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Seal of Beauty 2018
Post your Beauty Submissions here!!
Item: Tattoo Type: Chest Org: Madtats Designer: Tortuga
Commodities: redtint 70 purpletint 15 coal 15 greentint 10 yellowtint 10
Mortal Reviews: Allowed
Tattoo Weight: 100
Appearance:
the monster inside
Examined:
Extreme use of scarification has given this tattoo the realistic
appearance of a jagged patch of skin having been ripped from the chest
to reveal the underlying flesh as opposed to being the result of inking.
Instead of the expected pectoral musculature, a maddening patch of
horrors is exposed; disembodied tongues, grasping tentacles, and other
less recognisable body parts weave together to form a writhing, visceral
landscape of Kethuru bits and pieces seeking to burst forth from inside
at any moment. Central to this heinous masterwork is an enormous lidless
eye, yellowed and bloodshot; it stares brazenly at any who dare cross
its gaze, furthering the appearance of living, yet soulless flesh.
Comments:
5
(c) Iron Realms Entertainment 2012.
Comments
a swirling vortex cup cake of impending doom
Dropped:
Resting here upon the ground is a pitch-black cup cake decorated with a swirling mass of dark
whipped cream on top.
Examined:
This desolate cup cake is unlike any other of its kind, created from
paper-thin tiers of black sponge and held carefully together by thick
sheets of equally dark ice cream. Covering the outside is a smooth-set
icing sugar of pitch-black that is cool to the touch. Piled high atop
the cup cake is a swirling, starless mass of chilled midnight whipped
cream, creating a vortex plunging into the middle, down towards a deep
void-like core. Gold, silver, blue and yellow streaks of spun sugar
weave faintly throughout the topping, the only glimpse of colour to this
otherwise sombre cake. A napkin cups the bottom half of the cup cake,
and upon closer inspection, crudely drawn pictures can be seen. The
twisted visages of the Dark Emperor, Ordained Magician, Enigmatic
Teacher, Megalomaniacal Lust and Imprisoned Hermit stand out against a
background of worlds in varying stages of devastation.
Consume:
Unsure of where to start, you first take a lick of the cool, midnight
whipped cream which melts away to nothing upon the tongue, leaving
behind the faint taste of something citrusy. With some of the toppings
now missing, you take a big enough bite of the cake itself, the
smooth-set icing sugar crackling under your teeth, which then sink into
the light, fluffy sponge. A burst of lemons invades your sense of taste,
the tartness tickling the palate and the frostiness of the ice cream
settling into your mouth. Your breath mists the air momentarily from the
chill as you go to take another bite, pushing the frightening napkin
hastily out of the way as you finally come to the centre of the cake,
witnessing the vortex disappear with each mouthful to reveal a
spun-sugar globe that is the void-like core. You pause, and then slowly
press your teeth into this small, yet dizzyingly tempting creation, the
surface cracking and shattering under your bite to flood your mouth with
a citrus-syrup, both haunting and refreshing to the senses. As soon as
you have started, the cup cake has vanished, and all that remains is the
odd crumble of pitch-black sponge and the taste of lemons.
Smell:
As you lean in to sniff the cup cake, you pick up faint citrusy and sweet scents.
Taste:
You take a lick of the cool whipped cream atop this cup cake and it fades away to nothing upon the
tongue, leaving behind a delicately sweet taste.
comms: gems 4 rope 1 coal 1
dropd: A glass pendant has fallen here, sharp and nearly invisible.
long:
A single shard of broken glass dangling from a fraying strand of hemp may make up the bulk of this pendant, but it is the oil within that defines it. Dark as soot and thick as treacle, the viscous fluid slithers downward whenever the pendant is upturned. A lonesome bubble lies trapped within that oleaginous interior, rising inexorably to the top only to crash against the sharp facets of dull glass which circumscribe its existence. Even so, the bubble refuses to burst. No matter how violently the oil is shaken or how cleverly the glass is twisted, the wild iridescence of its ephemeral surface remains ever undiminished.
(I loved that there was a theme, and it was a challenge to figure out what kind of design fitting it I would like Lief's name attached to. I went with deriving inspiration from kintsugi.)
~
A gentle breeze ruffles your wings and whispers in your ears, as if for you alone, "Dragonfly's words shine... seeds, sown and tended, inspire... a forest harvest."
~
Maylea reaches out, Her fingers poised in midair. "Now you are of Me, even more than you were before." Her golden and azure eyes glitter. "Walk well, Eldin. Shed glory in My name, and bring life to the lifeless."
2) This, 100%. This is actually the point I logged in to make. Mad props to the Godmin for theming it. Please, please, please theme future Beauty challenges. I personally felt as if I was piddling into the wind while writing my submission, so I can only begin to imagine what it was like for people entering in previous years with a bunch of subjective arrows and an invisible target. I'm also willing to bet that having a theme made the judges' live a damned sight easier too.
WHUT WHUT #Beauty2018 ya'll!
~
A gentle breeze ruffles your wings and whispers in your ears, as if for you alone, "Dragonfly's words shine... seeds, sown and tended, inspire... a forest harvest."
~
Maylea reaches out, Her fingers poised in midair. "Now you are of Me, even more than you were before." Her golden and azure eyes glitter. "Walk well, Eldin. Shed glory in My name, and bring life to the lifeless."
I understand the element of surprise was big this year with all the Trials, however, not just Beauty.
My (limited) understanding of Beauty is that it's designed to find the 'best' designer in the Basin. On this occasion the Godmin decided that the best designer could design something relatively flat-footed (by which I mean literal RL weeks of notice). If that wasn't enough for you, then you weren't the best designer, just like I wasn't the best designer.
Edit: While I understand the point this year was to mix it up after players have said Trials got boring, having a better heads up on that there was going to be a theme would have been nice.
1) I understand the frustration of those who had designed something ahead of time only to have that effort go to waste. Designing is a skill we devote time to honing just like any other. In the past, I've done very well with designs inspired by in-game events (and it was an event/lore inspired design that won this year as well), and I often plan those out far in advance as the event develops.
While not a perfect analogy because of skill balance, I imagine there'd be upset if a couple weeks before War the divine declared that only some class skills would be allowed. People would be frustrated that the techniques they'd been practicing and honing would no longer work, even if they came up with new techniques to adapt.
2) As someone who was feeling burned out on Beauty and not inspired to create anything this year, I really appreciated the theme, as it inspired me to participate at all. I didn't place (though I got an honorable mention), but it was fun to design.
~
A gentle breeze ruffles your wings and whispers in your ears, as if for you alone, "Dragonfly's words shine... seeds, sown and tended, inspire... a forest harvest."
~
Maylea reaches out, Her fingers poised in midair. "Now you are of Me, even more than you were before." Her golden and azure eyes glitter. "Walk well, Eldin. Shed glory in My name, and bring life to the lifeless."
an intricate tapestry portraying a floating ice shelf
Dropped:
An intricate tapestry portraying a floating ice shelf is here, affixed to the wall by polished driftwood.
Examined:
This intricate tapestry is wrought from threads of finest cotton,
mounted upon the wall through several fixtures made from polished
driftwood. Spreading inward from all sides, midnight hues of indigo
dominate the outer reaches, broken only by a few rare, almost misshapen
threads of sky-blue, breaking up the dark colour in erratic patterns.
Closer to the centre, the dark indigo progressively gets lighter, pushed
aside gradually by more threads of the lighter colour, forming an almost
circular bubble. Trailing this blue shell, about a dozen winged
monstrosities are displayed in detail, their black wings wrought of
stuffed linen, peeking up a little from the tapestry's surface, crushed
opals representing the pack's many eyes. Past the bubble's barrier, the
dominant tone now becomes light blues, with hints of blushing rose and
light green. Stitched within the very centre of the bubble, a floating
shelf of massive ice carries a distinctly frosted landscape. Several
small huts are depicted upon the shelf, lined by small creatures of
snowy white and icy blue, some carrying black hats. Small shards of
diamonds form the surface of the shelf, capturing available light. Tiny,
pristine white snowflakes fall off the frozen edges, tumbling towards