there is such a thing as an unflattering light [open]

[encourage]

Sakura figured she should probably be more annoyed than she was, crossing her arms and staring down the statue of her that was, consequentially, also crossing its arms and staring her down. Life imitating art was usually an expression she'd heard, not something she'd expressly seen. (Given the artists she knew, art wasn't even something held back to be appraised -- most shinobi artforms leaped out and grabbed you in some way or another.) She couldn't say she appreciated this particular example.

"Really funny. Can we move on now?" She unfolded her arms, clapping her hands together in the vain hope it would actually do something about the statue staring out at her.

Surprisingly, it did. The swirling inky whatever underneath the odd statue head produced another statue after a while, one that carried slightly more context than the last. Contorted awkwardly between dozens of jointed arms belonging to an unseen puppet, Sakura looked back in shocked frustration at someone left undepicted. "This isn't any better," she muttered, crossing her arms again.

[ ooc: For the curious, this is from her fight with Sasori. ]

Comments

[livestoannoy]

Marco had been flying over the city when he'd spotted Sakura heading into the art hall. He'd hovered for a moment, thinking.

He hadn't talked to her since she went and punched him in the face, which meant he hadn't had the change to give to her the stuff that would (hopefully) prevent her from punching him in the face again.

Decision made, he'd flown back to Cassie's house, picked up the things he needed, and headed back to the art hall, hoping that she'd still be there and he hadn't had to lug these things all over the city for no good reason.

"If I give you these, will you promise to never try to destroy my nose again?" he said when he found her, jerking his chin down at the bunch of medical textbooks he was carrying in his arms. (Hey, she was a medic, a nerd, and she'd been looking for a bookshop. She had to appreciate getting these, right? Plus he'd had the sneaking suspicion that giving her any of the typical girl gifts would have just gotten him beaten up again.

Then he noticed the statue, and stared. "Okay. Why is there a statue of you here, and do I want to know what the hell is going on in it?"

[[OOC: For reference, by now Marco has deaged to about 17. So he'll look a bit younger than he does usually :P]]

[encourage]

Sakura had heard someone coming, stepping to the side and watching out of the corner of her eye for whoever (or whatever) it was. When she recognized them as Marco, she was half tempted to turn away, an infantile knee jerk response when she owed him an apology for losing her temper.

Something she was reluctantly figuring she should say, just as he started speaking.

Turning to face him completely, forgetting about the statue for the moment, Sakura found herself confronted by -- books. She tilted her head at enough of an angle to read the spines on a few of them, eyebrows lifting as she recognized that at least one had something to do with medicine. "You got me books?" Sakura blinked, looking between the books and his face. This was new. Did he actually feel guilty about what had happened?

If she'd stopped to think about the humor in what the statue was showing right now, compared to what had lead to her decking Marco in the first place, Sakura might have been tempted to laugh. As it was, she was still standing struck with surprise. "Medical books?"

Had to hand it to him. He'd found one of the few things Sakura prized over just about anything else, when it came to personal enjoyment. Medical trivia.

His question about the statue shook her out of her temporary stupor. Looking over her shoulder, Sakura grimaced. "I don't know why, and the what does it look like?"

She didn't pause for him to answer that question. "I was dodging."

[livestoannoy]

Okay, so far so good. "I take it this means you're not going to try and rearrange my face then?" Marco said, putting the books down on the floor because they were heavy. "And yeah, they're medical textbooks. You are a medic, right?" He resisted to the urge to tell her that she was clearly too much of a nerd for him to buy a decent comic for instead. Somehow, he got the feeling that that wouldn't go down to well.

He come over to take a closer look at the statues. "Dodging what? A sudden deadly bamboo attack?" he said, raising an eyebrow.

[encourage]

"I'm not going to punch you," she said, watching him set the books down. "If that's what you're asking." How many had he brought?

As he looked at the statue, she knelt down and picked one off the top. Flipping it open, she scanned a few pages. "Not bamboo," she answered after a moment. "Puppet arms." She let the book close in her hands, standing. "At least a hundred or so."

It dawned on her this was part of why she'd snapped over the nickname. Sasori had been the puppet master, and the puppet he'd been fighting with at that point was one of the human doll's he'd excelled in making.

[livestoannoy]

"Good, because I really like not being punched," Marco said.

At that mention of puppet arms, he gave her a sidelong look. "Puppet arms? Seriously? How the hell can you fight a puppet? Did you just piss off the Muppets one time too many?"

Marco however, was no where near good enough at interpreting people's thoughts to figure that out. Not to mention, he was also still stuck on the idea of Sakura fighting Kermit the Frog.

[encourage]

"You fight the puppet because the puppeteer is fighting you with it." She tucked the book under one arm, indicating off in the direction this statue of her was staring. "That was before he released either the kunai or the poison gas, both which were in the hollow sections of the arms. A puppet isn't just one weapon, it's everything it's creator makes of it."

Her fight with Sasori wasn't something she talked about. She didn't particular care to start now, if explaining some of what Sasori was might... help lead her into the apology she felt she should make. "The master I was fighting was infamous for many things, his living puppets among them. See, when you start making a puppet out of someone when they're alive, that puppet maintains all of its abilities from life. A living puppet. A real human doll."

Things she'd been shouting about in what she felt was an unfair over-reaction by now. She held off on saying anything more on the subject, blinking as the uncomfortable shifting of statues started to occur. She made herself watch through the change, wondering what would happen now that she wasn't the only person here.

She didn't expect the one taking its place to depict a scene from the day of team assignments. Naruto had been perched on the desk in front of Sasuke, giving him a glaring once over. Sasuke had been more impassive in glaring back, and the careless jab from a classmate in Naruto's backside had sent him falling forward -- into Sasuke's face.

Sakura was standing off to the side with the rest of her eleven-year-old classmates, frozen in visible shock and horror while Naruto and Sasuke were immortalized in lip-locked disbelief.

"..." She coughed into her hand, looking away. That'd been so long ago...

[livestoannoy]

"Oh," Marco said. Okay, that explained why Sakura was so unhappy about the "Barbie" thing. And he had to admit, he didn't really like the sound of it either.

It sounded uncomfortably close to what the Yeerks did.

Marco shifted his weight a little. "Did he make puppets out of anyone you knew?" he said quietly.

Then the statues started changing, and Marco jumped. He'd thought that this was just some statue that someone had decided to make of Sakura for some reason, but now it was some pair of boys making out with each other and an apparently younger Sakura?! "What the hell?" he said, staring.

[encourage]

She started to shake her head. "Not from my village, though he'd been saying I was..."

She coughed again, remembering that day a little too well. "Oh, look, I still had long hair back then!" Who needed to explain what was going on?

Sakura figured it was kind of obvious. She chose to take it as him wondering at the mechanics behind the statues. Not that she understood them, but still, she had some idea about what was going on. "As far as I can tell, this creates statues based on memories. You don't really get to pick and choose," that she'd experienced yet, if (unknown to her) that wasn't actually true. There was no way to prevent it from displaying memories, if the ones shown could be influenced. "As far as I can tell, anyway."

[livestoannoy]

Marco scowled - Sakura might not have finished the sentence, but he got the gist well enough. "He wanted to make you into a puppet?!" he said, snarling a little.

His eyes flicked towards the statue. "This thing's playing your memories?" he said, taking a step back and eying it suspiciously. He really didn't like the idea of some freaky statue thing just picking things out of people's brains and showing them to everyone. He turned back to look at Sakura. "And you don't mind having this thing putting yours on display?"

[ronnae.livejournal.com]

When Ronnae really wanted to challenge her art skills, she would venture into the art hall in hopes that it was being unreasonable. Why? Because the ever changing statues posed a great way to practice both her speed, and her accuracy.

She generally took a seat in one of the least traveled corners of the hall, attempting to draw whatever was within sight, and she was usually alone. She hardly saw anyone in the halls during the days she visited. Today however, during a fairly speedy drawing session, her ears caught wind of a voice. They perked up, in the familiar fashion her expressive ears took when they heard something unfamiliar or new. She turned her head to look over and around one of the statues to stare directly at the girl arguing with the statue.

She was silent for a few moments, deciding if she wasn't anxious enough to avoid people today, but it seemed she was well for the most part and thus decided it'd be a good idea to at least check up on her.

"Are... are you alright?" Came her usual small voice from around one of the statues.

[encourage]

Sakura straightened, unfolding her arms. Closed off body language did little to foster conversation, let alone reassure someone when they were asking you if you were all right. "I'm fine," she said, smiling and turning to face -- more statues.

Was a statue really addressing her? For a moment, Sakura seriously wondered. Stranger things had already happened here on the ship. "A little frustrated at the statuary, but I almost feel like it's provoking me on purpose." She laughed a little. "Probably not, but it still feels that way."

[ronnae.livejournal.com]

Ronnae stood up from her sitting position, hugging her sketchbook to her chest and slowly walking around the statue. For as fierce and relentless as she could be in combat, Ronnae was actually fairly unimposing. A small hop above five feet, and an eternally shy expression generally adorned the half orc/elf girl.

"Well I've heard others say the same thing. The statuary bringing up unpleasant memories. I just use it to practice my drawing." She said in her small timid voice.

[encourage]

Sakura smiled at the young woman who stepped around the statuary. Sakura was of a similar height, standing all of five feet and two inches head to toe.

The mention of drawing piqued Sakura's interest, along with the other girl's she expression. It gave her pause, absorbing the other's exotic look, though less than it would have when she first awoke. "You're an artist?" she asked, smiling in earnest. "May I see some of what you draw?"

[ronnae.livejournal.com]

Ronnae blushed, moving one of her bangs behind her ear timidly and nodded.

"Y-yeah, I really like it. It's a pleasant hobby... I s-sure you can take a look if you'd like." She approached Sakura, holding out her sketchbook to her and fiddling with the strings on her hoodie shyly.

The sketchpad was riddled with different pictures, particularly scenery and people, fantasy style panoramas which could be where the girl came from along with some of the locations in the city. There's a lot of pictures from crew members, caught from afar doing every day things, sometimes just relaxing. And a few pictures of fantastic looking creatures, both from her world and those in hydroponics. Sketches of some different races are there as well, but they seem to be jovial and are generally accompanied by a string of runes around the edge of the page, she seems particularly fond of the people displayed.

[encourage]

Sakura accepted the sketchbook, curiosity evident on her face. In a way, it was like finding Sai painting before they'd left on mission. She remembered what she'd asked him then, and what his response had been. Scanning the sides of the pages she looked at, she noted the unfamiliar markings. It made her smile, face softening as she took in the plethora of images. Some she recognized, faces she'd seen on-board since her awakening. A few creatures from hydroponics, where she supposed this young woman might spend some of her down time, if she wasn't drawing purely from memory.

All of it was more literal, more realistic than Sai's style had been that day.

Sakura had a feeling that even if these were unlabeled, and the unfamiliar symbols were nothing more than artistic expressions themselves, they would still have names. This artist didn't have that disconnect in feeling that Sai had found ground into him over time, in being part of the ROOT program.

Behind her, the statue had changed, had gone in a different direction as colors swirled into not a statue, but a mural of two people on a stone barrier. Trees rose in a uniform face beyond them, colored under the soft shadows of early morning light. Sakura leaned over her sitting companion, looking at something left undepicted in the mural.

"These are amazing." Her smile was quick, if her eyes remained on the sketchbook's pages. "You've sketched so many different things," she said, tracing the shapes on one page with her eyes. "They're not all from while you've been here, are they?"

[ronnae.livejournal.com]

Ronnae blinked in wonder at the amazing acts this room sometimes produced. She studied the mural with child-like glee, wondering what they might have been up to at that point in time.

Her exploration of the piece got interrupted however as she looked back when addressed.

"O-oh, t-thanks~!" She replied timidly, blushing a bit. "No, not all of them. Some of them are memories from my world... I figured... if I ever start forgetting... I can always look back at these and remember everything again." She admitted in a bittersweet tone.

[encourage]

Sakura looked up at her explanation, finding herself temporarily at a loss for words. "I don't think you have to worry about that," she said, her smile more subdued. "If you think about them enough to be able to draw them, you'll always have them somewhere in your heart."

Not to say it was satisfying, subsisting on feelings and intellectual understandings. "This is a great way to keep those memories close, either way. A... friend of mine did something similar back home." If Sai had forgotten the purpose of his book for years.

[a_mere_human]

"Haruno Sakura." Hey, he's lived in Japan, he knows the proper way to pronounce her name.

His eyes went from her to the statue, then back to her. He didn't say anything further, but the way he was looking at her, it was almost as if he was waiting for her to explain.

[encourage]

Sakura stepped back, looking at Setsuna... and then back at the statue of herself. She preferred the one of her glaring right about now. It would have required no explanation.

Not that this strictly did either, if she guessed he wasn't simply saying hello. "I didn't hear you come in," she said, smiling.

He could try asking if he really wanted to know. "Have you been in here before?"

[a_mere_human]

That one would've still required an explanation. As does the current one, but he didn't bother asking for one. At least not outright.

"Only once," he responded. "I didn't find anything of interest." Not that he was ever much into things like art to begin with. "Though you've seemed to."

[encourage]

"There are better subjects to try and capture in stone." She regarded herself for a while longer, debating how much she cared to say. What was noncommittal enough, as her history as a fighter wasn't something she had divulged often (if at all) to other son the ship.

At least not in detail.

"Several seconds of one battle isn't worth it." The effort, or the pretense of it. So far, the ship's decision -- or the technology responsible for this -- felt almost arbitrary.

[jesus_is_gundam]

"Depends on the battle," he responded, and looked back at the statue once more.

"How many have you been in?"

[encourage]

"I stopped counting." She had an exact mission count, but that didn't tally actual confrontations, and in the war alone it was unending movement. Battle in the greater sense? One hand counted the major ones. Orochimaru, Pain, Sasuke, the War Front... "And you?"

[a_mere_human]

That wasn't as easy a question to answer as it should be.

"I never kept count." Sure, he could pinpoint the exact moment where it all began for him, when his life turned into one long war for one thing or another. But as for how many battles he's had between now and then? It'd probably be easier to count the grains of sand in the desert he once called home.

[encourage]

She nodded, accepting his answer as it was. What she wondered about the machines of war, and the people who acted as their catalyst for movement, stayed within her own mind.

The statue was shifting again, as queasy to observe as the last time. Sakura didn't exactly want to see what it'd form, considering she had no idea how to directly influence. Something with flowers, she thinks, staring hard and opting not to take a step back. Remembering learning how to arrange bouquets, how to pass themselves off as normal women.

She ends up seeing herself at six, sitting next to another little girl. Ino, she recognized, from one of their flower arranging classes. Sakura had a cosmos in hand, looking more melancholy than she remembers feeling at six, eight, however old.

Ino was frowning. Her own bouquet was held in two hands as she looked over at the child Sakura, disapproving of whatever was being said. "This is just disturbing."