I recognised her immediately. What other woman would give a train the power to enter a tunnel that is too narrow?
I would never have thought my banter could be the source of inspiration for an artwork to illustrate the story. You pictured Cally so well in the signal box.
It's amazing what hijacking a thread can be good for.
Among our absent members is Repertor, whose wit is sadly missed on Cruxforums. An enthusiastic commenter on 'Cally', which is among Wragg's shortest supernatural tales ('The Bus Stop' is slightly shorter) he disappeared from the site eight months later. But it was his response to one of my own casual remarks which ensured that Courtney would be cast in the role of Cally. Ultimately this was for a manipulation which is probably unique as a depiction of a crucifixion inside a railway signal box. Without Repertor's identification of Cally from the Scriptsensei picture, 'Fuck Art, Let's Dance', it seems unlikely that Courtney would have joined the ranks of Cruxton starlets.
The crux scene is one of my earliest manips in Photoshop, and I was still relying on Windows Paint for creating the fine details of the crown of thorns and the various bloodstains. Some modern road vehicles were deleted from the background, but the interior retains the tell-tale features of the contemporary railway preservation scene, including a donations box and plastic refuse sacks.
By way of contrast, the picture of Cally on the lever frame is a new manipulation, illustrating an earlier moment in the story. In this picture, I was able to conceal a modern fire extinguisher, and apply period clothing to the figure in four sections. I like to think the use of masked components and blending filters demonstrates a degree of refinement and a stylistic departure from the early days of cutting and pasting.
Following the crux scene, it would be another two years before Courtney made her next appearance in a manipulation. She was included in 'Wragg's Leading Ladies', the group picture of Cruxton starlets produced for Wragg's birthday and posted in 'The Illustrated Chronicle of the Lady Jasmine'. She appears second from right, between Alice and Caprice. Left to right, the cast of 'Jasmine' are Katya Clover, Nadya, Sasha and Jasmine Andreas. Alice joined the cast in the second half of the story.
Courtney has since been depicted in two Cruxton-themed supporting roles. She was the understudy to the crucified Julia Bondareva in 'The Lawn at Cruxton Abbey', seen here looking over the shoulder of the artist on the left. More recently she found another supporting role, illustrating a scene at the end of Jollyrei's 'The Old Firm', portrayed as a bikini-clad Amazon, armed with a Samurai sword in the snow-covered grounds of the abbey.
Courtney is also featured as the subject of a pencil drawing by Iamnomodder. This interpretation, entitled 'Tree Enchantment' is based on a picture from the nude series photographed by Henry Choi and presented in his Scriptsensei gallery on DeviantArt. In the photo, Courtney has removed her underwear and swept her hair to either side of her breasts, and now she stands fully exposed before the camera. Her slightly uncertain pose has translated very well into the drawing, in which her empty hands are placed in contact with the tree trunks on either side.
Whilst singularly 'Courtney', this seems to be a pose which invites new interpretations, and so I have updated it in a new manipulation to celebrate her return to part-time modelling. My picture uses a more recent portrait, extending the concepts of mystery and enchantment to portray Courtney as an elemental type. By using her influence on the weather, her idiosyncratic pose now inspires a dynamic treatment with windblown hair and flying leaves. The suitably enigmatic title informs us, 'I know how to get back inside your dream', and perhaps her character retains some of the mysterious qualities of 'Cally'.