I'm not sure this will be their final color scheme, and I need to work on their mech, but here's Jos (pronounced /ˈd͡ʒoʊs/, like "Joseph" minus the "eph")! I'll put a transcript of the notes in the first image at the end, but first, some other notes about them:
- I'm thinking they were one of the ones meant to interrogate sorXa (who at that point was probably thinking of herself as "Sorcha", since the "sorXa" spelling only came about once she decided to become a gynoid), and the one who made the decision to agree to sorXa's terms and let her join the resistance with a new gynoid body even though the others involved didn't trust her. Y'know, transfem solidarity and all that~
- The "their brother" referenced in the antenna design is Thomas Alexander "Alex" [Surname I haven't decided on yet], a former comrade of sorXa's and another supersoldier willing to defect.
- He's actually a few years younger than Jos, but they started transitioning young enough that it limited the extent of their growth, and he was subjected to the same hormonal treatments that made sorXa so dysphoric that she decided it was better to abandon her human body altogether, so he wound up a fair bit taller.
- Jos was actually the one meant to be sent away to the military, as the oldest """son""", but they ran away from home and joined the rebels, where they were able to transition like they wanted to. Alex never held it against them, though, especially once he reunited with them and found out Jos had transitioned in the opposite direction of what the procedures would have done to them.
- Alex is fairly transparently named for General Thomas-Alexandre Dumas, who he also looks up to quite a bit and likes to style himself after, but Jos themself is also named for a French revolutionary: Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges. I figured it would be fitting given the setting, and also the fact that I'm quite fond of General Alex Dumas anyway (I read The Count of Monte Cristo going into my freshman year of high school, which is in homage to him, and The Black Count in AP European History, which is a biography of him; on a related note, may Napoleon rot in Hell) and I figured it'd make sense to give the siblings a consistent naming scheme.
- Jos acts as something of a medical officer for the anthropoids of their resistance cell, as well as a general mechanical engineer, building and repairing weapons and vehicles. sorXa's armor and weapons were designed and built by them, for example (with input from sorXa, of course, since she's particular about those sorts of things).
- Their pronouns and overall gender are kind of an inversion of my own, actually - They prefer for people to use they/them for the most part, but only because they don't trust most people to be able to tell when they're feeling feminine enough to use she/her and feminine terms like "girlfriend" or "sister", but for people they're very close with (such as sorXa and Alex), they're fine with being addressed in a feminine manner (though it takes time for that closeness to develop of course - they've only just met sorXa, and they haven't seen Alex since they were kids).
- Aesthetically, I took some inspiration from Professor Bahari from MonHun, Marina from Splatoon (who also serves as a bit of a navigator during the Octo Expansion), and Aki Natsuko as she appears in Re: Cutie Honey (specifically in the finale, where she resigns from the police force and goes solo to help Honey; this was largely inspired by a line that kinda implies that Natsuko is maybe NB, but also the fact that sorXa herself takes some inspiration from Cutie Honey, and Natusko and Honey are definitely sapphic as hell)
I think it's also worth including a current WIP of their younger brother, Alex, since I did mention him a fair bit above:
Alex concept art (unarmored)
Transcript:
- Dr. Jos (pronounced like "Joseph" minus the "eph")
- they/she
- NB human
- (usually uses "they/them" but still likes feminine terms like "sister", "girlfriend", etc., but only from loved ones)
- "feather" antenna? (pointing at antenna on headset)
- ZX-inspired
- same shape as their brother's (Note: I've mostly finished designing their brother, seen above, but I need to finish his armor, which has an antenna like this styled as a feather in a cap)
- 2 "wheels" on R? (showing hinges on the headset for the goggles and mic)
- 1 "wheel" on L? (showing hinge on the headset for the goggles)
- telescope antenna instead? (showing an alternate design for the antenna where it telescopes like a portable radio's antenna)
- awake for 26 hours (pointing to a very sleepy chibi Jos)
- implant for estradiol (also has one on abdomen) (pointing to barely visible implant under skin on upper arm; could ostensibly be used for other medications if needed, but Jos uses it for estrogen)
- E (pointing to outline of implant under tank top on abdomen)
- very ratty hoodie (pointing to hoodie around waist, which is greasy and torn from being worn while working on machinery; note that they do actually own some nicer, cleaner clothes, but they're usually too busy to justify wearing them)
- perpetually tired from working themself to the bone
- "cargo jorts are comfy & easy to wear!!! >:/" (Note: I forgot it was specifically supposed to be demin shorts when coloring since I started this a while ago, hence them being grey here. Whoosp)
- likes tech a Normal Amount™
- acts a bit like an MM navigator for sorXa, or Otacon (Might also fill the same role for Alex? If not, then that would be a different character; ostensibly the two of them might be on different missions at the same time, necessitating two navigators)
- certified mech pilot (might not actually be "certified" per se since they've been living off the radar their whole adult life, but definitely still qualified at least; same goes for their doctorate, hard to go university properly as a rebel)
- helped design sorXa's new body (totally had NO gay thoughts while doing so, nope, none at all)
- (this is a lie) (pointing to previous statement)