"Reach for the sky, set goals, live life to the fullest, and always remember to wake up each
day with a smile."
~Brandy Miller
A hard knock on my door jerked my attention roughly out of my own little bubble of creativity, and I whipped my head around with a blush, barely managing to get a cloth over my canvas before the door opened. I couldn't remember the last time I let anyone see an unfinished painting, and I wasn't looking forward to doing so. To my surprise, Magiya poked her head in, and I relaxed.
"Magiya!" I said with an easy grin, setting my paintbrush down by my palette and shaking a few loose strands of gray-painted blonde hair out of my face.
"I was just dropping off some books and tomes for Maya from Warlic. Rolith said you were quartered up in here," she commented as she stepped in and closed the door behind her. She glanced around my room with critical eyes, and I felt the sudden urge to smooth out my bed covers, stack my completed paintings up neater in the corner, and maybe sweep. The Mage flicked a finger at the paintings leaned up in a stack in the corner. "Nice."
"Thanks… I think?"
A smile touched her lips. "You're welcome. It's a compliment. A three-syllable word meaning a polite expression of praise or admiration—"
"I'm sticking to thank you."
"You're welcome," she replied with a small smile. I got the feeling that any compliments she handed out weren't given out lightly. "Can I look?"
Almost immediately, all of my insecurities about my artwork came rushing back. I tucked my chin against my neck just a little as my brows came down, and worried on the inside of my lower lip with my front teeth.
"Well… I mean, the one's not finished—"
"Works in progress are indicative of the artist's style," Magiya slid in smoothly. Nervously brushing my bangs behind my ears again, I worked to remember all that I had seen of her. Would she be like other people, mention them once, and ignore them for the rest of the time?
I didn't think so.
She's blunt, I thought. If she doesn't like them, she'll say so and then have a reason for never talking about them again.
"Okay," I finally murmured, gesturing helplessly at the line of canvases leaning against each other in the corner. Magiya nodded once to me, and her dark blue eyes gleamed as though she understood. I hadn't any idea of what she might have been through, so for all I knew, she might get it.
Kneeling to paw through the finished paintings, she studied each one. I felt a little self-conscious, mainly because one of the completed five had the Captain as their subject. Magiya shot me a glance out of the corner of her eye when she finished, then went back to the first one—the image of the sunlight against the stone, contrasting against a shocking pure blue that served as the sky.
"I am strong because I know my weaknesses," she told me firmly, pointing at the canvas.
She moved on to the next one—the portrait of the woman with short black hair. She had lovely features, but her cheeks were a little too broad for classic beauty. Her dark eyes caught those of the viewer and held them relentlessly.
"I am beautiful because I am aware of my flaws."
The following was one that I had done after seeing a green stallion buck off his rider—a page delivering a message to the Keep, something about a box?—and it was an image of the young man after he had picked himself up. He wasn't mad at his horse, he just got right back on. He had placed his palm flat against his horse's neck for a moment, and this was what I had captured.
"I am wise because I learn from my mistakes."
One of the canvases with Rolith on it was next. It was a painting of him on his bay stallion right before we reached the road leading to the Keep at sunset, and he had paused to look directly west and into the setting sun. The way the light had played over his face and armor had been mesmerizing.
"I am a lover because I have felt hate."
That one made a blush flare up in my cheeks, but Magiya was already moving on to the one behind it. It wasn't anything special, in terms of detail. It was one that I had painted because I had seen it so often—a portrait of Maya, looking over her shoulder, still grinning from left-over laughter. The young woman's eyes had been absolutely brilliant with how much they'd been gleaming.
"I can laugh because I have known sadness."
Then without warning, she stood to sweep the cloth off of my unfinished one. Well, it wasn't exactly incomplete, but I still wanted to add a few touches to indicate a light source properly.
The other one I had made of Rolith was simple, but still complicated. It was the Captain as I saw him; tapered jaw that led to a proudly lifted chin, the very corners of his lips pointed upwards, high cheekbones, eyes flecked with green and copper to make hazel, lowly arched brows over them with a slightly bent nose sitting in the middle (after being broken twice, I would think so), and glossy, tarnished gold hair enveloping everything else.
At seeing this particular work, a soft smile crept over her lips, and I felt like an outsider witnessing something meant for others. In this, I could understand why Artix loved her.
"Imperfection is beauty," she whispered, "Madness is genius. You're braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think." She looked up at me. "Would you believe me if I told you that somebody told me that, a very long time ago? All of it?"
"You'd have no reason to lie," I said with a grin that didn't reach my eyes. I was still a little surprised that a woman who was so short-tempered could have said all that.
She looked down a little. "Sometimes I worry I come off as too prickly for first appearances," she said quietly, that enigmatic half-smile sticking to her face like it had been pasted there. I didn't think it was real anymore. Then a snort escaped her nostrils. "And then I'm reminded that people see what they want to see, and it doesn't matter anymore."
"That would explain why I'm always seeing the good side of people," I contributed with a short bark of laughter. "I try not to see anything else if I can help it. For instance, the bandits? They probably don't know any better! More than likely, they were raised in the group, and have no other indications of how to act! From an early age, they're taught that mobbing travelers is the best way to make a living. They're all unique and individual people, and if they had been taught differently, some of them could have been honestly great."
"…Or they could all just be lying scumbags who went from another job to this and know exactly what they're doing."
"Hey, for all you know, some of them could be helped."
"Why don't we just run with scissors or talk to strangers? Maybe they've got some candy."
I rolled my eyes playfully at her, then flicked a finger at the nearly-finished painting of Rolith. "So tell me the truth, whaddya think?"
"Have I ever told you otherwise?"
"Does that mean this time will or won't be any different?"
"… Fair. Alright then… I think you've got a crush, and from all that appearances dictate, you haven't had one either ever or in a long time, so you're confused to start off with. On top of that, he's a Captain, and you said yourself that you're worried about relationships of his with a subordinate, although I think that your real fear should be—"
"I meant about the painting."
"Oh. … It's good."
I ran my paint-covered fingers through my hair mutely. Magiya just gazed at me with dark blue eyes that were working a thousand miles an hour. I got the feeling that if I ever truly did piss her off, chances were I might not live long enough to regret it.
"When you fall for someone," she started after a long silence, "You fall hard, and then there's nothing you can do about it." A short, humorless laugh flew out past her lips. "I learned that the hard way." Privately, I wondered if there was any other way to fall for someone.
"Isn't… isn't there anything you can do or say, to help or something..?" I pleaded. A faint snarl curled her upper lip automatically, it seemed, and her reply was short and cutting, but painfully true.
"I can't direct you for every step of the way in what may or may not be a relationship," she said curtly, acid woven through her tone. "If you can't figure things out, then everything's going to fall apart and burn before anything's even recognized as a full relationship." After this short tirade, Magiya paused, as though there was something else that had occurred to her. I barely dared to breathe at the moment, so much shock was coursing through my mind.
"She's… blunt. And critical. She's direct and no-nonsense most of the time, and on a bad day she's got a subzero temperature."
"Just, if she seems to insult you, don't be offended; she's like that to just about everybody. She used to be worse, actually…"
Rolith's words from the trip to Falconreach rang through my mind with the clarity of a bell. Under normal circumstances, I would have still smiled, and brushed off the criticism as a comment from someone who just didn't like me. But Magiya was different, and any evidence that I had managed to notice claimed the same. She didn't lie—she told things the way that she saw them.
This, of course, meant that she was probably right. She wasn't trying to be mean—she was trying to drive the information through my thick blonde skull.
I smiled anyway.
"I've always wondered what it would be like to have a friend who never lied," I said mildly, feeling a little shamefaced, but also feeling like I was hiding it sorta well. "And… you're right. I mean, yeah, I want to have a quick helping word now and then, but you're right; I've got to do this on my own."
With a light smile that was only barely there, Magiya reached up and patted my cheek twice a bit roughly, making me blink. Somehow, I got the impression that if I did the same to her, she'd be knocked clear over.
"Don't worry," Magiya told me in a level tone, "I'll never tell you anything but the truth." Her expression dulled. "I might not talk to you at all… but I'll never lie." I regarded her warily.
"You're scarily brilliant. I'm not sure if that's a good thing yet."
"Time will tell," she said sweetly.
That tone kinda scares me. It's too sweet.
"Anyway, I've got to get back. I promised Artix I'd help him track down some undead to take out," she said exasperatedly as she tugged my door open. I laughed, recognizing the attitude.
"There are some things girls will never understand," I told her sympathetically, "But for me, fighting is not one of them."
"I will never understand non-magic users," the Mage muttered darkly, rolling her eyes to the ceiling. I shot her a shameless grin as she slipped through the door.
"Don't judge me!" I chirped playfully after her.
"Too late!" I heard her retort from the hallway. I wanted the last word, though, so I couldn't resist one more jab.
"I like you! People say that I have no taste, but I like you!"
"Fuck you!"
I chuckled to myself as I sauntered over to the nearly-finished painting I was working on of the Captain, tugging my paintbrush down from behind my ear and flicking my bangs out of the way with the wooden end. "Braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think," I murmured, quoting Magiya as a smile twisted my lips. "I like that. Now… just a little bit of a neutral-colored background for this, fading out, but something that will make it all pop… maybe a sort of darkish beige…? No, that'll tone down the hair…" My deliberations subsided into a series of mutterings as I got into the artist mindset again—not hard with my inability to focus on anything not art-related for long.
Hello again, my freaky darlings! :D Dunno about you guys, but I'm in a pretty good mood at the moment. :) Earlier, I was watching the original Pirates of the Caribbean, and I got to thinking…
All of the cursed pirates, under moonlight, gain the appearance of half-rotted skeletons, clothes tattered and everything. Barbarossa said that, "The more we gave [the gold pieces] away, the more we came to realize, the drink would not satisfy, food turned to ash in our mouths," etc. By his retelling, this happened over time, so their half-dead appearance makes sense. But when (SPOILER ALERT) Jack snags a piece from the chest, then not much later gets stabbed by Barbarossa, he is already skeletonized. I know they did this for the movie's sake, but it's still a little bit odd, you know?
But anyway, I hope you enjoyed witnessing that Magiya isn't even nice to people she likes. ^^" But hey, it was important for Calliope to get a few things in order. Tell me whatcha think about the chapter, and don't hesitate to let me know if you spotted any inconsistencies or typos! :) And at last we get to reviews:
MusicalPoetess: I don't even know if that's set to happen yet! xD I may chicken out still! *glomp* Hope you know I still look up to you in that aspect! And I am just as excited as you are! :D
Luna (anon.): You have no idea how incredibly flattered I am. I'd like to say I could be all, "no, no, it's not my best work, ha ha," but in all honesty, I am absolutely giddy when I see a review as long as the one you've posted here. *tight hug* It really does mean a lot to me, as much as that saying undermines it.
I'm positively thrilled that you are one of the DF fans who gives the writing portion of the fandom some love- there's not enough of people like that, in my opinion. That's why I continue to spread the love around, heh. Thank you so, so much. I put a lot of work into the psychology of my characters and attempt to fill them out so they seem as lifelike as possible. I've come across enough Mary Sues to see my error in my first fanfiction, and who knows? Maybe I'll completely rework the OC in that one to suit my purposes later. :)
As far as Calliope's name goes, when I chose it, I knew about the Greek myth. But that had no factor in my decision, to be perfectly frank. It also had no ties to the musical instrument (even though I do love hearing calliopes), as Calliope the character is most definitely NOT musically inclined. ^^ It's no shame to fall in love with stories. There are old books meant for third-graders that I still read on a regular basis because I've fallen in love with THEM. :) I understand perfectly well what you mean when you say that, and it's anything BUT creepy.
Magiya is one of many peoples' favorite characters, and for that I'm really glad. I know that it's not a good idea, because of the issue of self-insertion, but I put many of my own flaws and points of view into Magiya's head. It's not a good practice, I know this, but for a project like that I thought it might be better for me to be able to understand her as a person and back up many of her points with 'evidence' that I could understand and sympathize with, because that would give me better ideas to put on paper (or on screen). :) If that makes any sense at all.
And hey, you wanna know who I'm jealous of? Take a look at MusicalPoetess's page. If there's anyone I could be jealous of, I'm glad to say that it would be her. In fact, I AM jealous. :) She's a fantastic writer.
Here's your update, I hope you enjoyed it and I really hope you continue to read through this (slightly random) adventure! ^^ Thank you for reviewing!
See you all in the next chapter!
Juliet