Master & Apprentice Page 0061 - 30-03-2017
This time I didn't mess up the numbers…
K.N.
Still flustered I stormed into my room. On the way from downstairs to up here my embarrassment had mostly subsided, but had been replaced by a mixture of confusion and anger. Alcohol always takes me there after trying to think straight. First I don't really know why I am feeling the way I feel, which confuses me and since I am drunk the condusion angers me.
Oh, and I couldn't really 'storm' into my room. It was a small cubic room in one of the Tower's many outgrowths or arms, however you'd call it, accessable from the laboratory level. This side section of the Tower had originally been a storage with an upper bit. I had to go up three floors, navigate between tables and shelves covered in white cloth to the other side of the lab - Master had not used this room in years -, follow the short and narrow corridor, not stumble of any crates in the lower storage bit and climb up a ladder. That's the way to my room. Running there really takes skill and endurance. Since I didn't have that kind of constitution - especially not after drinking - I started walking energetically half way instead of running.
The room itself, by the way, was just big enough to fit a bed and a short desk, the ceiling was so low, Master Zargeth couldn't stand straight in it and there was only a single window right above my bed, that was just big enough for fresh air and some light to fit through.
Seconds later I was already tucked in and ready for sleep to release me from my self-inflicted brain mush.
Though, it wouldn't come for me. A sudden soberness had befallen me and occupied my mind with words and pictures of the day. Faces and laughters of those people I'd met scrolled past my inner eye. Delar's and Nondrean's especially. Until I reached that of Master. He didn't say a word and for some reason I saw it from many angles with that smirk on his wrinkly old-man-face, framed by his thinning grey beard. That smirk. It didn't feel very honest, now that I've had a close look at it.
I turned, hoping to change the repeating image to something else. It didn't really work, only added audio.
"Sounds like you've had a lot of fun today." He said again. Just like before.
Could it be… that he was actually… envious? Would he have prefered to come along? Just to have fun with other people and regretting it by the next morning only to repeat it again next time?
I turned again, now actively trying to spawn a certain picture before me. I tried to remember what he'd looked like in my dreamworld, where he couldn't diguise his form. The younger version of him, I think I saw it now. The long and thick brown hair, the more saturated dark blue skin and the sharp face. His eyes were the same piercing red rubies, but rather warm, his movements, too, crude but accurate, and one raised eyebrow.
I beheld that image of him for a while. This man was living under the pretense of being old. Very old, considering the qualities of his people. They age about half as fast as the Winds, my people. So in reality he might even just be a young adult or something. It must be hard to go and skip all of those years, centuries even! I can't imangine he'd done that out of his own free will.
Maybe… I should ask about it anyways.
+ −Ink Snail
I try to get better at this ink thing now…
Nice snail, right? With a random number on it's shell. Absolutely random. Really.
I like snails.
+ −Master & Apprentice Page 0060 - 23-03-2017
I had sketched comic pages of all what's happening right now already lying around and I must admit these scenes were extraordinarily fun to draw. Though embarrassing…
K.N.
The step through a portal is like a step though a doorway. First you are outside, then suddenly inside. But it's a magical doorway, so of course you feel this magic wash over you. Like a sudden change in temperature or being rained on from all angles at once. It is quite a refreshing and mind clearing experience.
I was drunk when I stepped though the portal and that amplified the effect. It was like waking from a dilirium and being hit in the face with the bare realitiy of a drunken mind. Within a second I went from unchallenged delight to damn-I-am-drunk-and-tired-and-cannot-think-exclamation-mark.
"I might have overdone it a bit." I blabbered, trying to get my tongue in tow.
"Sounds like you've had a lot of fun today." The Master had just finished removing the blue, swirling space-connector from the middle of the hall and put away the copper staff with the large blue crystal set into the circle at its top.
I needed a moment to parse his words despite them being simple and short and finally answered with a laugh. "Yeah, probably." I said, suddenly being interupted by an imposing yawn. "Should really hit the hay, now." In a half turn I swayed towards the stairs and was about to wish him a good night, as he continued:
"Should I maybe teach you a protection spell next?"
Parsing, parsing. "What protection spell? Protection against what?" Affected as I was I tried my best, put two and one and maybe another one together… "Do you mean…" I turned towards him, mouth open as I slowly got what he was talking about. Then I saw that teasing grin sitting in his old-man-face. He'd seen me in that… that situation with Delar and was now implying things. It really had to be that! Oh Lor!
I felt my face turn cherry red and oven hot.
"Nope! NOPE! Not ever! Good night!!" I yelled as I ran up the stairs, literally steaming.
+ −Master & Apprentice Page 0059 - 18-03-2017
From this point on I will continue Master & Apprentice in written form. I am more confident this way. Until now the comic was practice for drawing and writing, but the story never really got around to a point I actually wanted to have reached now. I felt like I was moving through jelly or deep snow in a storm. Instead of reaching the peak of the mountain and rolling down the hill at full speed, I just skidded back down the side I started on. So now I decided to bring a rope with me, leaving all those panel coordinations, text bubble placements and background fillers behind. You'll have to read a bit from now on and I still need to find out the proper length of a page, but I hope I can make it worth your while! Wish me skill!
I promise there will be illustrations!
K.N.
P.S.: Mixi worked hard on this horizontal rule. It is wonderful, isn't it?
"No! I told you I don't want this!" I objected, my feet dangling in the air. "What do you think you are doing!?"
Delar mumbled something through my fingers, that were trying to shove him away from me. I cursed my size and that last cup of wine.
"What? What did you say?"
"I said 'A man can dream, can't he?'." He finally pronounced in an understandable way, concentrating enough on talking to make it easier for me to keep his face a save distance away from mine.
"Damn it!" In his defense: we were both very, very drunk. This week's get-together went a teensy bit over the top, when Delar's elf friend Nondrean - the one that doesn't like dark elves - called my Master en passant a 'Necro'. You know, a zombie summoner. Bastard! I don't know whether he had actual reason to believe that. Though, at that point it hardly mattered as we simply went over to drinking more and throwing names at each other that became less and less creative. It had turned into simple dumb fun.
"What about your girlfriend?" Oops. I think I shrieked this a bit. Ah, yes, the blacksmith in training did get himself a girlfriend. Pretty much since he had gotten that messy stab wound three months ago - May Lor strike those bandits in their sleep! - and had to be nursed back to full health. Maeve was her name and of course she had been his nurse. I've learned quite the deal about my friend from seeing him nearly die. Sometimes I do notice that I react very naive when someone is nice towards me. But mostly, if not all the time, it is already too late to fix my behaviour.
"But she ain't you, Kiri!" He pouted, as far as that was possible with the pressure of two small handy on his face. "Maeve is not an Angel!" And I thought we magically became friends over night for way too long. Well, we are friends now, but he's still just a silly man running after the 'unique' looking girl.
"Not an Angel! Just a Wind!" I corrected him for the quadrillianth time. "No flying with these ears. Now let go!"
"But it was you who wanted to go into this alleyway, so…"
"Not for THIS! It's –"
Suddenly Delars face turned into a wild mess of pain and regret as a heavy copper staff slammed down on his head.
"…midnight." I said, finishing my sentence, blood gushing to my head in excitement. His grip loosened and I could slip out of his arms to run to my saviour. As id oblivious to what had happened, Master Zargeth stood calmly in front of his swirling blue portal ready to take me savly back to the tower.
"I hope I didn't interrupt anything." He appologised, with a sly smile hidden beneath his long grey beard.
"Oh, no!" I assured him with the same feigned serious undertone, trying to suppress my drunken self's urge to break out in laughter. Then I turned to Delar once more, grinning in drunken amusement.
"I have to go home now. See you next week!" I said and stepped through the blue mist of swirling magic.
"Damn it!" He exclaimed, before the connection was broken. Not angrily, though! Unconciously we might have started a friendly game of cat and mouse.
+ −Master & Apprentice Page 0058 - 23-02-2017
I got cramps in my hand… I promise this is the last wall of text for the next 4 weeks at least! Also, if you find any spelling mistakes, please tell me NEXT WEEK.
Well, yes, this is a time skip, because watching Kyriel power learn really is boring. But you'll find out the important things that happened soon enough.
For the rest of the evening (it's far past 8pm) I'll treat myself to a bit of ESO, maybe some guinness-infused chocolate and comfy husband-cuddles. Good night.
+ −Master & Apprentice Page 0057 - 16-02-2017
Note to self: Don't lean onto the scanner to flatten the paper.
cough
You know, I recently switched to writing and surfing on my netbook instead of my energy-sink-desktop-computer. It's pretty much a toaster, so I can't get distracted by fast loading web pages, and I connect it to a keyboard, mouse and large screen for comfort. Its slowness might be a feature at this point, but it's a bit overdone… You know? I can't watch stuff on it while working on the comic without stuttering or out of sync audio/video. Now I am considering a tablet PC. Would one of those cut it? I'd need one that I can install linux on of course.
+ −Master & Apprentice Page 0056 - 09-02-2017
Really now, Kyriel, you should have known better!
I've been getting a bit lazy with the backgrounds recently… Don't worry, I'll do better next time!
+ −Master & Apprentice Page 0055 - 02-02-2017
Hm, when I was drawing this I had a lot on my mind I wanted to write here, but now it's all gone lol.
So my husband and I were just talking about president Drumpf and how he's going to turn out like a new Hitler. He's surely showing all the signs. Building a wall, racism, making people feel worth more than other people… all that shit. Just today I was thinking about how within the next few months a lot of people might seriously consider moving to another country and actually leave. I thought: the population will drop considerably for a while, but then that orange is going to ban emigration to reduce terrorism.
If that happens, I've called it first!
+ −Master & Apprentice Page 0054 - 26-01-2017
Sometimes I get a bit crazy over the fact, that I don't have a pet. Today was one of those days. It can get quite dull living in a big city with no forest around and only a swarm of pidgeons living on the roof across the street. The occational raven or magpie is nice to watch, but there's still something missing.
Then again… the only pets I could keep (no allergies and no cruelty) would be fish and dogs. It's impossible to really bond with little fishies and I don't like dogs… well, fuck it.
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