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WELCOME TO YOUR PRIVATE CHANNEL, ZEKI. FOR SECURE COMMUNICATION, USE 04.01.19.76 *** Z has joined 04.01.19.76 <Z>Hi. This is Zeki Barrone. I might be home or I might be out or I might be questioning my existence and sense of self while staring into the cold, starless vacuum in the mirror. <Z>Please leave your repressed memories, forbidden knowledge, the memory of a horsehair sofa, or that one confusing and shameful summer in Costa Rica, and I'll get back to you. | ||||
Die Verwandlung
Feb. 1st, 2022 07:16 pm
| 1st Changes | Shadows seem to gather around her periphery (especially feet), eyes seem brighter | 03/06/2022 |
| 2nd Changes | Eyes glow and lose their pupils, colors fade, occasionally has trouble holding things | DATE TBA |
| 3rd Changes | Loses physicality altogether, becoming almost black overall | DATE TBA |
| Other Changes | ??? | DATE TBA |
coins
current: 9 | spent: XXRyslig Application
Jan. 30th, 2022 11:51 pmOOC INFORMATION
Name: Sparky, Christianna, Hey You
Contact: Plurk: Allotrios
Email: de.allotrios@gmail.com
Age: 40
Other Characters: None
CHARACTER INFORMATION
Character Name: Zeki Barrone
Age: 26
World Information: Zeki lives on the outskirts of New York City, circa 2002. The city is still raw from the events of 9/11. IPods are still new, puffy jackets and The Lord of the Rings are popular, and KMart just went out of business. Things might be a little exaggerated here, but at the same time, a little easy to get used to.
Character Information: Zeki was born in Ohio and spent her formative years there, living near farming and agricultural lands during the bulk of her teenaged years. She expressed an interest in art at a very young age (as children do), and in high school, was skipped from the basic art class up to Oil Painting, which usually requires a few prerequisites. She also enjoyed staying after school for the art club because it was unstructured and less populated and formal (and the other students who stayed were 'her' type of people – quiet and a little weird) and would have gotten into surreal photography if good cameras and lenses and photo editing software weren't prohibitively expensive. After high school, she went to a local community college for a general education and came away with a liberal arts degree and several art-oriented electives. (Her family couldn't afford a fancy art school.) After this, she left Ohio with her degree and a collection of first place county fair ribbons and headed for The Big City for the opportunity its glittering facade offered.
What she got was a tiny, ramshackle, one story flat top crammed in between two larger buildings and an abandoned gray kitten that she named Mister Kitty. She got a job as a substitute teacher, and then teacher's assistant, and she occasionally managed to save up enough to attend an artsfest here and there, where she would sell a little bit of art and have her work picked apart by a panel of 30 people over two or three days and then go home to get drunk under the kitchen table and reevaluate every decision she's ever made.
Despite strongly preferring to be left alone in her studio with her paints and charcoals, Zeki has a tendency to attract the strangest assortment of company, which has often left her worse off physically, emotionally, and mentally than she started. She struggled with depression on and off and mostly on while navigating these relationships and the bizarre ups and downs that accompanied them and attempting to sell her artworks in galleries when she could afford the commission rates and on the street when she couldn't. Street selling wasn't ideal or lucrative, but it was more regular.
During one artsfest in New York City, she met a gallery owner, which wasn't unusual, had a conversation about the work displayed, pricing, sizing, commission versus monthly fee, etc, which wasn't unusual, and made an appointment for a portfolio review session, which also wasn't unusual. What was unusual was how well this particular arrangement eventually turned out. Zeki now shows collections at Mindscape Studios regularly, and has developed a cooperative, trusting relationship with Dee, the gallery owner. Dee pushes her work to customers, and if customers approach Zeki directly, she pushes them to Dee's gallery. She'd prefer to stay home, but makes frequent trips to the gallery to attend open houses and promote her work and is finally feeling the ground start to settle beneath her feet.
Personality:
Zeki is, first and foremost, an artist. Some of her work has messages that are easily interpreted, some does not, but all of it has personal meaning to her. If you ask her why she paints and sculpts and draws, she'll say it's because she loves it and if she doesn't, it'll all bottle up and make her crazy. Art, for her, is a kind of freedom: freedom from rigid socioeconomic structures, freedom from rules and expectation, freedom from the limits of language and reality. It creates its own rules and its own world, and she finds she can express things through it that words can't capture. And often, what she wants to express is the feeling of a thing rather than the fact of it.
She is normally quiet and unassuming and a bit deadpan, watching the world from her troll cave with an appraising eye and some amount of resigned dislike for almost everyone in it for no real reason. Her favorite media are paints and pencils, but she enjoys experimenting with new techniques and materials and sometimes even styles, sometimes to her financial detriment. Her Italian grandmother gifted her with a love and talent for cooking (but she can never afford quality ingredients) and an exceptional aptitude for Scrabble (although she's never beaten her Nonna at it).
She's intelligent but emotional and while she likes her safe, quiet, solitary life, she has a weakness for things or people who walk into her life and seem to need help. While this might seem like 'doing the right thing,' she has made some remarkably poor judgment calls in the past and found herself sympathizing with megalomaniacal sociopaths. This lack of good judgment has cost her multiple times. Her dry, cynical sense of humor paired with being perceptive and well read might make her seem wise or at least like she knows what she's doing, but she's just as frightened and clueless as anyone else. She is fairly intuitive, however. Zeki can often see through someone's BS or subterfuge right off the bat, and when she doesn't, she's inquisitive enough (to the point of nosiness at times) that it doesn't take her long to figure it out. When she does, however, she may already be in too deep.
Most of the time, she seems detached and unsurprised by otherwise surprising turns of events. This isn't to suggest she's fearless; she's actually quite wary and reserved. She's just used to always feeling a little ill at ease and expecting the worst. She fears losing touch with reality (hearing voices, losing blocks of time, feeling compelled by unseen forces, etc.) and has been through periods of mental instability, but can normally tell the difference between something manifested by her own brain and something real and solid. It's when she can't that she despairs and closes in on herself, refusing to eat or go out. (That is, aliens wouldn't phase her unless she couldn't tell whether or not she was imagining them.)
Depending on how productive she's being, she has been known to eat nothing but a small handful of grapes in a day, or an entire Taco Bell party pack in one sitting. She used to listen to a lot of heavy metal, but has calmed her groove significantly and now listens to The Paper Kites and The Mountain Goats. She can also moonwalk and do the Thriller.
5-10 Key Character Traits:
Cynical
Adaptable
Compassionate
Avoidant
Artistic
Stoic
Misguided
Fearful
Perceptive
Inquisitive
Would you prefer a monster that FITS your character’s personality, CONFLICTS with it, EITHER, or opt for 100% RANDOMIZATION?
Either
Opt-Outs:
Slime
Arachne
Merperson
Harpy
Roleplay Sample:
December TDM with Alfred and Norman
Name: Sparky, Christianna, Hey You
Contact: Plurk: Allotrios
Email: de.allotrios@gmail.com
Age: 40
Other Characters: None
CHARACTER INFORMATION
Character Name: Zeki Barrone
Age: 26
World Information: Zeki lives on the outskirts of New York City, circa 2002. The city is still raw from the events of 9/11. IPods are still new, puffy jackets and The Lord of the Rings are popular, and KMart just went out of business. Things might be a little exaggerated here, but at the same time, a little easy to get used to.
Character Information: Zeki was born in Ohio and spent her formative years there, living near farming and agricultural lands during the bulk of her teenaged years. She expressed an interest in art at a very young age (as children do), and in high school, was skipped from the basic art class up to Oil Painting, which usually requires a few prerequisites. She also enjoyed staying after school for the art club because it was unstructured and less populated and formal (and the other students who stayed were 'her' type of people – quiet and a little weird) and would have gotten into surreal photography if good cameras and lenses and photo editing software weren't prohibitively expensive. After high school, she went to a local community college for a general education and came away with a liberal arts degree and several art-oriented electives. (Her family couldn't afford a fancy art school.) After this, she left Ohio with her degree and a collection of first place county fair ribbons and headed for The Big City for the opportunity its glittering facade offered.
What she got was a tiny, ramshackle, one story flat top crammed in between two larger buildings and an abandoned gray kitten that she named Mister Kitty. She got a job as a substitute teacher, and then teacher's assistant, and she occasionally managed to save up enough to attend an artsfest here and there, where she would sell a little bit of art and have her work picked apart by a panel of 30 people over two or three days and then go home to get drunk under the kitchen table and reevaluate every decision she's ever made.
Despite strongly preferring to be left alone in her studio with her paints and charcoals, Zeki has a tendency to attract the strangest assortment of company, which has often left her worse off physically, emotionally, and mentally than she started. She struggled with depression on and off and mostly on while navigating these relationships and the bizarre ups and downs that accompanied them and attempting to sell her artworks in galleries when she could afford the commission rates and on the street when she couldn't. Street selling wasn't ideal or lucrative, but it was more regular.
During one artsfest in New York City, she met a gallery owner, which wasn't unusual, had a conversation about the work displayed, pricing, sizing, commission versus monthly fee, etc, which wasn't unusual, and made an appointment for a portfolio review session, which also wasn't unusual. What was unusual was how well this particular arrangement eventually turned out. Zeki now shows collections at Mindscape Studios regularly, and has developed a cooperative, trusting relationship with Dee, the gallery owner. Dee pushes her work to customers, and if customers approach Zeki directly, she pushes them to Dee's gallery. She'd prefer to stay home, but makes frequent trips to the gallery to attend open houses and promote her work and is finally feeling the ground start to settle beneath her feet.
Personality:
Zeki is, first and foremost, an artist. Some of her work has messages that are easily interpreted, some does not, but all of it has personal meaning to her. If you ask her why she paints and sculpts and draws, she'll say it's because she loves it and if she doesn't, it'll all bottle up and make her crazy. Art, for her, is a kind of freedom: freedom from rigid socioeconomic structures, freedom from rules and expectation, freedom from the limits of language and reality. It creates its own rules and its own world, and she finds she can express things through it that words can't capture. And often, what she wants to express is the feeling of a thing rather than the fact of it.
She is normally quiet and unassuming and a bit deadpan, watching the world from her troll cave with an appraising eye and some amount of resigned dislike for almost everyone in it for no real reason. Her favorite media are paints and pencils, but she enjoys experimenting with new techniques and materials and sometimes even styles, sometimes to her financial detriment. Her Italian grandmother gifted her with a love and talent for cooking (but she can never afford quality ingredients) and an exceptional aptitude for Scrabble (although she's never beaten her Nonna at it).
She's intelligent but emotional and while she likes her safe, quiet, solitary life, she has a weakness for things or people who walk into her life and seem to need help. While this might seem like 'doing the right thing,' she has made some remarkably poor judgment calls in the past and found herself sympathizing with megalomaniacal sociopaths. This lack of good judgment has cost her multiple times. Her dry, cynical sense of humor paired with being perceptive and well read might make her seem wise or at least like she knows what she's doing, but she's just as frightened and clueless as anyone else. She is fairly intuitive, however. Zeki can often see through someone's BS or subterfuge right off the bat, and when she doesn't, she's inquisitive enough (to the point of nosiness at times) that it doesn't take her long to figure it out. When she does, however, she may already be in too deep.
Most of the time, she seems detached and unsurprised by otherwise surprising turns of events. This isn't to suggest she's fearless; she's actually quite wary and reserved. She's just used to always feeling a little ill at ease and expecting the worst. She fears losing touch with reality (hearing voices, losing blocks of time, feeling compelled by unseen forces, etc.) and has been through periods of mental instability, but can normally tell the difference between something manifested by her own brain and something real and solid. It's when she can't that she despairs and closes in on herself, refusing to eat or go out. (That is, aliens wouldn't phase her unless she couldn't tell whether or not she was imagining them.)
Depending on how productive she's being, she has been known to eat nothing but a small handful of grapes in a day, or an entire Taco Bell party pack in one sitting. She used to listen to a lot of heavy metal, but has calmed her groove significantly and now listens to The Paper Kites and The Mountain Goats. She can also moonwalk and do the Thriller.
5-10 Key Character Traits:
Cynical
Adaptable
Compassionate
Avoidant
Artistic
Stoic
Misguided
Fearful
Perceptive
Inquisitive
Would you prefer a monster that FITS your character’s personality, CONFLICTS with it, EITHER, or opt for 100% RANDOMIZATION?
Either
Opt-Outs:
Slime
Arachne
Merperson
Harpy
Roleplay Sample:
December TDM with Alfred and Norman
Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom OC Application
Player Information
Name: Sparky, Christianna, Hey You
Age: 38
Preferred Method of contact: Journal, Plurk, Email
Contact Info: Plurk: Allotrios
Email: de.allotrios@gmail.com
Number of Characters in the Kingdom: none
Timezone: Eastern United States
Character Information
Character Name: Zeki Barrone
Age: 26
Canon: none
Canon Point: (if possible give episode/issue name and number.)
Gender: Female
Character World
Zeki lives in a Big City like any other Big City in the present day. It's a lot like New York.
Character History
Character History:
Zeki was born in Ohio and spent her formative years there, living near farming and agricultural lands during the bulk of her teenaged years. She expressed an interest in art at a very young age (as children do), and in high school, was skipped from the basic art class up to Art 4 and Oil Painting, which usually requires a few prerequisite painting classes. She also enjoyed staying after school for the art club because it was unstructured and less populated and formal (and the other students who stayed were 'her' type of people – quiet and a little weird) and would have gotten into surreal photography if good cameras and lenses and photo editing software weren't prohibitively expensive. After high school, she went to a local community college for a general education and came away with a liberal arts degree and several art-oriented electives. (Her family couldn't afford a fancy art school.) After this, she left Ohio with her degree and a collection of first place county fair ribbons and headed for The Big City for the opportunity its glittering facade offered.
What she got was a tiny, ramshackle, one story flat top crammed in between two larger buildings, and an abandoned kitten that she named Mister Kitty. She got a job as a substitute teacher, and then teacher's assistant, occasionally managing to save up enough to attend an artsfest here and there, where she would sell a little bit of art and have her work picked apart by a panel of 30 people over two or three days and then go home to get drunk under the kitchen table and reevaluate every artistic decision she's ever made.
Despite strongly preferring to be left alone in her studio with her paints and charcoals, Zeki has a tendency to attract the strangest assortment of company, which has often left her worse off physically, emotionally, and mentally than she started. She struggled with depression on and off and mostly on while navigating these relationships and the bizarre ups and downs that accompanied them and attempting to sell her artworks in galleries when she could afford the commission rates (assuming she had what they were looking for), and on the street when she couldn't. (It took a lot of wasted money before she quickly learned how to sort through galleries and approach ones that were a decent match.)
During one artsfest in New York City, she met a gallery owner, which wasn't unusual, had a conversation about the work displayed, pricing, sizing, commission versus monthly fee, etc, which wasn't unusual, and made an appointment for a portfolio review session, which also wasn't unusual. What was unusual was how well this particular arrangement eventually turned out. Zeki now shows collections at Mindscape Studios regularly, and has developed a cooperative, trusting relationship with Dee, the gallery owner. Dee pushes her work to customers, and if customers approach Zeki directly, she pushes them to Dee's gallery. She makes frequent trips to the gallery to attend open houses and promote her work and is finally feeling the ground settle beneath her feet.
Character Motivation:
Well, she doesn't do what she does for the fame and recognition. (It must be the money.) Zeki paints and sculpts and draws because she loves to, and if she doesn't, it'll all bottle up and make her crazy.
Personality:
Zeki is quiet and unassuming and a bit deadpan. She watches the world go by with an appraising eye and some amount of resigned dislike for almost everyone in it for no real reason. She likes to think she does the right thing, generally, but she really doesn't, and her lack of good judgment has cost her multiple times. Most of the time, she's detached and unsurprised by surprising turns of events. Once in awhile, she startles those nearby with an unexpected burst of energy or action. She has been known to eat nothing but a small handful of grapes in a day, or an entire Taco Bell party pack in one sitting. It depends on how productive she's being. She used to listen to a lot of heavy metal, but now she listens to The Paper Kites and The Mountain Goats.
Canon Strength/Weaknesses:
Zeki is tall for a girl, but very thin and, accordingly, not physically strong at all. Despite this, she has been in a number of tremendously dangerous situations and has a remarkable capacity for survival. She has a weakness for things or people who seem to need help and has been through periods of mental instability, but somehow tends to come out more or less alive. She can also moonwalk and do the Thriller.
Apprentice Sorcerer Application
Class: Probably Mystic. She seems wise, but really isn't, and has made some remarkably poor judgment calls in the past. She is fairly intuitive, however. Zeki can often see through someone's BS or subterfuge right off the bat, and when she doesn't, she's inquisitive enough that it doesn't take her long to figure it out – when she does, however, she may already be in too deep.
Magic Style: Mage/Toy class only.
She doesn't believe in magic, so perhaps it should be up to the mods. As for channeling device, I suppose it'll have to be something fitting, like a paintbrush, but I can see her being unlucky enough to get stuck with something ridiculous like a magic box of spaghetti.
Sample Section
First Person Sample:
I feel like I'm waking up. That's what this feels like. Waking up from some long hibernation deep within a tomb of my own making. Waking up from some blackout trance, covered in paint when I was sure I was asleep. Waking up from a panic, or a void, or sorrow, waking up and letting the pain fade away and taking a breath, feeling it stretch my lungs and remembering that I'm alive and I'm doing okay. I am doing okay. Well, even! Things have been going really well, which...I'll admit, makes me apprehensive. I want this to work. I do. I want to be okay, I want to stay okay, I just- I never just stay okay, and maybe that sounds like a self-fulfilling prophecy, but I swear I'm not sabotaging myself, I love my current gig, all right? Dee is great. The gallery is great! I'm painting again, and I'm not homeless and I have some canned soup and croutons in the kitchen. Everything is great! I just...it worries me, and I don't want to get too comfortable because what if something happens? Something always happens and it feels like something is overdue. God, Zeki, get your shit together! I mean, no, you have your shit together, you have it together. Now you just have to...y'know. Keep it together. Easy. Right?
Third Person Sample:
Z.Barrone 04/20
“And that, Mister Kitty, is curtains. Call the station manager, because we have a series wrap.”
Zeki folded her arms, her still-wet paintbrush dangling from her fingers as she tilted her head at the lurid green signature in the corner of her mural. Done at last. Zeki had never tried an enormous, mural-sized painting before, but she was happy with the result. It was a life sized child standing on a beach. She was holding an umbrella and facing away, watching as a ship sank in the distant, murky ocean. From inside the umbrella, wet and slimy tentacles were writhing and descending. Those had taken the longest, but they had also been the most fun. At one point, Zeki had overworked them with details and shiny wet spots, and they lost some of their life and movement because of it, so she had to start them over.
Now, she stepped back with a rare smile. It was eerie, but not unsellably so. It had some color – several colors, even, a few of them bright.
“Station manager here, did I hear a perfectly tied up finale where everyone's arcs are complete and the viewer feels a bittersweet fulfillment? Oh, I did! You're finished!”
“Dee! I didn't know you were still here.”
“I'm everywhere.” Dee wiggled her fingers in the air while Zeki swished her paintbrush in a cup of water to rinse the paint out of it.
“Well I'm glad you are; I am finished. And I could use a drink.”
“Girl, you're gonna have to buy me a drink when we sell this baby!”
“If you get me a drink now, it's a deal.”
“Oooh, I'm gonna hold you to that. What's your poison?”
Zeki pulled a face. “Eh...no poison. Just a Coke or whatever. Something sugary.”
“You got it, babe, bee-ar-bee.”
When Dee left, Zeki let out a long breath and stared up at the sky of her painting. Half of it was bright blue and clear. The other half was oppressively gray, but that's also the half that had the sun in it, which shot through the gray clouds in occasional bright gold streaks. The ship was beneath the blue sky. She touched the ship, wondering if she should have put it more...right in the middle. Or even under the grey sky. It would have complemented the composition better if she had, but her point, as an artist, was that bad things can happen in ideal circumstances, while sometimes good things are hidden behind misfortune.
Maybe she was overthinking it. It was late, and she had been overthinking a lot of things that didn't merit it. Zeki gave a small, tired huff, turned away from the mural and leaned against it. Or, she meant to lean against it. Instead, she kept going backwards and into a freefall-
“Wh-WOAH!”
-as if there was nothing behind her at all.
“Zeki? You all right?" Dee poked her head around the corner, two cans of Coke in hand. "I heard a yell. …. Zeki?”
Player Information
Name: Sparky, Christianna, Hey You
Age: 38
Preferred Method of contact: Journal, Plurk, Email
Contact Info: Plurk: Allotrios
Email: de.allotrios@gmail.com
Number of Characters in the Kingdom: none
Timezone: Eastern United States
Character Information
Character Name: Zeki Barrone
Age: 26
Canon: none
Canon Point: (if possible give episode/issue name and number.)
Gender: Female
Character World
Zeki lives in a Big City like any other Big City in the present day. It's a lot like New York.
Character History
Character History:
Zeki was born in Ohio and spent her formative years there, living near farming and agricultural lands during the bulk of her teenaged years. She expressed an interest in art at a very young age (as children do), and in high school, was skipped from the basic art class up to Art 4 and Oil Painting, which usually requires a few prerequisite painting classes. She also enjoyed staying after school for the art club because it was unstructured and less populated and formal (and the other students who stayed were 'her' type of people – quiet and a little weird) and would have gotten into surreal photography if good cameras and lenses and photo editing software weren't prohibitively expensive. After high school, she went to a local community college for a general education and came away with a liberal arts degree and several art-oriented electives. (Her family couldn't afford a fancy art school.) After this, she left Ohio with her degree and a collection of first place county fair ribbons and headed for The Big City for the opportunity its glittering facade offered.
What she got was a tiny, ramshackle, one story flat top crammed in between two larger buildings, and an abandoned kitten that she named Mister Kitty. She got a job as a substitute teacher, and then teacher's assistant, occasionally managing to save up enough to attend an artsfest here and there, where she would sell a little bit of art and have her work picked apart by a panel of 30 people over two or three days and then go home to get drunk under the kitchen table and reevaluate every artistic decision she's ever made.
Despite strongly preferring to be left alone in her studio with her paints and charcoals, Zeki has a tendency to attract the strangest assortment of company, which has often left her worse off physically, emotionally, and mentally than she started. She struggled with depression on and off and mostly on while navigating these relationships and the bizarre ups and downs that accompanied them and attempting to sell her artworks in galleries when she could afford the commission rates (assuming she had what they were looking for), and on the street when she couldn't. (It took a lot of wasted money before she quickly learned how to sort through galleries and approach ones that were a decent match.)
During one artsfest in New York City, she met a gallery owner, which wasn't unusual, had a conversation about the work displayed, pricing, sizing, commission versus monthly fee, etc, which wasn't unusual, and made an appointment for a portfolio review session, which also wasn't unusual. What was unusual was how well this particular arrangement eventually turned out. Zeki now shows collections at Mindscape Studios regularly, and has developed a cooperative, trusting relationship with Dee, the gallery owner. Dee pushes her work to customers, and if customers approach Zeki directly, she pushes them to Dee's gallery. She makes frequent trips to the gallery to attend open houses and promote her work and is finally feeling the ground settle beneath her feet.
Character Motivation:
Well, she doesn't do what she does for the fame and recognition. (It must be the money.) Zeki paints and sculpts and draws because she loves to, and if she doesn't, it'll all bottle up and make her crazy.
Personality:
Zeki is quiet and unassuming and a bit deadpan. She watches the world go by with an appraising eye and some amount of resigned dislike for almost everyone in it for no real reason. She likes to think she does the right thing, generally, but she really doesn't, and her lack of good judgment has cost her multiple times. Most of the time, she's detached and unsurprised by surprising turns of events. Once in awhile, she startles those nearby with an unexpected burst of energy or action. She has been known to eat nothing but a small handful of grapes in a day, or an entire Taco Bell party pack in one sitting. It depends on how productive she's being. She used to listen to a lot of heavy metal, but now she listens to The Paper Kites and The Mountain Goats.
Canon Strength/Weaknesses:
Zeki is tall for a girl, but very thin and, accordingly, not physically strong at all. Despite this, she has been in a number of tremendously dangerous situations and has a remarkable capacity for survival. She has a weakness for things or people who seem to need help and has been through periods of mental instability, but somehow tends to come out more or less alive. She can also moonwalk and do the Thriller.
Apprentice Sorcerer Application
Class: Probably Mystic. She seems wise, but really isn't, and has made some remarkably poor judgment calls in the past. She is fairly intuitive, however. Zeki can often see through someone's BS or subterfuge right off the bat, and when she doesn't, she's inquisitive enough that it doesn't take her long to figure it out – when she does, however, she may already be in too deep.
Magic Style: Mage/Toy class only.
She doesn't believe in magic, so perhaps it should be up to the mods. As for channeling device, I suppose it'll have to be something fitting, like a paintbrush, but I can see her being unlucky enough to get stuck with something ridiculous like a magic box of spaghetti.
Sample Section
First Person Sample:
I feel like I'm waking up. That's what this feels like. Waking up from some long hibernation deep within a tomb of my own making. Waking up from some blackout trance, covered in paint when I was sure I was asleep. Waking up from a panic, or a void, or sorrow, waking up and letting the pain fade away and taking a breath, feeling it stretch my lungs and remembering that I'm alive and I'm doing okay. I am doing okay. Well, even! Things have been going really well, which...I'll admit, makes me apprehensive. I want this to work. I do. I want to be okay, I want to stay okay, I just- I never just stay okay, and maybe that sounds like a self-fulfilling prophecy, but I swear I'm not sabotaging myself, I love my current gig, all right? Dee is great. The gallery is great! I'm painting again, and I'm not homeless and I have some canned soup and croutons in the kitchen. Everything is great! I just...it worries me, and I don't want to get too comfortable because what if something happens? Something always happens and it feels like something is overdue. God, Zeki, get your shit together! I mean, no, you have your shit together, you have it together. Now you just have to...y'know. Keep it together. Easy. Right?
Third Person Sample:
Z.Barrone 04/20
“And that, Mister Kitty, is curtains. Call the station manager, because we have a series wrap.”
Zeki folded her arms, her still-wet paintbrush dangling from her fingers as she tilted her head at the lurid green signature in the corner of her mural. Done at last. Zeki had never tried an enormous, mural-sized painting before, but she was happy with the result. It was a life sized child standing on a beach. She was holding an umbrella and facing away, watching as a ship sank in the distant, murky ocean. From inside the umbrella, wet and slimy tentacles were writhing and descending. Those had taken the longest, but they had also been the most fun. At one point, Zeki had overworked them with details and shiny wet spots, and they lost some of their life and movement because of it, so she had to start them over.
Now, she stepped back with a rare smile. It was eerie, but not unsellably so. It had some color – several colors, even, a few of them bright.
“Station manager here, did I hear a perfectly tied up finale where everyone's arcs are complete and the viewer feels a bittersweet fulfillment? Oh, I did! You're finished!”
“Dee! I didn't know you were still here.”
“I'm everywhere.” Dee wiggled her fingers in the air while Zeki swished her paintbrush in a cup of water to rinse the paint out of it.
“Well I'm glad you are; I am finished. And I could use a drink.”
“Girl, you're gonna have to buy me a drink when we sell this baby!”
“If you get me a drink now, it's a deal.”
“Oooh, I'm gonna hold you to that. What's your poison?”
Zeki pulled a face. “Eh...no poison. Just a Coke or whatever. Something sugary.”
“You got it, babe, bee-ar-bee.”
When Dee left, Zeki let out a long breath and stared up at the sky of her painting. Half of it was bright blue and clear. The other half was oppressively gray, but that's also the half that had the sun in it, which shot through the gray clouds in occasional bright gold streaks. The ship was beneath the blue sky. She touched the ship, wondering if she should have put it more...right in the middle. Or even under the grey sky. It would have complemented the composition better if she had, but her point, as an artist, was that bad things can happen in ideal circumstances, while sometimes good things are hidden behind misfortune.
Maybe she was overthinking it. It was late, and she had been overthinking a lot of things that didn't merit it. Zeki gave a small, tired huff, turned away from the mural and leaned against it. Or, she meant to lean against it. Instead, she kept going backwards and into a freefall-
“Wh-WOAH!”
-as if there was nothing behind her at all.
“Zeki? You all right?" Dee poked her head around the corner, two cans of Coke in hand. "I heard a yell. …. Zeki?”
I guess I'm back. It feels.....strange. I know that's not very descriptive. Eating jellyfish tentacles that you thought were rice noodles feels strange, but this is...
I don't know. You'd think I'd be used to strange by now, but I suppose if I were used to it, it wouldn't be strange anymore, so I guess what I'm trying to say is that...I'm drawing a bit of a blank.
I don't know. You'd think I'd be used to strange by now, but I suppose if I were used to it, it wouldn't be strange anymore, so I guess what I'm trying to say is that...I'm drawing a bit of a blank.
