Hey stranger !
I noticed we have a lot of likes in common, and I've found myself quite intrigued by your creations, Milo, and Cleo.
They seem like delightful people, and I'd love to hear more about them if you're open to discussing it !
I bid you adieu for now,
Ta ta !
Yellow stranger!! Welcome to the big cat cafe! Can I offer you some tea? 🍵 we have chamomile, 🌼 early grey 🩶, mint 🌿, and ginger 🧡 today :3 but no pressure if tea isn't your thing!
Now to answer your questions...
Not that I need an excuse, but this is the PERFECT excuse for me talk about my boys so, thank you so much for asking about them!! I really appreciate your interest!! 🫶
Milo and Cleo have been characters that have followed me for a long time! I'm only just now beginning to create a coherent story with them, with all of the inspiration I've found over the past few years of discovering new media I really really enjoy! I've always wanted to do something cyberpunk-ish, but didn't feel at home with shows I've tried out, and I really enjoy paranormal stuff as well so I wanted leeway to include that. As soon as I found Dan Da Dan and Mob Psycho things started to click in a special way for me and I was like "this NEEDS to happen with a tech spin!"
If iirc, Milo started out as doodles for me around February of last year? I was super into rewatching How To Train Your Dragon: Race to the Edge and also Dungeon Meshi so they kinda combined in my head and made a lil freak that loves monsters of all kinds like Laois but would also totally be into magick like Marcille. I always imagined him with goggles and/or glasses and a tech-artificer spin, always looking to explore and create new things and improve his designs (like how Hiccup in the HHTYD universe is with his wings and Toothless's tail, but based more in the tech that exists now)! He's been evolving since and I've really started associating him with ghosts and tech specifically, rather than the more magick-related take I had on him in the beginning! His glasses have ALWAYS been a prominent identifier for him and it felt much more "him" to go in a tech direction rather than introduce a magick system! I was introduced to Mob Psycho 100, One Punch Man, and Dan Da Dan earlier this year too so that's when his personality really began to take shape for me and I've gotten more and more inspired to draw him and develop him further!
As for Cleo, he's also been around for about the same time! I want to say he started popping up for me around artfight last year! I joined a discord for Phoenix Masked's Nexus universe and the space really rekindled my love for cyberpunk. Cleo started as an OC I created just for this universe, but I've since become rather inactive in the community and have reworked him a lot! At the time I gave him tech glasses (Milo's lol, they kinda merged for a while there) and he was meant to be artificer-aligned as well, but much more mentally unstable, and older! He canonically had DID and the core was basically that he intentionally separated his dissociative parts through a digital severence of some kind, using tech he had built, since he had deep trauma and had to keep one part of himself completely separate in order to continue to function "normally" in Nyx's universe. He was a priest by day and known for his goodwill, but at night (during another alter taking over) would spend endless hours working to revive his wife behind the scenes. But today's Cleo is pretty much NOTHING like that! I still really like the setup, but it's just a different vibe from what I'm going for currently!
Now, Cleo is high school aged just like Milo. The element of hidden shame is still absolutely there, but less extreme. He's got this hidden past (lineage-based, his mother was a demon) and on top of that hides the fact that he's trans from people. He binds nearly every day (but safely) and starts t during the series. I plan to actually do this along with my transition! Both as a way to express myself and work in real life experiences, like I would have with Nexus!Cleo/C130. Cleo in this world is still absolutely goldenhearted, a sweetheart who truly wants the best for all of his friends, but has certain shortcomings he's deeply aware of. One is that he's not the smartest or most focused kind of kid. He has a lot going on and skips class really frequently. His teachers let him off sometimes since he's a good kid, but he's barely passing most of his classes, mostly because of absence deduction. This mostly isn't his fault since he's literally being tracked down by demons constantly, but you know- that can be how my trans experience has felt at times. Not being able to confide in people makes things all the more difficult. Not that I speak for all trans people, but this is my personal experience! I want the vibe here to be very Gentry Chau vs the Underworld-- everyone knows he's the weird kid, no one expects much else from him, and he learns to see his quirks as a good thing over time and gains confidence. Lots of character development and at least one paranormal encounter per episode. He's also VERY susie deltarune inspired. Emo as hell and a bit of a bully but soft as hell once he knows he's safe. I fucking love Deltarune and Undertale, thank you toby fox. I owe you a pepis.
Milo has a demon tail, which he hides to keep his ancestry a secret (plus the hometown is pretty anti-demon) and Milo is the only other living person who knows about it. His dad doesn't know and thinks he's "lucky he didn't get any of those genes from his mother". Cue him absolutely having genes from his mom and Hiding It From His Dad So He Doesn't Worry...also his dad became pretty critical of demons after he found out his wife was one and they had a GIANT argument and she just ~dissapeared~ after that. Oh AND! Cleo's dad is not transphobic, he's actually pretty chill, a girldad if you will (thanks lancer). He just doesn't realize his resentment of his ex wife is because she HID the demon life from him, not because she WAS a demon. This is all important to the development of Cleo, but isn't necessarily the main focus of the series.
Milo on the other hand is actually pretty well-liked and adjusted. He's really quiet in school, like Cleo, but does well without trying so most teachers don't pay him any mind. He's very much a "work smarter not harder" kind of person and is not above using whatever tools he's handed to succeed. He's hardworking, and absolutely could be fasttracked to college as he's taking college-level courses at the moment, but he simply cares too much about Cleo to leave him behind. Cleo is 18, and Milo is 17. Milo knows deep down that he can't split up that friendship if Cleo doesn't make it to graduation. They've been friends since they were kids and he would choose that relationship in a heartbeat. His parents aren't around, so it's not like they can tell him what to do. Plus, he's far too interested in the local paranormal shit to ever leave his home. Milo's fully obsessed with ghosts, runs his own paranormal sightings blog, and has the tech to really get things documented. His glasses help him locate places that sightings have occurred recently, and he follows up on them as soon as he gets the chance! He dreams to make it big as a content creator and already has a small but devoted fan base. Picture if Ronaldo from Steven Universe was less chronically online, and a lot more chill. Way less of the conspiracy type, and more scientific evidence based! He will absolutely consider personal stories, but carefully documents and is a very organized person! He's more of a smartypants than intuitive, which can bite him in the ass. He's absolutely a Virgo. Oh and he's most like Dan from Dan Da Dan, in demon form, if I were to pin point a more exact vibe fit...lurching hunch and can be super depressed unless he's involved in the paranormal and able to let off steam. He wants to be haunted and WILL take things to extremes to catch being possessed on camera. Milo's main motivation is love! He has a big crush on Cleo that only gets more adorably unbearable as time goes on. Milo is bisexual, but isn't out to anyone except Cleo. He isn't motivated only by romantic or sexual love though! Overall he very deeply values friendship, like Cleo, and battles with himself if it would ever be worth it to confess his feelings and risk the friendship they already have.
Cleo is much more shy around people but an absolute beast (pos) when demons are around. His mom, before disappearing, is who taught him to kick demon ass if needed. This isn't shown to the audience, but it's very Toriel and using test dummies as a little kid while under careful watch! Cleo's mom was always VERY sweet and loving, and a great mom. She was very affirming, and Cleo really misses her. This is like the initial "I miss my wife and need to bring her back to life" plot, but reworked to be less extreme as his mom is missing, not confirmed dead. Over the course of the first season Cleo becomes a master in exorcising demons from the physical plane, but even that's not enough when they finally meet the big bad. Cleo's motivation is his friends. They're what help him grow the most, not brute force. He's really great at what he does, and knows all the quick facts about demons and aliens like Fishlegs from HTTYD and his stat cards-- and my gosh I love him so much!!! He's very intuitive and less book smart, which can bite him in the ass when he has to get out of situations involving strategy. He usually let's Jesus take the fucking wheel in those moments hahaha!
Cleo is openly gay, but keeps his trans identity to himself. Everyone kind of just...knows he's gay and hasn't bothered trying to keep it a secret since the rumours started. He's a proud boykisser. He rationalizes it to himself, reminding himself that it would be a lot worse if the rest of the school also knew he was trans... AND a demon. Imagine THAT getting out into the media, lmao. He does return feelings for Milo, but this doesn't start building up plot-wise until after he's on T for a while and realizes he is more solidly gay rather than queer, pan, bi, or something other! I want this exploration to seem natural and affirming rather than the main plot of the story. I know people really love shipping and romance, so it will likely be fixated on, but genuinely this is a story about two friends hunting down ghosts and aliens, monsters and demons, and growing up in a world similar to the one I grew up in! It can be percieved as romantic and I will absolutely make shipart, but supplementary in a way that still focuses on the strength of their healthy bond rather than just the romance! They're not just lovers, they're more than that!
Oh my gosh speaking of, I haven't even gotten to the world yet- the main areas explored are the high school they go to, the haunted forest out behind Milo's house, and the computer store where Milo gets his parts. The tech is at an intersection between early 2000s (think Playstations and older gaming consoles that have been phased out, giant bulky monitors, burning CDs to pirate music) and eventually cybernet-like upgrades (everything integrated into wifi and Bluetooth, then escalating into digital consciousness uploads and some people fully living in online spaces with little to no breaks, physical upgrades for souls and their bodies who are corrupted or corroded as time passes and old tech is inevitably faded out). In this world, technology is accelerated at insane rates and people are forced to keep up or get left behind. The high school is in a middle-of-nowhere kind of town that's known for hauntings and weirdness (like Gravity Falls, another show I dearly adore), which I haven't named yet. The woods are known as a hotspot for ghosts, aliens, and magickal creatures specifically. Whereas demons and monsters usually appear in the more urban areas, strangely taking shape by crawling OUT of computers, cameras, and game consoles. This means that pretty much nowhere is safe, including households and public areas, unless there's a dead zone without any tech at all. I thought this would be a really cool way to explore the integration of technology and spirit manifesting physically, taking lots of inspiration from my own and others' experiences with hauntings.
I like to think that it's rumored in town that creatures that can manifest physically must be killed immediately... or risk the spread of whatever has corrupted them in the first place. There are a lot of unknowns to the characters in the plot, but the audience will have extra knowledge throughout. These monsters and demons have their own rules in-universe compared to regular monsters and demons, which I'll get into some other time! Aliens, ghosts, the fae, and other forest-dwelling creatures and entities will also be explored. Milo's house is also incredibly haunted, again since he's so into that stuff! And well, he's a big tech nerd so...
I plan to orient smaller conflicts around shadow men, possession, mimics, and other beings I've come into contact with personally! I grew up reading about so much of this online too, and listening to podcasts, so I'm very excited about this!
Oh AND!!! You didn't ask but I'll tell anyways, there are two other important characters in the cast! One is Fable, a creature that Cleo and Milo find in the woods. He's tied into the main plot by having a secret past where he used to work for the big bad but is cursed so he can't say anything about it. He can't actually talk at all, out of fear of consequence. Magick exists, but it's limited to magickal creatures. Fable usually just does what he's told and likes the feeling of being safe again, after so long of being in harm's way. He's little spot of sunshine as long as he's taken care of. That's his motivation, to be safe.
The other is Crash, who I believe I've mentioned before here- who is one of the first souls EVER to enter the digital space. It luckily hasn't been too corrupted, and is found inhabiting an old Playstation 2 by Milo, in the middle of the woods. It's found in what used to be a liveable area, until a mysterious fire wiped out one house entirely and significantly changed the lives of everyone else in the area. Everything just began to rot, slowly. The air stagnated. Things were never the same. These people moved pretty much immediately, and since then the forest has been an "off-limits" zone for all town members. This area, where the fire was, is called the barrens for its lack of anything living, including spirits. There are no trees, anymore. Anything that crosses over it is rumored to die shortly after. Nothing grows here, anymore. Absolutely no magick can exist in this spot, where the barrens exist. It's like the land been wiped clean...permanently. It's like nature itself, has been corrupted.
Most people don't dare to go into the woods at all, unless you're Milo and Cleo. Crash is canonically panromantic, and asexual. It uses it/its pronouns and doesn't quite remember being human, at first. It becomes a wingman and close friend of Milo over time as they get to know each other. It's significant to development along the main plot, with lots of lore drops regarding digital consciousness and how it came to haunt the PS2 in the first place. Crash is actually based on an oc I've had for a little over a decade now!!! I also combined traits of a lot of my really ancient OCs so that I could keep the bits that I really loved about each of them! It has a similar personality to Dimple from Mob Psycho 100, where he initially is very guarded and insists on being let out and freed, but eventually softens and becomes a true ally. Its motivation is freedom, primarily. And this does become a major conflict as time moves on.
Cleo and Crash really get along, but for different reasons than Milo and Crash! Milo and Crash have more of a video game bros vibe, gaymers 100% and have a sublot relating to the technopossesion stuff, whereas Crash and Cleo spend a lot of time talking and bonding through stories! Crash is a bit...dated but is able to give Cleo a lot of good advice, from a primarily logical standpoint. Cleo and Milo are totally Okarun-Momo coded, and spend most of their time debating which of each others' interest is less believable hahaha. Cleo loves aliens and demons and is skeptical of ghosts and monsters, whereas Milo is the opposite! Both of them have limited information on what exists between these lines, such as cryptids and eldritch beings-- which is a significant weakness as things ramp up spiritually for them both. They have to come together or they'll fall apart as they face more encounters together.
Last thing! There's a small computer store that exists conveniently at the edge of the woods, on the opposite side of where Milo lives. He goes there to buy tech for his own modifications, like if he needs to upgrade his glasses or create something entirely new. He knows the chill transfemme girl that works behind the counter (and later becomes important), but has never met the owner of the place. Eventually this all becomes very close to the main plot as Milo continues to upgrade, experiment, and even invent new tech to help the core group advance!
If this ever becomes a real animated series, or even if I just make a webcomic, or shit even a low quality game tbh, I'd want a recurring big bad with Lich qualities, almost like the first couple of seasons of adventure time, where he keeps healing in between and gradually ramps up the stakes and pushes the main cast to their limits. Gods, when he inhabits the snail for ages and strikes when least expected, that hits!!! I love the idea of having a Lich whose soul container is an old blocky computer, lives in that computer shop, keeps a low profile, and burns souls onto CDs to keep them in container form in the digital realm. In thus way, he's able to exert control over the souls and keep them from returning to the physical world. Corruption would play a big role, which would be when these souls are fragmented, some of their data is lost, and the Lich is able to turn them into a full-blown monster or demon henchmen. He would absolutely take the "I have a lot of 'files' on this hunk of junk, I could never replace good ol betty" to the extreme! This would allow for an incredibly unique set of demons and monsters based on nostalgic tech and textures I grew up with, AND would allow me to draw inspiration from so much media I've loved over the years!!! Very heavy inspo comes from a lot of books I read as a kid (The Eye of Minds is ever-present with its digital world and coding virus-spreader Caine, but it has been so long since I've read and definitely need a refresh!).
Also, The Amazing Digital Circus is helping me dream of just how far I can take the soul-uploaded-to-tech train, and I'm LOVING THE CONCEPT!! I think CDs with souls would be a really great way to work in inspo from Jojos Bizzare Adventure as well, sorry if that's a spoiler! CDs would ALSO mean that there's pressure for the Lich to get with the times tech-wise, heightening the stakes as the series goes on. AND storing souls on discs would mean the potential to reintegrate soul fragments and heal corruption, which would be very convenient for the main cast, like in Steven Universe!
That's all I've got for now :D thank you again so so much for asking about my characters and universe!!! I'm so fucking excited to be sharing all this and feel free to ask more questions, I'd love to answer them and delve deeper! I also want to mention that I'm working on turnaround character sheets for the entire (initial) main cast and will be posting them soon! :D oh and if you end up having suggestions or ideas, since we already love a lot of the same media, I am ABSOLUTELY down for expanding on this in the comments or dms! I'm all for collaborating!
