#efi oladele

A new book cover illustration I painted for “The Hero of Numbani” written by Nicky Drayson. So much thanks and gratitude to Betsy Peterschmidt for her Art Direction and Cover Design! Orisa and Efi are such fun characters, that it was a joy to contribute to this collaboration between Blizzard/Overwatch & Scholastic✨✨‬

The book released, I read it in a few hours, and I NEED TO TALK ABOUT IT.

Let it be known though that this is wholly Efi’s story, and Nicki Drayden does wonders in taking what was essentially a background NPC and turning her into what is, without a doubt, the most fully-realized Overwatch character ever. Strengths of a novel aside, Efi is a personable little girl who has a great arc of development and runs the entire gamut of emotions. She officially lordes over the rest of the cast in terms of depth right now. Even if you’re not a fan of Efi, Orisa, or Numbani, check out the book anyway because you will become so within the first few pages.

With that being said, I’m still primarily Lucio fan so I feel compelled to talk about the Froggo and how he fits into all of this. If you’re a Lucio fan, still get the book and read it for yourself. He has a relatively small role in the grand scheme of the book, but it gives us the biggest amount of development he’s had since his backstory, and it’s fun to read it for yourself. If you’re not interested in reading around 190 pages to get to the good stuff, then spoilers abound: 

Here’s all the narrative and lore stuff:

- Lucio is an avid follower of Efi’s social media accounts. He takes to her affinity for roboticism and her desire to change her community for the better. For most of the book he’s a background entity- something the other, younger characters fawn over- until he comments on one of Efi’s updates about two-thirds of the way in.

- Speaking of which, it seems Lucio has no real cultural penetration with Efi’s elders. They shoot down her wish to travel to Rio to go to his concert in favor of experiencing a local Omnic band called Tonal Abyss (one that Efi grew out of), despite the fact that at this point she’s earned millions in grant money to be able to afford the trip. Later on as he meets with them, Efi’s mother calls him a “nice boy” in spite of his accomplishments.

- Lucio calls her during a theatrical screening of one of Nollywood’s amazing/awful b-movies to congratulate her on her accomplishments. He decides to take the time to elevate her school play from a local shindig into a city-wide event at a venue that can seat thousands, one in which he’ll finish out with a concert. He’s very confident and lackadaisical in setting up the whole thing, assuring Efi that he’ll make all the arrangements and she need not worry. Her only condition is to make sure Orisa is there. 

- He REALLY likes Orisa; his enthusiasm as heard in the game is carried through here. It’s not just her personality; there are undoubtedly parallels being drawn between Orisa and his sonic amplifier; technology being used to uplift each character’s respective communities.

- In turn, Orisa REALLY likes Lucio. She was intentionally programmed with Efi’s enthusiasm and displays certain quirks: If she hears “We Move Together As One,” she will stop whatever she’s doing and dance to it. She is also consistently happy at his presence, wagging like a puppy dog and displaying stars in her eyes.

- Lucio’s dad was indeed a good fellow. He worked at Vishkar on a range of projects as their lead engineer for many, many years (Vishkar must’ve been in Brazil for awhile then), but they retrofitted the technology into weaponry used against the citizens. The sound technology was indeed his pet project. Lucio believes that despite everything that happened, his father wouldn’t have regretted anything. This, of course, implies he truly is dead. 

 
- Orisa is only alive/active right now because of Lucio. Efi earlier makes the hard decision to deactivate her because Orisa’s learning sessions are causing harm in the community as she doesn’t understand personal boundaries as a computer. His insistence on meeting Orisa forces Efi to turn her back on. Her reactor core is also supplied by Lucio. He says he’s “hanging with a new crowd” (Overwatch, presumably) and acquires it through some shady dealer from Volskaya. It’s definitely not legal, but they all agree to keep it hush-hush.

- Orisa’s supercharger as we see in game was actually fixed by Lucio! Efi was unable to get it working throughout the whole of the book, but he strolls on in and fixes it no problem using tools from his backpack. Speaking of which, his backpack houses tools. So Lucio is effectively a bit of a robotic whiz.

- The supercharger responds to his sonic amplifier technology, as he claims a lot of the technology in both are compatible. It is able to amplify the sound of his music.

- Apparently Lucio can drop multiple Sound Barriers within a very short time frame. Must be nice.

-Lucio officially knows capoeira, at least enough to get him out of trouble when he’s surrounded and unarmed. Efi knows of the martial art as well.

- Lucio has a white stone condo in Inpanema (address is 590 Avenida Vieira), a studio featured in some Cribs show. However, he in still lives in the favela, in a small blue house. He has a very close community: kids, neighbors, musicians, and “Yoruba aunties.” He also has another family member confirmed: his grandmother who makes the pao de queijo he likes so much. 

- Efi has Lucio on speed dial. They’re best buds!

So, lots of lore dropped in here to develop our little frog on top of what we already knew. But the best thing is that we’ve got this black man- a community leader and local fixture- guiding and nurturing a young black girl into following in similar footsteps to help out her neighborhood and become a social leader. These kinds of positive black relationships are unfortunately rare in media, and even if the book had done nothing else for Lucio’s character specifically, then it was all worth it for this moment alone. I’m extremely happy with everything this book has done. It was an amazing read!