7 January 2023

Continuing from the last Majesty post. Figured out a lot more of the current dynamic between Charles and Elliot with this. Ironically, even though he spends all his time talking about Charles, I learned more about Elliott here; it helped me finally get a pin on his character. Which made some of the earlier bits a little painful to reread, honestly, since he’s a bit over the top with the “noble privilege” in those.

“...anyway? Isn’t he some commoner trash, according to you noble folks?”

“Don’t call him trash.” The princeling glared at Arylwen, then stared back into the sea. “Why do you care?”

Arylwen shrugged and sat on the railing. “Just curious. Everyone seems to see something special in him. Even you.”

For a long time, the princeling didn’t respond. “Charles has this…core to him that no one else has. He’s honest–stupidly so, sometimes–and in a world of nobles scheming for power or asking for favors… well.” He smiled grimly and shook his head.

“So, how’d it start? When’d you meet?”

Elliott chuckled. “Well, he already spent most of the time in the castle, since his mother was one of the royal bodyguards. At first, he mostly played with the other kids in the castle, but one day he randomly noticed that I spent my time alone in the library.”

“Ah. More of that brooding.”

He shot Arylwen a glare, but continued. “Whatever the reason, he decided–on his own, I might add, whatever I thought–that I needed friends. At first, he tried to drag me out to play with the other children, but, well.” He grimaced. “After that, he parked himself next to me in the library. Sometimes he’d try to talk to me, but more often than not I’d ignore him. So he’d grab books and try to read. Honestly, it was exasperating how much he couldn’t understand, but…” For the first time, the princeling actually smiled for real. Arylwen felt a hint of a blush on her cheeks.

29 December 2022

I was dead tired, and had no idea what I should write. So I decided to brainstorm, because I wanted a clearer image of who the guy in Elsenaia’s story is. A lot of it was based on me, but not everything, and I want him to be clearly distinct from me. Hence the brainstorming below.

I also decided that along with Majesty, this story will be one of the two I focus on this month, like Hanako and the Orphan of Hamelin last month. We’ll see if this system works or not…

What do I know about the POV character in Elsenaia’s story? (I consider Elsenaia the protagonist, hence the distinction.) Unlike me, he’s outdoorsy, since he was out hiking in the woods with his friends when they ran across the elvish scouting party. He also actually has friends… Who are they? Probably one couple, maybe two, and a few other guys.

We are similar in that both he and I are authors, and for the sake of my own sanity we will even be working on the same stories. Karthos/Death has already shown up… I could have appearances from Maleficent, Hanako, and some of my other recurring characters, as well.

What’s his name, this guy? Kevin? Nick? Nicholas? I’m thinking something that results in “Nick”.

What are his goals? Getting published, sure. Is he already an established author? What would that mean if he was? If he is, what led him out in these woods? Is he looking for specific inspiration? Doing research for a different story he’s working on I don’t have yet, maybe about witches? Just a vacation after a hard-earned success? Both the latter options sound fun. 

I could also have him be with siblings or other family scouting out some backwoodsy area to prepare to build a house. Homesteading, that kind of thing. It does still happen. Maybe Missouri, Arkansas, or Illinois? Does kind of detract from some of my future plans for him and Elsie, though.

26 September 2022

This one is pretty self explanatory; rather that write prose, I took the hour to brainstorm what Elsenaia’s past might have been like. Most of the time I do this sort of thing in the 10-15minute prep time before I write, but this seemed big and complicated enough I went ahead and took the whole block, and used it for my writing for the day.

This is pretty much just backstory ramblings, so quality and coherency may not be super high.

Elsenaia was a lot happier as a child. She and Tairsi were thick as thieves, and Tairsi would drag the princess all over the place for little “adventures”. Nothing too serious; they never left the palace, and they never caused any real trouble. That would be rude to the servants.

However, it was considered unseemly for Elsenaia to express her emotions so strongly, and to be running around like that in general. So they were separated. The king found a prestigious promotion for Tairsi’s parents out near the borders of the kingdom, and it would be years before they saw each other again. By that point, both had changed.

What made it worse was the last day before they parted. Tairsi ad been heavily scolded by her parents, and so when she went to say goodbye, she told Elsenaia, “I guess we can’t be friends anymore.”

“What!? Why?” Little Elsenaia had tears in her eyes.

Tairsi wouldn’t meet her gaze. “Princesses aren’t supposed to have friends.”

For a long time, Elsenaia didn’t move. Then her tears overflowed, and she ran. Even she’s not sure if she’s ever truly smiled after that.

Tairsi, for her part, was literally parroting what her parents told her word for word. By the time she realized how much that must have hurt the princess several years later, it was too late. The damage had been done, and she had no way to apologize.

There is now an awkward dichotomy, where the only thing Tairsi could think of to do was serve Elsenaia whole-heartedly to make up for her mistake. However, on the contrary, every bow, every term of respect, every servile action only drove it home to Elsenaia that Tairsi is not her friend; she is her servant. And Elsenaia felt more and more isolated.

After Tairsi was sent away, Elsenaia was forced to spend all her time studying. The angry guard from before was actually one of her tutors; swordplay, specifically. She didn’t particularly enjoy or pursue it, but she’s passable with a blade, which is more than can be said of me.

Her truest passion was magic. I think it was a form of escapism; leave behind all her duties and responsibilities to focus on breaking the very rules of the universe.

As for as her family, her parents are both alive, and they see each other often enough, but there’s also a certain distance between them as well. Like the king (or whatever his title actually is) must keep that royal persona on at all times, even with family. I suspect her mother just follows along with whatever her husband says; someone with little to no will of their own to exert, even if they wanted to.

As for siblings… Elsenaia is certainly the eldest. She has at least one younger brother, I think? How much of this is patterned after the Schnee family? …Nah. Anyway, the next eldest is a brother, who is jealous of Elsenaia’s status, and the youngest are a pair of twin sisters. I’m still deciding if they’re malicious pranksters or something else at the moment.

Each has a day of the week they are assigned to “listen to the voice of the people”, though each of the twins’ days are cut to noon, and they always have one of their parents around to supervise due to their age. Elsenaia finds it very boring; she is, unfortunately, very good at it, and tends to draw bigger crowds than even the king. No telling how he feels about that; could provide an escape opportunity for Elsenaia if he turns out to be jealous.

Unless… I her brother’s actually older than her, and Elsenaia’s the one that “never measures up” in their parents’ eyes, always choking at the last minute, that could be an interesting dynamic, as well. I’ll have to think about that.

Yeah, I like that image; where she was the baby of the bunch, and the twins would always tease or prank her, perhaps because they were jealous of how happy she was roaming around with Tairsi. Then the incident with Tairsi leaving happened, and Elsenaia became way too serious, and the twins were filled with guilt.

When it comes to stories… The sheer shock she had in the last scene doesn’t make sense, I don’t think. Elves have stories, whether real, fictional, or legendary; it’s just a question of which ones Elsenaia was exposed to. And given the general attitude her parents/father had about Tairsi, I think it’s safe to say that her media intake was heavily censored. If it didn’t teach her something (and that something was both specific and approved by the king), it didn’t get anywhere near her.

Which does leave the question, wouldn’t some of the petitions on her public day be about requests to read or watch some of their artwork?

It also makes me curious what she does, exactly, the other six days of the week. I’m sure she’s kept busy, but doing what? Diplomatic meetings? I’m sure that’s part of it bu certainly not all of it. Flower garden tea parties? I’m sure she hates those. Leah Aragaki from Out of Touch might be decent inspiration for her personality; it would explain why she can’t trust anyone without reading their mind.

Does she paint? That might be the one “personal” thing she’s been allowed. Of course, it would still be heavily regimented; what kind of princess gets paint in her hair, for example? This would change on earth, though.

Yeah, I kinda hate her father the more this goes on. That kind of makes it fun, though. Does Elsie get banished, and that’s what lets her cut loose? Or is he an ever-present threat, always looming in the back of her and the MC’s minds, wondering when the other shoe is going to drop?

How big is her country? Initially I thought it would have to be quite small, but if it takes place on a whole different world, it could be quite the empire. Which would explain all of the diplomatic meetings. What kind of communication technology/magics do they have there? Whatever it is, what I’ve seen makes me think the king would make heavy use of propaganda. 

Ooh, what if his kingdom is small and failing, and that’s given him a chip on his shoulder? All his people know it, but he has that royal pride, and so has refused to let his children see it. The others have likely figured it out to one degree or another, but not Elsenaia. It’s a fun idea, but it doesn’t quite fit.

Also, what sparked their invasion? Did the portal reawaken suddenly, and they sent a party through to head off any potential threat? I like that idea. The question, then, is what is Elsenaia doing on this trip? There are two main possibilities, which are very much NOT mutually exclusive. Either she finagled herself onto the trip so she could actually see the world, or else her older brother arranged it in hopes of eliminating her.

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