Sure,
@Rambles can make some awesome Stussy fanart when he loses instead if he wants
I did not hope this would end in making us write something. This is a surprising approach – and I love it - awesome. I love writing and reading anyway.
I have not picked up a pencil for some time now and I think you are going to have more fun if I write something rather than drawing.
And I couldn’t wait… . So, here you have your Stussy-story. Although it is not exactly about letting her look awesome as you wanted, but I wrote something that dives deeper and maybe has more meaning for her character (I made use of the comment from Du Feld, stating that she doesn’t look as old as she is – I therefore personally think she is somehow immortal, and I took that as a background). I hope you are enjoying it as much as I did writing it.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Timeless.
Delicate fingertips ran over the back of the books as she slowly made her way along the aisle on the upper floor of the library. How much timeless wisdom they held. She smiled as she leisurely approached the large lead window at the end. Many people would come to seek their knowledge, only to pass away as soon as time caught up to them. But here, their knowledge was safe. A heaven for those determined to stay forever. Like her.
Stussy looked in front of her to where the arched old window gave view over the city and the streets down below. Still, the morning smog hung low, but the usually bustling metropolis slowly rose with the first rays of light peeking over the horizon. The silvery shimmer of the towering skyscraper reflecting them in their liquified beauty. Gliders flew past her window, rushing here and there. The steady stream of traffic had just begun. And along the sidewalks she could make out people in suits hurrying past, trying to catch the next rail-less train hovering imaptiently at the station further along the main road.
What was time to the people outside? What was time to her? A year, a month, a day? The world had gotten faster.
But even now, as everything flew by right before her eyes - now, as time itself was reigning free in its ordered chaos, it did not dare to penetrate the gates of her sanctum. Here in her library, it seemed not willing to enter.
Sometimes, Stussy wished it did. Sometimes, all that she wanted was to have the courage to just let go and enjoy the thrilling life happening outside and to finally find an end to it as well. But she dared not set a foot there, to face the monster of the unknown lurking at the end of it.
The iron handle of the heavy wooden front gate was pushed down, and the large oak wing creaked as it swung slowly open.
“Brrrr!” The old man commented over-exaggeratingly as his hand guided a toddler in, right before him. His small granddaughter chuckled at her granpa’s antics. “Cold these days!” He added in that raspy deep voice with a warm smile directed downwards at her.
Then he crouched down and made to wipe the snow off her pompom hat before he laid his own warm hands over her ice-bitten rosy cheeks. The girl toothily grinned up at him, cheery face bright with happiness.
“Can’t have you catching a cold, can we?” He joked, while the child’s smile grew.
Stussy’s gaze melted a little in warmth as she followed them from her perch behind the balustrade of the third floor.
The old man took his granddaughter by her small hand again and led her from the entrance over the worn, smooth stone floor and into the high vaulted halls of the library. And the girl’s jaw immediately dropped, her lips parted in amazement as her astonished gaze beheld the massive wooden bookshelves rising before her.
Stussy knew that gaze. She had seen it multiple times before and she was to see it still many times more. None the less it brought a warm smile onto her lips every single time.
The gentleman led her patiently to the shelves in the back, slowly making his way to a specific section of the library, all the while taking care not to walk too fast for her. The tiny, clumsy feet of the girl could be heard echoing throughout the entire vault as still unsure legs carried her along behind her grandfather. He knew where he needed to look, and Stussy knew that he knew, as she had watched him entering her library through those same heavy doors many times before. Pain rose in her, as she took a closer look at the now old gentleman. The man’s beard had become grey over the years, his hair thinner, but his warm gaze held the same love for the child as his own father’s had held for him. By now, that father had stopped coming, as his father had done so before him. And this old man down below was going to stop coming, as well. She knew it. And it made her sad the moment she realised that time was going to come to collect another of her companions very soon.
Again, she looked over to the orderly rows of thick books behind her, patiently waiting for the next reader. Sometimes those books weighted her down with their heaviness. Their knowledge not being able to be touched by time – just like her. And as much as she wanted, she could not decide if it was a curse or a blessing.
She was afraid – no, not of time itself, but of the things time caused. It destroyed beautiful things and ultimately washed them off this world in the end. Because there was always an end. There had to be an end for everything.
But,… .
… what came after? What was there after death itself? She knew not and that same thought made her more afraid the more years vanished behind her unknown age. She had barricaded herself here.
Watching down again, Stussy observed as the old man sat down with a book under his arm and a heavy grunt. The child – his granddaughter – struggled to climb up the worn settee they were making themselves comfortable on. She eagerly crawled to sit into the old man’s lap, hugging his chest as her cheek pressed against the fabric of his coat lovingly.
Then, after a long moment more, his deep voice rang silently through the empty aisles of her sanctum as he starting to read to his granddaughter in a warm whisper.
Maybe those two came because they sought comfort in her timeless sanctuary. And maybe his father before him had come for the same reason. A moment can be endless, and it probably was to them.
How much Stussy wished to be this girl, safely wrapped in the arms of her beloved grandfather. She would not know loss, nor would she know longing until she was ultimately as old as him.
A single tear ran down Stussy’s cheek as she watched him giving her the most valuable gift he could offer her in his old age:
Time.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Yes, Stussy must be the richest person in the world. Or not … . …well, what value has time, if you are immortal after all… .
