Welcome to Afremov Ink

{ ♪ } – Bella clung to her psuedo older brother and smiled as he kissed her forehead. He may have been trying to put her down, but now he had a koala. She had no intention of letting him go any time soon.

        The way he spoke does cause a brief hint of a smile to ease onto her features —- it’s familiar, isn’t it? Not knowing that others would take an interest in the things another does, but with the ability to roam freely like this, Lauren has seen and heard things that have warranted a closer look. An actual look at things, so to speak.

               ( Circus Baby’s game gives her a lot of time. )

        When she floats over to the pictures, her smile fades, her neutral expression returning. The child could name each and every partygoer in the drawings if she so pleased —- Circus Baby needed her wardens to be familiar with them, after all, and even if they hadn’t been, the retrofitting of certain technologies ensured they’d be unforgettable.

                      “So it is true what she said —- that a                       picture can hold a thousand words.”

        A pause, one spent lingering over the faces of the drawn partygoers, before she returns her gaze to Afremov.

                       “You have an eye for people, don’t                         you? To mimic them on paper, and                         bring out their personalities with what                         few materials you have…

                        It’s rather…comforting.”

         That small smile returns again, albeit appearing to be much more knowing. Her gaze lingers on the man before returning to the pictures once again.

                       “When you can portray strangers as                         well as you do your friends —- maybe                         that’s a sign that this place will hold                         their memories long after their souls                         have left…”

         The daytime was inadvisable to springlock someone —- and Lauren ( and Foxy by extension) has her orders from Circus Baby. No, the man would be safe, but he likely wouldn’t know that until after she’d left him.

          Despite that, the girl merely glances at the animatronic, causing it to sit down, before she herself floats closer. Having not lived her life as fully as most of these partygoers have, maintaining her distance was ———- DIFFICULT, what with such new sights and things to hear about.

                       “Perhaps some. Lolbit has mentioned                         an incident with the Popgoes X Goo                         Gun in the arcade —- something…that                         could’ve been terrible if Iris hadn’t come                         to your rescue.”

           Lauren pauses, before shaking her head.

                        “But that’s not what I came to discuss.                          I just wanted to see your work ——-                          Baby has spoken of your interest in                          pens and other forms of art supplies.”

   One might assume that this was caused by some of the rather bad things having happened around the pizzeria, a couple of which having to do with he himself, but that would only be half right. While he wasn’t particularly happy with having his face partially mauled by a Lolbit after being locked in a closet, taking an impromptu trip through bad memories, watching executions, having to wear a pirate costume, and receiving a few lashes, among other things, you could easily have found him if strolling by his room. The door was open most of the time. 

   It wasn’t like the tattoo artist was hard to find or was lamenting his existence in this stupid killing game, he was just remaining at his desk fairly often. He’d taken down all of the papers hanging up around the room with the children’s drawings of various levels of creep, flattened out the crumpled papers, and turned them over. The ones that did not have occupied backs were stacked for use. With all the free time he had around here, it didn’t take him very long to start filling a substantial amount of clear paper space with other drawings. He’d had his things confiscated, so he was making do with pens and crayons, but none of it was bad (unless, perhaps, you ask Afremov - but he’s biased).

   Many of the pictures he’s done thus far are of various people in the pizzeria at current, with writing surrounding a portrait, though all of the writing is in Russian so as to prevent most people from reading any of it. Others are pictures of people or things from his home in Noxus - famous figures, infamous figures, some people he’s known. One picture is both. All of them have the writing. The ones that he considered completed, he hangs back up around the room. 

   As far as he’s concerned, the decor is much improved when it isn’t all creepy children’s drawings. 

{ ♪ } – Slowly, she pulled herself off of her bed and wandered to her door. It took a moment before she pressed the button to open it. Sleepy eyes took a second to focus on him, but she offered a little smile.

    “Hi, Afremov.”

  The pirate costume wasn’t the most comfortable thing to sleep in, but she honestly didn’t want to run the risk of potentially getting in trouble for changing into her other clothes. Thankfully, she actually had the ability to clean them because of the whole pirate costume scenario.

    “What’s up?”

   For a moment, he was wondering if perhaps she wasn’t there until he heard a vague noise from within and cocked his head to one side, listening. You’d think that, with the doors being metal and the like, the rooms would be more soundproof, but that was absolute bullshit - a fair few nights of RWQ’s handunit screaming had proven that much. 

   Very, very briefly Afremov considered whether or not this was a bad idea. He could probably go to Bella to hang out for a while as a general rule, but he was very conscious of this Bella not being ‘his’ or something like that. That thought was, of course, blown out of the water by the time the door slid open and his head raised a bit, offering an instinctual smile that came with seeing her, though it faded just a tad upon taking in her tired look and the rather off pirate costume. Didn’t feel right. 

   Blinking at her greeting, he raised a half-hearted hand to wave. “Other than being stuck here and doing whatever we’re told and all that? Not much. Kind of bored, actually.” Ever since one or two events that had taken place in the arcade, Afremov hadn’t really returned there as often. “I was actually wondering if I could hang out, I guess?” 

   As for the golden animatronics up there... they’re about on par with most other things these crazy bots cook up. The particular brand of horror, if one might call it that, doesn’t really surprise him, but he does narrow his gaze on them as their purpose is explained and an example of the result is given. 

            Another motive, then....

   Well, the coming days would be tense, but there was... what? A one in fifty chance or so of being picked for that? Three every week... He kind of suspected someone would crack and someone would die before too many rounds of this particular brand of terror is... hell, maybe someone would see the opportunity to take out someone who’s affected because they’re weakened from it. Maybe.