#oc origins

[kaylinalexanderbooks]

OC origins

Thanks @paeliae-occasionally here, @the-golden-comet here, @leahnardo-da-veggie here, and @honeybewrites here!

Rules: tell us the origin of the names and personalities of a couple OCs!

I already did Lexi and Maddie here! I also like talking about character design changes so here we go.

Ash:

Ash's first incarnation was in Draft One of TSP. She was Alexia's best friend Aurora Flité. I don't remember how I came up with the name. She was also ten with little personality, although she had more than Alexia. Aurora seemed to be overdramatic, more than anything. She had telepathy, which has remained consistent. Aurora had pale skin and freckles like she does now, but that's about the only thing that has stayed the same. She was originally based on my best friend though I gave her longer hair, down to her waist. I described Aurora's hair as a blackish brown with red highlights, though I just made it brown in Draft Two. Aurora's hair progressively got shorter over time until it became Ash's much shorter hair in Draft Five, where her hair changed to black. Her eyes used to be blue but soon became greener until they were completely green. I'm not sure when I got rid of her glasses. I don't remember defining Aurora's wardrobe, but I remember it being layered and colorful. Now, Ash wears mainly jeans, T-shirt, and a plaid overshirt. In Draft Five, I also gave her rings. In Draft Two, Aurora's surname was Austin, but I changed it to its permanent Hathaway in Draft Three. The name Ash was chosen because when starting Draft Four, I had another character named Aurora in what later became SOTL (her name isn't Aurora now either lol), so I realized I should probably change her name, especially since I was growing less fond of it for her (nothing against the name itself). I felt like she still needed an A name, so I improvised Ashley while I was writing. However, I tried just calling her Ash and I got attached to it right away, so I went back and changed previous mentions (this was while writing chapter one). Ash Hathaway still sounded good so I kept her surname. Personality-wise, Ash has changed quite a bit. She's still super hard to get down, though, so I need to work very hard on her. So this will be hard to describe. Ash isn't overdramatic anymore, that's for sure. She's a lot more reckless than she used to be. She is more curious and prone to liking adventure, which is something I'm trying to emphasize more in Draft Five. Scientifically-minded, I'd say. In Draft Four, I felt Ash's descent into obsession and refining her power and sinking into jealousy etc happened too fast. I'm going to have to fix it, which I'm trying to do. It's hard to describe her progression when I'm in the middle of it!

Gwen

Gwen's equivalent character did not exist until Draft Two. Like most here, she was originally based on someone I knew before I changed her up a bit. In Draft Two, Gwen's name was Andrea Armstrong, though in Draft Three she went by Andy. Andrea never made an official appearance, she was just a planned character, but Andy had one scene at the beginning of Draft Three. In Draft Two, Andrea was planned to have the power to take characters out of books, but in Draft Three I planned it to be invisibility, which it stayed throughout the rest of the series. For her design, Andrea/Andy had light brown skin, hair, and eyes. I'm not sure what her wardrobe was. Gwen still has very light brown skin and eyes but her hair is darker, though she usually wears it in a braid. I gave her glasses when I decided people with invisibility typically need them, but she didn't get them until Part Three of Draft Four, while in Draft Five she got her glasses during Part One. She also now wears boy's jeans (for pockets), a tank top, and a sweater. I think Andrea just came to me and I thought Andy was a cute nickname. Gwen came up because the friend she was based on wished her name started with a G (because her crush had a name that started with a G... Oh, middle schoolers...) so I fulfilled her wish, and Gwen was the first name I thought of. Since she was always meant to have a Mexican mother and Italian father (or equivalent), I looked up Italian surnames because I couldn't think of any off the top of my head, and just said "Gwen [surname]" until something sounded right, and since it's Amante and I assume the list was alphabetical, it didn't take me too long. Personality-wise, Gwen used to come across as a lot more shyer and hesitant than she turned out, despite keeping her introverted nature. Gwen became even more loving and caring and compassionate etc than ever, soon getting a fire burning inside her, which only happened due to what I put this poor girl through in Parts 2-4, or at least what's drafted of them. Starting Draft Five, Gwen had developed so much in Draft Four into a character I love dearly, with many layers to her, so she was easier to write and build up.

Tagging @cherrybombfangirlwrites @dyrewrites @diabolical-blue @winterandwords @paeliae-occasionally

+ ANYONE ELSE

TSP intro

TSP tag list (ask to be +/-): @thepeculiarbird @illarian-rambling @televisionjester @finchwrites

@nebula--nix @literarynecromancy @honeybewrites

[anyablackwood]

OC Origins Tag

Thanks for the tag, @mysticstarlightduck! This is really cool! I'd love to do another. I'll be covering some of my MCs from various stories because I'm TOTALLY normal about this <333

Rule: "talk about the origins of the names and personalities (and maybe even the design?) of a couple of your OCs!"

Itazaki Katsuko (Katsuko no Monogatari):

This name came with a level of investment that was disproportionate and frankly unnecessary for a short story that I initially wrote for a class, lmao.

Itazaki was part of the alternative name of Hangaku Gozen, one of the onna-musha (female warriors) in Heian Japan. She's not as popular as the legendary Tomoe Gozen, probably because she was on the opposing side of the war; but not only is Tomoe kinda too stereotypical for me, but she didn't technically have a last/secondary name, from what I gathered? I mean Itazaki wasn't Hangaku Gozen's last name, but it was part of her title and sounded like a better last name for Katsuko than Jo.

But a more important reason is that she's one of the few onna-musha with a fairly clearly documented and relatively HAPPY ending for a warrior on the losing side of a war (she was a member of the Taira clan, who lost the power struggle against Minamoto clan in the Genpei War). Which is quite an achievement considering not even Tomoe Gozen got a clear ending, let alone a good one (there are various accounts about how she lived her life after the war, NONE of which are happy, unfortunately).

While I knew it didn't really matter, I'm kind of incapable of naming characters without deep diving into the meaning of the names and the history of it. So I went with Itazaki for Katsuko's surname.

As for her first name, Katsuko, this one's more simple. "Katsu" literally means "victory/to win" in Japanese. "Ko" means "child". Putting them together essentially means "winner", "victorious child", etc. Which, while kinda on the nose, I also chose because it's a fairly gender neutral name (if you drop the "ko", anyway. "ko" is almost always used for girl names) and is seen as kind of a tomboyish (?) name. I would've gone with "Katsu", but that's my great-grandmother's name. She was the inspiration for the name, but I didn't want to actually give Katsuko the EXACT same name because of emotional distancing reasons, lol (my great grandmother was very much alive until recently, and I'd feel weird to do that when I knew her personally).

Appearance-wise, Katsuko is a fairly standard looking Japanese woman. Her hair's decently long, as was the standard, and she mostly wears armor, since she's not only a guard, but there's also combat scenes. She uses a naginata, since that was the standard weapon for onna-musha and onna-bugeisha (female guards).

Megumi Wilson (Asteria Heights):

I intentionally chose the name Megumi because it was Japanese, but could also be shortened into a Western-sounding name (Meg). This is because, in my personal experience, most Japanese-American/half-Japanese families would give their kids names that are either foreign but simple enough to say in Japanese, or have alternative or similar versions in both languages (assuming these are families that still have connections to Japan/Japanese culture; many Japanese families chose to entirely assimilate, especially if they're not first-gen immigrants).

While I would've loved to do the latter (which I'd say is more common), there aren't really that many of those, and with how picky I am, none of them felt like they fit (plus I have multiple half-Japanese characters who already took other names). Also, to be honest, many of them were a little TOO similar to mine and my siblings' names, lol. And I obviously didn't want that.

I could've given her a Japanese name that couldn't be Westernized, but me and my sisters always had beef with how people would butcher our names growing up (even though mine isn't even just Japanese!!! My legal name is also Western!!!) and I didn't want to do that to my girl Meg, even if she isn't real, lmao.

Luna, Iris, Claire (Traveling Bards):

Okay, these are fairly boring in name, but that was intentional! I won't say why SPECIFICALLY these names, but I was looking for simple names in general because I wanted names that were easier to pronounce for Japanese people because I'm a bit willfully ✨delusional✨ and I want to at least get a translation of the story one day, if not an animated adaption (yes!! I know!! Unrealistic!! Let me DREAM!!!!)

Their personalities, as I've mentioned in a previous post, are based off of some people I love very much in my life. They're not 1 to 1 the same, but their cores are. This story actually initially started off as a what-if scenario when we were watching an Isekai (reincarnation) anime together and kept getting frustrated at some dumb characters and situations, and then got into talking about what we'd do in a situation like that. And then I was like "this shit slaps ngl" and after some revisions to their persons, here we are!!!

This was so fun! <333 I'll end it here because I can honestly go one for DAYS about them. I'd have covered some more but this is too long already, so please feel free to tag me in this again!!!

Leaving it as an OPEN TAG for whoever wants it. Might come and retroactively add people later.

Gently Tagging: @amaiguri, @paintedbutton, @pandoras-comment-box, and anyone else who wants in!!!

[illarian-rambling]

Thanks for the tags @halfbakedspuds @honeybewrites @leahpardo-pa-potato!

OC Origins Tag

Rules: I want to know how you came up with your original character’s names and personalities. Are they based on people in your real life? Are they straight from your brain? Are they a mix of several people?

Sorry to all the people who tagged me, but I think you're gonna be a little disappointed by my lack of reasoning in my oc choices lol

Izjik:

I picked her name because I wanted something alien sounding as heard by human ears. Her personality is vaguely based off my old boss, except she's nicer than he was.

Sepo:

I picked his name (as will become a common theme) because it sounded cool. His personality was based off the desire to have a foil for Izjik and because I thought a mute, aroace, siren man would be ironic.

Twenari:

I picked her name because it sounded cool! Originally, she was sort of based off Omega from TBB, but her character has evolved quite a bit since then.

Djek:

I picked his name because it sounded cool :)

I can't really say where his personality came from, I just wanted a shitty sorcerer.

Astra:

As ironic as her name is given my setting, I just picked it because it was fun. Originally, she didn't have a name, as I was going for more of a nameless samurai/cowboy wanderer archetype, but I decided to change that. I kept the cowboy, just gave her a personality also.

Mashal:

Guess what, I picked his name because it sounded cool. It's kind of a coincidence that it sounds like martial. His personality is very much based on the literary knight archetype.

Ivander:

No thoughts went into his name lol, but I changed his surname from Montare to Montane once I realized Montare rhymed with DuClaire. His character was vangely inspired by the leper gunsmiths of Princess Mononoke.

Elsind:

No thoughts went into their name either. She's kind of based off of one of my old dnd characters, who was basically just Elsind but older, alcoholic, and had kids and a mortgage.

Avymere:

Their name was (trying to find new ways to phrase this) picked because it sounded cool. Their personality is very much based on Elle Woods from Legally Blonde.

I'll leave this as an open tag :)

[cementedwood]

Guh‼️

More lore time. Covering: the goop goop 🟪

Okay, so I had an idea. I need to make my character a little more interesting. I had this idea when I was struggling to make the other hand on the initial rough draft. So, I frustratedly gave up and said, ‘this fool won’t have a second hand.’ I thought about it for a moment, and it made sense to me. So I decided to keep it that way. I thought about it for a moment, and I realized that I can make something interesting out of a frustration. I gave the missing hand a purpose.

The purple goop: technically still a part of Summer’s body, as it is the inner substance of their body. Since Summer is a semi-solid humanoid that can morph themselves to look however they want, (with limitations that I will cover later) I decided that Summer should be able to create their own hand. The goop is fully controllable by him, and he can create anything (within reason) that he wants to. He usually takes the goop from directly out of his mouth, as that is the easiest way to access it quickly.

(I also decided to make the goop constantly hang from their mouth as an extra detail)

[jumpinggreenjellybeanz]

What do they have origin stories?

Hey check it out - an excuse for me to drop OC LOOOORE

Thanks for asking :o] 👍 Now you know

[recklessjerry]

Mary The Mutilator

A character I got from... Someone who isn't here anymore, apparently (hope they're doing ok tho).

She has been collecting dust among my old files for two years now and since I don't have that much ideas for drawing atm I decided to finally get my hands on her and give her a new look. The original image can be found here.

Mary is believed to be nothing but another urban legend of Feliceberg. She prowls the nearby woods, attacking those unfortunate souls who happen to stray too far from the tourist trails. Rumour has it that her appearance has something to do with the closed mines, so you might as well avoid those too. Of course, this is just a made-up story to scare the kids here, but if you are taking a walk to enjoy the beauty of the local nature, you should still watch your back. Mary may not be real, but the wild predators certainly are…

[justmissart]

I'm really enjoying seeing folks sharing the first art they made of their OCs and the most recent. Seeing the art progression, character development and how the lives of the characters have impacted their designs has been a real treat.

And with that, I'd like to share my own characters with you (and you can't stop me so 😝) First up we have my lil punk Ru. She's passionate, fiery, inquisitive and a fiend for hugs. Talk shit about those she cares about and she can and will break your knees. Ru was made originally for a Starfinder campaign. Her life was to be futuristic and sci-fi but I wanted to keep that earthy halfling feel to her. ....at least in the beginning. Now she's feral and does as she pleases.

Next up we have my precious spooky teen, Evie. She's just trying her best, bless her. She sees ghosts and ghouls and other fun spooks, is addicted to caffeine because she's sleep deprived (did I mention she sees spooks?) and is very socially awkward. But she's learning to open up to those around her and is finding her own little safe nook in the world. I remember wanting Evie to appear more mundane than she was. Like a teen trying to blend into the background. She hasn't changed much. Although she has taught me that she looks good dressed in just about anything.

Then there's Rose 🥺 Oh Rose! My son, my lad. He's been through so much already and it's not even the tip of the iceberg. He's got a heart of gold and a lot of love to give. I honestly don't remember what was in my head when I designed Rose. I just knew I wanted to have a tiefling 😅 and I was aiming for a bit Mylo Thatch, a bit Nightcrawler and just an overall soft lad.

And last, but certainly not least, is my lovely Briar. She's confidence, intelligence and finesse itself. She will only allow one person to see her truer side (and that's her brother, Rose) for everyone else you get whatever you need to see from her so that she can get what she wants from you. Originally designed wayyyy back because of a question I got on Instagram, she's had the biggest glow up of any of my characters I feel. Her design of having both horns on the one side of her head (yes they are horns despite how they look in that original drawing 😅) came about because I couldn't draw her other eye that day. So I said fuck it and put her second horn there. She's a delight to draw and write about and I cherish her with my whole heart.

I'd love to see more of these humble oc origins! (that's a hint for you to post yours! Please 😊💛) I think it's great fun to look back and see the beginnings of folks' characters and to see how far they've come!

[truechaosembodied]

I scratch my head nervously before continuing. “…I was four months from turning 13 when I got a weird voice in my head giving me some weirdly solid advice. Whether it was about socializing, solving problems in school, or life in general, the voice was always the same. I thought I was developing schizophrenia or something, but when I turned 13, I learned *who* that voice was. I washed my hands after waking up to find my hands had gloves on. I tried to take them off, but then I heard the voice in my head wince. It turned out that the voice in my head was a god-like being called ‘The Embodiment of CHAOS’ that could only emerge if I got wet. Essentially, I don’t have powers, but I can let a god take over my body.” My roommates all start laughing hysterically at my answer. “You? A god?! Don’t—” He doesn’t even finish his sentence before laughter takes over his voice. I don’t even say a word before grabbing a water bottle and pouring it high above my head. The second the water hits my hair, it springs up into a spiky cyan tower of a hairdo, causing water to splash onto my legs, revealing a skeletal figure underneath. I then splash my face with the water, causing a fox head to take its place. Then, a voice completely different from mine starts to speak from my mouth. “So what do you think?,” it asks as I continue to pour water over myself. My roommates are in utter shock. They start to ask questions about powers and why I was chosen specifically. “Well for one, my powers lie over time and creation. My powers would only involve time, if it weren’t for my father’s exile as an embodiment. As for why I chose this guy? He just so happened to be the most chaotic person on the planet.” My roommates and CHAOS have a great time together, but I start to feel frustrated. They had always doubted me before, why would they suddenly accept CHAOS? Over the next few weeks, my roommates seem to only want to see CHAOS, leaving no room for me to protest. Eventually, CHAOS begins to realize that he’s taking over my life, so he tells me to move out. Having never been steered wrong by CHAOS before, I do just as he says. I began to pack my stuff up, but then found something I wouldn’t have wanted to see: cocaine in a family heirloom chest. I confronted my roommates about it, and it turned out that the mother fuckers were going to frame me if they were caught making it. I decided to leave them to their own devices so long as they weren’t going to include me in their plan anymore. I lied, reporting them to the police for drug production as soon as I got to a hotel. Moral of the story? CHAOS is better than you know.

“So, I got my magic power by inheriting it from a draconic ancestor. What about you?” “Well, I found my grandpa’s old cookbook, and when I opened it, the magic I inherited from him manifested.” Your roommates then turn to you. “What about you?” “Well…”

[strategypillar]

Older than history itself

What if the oldest vampire was a Neanderthal girl 🤔

[kaylinalexanderbooks]

OC origins

Thanks @drchenquill here and @somethingclevermahogony here!

Rules: talk about the origins of the names and personalities (and maybe even the design?) of a couple of your OCs!

I did Lexi and Maddie here and Ash and Gwen here. Time for... Noelle and Rose!

Noelle

Noelle was not in Draft One at all, but her equivalent first showed up late into Draft Two planning stages. Her name was Heather Collins, and I don't remember how I came up with the name. I never wrote anything with Heather, but she was planned to be the narrator of Book 15 (in Draft Two, twelve year old me thought she'd have a giant series and have a new narrator in each book...) and had telekinesis, which Noelle still has. In Draft Three, I changed her name to Lana Daron. I also don't know where I came up with this name. She had one shout-out but I never showed her--I didn't get the chance to. Her name became Noelle Bishop in Draft Four. I once knew someone named Carissa who had to constantly correct people calling her Clarissa, and she always clarified "no L" when correcting people. No L, Noelle—supposedly a couple people actually called her this as a joke. It was late into Draft Four before I made her real name actually Carissa and her correction being genuinely misheard as Noelle, and the name sticking. Originally it was Lexi but after cutting that scene, I made it Ash in a different flashback and it's much better. Bishop came about because I was watching Fringe. Noelle looked essentially the same: fair skin, light brown hair and eyes, etc., and while she was always tall she used to be more typically tall rather than Alii tall. Her wardrobe was always more or less the same: rather simple. She does more typically have her hair in a low ponytail rather than the original loose design. Personality wise, Noelle has gone through huge changes. She used to be.... chipper. Her personality then shifted slowly but surely until she became someone completely different throughout Draft Four. Her personality was basically given to Issa, and Noelle became more introverted, more loyal to her blood family, more logical, more cold, etc. It's weird to read Draft Four. Her first scene she talks in peppy exclamations and gives hugs. What the fuck. I can't with Draft Four Noelle. But I knew she needed a different personality. Even then, I'm refining, but to give her the plotline I wanted she had to be like this.

Rose

Rose didn't first appear in any way, shape, or form until Draft Four. I joke that she came from the metal detector McGuffin in Drafts 1-3 because she can detect the portal but that's a bit of a joke. In reality, I wanted an extra person to round out the friend group since it was originally similar to my actual middle school friend group (not anymore lol). She looks basically the same: light brown skin, dark wavy brown hair and eyes, glasses, etc. Though always curvy I did make her heavier. She used to wear hoodies but now I give her flannel overshirts. Her personality has changed or developed a lot. The issue is, I have her Trauma and Angst, which means it's repressed. So writing her is hard since hinting at her personality is difficult. But it's more than she had! Now Rose has a lot more to do, which is good for her. For her name, I originally gave her Rosa, but for some reason I felt like Rose fit slightly better. Though for years, I felt like Rose would be her nickname, but she still didn't strike me as a Rosa. In Draft Five, I realized what it was: Rose isn't short for Rosa, it's short for Rosalinda! Her surname was always Hernandez.

This game is so fun!

More Noelle: OC in three, OC in fifteen, Picrew, questionnaire one, questionnaire two, bingo

More Rose: OC in three, questionnaire one, questionnaire two

Tagging @sleepyowlwrites @theeccentricraven @mk-writes-stuff @writernopal @mysticstarlightduck

+ ANYONE ELSE

TSP intro

TSP tag list (ask to be +/-): @thepeculiarbird @illarian-rambling @televisionjester @finchwrites

@nebula--nix @literarynecromancy @honeybewrites @the-golden-comet

[lescarnetsdehaku]

Wall have ears. They also love gossip and having your attention 🫶✨

[andysanimation]

*gore and body parts everywhere, just absolutely drenched in blood* yeah I'm being normal about people misinterpreting a fictional character whom I enjoy a normal amount

[ra3kiv]

sea, swallow me

[cementedwood]

guh‼️

Okay, so I think I should start with the origins for Summer. I wanted to create a gradient oc, but I couldn't figure out what the colors would be. Then, I started to color pick some of my favorite colors. All of a sudden, it hit me. My favorite colors reminded me of how a child would depict summer as a drawing...I giggled to myself and decided to roll with it. Here's a visual representation of what i mean using Summer's colors:

(sorry its a little rushed)

[chechula]

Birthday gift for my dear friend who loves vampires♥ . The whole thing was made in three days, I had too much fun drawing it! I created the cover drawing in the car on the way to the birthday party. So I had no time to scan it :D Well, if you enjoy reading it let me know and I will try to post more (I am making comics for my friend regularly, I am just too ashamed to translate and upload these silly things online x_x ) _____________________________________ Patreon Commissions