A Moving Target

[Trace Michaels]

LADY LUCK IS FICKLE

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^{but a lady is allowed to change her mind}
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"Record time." Trace congratulated himself, though in a mutter so as not to appear insane, as he turned the page of his sketchbook.
He was practicing drawing caricatures of everyone and anyone who crossed in front of him in the busy wall. His speed was improving, as planned, and the second-hand stopwatch lying on his lap told him that he'd managed it faster than ever this time. Actually, his hand was beginning to ache.

Trace used this as an excuse to leaf back lazily through the sketches he'd accumulated in the past half and hour of sitting on a bench in the middle of the mall, drawing the window-shoppers and passers-by. They were pretty rushed in the first pages, but by the end they were decent. A bulky man with a bald head, a bespectacled young boy with his nose pressed against the game shop and a Barbie-like blond, talking on her phone to another rich, plastic friend. It wasn't half bad. Maybe that teacher did know something about sketching cartoons. Trace's biggest problem with his planned career of animating movies was that you had to draw a bazillion things and only got one second's movement out of it. Of course, computers would help, but drawing quickly was still a very necessary skill in his business.

Speaking of which, he ought to get back to his practice. Fingers rolling the now-blunt pencil between them deftly, his dark brown eyes scanned the mall intently for someone interesting. Finally, they latched onto just the right person. That one was unlike any of his other sketches. Hurrying to take it all down on paper before they drifted away, Trace's hands were a blur for about thirty seconds before he stopped - they had begun to move off. Trace barely dithered at all on how strange he'd looked. The boy hated unfinished work in his books.
"Excuse me? Excuse me! You! Yeah, could you just stay there for another thirty seconds please?"

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words;;four hundred and forty-eight, with template
listening to;; nuthin'
tags Trace & ?!
notes Come to meeeh. =P

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[uoko mizushima]

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[what.am.i.WEARING??]

Uoko had been been sitting sideways on a bench, legs propped up against one of the arms, as he read to himself. It may seem an odd choice, reading at the mall--but the blonde liked the 'white noise' effect its commotion had. He had opted for glasses that day, too, instead of his regular contacts, and kept fiddling with the thick rims as if they bothered him. In all honesty, they were--they were a few years old, now, and the prescription was off, causing a major headache as he tried to get his reading done.

After another moment, he sighed, closing the book with a snap and got to his feet, looking around and trying to find something of interest.

It wasn't long, though, before another boy approached him. Uoko blinked in mild surprise, the absurdity of the situation making him raise an eyebrow. When his dark eyes lighted on the pencil in Trace's hand, however, he nodded, finally understanding. He knew the feeling of hating unfinished work, having dabbled in drawing a bit before setting his heart to painting.

Although he did feel a bit foolish having to go lay back down on that bench. Grimacing ever-so-slightly, Uoko flipped open his book. Might as well try and get a sentence or two in...[/ul]

(Hope you don't mind if I join you~)[/size]

[Trace Michaels]

LADY LUCK IS FICKLE

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^{but a lady is allowed to change her mind}
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Adding the last few lines was actually a lot faster than he'd thought. might have been a new record, actually, only it seemed impolite to check his stopwatch and celebrate immediately, so he slid it into his pocket unseen. Tucking the small sketchpad into his back pocket, having developed enough of a sore hand to stop for the day, Trace looked up to grin at his 'model'.

"Sorry about that. It's just I really hate leaving something half done." He apologized with a shrug, if his appearance was anything to judge by, this guy was probably some sort of artist himself, though of course you couldn't be sure these days.
Trace flopped down next to the aforementioned guy, wondering absently how much the ice cream booth across the mall charged. It suddenly occurred to Trace (just now, I might add) that he may have appeared quite off, or like some kind of weirdo. However, he guessed that quite a few people would have just quirked an eyebrow and walked off, so perhaps his new acquaintance's mild reaction meant Trace hadn't come across too bizarre. Just in case, Trace figure he'd better start a normal conversation to even out a strange start.

"Good book?" He asked curiously, unable to see the title from his position.
Of course in Trace's mind there was no such thing as a 'good book' since he despised reading, but it seemed the natural question to ask someone with a novel.
"Isn't it a bit distracting here though, what with all the people?" Trace's next question came out as a sort of afterthought for he had great difficulty reading even in pure silence.
Noise was generally more fun though.

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words;;four hundred and fourteen, with template
listening to;; nuthin'
tags Flounder!
notes Nah, that's awesome. =)

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[uoko mizushima]

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[what.am.i.WEARING??]

He closed the book as he noticed Trace was done, and at his comment sighed. "Me, too. I mean, I did." Then as further explanation, said, "I, um, usually have to leave my work for a while, now."

At the question, Uoko shrugged, setting it aside. "Alice in Wonderland," the blonde stated, shrugging. The book was so odd that he hadn't decided if he liked it or not. "I guess that's what they call 'school spirit'." As Trace continued, he shook his head, a small grin sliding into place. "Nah. It's nice."

Then, grimacing, he took off his glasses and stared at them. "These are making it a bit difficult, though.I need to get new ones..."

Uoko tilted his head at the brunette, blinking in surprise as he realized something. "Oh, um. I don't know your name." Up until then, he'd been in too much of a relaxed daze to really be...well, Uoko-like, but then his scatterbrain thoughts came back to him. As odd as that sounds.[/ul]

(I was originally going to go with Winnie the Pooh for the book. XD I love having my characters reading little kid-ish stuff.)[/size]