**Prophecy stuff (partial spoilers) ahead**

Fun fact about Prophecy: out of all 83 POVs, Aureole gets five and Storm gets seven. To put that in different terms: Aureole tells about 6% of the story, while Storm tells about 8.4%. Despite them being "main characters" for so little of book, I adore them quite a bit! Aureole was a bit of a challenge to fit character development into, but she was well worth it. And Storm is a chaotic mess by himself. I think the hardest thing about Prophecy was trying to coordinate eight different character arcs at once, especially with arcs like Ver's on my back. The main three had to steal the spotlight of the book, but my deuteragonists deserve some love as well! <3

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We'll start with the oldest 'kid' of the book. She's not legally a minor during the main events of Prophecy, but I'll get into the characters' ages once the book is finished. Aureole is Kai and Skylor's eldest (and only) daughter. She's known for her exception beauty, dedication to her parents' business, and her motherly tendencies towards the rest of the group. Despite this, Aureole struggles with her own problems. She knows the responsibilities of the noodle business are becoming too much for her to handle, and her parents' lack of care is starting to wear on her. Aureole just wants a break... but evil never sleeps, so she can't either.

The mental image of her has always been constant in my head. She's tall, with red tips at the end of her long brown hair. I've always headcanoned Kai and Nya to be Asians, so I tried to incorporate some of that into her facial features. I don't know how well I did, but I don't claim to be the perfect artist either. 

Another failed attempt at realism (why can't I draw noses?!). She looks much older in this picture. Perhaps we can say this is her age at the time of her oneshot in Book 2.5...

Love this dynamic duo. There's a lot of character interactions I imagine to go on behind the scenes, but often those don't get to showcase themselves in the actual book. I mentioned in "Firstborn" (Nya's oneshot in Book 1.5) that Bequeath and Aureole never really clicked. But Storm and Aureole... they clicked faster than Twitter users on something controversial. I like to imagine them as the chaotic duo who uses too far many inside jokes in normal conversation. 

There's a lot of inconsistency with Storm's drawings, like the one above, for example. The header of this chapter was a more recent drawing, so Storm was captured there better. You'll notice in this picture that he has blue eyes and browner, less awkward hair. As I continued to ponder on how genetics work, I realized this wouldn't be possible. I think one of the original ideas was that elemental power somehow connected to eye color, but I scrapped that idea. I focus far too much on eye color in my works, so I wanted to transition away from something that would only highlight that trait further. 

As for Storm himself, his character design has a bit of backstory. I already knew who would be the "pretty" ones of the Prophecy gang (Aureole and Shade), and I didn't want to pull a certain trope in fanfiction that annoys me. You see, a lot of people have an obsession with making all of their characters pretty. Everyone is hot, jaw-droppingly gorgeous, no matter who they are or where they came from. And that trope doesn't fit into reality. There is always going to be someone who is prettier than you, and someone who is uglier than you. That's just how genetics work. Since I already had two "pretty" characters, I decided someone needed to take one for the team. That character happened to be Storm.

In the book he's often described as "not winning the genetic lottery" or something along those lines. I don't imagine Storm to be "I'll turn you to stone I'm so ugly", but he's not conventionally attractive either. However, none of this comes across in my drawings because of my art style. So, take Storm's general appearance from the pictures, I guess. 

I don't like focusing on looks when I write, which is something odd I've noticed about myself. I think a select cast of characters may have called Harumi "pretty" in Departed, but there was nothing on how she could move mountains with her smile or something like that. In real life I have a bit of a problem with seeing attractiveness (I focus way more on personality) so I guess that viewpoint is bleeding into my writing. Anyways, back to Storm.

Storm is Jay and Nya's second born, and he is also not legally a minor during the main events of Prophecy. He is slightly older than the twins, but a couple years younger than Aureole. Again, once the book is finished I'll do a segment in here about their ages. Storm is known to attempt humor (doesn't always work out), and while he chaotically messes around with the others, he mainly focuses on his biggest flaw as a character. When he was younger, his parents gave him both the elemental powers of water and lightning, proclaiming that this would make Storm the strongest elemental master of his generation. But the ceremony backfired for some reason, and now neither of the powers work. Storm is deeply insecure about this, questioning his place in a group of elementals when he is essentially powerless. It's why he looks up to Carmen. She's powerless and somehow can summon all the confidence he can't seem to find. 

Storm will not get a oneshot in Book 2.5, but he also gets to tell 2.4% more of the story than Aureole, so I'll let it slide. 

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Questions for shenanigans --> Which one of the cousins would you think is more likely to throw a pie at someone? Which one do you think would jump in front of a pie to save someone?

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Until next time,

squidneyxd