Norten Groovywave

## Physical information

* Seashells
* Chasing jellyfish
* ViRUSES

## Relationships

**Norten Groovywave** is a character in *CRiTORA* and a tertiary character in *CRiTORA: Abnormal*.

Norten is a Cuttlefish CRiTORA from the Ocean District who ended up in the Abnormal District after the Infestation Invasion. He is found by Kepler who takes him to safety. Despite Norten's pacific attitude and timid personality, he, with the help of other CRiTORA, successfully escapes the Abnormal District. After then, he returns to his home, where he can continue making glowing ocean ornaments.

## Description

***"The Cuttlefish CRiTORA**. A CRiTORA who lives in the darkness of the Abyss, calmed down by his bioluminescent accents and the sea creatures around it. Norten likes to collect seashells of strange shapes to make ornaments, which glow in the dark thanks to his ink. Just be sure not to bring up the time Norten ended up in the Abnormal District; he wants to pretend his stay in such a wretched place never happened."*

## Character

### Physical appearance

Norten has a gray, rounded body. He has rounded eyes with cyan irises in a black sclera, a cyan triangular marking on his forehead, three whiskers that act as his mouth, and four tentacles. He has a dark gray mantle with fuchsia triangular markings on the front and cyan spots on the sides.

### Powers, abilities, and weaponry

* **Glowing Ink:** A semi-transparent blackish ink with bioluminescence activating once it touches any surface. Its power is determined by how bright Norten's accents glow.

## Development

Norten was created in Early 2021. His original name was **Retrianbus** and did not belong to a specific LastyGhost project at the time. A few days after showing the design to Daydreaming Birdie, LastyGhost got the idea of turning Retrianbus into a CRiTORA character whose new name was unknown until Early March 2021: **Norten Groovywave**.

Norten was intended to be a CRiTORA part of Gadget Brassblade's character development. Gadget was in love with Norten despite being together in occasion due to the latter's house being underwater. After the Infestation Invasion, however, Norten would get deleted, breaking down Gadget and making him join the CRiViRUS Gang, hiding his intention to avenge Norten's demise.

Norten had left a shell collar and a letter prior to his death, putting them in a box on his bed. Lastee and Axodus find the chest, getting ambushed by Jolene Coelabyss, who was permanently infected. Gadget does not take consciousness of Norten not loving him as much as he thought until he reads the letter all the way through and reads the lover's name.

Due to the extremely dark nature of Norten's story, neither was it preserved nor was it originally shared with anyone other than Daydreaming Birdie. In Late 2022, just as LastyGhost redesigned Norten, he became a normal CRiTORA, revealed at some point of that time. His relationship with Gadget was never revealed at the time.

In 2023, with the repurposing of *CRiTORA: Abnormal*, Norten became one of the Abnormal District survivors. He was officially re-revealed on August 28th, 2023.

### Design

Norten's design combines a cuttlefish and the vaporwave aesthetic.

When first designed, Norten had a white body, eight tentacles with cyan tips on them, and the spots on his mantle were gray and had irregular shapes. When turned into a CRiTORA character, the spots became rounded, and the markings had their details reduced. As the style of what once was Season 2 -later renamed Season 1- of CRiTORA, Norten's grayscales became tinted.

In Late 2022, due to LastyGhost's style relying on detail, Norten was updated to have significant additions to their design, including more neon colors, algae hair, and mouth whiskers.

In Mid-2023, Norten's design was reverted to his first one, though the mouth whiskers from his Late 2022 design were added. His body color was changed to gray, and his eyes are more separate from one another.

### Name

'Retrianbus' comes from a corrupted portmanteau between *Retro* and *Triangle*.

His last name comes from *Groovy* and *Vaporwave*.

## Trivia

* Despite he and Jolene are lovers, he never mentions her in *CRiTORA: Abnormal*, not even indirectly. Either Norten falls in love with Jolene after the events of the story, or they were lovers since earlier, but Norten was not comfortable with mentioning her due to the fear he grew from being in the Abnormal District; thus, far from her.

## References & Notes

1. ↑ https://www.instagram.com/p/CwfbVRjrbmz/