ECA 67-70

Hello! ECA returns!

I was a little ahead of the expected word count for NaNo for a few days....and then it just crashed and burned this Wednesday. But with luck the three-day weekend will give me enough time to study, catch up with sleep, and catch up with word counts. Yay word-sprint marathons!

I'm not sure if there'll be another post next week....Hopefully I remember, but if not, you'll know where I am in NaNo (via the little calendar) and know how desperate I am to catch up. If anything, there'll be a post over the Thanksgiving weekend!

As always, comments and critiques are loved!

PREVIOUS SET (61-66)

67. Boundaries
In the astronomy tower, Celestine and Vesper peered out at the sky, relaxing after a practice session. Cheerful humming floated through the room. Celestine peered through the telescope. “It’s like there’s an anomaly,” she noted. “Not out there, but from…us.”
Vesper laughed. “That’s ridiculous. You’re looking at other world in the sky.”
“What if it’s…another layer of existence, that’s overlapping here?”
“Like another dimension?” He laughed. “Relax, enjoy the silence and the sk.y.”
But it wasn’t quiet. Celestine screamed, cowering and denying madness. Before she completely broke that boundary of insanity and frustration, she bolted out, seeking silence. 

68. Unsettling Revelations 
Incessant knocking at the door. “But Celeste, I really think you should see this!”
“Go away! Continue, Anuna?”
“Celest—“
Celestine opened the door. “Are you deaf? Or just dumb?”
“Never could figure that one out,” Aldis murmured. Arlin doused him with a weak  water spell.
“Finally. I got readings last night after you left. It is another dimension.” Vesper intoned, holding out a data printout. “What’s more, the attacks on campus? They’re coming from a rift somewhere on the grounds. An energy leak from the dying Somnia to here. If it continues to widen…it won’t just be us fighting.” 

69. Shattered
Arlin thought the data legitimate. Even Elysia looked convinced. Celestine didn’t believe him.
She was going to talk to hersel—to Epsilona. She was going to consult the clocks. She knew enough clockwork spells now, and knew where to look to confirm Vesper’s data.
“Epsilona?” she thought as she entered the Room of Clocks.
No answer. Not even an echo.
“Epsilona!” she called aloud.
“Mhr…here…” a whimper came. Epsilona’s form flickered from her usual clock. She was a pitiful heap, wings down in broken pieces and the clock shattered. All of them. Another flicker and the pixie was gone. 

70. Bitter Silence
Celestine stared, horrified. She held out her hand and summoned anything magical around her. Nothing. Silence.
Then whisp-like fragments of the shattered clocks flew together above her hand to show her a glowing archway, a crimson-haired ancilla, and her dreamscape’s land of fog. Words emerged over the images:
Travel the trails to find the gate.
Redeem the princess of false schemes
Restore to life the land of dreams.
The moment she finished reading, the mirage turned into a whirlpool that drained onto her hand and formed a small round shape: A diamond pocketwatch, the last of the clocks.

Comment Blurbs:

67. Boundaries

Celestine and Vesper are hanging out in the Astronomy Tower that evening. Celestine casually notes that there seems to be something weird going on, but Vesper decides its ridiculous. Celestine agrees that it’s probably just silliness, but it’s Vesper’s next line that sets her off: he remarks to “enjoy the silence and the sky,” but from Celestine’s perspective, there was a clear cheerful tune playing in the room. Suddenly jolted into the insane mindset, she bolts out of room, trying to find that silence that she couldn’t hear. 

The last time we saw Vesper and Celestine together was 9 episodes ago in Heartfelt Apology. Sometime since then, it looks like they’ve gotten back on talking terms. Or maybe they just ran into each other here. Either way, whatever truce they had is now shaken again. 

68. Unsettling Revelations

After Celestine ran out in panic, Vesper misunderstood her and decides to do some readings monitoring magic-content and other complicated stuff from the Tower. He races immediately to ECA’s room, where Arlin, Elysia, Anuna and Aldis are hanging out. Vesper has determined (through remarkable genius and coincidence) that there is indeed another dimension: the land of dreams. There’s a rift that’s creating a leak of energy from Somnia to the mortal realm, like there was when the Angelic Gate was open (way back in the beginning of the tale, this was what Elysia and Celestine’s history project was about). Vesper is concerned that if they leave the rift alone for longer, it will spread, and it won’t just be the university students dealing with the monster attacks. 

69. Shattered

Although everyone else seems to think the data indicate Somnia leaking energy, Celestine doesn’t believe him and decides to consult the clocks and Epsilona, who is Celestine’s friend from her dreams. However, when she arrives, all the clocks in the Room of Clocks are broken and Epsilona’s form flickers before vanishing. 

I wanted to do something more epic for shattered, but this was the only thing that came to mind that fit. 

70. Bitter Silence

Celestine finds the silence she was looking for in Boundaries, but it’s a painful realization: all of the clocks in the Room of Clocks are broken, and there’s no trace of magic lingering in the once-magical room. Instead, by calling together any last remnants of magic, Celestine creates a small diamond pocketwatch. Along with the pocketwatch, the last message the clocks have to offer her is the prophecy first mentioned in Eternity (post 7) and three pictures: a portal, a pink-haired sorceress, and Celestine’s own foggy dreamscape. (See this!)

NEXT SET (71-74)

ECA 61-66

Herro! This ECA, checking back in!

Sorry for the lack of update last week. I completely forgot about posting XD It's been a very hectic few weeks leading up to NaNoWriMo, which began yesterday!

This is a gauge for Ashmac and me! We're both reaching 50K this year! >:D


There is also a word count widget (courtesy of the NaNo site) on the status bar that gives the total number of words written as well as a counter for how I've been doing every day.
Dark red= D:
Light red= :( (<1667)
Light green= :) (>1667)
Dark green= :D

Knowing this though, November is going to be a bit of an erratic month. If I forget an update, forgive me! I might post snippets of what I'm working on, but that's assuming I remember in the mess of school and life (I like to pretend I have one) and NaNoing!

But for now, ECA continues! This week's is the much-anticipated 6-entry post that reveals the culprit behind Arlin's flashbacks, so read on! :)


PREVIOUS SET (55-60)

61. Accuracy 

Dart in, dart out. Keep up the barrage. It didn’t matter if he hit or not, as long as his opponent couldn’t counter. Speed was Aldis’s game. It made sense. He was a thief. He had to be quick and nimble. Hit, gone.  

Holding him back with desperate non-elemental blocks, Celestine kept up her defense, widening the distance between them in the gaps. She wasn’t fast. She wasn’t strong. She wasn’t clever. But once she was too far for Aldis to reach her with his knives, she drew the bow from her back and fired. Accuracy was Celestine’s aim.  

-- 

62. Irregular Orbit 

Arlin leaned lightly against the rail, thinking and waiting for sunset. But today the clouds hung low and dense fog engulfed the river below the cliff. There was no way of her seeing the figure standing by the trees, arms crossed over his chest and expression unreadable; yet she felt it when he stirred. She stiffened awkwardly in response.  

“What happened? Why are you here?”  

“Relax. I’m just here to enjoy the view.” 

“Not much of a view toda—“ Eyes widening, she cut short and lurched forward as though an invisible force pulled her. Water rushed up—too high. “…Ivarine!” 

-- 

63. Cold Embrace 

“Arlin!”  

She heard her name faintly but barely understood. Her head swam, and the scenery danced before her eyes. Cold flooded through her. Something—someone— caught her as she crumpled. 

Earth swirled and rose around the person before her and an electric knife spun into view. Too late, her vision cleared sufficiently for her to see torrents of water arching up the cliff and ice crashing down at her.  

Arlin backstepped, summoning Murantagh to protect her, but a boulder shielded them both first. She looked up and saw Aldis, attacking the raging water monster before understanding:. This was another attack..   

-- 

64. Frost 

Slowly the ice thinned as their attacks hammered it. Finally, Tagh dived at it, magic streaming off his whiskers, and sent the water monster fleeing for its source. 

With it, the mist cleared, though the frosty darkness lingered. 

Aldis’s earth-energy whip shrunk into a knife again, but Arlin had only just de-summoned Tagh when now-familiar visions possessed her mind. 

She looked into a mirror, and saw the culprit of the memories…herself? A soft smile replaced her usual energetic grin and a sapphire, winged dragon perched where Tagh would, but the reflected girl was still, unmistakably, Arlin. 

-- 

65. A Moment in Time 

“It’s not always the same thing. They’re like memories; just scenes and fragments,” Arlin explained. “Moments in time. Snippets.” 

She pulled her characteristic white boots off. “And ice skating. The me in the visions ice skated everywhere. She had some kind of power specifically over ice so it worked. Ice skates. Ice bow. Water element.” 

Celestine patted Arlin’s shoulder comfortingly. “It’s ok. Maybe it’s just…a wrinkle in memory. Like a past life.” 

“I feel like I don’t make sense. But.. you guys understand me, right?” 

Celestine’s eyes were pools of pained empathy. 

Elysia frowned, thoughtful and troubled. “We understand.”  

-- 

66. Dangerous Territory 

“Ok. Come on then, Arlin. Hold out your hands for balance…don’t worry about falling. I’ll be right here.” Celestine skated out first, keeping close to where Arlin struggled, clutching the wall. On the stands, partially watching amusedly, Elysia was scrunched over a lore textbook, trying to think of an explanation for the attacks on campus and Arlin’s coinciding flashbacks. 

“It’s just like walking. Let yourself glide,” Celestine encouraged.  

 Arlin stepped out nervously and slipped almost immediately, but the better ice-skater was there in a flash, guiding her. 

“Ok. One step at a time…Right foot, left foot, right…”

Comment Blurbs: 

61. Accuracy

It’s their semester break, but ECA and their friends aren’t slacking off because they know the school tournament/ “excursion”/ adventure is coming up. More on that in about 11 posts. 

In this part, Aldis spars Celestine and we get a speed vs accuracy face off. I actually can’t decide which of these two would win in an actual fight. 

62. Irregular Orbit

 Arlin is relaxing/ meditating at her cliffscape spot when she notices that Aldis is there too. She is a little awkward, and thinks immediately that something has happened and he’s here to get her help or watch over her.  He assures her he’s just there to enjoy the view, but Arlin doesn’t believe it because it’s foggy and not much of a view. However, she doesn’t have time to grill him because for some reason the water in the valley lurches up to meet them at the top of the cliff. Not only that, but Arlin feels through her connection to Ivarine that the sun-orbit is a bit off. 

The orbit part actually has nothing really to do with anything except a bit of random drama. 

I think it’s worth pointing out that originally the cliffscape was Aldis’s spot to be alone, but then Arlin found it while running away from his following her to the gate. So Aldis just occasionally comes back to visit it and take photos (‘cause he’s a photographer). 

63. Cold Embrace

Like the time when he rescued her in Umbrella, Aldis leaps immediately to Arlin’s aid when she feels the sudden pull and panic from Ivarine’s orbit. For a moment Arlin is completely stricken: the warmth leaves her body and she is a pale weakling at the mercy of the water attack. Aldis though, defends her against the initial blow, and together they look to take out the water monster. 

This took a lot of cutting and revision to get it to 100 words; hopefully it still makes some inkling of sense!

64. Frost

Following the battle with the water/ ice monster, the mist surrounding the valley lifts and Arlin collapses from the sudden return of the visions and their sidekick migraines. This time though, Arlin finally sees the person who she’s been looking through in the visions: herself. She realizes that the visions aren’t from someone else, but somehow involve another version of herself. 

The Arlin in the memories will be referred in the comment blurbs from now on as Arliquen, which was Arlin’s (Arlinia’s) original name. Arliquen really is Arlin 1.0, the original character I created for a roleplay back around 2010. Both of them are white haired and optimistic with a draconic summon called Murantagh, but they are slightly different: 

Arlinia (2.0) - Hyper -Talkative -Stubborn  -Enjoys helping people, volunteering, exploring different disciplines  -Tagh is a silver, eastern-style dragon with blue and green accents -Uses a wand; no other weapon -Air-element focus -Mage class (would be a mage character) -Walks, but still has her white boots -Doesn’t know how to ice-skate -More or less mortal.

Arliquen (1.0) -Calm -Quiet -Easily swayed -Law-abiding but mischievous  -Enjoys helping people -Tagh is a blue, western-style dragon -Weapon is a short bow that splits into two short blades (ice-themed) -Water/ ice element focus -Healer class -Teemo’s passive* -Ice-skated everywhere. Had white shoe boots that would become skates on ice. -Elf

*Teemo’s passive in League of Legends is that he becomes invisible if he stays still without attacking for a few seconds. This was basically one of Arliquen’s abilities. It wasn’t copied though; I didn’t know about LoL then XD

65. A Moment in Time

Arlin reveals and explains her understanding of the visions she’s been getting to her roommates. The theme reminds me of A Wrinkle in Time, even though I never read it.

66. Dangerous Territory

After hearing about how Arliquen ice-skated everywhere but Arlinia doesn’t know how to skate, Celestine decides to teach Arlin how to skate. Celestine (the only one that speaks in this) and Arlin are on the rink; Elysia is sitting in the stands, half watching and half trying to understand why Arlin’s vision-attacks started when the attacks started on the campus. 

It was pretty interesting writing Celestine and Arlin in basically swapped positions: Celestine is usually the timid one and Arlin the confident one, but when it comes to ice-skating or archery, Celestine definitely holds her own better. 

Elysia is scrunched over a textbook because she is a weapons/ tech major that has never had to deal much with magic beyond how to make it work with technology. She knows her fundamentals, but compared to Arlin who majors in magic, she’s got nothing. However, Elysia is the one that gets all obsessed when doing research and decides to make her head hurt anyways.

NEXT SET (67-70)