thisavrou | video;

[Nate's face looks unusually serious when it appears via TAB today. Not sad or upset or grim, just like he's feeling unusually contemplative. Shut up, he's allowed to have a moment once in a while.]

You know, when I first came through the Ingress, I actually thought I was dead? I'd been flying in my best friend's plane and suddenly I was in bizarro land, so I figured we went down and I'd just blocked out the fiery death. And then they gave me a job and I knew I was in Hell.

[He's mostly kidding, but only because the teaching gig had turned out to be surprisingly fun.]

Space isn't the worst place I've had a rude awakening in, and I figured okay, we're on a ship, we're going somewhere with a way to get home, it's just a matter of time. And then the ship crashed but we found that place anyway but actually getting home depends on a bunch of science bullshit I don't understand.

And then I took a closer look at the local calendar and, near as I can figure out, it's been almost a year. [He holds up a hand.] Yes, okay, we also spent a year back on party planet, but I try not to think about that so it doesn't count. Makes me wonder how long it'll be—how much time will people spend passing time before deciding to actually live their lives?

Honestly...I'm not sure it makes a big difference with me. There's stuff I want to get back to, sure, but passing the time with some of you guys hasn't been too awful. [He grins.] Hey, to mark the anniversary, I'll do free sketch portraits for anyone who comes by to find me on the front steps of the big museum in Region 1.

[action option: he's a dude sketching in a journal on the front steps of the museum. Whoa, didn't see that coming.]

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Ooh. Is that a lady someone?

[He knows Arno had someone left behind, but...people change. And they have needs.]

[People do change, and they do have needs. But Arno is a goober through and through, and far too devoted to Élise.

The face Arno is making at Nate's words, though...]

Yes, she's a friend- but I'm positive if she heard you say it like that she'd punch you. Probably in the face, most likely. Katsa has always been good at that sort of thing.

You say it like a lady's never punched me in the face before. I could take it.

[Hell, he automatically likes Katsa more if she's the type to do it.]

[He actually laughs at that.]

You know, most people would be against being punched in the face. Do you have an interest in getting hit by women, Nate?

[How did you know?]

Hey, if you've gotta be hit by someone...

Personally, I'd rather not be hit by anyone, but that's just me.

[Is he joking? Probably.]

But if it does come to that, I can understand your reasoning.

Too bad. You don't know what you're missing.

[Is he joking? Who can say.]

I can imagine it well enough without actually having to live it, thank you.

[Though there is one thing-]

Why are you drawing in front of a museum? Shouldn't you be inside doing that?

Oh I do, sometimes. When there's something inside I want to draw. But I like capturing people, too. Something doesn't have to be in a museum to be worth keeping.

You would have a good time explaining that to several painters in my time- or at least, admirers of them. Most that I know of tend to think the opposite of your statement.

[He pauses for a moment.] Nate, would you like the chance to draw a man from the French Revolution? I could probably answer just about any question you had, as well.

[~~Arno, he's flattered, but he's married and straight.~~]

Yeah? I wouldn't mind the opportunity. But I've got a lot of questions.

~~[NATE PLS.]~~

So long as you don't ask me for ever minuscule and minute detail, I think I'll be able to handle it.

You've got a deal.

[Nate will find it doesn't take Arno long to get to him, hopping from one edge to another and then to the ground without really stopping to pause and make sure he doesn't break his neck.]

I still think the roads are too crowded, honestly. [He shrugs and raises a brow.] Have you had much luck with other subjects to draw yet?

[He's just hanging out when Arno arrives, sketching more passersby for fun.]

There's always something to draw if you know where to look. Or I can just draw whatever's in my head—I do have an imagination.

[Arno casts a glance at the people around them, and raises a brow.]

I suppose I'll leave that forte to you, then. It's not exactly one of my best skills. [He's joking, mostly.] Have you always done this? [A hand gestures the whole... watching and drawing people thing.]

Since I was a kid, yeah.

[The sketches are quick but accurate, foregoing the details but capturing the essences of their subjects in a few strokes.]

I've gotten better since then.

Like I've learned to travel rooftops, then.

[Arno's head tilts as he tries not to snort out his contained laughter at the thought of his ventures as a child, eventually outrunning Victor and Hugo and getting them into trouble more often than not.

Still, there's a sidelong glance at others before he turns his head back to Nate.]

So, Monsieur Drake, what exactly did you want to ask?

[Nate would love to know what kind of parent let Arno run amateurishly across rooftops as a child. Maybe the same as the one that let him do it.]

Okay, first of all: was Robespierre as much of a dick as the history books say? Relative to other dicks of the time.

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we might need to ftb this because I don't know all that Nate would want to ask about sob