Rebelharkness - Randomness

Plot armor but it’s Bruce Wayne’s wealth.

Bruce is one of the richest men in the world. Bruce does not want to be one of the richest men in world.

He starts by implementing high starting salaries and full health care coverages for all levels at Wayne Enterprises. This in vastly improves retention and worker productivity, and WE profits soar. He increases PTO, grants generous parental and family leave, funds diversity initiatives, boosts salaries again. WE is ranked “#1 worker-friendly corporation”, and productively and profits soar again.

Ok, so clearly investing his workers isn’t the profit-destroying doomed strategy his peers claim it is. Bruce is going to keep doing it obviously (his next initiative is to ensure all part-time and contractors get the same benefits and pay as full time employees), but he is going to have to find a different way to dump his money.

But you know what else is supposed to be prohibitively expensive? Green and ethical initiatives. Yes, Bruce can do that. He creates and fund a 10 year plan to covert all Wayne facilities to renewable energy. He overhauls all factories to employ the best environmentally friendly practices and technologies. He cuts contracts with all suppliers that engage in unethical employment practices and pays for other to upgrade their equipment and facilities to meet WE’s new environmental and safety requirements. He spares no expense.

Yeah, Wayne Enterprises is so successful that they spin off an entire new business arm focused on helping other companies convert to environmentally friendly and safe practices like they did in an efficient, cost effective, successful way.

Admittedly, investing in his own company was probably never going to be the best way to get rid of his wealth. He slashes his own salary to a pittance (god knows he has more money than he could possibly know what to do with already) and keeps investing the profits back into the workers, and WE keeps responding with nearly terrifying success.

So WE is a no-go, and Bruce now has numerous angry billionaires on his back because they’ve been claiming all these measures he’s implementing are too expensive to justify for decades and they’re finding it a little hard to keep the wool over everyone’s eyes when Idiot Softheart Bruice Wayne has money spilling out his ears. BUT Bruce can invest in Gotham. That’ll go well, right?

Gotham’s infrastructure is the OSHA anti-Christ and even what little is up to code is constantly getting destroyed by Rogue attacks. Surely THAT will be a money sink.

Except the only non-corrupt employer in Gotham city is….Wayne Enterprises. Or contractors or companies or businesses that somehow, in some way or other, feed back to WE. Paying wholesale for improvement to Gotham’s infrastructure somehow increases WE’s profits.

Bruce funds a full system overhaul of Gotham hospital (it’s not his fault the best administrative system software is WE—he looked), he sets up foundations and trusts for shelters, free clinics, schools, meal plans, day care, literally anything he can think of.

Gotham continues to be a shithole. Bruce Wayne continues to be richer than god against his Batman-ingrained will.

Oh, and Bruice Wayne is no longer viewed as solely a spoiled idiot nepo baby. The public responds by investing in WE and anything else he owns, and stop doing this, please.

Bruce sets up a foundation to pay the college tuition of every Gotham citizen who applies. It’s so successful that within 10 years, donations from previous recipients more than cover incoming need, and Bruce can’t even donate to his own charity.

But by this time, Bruce has children. If he can’t get rid of his wealth, he can at least distribute it, right?

Except Dick Grayson absolutely refuses to receive any of his money, won’t touch his trust fund, and in fact has never been so successful and creative with his hacking skills as he is in dumping the money BACK on Bruce. Jason died and won’t legally resurrect to take his trust fund. Tim has his own inherited wealth, refuses to inherit more, and in fact happily joins forces with Dick to hack accounts and return whatever money he tries to give them. Cass has no concept of monetary wealth and gives him panicked, overwhelmed eyes whenever he so much as implies offering more than $100 at once. Damian is showing worrying signs of following in his precious Richard’s footsteps, and Babs barely allows him to fund tech for the Clocktower. At least Steph lets him pay for her tuition and uses his credit card to buy unholy amounts of Batburger. But that is hardly a drop in the ocean of Bruce’s wealth. And she won’t even accept a trust fund of only one million.

Jason wins for best-worst child though because he currently runs a very lucrative crime empire. And although he pours the vast, vast majority of his profits back into Crime Alley, whenever he gets a little too rich for his tastes, he dumps the money on Bruce. At this point, Bruce almost wishes he was being used for money laundering because then he’s at least not have the money.

So children—generous, kindhearted, stubborn till the day they die the little shits, children—are also out.

Bruce was funding the Justice League. But then finances were leaked, and the public had an outcry over one man holding so much sway over the world’s superheroes (nevermind Bruce is one of those superheroes—but the public can’t know that). So Bruce had to do some fancy PR trickery, concede to a policy of not receiving a majority of funds from one individual, and significantly decrease his contributions because no one could match his donations.

At his wits end, Bruce hires a team of accounts to search through every crinkle and crevice of tax law to find what loopholes or shortcuts can be avoided in order to pay his damn taxes to the MAX.

The results are horrifying. According to the strictest definition of the law, the government owes him money.

Bruce burns the report, buries any evidence as deeply as he can, and organizes a foundation to lobby for FAR higher taxation of the upper class.

All this, and Wayne Enterprises is happily chugging along, churning profit, expanding into new markets, growing in the stock market, and trying to force the credit and proportionate compensation on their increasingly horrified CEO.

Bruce Wayne is one of the richest men in the world. Bruce Wayne will never not be one of the richest men in the world.

But by GOD is he trying.

Does anyone know why Death Note is treading or is it just like people are posting about Death Note more than usual

Character Development: Speech

Finding your character’s voice is one of the most important things you can do to make your character more fully developed. It can often be the thing that sets your character apart and makes the reader easily able to identify them. Creating your character’s voice breathes life into them.

What to think about:

Formal or informal

Can be shown with:

sentence structure/complexity (shorter vs. longer sentences, number of clauses, etc.) 

contractions (e.g. y’all versus you guys, I am vs. I’m)

word choice (simple or advanced; more poetic vs. more practical, blunt vs. subtle)

word order/syntax (can indicate dialect and/or formality)

Things to ask yourself:

- If my character speaks formally/informally, is there a reason?

- Does it indicate their status?

- Or is it a rejection of their status? (e.g. does your highborn character prefer to speak informally because they hate their position in life, or does your lower class character speak more formally to make themselves appear higher class?)

- Is the way they speak normal for their society? In other words, if your character is, say, an alien from a highly formal culture, they won’t think of themselves as speaking abnormally. But if they visit another, less cultured planet, they’ll stick out like a sore thumb.

Catchphrases

When done well, this can be amazing. When done awfully, it makes the reader sigh and roll their eyes in exasperation. So, be careful not to overdo it!

Catchphrases can include:

slang (e.g. wicked, if your character is from Boston, like Faith Lehane from Buffy: the Vampire Slayer)

exclamations/swears (”Hell’s bells!” - Harry Dresden, “Zoinks!” - Shaggy, “Holy ___, Batman!” - Robin at various times)

automatic responses (such as in response to how they are, e.g. “Five by five.” - Faith Lehane, or in response to a question they don’t want to answer, e.g. “Spoilers!” - River Song)

greetings/goodbyes (”Hello, sweetie.” - River Song, “What’s up, Doc?” - Bugs Bunny)

introducing themselves ( “The name’s Bond. James Bond.” - James Bond, “Trust me. I’m the Doctor.” - the Doctor, “Denny Crane,” said repeatedly by Denny Crane)

an explanation/repeat phrase of some other classification (”Dammit, Jim, I’m a doctor, not a ________.” - Bones, “Your mission, should you choose to accept it…” - Mission Impossible, “Live long and prosper.” - Spock, “Same thing we do every night, Pinky! Try to take over the world!” - the Brain)

A lot of times, these catchphrases can become inside jokes, and merely referencing them is enough (think: “It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s Superman!” or “Holy _______, Batman!”).

But sometimes, it can feel a little forced (like Miss Martian’s constant use of “Hello, Megan!” all the time in Young Justice). You want to use these catchphrases sparingly, and when they make sense. While you and I might say “fudge” or another such exclamation any time we trip, the reader does not want to read that twenty times in the same chapter because your character is a klutz. This is the art of writing, not the hyperrealism of writing. You want it to mean something, so use it only when needed.

Things to ask yourself:

- Does this character really need a catchphrase? How will this help establish character?

- Does the catchphrase come from the type of place they live or things they do? For instance, Harry Dresden is a wizard, so when he swears he says, “Hell’s bells,” which reminds us of his job and difference from those around him. This wouldn’t be the same if he simply said, “Dang it,” any time he swore.

- Is there a reason they have a catchphrase? Is it deliberate or unconscious on their part?

- Is there a way you can flip the catchphrase and use it to signal a shift in the story or an unexpected twist (e.g. signifying that somehow your character as switched bodies with another person, like Faith from Buffy: the Vampire Slayer; alternatively, that something isn’t right with the character, because of certain events, and they’re not saying their usual catchphrase)?

Verbal Tics*

Verbal tics are sounds that are not really words, more like filler, that get used almost unconsciously in everyday speech. Words like “ehm,” “uh,” and so on are all verbal tics. (Various internet sites assure me that throat clearing and sniffing can also be included here, but I leave that up to you.) For this section, however, I am also including words, but only those words that are filler. I am also including alterations to the text that represent how someone is speaking.

Now, I know that in any writing guide you read, they want you to NOT, NOT, NOT use regular tics like these in dialogue. It’s annoying, repetitive, annoying, serves no purpose, annoying, and so on. In a sense, they are very much right. Don’t use verbal tics for every character! But using them to distinguish one character (or a couple, in different ways) can work very well if done right.

Verbal tics can be:

words (examples: “You don’t wanna mess with us, see, ‘cause we’re dangerous, see,” or “So, I went to the mall yesterday, and there was this dress, so I bought it, so…” or even “Like, I’m not even sure what Vanessa was, like, wearing at that party last night?”)

filler sounds (e.g. “eh,” “um,” “uh,” “er,” “hrrgh,” “urk,” and so on)

messing with the letters and format of the sentence (e.g. dragging out the letter, making every word separated for a slow speaker, running words together to indicate speed, etc.)

Examples of verbal tics (this is a section in which examples are very helpful, so here you go):

Damian Wayne, the current Robin at DC Comics: uses the distinctive sound “tt” in his appearances to express his emotions, even - tt - other comic series that he guest-stars in

Asmodeus from the Redwall series: drawsss out the letter ssss becaussse he isss a ssssnake

The Flash, at various points in DC Comics: speakswithallthewordstogetherbecausehe’stalkingsofast!!!

Canada, from the Hetalia anime: ending every sentence like a true Canadian, eh?

Things to ask yourself:

- What purpose would a verbal tic have for my character? Do they really need one?

- Is the verbal tic connected to an emotion, or is it involuntary? (Generally, in real life, it is involuntary, but once again, this is art, and so it can have meaning, if you so choose!) What emotion might it be connected to?

- Are they aware of it? Are they embarrassed by it? Do people make fun of them for it?

- Is it part of their dialect/culture?

- Is it a recent thing or have they always done it?

- Where is the balance between making it seem like a realistic tic and annoying my reader with the repetitiveness?

*I am not referring to any medical diagnoses here, although if you want to go right ahead and use medically diagnosed tics for a character, please feel free to! However, this section does not deal with those, as I am not an expert, although I understand there might be some confusion due to the terminology I have used. Please let me know if there is a different term I should be using instead, as I couldn’t find one anywhere. Thanks!

Ways of addressing others

The way that your character addresses other characters says a lot about how they view and respect those around them, in addition to their personality. In addition, if you establish a character addresses others in a certain way (say, by last name only), then when they break this pattern, the reader knows it is important.

Different ways of addressing others:

nicknames (either a shortening of someone’s name, even if it’s not usually shortened, or a name reflecting some characteristic of theirs - e.g. “Jane” to “Janie,” or “Shorty,” or Tony Stark’s brand of nicknames, like “Capsicle” or “Rock of Ages”)

titles (similar to nicknames, but more formal - e.g. a character referring to people by their rank, job, familial relations, etc.)

last name only 

full name only (never shortened, includes first, last, and middle names)

no nicknames (never refers to a character by anything other than what’s printed on their birth certificate, can be combined with others on these lists, especially the previous two)

familial referencing (e.g. Aragorn, son of Arathorn)

insults (ranging from harmless to aggressive, can be combined with the first one on this list, not always swears)

by physical/personal characteristics [epithets]** (e.g. by gender, hair color, eye color, traits - for instance, “boy,” “you, redhead!” or “the only one of you with any spine”)

** This one tends to work best in stories set in older times or in sci-fi/fantasy. Epithets can be insults, but the epithets I am thinking of are more Homeric in nature.

Things to ask yourself:

- Is there a reason behind my character’s decision to address people in this way? Does it indicate a lack of trust? A need to crack jokes?

- What does this say about my character’s background? Is this the normal way to address people where they come from? Is it abnormal to do so in the place they are now?

- Does my character evolve from speaking this way? Do they start speaking in a different way, either deliberately or unconsciously? Why?

Accents

Accents are tricky. There are several different ways to write accents (I’m currently working on a post that explains them further), but basically no matter how you write an accent, there are a few things you can do to portray the accent.

slang (e.g. barbie = barbecue in Australian slang)

word order/syntax (e.g. “I’m after going to Mary’s” = “I just went down to Mary’s” in Hiberno-English)

contractions (I’ve versus I have, or y’all versus ye vs youse vs you and so on)

idioms (words or phrases that do not have equivalents in other dialects/languages/places)

diction (words meaning different things, like “chips” in American English and in British English)

verbs (e.g. “ain’t,” “be,” “runnin,” or mixing up tenses)

Keep in mind:

- be RESPECTFUL of whatever accent you’re trying to portray, especially if it’s not your accent

- don’t overdo the accent because it might end up sounding stereotypical (and that is not respectful - see above)

- you should get a feel for the accent you’re trying to write. Listen to the music, read something in that accent, watch/listen people talk in the accent until you hear the rhythm and way people with that accent talk. 

Things to ask yourself:

- Is the way I am portraying this accent as accurate as it is within my power to make it? (In other words, have I done my research?)

- How does my character feel about their accent? Are they in a place where their accent is normal? Are they in a place where they stand out because of their accent?

- Continuing on that thought, how noticeable is their accent? Is it the equivalent of someone from, say, Boston going somewhere else in Massachusetts, or the equivalent of that person from Boston going to California, or the equivalent of that same person going to London? Each one becomes more and more noticeable the farther the person goes from their home.

- Has my character made an attempt to hide their accent? Deliberately intensify it? Or do they just not care?

- Does it get stronger or weaker based on their emotional state?

Emotion

The emotions your character normally expresses when they’re speaking say a lot about their general emotional state. In addition, if there is a change in their emotional state, readers will be able to know that just from the way they talk (though context and body language are always useful!)

You can show emotion in speech through:

speed (if they’re easily excited, they might talk fast! and with a lot of exclamation points! But if they’re sad a lot…well, they might talk a bit more slowly and take their time…kind of like Eeyore.)

word choice (is it generally positive? negative? Or somewhere in between?)

reactions to other characters’ dialogue (are they generally patient and wait for the other person to finish? Or do they jump in because they’re so excited about something the other person has said?)

volume (are they loud? Quiet? Are they normally quiet but get loud when they’re angry? Or vice versa?)

understandability (not necessarily stuttering or stumbling over words, but can be; are their procession of thoughts/logic easy to understand? Is their conclusion sensible? Are they understanding others easily or do they need clarification? For instance, if your character is easily excited, maybe their dialogue comes in a jumble of words that is hard to understand. Maybe they’re so angry they’re not listening to anything the other person is saying, and their dialogue reflects that.)

punctuation/capitalization (are they unsure of themselves and what they’re saying a lot, so they use a lot of question marks like this? Are they aggressive in their emotions and so THEY SHOUT LIKE THIS!!! Are they…kind of thoughtful and take the time to…express themselves correctly…or are they - well - I mean are they - like - the kind of people who - you know, backtrack and correct themselves a lot?)***

***Again, you want to be careful not to overdo this, as it can get annoying AND lose the effect it has on the reader. If one of your characters SHOUTS. EVERYTHING. THEY. SAY. THEN WHEN SOMETHING REALLY IMPORTANT HAPPENS TO THE CHARACTER AND THEY GET VERY EMOTIONAL AND SHOUT, IT’S LOST A TON OF EMOTIONAL IMPACT ON THE READER. Like the end of that sentence. Did it make a big impact on you? It should - it was the entire point of the sentence. But it was lost amidst all of the other capitalized words. The same thing goes for any type of repeated punctuation/capitalization for a character - you want to make sure it counts.

Things to ask yourself:

- Why does my character express this emotion generally? 

- What does it say about their outlook on life?

- What does that say about how they view other people?

- Does their dialogue rely on these techniques too much when trying to show their emotions? How can I combine these with their body language?

Focus/Fixations

This is a pretty simple one. Focus can be organization of thoughts - basically, what idea(s) can they or want to focus on. A character that is very focused might be a practical person who is focused on the here and now, and their plans for whatever situation they’re in. A character that is less focused might be someone who thinks of several things at once, which reflects in their dialogue. 

Fixations are the things that their minds keep coming back to. So for example, if a character is worried about how they did on a test, throughout the story their dialogue might keep returning to that subject or referencing it. For instance: “Hey, when do you think we’re getting that test back?” or “Wow, this is pretty hard. Almost as hard as that test we took.” You want to make it less obvious than this, of course! (A good example is Anya from Buffy: the Vampire Slayer and her obsession with making money.)

Ways to show focus/fixation:

number of ideas/topics in their dialogue at a time

relevance of topics to the present

relevance of topics to the past/future

how they react to people who do not share their focus/fixation (e.g. a focused person finds it annoying when a person who is not focused keeps interrupting them, or a person who is less focused finds it annoying that a person who is focused is paying too much attention to one thing) 

Things to ask yourself:

- How focused are they when talking?

- Do they think of a million things at once, or just one at a time? 

- What are some short-term fixations they might have? Some long-term?

- Why might they be focused/not focused? Why might they have these fixations? What do these fixations say about their character?

- Do the focus/fixations change over time? How? Why? Does it reflect a change in their character?

- Am I making my character too focused/fixated on something? Is it detracting from or adding to the story or the character arc?

How others see them vs. how they see themselves

This one is probably the broadest one on the list. There aren’t specific things you can do to get this across (it’s more of a general thing), but it’s a cycle that you should keep in mind.

Your character sees themselves in a certain way. For instance, they might think of themselves as helpful, or kind. 

The way that they see themselves can influence why they do things (e.g. if they see themselves as a person who doesn’t go on adventures, like Bilbo Baggins, they will refuse to go on an adventure.)

The actions that they take influences how other characters see them, but the other characters do not necessarily see your character’s perception of themselves (e.g. in the Hobbit, Bilbo sees himself as helpful and averting war by giving the Arkenstone to the Elves. He thinks he is being a good friend. However, Thorin sees it as a betrayal and thinks Bilbo is disloyal and not a good friend. Both of them at the time of their actions think they are right.)

How other characters see your character influences how they treat your character (e.g. Because Thorin thinks Bilbo has betrayed him, he threatens Bilbo and rejects him as a friend. Bilbo escapes with his life, but only through the help of the other dwarves. Again, to each character, their own actions are justified and so their dialogue reflects their belief that they are right. So, when they talk to each other, both of them think that they are right and the other is wrong, and you can see this in their dialogue.)

How they treat your character influences how your character sees and reacts to these people, and can influence your character’s perception of themselves (e.g. Because Thorin rejected Bilbo and called him a traitor, Bilbo is bewildered and believes for a time that Thorin cannot be saved, and he feels like he failed).

The cycle continues.

All of this is reflected in their dialogue to each other.

Knowing how each of your characters see each other and themselves will influence their dialogue and reactions to each other. Characters can misunderstand each other, underestimate someone, or help someone feel better about themselves, just to name a few things. 

Things to ask yourself:

- How does my character see themselves? Why? Are they one hundred percent correct?

- How do other characters see my character? Why? Are they one hundred percent correct?

- Does my character have any idea of other people’s perceptions of them? If so, do they care? Is my character correct about what they think other people think about them?

- Will my character’s perspective of themselves/other people change? Why and how? Will other characters’ perspectives of my characters change? Why and how?

- How do all these reactions to each other influence the story?

Hope this helped! Let me know if there are any questions.

- Riona

The Amina Universe Overview (Part 1)

Hello Rebel here,

So I haven't been active much lately but I'm back now! This time I wanted to talk about an original idea that was really important to me. And that is the Anima Universe.

The Anima Universe is a project I have been working on for a very long time, since I first started writing in fact, and is a multiple series of novels that take place in the same universe. Kind of like the MCU which is why I jokingly call it my BCU (Book Cinematic Universe).

There are eight stories within the project, each with its own themes, characters, and settings. There are many things that connect them timeline-wise and each one affects the other but they still stand on their own. The stories are spilt across two general settings; Earth and a magical planet called Majjia. Plus one that takes place in the wider universe and has a sci-fi feel to it.

Below We'll go over one of the stories and it's characters.

The Magical Core

The Magical Core is the very first original story I ever created. I remember creating the concept for the main Character Celestia on my great-grandmother's porch years ago. I still have the picture I drew of her.

The story of the Magical Core involves a group of four girls; Celestia Nightmare, Zerenity Silver-Moon, and Roxxanne November as they travel through the world of Majjia in search of a woman who is extremely important to them, Saturn Stars. The book is planned to have 14 chapters and takes place over a few weeks. I have an outline for the entire book and have so, so many versions of almost each chapter. It just needs refinement before I feel comfortable publishing it. (BTW The book also changes POVs between certain characters)

Let's go over the protag of the story! (I'll do other characters at a later date I was going to do them all here but the post was getting long)

Celestia Nightmare

Celestia Nightmare is the protagonist of The Magical Core and is the character whose POV we see the most. She's the only daughter of Sally and Jack Nightmare, prominent figures on the planet of Majjia. Celestia comes from a very wealthy well-known noble family known as House Nightmare. Members of House Nightmare have been in so many history books. Like so many guys.

Celestia is an elf and one of the features of that species is the fact that their last names and magic are interconnected. If you have a last name like Earth you have an easier time using Earth magic. Celestia's last name is Nightmare which means she has the ability of fear magic. Fear Magic is a subtype of Empathy Magic, a type of magic that allows people to feel other people's emotions with the downside that they can never turn it off. Once they turn it on it can never be turned off.

Those who have fear magic can see a person's greatest fear and have severe nightmares that feel very, very, real. Most of the time those nightmares aren’t even theirs but someone else's.

Celestia's parents died tragically when she was nine. They were murdered by a group called the Knights of Blood, agents of the evil High Queen Blood Spill, during an event known as the Rosewood Massarce. (The entire town of Rosewood, where Celestia's family lived at the time, was burned to the ground, hence the name.) After her parents' death, Celestia was taken in by a family friend, Saturn Stars.

Celestia has long sunset-colored hair like this. The reason she has this hair color was because younger me poeticly described red hair as sunset and then I really thought about it and decided this look was cooler.

Celestia has complete heterochromia, her left eye is a gentle forest green while the right one is a sharp electric blue, both glow eerily in the dark. I have a narrative reason for this but the irl reason is that I couldn't decide whether or not to give her blue or green eyes and so I gave her both.

Celestia's style of clothing is very casual which matches her personality. She's seen more in ripper jeans or pants with at least a dozen pockets than a skirt. Her outfits are very celestial-themed and she's never seen without her vambraces—silver with a wolf engraving that once belonged to her father and gold with a phoenix engraving from her mother.

Celestia wields a jian sword known as Præstans Tantibus which once belonged to her mother. The sword features a midnight purple and black handle, with the Nightmare family crest delicately engraved into the pommel. The blade itself is adorned with the phrase "Lux lunae me ducet ubi sol non apparet." which translates to "The light of the moon will guide me when there is no sun in sight." and embedded symbols related to the sun god Rad.

Here's that symbol btw (Created by yours truly)

Celestia is such an interesting character and like I mentioned earlier was created on my Great-Grandmother's porch. Her name originates from Princess Celestia and Nightmare Moon from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. This origin is the reason she's so sun and moon-coded. I call her an eclipse and based her character arc on the day and night cycle.

When she was a kid she was daylight, bright and cheerful but when her parents died it turned her into sunset. The girl she was died with them and thus the sun set on Celestia of the past and created Celestia of the present making her twilight current. The sun has set but the moon has yet to rise, she's an empty sky slowly getting darker and darker.

Celestia is intelligent but also reckless and impulsive. She can be short-tempered, lashing out when things get too overwhelming. She's chaotic and things that make sense to her don't always make sense to other people. She's energetic, loud, and independent with an extremely active imagination. Celestia is loyal, adaptable, bold, and passionate.

She leads with her heart and is kind, empathic, and idealistic. Celestia is an extremely moral person and believes in doing the right thing no matter what. She's a bit of a mess because of the Rosewood Massacre PTSD and survivor's guilt are things she has. Celestia often feels like a ghost possessing her own body and while she can literally feel other people's emotions is detached from her own. She feels so much it's hard to determine what her and what's someone else. Celestia struggles to identify her own desires, wants, and goals, making her somewhat aimless.

The main themes of the book are life, death, and rebirth but not in the literal sense. A quote that has always stuck with me is this one.

"a dancer dies twice — once when they stop dancing, and this first death is the more painful.”

Which begs the question. Can you be reborn after an event that killed you? If there are two types of deaths there must also be two types of life. A literal one and a metaphorical one. This is why rebirth is a common theme. Each character has lost something important to them and must find a way to be without it and metaphorically be reborn.

Celestia, and each of the other main characters, represent rebirth within the story and each of them has death and life characters that represent a path they could have or could go down. The life character is who they could have or would have been had they not gone through their metaphorical death. Life characters are an ideal or a standard they can no longer live up to. While death characters are what would happen if they stay dead. What would happen if they let the pain control them. Rebirth is therefore them taking control of their lives as it is now and choosing to be better than both the life and death characters. Blazing a new path forward to create something that has never been seen before.

Celestia's life character is her mother, Sally Nightmare. Sally wasn't a cheerful person like you would expect from a character who represents life and has a sun motif. She was bright and mesmerizing. A fiery spirit who was charismatic, kind, wise, and hopeful. The ideal warrior and person in Celestia's mind who died protecting those she cared for. Sally is everything Celestia wanted to be and maybe would been if the Rosewood Massacre hadn't happened.

Celestia's death character is the villain of the series High Queen Blood Spill, ruler of the 13 United Kingdoms of Majjia. People talk about the High Queen in hush whispers and dare not speak her name using only epithets and titles like she's some sort of death god. Which is a way she is. The High Queen is strife and discord. Pain and torture. She's introduced sitting on a throne made of bone in a throne room covered in blood with people chained to the wall in various states of harm. Some are nothing more than decomposing corpses and others might as well be as they wait for death to claim them.

The High Queen is a bitter woman lashing out at the world for what it has done to her. She is who Celestia could become if she lets the grief of losing her parents consume her.

The life character is dead and the death character is alive but both haunt the narrative.

(For those who were curious here is the drawing I made of Celestia when I first created her like a decade ago)

bangladeshi hatsune miku 🇧🇩