Where is the Logic? [Kristina]

[Ides Alevi]

People.

People with kids, people without. Well-to-do people, poor college student people, busy people, lazy people...

To a passerby, the latter would have best described the brown-haired guy lounging on the bench. Ides had kicked his legs up so he was stretched over the length of the bench, and had crossed his arms under his head to cushion it against the hard metal of the bench-arm. From there, on the bench in a somewhat natured part of the downtown, he watched people pass by through half lidded eyes.

Girl with a little black dog. Mother being dragged along by her child--who was less well behaved than the girl's dog. Man strolling along with some coworkers.

"Sir."

Policeman looking down at him.

"Sir."

Wait, was the policeman talking to him?

"Sir!"

Ides blinked several times, reviving from his mildly dazed state of people-watching. He gave the officer a quizzical look.

"You need to move on, sir," the officer said.

Ides studied the officer a moment before musing, "Aren't benches for resting on?"

The officer gave him a look that told clearly that he was not in the mood to debate, and was not going to debate. Ides sighed. He'd rather been enjoying his lounge there. It was a nice balance of people and of nature-park. However, he slung his long legs off of the bench, nodded to the officer, and got to his feet, glancing around at his surroundings as he did. In the process of doing this, he caught sight of a woman who hadn't been in view before--blocked by the back of the bench-- who seemed to be drawing. Well that was interesting enough.

Shoving his hands into his pockets, he strolled in her general direction, curious to see what she'd been drawing, and if she was any good.

[Kristina Novak]

Lately, Kristina had been on a drawing kick.

It was a nice way to pass the time, but also incredibly detrimental to her precious studying time. She should have been revising terms for English class, or working through math formulas, instead of sitting in a grassy spot downtown. Her fingers loosely held a charcoal pencil, as she sketched various scenes in front of her. Old buildings, people interacting, and everything in between.

The Czech girl had a content smile on her face as she worked, tucked away behind a park bench. It was the perfect spot she had found, hidden away from the immediate view to everyone else. Kristina's touched the tip to the page, letting the rhythmic movement take over. She was completely unaware of the world around her, including the one man who seemed to have taken an interest in the current scene; a few of the newer buildings in town. She was working on the details now, humming under her breath.

(Sorry this is short!)

[Ides Alevi]

The woman didn't seem to have taken notice of him yet, and Ides took advantage of this period of not being noticed to thoroughly study her drawing. He recognized the buildings immediately, and just as quickly his mind began picking out the minutest details that needed to be added. Of course... those were what she was adding at the moment though, so he couldn't judge quiet yet. She actually wasn't that bad, really, for an artist, and he found himself wondering several things very quickly. He waited a moment to speak though, giving his mind a moment to organize his questions properly.

It didn't take long to decide on which question he wanted to put forward first. He was fully aware it was likely not the most socially acceptable way to begin conversing with someone, but... It was always interesting to see how people reacted to deviations in the societal norm. It was one of the reasons he'd decided to go for his people watching walk with bare feet, an inside out sweater, and an ankh necklace around his neck. His loose jeans were likely the only "normal" part of his appearance that day.

"Why are you drawing those buildings in particular?" he questioned, tone neutral as well as remaining in its typical quietness.
His hands he still kept casually in his pockets, and he didn't intend to move his attention from the drawing until she had stopped putting marks on it with the charcoal pencil.

( No worries! )

[Kristina Novak]

Kristina's hand moved across the page systematically, her eyes glancing up to the scene in front of her every so often. She didn't want to miss any of the details, as she was a perfectionist. Every minor detail, like the way the bricks lined up on the one building or how a tree was on a slight angle. Her eyes landed on the page again, comparing the two when a voice caught her off guard. She jumped from her spot on the ground, turning around wildly as her heartbeat frantically increased.

"Holy shit!" The Czech girl exclaimed, her hand going up and over where her heart was. She took a few steady breaths, before processing what the stranger had said. Looking down to her work, Kristina shrugged. She never could explain why she was drawn to certain things. "Uhm, I don't know..." Kristina ran a hand through her wavy hair, pushing the strands up and off of her face.

Eyeing the stranger, Kristina couldn't help but to be critical of his outfit. Not that she dressed to the nines everyday, but ever since getting her job at From The Spectrum, Kristina had been a little more... picky with not only her outfits, but other people. An inside out sweater definitely stood out to the Czech girl. Her eyes narrowed before looking up at him. She let the pencil drop on top of the page, distracted now. "Just... called out to me I guess."

[Ides Alevi]

Ides raised his eyebrows at the woman's reaction. He hadn't quite meant to startle her, but he supposed that he hadn't exactly tried to make his presence known either. Sometimes he forgot that minor detail of going out of one's way to keep from startling another. He thought over this a moment before musing, "I have never found feces particularly holy... What causes you to think they are?" Of course, he knew it was merely an expression, but he rarely missed an opportunity to question such expressions that made no sense whatsoever.

As she eyed his outfit, he took the liberty of studying the artist's apparel as well. Definitely not as dressed down as himself. He gave an amused smile as he guessed at a few different opinions she might be having. Not to worry. He didn't particularly care about what people thought of his clothing, nor did he particularly care what other people wore. Clothes themselves were odd things.

He shifted his attention from her to a gaggle of passing teenagers, briefly distracted by their clamor as they trooped by with bags and coffee thermoses. Presumably on a casual shopping trip of some sort, more social based than need based. The things people did for socialization and entertainment...

"Called out to you?" he echoed as he pulled his mind back into the current conversation. "How did it do that?" He didn't fully mean the question sarcastically. Though mild skepticism had made its way into his voice, he also genuinely wanted to know why she'd phrased her explanation in that way. It was artist talk, and artists had their own language, as far as he was concerned.

[Kristina Novak]

After managing to settle her erratic heartbeat, Kristina lowered her hand from her chest to a blank corner, as to not smudge her hard work. She figured that the stranger hadn't meant any harm, but was doing what most people did. Socializing. She grimaced at the thought before raising an eyebrow at his response. It seemed... heavily sarcastic? Maybe joking around? The way he delivered the message didn't help the Czech girl. Kristina decided to ignore it, concluding that the stranger was, simply put, being a smartass. It didn't warrant a response.

She watched as the stranger eyed a group of teenagers, and she let her own gaze wander for a couple of seconds. It didn't catch her attention, and Kristina's eyes fell back on the page. Shutting her notebook, she set it off to the side and focused entirely on the stranger.

Kristina had never been good with emotions or differentiating tones in conversation. English was her second language, afterall, and was something she struggled with presently. Her eyebrows furrowed together in frustration, tilting her head to the side. What did this guy not understand? She was sure her sentences were making sense... "I... I'm afraid I don't understand what you're trying to say? Is this a joke to you?" Kristina retorted. "Obviously, it didn't literally call out to me. That's impossible." She added, defensively.

[Ides Alevi]

Ah, the silent response. Common enough response. Ides shrugged it off, not particularly perturbed. Though, of course, few responses actually did perturb him.

However, she had responded to his other question, though sounding somewhat confused. "Impossible," he mused. "Yes, it would be. However, artists use that terminology a lot, so one would perhaps begin to reason that artists have a sixth sense, as it were, toward certain objects that wished to be drawn." Really, it was an interesting thought. Artists already seemed to sort of be their own special sort of race, much like metas, so it wasn't really that much of a long-shot to theorize that they could sense things others could not, right?

Really, a world that had the very nearly illogical, some would say completely illogical, existence of metas, one could hardly argue against it. .... Actually, one could still argue against it very easily, which was why it was an interesting idea to postulate and hear arguments for.

But now his mind was wandering. He quickly reigned it back in to return to the conversation at hand. "A joke? No... I simply asked a question. I find artists quite interesting." Yes, leave it to him to make artists sound like a completely different kind of human within the first few moments of meeting the woman...

[Kristina Novak]

Almost immediately into the conversation, the unknown man had identified Kristina as an artist. Then again, it wasn't hard to tell with her big sketchbook, filled with drawings and her quiet method to sketching the landscape around her. No, it wasn't hard to tell at all. Although the question he asked was a relatively common one, Kristina was glad that it wasn't one about artists being a starving and dying breed.

Her head snapped upright at the man's musings, a frown still on her face. She let out a snort, shaking her head with an amused smirk. "Well, as labelled an 'artist,' I can guarantee you that we don't have a sixth sense. If so, it hasn't been discovered yet. Maybe you're onto something." She replied, her fingers twitching towards the charcoal pencil. Her drawing wasn't complete, and she wanted to make sure it was finished before her muse escaped.

Kristina raised an eyebrow. Interesting? "If you don't mind me asking... how?" She didn't understand how he could be so fascinated with her mindset.

[Ides Alevi]

Ides' mind flickered around the details of the current scene. Passing people, wind brushing through the grass... No, no, focus on the person he was talking to. He pulled his wandering attention back to the woman, instead scrutinizing her expressions. The frown turned smirk as she snorted, but it had an amused slant to it, it seemed. Or perhaps he was imagining it. She denied having a sixth sense a moment later, as well as seemed to accept the label of "artist". So far so good, he hadn't managed to completely scare her off or annoy her. That was a step in the right direction, right? And he'd managed to keep most of his attention focused, aside from the brief wanderings.

"Perhaps I am onto something," he mused, though absently. His mind had already moved on to the question she posed, so the statement was mostly an auto-piloted response. However, almost simultaneously, he noted her fingers twitch, and just as absently waved a hand. "Please, keep drawing if you wish. I do not mean to distract you." He fell silent a moment as he pieced together a reply to her question. Only a moment.

"Well... Artists often tend to lean toward the insane or mentally unstable. Or at least illogical and overly optimistic." He shrugged. Blunt as his reply was, it didn't occur to him that the woman may take offense. She'd asked an honest question after all. He'd honored that by giving an honest answer. "Wouldn't you say that would be termed 'interesting'?" he inquired.

[Kristina Novak]

Like Ides, Kristina's focus was hazy, diverting to the world and passing scene around them. Though, it wasn't as bad. Just flickering details that caught the artist's attention.

An amused chuckle escaped from her lips, as Ides mused to himself about being onto something. As far as she knew, she didn't have a sixth sense. Just her power. Tactile anesthesia. Did that even count? Kristina hadn't noticed her fingers itching for the familiar comfort of the pencil between her fingers. She stared at her hand, making a small 'huh' sound before shrugging. The stranger didn't seem to pose a risk. He just seemed... overly curious. The Czech girl didn't really know what to make of the situation.

She flipped open her sketchbook back to the initial scene, and begin filling in the empty spaces between old strokes. Kristina looked up once he answered her question with a frown. Insane? Mentally unstable? If he hadn't continued talking, she would have lost it right there. Illogical and overly optimistic? Kristina's frown was deepset, her eyebrows furrowed together now. "That's... nice." She scoffed. Bah! "I don't believe I am any of those things you mentioned."

OOC: sosososo sorry it took me long love <3

[Ides Alevi]

Ides blinked at the girl as she scoffed. "I never said you were," he said, unfazed. "I haven't known you long enough to speak one way or another on the matter." He gave a shrug. "I was simply thinking of artists in general, with reference to Van Gogh's insanity, or Pollock's even, if you wish for a more recent artist. There was Poe and Hemingway also...Mozart.. the list goes on." He paused, considering. Of course, to the best of his knowledge, all of those artists had been convinced they could, and should, make a living off of their art. And there were artists in existence who did not claim insanity... So perhaps there was a correlation between those two facts. It would be worth further consideration, anyway.

But not immediately. At the moment, he had to focus on his conversation. And perhaps helping the woman to realize he hadn't been calling her insane or mentally unstable, or overly optimistic even. "I do realize that simply because you make art, that does not directly result in those things I mentioned. It would be highly illogical of me to make such a blanket statement as that."

It briefly occurred to him to test his theory of correlation between belief in making a living from art, and insanity, by asking her opinion on the grand "is art a true job" debate, but he decided to wait for the moment. After all, it might only make her angry, and then he would not be able to judge her sanity in relation to her stance. Ah, the delicacies of theory testing...

[ No problem! I've been super busy, so my replies to people have been delayed as well. XP ]

[Kristina Novak]

Kristina realized that Ides' hadn't directly said she was an 'insane' artist, but said it as a general statement. She felt slightly embarrassed about her outburst, not showing any signs of her distress. Her fingers tightened around the charcoal pencil, filling in more blank spots on the pages, her eyes flickering between the stranger and their surroundings.

Letting out a small sigh, Kristina pulled the tip back from the page, to look up at Ides again. She gripped the pencil, her pride inhibiting her from making an apology. Plus, there was no way she was actually crazy. It had taken the Czech girl a long time, throughout her teenage years, to come to terms with the fact that 'crazy' was some sort of abstract notion mostly used as an insult. With help, Kristina was able to accept the strange fact of being a meta and move on with her life as normally as possible. Art was her way of expressing herself, of coping, and there was no way she would accept the label of being crazy.

But she didn't speak a word. She sat there, tight lipped, nodding. "I'm sorry.. for accusing you of that." Kristina finally managed to say, her eyes immediately staring at the ground afterwards. "Just... get kind of defensive, you know?" Maybe he didn't know. "I.. I hear that a lot. Saying I'll never amount to anything in that field." Images of her mom, painting in the parlour back in the Czech Republic filled Kristina's mind. She remembered being a little girl, sitting there and watching her mom do what she loved best. A fait smile pulled at the corner of Kristina's lips.

"So.. what do you enjoy?" She asked, suddenly.

[Ides Alevi]

"It's all right." Ides shrugged. He supposed that it would become rather tiring to hear such things in repetitive fashion... He pondered the bit about her being told that she wouldn't amount to anything in the field. A whole new interesting subject. "Well, success is just as much relative as insanity," he mused. "Many artists would have considered themselves unsuccessful at their field during their lifetime, only to become models of art after their death." Perhaps there was a link between death and success... Interesting concept.

"No matter," he went on. "If you don't see yourself gaining position in your field during life, you should take heart in the fact you might be great once you're dead. And if you aren't great even after you're dead, you won't be around to worry about it." He smiled. There, he'd offered encouragement, as social standards called for in these sorts of instances. Perfect!

And now she'd given him a question to answer. He paused, thinking carefully about it before answering. Enjoyment was based on so many variables... Something he might enjoy at one point might not be so enjoyable at another. Finally though, he decided he could boil things down to, "I enjoy people watching. And writing." Really the two sort of went hand-in-hand, he supposed, but it didn't hurt to be clear. "I write articles for the newspaper. And I've found that murder mysteries are interesting to attempt as well." He paused. "So I suppose if I were to classify all artists as insane, I would be classifying myself as such as well, since I do not restrict myself purely to informative writing." He considered before adding, half to himself, "Though I suppose most people could be classified as insane, given the proper circumstance and society..." Something else interesting to consider later.

[Kristina Novak]

Kristina let out a small sigh of relief after hearing him dismiss her apology. It was clear that she was pretty much useless at conversation. A tiny, grateful smile appeared on her face as she listened to his musings. He did have something there. "Guess that maybe when they're gone, people begin to appreciate them and their art more, since there's no way anymore can be created." She rambled, unsure if it made any sense whatsoever.

Although his reassurances weren't normal by any stretch, Kristina genuinely appreciated them, nonetheless. "Thanks..." She trailed off, realizing that the two had yet to introduce themselves properly. "Sorry, guess right now would be a good time to introduce myself. I'm Kristina." Wasn't it social protocol to greet each other and at least learn each other names or something?

The entire conversation had been focused on Kristina and her art and her motives. She enjoyed talking about her passions, but part of her was curious as to what he enjoyed doing. He seemed knowledgeable, compared to the average person. She nodded at his two expressed interests. "People watching and art seem to go hand in hand." The Czech girl thought back to the wintertime, when she had been on campus and stumbled upon someone, whose name she still didn't know, and the two had crept on each other in their personal pursuits of art. She also thought back to meeting Brooke, and how the girl had accused her of stalking. Since her English skills were lacking and not a lot of people could read Czech, Kristina tended to avoid writing but could appreciate other people's talents.

"Well, maybe I'll have to find something of yours to read. An article or something." She mused to herself before letting out a small chuckle at his next sentence. "I suppose the entire world is insane, one way or another."

[Ides Alevi]

Ides nodded in agreement to the woman's comment on his own musings. He had to admit, he liked it when people didn't just look at him weird when he mused about things, and actually joined in and made a conversation from it instead. "That would make sense," he stated. "Supply does seem to have an odd hold over demand. Intriguing, actually. All one needs to do to create customers is to show it desirable, then make it obvious there is a limited supply."

Ah, social protocol, right. Always so difficult to remember, but so necessary for getting around in the world. "Ah, right." He inclined his head slightly and extended a hand to shake. "I'm Ides. And it has been a pleasure to meet you, so far." Again with social protocol-- informing someone you were pleased to meet them when you had no idea if it would actually be a pleasure.

"I have articles regularly in the paper," he stated, shrugging a little. "It would be easy to find something, I'm sure. Do you read the paper?" He had always found the newspaper to be a good source of information and news, even when he was a child, and so couldn't think of someone not reading it. Quite honestly aside from the fact he wrote for it. He didn't like to brag about his accomplishments, but that didn't mean he would downplay his talent. He was realistic, not delusional.

The entire world is insane, in one way or another... He considered this a moment before shaking his head. "That isn't what I meant. If everyone were insane, then by default everyone would be normal. I meant that in certain settings, everyone could be considered insane. There is a difference." He nodded before beginning to explain, "By 'certain settings' I mean that if someone from a country with a society largely demonstrative went to a country with a largely introverted society, they would be considered abnormal because of the setting. Someone who goes around smiling at everyone in a Russian country would be looked at oddly. Similarly, if someone were to stand up and begin clapping and screaming in the middle of a class, they would be considered insane, whereas if they did such a thing at a sports convention, they would be considered normal."