5817/Portrait

Portrait
Date of Scene:	29 April 2018
Location:	Lumiere
Synopsis:	Pending
Cast of Characters:	974, Leyanne Mace, 774, Kushiko

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Carna (974) has posed:
    After the first incursion into Emblem City through the portal at the top of the stairs here in the base of the Tower of Escher, the one that ended in pulling Count Kord, Kushiko, and Dorian Pavus out through a painting, Enark took the time to make the cavernous room a bit more hospitable. It had once been just a giant empty room full of mimic furniture (which has since escaped and is who-knows-where), but now it serves no purpose at all except as an entry area. It might have had a previous purpose, back when Escher was inhabited and in-use by the Blue Scholars, but Enark has not tried to recreate that.

    What he has done is set up proper lighting to see by, prepared protective wards, repaired the locks on the door, and so on. It was in the process of doing all this that he discovered that there was a painting sitting along one of the curved walls, and put out a call to others to come investigate with him.

    He has covered it up with a sheet for some reason, perhaps for the sake of a dramatic reveal, when everyone arrives.

Leyanne Mace has posed:
The thumping growl of a Harley heralds Leyanne's approach to the library. The bike is parked outside, and then the oversied mouse saunters into the room where Enark is, looking around. He gives Enark a smile. "Sorry about... swinging for you when you gave them tags to me." She comments. "Man, feels weird to be back in Lumiere after... after Emblem. I died someone else's death, y'know? Ah, maybe you don't. It's just... weird."

Dorian Pavus (774) has posed:
    Of course Dorian's going to answer the call for this. He's discovered that these paintings tend to lead to other worlds. He wants to be on-hand in case this one turns out to be dangerous, or tries to eat them or something. Dorian's a pessimist, he's always expecting the worst.

    Typical mage attire today -- the light-colored leather armor with the white cloak over it. Though the asture will notice juuuuuust a hint of gray at the hairline at the left side of his temple. It's not a streak or a massive amount, but it's definitely visible. And yes, he's carrying his triple dragon-headed staff.

    And of course he does have to comment, with false brightness in his voice, "Ooh! I wonder what it'll be today? Giant monsters? Soul-eaters? Maybe even a full apocalypse! I'm ever so excited~!" Smartass.

    Leyanne's comment does get a nod, though, and he drops the smartass act. He winces a bit. "Very unpleasant business, that," he agrees. "If you still have any of the knowledge of who you were there, it might prove useful. Myself, I've been writing down everything I could remember of it. I don't know where it might come in handy."

Kushiko has posed:
For what it's worth, Kushiko has not been the most... outwardly socialable of sorts at the best of times, so in the wake of what happened with Emblem City and then some, she's been fairly reluctant as of late to reach out to others. Maybe it's her sorting things out, maybe it's simply being preoccupied with other matters. Probably a mix of both.

Regardless, as experienced as Kushiko's been with both portals and cross-extradimensional nonsense, it goes without saying that her interest is piqued with what's going on. And given where they're at, and with what Leyanne has to say about it... she doesn't actually speak at first, mostly since her arrival is fairly 'quiet', the petite form of Nova Prime dropping down from above to land in a three-point fashion before rising and 'looking' to the others.

<"Still have others to talk to on that,"> she comments lightly. Tamamo no Mae was someone she needed to speak with, and probably later cross-check notes on what they know. <"Though I've also been looking into matters leading up to us getting hijacked for a while like we were.">

A slight bob of the domed, 'twintailed' helmet of Nova's toward both Dorian and Leyanne. Come to think of it, there seems to be a favoring of purples, lilacs and blues amidst predominant black colors for whatever Warframe this girl sends places.

Carna (974) has posed:
    Enark continues to be far older in appearance than before all this started. Certainly far older than when Tomoe impaled him on her arm and had to be hauled out. He is weathered, wrinkled, his hair gone white-gray, and only his eyes continuing to look young, like it truly is just some movie make-up style artificial aging, rather than him showing a hint of how truly ancient he really is.

    He 'hm?'s at Leyanne, and then says, "Ah, no. It's fine. These things happen." He waves off the sarcastic comments to direct everyone to the sheet-covered painting on the wall. "No, I called you here for this. A painting that mysteriously appeared at some point. I can not say when, but I have no recollecting of it being here in the distant past when we Blue Scholars still made Escher our headquarters, our home, and our sanctuary."

    He waits for everyone to be assembled and ready, and then pulls the sheet covering off, to reveal...!

    A portrait of a young girl with white hair and eyebrows, and a cherubic face, seated on the lap of something in red robes. The thing is mostly out of frame, but the mummified-looking hand, gray and worn and dry like someone had simply molded dust and decay into the shape of spindly spider-leg digits, rests upon the girl's shoulder and gives an indication of what to expect from the rest of it, were it visible.

Dorian Pavus (774) has posed:
    Dorian offers a polite nod, and a pleasant smile to Kushiko. For once, such an appearance doesn't startle him. Maybe he's finally starting to get accustomed to SUDDENLY WEIRDNESS! "Greetings," he offers with a smile. As for them getting 'hijacked'? "We might have gotten too close to something for someone's comfort," he reasons. "So whoever it was put us there to 'keep us docile' for a while." He shakes his head. "But imprisoning people like that never lasts; I have a suspicion that, whatever we got too close to, someone just needed us out of the way for a brief period of time. Otherwise they would just have killed us."

    Enark's reveal of the painting gets a blink. And then as Dorian looks over the painting, he grimaces. "Poor child," he comments wryly. "I doubt whatever that thing is holding her has anything good planned for her." He crosses his arms, rubs his chin in thought. "It could by symbolic, too... perhaps of a child who died during her childhood." Because to him, it clearly looks like the girl is being held by Death itself!
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Leyanne Mace has posed:
Leyanne Mace smiles softly, listening to the others. She greets them as they enter, swishing her tail. She nods to Kushiko's warframe. "I hear you, it's been bugging me, too. I'm going to look it up." She grins.

When the picture is revealed, she peers at it, nodding at Dorian's words. "THat was my first thought, but... it could also be... this is Lumiere man, shit's weird here."

Kushiko has posed:
Come to think of it, Enark was looking a bit... off. Was it some manner of disconnect she was experiencing that only let her realize and mark this now? No, now wasn't the time to really consider it. With everything that had happened prior, that would only make her growing disquiet become all the more pronounced. Come to think of it she's shied away from here, perhaps not deliberately but shied all the same.

Still, the Warframe's user decides to dismiss that, lest it distract from the matters at hand. Also, excellent, Kushiko's acclimated someone else into her ninja ways of appearing and disappearing. <"Haven't had the pleasure to see you as much as we'd like, Dorian. Glad you're getting back to your charming self,"> she remarks with just a hint of mirth, before nodding slightly. <"Maybe. Maybe there was a purpose, a point to it. Layers within layers to be cracked open, you know?">

Her head tilts, however, the eyeless gaze of the Warframe seeming to be focused on the painting once revealed. <"It feels familiar somehow."> she murmurs faintly, before stepping up to it and well. She doesn't yet touch it, but her hand hovers over it, the armored technorganic fingers inches away. Something about the white-haired girl was awfully familiar, yet her memory doesn't play all that nice with her sometimes.

Carna (974) has posed:
    Enark shrugs. "Your guesses are as good as mine. I recognize neither the girl nor the creature in red. And considering the age and nature of Lumiere, there is so much history and mythological references and works of fiction and so on and so forth to sort through that I would need unfettered access to the Library of Murdered Knowledge to even begin to search for clues, and with Crow still missing, I have no 'safe' way of retrieving things until we start making inroads on reclaiming it."

    He rubs his forehead absently. "I just thought I should show it to others, and get your thoughts on it. I don't suppose it looks anything like the paintings you saw in the gallery of Emblem? In the corridor that you exited through? It would certainly be interesting, and worrisome, if more things from Emblem were showing up outside of it, after it was destroyed..."

Dorian Pavus (774) has posed:
    Dorian smirks at Leyanne's assessment of Lumiere. "That's not a terrible point," he agrees. "I can't help but feel there's some rhyme and reason to it all, but it's just so far outside of what I know that it's hard to grasp."

    Apparently, yes, Dorian HAS gotten used to the ninja entrances. Probably not just Kushiko's, as there are a fair amount of people he's met in the Multiverse who do that -- 'High Speed Xiaomu' comes to mind immediately. He smirks at the mention of getting back to his 'charming self'. "Thank you, my dear. Couldn't let something like existential trauma dampen my incredible charisma. I'd get frown lines."

    Though the situation seems to have left its mark anyway in that touch of gray hair...

    Enark's question gets a tilts of his head. "Not... that I remember," he replies. "Though admittedly my mind was... not at its best then, having to sort through two sets of memories to find the proper ones. I still occasionally call people by the names of those in Gil's life."

Kushiko has posed:
It's a pensive moment from Kushiko before she considers, <"I would have to really sit down and think about it. It's hard to, sometimes. Though at the risk of sounding kind of cynical about it, girls with white hair seem to be an ominous thing,"> she admits. She's honestly racking her headspace with what happened as Soupi, but also the Hollow Children and Maretta, and /that/ encounter before it all.

<"It was weird. And hard to move as much as I wanted. We were lucky then."> she concludes, regarding /that/ escape, even if distantly, she's quietly thumbing the 'totem' as it were, though the Warframe itself does not reflect it.

Leyanne Mace has posed:
Leyanne Mace nods a little, thoughtfully. The mouse... well, Emblem's effects on her aren't all taht obvious, for now. But it's been bugging her. She needs to solve the mystery. "I don't... remember, honestly, I didn't visit the gallery much until shit started going south... to me it was just a fun thing to fly the gyrocopter around." she shrugs. "I can think about it, but, I'm not gonna be much good."

Carna (974) has posed:
    Enark nods amicably. "Not to worry. This portrait is not going anywhere. Take your time. Even if your memories do not yield anything, that does not mean our path of research is closed. Though, at the very least, it would mean we do not have to worry about being haunted by any more remnants of that place than we alread are." The scholar props his hands on his hips and looks at the painting for a little bit longer. Then he says, "Thank you all for coming out. I appreciate your time. You can stay if you like. I am going to get back to work on mending the doorway upstairs so that we can travel back and forth between the Escher and the Library more quickly and easily."

Dorian Pavus (774) has posed:
    Dorian has to interject some humor into the situation, so at Kushiko's words of finding white-haired girls ominous, he notes, "Well, girls in general have always seemed a bit ominous in some way, if I'm honest." Yes, he's kidding. And he lets it go simply enough.

    Enark's words get a nod. "I'll continue trying to see if I can remember anything. I do seem to remember a portrait with children in it, but I don't know if this one has anything to do with it." A look at the new painting. A nod as Enark bids them farewell. "Ah, good idea. Take care. And do ask if you need help."

Kushiko has posed:
Nova cants her head slightly before the disembodied voice that characterizes Kushiko tumbles out gravely, <"I am the spooky one,"> she says with /all/ seriousness. After all, she is one of those tiny girl types, albeit hers is purple-black rather than white. And spiky. Hm.

<"Might have to go over some of my suit logs from the times we were here in Emblem, but I don't know. Certainly will look, and might go punch some baddies, maybe,"> she admits with a quiet sound.

Leyanne Mace has posed:
Leyanne Mace looks thoughtful. "Wait... two kids? Fuck, I..." She frowns at Dorian. "That's ringin' bells, man, but I can't... I can't remember all the details." She nods to Kushiko/Nova, pulling out her tobacco and starting to roll a cigarette. "I wish I hadn't filled up the buffer of my 'ware a few times over while I was Paird. That or... it was stored in the meatware, not the hardware. I can't... it's like my brain was fully organic the whole time I was Paird. Like my body was fully organic. I don't... have any stored data on her life, or her afterlife."