ArchivedLogs:True Colors

True Colors
Dramatis Personae Kai, Sebastian
In Absentia	2013-07-17 '
Location <XS> Art Room - FL2
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. It's dinner time, probably. Or near enough. At least the /smells/ of dinner are starting to waft through the mansion, even if it's not quite served. From the music room, quiet strains of Prokofiev drift heavy and somber and quiet from a violin. It's a slow tune in a minor key that sounds like it would suit a graveyard, and it provides fitting /background/ tune to the setting in the art room currently -- there are dead things scattered across one of the long tables. Bones large and bones small, a vertebra here, slender delicate ribs here, some large heavy sternum there. Sebastian has a stool, though he's half standing, half kneeling, knee perched atop it and a foot on its rung, his elbows on the countertop and a look of intense concentration on his face. The tiny blue sharkboy is a small focused statue of blue amidst his graveyard of bones, focused very /intently/ on a heavy club of a humerus that he is -- whittling, With knife and with /long/ sharp claws that are admittedly getting duller from the work; he has knife /sharpeners/ beside him, too. Which his claws get occasional touching-up on. On the table in front of him, on a slab of wood as base, there is something under construction; it rises out of rib-bones, curved sharp and tall like jaws, sharp and tall like the bars of a cage. Kai is a Very Small Thing himself, and quiet, to boot. And his entrance to the art room is no different. While he doesn't /slink/, his usual hop-step is slow and makes no slapping noise when he comes down. He moves into the room, his sketchpad and a box of colored pencils tucked carefully under one arm. He pauses as he spies Sebastian working, and he moves to set his pad on a nearby table before he drifts in that direction. He drifts along the table, fingers /almost/ touching those bones, but stopping before he can disturb anything. Pausing a short distance from the older boy, tipping his head to watch the whittling intenly. "Hello, Sebastian," he says, when there's a pause. "What are you making with all of these bones?" Sebastian freezes almost even before Kai is fully entered; senses keen and noise or no noise it is hard to disguise /smell/ from a predator, nostrils flaring as he draws in a slow breath. Then unfreezes to continue his slow carving. He's whittling the humerus down into a /person/shape, at least part of a figurine. "I --" Sebsatian flushes, his gills quivering before he can answer the question. "Hello, Kai," he says instead, quietly, and shrugs a shoulder. "I -- carve. Um. Things. Dead -- things." He rocks back against his stool, something apologetic in his expression as he curls out an arm to sweep some of the bones closer towards himself, gathering them into a smaller neater pile. He looks Kai over, from sketchpad to pencils to boy. "You're not eating?" Kai nods at the explanation, and his eyes drop to regard the figurine being carved. "That is a very interesting thing to do," he says, and the tip of his head is a little more attentive, now. "I have only learned about making things from bone in my world history class," he says. "When we learned about primitive cultures." He offers a small smile, and shakes his head at the question. "I am not very hungry," he says. "And they are making the chicken with the lemon and pepper," he adds. "The last time, I did not care for it." His attention is back on the femur figurine, now, and there's a slow flicker of yellow around the rim of his pupils as he considers it. "Have you been carving dead things a long time?" There's a very slight curl at the corners of Sebastian's mouth. "Primitive cultures," he echoes softly, "Yeah." He rocks back down to sit on the stool properly, his summery-light yellow skirt pooling around its seat. "I --" His eyes close, then open again. "-- no. Yes. I don't know. I carve --" His cheeks flush, faintly. His eyes fix on Kai's a loooong moment, briefly narrowing, and then he looks back to his sculpture. "You OK?" Kai nods at the echo, although he doesn't expand upon the thought. He distracts himself by leaning forward to PEER at a bone on the table, poking a tentative finger at its rough surface. "You have been doing it a very long time?" he guesses when Sebastian is unable to finish, and he wrinkles his nose thoughtfully. "I am sorry if it is too personal," he says then, sympathetically. Sebastian's question is a good change of topic, and he sighs a bit. "I am fine," he says after a moment, offering a small smile. "I am missing Ivan, though. It is not as much fun to take care of the bugs without him." His eyes widen, a bit, and he blushes a bit. "Please do not tell him I said that. It is still fun to take care of them; it is just not the same." There's more poking of the bones, and his brow furrows thoughtfully. "Where do you get all of these bones?" "I kill things," Sebastian answers, with a lowering of his gaze to the table. "I've been killing things a long time, yes." This earns an uncomfortable stiffening, a flutter of gills, a tension cording through his small frame. "Sorry." The last word hitches quietly breathless through a quick rippling of gills. It is a moment before they flatten out. He offers Kai a small smile in return! "I can help with the bugs, if you want," he offers warmly. "They're really neat. And Ivan'll be back next month, right? Not even a month. That'll be good." Kai makes a soft 'ah' noise at the explanation, and he nods. "Killing is probably the best way to get bones," he agrees. "Animal bones, I mean." He presses his mouth into a line when Sebastian stiffens, and his eyes flicker once at the reaction. "You do not have to apologize," he says. "I am being too personal again." He offers an apologetic look, and drops the subject of bones in favor of the less-reactive topic. "I would like it if you helped," he says earnestly. "Peter tries to help, but he is very busy with --" there's a wave of his hand that's dismissive. "Things." Which is not a happy sounding sort of word, but he pushes on, smiling at the question about Ivan. "Twenty-five days," he says confidently, his smile slipping wide. "I talked to Ivan this morning. On the computer. He will be coming home in twenty-five days. That will leave time for us to do things before school starts again." "Best way to get --" Sebastian hesitates, and nods. "Generally, yeah." His hand lifts, a small smile curling onto his lips again as his fingers touch lightly to his neck. "Yeah, Peter's been pretty busy this summer. Work's been /crazy/, and Shane --" The smile warms, his fingers curling closer to rest his hand flat against his gills for a moment. "Twenty-five days? You're keeping -- cool. I can help! Pa's going to see about getting an entire new /colony/ of beetles for Ivan when he gets home so -- that'll be cool, too." Kai's smile fades at the mention of the things that are keeping Peter busy, and there's a flare of yellow that fades immediately into detachment as the younger boy nods airily. He's unable to hide the flush that creeps into his neck and ears, though, and he ducks his head a bit in attempt. "Ivan told me it was twenty-five days," he clarifies. "I did not know exactly what day he would be back, so I did not want to try to count. But he was counting, instead." His eyebrows lift as Sebastian continues, and he nods excitedly. "Oh, he will like that very much!" he says, bouncing a bit. "He is missing his bugs very badly, I can tell. He will enjoy having new ones to learn about." He tips his head. "I have not learned about any beetles that live in colonies," he says. "What kind are those?" "-- Are you. Sure you're okay, I'm not -- sure that's -- your eyes aren't -- okay," Sebastian says with a /definite/ touch of nervousness. He's collecting his leftover bones. Quickly, too, tucking them away into a large toolbox with rapid neat efficiency. The rest of Kai's statements are skipped over in favour of this decided concern, Sebastian's brow furrowed deeply and his jet-black eyes focused on Kai's. Kai frowns, and tips his head at Sebastian's sudden nervousness. "I am fine," he insists, looking more and more confused as things get put away. "I do not understand what you are talking about? What is wrong with my eyes?" He reaches up to touch his eyes, rubbing over his eyelids gently. "They do not feel any differently." Then he's dabbing beneath them, and looking at his fingertips. Then back at Sebastian helplessly, holding up his hands. "-- I do not understand." "O-- kay. Maybe you should go get dinner," Sebastian says slowly, still packing his things away quickly. He leaves his half-finished sculpture where it is, though, it's too big to easily /move/ in a hurry. "They're changing color." He snaps the toolbox shut, dragging it off the table with a quiet rattling sound and hopping down off the stool. "All yellow. I can't /imagine/ that's any kind of a good sign, Kai," he says gently, as he slips wide around the other boy and starts towards the door, "you should talk to someone if that -- happens a lot, it's been a couple times just while /I've/ been talking to you." "Oh." Kai says with a sad furrow of his brow, and his mouth presses into a line. "That." He takes a deep breath and nods dully. "That is Foom," he says. "It happens when there is a thing that he finds interest in." He looks up, his eyebrows hitching in sudden concern. "But he cannot come. The Professor said he would not come unless the Professor let him. I /know/," he continues, dropping his chin to his chest as he speaks and regarding his bare feet intently. "Because I tried to call him once, and all I did was fall asleep in the forest." "You -- tried to call him once," Sebastian's voice drops even gentler, now, a quiet-calm. Placating-calm. "Okay. I'm glad he -- didn't come. Okay. Um. Well, /I'm/ -- hungry, I'm going to get dinner even if -- I mean, you should probably-maybe also," he says with a small-warm closed-lipped smile. "Or maybe! Go talk to the Professor. I don't --" He nudges the box of bones behind his thin legs, "-- know what kind of things interest -- mm. Anyway," his smile returns quickly. "It was nice talking to you, Kai. I'm gonna grab food, yeah? We can -- I'll see you later!" His head bobs slightly in a quick nod to the other boy, smile still warm before he backs out of the door. Kai nods, not quite able to hide either his hurt expression or the flash of yellow in his eyes, despite Sebastian's tone and warm smiles. "I will do that," he says in a voice stripped of emotion, and he lifts a hand. "I will see you later, Sebastian," he says, moving to collect his own things. He pauses to regard the unfinished sculpture, not turning to acknowledge Sebastian's departure. Instead, he waits until the other boy is gone before he turns around, scrubbing his forearm over his eyes as he leaves the art room, closing the door gently behind him and leaving it to the dark and the dead.