#jorvik reimagined

[ruth-westside]

are you still accepting character submissions for jorvik reimagined, or has that been discontinued?

I do still accept submissions, yes. ❤️ You can make it as an independent post (with a DM link), or submit it to this blog or to the designated one. Whichever option you prefer. And the sub guide if you need it.

Yeah, JR tends to look dead but that's largely due to it being one of several personal projects I do. It's also arguably the most involved so it moves the slowest.

The next JR is eeeehhh 80-ish% complete? People really seemed to like the concept for it and by golly I'm gonna deliver.

[ginnyzero]

Completely Harmless Ch. 63

Completely Harmless An SSO SilverGlade Re-imagining Story (Or Fix it Fan Salt fic) By Ginny O.

When Lily and her friends wanted to buy horses and were directed to the Silverglade Manor and its myriad of problems, they didn’t expect to start a revolution. They were just a bunch a stable girls. Completely harmless. Right?

A/N: Things are only canon if I say they’re canon. Pre-Saving the Moorland Stables compliant for the most part. Posted in its entirety on my website. Posted in 2000 to 4000 word bits here. Rated T for Swearing Word Count 177,577

Chapter Sixty-Three Rescue Time (but First Needling Mr. Sands)

Lily took another slice of lasagna. “This is actually decent lasagna.”

Mr. Sands’ brow twitched.

“Did you get the recipe from Catherine?” Lily asked.

Alex and Justin left. Justin giving a tour guide type of spiel. Lily figured he wouldn’t s how Alex anyplace sensitive. Which was fine. They didn’t need to see anything sensitive.

Mr. Sands stared at Lily.

She continued to eat. “When are you going to tell that poor boy that you killed his mother’s friends?”

“He wouldn’t exist if I hadn’t.” Mr. Sands frowned. “His father hid his heritage from him.”

“Hmm, I’m not sure how telling anyone that your grandmother is the Baroness of your district but we can’t associate with her because your grandfather, her ex-husband is an immortal alien who wants to take over the world is going to go over well.” Lily licked the fork suggestively. “I mean, there are May December romances, and then there’s you.”

Sabine and Jessica snickered.

“You know quite a bit more than you should.”

“What can I say? I have a face that people trust.” Lily shrugged and continued to eat. “You smile. You nod. You let them talk. People love to talk about themselves. The Baroness though, she was a tougher nut to crack. She doesn’t do talk. She does actions. Deeds. So, was it something you did or didn’t do that tore you two apart?”

Mr. Sands snorted. “Don’t be foolish enough to think I had any feelings towards her. She was a means to an end, no more. She didn’t have what I needed.”

“Hmm, it’s interesting to me that you were able to contain Anne, but not Lisa.” Lily stuck the fork into the lasagna.

“Oh, they fought,” Jessica said.

Sabine smirked. “But not enough.”

“You don’t need a Dark Rider,” Lily mused. “So, why keep Anne imprisoned?”

“Elise is not my recruit.”

“Oh, contingency plans.” Lily nodded. The name Elise sounded familiar but she couldn’t place it off the top of her head. “Clever enough.” She finished her slice and set down her plate. “I’ll go catch up with Justin and Alex. They might need minding. And I’m the one they think is the flirt.” Lily pushed her hair back over her shoulder strutting from the room.

She found Alex and Justin pretty easily.

“Hanging out here all day sounds like a bore,” Alex said as they wandered around a large room.

“There are plans to be set in motion,” Justin said. “And it’s not that bad.”

“No place to ride. No elbow room. Everyone on top of each other.”

“Sounds kinky,” Lily spoke up.

Alex jumped. “Don’t do that, Lils.”

Lily checked her phone.

Alex strode away from Justin. “Wait, wait, wait. At least you know what you’re waiting for I suppose.” She jerked her head to one side.

Lily waited to make sure Justin had his eyes on Alex before looking where Alex had indicated. A book rested on a book stand.

“The day is important. All the generals agree that to do it early would only bring disaster. The Keepers are too fixated on their prophecy to be paying attention. And without the other Soul Riders, they can’t stop us even if they wanted to.”

Lily walked towards the book slowly.

“They’re down to one now,” Alex said and shifted her weight. She moved towards Justin. “We’re going to be together, no matter what, baby.”

“You and me against the world,” Justin said.

Alex rested her hands on his chest. “That’s right.”

Justin frowned and turned his head to look for Lily.

Alex put a hand on his cheek and turned his head back to look at her. “Justin, look at me. I’d burn the world for you. You used to feel the same. It’s still in her.” She rubbed a circle on his chest.

Lily snagged the book and stuck it in the back of her pants under her trench coat. “Do I need to tell you two to get a room?” She leaned against the stand.

Alex flushed. “Are any of these generals hot so we can get Lily her own May December romance?”

“Only one person can rule the world, Alex,” Lily said. “And it’s going to be me.”

“Yes, yes, all hail the Queen.”

“I keep moving up in the world,” Lily murmured.

“Empress even. We can be the Empress’ advisors.” Alex grinned. “Ruling sounds so tedious anyways. You need a champion. I take champion.”

Lily snorted.

Justin rolled his eyes. “Garnok is going to rule. Not us.”

“I guess I better figure out a way to kill Garnok,” Lily said dryly.

“Come on, you have to be here for one reason or another. Show me.” Alex took Justin’s hand and tugged him away.

“Fine, there’s a control room. I can show you that,” Justin said. “It’s just a bunch of screens and drones though. There probably isn’t anything very interesting going on.”

“But it will kill time,” Alex said.

“Ugh, don’t talk about killing time,” Lily groaned. “You want the entire world to fall out of whack.”

Alex winked at her and urged Justin forward.

--

Evergray polished the keystone with a rag. “Keystones truly are a thing of wonder. You wouldn’t think a thing of such humble origins would be able to part the veil of space and time.”

Linda double checked the tuning of the harp like Lily had shown her. It was mostly nerves. She turned her head.

Horse hooves clopped against the stone of the path echoing into the Dale.

But not one set of hooves, multiple.

Elizabeth Sunbeam, Rhiannon, Avalon and a host of druids in robes and hoods swept into the Dale on horses of all colors.

“What is going on here?” Elizabeth asked.

Avalon cleared his throat. “I told you to leave, brother.”

“Tsk, as if I listen very well,” Evergray said and coughed.

“Linda,” Elizabeth scolded. “I thought better of you. Evergray isn’t to be trusted. He’s a thief.”

Linda stood up holding the harp in her arms. “He’s been more honest than you have been.” She lifted her chin.

“What is that?” Rhiannon nodded at the stone in Evergray’s arms.

“You don’t know.” Evergray shook his head. “Twenty years and all the new recruits are base ignorant. This never would have happened while I was chief archivist.”

“Evergray, you have violated the terms of your exile,” Elizabeth said. “You were warned what would happen if you ever returned. We have come to take you into custody.”

“I see how you are, Elizabeth.” Evergray turned his head and coughed. He looked back at her. “You’ve come full circle then.”

Elizabeth flushed. “I don’t know what you mean.” She straightened on her horse.

“If you didn’t, you wouldn’t be so mad. Come, now, we haven’t actually answered your questions.”

More horse hooves echoed in the Dale, this time, they were alone.

A grey dapple horse with a white mane appeared at the end of the Dale.

The druids murmured and moved aside.

“Concorde,” they whispered and murmured to each other.

Concorde trotted between them. He lowered his head to Linda. “Soul Rider,” he murmured.

Linda pressed her forehead against his. “You’re safe and alive.”

“What do you need me to do?” Concorde asked.

“Make room, make room,” Evergray said. “I believe this is our cue.”

Linda quietly explained to Concorde the plan.

--

Alex had managed to wheedle Justin back to the horses.

“It’s time,” Lily said.

“Justin, baby, your lips look super chapped.” Alex grabbed his chin.

Justin tried to move his head. “They’re fine.”

“No. They’re definitely chapped. Can’t kiss you with chapped lips,” she said. She took out the chap stick and popped the lid off with one hand. “Hold still.”

Justin’s eyes widened and he leaned back. “Alex.”

She smeared it onto his lips before he could say anything else or get away.

Justin stilled and stared ahead barely blinking.

Lily reached into her saddlebag. “Catch,” she said and tossed potions at her.

Alex caught them and opened the first one over Saga’s rump. “There, there, boy, you’ll be yourself in no time.” She hurried over to the other horses.

Lily juggled the other three potions. She poured them over the backs.

“Last one,” Alex said.

Lily tossed it to her.

Alex poured it over the back of the horse.

Lily went for the halters. “Ten minutes, and counting,” she said.

Justin blinked and rubbed his eyes. “What happened? Where am I?” He looked around. “What’s wrong with Saga?”

“Saga’s going to be all right, give her a few minutes,” Alex darted over to him.

He stared at her. “Are you wearing lip stick?”

She flung her arms around his neck. “That’s my Justin,” she said tears in her eyes. “You aren’t going to do this to me ever again. No more mind control from evil grandfathers. You hear me Justin Moorland. I can’t go through this again.”

He wrapped his arms around her. “It’s all so fuzzy. Except there was lots of lasagna.”

Alex laughed and hiccupped. “Of course you remember the lasagna.”

“Tasted like mom’s,” Justin mumbled.

“Justin, I need you to help Lily get the horses to the gate.” Alex cupped his face. “Can you do that?”

“Sure,” Justin said. He rubbed his face. “I’m just, there’s this fog.”

Alex handed him the chap stick. “Apply if you think you need more.”

Justin looked at it. “For the record, my lips aren’t chapped.” His hand closed over it.

“Sure they aren’t.” Alex kissed his cheek. She went to Lily’s saddlebags and grabbed her tools and the keystone.

“Five minutes,” Lily said.

“On it.” Alex jogged off.

“Help me get them saddled. They probably won’t fight you.”

Justin nodded.

Together they saddled the horses who tried to move away, but the further time went, the less they fought.

Justin tightened the last girth as the first spell broke over the horses.

They tossed their heads and locked their legs.

“Easy, easy,” Lily said. “We’re going to get all of you out of here. Come on.” She grabbed the reins of Nimbus and two of the others.

Nimbus took charge.

Justin took the other horses including Saga.

Alex had the gate mechanism ripped open and was fitting the keystone inside fitting the wires to it.

Lily took the book out of her pants back and put it in her saddlebag.

Alex flipped switches.

Justin’s brow furrowed.

Alex pushed the lever up. The entire rig hummed. Purple energy swirled around.

“Stop!” Jessica shouted. “They’ve opened the gate!”

Lily got on her horse.

Alex selected a horse at random and mounted.

Justin got on Saga.

“Run!” Lily shouted and Nimbus vaulted forward jumping through the portal and running flat out, the two horses behind him.

Justin urged Saga forward. The other horse followed him.

Alex gave the running Dark Riders the finger and her horse, not willing to be left behind even if the way ahead was pink energy ran after the others.

They ran as fast as they could down the winding floating stone road, jumping the gaps and through the other portal.

Alex jumped through the portal into Pandoria. It fizzled and snapped shut behind her almost taking her horse’s tail.

Justin stared around. “Where are we?”

Lily moved into view, Nimbus’ wings pressed tight over her legs. His horn gleamed in the odd light. “Welcome to Pandoria.”

--

The Soul Horses moved into their positions at the bases of the statues. They looked upwards. Magic swirled around them and they became more than what they were. Starshine’s grey mane and tail turned electric blue, a crystal horn jutted from his head. The end of it gleamed with pink light.

At the base of his statue, magenta light filled the carvings making them grow brighter.

Meteor was no longer just red. He was the red of the Harvest Moon and scattered with crater markings with moving clouds. His mane and tail white gold and glowing. His beard curled under his chin.

The magenta light swelled in the carvings of the Moon Soul Horse Statue and lit up the Dale.

Tin Can stomped his hooves. They turned cloven, like a deer rather than a horse. Lightning swirled around his bronze body and crackled in his golden mane and tail jumping off in jagged sparks and spears.

The lightning jumped from him to his statue. It turned pink and crept up every leg and around the body lighting up the carvings.

Concorde spread his glowing white wings. His coat had turned silver with lighter white gold spots. A feather fell from his wings, drifted down and fell at the base of the statue. A rainbow flared around it and then it turned pink and disappeared. The carvings glowed pink.

Linda carefully shifted the keystone into place.

Magenta light swelled at the base of the broken statue and raced up the carvings of the stairs to the gate. Pink light swirled around like a galaxy, small at first but growing until it stabilized into a door.

Elizabeth’s voice sharpened. “Is that the Harp of Aideen?”

Linda cradled the harp in her arms. She moved to the base of the stairs and plucked the strings. And with the music, she sent her heart after it.

FOR THE ACCOMPANYING IMAGES PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE MY WATERMARK AND CONTACT INFORMATION. THANK YOU. I get it. Some of you might get excited and want to see this stuff in the game, especially the clothes, tack, and pets. However, the only way I want to see this in the game is if I get paid for it. If I see it in the game and I’m not paid for it, there will be hell to pay. You think I’m salty. I’d be angry. Personally, I’m not going to send this info to SSO. If you do, leave my contact information there! Don’t give them any excuses to steal.

Now, I’ll know you haven’t read this note if you leave me comments about how ‘salty’ I am about the game and if I hate it so much I should do something else. I am doing something else. It’s called Mystic Riders MMORPG Project. Mystic Riders however is a very baby phase game. You can check out our plans on the game dev blog. (Skills, Factions, Professions, Crafting, Mini-Games, 25+ horse breeds!) If you know anyone who would be interested and has money or contacts about game making, direct them to the blog.

[sadie-wolfdawn]

Finally submitting for @ruth-westside​ ‘s jorvik reimagined! notes-

- Mc/Rider name: Sadie Wolfdawn

-Horse name: Phoenix (his legal in game name is Firechief, if you prefer to use that!)

-Breed: Paint / Jorvik Warmblood mix- his in game appearance is fine + accurate! (although, if his face is shown, it should be noted that he should have a blaze)

-Location: Honestly anywhere is great! That said, my favorite areas are Valedale + surrounding areas (Hollow Woods, Druid’s Arena, Valedale Lake, etc)

-Additional references under the cut- including both full sized versions of the above images + some more close ups of these two. I will also include some (credited, of course) picrews of my mc to better paint her vibe :)

[link 1] [link 2]

Honestly though messy black hair + green eyes are the main notes on her appearance! She is also an herbalist, and her clothes tend to be practical and very worn / patched up / mended- but those are less ‘key’ than messy black hair and green eyes lol.

[writingonjorvik]

Can We Discuss Character Development?

So there’s been a hot take going around about Lisa not having much of a personality, and this isn’t directly related to that, but I do want to discuss character development and how SSO is handling it.

I want to lead with I don’t personally think any one character has completely bad development. I think some characters are weaker than others, despite their presence in the story, but that just means there’s room for them to develop. However, what I want to focus on more is why it’s important, and why some of the retcons I feel like have hurt it. I should also add before I get into this that I just got my copy of Jorvik Calling today and I have not had a chance to read it. That may change my opinions, but for now, I’m going into this topic totally blind with just my playthrough.

I want to focus on Lisa because I think she’s a good example. Personally, having met Lisa in SSO and gone back to learn more about her in previous media in the series, I like her. I like her changes and I like the focus that’s been on her, particularly because with her music, she’s probably the easiest to market. Linda has been getting better with her little pop-ins for videos with info, like with the Galloper Thompson info, but overall, it’s hard to fit any other Soul Rider into marketing content besides Lisa. She has an actual voice in our world.

However, I do also agree with her hot take that she’s lost some of her character. Before her characterization was that she was a punk rocker who lost her mom. And when that was still canon, her going punk rock on her tour and returning to reinvent herself in country that felt more her, was an interesting narrative. It showed her character development in her getting over her mom. Right now, it seems like Lisa is debuting with her country music and the rock tour has been completely cut. And that makes her significantly less dynamic as a character. And don’t get me wrong, I get why Star Academy is getting cut. With as few languages as it’s in, and with it being the hardest game to get a hold of, it’s the hardest portion of the prequels to reimagine because there’s the least amount of nostalgia for it. 

But, that arc is fascinating to add to Lisa. Since that was canon when I listened/played it, it’s what made the Texas Bluebells story so emotional for me, to show Lisa’s healing through her music and her ability to reflect on what happened and how she changed to reflect her moving on.

I think this is the biggest hurt with the retconning, even if it’s logical. I have a mixed timeline now, and I have a mixed understanding of Lisa’s character. The Lisa I imagine, that I put into The Lucky Six, is different from the Lisa the story has, and one of those is seriously more dynamic in my opinion. One is someone who was hurting and then kidnapped, and then recovering through something she’s passionate about, not only on the recent trauma, but on the deeper one. Another has her character very static, having the same tool on both sides of her journey to rely on and no growth.

While changing narrative to make it more accessible is great, removing narrative that was there is dangerous when it’s not directly offensive. While difficult to find, the idea of a punk morning Lisa is interesting and dynamic to think about in how she changes by the time we rescue her. How much more impact would it have to rescue Lisa and she’s in the ruins of her old punk rock outfit, and then pulls out her mother’s jacket, looking for comfort after a near death experience, possibly even being tortured by the thought of seeing her mother soon while she’s scared. And that isolation pushing her to come back to her friends and work through her trauma.

Lisa isn’t Anne. She’s not angry, she’s sad. At least, that’s my biggest take away. She’s already gone through her rage with this punk rock phase. To release it, to lean into her roots with country, her mother’s jacket, shows her accepting and letting go. Not to mention it makes every bit of her interactions with Anne, who is still angry about what happened, incredibly more dynamic. They can relate on a whole different level and Lisa, as the healer of the party, actually knows how to help. 

I don’t think this only applies to Lisa. I think characters like Loretta being toned down makes her big twist to help the MC less of a surprise. When she was a mean bitch, the idea of her setting it aside to help the MC feels like more of a big deal. I think taking away Ms. Drake being truly evil makes her seem really dumb for trusting Darko. If she’s not entirely evil, then it’s kinda to be expected she’d be duped, but if she’s evil, Darko betraying her is kinda a big deal. There a bunch of little micro-stories that get their nuances taken out when you cut things to be more tame. And maybe this is just an author who writes adult fiction speaking, but it makes this chances for development have less impact, particularly when different parts of your audience are getting different stories.

[windforestsso]

For @ruth-westside​‘s MC in Jorvik Reimagined project. Names: Moa Windforest with her Jorvik warmblood Skyrunner.

Tack: Sky have brown and black matching bridle and saddle, black blanket, and the flowers and leg wrapers are optional, I just found it cute.

Outfit: Moa wears a lot of darker colors. The black vest with black tshirt, red star earrings (unnessasry detail probably) and blackhearts fingerless gloves are pretty much always used. while any black pants and riding boots works. The rinding helmet is the druid helmet that you can buy next to Elizabeths house.

Hair: braided half updo from both Dundull and Jorvik city mall.

Location: Hollow woods, Pandoria and Doyles church. But I love most, creepy, magical or/and forests.

Personality: Moa has a bit of a hot temper and when she is mad at someone or something, she doesnt hide it. She is calmest and most in piece when she gets to explore Jorviks nature and secrets in her own pace. With Skyrunner ofcourse.

Hope this was what you wanted. message me if I missed something.

[carina-go-lightlee]

Submission for @ruth-westside ‘s Jorvik Reimagined project!

                                                     The Real MC

Name: Carina Lightlee, owned by me, @carina-go-lightlee

Outfit: Carina favors neutrals and naturals in her wardrobe. Hat and sunglasses are crucial for protection against the elements and keeping her anonymous as possible, due to the copious enemies/friends who want her to do free chores for them that she’d made. Hat: Mississippi Jones hat    Accessory: Elegant Sunglasses    Top: White Firgrove Sweater    Pants: Black Outdoor Jeans (Dino Archaeology Quests)   Gloves: Druid gloves   Boots: Fancy Archaeologist Boots (Epona Archaeology Quests)

Hair: Medium brown “long one-sided hair” from the Fort Pinta salon 

                                                  The Trusty Steed

Name: Thunderking aka Thunderbolt’s Goodnight aka Bolt, bay Connemara

Tack: Walnut Rex Stamper Saddle/bridle, Champagne Rex Stamper blanket 

                                                       The Goods

Personality: Carina is adventurous and practical and not great at opening up to new people. She approaches her explorations- both interpersonal and geographic- from a curious, academic standpoint to distance herself from possible disappointment or heartbreak, but is finding it harder and harder not to fall head over heels in love with the people and places of the island. 

Locations: 1. Primeval/Ancient Trees 2. Anywhere in the Valley of the Hidden Dinosaur 3. Mistfall

Thanks for opening your art up to our sweet girls, boys, and nonbinary darlins!

[luciana-silentstar]

‘19 update

Never know how to start these bc they’re always lame, but hi yeah still alive. I’ll start out saying I’m never leaving lmao, SSO has always had my heart and always will. I haven’t been playing much at all, and have mostly lost interest in the current game for various reasons... I’m really glad to see so many really love where it’s going, even if I don’t feel the same. However, as this blog’s original purpose has always been me posting whatever sh*t makes me happy, that’s how it’s gonna stay babey. On the bright side, me being painfully homesick for the old Jorvik has pushed me more into the art side of things; I had always planned to expand my idea of Jorvik/updated Jorvik, and Luciana’s place in it. She actually does have a backstory, and I’ve wanted to do things like flesh out the native plants and what not, as one of the things she does is study the wild, for example. So I’ve been doing things like figuring out what kind of native plants would be in Jorvik, etc. 

@ Ruth-Westside’s Jorvik reimagined paintings have only further inspired me to kick my own ass and further flesh out Luciana’s world, as has the world of RDR2; the lighting and landscapes has reeeeally got me into trying to figure out digital painting. Which is a bitch and a half. But I’m trying lmao.  I have chronic fatigue, two horses, a very active German shepherd and other hobbies, so like. I can’t say when I’ll start posting content or how often it will be. Could be within a week. I might spam and then disappear, rinse and repeat. I have no idea. Life has been a clusterf*ck. But really all I’m trying to say it: HI! I still exist! I still love SSO! I miss the old SSO and am working to bring to life what I loved about it and what I would’ve loved to see! Luciana is an actual character and this point with a backstory/relationships/personality/life and I wanna show that in art and writing bc she’s very very dear to my heart! I miss all of you and am glad to see so many still so passionate about the game as it is even if I can’t relate!

I really need to meet up with old friends sometime soon, because I miss SSO meetups. Someday. Someday I’ll post the million screens I have(that requires backing up, finding, and uploading, after hoping on my pc which I don’t always have access to), and will post other Original Content once it’s been made. Hell I have a painting I started like. Two years ago that’s SSO related that I DO intend on finishing.

Jorvik has been so, so important to me, since I was a little kid. It has such a special place in my heart, and it honestly tears away at me that I can’t visit it anymore. It sucks. But the memories? The literal thousands of screens? The friends? Some of the most treasured things in my life. Never gonna let it go, and it will never lose value to me. I hope you’re all doing well; stay frosty. <3

Have a WIP. I have no f*cking idea what I’m doing I hope you know. BUT if you zoom out really, really far, it looks like a screenshot! :D lmao. This is a learning experience for me but honestly slapping color on a canvas? Fun! Too bad I have no idea wtf I am doing!

[space-unicorn-dot]

Day 10/30 - Your Designated Soul Steed

Guardian’s of Pandoria’s Fate

Return to us one day

The Four will open up the door

The Fifth will show the way

Of course, my Soul Steed is Copperflame! Lovingly known simply as Copper. While I have reimagined him differently in writing as a bay Percheron-Paint cross, this little Jorvik Warmblood in-game is my baby - always there for me, no matter what trying times fall upon us. I always have to say that, while a polish on the model would be nice now that their new style is so defined and realistic, and more coat options/updated coat textures that don’t look stretched would be a beautiful dream, I genuinely love this horse. At the end of the day, he will always be there for me to come back to, and I always will, no matter how many beautiful horses I also add to our stable to share our adventures. He is my trusted questing partner, friend, and all around, a good boy. And I will defend his honor. Even against that tentacled bastard. Reincarnation of a goddess or not. I’ll throw hands for him.

Truly a good boy. Truly my favorite horse. Truly my Soul Steed.

Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.

[ruth-westside]

Jorvik Reimagined - The Redwood Wilderness

"'It can seem like the forest has a hundred eyes staring right at you.' Or perhaps simply one pair of seemingly blind eyes that pierce through to the soul with the haunting weight of the forest itself."

I always felt this area has a more Studio Ghibli feel than most, especially the Lignos itself. Hopefully I managed to achieve a nice balance of Redwood's appearance with Ghibli's atmosphere. Also if you look closely, there's tiny hints of vines and such trailing around the Lignos' legs.

Featured rider is @sso-noodlelord 's Allison riding Anselmo!

Other JR paintings: Guardian's Dale | Silversong River Watermill | Hidden Dinosaur Character submission instructions (updated)

[ruth-westside]

Jorvik Reimagined - The Hidden Dinosaur 

“There’s a reason the Kallters left when that great roar sounded in the storm... you should have run too.”

JR3 finally appears! This painting nicely reminded me that I am not a seasoned paleoartist so the dino ultimately became a modified Komodo dragon with kallstone-capped spine ridges. Fun tidbit-- the arcing wall of rock on the right side is a remnant of earlier compositions. It’s one end of Icenwood’s “Moria bridge” that got enlarged to double as part of the dome that once covered Dino Valley, so it is massive and infused with veins of kallstone.

Featured rider is the lovely @icewraiths and the horse lantern was 100% stolen from RDR2. 

Other JR paintings:  Guardian’s Dale  |  Silversong River Watermill Character submission instructions

[ruth-westside]

A different kind of Godzilla, and a good boy.

(Where’s the “good boy” though... *squint-squint*)

[ginnyzero]

Completely Harmless Ch. 62

Completely Harmless An SSO SilverGlade Re-imagining Story (Or Fix it Fan Salt fic) By Ginny O.

When Lily and her friends wanted to buy horses and were directed to the Silverglade Manor and its myriad of problems, they didn’t expect to start a revolution. They were just a bunch a stable girls. Completely harmless. Right?

A/N: Things are only canon if I say they’re canon. Pre-Saving the Moorland Stables compliant for the most part. Posted in its entirety on my website. Posted in 2000 to 4000 word bits here. Rated T for Swearing Word Count 177,577

Chapter Sixty-Two Commence Rescue!

Pi tugged her hat low over her eyes. “Do I look evil?” She’d smeared green makeup on her face and hands. Her hair powdered with green chalk.

“Good enough for government work,” Lily said blandly.

Alex leaned into Tin Can’s nose. “We’ll be back in hours. I promise.”

Tin Can huffed and pawed the ground.

“No. You can’t come with us. That’s too many to get back off.”

Tin Can neighed.

“I don’t care if he’s going. You can’t. Lily needs him.”

Tin Can trumpeted now.

“Of course I need you. I don’t like it either.” Alex flung her arms around his neck. “I have to rescue them. I have to. I can’t leave them there, any of them. And you have to do your part.”

Tin Can lowered his head.

Lily took the harp case strapped to Nimbus’ side off. She handed it to Linda. “Keep it safe and remember, once you have the gate open.”

“Don’t stop playing,” Linda nodded. “Be careful.”

“That’s not exactly what this mission is about.” Lily smiled at her.

“Okay, don’t die,” Linda amended.

They hugged.

Linda let her go and touched Alex’s shoulder.

Alex turned and they hugged tightly.

“You’ve got this,” Linda whispered.

Pi cleared her throat. “It’s time.”

Linda and Alex parted and Linda grabbed Tin Can’s reins.

“Follow me, but not too closely,” Pi said. She tugged Saga’s reins and walked on. “Come on, Saga. Let’s get you to Justin.”

Alex patted her pockets. “Okay, I’ve got my chap stick.”

“He’s lucky it isn’t lipstick.”

Alex groaned. “Don’t start, Lily, please.”

They followed Pi taking care to hang back enough it didn’t look like they were following her. Pi led Saga straight to the site manager.

“Is this the horse?” he asked.

“Is this the horse? Of course this is the horse. Would I be bringing any other horse?” Pi glared at him.

The site manager held out his hand.

Saga reared slightly.

Pi sneered at him. “You think he’s going to trust a peon. Show me the container and I’ll get him settled. You must be new.”

The site manager scowled, but led the way to a container.

Pi let him open it. “I can take it from here. Tell Mr. Sands I kept my side of the bargain. I expect payment promptly.”

The site manager did more than grunt as he stomped off.

Lily and Alex waited until he was gone and slipped around the container. Lily backed Nimbus in beside Saga and they stepped inside.

Pi lowered her voice. “I’m going to shut and lock you in. The Baroness will be here soon. Hold tight. You’ll get there one way or the other.”

The doors shut.

They assumed Pi left.

A few minutes later, truck engines roared and halted nearby. Doors slammed.

“This is the Jorvik Rangers. Nobody move,” the Master Ranger yelled. “Who is in charge here?”

They waited holding onto Saga and Nimbus as they heard people running about and within fifteen minutes the chopping blades of a helicopter.

Mr. Sands spoke once it was quiet. “What is this, Annabella?”

“This is an eviction notice, John, effective immediately.”

Mr. Sands was silent for a few minutes as he read the papers. “This is a bold move for you.”

The Baroness’ voice turned dark and furious. “You have our grandson. You really believed that I would sit back and do nothing. I told you I was coming for you.”

“He came of his own free will.”

“I would believe that when the sun starts rising in the west. You may think he’s out of my reach and power, and you’d be wrong.”

“You have no power over me. I’ve always been the stronger of the two of us.”

“And you never understood that I don’t need magic to wield power. I will drive you off of Jorvik. You can live in your little oil rigs. Your games here in my county are over. I think you’ll find my arm is long enough to haunt you wherever you go.”

“There’s still time to change your mind.”

“We both chose our paths years ago. Get off my beach.”

The helicopter started again. And soon enough, the container moved. Lily and Alex didn’t dare say anything to one another. They didn’t know if they’d be overheard. The container swayed and settled with a clunk onto metal decking.

From the inside of the container it was difficult to know if they were moving or not. Engines faintly throbbed when they pressed their ears to the walls.

It didn’t take as long as the rowboat. In fact, the barges were about as fast as the ferry. Soon enough, they bumped up against something that rattled. The container lifted upwards, swung through the air and landed again.

Lily and Alex looked at each other. Show time.

The doors swung open.

Lily sniffed. “Why thank you, how magnaminous of you,” she said as she tugged Nimbus’ reins and sashayed out of the container.

Alex grabbed Saga’s reins. She smirked at them.

“Who the hell are you?” one of the men demanded.

“What? Pi didn’t say.” Lily widened her eyes. “Alex, I swore Pi was going to say something. She told me that she was going to send a message ahead.”

“Filthy witches.”

“We’re the new recruits. Pi trusts us to deliver Saga to--” Lily turned her head. “What was his name?”

“Jay, Jay,” Alex trailed off.

“Justin,” one of the men said.

“Justin, that’s the name.” Lily smiled. “So, if you’ll point the way.”

“First I’ve heard of new recruits,” the man said and glowered.

“Witches.” Alex curled her lip. “You can’t trust them. You just can’t.”

“Easy, Alex, I’m sure this is a little misunderstanding. Something must have gone wrong in all the commotion.” Lily waved her hand. She turned a dazzling smile on the man and bared her teeth. “Well?”

“Let the boss sort it out,” one of the men said to the other.

“Fine. I’ll only tell you once. Justin’s waiting at the helicopter pad for Mr. Sands to return.” He gave them directions.

Lily simpered. “Thank you ever so much. I’ll be sure to tell Mr. Sands and Justin that it was,” she paused.

“Number 47,” he growled.

“Number 47 that sent us. I’m sure he’ll give you your just reward,” Lily fluttered her lashes and led Nimbus away. “Glorious revolution awaits.” She sauntered off leading Nimbus.

Alex sniffed and followed Lily. She had a hard time keeping a straight face once they were out of earshot and given the noise it was relatively quickly. “Glorious revolution,” she drawled. “Laying it on a bit thick.”

Lily stuck her tongue out at her.

“Can’t believe they bought it,” Alex cracked her neck.

They already knew the way. Lily nodded at the guards who weren’t quite sure what to do with two young women brazenly leading horses and looking like they knew where they were going. “Hello, hello, good evening,” Lily said to each of them as they passed.

Alex glowered and kept her shoulders stiff. Her boots made a racket as she stomped down the metal walkways. She thought one word, murder. The men scrambled to get out of her way.

Mr. Sands disembarked from the helicopter. His face clouded with anger. “This is merely a setback. We weren’t acquiring what we needed from there anyways. Not with those meddling stable girls.”

Lily smirked.

The helicopter rose in the air, hovered, and flew away to the north.

Lily and Alex led the horses up the final stairs to the platform. “Mr. Sands,” Lily said boldly. “Just the gentleman I was looking for. Witch Pi sends her regards. And,” she stepped to the side, “the Dark Horse, as agreed.”

Alex tugged Saga forward and tossed her head. Her eyes landed on Justin.

“Wait,” the red hooded girl said. “I think I know the two of you.” She pushed her hood back revealing the face of Sabine.

Lily knew she’d recognized the voice.

“You’re,” Sabine pointed at Alex, “you’re the Soul Rider, Alex Cloudmill.”

“Was a Soul Rider, past tense, sweetheart,” Alex drawled.

“And you, you’re that stable girl from the Winery, Ell, something or other.”

“To be so insignificant you can’t even remember the name of the one who stole it out from under you.” Lily sniffed. “A stroke of genius on my part.” She stroked Nimbus’ mane. “My name is Lily and the Baroness trusts me completely. The same can’t be said about you, Dark Rider.”

Jessica pushed her hood back. “She has a point. You had one job.”

“Oh, like you were able to get the deed for Moorland Stables? That was your job and you bungled it.”

“Princess,” Mr. Sands said in a soothing voice. “Sabine.”

The girls turned away from each other and crossed their arms.

“You expect to win with help like this,” Alex gestured dismissively.

“Like we should trust you,” Jessica said sneering.

“You shouldn’t,” Lily said.

“We got here, didn’t we,” Alex pointed out.

That shut the two up.

“Take care of your horses with the rest, and we’ll discuss your change of heart,” Mr. Sands said. “Over lasagna.”

“I love lasagna,” Justin said with a grin.

Alex handed him Saga’s reins.

Saga snorted and rolled her eyes.

“What, you didn’t miss me?” Justin said. “I missed you.”

Saga turned her head to Alex.

“Wait,” Jessica said. “Where’s your horse, Cloudmill? That ugly one.”

“He repudiated me. The nag. He wasn’t about to turn against the Keepers.”

“My horse does what I tell him to do,” Sabine smirked.

“Maybe your horse doesn’t have opinions. Or maybe he does and you don’t know how to hear them,” Alex retorted. “I can always get a new horse, a better one.”

“A dark one,” Lily said in a sultry voice as she patted Nimbus’ side.

“Yes, a dark one,” Jessica hissed.

“This way,” Justin said and led the way with Saga reluctantly following him. He led them to a stable.

Alex counted the horses, six, including Saga.

“Who are the other horses for?” she asked.

“Katya and Elise, they’re in Pandoria chasing down Lisa,” Justin said as he backed Saga into a stall.

Lily chose a free one and put Nimbus into it.

“I know you two are up to something.” Justin frowned at them and took Saga’s tack off.

Alex leaned against the door. “Ohhh, we’re up to something.”

“Grandfather won’t keep you around. We already have four Dark Riders.”

“I never said we were angling to become Dark Riders,” Lily pointed out.

Justin blinked slowly. He snorted. “Generals? Are you crazy?”

Alex laughed. “We’re more competent than the other lot.”

“You need leaders,” Lily said.

Alex gestured under her chin hand flat. “Us.”

Justin snorted. “Come on, before they eat all the lasagna.”

Alex hooked her arm around his. “This is going to be amazing. You’ll see.” She turned her head. “Lily?”

“I need to check his hooves. He’s been fussy of late.”

Alex nodded. “Hurry it up then.”

“How will you know where to go?” Justin twisted his body to look at her.

“I’ll follow my nose.” Lily tapped it.

Justin shrugged. “We won’t wait.”

They left the stable. Not that it was a great stable.

Lily walked over to Concorde. “They didn’t even search us. Can you believe it?”

Concorde snorted.

“Okay, the Helmsman and Captain Brus should be in place,” Lily said. “Ready to get out of here?”

He nodded his head.

Lily found a halter and put it on him. She snapped a lead rope to it. Opening the door she let him walk out. “We have to hurry,” she said and ran out of the stable.

Concorde kept up at a trot. His shoes sparking on the metal.

Lily didn’t look to the left or the right as she jogged Concorde back the way they came, but not completely. The barge had docked on a different section of the rig than where the Helmsman could sidle up to the huge oil rig.

“Hey!” One of the men shouted.

“Oh, Number 47, the boss told me to move this horse,” Lily said. “You know how it is, you show up and they give you drudge work.”

He frowned at her. “The boss?”

“Mr. Sands,” Lily sighed. “You can take it up with him. I don’t want to be doing it.” She held out the rope. “Unless you want to?”

He backed up and held up his hands. “Carry on then.”

Lily nodded and continued. She slowed to a walk and they went down the stairs out of sight of the men.

The helmsman was waiting for them. “Don’t dally long,” he said.

“We won’t,” Lily said.

Concorde stepped into the boat.

The helmsman rowed away. Lily took out binoculars and looked over the sea. She could see Mr. Brus’ ship in the distance. She nodded to herself and headed back up avoiding all the guards.

She did follow her nose to the lasagna.

Alex sat in a chair with her combat boots up on the table. “I want to be on the winning side,” she said. “It’s that simple. Elizabeth won’t tell us anything. She orders us around as if we’re her servants to do her drudge work. She can’t even pick a simple bunch of herbs by herself. Every time you want to do something, she runs off and has to ask Fripp. You’d think a grown woman would be able to make up her own mind without the aid of a blue squirell. I tell you, Linda’s almost as fed up as I am.” She cut off a corner of lasagna and ate it.

Justin ate looking like he was actually enjoying the food.

Lily would have been more worried except Alex had told her lasagna was Justin’s favorite food and no matter how bad things were, he’d eat lasagna. She dished herself a large helping and leaned against the table crossing her ankles. “It’s simple tactics,” she said.

Jessica frowned. “Cloudmill, I can understand, but not you.” She turned her gaze to Lily.

Lily shrugged. “I go where I smell power. I don’t care who rules anywhere, as long as I get my piece of the pie.”

“You have a riding club.” Sabine sneered.

“You think far too small.” Lily raised a brow. “Of course, I have a riding club, sweetie. That’s part of the power here on Jorvik. If I was anywhere else, it’d be Girl Scouts, or cheerleading, or a sorority.” She waved her fork before cutting off another bite. “Here, it’s riding clubs. They get you close to the people in power and once you have their trust. You can get them to do anything you want. Stepping stones across a river.”

Jessica frowned. “We don’t need them,” she said to Mr. Sands.

Mr. Sands rubbed his chin. “Now, now, we might need them more than you think. My darling Annabella has kicked us out of her county.”

“She can’t enforce it.” Jessica sneered.

“Of course she can’t,” Alex drawled. “Not if we’re your agents in South New Jorvik County. They don’t have to know I’ve switched sides. Tin Can has gone somewhere to sulk. He’s not about to tell the Keepers of Aideen that he lost his rider anytime soon. We have a window of opportunity.”

“One that we can take advantage of,” Lily said.

“Strike while the iron is hot, so to speak.” Alex shrugged a shoulder.

“This must be considered carefully, but swiftly,” Mr. Sands said in agreement.

“Preferably before we’re missed.” Lily looked at her nails. She looked around. “I’m not sure this place meets my cleanliness standards.”

Jessica scoffed. “Don’t be a rube. We don’t actually stay here. We have palatial rooms at,” she yelped as Sabine elbowed her.

“It’s not a state secret that Mr. Sands has a mansion on Pine Hill,” Alex said raising her brow. “Linda’s been there, remember?”

“If she decides to defect, she’ll know where to join us,” Lily said and continued to eat.

Alex swung her legs down. “So, do we get a tour, or do I get to explore on my own.”

Justin stood up. “I’ll show you around,” he said with a look at his grandfather.

Mr. Sands nodded.

FOR THE ACCOMPANYING IMAGES PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE MY WATERMARK AND CONTACT INFORMATION. THANK YOU. I get it. Some of you might get excited and want to see this stuff in the game, especially the clothes, tack, and pets. However, the only way I want to see this in the game is if I get paid for it. If I see it in the game and I’m not paid for it, there will be hell to pay. You think I’m salty. I’d be angry. Personally, I’m not going to send this info to SSO. If you do, leave my contact information there! Don’t give them any excuses to steal.

Now, I’ll know you haven’t read this note if you leave me comments about how ‘salty’ I am about the game and if I hate it so much I should do something else. I am doing something else. It’s called Mystic Riders MMORPG Project. Mystic Riders however is a very baby phase game. You can check out our plans on the game dev blog. (Skills, Factions, Professions, Crafting, Mini-Games, 25+ horse breeds!) If you know anyone who would be interested and has money or contacts about game making, direct them to the blog.

[ruth-westside]

Jorvik Reimagined - The Watermill of Silversong River

A half-covered bridge seemed like a nice addition since quite a few watermills I looked at had an adjacent bridge and the Silversong watermill is the only section of the river that’s narrow enough to jump across.

Featured riders are @space-unicorn-dot ‘s Jay Ravenshield riding Arthur, and @adelaide-swiftheart-sso ‘s Adelaide Swiftheart riding Benjen, with Chief the terrier (sorry he’s so tiny!). Thank you guys for submitting your characters!

Other JR paintings:  Jorvik Reimagined - Guardian’s Dale

Character submission instructions

[ginnyzero]

Completely Harmless Appendix 5

The Silver Rose: Silverglade’s Fashion and Equestrian Boutique

The Fashion for the Sterling Rose was one of the biggest, and actually the first, things that I did for this project. I went to school for fashion design and part of my identity outside of “indie author” is “fashion designer.” My love of games and my love of fashion design kind of grew up side by side. So, a job where I could design fashion and have it be in a game is kind of one of my huge dreams. It’s also one of my “responsibilities” in Mystic Riders MMO is to make the different “brands” of the different areas.

I wanted to practice more to prove that I could do clothes on figures that aren’t 9 head fashion figures and have them look good. Star Stable Online’s figures are actually about five and a half heads high. They’re between preadolescent and older teen artistic biological proportions. (An adult being 8 heads and an older teen being 7.5 or so.) I found some concept art on Tumblr and used those figures to basically redress them. I believe (though I can’t be certain) that Star Stable provides blank figures for both horses, equipment, and clothes to their concept artists.

This would save time and is exactly what I would do if I was in charge of the game. This is part of what they call a game document. Game devs love the game document and some won’t work for you if you don’t have it.

So, the clothes and equipment I designed are based off of the Winery Set and Silverglade Clan Riding Outfit and anything that said “Baroness” on it. I selected the purples from the clothes (way too many purples) to be my color palette.

I used their basic blocks (what I call the different styles the texture artists paint the clothes on for the game) and tried to design details that would fit together to create a mix and match line of clothes.

This ended up being 20 total outfits from head to toe including the Baroness’ Riding outfit and the Silverglade Clan Riding Outfit. There needed to be pants, shorts, t-shirts, long sleeved shirts, dresses, hats, gloves, and I also made earrings and headbands because they added them to the game and I can.

I wanted the group to have a jockey outfit, a dressage outfit, a showjumping outfit, and at least one Western outfit (there ended up being two) and redesigned the outfits of a couple of the NPCs so they’d fit with the updated look of the area. Plus, Lin, Pauline, and Tyra are basically triplets and this needs to stop.

I tried my best not to make anything that wasn’t present somewhere in the game already. The details ended up being roses, the sporty racing stripe from the Silverglade Clan set, the dots from the Winery Set, ducks, pearls, and the Silverglade clan swirl like emblem.

I also did what we call in fashion, merchandising, of these items. When you merchandise an item, you take what you believe are going to be the biggest selling items in your collection and you make them in more than one color or material.

Because this is a game and we don’t really have to worry about store space, I merchandised every item to have at least two color swaps (the jockey outfit) to five color swaps. Any more than five and the images started looking confusing. I used the rose shape and filled it in with different colors to mimic the item being merchandised.

Hopefully with these clothes, the player could dress their character for everything from championships to a garden party. And these clothes could be expanded upon later to add more to the store if necessary.

For instance, I didn’t do any fall or winter clothes really because it’s eternal summer in Jorvik! They’ve also added a could new blocks since I did this, so we could do a handkerchief hem shirt and so on.

For the equipment, I merchandised by showing on the different saddles, and blankets of each style what the color combos could be. The clearest probably being the different leg wraps. Because they’re the same colors and to an extent they have the same type of decorations (the Silver Drakes Fancy Gear Set being the exception) you can still mix and match them together.

Merchandising is for the purpose of gaining more sales. Someone might like a style but want it in a different color. Having that color available means that they are more likely to purchase the item. (This is me, now, in Star Stable, going “where is that in black?”)

Then to complete a head to toe look, I researched makeup and hair options because I felt the Baroness would like old fashioned and elegant hairstyles for her ladies in the riding club. Then I tried to come up with makeup looks that were classic fifties or could be worn at night.

Jewelry is all about theme and variation. Take your theme and start mix and matching them together.

Then for fun, I took some of the details and gave them to the ducks. (Yes, I started with their Seagull in the game. It’s now a duck. Let’s not go into what I had to do to make it look like a duck.) Because who doesn’t want a cute fancy duck?

Whew... that is a LOT of images!

FOR THE ACCOMPANYING IMAGES PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE MY WATERMARK AND CONTACT INFORMATION. THANK YOU. I get it. Some of you might get excited and want to see this stuff in the game, especially the clothes, tack, and pets. However, the only way I want to see this in the game is if I get paid for it. If I see it in the game and I’m not paid for it, there will be hell to pay. You think I’m salty. I’d be angry. Personally, I’m not going to send this info to SSO. If you do, leave my contact information there! Don’t give them any excuses to steal.

Now, I’ll know you haven’t read this note if you leave me comments about how ‘salty’ I am about the game and if I hate it so much I should do something else. I am doing something else. It’s called Mystic Riders MMORPG Project. Mystic Riders however is a very baby phase game. You can check out our plans on the game dev blog. (Skills, Factions, Professions, Crafting, Mini-Games, 25+ horse breeds!) If you know anyone who would be interested and has money or contacts about game making, direct them to the blog.

[ginnyzero]

Completely Harmless Ch. 54

Completely Harmless An SSO SilverGlade Re-imagining Story (Or Fix it Fan Salt fic) By Ginny O.

When Lily and her friends wanted to buy horses and were directed to the Silverglade Manor and its myriad of problems, they didn’t expect to start a revolution. They were just a bunch a stable girls. Completely harmless. Right?

A/N: Things are only canon if I say they’re canon. Pre-Saving the Moorland Stables compliant for the most part. Posted in its entirety on my website. Posted in 2000 to 4000 word bits here. Rated T for Swearing Word Count 177,577

Chapter Fifty-Four CHILL-ax during Happy Horse Week!

The decorations were approved by other clubs while the few votes against them were roundly ignored. It helped that gave everyone a goodie bag and had a snack table set up with their treats and cups of apple cider mixed with ginger ale. The marble balloons had been turned into arches and pillars. She’d borrowed the flag banners from Jorvik Stable to show off what things would look like complete with hay bales.

The Councilman hadn’t been too happy about the hay bales, but Kate had promised to clean.

Everyone was relieved that Lily was okay. And they were more than willing to take shifts at the council house in order to help make the decorations they needed between breaks in training. Training that was more important than they realized.

In fact, it was Herman that clued Lily in as she waited her turn to run through the show jumping event set up in the Arena.

“Really looking forward to seeing all you girls at the County Fair this year,” he said with a big grin on his face. Leaning against the fence of the riding arena he looked almost lazy as he watched the girls.

Lily looked down at him and put a hand on her horse’s neck. “Herman, I think you’re forgetting that most of us have never lived here before. Or should I be asking Linda or Pauline?”

Herman glanced up, the grin didn’t fade. “Didn’t forget. Didn’t know you didn’t know.”

Lily rolled her eyes. Her stallion tossed his mane.

“There’s an eventing contest held at the County Fair every year. It’s the first qualifier for the Claymore Challenge. Every club comes and tries out. Course, last year, and the year before that, and the year before that, was just the Bobcats and the Bulldogz. Be nice to see them have a bit of competition.”

Lily’s brow furrowed. “But we’re collecting ribbons,” she said slowly drawing it out.

“Gotta train your horse and get it into condition so it knows what it’s doing. Practice is one thing, Lily girl, doing exhibition is another. The lights, the crowds, you don’t know how your horse is going to react. Depends on the crowd too.” Herman sucked his teeth. “Yep, some mighty fine riders in practice can’t make it through exhibitions.”

Lily pressed her tongue to her back teeth and looked off to the side as her brows furrowed. “Qualifiers,” she said after a few moments and not coming into any conclusions.

“Yep, helps me winnow it down. I know you’re all doing well in your ribbons. You can’t all go to the Claymore Challenge as much as I’d like to send you all. One Club per county. Thems the rules.”

Lily looked down at him. “I wasn’t given any rule list when I made the club. How many members are we allowed to have maximum anyways?”

“Fifty.”

Lily blinked. There went the plan to merge clubs to get around that pesky rule. “Well, we’re a bit beyond 100 people, Herman. I think we’re hitting closer to 200.”

Herman grinned. “And you wouldn’t believe how proud I am of that, all of you choosing to leave Moorland and form clubs to help out the district. Brings a tear to me old eyes, it does.”

Lily snorted. She shifted her attention. Tracey rode around the track keeping her posture upright as her stallion took the turns.

“You’re doing good things,” Herman rocked back and forth on his feet.

“If you say so,” Lily glanced back at him.

“You don’t think so?”

“I think I’m doing what needs to be done whether it’s good or bad, I can’t say.” Lily gripped the reins in her hands turning them over between her fingers. “I’m doing the best I can or we are, or I hope we are. One never knows. You have a lot of things you don’t tell newcomers, like, qualifiers being at the County Fair.”

Herman chuckled. “You’re revitalizing this county.”

“You didn’t need me for that, you just needed to act.”

“Mrs. X of CHILL wants to meet you,” Herman said.

“Fancy that,” Lily said in a dry voice. “I’m not surprised.”

“Alone.”

“Of course,” Lily murmured. “Because what other way do you meet the leader of a secret organization that,” she paused. “What does CHILL do?”

“Put nails in the road for G.E.D.,” Herman said.

“Your horse idioms are so lovely, Herman,” Lily said. “Where is she?”

“Observatory 12 in Epona.”

Lily backed her stallion away from the fence. “And let me guess, she wants to see me as soon as possible.”

“You know how this works.”

“Way too many crime shows, way, way too many.”

Herman laughed.

“How cliché can you get?” Lily muttered and nudged her horse into a trot. The nearest transport to the Observatory was in Crescent Moon Village she thought. Hillcrest and the Dews Farm in Epona were getting transports set up still. Hillcrest’s was in need of a major repair since someone had tried to use the truck to ram the wall. (It hadn’t worked.)

She took the transport to Crescent Moon Village and went directly down the road through the Marsh and up the side of the mountain to the Observatory perched on the edge of the Cauldron opposite of Hillcrest.

Dismounting, she opened the huge doors of the observatory a crack and slipped inside.

It wasn’t as dark as she’d thought it be. Sunlight streamed in through the small windows illuminating the place.

“I’m glad you came,” Mrs. X said from the middle of the room. She smoothed the skirt of her ankle length green dress, but a deep hood obscured her face.

Lily stepped closer. Mrs. X’s face was also covered with a mask. Crossing her arms, Lily stopped. “I don’t deal with people who hide their faces.”

“My identity is a closely guarded secret, one I’d like to keep that way.”

Lily pressed her lips together. “You’re either trying to recruit me. Or, you have a message for me. Spit it out one or the other.”

“You’ve impressed me.”

“Funny, you don’t sound impressed.”

“You’ve interfered with a major operation. Hillcrest is only a small part of the G.E.D.’s plans for the Harvest and Epona Districts. You’ve set me back months of work.”

“You, lady, are a vigilante.” Lily lifted a finger off of her arm. “You run around in the shadows not sharing information with the authorities, and causing more problems than you solve because you won’t work within the boundaries of the law.”

“The law has failed us.”

“So, Bernie Winterwell didn’t want to leave his house and was happy to be bribed. Was it a moral failing? Or is House of Winterwell in dire straits? Or is there another reason? I don’t know. I don’t care. If Baron Winterwell isn’t doing what you need to do, you go to Count Marchenghast.”

“He’s ill. The Countess is overwhelmed. They’re too young and inexperienced to handle the G.E.D.”

Lily’s lips parted. “Really? Because, Mrs. X., I’m what, sixteen, and I’ve handled them just fine by oh, seeing that they don’t have the proper paperwork or you know, put people in actual danger and taken this to the people in charge like the Rangers and the nobles who run this county and they’ve managed to take care of things with the information me and my girls have provided them. I do not feel that the people of Hillcrest are an acceptable sacrifice so you can try to stop the grander scheme and get the higher ups.”

“You are too young to understand.”

“I understand that right now you’re no better than the druids, most of whom, also wear hoods and also, who I will not have anything to do with unless they show their faces. Here’s my message to you, it’s the same one I gave to Elizabeth Sunbeam. You lead and take action instead of observing and waiting. You follow. Or you get the hell out of my way. The people of Hillcrest will not thank you for standing by and watching.”

“Jarlaheim is in great danger. You don’t understand how great.”

Lily rolled her eyes. “Yes. We know. You remember Mayor Elaine. She was in Hillcrest. She knew what Ms. Drake was up to. Ms. Drake has been arrested. Given her lawyers, she probably won’t be in there for long. But it’s a good way to stall them and give time for Mayor Elaine to recover and take control over Jarlaheim.” Lily turned on her toe and grabbed the door. Pulling it open, she looked over her shoulder. “Come out of the shadows, Mrs. X, and into the light.” She walked out shutting the door gently behind her.

“People,” she said to her stallion.

He whuffled.

Lily mounted and turned him around down the mountain. “Vigilantism, peh.”

He nodded his head.

“Jarlaheim is in great danger,” Lily mocked. “Gee, you think? I mean, there aren’t four dig sites around the place, probably illegal dig sites, run by the G.E.D. if it’s not in great danger. Like, I don’t have girls in every stable and town and farm in this county by now. And do you know what we teenage girls like to do?”

He knocked his ear back seemingly interested.

“Share information. People might call this gossip. Because they only hear about who is dating who and who is fighting and what embarrassing thing happened to so and so this week. But there is important information among the trivia.” She patted his neck. “Sometimes, if the mare is fat, it’s not that she’s actually fat, she’s pregnant.”

He whinnied.

“Exactly, you get it.” Lily let him trot down the road. “Diabolical corporations. Aliens. Witches. Ghosts. Aliens running diabolical corporations. Druids. Chipmunks and squirrels as spies. Magic horses. Now vigilantes.”

He nodded his head.

“Nahnahnahnahnahnahnah, Batman!”

Her horse whinnied again.

She quieted as she got out of the marsh and into the village. She hummed “Spider-man, spider-man, does whatever a spider can,” under her breath as they passed Hayden’s house.

She took the transport back to Jorvik Stables.

When Herman asked her how it went, she replied with, “It went.”

--

The decorations were ready in time for Happy Horse week, if barely. Barney had helped them by using the vinyl wall art to make plywood versions of the horse silhouettes with his wooden scroll saw. He’d also made them horse heads to vary up the horse shoes and hang their smaller horse garlands from. They weren’t allowed to touch his saw. They could lose fingers if they weren’t careful. Plus, he was making the silhouettes five or six at a time to save time. Each stable and town had at least one of each galloping, show jumping, and dressage silhouette. Carney Summers had been busy making race signs for everyone.

But everything was painted, glittered, glued together, whatever needed to be done in time to decorate for the week. Metal and plastic buckets had ribbons and bows on them. Plastic helmets also had bows and rhinestones and gold trim. They wrapped fancy striped ribbons in Jorvik national colors around every extra haybale they were strewing about for decorations. (And handy seating for the tired parents.)

So, the day before Happy Horse Week was also busy instead of training, they were decorating and making sure everything was out and just so. They’d put together plenty of snacks for the tables and had decided that mint candies went in predominantly blue favor cones, and granola went in predominantly green favor cones.

Putting together the selfie walls had been a bit easier now they were at the third time around. They used the triangular and horse shoe garlands to drape the circle. Put plenty of championship ribbons on the upper left hand side. Put together a pillar or arch out of marble balloons and made sure there were hobby horses and stuffed plushies (fresh from Fort Pinta) out for people to use as props.

Agnetha has pursed her lips at the arches of balloons in front of the rose archway and on each side of the bandstand, but she hadn’t said anything dire.

Thinking ahead, they set up the pavilion so people could decorate their own buckets and helmets if they wanted to do so. They even had championship ribbons for name badges.

They had to rearrange the jumps in the riding arena. (That gave them time to decorate it.) Though the Rose Arches remained firmly in place. And put together the special race tracks for the cross country races through the grape fields.

It was a good thing that they had extra decorations and banners, because just in time for Happy Horse Week, the Silverglade Oval Track was ready to open and it needed to be decorated as well.

Pia and Ingrid sent pictures of the Art Show and Flea Market respectively. Everything was horse themed! Pia had plenty of exclamation points. She never asked for it to be that way!

They had to help transport the cake from Ma Anna’s Pastry Shop in Firgrove all the way to Moorland. They transported it in separate tiers thank goodness, but they still wanted an escort for some reason. When it was put together, the bottom three tiers were sold colored, there was a blue tier, a green tier, and a white tier. Then the top two tiers, one had stripes, and the smallest was white with green and blue polka dots. They stuck a large golden harp in the top of it as a topper.

The tables for the Moorland feast were set out. And there were extra tables so they could set out the grab bags, horse masks, party hats, and horse ears for the kids. The Farmer’s Market bustled with happy people who were more than happy to put up another tent for the Carnival games of bobbing for apples, pig pen, horse shoes, hobby horse races, and pin the tail on the horse. They had a special spot for the pinatas (and plenty of them.) And a booth all set up so everyone could get their face painted.

Realizing they’d forgotten prizes for said games, Kate and her club ran to Jorvik City to get more of the prizes like they had in the grab bags. (Because why not try to collect them all, according to Regina. She was roundly reminded, again, that this wasn’t Pokemon!)

The Timber Wolves escorted Andy’s petting zoo down and helped him set it up at the same time they brought down the cake.

It was quite the whirl of activity.

No one was sure who exactly hid the Golden Horse Shoes, only, that they were hidden.

So, everyone was excited the first day of Happy Horse Week, despite the fact that they’d had to make a schedule so there were people minding the races, giving beginning riding lessons, doing the lunge informational event, the craft pavilion, and the snack booth.

“Where do we want to go first?” Was the biggest question. Firfall was having a jousting demonstration at their medieval fair. There was the County Fair to check out too with all the food, and booths, and games, and they had to keep an eye on the competition up there with the eventing qualifiers. Or, they could go to Moorland and get a slice of carrot cake or apple spice cake (or both) and go straight to the Farmer’s Market to do games there. Or, they go to Fort Pinta and grab Token Takes Jorvik, buy a horse plushy if they didn’t already have a stuffed lovie of their own and start on the different challenges, plushy vacation pictures, Andy’s Geocaching, and Hayden’s Spider Hunt.

More than a few of them though were bowing out of Hayden’s Spider Hunt.

“No thank you,” they said.

They knew they’d see all of it. It was a matter of did they want to watch a pie eating contest at the County Fair or not? There was going to be a demonstration of a flat track oval race too that sounded interesting. They all agreed that they wanted to see the horse rubber duck race. That sounded too funny not to see.

The last day was the Light Ride.

It was with light hearts that they made their schedule and took to explore the county during Happy Horse Week. (They had Golden Horseshoes to find!) The first place they had to go was the Silverglade Oval Track ribbon cutting ceremony!

--

Loretta shifted her weight on top of her white stallion, the pink of her showjumping jacket setting off her fair complexion. Lily cynically thought that was the reason why the Bobcats colors happened to be pink. Loretta looked good in it. Loretta glanced over at her. “What are you doing here?”

Lily tugged down the sleeves of her own showjumping jacket, light purple. (Thought she’d the option of a dark purple or mulberry color.) “Same as you, I suspect. Claymore Challenge qualifiers.”

Loretta’s eyes widened. “No. No. You can’t. Your clubs are too,” she trailed off.

“Too what? We’ve qualified. We’ve earned the ribbons.” Lily looked down her nose at her. Had Loretta forgotten about the fact that more clubs meant more competition?

“You haven’t been around long enough to train your horses to be competition ready,” Loretta curled her lip. “You’ve been too busy doing other things.”

Lily leaned forward a bit resting her weight on her folded hands. “Not for the last month, month and a half. You don’t want to train for more than a couple hours every day and risk hurting the horse.”

“But you couldn’t have earned enough ribbons.”

Lily smirked at her. “I did.”

“That’s not right.” Loretta frowned.

“Take it up with Herman.” Lily shrugged. She tilted her head.

The Announcer’s voice rang out. “President of the Bobcats, Loretta.”

“You’re up,” Lily told her.

Rattled, Loretta nudged her stallion into a trot to take the arena.

Lily narrowed her eyes and watched. Either Loretta wasn’t as good as she claimed to be or Lily’s appearance as the next competitor after her had truly rattled her. She missed several jumps knocking down the bars.

When Loretta came off the field she looked furious. She stopped her horse by Lily. “If someone like you who isn’t even from Jorvik keeps me from going to the Claymore Challenge again,” she started.

“Again?” Lily raised a brow. “Last I checked the rules, Jorvik citizenship wasn’t required to compete, only belonging to a Riding Club in Jorvik in good standing.”

Loretta sucked her cheeks in and trotted off. “I won’t be defeated.”

Lily watched her go and put a hand on her horse’s neck. “And President of the Silverglade Equestrian Center’s Silver Drakes, Lily,” The Announcer said.

Lily squared her shoulders. She had an event to do. She could wonder who had beat out Loretta last time. Lisa. Linda. Or Anne?

FOR THE ACCOMPANYING IMAGES PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE MY WATERMARK AND CONTACT INFORMATION. THANK YOU. I get it. Some of you might get excited and want to see this stuff in the game, especially the clothes, tack, and pets. However, the only way I want to see this in the game is if I get paid for it. If I see it in the game and I’m not paid for it, there will be hell to pay. You think I’m salty. I’d be angry. Personally, I’m not going to send this info to SSO. If you do, leave my contact information there! Don’t give them any excuses to steal.

Now, I’ll know you haven’t read this note if you leave me comments about how ‘salty’ I am about the game and if I hate it so much I should do something else. I am doing something else. It’s called Mystic Riders MMORPG Project. Mystic Riders however is a very baby phase game. You can check out our plans on the game dev blog. (Skills, Factions, Professions, Crafting, Mini-Games, 25+ horse breeds!) If you know anyone who would be interested and has money or contacts about game making, direct them to the blog.

[ruth-westside]

Hiding Things

I can’t do anything about this yet so it’s just me mulling over possibilities. 

I would have elaborated on these but the more I try to explain them, the more likely one will get a landslide vote over the others. So don’t be fooled by the seeming simplicity of the choices. This is a very literal contest of lore.

Choose what you think is the most intriguing.

1) Underfoot. 

2) In a mountainside. 

3) Inside a wall. 

4) Roaming.