This took me a long time to make, because Premiere decided to have an error, then I finally fixed it and then another error popped up and I spent time fixing it. But, now I have finally finished it. So, I hope you enjoy it:
For those who don't know, Phoenix is one of the many main characters in an ensemble story. Unlike Annabelle who is the main character, Phoenix is one of many characters who each share the spotlight at different points throughout the novels. I haven't really introduced the other characters yet. But, you did get a sneak peek as to who one of the main characters is (i.e. Veraly) in this video.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ If you could dye your hair any color, what color would you dye it? And what is your favorite place in nature?
I am happy to tell you that I have finally fixed the doubling effect in the character interview with Phoenix, and I plan to have it edited and posted sometime soon. I'm sorry about the delay.
But now on to this post. Here's the next installment of Using Polls to Create Art. Unless otherwise stated, all of the art in this post came out of majority votes...
This was not a majority vote. When I made a poll about which character I should draw, people started wondering "what does a ghost bride look like?" and "what would a ghost bride mermaid look like?" because of the questions that were circling, I decided to draw the ghost bride as a mermaid.
However, I did also draw the majority vote, which I will include in the next post, but since this post is themed around mermaids/merman it won't appear here.
I asked the voters whether I should draw a sailor or a siren, and a siren ended up winning.
So I drew Oceana again. I may end up doing a digital version of this drawing in the future.
In this poll, the pollers helped create an original character who is a merman. I'm not sure what to call him, so if you have any name suggestions I would love to hear them in the comments below.
Ophelia as a mermaid. This was fun to draw.
Phoenix as a merman. I decided to make his tail feathery almost like a bird's feathers, but actually a fish's tail.
This is breaking from the mermaid theme a little bit. I had the voters vote on what should appear on the cover of The Case of the Poisoned Goblet. The three things that needed to appear were Annabelle, Ophelia, and a dragon. I ended up having the dragon appear on the poisoned goblet, and I thought it would be neat if Annabelle and Ophelia appeared above.
For my blog's sixth anniversary which happens on the 9th of March, I decided that this year I will do a double character interview where my characters, Annabelle and Phoenix, will be answering your questions and reacting to your impressions. The characters are from two different stories, so they'll provide contrasting points of view. I plan to do more interviews in the future with other characters, but I thought I'd start with Phoenix and Annabelle.
The character interviews will be two separate videos. So you can get creative with your questions, and share all of your initial impressions of their characters with them. If you don't know much about Annabelle or Phoenix I suggest checking out their character sheets here and here.
To leave questions, comments, and wild guesses about their character to get included in the video, you can either leave them in the comments section down below, or fill out the form below. If you wish to be left anonymous, please either comment anonymously or fill out the "your name" section of the form as "anonymous" so Phoenix and Annabelle know what to call you.
I decided to do another response to Ginny Di's POV (Point of View) RP (Roleplay) videos. There are now more videos to choose from: such as bard, a prison guard, and a mage. This time I decided to respond to the prison guard . In my last responses, I had my characters talking to a villain.
For Gletta, this happens in the prequel before Eyes in the Night takes place. Note, that I could not find a wig that matched her hair in canon, but, this doesn't mean her hair suddenly became shorter...It just means I do not have a wig that looks like her hair.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------What would your characters (or you) do if they got arrested? Have you ever dressed up as one of your characters?
-Quinley
P.S. My YouTube Channel just reached 3,000 views!!
I have found that acting itself has helped my writing, and writing has helped my acting and characters in general. While this post isn't about characters in writing (it is about characters in acting and theatre), I do want to show that there is a connection between the two. I have found that I got to know my characters better in acting and writing using these techniques.
There are many different ways to act, and not all of them fit everyone. I have found that these techniques have helped me greatly with getting into character in acting, but not everyone finds every technique helpful, so think about which ones would work for you.
I even ended up teaching a workshop about this. So, I thought it was time to get some of the things I taught in that class into a blog post. While in that workshop we weren't developing characters from monologues, (we were developing original characters we had created on the spot (and wrote monologues for later)), I still believe these techniques can apply to characters from monologues. I learned most of the character building questions and tips involved in this post from different acting (or writing) classes I took over the years; so I would like to thank my teachers for teaching these to me.
Character sheets
Like with writing, in acting I end up creating sheets for my characters. I find they help me understand the character better. In filling out a character sheet, I feel I have to start with the information I'm given from the source material. This can be done by scanning and annotating the script or monologue.
Once I'm done with everything that is apparent from the monologue or the script itself, I start adding on my own details, making the character mine within the realm of the script. This is where making the character in acting is very different from writing your own character because you aren't fully in control, and you aren't the creator; instead, you're the one interpreting the character. And while in some cases you may be confined within what the director wants the character to be, you can still be free to interpret stuff, like "what happened in the moment before?", "what is my character's family-life like?", or "what is my character's favorite color?" (assuming none of these appear in the monologue or script).
(Side note: if the character is from a play/movie/TV show where there is a performance done by another actor, I try not to take the choices they made, because otherwise I am copying their character and not creating my own version of that character).
(Image from wiki, https://dragonshavern.fandom.com/wiki/Benjy_Woodbush?file=Benjyw.jpg)
Just like with writing characters, I have found it helpful to search for a painting or picture that reminds me of what I think my character looks like. I find it easier to get into their mindset if I know what they look like. Above is a picture I used to get into the mindset of Puck from A Midsummer Night's Dream when I played him in a monologue.
I also sometimes find a single song or create a playlist that reminds me of the character, and I listen to the song before filming/performing because then I feel more energized. These are both things you can include on your character sheets. For example, here are some playlists I created for characters I have been working on:
You can also, if you wish, include things like what your character's archetype is, or what their Hogwarts House or Camp Half Blood cabin is, if you think those things will help you understand the character even more.
Character interview
If you have anyone in your family or friends that can particape in a character interview with you then that may help. This one activity both writers and actors can do. Basically you sit down and ask questions to your character and respond in character to them. It is not only a good way to get to know your character, but it also helps you figure out stuff you may not have noticed before.
One of the resources I used for the workshop I taught was this video/list of questions by Ginny Di, in which she lists of a number of questions to ask your (D&D) character to help expand on their personality and backstory:
While it was originally intended for D&D characters, I do believe it works for any characters regardless of the genre. All you need to do is change "tavern" to "bar" or anything else if your character isn't from the Fantasy genre. There's also a text version of it if you need it.
In my workshop, I had participants respond to the questions given in the video/doc. I suggested they choose some at random (taking turns being the character and interviewer). The person playing the character would improvise on the spot to answer the questions.
I didn't use the following POV RP videos in the workshop (though I mentioned them to the participants). I have found that if you don't have anyone around you (or you don't feel comfortable doing interviews with family members and/or friends) that these are really helpful:
If you don't have someone around you can still basically play the game with a person (Ginny Di), and think about how your character would respond not only to the questions but the various situations they are put in. (You can also make your own response video, if you feel excited about it).
Also, you should keep in mind that there may be some questions your character may not answer (or answer fully), because of discomfort around the question or a desire to be secretive about themselves. Your character could end up answering a question with another question, if they wanted to.
If anyone wants questions beyond those that Ginny Di created, I have included my own list of questions to ask your character at the end of this post.
Status
Statuses aren't just about class in society, though they can play into that. They are about knowing your character's status in a scene: How much control do they have in the scene? And how does their status change?
The status of your character is often affected by those around them. If a (bad) rumor is spread about your character, they could go down in status. If they are popular, they will have a high status. There is also middle ground between the two, which would be middle status. They can also be a high status person pretending to have low status, or a low status person fighting to get high status or pretending to have it. It all depends on the situation.
Also, their status can be affected by their religious beliefs, general beliefs, gender, race, etc, and they can have a low or high status in any given situation based on any of those. Some people may treat them differently (and make it low) because of their identity, but if they are around people like them it may become high again. If their status stays the same all the time then there is a lack of a sense of realism, because no one's status is ever low or high the entire time.
One way to experiment with status, is to randomize it, and try the scene with that status. Use a random number generator with 1 being low status, 5 being middle status, and 10 being high status. Then see how that status affects your character's actions and how they walk or even talk. While the status you are playing around with may not be the one you ultimately use in the scene or monologue, it is still a way to see how your character's status affects your character.
Stakes and Goals
There is a reason why your character is saying these things in the scene, and it isn't just to say it. There is a goal behind it. Maybe your character wants to get a reaction out of whoever they're talking to. And also they're probably fighting for something related to their long term goal in the rest of the play and/or movie.
The stakes might depend on interpersonal conflicts, the plot, the characters, etc. This makes you want to say whatever you're saying more, because there are consequences if you do say it and consequences if you don't. And in doing this monologue and/or scene are you ready to face these consequences? Good or bad?
Object work
The premise of this activity is that you take five minutes or so to find an object that reminds you of your character. Once you do, wear the object, hold the object, or figure out why the object is important to your character. (It can be as important as something they need or something they cherish.) Some questions to consider are, how often they carry the object around with them, is it something they keep in their pocket or something they wear, or do they hide it in a bag? Can it be hidden or it something everyone would be able to see? Do they like it or is it just a necessity? Continue asking questions like this and you will figure out your character even more.
One random object I grabbed in this exercise was a sheep tea cozy. This ended up creating a character that was a possessed librarian, interestingly.
This same exercise can also be used to create a character as well as develop one. If you have a piece of clothing, an accessory, or an object that you pick at random, you can try and figure out what type of character would have that object, and what the character's liking or disliking of that object says about the character.
Finding a personal experience (from your life) to associate with the monologue/scene
If you find a common experience between you and the character (it doesn't have to be the exact same thing as the character has experienced), you can use it to relate to your character even more. Let's say you are performing Hamlet and are playing the lead role of Hamlet.
One major life event Hamlet experiences is finding out that his uncle murdered his father in order to marry his mother. Now, you don't need to have experienced the exact same thing in order to understand or relate to him as a character. You could have experienced loss (of anyone: a pet, a friend, or a family member) and relate to Hamlet that way or have experienced betrayal and relate to Hamlet's discovery of what his uncle did that way.
Walking like your character
In this exercise you walk around the room as your character, and you try to figure out how they walk. Do they walk with a slow pace or a fast pace? Do they walk with their head held high, or do they look towards the ground? Do they have a straight back, or do they walk with a slouch? As you walk around the room do that, and try different ways to walk. Keep trying: you're not likely to get the walk the way your character walks the first time.
Dressing up as your character
I would say this is the last thing to do, given that you go through several performances before you get around to filming or performing the monologue (assuming you're performing it on stage). Knowing what your character wears can be useful in understanding their personality too, but unless you're filming it yourself, you may not be fully in control of what you wear in character. You can still figure out the importance of the clothing to your character, though. There was one show I acted in where I wore a green scarf, and as I was performing in the show I began associating it with one of the characters I was playing, Hortensio (from The Taming of the Shrew). Often I used the scarf as a way to get into character before the scene I acted in. I would fiddle with the scarf before acting in the scene, because I saw that as something Hortensio would do with it. And for my other characters, I tried associating different costumes pieces with what they'd wear. For Maria (from Twelfth Night), I remember associating the leather bracelet I was wearing with her, because it seemed like something she would like. So, even if you don't have full control over the costumes, you can still make character choices.
This is a costume I wear for a monologue I am working on filming. The character pictured is Sherlock Holmes, and this is my take on him. I decided he would choose to wear this normally (through character development).
But if you are in full control (because you're filming it or for another reason), you can have a lot of fun in designing your character's outfit and finding wigs to match their hair color, supposing their hair is a different color or style than yours. You can also figure specifics involving these clothes, other than just that they wear them. Does your character set up clothes they wear each night? Do they match? Or do they wake up and just put on whatever they can find? If so, is it mismatched?
Two more costumes from my two other video projects. While Phoenix (left), Gletta (right), are original characters of mine (and not from any monologue), the characters are from Fantasy novels, so there is world-building behind what they wear.
Also depending on the genre they're from you may also have creativity with the clothes. If it is historical, you can find clothes that match with the time period. But if they are from Fantasy or Science fiction world, there is a reason world-building wise behind what they're wearing, and it may be made of materials that we wouldn't be able to access in our world, like dragon scales or phoenix feathers.
Here is a character sheet to use when keeping track of your character:
You can add on as much as you want or take stuff away, but this is just a starting point for you.
Name:
Gender:
Age:
Status:
Religion/beliefs:
Personality:
Likes:
Dislikes:
Prized possession(s):
Goal(s) in scene/play/monologue:
The stakes:
Who are they talking to?:
What happened before this monologue/scene?:
Favorite color:
Least favorite color:
Clothing style:
How they walk:
Other:
Image that reminds you of them/what they look like:
Questions to ask your character during an interview:
Here is a list of questions I created for a character interview, so you can ask them to your character during the interview:
What is your name?
Do you like your name? Would you change it if you could?
What is your family life like? Do you have a good or bad relationship with your parents or siblings, if you have any?
What’s your dream job? Is there anything you’ve wanted to be for a long time?
What’s your current job? Do you like it?
Do you have many friends?
Do you believe in magic or the supernatural?
If not, why don’t you? What experiences shaped your not believing in it?
If so, why do you? What experiences have shaped your belief in it?
Are you religious?
Do you have any hobbies?
Do you listen to music?
Can you play any music?
Is there anything in the world you want to change?
What was your childhood like?
Do you have any fond memories from your childhood?
If you could have any magical power, what would you have?
If you were stranded on a desert island what item would you take with you?
Do you read? If so, what is your favorite book?
If you could visit any fictional world, where would you visit?
What is one thing about yourself, you don’t want anyone to know?
What is one thing about yourself, you want anyone to know?
Do you want to be famous or would you prefer to remain unknown?
If you had a blog or YouTube channel, what would you post/blog about?
What would your Hogwarts house be?
If you went to Camp Half blood, who would your godly parent be?
Who is one person whom you confide in, if you’re upset or angry?
What’s one thing that really upsets you?
What’s one thing that really makes you happy?
What is a book or movie that you turn to when you’re upset?
What is one song you play when you’re sad?
What is one song you play when you’re happy?
If you came across a ghost, how would you react?
If you came across a dragon, how would you react?
Do you have any pets? If not, do you want any?
If you were a mythical creature what type of creature would you be and why?
How old are you? Do you care about your age or does it not bother you?
Do you like birthdays? Or do you just try to ignore them?
What is your worst nightmare? And why?
What is something you really want to happen to you?
Do you dream at night? Or do you sleep without dreams?
What is one goal you want to achieve? And why?
What would you do if you achieved that goal?
What would you do if you failed to reach that goal?
Is anyone or anything trying to stop you from reaching said goal?
Do you have any enemies? And if so, why are you enemies with them?
If you were a D&D character, what class(es) would you be?
What subjects in school are you (or were you) interested in?
What styles of clothing do you like to wear? And why?
What types of clothes would you never wear? And why?
Do you like make-up? And if not, why?
Is your hair long or short? And do you like styling it?
Do you like going to the theatre to see a show or a play? Why or why not?
What song(s) would you say best describe your personality?
Is there anything you would change about your appearance?
How well do you sleep? Are you a light or heavy sleeper?
How do other people feel about you? Do they like you, dislike you, or are their feelings toward you somewhere in the middle?
What is the worst thing anyone has ever said to you?
What is the best thing anyone has ever said to you?
Are you good at trusting people? Why or why not?
How would you describe yourself in three words?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------If you do acting what is your favorite part of it? And how do you get into character?
I thought I'd share some figure drawings of my characters I did along with my other drawings, since I recently have been working on drawing human figures.
Let's begin:
This is a full body drawing of Oak, I really like how it turned out in the end.
She doesn't have her scars in this drawing, because this is long before she joined the Hunters of Artemis.
This is a drawing I did of Ginny Di's D&D character, Aisling. I really like how her hair and ears turned out. (And after drawing I realized I forgot her freckles, so I decided to edit them in.)
This is a figure drawing of Elm, it was really fun to draw her dress and hair.
A drawing of Ginny Di's Tiefling bard, Clio. I decided to draw her because I thought the horns, and the freckles looked so cool on this particular character.
A figure drawing of Chirara, I really liked drawing her dress.
A figure drawing of Phoenix, it was fun to draw his wings.
Yesterday (March 9th) was my blog's anniversary, and while I will be doing more posts like this (videos of me drawing digitally) in the future, I thought I'd introduce this new style of post through my blog's anniversary.
In the last post I shared a drawing of Phoenix that I was thinking of turning into a water color. I ended up not doing that, because I was worried I'd mess up the drawing.
While I didn't include this drawing in the last post, I thought I would recolor the drawing of Annabelle (above) that I thankfully had taken a picture of because the drawing got messed up.
I didn't make a post for the holiday season last year (2020), but that was because I had this post planned which took a little longer than I intended for it to take. Instead of one video I planned to post two. And with filming and video editing, uploading and everything, it took a lot longer than oringally I assumed it would.
Ginny Di has done three POV videos for Dungeons and Dragons character development: one that is a healer, one that is a matchmaker and one that is a villain. The videos are fun to watch, because they make you be in character and answer the questions in character, rather than answering the questions for your character. While these were originally intended for Dungeons and Dragons characters, I thought they would also work for the characters from my novels. Even though the villain video does mention a few Dungeons and Dragons terms it can still work really well in a Fantasy setting. So, I decided to use my two characters, Phoenix (from All is Not Lost For All Will Begin Again) and Annabelle (The Lady Annabelle mystery series), and make them react separately to being interviewed by a villain.
In Phoenix's interview, this is long before he is working for Reyvon, so he has no job and is desperate at this point.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Who should get the job? (Annabelle or Phoenix) and why? And of the two of them, which do you think would be a better villain?
I have two acting videos that I am in the middle of editing, which I hope to post sometime soon. In the meantime, since editing for those kinds of things takes so long (and since some of the footage got messed up), I am going to present for you my most recent drawings instead:
A water color painting of Merricat from We've Always Lived in the Castle.
I really like how her hair turned out.
I had intended to turn this drawing of Phoenix into a water-color painting, however, I really liked how it turned out as a pencil sketch so I didn't want to paint it and mess it up.
I was thinking it would be neat to paint it digitally in the future.
I am not going to give out all the information for this yet (because this is something for a gothic story that I am plotting at the moment), but I used this doodle as a way to illustrate my character, Matilda's point of view. This doodle shows what happened in the story from her perspective, at least at the moment what I know of it.
And this follows the same theme. But this time illustrating her brother, Felix's point of view.
A painting of Chirara, I really like how it turned out, especially her hair.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Which sketch or painting is your favorite? And would you like to see me digitally paint my drawing of Phoenix?
I wasn't feeling well one day, so I did a whole lot of drawings in order to make myself feel a little better, and because of that I thought it would be fun to challenge myself and draw my characters in different styles or doing different things than they would normally do. This is a little bit like the post I did previously, except that I'm using pre-created characters and asking what they should be doing instead of creating a totally new character.
Since NaNoWrimo has a thread dedicated to polls, I thought it would be fun to do polls that could produce drawing exercises for me. What I did was ask people to vote for which character I should draw, and then ask them what should happen in the drawing in a separate poll.
And these drawings are what came out of it (unless I say otherwise all of these were majority votes):
This is a drawing of Elm which I decided would be fun to draw in the Disney 2D animated style.
I really like how it turned out.
Since Annabelle detests dresses (for reasons that you will find out in the future),
I thought it would be interesting to draw her wearing one that appeared in my book.
Even though she really doesn't like it, I still like how it turned out.
Phoenix in 2D animated drawing style, this time mimicking that of Tangled the Series.
This is a drawing of Elm using her powers which are her singing abilities.
Her singing has magical attributes, which can cause the world around her
to dance, among other things.
**trigger warning: This drawing contains a bit of blood**
Since Halloween was soon...ish when I drew this, I had Detective Inspector Time investigating a creepy (and haunted) house.
**end of trigger warning**
This one was particularly hard because Annabelle is a morally gray character and turning her into a villain is difficult. Annabelle can be seen as either, and she is often seen as a threat by those around her. So instead of going full out evil villain, I turned her into an assassin instead. She is a detective (in her story), so making her a murderer would be completely different.
Even though this was not the majority vote, I decided to draw Phoenix as a villain anyway. Interestingly enough, everything he would wear as a villain would be raven-themed. And he would have fun being a villain. Also, for some reason I imagine him stroking a raven or crow like most villains would a cat.
This drawing also helped me figure out what would cause Phoenix to go from a protagonist to an antagonist.
Someone at one point thought it would be neat to see Annabelle in Steampunk clothes.
So I ended up drawing her that way, even though it was not the top vote. And I have a feeling she would like the Steampunk outfit a lot better than she did the dress from earlier.
Since we are going to be quarantined for long a time. I decided I would make a series revolving around different characters being stuck at home. Not necessarily because of the same virus but because of something else in their world. Even though it is not talking about this quarantine, I am going to be calling it "Quarantined Characters." But, this won't just be talking about what the characters will do; it might also involve doing drawings, short stories, and stuff like that.
And since I have a lot of characters, some of them even in totally different genres from the others,
I am dividing this post up into parts.
Let's begin: Elm
Elm is a dryad and spirit of her tree. Because of this she would not be afraid about being stuck in it for a while. But what Elm would do if she were ever stuck in her tree would be to practice her singing and learn to play a musical instrument that some human had left behind.
Annabelle
Rules to Annabelle are more like guidlines anyway, so she would have difficulty following them strictly, especially since her father, Lord Oberon, would be so cautious about making sure she stays inside. He would be cautious perhaps to a ridiculous extent. And because of this, this would be Annabelle's first plan:
1. Disguise herself as man in order to be unrecognizable.
2. Grab her detective equipment, and bring it along with her.
3. Tie her bedsheets together to get out through her window.
4. And finally once she is down, go solve homicides.
However, suppose she isn't able to escape the castle at this time, because something happens and she realizes it would be bad to try to escape* or Oberon reinforces the guarding of the castle.
She would instead respond to letters from people who had murder cases for her, and she would do this under the name of her detective alter ego
She would also in her spare time practice self defense, as she wouldn't want to be defenseless when the world is on edge, and it might be life threatening. Like everything she does, she would have to make sure she does it in secret, because a lot of people in the castle would consider it "unladylike."
*Because of the ongoing threat that caused everyone to have to stay inside. Not because she would ever want to stay in the castle like everyone wants her to.
Ashalena
If she was stuck inside for a long period, Ashalena would spend her time drawing and sketching.
The things she would find most relaxing to draw during this time would be wildlife, nature, and landscapes, because even if she can't go out to see them, she would still like to imagine them.
She would send her drawings to people during that time, to brighten the mood of the situation. She also would include handwritten notes with the drawings she sent to them.
She would also pray to the gods that the threat (whether it be fires, flooding, illness, or monsters) would leave soon. Ashalena would ask the priests and priestesses through letters if the threat is at all an omen from the gods, and if so what it means, and what person angered the gods enough to cause it. If you are the empress of the country, or are going be the empress, you do have to talk to the gods or try to communicate with them, especially if the country depends deeply on it.
Aurinda&Ichabod
Aurinda would probably end up getting stuck with Ichabod--yes, whether she likes it or not.
And since they already have a lot of problems on their hands, with ghosts like the The Headless Horseman, Aurinda would make sure that they had as many battle or escape strategies as possible, so they could make it out in one piece. She learned a lot from fighting in the American revolution. Meanwhile, Ichabod would be hanging up garlic in various places, as well as putting his other lucky charms everywhere. Given that Aurinda and Ichabod don't tend to always agree on everything (more often they don't agree about magic, and whether or not it is good or evil) they would probably be arguing with each other from time to time, which is not very good if there is a threat of death.
Phoenix
If Phoenix was stuck inside he would cuddle under a blanket and write poetry. He would also write letters to his best friend, and ask how she is doing. He would work on improving his book of poetry that he wants to publish, editing and/or rewriting his poems while he is sitting in his room.
If anything, he would be doing a lot of writing to make his stress go away. (After all being stuck inside for a long period of time is stressful.) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- What would your characters do if they were quarantined? Would they panic or would they remain calm?
-Quinley
Happy Holidays everyone! Since there are so many holidays celebrated during winter, and I didn't want to make someone feel left out by mentioning only three or four, I decided that I should write a story that captures something that all those holidays have in common...which is love. I also decided to set it in the world of my novel, The Silver Key. By doing this, I will show how people (humans and shapeshifters) who would usually be enemies, can be friends around this time of year...at least for the time being. "The Fairies or the Faylena" is talking about winter holidays celebrated in my Fantasy world. I haven't figured out the exact dates since they don't fall at the same time as our world's holidays. But one thing I do know is that these holidays are celebrated during winter. My inspiration for the story was this song: The Fairies they Draw Near
I imagine songs like this played (by local musicians) during the holidays in the world of The Silver Key. Though these two holidays take place in winter in two religions that celebrate fairies or faylena, I believe there are other religions in the world that celebrate the fairies or faylena (just not at the same time of the year.)
So, let's begin the story.:
The Fairies or the Faylena
This is the night, where many sit by candlelight
Hoping to get a sight of a fairy in the pale moonlight
Every child will tiptoe over to the window, hoping to see a
fay down below.
Far above the trees the fairies fly, into the night sky
All their voices are heard, and many rejoice at hearing a fairy’s voice.
Round the bend they fly, and some hope to apprehend,
In the starry sky they float, and many writers wrote about the fairies and how they were beautiful beyond compare with wild wispy hair,
Even the bards let out a tune, about the fairies seen above the moon,
Soon the winter’s frost is gone, and the fairies leave at dawn, to promise to return when the frost returns and laces the winter ferns.
—Phoenix
She sat outside on the steps of her apartment and looked down at the streets.Some houses had candles on the windowsill at this time; on others there were none, or the candles were snuffed out. Out the window of some of the houses, flowers were hanging: they were blue, silver, and sometimes even pink and yellow. While other windows had paper stars and even rainbow fabric flying out of them.
She wasn’t sure when the fay would come, but she was excited about it anyway.Few have been said to see the fay during this time of the year. Some waited out all the night until sixteen o’clock and never caught glimpse of them. But, she had a hope they would show, surely fay would take an interest in humans, wouldn’t they? For they were said to come every year, she reminded herself, and she had heard that some passers by had seen them, once.
She picked up her match box, and walked down the road singing tunes to herself, looking around, and lighting the matches as she went. Her daily wages she had earned had paid for them. She lit another match as soon as the second had gone out, as she ventured into the dimly lit street. Several carriages passed by her: some of the passengers looked out the window, but only for a moment, until they looked back at the driver and told them to keep going.
She passed store windows. Some stores still looked open, while others looked closed and locked for the holidays. She stood to the side of one of them that appeared to be open, and she opened its green door, closing it once she got inside. She exhaled, glad that she could get some warmth that wasn’t being generated from her match. She walked around the store—elaborate dresses were hung there. Some had feathers sticking out of them, which had an unusual feeling to them, as if they weren’t even normal bird feathers. She eyed it for a moment, and then walked over to an another one, it was long and blue and a lot less elaborate than what the one from the feathers had, but yet intricate patterns were woven into it.
“Do you like it?” came a voice, she turned around, she nodded her head in the spur of the moment. “Well, the reason you might, it was because it was modeled off the dress Ashalena wears.” He nodded his head, he then pointed her in the direction of the feathered dress, “and those feathers? You may be wondering where we got them, well you see, someone gave them to me, and told me that they once were owned by a shapeshifter.” She nodded and looked down at her hands, she hadn’t exactly wanted to go in and look as if she wanted to buy any of the clothes, in truth she didn’t.
“And this.” he said pointing to a pink dress, “was previously owned by a rich noblewoman—“
“I’m sure that’s wonderful!” she stuttered, stepping off to the side.
“Oh, well, do you think you would like to have a dress made to look like any of these? I’m not sure if we could get shapeshifter feathers, but we could try—“
“Thank you, but I am in a rush to go somewhere!” she said, feeling as if she had walked into the wrong shop. She did not have nearly enough money to buy any of these dresses, no matter how beautiful they looked. She smiled, rather falsely “I just came in…to, get out of the cold.” She put her hand on the doorknob and slowly turned it, and walked out into the cold once more. She wrapped her shawl more tightly around herself, she wasn’t sure if that would help in the slightest. She decided that she would walk to the woods in hopes of seeing a fay, even if the forest were swarmed with shapeshifters. She didn’t care as long as she had a chance to see the fay. She walked even more until she had left the city and reached the dark forest, her feet were sore, but she saw that the trees around the forest were tightly growing together and moss was around their roots.
She continued to walk. Even though she had been told many times that fairies were more likely to be seen where humans thrived, she had a sense that they would be in the forest tonight, as she had also been told they had a connection with nature. And it didn’t make sense to her for them to be in the city, even though some had seen them there. Besides not everyone in the city had seen fairies, some had said they caught glimpses of them, and she wasn’t sure if she fully believed all of them. There came a sound of something walking near her, she heard the sound of branches cracking underneath their feet, her first thought was that it couldn’t be a fairy, what she had heard of fairies was that they walked on the air and not the ground. But whatever it was she assumed it was a shapeshifter, shapeshifters were known to roam the woods and were very hostile, very, very hostile she had heard. She looked around, no thought to pray to the god of protection and safety came to mind (though that probably would have been of use). Her only thought was of the dress she had been shown and the feathers. The sparkling feathers that had been sewn into it came to mind, it wasn’t a ridiculous thought though, she knew whoever had got the feathers surely had come across a shifter and survived. Though she wondered how exactly they did that…. She didn’t wonder for much longer, for a figure appeared. They were wearing leaves, and there were a few of them in their short, black hair. But something was different about this figure beyond wearing leaves. Which was highly unusual for her to see, since she lived in the city and no one she knew of walked around wearing them or remarked on leaf-made clothes as “high and wonderful fashion." But the fact that they were not carrying a weapon of any sort brought a small burst of comfort. Even though she looked around for any sign of hostility, there was none.
“…you’re…you’re…not armed!” she muttered out loud expecting the shifter to not understand. The shifter stared at her for a moment and then looked down at their arms and gave a quizzical look, “oh.” she muttered, “you understood…sort of.” The shifter walked over to her, or rather scampered across the ground and stood close to her, surveying her every move and staring at her with their dark green eyes.
“What I meant, is that you aren’t carrying a weapon. You do, however, have arms.” The shifter looked at her, and let out a few sounds she didn’t completely understand. But they reminded her of the sounds wild animals made, and strongly reminded her of the chirping of birds. Then they turned and looked up at the sky as if waiting for something, something to come.
“…I wonder if the fairies will come this way.” she thought to herself, perhaps a little too loudly, the shifter looked over at her, a look came across their face one that seemed to understand the word, but not quite agreeing with it, but now the look was far from quizzical.
“You mean the faylena—“ they said, in a voice that still had a remnant of the bird sounds it had made before.
“You can talk!” she nearly shrieked, she had half expected the shapeshifter to remain talking in an incomprehensible language, and she found herself to be a bit surprised that they could even speak her tongue. It was a guilty feeling surprise like she had lacked the knowledge or thoughtfulness to even believe the creature had intelligence beyond the ones of an animal“in my tongue—“
The shifter sighed, “yes I am able.” they replied, their voice still following the pattern of a bird’s song. “Anyway, you mean the faylena.”
“What is the faylena?” she asked, feeling a little upset that she had been corrected on what they were called, of course they were the fairies, what else would they be?
“They come every year from their land, where nature is ever in bloom, where nothing disturbs the peace.” they replied, the shifter looks up again, “the feylena are kind and just, and know no evil—“
“you mean the fairies.” she replied, feeling like she could end up teaching the shapeshifter what it really was, “they come from a land far away, where no human or shifter can go, but they return at this time of the year to bring peace and joy—“
“…Aren’t we talking about the same people?” asked the shifter, she bit her lip,
“no, we aren’t.” she replied in the single moment. “Yours are obviously some shapeshifter deities that…that,are well…related to nature.”
“What?”
“Yours are shifters of sorts.”
“No, they aren’t. I mean they can be seen in different ways by different onlookers…but they aren’t shapeshifters, or gods, for that matter. They are something in between…they are the Feylena, or the fairies depending upon what you desire to call them.”
The shifter looked over at her,looking down at the ground and then back at her, “and, besides you just said yours are from a land, faraway…“
“it’s probably a different land.” she muttered. “A very human-like creature land.”
“…alright, then.” muttered the shifter, looking up at the sky once more, “they are said to arrive around this time.”
First there was nothing the sky remained the way it was with little hints of light in the sky here and there, but a light a light like no other came across it. The light shone for a few minutes in the sky and then separated into several.They seemed to be darting around, but not for no reason, they seemed to have a cause to fulfill. A goal as they darted around the sky.
“By the gods!” she sighed, looking over at the shifter, who smiled back at her, “it’s really them.”
“Indeed it is.” replied the shifter.
“But…wouldn’t a shifters’ Feylena be different than our fairies?” she asked, “with wings and talons and—“
“Oh stop.” replied the shifter, staring up again at the sky,
waiting to see what one of bright lights did. It stood there for a moment, and thenslowly went down to the trees. And then something changed about it, as it went down, and emerged but in a different less loose form…
“oh, it’s a fairy, it’s a real-life fairy!” she squealed, the shapeshifter merely smiled, “the faylena.” they both looked at each other for a moment, a small laugh escaped each others lips, any anger or disagreement that had gone on between them had slowly, ever so slowly faded away. And they both looked over. What the shapeshifter saw was a beautiful creature with wings made out leaves, and flowers blooming in her hair. What the human girl saw was a woman wearing a flowing green dress, but the hair of the fairy or faylena was of a rainbow hue.It hung about her shoulders and her wings were of bright light. She didn’t just stand there in the radiating light which shown from her body, she walked over to them, or rather floated over them and greeted them with a smile. And placed her hand, her warm hand which seemed to have an unearthly feeling to it in their hands, she looked over at the girl and the shifter surveying them both, “I suppose you are the two I was told to meet—“ she said, her voice had a soft feeling to it, but yet felt like nothing from that world, “the human and the shifter who waited to see us, in this beautiful night.”
“…you knew about us?” asked the girl, “did the gods tell you?” The faylena or fairy looked over at her,
“if they did, I am not allowed to exactly tell.” she smiled,
“But I was told to present these to a shifter and a human who met tonight, despite their underlying differences…” She brought out two golden chains. They both had lockets attached to them which had something inside of them, radiating light like the one they had seen before with the fairies or faylena, “..and met to this very night in hopes to meet us.” She floated over to the shifter and placed the golden chain around their neck, and floated over to the girl and hung it around hers as well. The shifter despite the amazement of the experience, felt they had a need to ask what exactly these beautiful fairy-made or faylena made necklaces did. For they knew that whenever a fairy or faylena was to present a gift to a mortal, be they shifter or human or the gods know what, there was usually an underlying meaning to it. And it wasn’t just there for the beauty of it.
“What exactly do they do?” asked the shifter, the fairy or faylena looked over at them. “They have two uses, one to call us for help when you are in need of it, and two, to sustain and help this friendship which you two have formed…or at least are beginning to form. How exactly it does this, this is up for you to find out, in time you will know. But you must know that this friendship must not end this night, like so many friendships between humans and shifters do, but that it must continue…” The faylena or fairy looked down at the ground as if trying to figure out how to form what to say next. “Even if others want to pull you away from it, don’t let them!” The girl nodded, so did the shifter though the entire meaning to them, wasn’t exactly clear, they knew they had to remain friends though, but they had only gotten a little bit of what was to come, at the moment they felt the current love which surrounded them that night, the night that they met the fairies and the faylena at the same time.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- What winter holidays exist in your Fantasy world(s)? Do they have any religious reasons for happening? (Like did a god or goddess, or prophet (or another supernatural being) cause it?)
Happy holidays to everyone!
-Quinley P.S. An upcoming post (that will probably be posted after the New Year) is one about my progress on my animation project, Pandora's Box. So be sure to keep your eyes open for that.
