It's not horribly raining today. It's a nice, warm summer day. Not too hot, there's a slight breeze blowing about- but it isn't torrential. The ocean has some nice waves today-- not large. Not strong. Waves lap at the sand on the nearby, but still a little far off beach.
Reiko Touyama is here, with her long bouncy orange hair, sitting on a bench facing the ocean. She has setup an easel and appears to be finishing a sketch of the coastline in the distance. She's gotten the amusement park in there. In the distance, Sunset Tower is drawn, overall, it's a very good piece that looks to come from someone who should be three or four times her age.
She hasn't even gotten to painting it yet! But soon.
Nearby a tiny orange koi floats near the painting in progress in a beret-- and seems to be 'taping his foot' with one of it's fins arced down. He has an obnoxious large french-style mustache.
Kritic!Koi seems to be anaylzing the picture for whatever reason.
It is a lovely day to be down by the water, and Reiko isn't the only one taking advantage of it. Naru has her bag slung over her shoulder, strolling to be able to admire the view for the time being, enjoying an ice cream.
Perhaps this time, she'll actually get to finish her ice cream.
There's a pause, not so far from where Reiko is drawing to be able to loiter. Naru watches the sketching going on, rather than the scene it's being drawn from. She smiles, appreciative of more art en plein air, and gives the little koi in a beret just the barest nod of acknowledgement and greeting, not yet actively disturbing Reiko.
Reiko Touyama leans back from the easel and smiles again. "There we go..." she mutters to herself as she takes the other end of the pencil--- not an eraser on that end. Like a proper artists pencil- and proceeds to go over the piece as to make sure she didn't miss anything, or make an error. Looking at the canvas. Then looking back up. Canvas. Back up.
The Kritic!Koi looks to Naru. Gives Naru a sterotypical snooty french 'hrmph!' and pulls out a tiny clip board, draws a letter on it and stamps it to the bottom corner of the canvas. *pamf!*
Reiko blinks. "What!? a /B/!? This is A stuff!" she scowls, but before she can debate the koi- who probably can't 'talk' anyways- it dissapears into orange sparkles and she groans miserably.
"...everyone's a critic." she mutters as she blinks over to Naru a bit, and head tilts.
"Oh. uh. Hi!" she says.
The antics of the koi make Naru laugh warmly and she waggles her fingers in a wave with her free hand. "Everyone's a critic." She agrees with a warm smile. "Hi."
The greeting prompts her to move a bit closer, to come better into conversational range. "I think it looks pretty good. It'll really pop if you're just using it as a guideline sketch for colour." Naru comments as she considers the work. "Have you been painting for long?"
Reiko Touyama nods a bit. "Yup! I'm using it as a guideline. Sketching on canvas alone would be silly." she says. She head tilts. "Are you an artist too?" she asks as she head tilts. "Well, what do you mean by 'long'?" she asks.
"I've been drawing since I was very little. But if you mean 'right now', then maybe an hour or so. Usually. I like to draw things from my head. But. I have a piece I need to do for Seishou's Elementary Grade hallway."
She grins. "I've been working extra hard making it all pretty." she says as she lowers her pencil.
She removes a few tubes of oil paints- and a palette. She looks to the skyline again, and the ocean and then purses her lips. She hasn't began mixing paints yet.
"Oh! Um. My name's Reiko Touyama! Seishou's Art Club." she says softly.
"Since you were very little is the general answer I was expecting." Naru grins brightly and then nods. "Yes. I'm an artist too." She confirms and then gestures. "I rarely paint when I'm out though, I hate coping with the mess of it. I sketch when I'm out and about, and then paint later."
"Pleasure to meet you, Reiko." Naru quirks her head. "I'm Naru Osaka.. I go to Seishou too, but I think a few grades ahead of you. I really should join the art club. It's silly that I haven't, honestly."
Reiko Touyama begins mixing colors, she seems to be going for a ocean first, trying to get that 'sea green' color- rather than just going for 'blue'. She gets it mostly well. Then? Then she begins painting. Very carefully, making peaked waves with her brush as she purses her lips.
Another koi pops up. This one just seems to be watching over Reiko's shoulder intently and tapping a fin to the bottom of it's chin.
"What kind of mediums do you like to work, Naru?" she asks with a smile.
"Good colour." Naru comments as she lingers, eating her ice cream and watching. Back seat painter, the worst kind.
"I am usually in pencil or pen and ink almost all of the time." Naru replies and then considers that a moment. "Although I also work in larger scale oils, and I've taken a commission for a mural, which is going to be all new, and exciting. I'm really looking forward to getting out of design stage on that one and actually getting colour on the walls. Just need to get the renovations to where it won't be horribly dusty first." She gestures a little. "You? Do you prefer to paint?"
Reiko Touyama carefully paints waves. She's good at this. "I'm my best with sketching and painting and illustrating." she says matter of factly. "Though I guess I have my dobuts because the....."
"....koi.... gave me a...."
"Waiiiiit a minute. You saw the koi, right!?" she asks with wide eyes. "Neat! Not many people can see them unless like. You're magical or now about the stuff." she says.
"Oh! Um. Sketching and painting. I illustrate well. I've been getting into chocolate molding as of late." she says softly.
"Not very good at it yet, but I'm getting better." she smiles. "--as silly as it sounds to scult chocolate..." she says gently.
"I think the koi was just being a jerk." Naru comments with a little smile and nods. "Not magical, but know about the stuff. Some of it at least."
"Chocolate sculpting?" Naru blinks and her face lights up. "That sounds so cool! It doesnt sound silly at all. No sillier than when I decided to make little critters out of rice krispie squares because it was better than than worrying about my friends. I'm going to bet your chocolate was better than my critters. But it was /fun/."
Reiko Touyama laughs and blushes. "Ahahaha--- I got into it because one of my ex-boyfriends decided to give me some perfectly sculpted koi for White Day. So. I went and made something special for him later. I sculpted. Flowers. Because. He ran a flower shop. But. He had to move away." she says a little miserably.
"Well." she says with a smile. "I had to learn to sculpt my own molds. I still use kind of premade chocolate though." she says.
"I just. Kind of dabble in a lot really, when it comes to art." she beams.
She sort of deflates. "Infinity University wants me because of it. But. I wanna keep at Seishou." she says softly.
"That sounds so sweet, to do that for your beau." Naru smiles gently, just a hint of sadness in her tone. "I'm sorry he had to move away though, that must have been hard."
"Premade chocolate is very reasponable, I mean.. what other kind of chocolate is there? Mashing up your own cocoa beans seems rather excessive, all in all." Naru hrms softly and then gives a little shrug.
"Dabbling is how you find out what you love, and keep things interesting. There's nothing wrong with it. I just.. haven't much. I should branch out." Naru quirks her head. "If you want to stay at Seishou, than stay at Seishou. It's a perfectly good school."
Reiko Touyama grumbles. "Parents want me to go to Infinity and ugh..I'll be taking another stupid entrance text and I'll ace it like always and then my parents will be dissapointed in me again. Even though I barely see them..." she mutters.
She blinks. "So you know about magic, but aren't... magical. Okay." she says quietly. She shrugs. "My koi are produced by my Chroma Prism. I don't have any control over them. Well. Not full control. Usually they just respond to my thoughts and emotions. They're projections and don't... usually talk. They do interact thou." she says.
She has finished the first coat of the ocean's blue-green as she begins to splut some white onto the pallete.
"Art is important to me. My friend, Mei-chan, is a very good writer!" she says. "I liked to draw for her stories." she says softly. "And illustrate her concepts."
"Oh." Naru's voice is entirely sympathetic on that point. "Parental interference. I understand that entirely. Why would they be disappointed by you aceing an exam?" Naru asks curiously before taking another bite of ice cream.
There's a little nod at the puzzling out of her magical status. "Exactly. It's unusual but not unheard of. I think its from sheer proximity to a swack of magical friends, but I got kidnapped and remembered it, and that was basically the start of me noticing." She is thoughtful a few moments. "I don't think I know much about Chroma Prism at all. It's colourful, I'm going to guess by the name?" She speculates, thoughtfully.
"Having a writing friend you can illustrate for is just /brilliant/." Naru whistles softly. "I'm jealous of you there. I just work with things from my own life, rather than someone's stories."
Reiko Touyama mmmms. "Not dissapointed in me acing it. Dissapointed that I still won't go to Infinity U." she mutters. "They tried to make me one time, but Grandpa stopped that for me." she says softly. She softly head tilts as she turns to Naru.
"Chroma Prism. Um. Mine is Orange. There's one for all the colors of the rainbow- and pink." she says softly. "There's only the eight."
"I can go into more detail if you want." she says quietly as she begins to add white peaks to the waves were appropiate.
"Yeah... Mei's really good at writing too." she smiles.
"Yellow!" Naru has that ah ha moment of trying to remember something and finally getting it. "I met Yellow when we were fighting Fiore's flowers, but we didn't exactly take the time to chat or get names, or exchange numbers or anything." She smiles brightly. "I would love to hear more detail, to be honest. I am eternally curious, it's one of my main downfalls, I swear."
"Ahhh. I can see how your parents would be disappointed on that point. Why do they want you to go to Infinity so badly?"
"Perahps I might read one of Mei's stories that you've illustrated someday?" Naru asks hopefully.
Reiko Touyama frowns. "They just want the best for me. But. If I go to Infinity... I miss all my friends. And we have special places here! Infinity is just a big, concrete campus." she makes a face.
Then she 'ohs!'. "Well. Me and my friends used to play a game... pretend magical girls. But everyone split up when...."
She shakes her head. "That isn't really important I guess." she says. "But something made that story real. That involved using Chroma Prisms to protect color from The Grey Kingdom." she says softly.
"...Yellow! So you've met Yellow- okay!" she beams.
She continues working as she talks.
"Mei's.. been busy and hasn't had time for writing." she says a little sadly. "But... um."
She rattles off the URL of some free webhost addresss. "Go there. That's a comic me and Mei did when the play ended-- to keep the story going!" she smiles.
"You'll get to make new friends. I know people who go to Infinity and they're pretty awesome too." Naru assures with a smile. "I'm pretty sure every campus has special places, you just need to find them."
"So you protect colour?" Naru speculates quietly, thoughtfully. "That's really interesting, actually. Is the Grey Kingdom actively trying to harm this world?" She asks and then digs into her bag to dig out her own sketchbook and a pencil.
"If I don't write down that address, I'll never remember." Naru admits with a sheepish little smile, flipping past a few of her own drawings to find somewhere to jot it down.
Reiko Touyama frowns. "My special places are important, Naru-san. I just can't replace them..." she says softly. She sighs a bit. "I just want my friends to be happy. I mean..."
"We didn't talk for years. Though we tried. And it took... this stupid kids story coming to life to bring everyone back together again." she says softly.
"The Grey Kingdom wants to steal color. When color is stolen. Things... kind of stop happening in that area? Like. People just sort of become zombie like or collapse into unconciousness. Everythings all boring and monochrome. They typically use monsters called 'Shades' to do this." she says.
"Griselda is the Princess of the Grey Kingdom. She's bad news. She wants to destroy our Prisms. Without the Prisms. Well. Our specific color stops 'existing'." she says.
She finishes the water and smiles a bit as she taps her chin a bit.
"Hrmmm..." she mutters a bit.
"To my mind, it's not replacing them, it's adding to them. The other special places dont vanish, you're just adding to your options." Naru explains. "That being said, I'm not in your head, to know how you feel about them. Your friends aren't going to hate you just for going to another school, especially with the connection you have with the story now."
"That sounds horrific." Naru frowns a little. "Shades.. I haven't met one of those yet. Nor have I noticed colour leaving.. I'd absolutely notice /that/." She hrms softly. "Right, so no destroying Prisms, I'd rather not have to do without various colours. I dont want to think about what that would do to /you/ either."
Reiko Touyama doesn't wanna get into the politics of 'Mei's been trying forever to get into Infinity' with her being able to ace it easily. So instead she shrugs. "I think they would hold it against me!" is all she says.
She frowns. "It's bad. Very bad. We dunno what exactly happens, but it's bad." she says. "We know it's some kind of energy drain. And our Color Energy works VERY well against a Shade--- and that Color Energy works very well against other similar creatues like that." she nods matter of factly.
"I'm 'Orange'." she says. "...and when I think about that, I think of koi!" she giggles. "So. I project koi and use them to fight." she says. "Yellow has her stars." she says.
"Pink has cameras." she pauses. "She's a photographer. So." she giggles. "Red uses roses." she says softly. "And Blue summons blue tropical frogs." she says.
"...The others haven't 'woken up' yet." she says. "Just..." she sighs a bit.
"Do shades drain energy from others?" Naru asks, out of almost absent curiosity and possibly just to add to her list of 'things likely to use me as a chew toy'. There's a bit of a smile and a nod. "Yellow's stars worked pretty well against Fiore's flowers. She was impressive to watch."
There's a slow nod with little smiles as Naru hears about the other colours. "I love the mix of different things." She comments and then quirks her head. "Just..?" A gentle prompt, encouraging Reiko to go on with that thought.
Reiko Touyama sort of deflates. "We know who they /most likely/ are because... everyone that's a Prism Keeper so far, had been involved with the game at one point or another." she says gently. "But.. just. It's hard. You know? To throw someone into this." she says quietly. "Don't wanna see my friends hurt." she says gently.
"I don't even know if someone else can become a Prism Keeper." she says softly.
"Or if other Prisms will exist. Like. I dunno. 'Prism Keeper Magenta' or something." she shrugs sheepishly.
"I know so little myself. We don't even know why the story became real, or anything like that." she says quietly. "And our guidance doesn't know either. Three bird mascots. Roy. Gigi and Biv." she says matter of factly.
"It's brutally hard to know that your friends are getting into dangerous situations. Even when you know that they've got mad skillz to help." Naru nods sympathetically. "From the other side of it.. it's just as hard watching your friends go off to do big impressive things and know that you're not able to help, or even contribute at all. I'd rather know, and be able to help as I can, than not, personally."
Naru nods a little. "That seems to be how most of them go, honestly. It happens, or it doesn't, and Fate seems to be the deciding factor. Not always, there's exceptions of course, but most of the time it just seems to be thrust upon people, without a lot of warning or preparation or consent."
"I'd expect you're curious, I know I'd be curious." Naru hunhs softly and then smiles. "What are they like? Your bird guidance?"
Reiko Touyama shakes her head. "I had consent. But. My friend was being hurt." she says quietly. "She'd been acting really strange and getting hurt a lot. I found out it's because the 'game' became real and she was a Prism Keeper. Roy gave me my Prism because Red needed help."
"I'm always curious about it. But there's not much to go on. Most of what I know has been from observations..." she says as she gently wipes off her palette with a towel. Is she done? Getting new colors setup? She's putting tubes away, so probably packing up.
She sighs a bit as she lets the colors dry. "I'll finish this up at home now that I have the sketch there." she says.
She mehs a bit. "'Mascots'." she says softly. "Talking birds! Roy is curtly british cardinal." she smirks. "Biv is a motherly bluejay... and Gigi is a tiny green parrot who's thier kid." she says softly. "They appeared when the game became real-- nesting in what used to be the story Mei wrote about our game."
"Hunh. How much did you know when you agreed to your Prism?" Naru asks, gently curious. "Which is prying, forgive me for being so bold." Naru drops her head, apologetically. "It is a noble cause, to help your friends when they need you. I don't blame you at all."
Naru quirks her head and nods. "There's a lot to be said for observations, but it's true.. you can't really know for certain if its the truth or merely speculation." She smiles at the description of the birds. "They sound fascinating. I have pretty much lost my shock at talking animals at this point in my life, I have to admit. Very little surprises me anymore."
Reiko Touyama shrugs. "I knew what was attacking my friend was a Shade from the story because... uh. Well. /I drew it/." she says. "Part of the....game." she mutters. "It's another reason I agreed. Red... blames herself. Because she wrote the story. But. I drew the things, too. and those took the forms I drew..." she mutters.
"Not everything takes the forms I draw. Lots are new. But. I defintily drew the 'Garden Shade'." she says softly.
She gently packs her easel into a helpful container with a sling and gently holds her drying art piece as she's packed up.
"I should be going Naru." she beams. "Be sure to check the comic out if you can, okay!?" she asks.
"That has to be disturbing." Naru agrees and offers to hold the easel's bag for Reiko. "To see things you'd drawn take shape and cause your friends harm. I don't envy you that."
"Take care, Reiko. I'll check out the comic for certain." Naru waves her sketchbook with the written down address in it. "Hopefully I'll see you again soon." She gives a wave and then heads off. Ideally not to meet one of those Shades.