Painting that background was one time consuming task. I’ve never found a program that could accurately simulate oil paint. Of course I haven’t tried in years. Maybe advances have been made. All I know is that most of the tools, when used the way I would use a brush, lock my system up for minutes at a time. In spite of that I think this turned out okay. I just used the tricks I know in Photoshop to hobble along until I was satisfied. Of course that entailed going back in several times, and a desire even now to tweak things some more… But sometimes you just have to present what you have and live with your limitations.
Jessica’s first line begins with ‘t’s. This is something that Kansas say sometimes instead of a proper it’s. Basically it ads a TS sound to the front of the next word. It would sound a bit like “tspinna mild summer.” I suspect people in other regions also use this advanced contraction, but I know my friends and family use it.
The better part of Kansas is like this; very flat, very big sky. I think sometimes that you have to have grown up there, or a place like that, to appreciate it. It’s the kind of scenery that puts a human in their place. You are a very small thing in a very big world and, at night, you’re an infinitely smaller thing in and endless universe. Unfortunately you have to drive a fair way away from civilization to see the sky properly these days. Our fear of darkness keeps pushing the stars away a little more every year.
My old town is like a gleaming turd on the plains these days. It’s slowly turning into a large city. Filling with human scum around the edges. The price of progress, I guess… It wasn’t great before, but as new areas are developed old ones deteriorate. Places I used to frequent look as safe as Mos Eisley spaceport now. Fun places to go if you aren’t attached to your limbs. I got out at a good time. it’s a place you might enjoy visiting, but you wouldn’t want to live there. At least I wouldn’t. I like having some distance between myself and the next person over. Distance makes for better neighbors, in my experience. I’m not thrilled with a 30 minute drive to the nearest store, but it’s a give and take. I can’t remember the last time I heard a police siren.
Maybe someone still living there would have a different perspective, but from the outside things look shiny, but grim. The land surrounding the towns though… still beautiful. There’s more things stuck here and there, but it’s still pretty open. Not the kind of thing most people can appreciate.
