For this experiment, we were supposed to write a story "in media res," which means the story begins in the middle of the action. For some reason, in the middle of the action always starts with something gruesome or demented when I start in that way, as it draws my attention in faster than anything else ever could. I apologize for anyone who is uncomfortable with what I have written below, but please enjoy!
The Coldest Night
The knife penetrating her skin was cold, so cold. The feeling of her skin being torn apart was not. She was on fire. She burned from her core to the ends of her nerves. Her heart beat furiously against the cold steel of the blade. She felt her heart give a last push, as though it had a chance to begin with, before it succumbed to the all encompassing darkness of death.
He removed the blade from her tender flesh in a smooth tug, and wiped it with the terry cloth he kept handy for times like these. The air he breathed was still heated by her dying gasps, so sweet and frail, as she now lay. He felt the corners of his lips tugging upward, and forced himself to resign his face to a neutral, almost bored expression. Standing up, he surveyed his handiwork, satisfied at how artfully he had arranged her. Her arms were splayed outwards, her legs pressed together. Her eyes were still open, still so beautiful under the light of the moon, glistening with tears that would remain forever unshed. Instead of clothing, she was wrapped in a beautiful gossamer sheet, as pale as the hair spread around her head like a halo. He couldn't resist. He let out a small chuckle. She had been the epitome of beauty in life, and in death, she only grew more beautiful. When she would be found, others, too, would see her for the marvelous being she could only ever present herself as in silence.
He walked to his car, parked three blocks away, in gleeful silence. He would not be caught, of that much he was certain. But he would forever remember the coldest night on which he killed the coldest woman.
Tuesday, January 30, 2018
Monday, January 29, 2018
Experiment 4.5: A Trip to the Beach
This was an in class experiment. I wrote this poem in Terza Rima format. I hope you like it! :)
A Trip to the Beach
A trip was planned to the great outdoors.
A camping excursion on the beach.
The beach is safe, it has no wild boars.
When we arrived, I gave a grand speech.
I spoke of sand and waves and crab friends.
I stretched my arms far as they could reach.
We explored the coast, middle to ends.
Driftwood was plentiful, as were shells.
There was this atmosphere the beach lends.
The beach is awesome, so many smells.
Colors abound, toes buried in sand.
Lighting up my heart like Christmas bells.
And on the shore we walked, me and Dan.
Walking as lovers do, hand in hand.
When writing this poem, I knew that syllable count didn’t ultimately matter, but when the professor mentioned that the lines should be the same length, I took it literally. Every line in this poem is 9 syllables. It’s a weird number, but it’s better than the villanelle format of 19 lines! I didn’t want to write THAT much.
Tuesday, January 23, 2018
Baby's First Blog
I wanted to post this because I have no idea what I'm doing, and I wanted to make that clear. Please understand that I tend to create things based on the first thought I have. It's never usually thought out. I am confident in my creations, however. I have yet to be disappointed in myself for something I have created, because it's just that. My creation. It's the representation of my imagination.
I'm currently working on several video games using the computer program RPG Maker MV, which is available for PC, at the very least. All of my creative juices are being funneled into that. I don't have much talent in dialogue. I can't make characters say funny or witty things, and I think it's because I approach everything in regards to dialogue and interactions between characters as though it were scripted. I'm not very good at getting them to say realistic things, because I feel like I struggle with finding what I want to say in my normal, every day Cortni world. It's difficult. I'm trying to find ways to expand upon what I have, but it's tricky.
I've completed three games so far, which I made as Christmas presents because I'm cheap and wanted to save my money. I ended up spending my money anyways, but that's a different matter.
The first game was for my really good friend Lindsay. All she told me when I asked her if she wanted anything in particular in her game, was dogs. So I created a game called A Really Good Dog, in which she plays as a dog. She has three levels to play (and I can always add more later, since she seems to really love it), and in each level, she has a specified number of trees. She has a timer for each level, and her goal is to pee on as many trees as she can before the timer runs out. The amount of trees she pees on by the end of the timer are turned into currency, called Doggo Coins. She can then spend 20 Doggo Coins to buy a picture of a dog in the game. Every picture costs 20 Doggo Coins, and there are 20 pictures. I was aiming for replayability, since she likes Mario Kart so much and likes to get better at things. It's really, really cute. She giggled the whole time she played it, and that made me happier than anything else could have in regards to this game.
The second game has a similar concept. Mitchel's game, called Ultra Epic Man, stars Ultra Epic Man himself. He has to run through three levels, also set to a timer, and collect computer chip pieces. The level changes themes every so often, and collecting the pieces becomes more difficult with each level. He can only play the first level until he has saved up enough computer chips for the second level, and same for the third. He can also unlock other characters to play as. Also a fun game, but his is cool, whereas Lindsay's is cute.
The third game, titled Mission Max-Possible, stars my good friend Max. His is unlike the other two games. So for some backstory, Max fell off of a boosted board, which is basically an electric long board that can go 25 MPH, a while back and had some pretty serious brain damage as a result. Of course, being the awesome friends we are, we hid the pieces of his board (the board itself, the controller, the charger) and didn't let him near it for months. However, we still tease him for it. He's recovered completely, in case you were wondering. But his game opens up with an opportunity to use the boosted "wagon" (because I didn't have an image for a boosted board and I have no artistic skill, so making one wasn't an option) or to safely descend the ladder into the next level. If he chooses the boosted board, it drops him into Hell, and he is chased by demons that will kill him if they touch him. It actually opens a combat sequence, but he is given no weapons or armor at this point, so he would definitely die. The ladder leads to the second room, as I've called them. He must find weapons and then find and defeat the seven deadly sins, and only upon doing so can he enter the last level. The last level I added simply to wrap up the game. I had no reason to add it otherwise, except that I needed more filler. I made it look epic, though, in hopes that the appearance would distract from the obvious lack of material there.
I'm currently working on three others.
Robert is my best friend, so I'm putting a lot more work into his than I did for the others. He plays a man who was stranded on the side of the road due to a car accident, stumbles through the woods until he reaches a mansion hidden away in the depths of the woods. He uncovers the horrid truth of the area (a man killed his wife and daughters because he's nuts), and has to flee for his life at the end of the game. He wanted it to be scary, but 1) nothing scares him, like ever, and 2) that's a little hard to do with 2D animation. So I looked around and found some lighting plug ins, so added bits of scripting that change the flow of the game. I have set it up so in certain rooms, he will only have the lighting of a small radius around his character. I wanted a flashlight effect, but I'll settle for this.
Kyle wanted a game where he has to kill the president in five levels, but five levels is a lot to work on, and considering I promised these games for Christmas, they are already very late. So three levels, he gets. His game is titled Secret Agent 555 because he chose the number 5. I haven't actually done much on his game, but I'll start as soon as I finish Robert's game.
Shawn's game is about him as a gangster, who is hunted down by his "business" partners and decides to get revenge. So far, I've only created the scene where he is attacked, and the area where he wakes up. I would post the title, but it is too explicit, in my opinion.
Anyways! I'll share pictures and more updates as I get further and further into the games. I noticed a video option above, so maybe I'll make a video of the game making process at some point, or record me playing it. Who knows!
Thanks for reading. It encourages me.
I'm currently working on several video games using the computer program RPG Maker MV, which is available for PC, at the very least. All of my creative juices are being funneled into that. I don't have much talent in dialogue. I can't make characters say funny or witty things, and I think it's because I approach everything in regards to dialogue and interactions between characters as though it were scripted. I'm not very good at getting them to say realistic things, because I feel like I struggle with finding what I want to say in my normal, every day Cortni world. It's difficult. I'm trying to find ways to expand upon what I have, but it's tricky.
I've completed three games so far, which I made as Christmas presents because I'm cheap and wanted to save my money. I ended up spending my money anyways, but that's a different matter.
The first game was for my really good friend Lindsay. All she told me when I asked her if she wanted anything in particular in her game, was dogs. So I created a game called A Really Good Dog, in which she plays as a dog. She has three levels to play (and I can always add more later, since she seems to really love it), and in each level, she has a specified number of trees. She has a timer for each level, and her goal is to pee on as many trees as she can before the timer runs out. The amount of trees she pees on by the end of the timer are turned into currency, called Doggo Coins. She can then spend 20 Doggo Coins to buy a picture of a dog in the game. Every picture costs 20 Doggo Coins, and there are 20 pictures. I was aiming for replayability, since she likes Mario Kart so much and likes to get better at things. It's really, really cute. She giggled the whole time she played it, and that made me happier than anything else could have in regards to this game.
The second game has a similar concept. Mitchel's game, called Ultra Epic Man, stars Ultra Epic Man himself. He has to run through three levels, also set to a timer, and collect computer chip pieces. The level changes themes every so often, and collecting the pieces becomes more difficult with each level. He can only play the first level until he has saved up enough computer chips for the second level, and same for the third. He can also unlock other characters to play as. Also a fun game, but his is cool, whereas Lindsay's is cute.
The third game, titled Mission Max-Possible, stars my good friend Max. His is unlike the other two games. So for some backstory, Max fell off of a boosted board, which is basically an electric long board that can go 25 MPH, a while back and had some pretty serious brain damage as a result. Of course, being the awesome friends we are, we hid the pieces of his board (the board itself, the controller, the charger) and didn't let him near it for months. However, we still tease him for it. He's recovered completely, in case you were wondering. But his game opens up with an opportunity to use the boosted "wagon" (because I didn't have an image for a boosted board and I have no artistic skill, so making one wasn't an option) or to safely descend the ladder into the next level. If he chooses the boosted board, it drops him into Hell, and he is chased by demons that will kill him if they touch him. It actually opens a combat sequence, but he is given no weapons or armor at this point, so he would definitely die. The ladder leads to the second room, as I've called them. He must find weapons and then find and defeat the seven deadly sins, and only upon doing so can he enter the last level. The last level I added simply to wrap up the game. I had no reason to add it otherwise, except that I needed more filler. I made it look epic, though, in hopes that the appearance would distract from the obvious lack of material there.
I'm currently working on three others.
Robert is my best friend, so I'm putting a lot more work into his than I did for the others. He plays a man who was stranded on the side of the road due to a car accident, stumbles through the woods until he reaches a mansion hidden away in the depths of the woods. He uncovers the horrid truth of the area (a man killed his wife and daughters because he's nuts), and has to flee for his life at the end of the game. He wanted it to be scary, but 1) nothing scares him, like ever, and 2) that's a little hard to do with 2D animation. So I looked around and found some lighting plug ins, so added bits of scripting that change the flow of the game. I have set it up so in certain rooms, he will only have the lighting of a small radius around his character. I wanted a flashlight effect, but I'll settle for this.
Kyle wanted a game where he has to kill the president in five levels, but five levels is a lot to work on, and considering I promised these games for Christmas, they are already very late. So three levels, he gets. His game is titled Secret Agent 555 because he chose the number 5. I haven't actually done much on his game, but I'll start as soon as I finish Robert's game.
Shawn's game is about him as a gangster, who is hunted down by his "business" partners and decides to get revenge. So far, I've only created the scene where he is attacked, and the area where he wakes up. I would post the title, but it is too explicit, in my opinion.
Anyways! I'll share pictures and more updates as I get further and further into the games. I noticed a video option above, so maybe I'll make a video of the game making process at some point, or record me playing it. Who knows!
Thanks for reading. It encourages me.
Experiment #3: World Map of Arnwyrd
The Map of Arnwyrd has 3 continents (The Lost Lands, The Land of Light and The Darklands) and 5 islands (Bubble Island, Deep Blue Island, Mermaid Island, Sandy Isle and Foggy Island). It is home to several diverse biomes and populations. In these lands, it is common to find normal grasslands, but also deserts, snowy plains, mountain ranges, forests and rivers. The only lake found amongst the continents is found on the Western continent, The Land of Light. Rivers are found on all 3 continents.
The Lost Lands are an area which have been disconnected from the majority of the rest of the world. Though the Lost Lands are within reach of the other lands, nobody dares venture into them. Tales of horrific beasts and of humans that have forsaken their own kind, taint the island with a
miasma of fear. To the western portion of the island are historic monuments to the people that once attempted to settle the lands.
The Land of Light and The Darklands were once connected, and together the people thrived. But a civil war several hundred years prior led to massive amounts of destruction dealt to the land, and the mother continent, known as The Land of Eternity, divided. Islands were formed in the breaking of the lands, and the continents continued their existence separately. The Darklands are mostly inhabited by creatures more in tune with the forces of darkness, and conversely, The Land of Light is aligned with forces of light. The Darklands are populated by goblins and orcs, who live in the grasslands by the east portion of the Fetid River, humans who pursue the darker arts, and who live on Foggy Isle, trolls, brownies and dark elves, who are scattered throughout the Thieves' Caves, tengu (crow people), who live in the Frost Forest, and thunder giants, who reside in the Silvaaren Mountains. The Land of Light is populated by light elves and faeries, who live in the Faeries' Forest, Fire giants, who live in the Teal Mountains Pass, mermaids and shifters, who live in the Seafoam Isles, kobolds, dwarves and gnomes, who live in the Saffron Desert, humans, who live in the capital city.
Wednesday, January 17, 2018
Experiment #1: Poisonous Rubberband in Woodshop Class
Experiment #1
It happened last Tuesday. Jenny K. from our wood shop class said she found a rubber band mixed in with her personal supplies when she went to grab her materials at the beginning of class. She slipped it on her wrist and forgot about it. Over the course of the next forty-five minutes, the duration of our wood shop class, she experienced a rapid decline in health. First, she felt a bit nauseous. Fifteen minutes later, she began to sweat profusely, all the while feeling cold. She grew very pale after thirty minutes, and five minutes later, she fled the room in search of the nurse’s office. She came back five minutes later, seemingly well again. Jenny had spent only five minutes lying down, but it was all she needed. She claimed upon her arrival that she hadn’t done anything differently today, but she did find a strange rubberband, and only after removing it did she feel better. But that didn’t make sense. How could a rubberband make someone sick? Regardless, the nurse told the teachers and students that the rubberband had disappeared from her trash can, so everyone was to be vigilant.
The next day, in the same wood shop class, Owen G. found the rubberband. Now, Owen isn’t the brightest bulb, and having forgotten the entire contents of the previous day, decided giving the rubberband to his equally thoughtless friend, Mark I., would be an excellent token of friendship. Mark immediately slipped the rubberband on his wrist. But just like Jenny, he felt nauseous, sweaty, grew pale, and managed to flee the room in just the right amount of time to throw up just outside the door.
Since then, we’ve all remained vigilant. We had thought the rubberband had perhaps disappeared. Mark claimed he couldn’t remember where he had disposed of it. The bad times seemed to be over. Two weeks passed since then, and our guards were let down.
This morning, upon entering the wood shop classroom, nestled amongst my materials in my desk, sat a rubberband.
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