ArchivedLogs:New Stuff

New Stuff
Dramatis Personae Aerin, Kai, Sebastian
In Absentia	2014-04-04 '
Location <XS> Art Room
Smells of paints and chalks and turpentine mingle freely in this room, well-used, well-stocked. Natural light flows in, plentiful through the large windows. The long counter-like tables are speckled with spots of color, and half finished projects often stand on easels or propped in corners. The many cupboards lining the walls are crammed full of art supplies. Class has only recently ended for the day; there's still a wealth of extracurriculars taking place around the school, though, so the building is still very much /lively/ before the weekend makes it -- well, even liveli/er/. In the art room at the moment, though, it's quiet enough. There's music playing from a laptop -- Ryan Black's debut album -- and quiet humming in time with the song. Bastian is at the moment alone in the art room, hard to distinguish from his twin in jeans and a plain black tee, hiking boots, Xavier's sweatshirt pushed up around his elbows. He's easy enough to tell based on his /art/ habits, though -- for those who know him, at least. There's a large toolkit on the table beside him that seems to be filled with /bones/ of all shapes and sizes (-- some of which are rather noticeably human), and in front of him there is a sculpture under construction. It's a person, though their form looks more avian than humanoid -- enormous wings (or /one/ enormous wing, he hasn't yet built the other), talons, sharp-beaked face; overall in shape it has an uncanny resemblance to Horus, one of the newest students here this semester. Sebastian is, at the moment, very, very /carefully/ slotting a slender-delicate fishbone into a pre-carved notch, painstakingly filling out the wing-feathers on his somewhat macabre bone-sculpture. Enter one small Korean boy, at a brisker pace than he normally moves. Kai is dressed in his Xavier's t-shirt and a pair of dark blue shorts, his hair mussed and indicative of a lightning-fast change of clothes after class. His bare feet would probably underline that idea, if it were not his default state in the warm months. With a sketchpad under his arm and a pencil box in his hand, his hop-skip is downright cheerful as he enters the Art room. He pauses only momentarily as he spies Sebastian at work, and then he lifts the pencil box to wave it at the older boy. "Hello, Sebastian," he says, his soft voice a bit chirpy as he settles himself down at one of the tables not strewn with bones. Opening his sketchbook, he looks over the sculpture with a tilt of his head. "That is coming along very well." Aerin steps into the art room, peeking her head in and looking around. The rest of her follows suit as she slips into the art room running one of her long sharp red nails along the wall. She pauses as she nears Sebastian, recognizing him for the correct brother...mostly because she figures that Shane wouldn't be spending his time here. "'Ey." she offers softly. "Buildin' a..wingy..sort o' guy there?" Resting her hands behind her back, she tucks them under her tail (just above her rear). "Sae..are yae' any good wi' clothing?" Sebastian doesn't answer either of the others, at first, eyes very focused on the tiny-details of his task. It's only once he's set the bone in its correct place and made sure it is notched together flush and snug with the others that he straightens, backing up a hair from his work. He flashes a warm (closed-lipped) smile to Kai. "Hey, Kai. Thanks. Horus thinks he's ugly. I'm trying to -- I mean, he's /not/ he's gorgeous." His head tilts slightly, acknowledging Aerin with a quick nod. "It's Horus. He's in school here." And now suddenly he's /frowning/ at his statue, pressing his lips together with abrupt worry. "-- Oh, gosh, is it not good? It doesn't look anything like him does it." His hand rubs against the side of his neck uncomfortably as he scrutinizes his work. Then turns to look at Aerin again with a bit of a puzzled frown. "Huh? With -- what?" "Horus is not ugly," Kai says, lifting his shoulders as he opens his pencil box. "He is beautiful, and he can fly." He glances up at Aerin's entrance, and he falls silent as he studies the new face. "Hello. I am Kai," he offers, and flips a couple of pages in his sketchbook. "I think the sculpture is very good," he offers at Sebastian's sudden rush of doubt. "I think all of your work is excellent." Finding the image he was looking for -- a not-quite-accurate sketch of a certain absent Russian -- he puts the tip of his pencil against the paper and begins sketching lightly. "She asked something about clothing," he offers helpfully, without looking up. Aerin looks to Kai "'Ey. Ah'm Aerin." She stares at the statue "Well..ah' dun' know..about all this beautiful stuff. Jus' looks like a winged guy tae' mae'. Ah' dunno.." Her tail sways behind her as she puffs out her cheeks a moment, before talking again "Well..ah'm thinkin' about goin' out in public, and was wonder'n since yae' know all this artsy and science stuff..dae' yae' know stuff that coul' maybe help mae' hide mah' mutancy while ah'm out..there?" "He is beautiful," Sebastian agrees firmly with Kai. He trails his fingers through his box of bones, picking another slender one out of a compartment and starting to scrape at one of its ends with his small sharp claws. "Oh -- oh thank you. /Oh/ is that Ivan?" He stops his scratching, for a moment, peering over at the sketch. His cheeks darken at Kai's clarification, and he shoots an apologetic look to Aerin. "Um -- clothes? A hat? I don't know. Rasa goes out sometimes in a /burqa/. I don't, um. I'm not /great/ at sewing. Though my Ba is. And my friend Dusk is. And my --" For a moment a sadder look crosses his expression. "-- ex-dad is. Mostly other people just make my clothes for me." Kai nods at Sebastian, offering a bright smile as he looks up. "It is! I thought I would make a picture of him for Rasa. I thought it would make hir happy to have it." He seems particularly proud of this idea, although he frowns a bit at the picture. "It does not look /quite/ like him," he admits. "But I am pleased with it." He swings his feet as he sketches in a few more lines, roughing out a spider-shape on Ivan's shoulder. Listening to the conversation, he frowns a bit as he works through Aerin's accent. "You would look good in a hat," he says, bobbing his head. "I am sure if you asked one of the teachers, they could help you. Professor Kurt has a tail, and he wears clothes." "Might do," Sebastian agrees with a small smile, "Rasa misses him a lot. You like drawing? Are you in any of the art classes?" Once more his lips press together, perhaps in thought or focus as he works on notching the tiny bone in his hand. "Shane has /lots/ of hats, he can probably tell where to buy pretty ones. And -- yeah a few people around here have tails and could probably help with /that/. I think my -- old dad just. He made a lot of /our/ old clothes and a lot of Taylor's -- it can be hard when you have, uhm, nonstandard body configuration." His cheeks flush darker with this. "But it just takes a little more work and then you can dress just as well." "I miss him, as well," Kai says, sighing a little bit as he sketches. "I wish he would come back, but I do not think he will any time soon." He nods at the question, offering a bright smile. "I take the drawing classes with your father, and the painting class. I enjoy them very much." He rubs at his nose as he studies the drawing, then adds some fine hairs along the spider legs. "I did not get to draw much before Foom, and never after. It is nice. I think I would like to be an artist." His smile now is a bit shy. "If I get good enough." Comments about clothing gets him to stop, and he leans on the table, looking over at Sebastian. "I like Shane's hats," he says. "I only have the one that my snowman had. It is green and yellow." "Oh, cool." Now Sebastian's smile is a little bit /shy/, a quiet sort of pride as he says: "Ba's a good teacher." His tongue pokes out of the corner of his mouth as he bends in to his work, carefully slotting in the next bone, too. "And more artists are -- the world can /always/ use more pretty." He tips his gaze up to peer over at Kai. "Green and yellow? That sounds /neat/. Mine was --" His blush deepens again. "Really colourful. Shane's had pinstripes of course. He rocked it. Maybe you could get newsboy caps like my Pa has. They're /pretty/ cute." "He's a very good teacher," Kai affirms. "He explains things very well. I have learned a lot." He taps his pencil against the paper, then opts to swap it for something more charcoal-y to begin shading in lightly. "It is very nice," he says of his snowman hat. "I still have it on my bookshelf, if you would like to see it. Did yours have a /lot/ of colors swirled together, like those shirts? I saw a couple like that." The suggestion of the new style of hat still his charcoal, and he considers that, tapping a smudge over the scar on his chin. "I like those hats," he says. "Mister Jackson wears them, and I saw a thing on the television on the day of thanks. There were many boys wearing them, and dancing." He pauses, and concern creeps into his features. "I am not good at dancing, but I could still wear the hat, yes?" "Ohmygosh." Sebastian's eyes light up for a moment, words coming out in an abruptly eager spill. "The dancing -- that was Newsies it's a musical it plays downtown. Do you want to go sometime? There's a movie too. It's /also/ really good. But the actual stage show I -- am /dying/ to see I love the movie so much." He presses his lips together, bowing his head sheepishly to admit: "... I like musicals." His gills flutter quickly alongside his neck. "Mine was purpley and its band had butterflies on it." This draws a deeper blush, together with the quiet admission: "I really liked it. You don't have to be a dancer to wear the hats, though. /Ba/ wears them all the time too and /he/ -- I don't think does a /lot/ of dancing." "Go?" Kai's eyes widen at the invitation, and he sets down his charcoal carefully on the table. "To the city? To see a show?" He bounces a little in his chair and bobs his head eagerly. "Oh, yes. I would enjoy that very much. I have not been to New York; I am very eager to see it." His fingers twitch, as if he's suppressing a larger excitement. "I did not know it was a movie or a musical. I just thought the dancing was very good, and some of the boys were very nice to look at." He blushes at this admission, and straightens. "Your hat sounds very pretty," he says, fingering the edge of the paper. "Maybe I will get a hat like Mister Jackson's, when we go to see the show." "It's -- big. And kind of scary," Sebastian admits, cheeks still flushed dark. "But there's /lots/ to do -- it's hard sometimes a lot of places, um, won't let me in but -- they'd let you in no problem. And if I cover up enough they don't /notice/ so much, the theater's -- dark anyway and everyone's just looking at the stage." His nose crinkles up slightly as he says, a little sadly, "-- My hat's gone. It burned up with our house. /But/," his smile returns here, "maybe downtown we can get /new/ hats. I'll ask Shane for somewhere good. For hats." Kai nods. "It seems large, on the television," he says. "And Howard says that it is easy to get lost if you are unfamiliar with it. But I would still like to see it." He frowns at the idea of Bastian not getting in to places, and shakes his head slightly. "Then we will not go to those places," he says. "If we are going to have fun, then we should only go to those places that do not make you feel bad about yourself." He exhales a sympathetic sound for the fate of Sebastian's hat, and leans his chin on his hand thoughtfully. "Maybe we can find another hat with butterflies for you," he says hopefully. "Maybe even a /purple/ one." "Yeah, it's easy to get lost but our phones have maps so it's really easy to find yourself again. Or," Sebastian says brightly, "just stick with someone who knows their way around." His smile widens at the notion of finding another purple hat. "I kind of have a lot of shopping to do," he admits, "I haven't replaced basically /anything/ since the fire and I'm getting kind of --" He glances down at his bland clothing with a small frown. "Well. I liked my old stuff." "I think it would be better to stick with someone," Kai says, smiling shyly. "It seems like it would be more fun that way." He studies Sebastian as he talks, and tilts his head thoughtfully. "Your old stuff was prettier," he agrees. "You look all right in that, but I like the colorful you more." He drops his hand, sitting up as something strikes him. "And I would not mind shopping for clothes," he says. "I will need something nice for the end of school dance. Maybe you can help me find something good, and I will help /you/ find good things." Sebastian's smile brightens, for just a tiny moment showing a flash of teeth before he closes his lips again self-consciously. "That," he says warmly, reaching for another bone so that he can start focusing back on his work, "sounds like a /deal/."