Widdershins Reader

[loubatas-art]

I know this 6 fanarts meme was trending in, like, last march/april, so two lifetimes ago, but I’ve always been super late in following trends Anyway, I thought this would make some nice training in drawing characters, and it also doubled as paintings experiments (I experimented a different way to colour for each drawing) I plan to do four more because there were too many characters I wanted to draw and I’m bad at choosing (also I do need more training), so I decided to do several versions. This one is for comic/webcomic characters

[jess-a-men]

Always second best, nothing without sunlight hitting it, the Moon is the Dominik Voss of our solar system. That sentence sounds great out of context. For some weird reason I was under the impression that his first name was Victor. I don’t know where that came from, Victor sounds nothing like Dominik.

And maybe you can already guess who will be the Sun to match…?

[heylir]

A great idea!

[heylir]

(Prompt) Lust

It happens the next day after After the Long Day (on the Barbers’ farm) and develops some themes of that. The priest’s words is something I heard somewhere.

O’Malley sat on the sill and looked out the window now and then. Ben wrote something in his notebook. Suddenly he got stopped by some sudden thought and glanced at O’Malley. He noticed it and turned his head to Ben.

“Wanna ask sumthin’?”

“Yes, about yesterday. If you don’t mind?”

“Go ‘head.”

“I wonder what Lust’s ultimate goal was. It wanted power to seize the Anchor, but what then? Did it explain that to you?”

“It did. Said people’s feelings’re chaos, a total mess. When it got th’ Anchor, they’d have only Lust, nothin’ else. Dunno what’s gonna happen t’ those like me. Mebbe, it coulda forced us to feel?..”

“Hardly. It wasn’t able to seduce or overpower you in Space-Between. I suppose it’d just control people like you, as it did with us in the Anchor. Or like Envy controlled Wolfe, even though there was no drop of envy in him. Other people would be used as food.”

O’Malley sneered, “I coulda been th’ Resistance leader.”

Ben looked down into his notebook not to let O’Malley read in his eyes “It would kill you as soon as it got what it wanted, along with us.”

“Dunno, mebbe, it’d not so bad fer others?” he said flippantly. “Most people enjoy th’t thing, ey? Kinda like an everyday ice-cream festival.”

Past reason hunted and past reason hated...

Ben shook his head.

“I’ve seen people succumbed by Gluttony. Disgusting sight, but it’s not the matter. They didn’t enjoy food, they just couldn’t help eating. I suppose it’s the way Sins deal with us: they take our natural need, the gratification of which gives pleasure, and switch the focus onto the process till that becomes an unquenchable need. You just can’t stop it, overcame by the passion... and the words pain and pleasure lose their meanings at that point.”

O’Malley shivered.

“Lucky me not t’ see th’t.”

“You were where you should be,” said Ben. He recalled the Anchor, Lust and the woman whose true name they didn’t know. Of course, he wasn’t aware then that it was she who shot Henry Barber... and had made something to O’Malley in the past. He didn’t want to ask what. But still...

It doesn’t love you. It can’t.

“It’s not the worst,” he went on. “The worst thing is what Lust makes of love.”

O’Malley frowned.

“Love ain’t snoggin’ and smoochin’,” he said defiantly.

“Of course not,” Ben agreed in surprise. “Who says otherwise? Love has a lot of kinds and forms.”

Caritas, amiticia, amor, ludus... Learned by heart Latin names ran through his mind.

He stood up and approached O’Malley. There were the girls making fun with puppies outside the window. Sidney Malik played with them though not as eagerly as he could two days ago. Florrie watched them and Wolfe talked with her about something.

“Love for the parents and children, brothers and sisters, friends and neighbours — all this is love. And everyone knows that. Only Lust would want to make us all forget that, to reduce all loves to eros and eros to...” Ben stopped to find the right word, “to mating. Actually, it’s exactly what it wanted.”

O’Malley clasped his knees and put his forehead against them.

“It said ‘ough it can’t seduce me, I still cling t’ love. Said th’ word like it’s filthy.”

“The devil can speak true, too,” Ben smiled with irony. “It can’t comprehend what love is but knows that it is its worst enemy. One of it and other sins.”

He recalled an exchange between some girl and priest he had heard during one family Christmas dinner.

“Do you really think that physical intimacy without love is sinful?”

“I think that everything without love is sinful.”

“Maybe love is the only barrier between us and them.” Ben seemed to think aloud. “Of course, Sins can taint and distort it with selfishness, envy, lust... But if you really love someone, not just use them as a source of pleasure or comfort or a device of your own ambitions... if you love them for their sake, then...” He didn't say what then. He thought about Wolfe’s hand on his shoulder, dispersing Wrath’s mist, Vee supporting him through Sloth’s fog and O’Malley whose power released him from Lust’s capture.

“How could we win the day, without love?” he asked himself quietly.

[heylir]

(Prompt) Books

Some random piece, Ben's talking with someone else. Post-CC, supposedly before Witch Hunt.

"I had a book like this. It burned among others, with the house," frowned Thackerey.

"I'm... very sorry."

"A small matter. As our history of magic lecturer used to say, More was lost with the Library of Alexandria."

He looked at Ben in confusion.

"There was the Great Library in Alexandria. All books of the world, hundreds of thousands of scrolls, who knows how many magic treatises. One can say magic as a discipline had its blooming time then. Something survived in copies and retellings, of course, but most of the unique manuscripts were destroyed... that's what irretrievable loss is, not my private library."

"How was it destroyed?"

"Wars, fires, general decline... stuff deadly for people, let alone books." Ben made a pause. "We all are alive, that's what matters."

[heylir]

The sixth fragment of Rain.

“Your mum sings, doesn’t she?” he asked suddenly.

“Yeah, sings and plays the piano!” Verity said cheerfully. “I like when she plays Dance, Katie Beardie!, do you know this song?”

“I do. But my mum doesn’t like songs much.”

Verity nodded:

“I heard once Aunt Beatrice telling my mother, “Instead of thrumming a piano you had better look after your daughter better.” And why should someone look after me, I’m not some stupid sheep, right?”

“You were naughty?”

“Nope, I just ran outside, into the rain. Not like this one now, a real shower. I got soaking wet in a moment, so much fun! Do you like jumping in the rain?”

[heylir]

Some thoughts

Do you know what I respect Mal for the most? For him being able to see people spirits and not telling what he sees except cases of outright need. (Even if he does it just bc of his personal experience.)

But well, Nyree doesn’t respect the concept of decency and it shows. :/ And I think all of that was somewhat predictable from her attitude to Harry and Sid thing.

Also I’ve got convinced that Widdershins’ endgame is “no alloro character [from the main crew] without romantic relationships” and it makes me somewhat sad, really.

I could feel happy for Nicola at least (given ch 6 and all), but it’s hardly gonna to be a long-time relationship, for obvious reasons.

[heylir]

The fifth fragment of Rain.

“So why are you so sad?” she asked again. “Got lost?”

“I’m not lost and not sad. I’m just thinking.”

“Oh, a penny for your thoughts!” clapped Verity.

Ben frowned. He hated that trick.

“Forget it,” she waved it off. “Wanna play Thieves and Bounty hunters? But you must run fast for this game, can you run fast?”

“No,” he muttered.

Verity made a disappointed grimace.

“Then let’s come to my room, I’ll show you my books and stuff? I have a lot of interesting things.”

She took Ben by the hand, drawing him along, and he followed her but got his hand loose after several steps.

[heylir]

The fourth fragment of Rain.

“...Now, why are you so sad and silent? Come on, tell me your name!”

Ben was silent because the girl’s chattering just didn’t let him get a word in. When at last she paused, he spoke a sulky “Benjamin”. If she says “This name is too big for you”, she’s a fool and no use talking with.

“Benjamin Thackerey, right? Benjamin means the youngest and most beloved son, you know that? I have a book, telling all about names. And I’m Verity Cunningham,” she threw back her head. “Verity means...”

“Truth,” interrupted Ben. He needed no book to know that.

“Very true!” she laughed and put out her hand for Ben. “Now we are acquainted.”

He gave his hand to her sullenly.

[heylir]

The third fragment of Rain. (It’s Ben’s flashback!)

He stood leaning against a wall of a strange house, and the sounds of rain made him feel very little, lost and lonely. He didn’t know what to do, didn’t want to go to the parents. They’d not understand, and he couldn’t explain something he didn’t understand, himself.

He just stood and listened till he heard someone came tripping down the corridor. It was a lanky girl with two pigtails, quite older than him.

“Hey! Who are you? What’s your name? Why’re you standing here, got lost? And where’re your folks? What are their names? Ah, I know who are you! You’re my little cousin, aunt Beatrice’s son, right? You look like grandad Victor, I have seen his portrait. He is young and handsome there. Now, why are you so sad and silent? Come on, tell me your name!”

[heylir]

Just a thought

Love is the thing that makes you ask “How do I look?” after two months parting when each of you doesn’t know whether the other is alive or dead.

It’s why I prefer friendship, you see. :)

[heylir]

The second fragment of Rain (sorry, a song again!)

Ben nodded in agreement. “I think so. Can work whichever weather is, that’s the matter.”

“You can work, but rain makes you a little sad, yes?”

Ben shrugged.

“Maybe, a bit. It’s silly. Not sure I can explain that.”

“Do try if you want, my friend.”

“Well, right. I was a little boy when I heard one song, about rain and wind. I found it very sad. The sounds of rain remind me of that feeling ever since.”

“What is that song?”

“Feste’s one, from Twelfth Night. Of course, I didn’t know that then, it was just a sad song for me.”

“I do not remember well...” Wolfe turned back to the bookshelf and slid his finger across the spines until he found the sought-for one. He looked through the pages to the very end. “I would not say it is all that sad.”

“That’s a matter of interpretation — and singing. That was quite... poignant.”

[heylir]

A fragment-beginning of my old idea (on the Bentober prompt Rain).

A cold rain was insistently knocking on the windows, and the wind was howling in bare branches of trees. Ben drew up the weekly balance, adding numbers neatly and methodically, but he frowned too much for this kind of work.

“Do you not like rain?” asked Wolfe who looked books on the shelf through.

“Anyone does?” replied Ben still focusing on the balance.

“Mal,” Wolfe smiled. “When rain is outside, and he is not. I am sure that he is sitting on his window sill and listening to the sounds of rain now. Also...” he stopped smiling suddenly, “I knew one man who liked drizzles.”

“And you?” Ben looked up.

“Of course, nice weather is better for walking. When it is not too sunny and not too chilly, you know? Not a big difference when you are at home.”

Ben nodded in agreement. “I think so. Can work whichever weather is, that’s the matter.”

[heylir]

My kickstarter rewards

I’ve got a mail from Widdershins! Really, look at that:

And what does my parcel contain?

A5 drawing with young Ben and Vee:

(I imagine them arguing:

Vee: You should go outside more often!

Ben: But I want to read books!

So Vee has found the solution.)

The second book with Wolfe and Ben bookplate:

The 8th book wth Fourth Anchor Society bookplate:

Thanks Kate Ashwin for this wonderful art!

[buggerup-busters]

Ben: so yeah I impersonated harry, got kidnapped, tracked Mal to a town across the moor, escaped a good, had a train adventure, found Mal, got kidnapped, got a date, kind of a busy day, wbu ?

Wolfe: *thinking of how he had a pint with Sid at like 10am and then found Mal but didn't go after him* uhhh

[heylir]

Wolfe: uhh... I impersonated Harry, too!

[heylir]

The last fragment.

“And what do I need this toy for?” he asked Wolfe.

“You see, Ben said that... this thing, it can detect outside influences and anomalies. If something happens, it’ll find out a deviation from the norm and...”

“From what norm? Thackerey told me that different people have different emotional spectrum and different reaction levels! And how?..”

Wolfe nodded. “There’s the part about that at the beginning of the booklet,” he took it from Voss and found the right page.

Preliminary series of check measurements for estimating the emo-scope and separating out the constant emotional background (choose in Settings: show/hide). Manual calibrating mode (strongly not recommended for non-experts).

“Ben says you can ask him if you get some questions. And it’d be good to keep track of your feelings with that thing, till the end of March at least. Then you can give it back if you want.”

Voss realised the point of “Ben’s idea” at last. It was still unclear why he didn’t explain all that himself but asked Wolfe to. Didn’t want to talk with Voss another time?

Voss didn’t know how he felt about this. Was their caring about him pleasant or embarrassing? Was this device interesting or off-putting? Would he want to give it back after all? His contradicting feelings tangled into a knot. 

He closed his fingers over the ball, many-coloured patterns ran across the screen, and after a while, the writing appeared: “Too mixed-up signal, impossible to define. Try again later.”

Voss couldn’t help chuckling and caught smiling widely Wolfe’s eye.

The screen became orange and the words changed into “Happiness”. THE END.

[heylir]

Arpana: You’re not wearing it.

Mal: One time is enough.

[heylir]

38th fragment.

“It is called mood ball as well,” he explained. “It tells feelings of a person who holds it.”

Now Voss had guessed it by himself. He skipped Getting Started part of the booklet and looked through the pages of advanced settings: use official codes (yes/no), turn on/off sounds, show/hide maxim comments, use a memory card for recording and storing data (what's that for?)... the second half of the brochure was a glossary that translated letters-and-digits combinations into human terms and gave directions accordingly to a level of signal. Some lines of it were hightlighted in red or black, the last page was all black, the second last one — all red.

“And what do I need this toy for?” he asked Wolfe.