[PRP] Transitions (Ke'awkato x Kal'eido)

[Dulcea]

Ke'aw had backpedaled her way out of practicing her craft in public whenever possible for so long that it hardly seemed strange anymore. Suddenly it was as if she created masterpieces out of thin air, or so it seemed. But she knew the truth that hid behind the veil of showmanship and fibs. She knew that her sweet hero Kal'eido was really responsible.

She hadn't known him long but already she was learning more than she had in her entire apprenticeship. If this charade went on long enough she might actually be able to distinguish herself as a real artist. Maybe. She wasn't entirely sure she was cut out for it.

A new canvas was set before them. Tucked away in the woods far from the mother tree she had amassed a pile of clays and stones of varying colors. She wanted to learn how to make beads. Not just the simple sort her mentor had taught her. She wanted to learn to carve the beads that told stories, something beautiful and wonderful. Such a small medium though, her previous attempts had been crude and clumsy. But if anyone could bring beauty from this raw substance, she was sure he could.  

[Talencia]

Sometimes her faith in him was daunting. He sat staring at the lumps of clay and piles of small rocks and wracked his brain for how to resolve this. Telling her he wasn't really any good at bead-making would have been easy enough, of course... but it would have devastated her, and perhaps even ruined her trust in him. He simply couldn't risk it. No, instead he'd have to think up how they could make these into what she wanted... somehow.

What he really knew was painting, truthfully. He supposed the advantage of not actually being a crafter is that he didn't have to try to impress anyone with more than one kind of art. This... this was going to be entirely new to him. He only hoped he could be of some use to her in it!

"Um.. can you show me how you usually make one?" he asked finally, smiling encouragingly to the nervous but beautiful lioness. It would help him if he knew the starting point. Maybe then he'd get an idea of what to do from there. "And do you have any ideas on the sort of thing you want to do?" Goals helped as well.  

[Dulcea]

She was blissfully unaware of his plight, her attentions focused wholly on how they would accomplish their goal. The first exposure with his things had gone over well, she had mixed a few in with her own and had gotten quite a few compliments. It was encouraging. They made a good team.

Flashing him a naive smile she reached out a small piece of clay and rocked back on her haunches, rolling it between the pads of her front paws until it resembled a sphere. It wasn't perfect but it was a decent example. Gently she set it down on the ground and poked a hole through it with her smallest claw.

"Like that!" she exclaimed, "Except that I want them to be pretty. Some of the crafters can make them look like faces or plants, even like some of the creatures that roam the forest." She paused, trying to sort out her thoughts, "By shaping them I guess, I can't see what they should look like in my head." To be honest she wasn't too sure herself how to even begin to make the art without crushing the bead, hers always ended up lopsided lumps that barely resembled what she had intended.  

[Talencia]

Hmm. This wasn't going to be easy, but he wasn't willing to give up his status as her hero. Somehow, her opinion of him was coming to matter much more than even his father's had. No, he had to find a way to pull through for her. "Let's pick something to try for, then." He hemmed and hawed and looked around for inspiration, and was shortly struck by it. "I think," he began with some excitement, "that if we do this right, we could make flowers." They might not end up being the prettiest or most intricate flower beads ever, but they could work!

"First, we need to find a broken stick," he rose to his paws, looking about with more purpose now. "Something narrow, and green inside if we can... like if someone tried to climb and broke it off." He paced off in search, finding them in a couple sizes. The more the better, though! "See if you can find more, perhaps a couple that are bigger than mine?" He held up his sticks. He supposed reeds could work too, though they'd be less pretty. He left her finding sticks and scavenged a few reeds from the river's edge.  

[Dulcea]

"Flowers!" Ke'aw shouted, reigning herself in with a squeak when he suggested gathering sticks. He brought out something special in her, she liked it. And he didn't seem to care that she wasn't very good, even in public. She scrambled off in the opposite direction, scouring the ground for potential tools. For a moment she considering snapping a few off the branches herself but good sense prevailed and she silently apologized to the forest for the thought.

She found a few that she thought might work and gathered them up in her teeth before running back to drop them by the clay. Her eyes flicked back and forth as she considered the possibilities. There were puffy flowers, skinny ones, even some with spiraling shapes. And everyone loved flowers, they were the perfect decoration for any occasion. He was on to something with this.

"What sort of flowers do you think would be the easiest to start with? Something round I think."  

[Talencia]

He returned with reeds in mouth, dropping them with the pile of tools they'd gathered. "Well....," he paused sheepishly. "I wasn't really thinking of any specific flowers. Just the idea of flowers." He shuffled his paws self-consciously, then forged ahead to explain. "What I mean is that when I paint flowers, I don't try to make them look like the ones beside my hammock, or the ones at the base of the tree, or the ones by the water." He folded his ears a little apologetically, knowing that many customers preferred these likenesses.

"Instead, I imagine those flowers, and I put shapes and colors on the bark that reminds me of them. Curves and swirls, waving shapes, rounded and sweet." His eyes defocused as he imagined and described, gaining a faraway twinkle. He pulled himself back with some effort. This was not painting, or at least not just yet. This was more crafty than his art was. "Here, this was my idea."

He started with the reeds, since they were hollow already. Their shape was very round and even. He took a chunk of clay, rolled it between his paws as she had. When it was roughly spherical, he gingerly placed it above the hole, which was notably smaller than the clay ball. He then gently used the pad of a toe to press downwards, squishing the clay out in a somewhat even pattern all around the edge. He didn't push down all the way, though. Instead, he tipped the reed upside down and tapped its side, and out popped a rather lumpy shape that resembled a flower... sort of. He then tried to stick a claw in it, but realized before touching it that his claws were much too big.  

[Dulcea]

Ke'aw watched him closely, her eyes glistening as they followed his movements. She hadn't thought of that, she just thought they were going to use the reeds to poke the holes. This was much smarter. Settling back on her haunches against a tree she propped one of her smaller sticks between her back paws and tried it herself. The result was a wavy looking circle that, in her mind at least, looked a bit like a flower. It was certainly better than her previous attempts. Looking closely at it she pressed it down the stick, driving a small hole through the center. Hers was fairly flat, but it might be useful for necklaces or other stacked trinkets.

She glanced over at his creation and found herself laughing. "I think we did pretty well for a first try, wouldn't you say? Yours looks like a flower and mine is well, not quite a ball anymore. It might be something someone would like." She herself didn't tend to wear much jewelry, but that might change if he would delve into this mess of bead making with her. Something that was made by both of them, that sounded nice.  

[Talencia]

He leaned over close to her to see her results, giving her a gentle cheek-rub as he did so. He was delighted with her result, because it was her own, it was unique, and it was beautiful. Face so close, he turned to beam at her, and found her bright yellow eyes so much closer than he'd thought. Mesmerized for a moment, he just gazed at her in wonder, then blinked once and chuckled self-consciously, shuffling to the side while shyly dropping his eyes. Time to move on and get the focus off his silly behavior!

"When these dry, we could paint them with lovely colors," he said, following her example by using a stick to put a hole in his flower bead. "Like yellow," he said softer, sliding an admiring look at her eyes. "And purple," he added, with a grin and a playful swat at her purple tailtuft. "Yes, yellow petals, and a claw drawn through purple and touched here and there to the bead, that would be beautiful." He picked up another stick to try, this one wider, with jagged edges, then balling a piece of clay between his paws. He suppressed a sigh of longing, pressing the clay into the jagged end, creating crazy extensions from the rounded middle.  

[Dulcea]

Her mind fuzzed over as he brushed against her, her eyes lighting up as she suppressed a giggle. She couldn't entirely visualize what he was describing, and perhaps that's why she wasn't very good at what she did. Silently she made a mental note to practice that.

"Or purple and white, there are some soft white rocks down by the rivers that we could crush up and use for dye," she added, "Or we could add some of the shiny shards in between, to make the colors pop." That much she could think of. Shiny was a fairly common theme in her creations, in some ways she felt it distracted from the poor craftmanship and evidence repeated attempts.

She tried another herself, this one turning out vaguely bell shaped. "This one could be blue, like on those vines that hang off the tops of some of the trees."  

[Talencia]

He swallowed, pushing aside his non-crafting thoughts, then smiled and nodded at her. "You are better at this than you give yourself credit, Ke'aw," he told her sincerely. "It doesn't do any good to try to be like other people and their art," he added, squishing out another crazy-petaled flower. "You just have to find out what your art looks like!" He cast her another earnest glance, then got a silly idea. Instead of using a twig to press a hole in the almost-bead, he gently nestled the mock-flower into a space between two branchings on the twig, then offered it to her.

"Like me, for example," he continued, his cheeks heating as he held it out to her. "I'm kinda crazy and different, so my art comes out the same way." His tailtip swished this way and that, revealing his discomfort, but he wouldn't let himself back down. "Your art is sweet, simple, and lovely." He gestured to the bead she'd just made, that she said should be blue. He completely agreed with her, and made a mental note about crushing or crumbling things to add dimension to his paintings. "I guess together, we make crazy, sweet, lovely, different art!"  

[Dulcea]

Talencia

Ke'aw ducked beneath the offered branch, catching the flower on top of her head. She cracked a smile, bouncing it a few times though she knew it wasn't what he had intended. "I don't think I like any other kind," she told him as she let the flower slip forward and catch on one of her claws.

Their creations may not be breathtaking or entirely true to life, but they were honest. And she was finding that she enjoyed her job much more since meeting him. From his perspective, she had all the freedom in the world. She frowned for a moment, wishing she could offer him the same.

"Kal," she added, "I think you deserve to be known and understood too. Maybe a pseudonym? Something I can say should anyone ask. I think our work is better understood that way." That, and she felt guilty for taking all the credit.  

[Talencia]

He set his teeth against the inside of his cheek, doing his best to not actually chew on it. His first instinct was to roundly refuse the offer to share credit. What if his father discovered what he was doing? But if it was a pseudonym, who would know? He inhaled slowly and held the breath for a time, trying to let the idea sink in.

There also was the fact that she clearly was wanting to do this for his sake. That sort of kindness and affection was touching, and he sensed that it might hurt her feelings if he refused. He was discovering just how much Ke'aw's feelings meant to him, and the idea of even slightly making her sad was repellent to him. It would make her feel better, and more honest, to tell others that their work was collaborative. That was also a good point... it would allow them both to be more honest, not just with customers and admirers, but with each other.

Slowly he let his breath out, then nodded with a touch of reluctance. "Okay, we can do that," he agreed. "Call me... Kollur." He wrinkled his nose at her for the silly name. It clearly was a spin on the word "color", and close enough to his name to be a nod to his identity without making it obvious. He paused, then leaned closer to her to gaze earnestly into her eyes, "But only if it makes you feel better. Your happiness... means a lot to me," he admitted, holding her eyes for a moment more, genuine caring glowing deep within. He could only stand it for a moment, though, before he turned away and fussed with their materials again. "Now, let's see what else we can do for flowers!"

Dulcea

With your next post, I think we can call this fin!

 

[Dulcea]

When he assented a smile spread across her face and she let out a shout, headbutting him with a little more force than she had intended. "It does, it does, thank youi!" she told him, accidentally stamping on the small bead she had held in her claw.

"Oh... Shoot," she worked at it, managing to reform some semblance of it's original shape. Different, but both of them. She liked it anyway. "Flowers and animals and whatever else we can dream up," she agreed, breaking for the forest at a run. "I'm going for the shiny stones, we could make them look like dew."

It wasn't often she found herself truly excited about her job. They had the potential to make something great, she just knew it. And if she got to spend more time with him, well, that was all the better.

Talencia