It was just a sudden realization. The last time I'd thought of Joan of Arc was maybe three or four years ago when we did a brief study of her life in my Heroes and Villians class when I was still in school. I think about that time I also painted a picture of her. It's a pretty shitty one, actually. I intend to paint over it and make a better one.
But even back then, I didn't think much of it. It was just an "Oh, I can't think of anything else to do. I'll paint Jehanne" kind of thing. I knew a bit about her life before the H&V class, so I had no trouble studying her. I've always liked Jehanne, but it never really went anywhere in the past. She was definately one of my heroes, but I never thought about her.
Then one day, just out of the blue, I found myself thinking about her and what it would be like to meet her. It got to the point where I couldn't sleep for hours because I'd just stay up wondering things, without knowing why. So I started some heavy research into her life, and eventually turned her into a roleplay character in hopes that I'd just get over it through that. But Jehanne was extrodinarily hard to play, which was interesting. And it just didn't seem right to play her without having a proper knowledge of who she was annd what she believed in.
So I started to look up the basics of Catholic life. Keep in mind that I used to be one of those people that just laughed at it all, and thought that the whole concept of God was a stupid idea. I swore I'd never read the bible, and I thought mass must be one of the most boring things on earth. But after researching Jehanne and what she loved, I came to have this greater appreciation for what she believed. Then it got to the point where it felt like I was aching inside because I WASN'T at church and stuff.
I feel like there is this greater purpose out there now because of her. Like I'm supposed to do something more than just live, work and die in the one town.
And like I said, I've always been the tough one who never cried, but through prayer I found out about this gift of tears thing, which I'm still curious about. One minute I'm talking, and the next minute I'm crying. It's quite strange, but it feels good. It almost makes up for me not being able to go to church and stuff yet. I'm waiting on my friend to pay off his debts and move down here so we can attend RCIA together.
There was no particular picture or anything like that for me. It's actually extremely difficult to find a decent picture of Jehanne. The best one is probably of Leelee Sobieski playing the role of Jehanne. Milla Jovovich is way too over the top with her role, but Leelee gives off the same kind of feeling as what I got from my dream with Jehanne in it. And from what I've gleaned from extensive research, she looks much more like her anyway. Apparently Jehanne had a rounder, more pleasant face. Milla's is far too sharp.
I've actually drawn a picture of Jehanne from my dream. Although she came in Leelee's armor (as it is far more accurate than Milla's), her face was a bit different. It's kind of fuzzy, so I can't remember exact details, but I do remember that her eyes were very sharp, but kind. She also had this constant, knowing, amused smile upon her face. She never said a word to me in the entire dream in which I was stumbling over my own words, but she seemed to be very understanding.
For some reason, I was this bumbling male knight that wanted to join up and ride with her army, but I couldn't stop saying idiotic things to her that could have been taken as offensive. It was like a cross between Jean de Metz and Joxer the Mighty. I think I was all...
-Stare-.... O______O "Uh...er...Oh, I apologise. I don't mean to stare. It's just that...I've...never seen a woman in armor before. Not that that's a bad thing! Um....I...OH! Let me help you down from your horse!"
And that was the point where I grabbed her hand, and it felt SOmuch more real. I could feel how hard and cool the armor was upon her forearm, and the shape of it, even though I'd never grabbed anything like armor in my life. And once my hand moved down to her own ( which was covered in a black leather glove and shielded by the mitten style of gauntlet), I could feel how warm and strong it was.
I knew I was dreaming, but I just seemed to accept it all as reality anyway. But I'd sort of been daydreaming, so by that time she was starting to get down off the horse. I'd forgotten to let go, though, so we were having this tug of war. Which she won, of course. She got down off the other side of the horse, and I'm like O_O! "Oh! Sorry" and eventually let go of her hand once she was staring across the saddle at me with this grin on her face.
She seemed to take my idiocy all in stride, though. She was very understanding. After she'd gotten down and I had that last look at her, the dream ended, unfortunately.
So here's the picture of her that I drew like maybe a month or so after I'd had the dream. The eyes are a bit too big and dreamy. Hers were very focused and sharp. That's one of the main things I remember about her. The smile was almost a little more turned up and amused as well, but either way....She's pretty. =D

Another thing about Jehanne is that she is actually quite serious, but at the same time, she's rather funny. I do this thing called automatic writing, and I decided to try it out on her. I'm known for making jokes, and I always playfully rib her with jokes such as this...

And so she decided to get her own back in a conversation. She has a hard time writing so that I can understand her, so instead I use automatic art. Which is like writing, only she will draw a picture for me to look up an entry in my dream dictionary to understand the meaning of what she is trying to say. And after a very successful run with several images, I think she decided to have a little fun, rib me in return, and show a bit of humor as a sort of reward for me for taking the time to listen and understand.
She drew a picture of my brother, which I recognised immediately by the long, dark hair. And the following conversation took place...
Me: "Oh, is that my brother?"
Jehanne: "Yes."
Me: "What about him? Will something happen?"
Jehanne: "He is my honey. Men are good."
Me: "Wait, what? Honey? As in sweetie?"
Jehanne: "Yes."
Me: "YOU LIKE MY BROTHER?!" [Insert shock and horror, and a bit of jealousy.]
Jehanne: "Yes."
Me: "You can't be serious. Are you joking?"
Jehanne: "Haha. Yes. I am just joking."
Yeah, she really got me good on that one. =/ I deserved it though. All the marshmallow jokes I was making. I was starting to think that she was either going completely bonkers, was blind, or had really bad taste in men.
(She probably could have done a Rapunzel with my brother's hair to get into Orléans if he had existed back then. Either that, or just batter the English down with his huge nose.)
She's certainly not afraid to point out when I'm being arrogant about my spirituality or taking my gifts for granted, either. She corrects me a lot with the images to look up when I think I know what she's on about, so I thank her for that.
Anyway, I've probably rambled on too much. I'll end it here for now, unless anyone has any more questions.
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