Wise Not Withered

Independent Nurse – KAYA RAY

Welcome to Week 22 of the Wise Not Withered Character Showcase! Today I'm excited to present Kaya Ray, our 50-year-old Independent Nurse! Kaya Ray is actually one of just three characters in the Wise Not Withered project whose concept I did not originally come up with myself—two others are amalgamations of the writer's and my ideas (Tsalo-Sesha from Week 7, and the Singing Therapist, who is yet to come), but Kaya Ray's concept and story is not mine to claim.

Read the full transcription here: https://wisenotwithered.com/2021/12/01/independent-nurse-kaya-ray/

Apocalyptic CEO – VALERIA

 

Welcome to Week 21 of the Wise Not Withered Character Showcase! This week I'm thrilled to present Valeria, our 56-year-old Apocalyptic CEO! Valeria is the chief executive officer of a tech company, and finds herself in the middle of a mysterious apocalyptic situation. Her story is most definitely one that is suited for a video game; one of the very first ideas I had with this character is that it would be an unconventional top-down kind of progression. Her office as the CEO would be on the top floor, and she would have to make her way down the building to progress through the game/story.

 

My original description of Valeria's story was the following: Apocalyptic stealth horror comedy! Top-down gameplay: start on the top floor and work your way down to the bottom floor, gathering supplies and teammates on the way, saving various male executives.

 

Read the full transcription on wisenotwithered.com!

Tactician Queen – RABIYA

Welcome to Week 20 of the Wise Not Withered character showcase!! Today I am ecstatic to present Rabiya, our 47-year-old Tactician Queen! This character and story has so much depth and so much potential. Her original idea is based around one of my favorite video game series, Fire Emblem, where the character/player is often the tactician on the battlefield, commanding and ordering the other units to move certain places and perform different actions.

Rabiya's story is one of a few that I think would make such an excellent, engaging, and beautiful video game. The goal of Wise Not Withered as a whole is to expand representation of middle-aged and elderly women in media—though the original idea was purely on video games. I'm happy that I was able to be flexible with different types of media, as some of the stories in this project are great just as short stories.

I was honestly getting a bit overwhelmed with how much potential this particular story had (and still has). A part of me wanted to—and actually somewhat did—stop the entire project to focus on Rabiya's story and the potential in her narrative, all the characters, and the possible gameplay mechanics. I realized at one point though that I had told many writers on the team that it was okay if their story was more of an excerpt of a larger narrative, and the main purpose is to showcase the kinds of inspiring and impactful stories that women can have into our middle-aged and elderly years. When I look at the big picture, I remember that there are twenty-five characters that all need some love and need to be presented to the world, no matter how incomplete their stories are thus far.

Which is where I will dive into Rabiya's story, and my many ideas! Rabiya has a very particular title, "Tactician Queen". When I first assigned the character to Swelynka (Angolan/Portuguese) and Asra (Indian), I needed to explain what exactly that meant. It is unlike any role I have ever seen before in my admittedly small repertoire knowledge of royalty or war heroes. I envisioned a strong queen who leads council meetings, makes decisions for her people, AND commands the army. While discussing the bare bones of the story and characters with Swelynka and Asra at the beginning, we decided that the Kingdom of Kasheer would be a matriarchal society: power would be held by women and passed down through women. Magic powers awakened naturally only in females.

As I mentioned at the beginning, Rabiya's story and combat ideas are heavily influenced by Fire Emblem. I think her story would make such a great tactical RPG, one that I would love to play! When deciding what weapon Rabiya should have, we at first figured a staff or scepter would be suitable. Part of the story includes searching for a magical gemstone that would fuse into her weapon, and a scepter seemed like a good fit. While the development carried on though, I thought specifically about her role as a tactician and warrior, and I realized that a scepter would be capable of only short-range attacks. One of the key combat features in Fire Emblem is this exact thing: nearly all of the characters can attack from either one square away, or two (there are rare cases of three-square away attacks, or even four or more, but again those are rare). One-square-away warriors include regular sword-wielders, lance-bearers, and axe-carriers, while two-square-away warriors are archers. Mages are special since they can attack from both one and two squares away from their target, making them more versatile in that way. Especially in the latest Fire Emblem game, Three Houses, there are even more possibilities of long and short-range attacks with the introduction of new abilities and combat arts, and in that one and other games there are also long-range swords, lances, and axes. But for those of you that either do not play Fire Emblem or do not care about Fire Emblem, we'll save that discussion for another day!

Our illustrator Swelynka was extremely involved in the creation of the story and characters. She had the brilliant idea that our warriors of the kingdom of Kasheer would fight atop mammoths. She made a gorgeous sketch of Rabiya sitting on one of the giant beasts, and I realized that Rabiya would most ideally be able to give orders and attack from a distance. Thus, the scepterang was born!! We kept the original idea of her scepter but combined it with the movement potential of a boomerang. Here's the sketch, with an excerpt of the story, one of the combat scenes:

“Stop!” Rabiya commanded from atop her mammoth, “Leave her alone, or prepare to
fight!”

The bandits all looked up at Rabiya with their eyes narrowed, then rushed forward with
their daggers drawn.

“Everyone get down!” Rabiya yelled as she threw her scepterang forward, knocking down
the two bandits closest to the woman and the baby.

“Soldiers, spread out and protect the villagers, and lead them to safety!” Rabiya shouted
as her weapon flew in a circle and landed back in her grasp, “Lueji and Ghaziyan, neutralize as
many bandits as you can! And Aryan, climb aboard and stay close to me. Arrows ready, son!”

Aryan swiftly climbed Rabiya’s mammoth and sat behind her, drawing an arrow and
staying alert. Red Tribe civilians had started running around frantically, screaming and crying.
Rabiya’s soldiers jumped off of their mammoths and rounded up the Tribespeople, urgently
pushing them safely into their huts. The bandits darted around the tribe, trying to steal personal
ornaments from people who had not yet been fast enough to hide.

“Aryan, there! Aim for his feet!” Rabiya pointed to a bandit approaching an old man who
was clutching a gold-plated cane. Aryan nodded, aiming then releasing an arrow that pierced
the bandit’s ankle—the scoundrel fell to the ground, howling in pain.

The first Fire Emblem game I played was Fates, back when it came out in 2016. I was intrigued by the gameplay, support conversations, and dramatic story. Since that game (or I should say, three games if you include Birthright, Conquest, and Revelation), I have played all the way through seven other Fire Emblem titles. Two things that stood out to me that each game had were the lovable characters and crazy intense storylines. Since it is a tactical RPG, it makes sense that each story takes place during a time of war, which automatically means lots of loss and suffering.

I myself am not a fan of the horror genre in general, but I wanted to include super raw and emotional parts in Rabiya's story. The following scene started out as the introduction, but later was moved to a different section.

"A throbbing pain in Rabiya’s head slowly brought her back to what seemed like consciousness. Trying to open her eyes and grabbing her head on one side, Rabiya could feel the pain in her back as well, and her legs felt heavy and sore. All around her lay tattered limbs and headless bodies, armor in pieces and shields cracked on the ground beside shattered swords and splintered spears. Dozens of arrows burrowed indiscriminately into soil and flesh alike. The snow beneath her feet was splattered and painted a deep crimson with splashes of bright red and dark brown. As she began to recognize the soldiers around her, their blank stares and blood dripping down their chins sent a deep sorrow clenching in her gut. She remembered the scene so vividly..."

A huge part of Rabiya's story and character development is her experience witnessing her father being murdered by her uncle, and subsequently her uncle being murdered by her mother. This traumatic series of events happens when she is a young child, and seeing magic being used in such a destructive way impacts her so strongly that her own magic abilities do not develop when they are supposed to. She carries a lot of shame and frustration around that, but throughout the story she is able to work through her trauma blocks and eventually gain control over her magical powers.

Near the beginning of the story, back to the present when she is already a grown adult, Rabiya ends up losing her mother as well. Since the death of my own mother last February, I've been working with a life coach, a therapist, talking through my thoughts and feelings with friends and family, and have journaled almost every single day. I wanted to incorporate parts of my own healing journey into Rabiya's. I wanted to include the sentiment that no matter how much you prepare, you're never truly, fully ready to deal with your mother's death. One of the hardest things I came to terms with as my mother was dying was that even though I wished it had happened later rather than sooner, it is the natural order of things for a mother to die and leave her daughter behind—the alternative would be for the daughter to die first, which is not supposed to happen. I also wanted and am continuing to work toward stepping away from the concept of my mother "leaving" me. No one's mother intentionally dies to leave her daughter behind, although it can certainly feel that way sometimes. There were still many, many things I wanted to learn from my mother, and the pain of never knowing or learning those things I imagine will dissipate with time but never fully go away. And Rabiya is experiencing that, too.

As the new Queen, Rabiya is learning to rule the people (with her husband, children, and council too) in addition to facing her trauma and dormant magic abilities head-on. She is not completely inexperienced though, as she has been the army's tactician for many years already. I wanted to create a character that is strong, brave, and has been through many of life's challenges already, but someone who still has a lot to learn and still has many hardships ahead of her. No matter how old we are, I believe that there is always more to see and experience, more to teach, and more to learn.

I have absolutely fallen in love with the Tactician Queen Rabiya's family. She is closest with her husband Lueji,daughter Kalemba, son Aryan, and head advisor Ghaziyan. Her advisor was also her mother Queen Amara's advisor, and since the death of her own father from a young age, Ghaziyan became somewhat of a father figure to her.

Each person has a different weapon of choice. As mentioned before, Rabiya has a scepterang (scepter + boomerang). Lueji fights with dual axes but is also adept at unarmed, bare-handed combat. Aryan is a skilled archer and weapon-smith. Kalemba has awakened her magic powers and uses bangles to enhance her healing abilities. Ghaziyan is your well-rounded soldier, capable of fighting with lances, swords, and axes.

As for the main antagonist of the story, enter stage left: Dajjal, the dark sorcerer. I mentioned near the beginning that magic powers awaken naturally only in females. Dajjal is one of very few males who have acquired magical abilities by sinister means. It was important to me that though Dajjal is an evil male, we also included many other male characters who support Rabiya. Even though it is a matriarchal society, and the only ones who are supposed to be able to use magic are women, men are not seen as lesser beings or inferior at all.

All right, that's enough from me. Now here is Asra, introducing herself and talking a bit about her participation in the project:

"Hello everyone

My name is Asra Azad.

I am a mother, an engineer, a teacher , an entrepreneur and have a passion for writing.

I come from a place which is mostly in breaking news and it's all about fight, protests, blood, debates and discussions. 

But this place is much more than a breaking news. From the land of fragrances of beautiful gardens, the smell of saffron; from the sweet baked dry fruit cakes to the home made bread; from the snow caped mountains to the fresh water lakes; it is a place you call paradise on earth and I call it home. It is Kashmir!

Such a poignant beauty would make anyone a poet and I am no exception!

I would pen down my feelings and maintained a diary when I was a child but was not an ardent writer. As I grew up I found writing very therapeutic and it became a passion. And recently I have been writing poems  and in a middle of compiling a book of my own in sha allah. I would like to read out to you guys one of my favourite poems which I wrote long back and it’s called “The Clown”:

THE CLOWN 

Everyone is a clown,

Some are sad and some happy, with the hair curly and brown.

The children uptown,

Frolicking in their fairy little gowns,

With the faces round and lown.

What you need to know is at the end you are a clown.

With ups and downs, you get the smiles and the frown,

It’s up to you what you choose my dear, the happy bright faces or the ugly scowl.

Nobody wants a breakdown.

Life is a ship, hey you there, listen to me and slow down.

It’s up to you how you drive it as nobody wants to drown.

Wear your big red noses, the real humor, the broad smile and the gown.

The name of the person, place, animal, and thing is the noun,

And certainly everyone wants to be a happy clown!

I am quite inspired by Jk Rowling’s harry potter movies and books and when Juliana first sent me the outline of tactician queen I wasn’t sure how the story would go and after several discussions with Juliana and Swelynka who is the illustrator of this story, it ended up into a magical fictional plot depicting so many emotions and power. Queen Rabiya in this story is depicting a bold and beautiful woman who is a military strategist, a Queen of a kingdom , a proud daughter, a loving mother , a supportive wife and a constant hope for the people of her kingdom despite going through so much tragic in her life.

The name Kasheer in the story is the kingdoms name and it is the other name for Kashmir -my hometown. We have also incorporated traditional kashmiri attire for Rabiya in few illustrations!

The character Rabiya showcases every woman of Kashmir and the world who has been struggling a lot but at the same time being a source of power and happiness for the family. 

She is not weak, she is a woman! She is wise and not withered!

Joining wise not Withered project I must say was a very wise decision as the name itself is so powerful and full of enthusiasm. And it's about us the women. It was quite fascinating working in a team of global writers and illustrators. We got to learn a lot from each other Alhmdulilah.

For all the women out there listen to your hear, listen to your inner self it says something and that’s Creative. Don’t keep it there bring it out, step it up and rise!

Thank you so much!"

And now, here is Swelynka!

"Hello! I'm Swelynka, better known as swelynkartist on social media, and I'm an illustrator. I am both Angolan and Portuguese. Technically, I've been an artist since my early teens, but I've only accepted myself as such a couple years ago. I started out as a pencil artist and for ten years, it was all I did. Then I started using more colors, and more materials, and became a watercolor artist, again for a few years. Nowadays, even though I still use a lot of watercolors, I use a lot more materials such as acrylics, markers, and other types of ink.

To be honest, I am so proud of all my artwork, mostly because every single one of them is a step in my journey to become the artist that I aspire to be. I love painting women of all colors and shapes. In my opinion, they are all so beautiful, and so so special.

I really loved working on this project and creating our main character, Queen Rabiya. I had so much fun. When we started coming up with the story around the queen, we immediately thought about mixing African cultures with Kashmiri, and a little bit of the Russian aesthetic. Actually, I've only noticed this right now as I'm talking, but Queen Rabiya reminds me so much of my mother, like she's also dark, short, chubby, and fierce!

I joined the Wise Not Withered project because the description made so much sense to me. Even though I'm not really a gamer, I have noticed this same issue of portraying older women as weaker and pretty much as less than other characters, basically everywhere—from advertising to movies and TV shows and more. So the logical move for me would be to join this project and try to help transform the image of the older women into the mighty warriors they already are in real life.

What I would say to female creatives is that we are all humans trying our best to follow our dreams, and we do not know everyone's stories. So we should always try to encourage, support, and uplift each other. We are all sisters, not enemies. And together, we can right a lot of wrongs in this world by sharing our creative and unique visions. So... Let's do this!"

Queen Rabiya's story means so much to me. I would absolutely love if it one day became a fully-developed book or video game. But that's it for now! Stay tuned for the next character showcase of the Wise Not Withered project!

Blind Assassin – UNNAMED

Welcome to Week 19 of the Wise Not Withered character showcase! This week I’m excited to talk about the Blind Assassin character. Unfortunately she does not have a writer OR illustrator at the moment; both women dropped out, so I have some work to do to find new artists. The original writer for this character had suggested we leave her unnamed, to add some mystery and interest. Now that she is no longer the writer though, I am completely open to naming her. So for now, she is “Unnamed”.

I have a lot of ideas about where this story could go. The original idea was that there would be an elderly woman who wakes up in her house with no memory of where or even who she is. She would go around her house and look at various objects that would bring back bits and pieces of her memories. I had this idea a few years ago when I was going through my now-late mother’s house, looking at all our stuff she kept and thinking about how each little thing had a story, from the sea turtle sticky notes we got in Hawaii to the ribbon that wrapped around a bag of Ghirardelli chocolates from San Francisco.

While that seemed like an interesting idea at first, I realized that the main purpose of the Wise Not Withered project’s stories was to showcase the adventures that we as women can still have into our middle-age and old-age years. Simply recalling memories and looking into the past would defeat the purpose entirely. There were actually quite a few stories where I needed to remind the writers that flashbacks must be kept to a minimum, and be there if and ONLY if that particular memory was essential to recount because of a present-day event. Of course, creating a solid back story and knowing what happened in the past is crucial, but the focus of the story had to be on her life now as an older woman.

So instead of simply sorting through memories, I thought… What if she was blind? And she is going through her house smelling, feeling, hearing various things? But then, how would she have become blind? There was another idea of a World War III veteran that ended up being combined with the Real-Life Mother Nature story; instead of losing her legs in WWIII, the character from that story lost her legs from a plane crash. So I thought it would be interesting to bring back the idea of a war veteran and explore what her life may be like decades later.

The story would have two main points of focus: 1) her relationship with her step-daughter, who is also her caretaker, and 2) her connection to music and piano-playing. These two focal points are personal for me. I grew up with three parents; my mom and dad divorced when I was 2 years old, and my dad remarried when I was 6, so my step-mom played just as important a role in raising me as my mom and dad. I think it’s important to show a loving step-parent relationship in media, since a lot of stories talk about the “evil” step-mother. And then of course, the music and piano-playing is personal to me since my career and so much of my daily joy is based around music, and playing piano has always been one of the greatest sources of fulfillment and healing in my life.

With the addition of the character being blind, I thought it would be interesting if she was a former assassin. There could be one or two flashbacks that explain how she became blind through what would become her last mission. As with the other stories, I want to keep my own ideas flexible to leave lots of room for the writer and illustrator to incorporate their own cultures and interests into the story too. So maybe she won’t have been an assassin. But I do want her to 1) be blind, 2) have a strong relationship with her step-daughter, and 3) play piano as her main source of joy and grounding.

That’s it for this week! Hope you enjoyed reading or hearing my thoughts about this mysterious character. Stay tuned for the next six showcases of Wise Not Withered characters! Stay safe, and please take care of yourself :)

Pirate Captain – RONDA

Welcome to Week 18 of the Wise Not Withered Character Showcase! This week I am proud to present Ronda, our 58-year-old pirate captain! Her dark, epic story was written by Priyanka from India, and captivating illustrations by Fanny from Mexico.

When it came to the Pirate Captain, I really had no idea what I wanted the story or her look to be like. I personally have very little experience with pirate stories and characters—I watched the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie in high school, and... that's it. So I really left her look and her story up to the artists that chose her from the list.

Fanny, Ronda's illustrator, got to work right away and was actually the very first illustrator to complete the character's drawings! So Ronda's illustrations are more so snapshots of her personality and lifestyle, rather than directly connected to the story.

Fanny was so great to work with; she sent us her sketches, did very well with my alteration requests, and completed the full set of illustrations very, very quickly. She may have been one of the younger artists I recruited for the project, but she worked very maturely and efficiently.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BwJDJYOBScu/

Captain Ronda's strengths include her intrepid, bold personality, ability to lead her crew and delegate tasks clearly and effectively. Her main weakness is her peg leg, so she isn't as fast, but she's still strong and purposeful, and excels in close combat.

I found Ronda's story writer Priyanka on Instagram, where she goes by "Perifene Rose". I was drawn in by her dark, powerful language and was shocked to find out she was just a teenager.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CF8-4DiFl_w/

Priyanka's story for Ronda was exactly what I didn't even realize we needed. I helped out with editing the story but I did my best to keep the integrity of Priyanka's writing. I was just floored by her strong language—not profane, just very striking, bold words. As usual I will include an excerpt of the story at the end of the episode.

Ronda's role as captain is just as important as her role as a mother figure to her crew, especially the younger ones. Her team is comprised entirely of her adopted daughters, women whose ages range from 18 to 35. They all have been taken in by Ronda, some rescued from horrendous slave trade. Others were orphans and were in the right place at the right time when Ronda found them. It was important to me to include characters who embraced their wild and adventurous side, while still being loving and nurturing. It can be easy to create female characters that take on typically male characteristics, implying that feminine traits such as softness and flexibility as not as valued. But I really tried to make all of these elderly female characters well-rounded in as many ways as possible.

Here is Ronda's illustrator Fanny introducing herself, talking about her career as an artist and her experience being part of the Wise Not Withered project!

"Well hi, I'm Diana Estefanía Sanchez, but you can find me on social media as Fanny Sanchez Art. And I'm from Monterrey, Mexico. I start to draw since I was five years old. I always carried a notebook and colors in my bag. I really, really liked to draw Yu-Gi-Oh! cards, Sailor Moon stuff, and other animes. But I start to take it seriously, I think, in high school. Because I studied things related with drawing since junior high school, like technique... I don't know how to translate it. And finally, my career as a graphic designer and animator. Now I can say I'm a digital artist, and I work in an animation studio, making illustrations, creating characters, making motion graphics, and graphic design.

For me it's very important to do the best work I could. For Ronda, I made a lot of investigation, searching the clothes, poses, and women her age, because I had no experience designing characters like pirates, or older women. But when I had all these references, I could start making the full body first, then expressions and poses, and finally the illustration with a background. For this final illustration I chose that scene because I thought that she shows all her personality when she was sailing the ship.

Well, the brand looks so cool and interesting for me, because I have never worked on a project like this before, with other female artists of different countries. Also I really love the idea of expanding the representation in media of the elderly woman! And I hope when I reach that age, I still have the possibility of working in the creative world, still making characters, or book illustrations, or paintings.

And finally, my message for other female artists is that if you do this for a career, it will be difficult. But it is worth it, if it is really your dream. And remember, the continuous practice and learning from your mistakes is very important to becoming a better artist."

And now as usual, I will end the episode with an excerpt from Pirate Captain Ronda's dark, epic story, written by Priyanka with edits by yours truly.

"On the surface of the forebodingly calm sea, a three-mast ship—the Crimson Maiden—cut through the dark misty waters of the Jaladri Gulf. Soon the entire ship was drowned in murky fog, ominous clouds hanging in the sky above, obscuring the last rays of sunlight.

Captain Ronda stood tall on the wooden deck, her rough hands tightening around her sword's hilt. She took a deep breath, inhaling the musky smell of damp wood mixed with the salty air. A chilly gust of wind rifled through her bones, insinuating that a wicked storm was on its way. But that was far from Ronda's concerns: her gaze scanned the gloomy waters before her that she knew housed the most malicious of beasts. She understood that a shortcut through these dark waters could be dangerous, but desperate times called for desperate measures, and her crew's supplies were running low.

On either side of Captain Ronda stood Carmen and Jaaga, the eldest and most experienced of her crew, both in their mid-thirties. The women's sharp eyes gazed intently through the thick fog, their breaths coming out short, anticipating the impending doom. They each carried a weapon at their sides, Carmen with a scythe and Jaaga with a lance.

The ship rocked suddenly, and Ronda's focused eyes shifted to where Caspia and Cordelia stood toward the front of the ship. The two of them, in their late twenties, had been around long enough to know how Ronda handled intense conflict, but these particular waters were brand new to them. Their gazes swept from side to side, analyzing their surroundings which did not look so promising. With a single, sharp, swift gesture from Ronda, Caspia and Cordelia left their positions with soft steps toward the deck, where Daria and Hama stood ready with four cannons. Although just in their mid-twenties, Daria and Hama could handle the cannons almost as well as Ronda herself. At the wheel of the ship was Maris, the youngest of the crew. Ronda trusted her keen sense of direction and ability to read the stars.

A flash of lightning tore through the vast black sky, and instantly thunder boomed overhead. The Crimson Maiden began to sway with a sudden surge of waves, and at that moment a giant serpent—the living death of the sea—reared its head above the water, letting out an ear-piercing roar. Globs of festering saliva spewed from its mouth before it dove across the deck and back into the sea, beginning to coil itself around the ship like a restless predator closing in on its prey. A part of the ship cracked and splintered with the pressure.

'Keep up the speed, Maris! Do not slow down at any cost!' Ronda yelled toward the young Maris, who gripped the wheel tightly, struggling to keep with the waves. 'Caspia and Cordelia, stand on either side of Maris! Jaaga! Carmen! Attack its tail! Do not hold back!' Ronda shouted with zeal and confidence, as it was not her first time fighting these wretched sea snakes. She knew their weakness and she was waiting for the perfect opening.

'Hama! Daria! Ready the cannons! Aim at its face when it resurfaces! Wait for my signal!'

Jaaga and Carmen slashed at the serpent's flesh, steadily ripping layers of its thick, coarse skin, preventing it from tightening further around their ship. The beast's tail flung out of the water and smashed right into Caspia—adrenaline surged through her body as she cried out from the shocking impact. Not a second later Cordelia drew her dagger and screamed as she stabbed the serpent's tail before it retreated back into the water. Maris kept her hands steady on the wheel while Caspia and Cordelia locked their arms around her and each other.

Ronda sneered as she knew it wouldn't be long before she would stare death straight in the eyes. It had been a while since she had slain living flesh like this, and the image of scarlet in these black waters fired her up.

The beast began to hiss, stirring up the water even more, vibrating against the ship, rumbling through the entire crew's skin and bones. Ronda prepared herself, knowing that it was all-or-nothing. One chance is all Ronda would have to claim victory; losing would mean only one thing, and she was not planning for death anytime soon.

Right on cue, the monster surfaced at the side of the ship, hissing with fury, its beady eyes filled with rage—and locked right onto Ronda. As soon as it opened its jaws, the captain bellowed:

'FIRE!'

Daria tightly gripped and aimed the first cannon with a steady hand, while covering an ear with the other. Hama drew the string and blasted the cannon right at the serpent's face. Working together they swiftly fired one cannon after the other. The cannonballs smashed into the monster's jaws, fragments of teeth and slimy skin raining down on the crew. The explosions left billows of smoke in the sky above them, and though the beast had been stunned momentarily, it suddenly screeched and rushed forward.

Ronda dodged the serpent's bite, prancing like a tiger, her peg leg supporting her sideways lunge. She swiftly stabbed the beast's neck, and Carmen and Jaaga quickly followed suit, faithfully protecting their captain with their lives, pinning the monster down. Ronda ripped her sword out of the monster's neck and dealt the final blow, driving her sharp blade right into the beast's eye. The serpent shrieked in agony, unraveling its coiled tail around the ship, wildly thrashing about. The scythe and spear that had pinned it down were flung overboard as the serpent withdrew back to the depths of the black sea.

The dark clouds parted and blue sky was revealed once again, as the serpent itself had brought the storm, which it now took deep into the sea with it."

That's it for this week! Hope you enjoyed learning a bit about Ronda, the pirate captain! Stay tuned for the next showcases of the Wise Not Withered characters.

Pop Star CEO — ELIZAVETA

Hello and welcome to Week 17 of the Wise Not Withered Character Showcase! This week I'm excited to present Elizaveta (Liza), our 64-year-old Pop Star CEO! This character's story was written by a Russian writer, and so she herself is Russian as well. The illustrator I originally had do the drawings of Elizaveta unfortunately disappeared, so we will have to use our imaginations until I find a new illustrator.

It was important to me to have a pop star in the Wise not Withered project: not only a woman who is still going strong in her career, but also a woman who has climbed the ranks and risen to the top and now owns the company and runs the entire business. The writer for this character, Anna, did such a fantastic job of adding in details about Elizaveta's daily life that I definitely could not have come up with on my own.

I found Anna on Instagram while searching with a hashtag that was something along the lines of "kpop writer" or "kpop blogger". When I was searching for the writer for this story, I wanted that woman to have a solid background and interest in the music industry, so she could write a convincing story. I was immediately drawn to Anna's page, with posts promoting self-love and a generally warm and positive vibe.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CBYLLl3H0QE/

Anna's story that she wrote for Elizaveta, titled "The Woman With Wings", is not just about her life as a performer and businesswoman; there are also strong themes of reconnection and second chances. In the beginning of the story, Liza advises a newcomer artist that she must work together with her bandmates rather than steal the show herself. After this pep talk, Liza reflects on her younger days as a band leader and realizes that she did exactly what she was advising the younger singer not to do. She then tries to reconnect with her former bandmates, showing that it's never to late to learn from and make amends for your mistakes, even if it takes decades to realize them.

The second half of the story focuses on Liza's performance at a special commemorative anniversary concert where she met a man who was at the time the love of her life. Family disapproval (basically racism) led to the couple's breakup, and Liza is hopeful that her old flame will show up at this special concert.

In addition to being a strong authority figure and business owner, Elizaveta's close relationships to her sister and niece are also shown in the story, where Anna wrote about Liza going to get a custom dress made for her performance. In all of the Wise Not Withered stories, it was important for each character to be well-rounded, not only in personality but also in lifestyle and relationships. In a society where women's romantic relationships seem to take priority over relationships with themselves and others, it was really important for me to build a solid community around each character.

I think that romance is exciting to read about because it's unpredictable, and you're really never sure exactly what's going to happen. That air of mystery is very enticing and thrilling to read and experience. But it's not a sustainable source of love and happiness, and real, true love and friendship comes from a place of solidity and there actually isn't all that much mystery on a day-to-day basis. There's a level of dependence and trust that replaces the uncertainty, and while there are still conflicts, it is such a beautiful thing to have deep, loving bonds with people.

Elizaveta's story does include some romance, though just like the others that do, it is not the primary focus. The story is called "The Woman With Wings" because that's the name of her new song, but it also represents Elizaveta as a character and a person. She chooses to not be tied down by the mistakes of her past, and chooses to learn from her experiences and grow.

When I find the illustrator for Elizaveta, I want to make sure she has GLASSES! Aside from my regret of not having enough LGBTQ+ characters in this project, I also didn't remember to put enough of them in glasses. I myself wear glasses, my mom wore glasses, so do many other people in my family, especially older folks.

As I've done in previous showcases, I'll end this one with an excerpt from Elizaveta's story:

"Not for the first time, Elizaveta was glad she had remembered to bring her sunglasses and hat, though she still often got recognized. It’s not that she minded the attention; she just didn’t have the time or energy for idle chit-chat with strangers more than once or twice a week. Between directing music videos, sitting in on recording sessions, and counselling her staff and beginner performers on a daily basis, she needed a few minutes to herself every day, where she could sip her cappuccino in peace and feel the chilly breeze on her face while sitting on the benches outside her office building.

There was nothing special about that day - meeting with sponsors, a couple of business calls and the final rehearsal of the new girl band The Lilia, whose debut was scheduled for the following week.

Elizaveta confidently entered the office building and took the elevator to the seventh floor, where her own cabinet and the huge meeting room resided. She still remembered how hard she worked to get a whole building that was now proudly marked with the neon sign with her name on it, 'Elizaveta Sokolova'.

Through the elevator glass she saw vivid life at the office: young celebrities and backup dancers were practicing their performance pieces in large studios, singers were taking vocal lessons in well-insulated booths, managers were answering calls and e-mails trying to organize meetings and interviews for her actors and musicians, fashion designers were making mood-boards with the most modern ideas for future shows. As a creator of all of this she was very proud and grateful for such a hard-working and loyal team."

—

That's all for now! Stay tuned for the next episode of the Wise Not Withered character showcase!

Herb-Tracking Navigator – NARDEEN

Hello and welcome to Week 16 of the Wise Not Withered Character Showcase! I'm thrilled to present Nardeen, our 75-year-old Herb-Tracking Navigator! This character was actually the very first one I came up with, and I'm so very happy with how she and the other characters turned out in her story. The writers for this story were Heba, from Palestine, and me. Nardeen's wonderful, detailed illustrations were done by Natalia, from Argentina.

Now, what is an "herb-tracking navigator", you ask?? I'm not sure exactly how I came up with this concept. I had a vision of an elderly woman that has a rare magical ability of diagnosing an illness, and identifying and tracking the right herbs to cure it. Not necessarily a past or future setting, Nardeen's world is one lacking in technology, but abundant with plants and herbs, animals (particularly goats), and supernatural elements like magic and spirits.

Nardeen's story, titled "Generational Forbearance", was a collaborative effort between Heba and me. The story begins with some tender moments between Nardeen and other villagers, including her grand-daughter, Amira. The story focuses on the relationship between the two of them; Nardeen and Amira both have the "sacred herb-tracking sense".

The woman of the generation in between them—Nardeen's daughter/Amira's mother—is named Aliana, and she does not have the herb-tracking ability. This creates some tension in Aliana's relationships with both Nardeen and Amira. In addition, Aliana's husband/Amira's father had passed away years prior to the story, from a tick infestation—even though it was not Nardeen's fault, Aliana still harbors some resentment toward her mother, the esteemed village apothecary, for not being able to save him.

A mysterious plague afflicts many villagers in the story, and Aliana is one of them. She ends up passing away, still visibly angry with her mother and never letting go and forgiving her. The title is "Generational Forbearance" because one of the main themes in the story is forgiveness (or lack thereof) of parents. We see in Aliana that she never forgave Nardeen for things that ultimately were not Nardeen's responsibility (Aliana's lack of magical abilities and her husband's death). I wanted to provide this tragic example to show how very sad but very real it is that some people die without ever forgiving people they feel have wronged them in some way. I think resentment toward one's family, particularly parents, is probably pretty common across all cultures. It's really up to each of us to recognize that our parents did their best, and the mistakes they made are ultimately our responsibility to come to terms with, especially if our parents are no longer alive to discuss deeper matters.

The main themes in the story are pretty deep and raw, not unlike those of other Wise Not Withered stories, and they resonate especially for me in this time of my life. I was hesitant to post this episode and have been taking a while to write it because I realized that there was no way I could not talk about my own mother, and how her recent passing ties in so closely with this story.

My mother passed away from lung cancer in the end of February, and it was an earth-shattering experience, to say the least. I guess I shouldn't say "was", because it still is affecting me nearly every moment of every day. When I first wrote Nardeen's story, I tried to write about what it might be like to experience the death of a loved one, and now that I actually have experienced it myself, I have two reactions to what I wrote. First, I'm surprised that some of the things I wrote about were absolutely spot on to what I am feeling now. Second, there were a few instances where I thought what I wrote may be a bit too dramatic, but after having lost my mother and experienced this type of grief first-hand, I will not change those parts because the death of a family member really is such a dramatic and life-changing event.

Forgiveness of parents and the cycle of life in general are the two main themes of this story. Aliana, as I mentioned earlier, provides an example of an older woman who does not forgive her parents, and ends up dying with the pain and resentment still locked in her heart. Nardeen on the other hand travels with Amira to the source of the plague and must come to terms with some incredibly difficult decisions that her own parents made, back seventy-four years ago when she was still an infant.

She discovers she had a twin sister that her parents tragically decided to leave behind, because they could not afford to keep both babies. The wrath of the twin sister is what ended up causing the plague—pain and resentment manifested—that traveled miles and miles across the ocean and rivers to Nardeen's village.

When I was getting ready to make this showcase, I thought about how Amira and Nardeen's relationship may become strained when Aliana dies. I thought maybe I should add in more conflict between the two of them, possibly Amira blaming herself or Nardeen for the death of her mom (and her dad years ago). I decided later though that there was enough conflict (between Nardeen and Aliana, Amira and Aliana, and closer to the end Nardeen with her twin sister's spirit), and adding in more would just feel forced and unnecessary. Besides, in time of grief and uncertainty, it just made more sense to have a solid relationship that never wavers. That's how I feel about my brother right now—while my relationships with other family members somehow became even more strained after my mother's death, I honestly feel like there's nothing that could come between my brother and me. While we are both feeling the intensity of losing our mom, we are able to see only each other and a few other select people during this COVID-19 quarantine. So I wanted to show that strong bond that gets even stronger during hard times.

This story has such a special place in my heart, particularly because as I said before, Nardeen was the first Wise Not Withered character I created, almost two years ago now. Nardeen's story is so fitting for a video game, and I'm so proud of the parts I added into the story that would be super fun to play. When Nardeen and Amira first set off on their voyage, I made a long list of things that Nardeen puts into her pack, though I finished writing that list after figuring out what all she was going to do later. Here's one of my favorite parts of the story:

“'Amira, we are in need your paddling skills after all,' the older woman smiled as she handed the oar to the younger woman. Amira nodded, not knowing exactly what Nardeen was thinking, but trusting. 'The direction of the river has changed, but we can still steer our boat to and fro.'

With her grandmother’s directions, Amira paddled their boat to either side of the river while Nardeen reached out and plucked a multitude of reeds and grasses of different lengths and widths. She then broke a handful of twigs and branches off of the dead tree trunks. Nardeen sifted through the pile of twigs until she found two that were the same length and shape, bending slightly outward. She carved a small slot in the bottom of each twig, then using a thin blade of grass, she threaded it first through the slots then around and around, securing the twigs together.

From inside her pack she retrieved a large handful of dandelion stems. She squeezed each stem gently, catching the goopy substance that came out into her hands. Rubbing her palms together, the dandelion goop became a single, thin, elastic piece, which she strung across the top of the twigs, in the space that formed as the twigs bent away from each other. Nardeen reached in her bag for the stash of small nuts. Bringing her newly crafted slingshot up to eye level, she placed a nut in the spider web, pulled it back, then fling! The nut flew through the air and landed with a plop into the water."

—

As with all of the other characters too, I could not have fleshed out Nardeen's aesthetic and personality without the help of the writer and illustrator who contributed to her story and look.

So without further ado, first here is Heba introducing herself and talking about her experience writing about Nardeen.

"Hello! My name is Heba Hayek. I live in Palestine in a small city called Gaza, where a lot of conflicts happened in the last decade. I'm married, and I have three beautiful children. I've worked in several fields. Currently, I am a translator, proofreader, and creative writer. I started writing in the age of 13. Most of my writings were about my daily life, and sometimes I would criticize some thoughts and ideas that I didn't like in my society.

Each article, or topic, or small paragraph that I write usually reflects a certain situation, feeling, or person that had an impact on me. The most precious articles to my heart are two. The first one is called 'Survivor Lost Within'. In this article, I reflected my own experience during the last aggression on Gaza, while being pregnant with my third child. And the second article is called 'Beneath The Rubble Rises Hope', where I talk about a young lady who fought all the misfortunes she had in her life to achieve her goals.

In this story, I wanted to reflect the bright side of my society, because worldwide we are not recognized as the peaceful, loving society. When I started writing about Nardeen, in my head I had imagined every single mother and grandmother in my society. Nardeen is an example of any grandmother who is willing to do anything for the sake of her family. Nardeen is an example, because she is a leader. She is willing to do anything to serve her people. In Nardeen's character, I chose to implant my traditions, reflect in her dress: the color of the dress, the colors of the dress that sewed in the dress. While Amira is another example of any grand-daughter in my society.

The whole story reflects the strong relationship that gathers the families in Palestinian society. The scenes in the story are a collection of my own childhood. The places where I used to spend my childhood, the view of the sea, the view of the boat, the view of the farm: everything is all a combination of a shattered childhood.

Because I've always believed that women are capable of doing anything they want, that's why I joined the Wise Not Withered project. The idea of the project is to erase the stereotype image of women all over the world, and to show them that women are educated, strong, and can achieve anything they want. The whole experience of the project was amazing, and it let me get to know different people from different cultures worldwide."

And here is Natalia, introducing herself and talking about the gorgeous illustrations she made of our protagonist Nardeen, and her grand-daughter Amira.

"Hi, my name is Natalia, AKA Nillus Art. I'm from Argentina, so I'm really sorry for my English right now. And well, I'm going to try my best. I describe my art style like girls, girls, girls! Because like eighty percent of my work are female characters. They are everything to me, I love drawing women. Also I love to use gold, doing really really beautiful flowing hair, and you see pink, blue, and violet in my palette because they are my favorite colors ever.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bw75mfBlYPG/

I think one of my favorite pieces are some of the latest pieces I made with red, black, and gold. I'm making a series of mythological creatures. A year ago I made a spirit, and I think I used blue, green, and pink. That is also a great palette. It was like super hard, because the piece is really little, and have so many details. I don't know why I made that to myself. So they were really difficult to do, and I'm so proud of them. I hope you like these pieces too, in the story's work.

I really love the story, and it made me remember a lot of my granny. I think Nardeen is so like her. I think the story is amazing, because you have so many depths in the characters, you have so many moments... They are so well-balanced: you have bad moments, you have good moments, you have dramatic moments. I think you will find yourself loving the characters in the end of the story. What I love the most about Nardeen is that even in a really dark moment, she finds herself, keeping on, and doing the next right thing. And I think she is so brave, and a lot of people are going to love her for that.

I joined this project because I love the idea of representation of older women in the media. As a gamer and comic reader, it's really sad to see that 40+ woman characters are only support or really secondary characters. I think that telling these stories really reflect women and their value. I know I'm going to grow old someday, and I hope to be like them, like all these characters. Keep doing what I love, because you have no limit to do what you love if you're alive."

[caption id="attachment_664" align="aligncenter" width="1806"]Illustration by Natalia

—

Hope you enjoyed the episode! Thanks for listening. I'm a bit slower than usual to get them out right now, but there are indeed nine more characters, so please stay tuned for more showcases!

Dancer – YANTI

Full transcription available on WiseNotWithered.com:

https://wisenotwithered.com/2020/03/17/dance-teacher-yanti/

Magical Blessing-Granter – TALA

Hello and Welcome to Week 14 of the Wise Not Withered Character Showcase! This week I am proud to present Tala, our 103-year-old Magical Blessing-Granter! The illustrator for the oldest character of the entire project is Zahra, from Iran.

I absolutely adore the illustrations that Zahra made for Tala. She worked so hard, creating five fully colored, incredibly detailed pictures. In the sketching and initial coloring stage, I asked her to completely change the aesthetic of the character, which I understand is no easy feat and something I should have told her sooner. But she did it! She was amazing to work with, and I love the illustrations she made so so much.

Illustration by Zahra Gholamijalal

The interesting thing about this character is that her illustrations are done, but I have yet to find a writer. The original person who was going to write the story for this character had so many great ideas and we were in contact for many months, but before the story was finished, she just disappeared, and I have not heard from her since last June.

It's a shame, but the show must go on! This is actually something that has happened quite a lot during this project, an issue that I did not see coming but makes a lot of sense that it would happen. At the beginning I thought okay, I have recruited all of these people for this project. I'll send them the character list one week, pair them up the next week, then get started right away! It obviously ended up taking longer than that to wait for people to pick their preferred character, for me to pair people, and then get started. Then once we got started, sometimes it was mostly me and one other person (usually the writer) coming up with all of these ideas. Sometimes the illustrator was also very involved, but what ended up happening for a few of the characters is that the ideas we had after all did not match up with what the illustrator thought we were doing. So I have had to find new illustrators for quite a few of the characters.

With others, the work is not done yet, but they have continued to stay in contact with me, which I greatly appreciate! I understand that people have their own busy lives, and this passion project is not a source of income so it is not a top priority for any of the writers or illustrators—it's a priority for me, and I am the one coordinating and directing everything! I'm at a place now where I can still see a vision of the final product, but am waiting patiently, trusting that each part will be completed, sending reminder emails and texts, and letting go of people that I don't hear from for months. It's been an interesting process. I do my best to send only good vibes to the people that I drop from the team. No hard feelings, we simply must be moving forward.

Tala's story will be a very interesting one! Her gorgeous illustrations are all completed, and the writer I find will create the story in a backwards way, using the illustrations as a guide. One important thing about Tala is that, because she is the oldest character (age 103), she is the only one that is allowed to die at the end. There was some discussion with other writers about their character dying in their story, but I put my foot down and made it very clear that those characters would not be allowed to die—that would defeat the whole purpose of the project! Tala is special though, being the oldest character. I will discuss that with the writer I find though, and maybe she won't die. We'll see.

Illustration by Zahra Gholamijalal

The original writer I had found for this story was from the Philippines, and really into Philippine mythology. I would love to find another writer from the Philippines to create the story for Tala, but a different type of Asian would be fine too!

The description I wrote for Tala was this:

Magical Blessing-Granter — Age 103

• story starts with adventurers going to visit the magical blessing-giver, and you think it’s about them… but it turns out that SHE is the main character!
• brief exploration of how she got to be where she is, and what she gains from using her unworldly powers to help out those in need
• meditation/yoga teacher, practices every morning for herself too
• powerful illusionist: protects her land and people from ill-intended outsiders

I came up with this idea first while thinking of characters like the Great Fairies in The Legend of Zelda. These characters, like many other NPCs, sit in one place for the entire game, waiting for passing travelers to come and use their services. I thought it would be great to turn that around, and once the traveler leaves, the camera slowly pans back to the fairy-like person and you soon realize that SHE is the main character of the story!

It's always important to come up with a solid backstory for any character in a narrative, even if you never flat-out tell the audience. One of the ideas I came up with for Tala is that she has these beautiful wings that allow her to fly above her village and survey the area. These wings would not have always been a great advantage for Tala: for years she was shunned and ostracized, especially during the time that they were forming and growing. I haven't come up with why exactly she has wings, but I think it's important that she had a tough time accepting them earlier in her life, while now she embraces them and uses them to her advantage. They are a blessing after all.

I'm excited to see what story will come from the illustrations that Zahra made! Finding a writer for Tala's story is high on my to-do list, though so is finding an illustrator for Candace, editing and polishing some of the remaining stories... It's a lot to do. And I will get it done!

Thanks for tuning in to the Wise Not Withered Character Showcase! New episodes every Sunday (sometimes Monday) until mid-2020!

Fire & Water Twins - FEU & SUI

Welcome to Week 13 of the Wise Not Withered Character Showcase! I am recording from my kitchen table today, for a change of scenery. It's a little windy outside, so you may hear the gentle tinkling of the wind chimes right outside my front door throughout this episode. This week features the last PAIR of women: our fire and water twins, Feu and Sui. Their supernatural story about parallel worlds and elemental powers was written by Jessie Jing, with gorgeous illustrations by Marah Ali.

A lot of the Wise Not Withered stories are set in reality, or at least a realistic world. Something really special about Feu and Sui's story is that there are actually two worlds: the living world of Earth, and the parallel spirit world of Etern. Jessie will talk more about this later in the episode.

In terms of plot, the Fire and Water Twins' story was perhaps the most bare-boned idea I had at the beginning. I just knew that I wanted there to be twins that had fire and water powers. That idea sparked from the plethora of natural disasters that have been happening in the United States: raging fires in the west (where I live), and devastating hurricanes in the east. I thought about how it would be great if someone could take all the water from the other side of the country and bring it here to the west coast. I started to imagine two middle-aged women floating high in the sky, bringing all the water over there to over here. And that's really all the thoughts I had about these characters!

Jessie brought such a depth to the twins, coming up with their names and the idea of being cast into parallel worlds. I'm amazed at just how broad Jessie's creative spectrum extends: she is arguably one of the most multi-talented artists on the team so far, not only excelling in writing but also dancing and choreography. I was so happy to hear back from her.

The story of Feu and Sui is definitely fit for a video game: it starts with a narrator named Vide, inviting the reader/player to learn about the twins and help reunite them, to bring balance to the world. Here's an excerpt from the beginning of the story:

"They need to be reunited in order for the world to be in balance once again...

Hello, my name is Vide. I am the answer to all that is unknown, which shall be revealed soon. What we will need to do first, however, is reunite the twins in order for the world to be in balance once again. Will you help me?

I will tell you the story of Feu and Sui, and you can be the judge of whether or not you will help me in this journey of reuniting the twins..."

Jessie and I collaborated on the rest of the story, bringing her ideas of Feu and Sui's past and rooting them into current-timeline scenarios. The ending is purposefully left open-ended, which I will read at the end of the episode.

—

The illustrator I found for these characters was Marah Ali from Jordan, whom I discovered through Behance. I was really drawn to the realistic details and colors she used for the portraits she had on her page. She was such a joy to work with!

Both of the artists involved in the creation of these characters' story and illustrations got involved in the Podcast this time, so without further ado, here is the illustrator, Marah!

"Hi, my name is Marah Ali. I'm a studio artist and animator from Jordan. The projects that I'm most proud of are probably two animated music videos that I've done for a local band that I'm a huge fan of. My experience with Wise Not Withered was extremely nice. I had so much fun drawing the fire and water twins. The story was extremely creative, extremely beautiful—I was blown away when I first read it. I got so excited. I tried to make the characters as magical and beautiful as they were in the story. I was also happy that I was given enough creative space to work with my own style. Juliana was such a sweetheart.

Illustration by Marah Ali

I also joined Wise Not Withered because the concept of empowering middle-aged women is extremely important, yet we're always saying on TV, how we should empower young women, and children. We don't talk much about empowering middle-aged women, though it's extremely important. I think that most middle-aged women that I know of are superheroes to me. So I would love if my art might empower any of them. Make them more confident, or might put a smile on their faces when they see middle-aged women with super powers.

I also would love to be a storyteller with my art. So telling stories with my own art. So that's one of the reasons that I joined Wise Not Withered. It was a very, very awesome experience."

And here is the writer, Jessie!

"Hi! My name is Jessie, and I am currently living in London. I am Malaysian Chinese, and I am a dancer and writer. I largely within the contemporary dance scene, and currently studying my master's in choreography. So I'm an all-around creative!

I work a lot with writing and text as well, for my dance projects, and vice versa. With writing, I like to work with flow and movement, so both sides of my artist identity informs the other. I'm actually publishing a book, so the launch date is the 28th of February. It's a poetry collection I've written nearly three years back. It's called Manuscripts of the Mind. Publishing with the Ghost and Ribbon, which is an independent publisher. So a little plug there!

It's interesting, with this [story]. One of my biggest influences in narratives and story telling is actually Harry Potter. Even Lord of the Rings, although reading-wise, when I was younger I was much more affinitised with Harry Potter. I loved the magical world that it created. I read a lot of Jacqueline Morrison's books as well, and Roald Dahl. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda... These are books that I hold dear in my heart. So I think naturally, when it came to this project... To write about the twins, Feu and Sui, I naturally gravitated toward creating a world. Creating, really opening the imagination, and going really supernatural, with magical abilities.

It's also quite a theme that goes across my projects, where I like to create a narrative, create a different space and world for whoever's reading—or watching, if it's for my dance projects.

So Feu and Sui are twins. They are elemental twins basically, fire and water. The name Feu is French for fire, and Sui is the Romanization of the Cantonese pronunciation of water. I really like to play with language! It talks about them being in... General background is that they're long-lost twins. Not in the sense that they're lost in one single world, but actually parallel worlds. Sui is in a world "Etern", like a supernatural world, and it's parallel to the Earth that we live in. For Feu, she has supernatural abilities that she is kind of aware of but not, but she's much more in the sort of normalcy of Earth. The story jumps off that point.

They're separated from birth. Basically there's a long, deeper story to it. But in the womb, what happened was Feu was the surviving twin, and Sui unfortunately wasn't. But she never truly disappeared, but went into the parallel world of Etern. The story would eventually lead to their meeting, and it would cast the world off balance should their meeting not happen. So yeah, it's quite a dramatic story! (laughs) This is where we start.

Obviously, Feu and Sui individually can... Well more Sui, because Sui is aware of her elemental powers. They can manipulate their elements: Feu is for fire, and Sui is for water. And this is the overarching storyline of the story.

So like I mentioned, I am very into the whole creation of a different world, hence why Etern is introduced. Should this be a longer extended project, Etern would come into play a lot more. My love for creating worlds and narratives really influenced this creation of a different supernatural, elemental world, and the parallelism of the worlds in this universe.

Illustration by Marah Ali

In terms of culture... A theme that happens a lot throughout my projects is that I love to play with the notion of duality. Hence the parallelism of the worlds, in that what we see is never what we really... It's not always the only truth. There are many different truths and also many different existences. I wouldn't pinpoint it to a particular culture, but definitely there's this sort of belief of dual or multiple realities. Maybe it's much more science, in that sense? There are many different influences. But definitely my interest in creating a magical, different world is the biggest influence.

I joined the Wise Not Withered project because I really liked what it stands for. The notion that you know, middle-aged and above, senior-aged women are very under-represented across the board, whether it's commercially or even day-to-day in jobs. There is this culture of casting elders aside, perhaps they are not aesthetically fitting to the demands of the commercial society. I feel that is not true: there is so much that the senior ages can offer. Their wisdom, their power, their strengths are so underrated. This is a big reason as to why I joined. And also because I was raised by my mom, she's a single mother. She obviously will grow older as well. As a younger generation, I hope to carry her legacy as a wise, older woman. So beautiful in her heart, inside and out, and pass that on, really.

I would say to a fellow woman... It's been on my mind always, but especially lately, because I've been working in collaborative projects and we've had lots of chats... To stand strong and be confident for other women, and your fellow artists. And to be proud of them... It's so satisfying. It makes you feel so wholesome, as both a person and an artist. I feel the world can get very competitive at times, and we cannot let this culture of competitiveness make us lose our very innate empathetic and supportive nature.

Thank you for having me! I really enjoyed this experience in Wise Not Withered, really really enjoyed this experience. I hope to you know, see more artists and writers all across disciplines come together for such projects. And thank you Juliana. Such a great initiative. I really hope for the best for this initiative to go further and further in the future. Thank you!"

—

And here is how the story ends:

"This is where you come back in, friend. Feu has fallen and now is precariously treading on the thin line between the living Earth and Etern. On Earth, one can be alive with land-dwelling beings, and feel the warmth of the sun on human skin, complete with human emotions. In Etern, there is no warmth but that which lies within your spirit. Elemental powers are active and heightened in Etern.

Now, dear friend, two options lie at this fork in the road. What shall Feu and Sui do?

1) Feu blacks out, her lungs filling with water. Sui gently touches her hand, and Feu begins to glow red. Just as the life force returns to Feu’s motionless body, Sui is catapulted out of the water and onto the pier. Her first time out of the water, Sui stays on the ground for a few seconds, crouching down and feeling the sturdy wooden logs of the pier beneath her toes and fingertips. She glances down at the water below, then tilts her head up toward the clouds and the brilliant sun, whose cascading rays nearly bring Sui to tears.

“My sister... Where am I? Is this the place where you have lived all this time? I must find you, and bring you back... To Earth.”

This route would follow Sui on Earth and Feu in Etern, and their adventure in trying to get Feu back onto Earth.

 

2) Sui catches Feu, and quickly breathes a flurry of bubbles that flutter across Feu’s face, magically clearing the water out and repelling it from her lips and nostrils. Feu opens her eyes, and the two women stare at each other. Without a word, they embrace, their elemental hair burning and flowing together in an intricate dance. They separate and look at one another once more. Feu marvels at her sister’s electric blue hair, slivers of silver shining like the moonlight and stars. Sui admires her sister’s fiery smoke and ember red and grey hair, dancing like flames even though they are underwater.

This route would follow Feu and Sui both in Etern, and their adventure in trying to get both of them back onto Earth.

The choice is yours, dear friend. Go with your gut feeling, and choose the path that speaks to you."

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Stay tuned for more Wise Not Withered Character Showcases, releasing nearly every Sunday, sometimes Monday, until mid-2020!