Log: Alice In Wonderthulhu
From Literepetition
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Message transmitted and received, and so the dinner hour comes nigh and after grabbing herself a bit, Minnie makes her way on the path to Astor. She really rather loves Bartos, but the current fuss over Astor's potential haunt factor does make it a rather interesting place to suss out. Perhaps next year, if by then whatever's currently possessing it hasn't been summarily exorcised. Truth be told, she's more curious on this quest with regard to the destination than the actual content, of which she knows nothing about, save that Howard has a project he wants to develop. On arrival, she knocks, her bracelets cluttering her wrist and clinking slightly.
Howard opens the door. Behind him, the room is gloomy and dark, with only the light of the laptop computer on the desk illuminating anything in any satisfactory way. He's tall, an excrutiatingly obvious trait especially when he's barefoot, since no one can blame it on his footwear. "Minerva." His smile is tenuate, but genuine. "Come in." Howard steps aside, holding the door open.
Minnie returns the smile with one of her own - or at least the hintings of one, full blown showing of her teeth is rare in frequency. "Hey, Howard. Call me Minnie, please." She's five and a half feet tall, and so is perhaps somewhat dwarfed, and she is of course, momentarily distracted by his head as she shuffles into the room. "I confess, you've got me curious." Her gaze draws in the room, perhaps with slight and subtle emphasis on Poe's side.
"...Minnie." Howard tastes it in his mouth; he doesn't much seem to like it, apparently. "Well, it isn't hard. You're a curious person and I haven't told you anything yet."
Minnie's nose wrinkles faintly. "You're the third person who's made that face after I've asked them to call me Minnie. One of which is Poe." She looks around for a seat, and if there's one readily accessed, she'll presume to take it. "So what is it you've got in mind?"
Wu leaves the room.
"We have a similar taste in names," Howard says of Edgar, and then takes a seat of his own a few feet away. "I want to write a... comic book; and I want you to draw it."
Minnie blinks. Is silent a few moments. "What kind of format?" she asks, reaching into her bag and withdrawing her laptop. She turns it on, waits for it to connect to the campus network. "Paper, or webcomic?"
"Well, ideally paper. Though I suppose it could be a webcomic." He shakes his head. "I don't write humor, and most webcomics tend to that sort of thing. I imagine it as a black-and-white piece, printed maybe once a month?" Howard shrugs. "Or however fast we can produce them without it getting in the way of our schoolwork."
"Not all webcomics play for humor." Minnie supplies, but doesn't expand on her clarification. "What's your premise?"
"A work in progress, but the one I am most leaning towards is that of a young boy who learns he can quest to other lands through dreams. At one point, he will be lost, and will have to find the centerland through which he may return to the land of the awaken." Lovecraft sniffs. "It's not terribly original." Hell, it sounds like Alice in Wonderland. Then again, Lovecraft doesn't look like a guy that'd write Alice in Wonderland.
There's all kinds of versions of Alice, though. "What about the premise pulls you if you don't feel it's original?" Minnie asks. It's a legit question, from an artist. Especially if she's going to illustrate for him.
"It gives me room to work with. I can start and continue and branch out." It does kind of lend itself to just going on forever, especially if done right. "But like I said: it's just one of a few ideas." Howard shrugs.
Minnie considers. "Alright. What'll need to know for this kind of project is a rough idea of how many pages worth of illustration you'll want each month, an outline of each issue as they're being handled - and you'll probably want to have one out, have one being in the drawing process, and one at least in outline form by the time the first is ready to hit. Have you done any writing for sequential work before?"
Howard shakes his head. "No, I haven't. It's... going to be an experiment." His smile is short lived. He's not too sure about it, other than beyond the fact that he wants to definitely try.
Minnie considers a moment. "Let's try an experiment." she says. "Write me a short story. Take your time, a week, maybe two? Two or three pages typed, give it over, and I'll see how what you write can storyboard. If it works, I can show you how to script for comics."
"Fine." Howard nods calmly and leans back slowly. "So how've you been acclimating yourself, then?" He grabs a pack of cigarettes from his desk, they look like Poe's, and fidgets with a lighter until he lights one.
If he's gonna smoke, damned if she won't. She pulls out her own pack, though they're not cloves. "Not bad, not bad. Keeping abreast of my art projects, getting to know people - actually, it looks like I'm going to be helping a new campus org to form, which is kind of exciting. And vaguely terrifying, given it's performance based."
Howard doesn't seem to mind the smoke, though he does lean over and push the window over his desk open with one long, outstretched arm. "Performance." He looks doubtful for a long moment, and then shakes his head. "I don't do performance." He doesn't look like it either.
"You don't look it." Minerva echoes the sentiment verbally. "Poetry slam. Spoken word poetry, if you want to get technical. If you're ever inspired to write and want to see it sounded out instead of read, that's the way to go. Someone could always perform on your behalf. But if it's not your cup of tea, that's fair." She takes a look around the room, to see what she can deduce of the occupants based on the furniture and articles to be found. "Where's Poe?"
Poe and Howard's room is a testament to being a pair of very dark-minded individuals. Howard's side is covered in earthy and grey tones sprawled over black; while Poe's side is a bit darker still in color. Howard has posters of astronomical events, and even a very small picture of a squid in a place that can't be seen from the head of Poe's bed. "He's probably out taking pictures."
"In the cemetary. He's been wanting to look at my rubbings." She returns her gaze to Howard. "So you think you can do an equivalent of a trailer in two to three page form for me?"
"I can try. I mostly write short stories. Not the short kind of short stories." Howard shrugs. "I'll work on it. It shouldn't be -too- difficult." He brushes some ash that fell on the desk and ashes the clove in the ashtray.
"I know it seems short." Minnie's mouth takes on a wry cast. "But you see, a good half of your words are used to describe something or convey a visual sense, and those aren't necessarily needed in a comic form. I mean, //I// need to see them so I know what to translate, but the more complex you get, the more difficult it becomes. Writer and artist, it's kind of a funny symbiosis."
Just as long as it stays professional. Howard doesn't come off as the type of guy you want to explore a physical symbiosis with: he might eat you, in the gastronomical sense. "I understand. I'll try to keep it simple and visually plausible."
Minnie will keep her cannibalistic explorations to the twice-yearly zombie walks, thanks. Intellectual symbiosis for the win. "You'd be surprised at what's visually plausible, given the right medium." she says almost cheerfully. "It's a matter of scope, though." She rises. "You can email it to me whenever you like. You never mentioned, you got the scans on my perspective sketches I did of you, right?"
"Mmm, yes, I did. I enjoyed them in an uncomfortably narcissistic way; but I think your bigger fan is Sonia." Howard's smile is thin, but for that moment after he says that name, it's also chary.
"Sonia is your girlfriend?" Quick, Minnie is. Her almost-smile increases by a fraction. "Hey, if she doesn't mind it, I'll be happy to send her scans of anything I do of you in the future."
"She is." Howard nods slowly. It's hard to imagine Howard -having- a girlfriend. He looks so very... not sexual. Maybe she's imaginary. "I'm sure she'd like that."
There's a cock of her head. She couldn't imagine having sex with Howard, but she could see how he might be fetishized. Artists! "I don't mean to pry." she offers. "Any rate. I'll see you. And even if you don't want to participate, maybe you could get Poe out to watch the slams when we start having them? I'd appreciate it. He really needs to get out more."
"He does." Howard wrinkles his nose a bit and rises, stubbing out his clove in a single motion. "I'll write that story soon," he promises.
Minnie offers him a little wave. "And I'm out." she says. "See ya, Howie." Just for that 'Minerva' thing. And off she goes.
