It's taken a lot of practice for Juno to get this far with his concertina skills—big dreams require a big commitment, after all. But he's more than willing to put in the legwork if it means he'll finally be able to make his big break...
😓 DOWNCAST FACE WITH SWEAT — is your oc open-minded or stubborn? are they inquisitive or do they prefer to keep to their bubble of knowledge?
🎶 MUSICAL NOTES — what type of music does your oc like? do they listen to music very often?
For any character(s)…..
OOH HI!! Thanks for the ask!!!
😓 -- Fregory Johnson
Fregory Johnson is open-minded to a seemingly absurd degree--one of his favorite things to do is to throw huge amounts of money at anyone who can successfully pitch some harebrained scheme or invention to him, and somehow this has worked out, leaving Fregory with millions of dollars and his froggy toes in multiple successful ventures. While Mr. Johnson (believes that he) has perfected the art of business, he is well aware that he doesn't know everything, and is always eager to bring in new suckers business-lacking specialists to milk them dry realize the monetary potential of their ideas. What he does might seem cruel, but hey, he didn't get this far by staying in his lane! Stuffing a few ballot boxes, undercutting the competition, stabbing a couple of backs...that's business, darling! Always gotta keep your mind and options open.
🎶 -- Everyone
Since this story takes place in this fantasy world's technological equivalent to the late 19th century (approx. 1885-1895 ish technology wise) and most of my characters aren't well enough off to regularly attend paid venues, they're generally limited to whatever free live music they can catch in their area. Rocky and Juno are the two biggest music enthusiasts of the group, and both participate heavily in the local music scenes in their areas (Rocky with his banjo and Juno with the fiddle, accordion, or concertina). Juno's favorite band is The Redfish, a 4-man band that frequently tours in southern New Riona. He dreams of getting to play on stage with them someday...
One outlier to this general rule, though, is Tilde--being both a music enjoyer and member of the Mekkemian aristocracy, she has the privilege of being able to both pay for seats at a variety of high-entry-price musical performances and access to recorded music on the wax-cylinder phonograph. She really enjoys attending symphonic performances and ballets, and likes to overwrite old worn-out wax cylinders with her own piano/vocal recordings
(Like any normal teenager, Juno likes to spend quality alone time hanging out at the family mausoleum.)
OC RAMBLING & MINICOMIC UPDATE BELOW!
The script for the first minicomic is done!! So it's time to officially reveal the first of my protagonists--musician and mythology enthusiast Juno Lumière! A little moth with big dreams, Juno is hindered not only by his terrible communication skills and introverted nature, but by the fear that his family's larger-than-life legacy will always overshadow any identity he can carve out for himself. As the youngest grandson of renowned war hero Rose Lumière and part of the expansive and VERY INVOLVED founding family of South Lantern, Juno dreams of the day when he can fly upriver and make a name for himself playing music in the big cities up north.
Also, his war-hero grandma let him in on some top-secret information that REALLY SHOULD HAVE died with her. oopsie! Surely this won't drag poor Juno into the overarching plot!
Will anything ever be truly his and his alone? Can the "Juno" ever come before the "Lumière"? Should he feel guilty for wanting something just for himself when he has a comfortable life and a family full of people who love him? Did grandma seriously fuck up by telling him secrets that, for the safety of all their kind, she swore to let die with her?
TRIVIA AND FUN FACTS!!
-His favorite food is eel pie, which his mom makes for him every birthday. Eel (and lots of other seafood but ESPECIALLY eel) is SUPER popular in South Lantern. It sells out in seconds. The way the moths talk about it you'd think it's crack
-Not only was the multi-level treetop city founded by Rose Lumière, the entire bayou that South Lantern was built on is named THE LUMIERE BAYOU after her. Juno finds this extremely embarrassing
-The Lumières are known for having massive amounts of kids, and Juno is the youngest of 7 siblings. While he likes to think in moments of melodramatic self-indulgence that his parents forget he exists half the time, this isn't the case at all and they do, in fact, worry about him extensively
-In moth-type culture, you wear the colors of the first-generation moth-types that you are descended from. When a marriage happens, you typically combine these colors into a new family color scheme (for example, if a moth with blue and white colors marries a moth with orange and yellow colors, they and their children will wear blue and yellow. Think of it like how they name racehorses except with clothing colors and patterns). However, since Rose was such a big deal, the Lumières all continue wearing pink and yellow, and anyone who marries into the family also has to wear these colors. Even if it doesn't look good.
-Juno has over 40 cousins who all live within a minute's flight of his home. There is no privacy. At any moment an aunt or uncle or cousin could come barging in making themselves at home (which they do very frequently). Every day is a family reunion!
-This is of course hell for the quiet-loving Juno, hence why he spends so much time at the mausoleum with the statue of his grandmother. Is it morbid? Maybe to an outsider, but it's very relaxing for him to sit next to her, practice his concertina, and enjoy nature
-The only person Juno feels like he can confide in 100% honestly about his teenage angst is his best friend, a human fisherman. This friend is the subject of the second minicomic (though he's officially introduced in the first), so I can't talk too much about him yet. But he is my favorite! And he is coming!!! (eventually) At least there is one person who Juno believes sees him as an individual...
-He has an...interesting relationship with his parents. Obviously they love each other a lot, but he doesn't feel like he can actually talk about his interests with them because he's worried that they'll involve themselves too much. And then, well, it'll become another "event for the whole family!" thing and no longer be something that's "his". Lily and Sylvain have no idea about this issue and chalk the secrecy and question-dodging up to Juno being an edgy teen. In reality, their son is scared to talk to them about the real problem because he feels like they'll take it personally and overreact.
Poor communication runs in the family, it seems.
-His favorite cousin, Sophie Lumière, is the organizer of the music at the Rose Festival (a massive citywide festival celebrating Rose's role in ending the Awakening War--think about it like moth-type fourth of july). Juno really, REALLY wants to break into the music scene by performing with her band, but every year Sophie says he's too young. Maybe this year...
-He can play the accordion, violin, and concertina very well, and having four arms means that he can play multiple instruments at once! He prefers the accordion/violin combo for actual performances, but plays his concertina the most since it's more convenient to pack around
-Moth-types, having clawlike hands, have to wear rubber corks on their fingertips in order to play the violin. Juno HATES how these tips feel when he touches anything other than the fingerboard with them on. It's like nails on a chalkboard to him. He is constantly losing these things much to the annoyance of his violin teacher
-Since earthfolk don't need to (and physically can't) breathe, he will never be able to play a wind instrument. This is incredibly heartbreaking since he is in love with the sound of the pan flute but can never learn it himself
