the Tale of the Cantaloupe

The Tale of The Cantaloupe

or, my second actual creative writing prompt

"Write a paragraph that includes the following words:

cantaloupe,

toothpaste, 

guitar,

flashlight, 

 and flipflops."

        You may recall that some time ago I did my first creative writing class prompt on the subject of fantasy worlds. Today, for some reason, I have felt randomly inspired to do the prompt again. It's not so much that it inspired me as much as the previous one did, but more that I felt the desire to embrace that old randomness of creative writing prompts like way back when (last year) when I was in Creative Writing I and wrote my prompts in my Creative Writing Notebook, before these new-fangled blog things came to be ;) Well, actually, I did have my blog during that time period, it just wasn't in use then. I did kind of like writing my prompts in my notebook before, though I also like putting them here on the internet in a way, too, but there is definitely a difference. For example, if this was in my notebook, this introduction wouldn't be here, because this is purely me explaining things to you people of the world to whom I refer as my "blog readership", or, a term referring to the imaginary group of strangers I presume are reading my blog on a regular basis. 
       But what prompts like this really bring about are just random, wild stories, and I love to do things like that. So, today I decided to do this prompt. I have very little planning--I've titled it "the Tale of the Cantaloupe", because cantaloupe was first on the list, and so I've decided that a cantaloupe will play a prominent role as some sort of magical object, and that fairies or perhaps faeries (which in the domain of my writing are two different species; faeries are much more advanced, basically. They're the ones in the writing excerpt I shared some time ago.) will be involved. And also I know it will probably be more than a paragraph, but that's my artistic license. And so... here goes!

        I raced through the busy market, bare feet pounding the sun-warmed, uneven cobblestones, searching to find it before they did. Suddenly, the sunny orange banner that hung above the proper stall caught my eye. I swerved, dodging between the people in the thick crowd, and began frantically rifling through the cantaloupes. The man running the stall began shouting at me in the native language of the region, which I didn't understand, but I couldn't slow my search to even attempt to explain (as though he could possibly understand) because I could already hear my pursuers behind me. 

       Just as a rough hand grasped at my arm, the shimmering rainbow glow of the Enchanted Cantaloupe caught my eye in the pile, and I threw myself upon it. 

      The bustling marketplace around me was gone. I was in the midst of a serene forest. The noon-day heat had gone and the twilight air was cool and moist. I could see no signs of anyone around me, but slowly I became aware of music floating on the air, so subtle and natural that I hadn't noticed it immediately, but now the lighthearted guitar strums were growing clear to me. I crept slowly towards the sound, unsure of what I was doing but unable to resist. It was truly the most beautiful guitar tune I had ever heard. I was so lured by it that I completely neglected to remember the Enchanted Cantaloupe, its dancing aurora of light fading behind me. 

       As I picked my way through the quickly darkening woods, I began to wish I had brought a flashlight. I stumbled often in the dim on protuberant roots and tangled brush. The guitar tune that lured me farther and farther from the cantaloupe seemed at times to be getting louder, but still I could never quite pin it down, and I had yet to come upon its source. I began to doubt I would ever find it, but I could not bring myself to give up on searching for it.

       Suddenly my feet were caught fast in some sort of pasty goo, of a consistency similar to toothpaste. I couldn't free my feet. I began to panic. The soothing guitar music had stopped and as I came to my senses, I realized it had all been a trap. How I wished that I had worn some sort of shoe, that my foot might have slid out of it and I could have freed myself! Even a mere, flimsy flip-flop could have been held in the tooth-pastey trap, and allowed me to go free. But, what seemed now like weeks ago though it had been only hours, I had run out of my house too quickly for any such preparations to be made, those pursuing me hot on my heals from the outset. 

        A low growl issued from the woods, not far off. Whatever horrifying creature had set the trap for me was coming, slinking through the woods. My mind was blank with terror; I could think of nothing to save myself. 

        A flicker of vivid violet light shone amidst the leaves of a nearby tree, sparking my hope once more. A fairy! Perhaps I could convince the creature to aid me. 

        "Hello!" I cried desperately at the glow in the darkness. "Hello there! Could you help me?" 

        The fairy slowly moved towards me, growing from a faint, indistinct, deep lilac glow to the recognizable form of a miniature woman in a flowing gown with faintly patterned, monochromatic butterfly wings, which, as she approached, I could tell were clearly the source of the glowing. She peered inquisitively at my face, hesitating, unsure of me. It seemed as if she had never met a human before. 

       After an uncomfortably long pause, particularly considering the unknown monster undoubtedly creeping towards me, she murmured to herself, "The malveillant has another one... an odd one at that..." and turned, about to leave. 

        "Wait! Could you at least bring me my cantaloupe? I left it some ways back..." I said quickly, without thinking.

       This seemed to confuse her. "A cantaloupe? You stumble into the trap of the malveillant and all you ask for is a cantaloupe?" she addressed me for the first time, her faint but audible, high-pitched voice filled with bemusement. 

        "Well..." as desperate as I was, I hesitated to tell her the secret of the Enchanted Cantaloupe, which I was instructed to guard with my life. I sighed, seeing no other option as another howl came from the depths of the wood, chillingly closer than before. "I really like cantaloupe?" I tried tentatively. 
        "It's magical, isn't it?" she said, understanding.
        "Well..." I still hesitated to disclose its secrets. Of course, I should have realized that any fairy versed in their lore would have such knowledge.
        "Ah, it's the Enchanted Cantaloupe." At the moment, I was shocked, but knowing I could no longer hide it from her, I nodded. She seemed to be mulling it over, the tension for me only building as I began to imagine what a malveillant was and why exactly it would lay a trap of toothpasty goo baited with summery guitar tunes. The answers my mind provided to these questions grew less and less pleasant. Finally, she chimed, "I'll get you the Cantaloupe on one condition. Whatever quest you're on, I'm coming." 
        "That's just the thing. I ain't be on a quest* (to all my fellow grammar nazi's out there, and other people who aren't usually bothered by grammar but who are simply appalled by this awful-sounding phrasing, see my note on my archaic grammatical usage of ain't at the end of this post, where I explain that this is actually the original proper usage of the contraction ain't. Of course, given the length of this parenthetical note, I could probably already have explained it by now, but I'm just going to go on with my story now and explain grammar at the end of the post, and leave this lengthy and probably mostly unnecessary note about my grammatical note unfixed. This is another thing that wouldn't be here if this was in my notebook, except maybe a short thing to explain it for my teacher. End paranthetical ramblings). I simply got swept up in all this, and before I knew it I was running off--or, teleporting, or something--with an Enchanted Cantaloupe!"
       "Can I come with you, or not?"
       "Alright, just bring me the Cantaloupe!" I was getting desperate. 
       And so the fairy and I, barely escaping the grasp of the malveillant, set off on an unknown quest together. 

This tale from beyond the violet mist, and the much-anticipated grammatical note, shall be continued at a later date. 

factions in brief

Factions

and the age-old question of classifying oneself
in brief

      I actually have another post about Divergent in the works, which it has been for a couple of weeks now, (well, this is only the second week,) but I just thought I could do a quick, brief, 11-o'clock-on-Saturday-style blog post on what faction(s) I'd be in under the classification system of Divergent. I also sort of generally wanted to mention how we always find classification systems, and books that use them, so appealing and intriguing and how we as people always apply them to ourselves. So, it's now extremely nigh midnight. I'm somewhere between Erudite because I'm a book nerd and I am enamoured with reading and I love to learn, and Amity because I believe that Love is the meaning of the universe since God is Love (I John 4:8. I think) and so this is closest to the Amity philosophy. I'll disscusss this all more later. Must needs post.

      Beyond the violet mist, we place high values on intellect and love. 

how to sport a shawl

Shawling

Or, the Art of Properly Sporting a Shawl

     The other day (meaning 'a while ago') on facebook, a friend of my mom had posted this really cool video on all the different ways to wear a scarf. Then, this past Tuesday, I was home alone, and I was just thinking about all the different ways I wear my shawls. And then I thought, I could do a blog post on this! And so I took my camera and my Sunday shawl (the one I keep nice and reserve for semi-formal occasions, such as church, speech, and prom) and had myself a photo shoot, and hence I shall now explicate the versatility of the shawls I regularly enjoy sporting. 

At first I tried doing the photo shoot in our living room, holding the camera in one hand and the shawl in the other and doing things selfie-style. I quickly realized, though, that this wasn't going to work, and so I headed to the basement. My shawl doesn't normally seem so translucent, but that's an effect of the lighting, I suppose. 

First, I will establish for my blog readership what my shawl looks like. Voilá! (I know the accent is going the wrong way but that's the only accent the alt button gives.)

Attempting to show the length of my shawl as compared with my height. It looks almost like I'm wearing a Sari here. I suppose, if I knew how, I could wear my shawl as a Sari, too. That might be cool to learn. I could probably find it on the internet. 

I had to fiddle a little with the lighting before I got it all figured out, but this does look kind of cool with the glowy-ness of the sun behind me.  

Here my shawl looks all translucent. It's neat how you can see me through it. 

I feel like this is the best display of what my shawl actually looks like, the size and shape of it. You can see I had to close the bathroom door a little to make the light more normal and to make myself and the shawl a little less backlit. I'm in the bathroom because I sat my camera on the sink-counter. All of these pictures, like my awesome trick photography back in digital camera, were taken using the ten-second timer on my camera, though it was easier to line myself up with the camera picture this way. Being as each of these pictures was on a ten-second timer, these aren't all of the pictures I took, and there was time in between, you can probably infer I spent some time on my photo shoot that night :) 'Twas rather fun modeling. 

The first shawl style is that of the furtive, mysterious stranger or of the elderly, wizened witch, cloaked and lurking in the dark shadows of a mystical forest. It's basically just wearing it like a cloak with it up on my head. While wearing this style, you must make every effort to be mysterious. It is not recommended, however, that you offer poison apples to people, though this is the style one would wear while doing such a thing, if one were to. 

It can be more spread out. This is probably the warmest way to wear it. 

Makes for a great traveling cloak! Also works with a red cloak. Or, in Belle's case, a lovely green-blue-gold one. (I would include such a picture but I am running short of time.)

The next style, though not much varied, is with the hood down. 

look back over your shoulder as you walk away. (The hood doesn't actually show very well here). 

Sometimes, when I really want the hood to stay in, I actually pin it here, at the neck, where my upper hand is holding it. 

Sometimes it will stay without holding it, too. 

Here is where the hood part shows best.

For the most traditional shawl style, just hold the shawl up and cast it dramatically about your shoulders. (I find myself thinking of the line from my storytelling piece, Tinúviel ... about him cast her shadowy hair. It's a similar motion.)

the picture's a bit faded out, but it shows the full shawl style well. 

I know it's not that different from the last style, but there's no hood, and you put it on different. To do the second style, you do the first style first and then put the hood down, but for this one, you just toss it on your shoulders and let it hang, flowy-like. 

You can put your arms out to, like, do things and stuff. Hehehe so specific I am. 

you can also wear it a little more tucked in.

You can open the shawl up, the equivalent of unzipping your sweater. I often wear a shawl in place of a sweater to school, when I'm in a mood for it. I do think shawls are sort of cooler and more unique than sweaters. They're an important part of my fashion-style. B)  (sunglassses smiley) Hehe I'm so fashionable. I'm suddenly thinking of that episode of Spongebob when Mr. Krabs starts hanging out with Spongebob and Patrick because he wants to be cool and youthful and Spongebob and Patrick are like "we got STYLE!" hehehe. I'm totally up on all the popular fashion trends, because I totally care. <sarcasm>. I just wear what I like, say, for example, shawls. 

the shawl closed again

open again, though with my hands together, so it's almost partly closed. 

The next style is slightly off the shoulders. It's more of a shrug-type style. To me, it feels kind of movie star. 

Holding my movie star shrung together

a back view of the movie star shrug. I actually really like this picture of myself. Some pictures you take, especially with the timer, surprise you when they turn out well, and you just look back and go, hey, I look good in that picture. This is one of those pictures for me.

The next style isn't all that different, but the shawl is a little more gathered. This is like the how-to step where I gather the shawl, which was a little hard to do in the narrow hall that leads in to the bathroom, but I think this shows the gist. 

It's more of an elbow-shrug style. 

you can gather it in the front. 

or have it come straight down from your elbows. 

a couple of back views of the elbow-shrug style

Me being fancy, in the way where you try and say fancy with a funky accent so it's like "fon-say"!

This next style is the belt style. It kind of starts out like when you get tired of wearing your sweater or too hot or whatever and so you tie it around your waste. Shawls are somewhat more high-maintenance for wearing than sweaters are and so this may happen more often. It can just get a little fiddly sometimes to keep your shawl draped properly in all the drapey shawls, and so sometimes you may just want to tie it around your waste. When this happens, tie it at the side, spread it a little at the other side (or don't spread it, for a different style) and you actually get a really cool, pirate-y looking belt. 

modeling the awesome pirate belt style.

and at this point I thought, you know, what's a pirate belt without a cool pirate sword? Fortunately, I just happen to have one. Actually, I wear my cool pirate sword with my cool pirate belt a lot. I obviously can't wear my plastic pirate sword to school, for one because it's a weapon, albeit a fake one, and for two because it would be a little weird, and for three because my sword is somewhat top heavy and it likes to fall out of its sheath. But here's where I decided to go get it. 

When I went upstairs, the sun was setting, and I couldn't help but take a couple of pictures of it. I love sunsets. My window is really dirty, but you can still see how pretty the sunset was, at least a little. A camera never quite gets it all. 

I like how in this one you can see all the cool stuff around my window with the sunset. I really do like my epic window décor. It frames the sunset nicely, though it makes it small. 

Now with the light on in my room, I thought I'd show you a glimpse of my somewhat disarrayed but still utterly epic closet and the toy weaponry rack therein. Why do I have a toy weaponry rack in my closet, you may ask? Because I'm just awesome like that. 

See how many things about me you can deduce from this picture. There's quite a few aspects of my personality reflected herein, from Norway to cats to my flowy church-skirts. Sorry, spoilers for your hunting. 

Me coming back and coping with the changing lighting. 

Too much light now. 

no...

There we go, though it is somewhat of an odd glow behind my head. But it's what I went with. So anyways, here's the belt (the thin one in my left hand, on the right in the picture, that I can actually fasten my sword to) and my AWESOME SWORD. I fasten the sword-belt under the epic pirate-belt of my shawl. 

Me being epic with my pirate sword and shawl-belt. Remember in that post about me not hating Hook but just not wanting him with Emma because she belongs with Neal, but when I said I had a thing for pirates? Oo, remind me to show you my spyglass some time. I should of had that in this photo shoot! Seriously, I have an epic spyglass. And I'm excited for more RUMPEL!!! WHY AM I USING CAPS LOCK? CAUSE I'M EXCITED! 'nyways.

Of course, at this point, it becomes all about the sword and its epicness and my getting all hyper-little-kid and posing with it. 

I draw my sword from the sheath...

and I am off. 

Ah, and I would be remiss if I didn't wear what is technically actually a scarf, as a scarf. So here's that. 

Before stopping, I had to take at least one classic mirror-selfie, shawl in movie-star shrug form, sword still in hand.

sword with movie star shrug, and an end to the photo shoot. 

Thus is the art of shawling, or wearing the versatile snatch of fabric that is a shawl. Beyond the violet mist, our wardrobe is unspeakably epic, and everyone is encouraged to follow their own fashion styles.