Grrl Power #830 – The new hire
So I invented Lorlara for this page, because I realized that someone like Deus would definitely have one, if not several administrative assistants, and I've never shown any of his staff. Lorlara's first draft was a mousey, slightly terrified secretary who was clearly in over her head trying to learn her job, English, and Terran social norms, but... Dabbler did describe the Alari as Imperialist dickbags." Obviously no race is completely monolithic... Except the Borg or Cybermen or whatever, but so far, the only Alari characters we've seen are Sciona and the refugee woman on Fracture Station. Sciona's clearly a dickbag, the refugee was clearly not. Or maybe she wasn't simply because she wasn't in a position of power.
Anyway, I got halfway done writing this page and wanted a decisive swing back in the other direction. In my mind, the Alari were sort of vaguely not nice," but I hadn't solidified exactly what form that took. Now with Lorlara ranting about consolidating power and expanding influence, their whole society has more or less snapped into focus now. It's tempting to think of them as a bit Drow-like, but that's mostly because of their color scheme. They're not necessarily matriarchal, and they're not beholden to any arachnid themed deities. They have a multi-tiered caste system, with nobles, military, labor, and a few others. All the factions are pretty much obsessed with advancing from tier to tier, and in some ways, their society is remarkably merit based. But it's also terribly cutthroat, especially the higher a house or an individual within a house climbs.
Anyway, I'm so glad I changed my mind about Lorlara's personality, because she's suddenly my favorite character du jour. I'm considering modifying a few upcoming scenes to include her.
On a semi-related note, I think having white eyelashes would be awfully distracting. Obviously, if you just woke up white eyelashes one day, they'd be distracting. I mean I think you'd get glare off them in sunlight and stuff like that.
Double res version will be posted over at Patreon. Feel free to contribute as much as you like!