OOC - Introduction and a 'Get to Know You' question

Greetings!

Some of you have seen me with characters in several stories, and I've had the pleasure of the interactions. So, I thought it was a good idea to finally give a brief background on myself (hopefully, I won't be too boring to 'listen' to), and to put out a question that I've done before.

I can actually blame my mother for my need to write. First, she was a First Generation Star Trek fan, watching the original series when they originally aired. She is still an avid reader (though more of mysteries these days). She actually began writing in Star Trek fandom while I was in my early teens, and actually ran the Nichelle Nichols official fan club for several years, as well as her own fan zine on Uhura. All of these ended up influencing me. Though I never wrote ST stories, it did prompt me to search out fan fiction for other things, such as comic books. And that made me discover the late ProForums set of boards. There, I posted on original concepts and some of the fandom ones, such as several X-Men boards.

Then came work and real life stealing my time. I tried to keep up with posting on the boards, but had a hard time getting my creative juices working when I was brain-fried from work. Thankfully, that's not as much of an issue as used to be, so I began to look for a way to get back into the play-by-post writing method. Just before the end of 2019, I came across this place and debated on whether to join, finally deciding to take the plunge after the New Year. I've been enjoying it since then.

All right, now for the 'Get to Know You' question. I tried to see if it had been asked in a form recently here and didn't see it, so if there is another thread with the idea, my apologies.

When I used to post on the aforementioned Pro-Forums, one of the ways I got to learn something about my fellow writers was to ask how they came about the ideas for their characters. So here we go for mine, as of the moment.

Mio Tanaka: She is indirectly based on a character I wrote for an all-girls school called Shuruden on Pro-Forums, named Neves Fuse. Neves was actually a white-haired part-Japanese, part-Black Brazilian girl, rather than the full Japanese that Mio is. The magical ability, though, was something that Neves had, but did not have initially in the character concept (long story short: she tended to get caught up in other character's supernatural problems and during one of them, another writer hinted that there was more to Neves than she knew about herself. I ended up having to come up with an explanation for abilities that I never planned her to have). I actually thought about doing Neves directly, but decided during the creation to vary her origin a bit, which resulted in the character that she is.

Lady Alyssa 'Lady Mania' Maniford: I've always been a Star Wars fan, from the first time seeing the movie back in 1977, at age 9. But this is the first real SW character I've done for a writing board. Oddly, she is somewhat based on my main character on Everquest 2. When I created her, her name Mania was actually suggested by the MMO's name generator. It just so happened that it was honestly available so I took it. There, she a Ratonga Necromancer, who later managed to 'buy' her title as a 'Lady'. Thus, she was known by most as Lady Mania. That's a character name I've taken to various other MMOs and I thought it would be a good nickname for a sometimes temperamental smuggler.

Damon Lyons: Here is one of the characters with no direct predecessor in another medium. However, he is indirectly based on a real person. When researching the idea of a military scientist, I Googled the term and took a look at some of the examples of real-life ones. There was one whose background was almost exactly what I had in mind for Damon, with major exception that he was in the Marines rather than the Army. Much of the rest of his school history (other than where he attended) was based on this individual. The rest fell quickly into place after that.

Dr. Maxine Brennan: Of all my current characters here, this is the one that is probably the most original, having no previous person, fictional or otherwise, as a framework. She was probably the one that, not so surprisingly, took the longest to generate. At the time of this post, I have not introduced her into the Jericho storyline (I'm trying to catch up on the flurry of posts that have been happening and looking for a suitable point to insert her), but she does have at least one trait of mine: a natural, if sometimes annoying, talent for sarcasm (which more than a few characters of mine have had...)

In any case, hopefully, you now know a little more about me and how come up with characters. I would love to know where other writers came up with theirs, if you'd be willing to share.

Otherwise, see you in the stories!