#tomilan

Amera: Cheetah

Firstly and most obviously- cheetahs are built to run, not fight. When faced with danger, they unerringly choose flee (unless they’re protecting their young but even then it can get iffy)

Cheetah males (such as Amera’s) may choose to live with their siblings their whole lives

Cheetahs are a symbol of transformation and migrate as prey moves

Tomilan: Iguana

OKAY THIS ONES WEAK i pictured tomilan with an iguana, decided it was perfect, and needed to do research after oops (the major issue seems to be THEYRE associated with a more laid-back vibe but like.. its fine its not that deep)

Iguanas are very in tune and aware of their surroundings, and can become overwhelmed

Iguanas shed their skin.. transformation… trans….

Lunain: Alligator

Alligators are good mothers, who take care of their young beyond simply laying eggs. Yes, Lunain is a horrible mother figure, but she does try to be there for Amera, and she believes herself to be a good mother.

Alligators are very powerful animals, but they do need to be sheltered as young.. yeah.

Crocodiles are symbols of corruption. I’ve decided to also apply this to alligators cause I can do what I want.

Furthermore, alligators also represent cunning and foresight as ambush predators. Lunain is very good at stealth and seeking opportunities (less so at patience but shh)

The impact of Tomilan’s childhood

tomilan knows how to speak mandolorian, thanks to her mandolorian mother (her name is panagiota she’s kiffar ill expand on her.. eventually)

anyways her moms always called each other mesh’la (beautiful) cause… yeah.

so OBVIOUSLY she calls amera mesh’la (this is set while amera is still with andromache) and she’s in shambles everytime (whether it’s on purpose or not) and tom is blushing and stuttering and amera notices but she doesn’t know what it means

(amera does know small amounts of mando’a from her time spent with tom, and is eventually fluent after making an effort to learn it (around two years into the war as she and star get closer))

ANYWAYS she asks Vormur what it means and he’s like… who’s been calling you beautiful? and this is pre-kiss so she just. amera.lesbian.exe has stopped responding.

POST kiss- (and also post tom’s moms leaving-) amera calls tomilan mesh’la and tomilan just stops. and ofc amera is like shit because she doesn’t actually know what it means? was vormur making fun of her?

but tomilan hasn’t heard anyone speaking in mando’a in so long. and so she’s just like. say it again?

and amera does.

amera

open shoulders/ off the shoulders. normally includes some form of drapery for both her scarf and jedi vibes. pulls in at the waist and go out from there. tends to have sleeves, normally bell/ flared. normally teal, greys and browns. (when i draw her later in life she wears more cheerful colours to express ~growth~ but it’s not technically part of her pallette)

tomilan

what happens to bug?

in the canon post order 66 stuff, bug wants to split up, because they believe that having three jedi together will only bring them trouble. (which.. they’re not wrong about.) you can see that a bit in this comic

it’s amera and tomilan both saying “no, we need to stay together” that convinces bug to stay. once amera leaves bug can’t justify their own presence putting tomilan in danger, and leaves as well.

what happens to lyra?

GREAT QUESTION! i don’t know the answer. or rather, i do, but id rather not think about it.

i am a terrible writer because i’m awful at putting my carachters in pain. when i think of the bad au, honestly, my mind skips over lyra. she’s not mentioned in anything i’ve written for it.

in actuality, if i was properly writing this and i was FORCED to acknowledge lyra’s existence… i can think of a few outcomes.

she’d probably be hanging out with tomilan. (now that i think about it. this blog IS stream of consciousness oopsies) tomilan would be unwilling to leave her for a whole variety of reasons. (this isn’t what i have written, because as i stated.. i’m terrible at thinking about this stuff.)

however this Is a bad au… so yeah lyra’s dead. actions have consequences and all that jazz.

there are a few things to note about this-

the driving forces of this au is amera’s guilt (over her andromache’s death, her suvivor’s guilt, her guilt of ever putting tomilan in danger) and her selfishness (she’s tends to focus on absolving herself of Possible guilt) and these both result in her running away from her problems, and of course Literally running away here.

because of her reasoning for leaving (not putting others in danger) she would Not bring Lyra with her in this au. i Love making alternate au versions, but i try to draw the line at things being “out of carachter” or just lacking solid in universe motivation.

(lyra, in canon and in lots of aus (most notably the modern au and the marvel au) is one of the few things that amera is ACTIVELY selfless about. lyra is her daughter, and amera would do anything for her without hesitation. what changes in the Bad au is a) amera leaves almos immediately post order 66, and hasn’t formed that connection with her yet, and more importantly b) amera also leaves tomilan. tomilan, while amera still struggles with selfishness, is another person that makes amera self-sacrificing (not quite selfless, yet.) amera leaves tomilan, and this is the bigger issue at this point, and thus has no issue leaving lyra.)

this leaves us with tomilan and lyra. (as bug is gone)

the timeline of this has amera leaving while tomilan is at her mothers’ house.

the bad au is about amera leaning into her bad habits, of running away and being selfish.

and while leaving tomilan with no one, when amera knows she has major abandonment issues, and not saying goodbye, probably wasn’t the Best move.. it was justifiable! tomilan, by all rights, iS safer in a post order 66 galaxy without a jedi girlfriend! it could be very easily considered a selfless move!!!

so now tomilan, who has been a passive carachter in being left by amera and bug, has a choice! leave lyra with her mothers for a life of the stability she was always craving, or take lyra with her as she continues to move around and fight the empire.

so of course tomilan, Abandonment Issues Central, takes the kid with her! tomilan was left behind by Everyone in her life, including the people she now has the option of leaving a child with. of course she’s not going to leave that kid too!!

was this the Wrong choice? no! tomilan was giving a child unconditional love, and someone who would stick by them no matter what! something she never had! what it wAs, however, was tomilan leaning into Her Own bad habits, which are handling everything by herself and refusing help.

there are a few versions of the bad au, but they all have the same premise- post order 66, amera realizes that her presence as a jedi puts tomilan in danger, and leaves her. (i have a bit of writing finished for how she confronts this in canon, so i might post a “branch” of that later)

anyways later, they are reunited.

version one!

amera has joined the rebellion (reluctantly, and against her better judgment) and is running missions with the ghost crew.

by chance, she meets tomilan (also sorta part of the rebellion but it’s not too relevant) on a mission.. and etc. there’s a bit of writing for that posted!

version two has a few alternates, but is essentially the reverse.

tomilan is with the rebellion and the ghost crew. amera is sorta on her own.

here is a fairly old comic for the “basic” version

tomilan has moved on with her life, but can’t help but asking around about jedi. a new jedi joins the ranks of the rebellion, so tomilan asks for an introduction.. etc.

in the un-basic version (i need to rename it and i HOPE i will but that’s what i thought with the Bad Au and here we are) tomilan is hanging out in a rebellion base, when she hears a commotion in the hangar. popping out at the sounds of an apparent fight, she hears a voice she recognizes.

the rebellion had launched a rescue mission, breaking some rebellion members out of a prison. they’ve picked up a few anti-imperial prisoners along the way, along with one known only as “the jedi” to both the prisoners and the guards alike.

she’s injured in the break out, and when wakes up in a new place, after so long in the “care” of imperials, she lashes out. tomilan hears a voice she recognizes, and runs out into the hangar just as the rebellion plans to sedate her.

tomilan is blind!

i feel like i should outright state this, it’s something that feels obvious to me but that’s because she’s my character. so.

tomilan being blind was decided super very early on-

^ one of my earliest designs for her

^genuinely the first comic i have of them i believe- text reads “i just need help looking for something” “well i won’t be much help with that!” .. she’s been making blind jokes since the beginning. (PLEASE IGNORE THE ART ITS SO OLD.. march 2020 😭😭)

anyways yes. tomilan has no light perception, the most severe form of blindness. (it’s worth noting that this rare, and is not the only form of blindness.)

some info off wookiepedia:

originally, i had tomilans montrals growing to compensate for her loss of sight, but that’s just not how science works. how science Does work, is rewiring the way sensory input is received and becoming more sensitive to it. (paraphrasing from this article) so yes, tomilan still uses her montrals to replace her vision in a way that other togrutas don’t.

(and YES I CAME UP WITH THIS BEFORE I WATCHED DAREDEVIL OKAY I THOUGHT OF IT FIRST-)

she does also get a “seeing eye droid”

(it’s the same one that the lady has in the mandolorian- i forget her name)

in the story universe- tomilan gets one cause they’re cheap and accessible to her as a mechanic- in real universe it’s because i find them fun to draw.

she programs him a bit to be more helpful to her, he helps with reading things and minute mechanical things mostly.

anyways. tomilans my fave best girl. :)

bonus:

when i have more time on my hands i’ll go deeper into amera’s Lightsaber Lore (of which there is a considerable amount) but what is relevant to this tidbit is that there is considerable trauma that amera has attached to her own lightsaber.

because of this, amera is Never parted with her lightsaber, and absolutely no one but her touches it, much less uses it. she does trust tomilan enough to let her handle it (resulting in tomilan always having a fidget toy available when she’s hanging out with her gf, and also some fun instances of amera just hurling a deadly weapon at tomilan so she can use it while amera shoots people)

eventually, tomilan, mechanic that she is, makes it so that only she and amera can ignite the lightsaber, via encoding it to their palms, (à la skyfall komodo dragon gun) assuaging some of amera’s worry.

amera does come back and get it fit to Star’s (and yes, clones do have different fingerprints i looked it up)

anyways i just think it’s a fun little detail. it’s ameras ultimate show of trust. thé her not trusting herself with a lightsaber to her trusting others pipeline is near and dear to me.