#ellis mourn

[maiemorrae]

I have a new favorite area.

[maiemorrae]

[maiemorrae]

"What a pretty world to explore, so many colors and it's so impossibly bright! If only the others could see it too."

Another character look-a-like, this time for Ellis.

It's not quite right but I'm happy with this for now, mainly got very excited once I got some purple eyes.

On another note... I really hope we get more outfit slots, 4 is absolutely not enough.

[maiemorrae]

Figuring out some UI stuff, including how to give important characters a distinct text box.

Getting this to work made me so happy. Being able to write anything in that box and use different backgrounds for it is nice.

And a last little bonus, another Ellis side image, now as an initiate seeker.

[maiemorrae]

Working on some art for a visual novel. Wanted to make little side images for our MC Ellis! I have some more I've made, but these are some of my favorites so far.

[maiemorrae]

Character Voice #2

Had a lot of fun with the first and saw a friend put out another sentence to try. This time the prompt comes from @dragonprincedawn

"You don't look good, are you ok?"

Ellis: "Hey… are you alright? It just seems you have a lot on your mind."

Aleksandr: "Is something the matter? You seem unwell."

Amelia: "Hmmm… you have that look about you, is everything alright?"

Lucas: "Maybe you should slow down? Ah… well it just seems you might be unwell."

Diana: "Pain, annoyance, or concern? Perhaps I can help."

Illiya: "Are you in pain or have some other ailment? If it's treatable I can help."

Spectre: "Go on now, you've got something on your mind. You can tell me, or maybe let me figure it out."

The Archivist: "A moment please, you seem to be troubled by something, is there anything I can do to aid you?"

These were very fun to do. To add another sentence to the pool, and open to anyone.

"Please don't leave me alone right now."

[maiemorrae]

Dead Darlings Tag Game

Saw this from @sunset-a-story and thought it would be fun to do since I've been looking at older work lately.

Rules: Share a part of your writing you love that got cut for the greater good. It doesn't matter if it's a line or a paragraph. It doesn't matter if you might work it back in. If it's not currently in a WIP and you want to share, please do.

For this, I pulled a section from what I'd consider to be the very first draft/version of What Makes a Seeker. At the time I was writing this, it was going to be a story that followed Ellis, at the time using the name Eriana, as she grew up and how she came to be a seeker. Eventually, I had instead decided to start the story with her joining the seekers, that would have been version 2 of the story. Then it changed again into the story I'm currently writing and have up on my website.

While some of this is still relevant and the flavor of it still matches Ellis' story, I've shifted and adjusted her backstory a good bit by now. One of the major differences between this version and the current version of her backstory is that in this, Ellis is around 5 years old whereas in the current version, this event wouldn't have happened until she was around 8 or so.

I did a bit of patching up on this but still kept her name as it was in this version, just know that Eriana is Ellis, I simply shifted the name between versions 2 and 3 of the story.

Soft tagging @amaiguri and @moonfeatherblue for this if interested.

The quiet of the night was interrupted by the loud sound of a low dolorous bell. Mathias quickly sat up, having been startled awake by the loud sound. He looked over at Cadia as panic quickly set in. Eriana slowly woke up from the sound of the bell and her father’s frantic movements. 

“No, no, no, Cadia please, no…” He reached around Eriana and gently moved her aside to check on Cadia. “Please be someone else…” 

“Papa, what was that?” Eriana sleepily asked, her question ignored as Mathias’ actions grew frantic. 

“No, no, this… this can’t happen. Not you.” There was no breath or other signs of life from Cadia. There was no denying the source of the bell, Cadia was dead. 

Mathias sat back, almost in a daze and not wanting to believe what had happened. Meanwhile, Eriana crawled over to her mother and gave her a gentle shake. “Mama, what was that noise? You’re a heavy sleeper if it didn’t wake you up.” She continued to poke, waiting for a response. “Mama…? Why aren’t you waking up? Papa, why is Mama so still?”

Silence greeted her questions on both sides. Mathias sat in silence just trying to process what was about to happen. Soon tears begin to spring from his eyes and his shoulders slump. “Eri… mama… mama is…” He choked on his words, not able to get them out. He was about to try again when there was a stern knock on the door. He looked up, knowing already who was on the other side and knowing that nothing could change what has and is about to happen. He almost seemed to harden as he stood up from the bed, giving a heartbroken expression towards Cadia. “Eriana… go, go and sit at the table.” 

Another sharp knock was heard at the door as Mathias went towards it. Eriana looked confused, not moving from her spot next to her mother. “Why, who's at the door? Papa, why won’t Mama wake up?” Before a response was given Mathias opened the door to those waiting outside.

Standing outside the door were three figures. Each of them wore an ornate mask with copper detailing covering the lower part of their faces. One of them wore a well-kept uniform consisting of a black coat with gold trimming. Running down the front and back of the uniform is a fine red cloth with the same gold trim. The other two were in plain clothes though they were fancier than anyone from here would wear. The expression in their eyes was hard, here for a purpose, and were determined to do that job. The one in the uniform spoke up.

“Sir, we are here to collect the dead.” His voice was firm, sounding as though he’d said this a thousand times. 

Mathias, at this point, was nearly numb and merely stood aside to let the men into the small room. The two in plain clothes began to walk to the back of the room where Cadia lay and Eriana sat still on the bed, giving a nervous look to the strangers who’d come into her home. “Dead… wha, what do you mean?” The strangers paused, one of their expressions softened at the small girl. He stepped forward and kneeled to be at eye level with the girl. He looked back at Mathias, who'd grown still and purposefully was not looking at that side of the room, he let out a small sigh before speaking to the girl.

“I’m sorry child, but your mother is dead. That's… that’s why she’s not waking up.” He paused for a second and watched the girl's face. “And why we are here.” 

“No… you, you’re lying.” She stood on her knees on the bed, between the strangers and her mother. “Mama can’t be dead, she… she’s just sleeping!” Eriana gave a fierce look at the stranger, but tears began to form as doubt began to creep in. “She’s… just sl-sleeping right?” 

“Rook, Moss.” The sharp voice of the uniformed stranger came from the doorway. The two shared a look before the one kneeling stood back up. His eyes showed genuine sympathy as he followed his orders. 

“I’m truly sorry, but you need to move child.” He put a hand on her shoulder and tried to gently guide her off the bed. “We’re here to take care of your mother so that she can rest easy.” 

“No! You can’t, mama is resting here! We can take care of her!” She yelled at the two men, pushing back against the one trying to move her as tears ran down her face. After a few moments of struggle with the hysterical child the one who had been speaking to her lifted her off the bed, keeping a hold despite her kicking and weakly hitting him.

“Rook, get a move on.” The one who held Eriana, Moss says to his partner. Rook gave a solemn nod and laid out a large white cloth on the floor. Rook then carefully moved Cadia off the bed into the center of the cloth and wrapped the woman up, carefully tying the cloth closed once he was done. The full process took a few minutes and by then Eriana was no longer lashing out, instead merely shaking with tears running down her face in a near-endless stream. Moss had set her down but kept a firm grip on her shoulders.

Rook gave a final look to the child, his expression unreadable before he bent down and lifted Cadia’s form, and began making his way out the door, past the uniformed stranger. Moss looked down at the child turning her around and kneeled once again. “I promise child, she will rest easy now. We make sure of that.”

[maiemorrae]

Archival Art #1: Silver Initiate Nightshade

I was going through some old artwork and came across this one. It's decently simple but I still like it a lot. The outfit is my old design for the initiate uniforms.

I have other old artwork I could share, some stuff won't be accurate to the current designs but I'd still love to show if there is interest in seeing them?

Date Created: 12/31/2021