This one was a struggle, but not because of writing the thing. No, it’s due to the all-encompassing ‘RL’. Yuck. Lives, who needs’em? Well, if someone finds out how to go on living without a life, let me know ASAP.
I swear, an illness always comes up when I get a commission. Though that might be because I haven’t been truly ‘well’ for six years (insert edgy emo song here). Last time, it was physical. This time, it was… also kinda physical? In that it was a depression stemming from illness burnout. I’ll spare the details cuz I can hear everyone falling asleep through their computer screens, so I’ll just say that I’m happy I’m well again… fingers crossed.
Anyway, on to the actual character! One thing I was cognizant about when writing was, well, the character itself. As you may know if you somehow think reading these is a good idea, I do a lot of research when writing these characters, but for this one, it was a bit harder, since I had to research ‘PC Gamer’ lingo. And if you have to ask, you’ll never know. At least, that’s my view on it. It doesn’t help that my PC gaming begins and ends with NetHack… which came out before the internet as we know it. But I think I sprinkled in enough PC elitism to let you understand who Murphy Suder is, and I’m happy with the character in general.
That also leads into the transformation itself, and I personally think the first bouts of TF are a bit understated. Purposefully so, mind, because the second half is so aggressive with the Implant. Either way, it was a different way of writing it, and I think it worked out in the end!

Trivia:
- I actually had to ask friends what ‘PC Gamer’ terms were out there. Yeah, I’m a dork. Most of them are probably easy to determine, but ‘bonjwa’ means the best player… I think.
- Obligatory name time! Murphy Suder was named after Lon Suder, a character from that Star Trek show I’ve never watched. I’m a TNG dude; sue me. Melita means ‘like honey’ or ‘sweet’, and Boosalis sounds a lot like booty, so… that works. As for Mly Bb’tessa? With the first name, I wanted to sound really alien, so I went with no vowels. The surname I wanted to be a bit more human sounding, just so she’d be able to shorten it to just Tessa while on earth.
- This character was an absolute NIGHTMARE to proofread. Originally, the Implant’s voice [WAS TYPED LIKE THIS], <and anything specific was like this>. The game doesn’t like that. Not at all. So I had to go stage by stage and flip them into something else, which ended being {these cuties}. I also flipped the chevrons around. There’s some upsides to the game being old as dirt, though: you know that question mark diamond that shows up whenever something really alien is said? That’s a quotation mark. Just a quotation mark. Which the creator shows fine. I swear this wasn’t a problem in my other characters, but whatever; it works now.
- Speaking of the implant, it’s a mix between the extranet of TiTS and Wikipedia. Mostly Wikipedia. Another inspiration for the Implant? Buck Bicorn’s unicorn horn. I really liked how the mental changes were spurned on by an almost sentient thing directly connected to the brain, so I brought it back for this character.
- Long-time readers might recognise the TT player that Mly watches in the epilogue as Lucas Robertson, my third character! Long-time readers might also want to seek some help. I’m not good for you, kids. Just say no to niche fetish works designed in an aging code by a bored and sickly loser. Weird slogan I know, but at least it’ll work better than DARE.
- ‘Kivt’ is space-slang, and I primarily use it like the word ‘fuck’. It’s kivt in present and past tense, but kivving when inflected. Shut up, linguistics is cool and will totally open up job opportunities.
- The soundtrack to my writing this time was City Pop and Hall and Oates songs on constant repeat. Maneater played me out.
- The ‘Clothes Stealing Droids’ used to be Giants, but were changed to droids so they could better sneak aboard ships. I still wanna write something with invisible giants at some point, though. It probably won’t show up here.
- No, I don’t know what a hythax is. Stop asking.

My question: What are you playing right now? I’ve been on a real Dark Souls kick after Remastered came out and did all sorts of okay. Though I’m waiting for Smash, cuz we’re all waiting for Smash.

GG no RE,
- Yoshielder