Ayo

**Person**

 **Body Part**

 **First Appearance**

*“Bina's heart monster. Though she is clumsy and childlike, her incredible strength and energy powers make her a mighty force to be reckoned with.”*
    —Cast page description

**Ayo** (pronounced "eye-oh") is the monster of Bina Blum, formed from her heart.

## Biology

Ayo's body is "soft, dry, warm and spongey".

Ayo's head is adorned with aorta. When she unleashes Arma bursts, the Arma is emitted from their holes, as well as the vena cava on her back. Ayo can make noise from her aorta that sounds like a pipe organ.

Ayo's body can develop scars on its surface from cuts. Presumably, in the same way that she developed limbs and complex organs such as eyes, Ayo developed something similar to skin.

## Abilities

Ayo has immense physical strength, able to carry a large boat or smash through concrete walls with ease. She's also quite durable, able to recover quickly even after crashing into the ground at high speed.

Ayo is capable of flight. However, she is not able to change directions easily in the air.

Ayo can emit powerful bursts of Arma energy, enough to power the engine that runs the Boat. However, she can become tired after a large blast.  She can fire off these bursts in flight to speed herself up.

Ayo can give Bina increased strength. When she does so, she emits strong bursts of Arma energy.

When Bina's emotions cause Ayo to beat rapidly, Ayo can channel these pulses into the ground, where they are powerful enough to knock others off-balance.

Ayo has also been shown to be able to manipulate the heartbeats of other humans.  By doing so, she can transfer someone's consciousness into a mindscape created by Anima.  She appears to need physical contact to keep the effect active.

## Relationships

### Kera

Ayo and Kera seem to be rather close to each other. They cheerfully romp about with each other, and happily race when Bina and Julie decide to compete. During a Secret Santa exchange, Ayo, thinking long and hard about what gift to give Kera, climbed a mountaintop to gather flowers for her- flowers Kera promptly gulped down, to Ayo's dismay. Despite the misunderstanding, the gift was still much appreciated.

### Anima

Despite being at odds when Violet attempted to influence Abel's mind, Ayo and Anima seem to be amicable towards each other presently. When resting at Violet's house, Ayo happily shares a bag of chips with Anima. It is currently unknown whether Ayo recognizes that Anima and Violet are one and the same, or if Ayo believes to be befriending Anima independent of her relationship with Violet.

### Luna

Despite Luna's brutal attacks against Ayo in Chapter 26, Ayo seemed to hold no grudges against Luna for her actions, readily assisting her per Bina's suggestion. Luna appears to be quite upset and regretful for her part in the accident that lead to her piercing Ayo. Ayo's current feelings towards Luna are unknown.

## Trivia

* Ayo is named for the noise she first made when Bina spoke with her.
* Ayo is Porter's favorite monster.
* Porter had a concept for a story in which a woman gave birth to a strange monster that she felt a deep connection to, despite her fear of it. The themes of that story would be used in the relationship between Bina and Ayo.
* Early in development, Porter considered the idea that Bina would have a heart defect, and receiving Ayo would cure her. She decided that this went against some of the themes of the comic, and that she didn't want to speak on disabilities or illness where she had no personal experience, so the idea was cut.
* Ayo is one of three monsters with abilities to affect their human's body, the others being Pan and Lampwick.
* Ayo has fought or competed against every monster employed by SHELL after SHELL's reformation, with the exception of Guuzy.
	+ Ayo fought Wilbur to escape in Chapter 1
	+ Ayo fled from Rixis attacking her in Chapter 2
	+ Ayo and Kera competed in two races in Chapter 7
	+ Ayo helped Bina destroy Anima's dream world in Chapter 17
	+ Ayo fought against Cav's attempted kidnapping in Chapter 22
	+ Ayo fought against Luna to reach the stairwell in Chapter 26

## References

1. ↑ Magnolia's ask.fm
2. ↑ Description on Chapter 33, Page 28
3. ↑ Magnolia's piece "Heart Music" on deviantart
4. ↑ Chapter 3, Page 12
5. ↑ Chapter 31, Page 9
6. ↑ Chapter 7, Page 5
7. ↑ Chapter 7, Page 8
8. ↑ Chapter 8, Pages 1-2
9. ↑ Chapter 7, Page 5
10. ↑ Chapter 7, Page 18
11. ↑ Chapter 26, Page 30
12. ↑ Chapter 20, Page 13
13. ↑ Chapter 20, Page 16
14. ↑ Chapter 20, Page 20
15. ↑ Chapter 6, Page 23
16. ↑ Chapter 7, Page 4
17. ↑ Holiday Special, Page 3
18. ↑ Chapter 22 Bonus Page
19. ↑ Magnolia's ask.fm
20. ↑ Magnolia's ask.fm
21. ↑ Magnolia's ask.fm