hi! tell me about your ocs :D

ok

[Image ID: a reference sheet for a character named Phyllis Smith. there are two drawings of her in a floating position, showing different outfits. she has pale skin and wavy orange hair in a cartoony style. in the first drawing, she's wearing a crop top sweater, zebra-print pants, and a fanny pack. in the second, she's wearing a t-shirt that reads, "Your waifu wouldn't love you if she was real.", jeans, and an over-the-shoulder Jellycat egg bag. there is text between the drawings that reads, "outfits for inspiration. you can do others though! in general, e likes casual clothing, zebra print, & runners. it dislikes necklaces & skirts". end ID]

this is Phyllis Smith!!! our beloved, our utter favourite, e's completely spoiled. it's in its third year of university, majoring in ecology & biodiversity, it's a genderqueer lesbian who uses she/her, it/its, and e/em pronouns, and it's twins with Martin Smith. we give each of our OCs a core concept, something we can always return to when developing them, and for Phyllis, her core concept is that she's afraid she's wasting her youth. she's 23 and completely terrified that she's going to grow up without noticing, that she'll wake up one day and realize that she wasn't young enough while she was young. this manifests in em being kinda super fucking reckless, skipping class to party or go barhopping, not really having a sense of foresight, etc. while she's not particularly responsible with her own life, she's always trying to get her loved ones to be more responsible. this is a point of contention with Martin, who doesn't really want her "babying" him. she can't help it; she's scared that something horrible will happen to someone she loves because she wasn't there to prevent it. she has a deep anxiety in that she's not truly capable of caring for others, an anxiety which she makes up for by completely smothering people

it enjoys birdwatching, pranks, and partying. it eats corn chips by the bag despite not particularly liking them, just because it's habit at this point. e's schizophrenic, because we moved on from projecting on Opal and project on Phyllis now. e doesn't know this though, and really has no idea what's happening. she's a Blaseball fan, loving the Houston Spies, and really enjoys Fallout 4. e has a fur allergy and never, ever brings an epipen. we love it so, so much

[Image ID: a drawing of a character named Martin Smith, traced over a meme image. he has brown skin, curly brown hair with green highlights, a green beanie, and a gray sweater, and he's sitting with his knees pulled close to his chest. he's sitting in a bathroom surrounded by hundreds of slices of bread. end ID]

for some reason this is the only art of Martin i can find that i'm happy with!!! Martin Smith goes by Morty, he's a music/music theory major {we're still working out the details of like, classes and majors and stuff}, and he completely hates his major. Morty's core thing is that he just.. cares too little. he used to care more, but at one point he just gave up. why bother? he's been in his twin Phyllis' shadow his entire life, and even though she does her best to mitigate that, even now as adults he feels unimportant. forcing himself into a major he hates didn't get his mother to pay more attention to him, and he's scared that since it's his third year it's too late to do anything else. Martin's fucking tired, that's what it is. he's tired of being the side character, he's tired of worrying about his future, he's tired of trying to figure out who he is. he loves his sister, yeah, but sometimes being with her is fucking exhausting, and Zachary is his solace. i'll get more into the relationships later, but know that Zachary is what's getting Morty to finally confront some internalized homophobia and gender feelings

Martin doesn't care, but that doesn't make the anxiety stop. he puts up a front of sorts, of this chill, unbothered guy. you'll never see him not smiling, you'll never catch him in an anxiety attack. he's mastered the art of turning conversations away from himself, and being in the background {unfortunately} comes easy to him. he's a geek, he likes cosplay, he's huge into D&D and getting more into Star Trek. he fucking hates zebra print, he rewrites news articles as a hobby, he's learning how to cross-stitch, he's too anxious to bring up to his psych that he needs his anxiety meds upped, he's surprisingly energetic for how chill he seems. Morty doesn't know who he is. he doesn't know if he cares anymore. Morty's just getting by, Morty'll be alright, he just has to remember that

[Image ID: a digital painting in an experimental style, depicting a headshot of a character named Zachary Seth. he has brown skin, dark brown hair in an afro, brown eyes, and heavy eyebags. he's looking into the top right of the painting and looks disinterested. end ID]

gods i really need to redo the references for all of the characters, the only one i'm happy with is Phyllis'. introducing Zachary Seth, pronouns he/they, the character whose creation pretty much turned this project from a simple experiment to a years-long idea that quite literally is the reason why we're in the university we're in now, among other things. he's an art major, he works at a coffee shop, he's stressed as hell, and he's super, SUPER fucking cool. their core concept is that they're very, very uneasy with the idea of being perceived badly. scared, even, though they'd never, ever use that word. everything that Zachary does is to project this idea of a guy who's put-together, intelligent, clearly the best choice for anything. he wants, needs people to think of him and immediately associate him with success. not stardom, no, but success. because of this, they don't swear, they don't let their friends nickname them, they even go to the extent of keeping tabs on their phone open to various Wikipedia articles and literature pages so anyone who might steal their phone thinks they're intelligent. fine, yes, it's an obsession, but don't let him hear you calling it that again. he heard that people gravitate towards laidback people, so he started yoga and meditating and binaural beats and anything to help him relax, and that didn't work so he took classes on body language so he can pretend he's not stressed

he doesn't tend to realize how pretentious he can come off, he wears a puffy rainbow jacket EVERYWHERE, he needs to prove himself to his dying father, he's trying to balance his freedom with responsibility. he does pottery, he wants to look into glassblowing. he hates Opal with a burning passion and he can't articulate why. Martin makes him feel soft inside and that (scares? (worries? (comforts?))) makes him feel weird so he doesn't think about that. he keeps an epipen with him at all times, not because he has any allergies, but because Phyllis does and she never bothers. he'd rather die than lose his friends. he doesn't think about death much. he's perfect. he's burning the candle at both ends and he's running out of wick

[Image ID: a digital bust portrait of a character named Opal Jeanne. she's looking to the left and has pale skin covered in freckles, short brown hair, hazel eyes, and a double chin. she's wearing a gray beanie and a yellow sweatshirt. end ID]

GODS ALL OF HER ART IS SO OLD AND BAD this is Opal Jeanne. she was the very, very first character we created for this project, back in January 2017 {.... holy fucking shit it's been 6 years}. she was a definite self-insert at the time, and while we've changed and we project on her less and she's been developed in different ways, she definitely still shows that. they're an art major, they work at a coffee shop.. that sounds a little familiar. she fucking hates Zachary. hates him. she could probably figure out why if she thought about it but she doesn't want to waste any energy on that damned man. she hates him. her core concept is that she needs to be noticed. she doesn't even need to be appreciated, she just needs to be noticed. someone needs to remember her, put her name to a face, know that she is and was and is and that she's there, she exists, she's right here and she made an impact, however small. they grew up with rich but emotionally neglectful parents, and they only started getting attention once they picked up art and proved to be a prodigy. she constantly competed with her sibling growing up for the attention of their parents; she doesn't understand how people can be close with their families. when she moved out for university she realized how soul-crushingly lonely she was, and now she surrounds herself with everyone she can, for better or for worse. she needs to win, she needs to be important

they love Broadway, and really just musicals in general. they draw and they sculpt, and they're damn good at both. she wears shirts you'd see on Pinterest, super cheesy ones. they're still learning how basic social interaction works. they want a tattoo of Icarus. she has a horrible sense of time, she can't work with cloth to save her life, she's always cheery to the point it's weird, she sings badly on purpose just to get eyes on her because bad publicity it still publicity

[Image ID: a drawing made in a bible with markers, depicting Zachary resting his hand on Martin's shoulder and looking concerned. Martin looks uncomfortable and is looking away. he's saying, "Zachary... i need to tell you something." end ID]

i still like this doodle so it gets to go here!!!

Phyllis and Martin are twins. Phyllis is older, which she lords over him. they've been incredibly close their entire lives, being best friends and anchors for each other. despite that, their mother always did seem to prefer Phyllis, and their classmates found Phyllis way less anxious and way easier to talk to, and over time Martin kind of got pushed into her shadow. they both noticed this, and Phyllis, to its credit, has always been trying to fix this. e points out Morty's contributions, refusing to come to events unless Morty can come too, trying to make him feel better about himself. and the sentiment is appreciated, really, it is. it's just.. no amount of that can make up for how unwanted Morty feels at times. and having one person in his corner is good, but it's only one person. they're adults now, in their third year of university, living on campus. Phyllis encouraged Morty to make friends, to put himself out there. they made sure to get separate rooms so they can try and be their own people more {they spend all their time over at the other's place anyway}. Morty doesn't mean to, but yeah, fine, he does kind of resent Phyllis for this. it's not her fault, he knows, he knows that. but he's never been good with his emotions, and his emotions are rarely good to him. sometimes, it's just, Phyllis smothers, and then she doesn't do enough, and she needs help but only cares about getting him help and it hurts to see her ignoring her own needs like that. they can feel their relationship growing more strained but they're both too scared to do anything, say anything, even imply anything about it. so they keep going as they always does, and they hope it won't ever boil over {it does. trust us, it does}

Phyllis and Martin both latched onto Zachary practically the moment they met him. the three of them are thick as thieves, closer friends than you'll ever find. Zachary doesn't like to ever admit it, even to himself, but look, he doesn't really have any other friends. and these two are so good to him, he's content to just spend time in their company. they have fun. they make him feel like he's someone other than a background character or a sidekick. in this clique, he's in charge. he's happy with that, and they're happy with that. he feels that with them, he's not just being dragged around anymore; he takes care to make sure they don't feel like sidekicks either. notably, Martin is closer to Zachary than Phyllis is, but this doesn't bother any of them. Martin likes Zachary. he makes him comfortable. Zachary makes him feel seen for.. well, for Martin. for Morty. not for Phyllis' brother, not for the other Smith kid. they go out for coffee and Zachary lets Martin order first. they take the bus and Zachary lets Martin choose where they sit. now, both Martin and Zachary have some heavy internalized homophobia going on. slightly different flavours, but in the end, it's pretty much the same result. they're friends with benefits, something they never say a word about, to each other or anyone else. they fall asleep on each other a lot and wake up more rested than they usually feel. neither of them look into it too much

Zachary and Opal are rivals, nemeses. they're in most of the same classes and they're competing for who's top of the class. they're coworkers, and it's always one of them who's employee of the month. their rooms are literally right across from each other, it's kind of comedic. they're always competing, trying to out-do each other. Zachary sees Opal as a threat to his independence and freedom, to this ideal image he's trying to project. he can't be perfect if there's someone always taking his victories from him. Opal does find their rivalry fun at times, but he reminds her of her sibling, so she resents him for that. why does Zachary get to be so perfect, when she's still learning how to be a proper person? why does Opal get to win everything, when she already grew up rich and happy anyway?

Phyllis and Opal are in love. there's no other way to put it. they're in love. they're dating, but Phyllis insists on it being secret, in case Zachary finds out and hates her for it and she loses her two best friends {he wouldn't do that. he wouldn't throw her out like that. she's one of his best friends, he wouldn't do that. but she's scared. she's really, really scared}. it started as a "know thy enemy" sort of mission. Opal and Zachary's rivalry was still blooming, and Phyllis figured she would get some insider details, to help out. but they struck it off. they're comfortable talking to each other. they compared their experiences with their parents, their perfect futures, how they both were asshole kids at times. they've got a good thing going

in person, Opal and Martin don't really feel much of anything towards each other. vague dislike, maybe, but neither of them have their hearts in it. Martin knows that she makes Zachary upset. Opal knows that he makes Zachary really happy. that's about it. online, though, they're close friends, though neither of them have connected the dots and realized who the other is yet. this is still a relationship we need to develop further, but they're friends, they like each other, they just don't really realize it yet

this post is really long so i'm gonna show you art we did of Ingrid Elkins, Opal's best friend, that we still like and leave it at that. her fashion is incredible

[Image ID: a drawing of a character named Ingrid Elkins tagging a full-length mirror selfie, with her phone in front of her face and her other hand at her side. she has dark brown skin, blue hair in a bun, an eyebrow piercing, and a curvy figure. she's wearing a crop top with a moon symbol on it, a long blue skirt with a moon and stars pattern on it, tie-dye flip-flops, and moon and star earrings. her nails are painted blue and her phone is pale pink. end ID]

Ingrid needs so much more development than she has right now, but it's definitely better than it used to be. her fashion sense is our favourite out of all the characters honestly. she's just very fun to draw

if you read this far you get a gold sticker, thank you for indulging us

woo happy birthday!!!

WOOO THANK YOU SO MUCH!