The Crystal Drummer

First of all, click on the damn thing, the previews of these things keep getting worse. ANYWAY....

I just made a new Neopet, a Blue Bori. This is her design. If you haven't heard the song 'All Around the World' by ATC (A Touch of Class), listen to it. You know that bell-like sound that plays in the background throughout nearly the entire song? That's Damane's job.

Damane Konata is one of only a few people actively practicing the art of Crystal Drumming, the art hitting pure crystal stalagmites and stalactites in the correct magical pulse to get the 'correct pitch', or the note that formation is supposed to play. This is very difficult, there are thousands of notes and twice that number of pulses. There are certain steps-literally steps- that the Drummer can take to help find the pulse, a while ago they were made mandatory by the Magical Council in the Drumming business (part of the official standards, don't cha know). To help find these steps, every cave that has more than two mature crystal formations had the correct steps for that cave-they are all different- written on the cavern floor. When a Drummer enters the cave these steps light up in a bright color to show where she or he needs to step next.

If a Drummer plays a formation correctly, she or he can call up spirits, heal mortal wounds, raise the dead, or become cursed. Therefore choosing to play a cavern can have huge effects on the player. And once you start a session, you must finish it, or you are doomed to repeat it 200 times before you are allowed to leave. It is hard to determine what outcome a Drumming will have, most Drummers have been cursed repeatedly. A special channeling set (the rods in her hands) can help deflect the worst of these negative spells, since they are so expensive and difficult to make most sets are passed down through generations of Drummers. Wearing silver or pure iron sometimes helps, jewelery of these metals are often worn. Since a Drummer can be of any species, and most all formations now found are in the polar regions of Neopia, spells for warmth are also often seen.

Drummers are classified by where they usually work. The brighter the color, the closer to other people, and the more secretive the Drummer must be. Warm colors (Red, Orange, Yellow, Magenta, Brown, Royal Red) are for people in the northern hemisphere, cool colors (green, blue, purple, Royal Purple, Pine Green, Deep Sea Blue) are for southern hemispheres. Damane is Class-Magenta, she is near other people and in the northern polar circle. There is a huge labyrinth of crystal caverns on Terror Mountain, she works there exclusively. Her area is famous for having horrible curses but amazing rewards, many have prospered and perished there.

Damane realized she was a Drummer when she turned eight, she didn't know the name of it until she turned twelve. When she was sixteen she left for Terror Mountain to see if she could rise to become a Drummer, she was lucky enough to meet only good spells in the next year. At eighteen she was officially assigned the area, she has been dancing to the crystal's tune ever since then. She has a large session about once every ten days, other than that she is pretty much free to go where she pleases. Her favorite haunt is the Happy Valley Petpet Store, she volunteers on Thursdays.

Damane is very social and talkative, but completely confused when it comes to veiled anything. Subtle flirting and small threats go right over her head, making her a frustrating person to talk to sometimes. Other than that, she is a healthy (except for that one curse, she doesn't talk about it much) happy normal person.

Wow, long post. BTW: Time: 8 1/2-10 hours- Media: Three minute sketch on a post-it note, the rest of it done with Photoshop Elements and a Wacom Tablet- Layers- Nine, 1 less than usual- Size- Good Gods this is huge- 378kb.

Neopets!

Whoo hoo!! I love my Neopets fazes!!! I go on every day for about a year, then I stop for no particular reason. This seems to be my year.

I think this one is going to last longer though. I've just started RPing, which is the most fun thing in the universe. RP stands for Role Play. To completely understand it, you must understand Neopets' artist community.

Neopets' artist community goes largely unnoticed by the general public. This is the group of people who have collage degrees in art, yet instead of selling their pictures (which have been known to go for $200 dollars) they post them on their pets' free web-pages.

My idol, Mindsend, is one of the heads of a sub-group of the artist community. She is good friends with fatal_mantis2 and griffenrose, two other main artists. Unofficially, they are Mindsend, the Anthro Realist, Fatal Mantis, the Dragon Realist, and Rose, the Cartoon Anthro. If you do not know who these people are, click this link, go to the bottom of the page where it says 'Search', and type in mindsend, fatal_mantis2, or griffenrose. Then look at their pet pages. Go. Do this now.

Do you see what I mean? These people are phenomenal. There are other noteworthy groups of course, there are just different styles to choose from.

And there isn't just art, there's there story telling. Neopets provides you a basic world (go to Neopets, go to the top bar and click the 'Explore' button and select 'World Map' from the drop down menu) to choose where to place your character. Mindsend takes the world and tweaks it, making pocket dimensions that can be opened all over the surface. Fatal Mantis completely ignores the original world, not even really incorporating place into her stories, focusing on time more than anything. Rose follows the world to the dot, giving it new life and meaning.

And the favorite way to story tell in Neopia is through RP. One person starts with a few paragraphs, introducing their character and the setting that was chosen beforehand. Then the next person goes, calling in their pet to the story. The first person goes again, usually with noticing #2's pet and implying a topic of conversation. Then it goes on, back and forth, for however long you want it to go. Here's an example of one I started with a user named appyrodeo. I went first, look for double hyphens, they mark where appy started and ended. Marak is the Peophin savior of the boats, very highly regarded in Neopia. Jhundia is the Island Faerie on a Hawaiian-like island. :

Genre sighed, just wanting to get away. This meeting was dull AND pointless. All The Grand Idiot Marak could ever do was preen, and since Jerdana was gone, the only sensible one that you didn't need to wait four months to see, Genre was stuck with the stuck up prig. She would MUCH rather be negotiating with Jhuidah about the fishing boats that were decimating the wild Peophin populations. What Genre really hated was that Marak insisted on hitting on her. Apparently her coloring was in style. White hair on deep blue skin with glowing patterns on her stomach, back, arms, legs, and tail. It was handy for attracting meals, but got garish on land.

"So I just decided, well then, this can't go on, and I pounded their tails to pieces before they could hurt the boats!" Marak exclaimed. Genre had had enough. Time to make a run for it. Calling up the only true power she had, she made a quick soul transfer with the Buzzer that had been hovering near Marak's right ear throughout the conversation.

Poor Marak. Giggled Genre twenty minutes later. After the switch, in the Buzzer's body, Marak had gotten the well deserved sting on the ear. While he was moaning in pain, Genre had switched back into her own body and ran as fast as she could to the ocean. She was there now, in the middle of nowhere, swimming to Maraqua.

Whack.

What did I hit? thought Genre.

(appy's post)--Neverwood looked aimlessly past his tribe's council. Although he had never wanted to be apart of it, he had somehow been chosen to take the place of a deceased member. He had often thought and spoke about leaving the village lands and exploring the seas, but every village member frowned upon his ideas. He was a popular peophin among the others, his coloring was much more intense than anyone elses. He mainly longed to leave because this was not his real village, in a way he was adopted.

"We need to rid our clan of him!" one member of the council spoke. Neverwood's ears fell to his head, he looked to the others. "You know I CAN hear everything you’re saying..."

The members looked at him, all sneering in a way. They continued on. "We've put our families in danger for too long. He must go!" One peophin spoke out above the others. "He has done nothing to bring our village to ruins. He is like every other peophin." This peophin was Neverwood's adopted father. Neverwood gave an awkward smile. Neverwood gave an awkward smile. "Why do you say I will do bad things?" he asked childishly. An old peophin, his age adding the look of craziness, eyed Neverwood. "Don't act like you don't know about the prophecy." Neverwood looked the peophin over. "No." he simply replied.

The old peophin shook his head in disgust. "It is said a peophin of YOUR nature is to lead a revolution against the seas." Neverwood shook his head in denial.

"No!" he said, tears filling his delicate eyes. He was growing upset at the fact that all peophins had turned against him. He slowly retreated from the council. He then turned quickly and swam from the group. The seas were dark, the moon barely shining through the waves. Neverwood swam, his eyes closed. He didn't care where he went.--

(now me again)

Ow. That hurt. What DID I hit?

Genre was completely confused. She had hit it so hard that she didn't remember seeing what had whacked her. She knew it was fast and that it was hard, but that was about it.

Swosh swish. Swosh swish. Whatever it was, it was leaving. Curiosity got the better of her. Hoping the Whatever It Was was friendlier than the Giant Slugawoo of Which No One Liked, she turned.

--Neverwood flinched. He hit something, but no matter. He was swimming and didn't care. He wanted to go to his sanctuary.--

End Rp. This is really addicting. I haven't finished any RPs yet, they can go on for literally years. That was my first ever RP.

By far, the best part about RPs is making the other person laugh, or just getting your pets in trouble. Here's an example of the first with a different RP (Same rules as above):

"Yeah. Try imagining reversing the spell to turn an enemy into stone. All spells are- in theory- customizable, and this one had a spot where you put your enemy's name. To fill in that little spot I put the spell-word for 'pencil', but I got it wrong and instead put 'writing utensil'. There was a period of about two weeks in Maraqua when the dumps were overflowing with stone pens and pencils. I couldn't stop it because I needed to use the same pen that I wrote the spell in to reverse it. I finally had to go to Kauvara to undo the curse on my pen so I could stop the 'Statue Epidemic' in Maraqua."

--Tire was rolling with laughter, "Oh man I could just see that happening. Sounds bad, but sounds funny. At least you got it sorted out."--

"Eventually. My neighbors didn't seem to think of it that way, I got some rather interesting phone calls in those two weeks. And once you've had a five year old wave his finger in your face you know something's up. His parents sent him over because I put a curse around my house that made anyone over the age of twelve who went into my property have the word 'Convicted Criminal' stamped to their forehead. Coupled with a rumor that the National Aquatic Holding Center had a new way for marking prisoners, it made for some exciting 911 calls."

--Tears of amusement ran freely down her face as she heard the stories that Genre told her.--

End RP. I still giggle to myself when I read what I wrote. Getting almost hurt is another good one. My pet, Genre, has already had some nasty encounters before in her life, why not add some close calls? Another completely different RP. A Maraquan Grarrl is basically a shark, Blandfish are basically sardines, and Puppyblues are basically a blue puppy that you can buy for your pet to play with. The Fertile Zone is something about the Neopets world that I made up, it's the part of the ocean where all the large schools of fish travel, therefore it's the most fertile. Onwards!:

" 'sokay." She saw that they were getting closer to the most active part of the Fertile Zone. "Wait a sec, I have to warn you. If you hear a distant-sounding whirring or sloshing noise and I don't seem worried, TELL ME! Whatever it is won't stay distant for long, and if it's not a boat it's probably a wild Maraquan Grarrl and that can be even worse. I've had close calls with both and I barely lived. That's me who was born here, can swim quick as anyone, and has no respiratory issues. Don't keep it too yourself; if you hear something, you tell me. Got that?"

--Kits sweat dropped - only a little bit. "Okay, I will..." He groaned when he heard grarrls. He didn't like predators under the sea, they always show no mercy, and very quick with their meal too. It was really hard to get past them without you being seen with ultra sense or being sniffed out. --

"Good." Genre tried not to show it, but she was tense. She had only been here two times, once when she was nine- she got her scar from a fishing boat and lost her parents- and when she was eight-teen- she was attacked by a Maraquan Grarrl. But even though she had bad luck, it was rare for either of those to happen, right?

Suddenly a school of Blandfish with the population the same of that of Neopia Central swam past. A school that big never got that scared unless-

"WE'VE GOTTA GO NOW!!!

--"Is that a Maraquan Grarrl?" He said as he pointed at the figure in the distance.--

"NO, IT'S A PUPPYBLUE, YOU MORON!!! I SAID MOVE!!" It wasn't one Grarrl, it was a pack, which meant a Feeding Frenzy!! Genre went over the best plan of action… don't swim down, it'll think you drowned and will kill you when you surprise it with a death rattle as it bites down- don't swim with the school it'll get confused and eat you instead- NEVER swim towards a Grarrl- the only way left was... "Hey, you can fly right?"

End RP. And yes, he could fly, they got out Ok. Some people use RPs to create romances between pets. Also, 'long lost siblings/children' are discovered. You need a the other person's permission to start these, the story has to be decided on beforehand. I'm not crazy about these, I don't think I'll be doing this any time soon.

My most exciting bit of news is... I've just started an RP with Mindsend!!!!!!!!! I am SO happy! Anyway.....

All of those are my reasons why I'll be staying on Neopets for a bit longer than expected :)

Can I Come Home Now?

I just came home from a sleepover at my friend Nikki's that would've been a hell of a lot more fun if I was able to get back into my own house.

We had stayed up until 2:30 talking about random stuff so we, naturally, slept in. I didn't get a good night's sleep because I slept on the chair and was all stiff in the morning. By 1 (in the afternoon) I was up though, and by 2:30 I wanted to come home.

Mom had left to go pick up Elf from camp AGAIN, which she has had to do for the past four days in a row. This left her on the highway facing an hour there, an hour talking there, and an hour drive back. The front door to the house was locked, but our garage has a side door that you can get to through the backyard. To get into the backyard you have to open a wooden door that's hidden in the fence surrounding the house. I knew I would be fine once I got in, but I needed Dad's permission to get dropped off since Mom wasn't available.

I knew Dad wouldn't like this, it's one of his quirks that if you ask a favor that could be held off he gets PO ed. I still really wanted to go home though, so I risked the lecture that was to come about inconveniencing hosts and called him. I got permission after a few "You know I'm not really happy about this" sentences. This made me indignant because that meant he was going to barge in on me right before bed and give me the long drawn out argument that he so dearly wanted to annoy me with.

I get let off and go to open the fence door but can't because the wood has swelled and is stuck. So now I must go back with Nikki for another hour in August weather until Mom gets home, approximately a hour and a half later. I am not pleased by this in the slightest.

Let us note that if either of my siblings were stuck a search and rescue mission would be activated to 'Protect the Younger' and to 'Avoid Aggravating Their Sensitive Mental Structure'. With me it's 'You're the Eldest, Deal'. I know this is not fair. No, life isn't fair Dad, that's your excuse for dragging me all sorts of places I don't want to go. So let's just clear the air: I DON'T CARE IF IT ISN'T FAIR, I KNOW YOU CAN PROVIDE IT SO DO SO. I KNOW THIS AND YOU DON'T WANT TO ACKNOWLEDGE IT.

Midget (youngest) is too 'fragile' and 'delicate' to risk. Elf is too 'unstable' to out in any sort of harassing treatment. Midget breezes through everything because she's cute, and all the teachers love her for it. So she's a suck up, so what? It I pulled anything near the stunts she does I'd be grounded for a month! I do well in school because I'm intelligent and that's it, I don't need to be cute to go far.

Elf has been diagnosed with a mental health problem, good for him. This gets him the best of everything, teacher of his choice, curriculum modification, therapy, whatever. He only has his best friends around him at every given moment to make sure he doesn't behave like a newborn idiot. I was teased and taunted by a group of seven girls ALL LAST YEAR and I was the one who sat in the passenger seat when Mom broke down because Elf was being an idiot. This happened once a month all last year. I had a problem twice a day with the same group that all of the student knew of because they were such bitches and then I get home and Mom starts sobbing. That's not the time to tell her the reason your jacket has footprints on it, now is it?

Anyway, after getting lunch and spending twenty minutes in the hot sun putting up a tent which I will never see again, I called Mom's cell to see if she was home or still on the road. No reply. Then I called home to see if she was home. No reply. I was let off again to ring the doorbell to see if she was home. No reply.

Since there was no evidence of Mom being home, we started driving to her grandparent's house. If I had gotten there I would've had to stay another hour and a half until I could go home. It was now 5pm. I was near tears as we started driving. I just wanted to go home. It wasn't fair.

Mom then called and said she was home. Finally, something good! Praying she meant 'home' not 'really close to home' I asked again, "So you're home? I rang like twenty seconds ago." What a got was a yell of "Well SORRY I was in my room, couldn't come hear!"

Gee thanks Mom, that's really what I wanted to hear after being stuck somewhere I didn't want to be for three hours. That really makes my day.

FINALLY getting home, TWO HOURS AND FORTY-FIVE MINUTES AFTER I WANTED TO I started a summary of my experiences she started yelling at me again.

"You know what, I'm sorry! I know I don't sound like I'm sorry (got that right) but I am! I was on the phone when you first called (talking about Elf's ever-so-important meltdown I bet) and i called (goes on ranting for the next two minutes)"

I am now making a point to say to my parents, who will eventually read this I know, not to kill me because I wrote this. I wrote this so I wouldn't start screaming at you at dinner that I'm underappreciated. I wrote this so I wouldn't start crying at randomly like I almost did three times during my typing of this. Dad, I know you're going to lecture me, try not to make it so circular, OK? I get it the first time.

Now that I am in really hot water for writing what I think, I will sign off and wait for the confrontation to come. Oh, goody.

Update!

I just updated Exploring the Caves. I worked mostly on the shirt and a bit on the face, I was unhappy with where the highlights were.

OMG I'm Going to KILL the Dog(s)

I just had a little adventure involving our dog, Hobbes, and out neighbor's dog, Shadow. Here's the backstory: Shadow has been coming in and out of our backyard through the hole he dug under the fence to play with Hobbes. Fine by us, he was getting exercised. Whenever Shadow came, we closed the back door so they couldn't play in the house and destroy it. Shadow's parents, our neighbors, were usually OK with this, but sometimes slightly peeved that their dog wasn't listening to them and was escaping into our backyard.

Now for what went wrong today.

Mom and I had just gone on an errand and she had gone to go pick up Elf (my younger brother who has Autism and can be very violent) from camp early because he had attacked a counselor. Nothing new, but she still needed to go down. Dad is always working, and Midget (my youngest sibling, my baby sister) was also at camp. I was alone in the house with Hobbes.

I went upstairs to my room to listen to my iPod. Before I put it in, I heard a kthump thump kthump BAMMM!!! These sounds were accompanied by scratching and whining sounds. Hobbes, the only other creature that was supposed to be in the house, only made these sounds when he wanted to go outside to play with Shadow. The BAMMM!!! however, was from a large creature crashing head-on into my door. I peeked out of my room to see a very excited Shadow. This dog, mind you, is supposed to be outside with our dog so they DON'T DESTROY OUR HOUSE.

It turns out Mom had left the back door open when we left and had never closed it. Shadow had wriggled through the hole he had dug, ran to join Hobbes, and ran inside. Hobbes had followed. In the process Hobbes' new toy had been grabbed by Shadow. Shadow and Hobbes had run throughout the house fighting for it, finally ending up crashing into my door.

'Ok,' I thought, 'that was odd, but no worries. Shadow'll leave eventually, and I'll tell Mom how those crazy nutcases had come in.' I went back up to my room.

The placement of all the rooms in the house is rather odd, they're all on the second floor. My room is 24'/12' (big room) and makes up the entire front side of the house. I overlook the driveway, the front door, and our lawn. So when three strange people who I had never seen before came out of our neighbor's house and began to walk up the driveway, past the lawn and to our front door, they were clearly in my sight.

I went back downstairs to open the door and ask who they were. They were, in fact, our next door neighbors, who owned Shadow, and wanted their dog back. The group of three consisted of a mother and two boys, around 2nd or 3rd graders. I went back into the house to see if I could grab Shadow by myself with Hobbes darting around. I could not. I called to her for help getting her dog, forgetting momentarily that she had no control over Shadow and that was why I went to catch him in the first place. I think she thought that our family had any more control over him. We did not.

I tried to usher only Shadow or only Hobbes into the house so we could catch them. When I opened the door, they both hopped in. Now I was starting to worry. I got Hobbes by the collar, and, to my luck, it slipped off. Hobbes ran opposite the back door, namely, toward the front door, which the two 3rd grade boys had left open. Shadow then jumped up and grabbed Hobbes' collar that was hanging out of my hand and starting running after Hobbes. Shadow's mom had had no luck whatsoever catching her dog, and Shadow kept running to the front door.

"Close the door!!" we shouted. "Why?" the two boys shouted back. We rounded the corner to see the two large dogs running out of the door. The neighbor's group all immediately ran outside, and I did too, cursing the fact that I didn't have any shoes on. I got there in time to see the tow partners in crime galloping gleefully down the street.

Hobbes had run off before. He never usually got far because Mom was there to yell at him to come back. Mom was not home, she was on the highway. After realizing that there was no way I could do this without shoes on, I ran back inside and slipped on the first pair I could find, a pair that belonged to Mom and were way too big for me. I also picked up the phone and started dialing Mom's cell phone number as I ran back out the door.

By this time our neighbor across the street had noticed, mostly because he had been outside working on his car while this was going on. Now he was also gazing down the street at the two canines, who were happily peeing on the trees down the street that were about 20 yards away. There was no way I could run that far in the shoes I was wearing without alerting the dogs, so I stood on our driveway and listened to Mom's garbled instructions. The most I really got out of it was where Hobbes' leash was.

The trio of people who owned Shadow had gone back inside to find his treats, listening to out across the street neighbor's advice about luring them back. I was now basically alone on how to get a dog that weighed as much as I did (120 lbs) back into our house. I called Mom back and she said that he would 'walk away for awhile and then come when you called'.

Deciding that I had no chance at this without his leash I went back inside to get it, a read leather strap with a loop at one end and a clasp at the other. Mom had also said that I 'was going to have to make it into a collar by wrapping the leash around his neck and hooking the loop onto the clasp'. To do this, I first had to get close enough to Hobbes. That started with figuring out where the HELL he was. Running down the street in Mom's ill-fitting shoes, I found him sniffing someone's bushes.

Calling him over and praying that something went right, I managed to hook the leash and grab it so it was tight enough to pass as a collar. I half walked, half dragged him back over to our street and close to our house. I saw the Trio waiting for me there.

"Where's Shadow?!?" I yelled, still around 15 yards from home.

"Locked up inside out house, he's not getting out!" they hollered back.

I finally got Hobbes back inside our house and away from Shadow. That was around half an hour ago. I hope Hobbes's happy with that taste of freedom (more like a full meal in my mind), because he's not getting another for a LONGGGGG time if I have anything to say about it.