#lore notes or whatever

[the-hydroxian-artblog]

So do your toy characters just always stay the same shape or can they gain/lose muscle and fat in some weird way? The food they eat just disappear though, right?

They can, though it's all "method acting"; eating food, working out (or even not actively working out) can technically change their appearance, though it's mostly through a kind of self-belief. Experiences of all kinds nourish and keep the minds and bodies of merch mimics stable, and if they aren't actively going insane, they can exist indefinitely. Therefore, if they keep doing something they feel validated by, it affirms them and the shape they take.

If they don't eat food or do some activity that mentally grounds them, they may start to get kind of weird (doing repetitive behaviors like speaking in catchphrases more often and forgetting things), change shape to reflect their lifestyle (growing a beard because you think you're supposed to shave despite being a garden gnome), or gradually become more and more lifeless and inanimate until they just kind of. Freeze. It depends, though. Some like statues remain motionless for decades but are perfectly capable of moving if prompted. and Victor can eat a lot of food to virtually no effect on his body. lucky bastard

[the-hydroxian-artblog]

How many of your toy characters have playable gimmicks, and what are they? I know Victor has the AUX port but do the other boys have similar functionalities?

Hard Cal (calculator) and Victor (mp3 player) are one of the few with an electronic gimmick in particular that is always accessible in some way, but since they're all merch mimics, many have more object-based forms that have basic functionality. Jack can actually become a comic book (or a VHS tape) featuring a random issue from the story he came from. Zachary is the most adept shapeshifter, but ironically doesn't care for becoming anything more than vases and art pieces; objects to be looked at, not touched or interacted with much. Beyond the Fellas, Umbra is Not A Boy but can become a book of any story, and can tell a wider variety of stories than Jack due to being a walking library with a great memory.

As for girls, Hex can become a knife.

Most of them have more forms than just that, but those are the respective favorites for each character. Starry and Slick are special, as they seldom change shape, and instead just have a metric shitton of accessories they can summon from nowhere (cars, clothing, jewelry etc. for Starry, skateboards, ramps, and grind-rails for Slick).

As always, feel free to scroll down and check the Merch Mimic section of the oc-masterlist if me listing any of these guys got you curious.

[the-hydroxian-artblog]

Are the merch mimics like, metaphors for how capitalist brands have sort of taken on a mind of their own and how mascots have replaced gods and demons in the modern world?

Not precisely? with how merch mimics form, they're moreso metaphors for how OCs and sonas get made via inspiration from other characters and things in an endless cycle, and how characters can live on beyond canon via readers re-telling stories and reinterpreting things through their own individual lenses. The only mimic so far that matches what you suggested is one Angel oc I made, Hambaga-Desu, having clearly taken some inspiration from Ronald McDonald, but that's not the only way angels can exist.

I should clarify and concede that some mimics are in fact demons and yokai of old that changed form to keep up with the times, but plenty more are wholly new beings who don't fit snugly into the role of being the new gods and demons of the world. Jack for example is more or less the equivalent of a lost media character that never got their chance to properly exist, yet somehow barges through into existence anyway, like when fans find scraps of something unknown and make their own thing out of it, like when goncharov became a thing. There's more nuanced differences of course but that's kinda the idea of how mimics spring up.

to recap, Merch Mimics are sentient ocs and fursonas that just pop into reality with no singular particular owner. Furthermore, they avoid trying to match pre-existing characters, because if one tried to be Mickey Mouse, they'd likely just get obliterated by an angel, or be too obviously a copy with personality quirks too unique to themself, e.g. a Mickey Mouse that acts too much like just some guy who is a fan of Mickey and acts OOC.