lifeaftr | i know it's just a number but you're the eighth wonder [ OPEN MINGLE ]

i know it's just a number but you're the eighth wonder [ OPEN MINGLE ]

Who: Tim and EVERYBODY WHO WANTS IN ON THIS CAUSE IT A MINGLE
What: Nail-painting. Destressing. We have earned something Nice for ourselves.
When: February 12th
Where: Just outside the Storyteller's Temple
Warnings: Probably nothing of note? Will add if needed.

There's a man sitting cross-legged outside the Storyteller's Temple, general hub of interaction that it seems to be turning into. He still looks like shit, granted, his face a colorful patchwork of bruising and a fresh bandage slapped around his middle, but that hasn't stopped him from making the best of things. A few vials of some various colorful fluids might not be familiar to everyone here, but after everything? Screw it, thinks Tim. They've deserved a break. He deserves a break. The kids here, especially, deserve a break. It's time to celebrate the fact that they are no longer in danger of freezing in the dark and living out the remainder of their days in a bleak, sunless existence.

And he liked colors, as a kid. In the blank white walls of a hospital, where everything was drained of variation and bleached white and left bone-blank, the occasional bursts of color allowed in packages of crayons and colored pencils at art time were treasures. They stopped giving him crayons after he drew the man in his room one too many times, a tall black shadow in the back of every drawing that had the doctors exchanging looks with tightened jaws and the clearing of throats that too clearly spoke to their disapproval.

It dogged him, even once he stepped out of those empty walls, his wardrobe as consistently drab and dull and monochrome as his life. It dogged him with featureless rooms and

Fuck that.

Fuck that especially, because it means that kids like Ren grew up without colors in their lives, and it means that they've had precious few simple little pleasures in the past month, and it means that they are all owed a goddamn break. And if he's bound to be a freak no matter what he does, he may as well be one with a spot of color or two.

So today, to celebrate? We're painting nails.

Fuck it. We're painting nails.

It's safe to say that Tim's new at this, particularly when he only has one good hand at the moment, but he'll still seem quite open to sharing with whoever happens along - especially if you're a kid.

[ooc: yes this is a mingle for painting some nails feel free to top-level all over]

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[Connor gestures in the direction of the mana pool with his left hand. There's a large, hexagonal rock over there with chalk writing scribbled all over it, because that's what passes for a network here. He doesn't mind, because he lives in front of a mana pool, but.]

The rock over there. You can write messages on it - sixth side is for trading announcements and stuff, so if the other five are full just erase whatever looks oldest.

[A rock to write messages and announcements on. A bit like... Actually he had nothing to compare it to, everything in No.6 was computerised, West Town had no such thing and the Tower had a computer network but he understands the concept.] Oh... that's good to know. It's a clever idea.

[Clever for someone to work a way round the fact that mass communication was pretty impossible in a place like this]

Yeah. I think someone bought it with stories? It just kind of showed up one day.

[Connor's trying to freehand rats in nail polish on his paper. It starts out kind of . . . interesting, but they get more recognizable as he goes.]

I don't use it that often, but if you ever see someone using blue chalk, it's probably me.

Blue chalk [He nods with another smile, he will go and have a look later and see what information he can find from the rock. For now he leans slightly so he can see what Ceej is drawing better. He is careful not to touch anything though.] How did you learn art?

[People learn art right? That's a thing? For the most part two and a half years out of his world and months before that out of No.6 have made Shion mostly able to understand the arts, literature, music. But he still says art like what he means is magic.]

[Connor actually pauses and looks up, mid-rat that's now kind of turning into a weird splotch. He doesn't actually know how to answer the question - there's the easy answer, of course, which is that he learned to get a merit badge. There's the truer answer, which is that his therapist had suggested it might be a good outlet.

Neither of them is the right answer, really, and Connor's trying to learn how to be truthful about things.]

. . . There's a book where I'm from about a planet where only one lonely prince lived with his rose. [Connor looks back down, starts a new rat.] It's famous for the illustrations that go with the words - kind of like a storybook, I guess, only not really. Anyway, it's my favorite book and I used to draw the prince on everything when I was younger so eventually, my mom got me into an art class.

[He shrugs. There's more to the story, of course. Connor wanted to be an artist at one point, wanted to go to art school to learn illustration or painting maybe, but that dream died a long time ago. Now, the only thing he really paints is his nails.]

After that point, it was all hard work and practice.

[A planet where only one lonely prince lived with a rose. Shion had never read it, which wasn't surprising. Despite the enthusiasm with which he had devoured books in West Town and the Tower it had still been in between everything else and he doubts that anyone, not even someone like Rat could read all the books in all the worlds.]

You must have worked really hard to get this good. [Hard work and practice, so like most things then. Though he must have been somewhat good to start with if he drew the prince on everything before he even went to art class.]

Did the prince ever meet any other people or.. leave his planet? Or did he stay lonely with the rose? [Because it sounds like a really sad book, being the only person on a whole planet. Shion knows what that is like, and it's awful. More awful than words.]

Nobody very nice, at first. There was the vain king, the sad drunkard, the greedy businessman, the useless lamplighter, and the pompous geographer. Then, the prince came to Earth and met a fox.

[Connor turns the paper he's been painting on towards Shion. He's drawn the prince and the fox in black while he's been talking. If he's going to tell this story, he's going to do it properly.]

The prince tamed the fox, but they had to part ways. Eventually, after traveling for many days, the prince met an aviator whose plane had crashed and made friends with him before returning home to his rose.

[Turning the paper again, Connor shows Shion the prince and the rose.]

. . . I used to look up at the stars at night when I was little and try to find the one the prince lived on, hoping he would come be my friend.

[A vain king, a sad drunkard. And a fox. It made sense to Shion that the princes first friend would be an animal. Animals were easier to make friends with than people.

He studies the nail paint drawing with a smile and listens intently as Ceej continued the story, he returned to his rose at the end? Shion wondered why after he had met people and made friends why he would return. He reaches out and almost touches the paper, the drawing of the prince and the rose. It is a beautiful picture, even done in black nail paint. He remembers that Ceej told him not to touch anything and pauses hand hovering.

He blinks at him when he says the last, because that is sweet and sort of sad. His hands move, but he doesn't touch Ceej either. No touching anything.]

Instead you were the one who ended up in a different world, like the prince. Have you made friends here?

Tim - [Connor glances over to where Tim is, expression complicated.] Tim's my friend.

[That's the only person he interacts with where he can say for sure the feeling is probably mutual. He's never actually had a friend before, though, so he's not entirely sure if he's allowed to say that without Tim saying it in so many words? Muffet might also be his friend, but he . . . That one is more complicated. Gabe is definitely not his friend. Gabe is more like a shitty younger brother he never wanted.

That just left Evan, really, and that. That's an even more complicated thing than Muffet. He doesn't want to touch that one with a ten foot pole, so he holds out his hand. If you don't want to deal with something, the easiest answer is to avoid it.]

The hand I did first is probably dry. Lemme have it back and I'll do your rats.

[Shion glanced over at Tim as well. Tim seemed nice from the little bit that Shion had spoken to him.] Tim's nice, I'm glad he's your friend.

[He's glad Connor has a friend even if Connor doesn't sound too sure. Also he's glad Connor asked for his hand to paint rats on because otherwise he would have probably reached out to hold it anyways. As it was he put his hand on top of Connor's and smiled again softly.]

Yeah. He's . . . a good guy.

[The way Connor says it seems a little bit like those are not the exact words he wanted to say. He doesn't elaborate, though, instead dipping his brush into black again and drawing a rat on Shion's thumb.]

Try not to move that into anything, or it'll smudge.

[Which is the only warning Shion gets before Connor proceeds to paint rats on the rest of Shion's nails.]

Okay. [He keeps his hand as still as he can watching in fascination as Connor paints rats. They are amazing, it is magic. Connor had said he could sit and paint all day and Shion could happily sit and watch, see the paint form into pictures.

He stays silent when Connor is painting, not wanting to distract him. He's not sure how much concentration painting takes. When the fifth rat is done he smiles brightly] Thank you, they're amazing.

It's not a big deal. If anything, I should be thanking you - I don't get to do this very often on other people and it gets kind of boring to do it on yourself all the time.

[Connor tucks his hair behind his ear, because he's just barely getting used to the idea that anything he does is useful or worthwhile. People keep encouraging him, here. People are . . . nice? He's still not sure how to handle that.]

Honestly, if you ever want me to do your nails again I live in the monkey compound - your sister probably knows where that is, if you don't.

[Shion smiled] I'm glad it's fun for you. [Fun was important, at least according to Reno. He had often been worried that Shion and Xion were so caught up in survival, in trying to stop Ruana, in finding a way to escape rather than die forever when the power failed that they missed out on living. It was something he was still trying to get better at.

He nods, he had no idea where the monkey compound was but he was sure Xion would know. He could ask her and visit Ceej some time.] Thank you, we live on one of the islets... the north east one. At least it is the north east as long as the sun still sets in the west here. [The sun was a phoenix, who even knew if it worked the same as the sun on Shion's world] The one with the giant shell on it. We live in the hut furthest away from the shell, in the south.

Oh, okay. Knives, across from Tim if you're facing Shake Shack.

[Connor's personal mental map of Enso is full of weirdly renamed landmarks, so he says that like it means something and doesn't elaborate. It's less a statement and more of a mental note, really, but it does make him realize he wasn't very specific about where in the monkey compound he lives, though.]

I live in the tree with torches out front. Don't walk straight up or you'll land in the stake pit.

[Unfortunately, the rest of the traps haven't really been built yet otherwise Connor would warn about those too. Whoops?]

[Shion blinked in confusion. The Islets had names? He had heard no one else mention them by names before and he had no idea what Shake shack was. Another hut? Another island?

He nods though at Connor's more detailed description, though he goes a little pale at the idea of a stake pit, his last death was not so long ago to not be a vivid memory. Why does Ceej have a stake pit? Does he even want to ask?]

Stake pit?

[Connor just nods.]

Stake pit goes across the front, just in front of the ladder. You can take a running jump at the ladder, or you can cut past the narcissus flowers to the left and climb up.

[. . . There's also a log, if someone wanted to haul fifty pounds of dead weight over and set it down like a bridge. That's actually what Connor does most of the time.]

[Shion blinked and nodded. Cutting past flowers and climbing sounded more do-able than taking a running jump at the ladder. Once, not so long ago that would not have been that hard. But he is painfully aware of how weak his body is. He needs to train again, to regain the strength that Reno had trained into him. Since apparantly even visiting friends will require athletics.]

Running jump or cut past the flowers to the left, stake pit is in front of the ladder. I won't fall in. [Hopefully]

Our hut has no stake pit, we do have a Dream Eater though, so you may be in danger of having your face licked.

Dreameater? Is that a kind of dog or something?

[People who are absolutely out of their depth when it comes to bizarre fantasy shit: Connor. He tends to take it all in stride, because it doesn't matter to him, but it still makes him feel kind of adrift and confused whenever things he doesn't know come up. Which is a lot, because he has accrued a lot of weird fantasy CR.]

Sort of. It looks like a cross between a cat and a dog, but it's multicoloured. [Shion smiled and shrugged, he's aware it probably sounds weird to anyone who is not from Xion's world. It would have seemed strange to him if he hadn't already been in the Tower so long when Xion had gotten Excalibur.]

He's called Excalibur, he's very friendly and you are welcome to visit anytime.

Like the sword. Cool. [He had an Arthurian legend phase. I mean. Everyone has an Arthurian legend phase, right?] I'll stop by the next time I sail out there.

Yes, like the sword [He grins, it's actually a reference that Shion knows. Something from literature that he had understood without it having to be explained to him. Arthurian legends were on the list of books he had read.

A list that was so much bigger than it had been three years ago, but three years ago that list had one book on it, so that wasn't a surprise.]

You can sail? [And has a boat. That's pretty cool. Shion had not seen the real ocean until he got here (though the ocean floor in the Tower had been very realistic). He had never seen a boat before.]

Yeah. I have a raft.

[Well. He sometimes has a raft. Currently, the raft is a bunch of logs and some rope that he's carrying around but it's much faster to say he has a raft.]

The mana pools are great, but it's easier to transport stuff on the raft.

A raft [Shion smiled, he's never seen a raft before either.] That's a pretty useful skill to have here.

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i know it's just a number but you're the eighth wonder [ OPEN MINGLE ]

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