458/Art revelations

Art revelations
Date of Scene:	19 September 2023
Location:	Club Building
Synopsis:	Veronica visits Naru in the Art Club room and Naru learns all sorts of things!
Cast of Characters:	Naru Osaka, Veronica Perenna

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Naru Osaka has posed:
The Art Club room is a space of colour and inspiration and who is in there at any given time waxes and wanes on the regular. There's easels in the good light from the windows, various water colour and oil pictures in a selection of states of finished hanging on the walls., One whole wall isfull of cupboards and shelves that hold supplies. There's another wall of cubbies, each with a student's name on it that holds their art work in progress, such that things are not just left out on tables all of the time. While there's plenty of tables, there's not THAT many!

One table has been taken up for the moment by a sewing machine and small bits of fabric and a lot of spools of thread. Naru is sitting at that sewing machine, working on /something/. She's got her fabric in a machine embroidery hoop as she manipulates it under the needle.

The Art room is pretty quiet right now, Naru's the only one currently working on a project.

Veronica Perenna has posed:
The help Chiyo gave her with finding her way around the management of Radiant Heart's club structure was really welcomed, made her skip the time she would have otherwise used on that. In particular, she noted positively that Radiant Heart had quite the different opinions compared to other schools, and so students that took up embroidery were officially part of the art club too. 'Fantastic to know that embroidery is so appreciated around here. I guess I shall make myself known to the art club members', she decides, marching towards said room.

Once there she knocks on the open door before making her way in. "Hello, I am looking to join this club", she says peering at the classroom. It was mostly empty, except for a single student that was, to her satisfaction, threading the needle through the fabric.

"Ahem", Veronica clears her throat. "Hello!", she walks calmly towards the fellow student. "I am Veronica Perenna, a new student here to make her contributions to this school. I could not help notice you were embroidering, that is quite awesome. What are you working on?"

Naru Osaka has posed:
The sound of the sewing machine stops as Naru processes that there is someone here and that someone is trying to get her attention. "Hhhm?" She turns towards the door and smiles. "Oh hello."

Naru stretches as she talks, as if just now realizing that bodies need movement now and then, regardless of level of concentration. "Joining the Art Club is pretty easy.. I mean joining any Club is pretty easy really. We dont have entrance requirements or anything. We only sometimes have meetings of all of us, but mostly the Art Room is open to club members when there's not classes in here, and there's sign up sheets for any specialized equipment." Naru gestures to where those might be. "The pottery folks seem to spend half their life negotiating kiln and wheel time." She gives a shrug, pottery isn't really her thing.

"I'm Naru Osaka, Usagi's roommate if you've met her already." She glances back to the machine and then back to Veronica and there's a little smile. "Some machine embroidery onto a painted background. Which is being a bit of a pain, but will totally be worth it in the end. What's your preferred medium?"

Veronica Perenna has posed:
Veronica listens intently at Naru's explanation. She doesn't really require any specialised equipment she doesn't already have, but she is going to take advantage of that anyway. Beats going day in and day with her own stuff, even if she could make it easier with her own powers. "That is really useful to know, thank you for your help, Osaka-san. I will probably be here a lot then, after classes are over."

She takes a look at the painting Naru is working on. "I have a fondness for embroidering onto painted backgrounds, too! Although I am no stranger to embroidering on wired fencing sometimes, mostly if that is not an option." She nods in approval at what Naru has done so far. "I quite like what you are doing, I say it is coming along great. It will really be worth it."

She takes a moment to recall if she saw anyone with that name among the various students she met so far, staring at the ceiling. "No, I have not met Usagi-san, but I would love to! I love meeting people. Perhaps you could even introduce us if that would not be an inconvenience to you." She smiles cordially at Naru. "I do not have a roommate yet. Is that something the school assigns often?"

Naru Osaka has posed:
Naru blinks in surprise. "Wait.. you embroider on wired fencing? In what context? I'm going to hope that one was by hand? Like a macro installation or something?"

Naru nods at the praise of her work. "Thank you. Finding a balance of what is realistic in the time constraits of classes, and isn't wholly computer design is a challenge." She gestures a little. "Still, it works out alright, even if I end up drawing or painting for class assignements."

Naru smiles a little. "Of course, I'm glad to introduce people to other people. Usagi and I applied to come to school and share a room, but I do think if you're in a double room that you do get assigned a roomate if you dont pick one for yourself. They seem to be pretty flexible about it all."

Veronica Perenna has posed:
The brunette nods enthusiastically. "Yes, I do, and it's by hand! Sometimes I thought of adorning the fence around my house back with embroidery when I am bored and working on a painting is not an option, or when something that I particularly liked got worn out."

"That's nice to know. I would like to have a roommate soon, at least if it's someone I could get along with. It..."

Veronica brings a hand to her forehead, her complexion having become substantially paler all of a sudden. "Now...", she mutters under her breath, the girl suddenly being surrounded by a thin layer of a blue light as she tries forcing the words out, bringing the air in short gasps.

Veronica looks at Naru, trying to pass it off as nothing as beads of sweat decorate her forehead, but only blurry images reach her eyes. The glowing has completely subsized as Veronica struggles to find a seat, feelings her legs threatening to give out under her.

Naru Osaka has posed:
"I expect if you ask around, you can probably find someone who is looking." Naru starts as she leans back in her seat, accepting that they are going to be chatting and not going back to sewing. Sewing machine drone is not conversationally friendly.

"You alright?" Naru asks, as Veronica gets suddenly quite pale and she gets to her feet to pull a chair over. "Do you need a glass of water or something?" The glow, brief as it is, causes one of Naru's eyebrows to quirk up, but she doesn't remark on it just yet. "You should probably sit down before you fall over."

Veronica Perenna has posed:
Veronica smiles weakly as Naru pulls up a chair for her. With everything so blurry, she would have really struggled to find one, nevermind actually walking to it. She slumps down on it, breathing in brief gasps. "Yes, please", Veronica quietly replies to Naru at her offer.

"This happens", she mutters, feeling slightly less bad now she doesn't have to force herself to stand. "I just need to rest up a bit and it will go away." She would wave at Naru to dismiss everything, but with her arms feeling like bars of iron, that's out of the question.

Naru Osaka has posed:
Naru moves over to the sink and collects up a clean glass, not a paint water glass, to get a drink of water for Veronica. A quick pause at her own satchel and she emerges with a vegan protein bar to go with it. She brings both back over to the other girl.

"Just in case it's a drain thing, or a blood sugar thing, some food might help." Naru seems utterly calm about the fact that it looks like a magical thing, that bit doesn't phase her at all. "It's vegan, lemon flavoured. I found those ones were less gross than the ones pretending to be chocolate. They pretended really badly."

Veronica Perenna has posed:
Veronica weakly grabs the glass of water, drinking a few sips out of it at a time. One the glass is half-empty, she focuses her attention on the protein bar. She actually likes the taste: the brunette trusts Naru's word that trying to imitate other tastes doesn't sound like a recipe for success.

"I suppose calling it a drain thing isn't wrong", Veronica admits, moving out a bit of her forehead sweat with her hand. "Thank you, Osaka-san, that was really nice of you. I did not expect one of my bouts of weakness would have happened now of all times. I was quite optimistic this morning. I was really hoping to go through the day without it becoming a problem."

She puts herself into a more upright position on the chair, making herself more comfortable now she has the strength to. She puts her hands on her laps as she says "The glass of water and the protein bar were really provvidential, and about the taste, I liked it. I hope that wasn't too much of a shock", taking the opportunity to take another bite then.

Naru Osaka has posed:
"That has to be really frustrating, if you get those bouts often." Naru moves to go and drag her own chair over, so that Veronica isn't the only one sitting, nor is she sitting alone.

"You're welcome." Naru offers to take the glass once it's empty and set it on the table.

"If I ate meat, I suspect carrying around beef jerky or something would be even better, but I do not, so I keep a stash of vegan protein bars." Naru gives a little shrug. "The way my life goes, someone having a magical dizzy spell at school doesn't even rank in the top five of shocking anymore. I hope they tend to pass quickly though, for your sake."

Veronica Perenna has posed:
"I should start carrying out some of them myself", Veronica admits, finishing what water is left in the glass. "I am not really used to dealing with it yet."

"Magical, huh? That is not a figure of speech, you have noticed, haven't you?", she says, giving rhe empty glass back to Naru.

"That is the price I pay for snooping where I should not have", Veronica tells Naru. "I have always had that particular flaw."

She takes another bite out of the bar, her face having gained back a bit of its colour. "I imagine you would like to know more, right? Curiosity will not bite you back just for wanting to know", she states plainly.

Naru Osaka has posed:
"If its anything like getting drained, then my experience says protein really helps." Naru hops up to take the glass back to where it belongs as she talks. "I'd try both the bars and the jerky and see which helps you best. I also find sports drinks help." The voice of much experience is talking there, it's clear by the easy confidence of her words.

"Well, you glowed, which is a pretty clear sign to Aware folks that it's probably not low blood sugar." Naru points out with a shrug. "I expect most mundanes would just assume you're diabetic, or something."

She opens her arms in invitation as she comes back to join Veronica. "You are welcome to tell me as much or as little as you're comfortable sharing. It's your story to tell, and up to you on if you want to tell it or not."

Veronica Perenna has posed:
"You are really resourceful", Veronica comments in admiration of all the useful tips Naru gives her. "So, protein bars, beef jerky and sports drinks", she repeats to engrave them in her memory. "That will come in handy, my thanks."

"They probably would", she nods in agreement. "At least, the worst that could happen is someone forcing me to visit the school nurse over it."

She takes a deep breath before beginning to talk. "Back when I was still in England, my parents and I attended an exhibition at a famous art gallery. I left them behind out of curiosity and started exploring the gallery on my own. I stumbled upon a painting on a figure falling away in the moonlight and examinated it close."

She smiles at Naru. "Too close for comfort, as it turns out, because next thing I know, several weird lights all got out of the painting and I started having these bouts of dizziness you see here."

Veronica takes another bite of the protein bar. Once she has finished chewing, she says "I discovered, or got told (whatever happened next is a bit too weird to narrate), that the painting was an enchantment meant to hold back 4 powerful demons, and I had weakened it. As necessity, or punishment, now it uses my strength to sustain itself, resulting in what you saw."

She takes a napkin out of her bag, cleaning her mouth from a few crumbs. "It gave me magic powers too, which come in handy, since the energy the painting lost manifested here in Tokyo as precious items of various kinds, and I have to recover them all to restore the painting to what it was. You may have heard of the Princess of Sarek's theft at the Hotel Augusta. That was me, and their silver vase was the first one."

Veronica examines Naru's face, curious about her reaction. "It is not so simple since the four demons will be using any means to stop me. One of their minions was there at the hotel, inciting greed in the heart of people so that the police would be called in response to the various attempts at thefts. It probably thought having the police as assistance, would be better than doing things by itself. I was able to slip by with no casualties, and together with other 2 people with magic, defeated the minion. That's about it."

Naru Osaka has posed:
Naru listens thoughtfully, nodding as Veronica explains the details. There's little noises of 'hmm' and 'hunh' at various points.

A smile at the mention of being too curious about art. Clearly Naru can sympathize there. "Art as a means of holding back demons. Interesting." She lets that mull over in her head a little more, listening further to Veronica's tale.

"I did hear about the theft, although only very much in passing in the news." Naru confirms with a little nod. "Congratulations? I think?" She quirks her head thoughtfully. "So the demons are looking to get revenge upon you.. although I'd think they'd be grateful for you getting them less trapped, but that's just me.. or is it that they want to keep you from fixing the painting? I suppose that makes more sense."

Naru's reaction seems to be curiosity, her expression furrowed only as she tries to put all the pieces together, rather than being concerned about demonic art work in a British gallery.

Veronica Perenna has posed:
Veronica nods. "Story has it that Hallward, its painter, sought to capture the true beauty of the moon, which quite pleased, decided to help out on her own and blessed the painting against them. I don't really know how much of it is true."She eats the last of the protein bar. "Thanks, I did quite well, although it was easier than it would have been thanks to the help I received", she smiles, clearly quite satisfied with how it went.

"They aren't really any more free since the painting is compensating for what it lost through. You are right that it is still weaker than it should, though, since they are now able to send minions out."

Her appearance is much healthier now, almost as it was before the bout of draining. "They do have it against me since I am seeking to close the only opportunity they have of getting free. Moreover they can probably sense the painting has been moved here where they sent the shards of its energy."

Veronica stretches her arms and legs now she is feeling better. "Hmm, yes. Anyway, they probably didn't expect I would be able to get to Tokyo at all, so they scrambled to put something together only recently. Fortunately, Radiant Heart Academy happened to be located here, so I was able to convince my parents to transfer me to this school, although I had to pull a lot of strings for it."

Naru Osaka has posed:
"If they are sending minions out, then clearly they are not in their happy place." Naru mmms and reaches her hand out in offer to take the wrapper from the protein bar.

"Those suckers are great. If this happens to you at all often, beef jerky or protein bars, which ever you prefer. Absolutely helps top back up after things get wooobly." Naru advises with a firm nod.

"Hopefully you actually enjoy your time here, now that you've moved halfway around the world." Naru smiles a little. "We certainly have an .. eclectic student body, to say the very least. What grade are you in?"

Veronica Perenna has posed:
Veronica thankfully gives the wrapper to Naru. She is well enough to get up by now, she thinks, but she appreciates these little perspicacities. "Clearly not, but that is why I, and all sensitive to magic apparently, are here for." A pause passes before she realises. "Oh, but that's not good manners. I have never actually presented myself completely. Just let me write down your suggestions really quick, and then I will show myself." Veronica quickly brings out her phone and jots down what Naru just said. "This is going to be a life-saver, thanks again, Osaka-san."

Next, Veronica starts reciting a quick intonation, bringing out a calling card with a cane and top hat (from where?), holding it in front of her "While the world is full of trouble and anxious in its sleep, the princess of moonlight does dance and leap." As soon as she says that, the aforementioned moonlight bathes her, condensing in a blue top hat with an azure ribbon and an ebony cane with a cat handle. The light on her upper body then explodes in a tone of white, turning into a waistcoat, before a blue burst surrounds it, coalescing into a blue suit. The light swirling around her lower body stops rotating, arranging itself in a white skirt with many layers. A blue-white burst follows, turning into boots with long stripes. Finally the moonlight gathers around her hair, fashioning it into a long braid and granting it its colour."

"There, this is the Princess of Sarek", Veronica announces smiling. "Pleasure to make your acquaintance."

"All the people I have met are really nice, so I hope I will. I will assume that their eclecticism doesn't get in the way of their duty, else they wouldn't have been appointed. As for me, I am in grade 7. What about you?" Veronica stares at Naru curiously.

Naru Osaka has posed:
"You don't.. " Naru starts, but her protests are short lived as Veronica pulls out her alternate identity. Complete with top hat and cane.

Naru smiles easily. "I was going to say you don't need to if you're not comfortable sharing, not everyone else. Clearly you are." She nods politely. "Princess of Sarek. That's a bit of a mouthful. Do you still just go by Veronica for more casual conversation, even in this form?"

Naru mmms softly. "I am curious though.. what duty do you assume we've been assigned to? I'm in grade nine, for the record."

Veronica Perenna has posed:
Veronica shrugs. "It would have been bad manners to present myself only partially. And sure, I have no qualms about you calling me Veronica. I am not sure what I will do with people who do not know my everyday identity, but that is not a problem with you", she explains serenely.

Veronica raises an eyebrow. "Oh, you are in the student council? I am surprised you called yourself eclectic. Many people would regard it as an insult."

The Princess of Sarek starts listing her answer. "As for your duties, I imagine it is about going over things so there is nothing out of order or not functioning as it should, and be the medium between students and teachers."

Naru Osaka has posed:
"Ahhh no no. Sorry, that's my misunderstanding of your words." Naru holds up both hands. "Not on student council, not part of student government. Just a Naru over here, and that's more than enough." She laughs warmly and shakes her head.

"I expect there are going to be people who only know you as one or the other, that really does seem to happen a fair bit around here." Naru gets up from her seat to go finally throw the empty wrapper out.

Veronica Perenna has posed:
Veronica smirks. "Just a Naru over here, and that's more than enough?" Why do I have a feeling you help people a lot, just like you did with me today?"

She nods. "Probably. The girls I met on my first transformation here were in everyday form before they transformed, while I was like this from the get go. Also, I know what they look like, but not their names in either form. That's a tiny bit frustrating, if I have to be honest."

She ends the sentence with a smile, before looking at Naru inquisitively. "If you are going to call me Veronica, would you find uncomfortable being called Naru?"

Naru Osaka has posed:
"Just a Naru." Naru confirms, neither confirming the rest, nor denying it either.

"Getting contact information for people can be a real struggle. Hopefully you can bump into them again, and make sure to get their phone numbers or at least their names." Naru considers and then mmms. "You might even find them in class, there's a lot of magical folks around here."

Naru smiles with a little bow. "You are welcome to call me Naru." She moves over to the sewing machine, to start packing her things up. "I have to get to a study group shortly." She explains, unthreading the machine, to ensure that its ready for the next person to use.

Veronica Perenna has posed:
Veronica laughs. "Alright, then. But thanks again for today." She detransforms, smiling at Naru. "Thanks, Naru, it has been a pleasure to meet you! Let's see each other around in school and on art clubs meeting!" She bows to the other girl and, after receiving her answer, she heads out the door to her dorm room.