strangetrip | [EP] When Real World and Comics Collide

Entry tags:

[EP] When Real World and Comics Collide - Open

Mack caught about ten hours of sleep total since his arrival. Unlike others that had arrived, his was due to excitement. Yes, he missed his grandfather and his friends. But the Changer world wasn't in a war any longer and he viewed this as a vacation. Besides SERIOUSLY, he got the best welcome to a weird place gift ever. No, not the toothbrush and other stuff (no offense Caroline) but what was in his egg.

He'd been given a Clip Studio EX software and a Graphic Drawing Tablet, PLUS pens and colored pencils. Mack didn't waste any time in setting up the software and trying to figure out how it worked. His first couple of attempts weren't the best, but then his character began to look like it did on the paper and he was satisfied. He stuffed everything that had been in his egg, plus he own graphic novels, comic and notepad into his backpack and headed down toward the cafe.

There was plenty of room on the table at a booth to spread out all his stuff. It wasn't busy so he didn't feel guilty about doing it. Soon he was lost in trying to transfer his comic to the tablet and thinking of new adventures of a Kitsune stuck in another world. SO TOTALLY COOL!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"That's it exactly!" Mack was excited that she understood what he was trying to say. "And they don't have to be about superheroes at all. They can just be about regular adventures or friendships."

"May I?" Lillith extended a hand for his notebook. She had an idea. "I would like to try to draw a 'comic' for you." She was uncertain about the "panels" but she liked the concept very well. It might add an interesting dimension to her artwork.

"Of course." Mack handed her the notebook and his colored pencils, curious about what she'd draw. "I can't wait to see it." And he meant that sincerely.

Lillith sat for a long minute in quiet, considering. She thought his story might be personal and felt, then, that it would be easiest to translate the medium using a story that was personal to her, as well.

The day that Vox Machina saved her from the Broker came to mind, but it felt too large for a first effort and confusing for which pieces to include and how to make the 'panels'. Instead, when her charcoal (she chose her own rather than his pencils for comfort) began its first arcs across the page, she realized she had chosen Beatrycze's story instead.

The first panel came instantly, a closed door with the sound bubble showing sobbing from behind it. The door loomed, crooked and evil and cruel like all dungeon doors in Palac Lusterka, and there were no people in the image. That seemed important to Lillith, that there was fear and sorrow and no one to know or care. Also, it seemed important because it would make her surprise in the next panel more powerful.

Mack watched Lilith draw. It was always fascinating to him to watch others draw, especially something new. His brow furrowed as he concentrated on the emerging image.

The second panel emerged less smoothly than the first, a pause for deciding whether it should reveal first Beatrycze or herself. In the end there was neither, simply a clawed hand twisting the knob of the door opened enough to cast a plume of light down a shaft that would prove to be stairs eventually.

The third focused squarely on Beatrycze: tiny, innocent, and terrified, wearing nothing but a simple white shift-dress (best to show the blood, Lillith recalled thinking in horror) and bound atop a blood-stained altar. Her upturned face sought the light, her mouth a mask of terror, and all sound silenced.

Mack's eyes grew wide as he watched the scenes emerge. Dark images weren't new for him. There were a few graphic novels that he'd kept hidden from his grandfather. It was just unexpected, but it was amazing. She was able to show tension and fear without showing thoughts or any words. Or really much action.

She struggled for a few minutes, fangs worrying at her bottom lip, because she was unsure how best to get from 'here' to 'there'. There had been so many thoughts. So quickly. It seemed maybe she should crowd a 'panel' with all of them, too close together and in too many languages to read.

But then she recalled that all of the thoughts had vanished into clarity. A single, sure thought.

On an impulse, she turned to look at Mack. "Is it done to split panels between? To have persons in separate places in the same panel?"

"Oh sure." He answered with a quick nod of his head. "Sometimes the panel can be split horizontally and sometimes across it diagonally. Sometimes they even insert a circle within the panel. So pretty much anything you want to happen can."

Nodding, Lillith moved surely to the next panel and split it on a diagonal. The top half was a pair of wide, wide eyes and the suggestion of horns at the top of the stairs. At the bottom half, a mouth and a wordless cry.

Next, the little girl squirmed in her bindings at the sound of footsteps. And the next, a clawed hand covered the child's mouth, arms came around her, lifted her, and more running feet--a single panel in four tight slices.

The next, a bubble, large and filled to the edges with one word: "LILLITH!"

The next was below large, a flurry of movement and the slash of claws across a face not one of those already shown. On impulse, Lillith drew the rake of claws across the entire large panel.

And then a final, smaller panel crowded to the bottom right with Lillith carrying a very small child at a dead run through a forest of eyes.

"Holy moly!" Mack said as he stared at her drawings. "That is awesome! I mean not the subject, being chased and hurt is not great, but you show so much what isn't said or seen in your drawing. You're really good." He meant understanding what a story meant and how to convey it in a few strokes or words.

"Thank you." Lillith's cheeks pinked with warm pleasure and pride. "I find...it is intuitive story-form, this. Better than big tapestries or walls with rules for use of space, I think."

She sucked in her cheeks and studied her own work. The forms were more assured than the panels and word placements but it was to be expected. "The girl is called Beatrycze. I saved her from my sisters who would have sacrificed her for their magic."

Mack nibbled on the inside of his cheek as he debated telling her. She'd be the first person he'd told besides people back home, "I was saved by a friend back home. Not from a sacrifice though. Is that when you first met Beatrycze? I mean not this panel where you're rescuing her but when your sisters took her?"

"I would like to hear your story," Lillith told him and glanced over toward the counter to see if there was someone who might bring them a meal or a beverage. Kitty popped up from behind the counter and headed their way.

"Beatrycze, yes. I meet her then. When I find her in dungeons, it is first time. I did not know what my sisters did until then, either. It was..." Lillith frowned mildly and hoped the shift of her accent to her native tongue's would not disturb him. It happened often in speaking of past things. "First day of new life forever."

Mack got the concept of the first day of a new life. "I was used like your friend. Not for a sacrifice, but as a tool to get to my grandfather. I was stupid enough to think that she really wanted to teach me. I didn't see what she was really doing until it was too late."

He looked down at his hands, then lifted his gaze to Lilith with a more confident look. "But in the end we defeated her. I was the inside person and told my friends what she was planning."

"Mack, darling," Lillith said in the same tone she used to speak to Beatrycze, warm and reassuring and very certain of herself. "Whatever responsibilities you had thrust upon you, you are just a boy. Whatever happened with your grandfather and this woman who betrayed your trust, it was not because you are stupid, but because she is a liar."

And because his grandfather always kept things from him. If he had told Mack more, he might not have gone down that path, but it also might not have made a difference. Mack could be stubborn and impatient.

"She stole memories. Mind magic I guess." He didn't say that she was a kitsune. "But I have a friend that can walk through dreams and she walked through mine and helped me remember things."

Despite Lilith's kind words, Mack would always feel guilty for his part in Sakura's plan.

"If you still have memories that are missing, Molly also has mind magic and has been helping Jane with her amnesia," Lillith offered helpfully.

"It is understandable to feel guilt, as I do for what my sisters did until I learned what they had done and stopped them. Even so, I only protected Beatrycze and have not put an end to the evil they do." It was something she felt he needed to hear, and so she did not hesitate to tell him. "But if you will feel guilt, remember to also to give yourself credit for doing right in the end. And do not hold yourself alone responsible, for she was the one who stole your memories and pointed you on a dark path. Not you."

Mack filed the name Molly away to see if maybe she could help. He didn't know if he still had memories missing, but it wouldn't hurt to see.

He liked that Lilith talked to him like an adult and was honest in her past. The truth of the words and not just saying them to ease his guilt was clear in them. His friend said the same about giving himself credit for turning it around.

"Thank you. I had a friend kind of tell me the same thing, but you really understand what it feels like. It helps." Different experience but same type of guilt.

"I do understand." Very well. Perhaps too well. And it was a terrible burden for a boy of his age. She wished it was not one he carried.

"If you need to talk about any of it, you may always come find me. I am in the room 210, called Paris Violets."

"Oh, that's by me! I'm in room 206, it's called the Old Mill Room." Mack actually liked his room. "It has this mural on the wall of a mill." It was kind of girlie with the flowers but he thought it was neat it had a mural.

"That is very convenient, then." Lillith gave him a fond smile and settled one of the stories in front of her. "We shall see each other often."

And it would make keeping an eye on the boy that much simpler.

[ooc: fade?]

[ooc: fade!]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[EP] When Real World and Comics Collide - Open

Re: Lillith & Mack

Re: Lillith & Mack

Re: Lillith & Mack

Re: Lillith & Mack

Re: Lillith & Mack

Re: Lillith & Mack

Re: Lillith & Mack

Re: Lillith & Mack

Re: Lillith & Mack

Re: Lillith & Mack

Re: Lillith & Mack

Re: Lillith & Mack

Re: Lillith & Mack

Re: Lillith & Mack

Re: Lillith & Mack

Re: Lillith & Mack

Re: Lillith & Mack

Re: Lillith & Mack

Re: Lillith & Mack

Re: Lillith & Mack

Re: Lillith & Mack

Re: Lillith & Mack

Re: Lillith & Mack