Completed City Plotting

[Dust]

Fall 21, 513 AV morning The morning dawned bright and cool, though not quite clear; puffy gray-white clouds floated across the sky. Rather like little ships -- and a few big ships -- in a very blue sea. Dust had started the morning with Chalce, cleaning and cleaning -- and running a lure for a kestrel, which was still really unnerving even though she also found it really cool. The kestrel was a little, little bird, but it was a raptor all the same, and part of the raven Kelvic really wanted to duck every time it flew past her. But she didn't, and it truly paid her almost no attention whatsoever -- just dashed past at the swinging lure, the wash from its wings ruffling her hair and tickling her skin. It had been a fun way to start the day, all told, and now Dust practically skipped her way through Riverfall's gates, the sentinel Akalaks regarding her only briefly; as a denizen of Sanctuary, she didn't need the introduction to the city which they gave to new arrivals. Reaching the end of the road, where it split to left and right, Dust stopped square in the middle of the intersection. An Akalak very nearly collided with her at the abrupt halt; she offered him a cheery apology, he ducked around her and went on his way. That left Dust with the quandary of where she wanted to go -- left, or right? Her head turned from one road to the other. Left... or right? ...maybe she just wouldn't go either way at all. Putting her back to the wall on the fourth side of the intersection, Dust extracted a little book from under her arm, flipping to an empty page. She produced an ink stick from a pocket as well, but didn't immediately set it to the paper. Rather, she studied the street before the city gates most intently. She could see most of the buildings, more or less; the ones she couldn't, the Kelvic thought she remembered pretty well. That translated to this for the street -- two lines marching across the paper -- and buildings in boxes, this one bigger, that one smaller... okay, maybe not that small, which mandated the drawing of a larger box outside the offending one. Dust sketched slowly, looking up often to consult the reality against her approximation, lines gradually coalescing into a representation of one small stretch of city road. ledgerink sticks (x10) - 3 gm

[Jorin Ertihan]

Season of Fall, Day 21, 513 AV

Eighth Bell

As was typical for Jorin, sixth bell was taken up by training at the Kendoka. The practice was grueling, to be sure, but rewarding in its own way. Nonetheless, once it had concluded, Jorin had taken off to do the least fun part of his job.

Jorin found himself busy tearing down old flyers from the Amphitheater. In about a week or two he'd need to put up new ones, but for the time being the outdated flyers would need to come down so as not to confuse the populace as to which plays were being performed.

The cool morning air wafted past Jorin's face in a gentle breeze. It was the best sort of weather in Riverfall: cool but not cold, bright but not overwhelming, crisp but not dry. The dew had already fled before the sun and it made Jorin's job somewhat easier that he was not tearing bits off of soggy flyers. As he tore off yet another paper extolling the tragic story of doomed lovers, he saw a familiar shock of light-blonde hair bounding her way down the street.

Jorin hadn't spoken to the light-haired woman since the mines, where they had panned for gems together with Rinya. Jorin cocked his head slightly as he saw her with a book. What was she doing? She'd taken out an ink stick too, but didn't seem to set it to paper right away. Jorin wondered if maybe she was an artist. He'd seen that look of concentration before, on his mother's face before she set brush to canvas. Perhaps Dust was trying to draw something?

Jorin decided to ask. The woman was vivacious and friendly, he knew she probably wouldn't mind the company. And besides, tearing down flyers wasn't exactly the epitome of fun for Jorin. He figured to have maybe two or three bells to accomplish his task, plenty of time for a fun diversion. Stuffing the old flyers into his backpack, Jorin strode over to where Dust was standing.

"Hi Dust!" he called to her cheerfully. "Trying to draw something?"

[Noha]

Fall, Day 21, 513 AV

A fine day. Noha sat on the roof of the Labor Aid office, letting the cool winds of fall wash over her and out to sea, and watched the gulls dip to and fro over ships in port at the bottom of the cliffs. In the distance to her left, the Bluevein River fell into the sea with a roar to ceaselessly pound at the rocks below.

The pycon made a daily trip to this roof, easily climbing the office's rocky sides, and used the time to plan. She had already spent a season in Riverfall and felt the itch to leave, and the sea was calling like a siren. Noha was both excited and worried with the promise of adventure on its choppy waves. Yet, she couldn't leave until she found some companions to join her. Hopefully that would be soon. She was beginning to grow restless and needed a change.

As the sun rose higher into the sky, the direct heat started to dry Noha's skin. She clucked her clay tongue in annoyance and began her descent into the road below. With her small stature and nimble hands, she easily found footholds big enough to latch onto as she climbed downward, but she didn't account for the change in wind that suddenly whipped down the street. The gust, catching her unawares, ripped the little pycon's hands from the wall and she fell a few feet before catching onto the ledge of a window precariously.

For a minute her tiny legs dangled, kicking furiously to gain some momentum, but her little fingers suddenly started to break off one at a time. I shouldn't have stayed on the roof as long as I did, she thought sourly as her grip - digits brittle and dry from overexposure to the sun - slowly broke away. She slipped over the edge of the sill and managed to shout - "Look out below!" - before falling onto the blonde head of a hapless citizen below.

"Oof..."

OOCSorry, Dust! lol

[Dust]

Dust didn't see the man approach her -- she wasn't really looking -- but she did hear a familiar voice call her name. Blinking up out of her preoccupation, she cast Jorin a smile. "Hi Jo-- ack!" Something came abruptly down on her head with a hollow thunk, something that felt like nothing so much as a rock. A hard one. Dust ducked after the fact, automatic but useless reflex, and peered around looking for the person with the sling. Then she realized the rock had hit the top of her head... and looked up. Towards the roof of the building behind her... Belatedly, she realized someone had said something from up there -- and that someone, if it was the speaker who had come tumbling down, was still clinging to her hair. Either that or they'd dropped something, but she didn't see anyone peering over the edge... Apparently, it wasn't a rock that had hit her head... and now she really wanted to know what it was instead! Dust then froze, holding herself very still -- a little cautious, but also thinking about how hard it could be for her as a raven to balance on moving things. "Um... I don't suppose you'd like to come down where I can say hello?" she asked, her gaze angled upwards but entirely failing to see anything beyond a few tufts of her own hair. Her hands were full, which made it a bit hard to reach up for... whatever it was. That fact also reminded Dust of Jorin's presence and outstanding question. "I was trying to make a map," she stated, tone characteristically amiable and not at all grumpy or accusatory regarding the interruption of that work. "...Jorin, can you see what's on my head?"

[Jorin Ertihan]

Season of Fall, Day 21, 513 AV

It looked like a tiny living statue of a buxom woman had dropped onto Dust's head. Jorin had heard of these people. Pycon, if he remembered correctly, although he'd never actually seen one in person. It had definitely been her (did Pycons even have gender?) that had shouted "Look out below!" earlier, and Jorin grinned to see Dust trying to see what had landed on her head.

So she was trying to make a map. Well, that was admirable, although Jorin had never attempted such an endeavor himself, he figured it probably only required a decent grasp on proportion, and a good sense of direction. Jorin figured he had the proportion thing, although his sense of direction was not nearly as good.

"Making a map, huh?" he said. Yep. Definitely more fun than tearing down posters. "Mind if I join?"

To Dust's question about what was on her head, Jorin just grinned. "Well, it seems a Pycon dropped onto your head, Dust," he replied, looking at the little clay person with curiosity.

Jorin bowed to the Pycon, which ended up being a bow to Dust as well. "Greetings, my lady," he pronounced, giving the Pycon girl a quick smile. "Might I ask your name? Also," and Jorin held out his hand so that the Pycon could step onto it, "do you mind getting off my friend's head?"

[Dust]

"Of course not!" Dust assured Jorin, when he asked to join her. She always welcomed company. He grinned at her consternation, which she didn't really mind, and said the thing on her head was a... what? "A Pycon?" she echoed. Jorin bowed to it, or them, and held out a hand; the small clay creature scrambled down onto his hand -- which made for an odd feeling as it moved around on her head. The Pycon made profuse and sincere-sounding apologies, then hopped down to the ground and went off on its own business.

Dust watched it go with a bemused air, then turned back to Jorin. They walked through the streets for a little while, doing much more chatting than mapping, until Jorin pleaded his own errands to attend to. Alone again, Dust retraced her steps -- all the way back to the beginning, the entrance of Riverfall and the half-a-street map she had started to sketch.

Where she stood was a 'T'-shaped intersection, with the stem road already mapped. Dust promptly made lines for the cross-street, extending it out towards top and bottom of the page. Longer on the bottom, because it crossed the river and then continued down the other side. For that matter, she ought to draw the river and bay, as integral as they were to Riverfall's layout!

So Dust took herself to the bridge just above the waterfall, looking down towards the sea. She couldn't see all of the bay, but it wasn't that complicated a thing to draw -- lines for the river, a lopsided squished circle for the bay, with an opening on the other side where it touched the sea. There. Now she had something to draw the rest of the city around!

But which part to start with?

Common | Pavi | someone else

[Dust]

Dust already had a kinda-map for the south half of Riverfall, with some of the streets around the Warrens. So she headed back north, up past the entrance street to where the road took a sharp left. Here she paused to draw more outlines of buildings: a great round tower, a stable and a space for the park behind it, the smithy, and a couple of buildings whose purpose she never had learned. It reminded her a bit of the Antiquities Society.

The road turned, and turned again before the cliffs. Only Dust found she was running out of paper in that direction; continuing the lines over would run into the crease of the book's center. So did she make her road short and stuff the buildings into the middle? Or break it across the other page?

She had to fit all the apartments in along that road, and another tower... no, she couldn't make it small at all. It would have to be two pages. There was the menagerie in the middle too, and she should have made the Gardens bigger as it was... but she couldn't erase the ink, so it would just have to do. She could stretch out the plunge pool bay later, maybe.

Drawing the next road down the left page, Dust also realized her drawing now didn't look like the first part. Her road was a short stick instead of a long stretch, with tiny boxes for the Kuahala Estates, the Rookery Park, and the far side of the menagerie. She squinted down at the paper, turning it about and pretending she was flying above the city. She could see the pieces that made the city, all the shapes in place next to one another -- but somehow, even though each one fit with its neighbors, something had gone weird between beginning and end.

It was still recognizably a map, if only because she knew the drawing meant Riverfall, but making a good map was obviously harder than she had thought. Paper and ink and familiarity with the subject weren't enough by themselves.

Oh well. It was still fun to make!

Common | Pavi | someone else

[Dust]

Down below was the second terrace, which Dust pretended lined up with her drawing of the plunge pool. It was kinda butterfly-shaped, if you imagined butterflies were made of water and could stretch themselves out. That had a bunch of smaller buildings... a bunch of buildings... and she was running out of space again. Where had she gone wrong?

Hmm. Makutsi's tower maybe wasn't supposed to be that big, but because she'd made it big, everything else was squished around it. Again. She really needed to stop doing that, if she was going to make better maps! Dust realized she'd also drawn the tower first, which probably had something to do with why it was big. So if she was more careful about the first things, then the later ones should come out right.

Time to map the south side -- and to do it right.

Dust made her way all the way back around to the bridge, realizing as she went that it wasn't really morning anymore. Apparently drawing simple lines and boxes could take a long time! But she thought she could still do the south side before stopping for lunch.

The south side of Riverfall had... she paused on the bridge, looking out over the terraces and what she could see of the roads. The terrace went along the plunge pool like so, the Kelvic paying close attention to the contours of the cliffs as compared to the lines she drew. And if those were the cliffs, then the main road came down here and the towers were there and there. With other roads coming off of them... thus and so.

She would start with that, and use those points as references for where other features went. Then everything would be the right size compared to everything else, no? And it would all look like Riverfall actually did. Kinda. If Riverfall had been made of lines and boxes drawn on the ground.

Common | Pavi | someone else

[Dust]

Dust walked down to the first major intersection, between the Night Tower on one side and almost to the Watchtower on the other. Almost. That road came up from the terrace and crossed towards the wall... then the one she was on connected around a block and pointed at the Watchtower. The other way, it went on to end at Laviku's Tower... and if the blocks there were so big, then their cross-streets were that long...

...hey, this was actually starting to look good. At least, the street layout resembled the proportions she remembered seeing from above. That pleased Dust immensely -- apparently she could get it right!

With the streets properly in place first, she could then fill the spaces between with buildings. And a couple of parks. She didn't try to do that from memory, but walked around from block to block, filling in the buildings as she saw them. The butcher shop, and the tavern, and more apartments, and the training center. The great big block of Zhongjie Warrens, and Semele Park across from it. Lots of apartments scattered around, the Antiquities Society building, another tower in the southwest corner, and more besides.

Then, finally, the inner terrace; she had an outline ready, but it needed filling in. Those buildings weren't nearly as neat and orderly in their layout, but scattered about wherever they could fit on the cliff. ...that made them more annoying to draw. And really, she was getting pretty hungry. Maybe she could just leave the south terrace for later... or tomorrow... or... or just sometime not now. Sometime after food.

Yeah. Dust decided that was a definite plan, emphatically closing her book and tucking the ink stick away. Lunch! A much belated lunch. And then... anything but wandering around drawing on paper. Maybe she could interest Van in a game...

Common | Pavi | someone else

[Ragdoll]

Meowvelous Job!

Dust :

Skills

Skill	Points
Observation	4
Drawing	4
Cartography	5
Land Navigation	4

Lores

Riverfall Layout
Cartography: Maintaining Consistent Scale
Cartography: Page Size Limits Mapping Space
Cartography: Drawing Between Points of Reference
Drawing: Detail Takes Time
Race: Pycon

Loot

+1 Map of Riverfall! Woo!

Comments

A quick little read, but interesting all the same. I've never seen someone actually make a map in thread before.

Though I try my hardest to award you what you deserve, I may occasionally mess things up! If there's something you'd like to discuss about your grade, then please don't hesitate to send me a PM and I'll be happy to work things out with you.