"Sweet." He went back to work, taloned feet prodding and poking the brush at the canvas. He spoke as he worked--as claws detailed out the individual shapes of birds, and added pale golden-pink light and darker blue shadow, like a sunrise above the clouds, along with a vaguely accurate skin texture, to Fulgur's shape.

"So--you like to tell stories?" Imp asked, dabbing here and there. "What sort of stories--I mean, I know you said shit you've seen or done but. You got any good ones yet? Maybe you can tell me one while I work? Y'know, pass the time?" he suggested, glancing with an open, friendly glance to Fulgur. "Why do you wanna tell stories anyway?" He suspected it was something like his artwork--a desire to create, and to leave a mark. But he knew he might be wrong, and he wanted to hear it from his guest.

His work now--the details--weren't perfect, and weren't even great, but they were decent, even good in places. Perhaps he'd touch it up--this wasn't his final work, after all--but it wasn't awful, at the very least.

@Fulgur

Fulgur manages to stay mostly still, sitting patiently. His Flock continue to chatter, murmuring about whatever alien avians murmur about.

"Stories. I'd like to learn some, to teach and to entertain... Then I'd make a name for myself. But I haven't found too many quite yet," he laments, sighing. "I did find something interesting... One cave I was in, it was dusty tan, and covered in bones... Cool, I guess. I go somewhere else for a while, and then I return, not long before I came here, and it's covered in white and sheets of weird slick stuff... it was kinda gross. And off."

He shook himself off, as if trying to clean himself of the sensation of touching the fungus. "...Of course, I don't know who or what did it, or why. Maybe I'll figure it out sometime."

@Imp

Imp nodded a long a little as he worked. His eyes were fixed upon his canvas, but long bat ears twitched at Fulgur's every word.

The cave description was quite familiar to him, of course, and he nearly interrupted but caught himself to let his guest finish. And when Fulgur had finished, he glanced back and paused in his painting, squinting in thought.

"White slick stuff..? Like--ice?" he guessed. That was the first thing that came to mind, for him; maybe Fulgur just hadn't ever seen snow and ice before? But then again, Canis wasn't cold. Not usually, anyway. "I know the cave, though. At least--if it's the same one. Canis! I got my eyes ripped out there, once," he added amiably, turning back toward his painting. He gave it a moment to dry as he spoke, before starting on some detailing--little bits of texture and lighting, the correction of crooked lines and smudges.

"Not a lotta green there, right? You get to it through a creepy fuckin' tunnel? Or uhh. I guess there's the other way, now, too," he added thoughtfully. "What is it, through the crystal cave?"

"If it's the same place I'm thinkin' of, I'll have to go check it out!" Seriously--ice in Canis? "Anyway, I'm sure you'll get plenty new stories, eventually! Hell, you could even make some up, for now." He paused, glancing back. "Not lying, but like, just stories, y'know?"

@Fulgur

Like ice... Fulgur shook his head. "Isn't there ice in the one mountain cave? It wasn't like that. It was cold, but not freezing... And more slimy than wet." Another good shake to get rid of the feeling.

He stops. "...Eyes, ripped out?" Looking back down at Imp, he very definitely sees eyes. "Well, at least you got better."

"Canis... I'll remember that. I did come from the crystal cave the first time, but I think I know of the 'creepy'
tunnel... No plants, not anything, and the feeling of being watched?"

Fulgur lifts a claw, one of his companions landing on it. As he watched it, he continues, "I will in time. And I could definitely figure out a completely new one... Or maybe I could ask some other Gembounds for theirs?"

@Imp

Not ice? Snow, then, maybe. Obviously, that was the only other real possibility. (And for all Imp's alleged creativity, his thought process here showed a distinct lack of it.) And as for his eyes, and getting better--"Fuck yeah I did," was his only answer, an offhand sort of interjection.

He sat back, allowing what he'd painted so far to dry. He'd add the finishing touches shortly but for the time being he glanced back at Fulgur with his tail out behind him and his hind legs sprawled forward in an awkward sploot, half-balanced on his wings. His expression, despite his goofy stance, was keenly attentive and even interested--and he quickly nodded along. "Exactly that place. Like, what the fuck is wrong with it-? Cursed, or some shit," he added, with a mutter and a shrug. "I know that Collector guy wanders around Canis so at first I was like, hey, maybe he made it seem all spooky. But I feel like that'd drive away business. ...Maybe he knows, though," Imp added, thoughtfully. Probably not worth the price.

"You could! Just be careful who you trust. Some fuckers are really only out for themselves," and rather than bitter, this bore an almost kind tone of friendly advice. "But maybe if you got everyones' stories you could swap 'em around. Or even trade in secrets! Imagine that shit. A secret-seller," Imp mused, though realistically he wasn't sure how that would... work, really. 'Information broker' wasn't exactly a common role in the caves. "When you do get some, come an' tell 'em to me, yeah?" His glance back, again, was friendly. "I bet they'll be badass."

@Fulgur

Fulgur was hoping that maybe he could get a story about Imp's eyes, but his comment catches him off guard enough that he finds himself chuckling at it. "If you say so!"

He shifts, seeing Imp take a break and assuming it is safe to move. Folding his wings underneath himself to sit, Fulgur shared his companions eager expression. "I couldn't tell you. It just seems off, and everyone knows." he says, before adding, "But I didn't know about this Collector person... Maybe I could meet him?"

Fulgur does listen quietly, watching him explain. "I'll keep that in mind... be careful." He hasn't met anyone horribly selfish yet, but if someone took Imp's eyes... but maybe that was just an accident? Unless Imp feels like sharing. "Not so sure about selling stories. Or secrets... Doesn't seem right. But I'll find something, and come back to tell you. I promise," he declares.

@Imp

"Well, yeah, I mean with permission. Secrets about the cave and shit, not betraying anyone's trust--fuck that. Betrayal, I mean. Betraye... Traitors? Whatever. They suck."

He was on to the final finishing touches, now. A taloned foot raised again, the glimmers of very pale paint--whites and golds and light pinks--providing splashes of light where reflections cascaded from Fulgur's wings and the edges of the clouds, and the strange bodies of those tiny flockmates. "As for the Collector, eh, watch yourself. I get the impression--maybe it's just from the shit I've heard. But he asks pretty high, fucked-up prices, sometimes. And the shit he gives out ain't always what it's cracked up to be." Again, Imp wasn't sure on details. Just the word-of-mouth around the caves.

After a few more moments, he eyed over the painting.

The end result was good, Imp realized, as he stepped back. He held the brush in one foot, in the manner of a parrot, and glanced to Fulgur with a grin. "All done, I think-... So, whaddya think? Am I missing anything?" And then, proudly: "If you like it, you can take it home! -Wherever home is. After it dries, I mean. Otherwise it'll get smeared to shit," he said, and laughed.

@Fulgur

That sounds... so much more reasonable. And probably something Fulgur could do. He hums in thought some, before getting back into his prior position as Imp returns to his painting.

And the Collector is a curious enough topic to talk about as well. "Hmmm... seems less a Collector and more an untrustworthy merchant." That's at least the idea Imp paints for him. "Maybe if I need something, I'll go to someone else."

He cranes forward some as Imp turns the easel again, six eyes eagerly taking in the painting. It's so... bright. So alive. So honestly him.


"...I love it. Thank you so much," Fulgur smiles. He pauses though, when Imp offers it to him. "...I thought this was for here, but... I could. I just... I don't know where I'd put it. I haven't exactly made a home for myself, quite yet..." Sure, he could put in his pouch, carry it with him, but this sort of thing should be displayed. "How about you keep it for now, hang it up in your room. And when I have a place to put it, I'll take it then?"

@Imp

Imp laughed, good-natured and pleased. "Shit, dude, I can hang it right in the palace halls!" he crowed. "Whaddya think? Right where everyone will see it? You'll be the talk of the Palace for weeks, I promise." This guy wanted to be known? "You'll have people goin', 'hey, didn't I see you in the Palace, on a painting? You must be somebody important!'" Imp grinned, scrabbling down from the easel and holding a taloned foot up to frame an invisible painting: "Right alongside the Masters!"

He eyed Fulgur again, even as he settled the foot back on the floor, where it most definitely belonged. "Anyway, glad you like it! Thanks for sittin' so still. And to your, uh. ...Friends, too." A nod, then, to the flock. "I did plan to make two, though, you're right! I can do that now or later. I can make a small one for you to take with you, yeah! If you want? Now or later," he clarified--he couldn't exactly remember what he'd offered to begin with, now, but he was easygoing.

@Fulgur

As Fulgur listens to Imp's offer, his grin steadily grows. "...That would be wonderful." To be memorialized in these pristine halls... It's a gift he'll accept happily.

He shifts, stretching his wings a little, before glancing back at the easel. "I wouldn't mind another painting... but I think I'd like a break first. It's a little cramped in here, for me," he says, before glancing at the bottles of paint and dye. "If you need more of the paint, we could run and get some? Or come back another time. That's fine with me too."

@Imp