A War Story

[ArtDrake]

Actually, I'm thinking I'm going to lock the thread for a bit -- I don't really have the time to invest on making this story good. At the moment, anyway.

However, I promise that when it returns, it will return with illustrations.

[ArtDrake]

Just a quick update on the illustrated boot of A War Story. [It's not a reboot, since it wasn't really properly booted to begin with] Here's the main character:



I know what you're thinking: "Duckling, why is his skin grey?"

I think you're missing some of the more important issues at hand, like:
 
"Why doesn't this chump have a mouth? How the heck does he eat?" and
"Where are his fingers?" and most importantly
"How does he get his hair to do that? I want hair like that, if not necessarily in that colour."

Colour of skin should really be the last thing on your mind, considering this poor bloke's considerably more pressing anatomical deformities.

But no matter, for all of these questions will be answered in due time.

Especially the one about how he eats.

[spoiler=Kinda Gross in a Non-Canon Sort of Way][/spoiler]

[bugfartboy]

[spoiler=Kinda Gross in a Non-Canon Sort of Way][/spoiler]

Heh heh heh heh heh. I'm very much so interested now. But by the by, I am wondering how anime characters get their hair to do that. I've always dreamed of having stylish hair in that manner.

[ArtDrake]

Okay, I've got designs for the as-yet-unnamed character in his personal armor and his medieval helmet [no color scheme for the helmet yet -- that would require effort into something I haven't decided on yet], but one is a bit more legitimate [meaning it looks like an actual helmet], while the other looks sillier [... you'll see what I mean] but better serves to distinguish the guy when he's interacting with other characters with helmets on. Here they are:

[spoiler=no hair spikes][/spoiler]

[spoiler=with hair spikes][/spoiler]

And of course, if you're wondering why the front of his helmet has no mouth-grille-slots, it's for the exact same reason his face has no mouth-hole-slot. I really didn't need to tell you that, did I?

The explanation for the helmet hair-spikes? That guy's hair is so awesome-looking, the laws of time and space teamed up with the helmet and they all decided that they weren't going to muss it up by letting some protective plate of metal be where it was.

Also, sick foresight, giving you guys visuals for the runes, right? [No foresight there whatsoever]

Still, what do you guys think? I'm not polling, because a poll requires no regular reading of this story. I mean, SmartyPants might drop in and be all like, "I like the flat one better", despite the fact that he never posts here. Actually, who knows? He might regularly search for his own name on the forum, and still manage to put in his opinion here only because I've mentioned him. You just never know.

[Kaseke]

His hair has too much awesome to not make the metal bend. His hair is clearly magical and can't be hidden by anything. I guess it will make it harder for himself to distinguish himself but oh well. Who neets a disguise with that hair? He'd probably clear the whole ship of the skeletons with a whip of his hair, but it has too much awesome for him to do so.

[bugfartboy]

I feel that making statements such as with the hair thing could break down the sensibility of the story. So far everything seems to be sensible and organised. Making exceptions for the hair could create issues.

[ArtDrake]

[My idea for the illustrations is to let the story be serious and sensical, and scientifically plausible-ish, but have the illustrations not take themselves too seriously -- mostly because I can't take myself too seriously as an artist, because I lack the requisite skill for "serious drawing". The best I can do is add quasi-comical illustrations to the story to make it lighter in nature.]

[ArtDrake]

You look for a firearm enchant in the Compendium, and you find one: "prykost". Furthermore, you read the preface on firearm enchants and realize that you've been using them wrong; you have to apply them in conjunction with a rune signifying "inside", so that it heats up the ammunition put into it only. A gun that burned anyone who touched it would be next to useless. This "inside" run is pronounced "nakarik" with a rising intonation on the second syllable.

You try out both of these runes on pieces of paper that you brought from the library, with mixed results.

You manage after a couple of tries to get prykost to "catch", so to speak, the rune glowing from the arcane energies affixed to it. The paper doesn't appear to do anything. However, you know by this point that one ought to exercise caution whenever dealing with these runes. Instead of touching it, you put your head to the floor and look along the surface of the paper. Sure enough, you can see some distortion of the light passing above it, indicating that the air is very hot. You quickly shuffle it with your foot into the corner, and leave it there.

The results of nakarik are much more easily apparent, and less dangerous. As soon as you finish the last stroke of the rune, and the magical energy starts to cause the inscribed character to glow, the paper crumples into a small ball. Curious, you attempt to pry open the ball, but only succeed in pinching your fingers. What had you just said about exercising caution?