#tommy karalis

[whypolar]

Reasons various IC Characters wear makeup

Maria: trying seem ‘professional’ and ‘put-together’ while also being unremarkable and avoiding scrutiny, likes the idea of ‘concealing her real face’ from observers

Cindy: fashion, artistic impulse, self-expression, ‘why WOULDN’T I want to have neon purple eyelids’

Felicity: habit developed during early gender exploration, ‘idk what I do is super easy and it looks good so why stop’, increases likelihood of being correctly gendered at a glance when wearing “masculine” clothing

Ravi: fashion, anxiety about perceived flaws in skin, desire to look good, fear of being caught in an unexpected photograph

Jean: trying as hard as possible not to think about getting old oh man oh god oh man

Claire: Ravi and Jean’s reasons combined

Tommy: projecting a sense of being flamboyant and disruptive, hiding or accentuating signs of poor physical health depending on mood, gender fuckery, making himself attractive or repulsive to different kinds of people

Sam: grew up in pop punk scene and now has a pathological need to wear eyeliner or he’ll die

(Additional notes: Lila very rarely wears makeup and Nicole never does.)

[neuroleptix]

Nasty Boys Smoke Inside, Ruin Apartment

[whypolar]

Tommy has exactly one moral. A singular scruple.

[whypolar]

You were laying on the carpet Like you’re satin in a coffin. You said, “Do you believe what you’re sayin’?” Yeah right now, but not that often.

Are you dead or are you sleepin’? Are you dead or are you sleepin’? Are you dead or are you sleepin’? God, I sure hope you are dead.

[whypolar]

Tommy not only wears gloves in this scene, he’s wearing some kinda ~high performance professional racing gloves~ because he’s a tryhard ricer piece of shit

[whypolar]

[whypolar]

is tommy/simone genderfluid? why's their feminine name in quotes?

He’s bigenderish but leans male/masculine. Simone is his birth name. It’s in quotes because he still uses it and likes it well enough, but it’s not his primary/”real” name, if that makes sense. I suppose it’s similar to treating your birth name as like... a drag persona or something.

The reason I specify he doesn’t mind is because:1) It’s one of the more obvious indicators of him being Not Binary that occurs in the story itself2) I wouldn’t want to include a character’s disliked “deadname” in my writing if I could avoid it. Makes me feel a little weird. People are constantly asking trans people about our “real” names so it’s a little spitefully satisfying to say “no, actually, that’s not this character’s real name and you don’t get to know it”

[whypolar]

Character Creation Tag

Was tagged in this a few days ago by @diseonfire

(If I tag you in this and you don’t want to do it for any reason don’t worry about it. I just picked some people who sprung to mind.)

I’m going to use Maria for this.

1. What was the first element of your OC that you remember considering (name, appearance, backstory, etc.)?

Appearance. She was one of the first four IC characters I designed, before IC was actually a thing. Maria, Vikas and Ravi were all conceived as cousins, and they were all based on the same old character from when I was in highschool.

2. Did you design them with any other characters/OCs from their universe in mind?

Yes. Pretty much all the characters in IC were built with each other in mind, since it’s a story about family.

I would say that she links most closely with Tommy and Lila (since they are her most immediate family members), followed by Ravi (since they have a few very important things in common).

3. How did you choose their name?

I don’t remember exactly how I picked them, but she and her siblings all have names derived from figures in Christianity. Maria is easily the most blatant choice you can get for that lmao

Karalis is a greek surname (constructed from borrowed turkish afiak). It has a number of meanings in other languages, too, which may not have any shared etymology but are still pretty neat imho - latvian karalis and latin caralis.

4. In developing their backstory, what elements of the world they live in played the most influential parts?

f a m i l y

5. Is there any significance behind their hair colour?

Red Brown Looks Cool.

6. Is there any significance behind their eye colour?

Brown Eyes Are Common.

7. Is there any significance behind their height?

Heights for ic were decided collectively based on 1) structure of the family tree and 2) visual variety in character design.

She’s on the shorter side, like Lila, while Tommy and Silas are both taller like their father.

8. What (if anything) do you relate to within their character/story?

She’s one of the characters who I consider to be more ‘like me’, particularly in regards to self-perception and how she relates to other people (or doesn’t).

9. Are they based off of you, in some way?

I would argue most of my characters are based on me, even the ones that don’t resemble me at all by the end. I’ve only ever been myself. Maybe that’s just being pedantic though.

The very earliest incarnation of her relationship with Cindy in IC was basically a cautionary tale, directed at myself, about selfishness. Since I was writing that version while in the middle of a long-term abusive relationship, I eventually had to gut all of that content and rebuild from the ground up. The ‘moral’ from that version of the draft was pretty nonsensical and unfair, since it was driven by personal guilt and a partner with unreasonable expectations.

10. Did you know what the OC’s sexuality would be at the time of their creation?

She’s been a lesbian since day one. Pretty sure she’s the only character under 30 who hasn’t had their canon sexuality change at least once.

11. What have you found to be most difficult about creating art for your OC (any form of art: Writing, drawing, edits, etc.)?

A lot of what is most compelling about her is not visually apparent by design, since her storyline is themed around being closed off, flat, etc. It doesn’t especially make for interesting standalone illustrations.

12. How far past the canon events that take place in their world have you extended their story, if at all?

Oh, not at all. IC ends where it ends, and where the characters go after that is anybody’s guess.

That’s a long way off though. Maybe I’ll change my mind eventually.

13. If you had to narrow it down to 2 things that you MUST keep in mind while working with your OC, what would those things be?

She is driven more by obligation than desire.

She habitually prioritizes other people’s needs and wants, and has a difficult time even identifying her own.

14. What is something about your OC that can make you laugh?

Her general demeanour is deadpan, and it drives the more reactive characters up the wall. She can antagonize a good chunk of the cast without even trying.

15. What is something about your OC can make you cry?

That’s probably spoilers.

16. Is there some element you regret adding to your OC or their story?

Hah. I have had regrets before, but I usually just… change the thing. I can’t say I won’t regret anything in the future, once I’m far enough along in the comic that they can’t be changed, but I can’t really predict that. If I could, they wouldn’t be regrets!

17. What is the most recent thing you’ve discovered about your OC?

Bro I have so much more parental health angst material now, it’s gonna be a nightmare

18. What is your favourite fact about your OC?

In the very oldest version of her character - before any of the current plot or structure existed - I decided that she was going to ‘steal’ Ravi’s girlfriend by the end. lmao

(They both had fairly different personalities at this point. Ravi was still being written as a man. He wasn’t the protagonist yet, either! Vikas was the protagonist!!!! 

Anyway, proto-Ravi fucking sucked. The fact these early versions of the characters were not very likeable or fun for me to write is a large part of why I scrapped them.)

TAGGING... @hierophanthistorian @denzelle @machi-tobaye @plaguecraft  @slugpuppie @ladyisak @ghoultwink

and anyone else who wants to do it! don’t let your dreams be dreams!!!

[whypolar]

Firewater - Another Perfect Catastrophe

Oh, wouldn't you love to be my Partner in crime So many tricks that we could try So if you want to find out What it would feel like to be my Co-conspirator Open up the door and step inside, side, side

[whypolar]

You can give your confession tomorrow If you find a priest dumb enough to believe And me, I'll just beg, steal and borrow Because it only hurts when I breathe

[whypolar]

Also it makes it kind of funny that he works with a guy named Jimmy

Fuck, I’m doing it, he’s Tommy now

[whypolar]

If I changed Ash’s name to Tommy, with the implication that he deliberately named himself after Tommy DeSimone, would that make him more or less of a fucking nerd than naming himself after Ash Williams

(content warning on those wiki pages: they’re a mobster and a character from a horror franchise respectively)