My PC went dead around Nov. 25th last year, guess who just gets a new PC (finally) in July? With 8GB RAM, I hope it can handle working with Photoshop 2020 (though I’ll still sick with openCanvas as my main drawing program - PS is for editing and some graphic).

          As for the monitor, I don’t recall if I’ve ranted on TH before just how terrible it was. Backstory is it’s a HP monitor that came as a set with my old pc, both bought in 2009 but it took a year later until I finally decided to switch from the non-LCD bulky monitor to that one. Around two or three years ago, the screen surface started developing tiny white specks over it. At first it was just the top left corner then gradually spread all over, covering 100% of the screen. Since then, trying to paint had been hell for me because it was next to impossible to get a decent blend (monitor always deceived me it was smooth enough but when I view the WIP from mobile screen (always need to paste the WIP screen in discord to view from mobile), NOPE the blend was super messy still).

          Until now, I switched to do cel-shading simply because it’s much less frustrating to do than attempting to paint. Still, the ‘white noise’, as I called it, makes life difficult. Here’s a comparison - the left is what I see on the screen, with millions of ‘noises’ because the surface material degenerating, while on the right is the actual save file (and screencap from print screen also in this quality). Even trying to work on Yevsey’s hair was a torment, despite his base hair color is dark auburn, not even black.

          Anyway, with the new PC, I got to swap the doomed monitor with another one (old Samsung monitor left over since my stepdad passed away years ago). I'm still wrestling with the setting though since the colors displayed on this Samsung monitor still don't match what I see on my phone. It's better to at last get rid of the white specks no less...

          I've not painted anything since the 2nd week of May. Hopefully my skill hasn't become too rusty...

          A lot happened since the last time I update a bulletin but I guess the most obvious thing is that lack of new art? Well, I have been in an on-and-off chronic art block since last year because of depression but it hit me the worst since Jan. The reason is, I lost my dog whom my family adopted 13 years ago as a puppy, over a totally absurd reason that left me seething. He just went missing, even when the fence gate was closed but somehow he climbed out? And he was nowhere to be found.

          I only barely recover by the end of March. Then, summer is at full-blown, which limits my time I can be on pc each day. My room where my PC is in in on the west side so in the afternoon it becomes hellishly hot and doesn't copl down until way past midnight. And if you can't imagine what summer in Thailand is like... well, something like 13 hours of sunlight, temperature hits 30C as soon as 7AM outside (barely an hour after sunrise). As the sun creeps toward noon and afternoon, temperature is something around 36-39C UV index from 11-14(!) and feels like 40-43C. Unless it rains, the earth just retains the temperature through night and here, not even 6.30AM yet and I'm already sweating, even though sitting in my room with a fan on.

          So likely, I probably going to write a lot of fictions in meantime with not much art or new profile (it's quite difficult to write profiles on my phone, when I use it in code view mode, for whatever reason it lacks really bad - when I type a word with 6 letters, it took something like 6-10 secs for every letter to appear on screen). And other than that, I'm pretty much confined to using my phone to get on internet. Hence, I guess I can do a research for future OCs... which brings me to what I need opinions from Americans since I don't know much about American history.

         I've been planning to broaden the cast of my main AE verse to include US Navy ships for years, but my lack of basic knowledge of American history and US Navy impedes me. So far I've shortlisted the ships I want to make OC based on and one of them is USS Shiloh. I kinda envision him to be an African-American guy, but when I search from the origin of his name, I'm not sure if that would be an appropriate idea? Turned out the name is from Battle of Shiloh during the American Civil War (and tbh, my knowledge of American Civil War confined to just 'the North wanted to liberate people of African origin from enslavement'). I'm totally clueless if this particular battle has any kind of hidden meaning behind it? If I were to assign a representative of African-American to the name, there's not some kind of stigmata to the combination I hope?

         Also, another ship I have my eyes on is the carrier USS Ronald Reagan and... admittedly I want to play with the idea that the android for this ship doesn't have to be Irish in appearance? The concept I have on the US Navy androids is that they represent more diversity and 'open-mindedness' than the Russian Navy (which the majority of cast constructed during the USSR era when they pushed the Slavic element to dominate over other cultures). 

         Gradually, I hope to continue adding more OCs, though may be slow due to the restriction on working on new art and proper design. Those already on my next to be list are as following:

FGO AU OCs

•           Ruler Constantine - STATUS: haven't started on writing profile yet, rough sketch of design since last October.
•           Lancer Sleipnir - STATUS: haven't started on writing profile yet, rough sketch of design since last December.
•           Anne of Kiev(Yaroslav's daughter) - STATUS: brainstorming concept, still not quite sure which class she will be.

AE OCs

•          ...OCs will come out at random, depends on the speed of drawing art and if I can figure out how to write one's profile.

City OCs

•          Priority is Zemun, Beograd's other half - STATUS: writing profile, need new art for display
•          ...the rest are pretty much on hold, though chances are new OCs that aren't those I created prior switching to AE as main plot may get a better chance to show up.

Flower personification OCs

•          Priority is Lilac sisters, representatives of Serbian national flower - STATUS: slowly writing their profile, art will likely take very long.
•          Other flowers in shortlist are Chamomile(Russia), Cornflowers (Germany and Estonia), Koon (unofficial name of Thailand's national flower - just hope it won't change anytime soon since it ties to the late King Rama IX) and probably one of the national flowers from Ex-Yugo region (Bosnia's golden lily, Slovenia's red carnation or North Macedonia's poppy).

Slavic Mythology OCs

•          Mokosh? - STATUS: Rough sketch design since Jan, not writing profile yet
•          Art for modern human disguise of Veles

           And, two pieces of art I'm in debt of from the last bulletin; one for Shura and another for the two Varyag. Orz. Let's pray rainy season will come soon so I can draw... (also pray for no thunderstorm cuz power cut...)

               Originally, I signed up for NaNoWriMo account last year but didn't get to participate due to a few reason (one of them was my health, got a terrible inner ear infection around that time). This year will be my first attempt on it with an idea for a long (by NaNoWriMo's rule - 50k words) fiction from my Artificial Existence plot. This fiction will be submitted on TH as collection with several chapters when it's completed.

               When there was a news about Garya and Podolsk's real life counterparts retirement back in April, that really pushed my off track concerned the story development. Since I go by the logic 'OC will only exist as long as their real life counterpart does' - that means now Garya and Podolsk will be permanently cut from the future story. Although I did expect the retirement, I thought maybe just one of them would be retired, not both at once. Plot-wise this counted as major event in the timeline so I halted all other development on the minor slide-of-life plots until I'll finish writing a fiction depicting this event of a major change in the Pacific Fleet.

               It was around June I think when I decided I'm going to write this event for my first NaNoWriMo. But this event alone probably issn't worth 50k words. In the end, the plot evolved to telling brief history of the Pacific Fleet since Podolsk started his existence as commissioned submarine android into the USSR Navy back in 1980. The main cast are these OCs in the Pacific Fleet tag (which was the reason i had to upload Lazarev, Ryazan and Tributs in short period successively).

               Earlier this month I have gotten to create outline for this fiction. (contains some spoilers but most of them aren't much deeper than what already hinted in the characters' profiles). As you can see, it covers lots of events in the timeline since 1980, ending with Podolsk and Garya's last days in Kamchatka. The main characters are pretty much all available on my TH except for Gavril, who after I did additional research, is likely demoted to minor character now since it turned out MiG-31 didn't deploy to Kamchatka until 1989. Thus he has no part in the Korean Air Line Flight 007 incident like I initially believed. (just for side note - the plane that shot down Korean Air Lines Flight 007 was Su-15 - which I didn't make an OC of, I thought MiG-31 might be chasing after the passenger plane then retreated when the plane was out of Kamchatka)

               Anyway, thanks to my stupid ancient pc for giving me a scare last week ago by refusing to boot window, I have already started well into writing my fiction. At the moment it stands at 12K words...and we barely reach the beginning of part/chapter 4.   Like...I already suspected after finishing listing the topics that it's going to exceed 50K words that never thought it will be this bad. The third chapter alone is nearly 5K words... Although, admittedly several details included in these first three chapters are those basics about the androids you can read from the plot's facts.

               By the way, it looks like my pc is perfectly okay now. = v =....  At least the ancient HD that I have been warned could fail anytime seems fine. Thought my pc was gone because the HD died but nope. I still don't know what caused it to shut down while I was out of my room to feed my cat then took ridiculously long to complete disk checking. (0% after four hours, barely reached 11% by six and took a bit over ten hours in total to finish checking and booted window successfully at last...)

               I'll still come to check on TH daily but uploading new OC will be on hold until the end pf November. In December I hope to come back and continue working on OCs outside of the AE plot.

               P.S. -  I hope maybe after finishing this fiction, Lazarev may get a favorite at last. The poor guy sure had done a lot for his fleet and suffered a lot as well... *coughs*

          Now that I've mostly done with filling the blank history section of several warship android OCs in the AE verse, it's time for me to pay more attention at OCs from other plots. So far I feel the plot that I've neglected the longest is my APH-themed city OCs. Aside from recently uploaded the personification of Singburi (whom I consider 'finished' by now as I have no intention to bring the myth-filled history of the province into his profile), I didn't touch the other three for months.

          Partially, that's because I feel the profile layout I first chose for those three is kind of difficult to work with, with loads of information this type of OCs often has. Hence I refrain from uploading any new city OCs for a long time because some of them have even more information than those three (like Belgrade or Zadar whose history started far back even before Roman Empire fully conquered the Balkan Peninsula, putting it over 2000+ years). Now though, I think I found a new layout that may work better (more organized?) but the history of city section might still be a pain to read because it'll be a really long scroll.   

          Here's a preview of what I'm working on with transferring Valentin's profile.

          Zinaida and Hrvoje should get their profiles transferred to this layout as well once I'm done with Valentin. If all goes well, after this I may submit more city OCs using this same profile layout. (me and my weird obsession with wanting OCs of a same(?), certain type to share one 'standard' layout.. Orz)

          As for the Artificial Existence plot, I may slow down on submitting more OCs for a while. A news in RL hit me a week ago that the RL counterpart of Podolsk and Garya are retiring at last. With my concept of plot progressing that OCs will cease their active roles in the plot when the RL counterpart isn't on active duty in RL anymore, this puts the plot in the first major turning point. To mark this change, I'll need to write a fiction about the change within the Pacific Fleet's submarine division as both Garya and Podolsk hold rather a prominent role each (Garya as the 'savior' mentor to Nevskiy and Monomakh while Podolsk being the 'delegate' commander of the base).

For the moment, my list of plans looks like this::

          - Transferring Valentin, Zinaida and Hrvoje's profiles to new layout.

          - Write a fiction about the turning point in the PF

          - Add more OCs into the Slavic Mythology plot (aka 'stop slacking and finish Veles' art, will you?') and transfer Jarilo's profile to a new layout like Morena's

          - May work on more OC or two for the 'Misc. Real World' folder (for sure, that Polish contemporary ballet dancer I planned since last year)

          - ***More female OCs PLEASE (I got a new tablet now...what isn't ready is my female drawing skill though =__=);;; )

  Artificial Existence Facts :: Version 2  

               Originally I got the inspiration to turn armaments into humanoid OCs from the Japanese online game Kancolle. However, as time went by and I got down to seriously contemplate how I want to make my own plot differ from the game, I made a decision that many of their characteristics are more suitable for androids than being flesh and blood humans like Kancolle. (in Kancolle concept the warship girls can bleed when they're injured but weirdly become healthy again after they take a repair in a form of 'hot bath' :/ This sexualized aspect of Kancolle is certainly one thing I want to stay far away from)

               This revise isn't the complete final version, I expect to continuously improve and add more details - maybe write the version 3 some time in the future if this version 2  has become to outdated. If there is any topic which isn't clear enough or some topic you wish to know that I didn't cover here, feel free to comment and let me know!

  SETTING EXPLANATION  

  Genres

               The main genres of this plot can be divided into four types; slice of life, comedy, drama and semi-historical. The plot is main concentrated on progression of events in Russia and not mentioning about other countries.

               Although some of these genres can move dangerously close to risky topics like politics, nationalism, religions and the more intolerant opinions toward LGBTQA+, I'm going to keep my plot free of those divisive subjects Those topics will be kept away from the plot and some political situations will only be mentioned in passing without going into detail whether it's right or wrong. The OCs can appear to be quite ignorant to some of these subjects because they don't really understand them in the same way humans do. Thus, please keep in mind that their view of something (i.e. feeling overly wary of national affair with other countries) shouldn't be taken seriously.

              And there is a possibility that I will make ocs of warships belong to other nations beside Russia. These OCs will be minor characters though, for example US Navy ships based at the Yokosuka naval base in Japan may occasionally pop a visit to the Pacific Fleet in Vladivostok (in RL these visits had happened quite a few times until...recently). They're unlikely to have their own plot but only appear in a plot that one way or another related to the Russian counterparts.

               Slice of life  :: Focusing on the OCs' everyday life on the bases they belong to. Various sub plots will discover the relationships between warships and submarines(the biggest group of OCs), sometimes venture out to the cross-forces relationship i.e. Su-33 (who despite being an aircraft android, actually belongs to the navy) and his family who work for the air force. Occasionally there will be fictions or roleplay logs about certain events in fleet (i.e. how Nevskiy causes disturbance in the Kamchatka base or when Kulakov returned to Severomorsk after almost two decades). Several plots will also provide a look at the locality their bases are located, of local geography, climate, history and culture.

               Comedy  :: Either a new sub plot idea created especially for comedic effect (i.e how Panteleyev always tries to hide his stash of junk food from Shaposhnikov who wants to get rid of them at all cost) or twisting the fact from real history / real life happening into a more humorous take (i.e. how Su-33's 2005 accident of falling into the sea is from Kuznetsov's own doing by cutting the arresting cable so it would snap on landing attempt)

               Drama  :: There are a few subjects which I based on as dramatic sub plots. The majority of them are based in real history of unfortunate incidents from 1980 hence I want to keep them minimal and not as the main genre for this plot. These incident serves as important landmarks in the plot timeline - 

• The ammo storage explosion in Severomorsk in 1984
• The Chernobyl accident in 1986
• The sinking of nuclear submarine K-278 Komsomolets in 1989
• The collapsing of the USSR in 1991 which triggered a massive abandonment of both warships in active duty and those in the middle of construction
• The 1995 accident of Russikye Vityazi in Vietnam 
• And the sinking of K-141 Kursk in August 2000.

  IMPORTANT  

           Concerning the last incident of K-141 Kursk sinking; because this incident was a major tragedy in Russia and many Russians are still grieving over it, even though I do have a plan for Kursk OC - he will NEVER be used to portray the event when his fatal accident happened. In fact, the entire event will never be created in any way; drawing, fiction or roleplay log. Kursk will appear only as a minor character in the flashback of K-150 Tomsk's memories when he spent the time in the Northern Fleet where he was temporarily assigned to. Kursk's timeline will end when Tomsk made his transfer to the Pacific Fleet in late August 1998, almost two years prior the accident.

               Semi-historical  :: Although the main idea behind the plot is based from real history (mostly since 1980), starting from the year 2006 only selective events from real history will be chosen to incorporate into the plot. This is due to political factors and undesirable real life events which I'd rather not have them tangled with my plot and world building. Please see the clarification below for more details.

  'Semi historical' clarification

              At the time when I conceived this idea of a universe for armaments-turn-humanoids plot it was May 2015. And as we all know by that time the conflict between Russian and Ukraine has already gotten into its second year. While between these two countries I have more interest on Russia, that doesn't mean I support Russia in this conflict with Ukraine. And previously, there was also the Russo-Georgian War in 2008 where the real life counterpart of Moskva participated in blockade and inflicting damage on the Georgian Naval Force. Again, although I'm neutral toward Georgia, I find the idea of including this conflict into the plot extremely awkward and inconsiderate to Georgians.

               In keeping with the mentioned conditions in the genres topic concern not incorporating politics view, nationalism, religions into the focus of the plot and entire universe, I've decided to alter some details of this world which differs from the real life as following:

• In this world, the Crimean Peninsula belongs to Ukraine and the Russian Black Sea Fleet still renting the base from Ukraine.
• As the result, the entire conflict between Russia and Ukraine which started since 2014 DOES NOT EXIST in this universe. Both countries are in cordial term.
• Similarly, the Russo-Georgian War in 2008 also didn't occur. South Ossetia and Abkhazia do not exist as separated parts from Georgia.
• Finally, the Syrian War, IS situations and the Russian intervention in Syria do not happen in this universe. There will be events that some Russian warship OCs visit the Syrian port of Tartus but it has nothing to do with the aforementioned conflict. Tartus has been a friendly port to Russian Navy since the USSR era and historically the Soviet naval ships called port in Tartus regularly.
• Though it doesn't have much to do with Russia, if possible I'd prefer to omit the 9/11, too.

               Also, I'd like to clarify about the opinions regarding neighboring countries of Russia possessed by a few OCs. Their opinions do not reflect my own stance, as the creator, toward the these countries. These opinions were formed in them for various reasons according to what they experienced, many of which even among their fellow androids do not share the same opinion. Once again, please do not take these opinions seriously. As of the moment I'm writing this facts revision, the troublesome ones are:

  World situation 

               There is no major arms conflict anywhere. The world is at peace and Russian is in friendly or at least neutral term with the rest of the world. It might sound too idealistic, but after all even though the OCs are based on armaments, wars and arms conflicts aren't supposed to take the center stage in this plot.

               For reference, the territory of Russia in this universe is according to this map: (wikicommon link)

   Android basic explanation

               At the moment, the majority of armament androids OCs are comprised of warship OCs (both surface ships and submarines). There is a plan to introduce more aircraft androids than just Sidor (Su-33) and Kuzma (Ka-27) but currently I'm having a difficulty designing armament/equipment for the other types of aircraft. The androids belong to ground force (battle tanks, missiles and armored vehicle) can take even longer to appear as they're the type of armaments I'm not familiar with the most. For the complete list of both existing and planned OCs, please check this spreadsheet.

        Definition 

               As the warfare technology advanced and weapons are getting more and more destructive, many nations start contemplating the idea of building armaments with human characteristic, turning them into androids to conduct the warfare battles in place of the more 'fragile' humans. Due to the conflict in concepts with a couple of warship humanoid OCs whose constructions exceeded the beginning of WWI, I can't pinpoint the exact period in the plot timeline yet when the first warfare androids were created successfully.

               By given armaments humanoid shape, they can easily blend with ordinary humans for covert missions and harder to pinpoint as targets by the enemy's long-range attack. It also makes easier for humans to transport these armaments and their mobility increased significantly, especially for the warships and battle tanks. Their physical appearances match the typical genetics of the USSR's population, though during the USSR era there was a dominating trend of creating androids with Slavic appearance to assert the position of the European part of the state. Only after the collapse of the USSR that finally androids with less Slavic appearance began to emerge as the creator institutions gain more freedom on the appearance design to represent the non-Slavic population of Russia.

               Generally, the outward appearance of andrids allow them to blend easily with ordinary humans as following:

•      Height :: From 150 centimeters (4'10) to 190 centimeters (roughly 6'3)
•      Weight :: Varied from 100 kilograms (220 lbs.) for the lightest aircraft androids, 250 kilograms (550 lbs) for smallest tank androids to 1,500 kilograms (1.5 ton or 3300 lbs.) for large warship androids like Pyotr Velikiy and Admiral Kuznetsov
•      Hair and eye colors :: Matching what available naturally for humans (black, brown, reddish tones and blond hair and brown, green, grey and blue eyes), only 011 Varyag has an 'unnatural' bright red hair due to unorthodox 'experiment' of the engineers who participated in his creation.

        Conceptual difference between warship androids / aircraft androids / 'ground' androids 

                The first major difference between the warships and the other two types of androids is mainly that warship androids are created on the basis of "one ship/submarine = one individual OC" while the other two are under condition of "one type / class of aircraft / armament = one individual OC". The only exception outside of the warships category which allowed multiple humanoid OCs of one class of aircraft are the aerobatic teams Russkiye Vityazi and Strizhi, six OCs for each team respectively. 

                While in the main plot there is only a single OC for a certain type of aircraft / battle tank / other non-ship armaments, this doesn't mean that each one of them is the sole embodiment of that type of armament existed in the entire Russia. For example, there will be only one OC for the Su-34 fighter/bomber jet who will be used regular in the plot but there are some more 'dummy / extra' humanoid Su-34 scattering all over several bases within Russia that won't get mentioned about except in a rare occasion, which they will still be mentioned as 'nameless' Su-34s.

               Physically, warship androids are stranger than the other types. They also tend to be more powerful, weigh more and take much longer time to complete their construction. However, when it comes to vitality, the other types of androids, being that they're based on "one type / class of aircraft / armament = one individual OC" concept, are easier to get damages but not always to the point that they will be completely written-off (equivalent to death) because it's more convenient to build hundreds of spare parts for them in comparison to the warships. Therefore, using Su-33 for example, he once suffered a crash in 2001 but still lived on after receiving extensive repair using several spare parts. 

               Meanwhile the warships, though harder to suffer extensive damage, once such level of damage is reached, often too late to save and sink to their death. Despite their nature of operating on water, the surface ship type of androids are more vulnerable - their structure cannot seal off water as good as the submarine type if they sink beneath the surface. Sometime they can be saved if they are rushed to the repair facility before water can damage their inner electronics permanently, but most of the time such scenario can hardly achieve amidst the battles. Another uniqueness in the warships case, sometimes cannibalization do happen (cannibalization = choosing a ship from a certain class to dismantle and use the disassembled parts as spare parts for ships in the same class). Moskva was close to having this done on him to complete 'Borislav' and there's a possibility of Admiral Spiridonov has been cannibalized for the four Fregat androids in the Pacific Fleet as well.

Concepts regarding 'birth' / 'awaken'(launching) / 'death'

       Aircraft 

        'Ground' androids  (battle tanks and other ground-based androids which lack ability to either fly or float on water)

        Warships 

               All in all, because this plot focuses more on the other aspects of these androids' existence which don't involve them being used in war, the chances are the characters will continue to live on. The only exception is the warship androids, which their life span in the plot tied closely to their real life counterpart. If somehow their real life counterpart cease their existence, then in this plot they will cease their existence as well. By 'ceasing their existence' means that their timeline will conclude in the year their real life counterpart sinks or sends to dismantle; for example 'Borislav' will only play a role between 1983 (when his creation started) until 2017 as his real life counterpart was demilitarized and confirmed to be dismantling in March 2017. He might be drawn or written in fiction again on 2018 and later years but it will strictly revolve around his past from 1983 to 2017.

About emotions imitation

               Most of the emotions displayed in the androids' behaviors are nothing short of imitation of what human behavioral data programmed into their inorganic brain. Basically, they rely on such data to interact with humans in an appropriate response to situations. How deep an android can comprehend emotions depends on how each individual android examine and interact with the data in their inorganic brain. Although prior their deployment to the arm forces, there will always be a test to see how well the android interact with humans using the data programmed into their inorganic brain.

                Some of the USSR era androids prefer to discard such data and interact in a strict, emotion-void communication (i.e. TK-208 Dmitriy Donskoy, Vice-Admiral Kulakov and K-223 Podolsk). There have been some notes on the differences that androids whose deployment began after the collapse of the USSR tend to be more expressive and at ease with using the emotion imitation to the highest efficiency. Observances informed that some androids chose certain type of emotions as their 'default' mode in personality aspect. 

About being asexual / aromantic and no genitalia

                Learning from experiences among ordinary humans, romantic type of love and sexual desires are deemed as being the causes of unnecessary troubles. Decisively, the engineers concluded that giving those qualities to androids will result in more harm than good. Platonic type of love instead being viewed as more appropriate for androids to experience and encouraged them to engage in platonic bonding of different levels (friends, siblings).

               By default, androids are classified as both asexual and aromantic as the information about such topics are being intentionally excluded from their inorganic brain's database. The majority of them are clueless of how to respond when being approached with romantic and sexual intention. Some may know a bit more from imitating what they see on humans and 'fake' an appropriate response. However, once being pressed on, they will eventually discontinue such behavior. From observations, other forms of response toward unwanted romantic and sexual intention can vary from indifferently unresponsive by politely turning down the approach  to negative reactions like imitating anger to ward off the unwanted intention or openly protesting.

               As a safeguard measure to protect the androids from being lured into engaging sexual activities with humans, their bodily structure is built without genitalia. Although there is a bulge shape which imitated the realistic pubic area of human male, it only appears that way because the metal piece which made up the pubic 'bone' area is moulded into a thicker shape in order to follow human's anatomy.

About 'sibling/familial bond'

               Fearing that if the androids are treated solely as machine that has nothing in common with humans, they can easily turn dangerous by perceiving humans as weak and undesirable. The engineers then decided to add information of human's familial bond into the androids' inorganic brain and introduce such bonding to the androids of the same project/class or originated from the same manufacturers. Hence, they can understand why friends and families are the 'weakness' of humans and also something important to them. By doing so, the engineers hope to increase the androids' connection to humans to lessen the chances that they might rebel against human's control or viewing human's life as worthless.

               In most part, it has worked out pretty successfully, although there were times when it backfired somehow. The particular case is concerned K-150 Tomsk who's known for being what would classify in humans as 'overly emotional' due to the loss of his older sibling, K-141 Kursk. His behavior tends to become a bit erratic during the period of year when the anniversary of the accident rolls in. Also another noteworthy case is the project 941 Akula SSBNs, which the entire class of six androids strongly rejected the siblings bond and treated each other hostilely. 

              Still, familial bonds outside of siblings are not really taken seriously among them. Ladnyy, for example, is often upset when Grigorovich calls him like an older family member (grandpa), despite they're distantly related by that Grigorovich is the fifth modification of the ship in the same project as Ladnyy (1135 and 11356). The submarines born from Sevmash predominately view those from different classes as 'distant relatives' but practically treat each others as friends.

  Crossover with city OCs explanation

                This crossover resulted from the fact that I first taken interest in modern Russian navy warships because of the research I did for one city OC. Due to in reality, various cities and locality in Russia do have certain type of connection with the warship (taking patronage over a ship or being the place where ships are constructed), these city OCs will take the roles of guidance, non-blood related parent figures or a regional commander. A few may appear in an additional role as coordinators, as their cities host the industrial complex which produced assorted component for certain group of armaments (i.e. - Rybinsk works closely with several Sukhoi jets as the Saturn Enterprise which manufactures the engines for these androids located in Rybinsk).

Yaroslavl [ Valentin Medeveditsin ]            A father figure of the Paltus-class diesel-electric submarine B-808 Yaroslavl, whom Valentin took patronage in 1999, and three Dugong-class landing craft androids of the Baltic Fleet.

Arkhangelsk [ Zinaida Beleshkina ]           Because her region hosts one of the biggest industrial complexes supplying the state with nuclear submarine construction, to all nuclear power submarines born in the Sevmash Shipyard in Severodvinsk she's their mother figure and often called as Mother, Mom, Mamochka, etc. List of submarine androids who regard her as their mother: Project 941 Akula - TK-208 Dmitriy Donskoy / TK-17 Arkhangelsk and TK-20 Severstal Project 667BDR Kalmar - K-223 Podolsk / K-433 Sveyatoy Georgiy Pobedonosets and K-44 Ryazan Project 667BDRM Delfin - BS-64 Podmoskovye / K-114 Tula and K-18 Kareliya Project 949A Antey - K-119 Voronezh / K-442 Chelyabinsk / K-456 Tver / K-266 Oryol / K-186 Omsk and K-150 Tomsk Project 955 Borey - K-535 Yuriy Dolgorukiy / K-550 Aleksandr Nevskiy and K-551 Vladimir Monomakh Project 885 Yasen - K-560 Severodvinsk and K-561 Kazan

Kamchatka [ Nikita Kazakov ]           The embodiment of the Kamchatka peninsula which hosts the Vilyuchinsk Base, where the nuclear submarines of the Pacific Fleet are stationed. He's the regional commander of the Pacific Fleet's nuclear submarine division. He also provides patronage to two of the Paltus-class submarines of the Pacific Fleet - B-464 Ust'-Kamchatsk and B-494 Ust'-Bolsheretsk.

Kursk [ Sveyatoslav Chernichenko ]           Currently the patron and father figure of Baltic Fleet's Steregushchiy-class corvette, name ship Steregushchiy. Previously he was also the patron of K-141 Kursk.

Krasnoyarsk [ Yakov Nagorkin ]           The embodiment of the Krasnoyarsk Kray, hosting the industrial complex 'Krasmash' which manufactures the Sineva and Layner SLBMs used by the project 667BDR and 667BDRM androids in the Pacific Fleet and Northern Fleet.

Rybinsk [ Konstantin Zyulin ]           Hosting the NPO Saturn Enterprise, the manufacturer of engines used by Su-27, Su-33, Su-34 and Su-57.

  IN-DEPTH ANDROID'S FUNCTION EXPLANATION  

  'Assigned diminutive'

               Calling people with diminutives is part of Russian tradition. There are diminutives which seemingly act as a 'default' for each name; i.e. - 'Sasha' for Aleksandr, 'Kolya' for Nikolay, 'Volodya' for Vladimir and so forth. Because the majority of warship androids didn't have a chance to choose their own names as they carry the names of various important people (historical rulers, military commanders and politicians from the past), there are times when too many ships with the same first names are assigned to the same fleet. The most outstanding case being there are three 'Nikolay' in the Northern Fleet (Kuznetsov, Chiker and Kulakov) and within the Fregat-class itself there are both Nikolay Kulakov and Nikolay Vinogradov.

               In such situation when these ships somehow are assigned to join force in the same mission, it will be too confusing to use the same 'default' diminutive on all of them during communication. Hence a scheme is established to assign a diminutive in the 'sole personal diminutive' fashion for ships carrying personal names of humans. In the case of the four Nikolay ships, Kuznetsov as the most important ship takes the most common diminutive 'Kolya' while the other three settled with the more uncommon versions of their choice ('Nikasha' for Kulakov, 'Kolyusha' for Chiker and 'Nikolka' for Vinogradov)

   Fuel

          The two main types of fuel are oil and nuclear fuel comprised of uranium-235. The latter type is only available for small selection of warship and submarine androids. While their inner system makes it possible for them to consume organic food of humans, this only serves as a tactic to create an illusion that they are no different from ordinary human. The androids have no use for calories and nutrient unlike humans and the foods usually give a very low energy output to them.

          Oil fuel comes in the shape of either drinking cartons, similar to a carton of milk or fruit juice, made of sheet metal or metal cans for increased durability during missions outside of the base. The amount consume each time depends on both the type of the androids, with the warship incline to consume more than the aircraft and ground androids, and the duration between each refueling (i.e. - if they go on a long mission and come back straight to the base without any refueling in between, they're likely to be starving and consume a lot).

          On the opposite, uranium-235 fuel comes in a shape of small capsule, almost imitating human's medicine. The capsule shell is made of metal and each case which is given to the androids when it's a time for their refueling consists of six capsules in total. When refueling happens, the android will be assisted by engineers who will extract one out of six old capsules from the internal reactor. After that the android will swallow one of the new capsules and wait until their inner mechanics safely places the new capsule into the recently vacated spot. After monitoring that it occurs, two more aged capsules will be extracted and again, android swallow two new capsules. This procedure will repeat until all six capsules are extracted and replaced.

  Sleep/ temporary system shutting down

          Being armaments, sometimes they need to operate at 24 hours for extended period. Requiring sleep as the part of maintenance would be much inconvenient. Therefore, they can operate without sleep for several days to a few months. It's only when they are not on a task and staying at their base that they can 'shut down' their system to cool down and thus seemingly pretend to 'sleep'. Those who operate using fuel as their source of energy tend to need more frequent 'sleep' to preserve their fuel, in comparison to those using nuclear energy which requires refueling only once every five years and almost have unlimited energy during the period.

          In their respective bases, the androids are provided with basic living accommodation; a living quarter for them to pair up as roommates with all the basic amenity as given to human personnel. Most often, the same type of armament androids will be paired up as roommates but it can be rearranging (i.e. - how Shaposhnikov requests to be roomed with Irtyush, the hospital ship of the PF, because he doesn't want to be a roommate with Tributs, his 'fiend').

  Armament control / built in sensors

          The level of sensitivity to perception of the basic senses in androids are significantly heightened in comparison to humans due to various sensors. They can tell the temperature of something before even touching it by using heat sensors located on several parts of their body (tip of fingers, hands, arms, shoulders, chest, back, feet, etc.) which are more accurate than human's sensory input.

          Although considered non-official task, many times androids are used to detect if there is any poison or dangerous substance in food. Tastes and smells are the type of sensory inputs that the androids, even though can not really sensing favors and odors, can rapidly distinguish as it breaks down into a stream of data. With heightened sensitivity using sensors, they can tell the exact type of dangerous substance in food or if the food is unhealthy (too spicy or salty) to ordinary humans' taste. Also, with the sensors, they can even detect colorless and odorless poisonous gas.

          Concerning armaments control, their armaments are being controlled through signal from sensors inside the inorganic brain. During their missions, androids may carry additional radars and other external sensors which work coordinately with their internal sensors to enhance their sensory ability to detect targets from longer range.

  Repairing/modernization deactivation

          Deactivation will occur when repair or modernization plan to alter their basic bodily structure. In case of repair or modernization of their equipment or armaments which regularly don't have a function in their daily life in the base and only equip during military missions, then the system deactivation on androids is not necessary. That being said, sometimes androids are still active and move about within the territory of the facility where they were sent for repair or modernization. For example, Marshal Ustinov spent five years at the Zvyozdochka Shipyard for modernization but more than a half of that period, he was roaming around familiarized himself with the birthplace of his many submarine colleagues and hanged out with those staying in the same shipyard.

           Under the circumstance which required the android to be deactivated for bodily structure modification, the engineers will have the android laid down on a special platform with can withstand the weight of the android then deactivate the system. The android will then enter a similar state to a patient who went through anesthesia and the team of engineers will proceed with the bodily modification before reactivating the android once the modification complete. Such case as BS-64 Podmoskovye who has been heavily altered in bodily structure to convert from SSBN to a spy submarine stayed in the deactivated period for almost a decade.

  Weakness/strength by type (ship/aircraft/land)

::STRENGTHS:: 

• ♦Aircraft -- Highest flexibility and agility among all type (the fighter jets sub-type can even perform somersault or dash at the speed of over 120 km/h even without engines equipped) / easiest to move across the country / the smaller ones are among the lightest in weight (merely over 100 kilograms)
• ♦Ground androids -- Moderate attacking power and ability to withstand attack from the enemy / relatively easy to move across the country
• ♦Warship -- Those that use nuclear fuel are among the most fuel efficiency type / the submarine type are among the best in stealth ability / large number of weapons especially the missiles

::WEAKNESSES::

• ♦Aircraft -- Inflicting the lightest damaging power among the all three types / cannot swim so falling in water most likely resulting in being written off / vulnerable to direct hit attack / very limited amount of weapon
• ♦Ground androids -- Those with more weight tend to have balance issue / cannot swim so falling in water most likely resulting in being written off / limited amount of weapons
• ♦Warship -- The most difficult type of move from one point to other, as leaving them on land for an extended period will make them lose their sense of balancing themselves above water (so mostly they can only move from point A to point B through water only) / low agility and flexibility in comparison to the other two types (the submarine type has significant difficulty with jumping)

  Aging

          For the androids, their 'aging' is more in the sense of 'object aging', not biologically aging like humans. However, as years pass, they'll gradually become less young than their initial look (equivalent to humans in their early 20's) because in each repair and modernization they receive during their lifespan, the engineers will slowly 'add up' age to their appearance, as not to raise suspicion among non-military humans and enemy which will eventually lead to the discovery that which personnel is androids as oppose to ordinary humans.

          Even so, the 'age' which is added to their outer appearance isn't always matching their actual age; TK-208 Smitry Donskoy even though has been commissioned in 1981, still looks to be in the late 30's to 40 range, despite if his years of serving adding to the initial age of 20 will make him fitting to be in 50's range of human's year.

  'Emergency control password'

               'Emergency control password' is a method to utilize when an android refuses to comply with the order. Each warship android will have their very own 'secret' password which once spoken in the range where the hearing sense of the android can pick the word up, will be able to seize up the control over the android from his own free will. The android then will enter the state similar to being paralyzed, losing control over his own body and his hearing sense will immediately shut down for the duration of a few minutes. During this time the inorganic brain of the android will lose it ability to asset the information from various sensory data gathering method (hearing and seeing) to prevent them from being able to read lips and guess their own 'emergency password'. Also, when the password triggers the control seizing, the inorganic brain will automatically erase all memories gained within the duration of five minutes before and after the password being received.

                When control is seized, humans then able to issue order for the android to carry out, prioritize that order over everything. The examples of this usage of 'emergency control password' were when Admiral Kuznetsov and Admiral Panteleyev both refused to transfer to their assigned fleets. Triggered by passwords, they eventually went to their designated base without consent.

                Usually, the passwords are kept secret from all armament androids. In an unusual case when the password for one android is utilized in the presence of another android, the 'witness' android will later be triggered by his own password and ordered to erase the memory of the period when he witnessed the usage of password on another android clean. In the plot, even the high ranked commanders in the army don't necessarily know all the passwords for every android serving in the Russian arm forces. Only a couple of OCs have the extensive knowledge of passwords for the androids; Zinaida knows all passwords for her 'submarine children' and Major General Aleksandr Linkonovskiy - the specialist coordinator on overseeing the armament androids who knows passwords for every armament android existing in this plot.

  IN-DEPTH GEOGRAPHY AND STRUCTURE EXPLANATION  

  Differences between fleets and responsible patrol range

               Because the naval androids have a more complicated restriction regarding moving across the country, they are assigned to permanent bases while the aircraft and 'ground' androids tend to move around a lot. The map below shows the basis of bases of all five fleets and major shipyards nearby, which are the 'birthplaces' of most warship androids.

Focus on :: Northern Fleet

Flagship - project 1144 Orlan 'Pyotr Velikiy'

               The Northern fleet is the largest and most powerful out of the five fleets of Russian Navy. Currently, they host the sole vessel with the capability to operate aircraft as main offensive tactic - the flagship of Russian Navy, Admiral Flota Sovetskogo Soyuza Kuznetsov. Also the other unique vessel is the only nuclear powered surface ship, Pyotr Velikiy who serves as the fleet flagship.

     ►Responsible patrolling area -- Most of the northern seas bordering Russian arctic region (Barents Sea / White Sea / Kara Sea / Laptaev Sea / East Siberia Sea), North Atlantic and occasionally operate in the Mediterranean Sea.

     ►Headquarter, bases and facilities -- The biggest base and the fleet HQ is in Severomorsk, Murmansk Oblast. Most active ships serving this fleet are stationed here, except for Admiral Kuznetsov who is in Murmansk, the main administrative center of the region 30 kilometers down south of Severomorsk. The smaller 'White Sea Base' is located in Severodvinsk of Akhangelsk oblast, where the major shipyard/repair center 'Sevmash' and 'Zvyozdochka' are situated.

     ►Local climate -- Being entirely in the Arctic Circle, they live in a harsh climate where winter lasts from October to mid of June. Although with the presence of Gulf Stream which carries warm-temperature current reaching even the northern Murmansk, those on the Barents Sea rarely find trouble with iced-up sea surface while the freezing surface occurs regularly in the White Sea every winter.

Focus on :: Baltic Fleet

Flagship - project 956 Sarych 'Nastoychivyy'

Zoom on the Gulf of Finland area - Kronstadt and Saint Petersburg

Zoom on Kaliningrad enclave 

               The Baltic Fleet is considered the founding fleet of Russian Navy back in the era of Peter the Great during the early 18th century. They were hit hard by the crisis during the last years of the USSR Now they're relatively small in comparison to all other open-sea type fleets, save for only the Caspian Flotilla. Historically, the fleet is also famous for their strong participation in the Russian Revolution in 1917.

     ►Responsible patrolling area -- The Baltic Sea, sometimes cross into the Atlantic Ocean in joint missions with the Northern Fleet, also make their appearance in the Mediterranean Sea and even cross the Suez Canal to the Red Sea every once in a while.

     ►Headquarter, bases and facilities -- The main HQ is located in Kaliningrad, with the Baltiysk Base hosting the majority of the fleet warships. The Yantar Shipyard in Kaliningrad serves as the facility for androids creation and repair center. For the Gulf of Finland region, Konstradt is a relatively small base in comparison to Baltiysk but here is the location of three important shipyards which are the backbone of warship androids creation for decades.

     ►Local climate -- The Gulf of Finland area is colder and the Baltic Sea here frozen in winter, icebreaker is often required to clear the route for surface ships. The Kaliningrad Oblast is noticeably has a milder winter, though windier, and the sea is accessible all year round being ice-free even in winter.

Focus on :: Pacific Fleet

Flagship - project 1164 Atlant 'Varyag'

               The sole fleet on the Asian part of Russia, they used to be the second most powerful fleet among the five, losing only to the Northern Fleet. The same catastrophic period which reduced the Baltic Fleet to a small fleet also diminished the easternmost fleet to less than 1/10 of their strength in the USSR era. They are famous of constantly being exposed to natural disasters that hardly ever happen to other fleets; volcano eruption, earthquakes and though rarely, Tsunami. However, they always strongly reject that Godzilla isn't included in their list of disasters...

     ►Responsible patrolling area -- The entire Pacific Ocean, nonetheless mainly concentrate in the Northern Pacific than the southern part, The Bering Sea, the Chukchi Sea (rarely), the entire Asia-Pacific region (Sea of Japan, Okhotsk Sea, East China Sea, South China Sea and Indian Ocean)

     ►Headquarter, bases and facilities -- The fleet's main HQ is located in Vladivostok, close to the border with China and North Korea. All the surface ships are stationed here along with the small diesel-electric Paltus-class submarines. The major repairing facility of the fleet is the Zvezda Shipyard in Bolshoy Kamen, across the Bay of Ussuriy from Vladivostok. Near the HQ is the small repairing facility 'Dalzavod'. Farther away northern east is the Kamchatka Peninsula, hosting the main base of the nuclear powered submarines division 'Vilyuchinsk'. The main android creation facility in this region is the Amur Shipyard in Komsomolsk-na-Amure, Khabarovsk Krai.

     ►Local climate -- Winter in Vladivostok tends to be dry and rather cold from the Siberian high pressure, while in Kamchatka is often hit by winter cyclone which dumps meters of snow several times each winter. The Kamchatka base is also more prone to earthquakes, as the major fault line of Kuril-Kamchatka Trench runs along the southern part of the peninsula. Given such unstable seismic activities, it's little surprise that they also brace themselves for volcano eruptions and sometimes Tsunami warning frequently. With the presence of cold temperature current Oyashio, both bases are troubled by iced-up sea every winter. During summer though, Vladivostok is often becoming foggy and rainy.

Focus on :: Black Sea Fleet

Flagship - project 1164 Atlant 'Moskva'

               Once the most powerful fleet in the Black Sea, the disintegration of the USSR and the creation of Ukrainian Navy following the independence of Ukraine weakened them significantly. Sevastopol on the Crimean Peninsula which served as the main HQ in the USSR era now belongs to Ukraine, and the Russian Black Sea Fleet signed the contract to rent the base from Ukraine. The navies of two nations share the HQs in the same city after the distribution agreement of warship androids on each of them. With the Bosphorus Strait straddling and blocking the clear access to other open seas, they are deemed as being the most difficult to encounter among the four open-sea fleets.

     ►Responsible patrolling area -- Black sea, the Sea of Azov, every now and then granted access to the Mediterranean Sea and very rarely, in part of the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean.

     ►Headquarter, bases and facilities -- Their main HQ still remains in Sevastopol. The newer Novorossiysk Base is gradually being completed but suffering trouble with fierce wind along the eastern coast of Black Sea. Most facilities nowadays are under the supervision of Ukraine - the shipyards in Mykolaiv, and shipyard/repairing centers in both Feodosia and Kerch.

     ►Local climate -- While the winter is mild in temperature, the positive point is balanced by the fierce wind of Black Sea. With the warm, pleasant summer makes the area popular as summer destination. Although rarely occurred, sometime the area can be shaken by a medium earthquake.

Focus on :: Caspian Flotilla

Flagship - project 1166 Gepard 'Tatarstan'

               The smallest and the lone fleet in a confinement of closed water body. Most ships stationed here are those that are small enough to travel along the rivers, which are the only option for them to access the nearest Sea of Azov through the Don River. Due to the little importance of the Caspian Sea to Russia these days, they lack the deployment of submarines.

     ►Responsible patrolling area -- Caspian Sea

     ►Headquarter, bases and facilities -- The main HQ, along with small base, located in Astrakhan, the administrative center of an oblast of the same name. The major base which hosts the majority of the ship is in Makhachkala, Republic of Dagestan near the border with Azerbaijan.

     ►Local climate -- The uniqueness of local climate for the Caspian Flotilla is the dryness in both winter and summer from aituation in the arid area. Summer is rather hot and winter is very mild, with almost no chance for snow fall. They also suffer from dust particles which is carried over the Caspian Sea from deserts in Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan.

  Rough timeline

  AU Plots   

               These AU plots present either alternated details in the timeline or tweak in characters' concept for entertaining purpose (i.e. - 'what ifs' scenario and changing physical appearance according to age). As of February 2018, there are two AU plot ideas:

•       ► Slava 3+1 :: focuses on the scenario if the negotiation between Ukraine and Russia regarding the future of the fourth Atlant cruiser was agreed and 'Borislav' was sold to Russia. Certainly the main alternated settling of the entire project won't change in this AU thus there will 100% never be a plot about the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. Such scenario of 'Borislav' returned to Ukraine to aid Russian side like Moskva in the real life is not going to happen.
•      ► Daycare AU :: focuses on 'what if androids, before their deployment in army, actually 'born' in a shape of little boy?'. Mainly the plot will roll along the line of 'how the older androids are going to deal with looking after the kids' and not concentrate on the violent side of their existence (using armament and such). This Au will ignore the timeline from the actual history above in order to create situations to maximize the entertainment aspect (i.e. - Kirov is alive and well even to the period when both K-141 Kursk and K-150 Tomsk arrive in the Northern Fleet).

  Code of conduct for androids

          Warfare androids are kept away from coming into contact with civilians outside of military settlement on regular basis except in a special occasion which they're being the centerpiece of showcase like airshow, military parade, friendly visit to foreign countries and such. Although mainly the androids are instructed to be friendly toward humans, there are still a few restrictions on how far they can form a connection with humans.

•      They are not allowed to use physical force to harm humans at any circumstance, even to protect themselves -- As normal pistol or revolver firearms can't inflict any physical damage to them, they're mostly immune to physical assault by ordinary humans, whom in most cases don't possess any more destructive weapons than those. Under such circumstance, androids are instructed to always leave the humans without initiating any physical contact with them. At most all they can do is restraint the human, in case one doing something which endangers the base or other people, from running away or causing anymore damage.
•      They are not to form any relationship with humans past the friend level --Being overly attached to mortals like humans is believed to lower the capability of rational judgement in emergency situations. Therefore, androids are ordered to keep their connection with humans on casual level and always prioritize the protection of the territory of state over humans they're familiar with, even if those are their own commanders.
•      In case that some contact with non-military personnel humans is needed, they must never let out a clue that they're non-human -- Sometime they're allowed to make contact with civilians near the base like grocery shopping or observing some festivities to learn more about humans. This rule is less strict on androids whose base is located within closed military settlement, whose population is rather familiar with the presence of the androids, which normally does not grant access to even Russian citizens who have no military connection, let alone foreigners. For those whose base located in 'open city' like the Pacific Fleet HQ in Vladivostok, the androids are required to be more cautious to interact with civilians.
•      Self-defense using their weapons, even for the 'light' ones like AK-630, needed authorization from human commanders -- This extreme case is only when they're ambushed by organized crime gangs using warfare weapons like machine gun, rocket launcher, etc. -  many of which aimed to obtain some of the androids in working condition to further their illegal arm dealing scheme.

          One good news that happened to me since the last update is that my ear infection is completely healed - no more trips to hospital sitting in the middle of screaming kids waiting for my appointment!   But after that, I'd say I was close to returning to hospital again, but not as a patient. So out of no where my mom managed to catch a random cold again, the second time in four months. Because of my history of catching her last bound of cold in late October, I had to keep myself away from her while watching over her (because she's old, she has a tendency to accidentally choke on her saliva when she has a coughing fit). She seems to be healthy now, but hu...that was some stressful moment because even a simple cold could turn into something more serious for elders.

          As for the new AE facts, I'm struggling with the very last couple of topics because of my hopelessness concerning explaining physics theories. I mean, I love sci-fi but I'm the most stupid person on the earth when it comes to physics.   That was the main reason why I chose the language program for my 10-12 grade because I wouldn't survive math and physics for a day. Either I need to find some reasonable explanation for the concept I have or I'll have to exclude that concept altogether in order to complete this facts revise.

          In anticipation of the coming new facts, here comes the spoiler of the next OC I'll be uploading next month. Since I've uploaded Vova - my Russian mafia OC and seemingly the main antagonist in the AE verse, I have been fidgeting to upload his nemesis because these two have been rivals since the old, original plot they belonged to that I've completely discarded for a few years.

          Shura is one of the very few mortal humans that will have a direct role with the androids. He works to protect them from being obtained by any of the illegal arms dealing organized crime syndicates that have been looking for opportunity to get their hands on warfare androids in working condition. As you can see his birthday on the info section on the right, I hope I can finish a new portrait for him to upload his profile by that day. Unlike Vova though, Shura has been drawn for a few times so even if I can't finish a new drawing in time...I'll just use one of the old drawings as temporary avatar.

          As I have stated in the last bulletin that there was a possibility to change my username. And here it is, no more using the 'identity theft' name I stole from my OC Sashka any longer!

          I just let my inner Russian ship nerd did the work; 'Ledokol' is Russian word for 'icebreaker', which is the type of ship Yamal, the nuclear-powered icebreaker I use as profile picture, belongs to. At first I was tempted to use 'icebreaker', too. For one, it's quite easy to remember but then I'd break my own intention of keeping my new UN short. Ten letters are certainly not quite short...

          By the way, the next appointment at the hospital is coming up in a few days. Unsurprisingly, my anxiety level went off like a rocket and I guess as always, I won't be able to sleep the night before my morning appointment.

          After the PC scare last week, as I expected reinstalling windows seemed to fix the trouble. However, the technician also confirmed what I was worrying; my HD might just give up and die any time. I'm looking for options of what I want to do next; buy a new HD then transfer data from the old one to the new one or again, just buy a new PC altogether.

          Currently I'm slowly uploading whatever I consider important to google drive first. My art folder where I keep everything from drawings and work files since 2009 and thousands of references photos alone takes up to 35GBs or something.   

          As for the revising of AE universe facts, I guess it may take 4-5 more days to complete. Other than writing a lot of definitions and concept explanations, I have to make a few maps to illustrate the geography of Russian which fall under the responsibility of each fleet. This will also make it less confusing for people who want to follow the story line because they will get several names of bases, shipyards and other facilities and institutes constantly thrown at along the plot.

          This also gives me a good opportunity to redefine the concepts of the androids more concretely. Here's a sneak peak of the part I'm still writing:

          ...And here I haven't even touched the finer basic details like birth, awakening process and death by being dismantled yet. Only about 1/5 of the topics I listed in the last bulletin is already being worked on.

          And lately, the idea of changing my TH username has been toying for a while. Recently I find it increasingly ridiculous when I post IC in the forum as K-550 Aleksandr Nevskiy, yet I keep calling him 'Sashka' which is also my UN.   Wonder if I have confused anyone for that but it's true anyway; when I joined TH I was so lack of idea for UN I just 'borrowed' Sashka's diminutive out of desperation. There is no particular name I want to change to yet. One thing for certain is that I'd rather keep it short like my current UN, not exceeding six letters at most.

...As silly as it sounds, yesterday's morning the ever unreliable power in my area went down again. It wasn't even remotely strange because this type of 'one sec failure then comes back right away the next second' power cut happens almost regularly. So imagine my surprise when I turned on my pc again to discover that it suddenly couldn't boost up window anymore...

If it wasn't for the fact that I still have stuffs to draw and the work files are stuck in drive F, I'm more than happy to throw this old crap to trash right away. 

...Not sure if I can at least type up the new facts for AE verse using my phone. After all, it's a bit inconvenient considering mine is a mere tiny lenovo which keyboard takes up almost half of the screen like this:

         And as you can see, TH input window in my phone doesn't provide many functions either. Good thing is at least I can still toggle ooc/ic. Guess all profile work and art are on hold until my pc is fixed...or if I decide to buy a new pc altogether. This old fart is ancient enough and with only 4GB ram, even opening Photoshop just to add text to my drawing makes the whole pc slow like a dying snail.

          December was probably best described as 'derailed' for me. Because of the hospital visits and the resulting stress, I hardly drew anything or really worked on those OC profiles which are still WIP with sections here and there still missing information. I'm planning to correct that in January since my health problem seems to becme better and after the latest appointment yesterday, there won't need to be a visit again until February 1st.

          In the last couple of days, I have tackled the task to complete writing history section of a few OCs. Kuznetsov, Tatarstan and Kulakov all have their history filled out, though there isn't much on Tatarstan since he's kind of a minor character in the plot. by the way, As you may know that these armament OCs' plot are based on real history from the 80's-90's, here's the link to the explosion in Severmorsk mentioned in Kulakov's story. And that brings the question on the next topic...

          These are the topics I'm currently listing to rewrite the facts about the AE verse. Aside from these explanations, I have to say to understand the plot best, one would have to read the actual history which several key moments are based from on various OCs' history. Should I list the links to wikipedia page or other source I used for developing the plot in the timeline section? It's going to take a week or two before i will actually start working on this since I want to make sure I don't forget anything essential that requires detailed description.

          Meanwhile, on the subject of new OC...

         An old OC is being revised, hopefully I will be able to upload him on his birthday. The only obstacle, I'm not certain if I can at least finish a new portrait of him by that time and the other artworks I have of him are...while the design doesn't change, I just can't stand the terrible anatomy back in those years. But yeah, at least the 'actual flesh-and-blood mortal, ordinary human OCs are coming. Aside from 'Vova' whose profile is in WIP as shown here, the last couple of months I have been conceiving an idea for another OC who will be a professional dancer working for the Igor Moiseyev dance company. He probably specializes as soloist in some national folk dance inspired suites like this one from Poland(his native country) or Ukrainian Gorak. Although for his first art, expect to see him in a plain black tee and trousers which is the rehearsing uniform like in this clip. XD