Benjamin took a cartooning class in the Fall of 9th grade, which greatly improved his ability to draw. Here are some of the pictures he produced in the class.
After the lessons on prospective he drew this Robotics plant.
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Here is the text that Benjamin wrote to go with the picture
Hi! My name is Kaladin, and I am here to tell you about my friend Syl. She is an interesting friend, especially for you OPLEs (Syl and my acronym for Other Planet Live-ers: Earthlings). I say “especially for you OPLEs” because we don’t live on Earth: we live on Roshar. On Roshar, there are ten months: O, Re, A’at, Yana, Eelig, Golikh, Broamas, Virecate, Octrempte, and Tenilliess. I was walking near the Rocks of Relikenia on the 38th of Octrempte when a normal windspren (Syl looks like the classic windspren) suddenly gained sentience. You see, most windspren have no knowledge of anything that is happening around them. This windspren looked up and talked to me. Windspren usually don’t talk. We decided that she had just randomly gained sentience. She had a name when she gained it—Sylphrena. She also had a nickname—Syl. As I mentioned, she looks like a classic windspren. This is what one looks like: they have brown hair, small eyes, and wings. There is a specific coloring of the wings (which is the same as the ‘spren’s dress). They are about 6 inches tall. The ‘spren is always changing; while the general color pattern usually stays the same, the exact order is very fluid. There are a few parts that are blurred, part of the wind. But enough about any windspren. Let’s talk about Syl.
Syl and I don’t live at the Rocks of Relikenia. I was just stopping by there. We spend most of our time in Nilyozya, the biggest and brightest city in all of Roshar. My best friend has, technically, a huge family: all other windspren are her siblings. However, that is a somewhat misleading statement. Remember, windspren were created at the beginning of time, and most are non-sentient. Imagine having a frog. To sibling frogs have no more connection than two unrelated frogs. ‘Spren are the same way: they are all siblings, but they don’t act as siblings. I know that Syl doesn’t think of them as siblings: they were from a different time in her life. She spends most of her time just playing in the wind like most windspren (By the way, if Syl asks, I did not just equate her to “normal” windspren. *cough cough*), but she also has many other hobbies. She loves trying to get humans in trouble. If any longstanding troubles come from her jokes, she will try to set it right, but as long as her practical jokes are harmless, she will do them all the time. Her favorite place to do this is at the Enwentduay. That is where the high lords get together and do things like making laws and being solemn. Syl thinks it her job to cheer them up.
Syl is an interesting thing. She is definitely female, as shown by her feminine human form and her feminine voice. Why do I say “human form”? Only an OPLE wouldn’t know. Every ‘spren has a default form as well as many other forms that the ‘spren will occasionally change into. Syl’s second-favorite form is a ribbon of her colors, for example. The specific coloring that she embodies is “green, blue, violet.” Don’t tell her I said this, but she likes green the best of those colors and violet the least. She is, as I mentioned, about 6” tall. She also had wings. She is completely weightless, although she seems to act as though she has weight and she can carry small objects. She flies everywhere. She can also sing very well and beautifully, although she doesn’t know this and only sings for fun. She gives zaps of energy, which is almost never useful but is an interesting thing to note. She can also talk to anyone (in any language as long as the person she is talking to speaks that language) so that only that person can hear. But what endears her to me is not her features, but her personality.
Sylphrena has a very cute personality. It is very much like a five-year-olds. She is incredibly smart. She, however, does not know much. Syl loves to learn and will learn very quickly. If she finds something she does not understand, she will ask about it. If someone explains it, she will quickly understand it and she will know it. She is curious about everything, so much of my conversations with her are telling her how things work, and it is very fun to do such a thing. She very fast, and is always moving as quickly as possible. Just watching her is dizzying. She can fly to about seven miles above the surface of Roshar, and she cannot swim. However, she loves the ocean, because there is always the best winds above the ocean. As a windspren, she loves to play in these wonderful winds.
Syl has no fears or goals. She doesn’t have anything to be afraid of or to work towards. She has never met anything that could hurt her or be in any way scary to her, and she doesn’t know what these things are, so these emotions don’t affect her. She also doesn’t have anything to work for. On an average day, she just plays in the wind around Altino (the local beach), playing practical jokes on people in the Enwentduay, or just talking to me in some part of Nilyozya. I love her for being so nice and understanding to me of my human helpfulness, and just her cuteness make me love her.
File last updated on February 25, 2012.