Commissions for @theoutsanityshoppe of their OCs Inspector Query and Cy! Thank you for commissioning me!!
((Don't repost/use if you weren't the one to commission this piece))
OOOOO MY BABY MY BABYYY... my silly... my stupidhead...
This will definitely be a long one lol so everything is gonna be under the cut!! THANK U FOR THE ASK ILU ILU ILU ILU
For Flint!!
1. What was the original thought that led to the creation of this character?
I've always had an interest in 19th century history, especially in regards to the Wild West and all the crazy stuff that happened in the Western world in that time period. At the time of Flint's creation, I had just come off of finishing rdr2 and I was deep in my university archaeology courses, thinking about field school and historic archaeology, and already kind of in the mood to take the dive and make a cowboy-flavoured character- that all kind of made this an inevitability. I got invited to a oneshot dnd game and realized I'd probably have a lot of fun playing a little fantasy cowboy, and Flint 1.0 was born! Thus, too, began my descent into madness.
3. What was the first thing you decided on, the character's name, appearance, personality or their role in the story?
Name and personality came first! I needed to come up with that stuff quick to get ready for the game I rolled them in, so art and story elements weren't really necessary. After the oneshot finished is when I drew up their initial design, and then I got so attached to it I went insane.
4. And reverse, which one of the four things did you struggle with the most?
Probably their role in the story! Normally I drop the characters I make for oneshot dnd games like a bag of rocks, but I REALLY liked Flint so I wanted to make a world for them to run around in. All I had on them was their name and face, and some key personality traits (hopeless romantic, reckless, high on life with no braincells), their dnd class (celestial warlock!), and the hook the oneshot gave me of some people robbing the most haunted, undead-infested tombs in the world. I didn't want to change anything so I had to sort of contort and fit a world around them, rather than the other way around.
I ended up with a story about a troubled kid who got in way over their head, tried to run away from the grief they caused but ended up trapped as a pawn in a cosmic popularity contest. With some newfound divinely lifted powers they're trying to make ammends as best they can and claw back any scrap of redemption that might be left for them in the world, mainly by sending restless undead souls back to their resting places (and pilfering their baubles as a little bonus, to fund their vagrant lifestyle). Everything else sort of revolves around that little hook!
8. What is the origin of their personality? And let's be honest - how much of it is projecting?
MAN I wanna say Flint is maybe like... 80% me? I made the Wild Weast setting initially as a sort of love letter to material culture and all the aspects of history that got me into archaeology in the first place. Flint is very much a self-insert character for me to explore all my personal interests in a world full of new things to discover and dump lore on! A lot of their core traits resonate with me as a result. I'm won't psychoanalyze myself too deeply on main but I gave Flint a lot of the negative qualities I notice in myself, like flakiness and fear of commitment or difficulty fitting in and finding a place in the world, to explore them a bit better and try to understand my own insecurities. They have a lot of positive aspects too though, don't get me wrong! Like their positivity and laid-back, "cross that bridge when we get there" attitude, and their general lust for life are also things that resonate with me pretty deeply.
12. Do you have a playlist for the character? What songs do you associate with them and why?
I LITERALLY JUST MADE ONE YESTERDAYYY I have a generic playlist that I dump all the music I find that gives me wild weast vibes into, but I had a really slow day at work so I ended up sitting down and actually working on some character specific playlists for everyone in the setting. Here is Flint's!
The music I associate with them is mostly stuff I imagine them singing themselves. They fit into that "singing cowboy" archetype, so I like to imagine what kinds of songs they'd sing while they travel. It's mostly country and folk music, and there's a pretty even spread of upbeat and somber songs!
19. What is your general favourite thing about the character? What is your least favourite?
Flint is probably my favourite OC of all time, there's very little I don't like about them! I wish I could go back in time to when I had the time and energy to love them like I used to. I used to make comics to share with friends, dump lore all the time, and would draw them almost every day- I practically see them in everything. If there's anything I maybe don't like as much about them, it's that I'm specifically very inconsistent with their story and personality. It's really hard to shove all your interests and traits into one little guy and keep it succinct at the same time!!
And for Castor!!
2. How long was the process before the character reached its final version? (or a version that would be clearly recognizable as the character?)
OUGH IT TOOK LIKE A SOLID YEAR... I had the idea for a character like Castor for a really long time, but it was impossible thinking about an antagonist because I was way too wrapped up in the joy of playing with my little dolls and making them kiss.
3. What was the first thing you decided on, the character's name, appearance, personality or their role in the story?
Their role in the story! Castor is the setting antagonist, at least for this group of characters. They serve as my vessel for ruining my blorbos lives <3
4. And reverse, which one of the four things did you struggle with the most?
EVERYTHING ELSE. I had no idea what Castor's personality, appearance, or even name was going to be. All I knew is that I wanted them to be fucked up in the head, kinda cunty, and a major problem for everyone within 30 a mile radius of them.
5. How did you choose their name and why? Was it simply based on vibes or is there any specific meaning behind the name? Are the reasons behind their name different in- and out of universe?
After I came up with a design for them, I noticed I have them a lot of cosmic motifs (moon, stars, etc) so I thought it would be fitting to name them after something in the sky as well! The constellations we have in the real world don't exist in my setting, but I still thought it would be fun to name them after something from the real world. In universe, their name isn't anything linked to mythology or anything, it's just got a nice ring!
I had given them a snake familiar they were really attached to, so I ended up linking them together even further with their names (Castor and Pollux). After a bit more development the snake familiar ended up just straight up being Castor's sibling, so the names fit even better now lol!
6. What was the thought process behind their appearance? Did you go mostly for the aesthetic or are there other reasons they look the way they do?
Definitely aesthetics first! I focus on making my characters look fun first and foremost and Castor isn't an exception to that. You can pry big hats, open-chested shirts, and high-waisted flared pants from my cold, dead hands.
9. How big is their role in the story? Do they make a frequent appearance or are they a character with little "screentime" but big influence? Or are they just a favourite background guy?
In the story, Castor has little to no real screentime to speak of- the main characters (Flint, Willow, Shuteye and Prim) have no knowledge of their existence. BUT they are directly linked to most, if not all, of the hardships the characters are dealing with right now, or are at least working to make them worse. They're very much a puppetmaster pulling strings in the background! The catalyst for Flint essentially destroying their life beyond repair was an accidental death that Castor orchestrated, Shuteye's whereabouts are being leaked by Castor's informants, Primrose's lycanthropy was the end result of a series of domino's they felled, etc. Willow's problems were a bit before Castor's time, but were caused by their father so their job is to sort of keep Willow on his knees by it.
20. Bonus question: share any additional thoughts, art, favourite scenes, anything you've been waiting for a chance to ramble about
GOSH I COULD FILL A LIBRARY WITH CHARACTER LORE FOR REAL. Maybe I will go with in-world orgins? Castor is the child of a human mother and a demon which are, in my setting, powerful magical beings that were trapped underground by the current pantheon of gods. There's no real difference between gods and demons really, one side just got lucky and utterly destroyed and vilified the other. After a long period without access to the surface their appearances warped and they started looking like the pale, blind cave critters that we have in the real world, like various species of cave spiders or those blind cave salamanders (olms?). They're still sapient and can communicate with surface dwellers, and they're desperately trying to free their species from the underground but have sort of recognized that they themselves can't live on the surface anymore. As a result, they've found ways of getting it on with regular people up top to sire children and continue their species in a different form.
They love their father (who normally looks like a big fat snake creature with lots of arms/hands lol) more than anything and desperately want to make it proud, hence why they've decided to slink their way into the background of the main cast's lives and make things terrible for them :3
Normally demons have to participate in a pretty long and drawn-out courting process because they are just naturally offputting to people no matter what form they take. Castor's mom however was a freak of a woman who liked her partners creepy and wet, so Castor's conception happened in RECORD time. She died shortly after Castor was born (RIP girlies we lost a real one) and they ended up being raised by their father primarily (as much as it could take care of a baby, being trapped underground and all). Castor's upbringing makes them closer to a demon than a human in a lot of ways, which shows in their personality and general disdain for anything dwelling on the surface of the world.
THERE'S MORE, THERE'S ALWAYS MORE... but this is getting kinda long already so I'LL ZIP IT FOR NOW. Your reward for getting through my nonsense is Castor's original sketches I made on paper in like 2021 <3
They originally had both their eyes but I liked the vibes of having one constantly obscured! So now it's because oops haha they actually only really have one eye and their brother (Pollux) uses the other side of their face as a sort of portal to come and go as it pleases.
