The slightly humidity damaged photograph depicted a middle-aged couple on either side of their grown daughter. They stood bundled in winter coats, squeezed together, and smiling in front of the Eiffel Tower. The Sharpie written description in the bottom corner read: Mom, Dad & me, New Years 2012.
“Ren! Ren? We need to go. …Perenelle, where are you?”
Perenelle hastily returned the photo to the musty shoebox, placing that back into a crisp moving box. She blinked her blue eyes at the winter sun as she emerged from the storage space beneath the stone house.
She stole looks at her mom as they drove off the wooded property.
Nathalie did not look much different from the picture in Paris. Her blonde hair was shorter but more stylized. Her pale skin had a hint of a tan from years of living in the sub-tropics.
“Are you cross with me,” Nathalie asked, her English accent leaking through. “You keep staring.”
“No.” Perenelle turned to look out the window. “I didn’t realize I was. Maybe I’m tired.”
“I never would have guessed a one-hour time difference to affect so much,” Nathalie mused. “Perhaps, when we woke at six, we should have stayed awake rather than attempt to sleep that extra hour?” She smiled weakly. “I’m sorry your first day will start late. Changing schools is enough to worry over without that.”
“I’d be the new kid on time too, so I wouldn’t worry about it,” Perenelle said.
The school zone light had already stopped flashing by the time they arrived. Nathalie pulled up to the front; Perenelle leaped out before the car fully stopped.
Perenelle’s head swiveled as she followed an administrator down the poorly lit hall. Fragmented lectures leaked from the doors as she passed, being stopped outside a door with 6B on the placard.
Her teacher was a chubby, middle-aged woman with think-framed glasses and closely cropped hair that had been died pink at some point. She stared down at Perenelle with a strained smile.
“I can’t let you in. We’re having our test on sex ed, and you don’t have a permission slip. And you’re late.”
“O-okay,” Perenelle said. “What should I-?”
“Sit here. I’ll get you after.”
She sank to the floor and looked for anything in the bare hall to stare at.
The teacher soon returned. “I’m Miss Campbell, your homeroom teacher. Most subjects will be taught by me. Math and Social Issues will be taught elsewhere. Just follow your classmates, and you’ll be fine. Okay? Good. Inside.”
She was thrust in front of the class. She began to sweat but blamed her winter coat.
“This is Perenelle Herle. She just moved here from Florida. Be nice to her. Okay? Good. Perenelle, grab the empty seat in the back, so we can get English started.”
Perenelle balked on her way to the back as two kids pretended to violently hurl as she passed.
The English lesson quickly lost her interest. Perenelle tried to look out the window but succeeded in making the boy next to her scowl with suspicion. She doodled on her notebook.
She jumped as a chubby, pale hand with poor nail polish slapped onto her notebook.
“Perenelle,” Miss Campbell snapped. “You answer when I ask you a question!” She glared at the page. “You’re old enough to know that cats don’t have six legs.”
“It’s a Wampus cat,” Perenelle said. “I saw one during a hike when I lived in Florida. I wanted to bring the picture to show--.”
“What nonsense!” Miss Campbell tossed the notebook back. “Back to work!”
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My New Year resolution was a sentance a day, so this is the first 21 days of the year. It started to upset me since--spoiler-ish--it has a lot to do with feeling like an outsider, father and family stuff, and Perenelle's nickname sounds like what I had picked for a middlename if I ended up carrying Minerva vs a boy (which turned out to be the case, lol), so I switched to typing something else (a Mae thing that lasted 4 days, I think). It doesn't bother me like it did, and I don't hate the opening like I thought, so I might end up going back to it now that hormones are settled and all. ...Oh man, I hope they're settled.
But, Perenelle is an old idea I came up with during the rough draft of Rebs. My older niece was a year and a half then, so things like Perenelle having a reddish tint to her hair (auburn) and blue eyes was based around that. Perenelle being born in 2012 is also because of that. Moving from FL to TN is also based on that, and a neat house that was in the town next to the one they currently live in. If I find that house again, I'll post the link in the chat.
Before Ace Gallagher, I was starting to work on a story about Tier Dralcon and his quest to find (and learn the truth behind) the Sword of Ignarathos. I got as far as a chapter and a half before Ace showed up in the Elemental Guardians and I decided I wanted to write about him instead ... but Tier hung around and his story became the prequel/the plot device still in use today! This was probably drawn in 2003.
Speaking of Ace... this is NOT him lol. This is an early version of Bengal, and my goodness, he may have helped inspire Ace. I actually don't remember him ever looking this Ace-y at any point. He later dropped the headband and ended up with shaggy black hair instead. I forgot he was initially an archer (apparently also so was Tier).
Some Tier expression/pose sketches. He's such a baby here lol - though he is only 15. He finds the sword and goes through all the curse stuff, finally losing his life at 17 (which is why Ace starts having problems with the curse when he showed up in ToAG - he's 17 too...). He barely gets a chance to grow that iconic goatee... heh.
Proof I had good handwriting at one point :D I had written out whatever I originally wrote for Tier in my notebook with the drawings.
HERE HE IS! Knee and elbow pads and weird gloves and all, lol. I just realised he doesn't have a headband though! I guess he steals it from Bengal 😂 Anyway he was just supposed to be a random side character in the Elemental Guardians fanfic and he literally took over, so I'm grateful to him in any form haha.
Another early drawing, he now has his signature headband. He does loose the fancy boots and the spiky hair in the (then) final design. Still a wirey little kid tho!
And then we had THE TRIO! Despite Mioko being around longer than everybody in this article, he hadn't made the jump over yet. I originally paired Ace with Athena and Dorian, a blue-haired warrior that I'm not sure had any sort of backstory or reason why he had blue hair. The date on the back was 2004, so I was in my final months of high school here (eep, lol I told you some of this stuff was old and somewhat embarrassing haha). But at least Ace has officially lost the knee and shoulder pads.
By 2005, Mioko and Raeya join the crew (and Allan haha). I was not good at different body shapes or skin tones, so everyone looks the same. In my brain, Raeya was always much paler and Dorian more tan, but I was not yet at a point to convey it well. Still, this picture brought back some memories as the first official group shot.
Before I really knew what was going on in Ace's story, I made these little "character cards" and I kinda laughed. Ace's power is mind-reading? Wow, lol. I'm glad I opted for him to just be a normal kid (...well, you know, "normal" lol)
....So Athena was originally based on the Jill character from the Elemental Guardians. Jill could initially turn into fire-type Pokemon, and later controlled fire when I dropped the Pokemon part and focused on the elements only. It's fun because, as I know I've mentioned before, Gemini ended up taking back the fire control powers and is a "Jill character" so that whole arc came back full circle - and I'm glad Athena ended up becoming her own person after all.
Look at me trying to make Dorian all warrior-y with his pose :D Other than drawing him more stocky these days, he really hasn't changed all that much.
Mioko has also changed very little, even since his days in the Elemental Guardians. How he gets his powers has changed over the years. But I'm noticing I don't remember assigning most of the instruments listed here. When I wrote my little "Wildcard" stories Mioko was not the drummer, so I'm not sure where I came up with these at this point.
Raeya's stayed pretty consistent as well. She's always been a shapeshifter, too. I had some thing with the scars on her face signalling a family lineage or something weird but I've cut that out.
Before I got too far in Ace's story, I somehow got the idea to merge his backstory with Tier and Bengal's story. The first book called "Ace of Spades" was actually going to be mostly about Tier and Bengal meeing a young Ace already on the streets begging and gambling (and stealing) because his mom sorta kinda disowns him to focus on her 'profession.' Due to the curse's scar (and his history with Aurora) Tier knows Ace is his son and finally reveals this to the previously-fatherless kid towards the end of the story. The climax is the 2 adults being sent to kill a dragon for bounty with Ace in tow, and Tier ends up defeating the dragon to protect Ace, but the curse finally takes his life before Ace is able to have any time with his dad.
"Emerging Sapphyre" - 2013?
"Out of My League" - 2013?
"Sapphyre Sticky Note Sketch" - 2013?
"Clothes of Sand" - August 2014
"Gem of the Sea" - November 2014
"Lost in the Wild, Wild Sea" - May 2015
"Heart to Heart" - April 2017
