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clementine was on her way from delivering paperwork back and forth when she someone she didn’t recognize wandering around the hallways aimlessly. she knew the feeling - the first time she’d entered the building as an intern had her doing the same thing, consuming all the weird art that was on the walls and studying every sculpture. “it’s by leon zernitsky. pretty cool, huh?” she only knew because she’d gone to look it up and see what else he’d done - and had gone so far to put some of his artwork in her apartment. “there’s stuff like this everywhere. you just have to find the nooks and crannies where they hide the good ones.” 

the girl beside her informed her of the artist who created the work. she clearly liked the piece and ximena couldn’t find it in her heart to outwardly disagree. she nodded kindly instead. “i can only imagine...” she added, thinking about everything she saw just on the way up to her desk this morning. “i may be running from my coworkers, so maybe i’ll have a chance to find some good ones.” she spoke sweetly. “i’m ximena.” she let out matter of factly.

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as someone with a degree in visual arts , athena often found herself appreciating the artwork around the building. sure , some of it wasn’t in her taste , but she always put herself in the artist’s shoes to understand what aesthetic they were going for. seeing an unfamiliar face staring down a piece of artwork let her know that they were obviously new. she could practically sense that they were an intern , so her dark eyes automatically rolled at their comment.  “    only people with a keen eye can appreciate such work. staring at it for more than ( 30 ) seconds isn’t going to change your lack of capacity for good art.    ”

ximena was in no mood to be bothered by someone who found themselves to be able to speak so condescendingly toward a stranger. she turned to the girl, staring at her directly, crossing her arms over her shoulder. this person as far as she knew had no impact on her position and so found no reason not to answer back “oh i apologize, how pompous do i need to become in order to change my capacity for good art?”. she raised an eyebrow, “you seem to have a knack for it, any tips?” she rolled her eyes.

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@mardraspence: @ximenitalinda idc if no one agrees with me, i vote for pineapple pizza

@ximenitalinda: @mardraspence: i can't tell you how wrong this sounds queen

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“un pajarito me dijo que hoy tendríamos carne fresca.” sebastian whispered as he stood behind the dark-haired girl, holding a coffee order he had to dig out of the depths of his memory. it had been maybe a year or two since he’d last seen ximena. sebastian only had wild memories of their times together, but he was very fond of the time in his life. “rolfe has…. interesting taste, although i personally advised him against it.” sebastian laughed as he crinkled his nose distastefully.

ximena heard an all too familiar voice speaking to her. she turned on her heels toward a person she remembered very clearly from her time in school. he had a friendly offering of coffee in hand, she smiled immediately taking it from him. she leaned into the side of his cheek with hers mimicking a kissing noise. she often greeted family and friends this way. “dios mío, no sabía que estás aquí también!” she answered back, speaking rather quickly. the last person she was expecting to see was him, it had definitely been at least a year. “clearly...” she added rolling her eyes at the painting. wait, she thought, did he say personally? “did you say personally?” she added again out loud.

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@ximenitalinda: feeling like ordering takeout. don't know what i'm in the mood for. the ultimate struggle.

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he nodded along, pretending like her point made any sense. “right.” she lost her right to have any sort of opinion on his work when she was so blatant about her lack of experience. win had to stop himself from rolling his eyes; even abstract art was aiming to accomplish something. and even if his own painting wasn’t the greatest, she had no right to form any opinion about it. “so, unless it’s some lines and squiggles it’s just… trying too hard to mean something?” he lifted his eyebrows, his words dripping with derision but his tone still amicable enough. “y’know, it’s always perfectly acceptable to stay quiet when you don’t know anything about the task at hand.”

ximena noticed the immediate change of energy from the person. she didn’t like it. her posture straightened as she found herself feeling spoken down to. she also thought it was kind of funny how some stranger had decided himself superior over something as silly as some bad painting. “maybe.” her neck rolling a bit with more blatant attitude. as he continued ximena tried her best to hide a chuckle. “oh, someone’s a bit pretentious aren’t they?” her eyes opening wide with shock as a smile spread across her face and she exhaled sharply. “good to know you haven’t let it get to your head.” she nodded.

[swcctsurrender]

𝐉𝐔𝐃𝐄 𝐋𝐎𝐎𝐊𝐄𝐃 𝐃𝐎𝐖𝐍 𝐀𝐓 𝐇𝐄𝐑, 𝐀𝐌𝐔𝐒𝐄𝐃. “ come on, ” he tried bribing, grin as wide as it always was, “ everyone believes in something. ” he was religious, yes, but he also firmly believed the pencil he’d been using since undergrad was his own little talisman. he crossed his arms as he looked back at the painting, all weird brush strokes and figurines in the bottom corners. “ you’ve gotta’ at least avoid the cracks on the sidewalk, right ? ”

he seemed to egg her on, smiling even more. she wasn’t sure what to think of his mood. someone this suspiciously smiley had to be faking it. she would know, that’s what ximena does during all her interviews. but she also had a weird thing where she thought whatever she did, others must do as well. “i believe in very few things.” she replied suspiciously. “you think i watch the sidewalk for cracks because i could hurt my mom?” she asked back expectantly, “do you do that?”.

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despite being an engineer, chasen wasn’t a very detail-oriented person. he certainly wasn’t an artistic person either, so maybe he wasn’t the best judge when it came to paintings––but, c’mon, that was just objectively vomit-inducing. “it just really screams corporate oppression, doesn’t it? personally, i gotta say i’m a fan of abstract ‘cause then you can make it a game of ‘where’s the penis?’”  

ximena couldn’t help but smile immediately, even giggling quietly a bit. she was amused by his statement. the person who spoke seemed to have a very strong, slightly extreme, comical opinion. she appreciated the open vulgarness of it. ximena herself felt she had a slightly vulgar sense of humor. “ah that’s the word i was looking for.. cooperate oppression.” she nodded at him adding a slightly smirk. “oh and ‘where’s the penis?’ just so happens to be my favorite game, how did you know?”

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every so often, lindsey liked to get up and walk around the office, stretch her legs, relax her eyes. she would take a breather and always end up feeling so much better when she got back to her desk. masters wasn’t a terribly decorated building, and she always loved the small things that were put around the office. there was one particular painting, though… “yeah, i know,” she agreed, scrunching her nose up. “i try not to say anything about it, but- yeah.“

a dark haired girl next to her replied. she stated exactly what ximena was thinking. if she shared her taste maybe she wouldn’t be the worst person in the world to interact with. especially since she was scouting for someone other than her fellow interns to befriend. “you would think with the kind of money this place has they’d be able to pick something that wasn’t... hideous.” ximena said, exhaling sharply as she internally laughed at the painting. “but art is like that sometimes... ugly and expensive.”

[littlemusings]

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benjamin didn’t often have the time to stand around and ponder the office artwork, so when he saw someone offering their opinion on a painting used on the cover of his first major book with the company, he made his way over. she was no one who he had met before, he had quite the memory for faces, which meant they were clearly a new employee and he probably shouldn’t bark at them to get back to work. but then again, if his schedule was too busy to admire paintings, then this new girl shouldn’t have time to, either. he stood for a moment in silence until he heard her speak, then crossed his arms and looked over at her, “ is ‘standing in front of artwork’ part of your job description or are you actively slacking off ? ” he asked without looking at her, unsure if it actually mattered to him whether or not she was working when he had clients to call and a trashed apartment to fix.

the person spoke back to her in a commanding tone. ximena wasn’t usually one to be afraid of authority, but for a second she felt like she was in high school caught without a hall pass. the feeling passed after noticing she didn’t know him. “as a matter a fact, i’m on my break.” she spoke back calmly, trying her hardest to hold back the attitude that usually leaked out into her voice. “is trying to intimidate people apart of yours?” she couldn’t help but add a bit smugly, turning her attention back to the artwork. who was he to ask her what she was doing? especially, since she felt of all the finance interns to get yelled at today, she would be the least deserving. 

[livelovecaliforniadreams]

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it was okay, though there was something about the shading on the flowers that still had him on the fence, uncertain if a few more brushstrokes would solve the piece or make it unusable altogether. this was his latest endeavor, incorporating original oil paintings into a new harper’s bazaar spread. a touch of the personal creative, as he’d pitched it, or really just a ploy to get the company to reimburse his supplies. he gave a small nod as another employee stood by him, offering her own opinion on his painting. “what do you mean by that?” win provoked, his arms folded over his chest in a show of indifference. maybe she could provide some insight, or at the very least help him channel some anger to re-work the whole canvas. 

ximena noticed the person to next to her who asked for further explanation. a creative, definitely, she thought. unfortunately, a knack for visual artistry was not one of ximena’s skills. she appreciated art of course, but she couldn’t tell the good from the bad. she crossed her arms softly with a look of agitation on her face, trying to think of a way to describe it. “to be fair, this isn’t my area of expertise... who am i to say if something is good or bad?” she answered matter of factly. she wasn’t sure if it was a good answer or not, but it’s the first thing that came to mind. “i’m more of an abstract person, it doesn’t have to have a meaning...” she spoke informatively. ximena liked abstract art because it always caught her attention, it’s always something you’ve never seen before.

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𝐉𝐔𝐃𝐄 𝐖𝐎𝐔𝐋𝐃𝐍'𝐓 𝐒𝐀𝐘 𝐇𝐄 𝐊𝐍𝐄𝐖 𝐀𝐁𝐒𝐎𝐋𝐔𝐓𝐄𝐋𝐘 𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐘𝐎𝐍𝐄 𝐈𝐍 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐎𝐅𝐅𝐈𝐂𝐄, because as much as his extroverted heart would love that, masters literally had over a thousand employees. still, though, he had the distinct feeling the girl near him was new, and he hummed in acknowledgement at the painting, gesturing with his chin towards it as he said, “ you know, rumor around these parts is that if you stare at it long enough, good luck comes your way. but i think some former employee just wanted to make fun of interns standing around a painting for half an hour. ”

ximena’s head tilted upwards as she quickly made eye contact with the taller figure beside her. he seemed very friendly enough, kindly acknowledging her presence with a thoughtful reply.  she looked back to the painting and raised an eyebrow; she couldn’t help but smirk a bit, “that sounds about right. only the incredibly gullible would believe that.” ximena was never a superstitious person. she was a firm believer in manifesting your own desire. if you work hard to make it happen, you wouldn’t need luck. “but i’m not particularly superstitious myself.” she finished. 

[swcctsurrender]

ximena stepped blindly forward as she pressed send on a text to her mother describing the details of her first day. she stood in front of the desk she had been given outside of the CFO’s office and admired its neatness. The rest of the finance interns had desks nearby as well. Because of their close proximity they already managed to piss ximena off on her very first day with their lack of preparedness. she loathed those who put in as little effort as possible. after deciding she needed a break from the masses, ximena concluded she wanted to see what the rest of the building had in store. as she wandered down a hallway passing strangers, she turned a corner and noticed an interesting painting. “well, this is something huh....” she thought aloud. only after she spoke did she notice the person next to her.

[renee--rapp]

[gifsofbravotv]