itsjustagamerp | Twenty-third Link

Entry tags:

Twenty-third Link

Characters: Namine, Amaterasu, Chibiterasu
Content: Field trip to the Louvre
Location: The Louvre. Paris, France. Circa the 1990's.
Time of Day: Early afternoon.
Warnings: Artwork.

Namine hadn’t thought she’d use the time machine. With the exception of Kaldur, Aqua, and Twilight Sparkle’s expeditions to find good books, most of the others seemed to use it for adventures. While she enjoyed hearing their stories after they got back (even if she worried), she was usually well content to wait for them while they were gone.

That was before she’d found about something called an art museum. She hadn’t known that people on this world collected art to display, simply because it was pretty. Some of the pictures in the book had seemed interesting, and a museum seemed safe enough from how she’d heard that sort of place described. The worst was that it might be crowded, and the snacks far too expensive.

Still it seemed best to have some company, and Amaterasu seemed like the one who would most enjoy this sort of excursion. Taking her without asking Chibi along as well seemed cruel, though, so she’d decided to see about getting all three of them there.

The main problem was that, from what she could tell, animals weren’t allowed in museums. Finally, she’d gotten some help finding information about something called a “therapy dog.” Amaterasu had seemed amused at the idea of playing the part of one, with Chibi along as her puppy training for the same kind of work.

That settled, it was time to go. At first, they’d see if all three of them could go through with her carrying Chibi. If that didn’t work, Amaterasu would wait while she went back for Chibi.

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The people who had done these paintings hadn't used the ink Amaterasu and Chibi were used to. The paint was thicker, and sometimes if you looked closely enough you could see the brush strokes. Namine liked both styles of painting, but it was understandable that the others might be surprised.

Following Amaterasu's gaze, she noticed the guard and gave a small nod before looking back at the paintings. Hopefully he'd leave them alone if they were quiet and made it clear they weren't hurting anything. Unfortunately, that might mean avoiding getting close enough to read about the artwork. Too bad, since she would have been interested, but they couldn't risk causing trouble. After getting a good look, she went to join the crowd of drifters.

Namine's smile to the guard probably helped a little bit more than Ammy's stare back, since he moved on and left them alone, at least for now.

They looked at some of the paintings in this wing for awhile, and they were all nice, but Ammy was also eager to see what else was in this museum. It was pretty big, after all, and maybe there were other styles of paintings that she'd never seen before.

There was a bit of a break in the crowds as they moved on, and she took the opportunity to move on towards another section. After a little bit, she turned around...were Chibi and Namine still behind her?

Chibi looked around, only to realize that he'd lost his mother and Namine. Everywhere around him was a sea of unfamiliar legs. He lifted his head to sniff the air; there were a lot of different scents from all the people, but at least his mother wasn't hard to find.

He wound his way through the crowd and trotted up to his mother. Where is Namine?

Namine hadn't intended to lose sight of Amaterasu and Chibi. She'd just set Chibi down to walk to the next room. The crowd was growing larger, though, and more difficult to maneuver in. As much as she'd tried to keep close, she hadn't been able to, and now she was trying to see if they were at least in the same room before going back to their meeting place.

One would think they'd be easier to see. Maybe someone would notice them and raise a fuss. While that wouldn't be good, it would at least give her an idea of where they were.

After a little bit, Chibi did manage to find his way to her...but Namine wasn't with him.

I don't know...I thought she was right behind me. Shoot. She had hoped that they wouldn't get lost this quickly. She glanced all over the crowd. Surely they could find her again, right?

Maybe I should slow time and see if we can work through the crowd back to her?

Chibi sniffed at the air. It was hard, but he thought he could tell the direction Namine was in at least.

If I can see her, I can guide her to us. It's a special thing I learned. Can you tell where she is?

Namine was trying to find the others without straying too far. They were probably looking for her, too, so it wouldn't be good to confuse things by going far from where they'd last seen her. At least, that's what she'd heard.

Though there was the added problem of trying not to look lost or as if she was looking for someone. She didn't want to attract the attention of strangers, however kindly meant.

Ammy put her nose to the air. There were a whole lot of unfamiliar smells here, which at least made it a bit easier to pick out Namine from everyone and everything else. Finally, she stopped turning around when she felt like she had a good sense of where she was.

I think she's back that way. I don't know how to guide people with the brush. It seemed Chibi had picked up a few abilities that she'd never learned from the brush gods.

Chibi concentrated on pulling his brush out. No one seemed to notice, which was good - it would be difficult if someone saw what was going on here. He drew a line out to Namine; it would look to her like a vivid red line on the floor, leading straight through the crowd to them.

There.

Well, that was unusual. Namine hadn't noticed a red line on the floor before, and nobody else seemed to notice it. It lead to wear she noticed a small crowd forming--something to investigate.

Following it, she found Amatersu and Chibi. Ignoring the crowd, she smiled and knelt down to pet them. "There you are."

Ammy could see the red line as well, having the same brush powers as Chibi...minus this particular power, of course. She waited as the crowd moved around them...surely Namine would find that and follow it, right?

And she did! Ammy smiled and wagged her tail as Namine knelt down to pet them both. It was good to have them all together again. That's quite the useful brush!

Chibi bumped his head against Namine's hand and wagged his tail at her. It felt good to use his powers again to help people out.

Yeah, it's super nice when you're working with partners.

The crowd thinned, most everyone seeming satisfied that the owner of the two dogs had been found. Namine overheard cautions to be careful in the future, some of which seemed not so kindly meant. At the moment, though, she was mostly focused on her two companions.

After offering some final pettings, she stood. "Shall we try the next room?"

The guard was frowning again, so it was probably best to move on.

Ammy's main partner throughout her journey had been Issun, and since he rode on her head anyway, she didn't have to much keep track of him. But if Chibi had many partners as he'd indicated, a brush to guide them along dangerous paths would be useful.

And while this path was less dangerous for Namine, it was still useful. At least the crowd was dispersing now, although the guard was still giving them an eye. She nodded to Namine...now was a good time to move on.

Ahead, it looked like they could go into an area with a lot of sculptures from here. Considering she'd never done sculpture before, this would be interesting.

Chibi was glad to see that the crowd seemed thinner here, or at least less bunched up. It seemed like people didn't press as close to statues as they did to paintings. That was good; they probably wouldn't lose each other again.

A lot of the statues seemed to be of people; the artists who'd made these were clearly really good. Their clothes look like they're really draping!

The statue room was so much easier to move around in that Namine didn't see the need to pick Chibi up so he could see better. Statues were meant to be viewed from a distance, so maybe that's why people didn't crowd them.

She'd made small statues before, but always out of clay. Most of these seemed to be carved out of stone, and the artist's success in achieving a draping affect for the clothing was impressive. Wondering how they'd done it, she moved in to take a closer look--not close enough to touch, but she kept her hands clasped behind her just in case.

Having a bit of room to look at them did make the sculptures easier to view. The paintings were really nice, but oftentimes they were quite small (not as small as some scrolls, but still small) and everyone wanted to see them at once.

Yes, they are. I wonder if that's how people here wore them in the past? Because from all the people around them, it definitely didn't look like that was the fashion now. She figured it must have taken a long time to carve these things so intricately, especially out of stone.

I bet it is. It must be pretty warm if that's what they wore; it doesn't look like it would be good in the cold. Chibi looked around; it seemed like some of the sculpture was like what they'd sort of seen outside through the crowd, but other things looked like architecture pieces.

Having finished looking at the sculpture with still no idea about how the artists had made the clothes look so real, Namine went to look at the small plaque that had information about the statue. Apparently the artist who had made it had lived several hundred years ago, but it was modeled on art from even earlier. "It says here that the statue is supposed too like some that were in Ancienct Greece. I guess this is what people then looked like."

The clothing looked about as effective against cold as her own, which wasn't much. Still, it was pretty. She glanced in the direction Chibi was looking. Architecture wasn't a big interest of hers, but there were a lot of carvings on the pieces that looked interesting.

Ammy glanced to look at the plaque as well. She hadn't been able to tell as much since the paintings were crowded, but it looked like all of the art pieces had this kind of thing: a little statement explaining who made the art and what it was about. She'd never heard of such an idea before, but she could imagine it would be useful for a lot of art from different time periods.

She also looked towards where Chibi was glancing. Indeed, it seemed like some of the building itself was a part of the art...or was it vice versa? I wonder how long it takes them to carve all of this.

It must take years and years. Chibi wished he could look at it closer, but he was pretty sure people weren't supposed to climb all over things, and no one here even counted them as people.

The plaques seemed like a good idea; not everyone who was here would know art that well, so having explanations of where something was from made sense.

Days, months, or years, it looked like it required a level of skill and patience that was beyond Namine at this point. Still, the work was impressive and she would have liked to feel comfortable taking an even closer look. The people in charge of the museum really did seem concerned about not touching anything.

The plaques were very helpful; it was nice to have some background information on the artwork. She took her time reading them before moving on to the next room.

The next room was more sculpture, and there was a guard here as well. Unlike the guard in previous rooms, though, he didn't just frown as soon as they came in. He focused solely on them as they tried to look around, even shifted position to never be too far from them as wandered.

Amaterasu waited patiently while Namine read through everything they saw, although she also did sit and yawn a little bit. Art always did take some time to appreciate.

The sculptures in this new room looked like they were from a different era, or perhaps a different land entirely, although they were still made out of stone.

Ammy noticed the guard that was starting to trail alongside them. She glowered back when he kept giving them a frown...they were allowed to be here, right? They were wearing these little "therapy dog" outfits and everything!

Chibi was on his best behavior, sticking near Namine and stopping when she stopped, not getting distracted by people, just like he was supposed to, but the guard just wouldn't go away. He pretended not to notice, but it made him a little nervous; he wasn't worried for himself, but he didn't want Namine getting in trouble.

As they got most of the way around the room, the guard got even closer; now it looked like some other people had noticed the guard's following them too.

Namine herself had been so engrossed in looking at the statues that it took her a moment to realize exactly how closely the guard was paying attention to them. While she'd expected a few sideways glances, the therapy dog vests were supposed to help smooth things over. So far they'd been lucky, but it looked like that luck had run out. The guard was openly following them, and others were taking notice and whispering.

They probably should leave, but she didn't want the guard following them all the way and causing a scene. It looked like they had no other choice but to risk that, though--she didn't want the even worse scene of the guard confronting her. Quickly picking up Chibi and laying a hand on Amaterasu's back, she whispered, "Let's go," and began walking back the way they'd come.

Twenty-third Link

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