#🎭 @bootlcg

[crystalcanon]

nanowrimo meme, day 25

DAY 25 - What are the names of at least two of your main characters? How did you choose their names?

two? how about twelve?

being the beta version of chiaki nanami (whose name means one thousand autumns; seven seas), @/bootlcg’s chika narumi’s name (one thousand flowers; the roaring of the sea) is a play on her sister’s in both meaning and spelling.

Poisoned Paradise’s saki fukunaga (blossom, hope; blessed longevity) alludes to her spring-coloured hair and heroic aspirations.

the name of saki’s best friend, tomoyo kariya (Poisoned Paradise), is a homage to tomoyo daidouji from cardcaptor sakura, a character who (like miss kariya) rocks a wavy haircut and is supportive of her gal pal.

i can’t remember where Holding Out for Friday’s heroine ayaka orlando’s got her forename from (all i remember is i really liked the nickname aya), but her surname comes from the protagonist of the pokemon oras demos. the combination of eastern and and western names also separates her from the rest of the americanised-named cast and is a nod to how hoenn is based on an island in japan.

taiga madurai (a formerly-affiliated oc now on @/nindocoded) was originally an orphan named sora (sky [because of her white hair and blue eyes]) until i found an open-for-applications clan in the rp group i was in at the time. the madurai clan’s abilities and backstory suited the character perfectly, so i changed her name from sora to taiga (tiger [inspired by toradora]) to better match their edgier naming trend.

@/leadmedal’s hyejin seo’s given name means either favour/benefit or precious/rare, alluding to how she does the rfa a favour by joining them, benefits from doing so, and has a life-changing experience as a result. as for her family name, it's a common one in korea and pairs nicely with "hyejin”.

though she insists otherwise, four from @/talentcoded is clearly using an alias, which i'm essentially poking fun at her for by giving her such an obvious fake name. using a number as her alias was an idea i swiped directly from seven from mystic messenger, although the “4″ also functions as the “a” in her old url, “shsl-h4cker”, and hints at some character stuff when you learn the meaning of error 404.

also from @/talentcoded, and also with a name i stole from someone else, yuuhi nagai’s first name (setting sun) is taken from the equally gorgeous and mysterious yuuhi kurenai from naruto, with her second name (long well) being an allusion to well-associated japanese spirits like samara from the ring, who yuuhi resembles. ironic, given she’s an exorcist.

kei fujita (@/talentcoded) is an intentionally unisex name for my androgynous agender track star. kei has a whole bunch of meanings that i haven’t commited to a single one of yet, and fujita means “wisteria rice paddy”, which is the closest i could get to “far wisteria”, the meaning of kei’s original surname, endo, which i changed since it made the westernised version of their name sound too much like “kendo”.

the name masami miyamoto (@/talentcoded) combines “become, beautiful” and “base of the shrine” to represent her attitude towards graffiti art. her beta surname had something to do with marketplaces, but i figured that’d better suit a vendor oc.

michi kobayashi (from, you guessed it, @/talentcoded) literally means “righteous way” [through a] “small forest”, which summarises her ninja family backstory to a t.

and finally we have from @/talentcoded’s kai itou, whose forename and surname mashed together spells out his shsl talent, ultimate kaitou (phantom thief).

as you can see, i like having names with meanings! balancing subtext and aesthetics is something i love to do successfully, so a lot of my oc name reflect this :D

[crystalcanon]

nanowrimo meme, day 23

DAY 23 - Do animals play any part in your story? If so, how do they add to it?

aomaru in Three Wise Monkeys is a pretty key animal, since he’s the battle companion of one of the protagonists, but as mentioned before, there’s not much to talk about regarding that story.

anddd he’s the only important animal i can think of! i haven’t touched too much on monomi/usami’s relationship with chika over at @/bootlcg, and pokemon technically aren’t animals so none of my nuzlockes link in either. i guess i’ve never considered animals as serving much of a purpose in my writing.

[crystalcanon]

nanowrimo meme, day 22

DAY 22 - If you’ve participated in or won NaNo before, what happened to your other novel efforts? Still in the revision process/querying publishers/scrapped it immediately/etc?

oh god, good question. i checked my nanowrimo profile and it looks like pretty much everything is either on standby or has been outright scrapped, except for ride and @/bootlcg! i clearly have commitment issues, hahah.

[crystalcanon]

nanowrimo meme, day 14

DAY 14 - Is the sexuality of your characters a large part of your novel’s story? If so, are there characters who deviate from the heterosexual “norm”? In what way?

yes! lgbt+ representation is important to me, so expect queer themes to crop up in many of my stories. off the top of my head, chika from @/bootlcg is pan, kaizou from Kassen Dori is bi, and satoshi from Poisoned Paradise is trans, all of whom are out and whose identity is part of their character without being the focus of the plot. i also have a handful of closeted characters, as well as a couple of characters whose stories are centred around being queer, though they haven’t had as much screentime yet.