Life In Mono [Crafting/Solo]

[Elkeid]

"It's five o'clock in the morning, conversation got boring…" Sorrel sat on the edge of Elkeid's table, head titled to the side as he watched the woman work. Despite what the lyrics of the song she was singing stated, it was well past two in the afternoon, and she was still trying to get the basic shape of the centaur carved into stone. Elkeid got the legs and most of the lower body done, at least, but she still needed to do the torso, rump, etc., of the muscle beast. She was starting to think that she had bitten off more than she could chew, but it was a little too late to lament on that now.

Early that morning she had gotten up and sent off the little pastry sculptures to Hazelnut, and had a brief breakfast by herself in her small kitchen… if you could call it that. It was mostly used for storing non-perishable food and had enough space for a small table and chairs. Elk feasted on a wedge of grapefruit and some yogurt with granola, which was a lot lighter than the sausage, eggs and biscuits she fed Sorrel with later that morning.

As the hour dragged on to another, Sorrel grew bored and scampered off to get into some mischief, leaving Elkeid to chisel and carve away at the pale stone gripped in one arm. If she was not properly compensated for wrestling with this monstrosity, she was going to break the centaur in half and shove up it right up Colonel Angus' ass. 'Pain in the…'

It wasn't until a few hours later that she was near enough to something that could be called "completion." The centaur flexed in a bold and masculine manner, a set of pointy, bull-like horns gracing his brow. The muscles in his arm and upper body were still being worked on, and there were even finer details that she needed to etch in, but she considered these to be the easiest parts.

Come supper time, an intricately carved centaur rested on the floor of her crafting room. Elkeid sent Sorrel to fetch her pipe, and once packing it with tobacco and lighting it, she collapsed into a chair and crossed her long legs as she took long, deep pulls. Now all she had to worry about were the paintings and the… scissor blades? Whatever. She would get to those tomorrow, when her body wasn't dying from exhaustion and her fingers weren't trying to fall off.

coded by benetnasch of THQ / ET

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Muse:
No Pants Policy

Notes:
Bluh bluh another sculpture.

Tags:
Elkeid

Words:
417

[Elkeid]

Today was going to be a relatively easy one, as she was just going to make a giant pair of scissors - or what Kirie referred to as a "scissor blade". He also wanted it to be all red, but that seemed a bit much to her. Had she been given creative license, she would leave one side red and the other purple. The two colors worked well together, in her opinion. But, what the customer wants is what the customer gets. She could hardly argue with his request.

Elkeid took out a rather large stone and set it down on the floor beside her stool. With a piece of white chalk, she sketched out an outline for the desired shape, deciding it would look best if the scissors were stretched open - waiting and ready to bite into whatever ran into them. Once she was satisfied with her design, Elkeid picked up her main carving tool and began working on shaping the outside of the scissors. She would focus on the handles once that part was done.

Sorrel stuck around longer today, presumably interested in her crafting of the scissor blade. She did not simply allow him to watch, though; Elkeid had the lad running minor errands for her, from sweeping up stone shavings to bringing her cups of water. If he had had the same subclass as her or at least the Apprentice subclass, she might have made him work on smoothing one side while she did the other, but alas. It was probably for the best, anyway; she was not too keen on the thought of someone else messing up her work.

His help was not really needed in the end, either, for the earlier sculptures she had worked on really paid off, practice wise. Rather than working late into the night like last time, Elkeid completed the carving and shaping necessary a few hours before dinner. All that remained was the paint, which she considered to be easy peasy lemon squeezy. Sorrel was put on newspaper duty, which meant he got to scatter paper around for her to mess up while she painted.

The little werecat mostly stayed out of her way as she painted and recoated the scissor blade, though he did settle down near her with a blank piece of canvas and a brush. He was attempting to paint something, but it failed to be anything more than cringe worthy and amateurish. Elkeid occasionally peeked at his work from time to time, but every time the boy caught her looking, he would curl his arm around the canvas to shield it from her eyes. It almost made her chuckle in amusement.

It wasn't until they were done cleaning up that the boy timidly approached her with his now dry painting. "This is for you, mum." He held out the painting for her to take, and then bashfully lowered his head and kicked at the floorboards.

The painting was a crude, childish depiction of two figures - a tall and curvy one with dark, long hair and glowing fists; the second was a much smaller figure with cat-like features and heavy armor. A house sat in the background, and at their feet were curious looking creatures with green cords wrapped around their tails. Elkeid assumed that the creatures were brier weasels, and it was all too obvious that the figures were her and Sorrel.

"Sorrel, this painting sucks." The werecat's head and ears drooped in disappointment. "But the intentions behind it are clear and appreciated." She reached down to pat the boy on the head. "I think I'll pen it to the wall here, to keep me company when I'm working."

"Why?! You said it sucked!"

"It does from an artist's point of view, but sometimes perfection doesn't matter. It's the thought that counts."

The lad squinted up at her in doubt. "Do you really like it?"

"Yes. I like it because you made it."

Sorrel still seemed doubtful, but at least there was a bit of a smile on his face. "Put it up here, over the table! That way it will be the first and last thing you see!" The little werecat scurried about the room while Elkeid secured the painting to the wall, but stood still long enough to grab her hand when she was done, and led her out of the room.

coded by benetnasch of THQ / ET

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Muse:
Artificial Nocturne

Notes:
Another completed sculpture.

Tags:
Elkeid

Words:
731

[Elkeid]

Elkeid had, of all things, been recently invited to a guild - "Knights of the Shot Table," by Tobin the dwarf. Having never played MMOs before, this was to be Elk's very first guild. She had seen many Adventures in guilds already, and of course a good chunk of those who preferred to remain solo. She had been in the latter group since the very beginning, and while she had expressed some interest in joining a guild, she had not found one that suited her interests - until now. Tobin's guild was basically an entertainment venue, which was a guild set apart from the mundane combat or exploration guilds. It was therefore a marketable way to spend her talents.

She had of course accepted, after taking a day to fully think it over. A guild home meant that she could move out of this Lander's house, and take up residence in something that was bound to be far ritzier when they were done fixing it up. Elkeid already had several things in mind, chiefly statues, sculptures, paintings, and pottery. She wanted to make the place look nice, though depending on what they chose, it might need to be cleaned up substantially before that was allowed. There was certainly no harm in preparing in advance, though.

One corner of her work room was covered with blocks of stone and mud, and there was a neat stack of canvases under her work desk. She had a good deal of free time, what with the lack of actual adventures available for her. It wasn't so bad, to be honest, though she felt kind of rusty lately. She would have to flex the Monk muscle sometime later. Thanks to Caer, she had finally gotten some good weapons with reforges, like her upgraded throwing knives, and the 2 spoopy Freddy Krueger claws. Yep. There would be some blood spilled onto the floor at a later time.

For now, though, she wanted to build her Artisan crafting level up more. It would allegedly be easier to do for the duration of this month, thanks to the boost in Ability Points. Subclasses only got a fifty percent boost, but main classes got a one hundred percent bonus. Elkeid heard that this was partly due to the two new classes and a Halloween event. She had not checked out the latter yet, having no interest in such a holiday, but Sorrel was sure to chat nonstop about it later. She would more than likely be forced into taking him trick or treating, too.

A part of Elkeid wanted to construct a ceramic pumpkin for the boy to carry his candy in. It would also be pretty damn heavy, though. Heavy enough to crack a grown man's skull open… On second thought, maybe the lad would be better off with a burlap sack or something. The kind you use to store and carry potatoes. Yes, a sack was good.

Elkeid, lost for a better start, just slapped a hunk of clay onto her table. Perhaps she should work on plates or something? It would be nice if she had glaze or something, but eh. She would work that out later, as soon as she could figure out who needed to research it, and what. For now, though, she just focused on kneading and rolling the clay. A decorative plate sounded grand, but a vase would definitely be better.

She started with the base of the vase, and then cut and rolled pieces until they resembled fat coils. These were then neatly flattened, and scorched with a tool so that she could dab the ends with silt. Oh, how she longed for a pottery wheel to make this whole ordeal so much easier. There was, from what she had read in the Daily Research Journal, a recipe pending that added extra levels to a crafter’s crafting class. It was actually more like crafting tools in the form of accessories, with that productivity effect she had heard so much about. She had not considered making an accessory like that with the effect, nor was she entirely sure she even could. If not, she could always request the accessory from the blacksmith responsible – maybe. It would be nice to have her own tools for once, and not have to rely on Landers.

The flattened coil that was now being attached to the main parts of the vase was being smeared and rubbed in to blend with the rest of the pot. No one would suspect a thing, and she had gotten so good at it that it was not even noticeable. Of course, she still had to worry about smoothing the two ends of clay she had “glued” into the base, but that gave her little trouble. She smoothed the sides together just as well as she had smoothed the base, and in a few minutes had a perfectly smoothed vase on her desk.

Now that the hard part was done, she could move on to adding in some designs to the vase. The clay should be dry enough to withstand her careful etchings. She tested this little theory by gently sketching in a small, four dimensional box on one side, and once she was satisfied that the entire thing was not going to cave in on her, she added more and more, until the entire vase was covered in identical patterns.

Last, but not least, came her initials. To add these, the woman gingerly lifted the vase with both hands, and placed it side down in the palm of one. She then quickly and neatly sketched in a fanciful “E”, and with equal care placed the vase down on the far side of the table. That was pretty good for a warm up, but she was not sure if the vase would be put on display in a more public area. She might just keep it in her office or something; it was nice, but not that nice. She would construct better vases in the future.

coded by benetnasch of THQ / ET

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Muse:
Artificial Nocturne

Notes:
Bluh.

Tags:
Elkeid

Words:
1005