OSI Past Life - Broken

"'Cause I'm broken when I'm open
And I don't feel like I am strong enough
'Cause I'm broken when I'm lonesome
And I don't feel right when you're gone away"

For

Relevant song: www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPC2Fp…

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Eta Tauri sucked in a breath, letting it out with a hiss as she pushed herself to her hands and knees. All around her tendrils of Khaos snaked through and around the Gates, around her Sisters. Tears stung her eyes as she caught sight of Asterope's lifeless body in front of her, torn to shreds from an attack that had been aimed at herself. The realization that her Sister had given her life for her hit her like a sack full of bricks to her stomach. She wanted to throw up. Shakily she reached out to brush the hair from Asterope's face, her gaze sweeping across the rest of the Temple.

Celaeno and Electra still stood, fighting desperately against the waves of Darkness that threatened to all but consume them. Sterope and Merope had fallen back, dragging the wounded Maia to safety. There was no sign of Taygeta.

"No......" Eta Tauri whispered,  "My Sisters.....we cannot....we....." Words stuck in her throat and her mind froze. All her years of training, the dedication to their cause, and now, seeing her Sisters fall, the Gates crumble and ripped open, all she could think about was running. This attack was beyond what they could handle. Small leaks were easy enough, but noone had anticipated an attack from all the Gates at once, and there would be no back up coming. She was terrified. There was no hope. Khaos was too strong, too smart. They would easily be defeated. They did not stand a chance. The Darkness would swarm them, overwhelm them, destroy them. They could not win. She could not win. With tears streaming down her face, she covered her ears and shrank back, repeating the same words over and over to herself. "I can't. I can't. I can't...."

Celaeno's scream tore through Eta Tauri, snapping her from her trance and she shook herself. No, we must. We must not give up...I....I must not give up. My sisters need me. She mentally chastised herself as she pulled herself together and fought to regulate her breathing. She swallowed heavily, nearly choking on the terror that still bubbled in her chest. They had to keep going. They were the Guardians of the Gates, it was their sacred duty to keep out the Darkness. If they fell, the other Kingdoms would soon follow. They had to get back up. She had to fight. She had to protect her family. She had to. She was their leader. What kind of leader hides when others bravely fight in their name? One foot infront of the other, she made her way back to the battle, her right hand stretching out to the side as she summoned her spear. The fear gripped her as tightly as she gripped her weapon and she sprang blindly forwards.

It felt like hours, days, she couldn't recall. Fire, blood, screams, pain, darkness. Two more Sisters fell and Eta Tauri screamed with them. She didn't know if she'd ever stop screaming. A desperation had come over the last of the Guardians as they fought with reckless abandon.

"Al......" a faint sound reached her ears. "...................Aly....................."

"Aly, I'm sorry."

Three small words echoed softly in Eta Tauri's mind and she stopped mid stride. Ana. That was Ana's voice. Something was terribly wrong with her beloved and all reason and rationality left her as her heart nearly stopped. Others would say she was blind to everything whenever Ana was around. That nothing else mattered. Others were right. Ana was her flaw, her weakness. Her Love. Without thinking she turned and fled towards the sound of Eta Carinae's voice, the cries of her Sisters unheard to her ears in her selfish focus.

But she was too late.

Eta Carinae had gone SuperNova.



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Artist's Notes.

With special appearances by Eta Carinae and Eta Prime!! Lovingly stolen with permission.

Also some of you may notice I snuck in a few designs from my Tauri Sister Contest. XD This does not reflect who will win, this was simply my way of thanking some of you for entering. I had done up this panel way back when I only had a small handful of entries, so alas I didn't get a chance to get everyone's in there. But thank you all for exceeding my expectations with that contest, you have all blown my mind and I am going to kill myself having to only choose a few. I wish I could keep them all! <33

Anyway...on to the rest of the blurbs!

I knew from the get go that I wanted to do something more "story board" wise than just writing something. I wanted to portray her past life in comic format and seeing as I had a bunch of screen tone sheets kicking around collecting dust, I thought I'd go for it. Cuz ya know...I'm crazy. But because of that, I really wanted to in a completely different direction art wise and throw back to Naoko's style and manga influence. And so, it only seemed natural do a couple pages of Aly Naoko-esque manga.

And I have to say.....GODDAMN!

I have a new appreciation for mangaka. AAAAAAAAAAAAALLL that screentoning....done by hand. Old school. Meticulously cut out every single piece of screen tone which is sooo not as easy as it seems. First of all, I went and drew half the size I normally would (each two page spread is just one sheet of regular paper turned side ways and halved for each panel). And secondly...ugh. Seriously. Tedious work. That paper is so thin it's easy to tear. Sure I could have gone to Manga Studio and done it the easy way, but the whole point of this OSI project for me is to push myself and try new things. How else does one grow? I'm just glad I opted to only do these four pages! I had originally planned on 6. u.u;;

I also intentionally didn't adjust any shades/tones after initial scanning, hence the slightly more "grey" of the paper. I really wanted to give it that "old manga" look. So the only thing I did with Photoshop is the balloons and words.

It was so hard to restrain myself from my own usual style. it still kind of bled through. And I know I'm likely going to take a hit for the complete change in style and intentionally keeping it looser/sketchier than I normally would. But that's okay. It's done the way I meant it to be, and I'm really happy with it. <3

I fought with layout, but in the end, for ease of reading, I went with a simplistic left to right format. Deal with it. XD And thank you to all who gave feedback when I asked. Ya'll rock. <3

Though I do have the urge to do more stories like this....just...with Manga Studio. Cuz it'd be way faster. And easier. u.u;;  OTL

Also....writing is so not my forte...........

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