Colored Entrails (Open)

[Wart]

20th of Summer 512

Another dirty wall. Why. Why are there so many dirty walls.

It was indeed a dirty wall, but a perfect one nonetheless. Smooth, out of the way. Wart had expected most good walls to be covered in grime, of course, but she let out a frustrated sigh nonetheless.

Wart hadn't originally planned to go out painting today, but the sunrise had urged her otherwise. She had gotten up early as usual, ready to go on a run, when she looked out the window. Gods, but it was gorgeous. The sky, still waking as the sun slowly eased up from the horizon. It was right in the middle of pulling itself from the deep blue of dusk into the light blue of day. The sun certain knew how to make its entrance. The clouds were gilded with a touch of gold, as were the ripples upon the water. Ah, but it was the sunbeams that really got her. Bright rays of glorious light shining through the clouds, announcing the sun's arrival and the grace of its warmth. Scenes like this were the only thing that kept Wart believing in the Gods.

And so, with the inspiration of the sunrise fresh in her mind, she had set off to find her next canvas.

It was hard to find a quiet place in Zeltiva where she could truly work in peace. The place was bustling with people. Because of this Wart was forced to journey to the less "clean" streets in town. By the time she had reached this particular wall the sun had climbed higher in the sky and the temperature had risen considerably. As usual Wart was wearing her white shorts and sleeveless shirt, so it didn't bother her much.

She had brought with her a bucket (one that she'd found had been "left" near someones house) and an old rag. She set both down now, and took a step toward the wall. She scraped her finger across, and looked at what had gathered.

"Eh. Its disgusting. But cleanable." Reaching down she dipped the rag into the bucket and wrung it out a little. "Definitely doing paint here. So not worth all this work to just do chalk." With that Wart began to scrub hard at the layer of dirt on the wall.

[Kaeson Dakano]

Kaeson had gotten himself lost. Again.

Of course, Kaeson would never consider being lost a possibility for himself. No, he was far too intelligent for that; instead, Kaeson had managed to convince himself he was exploring. Exploring had at least some value in it's practice, being lost did not.

Wandering around his newly found plot of Zeltiva, Kaeson frowned at the dismal apperance of his surroundings. The houses surrounding him provided no excitement, seemingly refusing out right to be interesting in any way. They were simple, small, and ugly -- almost all the houses had splotches of a brownish, green mud along their walls. Kaeson wrinkled his nose in disgust, upon closer inspection the entirety of some of the houses seemed to be discolored with mold.

Passing the rest of the houses, Kaeson found his packed blocked by an equally unappealing wall. Hearing a voice, Kaeson turned to his right to find a young woman cleaning the wall. Eyes filling with a soft pink, Kaeson asked the colorful woman, "Why are you cleaning the wall? Is it yours?"

[Wart]

Having lost herself in imagining what sorts of color this wall would soon hold, Wart hadn't heard the man walk up and jumped at hearing his voice. Quickly this startle turned to anger as she had now been interrupted and lost her train of thought. Her eyes changing to a deep red, she turned around, throwing the rag down at her feet.

"What?!" Her eyes met a young man, couldn't have been much younger than herself. He seemed nice enough sorta lost lookin if you ask me. Quickly she relaxed, recognizing that she was overreacting and if she didn't calm down she'd lose all inspiration she'd had earlier. Her eyes calmed to their usual bluish purple and she brushed back her bangs.

"Er... I'm sorry. I didn't think anyone would be over here. Uh no its not mine, I dunno who's it is, but they don't deserve it." Studying the boy for signs of being affiliated with any sort of law enforcement she took notice of the unnatural color in his eyes. Huh maybe I've found another Vanthan kid

[Minerva Agatha Zipporah]

Tock was sleeping in. She was off work today, and the only thing she had on her agenda today was working on Rayage's scarves. That could wait til later, however, after she finished having a good night's rest. A rest which was interrupted by a strange scrubbing noise on her wall. She awoke with a snort, raising her face from her pillow and looking around. There was no one here, except her babies. Handy was playing with Naily, throwing nails across the floor so the little hammer on wheels could retrieve them with his claw and bring them back. Bitey the eighteen inch long wooden spider was curled up on Tock's back, lying there as if napping, though the Automaton didn't sleep. Seeing everything was normal, Tock buried her face back in her pillow and went back to sleep. A voice through the wall a moment later awoke her again. Bitey climbed down, drawn to the sound like a spider to a fly. Handy and Naily joined him a moment later, all three of them staring at the wall with their little glass eyes. Tock looked down blearily at them and asked, "Whatcher doin', babies?" Of course hey couldn't answer, though Naily rolled over to her and squeaked his axle like a whimper, then rolled quickly back over to the wall, like a puppy trying to draw Mommy's attention. Still half asleep, Tock peered at the wall, and heard the scrubbing sound again. Grumbling, she got up, and said, "C'mon, babies." She grabbed Grippy, who she kept in the bed next to her, and headed to the door. "Choppy, you too," she said, and the walking axe followed her along with all the others. The redheaded Magus went outside, squinting in the irritating sunlight, and headed around towards the back of the house. She was in nothing but the panties and undershirt she slept in, and she was tailed by the walking axe on metal stork-like legs, the little hammer on wooden wheels, the wooden spider, and the wooden hand with its leather tail waving back and forth behind him. She reached the back of the house and saw Kaeson (who unbeknownst to Tock surely hadn't recognized the house because he never approached through the backyard), and some woman who was cleaning Tock's wall. She frowned and shook Grippy at them and said to Kaeson, "Oy, I ain't need no maid, mate! Ya tryin' ta say my 'ouse is dirty?"

[Kaeson Dakano]

Catching the woman's eyes change from a deep red to a bluish purple, Kaeson eyes narrowed as he reexamined the colorful woman. She was covered in a variety of multi colored tattooes, including a symbol like mark that adorned her left eye. Kaeson noticed the girl had a rainbow of colors layered within her mousy brown hair -- whether that was natural vantha coloring, Kaeson didn't know.

"...but they don't deserve it." Kaeson scoffed at the woman's answer -- who was she to judge what someone deserved? "But it's not your wall." Kaeson said, crossing his arms across his chest. "So why are you cleaning it?" Kaeson asked again, putting more force into his question. He had no intention of intimidating the vantha woman, not really believing he would be able to even if he tried -- Kaeson wasn't much of an intimidater, or a fighter for that matter.

Thinking back to what the colorful woman had said, Kaeson asked, a little more softly, "What did you mean by what you said earlier? That they don't deserve it?" Slivers of a soft pink appeared throughout the fading violets of his eyes, betraying Kaeson's own curiousty.

Hearing Tock's voice, Kaeson quickly turned around. "Your house? Wh -- TOCK?!" Kaeson squeaked, his voice reaching an octave he hadn't heard since he was prepubescent. The gadgeteer had come out from seemingly nowhere -- wearing a simple undershirt and panties, leaving nothing to the imagination. Feeling his cheeks begin to burn, Kaeson grabbed Volos from his neck, and became increasingly interested with the scarf's thread count.

[Wart]

If Wart had any hope of keeping that bit of inspiration she'd gotten from that sunrise, all of those hopes were quickly shattered.

At first she'd felt almost guilty from her initial response, but now, seeing the boy crossing his arms and his change of tone, it tossed away all hold she'd had on keeping herself calm. Gods this little... Her eyes were quick to return to their deep red, continuing until it became a dark maroon. Snatching the rag off of the ground and standing up fully she spread her arms out smiling, her voice sarcastic, daring the boy to continue questioning her. She could easily see that he wasn't about to truly challenger her, let alone resort to any sort of violence, but her temper was short when it came to interruptions, and she was very ready to become physical, whether it was actually necessary or not.

"I'm the Zeltiva cleanin committee. Captain o' the volunteers in fact!" Hearing the boy's want for clarification she sighed irritated to have to explain what, in her mind, was blatantly obvious. "Well, obviously they don' see the potential of this here- "

A woman coming out of the house caught Wart's attention. Hearing that this was her house she immediately leaned back against the wall, slapping her hand onto her forehead, the rag dropping resignedly. She didn't hear the boy's sudden exclamation, now completely frustrated with what was, to her, becoming a complete waste of a day.

"Gah now look what you done!" Half mumbling to herself "Imma have to find a whole nother friggin wall, get another friggin rag, prolly more water..."

After a frustrated tug at her hair Wart let her hand slide down her face and fall to her side, unconsciously taking a paintbrush from her belt and fiddling with it. With a sigh she looked over at the person who had come out. "Uh Ya maybe I Am have you looked at th-" Actually looking at the woman for the first time, the automatons that were around her immediately caused Wart to freeze. She had never seen such things. The sight of them kept her form noticing the woman's lack of clothes, and her eyes transitioned from red, to purple, to an icy, curious blue.

"... What.. on Mizahar... are those..."

She had heard of mechanical little creatures back home, fashioned of metal and wood and brought to life, but with as fantastic and stretched as the Vanthas' stories often got, she had dismissed them all as ridiculous.

[Minerva Agatha Zipporah]

Tock was completely oblivious of Kaeson's discomfort. She didn't tend to pay much attention to the people around her, except for when their behavior got in her way. The woman messing with her wall? She focused her attention on. "'Andy," she called out, making kissy noises at her baby. She bent down, oblivious of the 'show' this was putting on considering her state of dress, and held her wrist out to the wooden hand. It scurried over and whipped its leather tail around her wrist, strapping and buckling itself in place. She then raised the hand up to the wall. The wooden hand, jutting from her wrist right next to her actual, flesh hand, started tapping on the wall. "Ain't nothin' broken..." she muttered. She couldn't guess any other reason to be messing with the wall than repairs. Ignoring the woman's question about her Automatons, other than to say, "'Ose're my babies..." Tock frowned and studied the wall, then turned to the stranger. "I ain't payin' ya fer no cleanin'!" she said. She looked at Kaeson and asked, "Ya didn't tell 'er what I were gonna pay fer a maid, didja? I ain't got no money what fer ta pay no maid..." She ran her left hand down the wall, then frowned at the filth that came off on her fingers. The woman was right that the wall was filthy; Tock hadn't even cleaned the inside of her house, not even once since moving in, let alone the outside. She looked back at the woman and said, "Ya wanna clean, ya done go right a'ead, but ya ain't gettin' a mizah outta me, aye?" The wooden hand shook a finger at her as she spoke. Tock would have done it herself, but her hand was still aching from the recent break, and she preferred not to move it around too much.

[Kaeson Dakano]

Volos, despite Kaeson's best efforts, refused to stay still long enough for Kaeson to properly pretend to be interested with his thread count. The animated scarf continually moved about, wrapping onto to Kaeson's arms attempting to pull itself back aroung his neck. Kaeson's face already a deep red from seeing Tock so exposed, he became even more embarrassed by Volos' lack of obedience -- even though he hadn't technically commanded the scarf to stay still. After all, Volos would only respond to vocal commands, the scarf had no way to understand what Kaeson wanted him to do purely based of emotion.

"Stay still!" Kaeson hissed, still quite flustered by Tock's lack of clothes. Upon command, Volos fell completely limp, allowing Kaeson to finally immerse himself with the scarf's thread count, or at least pretend too.

"Captain of the Zeltivan Cleaning Commitee?" Kaeson asked, clearly missing the sarcasm. "And you're cleaning houses?" He asked, confused as to why such an important member would be doing something so trivial. Looking back down at Volos, Kaeson said, "She just said she wasn't a maid, Tock -- she's a volunteer, a captain no less!"

"Besides, Tock, maybe she'll clean the inside of your house as well. If you're lucky, that is." Kaeson added as an after thought. "Although, she looks like she only brought enough cleaning supplies for the wall..."

OOCThis thread is SO much fun, haha. Sorry it took me so long to respond!

[Wart]

Wart had never been one for magic. And now she was with two people, one with a mechanical moving arm, the other a moving scarf. It annoyed her watching them. It annoyed her further that she could have been painting right now. All she had wanted this morning was to go for a run. She silently cursed the sun and whatever Gods were affiliated with its rising for deceiving her into coming to paint instead. As she listened her frustration grew, trying to put in a word only to be cut off by one of the two. Finally she had enough.

"No look it- gah what I - GODS SHUT UP! SHUT UP! You!" She pointed her brush to the boy "I ain't a volunteer or a captain of anything!! Its called sarcasm look it up!! And yeah she's nearly freaking naked would you please get a grip and deal with it?!" Turning to the woman "Look lady I don't want your Mizas I don't want anything! I ain't no freaking maid and I ain't here to clean your petching wall because its dirty I am here because obviously you don't understand the potential of it!! Neither of you do!! Look here"

Without waiting for any sort of response Wart quickly took the small jar of brown paint from her belt. She popped off the lid and knelt down, using the brush already in her other hand. Her strokes were quick and precise, her face close close to the wall, eyes carefully focused. After only a moment she popped off the blue and the yellow jars, all of them now set on the ground, her brush dipping into them then back up to the wall in a flash. In what seemed only a matter of seconds, the small section of wall she had managed to clean was now occupied with a basic brown ship with outlined white masts, sailing on light blue waves tipped with gold towards a yellow little sun. It was simple, more like the starting sketches for a full painting than something like a child's drawing.

Still kneeling she leaned back analyzing it and explaining it to the people behind her. She spoke in a very matter-of-fact sort of way, as if what she was saying should have been extremely obvious. "See look here the texture of the wall lets the paint go on easy, but its not so smooth that the paint kinda slips off. It takes to it." Wart dropped her brush to the ground and stood. "That is why I am cleaning this wall."

[Minerva Agatha Zipporah]

"Oy, what's wrong wit' the inside o' my 'ouse, bloke!?" she asked Kaeson. Handy read her tone and instinctively reacted by shaking a fist at Kaeson for her. "Ain't needs no cleanin', aye?" Of course, she did still have the ashes of a dead man on her floor. Maybe she should clean it up, sooner or later. She had just had more important things to do. Then then strangest thing Tock had ever experienced in her life happened. The woman interrupted and started yelling at her. Tock was completely taken aback. Usually she was the one yelling at other people. The only time she ever got yelled at was when it was a drunken sod like her supervisor, Eavin, and she always just ignored him because he was a moron. But this, this wasn't the drunken, idiotic shouts of someone who didn't know what they were talking about. This was the frustrated, brilliant yelling of someone impatient with others who couldn't understand her brilliance, and her art. This was Tock's rant, coming from another woman's mouth. She grinned wide. She liked the woman instantly, and the tirade earned her Tock's admiration and respect. She gave the woman a friendly slap on the arm and said, "Oy, Conch, why didn't ya say so? She's all yers!" she waved at the wall, giving the woman full permission to paint there. "I'll even lend ya a 'and." Thinking she was talking about him, Handy waved at the woman. Tock then hurried back inside, telling her babies to, "Stay!" They all obeyed except Bitey the spider, who didn't have near enough intelligence to understand the command. He followed at het heels because he was instinctively drawn to her side. Tock quickly pulled some clothes on, and returned a moment later with her own artist's toolkit of brushes, paints, and other supplies. She was a competent artist, though she tended more towards drawing blueprints than painting pictures. "I's all yers, Conch," she told the stranger, volunteering to be her assistant. She admired the woman's passion, and was more than willing to let her paint whatever she wanted on the wall. Though since it was Tock's wall, she also insisted on helping. Seeing that Kaeson didn't have a brush or tool in his hands (and around Tock's house, no one was allowed to stand around lazy and empty handed while there was work to do), she told him, "Oy, Bludger, go on an' fetch some more water, aye? Can't ya see 'ere's a wall what needs cleanin'?"