2026-01-23

OC Questionnaire

Answering… my own questionnaire!

1. A little self-introduction!

Tofutush here.

2. How long have you been making OCs?

Since 4th grade when I made silly comics with my desk-mate!

3. Who was your first OC ever? (If you don't remember, answer for the earliest that you do remember.) Are they still in use? Did they go through any iterations?

Lightningtail. I think she's started as a Warrior Cats OC? I mean the name checks. And then she's featured in Previous Paracosm. She had a lot of forms, cat Lightningtail, pony Lightningtail, and dragon Lightningtail for a Wings of Fire fanon species called ShockWings, and of course, the Homestuck troll version, Sparky.

I recently pulled the Previous Paracosm version of her (only this version does she have a brother called Jaywing) back out as a tadlet for Tadlet Kingdom Adventures.

4. Who is your favorite OC, currently?

Heh, might just be Harmony!

5. Who is your newest OC as of right now?

The newest character added to the site is Cherry, but she was created a while ago. Same goes for Sundew. The newest human created is Rose. But I've been making a ton of tadlet characters recently. The newest of that is probably Snowball, though you're not gonna see her any time soon!

6. How many OCs do you have? If you have multiple, then do you have blatant favoritism?

90 "official" humans (that is, not counting the new tadlets). And of course, how could I not have blatant favoritism?

7. Do you create OCs with other people, or is it mostly solitary?

It's mostly solitary. If I didn't create most aspects of a character myself, I won't feel connected. The same reason why I never buy adopts.

Although, I crave feedback and advice sometimes when I'm stuck, but if I don't end up taking others' suggestions I'd feel really bad, yknow… This is why I yap to ChatGPT a lot, because I don't feel bad when I don't like its feedback. Which is most of the time because it's really stupid, but sometimes I get bursts of inspiration while typing prompts out. I think it's really the process of putting things down in words that give you more words to put down!

8. Do you create your OCs for specific story(s)? What are the genre and common themes featured in your story(s)?

Yes. Espionage! Used to be mysteries too, before I found my love for espionage.

A theme I had noticed popping up is learning to let go. If I had a penny every time I think about a story's central theme and concluded it's about letting go I'd have two pennies, which isn't much but it's weird it happened two times. Is that a reflection of the deepest pits of my psyche? Place your bets!

9. Are your OCs from a fandom?

I used to have a lot of them, mostly Warrior Cats and Wings of Fire, and of course, TIR started as a Homestuck fanventure. But now all of them are inside TIR.

10. Do your OCs live in their own universe(s)? How different is their world from ours? (If you have fandom OCs you can still answer this with the world of the franchise!)

Yes! Their day-to-day life is mostly similar to ours, but with a bit of magic sprinkled in; I recently learned it's called "magical realism." And they live in a cold war world.

11. If you got isekai'ed into your OCs' universe (if there are multiple, pick some of the most notable), how long would you survive?

If I isekai'ed onto someone with parents that are just like mine, I think I can handle it.

12. Do most your OCs belong to a (set of) species?

Yes. I call them humans but they have 3 races, unicorn, bicorn, and aurian, for whether they have horns or ears on their heads (and how many horns).

13. Do you draw pictures of your OCs? If so, what kind of pictures do you draw?

Yes! Random doodles all the time, digital and more intentional pieces go on the website. Would you be surprised if I say the character I doodle the most is actually Alaska?

14. Do you enjoy drawing new reference sheets?

Hell no, I don't even enjoy drawing the first old refsheet.

15. Do you write about your OCs? If so, what sort of text do you write?

Yes, just lore dumps LOL, sometimes I start a chapter or two of actual fiction prose. But I'm also trying to write a kinetic novel right now but I won't yap about it too much in case I get too cringe looking back later when I eventually give up.

16. Aside from drawing and writing, is there anything else you're doing for your OCs? Like… making a website, perhaps?

Haha.

17. What's your general process in making new OCs?

Most of the time, the empty hole in need of a character is already there. Like "Sparky's parents," or "Candlelight's sister." I just go fill in the details. A bad side-effect of this is that characters are too defined by their relations to each other rather than standing on their own, which is something I'm working on.

18. Relatedly, which comes first for you, the OC or the story setting?

Story setting. It creates OC-shaped holes for me to fill.

19. Relatedly, how do you name your OCs?

I name them after concepts, like (glances around the room) "Napkin" or "Chair" are both valid names though I would probably never name anyone that. And I usually avoid real-life names like "Alice" and "Bob."

20. Relatedly, do your OCs gain a life of their own during the creation process?

Not really? I wouldn't know what that feels like.

21. Relatedly, do you focus more on the design of the OC, or their personality? Or is it an even blend, or something else?

How about an even blend of… neither! Their designs are mostly just a hairstyle with gray clothes, and their personalities don't go deeper than a vibe LOL. They're still just too defined by their relationships to each other (not that the relationship has a dynamic either! It's just "mom," "dad," or "friend") and their role in the story. I'm just a bad writer leave me alone.

22. Do you assign your OCs birthdays? Is their calendar different from ours?

Yes, and no because I'm not smart enough for a separate calendar. If they use the same calendar, looking up and calculating dates is also easier.

23. Do you keep track of OC creation dates? Do you consider the creation date to be their birthdays?

No, although newer characters do have an "added to site" date if I flip through the changelog. I don't intentionally track it though.

24. How do you handle OC ages? Do they age up with you, stay static, or grow within the universe?

Grow within the universe. My oldest OC is born 1960 and the youngest in 2041 LOL. There isn't a "present" in the universe; the present depends on the story we're talking about.

25. Are there any rules you set for yourself when making OCs? How often do you break these self-imposed rules?

Name them after concepts; give them unique soul colors; and never name two OCs the same name. I had broken all three. I have a girl called Natasha; Animus and Tomato have the same soul color; and Snowball is both one of Sunflower's tadlets and a girl who lives with the Appaloosa tribe. The last rule is born out of necessity because the website structure does not allow for two characters of the same name LOL, but since Sunflower's tadlets aren't logged into the same place as humans it's fine.

26. What are things you enjoy the most in OCs?

Badass trench coats!!!

27. Conversely, what are your pet peeves about OCs?

Escaped lab experiments is my singular pet peeve. (The case where the experiment created the character, or they experimented on a character and then they escaped, you get the point.)

28. What's the most common trope you fall into when making OCs and their stories? Do you even like these tropes?

Probably fridging female characters, especially with Peacock's 3 dead wives that I retconned. I hate this.

29. Conversely, do you have any trope you like but doesn't get to use it much in your OCs?

Most smartass espionage stuff I suppose.

30. Tell me the weirdest and wackiest piece of out-of-context OC lore you have.

Qibli created magic zombie, disappointed that it's not actually alive.

31. Tell me the saddest and most tearjerking piece of OC lore you have, with context if needed.

When Pearl got to meet her family but they immediately got gunned down.

32. Tell me the scariest and freakiest piece of OC lore you have, with context if needed.

Peacock tricks his parents into committing cannibalism.

33. Tell me the sweetest and most wholesome piece of OC lore you have, with context if needed.

Sparky's friendship with Qibli, Sky, and Firecrackers, I suppose.

34. Tell me one meta thing about your OC lore. Like scrapped / revamped stuff?

Hillslope mysteries got scrapped, LOL.

35. How do you think your OCs think of you? Are you their parent, their creation god, their suffering-bringer…

Their SUFFER BRINGER!

36. How much TRAUMA do you give your OCs!!

Yes.

37. Do you have a Mary Sue? Bonus points if they're your self-insert!

Kismet. Not my self-insert unfortunately.

38. Do you have a self-insert then? What role(s) do they play?

Yeeaaah. She's the punching bag.

39. What are your biggest influences when it comes to OC or worldbuilding? Could be media, other people's OCs, anything.

Homestuck… And My Little Pony.

40. Are you happy with these influences, or would you like to break away more?

My Little Pony is nice. Homestuck…

41. Do you try to break out of your comfort zone when coming up with new OCs and stories?

I think? I mean I burn my head off thinking of stories a lot, eh. I could definitely stand to make the characters more alive, yknow? Like I'm always trying to think of the most logical courses of action, but isn't making mistakes and being emotional more realistic for humans?

When a story aspect makes me too uncomfortable, though, I scrap it without fail.

42. How do you organize / categorize your OCs, if at all?

I tag them, and roughly sort them in some order. Mostly because I can't categorize them. Should Pumpkin be MSS or Nameless Village? Should Halcyon be MSS or Moreland? Tags don't have this problem.

43. Do you have any advice you would like to give to new OC creators?

Write stuff down! Even if it's messy, incoherent, and full of shorthand. Because you will forget it tomorrow.

44. What are some boundaries you think people should have regarding other people's OCs (or things to take notice of if you create together)?

I think just don't get super weird or possessive is fine! It kind of weirds me out if people find a piece of lore and then act like they discovered something huge. I mean, if you need a confirmation, you can just ask normally.

45. How often do you think about your OCs, expressed as a percentage of your waking time?

Used to be more, now perhaps 30-40%.

46. What impacts do you think your OCs had on your life?

Got me into webdev, and just generally I can't imagine a life without creating is like.

47. Do you want to become POPULAR? If you are already popular, what's the secret ingredient?? :eyes: :eyes:

Kind of LOL, though I know popular people have their popular troubles, I'm just a tiny bit jealous yknow?

48. Are there any songs you think describe an OC or a story perfectly?

Killer Queen by Mad Tsai for Nebula. Now, I don't know if the song is intended to be interpreted this way, but I get to interpret it however I want and I say the two girls are the same person. So on first listen the song seems to be about two girls, one popular and one shunned, and they both kill everyone they date. But after a few listens I think that the two killer queens are the same person, the shunned girl in the second verse is in fact just the past version of the popular girl in the first verse. She "killed for her crown," became popular, became prom queen, and sought revenge by tricking people to go on dates with her and killing them.

This fits Nebula's story as someone who got shunned for her magic powers but later rose to be the second most important person in Bauhinia. Not sure about the revenge part though, but well.

49. Might you have a paracosm? Look it up!

Heh, this is the indoctrination question I sneaked in.

50. Finally, do you still recognize the word "OC" after seeing it so much?

When writing this questionnaire, no; but now yes because I typed a lot of words in LOL.