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Description

Shadow's ocean journey continues.

TOPIC WARNING: this next section gets very dark, reflecting serious depression.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Deep in the unfathomable reaches of the ocean, where the crushing pressure of hundreds upon hundreds of tons of water would pop most living things like grapes, Shadow finds an unexpected solace. A dark peace. The vast, empty sand dunes interspersed with debris bespeak something hidden, something inevitable. Incomprehensible. Unavoidable. A crushing weight of certainty, like fate already written not just in stone, but in something even more permanent.

Like the dead remnant of some unfortunate creature she had felt compelled to bring with her, Shadow is swallowed up by these depths. Insignificant, tiny, impotent. Powerless. Yet this dark emotion feels almost like home to her. The vast, abysmal emptiness around seems to draw some of the Void out of her with every kilometer she wanders. As if the ocean's depths knows the most intimate, secretive parts of her soul, and by knowing her already, relieves some of the burden of carrying it all alone.

And so she revels in it. In what most people might consider a twisted sense of relief, Shadow basks in the darkness inside, the seething weight of anguish. Pain at what was lost and can never be retrieved. Anger at fate for making her into this pitiful, intangible creature, a mere shadow of what she once was. Hopelessness as she contemplates the permanency of her transformation. Trapped forever in a state she never chose, bound to the earth with ties far deeper than blood could ever be; her very soul buried far beneath the surface of her mountainside boundary. Forever doomed to seethe at what was done to her. Forever lost, and forever wondering what it even was she lost in the first place.

All of this, as the endless sands and landmarks of the landscape pass her by, barely noticed. Forgotten shipwrecks of ages past lay strewn about carelessly, ravaged by the ocean's desolation. Pirate ships and World War 2 aircraft carriers, colonization frigates and modern submarines. Some claimed by a few hardy life forms. Others, completely abandoned. All of it interspersed with vast sand dunes, chunks of ancient stone, deep-sea volcanic formations, and gaping trenches. All of it reverberating and amplifying the sound of the Void within her.

Occasionally, her contemplations would be interrupted by something on the edge of perception. The distant distress call of a whale. A rumbling deep beneath the earth, setting the seafloor vibrating with the continental plates' upset. A whoosh of bubbles from a creature shifting suddenly beneath the sands. Shadow considered these as unwelcome annoyances, interruptions to her brooding. Once, after a deep dwelling fish noticed and started following her, Shadow used her telekinesis to push the water around her, propelling herself forward and pushing the fish back. She then hid herself and the bone she carried with her beneath the sand until the fish gave up and swam away. As much as she found the company of the desolate ocean itself to be comforting, she wanted to be alone with it, not share her loneliness with a mortal being.

Reflecting on that for a moment, Shadow quietly admitted the truth. She was lonely. Somehow, these desolate reaches at the bottom of the ocean freed her to see it. Yet she did not regret fleeing the fish; her secretive ways are the deepest part of her being. No one who does not already know her can know her. And since nobody does… nobody will. That is a dark thought, if there ever were one. When she was transformed into an esk, her fate was sealed: a not-life all alone, trapped against her will, everyone misunderstanding who she is and what she stands for. Her against the world. Her against all the esks who think, in their naive and simple worldviews, that being an esk could possibly be a gift. Her against all the careless life forms on the planet, hopeful enough to believe life could mean something. Her against everyone who would try to convince her that her existence could be anything but dark, lonely, empty, and meaningless.

Part of her withered at these thoughts. Some small remnant of hope remained within her, that no matter what she told herself, maybe there was more to her existence than her discontented, angry thoughts would admit. But this part of her was so small. To think about this… would only bring more pain. Hope was a double-edged sword, poised to hurt the wielder dearly if used unwisely. Which, it almost always was.

So she brought her attention to her surroundings instead. She had been wandering for so long, she was thoroughly lost. Not an unfamiliar feeling, in fact, a welcome one. Like the darkness inside. No, wait, she was supposed to be looking at her surroundings. Wishing she could take a deep breath to steady herself, Shadow redirected her attention outward. Barely any light reached this far beneath the waves, turning everything a deep monochromatic blue, objects discernible only as silhouettes, with vague highlights or deeper blackness hinting at their forms. The sand beneath her strange hands was gritty and uneven, silty but saturated with larger chunks of broken shell, shattered bone, gravel, and even sea glass that somehow made it this far from shore. She couldn't recall if the sand or rock she'd wandered across before was this texture or not. Her attention had been wholly consumed by … what's inside. Which she isn't focusing on right now. Fingers grasping at the sand, she wished she could squint her eyes closed in anguish. She wished she could cry, or yell into the void. Instead, she released a burst of psychic energy, throwing her head back and rearing up, her telekinesis thrusting water and sand and the bone she carried away from her in a rush. That created a small whirlpool, which spun her around helplessly for a bit before settling down enough to deposit her back onto the sea floor. Powerless. Impotent. A reminder that any effort to escape her fate will only backfire.

For a while, she just lay there, desolate, a piece of flotsam abandoned on the ocean's floor. She left herself vulnerable to the currents, rocked or tossed by the occasional gust of water.

Minutes passed, then hours. Eventually she got up again to continue her journey. The piece of bone she had found, which somehow while lying there she had realized was a walrus tusk, still needed to find its home. She may not know where she came from, but she could do this strangely resonant tusk a favor. So she trudged on.

She had thought the fact that the ocean knew her was helping. Though she had never visited the ocean before this endeavor, it seemed to help at first. The vast emptiness, the harsh depths, the crushing weight of thousands of tons of water. It knew her. She knew it. And yet, she realized, it did not care. It did not care that she knew it. It did not wish to help. It did not wish anything; it only was. To personify and seek solace from something that could not think but merely was… it was a mistake.

This thought left her feeling lonelier than ever. If the only things that knew her, couldn't know anything, then what did that say about her? Was she anything?

No, she wasn't. She was a shadow. Ever-present, dark, intangible.

Her name for herself was even more apt than she had realized.

Step after step, kilometer after kilometer, she wandered, contemplating the Depths. The depths of her mind. The depths of the sea. The depths of despair.

Eventually she realized, perhaps this place wasn't helping her. She already had a tendency to isolate herself, preferring secrecy and privacy to company and companionship. But the depths of the sea seemed to nudge her towards total darkness.

Determined to finish whatever this journey might entail, Shadow pressed forward with new vigor. Whereas before she wandered aimlessly, consumed by her contemplations, now she searched purposefully for whatever it was she was looking for. The bone she took with her was a walrus tusk. Could it be looking for its home? Perhaps it wanted to be placed near some kelp, or some nostalgic location? None of those thoughts felt quite right.

Suddenly there it was. She nearly stumbled into it before she noticed it was there. A walrus skeleton, missing a tusk, partially buried atop a sand dune. Carefully placing the tusk next to the skull, Shadow gives it a moment of silence. Part of her realizes that it's futile to do so. Everything is already perpetually silent down here, and she couldn't speak aloud or vocalize at all if she tried. Yet… it still feels right.

Lost in her thoughts, Shadow hadn't noticed the strange creature dart out from inside the walrus skeleton at her approach. Yet it was there when she looked up. Startled to not be alone, Shadow looks around for a place to hide; there is none but the skeleton… and the strange creature had already seen her. Not about to disturb the remains of the walrus with the same kind of stunt she'd pulled with the fish earlier, she calms herself. And when she does she notices something.

This strange creature, like a termite with long, clawed arms, bedecked in stiff hairs, and bleached white like an aged skull, was lost too. Not lost beyond hope, but in pain because of it. An unexpected connection linked them then. A bond, an understanding; this creature, ugly and bizarre beyond anything she had ever seen, needed her help.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

TOTAL AP: 124

TOTAL GP: 51.5

WRITTEN PORTION

Base Score: 31 AP (Writing: 1591 words)
+5 AP (Event Bonus)
+8 AP (Storyteller Bonus: 8 AP * 1)

+5 AP (Personal Work bonus)

Total AP per submission: 49

Base Score: 15.5 GP (Writing: 1591 words)
+2 GP (Event Bonus)
+6 GP (Storyteller Bonus: 6 GP * 1)
Total GP per submission: 23.5

ART PORTION

color palette used: XII.

Base Score: 10 AP (Shaded Illustration)
+5 AP (Full Body)
+30 AP (Full/Scenic Background)
+25 AP (Event Bonus)

+5 AP (Personal Work bonus)

Total AP per submission: 75

Base Score: 4 GP (Shaded Illustration)
+2 GP (Full Body)
+10 GP (Full/Scenic Background)
+12 GP (Event Bonus)
Total GP per submission: 28

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Want a super cool drawing of YOUR character??

COMMISSIONS ARE OPEN!!

lesascommissions.carrd.co/

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
You do NOT have permission to copy, download, re-post, or use this piece (or character design) in any way. My art is not for use as NFT's, resale, or AI in any way, shape or form. Please respect my art!!

Description

Shadow's ocean journey continues.

TOPIC WARNING: this next section gets very dark, reflecting serious depression.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Deep in the unfathomable reaches of the ocean, where the crushing pressure of hundreds upon hundreds of tons of water would pop most living things like grapes, Shadow finds an unexpected solace. A dark peace. The vast, empty sand dunes interspersed with debris bespeak something hidden, something inevitable. Incomprehensible. Unavoidable. A crushing weight of certainty, like fate already written not just in stone, but in something even more permanent.

Like the dead remnant of some unfortunate creature she had felt compelled to bring with her, Shadow is swallowed up by these depths. Insignificant, tiny, impotent. Powerless. Yet this dark emotion feels almost like home to her. The vast, abysmal emptiness around seems to draw some of the Void out of her with every kilometer she wanders. As if the ocean's depths knows the most intimate, secretive parts of her soul, and by knowing her already, relieves some of the burden of carrying it all alone.

And so she revels in it. In what most people might consider a twisted sense of relief, Shadow basks in the darkness inside, the seething weight of anguish. Pain at what was lost and can never be retrieved. Anger at fate for making her into this pitiful, intangible creature, a mere shadow of what she once was. Hopelessness as she contemplates the permanency of her transformation. Trapped forever in a state she never chose, bound to the earth with ties far deeper than blood could ever be; her very soul buried far beneath the surface of her mountainside boundary. Forever doomed to seethe at what was done to her. Forever lost, and forever wondering what it even was she lost in the first place.

All of this, as the endless sands and landmarks of the landscape pass her by, barely noticed. Forgotten shipwrecks of ages past lay strewn about carelessly, ravaged by the ocean's desolation. Pirate ships and World War 2 aircraft carriers, colonization frigates and modern submarines. Some claimed by a few hardy life forms. Others, completely abandoned. All of it interspersed with vast sand dunes, chunks of ancient stone, deep-sea volcanic formations, and gaping trenches. All of it reverberating and amplifying the sound of the Void within her.

Occasionally, her contemplations would be interrupted by something on the edge of perception. The distant distress call of a whale. A rumbling deep beneath the earth, setting the seafloor vibrating with the continental plates' upset. A whoosh of bubbles from a creature shifting suddenly beneath the sands. Shadow considered these as unwelcome annoyances, interruptions to her brooding. Once, after a deep dwelling fish noticed and started following her, Shadow used her telekinesis to push the water around her, propelling herself forward and pushing the fish back. She then hid herself and the bone she carried with her beneath the sand until the fish gave up and swam away. As much as she found the company of the desolate ocean itself to be comforting, she wanted to be alone with it, not share her loneliness with a mortal being.

Reflecting on that for a moment, Shadow quietly admitted the truth. She was lonely. Somehow, these desolate reaches at the bottom of the ocean freed her to see it. Yet she did not regret fleeing the fish; her secretive ways are the deepest part of her being. No one who does not already know her can know her. And since nobody does… nobody will. That is a dark thought, if there ever were one. When she was transformed into an esk, her fate was sealed: a not-life all alone, trapped against her will, everyone misunderstanding who she is and what she stands for. Her against the world. Her against all the esks who think, in their naive and simple worldviews, that being an esk could possibly be a gift. Her against all the careless life forms on the planet, hopeful enough to believe life could mean something. Her against everyone who would try to convince her that her existence could be anything but dark, lonely, empty, and meaningless.

Part of her withered at these thoughts. Some small remnant of hope remained within her, that no matter what she told herself, maybe there was more to her existence than her discontented, angry thoughts would admit. But this part of her was so small. To think about this… would only bring more pain. Hope was a double-edged sword, poised to hurt the wielder dearly if used unwisely. Which, it almost always was.

So she brought her attention to her surroundings instead. She had been wandering for so long, she was thoroughly lost. Not an unfamiliar feeling, in fact, a welcome one. Like the darkness inside. No, wait, she was supposed to be looking at her surroundings. Wishing she could take a deep breath to steady herself, Shadow redirected her attention outward. Barely any light reached this far beneath the waves, turning everything a deep monochromatic blue, objects discernible only as silhouettes, with vague highlights or deeper blackness hinting at their forms. The sand beneath her strange hands was gritty and uneven, silty but saturated with larger chunks of broken shell, shattered bone, gravel, and even sea glass that somehow made it this far from shore. She couldn't recall if the sand or rock she'd wandered across before was this texture or not. Her attention had been wholly consumed by … what's inside. Which she isn't focusing on right now. Fingers grasping at the sand, she wished she could squint her eyes closed in anguish. She wished she could cry, or yell into the void. Instead, she released a burst of psychic energy, throwing her head back and rearing up, her telekinesis thrusting water and sand and the bone she carried away from her in a rush. That created a small whirlpool, which spun her around helplessly for a bit before settling down enough to deposit her back onto the sea floor. Powerless. Impotent. A reminder that any effort to escape her fate will only backfire.

For a while, she just lay there, desolate, a piece of flotsam abandoned on the ocean's floor. She left herself vulnerable to the currents, rocked or tossed by the occasional gust of water.

Minutes passed, then hours. Eventually she got up again to continue her journey. The piece of bone she had found, which somehow while lying there she had realized was a walrus tusk, still needed to find its home. She may not know where she came from, but she could do this strangely resonant tusk a favor. So she trudged on.

She had thought the fact that the ocean knew her was helping. Though she had never visited the ocean before this endeavor, it seemed to help at first. The vast emptiness, the harsh depths, the crushing weight of thousands of tons of water. It knew her. She knew it. And yet, she realized, it did not care. It did not care that she knew it. It did not wish to help. It did not wish anything; it only was. To personify and seek solace from something that could not think but merely was… it was a mistake.

This thought left her feeling lonelier than ever. If the only things that knew her, couldn't know anything, then what did that say about her? Was she anything?

No, she wasn't. She was a shadow. Ever-present, dark, intangible.

Her name for herself was even more apt than she had realized.

Step after step, kilometer after kilometer, she wandered, contemplating the Depths. The depths of her mind. The depths of the sea. The depths of despair.

Eventually she realized, perhaps this place wasn't helping her. She already had a tendency to isolate herself, preferring secrecy and privacy to company and companionship. But the depths of the sea seemed to nudge her towards total darkness.

Determined to finish whatever this journey might entail, Shadow pressed forward with new vigor. Whereas before she wandered aimlessly, consumed by her contemplations, now she searched purposefully for whatever it was she was looking for. The bone she took with her was a walrus tusk. Could it be looking for its home? Perhaps it wanted to be placed near some kelp, or some nostalgic location? None of those thoughts felt quite right.

Suddenly there it was. She nearly stumbled into it before she noticed it was there. A walrus skeleton, missing a tusk, partially buried atop a sand dune. Carefully placing the tusk next to the skull, Shadow gives it a moment of silence. Part of her realizes that it's futile to do so. Everything is already perpetually silent down here, and she couldn't speak aloud or vocalize at all if she tried. Yet… it still feels right.

Lost in her thoughts, Shadow hadn't noticed the strange creature dart out from inside the walrus skeleton at her approach. Yet it was there when she looked up. Startled to not be alone, Shadow looks around for a place to hide; there is none but the skeleton… and the strange creature had already seen her. Not about to disturb the remains of the walrus with the same kind of stunt she'd pulled with the fish earlier, she calms herself. And when she does she notices something.

This strange creature, like a termite with long, clawed arms, bedecked in stiff hairs, and bleached white like an aged skull, was lost too. Not lost beyond hope, but in pain because of it. An unexpected connection linked them then. A bond, an understanding; this creature, ugly and bizarre beyond anything she had ever seen, needed her help.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

TOTAL AP: 124

TOTAL GP: 51.5

WRITTEN PORTION

Base Score: 31 AP (Writing: 1591 words)
+5 AP (Event Bonus)
+8 AP (Storyteller Bonus: 8 AP * 1)

+5 AP (Personal Work bonus)

Total AP per submission: 49

Base Score: 15.5 GP (Writing: 1591 words)
+2 GP (Event Bonus)
+6 GP (Storyteller Bonus: 6 GP * 1)
Total GP per submission: 23.5

ART PORTION

color palette used: XII.

Base Score: 10 AP (Shaded Illustration)
+5 AP (Full Body)
+30 AP (Full/Scenic Background)
+25 AP (Event Bonus)

+5 AP (Personal Work bonus)

Total AP per submission: 75

Base Score: 4 GP (Shaded Illustration)
+2 GP (Full Body)
+10 GP (Full/Scenic Background)
+12 GP (Event Bonus)
Total GP per submission: 28

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Want a super cool drawing of YOUR character??

COMMISSIONS ARE OPEN!!

lesascommissions.carrd.co/

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
You do NOT have permission to copy, download, re-post, or use this piece (or character design) in any way. My art is not for use as NFT's, resale, or AI in any way, shape or form. Please respect my art!!