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(B-2) Condeming Dark

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CIFR [B], Part II: Condemning Dark

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Name: Arias Finn, Age 19, from Pan-To, Juriquilla.
Location: Unknown


Bathed in pure white light, an island unto herself,
Sits the quiet, still form of a sleeping young elf.
With a sudden quick jolt, she awakens to the sound
Of clanking and footsteps and voices all around.

From instinct her hands dash to shield her from the light
But she falls to the ground; something grasps her wrists tight.
Her face on the floor, her eyes widen with such fear
Poor Arias Finn, someone has left her chained here.

Unable to move, a sense of panic sets in,
She struggles and struggles, but she just cannot win
Against the icy cold chains that sprout from gray earth
Which the elf cannot break, for all her strength's worth.

Clink! Defeated, her hands drop to her side,
The sounds that had awoken her have gone on to hide.
Isolated, alone, tears fall without stopping,
Droplets splash on the ground -- such a quiet plip-plopping...

Through her flooded vision, she looks down at her dress,
Blood stains the colors, proof of memories still fresh
Of her beautiful young friend, who had shown so much soul,
The blood spurting right out; in her chest, a gaping hole.

Suddenly, FWASH! A window of light swings open!
A chill voice rings out: "Well, I see you've awoken!"
Stepping out from the portal, emerging from dark
Is a tall lanky woman, with the grin of a shark.

The woman steps forth, toward the isle of white light,
As Arias, chained down, cannot fight or take flight.
Her captor kneels down, and the elf sees the features,
Scars, wrinkles, warts -- one of God's uglier creatures.

"Well, little girl, I'm so glad you're awake,"
Says the cruel woman, with the venom of a snake.
"It seems your family has made its decision,
To cut you right off, and carry on with its mission."

Arias is confused, but she cannot yet focus;
Her captor's eyes flare, like a hungry, starved locust,
"Thanks to your father, you've known only the good life
As he sells tools of death that's caused my land such strife."

This makes no sense, Arias has no "how" or "when";
Though her last name is "Finn," she is a Van Buren.
Arias was adopted; her father worked in "sales"
But no one ever said what exactly that entails.

Her adopted young sibling, the one murdered today,
Had, when they were little, offered Arias a place to stay.
Barillia Van Buren -- did this demon kill her?
Fear bubbles within; Arias cannot but whither.

"Well, none of that matters -- we must return to the North
But first, to deal with you. So, before we go forth..."
The ceiling lights ignite; "Now just take in the scene!"
And from Arias' whole soul, a horrifying scream.

A warehouse of murder; bodies strung all about,
Some hung without heads, some gutted like trout,
Rivers of dried blood are caked into the floor,
This is not a prison; it is a little shop of horror.

While she screams out, more people approach her,
Women with masks and tools meant for torture.
There are screws and bolts and sharp pointy things
Able to inflict more than just a small sting.

"We'll throw your dead corpse upon their green lawn,
So that we bring home the cruel horrors they spawn.
We've killed one Van Buren, and we'll certainly kill more,
Until we have shaken their 'business' to the core!"

Poor Arias Finn, she deserves not this fate.
Were her family's wrongs truly also her mistake?
As she screams and screams into the cold, bleak night,
Nothing can save her from Death's painful bite.

And then, a flash! a sheer burst of power!
Bolts of lightning upon her foes shower!
Arias is thrown back, smoke covering her sight
When stepping forward, she spots in the light--

An angel? Demon? Who is this being?
She rubs her own eyes, seeing, not believing,
The ghost of her best friend? Wait! That's not her!
The figure's voice is soft: "I'm here, step-sister."

Standing before her is not a dead girl,
A soft gale blows , brushing off a whispy curl
Of shining red hair, now flowing in the breeze,
Parallia Van Buren! Arias' heart sets at ease.

We must leave poor Arias in the hands of her sibling,
Who holds Arias in her arms, the elf sobbing and quivering.
But Arias cannot know now -- she could never comprehend
That her torment has just begun; here, it does not end...


[CHAPTER II: END]

Artist's (Poet's?) Note:

So, some time ago I decided to create a parallel story to the main comic, CIFR (the one with the blonde chick and the dark-skinned medicthat's smattered all over my gallery). In the first chapter of the parallel story, the story which I called "CIFR B," I thought I'd try my hand at writing the story instead of drawing it. End result: I didn't like it, and it's not as visually eye catching as having pictures to go with it. So now I've mixed it up, and I'm quite pleased with how it looks. I'll divide my thoughts in half:


ACTUAL IMAGE
Actual Image: This looks amazing if you ask me (I might be biased though). I used a lot of new lighting ideas and techniques that I feel like just came together really well here. Arias, I envisioned, is a character who is exceptionally smart, but naive about her world and the world around her -- quite unlike the characters in CIFR main comic, who are defined by the harsh world they live in. Arias is 19, and is just getting a taste of the real world and how cruel it can be, and unfortunately for her, this is only the beginning. Her uniform was inspired from the anime "Baka and Test's" female uniforms, because gold on black looks badass. Other than that, she has no real model upon which she was designed.

The background proved to be extremely hard, as there are no stock photos to compare what I thought it should look like to what it actually looks like in a scene like this. I did recall, and looked to the last episode of an anime called "Death Note" (go watch it, it's amazing and thought-provoking), and used their epic warehouse scene as a barometer for how convincing mine looked. Turned out well. There was that thing where I added a light effect that BLURRED EVERYTHING, CAUSING ME TO PAINSTAKINGLY, MANUALLY put in EVERY SINGLE PIXEL square that got corrupted. Look at the first half, and how blurry it appears (I let it go since it actually looks okay), and then imagine having to undo that blurring on every detail on the second, more complex half. Yeah. Took a whole Sunday to fix it, but it was worth it.

There are some weakpoints in the art, like drawing metal chains and clothing wrinkles and stuff, but it definitely ranks among my best works yet.

WRITTEN PORTION

To Wordworth, to Shakespeare, and to all the poets I ever talked crap about, and for all the I called this genre lame, uninteresting, boring garbage while I was in college: I AM SO SORRY.

I very much underestimated how much work actually goes into these things. I seriously thought I could do this in one shot. I struggled to tell the story line-by-line in this form, then to keep it rhyming (because in my opinion, it ain't no damn poem if it don't damn well RHYME). Then the cadence and counting consonents, which should be about 12 for most lines with a few exceptions. I don't know if I'll do this again for Chapter III -- but then again, once you start spittin' rhymes, it kinda becomes catchy and fun.

Overall, highly entertaining experiment that has me excited in this parallel story again. Expect the next installment to show up probably halfway or so through Chapter III of the CIFR comic itself, or whenever I feel like it.

Listening to: Colors because corn is funny . I can't even think anymore. So very tired. Potato.
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OndaHero's avatar
Oh YEAH :D :D :D This id Getting Very interesting *0*