Hello my lovely friends! Welcome to a far, far less lovely story, which some of you have heard me babble about endlessly. Please excuse the angsty moodboard, but if you are a fan of angst, hurt-and-comfort, social issues, and neurodivergent main characters, you’re in for quite a wonderful time!
Welcome to The Left Behind.
Set in a not-all-that-distant future, The Left Behind follows the story of Natalia Klysov, an anxious teen. As she approaches her sixteenth birthday, she feels nothing but her own mortality creeping up. She’s failed to be accepted into a Coterie—organizations which determine her job training and career, therefore her use in society—and is faced with two possible futures: a short life of menial labor or swift execution. By some stroke of luck, Natalia finds herself rescued by a group of terrorists long presumed defeated: The Left Behind. They offer her, and many others the ability to not only live but help dismantle a system that dismisses their worth. The problem is...Natalia isn't so certain which party is in the wrong here.
The Left Behind is the first novel in a four book series which isn’t anywhere near fully planned and features a diverse and engaging cast of characters made up of misfits, the damaged, deviants, and the righteous. It’s a project that means more to me than words can express, and something I’ve dedicated my heart and soul to for about seven or eight years now, and will likely dedicate another seven or eight years to it. I have a hard time even talking about it because so much of it has been in my head and by myself for so long, I forgot all the changes and intricacies and facts that other’s don’t know, can’t know for spoiler reasons and may never know.
I’ll try my best to cover my bases and make things as engaging as I can!
Genre: Young adult dystopian
Progress: Draft three
Goal: Traditional publishing
Themes: Coming-of-age, mental illness, personal growth
Major characters:
Natalia Klysov: A sixteen year old disaster of a human being. Riddled with anxiety, uncertainty of any bit of her own value, and a habit of falling in love for skilled people she knows are completely out of her league, she, well, finds it difficult to have a happy moment. She wants nothing more to be useful and simply average.
Ezra Holmes: Also sixteen, Ezra is a bit more put-together. He’s clever, with a quick tongue and bad jokes to match. He wants to make a change, and he’s even more fueled with resolve after the government turned against him personally. (Although he’d rather you didn’t ask about what happened)
Meghan Harbinger: Born into The Left Behind, by fourteen Meghan is much more than capable of meddling with government affairs, bringing in new recruits, and inspiring others with words and art alike. She’s not so good at keeping her mouth shut long enough to keep her out of trouble, but frankly things are more fun this way.
Risa Sato: Most young twenty-somethings are easing themselves into management, and trying to figure out just where they fit in a social space. Risa doesn’t have that luxury; she inherited a revolution from her parents, and she believes in it fervently. It’s not an easy job, and she’s looking for the right people to help her fill the gaps and balance her weak points. That just happens to be a little harder when you can’t leave the compound thanks to the giant target on your back.
Opening Line:
Natalia Klysov sat alone on her bedroom floor, a lock of coarse, chestnut hair tucked neatly behind her ear, reminiscing her short life and all the hopes and dreams she would never find herself able to accomplish.
That’s all I can think to add at this point in time! Hopefully this provides a bit of context to my rambling posts here and there!
“Natalia stared off into the empty space in front of her and let her mind tip-toe towards what would happen next. Cogs turned but she could only shudder, unable to find herself with anything but what she hoped were hyperbolic horror stories.”
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Natalia is...trying her best. She just isn’t sure what her “best” it supposed to look like, so she can’t mold herself to it just right. Sure, she’s been told she doesn’t need to have everything together at just sixteen, but she’s supposed to have a clue, isn’t she? She knows who she likes (she’s bisexual), what she wants to do (in a vague sense, that is; she wants to make her parents and her country proud), and she knows what she’s not good at (pretty much everything).
As the main protagonist of The Left Behind, a hopefully four-book series in development, Natalia seeks to find herself in a world that she barely understood before it was flipped on its head. Sure, her government was going to execute her, but she’s still not completely convinced they’re the bad guys. Of course, there are these new people who saved her, but they are terrorists...With no one telling her what to think, she’s a bit worried she’s going to make the wrong choice here, but she’s going to do her best to figure things out...if the anxiety and the limited self-esteem are going to let her get that done, that is.
Physical description: Natalia is Caucasian, stands at around 5′ 6″, and has a an average build (although with she may be liable to complain about her chest size). Her face is dotted with freckles from walking place to place, and she has a two inch long scar on her right cheek (which she is rather self-conscious about and would prefer you didn’t ask). She has long, thick brown hair, the shade of porter ale, and round brown eyes, a few shades lighter than that of her hair, which are usually rounded with dark circles from poor sleep. Her lips are often chapped or scabbed, as she has a habit of chewing on them when nervous.
Fun facts:
Her last name has been changed several times! The current iteration is the result of me remembering the name I picked from online incorrectly! (It was supposed to by Kylosov whoops)
Natalia was bisexual and anxious before I realized or labelled either of these things for myself and herself!
I have sketched her several times and her haircut shifts at least slightly every time.
Natalia was never planned with a love interest in mind, and is now planned to have at least two relationships during the course of the series.
Natalia quite enjoys paper items, as she finds them “vintage” in her era.
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If you have any questions about Natalia, feel free to send me asks at any point! If you’d like to be added to my The Left Behind taglist (for very occasional posts) please let me know!
“Taking in a deep breath, she released it slowly through her nose. She just had to adapt to whatever they threw at her, and stop thinking of all the possibilities. Even if thinking ahead might give her an advantage. Because if she got fixed on an idea the way she always did, then she’d freeze up and panic and be unable to form a cohesive thought. Which may have been how she failed one or two previous exams—or five, if anyone was really counting. She certainly preferred not to.”
I’m re-reading the little bit of draft three I got done and?? Some of my writing is so goddamn good y’all??
“Because if she got fixed on an idea the way she always did, then she’d freeze up and panic and be unable to form a cohesive thought. Which may have been how she failed one or two previous exams—or five, if anyone was really counting. She certainly preferred not to.”
Natalia didn’t wait for a response as she stiffly stalked off to her room. She didn’t need to worry her or her father. It really was better just to distance herself. She hated hurting them like this. Her heart ached as she waited for her mother to call after her, and try to encourage her to speak about what really happened. But all that came was a resigned sigh. Natalia bit back her own as the tears came back, sliding silently down her cheeks.
Her mother had given up long ago. Natalia didn’t blame her.
I’m still mad at The Left Behind right now, so have a moodboard for Natalia. You can find the one here!
Natalia blushed. “I—I—well, kinda sorta offered to sell out secrets so that there was—you know, it really made sense at the time—to cause a distraction, and so that—and he did so, hey, I think it’s a success and—!”
Okie dokie, so Wednesday, May 2nd is the birthday of three of my first major characters I ever created (I don’t know why they all have the same day, man, it just happened)—Natalia Klysov, Ariel Walker, and Amber Walker. Natalia you guys hear about sometimes, since she’s obviously the main character of The Left Behind. Amber and Ariel, on the otherhand, you’ve probably never heard of ‘cuz I scrapped that project a long time ago. To celebrate, we’re gonna do some Ask the Characters junk on the day, but before you can ask, you probably need to know about them. So here are some short profiles about them!
Natalia Fay Klysov—The Left Behind
Excessively anxious and could really use some meds if she had access to them
Very bisexual but has about a 60-40 preference ladies to men
An only child
Extremely low self-esteem
Compared to a mouse often
Has three separate love interests throughout the course of the series
Only sixteen but has more inner monologues than Shakespeare, probably
Lives in a pretty messed up, ableist dystopian world
Ariel Tsubomi Walker—Team Pitch Black, now scrapped
Very trendy, very feminine
Loves pop music and pop culture
Her sister always insists she’s white-washed
Is the older sister but seems relatively irresponsible
Superpowered
Orphan
Half Japanese-half hella white (mostly Irish)
Boy crazy. Wowza. The straightest except for, like, that one girl.
16ish
Amber Akano Walker—Team Pitch Black, now scrapped
The emo-est. Like, has just always been a downer
Wants a really elaborate, edgy tattoo on her back
Thinks she should be the older twin but really she’s just a petulant kid
Literally ran away from home and abandoned her sister because she couldn’t handle her grief after their parents died
Also powered
Also an orphan
Surprise, surprise! The identical twin has the same genetics!
Likes comfy, dark colors.
Sexuality is a big ol’ question mark ‘cuz she just hates everyone.
Natalia is super clingy to those she gets close to.
I’ll give it an eight, I think! She worries about being clingy, but if someone constantly reassures her it’s okay to be close, she’ll happily latch onto the good feelings.
