#oc: evaethi

[cassynite]

drew a picture of my oc, Evaethi, Sparrow's failgirl "sister” (daughter of the guy who had enslaved Sparrow for most of her childhood) and my PC of the tabletop campaign im currently playing

[offsidekineticist]

💎💎💎 I was hesitant to send one because I remembered you'd done this before with KC Theo but if you were interested in doing it again I'd love to hear more opinions about any oc! No worries if not though.

Seriously I'm always doing these, it's such a great way of getting to know everyone's OCs.

So here's (bleachling) Theo's thoughts on Evaethi! I'm assuming here that Theo hasn't met Sparrow. Everything he knows about Evaethi, he knows from meeting her after she joins the pathfinders.

"Evaethi. Oh, Evaethi." Theo smiles slightly with his eyes. "I ought to preface this by saying I'm very fond of the girl. She means well. But she is..." He stops, lips pressed together and brow furrowed as he searches for the kindest way to express his next thought. "It seems like she struggles with empathy, but I don't think that's exactly right. She has trouble seeing the world from any perspective but her own. If you spell out the differences for her, she can be very empathetic, but she either can't or won't connect those dots herself. Not yet, anyway.

"I think that might be part of why she seems so lonely. Because if you aren't able or willing to spell out your needs and boundaries in excessive detail, she is going to come across as vapid and self-absorbed. And most people either aren't willing to be that explicit about their vulnerabilities, or if they are, they don't realize they need to be. It's sort of the opposite of the problem I had in my youth, where I was too afraid to assert my own needs. Instead she is too afraid to understand the needs of others.

"And I do think it's fear. She's so attuned to Hazelnut's needs, she's clearly capable of awarenes and empathy. She clearly grew up well-off so I don't think she had to face the harshness of the world until she left home. So she looks away when she can, and...well, I understand. It can be overwhelming." He looks down at his hands. "Some of us can't look away and wish we could. It can be terrifying, and I understand looking away for as long as possible, numbing yourself to the hurt of others.

"But I think she can grow past that. Evaethi is brave, even if she doesn't realize it. I don't know the details of why she left Cheliax and became a pathfinder. My suspicion is that her father was a wealthy merchant who tried to improve his family's status by marrying her off to a nobleman, but thats just speculation. In any case, leaving the life of luxury she is clearly accustomed to so she could be free, even if freedom is uncomfortable - that takes courage. Her courage is carrying her around the world. I'm sure it will one day carry her to maturity."

[cassynite]

family reunion from hell!!!!

@transprincecaspian @amatres Everyone wants to see my failgirl failing I see!

I've talked about this occasionally on the discord but Faith Plays Dumb is set about a year and change after the events of WOTR. Evaethi Arvanxi, the daughter of Sparrow's former master and the woman Sparrow had to impersonate for years, shows up at Heaven's Edge to see Sparrow again. It features Sparrow confronting the old dynamics she was forced to exist in, confronting the pain of her past, and Daeran and Sparrow's First Big Fight.

Also Evaethi. It definitely features Evaethi supposedly trying her best!

Snippet below the cut:

"It's you!" she keeps saying. "It's you, it's you, it's you--Eva!" I thought you were gone forever. I thought I failed you. The emotion, full and warm and only slightly thorny, presses into Sparrow's lungs and up her throat, leaving no room for words. She only presses her head against the thick wool of Evaethi's scarf and holds her tighter. Warm, real, alive, and healthy. She never could have hoped for more. Evaethi is as uninterested in ending the embrace as Sparrow, and happily babbles into Sparrow's ear while she holds onto her. "Gods, you're still light as a feather! And what's with those feathers, huh? You're lookin' half-bird these days! Next thing you know you'll start growing wings and ripping up your fancy dress--that color is so bright! Is that the fashion in Mendev? You'd think they'd like things darker, what with how cold and dreary it is--but you're a lady now for real, aren't you, that's what [name] and [name] were saying when we came up this way, that you were lady of the house--I knew you'd manage it, Eva--" "My wife's name is Sparrow." Daeran's voice cuts through the never-ending chatter and silences Evaethi. "I'm sure you're aware of that already, are you not? Since you lived with her for many years as she kept you from assassination attempts and having to dance with undesirable nobles at balls?" Evaethi lets go and steps back, leaving Sparrow cold. "I'm sorry, who're you?" She doesn't sound angry, but then, she's never been the kind to get angry. Daeran, on the other hand, looks glacially furious. Sparrow steps in between them, placing a hand on Daeran's sleeve. "Evaethi, this is my husband, Count Daeran Arendae. Daeran, this is my--this is Lady Evaethi of House Arvanxi." "Charmed." Daeran's gaze is cold and sharp as seaglass; he does not even nod to her, a slight of station that would have left anyone of noble birth insulted, but which Evaethi does not seem to notice. He places one hand over Sparrow's on his arm, the touch almost enough to soothe the nerves jangling ever since Evaethi let her go. "And what business do you have at Heaven's Edge?" "To...to visit?" Evaethi's expression takes on a familiar turn--that of a kicked puppy, who is unsure where the hostility came from or how it connects to her. If it continues, there will be tears, but her voice doesn't have that familiar warble when she responds just yet.

[cassynite]

Lady Evaethi Arvanxi and Companion, c. 1413.

So pleased with how this turned out! I wanted to try and paint something that could imitate an in-world portrait of Sparrow and Evaethi during their time in Cheliax. I like to imagine that scholars centuries later would argue about who in the portrait is Evaethi and who is the companion based on the symbols and finery in the painting lol!

[cassynite]

For Evaethi:

28. Would they prefer a lie over an unpleasant truth? 

40. How sensitive are they to their own flaws?

28. Would they prefer a lie over an unpleasant truth? 

Evaethi absolutely would prefer to be lied to, though she would say she prefers the truth! She's very uncomfortable with hard realities and dislikes the reality that she is uncomfortable with that. So even though she tells people to be honest, to just tell her when she's wrong or being a fuck up or hurting them, she gets very defensive and upset when it's actually pointed out to her. Give her the comforting lie to give her what she actually wants; give her the unpleasant truth if you ever want that to change.

40. How sensitive are they to their own flaws?

Evaethi is possibly the most thin-skinned OC I've ever created lol. She has incredibly low self esteem and takes criticism against her as a personal attack basically on instinct. She struggles to move past that initial knee-jerk reaction to be defensive, to break down if things get too intense, and to actually take comments about her flaws in any good faith. Part of it is just a trauma response; she constantly talks down on herself but she does it with her father's voice, and it's hard not to hear him when others talk negatively about her because her way of dealing with the way she grew up is essentially a form of learned helplessness.

[cassynite]

Evaethi Gets a Horse? 👀

Thanks so much for the ask Seren!

This one was originally a prompt fill for a writing meme ask I got (checks calendar) way too long ago, but I expanded the concept a bit. It's a little looser but one I'm focusing on because it is from child!Evaethi's pov and I think it's important for me to get done to nail her character and the dynamic she has with her dad and Sparrow. I'm considering it required writing before I can actually work on the family reunion fic lol

Basically what it says on the tin--it's how Evaethi gets Hazelnut, her horse--but on a broader level it's Evaethi dealing with the fact that she's a failgirl overtly and also perpetuating behaviors against Sparrow covertly. Below's are two rough snippets that aren't long enough on their own yet:

Eva wears the coral dress with blue frills, the hem clipped on the inside--Evaethi had grown taller than Eva within the past few months, but Father won't buy more than one set of dresses for the two of them since there's only one Lady Evaethi. Evaethi tried to make herself shorter for a few days after Father's hours-long lecture about finances once he realized the two were no longer the same height, but walking with bent legs made her knees hurt. So instead, the servants found some very pretty shoes from the upper west wing where Mama used to live, kitten heels that Eva stuffed with rags to make fit until her feet grew into them. The few inches it gave, along with the folding hem trick, did its job, and Eva could wear the dresses without issue, even if she always cringed a tiny bit when she walked down the halls with her heels clacking against the tile. Evaethi understood; nothing had happened yet, but one day Father was gonna hear that noise and get mad. Hopefully Evaethi wasn't nearby when that happened.

--

"I just don't want to give him such a sad name. Hazelnut feels right!" "Then Hazelnut is his name," Sparrow says. "'Arcaneus' is just a word on a sign at his door. It doesn't matter if other people think that's his name, or call him that. You're the one who loves him. If you call him Hazelnut, he'll know that's his real name, no matter what anyone else says." Evaethi turns to her, eyes shining. "You really think so, Eva?" "I do." Evaethi turns back to her new roan, rubbing his nose with newfound enthusiasm. "Hazelnut. Your name is Hazelnut. Don't you forget it, no matter what Father says. Eva, do you want to help me brush him?"

[cassynite]

Sunrise, sunset.

Having completed one (1) tutorial on portrait drawing i decided to redraw this pair of drawings for Sparrow and Evaethi. I am still somehow not satisfied so im sure i will revisit this eventually. maybe give them clothes at some point

bonus evaethi after her big girl chop moment

[cassynite]

*shamelessly jumps on the bandwagon* Happy priiiiiiiide!!! Made with this picrew. Know that all my ocs are queer lmao

[cassynite]

So there was a writing exercise introduced in the discord to have your KC explain why they love their LI. I decided to do it for Sparrow and Daeran to get out of my writing funk and I got this!!!

Anyway I know a few other people were planning on doing something similar and I encourage anyone who's intrigued to do it as well because it was fun and very helpful! Though mine isn't entirely about Sparrow just explaining her feelings lol.

------

"Why do you love him?"

Sparrow, Countess Arendae, blinks from where she sits across from you in the tea room of Heaven's Edge, the rare sign that she's surprised at the question. You don't blame her--you're surprised you asked. You hadn't intended to. This was meant to be a short visit, one full of meaningless talk and, maybe, the thing you actually came here to say if you were brave enough. Not this.

But you've long since come to peace with the fact that your mouth gets ahead of your brain more often than not. You just wish you hadn't done it here, with the heavenly former Knight Commander of the Fifth Crusade and one of the most important people in Mendev. She looks the part now more than ever, a noble in truth: with her bright fine though unfashionably high-waisted dress, the ribbons pulling her hair back, the jewelry glittering at her neck and arms, the feathers on her face and her folded wings shining under the sun that pours into the room. She looks like a portrait you'd find hanging in the walls of a palace, and you are grubbier than you've ever been, after weeks on the road and still wearing your armor. You don't deserve to push into Sparrow's personal life.

It had just been a question nagging at you for years now, ever since the marriage was first announced. You'd heard the rumors, of course--that it was arranged, by the queen as a reward so that the successful Knight Commander could be titled a princess, by the queen as punishment to finally pull in Count Arendae's reckless and rakish ways, by the two themselves as a political alliance to do some high-minded things you would never be able to wrap your head around without hurting your brain in the process. Certainly, no one ever thought that the infamous noble pain in the ass and Sparrow married for anything resembling affection. And yet, they were wrong. You were wrong.

You're not here to try and dig into why Sparrow took the title and the manor you currently sit in, when it's attached to one of the nastiest people you've had the displeasure of meeting. But to your surprise, Sparrow doesn't look away and change the subject, or pin you with a thousand-pound stare meant to make you regret entering the room. Instead, her expression softens, turns thoughtful. She's actually coming up with a response. You hold your breath to stop yourself from blurting out anything before she starts, a surefire way to make sure she never finishes her sentence. Even if you don't deserve to know, you are curious.

Finally, after several moments of silence, she says, "He makes me laugh."

Is that it? you almost say. I made you laugh, too, you definitely do not say. But she sees something of it on your face--the first one, hopefully not the second--because her mouth quirks up the tiniest bit, the closest Sparrow ever gets smile. It makes you relax a little in your chair. Sparrow never, ever smiles without meaning it.

"I don't know how to describe it," she finally admits. "How do you speak on nature of love? Sometimes it feels like I've always loved him. That there's never been reason, just existence of it." Another pause as Sparrow struggles to place her words. "He makes me laugh, when there is so little to laugh for. He is--he can be--kind, and thoughtful, and when he looks at me like I'm the only person in the room I know he means it. He..."

Sparrow turns her attention to the window, to the gardens beyond. From your vantage point you can see the entrance to the manor, stone steps leading to the door that opens to the main hall. There are giant flowering shrubs lining the staircases, slightly untamed but still cared for. It's almost summer and the weather has only just become bearable this far north for you; the animals that live here, however, are far more used to the freezing air, and there is life exploding outside, providing movement where the windless air does not. Bees buzz around open flowers, butterflies flit through the air, and birds call from their places in the tree branches beyond the main courtyard.

"His family died here," Sparrow comments. You jerk back to her at the sound of her voice, wide-eyed.

"Uh..."

"It's not a secret," she continues, as still and calm as the trees outside. "Anyone in Mendev can speak on the bare bones of the tragedy of the Arendae line. The Count's family died, and badly. They died in these rooms, and then my husband left, because he couldn't stay."

You did know this already. Sparrow isn't joking that it's common knowledge; when you brought up where you were headed at the nearby Pathfinder lodge, the quartermaster there told you the entire sordid history, just casual conversation. Demons, plague, and a single survivor, just a child at the time. It's all very sad, but it makes you wonder why Sparrow is bringing it up.

"During the march to Drezen, we passed by Heaven's Edge. At my request we visited it, and he threw a party here, forced liveliness into the halls where a demon murdered his family. I didn't understand it at the time; but then, grief is so personal. There is no wrong way to mourn and I wasn't going to judge. Even if I did there were...other circumstances involved as well. It wasn't until after that I realized how terrifying this place was for him, how lonely it had made him. And how he refused to just let it fester as the place where he lost everyone he cared about. He didn't just abandon it--and when the war was over, he came back and he made this place a home with me."

Your hands clench the armrest. She's talking about the Count, but is she really talking about you, who ran away from the place that hurt you and the life that trapped you? Or is she seeing herself, someone who also tried to run away in a moment that makes you flinch even now? You're not sure which is worse--maybe she's not comparing him to anyone at all, which you think might be the actual worst option, that she does not think of you enough to put you side-by-side with the man she loves.

Sparrow's knuckles press against her lips, deep in thought. You've rarely, if ever, seen her put so much care into her words, and unlike you, Sparrow has never been someone who speaks carelessly to begin with. The weight of it, what she's telling you, wraps around you both, makes the sitting room feel small and intimate. "To search for joy in the teeth of spite. Staring at the ghost of the place you loved and refusing to let it go forever...it's brave. I've always thought it was brave, how he refuses to walk away from the things he loves. He stays, even when it's difficult, and he refuses to let life make him anything but happy or keep him from the things he loves. He makes me want to hold on. He finds joy in living, and it me want to live even when it's frightening."

Your breath catches in your throat. She's not looking at you, but you can feel her attention anyway, noticing your reaction to how the conversation has become more than just the shape of Sparrow's love. He stays. And you didn't, and you hadn't meant to hurt Sparrow the way you did, you hadn't thought it would hurt, but it's been a long time since you last left Heaven's Edge in tears and misplaced anger, and you've finally learned that not meaning it, or not knowing, had never been an excuse.

It's enough to make your rehearsed words, the speech you practiced, fly from your brain; but it also gives you the strength say the actual thing you had come here to say. "I'm sorry," you tell her. "For...for everything." It's not enough, but you don't think even the long speech you'd written on the way here would be enough. All the work you've done on yourself and for others since you left isn't enough, and nothing you ever will do could be enough either. You can't change the past. You can't become someone who stayed.

"I know." It's not forgiveness, but her voice is gentle and her expression when she finally looks at you is kind. "I'm glad you came anyway."

The conversation moves on, and the intensity in the room slowly lets go of its grip in the conversation. It's not much longer before there's movement outside--a horse carrying a single passenger in fine riding clothes, his long hair glinting like raw sunlight. He jumps off with practiced ease, turning to where you know the stables are. For a moment, his head turns to the window where you both sit and you swear he sees you both, even at a distance. Even if he doesn't, the moment he sees your mare in the stables he is going to know who has come by.

"I should go," you say, rising. You'd already spent more time here than you expected you'd be allowed, and the last thing you want to do is struggle through another conversation with Sparrow's too-smart, too-cruel husband. Sparrow might be happy you are here, but Count Arendae made it clear the last time you spoke that he hoped to never see your face again, and you can't imagine that opinion has changed over the years.

"You don't have to," Sparrow says. "I already let the staff know there would be three at dinner tonight."

"Ah, well, I don't think the Count is going to be very happy with that--"

"It will be fine. I've been thinking about family," Sparrow cuts you off, so unexpected it stuns you to silence. There is more to her now, than you've ever seen in her. She's grounded, her space filling the room. She's not afraid to speak over objections any more. "And I am tired of staring at the ghosts of the people I loved and letting the pain of it keep me away. If you do not want to stay, there is nothing I can do to keep you, but I would like your visit to continue, and maybe for you to visit again afterward. Besides I have--news, that I hadn't had a chance to speak about now. I would like to tell you about it with my husband present." She holds out a hand to you. "Would you like to stay for dinner?"

You think about the high-waisted dress she's wearing, so oddly out of fashion, and think you might already know the news she's hinting at. But then, you might not--you've never been good about guessing what secrets other people keep. But you want to know, either way. You have missed her for a very long time, and seeing her hand reaching out to you has caused tears to prick at your eyes. After a moment, you finally have the strength to take it. Her grip is as strong as ever.

"Thank you, Sparrow," you say, and her eyes light up at you using her name. "I would love to."

[cassynite]

I was tagged to do this picrew by @galfrey, @spyridonya, and @rollofleaf--thank you all for thinking of me, this was an incredibly cute one to do! Here are all the girls

I'm comin up late to this tag game so I feel like a lot of people have already been tagged...if not, and you want to do this, please consider this your tag!

[cassynite]

if your oc's had to choose a song to sing for karaoke what would they choose?

Hahahaha thank you for the ask!!

Sparrow: She's singing whatever the person who dragged her on stage wants her to sing, that's literally the only way she's getting on that stage. If she was forced to choose as well, she'd pick something really somber that would inadvertently bring down the mood...like i don't know if you listen to the sheridan tapes but the scene where Sam sings "the parting glass" at a party and is just a big wet blanket about it is how I imagine sparrow being lol. Like she'd go up there and sing "Achilles come down" or something.

Vonzi: Way more capable of keeping party spirits alive, Vonzi would probably go with a classic karaoke song and deliberately sing it bad in a funny way. Like "I will Survive" or "I want it that way" if she's up there with a group.

Evaethi: "Don't Stop Believing." She saw someone sing it in karaoke from a movie once and if put on the spot to choose her own song would go with what she knows is an actual karaoke song lol. I think if she thought about it for long enough she also would be drawn to ABBA's "Dancing Queen."

Ophenia: I'm so sorry. She's pulling out broadway tunes, the really big popular ones. You all get to sit through her belted out rendition of "Defying Gravity" from Wicked, "Think of Me" from Phantom of the Opera, or, if she's drunk, "Memory" from Cats.

I won't do Isore because you could not pay him to walk on a karaoke stage lol.

[cassynite]

👾 for evaethi <333

So I have an embarrassing confession…I don’t have an Evaethi playlist 😭 failgirl even in this.

So I’m gonna cheat a lil and give a sparrow song that is technically about both of them and how they see each other instead!!

There's just something so important to me about the fact that both of them think they are the one who tried harder in the relationship and both were deeply hurt by the other's "abandonment" of them. Like, obviously there is someone who was objectively hurt more in this situation, but that doesn't change the fact that Evaethi also feels like she was left behind when Sparrow went on to live a happy life without her. No, it didn't matter that Evaethi left first, because in her mind it was justified, and of course she was going to come back for her when she could.

And like..."I'll swear that I loved you" does so much for Evaethi's perception of their relationship because so much of her feeling does come after the fact, her own skewed retrospective. Of course she loved Sparrow. Of course the way she hurt her were honest mistakes, of course she didn't really leave. When she talks about what happened, she'll swear she loved her.

[cassynite]

△ Evaethi, how does it feel seeing Sparrow find genuine love and happiness despite her being forced to live as your fake for so long?

Oooooooh thank you so much Siren! And I got to practice Evaethi voice 👀.

--

Evaethi opens her mouth in shock. Finally, she says, "Forced to live as my fake? I mean, she played Lady Evaethi, and. I guess that was me. But it also wasn't? But it was way more complicated than that. I think you're implying something and I don't like it." She rubs her hair, chopped roughly around her ears. "Like. It was bad. And...forced? Yeah, she was, she was a servant of the household, but she was also family? Not that it mattered much to my father. He didn't treat her any worse than he treated me--" She chokes. "Maybe a little worse. But. It was awful for everyone and--what was the question again?

"Right. Okay. 'Genuine love and happiness'--I don't know, was it genuine? She's so good at making the best of things, it's what she always did. And, yeah, she seemed happy there with that noble, but she was also happy sometimes when we were kids and then she wanted to run away? And that man she married was. Not very nice. But then I did ask her to come away and be a Pathinder with me and she said no, so--I guess she likes being with him more than she wants to stay with me again. Which is--it happened. And that has nothing to do with the question does it? I'm rambling, I'm sorry.

"How do I feel about it...I feel...is 'bad' an okay response? That whole trip made me feel bad. At first it was great, Eva was there--Sparrow, sorry--and it's been years, and she wasn't where I thought she'd be but that's okay because I found her in the end. But it wasn't, because it didn't matter, because even though he was so rude and mean when I asked her to come with me she said no because--I don't even know! And she said things. About me, and us, and I didn't even know she'd felt that way. She'd never said anything before and--

"I know that leaving was bad, okay? I'm not a complete idiot. But I couldn't take Ev--Sparrow with me, because Father would find out, and I couldn't tell her in the note that I was going to come back for her because she might have shown it to Father and he could used that but obviously she had to know I was coming back, right? I was going--I was going to. I wanted to. I did. It took a long time because I needed to get settled and I'm bad at things so that took a while but why wouldn't I have come back for her?"

She stops, as if she has run out of words. Her eyes are glassy.

Finally, she says, "I didn't think things would turn out this way. I didn't mean it. I didn't think--I didn't think. But if she's happy now, without me, then she's happy. But I guess that still doesn't answer your question at all, does it? You should have told me, I can get better if people just tell me. I know how to shut up sometimes, I promise.

"I guess, in the end, I felt guilty. That she got herself out of Father's control because I wasn't there to help even though I should have been. That I took so long to go back to begin with. But it doesn't really matter, either way. She's doing fine. And I'll be doing fine too, I've got things to do and the Pathfinders have jobs for me and I'm finally seeing the world. So we both got we wanted, and--oh, I guess I finally answered your question. I'm going to. Go now. Goodbye."

Intrusiveness Level: 9/10

[cassynite]

ok gonna talk about evaethi now

I've explicitly talked about the fact that Sparrow sees Evaethi as a little sister she needs to care for and protect. Evaethi does not see Sparrow as a sister, not just because Evaethi's worldview means she inherently takes Sparrow for granted--Sparrow is a Baby's First Lesbian Crush, the kind where Evaethi can't tell if she wants Sparrow or wants to be her. She sees Sparrow as someone who is just incredibly perfect--able to succeed where Evaethi fails. Part of why Evaethi can't really acknowledge Sparrow's needs or hurt is because she just assumes Sparrow can take care of anything--that because she seems to bear burdens better than Evaethi, they are not burdens to Sparrow at all. It's the assumption that of course Evaethi's needs are priority, that Sparrow would automatically be Fine with it all, that makes their relationship toxic.

Evaethi is a real Horse Girl. Like she is average to bad at just about everything else expected of her--she's too blunt for political niceties, doesn't have the head for academic learning or magic, and is clumsy enough on her feet that she's terrible at dancing and swordplay--so she basically made riding her main personality trait early on because it was easy to her and it made her feel free.

Her horse's name is Hazelnut!

Evaethi does not see herself as the Real Evaethi any more than Sparrow does--she's internalized being the copy that gets put away because she's not Good Enough (which is how she interprets Sparrow being trotted out at court in her place rather than it being a safeguard against attacks), so she sees "Lady Evaethi" as a role that they both play, and that Sparrow is better at. She genuinely believes her father would prefer to have Sparrow as a daughter than her.

She chops her hair off when she runs away as a big Growth moment--it ends up in a blunt pageboy style (something similar to Valerie's cut but choppier)

Evaethi is emberkin! It leads to the same golden undertones in coloring Sparrow has. They were the same height and relatively similar in appearance when Sparrow was first taken, but Evaethi quickly outgrew Sparrow in height and ended up looking pretty different overall.

[cassynite]

For the picrew OC meme, I was tagged by both @angrygoatwoman and @dmagedgoods. Thanks for thinking of me!!

Pictured in order are my Knight Commander, Sparrow; Lady Evaethi Arvanxi, an important character from Sparrow's past; Kallesto "Vonzi" Voness, my pathfinder companion OC; and then her two sisters, Viritine and Aerici.

I'm not sure who hasn't been tagged yet but if it inspires you feel free to tag me! I love seeing peoples ocs 🥰

[cassynite]

OC Tag Game

I was tagged by @dujour13 and @spyridonya for this, thank you both for thinking of me!!

Favorite

PWOTR

This one is so hard...like choosing your favorite child...and also it just tends to be who I'm thinking of the most at that particular moment.

I guess the one I love the most is always going to be my Knight-Commander, Sparrow--captured and sold into slavery at a young age, she became a body double and guard for a Cheliaxian family and goes to Kenabres to try and find escape and freedom.

She is a deeply reserved and quiet individual, keeping her feelings and thoughts close to her chest, and cautious to a fault. But underneath that is someone with deep feeling and passion, an incredibly warm and loving person who is desperately lonely and just wants to find someone who won't leave her, as every person who she has loved has done in the past. She romances Daeran Arendae and they both work through their shit together <3

Newest

The Wayhaven Chronicles

The newest OC is technically still cooking, but he's my latest detective in the IF The Wayhaven Chronicles! His name is Bastian Roche, a nervy little man who would just like everyone to get along, please, and who has a tendency to fail upwards, much to his chagrin. He loves his little town and loves his mama, and is very upset at the recent murders going on and then the supernatural bullshit that ends up crawling out of the woodwork as a consequence.

He's gonna romance Felix and I'm pretty sure is going to be the only detective I've played who doesn't become friends with Adam or Mason by the end of book 2 because he has a spine made of wet tissue paper.

Oldest

Dragon Age: Origins

I might have had older OCs but I don't remember them--the one that still exists in any form would be Dannia Tabris, my canon warden in DAO. She's a daggers rogue, duelist and assassin specialties.

She's the first real Specialist Little Snowflake I ever made, but like in the worst way--I made her as I played the game and headcanoned that while not a mage, she was born a little "closer" to the Fade than others, and because of that she can see the future. This was to accommodate the fact that I always had a game guide open because I hadn't learned that you can't really play an RPG wrong by that point.

Dannia puts up a good front and tends to present herself as funny, warm, and cavalier in front of friends and family, but inside she's a melancholic, vicious, calculating person who is desperate to ensure the safety of people she loves by relying on her frequent visions for guidance.

She lost her mother by ignoring her visions and she refuses to lose anyone else, so of course in the process she does lose everyone--she becomes a Warden and is permanently separated from her family, a vision showing Alistair's execution makes her put him on the throne which he does not want and which ultimately causes the end of their relationship, and she sabotages basically all of her friendships and relationships in general because she sees visions of herself dying to slay the Archdemon.

Then Morrigan comes along, offers the Dark Ritual, and she takes it out of blind hope...and survives. And has to try and live on past her own self-imposed expiration date, now knowing her visions can be false and that her sacrifices up to this point might have been for nothing.

Meanest

PWOTR

I don't really do mean OCs honestly lol. But I'd have to say that the one who is most willing to say mean shit is going to be Kallesto "Vonzi" Voness, my mercenary OC for PWOTR!

Vonzi is an oracle whose patron has given her powers over extreme cold--and, more significantly, powers over time. Vonzi has the ability to time travel, but with a major caveat: jumping back in time forces her to "hold on" to the timeline she creates by changing things, something that takes her very life force. She can either let go, undoing the changes she has made, or die in that time, cementing it as the new reality.

In-game, her main quests revolve around the fact that she is suffering from going back in time to save her family. The KC must either let her die, convince her to let go of the timeline and allow her family to die again, or a Secret Third Thing.

Despite all the shit she goes through, Vonzi is a very confident, very cavalier person. She does not suffer fools lightly and isn't afraid to speak her mind even if it means rocking the boat, and she will tell people what she thinks of them regardless of how unflattering it is. If she likes you, she might be more circumspect, but especially in game she doesn't have the time or energy to be nice. Despite her being a genuinely good person and good friend she puts a lot of people off wit her abrasive attitude.

Softest

Dragon Age Inquisition

Softest OC would have to be Phaedre Lavellan, my canon inquisitor from DAI! Phi is a mage, though not a very well-trained one; when she tells people she was the clan's first, she's lying.

Phaedre like so many other OCs suffered tragedy when she was younger, with her childhood friend and intended--the clan's First at the time--dying to maleficar when Phi, desperate to prove she was grown up enough for vallaslin, goes out on the honorary hunt to earn it and gets in way over her head. The event deeply traumatized her, as it was her fault Ghandriel was out there to begin with. It causes her to retreat from any and all responsibility. Her clan enables this, as she's always been seen as a bit of a baby, and the tragedy causes them to close ranks in an effort to protect her. By 9:40 Dragon, Phaedre is 25 years old and has still not gotten her vallaslin.

News of the Conclave and the spies clan Lavellan plans to send is the last jolt needed from a long-growing feeling of guilt and stasis Phaedre has been in. Sneaking away ahead of the actual spies, Phaedre gets sloppy fake vallaslin from a city elf and joins the Conclave in an effort to prove to herself that she can be useful to her clan and an adult in her own right. And then the Conclave explodes and suddenly she needs to grow up real fast.

Phaedre tends to try to be bubbly and optimistic. She's a little naive but tends to appear even more so because her conflict-averse nature makes her avoid giving out her opinions on anything, which makes it seem like she just doesn't know a whole lot. She's deeply empathetic and emotional, laughs when she's nervous, and wants everyone to be her friend--and it's hard not to be, even when she starts gaining confidence and making decisions that cause disapproval. Phaedre romances Sera.

Most aloof/standoffish

PWOTR

Another non-KC OC, Ophenia Thwait, is going to fit this bill! She's a dhampir that's going to enter her second century soon, and she lost everyone she ever cared about already, including her entire family and her first wife, who she loved more than anything. She wrote books with them as characters to deal with her grief, those books took off, and she spent the next several decades establishing herself as a varied and talented author in several genres. She's currently made a name for herself writing pulp novels of the romance and adventure variety, earning her wild fame and derision in equal measure.

Ophenia keeps all of life at arm's length, looking at it with the clinical mind of a writer that's trying to put together a plot for her next story--because she is. Any character read in an Ophenia Thwait book is based on someone she has met. She considers it the greatest compliment to write using another person, immortalizing them in a story while they age and wither and die. They will at least live forever in her books and the minds of those who read them, but it gives her a tendency to think of people as little more than props for a story that's brewing in her mind, and she will do awful things on purpose just to see what the reaction ends up being or what the consequences are. Gotta get more inspiration, and keep her stories interesting.

Dumbest

PWOTR

Dumbest OC award has to go to Evaethi Arvanxi, Sparrow's "original copy"--the young woman she acted as a body double for! Evaethi means well, mostly, but has learned through a painful childhood that the only real thing she's good at is horses and, later, fighting on them. She fled her noble life of luxury and duty the first real chance she gets, leaving the far more impressive and competent (in her eyes) Sparrow to deal with the aftermath, and joins the Pathfinders, where she will hopefully get some wakeup calls about the way she lives her life. No matter what though, she will never gain the common sense that god gave a goldfish.

Smartest

PWOTR

Isore "Crow" Cygnarus, Sparrow's biological brother who maybe-probably dies in her canon when she was young. I can't even describe how smart he is because "waaaay smarter than me" is about as good as I can get, but he was a savant, a child genius who excelled in mathematics and engineering, who rose to prominence at an astonishingly young age in Alkenstar as an architect and artificer.

He had a lot of ideas, many of which he hoped to spread and see implemented throughout the world--ideas about how society should be run to ensure as little waste, pain, and chaos would be generated, ways that he felt the ills of the world could truly be solved. But before he could do any of that, he had his younger sister with him, who needed to be raised, and he recognized that wandering the world and focusing on your own ambitions was insufficient for rearing a young child. So he settled in the idyllic country of Dehrukani, helping them improve their crystal towers and develop new and interesting ways to store magical energy, and waited for her to grow up right to the point where he is murdered by slavers.

Crow's personality was whatever he needed it to be to get the most out of the people around him--Sparrow remembers him as a kind, patient, perfect older brother, because that's the mask he put on around her. In reality, he was an extremely distant, cold, and ambitious individual. His brilliance came from his natural ability to see things broken down into parts working together as systems, and ultimately that's how he saw people--as parts within the system of society. The closest he ever came to love was the mix of responsibility and interest he had in his little sister.

OC you’d be best friends with IRL

I feel like I would be intimidated by most of my OCs lol. I think I'd get along with Evaethi but would find her self-absorbed nature incredibly grating and honestly she'd be tiring to be around.

The person I'd be best friends with is Vonzi! I'd find her funny and her confidence inspiring.