I’m answering all of these for ‘Acts of Repetition’!
2: Post a line from your WIP with no context.
“Your New Year sounds like a Beshma’s Day back on Kahje. Endless plates of food, bowls of snacks everywhere.”
9: How would you describe your writing style?
Slice of life of a working detective on a space station, funnelled through the lens of a sardonic alien.
Whenever I put excerpts into that “What Author Are You?” game, I get Agatha Christie, which I’m very pleased with as a (mostly) crime writer. I don’t think I am anywhere at her level- I think I do okay with dialogue and characters, but descriptions need a bit of work.
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?
Patel looked me over before he spoke, curious at something. “Just an ordinary home, lad,” he said. “We’ve been to worse.”
8. Favorite indulgence and feelings surrounding indulging.
Hoorik: weed, legal strains thereof. Hoorik likes her plants; calms her down and makes her ruminate on the metaphysical.
Bats: hard liquor, fucking and fighting. The issues surrounding all three is a lot to unpack, possibly an entire carousel of rotating suitcases worth, so let’s just uhhhh leave that alone for now.
Patel: food! Fried, sweet things. Always happy to indulge too, and to show his love with cooking; always makes jalebi for his girls.
Vitacus: dancing and awful action vids. he’s okay indulging in both, but has some baggage surrounding hookups.
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?
6 for Kol, 12 for Bats, 18 for Patel, 24 for OC of choice
KOLYAT: Who will they take advice from, no matter what it is? Who won’t they take advice from, no matter what it is?
They’ll listen to: Oriana, Hoorik, Bailey. Kolyat also had a brilliant teacher at C-Sec academy who specialised in Crime Scene Analysis, and he understood his own empathy a little better:
One of my favourite mentors at C-Sec Academy was a gentle, softly spoken salarian who took his CSI work very seriously. He taught me that murder victims should be treated with respect; their bodies are not ‘vics’ or ‘corpses’ or ‘stiffs.’ They were people, and we should treat them as such. “We are at the end of their journey, Krios,” he had said. “It is our privilege to be.”
Disconnect, Chapter 1.
Patel, Bats and some of the other officers get side-eyed, but he will listen to both of them on matters of slavery, Trarverse and Terminus issues.
BATS: Do they like romance in the books they read (or in the book they’re in)?
Bats has a different girl each month at the moment, and will for a while. He had one that got away, part of his old Huntress unit. He doesn't talk much about her.
He has very clear opinions on the ships from his shitty asari animes, and used to troll their official messageboards on the extranet about it until he was banned.
Patel and kissing: tongue or no tongue?
(Vivi why. Why, vivi.)
He’s full on still, him and his wife. Proper duelling tongues, too. Their poor daughter takes one look at it in the kitchen and just:
“I just want to refill my water.”
Hoorik: Honesty or charity?
Both, even if she knows her donation will be spent on cheap Lower Ward moonshine.
It’s a learned trait. Her mother visited the Citadel and almost emptied her account to anyone with a sob story. “They need it more than me, elskling. That man needs to get home to Surkesh to see his clutch...”
Taken from: https://autodiscothings.tumblr.com/post/178833607988/yvesdot-oc-asks-that-reveal-more-than-you
sakura blossom: If you had one week left to live, what would you do?
“Oh, this again.” Hoorik was groundside for the final assault on Earth. If she knew her days were numbered she’d go out fighting, and be thankful she was alive after. She would also call her mother, and make sure her team is safe too.
Jasmine: What do you enjoy doing on your spare time?
She’s got green fingers! Her apartment is filled with plants, and Hoorik has an allotment on the Ward, and helps the hydroponics/Zakera garden association grow food. She also reads a fair bit. She’s debating getting a pet, but worries she won’t look after it properly.
Taken from: https://autodiscothings.tumblr.com/post/182664847248/cute-flower-themed-asks
14. vs Hoorik for the "Questions About Creating Your OCs"? :3 Enjoy your coffee!
If you had to narrow it down to 2 things that you MUST keep in mind while working with your OC, what would those things be?
Oooh a Hoorik question! DI Hoorik is my petty streak showing towards Bioware. She’s a butch woman, and very much a lesbian.
Two things I keep in mind while writing her:
She’s professional, but warm with it
Very much in charge of the squad. She should have the upper hand, and can silence the room with a quiet: “that’s enough.”
She’s always just outside “the team” in terms of shenanigans and banter; she’ll take part, but there’s always a sense of keeping herself a little island away from them, as she’s their boss.
