New Kids - 11/3/23 (Edited 1/5/24)
Some new kids (and adults). I do occasionally make a new minor OC here or there to fill roles in stories, but its actually been quite a few years since I made new characters for a completely new story??? I'm kinda excited about it
Maya (tentative name)
Protagonist. The sort of person of who acts pleasant and cheerful for other people's sakes. The fact that it feels a little unnatural can sometimes have the opposite effect. She means well, though. Maya always seems to know a little more than she lets on...more than a 12-year-old should know, anyway. A mysterious little girl!
Design thoughts: The gist for her outfit is basically a school uniform with personalizations on top. I don't think she normally wears slippers out and about, but she knew she could get away with it this time, and went for it. Her smiles are supposed to be a little bit empty, but not in an unsettling way. I think I still have a ways to go on that.
Mardöll
Has the personality of a feral cat that will let you pet it, but then immediately bites you. Calling her feral isn't too far off, since she's had very little contact with actual society. She has a very blunt way of speaking.
Design thoughts: I haven't designed most of the supernatural characters for this work, so she sticks out like a sore thumb in these drawings hahaha. Very fun design though. I knew the moment I randomly doodled her, she had to stay. Vaguely inspired by this goblin girl from a 60s movie I've never watched, I think.
Her and Maya have quite the unusual little friendship, and I really cherish what I've got written for them so far. They make each other a little better and a little worse simultaneously. Two unhinged little kids.
Paco
Genuinely affable, but something about him makes him feel just a little bit shady (and it's not the shades). Paco is not his actual name, or even his nickname. He will readily admit this to you; that honesty emphasizing his likeability/shadiness simultaneously. The doodles above probably paint him as a little bit dorky, but he's actually fairly skilled socially (just a bit easy to dunk on).
Design thoughts: I want his hair to be curlier. :( I really struggled with wanting his clothes to be more unique but have settled for this (for now?) I'm happy with his color scheme, at least. His smiles bring me a lot of joy (shoves him into a locker).
I'm apparently incapable of making stories now without adding at least one Raven From Tales Of Vesperia expy into the work. I can have one more mentally ill uncle character, as a treat???
??? (I will have to get back with you on her name)
A somewhat meek but earnest Good Girl type. I sat here trying to think of a more detailed description, but her charm really is in her simple and straightforward personality. Probably the least fucked up adult in the cast (I still have a couple more designs to go).
Design thoughts: I didn't want her to get overshadowed by the more quirkier members of the cast; my solution was to make her so big physically that you can't ignore her. I gave her Hamtaro-style eye shines; hope it accentuates her personality. I already dislike drawing the headband; I might replace it with a barrette.
I accidentally made her into a femme version of my old OC, Henry. (Not in personality though, she's much nicer than him). I'm not changing it! Kind of hilarious that I didn't notice I was doing it, to be honest! They're just going to be alternate universe twinsies, I guess.
Sasha
Scrungly and caustic tsundere. Sort of a creature. He lost a large part of his soul (literally) when he was younger, so the fact that he has any amicable qualities at all is a miracle of his own perseverance. The sort of person who blacks out when he stands up too fast. Inform him that he's dressed like a Hallmark character at your own peril.
Uses any pronouns (besides it/its), but pick a set and stick with it, don't shuffle between them. He will get mad at you if you default to they/them out of politeness rather than your gut feelings.
Design thoughts: I wanted his design to scream "someone very miserable but still trying to keep it together and Look Presentable." In terms of color schemes, his clothes are similar to Maya's, but darker (he's character foil).
I have struggled with his design SO much. For literally over a year now. Finally got mad about it and spent a month trying to RNG my way to victory with like 10 billion designs. I'm still not totally happy with what I've got here, but it feels...close.
Part of me keeps internally joking that since part of his soul is missing, it'd make sense for his design to feel incomplete/"wrong" too, but that feels like a copout since I don't know what the complete version would look like. His hat design feels stupid, but in a way that I've gotten sentimentally attached to. (It's like...4 actual hat types melded together. I couldn't make up my mind.)
I would like this story to be a (simplistic) game. Whether I will actually have the patience for that or not remains to be seen!!!! I'm not letting myself actually work on it until after I'm done with TMatM but frankly it still needs more time to cook story-wise, so I'm fine with that. It's based on a nightmare I had a little over a year ago. If I had to describe it, it's like if Liar Game and Persona 2 had a terrible, terrible baby.
Not giving this story its own project page for now, not even because it's still untitled, mostly because I like assigning my stories a thematic color and I don't know what this one's is yet hahaha.