Sixteenth Link

[colorbymemory]

Characters: Anyone who wants to come look at the artwork
Content: Let's all enjoy the mural
Location: Cafeteria
Time of Day: Afternoon-ish, at the end of the week
Warnings: Pictures of home may make the characters homesick? Also, consider this party-style; no real tagging order, feel free to have characters mingle.

Namine had wondered if she shouldn’t wait a little longer to let everyone know the mural was ready, considering how much had happened that week. After thinking about it, she’d decided to go ahead. There was no use in keeping it from everybody, and maybe it would help them feel a little better to see their homes and people important to them, even if it was only in a picture. She hoped they liked it--it was the most complicated project she’d tried since repairing Sora’s memories.

She’d had help, though. Amaterasu’s contribution is clear in the combination of drawing styles. They’d each taken full responsibility for their worlds, but other than that it was a combination of Amaterasu’s outlines and her coloring for the backgrounds, with her drawing each world’s inhabitants. Then, there were the idea sketches that everyone had given her and she’d put up as a border to the mural.

She’d chosen the far left upper corner for the worlds that made up her home. First there was Destiny Islands; Sora, Riku, and Kairi stood on the beach with Tidus, Selphie, and Waka, their parents standing behind them. In Twilight Town, Xion and Roxas sat with Axel on the clock tower while she herself looked out of her old window at the mansion. Ven, Terra, and Aqua had all asked her to include Master Eraqus, so in the Land of Departure he sat under a tree reading, while they all knelt by a small pond nearby, probably looking at the fish in it. Radiant Garden had given her pause--should she draw it as it was now, or how it had been. In the end, she’d somewhat split it down the middle. The left half, where Lea, Isa, Ienzo, and Lexaeus stood, looked as it once was; the right half showed it the way Sora knew it, and Merlin, Yuffie, Cid, Aerith, Leon, Cloud, and Tifa were all shown standing in front of Merlin’s house.

Right beside her home, in sort of an arc between it and the others, are Squall, Zidane, and Hope’s world’s. Actually, Cloud and Tifa are part of a group of people that seem to connect Radiant Garden with Zidane and Squall’s worlds. Namine smiles as she remembers the names Zidane wrote for her: Tidus (looks like Sora’s friend grown up), Yuna, Laguna, Kain, Cecil, to name only a few. Hope’s friend Lightning is part of the group, too, but still stands close to her sister and their friends from their home, while Hope was right between his parents. Zidane had insisted all his theatre troupe and other friends be included his world as well as the girl whose name Namine had managed to find out was Dagger. Squall’s group of friends from his home was smaller, but from the effort he’d put into describing them, no less important--especially the girl with long, brown hair she’d drawn standing beside him.

That took care of most of the left side. In the center top she’d placed Link’s home, Skyloft, and Veldin, where Ratchet was from, drawing them both back at home with their friends. Amaterasu had placed the her home next to it, in the top right hand corner. Nami smiled at Chibi, back home again, and all of Amaterasu’s friends in their various areas of her world. The wolf hadn’t included herself, so as a surprise Namine had drawn her next to Chibi. They’d placed Equestria below Nippon, including all the places had told them so eagerly about: Twilight’s library, Pinkie’s and Rarity’s shop’s, their friend Applejack’s farm, and a house made of clouds where they said their friend Rainbow Dash lived. All of them were gathered talking in what looked like a town square in the half of Equestria that had been painted to show daytime, with Celestia looking on from a cloud. She faced Luna, who stood on another cloud and watched Ponyville at night.

The rest of the mural, in the center, was filled with pictures from the worlds that seemed to most resemble the one below them. There was Amestris, where Maes stood beside his wife and held his daughter, surrounded by his friends. She’d wondered why he’d asked for a suit of armor to be included, and why the boy with the blond braid had a metal arm, but she supposed those were stories for when they could speak again, if he didn’t mind telling her. Perry and Phineas lounged with Ferb under a tree. Kanji stood talking with his friends in front of what he’d managed to communicate was his mother’s store. Nearby was a department store with a television prominently displayed in the window, while an expanse of green grass in the background stood for the floodplain near the river. Liz and Linkara were sitting on a rather familiar green couch, while Harvey and two others--Liz has mentioned names Ninja-Style Dancer and Pollo--sat on other chairs in the room and 90’s Kid sat on the floor, playing video games. Kotestu, his daughter, and his friends were shown against a backdrop of tall buildings, as were Kaldur, Wally and Robin. In contrast with the cities shown in those pictures, Sami stood in front of her sister, both of them in the center of the group standing in front of the house they all shared.

Not all the space on the mural was taken up. She’d left a few spaces blank for people who hadn’t had a chance to answer yet, or who might come later. Still, it filled up most of the wall, and even though she was tired, she smiled as she looked at it.

She’d let the others know it was ready; time to wait for them to arrive.

Comments

[eyeofwildtiger]

Kotetsu smiled at his picture. It was pretty darn accurate, especially with his scribblings.

He pulled out his paper and crayon, pointed to the drawing of Barnaby, then wrote with a grin, "You got his scowl just right. Feels like he's about to come off the wall and yell at me."

[colorbymemory]

Namine smiled back. He'd drawn Barnaby's scowl so big that she'd thought it must be important. Though Barnaby looked like he'd be such a nice person otherwise...

She had her own set of paper and pencils for responding, so she wrote back, 'He gets angry with you that often?'

Odd, because they seemed to be friends, but maybe it was just one of those things.

[eyeofwildtiger]

If he could have, Kotetsu would have laughed. Instead, he grinned and wrote: "He just takes things WAY too seriously most of the time."

Granted, things had been much better before he'd been brought to the satellite. Still, that was the way he best remembered his partner. Besides, if he ever did get brought up here, Kotetsu thought it'd be funny to show him.

[colorbymemory]

Namine's smile widened. It sounded like something similar to Lea and Isa's relationship. Enough so that she didn't need long to thing of an answer. 'Seriously enough for you both?'

If Barbaby did ever arrive on the satellite, she'd be happy to meet him.

[eyeofwildtiger]

"Exactly!" he wrote. Then, he scribbled a couple more words: "Sometimes even too much."

[punsofiron]

Liz was very quiet as she walked up and down the side of the cafeteria, looking up at the mural. It was pretty amazing how quickly Namine had made it, even with help. She'd really outdone herself.

After some time examining the whole thing her eyes settled on the center, on the obvious green futon and the family there. A sad smile came to her face, looking over all of them. She even got Pollo's likeness perfect...it's not like he was an easy robot to describe. She hoped he was alright down there...and Linkara. At least the two of them together were a force to be reckoned with, so maybe they've found something out to keep the Entity at bay in her absence. And 90s Kid...

Poor, poor 90s Kid.

[colorbymemory]

Namine let Liz have some time to herself to look at everything. True, the number of days hadn't been many, but she and Amaterasu had spent the better of them working on this. Especially considering what had happened, it had been nice to come here and work curtained off from everyone else.

When she noticed Liz stop and focus on a certain part of the mural, she walked over to simply stand by the other girl for. She wasn't a mind reader, but she could see where on the picture Liz's gaze was focused, and guess what direction her thoughts might be taking. After a moment she laid a hand on Liz's arm. 'Are you okay' seemed like a silly question, but she could at least offer to be there.

[punsofiron]

Liz looked down when she felt Namine's hand on her arm, and just smiled faintly with a nod. She'd be alright. Just a little homesick.

[colorbymemory]

Namine hadn't intended to make anyone homesick, but maybe that was unavoidable. As much as everyone might want to see their homes and friends, just the little bit a picture was able to offer might make them miss those who weren't here, or had been here but weren't any longer, all the more. She nodded back to Liz, and went back to looking at the mural. Quiet company seemed best at this point.

[ooc: Not that she can be anything but quiet at the moment. XD;;;]

[punsofiron]

Quiet company was good. Sometimes it helped just having someone around.

After some time, Liz looked through her pocket for a paper and pen, jotting a quick note to Namine.

You did a great job on this.

[phantasmgap]

Yukari didn't expect to end up in the middle of space, much less with no means of returning home. On the other hand, there seemed to be a party going on, so obviously they were trying to make her feel at home.

Except it was almost chillingly silent... perhaps this was a memorial. Best to not break the somber silence as of yet, then, and instead study the mural. It was masterful artwork, that much is for certain.

[colorbymemory]

Well, it wasn't much of a party since Namine didn't have Pinkie Pie's talent for them, and said pony was a little too distressed to plan one at the moment. It wasn't exactly a memorial, either, since it wasn't focused on '90's Kid. Still, Namine had wanted everyone to have a chance to see the finished mural as soon as possible.

She noticed Yukari looking at it, and went over to greet the new arrival. Sadly, all she could offer was a piece of paper on which she'd written 'Hello.'

[phantasmgap]

Yukari glanced down at the slip of paper for a moment, figuring out what it meant in her head. Obviously, the girl was mute... or perhaps everyone here was. It was hardly proper to start talking - after all, she might scare them, or worse, be crowned their king! Keeping an eye on Gensokyo was bad enough, she didn't want ANOTHER dimension that saw her as its leader. It sounded like far too much work.

So she just smiled and gave a cordial wave.

[colorbymemory]

As Yukari would find out once the week was over, none of the SoL residents were mute except for a few of the animals. It was just one of those satellite effects making everyone unable to speak now. A new person speaking wouldn't surprise them--they're used to new arrivals being unaffected by these things.

Namine had no way of knowing what Yukari was thinking, though, so she wrote another message. 'I'm Namine. Did you just arrive here?'

[phantasmgap]

Well, she had no way of knowing that now. After all, she'd just arrived here without the kinds of powers that granted nigh-omnipotence with a little creativity. Instead she had... a girl with a pad of paper. Hm.

Unsure if she should answer vocally, she simply nods once. She was new... showed up no more than a handful of hours before.

[sailoryup]

Big Macintosh probably shouldn't have been up and about. His flank and right hind leg still hurt terribly after the raptor tore into him. But he didn't want to miss the big reveal of Namine's mural; the filly worked real hard on it.

He was very slow limping up to the wall, doing his best not to aggravate the wound in his hindquarters, but he made it soon enough, and craned his neck up to look over the mural.

[colorbymemory]

Nami was both happy to see Big Mac up and about, but concerned that he was overdoing things. The dinosaur had almost done to him what it had eventually done to poor '90's Kid. Still, she offers a smile when she sees him there, and goes to offer a careful pat on his shoulder.

[sailoryup]

His shoulder is just fine, so it doesn't bother him at all. He looks over to Namine and smiles with a little nod.

[colorbymemory]

Namine smiled back. At least he seemed to be enjoying the mural. Thinking of something, she gestured towards two of the ponies in the picture (one smaller than the other), then back to him while giving him a questioning look.

She'd heard they're his sisters--is that true?

[verygassy]

Minako, oddly enough, showed up. Why she hadn't spoken of her world, she wasn't sure. Perhaps it was simple because she didn't wish for people to see her world. Perhaps she was worried about getting too close to people on the SoL, particularly after what happened to 90s Kid. And perhaps she forgot to inform Namine of her world.

Still she can't help but smile at all the other worlds shown. She gingerly traced her hand to a blank spot, almost tempted to add her own pictures.

Almost. Among those other things, she sucked at drawing. But on the other hand, she did miss everyone...and...the markers were right over there...

The next thing Minako knew, she'd doodled on the canvas.

Oh, uh... Frantically Minako looked left to right, hoping no one saw. I think I'll just go...

[colorbymemory]

Namine had known that some people might be reluctant at first, or not be able to respond right away. This is why she'd left blank places to fill in later.

She also understood being reluctant to get close to new people, especially when they never knew when someone here might suddenly be sent home.

Minako had managed to slip in without being noticed, but Namine did see her leaving. Curious as to what would make her leave so quickly, Namine went to look at the canvas.

Seeing the doodles, she smiled a little sadly. It looked like Minako missed her home as much as everyone else. Fortunately, there were other art supplies nearby, so she could copy them as accurately as possible. Later, if Minako didn't mind, she'd paint her world in that same space, but she did want the original sketch saved.

[beforetheflame]

Lea took his time as he walked along the hallways of the Satellite of Love. His hands were in pocket as he became lost in his thoughts. Coming near the Cafeteria he noticed the mural that was made. Curious he made his way over to look at it.

Familiar faces and figures were drawn on here. He recognized some of friends he’s made both from here and back home. Then he came across himself. Around Radiant Garden. He paused as looked at it. There was a drift. It looked different on one side than the other. How much will change in the future for him. In silence he stood as he looked at it, trying to figure out everything.

[colorbymemory]

Namine noticed Lea looking up at the mural and went to stand with him. From this vantage point, she could see where his gaze was focused, and gave him a sad smile. That part of the picture didn't exactly tell a happy story.

In a way she was almost glad they couldn't speak now. Because if Lea asked, she'd feel required to tell him the truth, which would hurt him. Because things changed so much, and not all for the good.

[beforetheflame]

Lea looked to Namine, as she approached gave her a smile in return, but looked back at the mural. So many questions started racing. But Lea figured, he shouldn’t make a fuss over it. Not now anyway, Lea spoke, “Hey, Namine, didja make all this? ‘Cause it’s… Well it’s really impressive.”

[colorbymemory]

Well, whatever questions he asked Namine would answer. Her only concern was that for him it would be painful to hear the truth, but she couldn't bring herself to lie. When he didn't answer questions that would lead to anything of consequence being brought up, she was a little relieved.

"Thank you. I had Amaterasu's help--she did the outlines."