Character design thoughts (long) (the basics)
So, I was talking elsewhere to people about a character I've had for a very long time, one of my favorite character concepts yet one who I've not yet managed to really write out a world around.
Aditi, aka Aaron, is a two-bodied ferrets. He has two complete bodies, independent and not physically connected in any way. This led to some awkwardness growing up; until she was around four or five years old, her parents thought he was twins, and had been raising him as such. Multi-bodied individuals are not unheard of in this setting, but they're sufficiently uncommon that it just wasn't something Aditi's parents really considered a possibility at first.
Being raised as two people simultaneously had some effects on her mentality. For one, as he was raised simultaneously as a boy and as a girl (one of his bodies is afab, and the other amab), she manages to be genderqueer and nonbinary (bigender, specifically, both male and female at once, but emphatically not something in between or half-and-half) and yet also technically kind of cis at the same time.
This, incidentally, is why the pronouns are weird here. He uses both she/her and he/him semi-randomly intermixed. It's also why he has two names.
While she has one "male" body and one "female" body, she doesn't generally care that much about gendered presentation, and dresses both bodies from the same wardrobe. He does have an eye for fashion, making sure to look good, but she doesn't go out of his way to keep the masculine outfits on her masculine body--he can absolutely look fantastic in a dress whichever body wears it.
Aditi is technically still legally considered two people, mostly because she just can't be bothered to go through the whole process of getting that updated. It doesn't generally cause problems.
Character design thoughts (long) (Extra tidbits)
@Felthry That's a really neat concept, although I can see why it's hard to find a context to inhabit it right. (And probably why it's hard to envision the whole of the setting, if this kind of thing happens enough people can recognize it when it does.)
Character design thoughts (long) (the basics)
@Felthry I love this concept it’s like. Opposite of plural in a way?
Just such a good one?? Do you have more about this setting? Or more characters
I just love this :0
💙
re: Character design thoughts (long) (the basics)
@Doggo I don't really but if you have specific questions I can answer them!! and yes Aditi is very good and I love her
re: Character design thoughts (long) (the basics)
@Felthry okay! What kinda ferret is she?
As in what fur colours does he have on his bodies. More wild polecat ferret or domestic ferret blonde for examp,e :0
💙
re: Character design thoughts (long) (the basics)
@Doggo I had kinda been assuming domestic ferret colors but maybe black-footed ferret 'cause they're pretty?
And I mean. Marbled polecats are beautiful, but I don't think that particular patterning suits this character too well, it's a bit busy
re: Character design thoughts (long) (the basics)
@Doggo but like, there are all kinds of different mustelids out there, like the siberian mink or the least weasel, both of which are really pretty
now I don't know what species I want her to be D:
re: Character design thoughts (long) (the basics)
@Felthry ...ah.
Yes one of the main flaws of mustalids is
‘Dammit, you’re all too pretty!’
We find this issue in our projects too for ferret picking :S
🖤
re: Character design thoughts (long) (the basics)
@Doggo ahah, you're not wrong!
Character design thoughts (long) (Extra tidbits)
Aditi owns and operates a bakery in the closest thing his small college town has to a downtown, and lives in an apartment above it.
She's very close with his older brother, a tauric transmasculine demiboy.
The best way to describe her mental situation is one consciousness spanning two minds. She can have two completely separate trains of thought at once, or devote his full attention to each of two different things at once. Another person(s) with exactly the same setup could well have developed into two distinct individuals with a very strong mental link; Aditi just didn't.
Though he has two names, and responds equally well to either, he prefers Aditi in general.