[Q&A] MORTIS RANDOM QUESTION HOUR [mature edition]

[skinstealer]

mature rating edition 

we will open and close this thread for questions in sessions and whatever you give us, we have to answer, and it Will go in the wiki and be canon (if applicable)and we can't forget about it later like we do on discord

sessions opening and closing will be announced here and on discord, they will occasionally be themed, and there is a nonzero chance we will draw for them because 1) como is encouraging us (especially me, rin) to draw for fun more and 2) i need some incentive and reason to warrant actually pinging people for this

so here we go:

now that ashtray is finished, all bets are off, give us your questions about this project, the story, and the cast of the comic, no holds barred (though if you have NSFW shit go put it in the discord or something)
 

ASKING: RIN (+ COMO AS GUEST)
THEME: ASHTRAY (+ASHTRAY CAST QUESTIONS)
LIMITS: pls remember to spoiler triggering content

[Lilium Mortem]

did you ever consider featuring more members of the smiles system(think that's the name for Chelsea and company)? why is Bucket named Bucket? What was mr bad dog trying to do with all that dream maniuplation nonsense?

[skinstealer]

did you ever consider featuring more members of the smiles system(think that's the name for Chelsea and company)? why is Bucket named Bucket? What was mr bad dog trying to do with all that dream maniuplation nonsense?

so this comic actually went through three goddamn drafts and in the first one, lina, amber and the system snakes were actually supposed to show up as well- they got cut for time because it was just Too Many Characters. we actually have outfits for them! these outfits are generally used as their Default Looks™ now, but they were originally designed with the special in mind. 



as for bucket's name- meta reason is that como asked me for a dog name and i said "uhhhh, bucket", and he actually fucking used it. in universe reason, unexplained and probably never will be. 

re: dream manipulation nonsense...

matthias is a nosy bastard and is the kind of person who emotionally gets off on making people suffer, especially when he can dig into people secrets (which he effectively can through dreams, see: using peoples' deadnames and names of system members directly) and use them to make people squirm in public conversations. the deeper he can dig and twist people up, the more glee he gets out of it, and the more you fight back against him, the harder he's going to want to go against you and really mess you up. part of being a spit cultist means delighting in that pain and really relishing giving into those impulses to hurt, and matthias does so with no remorse. tldr, he's a fucking asshole who wanted to see bucket + the smiles suffer, and when challenged on it, he wanted to see how far he could push things. that, and he wants the smiles' job as spit's demon real bad, and by digging in and finding out about bucket and chelsea's Sordid Relationship™, he had a potential in on getting her and bucket in trouble and in his eyes, getting that job. whether this actually would have worked out for him, who knows, but he might have gotten away with it if he had actually kept his fucking mouth shut about knowing about it.

[Shifter55]

What would have happened if the dream hadn't gone wrong and Bucket and the Smiles system were unable to break out of it?

[skinstealer]

What would have happened if the dream hadn't gone wrong and Bucket and the Smiles system were unable to break out of it?
spoilers: unreality, ableism, victim blaming

Show ContentSpoiler:

the dream would have gotten progressively more suffocating for each of the parties in different ways- como and i determined that matthias probably would have tried to provoke an existential/unreality focused crisis in the smiles, possibly attacking the idea of them being a system and even digging into what caused them to split if he could get deep enough, and into bucket's relationship with ali- and how they left erica to train with her instead, and what that meant to them and their new life, attacking their choices and decisions, claiming that they abandoned their own mother and all they got out of it was a life of suffocation and in the end, a life with rein.

[Lilium Mortem]

oh wait just thought of something. why did bucket and the smiles share a dream? was that a side effect of Matpatthias' weird dream powers?

[skinstealer]

matthias' cigarettes contain nightmare scraps, which when burned with tend to amplify the effects of his dreams and allow him deeper access to one's head. this was originally intended to see if he could get access to multiple system members at once (success), but bucket attempting to heal the burn backfired and dragged bucket into the dream as well.

[MarxzVulpez]

Bucket's other Dream involved a uh
firing range accident

Was the result of that based on a real thing that happened to Bucket or was that a nightmare amplification?

[skinstealer]

como says:

"both.

loosely based on a real incident, massively exaggerated by matthias' influence"

fun fact: that scene was written almost entirely by como instead of us going back and forth with characters, with como writing in chunks and me suggesting how matthias would choose to influence the dream- for instance, him deciding to distort erica's face and have her become angrier with bucket in the dream than in actuality

[Shifter55]

What was the area the truck convoy was travelling through? From the looks of it they were going through foothills, to Consumption if my assumption of those plants is correct...

[skinstealer]

started in solitude, moved on through to consumption and eventually ended up in hearth.

[BlueCrowned]

How did Matthias gain the ability to manipulate dreams to begin with? (apologies if this is already answered somewhere)

[cosmo]

okay so matthias obviously is aware of how awfully spit treats chelsea and co. and also we know he’s vying for their position as her demon so... does he like? think she’s going to treat him better (like he’ll be “the exception” or something) or is he just even more of a grade-A weirdo freak than i thought. like what is his expectation for what would happen if he got what he wanted is my question i guess. (sorry for how cursed this is but i guess matthias is kind of inherently cursed huh)

[Shifter55]

I wonder if he thinks he could use the position as authority to pull in more advantages, either existing stuff Chelsea won't use, or graft from others that think he would have the ability to sway decisions as Spit's demon...

[skinstealer]

How did Matthias gain the ability to manipulate dreams to begin with? (apologies if this is already answered somewhere)

matthias has a nightmare scrap affinity and has trained in that with the cult, so i'd imagine he figured that as part of his cult training- that, and i imagine he's kind of a dark magic nerd

okay so matthias obviously is aware of how awfully spit treats chelsea and co. and also we know he’s vying for their position as her demon so... does he like? think she’s going to treat him better (like he’ll be “the exception” or something) or is he just even more of a grade-A weirdo freak than i thought. like what is his expectation for what would happen if he got what he wanted is my question i guess. (sorry for how cursed this is but i guess matthias is kind of inherently cursed huh)

hoo boy
cw: SA/victim blaming/really awful but Thats Matthias

Show ContentSpoiler:

okay so matthias' logic for The Spit Simping is pretty fucked and i was honestly not sure if i was ever going to go into this but i figured if anyone asked, i would. he is ABSOLUTELY down for spit's horrible deal and not only thinks that spit is cool for it but thinks that chelsea + co should be Fucking Grateful for being in the position they're in. he's fucking terrible and has zero issue with this shit.

so yeah, he absolutely deserves what he got and then some.

[cosmo]

g-d i fucking hate him. not a surprising answer though just >=( What Is Wrong With You (you being matthias)

[skinstealer]

i never technically closed the first one but i want to think about this new project and tumble around ideas in my head about it, especially on how i'm going to handle the sexuality aspects in a way that fits the mature content rating while remaining honest to the subject material 

so let's go 

ASKING: RIN
THEME: UNNAMED WILSON/CONCEPT PROJECT
LIMITS: keep in mind that this project will have sexuality and psych horror as Big Themes but try not to get like, Actually NSFW here, if youve got legit explicit questions save em for nsfw chat on discord pls

[King-Clod]

Does Wilson smoke or is the picture of him smoking just for the meme?

[Shifter55]

What information can you give use about the city/district Wilson lives/works in?

[skinstealer]

Does Wilson smoke or is the picture of him smoking just for the meme?

wilson is a smoker and thankfully does not have lungs for it to really cause any actual harm to him, he mostly just likes the feeling and smell of it (though to be fair he gets fucking, vanilla flavored cigarettes when he can afford it so go figure he likes the goddamn smell) 

it helps him calm down and is a good way for him to ground himself from a crying episode, though it's probably still not the Best for his internals even if its not causing any lasting damage to what's essentially a big sack of regenerating tears (though honestly, it's hard to tell how much drugs/alcohol even affect concepts...like, it affects them for sure, but they don't exactly have organs for it to Get To- placebo effect through collective assumption towards what drugs/alcohol are Supposed to do, maybe?)

What information can you give use about the city/district Wilson lives/works in?

wilson lives in a city that's actually fairly "standard" compared to the rest of the zone concepts come from, and while there's still a lot of things in place that are Basic Fucking "Human" Decency (such as being able to get standardized/low income housing relatively quickly and without the bullshit waitlists we have here in hell world, along with basic income, etc), it still has a decent amount of capitalism happening and wilson very much feels like a cog in the machine even when working in a public service such as social work for something as important as metamorphosis care. he currently """lives""" in a really Not Great part of the city in a motel post-danielle kicking his ass out, though i'm thinking of starting the project a bit prior to that.

[AceOfNothing]

What kinds of dreams does Wilson have? I assume they're unpleasant for reasons, but yoy can tell me if I'm wrong.
Has he ever shared a dream with someone or is that only a thing to reproduce

[Lilium Mortem]

Has Wilson ever seen one of the clients die from metamorphosis? If he's Wil son, who's Wil? Are there any visually interesting geographical features or flora in the zone? What kind of car does wilson have, if he has one, and what kind of car would be his dream car? Are concepts as a speicies afraid of going extinct? Is there any culture erasure going on because of their population being eclipsed? What does Wilson think about the God who created Concepts?

[skinstealer]

What kinds of dreams does Wilson have? I assume they're unpleasant for reasons, but yoy can tell me if I'm wrong.
Has he ever shared a dream with someone or is that only a thing to reproduce

cw: sexuality, SA/CSA(?), child abuse, trauma shit, abuse, this is not a fun answer

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wilson's dreams more often than not either relate to his repressed sexuality (aka Gay Shit), overall hypersexuality shit, or child abuse-related memories, and tend to lean more into surreal horror nightmares that he cannot escape from. shit with danielle tended to crop up towards the end as well, which was extra unpleasant while they were still living together, and still an unpleasant reminder now of what went down between them. there's a lot of shit that involves sexual contact that isn't necessarily wanted and i'm still not sure how i want to portray that yet in the project, but wilson has a loooot of repressed shit where admitting that he wants to be around other men in a Gay Way (and especially in a potentially intimate way) is terrifying thing and tends to manifest in the form of things trying to chase/touch him.

which, relatable, but ech

also, he's only ever shared dreams with family members as a child and danielle, the latter of which only happened Once before she mandated he started taking dream blockers because they were "too disturbing" and she didn't want to deal with it.

Has Wilson ever seen one of the clients die from metamorphosis? If he's Wil son, who's Wil? Are there any visually interesting geographical features or flora in the zone? What kind of car does wilson have, if he has one, and what kind of car would be his dream car? Are concepts as a speicies afraid of going extinct? Is there any culture erasure going on because of their population being eclipsed? What does Wilson think about the God who created Concepts?

cw: child death

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wilson does not typically directly interact with any clients, but has had heard of multiple kids that's done reports for dying from metamorphosis and it definitely takes a toll on him, with more than a few nights spent wondering if his statistic reports could have been off or calculated better than they were.

serious answer to the wil question: wilson's parents are around but he does not talk to them and has no plans of doing so, they do not have a good relationship and have been cut off ever since college

wilson cannot drive and is terrified of cars to the point of being fixated on the road even as a passenger, especially during bad weather. unfortunately for him, being partially liquid means that walking around in weather conditions is not really ideal either vs taking a cab, especially if he didn't prepare in advance, so Car It Is

concepts arent endangered, they're just a minority, so they're not really in any danger of becoming extinct any time soon. not really on their minds.

concept culture is kind of hard to place but i'd say it's less a question of culture erasure and more a case of the less concepts there are in an area, the less accommodations and species-specific products and resources for their bodies and metamorphosis there's going to be, considering that's the biggest aspect of concept needs. 

wilson personally thinks that the god that created concepts was full of shit and does not have a high opinion of them in the slightest, but does not see his species as mistakes at all, and more as something that deserved better help than was set up, especially considering the god's history of having an experimental and curious nature. he does however personally see himself as getting a raw deal, perhaps not in terms of outright physical hardship but in terms of psychosomatic responses and the overall symbolism of having tears as a motif and how that ties into his CPTSD and past.

as it turns out, getting a psych degree did not help him feel better about that. kind of rambled away from the initial question, but yeah

[Pichi2214]

what is wilsons opinion on flowers/plants, does he have a favorite?
same question for tea (or is he a coffee person?)

[skinstealer]

what is wilsons opinion on flowers/plants, does he have a favorite?
same question for tea (or is he a coffee person?)

he thinks they're pretty but can never commit to taking care of them, so he doesn't have too much opinion on them. roses however are kind of triggering to him at this point thanks to danielle's motif, so he avoids those

100% a coffee person to a fault, the man drinks way too much coffee to the point of giving himself the shakes at best and full on anxiety attacks at worst, and it probably doesn't help that he drinks it with additional creamer and sugar that gives him Even More Of A Buzz

[AceOfNothing]

Was kinda a joke on stream, but do you think Wilson can swim?

I know he can see from it, but is the eye like... eye texture? Like does he have to avoid getting things in it like dust? Does it blink?

Is the like... sorta internalized self homophobia from his parents?

[skinstealer]

Was kinda a joke on stream, but do you think Wilson can swim?

honestly he probably learned as a kid and still knows How, but avoids it due to the fact that his hair and tail are made of Sort Of Kind Of liquid (albeit held together in a somewhat gel-like state unless he starts crying). he can technically be in water perfectly safe and sound as long as he's emotionally stable and even if he's crying, but in the latter situation it can get pretty uncomfortable and lead to him feeling disoriented and losing a lot more tears than he really ever wants to

I know he can see from it, but is the eye like... eye texture? Like does he have to avoid getting things in it like dust? Does it blink?

yep, it's a straight up eye and he has to avoid getting things in it. it blinks when open, though most of the time it's kept shut. 

Is the like... sorta internalized self homophobia from his parents?

to a degree, yes probably, but not in the direct way you're thinking. the zone he comes from is completely chill with pretty much all gender and sexuality stuff and i'm willing to bet his parents were fine with that as well in the generalized sense- but perhaps not the expressing sexuality in the sense of Wanting To Be Romantic/Sexual with another person unless it was someone they approved of (and similar with gender expression), which lead to a lot of him repressing his feelings for people in general and eventually for anybody who Wasn't his established partner who everyone expected him to be with forever (danielle)

this is subject to change as i develop things but These Are My Thoughts

[MarxzVulpez]

Does Wilson like video games?
Does he have a favorite model? 
What kind of music does he like/ earth music would he like?

[skinstealer]

Does Wilson like video games?

i can imagine he gets into them on occasion, but i don't think he's a very big gamer

Does he have a favorite model? 

he has a couple of models that he likes and generally gravitates towards the ones that look soft and gentle in demeanor, but i dont think he has any one specific favorite until a certain point in his life that We Will Get To

What kind of music does he like/ earth music would he like?

probably hyperpop type stuff tbh, thats the kind of shit that gets on his playlist the most

[AceOfNothing]

Okay, rapid round.
Whats Wilson's favorite color?
What pokemon would be his favorite?
What cereal do you think he'd eat?
Favorite kinds of stories (in any medium)?
Favorite time of day?
What does he do to relax?
How does he react to be sick?

[skinstealer]

Whats Wilson's favorite color?

probably wears pretty much nothing but blacks and whites on the grounds of "it just goes with my look", and isn't really interested in expanding beyond that. avoids reds and greens a little post-danielle. 

What pokemon would be his favorite?

everyone would probably joke sobble, to which he would say "haha, funny", and go hide a picture of absol

What cereal do you think he'd eat?

probably something far more sugary than people would expect after he moves out, but before then, something frosted-flakes adjacent

Favorite kinds of stories (in any medium)?

probably ones with hopeless romantics, The Man Can Relate (EVEN IF HE REALLY DOES NOT WANT TO)

most of the time he just watches whatever's on TV though, kind of mindlessly

Favorite time of day?

favorite and least favorite is simultaneously at night after work, because on the one hand thank god he's finally home but on the other oh god no here come the intrusive thoughts now that he's not working
 
some stuff happens to make that time of day significantly nicer though!

What does he do to relax?

wilson is...Not Good at relaxing tbh, he mostly just works until he dissociates or passes out, but in the case of him actually unwinding, it's typically looking over his magazines and getting lost in his thoughts (for better or for worse)

How does he react to be sick?

Not Well Literally At All, its honestly a major trigger for him

[skinstealer]

working on wilson project some more, go ahead

ASKING: RIN
THEME: UNNAMED WILSON/CONCEPT PROJECT
LIMITS: keep in mind that this project will have sexuality and psych horror as Big Themes but try not to get like, Actually NSFW here, if youve got legit explicit questions save em for nsfw chat on discord pls

[AceOfNothing]

Gonna ask some basic questions again and try to think of something else.
What would Wilson order at a diner?
What drink would he get from a seven eleven?
Can he drive?

[skinstealer]

What would Wilson order at a diner?
wilson is very fond of roast beef sandwiches! and meat in general really

What drink would he get from a seven eleven?
sprite equivalent

Can he drive?
Nope, answered this earlier, the man is terrified of cars

[AceOfNothing]

If Wilson got hurt, say like a finger got cut off, would it turn into tears?
Has he ever tried to stop smoking?
What is he afraid of losing?