semi-open post: portraiture

[peaklordshen]

After shifting his way through oil pastels, watercolors, house paint, colored pencils, and an endless variety of paint markers, Shen Yuan has finally managed to get the Mansion to produce a decent set of oil paints, and—wonder of wonders—an easel. He's set up in a spacious, well-lit hall, probably for dancing or salons or whatever, where he's arranged a bunch of furniture in various configurations—wooden screens that he's draped cloth¹ over for backdrops; armchairs stolen from the lounge, wooden stools and high-backed dining chairs from the kitchens; even a lovely chaise lounge in a deep purple that he wistfully thinks he won't actually use, because it would definitely be for Aleksander, and he doubts he'll be doing that entry in his protagonists of the Mansion series after all. He has one of the stools pulled up next to the easel to hold his paints, and is wearing a wide-necked sweater over a black turtleneck and some loose, worn jeans that already have a few flecks of paint on them from when he was doing his color tests.² He's pulled his hair back in a practical bun, and he's currently laying down a layer of gesso on his canvas.

¹ Look, he has to do something with all of those robes he accidentally conjured in his last post.
² After days of feeling very lost and confused about how he's not required to LARP anymore, he's pretty much decided that it actually means he can just change who he's LARPing as at will, and the main way to do this is through fashion. Today he is An Artist.

[Primarily for those Shen Yuan has offered to paint, but anyone else is also welcome to come bother him while he works.]

Comments

[peaklordshen]

Shen Yuan nods. "I'm glad," he says. "I mean--glad it seems like you're giving Aleksander a chance." He makes a face. "I did make him a promise, but I really don't want to fight you."

[ravkanwitch]

"I think your skill level is higher than mine... or your skills are more varied, at least. But I also think I have an extra leg up with being able to read your mind," Nina says, with a little laugh. "You really do have a soft spot for men with a dark but possibly redeemable past, don't you?"

[peaklordshen]

Shen Yuan gapes at her, then shuts his jaw with a snap. "Maybe I just believe in the inherent goodness lurking in every heart," he says, defensively. It's not his fault that the most inspiring and complicated examples of the inherent goodness lurking in every heart also happen to be very hot men with dark eyes and surprisingly warm smiles.

[ravkanwitch]

Nina actually has the gall to giggle just a little bit (this is also how you know you're becoming better friends with her, when she viciously teases you) -- but she leaves the subject alone for now. "Did you see that Nightingale and I are hosting a talent show?"

[peaklordshen]

"Oh, you're hosting it! I saw the sign-ups. I might bring some of this stuff there, if I decide any of it is good enough." He did sign up. In a sort of weird daze, actually, but regardless.

[ravkanwitch]

"I hope you do. It should be a good time. Everyone here is so talented, Nightingale and I decided to put together something to showcase it... Well, Nightingale decided and then tried to retract it -- but then I grasped at it and now I'm bullying everyone into signing up for it," she says. She looks at her melting strawberry milkshake with a frown. "Do you want to take a break and go and get fresh ones with me?"

[peaklordshen]

"Absolutely," says Shen Yuan, standing up and cracking his neck, and then, peering into her cup, "is that a milkshake?"

[ravkanwitch]

"Well, it was a milkshake," Nina says a little sadly, "until I choked on it and then got so distracted by the conversation that it melted."

[peaklordshen]

"Oh, then we're definitely getting you a new one." Shen Yuan starts off toward the nearest kitchen. "I'm so glad you've discovered blenders."

[ravkanwitch]

“Me too,” she says happily. “I have such a sweet tooth and there’s been so much to discover here. I actually introduced Galahad to Nutella just the other day.”

[peaklordshen]

"Ooh, how'd he like it?" He needs to know for the scheduled Food Arguments they're going to have. He also wonders what other sweet delights he can introduce her to. Binghe presumably has the ancient chinese cuisine pocket covered, and can actually make her stuff that's a hundred times as good as anything the fridges here can produce, so that leaves disgusting modern crap to him. His specialty. "Have you had Oreos? Actually, have you had Nutella with Oreos?"

[ravkanwitch]

"I think he liked! He had a stroopwafel as well. ...what are Oreos?"

[peaklordshen]

"What's a stroopwafel?" Shen Yuan counters, and then laughs. "Let's both find out."

[ravkanwitch]

"You know, I still haven't found proper waffles here at the mansion," she considers, as she makes her way to the kitchen with him. "They have to be fluffy and hot, not the frozen things that I found. Eggos...? Ketterdam had amazing waffles and I became obsessed with them there."

[peaklordshen]

"We should concentrate on looking for a waffle iron, and then make Binghe make us some," says Shen Yuan. He rifles through some cabinets and eventually comes out with a box of regular oreos, a box of double-stuff, and—horribly—a box of cherry cola flavored ones. "I don't co-sign these last ones," he says, dubious.

[ravkanwitch]

Nina already knows where the stroopwafels are from when she had them with Galahad, so she has a couple individually wrapped packets in her hand by the time he reemerges. "Oh, those look like cookies," she says. "The packaging is... interesting."

[peaklordshen]

Shen Yuan blinks at it. Is it?? "I guess the world I'm from--" he manages not to call it the real world "--does have a pretty fanciful approach to packaging. It's, um, like an advertising thing." He considers, briefly, trying to explain the state of modern unrestricted capitalism, and quickly decides 'how to eat an Oreo' is more his speed. He opens the normal package to take one out and show her. "You can just bite into them, but a lot of people prefer to twist off the top and then lick out the cream."

[ravkanwitch]

"That sounds like something from Princess and Barbarian," Nina says with a little giggle. She grabs an Oreo from the package and bites into it normally for the first try. "Oh, this is good!" She also slides a wrapped stroopwafel towards him to try.

[peaklordshen]

Shen Yuan snorts. "Yeah, there was basically no way to phrase that without it sounding sexual." He tries the stroopwafel. "Oh, that's really good. Are these from your world?" Then, correcting himself, "No, they wouldn't be, unless you guys have plastics."

[ravkanwitch]

"We don't have many wrappers," Nina says, "if that what you're talking about. A lot of the more complex materials have to be Fabrikator made and there aren't that many Fabrikators, especially to focus on food packaging. They're mostly ushered away to the laboratory to work on airships and missiles." She makes a little face. She loves Ravka and she's a proud member of the Second Army, but something in her wonders if this is truly the best use of Grisha abilities.

[peaklordshen]

Aleksander had said something similar--Grisha working in factories, producing arms. Their source material must be pretty focused on this magical war. Shen Yuan hesitates, taking an Oreo, then asks, "He didn't hurt you, right?"

[ravkanwitch]

"No, the only time I saw him before this was very briefly... in his future and my past. He left all of the younger students alone and made sure we got to safety during the war." She holds her half-eaten Oreo in one hand, worrying her lip a little. It's clear she's deciding if she wants to say this next part or not. "The instructors were a different story."

[peaklordshen]

"The instructors...?" Shen Yuan trails off, letting her end the question however she likes, maybe pick from the buffet of options he has in his brain, if she can hear them—he wants to know if they were killed; he wants to know if they meant something to Nina, if she was close with them; he wants to know what kind of instructors she means, at what kind of school. He's happy to have her disclose however much or little she wishes, though, it's not an interrogation.

[ravkanwitch]

"Well, Botkin was an instructor, at least. He trained many of us in our Grisha abilities. Ana Kuya worked at the orphanage that I grew up in and that we evacuated to. Botkin was somewhat of a mercenary and she was extremely strict -- but ...they weren't bad people. They were found dead, hanging in the trees." All of the things that the Darkling did later in the war, it just all seemed so unnecessary and cruel. How was he furthering the cause of the Grisha if they were dead??

"When I confronted him about it, he seemed genuinely confused," Nina hurries to add. "I think... something happened. Something made him snap and it hasn't happened with the version that's here yet." The yet does hang between them, though.

[peaklordshen]

Shen Yuan nods, slowly. "I think he thinks that, too. I think he's having second thoughts about whether pursuing the course you're describing is worth it. Worth what he did to your instructors, I assume--probably among other things. I told him I thought this place was allowing us all second chances, and giving us the freedom to become something new." He shakes his head, grimacing a little. "Which I do believe, but I probably would have said it less, like, sentimentally if I hadn't been truth-cursed at the time."