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Post by MING HUA TSE on Apr 7, 2013 12:20:03 GMT -5
The day was perfect. In September you got your strange mix of weather. Some days, it was cold as hell, but others like today were nice and warm. With a jacket on there was no doubt you would be sweating like crazy, thankfully Ming left his jack because in his room so there was no way he’d be subjugated to sweat stains today. After classes, he made his way out to the Academy gardens. Back pack in hand he was able to find a nice spot across from a tree which was turning al shades of colors to get ready for the oncoming fall season. The boy gave a small sigh as he watched some other kids (who he assumed where Earth kids) walk past him. He received some glares and strange looks here and there but he never thought twice about them. He didn’t want to waist energy on his task at hand.
He tugged out a large notebook from his backpack as well as a pack of what looked like tiny pieces of brightly colored chalk. He sat up nice and secure against the wall and propped his knees up to balance the notebook enough that any line he drew wouldn’t look like a total mess. Ming didn’t know a better way to spend such a nice afternoon, but he could feel something strange in the air. Everyone around him wasn’t exactly on friendly terms with a Thunder kid such as himself. The idea of allies and enemies was a bit weighted he thought. True, it was a long-standing thing but none of these kids even knew him. Not once had the spoken to him, or even attempted too, so why on earth was it right of them to look at him like he was a lower life form? He had to give some people credit though, to some it didn’t matter who you were, but how you presented yourself.
Lines began to form on the paper after a moment, a tree suddenly appeared in a faint brown, followed by a quick flicker of greens, reds, golds and oranges. Mimicking the tree was the easy part, trying to make it come to life on the paper was the next step in Ming’s master plan. What was going on around the tree, that’s what an artist had to focus more on. The tree could be done to a perfect tee but, it was the small touches that mattered. Squirrels ran up and down the bark, chattering away as they prepared for a long winter. The tree was alive as well, but the tiny squirrels made this place their home. Around the side of the tree, Ming saw a couple sitting and holding hands, talking about anything and everything. He couldn’t see them completely but he was able to draw the person closest to him.
Within the span of an hour he’d guess, his blank piece of paper because a perfect still life. Ming gave a sigh and turned the page and let his mind go to the next thing he wanted to draw. He smirked after a moment and began creating lines for his new “masterpiece.” All of this was just so he could forget the phone conversation he had with his father. As of now his chest was still heavy with rage from hearing the man’s voice, but as he escaped into a familiar world, the world his mother taught him he relaxed and continued to focus on his craft. He didn’t even realize that his legs had dropped, lying perfectly flat against the ground and cutting across the walkway, ready to trip anyone who didn’t have enough sense to pay attention.
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Post by BASTIAN RAY HAWTHORNE on Apr 7, 2013 15:48:39 GMT -5
A beautiful day in September. There was a light breeze but that was mostly to do with the fact that Bastian was near the lake making it a bit chillier for the young wind. Bastian was doing another of his drawings of the lake and surrounding areas. He normally found a place to be alone as he drew on his sketchpad which he realized that was nearly filled. Looks like he was going to be needing to buy another one. If he was lucky there would be an empty one in his room which he'd could look for later. Hopefully, wouldn't have to buy another few so soon. It felt like he got through his sketchbooks every week. It wasn't true but still. A lot of the time he did draw in the same places but in his opinions the views were different each time.
Bastian was nearly done with the basic outlines of the drawing which he was happy about how they came out. Bastian checked the time and realized that he still had a lot of time before his dad would be coming to pick him up. He sighed. He had hoped that he would have killed most of his waiting time drawing at the lake. Apparently he was wrong. He stoked his strokes for a second to figure out what he could do. He could always go back to his dorm room but he didn't feel like walking all the way back there. Maybe he could head to the mess hall but he was going to eat at home so that was the bust. He scratched his head thinking. Where hasn't he been for a while? The garden seemed like a good place. There were probably new flowers around that he could sketch. With that in mind he gathered his things and began his journey to the academy gardens.
It wasn't a very long walk and soon the garden was in sight. Bastian started looking through his sketchbook for an open page but doing so kept his eyes from focusing in front of him. Next he knew he was falling over, landing on the ground with a thump and a small yelp. His sketchbook went flying forward with his bag opening up, dropping some of it's contents including a few of his art surprise and one of his school notebooks. He groaned a bit and realized that he had tripped over someone. He looked at the person, a male and he believed someone to be in his class, with an apologetic look as he began to scramble and gather his things.
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Post by MING HUA TSE on Apr 7, 2013 16:46:00 GMT -5
Sure enough some fool wasn’t paying attention and Ming yelped a little bit from being stepped on. His eyes narrowed into a glare at the boy who didn’t have his eyes on the path. “I thought I was sitting in plain sight, I guess not.” He grumbled and shoved his notebook into his bag. It was Ming’s fault mostly and he recognized his mistake, but he was still a little bitter about being tripped over like some sort of log. He shifted and crawled to gather some of the boy’s things that had fallen out of his bag. Surprised to find that he himself owned things similar to what the boy was carrying. “I guess it’s not surprising other artists come here to draw.” He murmured, realizing he would need to find another place if the garden was a hyped up artist attraction.
Ming thought he knew this boy, but it had to have been by face and not of name. Ming didn’t really talk to people so he never was able to go ‘oh this is so and so from class’, it actually went something like ‘oh this person has a face I’ve seen before.’ “I know you, from class I think.” He admitted as he stood up fully and handed the boy his things, a small purse of the lips and an eye narrow to signify he was eyeing the other male up. He didn’t want to be the only one invested in the conversation, which would make things awkward and weird. He crouched down to brush off the scuffmarks the other kid’s shoes left on his pants leg before he wiggles his way back to his spot.
He tugged out his notebook again and began to chew on the end of his pencil, honey brown eyes dedicated once again to his personal craft. However, he felt this eyes move up to the other boy’s and he gave an annoyed scowl. “You going to sit down or what? This spot is nice a lot of things to take in. I don’t own it so…” He gave a shrug and leaned against the wall fully once more, his knees up and his notebook balanced against him. His little creation was almost done but Ming wanted to make it perfect. What he was drawing was random and really out of place from the scenery around him.
He was drawing a “what if” scenario about the garden itself. A little idea he had after the tree. Ming thought to himself ‘what if this place was all metal’ so he began to replace everything with metalized versions of themselves. Perhaps to some a silly concept, but Ming thought it was clever and he was enjoying himself, but now he had to enjoy it with someone else since he handed out an invitation to sit. No matter, for Ming this would be his random act of kindness for today or whatever people called it. He tried not to look at the boy, but he could feel his presence close to him. He assumed the boy would have left, but alas it didn’t seem like it would happen. Oh well.
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Post by BASTIAN RAY HAWTHORNE on Apr 7, 2013 17:11:19 GMT -5
Bastian wasn't the most graceful person, he would admit that but he didn't like when it involved other people. If he trip and fall over himself then fine, he could live with that. It was a different story when he was tripping over others. He knew that he should have been paying better attention, his mom had told him on more than one occasion that he needed to keep his nose out of his sketchbooks all the time before he walked over a mountain. This was just more proof that she was right. His apologetic look didn't leave his face as he was picking up his stuff. "Uh, I guess so. I mean I come a lot but then again I tend to draw all over campus." Bastian really never failed to find somewhere to draw. He went all around the campus grounds to draw in new and old places.
Bastian gave the other boy a thankful nodded as he took the remaining things from him and placed them back in his bag. It seemed that the other boy had similar thought in that they new each other, sort of. More like they've seen each other before. "Um, yeah, I think we have history together or something." He said, unsure if he should introduce himself or not. Did the other boy even care? He recognized the other boy simply because Bastian had a very good memory that allowed him to recall things rather easily. He squired a bit awkwardly seeing himself being sized up by the taller boy. He watched the boy crouched down to wipe his pants. "Sorry about the whole...stepping on you." he said a bit shyly. It had been one thing if say his foot had been caught by the other boy's leg but Bastian had actually stepped on him. Just adding to the embarrassment.
When the other student sat back down and looked like he was returning to his own drawing Bastian was unsure of what to do next. Should he just move without another word or say something? Even then what would he say? As if reading his thoughts the other boy Bastian just looked at him with a bit of surprised. He had a point, the spot was a pretty place to sketch so it wasn't a bad idea. "O-okay."With another moment of hesitation he slowly made his way to sit next to the somewhat stranger. He took out his things and opened up to an open page. He couldn't help but take a bit of a peak at the other artist's drawing and Bastian really liked it. He quickly averted his eyes back to his own page hoping to have gone unnoticed before trying to decide on what to draw at the moment. A small bed of flowers caught his attention and before long his pencil met his pad and he was off drawing lines. Bastian wasn't normally always a shy thing like he was now but the way this meeting began didn't exactly fill Bastian with a lot of confidence.
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Post by MING HUA TSE on Apr 7, 2013 18:16:04 GMT -5
A curt nod was the only thing the boy replied with. He was to into his art to pay attention fully to the other boy, but he suddenly realized that was a rude thing to do and Ming hated to be rude when he didn’t see a reason to be rude. “ I like the garden the most, but only when the Earth kids aren’t watching my every move.” He grumbled a little bit. He felt as though they didn’t trust him in a space meant for everyone. Just because they specialized in dancing around with flowers, didn’t mean he would step on everything they loved just because he could. It was insulting to say the least. “That was insensitive of me, but it’s true to a degree.” He said to the other. Well crap, what if this boy was part of the dancing flower group? He’d feel a little bit bad since well he wasn’t part of the glaring group.
“My name is Ming, by the way.” His manners finally kicked in and he gave the world’s smallest smile. Was it even a smile? If your lips only twitched upward for a moment did that count? Ming wasn’t entirely sure but he didn’t want to keep up a smile that only needed to be there for a few moments. A strange thing happened though, the boy said he was sorry for stepping on him and Ming snickered and a bigger smile spread across his face. “As you should be. What if you broke my leg and I was a world famous track star? You would be very sorry then.” He paused and looked back to his drawing. “I’m teasing you, I’m fine. No harm no foul.”
He finally finished his drawing of the metal version of the guardian and his eyes glanced over to the boy. “So, what do you think? I thought it would be cool if I made everything metal instead of frilly flowers.” He seemed to be pleased with his work, but not proud. Ming was always open to suggestions when it came to art, you almost had to be willing to take advice from others and detach yourself from what you created. Oddly enough, Ming was being talkative to someone for once. It was due to the fact that he had a common thing with this kid already, their art. It made it a lot easier to bring up subjects and talk freely. The ideas just seemed to come to him more naturally.
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Post by BASTIAN RAY HAWTHORNE on Apr 7, 2013 22:29:13 GMT -5
Bastian nodded in understanding. He could get how being under a microscope when you're trying to draw could be an annoyance. He also learned something about his companion. He wasn't an earth, then again his attitude wasn't exactly screaming typical earth or water. Bastian knew that not everyone within an element were carbon copies of each other, winds were huge example of that but they did tend to share common traits and considering alliances he didn't think that the guy would be offending his own element or that his alliance. Bastian guessed that the small sort of explanation or apology to his earlier comment was in case he had just insulted Bastian. "No need to explain. Everyone has their reasons. I'm Bastian"
With introductions out of the way in the end the young wind made himself comfortable. A look of surprise and a bit of concern had made it's way onto his face at Ming's words but then they slowly disappeared when the other boy revealed his teasing, relaxing a bit. "Well, I'm glad. Don't know if I could have lived with myself if I had stripped the world for it's beloved track star." he said in return with a bit of a teasing tone himself. He was glad that he hadn't really hurt Ming, that would have been worse than his embarrassment from falling in front of the male.
He done a few outlines of the flower bed when Ming showed his drawing. Bastian looked with curiosity at the drawing and his face began to light up with a smile. " That's amazing. It looks so real." he said looking at the metallic flowers, nearly wanting to touch it because of it's realism. "How did you decide to go with the metallic look?" he asked as he continued to look of over the drawing with awe.
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Post by MING HUA TSE on Apr 8, 2013 18:02:59 GMT -5
That was true to some degree. Everyone in this school was fueled by some sort of dislike for another just because of the element they possessed. It left a weird taste in Ming’s mouth for this new person to already know Ming might have some prejudice against those who didn’t share his element or were not allies. That image he never wanted anyone to have of him. “I’m not that kind of person. Who dislikes others based off their talents. Personally I find it extremely petty and childish.” He kept his voice low so no one else but the boy, who he learned was named Bastion could hear. Bastion. Now that was an interesting name. You never really heard names like that anymore. “I’m… a thunder… kid, by the way.” He didn’t know what this boy was but this might turn into something nasty. That’s just how people were, they were so proud and ready to anything for their allies and their own element. He didn’t know about this boy, but why take the chance?
Ming laughed loudly at the look on the boy’s face. Did he really think he was being serious? “Do I really look like a track star to you?” He smirked a bit and shook his head, eying the other boy for a moment. He moved his honey brown eyes to see what he was drawing and Ming was almost in awe. It was hard to awe strike him, but Bastion seemed to do it with his own drawing. It was so beautiful, so smooth. Like living breath perfection. Inside Ming almost had a pang of jealous strike through him. Other people were good and there was no sense in being jealous, but Ming didn’t think he was all that great himself. He just liked to doodle and do whatever was in his head. People were good at many things, some people did the same thing very well. There was no need to be so jealous. He kept telling himself that over and over. Jealousy was a waist of time and energy.
However, the smaller boy seemed to voice his own opinion about Ming’s drawing. Another small smile crept over his face at the praise. For a moment he thought his face would heat up, and sure enough a tiny amount of pink ran over his cheekbones. “You think so? Yours is beautiful… so smooth and innocent looking.” The other boy deserved a compliment himself. “Well I thought it would be cool to make such a pure beautiful garden something more industrious. How I did it, well I just shaded some of my paper chalk pieces together.” He said while lifting his fingers up to show the stained skin.
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Post by BASTIAN RAY HAWTHORNE on Apr 8, 2013 18:39:57 GMT -5
"Unfortunately not everyone feels the same." It was true. Most people took so much pride in their element. That wasn't so much the problem as what the fact that most people took the alliances most seriously. Bastian didn't have that problem since he was a wind but he had seen what the alliances could cause and it wasn't exactly the most ideal thing. He could understand if it was simply a case of clashing personalities but around here many times people great instant dislike for others simply on the basis of finding out each other's element. "Oh, I'm a wind." At least he had been right in his guess of Ming's element. Not that it really mattered in his eyes. Bastian got along with the earths and waters more because of his own personality but there had been a rare occasion been able to befriend a fire or thunder. The latter being more rare than the former.
Bastian had been a bit surprised by Ming's laughter. He shied away from Ming's comment as he looked back at his sketchbook. "Well, looks can be deceiving." he said unsure of himself. There was that saying right? Don't judge a book by its cover or something like that. So there could be times where what you saw wasn't always what you got. The young wind didn't even realize that Ming had taken a look at his drawing. He probably would have started to get nervous if he had since that was normally how he was when others looked at his work, unsure of what they would think.
Bastian smiled in thanks with a slight blush at Ming's compliment. "Thanks. I guess that says a bit about me doesn't it." His mom had told him that art was definitely a reflection of a person and their personality. He listened to Ming with a deep curious and interested look. "That's really cool. I wouldn't have thought of something like that. I may have to try that some time. So, do you come here often?"
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Post by MING HUA TSE on Apr 10, 2013 11:07:04 GMT -5
“Which is a damn shame.” He said softly with a sigh. It almost reminded him of his father and how proud the older male was. Not for the fact that his son had an element, but that his element was thunder. That was something Ming hated about himself. He wished he could be anything other than what he actually was just so he wouldn’t be like his father. It was one of his greatest fears. Why would someone want to be so cold hearted? Hating the world and thinking you were better than everyone else just because they didn’t have a good job like you, or hell even had the same element. It was wasteful of precious time. Ming glanced at the boy and bit his lower lip, sighing softly before finishing his drawing a bit. Adding small details so it was more perfect.
The thunder boy wasn’t surprised when Bastion revealed his element. “I’m not surprised, I would have pegged you for that or Water, but… you don’t seem to hate my guts.” Another bitter smile was given. Not as a personal attack on the boy but in general. This was actually one of the firsts time since the school year started he could sit down and have a nice conversation with someone that was pretty positive and upbeat. He had yet to make Bastion cry or be nasty to him. Ming just had no reason to do so. He was silently pleased to find something in common with another so easily and so soon. Had Bastion not had art books with him at the time, Ming might have told him to piss off.
“It says you have a innocent heart as well as a beautiful one.” He said and glanced at the male. “I had an art teacher in Hong Kong once that said art is our true selves wanting to break free from the chains of reality. Something really deep like that, but from what I’ve seen it’s completely true.” It was true for himself and when his mother painted before she passed away. “If you ever need help or something, I can teach you?” He offered with a small shrug.
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Post by BASTIAN RAY HAWTHORNE on Apr 10, 2013 11:36:04 GMT -5
Bastian nodded in agreement. He imagined what the academy would be like if everyone could tolerate each other and not instantly hate each other because of the element. "I've heard that before. Even if I was a water though I couldn't hate you on the spot. You haven't done anything to me yet." he said nonchantly. He could understand that they couldn't be friends if Bastian had been a water. That he could get. What he didn't get is how a person could instantly hate another simply by knowing their element. Yeah, knowing a person's element could give you an idea as to the personalty and so you would think personalty clash, these two wouldn't get along but to hate based on a single piece of knowledge. It was like hating a gay person because of their orientation or a poorer person because you were richer. It was just wrong. "We'd probably wouldn't get along but I wouldn't hate you."
Of course things were still early and there was still the chance of Bastian annoying the hell out of Ming. Bastian had been known to be a bit of a ray of sunshine which could be found as an annoyance to some. He tried to keep a lid on it best he could. Didn't want to upset Ming before they even got to know each other more. A light blush rose on his cheeks at Ming's comment but he looked up at the thunder and smiled in grattitude. His curiosity rose as he listened to Ming. He could see that statement being true, at least for him. He was always looking for the beautiful and peace in things and it always seemed to spill out onto his drawings. He preferred to capture those moments that way even when he was feeling down he could look at them and remember the beauty in the world.
"I'll have to take you up on that offer one of these days." he said with a soft smile. It would be nice to learn thing from other artist. Sometimes he found that learning new things could inspire new things within yourself. "Do you come to the garden often or do you have somewhere else you prefer to draw?"
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