The Fairy Fair (Eliza)

[Natalie Cooper]

Ashan 1st, 720

It was still cold and snowy out on the first of Ashan, still dark out though people could see that the light was starting to return, even if only just a little bit. Natalie was wondering through Scalvoris Town, her cloak wrapped tight around her, forced to wear her winter boots today due to snow all about. She was enjoying the crisp whiteness of the city but now she was seeking out some warmth.

Because even though it was cold outside, she was so bundled up that she was starting to sweat and she wished to shed the layers. She really didn't appreciate it. She'd have to find better clothing or something. Trudging along, she passed by what was normally an empty park, a few trees and benches for the local residents to use in nicer weather. Except this time, there were tents in there. It reminded her of the tents from the Everdark Casino. She appreciated all the brighter colors the people here seemed to enjoy. She'd need to update her wardrobe, today wearing a light green dress beneath her cloak.

She stepped into the park, walking up confidently to the first person she saw there, who happened to be a shirtless man who held burning torches. She'd seen him juggling them earlier, but now he was simply holding them. "Hello there! What's this goin on here?"

The man smiled and gestured behind him, "Welcome to the Fairy Fair. Here, you can find or see anything to your heart's desire, and show others the same in kind."

Nat's eyes lit up. "Can you juggle those again? I'd like to watch properly."

She had seen that there were plenty of bonfires through the area, so all in all the park was much warmer than the street. She removed her cloak, folding it over an arm as the man smiled and stepped back from her. He bowed toward her first, then began tossing the torches in the air. She watched as they spun perfectly end over end, so high. When they came down, it seemed like they barely touched his hands before they were sent back upwards. Two torches. Three torches. Five torches. Eight torches. She clapped and gasped as he continued his show, adding in spins and kicks and flips for his performance, until suddenly he caught all eight at once, then bowed again.

Nat clapped excitedly, and reached for her coin purse when he stopped her, "No need. Today I do not perform for alms, simply that smile of yours." She moved in closer, "Can I try? Maybe with just one? I've never juggled anything before." The man looked around, "Yes, but let's move away from some of these tents, just in case. My first time practicing juggling I knocked out my brother. He still never lets me forget it," he said while laughing loudly.

He snuffed all of his torches save one, and handed it to Nat, and she handed him her cloak. It was heavier than she thought it would be. She waved her arm up and down, prepping for a throw while looking upwards. Arm swung back, then upward, and she let it go. She watched as it didn't spin at all and soared high, and forward. She went running after it, her boots kicking up snow as she flailed toward it. It landed in a drift, snuffing the flame. She pulled it out, relit it on a bonfire, and ran back to where she started, to see the juggler literally rolling around in the snow holding his sides laughing. Eventually he recovered himself and stood back up.

"Try again, but not so hard. It's about control, not strength. It's not something that's easy to teach, you just have to learn by feel."

Nat nodded and resumed the position. She swung back and tossed it up in front of her. It spun once, coming back towards her. She squealed and moved out of the way as it hit the ground. Thankfully it didn't snuff out this time. "Can't be afraid to get burned love. Happens to the best of us." She readied herself again. She tossed it up in front of her, it spun once, and came back down. She reached out and grabbed it by the handle. She then tossed it again, spinning once, and catching it again.

"Great job!"

She tossed it again, spinning it twice before catching it. She was excited at how well she was doing. She tried for three spins this time and sent it backwards over her shoulder, burying itself in the snow. She ran over grabbing it, then jogged to the man, offering him his torch back. "Thanks! I'll have to practice more! It was really fun!"

He took his torch, "My pleasure, I recommend starting with balls or rocks before moving onto trickier things. You'll get it."

Natalie nodded and left him, grabbing her cloak. She was warmer now, and moved through the stalls and tents, her eyes taking in all the colors. She stopped by one in particular, one that sold items she was rather fond of. Paints and dyes. Setting her coin purse on the counter, "Do you have any dyes that are good for the skin? I don't mind if it lasts a while." The woman nodded, and after a bit of haggling, Natalie purchased a small kit of dyes, covering the normal colors of the rainbow, plus white and black. There wasn't much, but she was content, and it came with some lower quality brushes. She thanked the woman and left.

She looked around for a place to sit, away from everyone. She eventually found a wooden chair behind one of the tents around a warm fire, she guessed it for personal use for performers and workers of the nearest tents. She didn't necessarily desire privacy, but she had a plan in mind and wanted to surprise people. She quickly shed her boots and socks, her dress and her small clothes, draping them over the chair, which she then sat upon completely naked. She then opened the black dye and grabbed a bigger brush, and dipped it in. She began painting in broad strokes across the skin she could reach, setting a base coat, knowing she'd have to stretch the limits of the black she had purchased. She'd eventually have to find someone to help with her back side, she wasn't so flexible yet. She'd just ask the first person who happened to come along and find a naked woman there painting herself. Most people were eager to help naked women after all.

Calendar Entry

On the 1st Ashan, "The Fairy Fair" comes to Scalvoris. All over the island, open areas of land get taken over by brightly coloured tents. With performers, fortune tellers, acts, markets, and many exotic people and goods, they stay throughout Ashan.Open

[Eliza Soule]

Eliza couldn't be more relieved that soon, the sun's light and warmth would return to the land. She'd never met anyone who was particularly fond of thirty plus straight trials of darkness. But for her, as the daughter of Ymiden, constant darkness without the promise of an incoming dawn, ran contrary to her very nature. As an artist though, the perpetual lack of natural light, in her mind caused her work to suffer. There were only so many nighttime scenes or bowls of fruit you could paint. Candlelight was fine, but natural light was always the best. There'd been far too little of it lately.

It wouldn't be long now though, and in order to shake off that feeling of going stir crazy indoors, she'd decided to venture out into the cold and take in the festivities that the keeper at the inn had spoken about when he'd brought her her breakfast. The Fairy Fair. Even the name sparked her interest. At any rate, from the man's description of what went on there, she thought at least she might find plenty of inspiration with which to begin a new painting. Naturally, she'd bundled up before she left the inn, with her tiny primate companion Eberhardt snuggled deep into the pocket of her cloak, and her enormous wolfhound Darwin strolling along at her heels.

Once she arrived at the edge of the park, Eliza was immediately glad that she'd come. Even in the snow and the gloom in the air that was typically Ashan, the area was filled with color, noise, chaos and merriment. Plenty of subjects here, she'd thought and smiled as she stopped to watch a pair of acrobats at work. She wandered after that, speaking to someone here or there, or pausing to watch some performance or another. There were plenty of boots and tents where people were selling their wares, and for the most part Eliza looked, but didn't buy. There really wasn't anything she needed, or even thought she wanted until she spotted an array of paints, pots, brushes and dyes. She had plenty, certainly. But it didn't hurt to look, surely?

The brushes on display weren't of the same quality that Eliza used in her work, so she passed them by. Most of the ordinary paints as well, since she tended to mix her own. She'd almost thanked the woman behind the table and walked away, before she spotted a small vial of silver ink. It wasn't her usual and when she did use glittering lines and strokes in her work, she usually crushed gold or silver leaf to make it herself. The ink was inexpensive however, and she decided it wouldn't hurt to give it a try. So she purchased a vial and dropped it into her bag before wandering off on her way again.

Still, the artist was looking more for inspiration than she was entertainment. And sometime along the way she'd spotted a number of performers going into and out of an area between the tents. It had occurred to her that she might find an interesting, and willing subject there who might pose for a quick sketch. If she was lucky, so Eliza headed that way. As she approached the fire, there was only one individual there at the moment. One that was bare to the world in fact and Eliza hesitated. She wasn't particularly bashful about nudity, in fact she'd painted a number of nudes by now, both men and women. But to say she was eager to plop herself down across from a naked woman who was twisting herself this way and that with a paintbrush, would have been a gross exaggeration.

Still, she cleared her throat as she approached, simply because she was curious, and warmed her hands by the fire. "I hope you don't mind. The weather's a long way from warming up..." The woman was painting herself, apparently all or most of herself. So it probably wasn't surprised that she'd consider two assumptions in particular. Wasn't she cold. That, and "are you one of the performers?" she asked. And to be polite, she introduced herself then. "Sorry. My name is Eliza Soule."

[Natalie Cooper]

Abigail looked up at the sound of a throat being cleared, and she smiled brightly seeing a woman staring there. She was asking to join the fire, "You're more than welcome to share the heat, and company." Abigail stood up fully, walking toward the woman, brush in hand, revealing the many spots on her skin she'd missed in her painting efforts so far, typically in the areas were the skin creased or at joints, such as her waist when she'd bent over, the crease beneath her breasts, and her hands hadn't yet been done at all. And that was just the front. Her back side, not visible to Eliza at this moment, was much more barren of paint.

Beaming brightly, "I'm not a performer in any official capacity, not that I'm certain there's anything official about any of this." She offered Eliza the paint brush, "Would you mind helping me out though? I'm not near as flexible as I'd like to be. Nor do I have eyes in the back of my head." Then she remembered her manners, "I'm Abigail. Abigail Baker, but all my friends call me Abi. And it is my pleasure to meet you Eliza Soule." Abi turned and presented her backside to the newly arrived woman, and continued to speak, "But yes, I do intend to perform a bit. Why not? It's a fair after all. Though not sure what a fairy exactly is. Never met a fairy. Have you met a fairy? I think it would be fun to meet one. Is Soule a common last name? Are you from around here? I'm not, though I'm trying to be, in my own way. I'm a student at the University, archaeology and painting. Though not so good at either of them yet, but that's the point of the University, I suppose, don't you agree?"

Clearly Abi loved to talk and showed no sign of letting up. Meanwhile, a man and a woman, other performers, joined them around the fire, both openly ogling the naked, semi painted woman. Not that Abi noticed. Nor would she care if she had. "What is it you do Eliza Soule? I think you have lovely hair, I like how it curls just so. Did you come with friends to the fair? Or purpose? I didn't, to either. I hadn't decided to perform until after I'd gotten here. I think. Who can keep track?"

It seemed the mortalborn showed no sign of stopping her chatter. She then noticed the other two additions, "Would you two like to help finish painting me? I'm Abigail. Abigail Baker. You can call me Abi. This is my good friend, Eliza Soule." Abi offered them paint and brushes, and the pair joined in, introducing themselves, though slow to start actually painting upon the naked woman.

[Eliza Soule]

"Thank you," Eliza said with a curious smile when invited to warm herself by the fire. She came closer then, enough so that she could extend her hands towards the flame, palms outward and fingers spread. "You're probably right about that," she agreed, and hesitated before taking the paintbrush that was thrust towards her. Nonetheless, though the festival had most certainly been planned to some extent, at the same time there was an inescapable sense that there was very little order to any of it.

So far as the introductions, she said, "It's nice to meet you Abigail." But when the woman asked for help with her painting, Eliza tilted her head curiously and considered it. She'd never done any of her work on bare, living morals. Or dead ones either, of course. She'd never had the slightest desire to, in fact, apart from a small rose painted upon a cheekbone, or some such. Oh, she'd painted plenty of nudes in her time. It was just what painters did while learning to draw human, or other, figures.

"I suppose I could," she said then, smiling at the others who'd arrived as she took brush and a small pallet of paint samples in hand. Simple enough, she'd work on the woman's upper back and shoulder blades, bearing in mind the colors and designs that had already been used, in order to compliment and blend them, and to also be mindful of contouring, dips and curves. "Are fairies real, you think?" she asked, eyeing what amounted to her canvas before committing to a course of action. "My grandfather always told me lots of stories about them. But he seemed to imply they were simply a mix of myth and magic."

The daughter of Ymiden wasn't convinced that Abigail wouldn't catch her death of cold out there like this. But it wasn't her place to say. "I'm not sure that the name Soule is a common surname," she admitted. "But it's a very old family name." Centuries upon centuries, so far as she knew. Anyway, so far as education was concerned, and practice, Eliza grinned and shrugged. "Practice makes perfect. That's what I've always heard."

"I guess you could call me a long term visitor to Scalvoris at the moment, though I have a little house in the Stormlands, outside Rharne. I arrived here though by way of Desnind. Flutterbus." And what a odd little journey it had been. "Thank you," she added, in regards to her hair. "Actually, I'm an artist by trade. A painter. I do drawings as well. Though I have to say that this is a first. The only living thing I've ever painted on before was a large turtle. His shell, anyway. So archaeology and painting is a curious combination. Do you intend to combine them in some way?" she asked.