#in my heart her birthday is like 15th March 95/96 bc i cannot let go of my ides of march idea. not by a long shot.

[masschase]

7 and 8 for casey and B for you! i’m really curious about the creator question bc i know you’ve said before you used to not “get” OCs so i’m wondering how creating casey and the others changed things for you

I kept the first two short, I really did! But the last one was too interesting! 🤭

Uncommon asks for OCs and their creators

7. What triggers nostalgia for them, most often? Do they enjoy that feeling?

It kind of depends. She doesn't feel much childhood nostalgia in a positive way. But there are glimpses. When she stole Phoebe's pecan pie recipe and recreated it on the ship, that was about the closest she got to childhood nostalgia for some time. Being wrapped up warm, too.

I think what triggers the most nostalgia though is just talking about Stilwater with Shaundi, Johnny, Pierce and to some extent, Ben. Like they'll make a little joke and it brings her back. It's unsurprising that her most positive nostalgia is tied up in her friends.

8. What were they told to stop/start doing most often as a child?

Anything that would ruin her mom's "keeping up appearances" vibe. Stop getting dirty, stop being loud, stop mentioning anything that might make people think we're struggling.

Stop getting distracted. Stop questioning things so much. Stop staring into space. Stop talking *about* space.

Accept your place in Stilwater.

B) What inspired you to create them? (&how did making OCs change your view of OCs?)

Ooh so I guess I didn't think I was 'creating' Casey at all. I just had a story in my head that fit Matt and The Boss. The Boss, in this instance, being my SRIV Boss I'd played as 8-9 years previously (parts of this story were cooking for a while). Their dynamic in canon must have captured me in some capacity when I first played, so when I had this story in my head I guess I remembered their dynamic and I was like yeah, that really fits them.

I already had the look (my in-game Boss with some minor adaptions), a good chunk of the life events from SR1 onwards, the voice (and associated voice lines), the attitude. I felt like her personality was already almost tangible to me by playing.

Appearance wise yeahhhh okay admittedly she looks a little like me when I first played the game. I was in the "just make the custom character look like you" phase. Hence the colourful dip dye in my head even if it wasn't in the game 😅 this is why she'll always be like way younger in my heart than my hc too. I never intended to a. get as into the game as i did, b. ship her with anyone or c. make any kind of fan content, but here we are I guess.

Her age pretty much comes from the youngest I felt I could make her and still have her plausibly act as the Boss does in SR1. Like I'm not going to sit here and pretend I didn't know who I was shipping her with when I decided her birth year(the day itself was purely for plot reasons). I was actually pretty surprised Matt was that young when I first found out but that's another post entirely 🤣

Anyway, I used anything I could use about Playa's personality (both from what I remembered and the wiki) to build up a picture, but that in turn led to more questions. When you're working with as much canon as possible you actually have a lot to throw in and explain. Why does she like Jane Austen so much? Why is she secretive about her past? Why was she so quiet at the start?

I also knew I had to come up with a name because while I intended to keep the Boss's name secret for most of it, I knew from the start there was going to be a pretty major reveal around it. My main criteria were that it be one generally seen as gender neutral to tie in with SR1, not mine, but still one I still really liked. One of my friends actually went by the nickname Casey bc one of our mutual friends just started calling him that- it's nothing like his actual name and he doesn't use it anymore.

I can't remember if I looked up and that game jumped out or if it popped into my head, but I really liked it, and when I found out it can be short for Cassandra I was set because I love Greek mythology names. I seem to recall I did worry people would think I was misspelling Cassie/Cassy but I liked it too much to let that stop me. If I knew I was going to be posting about her on tumblr, I might have picked a name that wasn't similar to my own, or once it was already decided, I maybe should have picked a different name to use for myself within the fandom but at the same time that would really confuse me 🤣

Obviously throughout the course of writing I did start to think about what had led her to that point; the before, between and unseen during games. Her family especially, I felt I needed to actually think about. Then along the way I just kind of came to points where I had to go "Oh, OK, what's her favourite dessert?" "What were her hobbies before the Saints? "How does she deal with the crushing weight of multiple deaths on her conscience?". You know, cute shit like that.

Point is, one day I turned around and there was a fully formed OC staring me in the face. She crept up on me. That's when I gave up on things like not mentioning her appearance and I threw things back in before I posted. I'm not usually that oblivious to things like that but given the way I started off the whole thing it just kind of happened.

Which brings me neatly to the other question. I did actually write fanfic years ago, and it was usually shippy, often smutty, but it was always canon x canon. I was never possessed to make an OC. I think I had one for some TWEWY RP that never got off the ground but I would never have used them in my writing for example.

I admit, I guess I associated them with self-insertion and wish fulfilment, which I'm not being judgy about if that's anyone's thing. It's just that it wouldn't be something that would appeal to me as a reader. The most I would use an OC for back then would be a one-off mention of a background character.

But when writing Out of Time I came to the point where I needed a few minor filler characters, still didn't count them as OCs. From there it was a natural progression to OCs with a more prominent role, I think Jenny was the first. There were story arcs that worked with them that just wouldn't otherwise, Mori is the best example of this, I love the layers of story his character adds. Idk if it's evident but he's my favourite non-Boss OC because he's just so important. 😀

Around the same time I was kind of accepting I had OCs, I started lurking on tumblr and I absolutely fell in love with some of the Boss designs here. I still didn't quite see them as OCs until I saw people tagging them as such and then I was like... oh. 🙃

Now... I love any and all Saints Row OCs. Love them. People's creativity never ceases to amaze me. But I'll always have a soft spot for Bosses.