Heaven

The Invasion

This story is a part-comic, part-text adventure. As you'll see, certain segments (as this one) are written as comic book scripts—essentially instructions for an artist to draw the pages. It's my intention that, some day, these segments will be drawn; for now, you'll have to bring them to life in your imagination alone.

PAGE ONE

Panel One: Close-up of a man’s left hand holding a brush, painting the detail of an arm. The arm is the right arm of Jesus as he is being crucified, but only a portion of the arm is visible. The image being painted reflects the style of early Byzantine iconography (long and slender limbs with inaccurate figural proportions).

Panel Two: Another view of the man’s hand holding the brush, painting, though this time it is painting Jesus’ left side, along the area between the ribs and the hip. The view is slightly closer-up than Panel One.

Panel Three: Close-up of the tip of the brush, so that we can see up to the ferrule (metal part). The brush is angled with its point toward the upper-right corner of the panel, painting a tiny detail of Jesus’ left hand. The nail in Jesus’ palm is clearly visible.

Panel Four: View of the completed crucifix, in shimmering detail. The top end of the cross is wider than the arms of the cross, allowing for the large inscription ІНЦІ (the Church Slavonic version of INRI). The crucifix is resting on a worktable at an angle (a block of wood holds up the upper end of the crucifix, acting as an easel). The view of the cross offers a nearly bird’s-eye view of the desk. A careful viewer will be able to make out some jars of paint, extra paint brushes and some pieces of parchment strewn about. 

Panel Five: Medium view of a man at the worktable looking at his finished crucifix, in profile from the left. He is wearing a simple tunic fastened with a leather belt. There is a window behind the man’s head that gives him a sort of rectangular halo (though this is not embellished; it should not be obvious). On the desk are some jars and pieces of parchment.

PAGE TWO

Panel One: Full-body view of the man from behind; much of his environment is in view. Aside from the things described in Page One, Panel Five, we can see his house is rather ascetic; there is no decoration. On the ground to the man’s left sits a girl of 10 years. She is angled so we can see that she is hunched over a piece of parchment with a paintbrush in her right hand. She is wearing a simple, sleeveless garment, with no decoration, that goes down to her feet. Her hair is quite long, reaching down to her lower back. Her figure isn’t very detailed, but her body language suggests that she is working fervently on whatever she is painting.

Panel Two: Close-up of the man smiling, not baring teeth. His mouth is central in the panel, and we can see down to his clavicles and up to just above his eyes, which are very bright. His head is slightly tilted to one side, and we can tell that he is examining the crucifix in front of him. The distorted shape of the crucifix is very subtly reflected in his eyes. 

Panel Three: More distant, frontal view of the man, still sitting at his worktable, as seen from behind the crucifix. He is holding the crucifix up so that he can admire it straight-on. The plain backing of the crucifix obscures parts of the man’s face. 

ADAM: It’s finished.

Panel Four: Head-on view of a charging Viking army. The men are clad in black and most of them are wearing pointed metal helmets. The ones without helmets have wild red-blonde hair streaming behind them. Some of the horses are pulling covered carts, and some of the men carry blunt, metal weapons.