the new year on what you need! The moment February hits, things are going to sell out in prep for the festival."
"Yes, I'll inform you as soon as I get back after the holidays," I assured him.
"Bye!"
"Bye," I replied, and he hung up first.
"You have an idea for that spring art festival?" Katsume inquired.
"Yes," I replied and slipped my phone back into my pocket. "I'm just having a bit of a problem with it."
"You haven't started yet, though?"
"I have the draft sketched out, but it's getting it on the canvas properly that may be an issue," I confessed. "It's a work of art that will shift based on the flowing stream of magic around us. It's something never really done before, so I'm not sure how I'll trigger the shifts. I was going to use the weather as an influence, but that's tricky because if it rains, the image would be just sad, or if it's sunny, the image would be just happy."
"The piece is going to be able to move?" Katsume looked intrigued. "Not as in the structure, but the image itself?"
"Sort of," I replied and moved to sit on the end of the bed while resting my hands back. "I can see it in my mind and I know what scenarios I'll draw, but I need the magic to be able to influence a constant flow of variation that tells a story almost. It would be triggered the moment it's revealed at the competition and then it would display the flow of events upon the canvas at least once through before the crowd would be able to influence which image remains." She seemed deep in thought at the idea and I sighed. "Complicated, right?"
"You need to have a point of connection on both ends to make it be influenced by one's magic or emotions," she offered. "So the canvas can be the main projector. You just need a source of energy to run through the projector to make it play what you're hoping for. If you're able to get someone who's into engineering or is a carpenter, you could make your piece into a 3D structure and have a generator that can convert the magic of one's emotions to shift the art in the way you want. How big is this thing gonna be?"
"Big to the point that I'll need a rather tall ladder or to suspend myself with wind for a hot hour or two."
"Hmm. Definitely ladder. The wind will dry the paint or watercolor too quickly and ruin the texture," she concluded.
"You have a sense of art?" I inquired out of curiosity.
"My mother was an artist long before she got into the business and then aided Father with the dojo. She specializes in calligraphy and is one of the most popular artists who create new generation artwork with Japanese characters because her strokes are so flawless," Katsume revealed. "Kaito doesn't tell anyone but he's really good at it. I'm obviously better since my mom allowed me to work on my art more versus Kaito, who had to spend more time training and doing ‘manly’ stuff. You know how our culture is. It's only now that things are shifting."
"Ya," I quietly replied. "Kaito's working on that slowly."
"Kaito will find his groove soon enough. At least he knows his family loves him regardless of whether he dates you, Brianne, or both," she hummed in delight and spun around. "I'll talk to Sebastian."
"Why do you need to talk to Sebastian and why does your tone tell me that talking means some sort of bribery?"
"Well, because it does require me bribing him with a lovely threesome and getting Starlight drunk on soju, but the more important part is he's a magic engineer and is nifty with a hammer. He could give you a hand since out of the three, he's the fastest in getting through his case workload."
"Why is he the fastest?" I pondered.
"He doesn't like bullshit." Katsume shrugged. "Whatever poor soul gets him as the designated agent to bring them in, they might as well purchase their grave plot and hide in a body bag for shits and giggles."
I gawked at her as she looked over her shoulder. "Sebastian doesn't have partners for a reason, but somehow he tolerates me and loves Starlight, so…we're exempt from his normal killing impatience."
She looked away. "I'll set that up for you so you two can meet after the new year and get measurements over with, so we can order the supplies early.