Answering for Ariadne Trevelyan

1. What’s the first element of your OC that you remember considering?

She was my second inquisitor, and I wanted to play a mage because melee targeting in this game is bad.

There was also a lot of interpersonal bullshit happening at the time with some people I’m no longer friends with; among other things, I had pretty much had it with the way they were talking about aspects of the Dragon Age universe that I found fascinating. So I decided she was going to be a devoutly Andrastian pro-Circle mage who, through a long series of events and bonding over trauma, was BFFs with Cullen.

18. What is the most recent thing you’ve discovered about your OC?

Thedas is even more of a hot mess powder keg after experiencing her and Vivienne as Divine in rapid succession.

(Mayyyyyybe we don’t have the woman who’s convinced she’s an actual prophet of Andraste sit on the sunburst throne, guys. Even if she’s right.)

2. Did you design them with any other OCs/characters in mind?

Nora was always Olivia’s and Garrus’ daughter. I went through several iterations of how that happened before I landed on her canon, but she was created as their daughter.

3. How did you choose their name?

I’m not actually sure. I recently found some fic babble about her that dates back to late 2014, so she’s been around longer than I thought, but I don’t know where I came up with her name.

12. What have you found to be most difficult about creating (any form of) art for your OC? 

Remembering that she has another brother, for one thing. She and Quentus have a very well-developed relationship, but I have, like, ten words of her interacting with Nico.

Without giving too much away about her fic, I have a lot of trouble managing a certain aspect of her anxiety. Most of her anxiety I can write just fine (because, hi), but there’s one part of it that is extremely specific and it’s hard to balance “her anxiety is a legitimate and real thing, let her feel it” with “she’s also 26 and been in therapy a good chunk of her life, and she’s an N3 soldier and team leader who’s literally on a mission right now; she has all the skills to shut it down.”

15. What’s one thing about your OC that can make you laugh?

“I’m sorry. Are you unclear about the concept of ducking?”

1. What was the first element of your OC that you remember creating?

I wanted a Krem romance. 

4. In developing their backstory, what elements of the world they live in played the most influential parts? 

Iron Bull. 110%. She joined up with the Chargers when she was *mumbles*teen, and was largely feral at that point; most of her actual How To Interact With People and How I See The World personality was formed by Bull. 

The Chargers themselves also were important, as a collective: she’d been abandoned by her clan, and was surviving on her own, but along come these misfit assholes who immediately adopt her. And they never abandoned her, ever. It takes her a long, long time to fully internalize that fact.

14. If you had to narrow it down to 2 things that you MUST keep in mind while working with your OC, what would those things be? 

Bubblegum and sunshine.

19. What is your favorite fact about your OC?

The spiral in her ear is the one that’s visible, but all of her piercings are enchanted with runes.

15. What’s something about your OC that makes you laugh?

She, Tali, and Ashley take pre-combat selfies in the shuttle before every mission. Steve has just learned to accept that his CO might be a little off-kilter, because the selfie is a requirement, regardless of the presence of harvesters.

(and on a meta note, that when fighting geth she ends up with a nine-person squad because of her and Tali’s combined drones and hacks, and one time on insanity in ME3 i literally threw out all my drones, hacked some geth, and then parked it in cover for two minutes while everything else did all the work)

16. What’s something about your OC that makes you cry?

Ashley gets taken by the Collectors on Horizon (because, honestly, that makes a thousand percent more sense), and Vanessa isn’t given Tali’s dossier immediately (because the Illusive Man is a manipulative dick). She spends a good chunk of ME2 in this really horrible, soul-crushing depression that turns her actively cruel toward people. She’s ruthless and she’s cunning, but her nature is not mean.

(and on a meta note, her NG+ is my insanity run through ME2 and I have been unable to get off of Freedom’s Progress for six months.)

4. In developing their backstory, what elements of the world they live in played the most influential parts? 

Well, she shows up when she’s two (though I may change that to four, because upon doing research, I discovered that two year olds don’t have the kind of interactivity I need). So there’s not much backstory to develop, other than “found abandoned on a Cerberus station full of dead people.”

But in terms of developing the backbone of who she is - it’s Garrus and Olivia. They are not perfect parents, but they nail it where it matters. Nora grows up knowing that she’s loved and cared for, and despite my answer to the next question, she’s a pretty happy kid and grows into a very confident and competent woman. I break her down after she’s an adult

9. Are they based off of you, in some way? 

Nora got straddled with my academic anxiety (though its source is different). And, like me, that anxiety spreads into other areas.

(Unlike me, her mother recognizes the anxiety for what it is, and fucking does something about it)

16. What is something about your OC can make you cry?

I already answered this, but honestly there’s a lot about Nora that makes me cry. The way that she inherently trusts Olivia; they meet when Nora is very small and very scared, but Olivia smiles at her in just the right way, and Nora scrambles for a hug and doesn’t let go. When she’s old enough and asks, Olivia tells her the truth of what happened on the station; it’s only Nora’s deep-seated trust in her mother that keeps her from going totally off the rails about being abandoned again, especially when the anxiety stuff kicks up.

19. What is your favorite fact about your OC?

James used to braid her hair, and now he’s her CO. It’s comedically awkward for both of them.

Olivia:

10. If they have an LI, how much of their character is tailored to fit that person?

Not a whole lot, I think; she was always meant to be my Garrus romance, and as she developed they’ve fit better and better. 

Her being a sniper is the one thing I can think of that’s specifically because of Garrus. She was always a soldier, but specializing as a sniper is so I could make the “that gun’s bigger than you” joke, which honestly kicks off their relationship (it just takes them over three years to get there).

18. What is the most recent thing you’ve discovered about your OC?

Post-war, she always has a dextro protein bar on her in case Garrus needs it. He really doesn’t do well being hungry.

Victoria:

2. Did you design them with any other characters/OCs from their universe in mind?

Nope. I decided to slam her canon into Olivia’s because I like shoving one OC into another’s universe (see also: Alle and Rachel showing up in Norafic), but I didn’t create Tori specifically as a Ryder for Olivia’s universe.

15. What is something about your OC that can make you laugh?

The piggyback ride obstacle course fic. Just imagining this short hazard-orange-haired human riding triumphant on Drack’s shoulders is pretty fantastic.

15. What’s something about your OC that can make you laugh?

Any number of Noodle Incident stories with the Chargers, like that time she and Dalish tried to see if they could magic the deck of Wicked Grace cards, and instead ended up setting the table on fire.

16. What is something about your OC that can make you cry?

She was abandoned by her clan because of something that wasn’t even her fault. 

On a happier note, sometimes I cry because she found a family that will never abandon her.

17. Is there some element you regret adding to your OC or their story?

Her dead mom. It’s just super cliche and predictable. I wish I had done, like, her mom actively searching for her. Or her dad was the clan Keeper. Or something that isn’t quite so “one parent died offscreen before the story started, child is kicked out of their home, spends the rest of their life a wanderer searching for their clan, by the time they find the clan their remaining parent is also dead.” It’s so boring, I’m so mad at myself for it. 

Liv & 3 was already answered

1. What was the first element of your OC you remember considering?

Olivia: her name, probably. She was actually created in a teary fit of frustration while playing Susan through early bits of ME2; I’d stupidly changed Susan’s class from soldier to infiltrator (she’s totally an infiltrator, but after soldiering my way through ME1, taking away my assault rifle was a bad call), and I wasn’t doing well with the combat changes at all. So I wanted to go back to ME1 because I knew how to play it, and thus Olivia was born.

Vanessa: hey, can I kill all the dudes in this game

Evangeline: Leah wasn’t enough of a fuckup, let’s try harder

10. If they have an LI, how much of their character is tailored to be compatible with that person?

Not a thing. Vanessa was developed as a cold, calculating, ruthless engineer from the start. The Vanessa/Tali/Ashley OT3 came completely out of left field for me.

(I think they end up complementing each other. Combat-wise, literally everything is on fire. Personality-wise, the two of them soften her (in private), and her utterly immovable steel spine gives Ashley the confidence to believe she won’t top out at gunnery chief, and Tali the confidence to stand up to the Admiralty Board’s bullshit) 

12. What have you found to be most difficult about creating any type of art for your OC?

Balancing “complete and total fuckup, everyone is dead” with “decent human being, just shit at leadership making good choices” (she’s actually quite paragon; I’m playing her renegade because that’s my personal preference, and Evangline is, frankly, a mathematical experiment). And also balancing “shit at leadership and making good choices” with “an actual N7 soldier Hackett thought was competent enough to be the first human Spectre.”