peaklordshen | semi-open post: portraiture

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semi-open post: portraiture

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.]

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"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.

"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.

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."

"That truth curse did a number on everyone," Nina says a little grimly. Luckily for her, the undead attack came immediately afterwards and anything she could have said about her Grisha abilities was on display during the attack -- and nobody cared. "I think he's telling the truth. It's just the potential that's there that scares me. But a lot of people here have the potential to do some really bad things." She shrugs. "I do too."

"Everyone has the potential to do some really bad things," says Shen Yuan, though whether he's reassuring her about Aleksander or about herself he's not really sure. "I'd like to think everyone has the potential to do really good things, too, but I get why that feels less likely for some people than others." He reaches over and opens the packet of cherry cola oreos. "It feels wrong giving you these without at least introducing you to cherry coke first. Like showing you a grotesque copy of beautiful art, or something."

"There have definitely been a few points where even I could have done something quite terrible," Nina acknowledges -- then she makes a little face. "Is it really that bad?"

"Okay, I admit, I don't actually know," says Shen Yuan. "But--corporations in my time are obsessed with shoving flavors into other flavors, and occasionally you really do get something so bad it should probably be a war crime. Here, try this, first." He stands up, and produces from the fridge, a--vanilla coke. And then a coke zero. And then, finally, after her gives it a very stern look, a cherry coke. He hands it to Nina.

Nina takes it and opens it carefully, taking a sip. She gives it a mild look of distrust first -- but then it's not bad. "It tastes like a whole sweets factory mixed together," she says.

Shen Yuan snorts. "Yeah, pretty much." He cracks the vanilla coke, despite his better judgment. "Now imagine that taste but in, like, cookie form, and combined with the Oreo taste." He pushes the package toward her, slowly and slightly ominously.

Edited 2023-12-18 19:23 (UTC)

"You're scaring me," Nina jokes -- but she still opens the package and takes one, taking a bite of it. Her expression as she chews is probably somewhere between contemplative and also mildly concerned.

Well, Nina hadn't instantly spit it out, so that was? A good sign? Shen Yuan takes a fortifying sip of vanilla coke and takes one for himself.

"It's not bad," Nina says haltingly, but she waits until Shen Yuan takes a bite of it and starts chewing before laughing. "It's absolutely terrible. I need to drink something else to get the taste out of my mouth."

Shen Yuan winces his way through his bite and abandons the rest of the cookie back to the package. It is truly disgusting. "Like I said, war crime. I think we'll let the mice have those. Maybe take them outside for Magnus' squirrels." He makes a face. "Some people dunk the original ones in milk, maybe that would help."

"Good idea," Nina says, grabbing a carton of milk and two glasses. "Why do people make things like that?" As she's pouring both of them glasses of milk, she makes the sound of someone suddenly remembering something. "I've been meaning to ask. ...what's Kitchen Nightmares?"

"Kitchen Nightmares?" Shen Yuan snorts a laugh. "Where did you hear about that?"

"From your brain," Nina says, ducking her head a little sheepishly. "I'm doing so much better at blocking out your thoughts now, but this was from before, one of the first few times we met."

"From my— okay, that does make sense, and honestly if you're going to glean anything from my stray thoughts that's a pretty harmless one." Shen Yuan shakes his head. "Kitchen Nightmares is, um—a television show? Has Magnus or anyone explained television to you, or movies?"

Nina shakes her head. "No idea what they are, unfortunately."

"Damn," says Shen Yuan. "Okay, so like--you have plays, right? Other types of theatre? It's kind of like that, except--there are ways to record it, the visuals and sound and everything, and then play it afterward whenever you want. Movies are like, single performances, a couple hours long, and television is ongoing."

"Hmm," Nina says, desperately trying to visualize this. "This place doesn't have it, does it? And Kitchen Nightmares is... one of these?"

"Right," says Shen Yuan. "Actually, it's kind of odd that there isn't TV here." He has to think about that more. "But--yeah, it's a television show, but it's not scripted, it's like--there's this chef, Gordon Ramsey, who's a famously tough critic, and he goes around to failing restaurants and tries their food and yells at them a lot for how dysfunctional there are. It produced a lot of--" he hesitates, then decided not to try tackling memes right now, "inside jokes about how mean he is and the weirdos who hire him to come in and yell at them, but it's actually kind of great. Very--tough love type stuff."

Nina follows most of that thread of conversation. "Oh, that type of personality is very popular, in literature and in plays. You know, there are some people out there who like the ones who are a little brooding or a little mean sometimes." She very pointedly does not look at Shen Yuan during the some people part, though she absolutely means him.

Shen Yuan shakes his head. "I think everyone likes people who are brooding, brooding's sexy.¹ But this is less brooding and more, like, caustic. There's this one meme—um, joke—where he puts two pieces of bread on either side of someone's cheeks, like so—" he squishes his own face to demonstrate—"and he goes what are you?! and the guy's like, an idiot sandwich!!" He cracks up.

¹ ...

Nina laughs as well because it is really funny. "An idiot sandwich," she says. "I'll have to remember that."

Shen Yuan sighs, leaning back in his chair. "I think I've been a picnic's worth of idiot sandwiches since I got here," he says, "but... maybe I'm finally figuring shit out." He makes a face. "Oh, ew, I should really not say stuff like that out loud."

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