Characters The OC Revolution | NEW! 4Q 2024 Challenge: OCs Inside Out (9/27, #1856, p. 75)

Hi again, everyone, and thanks so much for the discussion!

@Thumper09 that is a good question and one I have to consider. I think there could definitely be a way of having the winners choose challenge themes for the next year; the only thing is that top four may sometimes be difficult to swing just because of low turnout sometimes. But it definitely sounds like it could be at least worth trying, so I’ll keep that in mind. Thanks again!

And now, just letting you all know that there is one week left in the voting round for the current challenge (eligible stories listed here). So far no votes have come in; can we get any before the voting deadline on June 1?

 

Hi again, everyone! There are three days to go in our voting period, with votes due June 1, and still no votes have come in. If you can, please do send in a vote by that date, and let’s see how things shake out!

 

And our last voting day has arrived, people! Please get your votes in by 11:59 pm (23:59) PST today, June 1. We’ve already gotten a few (thanks so much); any more to come in the next 20 or so hours?

 

Hey,

I know I haven't been around a lot recently, but I was just wondering if we have a new OC challenge?

Oh, and a question for everyone...

Like all good characters, your OC has a musical track that plays every time they appear.

What song is it, and why is it that particular song?

 

Ack! I’m really sorry about this—it completely slipped my mind due to this turning out to be a really hectic month for me in RL. There is no new OC challenge yet, but once I double check and collate the votes from the last one, I’ll have the winner choose it as usual. If you give me just a bit I get that taken care of right away, OK? Really sorry about that; this thread and its awesome writers deserve better than for me to neglect you like this!

And thanks so much for your awesome discussion question!

 

OK, everyone, it’s me again, your friendly-neighborhood-somewhat-absentee OC Sock! @Kit' s reminder above got me realizing that voting for our last challenge is now closed, and, by a small margin, we do have a winner:

Budding Friendship by @Theodore Hawkwood​

Congratulations on your win, Theodore! I’ll be in touch with you shortly by PM so you can send me your idea for the next challenge. And as always, a huge thank you and well done to both our participants for awesome work!

A quick update on the voting question: as of now, my plan is to not hold voting for any more OC thread challenges this year, and instead to hold a big cumulative vote of all the year’s stories at the end of this year or beginning of next. As to how or whether it will still be possible for winners to help choose the best challenges, I’m still working on that, but I’ll continue to keep you posted. As always, please let me know if you’ve got questions or concerns. Thanks so much for bearing with me on all this!

 

Congrats @Theodore Hawkwood! A well deserved win for an amazing story

Please don't stress. Life gets in the way. I was just surprised because I haven't been around (because, like you, DRL got in the way) when I posted chapter 3 of Little Fish last night (so far beyond the end of the challenge it isn't funny!) and I figured until I actually checked the thread that I just hadn't been pinged because sometimes the Tapatalk app is a little behind. You do such an amazing and stellar job for our community, and it was certainly never my intention to make you feel bad.

 

For Ben Cozine the song is When the Going Get's Tough by Billy Ocean. The IRL reason is because I was watching clips from The Jewel of the Nile when I was creating Ben as a character and this song seemed to just describe him.

 

My song at the moment for Kithera is The Next Right Thing (from the Frozen 2 soundtrack) - works for her in both my unpublished long, long, long fit and for the scene I'm working on for Snips and Snails.

 

Congratulations, @Theodore Hawkwood !

Most of my stories wind up with Spotify playlists hundreds of songs long (look.... ) but it occurred to me that I haven't got theme music for the last few OC appearances except one. (Zymantas, of course, has "California Dreamin'" by the Mamas and Papas ) So of course that question needed an answer for all the other OC's that had a starring role in my 2023 Kessel Run, because reasons.

Ryllis - Tanglewood Rhyme by Nik Davies (it's a very calming song and fits her vibes)
Tempest Satu - Death of Me by Daughtry (her life is a hectic mess with a hard-to-handle set of Force abilities and bonus Inquisitors)
Fiora Abeluria - Square Pegs by Kelsea Ballerini (eccentricity for the win!)
Talu - Little Wonders by Rob Thomas (possibly where the phrase "the small hours" got into my brain to begin with, and it has that poignant but hopeful feeling that I was definitely trying for)

 

For my OC Ker Zomorian it is the Mission Impossible theme
OC Tim Kirwin has the James Bond theme
My OC Rian Solma has "Sure he is a cat" from the Dutch group 'The Cats'

 

I'm another one who has, um, several playlists for my stories, characters, and writing. Almost all of my main OCs have what I consider to be a primary theme song, and the ones that don't are just waiting on the right song to come along. Here are a few:

Darin: "Not a Day Goes By" by Lonestar. It's a tender, sentimental song about the people he's missing in his life.
Quiver: "There's One in Every Crowd" by Montgomery Gentry. It's just him. Totally. Sometimes verbatim.
CC: "Suds in the Bucket" by Sara Evans. The upbeat, carefree, who-cares-what-others-think vibe suits her.
Mackin: "Family Man" by Craig Campbell. Like the song, a lot of what Mack does is for his family back home.
Pellicer: "Another Side" by Sawyer Brown. The song is about a US Civil War soldier who has friends on both sides and wants a third option. It matches well with Pellicer, who defected from the Imperials but doesn't necessarily think the Rebellion is the best solution either and wants a third option.
Chopper: "Danger Zone" by Kenny Loggins. Because arrogant fighter pilot.

 

Any update on a new challenge? Or is it better to wait for the Olympics to be finished?

 

<random thing>
I love both of the Inside Out movies, and I've been having fun lately thinking about which of the emotions would be the "leader" in the control room for some of my different OCs.
That is all.
</random thing>

 

Ooo! Who would be leader for different characters... This is hard but a great question, thanks @Thumper09

Kithera: Joy and then anxiety

Kirsh: Embarrassment and Joy

Taeyn/Del: Shame (the emotion they left out of the movie because it's too heavy), anger

Namia: Fear, Joy

Zallie: Joy

Estra: Anger

Nicco: Anxiety

 

@Findswoman , I recommend seeing #2 if you can. In addition to the psychological topics, which are very fascinating and hit a little too close to home sometimes (hello, Anxiety!), I thought the storytelling was excellent.

For two of mine, Darin would probably have Sadness and Anxiety as co-leaders, though Fear gets a workout too depending on what he's doing.

Quiver would definitely have Joy. Long ago his versions of Anger, Sadness, and Anxiety probably said, "Yeah, we'll be in the other room playing video games, call us if you need us." Then when something Very Bad happens and those three are finally called in, they'd look at each other and be like, "We have no idea how to even work this console," and they'd just start mashing random buttons and causing issues.

 

That`s a fun idea. Thinking about my main characters... Given what we see in the movies there appears to be a leader, and a second in command all things considered.

Ulrika Grau: Joy, with Anger as Second in Command, Ulrika just ozzes confidence and optimism, certainly to a fault, getting into all sorts of sticky stituations (just look at her and Elena's earliest misadventure). She is also kind of a hothead and can get riled up especially if her buttons are pushed, and ask Ilona Malek how venegful Ulrika can be... Even later growing up and becoming more responsible I think at her core Ulrika still resembles her younger self, just how being able to keep her enthusiasm and anger in check.

Elena Kyr: Envy with first Anxiety, now Joy as Second in Command. Elena is a transwoman, and as a transwoman she will never not be jealous of Cis people, that`s just how these things are (both with me being one in RL and pretty much every Transperson I know). That also made her very anxious about her future, especially her fears about how her family would react to it. Befriending and getting together with Ulrika as well as having her transitions and she became more content, eventually replacing Axiety with Joy as second, yet remained envious, including about Ulrika's various affairs over the years (they had agreed to an open relationship and Elena had some affiars too TBF but she mostly just did it to make Ulrika jealous) eventually demanding them staying true to each other when they finally married (which they did).

Ilona Malek: Disgust with Anger as Second in Command (or maybe the other way around). Ilona might try to pretend being a responsible adult, and she certainly is one in many respects, but she is also very judgmental of other people often having something to complain about them. Now granted she lives on Eriadu and so her primary disgust and anger are directed at her worlds myriad of problems, so actually somewhat justified, yet Ilona sometimes went too far and could become outright cruel and apply impossibly high moral standarts to people (like if you ever did one horrible thing you sure are truly a rotten person and deserve to spent your life in prison). Something she eventually matured out of, becoming far more sympathetic and mercyful to people and their faults. Still her Disgust and Anger at the many injustices of the Galaxy pushed her to become President and have her stay active as an ambassador even after her terms in office where over.

Mira Grau: Sadness with Joy (temporarily Fear) as Second in Command, Mira wishes she was as confident and happy go lucky as her aunt Ulrika. And some of that certainly is there, hence why Joy, usually, is her second. Yet Mira is an empath who feels symapthy even for her enemies, the big thing nearly breaking her being confronted with the sheer number of enemy casualties her escape from the core caused. Afterwards her sadness kind of becomes too strong, keeping her depressed for a while and even later have her decide to try and adopt a completly non leathal fighting style to avoid having ever to deal with the guilt and sadness again, something that in the harsh reality of the Galaxy causes a disaster that nearly gets her killed. Yet she eventually masters her sadness instead of being mastered by it, fighting to protect her friends and to free the Galaxy from the Sith, but still trying to limit casualties and show mercy, within reason rather than blindly.

The Great Khan: (Technically not an OC, but given what she went through she changed quite a bit as a person) Fear, with Nostalgia as Second in Command. Back when she was a Jedi I would say Callista had Joy as her leading emotion, not sure who was second then (maybe Ennui, being a Jedi and all). Though after her run in with Abeloth Fear is now in control in Callistas mind, the fear of what will happen to the Galaxy if Abeloth isn't stopped, a very reasonable and precedented fear. It drives all her actions, including the ones of questionable morality like forming the Khanate and effectivley becoming a dictator. Yet in her heart, Callista has a strong wish and nostalgia for the past, for the Altisian Jedi, for the times when things where easier, when she didn't have to do these morally questionable things to protect the Galaxy, which is why I consider Nostalgia her second in command.


BTW maybe rewriting a dramatic scene with your OCs from the perspective of the Mind Crew could be an idea for the next, or a later challenge?

 

How dee doo, OCedarians! Our new challenge is here at last! I give you...

3Q 2024 Challenge: Music

​

This challenge is inspired by the wonderful discussion begun by @Kit' right here, and it is pretty simple:

1. Write an OC-centered story insired by the song or piece of music of your choice.
2. If the piece of music has words, a phrase from the lyrics of the song must be incorporated into the text of the story.
3. If the piece is purely instrumental and does not have words, at least one meaningful word or phrase from the title of the piece must be incorporated into the text of the story. (E.g., for “Symphony no. 5 in C Minor” you could use “Symphony”; for “Piano Sonata no. 14 in C-Sharp Minor (Moonlight)” you could use “Piano,” “Sonata,” “Moonlight,” or any combination thereof; for “Journey into the Star Cluster” you could use “Journey,” “Star,” “Cluster,” “Star Cluster,” or, again, any combination of the title’s important words.)

And that is very literally it! As usual, stories are due in eight (8) weeks, on September 26 at 11:59 pm (23:59) PST. TOS applies, as always, and that goes for the music you choose as well. Feel free to ask qestions about the prompt at any time, and happy writing!

Index
Diversions by Thumper09 (out of competition)
Shadows on the Water's Edge by Kit'
In Our Eyes by Theodore Hawkwood

 

Sign me up for this one.

 

I just posted my OC Challenge response, though it doesn't need to go in the voting pool. I have some existing OCs I'm trying to develop more for a different project, and the best way for me to flesh them out is to throw them in stories and see what they do, so this was very helpful.

Story: Diversions