Author Topic: Ajri's Ivory Shores: Chapter Thirty-Two (8/25/15)  (Read 59408 times)

Offline intl_incident

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Re: Ajri's Ivory Shores: Chapter Eight - Root
« Reply #45 on: November 28, 2013, 10:02:10 AM »
I just read through this and it is amazing! I love the story telling, the characters and the sets you make are just stunning! :D The attention to detail in every picture is just amazing! Will you be uploading some of the lots?  :)

Thanks, samoht!  That's a great compliment coming from such a good builder like you.  :)  I may upload some things after the story is finished, but honestly, most of the sets are not full lots, and they are designed purely for looks, not playability (e.g., the Pembina castle exterior is one of the University rabbitholes put on a platform).  Just like movie sets, the trick is making whatever is in the frame look good, and the rest may look perfectly horrible or be completely unusable.  Most of the lots are plain grey boxes from the outside!

Sorry for the delay in the next chapter, but with the holiday weekend in the US, I will likely not be able to post the next part until early next week.

Offline samoht04

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Re: Ajri's Ivory Shores: Chapter Eight - Root
« Reply #46 on: December 01, 2013, 05:52:46 AM »
Thanks, samoht!  That's a great compliment coming from such a good builder like you.  :)  I may upload some things after the story is finished, but honestly, most of the sets are not full lots, and they are designed purely for looks, not playability (e.g., the Pembina castle exterior is one of the University rabbitholes put on a platform).  Just like movie sets, the trick is making whatever is in the frame look good, and the rest may look perfectly horrible or be completely unusable.  Most of the lots are plain grey boxes from the outside!

Sorry for the delay in the next chapter, but with the holiday weekend in the US, I will likely not be able to post the next part until early next week.

Still, the amount of detail you put into the sets is just amazing! :D Hope you have a good weekend! :)
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Offline intl_incident

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Re: Ajri's Ivory Shores: Chapter Nine - Boat
« Reply #47 on: December 14, 2013, 09:34:33 AM »
OK, I FINALLY have an update. I really really apologize for the delay, but with holidays I was already falling behind, and then I found out that my screenshots for this chapter before this one were in a folder that was corrupted (they were on an external hard drive that fell off my desk :P).  I thought about going back into the game and re-taking them, but I just don't have time.  So rather than delay things any longer, I re-wrote two chapters into the following mess. :)

The bad news is, the chapter is extremely light on pictures (only two survived in a different folder!) and kind of haphazardly stitched together.  But the good news is, it should bridge the gap to the next set of useable screenshots and get things moving along again.

Here you go...

------------

Jaffaran didn't say anything about the kiss when it happened.  He just backed up, gave me a quizzical look, opened his mouth to make a comment or ask a question, and then stopped.  He rode next to my brother all the way home, and didn't say a single word to me.  At the time, I was mortified-- I was sure I had ruined everything. I spent night after night thinking about the kiss, and berating myself for being a foolish, foolish girl.  But I also I kept dreaming of the way he had looked at me, and the way his arms had felt around me, and I couldn't bear the thought of any future without him in it. What had I been thinking?  What had I done? And more importantly, what did I expect could ever come of it?  Someone like Jaffaran, so confident and capable, would never fall in love with anyone like me.  And even if he did, it's not as though we would ever be allowed to have the kind of relationship I wanted. 

Then I got a message -- a note asking me to go to somewhere to meet.  I wrote back quickly, before I could think about it and talk myself out of it, suggesting my family's boat.  When the time came, I paced back and forth on the deck, doubting he would really come.  When he did, it was with a guilty, hesitant expression that had never been there before. I smiled as widely as I could, as nervous as I was, and dashed across the deck to meet him.

But he held back.  "Lady Savna," he said solemnly, "I apologize.  I should have come to find you sooner.  But I want to be sure that I didn't give you the wrong impression earlier. I may have been more forward with you than I should have been, and if I have in any way encouraged you, or--"



"No.  Stop," I said.  "You don't need to apologize." My cheeks were flushing pink at the rejection, and I wanted nothing more than to run off and hide. But this might be my only chance. I stared at a point somewhere off on the horizon and rambled: "I just-- I wanted to know-- I want you to know that I am very fond of you, and that I--" 

I finally managed to look up to gauge his reaction, and he was staring at me with a lopsided smile.

"Don't laugh at me." I protested.

"I'm not laughing." He took hold of my hands as he replied with a more serious expression and an emphatic shake of his head. "Not at all, Savna.  But tell me this:  I told you before that I'm not advocating for rebellion, and I meant it.  If you are just looking to do something scandalous and I'm the best way you can think of to make your father take notice of you, I'd rather not be a part of it. Is that why you kissed me?"



So that's what he thought. "No!" I quickly protested. "That's not it at all. It has nothing to do with my father."

"It has everything to do with your father," Jaffaran countered. "Because if he finds out, he's going to be angry at you and angry at me.  I don't know if you've noticed, but he's already not particularly happy I'm here and if he thinks I'm out to corrupt his only daughter, he's liable to throw me out on my ear, at a minimum."

"That's not it at all," I repeated, more earnestly this time.  "I can't stop thinking about you. I don't know what to do about it, but I want you to know that all I can think about is where you might be, and what you might be doing, and--" My words were spilling over themselves, my cheeks were truly red by now, my hands were shaking, and I could hardly breathe. Jaffaran, I saw, was smiling with that same lopsided smile.



"I'm sorry," I said. "I should go. I never should have come." Shaking my head at my own folly, I pulled my hands from his and turned to go.

But Jaffaran softly caught hold of my arm to turn me back. "Savna," he said gently, "I just wanted to be sure. Believe it or not I'm a very prudent man, and this is not a good idea. There's too much at stake for me to lose my position here if your father finds out. That said..."  He was still smiling, but I was coming to see that it was an affectionate expression, not a mocking one. I started to feel a tiny thrill of hope.  But instead of following up his segue with a declaration of love, he dug in his pocket and pulled out a small journal.  I'd often seen him writing in it, and often wondered what scholarly secrets were contained inside.



Now though, I was just perplexed. "You know," I said as I reached for it. "In all of the old songs, when the lady confesses her love for the hero, he usually says something romantic in return."

Jaffaran's lips twitched at the word 'love,' that lopsided smile turning even more affectionate. "Just read it," he said softly.

And I did. It was full of thoughts and poetry, all written in a neat, even hand.  I paged through it, amazed. There were sonnets and free verses and ballads and couplets, all woven together, and all -- it was very clear -- about me. There were sketches of me by the pond at the ruins, playing guitar by the crafthall, and in the courtyard with my cousins.  There were recollections: Jaffaran had written about meeting me in the courtyard and the way the setting sun had turned my hair to gold.  He'd written about our meeting in the tavern, and the stable. He'd written about my eyes, and my lips and my cheeks and my hands.  He'd written about our kiss in the ruins.  And he'd written that of all the things he had come here to do, finding me had been the most important thing he had ever done.

Jaffaran had retired to the couches at the bow of the boat while I'd read, and was reclining beneath the canopy there, letting the soft sea breeze blow over him.  By the time I got to the last line, I found I had followed along behind him.  I tucked the book away, and climbed up to sit behind him, where I stayed, looking at his face and trying to digest it all. Eventually, he looked up, expectantly.



"I don't understand," I said quietly. "Why am I so important? Is it something to do with the tree -- or the root you found, or whatever it was?"

Now he was truly confused. "All of us are valuable for who we are, Savna.  There are thousands of stars, but each one of them shines a light that no other can replace."

It was a ridiculous thing to say, typical poetic nonsense from a den'Rhelys scholar rather than the practical speech of my own family.  But for some reason, my eyes were filling up with tears.  "I don't understand," I said again.

Jaffaran looked mildly panicked as I started to cry. He sat up, taking hold of my hand, eyes searching mine to try to see what had upset me. At that point I saw that he was as nervous as I was; he was just hiding it better. "You're important to me," he said earnestly.  "Savna, I love you. More than anything in the world."

And as he said it, I realized it was all that I had ever wanted to hear.  I put a finger over his lips to stop him saying another word, leaned down, and kissed him.





"What I didn't know," I said to Jaffaran's mother and sisters, as I continued to relate the story, "was that my had cousins noticed I was gone.  My brother Torin went to try to find me at the tavern, my brother Stellan went to the ruins, and my cousins were on their way to see if I was on my favorite beach when they saw us on the boat.  And that's when things started falling apart..."

Offline Nettlejuice

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Re: Ajri's Ivory Shores: Chapter Nine - Boat
« Reply #48 on: December 14, 2013, 09:41:58 AM »
The long delay was worth waiting for. The boat is decorated beautifully, very much how I imagined the Ancient Egyptian royal families would have travelled. I can't wait to see what happens next now that the cousins have found out about them.
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Offline Luna

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Re: Ajri's Ivory Shores: Chapter Nine - Boat
« Reply #49 on: December 15, 2013, 03:52:55 PM »
I have seen your story yesterday, but I was too tired to comment. Instead reading with sleepy eyes, I choose to find another day. So, here I am. Don't worry about delay, your reader wouldn't going anywhere anyway, intl_incident! And remember our life is first priority, other things can wait :)

Sorry to hear for what happened to your screenshots, well this story would do to fix that. I also agree with NJ, I loved the boat and the decoration! Her cousins are unbelievable, where they know about them? I hope nothing bad happened to her.
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Offline Eldridge

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Re: Ajri's Ivory Shores: Chapter Nine - Boat
« Reply #50 on: December 15, 2013, 04:22:56 PM »
Sorry to hear for what happened to your screenshots, intl_incident.

That was sucks when we must start over!

As always, I loved all of the scenery and the dialogue between the characters and I always learn a new word from you. So, thanks for that! I also loved what you did with the boat, it looks comfortable!

I hope everything will be alright for them both, they're a lovely couple! I hope Jaffaran family would understand about their relationship. I just wonder where the cousins learn about her. Are they didn’t have something better to do than stalking her? Well, she must be pretty popular so everyone could find her ;D
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Offline intl_incident

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Re: Ajri's Ivory Shores: Chapter Nine - Boat
« Reply #51 on: December 16, 2013, 01:03:27 PM »
Thanks, guys!  I'm glad you're still reading and enjoying.  :)

The cousins finding her was kind of odd, I know.  That was part of the choppiness that had to come from losing the screenshots, unfortunately.  But I'll try to find a way to explain some of it when we see them again.

For now, though -- a new chapter!  See, I told you I was ready to go with more of the story, once I got past that last little bit of holiday delay/writer's block/missing screenshots. :D



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Offline intl_incident

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Re: Ajri's Ivory Shores: Chapter Ten - Stellan
« Reply #52 on: December 16, 2013, 01:04:14 PM »
Meanwhile, though Savna didn't know it at the time, her brother Stellan found something at the ruins where there'd been a picnic a few days before.



"Savna! Are you in here? Father's furious."  Stellan poked his way farther into the ruins, cursing at a small bird that he startled from its perch. "SAVNA! You know he doesn't want you out of the house and hall!" He paused, and then tried again: "I've ridden all the way out here to fetch you back, and I'm not leaving without you!"

At first there was no reply but an echo of his own voice, and the sound of the wind through the broken spires of the old building.  But the breeze was shifting and swirling, and as it whistled, Stellan could have sworn it sounded like a voice. "Come closer," it said.



"You'd better not be playing games with me, girl," he muttered under his breath. "I've no patience for it."  It was colder inside the ruins than outside, and he shivered from the chill as he stepped deeper into the shade. "Closer," breathed the wind.

As he stepped over rocks and broken tiles, a gleam of something glass-like caught Stellan's eye, and he turned toward it, captivated.  Down the stairs, in the old, rubble-strewn courtyard, was the root that Jaffaran and Savna had found on their visit.  It was taller than before, reaching even more hungrily toward the sun.  Stellan walked up to it, brows furrowed.



"What's this then," he said under his breath as he circled around it.  He leaned forward to look more closely, and then reached out to touch the smooth, crystalline surface of one of the branches.

The wind stopped.  Every sound in the ruins seemed to stop.  And a voice entered Stellan's mind.

"Good!" it said. "A connection at last."

Stellan jumped back, startled, his hand falling away from the root. He wheeled around, eyes darting around the ruins.  "Who's there? Show yourself!"



The wind whispered again, its soft words coaxed out of the leaves and flowers that rustled around the small courtyard. "You're one of the builders," it said. "Why have you come?"

Stellan stepped foward, tilting his head as he warily regarded the root. "I'm Stellan Pembina," he confirmed. "And I'm looking for my sister. What are you?"

But the voice didn't answer the question. Instead, it tickled at the edges of Stellan's mind, searching for the truth of what he was saying. "You did not come for me,"  it whispered. "But you may be what I need.  I have tried for your father, but he is too far away.  Your sister was here, and I wanted her. But the other one intervened."

"Which one?" Stellan demanded. Something about the sound of the voice made him quick to anger. "She was here? With whom?"



"I do not know him.  He came on a golden horse. He was not one of your family."

"Den'Rhelys," Stellan said. "I knew he was up to no good."

"Den'Rhelys... " The whispered wind grew colder as it spoke. "You're sure?"

"No one else around here has a horse like that."

"He knew me."

"The horse?"

"Idiot man. The horse knows what horses know. But den'Rhelys..."  The breeze blew more strongly, shaking the branches of the trees. "They know me."

"But what are you?" Stellan protested. "I don't understand!"



"You will," The voice said.  It seemed pleased by the angry tone in Stellan's voice.  "Soon you will understand everything."





Offline Eldridge

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Re: Ajri's Ivory Shores: Chapter Ten - Stellan
« Reply #53 on: December 16, 2013, 06:04:24 PM »
Ooh, I just love the looks of the ruin! Hmm, interesting but I don't quite understand about this situation like Stellan, what is that? Usually there’s something on my mind about what this is about, am I missing something somehow? I think this story would be more complicated, that’s the thing that I had in mind.  I love the animation that that you used at Stellan.
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Offline Nettlejuice

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Re: Ajri's Ivory Shores: Chapter Ten - Stellan
« Reply #54 on: December 16, 2013, 06:12:28 PM »
Not Stellan, stupid root. The ruins are beautiful, you'd never imagine something evil lurked there.
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Offline intl_incident

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Re: Ajri's Ivory Shores: Chapter Ten - Stellan
« Reply #55 on: December 16, 2013, 07:54:05 PM »
Hey there, Eldridge - Sorry this is confusing.  That's probably my fault because I had to re-write so much of this part. :)

Here's what's going on:  When Savna's father found out that she had left the house, he sent her brothers and cousins out to look for her. So when Jaffaran and Savna were on the boat, Stellan went to the ruins to try to find his sister.  When he was there, he found the root, and the root started talking to him by using the wind. 

The root is like a pathway for evil to find its way back onto the island, and it needs someone to help it.  It has some ability to control people and things around it (for example, it was able to make Stellan angry; it likes people to be angry, kind of like the Dark Side of the Force. :D)  When Stellan touched it, the root was able to connect to him even more, and to take over Stellan's mind (which is what was happening in the last two screenshots.) 

Some of the details of all of this will be explained more later, but if you want to know more now, check out the spoiler.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Did that help explain it?

Offline Eldridge

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Re: Ajri's Ivory Shores: Chapter Ten - Stellan
« Reply #56 on: December 16, 2013, 08:02:16 PM »
Thank you for explaining along the way. Yes, everything is clear now, thank you for even including the spoiler for me. I think that I know what this is about, this story even more fascinating with interfere from evil being and family member who has been seduced by the force of evil.  I can't wait to see fighting scene if there is any XD

Oh, by the way just call me Eld, typing Eldridge just too long. So, how I supposed to call you? intl_incident also too long for me to type, and calling you incident seems too funny. How about Int, sounds like can be used for intelligence for short :P
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Offline intl_incident

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Re: Ajri's Ivory Shores: Chapter Ten - Stellan
« Reply #57 on: December 16, 2013, 08:06:23 PM »
Oh, by the way just call me Eld, typing Eldridge just too long. So, how I supposed to call you? intl_incident also too long for me to type, and calling you incident seems too funny. How about Int, sounds like can be used for intelligence for short :P

Glad that cleared it up for you!  You can call me Int, sure. That's fine. :)  Or Indy.  I had a pet dog named Indy. :)

EDIT:  There -- I added that to my profile, so it will show up under my avatar.  Thanks for making me think of it!

Offline Eldridge

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Re: Ajri's Ivory Shores: Chapter Ten - Stellan
« Reply #58 on: December 16, 2013, 08:08:49 PM »
Glad that cleared it up for you!  You can call me Int, sure. That's fine. :)  Or Indy.  I had a pet dog named Indy. :)

I'll go with Indy! I love that name more :)
Well, I look forward for the next installation, Indy. I hope that wouldn't be too long because I'm excited to find more but remember that real life as priority first XD
~  Eld
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Offline Luna

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Re: Ajri's Ivory Shores: Chapter Ten - Stellan
« Reply #59 on: December 16, 2013, 10:32:39 PM »
I have nothing on mind, just to wonder what would that evil spirit do with Stellan as his host, is there any cure to this situation? I imagine there will be Uka Uka and Aku Aku, if you ever heard or play Crash Bandicoot you’ll familiar with that terms or shaman things related? Interesting!

And Indy was a good name, it's cute and adorable and easy to use and remember. Hello, Indy :P
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