#he's actually an oc for another dnd campaign and i almost never use the same person for different stories | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

phoomwhoosh · 4 months

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Whomst is rayford? May I ask?

(share more of your oc stuff if you want)

Yessss, thank you so much for asking!

So, Rayford is an OC I've had kicking around since 2018 although technically it's been longer, he was just based roughly off of another character of mine who wasn't named Rayford.

(Cut because I know this is gonna get long lol)

His name is actually a combo of me knowing someone named Ray and misreading "Sanford" as "Stanford" and going, "Well, I don't want to name him Stanford. But Rayford could be a good combo..." and then his surname just popped into my mind one day and I went, "Yeah, okay, there we go. He is named."

I came up with him around the same time I was watching Critical Role (The Mighty Nein campaign) so, naturally, I gave him a dice set because I thought I was gonna play him in a D&D campaign then I decided not to after I saw how he rolled. His dice are super cursed. What I mean by this is, every time I use them for him, they roll really badly. Even after I made him in Baldur's Gate 3, he still rolls like garbage lmao. My boy can't catch a break. (For reference, I use DnD dice to roll for combat stuff in my stories 'cause it makes keeping track of everyone easier.)

His appearance/age has changed over time but four things have remained consistent: he's inherently kind, he's not very perceptive, he's asexual, and he has pink hair. Why did I choose pink? I honestly can't tell you. But it's naturally pink, which is important for me to point out.

The Rayford that I commissioned Cookie for is 16 and a half-elf. No one knows what his other half is, just that his dad vanished one day and reappeared with a baby and they were all like, "Hold on, dude, where did that come from and why does it have pink hair???" His dad never told them who his wife was for Reasons. To Rayford, she was a beautiful pink-haired lady with pretty blue eyes. Did her eyes sometimes glow weird? Sure, but he was a child and gave it no thought because that was his mom and also magic exists. -_o_-

The first five years of his life were excellent, fantastic, his parents weren't murdered. Then they were murdered and the next five years of his life were hell but he held onto his kind nature despite that. Then some stuff happened and he got adopted by someone who genuinely cared for him and made sure he got whatever he wanted. He's not spoiled because he doesn't really ask for anything. He's content with what some might call "ugly grandpa sweaters" (they remind him of his dad) and cutting-up a pair of jeans for shorts (even though his adoptive mom would 100% just buy him a pair of shorts if he would ask). He's just happy about living in a loving home again. That was all he really wanted.

However, he attracts trouble like nobody's business. Actually, that's been another thing that's stayed consistent for this OC. He could bump into a girl and just be helping her pick up her books and her boyfriend sees him doing that and is like, "He's trying to steal my girl!" Rayford is asexual and has no interest in stealing your girl but, well, stupid's gotta stupid. (Alternatively, the OG Rayford walked into a cave once and almost got killed by a wight. He rolled so poorly that day. Failed that perception check almost into unconsciousness.)

Rayford does actually tie-in with Alis and Tali. They all go to the same magic school (which is literally nothing like HP, don't even get me started on how different my world is. I've been cultivating this world for well over a decade).

Anyway, Rayford just transferred to that school from another one and, if he was honest, he wanted to go to this one anyway. Eventually, he meets Tali and Alis and they become friends because Alis is like, "you don't have any friends yet? guess what, meet your new friends ^_^" and Tali rolls with it lol.

Tali is actually going by a nickname because her dad thought it'd be neat to name her "Taliesin." She likes her name and all but going by Tali makes her full name sound like "talented" if it's said fast enough and that's brought her endless amusement.

Alis is pronounced like "Alice" but spelled that way because I just like the spelling for some reason. I seem to have developed an affinity about half-elf/elf names ending with "-is" and I don't know why. It all started with Elder Scrolls: Oblivion...not that it's not every half-elf/elf I make just, you know, I've named more than one like that XD

My "face claim" for Rayford was basically me pointing to one of Cookie's drawings of Daniel and going, "I'm gonna be honest, I love the way you draw Daniel and, obviously, Rayford isn't gonna look exactly like that but you know." So, yeah, his face claim is basically Ralph Macchio lmao. I'm not sorry.

When Cookie showed me the WIP, I had to take a moment because I was like, "That's Rayford omg." Same with Leo when they did Alis and Tali for me! I was all starry-eyed and like, "This is them." I actually combined both pieces into one so I could have all three of them as a desktop background because, genuinely, I love both so much! I do plan on commissioning the rest of the gang one day since there ARE six of them.

In conclusion, here are his cursed dice:

#in which you ask and i eventually answer #took me a while because i was so excited to talk about him lol #in which i won't shut up about my characters #that'll be my oc tag

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zeawesomebirdie · 2 years

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Hey! I took so much time to answer I’m on holidays now :’) feels so weird to have that much free time in may… If you’ve had the appointment by now, I hope it brought good news (or, I suppose, as good as possible in this situation) and if it hasn’t happened yet, I hope it’ll go well. I wish I could help you with that, but at least I’m glad our correspondence is bringing you joy :)

Honestly, there might be a lot of them, but I don’t really do anything with my OCs, they just float in my head lol. Sometimes I draw them or I talk about them, a few have Pinterest boards for how they'd dress or toyhouse pages (I wanted to create TH pages for everyone but I don't have art of most of them so it's not happening anytime soon unfortunately) and one or two are used in other stuff like Cécilia who I used to play in a DnD campaign and is now an NPC in another campaign, but mostly they're just there for me to have silly little fantasies about. Meredith and Cécilia are for general stuff, a lot of projecting, thinking about QPRs and fun flatmate stuff; Alex, Laë and Adrien are for cute romance stuff, sometimes more spicy stuff if I'm in the mood, or soulmate AUs; Ophelia has problems with her parents and adventures with Oswald; Aster is all the dramatic stuff but also boring work things that he gets to be all 'drinking wine in your cool chair at 1am' about; Alex also gets a lot of family bonding and shenanigans since I gave him a big family (it keeps extending... I gave him one more sibling and a few cousins since last time and I'll probably keep adding to it...) The only one I really actually use is Cécilia, because while I don't play her anymore my friend started another campaign in the universe of the one where I played her in, so I’ve given them my opinion of what she would say when they’ve asked. Mostly I create them for the sake of creation, because inventing a little guy and doing whatever you want with them is like playing with dolls or petshops but you decide what they look like hehe.

The 'drawback' with making all of my OCs for daydreaming purposes is I tend to gravitate towards characters in a very - set? period? Like, you know how fandoms tend to have specific moments at which they prefer to write characters, before or after they change a lot, when they're still alive, when they're still talking to another character? Not all fics use this 'ideal state' of characters of course but like, you'll see a lot of Obikin set during the Clone Wars but Ahsoka's still there, or a lot of Johnlock before Sherlock fakes his death in S2, that kind of thing? It's like the characters have a default state? Well mine are all kind of like that, and there's not a lot of story around it. They almost all live in the same world at the same time, so at best they'll have a past where they became who they are now, but they're all a bit stuck. Meredith grew past a lot of her insecurities, Cécilia has a goal of becoming powerful and cool but it's for a very distant future, Laë Alex and Adrien are dating and they're young but they probably won't break up, Alex's sister's kid is going to be a toddler forever, etc. They're all relatively nice and doing okay, because I personally don't daydream about people being mean and suffering, but that makes them a little flat sometimes haha. A bit like we’re seeing them at a set point in the story, but never going forward, only seeing them at the beginning/middle/end of their story but not the rest. Which is why characters for a story sounds so interesting to me! If you put them in a story you need to know where they start and where they end and how they change in the middle, there's a few moments where they're at their 'ideal state' and then they keep going, and that's so cool! Though that must mean you’d be creating them very differently, less ‘what are their vibes’ and more ‘what’s their fatal flaw’

Right right right, the amatonormativity is there and I think it would be a little funny to throw poor Reil in all of that. The conflict between “Jedi don’t form attachments” so being aro is ‘useful’ because that does eliminate a type of attachments, but also still being surrounded by people who date and swoon over crushes and have romances (because personally I’m firmly team ‘attachment is when it’s too extreme, Jedi are allowed to have fun as long as it doesn’t interfere with their duties’ so I imagine romances are a thing, whether they end quickly or they manage to last.) And yesss making characters a bit like you is so so cool!! Tbh I can't believe I first thought about giving Meredith a boyfriend because she's the most self-insert of my OCs! Though even back then I knew that would just be wrong so I didn't and then I realised some stuff about myself haha. I also thought I wasn't aro because I'd like some kind of life partner and romance is fun, which wasn't helpful lol. But yeah I’ve seen the sentiment of ‘I thought being aro/ace was hating/being completely oblivious to all that stuff and I was okay with it/got it fine so that meant I couldn’t be aro/ace’ and 1) mood 2) good example of why it’s so important to talk about those definitions because, I’m so glad to see those identities talked about more.

The OC post hadn’t been written but I think you’ve seen it by now haha. I don’t post anything besides +/- finished art on my artblog, so for anything OC related it’s on my main in the ‘wow i have an ocs tag now’ tag!

The vampire OC is Meredith, she's my little self-insert <3 Technically you could argue that since both her and Cécilia are really similar to me and they're not-dating-but-also-not-not-dating it's a bit weird but hey who cares. She's 52 and a potioneer/alchemist, she has a cat called Theo, a lot of friends, long hair and skin problems, she's aroace and she owns her own shop. Since she's a vampire and she has sensitive skin most of the time the only parts of her body not covered by clothing are like, her hands/fingers and her face more or less, she wears a lot of long sleeves turtlenecks and tights/trousers. That's not actually how I wanted to dress when I was younger, I said that because she also wears relatively poofy skirts and cool gloves and ballgowns and boots and jewellery and mostly dresses in black and red and dark colours, which IS closer to what I wanted to dress like (and still do tbh. How lucky she is to have an actual adult job that gives her money to pay for cool clothing and accessories...) Most of my OCs dress in styles I love actually, whether it's the guys who are literally just a guy and dress like that (the graphic tee/hoodie + cargo pants, a singular pair of sneakers and one vest that's too light for the winter, you know the type? Literally just a guy. Love that vibe I’m obsessed with it for some reason) or the elaborate dresses or the hair colours I can't really do because I don't want to bleach mine, or the clothes sharing or the jewellery or the gay poet/pirate shirts, they're all dressing super cool and I wish that was me 😔 Sometimes I'll imagine what my OCs or my favourite characters would wear in my wardrobe and it's very fun, I keep meaning to draw that and then I never do lol

Yeah I mostly act like cringe is dead because I don't really have interactions with people who still believe in it, but I do have a few anti mutuals (though coming out as liking Snarry got one of them to unfollow me so...? That's something? Don't know if it's positive or not but it happened) I don't actually know if you're mutuals with Alex @/storm-of-feathers since I saw you reblog from them but if you are, then you too have the pleasure of having anti mutuals :D Don’t know if you’d already noticed that or not, sorry if that’s how you’re learning about it? tbh after I answered your ask about Tomarry I expected the inquisition once again but apparently either those mutuals weren't online or I was right to tag the post because nothing happened. It does get kind of taxing to avoid talking about specific things or refrain from reblogging posts I like in case the few people who wouldn't approve see it. But at the same time I really don't like change so I'm not really doing anything about it since both of them aren't bothering me about it like 99% of the time.

Yeaah the Knights are just no fun :( I’m glad fandom is there to make something with the fun material the canon writers are just leaving there unexploited, but I also wish canon was just good on its own. Though I guess that does change things in terms of the fandom… I finished watching Gravity Falls a while back and it’s a very good show, so I was a little afraid of going in the fandom, as opposed to things like Star Wars where I knew that if I got into it I wouldn’t even hesitate throwing myself in the fandom. I don’t really know how to explain that, but (and I say that without any negativity towards people who like different stuff than me, they’re doing their thing I’m doing mine y’know) when canon is good and works on its own, it’s different to apply the same ‘fandom lenses’ to it. I read things casual fans wouldn’t even think about, but when it’s for like, HP or SW, it’s whatever, because canon doesn’t really feel like it’s going to explore the stuff it sets down anyway. Whereas with things like GF, canon IS exploring what it sets down, it has a clear message it’s communicating well, and coming in with for example some completely out of left field ship feels different. Anyway :’) I guess I could start getting into stuff that’s good to avoid the problem of canon sucking, but then I’m not getting as much weird fandom stuff, and that’s full of pearls and really interesting stuff I love, so heh

You don’t sound like you’re putting down your writing! I do get what you’re describing, not on a writing level but on a general language level, and I’m glad to know I’m not the only one haha. I learnt french and english through osmosis but my grammar is really bad and as you said, I know what would sound right and what wouldn’t, but not why. I don’t really feel like working on it personally though, so props to you for that, I gotta admire the dedication to actually improving yourself through work haha. I’m sure the exercises’ll pay off and you writing will be even better! (also 15 years is a lot, that kinda hit me but whoa you’ve been writing for a whiile) (and I realise I didn’t say a lot about this, I don’t quite know how to put that in writing but you can imagine the equivalent of listening and making little noises to let you know I’m following)

The GwtW essay might or might not come, I got a 18.5/20 on the ‘exam’ I read the book for (only counted as 8% of that class’ final grade but still) and the teacher told me I should try developping my thoughts and writing the full essay I didn’t have enough time to do. I’ll have to see how motivated I get, I’ll tell you if it ends up happening! Though I was a little turned off by the vibes Rhett and Scarlett give off at the end, I love me a nice little fucked up relationship but their vibes were just hitting too close to home (derogatory). I’m also considering a thing about my absolute forever favourite fic, Pacify by chickenpets, because it’s just. It’s just good. Except it’s the one that got people to send me panicked asks about my morality so yeah :’)) (it’s like. Snarry with some underage, an interesting dynamic and BDSM, but also super well written and it hit 700k recently and every time I think about it I want to go read it again)

Also also how’s the Tomarry going hehe? Recommending you all those fics got me to reread some I hadn’t touched in a while and *dreamy sigh* Don’t think I’ll be going back to canon anytime soon though, because by that point I know it well enough to tell you all the little details even if I haven’t read it since I was like 13 :’)) Your comment about Dumbledore made me think about the morality of putting the magical baby of her sister on the doorstep of Petunia Dursley though. Personally I see him not as a good or a bad person but as someone who by the point of the wars with Voldemort just did what had to be done. He didn’t explicitly want to give Harry a shitty childhood to make him more malleable like you’ll see in certain fics, it’s just that Harry had to be protected and the blood magic was already there. Also he probably expected Petunia to have grown up a little since her childhood when she was super jealous of her sister, and tbh why wouldn’t he? Yeah giving Harry to people you know nothing about is a bad decision, but sometimes you believe in the good in people (in most cases) and – well there are times when turning a blind eye to a situation is helpful, and when you feel responsible for the wizarding world… Like he’s not really a good person, but he wasn’t doing it to be evil? He just had flaws and a past and responsabilities. But also yes Harry Potter is fucked up if you analyse it from an adult’s POV because it’s a children’s book and obviously in the children’s book it’s not fun if Harry isn’t put in situations no good guardian would make possible :’)) God Harry Potter will never leave me. Like I’ll be able to give you a little speech on Severus on autopilot at 82 in retirement home :’)) just, forever etched into my brain whether I want it or not.

ANYWAY sorry Harry Potter was my thing for so long it’s ridiculously easy to get me to monologue about it for hours. Hope you’re doing well and having fun, sending you love <3 (and if you’re not, then I’m sending you even more)

Hello hello! I hope your holidays are going well! It must be wonderful having so much free time after classes! My appointment went well, though there's still no official reason for why I can't hear as well anymore lol. Supposedly it's actually a processing disorder? But I have to be evaluated for that now, so I have to wait until I can have that evaluation before I'll know anything more substantial.

Listen, I absolutely love every aspect of these asks. It's so much fun to get to really dig into things! And your insights and thoughts are always so well put, it's genuinely a pleasure every time you're in my ask box!

Wow okay the thought you've put into your OCs! You're right, I do create my OCs from a standpoint of "how do I get this character from point A to point B," so it's so fascinating that you've got this consistent point of reference for yours. Like, with my OCs, especially the ones I make for the purpose of filling out my cast (or in the case of my original novel thing, for the purpose of being the cast), I need to think of them as these works in progress, because that's what they are, they're constantly being affected by the actions of the other characters and their surroundings and the workings of the universe I'm writing in. I can remember always struggling with certain aspects of one-shots because how does one demonstrate the way a character changes in only one scene? And then when I switched to writing longfics (and ultimately novels, now), suddenly my writing clicked.

And, your OCs all sound incredible! It must be so wonderful to have this consistent cast of characters for all your needs and purposes. If you ever do manage to make the toyhouse pages for everyone I'd love to see it! You really have a way of emphasizing who a character is at that point in time, it's absolutely amazing how you do that!

I'm also firmly on team "Jedi can have some fun but not the extreme attachments that Anakin had going on." But yeah, I also want a life partner and I agree romance is incredibly fun to do! That stuff all requires a really good conversation up front with whomever you're gonna be doing it with though (and here I am, giving life advice like I'm not only 23 lmao but) if you've got the right person (or people) it can be a wonderful arrangement. I've been with my partner for a year and a half and with my boyfriend for just about nine months, and genuinely having a relationship with people who are similarly on the aroace spectrum has been so much fun.

I was going to explain how my relationships worked and then realized that's a little weird of me, even for tumblr, so I deleted it and um you're getting this instead lol. But yeah! Qprs and "romantic" relationships where all parties understand that the romance isn't something y'all are able to feel are really fun! Highly recommend!

I saw the OC post! Your OCs are so cool, just saying, like my dude, that's so so cool!

Omg please draw your OCs or characters in general wearing outfits you have or outfits you want!!! This is just a random thing, but I swear Luke Skywalker would look incredible in one of those 1950's shirtdresses. And the just a guy aesthetic, that's how I dress rn lol! Granted, once I get top surgery I'm going to finally buy the 1950's style dresses I've always wanted to wear but didn't pass enough to, but the just a guy vibe is incredibly fun to do!

Yeah so when I went from being a Zelda blog to an obikin blog in 2021, a bunch of my anti mutuals unfollowed me (which, good for them for having the maturity to unfollow instead of me needing to block them), and those that didn't ended up getting into obikin along with me. I did notice Alex was an anti, I'm not mutuals with them though I was following them for a while. I'm not anymore, one too many vagueposts about anti rhetoric got me to unfollow them, but yeah. I'm pretty open about what problematic stuff I ship (at least, in the Star Wars fandom), so if people follow me after seeing my bio that's kinda on them, and if they start shit I just block them. I'm still unlearning the whole being hesitant to share what ships I'm currently into from the hellscape that is the main Zelda fandom (and from my 2016 experiences with anti-reylos), but I've started to get better about it finally. It really helps to have like-minded mutuals tbh.

Oh, so what you're saying with Gravity Falls reminds me of this one thing I read somewhere a while ago! Basically, you can tell how good a canon media is by how much you (/general you) want to read/write fic for it. If its good but has lots of room for improvement, you're more inclined to look for fic, but if its really good and you can't see anywhere it could be better, you won't want to look for fic because it's all right there in canon! Obv ymmv, ofc, as with all things, but I've found this to be true for a lot of my own fandom experiences. Ofc there aren't any medias I can think of for myself off the top of my head, but when I do write fic or search for fic it's because I didn't like some aspect of canon or another, and really wish it had been different in whatever way!

I'm glad what I was trying to describe about writing was making sense! Thank you for listening, I really appreciate it. And 15 years is a long time, but like, I've been writing since I was like 8, so that's how I arrived at that number lmao. I was telling stories from the time I could talk, I just didn't start writing them down until I got to be 8, and that's where it all began! Little 8 year old me didn't even know I'd be writing like this though, little 8 year old me just wanted to keep my siblings entertained for our parents :)

Oh yeah I love a good fucked up relationship omg, but I'm sorry it hit so close to home like that. Okay so Pacify sounds amazing, I'm going to give that a look, thank you for mentioning it (insert eye emoji several times I'm on desktop and have no idea how to do that from here lmao). I'm sorry that you got panicked morality asks about that, wtf, that's so fucking rude of them. I checked the tags out on the whole series, and this seems so tame considering some of the tags I've seen for other stuff? And like, maybe I'm tainted from delving into the wonderful world of dead dove as a writer plus no longer having anti mutuals, but sheesh. Antis really don't have better shit to do? I hope you can get back to the fic someday, it looks really good and you deserve to have a good time reading whatever you want!

I had to take a break from the tomarry because I ordered the 7 books (from a thrift store, obv, we do not support R*wling in this household) and it's been over a decade since the last time I read them and I needed the refresher. I've just started Goblet of Fire, and I've only had my hands on the books for 8 days, and omg. The tomarry brainrot is real. And my old drarry brainrot is back, and I have to tell you I'm down for snarry too now!

Looking back at this from an adult's perspective is pretty wild too. The first two books were marketed as children's books, but 3-7 were YA back when they were released, and my library even had book 7 alone in the YA section up until a few years ago when they finally moved it down to children's to be with the rest of the series. All this context because, I've been reading adult fiction and horror for the last decade, when I wasn't reading fanfic. And reading children's books for the first time in that long was a goddamn shock (affectionate), but it was really fun to pretend for a bit that I was just a kid on the 8 hour drive to our vacation cabin again! Once I got to Prisoner of Azkaban I felt a lot more comfy with the writing style, but YA is much closer to what I'm familiar with than outright children's, which I'm ofc grateful for. And omg, this series meant so much to kid!me, and I forgot how wonderful it was, and all the current discourse with it (while justified) has really tainted my recollections of it. Yes there's so much ableism and racism and homophobia, but that's what fandom is for, isn't it?

(I'll be honest, as someone who's still got a foot in a fandom such as Hetalia, I see no issues with being in a fandom for a problematic media; and my personal opinion is that I'm not comfortable consuming canon unless necessary for such a media, and if I must consume canon then I buy it secondhand so that the creator doesn't get my support. I have no interest in the HP movies, nor the books past Deathly Hollows; and if I ever do have a point where I'm interested in them, again, I'll just by them secondhand. And if I may add, I've recently started getting involved in professional published and to-be-published author's groups, as a means of encouraging myself to work on my original novel, and you'd (/general you) be incredibly surprised to see how they all interact with and around content that's incredibly problematic for whatever reason and how they interact about authors who are horrible people such as R*wling. It's been very interesting to see such things from a professional, irl pov instead of just fandom. But anyway, that's my views on the topic just so we're all clear fuck R*wling <333 I also hope that all made sense lmao thanks for letting me express that I've been needing to say it since getting back into the fandom)

But okay my opinions on Dumbledore. That opinion from the other week was 100% warped by the last decade in fandom without any interaction with canon on my part. Having read books 1-3, I can see a lot of my old opinions and admiration for Dumbledore still being applicable today, in fact I even suspect a lot of my opinions of death and dying could have come directly from Sorcerer's Stone where Dumbledore talks about Flammel deciding to give up his immortality. And you're right, it's hard to apply adult lenses to a children's/YA series where if the guardian figures were "adequate" for lack of a better word, we wouldn't have any story at all. So I'm kind of reading this from a, "if I were still a kid again how would I interact with this" perspective, while also maintaining my, "as an adult how would I write these characters being in their 20s (or whatever age they are when Harry, Ron and Hermione are mid-20s)" perspective. It's been helping a lot to have my reactions split like that lol. I think my current annoyance with Dumbledore is that, how dare he let Harry go back to the Dursley's now, knowing how abusive they are to him? And I understand (from memory, ofc), that there's the mother's love protection, but I suppose from an adult's perspective, particularly an adult like how I am, I can't quite get it. I do take back what I said about Dumbledore being a horrible character though. He's got his past, and his reasons, and he's been fighting this war longer than any of the characters in this series have been alive for the most part. Obviously he'll be flawed in ways I won't be able to understand, and that's how real people are, so ofc I won't always get it. It's interesting, I think, being an adult and remembering how fondly and in awe I'd look up to Dumbledore, and now as that adult wondering how he could make some of these decisions. None of this is meant like, rudely or anything btw, just v interesting and v looking forward to rereading the rest of the series and forming further analyses!! Thank you for getting me onto this <33

When I finish the last book, I would love to hear that essay about Snape please (once again insert eyes emoji)!

And yeah, Harry Potter was a big fandom for me at one point so I def get it! I've found it's the kind of fandom that almost everyone has been in at one point, and most of us always go back at certain points in our lives. I'm really lucky that I get to be rereading it now, I really needed this right now with everything going on, so thank you so much Ram <333

Everything is going much better now, thank you for all the love! And right back at you, all my love to you and may you have a lovely day when you see this <333

#im not going to tag any of the ships in this i dont want it to appear in tag searches lmao #and if people have a problem with me talking about any of this id appreciate it if they came to me off-anon so we can talk it out :)#im always happy to be educated about whatever topic #including fandom discourse if need be!#cant promise ill have the energy for such things right away though. ofc #i kinda do have chronic fatigue lmao #but yeah #hey Ram ily #thank you for this #this made my day

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ethereal-ineffability · 3 years

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HELL YEAH, DUDE! INFO DUMP ABOUT YOUR OC, OR SO HELP ME!

eyyyyyyyyy. CW for discussion of violent fictional bigots leading to body image issues. Okay so here's the thing. My boy Curio a sweet, kind of shy, well-meaning, socially awkward 28-year-old wizard. Tallish, no muscles whatsoever, big round glasses, kind of stupid facial hair, your standard stereotype.

Except that's not what he looks like, really.

That image is missing a Hat of Disguise (grey irish flat-cap), which he wears constantly, even while sleeping unless he can be sure he's alone. His full first name is Curiosity and what he actually looks like is somewhere around these two pictures, except with broken horns and a helluva lot more faded-over-2-decades facial scarring.

That childhood scarring is the reason why he literally never takes the hat off, no matter what; not because of the scarring itself, but because of what it represents. He grew up with so much baggage attached to his identity as a tiefling because, apart from a very supportive but imperfect and over-her-head single human mother, he had no support network in a small town where he was the only tiefling and almost-if-not-all of the entire town were superstitious humans who were very not interested in examining their biases. The children his age and a few years older were the ones who gave him most of that damage. But there's a reason his mother named him Curiosity; ever since he was old enough to explore, he did so enthusiastically and constantly, and after enough of that (and playing mostly alone) he developed skills that other kids his age didn't have, and he essentially became a gifted child. His mom took advantage of that (and some favors with an old friend) when the bullying got especially bad and got Curio scholarships to send him away to a mage's college in a more open-minded area where he would be protected and taken care of, in exchange for helping with tasks around the college until he was old enough to become an official student. The college became his life. He threw himself into the study of everything having to do with magic - history, mechanics, culture, ethics, etc. - partly as distraction, partly as hyperfixation (I do imagine he's neurodivergent in some way), and partly, subconsciously, as a desperate way to grasp at some sort of explanation for why he exists the way that he does and why the world around him is the way that it is. The enchanted hat was something he got at some point during his time at the college, and it essentially became a comfort item for him, and even though he probably could have gotten by without it with *less* problems than he had in his hometown, he just refused to go without it for years after the fact both out of fear of what could happen again and out of what had become, at that point, a deeply ingrained sense that he was just *wrong* and that he needed to hide himself to avoid burdening others. And all of that is just background for his situation in the current campaign, as a 7th-level wizard who has been traveling with a southern sweetheart druid satyr, a young-looking and mysterious dreamfolk warlock, a puss-in-boots-esque tabaxi fighter, a sweet grandmotherly minotaur barbarian, and a tiefling sorcerer in his late 40's who has a lot of backstory commonalities with Curio, particularly being raised by a single mother, having bad experiences as a kid due to his fiendish heritage, leaving home young, and hiding his appearance when he was younger. (Side note, the sorcerer's player and I *did not plan this*. We both came up with backstories independently, we didn't really have a session 0, and we just now found out how weirdly similar our characters' lives have been, though there's obviously been some differences too.) I started out this campaign by letting all the players know openly that Curio was not human, because I knew I couldn't keep a secret. In the 9 months we've been playing (we had a hiatus for a few, so it's more like 6-7 months of weekly to bi-weekly sessions), the character that's come the closest to figuring it out has been the sorcerer, Turavel, because he has obvious advantages when it comes to picking out which things just don't seem right for a human wizard to do. For example, on top of the weirdness of Curio never taking the hat off, sleeping alone often, bathing alone often, etc., he barely (roll of 15 vs 14) caught Curio tearing up when Turavel was talking about where he came from, and he thought it was weird that Curio could cast things like Hellish Rebuke. (The player, actually, was the only one of us to call this out when it happened, so I made note of it.) At the time (months ago irl, about 2-4 weeks ago in game time), I as the player didn't think Curio's cover had been blown, because I was convinced that Wizards could cast Hellish Rebuke, and I

even informed the player that Curio has fake entries in his spellbook for Hellish Rebuke, Thaumaturgy, and Darkness, just in case anyone ever saw it who also saw him cast those things. But I discovered today while searching for level-up spells for him that I was wrong. As soon as I realized, I sent Turavel's player these messages:

"Looking through wizard-only spells and realized that I as the player made ANOTHER mistake, specifically about which spells would be natural to see a wizard use, which means Curio made another mistake because I'm not retconning anything I said about what he's done. Whoopsie Since you actually called it out at the time (not the latest nat 1, the one time Curio used it before that) I'll be clear with you: Hellish Rebuke is a 2nd level, Warlock-only spell. Curio has the Magic Initiate feat, which might explain why he knows Thaumaturgy which is a cleric-only spell, since his 1st level spell for that feat is Healing Word which is exclusive to clerics, bards, and druids... but if that were the case that wouldn't explain why he can also use Vicious Mockery, which only works with bardic magic. He would have had to have learned Healing Word in a bardic way, leaving Thaumaturgy unaccounted for, unless there's just some explanation other than fiendish heritage or magic initiate that Turavel has literally never heard of before. Maybe there's a bardic college that would allow for the learning of Thaumaturgy? Unlikely. In that case Hellish Rebuke would still be unaccounted for, unless Curio has a secret patron and is a multiclassed warlock/wizard. Occam's razor. And since Turavel's the only one who asked to see his spellbook [in return, after Curio asked to see the spellbooks of all the other spellcasters], help me remember and I'll let you contest me on arcana with advantage to put all this together when we meet next."

And that's where we are. Curio's about to get fully found out because of overthinking and overprotecting himself in ways that weren't necessary, after just casually and confidently trading spellbooks - for strategic study - with the one person in the party who was always leagues more likely than anyone else to figure out what was going on. The same sorcerer who is old enough to be Curio's father and knows almost *exactly* what he's going through, and who Curio would probably be the most ashamed to be found out by, because he would probably be worried that his disguising of his tiefling nature would be interpreted as an insult even though Curio has terrible anxiety about the whole thing and literally can't help it. And I just think it's extra fun that the reason this is happening so soon is because of decisions I made intentionally as a player to make it *harder* to find him out, while truly thinking about what he would actually do. And I swear to god if that roll at advantage doesn't work I'm giving him all the inspiration I've got, because this is too good. I'm excited for the ensuing cathartic drama and for this precious boy to finally start learning how to love himself. p.s. in case any readers haven't picked up by now it's a closeted-trans-youth meets open-trans-elder allegory. This is what happens when you play DnD with other trans people

#personal #ocs #dnd #tiefling #wizard #dungeons and dragons

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worldsabound · 7 years

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This is me getting what I deserve, but I don’t get an opportunity to go into stuff this much. Of course, first I need to list characters to talk about.

Minwa - Half-Orc Barbarian Mercenary Stella - Gnome Bard / Oracle of Bones Magdalin Tenderthorn - Human Ranger Zith - Changeling Rogue Black Dulheart - Worldwalker Samantha Hodges - Host of Autumn Theresa W. - Host of Spring Thok - Orc Friend

L. For the Writer/Owner

How have your characters changed since you created them?

Minwa - Not much. I only got to use her as my PF character for a few months, most of a semester. Although she did murder another PC and suffered no repercussions.

Stella - Not much. She was used for pickup games of a modular campaign a friend came up with. Biggest change was that she added more undead to her posse.

Magdalin Tenderthorn - A bit. Since I knew the campaign she was a PC in, I wanted to have her in a more support-ish role. I wanted to play her as a quiet badass, but she evolved into a sassy murder-hobo, often exchanging witty banter with the barbarian.

Zith - Not at all. They were used for maybe a month or two, but I had plans for them to constantly be changing their identity throughout the campaign. I guess they did change in that they lost all of their confidence to be effective in combat (this was 4e DnD)

Black Dulheart - A lot. He started as this nebulous figure I came up with who secretly averted real-world tragedies like 9/11, whisking all of the passengers away to Somewhere Else. When I started participating in online groups more that needed OCs, he evolved into my ‘mary-sue,’ a charismatic, powerful person who had almost unlimited resources at his disposal.

Samantha Hodges - A lot. I first ‘created’ her in a dream when she happened to be what form my persona took (and I liked her design so much I kept her). In that dream she was hanging out drinking with a crew of vikings. Now she hosts a primal force of the Universe and has to wander different worlds and dimensions to ensure that the balance is maintained. Unfortunately, the power she was saddled with tends to involve things dying- The Avatar of Autumn represents the dying season, when things prepare to sleep and the green fades from the world. Before becoming a Host, she was (and still is) someone with family issues and depression, who tries to not care by smoking or drinking.

Theresa W. - A lot. I can’t remember how I first came up with her design, but it definitely involved the thoughts ‘small angry skater punk girl from a dystopian future.’ She’s really come into her own though, especially after telling me that she was trans. That explained A TON about how she interacted with the world she came from.

Thok - Thok began as a joke reference character from something that I have forgotten. His name, as he says, “Come from sound Thok head make when dropped as baby.” Not having the same ferocious disposition as his fellow orc babies (but being strong enough to fend off attempts to kill him), Thok’s tribe left him for dead in the woods. They tossed him, actually. He would have died if he hadn’t been stumbled upon by a halfling couple who were retiring from their adventuring careers. The two raised him as their own, and he thinks of himself as a ‘tall halfling’ (they even officially adopted him, so he is legally a halfling). While I never got to use Thok (yet), he has the potential to become a world-renown philosopher (”What *is* Thok? Hmmm. Thok is... Thok.”) and heir to the mighty elven kingdom (through many bastard children).

What do you consider the biggest themes in your character, if any?

Minwa - Violence without mercy

Stella - Nauseating optimism

Magdalin Tenderthorn - Righteous fury, Friendship

Zith - Identity

Black Dulheart - Fun

Samantha Hodges - Found family, Dealing with loss

Theresa W. - Fighting injustice, Dysphoria

Thok - Fierce loyalty, Strength

Did you create the character to be like yourself, did they end up being like yourself, or are they very different from you?

Minwa - Very different. She follows the money without question; you pay her, and she will act without remorse.

Stella - A little like me? Stella likes to see things a little crooked, but she is far more charismatic and optimistic than I am

Magdalin Tenderthorn - Pretty different. I didn’t design her to have much personality since I’d read the campaign books, and I didn’t want to be metagaming by having her take charge of things.

Zith - Very similar. They’re genderfluid, like I am, and they have a power I wish I had. Plus they like to listen to other people go on about things.

Black Dulheart - Similar. He embodies my passion and desire to make the world a better place. Of course, being my OP OC, he can perform feats of power far beyond anything actually possible.

Samantha Hodges - Similar. She did spawn from one of my dreams, and I think she has an aesthetic I wish I had (dark, creepy, with bits of fun because why the fuck not). Sam is much taller than me, tho. And smokes cigarettes. Blech. Whenever I write her I just think about what I would do in that situation.

Theresa W. - Mixed. Theresa is a character where I can understand exactly where she is coming from, but I do not agree with how she approaches the world. She kind of scares me sometimes. But then I see her in pain and lonely, and know all too well what that feels like. Of these characters, she’s the one I designed to be different, but ended up similar.

Thok - Different. Thok is... well, Thok. He is willing to throw himself into danger to save a friend or stranger, and I would like to think that I have that capacity as well. However, he is an orc barbarian, and I am a squishy commoner. He also has the luxury of not needing to think about consequences; he doesn’t have the brainpower for that sort of thing

Would you hang out with your OC if you could?

Depends on what hanging out means. All of them can be cordial when in a peaceful setting, and I would like to speak with them and learn about them if that was possible. Minwa and Magdalin would probably unnerve me, though.

Which OC do you think is the most decent morally or behaviorally? AKA, which is supposed to a “good guy”?

Thok is the paragon of everything that is good and decent in the world.

Black also, but he’s more lawful and understands that there is a grey side to many things.

Stella is also ‘good,’ but she uses unconventional means (necromancy) to further her goals.

Which OC do you think is the worst morally or behaviorally? AKA, which is supposed to be a “bad guy”?

Minwa. She will do anything as long as you pay her well enough. There are some things that she ‘can’t’ be paid to do cuz she would charge infinity money, but still.

Theresa. Not that she is evil, but she has a grudge against the world and is out to make the world pay up for wronging her.

Which OC do you think is the most attractive?

Zith, cuz they’re a shapeshifter.

What’s the longest you’ve had an OC for?

I first came up with Black Dulheart in 2001, so 16 years almost

How did you come up with your OC?

Minwa - Pathfinder; wanted to make the strongest, scariest barbarian girl I could

Stella - Pathfinder; wanted to do something really silly and have a posse of undead so I could take ALL OF THE TURNS

Magdalin Tenderthorn - Pathfinder; wanted to make a badass crossbow ranger

Zith - Dnd 4e; I hadn’t figured out I was genderfluid yet, so I guess they were going to be my first attempt at expressing myself. Also wanted to be a sneaky rogue

Black Dulheart - Imaginary; See question 1

Samantha Hodges - Dream; got to drink with vikings inside their giant whale-ship

Theresa W. - Worldbuilding; after I figured out where Samantha came from, I made Theresa next to have more characters in that world

Thok - Joke; I can’t remember where I heard the thing that made me come up with his name and name origin, but I just had to make him a character sheet after that

Ah shit! I forgot about Alejandro Velasquez, Driver Extraordinaire(tm)! Oh well.

#my ocs #valkyriesuits

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celticrune · 7 years

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and for u the uneven numbers of the oc questions thing!!

…boiUnder a cut for length

1. Your first OC ever?From the OCs on my ask page, that’d be Morana. I created her for my first DnD campaign, when I needed an npc to beef up the party. She’s grown a lot since then, especially since I started playing her as a PC, but yea she’s fun.

My first OC ever is more difficult. I think the technical first would be a fan oc I made for an rp, Arya. Wait no that’s wrong she’s the second. The forums were taken down so I can’t check, but I’m pretty sure the first rp I joined there was a dinosaur rp, where I played like a velociraptor also called Arya (I was very creative). I might’ve written some stuff before that but I don’t remember, so I’ll count this.

3. Have you ever adopted a character or gotten a character from someone else?nope

5. If you could make only one of your OCs popular/known, who would it be? oh jeez. don’t make me choose between my children

7. Are your OCs part of any story or stories?Well, do DnD campaigns count as stories? I’ve also written oneshots for various characters, and I’ve got a giant college au with @spitaverse-burr and @kima-ladyofvord that features all our character which could count as a story.

So yeah basically all of them.

9. Would you ever be willing to give any of your OCs to someone else?why?? that’s the main question I have for adoptable OCs just why. not in a judgey way, i just genuinely do not understand

11. Is there any OC of yours you could describe as a “sunshine”? Tanwen. She’s the only pure character I have, all the rest are assholes. Tanwen is an actual ray of sunshine she’s great

13. Do you have any troublemaker OCs? Keiji, 100%. Whisper as well, if it’s something "cool” or if she was dared to. Though, Whisper is still pretty nervous about actually breaking the law, so it depends a bit on what it is.

Raya is not an active troublemaker so much as she has a casual disregard for these odd rules of civilization. She lives in forests like 99% of the time give her a break.

15. Do you like to talk about your OCs with other people?yes

17. Any OC OTPs? oh boy do i ever. Morana and Lux’ Rorik, Temperance and Lux’ Chal, Val and Tori’s Lytte, Keiji/therapy (maybe also Keiji and Lux’ Wyatt), Raya/trees, Tanwen and Lux’ Ghilli (they’d be so cute..)

19. Introduce an OC that means a lot to you (and explain why)All of them, honestly. They’re all a part of me and they’re all very lovely assholes

21. Your most artistic OCNone of them really have a defined artist thing in their canon, but Keiji likes carving little wood birds to keep his hands busy during long watches and the like. Tanwen loves reading sappy romance novels, and in the college au she’s definitely written some terrible friendfiction (it’s like her one big secret, apart from the sister thing).

23. Introduce OC that has changed from your first idea concerning what the character would be like?this is difficult damn. I think maybe Keiji? The first concept I had for him was “a monk who’s had to leave their order, and is v bitter and angry about it”. His backstory hasn’t changed, but his way of dealing with it has. I ended up dumping a bunch of my issues on him, and now he’s far more betrayed than angry, and he hides it all behind humour and snark.

Beside him, Morana has also changed. I introduced her as a quiet, pragmatic npc character. Since I started playing her she’s gotten a lot more emotional and she’s found a temper (and a tragic backstory)

25. The OC that resembles you the most (same hobby, height, shared like/dislike for something etc?)As mentioned above, Keiji has a lot of my issues, mainly the selfdestructive habits and never talking about your feelings or being honest about them ever.

Raya has my love for nature and natural magics. Morana has my curiousity, the love for knowledge and the need to know (even if it comes at the cost of summoning a devil). Whisper has my protectiveness, and subsequent troubles with communicating it.

Honestly, they all have parts of me, cause well that’s just what happens when you create characters. and i love them all they’re good

27. Any OCs that were inspired by a certain song? nope

29. Which one of your OCs would go investigate an abandoned house at night without telling anyone they’re going?Keiji. Whisper would only do it on a dare so there’d be other people involved. Morana definitely would, because she’s dumb and reckless and in search of cryptids.

31. Pick one OC of yours and explain what their tumblr blog would be like (what they reblog, layout, anything really)ohohohoho. I recently found the conversation where Lux, Tori, and I talked about this for the college au.

Morana has a blog devoted to cryptids, but she also reblogs all history posts she can find. (she corrects them and adds sources if necessary). Surina isn’t technically in this au, but I could see her running like a fitness blog. Raya has a gardening blog, with tips and logs about her own plants. Val would have a lot of selfies w Lytte (and more pictures of just her), a lot of backstage pics from theatre, actual journal posts on recommendation of their therapist, and a truly worrying amount of posts about how to hide various weapons on your person.

Tanwen would run one of those cutesy study blogs, with prettily coloured to do lists, pictures of an organised workspace, and lots of self care tips for exam week. Keiji has various sideblogs. He has a fitness blog which is also about his martial arts studies, a shitpost meme blog (his main), an edgy aesthetic blog (bruised knuckles, people smoking on top of buildings, that kinda thing), and probably more.

Whisper would run like a proper blog blog, with logs from her many scouting trips and like mountain climbing adventures. Also a lot of pictures from those. Temperance isn’t really interested in going through the hassle (cause y’know blind), and Mokir is a cat. There is a tumblr and a linked twitter account dedicated to every sighting, and pictures and applause whenever he’s attacked someone.

33. Your shyest OC?Either Tanwen or Whisper probably, though neither of them are that bad. Tanwen can speak up and is stubborn enough to defend her opinion when it counts (which is often), and Whisper overcompensates with bluster and rambling.

35. Any sibling characters? Nope. I mean, some of them have siblings, but i don’t have two characters who are siblings

37. Introduce an OC who is not quite human Morana and Temperance are tiefling. They’re a race which used to be human, until they were corrupted by demons, and now they look various levels of demonic. Surina is a dragonborn, so definitely not human. Val is a half-elf, though they’ve passed as both elven and human. Raya is a woodelf. Mokir is a rakashan, so basically an anthro cat. He’s based off like norwegian forest cats, so he’s an already burly and tall man who’s then like 50% fur it’s hilarious.

39. Introduce any character you want Well in that case let me introduce the characters from The Roles We Play, since they’re not on my blog. Astra is a highelf wizard and she’s adorable. She’s quite shy, but she loves talking about the stars and magic, and someone else always needs to be on watch with her because she will without fail be distracted by watching the stars.

Nira is a human paladin of the Raven Queen. Her family didn’t quite agree with her choice to go study, but she found a second family with the order. She loves adventure, and she’s always the one most eager to explore ancient ruins and dangerous-looking caves.

Rémi is a half-elf bard. He’s the mom friend of the team, armed with exasperation and fond amusement, always ready to talk his friends out of jail. He also carries at least four instruments on his person at any given time.

Vengeance is a tiefling ranger with an owl companion called Hope. They go by Ven, most of the time, and they tend to be a voice of reason. They favour dry humour and snark, and they often spend long watches carving wooden figurines.

41. Has anyone drawn fanart of your OCs? If yes, maybe show a picture or two here (remember sources & permissions!)Yes! Lux is a gift to god’s good earth and they have a lot of amazing art here, including some of my characters~

43. Do you have any certain type when you create your OCs? Do you tend to favour some certain traits or looks? It’s time to confessWell, one thing I noticed recently-ish is that almost none of my characters tend to be honest with their feelings. Keiji’s the most obvious, but Tanwen, Morana, Surina, Whisper, Val, Temperance, they all have an element of acting, of being various levels of two-faced, of pretending you’re fine always. They all do it in different ways, but yeah.

Another thing is that I tend to make low charisma characters? like so many of them have cha as their dump stat. I also find it difficult to play low-int characters, so they all tend to have a higher intelligence.

45. A character you no longer use?Not from the characters on my oc page, but there are a shitton of characters from my rp days who I’ve abandoned.

47. Has anyone ever (friendly) claimed any of your OCs as their child?..probably. Can’t recall any specific examples rn, but I think Val’s been adopted more than once, same with Whisper. Val and Lux’ Chal also have a fun au where Chal adopts Val and runs away with her, and they become a family and travel together and it’s all fun and good until Temperance’s assassins manage to chase them down.

49. Which one of your OCs would most likely enjoy memes Keiji. 100%

#morana #surina #tanwen #keiji #val #temperance #raya #whisper #oc's #asks #this was fun~#thank you so much!

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