TextI put One and Ina on the same page as Daniel and Elaine, as they seemed like the biggest opposing forces. Like yeah, Emma has kicked the most evil butts in terms of numbers, but Elaine is the one most capable to face One, as she has before.
One is basically a shadow that worked really, really, hard to think like a very smart person. He gets up every day, ignores his stomach grumbling, so he can work towards his ultimate goal, and then maybe get a nice big snack as a reward. Shadows aren't usually the best at patience. There's a study on delayed gratification called the Stanford marshmallow experiment (sometimes shown in tv sitcoms) where a child is given the choice to eat one marshmallow immediately or wait for a short period of time to receive two marshmallows. Most shadows will torture (or help) the same marshmallow a bit to give it more flavor, but will usually eat it after a few years at the most, before another shadow comes along and steals it. One has been staring down the same marshmallows for decades, eating the occasional side-marshmallow, but resisting the urge to gobble every thing up. He'd love to eat all of Calliope right now. He's a shadow torn between the big goals he really wants and the snacks he really wants. You really see the worse of him in the Emily Gale chapters.
Elaine is a natural writer and reality warper in ways One can't plan for, and she can be as determined as he is. While Namesakes fight Rippers and storybook creatures, Writers will often be those opposing the shadows, as their powers most closely resemble Muse powers.
In chapters 31 and 32, during the battle on Calliope grounds, we see a little newborn shadow, sprung from Ina and One's cumulative forms, try to tempt Selva to get shadowfied.
https://www.namesakecomic.com/comic/beautiful-anger
https://www.namesakecomic.com/comic/alternate-path
https://www.namesakecomic.com/comic/betrayer
It's not really good at it, it's newly hatched and temptation takes skill, but this scene illustrates how Ina became a shadow when her resentment got out of hand. I love drawing Ina. She's so scarily gorgeous.
Daniel and Ina are also similar I find.
Elaine is a bit distrustful of her dad at the moment. She's slowly realizing he may have done some bad things. It's going to be hard for her to reconcile how she feels about her dad and how she feels about Daniel Crewe, ex-Ripper. Daniel adores all his kids, but Elaine is the one he raised basically alone. Them rebuilding their relationship is going to be a emotional.
We could write so, so, many paragraphs about how cool as hell Elaine is. And we have! It's the entire comic. Elaine is very much the heart of the story. She has so many people protecting her because so many people love her and that's cute as hell.
Here a few pages to check out as reference:
https://www.namesakecomic.com/comic/patchwork
https://www.namesakecomic.com/comic/bug-surprise
https://www.namesakecomic.com/comic/elaine-vs-one
https://www.namesakecomic.com/comic/egg
https://www.namesakecomic.com/comic/shattered
https://www.namesakecomic.com/comic/henry-and-hyde
https://www.namesakecomic.com/comic/that-sound
https://www.namesakecomic.com/comic/beacon-browsing
https://www.namesakecomic.com/comic/flower-code
https://www.namesakecomic.com/comic/builder-and-healer
https://www.namesakecomic.com/comic/fooled-again
Here is the textless page once again, for fun! Chains, eyes and vines all over!
Hey everyone! Last year, we polled folks online and on Patreon on what our next plush Kickstarter will be, and y'all picked cute plush wolves! While we are not ready to do that Kickstarter yet, we decided to do a limited run of the wolves! If this initial sale does well, we hope to produce more. Please check these cute wolves out. They are square and soft and love long walks in the woods, cozy bedrooms, and cuddling with Mothmen and Cheshire Cats.
