"What did she say?" Cutting to the chase with a stoic look on her face, Leslie crossed her arms and leaned against the back of the sofa. She stared at him, waiting patiently as Zeke collected his thoughts and recounted the earlier conversation.
"Just that she was going to call you soon." Zeke said, getting up and shambling over to the door to his room before Leslie's voice stopped him.
"Are you sure you don't want to try a bit harder? Don't you have anything to lose?" She asked, staring him down as he gripped the doorknob and drooped his head down. He silently shook his head, twisting it to make his way into the room. "What about your classmates?"
"You're more important." Zeke replied, shutting the door behind him and leaving Leslie to trudge over to her door to check in on Betty. His words lingered in her head.
"Damn it Zeke…" She grumbled to herself as she saw Betty staring at the incomplete model. "So, anything?" She asked, taking a seat at the edge of her bed since her friend was occupying her work chair.
"How? How did… you're not human." Betty chided, smiling from ear to ear as she swiveled the model around to see every angle. "It's gorgeous…" She said, staring into its eyes. Her breathing got a little shallower, her face slowly inching toward the screen. Leslie could've sworn that she saw the start of a few tears in her eyes before Betty blinked and shook her head. "How did you make this so fast?" Her tone dropped, turning back into a serious one to accompany her face that now wore a glare of judgement that bore into Leslie's psyche.
"Well, aside from your feathers, your model is a shape I'm familiar with. Don't you know how many NPC's for games I've had to make?" Leslie looked away, scratching the back of her head.
"And all the details?" Shifting her weight to the side, Betty crossed her arms and leaned forward a bit, getting Leslie to gulp down a lump in her throat. "How did you make them so quickly? I mean, just look at those eyes…"
"Uhh… I just…" Leslie found herself at a loss for words as Betty grabbed her by the shoulders and embraced her.
"I knew that you were the right choice! This is amazing, but…" Her heartfelt words came to a pause as Betty pulled away and held onto her shoulders again. "Please… take care of yourself." Spoken like a mother scolding her child, she gently shook Leslie before letting her go to admire the model again.
"I should be done in a week, give or take a few days for the feathers, and the correct colors." Leslie commented, lying down in her bed as Betty got up and headed toward the door, flashing her a smile before shutting the door behind her. "Sorry Betty…" Leslie said, letting out a long sigh before getting out of her bed and taking a seat at her desk.
She looked at the clock on her screen, barely 8 PM. Shaking her hands and cracking her knuckles, she lurched forward and slid her chair into place, taking hold of her mouse and keyboard as she slaved away on the model once more.
The first thing she did was clear all of the textures that she'd mapped onto the model since that was just her testing out if they'd map on correctly. Setting those aside for the moment, she scanned her model with her eyes, finding where she'd left off previously around halfway down the model.
Continuing with the design of the skirt, she thought about how she'd like to make it for a while, wondering about it to herself as she looked over at the reference sheet that she had at her disposal. Shutting her eyes, she wondered how she'd want to cut it up, how long it would have to be to flow the way she wanted. "Hmm… there's so many ways to make this look good… why can't I pick one?" She pondered aloud before a flash of brilliance glinted in her eyes as she shot them open. "Well, she did pay a lot of money…" She said, trying to convince herself that this plan of hers wasn't moronic as she got to work on making the skirt… then another… then another.
All in all, she had made four different styles of skirt for the model. Non-detailed for now, and they were only vaguely shaped the way she wanted them to be, but she'll deal with the physics of those models later. Moving further down, the next part would be her tights. In the reference, they were just plain black. She smiled, getting a copy of the model's waist and legs to make a few alternate designs; they were much easier to do than the skirt.
Finally, at the very bottom of the model, were the feet, then she'd have to make more feathers. In the picture that Betty sent, Mizuna was wearing sneakers, so those were the first ones that she made. After that, she started to model a pair of heels, just to see what they'd look like, but stopped once she thought about how it'd move with the spontaneous type of movement that comes from having a live person controlling it instead of a programmed NPC. With that decision practically made for her, she went on to finish making the last of the many feathers that she needed and attached them all to the right spots.
She leaned back in her chair, with the base model done and most of the details and alternate assets available for her to swap in and out as she pleases. Glancing at the clock again, she noticed that the arm of the digital clock hadn't moved, but the date on the calendar had changed. She arched her back, standing up to stretch properly and get the kinks out. She stared out at her room, sunlight flooding inside as she trudged over to the door to get herself some food.
"You look like shit…" Zeke said the moment that he caught a glance of her face. He was seated in the kitchen, eating a bowl of whatever he could find for himself. Leslie turned her head to look into a mirror that they had hanging in the hall. Bags under her bloodshot eyes, her hair ragged from her running her hand through them over and over again in the time she took. "Want some cereal?"
"No… I'll just get myself a coffee…" She said, her voice raspy, and her tone tired. Zeke shot up from his seat, coughing for a few seconds before his brow furrowed.
"You're not having coffee! You're going to sleep!" He said, stomping over and bringing his finger close to her face. Tired and irritated, Leslie scoffed and walked past him. "Damn it! I'm calling mom right now! Coming here was a mistake!" Leslie seemed to have blown a gasket in Zeke, her brother practically fuming first thing in the morning.
"Zeke, shut up." But Leslie didn't care, all that was on her mind was finishing the commission. She found Zeke running again, getting in her way and blocking her from the kitchen. "Get out of my way. I have things I need to do." She said, groaning out as her tone got more and more annoyed with each word that escaped her mouth.. "Didn't you say you were doing this for me? Why are you getting in my way?"
"Just shut up and get to bed!" Zeke argued, pushing Leslie by placing his hands on her stomach. "You don't know what's good for you anymore. I'm sick of seeing you like this!" He added, but his words fell on deaf ears.
"You know what, fine… I don't care. Go ahead and call mom and dad. It's your life." Leslie retorted, her frustration evolving into apathy as she forcefully pushed Zeke to the side to get a mug for her coffee. Zeke stomped over to his room, slamming it shut and locking it away. "Ugh… whatever…" Leslie groaned to herself, making herself a cup and savoring the heat and aroma that entered her nose for the rest of the morning.
Returning to her room with a dose of caffeine in her system, she sat back down and stared at the grey mass that was the model. All it needed now were textures and physics; things she's done before. She put the reference image closer again, taking care to remember any details that came to her mind. Then, with a deep breath and steady hands, she started creating the textures that she'd map onto the model.
She wasn't an artist, but she could mimic the design that was given to her, making sure that it would work well with the model she made. Taking extra steps for the face, since that's what people would see most often, she started working on one eye when she felt a throbbing in her head, and a pulsing in her chest. Pushing through, she zoomed in on the iris, trying her best to imitate the detailed work that was put into it.
"Hey sis, sorry for blowing up like that earlier… I didn't call mom…" Zeke said, entering the unlocked room as the clock hit noon. He found her sitting there, head pressed against her arms that were used as a makeshift pillow. Letting out a sigh of mild annoyance, he wheeled her over to her bed and tucked her into her bed. Leaving her to sleep, he went out and pulled out his phone, dialing their mother's number.