#vesscanon.

[vessmar]

vess has a fluffy orange cat he named ronald. ronald was a stray until he stole the meat from vess' sandwich one day while he was working on his house; vess couldn't help but fall for this cat when he offered the rest of his food and the cat picked through it without a care in the world.

ronald turned out to have absolutely no brain cells and zero sense of self preservation, and that is exactly what made vess love him so damn much. this stupid little fluff ball would charge a horse if he felt the need, no hesitation, ronald was shameless and excitable.

if vesper ever talks about ronald, he will not refer to him as a cat, only "my roommate". he thinks it makes conversations about ronald so much funnier, because he'll get to say things like "my roommate got stuck in the blinds the other day," and "sometimes i have to lock ronald out of my room for some privacy, else he'll just sit and stare." vess only admits that ronald is a cat once he absolutely has to.

lastly, ronald was born with only three legs ! though ronald seemed to get by, vess made it a little mission of his to provide the cat with a fourth. it's set on a spring system, and it comes with little electrodes with which to sense muscle movement — it's not perfect by any means but ronald seems more playful and more energetic with the accessibility it offers. there's an earlier version vess made with chariot-wheels with spikes on them, a little joke just for the visual, and that was the moment when vess realized, if he had ankles, they'd be shredded by his cat with the zoomies.

[vessmar]

which subtle way of saying "i love you" are you?

" here, have a sandwich " you like to take care of people. probably because you don't take very good care of yourself, and you know how hard life can be when you don't have someone occasionally looking over your shoulder, offering you food when you forget to eat, telling you to rest when you've overlooked how tired you really are. you want to be that person for other people. you are that person for other people, and you're good at it too -- but remember to think of yourself as well when you're making someone else a sandwich. please, keep being you. the world would look a lot better if there were more people like you in it.

tagged by: @ofinflorescence (ty riley i'm a wreck now) tagging: y'all pls do this and tag my ass to see it

[vessmar]

i kinda realize this series of lore tidbits are not, anywhere on my blog right now, and while i tend to think "everyone" (aka close friends) all already know it, i have to make the info readily available if i want to expand beyond that group, so. have some important notes about vess' character

aquaphobia & respiratory illness.

cw drowning, abuse

vess is deeply afraid of drowning & bodies of water. he doesn't know how to swim, and his history with drowning still affects him physically to this day. his father's idea of endurance training was to push vess to and beyond his limits. one of these regular practices was to hold vess' head under water, hand fisted in his hair, until he by all definitions drowned. vess has had water forcefully expelled from his lungs more times than he can count, and it's caused long-lasting physical and psychological damage.

this water training is why vess does not let people touch his hair, or only allows them to touch it if he can see their hand/arm.

it is also why vess' voice is as deep as it is, and why he's highly susceptible to respiratory infections. infection and recurring illness in childhood that stemmed from the fluid in his lungs changed the landscape of his lungs, throat, and vocal cords.

he still gets frequently ill to this day, lung problems persist and he has to practice specific, highly controlled breathing patterns when he exercises or fights, in order to keep from ending up breathless or wheezing.

[vessmar]

vess has some definite shame surrounding being perceived as disabled — not because there's anything wrong with being disabled, but being raised by a parent that expected no less than perfection, and ruthlessly punished vess for things he (steinn, vess' father) was never, ever happy with... it kinda instilled a lot of self-continued shame when left unchecked.

he's in a little bit of denial, still to this day, that he should be allowed to roam around his own house on his hands, lower body in compression shorts with the legs sewn shut to avoid skin contact with the floor. he's in denial that he should be allowed comfort, a break from his prostheses, the space to just live in his home without performing. on days where his chronic pain is high and all he wants is to take his prostheses off and eat bell pepper and hummus while sitting on the kitchen floor, he just should — and he's learning. it's slow acceptance, and it's harder around others than it is while alone, but he's doing what he can to combat the voice of his long gone father in his ear.

[vessmar]

while vess specializes in mechanics and engineering, his skills extend to visual art as well — he has a very classical graphite or charcoal sketch style, and he loves drawing both the human figure and architecture more than anything. mathematical art is his favorite, though he is quite intimately familiar with human anatomy and therefore also takes a very realistic musculature-based approach to his art. he carries a small, worn, leather bound sketchbook and a pencil he sharpens with a knife on his person almost anywhere he goes.

[vessmar]

vess can trek through the snow of snezhnaya with ease if he installs the heat packs in his prostheses before leaving

[vessmar]

vess grew up in a very unkempt, chaotic, abusive environment, and he spent much of his childhood feeling physically uncomfortable in his body, and often feeling unclean — as an adult, because of this, he's become very attentive about his hygiene. showering head to... thigh with exfoliating cloths and keeping his body hair trimmed and having a skin care regimen, he will begin to feel antsy and uncomfortable if he has to go without any of these usual routines for more than a couple days.

he also smells earthy, like damp woody scents tend to be his go-to for cologne, but he doesn't wear a lot of it. he's a vitamins & supplements girlie so his regular use of chlorophyll keeps his natural body odor relatively neutral, he kind of prefers to smell like very little until you get up close and personal with him, where few are allowed to be at any given moment.