#title is from a poem about pygmalion and galatea i didn't have any other ideas haha

[folternis]

again they stand on a field—well, honestly very different from the last. better, probably. where in the last round there was a focus on the scenery around them ( to the point where it was often as much a danger than the enemies themselves ) this time there is an almost deliberate barrenness. the scenery is unremarkable entirely.

that does not mean this place is dull, however. no, only that niles knows with a concerning certainty that it will not be the terrain that hurts them.

before them is a single enemy, a being with a craftsman's hands. niles eyes it warily, looking it up and down. oh, but it does not stay the lone figure on the field. before any of them can move, it swiftly summons two more beings.

Pygmalion 25/25HP* summons Image of Honour 10/10HP and Image of Beauty 10/10HP

they are radiant, he has to admit. niles is not a man easily swayed by appearances, but there is something about these things that draws the eye, so to speak. imagery associated with virtues, though only a foolish man puts any stock in that old, ugly belief that virtue can be seen on one's face, that something beautiful cannot also be something cruel or harmful or wrong.

Image of Beauty 10/10HP uses Body in Flight.Niles [Roll: 19 - 6 = 13, hit. -3.5HP] Niles 6.5/10HP.

as if in response to that thought, the summoned creature attacks—all of them. he grimaces and tries to dodge, then when that seems futile, to brace himself, but it's to no avail. it stings. he's had worse, though.

"well, i suppose that's one way to welcome us..."

Renewal activates! Niles 6.5/10HP recovers 2HP. Niles 8.5/10HP.

he'd crumpled a little, using the staff he was carrying to support himself as he staggers back to his feet. healing magic, the residual sort rather than the more deliberate sort he'd been employing in the last round, courses through him.

he'd done too much last time. he didn't want people getting the wrong idea, that maybe he was helpful, that maybe he had a heart. so no more of that, at least for now. he carried with him a proper weapon this time, even if it was only a tome and not something more familiar like a bow, and he was determined to make use of it.

Niles 8.5/10HP critically hits Image of Beauty 10/10 with Valaura [Roll: 19 + 4 = 23; -3, Image of Beauty 7/10HP] Image of Beauty 7/10 has been afflicted with Toxic Poison.

their enemy has bunkered down, and he suspects that attacking it will do little to nothing. instead, he targets one of those constructs. the pretty one. niles has never liked seeing pretty things flitting about without someone to put them in their place. his eye narrows and he takes aim.

maybe it's his agitation, maybe it's just dumb luck, but his spell hits its mark, sending the image staggering back and infecting it with the bitter poison this spell is known for.

"that one's been weakened! i think, if we try we can finish it quickly, before it can strike at us all again."

MINE TO MAKE AND DISMANTLE activates! Pygmalion hits Niles 8.5/10HP with REVISIONIST HISTORY [Roll: 17 - 8 = 9, hit; -3HP, Niles 5.5/10HP].

he takes a moment to catch his breath when the thing doesn't retaliate but—oh, the master seems displeased that niles was hitting its pretty creations. it hits back for the thing, and hard.

team roll call: @papulaan, @inserviceto, @lionscion, @partnerindestiny !

o grace that shouldst endure - team 11 ; silver round

[delusion-of-negation]

[name of piece] (it's drawn in [colour palette], and based on [song], tryna go for a sort of lost innocence vibe here lmk what you think :D)

that's the beauty of captions, you can ramble

but you also gotta remember that art is gonna be interpreted, you can't always predict or fully control what the audience will think and that's okay - they won't stone you, they won't boo to death, they will probably appreciate being told they're so dumb you gotta spoon feed them all the things far less than they'd appreciate being left to think about why any given choice. plus, when you cram it all into the title - I would not have guessed that was the colour palette and song from seeing that title, so it won't work.

"Like what does it have to offer? What is its thesis? What is the message, the question, what is the author's soul, what is the premise, the cliff? If a title can't explain that, why should I read it?" I think you're confusing a title with a synopsis. the synopsis is what conveys a sort of general idea of what the story will be about, while a title just sort of catches your eye and gives you a phrase to say "hey, have you read [title]?" sure it needs a hint of vibe but not so much that it starts to hinder primary functions of a title. there will never be a simple phrase to meet all of those conditions, it's too high to set your standards for what's really needed here.

"Daughter's Curse, May 1st, those are titles that tell you everything you need to know to Get It." they don't, and they don't meet all of your prior conditions. now imagine those all stretched out with a colour palette and what song inspired them and the emotion... A Red Daughter's Angry Curse of Falling Leaves or something like that (idk I picked random song don't @ me). the way you title things is fine if that's what you want and you don't at all have to change it for anyone, but you are saying a thing then praising a very different thing.

"It always seems like there's a theme, a message, something important missing, something nobody will get without it being in the title." going to be a bit brutally honest rn, but I feel like if somebody can't get something without it being spelled out in the title, it was not adequately conveyed in the piece (and it's not necessarily a bad thing that it isn't, some things can be left a secretive whispers). to me, when I have to spell something out it means I haven't done my job, not that I should just put that thing in the title. the title isn't there for an exposition dump, that's just not how I use it.

"it's not gonna name drop Galatea, because that'd be too easy, that wouldn't be poetic," actually here's a poetic song about just that, which does straight up namedrop galatea xD

"But it's always about being Galatea, it's just that you can't tell. So it needs to be in the title, right? So that they understand that it's Galatea." you can figure it out, and if you can't then that's okay too, but it's absolutely fine to title it that if you want, that one about the fae that I mentioned had it in the title... I didn't go on to spell out every other inspiration, theme, and piece of relevant information, that much is for the audience to interpret on their own. you also can namedrop in it though, it doesn't all need to be metaphor, as demonstrated above.

"But it's also about being Pygmalion, but the same rules apply. So he also has to be in the title, right? So that people know. You see the problem?" no because now you're not titling it, you're simultaneously holding the opinion that poems can't be explicit in text but also must have all of their intricacies explicitly explained, and using a title as a vehicle to do so, instead of as a short phrase to label the piece. you're trying to have your cake and eat it too, and it's fine if that's what you want to do but that's not how it has to be if it's not what you want your titles to sound like. you're overthinking it tbh.

Tbh mostly I'm curious about how you manage to come up with coherent names for your poems??? Like whenever I name poems, drawings, and parts of stories (not really chapters, I just tend to write BDEF in random excerpts and then somehow connect them together so each except is in its own tiny word document), I come up with the weirdest shit?? Like half of the titles is incomprehensible shit like "Lonelier than Pygmalion, more artificial than Galatea" or "Staring at her like she's the sun, not with love but with disgust" and the other half is shitpost shit like "How to lose your father quick and easy: a guide for beginners" or "How to disappoint yourself in 3 easy steps". Like I can't imagine how you come up with normal stuff like "A Plea"??? Like how do you do that?

you name things like Fall Out Boy, I love that

generally I just name thing what it is. A Plea is named that because it was a plea for them to seek someone who could actually help them, but it was mostly just pleading into the ether by that point because obviously they weren't listening. like that's just what it was. Leannán Sídhe is named that because it's told from the perspective of that type of fae. there's a story that I've been writing for years called Below Floor 18, about a future with a freakishly high complex of connected skyscrapers covering basically whole countries, but a zombie virus broke out on the lower levels and ground so it was entirely sealed off (leaving everybody on those levels to just die), and periodically they send prisoners down below floor 18 (to where the virus is) to find out if the zombies have all finally "died off", like death row but with extra steps if you think about it. the book follows a group of criminals as they venture down. you get three guesses why it's called that. see, I'm just a simple man: I see a thing, I name it that.