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 Posted: Tue Apr 19, 2016 12:31 pm
It was a stupid, reckless idea. Thoughtless. He would get into a lot of trouble if anyone caught him, and if he was caught, chances were that he would maybe have to pay a fine or do community service, neither of which were really appealing options.
Which meant it was a great idea.
Caspian stood outside one of the university buildings, skateboard in one hand, backpack in the other, and wondered how big to make the letters. The spray cans in the bag clinked as he set it down; he shifted back and gave the wall a scrutinizing sort of look, setting his board carefully down with his things and putting his hands on his hips.
Yes, this would work perfectly. The perfect canvas.
Caspian moved back over to the backpack, unzipped it, and began to rummage around for a can of forest green first.
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Posted: Wed Apr 20, 2016 6:45 pm
For someone who hated teenagers, Michael thought he had a fair amount of patience for them. Which he supposed was good since he kinda taught them for his day job. Okay, so he didn’t really hate them, but they did know how to get on his every last nerve. Perhaps it was because he didn’t really have a chance to be much of a teenager, himself. He had ambitions and dreams that ended up not being as sparkly as he envisioned them to be when he was younger.
He was on his way home when he caught sight of a kid who was about to make a huge mistake and could potentially ruin his future if he was caught. Michael could see the cameras perched close to the top of the buildings, which would surely catch a decent view of vandals. That, and he knew very well that campus security was faster than lawless punks thought they would be. Otherwise more of the campus might be covered.
“You sure you want to do that?” Michael spoke up against his better judgment. He was all for letting this punk get caught and thrown in jail. Community service would be good, too. He didn’t approach, but stood at a distance, hands in his jacket pockets as he watched the kid with a frown.
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Posted: Thu Apr 21, 2016 11:40 am
Caspian had decided on a nice, dark forest green that would serve as the base color, pulling out the can and giving it a firm shake. He heard the familiar, metallic clacking noise and stood back up, knees protesting the movement from having remained crouched over for so long.
He'd start at the bottom and work his way up. Caspian stood in front of the wall with one hand on his hip, the other still rhythmically rocking the spray paint can back and forth to mix it thoroughly, and finally decided on a spot just to his left, on a brick with a notch in it.
He stepped close, lifted his can, and pressed the button.
And jumped about a foot at the sound of a voice behind him.
"What the ******** - "
The paint can was fumbled, almost dropped, but Caspian caught it just in time. He twisted around and caught sight of an older man with brown hair staring at him, looking as calm as he pleased, a short distance away, a frown on his face.
"Who're you?" Caspian asked suspiciously. "Are you campus security?"
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Posted: Thu Apr 21, 2016 4:14 pm
Michael watched in slight amusement as he startled the kid. Jumpy, huh? Maybe he shouldn’t be doing something that put him on edge.
“Do I look like campus security?” he snorted softly in amusement. He somehow doubted that. He was wearing a leather biking jacket and jeans. Somehow he doubted campus security would also just stand around and watch as a kid could potentially start defacing the building.
“You know there’s a place for you kids to spray paint down by the other end of campus,” he shrugged, pulling his hand out of his pocket to check his watch. “But if you insist on doing it here, you’ve got about… a minute and a half.” Actually, he wouldn’t be surprised if campus security showed up before that.
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Posted: Thu Apr 21, 2016 5:07 pm
Caspian took a long moment to size the man up and down, from the top of his head, to the tips of his shoes. The jacket was pretty cool, he had to admit, and he didn't really seem the type to be going around yelling at people for not following the rules, but...
"Nah," Caspian declared, flipping the can of paint up into the air and catching it, a grin spreading across his face. "But you don't look like a goody-goody either, for that matter."
A brow rose at the thought of being called a kid; but his short stature and features made that mistake easy and he'd long since given up on trying to argue the point. Besides, if people thought him some dumb high schooler, all the better, because it meant he could get away with more.
"Keeping track of the security?" Caspian asked loftily, turning back to the building. Within a second, he'd scrawled a quick design of a moon and stars, nothing particularly fancy, but still relatively decent for using a can of green spray paint.
"You can't tell me you've never broken any of rules," said Caspian, turning to look at the man over his shoulder, a smirk on his lips. "Not when you're giving me warning about when security's supposed to drop by."
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Posted: Fri Apr 22, 2016 7:46 pm
Michael snorted at the kid’s assessment of him, and he watched without making any movement to stop him when he quickly spray painted a design on the wall. Ah, so he really didn’t care that he could potentially wind up ruining his future. Not like it was any skin off his nose.
Michael glanced down at his watch again, and then looked up to try and see if he could catch sight of anyone coming.
“Nah, just passing through,” he said with a shrug as he turned to continue watching. He made no comment on him breaking rules (or laws), because at least he was always smart enough to not be caught, especially not on camera.
“Of all the things you could have possibly drawn, it’s a moon and stars? How quaint. Any purpose or meaning, or do you just like to vandalize things with shitty excuses for art?”
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Posted: Sun Apr 24, 2016 8:06 am
The moon and stars were a basic design that were quickly filled in with elaborate loops and spirals. Caspian was no artist - at least not traditionally - but he'd been spray painting buildings since he'd been twelve of thirteen, most of the time with Cass at his side. It was second nature to him now, and he added a little twirl at the end of the crescent moon, dripping off into little raindrops.
"So not campus security or the police, good to know," said Caspian airily. He flipped the can of green paint from one hand to the other and then exchanged it for blue and then gold, adding a spray of stars showering above the moon now, glowing lightly.
"Woah, dude, chill your jets." He pushed the cans back into the bag, satisfied with his design, and turned to look at the man again. "One person's trash is another person's art, right? Who knows, maybe you just insulted like, my family crest or something."
Caspian's grin was almost a smirk, his bag slung over his shoulder.
"What's your name, Mr. Not-a-Cop?"
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Posted: Mon Apr 25, 2016 1:24 pm
Michael shook his head in exasperation as the kid just nonchalantly continued to spray on the wall, and then put the cans back into the bag.
"Don't give me that bullshit. Besides, you don't look very insulted," he pointed out. "And if that's your family crest, then that's pretty stupid tag it somewhere when it could be traced back to you."
And this was why Michael hate kids. Teenagers were worse when they were at their rebellious stage. He personally thought that they should all go through something that will humble them a bit. Like, working in retail or food services before being allowed to graduate high school.
"Michael," he said simply, keeping his hands in his jacket pockets. He then jerked his head to the left and quickly side stepped to the right. Someone with a flashlight seemed to be on their way there, and he wasn't about to get caught hanging out with this kid in front of the scene of the crime. Part of him wondered if this guy would even follow him, or if he would just run off.
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Posted: Mon Apr 25, 2016 9:20 pm
A look of mock outrage was adopted at the accusation.
"I'll have you know, I'm extremely insulted," Caspian informed the man, in a falsely scandalized tone. "Like, completely insulted. As you can tell from my utterly offended exterior right now, I'm just all aflutter with emotions about being insulted."
He was laughing by the end of his sentence. "Don't worry, I'm not doing this to be some sort of maverick, or whatever, it's just a bit of fun. This city needs a good time, don't you think?"
Michael was such a simple name, yet it seemed to fit him. Caspian glanced over one shoulder and without hesitation darted forward to fall into step alongside him, hands stuffed into the pockets of his jeans, the bag slung casually against his hip.
"Michael is better than 'hot stuff,' which is what I was gonna call you if you didn't give me a name," Caspian said airily, with an unapologetic grin on his face. "We should walk a little faster, in case security decides to make their rounds early - and come on, you can't tell me that you never did anything like this when you were younger."
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Posted: Tue Apr 26, 2016 9:06 am
"I thought you were an artist. That's not original at all," Michael said with a glance in the kid's direction when he suggested calling him 'hot stuff'. There were plenty of name he could have been called, but Michael supposed this was harmless enough.
"You can walk faster," he said with a shrug, hands still in his pockets as he made his way down the sidewalk and away from the vandalized building. "I'm not the one with spray paint on my hands or in my bag," he pointed out, although he did glance over his shoulder to make sure they weren't being followed.
"And no, I try to avoid breaking the law. I'm a good, law abiding citizen," he said bitterly, almost mockingly. What he was actually bitter about he didn't elaborate.
"So who are you?"
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Posted: Tue Apr 26, 2016 10:46 am
"Art is in the eye of the beholder," Caspian deadpanned in a dramatic voice as he walked alongside Michael. "Isn't that what everyone always says? That one person's trash is another person's treasure, or some other s**t like that?"
He grinned up at him, eyes gleaming with mischief in the shadowy evening.
"You're totally full of s**t, aren't you?" he asked, a gleeful note to his voice. "Everyone does stupid stuff at some point in their lives, and anyone who says otherwise is definitely lying. Or you haven't done something reckless and dumb and you secretly want to."
He shrugged a shoulder, laughing merrily, and said, "I'm Caspian," twisting around so that he was walking backwards with his hands still in his pockets, looking up at Michael.
"So what's your story, Michael, good law abiding citizen?"
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Posted: Wed Apr 27, 2016 11:06 am
"That just implies that beauty doesn't exist on its own," Michael pointed out, raising an eyebrow in this kid's direction. "It's just created by those observing it." It was one of the idioms that made him roll his eyes. He didn't even get into the hoarder-like tendencies of those who spoke about trash being treasure.
He frowned skeptically down at the kid named Caspian when he turned to walk backwards. The way this kid acted, it was as though he never had to face anything truly horrible in his life. Or he was just good at putting on an act to hide it.
"Nope," he commented. "I have no intention of breaking the law or doing stupid things," he said, despite the fact that he was wearing a biking jacket. That itself might be considered stupid since it was more of a risk than driving a car, but that was completely different than being a childish vandal.
"My life is totally vanilla," he said, but suddenly reached out to grab onto the strap of Caspian's bag, pulling him away from almost running backwards into the pole. "You, on the other hand, could probably benefit from toning it down a bit."
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Posted: Wed Apr 27, 2016 6:43 pm
He clicked his tongue. "Touche," said Caspian, lifting both hands, one of them sporting a green paint stain, in a gesture of submission. "It's a dumb saying anyway, art is art, whatever it is. You can create it no matter who the hell you are."
Michael's look of combined disapproval and skepticism did little to deter Caspian's cheerful mood, and in fact, only seem to goad him on further. After all, it was the ones who didn't like to smile or have a good time that were the most fun to needle at.
And Caspian was very, very good at needling people.
"Oh, come on," he scoffed, a brow arching into his dark hair. "That's gotta be untrue, you can do plenty of fun and ridiculous things without breaking the law, and everyone's gotta do something stupid-fun at least once in their lives, right - oof."
Michael's grasp on his bag made him trip a little over his own two feet, Caspian glancing around behind him at the light pole. A laugh escaped him, and he straightened his coat a little, grinning up at the man with mischief twinkling in his eyes.
"Maybe someone needs to tone it up," he said, lips curving up in a smirk. "Thank you, though, I'd rather not bash my brains out on a lamp post."
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Posted: Sun May 01, 2016 9:43 pm
Michael simply scowled and released his hand from the bag strap, and returning it to inside his jacket pocket.
“Nope,” he insisted, “Totally vanilla. Didn’t want to risk a dishonorable discharge.” Why he admitted something like that, he wasn’t entirely sure. It was the truth, of course. He had a lot of eyes on him when he first joined the military, even now that he is a mere civilian, too many people were watching him. His life had always been pretty straightforward. Not boring, but nothing deviant.
“Look, you can do whatever you want with your life,” he said, his scowl still not easing up. “Whatever you do, you shouldn’t regret it. I don’t regret having a life that you might not consider as having fun or ridiculous. I fulfilled my dreams. What more is there?”
He wasn’t sure why he questioned whether he was asking Caspian or himself.
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Posted: Tue May 03, 2016 7:33 pm
Caspian's brows rose.
"Discharge?" he asked, with a tilt of his head. "I'm guessing that means you were in the military or something?" He let his gaze move up and down Michael's form, a little grin tugging at the corners of his lips, mischievous and bordering on an all out smirk. "Got any pictures? I'm sure you made a pretty picture in your dress blues."
Clearly he had no shame whatsoever, but there was something about Michael's constant scowl that made Caspian want to poke and prod at him, see if he could change it to anything other than the disapproving glower that it clearly was.
It was exactly these sort of people that he tended to have the most fun with.
His eyebrows had risen again.
"You sound kinda like you're trying to convince yourself of that, not me," said Caspian.
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