OC Questionnaire!

I found this on Tofutush's Github page. I thought it'd be fun to answer these questions as a creator of many fandom OCs! I don't know if anyone will actually read this, but here we GO!

1. A little self-introduction!: I'm yukimayari. Also known as Mayari, Yukima, and Gracious Lullaby (only by my mom and grandpa!)
2. How long have you been making OCs?: Since I was about 15.
3. Who was your first OC ever? (If you don't remember, answer for the earliest that you do remember.) Are they still in use? Did they go through any iterations?: My first OC was a Digimon OC named Naoko Magami. She started out as a blatant self-insert with a crush on Matt/Yamato in Digimon Adventure, then went through so many iterations that she ended up becoming a major supporting character in my Digimon original season fanfic, Digimon Infinity.
4. Who is your favorite OC, currently?: Currently? Another self-insert, ironically enough - Megumi Reiwa, a major character in a new original story I'm working on! Her name is practically my own name if it was translated into Japanese.
5. Who is your newest OC as of right now?: See the previous question.
6. How many OCs do you have? If you have multiple, then do you have blatant favoritism?: I have... at least a hundred! As for favoritism, I'm sure I do, though I always try to include character development for every major OC I have in a story!
7. Do you create OCs with other people, or is it mostly solitary?: Solitary. I can't imagine creating characters with others, they're so personal to me!
8. Do you create your OCs for specific story(s)? What are the genre and common themes featured in your story(s)?: I do create OCs for specific stories. Even when I try to make OCs as general mascots or representatives of myself, they always end up being important parts of a story! I generally write science fiction, especially involving dimensional travel and parallel universes, with some romance thrown in!
9. Are your OCs from a fandom?: All of them are, except for the latest group of OCs I've come up with. I write for Digimon, Pokemon, The Dragonriders of Pern, and a few one-off anime fandoms.
10. Do your OCs live in their own universe(s)? How different is their world from ours? (If you have fandom OCs you can still answer this with the world of the franchise!): My OCs live in their own little offshoots of the canon universes. I'm a big supporter of the "Canon Divergence" tag on AO3, and multiverse theory. All universes have an equal chance of existing!
11. If you got isekai'ed into your OCs' universe (if there are multiple, pick some of the most notable), how long would you survive?: Pokemon universe? I'm probably okay if I had a Pokemon to befriend. Digimon universe? I'll be okay if I had a Digimon partner. Pern? I'll be fine if I Impressed a dragon!
12. Do most of your OCs belong to a (set of) species?: All humans, except for the latest batch of OCs I've created, which range from normal humans to cat-people, bear-people and unicorn-people!
13. Do you draw pictures of your OCs? If so, what kind of pictures do you draw?: I can't draw worth anything, but I do commission artists to draw my OCs! I usually commission story scenes with my OCs, and recently I've requested character reference sheets to make it easier to visualize my OCs while I'm developing the story and world.
14. Do you enjoy drawing new reference sheets?: I commission them, and enjoy looking at them once they're done!
15. Do you write about your OCs? If so, what sort of text do you write?: This is ALL I ever do with my OCs! I write full stories about my OCs! When I create my OCs, it's because I have a story I want to tell with them.
16. Aside from drawing and writing, is there anything else you're doing for your OCs? Like… making a website, perhaps?: I've made a website for my Digimon fanfic, Digimon Infinity. I plan to make another website for this new story I'm working on!
17. What's your general process in making new OCs?: I look at the setting first. Is it interesting? Is it big enough to allow focus on different characters? What kind of characters do I want to see in this setting? Then I look at the character designs. Is there a specific visual style I want to use? If I have trouble visualizing characters, I look at character designs that are similar to the style I want. Then I look at personalities.
18. Relatedly, which comes first for you, the OC or the story setting?: The story setting. I usually create my OCs to explore existing settings more thoroughly.
19. Relatedly, how do you name your OCs?: I name them according to the setting. If it's an anime-based setting, my OCs get Japanese names. If it's a fantasy world, they get named accordingly. For sci-fi... it can be anything from normal to incredibly weird (the Gundam effect!)
20. Relatedly, do your OCs gain a life of their own during the creation process?: They do! And usually when I least expect it! I've written romantic relationships between OCs that develop out of nowhere but make perfect sense, and made a few minor characters into major characters because they wanted more spotlight as I wrote!
21. Relatedly, do you focus more on the design of the OC, or their personality? Or is it an even blend, or something else?: It's an even blend. I prefer to have my characters look cool, along with having well-developed personalities!
22. Do you assign your OCs birthdays? Is their calendar different from ours?: I do, when the story setting has the same calendar as ours. That's most of the time. For those worlds with possible different calendars... yeah, no. If the original author didn't see fit to develop it, I'm not sure if I'd bother doing it myself...
23. Do you keep track of OC creation dates? Do you consider the creation date to be their birthdays?: I never keep track of OC creation dates! I don't really see the point.
24. How do you handle OC ages? Do they age up with you, stay static, or grow within the universe?: They grow within the universe, but most of the time their initial ages are pretty close in age to myself. Or they can be younger or older. They're basically the ages they need to be in order for the story to work best!
25. Are there any rules you set for yourself when making OCs? How often do you break these self-imposed rules?: The rules depend on the story and setting. If I'm working in another fandom's universe, those rules apply. If I'm making my own universe, basically anything goes, but I try not to make things too unbelievable!
26. What are things you enjoy the most in OCs?: Well-done character development, and the freedom to explore parts of a setting that the source material will never cover.
27. Conversely, what are your pet peeves about OCs?: Power fantasy, wish fulfillment, and Mary-Sue-ism. To an extent. I want to see characters learn and grow and get better over time!
28. What's the most common trope you fall into when making OCs and their stories? Do you even like these tropes?: Um... Power fantasy, wish fulfillment, and Mary-Sue-ism... *snicker* I especially seem to like making brilliant female scientists, and their equally-capable love interests!
29. Conversely, do you have any trope you like but doesn't get used much in your OCs?: I'm not sure. I usually make some kind of OC using the tropes I like!
30. Tell me the weirdest and wackiest piece of out-of-context OC lore you have.: Mana, one of my Digimon Infinity characters, is the comic relief of the story. She's started ridiculous tirades over things like evaporated water bottles, and instant ramen!
31. Tell me the saddest and most tearjerking piece of OC lore you have, with context if needed.: Akira, the leader character in Digimon Infinity, suffered extreme physical abuse from her stepfather and developed deap-seated PTSD from it.
32. Tell me the scariest and freakiest piece of OC lore you have, with context if needed.: Kaneya, one of my main OCs from my Pern fanfics, has recurring dreams about being on a starship attacked by an aggressive super-fungus, which ate the rest of the passengers alive!
33. Tell me the sweetest and most wholesome piece of OC lore you have, with context if needed.: Two of my Pern OCs fell in love, and ended up confessing to each other while locked up in a library and while being mentally bombarded with sensual thoughts.
34. Tell me one meta thing about your OC lore. Like scrapped / revamped stuff?: I ended up scrapping an entire original story, only to realize it worked better as a second season to my Digimon fanfic! It's currently on the back burner right now, but I do plan on writing it someday! I also scrapped a fanfic idea and another original story, only to repurpose them as part of the story I'm working on right now!
35. How do you think your OCs think of you? Are you their parent, their creation god, their suffering-bringer…: I'd rather not know, actually. If anything, I'm probably the puppet master or chessmaster who manipulates everything they say and do...
36. How much TRAUMA do you give your OCs!!: Ha.
37. Do you have a Mary Sue? Bonus points if they're your self-insert!: The latest OCs I've created are probably closest to Mary Sue self-inserts. Especially since I've named each of them after some part of myself. They started out as website mascots, but then decided they wanted their own story!
38. Do you have a self-insert then? What role(s) do they play?: All three (!) of them live in different worlds, and fight to keep their worlds from falling apart in one way or another.
39. What are your biggest influences when it comes to OC or worldbuilding? Could be media, other people's OCs, anything.: Probably pre-existing settings and visual styles, then other people's OCs.
40. Are you happy with these influences, or would you like to break away more?: Not exactly. I want to be able to create more original settings and styles. Characters come easy to me, but settings, not so much.
41. Do you try to break out of your comfort zone when coming up with new OCs and stories?: I try. I tend to write cozy, slice-of-life stuff, and usually struggle to write anything more epic in scope and feel. I have managed to do it a couple of times, with varying rates of success.
42. How do you organize / categorize your OCs, if at all?: I organize them according to how important they are to the story, then by what faction they belong to.
43. Do you have any advice you would like to give to new OC creators?: Don't be afraid to create an OC, even if you think they won't be liked. Get that initial character idea down, and you can always improve them later. And don't worry to much about whether people will like your characters. Some will, and some won't. What matters is that you're writing characters and a story that YOU like.
44. What are some boundaries you think people should have regarding other people's OCs (or things to take notice of if you create together)?: Other people's OCs should be respected and not belittled, even if they're Mary-Sues or self-inserts. People write what they want to write, and if that includes power fantasies and wish fulfillment, then that's okay!
45. How often do you think about your OCs, expressed as a percentage of your waking time?: It depends on how much I hyperfocus on them at the time. When I'm really focusing on my writing, then upwards of 50-70% of the time. When I'm focusing on something else, then maybe 25% or below.
46. What impacts do you think your OCs had on your life?: They've taught me a lot about managing my mental health. About conquering your demons and rising above your circumstances, realizing you're not alone and can reach out for help, and knowing how important it is to love yourself. There was a time in my life when I was angry and hated everything I wrote, and I tried to erase all traces of my first OCs. But they refused to die, and kept themselves alive in my mind, until I was ready to face them again and finish their story.
47. Do you want to become POPULAR? If you are already popular, what's the secret ingredient?? :eyes: :eyes:: I don't really care about becoming popular. I'd imagine my creative freedom would be severely limited if I was popular!
48. Are there any songs you think describe an OC or a story perfectly?: Yes. I've built a bunch of Spotify playlists because of this.
49. Might you have a paracosm? Look it up!: Unfortunately, no. I'm so bad at original worldbuilding, and so easily influenced by existing settings, I've always found it easier to write fanfiction starring my own OCs.
50. Finally, do you still recognize the word "OC" after seeing it so much?: OC? What's that? Haha... just kidding! I'd recognize the word anywhere!