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The Charity Benefit (2) - The Charity Benefit has drawn a social crowd and they seem keen to make conversation as well as friends. The room is full of compliments and kind words and every now and then it looks like you're catching someone's eye and one person in particular seems to be paying more attention to you than the others. The stranger lingers by a display table showcasing some of the donated auction items. They look familiar but you can’t quite place why. If you try to approach them, the stranger suddenly seems to disappear before your eyes. It might be easy to assume they got lost in the crowd, but any examination of the room makes it hard to tell where they’ve gone. More than that, it seems like sometimes you catch a glimpse of them in one part of the room only to see them disappear in the blink of an eye and immediately appear across the room in a different spot entirely. It’s impossible to get close to them, and the sensation of eyes on you never really fades.
Justine had just finished an encounter with a pretty little thing who’d accepted her business card and expressed interest in her art. Not bad, not bad. Maybe she’d get a thank you portrait later, if she bothered to follow up on that interest. Red hair with purple tips, right. A distinct look. She didn’t think she’d forget someone who’d bothered to bother her like that.
She’d done enough human figure studies for now, she figured. After all, she was running out of ideas. She could only draw these fancy people in wine glasses and teacups and a container of yogurt for so long. She was bored. Bored Justine was not productive. Bored Justine would probably fall asleep on this couch, which would look very weird at a charity benefit. No drugs, just boredom.
She got up and stretched, stowing her iPad in her purse for the time being, and walked over to where the auction tables were. Yes, she could do object studies now. There was quite a bit of variety in the objects and lighting, so that would be a good time. No more boredom.
A girl with orange hair walked over and squinted at a crystal bird for a few seconds before walking away. Weird, but Justine wasn’t too fussed about it. She only wished that girl had hung around for a bit longer so that she could make a portrait of her in a stare-off with the bird, complete with that weird anime lightning conflict line. Crystal birds were serious business, apparently.
When the other girl left, Justine had a weird feeling, one that made the hair on the back of her neck stand up. She turned around and saw a distinctly indistinct someone looking at her from leaning on one of the auction tables before getting up and leaving with a quickness. A very odd quickness, almost like one step and then poof, gone. A flash step. Very odd, and Justine wondered if her eyes were playing tricks on her, or if there was a Negaverse agent teleporting around. She wasn’t going to power up and expose herself to find out. Maybe that guy did just that. What an idiot.
Shrugging, Justine walked back to the main area to see if her couch was still available (yes, her very specific couch that she had claimed as hers), only to see that same person blink through the crowd. She didn’t often get unnerved, but this felt more than a little weird. She was going to call shenanigans if this happened a third time.
Which, upon reaching her couch, it did. The figure got off the couch, stepped forward, and vanished. Justine did not like the feeling this gave her, like an internal shudder. The Jibblies, as some stray other Corrupt had said once, some time ago. Pulling her iPad out and clutching it like a security blanket, she looked around before resuming her art. However, the nervous feeling didn’t subside immediately, and that made coming up with new ideas hard. Sighing, she lowered her iPad and stared out into the crowd.
That went sour quickly, but maybe those donor portraits would perk her up.
[Word Count: 527]
