(This is late T_T)
Sorry for the week between updates; I was trying to use it to good use and only got a little bit of stuff done. Stuff like this:
I'm looking forward to (hopefully) posting some more stuff for Tea Essence in the upcoming month, definitely. This one I was rushing a little bit (still took me a decent 6-8 hours of concentrated work spread out over the two weeks) and actually borrowed color schemes from--you guessed it--my own OCs T_T
-----guess the ?-faced characters here if you want!------
The one with the question mark face in the back is Fiana, while the three in "front" are, very appropriately lined up: Elysia, Celestine, Arlin. ^_^ Yay pre-made color schemes that eliminate hours of meticulous color-switching!
I really blotched up the shading. No excuse. :( I really like how everything came out though. I did this all in the computer without a paper scan first, which means I'm getting better with my tablet! (FINALLY haha).
Now for the next 5 ECA posts! Since it's been a while, Parts 1-5 , Parts 6-10, Parts 11-15 are linked! I decided to just post the comment blurbs with the actual posts this time. Just skip the comment blurbs if you dislike reading my ranting! XD Please anticipate a lot more of ECA in the upcoming posts!
16. Excuses
Elysia was skimming another dark aisle of books in the deserted graduate section of the library to sate her curiosity of the supposed “Land of Dreams” when she ran into senior magic professor Vesper Aurigae Nox.
“What are you looking for?”
Elysia held up the light-stick that doubled as the graduate-section’s pass. “Research for Dr. Alaur’s history project on the Angelic Gate. Are you researching a similar subject, professor?”
“Oh. Yes. Just some side-research on dream-magic. Good luck on your project.”
“Thank you.”
They parted ways, both relieved their excuses had worked. Or seemed to have.
17. Vengeance
“A good match,” Arlin complimented, shaking Rhys’s hand after their midterm sparring match. “That multi-elemental burst really threw Tagh and me off.”
“We had more damage output,” Celestine said quietly, shaking Fiana’s hand..
Fiana laughed good-naturedly. “Let’s practice together sometime.”
“Yea, good match,” Rhys commented, hiding her disappointment behind a smile. Even though their performance had earned everyone an S, both teams knew Arlin and Celestine would have beat Rhys and Fiana in that battle. Rhys wasn’t used to losing.
Before they were dismissed, Celestine glimpsed Rhys glaring at Arlin, the bitter promise of revenge in her eyes.
18. Love
“Weekend, yay!” Arlin twirled and fell on her bed. “Dinner, check! Homework, then embroidering for the CBP.”
“Sure,” Celestine dropped her bag down.
They worked steadily. Some minutes passed quietly before Elysia arrived. “So diligent,” she commented. “I bought a cake.”
Arlin jumped. “Ooh! What for?”
“For us. Celestine, our project received a S…Plus.”
Celestine smiled nervously. “You did all the work though…”
“Nonsense. Take a piece,” Arlin invited.
“We’re not celebrating that anyways.”
Celestine lit the candles with a touch, “Happy Birthday Arlin.”
Arlin stared at the little blue cake. “…I love you two…come on…”
“E.C.A. forever!”
19. Tears
Alone in a corner of the ice rink, Celestine shook with sobs.
Arlin had her daily moment of meditation at the gate. Elysia seemed to burn her negativity with her prayers. Celestine cried in the rink before lacing up her skates.
“Hello?” It was the boy Elysia had greeted in the library. Vesper Jinan Wisteria offered her a handkerchief. “Don’t cry,” he consoled.
Why was he here?
He twirled his baton around, pulling and shaping ice from the rink into a charm. “Ice elemental practice.”
Celestine stared at the unmelting teardrop in her hand, a mockery of her self-pity.
20. My Inspiration
“Here. I’ve brought you back. Now go away.”
She began to leave but the crystalline sword called her back. “Go back to your master, why don’t you? Stop calling to me. You’re not mine.”
She stared intently, wondering what exactly it was. The blade swirled with scenes that happened somewhere, sometime, to someone only the imagination knew. Elysia found herself searching for words.
There. Sye’niar.
“What’s that supposed to be? Your name?”
She blinked, stood away, and the images stopped.
“Well, if you’re going to be that way?”
Elysia stared thoughtfully.
“…fine. Let’s see what we can do with you.”
Comment Blurbs
16. Excuses
This one took me a really long time to come up with a concept for and I ended up writing this prompt three times (the other versions will be posted with the other bonus posts later on!
I swear every time I write or think the word “restricted” I think of Harry Potter. Originally I had Elysia browsing the restricted section of the library, but could not get over how like HP it sounded; thus I edited to a side of the library, which, for whatever reason, is reserved for graduates only, who know what they’re messing with in these tomes of intense secret knowledge. How Elysia got a pass…is up to anyone’s guess.
I think this is the first time Vesper Nox has shown up! I think I refer to him by his full name every time in every writing bit I write him in. I have no idea why XD
17. Vengeance
This piece I also had to rewrite to my satisfaction. I was happy with the original version for a long time, but upon rereading/checking before posting I decided it didn’t work in terms of the story very well as it seemed to imply something that I had scrapped. I also wanted to give Rhys a little more early screen/page-time and turned it into a fun—midterm I guess— sparring match. I don’t know how time flows in this story. It’s more like a collection of scenes that happen to ECA at school anyways. XD
Allow me to be weird and explain away my characters now:
To adopt some MOBA terminology, Rhys (magic/ summoning class) is a bit like a “carry” with relatively low health and very high damage output. As the commissioner of magic, she focuses a lot on elemental magic and summoning elemental spirits. Fiana (summoning/ healing class) is definitely a “support”, hanging back and healing her teammates and maybe throwing out an occasional arrow. Her summons are mainly supportive and defensive moon rabbits.
Arlin (magic/ summoning class) focuses her summoning on one summon: Murantagh “Tagh”, a silver dragon with little blue and green accents and whiskers. He does most of the actual fighting via tooth and claw and [some still undetermined magic type]. Elemental-wise she focuses on air-based spells to move and position her opponents to advantageous follow up locations. She and Celestine are probably both “bruisers” that have good health/sustaining abilities and a decent amount of damage output though not as much as a “carry”. (Though I don’t think of them as tank-amounts of health (very high health)) Celestine (magic/ weaponry class) is an archer who uses non-elemental magic for close-range fighting to hold opponents off until she can pick them off from a distance with her bow.
My brother (who is much better at gaming than I could ever hope to be) says that this battle is actually decently fair, as so long as Rhys/ Fiana didn’t majorly mess up somewhere in the early battle, Rhys’s damage output should be more than enough to cream Arlin/ Celestine. Personally I think Rhys/ Fiana would win too, but I needed someone that would be resentful to get the vengeance theme point >.<“
Ok. Done ranting XD. I would like to write a fighting scene (separate from the 100 theme challenge) with some of these characters. Ahaha. Maybe. Sometime.
18. Love
There’s an alternate to this as well. But I prefer this, where I get to write a cute little scene showing the love in friendship. Dedicated to 3TMAJ’C.
19. Tears
Another of those I-liked-it-until-I-read-it-for-submittion-and-then-changed-my-mind entries. But I’m really happy I changed it because I think this is a lot stronger as an entry. It also provides a scene showing how Celestine and Vesper meet and a way to go into his personality a bit.
Whenever I cry, my mom always gets mad and says to “stop pitying [myself]”; she equates crying with a shrill tantrum of “pity me pity me PITY ME D:!!!!” (I always get annoyed at her reaction, but I also get irritated at myself for crying in the first place.)
So the idea in this scene is Celestine feels like she’s in the shadow of the perpetually peppy Arlin and the even-faced Elysia. So before lacing up her ice skates for practice, she hides in a corner of the stands and cries to herself, thinking of everything that’s going on and everything that’s wrong with her. And then one day Vesper comes along. Cue scene.
20. My Inspiration
Elysia brings the sword—the “last blade” from entry 12, “Dead Wrong”— back to the field from where she found it. Ahaha! Didn’t see that, did ya? Yea it’s ok I didn’t see the “blade of grass” interpretation until I was editing before posting. And I liked the pun so much I had to keep it.
I took this theme prompt literally and answered it as my inspiration: just words. The simple little things that people say and the simple words that pop into my head throughout the day inspire stories and adventures. All I want to do is share some of these fantastical dreams, and maybe inspire someone else while I’m at it.
NEXT SET (21-25)
NEXT SET (21-25)
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