#you start noticing the weird way the paint blended in each other through layers
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contents404 · 2 months ago
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I just did the Taash quest, the one you go find the treasure they stoked from a dragon on the beach with boat wreckage. Cause the dragon they stole from sunk the boat with her treasure in revenge.
The thing is, to tell a wreckage is just wreckage or treasure we use Taash’s fire… if it's not melting it’s treasure…
Taash’s fire can melt metals and the red crystal thing which can tolerate pretty high temperature… it's part of the whole environment mechanism they are so proud of…
I watched them melt one wreckage, paused, thinking: so the cultural value still a thing or not?
the ‘lords of fortune make sure we dont take artefacts of cultural importance’ is wild for many reasons but IDK if youve studied even a little bit of a humanities subject like history or archaeology or anthropology (or just thought about it rly) it is easily argued that EVERYTHING they could feasibly be taking is of cultural value
its such a wishy washy statement that appears to flirt with this vague notion that colonialism is bad but doesnt actually decide to engage with this in any deep way. really just salt in the wound given how staggeringly orientalist the depiction of the rivaini and qunari are
i would love if the lords of fortune were presented as a group of people who do plunder things of important cultural value and then actually made the player engage with this idea. it could be a really confronting thing given how ‘looting’ is such a core mechanic of so many games including this one. not saying to get didactic about it but make the player think about something thats v much taken for granted
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dorcasavelinehill · 5 years ago
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YOUR ARMS FEEL LIKE HOME - Ch. 1: Where I’ve Never Been
https://archiveofourown.org/works/21747418/chapters/51883063
The children had made a wrong turn somewhere.  Shadows fell away, lost in the brightness of a search light.  The beam glided back and forth, and the children were center stage, on a dock without cover, with no darkness to hide in. Behind them, water.  No buildings to climb, no walls to scurry over.  The four boys thought, we need to swim for it, but then thought, no, the girl can’t keep up. She isn’t as fast in the water.  She needs land under her feet to make a clean getaway.
Between them and freedom, six - no, seven men.  Large, all towering high, and armed.  Four of the men had knives, two had handguns.  One seemed unarmed, but they remembered their fathers words.  Never trust appearances. The men slowed as they approached the kids, uncertainty making them hesitate.  One stepped forward.  The leader?  “What the hell are you supposed to be?”  The men lowered their arms.  They understood now, these were kids.  Weird looking kids, but kids.   Defiant, the children refused to answer.  There was a moment of silence as they exchanged looks. One raised a brow.  Another cocked his head, smiling.  The girl wrinkled her nose.  The third boy nodded.  The fourth inclined his head.   “It ain’t Halloween.”  The big guy in front tucked his gun in the back of his pants.  Dumb move.  Underestimated them.  “What kind of costumes -” “Sorry.”  The oldest child, the eldest boy, spoke up.  Soft voice, small smile.  “We’re not wearing costumes.” He charged.  The other four followed him.  Well trained. The men regretted thinking this was a joke. Swords slashing, coming down hard on the remaining firearm, before the man holding it could get his finger on the trigger. The rest was easy.  One blocked a knife swing.  Another ducked a punch.  They returned the blows, weapons sheathed, even the swords now that the gun was out of play.  They took damage.  You couldn’t go unarmed to a knife fight and not take cuts. The girl with them dodged and bounced like a jumping jack.  She lacked the natural armor of the other four, so had to be creative to stay out of the knives’ range.  The big guys were aiming at her, thinking her the easiest target. Her brothers took exception to these thugs targeting their sister. A knife thrust hard, should have been able to kill the victim, a straight shot to the liver.  Instead, the blade crumpled.  The guy holding it shrieked a swear and dropped the now useless weapon. Fist to his face.  He fell.   Block.  Dodge.  Punch.  These were kids?  They hit harder than most men!  And the girl might as well be a flea on a dog’s hide, fast and furious.  She couldn’t land as hard a blow as her brothers, but she only had to let them wear themselves down chasing her. Her brothers took the men down for her. One man went down like a tree in a forest.  Now the girl pounced.  Instead of fists, she wound zip-cord around the man's arms and torso.  It was a thin, lightweight, plastic-and-metal wire.   The thug fell on his face; she planted her foot on the back of his neck, caught his arm in a loop of the zip-cord.  Had him hogtied in seconds. The boys brought the men down, disarmed them, tripped them, laid them out prone.  They found the zip-cord impossible to unwind, impossible to break.  It didn’t bite into the skin like a regular metal cord would.  They couldn't snap it.  Only the clever little device on the girl’s belt could nick off a length of wire. Seven men, tied and helpless, hollering, cursing.  Asking what the fuck, what the hell?   A slap of duct tape across the lips.  Not a perfect gag, but it would keep them quite long enough for the kids to get back to the shadows. The youngest boy laughed, wiped blood and sweat from his brow with the back of his hand.  “Welp, that was fun!” “Yeah, let’s not do that again,” middle-kid said dryly. “Bye, guys!” the girl sang.  Red hair, sticky and wet with sweat.   They ran.  The men struggled to sit up, to get free, trying to see which way the children went. The kids fled the light.  Found the shadows.  Became the shadows.  It wasn’t a technique.  The girl’s night-time camouflage outfit didn't simply blend in the dark.  One moment the kids were there, three-dimensional objects in space.  The next moment? They might as well have melted like snow in July. All that remained was an echo of laughter.  The thrum of feet on the pier.  The whip of wind flowing around them. The big guy with the gun in the back of his pants stared at the empty space where they’d been a moment before.  He wondered if he hadn’t just seen his first ghosts.
*****
April loved summer nights. The biggest problem with New York City was that all the stars in the night sky weren’t visible.  There was far too much light pollution from the skyscrapers, and the compact city growing ever upward.  April found the lack of starlight disappointing, but the illuminated skyline almost made up for it. Instead of focusing on the vanished Milky Way, she trained her camera on Billionaire’s Row.  The buildings had a sort of stark beauty she liked, though if asked, she would admit the older, less minimalistic buildings were her favorite.   “Yer gonna lose it if y’aint careful.” Raph stood beside her on the edge of the XYZ building, watching her adjust the camera’s focus.  He had a bad cut from where one of the gang members had caught him with the tip of a knife blade, but aside from that, he’d done a good job coming out unscathed. The camera flashed.  She advanced the film and quickly took two more pictures.  “I haven’t dropped it yet,” she said without looking at him.   Raph watched April lean precariously out on the edge and grabbed her belt, arm extending as he let her swing out as far as she could go.  She needed to get the perfect angle for this picture.  One more shot, and she let Raphael haul her back onto the roof properly. The other three sat in the center of the roof, looking each other over for injuries.  Michelangelo had the first aid kit he wore on the back of his belt out, rubbing something April guessed was antiseptic over a bad wound on Leonardo’s shoulder, then pressed a pad of gauze to it before taping it down.  He completed the wound care by taping a Scooby-Doo band-aid on top of the dressing. Leonardo looked at Mike’s handiwork with a wide grin of amusement. Donatello had several nasty slashes on the inside of his elbow.  Mike cleaned up Don’s wounds, and graced him with a Spongebob bandage, which Donnie flaunted. April flopped down dramatically.  “It’s horrible! I’m exhausted!  I’m completely worn out, and I must be near death!”  She sprawled beside Mike like a dying woman begging for a drop of water. Mike held up a band-aid.  “I’m out of Barbie.”  He turned the bandage to show her Scooby-Doo. “Aw, come on!” “I’ve got Scooby for you.  But if you don’t want that...”  Mike dug through his first aid kit, tossing aside boxes with Batman, Captain Ryan, and Flintstones band-aids.  “Take your pick!”  He beamed at April, who graced him with a sour frown. “Do you at least have Disney Princesses?” Mike looked down at the boxes surrounding him.  “Uh, no.” April threw her arms up dramatically.  “I’m crushed!  Crushed!” Leo mock-frowned.  “What’s wrong with Scooby?  I got Scooby.”  He turned his shoulder to her, pointing to the Scooby-Doo band-aid slapped across the thick layers of gauze and tape. April rolled her eyes at Leo and flung the back of her hand over her eyes, trying to look like a tragic figure from a Renaissance painting, though she only managed to look like a gangly kid who hadn’t grown into her feet yet.  “I’m a damsel.  A princess.  A goddess!  I deserve Barbie on my band-aid.” Mike started tucking the scattered boxes back in the first aid kit.  “Well, since you didn’t actually get hurt, and you only want Barbie -” April thrust a pristine arm out at him.  “Gimme Scooby.” He found a random spot on her arm where she could show it off nicely and stuck the bandaid on her.   Raphael rolled his eyes and started cleaning up his own cheek, preferring to tend to his own wounds, rather than have Mike do it.  “I swear ta God yer both five.” “Seven,” April corrected.  “I don’t believe in Santa Claus.”   At fourteen, she had the awkward grace of a well-trained ballerina with too much leg and not enough hip or bust.   Her brothers were more well-proportioned, though one could tell by looking at them that they were going to get a lot taller, and sooner rather than later.  Well, if one could look at them without screaming in panic.   Or attacking.   Not too many people had ever seen them, but on the handful of occasions they were noticed, attacking and screaming were the default actions of whoever looked at them. They were giant turtles, after all. Leonardo was tall, about 5’9”, and getting taller.  April was slightly displeased with this situation because it meant he would be able to pick her up and dangle her upside down soon, which he had threatened to do the last time she’d stolen the last pudding pop from him, and the bossy bastard might just do it, too.   On his person, he carried his swords strapped to his back, extra zip-cord in his belt, and rolls of film April begged him to hold for her when she couldn’t fit them in her own belt pouch.   She considered him the perfect accessory - a purse that didn’t get cluttered because he’d refuse to carry too much for her.  At eighteen, he was the oldest son, and he made sure everyone knew it, especially when their dad wasn’t around.   Bossy bastard. April loved him anyway. With his cheek cleaned up, Raphael dropped to a crouch beside April, holding out his uninjured arm.  “I want Pokemon,” he said.  Mike stuck his tongue out, but found a Pikachu bandage and slapped it on Raph’s forearm.   Raph was sixteen but stood two inches taller than Leo.  He was a little self-conscious of his big feet that their father kept assuring him he would grow into.  He wasn’t always the easiest person to get along with, naturally rebelling every time Leo pretended to be an adult.  Sometimes he lost his temper, but April found ignoring him until he got out of his funk the best way to deal with his drama.  Most of the time, Raph was fun to be around, and he usually just indulged her in whatever she wanted to do.  Raph carried a pair of sai tucked in his belt. Michaelangelo, at fifteen, was the baby of the boys, and at 5’6” was still quite a bit taller than April.  He had the biggest blue eyes and the sweetest smile, and could always coax the others into some kind of fun or mischief.   It was actually Mike’s fault they’d gotten lost and had run into those bums.  Their father had shooed them out of the house with express orders not to come home before midnight, but not after 2:00 AM.  They still had time to kill, and Mike had come up with a great idea for keeping busy, but the boy couldn’t find his own way out of a paper bag if he had a compass and a map.   He always hauled around the first-aid kit, along with a pair of nunchaku and a bag he carried to hold whatever cool things he happened to find on their nights out.  Last count, he had two sea shells, a dirty magazine, and a police-style whistle, but April didn’t know if he’d added to his collection since they left home. Before she could poke her nose in Mike’s stuff, Donatello scooted beside her and wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her onto his lap.  “Did you get the pictures you wanted?” “Yep!”  She squirmed in his grip, getting loose and popping the film out of the camera.  She thrust the roll at him for him to take.  Donnie took it, freeing up her hands to reload the camera.  “I wanna get some more though, before we head back.” Don tucked the film away in his belt for her.  “Digital cameras don’t need film,” he teased.  April planned on Donnie spending his Saturday morning developing the film for her.  She was still learning how to do it on her own, but until she was more sure of herself, she wanted Don’s skillful hands at work on her pictures. “Film looks better,” she said, not looking up.  She wound the camera ahead until it was ready to start a new series of photos.   Leo was absently wrapping his toes up in Superman band-aids.  “Digital’s cheaper,” he said. April rolled her eyes.  “Mister Adult.”   Don was seventeen, second-oldest, but he never talked down to April the way Leo did sometimes.  He might pick on her love of “old-fashioned” things, but Don had a way of taking her seriously that Leo lacked. He was a studious young man, with a dry wit and a sarcastic sense of humor.  He was terribly subtle, sometimes so much so that by the time he’d insulted you twice, you were only just figuring it out. Altogether, April adored her brothers, and they treated her like their own little princess. Mike smacked Leo’s hand and took back the still-wrapped band-aids before their fearless leader could waste the rest of them.  “Hey.”  He looked around, squinting in the darkness to make out the skyline.  “I think I know where we’re at now.” “Uh-oh,” Don breathed, and Raph snorted, “Right.” “No, really, I do!  Look, if we head two blocks west, four blocks south, the store’s right there.”  Mike pointed as if there were a building just beyond his fingertip.  “We can be there in five minutes tops.  Tops!” “Isn’t that what he said an hour ago?” Don asked Leo lightly. “You mean, right before we got jumped?  Yes, I seem to recall -” “I’m serious this time!”  Mike hopped to his feet.  “Come on, it’s like, ten-to-midnight, and he probably isn’t expecting us until about one!  We got time.  Unless you want to go home early and go right to bed.” Raphael snorted.  “Oh, hell no.  C’mon, it’s better than bein’ stuck inside.” Don rolled his eyes, but stood up with the other boys, throwing his vote with Mike.  Leo blew a sigh out his nose and shook his head lightly.  “We’re going to get in serious trouble.” “We’re not!” Mike protested.  “Swear to God, no alarm system.  We could walk right in and nobody would know.” Leo poked April in the side where she lay serpentine on the roof.  “Come on.  I can see I’m not going to win this one.” April mock-swooned and covered her eyes with the back of her hand.  “I’m too heavy to walk.  Carry me!” Raph said, “Bye,” and took off across the rooftops.  Leo shrugged and followed.  Mike had the bad grace to wave at her before giving chase. “Hey!”  She jumped to her feet, stomping one foot.  “Some superheroes they are!  They just left me here!” “Yep.”  Donnie patted her shoulder and proceeded to leave April behind as well.   Cheeky bastards, all of them, she thought and raced to catch up.
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acraftedmistake · 5 years ago
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A Person Who Has Never Played MCSM Writes A Story About MCSM Chp. 3
Had a lot of fun writing this chapter! Hope you guys will like it too!
Jesse shuffled around awkwardly in a layer of new clothes over his usual outfit. He and Olivia ended up swapping a few accessories around as well; Jesse was wearing Olivia’s hat, Aiden gave his leather jacket to Olivia, which was so big on her that it completely consumed her hands. Aiden suggested that Rose should give up her large hoodie for Jesse, but she refused, saying that would be “awkward and weird”, so instead she gave him her extra set of pants--as if that were somehow less weird--revealing a pair of shorts underneath and long socks that stopped an inch before meeting her knees.
Olivia undid her pigtails and ruffled her hair around, giving it a messier look, allowing it to hide her eyes but also limit her vision. Rose and Aiden were guiding the duo out of the shrine and back to their town. When they had left the hallway where their first encounter was, Jesse wasn’t expecting the shrine to be so... Complex. So many twist and turns, old traps, big walls with more strange carvings in them, Jesse swore they had passed at least twenty rooms, some with doors completely broken down, yet Aiden just kept saying “Turn left, right, left...” as if it were second nature.
Olivia just kept her eyes on the ground, trying to pay attention to where she was walking, not wanting to bump into any walls. Rose was also behind the two, and though she hadn’t said a word yet, Jesse could feel her eyes on the back of his head like daggers. It was already clear that she wasn’t too fond of him for whatever reason, and though he wanted to know why, Jesse decided to wait till they got back to whatever town they were heading to.
No one really said anything to each other, only Aiden’s direction helped keep the atmosphere from becoming excruciatingly awkward as they continued to walk through what seemed to be the remains of a library, at least, that’s what Jesse believed it was. This room was the smallest but the messiest out of everything else they’ve seen so far; there were only 4 bookshelves, but most were broken into hundreds of pieces or had huge, black markings from--possibly--a fire. Books were sprawled about the floor, which Jesse found himself tripping over occasionally. Most books were opened widely, pages torn and spines ruined, some were reduced to piles of ashes. There were two desks with a thick layer of dust and blotches of old, dried ink staining their tops and the walls and floors around them that decorated the flats of the ancient desks. Was there a fight here? Or did someone attempt to get rid of something?
“Okay, we’re almost out of here.” Jesse snapped his attention back to Aiden, who was looking ahead at the busted wooden door ahead. “Just one more room and we’re out of here.”
“You said the place was heavily guarded, right?” Olivia questioned, barely looking up from the floor. Aiden nodded, not that Olivia could see it.
Rose spoke up, “Yep. Recently there have been threats to activate the portals that were made hundreds of years ago, everyone thought it was just some stupid rumor but...” she glared back at Jesse again, “Turns out they weren’t joking around.”
“Won’t the guards notice you’re missing some clothes?” Jesse asked, looking back at Aiden, “Nah, it’s almost dark out, plus the guards were paying more attention to who was coming in and out, not what they were wearing.” Aiden grabbed the doorknob and jiggled it. Nothing. He proceeded to turn the knob with more force and pushed against the door, grunting, “This stupid door is the only one that gets jammed!” he swiftly kicked the bottom before it swung open, a chunk of wood flying out and hitting the wall with a loud “CRACK”.
“This place is so old, I’m surprised half of the things in here haven’t rotted away already.” Rose commented.
“So what’s this a shrine of exactly? Who made it?” Jesse asked as he follow Aiden,
“Are you telling me that YOU of all people don’t know where we’re at?” Rose’s question drenched in sarcasm.
“How the heck am I supposed to know about a place I’ve never been to before?” Jesse shot back with an attitude while entering a much larger room than the little library they in before; what seemed like well over a hundred chairs were placed in large circles, facing the very center of the room, which was stained with an unknown, rusty colored substance, but besides that, the room was lacking color, only consisting of hues of grays and dusty blues. There was a huge wall near the door they just came through, which had the largest and probably the most identifiable carving he had seen throughout the entire shrine.
It was the head of a man.
He was looking down upon the many chairs that sat before him, but due to his lack of pupils, it felt as if he was watching over the whole room. Stalking the group’s every move. Jesse could feel the man’s presence.
“Who’s the-Who’s that?” Jesse pointed at the wall as he adjusted the hat on his head, Olivia moved the hair out of her face to look at the carving, she shuddered, “Dunno, but whoever made this really captured this person’s... Eyes.”
Jesse hadn’t noticed it right away due to how dim the area was, but upon closer inspection, all the man really had were his empty eyes. Sure, there were his eyebrows and he did have hair, but that really didn’t contribute much. Jesse was about to ask again, in case either Aiden or Rose hadn’t catch his question, but out of the corner of his eye, he saw Rose whispering something into her friend’s ear a good several feet away, all while eyeing Jesse suspiciously. Aiden stepped away and shook his head, simply saying “No, he couldn’t; let’s just wait until we get back home.”
Rose quickly put a finger over her mouth, “Not so loud!” she mouthed, immediately sneaking a peek at Jesse, who, along with Olivia, were watching them.
Rolling his eyes in a more playful manner towards his friend, Aiden waved both Olivia and Jesse to come over.
“So here’s the plan,” Aiden began,
“There are a ton of guards out there, if you decide to walk out right now, you’d be immediately taken to jail and bombarded with questions and , since it’s prohibited to go here-”
“Wait--then why are you guys in here?” Olivia interrupted.
“Because we were asked to inspect the place. Anyways--when we go out there, don’t say a word, just play along, got it?” Aiden awaited for their response. The two thought for a moment, but soon nodded in unison.
“Alright, let’s go.” Aiden lead the way, carefully maneuvering around the chairs, the three following behind as their footsteps all mixed together in the echo of the abandoned building. Stopping in front of a big, round top wooden double doors, bits of the old dark mahogany wood were chipped away with age, it’s surface was rugged and appeared to have scratch marks that blended in with the woods’ cracks.
Aiden, without warning, grabbed Jesse’s hand and promptly held them behind his back with a bit of force, squeezing Jesse’s wrists tightly. “Hey!”  before Jesse could continue, Aiden shushed him, “Just look down and don’t say anything, no matter what, okay?”
Jesse watched as Rose did the same to Olivia, who wore a confused, unprepared, and worried expression; hesitantly, Jesse just nodded and turned his head to the floor, but tried his best to keep his friend in his field of view. Aiden, while holding Jesse’s arms together with one hand, used his free hand to swing open the door. An old, crumbling stone pathway, broken into chunks as grass grew from the cracks swayed gently from the light breeze, helping Jesse feel a little reassured; the world they’ve entered wasn’t a wasteland, there was life; this wasn’t some bizarre robot controlled city or zombie infested area, it almost gave off an odd sense of nostalgia.
“Ah, Aiden,” Jesse heard a deep voice say, “Good to see you came out in one piece, you were takin’ quite a while! We were about to send someone after you two!”
“You know us; we can handle ourselves.” Aiden chuckled as the sound of even more footsteps came near, a sudden burst of chatter filled the air, questions being asked left and right,
“Who are these people?” a gruff voice asked, “We didn’t see no one enter!” another said in a panicked manner, “I swear, we were all standing here, watchin’ like hawks!”
“Don’t worry,” Aiden began, looking at the small crowd of guards, “Apparently these kids found a hole in one of the walls and snuck their way in. They don’t seem to be apart of The Hero’s Awakening, just some trouble makers. We’ll just bring them back to Obsidian town, do a bit of questioning, and send them off.”
“Why don’t you go find that hole or any noticeable cracks? We wouldn’t want anyone ELSE sneaking in, would we?” Rose suggested in a somewhat condescending tone, the guards jumped.
“Oh yes, yes, on it!” one of the guards soluted as the group began to march off, their metal, ash colored boots clanking each time it hit the ground as their steel chestplate and shoulder pads, which were tightly tied around their torso, quietly clinked. Their tight, dark green pants and long sleeved, moss colored shirt helped them blend into the forest surroundings as they slowly left Aiden’s sight. Him and Rose began walking forward, occasionally looking behind them to make, making sure no one was watching or following them.
After a minute of complete silence, Jesse asked “Are we clear?”
“Yep.” Aiden responded.
“That’s great. Could you... Let go of my arms, please, they’re starting to hurt.”
“Oh, sorry.” Aiden instantly set Jesse’s hands free, unaware of how hard he had been squeezing them together. Jesse rubbed his sore wrists and looked up to finally observe wherever the heck they were.
They were standing in the middle of a luscious field of grass, small, bright flowers, ranging from hues of yellow, sky blue, and bits of red stood out on the field like blobs of paint on a canvas. The land itself wasn’t completely flat either; noticeably long grass blades would break up the horizon, their tips touching the sky as they’d sway carefully. The forest surrounding the shrine seemed to be in some sort of large “U” shape that must’ve stretched out for a good mile if Jesse had to guess. The sun’s set was blocked off by the thick trees, which only allowed thin rays of light to pass through, but the sky itself was a wonderful combination of pinks and oranges. There was a path of dirt, most likely from people constantly walking over the patches of grass for so long, that seemed to go in a straight--slightly crooked--line; and in the distance, there was an oddly shaped, lumpy structure, which Jesse assumed was the town Aiden had mentioned.
“Are we done enjoying the scenery? We need to get going.” Rose said as she let go of Olivia, walking ahead of the three. Aiden shook his head and walked beside her, motioning both Jesse and Olivia to follow behind, “The town’s not too far from here, if you need to stop at any point, just let us know.”
“I’d keep walking.” Rose commented, not looking away from the town’s general direction, Aiden rolled his eyes with a grin on his face. He spun around and, while walking backwards, told Jesse and Olivia “Make sure to keep those clothes on you until we get to our place; I don’t mind if you stain my jacket or anything, juuust don’t lose it, got it?”
“Got it.” Jesse’s head bobbed as he got to Olivia’s side, the two of them began talking, following behind Aiden and Rose a good several feet away.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
“Do you have any idea what’s going on through Aiden’s head?” Olivia asked as she folded her arms, trying to adjust the oversized leather jacket on her, “I know it’s been a while since we had our little ‘playdates’ with him but what happened at that shrine? That was... bizarre.”
Jesse stroked his chin, trying to think of any possible answer for what took place not even an hour ago, everything happened so suddenly, it almost felt like a dream. It was obvious Aiden, and his friend weren’t too happy thrilled to run into Jesse, so it seems like their relationship hasn’t changed too much; even while Aiden spoke to him in a kind manner, he held his hands tightly and didn’t even return his sword, as if they were expecting him to run away or suddenly attack. Jesse rubbed his wrists again when reminded of Aiden’s grip.
However, there was another odd thing Aiden had done that was eating Jesse up inside, and he knew Olivia felt the same.
Leaning close, not wanting Rose nor Aiden to hear them, he spoke to Olivia in a low voice, “Speaking of bizarre... How bout the way those two reacted when they saw you?”
“Yeah! I was just about to bring that up! He just got all weird and far too touchy- and-”
“They were acting like you died or something.” Jesse said in a somewhat blunt and concerned way. Olivia gulped “Uhm, yeah, I was trying to... Avoid that word.” she twirled a strand of her thick, black hair with her finger while she brought her eyes to the ground.
Jesse felt a bit of red creep up on his face, “Sorry.” he quickly apologized while he scratched the back of his head nervously.
“No, it’s okay. It needed to be said,” Olivia let out a sigh, “But that’s not what we should be worrying about. We should find out how to reactivate the portal.”
“Right, there’s gotta be an answer somewhere!” Jesse gave her a big smile, but she continued to wear an anxious and lost expression. Carefully placing his hand on her shoulder, “We’ll get out of this together, I promise.”
Shifting her head up and bringing her eyes to Jesse’s, she smiled weakly, “Thanks, Jesse.”
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
“I’m almost 90% sure he as amnesia,” Rose began as she reached into her hoodie’s pocket, pulling out black, thick framed glasses and swiftly putting them on. “He doesn’t have amnesia, Rose.” Aiden replied, furrowing his brow.
“Oh really? Then would YOU like to explain how Jesse has little to no memory of this place? About US? Maybe he hit his head too hard last week...”
“He remembers our names-” before Aiden could continue, Rose immediately butt in, “YOUR name. He remembers YOUR name. And he seemed pretty surprised when he saw you.”
“Well he just... Didn’t expect to see us at the shrine.” Aiden felt an odd sense of anger build up, though he couldn’t necessarily pinpoint why he was getting angry, which bothered him even more. He began walking faster, Rose sped up and continued talking, “A shrine that he knew absolutely nothing about. And this is Jesse we’re talking about. He knew this place like the back of his hand. If he doesn’t have amnesia then he’s definitely planning something terrible. For pete’s sake, Olivia is here! That’s a serious red flag.”
“That’s why we’re going back to the others so we can find out more.”
“I hate being ‘that person’, but I think they’ll be siding with me. First, Jesse got hurt pretty badly, he was unconscious for about a day, then he doesn’t say a WORD to us for another two days and now,” she quickly turned and looked at Jesse before turning back to Aiden, whisper shouting, “He barely knows anything!”
“I get what you’re saying, but right now we can’t be certain. Let’s just wait. Please.” Aiden ended sternly. Rose raised her eyebrows, unamused, then huffed “Fine.”
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mysticsparklewings · 6 years ago
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Bug Girl
My WIP Wednesday! piece is all finished!   (Warning: LOOOOOOONG description about the art process ahead!  ) I don't think it's terribly obvious for a number of reasons (at least not at first), but this piece is actually a bit of fan art/inspired by How to make Friends with the Dark by Kathleen Glasgow, which I finished reading Monday night--Though I actually started this piece a couple of days before   There's a concept that gets brought up a few different times in the book of the main character Tiger imagining a "bug-girl" in a jar, usually to help visualize her emotions to us, the audience. This concept really resonates and stuck with me even before I finished the book, and thus I was compelled to draw it. Technically the way I see that concept in my head looks different from what I've done here, so sometime in the future I may take another stab at it, but for this time I wanted to strengthen the connection between the bug-girl concept and the book, so visually I modeled the overall aesthetic largely off of the book's cover; white lines and white dots on a dark blue background that has a slight gradient at the bottom. The gradient on the cover is more subtle and is more on the lines than the background itself, but I took artistic liberty on that to make my life a little easier. My original plan was to do the background with watercolor, do the lines digitally and print them out (since I had some kinks in the sketch I wanted to experiment with digitally instead of doing a lot of additional drawing and erasing) and then use my lightbox and a white gel pen to trace directly on top of the watercolor, then splatter away with some white ink. But of course, things can never be that simple. The way I see it in my head, the bug-girl has, well, bug eyes, but for this piece, I didn't want to lean too heavily into the "creepy" factor, given it doesn't really fit with the content of the book (which is a great read if you like realistically heavy YA novels, by the way) so I angled her head down and her hair covering her face to keep from having to make the decision on whether or not I wanted to go with that look. And additionally to do proper bug eyes (at least the kind I was imagining) would've involved a lot of tiny circle/cell shapes, and I imagine that would've made things feel too crowded or would have blended into the splatters/background in an uncomfortable way. Additionally, I was going to have her wings raised behind her, but after playing around with a few different references and positions in Photoshop (knowing full well I was not happy with the original wings from the sketch that I completely free-handed), I felt like this more asymmetrical, lowered position and dragonfly-type structure just looked better and fits better with some of the movements of the wings described in the book (using them to cover her eyes, etc.) which in most cases aren't technically plausible with normal bug wings. My first real problem was with the jar. Realistically, it needed to be tall enough for the girl to stand at full height at least. And in theory, probably a little bit higher so it would be more comfortable overall and so that in theory she wouldn't just stand up and be able to push the lid off. But I was having issues with the sizing because the jar could only be so big so that A. it would fit comfortably on my paper and B. if it was too tall, the empty space between the top of the jar and the girl would noticeably awkward. So I fiddled with that for way too long and ultimately, it's probably too short, but the size balanced is more comfortable to the eyes, I think. (I also added the cross-hatching to the lid to make it more obvious there was a lid since originally it just kind of looked like the jar had a very wide lip.) I also gave her a set of antennae, and after trying the concept of segmenting her whole body to be more bug-like (which was way too many lines everywhere) I decided to add some plates on the front of her forearms and calves. It's not much at all, but I didn't want to stick solely to traditionally "fairy" imagery since she's a bug-girl, not a fairy, but in this lines-only format, there was only so much I could do and still get the proper impact I was looking for. Speaking of which... I did a lot of swatching and testing of my various watercolors that I have on hand to A. get the colors I wanted right, B. practice my blending of two colors with more paint than water since I wanted very dark, opaque colors, and C. test if my lightbox would even work under the thick watercolor paper and the actual watercolor. However, I made two errors in judgment during the testing: 1. The areas I swatched to test were considerably smaller than the actual size of the area I wanted to cover and even with my biggest brush when I went to do a practice go I very quickly realized that was going to take an absurd amount of paint, time, effort, and I was very likely to run into some blending problems with the gradient. (So, in summary, half-pan-sized watercolors and mostly small brushes are not great for very large areas) 2. Once I realized the above, (and I had already done two very quick tests with alcohol markers and that idea almost immediately went out the window for the same issue) I had to switch course and ended up using some water-soluble pencils (one Arteza Woodless Watercolor Pencil for the dark blue and one Derwent Inktense pencil for the dark teal at the bottom) to lay down the color for the background and then wet them down to smooth out the color. Which turned out pretty nicely, especially once they dried. (I was a little worried at first since while still wet it was looking kind of patchy and weird ) The problem with number 2 is that after it had fully dried (aside from the paper curling pretty badly since it was in a sketchbook and I didn't think to tape the edges of the page down before taking water to it, which was mostly fixed pretty easily by wetting down the back of the page and sitting a very heavy box on it while it dried overnight) when I went to use the lightbox, the pigment from the water-soluble pencils was noticeably more opaque than the straight watercolor tests/swatched I had looked at previously. It wasn't so opaque that I couldn't see my lines underneath at all but it was opaque enough that a lot of the smaller details wear really hard to see. And thus I had a pretty big problem on my hands. What I should have done was trace the lines in black on the blank paper first so they would be more likely to show through the pigment in the first place and there's a good chance that would've fixed the problem, even if I still needed the lightbox to see those lines perfectly. But hindsight is always 20/20 so that knowledge didn't really fix the matter at hand. I knew pretty instantly that I didn't want to try tracing the lines onto another piece of watercolor paper and trying to color matter since I seem to always have majorly noticeable issues with that, especially when there's a gradient involved, and also because I knew when I scanned it in it would be fairly obviously there were two layers of paper instead of one because of how thick watercolor paper is. I also knew alcohol markers were out because, again, color matching issues with the selection available to me, and also from some of my much earlier testing with trying to get the specific gradient that I wanted. That left me with colored pencils. And thus I went through the five different sets I use enough to keep where I can easily access them (I have others I don't like as much that would've just been a waste of time) and started swatching colors on a piece of the same paper I had the lines on and then held them up to the background to color match as closely as possible. I ended up picking one dark blue and one dark teal each from both my Prismacolor and Polychromos sets since the blue from the Prismacolor was closer but the teal from the Polychromos was closer but they were both slightly off, so to keep the texture consistent I mixed both together for both colors. This ended up being a very good idea in hindsight because I finished off with a final layer of the Polychromos and that kept my white gel pen from having the problems it would normally have over straight-Prismacolor pigment. (Since Prismacolors are wax-based the wax usually clogs the pen tip very easily; the Polychromos are oil-based, so the oil created a slicker layer between the wax and the pen). And all I did was use my lightbox to see the black printed lines through the colored pencil as easily as possible and went back over them with my white Sakura Gelly Roll, then I went back and outlined the jar and the lid specifically with my white Uni-Ball Signo, since the ink is slightly brighter and the nib is larger. Once that was all done to my satisfaction, I cut out the girl in her jar and placed it on the watercolor background with some double-sided tape I picked up the day before from DollarTree, clipping a few edges so they'd be as flush with the edges of the paper as possible. And I figured that would be a better idea than glue because the glue had a very good potential of being very messy and leaving notable marks. The tape was just a safer bet. And fortunately, the paper laid pretty flat, save for a couple of spots I either missed because I applied the tape by lifting up the edges so I wouldn't totally lose my placement or up by some of the nooks and crannies that make up the ridges at the top of the jar that were just too small to do individually. And there is one spot where that tape wrinkled on me, but it's fortunately not terribly noticeable in the final product. Then I made a paper mask for the girl inside the jar and got to move on to the slightly more fun part; I dipped a paintbrush in some white ink (white ink as opposed to white watercolor because I was concerned the water part might cause some reaction to the existing watercolor background that I didn't want and I was a little concerned it would make the non-watercolor paper that the girl and the jar were drawn on warp) and started tapped it against another paint brush to get splatters everywhere. I masked the girl since I was pretty sure she'd blend in too much if she got splattered too. After the ink was dry, I removed the mask and went in with the white Gelly Roll again to make some stars here and there; mostly just because I wanted to since the original book cover only has dots. I left it at that for the night since it was almost 3 and I was tired, but I came back to it the next day and racked my brain for a bit since it felt like it was missing something. I ultimately ended up putting the mask back on the girl and used my pastel blue PanPastel to create a glow effect around her. After that, I scanned it and did make some minor adjustments in Photoshop (mostly color correction, but there were a couple of black lines of shadow around the edge of the jar since it was still a separate piece of paper on top of the other one at the end of the day. And here we are. It's still not perfection, but I am ultimately happy with it since I think I got the look I was after in the end. Plus, I think I capture the spirit of the original book cover's style pretty well ____ Artwork (c) me, MysticSparkleWings I do not own How to make Friends with the Dark or the cover art ____ Where to find me & my artwork: My Website | Commission Info + Prices | Ko-Fi | dA Print Shop | RedBubble |   Twitter | Tumblr | Instagram
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wordsablaze · 8 years ago
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#21: Descents and Decisions
Match of Magic What if destiny chose soulmates through literal aesthetic matches? What if education fused with impossibility and reality faded away? Dan and Phil must unite, work together and help each other live the best of all the worlds they can…
(Phil POV)
“Hey, quit it!” I laugh as Harry pokes my shoulder non-stop.
She groans, “Look, I need your opinion on this.”
“Just give me a minute; I’m almost done…” I let myself trail off as I finish the section I was painting. I sigh and drop the brush as I do, placing it to one side, “What is it, Harry?”
“What’s wrong with this?” she asks immediately.
I frown as I glance at what she’s done. It does sort of resemble the trees we’re meant to be making our own version of, except for the fact that you can’t really tell where the outline is because…
“The sky. It’s too dark.” I say out loud, not even realising that I’d only thought the first part.
She opens her mouth to say something but grins instead, clicking her fingers, “Exactly!”
“There is such a thing as being gentle with the paintbrush, you know?” I grin.
“Oops.” Somebody says behind me and the smile on Harry’s face hardens.
I turn round to see Ken picking up the water tub. Which would be fine, if it hadn’t been placed on my painting. Which means that he’s managed to stain my painting once again.
“How dare you?” Harry hisses angrily.
“It was an accident.” Ken smiles sweetly.
I sigh, “It’s fine, I can fix it.”
It’s not a moment before someone knocks into Ken so he stumbles and trips, falling on the floor and pulling his tub of water with him. It lands on his legs and he shivers, the cold water seeping into his trousers.
I almost feel bad because of how awkwardly it’s fallen on his clothes but his cold, black glare once again sends my sympathy into an alligator pit, not to be seen for a while.
“Oh, has someone had a little accident?” Harry sneers.
I look up to see Amina laughing so hard that she has to sit down in the seat opposite me.
“Thanks.” I smile.
She only shakes her head and grins back, “It was my pleasure, trust me on that.”
“I like you.” Harry chuckles, “Hey, you’re the one who beat George in the school’s basketball tournament last year, right?”
“That’d be me, yeah.” Amina winks, “But it was a close call, he played well.”
“We’ll tell him you think so.” Harry smiles proudly.
Amina grins and gets up again, “Um, so hey, how about turning it into a sunset or sunrise?”
It takes me a moment to process that she’s talking to me and a further moment to understand what she said but I see what she means and nod, “Nice idea, thanks.”
“No problem.” She gives Ken a look before making her way back to her table, humming a song to herself as she goes.
Harry smiles, “She’s pretty nice.”
“Nicer than Laia?”
Harry elbows me, “You know she’s not. There’s only two people nicer than Laia.”
“Wait, who?” I ask, glancing at Harry in shock.
She grins smugly, “Well… you. And of course the person who doesn’t exist.”
I beam at her but she waves a hand, “It’s true, don’t deny it.”
I nod as she goes back to make her trees more visible and I inspect the arch on my page, deciding to make a sunrise. New painting, new day, right?
“Okay, I’ve made it better.” Harry announces as she prods my shoulder yet again.
I groan internally but grin at her painting, “It’s not bad!”
“Thank you.” She tips her imaginary top hat at me as I work on my sunrise.
I don’t notice as the lesson finishes but I do jump as someone pokes me.
It’s Rosie.
I frown at her, then blink as I notice the almost empty classroom.
She grins, “What are you doing in an empty classroom?”
“I’m not in an empty classroom.” I argue.
“What you call this classroom then?”
“We’re in it, aren’t we?” I laugh, then gasp.
With a glance at the clock, I notice it’s already five minutes into lunchtime.
I almost swear.
Almost.
I’m sorry, I’m on my way!
Oh?
Yeah, I got distracted by my sunrise.
Your… what now?
Sunrise. I’ll explain, hold on.
Consider it held.
I laugh and Rosie looks at me with a strange look but shakes her head as Michael comes in and whispers something that stays between them. She blushes as he replies with something in the same, hushed tone. I roll my eyes at them.
“You guys good with me heading off?” I ask.
“Yeah.” Michael grins, “Catch you later.”
His eyes flash in a swirling shade of orange that I’ve come to recognise on him as a sign of his mind wondering or him being distracted.
Or maybe I just imagine eyes changing shades, seem to know his quirks from us being friends for a good few years and my brain puts in colours because that makes sense or it’s something I can use to explain the idea of emotions to myself?
I chide myself; now is not the right time to get so analytical.
I quickly pack up and let my painting hang on the drying rack before virtually sprinting out of the room. I hear Michael make some comment about me running but I don’t let myself focus on it.
When I do get to the swings, I see Dan and wave, speed walking until I can settle myself on the swing next to him.
“Why are you covered in so many different colours of paint?” Dan asks with a frown.
“I’m what?” I ask, then notice my school shirt has a range of colours splattered all over it, the material of whatever fabric it is causing them to blend together. I quickly do up one of the blazer buttons and grin, “All good.”
“I didn’t even know you took art.” Dan laughs.
I wave a hand, “You do now.”
“Fair enough,” he admits before coughing, “So, wanna eat lunch?”
“That’s what you do to satiate hunger, yeah?” I reply, too late in noticing the undertone of sass laced into my voice.
Dan looks momentarily startled but laughs brightly, loud and genuine, his arms crossing in front of him as he catches his breath.
Once he’s recovered, we quickly eat our lunch, not really giving it much time because it’s not as important.
Dan smiles as we shove our bags to one side again, “So, what did you end up naming the video?”
I frown, “You don’t remember?”
He blushes, “Oh, you kept is as the one we made?”
I nod slowly, “Of course, why would I have changed it?”
He shrugs and we both grin, deciding to just push ourselves back and forth like you’re meant to do on swings.
Then we fall.
Sans warning.
The ground beneath us fades away.
And we’re falling.
I don’t know where.
I don’t know how.
But we’re falling.
I hear the frantic breeze hurrying past my ears, screaming in the hollow way only wind ever does. I feel my uniform billow against the sudden rush of air, the stiff fabric practically rippling as we descend. But loudest of all, I hear Dan scream, his voice so much deeper and throatier than normal, increasingly louder when we don’t seem to slow down.
I reach out as best as I can, opening my eyes as my fingers latch onto Dan’s arm, my own layered voice having quietly escaped me in a bewildered yell.
Dan’s wild, rounded eyes stare back at me.
The usual chocolate-y amber of his eyes now reflect a confused fear, akin to my own.
His voice runs out of scream just as we both feel a shaky jolt, as if we’ve slowed to a complete stop.
But we haven’t.
It only lasts for one fleeting moment.
And we fall faster.
Dan’s fingers intertwine with my own as we both shut our eyes, tense and helpless to do anything but fall, fall together.
Then, a thud.
It’s not hard to figure out that we are the thud.
Both of us slam down onto the floor beneath us, expecting broken bones or cracked skulls but finding only an almost soft surface.
I gasp, landing heavily on my left side, and make sure all my limbs work fine before turning to Dan.
He looks pale.
Too pale for someone with a complexion that closely resembles melted toffee.
“Dan?” I ask softly, squeezing his hand.
His grip loosens from the tight hold he’d taken and he breathes deeply, turning to face me.
“Phil?”
I nod and he winces as the both of us stagger upright.
We brush off any dust and I almost chuckle as I catch sight of Dan’s hair.
What?
You should look in a mirror…
Do you see a mirror?
I shrug, admitting that we can’t see one, or anything for that matter.
I’ll just have to be your mirror until we can find one.
Despite the muted darkness surrounding us, I could swear a soft scarlet blush runs to his cheeks. I pointedly ignore it and quickly fix his hair for him, smiling as I notice that the sudden attack of wind has revealed some of the natural curl, the one that even a straightener can’t hide forever.
He smiles and cocks his head for a second, before chuckling as I’d done not long ago.
You look like you have a lion’s mane!
What?
Dan just laughs, shaking his head as it dawns on me that my hair is probably messy too. Since it doesn’t have a default curl mode to revert back to, it ends up sticking out in every direction possible. I’ve heard quite a lot of descriptions for it but it’s never been described as a lion’s mane before.
You’d make a great lion.
Yeah, yeah…
Want to look more human again?
You’re hired.
For what?
Being my mirror?
Done.
He smiles happily as he reaches up. I try not to focus on his fingers brushing my forehead as he lets my fringe drop onto my face. He brushes some of it away from my eyes and smiles up at me, as if to tell me the job’s done.
Since when is our school so weird?
Are we even in the school anymore?
I don’t think we are…
Then where are we?
I shrug and let my left hand link with Dan’s right one, both of us leaving our dominant hands free in case we need them for something. We decide to leave the small room we’ve landed in, shaking off any probable bruises and walking as quietly as we can.
It’s not even two minutes before Dan starts shivering.
I frown but he just shrugs and I realise I haven’t noticed his blazer is missing. Either he left it back at school or it flew off while we were falling. I let us carry on for a minute or so until Dan’s teeth start chattering and his hands become colder than they should ever be.
Sighing, I stop walking and point to the wall, making Dan frown and turn to look behind him in confusion. In the second or so it takes Dan to reflexively face me again after I slip my hand out of his, I’ve pulled off my blazer and draped it over his shoulders.
Phil!
You’re going to freeze.
He smiles gratefully and slips his arms through into the sleeves, the shoulders of the blazer looking like rugby pads due to his slightly narrower shoulder frame. The ends of the blazer make for impressive sweater paws and I can’t help but chuckle.
He laughs and rubs his hands together, his teeth chattering a little less than before. His hands are still cold but I don’t let go of them, the area around us too dark to accidentally lose each other.
We manage to go what seems like a third of a mile before reaching a point where the makeshift path divides into, not two, but four different paths.
“Dan, at the risk of sounding clichéd, we seem to be at crossroads in life.”
Dan smirks and threads his fingers in mine, “Which one looks like the middle path to you?”
Very funny.
I laugh anyway, Dan joining in. It’s nice to laugh a little even though we don’t know exactly what’s happening.
“There’s four…” I frown, not knowing which one is the best option.
Fair enough.
“I’m not going to follow that one though,” he tells me, pointing to the extreme right one, “the stones look like a moth.”
I laugh but frown at the central left path, trying to figure out why the shadows seem darker there, almost alive like more intense, more evil Vashta Narada. In the end I only shake my head, “That one’s out too.”
Dan nods and points to the far left one, “That one?”
“Sure.” I agree and we head towards it but a bright flash and the silhouette of something slithering across the entrance to the path makes us stop.
“How about no?” Dan coughs, pulling me to the right.
I nod without a thought, “Central right path it is.”
“Do you think that it is even a slightly good idea to actually go down and walk along any of the four paths in front of us?” Dan asks, saying too many words, far too slowly.
“Are you stalling?” I ask, smiling despite myself.
Dan shrugs and exhales loudly, “Maybe.”
“Neither of us are… willing… enough to climb all the way to the top without harnesses and stuff so we’ve got to go somewhere, right?”
Dan nods but then shakes his head, “Your logical optimism is just…”
“Right?” I joke, gesturing to the path we planned to take.
He makes a noise that classes halfway between a scoff and a giggle, nodding.
“So, we just go and hope for the best?”
“That’s the general idea, yeah…” I smile.
“Okay,” he replies with a new grin breaking out on his face.
Let’s just find a way out of here.
Never thought you’d actually want to get back in school.
I’ve recently found something interesting that makes me want to stay.
You’re so cheesy!
We’re in an unknown place going down an unknown path in the dark, I think I’m allowed to be cheesy!
Point taken, Bear.
Thanks, Lion.
Hey!
Dan just smirks.
Revenge.
I laugh and squeeze his hand before we finally decide to move our feet and carry on walking ahead, following the only path that seems to lead anywhere that could actually help us.
This could go anywhere.
Hypothetically and literally.
I hope this is a good decision.
like/reblog but don’t repost, thanks!
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