old profiles (olzhas)

✰ personality/mannerisms

olzhas is somebody who kind of batters at situations, objects or even people until they 'work' in the exact way e wants them to. e's exceptionally stubborn and refuses to go into things without grasping their full gravity - if e accomplishes something just by chance e will go back and redo it until e knows how to replicate the process. not to say this humbles em one bit - on the contrary e's extremely self-assured to the point where e will insist on learning how to do something perfectly even if it wastes long stretches of time. back in the day e had some restraint about this but since the train's more or less a conduit of infinite time e's let emself dedicate more time toward arbitrary things.
the most major reason e got clairvoyance was mostly because e struggled when it came to communication with others. and furthermore following scripts always just made things more awkward... though e's still occasionally clumsy whilst chatting e feels far more confident having an idea of what other people's deals are. often enough, the longer e knows somebody the less e'll feel the need to use said clairvoyance. generally speaking olzhas likes talking to and meeting new people and e's got a very positive disposition. at the same time, though e tries to keep eir composure, e's got a notable temper and is kind of terrible at hiding it. e can very suddenly angle emself toward bitterness and hold long grudges. it's hard to fully get on eir bad side, but once someone does they're gonna boil in there for a long time. over time e cools down but the process is slow... sometimes, even if e seems friendly, e'll come swinging out of nowhere with an extremely acute insult that exemplifies eir long-standing embitterment. even then e's very bad at being subtle and can't go on for more than a short while without very loudly complaining.
so to be succinct, eir pride is probably the biggest thing about em. e'll do anything to avoid feeling foolish and e'll get easily embarrassed when someone makes a joke at eir expense, questions eir capability at a given task, anything of the sort. occasionally e'll get somewhat passive-aggressive and insist on helping others to prove emself, even if e doesn't know shit about what e's supposed to do.

✰ relationships

was formerly in a relationship with isel. they broke up after finding incompatability in each of their opinions on the train's trajectory, along with minor personal factors. nowadays e has far less patience for him and finds that chapter of eir life somewhat embarrassing. olzhas does eir best to insult him but often it falls flat - in spite of emself e still finds isel extremely endearing. e's far too proud to ever crawl back to him though and for now, finds the pretence of a rivalry (i guess id call it?) the most comfortable. surprisingly enough they still talk to one another quite often, but if anyone else notices their semi-affability olzhas is quick to refute any positive notions about isel. though e's particularly attentive to isel's remarks the inverse is also true - olzhas is probably the only person isel can be truly genuine with. briefly, they've got a long interpersonal history with one another and extensively use it to push one another's buttons. extended rundown here.
extremely close friends with freya! though they appear to be quite mean to one another it's a matter of mutual jest and they're earnestly very perceptive and attentive to one another's moods. perhaps this is so by the partial virtue of the two indulging in psychic thoughtsharing whenever they can - they're both very chatty very curious people who like to comment on things and introspect, and so being able to discuss things together freely in real time without the risk of being overheard is like the funnest they've had
good friends with valerie, they often like to dance together and help out with one anothers technique :+) a few months ago they struggled with a sort of natural drift apart from one another, though they've set aside time and put in effort to hang out, quite steadily rekindling their friendship. a custom they've had for years now is, once month or so, meeting up and splitting a good bottle of wine.
similarly on good terms with faris. their relations go way back - the two arrived to the train in quick succession of one another and so they were each other's first friends on fornax. they also dated briefly following olzhas' split with isel, but broke things off after faris realised e was rushing into the relationship on impulse to deal with heartbreak and he himself was not fond of being a rebound lol. there were never any hard feelings though and nowadays they still have a very 'bro' kind of friendship... will mfing. sit down and watch sports together and arm wrestle and whatever.
last significant friendship's with marjolaine. e finds her whole atmosphere cozy and likes taking care of menial tasks for her while they chat. olzhas also volunteered to repeat her wordage whenever she trailed out to talk to crowds, deeming it the fastest possible manner of expression.
just generally speaking though olzhas has gotten around to knowing everyone at least a little bit. e's quite good at finding people's hooks and what they want to hear, quite naturally... certain passengers are more mistrusting of em due to the mindreading but olzhas is kind of woefully oblivious to that. and anyway people who know em know e's very considerate when it comes to forgetting about very personal thoughts e accidentally reads.

✰ clairvoyance-related notes

✰ e can explode you with eir mind (freya sourced fact)
✰ the way eir telepathy works is like... say the first time e's meeting someone, there'll be plenty of 'lag' with the stream of that persons inner monologue kinda just breaking up and cutting off every other second. the more e hears someone repeat certain words the more 'stable' eir repertoire of that person's thoughts gets, and there's less interference - hence e gets filler words like 'the' 'a' whatever calibrated quite quickly but e might misinterpret sentences with a lot of specialised vocabulary that dont face much casual use.
✰ for the above the reason e has the easiest time reading the minds of extremely slow-spoken people. which is quite a few people on the train lol most notably mazin demeter and dalisay sometimes. funnily enough e emself speaks at a pretty quick pace.
✰ enirely for eir personal enjoyment, whenever olzhas meets someone new e often tries to see how long e can go on for until that person realises e's clairvoyant. e's got dark eyes already so the visual change is easy to miss and e's gotten smooth with asking/answering questions so coincidence is often just assumed. outside of that, anything e learns about someone else e often keeps to emself, operating on the basis that e will only actually acknowledge what e could plausibly know.
✰ the whole purpose of eir glasses is specifically to block out eir pupils - the lens of the left one and part of the right are coated in some magic material that 'forms' those white outlines based on contrast, and more or less unites eir iris and pupil into one shape. reason they're uneven and one eye is partially exposed is because eir clairvoyance would shut itself off automatically otherwise. again since everyone on the train knows e's clairvoyant it hardly matters but most of them are less defensive of their thoughts when they cant tell when exactly olzhas is mindreading lol.
✰ e's also capable of broadcasting eir own thoughts to other people, which is far more intelligible than the inverse. most particular use for this is creating a 'conversation current' with someone else, which is basically just em mindreading and responding via thought broadcast, effectively allowing silent conversation that can't be overheard. as aforementioned e always starts a current whenever freya's in the same room so they can be nosy together lol. e kind of abstains from setting one up with anyone else because e finds it kind of lame otherwise.
✰ e's never been able to read isel's mind. even when they were in a relationship isel kept his inner thoughts enclosed around em.
✰ though shapeshifting is intentionally not eir forte, e's theoretically more adept at it than most other clairvoyants due to eir build. the extent of which and also how often a clairvoyant can shift their body is kind of dependent on brawn and energy more than anything else and so, eir muscle gives em an advantage. e loosely worked out to attain this pre-fornax, but only really started pushing hard on it after boarding due to all the free time. safe to say eir abilities are at their peak, probably.
✰ eir sharp teeth actually come from the maintenance test clairvoyants go through to check that their general shapeshifting code is working properly. usually teeth are the subject of shifting in the test due to them being easier to fix and replace (as opposed to like, flesh) if something goes wrong. common procedure's to change them back to normal once the test's done but olzhas thought it looked too cool and so e just kept them LOL
✰ sole reason e abstains from copious shapeshifting is because e's earnestly terrified of the whole 'your body does not remember itself and changing back to how you were before manually will never be exactly the same' stipulation of clairvoyance. not that e'll readily admit this
✰ e most frequently changes eir height for trivial stuff like grabbing things off high places or to get a better look at something but e occasionally does it in conversation. e likes to be tall in crowds so people pay attention to em, and this especially holds true if e's expecting an argument to surface. when e talks to isel e usually shifts to be taller as like, a way to insult him vaguely but it's not like isel cares LOL.
✰ though not the most frequently done, e also uses eir shapeshifting to turn eir nails into sharpened claws, specifically following valerie's dracula powers.
✰ excess deliberation on the meta nature of this stuff here

✰ misc

✰ e was previously studying magic code as a kind of oddball ambition - e just didn't know what else to do with eir life and so forced emself to follow through with whatever the 'big thing' was at the time. e didn't retain much of eir studies however and the most they did was make em miserable. parallel to that timeframe e worked in a local restaurant as a bartender, and though only a little more fulfilling, e regards that time well since it's what indirectly lead to eir interest in cooking.
✰ most of the skills e learns are self-taught from watching old videos - eir train room contains a bunch of old video-playing apparati like e’s got one of those tiny dvd players and a vcr. though e’s well capable of fishing out things from the internet e’s kind of fascinated by early/pre-2000s analogue media in particular and prefers to learn things from there
✰ in terms of specifics wrt dance, olzhas has mostly attuned emself to learning ballet, which was something e'd previously taken classes for when e was young. after e and valerie became friends they set aside time to dance together and helped each other improve their (equally rusty lol) technique. e also knows how to tap dance lol.
✰ and with cooking e specialises in breakfast foods, and has been trying to inch closer to more impressive full-blown dinner meals - not that the shitty vhs tapes e's mostly depending on have been much help.
✰ the major draw toward eir diner is honestly eir mixology know-how. e mostly prides emself on eir cooking but the honest reason anyone ever visits is either for the drinks or the ambiance - shockingly enough nobody else really cares about superficial philosophical conundrums caused by instantly-generated food.
✰ on a personal level e drinks semi-regularly, being most fond of red wine.
✰ e's got a side hobby of making bracelets and necklaces and whatnot. most of them don't even get worn or are kept for emself specifically, but e finds it mindless and relaxing
✰ e's also taught emself how to play the bass and is pretty competent at it! e dabbles in a handful of other instruments - most notably electric guitar, chapman stick, saxophone, and... if dabbles can extend to 'occasionally fucking around with freya's kit', the drums.
✰ though nowadays people do seek em out for haircuts, eir hairdressing kick started with em testing techniques on eir own hair... considering the fact e can easily regrow it with eir powers it was probably the most riskless manner of developing such a skill haha. eir current cut was a result of that testing but e thought it looked cool and decided to keep it.
✰ e's privy to a few nicknames - notably isel occasionally refers to em as 'olja' (and it did originate from back when they were dating, hence him being quite frugal with the usage of it lol) and freya calls em 'jay' more often than not.
✰ backstory for that latter one, at first freya's only contact with olzhas as a concept at all was seeing eir name in random places around isel's train room. when she actually reached out to em she pronounced eir name phonetically (as ols-has instead of oljas) which e quickly rectified with the phrase "like, with a j". this became a joke phrase between them and later on, when freya insisted on coming up with a nickname for em, she truncated it to just the consonant 'j'.
✰ e's got a tic in the form of sniffling and brusque exhales.
✰ eir glasses were designed by valerie and formally constructed and enchanted by ulises. for a long time e wore plain glasses (with no magical embellishment) entirely for prescription, though by around late 2109 e switched them out for sunglasses which e wore until late 2110 when e got eir current pair. the prescription ones were very weak since eir eyesight's not actually that bad and so e no longer owns them - e threw them into fornax quite dramatically while on a date with isel lol.
✰ and the little lavender bow e wears around eir neck was a gift from freya for eir 30th birthday. she'd completely forgotten it was eir birthday until last second and hastily summoned it for em through the evoker. e's gotten quite attached to it since then.
✰ eir favorite flowers are freesias.
✰ e's like... the type of guy to say e listens to every genre of music and also actually mean it. type of guy to listen to a classical piece and then death grips and then some 2000s ska in one sitting.
✰ e's got a pretty well-rounded exercise routine, though invests most time into weightlifting.
✰ e's lived in italy eir whole life and is a second gen immigrant. e primarily regards emself as qazaq but e's also of jordanian descent. e often forgoes describing this due to linguistic and cultural disconnect.
✰ e's fluent in italian and english, knows spoken qazaq and knows a bit of spanish. e was also primarily taught british english and so (vaguely) has that accent lol. additionally e's well-versed in polari.
✰ eir shoulder scar's a burn scar, the initial injury's fully healed but e's been scratching at the site for years due to dermatillomania, resulting in scabbing and roughening. back when e first got it e had some complications with mobility - with the aid of eir vigorous exercising (especially post-train entry) the stiffness has subsided, though e often still favors eir good arm when carrying something particularly heavy, simply out of habit. whenever asked about how e got the scar e rarely elaborates, the only consistent fact given being that e got it from an ambiguous 'work accident'.
✰ e's also got a relatively smaller scar on eir left foot, which e got whilst helping out sabri sort gardening tools back in 2109. e ended up accidentally scratching eir instep with a pruning saw, and though the injury healed quickly due to train mechanisms, the scar is still quite vivid.
✰ when e first got clairvoyance e tried to alter eir voice via shapeshifting, though e was inexperienced and overzealous — this led to em partially paralysing eir vocal cords on accident. e managed to 'heal' this via shapeshifting again, though again e didn't do it perfectly and so eir voice is slightly 'off' from before in a way that was completely unintentional. e also has some lasting sprain, leading to some 'scratchiness' mostly only audible whenever eir voice is particularly worn or strained. this entire thing is kind of why e's vowed to never 'experiment' with eir shapeshifting in such a precise way again....
✰ in eir early 20s e used to smoke quite heavily, alongside having a habit of sporadic overdrinking - e's managed to kick off the former, and has heavily limited eir alcohol intake over the years. e's more careful about balancing it out with water and food at least. e still turns to excessive drinking under stress, something e's extremely self-conscious about.
✰ additionally e quit smoking completely cold turkey like a few weeks or so after entering the train. e very much insisted on enduring withdrawal symptoms and depended heavily on faris who'd gone through the same ordeal years and years ago.

✰ train room

entryway is eir restaurant, a heavily decorated retro style diner. the 'counter' area is the dedicated bar space. from behind here is a door that leads to eir kitchen, which is extensive and features various cooking apparatuses.
behind all that bullshit are eir actual living quarters. leans heavily into the look of spring, most walls between rooms are transparent glass with thick metal framing. has various rooms for all eir individual hobbies, for example a music studio, a personal gym, etc.

✰ role

main harbinger of the cassiopeia storyline alongside freya - introduces isel hereby unlocking his train room and everything else with him, and plays into cassiopeia-related endings emself. it's kinda funny though because at the start of their entire campaign olzhas works as a heel to freya and isel, and so e's more or less an obstacle in terms of going along with the whole broadcasted meessage thing. its to the point of like. if the outcome for the trio decrees their broadcast doesn't go anywhere OR it's never sent out in the first place e's far more content - contrast this to the cassiopeia success ending where isel dies and e's quite literally inaccessible most of the time because e's too busy drinking eir sorrow away
in terms of the universal plot e organises the whole-train meeting because e detects mazin's thoughts to destroy the train, though other than that e kind of falls to the wayside... narratively e's the epitome of a 'catalyst' character, having eir finger in everyones pie but kind of avoiding any deep involvement in others storylines for a while. like e technically introduces dalisay to val, gives them pointers on talking to marjolaine, sheds light on peixin's past, etc but it takes up till the intermission for em to actively partake in affecting the train. and e'll only do it for cassiopeia. fun stuff
otherwise e has a consistent shopkeep mechanic where e can serve you food that replenishes ego/flare. the more you talk to em the better the recovery percentage of the food you get is, though later treats can also be attained early on through favors.
e's initially introduced as kind of flighty and distrusting of dalisay. and so first few convos with olja are just em trying very hard to mindread while dalisay... doesnt directly shut down eir telepathy, but instead mentally calls em stupid over and over again. progressively e opens up and becomes more willing to engage in idle chat, mostly in the form of conversations about eir hobbies - e probably has like some cooking minigame type beats that relate to this. eir 'big sidequest' involves having em reconcile with isel and overall start to push past eir pettiness... olzhas probably has one of the more boring progressions in the story just because it's all divorce melodrama LOL

✰ motifs

harlequin patterns commedia dell'arte type beat mixed with brutalism of all things. more of a side-effect of the brutalism but e's got some vaguely futuristic looking stuff going on which i mostly just push as a 'oh this guys got that new tech shit'. initially the pattern was picked at random but i pushed harder on the harlequin thing once i decided isel and freya were also performers of a sort. and so theyve all got a vague theatric theme going on. all comes full circle thumps up
something that just kind of sprung up naturally later on was eir association with the nervous system and particularly nerves? idk if id call it an actual motif since i never really made it part of eir design (and it DOES feel too on the nose to...) but it is a pattern i sometimes use when i draw stuff with em in it. really more of a metaphorical depiction of eir clairvoyance.... in addition to this i very specifically accentuate like. tactileness and kinesthetics with em (and the rest of cassiopeia) because i feel like a lot of 'telepathy' in media is very nebulous and abstract in nature. but since in trainstory its all about like invisible nervous impulses travelling between bodies and whatnot i feel its much more anchored to visceralness. so in general the internal human body and its sensations are a vital concept to em...
detailed a bit more in the particular 'refs 4 spells' image in eir gallery but. theres some esoteric shapes in the design of eir clairvoyance tattoo, all of them come from alchemical symbols, most prominent one is the symbol for a crucible. because you know. high temperature system that changes a substance, something something shapeshifting, even in general crucibles have connotations with transformation and refinement. somewhere in theres also the W shape of the cassiopeia constellation, which is. um. yeah. yknow. the funny word

✰ title

so keystone generally means like. the crux of a concept idea etc but it's also an architectural word that refers to the topmost part of an arch that supports the rest of the thing. its probably better explained if you look up a picture. i picked it specifically because i wanted to reel in eir brutalism theme some more vaguely? i think the whole 'support' shtick with reference to olzhas in particular is less about em being an active member of the train community (though it also refers to that) and more about eir clairvoyance tying em to everyone else. another interesting thing about the word is that its used in various contexts - the general crux definition, the architectural one, ecologically as 'keystone species'... i think this interdisciplinarism is befitting of eir own hobbyist versatility.

✰ inspirations

✰ first bullet point on eir original page was 'i don't know why i made this character' i just want to preserve it.
✰ also keep in mind sole descriptor i gave to myself as i was working out eir design was 'i want this guy to look like the frontman of a fail ska band'
✰ and also 'rarity (horse) but like if she was just a gay man'
✰ initially olzhas was gonna follow the whole thing of eir clairvoyance archetype being called 'impish' far more and effectively e was gonna be some kind of demon guy. still as a result of magical alteration and it was solely because that was like. the third generic halloween story type being i could think of after draculas and werewolfs. but all the design stuff i could come up with for that concept just came out like DOGSHIT and i realised i hated the idea a lot. so i worked backwards in a way to make em look especially mild and i landed on pupil dilation as like. eir token Weird Trait. and with design mildness came me reworking eir personality into just some guy as opposed to the kind of trickster air e had before. i much prefer eir moroseness now and it apparently worked out really well because i regard em as my favorite trainstory character now
✰ good amount of psychonauts influence mostly in terms of how to convey eir shtick designwise. but also the way eir powers work was inspired by the 'worldbuilding' there, namely a lot of the stuff about getting kicked out of someones mind or certain memories being locked out and stuff
✰ a lot of refinement both in terms of eir powers and personality was influenced by jayfeather wc because i was reading po3 and forgot how funny like. his characterisation was. hence 'annoying asshole who reads peoples minds and can be surprisingly empathetic and profound but also their ill temper persists so consistently that they're always mildly dislikeable' got carried over to em. simplified, and for lack of better terms, i just went barebones for 'worst empath in the world'. and i mean it so endearingly
✰ i was learning ash crimson around the time i made em up i think it lead to how i draw eir hair and also em just having the stim thing of twirling it around eir fingers
✰ to add to the kof influence, initially eir pre-train profession was just being a waiter but i doodled out a concept for eir look at the time with king's outfit as a basis and afterward i was just like fuck it. full tribute e'll be a bartender like her. i really didn't think about it at the time but nowadays i regard alcohol as like such an important part of olzhas' characterisation.... reaching it this way is quite funny retrospectively
✰ i fucking love parappa 2. em being both a chef and a hairdresser is based on those particular parappa levels because they're my favorite songs from that game smile. tangentially i imagine eir theme to sound something like the bad version of hair scare
✰ also some influence from certain undertale guys. namely rouxls kaard and mettaton. this got very diluted thanks to the progression mentioned above LOL but the former's why e was meant to be a shopkeep
✰ em being a bassist was inspired by me watching a bunch of dream theater live stuff and pogging at the bass... em growing eir hair out and also playing the stick was influenced by john myung LOL

✰ external

✰ artfight profile
✰ solo playlist - keystone
✰ duo playlist - with dolichonyx
✰ group playlist - cassiopeia

✰ description

hair: weird side-swept undercut. hair is somewhere between chin and shoulder-length. kept out of eir face by way of a white headband with diamond patterning on it.
face: teardrop sort of shape. long nose. monolid eyes, distinctly a very dark brown in color. thin eyebrows. e has a mole on eir chin and another by eir right eyebrow. prominent smile lines and moderate acne. teeth are sharpened. e has a septum piercing. often wears eyeliner and purple eyeshadow.
glasses have uneven lenses - only the left covers eir eye completely, and said eye is traced by a white silhouette. this lens also has some extensions that fan out and resemble satellite solar cells - these are just for fashion and can't be pulled down. the right lens is shorter and only partially blocked out, with the bottom half being clear.
main outfit: dull harlequin-pattern apron worn over a purple dress. the dress is vaguely pencil-shaped, has a high neck, and has some off-white embellishments. e wears two lavender belts - one to tie eir apron together and another going over eir chest. both a striped tie and a lavender bowtie are worn around the neck, loosely. leggings follow a more square-ish harlequin pattern, same colors as the apron. gloves are black, resemble tight arm warmers, reach eir shoulders, and possess three flared-out ribbons on each side. eir nails are often painted either black or purple.
general fashion style: formal casual type beat. the only time e's not wearing dresses is when e's wearing a suit, and e still prefers the former. usually likes plain monochrome stuff, but dips into more vibrant and bold patterns occasionally. usually prefers wearing sleeveless or flowy things (certain fabrics make eir scar itch). has a fondness for fancy jackets, which e sometimes wears on eir shoulders like a cape. in-universe eir clothing style's regarded as fairly trendy.
other: a scar runs across eir left upper arm. e bears eir clairvoyance code on eir chest though it's usually not visible with eir regular outfit - said code is basically just a tattoo of overlapping geometric lines and polygons.
body type: height is variable, though rarely exits the range of 5'8—6'1. 5'8 is eir 'natural' height. noticeably muscular though also has a decent amount of body fat. most of eir muscle is built around eir upper body, particularly in the arms. additionally has scars from top surgery.