Katerina Vorontsov
October 30, 2019 11:48 AM
Alone with my thoughts (Room 4). by Katerina Vorontsov
Much of the time, Katya did her painting in her own room, but she was running low on watercolor and did not want to write home for more. Lately, letters to and from home had been far more stressful than usual, all because of Tatiana.She was not angry with Tatiana because of it, though, because it wasn't Tatiana's fault. Her sister was just turning sixteen this summer, which was a huge event in the family - and which Tatiana appeared determined to avoid as long as possible. Normally, Katya would have found that irritating, but the longer it went on - Mama writing all the time about prospects and sending fabric swatches and reminding Katya to make sure her sister did not have too many desserts and that she behaved prettily so she got more in the habit of doing so and so forth - the more she recognized that Tatiana was not merely being silly - she was terrified.
This did not make sense to her, really. It was a good thing, to grow up and take one's place in the world. However, it was obviously disconcerting to her sister, and Tatya couldn't help how she felt. Plus, well, Mama was being somewhat overbearing, just in her letters to Katya about Tatya. She imagined Mama's letters to Tatya might be even more frenetic, because Mama had always been anxious about Tatya. Mama meant well - she wanted them to be happy, which was only possible if they learned to fit into their places in the world easily, without having a bunch of contrary impulses to struggle against - but Katya couldn't imagine it was pleasant to be on either side of Mama and Tatiana's relationship, at least right now.
Sympathetic as she might be, though, she was not enjoying her own part in it, and so retreated to the art room to see if she could get more paint. She found a beautiful set (the packaging marks weren't the same as the paints she was used to, those were made in Russia, but they were clearly good paints and she was curious to see how they would perform compared to the ones she was used to) and a blank paper, along with a room decorated heavily with ocean imagery.
Curious, she walked around, looking at paintings and sculptures, wondering why the theme had materialized, and to such an extent. All the paintings were calm seas, she noticed - beaches being softly lapped by small waves, rocking rowboats, still harbors sparkling under the sun. This was one of the amusing things about just walking into MARS without clear ideas in her head - seeing what it would give her, and wondering why. As she studied a painting of two people walking on a beach, their backs to her and the woman with a parasol over her head, though, she heard the door open again and turned to see who had come in.
"Hello," she said. "Do you want different room looks?" She was mainly here to paint with watercolors she was running low on in her room, and so did not object if someone wanted them both to walk out and then walk back in so the room could have different scenery.
16
Katerina Vorontsov
Alone with my thoughts (Room 4).
1418
1
5
Allegra Brockert
November 03, 2019 4:26 PM
Trying not to be by Allegra Brockert
Allegra was not having a great year. The Challenges were increasing her anxiety level intensely-and it had always been high to start with. The Crotalus couldn't remember when she'd not been at least a little nervous. Having Topaz as a cousin would do that to someone. The only thing worse would be having her as a sister, Allegra at least had had time where she was at home and her cousins weren't around of course.However, right now, that wasn't the issue. Or at least not the pressing one. Well, maybe it was more so at this moment considering Allegra was not currently in the middle of one of the Challenges and she'd dared to step outside Crotalus and who knew where Topaz would be? Still, the point was that the Challenges so far had been awful and she was anxious about the next one.
Who knew what terrible thing they'd have to do next? Lately, Allegra's nightmares had taken a turn from being exclusively about Topaz. Like she'd be out in the desert and her teammates would desert her because she was useless, then she'd lie dying in the heat and sand all by herself. Or she was trying to climb a wall while her teammates, her friends,Topaz, Uncle Eustace and some of the Pecaris pointed and laughed at how weak and pathetic and useless she was because she couldn't do it.
Which made no sense when she was awake of course, because they were past those Challenges and at the very least neither Connor nor Caitlin would be doing that. The former was big on teamwork and had been nothing but kind to her and the latter had hated both Challenges as much as Allegra had.
Come to think of it, Uncle Eustace wouldn't be jeering her for weakness. He might say some things about how she was inferior because she was a girl but he would only be criticizing a boy who was unathletic, like Owen.
Still, they were still awful, still, they made Allegra wake up sweating and breathing hard, just like her regular nightmares did. And she was, of course, filled with horrible thoughts of what the next Challenge would entail. What if it involved doing a lot of push-ups or sit-ups, neither of which she was capable of? She had attempted them when she'd had this awful thought. Or what if they had to do a relay race, either on foot or broom. The former would be bad enough but the latter would be disasterous .
Anyway, one of the things Allegra did to relax was quilting and because she was anxious so much of the time, she had an awful lot of quilts. In fact, she could have done enough baby blankets to give not only Uriah and her cousin Miles but any baby anyone she knew had for the next several years more than they could ever need . This also meant she was running out of supplies and had to venture out to the Art Room even though there was a risk of Topaz being there given it was a better place to do taxidermy than the other third year's bedroom or the Aladren Common room. (As much as Allegra was certain Topaz would like to dump animal guts all over her roommate's belongings, it generally worked out better to do them here given the mess it made.)
Fortunatly, when the Crotalus entered the Art Room, she found not Topaz but Katerina. "Oh, no, not at all." She assured the Teppenpaw. "I just came to get more quilting supplies. What are you working on?"
OOC-Connor and Caitlin are both mine
11
Allegra Brockert
Trying not to be
1426
0
5
Katerina Vorontsov
November 04, 2019 1:27 PM
Perhaps we can distract each other. by Katerina Vorontsov
Katya smiled naturally when she recognized Allegra. "I also come here for supplies," she said. "But mine are paint. I had no more blue paint. " She did not think it would surprise the other girl to hear that; it was a common feminine accomplishment, painting. Katya was the best at it in her group of sisters, but most girls learned at least a little.Plus, there had been her attempt to start an art club in her first year. It was possible that everyone else had forgotten that, but she doubted it. In America, at least, she thought nobody had much at all to do besides remember everything everyone else had done; she also thought it was much the same in Russia, at least for people like them. For other people...well, she imagined that having to do hard work was very exhausting, so perhaps they did not pay as much attention to each other, but she imagined it would be hard not to notice other people at all.
As for herself, she had started a club, but it hadn't worked out properly. She had been too young, too unsure of herself - but mostly too young. Katya had always prided herself on her ability to keep her composure even under stress, after all. It was just that nobody was going to put any faith in the leadership of a first year, including other first years. She wondered sometimes if she should try again, or if that would just lead to further embarrassment.
That was not terribly pertinent to this moment, though. "Perhaps this is why the room, it shows me the sea, the water - because I come for blue," she continued. Then she looked around for anything that looked like it might have cloth and thread or needles in it. "What it is that you need?" she asked. "Maybe it is in here too."
16
Katerina Vorontsov
Perhaps we can distract each other.
1418
0
5