As of right now I don’t have much lore on these ladies. However I can explain who they are from left to right. Some Names and lore tidbits have been inspired by @new-tella-us
Istorae, the Queen of the Eastern Empire.
Kalipo, the Queen of Nigrum Mare. Kingdom of the Selkies.
Dracae, the daughter of a general turned Queen for the Belladium Kingdom.
Aezera, the sister of Aphimoesa, and thus princess of the Lillian Kingdom.
Omaizel, the harem girl.
Laaysa, my AU Laura and the mother for Rika and Mika.
from what i've seen & remember, the history you've created between Omaizel and Laura has only been offhandedly mentioned, so this is me just saying i am SO interested in that history!! obviously, if you don't really want to post about it, don't feel pressured, but if you do want to & haven't out of some worry about lacking interest from the rest of the Seduce Me community, then don't let that hold you back. i am Fascinated by this part of your lore
(also, i just Adore everything you post; you're art is amazing and so is all of your lore!! i would literally just sit a read a master doc about your version of Seduce Me if i could)
Well thank you! And sure, I can expand on that.
In my universe, Laura has a pretty big change. She is a nephalim, the daughter of an angel and human man. After some heavy sacrifices, she was allowed to be raised amongst the angels but never felt at home. At the human age of 18 she decided that she wanted to go to the human world and find her father. Maybe amongst the humans, she would find her place.
Angels are born with all the knowledge they'll ever need to know and no capacity to learn. But as a half-human, Laura could learn. So she picked up any book she could find and eventually found a gate spell. With no anchor, it would take her to a random location that she didn't recognize. She thought it was the human world, it was not. Instead, she landed in the Abyssal Plains. She knew next to nothing about demons and after being successfully tricked by one, she was sold off to the Eastern King and Queens. At the time, there were two queens and one prince. The one with yellow taint, seemingly the queen, saw use for her and advised her husband to keep her alive so that they could harvest her magic for holy weapons.
In the dungeon cells she was thrown, locked away in a place she didn't understand. And that's when she met someone new. A young woman only a couple years older than her. A beautiful woman with long blonde hair and void like eyes. Her name was Omaizel.
For three demon years the two conversed, bonded even. Omaizel, at the time, was a woman with a lot of fire in her. A crafty lady that managed to use what little authority she had to make her imprisonment easier. For example, she would distract servant with menial commands so that Laura could sneak them some food from the kitchen. But years of abuse at the hands of the King was taking its toll on both women.
Laura had even tried to escape once, tried to get help. For that, she lost her eyes and her wing. Meanwhile, Omaizel planned something quieter. Through a series of trades, she managed to get her hands on a relic of the Scalloped Seas. A large necklace of pearls, gold, shells and even a radiant spinel in the center. Omaizel knew, the second queen would do about anything for any relic of her past so she intended to bribe her for freedom. But when she saw her friend, now wingless and injured beyond healing, Omaizel knew if she left, Laura would die here. It would be a decision that would cost Omaizel everything but she slid the necklace over to Laura and told her that if she had any strength to move that she needed to leave. That's her only chance at survival.
With a heavy heart, Laura accepted it and weakly hobbled her way to the second queen. She offered the necklace as she was instructed and the queen told her of a secret passage that led to the kingdom of Belladium. So Laura escaped, she managed to used the spell again with the last of her strength and actually made it to the human world this time, where she would meet David.
To Omaizel, Laura was a good friend. A person that didn't deserve to be there and a kindhearted girl that helped her stay sane during one of the worst periods of her stay in the Eastern Kingdom. She would eventually devolve as a person, her trauma and mental issues crushing her under its weight, but those were still positive memories she clung to.
To Laura, Omaizel was insanely clever and strong. She was her savior and showed that demons weren't all bad or cruel. Hell, there may have even been some love there but Laura doesn't fully know, nor does she let herself dwell on feelings that she would never pursue now that she has a husband and children. Had Laura been a stronger person, she would have gone back to Omaizel. But she just couldn't. Every time the thought came to mind, she froze.
It's a tragedy in a way. In a different life, under different circumstances, they may have remained close. But the cards fell in the ways they did. No point in wondering what if...
It is time for a ramble about ✨Generational Trauma✨
Ft. The Anderson Family.
And yes, this will be another "I shot canon in the back alleyway of a Denny’s" moment but like... hear me out.
According to canon, the reason why David seemed to end up so mean despite Harold being so nice was.... nothing? If I remember correctly, it was simply that David didn't have Harold's natural kindness. It skipped a generation.
Does that happen in real life? Yes, absolutely. And that can be a very interesting story to tell. The story of the daughter of a cold hearted man that saw her more as a tool to spite his father than a daughter to protect. And I think a lot of people default to this story line when making their versions of Mika. But I wanted to try something different. I wanted to give David a more nuanced reason for being the way he is rather than him just being low on kindness and empathy.
As per usual, these analytical posts are long so, you've been warned.
Lets start with some backstory.
A long time ago, 1966 to be exact, a young couple in their early 20s immigrated from Singapore to the United States in search of opportunity. Just escaping the Red Scare of the 50s, the couple played it safe and adopted english names, cultures and even participated (but didn't fully believe) in Christianity. That couple were the first two Andersons, Harold and Annabelle. A witch and warlock duo known for their strong amounts of magic even without a demonic or angelic background.
Harold was a hard worker in his early 20s, he build the toy company out of his love of creation and seeing the need for toys in the revolutionary times of the 60s-70s. And frankly? He got incredibly lucky. Most investors wouldn't risk it on an immigrant but a few saw the innovation and pure fire of this young man and gave him a chance. That ended up being the right choice as his business started humble but soon shot up in popularity and thus the Anderson Toy Company began.
Where the story changes from canon is Harold's mentality as his company was rising and his son was born. After years of struggling with fertility issues, they finally had a son and Harold put all of his expectations onto David. He personally taught David all he knew about management and company organization and even magic -yes, David in this universe is a warlock. We'll get back to that- but all of those expectations led to high pressure on the boy.
Frankly put, Harold wasn't the best father. He pushed every ounce of responsibility on David when he wasn't ready, as Harold's parents did to him. There was no backchat, no perusing a different career, no room for error or failure. And the justification for this? Well, he was being easier on David than his parents were on him. For example in dating, Harold's parents would roll in their graves seeing David bring home a woman outside of their culture, let alone someone so... different looking to put it nicely. But Harold didn't care as long as the woman was competent and hard working.
Where was Annabelle in all of this? At home. But she, like her husband, was a traditionalist. It wasn't within her jurisdiction to question her husband so she said nothing and simply offered cold comfort.
As David grew older, he grew more cold. Shoving down his emotions left more room for the expectations of his father. He was pessimistic and didn't really see the color of the world anymore. By contrast, as Harold grew older, he grew warmer. And at some point in David's young adulthood, Harold realized just how hard he was on the boy and the resulting man he created. He tried to undo his mistakes, offering David the support he should have offered in childhood but at that point, it was too late. David didn't want his help anymore and they grew apart.
Despite all of that, David wasn't void of empathy. When he met Laura, she was badly hurt. He didn't have to help her, after all, no one could see her. (For anyone new here) She was a nephalim. Specifically, a human-angel hybrid. To anyone who couldn't see magic, she just looked like a bird with a broken wing. Despite it being more trouble than it was arguably worth, despite the fact that hybrids of any kind were often seen as abominations, and despite having never felt the need to be empathetic before... David still had the Anderson golden heart.
When he and Laura married and had Mika, that's when David's past started really reflecting on him. He treated Mika very similarly to how Harold treated him. He was strict with education, had a set path for her. She was going to take over the company after David stepped down, though it did seem like it was actually going to skip David and go straight to Mika seeing how Harold wasn't retiring despite his age so David prepared Mika for that. Although, he skipped all the magic training due to Laura's discomfort with demon magic and never allowed magic into Mika's life. (I'll explain this if I ever do a deep dive into Laura's past)
This brought a strain between his father and him as they were two sides of the same coin. Harold wanted to keep the magical legacy alive and put Mika through the trials everyone in the family goes through; David on the other hand wanted nothing to do with magic and threatened to ban Harold from seeing his only grandchild if he tried to teach her. Neither really consulted Mika on what she wanted. Like father like son.
Harold treated Mika the way he figured he should have treated David, with more empathy and compassion to make up for David's lack of it. Mika saw a glorified side of Harold, not learning about his mistakes as a father until much later into her adulthood. As a result, Mika -with her more combative personality- would talk back. Why couldn't David treat her like Harold did? And of course, that angered David. She didn't really know anything about Harold. She just knew the niceness he spewed nowadays. Had she known the real him, she'd understand but that's not a story he wished to tell.
Where was Laura in all of this? At home. Unlike Annabelle, she didn't stand aside. While she did believe that the affairs of the Anderson Toy Company were not something she had the right to meddle with, she was one of the first people to call David out if she believed he was going too far. He was more likely to listen to her than someone like Harold after all.
As Mika grew older, she grew more analytical. Laura and Harold's meddling did enough to preserve that natural Anderson kindness and curiosity but she did still think of things from a logical and almost pessimistic perspective. She had depressive episodes and anxieties that overtook her, but like the Andersons before her, she shoved it all down and put on a smiling persona. The world doesn't stop when you do so you can't stop.
And as David grew older, he grew warmer. Like his father before him he started to realize that he may have been too hard on Mika. So when he had his second daughter and she seemed even less prepared for the mountains of pressure the Andersons carried, he took a softer approach. Claire wasn't like Mika. She didn't excel at school and she had clear behavioral issues that strictness didn't solve. So David and Laura took her to a psychologist where she was diagnosed with Autism, ADHD (Combination Type) and Dyslexia. Working with the psychologist and behavioral therapists forced David to be more patient with his second daughter so Claire grew up with a kinder David.
This was something Mika was bitter about. Truly, all that generational trauma came full circle when Claire and Mika were arguing and the topic got onto David. And Mika said that Claire didn't really know anything about David. The key difference is that Mika caught herself as soon as she said it. She remembered him saying those exact words to her about Harold all those years ago and she realized that she was turning into David. She didn't want that. So, she swallowed her pride, got down to Claire's level and apologized. If David was trying to not repeat his mistakes then Mika shouldn't be angry about that.
This was the first step of many to help Mika break the cycle of generational trauma that has been haunting the Anderson family since before they were even Andersons.
Finally decided to draw what David looks like, he hasn’t really changed.
With that I drew a family portrait, made when Mika was around 8. This is in the Anderson Manor’s library so most likely, the POV character is James after he stumbled upon it.
So Glass Portal. It’s still not dead but drawing comics is hard so I will spoil one of the endings. While there is no “canon” ending, this one is not the one that I’m putting the most energy into so I’m fine with spoiling the ending.
I’ll call this ending “Sunlight” and the basics are that as Mika and Damien get older, Mika has the option to look through Laura’s old books. If she does, she finds a drawing of a woman that looks suspiciously like Omaizel. She asks Laura about the photo and convinces her to get involved. So Omaizel and Laura reunite and since Laura is (magic wise) far stronger than Mika, she’s able to make progress Mika couldn’t at the time. Due to a book of spells Omaizel is able to sneak, the four learn that the mirror’s magic -and a lot of magic, really- is able to be broken with holy magic, something Laura can do easily. She is able to break the magic on the chains that restrict Omaizel and Damien to the castle and they are able to travel via the very mirror that once separated them.
Now in the human world, they are able to see the sun for the first time. They’re free from the Demon Lord and the cruel servants.
And that’s what this drawing about.
However, not everything is happy as Laura goes to seal the portal, the mirror is too dangerous to let its magic linger. The Demon Lord will never reach earth, not as long as Laura is alive. But as she approaches the mirror, she sees a young man.
She didn’t know this man but could almost immediately tell, he knew the two escapees. And seeing how he stares at Damien, Laura could safely guess that this is probably his brother. Her heart ached for they both knew, when she used her potion and casted her spell, there would be no undoing the magic. She’d be tearing apart a family. She offered to take him too, but he refused. It wouldn’t be safe for his other brothers if the second in line disappeared. So as much as broke both their hearts, she started her sealing spell.
Uzaeris smiled, knowing that his youngest brother would finally be safe and happy, but he cried knowing that he’ll never see him again. All he asked of Laura is to take care of his little brother for him. She promised and used the remainder of the holy water she had to seal the portal. And just like that, the portal turned into a regular mirror.
And no, this ending isn't a fake out. Omaizel is alive but Damien will never see his brothers again. There is no way back to the Abyssal Plains so the noble brothers are stuck there.
Yall I just thought of a cute lil headcanon. In the genderbend AU, what if male Laura (Leo? Laurence?... I think of something later) offered to walk the whichever one of the girls that is getting married down the aisle?
Obviously their own dad can't do it cause spiritual orb in the Abyssal Plains so it would be so cute if they still had someone who could! Plus -for my AU- it would be such a sign of good will since male Laura would be putting down his experiences with the girls' mom in order to accept the girl.
Soooo I did a bust shot of all the moms including Mika’s mom. Why? Well the initial thought was that too many of their eyes were the same color (some shade of blue) so I wanted to change that. But instead of just editing the initial refs, I decided to draw some bust shots and add some more details in the facial structure.
I wasn’t intending to draw Laura but I finished these all last night and went “eff it” this morning and added her.
