#thank you jenna!! 💞💘💖💕💘💞💕💖🥰🥰🥰🥰

[kikuism]

oooh oc questions!! 1, 4, 5, 11, 13, 21, 23, 25, 30, 34, 37, 38, 41, 43, 44, 48 💕💕

hi jenna!! yay oc questions 💕✨ this is long!!

1) my first ever oc...........i hglsjfhslfhhfhfh i've never talked about this and i'm so embarrassed to but hgjshfhf ok it was 2012 and i discovered wattpad, and decided to write my own story there and publish it and make all my school friends read it hgkshfhf i'm dying. her name is (was??) serena brewer and she lived in new york. im actually dying from the cringe remembering all this <3

4) a character i rarely talk about: omg there's quite a few :( noriko, zen, hajime, shou, ren!! i really don't write them very often (haven't touched ren in agesss i'm sorry sweet boy...) the chokehold kiku kou naomi kaname and aida have on me is too strong hgkdhfh. noriko is kou's childhood bestie, zen is the shogun's son (kiku is the emperor's son, so there's a 'rivalry' there, or so naomi thinks, kiku couldn't care less) hajime is zen’s right hand man, shou is their anaemic insomniac goth friend / zen's advisor, the three of them are tight knit and have a borderline homoerotic friendship.....oh and ren is kiku and naomi's childhood friend! he's like a golden retriever in human form and is the reason kiku and naomi are somewhat 'humbled' and not like the other wealthy kids hgjshfhfhf ren comes from an average middle class family so they're a little more self aware of their privilege because of their association with him.

5) if i could make only one of my ocs well known....omg this is so hard.......i would have to say either kou or kaname. i don't claim to write kou's blindness well and i know i have a lot of work to do in that regard still but it would be so nice to have more disabled characters in mainstream media. and kaname because i would love to be known for writing an unhinged female character <3 i have such a vision of her in my head that still needs a lot of work to be translated into the page but i'm trying my best. also i want fanart <3 when it comes to female characters it's just a whole other game for me, the bar is so much higher, i grew up reading so many mcs that just all read the same after a while, so i want to stand out with my own girl characters. easier said than done though. like i don't want kaname's grossness and rage and ruthlessness to be just surface level and reduced to the 'girlboss' brand.

11) an oc who's considered 'sunshine': kiku in the og story world 😭😭💕💕💕🫶🫶🫶🫶☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️ this first version of kiku is the purest and makes me cry if i think about him for too long. he is Babey™. ultimate sweetie pie. he's soooo (⁠๑⁠•⁠﹏⁠•⁠) and just wants to hold kou's hand. this is the first ever art of kiku by @hinamie 😭😭😭😭💕💕💕💕 HE IS BABEY

13) troublemaker ocs: KANAME, and sometimes noriko and sometimes she can convince kou to be her accomplice. kaname will start a fire if she thinks it's going to help her and noriko's antics are less life threatening, like 'let's sneak into this area that's off limits bc i want to see what's there' <3

21) most artistic oc: oooh okay, this is hard. i suppose kiku and naomi are quite artistic since they grew up trained in traditional arts like calligraphy and flower arrangement, but they both approached these arts in different ways, naomi with a cold and technical finesse and kiku with a more emotional and personal touch. as a result, naomi was lauded for being more 'correct' and doing it the 'right way' whereas kiku injected himself into his creations, which felt more authentic and alive but less technically impressive. i think they both have self esteem issues stemming from this strict upbringing, so when they do approach art again when they're older it's with a little trepidation and a fear of messing up. naomi plays violin too.

23) an oc who has changed from their initial conception: ooooh. i would have to say kou! his name was going to be yuki before i settled on kou and his color scheme was going to be deep indigo instead of olive. but the biggest difference i noticed in kou from his conception to now is that, before, he was very flirtatious. i used to describe him as a flirt. that's toned down quite a bit. or it's become very subtle. i think this is partly because i've grown as a writer so things aren't as 'in your face' as they were 4 years ago (i hope), but as kou’s character fleshed out over time i saw him as quite reserved and polite to a fault instead of so forward. also as part of the staff of the imperial household i think being so forward is more of a risk than anything else. so casual touching would definitely be a no. he still does disarm kiku with his words but that's something that only starts to happen after they've grown close and not something kou does when they're just getting to know each other.

25) the oc that resembles me the most: are we even.....is this really a question........ it's kiku 100%. i gave kiku all my anxiety and soft spoken voice. that's why he's so easy to write, i don't even have to think about it, it's never hard. and that's why every single other character has really made me work hard to write them because i gave kiku so much of myself hgkdhfh

30) oc who would have a secret stuffed animal collection: aida!!!! it wouldn't even be a secret. her poor wallet <3

34) any twin characters: I DO!!!!!! or i did......i don't write about them anymore......but yes their names are vatra and aralu. i wrote them primarily before i ever came up with kiku and kou and all the rest, i was obsessed with them. i actually wish i had put some more thought into their names though bc i really just went with opposing names in different cultures and it clashes so much to put them in any one setting, they never feel like they fit....but their names are stuck now. art by @casanovakevin

37) an oc who is not quite human.......shou. his backstory is that he wandered a little too deep into the woods as a child and returned not quite the same. he's haunted by departed souls and can even summon them for his bidding at a steep cost. it's always mental anguish for him. he's very goth and emo as a result.

38) which oc would be the best dancer.......kiku and naomi could have, they certainly have the type of parents who would enroll their children in ballet lessons, but that window has long since closed. but actually, when i think who could be the best dancer, i always think kou. i know it would be harder for him because his blindness affects his balance, but he is so graceful and lithe. i'm thinking of classical dance though. for modern dance i think noriko can definitely bust some moves.

41) YESSS!!! i have been so fortunate and blessed with a plethora of fanart :'))) i owe so much to @hinamie for bringing my characters to life with so much skill and beauty 🤎 literally literally a dream come true for me.

and my commission from @viria, which, since i was literally in high school, always seemed like such an impossible dream for me.......

43) do i have a certain type when it comes to creating ocs, do i favor certain traits or tropes......i definitely give them all realistic hair and eye colors. it's so funny, you'd think, having watched anime for like 8 years now, i would be desensitized to giving my characters wacky hair/eye colors, but it doesn't work for me at all. i can't even give them streaks. it's just black or brown, and with brown there's light brown (kou) or dark brown (noriko). but i definitely have a thing for scars, and will give them to characters should the opportunity present itself. i also like to repress my characters in certain ways so that they quietly suffer......whether it's a forbidden crush or a desperate need for validation. i like to have them quietly ache and seethe and simmer in these emotions. when it comes to tropes.....i love a good almost-kiss, where the tension is ramped up to 11, or when characters are so close they can touch if they want to but they don't. i love zooming in on the longing but not delivering. that makes the actual eventual release that much sweeter.

44) something i like about my ocs in general.....oh that's hard. i usually don't like talking about what i like about my writing because it just feels so self centered and like i'm bragging. i guess i can acknowledge when it's good, like a good description or whatnot. but for my characters .....hmm.......i guess i like that there's no toxic masculinity. they're not afraid to show their emotions. kiku is very sensitive. kou always talks about his troubles to noriko or his mother, head in her lap. they're vulnerable with their feelings. overall, i like how all my characters aren't afraid to express their messier emotions. i think i'm getting better at making them messier and more embarrassing. that's something i was scared to do for the longest time, i wanted them to be polished and perfect all the time.

48) oc who is a perfect cinnamon roll, too good for this world, too pure: kiku in the og story world!!!!! 🫶✨💕🍬 he's just like a bambi. curious, soft heart, timid, afraid, naive.

[kikuism]

hi mariam!! 💖💖💖 i have an assortment of embroidery-related questions :'0 do you keep a queue of all your future project ideas or pick on a whim? is there a dedicated embroidery zone that you keep to? do you like to have a full rainbow of threads at your disposal or do you select colors based on the project you're working on? what's your favorite project so far been and do you have any techniques you still want to try?? i love your embroidery sm and i'm in constant awe of your growth 🧵💛

hi jenna!! 🤎🤎🤎 aww thank you so much, i'm so thrilled and touched you love my embroidery 🥺💕💕💕

i make up designs on a whim!! i just think about cute cartoon/toy characters and design something based on that. i've actually been pretty pleased at my designs since i'm not artistically inclined in that sense ... i don't have an artist's eye for design at all but every hoop i've made is something i personally find cute and appealing and something i would want to hang up on my wall so it feels authentic. i have multiple designs in queue so when it's time for a new project i just pick whatever one i feel most excited to work on.

i embroider on my desk! it's actually the reason i got a desk hfjshf before that i was embroidering on my bed without a strong focused light source (horrible!!!) so a desk and a lamp has helped me a lot. it's just that sitting on the desk chair for long stretches of time cramps up my legs/feet, but i guess that encourages me to take a break and stretch for a bit. but yeah, a desk helps me focus much more on my stitches and keeps everything neat and laid out in front of me—i was always always losing my needle on my bed.

i choose colors based on my project!! i like to keep my desk as clean as possible because having too many skeins around me just doesn't do well for my headspace. so before i start i pick out my colors and lay them out to the side.

oooh okay so i have two hoops i'm really really proud of and which i absolutely adore :')))

like, i can't believe i made these?? they're so cute. the care bears one was such a labor of love too and i couldn't be more thrilled at the result. and it was so frustrating because in the middle of stitching that hoop i had to throw away my old needles which had rusted and finding a new one from the pack was a nightmare since i was so used to the old sizes. i finally found one though and i remember stitching really angrily hgjshfhf like stabbing the fabric as i went along bc i was so frustrated since the stitches weren't looking Right.... nevertheless i persevered. so this hoop was definitely a journey but it came out so beautiful and it was worth all the frustration. and the hello kitty one feels so special bc it speaks to my love of reading which i absolutely adore :')) it's such a me hoop!!

for techniques, i think i really should branch out and try more stitches besides my beloved split stitch 😪 it's literally the only stitch i use in my projects hgksjfjf it's so simple and looks so good, nothing complicated about it. i really want to practice embroidering text though! it still scares me and it's not as neat as i would want it to be. oh and embroidery hoops also come in these cute mini sizes which you can use to make necklaces/keychains which is something i really want to try since they're much more affordable than a full size hoop. the only problem is that stitching on a really small space freaks me out, like there's no room. but look how cute these are...

i really want to try this in the future, it'll give me practice for stitching small and it's so cute.