Art, Updates, and Everything in Between 3!

Petals

2/18/2023

Guys I just read the saddest story ever 😦

Okay so my family decided to go out and we stopped at the library right. And I actually haven't been to the library in a long time so I stopped by the children's section for old times sake and saw a short graphic novel called Petals that had really cute cover art and a wholesome synopsis so my sister wanted to sit down and read it.

Basically. It's winter, and a fox is out in the woods collecting firewood for his sick dad, and runs into a tall bird who helps him out. So the fox invites the bird back into his home (with permission from dad) and the bird decides to stay and help them through the winter.

The bird is actually a magician! He does some magic tricks and plays music for them, and everyone is happy. He even has this magic flower that, when he infuses some of its petals with tea, cures fox dad of his illness. Fox boy also gets sick, so the bird uses the last of the flower's petals to cure him as well.

So as the winter continues on, the bird continues to help fox family. But when he's out collecting firewood, he starts coughing, and collapses when he gets back to the house. Fox boy says the magic flower can cure him, but the bird has already used all its petals to help the foxes.

Without the magic flower, the bird's condition gets worse. He gives a smaller magician's hat to fox boy, and one morning, finally dies. Fox family buries him, but during the funeral, fox boy discovers there's a seed under the hat the bird gave him. He plants the seed on the grave, and come spring, magic flowers are growing all around the area.

I was so emotionally distraught. I got so attached the the cute fox family and magic bird wtf 😭😭😭 First physical book I've picked up for non-academic reasons in YEARS, and 1) it's a children's graphic novel, 2) one of the characters DIES. What the hell.

So yeah that was my day 👍

Additionally. Okay so in creative writing class we were writing 10 minute plays. I got really attached to the characters and plot I made so they'll become offical OCs who I'll introduce sometime 👍👍 but that's not important rn. Because last week we were reading some of the plays the class wrote- couldn't read all of them because time constraint- and yesterday we read mine lol.

My teacher said she really liked it :] so that's cool ("fabulous play," in her words). She said I did a really good job with my stage directions (and personally, I think do too; it's one of my favorite bits of the play). So, two of the characters include a nerd type and an alien-ish creature. But the guy who read the nerd character voiced him with such a chad voice which I wasn't expecting but it was also absolutely hilarious.

There's this bit where that character gives a classic 'you're an amazing and incredible person' speech to the other human character but it was SO FUNNY with the chad voice and I + my other classmates were laughing our asses off.

And then the creature I mentioned doesn't really have dialog, they just make feral noises and walk menacingly around the stage. But the person who volunteered to VA the creature actually GOT OUT of her seat and crawled around the classroom while making feral noises. And I am so honored that my play was the only one to get physical acting like that 😭😭

Maybe partly because that person really wanted to crawl around but I admire her bravery to do that in front of the entire class. It really sold the whole idea of 'there's a terrifying monster that's trying to kill us.'

The other plays were also super good!! There was one about a girl who refused to believe she was dead (literally Ghost-core) so her boyfriend had to convince her to move on, and I actually volunteered to VA a character in a different play about a medieval noblewoman and her maid. I was the anxious, overprotective maid so yknow I was pretty much playing myself 👍👍