Tikiki’s OCs and Writing

Also! All of my artwork as of now is done by my best friend, Dee from Webtoon/Dee Deffieux. They usually credit themselves explicitly in the more recent references we’ve made together, but I’ll still credit them frequently wherever I can. Would never want to accidentally give off the impression to anyone that I could actually draw lmao /lh

One final note; I intend for my characters to be very diverse and accurately represent all different kinds of people, but I’m admittedly not the best researcher and can obviously get things wrong. Therefore if you think there’s anything off with any of my characters, especially if you’re from the same group of people as them, please let me know! I want my characters to be the best, most accurate and respectful depictions of real people I can possibly make, so I’m happy to engage in chill dialogue with people more knowledgeable on certain subjects than me so I can improve my characters.

As for your original question, the only properly actually spider-related canon event I have so far for my Devi Family Spiders is Rileys, AKA Spider-Pinks canon event. Heads up for intersexism, but in short, Riley starts dating a boy named Grant who’s very good to them at first but eventually starts to act weird. They eventually find out that the only reason Grant was interested in dating them was because he had a fetish for intersex people. Distraught and horrified from this, Riley acts rashly against him in a way that incidentally caused his death. Riley and Spider-Pink were both individually on trial, but were eventually proven innocent by their uncle Vincent/Spider-Lawyer. Still, the entire ordeal was terribly traumatizing for Riley, and threw off the course of their life somewhat.

The only other canon event(s?) I kind of count are just like all the traumatizing/pivotal moment’s in Sarala’s life (her getting kicked out of her abusive parents home, the birth of her children, her husband Samir suffering and passing from brain cancer, etc), but those all come prior to her ever becoming Spider-Woman or rather Makadee Naree. So I suppose those classify as canon events in the more pop-culture sense of the term that the ATSV movie spawned.

Riley (he/she/they) is Sarala’s adopted grandchild. Rileys birth mother, a random woman in the Devi neighborhood, surrendered Riley to the Devi family, assuming they could give them a better life than she could going off of how big their house was. After being left alone, a not even 2 year old Riley wandered out to the junk pile in front of the house, because it was spring cleaning/junk week at the time. Upstairs inside the house, a 12 year old Jordan saw them and alerted their mother. Eventually, Sarala called the police to try and find the childs mother, all the while Riley is drawn to and forms an immediate bond with Jordan, and vice versa. Because Rileys documents were left on them, the police were able to find their mother and where she lived, but unfortunately she had already taken her own life. With this grave news, the police gave the Devi family two options; hand Riley over so she could be put up for adoption, or take Riley in themselves. Knowing how awful the adoption system can be, as well as seeing how Riley and Jordan have already grown close, Sarala decides it’s best for Rileys sake for them to stay. It was a decision the family never regretted once, immediately loving and accepting Riley fully, despite the challenging behavioral issues they had at that age.

Riley is 16 years old (their canon birthday was actually recently, August 5th!), and he’s a passionate and avid theatre student whose many hobbies relate back to theatre. Such as costume, makeup, hair, and set design. Their favorite hobby however is custom doll making, where they usually take old dolls and repaint them to look like their favorite movie characters. Despite their colorful and eccentric interests and style, their personality really comes across as just the opposite. Riley speaks in a constant deadpan monotone, struggles with expressing emotions, and can be unintentionally rude or blunt when he really doesn’t mean to be. He’s extremely particular, and want to do the things he wants to in his own way. They’re genderfluid/bigender, with their personal lived experience leaning more towards transmasc, but aren’t really big on labels to begin with. And by miraculous coincidence, they’re also intersex like Jordan, though a different variation than her. It’s a part of their identity they’ve always struggled with, from general bullies at school harassing them about it, to their first boyfriend only having interest in them because he had a fetish for intersex people. Forever and always by Rileys side through thick and thin is their best friend and QPR partner Mitzi (Her reference will be the next one posted, but I don’t want her bio to only talk about their relationship so I’m going to talk about it here some too). Mitzi and Riley have been best friends since pre-school, and queer platonic relationship partners since Riley broke up with their aforementioned first boyfriend. Riley sees Mitzi as their artistic muse, always loving to make them the subject of their art. From photoshoots to couples cosplays, to even running mundane errands together. Wherever Mitzi is, you’re likely to find Riley right by her side.

Jordan (she/he/they) is Saralas second/youngest child, the result of an accidental pregnancy with her college boyfriend Dion. Initially he planned to see her through the pregnancy and be a present father, but then after being offered a really good position in his family’s tech company as well as believing he wouldn’t make a good father, him and Sarala decide it’s for the best that they split up with him paying child support in full. They were born intersex, which led to Sarala deciding to raise them in a rather gender neutral manner to allow them to pick and express their identity for themselves. They’d eventually come to identify as genderfluid-transfem. Jordan was only 12 years old when she discovered an abandoned 2 year old child wandering around in front of the Devi house. The family eventually ended up adopting this child, Riley, but they definitely took to and connected with Jordan the most by far, leading to them calling Jordan mom. Their relationship sort of feels both parental and sibling like in a way. But despite the insecurities Jordan feels in their ability to be responsible, he always comes through for Riley as a safe, caring, and responsible parent, and absolutely loves doing so too. Shortly after the adoption of Riley however, he had to deal firsthand with the heartbreaking loss of his stepfather to brain cancer. With their older brother Vincent away at school, their Uncle Frank working, and their own mother in sheer hysterics, they were the only one able to call to get the body taken away. All while trying their best to comfort an upset toddler Riley, and their inconsolable mother. It’s one of Saralas biggest regrets that she put Jordan in that position at such a young age.

Jordan is 27 years old, and works at a local small bakery. Baking is her passion, and she bakes at home all the time, always excited to try out new recipes and flavors of cakes. She also bakes in the other sense, in that she’s quite a stoner and greatly enjoy doing henna art, painting and drawing in general, and playing around with feminine fashion, especially from the 2000’s era. They love their family dearly, their older brother Vincent included despite the inane bickering they’re usually always starting up with him. Vincent was always there for Jordan, even with the usual sibling shenanigans they got into all throughout their lives together. Jordans ideal day would involve driving down to Santa Cruz, hitting a dispensary, and then spending hours basking in the sun on the beach. They love the beach and summer so much, it makes them hate that their birthday is in January.

Vincent (he/him) is Saralas oldest/first child. Seeing his appearance, your first thought is probably “No way his mom actually gave birth to him.” A sentiment of confusion he’s unfortunately heard all his life. Genetics definitely played out unusually for Vincent, given his lack of immediate resemblance to his mother, his staggering height of 7 feet, and his bright red hair, all traits from his biological father. Not to mention knowing he was gay from a young age as well. All things that have always made him stick out like a sore thumb, causing him to face ridicule and isolation since childhood. As an adult however, he does whatever to get by alone, quiet, and unnoticed. And whenever he has to hear the same lines, questions, and jokes again from someone new he meets, he just paints on the same strained smile as pictured above.

He’s a 34 yo man who works professionally as a lawyer, wanting to have been one ever since he was a child and saw injustice in the word. Particularly seeing firsthand all the challenges his mother faced as a woman of color to give him a good life. Vincent loves his mother deeply, and while at times argues with her and has some conflicting feelings about her, would do anything for her at the end of the day and truly respects her. Despite the frustrating struggles she dealt with during Vincents childhood and despite her own past of abuse, she always did everything she could to make sure he felt happy, safe, and loved. Vincent loves the autumn and winter seasons, the food that comes with it, appreciating the arts, and curling up with a good book and apple scented candle lit nearby.

Sarala (she/her) is my main OC! She’s a 49 yo woman who has lived a very difficult life, having lived in an extremely abusive household up until the age of 15, when she was kicked out after accidentally becoming pregnant. From there, she struggled with poverty, pregnancy, childbirth, and then being a young single parent all up until university where she meets her lifelong best friend, Frank DuPont (dedocated post for him coming soon). More struggles come her way with a second unplanned pregnancy and her splitting up with her boyfriend who’s the father, and even later on losing her beloved husband to brain cancer. But through it all she works very hard and graduates, eventually becoming an acclaimed scientist in the fields of biology, dermatology, and arachnology (science of arachnids, spiders, scorpions, etc)

Sarala’s a complicated woman to be sure; while having heavily overcame the trauma from her parents and having put in the work to ensure she never continued that cycle with her own children, she still has her struggles and denial that leads to her unintentionally hurting other people in her life, usually her romantic/sexual partners. She’s queer, under the bi umbrella, but very blazé and dismissive about this part of her identity, resulting in a kind of internalized homophobia towards herself. She fully and unashamedly supports her children and their queerness, but sees something like being publicly married to a woman as something frivolous that she doesn’t need or want (very much giving “im probably nonbinary but i have a job so idrc about that rn” lmfao /ref)