Caves, caves, caves. Now that I think about it, I've been in many caves lately. It's not that bad, though. I'm used to those rocky, oppressive spaces. It reminds me of Hamblin. By the way, this cave was really hard to find. It was in the middle of the nearby forest (Forests everywhere in Mendass), hidden away under a small hill. Fortunately, I got lucky and bumped into an acquaintance who just so happened to be well-versed in the criminal element. No, not Jack. She doesn't say anything.

"I wouldn't call us acquaintances."

"But we both like tea!"

"Ya merely make it. I indulge myself in tea… or at least I did until you captured my husband. That did have some perks, like me being able to travel the world for once. I loved my husband to pie-"

"I don't care."

"Geez, such a heartless maid." It was Maggie, the bandit I bump into at least once whenever I go to a different country. Do you think it has something to do with the fact her name starts with M? Ever since Mila brought that up when she came, that point has been stuck in my head. "So ya hunting the elusive Paintist, huh."

"Paintist?"

"A monster among men said to be hiding in a cave in these parts. He also happens to be an artist. Fits the description of the person ya looking for, right?"

"He sounds… interesting."

"He sure is a character. So why is a maid like you trying to find him, huh? Actually, why are ya in Sacre Pla? Aren't ya based in Garwet?"

"The mansion burned down again, then some things related to kidnapping happened, and now the folks I live with now live in the royal's guest mansion."

"Huh. Are ya the servant of a bigwig? Lemme guess. The Summoner? I hear he goes around all over the place. Hmm… maybe the Hero, although there are rumours he's dead. Oh, I know, you work for no one and just like to wear the maid dress."

"I technically work for the Seer."

Maggie looked at me with a shocked face, freezing on the spot, looking like she wanted to run away. "Well, shit… you know what, fuck it. Knowing that schemer, I'm probably gonna end up in her palms elsewhere at some point because I know ya. So what does that have to do with the Paintist?"

"Something about the princess' and sorceress' son. Apparently, he's in this artist's cave thingy."

"Huh? Do you mean Princess Carte and Maxine the Sorceress? Hold the fuck up. How many bigwigs are ya acquainted with?"

"No idea. Probably a lot, by the sounds of it. So, this is the cave, right?"

"Woah, don't just gloss over… it…, and she just left me. Hmm… I'll just wait out here, I guess. Get into her good graces. Surely there'll be a lot of moolah if I hang out with that group she's a part of."

I'm walking down the cave and can only think about how tasteless this place is. Incredibly tasteless. It's just cages lined after cages. I'll give it to the owner since he does have a variety within the cages, but ultimately it's tasteless. People don't make good decorations. They make for better… friends? Nah, not everyone makes for a good friend. I guess conversation partners. Yeah, that sounds better. Actually, no. Huh… what good are people for? Well, I can at least say they're terrible decoration pieces. Thinking about it, it's even worse decoration pieces being used since they're all corpses.

The more I walked through the cave, the more exotic the caged bodies became. The entrance cages were filled with humans, beastfolk, elves, dwarves, the whole nine yards of everyday folks. Now I'm seeing some out there stuff. Demons, fairies, and even some monster species. I'm pretty sure that cage right there has a dragon head in there. A disgusting red dragon head, not as pretty as my May's luxurious white scales. I've noticed each cage has a painting attached to them, but I have no idea what that's about.

Eventually, I found myself in a very wide, spherical section of the cave. Its roof was expanded and smoothed out and had countless paintings on it. There was a painting of a city with buildings that reached the sky, a painting of a little girl with her face crossed off and a hand reaching for her, a painting of a… if I remember, Mel called that a car, well, a car on fire. Very vivid paintings that seem to depict someone's life. There's other stuff, but I must admit I don't have the vocabulary to describe them. 

At the very centre of this room was a singular corpse, one I could recognise as human, wearing clothes I had never seen, sitting in a chair looking at the ceiling with a look of distress. If I had to say, this all screams

"Despair, doesn't it?"

I saw a man wearing artist-like clothing holding a brush to my left. This must be the Paintist. "I was going to say tasteless, honestly."

"How disappointing. Do you not see my vi-"

"I'm going to be honest, the artists I tend to meet fall on the more questionable side of the spectrum when it comes to insanity here in Mendass, so I'm just going to knock you out right now, okay?"

"Hah! Do you not know who I am? I am Ra-" I immediately uppercutted him, instantly knocking him out. The curve was wobbly, and the landing wasn't that graceful. I guess I'll get uppercut training from the tiny maid the next time I go into the Shadowrealm. I walked over to the "artist's" body and pulled back his eyelids to look into his eyes. What a disgusting emptiness. I prefer my eyes to have life in them.

I tapped my foot, swallowing the man with my shadow. Better down there than up here, as I'm sure someone will say. I look at the corpse in the middle. I'm guessing that's what Merida wanted me to pick up. I walk over to it and find only an inch of life within him. Well then, think I'll just test something out. I put my hand on his shoulder and swallowed us both with my shadow. I'm going to see if I can teleport using the Shadowrealm.

Character profile: Raoul Orzabal

Sacred power: Sketches of Pain

Name of his masterpiece: Despair Unknown To Mendass

Description: The Paintist. Raoul isn't a native of Sacre Pla. In fact, he comes from Druena, found on the opposite end of the continent. He migrated across the entire continent as Sacre Pla is the capital of artists. However, by the time he reached Sacre Pla, the art scene had moved to Thawnerry, further down the coast. Raoul chose to settle down in Sacre Pla, not wanting to deal with more travelling. His sadistic tendencies come from the fact that he's actually a Hamblin native and was the child of two "artists" who were both banished to Hamblin and just so happened to be making an "artwork" in the same shady alleyway and fell in love at first sight.

Chapter namesake: Sketches of Pain by Tears For Fears (There's also the song from the Binding of Isaac soundtrack and the song by Audible Mainframe.)

pojlk

I decided to have a quick skim of Side Note recently, and I've realised that I don't do physical descriptions. Which then made me realise some other things. Like, I have no idea what any of the characters look like, besides the really simple characters in terms of physical appearances, like Marigold or Croen. I try to imagine Madeleine, but I can't think of anything except for a maid dress, but that's a given. Which then got me curious, what do you guys see? Well, if you don't see anything like me, that's understandable.

Also, Marigold is just loli Dr Manhattan.