Burnt Sienna Skys | Open

[Austin Jennings]

The sun drifted lower in the sky casting long shadows from the trees along the banks of the lake. The lengthening shadows fell on the son of Arcus and his easel casting the pair in sudden darkness but for the most part the painter carried on with what he was doing pausing long enough to squirt some more paint on his palette before returning to his picture with furious intensity as he transferred the scene that he saw before him onto his canvas.

Austin was inspired and as was usually the case when he got a fit of inspiration the world around him seemed to fade as he focused all his will, all his attention on the fine details that he saw in his mind’s eye. Granted it was pretty impressive that he was able to see much at all in the fading light but at this point he was being led more by his intuition and the image that he held in his mind than by actual physical sight. As always with his best work he was lost in the painting. His hands were leading him now and it was likely they wouldn’t stop until they were done.

There was a reason for the frenzied pace of his work however. He had to work fast if he was going to catch the exact moment he had come out here for and suddenly, there it was. The sun dropped out of sight behind the trees painting the sky and the lake a beautiful burnt sienna, his favorite color.

Austin’s pace slowed and then finally stopped as he glanced up to admire the sunset and the color reflecting off the water. It truly was something special and it was the only reason he had come out here today. He had to take a moment to absorb it, to take it all in. This was what life was all about and here he was right at the center of it. He still had to finish his painting of course and now he had the perfect backdrop he had been waiting for but sometimes you had to slow down. Sometimes it couldn’t be helped.

[anastasia gregorovich]

Anya had wondered off to the lake as the sun was going down. The landscape was beautiful at this particular time of day and she had been trying to work on a new choreography for quite some time now. But she had ran out of ideas. So she had walked from the barracks of the fifth Cohort all the way here with her earbuds on and music blasting off her head. The playlist changed but it always came back to the same track, Arena by Lindsey Stirling. The piece she wanted to make her choreography for. And she had found herself stuck because she had seen the videoclip and the choreography it originally had. She wanted to do something new, but she was not a natural born choreographer. That's why she had set out to watch the sunset, she wanted to draw insiration from it if she could.

But it seemed her own little world was not entirely hers at the moment. Another had beat her to it and had setted up an easel. How could the boy work with such poor lighting was beyond her, but she was curious and she approached him to take a look. The painting was precisely the view she could see right now. She couldn't be blammed for peeking because she had came from behind him and had been able to see his painting. She recognised the guy as Austin, the son of Arcus from her Cohort. He mostly kept to himself and Anya debated whether she should leave him alone and find a spot further down the shoreline, or to just make her presence known. She decided the latter as she had stayed long enough for him to notice that someone was there with him.

"That's a really beautiful painting." She said softly and moved a little closer so he would be able to see her without putting much strain on his neck.

[Austin Jennings]

As he watched the sunset Austin became aware that someone had joined him in his spot overlooking the lake. He waited for whoever it was to make themselves known but when they didn't Austin figured he would let them be for the moment. This wasn't his spot after all and he could share it if needed.

He had almost given up on them, whoever they were, and was about to go back to his painting when a soft voice spoke beside him and stepped into his line of sight. It was a blonde girl, a daughter of Chione from his cohort. They had never spoken but as he glanced in her direction her name came to him. "Thanks...Anastasia isn't it?" He said with an embarrassed little smile. "I'm not sure if I would call it beautiful...Not yet anyways, but I'm glad you like it."

Austin rubbed his forehead absently with the hand that held his paint brush, an action that left a red streak across his brow. However, as he continued talking it became obvious that he wasn't aware of this. "Did you uh...come out to see the sunset too?"

[anastasia gregorovich]

Anya smiled a little and nodded. "Yes."She hummed softly as she took in the details of the painting, wondering how long it had taken him and how was he able to paint with the dim light. However before she could ask him, he painted himself without even noticing it. She tried to hide her laughter by looking down and ended up giggling instead. She took a deep breath and smiled at him. "Something like that. I came to see the sky and hopefully draw inspiration from it." She told him and moved her hand over her forehead, pointing at the same area Austin had red paint on.

[Austin Jennings]

She smiled a little when he said her name which let him know he had gotten it right before she told him so. That was good. It paid to keep track of the little details like names sometimes and even though he usually wasn't the first to speak up he did tend to pick up on things a lot of other legionaires missed. In any case the girl apparently liked being recognized so he would take it. "Well uh I'm Austin. You know, in case you didn't know because we haven't umm...talked?"

Maybe she knew him better than he thought because no sooner had he put down his brush than Anya started to smile and giggle. He didn't know what was so funny but as he watch the girl moved her hand up to her forehead. Austin blinked in confusion and then moved his hand up to match hers and that's when he felt it, the cold, sticky feeling of wet paint. Swearing under his breath Austin reached for a nearby towel and began cleaning away the mess. When he turned back around the paint was gone but his cheeks were flushed about the same color.

"S-sorry about that. I uh can get a little messy sometimes without realizing it. Usually I end up with paint all over the place...but you p-probably didn't need to know that..." Austin sighed in defeat realizing that he was just digging himself a deeper hole of embarrassment to climb out of with each word. "Anyways...it's uh good to get to talk to you. W-What are you hoping to draw inspiring for? If you uh don't mind me asking..."

[anastasia gregorovich]

Anya shook her head and smiled, hoping to get his nervousness to go away. There was nothing he should be embarraced or nervous about. Everybody had something they loved and got themselves lost into. Even if they never admit it in public or even to themselves. "Don't worry about it Austin." She said and took one earpiece off, extending it to him. "It's nice to talk to you too." She motioned for him to take the earpiece and she would press play to the particular music piece she wanted to make a choreography for as soon as he placed it to his ear.

"I'm a figure-skater. That song is the reason I'm out here." She would say as he listened to the tune. "I want to make a choreography for it. An original one. But I've seen the videoclip and now I can't think of something else that would fit it besides the one the artist performed." She would explain.

[Austin Jennings]

Austin was fairly used to embarrassing himself especially around girls but at least Anya seemed pretty nice. That probably wouldn't prevent him from doing something again but given the choice he would take merely being amusing over being openly mocked any day of the week. For Anya's part it seemed to be the first of the two options and as she offered him the earpiece he decided he could live with that.

"Uh t...thanks." He said as he took the earbud and slipped it into his ear. He was unsure of what to expect but he was curios to find out what had brought her here and his curiosity served to bring back his smirk and put him at ease somewhat.

"A figure skater?" He asked curiously as the music began. "That's uh cool. I've never met a figure skater before." Austin listened to the tune and nodded along with the beat. He often listened to music while he worked and could understand why she might want to use it in her routine. It was good, kind of like art for his ears like a lot of good music was and he liked it. "It's good. I mean I uh can see why you like it."

Austin considered for a moment. He would have liked to help her but he didn't know the first thing about dancing himself or skating himself. Colors, shapes and pictures he was familiar with but he would have been hard pressed to come up with a dance move other than the old stand and sway and he didn't think that would help Anya out at all. "So uh is watching the sunset helping any? Usually when I get a block, thinking about something else for a while helps...usually."

[anastasia gregorovich]

Anya nodded when Austin said that he had never met a figure skater before. She watched as he bobbed his head with the beat and was somewhat happy that he liked the song. It meant that it was possibly a good piece to use in order to captivate the audience. She would have to tweak it with the judges thoough, because it didn't fully abide by the short programme rules concerning music tracks. Not that she was going to compete in a contest any time soon again. And she had been so close to realise her dream of getting into the Olympics team. "Glad you liked it." She said and her eyes wondered off in the scenery as he paused to think for a moment.

She turned to look at him when he asked her a question again. "Hmm... I'm not so sure. I would have to try out a few moves, but I won't be able to tell if they tie well together. I would need a studio mirror for that." She said thoughtfully and tapped her chin at his advice. "I've been trying to do that. It doesn't help that I haven't skated in a while. Skating used to be my whole life and now that this has changed it's thrown me off balance." Then, realizing she would potentially make him feel uncomfortable about what she had just said, her life being thrown out of balance, she shook her head vigorously. "Not that it's anything you should worry about. Tell how did you manage to paint this with such dim lighting?" She tried to change the subject to avoid any awkwardness coming between them.

[Austin Jennings]

Anya mentioned that she might have to try out some things and Austin nodded along with her suggestion. He wasn't sure about the whole mirror thing. Did dancers really watch themselves while they made their routines? He couldn't imagine doing that with his painting but he supposed it made sense when you couldn't see your work in front of you. Still, he gave a silent prayer of thanks to his mother that she wasn't the goddess of dance or something like that for his sake.

Anya next started talking a little about her background and Austin found himself sympathizing with her situation. It wasn't easy suddenly finding out you were a demigod and you had all kinds of responsibilities you didn't know about but for the soldiers of the legion, especially those that ended up in the fifth cohort that seemed to be par for the course. He was about to say something to that effect but then Anya was changing the subject and he kept his mouth shut. He felt bad that she thought he wouldn't care but what more could he do especially when she was asking him another question and one that he could answer easily?

"Oh um well I'm a son of Arcus. I guess that's most of it but well sometimes I get kind of lost in my work." He gave an embarrassed chuckle as he tried to figure out how to explain what he was thinking. "It just kind of comes to me you know? It's hard to explain but do you ever just get lost in what you're doing and everything else doesn't seem to matter? You just keep on doing your thing no matter what's going on around you...I don't know. It sounds silly I guess."

[anastasia gregorovich]

Anya shook her head knowingly. "It's not silly at all. It just means you've never caught me with my earbuds on. Or skating. You can't bring me down to earth when I listen to music or skate. It's embarrassing sometimes, but I wouldn't love it any other way." She said concerning his explanation and stayed quiet for a while, trying to think what type of god Arcus was. And if she should ask Austin to explain. She wondered if he would feel offended by her luck of knowledge, but Roman mythology wasn't her strong suit. After a few moments she realized, that if she wanted to fully understand his explanation apart from the 'I do what I love' bit, which she understood perfectly, she had to ask him.

"Um, excuse my ignorance, but what kind of god is Arcus? I was never good at Roman mythology." She asked, casting her eyes downwards and avoiding to look at him, rather embarrassed about having to ask a fellow legionaire about his parentage.

[Austin Jennings]

The corners of Austin’s lifted in a little smirk as she talked about getting lost in her music. That was precisely what he had been talking about and at once he thought that he could understand this girl quite well. Her skating and her music was a lot like what he did on a canvas. It was art and it was just as easy to get lost in one form as it was another because sometimes you had something that just wouldn’t go away until you expressed it whether that be painting or skating or any art form really.

He pondered this thought for a moment but before he had spent too long on it the girl had spoken up with another question except this time it wasn’t about his painting. Instead it was about his mom. This made Austin’s smile broaden a little. He couldn’t blame her for not knowing. The goddess of rainbows and messengers kind of got lost in the mix when you had Mars and Jupiter taking most of the glory. Still, he didn’t mind telling her.

“Goddess actually.” He corrected good naturedly. “And don’t worry about it too much she’s not really well known around camp for winning lots of battles or anything. She’s the goddess of messages and colors. Rainbows actually. Here let me…” Austin reached for her hands before stopping short in a moment of nervousness. Nodding and pointing towards them cautiously he gave her a shy smile and continued. “uh…May I? I think you’ll like what I umm have to show you.”

[anastasia gregorovich]

"Oh... Sorry." She said sheepishly as Austin said Arcus was a Goddess and not a God. She hoped she hadn't offended his mother and she made a silent prayer of forgiveness in her mind towards Arcus. She wondered what he was up to when he asked her to give him her hands. She raised them towards him as a sign to go on, she was surprised and curious. Though his mother being the goddess of colors did make a lot of sense when it came to his ability to be able to paint so well, despite the poor light. "Well, I was told in history lessons that messages arriving on time or not at all were able to win or lose a war. And everybody needs color in their lives otherwise it would be dull and rather miserable." She commented as he took her hands. "Your mother should get more credit for those." She added honestly and waited to see what he was planning to do.

[Austin Jennings]

He was stupid. Pretty epically stupid in fact. Out of all the ways he could have gone about showing Anya a cool trick that he could do why on earth had he thought this one was a good idea? Knowing his luck he wouldn’t even be able to do anything now because he was so nervous but he had gotten himself stuck and there wasn’t really any way out except to proceed with his original idea. He just hoped it worked and that Anya wouldn’t be too freaked out.

“I uh…yeah...She uh probably would like that. Really...” He said distractedly as he reached for her hands turning them palm up. “Now uh…don’t worry. It won’t hurt. I p...promise…” Holding her outstretched hands in his Austin closed his eyes and began to concentrate. He didn’t use this power all that often but it was something that was cool, at least he thought it was in any case.

It took a moment for anything to happen and at first he was too worried that she would pull away from him before he really pulled off his trick to do anything. Finally though light began to gather in Anya’s palms. As it coalesced into something more visible it began to grow and take on color until her two palms were connected by a smooth, unbroken arc of light. In truth the light was coming from Austin but he knew how to bend the light so that when he was done it looked like Anya was holding a small, shimmering rainbow in her hands. “S…see?” Austin said as he opened his eyes. “B…bet you’ve never held a rainbow before.”

[anastasia gregorovich]

Anya watched as Austin turned nervous again. "Okay." She said and wondered if her cold skin was the cause of it. She had to resist the urge to withdraw from him. If there was one part of her powers that she wished she didn't have was that of a cold skin. Even in summer, when everybody else was hot or sweaty, she was cool to the touch. It had freaked out more that a few of her schoolmates back in the day.

Yet as she kept watching, her eyes widened and she gasped in awe. She was left speechless as the shimmering arc connected her palms together. She briefly looked at Austin before her attention sifted to the little miracle that had just happened to be resting on her palms. "No, I haven't." She said in awe. "It's beautiful."

[Austin Jennings]

“Ah it’s n…nothing that special.” Austin said a little sheepishly as he let her have her hands back. Unfortunately the light began breaking up almost as soon as his concentration did. “I mean I’m just good with uh…colors you know. Light. Can do a few tricks…with uh rainbows and stuff…Probably helps with my painting too.” Austin turned to look back at painting he had been working on, frowned for a moment and then turned his attention back to the girl. “It’s not really something that is very useful uh…around here anyways…”

Not really sure what he should say to her after that he glanced down at his feet as he thought. He wasn’t very good at small talk and he especially wasn’t good when conversations started turning to himself. It was much easier to let others do the talking and for him to just fade into the background to do his own thing. That was not really something that was possible with two people though. “But uh hey you’ve got ice powers right? That’s uh…pretty cool.” He glanced up rather suddenly before realizing his bad pun which caused him to cringe internally. The girl had probably heard stuff like that all her life and he certainly wasn’t doing himself any favors here.