"I know why I’m here..."
"Julia…" Allyson widened her pupils, her body resisting from reacting.
"I remember now why I loved doing art. No longer will I forget that feeling again," Julia took a single step forward, locking her target.
Mrs. Daniels held her hands together and interlocked them, a shadowed smile drawn on her face. "I'm happy to see that your resolve has been reignited. Continue on, Julia. There's no reason for me to stay now."
Julia's stern expression shone brighter. "Thanks for the reminder, teach."
With the eight buttons beneath the screen, she saw the 2nd button with an eraser icon. After clicking it, she hovered her pen just centimeters above the screen. The circular cursor appeared in front of Mrs. Daniels. Julia pressed the pen against the screen and swiped left and right until her teacher was no longer present.
The screen portrait behind displayed her again.
Allyson then ran to her roommate. The artist cracked a smile.
"Look, Allyson! I'm kinda like you now!"
"At least you didn't stab yourself like I did," The swordfighter straightened her hair back.
"Nah, cutting my face seems less disturbing."
"Uhhhh, sure, whatever you say."
Both curled their lips.
"Ahahahahaha!"
"Alright buddy, just try to gain more yards per carry!"
Allyson and Julia turned to the right side of the area.
The running back still secured the ball inside its right arm. Jansen pinned the tip of the bat on the ground while his left knee was also against the ground.
The athlete said nothing.
"Red 24! Omaha!" Jansen hollered as his hair strands dripped out sweat.
The player ran to the left while Jansen pulled back and marked his opponent at a distance.
"Looks like he needs help," Allyson clawed her left hand in the air and targeted the running back.
"I got an idea," Julia scribbled on her tablet quickly drawing an orange rectangular prism with a white horizontal line near the top. Looking up, she surveyed the area and saw the wall near the end. Tapping the side of her glasses, a white layer of paper emerged before disappearing.
"Uh, what's going on?" Allyson conducted strands of lightning but refrained from firing.
"Like I said, I got an idea!" Julia gazed at her screen and wrote something on there.
A signature marking "Julia Svihia".
The object she drew disappeared. The orange pylon began manifesting at the end of the wall. Immediately, the running back noticed and ran towards it. Jansen just followed from behind.
"Allyson, now's your chance!"
The swordfighter closed her right eye while aiming the target with her left eye. Waves of lightning were rampant. As soon as the player dove, extending its arms for the football to tap the pylon, Allyson fired a stream of bolts.
Her lightning zapped the football out of the enemy's arms, causing a fumble. The football ricocheted off the front wall, bounced on the ground next to the fallen athlete, and rolled away.
The running back managed to stand up. However, a smack to the helmet by a powerful force engendered the athlete to collapse back down.
"And stay the hell down…whew…whew…whew…" Jansen kneeled with his left leg while pressing the tip of the bat on the floor.
The running back melted. Colors of red, white, black and gold traveled past him.
"Wait, where did that pylon come from?"
"Right behind you!" He turned to Allyson's voice to see Julia's new appearance.
Jansen dilated his pupils as Julia twirled her pen. He walked in their direction. "You too huh?"
"I'm still shaken that I have this power in me."
"But now you have the same powers as Allyson."
"Conceptually, yeah, but not exactly like hers."
Allyson crossed her arms after sheathing the sword to the scabbard on her left hip.
"Besides, the power fits you right. 제일 아름다워!" Allyson ended by pinching the fingers on her right hand.
“What did that last part mean?” Julia tilted her head left.
“It means ‘the most beautiful’.”
“Oh…” the artist chuckled before masking her mouth with her free hand. “Thanks for that.”
Allyson revealed a warm glimpse of a smile.
“Hey, since you can create stuff, why don’t you make me a shield to protect myself with?” Jansen rested the bat on his right shoulder.
“Alright, coming right up. Gimme some time.”
Julia shifted her focus on her tablet screen and began to draft up a shield. A few minutes passed in silence, Allyson pierced her lips and quietly rocked her head.
“So, Jansen, I guess you had a fun time against that football guy there.”
“Oh yeah!” He curled his lips up. “I loved getting tackled and getting run over and over again. Had a field day, too.”
“How many yards did you give up against him?”
“Enough to know that my run defense is worse than the Texans.”
“You should go to San Francisco. They can teach you some good run defense.”
Julia signed her name on the screen and looked at Jansen’s left arm. “All done!” She tapped her glasses.
On his left arm, numerous lines and colors began to transfigure into a pentagon shape with the tip facing down. The edges soon began to concave downward. The shield contained a blue metallic base coated by a silver metal overlay on the surrounding edges. There were small yellow triangles that were positioned at the top to form a larger triangle. Beneath it depicted a carving of a red birdlike creature resembling a shoebill. The shield soon became a tangible object.
“Well damn!” Jansen horizontally waved his left arm back and forth. “This shield feels real! And a lot like the Hylian shield.”
“Yeah, you need something to guard us, you know.” Julia curled the right side of her lips.
“Could I at least get a sword to match the shield?”
“Sorry, we can’t waste any more time here. Let’s go after the other me.”
The three students walked up the stairs and discovered an elevator. Once they were closer, it expanded its doors. No one said a single word. They entered the platform which then immediately closed its doors once the passengers arrived. Suddenly, the elevator had a boost in momentum engendering the students to stumble. The ride lasted several seconds before reaching its destination.
Artificial Gallery - Floor 4
The walls were painted dark yellow with empty canvases hanging in rows across the entire surrounding. Above it, the ceiling dangled a chandelier resembling a spinning top. Bulbs shaped like paintbrushes were layered across the circular frame.
Right at the dead center of the floor was an L-shaped desk. One corner had a laptop sitting on a small table; the other side contained another in between a 24" monitor and a drawing tablet. Sitting on a well-furnished rose armchair, the lady in the gilded dress slowly clapped her hands.
“My, my,” she crept a daunting smile. “I usually don’t let many people here, but welcome to my studio!”
Julia ran to her and stopped right in front of the desk. Allyson was just behind her roommate’s left whereas Jansen was on the opposite side.
“Enough with this!” The artist hollered, her face turning pink red. She readied her pen by tapping it on her tablet’s screen. “Or I’ll erase you from existence right here, right now!”
“Do it then.”
“What?” Julia pressed her drawing fingers against each other, pulling back her pen slightly.
“Get rid of me and I’ll be gone just like you said.”
“Are you okay, Julia?” Allyson stared at her roommate.
“...No, I won’t do it then.” Julia conceded, shocking her roommate and Jansen.
The other Julia creepily stood up, sparking a large grin. “UAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!”
All three students took exactly three steps back.
Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
“What’s so funny?” Jansen asked vociferously.
“It must be soooo cute that you two heard what I said,” The golden dress figure clasped her hands together. Her face suddenly became dark. “Look around you.”
They noticed that one row had the same drawing. It repeated for each one. The other Julia snapped her fingers displaying holographic images of all the canvases in a slideshow.
From the beginning of one drawing slowly became clearer and more polished until the end. It repeated for each different ideas on separate rows. All the dates were in chronological order since the first time Julia used Nightlife.Studios.
“Did you know that I used that site every day?!”
“Wait a minute,” Allyson slapped her forehead. “I thought you used that only for your deadlines.”
“...”
“Julia, what’s going on?” Jansen asked in a worried tone.
“Oh, ho, ho, ho!” The other Julia snapped her fingers again. The desk melted into various paints and followed her. She walked away from the three and turned to them. “I used that site not only for deadlines but for little art competitions on campus and online ones! It was magnificent! Everyone believed it was my work! I got praise for my unique style and even got acknowledged that my art was finally good!”
“And then,” a light bulb sparked in Allyson’s head causing her pupils to dilate. “You…”
“Yeah I’m not proud of it,” Julia calmly answered while closing her eyes.
“Huh?”
“I was getting stepped on so much,” the artist clenched her right hand on her drawing pen. “Work ruined my love for drawing. My so-called peers were right about me. People, who I don’t fucking know, get to lecture me on what’s considered good art, and ALL THAT destroyed me!” Her roar blasted throughout the hollow arena. She took several deep breaths. “And guess what? I gave in to it. I let that all get to me. Could you blame me? Yeah, you should because look who I’ve hurt. Too many people to count.”
The other Julia widened her eyes and softly covered her lips with her left hand. “Well…um…yeah.”
Allyson and Jansen spoke no word. They gripped their weapons and took a slight step forward.
“It’s funny really,” the artist shrugged her shoulders. Julia then pressed her glasses, quickly gazing at Allyson and Jansen. She stared at her screen and began to trace around two figures there. “How it took my dead teacher to remind me why I loved digital art. How my friends are still by my side despite all that’s wrong with me, especially with Allyson.”
The swordfighter gazed at her roommate with a pale face.
“It must’ve been a long time since I felt someone who really wanted to help me and I pushed her away. But this time,” she finished scribbling before tapping her glasses one more time. “I’ll give her my gratitude just like my teacher!”
Cyber yellow outlines began to draw around Allyson and Jansen as if they were protected in a veil of armor. The warmth of her appreciation eased Allyson’s body. The serene coat set Jansen in a calming state.
“I know why I’m here,” Julia planted an icy glare to her other self. “The answer is here.”
“Well then,” the other Julia cracked a long grin before snapping her fingers. “Let’s make this gallery show the greatest show this campus has ever seen!”
Soul Search: Julia, The Plagiarist. Julia, the Artist
She raised her arms to the side while pouting an unsettling smile. With her right hand, one single booming snap generated 2 figures in front of her acting as guards. "Can you handle the power of this art?"
"Call it art…" Julia paused, hanging her head lower and averting her gaze away. "I really was a fool."
The 2 creations were polished into more concrete depictions. To the AI artist's left was a scrawny young-looking man with an orange striped buttoned shirt and black pants. Misshapen glasses and a wooden stick in his right hand.
To the right was a young woman with dark purple hair wielding a hunting knife. Her expression appeared unamused yet resembled a familiar face.
"The hell…" Allyson crunched her eyebrows. "Why do I look like that?"
"That's not important right now!" Jansen hollered, bringing the shield closer to his chest.
The scrawny figure leaped at Jansen, slamming the wooden stick downward. The branch collided with the shield with an impact so feeble that Jansen lowered his left arm to see his opponent. He had not anticipated a hand clawing his face before being shoved to the ground.
The skinny warrior swung at a diagonal downward angle. Jansen swiftly hovered the shield above him blocking the impact. He kicked his left leg backward striking his foe’s calf, bringing the orange shirt figure to its knees. Jansen climbed upward while lying on the floor before rocketing back to his feet. Positioning the shield in front, Jansen charged at his opponent. However, the figure’s opacity became clearer until it was no longer visible.
“Where’d you-” The figure became visible again, standing at the same spot prior. “Shit never gets easy for me.”
On the other side of the arena
Julia opened a new canvas on her tablet and began drawing. Allyson hopped left, dodging her opponent’s swift uppercut. Trying to thrust the Jingum, the dark-haired figure twirled left once before delivering a roundhouse kick to her face. Allyson stumbled before falling on her back, covering her damaged face with her free hand.
The artist sped up her drawing to assist her roommate. The figure then stared at Julia and ran towards her. Preparing the knife, the figure pierced through the artist. Julia leaped to the right and stumbled before regaining her composure. However, the enemy struck without hesitation, causing Julia to hang low and cover her head.
A string of sunset purple bolts sent shockwaves throughout the figure’s body. Julia saw her roommate cast lightning and ran to her location. Once she was behind Allyson, she continued to draw on her tablet.
“Allyson, you need to protect me. I’m trying to draw weapons but I keep getting interrupted.”
The swordfighter stood directly in front of her roommate, holding the Jingum with both hands. Her focus was clearly set on her foe. “Alright! Leave it to me.”
The knife-wielding assassin sprinted at Allyson who was standing still. Allyson shot a bolt of lightning but her target easily dodged it. She tried again. Another miss.
The frustrated Allyson fired several more lightning bolts, all resulting in the same as before. "Shit…"
The assassin reached into its back pocket and threw three disoriented mini knives at Allyson. She hurriedly blasted strings of electric sparks to dissipate the projectiles. While successful, the assassin ran to the side and swiped the knife.
Allyson’s quick response was raising her Jingum horizontally, clashing the opponent’s weapon. Her strength could not hold as the assassin extended its legs and tripped her, engendering the swordfighter to crash to the ground.
Julia’s heart raced at a light speed pace. On her tablet, a depiction of a double-headed spear was complete. She immediately signed her name and the weapon appeared right next to her. “What? Why is it not shooting?” The artist noticed a button on her drawing pen. With no hesitation, Julia pressed the button, and the outline of her spear had the selection mark on it. She gently tapped the spear and slung it at the assassin.
As Allyson held her hands, blocking the knife from piercing her head, the assassin took its free hand and delivered a powerful blow to Allyson’s head who then lost strength in her arms. The assassin raised the knife back.
But the spear pierced through its head, collapsing to the ground before melting into ink.
“Thanks for the save!” Allyson slowly stood on her feet, clutching the Jingum in her right hand.
“I got your back! Come on, Jansen needs our help!”
On the other side…
Jansen had no opening for an attack as the feeble figure continued a series of rapid swings with the branch. Each collision snapped the stick in half but would regenerate immediately after. “Alright, this is going on for too long!”
He repositioned the shield to level with his head. As the wooden onslaught raged on, Jansen began to run forward, causing the figure to be pinned onto the shield while still wailing uncontrollably. The man kept running until he forced the shield to drive down to the ground, bringing down both fighters. Right on top of the opponent, Jansen speedily drummed his bat against the figure’s upper torso. Each impact made no sound, only its paint slowly expanding across the floor in liquid form.
“Whew…ha…whew…”
“Hey, Jansen!” He turned to see Julia and Allyson rendezvoused with him. “You okay?”
“I am for now.”
The other Julia leisurely brought her hands together several times. “Aw, that’s adorable that you guys barely escaped those fights. There’s plenty more where that came from.” Snap!
Two more figures were generated in front of her, appearing the same but different colors and weapons.
“There’s no end to this,” Allyson, in front of Julia, positioned her Jingum diagonally across. “Even if we beat them, they’ll come back just like that.”
“Anyone got any ideas?” Jansen asked, standing next to Allyson and wielding the shield to his torso.
Then Julia stood in front of her friends.
“Julia? What are you-”
“Can you try and create this?!” Julia signed her name on the tablet, and the drawing that materialized was the running back.
“You’re making this too easy for me!” The other Julia snapped her fingers. However, the creation process halted and only formed smudges in the shape of a sphere. “What the hell is this?! What did you do?!”
“Aw, what’s wrong? Can’t use your little wand anymore?” Julia pouted her lips, twirling her pen. “I won’t mimic anyone else’s work ever again!”
The third button on the tablet she pressed produced a transparent layer right above her current canvas. The artist signed her name once more, materializing three scythes above the students. Pressing the button on her pen, Julia took one of the three and threw it at the scrawny figure.
That figure instinctively swung its plastic stick like throwing an American football. The collision impact forced the scythe to the ground. Both figures immediately ran toward the three students.
Julia selected the second scythe and firmly pressed the tip of the drawing pen on her tablet, ready to deliver a strike. However, Jansen jumped in front of her, holding the shield forward. Allyson crossed her Jingum against the feeble future’s plastic weapon. The assassin snuck from the side. But then, Allyson gathered strength in her right hand to maintain the sword’s balance and used her free hand to direct a small lightning bolt, stunning the assassin in place.
Jansen saw an opening and rammed into the thinly-shaped figure with his shield. He and Allyson pierced the figure’s painted body with their weapons, melting the figure. The paint traversed across from their shoes and merged with the paralyzed assassin. The notable difference was that patches of the feeble figure’s paint were sporadic across the assassin’s body.
No longer stunned, the assassin sprinted at a greater velocity and struck both Allyson and Jansen nearly simultaneously, forcing them to disconnect their weapons. The assassin clawed its knife at Allyson several times, but the swordless woman managed to dodge each strike. Jansen ran towards the assassin and extended his left arm out.
THUD!!
He collided with Allyson, bringing their bodies to the floor. Allyson had crossed her arms to absorb the impact.
“You ok?” Jansen gripped Allyson’s right hand and brought her to her two feet. “I didn’t mean to run into you.”
“I’m fine,” Allyson rubbed her right forearm while her wrinkled face said otherwise. The assassin turned around and ran towards Julia. “Julia! Watch out!”
“Allyson! Fire lightning at me!”
“The fuck you say?!”
“Just do it!”
“Ugh, damn it! AAAHHH!!” One bolt of violet lightning sparked and discharged in the direction of her roommate.
“Come on, just a little closer…” She unselected her scythe and mainly focused on the assassin. Julia tapped her glasses after a quick glance at the projectile coming at her and signed her name on the tablet once more. The assassin was merely a few feet away from the artist. However, a clear barrier with a thistle-colored outline in the shape of a rectangle generated in front of her. The impact from the lightning redirected itself to the assassin, freezing the body in place again. Julia selected the scythe and swiped the tablet from the right, slicing the assassin in half from her drawn weapon.
“Yeah!” Allyson raised her left fist in the air. “That was so cool!”
“What the hell?!” The other Julia, failing to rip her hair out, hollered. “No matter, I’ll just make more-”
“Gotcha!” Jansen appeared from behind and delivered the bat right to the woman’s hands.
“AAHH! You son of a-” She was hit with Allyson’s lightning bolt from behind. “Why you…” Unbeknownst to her, Jansen grabbed both of her wrists and placed them behind her back. He had clamped them together.
“Julia! Go!”
The artist grabbed the last scythe with her selection tool. Concentrating her focus and motioning the pen in a circular motion, the scythe followed its movement. Once the pen slid vertically forward, the scythe launched itself, pinning the at the target.
Jansen immediately released his grip and leaped to the side before coming into contact with the drawn weapon. The other Julia attempted to move out of the way but had her left oblique deeply cut.
“AAAAAAHHHHH!!!” She fell on her left knee, covering the inflicted wound with both hands.
“A direct hit! Way to go, Julia!” Allyson cheered, turning to face her roommate. “Julia?”
Julia fell onto her knees, dropping her drawing tablet and pen. Both of her hands covered her left oblique while her face hung low. Julia pulled back her hands from her side, dilating her pupils and turning her entire body pale upon what she saw.
Blood.