[Ariyah – Fremont – Gasworks Gallery: Ariyah’s Studio – BoL – Fame 2 – A]
[Wake Roll: Success | BoL Roll: Fail | Hunger: 1 —> 2]
Ariyah looked at the topic provided by the online art prompt generator:
You are blindfolded and being led through some woods. What you can hear, smell, feel and taste.
“What the…” The Toreador muttered.
Occasionally, Ariyah forces herself to create a mural based on a topic by a random generator; it was to emulate the requests that sometimes come from clients. The exercise was supposed to give her practice painting something outside her comfort zone, and hopefully to stretch her creative muscles.
But the prompt generator wasn’t just for painters, so sometimes what it spits out could be… less than useful. A topic that specifically removes sight from the equation, for a wall mural? That was definitely outside her usual wheelhouse.
Ariyah settled herself at her desk with her iPad; before even the first drop of paint could be spilled, a lot of brainstorming and sketching needed to be done.
[Practicing her craft: Craft + Intelligence + Wall Mural: 2 successes vs 4 diff | Fail | 1WP]
Two hours later, Ariyah put down her Apple Pencil in frustration. She wasn’t producing any ideas worth exploring, and she could feel her Beast scratching for her attention. She hadn’t fed yet, and that probably contributed to her lack of inspiration.
Stretching the kinks out of her back, Ariyah made a quick phone call to see if Robert was still in the building. As luck would have it, the acrylic artist was working late in his studio and was more than happy to come by for some “collaboration work”.
Ariyah checked when Robert walked through the door; as expected, the man was in a sanguine mood. It was one of the reasons why she’d added him to her herd; he could always be reliably counted on to give her a ‘pick me up’.
[Bloodhound: Resolve + Awareness: 4 successes vs 4 diff | Success | Sanguine]
He also never required any explanation or priming; he was reaching for her before the door was even closed.
[Herd | Fleeting Sanguine | Hunger: 2 —> 1]
Lying on the couch with their limbs entwined, Ariyah licked at Robert’s neck, closing the wound. The man had grunted in dissatisfaction when she ceased feeding but didn’t move to stop her otherwise.
Ariyah allowed them to remain sprawled on the couch a little while longer; her head on his chest and his arm around her waist. Already the new blood coursing in her system was making her want to get up and do something.
She ran her fingers through Robert’s curly hair, luxuriating in the feel of the strands between her fingers – maybe the wall mural could have a texture to it…
“You’re already off somewhere else, aren’t you?” The voice rumbling from beneath her broke Ariyah from her musings.
Ariyah looked up into Robert’s blue eyes. They were piercing in the studio’s overhead lights, and there was some emotion swimming beneath the haze of pleasure; it seemed that the man was recovering from the feeding quicker each time.
“Hmm, maybe.” Ariyah didn’t want to talk about it, didn’t want Robert to be looking at her, so she stretched up and kissed him. The kiss lasted long enough for Robert not to be thinking anymore, and for the sanguine blood in Ariyah’s body to start clamouring for something else again.
Ariyah broke off the kiss before she could be further distracted and stood up from the couch. She straightened her singlet and smoothed down her dishevelled hair.
“Okay,” she said in her most businesslike voice, “enough laying about. I’ve got work to do.”
She turned away from the couch, away from whatever expression was on Robert’s face as he got up from the sofa. Ariyah busied herself with documents on her desk as she listened to the other artist picking up his discarded jacket from the floor and make his way to the door.
There was a slight pause in his footsteps, and Ariyah could imagine him standing at the doorway, looking back at her. She did turn around, and after a while, there was a soft click of the door closing.
The Toreador let out a breath. She thought she and Robert had an understanding, but if the look in his eyes earlier was any indication, Robert seemed to be having a change of mind. She also didn’t like the way her breath caught when she saw his expression.
Maybe she had been drinking from him too often. Ariyah never had such a small herd before; Jasper always made sure she had access to a large group of blood dolls and that she rotated through them regularly. Perhaps there was some danger to feeding off the same people too frequently.
It was maybe time for her to look into expanding her herd.
A ping from her phone pulled Ariyah from her thoughts, and she glanced at the lit-up display. It was a calendar reminder of her meet up with Iris in half an hour. The Toreador looked at the forgotten iPad on her desk; she would have to come back to the mural – and her plans for enlarging her herd – later.
Ariyah grabbed her phone and put on her jacket. A quick message to Iris (@afa) let her know that the younger Toreador was leaving her studio now and would be at the coffee shop in twenty minutes.
Ariyah locked the workshop door behind her, and she made her way out of the studio building and to her parked car.
(Ariyah goes to #Fremont)