Closed Moral Support

[Johanne]

16th Winter
The Equinox
Early evening

"Oi, Jo-hoe!"

Johanne stopped swivelling her stool with a sigh. Closing her eyes, she drew a deep breath before swirling around to face Lewd. The owner of the Equinox was testing out the new nickname for Johanne, and though the other employees hadn't quite caught on yet, Lewd seemed to think the rhyme in the name was far too opportune to pass up. Eth, sitting near by squeezing the staining paste onto a reclining customer's back, chuckled at Johanne's droll use. Not quite confident enough yet in her position at the shop to speak out against it, she simply arranged her face into a neutral expression. "Can I help you with something, sir?"

"Yeah, actually," he grumbled, swaying towards her, the scent of rum coming with him. It seemed to Jo that he was a little more intoxicated than usual, but that was only to be expected, what with less food in the belly as a result of the shortage. "Pretty sure I hired you on the condition you practiced your drawing one heck of a lot more. No customers don't mean no work." Johanne hurriedly pulled out a piece of parchment and charcoal from her satchel, waving them at Lewd as if to assure him she had meant to do it. Pleased, Lewd wandered off again.

Jo spread the parchment on the desk, pushing some of the ink and sterilised needles out of the way. The problem was, she was not at all confident enough to draw without reference, and the light in the Equinox was a tad too dark to draw anything far away. Eth, however, saw her looking thoughtfully into the distance, and as he was inking his client, called out, "Why not try sketching the chandelier?"

He was right - the chandelier was symmetrical and predictable enough that it shouldn't be too difficult, with the same pattern repeating itself on each arm for the twenty candles. It wasn't too ornate, either, which made it a good choice. Jo decided to start from the top, where the chandelier connected to the ceiling. Near the top of her parchment, she drew a small rectangular shape, and from there, two curved lines, like elongated 's's, extending from either bottom corner of the shape a good two-thirds across the parchment. With those simple lines, she had sketched the basic shape of the chandelier. She sat back, and smiled, and Eth, watching out the corner of his eye, laughed.

OOC :

Please join in, Jo will stop drawing as soon as you guys get there.

x

[Molly Barlow]

Molly needed something fun. Within the city there is nothing for her, no bees to care for more than keeping an eye that the hive lived. Her husband was bedridden and her was bored. It was a thing that brought endless library hours or complete chaos to any Barlow household; today it would bring about nothing but harmless pain, if there were such a thing.

“Aira, I’ve thought of something for us to do!” They traversed the still wrecked city in the company of each other, for Molly it was a growing pleasure. She had few girlfriends who weren’t family, and none who she’d known since childhood. But as she spoke, it was not Airas face she stared at; it was the skin of a dancers. She twirled passed them, carefree and covered in drawings. “Look at her, her arms hold so much color. I’ve always been afraid of tattoos, I don’t like pain but I think I’ll get one. For my birthday…early birthday. Come with me!”

Excitement was fanned within Molly quickly; it was as if they had never wondered for things to do. With great purpose the beekeeper flew from Airas side in the direction of The Equinox. Hair strewn, Molly glowed with ideas sudden and fierce, her eyes took in the chandler, the people with all their colors and the scent of paint wafted up her nose sharply sending her into speech. “I’d like a tattoo, my friend here might as well. What do you have for me?”

Even as she spoke Molly was eagerly looking at the book of stencil designs but not finding exactly what she was looking for. They were too intricate, too simple, too not for her. Each flip of the page made the skin between her brows pucker until she shut it with a sigh and addressed the woman drawing casually at the desk and Mollys eyes were drawn the markings along her arms.

“I want for something like…” Molly made an pentagon in the air, “but with letters for sides and whatever design in the middle, I do love strips. Aira? What do you think? I can’t decide! Oh! How about mine and Leos name…but where will I put it?” Again she addressed the woman, “Where do you think? And apologies, I’ve forgotten to introduce us, this is Aira and I’m Molly.”

She beamed brightly at the woman though her face paled as she took in the needles but it was impossible to force her eyes away from them now that she’d seen them. Nervously she shifted feet from left to right, goosebumps growing along her arms and legs until she once more thought of the picture that would be etched along her skin.

“Does it hurt a lot, a lot?”

[Aira Lyedan]

Aira followed Molly through the streets wondering what in the world they were doing. She giggled " Why do you want one of these Molly... " She said staring at the designs and the art in process on a gentleman, who looked like a sailor. " I mean doesn't it come off?" She asked not quite understanding Tattoo's." Why would you want to have someone draw on you all the time?" She asked looking around. Aira looked around and decided she didn't want to be drawn on, she rather liked being not drawn on and she wasn't sure what it would do to her otter self. She giggled and looked at a picture of an otter. " You should get this one Molly!" She giggled and began to look around, surely she was going to get yelled at but she started exploring and looking at the sailor closer up, it wasn't always obvious but even in human form she was near sighted. What do do she thought as she waited for molly to decide. It was kind of boring here. But Molly wanted to be here so here she was. She yawned and giggled looking at the woman drawing. " What you drawing Miss? What for? is that going in the book?" she asked with a smile not knowing how this place worked.