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 Posted: Thu Dec 28, 2006 3:50 pm
"Ah, I see. A more temporary form of such forbidden art?" It seemed silly to do so, as according to the newspaper articles she'd read on the subject (they were all negative, but still contained some information) such dirty ilk as seamen 'took ink' to forever remember where they had been. It made them a 'living cartograph' as one writer had put it. Was not the entire point not to take it off?
Charity giggled into her hand at the image of painting people at a 'water park'. Clothes were just as heavy there as anywhere else. "Why ever would anyone wish to be painted at such a place? Would the colors not simply bleed away before they could ever be seen?"
Fowler said nothing, too busy being happily distracted by the mental image of warm, wet young women blowing on each other's soft skin.
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Posted: Thu Dec 28, 2006 5:14 pm
"You bet, the attraction was that it didn't stay forever and wasn't meant to."
The formal girl giggling into her own hand made a welcome sight indeed, and NC sighed happily at some good spirits getting through, an intentional joke or not.
On her sheet, blue faced off against white, and surprise surprise, blue won. Blend blend blend blur blur. Then slabbing together pigment from every spectrum in the simplistic kit, a muddy mix of brown took over everything below - now a recognizable azure sky faded at the horizon, above an earthy desert field complete with imperfections and miniature ravines.
"But for several days, it was good. One woman on a returning trip to England had a heart made with her husband's name, so she could pretend and tell him that she had gone through the entire needle for him. Sweet, no? The games people play for their sweethearts."
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Posted: Thu Dec 28, 2006 5:45 pm
Charity frowned, cocking her head. "What sort of woman would ever ruin herself with the touch of an inked needle? Only men of the sea-"
Fowler blinked, snapping out of his reverie to lean down and bury his face in the neck of his own warm, soft woman, startling her into silence. Unfreezing from her suprise, Charity huffed haughtily and swatted lightly at his hair. "In any case, I would not recommend rewarding impish behavior of any kind. One smile and they are like insistant children."
England, though. That sounded terribly interesting. She had always longed to travel to Europe...
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Posted: Thu Dec 28, 2006 8:03 pm
The unexpected sounds and the sudden movement startled the spiky blonde to attention, almost like a shying horse. The gesture somehow reminded her of the young lady hanging her arm around 'nothing', but what the deliberate act had in common, she couldn't say. Perhaps it was these tics that were symptoms of whatever placed her in the home, or at best, swatting at some unseen pest of a fly.
"Ouch. You think tattoos ruin a person? That's too bad, a lot more people have them than you think. I've only got one myself but you're welcome to see it," she concluded blandly as if offering someone a watch to tell the time, sounding rather subdued at the thought of being considered blemished, even to the young lady so recently-known.
A white blob made an outpost in the field of blue, with grey underside: a cloud out of place in the desert, a laden traveller.
And a trick in the latter phrase sank in; "Ha! You speak like you've had no problems attracting who you want then, if they find you so irresistable. Spill the beans, girl." And she grinned to the other girl with comraderie.
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Posted: Fri Dec 29, 2006 4:17 pm
"Ink does not ruin a person, but one's reputation." Charity explained seriously, assuming everyone understood just how precious a thing good standing in society was. She had grown up practically a prisoner in her own home, and even she was well aware of how important it was to be liked by the right people. "Mainly because of the scandalous manner in which such pictures must needs be applied, I believe."
A blush spread over Charity's pale face at her companion's second comment though, silencing her and elicting an appreciative chuckle from her beau. "I don't think she can see me, lovely. Just like the nurses don't notice when I reach over and-"
She hissed at him before catching herself and smiling as brightly as her mood would allow at NC. "I entertain the attentions of a young man, yes. My fiance is the first who has ever noticed me, but that is as much my own fault for being forever indoors as any specific thing."
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Posted: Sat Dec 30, 2006 9:47 am
(( OOC: -=smirk and giggle about the above=- whee ))
Of the matter of reputation, the spiky blonde let it go; such things were inarguable, and the world would be a sorrier place without conservatives to add their flavor to it as well.
The mixed paint now had a large, gaudy red blot in the center; if this was a sun it was a deranged one, and if not, it was a little late to be turning the landscape into an abstract. Yet it seemed to have been done deliberately, judging by the more frequent glances downward. Not even a perfect sphere, larger curves protruded outward.
A small hiss gave her concern, but only barely - in the next moment her expression simply melted. "Ohhhhh, not only you have someone, but engaged as well? Incredible. And your very first love to boot - how awesome, how meant to be." Bordering on gushing in reverie she leaned over and patted Charity on the arm.
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Posted: Sun Dec 31, 2006 1:52 pm
Fowler nearly doubled over laughing at Charity's expression. If the painter wasn't teasing his future bride he would be heartbroken.
Charity, on the other hand, was glowing. "Yes, isn't it? So terribly like it is in story books, accept for the bit where I am in a mental institution." She meant it sincerely, even if she harbored the secret worry that Fowler would leave her for a woman who's sanity was less suspect some day.
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Posted: Mon Jan 08, 2007 4:15 am
"Except the bit where I am in a mental institution," she repeated, except coming from NC's grin it sounded much more like the charming 'cosplayer' had come out with a deliberate witty punchline. She chewed on that and spared a moment to glance down again, idly injuring the red globe with a black line and then further disecting it. "There are a lot of positions to wind up in, some ...exalted, yes, but plenty that are more gritty. Life itself isn't very clean ...you know?" Brow knotted and for a moment she met the maiden directly, intent on sincerity and seeking understanding.
Then she let it pass and continued on, shifting toward brightly once again rather than solemn. "If anything is going to be like a storybook, at least you've got the good bits going in your favor."
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Posted: Mon Jan 08, 2007 4:26 am
By that point another orderly of the sparce assortment passing by actually made so bold as to stick an upper torso into their particular activities room. The lady in black was sighted immediately.
"Ms. NC? Come along. It's time for your appointment." And with that the staff member slipped into the hallway, still within view, to gossip with an associate. The mere lack of supervision indicated disobeying was unquestionable.
No need for that, however. "Booya!" With a jump the spiky blonde was already out of her seat, craft set closed with a snap, brushes whisked vigorously in the greying mix water and left to soak inside with disregard and urgency. "Oh excuse me," she gushed to Charity with no shortage of sincerity or enthusiasm. "I've been waiting forever for this, a solid day and a half and only now they're doing my first evaluation. Keep your fingers crossed, right?" she winked.
The earlier test portrait was snatched up to be dealt with however it merited. The rest gave her a long, steadied pause, thinking of her companion. "This is for you, if you like. No no, don't worry about it, it probably would have wound up in a drawer or even buried under something else, okay?" The twentysomething gave Charity a last winsome pat and began a spring for the door, leaving the token where it was on the table - finding the easiest way to give a gift was in not allowing it to be refused out of modesty.
Halfway across the sunlit chamber she realized her own behavior had gotten rather cheeky; "I do realize this could just as easily wind up in the rubbish as land a place on your wall, in which case, I apologize for leaving something behind for someone else to toss out," she concluded with pragmatic bluntness.
"Well even if they kick me out this very minute and that is the end, it was sweet getting to meet you!" she cried out, emphatic enough to be audible from across the room and probably outdoors as well.
And with that she let herself be led ahead by the foot-tapping orderly and was gone.
~ * ~ * ~
And not only was there a landscape biding its time - but a rose as well. Whereas the mustached Mona Lisa had had the aspect as if the features of nose, mouth and eyes treated like they were autonomous objects, with the 'whole' slightly out of phase with itself, the landscape could hold no fault - what greeted it above was no blot but a red rose, with each petal seperated, defined, rendered in loving beauty, floating miles above the earth.
In perfect proportions, it could have been dozens of feet wide above the terrain below - or not extraordinary at all, a member no different than any other of its kind. A mystic thing surely, it had traversed all likelihood and come to be in the desert as certainly as had the cloud behind it, and yet it shone as if its circumstances were immaterial, or else, radiated all the more because its surroundings were so stark.
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Posted: Mon Jan 08, 2007 3:33 pm
"Oh yes, certainly." Charity quickly agreed, her speedy nodding nearly knocking the back of her head into Fowler's chin. "I shall not complain about that."
The man behind her chuckled, nuzzling her neck once her head stopped moving. The two women were nearly having different conversations now.
The young woman had just been about to ask a question- and then the orderly came and her companion whirled away. It took her a moment to realize what the other woman was saying, but once she understood she nodded and smiled as warmly as she could manage. "Oh, you may be released today? Well... good luck then. I hope you are free."
Fowler sighed, watching her put on a good face for someone she barely knew, and very likely meaning her good wishes. "You are far too good a person to exist."
"It is not hard to wish others well." Charity admonished him quietly, gathering up the painting she'd been gifted with and freeing herself from the chair. "All you must do is imagine the joy good fortune would bring you to know how they must feel."
"It is that someone else feels it while you don't that most have trouble with." her beau explained, taking her free arm and escorting her slowly back to her room. "We get jealous."
"We?"
He smiled at her expression and kissed her soundly. "I am human, am I not?"
Charity smiled, blushed, and they continued on their way. She clutched the painting at her side, wanting a frame for it but unsure it would be allowed. She focused on that, rather than decide what she wanted more: NC to escape, or to see the young woman again. She did not want to know the answer.
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