6. open spam + art therapy

[orderfromchaos]

[Open spam in the Infirmary]

[In the days since the end of breach, Dillon has been in the infirmary more-or-less around the clock, patching people up, fetching and carrying, and making sure everyone who's tolling is fed if they eat and as comfortable as they can be. He drinks ridiculous amounts of coffee and has learned to reverse his own exhaustion. This will come in handy if he ever manages to go to college. When it's quiet, to keep himself awake, he sketches on the backs of patient charts, surreal intricate cityscapes that converge, impressionist-style, into a beating heart, a half-lidded eye, an open palm.]



[Public, video.]

[He's still in the infirmary, still weary and surrounded by a flock of old coffee cups. He's fairly coherent, considering.]

...so, before we went all spaceships and lasers, our resident cannibal did an art show. Remember that? And it was spiteful and gross, yes, but I've been thinking, it wasn't actually a terrible idea. I mean, art therapy is a real thing, right? Lord knows most of us could use some and are also terrible with the talking kind. The art room could be, should be more than just a thing that's there when we're bored.

But sometimes it feels like...pointless, to make things just for yourself. Or maudlin or whatever. So I thought it could be a thing, if people wanted to, a bunch of us could draw stuff - or paint or smash plates and glue the shards together or whatever you want - and we could collect it and show a bunch of it together, so that all the attention wasn't just on one person, but we'd still get to...get it out, a little, outside of ourselves.

Would anybody else want to do something like that?


[Private to Elsa, backdated to the first or second day back]

Hey, so. You come through okay?


[Private separately to Nathan and Iris.]

...I felt like the whole world.

[He doesn't really know how to deal with that. Help.]

Comments

[versusnurture]

Art therapy.

[In the tones one might use to say "rancid carrion".]

[orderfromchaos]

[He shrugs a shoulder.]

Everything I've done sounds really...like, too much and ridiculous when I try to put it in words. Maybe images will work better.

[versusnurture]

It's so typical.

[And reminds her of awful shit and does, in fact, make her want to smash plates, no she is not seriously considering this.]

[orderfromchaos]

I think maybe I need a little typical.

You don't have to come anywhere near it if you don't want to.

[voice ; private]

[walkingmeltdown]

There is almost literally no way that I'm not going to regret this. Deeply.

However. 'Our resident cannibal'? [Translation: 'I demand you explain the thing'.

Also, hey, sup, no 'thank you' for the life save the other day or anything, no sir.]

[voice ; private]

[orderfromchaos]

Yeah, we have one of those. I mean, at least one that everybody knows about. Hannibal Lecter, serial killer, kind of snooty. He looks as much like a cross between a skull and a praying mantis in a suit as you can get without turning green.

[Dillon Cole: tact master. He totally remembers who he's talking to. He just has no judgement.]

[voice ; private]

[walkingmeltdown]

"At least one"? "That everyone knows about"? [Such a severe eyebrow raise implied there. There's a...distinctly annoyed pause, though, that he's both been recognized and called out so directly.

He decides to ignore it and move on however.]

Hannibal...Lecter? [Does this just keep getting worse by the millisecond?] You're telling me that his name is literally "Hannibal the Cannibal", then. In essence.

[voice ; private]

[orderfromchaos]

Yep. Don't ever let anybody tell you God doesn't have a sense of humor.

And it's a prison ship staffed by people making deals with maybe-the-devil. It's best to assume all your new neighbors might be a little nuts.

[audio]

[halftheman]

Did art therapy in Arkham. [ Sorry to burst your bubble, Abigail. Harvey draws because he was taught in an asylum, not anywhere else. ] Enjoyed it, for what it was worth.

[audio]

[orderfromchaos]

Yeah? What kind of stuff did you make?

[audio]

[halftheman]

Wrote comics. Pulp style. 'Externalizing internalized conflicts in safe, healthy ways.' [ He's parroting someone else, and there's no real heart in those words. ] But I found I liked to draw, and wasn't bad at it after a while. I still do.

I just don't rub other people's faces in my work. Sometimes I gift it.

[audio]

[orderfromchaos]

You put something of yourself, something real into the world, I don't think that's ever really safe. But it can still be good, I think.

Have you done anything here?

[text]

[routemistress]

I like making things. little robots. chickens. snowglobes. I have an inexplicable passion for snowglobes. Megamind and I are working on robotic horses atm. Anyone wants to help with the sculpty side of that - the externals - we could use you.

[private]

I can't decide if that's brilliant or terrifying. How would you feel about sharing the memory?

[orderfromchaos]

You know, maybe that's part of the impulse. I always feel like I'm playing catch-up, just fixing things.

[private]

Both. But mostly in a good way. Like sky-diving. Or what I imagine sky-diving is like, anyway.

That depends on how the sharing works, exactly.

[routemistress]

...that makes a lot of sense, actually. I've found more time for it here, since I'm travelling less. I don't have to spend nearly so much time tinkering with my bus or reality or anything.

[private]

skydiving's brilliant, it's nearly the most fun you can have with your clothes on. I've not checked if I can get the bus into the CES or how far up the simulated sky goes, but we could give that a go sometime.

I just make contact and you hold the memory at the front of your mind. I can walk through it with you if you let me. You're so ...effervescent I might not even need to touch you.

[beingdifferent]

It wasn't gross.

[orderfromchaos]

Yours was beautiful.

[Still cruel. But beautiful.]

Most of them were deliberately, provocatively gorey.

private

[bothfoulandfair]

I'm fine.

[For a long moment, it almost sounds like she's going to leave it at that, but.]

It was better than my first breach.

private

[orderfromchaos]

Small mercies, I guess.

private

[bothfoulandfair]

I guess.

voice

[fearmonger]

Okay, all that mushy weak feelings shit sounds dumb. But. I'm an AMAZING artist. And you have my approval.

[ He's actually fucking terrible at art, but he definitely doesn't believe that. ]

There should be a theme. For an art show. Like. "Draw a beef". Or something less dumb and about cows. Less restrictive. And more. Open ended. Like a rule that everyone follows. To make it kind of like a game. And as a result, 100% more fun.

Also what's a cannibal.

[orderfromchaos]

That's not a bad idea. If enough people are interested, we might try that.

And, uh. A cannibal is somebody who eats members of their own species.

[persecutioncomplex]

[all right so she needs to follow up on the "resident cannibal" comment later, but later]

Everyone placing their emotions on display?

[orderfromchaos]

Not everyone. And not everything.

Just people who want to say something.

[persecutioncomplex]

[She doesn't have much to say, not yet; she'll keep her counsel about half of his idea.]

Some people aren't direct. They can't say what they want.