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Urus is strolling through the park at this hour. Which is quite unusual for him. He would either be at the bar, drunk within an inch of falling on his face, or sleeping at this point. He happens to be pondering a few things as he goes along, which is why he does not notice the fact that an entire tree is lit up, until he walks under it and pauses. With a hefty jump he grabs onto a supportive lower branch and begins to pull himself up and into the tree, from limb to limb. "Hello?" he calls into the branches as he does in fact notice the lantern and the outline of a seemingly familiar figure. Rayne lets out a yelp as Urus first takes hold of a branch, as it shakes the tree. She glances down at him and waves, pencil still in hand, as he climbs his way up.. "Evening, Urus, what's got you out here tonight?" "Oh, Rayne!" Urus says finally recognizing her by the voice. "I could ask the same question..." he says circumventing the question for a few seconds. With a grunt and a few more branches he settles himself in to a similar height as her a little ways around the tree. The lantern casts a slightly shadowed and dim light upon him as he gets to answering. "Could not sleep." He mentions "Apparently it is night like tonight that brain will not stop asking questions..." he sighs, partially out of being tired and partially out of exasperation. One would notice he is not wearing much tonight, mesh shorts being all that come between him and the world, even being devoid of his weaponry, which is a new sight. "Well..." Rayne motions out towards the lake. "I wanted to get the interplay of this kind of... minimal lighting combined with the reflection on the lake. It's an interesting visual, and I wanted to try to capture it in a sketch." She turns the pad over to show Urus, and it looks like she's doing a fairly good job of capturing the image. "I've not really had the nerve to ask anyone to model for me lately, so I'm still doing stills like this." She sets the pad down on her leg again before asking, "What is it you've been thinking of? Uh, if you don't mind me asking." Urus squints slightly to get a better look and nods as he takes in what she has done so far. "Very nice, told you. Getting hobby is best way to kill time. Especially if you are good at it." He says smirking at her. He stretches a bit as she asks the question. "ugh... Life really. I am really beginning to question my life choices..." he says taking a hand and rubbing his forehead, resting that elbow on a conveniently placed branch. "Mercenary work in particular. I do not think there has been time so far that I have been truly victorious. I mean, look at where I am now." He continues his train of thought aloud, seeming to almost not care whether or not Rayne listens. "I am hyena creature, being paid to guard 3 people from tiny green men, with no hope of reuniting with family, and franticly attempting to keep a promise I made long ago." He finishes, pausing for a moment "Officially I have made bad decisions to end up here. No offence." Rayne nods, understanding. "Yeah... I guess fear of mistakes is what's kept me from really committing to almost anything throughout my life..." She frowns. "You don't like working for Muradin and Morgana, then? I thought you liked that gang... But I'd not heard of any more trouble with that shack. I mean, other than what DM causes herself." She laughs weakly, then shakes her head. She sighs and looks back out over the lake again. "No offense taken, of course. This is a messed up place, no one is gonna ever deny that." "I am never afraid to make mistakes." Urus replies "god knows I have had more than my fair share. But for things to go so wrong. It started for me much before the situation that landed me here. I can still remember the one thing I should have said no to..." he trails off seeming to be remembering for a few seconds. "But anyways no, those two are fine. Working for them is treat, but as you understand, messed up place." He says copying her exact words. "Try to be more spontaneous." He advises "mistakes, as long as no one gets hurt by them but yourself, are fine and are learning experiences. Then again, what do I know? If I played it your way maybe I would be sitting in an office somewhere signing papers. And then I could chat with the family at end of night." Rayne shakes her head. "That is the way I work typically, Urus. I make a lot of little choises... it's just the big ones, the real commitment ones that I back down on. I doubt I would have gone for.... your proceedure. Improving my abilities in a way that would make me a new person? No, I just make myself a new person my own way every few years, but just... doing something different." She sighs, leaning back against the tree trunk while looking upward. "It's why I'm still not sure I'd make a good councilwoman. I don't know if I can really commit to it. I don't know if I can really stick with something that important." She glances back at Urus. "I can't even say for certain I'll still be with even TASK or the Welcome Center in a year's time. Who knows?" She then frowns. "Though I suppose the nature of this place means I wouldn't be able to just run off to another planet this time." Urus sighs as she brings up the procedure. The current line of coming clean continues "I did not exactly plan it... that is just what I end up telling people..." he says quietly leaving it open to inquiry. "personally I do not think I could do the council either. I lack the, what is term, people skills. I would try, you may find you do well at it." He says. "well If I have learned anything in my time here," he replies "is that you cannot escape people here, despite your best efforts. You are what was it, second in command at TASK as well as welcome center, sure its busy but there are a lot of people who would give up half their limbs" he broadens the term due to the abundance of types of people in twisted "to have what you do." Rayne frowns, looking back out into space again. "Those people are idiots, if you ask me. I never could understand all those people that want more power. It's a pain in the ass. It's just more work. And people come to YOU when they have problems. I was always happier being lower on the totem pole. When I first joined TASK? I thought of myself as cannon fodder. It was what I was best at, I thought. After all, you've gotta kill me twice, essentially. But no, I went and got put in second in command within months..." She shakes her head. "I'm in absolutely the last place I thought I'd be a year ago. I was just some girl running through the forests, not a real care in the world." "Amen to that sister" Urus says solemnly about not worrying about someone. "But here is deal; someone is going to have to do it, one way or other. I, like many other see more potential in you than you see in yourself." He praises. As she mentions it being a year ago, that prompts his calendar. "Year ago, I was single most notorious mercenary on outer ring." He chuckles. "when you are freak of universe, word gets around." But back to the matter at hand, "so, but if you are so unhappy with your job, just ask to be demoted. He will just move the entire ladder up one. If it is truly pain in neck, stand firm, ask often. Worst case scenario," he says tapping the white handprint on his muzzle "you end up like me." Rayne glances over again with a dry look. "Yeah, that's a pretty bad worst case scenario, Urus. But no, I'm not just gonna step down like that. I might when we actually... do this council thing, since it might look bad to have one council member techincally working for another... But other than that, no. I'm sticking around. I like the people too much, and I... don't want to disappoint them. It's not getting to me that badly. Not yet. Maybe it'll be more like my marriages, and I'll be able to stick it out for the long haul... But still, I've kept a job for nearly a decade a couple of times. I can stick it out, most likely." "I have tried to stick it out with my jobs before; all have ended in nothing but pain." He muses "Kotal, Gregory..." he says a special amount of hatred going into the name Gregory. "Yes, working for kotal and being on the council may be problematic." He nods. He takes the time to look up scanning the stars "still no." he mentions "Every now and then I look at the stars and hope that just maybe I can recognize a constellation. That just maybe I have the chance to return home. Not that there is much for me there either..." he contemplates aloud. Rayne looks up to the sky again. "Well... The park's sky isn't even real, actually. This whole area is more under the control of Medical Machinema. It's kind of... a pocket dimension away from the rest of Twisted... but whatever. They could probably program it to be different if they wanted." She glances back with a light smile. "Well, I'm glad to hear Kotal isn't your least favorite person ever." Urus looks at Rayne curiously "it is not? Fooled me." When she mentions Kotal not being his least favorite person, he agrees "not my least favorite overall, but of those that are still alive and or are in this realm, he takes it. "At least Kotal never lied to me and stabbed me in the back. In fact, you can thank that bastard Gregory for our meeting..." he says, the crackling flame of hate still burning strong. "I trusted him to do his end of the bargain, simply keep an eye on my family, while I am out doing his job..." teeth bared looking away from her. "of course he told me... well. The final contract was paid with his head." Rayne frowns as Urus relates his story. "I'm.... sorry for your loss... I've only lost family to natural causes, so I can't imagine..." "Well good news is that majority of family is still OK. " he sighs "I will never forgive myself for allowing it to happen." With a deep breath he continues "I bet you do not want to hear a lunatic's sob stories so... you said that you have not gotten up guts to ask someone to model for your art. Well, would it be easier for you if someone volunteered?" he asks prodding to see if its another case of her not trusting herself or it being an actual people problem. Rayne chuckles and shakes her head. "Yes and no. It's... weird for me over all. I mean, I've done it professionally, myself... not for very long, mind you, but I have. So I know what it's like to do it, and I know it's a pain to stand still for so long... and I do mean that literally, it really can hurt after a while. So I kinda... feel weird about asking people to model for me, even friends, when I'm not thinking the end result will be good enough to be worth dropping money onto..." She glances back to Urus. "You know what I mean? ....Actually, I'm guessing you probably don't." Urus raises his eyebrows in curiosity "You were model?" he asks. As she continues he has not had any experience modeling but standing for long periods of time, definitely "guard duty, 8 hour shifts, I know what standing around for a while feels like. Less than comfortable after hour 3." Though he does not exactly know what she means when she talks about money and the end result, but he is again curious "I don't, can you spell it out for me though" Rayne frowns and looks down at her art pad, trying to find the right words to describe it. "It's like... I was a professional painter's model for that year. I always feel really, really wierd asking people to do it for free because of that... and right now I'm so off practice on drawing people that I'm not sure I'll get a result that will feel like it was worth the money..." She glances back to Urus again. "Does that make more sense?" Urus listens and her thoughts click together in a way Urus understands. "so, you feel bad if you don't pay, but you still want to make it worthwhile. Well I guarantee you there are people who will do it just to be the center of someone's attention. Ask friends to do it, if you feel like they need to be paid, lower what you would have paid for yourself by at least half. I bet if you ask big blue to stand around so you can get a picture, he would be more than willing. He is god, ego the size of the building he works in..." Rayne grimaces at the suggestion of Kotal. "Ugh... I dunno, I really don't like feeding his ego. Or his annoyance should it not be very good in the end... Though I'm guessing if I tell him not to expect perfection, he'll go easy if it ends up crap. I'd... not mind doing a portrait of him, Sil, and Minu, but... well, I don't think I'm good enough to really do that yet." She then pauses, considering something. "No, no, I think you're wrong. His ego is MUCH bigger than TASK Tower." Urus shrugs "Well, if you need something that will never look pretty no matter how well you draw it, you know where to find me. " he chuckles, both making a joke and being serious on the offer. "Take your time. You are own worst enemy. What you had already from tonight, better than I could have done and is better than art I saw in museums back home." He says slightly attempting to get her to trust her skills on top of the fact it was a true statement. When she disagrees with him about Kotal he cackles in his almost trademarked way. "Thank you. I think that was reason we do not get along. The always right do as I say guy. If you did not stroke his ego, well." He says motioning to the entirety of his being. Rayne frowns a bit at that. "Well, I generally try to treat everyone with respect as a starting point. You kinda... immediately didn't. I think that helped me out, even when I would disagree with him." She then tilts her head. "You know? I'll probably take you up on that. Not tonight, I'd rather have, you know, actual good lighting for it. Especially when you're covered in fur... It's something I have issue with, but I'm hoping the amount of trees I've drawn have gotten that kind of detail into my skillset now." She looks down at her sketch of Medical Machinema and shrugs. "...I'm not gonna argue my skill in relation to you... But it's just a sketch. I've not touched actual paint yet, still. I don't think museums are very interested in pencil sketchings." "To be honest, the moment I came here he did have a weapon to my neck... that is why we need the welcoming committee" he comments "by the way how was the Usual after I left?" he asks as his own quote reminds him of earlier in the week. As for the problem with drawing fur, "Well it Is one thing you definitely do not think of before hand, in the summer months I have to clean every other day. Drawing it is probably about as strenuous as living with it." he muses. He admits when she is right about the museum. "Not the sketch but when it was done, I guarantee you it could go into any you wanted where I came from." He says not mentioning the fact art as a whole has a serious hole in supply compared to demand. Rayne nods. "I didn't think about it before hand, either. First person I tried to draw had fur. That drawing... was not good. It was very not good. That's why I went to start drawing trees, with their multitude of branches and leaves, I think I probably have that level of detail handlable now." She frowns at the mention of the usual. "You mean when Sun popped in? Not really sure, I didn't stay much longer than you. I think I worked early the next morning?" She frowns slightly as she recalls it. "Uh, yeah, Sun's actually been around Twisted longer than I have, she just doesn't go out and about all that much, apparently." She does raise an eyebrow at his insistence that her work is museum quality. "Okay, okay, no need to flatter me that obviously." | |
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