Black Kingdom, Red Kingdom

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((Min-jae Parker continued from (For a Film) ))

The most frustrating thing in the world to be angry with is the forces of nature. This is because nature doesn't give a fuck. Nature hates you, and you just have to deal with it, even when "dealing with it" means "picking yourself up off the floor and hurrying to mop up the paint you spilled and praying that nobody saw you get so startled by a sudden clap of thunder that you tipped your stool right over and fell".

That little incident put the score for today firmly at Nature: 2 and Jae: 0, accounting for the fact that he had left his bedroom window open the previous night and been awoken at an ungodly hour by the rain blowing in this morning. And it wasn't quite lunch time yet, so Jae could probably rightfully assume that he was just going to be on the losing end all day long, if this was how things were going so far.

He snatched his phone up off the floor and paused the music he had been listening to before setting it on the nearest table. Fortunately, the painting and drawing room had a paper towel dispenser for exactly these situations when someone spilled things, so all he had to do was grab a handful and get to cleaning. Jae set the stool upright again and crouched down to wipe up the paint, wincing slightly.

He really hoped no one had seen him spaz out and fall on his butt like that.

[Primrosette]

((Brendan Harte continued from Just Wants A Distraction ))

Brendan had been concentrating on his painting before he suddenly heard a stunningly loud clap of thunder and he was surprised to see a student fall off of his stool beside him. He blinked a little and he knew that he shouldn't laugh at the way that the guy had fell. It looked like it had hurt. He was a little shocked that he hadn't freaked out himself. Oh, the guy who fell had been Jae. Maybe he should check to see that he was okay. That was a nasty fall afterall.

Brendan got off of his stool and he cleared his throat nervously, slowly stepping over to where Jae was cleaning up his mess. "Hey, Jae. Are you okay? You really took a bad fall there." He smiled slightly and he glanced down at Jae, wondering if he should get a paper towel to help Jae clean up more quickly. "It's not very nice weather out there, huh? Hey, I can help you clean that up if you want, Jae?"

He was sure that Jae would like his help as Brendan was feeling a little sorry for him as Jae looked like he was in a bit of pain and he moved to get some paper towels himself. Brendan just wanted to be helpful anyway. He actually crouched down beside Jae and he started to clean up the paint as well with a gentle smile on his face.

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"I'm fine," Jae said, too quickly and sharply. He'd completely forgotten that he wasn't the only one in the room, caught up in painting and the music he was listening to. Brendan was... well, he existed. That was more or less the extent of Jae's opinion on him. Overly nice, sort of wimpy, had been on the receiving end of Jae snapping at him more than once over the years. Not much more to him than that. "I don't need- oh, you're doing that now."

Really, he'd rather that they both pretend his spectacular fall had never happened, but Brendan seemed intent on playing the Good Samaritan. At least Jae was pretty sure that Brendan didn't have it in him to be patronizing when he offered help.

He stood to toss his dirtied paper towels into the trash and grabbed another handful before glancing over his canvas to make sure it hadn't been too badly disturbed. There was a small streak of red where there shouldn't be now; it was near a corner and could be covered up easily enough once it dried, but it did nothing for his mood. Jae was a perfectionist when it came to his art, especially with painting where mistakes were more permanent than in a sketch. He sure as hell wasn't putting anything with glaring errors up for the senior exhibition.

Jae intended to pull out all the stops for his part of the exhibition. He had one finished painting already, out of what he meant to be a short series. The themes he was going for were transformation, and birds (They'd just gone over "The Crucible" in English class and frankly, the scene with the girl screaming about someone turning their soul into a bird was the only part he remembered clearly). The first portrait had been of a woman and an owl, and this second one was supposed to be a peacock but now he'd gone and gotten red paint where it wasn't supposed to be and it looked like the bird's head was on fire and-

Wait. Wait a minute.

Fire.

"Phoenixes!" Jae blurted out. He shoved his handful of paper towels at Brendan without another word and practically vaulted over him to get to the supply closet in search of more red paint. These bursts of real inspiration were few and far between, and he needed to get back to work before the image in his mind's eye slipped away again.

He could still go with the peacock sketch he'd done but a different color scheme, play with lighter and darker accents to really emphasize the idea of fire... Jae was dimly aware that he was probably grinning like a loon as he located the paints he was looking for.

Oh yes, he could turn this around. Nature: 2, Jae: 1. Suck it, nature.

[Primrosette]

Brendan should have been used to Jae snapping at him by now but he didn't and he just wished that Jae was thankful for him helping him out. He didn't understand why Jae seemed to think that he was a bother. He has this free period to be able to complete a painting that he wanted to be perfect. But he didn't think that he was best at coming up with the most creative paintings. He honestly thought that Jae was so much better than he was at art. This was how Brendan honestly felt. He did feel a little jealous of Jae but he couldn't tell Jae how he felt and he had now managed to clean up the paint for Jae. Hm. Maybe he should ask what Jae would think of his painting so far. He could make use of someone's opinion of his art so far and he thought that Jae would be the best person to ask anyway.  

Wait, what? Phoenixes? What on earth was Jae talking about? Brendan was blinking in confusion as Jae shoved his handful of paper towels into Brendan's hands and he watched as Jae practically moved over to get some more supplies from the supply closet. Brendan just continued to watch him quietly for a few moments before he got up to his feet and he thrown the rest of the paper towels into the trash. Well, he was guessing that was Jae's way of thanking him. He didn't want to make a big deal out of it and have Jae snap at him again. He should just get back to doing his own painting. But.....

Brendan felt himself mumble a bit too quietly as he was trying to speak to Jae again and he scratched his nose, feeling slightly uncomfortable in the other student's presence. "Hey, Jae," He was shifting a little on his feet and he glanced at Jae's painting for a few seconds. "Can I ask you something?"    

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"Hm? What?" Brendan was barely even a blip on Jae's mental radar at this point. He was busy squeezing the paint onto the paper plate he'd been using to mix colors, envisioning the shades he would need to get just the right effect. The bird would be the focal point of this one, brighter in contrast to the person. He hadn't done the background yet - should it be darker, to emphasize the phoenix and the fire? Just more muted? Less detailed? No, wait, he'd already sketched out all the detail, he wasn't just going to paint over that.

As he set the paint aside and reached for his phone to put his earphones back in, it registered more clearly that Brendan was asking him something. Jae didn't really want to start a conversation, not right now when the wheels had just started turning for this painting, but maybe they could keep it short.

"What?" He repeated, glancing over at Brendan.

[Primrosette]

Brendan gulped nervously as he could tell that Jae didn't want to be bothered by him and he wasn't sure if he should talk to Jae now. He didn't want to be a bother to the other student and he knew that he should get back to his own painting. Brendan glanced back at his painting and he let out a soft sigh. He wasn't sure if his painting would be good enough. His painting was of a woman in a white dress while holding a red rose and he was only halfway through that. He really wanted Jae's opinion on it badly, but he also wanted to know why Jae would snap at him. He didn't understand why Jae seemed to think that he was a nuisance.

"Well, I really want to know your opinion of my painting so far. I want to know what you think of it." He was looking down at the ground now as he was a bit afraid of keeping eye contact with Jae and he took a step backward towards his stool. "So what is your opinion, Jae? I would really like to hear your thoughts."

Good. He had managed to get that part out of the way. Now he just needed to ask Jae the harder question. Well, it did feel like it would be harder for Brendan to ask. But he really wanted to know why Jae was acting like that towards him.

Brendan slowly looked up to glance into Jae's eyes and he was trying to look calm, hoping that Jae didn't really know how nervous he was of him. "I would also like to know something else. Why do you seem to snap at me a lot? Do you not like me or something? I don't understand why you would do that."  

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The second most frustrating thing in the world, right after the forces of nature, is people. People like Brendan, who were overly sensitive and thought that it was some sort of personal attack on them every time someone didn't vomit sunshine and rainbows in their direction. In the years that they had been going to school together, Jae had yet to see Brendan develop anything approaching a spine, and it didn't look like that was going to change anytime soon.

Jae just barely bit back a sigh as he gave Brendan's painting a once-over. "It's not bad." It wasn't; not fantastic either, but it showed improvement over Brendan's earlier work that Jae had seen. "It's not going to blow anyone's mind, but there's always going to be someone out there who's a sucker for a portrait of a pretty woman in a dress."  He could have gone into a more detailed critique, but Brendan just had to pipe up again.

What Brendan, and people in general, just didn't seem to ever get was that there weren't actually that many people that Jae held a genuine, active dislike for. Every little thing he did or said didn't need to be analyzed to pieces for evidence that he hated someone. He wasn't going to pour a ton of time and effort into trying to make them like him if he didn't especially like them. If anything, his brusqueness meant that he was mostly indifferent. It shouldn't have been any reason for people to take offense.

But then there were the people like Brendan, the ones who just looked so shocked and hurt whenever there was the slightest indication that someone might not like them, and they always looked at Jae like he'd done something fundamentally wrong and he should be sorry.

It pissed him off.

"I don't treat you any differently than anyone else. We've had classes together all through high school, you should know that by now."

[Primrosette]

Brendan was relieved that Jae seemed to think that his painting was alright in a way and he was glad that Jae wasn't biting his head off for disturbing him from his other work. However, the people that he was hoping to show the painting first to were not suckers in Brendan's eyes and he wasn't fond of Jae calling his father and his grandparents suckers. But Brendan knew that he wouldn't stand up to Jae for saying that because it was in Brendan's own nature to cower away from others. Ugh. He really hated being like that.

He just gave Jae a small nod and he glanced at Jae's painting again as Jae continued to talk to him. Oh, he was doing a painting of a bird. So that was why he said something about phoenixes. It made sense to him now. It was too bad that Brendan wasn't very good at painting animals himself. He was feeling more envious of Jae now because of how talented he was. But he didn't really like Jae's attitude towards him most of the time.

He had to tell Jae how he was feeling as his father had always told him that he had to let his emotions be known about by the other person who obviously had a problem with him and he frowned a little at Jae. "Funny. I seem to be the only one who is always on the receiving end of your bad attitude in our classes. Do you honestly think I like having my confidence lower by your snappiness towards me all the time?" Brendan was trying to speak to Jae calmly but he was struggling to and he didn't care if Jae would get mad at him again. "I'm just sick and tired of it and I want you to stop it. Okay?"

Brendan wasn't sure if this was the best way for him to say it. But he had to show that he was trying to change from being the shy kid to a more confident person. He wasn't sure if it was working or not on Jae tho. He was kind of regretting opening up to him a little now.

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Jae crossed his arms and regarded Brendan with an unimpressed frown. Oh, boo-freakin'-hoo. Poor little Brendan went and got his feelings hurt. It wasn't that Jae was exactly proud of his reputation, but he was self-aware enough to know how a lot of his classmates viewed him, and any one of them could confirm that he wasn't discriminatory when it came to who he took his frustrations out on. And frankly, it usually wasn't unprovoked - people asked for his opinions or his help and they got it, or they were just too stubborn or dense to accept what he was telling them. Or, like Brendan, they tried to call him out on whatever they thought he was singling them out for.

"I just said," Jae began, speaking more slowly and loudly, as if he was talking to a small child, "that I don't treat you any differently than I do anyone else. Your victim complex is not my problem. I don't take any special time out of my day to bother you, and I'm not going to change the way I act or talk just for you."

[Primrosette]

Brendan took a deep breath and he let out a small sigh. He shouldn't have let his feelings get the better of him. Now Jae was treating him like a child because of how he always got oversensitive over the littlest of things and he was now feeling embarrassed. He really shouldn't have opened his mouth. He realized that he should just leave Jae alone. He didn't want to make Jae feel like he should bother him anymore.

"I'm sorry...." He looked away from Jae back his own painting and he hopped back down onto his stool, hoping to concentrate on his painting again. "I shouldn't have asked. I'm sorry for bothering you. I didn't mean to be a nuisance to you, Jae."

He gazed back at Jae's painting for a few seconds and he chuckled softly. "You know.... I'm actually very envious of you, Jae." He was being honest right now and he couldn't believe that he was still talking to Jae. "You just very creative and talented and I just don't think I will ever be as good as you. I'm just terrible at doing paintings of animals. I just can't get it right. .....Is it okay if I watch you paint right now? I hope that didn't sound creepy or anything."

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Good grief, Brendan was going to give him whiplash. Jae wasn't too surprised at how quickly and easily he backed down, but the sudden heaping of compliments on him was a bit much. Part of him wanted to push back further, really put Brendan in his place, but the half-finished canvas off to his side reminded him that more important things were waiting. He took in a deep breath and let it out slowly, and turned away from Brendan again.

"Yeah, actually, it does sound pretty creepy, but do whatever the fuck you want I guess." He waved a hand in Brendan's general direction to indicate his lack of caring on this particular point. He climbed back onto his stool and put his earbuds back in, scrolling through his playlists until he found a suitable one for his new inspiration. Energy was what he needed. The good kind, that consuming kind that let you focus completely on a project, not the angry, tightly-coiled desire to lash out that came from their argument. Hearing another rumble of thunder outside, Jae decided to turn his volume down just a bit to hopefully keep from being taken by surprise by the weather again.

Music chosen, he looked over his canvas with a critical eye. He was thinking of brightening both the bird and the man opposite to it, rather than darkening the background; he hadn't spent hours of his life sketching out detailed buildings in the back just to make them all blend together. Maybe a sort of halo effect in the foreground would work instead...

Jae fiddled with one of his lip rings as he thought, picking up his brush in his other hand and rolling it between his fingers. Brendan, their argument, and the godforsaken weather were all beginning to fade away into the background of his awareness again, and that was the way he preferred it.

[Primrosette]

Brendan was glad that Jae would let him watch, although he wouldn't be able to complete his own work and he wasn't feeling like he was in a good mood for continuing at the moment anyway. He didn't really want to get into a huge agreement with Jae as he hated getting into fights and he really wanted to take a closer look at Jae's own work. He moved his stool over a little bit closer to Jae and he started to watch Jae continue on his work quietly.

After a while, Brendan heard another clap of thunder and he felt himself jump slightly. Jeez. The weather today sure was terrible. He really didn't like it when it was raining and he got out his phone, glancing at his phone. It was almost the end of his free period and he wasn't very enthusiastic about his next class. He should really get to packing up his belongings soon.

Brendan tried to shift up to his feet from his stool and he slipped a little, accidentally shoving Jae with his elbow as he was concentrating on his painting. Oh, no. Brendan's clumsiness had striked again and he had a feeling that Jae would be really mad with him. Brendan gulped as he nervously took a glance at Jae's painting again. No, no, no. Why did he always manage to screw things up a lot?

"Jae.... I.... I'm sorry..... It was an accident. I swear...."

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"You absolute piece of shit."

Jae liked to think that he had matured a bit over the course of high school. That he wasn't just mean without cause, that he could see that sometimes he was in the wrong. He wasn't some ticking time bomb like some of his teachers and peers seemed to think he was, just waiting around for someone to look at him the wrong way so he could explode. His parents weren't shelling out money for counseling every other week for him to not take anything away from it. He had self-control.

And then Brendan shoved him torso-first into his own painting, and that launched all of Jae's reasoning and self-control right into the stratosphere.

There was a large blob of bright red paint smeared over the front of his shirt now. This was not fabric-friendly paint. Jae liked this shirt. He wasn't even going to look at the painting right this second. If he did, Cochise might have a murder on their hands rather than just two students whose respective days had just been ruined.

One of his earbuds fell out as he whipped around to glare at Brendan. "What the fuck is your problem? Is fucking standing up too hard for you?" Music was still blasting into his other ear and he yanked the other earbud out, shoving them away without bothering to turn the music off. "You think I'm always on your case, Brendan? Huh? Did you ever stop to think that maybe you fucking deserve it for being totally. Fucking. Useless?"

Jae's hands were shaking, he was so pissed. He balled one into a fist on his leg; he wasn't inclined towards physical violence, not least because any of the more athletic students in Cochise could probably break him in half, but if there was ever a time that to be tempted to take a swing at someone...

"Just..." Jae gritted his teeth together and swallowed thickly. "Just get the fuck out. Don't talk to me." He didn't have the authority to kick anyone out of a classroom, even if he did spend more time than most of the student body in the art rooms. He also didn't care.

[Primrosette]

Brendan listened to Jae's hurtful words and he remained silent. He didn't know that Jae's outburst would make him feel so upset. He glanced away from Jae and he couldn't get any words out of his mouth. He was just so cowardly to speak. He couldn't apologize to Jae again. That would just make things a lot worse with him. Brendan cleared his throat and he could feel himself want to cry. He couldn't let himself cry. He didn't want to be sent as a crybaby. He didn't want to seem like he was weak or more useless in front of Jae. How could he make this up to Jae?

Brendan looked back at Jae's painting and he was trying to block Jae's negative words out of his head. He had to do something to make Jae hate him less. But what? It's not like he knew what would make Jae give him another chance. Unless he could try to do something useful for him. Maybe he could help Jae in a way and he wasn't going to leave Jae alone right now.

"I'm not going to leave right now. I want to make it up to you, Jae. I'm sorry for ruining your shirt and your painting. I deserved everything that you said to me." Brendan mumbled quietly and he was shifted on his feet uncomfortably. "How about I do a new painting for you? Would that make me less useless to you? Please I still need to do my own painting too, but I don't want you to stay mad at me. Please, Jae?"

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"Fuck no. Are you trying to make everything worse? Don't touch my shit, don't touch me, just fuck off!" So not only was Brendan a clumsy wimp, he had absolutely nothing in the way of self-preservation instinct. The guy was probably going to get his teeth punched in within two weeks of graduation if he hounded everyone who didn't want him around the way he did Jae.

Jae moved off the stool and away from Brendan, grabbing another handful of paper towels and dabbing at the paint on his shirt. There was probably no saving it at this point, not with that much paint on it. Fucking fantastic. It was a fairly new shirt, too, so that was just the icing on the cake. He could feel Brendan's eyes on him still, and it was just serving to keep him pissed. "You do understand what that means, right? Fuck off. Get lost. Go. Away. I literally could not give less of a fuck what you do, as long as you're not doing it near me."

He threw the paper towels into the trash can, still scowling down at his ruined shirt. What a stupid mess this whole day was.