The Tavern: The Birth of an Adventure

"Take up a pose?" He asks, tapping the metal of his mask before rising to his full height and moving to stand behind the other occupant. "Like this?"

He proceeds to lean against the counter behind her, resting his chin on his gloved hand. "Is this acceptable?"

 

Dessa turns her head and watches the two strangers next to her. Wondering why the man was standing like his was posing for a picture. Dessa shrugs her shoulders while drinking more of her beer.

 

To her small statue he looked quite large and imposing, as he took up that pose she looked up to the ceiling and smiled "Yeah that will do" she says turning to an empty page in her pad she began to sketch what she was looking at, she draws in a bit of the bar he is leaning on, and when it got to his face she did not draw a mask instead she drew the face of a man with a quill pinched between his lips. She adds in a bit of details and after a bit of time the image is finished "creative liberties" she speaks jovially presenting him with the picture.

The girl turns to Dessa "Hi there I'm Esca"

 

"Apologies, ma'am." He eases off the bar, leaving a crisp twenty dollar for her troubles before walking back over to the other woman, staring down at the picture. "What am I looking at again?"

 

"You silly!" Esca says the noticing she didn't title the drawing "Ah right a name. Let's see ah perhaps Messenger of the Story" She writes in the title using the empty space of the bar counter in the drawing for it. She then draws his mask above the image. "Mask of Woven Words." She takes he pad and closes it returning it to her satchel. She takes a sip of her drink.

 

"Interesting names," he replies with a chuckle, lowering himself on to one of the vacant stools next to her. "How do you decide what to use?"

He turns to the other woman at the bar. "Care to join us?"

 

She thinks about it for a moment, "Let me see well its normally something that influenced the picture either the scene or something about the subject. I know you have a love for books. Also adding some mystery to them sometimes like a uhm uh well sometimes I just make it up and others I uh like names that sound cool to me, er er let's see what else" Esca begins to trail off much of what she is saying is mere rambles.

Esca sees the man's intention of getting the other woman to engage and nods in agreement, her eyes widen a bit as her head nods.

 

"Do you ever just sketch without an image in mind and find yourself surprised by the result?" He asks, turning back to look at the smaller woman. "Or do you usually have to have someone pose to help?"

 

"I draw things I don't see all the time. I mean making things up as I go is fun but it's also fun to draw something I can see so I like to do both. I am very often surprised at the results of drawings I do without a reference since they often end up much different from my initial image I had made in my head of what I was going for. I mean I know it's the same drawing but the choices I never thought I make while drawing make it so unique and cool almost as if I am looking at a new piece of art." Esca says flipping through her pad quickly there are many different kinds of drawings that can be seen. She stops at a page and on it is a single picture that takes up the entire canvas, the rim of the page is surrounded by a vine drawn and shaded with charcoal bits of the vine move inwards to a mirror, the mirror is shaded quite a bit except for a distant image inside of it of a young boy who appears to be afraid of stepping forward to look into it as shadowy arms extend around him inside of the reflection.

 

"Have you ever tried to draw anything more challenging than simply sketching what you see or drawing from memory?" He probes, rubbing the metal around his chin. "Have you ever tried to draw or create a graphic novel or comic?"

 

"I have and I think I have done well but those take more time so I will usually plan things out. Also depends on the tools I have on hand" she says as she ponders his other question "I have tired" she says putting her hand under her chin as she looks upwards thinking "one idea I had started and am still working on is a collection of poems and short stories with a drawing to match. The drawing part was fine but I would second guess myself a lot on my word choices. So it's been a work in progress" she says a bit down at the lack of progress that project has taken.

 

"Do you have any samples of it?" He probed again, leaning forward, the visor lighting up bright purple where his eyes would normally be. "I would very much like to see some of them."

 

Oh, sure I would like to join ya'll. *Dessa grabs her drink, and moves closer to the man and woman. She takes the sit on the right of the man, and leans over to look at the picture in his hand.* Lovely and interesting drawing. *Dessa remarks on the sketch of the man.*

 

Esca hears the complement of her drawing "Thank you!" she says to Dressa happily has she goes through her satchel looking for something. She pulls a journal from the satchel on the title is written "Dréachtaí garbh" she opens it up and the first few pages are relatively barren with only a few notes written in them mostly marked for future use. She flips through a few more pages until on the left page an image appears. The image is of a merchant sailing ship at a peer filled with cargo from all over the world, with a man making his way down to the peer there is a woman on the peer is dressed in plain clothing while the man is in much more exaggerated and foreign clothing.
"Captain Marlon Josen had always known a culture rich world.
The lands and people he met were alive with stories to tell even without words but here he met a land so quiet in its identity you could not even know its name." she says reading the first bit of it out loud. "Its a story about a man named Marlon Josen who 'discovers' a culture on its deathbed" she puts air quotes when she says discover.

"We should probably put some names to the face or uhm uh mask. I am Esca Suvia"

 

You're welcome Esca, and it's nice meeting you. My name is Dessa. *Dessa smile back at Esca, then finishes off the rest of her drink. She listens to Esca read from a journal wondering about the culture.* So what happened to the man and culture he found?