effervescentF

Oi, you there! Commissions!

Hi! I draw things, like, say, characters. Money can be exchanged for goods and services. You know where this is going. My commission page is this here google doc, and you can see all my art on this here tumblr blog.

Shoot a private message if you're interested!

EF & VE

Your face is stone. It's unmoving slate, and it is hiding a storm in your head. You avert your gaze, once again, so that your eyes are on the floor where they should be. But you are listening. You're curious. What made the Heiress want to save your life? Surely half-forgotten games of tag and the likes could not factor in. Were these two really mother and daughter? How could one be so cruel and the other so merciful?

You are being addressed again. The Empress gives you instructions and a warning, which is hard not to scoff at, because yes, the Empire could hunt you down and kill you, but if the growing rebellion caught wind of the fact that the Tamer had fled, they would seek her too. She would be an asset. She could wipe out this castle if she could convince the dragons that it was not a welcoming home for them. But your expression does not change.

You stand up, slowly, and one of the knights takes you by the arm. You hate it, hate it, but you're too smart to resist. Because if you step out of line again, even a little, they could do whatever they want to you and get away with it.

Chest tight, you allow the knight to guide you out, through a vaulted, high-ceilinged corridor with elegant stained glass letting tinted light filter in. To your surprise, you are not thrown into the chamber in which you are meant to be guarded. Perhaps they don't want to have to scrub blood off the walls here. It is a nice room. With two guards on the inside and two out, you have nothing to do but sit, cautiously, on the end of the cot in the corner. It must be a guest chamber, for dignitaries and representatives of the Empire's various cities. Clearly, it was not designed with prisoners in mind.

For the next several minutes, nothing happens, as expected.

Then a small, scaly head pops up from the bottom of the window. It is one of your... newer dragons. Less trained, more impulsive, and infinitely more stubborn. Your eyes widen. But the knights guarding you haven't noticed it. Yet. He licks his nose and then tilts his head in a way that is irritatingly cute. He wants to commune. In private. You shake your head.

EF & VE

You do not waver. You are already plotting your escape from the filthy, dark dungeons, and possibly your revenge as well, when the Empress looks to her daughter to ask what should be done to you. It surprises you, and it looks like it surprises her as well. But you do not get your hopes up, because it was a long time that you and the Heiress played together as equals. She has probably changed. Her training for the role she will one day serve as Empress has almost certainly hardened her heart and made her cruel.

So you remain tense and wait for her response.

You...should be rewarded? The only sign you give of your shock is that your pupils contract into pinholes. No, no, no. You can't get your hopes up. No matter how kind the Heiress is, she cannot save you from the wrath of the Empress.

The Aperture Science Multi-Test Subject Enrichment Activity

When would this be taking place? Would it be after the events of Portal 2? That way the test subjects could be the all the people in stasis that Atlas and P-Body free at the end of the co-op game.

The Aperture Science Multi-Test Subject Enrichment Activity

The Portal games happen to be my favorite ever, so I'd be happy to do a Portal roleplay!

EF & VE

You obey the command––she is the Empress, after all––and look up, your hood falling back and revealing some of your bouncy, thick, wild red hair, but you remain in your kneeling position. As scared as you are, your gaze is steady. You meet her piercing eyes without blinking. Her will is strong, but so too is your own, and your will has been hiding for a long, long time. You will not accept any fate she tries to force on you as punishment. You will resist until your dying breath should she cross you.

But she has not crossed you yet, and so you make no moves. You wait patiently, with a glance at the (beautiful!) Heiress. But it's a very fleeting glance.

EF & VE

Your chest tightens with fear as the Empress wonders out loud, stonily, why she was not informed earlier. This, you think, could be the end for you. But your face remains unchanged through her Majesty's comment and through the stare that you can feel on you, and your voice remains steady.

"I first knew of it two days ago. I attempted to go straight to thine chamber, your Gracious Majesty, but the knights guarding your abode stopped me. I was, apparently, to schedule a formal audience with you. Although I was able to bypass the majority of the waitlist, despite the urgency of my message, more...important meetings preceded this. Today was the soonest I could arrange for my presence."

EF & VE

"There have been both external and internal accounts," you answer grimly, keeping your eyes on the cold stone floor beneath you and staying knelt, not moving a muscle, shrouded in your dark green and black robes. You are really only telling the Empress and her Heiress this information because the consequences of not passing this along could very likely be not only fatal but also agonizing. You force yourself to continue your report.

"My scouts witnessed first-hand on their monthly flight the first and second villages burning. The enforcing knights were all killed, and both the governors burned at stakes. It was before that, that my Seer became agitated. He could feel the rage and the bloodlust in his own heart, and he told me with great fervor that..."

Your heart starts to beat faster. You know that saying this could lead to you being killed, being the bearer of bad news and all. You say it anyway, and you cannot help the ice that creeps into your voice.

"...The Empire will fall," you finish. You remain firmly rooted.

EF & VE

Your name is Delphinia Lupinus, but you rarely hear your own name. You are almost always referred to by your title: the Dragon Tamer. The title is, of course, based on a misconception. The misconception that dragons could be tamed. You don't tame them, you commune with them. You build trust with them and you are careful never to misuse that trust. Yes, you are a very protective Tamer.

That is not all you are. You are a herbalist on the side, and a good one too, although picky with the plants you choose to dry and process. You run an apothecary partially to bear the burden of having been taken early from your childhood to be trained in the art of dragon taming. And you've requested the audience of the Heiress, as well as your former friend, because you bear news.

Guards accompany you to her and her mother's chamber. You are careful to keep your eyes on the floor ahead of you, and quick to draw the top portion of your hood over your eyes as well as kneel and bow before the royals. The slightest trace of a bitter grimace taints your expression, and you take care not to show it because you are terrified to show dissent. Your father showed dissent. He was killed by knights when he'd tried to stop the horse-drawn wagon you'd been tossed into at nine years old to go to the castle for your new "career training". Thinking about it makes you ill, so you swallow the bitterness.

For now.

"Your gracious Majesties," you address the floor. "The dragons have communed with me. I am told that to the west, there is a rebellion rising. It grows, and it threatens your Empire."