Late Night People

Late Night People is a short story that I wrote over the course of April to July of 2021. Somewhat related in scope to the previous Bring the Night On, this story is again inspired by Dungeons & Dragons, this time featuring a half-elf sorcerer named Katalia Rhoeas, with Elsie making a return appearance. Late Night People focuses on the interactions of two orphans, Ilya and Elsie, and Katalia after a day of work, where they not only learn more about one another, but also end up in a scuffle stemming from a long-simmering feud between nations.

Late Night People can be read right here. It's about 7500 words long.

The above image was drawn by WANKE, whose art can be found here.

In the real-life campaign I took part in with friends, I eventually came to the point where it became possible for Silifrey Helder to leave the campaign. Owing to this, I elected to create Katalia Rhoeas as a potential replacement character for Silifrey, though the potential departure ended up never happening, and I eventually decided a sorcerer wasn't the character for me, along with feeling that Katalia's dour personality would be a poor fit for the tone of the campaign. Despite this, I grew attached to the character enough to want to give her her own story.

Katalia's last name was initially "Rahom," but I misplaced the notes I had taken for this and used "Rhoeas" as a placeholder, after my personal favourite flower, the common poppy. By the time I found my notes again, I became used to the placeholder, so it ultimately stuck for the final draft.

Like before, this work was named after the song I was listening to, Late Night People by South African pop group GoldFish. It has no relevance to the work in question, but I liked the repeated use of "night" between this work and Bring the Night On.