tempted to draw a humansona of Selcouth... on one hand, it would kind of undermine the fact that she is Very Much Not Human and should be understood as such. on the other hand, I need it to be abundantly clear that he is the Rubbery equivalent of a grouchy old queer - and not internet old, but like, 50s? 60s? maybe. they don't remember how old they are for a variety of reasons

anyway a common pattern I'm noticing is that it isn't enough for me to just say that my OCs are really good at this or that magcat - it's critical to me to dig deep into what it means to be really fucking good at something, the philosophy and worldviews around those skills, both the cultural and the personal. and my OCs are a vehicle for exploring that.

see, for example:

• the good doctor, steeped in the Red Science, being blase about how malleable reality can be, to the point of being a radical and a madman (affectionate)
• Rafael instinctively understanding people and situations in terms of how they might be manipulated towards an outcome, as pieces in a chess game; and struggling to reconcile the ruthless efficiency of this mindset with his deep empathy
• Wren and *gestures at all of the posts I've made today*

so I said that one of Wren's special interests is murder, but it's probably more accurately described as absence, and the intentional creation of it. all things have a place in the world, however small - there are always consequences to the removal of something.

this is a big part of why she ends up studying a thing that does not exist, at a place that does not exist

I feel too that Wren has a good working relationship with Selcouth. In addition to also being a Neathy chemist, they work with irrigo on a regular basis and have to shape their whole life around the fact that their memory is - to say the least - deeply unreliable.

Sel's interest is less absence itself, and more how one can reliably extrapolate from what exists to determine what is missing, what once existed; to possibly, in turn, understand what might become. (Chthonosophy, possibly! We'll have to see how it's actually used come Firmament.) It's not quite the same field as hers, but it's very, very close.

...also, they're just both prone to exasperation over similar things