And so this is Craftmas.......

seen from Malaysia
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Argentina
seen from Russia
seen from Netherlands

seen from United States
seen from United States

seen from United States

seen from Spain
seen from Poland
seen from Poland

seen from United States
seen from Türkiye
seen from China
seen from China
seen from United States
seen from Türkiye
seen from United States
seen from Hong Kong SAR China
And so this is Craftmas.......
[[Hey, dude! Quick question! How is FireAlpaca when it comes to making comics? I'm making a couple now and my current programs are too clunky for me to keep trying to work with, so I'm looking around for some tips on better programs. :D ]]
FireAlpaca is super duper rad, and it’s pretty easy to use for making comics! Either FireAlpaca or Medibang Paint Pro (Both programs are free, and essentially they’re funcitonally similar, Medibang Paint Pro just has additional cloud-saving features and the ability to use textures, while FireAlpaca has an onion-skinning feature for animations).
Considering both are free it’s definitely worth checking them both out and seeing which one sings out to you more!
Making comic panels is super easy though. When you’re in either program, click on the “Layers” tab on the top, and select “Add Panel Material”. Choose a width for your border and it’ll be applied across the whole image as one border. After this, you can use the Divide tool (Left side, just above the eyedropper) to split the border into panels - It’s locked to vertical and horizontal axes by default, but holding shift lets you slice panels at an angle.
If you feel like the gaps between panels are too big, the Operation tool (A mouse cursor arrow, just above the Divide tool) lets you adjust each panel to your heart’s content!
Did Julien for Ivory Corset’s Fighting Game AU. Also did an opponent version to Zion and Alex.
((Also! Oooone last doodle that I had the huge urge of doing just because
askmisszion‘s Maenam and my own Mercurio after some random convo that they could have had, and being a free spirit kind of guy, he’s taking a few liberties (or risks) by lightly teasing Maenam about some of the smaller things. ovo””
“How fascinating it must be to sit! If only I could what I cannot do, but that would mean I’d have to walk like you legged beings, too!”
sue me))
Far From Home: Chapter 9
Despite her best efforts to try and help him shake off whatever was ailing him, Hawk had retreated to the Void Sleep, leaving Baker to herself once more. Her attempts to nurse him to health were desperate, as if she was terrified to let him go.
She was terrified, but she wouldn't admit it.
/Getting sick is a big deal. I mean, he is a different species of person, sorta. Things could affect him differently/
/Like the whole world I’m stuck in./
The rain came down in heavy sheets, soaking the uncovered floor and creating a racket against the canopies; the cape she wrapped around him was still warm as he left it behind. The air felt heavier, her breathing labored and short. It became harder to think clearly, her head was swimming with anxious thoughts. /What if something happens to him?/ /What if I never see him again?/ /What if he gets really sick and dies?/
Her breathing turned into a full force gasp for air, for a moment a feeling of vertigo came over her. Was she falling? Did she jump out of the tree? Black and static crushing against her lungs.
"STOP IT!" Baker slammed her feet onto the floor as hard as she could, reverberating back up her legs through pain and clenched teeth. "I can't keep DOING this!" She yelled out to the torrential rains, running her fingers roughly through her hair.
The air lightened a little, things calming down around her, and with a long drawn out sigh, her heart stopped beating against her chest in mad panic. Two slow blinks, she closed her eyes and wrapped the cape around her; a quick doze was all she needed. She can recover again, she can keep moving. As her gaze felt heavy under the weight of exhaustion, she swore there were faint white squares looking back at her.
---
It was another project she would see to the end, though wishing Hawk was there to lend a hand, Baker did what she could to get their new home set up, so once he came back, again, it would be all done. A good portion of the time was spent packing and moving everything to the Twilight Forest. Most of the home was empty except for things that were easily replaceable or an issue. The machine room was a task she was not ready to tackle yet, and instead of holding onto her dear penguin friends, she made them a home on the frozen beach from which Jack and herself had run amuck some time ago. They would be happier there, more room and actually getting snowfall.
She didn't want to let them go but it was for the best.
Baker sat in the emptied living room where the table was, her legs folded up and her arms resting against them, looking around. Most of the stuff was in boxes on the other side of the realm, but there was still plenty she was leaving behind. The garden of flowers, Hawk's apiaries, the colorful trees they had planted.
She sprawled out on the floor; Baker was so tired in so many ways that the thought of getting off the floor was too much energy to spend. She barely shifted to the knock on the door.
"Let yourself in!" She yelled, unmoving from her spot. From her position on the ground she could hear the door click open, and footsteps coming toward her. The figure over shadowed her, looking down at her fatigued figure.
"Should I be concerned?" It was Master with a familiar smirk, the tip of his cape tickled her ear as it came close to her on the floor. She just shook her head.
"Thanks for actually knocking this time. Y'know, before barging in." She smirked up to him, still splayed out like a fallen branch. He just lets off a low snort and a matching sarcastic smile.
"There's a gift on the kitchen counter for ya. I had so much honey left over, and well, I was told you occasionally like a drink..." Master eyed the crate sitting on the counter, and made his way over, inspecting the bottles carefully. Each one had a gold liquid on the inside that shimmered against the glass. He uncorked one of the bottles and took a whiff, smiling at the aroma.
"Mead." Master took one of the bottles for himself, taking small sips as he walked back over to Baker on the floor. "See you're hard at work." She nodded, folding her hands against her belly, but making no other motion to move; satisfied by the overall reaction of her mead. It was the first real positive response she got from him.
"I guess you know by now." Deciding that she wasn't going to get up, he might as well meet her halfway, and sat down on the floor next to her. At least he had some refreshment.
"Aye. Could of let him fend for himself, learn from his mistake."
Baker let out a sigh one might hear when a teacher gives homework during a long break from school. "Is this really gonna turn into a lecture, sir? Because I have enough self doubt to manage. I don't know if I can deal with anymore." She grimaced, expecting at least a half sarcastic remark about being soft and squishy and he knew best and blah blah blah.
"Don't intend to. Actually relieved." This was not the response she was expecting.
"Really?"
"Yes. Would have been easier to separate yourself, let him deal with his own mistakes. Instead you moved everything for him." He chuckled. "Was it good intentions or you a glutton for punishment?" Baker smiled.
"Probably both. He'll have plenty of time to mend fences in a healthier mindset and calmer environment." She finally picked herself up to an upright position, supporting the weight on her hands against her legs. The emptiness of the house was weighing on her.
"You're upset. Okay to be." He consoled, as Baker studied the work she had put into the home.
"It's fine." Baker seemed to close up a little in her response. "I don't- I gotta keep moving. If I stay here, I'll fall again." She rubs her eyes with the palms of her hands. The air around her seemed heavy again, and she lay back on the floor. Master was unsure of this response, but he definitely noticed something off.
"Get up." He nudged her with his foot. "You said you'd keep moving."
"Right." Baker hesitated, but picked herself up off the floor, fixing her cape back into place. "Anyway, I'm fine, but this place is upsetting right now, so let me show you what I've been up to."
She brings him down the stairs to Hawk's room, emptied like the rest of them, through the hidden doorway to her room. All that was left was a bed, a couple of chests and a desk with a single book on a stand. Master was immediately fascinated at the book, eyes locked onto it in curiosity, there was something about it that jumped out at him.
"Guess you already spotted the new thing." She smirked. He waited for her explanation and she nodded, trying to order her thoughts right. "Well, getting everything to the Twilight was a pain in the ass, and a far one too, so I decided to borrow one more book from Yule's library. I was looking for some way to get back and forth a bit easier, so I found this!"
Master studied the contents of the book that rested on the stand, the open pages were scrawled out in a writing he had not seen before, and one page was an illustration of a thick forest. The pages behind it were all scrawled out in more unfamiliar text.
"Baker, what is this?" Curiosity, but also concern, maybe uncertainty. He wasn't sure what kind of magic's she had been up to, but it was outside of her realm of experience.
"Not sure, it's called a Link Book. I fount it in the reference section in some book about different worlds and stuff. It did seem kinda nifty, but way too complicated for me right now." Baker handed him the book she had borrowed from the library, and he set to thumb through the pages quickly. "You'll probably find it easier than I did. There were these weird circle graphs and a lot of script. That's a project for another day." She laughed. "But I got what I was looking for!" Master looked up from the reference to see Baker touch the picture in the book on the stand, and disappear in a puff of black smoke. Master steps back surprised, only for her to return a moment later.
"Tah-dah! I vanished! But really, I just went to the Twilight. C'mon follow me." She smiled, and disappeared once more. More concern and even more curiosity, he touches the picture on the book as well. A pulling sensation, much like the one from the Nether portal or the Twilight one draws him in, and he feels himself moving through an unknown space. There's faint glimpses of runes and symbols he's unfamiliar with and than something solid under his feet. He blinks, and finds himself in Baker's unfinished home, up in an Elder Tree.
"Glad you made it in one piece. Hope the ride wasn't too much for ya." She laughed, taking notice to Master's obvious stunned expression.
"That was...a one way door." He looked to see a similar book behind him set on a stand, but the picture in the book was an illustration of her room.
"Yep! Book goes one way, so this book is set up to send you back to my room. I think it's awesome."
Master regained his composure, though still quite curious at all of this, the scales tipped to the other feeling, a more worrying one.
"I'm...impressed. But concerned."
"Hm?"
"Not a stable link, it had a lot of distortion, something's wrong with it."
"That-oh. Oh damn that's not good. I can try to make a new one, maybe it'll be better this time around."
For her to just express the notion of a 'better one', Master could tell that Baker still didn't grasp what it was she was learning. A doorway like this is not something so easily fixed, but this was a completely foreign world to him, and even stranger how easily useable the magic is to anyone. It's possibilities for danger were enormous, especially in the grip of inexperienced hands. He was holding onto the reference tome rather tightly in his grip. The need to be educated on this new study was necessary, especially with someone like Baker or his Apprentices meddling with it.
- 'Wardog, a word with you...it's urgent.' -
"Well, I could give you the grand tour, but it's a lotta boxes and unpacking left to do. It'll look a lot less empty when I actually have everything set up, it's very basic for the moment. Will probably put in a few more floors and set up some food. I might have to rely on the crops back on the Overworld, unless things will grow here in partial light. The apiaries didn't work so well here, not ready to tell Hawk that yet." Baker noticed Master was not paying attention in the slightest. He looked to be having a conversation with himself in his mind.
"Sturdy and sound, can tell-" He does not make eye contact, and Baker could tell his thoughts were elsewhere.
"Sir, is everything alright?" Master finally shifted back toward Baker staring him down. - ‘There is something about her, messing with the area around here.' -
"Unsure about Hawk's stability here. He had another breakdown." Baker nodded.
"I was asleep when it happened. I came back to find things had gone...south really quickly for him. But, he didn't do anything regretful, or uh...me for the matter. Heh. I wasn't here."
"...Unsure about your stability here either." Baker took a step back.
"W-what?"
"The time we had our...fight. Something happened." Baker shifted uncomfortably on her feet.
"I thought you didn't want to talk about it."
"I don't. It's hard to miss the vibe you give off."
"I'm sorry-what?!" Now Baker was confused. Was he trying to get a read on her again? What did he mean by vibe? Was this more about the magic stuff she was unfamiliar with? Did she mess up something when she was learning Thaumology with Yule? Or with the Link Book?
"It's unsettled. The air around you is tense, fluctuating." She stepped back from him, the heaviness in the air familiar once more, the feeling of being unable to breathe.
"W-what do you see that I can't? I mean, if it was because of the doorway, I don't have to use it anymore, I won't even touch the stuff if that's the case. I was just..." Deep breaths, in and out, trying to push away the claustrophobic feeling of being crushed. "I'm trying to fix things for Hawk."
Baker could see that she was being inspected like she was under trial for something. Was she some kinda project to him? Was there something actually wrong with her? The feeling of falling and crushing darkness, faint white boxes clouding her eyes. Finally, he looked away from her.
"Sorry, I'm concerned. Don't want to scare you, but-"
"But?"
"Connor's worried. A possible rift storm."
"A what?" Connor, Connor was Master's brother with the scarf over his eyes. She brought him out of the rain for food.
_'I noticed some fluctuation in this realm, so I had to see if I could find the source of the problem.'_
He was studying the realm...
"Does it..."
_'I know it’s possible for bits of your world to disappear completely. I’d like that to not happen, especially if the old dog and his whelps are running around. Makes a bit of a mess of everything.'_
"...does it have anything to do with the stability of the world he talked about?" Master nodded. "A-and he's talking to you?"
"Sure you've seen others moving around this realm while you slept."
A dream in the Void Sleep, Master walking around while she slept, while Hawk was sleeping, filling in the whole in the ocean as Hawk talked about being connected. _'I…can hear him talk in my mind sometimes... I believe we are all connected to a space here, and only one of us may be awake to walk freely and do things.'_
The knot in her stomach tightened, "So Connor's actually warning you-"
"Not sure what's going to happen, if anything. But there is...something off." Master held his tongue as he watched the color drain from her face. "I'm scaring you."
"Uh huh." She squeaked with a nod, a cocktail of nausea and lightheaded balance and being unable to catch her breath. He walked over to her, quickly collapsing into herself, he can see whatever fear for him in her eyes as he moved closer.
"Don't-don't look at me like I'm some kinda monster. I'm not!" She flinched as he came to meet her face to face, shallow breaths she couldn’t control, sobs in her throat, "Baker, look at me." She opened an eye to see Master staring at her. "You're not a bad person. Was out of line with what I said before to you, believe me. Don't want anything bad to happen to Hawk or to you. Whatever it is,” He paused, “it can be fixed."
"I-I can fix it." Her face wobbled into an uneasy smile. "It can be fixed." She repeated to herself, trying to build herself back up.
"Good. That's better. Be careful. It could pass no problem. You seem to have a connection to this place, for better or worse. Don't want it affecting you."
It's true she had some connection to this place, the lack of memories and the feeling of vertigo when she got upset. Maybe she did have something to do with the world around her.
"I'll be alright."
"Mm. Keep an eye out, stay safe." Master made his way back through the book and was gone. Baker was left in the half finished space of her new home, alone once more.
/Fuck-fuck no-fuck what's going to happen-/ “It can be fixed.” She repeated to herself, biting at a finger through her glove. /I shoulda told him to stay-/
She clutched at her arms, pressed against her chest, a freezing feeling she couldn't get warm, unable to breathe, fear, panic, wave after wave. She jumped back into the book, back to her old room. But Master was long gone, she couldn't feel his presence anywhere in the realm. He must have gone back to the Void Sleep. Let your thoughts be calm ones...'
She could hear something in her mind, it was calming, feminine, entrancing, but also monotone, like the feeling when someone drifts into a Void Sleep. Was it her own voice? Maybe it was the realm? It was silencing all the other noise in her head. She listened, feeling relaxed. Her back ached and her head grew heavy.
'It’s time to rest.'
The bed looked so welcoming, she hadn't slept well in forever.
"I need to find Master..." She pulled the blankets down and slipped into bed, tucking them around her shoulders. The pillow felt so cool against her face, the blankets warm and heavy. She couldn't move...
/The_Baker has logged out./
...
The last of the residents of the world had drifted to sleep, there was no one left on the Overworld realm. "You had your fun, but it needs to be reborn. Stop giving me this puppy eye look because your toy's broken." She took a long puff of her redstone light and took the jar from him. "You can watch if you want, maybe it'll make you feel better." He grimaced, as she put the jar on the table. The process was a necessary one, but that did not make it any easier. Sympathy could only do so much, there was a reason for her being here as much as he was. All that was left to do was watch as the world would be archived.
...
'W◘a ke◘ u p. . . ◘Yo u n ee◘d t o ◘w ak e◘ u p! '
...**zzt*** /The_Baker has logged in./
Baker snapped awake in her bed, the dusty pink of her walls were washed out of color, everything around her much the same. She seemed to be the only thing left with color in the monotone world around her, but her body was a tint of one solid pink, like she took all the color off the walls and painted herself. She was dreaming, she had to be dreaming. The air was heavy and her limbs dragged, tired and aching. She could barely get herself through the hidden doorway.
It wasn’t just her room, the world around her lacked any color, and everywhere she looked, faint white boxes hovered in the air. Everything felt like the static in her head. The world around her flickered, she could see lines and shapes she'd never seen before, strange text and numbers everywhere. Various numbers she didn't recognize, but they were everywhere.
Was this the rift storm? Was she going through it by herself?
"MASTER!" She called out, making her way outside. The flowers around her were stripped of their color, the sky was dark, unmoving, except for the flickering. Piece by piece, things started to break apart into more white boxes. The tall trees and flowers disappearing around her, Hawk's apiaries and the garden.
She ran, ran as her house disappeared in a cloud of broken potential.
"CONNOR! YULE!" Something was wrong. Everything was falling apart around her, she couldn't breathe but she had to keep running. The fort was missing massive chunks of it's cobblestone walls. and the library was slowly decaying in front of her.
"HAWK!" She was scared and alone, no one could hear her, no one else was around. She ran to the woods from where she came from, stopping at Master's monument. The weird purple thing he had built, where she threw eggs and lost her mind. She leaned against the base of it, trying to breathe. The air was too heavy. The world was collapsing around her.
"SOMEONE HELP ME PLEASE!" She cried out, watching the trees and the world around her turn into a pitch black void.
‘You're awake?’
Baker looked up where a face looked back at her, much larger, it almost took up the entire sky in front of her. He was white as a ghost, hair that framed the face, and was indeed looking down at her.
"Help me! Everything's breaking! Where are my friends?! HELP ME PLEASE!" He was shocked to find her awake. More sympathy, and eyes drifting away from her.
‘...I'm sorry, it has to be done.’ He turned away and vanished from the sky.
"What's going to happen?! NO-COME BACK!" The air becomes too hard to breathe, she's panicking. "NO. I CAN FIX IT! PLEASE-!" The sky crumbles and the ground breaks apart from underneath her feet. And she's falling. The air leaves her lungs and she's falling, unable to stop. The descent is too much and her vision swims, seeing the last bits of the fragmented world fall around her, lightheaded, falling into the void, waiting to feel something. Hitting the ground, threads snapping, crushing darkness. Something.
——-
Song Recommendation: Pendulum - Watercolor
So, I got second place in askmisszion's 3 year anniversary giveaway and won this lill' cutie! I don't think I got the colors quite right, but I think it was a good first draw of the character. I haven't come up with a name yet, or decided on a gender (tho I think I'm going to go with agender) and I'm working on the backstory to incorporate into Mick and Ivan's story. ^ - ^
Far From Home: Chapter 7
"No good. The Hoe of Growth doesn't seem to have any effect on it." "Mm. Thought as much." Baker held the silverwood sapling in her hand; they had been bested by the stubborn little sprout. "Thanks anyway, Yule. We tried our best." He nodded and made his way back to the mainland, leaving Baker to her business. The two of them had been making sense of the Thauminomicon, learning what they can through studies, but there was only so much they could do with just research alone. Putting it to practice was a whole other game, and with the land so barren of Vis, it was unlikely they would make any headway unless they took these practices a great distance in either direction of the base. Which left Baker the sapling that wouldn't grow. The days were quiet overall, Jack was the next to appear, but Baker wasn't in a mood to have visitors; she worried about Hawk, about the strain he was under. Was it just the Twilight Forest, or was it the realm itself that seemed to fatigue him? /It must be hard to cram something so complicated into these simple bodies./ Baker mused to herself. His world sounded fascinating and intricate, even more so for as complicated as this realm seemed to be. What would she be like in a realm like his? He talked about how everything wasn't made of blocks. Would she still be blocky? Would she take a shape similar to what Hawk is familiar with? /I would still have a head as big as a pumpkin./ That much she believed at least. She had a finished house with no one to live in it with; it seemed like just as she called it complete, Hawk disappeared. Jack didn't stick around for very long at the base, which left Baker to find any odd jobs to do in the meantime. She redecorated the bathroom, taking brick and stone from the Twilight's Labyrinths, and that was an affair she decided was best never to attempt again. She and Iksha had attempted to brave the lower structure of the maze, only to find the place full of nasty surprises. Bugs that clamped down on and toss the victim around like a ragdoll, bugs that smothered enemies in slime, or in flame, and worst of all, the minotaurs. Needless to say, the two of them hightailed out of it fast. There was still plenty of brick to take from the opening at the surface, and Baker didn't have to bother the nasties down below. It made a pretty bathroom, but she questioned the worth of struggle to go through all of the hassle to decorate one room of her house, as the stone seemed almost impervious to pick. Baker left more tired than she ever intended to be. --- Baker was sitting in the basement, listening to the hum of the machines idly as they processed the honeycombs she had been taking care of while Hawk was away. It was something of a pattern now. Wake up, tend to the crops, tend to the bees, make herself something to eat, find something to do. Jack had been busy in the mines most of the time or running around doing...something Baker wasn't sure of, but had gone quiet for a period now. But as if on cue, hurried footsteps were stomping down the stairs toward her. "Baker! Baker look at this!" Jack rounded the corner of the door with arms full of eggs and the biggest smile on his face. "What's up Jack?" He tossed an egg to the ground and out popped a baby chick, he was still rather excited about all of it. "Uh...yeah they do that sometimes." Baker smiled, remembering that Jack wasn't from this world, so all things considered probably everything was a new experience to him. "No no, that's not the best part. This is!" He put the remaining eggs down on the table, and reached into his pocket, pulling out a small shimmering pouch. With a few pinches of a colorful dust, the baby chick disappeared in a puff of smoke and instead, there was a baby...something. Something black and white that waddled and made strange noises.
Baker's eyes grew wide and her mouth twitched into a grin. Whatever it was, it was adorable. Big flappy wing things, big round eyes, it waddled all over the place. "It's a penguin! We have them at home, but I found this special powder in the twilight that turns chickens into them!" "It's adorable! What do they eat? How do they live? Do they need anything special?" Baker picked up this penguin and nuzzled it's smooth feathers in her arms. "They live in cold climates and eat fish. We can make a cold place for them to live!" "Yes! Right away-I don't want it to get sick! Um-uh-" Baker looked around, desperately trying to make sense of the situation. "We'll dig out a room on the other side of the stairwell and fill it with ice and snow! There's a snowy biome on the other side of the sea. It's a bit of a ride, c'mon Jack, I'll need your help." Baker gave Jack the penguin to hold as she dug through chests to find the materials she'd need. "If you need some shovels, I have two diamonds we can spare." He motioned to one of the chests perched next to Hawk's bed, and Baker found two pristine diamonds. It was a shame to waste them on shovels, but it would save them a lot of trouble only having to bring two that would last versus 10 made out of stone that would break so easily. --- The base disappeared on the horizon as Jack and Baker sailed in the direction of the frozen biome. She had taken the time to travel around the base in search of an area rich in Vis for the silverwood as that was one of her 'things to do to keep busy' for a day. Unfortunately the distance was much too far to travel on a daily basis. The boats touched ground on the frozen sandy beach; miles in each direction, everything was covered in snow. Jack put the baby penguin down and watched him run around in the cold white powder playfully. "He seems to like it." Jack beamed, watching the penguin like a mother watching it's child. "We'll have to dig up a lot, I don't want to come back for supplies if I don't have to." Baker handed him a shovel. "Before we lose the light of day." Jack smiled and promptly stamped the sharp end of the spade into the ground. The snow was easy to dig up, it came up in big clumps that Baker was able to pack into compact blocks with ease. Jack spent more time chasing the penguin, but Baker did not have the heart to discourage his fun time. She would get enough snow no problem before the sun set. Then she felt a smack to her back that ended with a slushy sound. When she turned, she saw Jack with snowballs in hand. Oh, it was on now, she smirked. Snowball after snowball they launched at each other, the penguin running in between the frozen artillery. Once Baker got a good throw in that hit Jack upside the forehead, knocking him to the ground, but when she ran over to check on him, she was bombarded with return fire. The two lay in the snow, staring up as the clouds gathered and the sun set; it was getting late, and they had enough of the frozen stuff to make the penguin a wonderful little home inside the base. --- "What about ice? I think they like slipping around on it too." Jack mused as he dug out a spot to the left of the stairwell. Baker was already on it, shoving blocks of snow into the compressor. "Got it covered, Jack." She picked up the shiny block of frozen water out of the machine with a grin. "This should keep the water cool enough for our penguin friend." When all was said and done, the place looked like the inside of a snowball, and was properly frigid to boot. In the center was a pond bordered in ice, and kept to a chilly temperature of 'decently cold'. The penguin seemed happy enough at least. Baker brushed off her hands and sat on the floor with a sigh. In the time it took her to mope around in the last few days, she and Jack had another addition to the house. "You're not cold?" Jack asked, pulling the cover on his shoulders close together. "Nah, I'm well insulated," She laughed and poked her doughy physique, "I like this temperature, it feels nice. If I had the choice, I might have lived in a snowy biome." Jack, though still kinda cold, sat down next to her with a smile. "Well I'm glad I cheered you up a lil' bit. You seemed kinda sad." "Wait really? Was it that bad?" Baker turned to him; it was so off the cuff-was she really as down as he thought she was? He just nodded with an apologetic smile. "Well shit, I thought I was doing a good job hiding that." Jack shook his head at the rather forced smile that looked back at him. It was evident that she was terrible at it. "I'm glad someone's been able to be friendly with him. I haven't seen that since Maisie." That name, she remembered that being a very somber subject, Hawk only talked about her briefly, and for every reason she understood why. How would she feel if one of her closest friends was taken from under her nose without so much as a fight to be put up against it? And then...gone. Baker curled her knees up to her chest. "It's not that I was avoiding you or anything, Jack. You just, kinda seemed to be busy with whatever and I kinda figured you didn't really need me tagging along being a giant mope." "Aww it's okay. I know you miss him. He's needed someone to be friendly with for a long time, and you managed to chip a hole big enough in his shell to get a smile out of him. That's pretty impressive." Jack laughed, getting up from the floor with an appropriate shiver. "I just thought you'd like something like this. They are kinda cute little buggers." Baker smiled. "They are. Thank you, Jack." He nodded and made his way out of the basement; Baker could faintly hear the front door close, as she turned to watch the penguin play around in the snow. --- It was late when she woke up, the little penguin was cuddled up in a corner and Baker was herself curled up into a ball next to him. By now she was definitely cold, but exhausted enough to fall asleep in the frigid little room. A consistent shiver she couldn't shake had set in; well that would teach her to fall asleep in the penguin's room again. Desperately rubbing her arms for warmth, she made her way back upstairs, the sounds of someone rummaging in the cabinets louder as she got closer to the ground floor. Jack must have come back for something but seeing Baker asleep, didn't want to disturb. 'I'd bring it back!' Baker mused the thought, not like she would have been mad about it. She rounded the top of the stairs, still trying to warm herself up, and was about to greet Jack once more but the words got caught in her throat; the familiar red cape was grey. That wasn't Jack. And of course, he turned around at that moment to meet her eye to eye. Great, just great. Not again. Baker broke the gaze that seemed to lock the two in awkward silence and cleared her throat. "G'mornin, Master." She greeted. "Evening." He motioned to the windows, it was clearly very late into the night, the moon was high and the stars bright. "Ah. Right. I had a bit of a nap." She shrugged. The smalltalk was struggling, what in the hells would she even be able to say to him? Part of her wanted to reprimand him for rummaging around in her kitchen, but she knew exactly where that conversation was going to go. It was not worth starting the argument. "Oh-Hawk left something for you. It's in the top shelf on the left." Baker motioned to the cabinets, Master turned and opened the cupboard to see a small brown satchel, which he opened and had a quick whiff of the contents. "Hmm. Coffee powder. Heh, smart boy." He smirked. "There's a brewing stand stashed up there if you wanted some." /I mean, I'm sure you would have used it anyway even if I hadn't-/ /NO. No we're not doing this. Stop it./ She bit her lip and attempted to force the smile once more. "Hmm. Thank you." She was unsure what else to say or do other than to stand by the stairwell and watch him concoct a couple of cups of coffee with the brewer. He handed her the other mug and sat down at the kitchen table without a second thought, and Baker stared at the drink in her hand. She took one sip and made the most undignified noise she could manage. How did people drink this?! Master chuckled. "Not a coffee person." He sipped the drink and sighed contently, much happier with it than she was. "Handy thing, his bee project." He set the mug down and watched Baker question what to do with the potent drink, though she didn't seem willing to sit down next to him, the awkward tension still hung heavy in the room. "You're scared of me?" Baker grimaced. "Hmph. That I'd be afraid of you-don't flatter yourself-" She shook her head and bit her lip in protest. "Ngh. No-no. I'm not doing this. I'm not." Master was mildly surprised at the tone she responded with, still defiant, still defensive. She was clearly not letting her guard down just yet. Baker sighed and leaned against the kitchen counter, staring into her coffee. There was no point in being hostile, at least without better reasoning.
"Yeah, I am. Lil' bit." She swirled the murky contents around in her mug with her gaze drifted to the past few months behind her. "Whatever you said, it wasn't-it wasn't just you. There's something off with me. It wasn't just you that night." Her body language suggested defeat to him, or understanding, regret, contemplation. She didn't look like she was about to flee from him, that was pretty clear. Maybe she'd be more willing to listen than she had been.
"...Any clue what?" Baker chuckled. "No idea. Something though. I know that." She took another attempt at the drink, still not pleasant after the second sip. "Is there anything I can do with this stuff other than to tough out the bitter taste?" She asked rather bluntly, which threw Master off his thought train. He smirked. "Iced coffee, coffee mixed with chocolate, a 'Caffe Mocha' or other sweets. Or just milk and sugar." Baker nodded and set the mug down to rummage through the cabinets to make good of the cup of coffee with minor modifications. "...You don't want to talk about what happened." Baker turned back at him with an uncomfortable sigh. "Did you?" "No." He shook his head, focusing on the drink instead as she turned back to creating some kind of concoction in the ceramic mug, he chuckled at the sigh. She certainly didn't want to waste the coffee, which was interesting to him. To go through all the trouble to make it palatable, she at least didn't turn it down from the beginning. Master was curious, the body language and the actions were probably a better indication than whatever words came out of her mouth. For a moment, it looked like she was fighting a completely different person in her mind to even get a proper thought out.
He agreed with her, there was something else in the mix, psychological or ethereal or phenomenal; there was too many unknown factors in this world to him yet. It made him uneasy.
"Did a decent job putting this place together," he remarked. Baker turned around from her experimenting to the compliment muttered between his sips of coffee. It was odd, he must have been grasping at straws for conversation as well for something so off the cuff. "...Thank you, sir." She smiled. Polite but still appreciative. It wasn't hard to miss the detail put into this place. Everything down to the molding and placement of furniture was a labor of passion and patience. "You were cold?" He asked, immediately changing the topic in the hopes the awkwardness didn't come back already. "Oh! Jack brought me back a penguin! Here I'll show you." Baker ushered him down the stairs, figuring she might as well show him the new additions to the place while she sipped at her much sweeter drink. When she stepped back into Hawk's room, it was there she noticed something off. For a second it was hard to pinpoint what it was exactly, until she spotted that something had changed about his bed. "What the..." It wasn't noticeable enough to drag her thoughts away from warming up before, but it was certainly staring her in the face now. The walls around his bed were donned with blocks of precious gems, and a long written piece. Master picked up the disruption almost immediately, and furrowed his brow. "Mmph. This is...new." He was definitely not pleased. "This wasn't here this morning, it must have happened when I was taking my nap. I...I don't know what to make of it." 'For I lay my spoils down at your feet, and offer my sword...' 'See I do pay attention to what you read' - Jack Baker and Master looked at each other with uncertainty, there was something about the whole thing that felt out of place. Like some kind of shrine or offering, or monument. For what little she knew of Jack, this felt really out of place, even for him. Did he pick it up too? This aura, the whole construct left some odd signature to it, invisible to the eye but made the hair on her arms stick up in attention. "What should we do? I think, I think this would just be bad news." Baker questioned, unsure of what to do. Master nodded. "Aye...Let's take it down." "Right." For a brief moment, agreement between the two. Whatever Jack was attempting to do, it was very clear that it would only widen the gap between him and Hawk. Baker was still uncertain though; Jack set this up for some reason he wanted to relay to Hawk, but having Master agree with her feelings was validating. At least she wouldn't be the only one in the wrong. The signs were pulled from the walls and the precious gem blocks put into a chest by the bed. "Mind me asking what's the deal with them?" Baker muttered between the task at hand. She hoped that his view of things were a bit clearer than her own. "Complicated. Figured you knew enough." Baker shook her head. "I got bits and pieces, but they're two very different view points. Hard to be impartial." She paused at the stack of signs in her hands, "Though I'm starting to see there's definitely pieces I'm missing to all of this." Master tossed the pick into the box with the gem blocks and dusted his hands. With Hawk's room put back together, the chill in the air was gone, and Baker rubbed her arms, brushing away the cool feeling, satisfied. "Manage well enough. Both have good things to say 'bout you. Even my brother." He smirked. Master was certainly trying to be hospitable, or at least not angry, though whatever bridge that was there between them was still smoldering from the original fire. "Whatever this was," he shook his head, "don't worry about it. Was for the best for both of them." Maybe this was more of the Master that she wasn't aware of. There was no malice in his intentions of removing the shrine, but more in line with protecting their best intentions. Maybe confronting Master wasn't so much an obstacle than it was a wall, a wall that Baker put up from the beginning. The mentality of putting up walls around her was familiar, off in a distant memory, protecting herself, hiding, fleeing. There was only so much to hiding, she supposed. The two of them made their way back upstairs, where Master rinsed the mugs in the sink and cracked his shoulder back into place. "Going to take a walk, clear my head. Work on the place near Aoi's." Baker nodded, unsure of how to say good-bye, but he was already turning for the door.
"Wait." She almost cursed herself for even opening her mouth, but it was too late now, might as well start what she finished. She sighed, and unraveled her clenched fists. "You...are a very intimidating person. But only so much I guess, cuz I was still willing to defend my actions but-ugh-there's no excuse for what I did, and it'll be one of those things that I just, never let go. Like a lot of things, I think." She paused, apologies were hard, especially to one she didn't agree with, "But, Hawk's important to me, and I only intended to protect him from himself, from others, it was not my place, I didn't think clearly." She bit her lip, unsure how to phrase the rest of her thoughts that didn't sound abrasive or mean.
"Go ahead, Baker. Say it." "You're not the enemy, and I just-I, I just don't want you to see me as a threat." Baker looked down at her feet, afraid to look him in the eyes. Master had turned to face her at this point; she was certainly trying, even if her words were foreign to her. Whatever mistakes she made, they sunk deep. And this was probably not the first time she's tripped over her own feet. Words were failing her, they pushed over each other, went backward and forward, repeated. The things that were certain to her, those were clear and crisp and forward. Baker was not so much an open book, but a book in a completely different language to him. What he did get out of all if it, the bits and pieces, was a clear image of what she saw herself as, and what she believed Master saw as well. "...You're not a threat." He finally responded. Baker lifted her head back up; it was so hard to keep eye contact with him that she just kinda rocked on her feet, chuckled nervously and rubbed her arm. "I talk a big game, getting all puffed up and defensive, but I'm about as intimidating as a kitten." Master chuckled at the metaphoric image. "Kitten wants to walk with the big dogs." He turned to open the door. "Take care, Baker." "You-you too." As the door closed she blathered out "...show you that I'm...better than this." But Master didn't need any further convincing of Baker's mettle. 'I'm not the one you need to convince, dear.'
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Song Recommendation: American Authors - Luck
IN SLIGHTLY HAPPIER NEWS LOOK AT THIS FUCKER. I am so happy with it on so many levels and I haven't even colored it yet. Adorable babbus.






