Hello, Giovanna!

Being the Mouse Clicker to a family of characters is a little like being the daddy of a family - I don't believe in favoring one over another, and I try not to. But once in a while a character just fascinates me too much. I thought of putting this off until Christmas...then of putting it off until Thanksgiving...then I just gave up. Here she is!

Pandora's mature and lovely Mamma has a name, at last! ...AND her own dA account as well: _{Hey, go give her a big Buon Giorno hug...}

Giovanna is Italian American, a native of Naples. (In honor of our Neapolitan friend ~Lord-Crios). She was born in Naples, some time in the early 1950s, and spent some of her childhood there - apparently enough to acquire some Neapolitan street-smarts, which paid off handsomely for her as an older girl and teenager growing up in the urban U.S. of the 60s and 70s - a time when the American crime rate was approaching its maximum.


Fictional or virtual characters have two kinds of background. There's their history in their own world - I just told you that part. Then there's their history in this world - the story of their creation. Most people other than the author and the most devoted fans presumably don't care about that - but you're all artists, right? and many of you have your own characters, so I hope you can relate to the following.

Daughter Pandora existed on my hard drive long before we came to dA - since late 2000, to be exact [link] . Even before that ancient date, I had been working on the character who eventually became Pandora. Those "Pre-Pandoras" weren't quite memorable enough to become permanent OCs, but I always liked them.

That meant that a few months ago, when Pandora expressed interest in her family, there was a nice collection of almost-ready-made family members - female characters who looked a lot like Pandora but were definitely not identical. Older sisters Phyllis and Phoebe [link] are two of those; the "young" Mamma in [link] is another.

Then Pandora wanted me to show her with her mamma, as they both look today. That meant creating an older version of Mamma. I won't go into all the technical details of "aging morphs" and other methods of making a 3D character look older - I'll just hope you enjoy the result!

As you see her in her latest images, Giovanna is not simply an age-enhanced version of a Poser figure from 2000; I've modernized her in some ways. She has the advanced Victoria 4.2 body (2008) combined with her original Poser 4 "Posette" face (1999 or so - with age enhancements, of course).


So that's about her appearance. As a Chronophontian, she is not just a face and body - there's a PERSON behind those, with a personality! - but since I'm a visual artist and not a novelist, I don't need to systematically create personalities for my characters. They "just grow". So when Giovanna first appeared in [link] and [link] , she had hardly any personality at all. And of course she is still developing - in response to various situations ... and also in response to viewers' suggestions. (Thanks especially to ~LadyRavenlocke, who pointed out that "you can see a little of Pandora's spark in her mother" - a wonderful and very, very helpful observation!)

Then there's me. I've always liked women "my own age" - which means that at 60, I can find a woman in her late fifties every bit as attractive as a younger one. (I hope you can too! ) Meanwhile, as her personality evolves, Giovanna also seems to be attracted to men in her own age bracket...and in Chronophontia, that means the Mouse Clicker .

And another thing: the mother of brash, assertively sexy Pandora is not likely to be a dull mousey old lady -

Nikita the Mouse: WHAT??? OF COURSE she's mousey. Like ME.

- OK, Nikita, I stand corrected. She's not likely to be a dull old lady. Once she got used to the idea that nudity and sexuality, and ALL kinds of body image, were completely acceptable in Chronophontia, she decided to participate!

I was the mother of young girls for a LONG time, and I always felt I had to be proper. I'd ALMOST forgotten what a joy it is to be sexy...but not quite!!

For some, it's a transition - and a challenging one:

I always thought my mom just was proper. Now here she is in Chronophontia, running around naked like the rest of us! I just don't know...part of me says it's awesome to have a hot sexy mom, and part of me says it's just WEIRD.

I LIKE Chronophontia. It's a lovely place - and I can watch my troublesome daughter. And that Mouse Clicker gentleman is VERY nice...

Mom, did you ask whether I WANT to be watched? By you, anyway?

Well! I think there will be some interesting "people" things happening now that Pandora and her mother are both in the Chronophontian family!


I'd also like to thank *AngelFyre32 for suggesting the name Giovanna, and ~Unbearable-Lightness for suggesting that I put all of this into a journal (rather than clutter up various people's comments).


Addendum: Sweetness and Light in Chronophontia

The definitive home of Niceness...right...we don't ever have conflicts, do we?

I just talked with my girlfriend Janet, and mentioned that we had a new Chronophontian. She was HORRIFIED.

One of the great joys and goodnesses of my relationship with Janet is her relationship with the Chronophontians. She grasped Pandora's discomfort immediately, and rode with it with no complicating factors - "Just put that tramp on a plane to Naples or Omaha or wherever she came from - don't let her hurt my Pandora!"

But those complicating factors won't go away so easily. It took two painful hours of discussion with Janet to work this out.

If there is ANYONE who loves and protects Pandora, it's not me (though I do) - it's her own mother! But that loving protective mother is a human being with needs of her own too.

I protected my girls until...until there came a time when it wasn't right for me to protect them any more. Then they were free. My Penny is FREE now. Should I not be free too?

I WANTED to be free! And now I AM free! Is it wrong for my mother to be free too? Sure it's weird, to me. But is it wrong? NO. If I don't want to look at my mother posing naked, then I won't. But I will NOT say she can't. Here or anywhere else.

Oh, I know how it hurts her to say that...

No, Mom, it doesn't hurt me to say it. It hurt me to get to where I COULD say it. But I'm there now. I can say it, and I do! I welcome you here, Mom. I welcome the body that I came out of. I love you, Mom.



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