nobody said it was easy @waybxckhome - Tumblr Blog

42 character development questions!

PHYSICAL PRESENCE AND GESTURE. 1. How do they move and carry themselves? Pace, rhythm, gestures, energy? 2. How much physical space do they use, active and at rest? 3. How do they position themselves in a group? Do they like to be the center of attention, or do they hang back at the edges of a crowd? 4. What is their size and build? How does it influence how they use their body, if it does? 5. How do they dress? What styles, colors, accessories, and other possessions do they favor? Why? 6. What are they like in motion–in different environments, and in different activities? What causes the differences between these? 7. How do they physically engage with other people, inanimate objects, and their environment? What causes the differences between these? 8. Where and when do they seem most and least at ease? Why? How can you tell? 9. How do they manifest energy, exhaustion, tension, or other strong emotions? 10. What energizes and drains them most? 11. How are they vocally expressive? What kind of voice, accent, tones, inflections, volume, phrases and slang, and manner of speaking do they use? 12. How are they bodily expressive? How do they use nonverbal cues such as their posture, stance, eyes, eyebrows, mouths, and hands? DISPOSITION AND TEMPERAMENT. 13. How do they greet the world — what is their typical attitude towards life? How does it differ in different circumstances, or towards different subjects? Why do they take these attitudes, and why do they change? How do these tend to be expressed? 14. What do they care deeply about? What kind of loyalties, commitments, moral codes, life philosophies, passions, callings, or spirituality and faith do they have? How do these tend to be expressed? 15. What kind of inner life do they have — rich and imaginative? Calculating and practical? Full of doubts and fears? Does it find any sort of outlet in their lives? 16. Do they dream? What are those dreams like? 17. Are they more shaped by nature or nurture — who they are, or what has happened to them? How have these shaped who they’ve become as a person? 18. What kind of person could they become in the future? What are some developmental paths that they could take, (best, worst, most likely?) what would cause them to come to pass, and what consequences might they have? What paths would you especially like to see, and why? CONNECTIONS WITH OTHERS. 19. How do they behave within a group? What role(s) do they take? Does this differ if they know and trust the group, versus finding themselves in a group of strangers? Why? 20. What kind of individual relationships do they have with others, and how do they behave in them? How are they different between intimate relationships like friends, family, and lovers versus more impersonal relationships? 21. What kind of relationships do they tend to intentionally seek out versus actually cultivate? What kind of social contact do they prefer, and why? 22. How do people respond to them, and why might these responses differ? 23. How do they respond to difficult social moments? What makes them consider a social situation difficult? 24. How do they present themselves socially? What distinguishes their “persona” from their “true self”, and what causes that difference? 25. What do they need and want out of relationships, and how do they go about getting it? 26. How do they view and feel about relationships, and how might this manifest in how they handle them, if it does? ACTIVITIES AND PREFERENCES. 27. What do they strongly like and dislike, in any category? Why? 28. What are they likely to do if they have the opportunity, resources, and time to accomplish it? Why? 29. What kind of activities, interests, and hobbies do they have? What significance and impact do these have in their lives, both positive and negative? 30. What is their preferred level of activity and stimulation? How do they cope if they get either too little or too much? 31. Is there anything that counts as a “dealbreaker” for them, positively or negatively? What makes things go smoothly, and what spoils an activity or ruins their day? Why? 32. Do they have any “props” that are a significant part of their life, identity, activities, or self-presentation somehow? What are they, how are they used, and why are they so significant? How would these props’ absence impact them, how would they compensate, and why? THINKING AND LEARNING. 33. How do they learn about the world–what is their preferred learning style? Hands-on learning with trial and error? Research, reading, and note-taking? Observation or rote memorization? Inductive or deductive reasoning? Seeking patterns and organization? Taking things apart and putting them back together? Creative processing via discussing, writing about, or dramatizing things? 34. How do they understand the world–what kind of worldview and thought processes do they have? Why? 35. How and why do they internalize knowledge? What effect has that had on them? 36. How much do they rely on their minds and intellect, versus other approaches like relying on instinct, intuition, faith and spirituality, or emotions? What is their opinion on this? 37. Have they had any special education or training that colors their means of learning about or understanding the world? Conversely, do they lack some kind of education considered essential in their world? What kind of impact has this addition or lack had on them? 38. Is there anything they wish they could change about their worldview or thought processes? What, and why? 39. What sort of questions or thoughts recur in their lives, either specifically or as a theme? Why are these never answered, or answered permanently to their satisfaction? 40. What do they wonder about? What sparks their curiosity and imagination, and why? How is this expressed, if it is? FREE FOR ALL. 41. What associations do they bring to mind? Words or phrases, images, metaphors or motifs? Why? 42. I have a question of my own!

dnd-vigilante

This is a pretty neat tool.

#have you come here to rescue me? ( meme )

squaremeal

waybxckhome

// reasons to travel with riley:

the campfire looks like that

#my heart beats way too fast to let regret sit in my lap ( riley )#headcanon tag tbd #[riley is the one who cooks]#[and cooks well]#[zetta is easily distracted and burns everything]

// zetta doesn’t actually name her personal weapons. if she inherits one that has a name, she’ll keep it (deliverer) or modify it to better suit herself (righteous authority becomes... shit, i dont remember what it was, righteous fury comes to mind but that wasn’t it, it had something to do with rebellion somehow)

but if it’s one she makes herself? like her institute rifle which is a project she’s been dicking with since the first time she gets her hands on one? they always get a model number, and each one starts with ZQR. (so, an example number for her institute rifle would be ZQR-127, and her plasma pistol might be ZQR-24.) the first number represents what project it is (first, second, etc.), and the next number(s) represent the number of modifications she’s on. ZQR-127 means it’s her first project, 27 means she’s on version 27 of her build. ZQR-24 means second project, version 4 of her build

and ZQR? theyre her initials, using her first name, maiden name, and married name

#headcanon tag tbd #don't have a lot left; just anger and something to prove ( zetta )

off-tempo

an anthem for pre-war america

#and the harmonies you sing ( vis: music )#[i know i keep reblogging this but]#[hashtag relevant to what i just posted]

i promised yesterday i’d do a post inspired from this one, and i finally feel up to writing it so here we go

let’s talk about pre-war for zetta and riley (with mention of ferran, their boyfriend who is an oc without a tumblr who is played by a friend). everybody buckle in for a meta post about characters i haven’t done enough with on their blog!! YAY

specifically, the thing from that post that gets me going is this (bolding mine):

I wish you had the option, when prompted, to talk about this shit as the Sosu, considering you were alive to experience it. You should be able to counter Piper, for example, when she asks you to compare Diamond city to the life you knew, asks you to essentially say the world is a shadow of its former self. Because it isn’t, not really. It’s just the stepford-smile artifice is finally gone.

hard same, OP. hard same. zetta actually doesn’t complete that interview early in the game; she loses her temper because she feels like piper is cornering her into talking about things she isn’t willing to talk about, bc she agreed to the interview initially to try to spread word about her missing son, not to talk about her fresh new traumas — so she yells at piper a lot and then leaves not even halfway through, but anyway. none of the responses there were true to this character, because how shitty things were pre-war actually makes up key elements of her background

here, let me go grab something zetta said in the long-ass rp i’m doing with ferran-mun... okay, so, we’ve got two different quotes that are applicable here. in the first one, she’s talking to deacon, and in the second, she’s yelling at an enclave remnant:

one (written august of last year):

“May not have to worry about raiders [Pre-War], but it's not like there's nothing to worry about. It's all just dressed up more nicely. At least raiders have the courtesy of dressing up in spiky armor to let you know you're going to have to fight them.”

two (written february of this year):

“America's dead. It blew itself up along with the rest of the world. You're not getting it back. Hell, you never even fucking had it in the first place. And it isn't worth being brought back. You weren't fucking there. The Old World isn't anything to aspire to. There wasn't less violence, there was different violence. It was organized. Rounding people up into concentration camps, selling out your neighbors, shooting starving people who were desperate for food. Fuck, we weren't even fighting over anything different. Shaun is named after a man who chose to die so Riley wouldn't. “The Old World isn't coming back, and it shouldn't.”

#meta tag tbd #long post #when all we knew wasn't stolen ( pre-war )#a crimson rose and a gin tonic ( ooc )#cw: racism #cw: internment camp mention #cw: mcarthyism #[anyway so that was a long and rambling post]

changing-roads

for rafe

i see your face in the glass with branches growing from your mouth you wear the moon like a halo you wear the night like it’s your coat and you’re always laughing but you always look afraid i think we’re haunted

psd credit: (1) (2) (3)

bonus:

signed, “take your FUCKING violets”

#dancing in the dark ( verse )#[this should go over here to bc i almost posted it here instead of on elle's]#[considering its referencing zetta's non-tumblr verse]

sausaged-rat

I feel like Fallout has become one of those pieces of media that has gone/ is going the Fight Club way, where it is starting to attract the type of people who support the thing it originally critiqued, in this case, Authoritarian capitalist regimes.

Like, the terror that drives fallout isn’t its gritty post-apocalyptic aesthetic, it’s the atrocities of the culture that led to the war in the first place. All those personal stories you find buried in the pieces of lore you stumble across. It’s the blind nationalism and xenophobia, the internment camps, the mcarthyism, the bloated military industrial complex, the systematic dismantling of corporate regulations to the point where companies could perform psychological and chemical experiments on the public consequence free, etc etc etc.

I wish you had the option, when prompted, to talk about this shit as the Sosu, considering you were alive to experience it. You should be able to counter Piper, for example, when she asks you to compare Diamond city to the life you knew, asks you to essentially say the world is a shadow of its former self. Because it isn’t, not really. It’s just the stepford-smile artifice is finally gone.

trilllizard666

to add onto this, this is also why the NCR and Mr House in New Vegas are morally gray instead of morally white as options

NCR tries but they get into a lot of the same issues as the American democracy (that was barely a democracy) that they emulate

High taxes are making people discontent while the NCR can barely even protect themselves, nevermind the frontier towns, they’re stomping on a lot of people displeased with them and a lot of their rights, and places like former Nevada and various small factions see them as a corrosive, invading force. Hell, you have outright insurrectionists like Samuel Cooke and you’ve got Caesar pointing out that the longest running president ran unopposed for literal decades and won the presidency after her father. “Does that sound like an actual democracy, or an inherited kingdom?”

Meanwhile, Mr House is purely corporate. Impartial, protective…..of New Vegas…..and uncaring. He cares about high ideals and concepts, not about the common salt of the earth man and woman. He wants humanity to get into space and find new worlds, and he doesn’t care what he has to do to make that possible.

the recurring refrain of the series “War never changes” has that meaning of how a lot of times humanity seems doomed to keep condemning itself to bowing to the bleak altar of war, though at least Lonesome Road gives us a corollary.

“War never changes….but men do, through the roads they walk.”

you could argue that Fallout’s main point is that humanity will change and must change, or it will perish and yet one of the central conflicts is how humanity repeats it’s own grim history. War is still fought for slaves, resources, power, and fanaticism, like Ron Perlman intones as the reasons war was fought before The Great War of the setting, the final mutually assured destruction nuclear exchange.

It also gets briefly into the concept of the titular Old World Blues. thinking about times gone by, of nostalgia over something that came before that might not have ever even existed. Ulysses’ obsession with history. Misremembered/distorted historical events of Bethesda Fallout games, like with Abraham Washington’s imperfect museum or the false history of “The Swatter”. NCR’s emulation of pre war US governance, down to the same titles. the Legion being based on Imperial Rome. The Brotherhood of Steel’s obsession with pre war technology. The Kings’ entire existence, however benevolent they are by comparison to most.

Fallout asks, at the very core when it at it’s best….

Can humanity change enough to ensure it survives? How will it change? Will we even be recognizable as human after the radical changes we’ve undergone? Or will we remain stagnant, murdering each other over land, lust, money, and power indefinitely?

kronecker-delta

Generally I don’t like superficial “Like Fight Club is misunderstood” because it comes with the assumption that most people aren’t as smart as the person speaking. But in the case of Fallout it’s more like the people still making media in the franchise don’t entirely know what the thematic point was supposed to be.

Which is a tad different than just complaining about the fans not getting it right. As now their are fans making canon material that either don’t get it or don’t care. Which is giving people who primarily enter the series from Fallout 4 a warped view on what the games were about before. Nostalgia for the ‘Old World’ and the good times of American hegemony teetering on the blade of nuclear Armageddon wasn’t part of that, but as the first post states you’re never really given the chance to express contempt for the way the world was in Fallout 4.

It’s rather disappointing considering the deep potential for characterization through dialogue and quest resolution in New Vegas.

Regardless this is some spot on analysis and mirrors my own feelings well.

trilllizard666

“more like the people still making media in the franchise don’t entirely know what the thematic point was supposed to be”

you can say Bethesda

it’s okay, friend.

Todd Howard can’t hurt us here.

#long post #we ride the breeze to cut patterns in the earth ( src: fandom )#[i have some fuckin Words about this wrt zetta and riley]#[so hold on to ur butts im gnona make a post]

inferior

#the rain is pouring on the dining room table ( vis )#show your hands if you need a new coat of paint ( vis: images )

yknhec-blog

The Institute (x)

#the rain is pouring on the dining room table ( vis )#show your hands if you need a new coat of paint ( vis: images )

obdurare:

@waybxckhome

Hit a nerve, did we? I’m not an idiot, she says, after barging into an occupied building and doing nothing to at least acknowledge the fact that she’s here on his good faith, and his good faith alone. Since coming out of deep freeze he’s killed people for less. In some ways the entire end of the world and the one that’s followed has allowed him to remember better what he really is, and while he plays at merciful and ingratiating, he knows he is anything but. It’s all a game, isn’t it? To see if she might have something worth offering beyond a bad attitude and an ungratefulness that literally astounds.

“That’s debatable.” He doesn’t add anything to that, instead simply gesturing around the dimly lit room. My place, that gesture says, not yours. “You don’t need to wear the suit to peg yourself as a dweller. Look at you. Too healthy, pipboy, goggly-eyed bad attitute to prove you’re tough. You’d attract less attention wearing that stupid thing than you probably already do.”

The eye roll is reflexive, which really doesn’t help her case. The truth is, she had this attitude long before the bombs fell, but that isn’t something she feels like sharing. It’s dangerously too close to admitting she felt the need to defend herself even back when the wasteland seems to think there was nothing to fear. This just smacks of Piper, though, calling her Blue and making her hackles raise. But unlike Piper, this guy doesn’t have other hot buttons under his thumb, so instead of pushing harder, she ends up going the other way, back to trying to play casual.

“Doubtful,” she drawls, folding her arms over her chest. “I’d certainly attract more super mutant attention in it.”

#obdurare #darling it's grand ( thread )#well i've been afraid of changing ( zetta survives )#[me writing this: zetta. zetta hector's going to dance circles around you]#[zetta honey]#[youre not in top form]#[stop trying to pretend you are]#[...oh who am i kidding]

Cherry Garcia

ice cream flavor headcanons ; accepting | @dearestjester

Cherry Garcia: a role model/inspiration headcanon

when riley was growing up, he spent the most time comparing himself to zetta, which started because their parents were the ones doing it all the time... but also, his father. which is honestly part of the reason why when his dad started helping him with his schoolwork, he started to perform better — it wasn’t just the actual tutoring, it was the time spent with his dad and the approval he earned

#dearestjester #i want to draw you a floorplan of my mind and heart ( answers )#my heart beats way too fast to let regret sit in my lap ( riley )

headcanon meme: ice cream flavors edition.

Almond Chocolate Coconut: a touch headcanon.

Bacon Ice Cream: a "what were you even thinking" headcanon.

Black Raspberry Cheesecake: a sexuality and/or romanticism headcanon (romantic orientation, sexual orientation, etc).

Cactus Fruit Sorbet: a "this shouldn't work but it does" headcanon.

Cherry Garcia: a role model/inspiration headcanon.

Chubby Hubby: a body image/self esteem headcanon.

Chunky Monkey: a names, addresses, nicknames, etc. headcanon.

Cookies and Cream: a family headcanon.

Cotton Candy Explosion: a childhood/child(ren) headcanon.

Death By Chocolate: an indulgence/guilty pleasure headcanon.

Devil's Food Chocolate: a vice headcanon.

Dulce de Leche: a happy/sweet romantic or queerplatonic headcanon.

Elderberry: a hurt/comfort headcanon.

Entangled Mints: a friendship headcanon.

Espresso 'n Cream: a coffee/tea/coffee-shop (AU)/caffeine headcanon.

Fudge Behaving Badly: a misbehaving/getting into trouble headcanon.

Ginger Crème Brûlée: a gender headcanon (gender identity, gender presentation, butch/femme, gender feels, etc).

Half Baked: a bad idea/poor planning headcanon.

Heartbreak Healer: a sad/angsty romantic or queerplatonic headcanon.

Jasmine Peach Tea: a self-care/self-love headcanon.

Kahlua Almond Fudge: a language/words headcanon.

Kiwi Midori: a creative arts headcanon.

Lemon Angel Food: a virtue headcanon.

Lemon-Lime Sorbet: a sexual/NC-17 headcanon (alt: a secret(s) h/c).

Magic Mint Cookie: a magic/supernatural headcanon (alt: a taste h/c).

Masque of the Raspberry Sorbet: a fear/horror headcanon (alt: a costume(s)/facade(s) headcanon).

Neapolitan: an intimacy/vulnerability (or lack thereof) headcanon.

Orange Pineapple Whip: a kinky headcanon (alt: an eccentricity h/c).

Oreo Cheesecake: a physical health/disability headcanon.

Peanut Butter Plum Cherry: a soulmate/soulmate AU headcanon (alt: an unconditional love headcanon)

Phish Food: a music headcanon.

Purple Daze: a stoner/drugs headcanon.

Rainbow Cream: a nature headcanon.

Road Trip: a travel or escapism headcanon.

Rocky Road: a difficulty or struggle headcanon.

SNAFU (Strawberries Naturally All Fudged Up): a mistake(s) headcanon.

Strawberry Rhubarb Crunch: a mental health/neurodivergent headcanon.

Tennessee Mud: an alcohol, drunkenness, intoxication headcanon.

Tuxedo Strawberry: a well-dressed headcanon (any headcanon about clothes).

Vanilla Fudge Ripple: a strength headcanon.

White Raspberry Truffle: a weakness headcanon.

Wildberry Chocolate Chunk: a social life headcanon.

#have you come here to rescue me? ( meme )

i never had to learn to love her like i learned to love the bomb she just came along and started to ignore me but as we waited for the big one, i started singing her my songs and i think she started feeling something for me we passed the time with crosswords that she thought to bring inside “what five letters spell 'apocalypse,’” she asked me i won her over singing, "W.W.I.I.I." oh, we smiled and we both knew that she'd misjudged me

#and the harmonies you sing ( vis: music )

How would you prefer to pass away? Surrounded by loved ones and at peace, or while doing something heroic?

interview the muse ; accepting | @dearestjester

“I...” Riley looks away, frowning. “I don’t know. It’s not really something... I mean, we’ve had so many close calls already... It’s — hard to think about.” He takes a deep breath through his nose and lets it out slowly. His mind is back in the vault, when he was struggling to hold on to Shaun. How close they were to losing each other. “I think... yeah. With family. Or... quiet, in my sleep. Something like that.”

Zetta scowls. “Why the hell would you ask this?”

... yeah, apparently that’s all she’s saying about this.

#dearestjester #i want to draw you a floorplan of my mind and heart ( answers )#you looked up at the sky and said the moon would be ours ( r&z )#[jester i s2g]#[this is what you come at me with]#[how dare]#[but im laughing bc]#[riley like: This Bothers Me But I'll Be Polite]#[zetta like: This Bothers Me And Fuck You]

sinfullvibes

half of me is a hopeless romantic and the other half of me is, well, an asshole

#you strike me as a woman who has never been satisfied ( vis: zetta )#i hear those words like bombs in the distance ( vis: words )#the rain is pouring on the dining room table ( vis )

// honestly things go smoother for the people of the commonwealth when both riley and zetta survive. they just balance each other out — riley is the talker, zetta is the techie, riley does the whole “too nice for his own good” thing, zetta will stomp anyone who pushes too far

zetta on her own will get a railroad ending, but not without a lot of PR disasters along the way. riley, though, ends up institute without zetta constantly injecting reality into his thoughts, which uh. i doubt he’d actually be able to change the institute from within the way he’s hoping — again, he’s too nice, and he’s a doormat, too easily pushed over even if he’s good at diplomacy

#you looked up at the sky and said the moon would be ours ( r&z )#[why dont i have a headcanon tag]

// HECKIN HECK I FORGOT MY ASKBOX WASNT OPEN

#a crimson rose and a gin tonic ( ooc )#[i ALWAYS forget that isnt default]#[rip in peace]#[that's fixed now]#[thank u ace]

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