#arterio

4. A character you rarely talk about?

Okay, so ironically I don’t think I’ve ever talked about Alicia on here, which is funny because she is my First Character™ and I Love Her. She’s who baby Alison wrote when I was twelve, and Alicia was also twelve, and she was basically me (obviously). She’s still … probably closest to me, but she’s her own person now, and I love her dearly. She’s from Near Future Earth (the story’s called Hover City Q, currently, and I’m proud of the worldbuilding), and she’s a lovable juvenile delinquent who’s buddies with half the police force because they can’t not like her (even though they frequently have to detain her because she does Illegal Shenanigans in the name of freedom? I think? The plot still needs work lol but I do so love the whole cast). She’s a computer whiz, and hates school, and sleeps too late, and wears bright yellow shoes, and has a troubled past with the foster care system but has acquired The Best Family (read: little bio sister, older non-bio foster brother, best foster mom in the history of the world), and is sarcastic to a fault, and she’s my first favorite, so it’s a shame that I don’t talk about her, but I’m just not quite sure where her story is because she’s been such an integral part of my writing existence.

10. Introduce an OC with a complicated design?

Honestly, I’m not entirely sure what this question means? I feel like it might have a basis in video games or art, which is not where my OCs come from. But I think the most “complicated” physically is Mo, who’s from Angel Wings. She’s five, and she’s a human-avian hybrid child. But not, like, angel-body type human-avian hybrid child: She’s got a human head and neck and face, but also prehensile monkeyesque feet because instead of arms she’s got enormously oversized wings that don’t fold neatly and she ends up rocking on to locomote. She’s … kind of a mess, honestly, but she is a happy and well-loved semi-flight-capable child. Just awkward. And feathery. And, yes, her description needs work in the current manuscript. It’s a Work In Progress lol.

11.Is there any OC of yours you could describe as a “sunshine”?

I mean, I have a character who’s actual real life name is Sunny Song–does she count? She could, possibly. I do so love her. She has sunshiny tendencies. But, flip side, she’s also a supervillain, so … maybe not.

Alternatively, we have Misha, who’s two and Adorable, or Jessie, who’s Alicia’s twelve-year-old sister. Apparently “sunshine” in my head means “wonderful little siblings” (Lucius’s and Alicia’s, respectively).

23. Introduce OC that has changed from your first idea concerning what the character would be like?

Confession time: I have a systemic problem with First Draft Baddies Not Actually Being Baddies. Like … it’s bad. Really bad. Everyone I think is an honest to badness villain just isn’t. They’re not horrible people once you get to know them. Then I have to write the actual villain in subsequent drafts, so it’s a Process.

Case in point: Lucius, y’know, my feathers son? My seventeen-year-old genetic hybrid protagonist whom I love? He was the secondary villain in the first draft of Angel Wings many moons ago. He was not a nice dude. He was human-shaped then, too, not feathers son shaped, and, like, stereotypical sadist mercenary type. But, oops, just kidding, turns out he’s the good guy, and he’s not a grown up he’s a teenager, and he’s not human shaped he has wings too (well, not entirely human shaped–human plus wings, hence the no-longer-applicable title).

Of the literal dozens of stories I’ve written at this point, I think the only time I got the baddie right on the first time was Soren, from Aschar and Terrwyn’s world. So I always try to write good baddies, but it takes a couple drafts to sort out who’s actually bad and who’s just unpleasant. Nikolai? Science dad. Grigori? Begrudging non-science uncle (who, granted, still has some abusiveish tendencies probably). Hank? Invites Arterio over for lunch regularly after enabling him to save himself. Conan? Actually likes Lucius too. Fredrick? Supportive cop uncle to delinquent Alicia. Sonos? Lolol yeah right. Rampage? Just wants to give her mom a good life and smash some squad cars. Ratman? Wants to save the world. I just … I’m bad at bad guys, okay? At least in the first draft.

24. If you could meet one OC of yours, who would it be and why?

This is. Such. A hard. Question! Hmm. Two routes of thinking lead to two different answers:

a. Sonos! I love her! I want her to know it! She’s just such a fun person, and such a lovable supervillain, and coming out of Average headspace, I’d love to spend a heist with her cuz I think it’d be awesome. And then I could tell her that she is loved, and I understand her, and she’s not alone, and she’ll be okay.

b. Alternatively, if I could ensure my safety, I’d also like to spend an afternoon with Desh from Angel Wings strictly so I could pick his brain. He’s one of my Honest To Badness Baddies–my hulking human-tiger hybrid supersoldier who tries to steal the Avian Initiative which means stealing Lucius and Science Dad and Bird Sister and forcing them to do the science for Other Baddies–but I don’t really get him just yet. I’m still figuring out where he came from, and why he is Like This, and I’d like to meet him and chat about it but also he’s high-key terrifying and could crush me like an empty pop can without thinking about it, or he’d think about it only as long as it took him to realize that he’d enjoy it and because of that he’d try to crush me slowly so I could scream longer. So I’d need a safety net of some sort to meet Desh, but I think it would be Helpful at this stage in my drafting.

( … also I have Most Definitely inserted myself into mind movies featuring the Regulars–Alicia, Arterio, Lucius, and Aschar–and that’s always cute. But I feel like they’re basically me, so meeting them is Not Necessary because we are the same.)

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