I know ive attempted to fill these out for them before but i dont think i ever posted it so here we go! Find out if either of my sidesteps would be into you!
New month, new question: Lets talk gender. How does Chase identify? Is that different from how you would describe her? Does she feel any particular way about her gender?
-Cigs
Chase is so averse to introspection that she barely registers that she has a physical form, so its less that she "identifies" a certain way and more that she was assigned a role by the farm and found it agreeable enough to keep it. She likes her body and the clothes she puts on it and chooses not to look any further into it.
She's a cisgender woman that presents very masculine. If she cared enough about labels to pay attention, shed call herself butch.
On the omniscient character design side of things, she's probably in the same gender fuckery situation as Corey, and might be better described as agender, but she doesnt experience dysphoria the way they do, so she never feels the drive to explore that. The only friction she feels with the gender she was assigned is her dislike of feminine clothing. Shes otherwise pretty indifferent. Is her aversion to presenting femininely dysphoria or just a style preference? Nobody knows.
Her sexuality is very tied into her perception of her gender. The way she understands herself revolves around her interactions with other people. (Continued under the cut so nobody has to read horny chase lore against their will. TMI time!)
So it tracks that the closest shes come to having a gender questioning moment was in bed with a partner
Chase gets a wild amount of gender euphoria from wearing a strap. She has no idea what gender euphoria even is, and wouldnt recognize it, but she knows she likes it and starts wearing the harness around under her clothes occasionally, even if she doesnt have a date planned.
Hi! I'm helping Cigs out and posting some asks on his behalf because of how many people signed up, see as follows 💖:
Hello! Thank you for signing up for my little fandom project. Like I mentioned in my post, these will be once a month character building/exploration questions. I don't expect immediate answers. Feel free to take the whole month, if you need! If you have more than one Step, pick your favorite or whichever you think needs more love.
We're going to start with the basics this month: Where did your Sidestep get your name? Do they know what it means? Do they feel any particular way about their name?
-Cigs
I had to hold off on this til I revealed my second sidestep cuz I have no idea how to answer this one for Corey yet lmao. so yeah here's some Chase lore
Chase is her regene name! Her role on missions was essentially stalking/tracking targets that knew they were being hunted and thus were being really evasive and hard to reach, and she took her job WAY too seriously. Unlike Corey, who was infamous for being a defiant shithead towards their handlers, she was known for being teacher's pet and always on her best behavior. So the other regenes she worked with on missions started referring to her by her job title as a not-so-subtle dig at how single minded she was about it. a sort of "this Ken's job is beach" joke
She knows they meant it mockingly, but she embraced it and still loves her name/wears it like a badge of honor. Shes proud of her past accomplishments (even if there was a brief sidestep era "oh god what have i done" phase). There was no hesitation about using that as her name when Ortega asked her for one.
She chose her last name after a conversation she had with Julia about tia Elena/ her choosing to go by Ortega. For better or worse, she viewed the director through a familial lens, so choosing "Siepen" as a surname was both a power move and a way of deflecting blame for her problems onto her. Very much a "you made me/raised me to be like this so if you dont like it, its your fault" sort of vibe.
for chase and corey - what items can be found in your muse’s pockets?
Oh god between Corey's battle jacket and Chase's love for military surplus cargo pants theres SO many pockets XD
What items can be found in your muse's pockets?
Chase:
Half eaten gas station chocolate muffin, knife, almost empty box of tictacs(tropical flavor), nail trimmers and file, bobby pins, chapstick (one of the funky soda flavored ones, probably dr pepper or mtn dew), tv remote she stole from rangers hq on accident, soda can tabs from her energy drinks (saved to keep track of how many shes had since she cant remember, plus for fun macgyver style diy potential like fish hooks and stuff), stolen adderall (chase no...)
Corey:
Lighter, cigarettes, ibuprofen, some of Ortega's prescription painkillers, narcan, the most eye-wateringly minty chewing gum available in LD, a customer loyalty punch card for a local coffee shop (buy 10 get one free!), ginger flavored hard candy, a multi-tool/swiss army knife thing, guitar pick, their mp3 player and headphones, bandages, USB/flash drive (or whatever the FHR equivalent tech is) cell phone x2 (one for them and for their puppet, both really cheap/low tech flip phones).
Trying to figure out Chase's design a little more could yall help me out here? Im leaning towards making her taller (her original height was 5'6"). If i made her taller idk if i want her to be just a little taller like the 5'8"-5'10" range (taller side of average to match Corey) or if i wanna make her over 6 feet to make her taller than Julia.
from the character headcanons: describe their clothing style, describe their laugh, their hobbies, and their habits/mannerisms!! for either corey or chase (or both👀) up to you!!
All of them for both!!!! :D
This one got LONG so i'm throwing it under a cut to save y'alls dash lmao
Clothing style:
Corey is a fun blend of 2008-2013 punk, emo, and scene in their sidestep era look. Mostly black clothes with a lot of patches/visible mending and custom/diy accessories (yes their piercings were also diy, yes that was a bad idea). They didn't have a lot of money for multiple outfits/new clothes, so they put a lot of love into keeping the few they had in rotation in wearable condition. Their rebirth look was very "walked into a goodwill and grabbed the first pair of jeans and a hoodie that fit them". Still all black but in a much more lowkey way. In retribution they have a bunch of their piercings professionally redone and let themselves start branching out a little with their fashion choice again. Their style in game can be described as a range from "edgy streetwear"(im picturing more like techwear) to "edgy casual" depending on how much they're trying to lay low. They're starting to venture into more androgynous clothing choices and its doing wonders for their confidence. I expect a much stronger return of the sidestep era punk look/pops of color/fun accessories in revelations.
Chase has always had a very practical sense of style. She lets herself indulge the whimsy in her hair dye and jewelry choices, with her eyebrow/nose/ear piercings. She's always wearing some kind of necklace, usually a choker. Even then, her jewelry choices have gotten more practical between sidestep era and the present. She's learned the hard way to swap out hoops/rings for studs and to never wear a necklace made of a non-flexible or overly strong material (hence the stretchy plastic choker and the eyebrow scar from where her sidestep era eyebrow piercing got ripped out). Her clothing style is described in game as "masculine grungy military surplus". Very 90s grunge, lots of baggy cargo pants and big stompy boots. Unironically likes camo. Likes going to thrift stores to look for t-shirts with funny/weird graphics on them. Chops the sleeves off all of them only to wear them over a long sleeved compression shirt anyway (gotta show off those shoulder muscles even if she cant show skin)
Describe their laugh:
Corey: High pitched, loud and raspy. ranges from cutesy giggles to hyena cackle. If you make Corey laugh, everyone in the building is gonna hear it. Infectious laughter both bc its adorable and bc their leaky telepath brain is sharing the happy feelings with everyone in range.
Chase: Usually more of a amused exhale/snort kind of girl, but if you really get her to laugh (its HARD but not impossible), its a breathy/squeaky wheeze. Sounds like an engine trying to turn over.
Hobbies:
Corey: playing guitar/singing/songwriting, visiting the beach to look for critters in tidepools (they love fish, they'd have their own aquarium at home if they weren't worried about what would happen to the fish if something happens to them). Not a current one but they had a shitty motorcycle for a bit in their sidestep days that they miss, having a project bike was fun.
Chase: She wouldn't call them hobbies bc that implies she puts time and effort into anything but her plans, but she likes to doodle, go to the gym/lift weights (like for actual fun and stress relief not training), and loves going to car shows (if she had the time and let herself enjoy things on purpose, her dream car is a toss up between a hellcat and an old fastback mustang. On one hand, having something to tinker with is fun, on the other, older unreliable cars are expensive and she wouldn't be able to justify the impracticality). She might not be a tech step but she and Corey are still batchmates and she retained some of the "take it apart and learn how it works" vibes by way of being a car nerd.
Habits/mannerisms:
Corey: Smoking, nail biting, chewing on their hoodie strings/drink straws/whatever's close by and biteable. They fidget a LOT when they're relaxed and not thinking about their body language, talks with their hands. If they're being more guarded they'll cross their arms and hold really still as an overcorrection. Almost never makes eye contact while talking. Will aggressively shake their head at what seems like random moments to an outside witness, but its their response to a particularly upsetting bad brain moment/train of thought/flashback/overhearing something telepathically that they shouldn't. Tends to mirror peoples speech patterns/accents on accident.
Chase: Skin picking (acne scarring and fucked up cuticles galore), cracks her knuckles like every 30 seconds, clenches her jaw/grinds her teeth when she's stressed. She's a lot better at keeping still/not visibly fidgeting than Corey at the expense of her attention span. If you want her to remember what you're saying then walk and talk or give her something to play with/doodle on. Makes too much eye contact while talking (girl stares into your soul but she's really just zoned out). Will yawn and crack her jaw to break up a tense moment (especially if she's getting upset, girl rarely cries but fights it tooth and nail when it happens, this is her go to tell that she's holding that back). She's not as much of a talker as Corey in the first place, but when she's genuinely angry or upset she's deathly silent (perhaps actually nonverbal? not that she'd know enough to call it that). Definitely the drywall puncher type, but she's good enough at repairing things that she's still probably gonna get her security deposit back.
