Slow progress continues on the artistic outlet/side project I shared a couple years ago. As appearances go, this slow progress bears an uncanny resemblance to me picking it back up after doing nothing with it for over a year. Funny thing, that. Much of the delay has been a severe lack of substantive plot development characterized by an extreme scarcity of focus (…thanks again, ADD). There has been no shortage of ideas – just zero cohesion to tie them all together. A glut in motivation may have also played a role in my negligence. I’ve had some inspiration over the past weeks, which has fuelled a flurry of activity on the project. Let’s see how far this newfound interest lasts!

Elise is the latest character in “Nash Must Learn” who has developed from a rough concept to possessing newfound digital “life”. I’m a bit of a sucker for the “childhood friend” trope in anime and manga, and Elise fills this role for Nash within the story. She is a fascinating personality whose positivity and resilience on the surface disguise deep and lurking emotional traumas kept protectively secret from everyone, including Nash. Her resolve in the face of unfavorable circumstances and daunting misfortune drives a magnetic personality. Nobody is perfect, obviously, and Elise is no exception.

Nash learns from friends that Elise works as a bartender in a town near the family farm where he grew up. After many years without communication, their friendship picks up right where it left off, with a one-sided attraction punctuated by anxieties about the newly reestablished friendship abruptly going dark again. As the story unfolds, readers witness Elise’s personal demons at work. She dismisses easy warning signs in her pursuit of “harmless fun” and finds herself at the epicenter of a disastrous situation.

Readers will guide Nash through the complex maze of Elise’s insecurities, traumas, and self-destructive behaviors to uncover what she knows …and what Nash must learn from her to reach the story’s conclusion.