deercountry | The Building Blocks and other assorted tales!

Keith nodded. "Okay. Thanks."

But the Omens were definitely a thing, and he nodded about that, too. "Hopefully... I'll figure it out at some point, I guess. But, yeah... just more things to work at, I suppose."

He considered her words for a moment, and then glanced up at the images again.

"Yeah, I can see that," he said. He wasn't an art major, but he liked art. Honestly, if he hadn't made it in the Garrison, that had been another avenue he'd considered, but he'd ended up falling back on racing when he got kicked out. It was a bit more lucrative for him, money-wise, and he'd been pretty hard up for cash being dumped out on his own with no support system at barely eighteen.

"I think... yeah. Painting over it might be the better bet than trying to scrub it off." Neither of them had gotten very far...

"No problem!"

She felt like she'd been saying that phrase a lot lately, but in this case she genuinely meant it. Finding out she might be able to continue looking for a way to strengthen her magic guaranteed that she had to work even harder for it, but knowing it was still possible made it all worth it.

"It'll happen eventually. Trust me. Just give it some time."

Luz wrinkled her nose, then gave a grin. "Now painting OVER it, I can do. What do you think we should do for a different picture?"

Keith nodded and then looked back at the wall.

"Well, if we cover the whole wall in just plain paint first, we could do anything we wanted. I don't know how much of the original work she did you want to keep."

"We'll just have to start fresh then! We'll make it a part of the backdrop!"

She paused. "How...good are your artistic skills?"

Keith smiled a bit, and then looked surprised.

"Uh... mine?" Actually, Keith's art skills weren't half bad. He just wasn't used to doing things in a grand scale on a wall for everyone to see. Have some nice work tucked away in a sketchbook was a lot different than creating a full color mural.

"Well sure. I've been getting better, mostly with still lifes. How's your artistic skill?"

Keith shrugged.

"I mean... I guess it's okay."

It was actually pretty good. He could do some pretty decent stuff even under pressure during a pictionary type of game.

"I don't know that I'd consider it mural-worthy..." He usually worked with just pen or pencil on paper.

Luz gave him a pointed look.

"Well it's going to have to do, Mr. 'it's ok.' I'm not about to let myself take the fall for something it appears I did. If it turns out bad, we can at least say we tried."

She personally thought he might be better than he was letting on, but they'd just have to find out, and Luz was already pulling out a smock for him.

"You draw, I'll paint the background and color in."

Keith was a bit hesitant, but took the smock anyway. Ah well... might as give it a try, right? He put it on, and then grabbed something that would work for drawing on the brick.

"I've never done something this big before..." But, well... okay. He stared at the wall for a moment, trying to think of something. "What would you be interested in doing?"

Luz would not be Luz if she didn't have a spare smock! At the question though, the girl appeared to give this some serious thought.

"I would say just sketch whatever speaks to you, but in this case? I think I'll settle for a drawing of a deer. It's kind of a motif around here."

"Mm... I've noticed that."

And it would a safe thing to do... acceptable by the locals, he presumed. He could do a few... maybe a buck with a herd of does. He stepped back from the wall to take in the entire space they were working on, trying to picture something. This area wasn't a desert, so what he could think of from his own memories wouldn't really work, but he'd seen enough images of deer in a forest area that he could work on something like that.

He had a good visual memory...

"Do you have paper? I want to figure something out before I start putting it on the wall." Plus, they had to put down a base coat anyway in order to cover the existing drawings so they wouldn't show through to the final piece, right?

"There's a reason. The deer was sort of this super important figure in Deerington, and that hadn't really changed, even here. So maybe turning this drawing into something that inspires people will be helpful!"

Obviously it would be, and at least make Luz feel less bad about inflicting graffiti where it wasn't before.

"Do I have paper! Yes, I do, actually. I can't cast without paper."

Luz reached into her satchel and handed Keith some paper along with a charcoal pencil.

"That work for you?"

When your art supplies tended to consist of whatever you could grab from school, charcoal pencils were hard to come by. Keith looked at it for a moment, and then nodded.

"Yeah, this is fine."

He settled down staring at the paper for a bit before deciding on something, and then he began to sketch. His technique was rough (he completely skipped beginning with any circles and went right to the outline), but not having a formal art education would do that. It was clear he was drawing based on the memory of something he'd seen before. Whether that was another picture or something in real life wasn't immediately apparent, but it was definitely the former. Keith had grown up in an area that didn't have a lot of forests and trees like Trench had around it.

That said, it did take some time, but he finally stopped at some point when he felt like what he had would get the point across on what he'd been thinking for the wall.

"Alright... maybe something like this?"

Luz had a few hobbies, and art tended to top the list. She'd actually made sure she had those stocked once she'd landed her part time job at Lysithea's shop, so if one were to visit Luz's room, they'd be sure to have certain rudimentary art supplies available.

Luz made sure not to look over Keith's shoulder: artists needed room to breathe, and Luz was the type that might chafe if someone was watching over her shoulder. When Keith finally spoke up, Luz had been sitting down quietly, taking in the serenity of outside when she looked over at what he'd done.

"Wow! That looks pretty good! Yeah, I think that'll work fine!"

Keith stared at it for a moment, and then finally just nodded. He could sit there and tweak it for hours, and never really feel like it was finished. But the paper sketch was just planning things out. It wasn't the final image, so continuing to work on the sketch was kind of a waste.

So, he put it in a spot where he could see it easily, and then looked at the wall again.

"Okay..." Now came the hard part. Translating it into something a lot bigger.

Even Luz knew when an artist was just tweaking things around so they knew what they wanted to get right. She'd done the same thing when she had sketched out the painting she was doing for Luca.

Luz waiting, nodding when she saw what he was going to start with.

"Need me to fetch you some more color?"

"Hey... I thought you were going to color this." Keith sounded amused, though. That said, he started on the outline, trying to work out just how big to make it. "I... actually... I might need a step ladder..."

"I am, but I wanted to make sure that you're fine with the colors I have so far!"

She had basic colors, but she also had a few more experimental ones too!

"Oh, right, good idea. Man, I wish we had, like, jet shoes or something."

She'd go fetch a ladder in a minute though.

Keith chuckled a little, but then nodded.

"My Paladin armor has jet packs, but they're not great for hovering in place for too long."

"Aww! I want a small jet pack."

Not that she had any room to complain when she had Owlbert.

"I can fly you up there, though, if you can keep your balance."

Keith looked up and then back at Luz, curious.

"Balance I'm good at." Keith knew he was agile without a doubt. He'd used it to his advantage a few times through his fights back home as a Paladin. "What were you thinking?"

Luz grinned. "Well."

She walked over to Eda's staff and hopped atop it, then made a motion for Keith to climb aboard. "I'll give you a boost!"

Keith raised an eyebrow at the staff.

"You sure?" He wasn't too certain that was going to hold both of them.

The two of them together was fine! Three would have been pushing it though.

"Owlbert will be good! Just make sure you stay balanced, ok?"

She patted the back of the staff.

"Okay..." Keith took a breath. At least Luz was small. He got on kind of gingerly, never having ridden a stick before... "Let's do this, then."

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