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.
Outlier Ace is so cool. I wish I could figure out a way to give him this power in the Tale of Ace Gallagher, but part of what makes him who he is is how he does all that he does without any magical assistance. He learns how to work hard and train and put his heart into what he does, and I feel like giving him the ability to control all water would be a bit much. I do think he'll end up with his mom's totem and the mist spell at some point, but I can only think of one place where he'll use it for plot purposes ;)
Aside from introducing Westfall and reuniting The Doctor and Gemini, my favorite part of the last Gemini Archive was Ace and Elliot teaming up with The Doctor. It was just fun watching how they'd interact with each other.
I think I originally gave Outlier Ace his water horse for a scene that never happened in the final Gemini Archive when he teams up with The Doctor. Like they have to run somewhere and Ace is a complete showoff and makes a horse out of water and rides off and Elliot just rolls his eyes and gets on a real horse and The Doctor is like "wait what??" I just like the little look of HAHA on his face.
I did not remember this started off as a pencil drawing! But this is one of the ones that actually 
Awww. Lookit them how cute. I vaguely remember trying to figure out what their wedding outfits will be; ironically I'm not sure their wedding will end up "on screen" after all this because I think I've added a time skip from the end of the jousting tournament story where they get engaged before jumping ~5 years into their marriage. But it's still good for drawing purposes!
More figuring of the outfits without them covering each other up, lol. I've actually tried to keep their outfits more medieval since they've always been a weird blend of modern and not. But the story is a bit of a blend on its own.
My majestic deer!! Look how gorgeous he is. His proportions may be a little wonky but he looks soft. He always ends up been linked to winter in a lot of my drawings.
Case in point, lol. More Whitacre winter. The antlers seem... backwards? I'm not sure. But this looks like a prime "turn it digital" territory right here...
The last drawing in my book... little Hudson in the creek getting baptised :D There's an epic song by Mark Schultz that fits Hudson's struggles and his quest to be who God wants him to be, and I sketched it out I think on a plane. It will need a "real drawing" one of these days.
I'm not sure why but I love this one so much. I think I did a specific medieval set for the 2018 Inktober, because they were all "knight of shadows," "the river maiden," "the dragon queen" and all, and I actually tried to create new characters vs borrowing mine. But of course Ace was pulled in for The Thief and a few others made an appearance. But these ladies heading off for some witchy things is adorable and I love them.
I like his design and facial structure. He reminds me of Merlin a bit :D
I mean, what can be better than an elderly dragon feeding pigeons at a park 😂 Adorable.
Nobody steals the from the church with this guy around. The expressions of all 3 make me laugh.
It's the dinos! I've kinda just let them fade away, but at least I wrote the whole story, lol. At some point I would like to tighten it up and publish it, but we'll see how Ace goes first.
This was most likely drawn after I had the dream that turned into how Ace meets his mother Aurora. I love the columns and the lighting and the curious fearfulness as Aurora reveals herself stayed pretty consistent to when I wrote 
Ah, Ace Gallagher at his finest (and then very quickly at his worst thanks to being tricked into drinking a delirium potion 😅). "The Ambassador" is still one of 
Part of the same story, I forgot I drew when Ace hops on the wall near the end to escape the palace. It's just another... Ace on the wall... ha. haha.
I have no memory of this lady okapi-centaur, but it's a fun concept! I really like creating centaurs but never actually writing anything for them. But, again, it's good that I'm not since I have enough writing without them lol.
Some of these Inktober drawings ended up really cool, and while I would love to translate some of these into digital, there's just something really cool about them being pen and ink. Like this one. I'm not sure I'd have the same dark and light nature of Mr. Edwards here without the stark contrast of ink. Unless I keep it monotone... we shall see.
I love everything about this one; the composition, the linework creating texture and shape, Sapphyre's curious, shy pose... As long ago as this was I am still impressed by my execution, lol. This one may be able to make the transition to digital and still keep the mood and mystery :)
This is one I completely forgot about and I laughed when I saw it... Gemma from the Gemini Archives discovers her son Aiden is a complete mess 😆 It's funny that I have almost nothing with Aiden in it otherwise; I had hopes of a spin-off with him, Diana, Ian, Amadeus, Eliseo, and the others in that generation... but I only ended up with one story of them raiding a base with Aiden being more of the computer nerd of the group - and then Eliseo gets turned into a cyberman... but that did spin Diana off into depression that landed her into the Duchess story, so I guess it helped a spin-off of a different sort.
Another one I absolutely love... the pose, the composition, the depth (ha!) and simplicity are so cool. It's such a strange feeling to love it so much but also want to redraw it so badly? lol
Poor Alias: Jay. I had such high hopes and had such a cool story, but I just have too much going on to give her the attention she needs. I may have to just tell the basic story, spoilers and all, sometime here, since I'm not sure when it will ever happen. It was set in The Tallelands/Fortanya a generation or so before Ace, so there were going to be a few "easter eggs" that made it into his story from this one, and I may still keep them in case I ever do write it as a prequel of sorts. Like spoiler alert - I think Corryn was the Sentinel before James.......
What's with all these amazing Sapphyre-based ink drawings coming out so cool?? I love this one so much, and it features Ms Khalli spying on a ship. She doesn't normally come up to the surface, so this must be after Sapphyre introduces her to the wonders above, lol. It's kind of funny how much Khalli ended up as a nod to Ariel in The Little Mermaid.
I thought Sam may appreciate this one more now: Mioko finally gets Maewyn to fall asleep and then doorknob's squeak pops her little eyes back open 😅 Poor dad, lol.
Not part of inktober but in a similar vein, Khalli swimming through a shipwreck looking for cool things. It's another that I'm just stunned I completed in only pen. It looks so dang cool, lol. I believe I need to post a few of these on my website as is. 💙
