The Art Behind Death (Cuddlebear)

Demetrius sat in the center of the graveyard, sketch book on his lap, looking at the three graves before him. Each of them were, in his mind, crafted to perfection. He wanted to draw them but they still lacked something...what could it be. The Artist rose to his feet, tapping his chin with a pencil. "It lacks flare...it lacks...a story" he said after a moment of thought, he slipped his pencil and sketch book into his hoodie. "I need a model for this tombstone, the scene alone does not give me what I need" he said to himself, he turned around and looked around for something he could use for his work.

She was not very accustomed to the town at all. She had heard that a couple strange sites were sitting on the outskirts of the town. She wondered if there were any people that spent time out here. She wondered if they had anything special they might share with her. She had her hand to her ear, toying with the small filter she used to keep out headaches. She wanted to try picking up on somebody without doing just a general scan. There wasn't really anybody out here. She was at a graveyard. She was expecting more people to be here mourning or something. She looked on into the large garden of stones to see something out of place. There was person a good ways away from her. She couldn't tell, but it looked alive. They were too far away for her to pick up on. She decided to just stay at the outer gates of the graveyard and watch. Maybe something interesting would happen. Maybe not.

Demetrius's eyes fell on a figure in the distance, his curiosity rising just upon seeing it standing on the outside of the graveyard. Was she there to see a gravesite? How curious, he didn't have to advance further and go out of his way to see who it was, but still, this person could be what he required to finish his piece. The boy who felt nothing altered his course as he made his way around the sea of stones. He briefly wondered why they buried the death in caskets in the first place, it was a waste of money as well as a very nice box. As he neared the figure on the other side of the graveyard, he could see it was a girl.

The person in the graveyard moved closer to her. She started to pick up on him. She dug into his mind. He was wondering why people buried the dead. She gave a little smile. She never had a strange moment of meeting somebody. She was always a step ahead. She started to speak into his head. Some people try to show some sort of respect for those that they loved by placing them in a nice, unreachable location after they've died. Others just seem to do it out of cultural obligation. She held her small smile and waited for him to approach her. She didn't really want to go into the graveyard, so him coming to her would just make things easier.

Demetrius stopped suddenly as he got an answer from a voice from nowhere. 'Im going to assume your not a a figment of my imagination that's appearing after my years of mental and physical abuse back home' he thought. Honestly if it was he wouldn't have been surprised by it, but still, he knew he was mentally fine if you didn't count that emotional dead spot he had when a person spoke to him. He walked to the girl again, keeping his pace normal. 'And I still find that as a simple waste, if we die, we can just be thrown in a hole somewhere to feed the trees and animals'

She conveyed a head-shaking. It wasn't really a visual... just sort of a feeling that her head was shaking. I am very much real. And that's just your opinion. Personally, I believe in cremation for the sake of saving space, but that's just me. She started to pick up a bit on the way this boy lived prior to now. There was a bit of abuse in there. She didn't really want that information. Other things would do. She kept her eyes locked on him. She started to lean against the stone wall separating the graves from the road. She was a patient person. May as well make some pre-conversation conversation.

"I agree with that method as well, I just don't care for the burying you in a box while you rot anyway" he said both aloud and mentally as he neared her physical body. He stepped on top of some guys grave stone to move over the small wall, he dropped next to her. The artist turned his head to her and rested his palms on the wall. "I take it your the one in my head?" He guessed.

The boy approached her and jumped the wall to stand on the same side. He was rather near her, but she didn't do anything about it. "Good guess. You are correct." She maintained her smile. This boy was apparently emotionless, at least from what she'd picked up listening to him. She voice was sounding weird to her. Maybe she spoke in people's heads a little too much. She needed to remember that she had vocal cords. She looked down at the boy's art pad. She looked all over him. He seemed like a regular person, maybe just an artist trying to get some inspiration. "This seems like a rather haunting place to draw."

Demetrius looked back at the graveyard and back at the girl before her, then just shrugged. "It just felt right to come here" he said as he adjusted himself, bringing himself further from her a bit. Honestly it made him uneasy to have people talk to him still, he should've made more of an effort with other people while he talked to Jake. "Why are you here?" He asked after a moment of silence, his slight touch of an English accent coming to his ears. It sounded out of place here with those that sounded...well American.

The boy just came here because... whatever. No actual important reason. That was boring. She heard a bit of an English accent from the boy. She held back her cringe. She didn't really want to remember her family. She was done with them. They brought terrible things to her life. They did bring her to existence, but past that, they ruined everything. They're both probably gone anyway... Still. Her name is the only thing left of her heritage. She turned her smile to a half-smirk. She swallowed hard and prepared to speak the way she used to. "So, I see I'm not the only one not from around here."

Demetrius let his eyes run over her face, picking apart the tension in her face muscle as she held back a reaction to his accent. "No, you are not, but I acquired this from time spent in England, I don't originate from there." He said as he noted how she swallowed. "Your suddenly uncomfortable with something" he stated as he brought his eyes to hers. The artist got good at reading little motions in the human body, things that seemed forced or other things. He may have been unable to understand somethings about people and his lack of a filter but he recognized a problem when he saw it.

She felt a little let down. The boy wasn't exactly from England like she was. She supposed it was fine. She didn't really mind. She switched her voice back to her current 'normal' tone. "I'm just not exactly a huge fan of the time I spent in England. I may have stirred up a few memories that I'd rather not dwell on." Her smirk grew back into a smile. She chose to forget. She didn't want any of that part of her life to have happened. Despite her focus on this boy, she wasn't picking up very much. He was just sort of empty inside, for the most part. Did he not think? Maybe he had better things to do.

He looked at her eyes, a brief moment of curiosity of what she meant by memories as well as the interest in the color of her iris. They were green but not as deep a green as his. The artist matched the color to the pencils he had in his hoodie pocket for a moment before saying. "Your just what I need" he said as he sat up on the wall, a rush of thoughs coming into his head, what to use, what to say, how he could get her to agree just in case she turned him down, but all in all he had just figured that he had found his model for his piece. "I need your beauty for just a moment, I think your just the face I've been looking for since I came here" he said

She was what the boy needed? She was a little curious. Then her head started to fill with a burst of strange thoughts. This boy was definitely not empty. So many things went into her head. It was hurting her to listen to all of it. Almost as quickly as it had started, though, it ended. The boy requested her. He wanted to borrow her beauty for a bit. Probably to make some sort of art. She just nodded. She needed to be careful digging around in this boy's head. He seemed a little... off. She would be his model for the time being. She had a habit of being up to keep herself interested without actually doing anything at all.

Demetrius got up and nodded simply. "What's your name anyway?" He asked her, his mind yet again clear of any thoughs, he wanted to know more about her, she seemed okay, but her power of telepathy made him uneasy, his thoughts were his and his alone.

The boy went relatively quiet again. She relaxed. He asked her name. "I go by Lisbeth, or Lis, or Beth, or whatever you would prefer." She didn't have much preference on the matter. Names weren't too important to her. The boy felt a little scared about her being telepathic and everything. She didn't really want to scare him further... she decided not to comment on that. Maybe make him think her mind-reading was more limited. "So, what do you need me to do?"

Demetrius looked at her and stopped in front of the first grave he was sitting in front of before she found him. "Sit in between the two graves, take any pose you want, and try not to act like you can't read me fully, Lisbeth?" He said shrugging. He took out his pad and pencil and put them on the grass carefully. "In return for this, I take it you'd like to know more about me in some way?" Demetrius said pushing his sleeves up revealing the scars that trailed up both his arms.

The boy led her through the graves. She didn't really want to be in here. It was sad. She wasn't completely against being here, though, so she would comply. The boy wanted her to sit between the two graves in any pose she wanted. He also wanted her to stop pretending like she wasn't in his head. She was just being polite. She followed his instructions and sat between the stones, trying to avoid touching them at all. She didn't want to convey any disrespect to these people. She looked up at the boy. "Do you want me to hide my ear-pieces?" They were rather ugly, in her opinion. She refused to remove them, but just hiding them with her hair wasn't too hard.

Demetrius scanned her ear pieces with his eyes and just nodded. They were clunky and weren't very good for his piece, he would just have to make a general guess of how her ears looked without them on his own. He sat down in front of her, his eyes once again scanning her face, taking in every feature, coming simply to the conclusion she was cute. He didn't really mind the thought appearing for her to hear because he saw no point in hiding a compliment before his person of interest. He dropped his gaze to the blank page before him and started on a base sketch of the tombstones in the corners, then the shape of her face, then removed the page, he set it by him and began the full piece. His mind slipped into a calm state, as he looked up every once and a while to see if he missed anything.

When the boy nodded and thought through the word clunky she couldn't help a bit a of a blush coming across her face. She was usually pretty calm about her ear-pieces, but that was quite the word to describe them. She almost frowned, but didn't want to ruin the picture, so she held a bit of a smile. The boy thought she was cute. She was happy about the compliment. Some of the boys at school seemed to have more extreme thoughts about her sometimes. She was a little used to them at this point, but it's just a little difficult to get over some of the pictures people draw out in their heads.

Demetrius looked up at her one last time and finished up his last few details on her smile. Yet again, he noticed how nice girls looked when they smiled. "You can come out of the pose now" he said as he withdrew a small wood box and flipped the lid off with his thumb. Inside were three rows of colored inks and a small paint brush along with a vial of water. He set the paint kit by him and he looked up at her. "So what do you want to know about me?" He asked. He was a man of his word, so he would tell her about whatever she wanted honestly.

The boy was finished with the piece. Apparently he had been enjoying her smile. She did not mind at all. She pushed herself up off the ground and stepped a little closer to him. Better than being so close to the stones. He was going to start coloring the picture. He offered to tell her anything she wanted. She smiled a bit. She would normally just say something that would stimulate thoughts about oneself, but she was a little scared of this boy having that crazy rush of thoughts like he did earlier. She should probably just do this like a normal conversation. "So, you enjoy drawing?" Pretty obvious answer, but it would probably lead further into his interests. She hoped.

Demetrius nodded silently, the question was indeed obvious to his answer, but he let the question dip into his mind for her. His love of his work was deep and almost all he had to keep himself busy while he was in Darks, outside of his written works and music. He didn't have many friends to hung out with, outside of Jake, but even now he couldn't find his sparing partner, but it didn't really bug him, he was used to being on his own. He carefully painted the picture, his ear twitching slightly as he considered the proper alignment of the shades of red for Lisbeths hair. "Next question" he said simply as he painted, lapsing into silence again.

The question didn't even warrant an audible answer, and still she was able to pick up so much information. Her guess was correct, this boy did attend Darks, like her. She found out about the boy's interests and a bit of his social life. One question can lead to quite a bit. He was working on her hair. She just barely noticed a loose lock of her hair slightly obscuring her vision. It was a rather bright red. She hoped it wouldn't be too flashy in the picture. Her hair might stand out a little too much in this dreary graveyard. "What grade are you in?" Another simple, one-word question. Still, it has the potential to reveal his entire schooling situation.

Demetrius glanced at her from the corner of his eye before turning his attention to his paper before he put his paint brush into the water vail and he reached to her hair without looking, brushing the lock from her face. "Freshman, Ive only been her for a couple of months, but I think im supposed to go up a grade in Novemeber based on past test scores or something" he said as he reclaimed his paintbrush and slowly painted in another shade of red. His mind yet again gave her more information, as he knew that's what she wanted, he yet again just let her know it. While he was a ok student, and he didn't bother anybody, he mostly maintained a A and B average, ate lunch on his own, sat in the courtyard or moved around from class to class to find something he wanted to draw. While he remained mostly all on his lonesome, an odd few girls in his grade level did see him as attractive, he really didn't know if there was much point in trying to go for a date, when he was so dead pan that he could ruin it in a moment. His hand twitched slightly as he raised the brush from the paper,his mind almost taking him back to a few darker memories as he thought back to how he ended up at Darks, but he caught them before they flowed fully.