3) Portrait of a Black Hollyhock

A few days had passed since Liam’s meeting with the king.

The king posted him in the castle’s nicest available room to live and work from. His Majesty is elated to see Liam’s work, after his ankle heals of course.

This was less a ‘room’ and more akin to an 8 figure rooftop condo. There were several bedrooms, bathrooms, a fully equipped kitchen, a massive open plan living area with floor to ceiling bookshelves, and in the center of it all was a courtyard with lush hanging plants and a pool.

Liam had no time to grieve his own death because he’d been living it up the last few days... because he knew his life was about to end… again. He was certain that there was no way his middling pixel art skill would live up to the king’s expectations, but he wouldn’t forfeit his new life without trying.

After knocking several times Cecilia reached for the door knob and twisted. It was unlocked. She let herself in.

‘Liam?’ she called. No answer.

After searching for a bit, she stepped out into the courtyard. ‘Liam?’... Ah, there he is.

In the pool is a sleeping Liam, wedged into a donut shaped pool floatie. His neck arched back, sunglasses crooked on his face, mouth wide open letting out the snores of the damned. And you bet there’s some empty bottles of the kingdom’s finest ale scattered about, both on the edge of, and floating in, the pool.

She found it funny and somewhat impressive, but now wasn’t the time. She took an open top watering can intended to water the plants around the gargantuan room, filled it with pool water and splashed Liam with it. ‘Up and at ‘em!’

Liam flailed and sunk deeper into the donut he was wedged in. The now awoken Liam looks for the source of the water and spots Cecilia putting the watering can down. She was wearing a black tank-top and some black, baggy, high waisted pants held up by a belt. Strangely modern looking clothes, but she looked comfortable.

‘Oooh! Hey, Cici!’ Liam greeted with an affectionate croak, his throat raw from snoring and drinking. ‘Sad you couldn’t join last night! It was fun!’

‘Yeah, I can see that. Now get up. I brought the stuff you asked for.’ She announced as she left the courtyard.

After showering and getting his coffee ready; Liam meets Cecilia in the dining room. While he was in the shower she wheeled in a cart of art supplies he had asked for.

As he walks in he notices Cecilia had lit some of the lanterns around the room for a bit of extra light to compensate for the late day sun. Small flames emit from her hand, he can’t tell what she’s holding to produce them though.

After unloading some stuff from the cart to the table; Liam sat down and started assessing what he could do. All the while Cecilia stared him down from the other side of the table with furrowed brows.

‘Thanks for bringing this stuff, I appreciate it.’ Liam said earnestly.

She stared him down even harder.

Liam pretended not to notice for a bit as he fiddled about with some of the art implements she brought, but her un-yielding stare piqued his curiosity. He took his attention away from what he was doing, looked her in the eyes; ‘Yes?’

‘Did you die in the 80s?’ she asked straight out.

‘Oh, uhh… no. I died in 2025.’ Liam answered after a slight pause to consider why she’d ask that.

Her expression became even more perplexed at the mention of the year.

‘So… did technology decline after 2009?’ she asks with slight worry in her voice.

He ponders how to answer without injecting too much of his own personal bias against some recent technologies and developments.

‘Uh, in some ways, yes? But for the most part things have continued to advance.’ he decides to answer.

‘Ok… then why pixel art? Growing up I was sure games would only look better and better.’ she asks, eyes narrowing again.

He cracks a small smile as he tries to contain his excitement about the topic. Doing his best to not give her a lecture about the entire history of the independent games movement, he distilled it the best he could;

‘Well, in the early 2010s games using somewhat modernized pixel art, made by small teams, became popular. It was just something different, and now… or at least up to my death, it was just… normal. No one would bat an eye seeing some pixel art game featured next to some super modern, realistic one. I personally used it because I just found it fun, but it was also economical; if you didn’t care about perfection you could make a lot of it fast.

Unsatisfied with his answer she starts; ‘I don’t know… I never really liked it myself growing up, it just looked so primitive. My dad grew up with it and tried to get me to like it and I kind of did, but once we got a modern console in the house; that was it. 3D graphics were a little rough from what I remember, but they were so much better than the old 2D stuff.’

The whole time she spoke Liam smiled. He was just happy she was entertaining the conversation.

‘Yeah, it’s not for everyone. I get it.’ he answers. ‘What games did you grow up with?’

She proceeds to excitedly list off a bunch of games from the 2000s, all of which Liam was at least aware of if he hadn’t played them himself.

‘But my favorite one,’ she continues, ‘was this game… I can’t remember the name for the life of me, but it was this one where there were a bunch of giant monsters and you had to climb up them to hit their weak spots to kill them without being flung off in the process. My dad and I passed the controller back and forth the whole time. It was so cool. I wish I could play it again.’ Her eyes sparkled with nostalgia.

‘Oh yeah, that’s [redacted]! I love that one!’ Liam exclaimed.

Hearing the name was such a relief for Cecilia. It had been on the tip of her tongue for years, but finally hearing it released so much tension.

They continued to talk about games for a while until the conversation evolved into just talking about their lives. They found out they’re the same age, she’s only a month older. She died in 2009, a whole 16 years before he did. She didn’t get to grow up in their world, but she at least got that chance here.

After a break in the conversation, Liam asks; ‘So are there other people like us? From our world?’

‘Including you and me; there’ve been 127 registered Eartherners since I got here. That number should be much larger, but…’ she has a somber pause, but continues; ’I’d wager there are more than 10 times the number of unregistered Eartherners. But yeah...’

‘Some of them have had knowledge or skill to offer, which the king was receptive to as you can gather. But unfortunately most of the knowledge brought over isn’t as well received by the general public, so most of it has stayed within the castle.’ She stops to think,’ A clothing designer brought over some ‘modern’ clothing sensibilities. The pain-killers we’ve been giving you for your ankle are from a pharmacist that passed over. This room and most others in the castle were actually designed by an architect that had passed into this world 5 years back. The king appreciated his work so much he awarded him some nice land a short way west of the city.’

‘Ah, yeah I was wondering why this place looked so modern.’ he says with some level of awe. She nods.

‘Strangely you’re the first person my age… Hell, you’re younger than me.’ she remarks. ’All of the people who’ve passed to this world have been at least 20 years older than me. Even in the unregistered folk I’ve come across, they’re all older.’

‘Well, maybe you’re just 20 years older?’ he says with a sly smile. Was he trying to get a rise out of her?

She pauses at the thought, her face; shocked. ‘Well you got me there. 16 years is a long time...’ her voice slowly fades into the black hole of the revelation.

Through their conversation Liam had been working on something with the supplies in front of him.

The other day he and Cecilia had managed to explain roughly what pixel art was to the king and that it wouldn’t be possible to produce in the same way in this world due to the lack of any kind of electronic display. The king remarked that the concept of making pictures out of small squares reminded him of arranging blocks to make patterns and pictures as a young boy, or cross stitching, among other things. The king wasn’t dissuaded by the lack of implements, he simply asked Liam to give it his best shot with what support could be provided.

Liam finishes some final touches and holds it from arm’s length, judging it one final time. He wasn’t completely satisfied with the result, but he didn’t think it was bad for a first attempt in a new medium.

Cecilia, had her cheek resting on her fist. She’d been staring into the middle distance for a while now towards the wall of bookshelves, not focused on anything. She was lost in thought, thinking of the world she once called home.

Just then, she noticed from the corner of her eye; Liam turning his work to her. She turned to see…

It was a portrait of her. Made of small squares.

Her heart skipped a beat.

It wasn’t the best piece of art she’d seen. She’d say most of the pieces around the castle, as gaudy as she thought they were, were at least technically better. And as pixel art; some of the squares were misaligned, some colours bled together, and the composition was a little off. But… It was charming. Definitely not what she was expecting.

She couldn’t help but laugh.

In her fit of laughter; she looked up to Liam’s eyes and saw his embarrassment.

She felt a little bad, but reassured him wholeheartedly; ‘I love it!’