#morsraut

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BEHOLD, THE COMPLEXITIES OF MY SWTOR GUYS

[rakghoulified]

MORS POSTING!!! because i have been swirling her and artus in the centrifugre that is my brain nonstop. my beautiful one track mind there are no breaks on this train

ive just been digging more into their personalities and backgrounds and i am LIKING what im finding. its like archeology but for ocs... given that they are technically historical figures (it will not STOP me from playing with them in any/all timelines but it adds a special sauce)

MORSRAUT... my beloved mors... I have discovered that she has a sort of watch dog personality type... she's ruthless and loyal and likes to observe from a distance before actually getting involved. she's kind of stilted when it comes to interacting with other people, very to the point, doesn't mince words, and leaning towards unexpressive. always on alert, it takes a lot to get her to relax even a little bit...

i want to say her clan actually raised striil (six legged mando dogs... they can GLIDE) and she spent a good portion of her toddler-hood hiding with the dogs and playing with them. she picked up some of their habits, like the inquisitive little head tilt, or going completely still and tense when prey is spotted (pointing, in a way.)

also. for a little soft lore... since mors so rarely is soft... she has a soft spot for strays (including artus...) and that is actually part of how they met. she saw the lost new mand'alor completely in over his head and desperate for belonging, how he threw himself wholeheartedly into mandalorian culture... she likes his easy way with people and the depth of his loyalty. and of course, the idiot way that when she catches him with problems, much like a dog, he will try to cram even more of it into his mouth rather than let go. [fond] idiot...

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im working on a little artus origin fic... woe, mors be upon ye

[rakghoulified]

MORSRAUT!!! ^

tis artus' lover and confidante... they did not swear the riduurok together and mors eventually ended up betraying and killing artus (which is how he ended up in the force nexus)... we are supporting women's wrongs. she killed artus without him ever even thinking to doubt her.

opposite of arthurian courtly love where love matters more than anything: she LOVED artus, but she for sure killed him to stablize Mandalore because. i imagine. a war with the hutts for over a decade is not cheap, easy, or necessarily good business. i imagine it's expensive, the hutts will eventually turn their eyes to mandalorian slaves, etc. so. she did what she thought she had to do.

i have been considering her taking over and becoming mand'alor too... every day knowing she stole artus' throne but fully certain that there was no other way.

also: heir to an old clan, and very princely in demeanor... gentle, kindly, charming... calm... strategically minded and logical - which makes the whole treason thing hit like a kick to the head.

in the king arthur stories mordred always exposes guinevere and lancelot to start a civil war and kill arthur. in this, morsraut kind of takes the place of both of them at once... and fun fact: early perceptions of mordred instead of immoral were actually really positive? sometimes he was shown to be a better ruler than arthur... much to think about here.

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MY turn to send very thorough lists of ask game questions for the cosmic horror asks... (you do not have to do all of these, choose what sparks most joy, but. revenge!)

1, 17 and 21 for Cyresk and 10, 11, 12 for Aifenn annnnnd perhaps 3 for Morsraut?

YESSS!! YESS!!!! thank you for the food my friend...

cosmic horror questions

I'll just go in the order you've laid them out... Starting with CYRESK!

Are they afraid of losing their memory with age? Are there any memories they'd like to forget?

cyresk is at his core, the bones of the original cyresk. he has lost all of his memories once, and he thinks he's better off for it. he wouldn't like to lose them again -- he enjoys being the person he's cobbled together, thank you very much -- but i don't think the idea terrifies him. he found his way once, he'll do it again if he must. and frankly, i doubt he worries about old age.

i think he hoards his memories. good and bad, they're HIS and he is choosing to keep them, UNLIKE SOMEONE. (read: his previous self who chose to essentially die so that he could throw his memory-less husk to the wolves of the empire for Csilla.)

(the rest under the cut!)

17. How do they cope with the knowledge of their own mortality, or the morality of their loved ones?

cipher agents aren't known for living long lives. he'll do what he can to stave off death, but he knows the reality of the situation he's in. AND he's actually a double-agent for csilla, so... that would absolutely shorten his lifespan if it got out.

as for the mortality of his loved ones. uhhh... [looking at ev'entri and agent!naylan. cover your ears you two] if he dies first he doesn't have to worry about it. he has no idea how grief would affect him because he doesn't remember experiencing it as his life before the memory wipe was erased, and people who die around him are generally people he is killing intentionally. personally? i do not think he would take it well. he hates being honest so he'd probably try to bottle it up and fail miserably. for a spy, he sure is himself rather than using a mask... can't help that...

21. How would they react if they learned that some of their memories were not as they remembered them?

badly :)

he has been controlled by hunter and the SIS before with the IX Serum. which is actually a little ironic as he does use the SLV-16 serum to force obedience and truth out of a runaway republic soldier before... but at least that didn't mess with their memories. it freaks him out badly to be controlled in this way, and even moreso to know that his memories of this having been done to him were taken from him. he's got specific issues with that, given his everything... he literally chooses to inject himself with a serum that will either melt his brain out of his ears or make it so he can never be controlled in this way again at his breaking point.

so if it was a case of tempering, see above. if it was a case of him misremembering, he'd probably want to examine why. he likes to collect information, so was it a situation where he was influenced by his own feelings? was there a distraction? he would want to find the truth of it for himself

and now onto aifenn. my beautiful house massiff of a jedi. his friendly dog energy is unrivaled...

10. Do they feel like their life is one they chose, or one forced upon them?

great question! he was taken to the jedi along with another miralukan (haha, yes, it WAS fenley) when he was three or four. he doesn't remember much of his life before that... a woman's laugh, the feeling of dirt and plants under his fingers... he suspects they were farmers, but he's never looked for sure.

his life with the jedi is more a matter of practicality than fate. he was force sensitive and they know how to raise force sensitive children and keep them safe. he was especially happy when he was younger and with his first master. he was a mischevious padawan, playing pranks and getting into and out of trouble with his bright smile. he had no trouble making friends, and the younger children quite liked him. he felt like he was where he was meant to be.

and then his home and his master were ripped from him and he never really got over it. he got on well enough with master satele and really enjoyed having fenley as his padawan brother... it brought back some of his goofy and mischevious habits from his own early days at the temple to attempt to make fenley smile. fenley... brought him a lot of joy and companionship in what he considers to be the darkest time of his life. they are brothers in everything but name.

fenley leaving of course, shattered him and satele. he pushed himself to become a perfect padawan. gentle and kind as usual, but no mischief. no playing. only extra time in the salles and the archives. passing all of his classes with flying colors. he can tell satele blames herself, again (i love satele being kind of a fail mom to theron, so i gave her more sons to do that to). he wants to prove to her that she's not a bad jedi, that it wasn't her fault (probably because he thinks it was HIS fault for not noticing the signs.)

so if his current fate as a weapon of the jedi order has been forced upon him, the one forcing it is himself. he could say no. he could ask to be a temple guardian. he just doesn't feel he deserves it.

wow i'm learning a lot about aifenns issues today, thanks for coming with me on this journey

11. Do they have any recurring nightmares?

he has plenty of memories to have terrible nightmares about, unfortunately. the sacking of the coruscant temple is a big one because he was actually there when it happened, and he saw malgus kill his first master, ven zallow, while escaping with a few of the younger padawans that had also been sent away. he sees that moment in his dreams, and finds himself unable to help, to call out, to do anything for his master other than watch his fall... just frozen in place, eternally standing witness and feeling his training bond snap over and over. it weighs on him.

he also has nightmares about fenley leaving the jedi! he wasn't actually there when it happens, and he doesn't know what he would've done if he was, but he imagines different aftermaths. being ordered to hunt fenley down, or worse, seeing master Satele cut fenley down.

there are also nightmares of moments he had with fenley. memories of fenley reaching out and aifenn not being enough. not being able to see what was happening at the time, how fenley felt so isolated amongst the others, the growing rift between their master... just memories with the benefit of hindsight.

he has some from the class story too. the emperor, especially, because fenley was so close to the man and he never even knew it... what if something happened?

so basically, his nightmares all involve him believing he's failed other people and lambasting himself for it through his dreams. he doesn't have nightmares terribly frequently, but when he does, they tend to be bad.

12. Do they possess a secret that would destroy them if found out?

yes haha he surely does... if you want to know... he has a training bond with his old padawan-brother Fenley that neither of them have broken. even though they are now on opposite sides of a war. and Fenley is the Wrath of the Empire. The jedi council would NOT be happy with him if they found out that he's attached enough to have kept it (and kept it up) all these years... There's a reason he's not a master, and he will say attachment is the least of his sins if you ask him (being a weapon as the jedi knight instead of growing up to be a temple guard and protecting people like he felt he was meant to be...) but yeah. He tried very hard to play the perfect padawan for Satele after Fenley left and THEN went on to be whatever the order needed him to be, which was, well, a sword (rather than a shield...) so i think it would be doubly shocking to find out he has it.

Fenley knows, of course, but he's not sharing either. they're usually distant enough to get a sense that the other is alive and not much more than that, so it's not a regular issue.

AND MORSRAUT... THE NEWEST ONE. WE SUPPORT WOMEN'S WRONG AND YOU PICKED SUCH A QUESTION FOR HER TOO...

3. Do they believe in fate or free will?

funny question to ask the girl that killed the king and stole his crown because she felt it was the only way to avoid dooming her people to either slavery themselves or an endless war with the hutts.

was it always meant to be this way and there was nothing mors could do to stop it, like a destined tragedy? or is this a problem of circumstance, an issue of mandalore's own making that got out of control?

i would say that she believes that artus was destined to be mand'alor. the whole situation, a child (sidenote: i want to say artus was 15? same as king arthur... i was originally going with younger, but i think putting an unstable teenager in charge of an empire is funny. yeah deal with this and puberty.) killing their slavers with the mask of the mand'alor, accidentally avenging the old one -- it's something out of a storybook. and artus has an air about him, something that makes people want to believe in him. whether that's natural or the ka'ra at work through him, it's hard to say, but mors believes that mandalorian's were led to him for a reason. that the old mand'alor died exactly how he was meant to.

its hard not to believe, if you see artus with his people. a boy king whose heart bled for his new people. who made time in his court for anyone to address him regardless of status. who once got on his knees to hug a woman who had lost her son, a complete stranger to him, just because she was one of his and she needed someone.

so yes, mors believes in fate. if she hadn't killed artus, she knows someone else would have. he had enemies both in and outside of mandalore for his crusade against the hutts, and chances are one of them would have gotten him sooner or later. it didn't have to be mors. free will came into play by making sure he died as swiftly as she could manage, with honor. there are far worse fates for a former slave to have to endure, and she did love him. it wasn't a mercy or a kindness, but it was what she had.

[rakghoulified]

here to throw some of those odd oc questions at you!

🍰 and 🍩for Aifenn, 🍻and 🌽 for Morsraut, and 🌽 also for Artus... and for good measure, 🎂 for an oc of your choice!

yaaaaay thank you! i love these :D

🍰: What's something your OC counts as unforgivable?

that's a tough one. i would say mind control. i havent thought too hard about the plot point where the knight gets controlled by vitiate, but i KNOW it's not going to be good. having everything that you are ripped away and shunted to the side. the complete lack of control. he's going to have issues about this FOREVER.

(and then of course in the expacs, FENLEY is posessed by vitiate and drags Aifenn along for the ride through carbonite and a force bond, so i'm sure he will take that. great.)

MORE UNDER THE CUT

🍩: What's a crime your OC is most likely to commit? What's a crime they're most likely to get arrested for?

he doesn't go after civillians so at least he's not out here committing war crimes... i did have to check though...

i imagine the actual crimes he commits as more like... what would the empire charge him with if they could get away with it? a lot. trespassing, assault, armed robbery, advocating overthrow of government, assisting or instigating escape/escaping custody, the list goes on... and then add with a deadly weapon (lightsaber) on to the ends of literally all of these. so i mean by empire standards he is doing all of this. to be fair.

republic crimes? just the trespassing i imagine. sometimes he ends up in places hes not supposed to be. how is he supposed to know? he cant read! i think the fact that his eyes don't work would get him off the hook...

what he's most likely to be arrested for? cheating. it is a beautiful and time honored tradition that padawans learn to cheat at sabacc in case they need emergency funds. and he is VERY good at it. doing it slowly enough that he doesn't raise suspicion... But he wasn't always, and I think if he'd been caught in his youth it would so be on his record.

🍻: What's your OC's favourite comfort ritual? How do they calm themselves down after a rough day?

i feel that morsraut is very about the little rituals that go into maintaining her armors and weapons. wiping down and oiling her armor, stacking it in a certain way, touching up the paint... checking her weapons and taking them apart and putting them back together again over and over and over. the consistency is soothing.

if shes with artus, she has to wait for him to shower, but then she'll brush out his hair, braiding the many beskar beads back into it. it's slow, careful work, and it keeps her mind and body occupied. she cant let her thoughts drift because the beads are finicky, which makes it a nice task.

🌽: How does this OC feel about acts of affection? What's their favourite act of affection, physical or emotional?

Morsraut is less rambunctious than many mandos. she is calmer, more private, believes there's a time and a place for everything. she doesn't mind small gestures of affection in public, but a lot of obvious PDA is not for her.

She prefers smaller gestures of affection... a quick kiss, bumping shoulders together. if she really likes someone, she'll sometimes deign to hold hands, but more often she'll rest a hand on the nape of their neck, rubbing her thumb across the skin there.

as for emotions, she wants honesty. wants it to be real. she wants to know that what her partner says is what they mean. it doesn't need to be flowery, it doesn't need to be perfect. its the emotion that wins her over. she doesn't let her emotions control her decision making, but doesn't mean she feels them less deeply. she's just less expressive about them.

🌽: How does this OC feel about acts of affection? What's their favourite act of affection, physical or emotional?

artus has taken very well to the more boisterous physical affection that mandalorian's often share. he is used to secret, silent acts of afffection, a stolen moment to give someone's hand a squeeze was often all slaves could get... being able to openly show that he likes people and have that love returned? amazing.

physically, he's prone to punches in the arm, side hugs, ruffling hair, just anything to sneak in a quick touch. more romantically, that's a quick kiss on the cheek, grabbing a hand to plant a quick kiss on it, things like that. a quick touch forehead to forehead if he can manage it, and a quick word of affection.

what he likes is... steadiness. physical and emotional steadiness. leaning back and knowing someone is going to be there, lying in bed and falling asleep in the arms of a person he knows is safe, that he trusts with is life. that sense of security in another person is new and novel to him. to have someone to rely on who isn't himself, to know that he isn't alone... that means everything to him.

(it cost him everything, too.)

🎂:Has your OC have any contradictory interests or traits to the first preception people have of them? How do they surprise people?

Surprise other people? he surprised ME. my first perception of him was thinking he was going to be a cute, easily flustered smuggler that was terrible at lying, a sort of opposite of many of the more suave or charismatic smugglers. he'd have his own sort of charm, you know? and he DOES. he is still all of those things, he's just also grown to be MORE than those things, especially in the past couple weeks. i have unearthed so, SO much about this guy.

he craves freedom and he starts to chafe if he's stuck in one place for too long. he started keeping plants (especially flowers) to prove someone wrong, and ended up enjoying having them around to the extent that they're all over his ship. i expected him to be more meek, what with being easily flustered/unable to lie/not being tough, but guess what?

he is reckless, impulsive, always pushing his luck AND INCREDIBLY LUCKY AT THE SAME TIME. he can get argumentative when he's too embarassed AND arguementative when he's feeling playful. AND he's and angry crier. he soaks up physical affection like a sponge and kicks his friends in the shins when they bully him. constantly! putting himself! in situations! and despite running away from csilla, throwing away his entire old identity except his name and changing everything about his life? he's having so much FUN. he LOVES this, flying, tweaking his own ship, smuggling and seeing how much he can get away with without outright telling a lie because he's awful at it. he's clever and oblivious all at once. what is WITH this guy.

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big spoon or little spoon. for all your ocs. plus any other interesting cuddle HCs

oh god thats a lot of guys. oh man. hold on. i need to see if i can name them all from memory they're running around free range in my brain, i have to catch them you see...

ARTUS - he's a little spoon. he had a habit of curling up as small as possible when he slept back from his slave days when he desperately needed to conserve warmth/comfort. it takes ages for him to STOP doing that, and he never fully breaks the habit... but if he's sleeping with someone he trusts to watch his back, he'll curl into them instead. Many a night with mors spend with artus in mors' arms, curled into her chest while mors wrapped her arms around him and rested her chin on his head. hearing her heartbeat helped with his hypervigilance, a consistent sound to focus on that means he's safe...

MORSRAUT - see above, but big spoon. mors was born and raised mandalorian, she's used to taking up space and doesn't feel bad about it. she's not actually unnecessarily sprawling or anything, just comfortable in her skin and when it's time to sleep. with artus, she was used to taking the watch so that he would feel comfortable enough to doze at first. they're both able to sleep better eventually, but mors is a light sleeper. a personal alarm clock, you could say. will simply haul artus out of bed with her when its time to be up.

AIFENN - he will be the big spoon because people expect him to be the big spoon. i dont know his actual preference here he just likes to meet expectations of being a good jedi knight and if that means being the big spoon? so be it. he would see it as protecting the other person even in his sleep, keeping them safe in his arms, and that would hold appeal to him even outside of expectations... so yeah. maybe one rare case where his wants and needs are aligned.

FENLEY - hes the big spoon. it doesn't matter that he's small, his presence and personality are huge and he loves to sprawl and take up space. more than he needs, even, just because he can. as much as he is a big spoon, he's also prone to falling asleep half on top of his partners. he'll snuggle if he's really tired out, but don't get confused, he is holding YOU like a teddy bear not the other way around.

SH'ILOH - they will be whatever they need to be. they tend to sleep alone, and when they don't, it's up to whoever they're with. they can cradle someone's head while holding them tenderly or burrow into someone's chest to sleep and feel safe. it's either or, depending, i suppose, on if sh'iloh feels that person needs to be protected or feel like they're doing the protecting. as with everything in sh'ilohs life, even this is complicated... on their own, they tend to curl up loosely shrimp style and need many blankets to stay warm.

DUSTROS - it is a mystery. this man avoids sleeping because he's too busy researching and writing papers on ancient sith magic and such. he can occasionally be found passed out and being hauled back to his rooms by khem val, but no one has gotten close enough to find out his actual preference, or if he allows cuddling at all. ill give you a secret fact though: he has low blood pressure, so he has a hard time waking up properly... this is part of the reason he simply keeps going until he drops. doesn't want to deal with it.

LACHLANN - lachlann is more of a big spoon by nature of being 6'2" than anything else about them. that said, if someone WANTS to hold them close as the little spoon, they won't complain about it! it is rarer for them, though, given that they will simply scoop up their bedmate by the scruff and flop down and purr until they give in to going to sleep.

when it comes to sleeping with friends, like other mandos out on jobs? well, lachlann is usually shoved to the middle of the pile. neither big spoon nor little spoon but a secret, third thing (furnace with fur.)

CIL'VOE - littlest spoon. he wants to be held and cuddled and he deserves it! the galaxy is big and dangerous and he is small and wanted by the entire Ascendancy. being the little spoon or curling into a loved one gives him a sense of safety in an unsafe galaxy. plus he likes to be physically close to his partners, he is clingy.

CYRESK - honestly if you want him you're just going to have to wrangle him. grab him and flop down on the nearest flat surface, he's a wily one and he will escape if he feels like it. he likes to drape himself on people which might lead to him being more big spoon oriented, but he'd be a little spoon too with sufficient trust and motivation.

SIX - six sleeps alone primarily, but IF you got him to admit to having feelings and IF he deeply trusted you... he would want to be the little spoon. guy who deeply craves tenderness but avoids all physical contact with other people to the extent that he is touch starved as a lifestyle choice. he can learn.. he CAN... its just. HARD.

[rakghoulified]

sooo. If artus doesn’t speak basic and just pops out of stasis at some point… what happens with that?? Are you planning to write a fic? Does Mors also somehow survive, and how does she do it if so? Does she try to kill Artus after waking up, or

GREAT QUESTION.

it depends on where he is? he's pretty quick with languages, but even then, there IS a barrier... i thought it might be fun to play around with in fics to have him only pick up on certain words and adjust how much he understands as he goes along... but on the other hand, it is also a PAIN to have him not understand basic and it does make it harder to play around with him because inevitably the start of every scenario i want to put him in has to begin with really high stakes games of charades. he WAS mand'alor, he might have picked up on more than that... im undecided. i gotta let this idea percolate a little more.

mors at least does speak basic. so she does not have that problem.

i am indeed writing fics and i will probably write one with artus! (im actually writing one of how artus gets murdered by mors and wakes up right now...)

in their canon timeline, i'm not sure if they both survive to the modern day or not. there would for sure be the whole murder thing to get over, which would not be easy... mors wasn't HAPPY about killing artus, it's just that she didn't see another way. tfw you love a guy but that guy is determined to go on a crusade against the hutts for ten years and really hasn't let up and you're getting worried about the fate of your people???

anyways i don't know if they could mend the whole. i mean i was going to say murder attempt but it was a murder success. like she did it. if mors DID manage to survive, I feel like she'd also be older than artus when she wasn't before. however long she managed to rein as mand'alor, so anywhere from 5-15 years. new experiences, new scars... wheras artus is exactly the same as she last saw him. that's a crunchy idea. they'd have. a LOT to work through.

the happiest scenario i could put them in is one where mors and artus get stuck or somehow travel to the same time and find each other again, PRE-murder, with Mors never having been mand'alor. their canon timeline is probably the worst one because mors is literally haunting the narrative... but i have to admit it would be COOL to make her show up again after everything. especially on different sides.

don't worry mandalorians the ka'ra (specifically ruling council of dead kings) is having a disagreement so you get two of them. BOGO sale.