We’re here to elevate

[mal_contented]

[Feed on Mal, between missions and freshly washed, hair still damp, clothes clean and in place. The bruise over one eye is about the only evidence that she'd been out in the muck until a few hours ago.]

"Alright kids, time to see how many we can kill with one stone. You need your rooms painted, I need money and to blow off some stress. So. First come first serve so long as the pay is worth my time. You provide materials, money, and the wall, I provide the art. I figure I can do one or two when I get back from each mission. So, you got my contact info here. Zap me up."

[She was also considering painting on canvases for sale, but she needed to earn more than she was making doing hair first.... And you know, have more than one client at the salon... but that was a whole other issue....]

Comments

[mal_contented]

She considered and looked at the paperweight again. "What if I shifted the scale and made the window part of it?"

[takeitsleazy]

Michael gasped, thoroughly beside himself with excitement. "Yes." He nodded far more times than was necessary. "Yes, you're a genius! I love it!"

[mal_contented]

Evie is a genius. Carlton is a genius. The only time Mal ever received praise before coming here was in Auradon, where she was always lumped in with her other friends. So it wasn't exactly common for someone to call her so much as smart genuinely. Being called a genius was on a whole other level entirely. But his enthusiasm was catching, so she put how she felt about that aside for now, to figure out later.

She went back to the reference for what the box should be flying over. "Anything here I specifically should be careful not to lose in scaling?"

[takeitsleazy]

"The wheel, and the clock," he said, drumming his fingers against his chin. "The clock seems like it's kind of a big landmark, and the wheel is important because of a memory, I guess? She told me a story about something that happened underneath it once. But I think you could probably play around with it. That's kind of the point of art, right? To make things the way you see them, not necessarily the way they are? I ... wouldn't know, I don't do it much. Aside from that time in the tent."

[mal_contented]

She grinned. "Yeah, I can make it work. I can use a forced perspective to make it look like this thing is between the two. Should be doable." Would be easier if she had some reference images from other angles, but she'd work with what she had.

[takeitsleazy]

There were plenty of other postcards, and pictures in the book. Michael flipped through it, looking for other images, until he found a few and turned it around to show her. "Would this help?"

[mal_contented]

"Yes, thank you. How long have I got before they come in?"

[takeitsleazy]

He glanced up at the clock on the wall. "Still getting used to linear time in actual human increments," he confessed. "When the big hand is on the twelve and the little one is on the nine is usually when the Doctor gets back. And then Rose gets back maybe half an hour after that?"

[mal_contented]

"Not much time to work with here," she said, completely unaware of why that was funny. "Alright. Going to need some music, loud, some strong black coffee, and then going to need you to get out of my way. take them out to dinner or something to buy me a few more hours."

[takeitsleazy]

"Loud music, I can do, the Doctor's got a stereo around here somewhere." He immediately started to bustle around the apartment, and soon collected the radio, setting it up on a nearby table, and pulled out a bag of the coffee the Doctor favored, too.

"Here you go. I ... can't quite get it right when I make it yet, do you know how?"

[mal_contented]

She shook her head. "I always buy my coffee. Never had to make it for myself." She fished in her pocket and pulled out a little munny. "Tell the person making the coffee to make it black as a villain's soul." She considered then also pulled out her keys and dangled them. "There is a CD on the table next to my bed, you can grab that. Leave my roommate's stuff alone. My bed should be the easy one to find, I use more purple, she uses more red with our black."

[takeitsleazy]

"She's the one with the thing for cameras, right? Yeah, I can handle that... Keep your munny, I've got the coffee." He gave her his customary pat on the shoulder and grin before heading for the door with a thumbs-up. "Back in a flash."

[mal_contented]

She nodded, put on whatever CD was in the player and got to work while she waited. She really didn't have much time, for the scale of the project. But she needed the release of art. And knowing caffeine was coming helped.

[takeitsleazy]

Not much later, he returned with her coffee and the CDs from her room, slipping in quietly so as not to disturb her and setting the coffee down near the spray paint cans. With a cup of his own in hand, he settled down to watch her work, absolutely enthralled - even more so than he had been as she worked in her tent. He'd known she was good, but seeing what she could do with more than just a few colors was jaw-dropping.

[mal_contented]

She grabbed the coffee between colors and drained half of it in a sip before swapping CDs. she flipped on the random and gott back to work as asong played. She started moving to the music, singing along as she worked. As the caffeine worked through her. Paint, good music, and black coffee. If not for the danger all around them this could almost be happiness.

[takeitsleazy]

He left her to her work after a while, puttering around in his corner of the apartment and tending to his own things. Once it got close to the time when the Doctor and Rose were due to come home, he popped back into the living room to check her progress.

"Okay, I'm going to take them out to the Red Wagon for a nice long, fancy dinner," he grinned. "You want me to bring you back anything? There are sandwiches and something called a Shepherd's Pie in the fridge in case you get hungry for something more than candy. Help yourself to anything."

[mal_contented]

"I'm a VK, pretty much never going to turn down an offer of food that isn't poisoned or moldy," she pointed out, nearly as covered in paint as the wall was.

Which was both a yes to bringing her back something and a no, you won't have any food left in the fridge when she leaves.

But the painting was going well, she was making good progress. Though there were some songs she kept darting to the player to skip, keeping to the higher energy ones and skipping the slow ones, especially the jazzy ones. Freddie's vibe did not play well with her art. At least, it wasn't playing well today.

[takeitsleazy]

"Right, right. So, chicken, beef, or fish, I guess is the better question. I'll surprise you with something of whichever you want." He ducked into the fridge and came up with a small pitcher of black iced coffee, setting it on the counter for her, since he was sure the one he'd brought was long gone. "And dessert. They have really good cake."

[mal_contented]

Oh well past long gone. She poured herself a glass as she considered his question. She resisted the urge to answer "yes" though it was tempted. "Let's go beef." Not a big sea food fan, all things considered. Though she'd eat it if given it. She was a VK, she might have preferences but she was never so picky as to turn her nose up at food.

She was guarded enough not to ask if they had anything strawberry for dessert, though.

She took a long drink of coffee then got back to painting. "Cake sounds good, always liked cake once I figured out which bits were mold and which bits were actually supposed to be that color. Still not sure I see the point in blue cake." Auradonians.

[takeitsleazy]

"Beef, got it. Annnnd not-blue cake." He smiled, snapping his fingers and pointing at her. "I think humans like to see how many colors they can make a thing, but anything blue just always tastes like ... blue." He wrinkled his nose. "Or like that modeling clay that comes in the yellow plastic jars. I like when they make things red or yellow a lot better. I'll bring you a red thing."

Prepare to eventually be introduced to red velvet cake, Mal. And please don't ask how he knows what Play-Doh tastes like.

[mal_contented]

She was a starving kid on the Isle. She knows what a stomach ache from too much play-dough feels like.

She shrugged. "Not everything. Blueberry tarts aren't that bad." People might keep bringing them to Evie.

[takeitsleazy]

"That's different, though, that's a real blue thing. I'm talking about the taste of fake blue things." He chuckled. "Anyway, I've gotta jet -" the briefest flash of glee in his eyes at crossing another expression off his bucket list - "before they start thinking something's up. Have fun! I'll see you later!"

[mal_contented]

She absently waved her free hand at him. "Enjoy dinner. Want me gone before you get back, or waiting for the grand reveal?"

[takeitsleazy]

"Entirely up to you." He smiled at her over his shoulder. He knew Mal wasn't exactly Rose's biggest fan, but... "But I do know from experience that people's opinions tend to change a little when they find out someone's done something nice for them. Wink."

Yes. Yes, he actually winked and said 'wink'.

[mal_contented]

She shrugged. "Not many people here who have an opinion I care about," she pointed out as she started to get back to work. "Also winking is supposed to be subtle, saying wink when you do it ruins the effect if you weren't going for humour." That was said as advice from a friend tring to help, but wasn't dripping sappines. It just wasn't snarked or snapped like it might have been.