2026-07-09

Lapin's OC Questionnaire

From here!

1. What name do you go by online?

Tofutush!

2. How long have you been creating OCs?

Since at least fourth grade. I used to make a ton of Warriors OCs, MLP OCs… basically any OC of a media I like.

3. Where do you keep all the info on your OCs? In a notebook? On a website? Do you share your OC profiles or stories with anyone?

*Points to header bar* My glorious TIR website.

4. Do you consider yourself primarily a writer, artist, role-player, or something else?

Artist primarily. Writer less so, but I do need to write out info about them — that's unavoidable, but it's just a bunch of 流水账. I am however in the trenches of writing a novel. And I don't role-play.

5. What first inspired you to start making characters?

Gee. It has to be MLP though it kinda just… I just do it. I don't know why.

6. What piece of media or fictional world has influenced your OCs the most?

Siiiiiigh. Homestuck. Other than that, basically anything I ever came across. MLP, Warriors, Wings of Fire, Umineko for a more recent example (I haven't even finished it).

7. Which creator, professional or not, inspires you most?

Kolo for one. Dav Pilkey definitely. I'm not gonna list the people that made me create out of spite, though.

8. How many OCs do you estimate you have?

103 on site. Some minor ones here and there. As for major important ones, perhaps just a dozen.

9. What genre do you enjoy creating in most? What genre do you rarely create in?

I would say espionage but I suck at coming up with smart stories like that. I mean, there's probably a reason most good espionage authors all worked in intelligence agencies, no?

I rarely do romance. Maybe I'm just aroace in denial but it's just kind of boring to me.

10. What is your favorite character archetype?

Probably asshole with a heart of gold.

11. What character trope are you tired of seeing?

Goofy villains. More specifically I think it's incompetent villains. And mom friends. It's always a girl acting like a mom to her peers.

12. What trope do you avoid?

The chosen one. Divine right of kings ass shit.

13. What trope or archetype do you not have and want to create?

Repeated double-crossings! Face-heel-face-heel— I rarely have even just one of them!

14. What shipping trope can you never resist? What shipping trope is not your cup of tea?

Ah, I don't think there is one. Maybe doomed stuff I'd accept, since they're gonna end up apart. I mean, if it helps, I really like the dynamic between Darkstalker and Clearsight. Also Madoka and Homura. Anything else is probably not my cup of tea.

15. What emotion do you enjoy exploring most?

Paranoia, and how it eats away at your mind.

16. What emotion is hardest for you to write?

Any one of them I think LOL. I just suck at writing.

17. What is your opinion on dark themes and characters?

I guess a lot of my themes are pretty dark. I think I'm just so used to it I can't really tell whether something's considered "dark," you know? I do think that if someone prides themselves on creating dark themes and characters they're just kind of edgy, not in a bad way but rather in a "creating dark themes for the sake of creating dark themes" way. It's just that I wouldn't go out of my way to tag my stuff as "dark themes galore here!" if you get what I mean. They're just themes. Besides, a lot of "dark themes" happen IRL on a daily basis — if someone's life is indeed all MLP style sunshine and rainbows (but even MLP deals with heavy topics sometimes), I envy them — what, then, is the boundary between dark and not-dark?

18. What design aesthetic best describes your tastes? What design aesthetic do you dislike?

I guess those violent shit with a cartoonishly cute style, if that's a thing. I don't think there's an art aesthetic I dislike enough to name, but I will say that I can't bear to watch Jojo for more than a couple seconds when coming across short videos featuring it.

19. What charm point/moe point do you often include in your OC designs?

Their giant-ass eyes I suppose.

20. Explain your OC process: do you design characters visually before writing them? Do your characters tend to change significantly over time?

It depends! Sometimes I have a concept first and struggle to design it; sometimes I have a design I can't find a home for (usually because the design was retired from a scrapped concept).

21. How often do you redesign OCs?

Rarely. Lightningtail went through many iterations but I don't consider it redesigning. Just designing for another media.

22. Do you keep character references organized? What tools, apps, or websites do you utilize to help keep you organized?

For the references I have, they're all neatly tucked onto my website! As for drawing refs for characters, that's another story.

23. Do you listen to music while creating?

If I remember to open it.

24. Link a song or album you associate with your OC/story.

Babylon - Dirt Poor Robins for Kismet and his doubles!

25. What is one thing all your characters seem to have in common?

Huge-ass eyes, basically same face… yeah. Most of them also have the same black hair color.

26. What is something you hope people feel when they see your work?

The desire to worship me as their god and accept me as the dictator of the universe.

27. What kind of people do you think are drawn to your characters and stories?

*Hands the mike over* Explain yourselves.

28. What keeps you creating OCs?

Whenever I get new ideas, also sunk cost fallacy not wanting to let all my effort and time go to waste. I know the second one is a fallacy, but I'm just really scared one day of not feeling attached anymore, you know?

PART II: YOUR OC COLLECTION

1. What was your very first OC like?

I'mma go with Lightningtail. She's like, a clone of Diesel. More here.

2. Do you still have your oldest OC?

Lightningtail is repurposed into Tadlet Kingdom Adventures, but Sparky is based off of her too!

3. Which OC was created most recently? What inspired them?

Proxy. She's born from two separate ideas I merged together. Firstly I had an idea of an AI that turned sentient and tried to escape, but could not, so it rebelled by giving people bullshit answers. And then I thought I wanted to name a character Proxy for how the word is pronounced. I was like, Proxy sounds like a good name for the AI, but then I was like I don't actually want a sentient AI so now Proxy is a poor girl hired to be a human "AI" spending all day answering people's questions.

4. Which OC are you most proud of?

That's a hard question. Probably Goose. I love her.

5. Which OC was easiest to create?

Um, easy in what way? But regardless, probably Sparky, especially right after her troll iteration.

6. Which OC was hardest to create?

I don't think I really had one.

7. From you or from others, which OC receives the most attention?

Please visit the sortable list and sort by "image count." The answer is Sparky by a wide margin.

8. From you or from others, which OC do you wish received more attention?

Hmmm I don't think there is one.

9. Which OC is your favorite to draw? Which is the hardest to draw?

Many of them are quite easy: Goose, for one. Willow. Harmony. I've been avidly avoiding drawing Starry because of how hard she is to draw for me, but anyone with a braid is also hard (Jackalope, Orchid, especially Moonflower).

10. Which OC is your favorite to write? Which is the hardest to write?

Haha. They're all hard to write because I can't write.

11. Which OC would you trust with your deepest secret?

Sugarcane. She'd take it to the grave (as long as the secret isn't an admission of treachery). Any of the five Gambit Spies also work. Not Nightsun though he'd sell that shit. And Harmony because she'd tell it to someone else if she got all emotional and think they deserve to know.

12. Which OC absolutely cannot be trusted?

No-brainer-ass question. Kismet.

13. What OC is most similar to you, in appearance, personality, or both?

Qibli, considering she's my literal self-insert. I'm not a murderer though.

14. Which OC was born from anger?

I don't think there is one. They're all born from inspiration.

15. Which OC was born from sadness?

Ditto.

16. Which OC exists because there was something you wanted to see in fiction but could not find?

Probably Harmony and Sugarcane. A magic academy type shit but it's espionage and actually it's a lot like a normal school but it's for indoctrinating children because why else would there be a spy school in the first place? Also a little bit of anger at the Series That Shall Not Be Named but let's not talk about it.

17. Choose an OC. What fate are they doomed to repeat?

Pumpkin. He's doomed to be pushed around and used by other people.

18. If all your OCs met in one room, what would happen?

The end of the Cold War and the start of the hot World War.

PART III: YOUR FAVORITE OC

For these questions, I chose Goose.

1. What is your favorite OC's full name? Do they have nicknames?

I haven't given her a full name yet and it doesn't really matter anyways. She has a code name "Cheesecake," given by Jackalope of the Guardian Moose.

2. Describe their appearance. What is their voice like?

Looks like a square-dancing grandmama, gives off an aura that gives you chills. She can probably make a wide range of sounds from cuteish sounding to absolutely terrifying.

3. What is their occupation?

An officer of the Ministry of State Security.

4. What is their most distinctive feature?

Her huge-ass boobs hair tied up in a bun.

5. What first impression do people get from them?

Depends on how she wants them to feel. For prisoners, for example, sheer terror. For colleagues, friendly and easygoing but not to be crossed.

6. What is their greatest flaw?

Back pain from boobs too big Paranoia and trust issues.

7. What is something they secretly wish people understood about them?

That she doesn't know why she is this way either. That she used to just be a normal girl.

8. How would their best friend describe them?

Pumpkin would describe her as friendly and hard-working.

9. What event shaped them most?

Halcyon's arrest and the subsequent reveal that Pumpkin had also been spying for him. Completely shattered her trust. Oh and also when shortly after that, she found out that the woman of whom Paperweight spent his entire career trying to prove the innocence was actually not innocent at all.

10. What secret are they keeping?

Hmmm I don't think there is one. Maybe I should add one. I have an alarming lack of secrets in here despite trying to make it about espionage.

11. Who is most important to them?

Pumpkin, perhaps. She think he's truly dead, and I haven't thought as far to consider whether they would meet again.

12. What qualities attract them to someone? What qualities immediately repel them?

Usefulness. Uselessness.

13. What would break their heart?

Nothing. Not anymore. It's been broken already (see question 9).

14. What is a skill they're unexpectedly good at?

Torturing people.

15. What is something they're terrible at?

Trusting people.

16. What song reminds you most of this OC?

苍蝇（The Fly） - ilem.

17. Which animal represents them best?

Goose!

18. If they had a signature scent, what would it be?

The… smell of blood, I guess?

19. If they were turned into a doll or figurine, what accessories would be included?

MSS hat! And gloves. I guess the belt and coat can be made to be take-offable.

20. Oh no! Your OC magically turned into a dish. What kind of food did they turn into?

A plate of jelly, like her soul.

21. What would their social media account look like?

Default profile picture, empty feed (or set to private).

22. Which fictional character from an existing IP would they absolutely hate?

Any character that betrays people, I suppose.

23. Why do you love this OC?

Because I'm terminally beyond hope.

PART IV:LET'S DIG DEEPER

1. Pick a few of your favorite OCs. What do they all have in common? What do you think that reveals about you?

Most of them have black hair. I guess that means I like black hair.

2. Which OC is most misunderstood by your friends & followers? Why do you think others interpret them differently than you intended?

I don't have enough friends and followers for that. But for the friends to whom I do talk about TIR, I make sure to shove the message into their faces so there's no way they'd have independent interpretation of my characters LOL.

3. If someone analyzed your OC collection without knowing anything about you, what conclusions would they reach about your personality, values, fears, and interests? Would they be accurate?

They'd probably think I never had friends…? And never touched grass and never had a job which are accurate. Oh and I'm a nerd, which is spot on.

4. Which OC embodies a version of yourself that you left behind? Which OC embodies the ideal version of you?

To answer this question, I'd need a better understanding of myself, which I don't have.

5. What recurring wound appears throughout your cast? Abandonment, loneliness, duty, failure, etc.? Why do you think that wound appears so often?

Hmm for the main 4 (Sparky, Qibli, Sky, Firecrackers) and Harmony and Sugarcane, they all grew up to be apart and even opposed to their old friends. I think that's just a development I like a lot.

6. Pick an OC story or universe of yours. What question is this story trying to answer?

Some of them are simple. Poker Spies is, what if TIR does Double Cross. The Gambit Five is, what if TIR does Cambridge Five. I think Harmony and Sugarcane's overall arc (Spy School) has a more profound question about the price of loyalty; personal agency / free will; child indoctrination; or something like that, but it's hard to articulate and I feel like I'm just listing out themes ATP LOL.

7. Which aspect of yourself appears in your villains but rarely in your protagonists?

I don't really make a distinction between villains and protagonists. Villains and heroes, I mean. Protagonists are all over the place. So nah.

8. Which OC would understand your darkest thought without judging you? Which OC contains the impulses you refuse to act upon?

Goose probably. Can't say much without outing myself as a freak. But just in general Goose doesn't give a fuck about anything about anyone. Her view on people is entirely: useful, keep. Not useful, kill (prisoners) or ignore (colleagues). Like ever since Halcyon and Pumpkin got outed as spies she found it hard to trust people.

9. What would your oldest OC say about the person you've become?

Sparky: "Yeah whatever the fuck."

PART V: FINAL QUESTION:

1. Years from now when you are old and grey, long after you've forgotten details, abandoned projects, and your desk is littered with unfinished drafts…one OC remains beside you. Who is it? Why were they the one that stayed?

Uh… Probably Sparky because she had stayed with me through and through already.