Wow, guys, it’s been forever since I last wrote one of these blogs. I only managed to write about three of my RP characters before I got distracted by other junk. Well don’t worry folks, I’ll complete this series one way or the other, and we’ll start this very Saturday! Hooray!!!

Development Process: At the time I apped Falco Kestrelson, I had one earth pony, one unicorn, and one pegasus. I didn’t quite think I needed any more ponies back then, but I did want to see if I could eventually acquire an OC from every approved species. Plus, I also wanted an OC more capable of adventuring than any of my previous ponies. Hence, I saw the need for a certain griffon named Falco.

I used two sources of inspiration for ex-Sergeant Kestrelson. Probably the bigger of the two is the South Park character Jimbo Kern, the uncle of one of the main boy characters and a hunter employing such ridiculously over-the-top methods that I knew it’d never fly in WoE. To get just a tiny dash of the original Jimbo’s personality though, I turned Falco into a sporting griffon and a part-time survivalist. Falco’s outfit however certainly pays homage to Uncle Jimbo’s standard clothes, of course. For my griffon’s actual job however, I made him a pawn shop owner in the tradition of Pawn Stars. As for the actual name, “Kestrel” is the name of a bird of prey, which I thought would be fun to incorporate in a griffon name.

Coming back to the Uncle Jimbo line of thought, I also intended Falco Kestrelson to have a bond of sorts with SteelEagle’s Pathfinder, a complete full-time adventurer. Being predisposed to adventure and excitement himself, I imagined Falco egging on Pathfinder to further exploits, and maybe once in a while supply her with a gadget for free or for an incredible discount. In fact, I even have him referring to the Daring Do cosplayer at his very own honorary niece; something his South Park did in one episode. Because SteelEagle is such an awesome guy, he approved of this connection between our characters... and it won’t be the last time one of my OC’s was tied with that feathered menace from the Cloudsdale Orphanage.

Looking at Falco’s app, I’m not quite sure he would be approved if I tried apping him today. The basic character idea is quite sound of course, but I can’t help think that Mr. Kestrelson’s use of a crossbow might be cutting it close. I suppose the ultimate reason it passed merit though was that I didn’t try pushing the concept of Falco as some sort of heroic marksman who fights off pirates and junk... I remember one guy tried that and failing miserably. Now would be a good time to direct you to On Swordponies and Spellponies if you haven’t read that yet, hahaha.

Pawn Stars Equestria: The first thread I made for Falco, I naturally set the thing up at his pawn shop in Beakbreak City. Even though Beakbreak is one of those settings which nobody on the forums really seems motivated to use, I managed to have some fun times RPing with Phil the Time Wizard’s dragoness Sierra and Mojo’s tank mare Tankena... one of the rare times when Mojo only used a single character in a RP! This thread ran pretty smoothly; Mr. Kestrelson managed to get Sierra and Tankena to each buy one item while Tankena got Falco to stock one of her custom-made items in his shop. And then they ended the day by drinking special Stalliongrad cider.

Sadly, Phil and Mojo were the only RPers to drop by the entire time. I was kind of hoping that at least one random user would post in Pawn Stars too, but it appears Beakbreak City is a hard sell for many of WoE’s RPers, especially if they’re not friends with you yet. Hopefully in the future, this industrial place will become a more attractive setting for new RP stories.

Birds of a Feather: Falco’s second RP had him spending quality time in Beakbreak City with Gerrard’s eponymous OC, who like Mr. Kestrelson is a griffon. Sent to Beakbreak to fix an irrigation pipe, Gerrard found himself as Falco’s... ‘entertainment’ for the day. Plenty of slapstick shenanigans abounded (at Gerry’s expense), and I loved the chance I got to have Falco show off his talent for crossbow target shooting. Along with some worldbuilding for Beakbreak, and I thought this RP turned out very fine and amusing for slice-of-life fare.

Daringcon General: Before I signed Falco up for Daringcon General, no vendor OCs were present in this convention thread. Then I had my griffon come by change all that, crafting a backstory around Pathfinder’s antics to give Mr. Kestrelson a reason to sell hordes of Daring Do merchandise. However, I’d say that the pawn shop owner found himself upstaged by a newer OC of mine: Dr. Merlot. Falco’s story pretty much came to a standstill when I brought in my archaeologist, and will probably remain that way unless the thread gets new characters not interested in Merlot’s panel.

Griffons:

Part I - Part II

This is actually the second adventure RP I inserted the survivalist in, the first being the Unyasi Adventure (staring Zecora) series which follows up on Falco’s bonds with Pathfinder and Sierra. However, I’m giving this series a greater spotlight here because it’s showing my griffon as some guy who can be serious when he needs to. So far, Mr. Kestrelson has found himself extremely disgruntled with Gilda’s punk attitude and the evasiveness of Heidi, SonicRainboomGirl’s griffoness who’s leading the expedition. May more annoying times ensure as the team of griffons head out towards diamond dog territory.....

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It felt good doing one of my OC articles again. Remind me to spend more Saturdays working on these projects; maybe one day, every single character of mine will have their own article. For now thought, this is Bellosh101 signing off!