The Paintings
Made by the amazing @Lily Young
Location - The Great LakeThe sunlight was a sight for sore eyes after Jay had been cooped up inside by rain all week. The dark common room and library had been her temporary hang out spots until the the heavy rain ceased its downpour and thundering booms.
Jay had fun painting and drawing almost everything and on her furniture out of boredom and playing her guitar until her fingers had what seemed like permanent dents that wouldn't go away for days. She was back at painting again, the lake had looked really beautiful from the windows of her Charms class and she had decided to use her free period to paint it.
She was trying to capture the lake in her sketchbook but the warm sunlight flickering off the lake was bright and mesmerizing, distracting her from the actual painting. The green lake rippled and softly lapped at the riverbank where her ferret was splashing around and having fun.
He had been stuck inside too, since Jay wouldn't let him out into the freezing cold rain in case he got sick and Jay couldn’t have that, her roommates would have killed her, Nacho had already run around after being in the lake, knocking over candles, tipping over water glasses and messing up the room with dirt and scratch marks.
Not doing that again… I finally get a moment of peace after everything happened and I don’t need another person yelling at me
Jay looked up from her sketch book to look at her ferret who was still bouncing around in the shallows, ”you gotta dry off before you can come inside the dorm room” she muttered at him, even though there was no way the little demon could hear her nor understand her words.
Now THAT would be cool
She thought, going back to her painting, dipping her brush into a water jug and getting a bit of dark green paint to paint on the paper. It was looking pretty good so far, she was just struggling with the reflection of the water and the trees that stretched high over the lake, obscuring some of the sky and clouds.
Now that she was looking at them she noticed how beautiful they were, like streaks of white foam in the light blue sky. Like one of those shoots people do for ice cream, that sort of blue was what Jay imagined all of those to be like.
"If I am an angel, paint me with black wings."
Last edited by Jay Valkyrie on 24 Jul 2026, 05:03, edited 1 time in total.
My shop: The Garden Of Forgotten Dreams✦━━━━━━✦━━━━━━✦ “I’m not about to do whatever you tell me just to protect your ego.”
The Paintings
Thoughts
Speech
French
Mention: @Jay Valkyrie
The rain had finally stopped, so Isla had no excuse to stay inside anymore. The sky promised no rain or thunder, even if the scent of wet dirt reached her nose as she walked.
Isla was focused on her thoughts, her hand absentmindedly petting her ferret, Vanilla. Her feet led her to the great lake, where the scent of humidity was stronger. In the distance, someone was painting. Isla looked away.
She took out her book and rolled her eyes slightly at the cover, remembering how she tried to paint a cute sunset on it and ruined it. "That was stupid," she muttered under her breath. She glanced at the girl painting and felt a flicker of something—not jealousy, exactly, but a quiet ache. She wished she could look at something beautiful and know how to hold onto it.
The brunette watched the lake and the reflected sunlight that seemed to create little rainbows in the air.
I wonder how it'll look from the trees, she thought, and put the book back in her bag as she reached one of the closest trees to the lake.
She placed her foot on the lowest branch, testing its weight. It groaned. She shifted—and the wood splintered beneath her. Isla's heart lurched, but she caught herself, one hand gripping the trunk, her shoes scraping against bark instead of water. She hung there for a moment, then dropped to the ground with a huff
Isla didn't fall, but a curse muttered between her teeth left her mouth. "Merde," she muttered, the French coming out easily. She wasn't entirely sure when she learnt to curse solely in French, but she liked it anyway. She looked down at her shoes, now dirtier than before.
She huffed in annoyance; it had taken her way too long to get to the tree without dirtying them, and now it felt like a cruel joke. "Well played, universe!" Isla shouted to the sky, trying to avenge her shoes with words. She stood there for a moment, breathing hard, and realised her hands were shaking. Not from the fall. From everything else.
She took off her shoes in the driest patch of grass she could find and sat down, dipping her toes into the cool water. Her reflection rippled away, and for a moment, she let herself look at it—the girl who couldn't hold onto her own face. She thought of the other girl painting, capturing the lake without losing herself in it. Isla watched her own distorted reflection reform in the ripples and sighed. "One day," she whispered. "Maybe."
~The sea does not ask permission to rise~ The banner emporium
The Paintings
Made by the amazing Lily Young
Location - The Great Lake"Well played, universe!" Jay heard someone yell behind her and she paused her painting, placing her red handled brush on the jag of water that already had a few dark paint stains on it. There was a girl staring up at the light blue sky angrily with shaking hands and anger on her face, it seemed to be a sharp sort of sadness. Jay knew that feeling all too well.
She paused, staring at the girl for a moment, just noticing her before picking up her paintbrush again and swirling it in the jug of water, the green coming of of the paintbrush and dying the water an opaque green, she left it in there to tie her hair up, the front strands of her blonde hair falling forwards in front of her face as the messy ponytail came into place and she picked up her paintbrush, dipping it in the white paint this time.
As she continued to paint, Jay noticed she had eyes on her and without turning around, still focused on her painting she called out, "Can I help you?" she asked as the paintbrush drifted over the page in her sketch book, adding sunshine and more light to the ripples on the dark lake, the painting starting to come together slowly but surely.
Nacho raced around and up to Jay, his muddy paws making tracks on the grass and on Jay's jacket that was lying on the ground along with her leather shoulder bag, also getting trampled on. With a groan Jay picked up her ferret and placed him away from her stuff so that nothing else would get too dirty.
"Seriously? Seriously you had to run around with muddy paws?" She muttered in Japanese to the little demon scurrying around the trees for no apparent reason, into the water and around the trees in circles, just watching the brown flash of ferret made Jay dizzy and she ignored him so she could paint more of the reflection of the water.
She looked up at the girl staring at her and spoke again "If you wanted to climb the trees it would be best to do it without shoes"
"If I am an angel, paint me with black wings."
My shop: The Garden Of Forgotten Dreams✦━━━━━━✦━━━━━━✦ “I’m not about to do whatever you tell me just to protect your ego.”
The Paintings
Thoughts
Speech
French
Mention: @Jay Valkyrie
Isla was driven out of her thoughts when the girl talked. Was I that loud? She thought, looking at the stranger intently; she wasn't used to being noticed. The girl with the paintbrush was pretty, an unconventional kind of pretty, the kind of pretty that came effortlessly to people who weren't Isla.
She looked down at her feet, her hair ends turning slightly pink in embarrassment. She realized that and instantly forced her body to go back to normal, but she found herself staring at the girl's hand—the way her fingers curved around the brush, steady and sure. Isla's own hands were good for wands, not paintbrushes. She wondered what that felt like.
She looked away, towards the lake, watching the apparent calm of the surface while knowing the wild underwater currents in the depths. It was a weird analogy, but somehow, Isla related to it.
Isla looked back at the girl, realizing that her silence was making things awkward. "Oh, um—" Isla muttered. "I just don't think risking a splinter is worth it," she replied, smiling softly. She couldn't avoid glancing at the girl's sketchbook. "Can I take a look?" The words came out before she could stop them. She felt her cheeks warm. She didn't ask for things. She didn't let herself want things. But the painting was right there, and something in her chest ached.
Her eyes dropped to the muddy prints she'd seen before. Ferret prints. Instinctively, she reached for her bag—Vanilla was still there, squirming and restless. Not her mess, then. She looked up and spotted the blur of brown dashing between the trees. Another ferret. That explained Vanilla's sudden energy.
And that also explained why the blonde girl had spoken in a language Isla wasn't familiar with. It made her curious, almost too curious to actually ask before biting her tongue, deciding that perhaps that was something the girl wanted to keep for herself.
~The sea does not ask permission to rise~ The banner emporium
The Paintings
Made by the amazing Lily Young
Location - The Great LakeWhen Jay finished talking, the girl was silent for a second before piping up again, "Oh, um—" she started, most likely not expecting Jay to start talking to her, especially because Jay had just ignored her existence for a good five minutes.
"I just don't think risking a splinter is worth it," Jay looked up, her paintbrush still in her hand. The girl seemed to be eyeing her sketchbook eagerly, as if she wanted to delve into the pages to see whatever was in there.
Jay was very protective of her drawings but her painting was another story, she didn't mind others looking at them because she didn't hate them as much. She was about to open her mouth and ask if she wanted to have a look but the girl beat her to it. "Can I take a look?"
She seemed slightly embarrassed about asking but she obviously really wanted to see it. There was a soft pause and then Jay nodded. "Sure, I don't mind"
It's the least I could do, for anyone really
Turning her head she saw her ferret still running around, his seemingly endless stream of energy bursting to an unnatural sort of hyper. "What the hell?" she muttered to herself and then she called to Nacho "Come on, what is up with you?" again in Japanese.
She had been learning more Japanese and French over the holidays and recently, after all if she was going to be in Japan and being scolded by Elliot all holidays then she might as avoid that if she wanted to survive the Christmas. Now that she thought about it, the girl had actually swore in French earlier when she had tried to climb the tree.
Huh, I would imagine if she was French she might go to Beauxbatons... if that's what it's called. I don't know too much about that school.
Jay crossed her legs and placed her opened sketchbook on the ground, gathering up her things and tipping out the dirty paint water onto the grass and opening up a little case where she put her paints and brush away before sliding it back into her bag. She had to wait for her art to dry before she could do anything with it.
Once she finished she stood up, brushing dirt off of her leggings and skirt, she was wearing platform boots today but she could most likely still climb a tree in those, she was an expert at them if she said so herself. As memories of climbing trees in a park in the center of London came back to her she froze up for a second and shoved them away, busying herself with latching her bag closed and folding up her jacket.
"Its pretty easy to climb a tree if you know how" she said, looking up again "That one was a very shitty tree to climb but that one-" Jay pointed at the tree her ferret was racing around "Is a lot better, I would only recommend climbing on branches that are as thick as your wrist, otherwise they might break""If I am an angel, paint me with black wings."
My shop: The Garden Of Forgotten Dreams✦━━━━━━✦━━━━━━✦ “I’m not about to do whatever you tell me just to protect your ego.”
The Paintings
Thoughts
Speech
French
Mention: @Jay Valkyrie
Isla looked at the girl as she spoke and recognized one of her mannerisms way too well. The forced movement—the way she busied her hands and looked away—was a language Isla spoke fluently. She almost said something.
Instead, she smiled. "I should've known," Isla replied. "My brother used to pick the trees. I just followed," she explained, then looked alarmed at the admission. She went stiff, shoulders tense, before she forced herself to relax, trying to convince her body this wasn't a danger zone.
She caught the Japanese again, and something in her chest flickered. She didn't understand it, but she recognized the sound of someone speaking their own language in a world that didn't expect it. She did that with French sometimes.
Isla glanced at the tree the blonde had pointed at, considering it, then looked down at her ferret and raised a brow "Tu en penses quoi, fripouille?" (What do you think about it, rascal?) She asked Vanilla in French, smiling softly. The white ferret turned again; it seemed to be following the other ferret's scent.
She shook her head, amused, before putting her bag down, letting Vanilla free to go play. "If I die climbing that tree, I'm haunting you for the rest of your life." She told the blonde, stepping towards the tree she'd pointed to, tying her hair in a ponytail.
She looked back at Vanilla, noticing how she seemed to hesitate and look at Isla before running towards the other ferret, chasing him around. she looked back at the tree, hesitating; her heart was pounding inside her chest, her body unable to stay put with sudden adrenaline, because now, there was no brother to catch her if she fell and no parents to run away from.
"If I do die, I'm Isla, Isla afton" she introduced herself before putting her right foot on a branch that seemed tick enough, following the painter's advice.
~The sea does not ask permission to rise~ The banner emporium
The Paintings
Made by the amazing Lily Young
Location - The Great LakeThe girl dumped her bag and walked towards the tree, "If I die climbing that tree, I'm haunting you for the rest of your life." She paused to tie her hair in a ponytail and Jay chuckled, “fair enough, haunt me if you want”
"If I do die, I'm Isla, Isla afton" Jay nodded, smiling softly as she spoke again “well I’m Jay, nice to meet you” she paused for a second “Valkyrie, Jay Valkyrie”
Why not introduce myself twice? It’s weird and awkward! Stupid, stupid!
Jay scolded herself as Nacho climbed into her bag and sat there, and much to Jay’s dismay, his wet paws were getting all over her potions textbook and her drawings. Not that they were any good, she just liked seeing her progress and she wanted to take them home to stick them up in her room. It was like a tradition she did, her best artworks were hung up in her room at the end of the year, every year.
Isla had already started climbing the tree and now that Jay was really looking up at the tree she saw a few more larger branches on the way up. Like most trees the branches got thinner and thinner as you went further up but this one also had a few larger branches near to the top, this would make the tree easier to climb for both Isla and Jay.
Walking around to the other side of the tree, Jay leaped up and grabbed a branch, swinging her body upward and wrapping a leg around the branch to pull herself up before standing on it, arms spread wide to balance herself as she reached up to knot in the tree to secure herself, pulling on it so that she could go higher.
The green leaves around her made a light cocoon of colour that seemed to surround Jay and drive out her thoughts of fear and anxiety as the warm sunlight filtered through the leaves and into her face, making the tree behind her glow in places.
The beautiful nature of the world is fascinating… I wonder…
Leaning forward slightly, still holding onto the tree, she moved the leaves around a bit to make shapes appear on the bark behind her, she nearly called out to Isla to show her the pretty leaves but Jay wobbled slightly until she slipped and nearly fell off.
After that she clung to the tree and went a bit higher, not liking the feeling of standing on the branch that she had nearly fallen off of. As she went higher she turned around and looked down at her companion.
Looking at Isla she called down to her “You good down there?” Jay sat down on the branch "If you want any help just ask, I should be able to pull you up""If I am an angel, paint me with black wings."
My shop: The Garden Of Forgotten Dreams✦━━━━━━✦━━━━━━✦ “I’m not about to do whatever you tell me just to protect your ego.”