Anime Your Characters: The ‘These Other Doors’ Edition (part 1)

by Thea van Diepen
Just for Fun, Magical Realism, Tales of Kyuyon, These Other Doors

Back in June, I found a dress up game which I pretty much immediately used to create pictures of major characters from my forthcoming White Changeling series. Part one of this can be found here. And part two is here.

Well, earlier this week, I was bored and had some time on my hands, so I created anime versions of the main characters of the short stories planned for These Other Doors. Plus two other characters. Um. I’ll explain:

I’ve been playing around with the idea of having some or all of the main characters from these short stories sort of team up. Like superheroes, I guess, except none of them are technically superheroes. And they’d team up with a character from another story I’m planning (codenamed Ghost Girl), which is intended as a superhero-type story. Part of me isn’t sure if this would even work, especially since there’s something of a lack of powers in this group. Then again, it could still be really interesting to do, once I have the villain figured out.

Anyways, first I’ll introduce the main characters for the planned stories in These Other Doors (two right now, three in part two). Then I’ll introduce the main character and the antagonist for Ghost Girl, which I plan to tease at the end of These Other Doors, if I decide that that team up will come to pass in the future. Which I probably will.

And now, without further ado, the promised main characters:

The Tree Remembers

This is Minerva Thiessen, and this is when she runs into Brian, one of the people who she moved across the country to avoid. Actually, this is the second time she runs into him. He’s persistent.

He’s also her ex-boyfriend, and he has a message for her, one that will make it impossible for her to stay away from home any longer. When she goes back, she will have to face with the people she hurt and her feelings about Brian, both of which she’s been trying for years to forget. Everyone will want something from her, none of which she is sure she can give.

The thing is, Minerva’s not exactly human. So what is she really?

Mermaid’s Grotto

This character doesn’t have a name, but I can tell you that she’s a mermaid and that I’m almost done writing her story. At the beginning of it, she lives alone in an underwater grotto, the entirety of which is called Lover’s Pool by the people who live in the nearby town. She would watch the humans who came by the pool, getting to know them and wishing she could leave the pool.

One day in the winter, a young woman who looks remarkably like the mermaid falls into the pool and drowns. This sets the mermaid’s desire for a life beyond the confines of her grotto ablaze. The next thing she knows, she’s in a hospital, her tail become legs, and everyone calls her by the young woman’s name.

How long will she be able to live with herself, taking over the life of someone who’s died?

Next time, you’ll get to see the main characters from the Psychic Bookstore, Bus Phobia, and Hag Rocks stories, and you’ll get an extended story description of each, just like you did here. :)