Lines of Fortune (OPEN)

[Cateline Rodriguez]

The girl let out a sigh as she took a seat in the mostly empty courtyard, her eyes closed as she relaxed her muscles. She hated how out of shape she was compared to what she used to be. Therapy was going slower then she wanted it to, but she couldn't speed it up because the doctors had told her she could do more damage then good if she tried to. She set the cane to her side, staring at it for a moment before letting out a sigh, shifting the satchel she had over her shoulder into her lap, opening it and looking at her drawing utensils. She shifted around in it, the jumbled mess of pencils clanking softly together as she finally fishes out her sketch book, opening it and flipping through the pages a bit. She smiled as she came to the latest sketch she had been working on, fishing around in the bag once again for a pencil that was in one piece.

I really should clean this out...

She settled down after setting her bag off to the side, making sure to lean her t=cane against the bench near her so that it stayed within her reach. The sketch she had been working on was an animesque image of four people tied in various ways to one another with yawn, at the end of which was a small creature made of yarn. She had decided to make a drawing that had more of a meaning then just the random sketches she normally did. This one was meant to represent every hidden message and the links between people, with the creature being the creature of fortune or fate.

She smiled to herself, looking at the section of the page she had left blank where a fifth person was going to be. She tapped the back of the pencil against her chin a few times, thinking for a moment on the gender and design before nodding to herself, setting to work ,the silhouette of a girl forming slowly on the page.

[Mikhial Zolnerowhich]

Mikhial was sitting on the ground in the center of the courtyard, he was wearing a sweat stained, white muscle shirt, having just come from the gym. His flannel shirt was tied around his waist and he was balancing a sketchpad on his knee and looking for something to draw. He spotted a couple people but his eye finally rested on the girl drawing in her notebook. With a smile he started making the outlines of her, making sure to get the background and foreground. An artist drawing another artist, irony is not lost on me. He liked this island for one reason, there were so many diverse places, things, and people for him to draw. Mostly he was drawing to calm himself down after the punching bag session he had back in the gym, his breathing was still a little deeper and panting. He was humming to himself, Soldatuszki, and old song sung by Russian Soldiers that his father hat taught him when he was only a child.

[Autumn Armstrong]

Autumn breathed in little, taking in the courtyard’s fresh air. She was glad to be done with her classes for the day, now she could relax and work on her art. White strands blowing in the light breeze as she strolled along, Autumn moved away from the school building and further into the courtyard. Her eyes seemed to be drifting along too, scanning over the landscape and skyscape, detecting every detail. She carried her gray drawing portfolio against her stomach. It was large, only her disembodied legs then her chest visible from the other side. To anyone facing her she would look like a ‘saw my assistant in half’ magic act as she walked.

The legs of the magician’s assistant stopped moving, Autumn looked at the boy sitting on the ground in the middle of the courtyard. Someone was in her usual spot, and on top of that also using it to sketch. He had good taste, or maybe it was artistic minds think alike? Autumn followed his line of vision to see who or what his art subject was. It was a dark haired girl sitting on a bench—and also drawing. The gold in Autumn’s eyes began to glisten from this interesting situation. She looked around curiously, seeing if there were any more artists continuing this painting within a painting effect. But the sheen in her eyes dulled and the slit of her parted lips closed into a straight line upon seeing that the chain did not in fact continue. Should she continue it?

~~~~~~

“… … … Strings of fate,” Autumn suddenly spoke up. She stood behind the bench, looking down at the sketch Cateline was working on with a tilted head. If she was going to continue the painting within a painting effect, she wanted to know what her subjects were doing and how their sketches looked like. She had been silently gazing at Cateline's work for a few moments now, letting herself take it in. Seeing the subject of the purple haired girl’s work, she almost felt summoned. Autumn raised a curl finger and cushioned it against her bottom lip.  “A creature is taking the role of a creator,” she commented on the sketch.

[Cateline Rodriguez]

Cateline physically jumped at the sudden voice, her pencil being pulled away quickly by instinct to avoid any stray scratch onto her piece of art. She quickly tried to reach for her cane, desperately trying to catch it before it fell over. She stared in despair as her hand barely missed the thing, watching as it fell over with a sigh. She looked back down at her paper, making sure it wasn't marked before glancing back down at her cane, staring at it for a moment. She really needed to pick it up before someone tripped over it, but she was tired as it was.

She took a moment to collect herself, tugging at the collar of her shirt for a moment before glancing back at the other girl, blinking at the girl a few times. She sighed a bit, shaking her head to clear it of thoughts. "Y-you got the purpose of the drawing...?" she choked out finally, her voice soft and withdrawn. What was she supposed to do now? She wasn't used to speaking to others, even about art. She glanced back down at her drawing, shifting a little, not knowing where to go with everything. Her eyes trailed up. What was she supposed to do in these situations.

Most of her life she had been withdrawn into herself, not really interacting with anyone. Mostly due to fear, but that didn't change the fact she had been rarely sociable. As long as people didn't see her scars or sprout wings of fire around her she figured she could talk around here, try to start anew. She never expected it to be so hard though.

[Autumn Armstrong]

Autumn silently gazed on at Cateline’s clumsy performance with her attentive yet dreary eyes. Her calm, comfortable ambience contrasted well next to the girl’s evident anxiety. Autumn seemed unmindful of it and answered the question, her mouth slightly parted and finger separating from her lip in preparation to speak. “… I see tangled strings,” she said after the moment of thought she had given it. Autumn then walked around the bench, situated her gray art portfolio on one end of the bench, and took a seat next to Cateline.

Autumn pointed to a place in the sketch without touching. “Chains,” she said as the finger began to distinctly trace the air over the yawn that tied the anime figures together. “A family,” she continued, now pointing out the tied characters. Her finger retreated back with the others, and she looked at the drawing as a whole. “Blood ties.”

Autumn’s gaze over the artwork then narrowed to the drawn creature made of yawn. She started to look hard at it, silence thickened as she thought, her dazed eyes suddenly becoming focused. She understood what it meant to her, but at the same time, she didn’t feel she was fully grasping it. It wasn’t a perfect fit with the whole picture--her interpretation of it anyway. “It looks like a puppet to me, but…” She suddenly went on, pointing at the fabricated creature now. More silence began to brew, Autumn’s mind preoccupied with her thoughts. Rather than having a conversation with a human being, it was more like she was trying to talk out her thoughts, nurturing an infant interpretation.

Finally she blew out a sigh, and knitted her eyebrows even more than before. Autumn leaned forward and placed her elbows on her knees then her chin onto her cupped hands. She looked at the drawing in Cateline’s lap more closely. “I want it to be a baby,” Autumn mumbled, “A puppet and a puppeteer.” She lifted her head to look down at her gifted fingers for a moment. She was close enough to see her skin’s swirls and lines, and how high her nails currently peaked over. Autumn balled her hands before resting her chin back on her palms.

“What do you see,” she asked, looking up at Cateline, her eyelashes blocking out part of her view. The artist’s interpretation of their own work was always a good one.

[Mikhial Zolnerowhich]

Mikhial looked up at the thudding sound of the cane hitting the ground and the sound of conversation. Using just his legs he pushed himself to his feet and walked over, picking up the cane and resting it on the bench next to it's owner. "Hello, I think you dropped that." He said and looked down at the drawing. "Oh you're quite the artist, it's very creative and the pencilwork is exquisite." His eyes traced every inch of the drawing and he finally looked up at the other two. "Hello I am Mikhial. I am also an artist, more of a portrait and landscapes person than a imaginative artist so to speak."

[Cateline Rodriguez]

Cateline blinks a few times at the girl as she speaks, her head tilted a bit curiously as she obviously tried to piece together the story behind the image. She was right about them being tied together, however they weren't family, more a group of close friends and the creature was far from being a baby. Though she knew some could probably see a creature of fate as an unwanted child or a child that was unexpected, it was not what she was going for. No matter what though she knew most art was left solely up to individual interpretation. She shifted a bit before another sound caught her attention, her eyes flicking over to the fairly tall and large boy resting her walking cane back against the bench, blinking a few times in surprise at the gesture.

She wasn't really used to such gestures, not really having been exposed to it all too often compared to what other people probably had experienced in the past. She blinked at his statement about her drawing, looking beck to it for a moment before glancing at Autumn, not really sure who to respond to first. She decided to respond to the girl first, turning fully to her and speaking, her voice coming out fairly soft and timid, obviously a tad uncomfortable with the interaction, but showing she was at least trying. "They aren't a family, they are people who have never met but are tied to meet at some point in the future," she stated, pointing at the yarney creature for a moment. "He is the creature of fate and fortune, the one who has made the ties that are invisible to others. What kind of fate befalls those who are meant to meet is left up to interpretation."

She nodded a bit to herself, as if confirming with herself that she had spoken the truth before glancing back at Mikhial, intending to respond to him now, figuring she at least owed him that for picking up her cane for her. "I'm Cateline, though some call me Suzu." She glances at the other girl for a moment before speaking again, a small, timid smile gracing her features. "It's nice to meet both of you."

[Autumn Armstrong]

Mikhial’s new, prominent presence was like a mental blur to Autumn, her attention too preoccupied with Cateline’s drawing. “I see…” Autumn replied after listening to Cateline’s answer with care. Her mind then started to erase the infant interpretation she fabricated like it was an incorrect formula she had sketched on a chalkboard. Was the piece meant to be simple, without a grounding statement? Autumn wasn’t use to that in creative looking pieces like this. What was going on in the drawing was apparent, but the take away wasn’t. What was the artist trying to make others understand? How was the drawing a reflection of reality? These questions circled Autumn’s head, blocking out the exchange going on right next to her. Her eyes kept shifting back onto the yarn creature. ‘Creature of fate,’ Autumn mouthed to herself, repeating Cateline. The way it was worded, it could mean two things. But according to the way Cateline wanted her to see it, she had to pick one--the other one.

“Thinking that way is scary,” Autumn finally responded. Her eyes finally detaching from the drawing. She planted them on her lap and stuffed her hands under her arms, hugging herself. She couldn’t help seeing herself in the sketch, and it was like a role reversal. Was her sense of being the one in control an illusion? Her life had gone completely off course because of her powers.

A bloody tear drop reddening a single white strand—the visual resurfaced from Autumn’s memories after remembering she had to think of people meeting, like the blood ties in her first interpretation. She would have never met Salem if she had not been forced into coming to this place. With that realization Autumn’s body loosened back up, and for the first time in a while she looked up.

Autumn blinked up at Mikhial with surprise. She then looked back at the bench he had been sitting on before. It was empty. “My art subject left”, she said, looking back at him a little accusingly. She had come to Cateline wanting to know what she was drawing with intention of continuing the painting within a painting effect. She was going to go see his drawing next. Autumn wanted to know what her art subjects were drawing before she started drawing, in order to understand them better. Plus, it wouldn’t really be a painting with a painting effect if she didn’t add their drawings in hers.

“I was going to continue the chain you made."