ECA 79-82

Slightly belated: Merry Christmas!
Slightly ahead: Happy New Year!

1. Sorry for the delay in this week's post! I was a little caught up in the festivities XD
2. I'll need to write more so I have something to post after ECA is posted! XD
3. I also had comments on a few things I watched/ read over the holidays but it gets a bit ranty and long so I'll save that for a separate post!
4. ECA returns!

PREVIOUS SET (75-78)

79. Illogical

Elysia knew there was something wrong when they ran into Rhys’s group lurking around corner of the valley barricaded by a stone golem.

“Golems’re typically security.” Aldis offered. “Thing is, what’s it guarding? Whatever’s being held there—it’s illogical to tell everyone they’re guarding it with a golem.”

“The Somnia rift?” Anuna suspected immediately. “If they could keep us from getting to it…”

“What’s really illogical is why we didn’t get a professor to deal with this,” Elysia muttered.

But Arlin looked stumped about something else: “Why would they hinder us? Why did Rhys steal the scrolls? What’s her logic?”

80. A Place to Belong

“Got it.” Elysia had graphed elemental energy readings radiating from the area, and built a 3D model from her calculations. “It’s not the rift. It’s the portal Rhys made from the scrolls; a gateway to Somnia. We’ll close the rift from the other side.”

“But could we face them and the golem and still have energy for the other side?” Anuna pointed out. The group shifted uncertainly.

“No…we don’t have to!” Arlin’s eyes danced excitedly. “We can reach the portal from another direction: the cliffscape”

“Reach it how?” They followed Arlin, knowing she had throughly explored campus.

“From above.”

81. Only Human

Behind the group, Vesper apologized for being rude to Celestine. Instead of shooing him away or ignoring him this time though, Celestine replied, “No, I-I should apologize. I’m sorry for being overly sensitive and emotional. I’m taking things the wrong way.”

They would have gone on apologizing, but Celestine admitted, “I don’t like losing my temper, breaking down, raging,..” Anything but calm and polite. “It feels…like an arrow flying wide.”

“A miss. Imperfect score.”

Celestine nodded. 

“Imperfections are only human. Think of it as hitting the face instead of the bullseye. Not the best option, but sometimes unavoidable."

82. Advantage

Elysia, who was scouting ahead, ran into Rhys lurking around. 

“I have the advantage, you know.” Rhys told her seriously. “I know what your enemy is planning. Who he is.”

“Advantage isn’t a definite win,” Elysia pointed out. They circled each other once, before deciding not to fight…yet. “Why do this?”

“Because the inherent power some people have…it’s abnormal. Not every soul goes to Somnia. Without the Land of Dreams, everyone would have the same amount of conscious time. No extra study time or extra training while this body is resting. 

“I want to restore equality. No advantages.”

Comment Blurbs

79. Illogical

ECAAAV (lol referring to groups by their initials T_T)  runs into Rhys and her followers lurking around a corner of the valley with unusually high security. As the crew ponders thy this could be, Elysia lampshades the fact that they haven’t gone to a professor about this. Arlin wonders why Rhys is here and whether Rhys is really opposing them or also facing the golems.

This took forever to write and edit and I was stuck around here for most of the summer. I finally got it to more or less work. Had the group decided to face the golem head-on they would have realized that this was the fourth elemental monster/ attack on the campus. 

80. A Place to Belong

Using complicated math that I don’t actually understand (though I think this makes more or less some literary sense) Elysia figures out that the weird energy coming from the corner of the valley is a portal: the portal Rhys unlocked with the help of the scrolls she stole. This means that while ECA and crew could waste the energy and materials building another portal, they could also just use Rhys’s. Now all the exploration that Arlin loves to do comes up: she knows another way to reach the portal, and a fast way to it. 

81. Only Human

While their friends figure out what they’re doing and how to do it, Vesper and Celestine resolve their relationship problems: both apologize, acknowledging that they’ve both been idiotic, but they don’t turn it into an apologizing contest. Celestine brings up her obsession with seeming perfect all the time and Vesper helps her change her perspective on this obsession. 

The idea of hitting the face and not the bullseye comes from a situation I thought of a long time ago: life is like a giant multiple-choice test, except we don’t always see all the options offered for the question we’re working on. So in Celestine’s case, when she gets overly sensitive and grudging, she’s picked an answer, it just wasn’t the best one. Making those mistakes is sad, but it’s just part of what it means to be human and to struggle. 

82. Advantage

Elysia and Rhys run into each other. They decide to put off the fight and just talk a little. Rhys also reveals her ultimate mission: to even the playing field on people who are born with an exceptional amount of power and can train while they sleep. To this end she has recruited the help of someone on the dream-side of the portal. 

This is why in part 25 (Breaking Away) I said I wouldn’t defend Rhys: because her reasoning (however twisted) comes up now: Rhys’s pedestal is normality: she doesn’t like Fiana or Anuna because they admitted they were weird aside from their coloring: Fiana in her talking to moon rabbits and Anuna being an ancilla. 

NEXT SET (83-86)

ECA 75-78

Hello there!

Bird and Bunny. 

On the right is just something cute I found while cleaning out some files. I think this is from around this time last year XD

Life has been fine this week. Relaxing, if anything. I need to get in shape and get back to work on my creative projects!

After my experience with writing a story given a script (Spring Ball Trouble story) and reading Bakuman, I've decided to work on little "names" (aka storyboards) for stories in the future. I intend to figure out how to do this for prose by the end of winter break XD. If successful, it will contribute to the next story posted here on The River Windrose.

I hope everyone on winter break is having a relaxing time! I'll be back again next week with my comments on Bastion and Bakuman and the next four parts of ECA!

PREVIOUS SET (71-74)

75. Shadows

Rhys had stolen the scrolls to Somnia. They’d have to steal them back while Vesper distracted Rhys.

“You don’t have any… special gear?” Arlin disapproved of Murantagh’s idea. “Disguise?”

Aldis shrugged. “Don’t need’em. People don’t see a trace o’me ‘nyways.”

Under his guidance, they were three shadows that blended into the late afternoon.

Tagh dampened the door lock. They were in. They split up and searched the room with gloved hands. Aldis picked the chest lock. Scrolls found. Everything replaced. Then swiftly gone.

“T’was fun….G’night then.”

Arlin turned away, but her heart was racing. Being a shadow….was new.

76. Summer Haze

Vesper Universtiy was known for the month-long “excursion” at the end of the school year: Typically, the first fortnight was based on survival and the second on a disturber of the peace event. 

ECA split up to collect their sets of equipment and collect information from their clubs. 

Before meeting up, Celestine hid the pocketwatch under her field uniform. Arlin had been right; between finals and the excursion, there hadn’t been time to sink into the lazy haze of summer. She was glad they’d continued rigorous practice; they weren’t going to just be facing the school event this month.

77. Memories

Arlin was first at the meeting spot. While waiting, she imagined the girl from the visions on the other side of the gate. Memories? 

“But it’s not like that.” She reached her hand out and imagined the other girl mirroring her. “It’s like…you’re me.”

She could picture the two Murantagh’s mimicking each other. Not quite a mirror, but a resemblance.

“You’re… who I used to be.”

The same techniques, just different elements. 

“Not a past life…”

Both girls were still Arlin. Identity was unbreakable.

“Just another time.”

She accepted it. And as she did, the memories cleared within her, 

78. Change in the Weather

Three hours after the excursion commencement, Elysia, Celestine, Arlin, Anuna, Vesper, and Aldis met at the gate to pool supplies and information. Their alliance was special: they were using the open nature of the excursion to investigate the Somnia-university rift situation

 As the wind turned, leading them into the valley between the three campuses—elementary, intermediate and college levels—of Vesper Institute, Elysia thought her school seemed suddenly so foreign and vast. This was now not her academic refuge, but an arena of war against the stuff of dreams. She clasped her hands. “Signs… help me weather this change.”

Comment Blurbs

75. Shadows

While Vesper distracts Rhys offscreen, Arlin and Aldis set out to steal back the scrolls that contain Anuna’s portal back to Somnia. Going with Aldis was Tagh’s idea, but Arlin is going along. They search Rhys’s room, find the scrolls and leave.

It was really fun writing this concept of Arlin thieving after getting all upset at Aldis about it the entire story. It was hard to get everything into 100 words though, and I’m considering expanding this scene out into a microfiction at some point. Probably not anytime soon though, because I’m just so relieved at finally finishing ECA XD

76. Summer Haze

So for the last 15 posts the students of Vesper have technically been on a week-long summer haze where they’ve just been hanging out and relaxing. ECA has been keeping up with a few sparring matches, but they too have been relaxed. Now it is time for Vesper University’s famous “excursion” at the end of the school year. As their group splits up to collect equipment and information, Celestine takes a moment to be thankful she had friends that didn’t let her get lazy over that week, especially because they wouldn’t just be facing the excursion but also the crisis in Somnia. 

Ad Nauseum into the Excursion:

The Excursion is a month-long event held on the (very spacious) campus of Vesper Insititute. It is a two-part event, with the first half based on survival and the second on an event. 

The methods to survival are usually pretty clear-cut: most students stick to the three “cities” of the institute: the elementary, intermediate and college campuses. There they find a job and shelter of some sort, using their abilities as best they can. Others stake out on their own in the vast wild-lands that the Vesper family controls, seeking shelter with the bucolic folk or on their own in little shelters they design themselves. Some students always end up banding together to form little groups.

The second part of the month, once everyone’s method of sustainment is more or less established, is centered around an event of some sort. This may involve a very powerful monster harassing the valley or a dearth of some natural resource or a magical “plague” (people would not really die, but be suspended in a coma-state for the remainder of the month). One year a group of rogue students that had unintentionally dabbled too far into dark magic was the unplanned disturber of the peace. 

Every student is given a standard set of equipment at the beginning of the month: a complete field uniform (shirt, shorts, windbreaker, socks, shoes), a few rations, two bottles of water, a bar of soap, and a bracelet ID tag. There is also space in the pack for a blanket/bedroll, a weapon, and a few personal items.

Good grades over the past two semesters are rewarded with extra little things such as mana crystals, extra rations or bonus clothes, parts, weapons. Resumes are drafted ahead of the event and apply as it normally would in helping the students get these month-long jobs. Extra volunteer hours, club activities, and temple work are honored with extra information of events going on, resources or books/ knowledge of useful spells and skills; that is, alongside the relationships/ contacts established.

Poor grades or disciplinary records may lead to additional rules on the student or less starting material. For example, they may be missing a jacket or have no new shoes, no soap, or are banned from a city/ area because they had a poor behavioral record. Severe cases are punishable by spending the first few days (up to the entire first week) in a “prison” status.

The bracelet-tag attached to each student at the beginning monitors the student’s vitals. It displays health and energy bars to help gauge each student’s limits and enforces an invulnerability+ lockdown to prevent over-exertion. It also monitors the students locations, and keeps them in the campus vicinity. In case of an emergency, there is a teleport provided that links them directly back to the main campus control area. Students are not recommended to activate it (unless in an emergency) and abuse of it is punishable.

Academic competitions are held 6 times over the four weeks to allow for students to gain more resources using pure academic ability. 

Students are given free reign as to how they live during the month, providing they survive and in some way interact with the disturber of peace. There is a ranking compiled at the end as to who accumulated the most money/ other resource or had the greatest impact on the event, but there is no official “grade” given; the event is meant to be a learning experience :)

77. Memories

As Arlin waits for the rest of her friends to get to the meeting spot, she comes to terms with the girl in her visions being a past version of herself. 

This scene was fun to write too. I’ve always wanted to write a scene where Arliquen meets Arlinia. They’re quite different, but I was firm about keeping them the same character and now actually have a weird reason of sorts for it. But that’s a different story. 

78. Change in the Weather

As the group (consisting of ECA, Anuna, Vesper and Aldis) sets off into the valley, Elysia looks back. Although she’s been in the Vesper Institute system since elementary school, Elysia suddenly feels like the campus looks very foreign. She murmurs a prayer as the Excursion begins.

NEXT SET (79-82)

ECA 71-74

Hello! :D I return to the world of the cyber-life with another installment of ECA!

Life and School: Fall Quarter is done, for better or for worse! That means I'm on winter break! :D I'll be posting ECA stuff most of the break, unless I finish something else worth posting.

Towards the end of the quarter I wrote a personal statement for a research application. I did not know how to properly convey myself and at one point just wrote this:

I cut out the italics for the final draft. XD

Next quarter my school load promises to be hectic whether or not I get into the research position, but I will do my best to keep a buffer available!

Blog Redesign: Sometime this winter break I plan on redesigning the look of the blog. So if it looks drastically different one day, that's why XD Comment on it! Comment on ECA! Comment on anything! (Is the comment system too finicky? Tell me if I can make commenting easier!)

Also, I found out the search bar doesn't work. Instead, try appending a /search?q=searchword to the URL, replacing "searchword" with the search word. For multiple words, adding %20 between the search words should work, although a space might work just as well. It's not as pretty as the google one used to be, but at least it works! XD

NaNoWriMo:

Ta-dah! Despite school, I was able to make it to 50K on only relevant story material! Even better, as the chart shows, I was able to write at least a few hundred words every day! I hope to keep this up and write a little bit every day. It's a really fun feeling to just sit down and take 20 minutes or something and just write something that has nothing to do with academics or (as I was doing this past quarter) educational strategies and learning development. (Not that academic papers aren't cool. It's just, as someone who knows who she is put it, "[my] style is narrative style"--I like story writing more.

As for the NaNo story, I will be revising it, editing it, and doing a whole lot of work with it to polish it up into something worth posting or submitting or anything. I wasn't able to write an ending I liked this November, though I do have the beginning in gory detail and a good chunk of middle. So December through February will be working on tying that off and editing it for....something. lol

ECA recap: When I last updated ECA, Elysia, Celestine, Arlin, Anuna, and Aldis were gathered in ECA's dorm room. They were just hanging out, but then Vesper barged in to inform them that the cause of the elemental monster attacks on the campus were caused by an energy rift that linked Somnia, the Land of Dreams, to the mortal world. Celestine alone doesn't believe him and goes to the Room of Clocks, intending to confirm his theory. When she arrives though, all the clocks are shattered. Celestine glimpses an illusion of Epsilona before she vanishes. The Room of Clocks leaves Celestine with a small diamond pocketwatch and the last three lines of a poem written by the spirit of the sun.

Characters (alphabetical by first name):

Aldis Maur: (tech, magic (earth) class) Thief boy that has only recently started hanging out with ECA. Arlin's acquaintance and Vesper's roommate.
Anuna Erkygon: (magic (non-elemental) class) Red haired sorceress that taught Celestine a lot of dark-magic spells. Celestine's friend and Rhys's former roommate.
Arlinia Murantagh Yves: (summoning, magic (air) class) The bubbly and optimistic A-part of ECA. Her summon is a silver eastern-style dragon called Murantagh/ Tagh. She can also summon Ivarine Callias, the Spirit of the Sun and the Queen of Shadows, to her aid.
Celestine Syeniar Sesium: (weapon (bow), magic (energy) class) The timid and pensive C-part of ECA. In her dreams, she communicates with the pixie Epsilona.
Elysia Intana Kieran: (tech, weapon (sword), tech class) The serious and terse E-part of ECA. She possesses a legendary sword called Sye'niar.
Lyciar Erkygon: Anuna's father and a King of the Land of Dreams.
Rhys Vesper: (summoning, magic (elemental) class) Student council vice president and Arlin's self-proclaimed rival.
Dr. Vesper Aurigae Nox: Senior magic professor. He is famous for designing a powerful knockout jinx. This power has not yet been replicated by anyone else.*
Vesper Jinan Wisteria: (healing, magic (energy) class) Smart but arrogant. Celestine's friend, Elysia's rival, and Aldis's roommate.

*Funny story.
Was Dr. Nox always a guy? There’s a funny story to this. I was finished with the story for a few months, but in writing another story related to ECA, I had some reason to add Vesper Aurigae Nox into one of the background crew. I realized (again) that I have entirely too many characters to that are girls relative to guys. Upon mentioning this to my editor, she suggested I genderbend some of them. Randomly, the first person that came to mind was to genderbend Vesper Nox. It seemed to make sense; after all, Vesper Jinan Wisteria is a guy :P To Dr. Nox's credit, he got a massive boost in magic power along with his gender change. I don't think the actual source of the power boost is mentioned in the ECA story though. :P Whatever the reason, it took 11 minutes from the decision to go back and edit all mentioned of Vesper Aurigae Nox into a guy. T_T (Although if you see any still, please notify me and I'll fix it XD) So….transgender or always a male, whatever you like to think, I now have a male teacher character XD. 

This post is only 4 posts and in the middle of a transition stage, but I hope you enjoy it! There will be another post next week!

PREVIOUS SET (67-70)

71. The True You 

By the time Celestine finished explaining the Room of Clocks’s fate and the mysterious poem, she had also explained a little of herself: Epsilona, her dream visions, Anuna teaching her the clock-spells, quelling the fire attack, her childhood diagnosis. 

“All along…” Arlin mused, “you were…scared. You thought you were really…insane. But you want to do something about it.” 

“The clock spells,” Elysia changed the subject. “Dark magic, did you know?”

No response.

“I have…a confession as well.” Anuna took a breath. “I’m an ancilla from the Land of Dreams. I’m the daughter of the dying Queen.” 

72. Pretense

“I admit, I was…using Celestine for her potential to wield the magic I need.” Anuna was more defiant than apologetic. 

“W-why me though?” Celestine trembled pitifully.

“A hunch. Now I know why: pixie magic is powerful and malleable.”

“Aren’t Ancilla the most renowned sorcerers in legend?” Elysia questioned Anuna expressionlessly.

“When I left…the core of my abilities as an ancilla were locked. I was searching to break this lock and fix the Curtain of Lights..”

“Fine. And the scrolls?”

“My bridge back to Somnia.” Anuna was bitter. “Now gone; stolen.”

“Whom?”

“Student Council Vice President, Rhys Vesper.”

73. Patience

“Epsilona?”

Celestine paused, lowering the silver bow. The Land of Dreams was a place of consciousness in sleep, right? This was hers. She had started training with her imaginary friend in the dreamscape.

“Yes, Syeniar?” The purple pixie was seemed glad for a break. Even though in Celestine’s dreams she was very much fine, the shattering of the clocks had taken a toll on all the pixies. 

“You said we were…connected?”

“All pixies are.”

“When will I…be able to join you and the other pixies? To find who I am? If I am?”

“…Patience, Syeniar. Time will tell.”

74. Midnight

Elysia knelt at the pinnacle of the training bluff, imagining how Arlin felt from her visions. How Celestine felt her whole life, afraid of herself?

A shiver scuttled down her spine. But Arlin had two lives worth of memory and ability, and Celestine communed with pixies. Elysia was a plain orphaned swordswoman. Why was she was going on a heroic expedition?

Then a faint ray of light fell out of the darkness, wrapping around her legendary sword and changing her armor. Taurus. Whatever the reason, the Signs had chosen her. 

She knew her next step: Find the rift to Somnia. 

Comment Blurbs

71. The True You

Celestine relays what happened to the Room of Clocks to Arlin, Elysia, Aldis, Vesper and Anuna. Along the way she also ends up explaining a lot of what she hid about herself. Anuna also reveals her identity as an ancilla and thus the ancilla from the picture: a pink haired ancilla. 

This post should be more epic as well :(

72. Pretense

Anuna explains that she came from Somnia to find a way to fix the Curtain of Lights. She also explains that she was teaching Celestine because Celestine had a great amount of untapped power that Anuna could use to help Somnia. Although she is one of the legendary ancilla-sorceresses, Anuna’s powers were locked before she came and she doesn’t have access to them. She has figured out how to fix the Curtain and can go back to Somnia via the scrolls she’d lost/ hidden in the Room of Clocks, but sometime in the last 13 posts Rhys stole the scrolls. 

Back in part 27 (Lost and Found) Anuna mentioned that she had  the scrolls in the Room of Clocks. However, nothing in that post was explicitly “found”. Now it is revealed that at the time, Anuna had lost the scrolls but found someone that could help her get them back and also someone that could help her fix the Curtain. 

73. Patience

This post is technically an anachronism that can take place at almost any time. Celestine talks to Epsilona, who is thankfully safe in her dreams. From her conversation with Anuna about Somnia being a a place where people are conscious even as their bodies are asleep, Celestine decided that she may as well make use of her own dreamscape to train. Seeking acceptance, Celestine asks when she would be able to join Epsilona and the other pixies, if indeed Celestine is a pixie of sorts. Epsilona's only answer is the ambiguous promise that “Time will Tell”.

74. Midnight

Elysia wonders why she, Celestine and Arlin end up as the people that are helping Anuna solve this problem. Elysia’s argument is that there isn’t anything special about her: Arlin has her past life’s memory and ability and Celestine is a pixie, but Elysia is just an abandoned girl who happens to know how to use a sword. But in the midst of her pondering, a ray of light falls on her sword and immediately Elysia recognizes the work of her patron god and that, for whatever reason, she is to walk this path. She puts her doubts aside and focuses on her mission.

NEXT SET (75-78)