Art and Music (OPEN)

[Cateline Rodriguez]

Cateline sighed as she sat in one of the many chairs in the auditorium, staring up at the stage curiously as she leaned the walking cane she'd been using the past week against a chair near her. Yes, it was nice being able to walk again, but the therapy was moving slow in her eyes. She wanted to get back to jogging but she was just too weak still to do so. She tugged at the sleeve of her shirt a few times subconsciously before looking down at her sketch pad. She had secretly been hoping to catch a musician or something in the auditorium to draw to, but she guessed that wasn't meant to be.

The young artist looked back down at her sketchpad, tilting her head a little at the blank page. She tapped the back of her pencil against eh page a few times, trying to figure out what she wanted to draw. There had to be something she could spontaneously draw, but what? She leaned back in the chair, pulling up her collar a little, wanting to make sure no one saw the still tender scarring. She went back to her sketchbook, an idea hitting her as she stared at the blank page, a soft smile gracing her features as she started to sketch, going for a more cartoonish style then she normally did.

A few minutes later the girl held up her drawing, happy with what she accomplished. A panda on a motorcycle wearing sunglasses. What could be more insanely cute or cool than that? She lowered it, a little giddy with herself as she shifted in her seat. She looked to her cane, semi-wanting to get up and leave but at the same time finding herself comfortable. It wasn't often when she got to get away from everything and just draw, and the fact that no one was even in the auditorium made things better. The girl perked up, however, whens he thought she heard a door open, glancing in the direction curiously, her head tilted to the side.

[Jake "Okami" Kolton]

A lone student walked into the auditorium, instrument in a case on his strong back. Jake had decided that it would be a nice time to practice playing his acoustic guitar. He felt like having a change of scenery from his room, but did not want to bother anyone. So what better place then somewhere no where would be? Well, it was expected for no one to be in the auditorium. Upon taking a look around, there was a girl who could be seen up in one of the seats, and the shifter could not see what she was doing. Looking for some peace, probably. He had assumed that would be the reason if he asked, at least. Hopefully she would not find that an anthropomorphic one-eyed wolf-man wearing nothing but a tank top, and shorts, would be a discomforting thing to see. A simple wave was given to her in attempt to show friendliness. If she was discomforted by the sight of him, maybe this would help out a little.

There could be the chance that she might be frightened by him, though, and that is why he did not go up to her initially. After greeting the girl up in the seats with his wave, Jake moved over to the stage to play his instrument. He took the case off of his back and laid it down. This was when the young musician would take out his guitar, and begin strumming a few simple melodies. He played a fairly well-known song on his strings. It almost felt like he was giving a private performance, but the teenager let that thought dissipate. This might not even be a performance she wanted, but perhaps if the two had a shared interest in any songs that he was playing, that student up in the seats would come down to talk to him. Jake would appreciate the company, after all.

[Cateline Rodriguez]

Cateline blinked at the large...wolf man thing? What exactly was he? The girl tilted her head tot he opposite side, trying to figure out what exactly she was staring at. She subconsciously tugged at the collar of her shirt, silently hoping the boy didn't see any of the hint of scarring on her back before watching him curiously, following him with her head as he walked up towards the stage. She looked down at her sketch pad, silently flipping to a new page, glancing back up and blinking in surprise as she noticed the guitar. She tilted her head a little, surprised to see that she may be about to hear some music like she had been hoping.

The girl closed her eyes for a moment, nodding her head silently along to the beat of the music before pulling her legs up into the chair, resting her sketchbook against them, and started to sketch the boy. The rough outline quickly formed as he played, the girl occasionally glancing up and over her legs at him to refresh his image in her mind. A few minutes into the song she was completely absorbed in her sketch, the fur and guitar slowly gaining more and more details. She smiled to herself as she worked, not even paying attention to the fact that the song had ended. After what had probably felt like an eternity to the other student she let out a small cry of happiness and held up the sketchpad, letting her feet drop back down.

She held it straight up above her, a goofy smile on her face as she kicked her feet a few times, completely ignoring the boy in her giddiness over having a new drawing subject that ended up being a joy to draw. The shading in the picture had come out a lot better than she had expected, but that didn't change much. After a moment she looked back at the stage, realizing that she had probably looked like a complete idiot the entire time. She almost instantly hid her face, feeling it become bright red in embarrassment. What would he even think of her little silly smile? He had to think she was crazy or something now.

[Jake "Okami" Kolton]

The girl in the seats appeared to be confused by the appearance of the one down on the stage. That was hardly surprising for him, it seemed like the way that Jake looked was an unusual sight for this school. Even with the fact there were people who could transform, the shifter had yet to hear of anyone who was stuck in the form they switched into. The girl did not seem to be entirely put off by this, she only seemed confused by it. Though, that had been only what could be assumed since the teenage boy could not really see her that well from here. His song ended, eventually, and when he was trying to think of the next thing to play he started looking up to Cateline. He wondered what it might be that she was doing. The girl seemed to be fascinated by something she had in her lap for a long time, and when the sketch book was held up in excitement it answered the unasked question of what the teenage girl had been doing.

When Cateline had shrunk back into her seats in what would most likely be embarrassment, It lead the wolf-man to forget the earlier fear of not talking to her for he might scare her. It would be nice to console her, and there was obvious curiosity about the thing that had been put on paper. Really though, who would not want to see that? Though the voice came out loud enough to be heard from the stage to where the drawing girl had been sitting since Jake first came in, he made sure not to make the sound threatening. He chose friendliness instead. "Don't worry, I do stuff like that when I'm happy, too!" A big dumb grin was plastered onto the canine muzzle while the words flew out. The big dog hopped off the stage, guitar strapped onto his body, and walked towards the first of the seats slowly so as not to stumble. And he also spoke more when he started moving. "Is it cool if I see what you drew?" While that question came out a bit more awkwardly than the last statement, Jake's tail had been swaying as he asked it. For no reason that he was aware of, the young man had confidence that this girl would get along with him. Perhaps that might just be dumb optimism.

[Cateline Rodriguez]

Cateline blinked a few times, slowly lowering the book a little as she heard the voice. Her eyes peaked over the top of the book silently, staring at the odd canine boy for a few seconds. He had to be human with some kind of shifting powers, right? Or was he just weird and wearing some kind of costume because he liked to look like some furry thing? She pulled back behind the book again as he moved towards her some more. Now the wolf-man was moving towards the young girl, what was she going to do? All she did was draw him, why did he want to see it? It wasn't like she had done anything special.

She stayed silent fora moment, waiting for him to draw closer before tugging at her collar a little, praying silently that it was covering her scarring before slowly holding out the book, dropping her head so as her bangs hid her face, which was still bright red with embarrassment. She didn't trust her voice to hold steady so she had decided to stay silent. What else could the girl do? she shifted in her seat, playing with the pencil in her hand.

The one thing she did not want to happen was one of her drawings hopping out of the book, however it wasn't going to as long as she wasn't holding the book. They seemed to only jump out whenever she was doing so, but that didn't mean things couldn't change. Her life had changed after all. Sure, she was still nervous around people and couldn't be around any open flame or go anywhere near the beach, but her life had at least improved. She wasn't having beer bottles thrown at her or being hit by her father whenever she was at home.

[Jake "Okami" Kolton]

This was kind of an awkward situation. The girl seemed to be uncomfortable because of the wolf-man in front of her, this made apparent to him by her red cheeks, the way she adjusted her clothes, and her silence. However, Cateline appeared to be okay with letting him see her drawing. Maybe this was not as awkward as he had originally thought, and they could build off of this? With the thought that she was okay with Jake being here, he took the book in his hands with a genuine smile. He wanted to be nice to her for showing him this. This being an interesting drawing of himself. It actually caught him off guard when the wolf-man saw himself on the paper, and his face changed to showing surprise for a moment. Of course Jake started smiling again. It was not often that you got to see yourself sketched on paper, and it was a good drawing none-the-less, so it only made him feel like they could get along better than he did moments before. He looked back to the student in front of him to respond to her.


"I really like it, this is pretty neat." And that compliment was his honest opinion. While he did believe it was a good drawing in front of him, Jake was not much of an artist himself. He could not tell the artist in front of him how nice he really thought it was compared to something else, but he felt it was enough to say he liked it anyways. That would hopefully be enough for her. Actually, Cateline seemed to be one of those people who did not like to talk much, so the musician should probably do most of the talking. He might be able to get her to smile if he does it right to her. "I don't know if everythin' in this book is somethin' you want everyone to see, but I wan'na look at some of the other stuff you have..." The wolf-man paused a moment. It might come off as rude to just ask for it like that, so he needed to add some positive reinforcement.  "...Since, I mean, this looks pretty cool." The compliment came out a more awkward than it was intended to be, but it was sincere. It would satisfy the girl enough to let him see what other things she had in the sketch book, with any luck.
Assuming that he was lucky, anyways.

[Cateline Rodriguez]

"G-go ahead..." she stammers out after a moment, her eyes staying downcast, never meeting the wolf-boy's eyes. She shifted a little, glad she wore high collars and kept her hair long enough to make it less likely for him to see any of her scaring. The young artist spun the pencil in her hand absentmindedly, not really sure what else to do at this point. She wasn't really a talker and was fairly uncomfortable around people for the most part. Then again she didn't have the greatest history with people in general, but that was mostly because of how withdrawn she was from a social standpoint.

She looked down at the floor, observing her stockings for a moment. She'd much rather be in jeans, or pants in general so she could hide her normally colourful footwear. Wearing skirts made that difficult because she had to at least stay in line with the dress code, even if it meant being a little uncomfortable on a tropical island. It wasn't like she could just wear what most girls wore though, she didn't like showing off any of her scaring. The girl looked back to her pencil, not really sure what to do with it. She didn't draw on her skin anymore, it was still tender for the most part after all the surgeries she had gone through. She also needed a pen for that, but she had some minor issues using ink nowadays.

She shifted a little, finding the silence awkward before speaking up, her voice soft with her nervousness. "Do you like them...?"

[Jake "Okami" Kolton]

"Thank you!" That was the happy response to the permission that had just been given; Permission to look through the artist's art. Now that he had what he had asked for, of course, Jake started randomly looking through some of the other pages on the sketchbook. A panda on a motorcycle immediately held the wolf-man's attention. There was something both interesting, and unexpected, to see. However caught off guard he was, the drawing was well done. And maybe if this girl had an affinity for anthropomorphic animals then she could get along with Jake even more. It would be nice to have another friend. Unless her fascination was a fetish, or something creepy. Pushing that thought as far out of his head as he could, the musician closed the book and handed it back to its owner.

Hiding the thought that just came to his mind with a smile, the student decided it would be better to change the subject to something else. Introductions were very important, and he completely forgot to make his. Yeah, that would be nice subject to change to. "By the way, I'm Jake Kolton, but you can call me Okami." While Jake made sure to sound nice, he realized that may have come out of nowhere. Hopefully adding 'by the way' to the beginning made it seem like the introduction was more natural. He did not know where to take the conversation from art anyways. And then he had another realization. Because Jake switched topics so quickly, he forgot to say anything about the drawings. "Oh, uh, not that I didn't like your drawin's, they were really good." He raised his head while his hand scratched his neck awkwardly, giving him an excuse not look Cateline in the eyes while trying to explain. "I just sorta realized I didn't tell you my name, and I thought you might like to know." The wolf-man had been trying to sound apologetic when he spoke. Hopefully it did not sound like he was avoiding giving compliments to the girl's artwork. This shy girl had a nice art style, and maybe she would understand that Jake's thought just decided to wander?

[Cateline Rodriguez]

Cateline blinked a few times at his reaction, tilting her head a bit. Why was he so excited that she was letting him do something as trivial as looking through her drawings. It wasn't like she did anything incredibly special with her art after all. She toyed with the pen in her hand a bit, not really sure what else to do as she awaited his response. She glanced around the auditorium, her eyes falling over the setting and wishing she could add a bit of extra flare to it. The place seemed dull to her eyes, almost as if the architects hadn't had any fun in designing the place. That in itself was a huge mistake in her eyes, something that shouldn't ever happen. People needed to be let lose with their art, be it drawing, designing a building, or singing a song.

Jake finally speaking up snapped her out of these thoughts, the girl turning back towards him, tilting her head a bit at the nickname. Why would he give himself the nickname of an artistic wolf spirit? He didn't play with paint or anything from what she could tell. She simply blinked at him a few times, unsure what to make of this change of events. Sure, he quickly back peddled and commented on her art, but that didn't change the fact that he had called himself Okami. Things went silent as she thought, not realizing how long she had been thinking on the subject before shaking herself out of her own thoughts. She would call him Jake, mostly because he didn't really remind her of her favorite game.

"I...am Cateline Suzuya Rodriguez," she states, her head still tilted curiously. Why had she given her full name? A lot of people seemed to like how her middle name sounded so she had gotten in the habit of naming it off as well. She smiled a bit before holding out her hand, wanting her art book back by this point. She was still having trouble being social, and she found it awkward to use her words at times but she could at least make gestures, right? That wasn't too rude, was it? She tilted her head a bit, her silent waiting only interrupted by her own train of thought. Someone as quiet as her did that a lot.