WHAT: Noah shows Scorpia his art barn and offers to teach her some things WHERE: The art barn WHEN: Last week sometime WARNINGS: lol nah, these two are cute STATUS: Complete
Scorpia had never seen an art barn before, or really, had ever known anyone who’d made enough art to warrant something like an art barn. There had never been much time for hobbies like it back on Etheria, what with the whole war thing and all.
She’d brought her sketchbook so that she could show Noah too, as she’d promised, and she had it hugged to her chest at the current time. “So, is the entire barn filled with art? Or only some of it? Or is it just where you do art, and then you move it somewhere else when it’s done?”
Noah mostly had it for storage purposes. But he loved his art barn because he could put music on loud and it could be the music he got lightly teased about because of how old it was and also because it was mostly a constant stream of Blink-182. He had some things he was working on and some things that were already finished. Sometimes he had projects that he wasn’t sure what he was going to do with. There was also a ton of things for the farmer’s market or just that he was selling. Everyone liked the lanterns he’d been making. He was working, very slowly, on a sort of smaller metalwork statue. He’d gone with a skateboarding ghost as a joke.
He shook his head at the question. “It’s mostly just school projects and various other projects I have going on, but it’s definitely not full of art. I do the art and store the art there, though. I keep it locked so Opal can’t get in and eat the glitter.”
Scorpia nodded. “Oh, that’s great,” Scorpia said. “Not that Opal would eat the glitter, I mean, but the rest of it. Is school a place you go to to do art?” She’d seen a few people mention school on the network, but she still wasn’t really sure if she knew what it was.
Noah laughed. “Ronan would definitely think back fondly on the times he could push me out a window without consequences if I let Opal eat the glitter. Or make a lot of glitter poop jokes. It’s hard to say.” He shrugged at it. It wasn’t too big a deal. “It’s where I go to do art, but not everyone has to go to school for art to do art. I just wanted to. Mostly cause I never got the chance to go to college back home and the thought of starting a business is overwhelming to me now, so I don’t think Chicken Out is in my future.” Maybe as a side business of sorts or like…if someone wanted to do a food truck thing with him. That could be fun. A way to make money to fund his future art projects, but he’d have to understand business more. So maybe someone who was good at the business part of things could work with him. He’d come up with the drinks and the flavors.
“But it’s also something I wanted to do. Mostly make sculptures, I think. But I like painting. I just don’t think I’d do it unless someone wanted a portrait painted for their birthday or like a cool pet portrait or something?”
“Chicken Out?” Scorpia asked, and then her eyes lit up. “Oh! Would that be a sort of restaurant that served fried chicken? All the employees could wear little chicken hats! And little aprons with a chicken running out the door all like,” she flung her arms in the air, waving them above her head, “‘oh no!’” She didn’t quite giggle to herself, but she came close to it.
“Do you have a favourite sculpture that you’re working on?” she asked.
Noah smiled a little. “Chicken with different flavoring and super addicting drinks that people get to go.” He laughed softly as she expounded on her idea of what Chicken Out could look like. She had the same excitement about it as he had when he’d first told Blue about it. He was pretty sure. “I like those ideas.”
He paused for a moment at the question about the sculptures. “I’m working on a raven, but it’s not very far along. I’ve made a lot of knives and a flower crown that can magically fit anyone’s head. Um. But it doesn’t have flowers in it. That way you can pick all the flowers for yourself.”
“Well, that sounds like fun if you ever decide you want to do it after all! I know I’d be a loyal customer.” Addicting drinks, funny pictures, and delicious chicken sounded like an award winning combination to her. But she thought she understood where Noah was coming from; she could never start her own business. But then, maybe if she had the right encouragement, she could. “If you want to do it, I bet you could though.”
Scorpia’s eyes lit up while he spoke about his projects. “The flower crown sounds nice,” she said, and if she looked a little sad, a little wistful, it could almost be passed off as a trick of the light. “I know a woman back home, she makes flower crowns too. But she can just make them out of thin air, no metal required, so the always fit too. I like that yours can fit any head! And that it’s somewhere to put the flowers in. I can never braid my own flower crowns when I try.”
The difficulties of having claws instead of fingers.
Noah had a feeling he’d need some business classes if he was going to do Chicken Out. He might consider it a little more. Maybe if he ever ended up with a food truck, it was something he could…figure it out. Move things around to make space for either cooking or business. He hadn’t really meant to consider Chicken Out because he really did love art, but he couldn’t help the hint of excitement he hadn’t felt about Chicken Out in a long time. “I’m sure the guys would help me. And Blue.” And he could probably find someone to help him.
There was a moment of recognition of something not fully happy, but Noah decided not to poke too much at it. “That sounds pretty cool. I can’t make them out of thin air. I can make them with my fingers, but I think it’s nice to have a way to choose what you like.” He lightly pressed her shoulder against Scorpia’s, offering a soft smile. “If you ever need help with your flower crowns, I wouldn’t mind helping. I wish I could make it easier for you to do them on your own, but I don’t have any magic or anything.”
“I could help you too, if you’d like! I don’t know anything about business or cooking or… well, drinks and food trucks or anything, but I’m sure I could help a little in whatever way you needed it!” Scorpia was nothing if not helpful, even if her help usually ended up being more trouble than it was worth.
Scorpia smiled back down at Noah at the contact. “I think it’s nice too,” she agreed. “And I’d love help with my flower crowns too! Once it’s warmer though. There aren’t a whole lot of flowers to make into crowns in the middle of winter.” She frowned a little at the thought,
“Okay. It’d be nice to have people. Even if it’s just to be super honest about the cooking.” Because he didn’t know anything about it really. Chicken was not something he made much of and Chicken Out felt scary if it ever became something.
“We can check out one of the flower covens maybe for some good flowers and maybe they have magic to help with stuff?” He was sure Ronan could dream stuff, but he didn’t want to offer her anything on that front without first talking to Ronan. It felt too rude otherwise. “But until then, we can maybe make metal flowers? If you want? It’s okay if not. I can just show you stuff.”
“Could we make metal flowers?” Scorpia asked, eyes lighting up. Metal, Scorpia could work with. She was strong enough to fold it like putty, and her pincers cut through it like butter. She’d never done art with metal, had never made anything like a flower with it, but Entrapta had often had Scorpia help her when it came to building whatever machines she wanted to experiment with.
Noah nodded, smiling brightly in return. “We can do all kinds of things with metal if you want. Definitely flowers. Erik showed me how.” And he was more than happy to use everything that Erik taught him to make someone else feel happy. “Is there anything else you want to try when we make flowers?”
Scorpia thought about it for a moment, but the entire concept was so new to her that she didn’t even know what was possible, let alone what else she wanted to do. “I think I just want to try making flowers for now! That sounds great!”
She could even make a bouquet for her and Glimmer’s apartment!
Noah smiled a little. “Okay. We can do just flowers for now. We’ll plan a day for it cause I have to talk to Brigitte about using the forge.” He glanced around at the barn for a moment. “But for now, I’ll give you the full barn tour and show you some of my paintings and things.”
“Oh, yes, that’d be great!” Scorpia said. She hadn’t known that a forge was necessary, but that only made it better: she liked Brigitte. “I can’t wait to see it all! Lead on, Noah!”