Page 8 – Valeska
So, this is Valeska. And the rude fellow over there is her father, Alaric. He is not the comforting type. Just a heads up for those who like warnings about these things beforehand: my working title for this sequence is “how not to parent.” Just so you know.
Since we know the names of these characters now I have updated the “Cast” page on the website. ๐ Take a look here if you ever get confused about who is who.
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See you next week and thanks for reading!
Panel 2: The girl reaches the bottom of the staircase and turns into the hallway. She stops, still frightened but obviously held back by something. She holds her doll in her hand. She looks at a pretty ornamented golden doorknob on one of the doors in the hallway.
Panel 3: We see her in close up. Clutching the doll to her chest she thinks about what to do.
Panel 4: The hallway is lit in white light as another thunderbolt flashes through the sky. The booming thunder follows immediately. In a reflex the girl grabs the doorknob.
Panel 5: The door opens into a workshop. Big closets of boxes, books and tools stand randomly in the middle of the room, others line the walls. In front of a window with rows of window panes is a workbench and on it lies some large metal contraption. A tall and thin man is working on it. He is wearing a red working coat and has his back turned to us. The girl stands still in the door opening, clutching the doorknob. She says: "daddy?"
Panel 6: The man looks over his shoulder, he has light hair, combed backbwards and a full beard. He looks surprised that she is here. "Valeska?" He says to his daughter.
Panel 7: We zoom in on Valeska's face. She is still clutching the door and looks very frightened at something behind her father. The latter says off screen: "What did I say about coming into my workshop?"
Panel 8: We see what Valeska is looking at: on the table behind her father lies a large metal man, very crudely made, mostly out of big cilinders. We see it's face, it doesn't really have any facial features, even though a row of bolts could pass for a mouth. It does, however, have big, black, empty holes for eyes. And a little string on top of his head that would remind us of a receiver on a radio controlled toy car. The lightning flashes again and the thunder crashes. Everything is pale blue and white. Her father tries to stand in front of his work, we see his hand, and he is wearing the same symbol on his hand as his daughter.
Panel 9: Valeska has closed her eyes, not daring to look at the lighting or the large metal man. She's still at the door, and her father walks towards her, his hand on his hip like he waits for an explanation. Valeska says with a shaky voice: "T...there is a thunderstorm daddy..."
Panel 10: Instead of comforting his daughter, the man walks back to the room again with a candle on a stand, he lights it with another candle mounted on the wall. He sighs annoyed. Valeska looks at the large puppet on the work table from her safe spot at the door. Her father answers to her remark about the weather: "I know. But there is nothing to be afraid of... It's just the weather."