Art is never finished, only abandoned

Date and time: --/--/2022, 12:30
Place: Gaia Museum
Weather: It's pouring down outside
Surroundings: Few other people looking at the art
Outfit: Full outfit
Dedicated to: @Ezio

Her father had some business to do, which was the only reason to why Ileana was walking around alone in the museum. She had always been fascinated by art and what the artist was capable of making others see. She had gotten some valuta from her father, just in case she needed anything while she was in there, though she didn’t really believe she needed them for anything. As of right now, she had seen approximately a quarter of the museum and was standing in front of a sculpture, studying it. It was missing its nose and an arm. She studied the pose, the curls, the clothing and of course any odd things that artists sometimes included in their artwork. She turned her eyes down to the small book in front of the statue where one could read about the statue. With her hand she gave her hair a dash over each shoulder before she would lean forward until she could read the small text. She mumbled the text, being sure to look up occasionally to make sure that her mumbles didn’t accidentally make magic happen everywhere. She was lucky. Her hair drooped down from her shoulder, which made her automatically correct the hair behind her ears. As she went to put her hand down, her hand accidentally pulled her necklace, which resulted in it breaking. It was an old chain, but the ring that was a pendant in it was important to her. As soon as she heard the ring fall to the floor, her blue eyes dropped to the floor. She immediately kneeled down on one knee. Her fingers only got to lock around the ring when she felt something hit her leg and fall to her floor. She was quick to get back up and look over her shoulder. “Oh, I’m so sorry, mister. I should’ve looked before I sat down,” she said letting her hand caressed the other hand, which was folded into a fist, protecting the ring. “Are you hurt?”

He got up by himself, which made it a little easier to look at him, since he was taller than her. “Yeah, I’m good,” she said and pulled on a light smile. She was about to turn around to go on with her day when he asked her something. She looked back at him with slightly furrowed brows. Who was she? “Excuse me?” she said looking at him with a softer expression. Why was it important to know who she was? He proceeded with what must be a pickup line because she didn’t quite understand it, because he had literally just fallen over her, almost her heel. She gave him a laugh, though she was unsure if it was appropriate to laugh or not. “You can call me Ana,” she told him and handed him her hand to shake. Her nails were bare and her hands soft, as if she took great care of it. “And what’s your name, mister?” she wondered, tilting her head a little.

She looked with wide eyes at him while he leaned down to kiss the back of her hand. As soon as his lips had left the back of her hand, she took it away from his hand. It had given her the shivers. The way he had kissed her hand only reminded her of her biological father’s princess games. “Ezio,” she repeated, mostly for herself to remember it. Names had always been a trouble. He asked her what she was looking for here and she looked around once, as if she was looking for the answer to his question, “Well, I’m taking every detail with me. Culture, answers, history… Anything,” she replied and let her blue eyes settle on his. “It’s my first time in Gaia,” she explained and nodded. Though her father had explained a lot of things about Gaia, he couldn’t tell her as much about the culture as her observing it like she did right now. “And you?”

Ileana furrowed her brows a little when he said he was looking for a bit of everything. It wasn’t exactly what she had just said, because looking for everything seemed more like you were searching specifically after something, whereas she believed she let each wonder appear to her if they wanted to. Maybe it was just a little to philosophical, and maybe she analyzed his words too much.
She nodded a little, almost shy, when he asked if she had just arrived not that long ago. That was very correct. The smile got a little more genuine when he said he would love to show her around, even though he wasn’t from this place himself. He had been there for a couple of months. Interesting. “I’ll have to talk to my dad about that, but thanks,” she said, clearly appreciative of his offer, but she didn’t want to get involved in something without the consent of her father. They had both suffered enough, and she didn’t wish to worry him if she suddenly had to meet some guy for a tour.

She raised her brows a little as he mentioned he had a thing for old things, like the book she looked at. She looked over her shoulder as he mentioned it, to look at it. She looked back at him, “So, you find it exciting when text is missing, when it's difficult to read and in a language that is completely outdated?” One could almost hear how she herself had interest in such things. It was something her father had managed to make her interested in. She often found small codes of magic in those old books, which had also been one of the reasons why she had been cautious when she was reading it for herself.

Ileana’s smile got more genuine when he explained how he believed that there was more between heaven and earth, and he found history secrets interesting. She shrugged a little when he mentioned that she seemed very passionate about it. “Well, I think the secrets are very interesting and I’ve actually found a lot of proof of different things between heaven and earth,” she responded. “So, let’s just say I got a taste for it,” she said, smiling a little wider so her cheeks pushed into fine apples.

When he asked her what she liked the most, it almost felt like her brain was tickled. It was a stimulating talk. “Well, I think private letters are quite interesting, but I like old recipe books too, and- Well, I’m not that interested in old news articles but more the view from different people and how it affected their surroundings,” she told him. She turned towards the book that she had been reading in. Still with her ring in her hand, she stretched her index finger and pointed on some of text, letting her finger hover over the delicate pages. “See, this one explains how she experienced the war and had to take care of her family. It’s almost like a journal where she explains what she used for different foods and-” she stopped herself and looked over her shoulder, “I’m sorry, I got a little carried away there,” she said and finally put the ring into her pocket.

She shrugged a little.  There were many signs of there being more between the heaven and the earth. “Spirits,” was the first thing that came to mind. She had worked with them in the wilderness and seen her father communicate with some of them. It was quite impressive, if she had to say so herself.

She pulled a small smile when he said that he didn’t mind her passion. Well after all, they were in a museum, surrounded by an abundance of things she was passionate about. He wondered if they should walk around and see the rest of the displays, which made her look towards the book shortly before she looked at him and gave him a short nod. In here nothing could happen. There were security guards everywhere. Must’ve been the reason why her father didn’t have a problem with her walking around alone in the civilization. Now, Ileana wasn’t in a hurry, she was going to take her time while she looked at different things, specifically looking at details. It was something that easily could bore people that wasn’t interested in culture and history like her. She looked away from one of the displays and up at him as he asked about the ring. “Huh?” she wondered blinking innocently at first, “Oh, uh…” she looked into the displays again, “It’s my mother's,” she spoke in a hush voice, almost as if it was a secret. “Where did you come from? You said you had only been here a couple of months?” she wondered, trying to get rid of the conversation about the ring.

Ileana shrugged a little, “Ghosts could be an example of spirits,” she said with a little smile. There were a lot of different kinds of spirits. Maybe this man didn’t know as much as much as he had seemed to be knowing.
She looked at him shortly as he started to explain, but let her eyes follow the displays, taking her time looking at the details. His family had sent him off to learn something about spending his money better. It seemed like a good thing to send a child off to, or at least she could see some sense in it, if there was some kind of schooling and cooperation in it. She furrowed her brows a little as he corrected himself and said he had paid the price. It made her stop up completely and look at him. She took him in, watching how he looked away, apologized, and looked at her again. “You can lean on me for a while,” she assured him with a kind smile. “If you want to share your problems, give them to me,” she said and opened her arms, as if she was going to catch his problems.

“I did say a while,” she reminded him with a little chuckle. A while was after all not that long. It didn’t seem like he was going to talk about his problems yet, so she simply wrapped her arms around herself while she walked around and watched details. There was nothing that couldn’t impress her. Things were repeated again and again in her head, teaching herself everything. Yes, she was teaching herself all of these things. Sucking every information out of the museum like a sponge.
Ileana looked towards Ezio as he talked to her again. Naturally she carried a smile, but as he started talking about taking a break her smile lessened a little. “It sounds really lovely with something to eat, but,” she looked down at her wrist where she carried a small watch, checking the time “I really don’t have time to eat” she said and looked back up at him. “My dad can pick me up anytime, and I really don’t want to miss anything,” she said and pulled on an apologetic smile.