Cardinal

Chapter 2 "You're Drawing Who?"

I sat near the back of the lobby, away from everyone. It's not that today was stressful or anything, but I just enjoyed my alone time whenever I got the chance. Silently, I scribbled on a small notebook I carried in my back pocket. As I gently sketched an outline, my thoughts strayed to July...

"What you drawing?" I heard someone ask, knocking me out of my train of thought.

"What?!-" I exclaimed, looking up in surprise. Mallie stood there, looking onward as I sat there alone.

"What are you drawing?" she asked again, in which I slowly sighed.

"I'm just drawing a character from a story I'm writing," I stated, looking back down at the drawing. It was only an outline, but you could make out a figure with a white, beaked shape mask looking out at something. The stitched together cloth flowed behind him with the wind, revealing the knives strapped around his waist.

"He looks kind of scary," she stated, sitting across from me and placing the bag beside her.

"He's the main villain," I said, going back to drawing the character.

"What's his name?"

"Siphis."

"Why did you choose this design?" she asked, eating a nugget as I began explaining it to her.

"Well, in the story he is supposed to be the strongest player in the game, or the best. But he doesn't look like it, does he?" I asked, as she shook her head no and silently listened. "It's supposed to be like that so that way people can underestimate or overestimate their chances. You see, people can be intimidated or unintimidated easily if you know how to do it."

"Why would that be important?" Mallie asked, as she took a sip of the Coke slushie she learned how to make the day before.

"Well, if someone overestimates their chances, then they start to become more confident which leads to errors. Siphis is using his skinny stature as a way to cause other players to think he is weak, and therefore can beat him. Does that make sense?" I asked, placing down the pencil and anticipating her thoughts.

"Well, yes, it does make sense. But if he's already the strongest player in the game, why would he need to seem unintimidating?" I was prepared for that question though, due to the fact I asked myself that so many times before.

"That leads into why he wears the mask and looks the way he does. Earlier you said he looked kind of scary, the exact feeling I'm looking for when someone sees him. Due to his attire being all black and the mask being a pale, white color, your eyes will naturally be drawn to the mask. But since the mask is eerie and intimidating, it causes people not to focus on him, but rather the mask," I said with a smile. She could see that I had put a lot of thought into the design of Siphis, as she continued to ask more questions.

"Why did you choose a mask like what plague doctors wore rather than a masquerade mask or something along those lines?"

"Personal preference really. I find plague doctors to be quite fascinating. Everything from their mask and design to how they tried to treat people with the plague. It has been recorded in history that upon creating the design, several people were frightened by the bird mask, and I wanted to try and convey that same feeling." I picked up the pencil again and continued to trace more details.

"So, then what is the story about?" Mallie questioned. I couldn't help but smile slightly. Someone was somewhat interested in my writing.

"You see, there's a game called Warlord Strategies that's like, a virtual reality RPG in which you go around with your clan and take over other clans. And so, the main character, Kyle, is trying to defeat the strongest clan in the game because they oppress the other players into submission under their rule. It's a story about his journey to reach the pinnacle of success and strength." I explained, as her eyes slowly glistened.

"Really! That's kind of interesting, tell me more." She had finished her nuggets by now and started eating the fries.

"Basically, the game has underlying stats and once you reach a certain level within these stats, then you can activate an ability called Ultimatum."

"What's Ultimatum?" she asked intriguingly.

"Ultimatum is like Warlord Strategies form of Super Saiyan, in which they get tremendous stat boosts and become almost a legit God. The only downside is that they have three minutes to use it and once the three minutes is over, there are five minutes in which your stats drop tremendously and for some, that's fatal," I explained, ecstatic that someone was showing the same level of interest as I did towards my stories.

"Harrison, that sounds amazing!" she stated, acting like a completely different person than the other day. She was slowly becoming more talkative and livelier. "Do you have any more drawings of your characters?"

"I have a handful, yeah," I told her, before flipping through a few pages and showing her some of the characters.

"He's really intimidating," she reacted as I showed her a drawing of Blackjack. It was a complete drawing, with inking and coloring to fully understand the characters design. Blackjack was a heavy built character, with a tall body and a muscular figure that intimidated others. He carried a large Warhammer that was big enough to kill someone on impact.

"Yeah, he's one of the Four Heavenly Generals, Siphis's top generals and strongest people in the clan." I explained. "Something really cool I wanted to put in the story is that this mallet is so huge and powerful, that it causes these air pockets that sound like explosions as he swing's it!"

"That sounds so cool!!!" She stated excitedly, and I could feel the both of us become more ecstatic as we continued this topic. "Have you written any of the story?"

"Yes, but it's on a computer and not with me right now," I said, before giving her a smile. "Maybe I'll let you read it one day."

"Please let me read it!" she begged, ignoring the fact that I just said she could. I sat there awkwardly, not knowing how to react to such excitement and anticipation.

"Okay okay, I'll let you read it," I said with a chuckle. I silently looked back at my drawings and admired the amount of time I had put into each of them. I'm not an artist really, but I enjoyed drawing them and I was glad to see that someone was also interested in this. For a long moment though, we sort of locked eyes. It was strange, how we kind of stared at each other with smiles.

Something about it was... nostalgic in a way. As if I felt this feeling once before, but it was long ago and now foreign to me. I looked down at my phone for a moment and noticed that my break was nearing its end.

"Oh no, I'm sorry but my break is almost over," I said, quickly placing the black notebook in my back pocket.

"No don't be sorry, it's okay," I heard her say before standing up. "Enjoy the rest of your shift, I'll be there in a little bit."

"Okay, thanks," I stated, before walking back to the grill. As I did, something about her and I hanging out together was enjoyable. Something about this feeling though, like earlier, was foreign yet familiar to me...