[EP/GP] Check-In: I Assure You We Are Open

[st_abby]

The damp, cool, chilly morning clouded with fog seemed to fit the mood about the Madonna Inn. Nobody had been quite right since the undead invasion. Definitely not Vax'ildan. But for him, it was less about their sense of day-to-day calm and safety shattered, less about undead specifically. It was a lot more to do with losing Scanlan and Pike, and the new memorials installed in the Temple.

He wondered about it, not for the first time, even as he readied for the fresh arrivals that might be coming today - or not, because they didn't always. What decided who came and went? Was there any sense in how many and when or why? Not so far as he could tell, but he'd never been the brains.

Gathering up the great heap of cloth and rope in his arms, the lean figure summoned the wings of his armor, the black of his silhouette merging with the other dark and shifting shapes skulking about in the first light of dawn. With a crouch and a lunge from the roof, he spread his wings wide and circled through the air right up to the face of the main building, unfurling the massive banner he'd sewn of spare bedsheets and painted with dark dye to tie it up taut:

WELCOME NEWCOMERS
YES, THIS MEANS YOU
NO REALLY WE'RE SURE

Life kept going on around you, no matter how confused or scared or fucked-up you were. And the best thing, the kindest thing, the sanest thing he could think to do in all this was to start up the coffee machine, stack some decorated pumpkin-shaped cookies on a platter in the lobby, and prop open the doors for whoever would join them in being confused and scared and fucked-up today.

Comments

Emma & Moana

[st_ackeddeck]

"No. At least that's not the way I've done it." Maybe some people tried to turn it into a competition, but Emma wouldn't want to do that. Especially not here with such a small group.

"It's more about challenging yourself. Doing something every day helps make it a habit and gives more practice to develop skills. A lot of art is creativity, but there's muscle memory involved too. When you do it over and over, you don't have to think so much about the how, you can focus on what you're doing and why.

"And it's fun, getting to see what other people come up with, using different styles, interpreting the same prompt in completely different ways, that kind of thing."

Re: Emma & Moana

[st_ellarnavigation]

Moana nodded thoughtfully. "Do you need to be an artist? Or can anyone join?" She could use the project to design her tattoo, she thought.

Re: Emma & Moana

[st_ackeddeck]

"Anyone who joins is an artist. If you create art – drawing, painting, cutting up paper, carving wood, tattooing, whatever medium you want – you're an artist. Being a really good artist mostly means you've practiced more than others." Which was one of the good things about something like Inktober. It was a good way to get that practice, and encouragement from others to keep working it.