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[abyssalzones]

I don’t know the name of their species sorry but the birds in escape velocity, do they have a natural colour patterning? I know Venus and Mars dye their feathers (not sure if you specified with Gienah) also generally does their species prefer to dye their feathers? Or is this something specific to these characters? Sorry if this is counts as spoiler territory I love xenofiction stories :-)

excellent question! the species you're referring to are Ikarians, the "avian" sapspecies of andromeda, and the natural coloration of their feathers is highly dependent on both geographic region and sexual dimorphism- though each condition can vary wildly, depending on genetics (some Ikarian geographic groups with more distinct sexual dimorphism may see intersex members of the species with a unique blend of feather pigmentation, though this is not applicable to all intersex Ikarians).

Gienah's feathers are not dyed, as she lives in a recently liberated desert community where the practice is relatively uncommon. However, that doesn't mean it's impossible, or that it's unheard of for various cultures on Alra-Mehra (the Ikarian home planet) to participate in feather dying, either by way of more naturally sourced dyes or chemical ones they produce themselves. In many cultures it's seen as a form of social expression on par with wearing a tie to denote your job, indicating the social position of your family lineage, or even to signify your availability as a nesting partner.

In Venus and Mars's respective cases however, both grew up in very socially-terran environments, and their access to feather dye would have been in commercialized forms that are purely cosmetic. There are a number of natural feather dye products that are supposedly less irritating, but they also tend to need re-applying far more often than their mass-produced counterparts. Many Ikarians raised off Alra-Mehra see it as a form of reclaiming cultural heritage, though the act of full-body feather dyeing is very uncommon back on their home planet, and would probably be viewed as a very off-worlder thing to do.

you can actually also see part of venus's natural coloration here, since they change it up a little later in the comic for... reasons.

thanks for the question!

[abyssalzones]

if this still falls enough under the purview of questions about the process i'd love to know if you have any particular inspirations wrt escape velocity you might want to share ! where you might've gotten the idea from or anything that might've influenced you and general things like that, or maybe something that helped you start to understand where you wanted to take the characters and story (up to this point) if that's still vague enough, and so on !

I've actually already talked about a number of influences for escape velocity in the past (namely the game starbound as the early Early foundational text that some of the main characters were created for), and I could easily rattle off a few more- the southern reach book series, everything everything's discography and the "get to heaven" album, the half life games, ETC- but maybe it's more interesting if I talk about what escape velocity has Not been inspired by. by that I mean in recent years I've noticed escape velocity solidifying as I realized I wasn't overly interested in doing a speculative bio heavy sci-fi work, as is in vogue right now, but something much more... anthropological.

this isn't even something new I've introduced to the writing, because it's already been there, whether that's reflected in my feelings about orientalism in works like dune or blade runner, the unspoken issues of race science in sci-fi, or the very complex stuff the comic gets into about intersectional issues through a sci-fi lens, such as nationalism and gender politics across cultures. It's more like... as I start to see the outline of what I really want to say, the less appropriate it feels to start neatly categorizing everything and dissecting the biological differences across each sapspecies. in general I would say escape velocity is a story about people and the concept of humanity, but without any humans in it, and as such the lines are a lot... blurrier. I am much more interested in utilizing sci-fi as an exercise in social theory, what we can say about our world through the means of another, than I am in practicing taxonomy.

with that in mind, I suppose you could say I've been very inspired by 1. reading sci-fi novels/watching sci-fi movies and thinking "hey this is kind of racist" and wondering what all there is to do or say about that aspect of the genre, and 2. reading social theorists such as Aimé Césaire (who taught similarly notable french afro-caribbean psychologist Frantz Fanon). I recommend "Notebook of a Return to a Native Land."

[abyssalzones]

7. what triggers nostalgia for them, most often? do they enjoy that feeling? gillssss

foods and tea blends imported from his home in southern Kaalera, mostly. thin parasitic eel noodles served in hot broth, so spicy that few other sapspecies can tolerate it...

but it's difficult to truly recreate the conditions of Gills' childhood. impossible, even, to imitate the feeling being on a different planet gives you. there are some attempts in the inner planets, whether it's in the form of communities fostered by ambymanders living in the area for generations or specialty centers where one can bathe and swim in an environment meant to recreate those deep wetlands only found on Qa. but emotionally, it's difficult. nostalgia brings him a strange sort of melancholy as I think he would be unsure if he'll ever truly be able to go back. not with the same eyes, anyway.

or, uh, 'eye', rather.