Chuva: three years later (bio and reference sheet)

Okay, okay, July 1st of this year hasn't technically happened yet...but it will soon enough! And when it does, Chuva will be officially three years old. This is the mondo-bio that I promised you all to commemorate this special occasion, including a brand spanking new and very detailed reference sheet, and a biography that tells you pretty much everything you'd ever want to know about her history and personality.

Now, keep in mind that this has been updated for my new series "Kirby and the Star Children" which explains why some time intervals and information might be a little different. For those who aren't familiar with Chuva, all of this history is made for my alternate universe fandom and is not really intended to mesh with the HnK world as-is. Also, long-ass piece of writing ahead.

Now, without further ado, allow me to present to you...

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Name: Chuva
Nicknames/Honorifics: Lady Chuva Knight or Lady Chuva by people who are trying to be excessively respectful; most commonly referred to as Chuva-san ("Miss Chuva")
Age: About 326 years old
Birthday: July 1st (actual creation date: between June 31st, 2009 and July 1st, 2009)
Species: Unknown (whatever that foot-torso species of Kirby characters is, I guess)
Gender: Female
Personality: Chuva can often make herself well-liked with her open mannerisms, good sense of humor, and confident attitude. She's also steadfast and determined, and when she becomes passionately involved in an issue, she won't let it go until it's resolved...and she often feels the need to continuously refer to it even when it's already been taken care of. This can be good, since when she has her heart set on doing the right thing, she won't allow herself to be deterred. The only problem is, she often doesn't have her heart set on doing the right thing, and in fact she's actually intent on doing exactly the wrong thing instead. She'll pursue anything fervently, whether or not it is actually morally acceptable, in the name of a good cause, or will hurt other people.
Chuva is a very ambivalent character, probably because of her passive-compulsive nature. She feels the need to act on every emotion she ever has and will often pursue a goal in the heat of the moment, not giving herself any time to think things through. For this reason, she also becomes preoccupied with matters such as petty revenge plots (under the guise of "restoring her honor") and upstaging other people in order to assert herself as superior. She also doesn't have much of a filter between her brain and her mouth and voices most thoughts that come to her mind, often stating directly what everyone else was only thinking -- and facing the consequences for it as a result. She has a strong, definite narcissistic streak and sometimes even engages in attention-seeking behaviors, although this is not something that she does constantly.
For as many people as there are who actually enjoy being around Chuva, there are at least an equal amount who find her to be extremely unpleasant. This is justified, as she has been frequently known to behave in a needlessly cruel manner, giving people bitter verbal tongue lashings when they don't really deserve it, or even resorting to physical violence in situations that don't call for it. She also seems to experience continuous mood swings, and even if she's acting pleasantly, oftentimes people are wary of anything that might set her off. Some people even think that her "nice" moments are nothing but an act. This is untrue, however, and since her emotions run both ways, the right situations can make her genuinely sentimental, caring, protective, and even a touch motherly.
Chuva is big on physical contact, both in positive and negative scenarios. With people who she's friends with, she's very quick to start hugging, putting an arm around their shoulders, giving them a playful punch on the arm, et cetera; but if she feels threatened or provoked to anger, she will attack them aggressively, even for a minor offense.
History: Several hundred years before the events of Hoshi no Kaabii, a coup was staged against Nightmare's tyrannical rule over the universe, and it failed miserably. On every planet, the inhabitants were defeated and discouraged, thinking that they would never have their freedom from the Emperor of Darkness. But suddenly, out of nowhere, many ordinary people on various planets were granted in their dreams the knowledge of a prophecy. This was what gradually became known as the Prophecy of the Star Children. Here's a part of it:
Hear me, father,
Hear me, son,
Mother, daughter, everyone,
I shall tell you, I shall say,
Of the heroes come to stay.
Nightmare o'er the stars now reigns,
Takes our pleasures, brings us pains,
But across the universe,
There will come a range of births.
Babies, doubles, borne in two,
Each one noble, brave, and true,
Each one loyal to the other,
Bond like sibling, friend, and lover...
The prophecy went on to say that these babies were beings called Star Children, who had been sent by the gods themselves. The Star Children had a whole range of powers, including enhanced senses, natural fighting abilities, and reduced aging (they actually age 10 times slower than regular people, so it is still possible for them to die of old age). But their most distinct feature was the fact that they were born in pairs called "doubles." These doubles always consisted of one male child and one female child, never two of the same gender, and they shared a special mental connection that allowed them to exchange thoughts, feelings, and memories. This mental connection was so strong that during the only time it was ever severed, when one double was unconscious, the remaining double would often say that they felt "like they were missing half of themselves." Their relationships were extremely close in a way that no normal people could understand; it was most often described as being stronger than best friends, siblings, and lovers combined, although there was another element to it that no one could seem to articulate.
Most importantly, the prophecy stated that these Star Children were destined to grow up to become Star Warriors. It was said that a demon beast attack would occur while they were still children ("Demon beasts from wide and far/Soon shall drive them from their star"), at which point they would be able to escape in starships before entering a 200-year hibernation. Their starships were equipped with Warp Stars that would guide them as they slept, bringing all of the Star Children together so that they could realize their destiny as Star Warriors and form the Galaxy Soldier Army.
This is where Chuva comes in.
All of the Star Children were born at exactly the same time, and Chuva was no exception to this rule. She was born on the planet Azulis, in a tiny little town called Ulu Village. Her parents, Hiro and Saki, were both craftspeople, and they were more or less pacifists. They never imagined that their daughter would be one of the legendary Star Children.
Chuva also had a double. His name was Meta, and he was born to the town mayor Metus and his wife Gamma. Metus had actually been the one to receive the Prophecy of the Star Children in a dream, so when he heard that another child had been born at exactly the same time as his son, he was elated. Meta and Chuva were proven to be doubles, and Metus made it his goal to monitor their abilities closely and start them in training as soon as possible. Hiro and Saki were a bit more reluctant to allow their daughter to partake in such things, as well as wary because the prophecy proclaimed that they would lose her after a few years, but they didn't interfere with the mayor's plans. After all, they wanted to see Nightmare overthrown as much as anyone else.
Meta and Chuva both seemed to be hyper-intelligent from birth, and they were much more physically adept then their peers despite the smallness caused by their delayed aging. They were extremely close and never wanted to be separated, not even when they went home at night for a few hours to sleep. As soon as they were able to, they started enthusiastically engaging in duels with wooden swords and other play weapons, as well as training with a proper martial arts teacher. They didn't socialize with other children their age, partly because they didn't see the point in it when they had each other, and partly because they thought themselves to be above it. You see, the grown-ups were constantly going on and on about how they were The Chosen Ones and Our Saviors Who Shall Defeat Nightmare and The Esteemed And Legendary Star Children and things like that. So Meta and Chuva knew that they were special. They got all kinds of privileges, such as getting their education from a private tutor instead of going to regular school with the other kids, and they spent their free time learning about all of the cool fighting techniques that they'd be able to do and all of the vicious demon beasts that they would defeat once they became Star Warriors. Long story short, they were treated in such a manner that they started to believe that they were better than everybody else.
Things began to change during the year that they turned eight. First, near the beginning of the year, Meta's father perished quite suddenly and unexpectedly. Then Chuva began facing some verbal abuse from her mother, since Saki had a temper and a bit of an aggressive streak (which Chuva inherited, of course). Saki was mostly trying to cope with the emotions that came from knowing that her daughter would be taken from her soon, but Chuva didn't see it that way. And then, finally, the demon beasts came. The attack destroyed the entire village and killed many citizens, including Meta's mother, but both Meta and Chuva managed to make it into their starships. Just as they were about to take off and enter their 200-year hibernations, Chuva realized that her Warp Star was missing.
It was too late to stop the launch. Meta was able to rendevous with the rest of the Star Children, but Chuva's ship only drifted through space aimlessly, searching for its missing Warp Star. For a while Meta still vainly hoped that she would arrive one day, but eventually even he gave up hope, and he learned to live without the bond that they had shared.
By now, you can probably guess that Meta became Meta Knight. He and the rest of the Star Warriors formed the Galaxy Soldier Army and attempted to fight off Nightmare's menace for one hundred years. They recruited ordinary people to help them as well, volunteers who were named Galaxy Soldiers, but in the end their resistance wasn't strong enough. Most of the GSA was killed, and the few who made it through wound up scattered across the galaxy. Meta Knight, believing himself to be the only survivor, tried to find a new way to put his skills to use. He eventually landed on Popstar, and then Kirby came, and I'm sure that you all know this part.
So, what ever happened to Chuva?
Not too long after Kirby's arrival in Pupupuland, Chuva's starship finally landed near Kabu, and she woke up for the first time in over 300 years. Using their link as doubles, it didn't take her long to find Meta Knight. He was shocked to see her again after so long, of course, and since he had long since grown accustomed to shutting out interpersonal relationships, he knew that it would be hard for him to get used to being intimate with another person again. He wondered if he would actually be able to handle their connection again at all. Chuva simply assumed that everything would be fine and they'd resume their close relationship as doubles, and everything would be just as it had when they were children. She was wrong, and as Meta Knight struggled to readjust to her presence and Chuva tried to get used to life in Pupupuland and a job in Castle Dedede, they discovered something dismaying: their long separation had turned them into almost polar opposites.
Meta Knight's 100 years in the Galaxy Soldier Army had, of course, had a huge impact on his personality. It gave him his stoic and levelheaded nature, made him good at controlling his emotions, and also humbled him. He was able to realize that just being a Star Child didn't make him so special, and that he didn't matter very much in the grand, universal scheme of things. And when he saw how much harm Nightmare caused to everyone and everything, his main goal became seeking justice and triumphing over the Emperor of Evil. In short, he grew up. But Chuva...she really didn't.
Chuva, of course, had no memories or experience during her 318-year hibernation. For her, one minute she was an eight-year-old girl, and the next she was an adult woman. As an added shock, her double -- who she thought she knew better than anyone -- now had a completely different personality, to the point where he didn't even seem like the same person to her. So just as Meta Knight's experience shaped his persona, Chuva's lack of experience shaped hers.
She never had the chance to grow up, so her immaturity has persisted into adulthood. The reason why she always strives to be the center of attention is because her background as a Star Child made her grow used to being the center of attention. While her behaviors would be excusable in a young girl, as a grown woman, she just comes across as very nasty and selfish. That's also why she's much more of a prideful braggart than Meta Knight and why she doesn't always do the right thing. Meta Knight saw Nightmare's evil up close and wants to achieve justice, but for Chuva, everything is still just a game where you win by killing the most demon beasts.
Star Warriors actually seem to need battles in order to become balanced people. Without them, you get someone imbalanced...in other words, you get Chuva.
Current Situation: Chuva works as a guard in Castle Dedede alongside her double Meta Knight and his two familiars Sword and Blade. She assists with Meta Knight's indirect training of Kirby, as well as with fighting off the occasional demon beast. She has had the chance to put her training to good use, although she's obviously not quite as skilled or refined as Meta Knight. (He does, however, occasionally give her new tactics to use through their mental connection.) Fumu and Bun like her because she's much less secretive than Meta Knight and is willing to tell them things about Kirby and the GSA, even if she only knows about things like that because her double told her about them. Oddly enough, Kirby seems to be the one person who can bring out the best in her; while Meta Knight has tried his hardest to avoid getting attached to the baby Star Warrior, Chuva adores him and often acts very motherly and even more mature around him.
Her key relationship, of course, is with Meta Knight, and the two of them usually don't get along so well. They tend to grate on each other's nerves constantly, since both of them are on opposite "extreme" ends of the personality spectrum. Meta Knight doesn't like the fact that Chuva is so immature, self-centered, and overly dramatic, and she doesn't like how cold and aloof he always is. They often quarrel and have been known to stay irritated with each other for days at a time. However, they do genuinely care about each other as doubles, and they will have their occasional nicety moments as well. Among the traits that they have in common are: neither of them suffer fools gladly; they both strive to come across as strong and capable all the time, never wanting to reveal weakness to anyone else; and they both have a sweet tooth. (Good thing Meta Knight keeps a bowl of candy in his room throughout the entirety of Hoshi no Kaabii.)
Most of the villagers, as well as King Dedede and Escargon, think that Meta Knight and Chuva are either dating or married. In truth, they have never had any sort of romantic connection whatsoever and intend to avoid romance with each other for as long as they live. However, they will sometimes play along and pretend to be dating in order to escape certain conversations with the villagers, mostly because they get fed up with trying to explain the complex relationship between doubles all the time.
Notes/Other:
- Chuva shares many abilities with Meta Knight, mostly because one double cannot be more powerful than the other. His experience allows him to typically perform better than she does in battle, but she has no trouble keeping up. Her eyes change color on the same spectrum as his, although oddly enough, they actually seem to change less often than his do...probably because she doesn't wear a mask and has other ways to express her emotions besides eye color. She can touch Galaxia without being electrocuted, although she is not the chosen wielder and the sword chooses not to "talk" to her.
- She wears the same basic armor as Meta Knight because doubles are supposed to wear similar uniforms in order to visually establish them as a pair. The outfit has been adjusted for her build, of course, and she also wears a headdress instead of a mask. There are a few reasons for this: showing her face is more appropriate for her personality, it's mentioned over the course of my upcoming series (as well as in Season 1.5, way back when) that women in the GSA are not supposed to wear masks, and the mask is Meta Knight's "thing" and I didn't want to intrude on that.
- You might notice that her eyes are colored slightly differently from the other characters in the Kirby anime. They're supposed to have more yellow in them so that they look "luminous," since her eyes are supposed to look almost as if they glow of their own accord. This is not a feature unique to her -- most Star Children have "glowing" eyes, and if you've seen my designs for unmasked Meta Knight, then you know that his eyes are colored similarly.
- "Chuva" means "rain" in Portuguese. I didn't know this at the time that I created her, and I did not choose her name because I thought that it had any special meaning.
- Chuva's design was originally inspired by Silica. In fact, watching episode 60 was the very factor that made me want to create an OC in the first place.

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...now, how many of you saw that and went "TL;DR"?

Let's talk about the reference sheet for a second. The pictures were actually sketched on several sheets of paper, inked and colored in Corel Painter, and then compiled using MS Paint (because Painter is not good at that shit, although I recently got a free trial of Painter 12, so maybe if I knew how to use it I'd have better luck). The two pictures at the top next to her name are: the first picture of Chuva that I ever drew (left) and the most recent picture of her in her regular armor before I started working on this bio (right; it's the image from the "Blondes Have More Fun" wallpaper, although technically that image was drawn in 2011 and given a digital color-over a few weeks ago).

There's a column of some basic expressions over at the left: sad, surprised, and angry/embarrassed. All of these have notes to the side about how Chuva emotes and how to draw her properly and et cetera. To the right of that is a profile shot, a sample picture of Chuva in battle with a craptastic sword, a sample picture of her laughing, and a scale image giving her approximate size next to Meta Knight. I figured that I needed to show her height somehow, and that was the best way I could think of to do it.

Closer to the bottom, you have a basic reference image of her in her regular clothes (left) and then some deviations from her regular clothes (right). You can see her body shape underneath her armor, what her nightgown looks like, and how I alter her proportions when she wears any kind of a dress or skirt.

Those boxes along the bottom show her color scheme, with appropriate labels.

In case the notes show up too small, here's what they say in order:

"Use eyelids and lines above/below eyes instead of eyebrows"
"Pupils shrink and eyelashes recede"
"'Anime-style' flush replaces normal blush"
"Teeth pop on as needed"
"Hair will hang differently without headdress to hold it back"
"Feet are smaller under shoes"
"Proportions will change whenever she wears a dress or skirt..."
"...although shorter skirt = closer proportions to regular design"

...and I think that's it.

If you have any more questions...just ask.


Hoshi no Kaabii (C) Nintendo/HAL Labs
Chuva (C) Me