Character Designs & Reference Sheets

Welcome Home (Who Are You?)

Reinier yawned, wandering down the hall. Blinking blearily, he descended the stairs & headed towards the kitchen. Fumbling through the cabinets, he eventually figured out where the cups were. He filled his cup with cool water after fiddling with the sink for a moment & headed back towards the stairs. As he walked, he scanned the walls. Someone had already put up some of the photos & art. Some he recognized — even in the low glow of the night lights — others he didn’t.

There were the photos of him & Dáithí at his graduation from Starward Academy; one for when he got his SS Pilot’s License, and another for his Level 1 ISS Pilot’s License. Nearby, there was a photo of Dáithí & Lydia at Dáithí’s graduation from the same college for the same licenses, and a photo of the two at Lydia’s graduation from Ravenwood College, where she got her bachelor’s degree. Siona had apparently dug out villea photo of vil & Kalian when wist got wisters GEPE, too.

A bit further down the hall, there were photos of various birthdays, from the smaller ones — like Kal’s twenty-ninth, where they had found out just that morning that it was wisters birthday & had very little time to plan — to the big ones — like Estrella’s forty-first, which they had celebrated with her family.

There were a few paintings too; everything from Reinier’s poor attempts to paint to ones commissioned or bought from people who knew what they were doing — Reinier could write great poetry, but he sucked at most other forms of art. There were a couple paintings of cats he & Talia had done at a painting & wine night — his tux looked like a black blob with white splotches, while Talia’s orange tabby managed to look vaguely cat shaped. Another depicted a deserted city street, the buildings decorated for some kind of festival; they had gotten it from an auction raising money for repairs after parts of Kathe on Vuchilia were destroyed in the war. There was a portrait of Soren & Talia the two had commissioned shortly after their second year together.

Reinier stopped in front of a portrait of Kal & someone he didn’t know. It must’ve been something Kal brought with wister after leaving… wherever wist had been. Reinier tried to shove down the simmering resentment & disappointment as he studied the painting. The artist had perfectly captured the odd, nivialin smile he had only gotten used to seeing on Siona. Wisters vibrant violet eyes shone with mirth as wist stared unabashedly at the other person in the painting. He didn’t recognize what species they were — not that he had all one hundred & forty-five in the union memorized. They had a pale hand, with clawed fingers and black scales dotted across the back of their hand & forearm, wrapped loosely around Kal’s waist. Their straight, black hair was neatly styled, even with their large, curved horns & long ears in the way. Their bright green- no, bright pink eyes (or was it both) seemed to shift the longer he stared. Shaking his head — as if that would set his brain to rights — he turned & continued on his way back to his room. He was too tired for this.

Blade & Foley Circus

Tommy eventually made his way down to where he was supposed to be. He ran his hands over his costume, adjusting the garnet colored half-skirt until he was happy with it and double checking that all the pins were in place. He stepped into place beside Purpled, and glanced over at where Punz was in iro starting position, tapping a rambling pattern on the hilt of iro sword.

When the lights around the ring went dark, he followed close behind Purpled as they made their way towards the center of the ring. He waited for Purpled to grab hold of the two long strips of fabric hanging from the ceiling and start climbing; wrapping & unwrapping both strips of fabric from around nyr lower legs & feet as nae pulled nymself up higher & higher. Once nae was out of the way, he grabbed the Cyr wheel that had been laid beneath the silks, rolling it a few feet off to the side. He maneuvered it so he was standing in the center of the wheel, holding one side up with his right hand while the other lay on the ground, the entire wheel at an angle.

As the lights turned on — low but slowly brightening — he raised the side he was holding and spun the wheel around himself. With his right hand now above his head, he walked the wheel forward a few steps as it spun. One, two, three, four more rotations and he let go, rolling it off his forearm and watching as thirty pounds of aluminum & steel spun almost lazily, twirling over & over as it circled back ground to him. Analyzing how it rotated, he took a small step back so he’d be in the right position and, when it came close to where he had sent it off on it’s path, he sprung into a back handspring, leaping through the wheel as it twisted around him.

The cheers of the crowd barely registered in the back of his mind as he stepped forward and sent the wheel on another twirling arc around him. When it reached him the second time, he carefully grabbed it with both hands, placed one foot on the part of the wheel that had been closest to the ground when it spun near him, and started on his grand waltz around the ring.

He orbited where Purpled was performing on the aerial silks in the center. Every so often, when he could let one hand go for a moment, he’d motion up towards nae, like he was reaching for nym. He’d stretch his body up & out too when he could, exaggerating the movement for the crowd, like every part of him wanted to be closer to the other boy, but couldn’t as he eventually twisted to keep himself & the wheel upright and moving. Purpled did the same, movements slow but flourished, reaching down towards Tommy even as nae kept nymself up in the air, tangled in silk.

He smiled for just a second when he caught Purpled’s eye, before turning his expression back to something forlorn & longing. He knew this routine well; he’d seen recordings of it, heard folk rave & ramble about it, accepted praise & awards for the artistry & acting. He knew they looked amazing.

Poetry

• "A Child to their Parents: Why don’t you love me?" on AO3 | Feb. 2024 | $17.43

• "It was only supposed to be once" on AO3 | Feb. 2024 | $12.88