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westfallcorndog) wrote2016-03-07 11:27 pm
Happy Birthday, Viatorus!
Invitations to this party have been written in neatly legible, semi-calligraphic font, hand-crafted with care and talent by Amelia Ronsam. Harrowheart has asked that she create a few more than necessary on the off-chance anyone lost theirs and was liberal in handing them out.
The room mentioned on the card is easy to find with a map of the aquarium: In the Earth wing, past a long series of exhibits, and through a glass hallway over which the water rests and the fish are free to swim. The corridor ends in a dome-shaped room spacious enough for a party of a few dozen.
The meeting space, like the hallway, is composed entirely of glass walls around which a vibrant array of Earth’s tropical fish drift through bright blue waters. Now and then they dart in odd directions, flashing their gem-like scales as their school is disturbed by the passing of a sea turtle or the flowing wings of a manta ray. Far, far in the distance are the silhouettes of whales that, on rare occasion, shadow the dome as they pass between the party and the far-off source of light above the water. Simpler creatures crawl through the coral just on the other side of the glass: crabs and minnows tease at algae, grinning eels poke shyly from their dark crevices, and anemones dance with the motion of the flowing seawater. The only thing to break the immersion of the scene are the mermaid attendants, glimpses of whom can be caught as they feed the fish while trying their best to stay professionally unnoticed.
Outside the glass is the beauty, but inside is the party! There are bubbly balloon letters hung from the ceiling reading HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Green streamers dangle from the ceiling like kelp, and someone's even set up a motorized shark balloon to swim through the air. Set up against one rounded wall are two buffet tables of food laid out. Stacks of cheese-stuffed fried peppers, fried chicken, grilled corn cobs, a kind of savory pork stew, something resembling black crab legs that’s been labeled ‘Duskwood Land Crab,’ a fruit and vegetable platter, a single pizza for the guests to fight over, and for the English Birthday Boy, cucumber sandwiches. Drinks are a bowl of punch and a keg of water. Looks like this aquarium party is a dry one. The sweets are cookies and hard candies laid atop a pile of pink candy floss. Then, of course, there is the cake: One large sheet cake of marbled chocolate and vanilla iced with buttercream frosting. On top there rests a little gingerbread man with black icing hair sleeping soundly atop a little frosted bed, a red smile on his face. Four tall candles make the posts of the bed. An unsteady hand has piped along the side ‘Happy Birthday Viatorus!’
Two people beat the crowd to enjoy this quiet afternoon retreat. Harrowheart, who sits at one of the tables in the middle and watches the passing of the fish, is dressed for the tropics. He’s bought himself a Hawaiian shirt to go over a pink tank with a pair of palm trees on the front, and of course he’s wearing his usual cargo shorts and tan work boots. Any rumors of pajama dress code were greatly exaggerated. With him is Amelia, whose garb for the evening is much more demure than her usual. The first sign is her lack of visible weapons. The second is the combination of dark navy jeans and black blouse. Her hair is tied back in a simple braid and the hair pin she's always been so fond of is nowhere to be seen.
((If you'd like to greet the host and/or hostess or remark on your character's entry, feel free to tag this post. Otherwise, try the Gift-Giving or Free Mingle subsections: Viatorus will accept gifts and well-wishings in the Gift-Giving section, and threadhopping will be with OOC permission. Free Mingle will be a threadhopping-encouraged area for party-goers to interact with each other. Meet new characters, talk about fish, fight about who gets to eat the pizza.))
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"I uh...An exhibition? N-no, probably not. I mean. You have to be admitted to a gallery for those, right? There's no way ahaha.."
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"I know the... How it all works, the logistics... I don't know much about that either," he adds after a second. "But someone like Isidor could set up an exhibition for you with no trouble, I'm sure."
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Steve has been doing commissions since he got to the Nexus but that's hardly...I mean. Requests for friends is one thing, but..
"Wouldn't folks be rather disappointed?"
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In an instant his expression changes into a much brighter one. "Actually I'd meant to talk to you about that. I'd wondered a lot time ago if you'd ever draw something from a dream? Dream things? I'd be really curious to see what you did. I'd even dreamwalk to give you something interesting to remember, if you liked."
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"I guess...where I came from, no one would want to go to an exhibit hosted by a broke guy from the slums. Is all. And I know I'm making a living here, but I'm still...you know. Me." Patched hand me down suit, low class..the whole nine yards.
Something that's been made all the more clear to him recently, through Dr. Hill and the Durant family.
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After a moment he brightens again. "You need a patron! In a different way to me. Like the old masters. Someone who gives you continuous projects and promotes you."
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He hasn't forgotten the earlier question, either.
"I've drawn my dreams before, by the way." Steve says quietly, remembering the nightmares he'd shown Viatorus in sketches. "Usually nightmares, though."
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"What about nice dreams, though? Beautiful ones. I'd commission a whole set of those if you wanted to draw them," he says excitedly. The mention of nightmares is easily abandoned for happier subject.
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Steve gives a small shrug. It wasn't easy, but they got by.
"It would certainly be worth trying. Is there something in particular you'd want me to do?" Since Viatorus can control dreams and the like it seems fair to ask.
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His eyes scan back and forth with his thoughts for a moment. "Well. First I'd maybe see if you could draw a simple, nice dream. Capture the warmth or joy of it. And then, if you'd allow, try to offer you more abstract, intricate dreams."
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Capturing emotions. Steve nods along to the explanation.
"It definitely sounds like it's worth a shot. Could be a lot of fun, too." He smiles at the suggestion.
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"We'll have to arrange something then," he says with a decisive nod, mind already whirling with thoughts and ideas.
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Even if...most days...he'd give it all up for a chance to go home.
It's difficult to explain. but it doesn't make his love for the Nexus any less genuine.
"I can't wait. Working in a new medium is always exciting." Steve positively beams with Viatorus's excitement.
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"The Nexus has affected all of us. I suppose we all have that in common, to unite us," he points out gently.
"I'll have to make sure you have everything you could possibly need."
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"I saw a green turtle a few minutes ago that was gorgeous!"
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"A light study would be really neat to do, yeah." He agrees, watching the water shimmer as he speaks. He starts to drift off watching the fish swimming about before snapping his gaze back to Viatorus.
"I don't doubt that there will be a lot of that as well."
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He's never thought of the ocean as being particularly dangerous for folks just spending time on the shore, but maybe life looks different to folks used to depending on magic. Steve shakes his head at the last question.
"No, never learned how t'dive."
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Everything is dangerous. Viatorus knows this because he's gotten lectures about it. It's more a matter of accepting your limits and watching them carefully. The more he thinks about it, the more he realises that magic expands his own limits dramatically.
"So you've never seen things underwater like this before..." After a moment of looking around he adds, "Neither have I, really. Not this deep. Not this much. Not in the waking world."
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He wonders briefly if Voatorus swims like a dolphin and does flips and stuff when he swims. The thought makes it hard not to laugh, but he manages. He's polite, after all.
"I haven't, no. Just in books or in the theater." Steve loved going to the pictures. Whenever he could afford to he went, even if it was just to watch the news reels. "It's really something else."