Work Text:
Nibs was walking along the boardwalk, carrying a neatly-folded pair of tie-dyed shirts. She didn't understand why Busky liked them so much. Still, the purple raccoon couldn't deny that they had been fun to make- a welcome break from the portraits Bloom always wanted her to paint.
Before she reached Busky's shop, Nibs halted, noticing something odd. Busky the musician was painting- not only that, she wasn't even using a paintbrush. Instead, she was flinging paint onto the canvas using a pair of her drumsticks.
"Hi, Busky," Nibs greeted, as if everything were normal. This approach probably wasn't the best, as it caused a startled Busky to hit Nibs in the face with a glob of paint by accident.
"Oops, sorry," Busky apologized with a shrug. "Bad aim."
"What are you doing, exactly?" Nibs asked as she wiped some of the paint off. Normally she wouldn't care, but something about this situation bothered her.
"It's like, mixed media," the blue monkey replied. "I call it drum painting. I normally wouldn't use real drumsticks, but I was feeling creative, you know?"
"I see. Well, here are the shirts you asked for." Nibs held them out.
Busky grabbed the T-shirts and unfolded one of them. She then pulled it on over her other shirt and smiled. "Like, thanks a bunch, Nibs."
"You're welcome, I guess." She felt herself smiling back a little.
Nibs was about to turn around and head back home- she hated extended conversations- when Busky shifted the canvas so she could see the artwork. "Do you like it?"
Examining the painting closely, Nibs found that she was impressed, even a little envious. She could see Busky's emotions clearly present. In order to make a living, the artist always had to paint what other Zings wanted her to. She rarely took any time to paint something she was truly proud of.
"Yeah, it's... really nice, Busky," Nibs answered after staring at the canvas for several seconds.
"Want to give it a try?" she offered. "I've got, like, more drumsticks."
"Sure, whatever," Nibs agreed with a wave of her paw.
"Great. Here, we should, like, match." Busky held out the other tie-dyed shirt.
The raccoon looked around to make sure Draper wasn't nearby- the designer would undoubtedly lecture her for wearing something so out of style. She then took the T-shirt from Busky and put it on. "Okay, let's get started already."
Nibs was sure that the two of them would look ridiculous as they wore tacky over-sized shirts and used drumsticks as paintbrushes. But Busky was so likeable, she made such things seem almost cool. It would be the kind of fun the painter secretly wished she could have more often.