Chapter IV: Strength and Weakness. Arr. You know you want to read it. You know you want to comment on it even more. I use the Force on you. ::waves hands::

Oh, and whoever decided that girls should dress in white and boys in black at graduations should be... well, not shot, but pinched very hard. Hello, moron! What if someone's time of the month comes up, eh? And do you how hard it is to find nice white clothes? Like a nice white dress? And new nice white shoes that I'll likely never wear again since they can't be sneakers or open-toed? Jeez! If I could just wear black I would be totally covered, man.

Finished sketching/inking the next Karma page. It's a bit rushed because I'm lazier than usual today, so I didn't even use a ruler to panel (and I was attacked by outfit dyslexia again and drew the nameless drummer's outfit wrong). All of Thanatos's members need names. Naming is usually a difficult process for me, which is why I will procrastinate on it if I can. But for the drummer at least I want a nice Spanish name, but nothing generic, like Carlos or Juan or something (yes, I know there are plenty of people named Carlos and Juan and I mean no disrespect to them), that sounds like 'Oh, she wanted someone with Spanish heritage so she just gave him the most common Hispanic name she could think of' =P

I'm also more jittery and twitchy and nervous than usual. My brother likes to make fun of the fact that my nerves are so raw. Anything moves and I react instantly, to stop that movement or otherwise see what it is. Like if there's something on my lap and it starts to slip I'll grab it like it falling will mean the start of the Apocalypse. And I jump at the smallest sounds. I'm just neurotic I guess. But it's been worse than ever lately... I think it's some kind of subconscious thing related to high school ending. Not that I secretly dislike it, but that I'm worried something terrible will happen before I get there... -_-

Whew! And there's still much more left to be scanned (I'm actually running out of pages in my sketchbook). Anyway, finally a Clarity picture... and all of the Elementals. I hate how Tenebrus and Lucerna turned out though so I drew another one, but it's not colored yet. Yes, Moreaetas looks like Kaitlyn. Yes, she's meant to. No, none of the other Elementals share many traits with their Clarity counterparts, and Moreaetas is somewhat like Kaitlyn, but she's much less fretful and a much better leader (but she's also had thousands of years of experience at it). Lastly, chibi-drawing practice.. eheheh. XD At least I got the outfits right this time.

You like?

Time for a rambling post 'o nonsense.

Two days left of high scool. Well, actually, a day and an hour, because I'm only intending to stay for my first period (math) exam on Tuesday (which I must do well on, because my six weeks grade was, um.. Bad. Bad. Not a D or an F, but it's Bad. I think my parents can wait until they mail report cards to find out about it...). Wooow. Just a little bit more suffering (though since it is exam suffering mixed with boredom suffering, it will be suffering of an exquisitely painful order) and then it will be over. FOREVER. And ever. And ever. And ever. I hope I can make it until Tuesday afternoon, because if I do I will believe in God and I will believe in miracles (I already do, but you know. It will ADD WEIGHT to my belief).

My fool brother lost his wallet a few days ago, along with the $480 inside it. His excuse for carrying around that much dough was that he'd just gone to the bank... but I wonder why he didn't just take out enough money for movie fare and leave the rest in his goddamn car? Luckily fate was kind to him and he was able to find it underneath his seat at the movie theater the next day. Good thing the cleaning crew isn't thorough, or else that wallet would have been gone...

I started writing the next chapter of Clarity. Dagan (Gnome Knight) is introduced in this chapter, and he shall be the absolute last character of importance introduced. Argh. Since Clarity has twice as many characters as Claris, its chapters tend to be longer and take longer to finish. I think maybe that since there's usually a month or two gap between chapters for both stories, I should have a mailing list so readers don't have to always vainly check back for new chapter-ness. Good idea, bad idea?

One of my sophomore friends in my French II class gave me a bagful 'o treats today (mostly chocolates, but there's also a grape-flavored [my favorite] Charms sucker), likely because I will be leaving her forever come Monday (and she told me she had something else for me then too, what a sweetheart). Now as I was putting my bagful of treats away (as it is rude to start eating chocolate in the middle of class), a guy who always maliciously mocked me for not having a license demands a chocolate. Ordinarily I would have done the Claris thing to do, which would be to meekly and spinelessly give this bastard a chocolate. But today I said no, put the bag away, and zipped up my backpack. A girl said that was 'cold', which it was, but then again, I'm sick of being nice to assholes (and this guy is an asshole).

Of course I gave my brother two chocolates later and because he's also an asshole, he gave one chocolate to the first mentioned punk. As to why I would give my brother, whom I often claim to hate, anything, well, even though he's a bastard most of the time, he's still family. And I don't deny family chocolate. But if I'd had psychic powers and known he was going to give that guy a chocolate, I would have only given him one. Yes, that is bitchy. But this guy is an ass, and the worst kind of ass--a PATRONIZING ass. The kind that mocks and laughs while he pokes fun at you, and gives knowing looks to people in earshot. The sort I would love to strangle until their heads popped off their necks if I had the strength and moral incapacity.

Used to be I would lie down and help these kinds of bastards. Giving them paper, lending them pencils, letting them use my homework, little kindnesses to be sure, but kindnesses nonetheless. I still will help people even if I don't care for them. But I think it's time I stopped doing favors for people that openly mock me. NO CHOCOLATE FOR YOU.

Ahh, I actually have that issue of EGM. There's nothing quite like video game humor (I mean, it's why 8-Bit Theater is so [deservedly] popular... XD)

Claris Selector v. 2.0. It is done. Mwahahaha. n_n

I didst forbid mineself from going onto AIM or making use of any chat-related program on this night, for I had to study for my important math test tomorrow. Which I'll fail anyway. But hopefully it will at least be a HIGH fail (like a 60, instead of a 40).

However I shall now talk about Septerra's religion, because I feel like it, and Anomie in her claris comments asked about it.

Septerra, for those of you that don't know, is Alistair and Necavi's planet. Its religion, for those of you that don't remember and aren't Claris betas, is polytheistic, their pantheon consists of the seven elemental gods/goddesses. These are: Moreaetas (life/death), Callida (fire), Adimitri (earth), Anhelans (wind), Madefieri (water/ice), Lucerna (light), and Tenebrus (darkness). There's temples in nearly every Septerran town, even in the most technogically advanced places (like the cities where Necavi and Alistair were born). Each temple consists of seven rooms (besides the main hall and etc.), one for each elemental. At birth, Septerran people are usually 'baptized', in that they are assigned an element which most suits them (I haven't really hammered out the details of the baptismal ceremony). When they visit the temple, they enter the corresponding room and commune with the Elemental. Naturally the WHOLE WORLD doesn't follow this religion, but it is the dominant religion for the planet and for the most powerful/richest nations (much like Christianity).

Now, why didn't Septerra's religion progress towards monotheism, like many modern cultures in our society? To justify that I would have to say that the people of Septerra have solid, undeniable proof of these gods/goddesses. Not only can they commune with them (lately Septerrans have had to commune through the elementals' dreams--as Moreaetas explains, they've been sleeping for a long time since no one had been coming to see them [I don't say so in the story, but it was about five years before anyone visited them, that is, before Claris and them came when Nonluna appeared in her backyard] where they actually existed), they can draw upon their power, they can visit with them, et cetera. Because of this awareness of elemental forces, Septerran technology developed much closer to nature, which is why their cars are more environmentally friendly, as is all of their technology in general.

As for determining which element you're affiliated with--sometimes it's the same element as your Zodiac sign. (for example, myself and Claris are Aquarians, which is a Wind sign) But obviously there's no zodiac for light, darkness, and Moreaetas's light/death element. So there are other factors involved also, I just took the easy way out when assigning Claris an element. Some people, very rarely, are born with no affinity. It doesn't mean that they can't commune with any elemental, rather, the opposite: each one will accept this person equally. Having a 'neutral' child is seen as a sign of great luck (Necavi is neutral, so you know). BUT, even if, say, your element is Wind, and you want to talk to Callida, the fire goddess, she'll still commune with you, and she'll let you use her power. But the connection won't be as strong, and naturally the Elementals prefer to commune with people whose affinity matches them. People are naturally strongest with their match, but since some elements go together--like Fire and Wind--Fire is more open to a Wind person than, say, a Water person. But in general the Elementals do not shun anybody.

Necavi is lucky as a neutral because not only can he speak with any Elemental without difficulty, he can also learn every highest level spell. As to why Alistair does the talking whenever they visit Nonluna--well, first of all he's more pious (he simply has more faith in everything than Necavi does), and secondly, his affinity is life/death, and Moreaetas is kind of the 'leader' of the Elementals. To have a child with that affinity is also considered good luck.

Maybe I should make a quiz to determine elemental affinity, eh? XP

Fou-lu was so cute in his Emperor's clothes (I loved that little hat! XD), but I had no idea as to what Eastern culture they were based on specifically.. but seeing as how the game is full of Korean, and searching for Chinese and Japanese didn't turn up much, I looked for Korean and learned all about it (and the empress clothes too--maybe I should try drawing him and Mami in them.. they're complicated though.. o_o). See, video games inspire people to educate themselves... or something.

Sent off the Claris chapter to the betas, but I think I forgot some people... -_- So if you said you'd read mah stuff first and you don't get an email soonly, tell me and I'll give you the URL.

We were at a graduation for my brother's friend Stephen (I guess he's kind of my friend too) and a guy wearing black forms, a spiked collar, baggy black pants and fishnet stockings on his arms was there. His hair was also long and pulled back into a ponytail. Mom commented to everyone she knew that he looked like 'Those characters [lyn] draws.' I expect she was thinking of Rock Sattva, since just recently she'd picked up the latest two Karma pages and tried to read them... (but I hand-write the dialogue in pencil, too light to be properly read, so that was a vain endeavor)

This is the Laris quiz! It was made by Laris, whom I love, and it is the first of any such question survey (I believe I posted a list survey once, like, list four things you love, four you hate, or whatever) and the second of any survey ever to be posted on this blog, which may be a dubious honor. Still. Perhaps stalkers like Kefanii (XD) will learn something new about me. =P

Name, Rank, Serial Number? I'm sure this is a reference to something that I've either forgotten or never knew in the first place... XD But my real name is Courtney Bollinger. My pseudonym is Lyn Straine. My rank is lowly high school student (though not for much longer) and my serial number is... R66-Y. XD

How old are you? Mental age will also suffice. I am 18, but I am also seventeen, fifteen, eleven, five, and three and a half years old. Most of the time I'm three and a half.

Ogenki desu ka? Je ne parle pas le japonais... (but Laris told me what it means. I guess I am okay, at this very moment)

What kind of socks do you have on today? My feet are NAKED! Scandalous!

What's on your desk, or whatever surface you keep your computer on? ^^ Yeez.. um... besides the old bastard Malfactor himself, there's his printer (which doesn't work), his speakers (they don't work either), the scanner, a coffee cup filled with pencils, my CD player and a small but powerful army of scratched CDs, my Latin dictionary, my purse, and although they're not there right now, usually my current writing notebooks and sketchbooks are lying next to me or on the computer...

What was/is your breakfast cereal of choice? Apple Jacks. And Cinnamon Toast Crunch...it's the taste you can see. =P

What's one of your most treasured possessions? My 75 cent notebooks that I write in. Aw.

What's one of your possessions you would be happy to lose in that "accidental" fire? ^_- All the uncomfortable clothes my mom's bought me over the years. It'd take a pretty violent fire to burn all that crap though...

What would you consider your most unique hobby? Psychoanalyzing video game characters? XP I hesitate to call anything I do unique. -_-

What ist thy favorite: (I suck at these kinds of questions... Whenever someone asks me my favorite anything, all knowledge of that thing disappears. I will do mine best)
-Book that made you feel good? Arg! I cannot choose! I will say Big Trouble, because it is funny and it is by Dave Barry (sadly I hear the movie was full of suxx0r).

-Book that made you feel wretched? Maybe Crime and Punishment (although it had a happy ending, kinna)? Maybe Hamlet, but that's a play.. Hamlet is awesome.

-Movie? I don't knooowww... ;_; Maybe The Sixth Sense? I also loved Road to El Dorado... and Atlantis..and lots of movies. -_-

-Movie to make fun of? Aw, that's just mean. :B

-Video Game? Secret of Mana! XD (other games I will love forever are Okage and Breath of Fire IV)

-Video Game to play 2-player/in a group? That'd be Secret of Mana again. 3 players! Wow! Such technology!!

-U.S. President? Lincoln seemed like he was a nice guy.

-Whole number? 7.

-Dead artist? Salvador Dali.

-Living artist? Kaori Yuki! XD

-Flavor of gum? Fruit.

-Crayon? Purple.

What superpower did you want as a kid? I liked horsies and pink as a child. -_- So I didn't give much thought to it. I think maybe I would have liked to try flying though.

Okay, which one would you want today? Invisibility, d00d.

How many fingers am I holding up? Um.. two! No, wait.. five!! No.. seven!! AGH!

John Hughes movies: Pure, delightful 80s stuff, or cheesy scourge of all that is film? I haven't seen any. I'm unhip. (I think everyone's seen Breakfast Club but me)

Am I pulling these questions out of my ass? Perhaaaps. Your ass must have a lot of room in it for you to be pulling so many questions out of it though...

Which is the worse game: Nintendo's Deadly Towers or Atari's E.T.? Haven't played either. XD

And finally - would you like fries with that? Why yes. Yes I would.