Archive for tora

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by on July 27, 2019 at 12:20 am
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Maybe The Dead

Warning: Contains talk of abuse, and heavily implied sexual assault/rape

She never did escape the first camp on her own, and now she was stuck in this mess of a guild torturing its own members. She saw Meritt cowering before Onora or Birr; Bogs taking another beating from Ebril; Shade and Arrow hastily polishing Claws’ tools… She saw Pepper’s suspiciously torn face and cautious glances towards Baya – had it really been Nightmare Court? And she saw Tora Zollun, the literal child… And she could do nothing.

Where were the Wardens? Why didn’t she see them? Did they not care? Was it because the Daggers targeted Nightmare Court that they simply declined to intervene? Surely targeting foreigners would make the guild enough of a problem to deal with. Or were they simply incompetent? Was there no one who would do anything about this wretched guild?!

She raged in her hopelessness, taking it out through their raids on Nightmare Court. Sometimes she’d alarm them on purpose, just so she had someone to tear apart.

“Are you okay, Mute? I’m worried about you.” Meritt tried to talk to her, but she wouldn’t respond.

Of course she wasn’t fine. If she wasn’t tearing Nightmare Court apart, she was strategically trying to place herself between Tora Zollun and Baya, hoping to keep her from whisking him away when no one was looking. She couldn’t sleep at night, always keeping her door open just a little in case she could hear anything. She kept careful watch of every weaker member, watching for signs of abuse so she could move in when it happened. It was all she could do and it wasn’t enough.

Tora Zollun kept vanishing anyway, coming back on the brink of death. She felt a personal sense of failure every time she found nothing at her doorstep -no blueberries, no juice- a clear sign Baya had stolen him again.

Then he disappeared for four days, the longest he’d ever gone missing. Baya acted like nothing was wrong, and no one asked where he was. On the fourth day though, in the evening, he finally appeared. The guild members had all been celebrating their most recent successful raid, one that Tora Zollun had missed. There was food and drinks on the one table in the room, but most of the members were occupied with a game of cards going on on the floor beside it. Blueten hung back by the wall, watching as always.

It was Pepper who first saw him, pointing him out with a shocked yelp. Tora Zollun appeared from seemingly nowhere, crawling near the dining table. He was desperately trying to reach the food on the table, grasping at the table’s edges and trying to pull himself up. His wrists were blackened, and it looked like small critters of a sort had

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by on July 27, 2019 at 12:22 am
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Maybe The Dead

Warning: Contains talk of abuse, and heavily implied sexual assault/rape

nibbled at his heels. He looked awful.

A few members moved to help him but Baya stopped them.

“Don’t.” She said coldly. “He has t’help himself.”

So they backed off, all of them watching as Tora Zollun finally got himself standing, finally managed to reach a nearby loaf of bread.

All of them but Baya who casually returned to her cards, and Blueten who quietly made her way over to the other side of the table. She had an inkling of where Tora Zollun had come from, but she needed to see herself. As she reached the table she could see the latch leading to the basement wide open. The basement no one was allowed into.

All eyes were fixed on Tora Zollun -a perfect chance. She slipped inside, made her way down the creaking steps into the cool depths below, and stopped on the cold earthen floor. Immediately she was overwhelmed with the stench of dried sap, vomit, and worse. She cringed behind her mask, trying not to gag.

It was too hard to see with the mask on so she took it off. As her vision adjusted to the low lighting, she could make out shapes of something against the back wall. She could hear the skittering of rats, could see them dart out of her way as she moved closer.

Chains.

They hung from the wall, two manacles dangling to the floor below. They’d been picked open with something small – a rat bone.

And suddenly the basement transformed, its earthen walls becoming the sickly sweet flowered walls of the Nightmare Court camp; the manacles becoming thorny vines reaching up and outwards, multiplying till they surrounded her on all sides; the rats becoming angry biting nightmare hounds. Then it all turned back just as quickly.

Baya kept prisoners.

Blueten could feel fire burning through her whole body. The basement had been a prison this whole time. Why were they letting her do this?! Why was no one stopping her?! Why?!

The fire grew hotter, threatening to burst from her skin.

Was there no one who would stop this?!

WHY?!

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by on August 3, 2019 at 12:00 am
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This is the first page of Be My Guest, a 4-page comic I did for @wintersdayzine/ @gw2collective ( now known as @alchemyartgroup)

The zine was themed “Journeys” and was based on the adventures of our Commanders throughout the games. Mine was based on the Living World episode 3 starring Tora as Commander (there will be spoilers).

It was a lot of fun to work on, and a bit intimidating to do as it was my first time working with others on a published product haha

Enjoy!

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by on August 17, 2019 at 12:00 am
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This is the third page of Be My Guest, a 4-page comic I did for @wintersdayzine/ @gw2collective (now known as @alchemyartgroup)

I don’t actually know exactly what triggers it (health percentage apparently?) but during your fight with Joko he potentially will diss your fashion sense.

This happened when I was playing it with Trip and I pretty much stole our dialogue from then for this page (”He has a point” was 100% Trip).

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by on August 24, 2019 at 12:00 am
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This is the fourth and final page of Be My Guest, a 4-page comic I did for @wintersdayzine/ @gw2collective (now known as @alchemyartgroup)

I remember at this part so many of the characters were like “WHOA AURENE WHAT ARE YOU DOING” and all I could think was “SHE’S SAVING MY LIFE, THAT’S WHAT SHE’S DOING – BACK OFF”

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by on August 27, 2019 at 12:00 am
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Vanished

Warning: Contains talk of physical abuse

“This was all we found of her,” Pepper said as he gently placed Baya’s daggers in Tora’s open hands. “You made em, so… figured you should have em.”

It was the first Pepper had spoken to Tora since they’d met, but Tora was too distracted to understand the significance of that. He stared, wide-eyed at the set of silver daggers clasped under his shaking fingers. The cold metal jangled in his palms as he counted them out: six total. There used to be seven. He’d know, he’d crafted each one, sculpted every intricate rose found on their hilts. They weren’t supposed to be his though, they were a gift. Yet here they were: dirtied, bloodied, and cradled awkwardly in his unfit hands. He felt tears threatening to burst.

Pepper, seeing the look on Tora’s face, gave him a nervous nod before hastily retreating back to the doorway he’d entered. He’d come in with two others: Claws and Onora, who stood as two solemn lumbering giants near the doorway to Claws’ workshop. They’d lost their headquarters, Baya’s home, to The Mute when she turned on the guild. Out of seemingly nowhere she’d emerged with a horde of undead rats and went right after Baya. The guild tried to fight her back, but… things went wrong? Tora could barely remember, he’d been fighting starvation and struggling to stay awake

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by on August 27, 2019 at 12:02 am
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Vanished

Warning: Contains talk of physical abuse

at the time. He’d just managed to escape the basement before it happened, and was too weak to do much beyond slowly nurse a loaf of bread. They’d had to carry him out when the guild fled – had it been Onora who carried him? Claws?

What little he did remember were the unnatural shrieks of those awful rats, the sounds of swords and pistols, heavy footsteps, the pealing laughter of Baya who had to be dragged away when they ran. He could hear The Mute’s words as they fled.

“You’re just another Court by a different name.”

They lost Zed in the fight.

Now they were here, using Claws’ workshop as a temporary headquarters -a large hollowed tree stump filled to the brim with odd tools and bits of metal. Apparently he’d been an engineer before the guild, and happened to still have the space. Baya always complained about it though -she hated the smell and the clutter. She wanted to fight to get back the headquarters, but no one would let her.

So they stayed here, trying to go about business as usual, but having to deal with constant attacks from The Mute on every raid they did. She killed Ebril, and made it very clear she was going to kill more of them. Then Baya and Darach went missing. It couldn’t have been The Mute but…

The rest of the guild rushed the trio at the doorway, bombarding them with questions.

“Is she-?”

“Dunno. S’all we found.”

“Did The Mute get ‘er?!”

“S’all we found.”

“And Darach? Didja find Darach?”

Tora’s stomach made an ugly twist at the name. It was one thing for Baya to vanish – she came and went as she pleased, but for her and Darach to disappear? For a week? It was suspicious to say the least, but to Tora it was much worse than that. He knew things the rest of the guild didn’t, horrible things Baya entrusted to him and no one else. The Mute wasn’t strong enough to harm Baya, there was no way, but Darach? He knew how dangerous Darach was, how possessive and cruel he could be. Baya told him everything. If they’d both disappeared, she was in danger. She might not even… Tora gripped the daggers in his hands till sap trickled from his fingers. He was too busy trying to breathe to notice the pain.

“THAT’S! ALL! WE! FOUND!!” Claws slammed his fist on the door to emphasize each word, the studded gauntlet he wore protesting with each strike. “WHAT DO YOU WANT?! WE LOOKED FOR THREE DAYS! THEY’RE GONE!”

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by on August 27, 2019 at 12:04 am
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Vanished

Warning: Contains talk of physical abuse

The room fell silent as Claws shook from head to toe with raged frustration. Pepper, a mere twig next to the muscular husks of Claws and Onora, shrunk behind Onora till her bushy hair nearly swallowed him. She sighed and gave him a pitiful look.

“Ya gave him the knives, ya?”

Pepper swallowed and scratched nervously at the scars over his missing right eye, “Y-yeah.”

“Then that’s it then.”

“Wha-? That’s it?! C’mon now!” An incredulous voice boomed from the small gathering, and a large portly plant, with impossibly greasy vines for hair, made his way to the front. He shoved a few people aside to get there. “We don’t get nuthin’ more than that?! This is BAYA we’re talkin’ bout! She don’t jus’ make to disappear!”

Claws turned on the plant with a glare, “I already told you, Birr! THAT’S ALL WE FOUND!”

“So ya jus’ gave up?!”

The two began bickering while Onora sighed and played absentmindedly with her hair. The rest of the guild shrunk back, letting the two argue for what felt like ages. And Tora?

“Well, did YOU want his shitty knives?” Claws snarled.

“No one wants his stupid fuckin’ knives!” Birr spat back. “We want answers, ya fuck!”

“Where is he anyway?” Onora offered casually.

They stopped and looked back in unison to Tora’s usual corner near the back of the room.

Tora was gone.

He’d left shortly after Claws first started shouting, climbing his way out the back window with whatever he could grab unnoticed on his way out. A few pocketed coins from Needles and Sheridan, a vial of poison off Blaine, a loaf of bread off one of the worktables and he was gone. He was done mourning, or rather he didn’t have time to. Claws’ angry cries had snapped Tora back to reality, and reality didn’t look good. Baya didn’t go anywhere without her daggers. If there was any clearer a sign she wasn’t coming back, it was the fact that they now stood in Tora’s hands instead of hers. She wasn’t coming back, and that meant Tora had to leave. Now.

He made his way back to his pod home back on the Weeping Isle, hoping it’d be awhile before his guild realized he was gone. Not that he could stay there long, he had to pack what he could run with and go.

While he scrambled about the pod, shovelling clothes and trinkets into a leather

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by on August 27, 2019 at 12:06 am
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Vanished

Warning: Contains talk of physical abuse

bag, it struck him for a moment just what he was doing and he paused. It was a long ugly pause as he finally admitted something he’d known for awhile but wouldn’t let himself think.

I don’t trust my guild.

And he didn’t, he really didn’t. Without Baya around he didn’t even feel safe around most of them. Why would he? Many were pretty open about their scorn towards him, snarling at him when Baya didn’t see, and threatening him when she couldn’t hear. He knew full well the things they wanted to do to him, saw the hungry looks in their eyes when he passed by. He’d skipped the gruesome rites of passage most had to do to join the guild by Baya’s graces, and many resented him for it. They resented him more for not talking even though he… he couldn’t.

If he was honest with himself, he’d known for awhile how ready they were to hurt him, and Baya’s absence made that all the clearer. She’d been missing only a week but it was enough. At first they’d kept their distance, wary of what Baya would do if they laid a finger on him. As the days dragged on however, he found them searching for him, making grabs and sneers when they found him. Birr especially got more and more brazen, to the point where he’d once pinned Tora to a wall, spouting off a long list of horrid things he wanted to do to him. If Pepper hadn’t interrupted him… Tora shuddered, and closed up his bag.

If he stayed they’d torture him in every way they could think of.

He wasn’t going to let them.

Tora exited out the back of the pod, leaving the indoor flowers blooming bright to make it seem like he was still home. It would be a short distraction, but hopefully enough. He dusted off his coat, gave a quick glance at his surroundings, then vanished into the night with barely a sound.

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