On March eleventh, La woke up with a skull on her head. It should have been impossible--only The Gods and Velocity can give such things.
Being a deer, La is herbivorous and more importantly she is a prey animal. The idea of a stranger coming past and putting part of a dead thing on her is unsettling at best. She tried to sneeze the skull away, but it was stuck. Completely stuck. She had to smash her head against a tree to make it fall off, and though the skull had been damaged from the beginning, it didn't even chip when she knocked it off.
Breathing heavily with fear at the strange magic that had glued it to her face, she settled down and began to examine it.
It wasn't really a sensible looking thing. Sometimes when she rolled it over she was sure that part of it had changed--where it was chipped, the angle of a certain plane, the faded yellow color. Something she couldn't put words to. But she didn't like it, and was quick to hide it away where she wouldn't have to look at it.
So The Skull waited in darkness, shifting subtly, and La sulked. Who left it on her head? Why? Had it been an attempt to mark her in some way, or communicate some message she had failed to receive? What was the nature of the message? She couldn't imagine it was a happy one, seeing as it had been sent by way of dead body parts.
To her knowledge, she possessed no enemies, and could think of no one who meant her harm. She had a mystery on her hooves. For the hundredth time. But she'd lost sleep over this one.
With no clue but The Skull, she paged through her book in efforts to identify it. It was enormous, big enough to fit on her head like the other strange skulls that deer wore. She didn't know many animals with a skull that big. Camels? Bulls? Whales? elephants? This was none of those things.
The book was unable to help, to its embarrassment, and La decided she'd need to start reaching out to others for help her figure out what it was. She took it to Verve, an artist whom La knew to work with skulls frequently from having seen her art worn in The Forest.
Verve received La warmly, but was unable to identify The Skull. She suggested that it had likely been a prey animal itself, with enormous eyes, and ultimately told La she should seek someone with a better understanding of spells and magic, and they parted ways.
On March fifteenth, it happened again, with the rest of a skeleton this time.
The skull was back on La's face, her antlers had been twisted into a new and unusual shape, and she was surrounded and covered by strange shapes. They were made of bone, for sure since they were porous and light like bone, but they were asymmetrical, lumpish, misshapen, and all together bizarre. They looked like unfinished sculptures she could not explain however badly she wished she could. She pushed them all into The Pit in The Ruins and went to De Drinkplaats to force away The Skull and think.
This isn't over.
AFTERWORD and THANKYOUS
After The Skull came around, I talked about it briefly with Jennie and Mis to learn that it was indeed a glitch, and I cemented a few story ideas in my mind as well as several other ideas that I'm keeping close to my chest for now--until I can draw more things and find more people to help roleplay this out.
Anyone is welcome to offer La any kind of information or advice--it doesn't have to be the truth, accurate, or really anything. All your character would have to do to participate is tell La something. She'll listen and weigh what she hears against everything else she hears to try to solve this mystery.
Verve is, of course, Mis' character and was a pleasure to draw. The hardest part was her body art because it's different every time. I did her antlers first, they are meant to resemble tube worms and the mountain ranges of the deep sea... doesn't really seem like Verve's usual thing, honestly, but when I was drawing her antlers I just saw tube worms. The rest of her body paint reflects the life cycle of the goliath beetle (she is pictured with an adult on her biography page). There are eggs around her eyes, a young larvae and older larvae along her throat and spine, a cocoon on her shoulder, a pupa on her hip, and a mature adult over her ribs.
Oh wow that first picture stares into my soul! Haha I loved reading this story, and to be a part of it! I loove what you did with Verve's body paint, I always get super giddy when people make something entirely new out of it! The art is absolutely amazing and I really like the goliath beetle life-cycle idea too. The antlers are brilliant too! I really dig your lineless style.
Also poor La XD I hope she finds some other deer to help her further! I think this is a really fun plot idea.
I'd love to help you with the story! Jennie used to be that magic and glitch deer but with her being no longer IC I think I can use my second oldest character Danieru who doesn't get too much attention. He's such a TEF deer and I believe he can help a little since he knows about such things, I believe he is similar to La a little even - he loves knowledge so much, althrough in a little different way. He used to be Jennie's brother - gimme few minutes and I'll kill that fact off.
E.: Done, here is his bio.
Sadly, the famous glitch deer who was capable of doing amazingly frightening things is no longer around. [actually he was never around when I was... idk if he even was an RPer, I don't think so.]
Ahhh this is a really cool story. Actually kinda unsettles me for some reason. I'd love to be a part of it but I dunno how much use my deer could be, aside from her wearing a skull herself. Actually hers was materialized when she entered the forest, so the same but different from La I guess.
Has she considered the possibility that it is a bovine skull fragment? Those could be quite wide, particularly from a mature bull. If the skull cavity behind the eye sockets was broken out, it could slip over a human head.
I am looking at all the skulls I own right now, and even a horse skull seems too narrow, though it -is- taller and longer.
Glad people enjoyed it, and thanks all for saying stuff at me about it. This was fun to make. Very fun.
@Mis I'm so glad you like Verve's paint. Goliath beetles are so lovely when they're grown but they scare me bad when they're those huge larvae. But she's such a lovely lady that she can wear grubs and make them look sophisticated too.
@Jennie Yesss. IC Jennie would have been my first pick to talk glitches with. I'll miss that crazy cyborg but I'm glad you have a backup and are enjoying OOC. I'm gonna drop a post on Dan's page when I finish writing this reply so that La can talk to him about The Skull and glitches.
@Sinner She got her skull by it just appearing? Whoah. La might want to talk to Alice about her skull too at some point, to see what similarities there might be, if any. The story is mean to feel a bit sinister I suppose, so I'm glad you found it unsettling. Means I'm doing my job right! I am inspired a lot by a book called House of Leaves and if you like bizarre literature and general creepiness I'd suggest giving it a try.
@Toya I used a mix of deer and dog skulls as references but I am terrible at following directions and The Skull itself is really based on nothing in particular. It's got a bit of a mind of its own and I doubt it's even close to symmetrical half the time when La isn't actually looking at it.
I looked into bull skulls a little just now but googling around I couldn't find many photos of of people wearing skulls. Closest I had was this photo saved in my mask folder and a plethora of drawings I've collected online of people wearing skull masks both real and imagined but I never thought that it would be possible to wear a bull skull on my head. I'll keep looking.
Awe that would be awesome! And Alice loves telling stories. Yes, she got her skull on arrival into the forest, she took no part in getting it herself. (actually Alice really isn't the kind of person to just wear one with no reason why, she normally doesn't like skulls since they unsettle her) Cool thanks! I'll definitely look into that.
I know it was a while back that you started this, but if you're still doing anything with it, maybe Adrien could rant to La about how he lost his beloved skull in the pond and that he still has a secret crush on Velocity. xP
And yes, it's still going on. For as long as glitches happen, La will have the Glitch Skull as an in-setting explanation for them. Her investigation will probably be ongoing for a while as well, so she'd definitely be open to hearing Adrien's skull misadventures and showing him the Glitch Skull.
Oh wow that first picture
Also poor La XD I hope she finds some other deer to help her further! I think this is a really fun plot idea.
Wooow this is awesome.
I'd love to help you with the story! Jennie used to be that magic and glitch deer but with her being no longer IC I think I can use my second oldest character Danieru who doesn't get too much attention. He's such a TEF deer and I believe he can help a little since he knows about such things, I believe he is similar to La a little even - he loves knowledge so much, althrough in a little different way. He used to be Jennie's brother - gimme few minutes and I'll kill that fact off.
E.: Done, here is his bio.
Sadly, the famous glitch deer who was capable of doing amazingly frightening things is no longer around. [actually he was never around when I was... idk if he even was an RPer, I don't think so.]
Ahhh this is a really cool
*stalk stalk stalk* That
That picture of La waking up is -amazing-
Has she considered the possibility that it is a bovine skull fragment? Those could be quite wide, particularly from a mature bull. If the skull cavity behind the eye sockets was broken out, it could slip over a human head.
I am looking at all the skulls I own right now, and even a horse skull seems too narrow, though it -is- taller and longer.
I vote cow skull.
Glad people enjoyed it, and
@Mis I'm so glad you like Verve's paint. Goliath beetles are so lovely when they're grown but they scare me bad when they're those huge larvae. But she's such a lovely lady that she can wear grubs and make them look sophisticated too.
@Jennie Yesss. IC Jennie would have been my first pick to talk glitches with. I'll miss that crazy cyborg but I'm glad you have a backup and are enjoying OOC. I'm gonna drop a post on Dan's page when I finish writing this reply so that La can talk to him about The Skull and glitches.
@Sinner She got her skull by it just appearing? Whoah. La might want to talk to Alice about her skull too at some point, to see what similarities there might be, if any. The story is mean to feel a bit sinister I suppose, so I'm glad you found it unsettling. Means I'm doing my job right! I am inspired a lot by a book called House of Leaves and if you like bizarre literature and general creepiness I'd suggest giving it a try.
@Toya I used a mix of deer and dog skulls as references but I am terrible at following directions and The Skull itself is really based on nothing in particular. It's got a bit of a mind of its own and I doubt it's even close to symmetrical half the time when La isn't actually looking at it.
I looked into bull skulls a little just now but googling around I couldn't find many photos of of people wearing skulls. Closest I had was this photo saved in my mask folder and a plethora of drawings I've collected online of people wearing skull masks both real and imagined but I never thought that it would be possible to wear a bull skull on my head. I'll keep looking.
I loooove iiit. This is so
Check these out. These are
camel skull. love this idea!
love this idea! very fun. love that top image, too. ooh
e/ haha, toya we had the same idea c:
*laughs*
Oh god those are scary. Those
I need to look into those more.
Awe that would be awesome!
This is beautiful. o3o I
I know it was a while back that you started this, but if you're still doing anything with it, maybe Adrien could rant to La about how he lost his beloved skull in the pond and that he still has a secret crush on Velocity. xP
Thank you And yes, it's
And yes, it's still going on. For as long as glitches happen, La will have the Glitch Skull as an in-setting explanation for them. Her investigation will probably be ongoing for a while as well, so she'd definitely be open to hearing Adrien's skull misadventures and showing him the Glitch Skull.
Cool. c: Do these
Do these interactions have a specific location on TEFc, or does she just happen to discuss the glitch skull in her other adventures?
Nah, anywhere usually.