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:
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 YouBy 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. MidnightElysia 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)
Welcome back, Consistent Spontaneity.
ReplyDeleteIt’s really interesting to see how the layout has completely changed from the right side edge to the left side and color-wise. The cool colors of periwinkle blue and varying degrees of purple really work well with the fluffy, cloud like texture in the background. It does seem to call back with the initial sight design back in 2011 theme.
Congrats for finishing NaNo this year. Best of luck in that research project and I hope you do get accepted for the position.
Nice outline of each character. Plus, the recap was definitely needed. It’s been a while since I read anything related to ECA. It’s a bit surprising that now Dr. Vesper Nox is now male. I want to say, “oh no, another super powerful professor who is male has arrived,” but based on the rare ratio of male characters in your cast, that change is understandable. Wait, you might need to clarify the naming for Rhys Vesper, Dr. Vesper Aurigae Nox, and Vesper Jinan Wisteria. Are they all related by blood or just by name?
The True You: OH, so this is where Anuna says she’s the ancilla. (Oh dear, I merged Nunu and Amumu together to say Anunu by accident while writing; I guess I had overdone the League of Legends impact today.) I am not sure why but I don’t really like Anuna…
I feel this moment reminds me of Persona 4’s major theme song of “Pursuing your True Self.” Definitely, the revelations set in motion.
Although the part about The True You is not as epic as you wanted it to be, how would you have improved this section? (I guess what specific questions came up when you said that were; would you rewrite the part using a wordless count? Or would you retry writing a 100 words for this scene?)
Pretense: I don’t see how this section is linked by the idea of a fake situation. Maybe, I am confused by the definition of pretense… Was the reader supposed to make a connection between multiple posts? (If so, OPPS.)
Patience: Wait, Celestine is part pixie? What? How? Wait, is it really all in her middle name? Celestine sounds really productive in using sleep as another universe to train and improve herself.
Midnight: A faint ray of light comes out of the blue. What a mysterious move. Glad Elysia found some realization and validation in her role with the trio.
I guess I will find more out about the rest of the plot of ECA in the next few posts. Thanks for posting an update!
Forte-Rock
Thank you for all your well-wishes and congratulations! :)
DeleteI don't have screenshots to the original site theme, but if you remember from that long ago, cool! :)
Yea, I figured a recap would be helpful. A lot of my friends that I've talked to said they'll probably be re-reading ECA to capture what's happened up until now, but a recap after such a long break over 60% into the story was definitely in order. I'm glad it helped you as well.
The three Vespers are not at all related, though they are connected to the school. They were all just created around the same time when I was obsessing over the name "Vesper" which means "star". Rhys Vesper is the daughter of the headmaster of Vesper Institute, Vesper Jinan Wisteria is a smart boy that has attended the Institute's elementary-intermediate-college system. Dr. Vesper Aurigae Nox is the head of the magic Institute's magic department. He was always a powerful spellcaster, but I kinda gave him a boost when I changed a few related details. Not that it changes anything in the ECA story XD
The True You: I don't know about rewriting the 100 words for the theme, and I don't think I want to go back and re-edit ECA, but I was a little miffed that such an insightful theme had to be turned into something not quite as epic to fit in with the story. It is though, much better than the original version I'd written, and it does serve to sum up everything that's been going on with Celestine and Anuna (I call her Anunu all the time too after playing LoL XD).
Pretense: No connection necessary really. It just has to do with the first line of the part, where Anuna says, “I admit, I was…using Celestine for her potential to wield the magic I need.” That is, Anuna was admitting that her teaching Celestine the clockwork spells and helping her in magic studies was just a cover for Anuna to teach her the abilities that Anuna needs to get back to Somnia. Sorry this wasn't clear!
Patience: Sorry this came as a shock and was confusing. I thought I made enough hints to it, but I guess it still was a little random. There are snippets in Celestine-focused scenes where images of wings appear (post 37 and 55?) and Dr. Nox calls this pixie magic when talking to Elysia (post 51). It's also mentioned by Anuna in the pretense post.
Thank you for your support! Please look forward to the conclusion of the story!