There was a poem I read a while back and it reminded me of monument valley. It’s called “the princess” by Alfred Tennyson. So I drew this.
“The princess” Tears idle tears I know not what they mean Tears from the depth of some divine despair Rise in the heart and gather to the eyes In looking on the happy autumn-fields And thinking of the days that are no more.
Fresh as the first beam glittering on a sail That brings our friends up from the underworld Sad as the last which reddens over one That sinks with all we love below the verge So sad, so fresh, the days that are no more.
Ah, sad and strange as in dark summer dawns The earliest pipe of half awakened birds To dieing ears, when unto dieing eyes The casement slowly grows a glimmering square So sad, so strange, the days that are no more
Dear as renember’d kisses after death And sweet as those by hopeless fancy feigned On lips that are for others; deep as love Deep as first love and wild with all regret; O death in life the days that are no more!
I feel like we really missed out on a season of Elktaur, after falling in love with the princess, going to the different Shamans and asking for help to turn himself human or for help to somehow be worthy of the princess.
- Visiting Waterbaby; she sets him up to destroy her house boat as part of her secret test to observe him, also to use his frustration tears for a spell. The toolbox she gives him is enchanted to sabotage him and he gets frustrated but still tries to stay positive because he loves the princess and really wants to know what he could do so she can love him. But he still cries his frustration tears. Waterbaby uses the tears to open a chest to get her wand and fixes her houseboat. Then she sings him a song about how love isn’t one act but it’s an ongoing act, it’s part of you and sometimes when you share it it’ll get shared back but there’s nothing he can do to make someone love him. He can just be himself and love will come on its own. He’s not happy with that answer and moves on to see the next shaman.
- Visiting the Tree Shamans; he asks the tree shamans to turn him into a human and they sing to him that it may be what he wants but it’s not what he needs. He is turned away but as he walks through the Llamataur village, they sing about fragile things and trust, how we are so fragile as people and it’s easy to keep yourself guarded to feel safe and to not get hurt, but although we’re fragile as people we still need to trust others to be feel safe and protected. That we’re fragile things, but we can be brave to trust someone new and love and friendship will come to us in unexpected ways.
- Visiting Judge Jacket; he ends up in the Moletaur jail and is put on trial. As he’s ushered into the trial, his antlers keep bumping into stuff and his antlers get stuck in some of the hanging lights of the moletaurs. Judge Jacket starts laughing and that’s when the Elktaur breaks out of his serious shell and starts being silly and makes jokes about centaurs and his everyday life. As he continues singing a comedy show, his jokes start to slip into seriousness about how he doesn’t like being a centaur. But when Judge Jacket starts getting angry, he snaps himself out of it and resumes the rest of the song about #CentaurProblems.
- Visiting Johnny Teatime; the cattaurs steal his belt and his tools and his purple tie. The stuff they steal is offered up as part of the ornaments hanging on the Be Best Sash for Johnny Teatime’s Be Best Competition. Elktaur has to sing about how he’s the best and why he deserves the sash. The song initially starts off as a downtrodden song about how despite being a centaur, he wants to be better than he is right now for the girl he loves. Thinking of the princess, his song jumps into an upbeat song about how he’s not the best, but the princess makes him feel like he’s the best and he wants to be the best for her. Unfortunately he doesn’t win but he manages to steal his stuff back after they award the sash to the winners.
- Visiting the Last Shaman; he goes to the whaletaur, asking for help to be human or to make the princess fall in love with him. But as he’s asking he’s realizing that what he’s asking for sounds super selfish. He can’t force her to be in love with him, but he wants to be human. The Whaletaur explains that any magic they do to change his appearance would only be temporary and that the princess would never love him for lying to her. Elktaur gets depressed and the Whaletaur offers to swallow him up. As he’s about to be swallowed up, the princess who had been at the beach spots him and grabs him and asks what the hell he was thinking. He can’t tell her his true feelings but tells her that he wasn’t feeling well lately. The princess, not knowing the severity of his feelings tries to cheer him up by telling him that her father wants to throw a “Riftworker of the year” celebration for him and she’s brought an invite for him.
Do you guys think that the princess was setting up the Elktaur?
Like she brought him to a secluded spot in the gardens with no one around so they could eat fistfuls of Gary’s cake which is oh so good. But imagine how stiff the Elktaur looked after the shot of the eaten cake.
He’s just seen the girl he likes lick cake off of her fingertips while giving him bedroom eyes. Not only that, she’s seen him lick cake off his fingers too… then when she says “if I wasn’t wearing a super expensive gown right now, I would go to town on that thing, Gary’s cakes are so good!”
If Elktaur had said, “you can always take off the gown, there’s no one here right now and I promise to look away.”
The princess so would have said “but I want you to look” and that would be an excuse for her to get to second base with him.
Instead, he tries to talk about something he’s more comfortable with: riftwork.
