Welcome to Gaia! ::

May 25th, 2009

-Threw out 'Sober Liquor'

-Edited 'Dull Opal' Essence a little bit in the ways of feeding. Instead of dulling colors, it would completely bleach/take away color when feeding. The idea that living things regaining their coloring and inanimate things not doing so remains, but I worry that I could be toeing a line when it comes to Sa'ida's 'Fragments of Rainbow' Essence. Any advising would be loved.

-Added a description for the Essence 'Fermented Grapes'. Going to be working on its feeding and such shortly.

-Came up with a new Essence called 'Corrosive Aloe'. Might need a bit of help on this one's feeding, because my original idea was that the Raevan with this Essence would feed off of the pain of an injury, but make it worse as well. For example...Someone has a first degree sunburn and as the Raevan feeds, their pain would be taken away, but the burn itself would inflame up to at least a second degree burn.

-Added another new Essence; "Oppressive Shroud", which is an Essence of darkness that light cannot diffuse and that muffles/cloaks the senses. The Essence is a thick cloak of darkness that ensnares and confuses anyone unfortunate enough to walk into it, trapping them in pitch blackness being unable to see, hear, or even speak. The Essence is so pressing it even hinders movement, slowing the trapped person down and weighting their limbs/body.

I based it on waking paralysis, dreams where you are being chased by something but unable to move, darkness with no light, the common fear of the dark, and the fact that humans in solitude too long end up going insane. I was thinking the Essence would feed on the rising fear or plain fear itself of those it traps, but I'd like a few opinions. Like in the description on page one, I can see this Essence releasing its prey once they reach the peak of their fear/hysteria, but not before. The quicker you become afraid of the dark world, the faster you'd be released from it.

EDIT: Added another new Essence; 'Silver Lining'. :3

June 19th, 2009

-Came up with another Essence thanks to the muggy weather here and a healthy dose of Fairy Tail. It's "Temperate Ice"; an Essence vial of water that only forms into ice at temperatures above freezing (0C, 32F, 273.15K). Despite only solidifying when the air is room temperature or above, the ice is cold to the touch and will only melt when the climate decreases.

EDIT: I was doing some thinking and an idea came to me. It was pretty much saying that as the temperature rises, the ice continues to expand its form. Since at room climate the ice would fit into the vial but be able to be removed/have enough room to rattle around in (and since when water freezes it expands) as the temperature increases and reaches boiling point (or above) the ice would increase in size. Nothing big at first, maybe just a few centimeters to half an inch per degree, but I think it would be a nifty idea.

August 16th, 2009

Now that the summer event is over I'm going to be doing a bit of fall cleaning/revamping to my quest thread. Looking at it, I can see how cluttered it is and that's not very good for those who are looking or wanting to critique my thread.

So I'm compiling a to-do list, and so far I have a few short things (in no particular order)--

-Clean up the Essences post
-Throw out the 'didn't work' stuff/make said post a Reserve again
-Put a smaller image in for Zeke's Guardian profile
-Attempt to focus on one soul alone (Aurora Borealis)
-Give the thread a proper and/or catchy title
-Possibly change the layout a little bit if it's not too much of a hassle

Five short things to do, but in the long run I'm certain this quest thread will look better and more appealing to would be critiques. I'll work on this starting today, coming back to this post and editing in strikes to whatever object on my list I've crossed out. Once the cleaning is done, I'll make a new post saying that critique is back open.

September 6th, 2009

-In the wee hours of this morning I finally put my Round Two response and the prompt for the Summer Event up in a journal. If anyone wants to see what I wrote and/or comment on it, feel free by going here. :3

During the event I came to really like the name and characteristics of the Main Personality - Jericho - so in coming events (most likely I'll only be participating in pre-chosen Essence flats) I'll be using that name and personality should I make it past any sort of Guardian prelims.

What..happened?
I really enjoyed the idea of an Okapi soul; I think they're beautiful creatures and would give the Raevan an interesting marking or overall outfit. Similar to Tangaroa and Lulu's markings.

None of the essences really stand out to me unfortunately, well out of the three primary ones. Temperate ice is a water type essence that I feel is too similar to Roux, because it involves ice, and yet too much like Sevilin's overall character since he's so water-based. If you did a water based essence, I would propose a more out of the box idea, though no example comes to my head right now. Sorry :/ Perhaps, instead of focusing with temperature and consistency, you could focus on a more..overlooked aspect of water, like its lack of color or ..something. Sorry, I suck.

Silver lining has a fantastical vibe to it that reminds me of Visual Fairy Tale. I also don't like the idea of another cloud-inspired or luck-concentrated on Raevan, as we already have Ekundayo and Zave, Lucia and Xiu. It may not be luck that you're leaning towards when you talk about good around a corner, but that's just what it sounds like.

Dull Opal reminds me of rock-based Iorek, except it's not as appealing a concept as a mimicking stone is. The color thing also reminds me of Sa'ida and her fragmented rainbow essence. I'm not trying to find some little connection to other Raevans, they just may be things to consider. Conflict between soul and essence are interesting as well, create a better dynamic.

Out of all your "other ideas", I really find the Inviscid Bitumen and Corrosive Aloe interesting, full of potential. I think the Inviscid Bitumen should have a different name though. It's not easily understood like the others are. An inverted flame is a flame..that is inverted. XD;; Eternal ice is..ice that never melts. But yes, that one seems to be the strongest and most unique essence. We've never had a tar kind of Raevan, Gage may be the closest thing to such a thing. The Corrosive Aloe has a LOT of potential as well as it defines a specific plant that is easily found but overlooked.

But yeah, I don't like the power you would have associated with Corrosive Aloe. I mean, I enjoy that instead of healing and soothing, the aloe's juices act as a kind of acid and melt and cause more harm than good, but I'm kind of hesitant about it affecting actually injuries in the way you explained. Perhaps in exchange for the rapid PHYSICAL recovery, the pain associated with the recovery is intensified. Like, if the aloe is rubbed on a cut, the cut immediately goes away but the pain associated with its quick recovery is magnified or something. So the..pain is corrosive but the wound is soothed? XD AM I MAKING SENSE?! BAHHHH.

/dies

Perhaps you could call it Agonizing Aloe! 8D *shot for bad alliteration*
And personally, I am fond of the Fermented Grapes essence. It is simple but novel idea that catches one's attention. My only suggestion for it is to possibly change the name. Just saying that the grapes are fermented doesn't really make it seem like a fel essence, but rather something that happens naturally. Give it a name that shows it deals with wine, but in a supernatural way.

October 7th, 2009

Going to work on the things Kaurii pointed out...

--Create a better name for Inviscid Bitumen. Currently I am leaning on either 'Fluid Pitch' or 'Fluid Tar'. I haven't thought of powers much for this yet, but I did think of feeding. The Raevan would eat the viscosity out of things. Highly viscous products are easy to find (ie. syrup, molasses, peanut butter) so the Raevan would always have food when needed. The end effect of feeding off of (for example) peanut butter, would result in the food becoming watery and possibly unappetizing for anyone wanting to eat it, though it is still peanut butter through and through.

--Work on the Aloe's name and what it does/powers, plus it's description. Currently I have two ideas up for debate, but last night it occurred to me that natural aloe already helps make a burn or wound heal faster, so instead of it healing faster = lots of pain, I would say the injury heals slower but also = horrible pain. Works well for the 'Agonizing Aloe' name as the pain would be really drawn out over a long period of time.

--I'm gonna trash Temperate Ice and Fermented Grapes, but keep Dull Opal down in the 'Other Ideas' post. Silver Lining stays where it is; I used it for the '09 Summer Event and it got me through to the last round so I know that the staff like the idea of it. Plus it's one of my favorites and I couldn't pass it up. XD;

EDIT: Added in a poll for the name change of 'Inviscid Bitumen'. Any other suggestions are loved.

November 11th, 2009

--I was bombarded with ideas for another Essence last night and after getting a name written out with a highlighter while the paper was being illuminated by my iPod, I am now happy to say 'Visible Imagination' is up for review. It's a cute Essence and once I nab the Raevan form I made, I imagine a cute Raevan by the end of it.