[Freezair]

"People are always lookin' for fresh new voices," Swizzle said. "Plus, I got a couple of connections. I could help you meet a couple artists."

Swizzle suddenly sat up. Her fur bristled with an idea. "Hey! I got a question for ya. We could stay here and go to, like, the scientific wing of the museum. I know you wanna learn stuff. But we could also go to an art store and buy you some supplies! But we could do it when we're done, too. What sounds good to you? Don't worry about the money. I'll pay for ya."

[Indigo]

He was torn. It was true, he did want to learn, and the scientific wing was probably a good place to go for that. But on the other hand, it would also be nice to have art supplies, especially since he didn't know how long they would be in the museum or when the store would close. And he might be able to find his way back here again.

"I would like to go to an art store," he said, slowly. "If you would not be bothered."

[Freezair]

"Alright! I've converted one of the masses!" Despite the signs advising against it, Swizzle cavorted right there in the museum, dancing around the feet of the Penticorn statue and waggling her tails like a Lucain. "This way out. I think our tickets last all day, so we can come back if we like!"

Swizzle lead them out of the museum, and into the thronging streets. She knew exactly where she was headed, and bid for Gattley to follow her. It wasn't far from the museum, just around the corner a ways--people who enjoyed looking at art usually wanted to make it, after all, and the natural artists enjoyed scoping others' work and learning from it.

"You still followin' me? We're almost there! The art store is a great place, you'll see. And it smells great, too--like oil paints and old wood. Well, it's a good smell to me, anyway..."

[Indigo]

Gattley was a little nervous about returning to the crowded street, but he followed anyway, folding his wings as close against his body as he could; this done, it was a lot easier to move between people than he'd expected. He supposed a lot of things were easier if you didn't panic. Even if he still wasn't entirely sure about crowds. It made him glad that the art store didn't appear to be too far away.

"Those are good smells," he said, although he didn't have too much experience with the smell of oil paint, but he figured it was probably all right and even if it wasn't he would have to get used to it if he was going to paint. And old wood was something he did know, and in his limited experience of smells he could say with reasonable certainty that it was one of the nicer ones.

As they drew closer, he said, "I have maybe a question that is not so smart, but are there some kinds of paint and other things I might need that you can use for just some things? I think I will need to buy more art supplies in the future, so I will need to know what special things I could need."

[Freezair]

"Oh, there's all kinds'a paint! Oil paint, acrylic paint, poster paint, gloss paint, watercolors..." Swizzle's eyes suddenly flew open, and she stopped on the sidewalk. The sign on the store above them said, "ART-MART." It was made to look like a curling line of paint, with a small, scrunched-up tube near the end of the word.

"Oh. This... might be more difficult than I thought," Swizzle said. "Err, let's start you off with watercolors for now. S'easier. Probably easier to wash outta your feathers, too."

Swizzle pushed her nose up against the door to the store, and it opened easily. Being an Evelon door, it was just wide enough to permit a large creature like Gattley. "You first, pal! Take your first deep breath o' that artist's air." The cool wind that drifted out of the building had a slick, oily smell to it, mixed with the sweet scent of wood, and a hint of old potpourri.

A black-haired human, with the curling horns and swiveling ears of an Aries, looked over his position at the desk to look at them. "Hello, Swizzle!" he said. "Hello, Swizzle's friend!"

[Indigo]

Gattley looked up at the sign and then back at Swizzle. More difficult than she thought? Well, he supposed he could understand that. He probably wasn't very bright by most standards. He hadn't heard the term "watercolors" before, but that at least was fairly straightforward, and if everything else was as clear as that at least he wouldn't have to ask so many stupid questions.

He slithered through the door and obediently took a deep breath of the air inside. There was something vaguely familiar about the smell, and he had a brief mental image of somebody repainting some kind of sign for the circus, advertising, probably. Was that art? Probably not.

When the human at the desk addressed him he flinched, though the words were friendly enough; just a reflex. "Hello," he said.

[I apologize for the quality of this post.]

[Freezair]

Swizzle flinched, too. "Err, you might wanna go easy on him, Matt. He's not so used to people yet. But we're gonna need you! We need to hook him up with a watercolor art book, some brushes, and a nice set of watercolor paints!"

"Ahh, Swizzle. Always going around converting people to the Ways of Art. Hey, no problem! You want I should show him there? Or do you want to do it?"

"Better let me," Swizzle said. "He's more used to me. Nice guy, though. Name's Gattley. C'mon, Gatts."

The carpet beneath their feet was born dark blue, but had been spattered a rainbow of colors over the years through art classes and spilled products. The warm, oily smell intensified as Swizzle lead them down an aisle near the front of the store. A rainbow of colors soared up the sides of the aisle. Shining tubes of oil paints, in carefully numbered shades, were stacked carefully on the walls. Just past them, several cases of watercolor paints were on display.

"You want the simpler kind, or you wanna go all-out?" Swizzle asked. "We've got ones here with eight, twelve, even twenty colors here! The more colors you get, the less you have to mix for yourself. But maybe you like mixing colors. You just tell me how many you think is good. I'll help you pick as good brand."

[Indigo]

Gattley tried to smile at Matt, in an effort to show that he wasn't unfriendly, but he wasn't sure his face produced the right effect. He gave a nod when he was introduced just to be sure, and then followed Swizzle further into the store. Slithering over carpet was an interesting sensation, especially where spilled art products had dried, and between that, the intensifying smell of paint, and the sheer variety of colors on the shelves, it was all a little overwhelming. He hadn't been surrounded by so many different colors and smells since the circus, although that was an altogether less pleasant sort of sensory overload.

He examined the watercolor sets with great seriousness, trying to compare them despite a currently somewhat limited idea of what he was going to paint with them. Eventually he said, "I think that maybe twenty colors is a good number. I have never mixed paint. If I have more colors then I will not need to mix them as much and I will be able to find out how to do it right before I do."

[Freezair]

"Seems sensible. Want to expand your skillset, then." Swizzle stood on her hind legs and grabbed a twenty-color set down from the shelves. She proffered it to Gattley so he could take it. Once he had it, she said, "Now, watercolors are real easy to use, you got that? All you gotta do is dip your brush in some water and rub 'it on the little watercolor disc, an' it'll pick up color! You can then paint with 'em. Oh, or you could put a little water on the disc and use a dry brush to paint! They look a little different when you do that, see. There's a lot of different techniques."

Swizzle curved around the end of the aisle, leading Gattley down the adjacent aisle. In comparison, this aisle was much more stark and spartan. Most of it was various shades of cream and brown; it was full of sketchbooks and drawing pads. "You want some real big paper to start off with, Gattley? You're a real big guy, so I figured you might. You don'ty have to use it, though. We could get you some smaller paper."

[Indigo]

Gattley took the watercolors, twisting his tail awkwardly to hold the set off the floor--if there were a lot of supplies he needed he was going to have trouble carrying them without getting tied in knots--and followed Swizzle into the next aisle. "Big paper would be good, yes. I do not think I will be able to use anything very small." Especially if he was going to be using his wings, since it was becoming clear that he would have trouble using them for anything very precise, at least for a while. They weren't designed for painting.

He was beginning to wonder, now, how much everything would cost and how much of it he was going to need. Of course, he didn't have any money and had no other way of getting these supplies, but letting Swizzle pay for everything didn't quite sit right with him. Perhaps once he sold some paintings, if that did happen, he could pay her back? It was something to think about, anyway.

[Freezair]

"One real big pad of paper, coming up! ...Uh, a little help, though."

Swizzle pointed to a large pad of paper, lying against the shelf. If it had been made out of cloth, it would have been big enough for Swizzle to use as a blanket. So large, Swizzle couldn't easily carry it around. Gattley would need to pick it up for himself, but Swizzle made sure he could find it. As she watched him move, Swizzle noticed that the big Seraphent seemed to look... distressed. Maybe it was just her imagination, but it seemed like he had something on his mind.

"...Hey. You OK there, Gatts? You look like you got somethin' troubling you. 'Sup? Whatcha thinkin' about?"

[Indigo]

Gattley examined the pad of paper for a moment, trying to figure out how to grab it. Unfolding his wings in the middle of the aisle was probably not a good idea, and they weren't really good for holding things very long, anyway. After a moment he set the watercolor set on the floor and wrapped his tail around the paper. Yes, he would definitely need a more efficient way of carrying things.

He turned at Swizzle's question. "It is very kind of you to pay for things. But I do not think you should pay a lot of money for me, just to help, because right now I do not have a way to give it back. What can I do?"

[Freezair]

Swizzle turned her head down. "Oh. You're worried about the payment." Swizzle patted the little bag at her side, the one that held her Keystones. True, it wasn't as large and heavy as it could be. Swizzle shook her head out; she had enough money to get by, even if she splurged here. The Dashalls always made sure she and her family were taken care of. She just might not have any extra art supplies of her own for a while. "Don't... don't worry about it, OK, Gatts? You're gettin' into art, and that's payment enough for me. I always like helpin' someone discover their inner artist."

She scratched her chin as she watched Gattley fumble with the pads. "...You know? I got an idea. Maybe you could paint me a picture? You don't have to do it right away, of course. But if you really wanna repay me, then all you gotta do is give me one of the pictures you paint someday. Paint anythin' you like. It'll make me happy, I'm sure... You know what else you could probably use? Saddle bags! Somethin' you can carry your stuff in, anyway."

[Indigo]

A picture...yes, that would be fitting. And there was probably something more personal about it, and he imagined that would be nice, although he didn't have much experience in that area. What to paint was a question he would resolve later, although he already had some ideas; but Swizzle didn't seem to want to dwell on the subject, so he decided not to pursue it.

"Saddle bags," he said. "Those would be useful, but it sounds like they would require a saddle? Is that a figure of talking, or would I need to attach them to something? I think they would work if I could find a way." Some kind of harness, maybe, although he wasn't sure about that. He...hadn't had especially good experiences with harnesses, when the circus had used them, but if it made it easier to carry things he could probably deal with it. If there was no alternative.

[I'm sorry, I feel like I'm not giving you much to respond to...]

[Freezair]

"Huh? Oh, no, no!" Swizzle saw the slightly uncomfortable look in Gattley's eyes. Perhaps she should have chosen her words more carefully? An ex-circus pet like him probably had bad experiences when it came to being ridden. "It's just called a saddle bag because of where they go on your body! Over your back. Kind of like a backpack on a human. You've seen humans wearing backpacks, right? Only this would be a you-sized backpack! They make art bags for all shapes'a critter here."

Swizzle looked at her drooping Keystone bag. No art supplies for a while. But wasn't that what they did in the old days? A patron would pay an artist to make art; a benefactor of society by allowing an artist to continue their work! That's what Swizzle would be, then. A patron of the arts! One who was... slightly impovrished by her patronage, to be sure. But the worth of art was incalculable. That was how she saw it.