Paint and Sip

[temptationaccomplished]

Who: EVERYONE is welcome to join
What: Per this post, Fell is involved in helping a friend organize her charity Paint and Sip style art class, family friendly
When: October 14th afternoon
Where: Manhattan
Warnings: Paint. idk Have fun, don't turn this into a paint war, and we're all good.
OOC Note: It feels a little awkward having this after the droids killed player characters.
I'm behind. I'm so lost and out of things. Also I am on hiatus, so if you want to talk to Fell, please be aware he may not be replying much. Maybe hit me up on plurk if you'd like to discuss a thread that accomplishes a specific thing. Otherwise please use this to mingle and enjoy yourselves because I did not want to NOT do this post if people genuinely wanted to send their characters to it. I think it's a good Non-Bureau way to mingle? I hope?


A charming woman greets everyone as they enter. She's cultivated a certain look: what with her yellow horn-rimmed glasses with a sparkly beaded chain, skirt that is overlaid with tulle, and wildly colorful earrings that are clearly a handmade set but do not match. For that matter, nothing on her really...matches and because of that, it ALL matches. Judging by the crows-feet around her eyes and the gray in her otherwise frizzy dark hair, she's probably near enough to Fell's age. She introduces herself as Miranda Cortez, offers a brochure on the charity they'll be helping today, and thanks you for your contribution. She'll be the instructor and is technically the host.

Fell looks bright and perky in his painting apron. He's alternating between helping with the refreshments (which you may find he's roped a friend or two into helping with), all of which are family-friendly and non-alcoholic, and also making sure everyone finds their seats, has enough supplies, etc.

You'll be painting with acrylics today and she's going to teach you to paint a beautiful autumn scene--if you want to. There are more than enough colors for you to paint whatever you please, while Miranda provides instructions from the front of the class, stepping the majority of the participants through the autumn art, gives some tips on mixing with a palette knife, using the different brushes, and other techniques.

Fell will be around the room, cooing over your good work and providing encouraging words. He'd be happy to help too, if you'd like him to. He may be an art restorer, not an artist himself, but he's still a skilled painter and knows his way around the canvas, no matter how much he may downplay his original art skills.



[[ooc: I was going to make sections, but I think it's probably easier for everyone to make their own top levels? If we want sections, let me know.]]

Comments

[scotch_egg]

"Don't patronize me, I'm thinking. And I'm only here for family." Before you think he has any actual sentimental value to painting of all things. "Are you going to do anything?"

[seawalled]

"Started one," she says, in a funny sort of tone. "And I'm not patronizing you, I was trying to get a smile out of you. Or at least out of me."

[scotch_egg]

He regards her for a second. Then he he dips the brush in a bright red color and then boops her with it on the nose, leaving a red mark.

"Makes me smile every time." And he grins. "Let's see what you've done."

[seawalled]

She laughs, bright and warm, and decides to leave it there as a badge of honor: she, Ellie, got him to fool around and smile. It's lovely.

"Oh, Alec, I ..." The loveliness is exactly why she falters. She doesn't want to ruin it. "I don't know."

[scotch_egg]

"Come on. It can't be that bad." He has a feeling it is that bad, or something is off about it. It seems strange that she'd hesitate like that and suddenly he has to know.

"Let's see."

[seawalled]

With a wince, she leads him over to her station. They're only a few brushstrokes against a strip of tan, but the cliffs are still unmistakeable.

Her voice comes out weak, and she hates herself for it. For what this mess is doing to her. "I meant it to come out trees..."

[scotch_egg]

He follows her, trepidation growing in him--and when he sees it he almost wishes he hadn't asked. It's... that place. Their shared vision or madness or alternate reality or whatever it was. It chills him right to the bone to see it and he swallows and rubs his arms.

"I hate it. It shouldn't be so part of us that we can't stop it." He's glad that he didn't try to paint, lord knows what he would have come out with.

"Are you okay, El?"

[seawalled]

"I don't know," she says, feeling so small as she rubs her arms. They look like echoes of each other, and she leans against them, making it more like a reflection in a pond. But who's rippling off of who, she wonders.

"I don't know," she repeats, reaching up a hand to nibble at her fingernails. "I'm sorry, Alec. We were having fun..."

[scotch_egg]

He was going to tear the Bureau apart with his own two hands, or else find a way to bring them down. Right now though he can do nothing but seethe and think of empty words of comfort. At least she had been there with him. At least she wasn't alone.

He puts an arm around her shoulders.

"It's just a place. It doesn't mean anything. It's not who we are."

[seawalled]

"But that's just it," she says quietly, not wanting to draw the attention of anyone else at the gallery, letting him hold her as she rests her head on his shoulder. He's so bony - when did he let himself get so thin? She resolves to sneak more vitamins and things into his food. "We aren't who we are. Not just, I mean. There's ... this separate second thing, now, and ... I feel like the more I remember the more there'll be two of me. Like Wonder Woman and whatever she called herself."

[scotch_egg]

There are horror stories written about people who sneak things into food.

Her words are more chilling than any horror story could produce, even the made up ones at Abaddon House. He felt it too. The separation. The division. Like looking down another life, another path.

And what did it say that he was terrible at both of them?

"It's nothing. It means nothing. It's just the Bureau messign with our heads. As soon as...we figure out what's really going on we can get back to normal."

A lie because there is no more normal. They have little choice but to be picked apart thread by thread with nothing to do to stop it. Even if no more memories came, it wouldn't erase the ones that had arrived.