WEEK 07 - JewelVerse: From the Unstable Branch - Madeline Law

Week 7 is passing and it’s almost scary how fast this year is going by so quickly. Then again, the weeks and months may fly by but I still think the days (especially work days) are dragging.

So I released character cards for the Unstable Branch, one of the storylines set in the JewelVerse, a few weeks back. Therefore, I thought this would be a good time to introduce the characters featured in the cards to all of you - starting with the story branch protagonist, Madeline.

Curious about these character cards? Click the button to download them!

Unstable Branch?

The Unstable Branch of the JewelVerse started with a comic I created with artist Elvin Ching. Named “Unstable Foundations”, it was a thriller/contemporary comic centered on National Gallery intern Madeline Law and her heist-planning cousin, Nathaniel Tan. After the release of the comic, I dove into the world of these cousins and thought - there’s a whole line of potential for world-building and adventure there. Hence, the Unstable Branch was extended with eChapBook “Unstable Directions”, released the middle of 2020.

So… Who’s Madeline?

The only child to working-class parents, Madeline struggles to live a life that allows her to pursue a meaningful field, while supporting her family. Though supportive of their only child, Madeline’s parents are, at their core, traditional people who worry incessantly over her safety and stability.

As an enthusiast in curation and cryptography, landing an internship with the National Gallery — where she handled back-end organization and learns about digital curation — has been a step up her personal ladder of goals. Though swamped with administrative duties and left with frontline work that many of the full-time staff would rather not take on, Madeline still found comfort in exploring the building, its nooks and crannies, its pasts, and the systems that help to keep it running.

What few realize is that, while her internship has gone smoothly, her position’s been used as a channel for the closest person she has to a brother—her cousin, Nathaniel—to get into the recesses of the building, to hunt for a key to a possible national treasure. While he relented after inadvertently injuring her, they’ve not communicated since his arrest.

It’s only after going through her previous correspondences with Nathaniel that Madeline realizes that this puzzle she’s found herself in isn’t over.

Now, she’s determined to find out why.

Want to see the world Madeline is in? Click the button to get a glimpse!

So What’s Next?

Now with her internship done, Madeline is on her way for her university studies while she moonlights as a coder-for-hire. However, her days at the National Gallery or treading the border between her codes and the Arts are far from over. You’ll have to just stay tuned to find out how.

With the next few JewelVerse posts, I’d like all of you to slowly meet the characters I have in the Unstable Branch. For now though, I’d like to dive deeper into Madeline’s back story, and perhaps I can start incorporating her tech skills with her love for codes beyond mentioning them in future stories.

Creating “Unstable Directions” pretty much got me to sit down with Madeline and Nathaniel quite a bit - something that I admit to not doing as much as I wanted to earlier. With the eChapBook out and these characters becoming more fully formed, I’m getting more excited with what this branch within the JewelVerse will bring. So stay tuned for more stories, character profiles, and worlds!

That’s it from the JewelVerse. Take care and see you all next week!

P/S - Have you read “Unstable Foundations” or “Unstable Directions”? Find out more about the Unstable Branch with the button below!