"Welcome back to the 'I might die soon' podcast!" Elara announced into the microphone in front of her. Of course, she didn't actually have one, just a bunch of recordings to leave for her family and friends in case of her sudden death. "The date is… March 12, [insert year here because idk what should be here]. It looks to be about the…"
Elara's voice trailed off as she looked through her computer files. Several clicking noises could be heard, as she clicked through until she counted them all. "…104th episode. Wow, I've done a lot of these, haven't I? Symptoms update for the episode: breathing difficulties! Fun fun fun fun fun!"
She paused the recording, a painting on her desk having caught her eye. Elara didn't know why she hadn't seen it before, it was a nice small one, of a [insert something Zella would paint]. Turning it over, she could only make see a signature on the back. Zella St. Clair. When had she gotten this one? Whatever it was… it told an interesting story.
Not necessarily an intentional story, but she could see traces of loss, angst, and heartbreak, but also giddy, joyous feelings. One with both sides of life. The sad side, and the happy side. Elara smiled. This was a good one, for sure. She'd have to track down the artist sometime to collect some more paintings of this Zella person.
Meanwhile, Zella was in her room with rock music blasting through the speakers at top volume. Her music choices were what some would call eclectic, and today she decided on rock. She had her favorite easel up, and was painting a picture of a girl in a lavender field. She made all sorts of paintings, but they usually had something to do with a specific emotion or theme. This one was calm.
She hummed along to the song, knowing the rhythm but not all of the words. It was nice to have this time to herself, and to be able to paint something simple and easy. It was calming, actually, despite the booming drums and loud guitars.
Back to the 'podcast,' Elara reminded herself. Setting down the small painting, she turned back to the microphone, starting to record again. "Aaaaand we're back! Sorry haha, I got distracted. Saw a painting on my desk that I swear wasn't there before. It's a cute smol one, and it tells quite an interesting story. Full of angst and heartbreak, but hints of happy, giddy, joyous moments. The story itself is quite vague, so I don't think you'll be getting a story from that one. But it's a really good painting, so if any of you ever get a chance, make sure to check out…"
Elara paused to check the name on the back of the painting. "…Zella St. Clair. Yeah, that's it. That's the name of the artist. Lots of talent. Anyways, apologies for the short episode today, but I've got a whole hecc ton of work and things I need to get done today so… I'll see everyone tomorrow on the 'I might die soon' podcast!"
The final idea was the painting was finally starting to take shape as Zella sung along to the last chorus and did an imitation of the guitar solo with her paintbrush. Thankfully, her painting wasn’t messed up by that, but her shirt certainly was. Zella didn’t care too much about her clothes, and it wasn’t too unlikely for to forget her smock entirely. This was one of those times. She kept on painting for a bit until her grandmother called her from downstairs.
“Coming!” she yelled, turning off the music. The silence was sort of weird after the loud guitars and singing. She laughed to herself, changing her clothes before heading downstairs. Her grandparents hated it when she wore paint-splattered clothes (which at this point was practically half of her wardrobe).
(Apologies for the really really late reply ! I've had an idea in mind for what I wanted Elara to do, but I couldn't quite figure out how to write until now.)
Ending the recording, Elara spun herself around in her spinny chair once, and then returned back to her computer, humming. What had she wanted to do again? Oh yeah, she wanted to look up this 'Zella' person. A quick Google search revealed nothing more about her, resulting in hundreds of results, and apparently there were more Zella's on this world than she had initially expected. Well, Elara thought to herself. I suppose I could just ask around…
After her grandparents had lectured her about playing her music too loudly, Zella went back to her room. She hummed to herself as she turned on the music—quieter this time, of course, and went back to painting. She hoped that someone would like this one, as she was probably going to end up selling it. She thought it was one of her better paintings too.
She’d sold a couple of her paintings online or to her friends, and made a small amount of money that way, but she hoped to paint as a job one day. It wasn’t that she hated anything she learned in school (with the exception of history because she could never quite remember the named and dates), she just loved to paint more than anything else. She did other forms of art too, but painting was her favorite.
Remembering she had a Twitter account, Elara quickly opened up twitter in a new tab, and starting to compose a tweet.
Hey, do any of you know anyone named Zella St. Clair? Found a painting of (hers?) in my house just a bit ago. Kinda want to find them.
(Sorry it's so short, I couldn't really figure what else to do.)
(it’s okay!)
Zella’s phone buzzed, interrupting the steady stream of rock music. She paused in her painting, deciding to check it. Someone had tagged her on Twitter in response to a question about her paintings. Zella, intrigued, set down her paintbrush and washed the paint off of her hands in her bathroom sink before coming back to see what was going on.
The person who had asked about her appeared to be a girl named Elara Jupiter. Interesting name. She tried to think of a clever response to the inquiry, but ended up typing:
I’m Zella. I have a couple of paintings for sale right now if you want one.
That would do for now. She set her phone down and turned the music back on, picking her paintbrush back up to continue painting. She was getting close to finishing it now, the azure sky coming into view.
A notification popped up on her computer, which surprised Elara. That fast already? Zella must be well known-ish. She clicked on the notification, and was surprised yet again. A response from the creator. Not just a link to the profile, which she had somehow missed.
I'm good for now, but thanks for letting me know. I know we're complete strangers, but I'd like to get to get together at some point to discuss your paintings? I find them quite intriguing…
Zella frowned as her music paused again, to the sound of an alert from her phone. It was kind of lucky the first time that someone had tagged her in the post, because she wasn’t the most popular artist out there, but apparently she was well-known enough. She shrugged. Maybe she would just take a break from painting to investigate. While painting was her favorite thing to do, she was also a very curious person by nature.
She set down the paintbrush again, washing her hands, and turned off the music. She sat down in her comfy beanbag chair, looking at Twitter again. The girl’s request made Zella a bit nervous. Meet in person? She didn’t even know this Elara girl.
Thank you, she typed. But I don’t really know you. Are you sure you can’t just email me your questions? Or discord?
That makes sense, although I would rather see your paintings in person. If it helps, you can bring a friend, if you so wish, and we'd only be meeting in say, a cafe of sorts. I apologise, this must be quite weird or whatever for you, Elara replied. She internally cringed at her reply, mentally punching herself for thinking that Zella would just be okay with her randomly asking out of the blue to meet up in person. After all, the artist was probably younger than her.
(Oof sorry it's so bad, I tried- I've been tryna reply to rps that I really should have replied to sooner but inspiration is being mean to me lately so-)
Zella stared at her phone as she read the latest message, blinking. Well that was certainly a first for her, and while she was excited that someone was taking that much interest in her paintings, she also thought it a bit odd. Not to mention her grandmother would never let her meet up with someone she didn’t know. She sucked in her cheek, thinking.
How about we exchange numbers and go from there? It feels weird having this conversation on Twitter.
(it’s alright i gotcha)
