Name: Rouge (Red in French, NOT pronounced “Ro-guh” (the American way) I believe it’s pronounced “Roo-je (if you’re French please correct me if I’m wrong)) Gender: demiboy Pronouns: they/ve/he Species: spirit Backstory: (it’s very long I’m sorry - I will be drawing some of the scenes though!) (PROLOGUE) Life and heartbreak. Death and love. A spirit, to bring them all together. This is the (incomplete) beginning of the story of the end. (START OF STORY) Every 10,000 years, two new spirits are created, to replace their predecessors. They are the embodiments of love + death and heartbreak + life. Two separate entities, working together in perfect balance. However, once it went wrong. This is the story of Rouge. Rouge should not have been one spirit. They should have been two. However during their creation, something went terribly wrong, and the two spirits were fused, creating Rouge. A double-spirited spirit, both life and death, love and heartbreak. The other spirits were appalled, and were without a solution. So they assigned Rouge the most grueling, boring job they had, driving the death train. The train was similar to the boat of Chiron, from Greek mythology. The train took souls from the living world to the spirit one, and it was hard. Rouge had no time to rest, and ve wasn’t allowed to interact with the souls, or leave the conductor’s room. In fact he was forbidden. For his whole life, vey believed they were a powerless, minor spirit, with no use in life besides doing the tasks no one wants such as cleaning the train station, or driving the train. Everyone told them that they were worthless - that he needed to stay away from the mortal souls or he would terrify them. One normal night (as it’s always night in the spirit land), he was driving the train like he always does, when he heard a loud thump. He ignored it, but the sound continued for several minutes. His heart was pounding. They weren’t easily scared, but never once before had the souls made any sort of noise. Ve slowly opened the door to the train, and gasped. He had never seen a soul before. They were thin and whispy, semi-transparent, every color except green. With a pulsing core of energy where their hearts would usually be. And standing in the back, banging its paw against the door of the train, was a green soul. During his brief training, Rouge had been taught about souls. He’d never been shown a picture of one, never met one, just told to drive the train and that green souls are the most dangerous. They’re souls that want to badly to be alive again, that they turn green (the color of life), violent, and powerful. They do anything they can to get back to the living world, such as opening the train door, and being sucked through the void back to the living world. Only two had ever succeeded (maybe a story for another time). Green souls were dangerous in another way, too. Their cores were unstable, and powerful energy pulses through them. This is especially dangerous because souls, while on the train are incomplete. They are fragile, and too much energy can easily cause them to collapse, and become what’s known as a “corrupted soul”. Green souls are particularly vulnerable to this, and put the other souls and spirits on the train at risk too. Once they reach the land of spirits their energy can be contained, and cannot harm them or anyone else. (Back to the story) The green soul was desperate to get out, and Rouge’s heart plummeted. He’d never been taught how to deal with souls before, let alone green ones. Suddenly, the air around him felt like ice, he couldn’t feel it though, but the souls could. They started screaming in pain, feeling the power of loss and heartbreak unleaded upon them. Little did Rouge know, his powers were finally working. Each spirits powers only awakens once around souls, so as Rouge had never interacted with a soul before, his powers stayed dormant. The temperature in the room suddenly rocketed, and the spirits began to solidify, their screams of pain only growing louder. The souls were now stuck, between the living world and the dead, Rouge’s fear feeding his powers of heartbreak and life. They were returning the souls to their mortal form, and yet he didn’t know it. Ve rushed over to a smaller soul, likely just a child. The child looked up at him, and whispered though tears, “please, make it stop,” (Cont. in notes in credits)
WORK IN PROGRESS Space or click Also constructive criticism on my art/story would be incredibly appreciated!! (But “oh it’s so good” or “great story!” Aren’t constructive criticism, and while they are nice that doesn’t help me make it better) Art by me OG design by @sukithenoodle (edited slightly by me) (Cont. from above) Rouge was frozen to the spot, with no idea what to do. Until he heard a cackling. The green soul was relishing the pain - it knew what was happening, how it would return to life once the torture ended. Rouge finally realized, it was he who was causing this. They summoned all their courage, and sang. It was a gentle tune, of love, and the soft, warm embrace of death. The souls went quiet, and stared. The room began to fill with a rosy glow, and the souls felt their pain ease. The green soul in particular was ensnared in the song, and it couldn’t take its eyes off Rouge. When the song ended, it came up to Rouge, and whispered, “thank you,” It’s color slowly faded to a pale blue, and it’s core stabilized. Rouge looked around, and saw the souls glancing at him with wide eyes. Ve returned to the control room, and guided the train to the station. When all the souls got out, ve got out too, and alongside the rainbow of souls, climbed the steps to the spirit world. At the top, three spirits were waiting for him. The largest one, a celestial-looking creature, of great elegance stepped up to him. “You must be wondering who you are, yes?” The spirit asked. Rouge glanced up at the towering creature, and shook his head. “I know who I am. I’m Rouge. Train conductor, and spirit of life, death, love, and heartbreak.” Time taken: Ref: 1 hour and 10 minutes Backstory: idk but it took me all day to come up with and write (so probably about 2 hours total) Art 1: 30 mins Art 2: 45 min Chibi design: 10 mins Total time: about 4 hours and 35 mins There’s more story after that and eventually he stops being a train conductor and has some more adventures and makes some friends but his backstory was SO. FUN. to write!
