queenofheartsrp | second stanza [video]

[Kuja is dressed in her usual garb, and the tail which was evident when she first arrived seems to have disappeared. She offers the Vine a bow. It is a bow without a particularly respectful air, more a dramatic gesture than anything else.]

Now that I have been here for some few days, I've decided to make the attempt to discover whether there are others here like me. Not of my kind, as I sincerely doubt that could be the case, but of a similar bent.

I am a poet, and an actress of no small renown, and I wish to know if there other artists here, like myself. Painters, sculptors, writers, or perhaps musicians? Even a patron of the arts. It would be a great pleasure to discuss aesthetics, as well as the passion and wonder of creation, with like-minded individuals. We might collaborate, combine our talents to reach ever more lofty creative heights. I don't doubt that this Garden would benefit from a stage performance, a concert, or a gallery.

[She pauses, and it is a practiced pause.] Relatedly, I have been browsing in the library, and there I found many volumes of verse. Having read them all, I am curious--does anyone possess more such books? This is a rare and most likely unique opportunity for a poet such as myself: to read verses from another world.

[As a side note, some may find that the library's collection of poetry has mysteriously decreased, as Kuja has ~~stolen~~ borrowed a large number of the books.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

So true. For much of my life, I have worked among those with little appreciation for the artist's craft. [Oddly enough for an art-lover, Kuja has probably single-handedly destroyed more artworks than most people will see in a lifetime. If anyone were to mention this to her, she would claim that their transience but made them more beautiful, but she does feel a twinge when she thinks of it. She has never heard of New York, but she understands the sentiment, though she does not know the place.] Even in the polished courts of the world's most powerful kingdoms, one encounters such paucity of spirit, sadly.

I believe that it is by its art that one can best understand a society: its strengths, its weaknesses, its cruelty or mercy. Art is the heartbeat of a civilization. One need only listen for that rhythm. A nation with no appreciation for art would not know its own heart.

I am Kuja.

That's depressing. Then again, some people just don't seem to take notice of beautiful things even when it's surrounding them. [She's seen far too much grief and terror; sadness stricken with pain, and complete loneliness to not appreciate beautiful things. Even in the past three years with all the destruction across the world, Gabrielle tried to best to find all the beauty she could—keeping it to herself as a sign of hope.]

It's something everyone can relate to, I think. [Her tone becomes amused.] If someone told me they hadn't ever been moved by a single piece of art, I would refuse to believe them.

It's a pleasure to meet you Kuja. Always good to find someone who's got an artistic view of the world!

Is it not? I often despaired of finding a suitable companion. [She says this with a laugh, as if she's being lighthearted, but it is true that she never found someone whose company she'd truly been able to enjoy. She'd destroyed them all in the end, or tried to.] A different way of seeing may set one apart.

Some might protest it, but what heart could fail to be moved by at least one work of art, at one point in their lives? [Yet as she says it, she knows her own words are empty. Even now, searching for the emotions art is supposed to make her feel, she finds nothing but a kind of dullness. The feelings are still there. They must be. She is sure of it. But they are such a terrible, ugly knot, she fears to unearth them. Perhaps it's because she wanted to feel that she read the words of poems over and over again, remembering her so-called "flaw", her lack of complex emotions.]

I hope we can discuss artistic matters at length in the future. I very much look forward to learning of the aesthetics of other worlds. Doubtlessly we will have much to explore. Unfortunately, it seems there are few artists here and more warriors.

second stanza [video]

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