18 ♦ We are running across the hills in the pop art blue

[rhapsody_in]

Now, I know not all of you are art historians. Few of you, in fact; some of you don't know much about the medium at all. But you've all seen some artwork, no matter where you're from or what your home is like.

Tell me about your favorite piece of art, the best painting or drawing or statue or collage you've ever seen. The one you most like looking at. If you can, show an image – I want to see too.

[Private to Peter – backdated to just after the Jaeger Shots breach]
Could I try that computer again? I think I may be better at it now.

Comments

Action.

[walkthedarkpath]

[ Vergil does not answer via message, but instead a knock upon her door, under his arm wrapped in a white sheet and tied with twine is a large frame. Its not Starry Night, but it is something he figured he would be better to show in person.]

Action.

[rhapsody_in]

[Bleu wasn't expecting a visitor and figures it's Piper stopping by, so it surprises her to find Vergil on the other side of the door.]

Hello. What's that?

Action.

[walkthedarkpath]

The answer to the question you asked. I assumed this would be better for you, to allow you to see the paint itself. Will you allow me in, I would rather not everyone sees.

Action.

[rhapsody_in]

Of course.

[She stands aside; her room is quite a bit like his except that her light comes from candles. It's all high ceilings and and heavy velvet drapes and fine furniture -- a canopy bed, a fainting couch. On a large writing desk are a few pictures: a portrait Steve did of her and one Piper did experimentally, the image modeled after Monet's style. Its colors are mismatched and random. Both are beautiful.]

Show me. [She wonders if Vergil painted it himself.]

Re: Action.

[walkthedarkpath]

Nice room.

[ Its all he really says on it, but yes, he certainly digs her style its very nice. He then kneels down undoing the bindings, to reveal the painting he asked for, for Christmas for himself. He was sure she'd be smart enough to see two platinum haired babies and put two and two together.]

Action.

[rhapsody_in]

It's not much but it's home.

[Sort of; it was where she'd last lived but she largely considered it just a temporary residence. Not that any residence has ever been permanent for her.

As Vergil removes the bindings and sheet she lights the wick on an oil lamp and holds it up to better illuminate the picture. Wordlessly, she hands it to him and kneels herself, taking in the painting from a distance and then leaning in close, nose almost touching the canvas as she studies each of the figures. She knows who the twins are, can easily deduce the other two from that. When she pulls back she's smiling.]

Fine artistry, and even better, fine paint. My only complaint is in the overall lighting -- but the highlights are wonderful and poignant.

Your mother's very beautiful.

private

[myresponsibility]

Sure. Where you you want me to drop it off?

private

[rhapsody_in]

I'll come to meet you, wherever you want. You can show me how to keep it powered.

[velocette]

The Garden of Earthly Delights, by Hieronymous Busch. I have it in a book here somewhere-

[He rummages, and then turns the camera to show her.]

[rhapsody_in]

Oh, I know this one.

[Intimately. She smiles, studying the scores of familiar, bizarre figures. Bosch always had a passion for whimsy and overabundance, and better yet focused on every tiny individual subject and made them their own character in a huge chaotic story.]

What is it you like most about it?

[velocette]

That it's- if the world as I knew it back home could have painted a self-portrait of itself, that's exactly what it would look like. Bright, giddy scenes framed in by specific images pulled from Hell...

Did you know him?

[rhapsody_in]

Promise me you'll show me your world sometime. [It sounds so beautifully wild and riotous -- so magical, by his turn of phrase. And she wants to see the place that shaped him.]

I met him. [Met him, loved him, inspired him; it's all the same.]

[velocette]

I promise. Maybe soon; I feel like I've forgotten things there that I wish I could remember.

[He understands the meanings, appreciates them with a smile] I've been painting with Steve. Experimenting in a lot of forms, in fact.

[punched_hitler]

I mentioned Norman Rockwell to you, didn't I? He did one while I was, uh, out that I really admire.

[He's even prepared, so he manages to turn the camera to the book he's got open to show her this one.]

cw: quoted racial slur

[rhapsody_in]

Yes! I looked at some of his work.

[She looks quizzically at the image, studying it thoughtfully for a long while.] "Nigger" -- that's an insult toward dark-skinned people, isn't it? What is this in reference to? Rockwell looked so wholesome.

also I realize I should have warned for the image, sorry /o\

[punched_hitler]

Yeah, it is.

It's his version of an event that happened in the 60s. [Which Steve missed, but he's read about it.] Schools and most public buildings used to be segregated by color. [Steve's whole life, actually, until after he woke up.] But when they started integrating students from one into the other, you can guess it didn't always go well.

I always thought he was more... highlighting that problem, in this one. Letting people figure out for themselves why that girl and those marshals are brave, and hopefully giving them something to think about.

doesn't offend me at least <3

[rhapsody_in]

They were? I can only imagine how hard that must have been. That kind of mixing is never smooth.

What did people try to do to these children? Did all of them have marshal escorts?

okay, whew! <33

[punched_hitler]

No, it isn't. I picked a black man for the Commandos, we got enough flak over his being in our unit, and not "with his own." [Not that Steve cared, Gabe was a competent man, and a good one, too.]

No, very few of them had federal escorts. But I think people tried to do some pretty horrible things, everything from humiliation to murder.

[His mouth twists a little.] If I'd been around, maybe I could have helped out. [He would have served gladly, but he also knows how little point there is, in wishing he could have been there when he simply wasn't, and that's that.]

sorry i'm late :c

[darknessb4me]

Art is pointless.

[someone's in a good mood.]

LATE? NO SUCH THING

[rhapsody_in]

Do not make me kick your ass.

[strangehistorian]

Visual arts only? I think my favorite is music. Hmm.

Your world is the one with the Slav Epic, isn't it?

[rhapsody_in]

Music isn't my area of expertise.

I... think so? There are Slavic epic stories, at least.

[strangehistorian]

It is the history of a people told in a series of murals. I find the idea fascinating!

[rhapsody_in]

Ah! I'd like to see these.

Don't they have anything like that in Azeroth?

[strangehistorian]

The Zandalari and the old Pandaren empires did - the Pandaren have a marvelous history of storytelling, in the oral and written traditions as well as in the visual. But, many were damaged when Zandalar sank and Pandaria had its cultural purges.