#occtimecapsule

Story

This story idea of mine focuses on two childhood friends, Jaley and Gen, whose parents (mostly their moms) who didn't like that their child’s biological gender turned out when they’re born Jaley, (female) and Gen (male)

Coincidentally, Jaley and Gen's mothers knew each other as they gave birth in the same day, in the same hospital, and the two mothers shared the same room/ ward.

Their mothers (now that i'm telling this, i made them too crazy and discriminating lol) got to know each other by then and realized this weird sentiment; so the two decided to swap their kids.

Their moms’ crazy plan of swapping their babies didn't work the moment their husbands knew about it. The baby swap didn’t happen thus the two moms decided to make Gen and Jaley's cross dress and mis-educate them about their genders. (Jaley's mom eventually got divorced, and Gen's dad just went whatever his wife wants to with their son- as long as she won't give away their child)

The kids did what their moms told them to do because they want to avoid conflict and thinks that it seems this act is making them happy... despite getting bullied.

Of the two, Gen is the more outgoing and capable of comforting Jaley when they are bullied. As much as they share the same feeling of hating their moms' ways of raising their child-- the two are very understanding... to the best that they can.

From that sad and odd backstory, our two main characters were able to finish grade school out soon and deliberately moved out to start their highschool life somewhere else (the next panels are self explanatory)

In short, the story revolves on Jaley and Gen's journey in living the life and gender they ought to be and at the same time finding a way how to bring themselves to hide or to confront their moms’ ideal (and distorted) versions of themselves.

In the end: the two became the strengths of each other, they managed to find their way to be and express themselves confidently. The romance part is that they got together too in the end- you know, the best friends to lovers kind of thing.

--

Bonus:

Jaley and Gen’s school status is a kin to anime tropes where the transfer students are popular af/ everyone’s crush.

One of my favorite episodes are the nerve-wrecking moment every time they panic to crossdress when their moms pay them an unannounced visit and at the same time for Gen and Jaley to hope that this act of theirs wouldn’t be find out by their school friends.

This comic is finished (but i can’t find any old art of mine for this ánymore because our house was flooded by a typhoon 9 yrs ago and the comics in those spiral notebooks died but) I remembered most of the episodes were Jaley and Gen’s daily lives at school, occasional plot relevant episodes, side character and filler stories.

/end, for now/

Story

Naho is a transfer student freshman of an all boys academy-dormitory. He is aware that he isn’t like everyone else in this school, much less of this world. Simply because he wasn’t from it. In his home world, people possessed a power coming from the foundational elemental stones, namely: fire, water, air, earth.

No one knows (yet) where the so called elemental stones came from, or how their world was separated from the humans’. Although the only thing that separates their people to us is the powers they have.

More or less, these powerful stones gave the home world that unique identity they know. Each element holder was tasked to lead their own tribes; tribes who lived peacefully and independently through the years, help each other out, and slowly expanding to more smaller tribes/ clans.

The peace was disrupted because of a decision made by one person, and this was Naho’s father, Dr. Akono, a scientist, inventor, and also the first holder of the fire element stone. When he knew he needed someone to take over his power so he could focus on his secret project (of the creation of hybrid of elemental stones from the shards of the other holders, and selling it in the black market), he decided to make Naho, and not his older brother, Absin, to inherit the fire stone.

Absin knew that his father’s decision should not be questioned, but at the same time he is incapable of just accepting it. He was enraged. He wanted answers. He wanted to know if he lacked the skills, or talent, or failed his tests– something. But his father only gave him a cold shoulder if the topic is ever brought up.

In that moment, Absin decided that if he wanted to get something done, he must do it by himself.

Absin, who also assists his father in the lab from time to time, had an access inside, sneaked to his father’s office at midnight and discovered the secret project. Absin found a hidden passage,that leads to a basement filled with boxes full of bead shaped stones that resemble the elemental stones, but filled dark substance instead. He didn’t think of finding documents to know what are these for.

All that came to him was a crazy idea, if he wish to fully experience the stones’ powers, he would not wear it like a piece of jewelry (like what the other holders/ people do in their home world), and he would rather consume it.

The following day, Naho, now wearing the fire stone around in his neck, woke up late and alone in his room (which is very odd for him because their family is a royal household) without the “breakfast in bed”, “i’ll dress you up young master”, and “this is your itinerary for today” routine bombarding him.

So, he dressed himself, went down to the halls, the kitchen, the dining area, the music room, etc. He called out of their servants’ names for minutes– but none answered him, the mansion was silent and no one was around, so he thought.

Until he arrived in their family library, where he was greeted by the corpses of his parents, deeply impaled by a black metal rod in each of their chests– Naho can’t take his eyes off of this awful sight, while Absin appears out of nowhere, drenched in blood, and patiently waiting for him to turn his back.

Fast forward, Naho’s brother challenged him for a fight, for the survivor to be the one worthy of their father’s throne, and for Naho to hand over the fire stone.

Both of them knew they were unstable for battle. Absin who was currently experiencing the side effect of ingesting experimental objects, and Naho, who lacked combat skills, yet, was very emotional; agreed to the challenge. Absin grins, and was confidently ready to obliterate his only sibling.

It all went too fast– all Naho remembered was how his brother looked like a demon and how darkness engulfed him when he was attacked– but was surprised he didn’t die.

Naho he woke up in a forest, in the smell of healing herbs, and found himself with a thing/person/being made out of black smoke who introduced itself as Master, who appears to have saved him from his death.

Master and Naho’s conversation was short, Naho was in shock that he was asleep for 7 months, and his brother (like what the fire nation in atla did) sent his army to centralize the power to their tribe, is creating monsters, and would not cease in bringing destruction unless he acquired all of the elemental stones.

Thus, the prologue ends and the story begins. After Master trained Naho to master his element, he tasks him to help in finding the other foundational elemental stone holders in order to stop his brother before their world collapses. Naho was of course up for the job, all for the sake of his parents and the future of their people. However, he was surprised that his journey would require him to go out of his comfort zone, again, and jump to a different world. The human world.

—–

Characters

note: i just threw all out of the important bits here. not much of a personality-wise description. sorry if its incoherent

Going back, Naho now enters in this all-boy-school because he heard rumors that he has two of his childhood friends who are studying there. There he meets:

Syo -  (water stone holder), who lived his childhood in their home world but was sent to the human world (likes some sort of foreign exchange student)

Sukiro  - (electricity stone holder), the stone he acquired was originally a family treasure, but stole it and traveled to the human world because he knew the stone only caused bad luck and destruction because of its impurity (later in my comic it is revealed that his family was the one who commissioned Dr. Akono in the first place to experiment with elemental stones).

Also, they meet other elemental stone holders as well like

Magski - (air stone holder), a lone wolf/ orphan from the air tribe, who won the air stone from a colosseum fight. Since then she was hailed as their queen and leader, the weird thing she experiences is, she doesn’t age and experiences memory lapse from time to time (but can’t pinpoint why)

Dyoli - (earth stone holder), he inherited the earth stone because he was an only child. He’s a die hard fan of Dr. Akono’s works. Despite being blind, this dork and genius kid is talented in creating machines, weaponry, and gadgets. He can only see through the eyes of his dog robot- with a well thought of name, Dyoli Jr.

Shaco - (darkness stone holder), she is a character similar to Syo, of her powers being impure. She is one of the lab rats of Absin who escaped and traumatized from his experiments. She then later developed a power to control paranormal activities– but joins Naho’s crew in search of a cure.

i don’t actually recall why I made their names end in Os and Is. *shrug*

—–

Fun facts!

Elemental Stones comic ran for 2 years because my sisters were very fond and hooked in this comic (which is weird because Ii noticed most of the chapters were Naho and the gang’s school lives together and filler episodes before I went back to the plot lol), and I enjoyed sketching action scenes.

I stopped because I pursued new comic ideas. Then in 2015, I made a cohesive origin story of the elemental stones, how the home world was established by the initiative Dr. Akono and of the first holders, Master’s  identity, ++ some surprise twists (like Magski being a time traveler).