User blog comment:Hiddenfolk/What is your favourite thing about your oc?/@comment-3991308-20180218030654

I have too many ocs and me rambling about them would take an incredibly long time. So, I'm going to answer this question in the standard way: one group at a time, by author.

Icarus Juniper: How could I not love Icarus? This boy means so much to me. He's just fundamentally so good, and one of the sweetest older brother figures ever. I wrote his storyline at a very low point in my life and it's been a severe help in aiding me in dealing with my own emotions. He's trying his best but dying inside, and still faking smiles and pushing himself to near exhaustion. Imprinting my own thoughts onto Icarus gave him the nuance I so desperately sought in my OCs.

Mark Juniper: See above, but with Mark. I also think it's incredibly important to portray boys as soft and perhaps "feminine". Mark is emotionally strong. He's a boy who's so proud of his mother and his female role in the Juniper Tree and embraces that. He's childhood personified. At the same time, he's utterly terrifying. He can summon demons from pure emotions alone. He cries blood. He's anxious and stressed and constantly calling for God - Christian, or the old Germanic gods that reside in the woods - to speak to him again. I think that's what makes Mark so compelling. I don't want him to be read as edgy, but I do want his otherwise "edgy" aesthetic to mean something. You can be flowers and sunlight through filtered windows and baking apple pies in early morning, and you can be cemeteries and digging holes in your backyard and persistent religious pleads.

Polynices Crawford: I made Polynices when I was 15, I think. Or 16. He started out merely as a character to move plot forward, but ended up being so much more than that. At 17, he became inspiring, he became an icon to me, and a symbol of living on. At 18, I realised how much that mattered, how much he mattered. I love Polynices Crawford. I will forever appreciate characters that serve to teach you the beauty and importance of life and living on.

Airmid Valerian: THEIR CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT. I love Airmid. So much. He's a mess of a physician, he's an arrogant mess of a young man who pulled an Icarus and fell from their own arrogance. But at the same time - he's so competent and driven and inspiring and full of life and light, especially in a tale that's seems at first glance to be death and darkness?? I wasn't pre-med when I made Airmid, but speaking as a pre-med and a biology major now, Airmid helped me comprehend/embrace the ideals of science and what it means to be a philanthropist. I'm thankful for that. He's been an illuminating OC - from his very beginnings and still now.

Lanius Nightshade: He's a father figure and an absolute wreck at that but still trying his best. Actually, so many of my OCs are trying their best. I wish I was trying my best. I'm not. Anyway, Lanius Nightshade is great and I love his?? Attempt at rebellion? I love his ideals and his angst over family and how idealistic he is? I say that he's one of the worst reapers and that is so true because he's such a great person. He may be said to be Death himself, but you can bet your ass that this reaper values life more than anything.

Pythia Adalinda: I would have better things to say about Pythia had she not been a social justice warrior nod from back in 2015. But really, she's lovely, I swear. What compells me about Pythia is how vision differs from reality. On the outside, she appears this justified, perfect politician of a girl, but on the inside, she's still so corporate and part of the system and awkward about change and moving on. She's... I'm not going to say she's a snake because she's genuinely sweet, and she's far from malicious to be called a villain, but she represents that sense of neutrality. The one where you do nothing but stand by and offer some empty comforting words. The one where you make change so it looks good on a CV.

Radiant von Ganse: I love Radiant for her snark. I love Radiant for her concern. I love Radiant because she is radiance itself. I love Radiant because she's great. She's just so vibrant and enthusiastic and an excellent banter and thinks the best of as many people as she likes. She's so blunt against authority and against other people and has excellent wit. She's excellent. She's stubborn and true to herself and playful without being an ass about it. And she gets along with her waiting maid and is against the whole pitting girls against each other thing.

Raider Espouse: Raider's concept was made as a love letter (?) to one thing that has always interested me greatly: the Deep Web (and hacking. You know I love hackers). I made him for the puns, for the nod, and what ended up was- once again, a real mess of a boy. I think Raider was one of my first genuinely evil-aligned OCs, and it was a really good push in the direction to make OCs who didn't encompass my ideas. I was going through a tough time, where a ex-friend would constantly pressure me in making things ideologically pure. Well, screw them. Raider was going to be messed up as I damn well liked.