Rating the Nonhuman Characters of Screamin’ 20s based on How Well They’d Hold A Human Baby

There’s barely any context for this, but I thought it was funny, so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. Buzz(Mi-Go): 10/10. He’s so excited to see a human larva up close. Welcome to the universe little guy! He’s very gentle, holding the baby with all four arms and only touching them with his feelers. Which the baby immediately grabs. Martin Avery(Deep One hybrid): 7/10. He’s one of those people babies just really like for some inexplicable reason. You could hand him a screaming, red-faced little terror and they’d calm down the moment they’re in his arms. Henry Pebbleton(Vampire): 6/10. Better than Sam, but he’s still nervous. Super gentle, weirdest baby talk you’ve ever heard. Says stuff like “Sir are you aware that you have tiny little hands?” or “Miss, would please take my finger out of your mouth?”

Samuel Greene(Serpent Man): 5/10. He just goes still. Barely moving or breathing. He knows that humans are never more fragile and useless than when they’re babies. Terrified of dropping or otherwise injuring the baby, or worse, making them cry. Richard Pickman(Ghoul): 4/10. Holds baby upside down. The baby thinks this is a fun game, and is absolutely delighted, the parents less so. Gilbert Lake(Reanimated): 2/10. He’s a nice guy, but he’s full of glowing green mad science zombie juice, and that stuff should be kept away from infants because they will try to put it in their mouth. Nyarlathotep(Great Old One): -10,000/10. Do not him anywhere near your house, let alone your kids.

 Meet Henry Pebbleton, team moral compass, devout Catholic, and the stubbornest man to ever live.

Daily Oc Ask: Henry: what’s their role in the story, if they have one?

 Henry’s original concept was basically “Wouldn’t it be weird if a vampire was Catholic?” He started off as just a funny thought experiment, and then as I played around with the concept I was like “Wait a minute. There’s actually a pretty good story here.”   So now Henry is the moral center of the team, the one who clings most stubbornly to hope, the one who pushes his friends to do the right thing.   Becoming a vampire complicates that. A lot. He’s still trying to do the right thing and be a good person, but now he has to wrestle with his nature as a bloodsucking monster who could very easily hurt someone.   In general Henry is one of my favorite character types, what I call the “stubborn optimist”. I want to tell a story about a mans’ relentless determination to do the right thing, even when it’s difficult, painful, or seemingly impossible.  

do you color code your screaming twenties folks?

Oh absolutely yes! I also like to think about the symbolism behind certain colors! Cynthias' main color is pink, with some yellow/gold or white on the side. Pink can symbolize femininity, joy, and romance, so it fits for the youngest, happiest member of the group. Yellow/gold is for joy and wealth, two things she has a lot of, and white is just a good compliment to those other two. Henry’s color is red. I associate red with Henry’s passion and stubbornness. It’s the color of blood and shows up on a lot of heroic characters in fiction, so it fits the moral center of the group. His color scheme also has black, with roughly the same meaning as it has for Susan, and white/silver/light gray, for calmness, clarity, and patience, virtues he develops over the course of the story. Also, it’s a very stereotypical “vampire” color palette, fitting for the horror nerd who actually ends up as one.  Jacob is mostly different shades of brown, with some white and black. For metallic colors, he’s bronze, because it’s a shinier version of brown, and reminds me of those statues that portray Justice as a blindfolded woman holding scales, and gunmetal gray, for cigarette smoke and, well, guns. He’s the physically strongest member of the team, and the most practical and down-to-earth. I want his color scheme to mark him as “in-between” Sam and Henry, more principled than Sam, but more pragmatic than Henry.  Joshua’s main color is orange. Joshua is passionate and energetic, but less intense than Henry. Orange is the color of fire, and makes me think of warmth, happiness, and community. It’s cheerful, but not as wild as pink. Brass is(obviously) the color of brass instruments like the saxophone, and has more practical uses than gold, while still having a similar yellow shine. Joshua is more grounded, but still a dreamer at heart.  Sam is green, partly because I thought it would be cool if the guy with the last name “Greene” actually wore green. For him, green symbolizes knowledge, logic, and calm. It’s also the color of plant life (his archeological expeditions take him to a lot of jungles), snakes (he owns a pet snake), and poison. He’s the most pragmatic and secretive, so the darker shades of green work for this that. He wears glasses on a gold chain, so for him gold symbolizes ancient treasures, very fitting for an archeologist.  Susan is black and purple. Black is for secrets, night, magic, and quiet determination. It’s also the color of photography film, fitting for an investigative reporter. Purple in this case is more like ultraviolet or blacklight, a light we can’t see normally, but can reveal hidden things if you use it the right way, much like the way Susan uses her magic. 

Daily Oc Ask: Henry: What is their occupation?

Henry's a writer! He writes short stories for a pulp fiction magazine called Strange Tales. Most of what he writes is mystery or supernatural horror, with the occasional crime drama or historical romance.

Henry: why did you pick their name? what name do they go by the most? are they ok being called by another name? do they have any nicknames?

Henry's name is a reference to H.P. Lovecraft, the author who invented the cosmic horror genre. I thought it would be neat if my story had a character with the initials H.P. as a fun little nod to the guy. Henry usually introduces himself by his full name, and just generally goes by Henry most of the time. He's not really someone who uses nicknames, and doesn't like it when people try to give him one

Daily Oc Ask: Henry: What's their favorite genre to read/watch?

Henry is a gigantic nerd for anything horror related. He was a very sickly kid who got beat up a lot, so he spent most of his free time (and being the youngest child of a wealthy family, he had a lot) reading. He read a ton of Gothic literature, and mystery, fantasy/fairy tales were also fascinating to him. Dracula by Bram Stoker is his favorite book, and he has an old leatherbound copy that he's kept since he was a little kid.

hi what languages can ur ocs speak

I already mentioned that Cynthia speaks French, German, Spanish, Latin, and Russian, so now I'll do everyone else. Screamin' 20s takes place in the US, so English is almost everybody's first language. Jacob isn't fluent in any other language, but his investigative work takes him into a lot of the poorer immigrant parts of Arkham, so he knows a bit of Spanish and Italian. Susan is more bookish than her brother, and her study of old magical books means that she ends up learning German and Latin. Joshua only speaks English. Henry took French lessons when he was younger and hated every second of it. He's Catholic, so he knows Latin when he sees it, and has memorized a few prayers, but that's about it. Samuel knows a ton of languages. He knows Arabic, Greek (Ancient and Modern), Mandarin Chinese, Ancient Egyptian, Latin, Biblical Hebrew, French, and German. He also knows a few nonhuman languages, such as R'lyehian, Deep One, Ghoulspeech, and Serpentfolk. Most of those languages are spoken by beings that are very different from humans both physically and mentally, so he can read, write, and understand them, but speaking them is either very difficult or physically impossible.

Daily oc ask: Henry: what social media would/do they have?

Screamin' 20s takes place in the 1920s, so none of the characters have social media, but if Henry did... I hate to say it, but Henry would have a twitter account. He's such a stubborn, argumentative person, he'd get into a zillion stupid arguments, and it would definitely make his mental health worse. Once he realizes that, he'd delete his twitter account, and move to tumblr. He's a writer with interests in horror, history, and in general all things spooky, so he'd probably love it here. He probably wouldn't post that often, though. Usually he's too busy writing, or monster hunting

📎☁️🌙 forrrr Henry? Oh! and also answer them for cynthia? I love that name :3

Glad to see that you're curious about my OCs! Okay here we go. Henry

📎paperclip-random fact. Henry owns three cats! A black male with white feet named Poe, a male gray tabby named Stoker, and a female tortoiseshell named Shelley. They love him very much, and often sit on his lap, shoulders, or desk when he's writing. ☁️cloud-soft headcanon. He likes giving his friends food. Whenever they go over to his apartment, he makes a small meal, and whenever he goes over to a friends' place, he brings some sandwiches or candy. He's a pretty good cook, and it's something that helps him relax when he's stressed or has a bad case of writer's block. 🌙moon-greatest wish, and how far they'll go for it. He used to have a pretty big, wealthy, and respectable family, but they gradually got whittled down by the 1918 Spanish Flu, World War One, divorce, irresponsible financial decisions, mental illness, and various scandals until by the time Screamin' 20s starts, he's the only member of the Pebbleton family who's still alive, living in Arkham, and not in a mental hospital or prison. Henry wants his family back. But he knows that's not going to happen. Cynthia 📎paperclip-random fact. She speaks multiple languages! Her education is kinda all over the place, mostly done by private tutors, so she picked up a lot of different skills. She can speak French, German, and Spanish pretty well, and Latin and Russian somewhat decently.

☁️cloud-soft headcanon. She's artistic. She mostly enjoys painting, but plays a few instruments, usually strings or woodwinds, but she's very eager and willing to try others when she gets the chance. Sometimes she and Joshua practice together, or improvise little pieces when they're bored. 🌙moon-greatest wish, and how far they'll go for it. She wants to do something great. Something amazing, some brilliant feat of art or science or diplomacy that will have people think of her as someone impressive in her own right, not just "the Blake heiress". Problem is, she has no idea what that would be. But she's determined to find out.