037 Red Letters

[eat_me_beat_me]

This week weirded me out last year and this year is no different. But that doesn't mean I can't do my part to, uh, help out [read help the kids get as messy as possible]

So if anyone's interested I'm down in the lobby with paint, chalk, markers and a mess of other art supplies. Painting inside the lines... And on the paper... Is optional.

[She laughs]

((OOC: open open open. Threadjack at will. Free for all!

Comments

[ino]

[sup Nora, have a five-year-old girl scrambling over from the front door in interest, Ino trailing behind]

Can I draw too?

[eat_me_beat_me]

[She laughs, grinning at the kid and Ino]

Hey, of course! Be my guest.

[ino]

[Hana will get right to the first thing she can find -- an assortment of markers -- and immediately start drawing some big flowers on the paper. Ino will just be squatting down near Nora]

Hey.

[eat_me_beat_me]

[She smiles at Ino]

Hey, how's it going?

[ino]

It's going alright. [she looks a bit tired, though, LMAO] How about you?

[eat_me_beat_me]

Not too bad. I don't have a kid so I think Mark and I've been getting more sleep than the rest of the castle.

[ino]

Yeah, I bet ... [she'll sigh, glancing at Hana, who is now scribbling furiously with some chalk ... and getting it all over her shirt]

[eat_me_beat_me]

[She laughs] C'mon, I'll treat you for a spa day or something once the week's out. How's that sound?

[perfectisnteasy]

... I'm having a hard time seeing the point of this, or how it could be construed as help.

[eat_me_beat_me]

Art doesn't have to have a point. It's just art. As far as the help? In one way I'm helping occupy the kids so the parents can have a break, giving the kids something fun to do... and making the lobby a royal mess as a bonus.

[perfectisnteasy]

Okay, but the mess is just more work. You're gonna have to clean it up later.

[eat_me_beat_me]

[a laugh] As if. I haven't cleaned up a single thing I've done in the castle proper. Even if you paint on the walls it'll get rid of it within a day.

[perfectisnteasy]

... Wait, so this place is self-sustaining? How's it manage that?

[eat_me_beat_me]

Magic? Hell if I know, I don't know how most of this shit works.

[perfectisnteasy]

[so the users don't know either. well, at least they don't know more than he does. that's a comfort. he'd be livid if they did.]

What d'you figure people'd do if someone actually figured out how all this works?

[eat_me_beat_me]

[She thinks for a minute]

Some of them will try to take it and use it for themselves, some will try to use it to figure out how to get home... but most wouldn't give a shit and would just keep going with their heads in the sand like they always do.

action

[both_neither]

Hey Nora. [Have a wryly smiling Gren and a curly-headed two year old bouncing in his arms] Looks like we're gonna get to try that finger-painting thing after all...

[eat_me_beat_me]

[She laughs]

Hey! You got a little one, too? We'll see if they're as artistic as their father.

[both_neither]

I guess you can say you warned me. [He sets the kid down, who immediately makes a grab for some crayons]

[eat_me_beat_me]

I did. You never know when this place is gonna throw you a curveball like that.

So, do they come with names or dis you get to do the honors?

[both_neither]

I don't know about the others, but we didn't get a nametag. I...decided to call him Colby.

[eat_me_beat_me]

[She smiles at him] Hey, Colby!

[Back to Gren.] Who's the mother? Anyone I know?

[both_neither]

[Colby smiles at her and starts scribbling on a piece of paper with a handful of crayons]

[Gren smirks] Her name's Renee.

[eat_me_beat_me]

[She smiles watching Colby before looking back up at Gren]

Haven't met her. At least, not that I know of. I don't exactly ask for names every time I talk to someone over the journal.

[both_neither]

[He shrugs] Neither do I. You never know, I guess.

I actually met her before this, though, at the shooting range. It helps a little that this didn't happen with a stranger.

Doesn't make it any less...bizarre.

[He says that, but the look on his face as he watches Colby is nothing short of faintly bemused]

[eat_me_beat_me]

I think this place thrives on bizarre, if you ask me. [She makes a face]

[both_neither]

I think you're right.

[Watch out Colby might be sucking on a crayon...]

[eat_me_beat_me]

Whoa! [She reaches out and gently pulls the crayon out of the tyke's mouth] Just 'cause it's red doesn't mean it tastes like cherries.

[both_neither]

[Gren chuckles]

Nice save.

Colby, no. No eating the art supplies. [Looks back at Nora] I guess we should show him how it's done?

[eat_me_beat_me]

Hey, thanks.

[She laughs and picks up a colored pencil] I think that's a good idea if I ever heard one.

[both_neither]

[Gren takes a seat on the floor and after a second starts to draw a palm tree on one of the papers. Colby watches.]

[cantacquityou]

[Here comes a prosecutor holding his little silver-haired, silver-eyed little girl sideways in one arm as he approached hoping to find something to preoccupy his daughter...aside from the horse doll she is currently fixated upon.]


...Good afternoon.

[eat_me_beat_me]

[Nora smiles and nods at him]

Hey. How's it going?

[cantacquityou]

Suddenly finding myself coerced into the unforgiving Iron Jaws of parenthood. Yourself?

[eat_me_beat_me]

Kid free and loving it [Smart-assed smirk]

[cantacquityou]

With such enthusiasm for accommodating the new 'parents,' I'd have guessed otherwise.

[eat_me_beat_me]

[She smirks] Clearly you've never seen the look on a parent's face after their toddler's completely covered themselves in paint and they realize they have to clean it up.

Besides, they're great so long as they're not mine. It means I get to give them back.

[cantacquityou]

...



...And now, the reservations begin to kick in...

[eat_me_beat_me]

[with a laugh]

Oh come on, I'm sure she'll love it. Fun's worth a little mess, don't you think?

[cantacquityou]

It is for her, after all...

[eat_me_beat_me]

It is. And hey it's something she can do so you can sit down and relax for a few minutes.

[peeta_bread]

[Peeta's a little wary about being out in the open, but Heather needed a change of scenery. He squats down near some art supplies and sets Heather down beside him. And, of course, she immediately sticks her hand in the paint and paints daddy's cheek.

Peeta laughs, allowing the one year-old to paint a green sun on his cheek.]

[eat_me_beat_me]

[Nora laughs]

Guess art skills run in the family.