A little preamble. For this song, Haifun sings the first half, and Juubi sings the second half, starting with the second verse. "boy" has been changed to "girl" in the second verse so it makes sense with Juubi singing it.
Lyrics:
You took a piece of my heart
I never thought that this could fall apart
You said you fell in love
And this was more than I had ever been afraid of
Another life, another happy ending
Cuts like a knife
Another place another time
Another hand to touch another sun to shine
You got me deeper than deep
and I'm constantly blinded
I'm running around
but there's no place to hide
I start to talk in my sleep
our souls are divided
Why can't they forgive me
these demons inside
Deeper than deep
and I'm constantly blinded
My heart starts to shiver
for it was not enough
I start to talk in my sleep
'cus our souls are divided
How can it be that you're ready for love?
Ready for love
...
How can it be that you're ready for love?
...
Time will tell
a single day could help me break this spell
Don't want to be alone
When will I be understood
when is my kingdom to come?
Another girl, another life
Another happy ending
and I'll be alive
Another place, another time
Another hand to touch, another sun to shine
You got me deeper than deep
and I'm constantly blinded
I'm running around
but there's no place to hide
I start to talk in my sleep
our souls are divided
Why can't they forgive me
these demons inside
Deeper than deep
and I'm constantly blinded
My heart starts to shiver
for it was not enough
I start to talk in my sleep
'cus our souls are divided
How can it be that you're ready for love?
...
How can it be that you're ready for love?
...
How can it be that you're ready for love?
-----------
This song didn't attach itself to any visions, but is really a general descriptor of the conditions of our Featherwing Lovers near the beginning of the story. Neither of them are ready for love.
Haifun, "more than I had ever been afraid of...cuts like a knife" ... Haifun's come to expect certain things from men, not only from her experience with her first husband, but with her father, who wasn't exactly the shining example of manlihood either. Initially, she's actually scared of Juubi, scared of what a relationship might bring. It's not like his stand-off-ish behaviour reassures her either...she's expecting him to snap eventually, and start doing nasty things to her, like every other man she's known (likely to include an employer or two, maybe a pastor; given my own experience, it is entirely appropriate that Haifun has never encountered a man who treated her well in her 26 years on Earth prior to meeting Juubi. This is why I had to deepen her relationship with one of the women, otherwise there are things about herself that she'd never say, that I need her to say, not only for the readers, but because she needs to deal with them.) Not only does she expect this from men, but a very strong part of her actually likes this ill treatment.
For the first chorus, she has nowhere to go, "no place to hide"; her childhood home is surrounded by crime scene tape, in the back seat of the police car she flings the clipboard she's filling out so hard that it cracks a window. For the second half of her chorus, she's in her beautiful blue "k-outfit" offering herself to Juubi, who literally runs scared from her ("for it was not enough"). She sits in bed, confused about it. Haifun grabs her dresser mirror by the edges. She's wearing a modest white blouse and beige pants, but her reflection in the mirror is in the k-outfit with ragged hair, she's asking it, "How can it be that you're ready for love?"
Juubi has always wanted to share his wings with a human, and from early on, wonders if Haifun could be the right human. But he finds out he's not ready for her. She stirs things in him that he never thought he'd lose control of, but they could lash out against her, against what could be the love of his life. Most featherwings lack faith in humans; they're too shallow to handle wings properly, several don't think he should stay with Haifun.
The chorus has him crying in his condo's utility room, Haifun standing dumbfounded outside the door in her k-outfit. They're living together because she has nowhere else to go, and he has nowhere within his small condo where he can go to escape from not only her, but the monsters inside himself who want to hurt her.
The second half of the chorus shows that he is flying, but his wings are disintegrating in flight, loose feathers are everywhere. He wakes up and bangs his head on a sink trap, breaking a cleanup plug and making a mess of himself. When he's asking himself in the mirror, his reflection is a stern-looking black eyed creature with ragged black wings, "How can it be that you're ready for love?"
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Visions: Another You
I'll leave all the commentary until after the lyrics this time...
Lyrics:
So many times I was alone and couldn't sleep
You left me drowning in the tears of memory
and ever since you've gone I found it hard to breathe
'Cus there was so much that your heart just couldn't see
A thousand wasted dreams rolling off my eyes
Time's been healing me, and I say good bye
I can breathe again, dream again
I'll be on the road again
Like it used to be the other day
Now I feel free again, so innocent
'cus someone makes me whole again
For sure
I'll find another you.
Could you imagine someone else is by my side?
I've been afraid he couldn't keep myself from falling
My heart was always searching for a place to hide
Could not await the dawn to bring another day
You're not the only one, so hear me when I say
The thoughts of you, they just fade away
'cus I can breathe again, dream again
I'll be on the road again
Like it used to be the other day
Now I feel free again, so innocent
'cus someone makes me whole again
For sure
I'll find another you.
Sometimes I see you when I close my eyes
You're still a part of my life.
But I can breathe again, dream again
I'll be on the road again
Like it used to be the other day
Now I feel free again, so innocent
'cus someone makes me whole again
For sure
I'll find another you.
Oh, I'll find another you.
--------------
I got this idea...I'm pretty sure it was mostly my own, but I'll acredit it to the FWL voice anyway. What if a featherwing virgin was in a plane crash, a really nasty one in cold weather? Say it has some injuries and can't build a shelter to sleep in (it has always been a rule that a featherwing must be awake to have its wings deployed.) Another, uninjured human survivor is available, and the weather is too cold for the human to be able to build a shelter without the wings to protect him from the cold (for various reasons, survivors of plane crashes where the fuselage breaks up are very unlikely to be dressed for the weather.)
The featherwing virgin became the young lady, Lucy, while the human grew into Troy. I wrote the basic script on 17 March with no plan yet to integrate it into the main story. This became the ナ (na) chapter. As soon as I had the last word for the first draft, the FWL voice says to me, "now, Troy has a wife and two kids...deal with it."
Oh...flipping...crap.
As you can probably imagine, adultery is wrong in my faith (actually, I can't think of a religious faith off the top of my head that doesn't see adultery as wrong), so needless to say, I'm wondering whether my God had anything to do with this mysterious little voice from the ether (I ultimately concluded that He did, but it wasn't until 21 April.)
So, face it...we're human, we screw up. I was left to figure out how Troy and Lucy decide to deal with the resulting mess. They decide "we're dead" and evade rescue, leave society and secretly raise their own family, leaving Troy's wife and kids to believe that he died in the crash, leaving no survivors at all. What happens if Mary, his first wife finds out? Well, that's the ヒ (hi) chapter, and let's leave it at that for now...
So, this song is basically Mary dreaming of her second husband.
Lyrics:
So many times I was alone and couldn't sleep
You left me drowning in the tears of memory
and ever since you've gone I found it hard to breathe
'Cus there was so much that your heart just couldn't see
A thousand wasted dreams rolling off my eyes
Time's been healing me, and I say good bye
I can breathe again, dream again
I'll be on the road again
Like it used to be the other day
Now I feel free again, so innocent
'cus someone makes me whole again
For sure
I'll find another you.
Could you imagine someone else is by my side?
I've been afraid he couldn't keep myself from falling
My heart was always searching for a place to hide
Could not await the dawn to bring another day
You're not the only one, so hear me when I say
The thoughts of you, they just fade away
'cus I can breathe again, dream again
I'll be on the road again
Like it used to be the other day
Now I feel free again, so innocent
'cus someone makes me whole again
For sure
I'll find another you.
Sometimes I see you when I close my eyes
You're still a part of my life.
But I can breathe again, dream again
I'll be on the road again
Like it used to be the other day
Now I feel free again, so innocent
'cus someone makes me whole again
For sure
I'll find another you.
Oh, I'll find another you.
--------------
I got this idea...I'm pretty sure it was mostly my own, but I'll acredit it to the FWL voice anyway. What if a featherwing virgin was in a plane crash, a really nasty one in cold weather? Say it has some injuries and can't build a shelter to sleep in (it has always been a rule that a featherwing must be awake to have its wings deployed.) Another, uninjured human survivor is available, and the weather is too cold for the human to be able to build a shelter without the wings to protect him from the cold (for various reasons, survivors of plane crashes where the fuselage breaks up are very unlikely to be dressed for the weather.)
The featherwing virgin became the young lady, Lucy, while the human grew into Troy. I wrote the basic script on 17 March with no plan yet to integrate it into the main story. This became the ナ (na) chapter. As soon as I had the last word for the first draft, the FWL voice says to me, "now, Troy has a wife and two kids...deal with it."
Oh...flipping...crap.
As you can probably imagine, adultery is wrong in my faith (actually, I can't think of a religious faith off the top of my head that doesn't see adultery as wrong), so needless to say, I'm wondering whether my God had anything to do with this mysterious little voice from the ether (I ultimately concluded that He did, but it wasn't until 21 April.)
So, face it...we're human, we screw up. I was left to figure out how Troy and Lucy decide to deal with the resulting mess. They decide "we're dead" and evade rescue, leave society and secretly raise their own family, leaving Troy's wife and kids to believe that he died in the crash, leaving no survivors at all. What happens if Mary, his first wife finds out? Well, that's the ヒ (hi) chapter, and let's leave it at that for now...
So, this song is basically Mary dreaming of her second husband.
Visions: Haifun needs a Miracle
Cascada's Miracle track is one of my favorite songs of all time, but it is rather interesting in that it is most consistent if the verses of the song can be sung by the man of the relationship...which is the case in Featherwing Love. Just think, girls, if you are the one who's always by his side, your love is true, your feelings true, is it really you who needs the miracle??
Now, as a man, and looking at the historical record, I seriously doubt that if a woman left a man, her return would really be seen as a miracle, and would he need it that badly. Possible, yes (as it is in Juubi's case), but not very likely. The other reason why a man is unlikely to sing the chorus to this song is because "I wanna be your girl" sounds pretty queer coming from a boy's voice, and "I wanna be your boy" breaks up the rhyme too much.
Hence, it works best for Feathwing Love if Juubi is offering himself through the verses, and Haifun is responding with the chorus. Here, "(...After Dark version) indicates an instrumental period in the After Dark mix that does not occur in the original.
Lyrics:
Boy meets girl
You were my dream my world
but I was blind
you cheated on me from behind
So on my own
I feel so all alone
Though I know it's true
I'm still in love with you
I need a miracle
I want to be your girl
Give me a chance to see
that you are made for me
I need a miracle
please let me be your girl
One day you'll see
It can happen to me
I need a miracle
I want to be your girl
Give me a chance to see
that you are made for me
I need a miracle
please let me be your girl
One day you'll see
It can happen to me
It can happen to me.
--miracle--
Day and night
I'm always by your side
'cus I know for sure
my love is real my feelings pure
So take a try
no need to ask me why
'cus I know it's true
I'm still in love with you.
(... After Dark version)
I need a miracle
I want to be your girl
Give me a chance to see
that you are made for me
I need a miracle
please let me be your girl
One day you'll see
It can happen to me
I need a miracle
I want to be your girl
Give me a chance to see
that you are made for me
I need a miracle
please let me be your girl
One day you'll see
It can happen to me
It can happen to me.
--miracle--
--miracle--
-----------
All his life Juubi wants to share his wings with a human being. After coming to know Haifun, after bonding with her and getting close to her, he comes to find that he wants to share his wings with Haifun, and reaches a point in the relationship where he can no longer envision sharing them with anyone else. So at the ツ (tsu) chapter, they both need miracles...Haifun because she has no where else to go, no one else she can trust.
Now, as a man, and looking at the historical record, I seriously doubt that if a woman left a man, her return would really be seen as a miracle, and would he need it that badly. Possible, yes (as it is in Juubi's case), but not very likely. The other reason why a man is unlikely to sing the chorus to this song is because "I wanna be your girl" sounds pretty queer coming from a boy's voice, and "I wanna be your boy" breaks up the rhyme too much.
Hence, it works best for Feathwing Love if Juubi is offering himself through the verses, and Haifun is responding with the chorus. Here, "(...After Dark version) indicates an instrumental period in the After Dark mix that does not occur in the original.
Lyrics:
Boy meets girl
You were my dream my world
but I was blind
you cheated on me from behind
So on my own
I feel so all alone
Though I know it's true
I'm still in love with you
I need a miracle
I want to be your girl
Give me a chance to see
that you are made for me
I need a miracle
please let me be your girl
One day you'll see
It can happen to me
I need a miracle
I want to be your girl
Give me a chance to see
that you are made for me
I need a miracle
please let me be your girl
One day you'll see
It can happen to me
It can happen to me.
--miracle--
Day and night
I'm always by your side
'cus I know for sure
my love is real my feelings pure
So take a try
no need to ask me why
'cus I know it's true
I'm still in love with you.
(... After Dark version)
I need a miracle
I want to be your girl
Give me a chance to see
that you are made for me
I need a miracle
please let me be your girl
One day you'll see
It can happen to me
I need a miracle
I want to be your girl
Give me a chance to see
that you are made for me
I need a miracle
please let me be your girl
One day you'll see
It can happen to me
It can happen to me.
--miracle--
--miracle--
-----------
All his life Juubi wants to share his wings with a human being. After coming to know Haifun, after bonding with her and getting close to her, he comes to find that he wants to share his wings with Haifun, and reaches a point in the relationship where he can no longer envision sharing them with anyone else. So at the ツ (tsu) chapter, they both need miracles...Haifun because she has no where else to go, no one else she can trust.
Visions: Bad Boy
This is the most influencial Cascada Song in the Visions of Featherwing Love. I saw the beginning of the story while listening to this song on 17 February 2009.
Likewise, the voice of FWL has produced some new concepts to go with the tune. The second verse, "I thank you for saving my life once again..." is completely new.
Lyrics:
Remember the feelings, remember the day
My stone heart was breaking, my love ran away
This moment I knew I would be someone else
My love turned around and I fell
Be my bad boy
Be my man
Be my weekend lover
But don't be my friend
You can be my bad boy
But understand
That I don't need you in my life again
Won't you be my bad boy
Be my man
Be my weekend lover
But don't be my friend
You can be my bad boy
But understand
That I don't need you again
No I don't need you again
I thank you for saving my life once again
I wanted to be yours for just this weekend
I wanted to move, just get on with my life
But I can't get you out of my mind
Be my bad boy
Be my man
Be my weekend lover
But don't be my friend
You can be my bad boy
But understand
That I don't need you in my life again
Won't you be my bad boy
Be my man
Be my weekend lover
But don't be my friend
You can be my bad boy
But understand
That I don't need you again
No I don't need you again
You once made this promise
to stay by my side
But after some time
You just pushed me aside
You never thought that
a girl could be strong
Now I'll show you how to go on
Be my bad boy
Be my man
Be my weekend lover
But don't be my friend
You can be my bad boy
But understand
That I don't need you in my life again
Won't you be my bad boy
Be my man
Be my weekend lover
But don't be my friend
You can be my bad boy
But understand
That I don't need you again
No I don't need you again
----------------
Unlike my original notes, this post does not have the stains from my tears. The vision that came with the first verse was heartrending for me, especially at that point, used to the "Everytime We Touch" vision. Haifun is being badly abused by a man...her first husband...she has his ring on her third finger. I'm not going to describe the abuses here, but suffice it to say that she will need surgery and three units of blood later. She escapes from his clutches onto the balcony...distraught, betrayed, destroyed. The love for her husband flees from her heart. She takes off her wedding ring and throws it against the balcony planter. She climbs the bench, planter, railing and jumps off the edge...some 40 storeys up. "And I fell."
Juubi, our featherwing being, was model testing the airliner he's designing when he hears screaming. He secures it in his arms and drops out of the sky to ignominously toss it into his car before taking off again. He takes off again, flapping furiously for the sound of this screaming. He rounds the building in time to see Haifun push away from the balcony railing. The moment the chorus begins, he snatches her out of mid-air. (The original version would not be able to share Juubi's perspective, but the Pulsedriver remix could present this entire sequence nicely.)
Almost immediately, Haifun begins thrashing...she wants to die. She later describes, "I wanted to end the pain, the dizziness, the guilt that I had failed as a wife...I was dead before I climbed that railing...dead inside...I wanted to be dead outside...then...he catches me...I couldn't get him to just drop me, just let me die...I couldn't see anything, but it felt...I could feel wind everywhere but my face...a bitter March wind, but he felt like...feathers...like some huge bird...not a man at all really...then we landed...and it all started to feel real again...except how, the first two men...ever...to give half a flying flap about how I felt."
That's the first chorus, ends with their crash at Kisure's apartment.
That is also not the first time Juubi has to save her from her first husband, which is where the second verse comes from. The chorus does not describe Juubi at all; it describes what Haifun has come to expect from men, what she expects from Juubi. What she wants, but not what she needs. The final verse fits the コ ("ko") chapter much later, when she realizes that Juubi is not, and never will be, the Bad Boy she expected him to be. She comes to realize that, far from being what she wants, he is what she really needs, and this plays ideally into the next Cascada track!
Likewise, the voice of FWL has produced some new concepts to go with the tune. The second verse, "I thank you for saving my life once again..." is completely new.
Lyrics:
Remember the feelings, remember the day
My stone heart was breaking, my love ran away
This moment I knew I would be someone else
My love turned around and I fell
Be my bad boy
Be my man
Be my weekend lover
But don't be my friend
You can be my bad boy
But understand
That I don't need you in my life again
Won't you be my bad boy
Be my man
Be my weekend lover
But don't be my friend
You can be my bad boy
But understand
That I don't need you again
No I don't need you again
I thank you for saving my life once again
I wanted to be yours for just this weekend
I wanted to move, just get on with my life
But I can't get you out of my mind
Be my bad boy
Be my man
Be my weekend lover
But don't be my friend
You can be my bad boy
But understand
That I don't need you in my life again
Won't you be my bad boy
Be my man
Be my weekend lover
But don't be my friend
You can be my bad boy
But understand
That I don't need you again
No I don't need you again
You once made this promise
to stay by my side
But after some time
You just pushed me aside
You never thought that
a girl could be strong
Now I'll show you how to go on
Be my bad boy
Be my man
Be my weekend lover
But don't be my friend
You can be my bad boy
But understand
That I don't need you in my life again
Won't you be my bad boy
Be my man
Be my weekend lover
But don't be my friend
You can be my bad boy
But understand
That I don't need you again
No I don't need you again
----------------
Unlike my original notes, this post does not have the stains from my tears. The vision that came with the first verse was heartrending for me, especially at that point, used to the "Everytime We Touch" vision. Haifun is being badly abused by a man...her first husband...she has his ring on her third finger. I'm not going to describe the abuses here, but suffice it to say that she will need surgery and three units of blood later. She escapes from his clutches onto the balcony...distraught, betrayed, destroyed. The love for her husband flees from her heart. She takes off her wedding ring and throws it against the balcony planter. She climbs the bench, planter, railing and jumps off the edge...some 40 storeys up. "And I fell."
Juubi, our featherwing being, was model testing the airliner he's designing when he hears screaming. He secures it in his arms and drops out of the sky to ignominously toss it into his car before taking off again. He takes off again, flapping furiously for the sound of this screaming. He rounds the building in time to see Haifun push away from the balcony railing. The moment the chorus begins, he snatches her out of mid-air. (The original version would not be able to share Juubi's perspective, but the Pulsedriver remix could present this entire sequence nicely.)
Almost immediately, Haifun begins thrashing...she wants to die. She later describes, "I wanted to end the pain, the dizziness, the guilt that I had failed as a wife...I was dead before I climbed that railing...dead inside...I wanted to be dead outside...then...he catches me...I couldn't get him to just drop me, just let me die...I couldn't see anything, but it felt...I could feel wind everywhere but my face...a bitter March wind, but he felt like...feathers...like some huge bird...not a man at all really...then we landed...and it all started to feel real again...except how, the first two men...ever...to give half a flying flap about how I felt."
That's the first chorus, ends with their crash at Kisure's apartment.
That is also not the first time Juubi has to save her from her first husband, which is where the second verse comes from. The chorus does not describe Juubi at all; it describes what Haifun has come to expect from men, what she expects from Juubi. What she wants, but not what she needs. The final verse fits the コ ("ko") chapter much later, when she realizes that Juubi is not, and never will be, the Bad Boy she expected him to be. She comes to realize that, far from being what she wants, he is what she really needs, and this plays ideally into the next Cascada track!
Links Updated
This post simply contains the links to all relevant "featherwinglove" accounts on the web. Some have been made simply to control the name on major social networking sites, but whichever ones I get contacted on will get more material.
This post's permanent link:
http://featherwinglove.blogspot.com/2009/04/links-updated.html
The big ones:
http://featherwinglove.blogspot.com/ (obviously; this is also the biggest as of 30 April 2009)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/36560633@N04
http://www.youtube.com/featherwinglove (when I get a camera...)
The stubby ones:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Featherwing-Love/76548557314#/pages/Featherwing-Love/76548557314 (is a relatively simple page right now)
"featherwinglove" Terry Wilson on http://www.myspace.com/ (that's me; not a main contact)
http://www.metacafe.com/f/channels/featherwinglove (not a main contact; go to Youtube channel.)
This post's permanent link:
http://featherwinglove.blogspot.com/2009/04/links-updated.html
The big ones:
http://featherwinglove.blogspot.com/ (obviously; this is also the biggest as of 30 April 2009)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/36560633@N04
http://www.youtube.com/featherwinglove (when I get a camera...)
The stubby ones:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Featherwing-Love/76548557314#/pages/Featherwing-Love/76548557314 (is a relatively simple page right now)
"featherwinglove" Terry Wilson on http://www.myspace.com/ (that's me; not a main contact)
http://www.metacafe.com/f/channels/featherwinglove (not a main contact; go to Youtube channel.)
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Visions: How Do You Do
The second track of the Cascada album, Everytime We Touch.
The lyrics have been changed, substituting Juubi's name for "baby" on two lines. The conversational portions have been removed. It is sung by Haifun for Juubi.
I see you comb your hair
and give me that grin
It's making me spin now
spinning within
Before I melt like snow
I say hello
How do you do?(How do you do?)
I love the way you undress now
Juubi begin, do your caress
Honey, my heart's in a mess
I love your blue-eyed voice
Like Tiny Tim shines through
How do you do?(How do you do?)
How do you do (do you do)the things that you do?
No one I know could ever
keep up with you
How do you do?
Did it ever make sense to you
to say bye? bye? bye?
...
How do you do (do you do)
the things that you do?
No one I know could ever
keep up with you
How do you do?
Did it ever make sense to you
to say bye? bye? bye?
...
How do you do? (long echo)
I see you in that chair
Perfect skin
Well how have you been
Juubi, living in sin?
Hey I gotta know
Would you say hello?
How do you do?
How do you do (do you do)
the things that you do?
No one I know could ever
keep up with you
How do you do?
Did it ever make sense to you
to say bye? bye? bye?
How do you do (do you do)
the things that you do?
No one I know could ever
keep up with you
How do you do?
Did it ever make sense to you
to say bye? bye? bye?
...
How do you do (do you do)
the things that you do?
No one I know could ever
keep up with you How do you do?
Did it ever make sense to you
to say bye? bye? bye?
------
Haifun admires Juubi's special abilities in the early part of the relationship, but does not fully understand him. She doesn't understand that there is a difference between romantic attraction and physical attraction at this time. Female readers probably won't be surprised, but men might be. For men, it is very easy to separate physical and emotional attraction in our minds. For Haifun, it is in fact very difficult for her to make this distinction.
"Comb your hair" refers to the style of drawing hair in Featherwing Love, and how, in limited ways, it behaves like feather barbules, rather than real hair. "Melt like snow": actually in several places, a featherwing being keeps a human warm in brutally cold weather by surrounding her in his wings (both featherwing genders do this.)
"The way you undress" refers to the opening of clothing during the deployment of Juubi's wings. He has a special ported wardrobe where wing ports are built in, and hidden to various degrees, allow him to deploy his wings through his clothes without damaging them. "Do your caress" is actually very appropriate because of the gestures that can be done with the wings themselves. "Honey, my heart's in a mess"; Haifun experiences a disaster early in the relationship, leaving her with no alternative but Juubi and his mysterious Featherwing Brotherhood. "Tiny Tim" is a stoic little boy from the famous "A Christmas Carol", which is I think better known by it's central character Ebeneezer Scrooge. I actually can't figure out why this line is in the song at all; Tiny time is like, six, and no one's romantic interest.
"I see you in that chair" refers to Juubi's paraglider. Early in the relationship, when Haifun is still unaware of the wings, Juubi takes her paragliding to give her a taste of what is to come.
"Juubi, living in sin": Haifun misunderstands that Juubi is not strongly attracted to anyone else besides her. She initially has no idea that men are even capable of being staunchly faithful to one woman.
The lyrics have been changed, substituting Juubi's name for "baby" on two lines. The conversational portions have been removed. It is sung by Haifun for Juubi.
I see you comb your hair
and give me that grin
It's making me spin now
spinning within
Before I melt like snow
I say hello
How do you do?(How do you do?)
I love the way you undress now
Juubi begin, do your caress
Honey, my heart's in a mess
I love your blue-eyed voice
Like Tiny Tim shines through
How do you do?(How do you do?)
How do you do (do you do)the things that you do?
No one I know could ever
keep up with you
How do you do?
Did it ever make sense to you
to say bye? bye? bye?
...
How do you do (do you do)
the things that you do?
No one I know could ever
keep up with you
How do you do?
Did it ever make sense to you
to say bye? bye? bye?
...
How do you do? (long echo)
I see you in that chair
Perfect skin
Well how have you been
Juubi, living in sin?
Hey I gotta know
Would you say hello?
How do you do?
How do you do (do you do)
the things that you do?
No one I know could ever
keep up with you
How do you do?
Did it ever make sense to you
to say bye? bye? bye?
How do you do (do you do)
the things that you do?
No one I know could ever
keep up with you
How do you do?
Did it ever make sense to you
to say bye? bye? bye?
...
How do you do (do you do)
the things that you do?
No one I know could ever
keep up with you How do you do?
Did it ever make sense to you
to say bye? bye? bye?
------
Haifun admires Juubi's special abilities in the early part of the relationship, but does not fully understand him. She doesn't understand that there is a difference between romantic attraction and physical attraction at this time. Female readers probably won't be surprised, but men might be. For men, it is very easy to separate physical and emotional attraction in our minds. For Haifun, it is in fact very difficult for her to make this distinction.
"Comb your hair" refers to the style of drawing hair in Featherwing Love, and how, in limited ways, it behaves like feather barbules, rather than real hair. "Melt like snow": actually in several places, a featherwing being keeps a human warm in brutally cold weather by surrounding her in his wings (both featherwing genders do this.)
"The way you undress" refers to the opening of clothing during the deployment of Juubi's wings. He has a special ported wardrobe where wing ports are built in, and hidden to various degrees, allow him to deploy his wings through his clothes without damaging them. "Do your caress" is actually very appropriate because of the gestures that can be done with the wings themselves. "Honey, my heart's in a mess"; Haifun experiences a disaster early in the relationship, leaving her with no alternative but Juubi and his mysterious Featherwing Brotherhood. "Tiny Tim" is a stoic little boy from the famous "A Christmas Carol", which is I think better known by it's central character Ebeneezer Scrooge. I actually can't figure out why this line is in the song at all; Tiny time is like, six, and no one's romantic interest.
"I see you in that chair" refers to Juubi's paraglider. Early in the relationship, when Haifun is still unaware of the wings, Juubi takes her paragliding to give her a taste of what is to come.
"Juubi, living in sin": Haifun misunderstands that Juubi is not strongly attracted to anyone else besides her. She initially has no idea that men are even capable of being staunchly faithful to one woman.
Visions: Everytime we Touch
"Visions" will be a series showing how the music of Cascada (in discographic order, Everytime We Touch first, then Perfect Day; however different mixes will be considered together with the first mix that occurs.)
First the lyrics of the original mix of Everytime We Touch (which vary slightly from the Candlelight mix); instrumental periods are shown by "...". After the lyrics, the commentary on what it says will be given. For some songs, the lyrics are different for the FWL version. I'll explain when I get to one where the lyrics actually are different.
Every Time We Touch:
I still hear your voice when you sleep next to me
I still feel your touch in my dreams
Forgive me my weakness, but I don't know why
Without you it's hard to survive
'Cus everytime we touch, I get this feeling
Everytime we kiss, I swear I could fly
Can't you hear my heart beat fast
I want this to last
Need you by my side.
'Cus everytime we touch, I feel the static
Everytime we kiss, I reach for the sky
Can't you feel my heart beat so,
I can't let you go
Want you in my life
...
Your arms are my castle, your heart is my sky
They wipe away tears that I've cried
The good and the bad times, we've been through them all
You make me rise when I fall
'Cus everytime we touch, I get this feeling
Everytime we kiss, I swear I could fly
Can't you hear my heart beat fast
I want this to last
Need you by my side.
'Cus everytime we touch, I feel the static
Everytime we kiss, I reach for the sky
Can't you feel my heart beat so,
I can't let you go
Want you in my life
...
'Cus everytime we touch, I get this feeling
Everytime we kiss, I swear I could fly
Can't you hear my heart beat fast
I want this to last
Need you by my side.
--------
This song was the original "Flying Romance" song, and the first part of the vision really significant to what is now Featherwing Love was the dramatic deployment of the characters wings when their lips came together. "Everytime we kiss, I swear I could fly." From February 2 to February 17, Honeymoon Dance was the only chapter. I did about six drawings for it before Rescue Glide appeared. I called it "Flying Romance". I changed the name to Featherwing Love near the end of February.
Everytime We Touch is sung by both Juubi and Haifun at parts thoughout the story, but the first time is in the テ (te) chapter near the exact middle of the timeline. In this chapter, Haifun also sings two lines from Maggie Reilly's original version. She is scared of what this new relationship is doing to her, and is about to learn the difference between "monster love" and "real love."
"A strange kind of magic, running through my brain
feel I'm in heaven, or going insane."
(30 April...didn't quite finish on the first round)
The Yanou Candlelight Mix fits a sequence I've designed, which runs from the wedding kiss through an embrace that doesn't end until they fall asleep that evening. Juubi and his twenty foot span wings keep things very modest. Trust me, the reception would be really boring anyway.
Everytime We Touch's original mix is what the Honeymoon Dance (which is when they wake up the next morning) is designed to.
First the lyrics of the original mix of Everytime We Touch (which vary slightly from the Candlelight mix); instrumental periods are shown by "...". After the lyrics, the commentary on what it says will be given. For some songs, the lyrics are different for the FWL version. I'll explain when I get to one where the lyrics actually are different.
Every Time We Touch:
I still hear your voice when you sleep next to me
I still feel your touch in my dreams
Forgive me my weakness, but I don't know why
Without you it's hard to survive
'Cus everytime we touch, I get this feeling
Everytime we kiss, I swear I could fly
Can't you hear my heart beat fast
I want this to last
Need you by my side.
'Cus everytime we touch, I feel the static
Everytime we kiss, I reach for the sky
Can't you feel my heart beat so,
I can't let you go
Want you in my life
...
Your arms are my castle, your heart is my sky
They wipe away tears that I've cried
The good and the bad times, we've been through them all
You make me rise when I fall
'Cus everytime we touch, I get this feeling
Everytime we kiss, I swear I could fly
Can't you hear my heart beat fast
I want this to last
Need you by my side.
'Cus everytime we touch, I feel the static
Everytime we kiss, I reach for the sky
Can't you feel my heart beat so,
I can't let you go
Want you in my life
...
'Cus everytime we touch, I get this feeling
Everytime we kiss, I swear I could fly
Can't you hear my heart beat fast
I want this to last
Need you by my side.
--------
This song was the original "Flying Romance" song, and the first part of the vision really significant to what is now Featherwing Love was the dramatic deployment of the characters wings when their lips came together. "Everytime we kiss, I swear I could fly." From February 2 to February 17, Honeymoon Dance was the only chapter. I did about six drawings for it before Rescue Glide appeared. I called it "Flying Romance". I changed the name to Featherwing Love near the end of February.
Everytime We Touch is sung by both Juubi and Haifun at parts thoughout the story, but the first time is in the テ (te) chapter near the exact middle of the timeline. In this chapter, Haifun also sings two lines from Maggie Reilly's original version. She is scared of what this new relationship is doing to her, and is about to learn the difference between "monster love" and "real love."
"A strange kind of magic, running through my brain
feel I'm in heaven, or going insane."
(30 April...didn't quite finish on the first round)
The Yanou Candlelight Mix fits a sequence I've designed, which runs from the wedding kiss through an embrace that doesn't end until they fall asleep that evening. Juubi and his twenty foot span wings keep things very modest. Trust me, the reception would be really boring anyway.
Everytime We Touch's original mix is what the Honeymoon Dance (which is when they wake up the next morning) is designed to.
"Ha" Chapter Cancelled
The ハ chapter, "Let's Tell The Story" has been cancelled. What is currently on the Flickr site will remain there, however, no further work will be done on it. This is because I came to realize that the voice of the story never considered anyone else to write Featherwing Love. I am a part of that voice.
Featherwing Love is a deeply spiritual experience for me. First, I do hold a religious faith that is actually rather common in the world. My experience in this faith has evolved so to reinforce it's basic points, but it has evolved in a direction very unfamiliar to my "brethren". I hesitate to use the word because I have been shafted by every practitioner of my own faith that I have given an opportunity to [There appeared one exception after posting this], in ways very contrary to how this faith is supposed to be practiced. That is one of the reasons why I don't want to walk out on this blog and say what it is; it has a very bad reputation these days. The other reason why I don't want to say what it is, is because Featherwing Love, what it is, how it is coming to me in lucid waking visions, and how I must explore the world's principles of love to share it. The only brother of my faith that I still trust (the one who has shafted me in the least damaging ways), calls it, "walking on thin ice."
I'm not walking on thin ice...I'm flat on my face on ice too thin to stand up on. I have my wings spread along it to reduce the pressure. On Saturday, 25 April 2009, I fell through. I couldn't find my characters. I couldn't hear the voice of the story. I was devastated. I cried more and louder than I did on 1 February 2003 after learning of the Columbia's destruction (the Space Shuttle that was lost that day, which lead to After Columbia Project.) Those sounds really do not sound human. The next morning I carefully eased myself out of the freezing water at a restaurant in Chinatown called "Happy Valley."
[oops, hit "Publish" early]
I rolled onto my back to dry off, talking to my God and the character Haotoko, Juubi's little sister (I drew this, but I doubt it'll ever be shown.) I talked with her about how I didn't create her, my God did. It surprised her to find out that the wings are real in my world, just not physical. They are almost, but not quite equivalent. Also analogous is the love "flames" in Miki Falls (see Sudden Chill post and http://www.markcrilley.com/).
28 April 2009: I found out while researching human female sexuality (oh, dear...I guess I do have to put "ex" after the letter "s" every now and then after all), something I need to know a lot about in order to write the story. I read about how men see love, and how women hear it. A man goes nuts watching a woman undress, while a woman goes nuts hearing a man's voice whisper sweet nuthin's in her ear. A man will feed his monster Playboy (pretty pictures), while a woman will feed her monster Harlequin Romance (romantic dialogue). And the voice of Featherwing Love somehow combines a blood-curdling scream and a soft whisper in responding, that's why it MUST be a MANGA! I had to get up and take a walk, cry a little. The voice was a union between the screach of my instinct and the whisper of my God...always has been. Realizing this is an extraordinarily humbling and lifting moment.
On why Featherwing Love has to be a manga, rather than any other form of fiction. The two extremes would be video and novel formats. Manga is probably closer to the novel end of that scale, and the highly stylized Featherwing Love just a little closer than "normal" manga. It is intended for both genders. Men are stimulated by pictures, women by dialogue. Featherwing Love is to strike a balance to attract and communicate with both genders, while not offering so much to either as to lead members astray and become a poison for their real relationships. It is also intended to communicate to children, of both genders, with their parents' aid, who are barely old enough to realize that putting "ex" after "s" has something to do with the unique love to be found between a man and a woman. That is a lot of responsibility.
On 25 April, I went to the Calgary Comic and Entertainment Exposition (http://www.calgaryexpo.com/). As good an idea as I thought this was, it was a mistake. I did not know the nature of the FWL voice going into it, and I took the wrong advice, got confused about my drawing quality and where it was coming from. There was one person who did not appreciate the manga style at all, although he didn't come out and say it. Reading between the lines later, it became obvious that he considered manga to be "amateur." The work he was doing was by multiple contributors. He boasted about how the contributors all had put at least four years of academic education into their artwork abilities. He also specifically recommended that I draw from nude models. I'm never going to crack the cover of his book again, not after my experience that evening. On the plus side, I met Hope Larson (http://www.hopelarson.com/), who used the words "underlying structure", rather than "anatomy" when telling me what I needed to know to make my characters look more authentic. That is certainly better, and less toxic, advice than what that other guy was saying. I met a few people who could see past the cruftiness of my current work to realize that for someone who has been doing this for less than three months, it's pretty good.
The impact this experience had on the FWL voice was very similar to the impact of infidelity on a marriage. I'm not talking about a full blown affair, but what would happen if a partner thought of someone else while "doing it" with his or her spouse. It severed the union between myself and God; the FWL voice suddenly went silent. After coming clean, I realized that I have to learn directly into the style of FWL, and that rather than drawing from real life anatomy (which I still have to study to learn the features and positions of those features), I have to draw from geometric analysis, like I did when drawing for After Columbia Project. Hey, geometric analysis can be a spiritually rewarding experience (lol), no really.
Terry, your humble manga-ka
Featherwing Love is a deeply spiritual experience for me. First, I do hold a religious faith that is actually rather common in the world. My experience in this faith has evolved so to reinforce it's basic points, but it has evolved in a direction very unfamiliar to my "brethren". I hesitate to use the word because I have been shafted by every practitioner of my own faith that I have given an opportunity to [There appeared one exception after posting this], in ways very contrary to how this faith is supposed to be practiced. That is one of the reasons why I don't want to walk out on this blog and say what it is; it has a very bad reputation these days. The other reason why I don't want to say what it is, is because Featherwing Love, what it is, how it is coming to me in lucid waking visions, and how I must explore the world's principles of love to share it. The only brother of my faith that I still trust (the one who has shafted me in the least damaging ways), calls it, "walking on thin ice."
I'm not walking on thin ice...I'm flat on my face on ice too thin to stand up on. I have my wings spread along it to reduce the pressure. On Saturday, 25 April 2009, I fell through. I couldn't find my characters. I couldn't hear the voice of the story. I was devastated. I cried more and louder than I did on 1 February 2003 after learning of the Columbia's destruction (the Space Shuttle that was lost that day, which lead to After Columbia Project.) Those sounds really do not sound human. The next morning I carefully eased myself out of the freezing water at a restaurant in Chinatown called "Happy Valley."
[oops, hit "Publish" early]
I rolled onto my back to dry off, talking to my God and the character Haotoko, Juubi's little sister (I drew this, but I doubt it'll ever be shown.) I talked with her about how I didn't create her, my God did. It surprised her to find out that the wings are real in my world, just not physical. They are almost, but not quite equivalent. Also analogous is the love "flames" in Miki Falls (see Sudden Chill post and http://www.markcrilley.com/).
28 April 2009: I found out while researching human female sexuality (oh, dear...I guess I do have to put "ex" after the letter "s" every now and then after all), something I need to know a lot about in order to write the story. I read about how men see love, and how women hear it. A man goes nuts watching a woman undress, while a woman goes nuts hearing a man's voice whisper sweet nuthin's in her ear. A man will feed his monster Playboy (pretty pictures), while a woman will feed her monster Harlequin Romance (romantic dialogue). And the voice of Featherwing Love somehow combines a blood-curdling scream and a soft whisper in responding, that's why it MUST be a MANGA! I had to get up and take a walk, cry a little. The voice was a union between the screach of my instinct and the whisper of my God...always has been. Realizing this is an extraordinarily humbling and lifting moment.
On why Featherwing Love has to be a manga, rather than any other form of fiction. The two extremes would be video and novel formats. Manga is probably closer to the novel end of that scale, and the highly stylized Featherwing Love just a little closer than "normal" manga. It is intended for both genders. Men are stimulated by pictures, women by dialogue. Featherwing Love is to strike a balance to attract and communicate with both genders, while not offering so much to either as to lead members astray and become a poison for their real relationships. It is also intended to communicate to children, of both genders, with their parents' aid, who are barely old enough to realize that putting "ex" after "s" has something to do with the unique love to be found between a man and a woman. That is a lot of responsibility.
On 25 April, I went to the Calgary Comic and Entertainment Exposition (http://www.calgaryexpo.com/). As good an idea as I thought this was, it was a mistake. I did not know the nature of the FWL voice going into it, and I took the wrong advice, got confused about my drawing quality and where it was coming from. There was one person who did not appreciate the manga style at all, although he didn't come out and say it. Reading between the lines later, it became obvious that he considered manga to be "amateur." The work he was doing was by multiple contributors. He boasted about how the contributors all had put at least four years of academic education into their artwork abilities. He also specifically recommended that I draw from nude models. I'm never going to crack the cover of his book again, not after my experience that evening. On the plus side, I met Hope Larson (http://www.hopelarson.com/), who used the words "underlying structure", rather than "anatomy" when telling me what I needed to know to make my characters look more authentic. That is certainly better, and less toxic, advice than what that other guy was saying. I met a few people who could see past the cruftiness of my current work to realize that for someone who has been doing this for less than three months, it's pretty good.
The impact this experience had on the FWL voice was very similar to the impact of infidelity on a marriage. I'm not talking about a full blown affair, but what would happen if a partner thought of someone else while "doing it" with his or her spouse. It severed the union between myself and God; the FWL voice suddenly went silent. After coming clean, I realized that I have to learn directly into the style of FWL, and that rather than drawing from real life anatomy (which I still have to study to learn the features and positions of those features), I have to draw from geometric analysis, like I did when drawing for After Columbia Project. Hey, geometric analysis can be a spiritually rewarding experience (lol), no really.
Terry, your humble manga-ka
Monday, April 20, 2009
Vacation on Mars
(Portions (c) Id Software 2004 as applicable; remainder (c) 2009 Terry Wilson; see author's comment(s).)
Juubi and Haifun emerge through a hazard door to be greeted by a great shaft, the bridge over which has been burned away. Bits of girder, railing and pipe still glow red hot. They each wear special custom built spacesuits specifically made for their "vacation." They are festooned with strange devices they got used to quickly called "weapons" (the FWL story has only one, and our Featherwing Lovers never even touch it.) They plan their jump across this strange chasm when suddenly a green glow erupts from the side of the corridor on the other side. A being jumps out of the nook where the glow now fades, and turns to them. Fortunately, he is human: Counsellor Elliot Swann. His face is an unspoken question.
Juubi calls across to him, "Hi, boss!"
Haifun says, "We're ready to answer those questions you asked us back at the spaceport."
Flashback: Counsellor Elliot Swann and his bodyguard Master Corporal Jack Campbell emerge from the aft ramp of a transport, "Darkstar 4409" that has just landed at Mars City, the morning of 15 November 2145.
Swann, a look of frustration on his face, mutters, "I can't believe it's come to this, I didn't want to come here."
Campbell, clearly his friend, responds, "He left you no choice."
"True," the balding lawyer acknowledges, "but this is the last time. I'm tired of running damage control every time he makes a mess."
"Right," says Campbell who's decked out in combat armor and carries an intimidating equipment case, "you're the 'control' and if that fails, I'm the 'damage'."
Swann responds, "If that's what it takes. Betruger is going to start doing things our way."
Campbell gives him a nod, "Whatever you say, Counsellor." At this, he turns back to the transport ramp, "but tell me, what are we going to do with these two?"
Juubi and Haifun emerge from the transport, giggling at each other. Haifun, with her long brown hair instantly has the eyes of not only the two powerful friends, but those of a dockworker, a marine guarding the platform, and Dr. Mark Caseon, who can't wait to get off Mars. They don't have looks of admiration at what must be the longest hair on Mars, but one of total disbelief. Elliot Swann soon reveals why.
"What the heck are you two doing here? Mars is no place for a vacation. It's dangerous here, it feels like all hell could break loose," he mutters incredulously.
"Just a vacation," Juubi says, straightening out a strand of Haifun's hair.
"Yeah, right," Campbell mutters to Swann, "UAC's highest rated marine...well, second highest rated marine...is bumped off the flight so these two to go on a casual stroll around the most expensive town in the solar system."
"And, since I can't get you to answer why you're really here," Swann says, "can you tell me, just for curiousity's sake why, as close as you two obviously are, I have never seen you two kiss."
Haifun pecks Juubi on the cheek, "See, we kiss, Counsellor."
Swann seems a little nonplussed, "I think you know what I mean."
Juubi walks by him and whispers so softly that not even Campbell can hear, "I just hope I'm not forced by circumstances to answer that."
Elliot Swann, sighs. Campbell, who knows him well, can almost hear his thoughts, He sounds almost like Malcolm Betruger.
The Present: Campbell comes out of the corridor that branches left from the main corridor the burnt bridge leads to, plainly curious as to what now has his boss so perplexed, "Wow...I guess they can look after themselves around here," he gasps.
Juubi pauses to inspect the chasm under the bridge, then looks up at Swann and smiles.
"Don't tell me you're planning to jump," Swann asks in a rhetorical tone. The gap in the bridge is about thirty feet, clearly beyond any human's ability, even in Mars' gravity.
"Not exactly," Haifun says, then looks at Juubi and says, "Careful honey, the lift in the middle could drive us into those pipes," pointing at the broken pipes above where the bridge used to be.
"And sink around the edges," Juubi complains, "will bring us down pretty smartly on the other side, since it's open grating. It is better to go long than short."
"So!" Swann calls across to them, "you said you were going to answer my questions."
"So we did," Juubi says, "Why are we on Mars? Why have you never seen us kiss."
Juubi turns to his wife and after an adoring gaze, their heads tilt and come together in the dim light on their end of the bridge. A poof-whoosh sound barely audible across the bridge over the noise of the updraft in the shaft heralds the deployment of their wings. Juubi then turns to the broken bridge and sprints at its edge, spreading his wings as he clears the railings, catching the updraft in the middle.
Campbell has never seen such a creature, but he's seen things equally strange, if much different, since his arrival on Mars. He raises his weapon and points it at Juubi.
After a flap, Juubi's wings vanish and he falls to an impact several feet past the jagged edge on the far side of the bridge. Haifun is already in the air as Juubi lands, tucking into a shoulder roll and coming back to his feet right in front of Campbell, staring at the huge trapezoidal muzzle of a BFG 9000, UAC's most advanced and powerful handheld weapon. Haifun lands a bit more skillfully and comes up beside her husband.
"Glad to see you're still human," Juubi says.
Haifun looks at Counsellor Swann, "We volunteered when our brother on the Board told us of a report radioed back by Dr. Richard Davis four months ago. If you could call the creatures we've been fighting for the last sixteen hours 'demons', Juubi and I, along with a handful of other featherwing beings secretly living as humans on Earth, are what you might call 'angels'."
Juubi adds, "We thought you might need our help," then extends his hand to Campbell, who lowers his enormous weapon and takes Juubi's in a firm hold. Both turn in response to a now familiar cry: something called an Imp.
Juubi rapidly unholsters his shotgun and pops off a round at it. It falls over onto its back, clutching at what seem to be minor wounds from the shotgun's pitiful spread pattern. The Imp was too far away for the shotgun to have done any significant damage, if it were loaded with normal ammunition. The Imp, still screaming, disintigrates into flaming fragments and soon is no more.
Campbell gasps, "I must have killed three dozen of those and I have never seen one go down so easily."
Haifun says, "We've prepared our ammunition with our own built in poison. We call it scratch. Ordinarily, it will only knock a human unconscious, and selectively erase his memories of featherwing beings. We use it to keep our existence a secret."
"But against these things," Juubi adds, "it has quite a whallup."
...to be continued(?)
Juubi and Haifun emerge through a hazard door to be greeted by a great shaft, the bridge over which has been burned away. Bits of girder, railing and pipe still glow red hot. They each wear special custom built spacesuits specifically made for their "vacation." They are festooned with strange devices they got used to quickly called "weapons" (the FWL story has only one, and our Featherwing Lovers never even touch it.) They plan their jump across this strange chasm when suddenly a green glow erupts from the side of the corridor on the other side. A being jumps out of the nook where the glow now fades, and turns to them. Fortunately, he is human: Counsellor Elliot Swann. His face is an unspoken question.
Juubi calls across to him, "Hi, boss!"
Haifun says, "We're ready to answer those questions you asked us back at the spaceport."
Flashback: Counsellor Elliot Swann and his bodyguard Master Corporal Jack Campbell emerge from the aft ramp of a transport, "Darkstar 4409" that has just landed at Mars City, the morning of 15 November 2145.
Swann, a look of frustration on his face, mutters, "I can't believe it's come to this, I didn't want to come here."
Campbell, clearly his friend, responds, "He left you no choice."
"True," the balding lawyer acknowledges, "but this is the last time. I'm tired of running damage control every time he makes a mess."
"Right," says Campbell who's decked out in combat armor and carries an intimidating equipment case, "you're the 'control' and if that fails, I'm the 'damage'."
Swann responds, "If that's what it takes. Betruger is going to start doing things our way."
Campbell gives him a nod, "Whatever you say, Counsellor." At this, he turns back to the transport ramp, "but tell me, what are we going to do with these two?"
Juubi and Haifun emerge from the transport, giggling at each other. Haifun, with her long brown hair instantly has the eyes of not only the two powerful friends, but those of a dockworker, a marine guarding the platform, and Dr. Mark Caseon, who can't wait to get off Mars. They don't have looks of admiration at what must be the longest hair on Mars, but one of total disbelief. Elliot Swann soon reveals why.
"What the heck are you two doing here? Mars is no place for a vacation. It's dangerous here, it feels like all hell could break loose," he mutters incredulously.
"Just a vacation," Juubi says, straightening out a strand of Haifun's hair.
"Yeah, right," Campbell mutters to Swann, "UAC's highest rated marine...well, second highest rated marine...is bumped off the flight so these two to go on a casual stroll around the most expensive town in the solar system."
"And, since I can't get you to answer why you're really here," Swann says, "can you tell me, just for curiousity's sake why, as close as you two obviously are, I have never seen you two kiss."
Haifun pecks Juubi on the cheek, "See, we kiss, Counsellor."
Swann seems a little nonplussed, "I think you know what I mean."
Juubi walks by him and whispers so softly that not even Campbell can hear, "I just hope I'm not forced by circumstances to answer that."
Elliot Swann, sighs. Campbell, who knows him well, can almost hear his thoughts, He sounds almost like Malcolm Betruger.
The Present: Campbell comes out of the corridor that branches left from the main corridor the burnt bridge leads to, plainly curious as to what now has his boss so perplexed, "Wow...I guess they can look after themselves around here," he gasps.
Juubi pauses to inspect the chasm under the bridge, then looks up at Swann and smiles.
"Don't tell me you're planning to jump," Swann asks in a rhetorical tone. The gap in the bridge is about thirty feet, clearly beyond any human's ability, even in Mars' gravity.
"Not exactly," Haifun says, then looks at Juubi and says, "Careful honey, the lift in the middle could drive us into those pipes," pointing at the broken pipes above where the bridge used to be.
"And sink around the edges," Juubi complains, "will bring us down pretty smartly on the other side, since it's open grating. It is better to go long than short."
"So!" Swann calls across to them, "you said you were going to answer my questions."
"So we did," Juubi says, "Why are we on Mars? Why have you never seen us kiss."
Juubi turns to his wife and after an adoring gaze, their heads tilt and come together in the dim light on their end of the bridge. A poof-whoosh sound barely audible across the bridge over the noise of the updraft in the shaft heralds the deployment of their wings. Juubi then turns to the broken bridge and sprints at its edge, spreading his wings as he clears the railings, catching the updraft in the middle.
Campbell has never seen such a creature, but he's seen things equally strange, if much different, since his arrival on Mars. He raises his weapon and points it at Juubi.
After a flap, Juubi's wings vanish and he falls to an impact several feet past the jagged edge on the far side of the bridge. Haifun is already in the air as Juubi lands, tucking into a shoulder roll and coming back to his feet right in front of Campbell, staring at the huge trapezoidal muzzle of a BFG 9000, UAC's most advanced and powerful handheld weapon. Haifun lands a bit more skillfully and comes up beside her husband.
"Glad to see you're still human," Juubi says.
Haifun looks at Counsellor Swann, "We volunteered when our brother on the Board told us of a report radioed back by Dr. Richard Davis four months ago. If you could call the creatures we've been fighting for the last sixteen hours 'demons', Juubi and I, along with a handful of other featherwing beings secretly living as humans on Earth, are what you might call 'angels'."
Juubi adds, "We thought you might need our help," then extends his hand to Campbell, who lowers his enormous weapon and takes Juubi's in a firm hold. Both turn in response to a now familiar cry: something called an Imp.
Juubi rapidly unholsters his shotgun and pops off a round at it. It falls over onto its back, clutching at what seem to be minor wounds from the shotgun's pitiful spread pattern. The Imp was too far away for the shotgun to have done any significant damage, if it were loaded with normal ammunition. The Imp, still screaming, disintigrates into flaming fragments and soon is no more.
Campbell gasps, "I must have killed three dozen of those and I have never seen one go down so easily."
Haifun says, "We've prepared our ammunition with our own built in poison. We call it scratch. Ordinarily, it will only knock a human unconscious, and selectively erase his memories of featherwing beings. We use it to keep our existence a secret."
"But against these things," Juubi adds, "it has quite a whallup."
...to be continued(?)
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Sudden Chill
(Please see author's comment(s).)
Kazu deployed his wings...he didn't have much of a choice, it was either that or freeze to death. He had noticed that the weather had a bizarre tendency to conspire with the secrets of the world around them to reveal things he might never find out otherwise. He found himself pounding on a basement suite door, as it turns out, on a basement suite that had nobody in it at that moment. The building was not well tended, but he could tell from the plume flowing off the roof that it must have had a furnace running. Featherwings have an innate sense of the weather, and so this sudden north wind came as a big surprise to him...not just to him, but to the rest of the city. The thin film of slow on the roads would soon be followed by blowing drifts, causing all sorts of traffic problems. This train of thought occupied a rather detached and objective part of his brain that somehow kept going as the survival-oriented part of his mind worked his increasingly distressed body to break down the door in front of him...
...it was the three rusty hinges that parted rather than the solid lock, the result being that the door rotated about the lock until the latch came out of its hole and it fell over. It fell over far faster than gravity would have commanded it as a gust of wind propelled both it, and the feathered being ramming it with all his weight into the room. Kazu cussed at his misfortune and now worked feverishly to get the door back in its frame before too much snow followed him into the place he had just illegally broken into. That complete, and the door held in place by a sturdy nightstand he found in the neighbouring living room, he was rather surprised to find that the living room was well endowed with an electronic entertainment suite and a rather large selection of movies and games. It had both of the major gaming consoles, sitting there happily beside each other, totally oblivious to the marketing war that rages between them outside their quaint home. He thought it should be polite to just sit down and wait for the inhabitant to return, he guessed a male bachelor, and briefly prayed for his survival in the sudden snap of cold weather. But he was tempted to put a disk in the drive and watch a movie, so much so that he actually found himself browsing the shelf of movie and game disks.
The featherwing part of Kazu's mind suddenly kicked in, realizing that he still had his secret wings out. He furls them nervously, than realizes how much dust had collected on the tops of the disk cases. It was a collection that was never watched. Featherwings keep a lot of secrets, and he suddenly recognized this classic technique...one he even uses in his own home. The living room and its expensive entertainment centre is all a distraction. If a thief were to break in, they would immediately ransack this valuable collection, failing to recognize that there might be something more valuable. He also realized that the inhabitant had sent a spirit to tempt him towards the entertainment suite. He looks for it, but it had fled. Kazu soon finds a door to what appears to be a bedroom or home office, surprised to find it unlocked, he opens it.
As the door swings open, his arms drop and his mouth opens...he is quite stunned at what he sees. Shelves line the walls of the small room, and on them are rows of the most anodyne black hardbound diaries...hundreds of them, maybe even thousands of them. There is no other type of book in the room. He sees a neat stack of them on the desk, and around the corner of one of the bookcases is a map on the wall, one of the neighbourhood. On it are hundreds of pins with strings connecting pairs of them together. There are four colors of pin, but only one color of string, but each string has a sticky flag taped to it.
He sits down and opens one of the notebooks and starts reading. He reads probably about ten of the notebooks and browses over about a hundred more when he hears the door being disturbed. Kazu has been aware of the passage of time, his exploration of this man's secret collection interrupted by a call to his cell phone from his employer saying not to bother coming in because of the weather, and by his girlfriend wondering how he's doing. The featherwing has been in this lair for almost 24 hours, patiently waiting for the return of its owner, a person he was sure at this point would probably not appreciate Kazu simply walking away.
He senses the spirit that had tempted him to the entertainment suite again. It felt sad, almost as though it was about to do something quite regretable. Realizing that its partner was probably not far behind, he gets up and moves the nightstand away from the door, holding it in place with his hand. He didn't have to wait long...the sound of snow-scrunching footsteps on the stairs descending to it just outside, the slowing as the person notices the damage to his door. Kazu decides to lift the door out of the frame.
"Hello, I'm Kazu. Sorry about the damage. I'm willing to pay for it. I got a couple hundred in cash on me. I can get more if you need it."
The first thing the unwitting host notices is that the door to his office is open. This seems to alarm him, greatly.
Kazu responds, "You have a very interesting job. I would be fascinated to know what the title of it is, and your name, if it's not too much trouble." Kazu regards him respectfully as he walks past him, glancing into the almost untouched living room, its nearly untouched appearance only adding to his unease.
"My name is Azuku," he finally says, "and I'm a Deliverer. I'm responsible for managing a limited and precious supply of love in the community of Rockystone. I work for an extensive network of Deliverers all over the world to make sure that love does not go extinct." Azuku turns to his unsurprised guest and says, "needless to say, you weren't supposed to find out about any of this." He holds his hands out flat, palms up, in front of his face, and says, "I have something to show you."
He closes his eyes, and a sphere appears and expands. A small white creature emerges from within it and jumps on Kazu's shoulder, regarding him curiously.
"You again," Kazu greets the creature almost cheerfully. "Sasha, is it?" Kazu stares at her for about twenty seconds, maybe thirty. Azuku stands by with his arms raised slightly, as though to be ready to catch Kazu should he suddenly faint. "No, no trouble at all," Kazu answers to words the spirit has communicated without sound, "and don't bother, I'll show him myself. It's more fun that way." After a pause, Kazu says, "He deserves to know, and I trust him. I know I can trust him from his writing and how he looks after the place." Kazu looks back at Azuku as Sasha jumps to the floor and onto Azuku's arm.
Azuku's jaw hangs open and his eyes gawk in stunned amazement. Finally, he says, "that did not go as I expected at all. Humans are not supposed to find out about these things...and Hold Spirits are supposed to cleanse their memories when they do." Sasha seems almost excited waiting for Kazu's response.
"I'm not human," he says like an ordinary piece of trivia. Then he deploys his wings. The gentle poof-whoosh sound gently fills the room, and the breeze blows over Azuku as he watches Kazu stretch them slowly into the room. "I'm a featherwing being."
Kazu explains many things to Azuku about featherwing beings and how the wings work.
Azuku suddenly breathes in a sigh, "Oh, so that's why Sasha's been so weird around you."
Kazu responds, "yeah, I read about that," indicating the notebooks, "I was actually surprised that you never observed the wings, given how complete your other knowledge about me is."
Azuku looks at his Hold Spirit. "Sasha, how long have you known?"
She tilts her head slightly.
"Yeah, I suppose you should keep his secrets too," Azuku says. "So that's where these extra flames of love come from?" he asks.
Kazu holds up his hands, "I didn't know before, honest. Sasha only told me just today that when Featherwings share their wings, a new flame of love is created between them, and that is the real reason why you shouldn't give me one."
Azuku then scratches his head and asks, "So, you read about yourself, and that means that you know that Haruhi, your girlfriend, is a neverfind? Doesn't that scare you?"
Kazu says, "Absolutely. It doesn't say we won't work out, but that it won't last long. But it is reassuring in a way. It tells me that she'll never lose the wings. That is what I don't want to go through." Kazu sighs, "it also means that we should hurry to marry and raise a family."
Azuku gasps, "a family?"
Kazu responds, "Now that you know all this, doesn't it make sense to you? The world needs more love, not just to preserve the love that it has, but more needs to be created. If you need featherwings to create love, then you need more featherwings, right?" He adopts an even more endearing look and says, "And also knowing, that she won't lose the wings...you realize don't you, that if the wings are lost, the new flame in the featherwing couple is also lost, and there's no way, even you as a Deliverer, can save it. Believe me, today is a happy day for me."
Azuku sighs, "What I find sad, is that this is the only conversation we can ever have about this. Deliverers must keep their secrets, and Featherwings theirs."
Kazu answers, "Have Sasha stop by every now and then. You'll have to for cover purposes anyway, so let's keep in touch that way."
The two part ways, Azuku with more than enough cash to fix his door, and Kazu with the knowledge that his worst fears about him and Haruhi can never come to pass. Both having discovered amazing new aspects of love and the world they live in (which obvously isn't the real world, but hey...)
Kazu deployed his wings...he didn't have much of a choice, it was either that or freeze to death. He had noticed that the weather had a bizarre tendency to conspire with the secrets of the world around them to reveal things he might never find out otherwise. He found himself pounding on a basement suite door, as it turns out, on a basement suite that had nobody in it at that moment. The building was not well tended, but he could tell from the plume flowing off the roof that it must have had a furnace running. Featherwings have an innate sense of the weather, and so this sudden north wind came as a big surprise to him...not just to him, but to the rest of the city. The thin film of slow on the roads would soon be followed by blowing drifts, causing all sorts of traffic problems. This train of thought occupied a rather detached and objective part of his brain that somehow kept going as the survival-oriented part of his mind worked his increasingly distressed body to break down the door in front of him...
...it was the three rusty hinges that parted rather than the solid lock, the result being that the door rotated about the lock until the latch came out of its hole and it fell over. It fell over far faster than gravity would have commanded it as a gust of wind propelled both it, and the feathered being ramming it with all his weight into the room. Kazu cussed at his misfortune and now worked feverishly to get the door back in its frame before too much snow followed him into the place he had just illegally broken into. That complete, and the door held in place by a sturdy nightstand he found in the neighbouring living room, he was rather surprised to find that the living room was well endowed with an electronic entertainment suite and a rather large selection of movies and games. It had both of the major gaming consoles, sitting there happily beside each other, totally oblivious to the marketing war that rages between them outside their quaint home. He thought it should be polite to just sit down and wait for the inhabitant to return, he guessed a male bachelor, and briefly prayed for his survival in the sudden snap of cold weather. But he was tempted to put a disk in the drive and watch a movie, so much so that he actually found himself browsing the shelf of movie and game disks.
The featherwing part of Kazu's mind suddenly kicked in, realizing that he still had his secret wings out. He furls them nervously, than realizes how much dust had collected on the tops of the disk cases. It was a collection that was never watched. Featherwings keep a lot of secrets, and he suddenly recognized this classic technique...one he even uses in his own home. The living room and its expensive entertainment centre is all a distraction. If a thief were to break in, they would immediately ransack this valuable collection, failing to recognize that there might be something more valuable. He also realized that the inhabitant had sent a spirit to tempt him towards the entertainment suite. He looks for it, but it had fled. Kazu soon finds a door to what appears to be a bedroom or home office, surprised to find it unlocked, he opens it.
As the door swings open, his arms drop and his mouth opens...he is quite stunned at what he sees. Shelves line the walls of the small room, and on them are rows of the most anodyne black hardbound diaries...hundreds of them, maybe even thousands of them. There is no other type of book in the room. He sees a neat stack of them on the desk, and around the corner of one of the bookcases is a map on the wall, one of the neighbourhood. On it are hundreds of pins with strings connecting pairs of them together. There are four colors of pin, but only one color of string, but each string has a sticky flag taped to it.
He sits down and opens one of the notebooks and starts reading. He reads probably about ten of the notebooks and browses over about a hundred more when he hears the door being disturbed. Kazu has been aware of the passage of time, his exploration of this man's secret collection interrupted by a call to his cell phone from his employer saying not to bother coming in because of the weather, and by his girlfriend wondering how he's doing. The featherwing has been in this lair for almost 24 hours, patiently waiting for the return of its owner, a person he was sure at this point would probably not appreciate Kazu simply walking away.
He senses the spirit that had tempted him to the entertainment suite again. It felt sad, almost as though it was about to do something quite regretable. Realizing that its partner was probably not far behind, he gets up and moves the nightstand away from the door, holding it in place with his hand. He didn't have to wait long...the sound of snow-scrunching footsteps on the stairs descending to it just outside, the slowing as the person notices the damage to his door. Kazu decides to lift the door out of the frame.
"Hello, I'm Kazu. Sorry about the damage. I'm willing to pay for it. I got a couple hundred in cash on me. I can get more if you need it."
The first thing the unwitting host notices is that the door to his office is open. This seems to alarm him, greatly.
Kazu responds, "You have a very interesting job. I would be fascinated to know what the title of it is, and your name, if it's not too much trouble." Kazu regards him respectfully as he walks past him, glancing into the almost untouched living room, its nearly untouched appearance only adding to his unease.
"My name is Azuku," he finally says, "and I'm a Deliverer. I'm responsible for managing a limited and precious supply of love in the community of Rockystone. I work for an extensive network of Deliverers all over the world to make sure that love does not go extinct." Azuku turns to his unsurprised guest and says, "needless to say, you weren't supposed to find out about any of this." He holds his hands out flat, palms up, in front of his face, and says, "I have something to show you."
He closes his eyes, and a sphere appears and expands. A small white creature emerges from within it and jumps on Kazu's shoulder, regarding him curiously.
"You again," Kazu greets the creature almost cheerfully. "Sasha, is it?" Kazu stares at her for about twenty seconds, maybe thirty. Azuku stands by with his arms raised slightly, as though to be ready to catch Kazu should he suddenly faint. "No, no trouble at all," Kazu answers to words the spirit has communicated without sound, "and don't bother, I'll show him myself. It's more fun that way." After a pause, Kazu says, "He deserves to know, and I trust him. I know I can trust him from his writing and how he looks after the place." Kazu looks back at Azuku as Sasha jumps to the floor and onto Azuku's arm.
Azuku's jaw hangs open and his eyes gawk in stunned amazement. Finally, he says, "that did not go as I expected at all. Humans are not supposed to find out about these things...and Hold Spirits are supposed to cleanse their memories when they do." Sasha seems almost excited waiting for Kazu's response.
"I'm not human," he says like an ordinary piece of trivia. Then he deploys his wings. The gentle poof-whoosh sound gently fills the room, and the breeze blows over Azuku as he watches Kazu stretch them slowly into the room. "I'm a featherwing being."
Kazu explains many things to Azuku about featherwing beings and how the wings work.
Azuku suddenly breathes in a sigh, "Oh, so that's why Sasha's been so weird around you."
Kazu responds, "yeah, I read about that," indicating the notebooks, "I was actually surprised that you never observed the wings, given how complete your other knowledge about me is."
Azuku looks at his Hold Spirit. "Sasha, how long have you known?"
She tilts her head slightly.
"Yeah, I suppose you should keep his secrets too," Azuku says. "So that's where these extra flames of love come from?" he asks.
Kazu holds up his hands, "I didn't know before, honest. Sasha only told me just today that when Featherwings share their wings, a new flame of love is created between them, and that is the real reason why you shouldn't give me one."
Azuku then scratches his head and asks, "So, you read about yourself, and that means that you know that Haruhi, your girlfriend, is a neverfind? Doesn't that scare you?"
Kazu says, "Absolutely. It doesn't say we won't work out, but that it won't last long. But it is reassuring in a way. It tells me that she'll never lose the wings. That is what I don't want to go through." Kazu sighs, "it also means that we should hurry to marry and raise a family."
Azuku gasps, "a family?"
Kazu responds, "Now that you know all this, doesn't it make sense to you? The world needs more love, not just to preserve the love that it has, but more needs to be created. If you need featherwings to create love, then you need more featherwings, right?" He adopts an even more endearing look and says, "And also knowing, that she won't lose the wings...you realize don't you, that if the wings are lost, the new flame in the featherwing couple is also lost, and there's no way, even you as a Deliverer, can save it. Believe me, today is a happy day for me."
Azuku sighs, "What I find sad, is that this is the only conversation we can ever have about this. Deliverers must keep their secrets, and Featherwings theirs."
Kazu answers, "Have Sasha stop by every now and then. You'll have to for cover purposes anyway, so let's keep in touch that way."
The two part ways, Azuku with more than enough cash to fix his door, and Kazu with the knowledge that his worst fears about him and Haruhi can never come to pass. Both having discovered amazing new aspects of love and the world they live in (which obvously isn't the real world, but hey...)
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Reilly Club Remix
I added the comment block described in the last post to this Youtube video: a remix of the original Maggie Reilly version of Everytime We Touch...one the person who posted it on Youtube somehow mistook for Cascada!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ub9nqmIhL_o
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ub9nqmIhL_o
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Everytime We Touch versions play on ideas of love
At http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXZ4h8GAjXE and elsewhere on Youtube, voiceless editions of Cascada's Candlelight Everytime We Touch, I posted this comment
"...we must kill our monsters, Haifun, and they only die through starvation," Juubi explains. Haifun slumps, sings "A strange kind of magic, running through my brain, think I'm in heaven, or going insane" [Reilly ver.] she breaks down bawling. "No, Haifun, that's not the song," he takes her hand. "It's 'I still hear your voice when you sleep next to me, I still feel your touch in my dreams. Forgive me my weakness, but I don't know why-" Haifun joins through her tears, "without you it's hard...
This is from Chapter テ ('te') in the middle of the plot. One of Featherwing Love's essential ideas is the difference between love that is improperly directed, and love that is pure. Imagine if your boyfriend/girlfriend fantasized about you in a way you didn't like. For a more specific example, [edited out, I don't want the GLBT community to get mad at me.] I won't explain the FWL situation because that would spoil an awful lot.
"...we must kill our monsters, Haifun, and they only die through starvation," Juubi explains. Haifun slumps, sings "A strange kind of magic, running through my brain, think I'm in heaven, or going insane" [Reilly ver.] she breaks down bawling. "No, Haifun, that's not the song," he takes her hand. "It's 'I still hear your voice when you sleep next to me, I still feel your touch in my dreams. Forgive me my weakness, but I don't know why-" Haifun joins through her tears, "without you it's hard...
This is from Chapter テ ('te') in the middle of the plot. One of Featherwing Love's essential ideas is the difference between love that is improperly directed, and love that is pure. Imagine if your boyfriend/girlfriend fantasized about you in a way you didn't like. For a more specific example, [edited out, I don't want the GLBT community to get mad at me.] I won't explain the FWL situation because that would spoil an awful lot.
Sunday, April 5, 2009
Featherwing Love: "Known" chapters
I have scripted about 40 chapters for Featherwing Love, and more continue to be added as the concept map is filled. "Concepts" (and I'm coming up with and refining those still very frequently) need to be presented through "Chapters", and those in turn have to fit into the plot. some concepts don't have chapters, and some will never have chapters in Featherwing Love because I want to leave room for sequels, and possibly fan fiction. I have a few for that phase of life called "adolescence", but I actually want to avoid those for now...this is why Haifun and Juubi are in their mid-twenties, a departure for most shojo manga (where the characters...at least the main girl...are in high school.) These are the ones I can blog about:
Rescue Glide: The first chapter, where Haifun jumps from her first marriage and high-rise home into the arms of her second love, Juubi, a featherwing being in a philanthropic mood that evening.
The chaotic, nailbiting courtship which I can't blog about yet...
Honeymoon Dance: The morning after their wedding, both Haifun and Juubi have wings. After a hug and a kiss, they both take off and fly, dancing in mid air.
A couple more chapters which I can't blog about yet...
Let's Tell The Story: Well into married life, Haifun and Juubi decide that they need a permanent record of their romantic tail...uh, tale, and scrounge the world for suitable artists and authors to take on the task. They ultimately settle for the manga rookie Terry Wilson. I playfully say this is how I got my inspiration for the story, but that too, is part of the fiction.
What is not fiction is the aspect that this story doesn't quite seem to be one I've made up, but is one which has, in my mind, rather walked up to me and asked to be told...a spark of creative concepts that want to be shared, that want a fictional story built around them to be a vehicle for their telling. I believe that they contain truths about human love which we have an awful tough time learning by any way other than experience, and sharing any other way than by fiction, a proxy experience. I've decided not to put it in this blog, but I welcome you to ask...and if you explore After Columbia Project, you can find out on your own...about my religion. If you share that same religion, I'd love to discuss with you more specifically where the spark of creative concepts comes from, and why I think it came to me.
Honeymoon Dance and Let's Tell The Story are the "promotional" chapters, which I will complete first. After this, I will complete Rescue Glide, and storyboard several more chapters, which is when I will start launching proposals to publishers. Hopefully, I will reach this phase before the end of August.
Rescue Glide: The first chapter, where Haifun jumps from her first marriage and high-rise home into the arms of her second love, Juubi, a featherwing being in a philanthropic mood that evening.
The chaotic, nailbiting courtship which I can't blog about yet...
Honeymoon Dance: The morning after their wedding, both Haifun and Juubi have wings. After a hug and a kiss, they both take off and fly, dancing in mid air.
A couple more chapters which I can't blog about yet...
Let's Tell The Story: Well into married life, Haifun and Juubi decide that they need a permanent record of their romantic tail...uh, tale, and scrounge the world for suitable artists and authors to take on the task. They ultimately settle for the manga rookie Terry Wilson. I playfully say this is how I got my inspiration for the story, but that too, is part of the fiction.
What is not fiction is the aspect that this story doesn't quite seem to be one I've made up, but is one which has, in my mind, rather walked up to me and asked to be told...a spark of creative concepts that want to be shared, that want a fictional story built around them to be a vehicle for their telling. I believe that they contain truths about human love which we have an awful tough time learning by any way other than experience, and sharing any other way than by fiction, a proxy experience. I've decided not to put it in this blog, but I welcome you to ask...and if you explore After Columbia Project, you can find out on your own...about my religion. If you share that same religion, I'd love to discuss with you more specifically where the spark of creative concepts comes from, and why I think it came to me.
Honeymoon Dance and Let's Tell The Story are the "promotional" chapters, which I will complete first. After this, I will complete Rescue Glide, and storyboard several more chapters, which is when I will start launching proposals to publishers. Hopefully, I will reach this phase before the end of August.
Friday, April 3, 2009
Featherwing Love Intro
The Japanese is pronounced "haoto no ai" (if you can't read romaji, "hayoto no ayee" is close enough), and means most literally, "buzzing love".
Style note: Couldn't find anything with feathers, so I decided to borrow a bit from After Columbia Project, and use the Minima Black style from ACP...and yes, it's me...same person, different account. This might explain to the very few ACP regulars why "aftercolumbia" has suddenly gone away.
http://ascentroadmap.blogspot.com/
http://aftercolumbiamars.blogspot.com/
2 February 2009 (after exactly 6 years as "aftercolumbia"), I was listening to the Cascada Song, Everytime We Touch, and had a vision of what is now "Honeymoon Dance", two featherwing beings dancing with each other in midair. The wings magically deployed from their back during the first chorus line "everytime we kiss, I swear I could fly." I develop this into a 29 frame manga script.
Same day: First drawing of Haifun (I named her that day, but not with kanji.) It was impressive for the level of manga I was at (I had been drawing manga since 28 January, a whopping five days), but it sucked.
4 February 2009: I drew "Frame 11" and designed the wings. This is actually a fairly nice drawing, even from an objective perspective. This wing design has been superceded, but the span and average chord dimensions remain the same.
9 February 2009: I redrew Haifun in the same pose as I did on 2 February, a 3/4 portrait. It took me 90 minutes to do the pencil master. After I finished, I pulled back and looked at it, and sat there quite stunned at my first piece of pro-quality manga. A pen detail is online at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/36560633@N04/3370747293/
I begin to develop a trace method because of a desire to protect my erasable pencil masters. I thought that this would also aid in scanning and combining different details from the same frame. This latter concept is a failure, but I still use it to preserve the pencil masters. You will see this when I complete the HD Frame 5 second edition. [This is the "portrait" image in my profiles] The primary remiges and their faces will be the same, but the wing design has been overhauled. HD-5 is the only drawing that had the old wing design in them that had any hope of being recovered after I redesigned the wings.
17 Feburary 2009: "Flying Romance", the original 29 frame dance, becomes Honeymoon Dance, the last (now third-from-last) chapter in an enormous and complex storyline. Flying Romance becomes my main project, replacing a previous manga project, and After Columbia Project.
This manga remains very modest; acts and details remain out of frame, under calf-length nighties with sleeves, under four foot long overlapping remiges, or some other method. I don't think I'll ever need to draw Haifun, or any other female character, with bared breasts. I also don't anticipate using the word "sex" during the manga, since we have come up with so many other ways to refer to the act, and I come up with another of my own (it's a spoiler, so I won't share it here.) The word "rape" is impossible to avoid if I want to avoid using the word "sex", since other methods of describing rape either use the word (sex attack, sexual assault), or ambiguous ("having his way with her"). Fortunately, pictures clean up the words (i.e.: in Ayashi no Ceres, Aya nearly gets raped three times...not counting Yuuhi...once in Vol. 6, twice in Vol. 10, and Ceres actually gets raped in a flashback in Vol. 13. This word is never found in the manga dialogue, although author/artist Yuu Watase may have used it in a sidebar...I say "may" because the translator has some latitude and my memory isn't precise either.)
Now, I must say that the story concept around Featherwing Love (at this time, "Flying Romance") orbits around Cascada's music. This time I was listening to Bad Boy this time. The vision was very, very painful and I cried. Haifun was being raped by the husband she had before Juubi, who she flies with in Honeymoon Dance. She escapes to the balcony, takes off her wedding ring, throws it against the planter, then climbs the railing as her husband emerges behind her. Crounched, she rotates over the railing, then pushes herself as far away from the building as possible. It is a high-rise condominium...she can't fly...this is her suicide. As the chorus begins, Juubi snatches her out of midair, but she is uncooperative. She doesn't want to live, and fights to escape her rescuer. Juubi can't maintain altitude. This vision wasn't going to resolve itself, and I knew Juubi needed to land. I thought about bushes, but eventually decided that it had to be an apartment window. Juubi's own wouldn't be open, so he pulls out a cell phone and calls a friend. He drops the phone as he approaches the window, which is sliding open in front of him. He flares and makes his wings disappear ("furls") just before he touches, tumbling forward across the room inside, letting go of Haifun as soon as they've stopped. Haifun shakes off the surreal feeling of the most recent two minutes of her life and suddenly realizes that they aren't the _last_ two minutes of her life. Juubi's friend is panicking, because he has seen Haifun's horrible injuries. Knowing they can't reveal the wings that carried her from her condo to his apartment, he realizes that they must face the possibility of taking the blame for those injuries. I storyboarded this almost immediately.
From 17 February to 15 March, I developed the entire story of their courtship, which ends with Juubi sharing his wings with Haifun, his new wife. It is a tremendously chaotic tale exploring how human (and featherwing) love, friendship, and lust works (Greek words, "agape", "phileos", and "eros"), and how they must agree in romance.
More later...
(Kisure's the friend who opened the window; I added his tag later)
Style note: Couldn't find anything with feathers, so I decided to borrow a bit from After Columbia Project, and use the Minima Black style from ACP...and yes, it's me...same person, different account. This might explain to the very few ACP regulars why "aftercolumbia" has suddenly gone away.
http://ascentroadmap.blogspot.com/
http://aftercolumbiamars.blogspot.com/
2 February 2009 (after exactly 6 years as "aftercolumbia"), I was listening to the Cascada Song, Everytime We Touch, and had a vision of what is now "Honeymoon Dance", two featherwing beings dancing with each other in midair. The wings magically deployed from their back during the first chorus line "everytime we kiss, I swear I could fly." I develop this into a 29 frame manga script.
Same day: First drawing of Haifun (I named her that day, but not with kanji.) It was impressive for the level of manga I was at (I had been drawing manga since 28 January, a whopping five days), but it sucked.
4 February 2009: I drew "Frame 11" and designed the wings. This is actually a fairly nice drawing, even from an objective perspective. This wing design has been superceded, but the span and average chord dimensions remain the same.
9 February 2009: I redrew Haifun in the same pose as I did on 2 February, a 3/4 portrait. It took me 90 minutes to do the pencil master. After I finished, I pulled back and looked at it, and sat there quite stunned at my first piece of pro-quality manga. A pen detail is online at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/36560633@N04/3370747293/
I begin to develop a trace method because of a desire to protect my erasable pencil masters. I thought that this would also aid in scanning and combining different details from the same frame. This latter concept is a failure, but I still use it to preserve the pencil masters. You will see this when I complete the HD Frame 5 second edition. [This is the "portrait" image in my profiles] The primary remiges and their faces will be the same, but the wing design has been overhauled. HD-5 is the only drawing that had the old wing design in them that had any hope of being recovered after I redesigned the wings.
17 Feburary 2009: "Flying Romance", the original 29 frame dance, becomes Honeymoon Dance, the last (now third-from-last) chapter in an enormous and complex storyline. Flying Romance becomes my main project, replacing a previous manga project, and After Columbia Project.
This manga remains very modest; acts and details remain out of frame, under calf-length nighties with sleeves, under four foot long overlapping remiges, or some other method. I don't think I'll ever need to draw Haifun, or any other female character, with bared breasts. I also don't anticipate using the word "sex" during the manga, since we have come up with so many other ways to refer to the act, and I come up with another of my own (it's a spoiler, so I won't share it here.) The word "rape" is impossible to avoid if I want to avoid using the word "sex", since other methods of describing rape either use the word (sex attack, sexual assault), or ambiguous ("having his way with her"). Fortunately, pictures clean up the words (i.e.: in Ayashi no Ceres, Aya nearly gets raped three times...not counting Yuuhi...once in Vol. 6, twice in Vol. 10, and Ceres actually gets raped in a flashback in Vol. 13. This word is never found in the manga dialogue, although author/artist Yuu Watase may have used it in a sidebar...I say "may" because the translator has some latitude and my memory isn't precise either.)
Now, I must say that the story concept around Featherwing Love (at this time, "Flying Romance") orbits around Cascada's music. This time I was listening to Bad Boy this time. The vision was very, very painful and I cried. Haifun was being raped by the husband she had before Juubi, who she flies with in Honeymoon Dance. She escapes to the balcony, takes off her wedding ring, throws it against the planter, then climbs the railing as her husband emerges behind her. Crounched, she rotates over the railing, then pushes herself as far away from the building as possible. It is a high-rise condominium...she can't fly...this is her suicide. As the chorus begins, Juubi snatches her out of midair, but she is uncooperative. She doesn't want to live, and fights to escape her rescuer. Juubi can't maintain altitude. This vision wasn't going to resolve itself, and I knew Juubi needed to land. I thought about bushes, but eventually decided that it had to be an apartment window. Juubi's own wouldn't be open, so he pulls out a cell phone and calls a friend. He drops the phone as he approaches the window, which is sliding open in front of him. He flares and makes his wings disappear ("furls") just before he touches, tumbling forward across the room inside, letting go of Haifun as soon as they've stopped. Haifun shakes off the surreal feeling of the most recent two minutes of her life and suddenly realizes that they aren't the _last_ two minutes of her life. Juubi's friend is panicking, because he has seen Haifun's horrible injuries. Knowing they can't reveal the wings that carried her from her condo to his apartment, he realizes that they must face the possibility of taking the blame for those injuries. I storyboarded this almost immediately.
From 17 February to 15 March, I developed the entire story of their courtship, which ends with Juubi sharing his wings with Haifun, his new wife. It is a tremendously chaotic tale exploring how human (and featherwing) love, friendship, and lust works (Greek words, "agape", "phileos", and "eros"), and how they must agree in romance.
More later...
(Kisure's the friend who opened the window; I added his tag later)
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