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Story #1
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alessar: write a story beginning with, "The mist hung over the mountain valley like a floating veil."
The mist hung over the mountain valley like a floating veil. Gentle breezes brushed along the mist folding and creasing as it went along, as if the fog were but satin. The mountain's outline was visible, while the mist shielded the trees and the jagged rock towards the summit, painting it a mix of greens and greys.
Finnegan did not like it one bit.
His assistant had insisted it looked beautiful – the mountain was the tallest in the world, its arching range of pointy peaks made it imposing, daring only the most foolish to conquer it, and the mist just added to the mystique of it. The man even suggested that Finnegan, being God and Maker, could just spread a few stories about the mountain being a stairway to the Realm of The Gods to the nearby settlers and let imagination take over. They could even say the mist ate wanderers and only the pure of heart and full of virtue would ever live to see the summit – at least until modern technology invented oxygen tanks and climbing equipment.
"It's too heavy, I don't like it." Finnegan pointed out.
"Sir Finnegan, it is *beautiful*. It is *mysterious*. It is *enchanting*. In the past twenty-four hours, everyone who popped by LOVED the mist."
"Well, they're not god of this world." Finnegan's stare locked on to the mountain, as if it would convince his assistant otherwise.
His assistant sighed.
"Maybe if I turned down the mist opacity, it'll look better?" Finnegan suggested.
"We ran the slider up and down; this gave the right balance of thickness and visibility!"
"Well, let's run it up and down some more. Maybe add a masking effect. How's about several thinner layers of mist overlapping?"
"Sir Finnegan-"
Finnegan reached for the airbrush. "Maybe if I added a little more dark green to the trees, make them stand out. Thicker, more imposing forest." The dark-haired God tapped the airbrush trigger a few times before studying his work once more.
"Noooo, now it's too dark," Finnegan mused while pressing "undo".
"*sigh* Finnegan, the-"
"Let's try making the mist a ring somewhere near the top – dammit, WORK you stupid perspective!" Finnegan muttered.
"Fi-"
"What the HELL is wrong with this goddamn mist?" Finnegan hammered the undo button as the mist spread itself out over the mountain, to half of it, to three-quarters of it, and back to all over the mountain.
Then the world froze.
The two young men stared at the half-formed mist.
"I think you went a bit too fast." The assistant attempted a slew of buttons to fix the problem, to no avail.
Finnegan shut his eyes and gritted his teeth. He held back the urge to scream, because screaming would alert everyone to the fact that he had screwed up quite a bit, and this was something he would rather keep to himself.
Suddenly, the world resumed and rewound beyond the half-formed mist, way past Finnegan's intentions.
Then it saved, quit, and reloaded the world before either blinked.
The two young men were now presented with half a mountain and a plateau for a summit, the results of their terrain building 30 hours ago.
And no way to redo the floating veil.
"On the other hand, you could just…put an evil-looking fortress and have giants living there?" The assistant consoled, or tried to.
"…"
"…How about a volcano?"
Finnegan sighed and curled into a foetal position. Some days it wasn't worth the chase for perfection.
I think if I left this story alone for a week, I'll end up rewriting the whole thing. Better or worse, that's another thing altogether.
Dedicated to all the perfectionist CG artists I know. Yes, that means the LOT of you.
alessar: write a story beginning with, "The mist hung over the mountain valley like a floating veil."The mist hung over the mountain valley like a floating veil. Gentle breezes brushed along the mist folding and creasing as it went along, as if the fog were but satin. The mountain's outline was visible, while the mist shielded the trees and the jagged rock towards the summit, painting it a mix of greens and greys.
Finnegan did not like it one bit.
His assistant had insisted it looked beautiful – the mountain was the tallest in the world, its arching range of pointy peaks made it imposing, daring only the most foolish to conquer it, and the mist just added to the mystique of it. The man even suggested that Finnegan, being God and Maker, could just spread a few stories about the mountain being a stairway to the Realm of The Gods to the nearby settlers and let imagination take over. They could even say the mist ate wanderers and only the pure of heart and full of virtue would ever live to see the summit – at least until modern technology invented oxygen tanks and climbing equipment.
"It's too heavy, I don't like it." Finnegan pointed out.
"Sir Finnegan, it is *beautiful*. It is *mysterious*. It is *enchanting*. In the past twenty-four hours, everyone who popped by LOVED the mist."
"Well, they're not god of this world." Finnegan's stare locked on to the mountain, as if it would convince his assistant otherwise.
His assistant sighed.
"Maybe if I turned down the mist opacity, it'll look better?" Finnegan suggested.
"We ran the slider up and down; this gave the right balance of thickness and visibility!"
"Well, let's run it up and down some more. Maybe add a masking effect. How's about several thinner layers of mist overlapping?"
"Sir Finnegan-"
Finnegan reached for the airbrush. "Maybe if I added a little more dark green to the trees, make them stand out. Thicker, more imposing forest." The dark-haired God tapped the airbrush trigger a few times before studying his work once more.
"Noooo, now it's too dark," Finnegan mused while pressing "undo".
"*sigh* Finnegan, the-"
"Let's try making the mist a ring somewhere near the top – dammit, WORK you stupid perspective!" Finnegan muttered.
"Fi-"
"What the HELL is wrong with this goddamn mist?" Finnegan hammered the undo button as the mist spread itself out over the mountain, to half of it, to three-quarters of it, and back to all over the mountain.
Then the world froze.
The two young men stared at the half-formed mist.
"I think you went a bit too fast." The assistant attempted a slew of buttons to fix the problem, to no avail.
Finnegan shut his eyes and gritted his teeth. He held back the urge to scream, because screaming would alert everyone to the fact that he had screwed up quite a bit, and this was something he would rather keep to himself.
Suddenly, the world resumed and rewound beyond the half-formed mist, way past Finnegan's intentions.
Then it saved, quit, and reloaded the world before either blinked.
The two young men were now presented with half a mountain and a plateau for a summit, the results of their terrain building 30 hours ago.
And no way to redo the floating veil.
"On the other hand, you could just…put an evil-looking fortress and have giants living there?" The assistant consoled, or tried to.
"…"
"…How about a volcano?"
Finnegan sighed and curled into a foetal position. Some days it wasn't worth the chase for perfection.
I think if I left this story alone for a week, I'll end up rewriting the whole thing. Better or worse, that's another thing altogether.
Dedicated to all the perfectionist CG artists I know. Yes, that means the LOT of you.