Open Old Little Me

[Astrid Freecss]

Unlike other kids, Astrid had never really been told to stay away from certain parts of the world. If anything, her dad encouraged it. She'd always thought that it was because Morrigan hadn't really turned out the way Daddy had wanted her to. Not to mention, the way his ex had run out on him, and so he said that he was definitely gonna get it right this time. She wondered sometimes if Uncle Aeron was as disappointed as he looked sometimes, but he'd never said as much. For the most part, Astrid was allowed to do what she wanted for as long as she could get herself out of any trouble she would have gotten into - that was at least expected. And well, she would like to claim that she doesn't get into trouble. At all. Besides, what's a little fun and exploring without a hint of trouble. It certainly wouldn't be an adventure if there are no dragons to take down. Not that Astrid was a particularly good knight. Or princess. She might be her Daddy's princess, but she's always liked the dragons in the story more. And dragons liked dark places where there's trouble to be had, because they are trouble. So yeah. Astrid doesn't get into trouble because she was the trouble. Which is why it would have been no surprise to her parents if they ever found out that she was in Bleak Street, idly painting the wall of one of the shops. It was looking a little... bleak after all. Sometimes you just really need a splash of color.​

 

[Annika Nightray]

Nik wasn’t technically supposed to be here. Kael-Oppa had told her specifically at least a dozen times not to go anywhere near Bleak street - something about it being dangerous and not a place for kids or something to that effect. But really, how dangerous could a street even be? Surely people had to come here to buy things right? So how could it honestly be dangerous. And surely if Kael-Oppa knew it was dangerous then he’d been here before, and that meant he’d managed alright, so if he could manage then she could manage because she was just as good thank you very much. Which was why she definitely wasn’t expecting to find another kid here - especially since she seemed to be casually painting a shop wall like it was somehow the most normal thing for her to be doing here in the world. See, not dangerous. Nik stopped a few feet away and tilted her head. “Is that your wall?” somehow she doubted it but she wasn’t about to jump to conclusions over here. She was really quite impressed actually, she was sure it took a lot of guts to be painting a wall in a public place like this.​

 

[Isla Warrick]

Should Isla have been in Bleak street? No. But her parents thought it had been a good idea to leave Mason to watch her while they caught up with some old friends and naturally, Isla had promptly shook her brother off in the crowd to go and explore. Supposedly, Bleak street was like Knockturn alley, she’d never had the privilege but she’d heard the stories. Now they were in a different country there were no stories, except the ones her parents had told them from their school years but both of them were too straight laces to have ever ventures down Bleak street. It was a blank slate, and a blank slate was too good to pass up.

Isla didn’t expect to find kids her age running around such a dark and dingy area. Maybe this place wasn’t so bad after all. One of them was painting one of the walls of the shop and the other had seemingly just arrived. Isla watched from a far before deciding at minimum, the girls weren’t going to eat her and might even match her vibe. “Nice colour,” She smiled at the two of them. “Bright pink wasn’t available?”

 

[Astrid Freecss]

Astrid grinned as two girls arrived while she was painting the wall of the shop a vibrant sky blue. Was this how people made friends? She'd never had a friend before. They'd never really stayed at a place long enough for Astrid to really go out, find other kids that she could terrorize befriend, and then hang out with. So this was definitely, definitely a novelty. Was the wall hers? Well, now it was. She's already marked it after all. "Finders keepers right?" Astrid's grin was entirely shark-like as she returned her attention to painting broad strokes with the only color she had. "And nah, this was the only thing I could nab from the store down the other street." Was the paint stolen? Astrid could neither confirm nor deny. Or perhaps she already did? Semantics, she thought. "Are ya just gonna watch me paint then? I don't have more brushes but I heard hand painting is a thing," she said with a shrug, swaying and humming as she painted to a song that was only playing in her head.​

 

[Annika Nightray]

Nik tilted her head, watching the girl for a moment like she was trying ti figure out if she was being actually for real or not. Hand painting? That sounded a little messier than Nik had been intending for today… but… she wrinkled her nose slightly at the idea, but after a beat, she shrugged and grinned. “I mean… it is kind of boring just standing here,” she said, because she didn’t want to just watch pint dry which is what she would be doing if she continued to just stand here and that would only make it easier for Mikael to find her. At least if she was painting a wall, he might look right past her, because she wasn’t one to usually just pain walls, especially not walls in Bleak Street and if she was with another group of girls well maybe that would hide her even more. “But I’m not getting paint all over my clothes. This is new.”

She smoothed her hand down the front of her clothes, and then grinned at the other girl, “Besides, bright pink would’ve been way better. This blue’s kind of… sad.” Still, she crouched down near the base of the wall and eyes a small section that the girl hadn’t managed to get to yet and dipped her fingers straight into the bucket without bothering to ask for permission - because finders keepers, right? - and then she dragged a streak of blue across the wall, as if she daring the other to call her out for it. “Now it’s our wall.” She said, nodding in approval.​

 

[Isla Warrick]

Blue was definitely not Isla’s colour but she would take what she could get. Finger painting sounded fun, it was something she dabbled in when she was much younger but in the absence of additional brushes she had little choice but to dip her fingers into the bucket and join the other girls painting the wall blue. “Sad, yeah you’re right, blue is always kind of sad,” Isla didn’t like blue all that much, it was cold and depressing. Pink on the other hand was vibrant, exciting and warm, but alas that wasn’t an option they had, she would have to make due.

Isla dragged her paint covered fingers across the wall, she didn’t make nearly as much impact as the girl with the brush but it didn’t matter, it was a team effort now. “It already looks better, sad, but better,”

 

[Astrid Freecss]

Astrid didn't really understand the fuss about new clothes. Does it matter if clothes were new? As long as they covered you up at just the right amount and they don't stink, she thought that it was enough. Oh and they were used to blend in. Can't forget that. Considering where they were though, they were hardly going to blend in. Or maybe they needed to be dressed in rags for that. But that involved stinky clothes in her opinion so it was just better to stand out. It was fine. They weren't doing anything criminal. Just painting. Astrid also didn't understand what made blue so sad. A colour was a colour. So yeah no, she didn't get it at all.

Astrid didn't mind the girls using her paint - and yes, it was hers. She'd open it to sharing after all and now they had their wall to paint. She took a step back, hands on her hips, uncaring if the brush was dripping paint unto her shoes or sticking on her clothes. It was best to inspect art after all. "Maybe it just needs a little more oomph," she concluded as she dropped the brush, grabbed the can of paint, and splattered it at an unpainted section of the wall - hitting the door and glass windows with a long splatter of paint as well, some of the liquid bouncing off the wall and scattering unto the floor and getting on her face and clothes. "See? Like that!" she said as she settled the paint can down - it still had paint in it. "Well, if we want pink we can grab more. Someone just has to check where it is first, then the other talks to the shopkeeper while I... shop," she concluded as she brushed off her hands against each other, only spreading the blue paint further on her hands.​

 

[Annika Nightray]

Nik watched as the two other girls got right down into the dirt with her, like it was the most natural thing in the world, though in fairness they probably were more into it than she was, because she was trying desperately not to get dirty. She wasn’t really the messy type, and prefered to have clean things, and places, because it made her feel better when she was sad to be able to walk into a nice clean room, and maybe Dodrey cleaned the rooms sometimes, it was usually up to themselves to keep their bedrooms tidy. Nik didn’t have to dust, but she had to put her things away. This all felt kind of important, she probably should have looked at what this wall was, but she hadn’t yet, so… maybe a slight oversight. If she ruined her clothes, she supposed she could have Kael-Oppa just buy more. Would he tell mummy she’d run off to the Bleak Street?

At Astrid’s plan, she grinned wickedly. “I can distract a shopkeeper,” she said, smoothing her hair back with her very blue stained hand. “I’m good at that and no one ever suspects a pretty foreign face.” She could pretend she didn’t speak english if that would help.​

 

[Isla Warrick]

Isla didn’t love having paint all over her hands but it beat shopping for books or whatever her parents were doing. She stopped when Astrid suggested they go and get some pink paint, they just needed to know where to get it from, Isla felt like she could handle that part, how hard could it be to find shop that sold paint in a sketchy alley? “I can find the paint, I figure I’m better at that than distracting, apparently I have a mischievous face…whatever that means,” She beamed at her two new friends and went off to try and locate some pink paint in one of the nearby shops. She came back a few minutes later, “There’s a shop just on the corner that has some cans of paint, I heard one of the ladies screaming that the colour was wrong, too cheerful? Maybe we’ll get lucky,”

 

[Astrid Freecss]

"Awesome!" Astrid cheered in all her paint-covered glory before skipping off away from their painted wall - brush and can of blue paint left behind. They could always come back for them later. Or not. It was Bleak Street so who knew? It was fine. She'd just have to pick up more brushes. Three this time since she had new friends. And paint. Pink paint they said right? And maybe other colors too. She had pockets so the brush would just have to go into her pockets. And she had two hands so she could get at least two cans of pain again. This was awesome. "Alright gang! This is gonna be greeeat," she sang. "I'm Astrid by the way," she called because friends had to introduce themselves right? And obviously they were friends now. Nothing like a little shopping to make friends after all. Astrid knew the shop the girl was talking about. It wasn't exactly in Bleak Street but it was quite off the main shopping area as well. And well... it may or may not have been the shop Astrid had plucked the blue paint off of. "Well why don't you go inside and find the pink paint? I'll wait here for you to come out so you can tell me where it is and then she can distract the shopkeeper. Mission will fail if the owner sees me," she said with a grin because this was fun. Who knew planning missions could be so fun? No wonder her uncle liked doing it. It was quite the thrill.​