.~.hello Seattle, i am a cold seahorse.~.

[Lily-Mae]

Lily-Mae shifted her over the shoulder, leather purse in order to lean in further to examine one of the many pieces of artwork that hung on the corridors of the school. Her haunting bright blue eyes read the title over and over again, "Pain in color." It was an assortment of reds, blues and purples. The red and blue clashed in the middle, making angry straight lines, cutting edges that she could almost feel and than vanished into the dark purple in the middle. The place where she was at. It wasn't closure, but it wasn't the angry kind of pain. It was the place where you hid it. It was the place where she was scared to leave.

This morning, Lily-Mae had chosen another plain outfit. A pair of dark skinny jeans tucked into black boots that were cut off right above the knee, a low black tang top, and a black slouchy hat. [its the kind you wear with dread locks.]

She leaned back and tilted her whole body, including her head to the side to further examine the art work. It was brilliant in her eyes, even if some would compare it to a three year olds drawings. She reached inside her purse and brought out one of the many potion books she had taken out from the library and flipped through the pages. She stopped at a page that had a potion that numbed feelings. It was swirled like the painting. I thought I saw that somewhere, she thought. Than she dropped the book back into her bag and went back to gazing at the painting, remembering each brush stroke.

[Diane McLain]

Diane walked down the corridor, looking around herself uncertainly. She remembered Ms Jackson's warning about not staying by herself, though after her class she had found herself doing exactly that. She still wasn't strong enough to go the compusory P.E. lesson with Mayu, and she hadn't had a chance to text Antosha where she was. She just knew that she had to stay in clear sight, walking around and looking in the corridors.

She spotted the girl looking at the picture, and flicking through the pages of the book. She seemed to be the only one that wasn't rushing around and/or talking to friends. She stepped beside her, looking up at the picture. "It's pretty," she said absently, watching the swirls. She admired the ability to make the chaos look beautiful.

[Lily-Mae]

Lily-Mae startled a bit as she heard Diane's voice. She had been so lost in the painting itself to have even noticed that there were other people in the same corridor. This made her blush slightly in embarrassment. The other students probably thought she was strange, but they wouldn't be too off on their guess. She turned towards Diane tilting her head towards the painting, "Indeed it is. I'm Lily-Mae and new here. It's a pleasure."

She shifted her bag to the side once more. She had stuffed it full of books on potions and had planned on finding a place to sit and read up on her weakest subject. Therefore, the bag kept annoyingly shifting to the front. Perhaps I should have just used my over the shoulder book bag, she thought to herself.

[Diane McLain]

She looked at her and smiled, introducing herself as well, "I'm Diane and I'm... not." she told her, trying to be as polite as she could. She turned back to the painting, studying it with her eyes, "I wish I could paint," she told her, shrugging, putting her hands into her pockets and swaying slightly. "I never really noticed these paintings before now. I always thought they were just Ikea-junk."

She looked over, seeing the bag full of stuff, "Do you need a hand with that?" she asked, worried she was going to sound like she was going to steal her things.

[Lily-Mae]

Lily-Mae looked over the painting again. One could see every brush stroke that the painter had wanted to make and yet there was no author. There was no name she could look up later. There was no face she could put to the creator of a painting that could illustrate herself so perfectly. There was nothing, but the name, "Pain in Color."

She smiled at Diane and replied, "Some paintings are rubish, but this one is really good." Seeing Diane being worried about her bag made Lily-Mae smile. It probably looked like the bag weighed more than she did. "If we could sit somewhere that would be nice," she replied with a reassuring smile.

[Diane McLain]

She looked over the picture, but didn't care for the name. She wouldn't have been able to recognise it anyway, especially if it was poor enough to stand on a school's wall. "I don't know, I tend to see things looking pretty even if others don't think so." she said. It was generally the way she looked at life. "Sure, sure," she said to her suggestion, glad to know that she wasn't just imposing on her, and that she too was needing company. She turned around, saying, "There's a few seats just down here," she said, leading them down the hall.

[Lily-Mae]

Lily-Mae smiled and followed Diane. Her eyes looked over the other paintings as she continued to walk. She would have to come back down and check out some of the other artworks. "Thank goodness," Lily-Mae said as she let her bag of books drop to the floor beside her. It was like a weight had been lifted. Her hand gently rubbed the shoulder that all the weight had been resting on. "It's full of potion books. I'm terrible at anything that has to deal with potions," she added with a sigh.

[Diane McLain]

She climbed onto the seat, pulling up one of her legs and holding it. "Urgh, don't get me started on potions," she said, looking through the mass amounts of potions things, "See, I'm not all too fantastic with any of the practical stuff." she admitted, "I get half of my spells wrong, and its not because I don't know it; I know most of the stuff, but there's something that doesn't quite connect between my brain and my hand," she told her with a smile. It was strange that she could feel so open with the stranger, although she knew that they were only exchanging pleasantries, and actually saying very little.

[Lily-Mae]

Lily-Mae smiled and nodded her head, "I know what you mean. The last time I tried to make a simple invisibility potion I had green hair for three days." She let out a laugh at her own bad luck. She frowned and shook her head, "I'm hopeless with potions." It was nice to just sit here and have someone to talk to. Someone she seemed to get along rather good with so far. Diane was a lot nicer than the girl she tried to get to tell her where the potions section was in the library, calling her a "delinquent."

[Diane McLain]

She giggled at the very idea of her ending up with green hair, saying, "How on Earth did you manage with green?" she asked, completely unable to phathom what she would look like with green hair"I don't think I've ever done anything really disasterous... I know how terrible my potions can turn out so I've pretty much mastered every check and double check spell that exists." she admitted.

[Lily-Mae]

"Well, I definitely don't want green hair again, or pink for that matter. I will have to look those spells up," Lily-Mae said with a frown, "I am just terrible at putting them together I guess. I'm more a fighter." She smiled at Diane and leaned back against the wall. Thankful to have a moment of laughter, even if it was at her own mistakes. "So what do you do fun around here," she asked with a smile.

[Diane McLain]

She looked at Lily-Mae and frowned, imagining her with green or pink hair. "Uh, no..." she agreed with her, "Although I think you're hair would look nice like a darker brown, or maybe a more blond..." she told her.

She watched her explanation, telling her, "A fighter?" and pulling a face and shaking her head, "Believe it or not, I just like the whole non-magic side of things. I mean, I like knowing how it all works, finding the answers. I kind of like Psychics as well."

[Lily-Mae]

Lily-Mae smiled, "Yeah. I'm more of the offensive and defensive spells and elements user." She thought about it for a moment and nodded her head coming to an agreement. "I got a strange look from several people because I walked across the room to get a book," she said with a frown, "it's like physical movement hurts some people here or something."

[Diane McLain]

She looked at her and frowned, "Wow, that sounds really odd. I don't think I've ever had that reaction. But then again, I don't really see the bad things very easily." she said shrugging. Sometimes, her naivity was a fault. "But elements sounds really good - apparently I'm a natural with air, but I doubt it. Most of my friends are crazy about Necromancy and I'm a bit like, 'why'?" she said, shrugging.

[Lily-Mae]

Lily-Mae made a face, "Dead people creep me out. I don't like calling on them for anything." She tilted her head to the side. Her shoulder was finally starting to be normal. The numbness was disappearing.