Welcome to Gaia! ::

Cleon smiled politely and took the girl's hand, shaking it politely. The child, at least had some manners, proving that it had not vanished from the world completely. The curator seemed almost defeated when she mentioned the portrait, and in retrospect it was a poor idea to display it among the bright colors and familier work of such well known artists. It would need to be moved again, to someplace less conspicuous.
There was a regretfull sigh as Cleon spoke.

"The name has been long since forgotten, a piece of work lost in obscurity. It was painted 14th century and there has been no known record before or since. Sadly this may have been the artist's final work and the world will never know his name."

Perhaps it would be better to direct the girl away from the paintingl, the thought running in the immortals head as the woman continued to study the painting. It was always troublesome when patrons stumbled on the truth and far more difficult to shut them up, or force them to forget.

"I am assuming you take pleasure in Monet?"

Cleon smiled at Miss Milharn's comment, and there was a pleasent expression regarding the remark on the painter. "Thank you, I am certain he would appreciate the compliment."

The curator glanced briefly at the young man again once Jessi's back was turned, the depression in those small oiled eyes difficult to tolerate. The man had moved from the window, his back turned in what Cleon suspected might be shame. Well, as long as there was good sense not to allow the girl to notice it would be alright.

It became apparent that the Milharn girl was doing her own assessment of the new aquaintence and Cleon suspected most of that fell on the androgonous appearence that had been cultivated to an art form over years of practice, failing to be abandoned once views on gender had changed.

"Then I suppose you would prefer renaissance era? Perhaps DaVinci. So few paintings however a gift to anything on canvas. I've yet been unable to obtain any of his works, even on loan, though I do have other more forgotten pieces. Regrettfully I'm a bit of a packrat when it comes to unwanted works of forgotten artists."

There was a moment of consideration. "Please, allow me to show you something special. It will give me the opportunity to further myself from the vultures in my gallery and I think you might like it."

Cleon frowned, hoping curiousity did not become a tabloid article, worse a newcenterpiece for one of those conspiracy websites. Best to be vague and hope the issue was dropped, after all there hadn't been must effort put to redirecting her attention. This was the problem with not having many visitors.

"That painting came into my posession during an estate sale. It is an unwanted relic from another age and it is solely mine. I am hoping by it being on display there might be an offchance someone may recognize the artist, though admitidly it is playing the odds. I doubt the previous owner even knew what he had."

They approached the far room before hesitating. The curator looked down at Jessi, as if studying her worth. Resigned, the curator continued on, approaching a painting on the wall. The entire room seemed to display greek and roman style art the image before them a young man in a tunic, looking bored to a nymph, at her knees clutching a blossom as she begged for the young man. The painting was with beautiful emotion but it was harly impressive, alluding to a suspicion this had not been the original paining intended to be shown. "Narcisses I believe, the artist known as Aleric De'Chen, I believe he had an obsession with greek myths and we tend to have a good number of his works."

There were indeed several pieces in the room done by the same artist, some depicting the steet life of the age from prostitutes to senators. The largest painting hung off near the side done in the usual appearence of classical greece. The entire portrait blazed red, a blackening tree in the background as a young woman reached for a discarded apple core over a chasm to Tartarus as a building burned around her, desperation etched in her face with a painful despair as the building around her began to crumble.

Cleon shook a head at the portrait of narcisses and then towards the other painting. "Poor man seemed to have an obsession with sin and relished in some of the most painful emotions. I suspect he was a bit of a masochist."

Cleon looked at Jessi with bored interest, finally speaking in reply to the paintings. "These were recently recovered pieces of what would have become a well known artist. Regrettably one collecter managed to buy up anything that would have been significant for it's creator. The painter died wealthy but largely unknown as a result. I think unpopularity has a way of leading you to fame after death."

The immortal turned to the girl. "While this gallery does contan a share of the fame it largely consists of lost works at the moment. Please attempt to conceal your disapointment."



The truth in actual being that Narcisses was not the intended display meant to be shown to Miss. Milharn was not mentioned. Instead Cleon gazed acrossed the room and it was clear not all were of greecen myths, one actually containing a golden haired boy lingering in shame near a river, a large hairy man displayed in dispair.

"De'Chen was a collector of myths and old fairy tales, he painted them frequently."

Eyes lingered on the fire painting with the young girl, acouple holding eachother at the far end. "Each of these paintings does depict a legend, though I suppose it is a bit of a bore."

Oddly enough, there was a strange familiarity to the girl in the portrait. Normally Cleon would not be so obvious with the knowledge. Supposedly it was boredom and loneliness, a dangeous combination for one who had live in low profile. Familiarity with mortals usually ended up for worse.

"Do you know this legend?"

The curator nodded to the portrait of the golden haired boy bent in shame with the hairy man.

There was an approving nod from the curator. "Yes, it is Iron Hans. Mister De'Chen did enjoy his greek, as was appropriate for the time but had also painted some european folklore as well."

Ceon directed attention to the large painting when the girl spoke again, sighing almost irritably. The curator attempted to conceal this sigh for the most part, and it came out as stodgy and distracted, like most museum obsessive historeons steriotipically sounded.

Regretably, De'Chen enjoyed the idea of it all too much and the man was a collector of myths, true myths, as Cleon had failed to mention to the young visitor. It was only wished that the damnable artist hadn't decided to grow inspired and it was hope that appearences had changed enough to distort any resemblence.


"Aleric De'Chen was a painter mid to late 1600's and it was lucky he had been privately wealthy for few of his paintings ever managed a decent sale."

Cleon studied the firey painting, as if taking the work apart piece by piece. It was never wise to display such a masterpiece here in the open, but the immortal had always felt poorly about Aleric's intentional obscurity and it had been the man's finest work. "I don't think anyone really remembers this myth, it was never a good lesson to teach children and even by the standards of greek lore it was rather poor for telling."


The immortal's hand moved towards the inside of the white jacket, grasping the small vial there. Lethe was not always necessary but it was there for emergencies, there was no telling when you needed something to be forgotten. A small feeling of regret crept in and the hand relaxed on the vial, returning to the curator's side.

"Neo-Classical was very popular around that day, I suppose that to be why he painted it. Would you like to see a few more treasures? Regretably I'll need to inspect my vultures again soon so they do not deviate from their tour. In all honesty I've been aviding them in case of interviews."

((Aww man, I hate the MMC, they always have this obsession with detaining people...))

Cleon eyed Jessi suspiciously and it was almost as if one was looking down on the other with a polite disdain. The portrait really, it was the way she mentioned it that was bothersome. All reasonable judgements pointing to someone who had had experience with this sort.

From all appearences of the girl though, she appeared human. This however could be a poor circumstance, as the curator had dealt with few mortals with good intentions on the arcane.

There was a dark look in the immortals eyes now when Cleon spoke again. "The tour can wait." The word was spat out with mild distaste and it was clear this new directness was not appreciated. The hand closed over the small vial once more and there was something of caution laid down on the next few words. "We'll speak in my office if it is all that important. After which I think it might be best that you leave."

Cleon nodded for the girl to follow as they proceeded further down the hall, taking a quick left next to a Degas. At first it didn't appear there was anything there, but the cracks made to seperate it frm the wall revealed the door easily once one knew what to look foor and the knob hadn't been all that well hidden, the concealment only meant to prevent interupption from the appearence of the gallery rather then to hide a passage.

The office was surprisingly cluttered considering it's caretaker, possessing a number of knick knacs that had yet to be bothered with or had been collected for authentication, some paintings had been posistioned off to the side to await display while a small outdated computer sat on a table amongst a clutter to the left with a styrofoam cup of half drunk liquid sitting next to the mouse.

The immortal led the girl off to the right where there was a small industrial table, round and kept clean from any obstructions. Two comfortable chairs were posistioned at either side with a counter and a coffee machine.

There seemed to be a dual of fine teacups placed to the left of the sink and stacked neatly out of the way and a small collection of unused styrofoam cups set aside for more casual occassions. "Would you prefer tea, or coffee? I am afraid we've no decaff, there seems to be no use for it here."

The curator had already begun to poor a cup of coffee in one of the finer cups, going about it in the distracted way of someone who may have been a little on edge but was accustomed to concealing it.

There was a slight interest that peaked in the curators face when facing Jessi again. The teacup was set in front and sipped quietly. The long period of silence continued and for a moment there appeared to be a battle of wills in attempt to judge any slip up in bahavioror certain mannerisms that might prove false.

Cleon debated on what precisely to reveal before breaking the silence and setting down the cup gently. "And what of it then? What would your interest be if it were?"

Steps were being taken lightly in this directions, cautious to judge intentions.

Cleon eyed her, taking another long pause to sip the coffee. It seemed like everything done was done slowly in a very deliberate fasion. Nothing ever seemed to be hurried with the immortal, who had grown accustomed to taking time out for everything. After all, there was an eternity to get things done in.


Finally the cup was set down and Cleon stared with an uneasy directness at Jessi. "Since it came into my possession. There are stories, fairy tales from the area. Old curses are always troublesome for information."

There was another very long pause afterthe next question and it was clear by the look in the curator's eyes, the way Jessi was stared down with half suspicion that this one tok much longer to consider. Clion had never been comfortable about sharing the nature of being immortal to anyone, the questions about what had transpired to bring about such circumstances had eternally been a touchy subject.

"That answer will depend on yours."

Another long pause, another excruciatingly long sip. "You have a genuine intrest in that painting. Are you a collector Miss. Milharn?"