sooo reblog with a snippet of what you're working on!
spoilers for up to chapter four of ITKMEMVITA
Pyro wakes when his very comfy mattress begins to shift sometime after the sun rises. Cracking one pink eye open, and then the other, he’s not fast enough to move before the surface under him goes vertical and he goes tumbling to the fabric couch cushion with a squeak. He lands on his back. A hand, halfway to rubbing a set of tired eyes, pauses. Heavy brown brows furrow and bleary eyes look down at him from under heavier bangs.
Lessur’s expression was always hooded half in shadow. Most of the time it makes his face look either murderous or stricken. Sometimes both. Now, seeing it from below, he just looks a little lost as he stares right at Pyro for a full ten seconds. And then his eyes widen, hand smacking the back cushion as he jerks to face Pyro fully.
Bats couldn’t grin, so Pyro gives a happy chirp before rolling onto his belly. “Good morning!”
Lessur looks as if he’s been hit over the head with the knowledge of Athena. “Pyro?”
“The one and only,” Pyro says with a theatrical bow.
“Pyro.”
“See, you’re wearing it out now.”
“Pyrosythe?” His hand sweeps his bangs back and digs into the rats nest. “As in, Jack von Pyrosythe.”
Pyro is a little lost. “...yeah?”
“Avid. Shelby’s Avid!” It’s a mutter now. The other hand joins the first. “You—you’re supposed to be dead!”
Pyro sits up further, “You know Shelby? How is she?”
Lessur hunches over and stares at the wooden floor. “Holy shiitake fucking mushrooms. You— Yes! Yes, I know Shelby! Hell, I know you.” Lessur shakes his head. “You have a grave. We—we passed it yesterday! She…” And he trails off.
“...Lessur?” Pyro says, “Is Shelby okay?”
“Yeah,” He says, distracted, staring at the floor still. He blinks and gives a rueful smile. “She’s— They come back every year to see you guys, actually. That’s how I know her— of her, more like. We’re, ah, not supposed to be alone with them.” Lessur turns to look at the curtains eeking in sunlight. “I guess they're gonna miss it this year, huh?”
“They.” Pyro says. His mouth is dry cotton.
“Yeah—Shelby, Drift, and Scott. Though, we throw our party like, a week later.”
Scott.
Pyro feels… numb. Like someone has reached in and whisked away all his feelings and left him but crumbs to see what they were. Or water droplets, anyway.
His mind spins away from him, unruly to all but the man that drowned it, once. This year. This year Scott couldn’t get into Oakhurst. No one could. But— as soon as this all blew over he’d…
Huh.
“What… What if the barrier didn’t break?”
That was "In the Kaleidoscope (Memento Vita)" and the link to it is pinned on my tumblr page.
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Chapters: 8/26
Fandom: Vampires SMP
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Relationships: Legundo/Owen | OwengeJuiceTV (Video Blogging RPF), AvidMC & Jack | Pyroscythe, Pearl | PearlescentMoon/ZombieCleo, Mayor Louis (Vampires SMP)/Owen | OwengeJuiceTV (Video Blogging RPF), OCs & Everyone
Characters: Owen | OwengeJuiceTV (Video Blogging RPF), Legundo (Video Blogging RPF), Jack | Pyroscythe, ZombieCleo (Video Blogging RPF), Martyn Littlewood | InTheLittleWood, Pearl | PearlescentMoon, AvidMC (Video Blogging RPF), Original Characters
Additional Tags: Tags May Change, Action, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Minor Character Death, Major Character Undeath, Tired Legundo (Video Blogging RPF), Non-Consensual Body Modification, Eventual Happy Ending, Demon AvidMC (Video Blogging RPF), Psychological Horror, Jack | Pyroscythe Needs A Hug, Character Study, that "and" for pyro and avid is doing some heavy lifting, Alternate Universe - Revival, Dehumanization, Other Ships Not Mentioned in Tags, what do we even call avid's demonicness. it's not possession but it's three parts avid per seven parts demon and stir, Redemption, Traumatized Owen | OwengeJuiceTV (Video Blogging RPF), Hopeful Owen | OwenjuiceTV, Suicidal Thoughts, Legundo is doing worse than in canon ngl, Self-Harm, Post-Canon, Torture, Vampire Legundo (Video Blogging RPF)
Summary:
As long as Nora was still standing, still moving, still thinking, the damage didn’t matter. She would shoulder her own damn burdens, and she would fix it all on her own.
--
200 years after she first stepped foot into Oakhurst, Cleo was once again counting her existence, and the existence of her town, in mere hours.
--
Pyro wakes when his very comfy mattress begins to shift sometime after the sun rises.
--
Pearl turns back to the animal pen, volume rising as she gets closer. Whoever this idiot was, they weren’t subtle.
...Owen wasn’t subtle.
Can I ask for some advice for putting OCs into fanfics?
I’m still catching up on itkmemvita (rambly comments are difficult since I mostly read fanfic on the bus, but I’m working on it). I so far love Lessur and the other characters you’ve introduced, and I wanted to ask if you have any tips for writing OCs into fanfics? I’ve recently realised my bannerfall Nom prequel fic needs some side characters to make the story work.
How do I make them feel fleshed out and part of the world without detracting from the story I actually want to tell- which is first and foremost about Nom?
How do I keep them interesting to the audience without making them feel like they’re taking over the fic?
How do I gain the confidence to put original characters out there? I feel like a lot of people don’t always like OCs in fics
Oh Poppi you are so sweet! I am so happy to hear you like them!
Dude I had absolutely no confidence about my cannon story having 8k+ words being from the pov of an OC. But I had been itching to write both Lessur and Lilly for a While and I just knew they would be so good and so interesting to throw in with Pyro. TBH I was going to write it and then cut it, but my beta reader insisted it was good...
But. I knew there HAD to be a town to protect. There had to be fragile humans to care about, to ground the story back to the thrill of life, and to have a reason for Legundo and Pearl and Cleo to get up and DO something. There had to be a follow-up on the "humanity is varied and no death is without loss" thing I smacked Owen with. And, there had to be a lot of these new humans. If I wanted to mirror the start of vsmp, there should be about six humans per risen vampire.
But thats A Lot Of Guys. So I cheated a little. I've a cache of characters that I've written over the years and I threw just about every single one into itkmemvita. About 50% of those characters where from something else. I put them all in groups, too, to make it easier to keep track of them.
But when I sat back on the list, I found four or five that paired up SCARY well to common themes of cannon characters. Lessur and Pyro are mirrored on how fear makes beasts, Pyro and Lilly are matched by a need for safety and control. Martyn and Nora (and Apo) are matched on something, Pearl and Russle are ~almost~ complete and utter foils. Foils and mirrors! Foils and mirrors everywhere!! YAY!
Doing character work like this means your OCs are very connected to the cannon story. They are not just a character by themselves, they are proof of the peace or war. They are the outside world's footnote. They are the manifestation for what the characters must face. They are the tool for other characters. They teach the cannon characters about themselves or they highlight something about the cannon character for the reader. The best way to use an oc is making it NOT about them.
But, TBH The way you phrased those questions means you're already going to do fine on that front. :3
How to keep them from taking over the story? Good question. I think as long as the story is being driven by agency coming from cannon characters it'll be fine. The cannon characters still have their hand on the wheel? You're good.
The extra miles are these:
1) having the cannon characters ALSO want to interact/protect/defeat/talk to your OCs. Could be as simple as "This bus driver keeps LEAVING WITHOUT ME" or "this baker makes bread so good it makes me tear up." Now that this OC has become a goal for the cannon character, the reader ALSO wants to see the two characters interact!
And 2) you have to make the oc interesting for YOU to WRITE. if you have fun writing them that comes through!
3) if the OC is going to be a recurring face, put down one thing that sticks out for the character. A motif, a motive, a odd obsession, an attitude. Do NOT make them 100% normal. No one is normal! Could be simple as "this woman sure likes those ugly gold earrings, damn" or "this character smells like pine sap." It's best if this thing also makes them a little bit of a loser, or a bit morally compromised. Flaws and weakness are more fun than strengths.
Playlist for my Revival Au fic: In the Kaleidoscope (Memento Vita)
It's in sections according to which group of characters they are about.
First group: Phantom Limb - Believer
Second group: The Garden - Put it on Me
Third group: Blinding - Oh My Dear Lord
Fourth: Linger longer - Linger a While
finale & epilogues: the rest
Hiiiiiiiiiiiii how’s the fic goinggggggggg? I really hope you don’t take this as me rushing you, I just know the more attention it gets, the earlier/faster new chapters are posted. I love it so much already and there’s still 20 more chapters apparently and every character, whether canon, oc, etc, has been fantastic. Also, I LIVE for the memes you put at the end of each chapter :D and yes I love this about her but why does Nora have next to no survival instincts?
Aw gee! This is so nice!!
there actually. might be more than 20 left. they keep splitting. help.
and... look friendo...
*looks left*
*looks right*
...I ain't supposed to be here right now. I've GOT to step back from tumblr and hit IRL things pretty hard for the next month.
Updates on ao3 will remain once every two weeks until you guys catch up to me. I have two more chapters in storage so Ao3 should stay covered until my master's degree stops trying to come for my kidneys.
(I also have a treat if I absolutely MUST buy myself more time. It's where I want to GO with the bloodletting relationship, ehehehe.)
You are totally right otherwise! I love talking about my little guys, and I have the weird human quirk where I HAVE to talk it out to think about stuff sometimes, so ppl asking me questions is super helpful! However, for the next month I cannot fully engage, even tho I want to.
Okay but lil' guys rambling below the cut anyway because my self control Sucks.
Nora came out of the box reckless. It's her main flaw. It's the reason she has a tragic origin in the first place. In ITKMemVita she has a second one, and it's to do with how incredibly community-driven she is. Her secondary struggle in her original work, #asnc is more aligned to the complete and utter rejection her village had for her. She also sort-of hears her own pov too much to properly read people, too, in both worlds. I have another fun scene in mind with Owen to accentuate this.
Since these guys are not ITKMemVita exclusive, you can find more sillies about them on my blog! Nora's character tag on my blog is #MsMantis or #mantis. Lessur is #lessur. Flint's is #Zil, Russle is still #Russle and Russel’s self-control is #Gabe.
Nora's name doesn't change to Mantis in ITKMemVita bc 1) the magic system in VSMP is different, so no turning halfway into a bug because of some fight with a witch, and 2) in ITK universe she had Zil (erm, Flint) as a flesh-and-blood brother instead of some sick and fucked up dragon-hatchling rescue on the side of the road, lol. There is a special scene in asnc universe called "pick a name" and itttt never happened in ITK because Flint/Zil backed her up 100% when she got kicked out of her village.
As for Flint, he needed a non-dragon name. Zil is short for Grazzil in asnc. Mantis makes fun of him by calling him gravel once they figure that out-- which, ITk is minecraft, so Flint. ta-daaa.
(btw I hope to PUBLISH asnc (all soul no coal, the working title of the novel) one day so I won't be posting any of that on ao3. miiight do a ficlet here or there on tumblr tho. nothin too crazy, can't let the horse run away from me lol.)
Good news for all Pyro fans: Next chapter posted early
https://archiveofourown.org/works/78052546/chapters/204986716
"A vampire lunges out of his own hovel, trenchcoat flying behind him. A gunshot of a creature pointed center-mass at a lump of darkness with magenta-rimmed eyes.
Lessur shuts the door behind him, quietly, and waits.
Inhuman screams of pain, joy, and rage split the dead night air. Feet scuffling on creaking wood planks, lightest brushes of stone."
