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 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.

[peaklordshen]

When Shen Yuan returns, he's carrying his sword, three long, narrow pieces of lumber, and several lengths of twine. Working simultaneously with his hands and his qi to save time, he lashes the pieces of lumber to the legs of the easel, extending it upward, and then tilts it upright. The trough that holds the canvas is now several feet above his head. He stares up at it and barks a laugh. "Stupid," he mutters. "The things we do for art."

[summerdude]

Magnus watches all of this with a bald curiosity. Between Shen Yuan's leaping about and the lengthening height of the easel, he's remembering something Gu Xiang said. "Dude," he calls. "Can you really kill people with grass?"

[peaklordshen]

"Sure," says Shen Yuan, absently, still fiddling with the easel height, and then actually thinks about it. "I mean, I've never killed people with grass, but I've hurt them, and I was taking zombies out pretty well the other day." To demonstrate, he pulls several golden gingko leaves to him, weighs them between his fingers like throwing stars, and flicks them into the nearest tree-trunk, where they embed themselves, trembling, a good few inches into the wood.

[summerdude]

"Dude," Magnus says, squinting at the leaves. He can't do anything with plucked, dead leaves, and they're a little too far for him to easily touch to see if they feel any different -- stiffer, or whatever -- but he makes a mental note to investigate later. "That's so cool. You're, like, actually really powerful, huh?"

[peaklordshen]

"Yeah," says Shen Yuan. "I don't really think about it a lot of the time, because I didn't actually cultivate to this level myself, but it comes in handy." He grabs his palette, tucks his brushes in his belt, and draws Xiu Ya, careful to not let its sword glare extend. He hops onto it, spiraling up like he's skateboarding to stand at the proper height to use his extra-tall easel. "Sometimes in very silly ways," he says, squinting, and then gives a satisfied nod.

[summerdude]

Magnus laughs. "That's wild," he says, and then makes an embarrassed little face. "I have to admit, this whole time I've mostly kind of been like -- that's Shen Yuan! We're both just some guy!" Unlike others at the Mansion that he could name.

[peaklordshen]

Shen Yuan had actually been trying pretty hard to seem like a cool and wise mentor to Magnus when he'd first gotten here, but that would just be extra embarrassing to admit now. "We are both just some guy," he says, starting in on his underpainting. "You're just some guy with a talking sword who can never stay dead and makes it summer all the time, and I'm just some guy who happens to be agelessly beautiful and have a crazy high improvised weapons skill."

[summerdude]

"Oh, I can stay dead," Magnus says. He wouldn't usually correct anyone on this, but the thought has been hanging heavily over him since the zombies. "Just not in Valhalla."

[peaklordshen]

Shen Yuan's brush pauses. "Wait. Really? So if you died here—"

[summerdude]

"Typically, if I was in Midgard or wherever else, I'd melt into Ginnungagap and -- actually I don't know if I'd turn into mist or void forever; I haven't really asked. But I don't know if it reaches here," Magnus shrugs. "People can see Jack fly around and sing, so if it's here, it's not very strong. Maybe I'd be the first einherji to have two dead bodies."

[peaklordshen]

Shen Yuan resumes painting, but he frowns and moves Magnus up several places in his Worry List. "Well, I don't like that."

[summerdude]

"I don't think there's anything to worry about," Magnus says. "I heal pretty fast, and there's a real lack of activities-to-the-death in this place."

[peaklordshen]

"Galahad mentioned you healed Claudius, too," says Shen Yuan, blocking in the basic shapes of the tree Magnus is in. "I wish I could do more of that, but cultivation is really more about your own spiritual energy than other people's."