| Painting at The Park |
| Summary: | Angelica Jones went to Central Park to clear her mind over a session of painting, during her painting session she meets Pete Wisdom |
| Date: | 2016-08-03 |
| Related: | None |
| NPCs: | None |
| Scene Runner: | NA |
| Social/Plot: | Social |
| Players: |
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Taking a moment of relaxation, clarity and focus, Angelica has set up a canvas and easel infront of the Alice Statue in Central Park, a set of oil paints set on her art palette, as she works with slow controlled brush strokes. A set of brushes set on her easel, she almost seems in a zen like state, intimately focused on her painting in progress.
Who's to be chipper this late afternoon, amidst tourists and weirdos playing Pokemon Go? Why, it's Pete Wisdom, walking here and there. Spotting street artists and musicians. He'd even deigned to pay one of them - Angelica, in fact, dropping a $20 bill in her hat, box, shoe, or even her brush box.
Which may not be the right thing to do, as she doesn't seem to be painting for money, bu for pleasure.
Still, he stood behind her, eyeing her work as she paints the Alice. He had a pithy greeting in mind, something about how Lewis Carroll was a loony.
But he thought better of it. Just watch the beauty create more beauty.
Angelica didn't set up to get any money, so it winds up being her brush box that serves as a tip jar, causing Angelica to pause a moment when she completes her latest stroke. A refinement of a fold in Alice's dress, "there's no need," she remarks, turning to look a bit preplexed at Pete, "I'm honestly doing it for my own pleasure."
That face - younger than what he's seen. Could it be? No. There's no way. He didn't really know Firestar, anyhow. Was just aware of her through extensive files and knowledge. "Pleasure's all well and good. Even better to be paid doing what you love, luv," he said in a slightly lisped, Essex county accent. "Would've been wasted on hot dogs and beer, anyway."
"Well…if this is a donation, I'm not going to refuse it, that would be rude…but really, I'm not doing it for the money," she's clearly flattered from the sound of her voice, as Angelica turns her gaze back to the statute, lifting the brush once again, washing it before picking a different metallic shade, "might still get wasted on that, if I'm going to be honest," Angelica offers with a laugh.
"Do something other than hot dogs. Please," Wisdom bemoaned. "There's so much better food out here in New York. Even the street halal food is incredible." Not that the hot dogs are bad. Just almost everything is better.
"Can't go wrong with beer, though. Where'd you study? Love your technique," he said. "Not much of a painter, meself. Dad wouldn't have had that." Not that Pete was artistically inclined, anyway.
"You want to make an offer of a can't miss New York meal?" Angelica asks Pete casually, holding up her thumb towards the statue for a moment, before returning to her brush strokes. "Well…if we're getting the beer, maybe you should be the one paying," she comments off handedly. "I am mostly self taught, but I did take art in school, art is a pretty thing, and there's so much ugly out there…I wanted to focus on something pretty." She looks over at Pete for a moment, "now teaching you is something I can do for money, if you really want to learn."
"I don't," Wisdom said, with some finality. "If I was going to learn an art or craft, it'd have to be glass-blowing. Or sculpture." Something he can work with his thermokinesis. "Well, considering the Jackson I dropped, I suppose I'm paying anyhow," Wisdom said with a smile. "I'm Pete," he introduced, genuinely interested (for now) more in the painting than the girl.
"I sculpt…we can work on that if you like, I used to do ice sculpting in middle school," Angelica muses, though for a moment her expression freezes and loses her natural warmth. She shifts her focus to refine the mushroom, and when a kid starts to climb it, she simply adds the kid into the painting. She's not about to ask him to back away just so she can paint. "Nice to meet you Pete, I'm Angelica, friends call me Angel though…you seem friendly enough, aren't you?"
"Ice sculpting and I would prove difficult," Wisdom said with a little laugh. "But I understand you. Angelica, eh? Lovely to meet you. And aw, don't say that. I'm a rotten bastard and I'll be the first to admit it!" He added a laugh at this. "Mmm," he looked at her painting in the child.
"Curiouser and curiouser!"
"A rotten bastard are you?" Angelica laughs, surprised by Pete saying something like that, "I gotta say that's a first I've heard such an introduction. Does it work for you?" She grins when she notes where Pete's eyes are looking, "all children are welcome in Wonderland, right?"
"Alice sure wasn't. Ruining houses. Queens wanting her head. Wonderland played by its own rules." Wisdom gave a wry sort of smirk. "It works for me because it's true enough. I could lie and tell you I was a smooth operator, a charming lad who'd offer to take your arm and show you the glitz and glamor of Times Square while we hit up the theater to see Hamilton… when sure, I could do all that. But I'm not paying a sodding grand just for seats to a musical about some American Revolutionary characters." He scoffed, turned his nose up, and smiled. "Would rather pay a grand to stay somewhere rather nice. Bahamas, perhaps. Or Hawaii. More than a grand, that'd be."
"Well, the world has it's share of good queens, and evil queens," Angelica muses on just how true what she said is, her mind drifting from the White Queen to the Black Queen. Good riddance to that dark hearted creature. Then again, Alice didn't quite have the powers that Angelica has at her disposal. "Well…how about a show with puppets instead? I heard Avenue Q is pretty good!" Angelica laughs, before forcing herself to continue working before the kid gets off the mushroom, capturing him in time, his colorful clothes contrasting with the metallic colors of the statue.
"Why, Angelica, are you asking me on a date?" Wisdom said, lifting a hand to his chest, feigning flattery. "I'm gobsmacked you'd find interest in a bloke like me. It'd be an honor - no, a privilege - to take you to see a funny show. Twenty bucks won't get us far, food-wise, though." Especially in the Theater District. "But here you are busy painting. I couldn't bear to pull you away from your work!"
Laying it on a little thick, there, isn't he? Still, there was something charming about him.
"So, besides, painting, what do you do?"
Angelica laughs as Pete confuses her, she's not sure if he's trying to be endearing, serious, both, or just joking. "I think we'll take a raincheck and I'll finish my painting, I just meant, if we were going to see a show, it better be the puppet one." A few more color and brush changes, and the painting continues to take shape as it grows about her canvas, "you mean other than talk to playful British guys?"
"Yes, that sounds excellent. Shall I give you my number?" Pete offered freely. Maybe he had a little smooth operator in him. "And a puppet show is fine. If Avenue Q is still running, we'll see it, you and me. Raincheck is fine. Yeah, what do you do for a living?"
"May come as a surprise, but I work," Angelica answers sharp and to the point, a tone that suggests she's not about to divulge much of her private life. After all, she's only just met the guy. She's still half kidding about the puppet show, but sounds like he's really willing to take her, so who knows, maybe she'll leave a chance for it? Doesn't feel like the smart thing to do, but it is tempting. "I guess there's no harm in giving me your number, I can always choose to ignore or call later, less pressure that way," she returns her attention to the canvas. "What is it you do, since you were bringing up questions like that…?"
"Precisely. No pressure. No obligation. Just an artist, a nutty Brit, and some puppets." Wisdom smiled. "Would you be surprised if I said I work with super heroes for a living?" he asked. "Stylist. I used to do Captain Britain's hair."
It was a complete and abject lie. But Pete has used the line before, and it's worked out fine for him.
"I like it when there's no pressure and no obligations," Angelica states, this time keeping to her painting without allowing herself any more distractions. "I would actually, do you?" Okay, so the plan didn't work, Angelica is distracted again, "in what capacity if you don't mind me asking? Superheroes are pretty exciting." But then he jokes again, and she frowns, "sure you did!"
(feel free to tag the log with character names of those involved!)