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internetgiraffekid1673 · 7 months ago

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Who's your fave oc at the moment?? Tell me about them!

Hoo boy, here we go. Get ready for BACKSTORY!

The short answer is a pair of girls named CJ and Ren otherwise known as Cleric and Watchdog who are college students in a universe with superheroes and started freelancing for those superheroes as a way to make some extra cash. Have a picture of both their regular identities and their alter egos. Designs are still being workshopped. Also, I've been experimenting with different pens on my drawing app, so the artstyle'a a bit all over the place. I'm also bad at character proportions, but their heights are closest to correct in the alter ego picture.

The long answer? Is long. So I'll put it below a cut. :)

So, I have OCs for specific fandoms, but my current favorite OCs aren't actually attached to anything. They just live in a generic superhero verse that could honestly be anything from DC to Powerpuff girls. It wouldn't change much, but I do have some light worldbuilding around the city they live in.

Chorustown is your pretty par for the course comic book city with superheroes and supervillains and a new upstart team of anti-heroes that are basically violent robin hood (steal from the rich, give to the poor). Suffice it to say that whenever all these factions fight each other, it breaks shit, so renter's insurance ain't cheap. Also, suffice it to say that the heroes involved are constantly getting injured, as well as needing information on the ever-shifting threats.

Enter our protagonists: Serenity "Ren" Summers and Cory "CJ" Jack are a pair of college students with a lot of skills and not a lot of money, who are willing to do some questionable shit for income! Also, they're childhood besties turned girlfriends.

During their sophomore year, CJ and Ren realized that while nobody in the civilian sphere would be willing to hire undergrads and actually PAY them, superheroes must have much more limited options, what with the need to keep their identities secret and not have people ask questions. This is also a 'verse where superheroes aren't on great terms with regular law enforcement, so getting caught doing something illegal, even if it helps a lot of people, is a very real threat. It leaves superheroes without a whole lot of options when they need an expert for something in their superhero work. And CJ and Ren both happen to be notable experts.

Ren is an engineering major with a split focus in software and mechanical engineering, as well as some dabbling into social engineering. She's got tech chops and computer knowledge out the wazoo. She's also lived in Chorustown her whole life and knows the city like the back of her hand. Throw in the fact that she's an avid artist who spent (and still does spend) a lot of time sneaking around to make graffiti murals, and you have someone who is basically a surveillance GOD. She can hack anything she wants, follow people around without them ever noticing, and she's capable of designing tech like trackers and bugs (and posseses the skill to plant those). Ren is also a habitually nosy person who has always kept track of significant going ons, for superheroes and villains, major political players, celebrities, and her personal life. She is so uniquely qualified to gather information on people that it isn't even funny. And it goes both ways. She can help someone hide from surveillance just as easily as she can snoop out a hider because she knows exactly where nobody will look.

CJ is a very, very talented med student. She's been into medicine and biology her whole life, with a particular interest in the physiological differences between superheroes and regular people. This includes aliens, animal based powers, meta-humans, mutants---you name it, and she's probably hyperfixated on its biology for at least a month and retained that information. This means she's also dabbled in a lot of other weird disciplines like vet med and astrobiology (which would absolutely be a scientific discipline in a universe where aliens invade on a monthly basis). Add in her medical skills and her technologically inclined girlfriend, and she's got the skills and the tools to treat anything from a bloody nose to a broken appendage to a physiologically based power defect to a species specific disease for just about anybody.

The two of them decided that if they can't get stable income like normal people, they'll get it from superheroes, who will be forced to come to them because there are no other options! But obviously, they can't just publicly be helping out superheroes. That puts soooo many targets on their backs. They'd have villains, law enforcement, and even other superheroes after them (CJ and Ren don't really make a distinction between heroes and anti-heroes; as long as you're helping people, they're chill with you. That would make the more self-righteous folks of both categories pretty pissed to know that their confidants were helping people on the other side of the debate). So they'll need alter egos, and they'll need to be secretive about their base of operations.

And thus, Watchdog and Cleric were born! But the thing is, these two are REALLY paranoid about getting caught because they don't have supet powers to protect themselves from villains or even social power to protect themselves from the legal system. Remember, these two are broke undergrads who lowkey stole all their equipment from their university (it's technically all available for student use, but not in the quantities or for the purposes they use it for).

So they have a lot of fun measures in place. First off, you probably noticed, but their costumes cover their whole bodies and faces and are loose enough on their frames that you can't really tell anything about their body types beyond their height. Secondly, they're both utilizing voice filters that both pitch their voices low enough to sound like dudes and make them sound somewhat robotic so their tone doesn't come through. The settings on the filter can be adjusted as needed (CJ can turn off the tone modulator if she needs to sound soothing, or Ren can change the pitch if she needs to sound a specific age or gender as a distraction). So nobody knows what they look like or what they sound like, and most people assume they're men. Thirdly, Ren has designed some gadgets that disable trackers or bugs planted on their person. Nobody can follow them either.

Their biggest security measure, though, was how they revealed themselves to the super community. Instead of some big announcement, they just stalked the local Chorustown superheroes until opportunity arose. For Ren, it even functioned as advertising her skills since she's basically selling her stalking capability.

In the first fight that a hero got badly injured, CJ basically popped out of the woodwork in her Cleric getup, dragged them into a safe and hidden spot, delivered immediate and effective field first aid, and left the coordinates of an abandoned apartment complex that they've turned into her clinic, as well as a short letter offering her services.

Ren literally listened in on the resident supers conversations until they expressed frustration at not having a particular piece of information, at which point she helpfully left them an anonymous tip as well as a burner phone number, a ghost email account, and some coords if they ever needed info again. Both instances were basically a free trial, since their letters of introduction also specified that payment in some form would be required for later assistance.

Also, because Ren is a damn good stalker and because CJ will have personally treated many heroes wounds and logged their identifying physical and medical traits, it doesn't take them long before they put together, like, everybody's secret identities. Heroes and villains. With a couple of exceptions on the villainous side, since they don't directly interact with them. But there's basically no hiding from them.

Most people also don't know they exist! Other heroes that the Chorustown protectors interact with do question where they're getting treated for injuries after really big fights, and villains know that SOMEONE keeps giving heroes information that foils their plans, but they don't really come to the conclusion that it's an independent party. They always make incorrect assumptions. Like "Oh, they must have a family member or non-combat teammate that fixes them up after fights!" or "Oh, clearly we have a mole who's being bribed or threatened," or "The Chorustown heroes have more powers than they're letting on." Outside heroes only really learn of these two when the Chorustown regulars talk about them, and only really believe it when Ren and CJ see fit to contact them for whatever reason. It's honestly hilarious.

Everybody who has been contacted by CJ and Ren knows where Watchdog's dropspots are and where Cleric's clinic is, but have no idea what they do otherwise. The clinic and the dropspots are nowhere near the university or where their apartment, so people have no reason to assume it's them. They have ghost emails and burner phones, but they're regularly replaced, and Ren is good at cybersecurity, so there's no tracking it that way.

Most people guess that they're associated in some way, since two freelance vigilantes appearing at similar times operating out of the same city with similar technology would be a bit weird otherwise, but it's also assumed to be strictly professional. Nobody would ever guess that they know each other in their civilian lives, much less that they're girlfriends.

People also realize Watchdog and Cleric know their secret identities (and probably other secret stuff, too) since they've been contacted as civilians, but they also aren't overly threatened by it. The two of them are clearly working for money, but they aren't selling any of the heroes' secrets and are honestly very trustworthy and confidential about it. There was paranoia for the first little bit, but it quickly just became a fact of life.

That's pretty much the whole backstory unless you want to know

Other interesting things about them that don't have a whole lot to do with their whole second job shtick!

Ren:

Ren loves art in all forms, but especially painting. She'll paint on anything she can get her hands on. Her notes, random walls and floors, parts of the school, and any of her possessions. The skirt pictured in her drawing is her own handiwork, and most of her other articles of clothing look similar. Most of their dishes have been custom painted with food safe paint. And as previously mentioned, she's a vandal who puts gorgeous murals and fun zany tags in places that they really shouldn't be.

She's rather anti-social. Ren is aggressively introverted and doesn't have a whole lot of patience for stupid people. She's got a pretty quick temper on her and can be very moody. She recognizes that all traits make her just as unpleasant for other people to be around her as it is for her to be around other people. So she mostly just avoids others. She has like 5 people in her social circle, and she's happy to mooch off CJ if she needs anybody else.

Ren has a lovely voice but has no technical knowledge of music. She just likes to sing.

Ren's a major bookworm, but she mostly reads on her phone. People think she's addicted to social media, but she's usually just reading a book. And she'll read literally anything. With enthusiasm. Sure she can argue classics with the best of them, but she reads so much that she also: can get deep into the mechanics of a 1980s space opera you've never heard of; happily engages in ship wars over the generic YA dystopia that's a disguise for a generic YA love triangle; keeps a running list of every perfectly mapped out hero's journey fantasy story she's read; has consumed an entire encyclopedia and REMEMBERS it; spent one memorable week reading nothing but foreign cookbooks; accidentally befriended her computer science professor over a shared love for tragic westerns; and has a categorized list of historical romances with metrics including historical accuracy, how smutty it is, plot outside the romance, time period, location, and social class of the characters, how healthy the romance is, and how compelling.

Her favorite snacks are plain baby carrots and straight honey. She enjoys traumatizing people at parties by drizzling honey straight into her mouth like whipped cream, and she eats so many carrots that multiple have questioned how she hasn't turned orange.

CJ:

CJ is into fashion, but not like trends or anything. She likes to look good while still having her stuff ethically sourced and affordable. She does a lot of thrift shopping and still manages to dress really good (or at least I think so). Her default and favorite style is punk-inspired bad bitch that, for lack of a better term, is a bit on the slutty side, but she does like to experiment. One of these days I'll probably draw lots of different civilian outfits for both of them.

CJ is the opposite of Ren in that she is a total social butterfly. Not only is she suuuuuper extroverted, she also isn't even a little shy, will strike up a conversation with anybody, and knows basically everyone. This also means she has friends from all walks of life, which gets really useful when Watchdog needs informants. The little old Mexican lady next door, the corner store butcher, the chronic smoker at the homeless shelter, the thrift shop owner they both pretend isn't selling drugs, the local town council member, the perpetually sleep deprived culinary arts student who likes to "experiment" in the school kitchens at 3 a.m., the league of legends nerds who always seem to be online, the manic party girls who keep inviting her to a night on the town---all of them get more information than people would expect, and CJ knows and is on good terms with all of them. And not for an ulterior motive, she just genuinely likes people.

CJ has extreme ADHD. She's lucky Ren has a scary good memory and would never let her forget her Adderall, otherwise she's be in trouble. As it stands, she still is rather hyperactive and has a. . .not short, but definitely jumpy attention span.

She's a plant mom. Their apartment has a ton of plants. She really likes ferns and shrubs, but they also have flowers, succulents, grasses, and literally everything else.

CJ plays the violin, but only in fiddle, bluegrass, and trad contexts, so she can barely read sheet music and learns almost everything by ear.

She hates wearing the color purple but has deliberately bought purple clothing solely for Ren to steal.

Both

Are self-proclaimed socialists who participate in a lot of fundraising, activism, and volunteer work.

Have another childhood best friend named Eli, who is a self-proclaimed anarchist and a business major at their rival university. They still get together all the time. He also knows everything about their double life. There's no secrets in this circle. They're all super close, but they have their favorite ways of hanging out. He and Ren bond by going on vandalism field trips where he puts up politically motivated rants, and she makes it look pretty. He and CJ bond by regularly forsaking civilization and going hiking or camping or just chilling in the woods. They all bond by drinking cheap wine mixed with Dr. Pepper while playing video games and doing their homework and drunkenly going on tirades about rich assholes.

He's also shipped them since middle school when he realized they liked each other, but he didn't want to meddle. He got increasingly frustrated by the mutual pining throughout their high school years and finally engineered a situation at their graduation party where they were locked in a closet together for an hour and warned them that if they didn't confess he was going to drug them and write it in permanent marker on their foreheads. They literally came out of the closet after sharing their first kiss and are willing to kill God for him in thanks.

They're both really messy, but in an organized chaos kind of way. Everything in their home does have a place, it's just not always the place that you'd expect. The place for dirty socks, for example, is "on the living room floor in a haphazard pile," and the place for tissue boxes is "three in every room in easily accessible places at all times."

Both of them can cook but prefer to just eat whatever unprepared food is lying around, and will try any combination if it means they don't have to cook. An average dinner in the Jack-Summers household is a bowl of uncooked pasta dipped in peanut butter like it's nacho cheese with a side of bananas.

They really really like cats. They are both allergic to cats.

They're not practicing any religion, but kind of both passively believe that there's probably a capital-G God and also that other lowercase-g gods exist.

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