#committing myself to the terrifying ordeal of actually talking about OCverses by formally establishing characters and lore

[squeakadeeks]

Transient lore overview

Figured at this point I have enough separate OC verses, let alone actual OCs themselves that its worthwhile to make big overview pages that describe all of their settings, characters, themes, connections, etc.

Transient is a OCverse i've been working on for a few years now ft. Sulu, Function, Felis, Splish, and Alpha in a fantasy space setting. In my head the intended format is an episodic cartoon comedy series, akin to things like regular show, futurama, adventure time, etc with no overarching ""plot"" per se, just following characters as they interact and develop.

Sulu:

Sulu is the main character, he travels throughout sea-space solving problems and helping people however he can. He is very competent and gives things his all until a problem is solved.

He spends a large portion of his time alone, but he frequently links up from his friends Felis and Splish when the need arises. He has a warm, comforting, friendly personality but doesn't often stick around long enough to form deeper bonds. Hes akin to a benevolent trader joes staffer that gives you a soothing sense of ease as he guides you where to the munster cheese is stocked, but like two ships passing never again will your two paths meet.

Sulu as a character is very dedicated and compassionate, and is genuinely motivated in helping others. That being said, there is a deeper layer to his unwavering dedication. Its a two-pronged coping strategy and distraction from his own struggles. He often ignores any ill that happens to him as a result of obsessively working and puts off addressing his own problems to an extremely problematic degree. His struggles with depression and self neglect end up devolving into the primary conflict.

Function:

Function is the closest thing to an antagonist the series has. Function is an entity originally from the realm of pure math that got wedged in what he refers to as "the meat world" (ie the physical world). By nature his intent is to increase disorder without bound. He's still adjusting to being stuck in the physical world and doesnt always understand the harm he's causing by driving chaos into systems. Although most of the time he is still uncomfortable in having a physical form, he adores thematics and getting attention from others. He has an expressive, energetic, rambunctious personality.

At first he poses a serious risk as a genuinely harmful figure in a cotton-candy marshmallow world, and Sulu has to frequently neutralize his actions. This causes a comical nemesis-esc relationship between the two, but in time as he adjusts and copes with his situation he settles down more into a goofy, campy 90's anime rival archetype and the two form a more genuine bond. He becomes great friends with Alpha, forming a "chaos crew" as the two largely goof around and make the most of things. He has a significantly hard time processing emotional turmoil as he's still trying to wrap his head around basic day-to-day functioning, let alone complicated interpersonal conflicts.

Alpha, Felis, Splish:

The other core cast consists of Felis, Splish the fish, and Alpha.

Felis is Sulu's current best friend, as they spend the most time together and work in tandem often. Felis is genuinely an out-of-place-astronaut, as all the other denizens are aquatic creatures. Felis has a classic goofy cat-like personality, they like to be entertained and pal around, but can struggle with serious matters and completing long-form tasks.

Splish is a space safety ranger and works hard to keep everyone safe and happy and within the rules. He employs Sulu's help on the very frequent occasion when he is out of his depth. He doesn't really comprehend serious matters at all, as he belongs squarely to the "marshmallow head" class of sea-space critters. (Felis is capable of processing serious things, but often elects to not engage)

Alpha is a character from Sulu's past, in particular his former closest friend. She and Sulu were incredibly close in their teens and early 20s, but she eventually lost contact as he splintered off and isolated. Alpha gets frustrated with his lack of care towards his own health and functioning, especially how it affects others around him, seeing it as not taking proper responsibility for himself. She clicks with Function not just because they both have very similar bombastic personalities, but also because she admires how dedicated Function is to adjusting to his new circumstances and improve himself. She is wickedly driven, she loves new experiences and exciting things and is overall incredibly active, but can be somewhat introverted. sort of a "i want to do cool things, but only with the 2 people i have allowed into my inner circle". Holds grudges like the dickens.

Setting:

The setting itself is supposed to be a fusion between underwater and space, there are lots of fish, whales, coral formations etc scattered throughout open space. The various planets act more reefs, collecting lots of life and activity. From afar things look more like ""space"" with planets, stars, galaxies, etc, but the actual deinzens tend to resemble either fish or cartoony space aliens. The overall palette is very bright, colorful, and pastel tones to reflect the cheery, cotton-candy environment.

Concept:

Most of the types of problems Sulu, Felis and Splish work on are lighthearted or comical in nature, such as chauffeuring constellations around, babysitting in a stellar nursery, fishing for asteroids, a mediating in a break up between a binary star system, trying to fix the cowlic generated by the hairy ball theorem, cleaning up a milk spill in a galaxy, a magnetar that keeps demagnetizing people's credit cards, things spontaneously gaining more degrees of non-trivial rotational symmetry, neutron star bowling, and other sorts of whimsical space/math problems.

Every so often something more serious pops up, like a quasar posing a legitimate threat or instability in the laws of physics such as a power on a spatial dependence term flickering back and forth, but 90% of the time its cartoony situations, a la regular show. Another equally descriptive statement would be "Cyberchase but with 30-40yr old queer anime people."

Elephant in the room, Sulu is indeed intended to be an outlet/projection/expression of my own struggles with depression and how severe depressive episodes get entangled with my work and social life, but on a more surface level I also enjoy working on this thing because 1) i like drawing fish, 2) i love using vivid colors, and 3) I love being obnoxious about math and physics jokes while stuck in the throes of a physics phd myself.

#my art #transient #committing myself to the terrifying ordeal of actually talking about OCverses by formally establishing characters and lore #whilst trying not to perish from embarrassment