Luna Life

And like I'm also sitting there on the table, staring because what the fuck. And the host is there and she sees everything of course. It's her fucking house. It's her food. And sometimes she doesn't answer and sometimes she does. Usually, when she answers, she's nice. She says not to worry, it'll be out soon. Or that she's working hard in the kitchen and she doesn't know how long it'll take but she's doing her best. Yeah the host says she's doing her best to the rudest fucking piece of shit that just came into her house and act like it's his.

And I'm sitting on my side of the table, enraged and stabbing myself with a fork, because I can't just leap over the table and tackle the guy. This isn't my house. She's already answered and she did it nicely. She must not want this to escalate. Or maybe she hasn't answered and it's already old. I don't want to drench up something that might make her uncomfortable. If I help her in a way that makes her more stressed, then that's not helping at all.

So I try to compliment her instead. I loved the food after all, and I'd love to hear how she's cooking. I love hearing all the little steps the host took to get there, what she's planning. Sometimes I guess and whether I'm wrong or not, I try to tell her how nice it made me feel. I love hearing what inspired her. Honestly, I also just love hearing what she likes. When someone writes they bring a piece of themselves in it. And chances are, if you love the writing, there's something you love about the person.

And I know it can be hard. I'm not always good at leaving comments as I would like to be. It has nothing to do with the quality of writing, there are just some days when you can better describe what made you freak out in happiness and some days where it's not as easy. And I mean, no matter my poetic waxing, I'm very shy. I worry often how to write even something that is essentially intended to be solely complimentary. Because what if it comes across as weird?

(I don't like creating while I'm absorbing, so I always write after. But after reading sometimes I'm so full of feelings I can't articulate everything well enough. And then I think this person deserves a better comment than the few phrases I could currently manage, but that's a bad excuse even if it is well intentioned. Because all that it means is that currently that person doesn't have me thanking them.)

But a comment that has nothing but badgering for updates in it? That's unacceptable.

I saw one person say they don't generally answer comments anymore, not wanting to come across badly to readers and I'm seething, because who fucking made you feel that. You're a joy, a delight, you make the world a better place with what you do, who the fuck made you feel that was anything short of praiseworthy?

And it doesn't matter that this specific case might not have anything to do with this type of commenters. What matters is that someone only interacting with you to get more without so much as a thank you for what you're giving them makes you feel shitty.

I know that. You know that. Everyone knows that. The people who don't know that could try to power up their empathy and understand, because it's not that difficult.

This isn't my house, I can't just start a fistfight. I never have.

She’s a longlimbed wolf creature with starlight in her hair. She looks incredibly cool. But what I love most about her is her framing.

ALLOW ME TO EXPLAIN! This will take a while.

Like I said we’re in a world of monsters. Our main characters are also monsters. However our main characters are, comparitively, weak. An imp, a fish guy with half skin invisble (you’ll see), a satyr that looks a lot cooler than he is and a vampire that limits his blooddrinking and through that his power. The strongest people in our squad so far are a cyclops girl and the biology project.

What’s important is 1) the fish/invisble skin guy called Nemo is not strong and 2) the intermission chapter is his chapter. Out of his perspective.

Got it? Great enough preamble. Back to Echo. This is her introduction:

Monstrous. And then you have the next page, that I already showed and you see a dapper young lady. And you’re like: Okay author. You got me. You got me thinking this was the big bad wolf.

But see, they did get you.

Nemo is as surprised as you are that she’s suddenly in his bathroom, but he shakes it off pretty quick and they have an amicable exchange. He needs to go to her house, because his dad pushes of PI work on him or something. Unimportant. The important thing is this happens:

And you’re like Oh does he have a little crush? So far in the comic Nemo (and yes, that is him, see through until water remember) has never really looked shy or flustered like this. And we’ve seen him pretty often.

And then she says: “You’ve got me thinking of frog legs... And I say that in the fondest way.“ And he reacts like this:

And you’re like wait. Is he afraid of her? Does he think she’ll eat him? Is that why he’s so uncharacteristically shy? And...

Yeah. She’s a big wolf and he’s a small fish. He may not run away at sight. But maybe his screaming and suddenly falling on the floor upon her suddenly appearing wasn’t only about the suddeness.

Anyway, they get to her house, she introduces him to her friends, the school’s literature club, they go into the office, they find a decapitated head.

Everyone’s terrified. Except... no. Only Nemo is terrifed. The others are pretending. And Nemo notices.

He thinks they’re gonna eat him and they’re not doing super much to reassure him that they won’t. Echo specifically.

She’s always shown from so low. It makes sense. Nemo is small and she is hella tall. But there’s more to it, it’s not that they’re always shown side by side and Nemo is a dwarf. She’s towering over him. She leans over him, closely even as it unnerves him. Often she’s just a silhouette of starlight, a monster you’re too scared to even look at directly. Whenever she’s in focus, so are her claws. So are her teeth.

Anyway, he figures out part of it all, specifically the part where they are all duping him.

He runs.

And Echo pursues.

And let me tell you, she certainly looks like the big bad wolf.

Her shape is beastly, she moves not only faster but in a way where she seems to not be bound to space. She catches him with one claw that covers his entire upper body.

She breathes starlight and tells him that he can’t run away. He has to make it to the end of the story.

And then Nemo hits you with this out of nowhere:

Which frankly slots in more with what’s cool about this comic than just Echo, so uh, topic of another post.

Anyway, look at Echo again. A scary silhouette. And when she’s not her teeth come out. Her eyes are only shown when it would be scary.

Anyway, she’s a good person. Her father and Nemo’s dad set this up as a birthday gift for her (she enjoys mystery novels). She saves our protagonists in a later chapter in a really cool way, where again she seems to be the only one (beside the attacking villain) not entirely bound to space and time.

And this is such a long explanation to say... this is new to me. I have never seen a female character, human/monster/demon/angel or whatever, shown like this. When a female character terrifies a male main character there’s always something else about it. Sometimes it’s comedic, a cute girl that has a scary look in her face or something. Usually it’s seductive, a woman dominatrix kind, whose actions are more about turning on the reader than the male character in question.

Echo has none of that. She’s an elegant character, who doesn’t so much switch into a beastly mode as much as you think she already is one all the time. She’s framed as someone who has the potential to always be terrifying. At any moment, though it wouldn’t be a snap-decision for her. And she doesn’t do much to dispel the notion, no over the top apologies about scaring anyone and it almost looks like she enjoys the occasional scaring. When Nemo asks her if she eats frogs, she says “Not the cute ones” and at the end when he asks whether ‘really‘ no one is going to be eaten she says “Only if you want to.“

But it’s very much the framing. She doesn’t say a lot of threatening things, but the few things she does say is lingered on. And since it’s all out of Nemo’s perspective and he is, of all our protagonist, the one with the most functional  self-preservation instinct, we see her as very much dangerous.

In conclusion: I love her! She’s great. I stan. etc. etc.