#ilthit oc tober 2023

[ilthit]

OC-tober 7: Fu Chan, Madame Zhao

Week 1: OCs from the Lin Moniao series, which grew out of playing the wuxia RP Righteous Blood, Ruthless Blades with Minutia-R.

A-Chan (with bonus husband) by @bernard-the-rabbit.

A-Chan is a pretty servant girl in the imperial palace, attached to the service of Director Zhao. Except not really, because she is the secret wife of the Director, who is also Prince Zhao Kai. The marriage had to remain a secret, since the match was not suitable and the role of the third prince's first wife should be up for auction at a suitable time, even though in private the prince has put his foot down and sworn that he will not marry anyone else. What a troublesome prince! What's so special about this shy, overly polite girl, who doesn't even have any great talents, let alone a family of more than merely respectable background?

Well, nothing really. A-Chan was a sheltered noble daughter who, it was hoped, would become a low ranking wife among the heir apparent's harem, but he took her to bed early and then rejected her. In order to avoid fuss, his younger brother stepped in and said he would take her on instead, eventually, when appropriate. Through this whole mess and maneuvering, however, he fell in love with her.

A-Chan is sweet, helpful, graceful, and self-effacing; she likes people quickly and easily, doesn't like rudeness, and is very aware of all she doesn't know. She feels rather lonely with only her husband to share intimacies with. She tries to make friends with the other palace servants, but none of these attempts quite seem to work out--she is always either too fancy or not fancy enough, it seems! She hopes that one day she will be of some use; at the moment, it seems like she is always a burden, or getting in the way. Though her husband adores her, just as she adores him, his wild confidence, and the way he is ready to take on the whole world just to prove that he can, make her feel like she really is the silliest and most wishy-washy person in the world.

[ilthit]

OC-tober #24: Yu Yanlong, Hua Haoyu & Dong Yuan

Week 4: The Lin Moniao series, friendship is magic edition.

Master Wu's disciples and those three of Lin Moniao's fellows who became full members of the sect at the same time as he did. They consider each other sworn brothers, and though they have been adventuring separately for years now, the bond is as strong as ever.

Yu Yanlong is tall and gentle; he was born a tradesman's son, became a servant, then attempted to become a scholar, and now finds himself a warrior. None of these roles ever really fit.

Hua Haoyu is short but hefty, a younger son of a trading family in the east coast, who grew up wealthy but inconsequential, and has been stuck at the Villa's headquarters while his brothers adventure out. He is bored, has an overactive imagination, and can't keep secrets.

Dong Yuan has the energy of twenty men in the body of one adventuresome youth. He is fearless and filled with wanderlust, and happy to tell you the stories behind his various gruesome scars. (Oddly enough, two of the most vicious can be attributed to fish.)

[ilthit]

OC-tober 6: Heng Wanxue

Week 1: OCs from the Lin Moniao series, which grew out of playing the wuxia RP Righteous Blood, Ruthless Blades with Minutia-R.

Heng Wanxue by @fmd-art.

This is really a shared OC, since I have played her but she was created from a list of questions that Minutia answered. Am I writing fanfic for Minutia's OC? Who knows? Maybe!

Born to a couple of street merchants who made and sold toys and trinkets, Heng Wanxue grew up hanging around markets. When her father lost the use of his right hand after he was caught thieving and was attacked, he couldn't craft toys anymore, and the family fell on harder times. Then a young teenager, Wanxue took took a job as a courtesan at a cheap brothel to help with the family income. She had very little in the way of poetry, learning or talent, but she was cheerful and pretty, and made the customers feel special, which was the main thing, and so she did well.

She also took up alternate, less honourable methods of earning money, namely burglaries and pickpocketing off the clock. Around this time, too, she fell in love with a pretty boy in the neighbourhood, but he and his mother moved away in the hopes of a better future. Wanxue would have followed, but the brothel madam put his foot down--she couldn't afford to lose a girl.

How she eventually left, and how she ended up with the ugly scar on her face, is another story, and not one she shares the truth of.

Though now less marketable, she was still young, and now a full-time thief, so she caught the eye of Tree Frog Gao, the Queen of Beggars. Master Gao trained her up as a fighter in exchange for loyalty to her network. Heng Wanxue is mostly a free agent, but if her master wants something from her, she cannot lightly refuse. She still keeps tabs on her family, and Tree Frog Gao, too, makes sure they are provided for.

[ilthit]

OC-tober 18: Suvi & Kauko

Week 3: Various sources.

Suvi by @punkeduppirate (commission), Kauko not pictured at this time.

Technically Dishonored OCs, even though I have never played Dishonored itself; they are from a Blades in the Dark TTRPG game set in the Dishonored universe. This pair of siblings was nicknamed "the creeps" by the gamemaster. I find it hard to argue with that.

Suvi and Kauko are Fantasy-Finnish, from the backwoods of Fantasy-Russia (Tyvia). (Caveat: I am Finnish and no, Finland does not belong to Russia.)

When they were only children--Suvi was twelve, Kauko was ten--their parents' farm was attacked by a neighbour when supplies ran low during a particularly hard winter. Their parents were killed and they were taken as slaves in the house of the neighbour, Kouvo, and they were separated from their little brother.

Kouvo and his men were furriers and merchants, and around this time, he began to gain in success and prestige. He spent more and more time in the market-town, and eventually became so wealthy he moved there. From the market-town to Tamarak to Dabokva, Kouvo was upwardly mobile–overreaching, one might say–with fabulous good fortune following him everywhere. So did his servants.

Kauko had grown up an excellent trapper and hunter, and left Kouvo when he reached his maturity, making his own contacts in the market town and then disappearing for months to hunt. He built his own log cabin, fished his own food, and made his own way by trading furs.

Suvi couldn’t hunt, and Kauko couldn’t make enough money to support them both, so she stayed with Kouvo’s household. Then, Kouvo moved to Dunwall, a stinking city that Suvi couldn’t love, and then one night disappeared from his own bedroom, leaving the household in shambles. His funds disappeared soon after.

Suvi had no affection for the Operators. They’d taken everything from her by catching up with her unloved master. Now she had no job, no security, and hadn’t even had the pleasure of putting a knife in her family’s murderer herself. But she was strong, tough and bitter, and she soon found out that violence was a way to make a living in this town. Networking with other Tyvian immigrants in the underworld, she could always find a job.

And when her brother Kauko followed Kouvo to Duskwall and found her there, she was given another reason to keep going. He was all the family she would ever have, but it was something. 

Suvi drinks and fights. Kauko shoots things and practices creative taxidermy. They are currently involved in trying to set up a gambling business with a friend.

[ilthit]

OC-tober 17: Phyllida Winiger Francis

Week 3: Various sources.

Portrait done in Artbreeder.

Lady Phyllida Winiger Francis was born near London in January 1775 to second generation German immigrants. Her parents manufactured machinery for weaving; their parents manufactured the steel for it. As an only child, Phyllida has expectations of great personal fortune. While her father still lives she has her husband’s to spend.

Baron Charles Kentworth Francis (“Chucks”) is a small and taciturn man who never comes to London. He and Lady Phyllida are practically separated, but neither wishes to divorce or remarry. He is very happy in the country, and she is very happy in the city. They have one son, Lord Alfred Francis, who is somewhat foolish and inexplicably tall.

Phyllida believes she has an artistic soul, and expresses herself through painting, mostly vases. She adores music and musicians, of which she has seduced many. She has a political bent: she is passionately anti-slavery, but does not like the religious fervour that is driving the cause; she is in favour of freedom of religion, and has been known to voice nearly atheistic sentiments; she is in favour of social mobility, but has also always believed herself to be a “soul sister” to Marie Antoinette.

She adores lively conversation and tiny dogs, of which she has seven.

[ilthit]

OC-tober 16: Charlotte Montrouge

Week 3: Various sources.

Portrait done in Artbreeder.

From my Holly and Hawthorn 'verse.

Born late in 1879, Charlotte comes from a long line of wealthy, upper-class magicians--people who have either forced otherworldly creatures into their service or know enough of their ways to bargain with them, or are able use traces of their magic left behind for their own benefit, and have done with great risk and also great success. She grew up in a cold but grand mansion in Oxfordshire, England, was educated at home in languages, history, mathematics and magic--and some manners. She learned a few more in a finishing school in the Swiss Alps, but may not always use what she has learned.

Charlotte is ambitious, vain, ruthless, and vastly over-confident. She has parents still living, as well as three older brothers, Robert (a serious sort), Colin (who loves cricket) and Edwin (who has never been serious in his life). The whole family has traveled a great deal all her childhood, and she has seen a lot of the current or former empire, and been very English wherever she went.

She may have recently oopsied into having a warlock patron.

[ilthit]

OC-tober 14: Juliette Park

Week 2: Peccadillo Parlour - Modern mundane OCs.

Portrait done in Artbreeder.

Born in South Korea, Juliette was sent at the age of eleven to public school in England to learn the language and stayed there on a student visa to study in London. Her parents, baby brother and aging family dog Peggy are back home. She talks to them every week, but she is very used to being alone by now.

In school, she was a submissive member of a group of girls, who always talk about getting back together now on social media but never do. In university, she hasn't really made any good friends, and has so far refused every invitation for after-work activities from her co-workers at the flower shop. At night, she does paid online dates, nothing very sexual so far, just talking to lonely men about her day.

For her dates, she wears wigs and cute, flowery outfits, but tones it down in real life. She needs glasses, but usually wears contacts. She has an elaborate fantasy world in her head and is writing little romantic stories she sometimes posts online, and dreams of one day writing historical romance for Mills & Boon.

She is a little lonely, and a little shy, and worries that going back to Korea would mean having to get married and settle down, rather than focusing on her writing. She is naturally talented in mathematics and is lazily breezing through university courses on microbiology, with the aim of becoming a lab technician, but she knows it's not her dream.

Note: There is an AU in which Juliette is a werewolf dropout, dating another werewolf, and is pretty chill about it, considering she now eats people and is unlikely to graduate.

[ilthit]

OC-tober 4: Mu Liqiang

Week 1: OCs from the Lin Moniao series, which grew out of playing the wuxia RP Righteous Blood, Ruthless Blades with Minutia-R.

☝️Mu Liqiang by @dreamerbee.

The only son of a magistrate who forsook his position to make a controversial love match with a merchant's daughter, Mu Liqiang grew up surrounded by luxury, but with high expectations, which he felt unequal to and unwilling to pursue.

When he was snapped up by the martial Parrot Cult--that is, the Illustrious Qilin Villa Sect--while trying and failing to pass the imperial examination, it felt like a relief. Rather than pursue becoming a magistrate or running an estate, he could focus on trying to impress and seduce Master Wu.

He is self-conscious of his looks--the foreign features inherited from his mother, the thick curly hair which he tries to hide in a bun, his height and size--and although he is a capable and ruthless warrior, what he really wants is to be somebody's pampered pet. His relationship with his parents remains complicated, with the conflict between his filial piety and what he wants for himself.

[ilthit]

OC-tober #27: Xiao Erha & Xiao Mao

Week 4: The Lin Moniao series, friendship is magic edition.

These two are both youths who were stolen at young age from their families and trained as assassins by the villainous palace official Shi Minhua. By the time they came to adulthood, they believed their families had abandoned them, and lived only to serve their master.

This is a case where I came up with this backstory and I still don't even want to write or think too closely about the details, because it is exactly the sort of thing I am squeamish about. So I won't. Even so, CW for under the cut: Violence, brainwashing, abuse.

Xiao Erha was the less favoured of the two. He often displeased the master, and thus took punishment more often. The master distrusted his loyalty to the point that he cut off Xiao Erha's tongue, and might have broken some of his fingers had he known Xiao Erha could write. Part of this was not the youth's own fault, but the fact that his father lived nearby, and Shi Minhua wanted to make doubly sure they would not reconnect.

But these measures, of course, also meant that Xiao Erha was always the one more likely to betray his master in the end.

Xiao Mao, on the other hand, was favoured. He was taught the arts of pleasing guests, making music, and some flavour of erudition, as a courtesan might have, and though Shi Minhua had lost his sexual appetites some time ago (lucky for all involved), he also took pleasure in these services. Xiao Mao was given a servant of his own to train, a young boy the same age he was when he had begun his training. Unlike Xiao Erha, Xiao Mao never had any doubt in his mind that he had been abandoned, and worse, and that Shi Minhua was in fact his savior.

Though both were taught the arts of killing, it was Xiao Erha who was actually sent out to practice them.

The two had a relationship that was occasionally antagonistic, and at other times friendly, but even as Xiao Mao was encouraged to scoff at his brother-assassin and bully him in front of the master, when there was no-one else, they turned to one another as each other's only equal and classmate; as a brother they had grown up with.

[ilthit]

OC-tober #23: Hu Qiu & Yang Xiuxing

Week 4: The Lin Moniao series, friendship is magic edition.

Art by @greyenbee, commissioned by @minutia-r.

Two juniors of the Illustrious Qilin Villa sect (also known as the Cult of the Parrot God). They were disciples of Master Guo, trained especially in internal arts by their shijie Yuwen Duyi, until Certain Events. Since then, both have found different masters, though they remain in the sect and the best of friends.

Nicknamed "the hooligans" by Lin Moniao, they're both spirited kids, though Yang Xiuxing is shy while Hu Qiu is ebullient, and so Hu Qiu often ends up acting as a buffer or a shield for Xiuxing. They are both orphans from unfortunate beginnings, brought to the sect young.

Hu Qiu has many talents, but likewise he is shockingly lacking in some basic skills. Earnest Xiuxing works very hard on exactly what he is told. Of course, his friend would never tell him to do anything he doesn't want to.

[ilthit]

OC-tober 11: Reuben Tam Sherman

Week 2: Peccadillo Parlour - Modern mundane OCs.

Portrait done in Artbreeder.

Reuben grew up in Tottenham, North London, the only son of a concert violinist (Aster) and a city official (Bernard Sherman). He has been writing odd little short stories ever since he was a child, but only started writing poetry while studying English and Journalism in university.

After gaining his B.A., he worked as part of a documentary crew and as a cue writer for the BBC before his breakout poetry collection at the age of 30, inspired by his obsessive love affair with a married hair stylist. Suddenly R.T. Sherman had become as much of a literary star as a poet ever can, critically acclaimed and invited to talk shows, awards ceremonies and panels.

Since then he has seen success and delivered some decent collections, but never on a similar level. He feels his work is being assumed to be good without it actually having to prove itself, simply because he is famous.

Reuben went on a sabbatical for a year, traveling through America searching for inspiration, some originality that could match the quality of what he wrote over ten years ago. He finished his journey at the Pacific Coast, disillusioned and hopeless. Instead of getting on a plane back home, he turned north to Canada. He feels an outsider wherever he goes, but while he keeps moving, he at least has the anonymity his niche fame in Britain would not afford him. He lives on the royalties from his previous work and on his savings. They won’t last forever.

[ilthit]

OCtober #29: Lialanya Maloval

Extra days: Dungeons & Dragons characters.

Portrait done in Artbreeder.

A day and some hours late, but here you are. I have barely taken this character out for a spin, but I enjoy her, so here she is.

Lialanya is a high elf wizard. Her father, Alatian, was born in Feywild, but came to the material plane to adventure, and that’s where he met Lia's mother, Yaxia, the daughter of a long line of high elves who had chosen to reside on the material plane. Alatian's own parents were not happy about this, and still aren't. The two set up a nomadic adventuring life. Lia was thus born for adventure, and did not know their family was wealthy or exceptional at all until she was already in her teens, and her parents sat her down for a talk about her future.

Lia has always had a special grasp for magic, and a quick and curious mind, able to think several levels deep, and a propensity to argue when she knew she was right--so her parents arranged for Lia to be apprenticed to high elf wizard in the city of Neverwinter.

This wizard had nine apprentices. An excessive number, but both the master and Lia found the conversations and little intellectual feuds that sparked between them educational. Lia excelled at her studies and forged friendships and rivalries not only with the other eight, but with a wider circle of colleagues. When not studying, she ran wild in the city, her father's obstinate and rebellious streak coming out whenever she cut loose.

After graduating from her apprenticeship, the nine went their separate ways to focus on their own studies. Lia is not very good with money, so she takes the precaution of never carrying too much of it, but she used some of her funds on a cozy cottage outside of town, which she is slowly filling up with books. Her life is fulfilled, but lately she has felt a tiny bit... bored?

Lia lives in her head, and bonds with others mainly through intellectual exchange. She is also rather in the proverbial ivory tower--she has surrounded herself with all the things she finds interesting and comfortable and doesn't bother with anyone or anything else, and so her social skills are lacking, unless she is talking to a fellow academic. She is fond of all her friends, but forgets them quickly if they fall out of touch, distracted by some new discovery or conversation.

She is sixty-five years old.

[ilthit]

OC-tober #25: Chan Yu & An Yu

Week 4: The Lin Moniao series, friendship is magic edition.

I'm so sad I couldn't get any visual representation prepared for these guys in time for this post. Oh well.

Chan Yu and An Yu are bodyguards. They were once drinking buddies, then joint failed wine shop owners, and now they beat people up for money.

Chan Yu is built like a brickhouse, a nearly perfect square of a man. He's not much of a talker, which is sometimes a problem when a job calls for subtlety. He fights with an axe. It may or may not be one originally intended for chopping wood rather than battle.

An Yu, for her part, is tall and square-shouldered, with a perpetually sour expression. Her idea of a disguise is to put on a pretty dress, but since she has no idea what's pretty and is not very rich, it's usually something gaudy and cheap. She prefers a pair of trousers and a tunic, but in truth, An Yu is simply not vain. She's never been pretty and now she's getting on in years, and is more concerned about where her next catty of baijiu is coming from. She fights with a dagger, and dirty.

They bicker and argue like an old married couple, and often pose as one, too.

[ilthit]

OC-tober #22: Yuwen Duyi & Shen Shanwei

Week 4: The Lin Moniao series, friendship is magic edition.

Art by me, alas.

Servants of the Parrot God and disciples of Master Guo, these toxic besties who were supposed to be antagonists, but the protagonist had other ideas. (This happens a lot.)

Yuwen Duyi (right) is a stickler for the rules, humorless, harsh, and fiercely loyal to her master. She takes her position as da-shijie, instructor and physician seriously, but her first priority is Master Guo, whose approval she lives on.

Shen Shanwei was the only other disciple to follow Master Guo to the sect. The master and shijie had picked him up from the roadside some years before and trained him up. His loyalty is primarily to shijie. He's haughty, graceful, dour, and has the thinnest of faces.

She leads, he follows. Together, they are proof that even queerplatonic life partnerships can be kinda fucked up.

[ilthit]

OC-tober 19: Martin Alexander Thomas

Week 3: Various sources.

Portrait done in Artbreeder.

Once, Mr Thomas was young, bright, and full of passion. These days he is quiet and thin, and his curly brown-black hair has broad swaths of grey in it.

In short, the events of Mr Thomas's life are these:

He was the second son of a well-to-do merchant until the death of his brother, which left him, at twenty-five, with responsibility over his two sisters. An unrecognized painter, Mr Thomas resolved to give up his wastrel dreams and do right by his family, and took a position in his father’s trade. The venture, never promising, ran aground when, while travelling to Italy on business, he fell in love. He stayed in the country for two years.

Upon his return he found his father had remarried and produced another son, who was now the apparent heir, since Martin had proved so inadequate.

Mr Thomas spent more time on the continent and in Ireland, becoming more political and dissolute in turns. Eventually his luck and money ran out. With his then-lover, he booked passage to America to start a new life. They attempted running a farm, which failed, leading to the break-up of the relationship. Thomas found himself penniless and hitting forty in the slums of New York. The years spent there left their mark upon him. He was out of passion, out of drive, and out of faith, and so when the opportunity arrived, he took the long journey back to England. War between the two countries broke out soon after.

His sister Olympia, now Mrs Babcock, took him in to live with her family. He spent his days quietly painting, and sometimes told improbable stories to her youngest children. Then, while visiting London to see his solicitor, he ran into a charming young man, and found himself drawn back into society, and another round of disappointing his family.

Mr Thomas is, and always was, a follower at heart. He bristles to follow a leader he does not find just, but if none other are available, he will make do rather than go entirely without direction. His weak character has repeatedly lead to calamity to those near him. He is aware of it. He tries not to think about it too much.

Absent-minded and a lover of beauty, and of people, and of the joy of simply existing, Mr Thomas makes friends easily, as he is always ready to see the good in other people.

[ilthit]

OC-tober 15: Anna Pratt

Week 3: Various sources.

Portrait done in Artbreeder.

Regency Era

Anna's original era.

Miss Pratt, though without a fortune of her own, is the protege of her uncle, Mr Berkeley, who has considerable wealth tied up in land in Northamptonshire and a lively interest in the Atlantic trade. Orphaned at ten, Miss Pratt was raised with her cousins Maria and Josephine at Berkeley Hall. Her brother Anthony was at that time fourteen and was bought a commission as a midshipman, a rank he is yet to advance from.

Miss Pratt is fond of art and creates, according to her protectors, some very pretty watercolours and embroideries. Granted, they may be over-generous in their praise, as they still hope the girl could be married before she turns into a hopeless spinster. After all, she is unlikely to be married for her personality, prospects, or looks--so accomplishments are all that is left.

Even so, Miss Pratt’s coming out was modest, and most expect her to find a position as a lady's companion.

Anna is overly serious, of a nervous and sullen disposition, and desperate to be good. She balances that which is expected of her with the commandments of Christ, but finds in her own nature a resistance to both. Neither can she feel as grateful as she thinks she ought for the condescension of her relations. She very much suspects that she is incurably wicked.

Fun fact: Anna began as an NPC pastiche of Fanny Price from Mansfield Park in a Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell -derived roleplay, and was unexpectedly adopted by a player character.

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Portrait done in Artbreeder.

Modern Era

A pale blonde young woman with a softness to her figure, Anna is aware of being somewhat pretty, and hates it. She dresses mostly in grey sweaters and ties her hair up in a messy bun. She has glasses, but mostly doesn't need them; still, sometimes they are something to hide behind.

Anna lost her parents at the age of 10 and, with no relatives that were willing to take her and her brother, finished her upbringing in foster care.

Anthony aged out quickly and enlisted in the army. Anna was lucky. After a rough start, she was placed with Arthur and Mary Smythe, and stayed with them until she aged out. They weren't bad sorts. If they had faults, it was to make their kids pose for photos and perform at functions to collect money from charities, and sometimes taking on more than they could handle, leaving the kids to sort things out for themselves. Anna learned to trust only a few; to value her privacy; and to fight when she needed to.

She has an anger inside her, constantly at war with her desire to be a good person. She is largely considered to be a bit wet, which only serves to make her angrier. Sometimes she thinks she may be depressed, but doesn't want to use such a loaded word. She has, in fact, been depressed for so long she no longer remembers what it would be like to be be otherwise.

She now lives with a roommate in a cheap flat and studies pharmacology and sociology, but still keeps in touch with her foster family.

There is an AU where she is a werewolf, that I have written more for than her non-werewolf version, but I still cling to the notion that Anna is not primarily a werewolf.