It was a clear day, and warmer than she was used for this time of year. 52 degrees out was not typically what Seattle winters looked like. Where was all the panicking? The driving erratically?

.... Not that everyone in New York didn't always drive erratically, but still.

She had decided to get out for a bit despite a little chill in the air, and brought her newly purchased art supplies with her. She'd set up in a nearby park with her back against a tree and her canas in her lap, and spent a few hours just... painting. There was a mission she had in mind when she had set out to do this, too... she wanted to test her powers. See what they were really capable of.

Hours passed, and she had compiled a little hoard of paintings besides the first one. The first was a painting of a room with three walls lined with items. Swords, shields, armor, ect. She had tried ro keep the design simple, get enough detail that she would be easily able to identify what was what. There were no doors, in the room since her next painting was going to function like one.

Gathering up an armful of the paintings, she headed into her painting space with an audible POP

The original piece of artwork was left behind, leang up against the tree she had painted it at for all so see.

She wouldn't be gone long, so she wasn't terribly worried.

Malcolm had a rather busy week, but he was not complaining. He got to see a super hero in action, spent some time at the movies, did some writing on the side and today he was taking a perfectly peaceful walk in the park. Walks were a great way to find inspiration and, honestly, were the easy way to meet new people. When you were just jogging alongside them, it was easy to get a few interview questions, especially with the right smile and flash of perfectly aligned teeth. Mal had mastered that smile over the years, and he was more than happy to use it to his advantage.

Today, there had been few people worth smiling at. An occasional dog barked at him, and a couple of foreign travelers gossiped behind his back despite his efforts to be friendly. He was starting to give up when he noticed paintings leaning against a nearby tree.

Abandoned art? This was a great thing to investigate!

Walking over, he pulled his hands out of his jacket pockets and slowly circled the perimeter. There didn't seem to be a sleeping artist around the corner. No one had used the canvases as a blanket today. And the art was actually really good! If not, a little abstract? He wasn't quite sure what it was supposed to be, what with the rooms, and the weapons. It reminded him of some of his gaming campaigns. Oooo, was it nerd art? He was even more hopeful now!

Clearly, he needed to meet the artist! He plunked himself onto the cold grass, crossed his legs, and awaited their arrival. This would be FUN!

After depositing the first of her paintings into the space, she fiddled with a few things here and there to test out how the armor would work, and what the swords would work against their intended targets. It was strange... though they weren't drawn to be super realistic, touching the edge with the pad of one thumb proved that it was indeed sharp. She found it interesting that the thought she put into something seemed to be more important than the technical aspects of it. The armor similarly looked a little bulky, but felt solid and felt like it had a good amount of resistance when she tested it with one of the swords.

Pleased, she gave the place a once over one more time before deciding to head back out. She would need to remind herself to paint in a bag of some sort to make carrying all of her canvases easier.

POP

She reappeared in the real world a second later, but instead of touching down on solid ground she tripped over something, or someone, in the way and found herself quickly heading down to say hello to the grass

"AHSweetjesuschrist-"

Malcolm had seen artist appearances, but not, APPEARANCES! Seeing someone spontaneously come to life in front of him, and then almost flatten him, was...

...sooooo cooooolllll.

He quickly got out of the danger zone (no one really wanted to get kneed somewhere, or end up in a compromising position, to be frank). Then he checked that she was alright. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to startle you! I am just an admirer of your work here. I uh, assume it's your work? Unless it's on loan?" He could forsee the mutant just testing out the paintings if she was a painting jumper. What was that, like a Marty Poptins thing? He wasn't really sure, but it was pretty fabulous.

He was itching to get out his notepad, but reminded himself that staying calm was the best way to continue a conversation. Don't reveal your true nerd right away!

Grass tasted like an expensive and disappointing salad at a fancy restaurant, she decided. Not for her, thank you very much.

Pushing herself up and spitting a leaf out, she turned a fairly grumpy expression on the man she had tripped over. The mood didn't last long since he apologized so quickly, and she set about picking herself up the rest of the way. A quick glance was proof that her remaining paintings were still there, so no one had run off with anything.

Shoving pink hair from her face, she blinked at him. "Don't sweat it. You couldn't have known I was gonna pop up like that, right?" She glanced at her art again, before laughing softly.

"They're mine... I'm testing something and wanted to do it out of the house."

Malcolm waited for the girl to collect herself. He had eaten grass at least once before (always watch where you're stepping when chasing after a story. He took a glorious spill down a hill in the park because he wanted to get closer to a nearby robot fight). She seemed to collect herself after a bit and accepted his apology. Yes! Off to a good start.

Mal looked at the paintings, studying their varying appearances. "You're a talented artist. And...mutant? I haven't seen anyone with your type of abilities! It's really fascinating. What would you call that? Teleportation? Dimensional warping? Painting fusion?" The pink hair was fantastic. How come mutants always seemed to have such a great sense of style? He really should work on having a more flashy appearance, something that said tell me how cool you are!. Were writers flashy? Maybe he was fine as he was.

"Sorry, I am a webnovelist, and I've been doing a lot of research on mutations lately. Unique abilities are absolutely fascinating to me!" He admitted.

Woo, he was full of questions, was't he? She blinked once at him, a tad uncomfortable, and glanced back to her paintings. "Hm... I don't have a definite name for it yet. Bubble space? Nah. Um... Painting portal? Eh..." Her face scrunched up. She wasn't sure if she could come up with a cool name or anything. In the end she just ended up shrugging.

Oh... A web novelist. That was cool. At least he had a somewhat legitimate reason for all the questions now and wasn't just a creep. "Neat." She relaxed a little at his excitement. It was interesting that he was focused on her, but not really on her. Her power was cool and that was all that seemed to matter.

Cool!

"Would you wanna see it up close? I was working on seeing how far I could get in my paintings." She pointed at one of the stacked ones behind her. "I've got like, a dozen of these I think? Kinda wanted to frame it like a DnD campaign."

Malcolm listened patiently as she considered names for her creations. Painting portals sounded cool, but there was a general excitement toward the term 'portal' as it was. Bubblespace did have some interesting foreshadowing though. What was in a bubble space? Did that mean you could go into the space? He tried to not look overly eager, because that tended to freak people out, but he didn't want to her to think he was bored. A calm interest seemed appropriate. As she relaxed, he felt maybe his strategy had worked.

"See it? Really? Shiny!" Mal may have lost a little of the 'cool' attitude he was going for, but really? She was offering to take him into a painting. A...DnD...campaign...painting.

Do...not....fanboy...

"So, are there any rules that need to established prior to entering said campaign? Like, if I get stabbed, do I get stabbed? Is there blood, or paint? Also, do I get a costume? Because I've always fancied myself with some type of brown trench-coat..." Maybe suspenders. Seriously, not everyone could pull them off, but he felt like he would look like a big damn hero with some suspenders.

She scratched the back of her neck uncertainly. Maybe... maybe that invite had been a bad idea.

"Well, um... about that." There may have been a nervous chuckle. "I don't really know? I know found out about the power like, a few weeks ago? So I don't have all the details ironed out yet. I know I can make things out here that appear in there, and I know that they can move and sort-of act like real life objects and creatures if I put the thought in. I know that the creatures I put in there can touch us, but I tried to make them a little less bloodthirsty than they are in the books, because I kind of like living quite a bit. Also, everything is made of paint, or.. whatever I drew it with."

She turned and glanced at her entry point painting, reaching for her paints and brushes. "I can paint in anything you like for armor and such. It might not look 100% realists, but it will function how I want it to function." And just like that she squiggled in a semi-realistic brown trench coat. She was open to any other suggestions he had as well, and tossed in a few pieces of something that looked like elf armor for herself. If they were gonna dress up, she was gonna play the part too!

"The whole idea I had was that each painting is like a level. When we reach the end of one, I throw up the next painting and we go into the next level. If you want you can pick out a few that look interesting to you."

There were many, with a lot of different creatures from the games lore. She had really dug in trying to make something fun.

The risk of possible injury would deter a lot of people, but Mal was not normal people. He was a writer with a bulletproof vest after all! Speaking of which... ”Don’t worry, I come prepared!” he moved his jacket sideways so she could see the best under the top layer of clothing. ”So long as you don’t impale me, I should be protected. Consider me a willing volunteer to test your abilities with!” He didn’t want her to take back the offer. It was a chance to step into a painting! Heck, he would do it even if he Did get impaled!

As she painted, Mal suggested what resembled a sort of space cowboy look. Maybe guns weren’t exactly DND friendly, so he opted for the ever impressive crossbows! Ha, take that Norman Reedus. You weren’t the only one who could rock that look! With one planned to strap to his back, the other his arm, he gave a suggestion for a knife in the leg holster. They would need to come up with some storage for the arrows though.

”If we are going to turn this into a campaign how about starting with a roll of the dice?”

Oh.

He had on an honest to goodness bullet proof vest under his jacket. "I'm sorry, what did you say you do again?? Why does a webnovali-- No, never mind." She shook her head and dropped it. "This city has enough weird stuff going on all the time, I shouldn't be surprised."

She painted in everything he mentioned, adding things here and there if they felt like they matched or fit the setting. Eventually, it felt like there was enough and she was ready. No, they were ready. He was super ready, and also bullet proof.

"I don't have any dice on me..." She started, before remembering that her phone had magical capabilities to download things at her discretion that hadn't existed when she was this age before. It only took a few moments to find and get a dice rolling app downloaded on her phone. She was seriously glad someone had turned it in after finding it in that grocery store.

"Alright, that ought to do it. Now... what are we rolling for? I'll admit I was new to this game years ago and haven't touched it really until now. I don't know a whole lot of the rules anymore.

She had her app ready, her bag with paints and brushes, and her canvases snuggled awkwardly between her boots so she could he touching everything at once. When Mal was good and ready, she would pop them in.

Mal saw her confusion, and he smiled quickly as he went on to explain. "Webnovelist, yes, but mutant specialist is the general goal. I am researching a rather broad and often dangerous subject, so it bodes well to be prepared. Do you realize how many non-mutant casualties happen just from ridiculous wayward shrapnel? Casualty damage can be the worst type. If I can do what I love, and be a little bit safer, then why not? Even tornado chasers have a safe following vehicle." He insisted.

She seemed to accept it, which made him feel better. Not that he ever really felt ashamed by his intense passion for mutant powers. He just tried to keep it in check when he could. Don't freak out the people you needed to talk to. That seemed like a good rule.

After she was done creating their garb, she pulled up the rolling app. Malcolm considered, and pointed to each of 4 paintings. "Lets start with a setting. 1-5 is canvas 1, 6-10 is number 2, 11-15 is number 3, and 16-20 will be the last one."[/color]

His explanation made sense. A lot of sense, actually. Maybe it was just from the fact that not long ago she had been one of the powerless shrapnel magnets he was talking about. "That... is actually a really good point." She paused, seemingly considering things for a moment. "Maybe I need to get me one of those too, while i'm living here." She laughed, but not at the thought. She'd really like not to die via mutant shrapnel thankyouverymuch.

After listening to him rattle off the numbers, she looked at each painting in turn. Yes, that would do just fine! It took a lot of the guess work out of 'what's next?'.

Once she had the pictures visualized with numbers, she clicked the button on her phone to roll the dice. 2!

She glanced at the painting associated with the number. It was a pretty dilapidated, crumbly looking castle setting with little teeny skeletons scattered around through out the halls and rooms. "Alright, we have our staring painting. We just gotta pop into the equipment room first. Can you help me grab these paintings to take with?" She grabbed two of the canvases. The Acrylic had dried already in the few hours it had been since she had painted them.

She waited until he was ready, then held out her hand for him to take. "Okay, so getting in there is pretty quick. It can be a little disorienting, and careful when you land."

Once she had a grip on him they'd vanish with an audible little POP.

They appeared inside the equipment room within that same second. There was a tiny bit of a drop as they landed on the ground, but nothing huge. Shelby managed to stay on her feet this time and turned to look back at her exit painting. "Alright, suit up I guess?"

She headed on in to the room. It was themed like a room ripped straight out of a dungeon. Rough stone walls and torches on the walls. The gear he had requested were in one corner next to his painted weapons. Her armor was in another corner, next to a long spear she had painted for herself. She set the canvases down for a moment in order to shrug on her green and gold armor over her clothing. It fit correctly because she had willed it to, which was great. She hadn't been sure of that aspect before.

"Once we're ready we'll hop into the first world." She picked up the bag she had painted in for her other canvases and started to slide them in. They all seemed to fit without stretching the bag at all, since she had wanted it to be alike a dimension pocket of sorts. Cool!

"There'll be skeletons in the first one and I tried to design then with realistic physics and stuff, so we will see how this goes." Everything, while painted somewhat realistically, still had a very Vincent Vangough feel to it when it came to color blending.

She shifted her spear about experimentally. It was light, which was what she had wanted. "This is actually kinda fun! Like i'm in an old video game."

She headed on over to a blank section of wall and pulled out the next painting. Leaning it there, she waited for him to join her.

Mal had zero expectations when it came to being dragged into a painting, which made the actual event so much cooler! He obediently took along the pieces she requested, and tried not to absolutely lose his mind when they were in the painting.

squee.

totallygotittogetherplayitcoolplayit----

"How do you not just like, hang out in here all day!" He rushed over to his outfit and quickly put it on. The jacket felt so real! It didn't look real, exactly, but heck! It felt real! The outfit, the crossbows. The crossbows! He was soooo going to blog about this later.

"So, strategy! Creepy castle, take out the bad guys? Objective is to reach...the next level? Find the treasure? Every game has to have a certain outcome in mind. Classic rise and fall story telling." He commented, helping make sure their exit paintings were safely arranged. He might enjoy being trapped in a painting forever, but she would probably get pretty upset in the end.

Plus, what would they eat? Could you eat paint in this world? Or would it be like eating...paint?

Shelby flushed a little and laughed nervously. "Uh, well... I have?" She hadn't been particularly keen on bragging about spending her entire day inside a painting. That felt like something old people would complain about. Maybe not this one, though? "When I discovered that I could do this I got myself trapped in an Escher inspired painting for practically ever. Just kept rolling down the stairs on loop. It was awful... but also fun in retrospect." It had been a really weird day.

"Since then I've been in them exploring what I can do quite a bit. I can bring food in here with me and just... adventure. It's pretty fun." She grinned at him and reached out to snag his sleeve at the same time she touche the next painting.

"I hadn't really thought of a treasure or anything. Should I add one in? I definitely could, but anything removed from painting-verse reverts back to paint on the outside. I found that out the hard way trying to leave with a giant banana once." There had been a lot of yellow paint on her hotel room floor. Cleaning fees had been astronomical.

They appeared in an empty castle hall. All the bells and whistles of a creepy old fortress as far as the eye could see. Shelby reached immediately for a torch that had been on the wall to secure a source of light.

"I suppose we could play this one like a level of Mario, like... make it through and beat the bad guys. Get to the next level?" What all had she painted in here besides skeletons? She couldn't remember if there had been any treasure or not. "We should probably clear the whole place though, otherwise on the way back we'll still have skeletons to deal with."

As if on cue, the clattering and clanking of bones shambling toward them broke through the silence of the hall. Shelby held the torch out in front of her and pointed her spear out.

"If we need to leave all I need to do is touch that painting back there and you at the same time, so... um... stay close?"

There may have been a warble in her voice there. She was very much not a fighter in any sense and also skeletons were creepy. What on earth had she been thinking?!