#6
Post
by Fawkes - Feathered Melody » Thu Mar 08, 2007 1:57 am
Thanks everyone! ^^
Progress report. I just finished and released internally the foundation revision for Noctua.
To note, I don't have the "I said" and "Celesta said" things in there because they'll be stated in the game itself in the textbox. I've tried to make it so the speaker is as clear as possible. Here's a sample from the first chapter:
“What happens when we all stop dreaming? What happens to those dreams that are left behind by those who forgot how to dream? Do they disappear, or do they go to some hidden place to wait until their masters summon them once more?”
This morning, I remembered the dream I had last night.
One year, two years, maybe ten years have passed since I stopped putting the feathers into the old tin container on my desk at home; I honestly don't remember the real number. I failed to find the fairy kingdom where people could live happily forever or the truth in grand tales of adventure. No, we live a world where the notion of dreams have begun to fade from our memories in our fast-paced, work-a-holic, life. As the academics who study that sort of thing put it, the cold, harsh gale of reality blew them away.
In the middle of an unusually cold afternoon in March, I set out down the usual path leading out from my high school, Artemia Academy. The road curled into my neighborhood after passing through a dense patch of woods much larger than our little Podunk of a town and eventually led to my house. I drew my coat close and tightened my scarf's hold on my neck. Every gust pricked my exposed hands like sharp needles. Spring would inevitably come soon enough and drive this harsh cold away though. Having taken this road for the last three years, every detail seemed innately familiar to me. As I came down the dirt path, there would always be the stray black cat waiting by a large pine tree, the fallen oak tree resting over a moss covered stump, and near the end of the road, I could hear the faint hiss of a fast flowing stream out of sight deep in the woods.
And then, as I turned the last corner of the woodland path, a girl of my age stood quietly under the shadow of a tree with hair so white, nobody could have spotted her in the middle of the arctic if she had not had on her heavy gray coat. From her string necklace hung a white feather, pristine as if it had just fallen from the wings of a dove. The last gust of wind shook some leaves from nearby trees that danced and twirled their way around her to the ground. Just when I walked past her, she turned slowly towards me and stared right at me with those green eyes of hers.
“Hey, do you remember the world we created together?” She spun the feather at its base slowly while continuing to look into the flurry of falling leaves.
“Huh? Can you run that by me again?” I asked. Of course I caught what she said, but how did she expect me to respond to a question like that from a total stranger? I would think that most people these days would have thought she was some kind of lunatic.
“The world we created together. Our sanctuary. Keep it in mind for now.”
So that was her response? I shook my head, not wanting to hurt it any further than I had already that day. A heavy sigh escaped my mouth, and I kept walking on the way home. By the time I got home, the sun had passed under the western horizon and stained the sky a cool violet hue. Since I had forgotten to turn them off this morning, the two lamps over the porch were the only ones lit in the neighborhood already. As usual, the empty house greeted me with its silence. My mother served as a diplomat to some small, far away nation, and my father worked late into the night as a technician at an observatory. Neither of them came home very often, so I had to fend for myself. From night to lonely night, nothing changed: come home, cook dinner, do what I can on my homework, go to bed.

Writer / Programmer
Crows Project:
Released 12/15/07
Noctua: In Development. Demo 3 released.
Project Silk Road: Planning/Story Construction
"Live while awake. Live while dreaming."
We have a [new] website again!