Özge Çelikkale
2019 Fall
ARCH470 Digital Design Studio
Wickhills is a town located far far away from the lands we know, far far away from the time we live in. It has two sides, the east mountain side where the high-end class lives and the west river side where the peasants live. They all live on separate sides and almost never encounter. The gap between the culture and the lifestyles of the people is huge and for now, it is enough for you to know that. Every story needs a main persona and for this one, our man is Alderic. A law student in the local institution who is dreaming of being able to connect the two sides of Wickhills and overcome all the differences among the folk. He even tried to raise some awareness among the mountainside but he did not get any result. Our story begins with a murder of Jovan, of the students who is living on the mountain side. One of the room-mates of Alderic, who is also a student. Alderic decides to investigate this incident since he is a law student and has a considerable network of people he can reach if needed. So he began with the investigation. After considerable amount of time of questioning the surroundings and gathering information he was coming across with one name repeatedly, Laron. He was an uncanny and dangerous guy. One would not want to stand on his way. He has no emotions, no sense of empathy or human sentiment. According to the information he gathered, Laron was living on the riverside. He had to pass thorugh the river and needed more information on where this Laron guy is. He had an address of an inn that Laron was last seen. It was getting dark. The dim light of the dawn was hiding shadows that might have following him. He felt even more insecure when he turned the corner to the inn. He checked in, the innkeeper gave him a strange look, almost as if he knew who he was. He climbed upstaris heading towards the room of Laron. The light was off, he must have been out. Which would give him some time to investigate the room but he had to be alert to leave in the slightest doubt. The room was a mess. There were all kinds of stuff all over the place, obviously stolen. He began to dig through the clothes and everything that he could find. After about 15 minutes it was almost night time when he found Jovan’s pocket watch, had engraved initials of him. What he also found is his long gone shirts, ripped and partially covered in blood. As he stopped for a moment to understand all the things he just found, he looked out of the window for a moment and saw the moonlight filling the room, reflecting on a shiny object. He picked it up. It was his tag. It was a gift from his father and he lost it months ago. He was thinking, how many of his belongings could be here. Who was Laron? Was it him? He stood up in the room he entered as Alderic, took all the belongings and left as Laron. He left the inn as quickly as possible. He walked towards the river. He had to gather his wits, he climbed to the bridge and looked up to the mountain side, hesitating to continue. He did not belong there when he was a criminal. He looked back to the river side, did he belong there then? No way! Even though he has been known as Laron and actually being terrified of, how could a law student coming from the mountain side fit in to the river side? He felt like he did not belong to neither and also belonged to both. Then it striked him. He was carrying two personalities with him all along and managed to survive on both sides as a respected person, that meant that two sides can manage to live together and carry out a pieceful environment if they worked hard enough. He had found the missing piece that he had been lacking for so long. He had both sides’ perspectives in his mind and now he was in a better position than all of them because he was able to understand them all. He could be the one to show how to accept the differences and learn to live together without harming one another. He could finally take a deep relieved breath and jumped off the bridge, diving into the cold water of Wickhills River. Letting the water coming from both the mountain and the river side and let it drag his body in the slow stream. Thinking of how he would be able to bridge the two sides, finally he had the power to accom-plishing his dream, to bridge all those people, serving them all. A way to make both sides happy and keep the peace in the Wickhills.