The X-Project

Matt and Tandy get pulled into the world of art - and they know the drill. It's a field trip, they should've never left the mansion.



Matt gripped Tandy's shoulder firmly as they meandered through the various art booths checking everything out. He held his cane across his body at a slight angle almost as a barrier so that people would see it and avoid them. Sometimes, the cane was a useful thing. "What's this one?" he asked, reaching up to feel a windchime hanging down almost in his face. "Are these glass shells?" he asked, feeling them carefully with a couple fingers. Tandy looked over to the wind chime, "Yup. Glass shells with a mermaid on top." Tandy was a little uncertain at the beginning of the day about the field trip curse striking up but so far so good. Nothing bad had happened, except for the jerk two stalls over trying to rip her off. "There is another one with a starfish next to it."

"...Okay then," Matt didn't get the appeal. "Let me guess, it's pink and green, right?" that was more of a guess than any real concern for the colours. Somehow though, green and pink made sense to him for a mermaid windchime. Reaching out to touch the starfish, Matt grinned, "I like this one more. Better sound," maybe he'd get one.

"With some purple and reds." Tandy looked over at her shoulder at Matt and smirked. "Sounds better?"

"Yeah, like....I dunno. Purer," was that even a word? More pure? "How much is the ugly mermaid windchime?" Matt asked the clerk, then turned back to Tandy once she answered, "Too much for me. Next booth or are we still looking around here?"

"Purer?" Tandy looked away from the windchime and over at the next booth. "Next booth is filled with paintings."

"Ready?" He asked since she was technically guiding him. Maybe if he hadn't called the thing ugly the lady would have given him a better price. It made beautiful chimes, but the description was awful, she should have been glad someone was interested in it anyways! Whatever. Paintings, then.

Tandy walked to the next booth but her eyes landed on a painting that made her stop in her tracks. "Woah." She whispered and got in close, "It looks like a scene from Alice in Wonderland." She told Matt but something caught the corner of her eye which made her step back from the painting. "Paintings only move in Harry Potter..."

What? "Moving paintings?" Matt cocked his head to the side, listening intently. Maybe he could hear the movement or something? Kneeling down closer, "I don't-" Matt's words cut off as the hustle and bustle behind them disappeared and was replaced by the sounds and smells of the outdoors. "The fuck?" He asked, annoyed. We're they in another place for some reason again?! Damn field trip curse.

"No Matt!" It was a little late as the painting reached out and pulled them in. The city disappeared and was replaced with the Alice in Wonderland world. Tandy reached over and hooked her arm with Matt's arm, shaking a bit. "Shit."

"Let's state the obvious," Matt replied, unimpressed with things, "We're in the painting. Damn curse." It wasn't real, not that he knew of, but damn if it wasn't coming true. And it better not be a self-fulfilling prophecy. Neither of them had powers to do this. "There's no Slendermen here, right?"



Topax and Pixie get caught up in the mess, run into Artie, and they Art their way out of being eaten by a chalk monster.


That was definitely a new one.

"What the hell?" Perhaps not the most articulate response, but it was all Topaz could manage as she grabbed Pixie's arm, pulling them both out of the way of an oncoming...thing that seemed intent on glomping them. Panic was already spreading through the crowd as people screamed and ran.

Pixie froze, horrified. The disjointed, flesh-colored, woman-like monster-thing threw itself into the crowd, moving on flat legs that bent like strips of paper, but not before scooping up a few of Pixie's shoes and stuffing them in her mouth. Pixie was assuming the cavern in the thing's abdomen was its mouth, anyway. Since it was a 2-d plane, the shoes popped out on the other side, pure white. All the painted designs were gone! "Bugger! Did I accidentally dust us?" Some of the small velvet paintings, the ones with demon faces, started straining against the pins that were holding them to the board, yelling profanities.

"Not unless you hit the entire street." Topaz's head snapped around to look at the demon paintings that were trying to attack them. Oh lovely. "We're gonna need more therapy for your therapy," she said as she grabbed Pixie again - by the sleeve this time, just in case - and pulled her away from the booth completely. She wasn't sure if the demon paintings were strong enough to escape the pins keeping them down, and she honestly didn't want to stick around to find out.

"Come on, this way." She pulled the other girl against the flow of running people. Whatever they were running away from was probably in the cause of this. So that was where they wanted to be.

Pixie stumbled along with Topaz against the tide of people, examining one arm to find it clean of dust. "I would have felt it, too," she said, relieved. Actually, this was worse. "I'm going to fly above the crowd and try to see what's causing this."

Artie had moved to the rear of the crowd once Ishmael was safe - and being cared for by one of the girls from the school. He kept his back up against the wall and inched as close to the ... living damn paintings as he could get and he was taking a moment to profoundly regret the fact that he'd come out completely unarmed other than the multi-tool he could legitimately carry as an art student, even as he watched the paintings like a hawk. "Gotta wonder," he said, letting the text run in front of the girls' eyes as they approached. "What happens if you destroy the painting? Does it kill the critter inside or does it free it?" He opened the blade on his multi-tool and looked at a painting speculatively.

Pixie swooped down as they approached Artie, raising her hands up. "Hey! Wait a minute! We don't have time to dissect these paintings, we should find out what's warping reality and get it to stop. And what if cutting up the painting just makes more, huh?" She looked around, trying to make sense of the chaos. There was a freaking rabbit with a bow, shooting silver minnows at people.

"Yeah let's not with the cuttin'," Topaz agreed, putting up a shield around them for a moment as what looked like a distorted wild dog dove at them. It slammed into the invisible wall and splattered against like a fly, leaving nothing but wild colors to show that it had once existed. "Did you see anythin' weird around here?"

You mean, anything weird other than the attack paintings? Artie thought, but he put the knife away and pointed. There was ...something, over there. Another painted creature splatted onto the shield.

Pixie's gaze followed Artie's outstretched hand to a mural. There was a lot of activity centered around it as paintings clashed with people. From what glimpses she caught between panicked bodies, there seemed to be someone on the ground. "Someone's hurt!" She darted up into the air for a clearer view. A lot of people were hurt here in the epicenter of it all, but this guy was going to get trampled or worse. "Everyone calm down!" her high-pitched voice went unheeded.

"Damn it!" Topaz swore under her breath as she hurried in the direction Pixie was looking, using the shield to shove people out of the way. Not the most effective form of crowd control, especially considering the fact that people were running into the shield and hurting themselves, but it was the best she could right then.

Of course, a giant chalk creature popping up in the middle of her path didn't really help much. "You have got to be kidding me."

A woman pushed past Artie, bottle of water clutched in one hand. It was worth a shot, he thought and grabbed it, twisting it open and pouring the water out over the chalk. The monster got wet. It didn't dissolve. Damn. He stepped to one side, a second mirror image of the monster appearing where he'd been standing and it screamed silently at the real monster. The chalk creature ignored it. He let it vanish and took a deep breath, knife from the multi-tool in one hand.

"Hey!" Pixie shouted at the clay-colored monster, buzzing around its head to distract it from Artie. Its lines were all wiggly, as if each chalk stroke had its own life. Two beady eyes looked up from deep chasms in its face, and its mountain ridge of a brow scrunched up as it hurled a craggy fist at her. She dodged the attack and watched the thing stumble forward a step, catching its balance. As it did, the pavement beneath its massive foot cracked. She had no doubt it could crush them instantly - and they had no weapons, aside from Artie's multi-tool.

They had no weapons, but they had magic, at least. It was something. Topaz closed her eyes for a moment, gathering every bit of energy she could in herself (Artie and Pixie were the closest people to her right then, she couldn't drain them), and held her hands out. Light sparked to life between her fingers, and the blast of energy shot out at the monster, hitting it square in the knees. Topaz staggered a bit, managing to keep her balance through the dizziness that the crashed in.

The monster bellowed as it lost balance in both its legs this time and fell to the pavement on its giant arse, making a shallow crater. How could a person even kill a drawing? Then, almost like in a cartoon, it seemed like a lightbulb appeared over her head. "Hey Artie, do you have any chalks or pencils on you? If we drew a bottomless pit, do you think it would come to life and we could trip this monster into it?"

Artie scuttled to one side and shrugged. Again, worth a shot. He didn't but, over there, at the "audience participation is great" stand... there were cans of spraypaint there. He vanished, flickering out of sight behind illusions that he wasn't sure the creature could even see and ran, grabbing the black and white cans. This would work better than chalk on the floor here.

Pixie continued to try to distract the thing as the crowd continued to flow around them; from the corner of her vision she saw Artie return with cans of spray paint. Now she just needed to keep the monster's attention long enough for him to work. "Will O' Wisp!" Her were-light sprang into existence in her palm and floated towards the monster. Then it began to dance slowly before its deeply-recessed eyes. The oversized chalk drawing reached out to grab the light, but the Wisp disappeared around one of Artie's illusions. Frustrated, the monster followed around the wall of illusion and took another swipe at it, only to miss again as the light floated to land on another one of Artie's images. "I don't know how long I can hold its attention..."

Another energy blast wasn't happening, but Topaz could manage something else. As the monster blundered after Pixie's light, it smashed face first into an invisible wall, staggering back. "If we can just..." Topaz gritted her teeth for a moment, shaking off another wave of dizziness, "keep it boxed in and move it back slowly to Artie..." Walls would also keep it from stepping on any of the crowd - or them. Both very important things.

In the end, Artie decided to go for the canvas sheeting on the back of a booth, rather than the ground. All the pictures that had come to life were coming from established artwork and, just in case, it was probably safer to go for that rather than hoping that this extended to painting on the ground. He shook the spray can. One side of the doorway. Two, three and then the door itself, three-quarters open. He used his powers to fill in the details, including a crowd of panicked people all running away through the door.

The monster took the bait, running toward him and the picture, as he stood in front of the open door, waving his arms in the air.

"Nice work!" Pixie cheered as the monster disappeared into Artie's spray-painted doorway. She surveyed the scene from slightly above the crowd - no one appeared smushed, although plenty of people were still fleeing, crying, or seemed to be in shock. "Now to find the master artist." She flew over to the mural Artie had pointed out earlier. Someone was still bringing paintings to life - and she really didn't want to have to fight another work of art.