ru5t

[ru5t]

Ben Barnes in Westworld season 1 episode 5 “Contrapasso” (2016) dir. Johnny Campbell

#c:\work>dir j:\ fc-img* //.jpg .png .gif/ #logan very much Not jack adjacent in personality/mannerism but aesthetically. Yeah. peak. #esp the bottom two here #it's the longer hair mostly everyone always goes too short (or too long d;slkfj;ldgkj) for me to be like YEAH about it

[ru5t]

my intention was to post that dash game and then go to bed but here i still am

#once again. soooo deep in the sibling feels #c:\\work>dir h:\ ooc* //.hnh .lve:bite/

[ru5t]

@tiderider //> Sleep Prompts

"Up and at 'em. We have activity."

  His voice out of the quiet stings like a slap, so close to her ear she can feel the shift in the air as he moves away again. Maddy bolts upright, peering into the darkness where the only indication of Harry is an outline, blocking out what little ambient light filters through. A void darker still than the room around him. Demon of the Wharf.

  “Make noise when you move,” she hisses at him. Non-answer for his nonfun approach to rousing her. Had she actually been sleeping, rather than the half-in-half-out idling of the last hour or so, she might have taken a swing at him. And she just might catch him at least once, if that happens. Then they'd both be sorry. At least, she likes to imagine he'd be some kind of sorry, if she managed to catch him with just one good hit. Probably he'd just be angry.

  Heaving a testy sigh, she scrapes her hair back, pulling it up into a messy twist to keep it out of her face. By the time it's secure, she's ready to let it go. She's on her feet and trailing after him, double checking her pockets for her knife and the bug she built and everything else meant to be there.

  “Who broke the line first? The Knaves?”

#tiderider #c:\\work>dir t:\ ic* //.txt .rtf .doc/ #c:\\work>dir au:\ the lost daughter* // .fantasy/

[ru5t]

repost and rate your muse's traits out of 10 in each category !   -> Jack Edition

COMPASSION: 5/10. It is more active choice than natural empathy; he understands, he doesn't borrow feelings. He helps when he can but his crew come first and get a majority of his energy in this regard. His lines on when he can't help are iron. He will not help if doing so brings undue risk to his family.

BITTERNESS: 4/10. Carrying around a handful of grudges. Don't worry about it.

HAPPINESS: 8/10. Would love not to be living in a burned-out husk of a world and wants people to stop trying to fight/kill his kids (<- his literal son but also Tech and the Haven crew, those are his kids) but those are more or less his only complaints, at this point. He has what he has and he is happy. Honestly the homestead living, build-the-fences, harvest-the-plants, drive-to-town-to-trade thing kind of suits him. He was bored in the city.

POLITENESS: 6/10. Generally well mannered, if a little distant and seemingly unenthused. Capable of being bluntly honest, which isn't (usually) supposed to function as insult but sometimes offers it anyway. He will also tell you to fuck off if he gets sick of you, though.

MORALITY: 5/10. Um. Life has inherent value and he's plenty happy to live and let live. But if you in any way threaten his family, his crew, you're dust. And he really.. won't lose sleep over it.

PRIDE: ?/10. Broadly saves his pride for being proud of his kids. But he's not actively self-hating, either. It's really kind of an enigma to me.

HONESTY: 9/10. A bit of a light bluffer, now and then, when the situation calls for it, but mostly straightforward. He decided some time ago he'd had enough of the lies and masks; it took a lot of work and effort to get rid of them, to stop being what had been imposed on him and be a person instead. He doesn't want to go back.

BRAVERY: 7/10. (Surprisingly?) more hesitant in the face of things that frighten him than Tech is. First you gotta find something that frightens him, though. It's not a long list. And even then its tipable into, like.. when the thing is so scary to imagine you go into a blind rage to prevent it. Which is very fucked up and frightening.

RECKLESSNESS: 2/10. Not at all what anyone would call a reckless man. Sometimes you have to go on instinct or you miss your windows, it's true, but even that's a measured instinct. (Went through a reckless (and also angry) phase but has outgrown it.)

AMBITION: 6/10. After some meandering we've arrived at a perfectly reasonable "keep my family safe and well", except that its a barren world with scant, fought-over resources and all of them are, technically, being hunted by the city. So this is actually Quite A Task when one considers the size of his crew + other allies.

LOYALTY: ?/10. So here's the thing. He is frighteningly devoted to his sister. He is dedicated to his crew. He doesn't play people as a matter of habit and, as mentioned in the honesty section, he's generally pretty straightforward. And then also he betrayed all his friends and the company he worked for, including killing a significant number of people who trusted him. ... But then we circle back to the part where he did that for his sister. I'm honestly unclear on.... if something like that could happen again. Because make no mistake those people really were his friends, he grew up with a lot of them, he was going to keep living in the city even though he knew it was flawed. The city had his loyalty until they took his sister. This paints such a negative light- he's trustworthy. I just... I'm very unclear, at the moment, on his trolley problem stance if his sister's on one side of the tracks and his crew's on the other. He is a Puzzle, sometimes. Hypotheticals are hard with him, I often don't know where he'll land until the situation is literal.

LOVE: 8/10. Softer than you think.

SENSE OF FAMILY: 8/10. On the one hand, so so high so very high. On the other, kind of an off-the-wall definition. His sister has always far outweighed everyone else. Now it's her and his son who are the heavy hitters, and his crew close after. His mother falls no where on this measure, good riddance.

ATTRACTIVENESS: I can't answer this objectively I'm so biased to Be.n's face. Things other than that I think other people would consider attractive include: good strong laugh and a nice singing voice, when you can get him to; he's a little bit of that broody type, keeps journals, plays guitar, tall and strong and has the darkest eyes imaginable; excellent listener, good at picking up the meaning in stuff even if its not worded well; this is more divisive but single father who is soooo good and gentle with his boy.

AGILITY: 7/10. Quicker than he looks -the stillness throws people off- but the height does slow him down a bit. Lethal with a gun in his hands, fast and accurate, and absolutely horrifying with a knife. (And beyond all of that he hits like a sledgehammer, too. He's not fun to fight. Low key he's really scary, actually. There's a chance –as in I'm not sure I'm completely committed to it but I am thinking really hard about it and have been– BL/ind meddled with his health when he was young, poking at making stronger, faster soldiers. Not pushed all the way into super-soldier stuff, but just sort of... nudged. Whether or not he's aware of this is up for debate.)

SEX DRIVE: 4/10? I don't know. Something average-ish, with the note that he doesn't currently leave himself a lot of room to pursue much in this area. He had a partner for a few years, Dusty (the mother of his son), and though she's been out of the picture for awhile, he never really got closure on their separation. She just disappeared. I wouldn't say he's still carrying a torch, exactly, and he's probably had a little bit in the way of casual encounters since then, but not much. All of this is relevant because his romantic and sexual interest are deeply tied btw, it's really really rare for him to have sexual interest in someone he's not romantically attracted to.

#c:\work>dir j:\ hc-abt* //.src:trst .stdy/

[ru5t]

like this

(rattles the bars of my cage) cat girl cat girl cat girl cat girl

[ru5t]

(rattles the bars of my cage) cat girl cat girl cat girl cat girl

#rraaaaahhhhh

[ru5t]

I made. a server for very short back and forth dustverse things (if you are familiar with tupperbox it's stylized for tupperbox) that is like. one-liner replies, and if you are interested/have more questions about that pls let me know in some fashion

#shhh i am not here this is still. it's a henry day i have stuff ready i just #forgot to eat and my brain turned off so i'm lagging but there's henry stuff rattling around i promise #c:\\work>dir h:\ ooc* //.hnh .lve:bite/

[ru5t]

//> open

[sms] today I decided people who dress like it's the fifties and brag about old movies being their entire personality like it's a good thing aren't allowed to mock people for owning superhero movie collectables [sms] it's the law, now

#c:\\work>dir t:\ ic* //.txt .rtf .doc/ #c:\\work>dir au:\ the rat nest* // .modern/ #can u imagine getting this as a wrong number text lmfao #but also can be people who have plotted i just have maddy-isms in my head rn

[ru5t]

How the World Fell Under Darkness: A Zones Timeline

In brief format. Hits the major events, skips so much of the daily tragedies.

50s — post World War II relations and recovery

60s — the Cold War of intelligence and counterintelligence, fear campaigns; the arms race keeps everyone afraid of each other on a global scale

70s [diverging point from actual history]— the conflict goes hot, the world goes ugly; in America, only two large settlements survive the bombings, near LA in the west, and a fortress in the south- Better Living establishments which were protected from the damage in advance, seeing as they built a large number of the weapons used (by both sides)

1980-1984 — radiation is scrubbed from choice locations in the east, and Empire is founded, establishing a port for BL/ind's relations with other surviving entities

1985-1989 — following a health crisis in the south, the Analog Rebellion begins in Fort F.I.S.K. and spreads as people break free of the fort, skirting through what habitable land remains, and group together; the idea catches, and as the numbers of resistance climb, both Battery and FISK are cornered into retaliating

1990-1994 — rebellion continues, escalating into mass casualties on both sides- casualties no one can afford, in a world already post global war

1995-1999 — tenuous ceasefire is declared; it's not peace, but it's not war. the cities build walls, closing themselves in, and those that left the settlements are abandoned to the wilds to eke out whatever life they can without aid from Better Living

2000-2004 — the lands surrounding FISK backslide, and become entirely uninhabitable or navigable without specialized equipment; Empire City receives its first "transfer" from beyond the cities

2005-2009 —the zones around Battery begin to experience more regular patrols and tensions between city folk and desert folk fray

2010-2011 — Better Living develops ReEducation; patrols and raids into the desert become more violent in nature, and zone folk are disappearing (not killed, just gone)

2012 — a series of fire storms -"The Fires of 2012"- start west of the city and sweep the zones all the way to the Fort; both sides experience minimal casualties, but lots of structural and food supply damages

2013 — widespread unrest in the zones and a significant amount of infighting; recovery efforts in the city and a significant amount of infighting

2014 — The Collapse -a yet unexplained mass casualty event- takes place in zone five to the northeast of Battery City, effectively reducing the population of the zones by a third; more die off in the months afterward of bizarre afflictions and injuries, often going mad in the process. the city blames disease, spreading it as anti-zones propaganda among citizens; the desert creates the Destroya mythos

2015 — the Fabulous Four, though only teenagers, begin to become notorious, making their fame by pushing back violently as Better Living begins to expand its reconstruction efforts in zone one, seeking to reclaim it as part of the city

2016 —killjoys get bold, and the city suffers a sudden unbalancing as a large number of young people find ways into the desert; in-city raids, especially of lower districts, become common as BL/ind cracks down on smugglers and introduce new security measures to the walls surrounding the city

2017 — the Fabulous Four are declared public enemies 1-4. Exterminator Korse is assigned to end the threat

2018 — everyone on the edge of their seats as Korse and the Fab Four are locked in a power struggle that becomes the embodiment of city vs. desert; almost all other directly physical city/desert confrontation has ceased, except in service of aiding their champion(s). Dr Death's broadcasts updating listeners on the events of fights and escapes are the most listened to thing on both sides

2019 — the Fabulous Four destroy the eastern checkpoint, storm the city, and decimate the S/C/A/R/E/C/R/O/W headquarters before, ultimately, falling in battle; all for one little girl. they become Martyrs.

2020 — the dark year. Better Living seems inescapable, the killjoys are scattered and scared, and a great many are killed or disappear into reEd. some return to the city without being captured. those who remain are more certain than ever they can never give in. despite killjoy interference, parts of zone one are annexed into the city

2021 — the Fab Four reappear in the zones. some say they were never killed after all, a few become suspicious they are reEd's, or android dupes of the originals, but by and large the mythology of their martyrdom lends to another explanation altogether: they've been brought back to life by the desert itself to lead the fight. they are solidified as the Heights of killjoy fame, bulletproof and lauded, even outright worshiped by some; hope returns

2022 — there are several building collapses and series of fires in the newly expanded Neon District; rumors of a rogue city agent as well as stories about Perro -a mythical figure from the zones- being responsible both go flying in all directions. nobody's really sure what happened, other than that a lot of citizens and neutrals died (that is, nobody publicizes what actually happened)

2023 — as part of their recovery efforts, the city attempts to smooth relations with neutrals and claim land in the zones, establishing several greenhouses almost literally overnight; in answer, most are destroyed by the killjoys, the two left standing are claimed by rebel crews and renamed into independent settlements

2024 — emboldened by the destruction of the greenhouses, a killjoy leader of a particularly violent group attacks the city directly; the city retaliates, destroying a peaceful settlement in zone three. both sides are criticized by their allies, the resulting unrest spans both city and zones

2025 — the Destroya Rampage unfolds. zone five and parts of six go dark, nothing but static on every radio for months. entire crews from both sides (local killjoys & investigative excursions from the city) are lost, seeming to turn on their own while within these 'dark zones'. several massive dust storms sweep over Battery City and the surrounding zones, causing blackouts and widespread interference with broadcasts and electronic systems of every type. fighting between the city and desert scales back as the environmental conditions threaten everyone

2026 — the sandstorms are replaced by torrential downpours (which sounds good but isn't, in the desert), some of which are typical rain and some of which burn on contact- relatively normal in the outer zones, but unheard of in the city. city initiatives focus on re-assuming relative control over the city's climate, desert settlements focus on surviving.

2027 — weather patterns gradually stabilize; in the desert, old secrets -uncovered by the winds and rains- begin to surface. whether they lead a new charge against the city or destroy the fragile balance of the desert . . .

2028 — . . . Remains to be seen. The whispers gather, but don't seem to go anywhere. Things have gone still and quiet -as still and as quiet as they get, anymore- and the only sure about a staring contest is that someone has to blink, eventually. something will shift, everyone's waiting for it, waiting to see which direction the world tilts this time

2029-2030s — You Are Here. Don't panic. Keep running.

#c:\\work>dir z:\ wld:bld* //.insp .stdy/

[ru5t]

uhhhh. so listen she can tell you a weird amount about like. mathematics and chemistry and i think some biology and maybe even physics, at least as she understands it and not always in the like, most correct terms. also i have her on record asking "what the fuck's a wee-gee board?"

#;WKJTG;WKELRJMF;LAKMDF;LKAAMJ;LKGJWTR #i'm. diggin around in old stuff because i Know she has a distinct voice and i was worried i didn't remember it #and let me tell you. that whole ''forgetting everything i've ever said'' has made this Interesting #she's so....... #So. #c:\work>dir t:\ hc-abt* //.src:trst .stdy/

[ru5t]

Arid desert Landscape

#c:\\work>dir t:\ aes* //.vbs .nrgy/ #flashing tw #eye strain tw

[ru5t]

repost and rate your muse's traits out of 10 in each category !

COMPASSION: 5/10. She does have sympathy -and even a lot of empathy- for others, and will help when she has enough resources of her own. She also, however, isn't always looking to see others, because it's difficult to manage all of that flooding her all the time, and will typically prioritize herself unless it is a very close, established dynamic.

BITTERNESS: 7/10. Sharply bitter little thing. Prone to sarcasm and biting remarks — and not even always because she's unhappy. She just communicates this way. (Sorry s;dfkjg;dlkfj)

HAPPINESS: 5/10. You know she really manages a shockingly upbeat outlook, a solid amount of the time? Her 'up' days are sooo up, and even her middle days tend to lean for... at least hopeful, if not so directly "happy". If things stopped happening to her to prompt negative spirals and responses, she'd be a lot steadier at it, I think. It's a little verse dependent (her canon might be more like a 4, while modern's more of a 6?) but she's found a lot worth having and is working very hard to build this up even stronger.

POLITENESS: ...0/10? I think this is just zero. Or like, 1. She does not care in the slightest for manners or the silent rules of a conversation (assuming she even remembers they're supposed to be there) and her base level isn't exactly prim and proper. She will Not pretend to like you, if she doesn't. And she is frequently intentionally disrespectful and disobedient to authority figures. Fuck you and fuck your order.

MORALITY: ?/10. Swings wildly between staunchly moral (all life has value, all people can learn, we should be working together) and shockingly ammoral (those who would hurt me are expendable, some people never learn and must be forced, I will look after only myself by any means) at uneven intervals. She is, at her core, someone who wants to be good and brave and upstanding, but she's been pushed and twisted and beaten to the brink of breaking entirely, and the lines in the sand are blurry to her. She'll compromise if she can find a convincing enough reason (e.g. something that will keep herself or a person she's prioritizing 'safer') one day, and stand firm and take the hit on another. Case by case by case: round and round and round she goes, who she'll bite, no one knows. [Chaotic Neutral. she wavers.]

PRIDE: 2/10. Does not consider herself of any particular station of importance, and has no specific image to defend. Bites, spits, cries, screams, fights dirty, sand in the eyes and all. She's got one (1) name she won't stand to be called, no matter how everyone else in the desert –even the infamous Party Poison himself– regards it, but even that is more of a trigger thing than a pride thing. She can get a little boastful about her hacking skills sometimes but almost every time she brags about something like that it immediately bites her in the ass, so. That keeps her humble.

HONESTY: 6/10. Broadly honest (...after a fashion) and typically trustworthy. She doesn't break her word lightly, or for frivolous reasons. She will absolutely start slinging around things she doesn't necessarily believe to front with someone if she gets scared, though, and her disorganized attachment will lead her to sabotage relationships with false accusations and such when she panics. She also will usually own up to having panicked if approached/confronted about it later, though, and is likely to (eventually) make amends for it in established relationships.

BRAVERY: 10/10. She's built different I would have given up a long time ago.

RECKLESSNESS: ...maybe 5/10? She's pretty impulsive, in a lot of regards, but at the same time is very aware of her surroundings and other people's capability of harm and various dangers etc. a lot of the time so it's like. There's a lot (a lot) of caution for a great many things, and at the same time she'll do these things where it's like. So so reckless and stupid. A risk taker. A flight risk.

AMBITION: ?/10. No idea what she's doing or where she's going. Generally follows her brother, or another cause/purpose that seems right to her.

LOYALTY: 8/10. She can, in really really extreme circumstance, under intense duress, be broken down into "turning" on someone (e.g. revealing information, pretending to change sides), or turning away from them because they've gone too far. But for the most part, once you're in her close circle you've got her for life. She will follow you down. She can and will commit crimes for you. (Sometimes even if you don't ask, and even if you don't want her to...)

LOVE: 9/10. What a big big terrifying thing. So full of it, somehow. So so so scared of it, deny deny deny. And then get scared of doing/having it wrong, when she finally admits its there.

SENSE OF FAMILY: 4/10. Many conflicted feelings about the concept of family. Her mother manipulated her and she didn't even realize it. Her father proved people can be dear and still hurt you. And yet her brother is the only completely reliable thing in her life. She would not describe the few people she's grown really close to as family, they are just hers. Something, which the word 'family' doesn't seem to fit or do justice.

ATTRACTIVENESS: 5/10. Smacks her in the middle of this category. It was never my intention to make an "attractive" character with her but it wasn't my intention to make her unattractive, either. She was actually really young when I initially made her up so it was really like. just not even a factor I was thinking about at all. She tends to illicit more "cute" and/or sisterly responses than anything I think, both ic and ooc.

AGILITY: 10/10. Zippiest girl alive, she's stupid fast both reaction time wise and like, sprinting, climbing, etc. It catches a lot of people off guard, even with her being built as slight as she is. Like we're talking startlingly fast. She's only ever met one (1) person who can outrun her in a direct comparison situation (where everything's fairly balanced). Much much faster than she is strong, she's really kind of lacking in in the strength department. She's also a quick problem solver, unless she's too overwhelmed to think.

SEX DRIVE: 2/10? 1 even? She's ace-spectrum, she doesn't experience sexual attraction, and her history makes her skittish. It's definitely not driving any life decisions, but she's not completely sex-repulsed and it's not entirely off the table, either. It always takes some amount of figuring out, which can be really complicated, especially if she and the other person are coming from different perspectives. Sometimes it all falls together and is almost easy. Most of the time it's very difficult and takes time and effort on both peoples' side.

#c:\\work>dir t:\ hc-abt* //.src:trst .stdy/ #c:\\work>dir rc:\ dsh.gm* //.uqz .cpy:pst/ #stole this from myself feel free to steal it! #need;;; a dash game header

[ru5t]

                                                                   I don’t fit in here.                             If you need to leave, I get that, but you’ll always fit in with me.

#yeah

[ru5t]

hmmm i just has the completely horrifying realization of "oh, octav.ia and be.lla.my a little bit"

#is this a trope do i just not know what the trope name is in order to find it? #anyway ''unhinged younger sister and her guard dog older brother who is actually also unhinged people just don't realize it'' for 200 #tech and jack (handshake) river and simon (handshake) ^these two which i will Not be tagging #because oh god do i not want to touch whatever fandom might still be around ;sldkfj;sldfkjg #c:\\work>dir h:\ ooc* //.hnh .lve:bite/ #... O (handshake) tech -> I Do Not Want To Go Back In The Dark #.......... O (handshake) tech -> literally didn't even do anything but was punished anyway and turned to Crimes after

[ru5t]

#c:\\work>dir t:\ ism-mnr* //.vc .ges .mov/

[ru5t]

Starter call! you boop it without comment you get whatever my brain vibes. If you comment a verse and I will rattle that verse! If you would rather plot you can comment that too, or hop into ims or inbox (or if u have it, poke me on disco).

#i am... vaguely around. also eyeballing some art stuff i would very much like to finish though #c:\\work>dir h:\ ooc* //.hnh .lve:bite/ #i'm also eyeballing. the fallou.t show as a way of dipping a toe into what i think will be excellent crossover potential #there's a lot going on in the game the games scare me

[ru5t]

#c:\\work>dir t:\ fc-img* //.jpg .png .gif/ #''i'm gonna work on verse stuff'' i lied. catgirl gifs. #c:\\work>dir h:\ edt* //.psd .mne/