I sketched some updated designs for Gavin and Ethel today. Hard to believe my little babies are turning three years old in a month, and I've gone basically nowhere with their story!
Their very first designs: January 5th, 2014
A mute pirate without a tongue and a stage magician with a magic hat
March 9th, 2014
First time in color! Ethel has actual magic now.
She got a complete redesign too, though Gavin's mostly the same.
Trying to design the magic system and leaning towards alchemy.
June 3rd, 2015
Gavin is an ambassador-in-training instead of a pirate.
No longer mute, there is now a language barrier between the two.
Ethel officially becomes the chillest character I've ever made.
July 4th, 2015
Gavin's first time in digital color!
Drawn with the heads of all the other
ambassadors at the Sikhorian embassy.
January 18th, 2016
Ethel's first time in digital color!
Designs haven't much changed, but now Ethel saves
magic spells on her arms and triggers them for future use.
December 6th, 2016
Gavin has always been half-elf, but now looks less "human" than before.
He has feathers now. Same scarf, still the Krinnish ambassador.
Ethel has a new design for a more modern culture. Freckles too.
Removed her hat because "Fairly OddParents". Debating over the "tattoos".
No sleeves because the setting is the tropics. Loving 'em!
... Actual time spent working with them is a small amount, though. Mostly I've been managing my time between school, short stories and other practice projects to improve my writing skills (After something like twelve and a half years, I like to think I'm really good now!), and working on other novels. So if my options are passing school or playing with these kids, I have to prioritize. Someday.
These two have made things as difficult as possible for me by existing in a 100% fantasy world. Lots of world-building to be done, but I'm getting there! I've twisted and torn these two and their universe for a long time, and I'm not about to give up now! It'll be great when I have winter and summer break to immerse myself in them and their story. In a few more years, they might even be published!
My awesome artist friend said she's gonna draw them for me in her style too, and if she's okay with it then I'll have to share them when she's done. We're discussing Gavin's herbivorous tree-dwelling ancestors, Ethel's freckles, and tropical traveling clothes. I bet they'll both look great.
Okay, as for school, I read two chapters of my lifespan development textbook today. My teacher decided to progress faster than her syllabus last week, so that tripped me up. I finished with minutes to spare before the bus was supposed to arrive.
On my way back from that class, I stopped by the student center. Demetria had given me some money that she owed me from groceries, and I had some birthday money or something that I'd never got around to depositing in my account. But as I was using the ATM, it crashed in the middle and kicked me back to the home screen. I'd just put in $46. Concerned, I went through the steps again, hoping that if I clicked "Deposit money", it would open the "money-scanning drawer" again. It kicked me off. The light above the drawer was red.
The ATM was outside the student resources office, so I asked the receptionist if he knew what was wrong with the machine. He looked up the phone number of a nearby Zions bank for me, since they're the ones who actually run the machine. After I'd explained the situation, I was told to come by the bank and file a dispute. They said that they could probably have the problem fixed in a few days.
I wrote "Out of order" on a note and left it on the ATM, then called Mom for advice as I headed towards the bus stop. She said she'd never had to file a deposit before. Hmm.
Demetria was having a Christmas choir concert tonight. Earlier today, I'd invited Alison to see if she wanted to go. She did, which was great because the concert was a ways away, and Alison was now my ride. There were two "shows", and we were planning to attend the 8:00 one. However, I contacted Alison and asked if she could take me to the bank, which would be closing soon.
She did, which was very nice, and after I'd explained the situation and read and signed some paperwork, we headed straight out to Demetria's 6:00 concert. Demetria had told us to look for a church, and I mistakenly had Alison pull over into the parking lot of one too early. Didn't help that the GPS insisted this was as far as it could take us by car and we'd need to walk the rest of the way. We walked for a bit in the cold, but when we saw the building we were looking for across the street and down a hill, Alison urged me to go back to her car.
We did, and luckily we found a parking spot, even though we had mere minutes to spare before the concert started. We almost parked in a spot labeled 'Pastor parking only'. By which I mean we saw the sign and chuckled at it.
The concert was at a Catholic church, I think, which was kind of interesting. We walked in, passed through a small lobby, passed a fountain thing, and entered what I guess was the chapel. The pews were all hard and angled in a semi-circle. They had a large Jesus on a cross decoration against the wall, and about seven versions of the same picture of Jesus holding the cross on his back hanging around too. And people clapped after every song, too. Very different from our church buildings.
As we were walking in, I realized that I was still wearing my usual hat. I had no idea whether I needed to take it off, but I thought it would be respectful to, so I quickly did. I stuffed it inside my coat and zipped the coat up. The hat stayed there. I felt like an RPG protagonist with hammerspace.
The choir was recorded and is supposed to be played on the Utah radio late on December 22nd and Christmas. It was neat, although I was awfully cold. My original plan had been to come back from lifespan development, take a hot shower, and change into some nice - or at least warm - clothes before the concert. But with the ATM chaos, I hadn't had the time. I was wearing a short-sleeved shirt and some thin pants, but luckily I did have my coat.
I thanked Alison for her patience with me, did my laundry, took that hot shower I'd wanted, warmed up some macaroni for dinner, and worked on some homework. Some time after Demetria got back, she and I watched the 2016 LDS Christmas devotional, or at least part of it. We'd both had long days today, so we'll be finishing it up later. It wasn't a bad day all in all, but it was a bit of a frantic one.
