Aquamarine

 ~ ALBA BIRTHDAY ~

(Sorry... It's unfinished. This was a halfbody actually but I can't draw much on days with class so my fuel to finish this kinda dwindled hehe. I'm a little late to making this post because I've been swarmed with uni but ;-P I can edit post dates on blogger.)

October 13 is Alba's birthday and unfortunately it's not a Friday this year, but it looks like it will be in 2028! See you all in 2 years for the Alba special... But today, I'm going to tell you all about Alba and his beginnings.

Alba initially started as a concept, "unlucky diver" in around December 2024. At this point, Atlas, Dolly and the twins already existed. I had a few character concepts I'd made up just from short descriptions and "unlucky diver" was my favourite of the bunch.

As you can see in the tweet, I was originally going to make Alba into a girl, but I felt kinda bad hypothetically putting a girl through that kind of stuff so I decided to make the first guy OC for Aquamarine into this "unlucky diver" concept.

I really wanted to lean into the luck part of the character so I drew inspiration from characters like Kobeni (Chainsaw Man), Komaeda (you know him) and Qrow/Raven (RWBY). Just SUPER over the top extremely good or extremely bad luck. As a result, my obvious conclusion was that this character was gonna look pretty miserable... Like a total wet sop... Also I'm really into sexy long haired types so... of course... visual inspiration from the likes of Sephiroth (you also know him) and Snake (999). Middle parts are sexy apparently.

These were the first ever Albas ever. I took a lot of inspiration from Raven RWBY for his hair to look feathery. I feel like it's less obvious nowadays but.. hehe... I just don't draw as much/ or rather finish my drawings. I don't remember exactly when I decided to make Nina into Alba's paired mechanic, but it probably came naturally since I just made Nina. With her kind of personality, being paired with someone wimpy and easy to manipulate like Alba.... spells out a total mess. And I was probably entertained by this idea. I'm sorry Alba.

I remember really struggling with what to make him wear and he's gone through a few outfit variations. His current iteration is probably my favourite because it's lore compliant, looks handsome and it has a good backstory. Alba wears a suit like Nina's because they're both head diver/mechanic. Alba wears a black trenchcoat over his suit (cough)ifyouknowyouknowwhothiswasstolenfrom(cough)sdra2(cough) and it's originally his late father's. He grew into it and feels complete with it on.

The name "Alba" comes from "albatross", a sea bird. Albatrosses are associated with luck and I thought it was fitting for the setting. Also it's 4 letters long! Bad omen!!! His birthday was chosen because it can land on Friday the 13th and October is the month for Halloween. I'm sorry again Alba.

Despite how much I joke about Alba and that he might seem like purely a punching bag, his character is a lot more than that. He's a troubled person who happens to be paired with another troubled person and neither know how to navigate their feelings in a healthy way. Writing him is kind of cathartic in a way, and Raphael and Felissia actually started as an extension of his backstory. Raphael is Alba's diving mentor and Felissia was another OC in development whose story fit into it all. Aquamarine dominoes...

🖤 Happy birthday Alba! 🖤