Today's post material might be a little odd, so let me explain first. Last summer I started a 100 themes project using the themes listed by deviantART group "100 Theme Writers" here. The goal was to write a story using each of the hundred prompts. I changed the rules up a bit for myself: I aimed to write a continuous story using the prompts, but limit myself to 100 words for each theme. The purpose of this was to force myself to write more concisely and still get the point (or some point) across.
However, the main purpose of this project being on this blog instead of Drawn in Words, is so that I can comment and explain as well as share my work. As it would seem, this 100 word per theme limit would result in either really short, simple scenes, or very dense ones. Hopefully I have achieved the latter without being exceedingly confusing. As I wrote, I've discovered that to save words, I would do funky stuff, like omit speaker names, hoping that the reader (you! ^_^) would be able to tell who was speaking by the word choice and context.
Anyways, I'll be happy to dispel any questions or confusions. I'll give more descriptive explanations for what happened as well as my thoughts in the post after (so you get a chance to struggle mull over it ^.^(I would never want a reader to struggle to read something >.<)) As always, please PLEASE tell me if I'm just being WAY to confusing.
Hope you enjoy!
1. Introduction
“Who’re you?” Her black hair was braided with a sapphire ring on the end; she stood with one hand on the doorframe and the other on her hip.
“Arlinia Murantagh Yves” the newcomer replied, setting her luggage down. “I go by Arlin. Nice to meet you.”
“Elyshley Intana Kieran. Call me Elysia.” They shook hands.
“I’m so excited to finally be at Vesper University!”
“I’ve been in the system since elementary.” Another knock at the door. “Who’re you?”
“Oh! Um…This is my new dorm…”
“Huh. That’s Arlin. I’m Elysia.”
“Hi!” Arlin piped, “What’s your name?”
“Oh…Celestine…Celestine Sesium”
2. Complicated
“Who’s that to?”
“My parents,” Arlin replied without looking up.
“Oh? Who’re they?”
Arlin looked up, sighing. “Well, mum’s Ionia Hazun, seamstress. Dad’s Nevin Yves, teacher. We live pretty far from here.”
“What about you?”
“Oh….I live with my dad,” Celestine murmured indistinctly behind a sketchbook and textbook..
“And you?” Arlin asked after a pause. Elysia blinked.
“I don’t have parents.” She shrugged. “I was named and raised by the temple. Taurus is my patron and the Holy House is my family. That’s all I need.”
She paused, judging Celestine’s aghast expression and Arlin’s sympathetic touch. “Not that complicated.”
3. Making History
History was not her forte, she supposed lamely, staring at the text with and back up at the teacher in a mixture of awe and loss. Finally the professor finished.
“Your assignments and partners are posted here. Class dismissed.”
Celestine glanced at her partner. Elysia had been leaned back in her seat, as if sleeping, but had sprung lightly to her feet, wide awake..
“First opening of the Angelic Gate,” Celestine answered the silent question.
“Know anything about it?”
“No?”
“Make something up.”
“What?!”
“That’s what history is.” Elysia stated. “Half fluff, half memory, victors’ opinions….”
“…”
“…Bah. The library then.”
4. Rivalry
Celestine followed nervously, unsure of what would come of this expedition to the library. She gazed in awe at the grand space, from the high ceiling to the plush seats and endless labyrinth of books.
Elysia strolled in and soon started pulling down books.
“Oh. Hello Elysia.”
“Hello Vesper.”
“History project?”
“Yes. You?”
“The same.”
“Topic?”
“Rift Wars.”
“Angelic Gate.”
“Well, good luck.”
“You too.”
The entire exchange was over in ten seconds and the black haired boy walked off, chin raised like Elysia’s.
“What—” Celestine started, questioning her roommate.
“Who,” Elysia corrected. She handed her a book. “Start reading.”
5. Unbreakable
White hair tied in two braids and clothed in a pale blue dress with a dark blue ribbon, she sat on her windowsill. Behind her she heard her family waking, and before her she saw the village waking.
“Arlinia?”
She whirled at her cousin’s voice. She nodded before returning to watching the sunrise. Blue spread over the sky, stemming from a single glowing dot.
“Dawn brings change. Some good, some bad. Don’t worry. Relax.”
Arlin picked up the bracelet with the single topaz charm. Even change was consistent. Some things though, would never change. In her heart, they were unbreakable.
Comment blurbs
1. Introduction
I kinda lied. A few friends had read this first 100 words and mentioned that it was important to pay attention to the names, otherwise they would get confused with who was saying what. This is probably unnecessary, but just in case: There are nine lines of dialogue, so just to clarify, the speakers are in each paragraph:
1. Elysia
2. Arlin (introduces herself)
3. Elysia (introduces herself)
4. Arlin
5. Elysia (also asks the second "Who're you?")
6. Celestine
7. Elysia (indicated by "That's Arlin, I'm Elysia")
8. Arlin (explicitly stated)
9. Celestine (introduces herself)
I'll be honest, this not-explicitly-stating-who-says-what does come up at other times in future episodes, as 3 and 4 clearly indicate. But more on that later.
The opening words were actually taken from Shakespeare's Hamlet, where the opening line is "Who's there?" According to my AP English Lit teacher, this line was not simply Bernardo asking Francisco who he is. Instead, it is also Shakespeare's subtle way of asking the audience who they are; how's that for subtle identity-challenging messages? I mainly stole the line from him because I liked the profound reasoning (Thank you Mrs. Gala!!).
This first segment also unveils the meaning very mysterious and obviously drafty working title: "Project ECA" ECA is simply the first initials of the three protagonists. I'm very sorry for throwing in full names, but I do love names. If it helps any, the characters are referred to mainly as their "nicknames". :)
2. Complicated
"Complicated" actually is "not that complicated". ECA is just talking about their families. For clarification, Elysia also starts off the questioning in this segment. And since she brought it up, Elysia is born on May 2nd, which makes her a Taurus. Basically, she was raised in an orphanage.
Celestine's parents are separated or divorced in some way and she lives with her dad now.
Working up the number of parental figures, Arlin has both of her parents.
Celestine's parents are separated or divorced in some way and she lives with her dad now.
Working up the number of parental figures, Arlin has both of her parents.
3. Making History
This segment only barely connects to the "theme", I think. The idea was brought up a while ago in AP U.S. History: something about how history is actually pretty biased, as usually the victors of wars get to write the "history". For example, I'm pretty sure that Russian students aren't taught that communism is a horrible ideology and that capitalism is the way to go. I didn't want to have anyone actually "make history" in the usual sense by preforming some spectacular act, so I used the idea of "making up history" instead.
This segment also introduces the history project, which will come up again. The event Celestine and Elysia are researching is basically the events of my failed NaNo idea "Angelic". I'm not going to mention anything about it now as I'm not so sure how much I'm actually going to be using from that...but the characters do talk about it quite a bit. We'll see how it works out ^_^
4. Rivalry
I'm guessing you can tell where the rivalry is. The student Vesper Jinan Wisteria is mentioned in today's post on DiW as well!
The dialogue is just between the two of them, alternating. Vesper initiates the conversation and is the one to guess that she is there for the history project. Elysia asks what his topic is.
A funny caveat: the name "Vesper", meaning "Star" is seriously abused in this story. Thus far, the school itself is called Vesper, as well as a random student. There are two more "Vesper"s in the story, most almost all completely unrelated; I simply decided to stick every character I had ever associated with the name in there, just for the humor. >.<
5. Unbreakable
This is where I can introduce the inspiration for the entire project: Hans Tseng's Alatus Academy in Directions of Destiny. The project initially started as a fanfiction, but about 25 entries in I decided I didn't really have sufficient information on the school, classes, and the legacy and lore of the place and characters to write a decent fanfiction that would be consistent with the story, be it before or after the events of the webcomic itself. So I kinda branched out from it, adding a few classes and changing the plan so I could have full control of the world. It was not until around segment 25 that I stopped even trying to tailor things to the comic though, and some of the comic-influenced things remain.
There is not only the major history-project event with different topics for each pair, but now also the concept of summoning an "anima" from a vessel by focusing on a certain emotion. This is the case with Arlin in this segment: this is her before her first time summoning her anima and the emotion she has chosen to focus on is the sense of consistency she gets from her bracelet: the unbreakability of some things in life.
This segment also introduces the anachronisms in this stories. I try to make most things chronological--the story is confusing enough even without the timeline getting mussed up--but there are a few flashbacks and a few things that take place at the same time or before something that came in an earlier segment. I'll be sure to point those out when they come up.
I like <3 I will say, it is a little confusing not knowing who's talking in the scenes where all three of them are together, but when it's only two of them and you say who says the first line, it's perfectly understandable.
ReplyDeleteI'm inspired to create a "mirror" blog of my own. :P I probably never will, but if I do, thoughts?