#odybeeocs

[odybee]

Guess who made another new character! Wahoo!!

This is B. They will serve as my 'sona' for this account. Bee that as it may, B is still partially their own character, and I will answer any lore-related asks directed at them accordingly.

[odybee]

Remember that list of assorted Piper quirks? Well, I've been meaning to get back to writing Kyle again, so here's a list of little details about the big, buggy lad!

Was a super outgoing kid contrary to his current demeanor.

Played every Pokemon game up to Sun and Moon as a kid, including Red on his Mom's Gameboy. His teams always included Scyther.

Can't see past the tip of his nose without glasses.

His favorite bug of all time, which is also the one that got him interested in entomology to begin with, is the humble ant. More specifically, fire ants.

Caffeine makes him feel fatigued and sleepy.

Miraculously has a small friend group. He was introduced to it by the only friend he ever made all the way back in elementary school, but he barely ever hangs out with any of them unless prompted.

Doesn't like sugar/sweets.

Despite being a medical entomologist, he has managed to avoid being stung or bitten by anything more painful than a fire ant.

Maintains a garden of berries and flowers along the back and side of his house purely to attract more bugs.

Has put a lot of effort in maintaining steady, gentle hands. He must to properly do his job, which involves handling a lot of extremely delicate specimens.

Major Breaking Point spoilers after the divide!

That final fact may also be one of the reasons why Kyle latches onto Piper so hard, because his ability to hold back is a defense mechanism he's developed since very early in his life. He's always loved holding and studying invertebrates, and as mentioned before, he used to be super open about it. Excited, even, about showing his interest to everyone that would pay attention, because who wouldn't find bugs as cool as he did? Could they not see how beautifully lethal the dragonfly's design is, how the beetle's carapace glistens like a sparkling emerald? He'd proudly present his finds to anyone he could, which most often was another kid on the playground during recess. In doing this, he identified two core problems. One, sometimes he would get too excited and squish or otherwise injure his find. Two, this same excitement seemed to scare people away. So after countless uneasy pep-talks from adults without ever making a single friend, he came to a conclusion.

People, like insects, were easily overwhelmed. The only way he could possibly connect with either would be to first restrain himself, and the safest way to do so was to reduce contact. To listen and observe while minimizing his own personal input, lest they get too close and see or feel something they don't like.

Fast forward fifteen years, and this mindset has led him into a friend group as 'the quiet one' when he desperately wishes to be something more to someone else. Someone that he can be open with, that he can express his excitement around without fear of causing harm. At the very least, someone he could handshake without the nagging feeling that he was somehow doing something wrong.

So imagine how lucky he feels when Piper, the witty little marvel of science with the resilience to survive seemingly anything and the strength to resist absolutely nothing, falls right into his grasp.

[odybee]

Drew up a page on another g/t character I have!

Her name is Juniper (goes by Juni, but people tend to call her 'One' or 'The Giant' anyways), and she's a weird mix of giant and human, thus preferring to be called a 'gargan'. She was just human once, and then, through an unfortunate series of events, she became a big scary monster. Potentially more on that later, as I have been drafting up some lore on her and the other two previously mentioned characters.

[odybee]

Alrighty! I’ve got both their profile pictures ready for when Art Fight fixes up whatever issues they’re having with their email provider, so here are the refs of both Piper and Alec. Divide is for Breaking Point spoilers!

Piper Pointe is a mercenary with an extremely small stature, coming in at only 2.5in tall. She has no idea how it happened, only that it is somehow vaguely connected to her previous line of work. At odds with the new world she finds herself in, she often comes off as extremely rude, vulgar, and aggressive to anyone she meets, but she wasn’t always like this. Back when she was part of a team, her leadership skills brought her and her squad through many a battle even as the pressure would have been too much for most to bear. Sometimes this part of Pointe shines through, though very rarely, especially now that everyone is a potential threat. A cornered animal without its pack has nothing to lose, so why not make a joke of it all?

When she isn’t being a little roach of a woman, she’s practical, realistic, and surprisingly understanding. She went into the military because she wanted to protect people, after all. It’s another reason why she feels so betrayed when Kyle and Grey treat her the way they did. Deep down, she wants to believe that Alec is different, but experience has proven time and again that every person she meets always ends up being the same no matter how much they deny it initially. The scars adorning her limbs, body and mind are proof enough that perhaps she was never meant to be part of a team..

! I will add more to this reference later to include her scars. For now, just know that she has two big scars on her right leg, one on her left arm (partially revealed in this ref), a few medium-sized, circular ones dotting her upper arms/shoulders, and a whole bunch of smaller ones on the rest of her body.

Alec Yrmec is an unremarkable 9th-grade chemistry teacher that does his due diligence and doesn’t have much to complain about. He loves his job, has a small but good group of friends, and works to keep as much drama out of his life as possible. His family makes this quite a task, as they somehow manage to make his life a live soap opera at every possible turn. His half-brother Grey is one of the few people from his family that he enjoys living by, even if they don’t talk terribly often.

Alec’s biology teacher friend Sarah discovers Piper on the floor of his study while both are up late grading papers one night. Alec nearly crushes Piper to death on accident during the ensuing struggle to capture her, and he still feels awful about it. He’s scared to admit it, but Alec has an awful lot of unresolved issues that result in a fear of abandonment, and a *lot* of aggression boiling just beneath his calm, introverted self. Without a means to properly vent and unwilling to burden his friends with his issues, they manifest in short bursts of clinginess and/or anger. Especially inconvenient for someone like Piper, who is too small to resist. He just wants to hold her and keep her safe.. can you really blame him?

Sooo yea! These two are currently living together under Alec’s roof. His chapters are still a ways away from being implemented in Breaking Point, but I’m so interested in developing his character and learning more about him as I write that he’s the captor I’ve drawn the most. More to come in the future!

[odybee]

Finished Kyle’s sketch page! Breaking Point spoilers ahead!

As you could also see from the top left corner, there are two more characters that I have yet to mention by name! Grey is the third caretaker that I’d mentioned before the Scuttle post, and Sarah is someone else entirely (ooooo intrigue!) They’ll get their own sketch pages eventually, but that won’t be for a while yet. I was just so excited about Alec’s part of the story that his existence was divulged really early. My bad!

I think the hardest part of this sheet by comparison to Alec’s is how much more touchy Kyle is since him constantly grabbing Piper means I have a lot of hands to draw. Hands are.. kind of difficult, I think! But my *gosh* do I feel great about drawing them properly when they turn out. I’m especially happy with Kyle’s pointing hand in the lower right sketch, because I tend to avoid lateral/medial views of the hands a *lot,* and I think that one turned out pretty good!

Also don’t mind the sketch with really scratchy shading, I got carried away in the zone ;.)

[odybee]

I drew up a banner featuring two of several characters I've been meaning to make refs/write things for for a long time. Their names are Alec (the big) and Piper (the small). She really thought she was slick.. too bad she forgot to check both flanks.

Piper's ref sheet is actually sketched up and in the process of being lined, but I've been busy with other things this month so I haven't been able to finish it.

[odybee]

I colored those sketches I was talking about. On second look, Piper is definitely more of a chaotic neutral. Putting a divider here because she really does lack a filter, and she says something really gross (God help Alec).

Piper's blaring red becomes a little overwhelming here. Not sure if I should tone it down in the future or keep it because it makes her seem more prominent despite being a fraction of Alec's height. Not to mention that bright red and calm blue describes how Piper and Alec's personalities mesh together perfectly. That is to say that they go together like oil and water, heh.

[odybee]

I've been spending some time writing and re-reading Breaking Point since, heaven help me, chapter 4 is published and chapter 5 is in the works. In the process, I've spackled a few minor plot holes and dialed back on the exposition to generate a little more tension and give me some opportunities to have our current active characters learn about each other organically. It has been interesting to look back on my earlier chapters since there are months between each wave of motivation, which causes little changes in my writing style and workflow between each one, aheha.

Also, I've almost finished a sketch sheet for Piper's current caretaker, Kyle! He's a nerdy weirdo that likes bugs and lacks basic social skills, so he replaces them with info dumps about his favorite crawlies (just like me for real). 'Tis a lonely but productive existence he leads until Piper crashes into his life, and though he won't show it beyond the cold lenses of his eyes, he can barely contain his excitement at seeing what the future could hold for the two of them.

Here's a sneak peak of the sketch sheet, the full version of which will include some more info about him:

There is one more caretaker that I have yet to draw or even speak of, but he will have to wait for a later date. I said I would talk more about Scuttle ages ago, and I've made you all wait long enough!

[odybee]

One exercise that I find super useful when writing characters in a story is to take note of little details about them as they come to mind. So, here's a little list of assorted Piper quirks!

Tries to keep her preferences and fears under wraps, but anyone with a watchful eye could spot the patterns in her behavior when she's presented with such things. She feels most loved when people notice the patterns and act on them in her favor.

Absolutely disgusted by and terrified of grapes.

Not a wine connoisseur by any means, but likes a good glass of Merlot.

Refuses to smoke.

Can speak fluent Russian. This was a necessity for her work in the military, as Russia was where she spent the majority of her time in service.

Shrugs off cold weather, but can't stand too much heat.

Favorite snack food is raspberries. As a toy soldier, she also likes them as a meal.

Knows her way around most firearms, how to service them, and how to fix common malfunctions.

She invents a new form of martial arts called 'Scuttle' specifically to get away from ginormous humans. It uses two needles, one with one pointed end and the other with two. More on Scuttle in a later post!

Also, I imagine that instead of using a hook and string like a normal little person, Piper either has a needle and string that she hucks like a harpoon javelin, or she ditches the string entirely and uses her pair of needles like little ice picks. It's not that she wants to wreck the furniture (she totally does), she just never found a hook to use! She couldn't possibly make one either, that'd be preposterous..