#guardy's oc: valére

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Today’s super super quick doodles: Project Equinox Valère, captain and very major character, in the upper left corner. Will I ever draw him consistently? Eeeeh... Maybe? Anyway, the picture is decent, in terms of him looking like he’s supposed to. Then there’s Absalom, Val’s second-in-command, to the right, looking uncharacteristically disheveled.  In the bottom row there’s Lionel, my sciency wizard protag, grinning like the little jerkwad he is, and blessedly un-involved former battlemage Severin, who’s only there as a favour to his old commander who, in turn, owed a favour to Absalom’s old captain. Oh, and he has an infinitely persistent crush on - and a tentative but pretty sweet friendship with - Absalom, who tends to get himself into far too much potentially lethal trouble, so that may also be a reason.

I originally wanted to draw them actually doing stuff, but I didn’t manage to come up with anything good.

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Haven’t done much art lately - in part because I did more writing, but also my sketchbook wasn’t very inspiring, somehow, and ALSO because I was kind of stuck, progress-wise, and taking a break for a while actually works wonders when it comes to un-sticking my progress and art style. Screw your daily practice, I do what I want.

Anyway, those two nerds again. Slowly starting to warm up to them, now that I’ve sorted out their backstories and motives. 

I wanted to draw full-body things, but then remembered that I didn’t re-design the outfits yet, soooooo... /cough THEN I wanted to add Absalom and Severin to this, but alas, I ran out of time. I’ll have to do that sometime soon, though.

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I don’t draw Valére enough. Mostly because idk how his hair works and I still need to redesign the uniforms *shrug*

Anyway, have some charismatic, enigmatic and most certainly chaotic air ship captain.

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24!

24:What does your OC smell like?

I’ve answered that before for Gus and Jaime, so this time, I’ll do the Equinox cast, if that’s all right with you.Lionel: Lavender, mostly, with a slight hint of Lemon. Valére: usually not like very much at all, unless he’s either had to dress nicely for a change (in that case: moth balls) or has had a horribly long day (stuffy uniform and sweat)Absalom: Some slightly spicy-smelling aftershave?Severin: pine needles and old paper, with undertones of something distinctly non-human that often accompanies battlemages.

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I have this really bad habit of giving my OCs pasts and only realizing much later how much I fucked them over.

Most of it seems so harmless in the beginning, like Gus’ entire backstory (let’s give a vampire haemophobia. Hilarious, right?) or Lionel’s horrible choice of his field of study (nobody cares about that shit. At all. It’s literally Lionel’s life. Great explanation for his grumpiness. Except, did you have that subject in school you were exceedingly good at and that nobody cared about? Yes? Imagine if your entire life was like that. No exceptions. Not so good.) or Absalom’s tendency to have people he cares about die at the most inopportune times. 

Ramblings about characters under the cut, because story planning is fun.

Case in point, Absalom joined the navy (as your stereotypical plucky middie) when he was 14 years old, after his dad died, to help support his family financially (his mom was an artist, and while she was somewhat successful, it wasn’t enough to support the entire family).  He had to give up on becoming a teacher, which was a shame, but he could live with that. He liked ships, he liked seeing the world, he loved the ocean and the countless clear, starry nights. Sure, life at sea sucked a lot sometimes, but whatever, right? Well, he rose through the ranks - not very quickly, but steadily. All was well. He married an old childhood friend eventually; even when they were kids, they’d always talk about how they’d marry eventually if nothing else came up on the relationship front - they didn’t exactly love each other, but they enjoyed spending time together and rarely ever got into arguments, so why not? It was practical and it worked. The both of them even had a little daughter at some point. He was promoted to post captain eventually and they put him in charge of a lovely little frigate. He loved his ship, although he didn’t enjoy being a captain all that much, because it’s really damn lonely at the top. But still, the ship was a real beauty, his crew was very fond of him, the weather was continuously decent... In came a bunch of pirates, the ship sank, over half the crew died, there was a court martial...  So, Absalom finally came home, after months at sea, expecting to see his wive and his lovely daughter again. He looked forward to enjoying the company of his family after all he’d been through.  What greeted him in the end was a dusty, cold, empty house, a severely decimated village and a bill for two funerals*.  As it turned out, there had been an outbreak of cholera shortly after he’d left and both his wive and his daughter were among the first to succumb. (about six months after that, Valére came crashing down in his backyard - way too literally - and the rest is history)

Even Lionel, who’s as dickish as they come, has something of a crappy past.  He joined to Academy when he was 10, because that was about the greatest honor that could be bestowed upon a person at such a young age, not to mention that graduating from the Academy basically guaranteed a comfortable life among the social elite; only a fool wouldn’t jump at that opportunity.  So he went, bright-eyed and full of wonder, eager to make his parents proud.  He never truly saw them again - even when he came back home for the first time a year later, they were already living in completely different worlds. Lionel was never really good at controlling magic - while others could pull fireballs from thin air and move things by merely gesturing at them, he was always too scared of losing control to really get the hang of it.  On the other hand, ritual spells came easy to him. What really caught his attention, however, was the more theoretical part of his education - what is magic, where does it come from, how does it work? He decided that this was the direction of study he wanted to pursue - and if the general consensus was that none of this mattered... well, he’d be sure to change their mind eventually.  Except he never did. His work was continuously awarded top grades, but otherwise completely ignored.  He graduated at the top of his class, but nobody cared - after all, he’d never actually done anything in all those years at the academy - nothing anybody could be arsed to even have a second look at, anyway - and his parents couldn’t even begin to understand what that graduation meant to him.  He never had any social contacts either; he had spent all his time learning, reading, working, to graduate as fast as possible, so that he could finally start to make a difference.  He even got a job at the academy directly after graduation - of course, nobody wanted to teach theoretical magical sciences anyway, they were lucky enough to find someone who did. They didn’t even notice his excellent grades; all they saw was ‘he graduated’ - it was all they needed to know. Since most of his hard work over the entirety of his time at the academy served the express purpose of being allowed to teach there afterwards, Lionel was less than amused. And again, he was met with a world of disinterest, was belittled for his efforts to secure funding for projects and research, disliked by the students for the subject he taught. And thus, after over a decade of being alternately overlooked, ignored, belittled and occasionally bullied, he’s thoroughly fed up with humanity as a whole when the story finally starts.  The fact that he got the mission he’s on because he’s ‘the expendable one with copious amounts of free time’ probably didn’t help either. 

Valére has a bit of a shit past, too, but again, spoiler. Although I can tell you that he was manipulated and taken advantage of in a rather nasty way and is thoroughly unhappy with his current situation.  The ship plays a part in all of it, but that’s not the part he’s unhappy about.

*bonus: D’you know what a pantry looks like after it’s been left alone for three months? Or unwashed dishes? A stack of damp, dirty clothes? Maybe even an old roof after a few storms? Can you guess who had to take care of all that shit and basically get the house habitable again while also coming to terms with never seeing his family again and wishing he’d gotten the chance to say goodbye?

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30 Days of character Building - Equinox Crew 15.) Is your character an early morning bird or a night owl?

Lionel: A bit of a night owl, but really only a bit.

Valére: Doesn’t care either way.

Absalom: Used to be a bit of a night owl, then the navy came along...

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30 Days of character Building - Equinox Crew 14.)  How does your character react to temperature changes such as extreme heat and cold?

Lionel: With a healthy dose of whining.

Valére: reacts to the former by running around in his shirt and trousers and to the latter by donning a scarf and coat. Isn’t really bothered by either.

Absalom: Hates the cold, usually pretends he doesn’t even notice the weather because you can hardly expect the crew to do their job in the rain and cold if even the first mate is a shivering wreck. He fools absolutely nobody - well, except for Valére (who doesn’t pay attention to such trivial things as his first officer) and Lionel (who just really doesn’t care).

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30 Days of character Building - Equinox Crew 13.) What does your character’s bed look like when he/she wakes up? Are the covers off on one side of the bed, are they all curled around a pillow, sprawled everywhere? In what position might they sleep?

Lionel: In his own, cozy bed at the academy, he usually curls up on his side, most likely hugging a pillow; warm, fluffy blanket pulled all the way up until only a few strands of hair are still showing. Aboard the Equinox, there is, uhm, not a lot of sleeping involved, but plenty of accidentally squishing his nose against the hammock and cursing.

Valére: Usually ends up losing his blanket or pillow (however he manages that - have you ever tried pushing stuff out of a hammock that basically wraps all around you? Because it’s not easy), also talks in his sleep.

Absalom: Sleeps like a fucking stone. You could set off cannons next to him and he’d sleep right through it. 

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30 Days of character Building - Equinox Crew 12.) How is your character with technology? Super savvy, or way behind the times? Letters or email?

It’s not like there’s much technology, because if anything we’re talking VERY VERY EARLY industrial revolution here.

That said, Lionel generally prefers magic over technology, Valére [REDACTED] because [REDACTED] and Absalom... y’know, I don’t even know. 

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30 Days of character Building - Equinox Crew 11.) Is there an animal you equate with your character?

Lionel: A really mean cat. One that doesn’t scratch you because of a miscommunication but because it really hates your guts. 

Val: Hm... nope. Nothing.

Absalom: Well, he does remind me of a raven: imposing and probably creepy but actually smart and sometimes a bit dorky and generally quite friendly if you don’t get on his bad side.

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30 Days of character Building - Equinox Crew 10.) Can you define a turning point in your character’s life? Multiples are acceptable.

Lionel: The day he was chosen for the academy, and the day he got the order to have a closer look at the anomaly that sets the plot into motion.

Valére: First time aboard an airship. And some others, but /cough spoilers /cough

Absalom: Hm. Joining the navy, losing his ship, joining Val...

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30 Days of character Building - Equinox Crew 9.)  Who does your character trust?

Lionel: Himself. And that’s pretty much it.

Valére: Nobody.

Absalom: His captain... kind of...? Also the parts of his family that are still alive.

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30 Days of character Building - Equinox Crew 8.) Day of Favorites! What’s your character’s favorite ice cream flavor? Color? Song? Flower?

Lionel

ice cream flavor*: lemon

color: blue

song**: -n/a-

flower: lavender - also those things. Generally really likes flowers, though.

Valére

ice cream flavor: doesn’t like ice cream

color: red

flower: doesn’t care about plants.

Absalom:

ice cream flavor: doesn’t matter, ice cream is great in general

color: black

flower: roses in general, also all sorts of flowering trees.

*ice cream is not exactly easy to come by in that world so it’s not like it matters **I could just come up with random song titles, but that’s just kind of... useless. Long story short, I’m writing some sort of weird fantasy story here, so that doesn’t really apply.

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30 Days of character Building - Equinox Crew 7.) Is there one event or happening your character would like to erase from their past? Why?

Lionel: Not really.

Valére: ??? ??? ???

Absalom: His family dying is pretty high up on the list, for obvious reasons. 

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30 Days of character Building - Equinox Crew 6.) Describe your character’s happiest memory.

Lionel: Graduation ceremony at the Academy - he graduated at the top of his class. Unfortunately, as it turned out, nobody cared.

Valére: First time flying. He never stayed on solid ground for more than a few days at a time afterwards. 

Absalom: The first time he saw his newborn daughter. By the time the story starts, she’s long dead and so is his wife. 

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30 Days of character Building - Equinox Crew 5.) What’s your character’s ranking on the Kinsey Scale?

Lionel: About 5-ish...? Based solely on awkward crushes because it’s not like he ever actually does anything about those...

Valére: Hard to say, due to a serious lack of data. Not straight, at any rate.

Absalom: 3 or 4 or something. Veering heavily into demisexual territory, though, so make of that what you will.