This is my first real crafting job – something that actually seems easy if only I had better tools. It’s a fun job – one that involves decorations and my days of arts and crafts experience – but this time for an unknown client with particular demands.
How do I know something is cute? Do I just make something I think is cute? What even is cute? I would like an essay and thesis.
I’m only slightly joking. I know cute when I see it but how do I know someone else will think it's cute? Especially a different creature straight out of fairy tale?
I search about the fae market desperately scrolling through offered items as I try and figure out fae tastes.
It seems like a lot of them really like natural things – there are a lot of plants and wood and flowers in the fairy items. Sure there’s some gold and silver too, but the expensive-looking metals are almost treated with the same respect as the “cool-looking rocks”. Think I can swap some blue rocks for some gold? Focus.
Most items seem to be heavily worked without denaturing them if that makes sense? The stones are carved but remain stones - the majority of the rock still lumpy and uncut. The wood has bark stripped off but is not smoothed out or machined into strips. The plants still have roots on them even if the dirt's been removed. Not enough to really prove what all the invisible rules are but definitely enough to get a picture.
One or two things I’m going to spare you the details on. I scrolled over them really quickly – they look horrific and grim I don’t think all the fairies are as nice as you might think. Including someone’s eye is not what I would call cute at all! Nor is someone’s lost wedding ring ‘funny’. They should return it – I’m sure that would make someone very happy.
The majority of things being offered are benevolent and the axe I want looks like it’s being sold by one of the ‘nice’ fairies. Still there's an undertone of seriousness I have to take when interacting with this market. This right here is the real world. I don't want it to intrude into my safe space. It can stay over there.
I'm think I'm done with market research. I'm 90% sure I know the sort of aesthetic the fae like.
I also figured out how to filter unseelie results out of the market, so I don’t have to see them anymore. They are too much for my poor innocent mind okay! I’m probably going to be scammed if I buy from them anyways, this feels much safer.
Heading towards my forest I step into it properly for the first time and walk about the trees slowly. I’m actually looking for inspiration right now. A natural item a fae might appreciate me decorating or modifying.
It’s much smaller feeling than the other areas – I can see out of the forest in all directions if I actually look even with the horizon warping and stretching things. I kind of wish it was big enough to warp the edges away – I could pretend I’m deep in a jungle instead of standing in a small patch of gnarly trees.
Picking some especially knotted looking branches and some green vines I head over to the beach and begin to bend the wooden sections – carefully dipping them underwater to see if that helps.
As I work, I pick up and rub sand between my fingers slowly making them sticky and appliable.
Blue streaks of sand make great decorations…and a nice solid blue stone in the center? No that…doesn’t look as nice as I was hoping.
Slowly I bend and twist my tiara, gluing the gnarled wood together with supple twigs. I think the little twigs might be cute? Small things are cute right? Why couldn’t they have given me a better description I want that axe!
Carefully ever so slowly I paint swirls of red-blue sand across my frame and fill in gaps – all my focus on the aesthetic of it. I need to rub the sand between my fingers to get it sticky and it's not all going where I want it to...but hopefully the small imperfections are cute. Endearing instead of shoddy you know?
One or two branches I could have cut off, but instead I leave them sticking up like someone with a bad hair day. Small messy is cute right?
It seems like it would fit the aesthetic of the items offered for sale.
Part way through I have a flash of inspiration and begin crafting a mana pearl.
Carefully I create the pearl – leaving it slightly unformed till the last second where I try and grow and shove it into the tip of the wooden crown.
The mana shatters slightly but it’s still malleable and by rubbing and gluing the pieces in place even as my crystal creation pulls them together it continues to work. Part of the unformed goo sinks into the wood while I push and a bit of the portion I spent so long painting with sand almost explodes out as the crystal forms underneath. It bursts out of the wooden flesh like a parasite.
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When the crystal finishes, it looks beautiful in the way shattered glass looks beautiful. It’s unnatural in a natural way like sand hit by lightning. All in all, I definitely think it looks cool if not cute – I hope the fae don’t think the broken bit of the wood is offensive or something.
The crystal is definitely the centerpiece of this crown. There’s cracks running all the way through it and wood grows through and behind it. It almost looks like a combination of epoxy and shattered glass. Petrified clear amber maybe? The way it warps the wood in a strange and murky manner gives the whole item forest guardian vibes. The way it breaks into the wood and almost melts it gives the crystal a look like it's fused in some magical freak of nature. It's so incredibly caked in you would have thought this was always there.
Maybe I should have pushed how much effort that last pearl took harder. It took nearly twenty minutes to make and bind that single pearl into it – I’m going to admit I was secretly hoping this would be enough to give me a level. I feel like some of the difficulty was how hard it was to move my hands around the crown – I ended up holding the crown between my knees to free up both hands and still needed to poke and prod it several times to get it to work.
You know what did give me a level? As I was poking and prodding and gluing junk I felt a click. Gluing sand was enough effort to push that skill almost by accident.
I can nearly guarantee if I go and check my sticky skill has gained a tier from this creation. Hear that mana crystal creation? Hear how easy that was? Triboadhesion is showing you up. Might want to think about giving me a level as well – I feel like I put in the effort.
Okay, that’s enough about the design of the crown. The real question is pretty obvious. Is this a magic item or just a pretty hat? How would I tell?
I place my crown on my head and close my eyes.
Mmmmmmmmm. Nothing. Sorry, I can't tell if it's magic or not. I don't really know what I'm looking for. I then go to take it off and pretend to struggle. "Help, Help, it will never come off!"
Pulling the crown off a moment later I stare at it. Technically the request was for something cute, not something magical? I have one more option to try and see if it has the magic spark.
Standing up I march off towards Mr sign.
It's definitely this way....just a bit further...maybe a bit to the side. Yep!
I didn't just get lost on my own property – see look its over here. I meant to take the long way...
As soon as I reach the sign I place the crown into my inventory and then flip to my status just to check my progress.
Self status (click to expand)
Tier: 11
Status: Healthy
Skills 4/4 ->
[Triboadhesion] Tier 5
[Mana Crystal Creation] Tier 3
[The wings of fell] Tier 2.
[Unknown frustration skill] Tier 1
Yep. I was right. Look at that Mc. C. Tribbo has nearly double the levels on you. Shameful. It is nice to see how close I am to tier 16 and my fifth skill slot. Just 5 more to go. If Mc C stays stubborn that might take a while but thats fine. I still need to swap out my last skill for something better first anyways.
Flipping to my inventory I read what Mr system has to say for my craft project.
Thats it? No abilities? No stats? I think something like "Tiara of wooden wonderment and awesome magic" might roll off the tongue more. No? Everyone's a critic.
I guess that’s fine. I still secretly hope my crown is somehow magical – that has real environmental mana glued to it people! That has to give it powers doesn’t it?
I know the real question is if I can trade this crown or not. I don’t need Mr system’s approval as long as I can get an axe out of this.
Showing my creation off on the market involves transporting the item towards the physical market and letting potential buyers look it over in person. It works the same for buying and selling – as a third party who isn’t there in person, it feels weird to just send my items off without any assurance they will be safe.
The other auction house had some implied professionalism. It’s a corporation. They have rules. Lots of notes about how they can guarantee your item’s safety.
This auction on the other hand works based off an honour system as far as I can tell. The only note I see for safety is a promise to “not take what’s not yours without providing something of equal or greater value”
Like…is that magically enforced or…and what does swapping for equal value even mean? Someone can steal my crown and replace it with a shiny rock they think is worth the same? I don’t like this system as much.
Still I send my crown to a holding area protected by nothing more than pinky promises and send a sprite to inform the axe seller I have an offer.
It takes quite a while to get a response. I probably could have left and done something productive before coming back – all I did was glue some grass as an idle action.
Finally I got my response. My trade was accepted. The system transported back the axe and it came with a letter.
A letter written on bark and with swirling unintelligible characters. I can't read it right away but at least it was a response! Placing the bark back in my inventory on its own the system seems capable of analysing it – it actually gives me a prompt to translate moments later printing out a chunk of bark with the response.
Come on, couldn’t you have printed it onto paper Mr System? I feel like you’re making fun of me.
…
The trade was a success! I scratch out some of the unimportant words and read my nice response.
I'm glad she liked it! I do this job for the joy of making people happy. Honest work! I find a stick and glue my glowing product review to the end of it stabbing it into the ground in excitement. The wall of successes! First of many!
Next I grab my new axe hefting it happily and head towards the forest. Time to try my hand at logging. I'm sure this is going to be fun!