I've had these drawings saved for a long time, but now I've finally decided to start showing more, not only from the Tech family, but also from others... I already have the drawings for Ace and Lexi's family ready, I just need to organize them on a more general blog. And the rest... Well, I'll have to get to work... -w-'
But speaking of Tech's parents... Let's start with his mother...
Catherine Coyote — She used to be an astronaut and fighter pilot, but after an accident that caused her to lose her arm and, especially, after she had her son, she decided to dedicate herself to motherhood. Catherine is a woman who is extremely dedicated to everything she does, but she doesn't quite reach the point of "obsession" that her son eventually does; she knows her limits better than anyone. She ended up taking over her "family business" of repairing cars with her husband and, later, with Tech. She is still very close to her son and sometimes ends up being "overprotective" of him, especially after MANY events he has suffered... More specifically regarding his "friendships" in college... And sometimes she's quite intimidating...
Catherine is a character I intend to explore further in the future, especially since she's very important to Tech's character development. Now, moving on to the paternal aspect...
Benjamin Elliot Coyote — He was a moderately respected paramedic in his field, who even helped many people after the disaster years ago; however, for that very reason, he ended up being infected by a "disease". Despite being fired from his job because of this "illness," he continued working alongside his wife in their workshop, mainly to support his son. He was a very dedicated person to his family and work, knowing how to balance both, but, unlike his wife, he was sometimes very stubborn and ended up pushing his limits too far, just like his son um the future... Unfortunately, the "illness" ended up making him weaker and weaker and... Well... He eventually passed away when Tech was still a child... And the boy definitely didn't react well to that...
Yeah, I think I overdid it... And probably, whoever already knows who's in the story I told on Discord is already cursing me in every way imaginable... Well... For now, that's all I wanted to show you! Thanks for following along and all the best to you! ^^
There's nothing better to spend Valentine's Day than watching a romance movie with your crush and fighting over the popcorn. I made a very simple drawing so as not to go unnoticed on this date, featuring my OC x Canon couple! I hope you liked it! Bye! ^^
My dear friend Annie made this artwork of my couple and I'm simply IN LOVE with it! She was inspired by a scene with Ruby and Sapphire from Steven Universe and... It's simply perfect! The couple Ruby and Sapphire are my main inspirations for them, and I truly hope to be able to convey their dynamic in my AU. That's it, BYE!!!
Talking about my OCs (Today's topic: Loonatics OC — Allia Squirrel/Earthquake Squirrel)
So... Due to the positive reception I had with the Deadly Artist blog, I decided to talk about another OC that I love writing and that, in itself, is more structured than Deadly Artist... No kidding, Deadly is being one of the HARDEST OCs TO DEFINE THE STORY!!! But that's another subject... :'D
Well, this blog will be in the same format as the previous one... I will divide this blog into topics, talking from the first concepts to the current state of OC. I would like to warn you that this blog may have racist triggers (even if it is a fantasy racism). With all that said, let's get started!
Art made by @idkdrawz
"Another Day... Another kicked idiot..." - Allia Squirrel
First Character Concepts
The creation of Allia is not as old as many people might think, actually... And again, I'll have to mention Amino (my past haunts me at every corner)... From the beginning, I already had the idea of making a seventh member for the Loonatics team and that she would have the cyan color as her main color, also being the last to join the team. But I didn't have the idea of doing a Reboot, actually... My idea at the time of Amino was to make a "third season" of the series, focusing on another core that, curiously, the character had a relationship with the villain. The character herself was a monkey who had the power to create portals (something I gave to Ace from my AU), and the other was to create and control marble (oddly specific-). I think that, at the time, I also frequented another community that I don't remember now and that the character had this marble power... But I don't know... The name of this "prototype" of Allia, by the way, was called "Yuna". Here are pictures of what it looked like in the past:
She was actually an interesting character, but her story didn't really progress... I even made a point where her mutation affected her body, like marble grew on her... But nothing came of it... But since that time, I had defined two things... The first is that she was a character who worked in a homeless shelter, where she lived her whole life. And the second was her and Rev's relationship, which was extremely close as siblings. Then, when I returned to the Loonatics Fandom on Tumblr and, basically, the LU AU became a separate project, I felt like reviving the idea of a seventh member, but this time with a new vision.
Building a Character
Just like Deadly, I had a little work to do in redoing the character completely, but curiously, it was even easier than my killer wolf. I decided to change the species to one that was a little more "Cartoon" and that I thought was common in cartoon universes, which was a squirrel. I didn't necessarily choose a character for her to be a "descendant", I just went randomly (if anyone has suggestions, I'll take them-). I also wanted to remake her personality, which, despite there being nothing wrong with her, I found very generic...It took a while for me to have a fixed personality, but it came alongside the idealization of her powers. Since I changed the portal powers to Ace, I needed another power for her to move. Obviously, it wasn't the same for everyone, but I wanted a passive power and an active power. The "passive" power I thought of, then, was Super Jump... It's a simple power, but it's efficient enough to help in many situations. Now as for the main power, I followed the prototype's logic a bit: a power that was useful and, at the same time, destructive. So she decides to go for a power that is relatively common in pop culture, which is controlling earth and rocks, with the bonus of being able to create earthquakes. In this, I took two references... The first was Terra from Teen Titans CLASSIC (one of the best characters, by the way :'3) and the second was Toph from Avatar: The Last Airbender.
"Okay, we ask first and then we'll fight! But if the guys want to fight first, it's worth it..." — Allia Squirrel
These two characters also served as a basis for me to build Allia's personality, someone who is relaxed and lively, but who has insecurities about the powers she has. I also wanted to add a characteristic that she is a character who, like Slam, would fight on the front line in fights, regardless of the opponent's size. So, just for fun, I thought about correlating this with dance, which, even though the proposals of both were different, was something that required body control. And also because it would match Lexi who, since the original series, has been related to music and dance. And, as a last element that, again, I did as a joke... I wanted to add a hint of "mysticism" to the character, in the sense that she believes in ghosts and the supernatural. It was something very simple that would make the character stand out from the others and, in fact, it was a little joke for the story, considering that it is a SCIENCE FICTION story. Then I ended up correlating it with the idea of Tech being someone related to science and technology, also adding that the character was also someone who wouldn't get along with technology. In this, I ended up realizing that she might like old things and things from the past, which again goes back to the mysticism part I mentioned before... The ideas soon began to flow naturally and, in this, I also give credit to many of my friends who helped me in designing the character. And in those conversations, one of my friends said, "Wow, she even looks like a Latina character, doesn't she?". And with that, something seemed to click in my head...
How I (Accidentally) Made a Latina Character
Latino representation in the media, from the perspective of the United States, has always been... Mixed... There are many examples that are indeed good, Disney's Encanto, for example, was a good Latin representation, despite Fandom's controversies (and it was also the last slightly decent Disney film). But there are other examples like some old cartoon representations and also a Disney cartoon that caused a controversy (I don't remember the name now and I don't want to remember, I want to distance myself from it). I, honestly, was very oblivious to this part of "feeling represented in something", I was more involved with the story and, if I identified with a character, it was because of their personality. Nowadays, I understand how important it is to have characters that represent people and the weight of that, but again... I identify much more with the character's personality and story. Many fictional characters who are linked to Latino representation fall into certain stereotypes that, at times, fall into slightly offensive parts. Sometimes they are represented as lazy, thieves, a little dumb and, in a way, they are always correlated with music, even if indirectly. There's also a certain deep-rooted prejudice, considering the correlation between Latinos and death due to certain religious issues. The Addams Family itself is like this because of its representation of Latinos! It was created as a satire of the American view of Latino people, with the representation of them being a large family and being "strange" when it comes to dealing with death. I also want to make one thing clear...
Not ALL representations that use these stereotypes are BAD, there are some good ones. The problem is HOW you present and/or subvert them.
In my case, as I said before... I was NOT thinking about the character with ANY idea of "I'm going to do a good Latin representation and such!", everything just flowed towards that. Allia was never a character with a specific ethnicity (like the other characters in my AU, although there are exceptions), but there was something I thought of for her... If she were a human, she would be a black character... This, in fact, was a characteristic of her prototype, which was going to be a representation of black people and indifferently show the prejudices rooted in the This was influenced by cartoons like Static Shock and even X-Men that I had in my childhood, which represented it very well and which I wanted to bring to the character at the time of Amino. Until today I wanted to keep this, actually, even if unconsciously... I speak from being a Latina person and having a Latina friend who, while creating the character, we always exchange jokes about how Allia seemed to be a Latina woman and stuff like that. But I only started thinking, "Hmm, what if I take this beyond jokes?" when I started writing the story and analyzing my character. She is correlated with music and mysticism, she is someone relaxed and cheerful like in many character representations, she is straight to the point and fights for what she believes in. But still, she didn't seem stereotypical... She was a character who, without the subtext, still remained good and charismatic. She had a story arc that discussed a certain racism and even situations that occurred in many Latin American countries, but it still stood on its own. I feel like, as a writer and artist, everything just flowed through my fingers and my mind naturally... So I feel like it was satisfying and actually made Allia a good character... And again... I didn't complain about the stereotypes/tropes of Latino characters per se, I complain about the ways certain representations treat... But, well... Sorry for going on about this... I just needed to vent about this part and how much my mind takes me down insane paths...:'3
The Design of a Dancer
Honestly, this is one of the easiest things about the character... From the beginning, I already had it in my head that she would have participated with her feet on show and would not have gloves unlike the other Loonatics. Again, I took inspiration from Toph's design to create Allia's, and just for fun, I decided to put lipstick on her to make it more interesting. The result? Well...
There was nothing wrong with the design, actually... The problem was my drawing style at the time... Her face was pretty ugly and the expression didn't convey her personality very well. But the costume was already well structured! The only thing I changed was the face, making the hair more defined in shape and changing the stripes on it. It also took a while to decide on the fur color, but I eventually decided. And finally, I decided to add a triangle to the newest outfit as a "brooch." And this is the final result:
And a little bonus here was the design of her mask, which I took reference from a wooden mask and also a bit from heroes like Batman.
Latest Preparations and Facts about Allia Squirrel
With the design defined and the character concept ready, I started writing her story based on everything I mentioned. There's the fact that she works at the homeless shelter and is an orphan, just like Duck (and she's also short like him, being the same height as him). I also decided to pair her with one of the Loonatics and, kind of taking the hook that Lexi is also related to dance and music, I made the two of them a couple in my AU (Is anyone surprised that I put an LGBT couple in my AU...? I don't think so... -w-). Despite this, in the Loonatics community RP on Discord, I ended up joking with Gixxy that Allia and Tech could form a couple. But, as it is a "different universe", in my OFFICIAL AU, they will only be friends... Allia would see Tech almost as a brother of consideration, along with Rev. To finish, I put two characters at its core.The first is her adoptive grandmother, Abigail Lezah, the owner of the shelter and based on Hazel Witch from Looney Tunes (before you ask, no... She's not a witch... -w-). And the second is Allia's twin sister, Zehra Squirrel... And this character... Well, I won't give any spoilers, but let's just say their relationship is complicated... But hey! All you bad guys listening to this announcement... Watch out! Because Allia Squirrel, also known as Earthquake Squirrel, is on the loose! And she won't spare you from getting beaten up by her!
