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Zooble knocked at Gangle’s door, hoping to follow up on looking at her artwork. It wasn’t an offer that they just made in passing on their adventure earlier that day, they were genuinely interested in seeing more of what Gangle made in her free time. She was always sketching away and yet Zooble had only seen a few of her artworks. They hadn’t had the opportunity to sit down and look through them.
Gangle opened the door shyly, seeming fearful of what a knock at her door could signify. Her frightened demeanor dropped when she saw it was Zooble.
”Oh! Zooble! Hi.”
”Hey Gangle. I asked if I could see more of your art today. Would you mind if I took a peak now or..?”
”Sure! Sure, of course. I didn’t know you meant this soon, I thought everyone was resting up after today, it was a lot.”
”It’s nothing I’m not used to. Or at least tolerant of.”
Gangle’s room itself had a theater motif, most likely Caine’s doing. Almost all of the furnishing was brown with red accents. Her bed had a canopy that resembled theater curtains. It seemed like Gangle took it upon herself to decorate more to her liking. Plenty of her sketches and art pieces were hung up on her walls, some haphazardly and others neatly framed. Supplied laid strewn about in a somewhat organized way. There were obviously places for certain things, but most of it was on the floor or messily tucked into shelves.
“We can look through my recent sketchbook for now. I have tons of others, I don’t think we could get through them all in one sitting,’ Gangle motioned towards her desk, which had a pile of red sketchpads on it. At another glance, Gangle saw that most of the books in her room were filled up sketchpads.
”You can sit on the floor. Or on my bed. I just don’t like my desk chair. It’s one of those theater chairs and it’s…nailed to the floor.”
Zooble took a seat on the hardwood floor and Gangle settled next to them. She handed Zooble her sketchbook and allowed them to leaf through it at their own pace. Zooble realized that they had to begin with prompting Gangle to answer some questions. What pencil she used, what character she was inspired by. After a while, Gangle would talk about her work freely and with more confidence. There was a particular page that the pair landed on that Gangle bought attention to.
“Oh, this one..! I thought of a character that was baseball themed…sort of. I got a little carried away just drawing a cute anime girl.”
”It’s very cute, I like it.”
The page was dedicated to one character; an anime-themed maid magical girl with a baseball bat as a weapon. Zooble connected the dots, immediately recognizing the similarities between the outfit that Jax was in just a few hours prior.
”Well, that looks familiar. Except we played softball.”
“Softball, baseball, I could never actually tell the difference,” she chuckled.
“The whole Jax maid outfit was your idea, right?”
”Yeah. I hope I didn’t embarrass him too much. It was just too perfect of an opportunity to pass up.”
”He’ll live,” Zooble waved her hand as if to dismiss the thought of Jax being bothered entirely.
“It felt good in the moment, you know? I don’t hate Jax, but he’s…”
”A [%@&*!]?”
”He can just be a little much sometimes…most of the time,” Gangle answered timidly, opting for a less aggressive tone.
“Serves him right, in my opinion. He’s always messing with you. It doesn’t help that he probably sees you as an easy target. You’re the most softspoken person here, you try not to offend anyone. He sees it as a game. Even Ragatha gets upset with him.”
“Yeah, but…”
Zooble knew that Gangle couldn’t bring herself to say something about anyone in bad faith, even if that person was rude to her. It just wasn’t in her nature. She absolutely could be upset or even angry, but never vindictive in a malicious way.
“I understand.”
”I mean, we’re all here, you know. All kind of going through the same thing…it’s just how he deals with it, he has his own problems too.”
”Doesn’t mean he can be a [&$%*] about it.”
”I-it’s okay. Honest!”
”You’re good, Gangle,” Zooble leaned in, placing a hand on Gangle’s shoulder, “I’ll always be there to talk back at him so you don’t have to.”
That earned another laugh from Gangle. She nodded, amused and touched by the sentiment.
“Oh! I’m just sitting here talking about my art. What about yours?” Gangle perked up. “You said you were a tattoo artist, right? I never knew that about you until today.”
”Yeah, it was a pretty fun job. I wasn’t that huge of an artist until then, at least not as passionate as you, but I got the hang of it pretty fast. It boiled down to drawing what the client wants and not screwing it up.”
”Sort of like the art commissions I would do sometimes! Minus the inking skin permanently. Much lower stakes than that,” Gangle looked up as she reminisced about the joy that getting money for her art bought her. It wasn’t enough by itself to sustain her, but she loved the feeling of making something that someone wanted, something made specifically by her. ”Did you ever get nervous?”
”Oh, totally. It took a long time to get the hang of, even after a few successful tattoos.
”I don't mean to put you on the spot or anything, but…could you draw a tattoo? It can just be a quick sketch! No pressure.”
Zooble looked at the ceiling tentatively for a few moments, “I might be a little rusty, but sure, totally. Hand me a marker, I’ll draw a fake tattoo on you.”
Zooble felt at ease once they saw Gangle’s apprehension turn into giddy excitement. She rummaged through her supplies, being sure to avoid permanent markers or inks. She eventually found a washable marker that could be used on her fabric.
“Man, this is much different than having a tattoo gun. It’s less intimidating.”
”There’s no need to be intimidated! It’ll come right off if you make a mistake.”
”I wish real tattoos were like that sometimes. I had a coworker that did a terrible cover-up one time, it was brutal.”
Zooble went on to tell Gangle about their work as a tattoo artist in more detail. The types of clients they would get, the tattoos they would be requested, how the pay varied depending on complexity. Gangle found herself relating to a lot of the experiences that Zooble had when it came to working with clients. Their conversation turned to what Zooble liked to tattoo, not just what they were paid to do.
“I kind of just preferred whatever paid the most and aligned with my skills. I was pretty good with line tattoos and shading, I didn’t do a lot of color.”
”Tattoos need different types of composition techniques, right? Since they’re going on a body and not on paper. Wasn’t that hard to translate?”
“I guess I haven’t really thought about it? I mean, I head people there to teach me and all. I just drew what the client wanted most of the time and went from there. I didn’t know so much went into deciding where what goes.”
“I got to learn the basics of composition when I went to college. It’s fun once you get the hang of it and get to play around, it was my favorite introductory course,” her excitement faded as she thought about her time after college. “Not that it really paid off…”
“Don’t say that, you’re really good at art,” Zooble looked away from their tattoo to look at Gangle, feeling the sudden shift in her attitude. “Just because you didn’t end up doing it for a living doesn’t mean you didn’t learn anything valuable.”
Those words seemed to hit deep for Gangle. She looked almost shocked, like she didn’t know that she retained things she learned even if they didn’t have a strong standing in her career.
“When you put it that way it does make sense. Dropping out just…broke my spirits a little, I guess.”
”About that…what exactly happened? Why did you drop out?”
Gangle’s somewhat optimistic smile faded back into a solemn frown.
”O-oh… you don’t have to talk about it. I was just curious. It does seem like a sore spot. Probably wasn’t the best to bring it up like that.”
”It’s okay, Zooble. I don’t think I want to talk about it…or think about it more than I already do.”
”Right, no worries.”
Gangle really was appreciative of Zooble’s patience and willingness to understand. Gangle loved everyone at the circus dearly, but she felt like Zooble understood her more than anyone else there. Ragatha was nice, but would talk to Gangle like she was walking on eggshells. Even if she did upset her and Gangle forgave her, she always had to make it a big point to explain herself. Jax always feigned interest in her interests and personality. She found Jax endearing in a strange way, but his mean spirited nature never allowed her to open up. Pomni was new, still getting accustomed to the workings of the circus, even if Gangle enjoyed her company a lot. Kinger was funny but much too unpredictable to Gangle to maintain anything substantial. But Zooble, even if she was sarcastic and sat out most adventures, was kind and down to earth at her core. Gangle always found Zooble’s presence to be a pleasant change of pace between the chaos of this world.
Zooble let go of Gangle’s ribbon and placed the marker at her side.
“It’s nothing great, but I thought you might like it.”
Gangle took a look at her new “tattoo”. It was an anime-styled bow with a baseball at the center. Not a complex design, but it was thoughtful and well-executed. She could tell from the linework alone and Zooble was used to doing meticulous work on tattoos.
“Oh Zooble, it’s like my character!” Gangle smiled.
“It’s what I thought of on the spot. Your design was pretty neat, I suppose that tattoo would be her emblem or something. I don’t exactly do character work.”
”It’s perfect, I love it! I wish it was in permanent marker.”
”Don’t give me too much credit, you made the character.”
”Let’s call it a collaborative effort then! This could be like the signal that people use to make distress calls for her. Like they put it over a huge spotlight and shine it into the sky. It would be a parody of…which hero was that?”
”You’re thinking of B[#$%*]n.”
”What? You can’t say that here?”
”Maybe it’s copyright or something, who knows at this point. But yeah, I like that. That's super creative.”
The pair spent the rest of the evening bouncing ideas off of one another, doodling little drawings and talking about their past lives. It was time for them to be (hopefully) uninterrupted and genuinely enjoy each other’s company. To make art that meant something to them. To make sense of a world that they couldn’t exactly comprehend. It was an extreme comfort for both of them.