Solo The pace of change

[Reed]

Date: 30th of Spring, 520 A.V.

Reed sat alone in the meditation garden. It was early morning, and he was sitting with his legs crossed on the white stone path thar ran across its center. In front of him was a blank sheet of parchment, and a stick of charcoal. He stared at that piece of paper, feeling a mix of anxiety and unease. This had been Kaer’s idea. The knight had been hinting at for a while that he should find a hobby for his down time, and finally to shut him up, Reed had found some paper and charcoal so he could try his hand at drawing. It was the first thing that came to him and seemed like a practical thing to practice in his down time.

Yet he had been here for over a bell, hesitating to put anything on this page. Part of it was the place. It was beautiful and quiet, with large stretches of ground dedicated to the smooth stones the Sylirans used to remember fallen knights. Bisecting these stretches of ground was a white stone pathway, that had bits of greenery along the edges. The other part was that he knew it wasn’t going to look great, and he was trying to get over that fact. He didn’t even know where to start. The charcoal was dry and crumbly in his hand, and he had to be careful not to exert too much pressure on it as he sat there watching the blank page.

Finally, taking in a deep breath, he drew a line on the page, and then another beside it, before connecting them at the top and bottom. He’d decided on trying to draw his room instead of imitating anything in this sacred place. The charcoal tip immediately flattened against the parchment and the excess from the rubbing pilled up in ugly clumps around his lines. He brushed it away with his finger and left a black streak across the page. Stopping and looking at the now charcoal crusted knuckle of his pinky, he tipped the parchment forward and blew across it, the dust forming a brief cloud in front of him. He set the page down again, and drew a rough rectangle for his bed, though he had to angle his lines in the end for them all to connect because they weren’t the same length horizontally.

[Reed]

Chewing his lip, he rolled the charcoal stick in his fingers thoughtfully. His anxiety was gone now, and he felt substantially better about the whole endeavor though what he done so far was far from what he’d expected. He hadn’t thought it would be that hard to draw like he’d seen others do before. They always made it look so easy, drawing their neat and even lines, but now that he was trying it himself, he was struggling to keep the line from being wobbly, much let making sure they matched each other. Despite that though, there was something deeply pleasing about seeing something he’d done on a page. Something about the permanent mark of him trying to imitate a picture in his mind made him very proud of himself.

For the table, he tried drawing a circle. He started at the top and pressed hard against the charcoal stick as he dragged it around a curve. That turned out to be a mistake as the stick split in his hand, and his half-curved line dragged out diagonally to the side. He picked up the broken pieces and put them at the end of the page, selecting the biggest piece that had survived and holding it at an angle to try and draw the circle again. Gently this time, he dragged the tip in a half curve that tipped a bit too sharp at the top, before he dragged it down and around to try and connect it. It didn’t quite line up, so he was left with an awkward hump on the left side, and he was left with a rough oval.

Close enough, he shrugged drawing a small square beside the oval to start his chair. He thought about how it might look like from above and tried to sketch out a smaller square above that one, but when he connected them with two thin lines, it didn’t look quite right. It looked like two boxes tied together, with legs sticking out. He tried again beside it, but this one looked like a weird tool, like a shovel with a handle that had been beaten flat. Breathing out through his nose, he sat back and studied his progress so far. He had a bed, a table and a couple of weird looking chairs, though to be fair, the bed and table didn’t look that great either. Mostly he just had a bunch of shapes on a page that were loosely connected to one another.

Despite that, he felt good about his progress. More importantly, he felt calm and clear in his head. There was something therapeutic about putting his ideas on paper and working on them in a physical sense that he could actively control rather than the emotional fog he usually wrestled with. He could feel Merdem’s presence, and on impulse, coaxed him forward. Merdem blinked, and looked at the parchment and charcoal stick. “Really?” He asked, but he picked up the parchment and blew free the charcoal dust before he turned it sideways to work on the clear half of the paper.

[Reed]

He started with two short lines that formed a point and went down from them with two roughly parallel lines that swelled a little in the middle. He connected them both at the end with a horizontal line that went a little farther out to either side, and under that line he drew another, stubby little line. It was a crude little sword, but at least it was recognizable Merdem thought to his brother before he continued with an attempt at a circle. At least that is what Reed thought he was going for when he started out with a curve, but then instead he drew down from the sides of the curve with two short straight lines that connected at the bottom. He then filled the shape with thin horizontal lines that were haphazardly spaced apart. Near the curve, he did a bolder line across, and shaded in a dot a little off the center.

A chest? Merdem nodded, smirking. He blew off the excess and started drawing blotches on the sword. “A shame you couldn’t find something red.” I didn’t expect to be doing this very long. “True, who knew we would be so naturally talented at this?” Reed was surprised to hear this, and that emotion filtered cleanly through to his brother. “When have you ever known me to shun a tool.” That got him indifferent silence.

Merdem filled in a small triangle, and drew a line down from it, and then little lines from either side of that line at the end. After completing that first arrow, he moved on to the next one and another, though side by side they looked uglier together than they did apart. As his emotions were not hidden from his brother, Reed could tell that Merdem was pleased with his little caricatures and knew what he was thinking about further down the road. Where Reed had been thinking of drawing in abstract terms and just enjoying emptying his mind to draw from his memory onto the page, Merdem was focused on his craft. As he drew the arrows, Reed could sense Merdem’s slight dismay at how the lines were turning out, but that was almost buried beneath the strong sense of determination as his tongue peaked out the corner of his mouth.

He wanted his image to look as accurate as possible but was having a lot of trouble producing detail from this shard of charcoal he was working with. Its tip had long been wearing flat from the earlier drawing and it forced him to work with a broad, uneven surface that created twisting lines that he struggled to keep straight. He had to lift the stick several times and bring it down again to continue the line properly. “There is obviously something that we are missing here, right?” I’m guessing there is a way to retain a tip to this stick of charcoal. “Do we know any artists?” No. Merdem sighed and drew a slight curve at the corner of the paper, before drawing a couple of lines through it. What’s that? “Trying to work on our symbol. Our symbol? “Yeah, you know, our design. Like the sort the thugs in Sunberth ran with to distinguish themselves.” We aren’t a gang. “Come on, don’t you have any nostalgia for the old days?” No. Reed radiated a slight bit off irritation at this line of thinking.

Merdem just shrugged and continued to work on his design. After drawing a triangle within a square, and a square with a circle, he experimented with a couple of other designs before setting the charcoal stick down and flexing his fingers. They were tense and sore along the back of his index and middle. Strains them quick, doesn’t it? Merdem nodded, continuing to flex his hand while he looked across at the stone field around them. He sighed and asked. “I suppose you want to come back now?” I’m fine with you continuing for a bit more. It was interesting to watch his brother draw, to feel where his mind went when he did so. So much of their interaction dealt violent situations, and anger, and resentment, and even after the revelations of their little chat last season, things were still strained between them. This seemed like a good place to start extending the peace branch and trying to work with his brother in a constructive way. To build some trust like little Nikali had suggested.

[Reed]

His brother nodded, and drew out a fresh sheet of parchment, laying it out beside the first. He also grabbed a fresh charcoal stick to begin his sketch. His mind felt crisp and clear as he put the charcoal stick to the page. Visualizing his desired image, he started with two parallel lines, one a slightly bit longer than the first, but he didn’t think that would affect the drawing too much. He planed on covering it up on the sides with some other designs he planned on trying after he got the outline done. Below those two lines, he dragged the stick down to make three vertical lines, purposely making the middle line much longer than the others. He connected these three vertical lines making a rough arrow at the bottom. Then dragging the charcoal stick across, he made a flowing curved line by accident when the tip flattened and carried across the page.

Instead of fretting, he decided to make that apart of the design and did roughly the same on the other side, though his purposeful line was bolder, and curved a bit into itself on the end. Around it he drew a rectangle, or at least an approximation of one. It was a bit slanted at the sides so that it looked vaguely trapezoidal but that was alright because he only wanted to box it in. He’d given up on going for a unified design and instead was getting used to the natural flow of the charcoal and the spaces between the lines.

While he was trying all of this out though he found holding the stick to be thoroughly awkward as she shifted its position between his fingers to get a comfortable grip. Each subtle change also affected the line which made him have to consistently alter the image he was going for in order to compensate for the shape and composition of these new lines. It was tiring work but rewarding for after shading in the corners to blur his initial rough rectangle, he felt like he was at least starting to get the hang of this drawing thing. His final design was an upside-down sword that pointed down into a thicket of swirling black lines. The thicket had been a good call as it allowed he to cover up some of the more glaring mistakes on the rest of his drawing, but in the end it just looked like a mass of scribbles around the sword as he hadn’t managed to make the twigs very realistic, or given them enough space. Also, looking back upon it, he judged that he probably should have cleared the charcoal dust in between some of those thick lines because they had smudged together and blotted out the little white spaces he had tried to leave between.

[Reed]

Blowing off the parchment he set it with the other and then put it into his bag with the charcoal sticks. He needed a break, and he could feel Reed itching to get on with something else. He closed his eyes, and Reed opened them. “Well that was certainly interesting. Think you might want to try that again sometime?” He could feel Merdem trying to restrain his enthusiasm as he offered a simple: Yes. Reed nodded to himself. He had quite enjoyed it as well and it was a relaxing way to spend the idle time, certainly better than sitting on his bunk staring at the ceiling or indulging in drink. As a plus his mind felt sharper and he felt content in a way similar to how he felt after a good day of training.

Putting on his backpack, he decided to walk around the path once before leaving to give time for his thoughts to rest before he had to go on with his day. He thought of the things he could try to draw, rooms, armor, shields, and Merdem thought of the people he could try to draw. Reed blushed. “Don’t even think about trying it.” Just casual speculation. “They’d probably turn out to be line people anyways.” Have more trust in our talent. “I think you put too much into it.” You’ll see, a little more practice and we’ll get there. Hey, we could practice with little Nikali. “I knew you were going to go there.” I’m just saying, as far as models go, she’s a perfect pick.

Reed groaned and shook his head. He could feel Merdem drawing a good deal of enjoyment out of his embarrassment. It occurred to him that this was one of the first few positive experiences they’ve had together since that little chat with the statue and it felt nice. Perhaps he would keep up with this drawing thing, so long as it didn’t get in the way of his training and other duties. It had been a lot of fun, and maybe it would be like Merdem said. They’d get really good at it and start making something they could be proud of. He liked the thought of that and started daydreaming again of what he might like to try to draw in the future. Of course he would have to see if he could find an artist somewhere in the city that could give him a few pointers just to help him past these difficult bits, but after he suspected it would come down to getting his hand used to the idea of drawing on a page. Having made a full circuit of the park, Reed left still daydreaming of the future.

[Alric Lysane]

Reed

Hi!

Should you return please update your CS and PM/DM me for your Grade!

~ Alric