FINALLY ONE YEAR SINCE YOU SENT THIS ASK I HAVE COMPLETED THE JEWISH NOMAD CLAN LORE
Well, summarized it at least.
This is a map I drew over showing the route Bea and V take to get to the Elon Clan at the Seaboard Co-Op and the Jewish clans she visits to gather their endorsements for her plea to become leader of the Cohen Clan.
AND THIS!!! IS THE JEWISH NOMAD FAMILY TREE
Color Code:
Nation | Tribe | Clan
Miqra Nation
Asher Tribe
Serach: Extreme matriarchal clan. Men are beneath them, servants. Situated between ghost city Idaho Falls and neo-Nazi city Berchtesgaden. They're wary to give Bea their endorsement considering she brought a man with her. After a discussion with V, she returns with him acting as a dutiful servant.
Dan: Killed in the Great Plains brushfire.
Judah
Er: Bought out by Petrochem, moved to Grand Prairie.
Tamar: Located in Utah, perilously close to the fundamentalist Mormon sect known only as the Sacred Beehive.
Reuben: Bought out by Arcadiex.
Joseph: Died in the Wasting Plague of '99 in North Carolina.
Levi
Cohen: Decimated when Frederick Gordon ambushes them as part of his revenge crusade against Bea Cohen. The clan all but done and with no leader to establish her lineage as next in the line of succession, Bea learns that she can go to the Elon Clan in the Seaboard Co-op to petition to become the clan leader and work to restore one of the oldest and most powerful Jewish nomad clans to its former glory.
Merari: Located in southern Nevada, the clan historically was the closest of the tribes allied with the Cohen clan. They carry on the legacy of the Manischewitz company, producing kosher wines, matzo crackers, and trading and sourcing other Judaica. Arnie and Greta Gershon act as the Night City liaisons.
Gershon: Located near Silo in Iowa, they work as traders and farmworkers, selling Judaica and wine from the Merari clan as well as the least mutated produce they can harvest. When Bea’s mother was 15, she fell in love with an older boy and got pregnant with twins. Ashamed of the bastard children, her parents sent the babies off with a visiting shadchan to deliver them to the Gershon clan. Bea’s half brother and half sister - Ezra and Yael Gershon - meet up with her at the Seaboard Co-Op to endorse her and renounce their own claim as part Cohen.
Naphtali: Died in Chicago during the Fourth Corpo war virus bombings.
Issachar
Tola: Originally near Deadwood in Minnesota with a successful cattle farm, they hit a rough patch financially during a terrible winter. They sold their remaining stock and land to a corporation and moved to Yelacot Arcology to continue their cattle farming. They supply kosher meet to the other clans.
Jashub: Located in the northeast of Arizona, they're in a near-constant territory war with the local Raffen.
Simeon: The tribe merged with the eccentric and possibly insane Batsons after the collapse of the Haven Arcology.
Benjamin
Benjamin: Roving band of Raffen Shiv somewhere in the Ozarks.
Gad
Nahash: Those that survived the wasting plague went insane. The son of the now dead Rabbi turned whoever was left into a Raffen cult in the Ozarks. Every member is missing their right eye as a callback to the terms of surrender given to the tribe of Gad by Nahash
Zebulon
Elon: Important members of the Seaboard Cooperative, though Nomads through and through they are also scholars having descended from Ivy Leaguers and lawyers. They’ve helped draft some of the key laws that keep the corps out of the seaboard. They are also the Miqra nation’s highest authority in rabbinical law. This is Bea’s destination as she and the leaders of the Merari and Gershon families must meet to decide who will become the leader of the clan.
A tortured corpo princess; a down-and-out detective. A jazz club, a boat, a bullethole...
Etude · 3k · prequel / first meeting
╰ should have declined that call, detective!
Arpeggio · 150k · explicit
╰ an ex-cop and a nepo baby all tangled up in each others' orbits
Galvanized · 1k
╰ a glimpse of the year post-Mikoshi
Acquisitions · 4k · explicit
╰ riv & v settling the balance sheet
🏷️ tags // otp: arpeggio ▪ oc: vmdbm ▪ river ward
other cyberpunk fics
Whole nine yards · Tiny Mike / V · WIP · explicit
╰ one of Reggie's mercs is in trouble. some loudmouth.
Cura te ipsum · Vik Vektor / V · 6k · explicit
╰ two sellouts at the end of an era.
Dogtooth · Kurt Hansen / V · 9k · explicit
╰ a deep dive with the colonel. dddne!
Red-black · Songbird / V · 1k · explicit
Risk management · Solomon Reed / V · 2k
╼ baldur's gate 3
Sellsword · Rugan / Gale · 3k · explicit
╰ melancholy bros helping melancholy bros
The Perfect Mark · Rugan / Durge · 6k · explicit
╰ bhaal's chosen princess vs. some zhent bastard
The Nightjar · Rugan / F!OC · 10k · explicit
╰ rugan is a dirty old mercenary
I answered this for Del previously and said the NOGLY sequel, but of course I have many concepts that I would like to develop further. The sequel has been bubbling on the back burner for years, so it has a lot of ideas already, but probably what I will focus on is the stupid idea I had a few weeks ago about Panam and Rogue. I think there's something there, and the feedback I've received from other people tells me I'm right. I'm not usually one to write for engagement, but this feels like it would get a lot of traction, which would be a nice change from my usual rarepair hell.
14. Something new you tried this year
Surprisingly, I've tried a few new things with writing! One of the biggest, and most successful, experiments was switching to Obsidian. I've been frustrated in the past with the inability to edit Google docs offline, especially when it requires me to keep a copy of Chrome installed, so I tried Obsidian and really liked it.
As far as actual writing, the rewrite is probably the biggest. I've never done it before, and it felt very daunting at first, but now it's going okay. I feel like the underlying structure of NOGLY was solid so I haven't had to do too much reconstruction on it, but I think what I have changed has made it much more solid.
Ask me about writing! Artist & Fic Writer End of Year Asks
HI *dropping down from the ceiling into your asks* what chapter book did you pick up recently? 👀
i've never been so happy to have somebody drop down from the ceiling before
hello :3 i'm currently reading piñata by leopoldo gout! it's a horror/occult-type novel about a woman and her two daughters who experience some supernatural things. carmen brings her children to mexico, her home-country, because she's overseeing construction on some old cathedral but their time out there is unfortunately cut short due to an accident that is the fault of childish men sabotaging said work. i haven't gotten that far yet lol, but according to the back of my book the accident unearths a bunch of rare ancient artifacts from tenochtitlan, an ancient aztec empire that is also where our prologue took place in. here is a violence and racism cw just in case. the prologue consisted of a bit of graphic depictions of violence against the indigenous mexicans that resided there by colonizers, so i can't even imagine what follows them home to new york after everything.
it's been a really interesting read so far, i'm only a few chapters in!! i bought it at the flea market a while ago, the cover is what really caught my eye, but i'm really enjoying the mix of history and supernatural. i'm mixed but my family is mexican and peruvian, so i can relate culturally to some of the things the characters are dealing with which has been nice. my favorite line so far has been "men are pigs no matter what language they squeal in, huh?" ate.
You would not believe how many Vs in fanfics are netrunners. I believe this one sticks out to me especially because run a canonically netrunning-adverse V who does very little hacking, but I feel like every single V in every single fanfic I read is a netrunner. Maybe it's because netrunning conceptually is more of a cyberpunk thing or maybe it just aligns more with people who want to write stealthy characters, but it's very rare I read a fic about a solo-aligned V who approaches missions head on. Give me more solo Vs. Give me more brick shithouse builds who can take people's heads off with one punch.
15. that one thing you see in fanart all the time
2 things:
People tend to draw Jackie with REALLY bright green eyes. Are his eyes that green? I I always thought they were brown, or at the very least hazel. I've played this game a lot and I have never thought Jackie had vivid acid-green eyes, but maybe I'm just not looking carefully enough.
Redrawings of mirror selfies. This is not a knock-- I actually love them. You just tend to notice the repeating patterns when you've been in the fandom since 2020 lol.
16. you can't understand why so many people like this thing (characterization, trope, headcanon, etc)
For me personally, it's the frequency of the "Babies as happy endings" trope I see in fanwork, particularly with Johnny. Johnny is not a character I would ever see wanting to have children. Johnny is not a character I think would ever make a good father. Johnny is a character that, I believe, is somewhat aware of this. I personally don't think Johnny and V would ever choose to have kids given their lives and professions, and I just think his childhood issues aren't something that can be balmed over with fatherhood. Layer in my own aceness and yeah, I guess I get the appeal of the idea, but it's just not a thing that jives with my own interpretations of the canon.
E - Have you added anything cracky/hilarious to your fandom? If so, what?
i probably added a lot because of my silly sketches.... ig if i have to pick one let's shout out to the DATV Show it seems people still like it a lot to this day
K - What character has your favorite development arc/the best development arc?
Catra in She-ra is one that comes up in my mind right now. or Entrapta i love her arc and her relationship with Hordak too.
P - Invent a random AU for any fandom (we always need more ideas).
Since my current hyperfixation is DA ima go with that.
Me and my friends were just talking about a isekai Elgar'nan into modern world and he's a disgruntled househusband and its funny as hell.
another one of my all time favorite AU is japanese high school au, with people in pretty uniforms and animu eyes and shit lmao
historical ancient vietnamese au?
mythical vietnamese au?
im just pulling all the au i had in cp77 fandom to da lmao
hi choom! what’s a piece of writing advice that worked well for you? about anything, big or small but i would especially love to hear about characterization 🤠
You're going to hate me for this, but characterization has always come more naturally than any other part of writing. It is stupidly easy for me to come up with a new character and hone in on a new personality and who they are and shit. When I'm writing them, my characters also apparently possess me so sometimes it feels like I'm not doing anything, I am genuinely just a vessel for them. I feel like that's fucked up, but I can't explain it any other way.
I think one thing that helps in all parts of writing, but for me, I find it most useful in characterization, is showing not telling. Felix is really good about catching this in beta for me, especially around dialogue and action tags. What is your character not saying when they're speaking? Furtive glances, brief furrowing of brows, picking at something, breath hitching, etc. Remember the show Lie to Me? Microexpressions and shit? Yeah, that kind of stuff.
And sometimes, you don't need any dialogue. I do this most frequently with Bea, and close POV is perfect for getting to the meat of your character. With her background as an Arasaka-trained Solo, she is very aware of her surroundings and in control of her body and emotions. So I like to show her neurosis through her racing thoughts, her observations of tiny details, especially her threat assessing in mundane locations and situations.
Giving your guys problems and seeing how those problems affect them in a given scenario is helpful, too. I've been able to fine tune V's personality through the rewrite when going through his spirals of self-hate and depression and how he navigates those feelings in times of crisis.
I really like to pepper characterization throughout the story, as well. I try not to give all the facets of their personality away too soon because I want to lay out their internal conflicts and make them a little unreliable so that the character growth through the rest of the story pays off.
I think characterization is also where I'm most influenced by my love of transgressive fiction and postmodernism. Putting your character in a very mundane scenario and then placing yourself inside their brain and transcribing their whole inner monologue. That's usually what I'm doing in most of my writing when I'm in a fugue state possessed by a tight POV character.
Here are some writing exercises maybe, I'm just making these up, but maybe they can help:
Your character is grocery shopping. What are they thinking about for the 5-10 minutes they have to wait in line?
Your character is brushing their teeth, describe how they would describe the act including sensory details.
Your character is having a difficult conversation with someone they don't like sitting across a table from them. What is your character doing with their hands?
Here are some exercpts from my fic under the cut where I think I illustrate some of the above. You can also see with Bea especially that a lot of her characterization is coming from her interaction with the world around her, rather than her interaction with herself. V's is in his interaction with himself, his body and his thoughts, and him as a passive actor in the world around him, aimless.
First chapter, right at the start, I'm trying to establish V as a neurotic freak. V says 11 words vs Wakako's 38.
V slouched down in the cheap wood and plastic chair in her modest office. The pale wood frame and red vinyl cushions clashed with the Japanese decor, and V realized it was the only thing that had changed in the ten years he'd been working with her. The jade statues of dragons that looked so bright and vibrant when he first stepped foot inside were now dull from layers of dust. The plastic laminate over the synthwood designed to give the planks made from recycled wood pulp the illusion of 'ganic were chipped, revealing the yellowed fiber beneath.
Wakako Okada removed the shard from the port behind her right ear and stared at V over the rims of her glasses as she placed it back in the translucent red plastic case on the desk. V snapped to attention and sat up straighter. He rubbed his hands on his thighs over his dark jeans like a twitchy addict.
Because he was.
Not addicted to drugs per se, unless one counted addiction to the chemicals one's own body produces. For V, those chemicals were oxytocin, endorphins, and dopamine released during climax.
"Well?" he asked sharply.
Wakako nodded and opened a drawer in her desk. She slid the shard case inside and slammed it shut as her eyes flashed blue to transfer V's fee to him. "Contract closed. Payment in your account."
V shot up out of the chair, so eager to find his next release he nearly knocked it backward, and walked to the door.
"A word of warning, Mr. Guerra," Wakako said.
V turned in the doorway to look at her and shoved his right hand into the pocket of the brown crystaljock merc jacket with the Samurai logo emblazoned on the back he always wore. He picked at the already raw skin around his thumb. Wakako's eyes narrowed. She pursed her lips and inhaled sharply before speaking, like what she was about to say pained her. There was no softness or empathy in her eyes, not that there ever was. Whatever this "warning" was, it wasn't given out of care for V.
"Your ritual self-debasement is not going unnoticed," she started.
V opened his mouth to speak but felt like any exhalation would simply blow a puff of sand. He snapped his mouth shut and swallowed, begging his salivary glands to work so he could defend himself.
"Some free career guidance, my dear." The pet name held no love, he was not a dear grandchild, he was a disgusting smear in her office. The wrinkles around her lips deepened when she spoke next, and V thought he saw a sneer brush her upper lip. "You are too old to be doing this."
"I-", V cleared his throat, trying to gather any moisture from the ambient air, "I don't know what you're fuckin' talking about, Wako." He clenched his fist inside his jacket. Was that not what Jig-Jig Street was for? The way V saw it, he was just putting the fixer's money back in her own pocket.
"Get your shit together, V." His name was spat across her lips, like the shell of a sunflower seed carelessly dribbled onto the floor. She turned in her chair and continued a phone call he'd interrupted earlier in her native Japanese.
V shook with rage and trembled with self-hate.
--
And then the first time we get Bea's POV. Compared to the soft, sexy version of her that gave V the private dance, I start off right away contrasting her real personality. I also needed to establish her mystery and cageyness while also not being heavy handed with it.
"I promise, you're gonna like him," Jackie said, with confidence. Bea wiped a smear of blood off her boot with her thumb and glared up at the hulking cholo. She stood up, her six feet of height barely making her eye-level with his chin, and shoved him out her apartment door.
"Tell me, Jackie, what happened to the last guy you tried setting me up with?" she entered her code into the keypad and toggled the door lock. Bea spun her keys around one black lacquered fingernail as they made their way to the megabuilding garage. Despite the height difference, Bea's legs were longer, and she had no trouble keeping up with her friend. Her only friend.
Jackie groaned. "You kicked him in the balls."
Lizzie's Bar, ten in the evening, three weeks ago. Bea remembered the feeling of the man's soft testicles between her toes when she had slammed her open-toed stiletto-heeled foot into his crotch. It was one of the more satisfying sensations. Didn't quite beat the feeling of cartilage crumbling between your knuckles, teeth crunching under your boot, or the wet gurgle when you sliced a screamer's throat. But it was close.
"And why did I kick him in the balls?" She had done more than that, but Jackie didn't know that– didn't need to know.
When they had parted ways for the evening, Bea had gone back inside Lizzie's, pulled the guy out of a BD booth, dragged him outside, and made him feel exquisite pain. She made a mental note to remember to throw his ear in the incinerator when she got home. She had ripped it off and stuck it in her pocket before she left him there in a puddle of his own piss. It was sitting in a plastic cup of water under her bathroom sink.
Jackie sighed, "I know, I know. Because he called you a used slab of meat when he found out you were a stripper." It wasn’t something she had let him forget.
They exited through a creaking metal door, and dark green flecks of paint fluttered out as the cool night air breached the musty arcology. Their motorcycles were parked side by side, as they always were when they traveled together. Jackie's, a cherry red ARCH Nazare, and Bea's, a black and green Yaiba.
"And?" Bea crouched down next to Jackie's bike. She winced when one of her knees cracked with the movement—she would need an enzyme infusion soon. She ran her finger across the smooth chrome of a brand-new exhaust pipe and noticed other components Jackie had replaced on his own, at her recommendation. He’d done quite well, and she felt a swell of pride.
"And because he made a tasteless joke about doll clubs," Jackie said.
Jackie telegraphed his movements from miles away, and it's why he kept losing to that shithead with the stupid face tattoos when they boxed. Bea saw in crisp detail the minute shift in his left foot when he lifted his leg and extended his foot to playfully shove his boot into her ribs, hoping to send her off balance and away from his bike. She stretched her left leg out to the side, planted her hands behind her, and bent backwards. His boot whispered in the air inches above her rib cage.
She twirled on the ball of her foot and caught Jackie's leg in a lock, sending him toppling to the ground. "When will you fucking learn Jacquito?" With a grunt, she curled her leg tighter, bending his knee at a painful angle.
Jackie growled and slammed his hand on the ground three times. Bea let go and dusted herself off. She grabbed her black helmet with kitty ears from her bike's pannier. When she kicked the bike into gear, the front of the ears lit up green, the same shade of chartreuse as the lights around the Yaiba's wheel, and sped out of the parking garage.
💯 HUNDRED POINTS SYMBOL for Lynx — share three random facts about your oc that others may not know.
Honestly, no one knows much about Lynx, including me lmao. I don't come up with OC facts until I need them for a story, and I was thinking about Lynx last night in anticipation of someone asking for this emoji in particular. Thanks for not letting me waste my time lol.
Lynx joined Saul Bright's family of Aldecaldos soon after the founding. They had been part of another Aldecaldo clan but they weren't happy with family leadership. That winter, Lynx met some of Saul's family, including Scorpion, and decided to throw in with them.
Lynx was almost a panzer pilot, but reacted very poorly to being linked up. Mostly they couldn't handle the sensory overload, but also they couldn't handle the gender dysphoria they experienced from their co-pilot. Instead they were relegated to a support role, mostly helping keep the panzers running.
Lynx was very close to Scorpion, and thought of him as a little brother. They were angry that Mitch texted V to help with disposing of his body instead of them. When they found out about it later through camp gossip, Lynx had some choice words for Mitch. While they understood why he contacted V, they felt they should have been there as well.
💔 BROKEN HEART for Val — what are three of your oc's negative traits?
Val bottles up all of her emotions because she doesn't know what to do with them, and she definitely doesn't trust other people with them. It goes as well as you would think.
99% of the time, Val would rather die than ask for help. Growing up an orphaned streetkid will do that to you, I guess.
She has a bad habit of sleeping with people she's done gigs with, and it usually doesn't end well.
