Collaborators! (Julia/Matylda)

Ah, general studies.  The main thing which unified the disparate styles of talent found at Fukui in mandated courses that none could escape.  Like a huge fangorious monster with a thousand teeth yet no eyes inevitably creeping up upon you from out of the deep dark depths of a previously unexplored cave, there would be no escape.  Why that particular mental image had crept into Matylda's noggin even she wasn't certain, but it was so intriguing that she'd been spending her free moments in class doodling it into existence.  Any break for discussions or completing tasks that could allow her time to work on the bestial image did see her do so.  Of course she worked on the mandated problems first, all the while the horrible monster danced through her thoughts and devoured those unfortunate enough to cross its path. She had just finished adding the last little detail to its gaping maw when the teacher dropped a bombshell.

"All right girls, now that we've covered the basics let's get into pairs.  If you look at the board you'll find who's been paired with whom, so please identify your partner and find a seat together," the teacher announced, just as Matylda slowly slipped her sketch book under her notes.  Not just anyone would be okay to see the metal madness that emerged from her mind.

Gazing up at the board she found a big list of paired students' names - in Japanese characters of course.  She could read those okay, really, though with how small the print was it could be difficult to make out some of the more complex kanji.  Each pair that didn't contain her own name heightened her anxiety about a pair project.  Every part of her wanted badly to get another foreign girl as a partner here so that she might be able to speak something besides Japanese.  So far she'd managed to avoid speaking up in that language much more than a few words, pronounced slowly and haltingly with extreme care taken in the pronunciation.  Her prayers to all that was Metal didn't pan out quite as well as she'd hoped - she found her name, written in katakana.. and then an 'Akamaru' girl as her partner.  Odd, her first name was in katakana.. Julia?  Maybe she was half-foreign!  Perhaps no need for stumbling around with Japanese!  Matylda looked around for her partner, and after a few moments spotted the one girl who didn't seem to have one of her own.

"Um.. Aka... maru.. san?" she waved hesitantly, hoping to get the girl's attention.

General studies were something of a necessary evil.  Although, perhaps, that was making a little too much out of it.  Truth be told, Julia didn't mind these types of courses all that much.  Sure, her preference was for the types of classes that were more geared towards her own areas of interest.  But, if she wanted to be a good writer it never hurt to have a decent foundation of knowledge to pull from.  It was that sort of thinking that had lead to her encounter at the library with a rather enchanting German girl...

But, now as not the time to daydream.  Or let her eye wander around the classroom and look at her fellow students.  There just so many interesting things going on!  From how that one red haired girl was trying to slip a note to a friend of hers.  To how a brunette was dutifully taking notes.  Or that blue haired girl was gazing out the window at...something.

And even a blonde who was scribbling in a notebook.  Not notes, however.  Julia was reasonably sure of that.  If it had been notes, more attention would have been paid towards the teacher and what she had been discussing.  Which was not to say she was abandoning her efforts to participate in class.  Far from it, she was doing a rather admirable job of picking the right moments to work on her other project.

'Hmmm...writing?  No, that pencil isn't moving right for that.' the young would-be author thought.  She tapped her chin as she pondered and let her gaze return to that of the teacher and the lessons at hand.

"All right girls, now that we've covered the basics let's get into pairs. If you look at the board you'll find who's been paired with whom, so please identify your partner and find a seat together."

The teacher's announcement resulted in a lot of movement. The girls of the class shuffled about and looked for their partners while Julia remained at her desk. She glanced up looked over the names. Eventually, she spotted her own next to a decidedly foreign sounding "Matylda Sudakov-Oka". Which only fascinated Julia even more. It was quite the name and she couldn't help but wonder just who it's owner was. Not that she had to wonder for very long.

The hesitant voice that beckoned her attention was none other than the blonde girl she had been examining at earlier. A bemused smirk crossed her face as she looked back over to this Matylda Sudakov-Oka. "Hmm? Ah, Sudakov-Oka-san I presume. How fascinating, we appear to be partners for this little exercise. Have a seat, chum!"

As usually, she mixed her English in with Japanese. The pink haired girl gestured to an available seat. Her tone could come across as teasing to some, but there was still a friendliness to it. After all, this could be an excellent learning opportunity. And there was also the matter of that exercise they had to do, too...

Pair work was always such a bother for poor Matylda when she was in a general studies classroom.  Given a more artistic setting she could communicate any points that needed making without so much as fumbling over a single Japanese syllable.  You could just demonstrate a technique to answer inquiries and it sometimes was even more effective than words could be.  Very straightforward and effective!  Thrown in with a girl who might be at least part foreign helped but she wasn't too sure that a non-Japanese language would be an option.  What if she were part European and spoke some fancy, flowery romance language that made even less sense to Matylda?  Japanese would be their only option then.. and she really didn't look forward to finding out how well she did in that tongue where it came to this class.

As soon as the pinknette opened her mouth relief washed over Matylda like a relaxing tsunami.  A relaxing tsunami atop the strongest wave of which would undoubtedly be a half-rotted corpse sporting Roman armor and a flaming microphone.. on a sailboard.  Yeah, that was the ticket!  She already had a new mental image to turn into artwork but it might have to wait for a bit.  Had to get things going with this girl, right?  The idea of sketching the sailboarding Roman zombie vocalist/natural disaster enthusiast was awfully tempting though.  English was a language she was fairly familiar with thanks to her favorite bands all singing exclusively in that tongue; something about it not being scary if they sang in Finnish.  Regardless she was happy as a clam as she sat down next to Julia.  Though she wasn't smiling yet - she wasn't sure how much English would be possible with this girl, though she could hold out hope for a non-Japanese option.

"Oh, you speak English?  I can speak that too," she remarked with a little more confidence and just as much of an accent.  After she set her books down she started tapping her pencil on the table nervously - sketch or small talk?  Which one came first?  As it turned out her hand started sketching out the tsunami wave as she spoke in anxious Japanese, "So.. do.. you understand the problem?"

Quite to her new partner's contrary, Julia rather enjoyed the opportunity to work closely with a fellow peer.  Of course she didn't have the language barrier to contend with, so that certainly wasn't an obstacle.  More to the point, Julia relished in any opportunity to learn any detail of her classmates.  And collaborating on an assignment was always insightful.  Whether it was getting to know them on a personal level or simply observing how the worked.

Studying people was probably one of her favorite hobbies.  And she was already off to quite the start.  Matylda, as it turned out, spoke English as well.  That wasn't too surprising of a fact.  It was a language that seemed rather popular on campus.  She had already met a pair of students who were quite fluent.  Including one who just so happened to be American.  Matylda, however...did not appear to fit into this category.  Her accent was a bit hard to pin down.  Julia was mostly familiar with American and British accents.  Sure, some of the dramas she had listened to also had other accents.

But those tended to be a bit more "exaggerated", if she was going to be kind about it.  "That I do." she winked, "I can swing it with the best of 'em."

A few pieces were fitting together.  Matylda was probably worried about communicating.  Japanese not being her first language would likely be a challenge, but if she could speak English, then it seemed there would be some common ground.  "Mmm, yes.  It shouldn't be too difficult.  I'm guess we'll be able to make quick work of it.  By puttin' our heads together, of course."

What a relief it was that the girl with the half-foreign sounding name spoke English!  There was every possibility for a normal-ish conversation between the two of them without delving into words that would be embarrassing for her to try and pronounce.  Granted Julia was still speaking in a mixture of the two tongues which didn't help Matylda deal with her hesitance in one of them.  It took her just a second more time with Japanese words than English words in order to process the meanings.  Despite all the language immersion she'd had thanks to her stepdad it could be very trying for her to engage in communication with other people.  How on earth did you pronounce some of those syllables?  Sure the grammar kind of made sense, and she felt pretty comfortable reading and writing in Japanese.  Thankfully English seemed like a legitimate option, and this girl was enthusiastic about using it if the first interaction was any indication.  

<"Putting together the minds of two souls, unified to do battle with a challenge not of this Earth!"> Matylda spoke a bit more enthusiastically in English, finding it a much more comfortable option to whipping out her Japanese.  Even still she knew how ridiculous that sounded to someone who'd not been exposed to metal, so her smile was hesitant and anxious.  The Finnish girl bit her lip a tiny bit while her hand kept on drawing the outline of her latest work, now including the outline of the surfer.  No real details since she'd have to pay full attention to him to get the rot and armor just right.  Better not to let it fully distract her while she was speaking to another girl in class.

Her name stood out almost as much as Matylda's, which drove the Finn to stop sketching and ask, <"Say, are you from overseas too?  It's weird, I feel like I'm the only one in most of my classes.">

Matylda had used a rather interesting turn of phrase.  Certainly not one that Julia would have used, but there it was.  And in addition to that, the blonde had idly begun a sketch.  Not whatever she had been working on earlier, but something new.  Julia gave it a curious glance, but it didn't have much in the way of answers.  What was apparent, was that it was some sort of surfer.  What an interesting choice to make.

"Hm, now that's a rather poetic way of putting it." she said.  The girl's next question was one that she had received on more than one occasion.  It brought a slight chuckle from the author who shook her head.  "Actually, I'm not.  And here's the kicker...both my parents are Japanese.  You can attribute my name to dear ol' Dad.  He's got a soft spot for all things Roman.  Real history buff, that one."

It had become apparent, to even the most casual of observers, that English was a more comfortable tongue.  And Julia couldn't say that she wasn't a little excited at the prospect of really stretching the conversation out in that direction.  A chance to really practice the language could be rather fun.

If nothing else Matylda's partner seemed to be totally fine with the more long-winded of Matylda's tendencies.  That was as big of a relief as simply discovering that the girl did in fact speak good English despite being fully Japanese herself.  Thus far the Finnish artist hadn't met many Japanese girls who seemed to know or be willing to speak that language, so it was a rare treat.  Regardless if she were foreign in part or not at all, this was a Japanese person whom Matylda felt she could speak to without hesitation or worry.  As long as they kept the conversation in English she'd be mostly fine.

"<Well, it's a pretty name!  Now I'm wondering if I should call you by that or your family name.. and wait, did you say Roman?  Because that's what I'm drawing here, sort of...>" Matylda responded with more enthusiasm.  She quickly took up her pencil again and began to add the outlines of the armor which her skeletal surfer was wearing.  What a wonderful coincidence that she'd imagined that very type of armor just as she met someone with a connection of sorts to it!  After a couple of minutes of intense focus she finished the basic shapes of it and held the sketch up for Julia to see.  There was just enough detail to also make it clear this was at least a surfer with a skull for a head, which was something most girls at Fukui wouldn't have seen every day.

"<How's it look?  It's still really rough so far, but I'm hoping it'll be suitable for my drawing class later today,>" Matylda explained as she set the sketch pad down again.  Where to go from there?  Perhaps some kind of pointy-finned shark stalking the Roman skeleton surfer?  No, that was too predictable.  Sharks were everywhere in the fears of people who went surfing or swimming in the ocean, and this had to be a bit more exotic.  Not just any creature would do.  Then it hit her - lots of people feared things that came up out of the water when out on the ocean, but what about something that came from above?  Immediately she grinned and started adding in the basic shapes for a fire-breathing pteranadon to pursue the cursed surfer.

Then she stopped and rubbed the back of her head nervously, "<Sorry, I'm getting a little too carried away with this.. so, um.. I guess we should start on the problem or something..>"

"Oh, Julia is perfectly fine." she assured the other girl.  Then her attention was brought back to the drawing.  Matylda was adding a few more details and the gist of what she was going for was starting to come through.  A Roman soldier on a surf board?  It was certainly a unique design.  Julia tapped her chin as she examined the image.

"Hmmm, so far so good." she gave her initial impression, "I'd be curious to see the final results."

And indeed this was the case.  Julia could help but have something of a fascination in Rome.  There was no denying that a little bit of her father had rubbed off on her.  Well...there could always be a little bit of denying.  The pink haired girl let a bit of a chuckle out as she leaned back in her seat.  "Rome has quite the interesting aesthetic.  I can see how the design holds some appeal."

Of course, this was not a drawing class.  Nor was this a writing class.  The pair had an assignment to do and Matylda was bringing their attention right back around to it.  Which was probably for the best.  "Ah, when you're right, you're right.  Time to get crackin' on this little problem of ours."

(OOC: I realize I don't know exactly what they're supposed to be doing XD)

Interest in the results of the surfing Roman skeleton wasn't helping Matylda's motivation to do actual schoolwork whatsoever.  During her thus far short time at Fukui the reception of her work hadn't been particularly inspiring.  For some reason it really seemed as if the girls in her class were a bit unnerved by her awesomely rendered images crafted from the heaviest of metal inspirations.  At times she even began to debate within whether a shift in style would be appropriate.  Moving to something a little more marketable to a wider audience, something based on music with a smooth beat that was easy to dance to.  But no!  She couldn't let herself lose faith in metal!  Julia's encouragement drove the Finn to sketch a bit more of the flying dinosaur as she attempted to think of where they'd even begin for the problem they'd been assigned.

"Actually I'm adding in a bit of excitement for our humble surfing centurion.  A surfing Roman is pretty cool, but what's more cool yet terrifying than adding a flying, fire breathing dinosaur?  Now I'm not at all sure if the dinosaur is chasing the centurion or accompanying him in from the depths of the sea, but.. we'll leave that to the viewer's imagination," she explained, tapping her pencil next to the dinosaur that now had an eye sketched in and glaring down from the sky.  That done she glanced up at the board and took stock of the problem again - general studies certainly weren't her forte.

After staring at it for another couple of moments she wasn't anywhere farther along in understanding it.  That dinosaur had a more detailed wing now, though. Maybe if she tried thinking of it as the method of creating a new piece of art the problem would make a bit more sense to her.  So you started with a seed of an idea, a word or phrase that gave a basis for the image to come.  What was the seed for this problem?  The formula.. which was actually on the board next to the word problem that they'd been assigned to tackle.  And now the surfer's helmet had a nice broom-type headdress on it!  The Finn looked over at her partner, chuckled at the realization that she'd been sketching more, and pulled out her class notebook.

"Okay, I think if we take.. that first number in the problem and toss it in the equation here.." she explained with an uncertain smile, "Then we can get the first bit of an answer..."

As she worked on that part of the problem, she raised an eyebrow, "So you read a lot of history?  Or just appreciate the historical aesthetic?  I kind of jump around a lot myself.. whatever suits the image I want to create."

"Oh?  How intriguing." She watched the artist continue her work on the piece, as she described her plan for the finished product.  An undead Roman Centurian and either being chased or accompanied by a giant fire breathing beast.  It was certainly imaginative.  Julia knew that they would have to get to work at some point.  But, she rarely found herself in any hurry.  Even if they were on the clock for this one.  What was quite clear to her, was that the Finn had the talent to back up her imagination.  The details were coming together quite nicely.

"Yes, that should work." when they returned to matters at hand, Julia's eyes went back over their problem.  She jotted down a few notes, "An excellent start...so, if we take that answer and use it here..."

Matylda was a bit out of her element.  The uncertain look surely gave it away.  It wasn't that unheard of for those of a more artistic bent to struggle with things like mathematics and she certainly wouldn't be the first.  But, she seemed to be handling it rather well.  Julia glanced up from her own paper as she was asked a question.

"A little bit of both.  History can be an excellent backdrop and provide a nice little kick of inspiration.  So, it pays to be well read on the matter." she replied, "So, what made you think of a centurion?  Was it a sudden flash of inspiration, or did you happen upon that image elsewhere?"

(OOC: Yikes!  I didn't realize I had fallen this far behind!  Sorry for the delay!)

It seemed like the pair of girls was slowly starting to get the problem in hand.  Julia was taking charge after the Finn had made some suggestions about where to start, and that was a relief.  She'd been afraid that neither of them would have any real clue what they were doing.  Such a case would likely end up with the teacher standing over their shoulders as they struggled to come up with the answer despite the formulas having been taught before.  Given her sketch in progress she really didn't want to be found out by the teacher; such things were always pretty difficult to explain in the long run.  Plus getting in trouble for doodling something - no matter how metal it was - wouldn't do her any favors.

"Thank goodness, I was worried it was going to be a little difficult to get this going," Matylda explained as she tapped her pencil on the desktop again, mind sorting through the equation the best she could.  So if they had the right way to start this thing, maybe her instincts on how it ought to continue were right on target as well.  Though she wasn't super confident about her ability to do mathematical procedures it was worth a try.  Yet the discussion of her artwork was far more motivating for the Finn, so she turned her attention to over any work on math problems.

"Well it just sort of made sense when I was thinking about what would look interesting riding on top of a tidal wave.. a tidal wave of relaxation or something.. but more exciting than that originally sounds," Matylda replied with a grin, not really able to explain her decision making any more deeply than that.  With that said she began to idly shade in parts of the sketch a bit more whilst she continued speaking, "A lot of times ideas like this just come to me, and I have to get them on paper before the inspiration is gone.  You can't let things go extinct like a dodo that unexpectedly walked right into the pathway of an Atlantean bulldozer powered by a coal engine that belches smoke out of a.. stovepipe or something!"

Nodding at that idea's nature she set her pencil down and smiled a bit more, "So anyway, do you do anything for fun?  My thing's drawing.. and metal.. but everyone is different.."

One always did run the risk of getting into some trouble, when you were doing something other than classwork in a class that required you to do...well, work.  This did not often happen to Julia, however.  Probably because her own distractions were a bit less obvious than a drawing of a surfing, skeletal centurion and his flying dino companion.  "Mm, yes...problems like this tend to have a bark worse than their bite." she said with a smirk.

Matylda's explanation sounded a bit more intuitive.  Which, in itself, was quite fascinating.  When it came to studying inspiration, she could always count on the risk of running into that nebulous foe that was "It just comes to me".  And to be perfectly fair, she was not impervious to this effect either.  Sometimes an idea would just pop it's way in and Julia would just go with it.  Better to make use of these little oddities than let it fall to the wayside.

"Reading and writing." she replied, "I'm a rather big fan of detective fiction, myself.  A nice mystery to wrap my head around and try to figure out with the main character.  Or just see how they solve the problem.  Either way, it's quite entertaining."

Julia smiled a bit.  Matylda was a bit of an open book.  She was certainly more forthcoming with her answers than some other people she had met on campus.  And while she did enjoy puzzling over of those sorts of individuals, it was nice to have a more relaxed and friendly conversation, from time to time.  And it certainly made working their way through the mathematics problems a far less dull affair.  The progress of which was still coming along.  A little slowly, but they that didn't seem to be too big of a problem.

As soon as she heard that the colorfully haired girl next to her was deeply into literature, there were all new avenues popping up in Matylda's imagination.  If she were into both history and detective fiction there could be a potential for historical detective novels with this girl's writing!  Some kind of mystery with a centurion's mystical helmet gone missing and no obvious suspects even among his soldiers.  Who would have had the occasion and motivation to take that helm right out from under the man's nose?  And might there be a natural disaster on the horizon which awoke not only the recently deceased but also long hidden prehistoric creatures?  There was a big chance to connect their work which she hadn't realized until just this moment!

"Mystery, huh?  Well I'm sure that you have some interesting tastes if you're also interested in Roman history along with that.  Not the kind of combination that you come across just any day of the week," Matylda remarked as she began to twirl her pencil in her fingers a bit, "Even if you don't combine them you seem like you're really creative, so it'd be fun to read some of your stories."


Their whole conversation was way more open and natural than the sort that she usually carried out with classmates.  She partially credited that to the simplicity of conversation facilitated in a common language outside of Japanese.  Perhaps it was also due to the fact that both of them had unique outlets for their creative juices?  Or just that she felt rather suddenly as though she could be readily open with this girl when compared to the other Japanese girls.  Something about Julia assured her that there wasn't going to be any judgement coming for speaking oddly.  Even a math problem wasn't anywhere near as tedious when it allowed them to work together in this manner!  As she concluded the next stage in the formula she began to have another thought about the joint novelization and artistic rendering.

"Say Akamaru-san, I had a thought.. you write stories, right?  Have you ever thought about having them illustrated for publication?  Even just a cover image to really draw people in - something provocative and maybe even wild to call attention to the magic within?" it was all but an advertisement for her own work, and she tapped her sketch pad as she spoke, suggesting that she could make any mystery more metal. 

"History can be quite the useful tool." she said, "Always nice to have something that ground the reader into your fiction if you draw from the real world."

She didn't find her interests to be all that dissimilar.  Although one might be able to see where the two paths diverged.  But, what truly grabbed her attention was the following question that Matylda had for her.  It was a curious notion that she had.  An illustration for her stories, whether to accompany the text, or merely as a cover.  And from the way she was tapping her cover, it didn't take any great deal of insight to whom her partner in this little class activity had in mind for just such a job.

Julia leaned back in her seat and chuckled a bit.  She looked back to the sketch that had been periodically occupying Matylda's attention.  There wasn't any doubt as to the girl's talent.  And now that she mentioned it, it would be nice to have some sort of artwork to accompany her own writings.  Not all of them, of course.  Some books were at their best when the prose itself left an impression in the reader's mind.  But, that was not to say she was entirely against the concept.

"The idea of some cover art has crossed my mind." she said, "But, this other idea of yours intrigues me.  I suppose you might have an idea about where to find just such an artist?" she said with a bit of teasing smirk.  An expression that was more playful than anything else.

Thus far in her artistic career Matylda had mostly done work to suit her own fancies, whatever those happened to be in a given moment.  Most of the time they ended up just being rather random inspirations for crazy images filled with awesome thoughts and additions as she worked.  Creating artwork to serve the needs of someone else wasn't entirely foreign to her, but she really didn't dabble in it all that much.  Maybe once every few months as classwork demanded but that was about it; this idea of a collaboration with an author was a pretty novel concept for the Finnish student.  Her classmate was on the same page as her, more or less, and they were together ready to jump into some kind of joint project.  Something to combine the power of prose which Julia possessed and that of her own talent for creating imaginative images to exhilarate the mind and eye alike.

"Oh, well if you put it that way, I'm certain that we can find someone who can do just that sort of work.  She's not just a specialist in cover art either!" Matylda grinned as she replied to her classmate's teasing question, "I just happen to have some examples here... give me a second.."

She didn't normally share her less metal works with just anyone, but it seemed prudent to prove her point to the author seated next to her.  For some reason not everyone took metal images alone as evidence of Matylda's artistic prowess.  Conventional art was sometimes demanded by teachers or friends and as such she'd created some pieces over the past few months to fill in where a surfing Roman skeleton wouldn't suffice.  Matylda gingerly flipped back in her sketchbook a few pages past some other fairly crazy images until she came to a page with a lot less insanity transpiring.  Just a girl sitting at a standing table by the window of a cafe, sipping her drink and watching the world go by while listening to something through earbuds.  It'd been a girl Matylda had spotted in that cafe and committed to memory for an assignment due the next day; plenty of coffee had fueled the image's completion.

"See?  If you'd prefer something more like this style I can totally do that too," Matylda explained proudly.

If there was one thing she could say about Matylda, it was that she certainly knew what she liked.  A few of the sketches that she had gotten a look at, informed Julia that the skeletal surfer was far from an outlier.  Not that there was much doubt in that.  The Finn had been rather open about where her primary interests lay.  Still, she seemed like she was also interested in providing some proof that her talents were more multifaceted.  She finally stopped on an image of a girl in a cafe.  It was a rather mundane image, but that was certainly no mark on it's quality.

The talent that had gone into her more fantastical work was still very much evident in the picture she was now looking at.  Julia nodded and gave a "Mmm, I see..." as she rolled the idea around in her head a little more.  "I'm sure we can figure something out.  Once we figure out a general tone and direction for our tale, the picture should be a little clearer.  If ya catch my meanin'."

While using something like the portrait would certainly have it's place, Julia definitely didn't want to let the girl's flare for the...stranger things fall by the way side.  Something as eye catching like that was bound to make an impression on any reader.