#slink

Swoop - Hawks’ 2nd, a heteromorph with bat wings and ears. He can fly and echolocate, but his eyesight is horrible, so he wears really thick glasses when not in costume and had to work the lenses into his hero uniform. Honestly the most sane person in the entire agency, other than his wife, Breeze. Swoop is pretty quiet, so when he does put his foot down with the other sidekicks they know he means business. He’s ~27. The sidekicks and Swoop himself all think Hawks put him in charge because he’s come the closest to being able to keep up with Hawks (he’s still not able to, he’s just closer than the rest of the sidekicks :P).

Skitter / Skit - Swoop’s 2nd. Another heteromorph, Skit has a squirrel tail and ears. Because of his squirrel traits, Skit also inherited the cheek pouches, which he typically uses for stealing as many snacks as possible from the break room. He has “sticky fingers” and steals things that might damage the reputation of Hawks or the agency. Incredibly charming, already has the beginnings of his own fanbase (they’re mostly high school girls but Skit maintains that a fanbase is a fanbase). Skit has won the agency’s Favorite Sidekick poll (with votes casted by fans) at least twice in a row, and he takes great pride in this. ~19 years old, the baby of the crew until Tokoyami comes along.

Cam - Hawks’ Head of PR. His quirk is that he can record video footage of events via his eyes, and he’s able to produce tapes from his wrists. He goes along on patrol in order to catch video of all the cool stuff Hawks does. All PR stuff goes through him (which isn’t hard— the PR team is made up of him and two other folks, and the other two are unreliable, so Cam basically is a one man team. Regardless, he does a good job.) Cam’s almost always tired, but he does love his job, so he sticks around. Cam has zero training in fighting, so when he goes out with the group he has to stick with one of the sidekicks who does know how to fight (generally Swoop, but not always.) ~23

Slink - Not a formal part of Hawks’ Agency. Slink is an informant (and a good one at that) who pops in and out as he pleases with whatever he thinks Hawks might like to know. He’s quirkless, but you’d be hard pressed to find a better informant than him— he’s got connections all over the criminal underworld, and if he doesn’t know someone who knows something, he’s all too happy to find out. Slink, when not passing information to Pro Heroes, operates as a smuggler and supplier in the criminal realm. Because the intel he passes back is good, the law enforcement typically turn a blind eye to his activities. ~22

Breeze, Swoop’s wife, also exists, but I don’t have her quite as solid yet. She keeps the agency running though, as this weird blend between a mom-friend, a secretary, a personal assistant, and a manager. Officially, though, they call her the Agency Manager. Also ~27. She and Swoop keep their marriage on the down-low in order to not make any of their coworkers uncomfortable, but Hawks, Skit, and Cam all know. Slink stuck his nose where it didn’t belong and figured it out on his own because he can’t stand not knowing things.

And that’s it! Those are my goofy little OCs.

I’m still working out the logistics, but Slink and Present Mic have worked together in the past, and they discovered they get along pretty well. Although Present Mic hasn’t needed an informant since that initial job, they’ve kept in touch. This has landed Present Mic the unfortunate role of being Slink’s emergency contact/Jiminy Cricket.

Slink has also worked with Hawks before, because what is the purpose of OCs if not to force them to interact with your favorites? In my head, Slink works for Hawks and his bosses pretty often. They’ve developed a dynamic that works for them, and despite the apparent animosity, they actually get along pretty well.

I think my favorite thing about Slink though is the fact that he has absolutely no involvement with the League of Villains whatsoever. Slink saw the reports about the attack at U.A. and immediately went “League of Villains? What League of Villains? I didn’t see anything,” and just continues refusing to acknowledge their existence so nobody can make him go snoop on them. Somebody in his vicinity even mentions the League of Villains and he just disappears and nobody can find him. He’s not even in the building anymore. Slink loves his job as an informant, okay, but he loves having all his limbs attached and intact even more.

I’m also working him into Aki’s storyline to kind of fill out her corner of the world a little more. I think he probably works for Jumpscare and Whisper, helping them collect evidence against Puppeteer’s murderer, and he winds up being something of a cool-but-morally-dubious uncle to Aki.

If you’re wondering how he hasn’t been arrested for his other two jobs, the answer is that being a really high caliber of informant has gotten him a lot of friends in high places. Most law enforcement turn a blind eye to whatever else he’s doing because the job he does for them is too valuable to pull him off the streets. And when somebody does bring him in, Slink just places a call to one of the many influential folks who rely pretty heavily on his work, and he’s back on the street within the hour.

Slink doesn’t really have a plot. I feel like in-universe he’d be more of a side character than anything. That said, I also get the feeling that if he existed in universe he would probably be one of my favorites, which isn’t something I think very often with my own OCs. So that’s pretty cool :)