Occeus Coliad: Difference between revisions
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He works towards the continued survival of his decaying planet and towards undoing the parasitic undead plague that ravages its population in the hope that he can return souls from a supposed entropy, and find the secret of untethered immortality. His visor is made specifically to cover up his third eye that formed after a major traumatic incident in his past. This third eye allows him to momentarily see into alternate dimensions, seeing vague figures and apparitions out of his peripheral vision. He sees more when he makes a conscious effort to contact the dimensions directly. He can also constantly hear the low buzzing of [[The Static|static]] in the back of his mind, but it doesn't bother him so long as he doesn't think about it. He states that stressful situations impact his condition.<ref>{{CiteVE|pagenumber=1809|quote=And y.o.u're aware .o.f h.o.w stressful situati.o.ns impact my c.o.nditi.o.n, m.o.re than any.o.ne else|whosaid=occeus}}</ref> | He works towards the continued survival of his decaying planet and towards undoing the parasitic undead plague that ravages its population in the hope that he can return souls from a supposed entropy, and find the secret of untethered immortality. His visor is made specifically to cover up his third eye that formed after a major traumatic incident in his past. This third eye allows him to momentarily see into alternate dimensions, seeing vague figures and apparitions out of his peripheral vision. He sees more when he makes a conscious effort to contact the dimensions directly. He can also constantly hear the low buzzing of [[The Static|static]] in the back of his mind, but it doesn't bother him so long as he doesn't think about it. He states that stressful situations impact his condition.<ref>{{CiteVE|pagenumber=1809|quote=And y.o.u're aware .o.f h.o.w stressful situati.o.ns impact my c.o.nditi.o.n, m.o.re than any.o.ne else|whosaid=occeus}}</ref> | ||
Occeus states that he does not understand other people, nor does he feel that they understand him<ref>{{CiteVE|pagenumber=1814|quote=But eye d.o.n't understand .o.ther pe.o.ple / And .o.ther pe.o.ple d.o.n't understand me either|whosaid=occeus}}</ref>, feeling painfully aware of his inability to help people outside of his work as well as do anything aside from what he's been instructed to. This is likely due to him having autism but never being diagnosed with the condition | Occeus states that he does not understand other people, nor does he feel that they understand him<ref>{{CiteVE|pagenumber=1814|quote=But eye d.o.n't understand .o.ther pe.o.ple / And .o.ther pe.o.ple d.o.n't understand me either|whosaid=occeus}}</ref>, feeling painfully aware of his inability to help people outside of his work as well as do anything aside from what he's been instructed to. This is likely due to him having autism but never being diagnosed with the condition. | ||
His past interest and curiosity about abstract sci-fi and horror fare media is what caused a spark for what he does now. In the past, he found his studies and work more interesting, noted to be more inventive as well. <ref>{{CiteSocial|whosaid=@austinado|platform=retrospring|date=Dec 17, 2023|quote=he used to enjoy deep and abstract sci-fi and horror fare, and the enjoyment of these things is what really lit the spark for him to study what he does now. he used to be a lot more inventive and curious about what he made too! remember the multiversal communicator that acts as his lab mainframe? but somewhere along the way...|link=https://retrospring.net/@austinado/a/111597043780035120}}</ref> | His past interest and curiosity about abstract sci-fi and horror fare media is what caused a spark for what he does now. In the past, he found his studies and work more interesting, noted to be more inventive as well. <ref>{{CiteSocial|whosaid=@austinado|platform=retrospring|date=Dec 17, 2023|quote=he used to enjoy deep and abstract sci-fi and horror fare, and the enjoyment of these things is what really lit the spark for him to study what he does now. he used to be a lot more inventive and curious about what he made too! remember the multiversal communicator that acts as his lab mainframe? but somewhere along the way...|link=https://retrospring.net/@austinado/a/111597043780035120}}</ref> | ||
Revision as of 09:32, 21 February 2024
Occeus Coliad, also known by his Skorpe handle, macabreExude, is one of the trolls in Vast Error. His associated alchemical sigil is Sulfur and his horns are in the shape of small crowns.
Occeus is a deconstruction of the 'Mad Scientist' archetype,[1] despite not seeming to truly fit the label. He has many references to 'Frankenstein' based on his character, the obvious example being the naming of his assistant, Rogi, which is simply 'Igor', the assistant to Victor Frankenstein, spelled backwards.
He was the eighth troll introduced and the second troll introduced in Act 2. He was also the tenth troll to enter the game.
Occeus also stars in his own route in Snowbound Blood, being the only troll of the main 12 to be featured in the Trollodex.
Etymology
Occeus likely comes from Oculus, the Latin word for eye, befitting of his mutation.
Coliad likely comes from Coliadinae, a subfamily of butterflies also known as sulphurs, which matches his alchemical sigil.
Biography
Early Life
Occeus’s life pre-game is fairly unknown. He is known to have had a Moirallegiance with Calder Kerian and a kismesissitude with Taz Poemme, both of which have been ended and the latter now being auspisticed by Albion Shukra.[2]
However, it is vaguely known that when Occeus was 7 sweeps old he suffered from a major traumatic event which gave him Transmuted Epiphysis Cerebri (Third Eye). Soon after this Ellsee Raines found him and presumably passed her blood curse onto him in order to revive him, then taking care of him as he was recovering from the injury and adjusting to the side effects of his third eye. The revitalization seems to have been directly linked to Ellsee and Occeus's chemical bond.[3]
Pre-game
Occeus is first seen contacting Ellsee in order to respond to days-old messages, they discuss a potential breakthrough in his work and the possibility of being able to be in contact more often as a result. [4]
Occeus is next seen revitalizing a dead troll, which results in the subject returning to life as intelligent and hostile, shortly being terminated. He then leaves Rogi to dispose of the corpse and reads a set of panicked messages from Ellsee about her attempt to visit Arcjec and the group memo set up by Murrit.[5] He becomes frustrated and distressed at the possibility of losing his work, contacting Calder for clarification only to be assured that the game is undeniably happening. [6]
Occeus is included in Ellsee's memo but does not respond to it.
Occeus is later seen contacting Jentha in search of advice, to which she tells him to jump off a cliff[7]. During this conversation, Occeus receives a video call from Hamifi Hekrix, informing him that his results have been dropping and that he will be dropped from Corporate payroll if the trend continues[8]. Occeus then thanks Jentha for her support before ending the conversation, despite her being relatively hostile to his messages.[9]
Occeus is then included in Arcjec's memo, which he does not respond to either.
Occeus later messages Sova seeking support once again, she is more friendly despite being in a fairly bad situation herself and they briefly converse over their feelings on the stressful day. When Sova mentions the homunculi outside her house, Occeus attempts to reassure her that she should ignore them as mere hallucinations before they part ways.[10]
Finally, he is seen slumped down at his supercomputer while (presumably) suffering from visual hallucinations and static noise, meanwhile Calder pokes him with the Game's cursor and yells at him via messagesaustinado and Sparaze. Vast Error, p. 904 
. 4 March 2019.
. Calder then drags him outside to complete Occeus's game entry while his lusus Ouworm is eating the homunculi.[11] This scene continues into [S] Ellsee: Enter wherein his entry codes are revealed in his hallucinations, producing an entry artifact reminiscent of a goat creature crucified on a cross. He cuts the artifact in half with his laser and it crashes into his hive. His portal is activated and he enters, still being forcefully dragged by Calder.[12]
During the Game
Occeus's first appearance in the game is in the group memo at the beginning of Act 3 Act 1, in which he confirms his dismissal to Laivan and the end of their working relationship, briefly speaks with Ellsee, and puts forth the motion that the game could be meant as a fresh start for Reption and a way of "bring[ing] life itself back."[13]
While Occeus's conversation with his denizen is not shown, it is referred to by Occeus in later messages to Ellsee. His denizen wasn't too fond of him, referring to him only as 'Prince' and calling him a "disruption" and "stagnant to the core", statement which later prompt Occeus to reflect in his monologue to Ellsee.[14]
In said monologue, Occeus apologizes to her for their lack of contact recently, reflects on the events that occurred pre-game, reflects on the futility of his work, recalls his initial meeting with Ellsee, and his feelings of failure and misunderstanding in his relationships with everyone he has ever spoken so. In the end he resolves to reunite with Ellsee and apologies again, telling her he loves her before ending the chatlog. In the illustrations for these pages, Occeus is seen entering a manor on his planet, getting caught in a trap and fighting off a horde of enemies[15]. Afterwards, he begins to visualize all of the people he knows as mannequins in a white void[16], he approaches, speaks to, and hugs the Ellsee mannequin[17], before noticing black droplets falling onto him. He then looks upwards to find Gaiaeon looking down on him[18].
Personality and traits
As a scientist and engineer, Occeus is characterized by his empirical outlook on life and how it works. He is ambitious, yet detached, and fiercely dedicated to his work, seeming to doubt himself outside of it.
He works towards the continued survival of his decaying planet and towards undoing the parasitic undead plague that ravages its population in the hope that he can return souls from a supposed entropy, and find the secret of untethered immortality. His visor is made specifically to cover up his third eye that formed after a major traumatic incident in his past. This third eye allows him to momentarily see into alternate dimensions, seeing vague figures and apparitions out of his peripheral vision. He sees more when he makes a conscious effort to contact the dimensions directly. He can also constantly hear the low buzzing of static in the back of his mind, but it doesn't bother him so long as he doesn't think about it. He states that stressful situations impact his condition.[19]
Occeus states that he does not understand other people, nor does he feel that they understand him[20], feeling painfully aware of his inability to help people outside of his work as well as do anything aside from what he's been instructed to. This is likely due to him having autism but never being diagnosed with the condition.
His past interest and curiosity about abstract sci-fi and horror fare media is what caused a spark for what he does now. In the past, he found his studies and work more interesting, noted to be more inventive as well. [21]
Relationships
Rogi
Rogi is Occeus' assistant in his scientific pursuits. The creature was the result of one of Occeus' failed experiments, and is consequently unintelligent and largely useless as a result. However, Occeus doesn't seem to mind so much, and keeps the creature around to help with the grizzlier, more menial parts of his experiments, or perhaps because he appreciates the creature's company.
Due to the unnatural circumstances of Rogi's existence, Rogi's body is unable to maintain itself and requires regular injection of lime blood to continue existing.
Ellsee Raines
Ellsee and Occeus are matesprits, and unique to the other relationships in the cast aside from Murrit and Dismas and Serpaz and Laivan, have been bonded with one another.
Due to Occeus' workaholic nature and his desperation to preserve his planet, Occeus is unfortunately rather neglectful of Ellsee, leaving her to suffer from symptoms not unlike withdrawal in his absence (as is the case for Repitonian trolls who have been intimate with another and do not see each other for extended periods of time). Occeus regrets this, and realizes that Ellsee deserves better, but has nonetheless prioritized his work over her, until he was fired by Hamifi and entering the game, where he apologizes in monologue form.
In this monologue, Occeus references past events in which Ellsee breaks her code of conduct to save and care for him.
Ellsee often volunteers the use of her lime blood for Occeus to use in his biological experiments, due to the blood's unique life-bearing properties. Occeus is the only troll that Ellsee trusts with her blood.
He is incredibly protective of Ellsee, as evidenced in his Snowbound Blood route when he tells Secily Then eye will either kill f.o.r her .o.r die f.o.r her right t.o. be free when Secily confronts him about the vials of blood.
Before Occeus fell into his workaholic nature, he and Ellsee spent more time in-person together. Even though they weren't able to go into public due to Ellsee being a limeblood, the two found their own activities, such as dancing.[22]
Calder Kerian
It has been shown that Occeus and Calder had a -- now-ended—pale relationship with one another. From Calder's account, it appears that Occeus abruptly ended their relationship and has been distant from Calder for some time. Calder is visibly bitter about it.
Taz Poemme
Taz occasionally fluctuates into the ashen quadrant with Occeus, with Albion acting as mediator. This would indicate some enmity between the two. The two appear to have been involved in a now-ended black relationship with one another. They are moderately hostile towards each other in the Act 3 Act 1 memo.[13]
Albion Shukra
Due to the likely tumultuous relationship between Taz and Occeus, Albion is often pulled to act as mediator when they enter the ashen quadrant part-time. From their limited interactions in the Act 3 Act 1 opening memo, they do not appear to be particularly friendly nor unfriendly with each other.[13]
Jentha Briati
Occeus seems to trust Jentha and believe she is a friend or at least good acquaintance. He ends up believing she's helped him before and that she would be willing to make time for him. In reality, Jentha doesn't seem to like Occeus and is intentionally cruel to him (telling him to jump off a cliff and that she doesn't care that he needs her aid).[7]
Sova Amalie
Occeus similarly trusts Sova and considers her a friend, and Sova is friendly towards him in turn. They seem to confide in each other occasionally and offer words of reassurance when troubled.[10]
Laivan Ferroo
Laivan and Occeus are work colleagues; Laivan stitches up corpses that Occeus finds for the sake of his revitalization experiments.
Trivia
- 'macabre' in his trolltag is a reference to his interest in most things relating to death, such as his reanimation experiments, his study of parasites, and his ultimate goal of trying to 'reanimate' the planet. 'Exude' could be a reference to his normal methods of injecting lime blood into corpses, due to its meaning of a slow and steady discharge. Altogether, the tag can refer to his disturbing presence as a whole.
- The '.o.' shape replacing any 'o's in his text is a reference to his three-eyed state, with the two periods being his regular eyes and the 'o' representing his third eye. This places more emphasis on his third eye as opposed to his two regular eyes which could be a way of showing how Occeus is neglecting the mundane things around him in favor of pursuing mysteries and his work.
- The pupil of his Third Eye bears a striking resemblance to that of Gaiaeon. It is unknown what exactly this means or if they share any sort of connection.
- This is in contrast to Ellsee's left eye, which looks like Kheparia's.
- Occeus constantly dealing with buzzing in the back of his mind, which he can tune out if he doesn't think about it, could potentially be a reference to Edgar Allen Poe's The Tell-Tale Heart.
- Occeus is a Prospit Dreamer, an Indigoblood and a Hero of Blood, meaning his extended zodiac sign would be: Sagicer, Sign of the Hostess.
- Occeus is the only one of the main 12 who doesn't have a Filler account.
- Occeus is canonically autistic, having been confirmed on Discord by creator Austinado[23] and shows many symptoms of social difficulty in chatlogs and hyperfixation through his focus on work.
- During the comic's development phase, Occeus went through the most name changes. One of these names include Caline Dekrom, which doesn't have any literal meaning.[24]
- Occeus tasks Rogi with changing lightbulbs, but ends up having to replace them himself.[25]
- Occeus lands as a cat on the cat-to-dog spectrum.[26]
Gallery
All of Occeus's sprites in Snowbound Blood.
All of Rogi's sprites in Snowbound Blood.
Occeus on the Volume 5 character select.
Occeus on the Volume 5 chapter select.
pre-game Occeus
Occeus preparing to enter
Young Occeus
Occeus's trollodex card
Pure Self Occeus from an alternate probability
Referneces
- ↑ @Deconreconstruction on Tumblr on an unknown date. https://deconreconstruction.tumblr.com/faq
- ↑ austinado and Sparaze. Vast Error, p. 418 . 12 April 2018.
- ↑ austinado and Sparaze. Vast Error, p. 1813 . .
- ↑ austinado and Sparaze. Vast Error, Eye ap.o.l.o.gize f.o.r n.o.t getting t.o. y.o.u s.oo.ner / Eye d.o. kn.o.w it's been several days.p. 342 . 12 November 2017.
- ↑ austinado and Sparaze. Vast Error, p. 413 . 12 April 2018.
- ↑ austinado and Sparaze. Vast Error, Unfortunately, I have already seen enough evidence of this "ludicrous endeavor" to know it is undeniably in motion..p. 415 . 12 April 2018.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 austinado and Sparaze. Vast Error, i d dont care / g go jump off a c cliff or something i instead.p. 832 . 20 January 2019.
- ↑ austinado and Sparaze. Vast Error, We need results, Coliad.∞ / So, you either show them to us, or you leave our payroll and go chase your myths by yourself.∞.p. 834 . 20 January 2019.
- ↑ austinado and Sparaze. Vast Error, The silent supp.o.rt is appreciated.p. 837 . 20 January 2019.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 austinado and Sparaze. Vast Error, p. 888 . 25 February 2019.
- ↑ austinado and Sparaze. Vast Error, p. 907 . 4 March 2019.
- ↑ austinado and Sparaze. Vast Error, p. 1000 . 1 November 2019.
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 austinado and Sparaze. Vast Error, p. 1705 . 7 April 2021.
- ↑ austinado and Sparaze. Vast Error, p. 1810 . .
- ↑ austinado and Sparaze. Vast Error, p. 1807 . .
- ↑ austinado and Sparaze. Vast Error, p. 1822 . .
- ↑ austinado and Sparaze. Vast Error, p. 1826 . .
- ↑ austinado and Sparaze. Vast Error, p. 1831 . .
- ↑ austinado and Sparaze. Vast Error, And y.o.u're aware .o.f h.o.w stressful situati.o.ns impact my c.o.nditi.o.n, m.o.re than any.o.ne else.p. 1809 . .
- ↑ austinado and Sparaze. Vast Error, But eye d.o.n't understand .o.ther pe.o.ple / And .o.ther pe.o.ple d.o.n't understand me either.p. 1814 . .
- ↑ @austinado on Retrospring on Dec 17, 2023."he used to enjoy deep and abstract sci-fi and horror fare, and the enjoyment of these things is what really lit the spark for him to study what he does now. he used to be a lot more inventive and curious about what he made too! remember the multiversal communicator that acts as his lab mainframe? but somewhere along the way..." https://retrospring.net/@austinado/a/111597043780035120
- ↑ @austinado on Retrospring on Dec 17, 2023."they obviously can't go out for fun, so instead they made their own. […] i've always thought that they danced together, and that they found each other in the music." https://retrospring.net/@austinado/a/111627800112313728
- ↑ austinado on Discord on Feb 16, 2023."thankfully [Occeus coming off as autistic] is very intentional" https://discord.com/channels/259021334804299786/747967215348875284/1075893777199276152
- ↑ @austinado on Retrospring on Jan 01, 2024."[Occeus's] original name from the ye olde vast error beta was CALINE DEKROM. which had no meaning to it beyond sounding cool." https://retrospring.net/@austinado/a/111681183612002758
- ↑ {{CiteSocial|whosaid=@austinado|platform=retrospring|date=28 Dec, 2023|link=https://retrospring.net/@austinado/a/111656478537891134]
- ↑ @austinado on Retrospring on Dec 19, 2023. https://retrospring.net/@austinado/a/111604296377617919
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