Open Log: Try to interact with the antisocial 15 year old

[reluctantproxy]

Who: Neku and ANYONE
Where: Downtown LA
When: Daytime, post sinkhole
What: Neku being Neku. Wandering LA unsupervised, spray painting random shit maybe, generally being grumpy and unpleasant and having MASSIVE RELUCTANT HERO ANGST
Warnings: None yet.

((This is my first time throwing up one of these open posts on anything ever so ummm yeah IDK just. I'll throw a thread start on here but I'm also just generally open to doing whatever the hell anyone wants, you can start your own scenario..... it's up to you, I just really want to get Neku interacting with more people))

Comments

[sick_heartbeats]

Ok, looks like the new guy isn't saying anything either. After a moment Dirk gestures in the direction of his graffiti. "Terrible, right?"

[reluctantproxy]

"It uh... yeah, it's definitely up there," Neku responds, sounding incredibly vexed.

[sick_heartbeats]

"Thanks," Dirk says, completely missing the new kid's tone of voice. "I tried to make it as bad as possible, but, y'know, in the good way."

[reluctantproxy]

"The good way??" Neku asks. Without thinking at all. He doesn't actually care that much. Dammit.

[sick_heartbeats]

Wow, he sounds really interested. Dirk's glad he came out today and got the opportunity to share one of his many passions with some random guy on the street.

"Yeah. The ironic way. See, my brother - well, he's not really my brother but that's a long story - was - is I guess? - something of an artistic genius. There's room for improvement but on the whole he really knows his way around all the different tiers of irony, and is definitely capable of tapping into more than one at a time, for maximum humor value. Peaches - that's the dog here - is an especially clever commentary on the place of household pets in the popular media of this era. Or I guess it might only be relevant to dogs, since different species tend to occupy different narrative roles. There are a number of theories as to why he's always shown sitting up - a rather anthropomorphic pose - or why his name is what some would consider "feminine", despite being presented to us as a male dog.

"But I think I'm getting off topic. If you're asking about the art style, you should know that it's exactly as shitty as it needs to be, in exactly the way it needs to be. See, most of my bro's famous work is his movies, but he got his start drawing webcomics. The first few were a scathing parody of some well-known but still non-purposefully-terribly-drawn webcomics at the time, utilizing a variety of techniques intended to highlight their visual pitfalls - but at the same time, perform a sort of meta-criticism on common online art criticism itself. For example, some of his comics were drawn entirely by mouse. Not because that was 'worse' than a high-end tablet" - he makes little air quotes with his fingers here - "but because of its perception as such. Others were painstakingly crafted over the course of a number of days, with as much technological overkill as possible. Tablet, fancy software, et cetera. And of course, various elements of these styles were switched around in all sorts of combinations. Usually he relied on file format misuse for the compression artifacts, but I know of at least three cases where he drew them all by hand. It's this sort of supreme dedication to the craft that allows for the additional layers of meta humor for which my brother was famous. One critic described his work as 'a fucking onion'."

Dirk looks to his own painting of Peaches. "Unfortunately, I don't have much experience with spray paint, so I can't replicate all of that here. But I'm sure the fact that it's illegal would be more than enough to make him proud."

[reluctantproxy]

Neku just kind of gapes uselessly for a moment. He really did not expect there to be that much thought behind a shitty painting of a dog, but.... well he can't say that he gets it, but he is kind of impressed by how passionate this guy is about his work. Even if it is incredibly fucking weird.

"Can't say I can give you any feedback on that but... that's legit, I guess."

[sick_heartbeats]

Dirk has to struggle not to smile like a huge dork. It's not often he finds someone who can appreciate his interests. Usually when he starts talking about them people think he's weird.

"So." He gestures toward the small collection of paint cans next to the building. "Are you into street art?"

[reluctantproxy]

"Huh? Oh, yeah..." Neku focused back on the conversation again. "Not really necessarily... this kind of thing, but I'm a big fan of CAT. The sort of stuff that's symbolic, but still really in your face about the message it's trying to send, y'know?" He shrugs. "I'm still kind of exploring my own style but, yeah."

[sick_heartbeats]

Dirk nods. "I prefer subtlety most of the time, but there's definitely something to be said for blunt force trauma with the truth. Do you have any works around here?"

[reluctantproxy]

Neku looks off to the side nervously. He's not super confident about his work at this stage in the game, having just kind of started street art as a hobby in earnest. "Um...." he mutters. "Not around here but I was about to go and start working on a new piece.

[sick_heartbeats]

"Cool. What kind of piece were you thinking? Or are you just gonna improvise most of it?" Dirk walks over to his own painting and starts gathering up his spray cans. One by one they go from the ground to his hand to- nowhere. They just disappear.

[reluctantproxy]

His response is abruptly cut off as he notices the disappearing spray cans, expression slightly startled. "What the heck was that?"

[sick_heartbeats]

"Was what?" Dirk says, even though he knows what. Dammit. Now he's going to have to explain shit. He hates when people get all fascinated over his cool future technology, even though he knows he would probably be fascinated too if he were in their position.

[reluctantproxy]

Fortunately, Neku picks up on that pretty quickly-- A rare bonus for being an empath. It's like a minor emotional wall has suddenly been thrown up, and he knows better than to pry too hard. "...don't worry about it, it's no big deal.... just startled me is all," he responds, giving Dirk a mildly sympathetic look.

[sick_heartbeats]

What? He's just dropping the subject? That's.... really weird, but convenient. Dirk doesn't let his guard down just yet, but he knows not to look a gift horse in the mouth. "So, you were saying? About your piece?"

I suck horrendously at tagging with Neku apparently ARGH

[reluctantproxy]

Neku shrugs noncommittally. "I was kind of just gonna wing it. See what comes to mind and roll with that." He wasn't really sure how comfortable he was with having a stranger watch him work, but this guy actually seemd alright and he didn't really want to be rude, for once....

omg it's ok xD

[sick_heartbeats]

Dirk nods. "Yeah, I can dig that. Some of my best work was improvized. Mind if I come and watch you, or would that kill your flow?"

[reluctantproxy]

Neku pauses for a moment there. He's really not keen on it but.... There's something kind of interesting about this guy, he guesses. "...Yeah sure, why not."

[sick_heartbeats]

"Awesome. Lead the way, then." With any luck, Dirk would continue to get along with this guy, and they could be street art bros or whatever. It would be nice to have someone to share that interest with.