know? a kind of balm for the loneliness.

this whole conversation is from his pov, so we don't know what she's thinking, but for ryley i wanted to hone in on his empathy and how he keeps seeing the emperor's circumstances reflected in his own. he's a nice guy! he's a little awkward, having not spoken to anyone for so long, but he's earnest and curious. he's not putting up any kind of pretense. to me, those traits are the core of his personality: he's just himself! this goofy, sweet, earnest guy who is in a hell of a bad situation and honestly trying to do his best to keep his own morale up.

and his survivor's guilt is pretty bad too: there are a lot of people he couldn't save, and since he's not a callous person, that affects him deeply. you know: if he hadn't been knocked out, could he have helped? and it's kind of a useless exercise, trying to figure out all these what-ifs, but it weighs on him anyway. these people were his coworkers, and i'm sure some of them were his friends. that's got to hurt.

something else i think that's important about his character is how determined he is; his goals might change but his determination never falters. sure, he might die, but he'll definitely die if he does nothing, and that's sometimes all that's keeping him going but it is at least keeping him going.

so all in all: part 1 of the fic, ryley is having a bad time. but something else i wanted to focus on is how he starts on an upswing as the plot progresses. like, it's ultimately a character study: the focus is on how his experience has changed him. he's still a little scattered, being off adhd meds will do that to a guy, but i think working with the emperor is genuinely really good for him: finally, here's someone he can help, someone he can relate to and talk to, and that really galvanizes him.

so yeah, i think he's a really interesting character and it's been fun delving into his head for this. i guess my take is that if you strip ryley down to his most fundamental trait, what you get is compassion. compassion for his surroundings, for the emperor and her kids, for his crew that's now gone... yeah. that's the throughline.

anyway, i hope this is coherent and fun to read, and maybe enticing as far as the fic goes. thanks again for the ask!

[pillar-of-autumn]

The way you draw John is phenomenal raaaagh

thank yooou! here's a chief for the trouble of sending me an ask:

[leavingautumn13]

👶 - OC in their youth; or, if they didn’t have one, at the beginning of their journey; this may be shown as background.

For my girl Fresia

[ask game]

fresia was born in what is left of the neogi fleet, and trained from a young age in celestial navigation. her home ship is called the bleak eclipse.

[autumn-cr1sp]

Thank you for this blog! I love all these character bios a lot!! Seeing how everyone is related is one of my favorite details...!

sobs thank you so much..

[aurora-radiation-zone]

Give a 5-word summary of this chapter/fic.

7. What is your favorite scene you’ve written so far?

16. Write the next 5 sentences and share

[ask game]

1. ryley suffers a sea-change.

7. this one right here:

Those who came before came from the other ocean. Did you as well?

“What other ocean?”

The one deep above, past the edge of the water. Past the clouds.

Oh. That was… kind of beautiful, actually. On a planet with no light pollution, no smog, just the endless crystal-clear nighttime sky… from the surface, looking up into space would feel like looking down into the depths at the bioluminescent sea life below, wouldn’t it? “Yeah,” he said. “I’ve never thought of it like that before, though.”

How do you think of it?

“Of space?” Whatever he was expecting, it wasn’t this. “I guess I don’t think about it much anymore, really. Being a maintenance guy on a starship for a couple of years will do that to you.”

5. Sighing, Ryley dragged a hand through his hair and looked back up at her. “But what about you? I’ve never seen anyone like you before. Hell, I didn’t know there was another sapient species on this planet.” He considered for a moment, and added, “Warpers don’t count.”

[leavingautumn13]

hi. looker is a zoroark???

okay, okay, i'll explain myself.

so first i'll say this was not my idea initially; i stole it from a friend, and then some more friends and i "yes, and"-ed each other until we got something that's (in my opinion) way more fun than whatever canon looker has going on.

and, yes, i've said before i like writing nonhumans and so a lot of pokémon in my setting are fully sapient. zoroark, the ralts line, a ton of ghosts, porygon eventually, etc etc. i saw an opportunity to write one more nonhuman perspective and went "ooh, i'll take that!" especially in regards to a species that falls under the umbrella of "isn't now and never has been human" which is something you don't necessarily get with ghosts in my setting. anyway.

the condensed answer is he feels it's easier moving through human society essentially as a human rather than as a zoroark, which is easy enough to do with an illusion--no one can tell he's not human.

the long answer relies a little more on my personal worldbuilding. zoroark are basically the pokémon equivalent of kitsune, and are by reputation manipulative tricksters. (hisuian zoroark get it a lot worse in the reputation department, but this isn't about them so i'll refrain from getting too long-winded.)

(also, kitsune are absolutely very complicated and fascinating. you should read the linked wikipedia article at the very least. i'm using them, as zoroark's inspiration, as a jumping off point for my worldbuilding, not as a 1:1 equivalent--just to be clear.)

so, as a member of a species with a poor reputation who is doing a job where it's kind of important that people are willing to talk to you, he's decided it's just easier to pretend to be a human. he's absolutely doing the "cishet white guy" thing for maximum personal convenience. it's a mask, and a calculated one at that.

but this whole elaborate bit he's doing has absolutely shot his self-perception in the foot; how long can you spend pretending to be something else before you kind of are that thing? at what point does the wearer become the mask, you know? he's not human, but he spends most of his time looking and acting like one, so he kind of also actually is one?

it's weird and complicated. it's for convenience or at least was initially; it's for personal peace or at least that's what he tells himself.

uh, the groupchat said i should append this meme:

[leavingautumn13]

How much would be too much cosmic horror to inject into a spelljams game?

imagine me closing my little dungeon master's notebook and smiling politely. there is no amount of cosmic horror that is too much for spelljammer and i plan on giving my players an up close and personal look at that here in the next few months

[pillar-of-autumn]

If you're still taking sketch requests, I would love to see your take on Fred and Linda!

i did totally redesign fred for the au that my buddy noctiris and i are rotating periodically but i have always imagined linda as wearing pigtails for some reason. i also have art of them here :)