THE EMPTINESS SHOWS → painting

[Grimm]

[align=center][div style="font-family: arial; font-size: 12px; width: 310px; text-align: justify; line-height:120%"]Very little proved impervious to the effects of time, change expected, nothing caught within a permanent standstill. Known this, understood with the aid of experience, though meagre it, proven no exception. Still disappointment grew, overwritten the map framed by a childhood supposedly behind him in days that seemed over long, his expectations proven too high.

Already weathered the poor facsimile of those he had deemed family had suffered. Faded once vibrant hues, partial the fault of chosen supplies though the rest from more natural effects. Already difficult to distinguish features had smoothed out, smudged together into a single unified shade, the darkest points surviving only for the lighter backdrop may not obscure it wholly. Time and time again he returned, fool proven each instance for his want for the effects to reverse.

Hesitation stilled his paw before contact may be made with the craggy surface. So many of the faces lost in two ways, last remnants fading away. Sigh slipped past his lips, attention diverting. Around him supplies, paint cans taken from the boardwalk, others for more natural creation. Wrong had it felt when the notion had entered his mind, desecration he could not perform.

He had to. Still their faces populated his mind even if they were lacking in the camp his back was turned to, the hussle and bussle the same even as different proved each individual. Recreated, kept alive in such a small way. Down he bent for a brief moment, strange the sensation of paint coating his paw. Slow the beginning, upward stretching, the old hidden beneath each stroke.

Vaas. Quasar. Medusa.

Each gone in turn, Rhine still there simply changed, Sugarspice added to the assembly, faces Foam knew. Always room for more, almost expected, welcome any who wished to add their own creations for he proved incapable of the addition when he knew none of them.

[RHINESTONE.]

[table][tr][td]

[/td][td]

[/td][td]

[/td][/tr][/table]

A REAL ONE, YEAH, SHE'S A STUNNER

Oh, how Rhine missed the faces that had once been so familiar to her. Vaas, Quasar, Medusa... all important to her in different ways, all so desperately missed within her heart. Medusa, a loyal confidant. Vaas, a rough around the edges but kind boyfriend. And Quasar... her son. Brightly colored and quite the loudmouth, but ever so dearly beloved ever since she had taken him in, along with his brother. However, the legate also knew that she had no way of forcing them back with her. Medusa was dead, with seemingly no way to return unless she defied death as herself and Laeglin had done. And in the case of Vaas and Quasar... she had little to no idea where they had gone, and she had spent days upon days searching for the both of them. She had scoured every part of the Glades' territory, only to be left empty handed and even more pained. So, unless they found their way back to her naturally, there was nothing more that she could do.

Still, even as things changed for the worse, they also changed for the better. Although faces had been lost, there were still a great deal of new ones with the Glades, not to mention the most recent return. A return that filled the legate with warmth, as Suga's absence had similarly taken a toll on her. It was because of this that Rhine often wore a smile these days, even with all that had happened. She preferred to focus on the good things, rather than the bad. However, it was difficult for her not to notice Foampaw as she walked into camp, spotting the various cans of paint scattered around him as well.

Gaze drifting up towards the mural he had painted what felt like so long ago, Rhinestone couldn't help the pang of pain that passed through her chest. However, she pushed through, making her way over to where Foam was and offering the youngling a smile. She muttered as she looked up, watching as he rejuvenated creations long faded, "Foam... it's so sweet of you to paint again. It really was quite nice when you did it the first time... do you want any help?" She wasn't sure of how much help she would really be, considering her rudimentary art skills, but it still felt fitting to ask. After all, she cared just as much as he did, at least in her own eyes.

RHINESTONESTAR – PALM GLADES – PENNED BY STILLY – BIO

[sup]© tikki[/sup]

[Ares]

For the Record, this is self-destructive
For the record, I'm aware of that.

Ares didn't have any real reason to behave the way she did when Medusa was announced dead - she never new the Primus. But she just felt like something was missing, like someone important in her own life was taken from her. So it hurt her, just not as much as it hurt Foam and Rhine.

The injured feline also didn't know about Sugarspice and her relationship with the two, just knowing that she was special to them. Moving to stand next to Rhine, the girl smiled. "You seem pretty well-versed with painting, Foam. I wish I could do that." Maybe she could, at some point. Draw or paint Elsweyr and her friends in the Glades - if she were to get any friends, at least. Maybe when she got back to Tanglewood.. if she went back.

— Reggan

[Grimm]

[align=center][div style="font-family: arial; font-size: 12px; width: 310px; text-align: justify; line-height:120%"]Faces. Silent observers, there one moment and gone within the next. Always in the backdrop, scrutiny without reason, unfamiliar and unwelcome for it. Once sure strokes grew shaky, paw trembling as the seconds passed. The cause he could not determine, though picked through his thoughts, weighed each. No fitting reason, irrational that which gathered in his chest, a heavy stone acting as supposed replacement for what once was present. He knew grief, tasted it as a child. This was not it, though component, a small part of the whole. He knew fear. Wrong the fit, his heart thundering not with it but something more.

Anger.

Claws brief in their scrap, paint smeared, gathered on those translucent crescents. Work gone over again and again, features defined and ruined, redone. Never right. It was not the same without them. A voice, the first to speak, addressal seemingly for him. Words gathered upon his tongue, searing remark to turn their attention elsewhere, swallowed with difficulty with the realisation of who spoke. Gaze travelled over shoulder, the old made new, a face once longed for gone, yet recognisable among the soft hues now worn.

Small smile grew, remark of the first time a pleasant notion. They had been together than, before death had taken so many, even the one he now regarded with wonderstruck eyes. Still difficult to disentangle the Rhine present from that Foam had made, rage and hatred expected, received only love and warmth. Slow the nod he gave in response, fearful speaking may produce a result he would later regret. A few steps back, rearranged the paints to make room. It was still strange to look on the thylacine and know this was the one he had longed for, more a parent — a mother than his has ever been.

Another, an unknown, dark figure almost solemn in their assessment of his incomplete work. His curiosity slowly overcame what once was, mouth opening to question. The chance was taken, teeth coming together rather sharply as she began to speak. Confusion settled along dual hued visage, briefly panicked over how his name seemed known to her but not vice versa. The explanation an easy one, Rhine easy in speaking it, her addressal of him easily allowing the connection. "Why not give it a go." Small the smile Foam offered alongside his words, pleased simply to have the company even if Ares did not take him up on it.

[Ares]

For the Record, this is self-destructive
For the record, I'm aware of that.

Ares blinked gently, shock apparent in her eyes. A pain radiated in her paws but she looked at Foam quizzically. "Uh- I'm not sure what I could paint.. I don't have anyone... anyone significant to me here.. she's in Tanglewood." She admitted, hurting shoulders hunched in embarrassment. She knew what that could be taken as, but she didn't care unless the unspoken idea was spoken.

"I'm Ares, by the way." Smile, though faded and faltered, rose once again. The pain in her paws subsided and she looked at a blank space, though small, on the stone face.

— Reggan