"Songs."
In a time slightly behind ours, in a world slightly different from ours, there is a city in a country vaguely resembling the continental United States. This city carries a dreary feeling in every corner, with its streets, parks and buildings all made up of drab colors. While things are at peace, the depressing aura that envelops this city is nearly soul-crushing.
However, there are still pockets of joy and happiness to be found. Those who find familial love, unlikely friends, job security, all somehow tied together with concepts such as "music" and "sounds."
These are stories about these people... I guess.
What is this?
"Marching Paradise" is the name I gave to what were originally a number of separate OC concepts tied together after me noticing there were some vague matching themes going on. It takes place in a world similar to ours in the late 80s/early 90s, but with strange events cropping up every now and then. All the significant characters are tied to marching music in some way, despite the concept being antiquated in both their world and ours.
Despite the fact that I made this page, Marching Paradise is semi-dormant for now. I don't know if I'm ever completely satisfied with the story I do have, and I admit it's been put on the backburner to focus on other personal projects. The park comic as seen in the gallery was something of a pilot for a webcomic featuring these characters, but things have changed. I am still open to revisiting it regardless.
Why is this all music themed? Well, I think music and sounds are fucked up and weird. Thank you.
The charaters
i have no interest in spelling the word caracters correctly
Chroma
A young child of a horn-head variety. Chroma is a relatively polite and reserved child with an incredible curiosity about the world, as many children are. Their "hair" made up of twisted metal tubes is still growing, and is for the purpose of making sounds in their sleep that lull others of a similar nature. Because of this, they have a bit of trouble fitting in with other children, especially with their ever-stoic parent looming over their shoulder.
Pneuma
Chroma's "mother," who only lets their child call them that. A single parent, Pneuma's partner left when Chroma was only a baby, leaving them to raise their small family. While they genuinely love and care for Chroma, Pneuma has a bad habit of being overly protective, to the point of being offputting to almost anyone else. They have an incredibly direct and serious personality, only contributing the bare minimum in conversation. The large twisted tube on their head is ridiculously inconvenient, but they insist on keeping it to play low notes in their sleep to comfort Chroma at night. Being so dedicated to keeping Chroma and their house intact, they seem to have little to no hobbies at all.
Louise
A young woman who is a music major at the city university. She comes from an affluent family which allows her to pursue her two greatest interests: Marching band and elaborate outfits inspired by a certain style overseas. She collects and plays various instruments of common and uncommon varieties, specializing in but not limited to brass instruments, as well as some woodwinds and percussion. However, as "marching band" is not a viable career for most people, she is experiencing a bit of a life crisis, being about to graduate soon. Normally her personality is somewhat reclusive, but she became friends with Chroma through a strange coincidental encounter.
Rosa & Maggie
Twin sisters who are star trapeze artists in a traveling circus. While the recruiter claimed they were hired for their exceptional acrobatic skill, they can't help but shake the feeling there was another reason. Rosa, with her jet-black hair, tends to do all the talking while the blonde Maggie is the (few) brains of the operation. They wish to use their eccentric personalities to propel themselves to other forms of stardom. They were helped by Chroma and their parent after a surprising incident happened when visiting their city, and because of this they requested to return to this specific city each year.
Annabelle
The owner and ringmaster of the Starlight Circus, a show that adheres by modern standards with traditional aesthetics. Beautiful and charismatic, Annabelle is a woman shrouded in mystery. No one knows any of her other connections or how she acquired the circus, but most assume it was through family inheritance. She acts a businesswoman first and foremost, and spends a lot of time engaging in important legal matters with the circus. She has a calm and collected personality, but can switch from her soft speaking voice to her booming ringmaster one in an instant, making her a bit scary to the circus staff.