fourth staff ♞ i have some serious critiques about this gallery

[beknightedheroine]

Characters: Sayaka and you.
Setting: Floor 22 - the art gallery.
Format: Starts in prose, matchres you!
Summary: Can't go two steps in this art gallery without seeing something HORRIBLE. Backdated to daytime on the 28th.
Warnings: Defacement of fine art.

Well, it's taken her a matter of weeks, but Sayaka's finally chosen to take Gandalf's advice and return to the art gallery. She's looking for the mermaid portrait her mind had been captured by before, but something else comes to her attention first:

It's an old, weathered poster, set upon the wall in a thin black frame. There's no glass between it and the air, and Sayaka can practically feel every year it's been since that concert when she touches it. All the words that used to be on it are gone, replaced with symbols that make her head hurt to look at. They're like the runes in a Witch's labyrinth, and that's the part that sets her off.

She can't get it down from the wall, but she sure can rip out the parts with those stupid runes.

You can stumble upon her when she's either a) tearing out shreds of the poster in a mad rage, or b) collapsed amidst a flurry of torn paper, looking very desolate and depressed.

Comments

B

[dragonspooker]

Perhaps it's dramatic timing, or perhaps the universe just hates Sayaka today, but a familiar red-haired person steps around the corner, and curiously regards the scene for a moment before speaking.

"Not an art fan, I take it?"

[beknightedheroine]

"Go away."

She is really not in the mood right now, Lina, and Sayaka isn't even gonna make an attempt at making it seem otherwise.

[dragonspooker]

"Hey, calm down - I'm not here to cause trouble," Lina answers. "I just turned the corner, and there you were."

[beknightedheroine]

Sayaka shrugs despondently at that, before flicking some of the torn paper off of her shoulder.

"..yeah, here I am. You could do me a favor, though, and burn up all these scraps."

A

[snowyvalemaiden]

"Yeah, I ain't much fer art eitha mon." came a female voice from behind. The trolless was leaning back against a wall with her arms crossed under her chest and looking at the girl concerned.

"Eh, joo need sum 'elp der mon?"

[beknightedheroine]

"Hahahahah - yeah, I don't care at all for their artistic vision-" She punctuates this by tearing down a long strip from the poster, "-with this certain piece!"

..she stops to stares at what's left after that, breath coming in angry huffs. "I can't get this down from the wall no matter what I do. The frame won't budge. I wonder why."

[snowyvalemaiden]

"Well, if it be buggin' joo dat much mon, have ya tried coverin' it den? Maybe some new paint or sum dirt. Anyting would be bettah don't 'cha tink?"

[beknightedheroine]

"I dunno. I think this is a pretty good solution, y'know, ripping out all the bits I don't like. It gives room for them to try again, maybe get it right next time."

[windykind]

John heard the ripping coming from the gallery floor while still on the staircase, but only got there in time for option B. He never cared much for art in the first place, but usually, ripping noises on a floor with paintings in them never spelled anything good. His efforts were doubled as soon as he caught sight of who must be the culprit, kneeling on the ground with her head in her hands, and immediately he had kneeled down next to her.

"Sayaka! Are you okay?"

[beknightedheroine]

"Yeah, just fine," she deadpans. "I was just getting rid of an eyesore, you know, cleaning up the atmosphere..."

There's nothing left in the picture frame except the top quarter, simply showing a young boy playing violin on a spotlit stage. She was really just getting rid of the runes.

[windykind]

He glanced over at the picture worriedly; unfortunately, he couldn't remember exactly what the rest of the picture had looked like, mostly due to the fact that he almost never came into this floor. But whatever it was, it had clearly worried Sayaka, and that was not cool. "...Eye of the beholder, I guess," he said, putting an arm over her shoulder. "Here. Wanna get up?"

[beknightedheroine]

"..Yeah, this place is too much of a drag to hang out in, anyway." She accepts the help up, and is rather off balance once she's standing - but hey, that's what your handy-dandy John Egberts are here for! He can now add 'Makeshift Cane' to his pile of titles.

A

[the_white_rider]

Fate works in odd ways, as the old man who advised her to come back and face the gallery was here as well today. He was admiring paintings from lands he could never visit- After weeks spent in the library reading, it was a nice change from books.

That's when he spotted Sayaka. She was... Different, alright. Maybe advising her to return to the art gallery hadn't been such a great idea. It's with a frown and some concern that Gandalf approaches her.

"... Why are you doing this?"

[beknightedheroine]

"Because it's wrong! It's supposed to.. it's supposed to have real words, not those. I'm not letting them corrupt it."

There's runes on all of the ripped pieces of the poster, with only a few symbols even intact. They're obviously magical in origin, like there's some insidious power pulsing even in the ink.

[the_white_rider]

He stares at the poster; or rather what remains of it for a while and sighs.

"You should not give in to rage."

He kneels and grabs one of the ripped piece, to examine it. He can feel the magic, the power coming from the ink- Then he points the ripped poster with his staff.

"Did it represent something of utmost importance to you?"

[beknightedheroine]

"I've tried staying calm. Really tried."

Sayaka's pretty sure she's put forth a Herculean effort at it, even. But she's just gotten more frustrated by the day, and she just keeps failing. Justified as she feels, though, right now she just sounds petulant and high strung.

"..I'm never going to hear him play again, as long as I'm here. It's not fair, and now they're just waving it in my face."

a. and i will combo break all this prose. B|b

[restitchtime]

[Rose seems to gravitate towards places where people fly off the handle emotionally, and her little trip to the art gallery turns out no different. she makes her way through the pictures to investigate the sounds, stopping a few feet away upon finding Sayaka.

she regards the girl for a moment before crossing her arms and snorting.]

Don't think that's going to do much but ruin your nails. A for effort, though.

oh nooo my prose combooo i almost got a multiplier bonus

[beknightedheroine]

_{[Sayaka actually stops to regard her nails for a moment at that, before busting out into a giggle.]}

If I break one, it'll probably just heal! Oh, would that be a hilarious thing for my magic to waste itself on. Nails, really..

sorry, but i'm here to make sure you never unlock all the achievements

[restitchtime]

[oh lovely, she's off her rocker. Rose can't help but roll her eyes a little bit.]

Good to know that you can keep clawing at the wall like a rabid cat for all eternity. That's just what people want to see when they come in here, someone who can't understand that stuck to the wall means stuck to the fucking wall.

[a] ragebros 5lyfe

[lamentless]

...well, sure, it wasn't technology, but a certain blonde could sympathize. Sadly, he didn't have much applicable knowhow on how to help when someone was having such a freak out, so the best he could do was very gently put a hand on her shoulder, and hold a certain key out to her.

"You might be able to do more damage with this."

As if Rox cared why she was doing this. People didn't need reasons in the tower anymore, in his opinion.

5ever and ever and ever and ever

[beknightedheroine]

"..woah, that's things pretty shiny. I might take off some of the paint on it, you know."

Her usual joking tone is laced with seething anger, but hey, at least she can still verbally express herself? Sayaka grabs the key, and hefts it for a moment, testing the weight--

[lamentless]

...and then it poofed in a flash of light and went back to the startled blonde's hand.

"I guess it's not going to let you." Rude, keyblade. Rude. "Wait, I-" Did he have anything else he could offer, help-wise? He patted his pocket as the keyblade disappeared, and pulled out, of all things, his pair of scissors.

"-these aren't magic, but it's better than just using your hands."

Rox tried to give some sense of an understanding smile at the laced tone, but it sort of lacked the usual confidence. Please don't stab him instead, okay?

(b) because why not SPAMS YOUR INBOX

[morituramfides]

Normally when someone was all upset on the ground, Jin would just keep walking. But well, he actually did know this kid and her collapsed in an upset pile was kind of. Embarrassing? Something like that.

For whatever reason, Jin simply stood nearby in the art gallery with his arms crossed, watching Sayaka as she sat there for a few minutes before speaking up.

"What's gotten into you?"

delicious spam!!

[beknightedheroine]

A voice she recognizes - Sayaka figures out it's Jin without looking up, which is affordable to her since she really doesn't have the motivation to look up right now.

"..I fell for it. Some stupid thing this place popped up with just to make me mad. How dumb, right?"

part of a delicious and nutritious lunch

[morituramfides]

The most movement he did was take a few steps forward to look curiously at the ripped up paper. Even though he didn't really have any idea what they meant, but oh well. He quirked an eyebrow.

"Got a vendetta against music?" Snarking isn't what you're supposed to do here Jin--