strangetrip | [EP] When Real World and Comics Collide

Mack caught about ten hours of sleep total since his arrival. Unlike others that had arrived, his was due to excitement. Yes, he missed his grandfather and his friends. But the Changer world wasn't in a war any longer and he viewed this as a vacation. Besides SERIOUSLY, he got the best welcome to a weird place gift ever. No, not the toothbrush and other stuff (no offense Caroline) but what was in his egg.

He'd been given a Clip Studio EX software and a Graphic Drawing Tablet, PLUS pens and colored pencils. Mack didn't waste any time in setting up the software and trying to figure out how it worked. His first couple of attempts weren't the best, but then his character began to look like it did on the paper and he was satisfied. He stuffed everything that had been in his egg, plus he own graphic novels, comic and notepad into his backpack and headed down toward the cafe.

There was plenty of room on the table at a booth to spread out all his stuff. It wasn't busy so he didn't feel guilty about doing it. Soon he was lost in trying to transfer his comic to the tablet and thinking of new adventures of a Kitsune stuck in another world. SO TOTALLY COOL!

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"Oh wow." She looked over the drawing intently. "That's really neat. Is there a difference between one of the, um. Kitsunes who has like, three tails versus five?"

"More magic." Mack nodded, "and they're stronger. You can get a tail two ways, learning and mastering a new magical ability or doing something heroic." It felt both nice and weird to be telling the truth but no one actually knowing that you were.

"A nine tail - the most they can have - can see and hear anything in the world, if they focus."

"Wow. That sounds pretty powerful." Liz leaned in to look at the art some more.

"You know, there's a man here who loves art. He's teaching me how to draw - I'm not very good. But he'd probably love to look at your stuff. His name is Piotr."

"They are." Mack acknowledged and it was why he knew his grandfather would find him eventually. In his mind, his Jiichan could do anything.

"Piotr." The pronunciation was probably horrible mangled as he tried to say it. "What's he taught you?" Mack asked her curiously, "if you don't mind my asking."

He knew some artists were finicky about saying or showing their work. Mack was not one of those. Clearly.

"Oh.. it's nothing impressive." She blushed a little, sheepish. "I never did art in school, but I thought I'd try to learn it here. He's had me do perspective and still life so far... I'm - I'm not very good, but it's a nice challenge." Piotr had a way of making it seem like she was improving, but Liz was fairly certain she was mediocre at best. It wasn't really her goal to become good at it, though.

"He's way more talented, though. His whole room is like an art museum."

"Hey we should have like an art show!" Mack said suddenly. "I mean not a competition kind of thing with ribbons but like a gallery that just shows everyone's art, well that want to have their art looked at."

Then he wrinkled his nose, "and perspective is hard. Comics make it easier because you can do goofy stuff and no one thinks about it." Like a giant hammer instead of a normal size one.

His enthusiasm was addictive and she smiled warmly. "I bet you Piotr would like that. And.. I could probably figure out something to put on display." Although she thought hers would pale in comparison to both of them. "I can talk to Caroline - she kind of runs all the organized things here." That reminded her. "Oh! And, um. Well, I was thinking of having a beach party day, or something, for everyone here who's not, you know, an adult.... there's only a handful of us." And she figured they might as well get to know one another.

"That would be fun." Mack didn't hesitate in his answer. "It's been a long time since I've done something like that." He glanced around the cafe and his voice lowered, "yeah I've noticed there's a lot of adults here. Do they kind of leave you alone?"

What he wasn't saying but totally asking, were the adults strict?

She smiled at that and then nodded. "Yeah, actually... most of them treat us like young adults." Not that there was a lot of reason to scold them, really. She was pretty sure the one who got yelled at the most was Alec and he was an adult.

"There are some who will teach you, if you want lessons in some things, but you don't have to do that either. Everyone's... everyone's really nice here."

"I'm not sure about school stuff like math or English." Mack didn't dislike school but he'd rather do training and comics. "But if someone, like your friend Piotr, wanted to show me how to do stuff, that would be cool. Is there anyone that teaches fighting styles?"

He let her assume he meant self defense, which in a way he kind of did.

Liz knew she was of a rare breed that liked learning things. "I bet Piotr would be happy to have another student." And he was also just a really nice guy.

"There's a few, actually. There are a lot of good fighters here... probably easy to ask them." She knew Alec and Kitty were pretty good. Peter could fight too. "Did you want to learn how to fight?"

Mack thought about how to answer it. "I've taken some self defense back home, but I need more training." He chose his words carefully, "my family had an enemy from Japan stalk us back home, and the law got them, but -" He trailed off with a shrug, "it never hurts to always be ready."

The law was another word for the First Four.

She frowned a little, mostly because that all sounded scary and dangerous. She wasn't exactly a stranger to danger back home, either, but Makoto seemed a little younger than her and, as far as she knew, had no reason to be involved with bad people.

"I'm sure there are a lot of people who can help." She thought about it some more, more seriously this time. "Kitty, she bartends a lot. She teaches me science, but she's also really good at fighting. And then there's Alec. He's.. he can be a little rough around the edges, but he can fight really good too. And there's this woman named Bo. She also bartends sometime." Did all bartenders know how to fight? "I've seen her fight a little too... and there's this gnome named Pike. She's fought dragons and stuff." In fact, the more she thought about it, the more she realized maybe she was one of the few who didn't know how to fight.

"If you want someone more our age, Sora and Peter know how to fight, too." She smiled.

He'd like to train with people around his age, it was what he was used to but he also sparred with adults, so maybe both.

"Thanks. I'll look them all up. I mean someone will say yes, but adults can be funny about training with a kid." Mack knew that in most people's eyes he was a kid. Even his own sometimes. "I'll definitely see Sora and Peter though."

She hoped Sora wouldn't mind, but she knew Peter would probably be happy. They all needed to be closer with each other anyways, or so she felt that was.

"I'm sure they'll be excited."

Liz slid out of the booth. "I should probably get back to work, but, um. I hope I see you around. And maybe you can help me with some of my art homework."

"Thanks, Liz. For everything." Mack didn't just mean the pizza. "If you ever want to find me, I'll probably be sitting around here somewhere drawing."

[EP] When Real World and Comics Collide - Open

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