OC/sona roster
Hello and welcome! Let me introduce you to the sonas I use to smooch my blorbos. I call them sonas because in my mind, the hierarchy of least to most you in self-shipping terms goes like this:
oc → sona → self-insert → using first person when talking about the selfship
I "self-ship" mostly for fun, so I prefer my self-ships a bit distanced from my real self and don't personally see them as me, but as vessels. As a result, I take liberties with their interests, occupations, personality, behavior, aesthetic choices, etc... I kind of treat them like TTRPG characters rather than extensions of me, and never refer to them with first-person pronouns, much as I like to project onto them. A lot of them is still taken from stuff I identify with, of course, but by virtue of being in a different world / having a different upbringing, I assume that version of me would be quite different from the me I am — thus, not as me as a "self-insert" would be. So, sona!
Some of these sonas end up becoming OCs or start as OCs from the get go, barely resembling me in any way besides my body type + the way my bangs fall. (That part's an exercise in positive self-image—the indulgence in self-shipping is making my blorbos attracted to a character who looks even vaguely like me.) But even when they stay solidly in the "sona" category, I usually have them make different decisions or feel different things, to serve what I want to see in the story/relationship.
I usually am motivated make a sona/OC when I don't see any existing characters I can project onto who I want to ship with my blorbo... it's a last resort almost, but a fun one! So the reason for these guys existing is half-"I want to smooch blorbo" and half-"I want to see this blorbo engaged in this particular dynamic/with a particular kind of person." An indulgence and a narrative curiosity both. It's fun!
💍 oc/sona: very much an OC
💍 created: january 2022
💍 about emelina: the youngest daughter and successor to a jeweler family business in the encanto. likes it just fine and takes her role seriously. hardworking and hard to get close to, but sweet and quietly playful if you make it past her polite outer shell.
💍 made to ship with: camilo
💍 ship tag: girl idk i just call them camiemi.
💍 tropes & tags: childhood friends to lovers, age gap, miscommunication
💍 comparable ship: claude & byleth from fe3h
💍 lore: she and the madrigal cousins are family friends, and she grows up more with them than her much older siblings. cami’s loved her from day one, and she’s always had a soft spot for the kid, but things get complicated as they get older and closer, and ema has to deal with what feels like a moral dilemma.
commentary on ema: i know i wanted to make an onee-san type figure, but surprised myself making her so close to the family... she's much calmer and more stoic than i am, and is not as clear about what goals she has for her life, which is really fun to play with. she seems a lot more mature for her age, but she's still a bit of a mess on the inside!
commentary on camiemi: i have no problem shipping "problematic" stuff but i thought ema would struggle irl with liking someone she's always seen as a little brother. i gave them both relationships outside of each other for the drama, but i'm a sucker for an "it always had to be you" sort of storyline. i've never had a childhood friend stay close into adulthood, so it's been a fun thought exercise to imagine how camiemi's dynamic changes over time!
💝 oc/sona: very much an OC as well... i could not be her
💝 created: january 2021
💝 about milly: born and raised in hearthome city’s contest culture, she gave it up to start her trainer journey! eventually became the fairy type gym leader of chiffrou city in the (extremely made up) lyros region. also a well-loved travel & beauty vlogger. extremely genki.
💝 made to ship with: piers
💝 ship tag: spotlightshipping / pimi / nzrs (ship playlist)
💝 tropes & tags: friends to lovers, slow burn, mutual pining, stupid adults not talking about their feelings until the last minute
💝 comparable ship: ben & leslie from parks and recreation
💝 lore: milly partners with galar’s tourism department to do videos on the different cities, and meets with piers at the opening event for the galarian star tournament. he joins her for the first spikemuth video and they hit it off, leading to them making excuses to work together more… the rest is history.
commentary on milly: i took a few too many creative liberties in designing a gym leader sona and ended up making her LOL. she's SO much fun!!! i have fun leaning into being exciteable / social / peppy when i make stuff with her in it. she cares a lot, and i think that helps balance her chaotic energy—she knows how to adapt to different personalities, and has a bit more depth than i originally designed her with.
commentary on pimi: i think fluffy one + spikey one is a dynamic i will never abandon. i wanted to make a character who you'd expect to be at complete odds with piers but surprisingly gets along with him well. also despite milly's outgoing personality, she's just as shy as he is when it comes to feelings... i think the mutual pining is so much fun lol
🍎 oc/sona: staunchly in the OC category
🍎 created: may 2022
🍎 about mia: lives her whole life in portorosso before marrying her childhood sweetheart and moving with him to genoa, where she pursues her own studies. following the crumbling of their marriage, she returns to her hometown to start a school.
🍎 made to ship with: alberto
🍎 ship tag: albemia, or their emoji key (🐬🍎)
🍎 tropes & tags: age gap, straight shota, student/teacher, codependency, interspecies?
🍎 comparable ship: none as far as i know. if you've watched "the english teacher" then it's kind of like that
🍎 lore: alberto starts going to school now that he lives with massimo, but still struggles with his abandonment issues and is lonely without his friends/whenever massimo leaves him to go on more dangerous fishing trips. he spends more and more time at the school on his alone days, keeping his (equally lonely) teacher company.
commentary on mia: I WANTED HER TO BE SO SAD. she becomes a schoolteacher to cope with her infertility, hoping to find an outlet for her desire for motherhood. it was important to me that she be kind and gentle naturally, very morally upright y'know, so as to make her involvement with alberto that much more jarring.
commentary on albemia: i have actually never drawn them together, but they're such a fun little thought experiment because of how fucked up it would be. alberto relishes in having someone's undivided attention, in having a mother figure who's always there... they're sweet with each other, but there's no denying the fact that the relationship itself is twisted.
👒 oc/sona: sona getting into OC territory... it's only a matter of time
👒 created: april 2020
👒 about mei: a dedicated resident representative who cares about each of her co-islanders' well-being. she finds a lot of meaning in her role on the island – so much so that not much is known about her life before everbloom.
👒 made to ship with: kidd
👒 ship tag: i don't know. they don't really have combinable names... kiddmei i guess
👒 tropes & tags: long-distance communication, crushes, friends to lovers, interspecies
👒 comparable ship: willow & hunter from the owl house
👒 lore: kidd and mei are virtual pen pals before they are neighbors, but it's not long after they meet in real life that they realize that. it's smooth sailing transitioning from email friends to irl ones, but uh oh. feelings!
commentary on mei: for a very long time mei was just a vessel but as everbloom's lore expanded, i've started thinking about her as her own person. of my sonas/OCs on this page, mei is the most Y/N out of all of them, like the earnest, normal fem protagonist of a popular webtoon. there's nothing wrong with that, but i'm excited to develop her more!
commentary on kiddmei: i have five smugs on my island rn so i know all about dialogue repetition, but kidd still manages to come off as the shyest and cutest one, who feels most comfortable around mei. i want them to have a quiet, easy romance, transitioning easily from friends to lovers, like it's as natural as breathing.
🍇 oc/sona: OC - honestly just a derivative of emelina (hence the name), because i modeled my pokemon violet player character after her LOL but personality-wise they are quite different!
🍇 created: september 2023
🍇 about lina: a city girl prior to moving to paldea, she's adventurous, resourceful, and confident in an understated way. very well-adjusted as far as youths go, but sometimes she forgets that not everyone is like her.
🍇 made to ship with: kieran (pokemon sv dlc)
🍇 ship tag: linaran or their emoji key (🍇🫐)
🍇 tropes & tags: teenagers fucking!, miscommunication, friends with benefits (to lina), friendship breakup, obsession/yandere
🍇 comparable ship: N/A (i have to think about this...)
🍇 lore: lina and kieran get close doing their project together in kitakami. (maybe a bit too close...?) kieran assigns way more meaning to their intimate encounters than lina intended, and feels extra betrayed by the events of the game when he realizes how cavalier she was about the whole thing. it's messy, it's juvenile, and lina just wants her friend back.
commentary on lina: she is so, so, so city girl... she has that kind of quiet self-assuredness kids who grow up in a bustling city have. i like that despite her "worldliness," she's still a self-centered teen and kind of an idiot about predicting kieran's responses. to her it's out of left field, but like, of course the virgin boy caught feelings for his first kiss. what did you expect girl
commentary on linaran: i wanted them to be very different from each other! the contrast makes them feel that the other is very new and exciting (almost exotic?), and the fact that they can connect is doubly satisfactory to them because of the contrast. but eventually that difference comes to a head and drives the miscommunication storyline. i want them to both be at fault for how things play out, even if kieran is arguably worse about it. teenagers are so funny
💗 oc/sona: sona. she doesn't have a name bc i imagine she'd just have my given name... this is a first as far as my selfships go...
💗 created: august 2023
💗 about m: born and raised in new york; goes to high school at eastman high with april and the turts. draws comics for the school paper and has a modest following of other teens on her artstagram. terminally online and opinionated.
💗 made to ship with: donnie (mutant mayhem)
💗 ship tag: i just use emojis for them lmfao. they're 💜💗
💗 tropes & tags: teen romance, endless banter, friends to lovers, interspecies
💗 comparable ship: N/A (not sure yet!)
💗 lore: they get seated next to each other in class come the start of the turtles' first official school year and start talking when donnie spots her notebook covered in doodles. they're fast friends due to similar interests and start spending a lot of time together :)
commentary on m: she's just me if i grew up in nyc LOL i think she's the closest to a "self-insert" i have – a lot of her is based on the kind of bitch i was in high school, with a bit of current me sprinkled in – but still ultimately a sona. it's kind of hard to imagine myself a high schooler in the year of our lord 2023/2024, but i'm doing my best.
commentary on 💜💗: it's been so much fun revisiting the embarrassing annoying unrefined cringe romance only high schoolers can have. the lack of boundaries, the unmanageable feelings... love it! i like that donnie's characterization in mume is "weeb geek and cocky about it" bc it reminds me of people i knew in high school too... it's very natural for me to draw interactions between donnie and m as a result. i think they're a good pair.
🔖 oc/sona: OC
🔖 created: december 2023
🔖 about mona: goes to art school in new york and part-times at a kinokuniya-type bookstore. friendlier and better-adjusted than she thinks she is. a child of immigrants, she puts a lot of pressure on herself to live up to what she thinks her parents deserve.
🔖 made to ship with: leo (rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles)
🔖 ship tag: idk they're so new! i think lemon is kind of cute...
🔖 tropes & tags: friends to lovers, slow burn, interspecies, pining
🔖 comparable ship: jake peralta & amy santiago from b99 i'm not sure, actually?
🔖 lore: leo, wanting to learn japanese after meeting karai, goes to the bookstore mona works at to find japanese comics. over a series of visits and recommendations, they become employee-customer friends and a comic book club of two. after the krang, they finally become out-of-bookstore friends and get closer.
commentary on mona: she started out as a corporate girlie and now i've just made her a girl who is (checks notes) doing her best. LMAO. it was important for me to make someone who could be leo's friend first and foremost, and not an immediate romantic interest. also she's a little shy but very sincere, and has lots of different interests!! i like her.
commentary on lemon: i wanted to explore leo's insecurities about being nothing without his family. mona doesn't see leo in the context of his family for a very long time, and i think the fact that she is so easy to like him even on his own bodies him. it's also impt to me that she's also totally separate from his family and the non-normal events of his life, so she's kind of a reprieve when being a mutant vigilante gets exhausting!
📚 oc/sona: sona... she has no name yet, but i worry i will end up giving her my actual name like with my mume sona (clenching every muscle in my body)
📚 created: january 2024 (she is SO new)
📚 about M: an international student at eastlaird in the same year as april. lives her life according to meticulously designed plans. actually v homesick and lonely, but busies herself with happy college experiences to convince herself/the world that she has her shit together.
📚 made to ship with: donnie (rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles)
📚 ship tag: god who knows. i think i'm just going to go with emojis 📚🟪
📚 tropes & tags: interspecies, friends to lovers, two nerds
📚 comparable ship: TBD
📚 lore: she encounters donnie on campus at eastlaird at the library, and after a few other awkward encounters – she's never met a mutant before, and donnie is always in embarrassing situations when she runs into him – they get acquainted through april. they're fast friends once they realize the other is nothing to be nervous about!
commentary on M: i don't usually like to have more than one chara per franchise to self-ship with but three separate people told me rise!donnie and i would be a good fit so (throws hands in the air) what the hell was i supposed to do with that. like my mume donnie sona, M looks similarly to me at a certain age (specifically college)... and probably acts a lot like her too!
commentary on whatever the fuck their ship is: i just think they would vibe intellectually, or have really good conversations and both be the type to find that sexy in a partner lmfao. M is the humanities to donnie's science guy schtick, so they butt heads (affectionate) a lot but also help each other see things a different way. every tech bro needs his art hoe or something
✴️ oc/sona: OC
✴️ created: june 2023
✴️ about ina: hero nickname "eensy weensy," ina was bitten by a radioactive spider and has been balancing fighting crime with her studies + part time daycare/preschool job. she's well-suited to her major (early childhood education), and talks to villains with her Teacher Voice sometimes.
✴️ made to ship with: like, an alternate universe divorced dad peter B. parker (non-spidey)
✴️ ship tag: perina i guess!
✴️ tropes & tags: age gap, tooth-rotting fluff, single parent x teacher(-ish)
✴️ comparable ship: sadly i don't know any divorced dad ships
✴️ lore: peter drops off mayday at the daycare ina works at and ina befriends him since her shift is usually at that time. a few run-ins outside the daycare and many good conversations later, these two idiots develop feelings.
commentary on ina: she's just a nice girl! she puts the stickers her kids give her on her costume. she's much more put-together than i can ever hope to be, but i want her to still not be immune to (seemingly impossible) older man crush. i know she and ramona have the same hair... sigh.
commentary on perina: i'm... i don't know if this counts as OC/canon because the canon character is also an AU/made up version of the character, which is common in comic book media, but whatever LOL. i really like the dynamic of confident, sure of herself younger girl x babygirl mess of an older man. i honestly haven't given them too much thought since i designed ina, but i'm sure i'll do something with them someday.