2023.07.01 Unlikely Artists
| 2023.07.01 Unlikely Artists | |
|---|---|
| Arbor and Irsa bond in the Caern's woods over their shared artistic and mystic inclinations | |
| IC Date | 2023.07.01 |
| IC Time | Evening |
| Players | Arbor, Irsa |
| Location | Mystic Valley - Deep Forest |
| Spheres | Shifter |
The bright-clothed Arbor is taking the day to explore around the Mystic Valley of the Caern more... looking over all the various plant life and documenting it in her mind. Right now, she's sat on a stump, humming to herself while she appears to be drawing something on a paper sketchbook. She's quite deep in concentration, but is occasionally glancing up to study the surroundings.
It's quiet in the valley, oddly so. Much of the hustle and bustle of a busy sept is muted today, people either choosing to remain apart or forming in small, tight-knit groups. A rustling of branches near the cavern entrance announces the arrival of one of the residents: a scarred, dark-brown dire wolf. Its jaws are clamped around the throat of a small boar, dangling from the wolf's mouth as it trots along.
Arbor glances up through the trees, tilting her head a bit as she tries to make out the huge shape coming down the path. Biggest one of the wolfies she's seen so far, certainly... and what's it carrying? Looks a bit... red.
The dire wolf makes a beeline towards the cook fires, dropping the boar at the feet of a young man sitting there. It's a bit far to make out what transpires between them, but the man nods and hands over a cooked slab of meat to the animal. He drags it off to a processing area as the wolf silently turns and makes her way across the meadow, bounding hither and yon for no reason other than its own enjoyment. Its path will certainly lead it to spotting Arbor, if it hasn't already.
`Hm.` Arbor mutters to herself as she watches the wolf meander around from her forested throne. Flipping the page over, she goes to draw something else... this time throwing her glances up at the huge wolf.
The wolf checks itself as it picks up scent on the wind. Its head swivels around, ears pricking forward as it spots Arbor. It continue to bound forward, this time in a series of hops as it makes its way to Arbor's seat. "Rrrrrrrrrr!' she growls around the slab of meat gripped in her jaws. Who knows what that means, but it's clearly not aggressive.
Arbor keeps drawing as the enormous thing approaches... stopping only when it gets right up next to her, art pad still propped up over her crossed thigh. At the hopping of the full-mouthed wolf... and the rumbling noise... she tilts her head a bit. `I'm uh... afraid I don't catch your drift. You wanting to give me some?`
Enormous Wolf prances in a circle, tosses the meat up to catch it in its jaws. Its head bobs once as it begins to shift, taking on a much smaller, though still large, human form. "I mean, if you wanna. Can ya eat this kinda thing?" Irsa asks.
`...can I eat meat? Yeah, I'd be pissed if I couldn't eat any more burgers or steaks.` Arbor says with a laugh. `Guess I need to work on my wolfspeak more... though that was already obvious.`
Irsa grunts as she shifts her grip on the meat, which turns out to be a slab of smoked ribs. "Ya never know nowadays," she remarks. "Met a couple a' wolves who don't eat meat, or can only eat raw meat," she adds, as she rips a sizeable section off the rack and hands it over. "What brings ya by today?"
`What kind of... well, I won't question it. People have done weirder things.` Arbor muses, bringing her sketchbook to the side. `As for what I'm doing... well, this place is -treasure trove- of flora. I couldn't -not- spend time looking over and seeing what all kinds of plants you have. There's so many I didn't have locally that I've been itching to try... well, I won't nerd out too much on you. Right now I'm just taking a bit of a... leisure break.`
Irsa flops down on the grass and shrugs her pack off. "You're talkin' to one of th' plant nerds 'round here," she remarks, tearing into her food. She's not in the least bit neat about it, and has no qualms about using her teeth to crunch through bits of cartiledge. Napkins are for suckers, that's clearly what sleeves are for. "Nerd out at will, I'll join ya right after I fuel th' furnace."
<---======##====================[ Dice Roll ]=====================##======---> Arbor rolls Dexterity(2) + Crafts(3) (5 dice) vs 6 for 3 successes. 1 +8 +8 +9 10 <-------------=============++++++++++++++++++++++++=============------------->
Arbor's green eyes light up a bit at Irsa's mention of the nerdery. `What? Really? What do you do?` She poses, pulling her brown cloth messenger bag up to rummage around in it a bit. Before she puts the notebook away, though, she turns and holds it up to the occupied Irsa. On it, there's an absolutely -beautiful- sketch in colored pencil of Irsa's wolf form bouuncing through the woods. The trees surrounding are bathed in glowing green, the red of the fresh meat dripping down to join the soil. `Had to try it. Not drawn wolves before, really.`
Irsa 's eyes light up at the sight of the work. "Ohhhh, now that's fine," she drawls, immediately captivated by the piece. She's following the lines and curves of the artwork, working out in her head how it was captured. "I do a lotta things. I work with plants and grow 'em: my pack's got gardens in our den. Some of 'em are just pretty things, but we got a buncha plants that have a hundred uses." She grins as she drops the meat in her lap and wipes her hands on her pants. "Looks like we got some things in common," she says, retrieving a sketchbook of her own from her pack.
Arbor sets away the notepad, giving Irsa a big toothy grin in exchange. `Really?! I run a shop doing the same thing! So many plants, all special, all with their use... I use the pretty ones to make natural dyes, use the leaves for their medicinal use and for teas. This clothing I'm wearing... I spun it myself, dyed with the help of my paltns. I was known in my town for having the prettiest art supplies around... moved out here to be able to reach more folk.` She practically gushes the words.
Irsa's grin widens at Arbor's enthusiasm. "Yeah, I got a start on it young. There ain't a lotta space for green places in th' city, but if you're hungry enough you'll find a way t' grow things. All my people are poor, so most times we're treatin' stuff with herbal remedies. That kinda carried over into th' whole wolf-skin thing." She flips through her sketchbook to show her own work: this very meadow, in the first hours of dawn. Sunbeams pierce through the canopy of an oak tree partially centered in the composition.
`I did too... was always my passion. Got that green thumb to the extreme, they'd say. Fascinated by it... went to school for Botany and Toxicology, actually. That's when... you know the story. Things changed. Yada yada.` Arbor muses, leaning over to look at Irsa's sketchpad as she works. `Mmmm... you're good. Real good. I was drawing the meadow too, actually... hmmm... you wanna try some of my pencils for the color?`
Irsa nods. "Yeah, th' best stuff is always th' stuff you grow yourself. And once ya learn th' rites for it? Then you're Awakening plants, and you're seriously in demand as a healer. One of th' roles, when it comes to bein' a Crescent Moon." She shakes her head and flips through her book at the offer. "Naw, I'm good. This one got made inta a painting a little while back, for my momma's birthday. But this one? Yeah, for sure. I got some stuff of my own here, let's share 'em out." She fishes out a box of art supplies and adds some pastels and more colored pencils to the mix.
Arbor quiets some more, listening, watching. `Crescent moon... a designation of role, it is? And being one involves awakening the plants and healing? Mmm... sounds familiar....` she says, looking over the supplies. `So you got gifted them? Or did you make the pigments yourself?`
The sketch Irsa has chosen is a newer one. It's done in an African tribal style, depicting a village in the middle of a festival. The dancing is lively: warriors and field workers whirl about with weapons in hand or baskets on their heads, renacting their prowess in their trades. "Yeah. Though for us, it don't change like it does for other Fera. Our birth moon sets that, learnin' Gifts for our roles comes easily. Not all theurges learn t' use plants, mind ya, but th' smart ones do. What happens when you ain't got th' energy ta heal, all on your own?" She shakes her head as she reaches for a bright red pencil. "These? Some are gifts, most are th' old five-finger discount."
`Hmmm... doesn't change? Well... that's familiar to me. But your'e right... takes a whole lot of energy to heal. I'd know... better to let nature's bounty do what it's meant to do.` Arbor speaks quietly, rummaging around her own pack to bring out some of the colored pencils. The wood around them is natural color, looking hand-carved, the tips that show off the pigment almost seeming to sparkle when it hits the light. `I make everything myself... Awaken the pigment. Sometimes go even further for particularly special paintings....`
Irsa shrugs. "Luna's the ever-changing one, not us. I hear that ain't true for some Fera." She offers nothing further there: it's bad manners to speak on others' private affairs. She inspects the pencil with interest, testing the edge of the pigment against her thumbnail and even sniffing the entire thing. "Lotta virtue in Awakening. Which Spirits d'ya like for this kinda work?"
`The brightest, sparkliest, most colorful ones, of course~` Arbor coos, grinning widely. And... she's not wrong. To Irsa's trained eyes, the pencils swirl with ribbons of color wrapping around them. Certainly not an animal or plant spirit... something more enigmatic. Perhaps spirits of color itself, or of creativity.
Irsa does not look at all surprised. "Muses gotta muse," she says, getting right to work. "I started doin' stuff like this when I was five, maybe six. My tios used t' sneak me crayons an' chalk an' news print outta th' places they worked for." Her family must have been dirt poor, if they couldn't afford to buy the cheapest of craft things. "How many spirits have ya Awakened, d'ya think?"
Arbor giggles a bit at that story. `That's adorable. And... I don't know. What's the point in keeping track of a number that's always fluctuating? Not much point in stresselvating yourself if you ask me.` She hums, storing the pencils once more.
Irsa's scarred mouth quirks into a smile. "I ain't kept count, neither. I like knowin' how our spirit-speakers are like other spirit-speakers. Th' more things ya find in common, th' easier it is to be peaceful an' chill."
Arbor nods. `Well... I don't know if I'd even call myself a spirit speaker. I feel like the better term would be... spirit -feeler-. Waving my digits around, feeling their threads through the air... guiding them like the stem of a plant towards the light or the silk of a loom. Yeah... perhaps that's just the spider in me talking, eh?`
Irsa's grin widens. "Maybe, though I reckon if th' spirits had a problem with that they'd let ya know damn quick." She reaches for one of her blue pastels, mixing like media like a pro. "I don't wanna upset ya by askin' a rude question, but I'd like ta know somethin' about ya," she says, glancing up from her work. "What kinda spider do ya wear for your skin? There's so many kinds of 'em, but I dunno which you favor. If that's rude, apologizes for askin'."
Arbor laguhs a bit at that. `Yeaahh... don't worry, I've gotten the thorns before. It happens... a bit of blood's good once in a while anyways.` Then, at the other question, she mmmms. `No, that's not rude, don't worry. There are -way- too many spiders... I was never much a spider expert, but I knew what to expect to see around gardens. Which, funnily enough... meant I knew myself right away. I'm a yellow-black garden spider... type of orb weaver.`
"Oh, I know th' kind! Like this," Irsa remarks, setting her work aside. She draws a roundish-oval shape to represent a spider's abdomen and shades in the pattern. "I've seen a lotta these ladies. Real, real pretty webs, espcially in th' early morning when the dew collects there."
Arbor smiles broadly, reaching into her back a moment before pulling her hand back out to reveal one of those pretty ladies crawling on her hand. `Yes... exactly... like these! Orb weavers are the ones where the iconic web pattern you say people make designs out of come from... build up the web anew to greet the sun. We're better at keeping them up longer than some others, though, cuz we have that lightning-bolt design trick to keep the birds away.`
"Ain't nature grand?" Irsa remarks, adding more spider parts to her sketch, using the tiny lil' spider as a living reference. "Ya don't seen enough of it th' city, damn shame. Back home, you're lucky t' find a tree pokin' outta th' pavement somewhere, and th' only grass you'll see is on rich folks' golf courses an' shit. I mighta gone a bit wild when I moved down here." She snickers a bit as she finishes the sketch.
`People ask me... 'you don't use ANYTHING on your plants to keep the pests off? How come they're so healthy?' Then when I show them, well... it's a 50/50 chance I get a good laugh off an arachnophobe.` Arbor says with a gigle, bringing her finger down to a nearby plant for the spider to crawl off onto. Looking at the finished sketch, she nods in approval. `That's good stuff... maybe you'll have to do me sometime~`
"Humans do be weird," Irsa says, as she slides the small sketch Arbor's way. She's done one of the legs so it looks like the spider drawing is waving at the viewer. "Now that, I definitely wouldn't mind. I've drawn all kinds a' animals, but I ain't never taken a crack at drawin' another Shifter. We got a few 'round here, though it's been a bit since we talked. One of 'em had cubs, one's been hiberating, other's been runnin' around exploring things with my mentor."
Arbor stands, stretching her shoulders around a bit as she listens. `Well... guess I'll have to come by again, then. Might even show you how bright my abdmone's colors are if you're lucky, eh?` Then, she turns, pulling up her bag. `But for now, I gotta head out... still a lot of work to do at my shop to get things open so I can start getting some revenue again. Be seeing you~`
"Shapes, I never tire seein'," irsa replies, packing up her supplies. "Moon's high for it now, but when it's smaller I'll show ya my forms. Best t' know what folks look like, so ya don't get all confused if you come across 'em while they're out and about." She picks up her ribs and gets back to eating, waving after Arbor with a mostly-clean rib bone.
