Symbol of Mental Power

What was originally the symbol of "Psychic" is now referred to as Mental, or Mental Power; a.k.a the power of the mind. Once again excellent work by artist Ted Selden, keep an eye peeled for more updates as I'm looking to convince him to post some of his video work and script drafts soon. Next Tuesday is a story chapter from a new perspective. I will be changing perspectives often, but generally speaking it will only be so that the whole story is here. Also of note, this Sunday I am going to start something new, so keep an eye out for that. Once again criticism and comments are welcome

Ted Selden's Comments:

This is my design for the symbol of the King of Psychic. An eye, the human's favorite sense, has often been used to represent clairvoyance in different stories because of the “extra sensory” connotation. This symbol is referential to the eye as it uses a circle at it's center and four lines that reference eye lids. I still wanted this icon to be relatively abstract when compared to other story's interpretations of psychic energy. The basic design is a circle with four lines: this is the ornate version.

Dimensional Warriors: Metudo's Story Chapter 2

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The next chapter following Metudo is up, next story chapter should be in 2 weeks, 1 if Ted doesn't get the art in, and we'll be focusing in on another main character! Enjoy!

Also note, Constructive criticism and comments are welcome!

Night fell early, as I laid down, the impact of the day hit me. My friends, those were gun shots. They were probably dead. What about Anatos? What about the rest of my family? Who all was affected? I slept uneasy, too upset to cry.

By morning I had a list of questions I wanted answered. Before I could start “Master” held his hand out, to silence me.

“Sit, eat.” There was a warm can of beans on a small mat we were using as a blanket. “Now, when you are done eating we will start walking. You may ask questions then.” With that he began packing away the campsite.

I sadly swallowed the beans, letting my brain wake up and piece together what was the most important question.

“Is my brother alive?” I asked, setting the can down.

“Yes.”

“Can you take me to him?”

“Yes.” Good so far.

“Then we'd better get moving, he won't last long in his condition.” I said, packing quickly.

“Out of questions already?”

“You probably know this, since you keep looking through my brain somehow, but he's still recovering from cancer. I can't leave him out here, our house wasn't far from Mark's we just need to head back that way and down the street..” I paused for a moment. This jungle was not only on the side of the road my house had been on, but it was well into Mark's house. I looked over at the old man, he was smiling coyly.

“More questions?”

“Yeah, what was that light? What were those things? Is my house still there? What about my Mom? Mark? Dad?” I began to breathe rapidly.

“Calm down.” He said, moving over to me. “I'm sorry to say, your parents, your friends, they didn't make it. Those black suited creatures you saw killed them.” There was a sudden ringing in my ears, like the world had just gone mute. I felt the bottom of my stomach drop, and I was staring at the ground. My face was moist, my mouth smelled like salt. I felt a wrinkled hand on my back. “It will be alright.”

“How? How will it be alright? Everyone I knew, everyone I cared about. Gone! In an instant. There is no alright about this!”

“You are still alive, you, your brother, your cousins. You are alive.” I knelt in the dirt for a while longer, enjoying the course feel of the earth. My brother. “So, where is my brother? Where is my house?”

“They were moved a good distance away. I'm still trying to piece together the nature of that light, but I can assume it had the capability to shift large quantities of mass.”

“And those men? With the guns?”

“Hollow. They are called Solarus. Souls slapped on armor, they are mere mindless grunts.”

“Ok, whose?”

“An Old being. Positively Ancient. He goes by the name Avarus. I suspect he is behind that light as well.” I hadn't noticed we had begun walking. The sun was already fairly high in the sky.

“Okay. So what? If he's that old he's gotta be ready to bite the dust by now.”

“If only, he is one of the last Immortal beings. Smarmy bastard got Youth out of the deal too. He still looks 30, and has only gotten stronger with each passing year.”

“And you know him... How?”

“Obviously, I've fought him. Not personally, he never seems to do much of anything in person nowadays, ever since his Solarus came around, he pretty much relies on them.”

“So it would pretty much be those Solarus here.”

“Right.”

“You wouldn't happen to have any guns?” He laughed at that.

“No but I have something a little better than that, I'll teach it to you as well. Free of charge.” I was skeptic, but as we continued on our path he picked a branch from the ground. “Now, watch closely.” He said, letting go of the stick. It just held there, next to his hand for a minute, then began floating a few feet in front of us. “Keep pace now, we're still going to be moving!” As I watched the end of the stick suddenly pointed itself, then with a quick half spin the branch flew away from us so fast I could barely follow it. We passed it a little while later, embedded in a tree.

“The hell is that?”

“That is a small taste of the gift I am going to be giving you. Trust me, by the time I'm done training you, bullets will pose no threat to you.” I followed him carefully, I had heard this bullet line before. I wasn't stupid and this was sounding like bull; but that branch was fairly convincing.

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Next Piece fron Artist Ted Selden: Suit Design

This one we're not sure what we are going to do with, it may become something for one of Ted's stories, which I know he's working on. If not, I'm thinking of using it as a base design for some of the later events in my stories; just because it looks awesome.

Ted Selden:

This is a piece of space armor that I drew in my sketch book with no knowledge of where the work would go. There is no story behind the armor. I think I had just been playing Metroid Prime too much, had just seen Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, or had seen some science fiction flick. Either way, I felt like making a creepy fictional space suit. I made the shapes with pencil in a book and later scanned the image into my computer. I debated over whether to use color or not, but decided to work in value. For those of you who are not artists, “working in value” means working in a gray-scale: no color. In between the metal plates and straps, the suit uses an air tight flexible substance to guard parts of the body that require more movement. I used the texture of my portfolio to provide the visual for this fictional material.

Dimensional Warriors: Metudo's Story

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This is going to be one of two characters I am going to focus on with this blog. Pahhur's story will be published eventually, and I will from time to time post excerpts from her story. However these side stories are only going to exist online, and will cover most of the events that are to occur in the main story. So, without further ado, enjoy!



Beep! Beep! Beep! Slam!

I woke to a low hanging sun, flitting through my shades. 7:30. My body ached, a feeling I sometimes get, like my body knows today is going to be a bad day. Usually I'm right, though the last time it felt close to this bad my brother wound up diagnosed with cancer. I realized I only had work later tonight, so I decided to roll over a sleep a bit longer.

I tossed and turned in bed until the clock read 8 and decided to get moving. I was stiff, sore, and uppity; so I went to get breakfast. My mother was in the other room, cleaning up from my brother, Anatos' meal. He had probably gone to lay back down, it looked like he hadn't eaten much again. I wasn't in a particularly good mood, but I still said good morning and gave mom a hug. I got some cereal together and ate slowly, sizing up my day. I had work at 5, and pretty much nothing before that. So I decided to hang with a few friends until 3 then get ready for work. My plans set I cleaned myself up a little and headed off to Marcus' house.

His house was fairly deserted as usual, his parents both worked, and so other than him the house was empty. He already had a few other friends over, enough to crowd the one Xbox, so we took turns.

As it approached noon I was sitting out one round, so I was watching and drinking the last can of Dew.

“Oy! Metudo! Can you grab the soda cans from the fridge?” Marcus called over to me.

“Sure! Code Red or Regular?”

“Either one, I think we're almost out of Code Red.” I starting checking off who's turn it would be to get refills in my mind as I went to the other room. I bent into the fridge, and everything seemed to shift up. I backed up, and the earth heaved again, like a breathing creature. Immediately I ducked under the nearest table, earthquakes were very rare in Illinois, but they did happen. I don't think I remember a single one occurring in my lifetime. Guess there's a first time for everything. The whole house shook, thankfully not much fell, then it stopped. Darkness filled my senses.

I awoke, breathing heavily, I looked around. Half the kitchen was missing, replaced literally with what looked like an Amazonian forest. Once again I felt something, like a shiver down my spine. It was telling me not to move. I very slowly shifted myself to get a better vantage point, I could just barely see the other room through the hallway. Marcus was leaning against the wall. He looked asleep. I began creeping steadily towards the hall. Then I heard a rattling noise approaching, like the sound metal plates make when they hit each other. My breath caught in my throat. I could just barely see what looked like the barrel of a gun peaking around the corner before my ears began ringing. From my vantage point, I spotted a small spray of bullets and a sudden gushing of blood. I then heard other shots go off in the other room.

I turned around again. There was a thin purple line separating the house from the forest. My impulse kicked in again. I situated myself carefully trying not to make a sound. I looked back one more time, to see no one there. Confident, I bolted into the forest. I heard yelling break out and some gunfire, but I was already sprinting deep into the new forests.

Finally I couldn't hear the gunfire anymore, which was good. The humidity had hit me like a sheet. I looked around at this so called forest, and noted several plants that looked like they only belonged in the Amazons. I began moving carefully, I wasn't sure of anything at the moment, and was very much willing to believe I was in the actual Amazonian forests. I heard something move behind me and jumped. An old man hobbled out of the brush, his walking stick bracing him against each step.

“Who... Who are you?” He lifted his palm to me.

“Ask not questions with your mouth, but find answers with your mind.” I just stared at him. My first instinct was to laugh at this movie reject. But I couldn't find the heart to, given that he did seem almost cripplingly old. “An old willow holds much knowledge.” He spoke suddenly, making me jump again. Was he completely off his rocker? I looked over to him again and noticed he had already sat down and seemed to be preparing food and shelter with alarming strength given his age.

“Uh, do you need any help?” I asked, once again feeling bad.

“Strength in age, strength in the mind. Come, sit. Gain strength for the coming days.” As he spoke he sat, everything around him seemed to just fall into place, including a small cloth and a bowl of soup set opposite from him. I was already sick of the crappy wise words act, but he probably needed help, doubly so if he was this far gone. So I sat and took the bowl he offered.

“Thank you for the food.” I said, and began eating. He seemed to watch me the entire time.

“So, you think what I say has no meaning?” He asked suddenly as I finished.

“What! I...”

“As well you think I'm crazy?” He stood up, I suddenly felt very small. “You have no respect for your elders! I should beat you for those insulting thoughts!” I began backing away, as he seemed to fill my view. Then he smiled and sat down. “Haha! Man I never thought I'd get to use that.”

“Wait...”

“Calm down, it's just a trick. My master played it on me when he was teaching me too.” I felt like I had survived a heart attack.

“But... How did you?”

“Read your thoughts? Simple. Well, simple for me... Hmm... The closest thing you would refer it to is magic.”

“So... You're like some sort of magician? Or a Psychic?”

“Haa, That is quite the insult. I certainly do not deal in parlor tricks, or pandering. Besides, my powers are a bit beyond what you are thinking of.” Frustrated I sat up.

“Okay, so. What are you doing in a place like this?”

“Looking for you.”

“What? Why?”

“I wonder...”

“Oh don't start that. I know its an act now.”

“Fair enough, but those are questions you will have to answer for yourself. For now, call me Master.”

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