004 ☯ Alma [VIDEO]

[alma_karma]

[Awkward Alma is awkward, a stuffed bunny in his arms and a crooked little smile on his face. Kanda's little black golem is fluttering by one shoulder, decorated with what looks like colorful swirls of chalk.]

... Does anyone wanna play with me?

[Yes, someone's bored.]

Comments

[of course~]

[alma_karma]

Yeah! [Alma scampers over, large chunks of chalk in each hand.]

Wanna help?

[tothelastbreath]

That's what I'm here for! [He accepts a chunk of chalk and gives the wall a considering look, then stretches onto tip-toes to draw a wobbly sun in one corner. It... would probably look more like a smushed spider out of context.]

[alma_karma]

[Alma continues on with his odd little mural, cheering Allen on as the older boy reaches where his own little arms can't.]

What's that?

[tothelastbreath]

[Allen's helping to fill in the blank spaces with bubbly clouds and misshapen birds.]

Oh, that? It's―[a dubious pause as he surveys his own artwork]―the sun.

[alma_karma]

[Alma tilts his head, studying the... sun.



And then he grins.] Great! It needed a sun!

[tothelastbreath]

I thought so too!

[While he's at it, he'll draw a crescent moon and a few stars on another section of the wall, tapping them with the chalk.]

And this is how people usually draw the moon and stars.

[Just in case Alma didn't know.]

[alma_karma]

[Blinkblink.]

... But stars aren't all pointy like that.

[tothelastbreath]

I suppose they're meant to look like rays of light.

[alma_karma]

[He squints a little before nodding.] I guess that kinda makes sense.

[tothelastbreath]

I never really thought about it until you asked. Is there anything you'd like me to draw?

[alma_karma]

Um... do you know how to draw animals?

[tothelastbreath]

...I can try!

[alma_karma]

'Cause I've sen birds and stuff here, and some of the books have pictures in them, but I'm not very good at drawing them.

[tothelastbreath]

[Looking up at his squiggly birds.] Neither am I, actually. We can practice together?

[alma_karma]

Sure! Oh, hold on!

[He scrambles over to one corner of the room where he seems to have hoarded all his art supplies (paper, chalk, and even that box of crayons Allen got him), returning quickly with some lighter pink chalk.]

That way we can see them against the sky.

[tothelastbreath]

[Canting his head curiously in Alma's direction, and then―Blink. Pink birds?]

...

[Don't oppress a child's creativity, Allen.]

Good idea! [picking up a piece of the new chalk] Alright, let's try.

[alma_karma]

[He's doing rather well considering his limited color palet, thank you. Let him CREATE~

And they're off! Alma gets right to work attempting a little flock of standing birds on the "ground" around his eye level.]

[tothelastbreath]

[Allen'll join in with a sketch of... something flying over Alma's flock of birds. Heaven knows what species that's supposed to be, but at least it's got the right number of wings and a beak.]

[alma_karma]

[Allen's... bird thing will go nicely with Alma's... bird things. More like a bunch of pink bananas with feet, but they'll serve their purpose just fine.]

[tothelastbreath]

[Sitting back with a smile to survey their work.]

Oh, that looks―[Don't mind the tiny tic in his left cheek before it's flattened out by good cheer. Accuracy is a negligible part of creativity!]―nice.

[He leans over to draw a tree at the side with several crooked branches.] ...And now they have a home.

[alma_karma]

[Alma beams, drawing a two or three banana-birds on the branches.]

They can all be brothers.

[tothelastbreath]

[Allen smiles at that, a little softer than he normally does, and adds a few circles to the branches. They're meant to be fruit. Probably.]

There, food for them.

[alma_karma]

... What kind of food grows on trees?

[tothelastbreath]

...Fruits? They don't usually look like this, though.

[alma_karma]

Like apples?