the-lost-beast

[the-lost-beast]

TLB - Chapter 11: Making a father

Fathers with trauma, yes, but fathers in love, too.

[the-lost-beast]

Trivia: Chapitres 9 & 10

Mais pour commencer, une page de pub!

Etant donné que cette histoire est centrée sur un personnage malvoyant.e, j'aimerais m'assurer qu'elle est accessible à tou.te.s celleux qui souhaitent la lire. Je me penche donc sur la possibilité d'en faire une version audio. Seriez-vous intéressé.e.s ? Ce sera sûrement pas pour tout de suite de toute façon mais en gros, ce serait juste une lecture simple postée sur YouTube. S'il y a d'autres moyens de rendre l'histoire plus accessible pour vous, n'hésitez pas à m'en faire part !

Chapter 9 - Missive 📜

J'aime beaucoup ce chapitre. Je savais pas que les chapitres sans drama pouvaient être fun à écrire :O Dynamique père/fils, Bellam qui a l'occasion de se la péter un peu et de clouer le bec de Rev pour une fois, et Rev qui est tout meugnon avec les gosses.

J'aime bien que Rev dit s'ennuyer ferme avec les autres guerriers Piafs par contre il est à fond dans son enseignement avec les petits. Bellam a son petit coup d'éclat, que je voulais vraiment lui donner, histoire de montrer qu'il a pas eut son rôle de Doyen pour rien. C'est vraiment un excellent guerrier (même si, spoiler, on le verra de nos propres yeux que bien plus tard dans l'histoire). J'aime bien parce qu'il a cette aura toute douce de papa, presque grand-père et du coup on ne soupçonne pas forcément qu'il puisse être puissant, même avec sa grande taille. Aussi, ce petit défi entre lui et Revali montre qu'ils se respectent mutuellement, même s'ils le montrent de manières différentes.

Chapitre 10 - parties 1 & 2 ⚔️🍂

Dites-vous que les chapitres 9-10-11 étaient censés être UN SEUL et même chapitre dans mon outline. Et du jour au lendemain je me retrouve avec des chapitres 9 et 10 à + de 8k. Ok.

Dans ce chapitre je voulais vraiment montrer l'autre point de vue du combat, celui de Oak. Ce qu'ille pense, comment ille se débrouille avec sa vision réduite, tout ça. J'essaie vraiment de rendre son style de combat plausible, montrer qu'ille a de l'expérience mais qu'ille n'a jamais reçu une vraie formation (contrairement à Revali qui est un guerrier "de métier" si je puis dire). C'est pour ça que Rev remarque ses aptitudes et lui dit qu'ille devrait les améliorer.

Oak qui a un style plus offensif que défensif c'est assez logique quand on y pense, par rapport à comment ille a grandi : ille craint qu'on tire partie de sa vision, donc ille préfère prendre les devants et attaquer plutôt qu'attendre passivement d'être attaqué.e.

On a aussi quelques infos éparses sur Oak et son départ du Refuge. Ca va prendre tout doucement son sens, tkt. On comprend aussi que Oak n'a AUCUNE idée de ce qui se passe en Hyrule, et ça, c'est important, vu qu'ille ne sait même pas vraiment ce qu'est un Prodige, ce qu'ils font (c'est l'enfer de construire la culture des Hébras en opposition à celle de tout Hyrule, définir ce qu'ils savent ou non, etc. C'est ma faute, la prochaine fanfic que j'écris ce sera du freestyle complet * range les feuilles de brainstorm sur une éventuele fanfic Hellavers *)

Oh et. Oak et Rev se touchent. Sans se battre. 👀

[the-lost-beast]

About: Chapters 9 & 10

But first, an announcement!

This story being about a visually impaired character, I feel I should make sure it is accessible for everyone. I'm thus considering reading the story and posting an audio version on YouTube. Would you be interested in an audio version? This is probably not gonna happen shortly, but even so, if I get positive replies, I'll start looking for someone to proofread the English text. So make sure to let me know if an audio version or anything else would help make the story more accessible for you!

Chapter 9 - Missive 📜

I really enjoyed writing this chapter. Who thought writing chapters with not an ounce of drama in them would be fun?? Father/son bonding, Bellam showing off of his skills and Revali being nice around kids.

I like that Revali is seemingly bored when he trains with other warriors yet has a fun time training the Rito chicklings.  Bellam gets his moment in the spotlight too. Wanted to show two things: the first being that he is an excellent warrior (even though that'll come into play only much later in the story) and the second being the other kind of dynamics there is between him and Rev: they have respect for each other. They just have their own ways of showing it.

Chapter 10 - parts 1 & 2

Chapters 9-10-11 were all meant to be ONE singular chapter in my outline. I don't know what happened but chapters 9 and 10 alone are ~8k. Anyway.

Here I wanted to give a look of what a fight is like for Oak. What are they thinking, how do they manage with their sight and all. I am trying my very best to make their fighting as plausible as possible. They have experience in fighting, without having properly been trained, and I wanted to show that. Hence Revali saying they have skills they should work on.

Oak being more offensive than defensive also says a lot about them, about how they grew up too. They're afraid people might take advantage of their disability in order to hurt them, so they'd rather jump ahead of danger rather than to be passively betrayed or hurt.

We also get some scattered info on Oak's departure from Hebra. I promise it'll make sense later. Some day. And most importantly, we understand Oak has no idea what's going on in Hyrule and what are the Champions (and trust me when I say it is HELL assembling all the pieces of Hebra culture, what they know / don't know, everything. But hey, blame's on me for getting so damn enthusiastic with my worldbuilding).

Oh. Also. First time touching that isn't fighting 👀 I like that they say nothing about it.

[the-lost-beast]

Chapter 10, part 2

[the-lost-beast]

TLB - Chapter 10.1 : Duel...

whaaat chapter 10 out already dude this is crazy--

--and part two is coming out in two days? whaaa--

[the-lost-beast]

For anyone curious

This is how the writing looks like on my side. Currently using my DeLuxe Brother, one of my fave. I use one different tippa for each WIP but I'm also likely to go back to using her because she's both so practical and pretty.

Also here's a sneak peak of the writing and outlining process

I had been using Docs for so many years and recently moved to LibreOffice. Outline is scattered across OneNote and Fabula (writing app, mobile). Current playlist : Emersion

Chapter 10 should be out next week 🌻

[the-lost-beast]

TLB - Chapter 9: Missive

Out 🍂

[the-lost-beast]

Trivia : Chapitre 8

Hey !

Premièrement, pour les qqns d'entre vous qui sont au courant que le blog existe, et pour les encore moins nombreux qui guettent la date de publication sur le billet épinglé : j'ai menti sur la date, encore une fois. Non mais je me fixe un objectif et le jour vient et j'ai toujours pas fini le chapitre aussi🙄

Bref en tous cas maintenant ce sera un chapitre par mois (krkr), les chapitres fr en premier, et les trivias en fr aussi (faut me faire un signe si vous lisez ça)

Meikko 🗻

(postillonne du popcorn) Oh, j'attendais ce moment avec impatience

Je vous présente Meikko, l'antagoniste d'Oak (surnom d'Akah-El, qui va venir bcp plus tard). J'ai vraiment hâte qu'ille apparaisse. C'est un perso très complexe (oui je me jette des fleurs) qui fait beaucoup de mal à Oak et pourtant j'arrive pas à lae détester. J'ai déjà prévu un préquel se déroulant pendant la guerre entre les Hébras et les Piafs qui suivrait les aventures de tous les parents de l'histoire. Mais bon, calmons-nous, me connaissant ce sera posté après le prochain Fléau.

D'ailleurs, tous les Hébras sont agenres. C'est culturel.

Rev et Oak 🍃

J'ai pas mal galéré à trouver la personnalité et la voix de Oak. VRAIMENT. Quand j'ai commencé c'était un personnage très enfantin, très impulsif, très capricieux, et pourtant ille semblait pas cohérent.e / vide. Là j'ai changé pour une personnalité toujours très impulsive et émotive mais bien plus contrôlée et résiliente. Oak évite les conflits inutiles parce qu'ille sait d'expérience que ça ne lui apportera que des ennuis. Mais bon, étant têtu.e, fier.e et impulsif.ve, ille s'attire toujours des ennuis quand même.

J'adore lae voir en plein conflit émotionnel à la fin du chapitre parce qu'on ne comprend pas encore très bien pourquoi ille réagit comme ça. Bref ça s'ajoute bien à leur dynamique avec Kiran et Rev.

On voit aussi que Rev n'est pas aussi méchant qu'il en a l'air : dans le chapitre 6, il essayait de trouver les mots après sa conversation avec Bellam pour lui faire comprendre à demi-mots qu'il le pardonnait, et là il essaie d'amoindrir la défaite de Oak. Aww il se soucie des autres, c'est-y pas mignon?

Le duel ⚔️

Oak c'était compliqué : il fallait pas qu'ille soit imbattable comme par magie, vu qu'ille est quand même malvoyant.e, mais il fallait aussi montrer qu'ille avait des vrai skills de Prodige, déjà parce qu'ille se bat contre un Prodige mais aussi que c'en est un (je vous apprend rien). Donc j'ai dû trouver des moyens de lae pousser hors de sa zone de confort et lui donner des handicaps :

Ils se battent à la tombée du jour, ce qui est mieux pour Oak que la pleine lumière de midi, mais avec le masque, c'est quand même une vrai tannée (mais bien sûr ille ne va pas l'enlever et révéler son visage à Rev, déjà que c'est une connard sans qu'il ait vu ses plumes). Dans le prochain chapitre, on apprendra que Oak n'est pas du tout à l'aise avec une grosse épée comme la lame rémige, c'est pourquoi ille galère comme jamais là, en plus de toute la frustration et sa dynamique de pouvoir avec Rev (il sait comment l'énerver, le con).

Ceci dit, les points forts de Oak sont : sa force brute, ille sait encaisser les coups, ille s'adapte plutôt vite (la faute à une enfance pas joyeuse comme on aura pu s'en douter)

Pour Revali c'était plus facile de trouver des points forts que des points faibles. Cependant : vu qu'il est particulièrement doué à l'arc, je me suis dit qu'il serait un peu plus en difficulté au sol, surtout en combat rapproché. D'où la lance, une arme longue qui lui permet de garder un minimum de distance avec l'ennemi. Il a moins de force qu'Akah-El, vu que les oiseaux ont une constitution osseuse assez fragile, mais il est bien plus rapide.

Je me suis aussi assuré qu'Oak ait l'opportunité de trouver assez tôt le point faible de Revali (son bec) au cours des chapitres précédents.

Oak et Kiran 🍂

Et voici notre tout premier moment de vulnérabilité entre ces deux-là, enfin montré à l'écran, parce qu'il y avait la scène où ils se retrouvaient pour la première fois, dans une version antérieure du chapitre dans lequel Oak arrive au village Piaf, mais ça en disait trop d'un coup donc je l'ai coupée.

Depuis, ils essaient de construire leur relation comme ils le peuvent, bien qu'il y ait beaucoup de choses, implicites comme explicites, qui leur rendent la tâche compliquée. Alors il apprennent à se connaître doucement, en évitant les sujets qui fâchent, parce qu'ils ont tous les deux peur de faire une connerie et de perdre l'autre (encore une fois).

J'essaie aussi de montrer combien ils sont différents entre eux et avec d'autres gens, vu qu'ils sont chacun le seul repère de l'autre, c'est normal. Ils veulent montrer que le meilleur d'eux-mêmes.

Maintenant que Meikko a été mentionné.e par contre, ça va devenir compliqué. Eh, on peut pas garder la tête dans le sable ad vitam æternam hein.

Si tu apprécies l'histoire

Pense à laisser un vote/ kuddo, voire un commentaire! Une étude scientifique très sérieuse a récemment démontré que plus de kuddos = des chapitres plus fréquents. C'est la stricte vérité, jsp pk vous me regardez comme ça--

[the-lost-beast]

About: Chapter 8

Hello ! First, for those of you who are aware the blog exists and the fewer of you who have noticed I usually update the next chapter's release date on the pinned post; I have lied. Again. Geez. How does that keep happening.

Okay but now Chapter 8 is up and I'll try to update a new chapter every month (but we'll see how that turns out).

Meikko 🗻

(munching on popcorn) Oh, how I've been waiting for this.

Meikko is Oak's antagonist. I can't wait for them to actually show up. They're a very complex and conflicting character (well imo lol). I'm just unable to hate them despite them having done and doing lots of bad things. I am drafting a prequel to the story set during the Hebra/Rito war, througout which we follow the story of Kiran, Bellam, Reyn, Meikko and Revali's parents. But hey, i should slow down. That story is not for another thousand years.

Rev and Oak 🍃

I struggled finding Oak's personnality and voice. Like. A LOT. When I started this they were very childlike and impulsive, but now I've taken another direction for them and it feels much more right. They're resillient and try hard to avoid useless conflict, but they're so proud, stubborn and impulsive they really can't help it. I relish seeing them DRIP with internal conflict and I like their dynamic with Rev and Kiran.

We get a glimpse at how Revali is not as much as an insensitive bastard as he'd like to make everyone believe : just as he tried to comfort Bellam after their talk in Chapter 6, he's now trying to make Oak's defeat a little less bitter. Yeah, the bitch actually cares. Gross.

About the fight ⚔️

I didn't want Oak to be weirdly overpowered despite being partially sighted, but they still have to be skilled enough to be taken seriously as a Champion later in the story (no spoilers here). So I had to come up with ways to disadvantage them :

Although they fight by the evening light, which is better for Oak's sight than midday sun, the mask obviously is a huge disadvantage. But of course, they're not about to take it off and expose their face to Revali, who's being enough of an asshole as it is. Also, but we'll see that in the next chapter, the huge feathered edge is far from being a comfortable weapon for Oak, which is the main reason why they're really struggling here, on top of all the power play/frustration. Revali knows how to push their buttons 😏

This being said, Oak's advantages are : their strength, ability to take punches, and ability to adapt quickly.

Showing Revali's skills was easy ; finding his weak points were not. As we know he is extremely good with his bow, I figured he would be comfortable in distance combat than in a hand-to-hand fight. Hence the spear rather than a sword : he uses it to keep his enemy at bay. He has less strength, given he is a bird and bird have thin, fragile bones, but he is ten times quicker than Oak.

Also, I made sure Oak had seen his weak point before (his beak).

Oak and Kiran 🍂

So here we have our first heart-to-heart scene featuring these two. The only other time they shared a moment when they were so vulnerable was they met, when Oak first arrives in Rito Village. But that scene was cut, it was too revealing.

Since then, they've been awkwardly trying to build a relationship, despite there being so much standing between them. They rarely ever talk of the sensitive topics, for they're both afraid to lose the other again.

I'm also trying to show that Oak is definitely a different person with Kiran, and the same goes for him. They're each other's sole landmark.

Now that Meikko has been brought up to the conversation, things might get a little trickier for them. Can't hide your head in the sand forever.

If you are liking the story

upvote / kuddo it ! Leave a comment ! It has been scientifically proven that more kuddos > more frequent chapters. Why are you giving me this look, it's true--

[the-lost-beast]

TLB - Chapter 8: To kill a mockingbird

Liens fr : Wattpad, AO3

Oak and Rev can't stand each other so they settle this on the duelling ground. Plus drama and backstory. Ooooh.

It's now gonna be a chapter per month, Ganon eat my soul if I'm lying. Trivia coming up soon

[the-lost-beast]

Revali is colourised. I spilled blood and tears on this fr. First time I draw and colour something digitally. Not even finished and certainly not perfect but I can't take it no more just take the stupid bird im giving him to you.

Oak will have to wait a while

Work in progress 🍂 Tryna practice digital into Sketchbook now that I've got my graphic tab back

[the-lost-beast]

Work in progress 🍂 Tryna practice digital into Sketchbook now that I've got my graphic tab back

[the-lost-beast]

TLB - Chapter 7: Fathers talk

*gasp* no... it can't be... unless?

Guess who's back with chapter 7. Out on Wattpad and AO3.

[the-lost-beast]

"Time to be a Champion"

[the-lost-beast]

Trivia: Drawing Akah-El

🍂 All pictures have images descriptions. Click alt.

Oak's (Akah-El, never mind the misspelled name on the sheet) design was the one I struggled the most with. Drawing birds is much easier, who would've thought.

First, here are the earliest design I made for Oak. Dates back to 2020, during lockdown.

Hair down then up. First drawing I ever made of Oak. They were a much different character back then and I wasn't really happy with how they turned out, but looking back now, I think these drawings are pretty good for a first try. It set most of the features they still have now. As you can see on the research sheet below, I played around with their hair a lot and it took a while for me to ditch the strand of hair on the right side of their face - I think, for the best.

Oak's scar was established pretty early. I wasn't sure about the feathers at the time but ended keeping them. Got rid of the big ones on the forehead though. Idk. Might bring them back.

Giving a character recognisable features is just something I usually struggle with and Oak was no exception. The Hebra being people of the mountain and cold weather, I knew quite early on I wanted to base their design off the Inuits. That ended up evolving into something quite different that's really just my own style but the inspiration is still there. None of the sketches on this page really fitted what was on my mind. The big one at the centre helped me define the nature of their hair, its colour, and how the feathers would look like. The green ends on the hair and red outline on the eyes were ideas that came with the new design and were based off Kíran's. Hesitated on making their eyes red. The sketch labelled 'Rito style' still looked too Caucasian for my liking.

Same thing with this sketch on the the left. The face was not what I wanted, but it's still a good sketch to show their body features: Oak has wide hips and strong limbs from climbing. Their feet are sort of scaled and look like not fully-formed talons. They have feathers growing along their arms and calves and their body hair is dark green.

The one on the right at least set me on the path of what I wanted for the face and hairstyle.

Tried a different face and eyes shape and this happened. Something clicked. I think it was the eyes. I tried drawing them higher up on the cheeks. The left one was still too Caucasian.

So then I drew this and it was super satisfying. Like when you can put a name on a face you'd thought you'd forgotten,

I love Oak´s nose and scar. They have a flat, rounded nose due to their former beak growing on top of it.

The Hebra and Rito outfits were a nasty piece of work and even now I'm not satisfied with how they turned out. For now, Oak´s Rito outfit consists merely of their Hebra trousers and the Rito breastplate they sell for Hylians. The fabric they wear is obviously Kíran's. Their hair is also loose as opposed to the ponytail they wear in their Hebra outfit. There´s a small mistake: they shouldn't be wearing the shoulder pads because they are an indication of a Rito's skills, according to whether they're still an apprentice or an accomplished warrior.

I went for that overlayered look with the Hebra outfit, hoping to recreate something in the style of the Inuits, again, although trying to keep it Zelda-like. I went back to the artbook and clothes references a lot while drawing this. There is much inspiration from the Sheikah, including their prior iterations. The Hebra outfit is meant to keep them warm but its moveable layers are meant to be adaptable. Given Hebra do a lot of climbing and goign in and out of caves, where the temperature is milder, I wanted to create an outfit that would easily adapt to all these apsects of their daily lives. Oak wears a face mask to hide their bird-like features but I don´t know yet if that´s just a common piece of the Hebra outfit.

I like the triangular motive. It gives off a nice touch to the outfit and is meant to be reminescent of the mountains. I figured Hebra probably use polar bear furr to make their clothes, hence the beige/white/grey colour scheme. But I also wanted the Hebra outfit to be easily recognisable as that of an enemy, hence the touch of red.

I kind ruined Oak´s face with the colouring but I'm thinking on touching the illustration up later, digitally.

Overall, I think I succeeded in showing Oak´s duality in their features. They're probably still going to evolve as I grow more confident with my drawing skills, but for now I´m proud of the result.

Bonus sketches in terrible quality.

I know I said I´d post this back in early November but I love lying, now who knows when the next chapter might be dropping.

[the-lost-beast]

Akah-El: character design

🍂 Here they come~

With and without colours. Breakdown, trivia and image descriptions coming soon.

[the-lost-beast]

TLB - Chapter 6, part 2: The Hebra

Part 2 of Chapter 6 is out now on Wattpad and AO3 ✨