MASTERPIECE

' ᵁᵍʰ… ʸᵒᵘ ʳᵉᵃˡˡʸ ᵈᵒⁿ'ᵗ ᵏⁿᵒʷ ʰᵒʷ ᵗᵒ ᵗᵃᵏᵉ ᵃ ᶜᵒᵐᵖˡᵉᵐᵉⁿᵗ ᵈᵒ ʸᵒᵘᵎ ᴵ'ᵛᵉ ᵃᵗ ˡᵉᵃˢᵗ ᵗʳᶦᵉᵈ ᵗᵒ ᶜᵒᵐᵖˡᵉᵐᵉⁿᵗ ³ ᵈᶦᶠᶠᵉʳᵉⁿᵗ ᵗᶦᵐᵉˢ ⁿᵒʷ… ᴬⁿ ᵉᵛᵉʳʸ ᵗᶦᵐᵉ ʸᵒᵘ'ᵛᵉ ᵗʰʳᵒʷⁿ ᵐᵉ ᵘⁿᵈᵉʳ ᵗʰᵉ ᵇᵘˢ. ᴬⁿ ᵗʰᶦˢ ᶦˢ ᶜᵒᵐᶦⁿᵍ ᶠʳᵒᵐ ˢᵒᵐᵉᵒⁿᵉ ᵈᵒᵉˢⁿ'ᵗ ʷʰᵒ ᵏⁿᵒʷ ʰᵒʷ ᵗᵒ ᵗᵃᵏᵉ ᵃ ᶜᵒᵐᵖˡᵉᵐᵉⁿᵗ… ᴵ ᵇᵉᵗ ᶦᶠ ᶦᵗ ʷᵃˢ ᴹᵃʳᶦ ᶜᵒᵐᵖˡᶦᵐᵉⁿᵗᶦⁿᵍ ʸᵒᵘ'ᵈ ᵗᵃᵏᵉ ʰᵉʳˢ… '

❝ What do you mean? Haven't you ever looked at something an saw true beauty in it? Take your pocket watch for example, I saw the true value an beauty in it. Are you meaning to tell you couldn't see it? I don't know, I feel like if I tried to explaining it to you wouldn't understand. Just like no 1 ever does.. At this point forget I said anything. ❞

#|| ukuwa can you stop being the fakest idgafer #|| you give him the safe space and he immediately goes on a philosophical tangent #|| so much for trying to be society's good lapdog #|| honestly his whole yap about the banana could be about shou's trash towers too which he would love if he saw #|| it really is a shame that most people look at art and think it has to be only aesthetically pleasing and understandable for it to be goo #leoxcantus

Perhaps his question was too abstract. He pinched the bridge of his nose, attempting to form a more clear chime.

"Let's take modern art, for instance. The majority mocks it for its simplicity and, or, its nonsensical nature. They look at a banana taped to a wall and call it dumb because it doesn't scream its intention loudly, nor does it look aesthetically pleasing." Just like his watch.

"But that banana on the wall challenges you. Because although a normal person could make that, would they? And did they? It's provocative like that. Not to mention that it's a fruit, something that will rot away and be forgotten like almost every piece an artist makes... There is intention behind everything in such a piece, but that goes dismissed, ignored and unnoticed."

Ukuwa gestured to his watch.

"Society favours functionality and clarity, something that is easily understandable within two seconds of looking. People, paintings- 'beauty' is reserved for what's immediately on the surface. I suppose my question is: Can 'beauty' be used to describe something a faceless society can't even look at and consider the intention behind?"

Paint you like a masterpiece

You're all that I wanna breathe in

Everything you are, everything you are

#⋆「musings ☾ minamimoto shou」⋆

spiritmusing

Paint me like a ( m a s t e r p i e c e ) You’re all that I wanna breathe in

❝ Uh huh.. I think you have a little more love for hydrangeas then you care to let on, I mean come on. You have a pocket watch that has the designs of 1. Not to dis on it or anything, I do have to say that watch is very well designed. A true work of beauty if anything. ❞

❝ Heh, only something I feel like I've been trying to show the world and failed to do but have not given up. Because just as the world is made up of numbers. There can be true beauty in the world. ❞

Or maybe it would be a dream that he could only chase after. Now looking back at that watch. Now seeing it for the art and beauty that he once saw in the sculptures he made. The very thing that people could never see the true value of beauty in. But for him? It was everything, it was true beauty. The angles, the shapes, the positioning of the objects. All perfectly calculated. To what would seem like a pile a scrap trash to many around him was a master piece to him.

#leoxcantus #|| be cringe and free is real...#|| ukuwa is like 'oh yay let me word vomit philosophy because i sense we are both outliers and weirdos and art lovers augkhjhdg'

"It doesn't take a trained loupe to tell that it's worthless."

Ukuwa snapped the case close, though Minamimoto's chimes did capture his interest. "What determines true beauty, anyways?"

He mused, the abrasiveness in his usual tone dissolving into something a lot more softer like the nostalgic sound of a grandfather clock.

"'Beauty' to the world's movement often means utmost clarity and functionality. Abstract gears are deemed ugly," Ukuwa raised his watch, "no matter the intent or 'soul' infused into them. Is it possible that something so useless and ugly to the majority can be considered 'beautiful'?"

There's a small pause after the posed question. Then a long exhale with a gloved hand raking through his blue hair.

"...Forget it, what I meant to say was 'thanks'."

Even if the compliment wasn't one he believed. Even Ukuwa was surprised by how easily his heart poured out in front of this cog.

❝ Right... Remind me not ask for your opinion next time. ❞ It really was like looking himself back then, but more hard headed. Oh how he wished a had that a little less care back then.

❝ It's a combination of carnations with roses. A couple different colors added. I thought it would be for the right setting. Since it is for a wedding and the crown is going to a flower girl. The flower crown will stand out as they are very much alive and so will the bouquet. Are you telling me your interested in flowers? ❞

#leoxcantus #|| Sooo for context #|| Ukuwa entered a horology contest his school held with this extremely unconventional watch that doesn't even really function as one???#|| He was trying to express his appreciation towards hydrangea in his expertise but it got him disqualified LMAO #|| He got the results then immediately proceeds to die bc of a sinkhole HKGJGLDFHGFHFGH #So he ends up in the UG like. 'oh wow. i guess society only cares about conforming. fuck being abstract' hence his stuck up self and #|| rules this and rules that attitude. deeep down he wants to be cringe and free though (sobs) he just needs that push and affirmation

Ukuwa scoffed in response, rolling his eyes. Not that he could argue back. This cog would get a lot of use out of that request.

"Passion, love, gratefulness..."

He murmured, going through his mental flower language dictionary until his breath hitched.

"Specifically hydrangeas, I suppose. I appreciate them."

Ukuwa wasn't sure what prompted this sudden display of vulnerability, but he coiled his gloved hand around the source of bitter rejection. He held out a pocket watch that seemed unsuspecting on the outside, a hydrangea pattern engraved on the case. Then, he tilted it towards Minamimoto.

With a click, the timepiece opened to reveal an array of spinning cogs, topped with flowers and leaves. It looked like a garden of hydrangea and certainly not a clock. But it ticked. A normal person would not be able to tell the time with this.

"Impermanence, fickleness, cold but mysterious beauty... The way they change colours depending on the soil they grow on..."

Ukuwa trailed off.

❝ Was that a form of you sympathizing with me? Even if it was in your weird little way I guess. ❞ He was a little surprised, even if it was a little. Could this have meant that he to experienced something in the same way? ❝ Though what fascinates me, is the fact you talk in a manner that refers to clockwork parts. Yet a different form but a similar way I do in mathematics. Heh, I guess we try and understand the world in our own way. ❞

He would finish his statement before finishing the last part to his crown, now looking it over carefully. ❝ I guess Sebastian tried to understand the world to in his own way, even if it was through art of breeding flowers. I guess him and I really weren't that different. An yet it still resulted in him ending his own life. But here I am, still caring for the flowers he brought to life. ❞

#leoxcantus #|| he really is a weirdo lMAO #|| believe it or not he loves flowers too......its in his name haha #|| he loves hydrangea a lot

"Hmph, think however you want. I was simply stating the facts as is."

Ukuwa grips the pocket watch in his hand with a frown. Ooft, he didn't need that call out. But Minamimoto was right in some ways. The world was easier to digest when seen through the convex glass.

"...It's a privilege to be remembered and actively cared for, let alone in the afterlife."

He bit his lower lip. Even an outlier like Minamimoto had and treasured these certain devices. Ukuwa on the other hand... A lone Nautilus Gear forgotten and discarded. His parents likely didn't even know (or care) if he had died. There was nothing to go back to, here or there.

Ukuwa released his grip on his pocket watch and leaned over the table to take a closer look at the result as if trying to decipher the intent packed within.

"What flowers are these?"

waterpixelart

Commission for @itsashowtime! His OC and Minamimoto interacting in the Scramble Crossing

talos-stims

nautilus gears | source

❝ Heh, that's too good for a guess. She isn't alive your right about that. She's been dead longer then I have been, at least by a couple years I wanna say. ❞ Though he would stop with his weaving the moment he mentioned friends his almost twitching to the word friends. He would look in their direction as the comment seemed to bother him more then he would like to admit.

❝ Why bother trying to make friends when all they do is use or mistreat you. It's not worth it in the end. I don't trust them enough, not after what I went through. I would rather have died then making a friend. Seemed easier that way. What good are you to the damn factoring world if all you are is waste of breath to everyone else around you. It was with that alone I embraced my death, as for Mari.. She didn't deserve the death that she got. ❞ He would finish as he looked back at the flower crown that was nearly complete. Now finishing the last couple bits of weaving the stems together.

#leoxcantus #|| idk if youve ever heard me go on my tangents about nautilus gears #|| but they are SO painfully Ukuwa x Sho core its NUTS #|| I def encourage you to look into them #|| but tldr ukuwa thinks of himself as a nautilus gear that needs to bend his shape to work in society #|| him calling the world faceless is both a pun and also a call out about how uniqueness is rejected by the common people #|| people prefer things to be generally the same and he haaates that

Ukuwa exhaled, a sharp pang of pain forming from within. It was an all too familiar internal chime in verbal form, devastating yet validating.

"Hmph. Thus is the nature of a Nautilus Gear. When there's no position for a cog in the grand scheme of the movement, your purpose is deemed null by the majority." Unless there's two Nautilus Gears. Then, there's requited motion, a symbiotic and everlasting gear train. But what were the chances of that ever happening?

"...This world is faceless." He murmured, a distant stare thrown at the rain outside. "It's not made for... Well." Outliers, like us.

"But I'm sure you know that. As for her... My condolences. She seems like the kind to last in anybody's memories."

Unlike himself. Who still had nowhere to go back to other than the clockwork that was his job as a reaper. He pockets one hand, gripping the rejected pocket watch to feel the cold material against his scarred palms.

itsashowtime

❝ Knowing you, I wouldn't think you would care. ❞ The only thing I care about is that you don't hurt her or insult her. He would say as he walked over to the counter now taking a seat at it. started his project of the flowers that were laid out for him.

❝ But you don't know me enough to know about my life. Not like you would care anyway. ❞ He would finish as he start entwining the flowers to get to start the look a crown. ❝ But what about you? I'd love to hear the theories. ❞ He couldn't lie that he was becoming a little more interest in the other. Their sense of fashion was already winning them over. but he would tell him that. he was far too embarrassed to say it out loud.

#leoxcantus #|| minamimoto earning 1 respect point

Ukuwa sipped his tea. The temperature just right. It wasn't the comfort chai he'd like, but it sufficed.

"There's a high likelihood that she's a reaper too, perhaps a higher up." Definitely not an RG cog. "And I doubt you're the type to have many... 'friends'..." He mused, words melting away as his eyes scanned the flower crown in progress.

The dexterity before him was mesmerizing.

"Hmph..." Perhaps they weren't as different as he had thought initially.

minamimoto intj bunny magnet shou

❝ Again, it's no trouble at all, I'm more then welcome to help. As far for any tasks around the shop or house, it's okay. I have everything taken care of here. So please feel free to make yourself at home. If you'll excuse me I get your clothes prepared for washing.. ❞ She would finish as she head into another room clothes in hand.

❝ I see you 2 are getting along well, good I was worried there for a moment. ❞ The conductor would say as he was coming down the steps in freshly clean dry cloths. ❝ I don't take kindly to anyone who mistreats her. Now then I highly doubt you'd be feeling better after just changing out of your soggy clothes. Why don't you have some of the tea she prepared it will help warm you up. ❞

#leoxcantus #|| ukuwa translation bc he speaks like a WEIRDO #|| brass washer = support part = supportive person w hospitality #|| clockwork = inner workings = relationships

Before he could get another word in, the brass washer had gone off. Ukuwa stood dumbfounded, fingers twitching in his gloves from the restless urge to do work- until he heard the grating chime behind him.

"...I suppose?"

He said slowly, his usually firm tone wavering with confusion. Catching the unstable frequency of his voice, Ukuwa cleared his throat and straightened his posture. He struts to the table to collect his drink.

"I'm not particularly interested in the clockwork between you two, but I'm surprised that you're seemingly well acquainted with a sensible brass washer."

Ukuwa commented, languidly pressing his lips against the cup.