Luna and a crew of castaways journey to change the world.
Everblue
is a fantasy/adventure webcomic by Michael Sexton, set in an endless ocean sparsely populated by a few floating cities.
Luna, an introverted young shipwright, was leading a quiet life in Rose City until Ten's flying boat was accidentally shot down and she is roped into helping him build a new one.
This webcomic provides examples of:
- Action Girl: Luna was raised in a military academy and is perfectly capable of defending herself. When a guard surprises her at home, what does she do? Throws her bed sheet at the guy and hits him with an iron pipe. It turns out to be Seta ordered by Shar to kill her.
- After the End: Maybe... there are certainly ancient cities sunken under the ocean.
- All There in the Manual: Among the old voting incentives, a small (temporarily offline) wiki and comments under each new page, a lot of background information about the world has already been explained.
- All of the Other Reindeer: Luna in Rose City, although we only hear a couple of zingers by those two people in Gregor's bar.
- Arc Symbol: "Black Candle" emblems can be seen on flags, banners, and even peoples' clothing in the background of certain pages. No official explanation has been given as to what these symbols mean, though
Word of God says they are important.- There's also the tattoo Shar and Luna share. It may be of note that he displays it on his head, while hers is on her stomach (and she never wears revealing clothing).
- Art Evolution: Not so drastic as some other webcomics, but the comic switches from black and white to color within the first few pages, and the shading gets more detailed later on.
- Bandage Mummy: Clara, although it's not used for dramatic or comedic effect.
- Badass Pacifist: Ten never uses violence against an Implacable Man who never speaks a word, jumping around, dodging and bantering like he has no care in the world, until he catches the man's sword with his shirt and sends him into a wall with a single well-aimed kick. Then he breaks the sword.Ten: I just can't hurt anyone. Not like that.
- Ban on Magic: Probably not all magic, since Josette and Xavier's lecture only attracts city guard's attention when it turns into demonstration. But attract guards it does. It's possible Josette just isn't licensed. Then again, "an ungodly thaumathurge" wreaking havoc would be against the law anywhere.
- Barrier Warrior: The masked assassin uses magical shields to contain and isolate his targets.
- The Bartender: Everyone confides in Gregor. Lampshaded. Or, as The Rant has it:The rant: Gregor realises the trope he has become.
- Bathtub Scene: Luna has a rather tasteful one with surprisingly little fanservice and mostly Shoulders-Up Nudity as she takes a relaxing bath. It mostly serves to show her tattoo better.
- Blind Seer: Clara. She might not actually be blind but all the bandages she wears can't make it easy to see.
- Book Dumb: Ten can't read. Luna teaches him a little, though.
- Brooding Boy, Gentle Girl: Gender-Inverted with Manic Pixie Dream Guy Ten (although his optimism may be partly a choice) and somewhat brooding, lonely Luna.
- Cathartic Exhalation: Luna is prone to these. After dissuading Ten from taking off his clothes (because he wanted to give her his, as she's a Pajama-Clad Hero for now and flustered to walk the streets like this), her little breath cloud is heart-shaped.
- City on the Water: The world is an endless ocean aside from these.
- Color Failure: In the flashback that begins chapter 4, Seta, when an accidentally thrown sword misses him by that much and lodges itself in the doorframe.
- Combat Pragmatist: Luna will use her opponent's height against him, even in training. She also thinks nothing about throwing a lantern full of flaming oil at a creepy guy who's stalking her and Ten, then legging it.Ten: Luna. You just set that guy on fire.
- Cool Ship: Both Ten's old flying boat (the one that gets destroyed on the first pages) and the Skyward, the ship Luna has been building and outfitted it with some forbidden ancient technology (i.e. jet engine) and wings so Ten can fly once more.
- Cute Bookworm: Luna reacts to the library in Flore with Bishie Sparkle. She loves adventure books, has read the Farbound journals and quotes them from memory, and, in a world where books are transcribed by hand, owns a cupboard full of them. She's also socially reserved and shy.
- Darker and Edgier: The cover for Chapter 4, in contrast to the cute and lighthearted covers from previous chapters, seems to indicate that parts of its story will be going in this direction.
- Early-Bird Cameo: Dagger, who hasn't appeared in the story proper yet, can be seen on wanted posters in the background, and was featured at the end of Vignette 3. Clara also appears in a crowd scene a page before her official introduction.
- Et Tu, Brute?: Seta, when ordered to kill Luna, steels himself and goes to do the deed. Not. He merely pretends to, putting up a meagre fight to make sure Luna escapes and abandons him instead of staying in harm's way.
- Functional Magic: According to the Lecture as Exposition courtesy of Xavier and Josette (who, herself, is a Lux-aligned mage) magic works on Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors rules with "contras", that is, opposing elements being an important concept (for example, the contra to Lux is Umbra). Chaos and balance seem to be the underlying framework here. Other than that, the grim-reaper-like assasin sent after Luna and Ten uses jarred light he can turn into objects when needed. He also uses force-field bubbles.
- Gray Rain of Depression: When Luna refuses to go with Ten, it starts raining as she cries. The rain lasts through the night, providing dramatic background to her confrontation with Seta.
- Hard-Work Montage: When they build the Skyward.
- Heroic Vow: Seta has sworn a personal oath to defend the city. He won't do it blindly, though.
- Iconic Item: Luna's red ribbon and Ten's bandanna.
- Idiot Hero: Ten, though he's not so much an idiot as naive and happy-go-lucky to an unhealthy degree. Or is he?
- If You're So Evil, Eat This Kitten!: Shar's order to Seta has undertones of this, a test of Seta's loyalty. Especially when a really short flashback reveals Seta's father - Shar's brother - might have done something similar.
- Innocent Fanservice Guy: When Luna seems distressed about walking through a city in her pajamas, Ten gets the bright idea of giving her his clothes, going so far as to immediately start undressing on the spot before Luna stops him.
- Knight of Cerebus: Whenever General Shar is around, things get a lot more dramatic.
- Lost Technology: Unfortunately, using, or even discovering the lost technology hidden within city cores is strictly forbidden. Under death penalty.
- Love at First Sight: Downplayed a bit, since Ten may or may not be a Chaste Hero, but he and Luna connect immediately. Seta says within two months she's smiled more than through the past two years. Right after they first meet, Ten and Luna bond over a (banned...) song they both know, and when he has to leave, and Luna can't go along, she spends the afternoon crying while Ten mopes and gushes to Gregor about how wonderful she is (Gregor advises him to be patient).
- Major Injury Underreaction: Downplayed, but during the fight in chapter 4 it's Luna who notices how much the cut on Ten's arm is bleeding, to his surprise.
- Memento MacGuffin: Ten's Traveler's Chart, a magical map of the world that's blank until it gets wet, is a legacy of his father.
- Luna's ribbon, which she usually wears wrapped around her bicep, wrist or forearm when she isn't using it to tie back her hair.
- Ms. Fanservice: Dagger. Luna, once or twice, although she's much more modest.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Luna, after being attacked by Seta and succesfully defending herself hides in the back of Gregor's inn and blurts out "Oh Gods what have I done?"
- No-Sell:
- The masked assassin who stalks Luna nad Ten in chapter 4, when she hurls a lantern at him. He just sheds the burning cloak and resumes pursuit.
- Ten has odd interactions with magic and just falls though a magical barrier that was supposed to keep him in.
- Ocean Punk: The setting is just a huge ocean with artificial islands (called cities, but they also have flower and vegetable gardens on them). Dry land is considered a myth.
- Orphan's Ordeal: Luna's parents were murdered by pirates. Ten's are absent, presumed dead - Angelique (the nice tailor from Flore) mothers him a little, as much as his wanderlust allows.
- Pajama-Clad Hero: Luna in Chapter 3, because she had to leave her house in a hurry. Since it happens during a rainstorm, she gets a Sexy Soaked Shirt, although the circumstances are not sexy at all.
- Platonic Life-Partners: Josette and Xavier, who won't abandon her no matter what (even when she sees things temporarily Invisible to Normals).
- The Pollyanna: Ten. Tragically optimistic.
- Like, seriously. Destroy his boat? He'll laugh and decide to build a new one.
- Training Montage: Part of the flashback in the chapter 4, which details Luna's training with Seta, is a Time-Passes Montage of them practicing swordfighting stances, with her growing taller in each consecutive panel. After that there's a less compressed Training Montage with Luna making mistakes and Seta telling her what she's done wrong, until she finally thinks outside the box and sends him to the floor.
- Refusal of the Call: Luna has a job and responsibilities, and is, frankly, scared of travelling...
- The Call Knows Where You Live: ....until she has to leave town, right now, and throws her lot in with Ten.
- Right Now Montage: Luna and Ten enjoying Summer Festival in Flore, with browsing in the market, games and watching the parade.
- Sadistic Choice: Given to Seta by General Shar: either kill Luna or refuse the order and let someone else do it. Seta goes for the ruse of not actually killing her and letting her escape which probably won't go well for him...
- Spontaneous Weapon Creation: The masked assassin creates a magical sword with a spell-in-a-jar to kill Ten. When Ten breaks it, it turns into smoke.
- Stellar Name: Luce della Luna, which can be translated as "Moonlight". The moment when she really embraces her new life also takes place in full light of the Moon. Ten's name is (In-Universe) interpretable as "Heaven" and he owns a flying ship.
- Stripperiffic: Dagger is a highly skilled mercenary who fights barefoot wearing only a bikini top, some kind of skirt or loincloth, and a pair of shin guards that she probably only wears because they have attached sheaths for her two knives and she's got nowhere else to keep them.
- Suspiciously Specific Denial: Luna isn't singing banned songs, nope, no singing here!
- Underwater Ruins: Luna has explored the "city core" which is underwater and completely off-limits.
- Unsound Effect: "scoot, scoot" as Luna scoots closer to look at Ten sleep.
- Wrench Wench: Luna is a shipwright (boat builder), which is this setting's equivalent.
