#lunamara

[lunamaraproject]

LUNAMARA 🌗GOOD NIGHT

A little preview into a project we're working on. Stay tuned.

Art by Luka (http://nousanti.tumblr.com/) Story by Pidge (http://pidgestories.tumblr.com/)

[dualcastimpact]

So this post got me thinking about my own characters and while they all have a commonality in that they're all tough and kickass and always down for a fight, I think there was some subconscious bias in creating Hyllizirn and Kirika:

For context, these two are girlfriends. Hyllizirn is a pirate sea-faring mercenary captain's daughter who was raised by pirates sailors and on legends of her battleax of a mother, and eventually joined the Immortal Flames when she got to Eorzea. Her muscles, military experience and physical combat prowess are things she shares with her older brother Raginmar, who is a war veteran and the Warrior of Light — that's important because the whole basis of her character is how she admires Raginmar so much and wants to emulate him so, and how she eventually grows out of that mindset (and his shadow) to become her own person and a legendary adventurer in her own right. But she's not a dommy mommy or whatever; she's a young woman in her early twenties who spent three expansions confused about her feelings for Kirika before they officially got together in post-Shadowbringers. She looks at the cactuars out in Thanalan and wonders if they're edible. She gets suckered into joining the tournament at the Arcadion. She has beef with the Scions and gets into a pissing contest with Alisaie over Raginmar every time their paths cross. She's a silly bean — a kickass one, but a silly bean nonetheless.

Kirika, on the other hand, is the daughter of an influential merchant family that used to be a clan of skilled warriors before pivoting into capitalism. She was raised to be the quintessential lady: graceful, demure and soft in voice but sharp in wit. Kirika said nope to all that and fled Kugane for Eorzea, where she instead became a caustic but compassionate healer dedicated to helping the poor and needy in Ul'dah. She adamantly refuses to be the heiress that her mother wants her to be, but she'll go back to Hingashi to take down the trafficking ring her father had gotten blackmailed into joining. Her mortal enemy/vitriolic best bud is her fellow adventurer and party member who happens to be an underworld boss in the Far East; she'll pick fights with him until the cows come home but she's the only one who can do that, and she'll hunt down his emotionally distant FWB and threaten him with death for it. She gets embarrassed by her family's wealth and had to be persuaded by the others to accept the cottage in the Goblet that her father bought for her. While she can be an arrogant little asshole, she's mostly guided by her moral compass and always wants to do the right thing, and she's also the daintiest and arguably most femme in appearance among all my female characters.

Once I started thinking about all that, I got to wondering: why? Why did I decide on a Roegadyn to be Raginmar's little sister? Why did I decide to make Hyllizirn's girlfriend an Au Ra? Why did I make Lunamara have a more elegant and stylish appearance instead of a more cutesy one considering her personality (cheerful and immature but trying her best, a little of a scaredy-cat, not combat-ready at all, just wants to make people smile with her song and dance like the Songbirds and the Seneschal Prince do)?

(she's too busy fangirling over her oshi to be elegant in this pic)

And the only conclusion I could come to was that, like it or not, I was driven by my biases and tendency to stereotype when I created these characters. Regardless of their personalities, big girls are tough and muscly and down to rumble ("butch"). Small girls are dainty and pretty and graceful ("femme"). Tall girls are elegant and stylish and classy. Hyllizirn and Kirika together make the image of the typical butch-femme lesbian pairing, while Lunamara always looks stylishly put together. It's all stereotypes. Subconscious, yes, but that's what makes it insidious.

I don't know. I don't think I'm going anywhere with this. It's always good to examine yourself and recognise your own biases, I suppose. Whenever I come across really fun and unique OCs like Strawberry Sweetbread or aioniopyr's Oyuun Alzagir or surfaçage's Lo'kha Sehnlla and their SCP of an Azem or my friends' WoLs, be it design-wise or lore-wise or personality-wise, I always get really envious because I just never come up with characters like that — and I don't know if it means I'm just not that creative when it comes to character creation, or if it's these biases and stereotypes in my head that's stopping me from making more unique characters.

[teatune]

This is an old drawing of my OC Lunamara! She’s a goddess of metal

[chiliraccoon]

[lunamaraproject]

LUNAMARA 🌓 GOOD MORNING

The second comic preview to the Lunamara Project. As always, stay tuned for the main event.

More from LUNAMARA:

Fragments: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9]

Comics: [Good Night] [Good Morning]

Art by Luka (http://nousanti.tumblr.com/) Story by Pidge (http://pidgestories.tumblr.com/)

[lunamaraproject]

LUNAMARA: Fragments [9]

[Click here for larger size and non-tumblr'd quality]

Pg. 2-4 Authored by Avellana Corylus

Celebrating 4000 years of AVE! Publications, we are honoured to have the assistance of famous fashionista and heir to the Lux brand name, Aurelia Lux to walk us through four monumental centuries of fashion, from the Lunar Migration to the Platinum Age to the Post-War period. It has been a time of much change from the era of our great, great grandparents, one of cultural exchange, social upheaval, and fashion from the properly practical to the retrospectively ridiculous. We are also delighted to host Felix Cygnus' latest shots wearing various historical recreations, and even some vintage pieces from the Lux vaults!

First, The Lunar Migration. As our ancestors crossed the stars to reach our home, some practical considerations had to be taken in hand when it came to designing clothing. While the lack of gravity in deep space would at first seem enticing for the safety it offers, it only means that sudden stops are more dangerous for snap-points. This lead to a fashion of inflated, flexible joints around ankles, wrists, necks, and even on the sides of the head. These were achieved either through padding, or more commonly through magical air buffers. The materials used to make these clothes are, these days, prohibitively expensive to make, as the resources required are hardly as common on the Surface or on Luna. Studying legacy garments, Aurelia Lux has here presented us with beautiful recreations that are as close to the originals as is possible with current provisions.

🌗

More from LUNAMARA:

Fragments: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9]

Comics: [Good Night] [Good Morning]

Art by Luka (http://nousanti.tumblr.com/) Story by Pidge (http://pidgestories.tumblr.com)

[lunamaraproject]

LUNAMARA: Fragments [7]

🦢

“A little to the left… no, no, the other left,” Felix tilts his head, squinting. “No, too far. Back to the first left.”

“How are you half a century older than me but don’t know your left from your right?” Rufus grumbles, adjusting the picture on the wall again. He steps back and checks his work, and then walks away before Felix can annoy him by asking for more adjustments. “That’s the last thing in the living room box.”

“Thanks again for this, Rufie,” Felix says, tottering after his superior and out of the living-dining room. He really does think it looks nice, though for the sake of Rufus’ patience, he’ll wait until after he’s gone home to tweak things a bit. 

“Cassius Corvus has informed me that you are prone to ‘chipping a dainty little finger’ if you’re not supervised while doing heavy lifting tasks,” Rufus replies, with a bit of heat, probably from the unwanted nickname. He strides down the hallway to the bedroom ahead of Felix. “And I owe him a favour, so.”

“Aw, I thought you were here because you wanted to help me unpack out of the kindness of your heart!” Felix trails behind him, skipping a little. “And hold on, how long have you and Cas gotten along?”

“Since we found we could commiserate over having to look after both you and the Princess,” Rufus glowers at him over his shoulder. He nearly walks into a low ceiling beam by doing so, and dodges at the last moment. “Why in Luna’s name are you so obsessed with these low ceiling apartment designs?”

“It’s cozy! I save on the heating bill! I would think that someone as energy efficient as you would appreciate that!”

“You are going to crack your head open on one of these and then all will be able to see what I suspected for the past century: that it’s empty!” 

“At least when they’re this low you can reach to hang the ceiling decorations– woah!” 

Felix is proud of himself for dodging the slipper that Rufus just threw at him. It was, luckily, the first thing he happened to grab out of the box labeled ‘bedroom’, rather than the ornamental globe, or the lamp. That might have been a greater test of Felix’s reflexes. 

“I can leave you to do this yourself and if you chip then that’s your problem.”

“No sir, pwease sir, not my delicate widdle fingies! Pwease, merciful Lowd Canis!”

The look that Rufus gives him could, as the humans used to say, sour milk. 

“Never speak like that again.”

“Yessir.”

Rufus turns back towards the box, and drags it further towards the center of the room. The nicknacks inside are practically overflowing, and it’s only one of three fairly large containers Felix has shoved his entire bedroom into. He did have to sleep here last night, so the bed is made up, but it looks a little sad and lonely without its dozen throw-pillows and blankets to drape here and there. Rufus starts taking out these things and looks more and more aghast at how many there are. 

“You do know that your family crest is not an excuse to start actually nest building, yeah?” he says, holding out a particularly obnoxiously coloured pillow. It’s bright pink, and fluffy, and shaped like a heart. Felix plucks it out of Rufus’ hands and hugs it to his chest.

“The Cygnus family does not hold a monopoly on enjoying comfortable living! But we are very good at it,” he places the heart pillow directly in the middle of the large pile against the headboard of the king size bed. “I like collecting these sorts of things. They make my home feel like my home no matter how many times I move!”

“If you just stayed in the palace you wouldn’t have to move at all,” Rufus fires back, taking out a jewellery box and showing quite a sweet amount of care in delicately placing it on the dresser. “You know the Princess would be delighted. And Cassius would be relieved. And I wouldn’t have to deal with your stupid excuses for being late to the office.”

“But unlike you, I like to keep this mythical thing called a ~work-life balance~,” Felix wiggles his fingers and releases a light sparkle into the air. Rufus looks disgusted at him for wasting magic for dramatic effect. “Which is much harder to do if I live in the same building where I work.”

“Seems to work fine for the royals.”

“Ah, but as you have likely seen from existing in the proximity of the palace and around some extremely stressed out royalty, it really doesn’t,” Felix counters, dusting off a small mirror and setting it to one side. “And I am not a royal, so I’m not obligated to put myself under that kind of pressure. So I won’t.”

“So you’re just going to live in one crumbling ruin of a building after another?” Rufus frowns as he sets hairbrushes and polish onto the dresser. 

Felix watches him for a moment, and then smiles. “Thanks, Rufus.”

It catches him off-guard. “What? For what?” Rufus asks, squinting at him as though expecting some sort of stupid joke.

“For caring. For worrying about me,” Felix says, entirely sincere, picking up an empty box and folding it closed. “I know you don’t want me to get caught in some sort of cleaving event and end up in a million pieces on the surface. But I promise I do thoroughly check the location of my apartments, and that they’re not likely to fall off the side of the city at a second’s notice. I’ll be fine here. Really.”

There’s an awkward silence, wherein Rufus won’t look directly at Felix, a soft scarlet glow at the tips of his ears, which is how Felix knows he was right on target. For a man who keeps people at arms length, Rufus is certainly easy to read once you know how. 

It’s sweet, really. Felix appreciates it.

With a purposeful flourish, he hefts up one of the two large boxes remaining onto the bed, and opens the lid. The inside is almost exploding with fabric. “Anyway!” he declares. “Onwards to putting away all my wardrobe! Rufie, grab the other one!”

“... Wait, are both of these just clothes?!”

🌗

More from LUNAMARA:

Fragments: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9]

Comics: [Good Night] [Good Morning]

Art by Luka (http://nousanti.tumblr.com/) Story by Pidge (http://pidgestories.tumblr.com)

[lunamaraproject]

LUNAMARA: Fragments [8]

👑

The old paper crinkles pleasantly under Felix’s fingers. For all he loves the sleek design of the tablets he usually teaches from, sometimes the tactile realness of paper is more enjoyable. Plus, when it comes to educating the princess, such luxurious materials are nigh on expected, so he can get away with requesting them.

“So this is you,” he explains as Elsie leans halfway over the desk, her hair spilling over her shoulders and nearly blocking his view.

“It doesn’t look like me,” she critiques with the honesty one can only expect from a girl barely 60. She grabs the nearest pencil and starts drawing hair and a dress onto the anatomical model.

“Okay, you fix it. Will you listen to my explanation while you fix it?”

“Mmhmm!”

She’s fairly good at multitasking, so he presses on. “When you eat manna, it goes down into your stomach here,” he both holds his hand on his belly, and taps on the diagram with his highlighter. Helpfully, she draws a star where he tapped. “Yes, there. Once it’s in your stomach, your body takes the manna, and breaks it down. What does it break it down into?”

“I dunno,” she says first, but he waits, until eventually she hedges a guess. “Maen?”

“Yes!” he grins brightly. “Maen is the energy that makes up all magic in the universe. It’s actually a shortening of ‘magical energy’, neat right?”

Elsie is too busy adding frills to the hem of her dress to actually agree with him about how interesting etymology is. A shame.

“Once the maen is in your body, it travels around it on the maen circuits. They run right next to your veins and nerves, and have special ‘pools’ all over, where the maen gathers. Can you draw more stars where I point?”

“Yeah,” she agrees, and he begins working around the body. First, travelling up the chest, then the neck, then the head. She has to draw the stars very small here, because there are so many points particularly on the face and skull. It looks like the figure sneezed on a constellation. “I can’t even see the eyes any more…”

“That’s okay, we’ll draw a bigger head in a minute so you can fit the stars in better,” Felix chuckles. “It’s important to know where the pools are, because they’re the places where maen exits the body when we use it to cast magic. Different kinds of magic use different pools on the body. So when I give you a kiss on your booboos, it’s not because I’m trying to eat you up!”

Elsie gives him a dry look. “I know that. I’m not 40.”

“I know you’re not!” he holds his hands up in surrender. “But I’ll always remember the time when I pretended to eat you, and you got really scared!”

“Well I don’t remember that at all,” she sniffs, then turns back to adding more details to her dress on the paper. “Are there pools on the hands?”

“Yes there are, very good! And also all up the arms here…”

It doesn’t take long to cover the rest of the figure in stars, on the front and the back side. Meanwhile, Elsie’s dress design is also coming along swimmingly.

“Did you get the idea for this dress from the present you got from the Naribians?” Felix asks.

“Yes, but I’m making it better with my own parts,” she says airily.

“You know, humans have maen circuits too!”

Now this finally gets her full attention. She looks at him like he’s grown a second head. “They do?”

“Yep! They’re veeeery thin and don’t get used much. Unlike starfolk, humanfolk can’t use their maen circuits by just thinking about it. So do other animals and plants, but even smaller, nearly not there at all.”

“Ohhh…” she trails off, mulling this new information over. “Doesn’t it hurt?”

“No, it’s not like with us where it hurts them to not use magic every now and then. They can live their whole lives and never use it, and be perfectly healthy!”

She continues to chew on this new fact for another minute of silence, before suddenly saying. “But what if that’s why they die fast? Humans, and animals.”

Admittedly, Felix wasn’t expecting that. Leave it to kids to come up with unexpected questions. He’s struck silent for a moment, pondering this himself. Who knows, maybe that was the reason. He’s not educated enough to know for sure. But then, when he’s not even an adult himself, he’s not sure what people are expecting.

“You know what, I don’t know!” he finally says with a laugh. “Let’s make a note of it, so we can look it up later in the library or with one of the professors.”

“Okay,” she agrees, scribbling the note in the top corner of the paper. “It doesn’t make much sense that the plants like trees live almost as long as we do, but the humans don’t. Humans look almost just like us, but their ears are weird and small and their bodies are big and hairy.”

“Sure do!”

"Do you think if I tried I could grow hair on my face like them?"

"... Maybe one day, Elsie!"

🌗

More from LUNAMARA:

Fragments: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9]

Comics: [Good Night] [Good Morning]

Art by Luka (http://nousanti.tumblr.com/) Story by Pidge (http://pidgestories.tumblr.com)