Nova Francesca

She’s neither a dog nor a human, but she’s all heart.

In Terraform, Nova is an irrepressible force of cheer, full of boundless energy and more questions than anyone can hope to answer. In some ways, she’s the catalyst of everything that happens, disrupting the lives of Amanda and Hero by unexpectedly appearing in their apartment on an exceptionally ordinary day. Exactly who or what she is remains a mystery – Nova is clearly not human, but there’s no clear explanation for her big, fluffy ears and her curly tail. She exhibits a lot of dog-like tendencies, and often looks to Amanda and Millenia for cues on how to act. Despite her seemingly youthful actions, there’s a spark of something much more than human or dog in those big, blue eyes of hers.

Nova’s design was heavily inspired by my parents dog, a Samoyed, who in turn influenced Nova’s long hair, pointed ears, and curly tail.  A few other personality quirks, such as her boundless energy and ability to instantly fall asleep nearly anywhere at any time, were also taken from the Samoyed’s puppy phase (or just any puppy in general). Nova also takes some inspiration from Nuku Nuku, from All Purpose Cultural Cat Girl Nuku Nuku,i n terms of an animal’s view of the world from a humanoid body. There’s a little nod to Nuku Nuku via a certain nickname for Nova that comes up in the comic, and Nova’s beachwear is inspired by Nuku Nuku‘s beach episode (because of course there was  beach episode).