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Pika-la-Cynique — LABYRINTH - Here's the day...
Published: 2007-02-12 22:10:53 +0000 UTC; Views: 80773; Favourites: 1883; Downloads: 856
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What I really call it that doesn't fit in the title box is Here's the day you hoped would never come, from an Imogen Heap song....
Pencil art and Photoshop CS2. another of those pictures that just wouldn't let me put down my pencil; it took me past 2.30am...
It was also very impatient. I think I should like to come back to it as a proper digital painting with more detail some day, but meanwhile it needed out.
(& I couldn't decide which college Sarah should be wearing the sweater of.)
....
I don't know what my story is.
Maybe Sarah has just woken up from a dream--of Hoggle warning her, of the Labyrinth in danger, of him... Maybe there was a note with the crystal. Maybe she has just moved away to college and on her first night in her new room, someone is making a point. Maybe it is her birthday. Maybe someone from her college who knows her story is playing a cruel joke. Maybe it is the answer to a prayer. Maybe she has just got back from the school office where she was talking to a hysterical Karen on the phone telling her Toby had disappeared after school that day--and now, this. Maybe she has been staring at it motionless for over an hour now. Maybe he has come to her and then left her this gift--and what parting words?
I challenge anyone to tell me the story of this picture.
Whoever gets it right, I'll do a commission for.
------
as of March 25, 2007
I have stories!
Paisley Rose, already one of my favourite ff.net ficwriters, responded to this most wonderfully : [link]
~Chamaelirium has two one-shots, one which might yet grow into something else, on her dA profile and on ff.net
[link]
[link]
and say a prayer, and prepare for mind-f*ckage with Subtilior's In a Glass, Darkly : [link]
The challenge is still open...
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Comments: 260
Thanks! But poke around linked stories, people did much better than me with the visual prompt....
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I came. I saw. I read. And I SQUEALED!!!!!!!!!! 
Girl, all this stuff makes me want to cosplay as Sarah and not just as the Goblin King (yeah I'm one of those nerds who likes wearing costumes even if it's not Halloween I was Jareth at least twice XD)
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*raising hand* Ooh, ooh, I have a story to go with your picture!!...
Sarah's life hasn't been going so well recently, but Jareth is reminding her that he can still make her dreams come true - she need only ask...
Hope you like!
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I have to watch you because my wife and I are serious fans of The Labyrinth. (With respect to David Bowie--the ultimate Goblin King.)
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hi there! Just wanted to let you know that I featured your fan art in my labyrinth AMV www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpTbvW… so feel free to check it out
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God YES! Recommended GOOD fics! I haven't been able to find a decent amount of good fan fictions since the Labyrinth List disappeared back in the 90's. THANK YOU SOO MUCH PIKA FOR LINKING THEM!!!1ONE
Yes, I'm excited, can you tell? I'm gonna work on In a Glass, Darkly now. I've already blown in the one shots. hehe :3
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I may give this a try.... if you don't mind. I can think of worse things to write about than Jareth and Sarah. And starting with such an awesome "gimme" is great for my muses and assorted plot bunnies - one just ran under the table....
Beautiful work. Haunting, with a touch of "Oh what new Hell is this!".
Thank you.
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Good! go for it, and link back!
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Will do. Look forward to seeing if I can come up with anything as good as the other writers!
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Subtilior's version of this literally still gives me nightmares. I had a panic attack while reading it.
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Can you send me a link, pls?
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...wow. i have no comments really, besides that this is amazing and you have a very lively imagination.
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There's another one on ff.net that I found. [link]
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ooh. and here i originally thought she was trapped in the mirror.
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I've seen it spun that way. Why not.
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[link]
Here's one who credited you as her inspiration for this story.
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The crystal glowed in the darkness, casting her desk in a silvery light that stretched, faintly, to the corners of her dorm room. The feather beside it shone so brilliantly that it seemed to contribute to the illumination.
(Had someone known her story—her history—they might have expected her to cry out, to shy away, to flee…but Sarah didn’t. She remained frozen, a blend of sadness and resignation overwhelming her features. Had someone seen her reaction, they might have been able to explain that she had gone into shock, that her seeming calmness was a natural reaction to something so unexpected, her mind couldn’t readily grasp it.)
He had returned. She had wondered, over the years, whether it would happen. Not long after her visit to his world, the question darted through her thoughts constantly. After a while, she grew more comfortable, more confident, and she dwelt on it only on occasion. By the time she’d gone away for college, by the time she’d really grown up, she’d almost forgotten. Almost.
(That time in zooarchaelogy, when the semester-long assignment to obtain and skeletonize a native animal came to completion, and the boy two tables over had pulled a barn owl from a trash bag. It had died after consuming a poisoned rat. Sarah had started shaking, and her seatmate called over the professor. She was catatonic for a full three minutes.)
The mirror was an invitation. It normally hung from a peg on the back of her door. Here, on her desk, with the crystal (her dreams) and the feather? She knew what he wanted. Call for him, talk with him, play his game—whatever form it might take, now.
(She’d almost done it, before, when she’d stumbled back to her room after class. The owl, plucked clean, eyes shriveled and sunken, loomed in her memory. She knew in her gut it couldn’t be him, but some part of her had screamed for proof. She’d fought the impulse and kept silent.)
He was forcing her hand. There were no choices, anymore. He had come to her, into her world (her room) without being called, had sought her out with a singular purpose. He would not be ignored.
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And let me just say this piece is wonderful. Her face...it's haunting. I love how the periphery is less clean, less finished. It sort of suggests the world around her is hazy--her focus lost to it and put only on the crystal, the feather, and her own reflection. I love it.
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I just wanted to ask for sakes wise (p.s. I totally want to read the fanfics, just so you knows before I ask) have you read the novel based off the movie?
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No, but I've seen plenty of quotes and picked up most of the extra info from fandom.
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yeaaaaaah trust me you don't have to read the book. I've read fanfics with better penmanship and structure than the book. It really only gets interesting when their at the ball. I had to pine for good penmanship in the rest. TxT it was a sad day as I was really looking forward to it~~~ gyuuh~~
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Here's mine: [link]
Total happy fluff, nearly angst-free.
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...and I've got a premise for this picture, too. Now to see if I can write it.
About the picture: LOVE how we can only see her in the mirro, and how our focus goes to 1. the crystal, 2. her eyes, 3. the feather & maybe not always in that order, which blows my mind whenever I look again. Of course, whenever I look again, my ideas change about the story I think this tells.
Had I world enough and time... I'd write many different stories, sharing some elements, all about this pic. Alas, I'll probably only get to one.
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This is beautiful. I love you, your style, and your comics!
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I have been reading a fic called "Talespinner " that seems to reference this artwork as well. So far, it is a good read, although I'm only a few chapters in. Thought you might be interested to know, regardless.
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Ffffff, my bad, that author already commented on this thread. MOVE ALONG, NOTHING TO SEE HERE.
I'm pretty sure I left an actual comment on this ages ago, but I shall point out again how striking the lighting is; I really love it.
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Beautiful! That's really inspiring (make anyone want to write the full story ><)
I'll keep the challenge in mind
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Jeezus H Xrist. Reading Subtilior's. Holy god I have no idea even what to say.
Oh. Right. The drawing is beautiful, gawd I wish I could draw like you. <3 <3 <3
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Subtilior-fic: ikr? O_o
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I finished that fic yesterday evening and I cannot look at Jareth properly anymore. I was awake wibbling all night. Jeezus.
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If you read some of her other shorter fics it can help with the nasty sharp edges. There's her 'Shards of a Dream' wherein Jareth is still extremely dangerous and over-powered but Sarah stands her ground and it turns almost sweet - and 'My True Love Gave To Me' which is all fluffiness and hilariousness and icing suger and shipping glee and still pretty damn convincingly in-character.
But I do know the feeling. Reading her chapter updates with my morning e-mail check usually frizzled my brain for half the ensuing work day.
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Oh, no, I've read some of her other stuff and it is yay fluffy, but that one... o.o I couldn't sleep properly for the two nights it took me to finish it (started it on Monday and finished it yesterday).
'My True Love Gave To Me' is adorkable. <3 I love all the goblins - dear god I love everyone's personal goblins!!
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Sooo...because apparently I can't do anything normally, I've brought you...a podfic.
Aaaaand...I just thought of something. Um, if you don't want me to use the picture on the video, I can take it down. Sorry.
Text version can be found here.
Anyway. I love this picture. It's unnerving and beautiful all at once. I especially like how the crystal is...the most real thing in the room. Like reality is drawn into it. Gorgeous.
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I used this briefly in a parody I've written: [link] (on ff.net: [link] )
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I have to echo the last comment. That my friend is outstanding work.
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I'm a bit busy at the moment, because of the holiday season, but once things settle down in my life I'll probably take a crack at this. Assuming the challenge is still open. XD;
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Challenge stands, though I've not yet visited and linked every fic I've been sent. I love finding out where this takes people.
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I realize this is only, oh... four years late. But just over a year ago, I started a fic with this drawing as the inspiration, and tonight, I finished it. Figured I'd link it here on the off-chance you're still at all interested in them. Happy All Hallows!
Here's the fic: Talespinner
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I'm another who accepted the challenge... posted it on my DA account (Embrace the Darkness..which has been renamed 'Ghosts of the Mind' on ff net. I also have another one-shot story idea for this pic too...that I'll write up (eventually...I've got 4 multi-chap fics going at the moment that I probably should finish up first!)
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