#while purple knows basically nothing about selkies aside from some stuff they looked into after discovering SC was one

[i3utterflyeffect]

selkie Purple is never not amusing to me, but please imagine them knowing bits and pieces of selkie legends before becoming a selkie/befriending SC and co, and then becoming a selkie themselves and being absolutely terrified at all times because of the (largely/entirely incorrect) things they previously knew about them. extreme confusion when they transform the first time and its Not agonizingly painful and drawn out, etc etc

YEAH.... purple's expecting it to be an absolute nightmare and Alan (who has barely looked at selkie legends at all and has just been fucking winging it this entire time) has to explain that no, most of that stuff isn't true and you're just a normal stick aside from the fact that Oops You Have Fur And Can Be A Cursor Suddenly

[ljf613]

Tales from Earthsea and Whisper of the Heart for the Ghibli asks?

🐉  Tales from Earthsea: What is your favorite mythical creature?

Probably phoenixes, although I am also obsessed with dragons.

📖🖋  Whisper of the heart: What is something you’ve always wanted to write? Would you like to share anything you’ve written with us?

Well, there's an original (seven book) series I've been wanting to write since I was eleven years old, tentatively refered to as The Trackers.

The basic premise is that people from a realm of magic sometimes fall through the veil to our world-- losing their memories in the process. It falls to a group of part-human, part-fae people known as the Trackers-- whose unusual bloodline grants them unique abilities-- to locate these lost souls, return them to their home realm, and restore their memories.

I've done some extensive worldbuilding for this story, as well as fleshed out several of my main characters.

The reasons I've never finished it are proably because a) I'm only now getting the hang of writing romance, and the relationship between the main character and her husband is SUPER important to the story, b) there are a few elements of the magic system I've never quite figured out, and I still only have a vague idea of who the main antagonists are and what their motivation is.

Excerpts from various drafts under the cut (bear in mind that I haven't really touched it in nearly three years-- I'd love to get back to it at some point)

Send me another Ghibli Ask!

No. NO. NO! It was Ben. Captain of Green West Junior High’s basketball team. The guy every girl who was any girl was crushing on. Every girl but me. I had no interest in his muscles, or whatever it is the other girls saw in him. I mean, he wasn’t an idiot, but he was a bit self-centered. He was walking over to my locker. I knew what he wanted. This was bad. “Hey, Rose,” he said casually, as if he knew he didn’t have to try very hard to get what he was after, “Want to go to the Spring Fling with me?” “No.” “You must have misheard me. I asked you if-” “I think you misheard me. I said no.” “Why not? You busy that day?” He was giving me an out. I could say yes, and avoid suspicion. But that would just feed his ego, and he didn’t deserve to be let on like that. “Not really.” “Then why won’t you go with me? We’d-” “No means no. I don’t like you.” “Whatever.” He walked off with his friends, and I heard him muttering a few choice words about me. Whatever. Less easy to ignore were the people in the halls who were staring and whispering. No doubt rumors about me and ben would be widespread around the school by the end of the day, and all of them would be about how I was hopelessly in love with him. Why was it so hard to grasp that a girl might not like Ben?

That scene is from one of the earliest drafts of the story-- I was probably about twelve years old. As you can probably tell. It was scrapped in later drafts.

I just stared. Why was there a butterfly in a library? It wasn’t any species I recognized, I could tell as it got closer. It had scarlet wings with parchment-white undersides, and ever-moving black swirls that resembled words on both sides. As it flew even closer, it began to change. The wings remained the same, but got larger, until they were probably only a little shorter than I was. meanwhile, the body changed from black, to a paler but indistinguishable color, the middle legs shrunk to nothing, the bottom legs moved lower on the body, and the four remaining legs grew. By the time it landed on the floor, it was a vaguely humanoid shape, but I couldn't make it out, as it was across the room from us. Rosebelle ran to help the figure up. I figured it was this Gunan guy. Probably some crabby old geezer who’d be deliberately vague and make us leave. “Frank,” said Rosebelle, while I stared in shock, “This is Gunan, the best historian and cartographer this side of Perola. A butterfly animalia.” “Stop it, Rosebelle,” said Gunan, “I’m not all that. You aren’t too bad yourself.” “Gunan, this is Frank. My Lost.” “Hi,” said a high, sweet voice. Gunan was not what I expected. She had pale pinkish-red irises, a long black braid that touched the floor in front of her, wore a red t-shirt made out of another strange fabric, light blue pants, and parchment-white sock-boots with black stripes made of words. I just stared at her, open-mouthed. “Oh, sorry,” she said, “It’s the wings, isn’t it? I like them, but I’ll get rid of those too, if they bother you.” “N-no,” I stuttered, then blinked and shook my head, “They’re fine.” She also looked to be about eight years old. - I almost laughed at the expression on his face. He just couldn’t understand, couldn’t connect the face of the little girl in front of him with the legendary historian I’d spoke of. I probably would’ve had the same reaction the first time I met her, but I’d been five and just wondered if the big girl would be my friend. Then I frowned. I didn’t like to think of those moments, because they reminded me I didn’t have many more left. Never mind.

This scene is kind of clunky, but it introduces one of my favorite characters-- Gunan, the mysterious librarian who never seems to get older and whose true age is a complete enigma.

"Hey, do you have any food?” “Food?” “Yeah,” he said, ��That stuff we eat to re-energize ourselves.” “Very funny,” I replied dryly, “We’ll eat when we camp out tonight.” “Camp out?” “You didn’t think the long way wasn’t even a day?” “I haven’t eaten since last night!” “Oh well,” I said unsympathetically, “You’re such a guy.” “What’s that supposed to mean?!” “You’ve got your mind on your stomach.” “Girls.” “Girls? I think you mean boys.” “What do you have against boys?” “What do you have against girls?” “Honestly.” “No kidding.” “Girls.” “Boys.” We didn’t talk for a while after that.

I did mention that these early drafts were written when I was in middle school, right?

Reyne was gone and I was never going to find him. Poor Marc. I hadn’t seen my brother in nearly two years, ever since he went off trying to find his best friend. He’d dropped everything: assignments, Lost, contact with his worried parents and sister… and Marc had been the most promising Tracker in hundreds of years. Everyone had thought that eventually, when he matured and stopped being such a dare daimon, he’d take a seat on the council. I wondered if my brother had died. He couldn’t have. He wasn’t even forty! Calm down! I had to believe that Marc was fine, that he’d find Reyne and come home.

My subtle way of foreshadowing the plot of one of the later books. (Yes, Rosebelle's brother is in his late thirties-early forties-- their average lifespans are around 200-300 years, so he's basically the equivalent of a college kid.)

“You’re a wizard, remember,” I said, still smiling, “Wizards use a lot of rune magic.” “Runes,” he said, curiously, “What are runes?” “Runes are symbols, usually traced with a finger, into the air or against a surface. You can think of them like spells. Most fae can use at least a couple, but it’s hard to get the shape exactly right, or to remember more than two or three. Wizards, aside from the fact that many have eidetic memories, have a natural instinct for them. All wizards naturally know a couple, and more reveal themselves to them as they get older. There are runebooks, of course, but most are on a really high level and I wouldn’t recommend even looking at one until you master your magic a bit better.” “Wow,” he said, “That’s really cool. How many kinds of fae are there, and what are their special magics?” “Well, they say that there are six, which is why the Realm is ruled by the Council of Six. There are Animalia, like Gunan. Animalia can turn into animals, but only one kind. As you saw, Gunan is a butterfly. They can also turn partially, which is where stories of centaurs, werewolves, selkies, angels, and the like come from. Animalia all have eyes in some shade of red. Elves, such as Wiln, are extremely intelligent and secretive. Their magic is related to gravity. Most fae have some, if limited, telekinesis, but theirs is much stronger, among other things. They have eyes in some shade of orange, and ears even more prominently pointed than the rest of us. Trackers like me are really rare, and we specialize in portals, as well as being able to detect magic. Also, we can create and use relics, which let us use a small amount of another race’s ability. We have green eyes. Wizards like you mostly use runes, and tend to be extremely inquisitive. They say that the Seers were all wizards, if they existed at all. You guys all have purple eyes. Elementals use element magic, although most focus on one element and learn only a little bit of magic from the others. It’s a really hard branch of magic. They have yellow eyes. Most Fae can use various spells, and have a ‘trunk’.” “A ‘trunk’?” “A space only you can access. You can put anything you want there, and then summon it at anytime. That’s where the tents came from. Snapping isn’t necessary, but it helps me focus. Anyway, those are the different species. No one is quite sure how someone is born a certain species- if it’s genetic or not, Trackers being the exception.” - “Didn’t you say there were six,” I asked, confused, “That was only five.” “The last one either died out or are in hiding, if they ever existed. No one can remember what they’re called.”

Like I said, I did a lot of worldbuilding. (Yes, the difference races have eyes that are Color-Coded for Your Convenience.)

This was what I’d seen. Rosebelle was slipping. She couldn’t hold on, and she clearly didn’t have the power to transport herself up. She was going to fall. She would slip, and fall into the water, and then she was going to die. I didn’t know how I’d known, but I could guarantee that was what would happen. No. One thing was different from what I’d seen. I was here. I could change it. Before I could think, I reached out and grabbed her wrist. “Oww! Frank, let go!” “No! You’ll die if I do!” “We’ll both die if you don’t! Frank, you have to let me go!” She was right, I knew. The Spark was shocking us, trying to pull us apart. I could tell if I didn’t, it would send such a fierce electrical shock through us, we’d probably both die. But I didn’t care. I would pull her up before that happened. I didn’t have a choice. “Rosebelle, don’t you trust me?” “No! Let go!” “Grab my wrist and I’ll pull you up! Please!” “Why? Why would you do this?” “Because- you saved me! You brought me to a place I belonged, a place I didn’t believe existed! Because you have to find your brother and I want to help you! I want to help you with whatever you need! So please! Just grab my arm and let me pull you up!” I winced. The shocks were getting stronger. We didn’t have much time. Rosebelle grabbed my arm, intensifying the shocks tenfold. I pulled her up, but it was too late. One final shock rippled between us, and then it was so bright I couldn’t see anymore.

I've always had a flair for the dramatics. I also needed a scene where the these two were forced to maintain physical contact for a significant amount of time, preferably in a situation that Rosebelle couldn't reasonably get angry at Frank for-- I figured saving her life would do it.

The wizard hadn’t believed she would ever have a child. Most fae couples couldn’t have more than one or two children- the only reason the population wasn’t rapidly decreasing was because of the fae’s longevity. She hadn’t even bonded until she was nearly 150- far past the normal child-bearing age of most women- so, when she and her mate had found out she was pregnant, they were overjoyed. He’d been worried that childbirth would take a toll on her nearly 180-year-old body, but she promised him she’d be okay, and she was. Once she gave birth, there was an even bigger surprise. “Twins,” she’d exclaimed, in absolute shock, “Are you sure?” But twins she had and twins it was. The wizard (who still didn’t look more than about 100 (35-40 to humans) had gained a lot of fame in her life- she’d thought that would be her legacy. But as she stared down at the cradle her daughters- daughters!- lay in, she knew nothing would make her happier than a legacy of being remembered as their mother. “What should we name them,” asked her mate, from the doorway. She whirled around, as she had not realized he was there. The woman had many incredible skills, but she was not a very exceptional Seer. Being a wizard,though, she did have a drop of seer ability, and newborn children were known to be very easy to read, since they hadn’t yet put up the mental shields fae instinctively put up to protect themselves. She picked up the firstborn, a ginger-haired girl with blue-gray eyes- an animalia. She couldn’t see much, but she could tell what animal the girl would be. “Kitsonia,” she said, and he nodded. Normally, the tradition was for the child’s name to begin with the final syllable in one of the parents’ first names (most often, the father’s for a boy and the mother’s for a girl), but the wizard had long decided that if she ever did have a child, she would not force them to bear her name- she’d let them forge their own path, which is why, as she handed Kitsonia to her mate and reached to pick up the second child, she wondered if it might be prudent to name the this one after him. But them moment she touched the girl, a raven-haired child with eyes such a pale blue they were nearly clear, all such thoughts flew out of her head. With her weak skills, she would not have been surprised if she saw nothing- but it was just the opposite. She saw so much- too much. She couldn’t understand a bit of it, and as she tried to piece it all together, it vanished, and she couldn’t see a thing. The wizard didn’t really understand, but she new that her daughter had a hard fate. However, she knew better than most that destiny was not set in stone. Her name will come from Gu a Non: ‘a change of fate’. She looked at her mate and said, “How about Gunan?”

This excerpt's from a much later volume, when I finally go into Gunan's backstory. (Yes, her eyes are blue here, at some point I changed the color scheme for the different races). You'll notice that her mother considers Seer ability to be a fairly normal wizardly skill, even though Rosebelle considers Seers to be the stuff of myths. Gunan was born in a very different time.

I have more, of course, but I'm not going to subject y'all to this trash.

Someday, I'll come back to this story and write it properly, the way it deserves.