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...)

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.

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.

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)