#infrans ocs

[thethiefandtheairbender]

it's just me and my beautiful murderous women

[alvoskia]

Some Ally character expressions + concept art courtesy of @imminent-danger-came

[infrans]

i keep seeing your posts about your oc aden and i have a few questions. are they a former infran? have they shown up yet in the books and i've just missed them? what's their last name (yeah i'm oddly specific like that)? do they end up with one of the infrans? sorry for all of the questions i'm just curious lol.

Hi anon! Aden is actually a Kilvoskian, and a pretty regular guy - so no, he’s not an Infran. His Kelva, so the name he’s currently going by in the series, is Akali. His last name is Loften. He shows up during the attack at the Beven Bridge in book one, and eventually in later books develops a VERY slowburn sort of relationship with Ally.

Thank you for asking and feel free to ask plenty more, I’d be happy to answer them! <3

[thethiefandtheairbender]

First of all, I just want to say I love your meta, and I’m excited for Infrans to come out next year-I’m sure Flames will be my favorite. Anyway, I noticed there’s a Goofreads page with the title Alvoskia: Call of the Infrans, and I just wanted to check to see if that was you. I hope you have a good day or night!

First off thank you for your kind words, they mean a lot!! I love Flames so much as a character and she means a lot to me.

This led me to check out Good Reads and is indeed my book title (although my author name will probs end up being my initials). I didn't put it up there (I think? I do have a goodreads account but it's barely used / not that one) but it is possible my publisher might've.

The fact it already has a 5 star rating is good news, though, I think! Here's hoping it stays high <3

& a lil Flames snippet & moodboard for u:

The tallest and the oldest at fifteen, Flames had the sort of smile you couldn’t help but be drawn to, brimming and broad with a little gap between her two front teeth. And she was always smiling, the golden ring in her eyes an equally constant fixture as she brushed back her large, bushy hair, dark and coiled like storm clouds. 

baby. baby boygirl

[thethiefandtheairbender]

I am far more neutral. You have a funny way of showing it. Well, you were always one to appreciate a good joke, Alliccon. I don’t appreciate being laughed at.

[thethiefandtheairbender]

Do the Infran kids have Enneagram types?

Yes they do! more about them over on @alvoskia & inspired by Sleeping At Last's enneagram songs + my own research

Flames: One (The list goes on forever / Of all the ways I could be better, in my mind / As if I could earn God's favor given time / Or at least congratulations)

Bill: Two, which is mine! + bonus Infran of Water metaphor (A mighty ocean or a gentle kiss / I will love you with every single thing I have / Like a tidal wave, I'll make a mess / Or calm waters, if that serves you best / I will love you without any strings attached)

Ally: Three (Maybe this trophy isn't real love / And with or without it, I'm good enough / Maybe I've done enough / Finally catching up / For the first time I see an image of my brokenness / Utterly worthy of love / Maybe I've done enough)

Rayan: Five (I want to watch the universe expand / I want to break it into pieces small enough to understand / And put it all back together again / In the quiet of my private collection / It feels like an out-of-body experience / But something gets lost from a safe distance)

Isuri: Six (My mind was heavy / Running ragged with worst case scenarios / Emergency exits and the distance below / I woke up so worried that the angels let go / Oh, God, I'm so tired of being afraid)

Jamie: Eight (you were wrong / My healing needed more than time / When I see fragile things, helpless things, broken things / I see the familiar / I was little, I was weak, I was perfect, too / Now I'm a broken mirror)

George: Nine + bonus Infran of Time metaphors (So show me what to do / To restart this heart of mine / How do I forgive myself / For losing so much time? / Wake up, roll up your sleeves / There's a chain reaction in your heart)

Them all fitting pretty perfectly was not intentional—the majority had their roles and personalities picked out and developed well before later enneagram songs came out—but it is kinda cool how it worked out / makes me feel like I succeeded in my goal of giving each one a distinct personality / different goals and fears from one another.

The one Infran 'non kiddo' left out is Glothic, who'd be a Four (As if God hid the building blocks / Of every beautiful thing / In this game of hide and seek / I can't help but think / That ordinary has swallowed the key) which despite him having a more antagonistic role, is my favourite enneagram song (and not the only villain I've typed as a Four either, the other being Viren from The Dragon Prince)

[thethiefandtheairbender]

As twins, they were both short and stocky with the same round, beige faces, flat noses, and matching blonde hair, but no one ever mistook them for the other. Jamie was built like the Kilvoskian knife strapped to her belt, all sharp edges and neat lines, wearing a sleek black tunic and matching pants without a crease out of place. The roots of Jamie’s dyed hair were done in a triangular pattern for spring, the rest pulled back in a long braid.

[alvoskia]

Was messing around on Meiker (a site like picrew) and had a blast with this one, so I figured why not make the girls (left to right: Ally, Jamie, Isuri) + Flames (she/he). Maker is in the link!

[thethiefandtheairbender]

So far, which Infrans have been the easiest and hardest for you to write, and why?

Ally has probably been the easiest, even if she's also surprised me the most! I think I had a very clear gist in mind for her since she's the core protagonist, so she's never really given me any trouble.

The hardest were probably Rayan and George, because I felt like it took a few books/drafts for me to really understand how they operate (also took a couple before they took a more central role, though that's been moved up since then, too).

Nowadays, though, everyone is pretty easy.

[alvoskia]

Name: Ally Hatten (she/her) Infran: Of Life Age: 13 years old Character quote: “Just let me try. Please?"

Bio:

Raised among the wolf shapeshifters in the west, Ally was brought to the Citadel at a young age to be with her fellow Infrans. Resentful and resourceful in equal measure, Ally just wants to be a proper Infran like the rest of her family. Easier said than done when her powers still haven't returned, even after seven years, and the last Infran who was dormant like her turned out to be a monster. But she's not jealous of Flames or her sister. Or scared of being abandoned again. Really.

Tropes:

Deconstructed Character Archetype

The Chosen Wannabe

Nature is Not Nice

Green Eyed Monster

The Leader

Representation:

Asian (Indonesian)

Mixed

Religious minority (in-universe)

Asexual

Biromantic

[thethiefandtheairbender]

If you went through with combining Bill and George, would you have kept Bilsuri or Ally x George?

Bill/Isuri! They've always been a matched set in my eyes, and that bond is a big part of both of their characters so it would've taken priority in the merging.

Ally and George meanwhile are best friends, but they're not a romantic pairing (Ally is bi though, and George is pan). He's a year younger and not the best at fighting, so Ally kinda treats him like a bestie/younger brother in looking out for him when they're not getting into mischief together. They do have one of my favourite friendships in the series, though.

[alvoskia]

i'd love to know how you go about writing neurodivergence in a fantasy/not modern setting. thinking specifically of how you describe ally's experience as allegorical whereas flames's autism is canon. how do you differentiate between the two in a world where the vocabulary and contexts are different? (hope that makes sense!)

Thank you!!

I think a lot of it depends on how far immersion wise you want to go, in some ways. Most fantasy worlds still use the twelve month Gregorian Calendar system, for example (even in LOTR, though Tolkien is technically writing it as a translation) or terms for sexuality/gender. In Vita's Land, they actually use an 8 month calendar system with one month associated with an Infran respectively, though I kept each month at 6 weeks for a 52ish week year for my own sanity. I've been debating whether I want to go full throttle of having unique sexuality/gender terms as well, especially because I think the world operates on a much more "you are a woman or not-woman" dichotomy as opposed to a (cis) man or (cis) woman binary, but I digress.

I think some of why Ally's experience feels allegorical to me / to my experience with autism is because I started really writing and understanding her and her story when I was around 16, and that's also when I think my neurodivergency was sticking out to me more; at the time, I chalked it up to be questioning in my sexuality (specifically for asexuality) as gender wasn't a thought in my head yet, and so I was kind of crafting her story at the same time.

Her story is also growing up feeling Other'd for a variety of reasons — an Infran but powerless; a human being raised among non-humans; being Asian when conversations around race tend to be heavily focused on black and white issues somewhat literally; being asexual within the broader allosexual/alloromantic queer community; feeling left behind / struggling within the 'school' system or within societal expectations since not every autistic person is 'Gifted' — so while she's not canonically autistic to me, growing up with "everyone around me knows I'm different (derogatory) somehow and won't tell me how/why so I'm just stumbling around in the dark" is absolutely a core aspect of her book one story in particular and one I think other autistic / neurodiverse people could relate to (I've also considered BDP or NDP for her, tbh). I don't honestly know if I can write a 100% not autistic character from an OC standpoint, anyway.

The end of her book one story is therefore reminiscent of how I felt learning there was a Reason I felt the way I did (ie. my therapist was like "I think you're autistic"), that there were reasons for how my brain worked, and that it wasn't something wrong with me and that my friends loved me/wanted to and could indeed help me just as I was. It's not quite the unconditional "you never have to work on your behaviour or yourself to meet people in the middle" because that's just not always true, but it is true that you can meet people and be met in the middle and receive unconditional love and support on your way to the middle, or wherever people are able to meet you (sometimes, again, right where you are as is).

Flames, meanwhile, I realized I'd been writing as canonically autistic the whole time without realizing, because she is one of the characters (alongside Bill) that I probably relate to the most in terms of like, how she thinks, feels, and responds to things. One of the cruxes of her and Ally's dynamic, written from Ally's POV of course, is Ally resenting her for her apparently effortless success/natural inclinations. I have had people academically or aggressively compete with me my whole life much to my own confusion and despite dislike of competition, and having people read superiority complexes onto me like, has always sucked ass, and has always been untrue. It's especially frustrating because it then makes their insecurity my problem when I am truly just trying to chill/exist/have a good time. None of this is to say that Flames isn't at fault at all either, she's not perfect nor am I, but being misunderstood and having people fooled by your mask / being a good performer is something I related to a lot in her, specifically from an autistic experience.

Now onto what you were actually asking, worldbuilding wise:

I'm fairly certain the in-universe term for autism is known as being wide minded, and it's seen as a neutral/positive leaning thing. The name, I think, captures both the reality of autism as a wide spectrum, and in the idea of it being 'far reaching' — knowing a lot of information (hyperfocus, special interest) / needing a lot of information (to plan, to understand, etc) as two sides of operation. So Flames is wise minded / autistic TM and Ally's remains allegorical, even if I'm not opposed to it also being literal later and/or anything else

I think there's probably a lot more grace / understanding for neurodiversity and disabilities (it's decently common for sighted people to learn braille, for example) since their school system is different too (some form of homeschooling until age 7, then formal schooling for 9ish years) and like... more wide minded Infrans in the past to help generate and push for understanding/acceptance in society that the current Infrans somewhat get to reap the rewards from.

Other things I want to interweave is:

I'm fairly certain Rayan is also wide minded (autistic)

George and Jamie both have ADHD, though I'm not sure yet what it'd be called in-universe. ADHD's current naming scheme in the real world isn't very useful or descriptive, so... we shall see!

[thethiefandtheairbender]

discovered i am just writing a high fantasy, even more traumatic version of sailor moon tonight

[thethiefandtheairbender]

me thinking about queerness as loneliness and thinking about queerness as religion and thinking about queerness as second chances and thinking about queerness as love and thinking about queerness as freedom

[thethiefandtheairbender]

describing my main OCs in only one meme

ally:

jamie:

bill:

isuri:

george:

flames:

rayan:

akali:

[thethiefandtheairbender]

whenever i find a picrew i must make my girls, this is the law. picrew here and my OCs in order: ally, janet, flames, and jamie