Cylus 10, Arc 721
“Fek you!“ Devin exclaimed and glowered at what was supposed to be his latest masterpiece, but really looked like an undefinable and unappealing mixture of paper, wire and thin wooden sticks that was lying on a wooden plate. “Why are doing this to me?” he complained, as if it were the paper’s fault that it didn’t do what he wanted. A moment later, he just ripped the entire thing to shreds, dumped it into the trash can that stood next to the living room table and decided to start anew. He would not be defeated by paper and wood!
His two roommates and he had decided to take part in the Sea of Lights festival that would take place later that trial, and Devin had decided to make a floating lantern himself rather than buying one. Well, he had bought the plate because he knew nothing about woodcarving and such. Making lanterns should be easy though, especially if you made them out of paper rather than glass or metal. With that thought in mind, he grabbed a new piece of paper that was a bit thicker than the last one, thinking that it might be more cooperative.
He measured it carefully, using a ruler (the same ruler that he usually drew random doodles on when he was bored in class), and drew lines on it, and then he grabbed a pair of scissors and cut it which was quite a challenge. He didn’t manage to cut it completely straight, in spite of the lines that he had drawn beforehand. Maybe, he thought, frowning, the paper was not the only thing that was broken. Maybe, there was something wrong with the scissors as well!
He could just cover the exterior walls of the lantern with so much glitter and other random stuff that nobody would be able to see that its walls weren’t straight anymore though, he suddenly realized, grabbed the glue and glued the edges of the paper together so that they formed something that was kind of square shaped (If you used a lot of imagination and didn’t look too closely!) – and very wide, in order to decrease the risk of the entire thing starting to burn the moment that he inserted a candle as much as possible. He just wanted the candle to burn!
Once he had done that, he grabbed a few wooden sticks, covered them with a generous amount of glue and attached them to the four corners of his lantern in order to make it more stable. A moment later, his gaze fell on the thin wire that he normally used to make jewelry. He had wanted to use it to fortify the top and the bottom of his lantern, but he had forgotten all about it.
And what more, there was glue on the table, on his hands and in other places that definitely shouldn’t have glue on them now. It wasn’t a particularly strong glue – in fact, it might be too weak since his first and second attempt had just collapsed after a few trills – but he still didn’t like the feeling of glue on his precious skin particularly. For that reason, he decided to leave his creation that was barely recognizable as a lantern be and went into the bathroom to wash his hands with lots of soap.
He didn’t stop there though. He also used a bit of lotion so that his skin wouldn’t dry out due to all the washing and sprayed himself with a generous amount of perfume to get rid of the rather unpleasant smell of glue. He didn't use just any perfume though. He used a perfume that smelled of violets because that complimented his clothing style best in his opinion. Violets were violet - and that was his favourite color!
“Fek you!“ Devin exclaimed and glowered at what was supposed to be his latest masterpiece, but really looked like an undefinable and unappealing mixture of paper, wire and thin wooden sticks that was lying on a wooden plate. “Why are doing this to me?” he complained, as if it were the paper’s fault that it didn’t do what he wanted. A moment later, he just ripped the entire thing to shreds, dumped it into the trash can that stood next to the living room table and decided to start anew. He would not be defeated by paper and wood!
His two roommates and he had decided to take part in the Sea of Lights festival that would take place later that trial, and Devin had decided to make a floating lantern himself rather than buying one. Well, he had bought the plate because he knew nothing about woodcarving and such. Making lanterns should be easy though, especially if you made them out of paper rather than glass or metal. With that thought in mind, he grabbed a new piece of paper that was a bit thicker than the last one, thinking that it might be more cooperative.
He measured it carefully, using a ruler (the same ruler that he usually drew random doodles on when he was bored in class), and drew lines on it, and then he grabbed a pair of scissors and cut it which was quite a challenge. He didn’t manage to cut it completely straight, in spite of the lines that he had drawn beforehand. Maybe, he thought, frowning, the paper was not the only thing that was broken. Maybe, there was something wrong with the scissors as well!
He could just cover the exterior walls of the lantern with so much glitter and other random stuff that nobody would be able to see that its walls weren’t straight anymore though, he suddenly realized, grabbed the glue and glued the edges of the paper together so that they formed something that was kind of square shaped (If you used a lot of imagination and didn’t look too closely!) – and very wide, in order to decrease the risk of the entire thing starting to burn the moment that he inserted a candle as much as possible. He just wanted the candle to burn!
Once he had done that, he grabbed a few wooden sticks, covered them with a generous amount of glue and attached them to the four corners of his lantern in order to make it more stable. A moment later, his gaze fell on the thin wire that he normally used to make jewelry. He had wanted to use it to fortify the top and the bottom of his lantern, but he had forgotten all about it.
And what more, there was glue on the table, on his hands and in other places that definitely shouldn’t have glue on them now. It wasn’t a particularly strong glue – in fact, it might be too weak since his first and second attempt had just collapsed after a few trills – but he still didn’t like the feeling of glue on his precious skin particularly. For that reason, he decided to leave his creation that was barely recognizable as a lantern be and went into the bathroom to wash his hands with lots of soap.
He didn’t stop there though. He also used a bit of lotion so that his skin wouldn’t dry out due to all the washing and sprayed himself with a generous amount of perfume to get rid of the rather unpleasant smell of glue. He didn't use just any perfume though. He used a perfume that smelled of violets because that complimented his clothing style best in his opinion. Violets were violet - and that was his favourite color!
Notes
From the Scalvoris calendar:
The 10th Cylus sees the people of Scalvoris releasing floating lanterns on to the water. The light from these as they float out can be seen for the whole of the next trial and they create a beautiful scene. The residents of the area gather together and release their floating lanterns at the same time and that creates a golden light which inevitably mixes well with the coloured sands. Rather than a party, this is a time of quiet and calm and a lot of people will reflect in isolation. Except in Almund, really, where it's much more usual to go and get drunk.
The 10th Cylus sees the people of Scalvoris releasing floating lanterns on to the water. The light from these as they float out can be seen for the whole of the next trial and they create a beautiful scene. The residents of the area gather together and release their floating lanterns at the same time and that creates a golden light which inevitably mixes well with the coloured sands. Rather than a party, this is a time of quiet and calm and a lot of people will reflect in isolation. Except in Almund, really, where it's much more usual to go and get drunk.
