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]

"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."

[peaklordshen]

"I'm sorry," says Shen Yuan. "We don't have to talk about it, I don't mean to like, rub it in or whatever."

[summerdude]

"No!" This comes out a little more emphatically than Magnus intends. He makes a face at himself, then tries for a grin. It comes out softer, fond. "Dude, I'm fine. My point is I'm happy for you. You're my friend, man." He still has the note from Shen Yuan to prove it!! "I wanna know about your stuff. And celebrate it with you."

[peaklordshen]

"Okay, if you're sure." Honestly, it's a little weird to have so many friends interested in his romantic life. Not because he hasn't always had friends, but because he's never had a romantic life before, so most of his personal updates to them were about PIDW or whatever other fiction he was most mad about recently, or whatever inter-peak gossip he'd overheard, depending on which life you're talking about. "Well. We are definitely boyfriends."

[summerdude]

"Watch your step dude, there's some roots coming up," Magnus warns, as they draw closer to the clearing. Teasing again: "And good! One hundred wives and one boyfriend, huh?"

[peaklordshen]

"One hundred and seven wives," Shen Yuan corrects absently, stepping lightly over the root. "And--yeah. Did I tell you I know some of them? The wives? Not the versions of them he married, different versions, but still. I, um, I told him if--" he remembers how much Magnus misses Alex, and amends, "when we get out of here, I'd go with him back to his world, and then I'd get to meet his versions of them too."

[summerdude]

"One hundred and seven, my bad," Magnus says, and pauses at the edge of the clearing. That -- was a weird flare of an emotion. He can't quite identify which one, but it's not a fun one. "You're planning to leave? If you can?"

[peaklordshen]

"Sure," says Shen Yuan, surprised. "Aren't you? I figured you'd be raring to get back to Alex and your big important destiny."

He realizes he doesn't actually know much about what Magnus' big important destiny is-- they haven't, actually, talked about it. He just showed up with his talking sword and inability to be killed and Shen Yuan had filed him away alongside Galahad and Binghe as Protagonist. The destiny went without saying. Only now he's trying to unfile people, as much as possible, and it strikes him as unfair that he's never asked. Maybe Magnus will tell him about it once they're set up for the portraiture.

[summerdude]

Magnus hesitates. He thinks about Galahad saying he wants to stay where Claudius, Magnus, and Shen Yuan are; he thinks about how much fighting the zombies sucked; he thinks about Ragnarok brought about at the edge of Jack's blade. He likes being Friendship Guy. He doesn't want a different destiny. It's weird to think that other people might have different perspectives. "It's, um. Complicated."

[peaklordshen]

Shen Yuan wrinkles his nose. "I mean, ideally, whatever portals or whatever lets us leave stay open, and we'd have something like the world tree you told me about," he says, "where everyone could come and go as they please, and we meet everyone else's friends. I'd love to meet Alex." He nods at the dress in Magnus' hands. "I'd love to see him see my portrait of you in that."

[summerdude]

"Here," Magnus says, gesturing at the clearing. To buy time while he thinks -- if people can go back, that means someone who came here could leave; that means that even staying here with Jack doesn't necessarily mean Ragnarok won't start. If someone from the Nine Worlds (like Surt) could come here and then leave, then there's really no point in trying to figure out a different --

He shakes his head to clear it, sharply, and shucks his robe, carefully putting the dress on and smoothing it over his body. He'd wanted to do something with his hair, but he doesn't really remember what.

[peaklordshen]

"Do you want braids, again?" Shen Yuan asks. "Or something fancier?"

Something he said clearly made Magnus think hard about something, but he'll wait until they're set up to press. Portraiture, he's learning, involves having a captive conversational partner.

[summerdude]

"What do you think would look best?" Magnus asks, suddenly a little self-conscious.

[peaklordshen]

Shen Yuan crosses to him to fluff his hair out from his head, looking at him, and then at the world around them. "Honestly, if you're cool with it, maybe we just leave it down?" he suggests. "Sort of... streaming in the wind. It fits with the wild child thing you have going on, and it would be like the dress isn't something you're wearing, but a part of your body."

[summerdude]

"Sure, if you think that's best," Magnus says, glancing around the clearing. "Where should I -- go?"

[peaklordshen]

Shen Yuan cocks his head at Magnus, trying to get a read on his mood. "Where do you feel comfortable?"

[summerdude]

Magnus gives himself a firm mental shake. He needs to stop being such a sad sack! He likes being outside, and he likes hanging out with friends, and he likes that Shen Yuan wants to paint him in this dress that reminds him of Alex. "I'm comfortable anywhere," he says, with a crooked smile, glancing around the clearing. "I'm supposed to look beautiful though, right? And maybe super cool?"

[peaklordshen]

"Beautiful and cool do often go hand in hand," Shen Yuan agrees.

[summerdude]

"Okay," Magnus says, glancing around the clearing again. There's a really old ginkgo tree with wide spreading branches at the edge. Its leaves have all turned golden yellow, and they're still clinging to its branches -- he's pretty sure they're going to get dumped to the ground in one blustery afternoon in the next week or so. He regards it for a moment, and then hikes his skirt up around his waist. With a few steps of a running start, it's really easy for him to jump up a dozen or so feet and grab onto a thick branch that forks up and out, almost like some kind of bench. He hikes his leg over it and pulls himself up the rest of the way. It takes him a moment to pull the skirt back down and get steady, and then he lounges along the length of the branch, back supported by its fork.

He props his arm up, chin resting on his hand, and grins down at Shen Yuan. "How's this?"

[peaklordshen]

Shen Yuan narrows his eyes at him. "Good," he says. "Excellent, in fact, just—hang on." He picks up his easel and leaps lightly to the branches of an opposing tree (branches that, if Magnus is paying attention, he'll probably note are not thick enough to hold the combined weight of a man as tall as he is and a full easel), looking back at Magnus to judge the angle, then shakes his head and tries another tree.

The problem is, the angle is perfect, but from the center of the clearing, and about four feet off the ground. He frowns at nothing for a moment. "Alright," he says. "Stay here—I'm about to do something really dumb." And then he leaps away toward the Mansion, because it's faster than walking and he is concerned about losing the light.

[summerdude]

"Um," Magnus says, staring after Shen Yuan. "Okay..." and he waits.