Today, for the first time in a long while, I felt a hard phantom pain in my chest. It...hurts, so, so badly. To have something that should be there, and experience how it...isn't. Normally, I manage, but today, I was having trouble. The entire time I was working, I kept on feeling like something was missing, and I knew exactly what it was whenever I cared to focus, but the focus came with the risk of additional waves of pain, so I did my best to push it to the back of my mind.l
In related bad news, I'm song-writing again.
"What. How's that related?"
Just wait, it makes sense.
"...How's songwriting a bad thing, though?"
Well, it's quite simple, really--I never write songs when I'm in a normal, stable mood. Songwriting only comes in the moments of intense mania (very, very rare they are), or in moments of depression, with the song I write being a coping mechanism. And you can generally tell, via what the lyrics focus on. And, yeaaaaaaah...these lyrics, not the manic type. Sooooooooo, I'm straight in the middle of depression, though in hindsight, given my stated mindset (and stuff that I haven't even blogged about because it's too dark and thankfully too brief even for me), that should've been fairly obvious.
Ah, well. I'm not too terribly concerned. I might as well use it, as I used it to draw, to get some writing notes done, and whatnot. (Oh, didn't mention that. Almost wrote words for my novel, but settled for adding to my file with my notes. Forget what day that was; had to be recently, though.)
In particular, I have this really, really awesome sword idea, and probably the best sword design I've had since the Vine Sword.
...For those not in the know, the Vine Sword is a sword of my design that I loved so much that I've incorporated it everywhere there's a hero using nature-based powers (which is, to say, rather a few stories). The general design in each remains approximately the same: it's three intertwining vines (thus the name, Vine Sword), which in hindsight makes it more of a drill than a proper sword. Universally, it can be used to block any attack and to stab, but in some stories the blade is coated with razor-sharp leaves and/or thorns that make it able to cut as well. The guard is the same three vines tied into a knot, though in at least one story there's a wooden beam to create a crossguard. The hilt is two smaller intertwined vines, and most vine swords feature a leaf as the pommel.
It looks really, really cool in my head, though I've never successfully drawn it. (It's too three-dimensional.) I've always been better at describing it. But for this sword, this crystal/ice sword, I think I might be able to draw it. And I can tell you it's a blade with three modes. The default mode is a shortsword, single-handed blade, fitting comfortably into the hand of the user. It has a crystal pommel that's about 60% the size of a hand, and a guard that's the same diamond-crystal-shape but which is about 125% (maybe 150%--I'm loosely estimating, here) the size of the hand, directly above it.
The blade is a leaf blade, capable of both cutting and stabbing, light, flexible, sleek, slender, well-balanced, and offering decent maneuverability and defense. From here, it can extend, though: the guard's crystal shoots out in the two directions matching the blade's direction and the hilt extends slightly to create a hand-and-a-half sword. The leaf blade itself straightens out and lengthens as a result, too. The crossguards are razor-thin and see-through, directly perpendicular the blade. (._/|\_. <--Like that) The edges of the crossguards have, of course, the crystal that was once part of the central guard, still parallel to it.
...Admittedly, this, uh...this one's harder to describe. It'll be much easier to draw, which is what my plan is to do. I might not be able to convey the 3D aspect of it so well (because the diamond guard is, naturally, uh...what the heck do you call a 3-D elliptical/oval shape? Egg? That's the closest I've got, and it's hard to show that in drawing for me), but I can definitely show the blade.
The hand-and-a-half form sacrifices lightness and simplicity for power and extra control, basically allowing for greater offense at the cost of some finer movements. The third form takes this even further, covering the entire thing except the hilt in crystals. Think Adamant Barrage Tensaiga, sort-of. It goes from hand-and-a-half to full longsword. The crystal from the guard envelops the crossguard, and the points at the end curve slightly outward going from straight up to about a 35 degree angle from 90. (So, 125/55, left of 90/right of 90.) This, for clarity, is many, many smaller crystals, of varying sizes and to some extent shape.
The same is true for the blade, it having been enveloped by the same crystals, but it does so in sharp edges, making the blade basically serrated. (This is the only part I'm not sure I can artistically render, because the visualization is going to be a bit complicated.) I realize this description sounds confusing, but I intend to draw the blades to show them off.
Mind you, what I'd show you would just be prototype versions, but I want to do it all the same.
Of course, this raises the question, if I have two elemental blades...what about the rest?
Fire's easy enough; just modify and steal Sarge's sword so that it works as a proper chainsaw fireblade.
So that's 3/8.
Water, I have an idea on, involving compressed water like in a water jet or a water hose, to work similarly to how I believe lightsabers canonically are supposed to work in Star Wars (I know it's a canonical explanation for SOME energy sword, SOMEWHERE), with the water exuding massive concussive force, enough even to cut and definitely to crush, but it's contained in a field with a set length. I'm not sure if I want to keep this idea, though. (Especially since Sarge's weapon partially runs on this process, albeit the inner core layer and not the outer one.)
Electricity and/or wind I'm thinking will get the vibroblade concept, but I wouldn't be sure which, what to do with the other, and even if I want to, especially given the similarity to Sarge's blade.
Light's not gonna be a lightsaber, especially not if I do the water idea, though I have fairly heavily favored a light saber, as in, a saber of the light element, in a lot of my stories.
So, Earth. Maybe-wind. Maybe-Energy. Probably Water. Ice. Near-certainly Fire. Possibly Light.
...What I'd do for darkness, not a clue. Katana's still open as a weapon type looking at the above, though, so it's quite possible that I go with some sort of curve, perhaps going for the idea of the moon and silver, maybe instead going for the idea of...actually, I kinda had a cool thought, about a sword where there's a curve, like, say, this: ), but that darkness would be between the top and the bottom. |) <--Like that, making it almost like a gigantic ax. Except still a katana at front. It'd sort-of have the idea of a crescent moon behind it: the silver blade represents the crescent moon, whereas the darkness following behind the blade represents the darkness of the rest of the moon. (Well, half the moon, anyway.)
This doesn't even go into some of my other unique weapon designs, though, albeit those ones admittedly based off of real objects. For instance, my cyclone sword is still on my bed, next to me. I have a little light blade next to it that I don't remember if they were part of the same continuity originally or not. Of course, there's also the 'split blade' design, based off of a hairpin. Serrated blade on one side, straight blade on the other, can split down the middle, has a very, very heavy attachment to the energy element. (So earned because the bulbs that by default come at the end touching each other made a connection to me of sparks, and the serrated side being wavy certainly helped that.)
Then there's also the many other spiral blades similar to the cyclone blade, in that they originate from the stuff that gets wrapped around things (computer stuff to shorten the cord, to tie a vegetable bag shut, and whatnot)--they're colored (most commonly white or black), with a metal wire running down the middle but I don't know what they're called; I've twisted COUNTLESS numbers of those into the same weapon design which employs a double-drill similar to the vine sword. (They also make good bows, and also good staves--it's what inspired Davos's staff.) So maybe I can go something like this:
Fire takes the vibroblade, but drops the lightsaber bit in the middle that I originally intended. It also inherits the chainsaw aspect.
Ice is the new weapon I designed today.
Earth is the Vine sword.
Wind is the cyclone blade, representing the entire spiral blade type in spite of its similarity to the vine sword and how it's actually not designed the same way the others are. (It's a single spiral, rather than two as the norm or three as the vine sword is.) This is mainly because the cyclone blade actually physically resembles a tornado. (Not sure I can draw this, though.)
Energy is the hairpin split-blade design. (I'll have to draw one of these swords, to show how it works. Basically, a favored tactic is to catch the enemy's weapon in the middle of their own weapon, clamping down on it, maneuver into a favorable position, and then stab or slice the opponent, whichever is easier. It's one of my favorite weapons ever, to the point where I've composed entire stories about it, over and over again. Including stories which lampshade the commonness of the weapon, with various commentary. In one story, it's such a gamebreaking design that those using it conquer the world; in another story, so many people use it that people are sick of it and there's a character who hunts down and kills users of the blade.)
Water is like a traditional lightsaber, except it's a water blade.
Light is a saber, probably small and heavily curved. Okay, could technically be a scimitar, talwar, cutlass, dao, shamshir, or szabla. Yes, some of those are vastly different than a saber; quite aware. I didn't have any particularly specific shape in mind for the saber weapon, other than "curved, not in the way a katana is, and fancy". So saber or saberlike weapon.
Darkness is a katana, with an aura following behind the sword to make a half-circle and make the weapon's strike have the force of an ax yet the light weight of a katana.
...And yes I did just brainstorm the entirety of this in about an hour, aside from the concepts I've had for lifetimes and the ice blade which took me a good two hours to come up with prior to this blog post. Butstill, you get the idea. Creative juices a flowin'. Only upside to depression.
In related bad news, I'm song-writing again.
"What. How's that related?"
Just wait, it makes sense.
"...How's songwriting a bad thing, though?"
Well, it's quite simple, really--I never write songs when I'm in a normal, stable mood. Songwriting only comes in the moments of intense mania (very, very rare they are), or in moments of depression, with the song I write being a coping mechanism. And you can generally tell, via what the lyrics focus on. And, yeaaaaaaah...these lyrics, not the manic type. Sooooooooo, I'm straight in the middle of depression, though in hindsight, given my stated mindset (and stuff that I haven't even blogged about because it's too dark and thankfully too brief even for me), that should've been fairly obvious.
Ah, well. I'm not too terribly concerned. I might as well use it, as I used it to draw, to get some writing notes done, and whatnot. (Oh, didn't mention that. Almost wrote words for my novel, but settled for adding to my file with my notes. Forget what day that was; had to be recently, though.)
In particular, I have this really, really awesome sword idea, and probably the best sword design I've had since the Vine Sword.
...For those not in the know, the Vine Sword is a sword of my design that I loved so much that I've incorporated it everywhere there's a hero using nature-based powers (which is, to say, rather a few stories). The general design in each remains approximately the same: it's three intertwining vines (thus the name, Vine Sword), which in hindsight makes it more of a drill than a proper sword. Universally, it can be used to block any attack and to stab, but in some stories the blade is coated with razor-sharp leaves and/or thorns that make it able to cut as well. The guard is the same three vines tied into a knot, though in at least one story there's a wooden beam to create a crossguard. The hilt is two smaller intertwined vines, and most vine swords feature a leaf as the pommel.
It looks really, really cool in my head, though I've never successfully drawn it. (It's too three-dimensional.) I've always been better at describing it. But for this sword, this crystal/ice sword, I think I might be able to draw it. And I can tell you it's a blade with three modes. The default mode is a shortsword, single-handed blade, fitting comfortably into the hand of the user. It has a crystal pommel that's about 60% the size of a hand, and a guard that's the same diamond-crystal-shape but which is about 125% (maybe 150%--I'm loosely estimating, here) the size of the hand, directly above it.
The blade is a leaf blade, capable of both cutting and stabbing, light, flexible, sleek, slender, well-balanced, and offering decent maneuverability and defense. From here, it can extend, though: the guard's crystal shoots out in the two directions matching the blade's direction and the hilt extends slightly to create a hand-and-a-half sword. The leaf blade itself straightens out and lengthens as a result, too. The crossguards are razor-thin and see-through, directly perpendicular the blade. (._/|\_. <--Like that) The edges of the crossguards have, of course, the crystal that was once part of the central guard, still parallel to it.
...Admittedly, this, uh...this one's harder to describe. It'll be much easier to draw, which is what my plan is to do. I might not be able to convey the 3D aspect of it so well (because the diamond guard is, naturally, uh...what the heck do you call a 3-D elliptical/oval shape? Egg? That's the closest I've got, and it's hard to show that in drawing for me), but I can definitely show the blade.
The hand-and-a-half form sacrifices lightness and simplicity for power and extra control, basically allowing for greater offense at the cost of some finer movements. The third form takes this even further, covering the entire thing except the hilt in crystals. Think Adamant Barrage Tensaiga, sort-of. It goes from hand-and-a-half to full longsword. The crystal from the guard envelops the crossguard, and the points at the end curve slightly outward going from straight up to about a 35 degree angle from 90. (So, 125/55, left of 90/right of 90.) This, for clarity, is many, many smaller crystals, of varying sizes and to some extent shape.
The same is true for the blade, it having been enveloped by the same crystals, but it does so in sharp edges, making the blade basically serrated. (This is the only part I'm not sure I can artistically render, because the visualization is going to be a bit complicated.) I realize this description sounds confusing, but I intend to draw the blades to show them off.
Mind you, what I'd show you would just be prototype versions, but I want to do it all the same.
Of course, this raises the question, if I have two elemental blades...what about the rest?
Fire's easy enough; just modify and steal Sarge's sword so that it works as a proper chainsaw fireblade.
So that's 3/8.
Water, I have an idea on, involving compressed water like in a water jet or a water hose, to work similarly to how I believe lightsabers canonically are supposed to work in Star Wars (I know it's a canonical explanation for SOME energy sword, SOMEWHERE), with the water exuding massive concussive force, enough even to cut and definitely to crush, but it's contained in a field with a set length. I'm not sure if I want to keep this idea, though. (Especially since Sarge's weapon partially runs on this process, albeit the inner core layer and not the outer one.)
Electricity and/or wind I'm thinking will get the vibroblade concept, but I wouldn't be sure which, what to do with the other, and even if I want to, especially given the similarity to Sarge's blade.
Light's not gonna be a lightsaber, especially not if I do the water idea, though I have fairly heavily favored a light saber, as in, a saber of the light element, in a lot of my stories.
So, Earth. Maybe-wind. Maybe-Energy. Probably Water. Ice. Near-certainly Fire. Possibly Light.
...What I'd do for darkness, not a clue. Katana's still open as a weapon type looking at the above, though, so it's quite possible that I go with some sort of curve, perhaps going for the idea of the moon and silver, maybe instead going for the idea of...actually, I kinda had a cool thought, about a sword where there's a curve, like, say, this: ), but that darkness would be between the top and the bottom. |) <--Like that, making it almost like a gigantic ax. Except still a katana at front. It'd sort-of have the idea of a crescent moon behind it: the silver blade represents the crescent moon, whereas the darkness following behind the blade represents the darkness of the rest of the moon. (Well, half the moon, anyway.)
This doesn't even go into some of my other unique weapon designs, though, albeit those ones admittedly based off of real objects. For instance, my cyclone sword is still on my bed, next to me. I have a little light blade next to it that I don't remember if they were part of the same continuity originally or not. Of course, there's also the 'split blade' design, based off of a hairpin. Serrated blade on one side, straight blade on the other, can split down the middle, has a very, very heavy attachment to the energy element. (So earned because the bulbs that by default come at the end touching each other made a connection to me of sparks, and the serrated side being wavy certainly helped that.)
Then there's also the many other spiral blades similar to the cyclone blade, in that they originate from the stuff that gets wrapped around things (computer stuff to shorten the cord, to tie a vegetable bag shut, and whatnot)--they're colored (most commonly white or black), with a metal wire running down the middle but I don't know what they're called; I've twisted COUNTLESS numbers of those into the same weapon design which employs a double-drill similar to the vine sword. (They also make good bows, and also good staves--it's what inspired Davos's staff.) So maybe I can go something like this:
Fire takes the vibroblade, but drops the lightsaber bit in the middle that I originally intended. It also inherits the chainsaw aspect.
Ice is the new weapon I designed today.
Earth is the Vine sword.
Wind is the cyclone blade, representing the entire spiral blade type in spite of its similarity to the vine sword and how it's actually not designed the same way the others are. (It's a single spiral, rather than two as the norm or three as the vine sword is.) This is mainly because the cyclone blade actually physically resembles a tornado. (Not sure I can draw this, though.)
Energy is the hairpin split-blade design. (I'll have to draw one of these swords, to show how it works. Basically, a favored tactic is to catch the enemy's weapon in the middle of their own weapon, clamping down on it, maneuver into a favorable position, and then stab or slice the opponent, whichever is easier. It's one of my favorite weapons ever, to the point where I've composed entire stories about it, over and over again. Including stories which lampshade the commonness of the weapon, with various commentary. In one story, it's such a gamebreaking design that those using it conquer the world; in another story, so many people use it that people are sick of it and there's a character who hunts down and kills users of the blade.)
Water is like a traditional lightsaber, except it's a water blade.
Light is a saber, probably small and heavily curved. Okay, could technically be a scimitar, talwar, cutlass, dao, shamshir, or szabla. Yes, some of those are vastly different than a saber; quite aware. I didn't have any particularly specific shape in mind for the saber weapon, other than "curved, not in the way a katana is, and fancy". So saber or saberlike weapon.
Darkness is a katana, with an aura following behind the sword to make a half-circle and make the weapon's strike have the force of an ax yet the light weight of a katana.
...And yes I did just brainstorm the entirety of this in about an hour, aside from the concepts I've had for lifetimes and the ice blade which took me a good two hours to come up with prior to this blog post. Butstill, you get the idea. Creative juices a flowin'. Only upside to depression.
RSS Feed
