Continuing the Inktober for writers with another drabble for Zinith.
This one pertains to finding the book Descartes, a book representing Light. It’s part of a concept @warrentrolls introduced me to.
“Think with clarity, for knowledge cannot thrive in the dark.”
Zinith read out the riddle for what must have been the 20th time, her face scrunched up in deep thought. Stone doors, massive and heavy, locked her path into the inner sanctum of the cavernous ruins she was exploring. The doors were old, carved with markings of a stylized sun, and painted with a faint yellow barely left visible by the ceaseless passage of time. There was clearly some ritual purpose to the symbols, but for what, she could not say.
The seadweller, not for the first time that night, stomped her foot in frustration, smacking the stone with her hand. She was missing something! There must be a way to open the stupid door and get the stupid stuff inside!! What did the riddle mean, ‘in the dark’? Was it simply some sort of warning? That ignorance will be the downfall of a society? Some kind of religious significance, tied to the sun symbol or-
Oh. Zinith smacked her forehead. Of course. She solved the simple grid-puzzle her capthalogue demanded, retrieving a large lamp with a satisfying click. “There you are!” she muttered to herself, fins shooting up like the ears of an excited dog. The darkness had hid faint lines, crawling over the tile floor in a very specific pattern. She stepped all the way back to the entryway, carefully stepping after the pattern and, sure enough, another satisfying click came. Then, a rumbling, mechanisms old and dusty coming back to life to slowly open the stone gates. Zinith practically skipped inside, letting out a victorious holler.
The inner sanctum was oddly light. Zinith could not see any sources of light, yet there was something to the room, as if light filtered through the very stone itself. Furthermore, there was this odd scent... Was that... Citrus? Zinith sniffed. Maybe perfumes in here had managed to survive.
It soon became apparent that there were no such things. No pots or glass were to be found in this room. No jewels, no rotten silk or beautiful pearls. The only thing inside this sanctum was a pedestal, with a book on it. The entire room seemed to gravitate towards the book, as if it was begging to be seen. Its binding of pure gold caught every light, no darkness seemed able to even touch the it. It begged to be seen.
Zinith placed a hand on the book. Her mind raced, ideas and theories and raw curiousity battling for dominance. Once the third had won, Zinith opened the book (were these pages bound by plant fiber? Was that the source of the citrus smell?), only to be greeted by an incomprehensible mess. The pages were bursting with the most detailed information, but none remained focused. They answered questions half-formed, handled theories she had not yet even finalized.
“What... Is this?”
She turned to the next page, and a single word shone in golden ink: Descartes.
Continuing the Inktober for writers with a drabble for Zinith.
Zinith had always had a quite poor relationship with music.
Not that she did not like music, but rather, it was often too overwhelming. Born in the oceanic coral reefs, sound always had a distance to it. It was not nearly as important as the vibrations and scents permeating the water.
When she would stick her head up above, noise was an assault on the senses. No worse than other sounds, but this particular cacophany was supposed to be enjoyable? She remembers hearing the screech of an accordion for the first time, thinking someone was in pain, but the sailors she spoke to were gleefully cheering for the player.
Was there something wrong with her? When she first came to the surface, stayed for real, she tried to avoid as much music as she could. Those clubs that played it always had it so loud, it made her head pound like a drum. Other seadwellers seemed to enjoy that, though, so why didn’t she? The fear of not only missing out on something others enjoyed, but also a more deep-set fear that she wouldn’t be able to fit in, it crawled under her skin.
That is, until she found a sort of gateway. The soft tunes of music boxes were a good start. They were more quiet, melodic. She also found herself drawn to live performances in small clubs, where singular trolls could play their instrument of choice to only a few dozens of people. Even now, she loves listening to those performances.
That gateway placed her where she sits now: In her away-from-home hivestem apartment, plugging in her new speakers. There’s only one way to improve her horizons, right? She opens grubtube and starts the first song.
How has your muse changed since you’ve first started to write them?
How has your muse changed since you’ve first started to write them?
Had to do a read-more because this got real long.
For her initial depiction, Zinith was an ambitious fleet member, trying to squash rebellions and was in general a very mean character. She was also kinda flat and didn’t have much going on besides being a hemoloyal bitch.
I remade her when I started on tumblr, and now she was a naive Little Mermaid-archetype who loved puzzles and archeology. She was pretty emotionally immature, had good intentions, and had absolutely no idea how to socialize.
Jump forward a bit, she becomes the prodigy of a rich seadweller who tries to groom her into a “proper seadweller”. Zinith hates it, but craves the approval it earns her - a craving she mainly got because her lusus did very little praising while growing up, and she’s not really interacted with others to balance that out. Her seadweller mentor is kidnapped, leaving Zinith alone to figure her shit out again. Basically, all she’s certain of is that being a royal fucking sucks. She’s eschewed stuff like jewelery and dresses since then, sticking to suits for the few fancy parties she’s gone to.
She gets a redblood matesprit who not only starts teaching Zinith a lot about landdwellers and modern society, but also helps undo a lot of the hemoist thinking that she got hammered into her. It’s also she who teaches Zinith how to use proper firearms! She’d been using pressure guns until that point in an effort to emulate her ancestor (who left a bunch of texts behind for Zinith).
Even more time passes, Zinith starts feeling a p big power inbalance between her and her gf (which is fair, Zinith was really naive at the start and needed a lot of guidance). With her being more mature, a lot of the guiding starts annoying her, and the two eventually break up.
That places us at roughly her current state? Zinith has become a lot of more confident, knows social rules better, and with meeting a former Orphaner who has been helping her crack the grand puzzle left behind by her ancestor, she has a more stable guiding figure who answers most of her questions, but doesn’t really push her in any specific direction? He is hemoloyal, but he doesn’t shove for her to become some seadweller princess or orphaner like him.
Zinith has retained some stuff, like natural curiousity and love for the past, but she is practically acclimated to modern Alternian society and has a somewhat clearer idea of stuff like the hemospectrum. In general, she’s just matured a lot, and is definetively a more interesting character than her initial form.
If your trolls had Youtube channels, what kind of content would they film? (ie makeup tutorials, story times, vlogs and so on)
I’d say the ones I have who would be most interested are...
Shucri, who would do dancing videos, or 1st person parkour stuff if she could get a suitable camera for it. Lots of friend cameos and maybe some stupid challenges.
Zinith wouldn’t do youtube but she would have an instagram account about cool underwater views and coral reefs.
Koplin already has a youtube channel! He posts basic tutorials about how to make mechanics and simple robots, plus some more advanced coding videos.
Your name is Zinith Makona, and you grasp the gun of her ancestor. There is a soft hum from the weapon; A small battery churning energy to fuel the powerful laser that Bartholomew’s Barrel produces. It is a powerful weapon, but also a frightening one. Sadly, it is also a necessary weapon. You have begun to understand the significance of the strange golden book you found in the old ruins so long ago, but as you have grown more familiar with Descartes, so too has it begun to draw attention.
You tried to hide it in your sylladex, even a high-tech locked one, but people seemed to know how to find it anyway. Were it not for your mentor - Sariel - and your mighty new weapon, you would have been killed by strangers twice your age by now, as they mercilessly fight to steal the strange book from you.
Things aren’t all bad, though! The book, as it turns out, has a lot of uses to a young archeologist. You have divinied deep underground chambers, untouched for ages, and scried traps that could have killed you dead. It is a balance you are slowly growing more comfortable with... You hope.
For every ✍ + a number I receive, I will share one headcanon for my muse about...
…their sleep schedule.
Her sleep schedule is often messed up by her staying up for too long because she’s just exploring the city, going to random shops and clubs.
…being touched.
She’s very touch-starved.... Give it to her.......
…how long they hold grudges.
Kinda hard to say because there’s only been the one time so far! I think it would depend a lot on what people around her would think, since she’s a very malleable kind of person. Like if they’re like “you’re not gonna forgive them just like that are you???” she’ll be like “no I guess not??”
…how sensitive they are to insults.
Insults from strangers leave her bewildered rather than actually upset. If it does hit home, she’ll ask a friend for their opinion, but like... Still not really upset about it.
…being complimented.
Blushemoji...... She loves compliments so much she’s spent the majority of her life without them and that praise feels so good to her.
When it comes to actual melee weapons, she’s untrained as can be. That said, Zinith is good with both teeth and claws to a feral degree.
🔬 — scientific pursuits
In terms of history and archeology, Zinith is an expert. In other fields, she’s not really interested? Ntm finding it kinda boring. In terms of linguistic sciences I guess she can get a thumbs up for knowing a couple of languages and being good at picking up meaning in general.
🌍 — knowledge of the world
Her knowledge of the world is steadily improving. It got a big boost thanks to her ex, and just in general, she’s learning quite a bit from just floating around and talking to people. It’s still quite flawed though.
Endiro
🎁 — giving presents to others
Endiro is.... Ok w presents I guess? He often just goes with making a great meal for the person, and occasionally he makes them bone charms or decorations. He’s not good at being like “oh yeah this person likes Game of Thrones so I should get them a GoT shirt” like he’s not really good with shopping based on what he knows of someone. That’s why he sticks to the self-made stuff that he knows will still mean a lot.
🔎 — investigating
His investigations skills, on the other hand, are through the work. Since he works a lot with legislacerators, Endiro’s picked up a lot of investigative tips and tricks from the way it works, and can now generally hunt down people effectively on his own. A well-trained legislacerator might still notice details he’d miss, though.
🔫 — long range weapons
As for long range weapons he is attrocious. He is a fucking mess with firearms of all kinds, and any time he uses javelins/bows/etc he never accounts for anything like wind resistance or other factors like that. he really tries to stick to melee.
