#kcawood

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50. Give me the good ol' OC talk here. Talk about anything you want

So I’m doing this one by itself, because honestly I have a feeling it’s going to get really long. Because I am passionate about my characters and writing and FDKL;AJDKL;A FEELS. 

KEYSMASHING FEELS. 

OKAY. Okay. Be cool, Court. Be chill. Chill like a spring day in Michigan. (No I’m not bitter.)

Where do I even begin? I have so many OCs and so many stories that open-ended questions are Not a Good Idea, so I’m going to rant in general. There’s something really awesome about the creative process, and my OCs are like my babies. That sounds kinda creepy, but it’s true. I gave them life, I watch them grow, I care about them and share their pain and their joy and their anger. They might be fictional people, but they’re still people, and just because they don’t exist in our world doesn’t mean they don’t exist at all.

And that’s what’s great about fiction. Fiction allows us the ability to experience things outside of our own lives, to learn compassion and empathy, and to understand things that we might not understand otherwise. They allow us to enter another person’s mind and experience, and through that we are able to learn and grow as individuals. However you feel about him or his works, there’s a quote by George R. R. Martin that I really love: 

A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies… The man who never reads lives only one. 

 Fiction does more than entertain-- it enriches our lives. It’s important. Take it away, and you take away the possibility for all sorts of greatness. I know stories have changed my life in more ways than I can count. I wouldn’t be the same person I am today without those experiences.

So to those of you who create-- who draw, sing, write, paint, dance-- keep telling your stories. The medium doesn’t matter-- your message does. Even if you think you’re the only one who’s listening.

[Meme post here for reference.]

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47. Has anyone ever (friendly) claimed any of your OCs as their child?

playeronecontroller does this on a regular basis. I’m 200% okay with this. She can have the whole horde of them, for all I care. They’re practically hers anyway-- in fact, some of them I’ve inherited from her.

48. OC who is a perfect cinnamon roll, too good for this world, too pure

ALLEGRA WILLOUGHBY.

She is the sweetest character I have ever created and we must protect her at all costs. Seriously, she is the kind of person who cries when you cry just because you’re sad, and who hates to inconvenience anyone even if she’s dealing with something really heavy, and is totally naive but in that sweetly innocent way that should be cherished and not ridiculed. She’s genuine and the most goodly person in her world (or probably all the worlds, I wouldn’t even be surprised) and is more about compassion and mercy and adventure than she is about anything else. 

49. Which one of your OCs would most likely enjoy memes

Aiden would love memes, honestly. Talos. Roan. I mean basically all of my trickster characters, plus Allegra who would just genuinely giggle at all of them. Rhen’s a surprising answer, ‘cause he’s the serious one between him and Archer but I think he’d like them because Archer wouldn’t understand them, really. Gil. Wes.

OMG WES

Okay so Weston Worthy is a Hero. Like, that’s his title. It’s his job to save damsels and rescues kingdoms from destruction and fight the Bad Guys. But he’s also the most irreverent

shithead

 to ever come through the Citadel (their HQ) and loves to annoy as many people as possible. Because it’s funny. His fellow Heroes beat him up on a regular basis (out of love!), so-- given an AU where memes and the means to share them existed in their world, Weston would be the KING. And probably get himself beat up more than usual.

[Meme post here for reference.]

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28. Your most dangerous OC?

I guess it depends on what you mean by “dangerous.” 

Kalysta will steal your heart and your wallet, but she’s not really likely to stab you. Weston and Grace (my heroes) could break you in half, but they won’t ‘cause they’re firmly on the side of Good. Molly’s pretty likely to shoot you, but only if you’re obnoxious or have something you want.

But then I remember Wraith, from my current novel project, and realize that yeah the masked assassin with magical stealth powers and a bad temper is probably the best answer to this question. Sorry, Wraith. Please don’t stab me in my sleep.

30. Which one of your OCs would most likely have a secret stuffed animal collection?

My first instinct here is Allegra again, except I don’t know that it would be secret exactly. HMMMMM.

....

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Aiden. 

Aiden would have a bunch of them. Probably souvenirs from different worlds and dimensions he’s visited. And occasionally shoves them under partner Arias’ grumpybutt nose, all the while squealing about how this plush alien thing is so adorable and look at its tiny tentacles they just want to hug you Arias NO WHAT ARE YOU DOING DON’T PULL OFF ITS LEGS YOU ARE A MONSTER HOW COULD YOU.

36. Do you have OC pairs where the other part belongs to someone else (siblings, lovers, friends etc)? 

If this is asking what I think it’s asking: a lot of them. There are a lot of sibling pairs that have significant others, so... Yeah, really not sure how to answer this.

I guess the most interesting connection would be the Arrens and the Draconises. I play a lot with playeronecontroller, and she and I play either of the families. The Arrens consist of siblings Mark, Miles, and Kali in that order. The D’s are Talos, Larien, and Kale. And it’s interesting, because in their current incarnation (we’ve rewritten them about a million times), Larien met Miles, who got her into trouble, and for whom brother Mark had to apologize. Larien and Mark kinda become a thing. Meanwhile, Kali and Talos are partners on their pseudo-police force. So everyone knows each other, right? Well, Kali’s always been traditionally paired with one of two other guys, but in this particular one pieces fell into place and suddenly she and Talos are an item.

So really the two families just traded their sisters and everyone wins. 

This wasn’t planned, but it is perfect, and I am never going back.

40. Any fond memories linked to your characters? Feel free to share!

Can I-- do you want an essay? Because I’ve been playing/creating actively for 10+ years so there are a LOT of fond memories.

Again, I play a lot with P1, so we’re constantly bouncing stuff back and forth. Some of my favorite moments have been our late night “what if” talks, when we just throw crap at each other and laugh for ages. Most recently, I think the best ones have been the drunken Citadel Heroes playing egg roulette, and us laughing until 4am because Lemuel the clueless mafia bookkeeper frustrates his bodyguard to the point where she has to yell at him NOT TO STAND STILL DURING A FIREFIGHT. 

[Meme post here for reference.]

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18. Any OC crackships?

OKAY SO I DON’T KNOW HOW TO ANSWER THIS PROPERLY. Most of my characters i’ve been working with so long, we’ve toyed with AUs in just about every scenario you can imagine. 

My current favorite is Oksana (lady knight) x Bastion Bulwark (Kay’s giant wall of a hero), but we’ve actually started playing it in this weird pan-OC-dom private game thing so I don’t know that it’s crack in more than the sense it can’t happen outside the game because they’re from different stories/worlds.

Other than that, I’m fond of a few that will only make sense if you know my characters, because. explanations. Current list as I think of them:

Lucian Renegade x Angeline Rousseau

Luce and anyone actually. Molly’s another hilarious option.

Ashe Angelix x Samael Legendra 

Miles Arren x Larien Draconis

Also, iatrogenic​ if you’re watching, I always kinda shipped Archer/Issedi in a world where she wasn’t like 14 and his adopted little sister. It could have worked, it really could have.

23. Introduce OC that has changed from your first idea concerning what the character would be like?

All of them. This is kind of a serious answer, but that’s the nature of OCs-- you start with an idea, and through the course of playing and writing them you’er also learning them. And just like people, they change. No one’s the same in the end that they were in the beginning.

That said, I think the one who has changed the most would be Ilia. His original name was Garreth, and about the only things that was the same from v1 to v?? is that his hair was red and he liked Eden. He started out as a tragic serious human lone hero-archetype and has turned into a sassy dragon lordling with end-justifies-the-means morality and a vain streak a mile wide. 

But i still love him, so I guess he has that going for him. ♥

24. If you could meet one OC of yours, who would it be and why?

Oh gosh. Probably either Allegra Willoughby or Symon van Aalsburg (who are both conveniently in the same story). One is a super-sweet witch-in-training with a pet bird who is literally nice to everyone and loves to go on adventures. The other is an uber-polite nerd prince who gets excited about flying machines and airship cannons and would rather sail the world than do his political duty-- yet he does it anyway, because he cares about people and responsibility. They’re probably two of my nicest characters and I love them to pieces.

OH. Also Talos Draconis, because he’s the sort of person I actually hang out with irl. AKA a total dweeb and he’s hilarious and I love him.

27. Any OCs that were inspired by a certain song?

Short answer: Molly. Long answer: here!

[Meme post here for reference.]

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5, 11, 16, 18, 23, 24, 27, 28, 30, 36, 40, 47, 48, 49, 50 (enjoy lovely! <3)

MOTHER OF PEARL. YOU’RE A MANIAC.

Okay, so. Since this is going to turn into an essay, I’m going to do like. Groups. Of questions. And split this up because otherwise it’s going to be a MONSTER.

5. If you could make only one of your OCs popular/known, who would it be?

You would ask this question. Okay, this is a really hard question to answer, because I love all of my babies. If I had to pick just one, it’d probably be Roan Calleius. Because he’s been on my brain a lot lately and I love that dumb dragon and want other people to know him, too.

Ro’s from a novel I’m working on, currently. He’s a shapeshifting dragon who’s actually more cat than scaly beast. Laid-back, cheery, typically witty… all of which covers up his rather sad backstory and will be his only defense for terrible things that happen to him/people he loves in the course of the book. And I want people to know his story, so there.

Serious answer is serious. D: Augh.

11. Is there any OC of yours you could describe as a “sunshine”?

HAHAHAHAHA.

Aiden. Aiden Lux. Who, as his names suggest, might have a little something to do with light.

He’s one of my few scifi-esque characters, as he’s a photomorph, an alien race Kay and I made up that subsists on light (or thrives in its absence, depending on where on their planet you’re from). He actually is sunshine, in both a literal and metaphorical sense. Always happy, always smiling, always dramatic and bounce-off-the-walls cheery and always literally glowing. Unless he’s tired or hurt, I guess, but.

Sunshine.

Sunshine everywhere.

16. Which one of your OCs would be the best at biology (school subject)?

My first thought is Angeline Rousseau, my magical med-school attendee. It’s kinda her thing. In fact, she learned a lot on the streets where she grew up, ‘cause when stabbings and gang violence are a common occurrence you learn how to take care of yourself and the people you love. And sometimes that means street surgery when you’re a 13-year-old girl with shaky hands and a photographic memory.

[Meme post here for reference.]

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[peterdwebb]

kcawood replied to your post “@kcawood replied to your post “Here’s a question I’ve never seen you...”

you should know I chuckled. And read the hashtags. ;) what do you use at the moment?

In-ears for the drummer, floor monitors or small personal speakers for everyone else. We're working towards it. We've got a new electric guitarist that's mentioned that he can't hear himself. I think I'm going to use him as our first non-drummer to play with headphones. After that we'll be able to ease everyone else in.

18 months ago we had no sound panels, no drum shield, and the drummer used a really loud floor monitor. Needless to say it sounded pretty muddy in our gymnasium-style sanctuary. We're making progress. 

[peterdwebb]

@kcawood replied to your post “Here's a question I've never seen you answer: which do you like better when you're leading worship, having or not having click? :)”

the church I'm at now has an inner ear system and it's the coolest thing ever. I love it a lot. The worship pastor also uses loops and tracks and they add a lot when we don't necessarily have a variety of instruments. If you can invest, do it! :)

Yeah, I'm still trying to convince the pastor that we're spending way too much money on missionaries and not enough on our sound system. 

[imagymnasia]

(1:31:17 AM) Kati: man, you can match Gaius with like… all the ladies

(1:31:39 AM) Me: HE'S A PLAYA PLAYA

(1:31:44 AM) Me: actually nah he's just really sweet

(1:31:51 AM) Me: omg i can't believe i said that unironically.