#canvas event

[devilbring]

There’s no way in h/ell you’d catch him at that gallery again. So he sits at home, in blissful ignorance, when everything goes to shit. Not that he remains ignorant for long. A scream in the distance breaches the window, and Nero furrows his brow, puts aside whatever he’d been working on, and stands. The song of chaos compels him-- and the son of Sparda moves to grab Red Queen from her case, mount her upon his shoulder, and heads toward the deck to see if he can figure out what’s going on.

He needs only to peek over the rail to see it; a strange, hideous dragon. If he stopped for a moment to think, he’d recognize it as graffiti art, scrawled across the side of his building by some stranger unknown. But why would he think when he can act, instead? Nero vaults over the side of the rail, the queen raised above his head, and comes crashing down upon the dragon with a howl and a crash. The dragon buckles beneath the weight of the blow, but the queen doesn’t breach its scales.

With a toss of the head, Nero is forced to leap from his perch, landing with a small stumble in front of a stranger. “Was wondering when things were gonna heat up around here,” he says, adjusting his grip on Red Queen with a flip, “Fight or run-- your call. I got you covered.”

[morningglorias]

“M-Mr. Redbean! H-h-have you seen?” She holds up her phone, excited, to show off the notification of the art gallery opening. “Th-this... this seems like such a wonderful... a wonderful opportunity! A gallery...! N-not only th-that, bu-but... but a gallery where we can... where we can create, too!”

( She’s so excited, @flyingspinkicks​. That spark in her eyes is back. )

[galaxychords]

        Alterations to spacetime were DJSS’s bread and butter; his people were quite literally space voyagers and his mother had worked to instill an acute awareness of spatial qualities in them from a tender age. Hence the abrupt pause given in the lobby of the newly constructed museum that everyone had flocked to in droves, the DJ left fidgeting by the ornate wood carvings while other passed by into the depths.

        An ask of a nervous looking cretin revealed no answers as to where they could find a map, deflection following deflection. Nova had no choice but to walk into this strange tilting place, only through the way gravity wells of other patrons rapidly vanished into a distance outside of what the museum’s exterior was Nova clued in to shifting labyrinth.

        ...A labyrinth to mock him, apparently. Staring with ill intent at the Bed Bunk Junction posters and graffiti lining the walls of the gallery room, they moved swiftly toward the sculpture section as a passing thought of just where are the musical instruments occurred to them. And lo and behold, a tilt here and a door appeared in the hallway, its emergence disguised by a bend in the hallway.

        But Nova knew. He knew.

        Like any good scientist he could not let a mystery lie and opened the unlocked door to a sound studio with all the bells and whistles of a live room, a recording room, even an isolation booth. All new technology too and free of dust too- “EAH!”

        Jumping at both the lights inside turning on and a throat clearing from under their shoulder, Nova turned to stare at the...small human swaying on the spot.

        “Can I help you?”

@augurdivinus​​

[devilbring]

What else is there to do, but pay a visit to this strange museum exhibition? He has no intentions of partaking in any actual events just yet, but... well, there’s no harm in meandering through the halls to take in the sights. He does so alone, quiet, not lingering in any place too long. Until he eventually finds his way to the paintings-- the least interesting part of any museum trip, in his opinion.

At least until he sees that painting sitting at the end of a row of otherwise non-descript art pieces. A woman, brown-haired and garbed in white at the feet of a priest, reaching as though to escape the painting, a blade rammed through her sternum.

“What is this, some kind of joke?” Nero hisses through his teeth. With a low growl he starts forward, shouldering past whoever had been looking at it in front of him. Hand twitches at his side, and rises to grab the hilt of his blade.

As though he could lash out and attack it at any moment.

[devilbring]

“I see you,” he says, talking into his earbud, breathing heavily as he runs, “Believe it when I say you’re about to see me...!”

As he finishes the sentence, a window breaks from a building overhead, and Nero leaps from above-- but this time, he’s not hurtling himself out with no game plan. He jumps, landing on the rooftop that she’s been waiting for him on with a stumble and a snarl, rising back to his feet to turn back to the shattered window frame as an ugly, shapeless creature struggles to wriggle its way out. Nero gives Nico a side glance, gripping Red Queen tight, and speaks between his gasps for breath: “You can knock ‘em around, but nothing... nothing seems to work ‘cept to slow ‘em down. Any bright ideas? You-- you’re the idea girl.”

( He’s joking, of course, not expecting you to have all the answers, @goldsmithed​. But he sure hopes you have something. The night is still young. )

[devilbring]

more prompts for your feels | @temperateskies​ said:  “  i’ll be here. when you’re ready to talk.  ”

He really has been going at this all night. Combatting the gallery monsters nonstop with his limited, painfully human stamina. And it’s starting to take a toll. Nero holds up a finger, buckled over with his mechanical hand braced against the wall as he pants to catch his breath. “...art store,” he gasps at last, “Gotta get into that art store. These-- things-- they’re... it’s hard to explain.”

[devilbring]

Surely he can’t be blamed when his expression sours at the sight of his ally of the hour. In fact, he’s hesitant to get close at all, maintaining his distance and opting to sidestep a swipe of a blackened creature’s claws than go back to back with this woman. Even when they’re near backed into a corner. “If you’re gonna start bitchin’ again about my evil aura, or whatever-- I’m really not in the mood for it right now.” 

His eyes narrow, and he lashes out with Red Queen to push one of the creatures back before he looks up and lets loose the wire from his mechanical arm to catch another in the air above the draconic woman, reel it in with a quick press of the mechanism built into the limb, and throw it back into the crowd of beasts when he realizes that the wire is stuck and won’t retract again. The creature clings to it and he has no choice but to pop the mechanical arm out entirely. Praying, praying that it won’t break before he has the chance to retrieve it. Except he doesn’t have the time to replace the limb with another from his belt with how fierce the onslaught is. 

( Sorry, @asernolonger​. The good news is that even with one arm, he’s still a force to be reckoned with. )

[devilbring]

Sweeping the streets, moving from place to place where he’s needed, he’s found himself near a rather peculiar looking man, but that’s not the problem when one of the-- art pieces? It feels too real to be graffiti-- is adamant on ripping him limb from limb. Not Nero, but his newfound companion. No matter how many times he swings Red Queen into the rotting corpse, it only continues to get back up and charge. “It’s not street art,” he says, keeping himself positioned between the two while also side-eyeing another approaching graffiti creature, “A painting? What... how do you mess up a painting?”

( He’s hoping you might know the answer, @eliminatorleck​, because the only way he knows how to mess up a painting is with the queen... and this time, his blade isn’t cutting it. )