Players:
Summary: Robyn and Heather discuss the silence and speech of art.
Date: July 4, 2010.
Log Title: Chromasonorifous
Rating: G
Xavier Mansion - Art Room
The Art Room has pictures of classic artists and small sculptures of famous pieces of art around the room. Any art supply you need may be found in this room, a large variety of paints, charcoals, markers, pencils, clays, canvases, easels, paper, and much more are accessible for the students. A large kelm is in one of the far corners of the room as well. On one side of the art room are a few sewing machines with a large variety of fabrics and sewing supplies for the students as well.
It's late at night in the art room and it's no surprise that Robyn's in here. He's at one of the tables with a rounded pot in front of him, the clay still damp as he works on cutting it in half with a long piece of wire. It's not exactly small either, the pot is about a foot wide and a foot and a half tall and looks like it could be an oddly shaped planters pot. As he works there's some techno style music playing which seems to help him focus on the work he's doing.
Late at night is precisely when Heather roams. Because of her weird sleep schedule consisting of little catnaps here and there, there's no time of day that she's definitely unconscious. She zips into the art room and glances around quickly, playing on her tape recorder, "Hello, Robyn. What are you doing there? What are you making? What are those dull thrums?" The last bit is referring to the music, which she can't actually hear properly. While her recorder plays, she takes the time it elapses in to set up a paper on the table to do some watercolour work before she dashes over to check what Robyn is doing. "It's late out."
Robyn smiles at Heather walks in and waves a clay covered hand as a greeting. "Hey Heather, not much, just making a kind of planter pot for a friend. I'm cutting it in half so I can make it look broken and such." He uses wires and wonderflex to hold it together and make it seem broken and see through. "Those dull thrums? Well I'm listening to some music, helps me get in the zone when I work." He says as he finishes cutting it in half and lays the piece of wire down on the table and stretches out his fingers. "Yeah I know it's late, I don't sleep much. How about yourself? Another night owl?"
Heather nods her head slowly (by her standards) and plays, "I hear it a bit in my playback. Is that what it sounds like? It's hard with the reduced quality of the recordings." She sits down with her own supplies and starts working. "I sleep about six hours per slow world day, but I sleep about six times. I just woke up a little while ago, so I have three more hours to work with. Sleeping for six hours straight seems like it would be hard."
Robyn nods as he kind of understands what she's talking about but then it must be really difficult to live in a different 'time frame' as everyone. "I've been up most the day, I just don't sleep much. I get my mind on a project and I just start working on it and I can't really rest until it's done, or until I'm passing out on top of what I'm doing." Yes Robyn has woken up with his face smooshed in clay from just passing out. "What about you Heather, what brings you to the art room this evening?"
"I was talking to Chloe awhile ago and she let me know something about myself that I did not know," says Heather, looking up from her project. The speedster scratches her head, not catching very many knots this time, but there are still some there. "I see things differently than other people." Which is an understatement, but doesn't really fully explain what she means. "I see art and it looks so quiet. I thought art was just quiet." She shrugs and adds, "You must get a lot of things done if you work like that. I sleep whenever I feel tired."
Robyn looks up at Heather and gives her a confused look. "What do you mean by quiet? Cause…well…art like pictures and sculptures don't make noise but if you look for the meaning behind them they can be far from quiet." He says standing up to wash off his hands before going to one of the shelves and looking for something. "And I think everyone sees the world differently, it's what makes us individuals, unique. We all see stuff and take away something different or am I completely missing the point?" He says grabbing something he made months ago and puts it on the table. It's a black goo monster with a mouth gaping open with stretchy pieces of 'goo' going from top to bottom. Inbetween the lines a hand sticks out holding a teddy bear. "I get enough done, even when I feel tired I keep on going cause other wise, I'll just have it on my brain all night. So…anyway, what do you see when you see this?"
"I see what it is," says Heather, "I see that it is quiet, too, but it is eating a child. She is trying to rescue her bear, but it is futile. The bear is quiet. The futility is quiet. It is quiet, but you aren't quiet. You are lively. You are a slow worlder, but I still see you different. You are… you are…" She grimaces a bit like she can't fully articulate before she decides on, though this happens even before the message is sent, "chromasonorifous. But art isn't, not what I've seen." She ponders and then nods at Robin, "And I do not like to go to bed with a thought unwritten or a puzzle undone. I might forget it. So I work on them quickly quickly." All the while she speaks, she is trying to recreate a scene on the paper using soft colours. It seems to be an image of Chloe, but Heather is not particularly skilled at this medium. It's still clear who she is representing, though.
"Chromaso..no..wahatis?" Robyn asks as he doesn't think he's every heard that word before but then he's a mediocre English student. "See when I made it it was more of something to just be spooky, kind of a dark humour but at the same time it's like we try to hold onto our childhood while life eats it away from us so we hold onto what bits of safety we can. Like when you were a kid, the one thing that made you feel safe at night when you had a bad dream, you're clutching to that comfort while life, it's darkness, eats you." Robyn explains his feelings behind the art piece to see what her opinion of that is too. "And are you sure it's quiet, in your mind you already decided the hand belonged to a she and her story when in someone else's mind the story is different, so I dunno, I don't think it's quiet." He says with a smile as he's enjoying talking to hear about it and hearing her opinion. "So you're painting Chloe?"
"I am painting a moment in a conversation I had with Chloe. I remember it," plays Heather, not giving her own piece any more explanation with that. She fiddles with her tape recorder for a few moments before she plays a response to Robyn, "It says something, I think you're right, there is a story and it has a meaning. I think that is sad. She reminds me of myself, but I never even had the teddy to drop. I want to be a child. Everyone thinks I am like a child. But I am more grown up than I want to be. I've been swallowed by the monster and I don't know what to grab onto and keep safe because I don't know anymore if anything I had was real. I envy the eaten child her innocence and simplicity." She completes the drawing, or seems to. It's still not particularly impressive, a very crude depiction of Chloe and other objects in the room, though it's technically accurate. "But still it's quiet… this image is quiet, too."
There's a sad smile that forms on Robyn's face as Heather says that and he walks over to her. "Well, it's never too late to grab on to something, even if it's something different. Even if this school….well shows you that there's dangers out there and such but you know what, maybe you can hang onto Chloe? I know she considers you a good friend. It's not too late and maybe someday you should let yourself be a child. Do something you liked to do when you were a kid or something? I dunno, I'm not really that old and over all I'm still a kid but I dunno. What's your definition of quiet?" Robyn asks curious about it.
"My definition? It is hard to define. It just is or is not quiet. What Chloe told me is that I can see sounds. It is not my mutant power. I thought it was normal until she told me it was not," she starts adding colour to the painting quickly, adding a halo of gold and soft greens around Chloe, faint lines of purple and red in the background, some points darker and lighter, clearly intentionally that way as she paints the speedshifted music that Chloe played for her. "This is what it looks like. But you don't see it." She turns in her seat and faces towards Robyn, "Chloe is a dear friend. But even now, I know that someday she will be my enemy. It frightens me that it has to be that way."
"Wait…see sounds? I know that you are stuck in this 'fast world' where you are moving a lot faster than I am. It's different than Chole, but…is it cause you can move at the speed of sound?" Robyn says trying to understand it as he goes to put the sculpture back on the shelf so that he can bring it to his room at some point when he doesn't remember. "Well….maybe knowing that she'll become your enemy in the future now, you can stop it in the future? I…I know there is time travel stuff going on and Jordan's gone through it before but is there such think as a future set in stone? If you know what is going to happen why not try to make sure you don't go down that path?"
"I am my enemy as well. I will play on both sides of the board, but from my understanding, it's a long time from now," says Heather, shrugging. "I am working to avoid that future, but if in the future I didn't, and my future self remembers this conversation, she must have had a reason to do what she's done. Chloe says I'm mind controlled, but if I got mind controlled, maybe there is a reason that I did not prevent it." She shakes her head at Robyn and says, "No, sounds look different with the shift in running speeds. This is different, though. There's a word for it. Synesthesia." She gestures at the image she drew and said, "Every moment looks like this. I can recognize some of what is happening, some piece of the conversation with this. There is implied motion here, the movements of the sounds. They dance through my vision. Since I was small. Is it not that way for you, either?"
Robyn shakes his head. "No, it's not that way for me, it's more like I look at something and it's a solid picture. I see what's there, I don't see the sound. But then, my power is something different, it's all psychic based. So…I have to do things that not everyone has to do. We're all different cause of what we are. Just because you see things differently…well..it's cool Heather. It's who you are." Robyn says as he sees nothing wrong with it. It's just Heather. "As for the future well…it's not here yet Heather. Right now it's now. But I can help you avoid that future as much as I can."
"I have no problem with seeing things differently. Actually, I feel like other people miss something because they cannot see it. I hear everything more than anyone else does," plays Heather, gesturing again at the image, hovering a finger down the curvature of one of the soft purple lines, "I have other problems, though, but they are solvable. I know that my future has to play out the way it does, however it does, otherwise I would not be here to combat it from ever happening. There are consequences, or there will be, but only I will know them. That's how it will have to be. I appreciate your help. I know that other people think I am weird, and that is fine. Things are just complicated for me."
"You are weird Heather." Robyn says with a big grin on his face but the way he says it, it's far from insulting. "Hell, I'm weird too. I'm a psychic vampire, I like macabre stuff is exciting and neat, I'd rather be locked up in an art room over doing sports or listening to rap music. Where I grew up, that's weird. I was the weird kid who always wears black who didn't have a lot of friends. My parents taught me to be happy, you have to be yourself. Who cares if you're weird Heather, that's a good thing. What matters is that you're happy." He says with a big grin on his face. He doesn't care about that, he just accepts people for who they are. "And you're right, we could be missing out on something beautiful that only you can see. And why does your future -have- to be set in stone?"
"My future has to be set in stone. But yours doesn't. From what I understand, I'm the one who travels time, and I do it with intentionality. I have to make that future impossible, but I have to let myself know to make that future impossible first. I am sure I will understand better in time, but that's my puzzle to solve," says Heather, shrugging and drawing her fingers carefully through her hair. "I can't solve it until I discover time travel, but I'm sure when it's solved, I'll find a way to let myself know." She grins widely at Robin after that is said, though, and says, "I like a lot of things. I think everything is meaningful, especially weird kids who dress in black and try to be happy."
Nodding at Heather's words, Robyn really doesn't fully understand what she means but he figures she does so that's good enough for him. "Well I wish you the best of luck in the future with making what you need to make impossible. Anyway I can help, I'll be willing. I'm not that great at puzzles, sorry." Robyn says as he's more of an artist and never really spent a lot of time on standard puzzles. He's not bad a getting meanings out of mundane things or a piece of art though. "Thanks Heather, I do try to be happy and just enjoy life because being miserable…it's not fun."
Heather smiles and plays, "I do not like being miserable either. I have always found ways to get enjoyment out of places where there was none. In the White Prison, I would find ways to occupy myself. I like to make things so that they are interesting, instead of routine and boring. In a way, I liked the Madhouse. It was terrifying and awful and I was always afraid of something happening, but it was always different. It was never the same or routine." She shrugs and adds, "If you ever want to, you can read my writing. I am not an artist like you, but I have creations."
"White Prison?" Robyn asks as he's not sure what that is. "Well I pretty much think of this place as a Madhouse. I mean our friends get turned into demons and killers temporarily and just the stuff that goes on is crazy." He doesn't fully know what she's talking about but he can understand the routine being boring. He hates being bored. "I usually just occupy myself with sculpting and if you would like me to read your writing I'd love to read it. I like seeing what other people do even if I don't write doesn't mean I can't appricate it."
"My journals, I have stories in them. I'll give you one of them," says Heather, nodding her head quickly to Robyn acknowledging that he'd like to see it. "The White Prison was where I was before the school. They kept me in an empty room and the slipped me in food because I was dangerous and crazy or at least that's what they said." She shrugs and says, "Before that, it was the Madhouse. It was my codename before Timeslip. Heather Brown, codename: Madhouse. My father, Dan Brown, codename: Mindbender created it with the help of my mom, Cheryl Brown, codename: Upgrade." Two St. Louis based supervillains. "The Madhouse always changed with the whims of my parents' imaginations."
"That'd be cool and if you ever wanna stop by Connor and me's room, you can check out some of my silent art." Robyn says smiling but the smile does fade as she explains things. "So wait…you parents are also mutants and they called you Madhouse and kept you locked away…that's horrible Heather." Robyn says as doesn't think anyone should be locked up. "I'm glad your Timeslip now." Meaning he's glad she's away from this 'White Prison'. He doesn't recognize her parents names as being supervillains.
"I called myself Madhouse. I chose my own codenames. Madhouse was an extension of my reality, just like Timeslip is now. Maybe I will change it when I destroy the future. But my parents created the Madhouse. After I was taken from them, after my mother sent me into endtime, I was in the White Prison because nobody knew what to do with me. When this place heard about it, they went and got me," explains Heather, trying to clarify it a bit. "And you are in your room with Connor? I like Connor. He is my mirror. I think he mentioned being in a room with you. I should have guessed the reverse was true."
"Well no matter what your past or future is, don't let anyone decide it for you. You have to decide it for yourself. Listen to your heart, just follow what you want to do. Choose your own future, destiny, whatever. Don't let some…whatever it is that's going on, dictate what you are going to become. Just do what Heather wants to do." Robyn says as he runs his hands through his hair, getting clay messed in there, as he starts to pack up his art project so he can finish it later. "I like Connor too, he's one of my best friends here. And speaking of rooms the tired is starting to hit so I'm gonna clean up and crash out."
Heather nods at Robyn and says, "I will make sure a better future plays out. The suffering will be a temporary state." She quickly puts all of her supplies away, but leaves the image that she painted. "Thank you, Robyn, it was nice talking to you. I think I am going to go work out. I saw a someone on the news flip over a truck and someday I want to give it a shot." She waves quickly and zips off to her destination.
