HAPPY PRIDE.
Okay so first order of business is a shoutout to TeacupAngel, who guessed that Tananee was in the crowd. Cracked me up when I saw that.
Second order of business!
So I had a lot of lore about Tananee that I had planned to wait for the story to reveal, or for readers to pick up context clues, but honestly it felt disingenuous to 'hide' a part of Tananee that is so important to so many people. It felt like if I didn't explicitly say it, that I was leaving it out in case I wanted to walk back on it later, you know?
SO. In the spirit of Pride, Not only is Tananee a Grandfather, or Grampypede as he's already been nicknamed, he's also GAY. He has a husband! Who runs the shipping company with him. Husband is currently un-named, but has a medical condition that makes it unsafe for him to fly FTL. So he works on things from a Sanctuary (not this one), while Tananee flies the ship.
And secondly!! The one thing I had originally planned to let people figure out on their own... He's trans!! Notice the marks on his head? The blemish? Females of the species, Lenutala, have horns of varying designs. But the species is also an insectoid and they shed their exoskeleton. So everytime he molts, his horn starts to grow back, and he has to file it down, leaving a visible mark. I suppose people who don't read the text under each page might come to that conclusion independently, but for those that do... PRIDE YEAAAAH.
Shoutout to PerryThePeryton, my inside man, who helped me develop a backstory for Tananee that wasn't a gay tragedy.
Tananee is happily married and has *many* children, grandchildren, and maybe in a couple years - great-grandchildren.
Also, my gods I was smiling the entire time I was drawing the middle panel. I love this centipede so much.
