refractedlight | (no subject)

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The Rose Garden is a good place to think, when one has a little free time to do so. It's not so unusual to find Yusuke there, either lost in his own thoughts or with a book, as appears to be the case today.

What is unusual, for those who have known him for a while, is that he's... drawing?

It's not a hobby he's mentioned or displayed before, but for all that, if one gets a glimpse at his work, it's quite good. From the looks of things, he's filled several pages of the blank book he picked up on his last pass through Hunter's Green already, with pictures of all sorts of things - the Garden itself and the mechanical beings that attacked the town in Dalvarus stand out.

Perhaps, for those who were present for one battle or the other, a sudden new hobby won't be all that surprising. Or perhaps it will, since most things there seemed focused on battle.

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It's not unusual for Daisho to pass through the Rose Garden - he finds it relaxing and admires the ideals of the Rose, to say nothing of occasional official business.

And so it is that he happens to spot a fellow artist sketching away and can't help but lean in (or at least as much as a massive Au Ra can) and let out a low whistle.

"Wow, you're pretty good. Been doing this a long time?"

"My mother taught me." And that, at least, is entirely true. She even taught him long enough ago that, with regular practice, Yusuke could be this good by now.

It's just that regular practice isn't... something he's had.

"She must be very talented. May I ask her name? I have some experience in the art world."

"Takara. She hasn't been active in the field since before I was born, though, and I don't know how much she did before that."

It's odd, he thinks as he says it - that sounds like it's true on two levels, for some reason, when it's simply been the case for his whole life. With the war flaring up and his father's death, his mother needed to shift her focus elsewhere.

"I'm not familiar, unfortunately, but I'll have to look up her work."

He looks down and frowns, pointing gently at the mechanical beings.

"Those are..."

"The source of the recent excitement in Dalvarus," Yusuke says, sure the story's spread beyond its place of origin. He hasn't yet heard there was a similar and simultaneous attack in Liciae.

"And Liciae. We fought creatures quite similar."

Daisho reaches into his gi and pulls out a folded piece of paper - his own sketch of the monsters. Like Yusuke's work, it's quite good and the similarities are uncanny, style differences notwithstanding.

"They attacked two places simultaneously?"

Now that's interesting.

"Sounds like it. Not sure what we're dealing with but with forces like that it's not good."

"Rather not."

It'll require a coordinated response... and Yusuke's not entirely sure past grievances can be set aside long enough for that kind of coordination. This will definitely put the recent peace to the test.

Angua peered over Yusuke's shoulder and perfectly blocked his light in that way that people do when they see someone painting or drawing and are interested but also not art people and thus kind of oblivious.

"I didn't know you painted."

"I was making use of that light," he says, but there's no venom behind it. "My mother taught me to draw, but I fell out of the habit some time ago."

(A true statement, but probably not all that believable, in the face of Yusuke's current skteches.)

She muttered an apology and got out of his light.

"If this is what you're drawing when you're out of practice I can't wait to see what you're drawing when you're IN practice. This is really good."

Edited 2017-06-26 19:20 (UTC)

"It just... felt like what I needed to be doing. I couldn't begin to say why."

It is good, he's not denying that. Even he's a little surprised.

"Is this an artist 'gotta draw' thing or do you mean like in a more metaphorical way?"

It's a while before Yusuke answers, partly because he's lost in what he's currently working on and partly because he's considering the question pretty closely.

"Perhaps both, for all I don't want to go down that road of possibility if we don't have to. I got the blank book on my last visit to my mother, just after the dreams started." If not for that positively giant sword, he might well be wondering if whatever's going on would leave him less fit for battle in the long run.

But he's pretty sure that won't be happening, at least.

"Has... anything else unusual happened to you, since the attack?"

"Not especially."

She considered the question. "I think the locker room smells worse than it did before, but that probably has nothing to do with the attack."

"It doesn't get cleaned nearly regularly enough, this is true. I can't say that I've noticed it being especially rank, but that may not mean anything."

It could just mean Yusuke's in and out of there enough to not notice the smell.

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