#sensu saizō

[evilkitten3]

Any spicy lore about your ocs, their story, or the world they live in?

well, there are three main sets right now. the toxic butterfly set (kochome, maiye, kadzya, jaren, nikoli, kagura, etc.), the shifters set (lev, meiling, xiuying, aabir, etc.), and the kawa kara umi he set (shashō, saizō, kōka, etc.). that’s the order their various worlds were made in, as well as the order of which one has the most lore.

the world that kawa kara umi he takes place in is easily the least developed, mostly because it’s both the newest and the one i’ve spend the least time on, but also because i haven’t fully figured out what i want to do with it. it began as a dark parody of naruto, exploring the realities of being child soldiers under the command of a fascist government, but i’ve gone back and forth on whether i want to keep the element of fantasy that naruto added or if i want something more based on real history, with a focus on a world based off of real life japan (from the sengoku period to the edo period) or possibly even actually taking place in japan. that last one could be extra interesting if i set it in the edo period, especially if i had the characters towards the end of the story coming to terms with the decline of demand for shinobi and what the future might hold. but i still haven’t put too much thought into it - it’s fun to play with, but the other two take up more space in my brain.

the shifters set has been through a few changes, most notably in terms of plot - in part because there currently isn’t one (oops). it takes place in modern day america (specifically the san francisco bay area in california, because i wanted to work in familiar terrain) but deals with other dimensions and the like, so the setting isn’t always consistent. the one thing i’ve been sure of the whole time is that i want a medley of different mythologies coming to life (this was very much inspired by rick riordan, if you hadn’t already guessed), but with christianity being on the same level as the others. frequently in mythology related stories you see people, gods, and monsters from all sorts of religious (loki from norse myths, apollo from the greeks, horus from ancient egypt, golems from jewish lore, jinn from islamic and pre-islamic arabian lore, etc.), but christianity is never put on the same level. and i thought to myself: y’know what? jesus is here. and he’s the guy running the hot dog stand outside the community college whose nametag says jesús and who knows ikea like the back of his hand. and the gods aren’t just in america because - they’re actually everywhere because travel is neat and who’s gonna stop them. also anansi is there because i grew up with my librarian reading those stories to me and his wife (aso i think) is probably my favorite character from anything ever.

the toxic butterfly universe has come a long way - i created these guys back in like middle school or something. maybe even before that. pretty much every character is massively different from who they started off as (kagura used to be a demon, nikoli and jaren used to share a body, maiye and her group were initially background characters that were an inside joke for my high school friend group, kochome was going to have a poisonous butterfly tattoo.... also most of them were japanese bc i was in an anime phase when i first made them and initially planned for it to be something like an isekai situation). i do currently have several plot points for the tb universe that i’m probably going to stick with, although the overarching plot is still pretty shaky. but some of it is still the same: jaren’s name hasn’t changed even once since i made him, kagura and nikoli were always going to be an item, the world the story takes place in was always the seven kingdoms, nikoli and jaren always had a fire/ice dynamic, maiye was always going to be the rose-haired sweetie character that turned out to be neither of those things (at least, after she was upgraded from background character to supporting character but before she became a main character), hector was always going to be the heroine’s (kochome’s) main love interest with family issues, brooke was always going to be a queen (although initially she was the queen of one of the kingdoms, whereas now she’s “queen” of a rebellion), etc. so a lot has changed, and a lot has stayed the same.

and then there are the hawthorne knights, who are technically a part of the toxic butterfly story, but are important enough to me to get a side story about their cool adventures. because they’re all lgbt+ and at least half of them were made when i was dicking around with heroforge.

[evilkitten3]

i was working on my translation of kakashi hiden last night when it suddenly occured to me that i should make my own shinobi story (which i am tentatively calling 川から海へ (kawa kara umi he - “from the river to the sea”) that pays homage to the original naruto series and also mocks the hell out of what it turned into. so now i have several new characters (if you can figure out where the names come from, you get brownie points):

Uzushio Shashō (渦潮叉焼) - The main character. Somewhat dense but caring. Wants to become stronger. Tends to cause problems.

Sensu Saizō (扇子才蔵) - Shashō’s rival and teammate. Appears cold and distant but is mostly just awkward. Descended from a long line of shinobi. Only member of his team who seems to understand what “stealth” is.

Akino Kōka (秋野黄花) - Shashō’s other teammate as well as his crush. Has a crush on Saizō. Does not like being called a kunoichi bc she thinks the word is lazy. From a civilian family.

Tanigawa Enoki (谷川榎) - Shashō, Saizō, and Kōka’s team leader. Makes up a new backstory each time he’s asked.

Ise Yain (伊勢夜陰) - A quiet girl from Shashō’s graduating class, who some think have a crush on him. Doesn’t get along with her family.

Yasue Tadashi (安江雅) - A rowdy boy on Yain’s team. Likes dogs. Constantly bickers with his teammates.

Mizuo Moritaka (水男守孝) - A quiet boy on Yain’s team. Doesn’t like talking. Generally uses sign language, so his teammates interpret for him.

Sekiyō Ai (夕陽藍) - Yain, Tadashi, and Moritaka’s team leader. Can’t really understand any of her students, but does her best.

Yamato Nareshika (山和麋) - A genius. Either likes sleeping or is seriously depressed, but no one’s sure. In spite of his intellect, he has trouble understanding why people sometimes get offended by some of the things he says.

Harumichi Seiryō (春道蜻蛉) - Nareshika’s longtime best friend and teammate. A friendly boy whose weight frequently causes opponents to underestimate him.

Shōji Kamika (精進紙和) - Nareshika’s teammate and Kōka’s childhood best friend before their falling out. Currently Kōka’s rival. Claims to have feelings for Saizō but secretly likes Kōka.

Kirigakure Kinōgi (霧隠昨日偽) - Nareshika, Seiryō, and Kamika’s teacher. Sees potential in Nareshika but tends to ignore the other two thirds of his group.