NaNo2014: T minus 2 weeks.

Hi!

TL;DR: Writing "Zephyr", not "Sun Dagger" for NaNoWriMo 2014. Was thinking of joining a deviantART roleplay but won't. (Featuring a drawing!) Some musing about what my mentor teacher said and a few images of identity.

NaNoWriMo 2014: As indicated last week, I'm not going to be writing Sun Dagger for NaNoWriMo 2014. I talked it over with Forsaken before finalizing the decision, but basically, Sun Dagger has always been a story I worked on slowly and random scene by random scene. In my excitement I had come up with a beginning-middle-end story format for Sun Dagger, but upon closer examination, it had a lot of plot holes and a lot of cultural situations I would like more time to develop.

From there my options turned to: Psychic, ECA prose version, or Zephyr:

• I decided against Psychic because my original vision for it was nowhere near 50K words, and honestly I didn't really want to try writing it in a month. 
• ECA prose version was a very tempting option. I already have a solid story with 100+ scenes that just need to be fleshed out, and it would help me explore into Edge territory. (Edge is unwritten and its story keeps getting changed, but....it's personally meaningful. 
• Zephyr isn't really a story. It's an extended character background of my roleplay character Alina Zephyr. I do have an outline of it, but Alina's adventures leave enough leeway for me to write random scenes and explore the world with her. 

We narrowed it down to ECA or Zephyr, and from there, I decided to take a risk and work with Zephyr. ECA would be the "safer" option, but I want to work on something new, and play with a different character. We'll see if I made the right choice. 

Roleplay and Art: I stumbled upon King and Queen Academy yesterday and was super excited, enough to redesign a character, draw and ink her for an application portrait, but then reality caught up to me.

Enlaika Hieron as a KQA student.
So many problems with this drawing, but
I'm still proud of it.
It's been a while since I've drawn.

RealisticMini: Wait, Mini, do you really have time for a roleplay? Especially one that involves drawing?

OptimisticMini: No it should be fine. I'll be able to spend a little time every week on dA and drawing. 

ArtisticMini/ the mini that draws and sews and does creative projects besides writing: Yea! It'll be ok. If I don't need to color, then it'll just be a sketch and inking. One a week. It's good practice and it's not time-consuming. 

WriterMini/ NaNoWriMo mini: If you're concerned, then you can just tell the admins that you're doing NaNo in November and won't be active until December. 

ArtisticMini: exactly! You usually do an art project in December anyways :)

Mini: yea....this sounds like a good idea.

RealisticMini: Hold up. December means finals. You've got to study and keep up with fieldwork. Fieldwork isn't just a side-class thing now. It's as important as anything else. 

Mini: Well...yea....that's true.

WriterMini: I hadn't considered that. You have writing projects to continue in December too, did you forget? You promised you would try to treat me more seriously as well, not just as a hobby.

ArtisticMini: .... :'( 

Mini: But...

ArtisticMini: No...they're right....

WriterMini: D: ArtisticMini, I'm sorry! 

ArtisticMini: I understand. :') I just have a small request: Get a proper notebook/sketchbook and start noting details down. Observations. And...even if it's not for a roleplay, try to draw more. You'll be happier too. 

So ultimately, it's like Forsaken mentioned: "I don't recommend it, but [I'm not going to stop you]." (Paraphrased at the end.) The artsy part of me agreed: it's not recommended, but it shouldn't stop me from drawing entirely. 

Being You: I keep going back to something my mentor teacher said on Friday: "I've had quite a few more years of being me than you have being you. I've had more time to get comfortable in my own skin."

In context, I was asking how I could be more humorous and she responded it just wasn't me. I shouldn't be trying to mimic her brand of humor, but to find my own personality and my own niche. Being funny just isn't something I am. I admire wit, but don't consistently expect from myself. Her conclusion was that "You're quirky; you just have to find a way to show it." Forsaken helped me understand this conclusion today as well. I actually like it. (hey, it has "q", "k" and"y" in it. I like all those letters.)

Out of context I thought it was insightful because it gave me the image of people wearing different "skins" (think character alternative looks) and gradually finding what was consistent and fundamental about them across all the different looks. Like a kid in an oversized/ weirdly shaped costume and gradually growing into it to that it fits them perfectly. 

And in the context of my artistic disappointment: I've always appreciated my breadth of interest, but I think I'm finally starting to find pillars that are central to my character. And as I find these, I want to put more into them:

I write. I enjoy school and learning. 

I'll definitely be ok.

Spring Rains

Greetings, reader of this nonsensical cyber-text page that is hopefully of some weekly amusement!

Lithica Winski, armed with a scythe and stuffed rabbit. 

So before spring break, I was talking with a friend about what would happen if they accidentally left their apartment door unlocked over the entire break. I was teasing him that if someone did come, they'd probably just clean it for them, but it sparked a short scene in my head.

It also sparked a drawing, which I promptly scanned in and colored. It wasn't as time consuming as I anticipated, but it certainly took more time than I usually would have. So this will be the last--and only--time in a while I'll be posting original art.

Notes on the drawing:  It was just a little pen doodle on paper, but I was thought it was cute enough to scan. I didn't like the jacket though, so I edited it from a long sweater/ coat to a short jacket . I'm quite pleased actually. The hand also had to be adjusted, as it was clunky before.

The gradient on the dress is random, due to my indecisiveness on which shade of pink to make it.

The feet! :D I'm so proud of myself for drawing bare feet.  And.....I again decided not to draw actual eyes :P

Notes on the story: Since Harper had her own adventure last time, this short features Lithica Winski, the little insane girl in the group. Ion again is mentioned in passing. This is set before J.U.L.I.E.T. meets, when Lithica and Ion first encounter each other.

Hopefully everything is self-explanatory by the story itself. If not, I have a small paragraph afterwards to summarize. (Also, I'll start posting word count (WC) before each story-related post-part. I think this might help if people want a length gauge. Tell me if it's a good addition! :))

WC: 904

“Well, that’s the end of spring break,” Japhdel Alder told his brother as they climbed the stairs to their apartment. Ion Winds nodded, shifting the bags of snacks to his other hand. He had the keys to their apartment ready, but one of their roommates, Xeranthenum Teasel, should have already returned earlier that day. He had. The door pushed open easily with a little twist of the handle.  

“Hey Xen, we’re ba—?!”  

Two steps in, Ion briefly wondered if he was in the right apartment. It took him a moment to recognize that everything was exactly as it had been when they’d left a week ago, and another moment to realize what threw him off: although nothing had been moved their apartment had been scrubbed clean. Under the socks he’d left lying around, the dirt and soda-spotted carpet was light tan, cleaner than the day they’d moved in. The walls were dusted and all the plates in the kitchen were stored neatly away or sparkling on the drying rack. Oh, and the girl.  

There was a girl sleeping on the couch—14, maybe younger, with pale skin, pointed ears, and purple hair. On the green beanbag in their living area was seated a worn burlap rabbit with button eyes and long floppy ears and limbs, holding a neon-purple scythe made apparently of metal and some precious rock.  

“Ion? Why’d you stop? This is heavy, y’know.” 

Ion moved, dropping the foodstuffs in his hand on the newly-wiped down table, and let his brother by to unload their stuff in their room. The girl rolled over and told something, in a light squeak he assumed was her voice, to “shut up”. She didn’t wake up though, and the command wasn’t even directed in his direction. 

When Japhdel returned to the common area, he noticed their new guest. 

“Xen?—Xen! Who is this?” Japhdel called to their other roommate. A boy with disheveled—and unevenly dyed—black and pale green hair with maniacal green eyes appeared from the other room. He was skinnier and stranger-looking than white-haired Ion, but possessed none of Ion’s ethereal, almost feminine, beauty.  

Xen ran one hand through his hair and adujusted his broken black glasses. He yawned and scratched his stomach. He stared at the girl that—aside from the purple tint—was as pale as he was. He shrugged. “I don’t give a fuck.” He disappeared back in his room.
Ion and Japhdel exchanged glances—not at Xen’s reaction, because he was an erratic person to begin with—but at the girl still sleeping on their couch.  

Xen returned with the cooking knife in his hand. He shuffled across the carpet and pointed the knife at her head. Luckily, it was just an inquiry. Japhdel shook his head and Xen’s face fell.  

“Do we wake her?” Ion whispered.  

Japhdel leaned over and prodded the girls’ shoulder a little. “Hey. Hey. Who are you?” 

She rolled over again, and her eyelids fluttered. She yawned, revealing white teeth, with  two slightly pointed ones at each side. She sat up, blinking at her three onlookers. “Oh!” Dark amethysts lit up with understanding. “You must be the human males who usually occupy this residence. I am Lithica, of Winski. Thank you for lending out your residence to stray travelers over your spring vacation.” She stood up, twirled her pink skirt, and curtseyed in introduction.  

The boys stared, slightly dumbfounded.  

“Can we kill her?” Xen asked, shifting the knife so it was again pointing in her direction. 

Everyone ignored him. “Oh, and this is Atli,” she motioned to the rabbit. “Forgive him. He has no manners.” 

“Are you high?” Japhdel demanded. His eyes danced, uncertain if he should be concerned or amused. 

At the same time, Ion asked, “Can you help pay rent?” 

Lithica of Winski, or whatever she had introduced herself as, shook her head at Japhdel’s inquiry. She squinted at Ion. “Indeed—how many of the green papers do I owe you?” She reached for the scythe and the rabbit.  

Ion chuckled at her response. “Make it rain,” he told her jokingly.  

She lifted the scythe seriously. The edge glinted as she raised it, and her eye glimmered with madness akin to Xen’s. “Rain,” she repeated, and swiped the scythe forward. As she did, at black-purple crevasse formed through the air. The rift followed the point of her scythe as she guided it through the air; where the rift opened, bills and coins rained over them.  

Lithica skipped and spun once before dropping the spell. Her face was sanguine and unbothered—as though normal people everyday made money rain from mysterious rifts.  

Japhdel laughed, clearly concerned for the girl’s mental health. “Cool! Free money!” 

“Can we kill her now?!” Xen shrieked, slashing at the coins hailing over him.  

“Killing is not polite,” Lithica reprimanded, pausing by the shoes. At the twirl of her fingers, a gentle breeze whisked past them and rubbed off a spot of dirt one of the brothers had tracked in. As she danced out the door, she called in her eerie high-pitch, “For your information, there are ghosts haunting the water-flusher!" 

Ion noted the mildly amused and irritated expression on his brother’s face and laughed. He put enthusiasm into his voice as he picked up a hundred-dollar bill from next to his ankle. “Yay, the bathroom trips won’t be lonely anymore.”

Summary:  Lithica, a little foreign to earthling ways, finds an unlocked door while it is pouring outside. Surprised to find that the residents are not there, she makes the only "logical" conclusion: the usual residents decided to leave their door open so that anyone that got caught out in the rain would be able to take shelter XD. In exchange, she puts her wind magic to work and cleans the entire apartment without reorganizing a thing. A week later, three of the four residents have returned. Xeranthenum, "Xen" Teasel is apathetic to her existence, seeking only to kill her. Brother Japhdel and Ion are concerned for her mental health, but overall chill with the presence of the alien girl.

Comments: Believe it or not, all of the lines the guys say to Lithica are actual reactions I got from asking three guys for their reaction to the situation. (That is, all the boys' lines after "When Japhdel returned to the common area, he noticed their new guest." was actually told to me in chat or person.) Although, to be entirely honest, Xen's repeated "Can we kill her?" was inspired by a description of him actually sinking a knife through her skull.

This wasn't as good as Trains, but I did have a lot more to base Trains off of, and a lot more time to gather and reflect on emotions and observations. I will also be revising Trains after some feedback from fellow writers. That may or may not constitute next week's post, depending on how week one goes.

Thanks for following!  Good luck with classes, everyone! :)
~Minerva

The two art projects that I plodded through this summer.

Greetings! I FINALLY finished painting Calliope (a character of a character)  :D

Before insane idea to color.

After insane idea to color. 

In a magical world populated primarily by winged humans, Calliope suffers from an inability to use magic, even to summon. However, to compensate for this, she is an extraordinary flier, and her ability in the air is unparalleled. As per her namesme, she is also very interested in the arts :)

It was originally just a random drawing, and I liked it enough to scan it into the computer. But the scan turned out weird so I had to clean it up. And by then I thought it would look nice with some color. I started to add some color, thinking I could just put it on a different layer with a multiply filter. But, being the persistent fool I am, I decided just to paint over all the lines. That was too rough to post so I had to go back and add details and make it a little neater. This entire thing was dragged out over about three months but actually only took a few hours XD.

First time ever painting trying to paint wings globby blue things. Fail attempt at color-reflection on sword, but an attempt nonetheless! And I think the sword hilt looks like it's in a completely different style... which may be explained because I added it only after the coloring. I also edited her face :P

Accompanying this is a sketchdump compiled from Spring Quarter 2013 and maybe a few things even before that. There's a lot of Jane and a lot of Fiana because I was trying to practice drawing them for the deviantART roleplays that I'm completely inactive in T_T.  As you can see, I gave up on coloring everything for the sketchdump. So it's more or less a black and white blahpile. These two projects are the reason why I have not finished the outfit meme for Jane D:
Before anyone kills me about the weird proportioning on everything, this was a matter of months/ half a year ago! I've gotten (a little) better X.X

There's a sketch of Adelaide (yes! Adelaide from the Tale of the Darkest Star from the "Spring Ball Trouble" series!), 2 illustrations of Jane's essence/ tea-partner, Rue, 2 random scribbles of dramatized chibi-avatars, 4 doodles of Skarlett Maximus in her early development, and 6 drawings of Fiana, and 16 depictions of Jane.

Aside from that, it is the end of the summer and my room is again in need of cleaning. With it, I'm probably going to try another round of character pruning!

Teacup Essence and ECA 16-20

Hiya!
(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:

(link to dA post)

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)

Status update!

Hiya!

*dodges rotten fruit*

Ahahah I realize I haven't made an update for another .....[insert large number] weeks months >.<" Last quarter was a little more hectic than I thought it would be. I'd try to write up a list of all the excuses I could, but I figure you'd prefer I just write something and continue on with one of the stories. I have some stuff to update on first. If you'd rather skip it, the writing bit is at the end.

So...cool stuff to note! This quarter I completed my first entire sketchbook! It's about 100 pages long, and took a little more than 2 months to complete, but it's complete! I feel like I have improved, but unfortunately I've nothing to post to show for it at the moment. Maybe soon.

In gaming news, I have started playing Smite with some college friends! :) But as Smite is not very dependable on my computer, I usually substitute that with League of Legends. Ahaha yes, I have been sucked into the MOBA community XD.



In writing news, I realize that ECA and Sun Dagger have (as a result of my unintentional hiatuses), been on hiatus themselves. Here's what's going to happen (at least in my head):

1. ECA: This is my primary active project. I hope to finish it by the end of July at this point. And once complete, you can definitely expect consistent updates of it!

2. [Collab]: I'm writing a collab with another friend. It won't be posted here unless she wants it to, but that's another active project we're "pushing" (to adopt some gaming terminology).

3. Dream's Edge: I am going to be cleaning this up a little and prepping it for a rewrite later in the year. Basically it is on hiatus until NaNoWriMo 2013. At least, so is the plan right now.

4. Sun Dagger: I'm eager to get back to Sun Dagger as well, but there are a few projects (not only those mentioned) between ECA's and Kaza's story. At present, consider this officially on hiatus. 
edit: I just noticed I never posted the fourth/final part of "Slate 1" or the second part of Ani's Cheat Sheet! T_T! Dunno when I'll update those.

This summer should be better off in terms of creative productivity. I'm trying my best to get a job, and I feel like a little creative spark has returned! (At least compared to the school year).

And now, for all you lovely, patient, little bunnies, a random scene.

"I am a twisted person."

"You are. You're definitely twisted."

The grass grew tall here, green petals splayed lazily out in the eternal sunshine. He was lying deep in this green glade, the grass pillars stretching into the sky a hands-length from eyes of the same clear color. Beyond that was endless blue sky, clear without a cloud or bird to mar its continuity. 

He sat up, breathing in the sweet scent of flowers carried by a light breeze that tousled his golden hair as it did the field of grass. The hills of tall grass--tall, but not so much as to be a nuisance--ran to the end of his sight, interrupted only by a scintillating lake that threw crystal reflections back wherever a sunbeam danced on its surface.  Pouring into the lake from his right side was a healthily bubbling line of a creek that followed a curving path that resembled the long scar from his right hip to left neck.

Elias could sit here forever, watching the grassy hills roll endlessly into the distance, watching the creek chase the sun, scrutinizing the thin line where the land touched the sky. He was warm, comfortable, peaceful here. This was Heaven.

But somehow he always became lonely, or sought to search for the origin of the creek. He would turn around, knowing he wouldn't like what he would find, yet unable to resist looking anyways. 

Behind him the land was dead. On one side of the creek the grass was green and bright and on the other side the earth dropped away into a monotone expanse. Rifts stretched jaggedly across the wasteland, searching for a horizon past the cragged peaks that loomed, even from this distance. The creek that divided meadow and desert slowed, meandering sluggishly through a crack.There was no sun, yet devious mirages played his worst moments on repeat. No warm, gentle wind comforted the cold.

A bolt of lighting flashed up to storm clouds that leered perpetually in the air, and with it followed a snippet of a life his, yet not his: a past life. These delusions were not just illusions of his mind's insanity. They were reflections of another world, a world now gone but a world that could still be. And this was what gnawed at the hallow of himself that lived now: knowing he made these mistakes, and knowing he could make them again.

But the most painful realization was that once he turned around to see this bleak desert of memories, he couldn't turn back to the peaceful hills. This was Hell, and Heaven was lost to him forever. 

"I am a twisted person."

"You are. You're definitely twisted. But I think everyone's twisted. Everyone's a bit of a paradox."

(Sounds familiar? In my attempt to motivate myself out of an inspirational slump, I rewrote the beginning from a songfiction from a few years back, keeping a lot of the phrases but expanding it a bit. Hopefully there's improvement!

And yes, there'll be a serious update...Sunday?)

Spring Quarter Status Update

Greetings!
Nothing was written over spring break, but that will hopefully change this quarter! With any luck there will be a lot more updates on this blog, writing or art or whatever. This is going to be a really long random update, so without further ado, let's get to it!

Faescribble [link]
Over spring break last last week I did an iscribble collaboration with Forte-Rock and this is what came of it! More info on the deviantART page. (See link).

Camp NaNoWriMo and Dream's Edge
This is kind of like the National Novel Writing Month event in November where writers across the world gather to write 50K words in a month. In the relatively new Camp NaNoWriMo though, writers can decide on their own word count and work towards that goal "smack-dab in the middle of [our] crazy [lives]" (http://campnanowrimo.org/).

This April I'm aiming for 10K words, to contribute to my official NaNo from 2012. Originally called "Campus Curse" I've renamed it to use another old title: Edge. This part is called "Dreams". Yey!
Basically, a few college freshman are stuck on campus over the summer. One of these is Sonora Li, whose lifelong dream has been to fly and use magic. In her sleep she starts going to "Somnia" the "Land of Dreams" where she is able to use magic.

This month I hope to complete the first part of Sonora's journey in the Land of Dreams. In the original version this wasn't that much of a big deal, but one of my friends which read through the draft copy said that she was most intrigued by the events happening in the dream world and thought it was a good idea to really expand on it. Thus, I've decided to revamp the story before the June printing deadline with more of an emphasis on the Somnia-storyline and the tarot journey there.

For your entertainment, please enjoy these first 120 (of only 372) words!

--

She woke up in the middle of a tiled courtyard, surrounded by four grand stone arches marked with symbols overhead. The air was crisp and a little foggy, and only thickened beyond the courtyard’s arches. At her back was a plain wooden door that led into a stone building. She sat up blinking. What was this? Where was she? 

She looked down and blinked at the girl reflected in the mirror-like tile. For a moment she thought she was seeing another person, trapped inside the courtyard floor. The girl in the floor touched her face when she did. “Who—are you?” Even the echo in the courtyard seemed to make the girl in the floor speak when she did. 

--
As always, comments and critiques are welcomed and appreciated!

Spring Quarter
I feel obligated to post my classes for these next 10 weeks:

• Molecular Biology: Same professor as Biochemistry, so I'm really excited for this. If only my book would come...Y.Y
• Organic Chemistry: I'm taking a tough professor, but she's a great lecturer, and a lot of my friends are taking her as well, so I figure I'll do my best. I really enjoy organic chemistry over general chemistry. Here, have a tosylate [link]. Great leaving groups, they are. 
• Organic Chemistry Lab: I usually detest lab, but last quarter I received my first A for a lab class so I'm excited to do it again. *Cough, not excited enough to do the lab report anytime before last minute obviously though* T_T
• Neurobiology: Ever since I took Consciousness in my freshman year I've been really interested in neuroscience. This class has been a little over my head even in week 1 (this is an alertalert abandon ship sign) but I'm determined to do well and delve into the subject more. 
• On a side note, I saw one of my TAs from last quarter in front of the lecture hall on Wednesday and he told me "You know you can buy a neuron from the bookstore, right?" 
• Being the oblivious fellow I am, I excitedly asked, "Really? Like...a single one? How would we..." *thinking how anyone would preserve and package a neuron.*
• And he must have thought I was a dolt for this because he clarified: "Yea, like a squishy pillow neuron. "
• You may now facepalm. 

So if I miss a weekly update, I am probably 

1. Cramming to finish writing a prelab or lab report
2. Reading feverishly for bio 
3. Reading feverishly for nuero
4. Doing ochem practice like there's no tomorrow (no idea how that makes sense, but we shall pretend it does).
5. Thinking of how to bottle a single neuron. (And I'm not talking about those giant 1mm squid axons either!)
6. Writing, drawing, reading manga, watching anime. 

Which leads me to my next point: 

SKIP BEAT IS AMAZING.
And my amazing I mean like Cardcaptor Sakura, Sword Art Online amazing. In case you don't know what I'm talking about, you need to consult these links immediately:
[link] [and this] [the epitome of awesome] [this is epic as well] [this is pretty good] [epitome of epic]

Anime and Manga: 
So the reason I didn't really get anything written over spring break was because I was catching up with my TV shows and manga XD. I have a few comments on the awesomeness of each one. The links to each are above. If you can't figure out which is which, that's ok; they're all definitely worth watching/ reading.
My ships are also listed.

Skip Beat: I had started this a while back, but couldn't get past the first few chapters. This time, at the fervent recommendation and assurance of the literary quality of a fellow writer who should feel very pleased with herself, I pushed past the part I got stuck at before... and fell in love. Engaging action and story, topped with beautiful character development.
>Kyoko x Ren. Shou can go....away.

Sword Art Online (SAO): This was a while back, but I found it fascinating. I saw a random post on my friend's facebook and read the manga. Liked it enough to discover that there was an anime, watched it, loved it, and am now plodding ridiculously slowly through the light novel. A lot of insights on virtual reality, reality vs dream worlds, identity, morality and consciousness in general.
>Kirito x Asuna.

CardCaptor Sakura (CSS): By now I think anyone who knows me knows that CCS is the cutest thing since Hello Kitty. There were actually two people that recommended this to me, both of whom are very correct that I would enjoy it. Kudos.
>Sakura x Syaoran= OTP.

Persona 4 (P4): After almost a year of hearing my friends fangirl over this, I watched Persona 4. It was pretty incredible, and brought up a lot of insightful thoughts like SAO. Apparently the Animation couldn't go as much into the character development as the game, which was a little disappointing, but overall, definitely worth checking out.
>Chie x Yosuke,  Naoto x Kanji, and I want to say Yu x Yukiko. If it makes sense, Kuma and Nanako, but not romantically.

Once Upon a Time: This is a live action show on ABC about fairy tail character and their counterparts in Storybrooke, Maine. I love the connections between all the characters and how everything always ties together. It really exemplifies Lillian Hellman's quote "Nothing, of course, begins when you think it did."
>Rumplestilskin/ Gold x Belle, Snow White/ Mary Margaret x Prince/David, Emma x Baelfire, Regina x Daniel....basically all the canon. :X

Fairy Tail (FT): Another manga that I'm keeping up with. Very action-packed, with a lot of characters and vivacious personalities. I find it very motivational, and action-packed. Definitely worth reading, even if it's hella long.
> Gray x Juvia, Gajeel x Levy are my absolute favorite, but I also like Natsu x Lisanna, Erza x Gerard, Lucy x Loki and Elfman x Evergreen

As an aside: Did you really think I would make you search through the links?
[Skip Beat] [Sword Art Online]  [Cardcaptor Sakura] [Persona 4] [Once Upon a Time] [Fairy Tail]
But still read/ watch all of them.


And while you read/ watch those, I have my own list to plod through. =_="

Site redesign
So in the middle of writing this post (which was itself in the middle of doing a chemistry lab report, which was in the middle of writing for Camp NaNo, which was in the middle of reviewing neurobiology notes, which was in the middle of doing that lab report) I redesigned the look of the blog, which is long overdue. Hope you like it!

~Minerva Wu

Roleplay Applications!

Hi there!
This is a middle of the week update, but I felt like posting something anyways!

Before NaNo, I finished two applications for roleplays on deviantART and wanted to share them here, where I rant unabashedly about my characters and their universe anyways. WARNING: this is going to be me just ranting about character backstories that will probably never really amount to anything.

Tea Essence: Jane Exina. [Link to dA full app] (Accepted! :D)

Aside from having the most plain name (as far as I know) in my stories, Jane's also one of those characters that I majorly changed a few years back when I re-warped my entire imaginary world. For the roleplay she doesn't do any magic but summoning her tea essence, but in my worlds, she's still in a dark magic prodigy with an interest in psychology. The differences though: her age shrunk, originally from around 20 to 6 and finally to around 15. Her frame shrunk and grew along with those changes as well. Most significantly though, she's now physically frail and quite sickly.

The original Jane was in Dawn Eternia's background stories (first part linked from here) and could technically be the same person, but I'm not quite counting on it. Since Dawn's story hasn't changed, I suppose I'm just considering it a different person? :P Go me and my complicating weirdness. >.<"

TRW-exclusive trivia! Again in my story version of her, she's the leader of a superhero team called J.U.L.I.E.T.. There'll be more on J.U.L.I.E.T., probably around when I introduce the Sixteen. Her codename is "Shadowlight" which was created by some civilians who saw her using "dark" and "light" colored magic. Her favorite food, as indicated in the Crack OC meme is pumpkin pie XD. Her mother was part of a military "supergroup" as well

Grand Cross Academy: Fiana Lunaltusiem. [written profile] [artsy profile] (they're the same thing, just different formats). (Accepted! :D)

This is the same Fiana that's shown up as a super side character in the Spring Ball Trouble arc as well as the ECA segments. And being a minor character in a bunch of stories is kind of how she caught my attention. Let's be a little silly and break some fourth wall barriers here:

So I'm working on a few character profiles, just tidying things up and drawing relationship trees when I realized that Fiana shows up as a relation for a lot of characters in the Sixteen (16 characters I'm considering my main protagonists; I'll introduce them sometime).
And so I laugh and say "Well, that's good. She's a good minor character. I'll never have to write her story out."
But she's obviously not as complacent and as much a identity-confused pushover as I had initially thought of her as because she decides to tell me: "I'm a little tired of being a minor character for everyone. Can I...walk away from my life and have my own adventure?"
Being the magnanimous writer I am, I looked into her story a bit and told her, "Yea, if you can find the courage to get up and actually walk away, I'll give you your own adventure." And she actually does it. So based on the only notes I had for her before (white haired, yellow eyes, demigod, always looks sad, healing and weapons class, likes reading, identity confused) I revised a few things about her person and let her in a roleplay. Thus far, I think she likes the artistic attention. :)

TRW-exclusive trivia! Fiana's got a bunch of different surnames, all of which give her a different person and identity to associate herself with. Also included are a bunch of character relations.

Tallwater: Her father's, Ivian Tallwater, surname. Fiana uses this name for most of her childhood. He's  very protective of her, to the point of being controlling and demanding. His sour relationship with her step-brother (his step-son) causes rifts sometimes, but underneath everything he is always proud of her achievements and her effort.

Maur: Her stepmother's, Jemma Pryce Maur, surname. Jemma is a very famous actress and the niece of the lord of their fief, so Fiana is sometimes referred to as such. Neither she nor her step-mother appreciate this naming. Although outwardly Jemma seems to dote on her stepdaughter, she thinks Fiana is quite silly and weak. For a laugh she might hang scary pictures in the hallways to intimidate her. Jemma does not approve of Fiana's mainly aesthetic use for magic.

Synisar: Her seraphic parent's surname. Aldis and people at the temple sometimes call her "Fiana Synisar" to remind her that she is her own person, not just an extension/ property of her father.

DiEntario: Her step-seraph parent's surname, given in the hope the she might bring peace between her mother and this seraph by marrying a son of this seraph. Ironically, Fiana's step-brother would fill this criteria. Both of them strongly reject the idea.

Fin Fian/ Fiana Villosa: A title that's supposed to mean "Healer of the Mind" because of her work in the psychological illness field later on in life. Even though it was meant to be an honor, Fiana grows almost irritated because to her, it comes to represent the almost unreasonable expectations placed on her by society.

Lunaltusiem: After Fiana becomes recruited to become a "Ghost of Cieonna Halls"--a servant of the Master of the mystical Cieonna Halls and Keeper of the Chasm of Secrets--a moon-rabbit friend recommends the name to her: a combination of "Luna" for Moon, and "altus" for High Priestess. Her master thinks it's a cruel and funny thing and calls her by that name; she doesn't pick up that he is mocking and instead sees it as something original. Thus, almost ironically, this is the name that she eventually adopts.

A few last notes:
Unfortunately due to NaNo and then school and my procrastination abilities, I haven't actually been able to draw, much less submit a lot of stuff. I'm barely keeping up with the December drawing challenge as is and only the first two-three days have actually post-able quality and content material.

We'll talk after finals. If you read all the way down here, then I commend you and apologize for ranting like this. Good luck to anyone taking finals soon! :D

December First

Hey! :D 

So as the above buttons can inform you, both Ashmac and I made it to 50,000 words this month! 

This blog post is basically a really long update on some Nano stuff and plans for this following month. Even I think it's really long >___<

About NaNo:

The breakdown of my 50,027 words this month is somewhat like this: 

Where green is 1,667 or more words; yellow, orange and red indicate less progress than 1667, with red being atrociously few words. That long stretch of red can be explained by midterms falling on that week. The last few green spots had to make up for that, which explains why I'm rather behind, but not impossibly behind, in just about everything now. XD

At about 25K words I started getting really stuck and didn't like the redundancy in what I was writing. This led to some major revisions in the writing once I decided what to do. 

The original concept was based off of three settings: The elementary school, the university, and the Land of Dreams. I decided to cut out the part at the elementary school altogether even though original concept I had back in 4th/5th grade was situated in an elementary school and I had always envisioned the Campus Curse story as taking place in an elementary school. Like my college writing professor Collier Nogues suggested, "Sometimes a good idea doesn't make it into the actual essay" (heavily paraphrased). In regard to the rhetorical analysis I was writing, she said: "It's a good idea. And it's done what it could to get you started, but I think it's done what it can". She had a metaphor in there as well, but sadly I dont' remember it exactly. The point was, in order to go forward and write a better essay I would need to drop the original inspiration. Method acting isn't mentioned in my RA paper at all. I decided the elementary school won't appear in Campus Curse. 

With that settled, I concentrated on the situation at the university. Originally there were just two people there. I picked up a rather cliche stone and set up a zombie apocalypse situation where a group of students are trapped on campus with an army of the undead led by a power-hungry and revenge-driven necromancer surrounding them. The part in the Land of Dreams remained mostly unaltered. Since the protagonist is a comic-artist, there are a few scenes towards that feature her world.

So yea. I didn't want to give too much away while still reflecting on my experience. I tried a lot of ways to get myself to write, and found that I could definitely write about 500 words a day and up to about 750 or 1,000 on a weekend or on a day with more time. Past 1K it got harder, even if there was no shortage of scenes I still had to write. My writing style was, as usual, very sporadic and got very stuck in the middle. Instead of writing coherently from beginning to end, I jumped to whatever scene I felt like writing and expanded on that however much I felt like. When I was running low on inspiration I went back and finished or expanded other scenes. This led to an insane amount of in-congruencies, and I have a sheet  that's over a thousand words in itself and filled with notes such as "add __" or "__happened. O_O? Make it make sense" or my favorite: "TENSE SHIFTS". This jumping around really shouldn't have surprised me. That's how I write these blog posts too. The data above seemed to confirm that I write most under pressure T_T". I can also say I have fallen asleep typing now and am extraordinarily grateful that I can touch-type, because I probably wrote a good few thousand with my eyes drooping. 

Thus, even though the is a beginning scene and a final scene and a bunch of scenes in between, the story isn't really complete and it definitely isn't coherent. I'll get to finishing and stringing it together as well as finding a consistent pace. I hope I can keep a steady writing pace, even with the art projects this month and what not (more on that later in the post). 

I'm extremely grateful for the support I got from friends, the NaNo facebook group and my brother (who sat in my room and reiterated that "You're not going to make it" every time I did something other than write or study.) So thanks everyone! :)

December Art Challenges

Last December I tried my hand at a drawing challenge and got about 10 days in before something happened. Later, my computer died; thus only days 1-9 remain because they were posted online previously. Day 1 from last year can be found here. This year I'll be trying some similar ideas: 

The 30 Day Drawing Challenge was, as far as I can figure out, first started by Sylvia Tran, who came up with the version linked to above. It was popularized by Allison Lehman's version and the idea went "viral" on online communities such as deviantART and tumblr. (see #30DayDrawingChallenge on tumblr!)

For this challenge I'm going to be doing mostly traditional pencil-and-paper drawings or little digital sketches.

The 30 Day Drawing Challenge: Superheroes is exactly what it sounds like; a 30 day drawing challenge, but more structured and organized and focused. The original is here, I believe.

I'm actually doing this in Janurary, but I'll be sketching ideas as well. If it takes too much time, I'll just leave it entirely for next month.

I have no clue where I found the December photo challenge but I was linked to it from my friend's instagram on facebook and figures I'd try it as well. If it turns out to take too much time and effort I'll probably drop this one as well.

The "November is Writing, December is Art" motto seems to be a pattern with me. :) 

Other Projects

Aside from finals creeping up on me, I'll most probably be getting back to Sun Dagger and ECA as major projects and maybe a random story or so on the side. So expect the second part of Ani's cheat sheet....next week?

Thanks for reading!

~Minerva

Trevain sketch

Warning: computer cameras are not good scanners.

This was actually drawn and scanned a few months ago, but has been sitting on my computer ever since. I thought I'd hurry up and clear out the "incomplete" folder of my "art" folder so I dug it up. The "scan" wasn't really good so I cleaned it up a bit. I'm not sure if I want to color it yet. :x

Trevain's a summoner, specializing in air and wind sprits. I actually haven't used him in anything, story or roleplay (which I'm hardly doing now anyways) but I still like this drawing.

Well, kinda. I was thinking of writing a story with a superhero, and Trevain would have been the sidekick/ potential significant other. It wasn't exactly determined before other projects clamored for attention and I basically left that idea alone, indefinitely postponed at best.

This is also on deviantART here, if you like dA more. :)

I wanted to wait a bit before posting stuff from ECA, but didn't have much else due to a very unproductive day, so I ended up just cleaning this up.

Thanks for viewing! I know it's a short and lame post, but I'm running late....with nothing..... sorry! >.<

~Minerva Wu

Wen's Plush

Greetings!

I'm on spring break right now, so to encourage myself to do more and post more, I'm going to be posting every day on this blog :). I don't know if it's going to be writing or pictures or what not but I promise a post every day from today until Friday! :) I can't guarantee when they'll be posted, but it'll be before 23:59:59 each day ^_^

Manga

At Macia's suggestion, I read Zettai Heiwa DaisakusenAll in a single sitting, basically, which just goes to show how I spent a rainy Sunday. Similar to Reimei no Arcana, Zettai Heiwa Daisakusen is about Princess Euda, hailed as a holy maiden in the south and Prince Johanne, hailed as a war hero in the north. To bring peace to their countries, the two faked being in love and got engaged, even though their relationship was actually antagonistic away from the cameras. It seems to end after the first few chapters, but trust me, once the r

eal plot picks up, it's spellbindingly sweet and impossible to not finish. (Yes! It's a completed series! =D!)

The other recommendation, Kaichou wa Maid-sama (Class President is a Maid), I'm only on chapter 13 of, but I really like it thus far! The idea is that Misaki Ayuzawa, the Class President of Seiko High School, puts on an aggressive and dominating persona towards the 80% male population at school, but after school she works at a maid cafe, where she is very sweet to the "masters" (patrons of the cafe). In order to keep her reputation at school, she can't let anyone know about her part-time job. There are some plot twists I was able to predict, but then again I'm not even half-way finished ^.^

I'm a sucker for romance, anyone can tell. >.<

Wen's Plush

As promised, a post-worthy post a day!

This is also on deviantART here.

This is actually drawn a long time ago, but I only just got around to coloring it. The story goes, I was fishing around in my many many files of character profiles and roleplay profiles when I stumbled upon this line: "Notes: He likes fast planes and cute plush dolls? (Not that he'd ever admit to the latter.)"

Me: O_O< WELL! THAT was a surprise.

I liked it enough to not change it though, and doodled this. I remember that when I wrote the list on the side that it was supposed to resemble Wen's handwriting...I don't know about that, but sure! Why not.

Just in case: Wen is from a few of my stories on Drawn in Words. In order of appearance (and chronology):

~The Pilot

~Introducing Love

~The Start of the Journey to the Heart of All Realms (WenRant1)

~Trading Places (WenRant2)

~Wen Interview (WenRant3)

Hope you liked! (Or are at least mildly amused.) Until next time tomorrow then!

~Minerva Wu

P.S. lolol 23:59:29! I'm not late!

P.P.S. I don't know why the timestamp says 9:38....guess blogger doesn't have daylight savings time?

Drawing Challenge Posts 08-09

Hello!

Before I get started, I wanted to mention that I have FINALLY gotten around to reading Inheritance, the last book in the Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini. I had read a review before getting it on my kindle, and I had expected to be disappointed, but I think the final book was actually very neat and recommend it to anyone who hasn't finished the cycle yet. There's definitely more action than there is in Brisngr, and the little bits of romance (I shamelessly say I ship Murtagh and Nasuada) are lovely. The review had said it wasn't as well written as the other books, but I think it was pretty well written. The shifting perspectives were a good change of pace, and really helped add insight into characters. That said, there are a few events in the book I felt were strange. The book does leave a few loose ends and questions unanswered, especially being the last book in a series, but unanswered questions are the wonders of books and stories and life itself.

This all goes to prove: Read books before reading reviews. Lesson Learned.

The 30 day challenge: It's been a few days since the last update, so I figured I ought to post something to here, even if I'm a bit behind in the actual challenge. hehe! :)

Day 8-- Favorite Animated Character

~45 min

So like I attempted to foreshadow in last

week's post, my favorite animated character is Zuko, from Avatar: the Last Airbender. Close behind is Toph Bei Fong, from the same show. :)

I didn't do very well in this drawing. >.< But...I'll do better...with practice? Maybe? I had tried to do something super-complicated in terms of pose, but that didn't go the way I planned hehe >.<

Anyways...About AtLA :) I watched all 3 seasons over a 4-day weekend, such was the awesomeness of it. I didn't completely love Zuko from the start of Book 1: Water. To be honest, I was pretty creeped out by his scar and , and by how ruthless he seemed initially. But after given the backstory to the scar, and seeing the more compassionate side of his character, I started to like this antagonist. As the seasons continued on, Zuko's character is developed and explained, and this radical character development was and is what enchants me the most.

At first I shipped Zutara (Zuko+ Katara), but about 3/4 of the way through Book 2: Earth, I decided that "Katara wasn't good enough for Zuko" for reasons I don't remember and probably don't agree with anymore. Of course, I'm still fine with it, as I am with Kataang (Katara+ Aang, the avatar), but my favorite pairings would remain Toko (Toph+ Zuko) or the canon Maiko (Mai + Zuko).

I don't really remember how I got started with Toko, but I distinctly remember that this painting by the lovely Charlie Bowater and the idea that Toph is the only one in the Gaang that didn't go on a "life changing adventure" with Zuko haha.

Day 9-- Favorite TV show

~1 hr 30 min

I felt like being fair, even though Avatar would probably count as my favorite TV show, so I drew something for W.I.T.C.H. Pictured would be Hay Lin in her New Power outfit and Eric Lyndon, her crush from....a lot of arcs ago.

Drawing wise, I felt like it took altogether too long to come up with this. Most of that was spent trying to make her outfit look decent and determine and angle for the scene. Ironically, my favorite part would be the water, which probably took all of 15 minutes.

About the show though, I felt it wasn't as wonderful as the comic, but more than good as a show of its own (but then again, when is the movie as magnificent as the book?). Evidently my favorite character is Hay Lin, but I also really likes Irma and later even Cornelia. :)

And...I might as well mention Winx, while I'm here. I liked WITCH a lot more: I don't remember any/ as many filler episodes, and the characters were more defined and developed, I feel.

Only two pictures this week, very sorry! But I ought to keep a buffer, and I'm still very behind :(. Also, I would like to note that the first two pictures can now be found in my deviantART as well! I just copy-pasted the text from this blog though, but if you wanted a full view/ zoomed version of any of these, they're over on dA! Please comment! There or here I'll see them both :) Thanks much!

Until the next post, Assalam Alaikum! ("Peace be with you" in Arabic.)

~Minerva