Merek has decided to wear simple things when in this place. He still has on protection, but it seems that he favors linen and wool for the weather and his cloak rather than his usual things. He walks into the shop and looks around a bit, knocking aside on the door, and asking, "Is this the place for painting?"

Smoke and Spirits has been set up to accommodate a night of painting! Shelves have been carefully moved out of the way to allow room for several easels and chairs to be placed on the floor. They each come with a set of paints and brush to use. Set up in front of them is a table with a large painting on display. It's horses, running free and wild across a field on the top of a plateau. Behind them is a shining lake with a castle in the distance. The sun is bright and the golden swaying grass of the field gives a truly majestic feel to the art. As people arrive, Ned and Calaudrin will direct them to the counter where they can pick up their free bottle of wine and then claim a spot on the floor.

Esoka is partially armored as she enters Smoke and Spirits. Maybe a metal breastplate is what she considers appropriate Lower Boroughs wear. She tromps in with the same purposeful, march-y gait with which she tromps everywhere, though she pauses in the entryway and eyes the easels with some skepticism. After a moment's thought, though, she shrugs and enters properly. "I am here to paint things," she says to Merek. As it to answer his question.

Desiree arrives and perhaps looks a little out of place but here she is. She looks around and takes a looks as if she's seeing the place for the first time. As she sees the free bottles of wine she goes to grab one.

Peeking into the store is a young woman with fox-red hair, pulled back into a short ponytail with two fluffed bangs arching above gold-framed glasses. She's wearing a white blouse with a blue jewel and a swishy blue skirt that hugs her hourglass frame. A red sash is tied about her waist and she looks a little nervous as she cautiously steps inside. "Hello...? Do we just...pick an easel and begin?" Walking further inside, she approaches the selection of wines as well, looking them over slightly tilted forward at the waist.

People are milling in and Calaudrin leaves Ned to deal with the logistics of that. "Merek! Good to see you down here. Yes, this is the place for painting. Come and take a seat." He gestures to one of the easels and chairs so that he can get started. He stops by Esoka to kiss her on the cheek and squeeze her hand. Mira catches his attention and he says, "Welcome! And yes, please. Choose your seat and don't forget to grab your bottle." He heads to the counter and begins to pull out some glasses, counting the number of people in the room. There's a smile offered to Desiree and greets her, "Welcome to wine and paint night."

Desiree smiles as she looks to Calaudrin. "Thank you. I've been wanting to come here for a while, and this is as good a time as any. I think I'll like doing some painting!" She walks toward one of the easels.

Merek takes up a bottle of the wine, and then takes his time to look around a bit. "Thanks," he offers, inclining to Calaudrin, then he moves to find a seat and gather things to paint with. He seems to like the prospect of having time to paint at least, for now, smiling a little bit.

Mira glances over and smiles at Calaudrin with a light nod of her head, "Thank you very much. Taking a seat with a bottle of wine, Mira starts to pull out paints and brushes. Smoothing her skirt along her legs so she can sit down, she crosses her legs, sitting sideways to the easel. For a moment, she simply sits there, considering, before finally starting to make a few initial lines of thin brown. She also waves to Merek when he passes her.

Esoka exchanges that quick kiss with Calaudrin with a broad smile. Then gets herself a free bottle of wine. "Do we drink all of this before we try to paint?" she asks. All of earnestness. Mira and Desiree are offered a chipper, "Hello." Then Esoka sits, with her bottle, at an easel.

Calaudrin grins at Esoka, "You can if you want! It'll certainly make things interesting." He grabs one of the bottles and works the cork out of it. "I'll probably pour some glasses though, so you can save that one if you want." He starts passing out filled glasses to the people who are seated, strategically placed side tables scattered around so people have places to put their wine down on. To Desiree, "I'm glad you could make it down then. I hope that you enjoy your night." He finally pours a glass from himself and speaks to the crowd, "Thanks for coming on down. Tonight is all about relaxing and enjoying your own creativity. Think of the example painting as just that. Add your own twists and ideas to it, whatever makes you happy."

Merek checked dexterity + artwork at difficulty 9, rolling 22 higher.

Aneka, 3 Iron Guardsmen, Meeka leave, following Merek.

Aneka, 3 Iron Guardsmen, Meeka arrive, following Merek.

Desiree looks at her bottle of wine and then at her unstarted painting. "I'm really not much of artist, but I'll just do my best and have some fun."

Merek finishes up his painting and then takes a moment to refine the lines on it, then he places it down so that people can see the small painting on the easel.

Merek drops a small easel with a lady painted on it.

Mira accepts the glass when Calaudrin draws near, smiling up at him from over the tops of her glasses. "Would it be possible to buy additional canvasses from you? Is there an additional charge?" She seems to be sketching birds, both anatomically and in flight, all very rough at the moment.

Esoka shrugs and opens her wine, so she can sip liberally on it while she tries this painting thing. "I'm not much of one, either," she says to Desiree. "I think that's supposed to be the fun of this. Also, we're supposed to see what this looks like after lots of alcohol. Which is the part I'm looking forward to." In truth, when she picks up her brush, she spends some time squinting at it like she's not sure what it's for. She finally dips it in some paint and makes some experimental stabs at the canvas. It takes her a moment to look up at Merek's painting. And, when she does, she squints. "That is...interesting, Master Merek."

Calaudrin is sipping from his glass when he nods at Mira. "Sure, you can paint more if you'd like. Won't be a problem at all." He grins crookedly before commenting to Desiree, "If it helps at all, some of my first paintings were just the woods. Esoka will be glad to tell you how incorrect all of my trees looked." He grins and takes another swallow before wandering by Merek, "Nice work." That's said after a moment of contemplation before he wanders through some of the other guests.

Desiree finally starts with some blue. As she looks to Merek she looks at the painting with surprise. "Wow, you're such a good artist! I love that." She looks to Esoka and grins. "Drinking will make it more interesting." She laughs as she speaks to Calaudrin. "I expect mine will be much the same." She continues working on her painting.

Merek picks up a small easel with a lady painted on it.

Merek takes his time to lean back and relax for a bit, just painting for now, lost in all the interest of having fun for the time being.

Mira paints quietly...and downs her wine in about ten minutes as she goes. It's gone in three drinks, and she seems to be painting...birds? In a very bland and somewhat scientific manner as well.

"Who is that woman?" Esoka asks Merek, considering his painting a beat longer before directing her attention back to her own. A nod to Desiree, at her comment about it. "I agree with the lady, of course. It's quite striking." At Calaudrin, she snorts. "Those things were not trees. They're pretty enough. But they weren't trees. I will paint a tree!" Her attempt is not scientific. It starts as a collage of green and brown and she squints at it irritably, as the brush fails to make her attempt look aboreal.

Calaudrin drinks from his glass, hanging over Esoka's shoulder as she tries to paint some trees. "Ah, not as easy as it looks. Even with all of your outside knowledge." Ha ha! He laughs a little and then quickly dances out of the way before violence can happen to him. Mira's glass seems empty and he drifts by with the open bottle to pour some more wine in there. "They seem quite accurate." He comments on her birds.

Desiree drinks a glass of wine and starts painting what looks to be fish. They don't look all that realistic and seem to be a rainbow of colors.

Calaudrin checked dexterity + artwork at difficulty 19, rolling 28 higher.

Mira drops Birds in Flight.

Calaudrin checked dexterity + artwork at difficulty 19, rolling 7 higher.

"Ah, not too important," Merek adds about his painting, while he nods a bit. He then stands up and sighs, "I should be on my way, but it was nice to come by!"

Mira absent-mindedly picks up the new glass of wine and glances up and back at Calaudrin from where she is sitting with a smile. "Thank you. I've been meaning to translate these studies to canvas for some time, but I'm not the best artist. Thank you for giving me a studio...and proper oil paints to work with." She sips. Quite a lot. "And wine. Thank you for the wine." She hiccups quietly, covering her mouth demurely. Glancing over, she ooohs quietly at Merek's lady and tries to sneak a peek at what Desiree and Esoka are doing. She nods at Esoka's painting, smiling, "It doesn't have to look accurate--and usually, foliage really -shouldn't- look too realistic. Nature is always in motion, after all."

Esoka glares at Calaudrin and drinks some more. Then proceeds to paint! With feeling. Not with skill. Her things don't really look much like trees, either. It's all lots of green and brown blobs. And occasionally a blob with eyes or antlers that's, maybe, supposed to be an animal. She looks up from the mess and now then. Eyes catching Mira's work with more admiration. "Those //do// look like birds." Merek gets an inclination of her head as he rises. She still looks curious about his painting, but she doesn't ask again.

Esoka drops A poorly-painted forest landscape.

Mira notes, waggling a brush at Esoka's landscape, "Your technique isn't actually the problem. Next time, if you start with darker pushes of the brush along where the tree will be, then go over it with lighter green or brown, it will look rounded, like a real tree. The dark backing will become the shadows inside the tree, and do all the work for you." But then Merek is leaving and she frowns, "Going so soon?"

"Yes, I came to relax and paint a bit, and I have. Now I need a drink and a nap," Merek tells Mira, then he nods to Esoka and all the others. "Be well!"

Aneka, 3 Iron Guardsmen, Meeka leave, following Merek.

"Thanks for joining us, Merek." Calaudrin calls from his spot across the room. He gives the man a lazy kind of salute before he takes a healthy drink from his own glass. He migrates around the room, topping people off. He stops Esoka once again, this time to get a good look at her finished product. "That is... a very abstract rendition of the forest. I like it." He beams at her, perhaps knowing full well there may be retribution. He does try to sneak in closer to drop a kiss on the top of her head. When he passes Desiree he comments, "I think I saw fish with those colors in Setarco."

Desiree sees Mira's painting. "I like that." She tilts her head to get a glimpse of Esoka's painting. She tries to sound encouraging. "Is that a deer? It's a good try. You did?" She looks to Calaudrin. "I would like to see those." She adds a green blob with legs to her painting.

Esoka watches Merek go, leaning in to mutter something to Calaudrin. Possibly something retributive. It's accompanied by a sharp snort. She seems to appreciate Mira's appraisal of her painting, offering the other woman a shrug. "I'm not really very artistic. This is rather hard! I will try that if I make another, though." A smile to Desiree. "Yes, it is a deer!" She sounds so proud that her blob thing was recognized. "And that is a fish! Yours looks better than mine, though."

Mira grins over at Desiree, "Water scenes are very hard to paint--you are doing very well! A few quick lines of darker green, and that green bit could become a turtle or a frog quite quickly!" And she smiles with a nod to Esoka, "I mostly practice just out of necessity. Less for the art, more for the rendition."

Calaudrin nods, "Yeah, lots of small colorful fish in the waters. It's one of the few things I miss about that the place. All the fish here are just... fish." What a disappointment apparently! He seems happy at the banter between the different guests, drinking and refilling drinks still as needed. And when his bottle is finished, there's another. Because this is a liqour shop and there's plenty to go around. When he stops by Esoka, there's a cant of his head as he catches her mutter.

Desiree nods as she looks to Esoka. "Thank you. I think that's just because fish are easy to paint than deer. At least I think so." She nods to Mira. "I'll try." She takes another drink of wine. "Is that where you are from then?" She asks Calaudrin.

Esoka offs the last in her wine bottle and adds a few more artistic flourishes to her painting. There are attempts to put a sun above the trees and add some variance in the tree cover with darker greens. It still looks pretty bad, but she grins as she does it. Painting with big, bold strokes that do a lot of splattering. "I like the fish," she says to Desiree. "Reminds me of the rivers back home." To Mira, "What draws you to birds, if I might ask?"

Mira glances over, starting to paint something on another of the unused easels, "I...well..." She trails off a bit as she glances slowly back to the painting from Esoka, "It's mostly just an interest. More than a hobby. It's...hard to describe." She frowns a bit, and seems to be sketching out a sailing vessel this time. "I grew up in Lenosia, and most of the birds there are pigeons." She smirks a bit, glancing back over, "I didn't see colorful birds in abundance until moving to Arx...and sailing around."

Calaudrin checked dexterity + artwork at difficulty 19, rolling 8 higher.

Desiree drops Underwater Painting.

"I am. It's pretty much a lifetime away at this point." He replies with a wry grin. Calaudrin ruffles the back of his head before he takes another drink, beginning the refill rounds again. He stops by one of the guests and helps them get some more red paint into their easel. They /really/ liked the red. Really liked it. "There are a lot of interesting birds in the menagerie." He comments across to Mira once he's done assisting the other person, finding a rag to wipe the paint from his hands.

Desiree looks to Mira. "I do like birds. They can be so fun to watch sometimes." She finishes up her painting and puts down her brush. "I didn't know painting could be so much fine. I usually only get to see what others have created."

Mira smiles sidelong at Calaudrin as she paints, sketching a very strange, three-masted ship that is only seen very, very rarely, if at all. "Yes, I love the menagerie...though the predators tend to startle me." Crossing her legs the other way, she frowns at the painting and makes a few adjustments, murmuring to herself, "Three yards wide? I think so..." But when Desiree's painting comes into view, she ohhs softly, eyes widening. "That's rather lovely, really. You could hang that."

Esoka tilts her head at Calaudrin as he talks, if briefly, of Setarco. "Yes, it is fun!" she declares in agreement with Desiree. This inspires her to add another blob-thing to her forest. Maybe it's a rabbit? It has large ears. But it's the size of the deer-blob. Maybe it's a monster rabbit. "Yours is pretty, my lady. And the birds look like actual birds. I'm not sure anyone would want to look at mine, but that's all right. The making was enjoyable!"

Calaudrin checked dexterity + artwork at difficulty 19, rolling 7 higher.

Calaudrin laughhs and gives a little nod of his head. "It can be disconcerning to watch the predators pace in their enclosures." Eventually it seems as if most people are tended to so he wanders back to the three woman again. "That's very nice." He comments of Desiree's painting. When Esoka begins to paint a monstrous rabbit? possibly, he nods and glances to her quickly. "I think fair is fair, I'm going to keep this and hang it in my apartment."

Calaudrin checked dexterity + artwork at difficulty 19, rolling 12 higher.

Mira grins sheepishly at Esoka, "I just spend an awful lot of time studying them, really." She adds a few waves to the sketch and study of the ship, in much the same proportions as the one she did of birds. The studies are done mostly in browns and yellows, not othering with realistic colors hardly at all.

Calaudrin checked dexterity + artwork at difficulty 9, rolling 22 higher.

Mira drops Eurusi Caravel.

Desiree smiles as she takes a look at her own painting. "Thank you everyone. You're all very kind. She shakes her head. "It's really not so bad. I've seen worse at least in my own opinion. I've seen some paintings people swear are just beautiful, and I just don't see it."

Mira nods at Desiree's words, looking to Esoka, "And every attempt is its own step in the journey. Perhaps you should try again, when you have time? I think it has a lot of potential. Adding shadows and background first would really make it shine."

"You want to keep it?" Esoka just //beams// at Calaudrin. Touched when he says he'll keep her creation. "You can have it, of course. Nobody else is possibly going to want it. I will sign it, so no one thinks you're the one who did it. I think it'd hurt your business." She paints her name is big, blocky letters in one corner of it. To Desiree, she shrugs. "Everyone sees beauty differently, I suppose. Though I do see things in highborn houses that I'm shocked anyone paid silver for. I would not make anyone pay money for mine! Still, whatever makes someone happy." She considers her mess of a canvas, then nods to Mira. "I may try again. Just for fun. It's less dangerous to do when you're drinking than lots of other hobbies."

Mira picks up Eurusi Caravel.

Mira picks up Birds in Flight.

"That's an interesting study of ships." Calaudrin comments when he glances over at Mira's work, a slight hitch to his eyebrows. He still lingers by Esoka and murmurs something quietly into her ear. "And yes, I'd love to it. It'll remind me of you when I get home from this place or the barracks." One or the other! On the topic of terrible things that people pay a lot of money for he comments, "I agree. I've seen some truly frightening statues that people claim are very artistic."

Desiree picks up Underwater Painting.

Mira grins, lifting her empty wine glass to Esoka in a bit of a tipsy salute, "I...should probably head home. Because this is good wine, and I forget to keep my mouth shut when I've had too much. But I'd love to see your next work!" SHe points her wineglass at Desiree, "You too!" She beams, a little flushed.

And while people are more than welcome to stay, it seems the trickle of new people has slowed to a stop. Those that are there continue to paint and drink, while others begin to slowly filter out, taking their booze with them.