947
Antagonist POV: What is your biggest regret?

The question hung in the air, like a 500 kilo orbit to ground slug in an antigravity anomaly. The interviewing person waited patiently.

Ariæne only starred into the room. Their eyes focused on something not visible for anyone else.

Ayanamis voice came through the rooms intercom. "I think you won't get any answers out of them today and honestly, I prefer it that way. You have might taken up enough of our hospitality. I kindly suggest that you depart immediately, before I might come to the conclusion, that you are not as valuable as I thought you to be. This would be highly... regrettable." The last sentence almost sounded cheerful.

#PennedPossibilities 947 #StarRyde #Ayanami #AriæneJohnsen #SciFi #WIP

948
How would your SC respond if they were falsely accused of a crime?

1/2
Very similar to my MC's as answered in 939 part one & two above it jump ready here:
https://nerdculture.de/@AnnaSaultron/116119241024809941

In case the SC is part of a crew they have to bow to the law enforcement according to what the captain seems necessary. Like getting released from duty to be taken into custody or being hold on board for the remainder of the mission & handed to Union law enforcement later.
In case of a foreign entity like Rimworlds the Union uses their "we"re not Union" stand against them. They have to fill out a request to Union law enforcement, going through the ministry for outward affairs, to handle the matter & may be allowed to represent their case to Union courts. It's a protective measurement because Union Citizens have died under foreign entity laws, that's why the Union doesn't shy away of using its military as a lever to handle such circumstances.➡️

#PennedPossibilities 948 #StarRyde #GhozTarcCrew #SciFi #WIP

948 2/2
⬅️ In case of politicans or brass members of the Union Military or the Union Alliance Military it's handled differently.

While the Unions Ministry for outward affairs handles the requests of foreign entities they stay in power as long they are not deemed guilty, in contrast any minister has to lay down their work immediately if an inner conflict arises. If as an example Terran Minister for outward affairs Sigourney Webster (Kira's second mother) would be accused by anyone inside the Union to have acted against the laws, she would have to temporarily lay down her mandate immediately. Same would be true for Admirals like Ron Hackett-Anderson in the Alliance.
That said members of the Union/Alliance, like Kira, who are able to call on their Shade status, can temporarily put this on hold, if a military action requires it, which will be investigated & demands justification the moment they would do so.

#PennedPossibilities 948 #StarRyde #SigourneyWebster #AdmiralRHA #SciFi #WIP

⬆️And just to find this easier.

Examples of law enforcement and regulations in the Star Ryde Universe.

Also see here
Almost the same question at the German Phantastik Prompts 05.03.2026 https://nerdculture.de/@AnnaSaultron/116175451319775854
#StarRyde #SciFi #WIP #WorldBuilding

949
How do you manage stress related to writing?

Skip

#PennedPossibilities 949

950
Can your MC swim? If not, why not? If so, how did they learn?

The buoyancy of Terrans is not regularly tested on Terra itself.

Most waters are still considered toxic even if water refurbishment has come a long way.
Usually Terran bodys tent to not sink in the oceans, in cleaned water it looks quite different. Most swimmers come from colonies and it depends on the local composition of 'water' in combination with other factors, how good they could learn to swim.

However the Alliance does provide survival training for its military cadets and this most of my characters can swim, not very effective because most only 'swim' in micro or non gravity and air or vacuum are the worst to swim in, because the low resistance and compression capacity make for terrible propulsion capabilities. It would actually be more efficient to f*** your way forwards in micro/non gravity than try to propel yourself via swimming motion.

#PennedPossibilities 950 #StarRyde #WorldBuilding #SciFi #WIP

951
MC POV: Write about something presently in your life that is “worth it.”

Kira: "Our Mission but since the details are classified I will not spread them out here.

Arkham: "Mission and Keeping the crew alive."

Ashlei: "As the Captain and the Flight commander said. 'I' add keeping the spirit and moral of the crew high and their bodys healthy."

#PennedPossibilities 951 #StarRyde #KiraKnox #Arkham #SciFi #WIP

952
How do you use social media as an author?

Well pretty much all I do on Mastodon. Otherwise I still have a YouTube profile but I'm not really using my channel for anything anymore, just watching videos and commenting at times.
I don't use shitter anymore.
I have a tumblr account but I'm mostly watching anime gifs from series I loved as a teen.

Mastodon is the only platform where I participate actively this days and most of it goes into answering writing prompts and at times discussions/chats with authors.

Oh wait there is this somehow not dead yet Gothic dating site, from the earliest 2000. where I stil have a profile but also not using it for anything other than feeling nostalgic and thinking about erasing more traces of my digital past...

Honestly I think it's secretly run on an University Server and the student responsible just left one day and since them no one noticed. 🤔
That could be a story.

#PennedPossibilities 952

953
What author(s) did you dislike at first but grew to enjoy reading?

This has not happened to me.
I might be uncertain about an author if I start a book but I am a) going to like it b) being not very moved by it c) regret that I wasted life time on it.

A) makes me an fan or at least a highly appreciating reader of future works and grand the author more leanway from my side to play around.

B) will most likely end in me forgetting the author.

C) is rarely occuring and if I remember only the Harry Potter slog stood out to me that much that I thought: "Well that is shit she could not hold a candle if you nail it to her forehead." and well what a ugly fart of a unperson the author has become is all to clear today...
Using her money to make the life of trans* people worse wow celebrating herself like she was Hannibal from the A-Team...
I really have to ask why did Sir Terry Pratchett die and not her? I would exchange them any time without a second thought.

#PennedPossibilities 953

953 second thought

Patrick Süskind author of "Das Parfüm."

I really disliked the story at first but I kinda enjoy it today.

Since it's the only work he's done in form of a book I can say I like 100% of his books which is a rarity.

I honestly don't know much about him as a person have to 'investigate' about that and maybe that might change depending of his political stance or ethics. I will see.

Edit: okay he has written more than one book so I have to reduce it to 20% because I know nothing about his other works.

#PennedPossibilities 953 second thought

@AnnaSaultron
954
What is your SC's skill level when it
comes to cooking and baking?

That is completely dependent on the
SC or even TC (tertiary characters
the ones that aren't fully fledged out SCs but have a name and are more than background decorations).
All of my characters have at least survival skill cooking. They can boil water and cook food without burning everything to a black crisp.
The taste & quality varies greatly.

#PennedPossibilities 954

955
Is your MC keeping any secrets? Can you reveal them to us?

The whole crew has a cover up identity of being guards for the council of the Union. Well all other than Mondira.

The Mission has several layers of orders in case specific scenarios are happening.

The crew is only ment to know parts of them.

At least 4 members probably more 5-10 are also SHADES like Kira with the same power and rights. It's part of the failsafe to prevent single SHADE agents to go rouge.

The Ghoz'Tarc is officially a supply ship for the Phoenix the Unions Flagship and mobile government base.

The Phoenix has a special secret which is related to its Name.

The Ghoz'Tarc has a holographic disguise system.

Nobody ever expected Kira and Ashlei to merge. Which also is a bit problematic because usually the Command staff has the codes to shutdown the AI core via the sub core.

Kira keeps the real merge levels hidden.

#PennedPossibilities 955 #StarRyde #GhozTarcCrew #GhozTarc #Phoenix #SciFi #WIP

956
With whom is your SC’s most important relationship?

You wouldn't believe how many fingers of the crew point at J. to answer this question.
A Terran day only has 24 hours even in the 24. century, even the enormous amount of water that Terra has and the increased slowing down thanks to the moon tidal interactions it barely added 5,8 milliseconds in 300 years.

Yet somehow J. seems to have enough time, next to her role onboard, to interact with everyone & getting to know them well enough to feel appreciated & seen (+no one knows how many people outside the crew).

Similar it's true with Talisa, who is seen as the "mother" onboard or William Troika the 3rd/2nd XO who is the dad figure on board.

Talisa's & Rose's relationship is also unique since they grew up together & later married each other, to the point that people don't even remember Talisa's birth name anymore.

#PennedPossibilities 956 #StarRyde #GhozTarcCrew #WorldBuilding #SciFi #WIP

@AnnaSaultron
957
Does your MC have or wear a signature color?

Well Kira has a red sub theme. Alliance Uniforms are mostly black with color markings indicating your role and yellow markings for rank, on missions this markings turn black as well to not signal your role to possible enemies.
The Unions is usually white & bright blue.

Her natural red hair is also dyed blood red.

Today I answer only one MC to do sign shortage.🙃

#PennedPossibilities 957 #StarRyde #KiraKnox #SciFi #WIP

@AnnaSaultron_schreibt
958
What’s your favorite under-appreciated novel?

Everything Sir Terry Pratchett [RIP💚]
wrote is underappreciated.
Honestly dear people instead of buying books for children of a Wizard Child written by a woman who turns out is delusional, evil & uses her money to push right politics, fuck up the lives of minorities because of her obsession about strangers genitals.
Who also promotes deadly stereotypes for woman & man, racist stereotypes about Jews & others because everyone knows Harry Potter, buy the kids a book from the assortment of Sir Terry Pratchett.
Not only did he wrote way more than the bully bitch with more variety but instead of promoting stereotypes he elaborates on people's behavior with charm & wit.

"But Hogwarts is so phantastic."

Wait til you see the Discworld a whole world on the Back of four elephants on the back of a giant space roaming turtle.
Upside down mountains & 4 brained sheep.

#PennedPossibilities 958 #SpeakHisName #TerryPrattchett

959
MC POV: Complete this thought: “I wish I had paid more attention when…”

"we briefly talked about Bethosian biology..." - Anika Johansen, Kira's Sister and later Captain.

I know it says MC and Anika isn't officially one but she owns a lot of space her self (on a space ship travel story... Let that sink in).

#PennedPossibilities 959 #StarRyde #AnikaJohanson #SciFi #WIP

960
Describe the longest romantic relationship your MC has ever had. (If they’ve had one.)

Arkham & Ashlei: Nope they hadn't really. Ashlei as an AI has very limited opportunities to date. Not to mention having emotions in the first place. And Arkham simply tried sex with people she thought she liked enough and realized it's not hers, neither Sex nor Love, so she moved one quickly. We will see how that thing with Kira will end...

Kira: Her relationship with Talisa & Rose. It started in the Academy after Anika made space for Kira in that polycule and held almost 10 years despite Kira having other partners in that time too. They are still good and close friends and Talisa and Rose married as soon it was legal. And yes they where in the relationship with Kira at that point and even asked her, if she want to marry too but Kira wasn't in to that idea.

#PennedPossibilities 960 #StarRyde #KiraKnox #Arkham #Ashlei #RoseDraken #TalisaDraken #SciFi #WIP

961
SC POV: Have you ever spoken up when you saw that something going on was wrong? Were you scared? What was the end result?

Silas Crosby: "Of course, I'm the security chief & worked in the security field for the Alliance/Union for over 3 decades.
No soldier has to fall in line without thinking & we are encouraged to speak our mind if we find something is off.

There are rules in place to prevent disobedience in important situations, like an Eltaryn attack, but it's expected to say something asap. If you fear talking to your CO/XO there are the official & unofficial spokespartner. Or submit a direct anonymous feedback. The ships AI will make sure that it's not traceable. Well usually. With the merge we're not sure how much the Captain can actually access.
I want to believe Ash keeps us from being trackable, not because I don't trust Captain Knox, quite the opposite, but it's a principal thing."

#PennedPossibilities 961 #StarRyde #SilasCrosby #SciFi #WIP

962
If there was ever going to be a film or a series based upon your WIP, what do you imagine the soundtrack would be like? What genre?

Since I'm working on several cultures on different planets with different species and even different planets and cultures with the same species on different worlds, limiting the soundtrack to a single genre would only invalidate it immersion.

It would be a mix of many different styles we know today, from metal to pop, Mongolian throat singing, synthesizer sounds, punk, classic and new styles I would put people through hell to create them, because I created them with a complete lack of musical skill and vague descriptions.

Clearly the music would also need to be clear cut between background music, scene music and in universe music (which will become the worst to create).

#PennedPossibilities 962 #StarRyde #SciFi #WIP

963
If you use a pen name or certain username on a writing site, what is its significance and how did you arrive at using it?

1/3
I wrote about that before but Anna Saultron is a word play related to the Fallout (Videogames and Amazon Prime Series) Franchise.
Funny enough it doesn't work in German thanks to translation stuff.
Anna Saultron derives from An Assaultron. Assaultrons (German Aggressothron... Just Y?) are frontline killer robots, able to attack with rotating metal, claws firing a head beam laser canon that incinerates every and hard to beat unless you character intelligent enough to find the off switch exploid in close combat. They are for a reason all female coded and have a higher level of self awareness and character building than other robots.
They are cruel, efficient and have a deep female robotic voice and nobody can tell me they weren't designed by an butt appreciating person because that's their most human looking part & ➡️

#PennedPossibilities 963 #AboutMe #IGuess

963 2/3
⬅️they are incredibly fast. On top of that this robo monstrosities can turn invisible. All you see is the glowing red energy before their head laser fires & all you hear is it charging & some clunky footsteps as their wedge heel like feet starting racing towards you.

I have an odd fascination with this robots & like that they often develop a realistic feeling, often dominant personality with a priority on efficiency. In game you can turn their heads into an helmet wield severed heads of them as laser guns & wield their optional blade arms as swords.

I modelled a character in Fallout 76 (& later 4) after their image & named it Anna Saultron. Her backstory was simply put Terminator and Anna's Personality a blueprint for the Assaultrons (in my Head).

Since 76 didn't display character names I switched it to my gamer tag. To make it easier for my building Videos of both games to be found I used it for YT too, later Twitter &➡️
#PennedPossibilities 963 #AboutMe #IGuess #AnnaSaultron

963 3/3
⬅️ now I'm here as Anna Saultron & I made an account on AO3 I haven't used yet.😅

Anna has become my second Persona in a weird way cause people that know me as that calling me outside of online areas also Anna, to a degree that I even refer to myself as such on occasion of i don't think fast enough to use my official names.

Since I am a diabetic wearing a sensor & having several medical implants (nothing that needs a battery) I feel connected to Anna from fallout, who is a fully converted cyborg, in a way. The head laser is an analogy to my temper which can be devastating much to my own problems handling it.

Sometimes I would love to just vanish like the robots can & i always love the more robot like characters in Fiction because I kind feel a sort of kinship (?). Anna also has become a vessel to channel myself into fanfictions or virtual worlds, always having a similar look and some weird powers.

#PennedPossibilities 963 #AboutMe #IGuess #AnnaSaultron

964
MC POV: What area of your life do you tend to enjoy in excess instead of moderation?

Kira spoke quietly after reading the question: "Well not really anything, maybe Somwhar food. It looks a bit strange but it's really good."
Arkham snickered teasingly: "Come on, tell them of your habit of drinking over a liter of unrefined EQil daily."
Kira kept her face straight as she answered: "It's more efficient that way. How about we talk about your speed addiction? That visible anticipation, your eyes narrowing, you skin shivering, this smile, if you feel the seats responds, which is actually kinda cute."
Arkham felt exposed, perplexed, flattered that Kira learned her bodies language so fast. Her heart raced as fast as her mind to find an good remark: "Ain't..."
"Ain't?" Kira repeated: "Ain't what?"
Arkham didn't answer as she felt a wave of emotions.
Kira smirked she enjoyed this little battles with her FC way to much.

#PennedPossibilities 964 #StarRyde #KiraKnox #Arkham #SciFi #WIP

965
What is your MC’s reaction when someone close to them is sick or injured? How do they behave?

Skip

#PennedPossibilities 965

966
SC POV: When was the last time you got lost?

Skip

#PennedPossibilities 966

967
What level of education do your characters have?

Skip

#PennedPossibilities 967

976.1
Pick a character. How do they, or how would they, react to sleep deprivation?

By @sfwrtr

Badly but that's what stimulants like caffeine for right? At least short term (yes I know I am guilty of to much caffeine long term also).
It's a military space ship so on and off duty and spare and sleep time tends to be very different depending on the day and workload, but no one has a good reaction to sleep deprivation. It's only different levels of worse.

#PennedPossibilities 976.1 #StarRyde #GhozTarcCrew #SciFi #WIP

968. What’s the current word count for your WIP

Correction 50.339
found some missing words and some [ ] spaces where cluttered with b v and n 😅

https://nerdculture.de/@AnnaSaultron/116282651584187226

#PennedPossibilities 968

969
Do your stories have happy endings?

That is entirely dependent on the definition, for whom and if it makes sense.

Happy End as in He-man Afflicts Perplexing Penalty Yeah Evil Nutjob Dies, no I don't write He-man stories. And I can't imagine how that definition could make any sense.

Happy as in happy ever after.
Afters are part of people butts, so I don't want to imagine how they look happy.

Happy end like in the fairy tales?
Right..
Listen, I think we need to talk about some brothers called Grimm & that knock off white washing company called Disney.
Btw Bees don't f*** flowers either.

Happy as I am happy that it ends?
No mixed emotions at best.
But I am happy to get to such a point somehow, someday that I can look back on the story & can say "What a ride, we made it so far."

Happy end divorce can be a happy ending for a bad love story with toxic traits.

And if a child gets a donor organ I wouldn't say it's pure happy end in respect to the donor.

#PennedPossibilities 969

970
MC POV: Have you ever experienced something that couldn’t be logically explained?

Ashlei: "No. 'Biological' or 'born' entities, like Terrans, Somwhar, Talithi, Asza'Ni, Trellwa'Ni, Bethosians or similar, tend to have many, non logical concepts, like gods, demons, cultures & beliefs in things like spirituality, ghosts, sense, coincidence, predetermination or luck.
Where it, in fact, comes down to a mathematical probability outcome. This, however, is not illogical if you take into account that all of them have limited compute & did not evolve to understand or explain the reality as it is, but to survive in it. Thus this 'beliefs' & attributing 'Stuff that happens' to them, is the easier & more energy efficient way for their minds, to process & accept a simplified explanation, as if they had to calculate the mathematical probabilities. Thus making faster & easier decisions more relevant to survive than factual explanations."

#PennedPossibilities 970 #StarRyde #Ashlei #SciFi #WIP

971
Where does your SC feel the safest? Is there a particular person or object that helps them feel safe?

J.: "On one hand, when I am in control of a bad situation, that's why I am the fronzo on the battlefield. The show has to be good so my team mates aren't as easily picked as I am, but I also can rely on the fact that I am capable of blowing away the enemy. The show doesn't mean anything if you'ren't able to pull you weight & survive. I have a good armor and a good arsenal to use. But honestly I rather have good company in good situations without any battles. Take Anika Kira, Rose & Talisa as an example, we know each other since Academy days. We know each other like the back of our hands. We did so many things together and have done so stupid things together. I always know, if we are together, we get through it."

#PennedPossibilities 971 #StarRyde #JHarveyGladstone #SciFi #WIP

974
Do you ever have to deal with 'trolls' where your writing is concerned? Do you receive hate?

Not at my stage now. I have gotten weird critique points from one or two persons that test read some of my scenes but I guess that's just quirks of that specific persons, because I rarely gotten the parts critiqued by others.
Stuff like the amount of letters in this sentence looks displeasing.
The flowery language like Pullover disrupts the flow.
In case "you" read it. 💚 I love you non the less.

Hate, I will definitely receive one day with the backwards evolution of our society, because I try to portrait a broad bunch of not only but mostly LGBTQIA+, partly disabled, struggling people in a SciFi universe & as we all know that there are way to many people involved into strangers genitals and their usage as there should be.

And you wouldn't believe what amount of text I cut off from this answer, because I don't want to hurl so many swears and insults today.

#PennedPossibilities 972

Divider toot for navigational purposes.

The prompts of Penned Possibilities are posted and in their majority created by @floofpaldi you can find the archive link to all of them on their profile. Thank you for almost a thousand prompts. 💚🙏🏾

4. Monthly devider & navigational toot 2026
- Last month divider toot
https://nerdculture.de/@AnnaSaultron/116154714611677862

- The other April prompts, I answer, overview toot is here:
https://nerdculture.de/@AnnaSaultron/116323537094288739

- The start of this mega thread is here:
https://nerdculture.de/@AnnaSaultron/110763385183712440
- And the first prompts answer is here:
https://nerdculture.de/@AnnaSaultron/110723765145059262
- all what followed is here:
https://nerdculture.de/@AnnaSaultron/110763385183712440
___
#PennedPossibilities April2026

973
How do you select the names of your characters? For you, is there a method?

1/3

That is quite different.
Kira always was Kira, Knox came from a friends last name. My friend always is a soft gut punch. Harsh words unfiltered if necessary but also just so incredibly understanding. I wanted that for a character. Kira's first name came from Kira Nerys of Star Trek DS9 because she is a kick ass character & I wanted that for my first Shepard in Mass Effect (Video game) & in my Fanfiction. As it evolved into something new I looked for a new name that had a ring to it & found it in Kira Knox.

Other names come as an instant idea or are bound to the role or meme i created them for.

My DND Werebear Tiefling Druid of Wildfire, Totem Warrior Bear Barbarian, Fighter Echo Knight is named Shera, because i Iiked the Netflix series so much, 1 inspiration was the burning bear ghost -> Ghost of She from Fallout:New Vegas & the song Queen of the Kings by Allesandra. So i
➡️

#PennedPossibilities 973

973 2/3
⬅️ created a meme
/serious smash character that draws heavily from the Avatar of a god inspiration. Based on the music video: https://youtu.be/vSfffjHjdTk

I thought about a church or believe system. Based around the God She who is a wildfire nature god where Shera (meaning choosen of She) is their arm & hand in the world.
Their wife, another DND character of mine, is basically all Princes Zelda incarnations I liked, reimagined as one hero called Za'el Darr, a half elf rouge thief fighter champion.

For Ariæne in Star Ryde it was a long process, their role is Antagonist Junior, so I wanted AJ as initials to remind myself to their role. Johnsen their last name depends on a secret I may implement & their first name came as an instant as @art_of_goulwenr showed me some character studies he made, I saw the face & knew that's their name, in the beginning written with ae before I remembered my few danish lessons.😅

Other characters, like my first DND Werebear:
➡️

#PennedPossibilities 973

973 3/3
⬅️
Tembra Ursae, Tembra is a misheard name from a Skyrim character, Temba Strongarm.
A woman who pays money to hunt down bears.
She is a reference to a famous Star Trek TNG line "Temba, his arms wide."
Ursae because I found it funny that she is named Bear because she transforms into a bear.
Her call name was bear arm (Strong arm from Skyrim & Star Trek reference) & she pretty much became the archetype for J. in Star Ryde. A Woman away from home because she didn't fit with their family.
While in Tembra's case it is usual for Werebears to leave their community in J.'s case it was, she couldn't get along with her family despite loving them.
Her father wanted a son (family business & tradition, bro it's the 23XX). That's why J.'s 2. name is Harvey. The J. stands for Jennifer a person I once loved dearly but sadly lost contact to. She was one strong influence for me.

So yeah basically I mix memes, concepts & personal history.

#PennedPossibilities 973 #StarRyde #SciFi #WIP & #DND

Penned Possibilities 975

SC What did you get in the most trouble for when young.

Pause