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"Stroud has always been my closest friend. Our other cousins Rowan and Hunter, too. Shared blood and names counts for something, I guess, in helping us all just put up with each others foibles. "

Looking down from his riser, Quenton tilted his head and gave a playful look. "I do. It'll be a good start. No one is here, there's materials. You can see what you think of the set up and get a taste of what to expect. Completely safe. "

"You don't even have to show me the sketches. What do you think? At least one. Grace the tour that much." He stripped off leather protection and shirt and tossed them aside onto one of the easels. He left pants on, in case Alex seemed very uncomfortable, watching the other carefully as he slid his glasses off and into a pocket.

Quenton chuckled, "Well, it is a shade of blonde, but she bleaches it to the white it usually is. The real colour is more a dark ash grey blonde. That's her, memorable experience usually...if I'm trying to be DaVinci, she's trying to by Byron."

Since there wasn't mention of police, Stroud must have been going light that night on the getting up to whatever it was that pleased her and her guests. "Met her at a gallery then? She's pretty dedicated about being a Patron and giving back to the art community. Hah, Rowan's no tree yet. But named for it, yes. I guess all the Marinus lines are wirey and tall. Our fathers are brothers, and there's an aunt in there that had the other two. They're both younger though, just getting to middle school- they're married in with the Strathley family...whiiiich you may know. They were turn of the century industrialists, I think a building in downtown carries the name. "

That was all fairly boring, but an explanation that might help Alexander place them in some sort of order in his head. While the Marinus family wasn't from Destiny City, the Strathley was. It all filed under American Heritage stories to him, tracing back roots to find where the families had done what and how that had influenced the choices of the successive generations. It meant there may be other acquaintances between them that they were as yet unaware of, who knew. That was part of the fun of discovery.

Seeing that Alex hadn't developed a bloody nose or passed out from all the blood rushing to his cheeks, Quenton tossed pants and shoes aside as well, keeping only the dark grey hip-cut briefs beneath. His hair just took a quick adjustment of the band to get all of it off his shoulders- a little bit Gibson girl for a guy, but the point for gestures and the conversation was body-lines. For a man that meant a necessity of shoulders, which his hair obscured. "No, they're just plain glass panes. Back in high school I really liked the look of glasses, and I tried some on- just kept with it. Thought it made me look scholarly and went with my cheek bones. Vanity, but everyone has something , right? Not like the long hair wasn't enough. Does your phone have a timer app? "

"We could start classic- controposto stance. "

"Step one- don't feel constrained to the angle you are to me now. You have the whole room to choose the view and angle you want to draw from, so feel free to use whichever easel or move the easels."

"Two Five minute gestures? Enough for a taste and not to be laborious. " At least with the heat wave, it certainly isn't cold in here.

Quenton was thin, wiry and tall as he'd described- his arms, back and chest had clear musculature from sculpting that faded gradually along a six pack that did exist from daily use but was visible mostly from lack of a significant BMI. The hollows of his collar and anterior illiac crests were clear, as well as the lower striations of ribs beneath his latissimus dorsi. It wasn't that he didn't eat, it was that he either forgot or couldn't afford to at the time. His complexion was an even cream without much blushing even where the skin was thinner on the human body- he had deep, small arteries and veins that easily explained where in days gone by epithets of 'blueblood' may have come from of those whose ancestry was from Albion and Hibernia.

"Recently short? How long did you have it? Just tired of it? " It was certainly more convenient to have short hair in the hear of summer, and it tended to go more crisply with current men's fashion. Long hair gave impressions of goth, emo, or renny culture, none of which really applied. But that was the failing of stereotypes and first impressions (however important one decided they were).

"You could try the glasses on if you wanted to see how you'd look. There's mirrors on that wall for self portrait assignments."

"I'd love to see a picture if you have one you'd be willing to bring. I think the only times I've ever had mine 'short' looking was when I had a wig on for costumes come Halloween. It's been dyed a couple times for the same reason. "

He has a stylist? That was something he supposed would be helpful in keeping up appearances, not that he himself did much. In fact, he hadn't been to the same person twice for getting his own hair trimmed since getting to high school.

In response to the call for a pose, Quenton obliged, placing a foot on a ubiquitous grey block on the stand. "This is mimicking Antonin Mercié's David. It isn't very famous comparatively to other statues, but I've always liked the motion of the hips and arm. Maybe this woudl be easier if I had a sword, but you get the idea."

"You have ink? And you let Stroud see it? " He angled his head enough in the pose to shoot a mock judgment face. "I'll have to get all the details out of her. She's into the body mod scene sometimes. I don't have any myself, mostly a time element thing. "

"I think there's some pictures floating around in family albums. I don't have any at my place, but I can see if I can scrounge up any. The parents are overseas as usual, so they can't send any from the main house out of state where the old albums would be. " Back in the nineties when people still primarily printed pictures instead of keeping them in facebook albums on the digital space of the world.

"I've spent a lot of Halloweens as Quincy Morris...no surprise there. Like the Bram Stoker movie, so short hair wig and a theater mustache. Looks real weird on a fifteen year old, I think, but it was cool at the time."

"I love museums, if that's where you'd feel most comfortable. There's also getting out of our mutual comfort zone as an option. Have you ever been on a ropes course? I've heard there's one about 30 minutes North of the city. I've never been on one, but heard good things down at student affairs." It was completely unpolite, so the rest was contained to his college brain- Nothing like spending a day getting sweaty and touching wood?

"The love of parents is best when it is unconditional and enthusiastically shared with all comers. Maybe I'll get the chance some day. " Quenton's lips curled in a pleasant smile. "Yes, Dracula. The movie on topic is from 1992, directed by Francis Ford Coppola. It was...artistic. People tend to love it or hate it in my experience. It has some good acting, some bad, but some stunning and groundbreaking visuals for its day. It dared and accomplished much. I'm surprised you haven't been exposed to the story as a book or to that movie at all. "

"I've only skimmed Hunger Games. Admittedly, I felt the same about it, and decided I'd just go read 1984 and Animal Farm instead when I put down Catching Fire. I never got to the third one, too busy into other things. I haven't seen those movies at all. I preferred having my imagination of the characters and settings intact, instead of the Hollywood-beauty versions after the butchering they did with Harry Potter and making everyone and everything have to be aesthetically pleasing in spite of wrote descriptions of things being awkward, odd, or unlovely."

Two dates already offered to be scheduled? Well now. That IS doing well. Quenton resisted innate ego urges to puff. It woudl ruin the pose anyway. As soon as the first time limit was up, he switched to a seated pose on his hip, mimicking Edvard Eriksen's little mermaid for the second and final gesture of their impromptu set. "Sounds like a plan. We'll just have to find what days are best, then. "

And he'd HAVE to write it down, probably on his hand in sharpie, to make certain this wasn't among the things that got left behind or forgotten. Which was many. Many many many.

But he was distracted from his internal self-annoyance at the offer of sharing. Bold offering, though being a model in one's underwear probably helped to break that sort of ice and self consciousness for others. "I'd love to see it. I've considered getting one before, but never gone through with it since I've never had something I wanted so definitively as a permanent addition. What was it like for you? Did it take long? Did you go to a salon or just homebrew sort of deal?"

"Both keep more or less regular business hours, so the weekend is probably the better bet, in the morning, for either. The museums all close at 6, so evenings wouldn't work. The ropes courses....I don't know but when it gets dark, certainly. Which is what, 8?"

"My place is probably the nearer, " though from Alexander's 'car', he was willing to bet an awful lot less impressive. But it would be good to let alex see what the very nearby housing looked like. Besides, he didn't have anything to hide- he wasn't rich, and he didn't let his place get messy. Not that he had many things to get messy. And Alex could see just how bright the little patch of plants were in his otherwise very grey apartment.

"You have your driver's license with you? They'll have you sign in at the desk, and want to check it. They won't keep it. It's just light security, and also keeps any creepiness from going on-" Which begged the question about that creepiness, "I guess I've been assuming, but you're eighteen? You'll have to be to be let in. Otherwise the choice gets very easy, and we're going to your place. "

It was long enough that the second pose was done, so Quenton hopped down, grabbing his clothes from where they'd been abandoned and carrying them over and around to look at Alex's work. "How'd they come out?"