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

[summerdude]

"Bro," Magnus says, when Shen Yuan ruffles his hair -- less a complaint than an observation -- and then he takes another big bite of his falafel sandwich, psyching himself up to go to the showers.

"I can stay inside," he offers, mouth still half-full, when he sees just how much Shen Yuan is packing. "It's easier with friends."

[peaklordshen]

Shen Yuan shakes his head, continuing to tuck brushes and palette knives into his wide jean pockets, which are almost as good a his qiankun sleeves "No, this is better anyway, I don't know why didn't think about it before," he says. "But we should go soon, or we'll miss the best light."

[summerdude]

"Gotcha, see you at the door," Magnus says, and dips out to go shower, scarfing the rest of his sandwich as he walks.

He's efficient about the shower, but pays special attention to making sure all the junk is out of his hair and that all the tangles have been finger-combed out. Once he's done, he towel-dries it vigorously, and then sweeps it back into a tiny ponytail with the hope that he can convince Shen Yuan to fix it into something nicer for him. The bathroom has supplied its usual change of clothes in the towel cabinet; he bundles these in another towel for later, since he's going to be changing into a dress, anyway. Instead he just goes for the fresh underwear and a scratchy robe he finds tucked away at the back.

Feeling rather refreshed, he wanders -- still barefoot -- to the side door in question.

[peaklordshen]

Shen Yuan finishes packing up his stuff and leaves it by the side door, then leaps lightly up through Magnus' broken window—dispelling the charm he'd left to seal it—to find the dress. He folds it over one arm and hops back down just in time to meet Magnus. "Hey," he says, and hands him the dress. He swings his easel and kind of enormous amount of painting supplies over one shoulder and holds out his other hand for Magnus to take, the way Galahad would. "Lead the way."

[summerdude]

Magnus adds the dress to his bundle and threads his fingers through Shen Yuan's, privately marveling -- once again -- about how touchy he's gotten since arriving here. "This way," he says. The pace he sets is faster than one he would take with Galahad -- since there's a specific destination they're aiming for, and a time limit in which to get there. He's already more relaxed the second he's outside of the Mansion. "How've you been by the way, my dude? How was your date with Luo Binghe?"

[peaklordshen]

Shen Yuan smiles to himself, not really about anything, just reflexive. "Really good," he says. "Despite the fact that there was a truth curse involved, which is wild, because if you'd told me a truth curse was going to be involved in my first date with Luo Binghe I would have thought you were describing my nightmare."

[summerdude]

"You know, a couple of people have mentioned the truth... thing to me," Magnus says, musingly. "I guess I missed all that. I'm glad it worked out for you though, dude. That's good. You deserve it."

[peaklordshen]

"You didn't get truth-spelled at all?" Shen Yuan asks, surprised. "But that was before the zombie attack, I assume you were still inside? I couldn't go two steps without it happening to me, what the hell."

[summerdude]

"Nah," Magnus says, shrugging. "I think I ran into some people who were -- or at least, they said they thought they were -- but I don't think it affected me at all."

[peaklordshen]

"Lucky," says Shen Yuan. Maybe Magnus was like, immune to truth curses or something. Maybe he was just naturally an honest guy, so the Mansion left him alone. "Not that it was all bad, for me. I did get to tell Claudius the entire plot of the Lion King."

[summerdude]

"Oh yeah, Claudius told me he was Scar," Magnus says, shaking his head. "I had no idea the Lion King was Hamlet? Wild."

[peaklordshen]

"To be fair," says Shen Yuan, "I don't think it's very good Hamlet. Laertes isn't even in it."<sup>1

1</sup> Which, again—queer erasure??

[summerdude]

"I don't know that much about Hamlet," Magnus admits. "My mom really liked it, so I do know it's about Ophelia, but that's about it." He grins. "It doesn't surprise me that it's a bad adaptation. Scar was really scary when I was a kid, and Claudius is just really cool."

[peaklordshen]

Shen Yuan is pretty sure the play is more about Hamlet than it is about Ophelia, because otherwise it would be called Ophelia, but he's already accidentally said enough about her for one lifetime, so he lets this pass. "Yeah, Claudius clearly had way more nuanced and justified reasons for killing his brother. Though I do think it would be fun to try and get him to sing some of Scar's songs. Or even just recite them. Be Prepared, but like, with thee's and thou's in there."

[summerdude]

Magnus tries to picture this. It's been an easy fifteen years since he's seen anything but Alex's adaptation of the Lion King, but she likes to do an overly dramatic version of the song in lion form -- which he can understand now, since he can speak animal -- and so it's not that hard to picture Claudius, like, declaiming it like some skald in Valhalla. "That would be very good," he decides. "You know those dueling cello guys? What I'd really like to see, in a perfect world, is Claudius doing a total recitation of Be Prepared while Alex is there, shapeshifted into Scar, doing the same thing but in, like, lion."

[peaklordshen]

Shen Yuan laughs. "I'd pay to see that," he says, and squeezes Magnus' hand. "Not least because Alex would be here."

[summerdude]

"Yeah..." Magnus says, wistfully. He's still thinking about that double date he proposed to Galahad. He really does think Alex and Claudius would be a force to be reckoned with if they met. "That would be nice." He smiles over at Shen Yuan. "So. Truthed-up date with Luo Binghe."

[peaklordshen]

Shen Yuan ducks his head, smiling a little. "Yeah," he says. "It—you know." He makes a face. "He told me he'd already met an alternate version of me months before we both ended up here, I told him I pushed an alternate version of him into the Endless Abyss. Standard first date stuff."

[summerdude]

"Oh, sure," Magnus says, easily, taking this all in. "Dude, I think your life might be even weirder than mine?"

[peaklordshen]

"Possible," says Shen Yuan. "I've never met any giants, though, or gods." Unless you count Airplane, which he doesn't, because he's mad at him.

[summerdude]

"I've never met an alternate self," Magnus counters. "Of me or any of my, um, friends."

[peaklordshen]

"I've never met myself," Shen Yuan clarifies. "That would be too weird. Though if I ever do meet the one Binghe met, I'm going to give hm a piece of my mind. He was very cruel to my boyfriend."<sup>1

1</sup> Did not shower him in love and affection in favor of showering a different Binghe in love and affection.

[summerdude]

"Oooooooh," Magnus teases, hip-checking Shen Yuan -- carefully; he doesn't want him to drop all his painting stuff. "Boyfriend."

[peaklordshen]

Shen Yuan flushes. "Yeah," he says. "Shut—shut up."

[summerdude]

"Hey, all of my good friends here get to have boyfriends in-house now, but some of us left our boyfriends in Midgard," Magnus says, laughing. "So we have to make do. Vicariously, through teasing, or whatever."