It was fun reading everyone's answers and coming up with a character based on them. It caused me to end up with a character, who is different from my other characters.
The Video
Here's the video of the finished character, showing how I ended up coming up with her from your responses. It took me some brainstorming to figure out how your ideas should come together to create a cohesive character, but I like how the end result turned out.
🎸Find out more about Denisse Grigory🎸
Denisse Griggory is a rock-star touring with her band in an urban fantasy world. She has the ability to shape shift and often shape shifts into a wolf. Besides that, she has nature healing spells that she can play on her guitar. She mainly uses her electric guitar to perform magic, while the shapeshifting was a power she got at birth. Her parents were trying to make her stand out when they had her, so they decided to name her Denice with a double s, instead of a c. (And also she views them as being weird for naming her that, but despite that she has never changed her name and wonders if her parents were obsessed with snakes).
She wants to be known for her work and for her band to dominate the (music) world. While she isn't religious (instead she is more spiritual), she would like to be enlightened spiritually, as she views her magic and her music as beneficial to her spiritual journey. She lost her parents (they vanished mysteriously), so her immediate goal is to reunite with them.
Denisse is someone you don't want to cross: while she is a healer for her band mates, she is intimidating to those who aren't. She also has a dark sense of humor, which is well received by her band mates, but not by everyone, and she sometimes worries she will lose a friend over it.
However, the stability of her band-life doesn't last, because one of her bandmates gets murdered-- and it appears that not everything is what it seems, for everyone could be lying.
(Denisse in wolf form).
🎶 Playlist 🎶
While not all the songs in this playlist ended up being the character's theme song, I thought I would compile all the songs that people suggested into a playlist.
If you don't have a Spotify here is the Youtube version, which you can listen to here.
Anyway, this was fun! Thank you to everyone who participated in this. It was awesome seeing how the answers came together to create a character.
I have been working on songwriting for a while, but never had any songs to share. Now I finally do. (I wouldn't say either of these songs are at the point where I would make a music video of them or post them on my youtube channel, but I feel comfortable with sharing them on my blog and BandLab).
This song is somewhat connected to All is Not Lost For All Will Begin Again, because it is about a shapeshifter, but no exact character from the story or world. For this song I was given the prompt of "Fantasy/things are not as they seem" and went ahead to write a song about a shapeshifter. There are still some things I want to change about it here and there (hence why I will post a second version in the future).
This song firstly was inspired by a painting called Adieu by John William Waterhouse,
and when putting it to music was inspired by "Arms of the Ocean" by BlackBriar, and "Jolly Sailor Bold" in particular Ginny Di's and Ashley Serena's covers. I decided I didn't want a background track but wanted something in the background. I included the sound of waves and thunder, so that you felt like you were there at the ocean.
I thought it would be fun to do some redraws of my really old drawings, which were actually in paper doll form instead of in a sketch book. I thought it would be a neat project to tackle. I noticed that most of the paper dolls were characters I made (though I can't remember their names). Which is interesting given that I may now have a whole bunch of new characters to use in my drawings, animations, character interviews, short films, and novels. Most of the characters who I am going to redraw are probably going to be girls, due to the fact that I didn't draw boys until very recently. Back then if I did draw boys they were usually bearded or had a mustache. I was very young and I guess it was my only way to show that a character was in fact a boy, and not a girl. :)
Let's begin:
The first drawing, I want to redraw is a green fairy character. I assume the character was either another character who was turned into something by means of magic (there is tons of shapeshifting in my stories old and new) or a villain in the stories. Her appearance is unusual, so I am very unsure which of the two it is. But I thought it might be interesting to turn her into a character that always was this way, or perhaps has some cool shapeshifting ability or something that comes from the species of fairy she is. (Perhaps with her having the shapeshifter ability, but not the villain part).
(Image from wikia, https://goodomens.fandom.com/wiki/Crowley
(warning: if you decide to put the link into your search-bar, I should warn younger readers, that there is swearing in the show so there will be quotes from the show with swearing in them in the article. I just wanted to warn you)).
So when I looked back at the character, herself, her eyes reminded me strongly of Crowley's eyes from Good Omens, especially since her eyes were not fully yellow and had had white around them, even though I highly doubt that this character is a snake demon with a love for the band Queen. (But who knows, she might actually have a little Crowley in her).
(Image from wikia, https://darkcrystal.fandom.com/wiki/Deet?file=The_dark_crystal_2018_deet_via_netflix.jpg)
And her skin color and ears and everything reminded me strongly of Deet from the Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance, sincethey seemed to have a similar design.
So next after thinking that she looked like a mix of Crowley and Deet, I began redrawing her, and adding in details that weren't there before in the original while keeping the essence of the original.
Here is the uncolored version:
Unlike the original, I decided to give her leaf wings as it seemed to fit with her personality.
Here is the colored version:
I have yet to come up with a name that suits her, but we will see what happens as I develop her more.
The next drawing is of a prince, who can turn into a peacock at will. (Or maybe it's not in his control...I can't remember which).
Since, he had facial hair to show he was a boy, and since I know how to draw boys now, I thought I would give him more of a slick-back look and have a little perhaps of hair jelled hair (as he would care about his appearance, like the children's book version of peacocks do).
I took my new ideas for this and put it into the redraw. Here is the uncolored version:
Here is the colored version:
The whole idea where peacock feathers made eyes all over his shirt was actually taken from Greek Mythology, as Argus had eyes all over his body. And since Argus seems to suit this character now, I am going to call him Prince Argus. (Who turns into a peacock, ironically). Speaking of that, I decided to redraw his peacock side...
The reason why the feathers are so colorful in comparison to a normal peacock is because when I was younger, I grabbed a whole bunch of markers to draw the feathers. However in terms of characterization he says it is because he isn't a "common peacock" and that it makes it easier for servants to find him amongst the "common peacocks." (He will probably hate me saying this but if your ruler has a personality of a peacock and rules the kingdom in a vain way, there is likely to be a revolution. Once he is overthrown, since every ruler seems to have a shapeshifting ability, the new president will have one too. The question is what animal they would turn into? )
(President Athena in human form)
To answer my own question I made a character that wasn't a redraw. This character (whose name is President Athena) is the one who takes the place of Prince Argus. Since there are a whole series of princes and princesses who can shape-shift into animals (and whose outer appearance suggests the animal they shift to), I think it would be neat for there to be a president who can do that. She can shape-shift into an owl. The reason I chose to do an owl as the form she shifts into, is that (even though this a stereotype of animals) the owl is wise and the peacock is vain. And because of this, I wanted the animals to show the true natures of their characters. Also, an owl is less colorful, while a peacock is more colorful. With the color differences I was trying to show that Argus is more in it for himself while Athena is in it for the people, therefore wears more reserved colors.
(Athena in owl form)
For her animal form unlike Argus's flamboyant feathers and such, she has her eyes to show that she is human. Owls don't have green eyes, so you can tell that she isn't a normal owl.
But back to redrawing...
Here is another fairy. This one unlike the last is not green, but is wearing a really vibrant pink:
I began redrawing the paper doll. This is
the uncolored version:
This is the colored version:
I gave her ripped pants and blue lipstick. I don't really think that the ripped pants were in the original sketch, but this is how it turned out. But I wanted to make sure that there was still a hint of blue in her costume.
This one is another two-sided paper doll:
I am not entirely sure what her character background is. She was probably a princess of some sort. (Though unlike the others she doesn't appear to be able to shape-shift).
So, I began redrawing the first one and catching the details of her patchwork dress and everything:
She even appeared to have a snow white like collar, but it didn't really fit into the redraw.
This was really fun to redraw, because I had a lot to work with.
Once I finished sketching it out, I colored it in:
Since there seemed to be a little orange mixed in the middle with the blue top, I figured I'd add it in somehow. I also added in some details that weren't there in the original (the dots in the middle of the dots on her dress and the dots on her hat).
Then I began redrawing the flip side. It was much more rainy on the flip-side, perhaps to show her change of mood. She also had a change of outfit which appeared to be a raincoat. Her outfit was less detailed on the flip-side, but I decided I would add in some details anyway.
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.
