Before the Fall

A series of images, moments, and stories that revolve around Elliot's life before the start of "Falling Stars". Before discovering she was the Crown Bearer and destined to bring in a new age of peace, Elliot was just an ordinary teenager who hung out with her friends, put off doing homework until the last minute, and occasionally got embarrassed by her dads.

Friends

A few of Elliot's Brightwich friends from before her abduction. Brightwich may be a Star Gazer city but that doesn't mean members of the other two races haven't made a place for themselves here as well, it's just...more of a challenge for them.

There are a few friends here who are missing but they'll be uploaded soon.

Faru is one of the few Voyager youths in Brightwich. Unusually sporty and physically active for a Voyager. The school and their classmates refer to them as “female” due to them possessing feminine tastes and interests, although Faru would much rather live outside the gender binary like the rest of their people. Despite having to identify as female, Faru is unable to join any of the girls’ sports teams at school. Or the boys’ teams. They can't even use the same bathrooms or locker rooms as the rest of their peers. Faru and Elliot often put their heads together to try and fight the system due to the two of them facing similar issues from the community. If there's news of a small protest happening on school grounds or a plea to sign a petition, you better believe they're behind it.

Jhonen is an Ursa aligned boy resembling a brown bear. Has a sweet tooth that can only be satiated by his mother's famous sweet rolls and gets lethargic during the cold months much like other Ursine aligned people. He's a bit of a slacker but he has a good heart and is always ready to throw down for his friends. Jhonen spends most of his time skateboarding, filming his stunt attempts, building questionable ramps to launch himself off of, and getting himself hurt trying to nail tricks. Elliot’s best friend; the two met each other in grade school when they were small, blubbering, children and have been inseparable ever since. Even his mom loves her. Trouble follows them whenever they hit the town but luckily it's never enough to land either them in the back of a squad car. She often likes to spend the night at his place to get a break from the chaos back home.

Kelso is an Equuleus aligned teen resembling a painted horse (although with how I drew him he kinda looks more like a bull terrier than a horse). A quiet kid who likes to keep to himself and listen to his music. His father was a famous track and field star who is trying so hard to push his son into becoming an athlete, but poor Kelso just doesn't have the drive or the interest. He'd much rather find a nice spot to sit down and indulge in his hobbies. Chip-tune is his favorite genre at the moment and he would love to get his hooves on some equipment to make his own music. Elliot and Jhonen find themselves sticking up for Kelso a lot, who tends to be an easy target for bullying in a high school filled with pompous Star Gazers.

Mother Bear

Meet Jhonen's mom, Nettle "Nettie" Linnaeus. She's a super mom, a talented baker, can talk a mile a minute, and has a lot of love to give to friends and strangers alike. It usually all goes to her son- who is spoiled with baked goods and bear hugs- but also has plenty of sweets saved up for his very best friend, Elliot. Nettie has watched the Star Gazer grow up beside her son for almost 10 years now and adores the girl enough to see her as one of own. Heck, if you were to ask her, Nettie would proudly say that Elliot is a part of her little family.

She's the closest thing Elliot has to a mother figure. Whenever she feels too embarrassed to talk to her fathers about anything, she knows that Nettie is just down the road and is always willing to offer a shoulder to cry on and some sage advice. Her words and affection can be a little overbearing at times (Micha and Cooper have begrudgingly put up with her saccharine nonsense for too many years), but she means well in the end. Even if it feels like she just sorta kidnaps Elliot out of the blue with the excuse of spending more quality girl time with her.

*Nettie's insistence of making sure Elliot is properly fed comes from her own experience as the only girl and youngest child in a house full of older brothers. She knows how it can get sometimes when it comes to fighting for a place at the table and eating your fill, especially in a large family. And while Elliot doesn't have that issue, it doesn't stop Nettie from giving the Pembrokes a stern reminder on what could happen if she finds out that girl hasn't been eating.

A Week Later (WIP)

A scene showing what happens to Elliot after her suicide attempt.

After being discharged from the hospital, Elliot is a mess. Everything she tried to take to her grave that night was out in the open now; the stress that she couldn't handle, this weird sense of doom that weighed down on her mind, her fears of being abandoned for becoming so imperfect and weak and living with the fact that she could easily grow up to be just as bad as them one day- the very Star Gazers she loathed...the Star Gazer she was born as.

People knew.

Despite the Pembroke's best efforts to keep the incident private, news of what happened was spreading through Brightwich. She was fully expecting her family to disown her and her friends to pretend she never existed, but when they didn't...she honestly wasn't sure how to feel about it. She broke the illusion and showed everyone what she really was, surely they all hated her as much as she hated herself. Her first few days back home were spent in her room, away from the world, with only a few moments of contact from her family who did everything they could to help her feel at home and loved and relaxed. Worried about their daughter wasting away and putting herself in another situation that could land her in a hospital (this time caused by her refusal to eat), the Pembroke's send her off on a little errand; go down the street and deliver something to Jhonen's mom- with the hopes that either a bit of fresh air or some time with the Ursa mother could help lift her spirits.

And, thankfully, it does.

It takes a heart-to-heart conversation and an emotional break down for it to happen, but it's a start.

It eventually leads to all of her friends ending up in Jhonen's backyard, gathering in a Beast styled cuddle pile in the grass, and spending the rest of the afternoon doing what they always do; hanging out and enjoying each other's company. It ends up becoming one of the nicest days she's had in quite a while. Elliot's fears don't go away completely that day, they linger for a while longer and still cause her to doubt her loved ones. It's a long road to recovery but this outing did exactly what her dads and Jhonen's mom hoped it would do; show the young Star Gazer she has people in her life who aren't going anywhere. No matter what.

And they have all the time in the world to prove it.

(a work in progress, obviously. There's some characters and limbs missing, the anatomy is off, and everyone is just chill'n in a void. But it will get finished eventually.)

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