Gotta Love That Smell...

[[Gene]]

Hungry...Stomach..eating me...must...find...food! Her mind screamed as her little stroll in Noatak got the best of her without eating the most valuable and important meal of the day, breakfast. This hunger was becoming quite painful and drinking solely hot chocolate wasn't making it any better, but it surely did smelled good.

Yes, she purchased the hot chocolate right up at The Nine Muses Cafe, but at the moment when she stepped foot outside was the cafe shop, her stomach cried for real food rejecting the taste of cinnanmon rolls and danishes. Gene still was getting acquainted with the town, so she didn't knew which particular direction to take. Hopefully her hungry stomach would enhance her sense of smell to find the closet good smell of food. Right there on the corner it hit her, the smell of hot tomatoe sauce, cheeses and other ingredients, which led her to one conclusion, pizza.

Her long cargo khaki pants swished together as she swiftly crossed the street, while sipping the hot chocolate. Feeling some spill, her hand idly brushed away chocolate droplets from her black fitted top. It had an infamous angry ranting squirrel named Foamy holding a french fry yelling, 'Someone should stab you in the eye with a really hot french fry.'

Pushing the door open, she made a b-line to the cashier to make an order. She nearly forgot what to see as her mouth watered as the smell of fresh pizza grew stronger, "One slice of sausage pizza and fries. Also can you add pineapple to the pizza." Once recieving a friendly smile and nod, she replied with a thanks, paid and recieved her reciept and order, and walked towards a lone booth with her hot chocolate, a notebook with an automatic pencil in the wired spine, and a bookbag purse.

Sitting back into the cool material of the booth she sighed, "Gotta love that smell."

With a sip of hot chocolate, she waited patiently, since they hardly had costumers who wanted pineapple with their pizzas. It didn't bother her or her stomach. In the meantime, she would just sketch to her heart's content. On a lonely sheet of blue lined paper was an iris. The rest of the eyes wasn't drawn, but it surely looked animalistic.

[Aras|Ofelia]

An-qi was not a morning person. The only thing that made mornings even worth getting up for was breakfast. Which had been the reason she'd even woken up before noon today. Quite unfortunately, the dogs had eaten all the food at their apartment. Or, more likely, it was On-ji, and she was merely pinning the blame on Gobshite and Schadenfreude simply because they couldn't protest. Either way, Schadenfreude just wagged her tail joyfully at An-qi's cantankerous grumbling this morning. She swore the German Shepherd mix was sadistic.

Hooking a leash on Schadenfreude's collar (she wasn't going to bring Gobshite; humping was not for public eyes), An-qi went into town in search of food. She'd stopped grumbling by the time she left her neighborhood because it was highly disconcerting to see her dog so apparently happy due to her suffering.

The moment the unmistakable smell of pizza hit her nostrils, she looked frantically around for its origin. It wasn't too difficult to figure out; a worn sign nearby proclaimed "Uncle Sam's Pizza Pies" for the street to see, and An-qi jogged to the door, Schadenfreude trotting along beside her.

Barely anyone spared a glance at the dog when she entered. Noatak's citizens were probably used to this sort of thing, she supposed. As long as Schadenfreude didn't leave any messes on the floor, they wouldn't be kicked out. But then again, the Shepherd mix might do it just because she'd find it funny.

Quickly placing an order, she walked back to her chosen table with a mug of coffee. Schadenfreude had other ideas, however. With a sharp tug on the leash, she pulled An-qi in the direction of another customer: a young woman, sketching.

She let her dog drag her along. It wouldn't hurt to let the Shepherd mix explore a bit. "Hey, watch out, you probably don't want dog slobber on that sketchbook of yours," An-qi told the woman.

[[Gene]]

Looking up to hear the voice, Gene chuckled at the statement once seeing a woman dragged into view by a curious German shepherd. Her eyes went back down to the canine, while scooting her sketch to her right further away from the curious animal.
“No, I wouldn’t want that today,” Gene replied to the dog’s owner before talking to the dog, “Well aren’t you the curious one.”

“What’s your dog name?” Gene’s head cocked to the side looking into the dog’s eyes, which seemed friendly. Then again, who would travel about with a finicky dog, which may sway their mind from gentle to vicious? With that in mind, she felt comfortable enough to sip at her hot chocolate without watching the German shepherd, but face the other.

Her green eyes caught the deep chocolate iris rimmed by black lashes in a formation generally found in Asians. Even her charcoal black hair was smooth, but cropped short at her chin. The highlights stood out from the black in streaks of red. With the lighting of the pizza pallor, the dog’s owner looked a bit tired. Not only did her expression spoke it, the smell of coffee from her mug was strong to rip through the smell of pizza.

Well I’m not the only one who needs a kick start in their day…

Now her face would forever be in Gene’s memory. If only she had a name to match with the face. It would broaden her little book of “People I’ve Met”, since this portion of the world was still foreign to her. Now she wondered how wise it was on her part. She came all the way to Canada for a little vacationing to bring back so inspiration in her life, and already she felt socially deprived from society.

“You don’t have to stand there, since there’s so much room in this booth.” Her hand tapped the other end of the table where there was free space. It would relieve the unwanted solitude she had, and the newcomer would know at least one other person excluding herself. “Oh, I’m Gene, short for Genevieve. And you are?”

[Aras|Ofelia]

"Schadenfreude. Freud for short, even though she's a she." An-qi scratched the dog behind the ears as she studied the young woman before her. Thin, hair in a ponytail, and comfortably dressed. Her T-shirt was... interesting, to say the least, and An-qi's lips quirked into a small smile at the sight of the ill-tempered squirrel.

Schadenfreude sniffed the stranger, tail still swinging back and forth but with less verve than before. Technically, the Shepherd mix wasn't her dog--she shared her with On-ji and Bian Ly--but An-qi was too lazy and not quite awake enough to explain this to someone she'd just met. It would have taken effort.

With only the briefest of hesitations, An-qi accepted the woman's invitation to take the seat across from her. She wasn't exactly feeling social at this time in the morning, and now she would have to think of interesting things to say, but at least it might be slightly better than sitting alone at a booth. She had Schadenfreude with her, though, so it would be somewhat less awkward conversing with a stranger. Animals tended to have that effect on her.

"An-qi Tsai." She swallowed a mouthful of coffee and nearly gagged. It was scalding hot as well as bland, watery, and pretty much tasteless. And even if this sad excuse for coffee had, by any chance, trace amounts of caffeine, it would have no effect on her anyway. She'd get her coffee from the Nine Muses from now on, An-qi promised herself.

"And a word of advice: don't get the coffee."

[[Gene]]

An-qi Tsai and Schandenfruede...

She definitely admitted she wasn't expecting a name like that. Gene recited it mentally in her head not wanting to pronounce it wrong a lot; it was a pet peeve to not know a name correctly. It's just as irritating as remembering a face or a song, but never the name and the title. Also she had a strange respect for names with the philosophy, 'In the end of it all when everything is gone, all you have left is your name.'

Then again, I'm not to fond of my own name. It's so long for no particular reason; I doubt mom and dad know how difficult it was to spell that name at a young age. Tsk, what a cruel and unusual punishment.

"I think I'll stick with Frued. I rather not tatter a name like a meat butcher." A brow perked at the heavy grimace on An-qi's face. Her mind formulated of what the coffee may taste like. To get a face like that on her own face, it would be bitter with the taste of some kind of metal. Understanding, Gene nodded at the advice. "I will remember that. That's why I always get hot chocolate; it can hardly disappoint."

Looking back at the sketch, Gene decided to put it aside. She couldn’t get anything out of it like how her creativity was a dry as a desert. The eye was left alone without a body to complete it; every now and then Gene felt the same incompletion, but simply kept that to herself. It wasn’t like she had a close friend to pour it all out to here. It would just be another subject for her long distance unlimited texting. Hearing an order number be called, she looked up, while raising her receipt to eye level. Patience was a virtue after all.

“One moment,” she muttered as she got up to grab her slice of pizza and plate of fries. Her stomach growled lowly as she walked back to the table being tortured with having two hands full without a spare to poke a fry in her mouth. Placing the food down, a fry was placed in her mouth before disappearing. “If you’re hunger out weighs your patience, you can have some.”

[Aras|Ofelia]

"Freud won't try to psychoanalyze you, don't worry." An-qi grinned. "Well, perhaps she might. You just wouldn't know." She ran her fingers through the Shepherd mix's fur. "You would, wouldn't you?" This was directed at the dog, who sat down and thumped her tail against the floor before focusing her attention back on the woman, Gene. The Shepherd mix's head was cocked to one side, ears turned forward, the very picture of canine curiosity.

An-qi made another face at the coffee. "I'll take your word for it. Though I actually have had bad hot cocoa before. Too watery." A wry chuckle. "There's always some way to ruin what should be good food."

Excusing herself, Gene got up to get her pizza. An-qi's stomach protested, quite audibly, at the thought of food. Normally, she'd think pizza too greasy for breakfast, but Sam's had been the first restaurant she'd come across today. She was going to have a word or two with On-ji once she had gotten some form of sustenance.

When Schadenfreude perked up at the sight and smell of food, An-qi placed a restraining hand on her collar. "Down, you. That's not for you," she told the dog despite her own persistent temptation to steal the pineapples off Gene's pizza.

The woman's generous offer was met with a smile, but An-qi shook her head. If they were friends, she would not have hesitated to grab herself a fry. However, they'd only just met, and though her stomach continued to make its displeasure known, it would just be weird to take food from a stranger's plate.

She gestured at the sketchbook, trying to distract herself from her hunger. "You're an artist?"

[[Gene]]

Gene chuckled at the ugly truth, "It seems like a purpose for some places to drop the ball on occassions like giving you a flat soda without realizing it. Then again, when you're hungry, tolerance seems to last much longer and become more flexible."

Her hair swayed with the shake of her head at the comical look on the dog face at rejection. "I doubt you would want to get sick from eating cheesy pizza."

In her childhood, she lacked a pet or any family dog; she had enough siblings to make up for it, but looking a freude made her concluded that she was cheated. Her younger brothers weren't as amusing or cute company. At times they could be humorous, but they truly knew how to overdo things to the extreme. Looking up from the dog, she heard a question directed towards the plain notebook next to her. Her nose wrinkled as she repeated the question herself.

"Somewhat, if an artist would do something like this, incomplete every single time." She turned the sketchbook around with the pads of her fingers. Within the vast white blue-line page was a single eye standing out like a black splatter of ink on flawless white paper. "I try to continue, but I always run into an impentratable artist block; the same is said for my writing."

The warmth of the pizza with the saltiness of its cheese, distinctive taste of sausage, and the sweetness of pineapple rippled throughout Gene's coldness of failure. It gave a sense of heat and warmth that didn't come from her pencils or fingers when it came to sketching and typing. The bite hit the spot filling the empty pit of her stomach. She took another eager bite loving the taste and the feeling of hunger ebbing away.

"It's really nothing and may always stay like that." Gene shrugged and ate another fry or two. Reaching over, she grabbed the ketchup bottle and squirted a hard stream next to the fries for dipping. "You know the offer still stands. Waiting can really make hunger worse."

[Aras|Ofelia]

An-qi smirked. "Maybe that's why some places have such intolerably slow service: so you'll eat just about anything they put in front of you. Then again, I'm more likely to get even more pissed off if the food's as terrible as the service. Kind of counterproductive, if you ask me."

She gave Schadenfreude a couple of pats when the dog whined at the absence of any food for her. "See? Even Gene says so. Besides, I already fed you. Trying to eat away my savings, are you?"

Smile turning sympathetic when the young woman told her of her lack of inspiration, An-qi shrugged. "Hey, doesn't make you any less of an artist if you don't always finish. But I definitely understand where you're coming from--I seem to have this incurable creative block most of the time. Once in a while I'll have an idea or two, but far less often than I'd like." She ran a finger over the smooth texture of the paper. The book wasn't very professional-looking, but An-qi never understood the point of the so-called sketchbooks filled with thick, high-quality paper. She could never bring herself to just doodle on those beautiful pages.

"You know the offer still stands. Waiting can really make hunger worse."

"Well yes, generally, you get hungrier if you don't put any food in your stom--hold that thought." A voice from behind the counter had called out her order; her pizza was ready. Almost leaping to her feet, An-qi strode rapidly over to the counter, leash still looped around her wrist, Schadenfreude trotting alongside her to keep pace.

Both woman and dog sat down when they got back to the booth. Schadenfreude looked at her with pleading eyes. "Oh, all right, you can have something." She searched her tray for something appropriate, finally settling on a bit of crust. She figured it was one of the few things that wouldn't give the unsuspecting Shepherd mix an instant heart attack. Schadenfreude snatched the crust out of her hands and gobbled it down, satisfied for the time being.

"Anyway." This was said around a mouthful of tomato-spinach-mushroom. "I'd love to see anything you're willing to show me, finished or not."

[[Gene]]

“Oh thanks, I’ll keep that in mind whenever I think of something else to scribble down complete or not. If I keep going on like this, this whole page would look like a collage of incomplete doodles. Then again, how many people do that; purposely leave an image incomplete…”

She wiggled the pencil between her fingers with her wiggly brows as if she got a hold of a vanishing idea. With her free hand, she gripped the crust of her pizza to fill her mouth with the salty sweetness of tomato sauce, cheese, and pineapple.

“Sounds like I may have found a new ‘lazy but still artistic’ method. So what ideas you had that were able to appear through the thick hefty wall was creative block?” Without curiosity, there won’t be any questions or discovery; also Gene wouldn’t be having a conversation with anyone eating her pizza alone in a new environment with a heavy layer of unwanted solitude.

(Schmee shortness)

[Aras|Ofelia]

"Hey, I've got to disagree with you there. Art comes with hard work."

An-qi took a couple of moments to swallow the bite of pizza before she answered again. "Can't say I've had too much experience with two-dimensional media, so that's where most of my artistic blocks originate. I sketch, and I've done some digital stuff, but painting and watercolor I've never really tried.

"Ceramics, though--" her face lit up at the mention-- "clay is my medium. I can sit at a wheel for hours on end, and I'll have something to show for the time spent." Her grin turned a bit sardonic. "I'd urge you to try it, but this town seems to suffer from a deplorable lack of studios." As well as a deplorable lack of just about everything else, including good restaurants, well-stocked grocery stores, a large bookstore, and generally sane people--though Gene was apparently one of the sane ones, oddly enough.

She slipped another bit of crust to the dog. "What about you, then? Any love for a certain medium? And d'you know of any good studios or art stores around here?"

[[Gene]]

"Ceramics," Gene repeated testing the word out. Yes she heard of it, but never was acquainted with it. "I will try it out once finding a suitable workshop around here, but from your statement and question I doubt I would find one easily. Perhaps there's one outside of this town."

Placing the pizza down, she worked her way over to the fries to enjoy the diversed tastes. "As for me, I think I like watercolors as my favorite mediums. Sure there's acrylics and oils, but you have to do so many layers to make it look decent, and for some reason I can't stand working on a background for days. Many artists say you should work on the background, then the subject and excess details to get that perfection without worrying about painting around the main focal point."

Gene shrugged with a sigh, "I like to go straight at the focal point and what not. With watercolors, you don't have to do a background. Actually I doubt it's wise to, your paper will get all wavy. In short, with water colors I don't feel presurred to not leave white paper behind."

[Aras|Ofelia]

An-qi waited to swallow her pizza before she let out an quiet snort at Gene's suggestion. "Hah, there are probably plenty outside this town. It's just that the nearest civilized place is, I don't know, a good three hours away. Maybe two if you ignore the speed limit. So unfortunately, I am--and will be--starved of clay for a while."

She made an equivocal noise that could have been anything from agreement to a meaningless grunt. "Like I've said, I haven't actually tried my hand at painting before. There was finger-painting in preschool, but I don't think that really counts. I know a bit about digital painting, but I don't think I could survive without the 'undo' button. I do think there's something to be said for doing backgrounds first, though. It helps you get the lighting and atmosphere correct."

Taking a break from her pizza, An-qi took a few sips of her iced tea. She'd evidently been hungrier than she thought; while she was pretty much down to the crust of her slice, Gene was barely halfway with hers. Plus, she had to deal with all those fries. "Really? I thought that just depended on the type and quality of paper you used. I've seen some pretty nice watercolor backgrounds before."