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Post by enchilada on Apr 22, 2019 2:12:04 GMT
Dhaunmyr nodded, he seemed rather amused by the situation. “I didn’t know how to punch. So get ready to talk about that in the past tense eventually.” He laughed. Everyone could draw, everyone could punch. They just might not be great at it at first. “Now, I learned how to draw in the dark when I should have been doing housework, so. We have light, and we have no chores, and we have no impending fear that someone will beat us with sticks if we get caught.” That was an understatement. Sticks? It definitely wasn’t sticks. But it sounded kind of funny, and hopefully him laughing at it would let Kara laugh at it too.
It was precious, but also quite the little problem, that certain people had. Skin that fluctuated, even just a little, in redness. In tone. It was a good look, and a cute expression. Some long dead bug in his brain told him it was a helpless look, and how pretty it was, but he told it to shut up. “Hey, Kara, you don’t have to do anything you don’t want to, alright? I just thought it might be fun. You can go, too, if you want. You’re just nice company, I think... yeah. If you want to tell me anything, you don’t have to listen to me drone on, at all. I’m annoying, I know.”
He fished a couple of wooden boards out from behind some storage thing, drawers probably. “So, fruit is mostly circles, that’s useful because circles are important.”
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Post by moralhazard on Apr 22, 2019 2:35:01 GMT
Kara didn’t laugh, but she didn’t look at Dhaunmyr with pity either, so – probably a win, on net.
Kara swallowed a little. Somehow having permission to leave – to quit – made it much worse. She was still squeezing her hands into fists; slowly, consciously, she relaxed them. Nice company? Her? She looked suspiciously at Dhaunmyr, wondering, briefly, what was wrong with him. She certainly didn’t want to talk; that sounded even worse than drawing.
She was fully aware of the parallels he was making; even if he hadn’t been so explicit, she would have understood. It felt like revenge, but she thought it probably wasn’t meant that way; she thought that Dhaunmyy was – well – trying to be nice. That made it even worse. She wouldn’t quit, Kara decided. Dhaunmyr had tried punching, although at least punching had a purpose. Kara wasn’t sure art did, although Dhaunmyr seemed to think it was relaxing. Maybe for him it was relaxing.
For a moment, Kara let her eyes drift back to the painting in the corner, and she let herself – she let herself wish. Her mother, her father, her brothers, her sister-in-law, her niece – all dead these five years. Kara could still see their faces except – except that Natali’s was fading, fast, and when Kara tried to think of her as she’d been, a happy, chubby little baby, she couldn’t – she couldn’t see her, she could only see her still in death, a black iron blade broken off in her tiny body, and she could smell – smell the smoke and she could hear Grigor screaming. If she could draw, maybe she could draw them, and then – maybe – she wouldn’t forget. Because their voices were gone already, and Kara could remember the things they’d said but not how they had sounded and – in time – she was terrified of losing their faces as well.
Kara took a deep breath, focusing her thoughts on Helm for a moment. She wasn’t blushing anymore; there was something dark and terrible in her eyes. She needed him, she told Helm. This wasn’t exactly about protection, but she thought he would understand that she needed courage, bravery and strength. She hoped he would be willing to grant it to her for the task ahead, because Kara wasn’t sure – she hadn’t done anything like this in a very long time.
Slowly, very slowly, Kara took another step closer to Dhaunmyr. She looked at the fruit again, and nodded when Dhaunmyr explained that it was circular in shape, very softly repeating the word ‘circles’ as if that might somehow help that explanation actually… help.
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Post by enchilada on Apr 22, 2019 12:12:47 GMT
Dhaunmyr nodded. “Circles.” He echoed back to her, a gentle smile stretching across his face. “The main thing to note is people have trouble when they start, because they draw what they know is there, not what they see. For example, a face, you know of course the shape and features, but it is actually more beneficial to you to focus on abstract shapes than the actual knowledge you have of the, uh, idea of what people look like. Faces, however, are unforgiving, and often create difficulties because of that. Things that allow you freedom to be a little... ah, wobbly, are soft, natural things, such as flowers, leaves, plants, basically. And for that I bring you the classic still life of a fruit bowl. It helps if you follow the contour, the outline, first. Long and flowing lines are best, and it helps to start at the top and work down. And there are no mistakes as long as you press lightly.”
Dhaunmyr slid a sheet onto each board. He didn’t hand one to Kara, but he put it at the end of the bed for her, along with a pencil. He sat on the floor, seemed to stare into the fruits as if they held great wisdom, then got up again, took some pillows from the top of his bed, and nestled back down. He’d put some next to him, and looked up at Kara, almost with expectation. But not quite. He seemed almost too patient for that.
“Just relax, if you can. It’s not supposed to be stressful, it’s supposed to be fun.”
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Post by moralhazard on Apr 22, 2019 13:51:26 GMT
Kara looked directly at Dhaunmyr as he spoke, clearly listening attentively to every word. She was still only a few steps in from the door. Slowly, she took another step, then another, her gaze flickering from the board at the end of the bed to the fruit bowl.
The news about faces was disappointing, but Kara decided not to give up before she had tried.
When she was close enough, she crouched down, imitating Dhaunmyr and staring intently into the fruit, squinting a little as if enough attention would force it to reveal its secrets or maybe magically be copied onto the page. Unclear.
Kara rose back up to her feet, picked up the board, and stopped there, not quite ready to take a seat on the bed. But she propped the board up with one arm, holding on to it, and carefully took the pencil in her other hand.
Press lightly, start at the top and work down, long flowing lines. Kara would have been deeply embarrassed to know she was whispering the words aloud; luckily she was too focused for that. She certainly didn’t repeat the part about how relaxing and fun this was supposed to be.
Slowly, slowly, Kara lowered the pencil to the page. The tip rested high on the paper. Then Kara thought better of it; maybe this was the wrong place to start. She snatched the pencil back, leaving a small mark on the paper. Her eyes widened, and a look of crushing disappointment settled onto her face. She hadn’t even drawn anything, and she had already ruined it. Kara glanced at Dhaunmyr, then back at the fruit, and her shoulders sank.
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Post by enchilada on Apr 22, 2019 14:00:29 GMT
He’d started a quick sketch, no matter how neat his hair, or how pristine his clothes, Dhaunmyr couldn’t help but capture energy in almost sharp, scribbling lines that he copied on the page with a distinct pattern, looping around to mark off areas he knew would be left pale, or even white. He wasn’t sure yet, but that bit was at least a bit lighter than the other bit. He looked finally at Kara, and her paper, after just about starting the top leftmost item. Three or four grapes bunched together, pulled by their weight but pushed by the rest of the bowl. He squinted at the page, and her expression, then shaded his eyes.
“What’s wrong, my dear?” Dhaunmyr dropped the board down, he couldn’t even see anything. He rose and came behind her, but left her plenty of room. Even if he had properly noticed the mark, his page was already sporadic, dotted, lines everywhere, but the shape was quickly apparent if you knew how to look. It was a rough sketch, that was the point. To be refined in paint or with careful eraser, or even left as is. He enjoyed creating the energy, seemingly from nothing at all. “You haven’t even started, if you’ve managed to perform some miraculous task in already causing an issue, well, I’ll toss myself from the roof.”
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Post by moralhazard on Apr 22, 2019 14:13:43 GMT
Kara looked up at Dhaunmyr, then back down at her sketch paper. She shifted her pencil to the hand holding the board, keeping it well away from the paper, and carefully touched one small finger to the little accidental mark she’d made.
“I can’t,” Kara looked up at Dhaunmyr again, shame and doubt warring on her face. She had tried, hadn’t she? She had prayed to Helm for strength and courage and she was pretty sure he had ignored her. She wanted to, but - even just putting her pencil down at made an awful mark and probably ruined the entire thing. It was lovely paper, at least in Kara’s mind, and by the end she was sure she would have entirely ruined it. She pulled her hand back from the evidence of her mistake, leaving it to hang limply at her side. She couldn’t even start the fruit, how would she - how could she ever -
Kara did hope Dhaunmyr wouldn’t really throw himself off the roof. She thought he had been joking but she wasn’t very good at telling.
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Post by enchilada on Apr 22, 2019 14:28:15 GMT
“What even is that? Did you just rest your pencil or something? That’s not a problem. If you really don’t like it then you can just erase it out, but I’d just draw on anyway.” He shrugged. He’d accidentally smudged pretty much an entire painting before, but he just touched it up here and there, and carried on. Of course, he’d also thrown it out along with most of his other paintings. Regardless of the smudge, he just didn’t think it was good enough. If he could have compared it to his first painting, he’d of course have thought it was amazing, but that got burned a long time ago. Kara probably wasn’t even born when he tore up his first sketches. And yet she seemed so... so much more well rounded than him. Most people did. He put it down to just not quite fitting in.
He picked up his box and rummaged through it, and handed her a small white rectangle, his other hand hovering oddly above her shoulder. Had he cared slightly less about decency, he may have touched it down. He didn’t particularly care for the moment, but he’d offer a shirt of his before she left, he just had to remind himself to do that. “Just be gentle, basically with everything, and you’ll be fine. Especially me, I’m held together by two hairpins and sugarwater.”
“As you know, everything just takes hard work and good practice.
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Post by moralhazard on Apr 22, 2019 14:38:40 GMT
Dhaunmyr’s clear confusion and utterly nonchalance were reassuring. Kara accepted the little white square and gingerly pushed it against the mark. It disappeared, and she let out a little sigh of relief.
Kara looked up at Dhaunmyr, and nodded agreement. Hard work and good practice.
This time, when Dhaunmyr sat back down, Kara trailed him to the bed. She perched gingerly at the cushions, sitting where they were but somehow without actually leaning against them. She looked at the fruit, down at her paper, took her pencil in her hand again, leaving the eraser resting on one muscled leg, and, slowly - tried.
Press lightly, start at the top and work down. Kara drew a first long line, trying to create the suggestion of the fruit in the bowl. It wasn’t right - it wasn’t how she had imagined it would look - but she kept going, adding more lines, trying to make the outlines of the bowl and fruits. Top down, she whispered to herself. Press lightly. Rather than looking relaxed, Kara looked as intense as she always did, but she was drawing.
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Post by enchilada on Apr 22, 2019 14:52:10 GMT
Dhaunmyr smiled. Her focus was something he sort of wished he had, but at the same time, drawing, drinking, listening to Faerveren strum on the lute and whisper to Brennip, there was a hazy sense of just plain goodness in it. In the new weather, they’d often go out to a nice grassy hill somewhere, or even to sit closer to the sea. Fae would often try desperately to get either him or Brennip to get ‘One chord. Just one.’ correct, before she gave in and they all laughed about it. It was almost an innate feeling, but he couldn’t describe it. He still loved it.
He lazily approached the drawing, more interested in drifting thoughts and actually having someone he gave a shit about near him. There was no unconditional understanding between them, he was certain the exact terms of how they’d operate in future were still being figured out. He wasn’t sure how people were supposed to work. He’d rushed in with the woman who tore his heart out, and he’d had no choice really but to make fast friends with his current companions, as a way of survival.
Not so terribly long after he’d settled down, there was a soft knock on the door. He could already tell who it was. “Don’t worry.” Dhaunmyr said, softly, and he quickly got to the door to open it up, doing his best to keep his boots quiet on the hard wood floor. The quiet stillness was comforting. He only cracked the door open, and had a hushed conversation with whoever was behind it. He seemed rather disappointed to return from the door with two entire hot meals.
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Post by moralhazard on Apr 22, 2019 15:28:20 GMT
Kara kept trying. Some of the lines were too long, other were too short; some were too curved and others were not curved enough, creating bizarre suggestions of grapes and pears that somehow seemed to imply the fruit, while clearly being wrong. Nonetheless, she kept at it, erasing occasionally, and genuinely looking like she was trying to draw, if not exactly like she was enjoying herself. Enjoying was a hard word anyway; there was a set to Kara’s face, even while resting – as Dhaunmyr knew, even while sleeping – that made it hard to think she looked relaxed.
Kara flinched a little at the knock on the door, looking up with a hard jerk. At Dhaunmyr’s reassurance, she tucked her head back down to the paper, wanting to finish up the suggestion of an apricot at the edge of the bowl. She thought – maybe – this one wasn’t as bad as the others. Maybe.
Kara had eaten the night before, not even twelve hours earlier, so she didn’t lock on to the food with her usual razor focus. That is, she looked up when Dhaunmyr entered, and her gaze went straight to the hot meals, eyes widening. Then, calmly, she looked back down at the paper on her lap, finishing the couple of lines she’d been working on. Only then, once she was somewhat satisfied with them, did she set the paper and the board off to the side, and look intently at Dhaunmyr once more.
“Food is part of training,” Kara said, firmness creeping back into her voice.
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Post by enchilada on Apr 22, 2019 15:41:47 GMT
“Well, I hope you want to do lots of training then.” He extended both plates towards her, along with both sets of cutlery, mostly because he couldn’t hold one back and not drop something. The sight of it made him feel sick. Not only the food itself, but there was a clear distinction between the food for him and the food for Kara. In his slightly shakier hand, he held a plate with some salad, which was vaguely acceptable to him, potato wedges, again, okay, but a rather large steak over the top. He was doing his best to keep it away from him. That was a whole animal at one point. With feelings and basic thoughts. And it smelt disgusting to him, something he was coming to realise was a factor of himself, and not of the actual quality of the food. There was probably something else with it, but he was far too nauseated to look any further.
“Take it please.” Dhaunmyr murmured, finding himself suddenly extremely invested in the patterns of the wood on the floor. He was hoping she’d take both plates, no questions asked, but he had a sinking feeling that it wouldn’t work out the easy way for him. Dhaunmyr and food had a terrible relationship, one that usually ended with him too tired and underfed to do things properly, especially math. That was the worst. “If I’m not touching it, maybe I’ll recover. But honestly that thing is the worst piece of murder I’ve ever witnessed in my life. So pointless. Just take it.”
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Post by moralhazard on Apr 22, 2019 16:09:37 GMT
Kara promptly and easily took the plate with the meat and the salad, looking at Dhaunmyr. She hoped they didn’t need to have another discussion about eating human flesh; she thought that would put her off the steak, and she hadn’t seen a nice steak like this since - she couldn’t remember when. She left him the other plate, but did take one of the two sets of cutlery.
Kara looked down at the plate again. She wouldn’t have said she was hungry, but at the sight of the food she realized she was, at least hungry enough for the steak. Her mouth was watering a little at the sight of it but -
Slowly Kara looked back up at Dhaunmyr. “Should I - go?” She asked. Kara had eaten worse things in worse places; she tried not to think of them too close to mealtimes. Standing in the hallway outside Dhaunmyr’s room and eating a steak would be hard - Kara would have to figure out how to balance the plate and the knife and the fork - but she would do it.
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Post by enchilada on Apr 22, 2019 16:29:43 GMT
“Oh! No, no.” He slowly sliced through the air with his free hand. “Perhaps this is an odd situation but either way it does not particularly affect me, so long as I am not the one to hold it or eat it, you see. I don’t particularly have a care for what you consume, although ‘tis a very kind thought, Kara. Thank you.” Dhaunmyr smiled politely, and sat back down on the bed. “I’m fine now it’s out of my hands!”
That wasn’t entirely true. The concept of eating his own food was pretty abhorrent, or at least all of it. He was a little hungry, not terribly so, he had managed something before he left, but it wasn’t a deeply needed meal. He would usually have waited until his evening meal. His plate was incredibly green, mostly vegetables, with three little filo pastry parcels of one description or another. “You know, when we were looking for somewhere to stay, the main thing we were looking for was the menu. More than you’d think I really do struggle to find anything to eat, although elven-owned businesses are usually the best. For some reason everyone feels the need to cover everything in sausages or something, and the amount of times I’ve been laughed at for it, oh, well. Maybe I should have my own place, but that would require me to get tied down somewhere. Do you think magic fire spreads? Maybe I could do the whole thing in a wagon, and slowly convert people to a meat free mindset with good food. I should really keep focused on one venture at a time. You know, I almost started to sell spices.”
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Post by moralhazard on Apr 22, 2019 16:40:40 GMT
Kara nodded in relief. The idea of standing and eating steak in the hallway hadn’t been an appealing one. She would have done it though, if Dhaunmyr had said yes.
Kara balanced the plate on her lap, picked up the knife and fork, and carefully cut a healthy piece off of the steak. Her stomach growled again at the sight; it smelled so good. She lifted the fork to her mouth, giving the meat a small, subtle sniff – she wanted to be sure not to forget even one moment of the meal – and ate it. It was as good as she’d hoped; Kara didn’t like her meat too raw, but no one liked overdone steak. This piece straddled the balance nicely, not raw and red in the center but still soft and tender. The flavor was perfect too, a testament to the quality of the cut – a nicer one than Kara had had in a long time, and a nicer one than she had imagined having for a long time.
Slowly, carefully, she chewed and swallowed. Kara admired the plate, studying it with deep, intense concentration, taking the decision of what to eat next as seriously as she had the decision about where to start drawing or how to train Dhaunmyr. Once decided she proceeded quickly, spearing a potato wedge with her fork and taking a bite of it. It was delicious too; it tasted a little like the meat, but mostly like potato, with a crispy side where it had rested against the heat, and the rest of it soft and tender and a little salty.
Kara looked up at Dhaunmyr, chewing and listening at the same time – she could do both, although it was a bit tricky. She shrugged in response to the question about magic fire, and made a vaguely sort of questioning face at the news that Dhaunmyr had tried to sell spices, then went promptly back to her plate. Next, she speared two pieces of the salad onto her fork – then, after careful consideration, used the knife to ease one off, back on to the plate, and ate the greenery. It was delicious. Kara was certainly not a vegetarian like Dhaunmyr, but fresh greens were an incredible luxury; they were something she’d had only rarely even before the war in Sundabar, and now she almost never had anything that wasn’t cooked. Even the bowl of fruit sitting on the table for drawing seemed, to her, a rather extravagant luxury. The salad was crisp and watery, more like a crunch with a faint flavor of spring than a strong taste of its own, and Kara visibly enjoyed it as much as she had the steak and potatoes.
Then, very, very carefully, Kara cut a much smaller sliver off the steak, and set it on the plate. She turned to one of the wedges next, and shaved an equally small slice off of it, using her fork to coax it next to the steak. Finally, she turned to the lettuce bit she’d wriggled off her fork before, and speared it again. Carefully, using the fork, she added the steak and potato to the same bite, and lifted it up. There was a moment of deep and respectful contemplation, and then Kara popped the entire thing into her mouth, eyes closing for a moment as she chewed and swallowed, with – if not exactly a smile or a happy look – a deep and undisguised enjoyment.
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Post by enchilada on Apr 22, 2019 17:04:53 GMT
It wasn’t just meat Dhaunmyr wouldn’t eat, mushrooms of any kind were a no. Maybe he would still eat the kinds he’d grown up on if he had the opportunity, but the kinds he had access to now were weird, soft, and incredibly non-bioluminescent. They also had a slight loss of fun to them, maybe the reason he kept an open mind for the ones he used to eat was because of the chemical tang and the slight hallucinogenic affects. Those were quite interesting, and apparently, according to Faerveren, not terribly easy to adjust to.
He held his plate in his right hand, and in the other, a fork. Dhaunmyr slowly edged his way around the food, cutting off the tips of asparagus and taking up to three minutes to chew the tiniest bite. It kept him quiet, but he still would talk between them, his hope that Kara would find it annoying for him to be sitting and eating for so long after her, that she’d be happy to take it off of him.
“Is it alright?” He asked mostly out of curiosity. For something that looked rather disgusting to him, she certainly seemed to enjoy it.
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