#wow these got a little wordy sorry 😂

[hongism]

Hello! I just finished bingeing your first volume of Mists of Celeste and I am absolutely DISTRAUGHT that I have to stop 😂 I know there’s a second volume with two chapters up, but I’m trying to resist reading it because once I get a taste of volume two, it’ll make the wait even more agonizing because it’s so amazing!

Anyways, I just wanted to drop in to say that the story and character development exhibited through this series was beyond belief. It was so amazingly done and it had me hooked once I started reading it. The dynamics are so layered and multi-faceted and just so real. And something I personally really appreciated is that there weren’t any uses of typical tropes or themes—the way that you approached each character and the relationships that go with them was something I haven’t gotten the pleasure to see too often. Each story was unique and there was always something being built and twisted and developed with every conversation and scene.

In a word, I’m in absolute awe. I wish I could gather my thoughts a bit more to leave you a more thorough review, but I suppose I’ll save that for an actual post as this truly deserves at least that much! Thank you so much for taking the time and effort to write this masterpiece and I truly cannot wait to see the final two volumes 😍

~ Annika

ahah please! this made me smile thank you so much wow! i've been told many times that because it's a fantasy fic yaknow i can take creative liberties and not have to be as 'real' about certain things in the fic, but something i always try to prioritize and accentuate is how real people interact, even within the scope of fanfiction and fantasy. i'm in love with people and how people interact and how personalities play off each other. how person a reacts to person b, and how person c affects how person b views person a.

i've by no means perfected any aspect of that in my writing, and things do get convoluted and confusing at times, but despite that, i want to tell two stories: the story itself, mists of celeste, and the story of people and how people interact. i spend a lot of time sitting down and thinking through 'okay here's situation x. how would each person react' and with nine characters it's hard to find a balance of them being different enough to stand on their own. im deeply in love with cliches sometimes and i think there's a time and a place of course, but i've tried to approach the story from the lens of 'well it could happen this way, but what if it didn't' and i think that's where a lot of the story has birthed from

i got a little wordy im sorry T^T but truly thank you this is absolutely more than enough im so thankful and grateful and happy that you are enjoying everything so far 🤧❤️

[smilepal]

Uncommon questions : 2, 9, 18 + B, F ♥

Ask meme for @gloryride 💖💖

2.) How easy is it for your character to laugh?

Hiro laughs pretty easily--whether it's at his own jokes or not, and enjoys casual banter with his friends--especially if they can handle good-natured teasing. He's good at keeping it relatively light, knowing not to go too far/doesn't actually want to make them feel bad. He also uses it to cover up more negative feelings, if you seem easygoing/like you don't care, or always have a rebuttal, then people don't pry as much, and he can hide personal feelings more easily. Regardless, he enjoys being able to get a genuine laugh out of his friends, and it's something he always appreciates in others. If someone seems super serious, he's likely to try to get them to loosen up a bit--see if he can't help break that shell a tiny bit.

9.) Do they swear? Do they remember their first swear word?

Frequently--Hiro's language belongs in the gutter, and he doesn't particularly care who overhears him. He's typically quite casual in his speech patterns, and isn't good at editing them, unless he's being extremely careful or there's good reason. He doesn't remember the first time he swore, but it undoubtedly was something he picked up from his older brother, or the other kids running around. He probably didn't think too much of it, it was easy, expressed displeasure well enough, and stuck around. And it wasn't as if anyone really cared enough to reprimand him. He's definitely the type that actively has to be careful not to swear around children, and definitely slips up on occasion.

18.) What embarrasses them?

Hiro's not easy to embarrass, by traditional means anyway. He's careful to give off an impression of "I don't care what you think of me--take it or leave it" and is not by nature, a self-conscious person. If you actually want to fluster him/see him caught off-guard, genuine affection is a really easy method of doing so. It's not something he accustomed to, especially if he's not the one initiating it. Anything romantic/nice gestures, platonic intimacy--get to him, especially if his response is commented on. If someone else points it out, it usually gets even worse, and he'll have a harder time not responding. It's easy to tell too--he blushes easily, despite the fact that he'll try to deny it. It's hard to miss though, and he knows it. Although it's not something he's used to, he still enjoys casual/sweet affection--he just might be a bit grumbly/sheepish about it.

B.) What inspired you to create them?

Oh boy, I'll try to be concise here but might not be very good at it. Hiro was inspired by me starting to get more into the cyberpunk/sci-fi genre. I'd recently seen Bladerunner for the first time (as well as the sequel) and was really inspired by the aesthetic/ideas behind it, and knew I wanted to create a character who'd fit into a world like that. So Hiro didn't start out as a Cyberpunk 2077 OC, just one who'd fit into a world like that. I'd been working on that specific character for maybe a year and a half before CP came out, and although he's gone through quite a few changes, that's where his general aesthetic/character came from.

His personality changed a lot--he became a lot more sympathetic/more likeable despite his flaws, and developed more depth beyond "rebellious gutter punk". Even after I managed to fit him into the CP universe, he went through some changes, largely inspired by my playstyle and nuances he picked up throughout the game. In my head he'd always been the more stealthy type, not wanted to race directly into combat--and he ended up being the opposite, largely because that was my playstyle in-game (and I had no patience for netrunning/sneaking.) I was also very inspired by the aesthetic in Cyberpunk--especially the tattoos and richness of the surrounding environment. I was at first driven by aesthetic when creating Hiro, and then his backstory/personality/quirks began to shape around this and make him a more unique character. I'm gonna cut myself there, because I will ramble for literally ages, but feel free to ask if you ever have more questions about him--more than happy to talk 💖

F.) What do you feel when you think of your OC (pride, excitement, frustration, etc)?

I'm so proud of him. He's without a doubt the character I've spent the most time on, and put the most detail into, as well as created the most nuanced personality for. He has flaws--bad ones, but still manages to be sympathetic in some ways? And even despite the flaws, he's still good--tries to do the right thing, even if he's not sure what it is, or if it'll matter to anyone else. But yeah, developing him, and spending a lot of time working out his backstory/how he relates to others/all the little details with him has been so enjoyable for me. It especially helped me through quarentine/COVID when I couldn't see people in person and was feeling creatively dead. Even if I couldn't draw/write, I could work on little pinterest boards or character playlists and this helped to satisfy some of the need for something creative/producing something, even if I was the only one who'd see it. He's also the first character I've felt comfortable enough to share with others/on tumblr, and it's also led me to an absolutely lovey, creative, and supportive community. So there's some gratitude there as well, probably wouldn't have met half the people I did otherwise.

Thanks for asking, these were fun (and always happy to ramble about character creation) :3