— Eggnog had joined the swamp-dwelling group on a whim. The kitten had gotten lost while exploring one day and came across the border. He was found by a Tangler soon after, before Eggnog could accidentally drown himself in the swamp or get gobbled by hungry gators. At first, he thought the Tangler was one of his many enemies (Of course he had enemies! All the cool guys from stories had enemies! And he was pretty cool.) but after the misunderstanding had cleared, the other cat asked him to either join or leave. Nobody forced Eggnog out once he was in! So he joined Tanglewood.

It took a few days for Eggnog to get settled in, and he quickly found himself with nothing to do and no one to talk to. That simply wouldn't do! After some snooping, Eggnog managed to get his grubby paws on some paint containers and some loose paper from the library. It took a really long time for him to drag everything over, but he was pretty darn proud of himself once he finished. The kitten plopped himself down with a huff and opened one of the paints. Now, what should he paint first? Maybe a sun? He tilted his head, glancing at the paint he had opened. It was red, but who said there couldn't be a red sun? Eggnog made a motion to begin but paused at the last moment. He looked up. "Who wants to paint with me?" He asked, caramel-colored eyes searching for an unwilling victim he could drag into his painting session. If nobody joined then he was going to hunt people down to beat them up.

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Kiira, still very much a child herself, was unfortunately not great with other kids, younger ones especially.  They tended to be highly energetic and... A little overwhelming from the anxious vixen.  So in general, she avoided them.  Kiira very nearly burst into a run when she heard a child's nearby voice, asking if anyone wanted to paint.

Would that be rude? Probably.  Kiira imagined fleeing at the first sign of possible interaction would not make her seem very brave.  Or nice.  Of course, the scrawny canine did not really care to be 'brave'; it was probably plain as daylight that the child lacked a single brave bone in her body.

With her paws phasing in and out of corporeal existence, the rookie slowly, very slowly crept forward, her mix-matched eyes resting curiously on the paints, rather than her fellow Tanglers.  Kiira was not sure, but she felt like she'd done this before; painting.  A brief image of stars flashed in her mind's eye, arranged super carefully into specific patterns. Constellations?

"C-can... I-I?"

© MADI

— His first volunteer! Eggnog gave himself a mental pat on the back as he focused on Vigenere. "I'm going to paint a red sun!" He said with a proud puff of his chest. He pushed a paint container towards the other male with a firm, "Paint something too, okay?" He turned his attention to Aya, opening his mouth in concern when he saw the female fall. She seemed okay though so he closed his mouth and gave her a large smile. "Okay! I'm painting a sun, so you can paint a moon or maybe the ground? And then we can connect all of the pages together to make a big painting!"

Eggnog shifted his eyes toward Kiira, watching as she slunk over. He stared at the fox's phasing, head tilting in confusion. He was about to ask how she did that, but she spoke first. "Yeah, duh! C'mon," he pushed one of the containers towards her, along with some paper. After that matter was settled, he turned to his red paint and dipped a beige paw in it. After it was thoroughly coated, he started painting a shaky circle on his paper, the outline for his sun.