[Job Thread] When Ducks Attack

by **Aislyn Leavold** on May 26th, 2015, 3:42 am

32nd of Spring, 515 AV

Ducks.
It had to be ducks.
It couldn’t have been rainbow rain, or invisible butterflies, or something extraordinarily Ionu-esque.
No. It was ducks. Painfully, absolutely, ordinary ducks.

She’d first seen the things outside her window; just one or two, hanging out outside. Nothing particularly strange, nor something to note. A couple bells of working on her drawings later, that ordinariness took a very extraordinary turn. Even so, it wasn’t immediately obvious. After such an extended period of working, Aislyn had resolved to take a walk to get some fresh air.
Unfortunately, Ionu had other ideas. The second the woman had opened the door, she was met with a much more surprising sight than one or two ducks.
Right outside her doorway sat a whole lot of ducks. And a whole lot didn’t just mean something one might happen to see at a pond. No, a whole lot, in this particular instance, meant there was a carpet of feathers and beaks coating about a five foot perimeter of her home, happily swimming in several inches of floodwater that looked rather similar to an infinity pool, considering how close it was to overflowing into Aislyn’s home.

Now, ordinarily this wouldn’t have been that much of an issue. A party of ducks outside? Easy. Free dinner for a season.
And that would have been exactly what Aislyn would have done, if she wasn’t deathly allergic to the animal. That was the true issue.
She wasn’t even allergic to all birds, ironically, just ducks. And possibly geese, but mostly ducks. Which, of course, with her luck, had landed her a date with Ionu’s most annoying illusion yet.
It seemed she wasn’t leaving the house anytime soon.

Might as well get something done.

Her chest twinged as she thought about it, but after the recent... Circumstances that had resulted in her reassignment in the job department, she'd decided to offer her services as a freelance artist. The work had been slow at first, but after the start of the season had come and gone, she'd gotten a request. Her first job. And one that suited her perfectly. She’d been expecting a lot of portrait requests- things that weren’t exactly her forte, but weren’t impossible either. She’d lucked out with this first request. A landscape, funnily enough. Easy enough. Brought to her by a little messenger boy that had reminded the woman a bit of Phobius, though younger and with less of a head of fiery hair on top. He’d brought the request in form of letter, a form that Aislyn hadn’t originally anticipated, though in hindsight it made the most sense. Verbal instructions could be forgotten, misinterpreted, misheard, or overall distorted. It could result in an unsatisfactory product to the customer, or wasted time and supplies to the artist.
Written commands, however, were much harder to lose.

”To whomever it may concern,”
A fair enough beginning. She hadn’t put her name on the few flyers that she’d placed, just a description of what house to look for. ‘Small abode with a peculiar symbol on the sill. Send requests in what form you please. Prices may vary.’ She was not the most eloquent with words.
”I request a drawing, black and white shall suffice, of the temple of Ionu. Big enough to be framed, if possible, though no bigger than a knife board. I’d like the picture within a fortnight of the time in which this letter reaches you.
Ah. That might be a problem.
Reaching for her notebook, Aislyn flipped to the back of the book, where she kept a tally of the days. Quickly enough, she found the note next to the nineteenth of spring. Letter arrives from a tiny Phobius. It seems to be a request for a drawing. A fortnight to complete, no less, so I’m in no rush to complete it.
Curse her less-than-forward-thinking ways. If her client wanted the drawing done in a fortnight, her client wanted the drawing the next day.

Glancing out the window, Aislyn sighed as she found an extremely fluffy ball of allergic death sitting on the other side of the glass. On top of that, it appeared to be raining. Quite hard, as well.
She was going to need to find a way around this.

by **Aislyn Leavold** on July 6th, 2015, 6:32 pm

Her first task was to weight her options.
One, she could brave the storm- and the ducks- possibly endangering herself. And even worse, the possibility of damaging her art supplies before she even reached the temple. Not to be misunderstood; Aislyn loved the rain. It was a relaxing shield from the outside world, especially when it rained hard. But even something she liked brought downsides. Paper didn't wash well.
Two, she could attempt to draw the temple from memory, risking an unfavorable art piece and an unhappy customer. Which she wouldn’t have minded as much, though unfortunately, unhappy customer meant less of a paycheck. She couldn’t have that, could she?

Usually after weighing one’s options it became clear which path to take. Unfortunately, this wasn’t one such case. If anything, it made Aislyn’s choices more clouded. Both ends of the situation seemed equally bad, so it was best to just throw away all options until she could think of something better. So she did.
And it was only after several ticks of staring at a blank wall that she decided her train of thought had long since derailed. That was when something on the supposedly “blank” wall caught her eye.

The thing about Aislyn’s home, was that none of the walls were really blank. They were all covered in various drawings of various things. People, places, even religious symbols, were all displayed on the mod podge that was Lyn and her mother’s wallpaper. One such drawing in particular, however, was particularly stand-offish. That was because it was a drawing of exactly what Aislyn needed- Ionu’s temple.

Lyn had forgotten about the sketch, or rather, sketches. She’d forgotten how often she actually drew things that held Ionu’s presence. If she could just find a sketch from the right angle, it would, in theory, be possible to re-draw it on a bigger scale. A big enough scale to be framed, if she were specific.

Taking down the tiny sketch, Aislyn began to scan the walls, looking for other versions of the same scene. She often drew the same subject multiple times, though, of course, never from the same angle. That was her virtue. Every sketch she found was from a different vantage point, putting a new, but not complete, view on the temple. It was like a puzzle, collecting different information from different sources on the same topic.
The sketches varied in style and detail as well. This because they were from various times, of course. Aislyn had been drawing for a number of years, and idolizing Ionu for even longer. It made sense for her to have so many pictures of the deity’s center of power.

So she had plenty of pictures of the scene. The question was- did she have enough?
Laying the drawings out on the center table of her home, Aislyn took a seat, and began arranging.

by **Aislyn Leavold** on July 6th, 2015, 10:01 pm

In a few short chimes, Aislyn had practically a full picture. It certainly didn’t look like much- a collage of different viewpoints, all sporting different looks. One was obviously ancient, it’s sketchy borders unsteady and paper corners fraying. Another was made recently, possibly just the beginning of summer. The parchment was fresh, giving away the drawing's youth. A detailed depiction of the temple, it sported the scene from the front, at a slightly off-center angle. The sky wasn’t visible within the picture, instead, the drawing focused on the mossy stone walls that dominated the temple Not particularly useful for the challenge at hand, but it was a good reference for the texture.

Next was a smudgy, black-and-white view of the bell-tower, drawn looking upwards with a perspective of the sky. The once-straight lines seemed to bend, and the detail was far less than what Aislyn would have expected of herself. She had an urge to redraw the scene, but that would have to wait until after she’d completed her commission.

Soon enough, she’d gathered a patchwork idea of what the temple looked like. Details from each picture gave their parts to form a quilted image in Aislyn’s mind. Details were formed from individual drawings; like from the sky-view drawing of the temple, Aislyn gathered that the roof had not six, but eight spires spanning out from a center tower. She knew that the shape of the overall temple was, simply put, akin to a triangle stacked on top of a rectangle. And from a sketch from inside the doors proved that the main entrance was curved, not angular.

Each different piece told a story. A story of how the walls curved, or the moss climbed. How many windows were visible from the front, and how many bushes donned the perimeter. Tales of how high the bell tower rose, comparatively to the temple, of course. That particular drawing had even held the smudged shape of a boy inside said bell tower, presumably waiting at the temple’s beck and call, always ready to ring the bell should the temple disappear.

After a few chimes of work referencing her table of drawings, Aislyn decided to take a break and treat herself to an early lunch before continuing. She’d been meaning to visit the bizarre for a while, though she’d never gotten around to it, and, quite often now, her cupboard was running bare. Not due to financial problems, of course, and the woman never went hungry, but instead due to her own negligence and constant pursuit of the “I’ll get to it tomorrow” stance on life. Her mother, of course, had stocked their shared home with plenty of nuts and bread- things that, in theory, Aislyn could eat, but never did due to the fact that it all tasted very, very bland.

After much staring at a particularly barren shelf, Aislyn opted for a simple piece of salted meat. She certainly had enough food for the day, and a few days after, but if the rain- and entourage of ducks- didn’t let up soon, her new diet of borrowed meals were going to taste an awful lot like parchment.
Sitting back down to work, Aislyn threw a passing glance out the window. The rain hadn’t eased, but the birds that had previously flocked to the sill seemed to have disappeared.
But the winged beasts weren’t the only things that had disappeared.

It seemed the ground had disappeared as well.

by **Aislyn Leavold** on July 6th, 2015, 11:32 pm

Well, wasn’t this a predicament.
It seemed the water had risen quite a bit since Aislyn had last looked out the window. And it couldn’t have been more than a bell and a half since then, either.
Despite that, the water was now high enough to form an infinity-pool effect with Aislyn’s window. Yet nothing inside was swaying, or particular wet in any way.
Sometimes Aislyn hated the way Ionu got their kicks.

Aislyn’s new boat house didn’t have any particular downside to it, other than the fact that even if she now wanted to leave, she wouldn’t dare open the door. Annoying, but not horribly bad. Still, she couldn’t see much from her window now, even if it was above the water. Unless her window was directly facing the scene, the water obscured the woman’s view. An unfortunate fact that led to a great sight of several passing houses, one shop, and what looked like a floating fruit stand, complete with slightly dazed seller.

Convinced her house would eventually settle down somewhere, Aislyn returned to her work. The sketch was almost complete, and, after an overlay of harder lines to define the final shape, it would be complete. Only two bells of work- not her best- but it was clean, and that was what mattered. When a drawing was framed, it was a lot easier to scrutinize, and charcoal smudged very easily. Smudged charcoal meant a messy look, and a messy look meant bad presentation. You can’t frame something that can’t be presented well.

That’s why, in this case, cleanliness was almost more important than detail. Thin charcoal in very small pieces (to avoid snapping) was best. A steady arm and a patient hand meant all the world of difference. Aislyn’s usually style was quick and angular- her eraser being her best friend- but when it came to commissions, she had to be much more careful. And much more committed. She wasn’t really all that enthusiastic about selling her work in the first place. She didn’t even really throw her pieces away. Her home’s walls were proof enough of that.
But, with her income having to come from somewhere, she had to use her skills to gain any advantage she could. Perhaps she’d even combine her skills for a better profit.
If she laid a concentrated illusion over her drawing, for example, she might be able to impress the customer a bit more. Nothing much, of course, just a boost. Clean up the lines, sharpen the shadows.
Make her work look better, that was all. No harm done.

In her idly plotting state, Aislyn forgot what she was meant to be working on. The charcoal she’d been using had snapped, her fist clenched entirely around it. Perhaps the illusion boost was better used later. Not on her very first job.
Reaching for another piece of charcoal, Aislyn eyes were drawn, once again, to the window, where a very familiar sight was to be held.
A very, very familiar sight. One that the woman had been staring at just ticks before.
Ionu’s Temple.

It seemed her floating house had been deposited right in front of the perfect reference point for her drawing.
Ionu smiled on her yet.

Once Aislyn had located a fresh piece of charcoal, making a mental note to buy more of the things, she continued her drawing, mending the misplaced details and clearing it up as best she could. Her strokes got progressively darker, cementing the niceties and eventually, finishing the product. Two and a half bells of straight work for a black and white polished drawing. Luckily, the patron hadn’t asked for colour. The season before, Aislyn wouldn’t have minded the request, but now…
She glanced over to the barely-touched box of coloured charcoals lying opened on a side table in the corner of the room, beside the hearth. Even in earlier seasons she had used the sticks sparingly, but now they received next to no use. Too much of a reminder that they would be the last coloured charcoals Aislyn ever owned, or most likely, ever saw.

But it was unavoidable that she’d have to fulfill a request with colour one day, and, most likely, she’d have to begin experimenting with her paints in commissions, if only to extend the life of the coloured charcoals for a bit longer.

Looking forlornly out the window once more, Aislyn found the sight of Ionu’s Temple to have disappeared; the bell tower ringing out a set of chimes, warning the vacant, watery streets of it’s departure.

by **Fable** on November 26th, 2015, 3:44 am

A I S L Y N . L E A V O L D

a d r o i t . a c c r e t i o n s

e s p i e d . e r u d i t i o n

r e c o m p e n s e . a n d . r e t r i b u t i o n

none
d e t e r m i n a t i v e . d i c t a

I should have expected Aislyn to have trouble with the ducks when Reysin had so much fun with them.

Good work!

Completed [Job Thread] When Ducks Attack